On Thursday 23 September 2010 16:29:53 James E. LaBarre wrote: > On 09/23/2010 04:06 PM, Alan Snyder wrote: > > Inline... > > > > On Thu, Sep 23, 2010 at 3:38 PM, James E. LaBarre<[email protected]> wrote: > >> Now that my PalmOS-based Sony Clie has decided it doesn't want to charge > >> up anymore, I'm looking at some usable replacement for it's PIM > >> capabilities. > >> > >> As I have no intention of buying into the so-called "smartphone" > >> morass, > > > > Why not? Just curious. > > 1: The grossly-expensive costs of the data plans, the grossly-expensive > costs of the hardware (either paid up front or hidden in a multi-year > phone contract)
Seconded. A non-smart phone is capable of doing PIM as well as syncing the data to a local computer, without the need for any data plan at all. > 2: being beholden to an outside party to maintain your *own* data. It's > one of the major concerns in open-source vs proprietary software and > systems, it should also be our foremost concern with phones & the like. This is also a very big "big brother" concern. With the provider having your data, you will never know when or what portions are requested and given to another party. For the smartphone proponents who want to say "privacy is dead", then I ask: why do you have curtains on your windows at home? You said you have nothing to hide... For the argument of "it's only /online/ privacy that's dead", then why does encryption exist? Do you run the FF "Better Privacy" and "NoScript" extensions? Isn't vigilance a lot more interesting than complacency? BTW -- if you send or receive a private email to someone, does it mean that after 180 days that it can simply be requested, and that's fine? Have you heard of the Stored Communications Act of 1986? http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/04/emailprivacy/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Communications_Privacy_Act > 3: data security. if you want to use your portable device for personal > information, you have to be concerned about attacks over the wire or on > the provider's servers. 4: Poor battery life, and having to charge it every 8 hours. Non-smart phones can last *a week* without recharging. This is also why using a smart phone without bothering getting a data plan is not as good a solution IMHO. -- Chris -- Chris Knadle [email protected] _______________________________________________ Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium Oct 6 - Creating Browser Extensions for Firefox and Chrome Nov 3 - Open Source Hardware: Bugs, Beagles and Beyond Dec 1 - IBM's Open Client Deployment
