No, not a eulogy - just fond reminiscing!!
There aren't too many fields with such a compact and recent history. I/T technology is one such. And the real, serious history of PDAs is only about 10 years long1!! I wish I'd kept all my old Palms, for sure, but in them days I needed the money more than I wanted the old devices. Cheers, Don ________________________________ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of J Messeder Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2007 10:09 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Treo] Fun article The real bummer is that this is beginning to sound like a eulogy. I truly hope that, to borrow from Mark Twain, rumors of Palm's demise are greatly exagerated. On the other hand, we who have been around computers for long know the best there is eventually is replaced by something completely different -- and better. CP/M was a super customizable operating system that became DOS -- which was pretty darn capable as an operating system. My first computer was a Kaypro 4 -- so-called because it had two 400k floppy drives. The operating system ran on the top drive, and you kept your working data files on the bottom drive. Then came Windows. WordPerfect was given free, or almost free, in college, so lots of people graduated and went to work in offices and when the boss decided to computerize, the only experts in the place had been raised in the church of WP. Which is just about extinct. Microsoft may be on the way toward something completely new, Linux has been around for awhile and, like DOS may finally be gaining some recognition in the non-hobbyist field. Then there's the Open Windows concept Sun got going with it's own Unix version called Solaris. I fear one day I may wish I had kept the Palms I've owned along the way, much as I wish I still had the P-1800 Volvo that replaced the 1954 Woody Ford Station wagon I'd like to still have, which replaced an even older English Ford with no reverse and a defunct generator I'm really glad to be shed of. So, while I am not eager to have to learn a new system, I have to admit to a certain eagerness to see what will be next in the evolution. For one thing, I think we're well on the way to converging radio technology. Landline telephones have essentially given way to cell phones. I'm thinking it won't be long before cell and wi-fi are one. The only thing cell fones don't have yet is true broadband speeds -- and we're just about there. Sam Kamens wrote: > Don Ferguson wrote: > >> Even though he got quite a bit of stuff wrong, it's still fun! >> >> >> >> Here's the article, with a nostalgic picture. I wish I'd kept my Pilot >> (NOT Palmpilot, that came later) 1000. It would be fun to see it again! >> > > I had a Pilot 1000 for about 5 minutes :-) > > I bought it, tried it, loved it, took it back to the store and bought a > 5000 instead right away (needed that extra RAM :-) ). Then I progressed > to a III, a IIIx, IIIxe, treo 600, treo 650, and now treo 680. > > And my wife has gotten my hand-me-downs along the way, plus I bought her > a Tungsten E2 at one point. > > Can't say I've owned 'em all, but I've tried a bunch! > > Sam > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > -- /The erasure of a human subspecies is largely painless -- to us -- if we know little enough about it. A dead Chinaman is of little import to us whose awareness of things Chinese is bounded by an occasional dish of chow mein. We grieve only for what we know./ A Sand County Almanac, /Aldo Leopold, July 1949/ [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
