** My First Palm **

I was invited to go to a 3com sales pitch in
Albuquerque when I was working as a tech at the
prison in Santa Rosa in 1999.  There was a door
prize of the new Palm V (when it was still a
3com property) and I won it!

It was months, but the thing finally came and I
messed with it a bit.  By then, I was working
for ENMU with a full time web connection and 
I was syncing like a mad man!  I never really
did anything with it and sold it off to another
ENMU person for $200 and considered my palm
experience over.

** Why the Next Palm? **

I had begun taking notes for meetings that I was
attending as a coordinator of some grants for
Quay County and I was getting very tired of 
hauling a laptop around.  I was at a meeting in
Albuquerque and saw a guy typing away on a
PocketPC/keyboard setup.  I thought this was a
neat way to take notes without the bulk of the
laptop that everyone else struggled with.

Of course, I am a researcher at heart and started
my search for the ultimate miniature typing setup.
I stumbled onto a site called
writingonyourpalm.com and an older article gave a 
recommendation of the old Palm III series as being
the clearest screen of the bunch.  I also had a 
friend that showed me his Palm IIIc handheld, but
I really didn't like it that much -- the electronic
hobbyist in me knew that custom battery packs die
and cannot be replaced after some time and that a
color screen is a real energy hog.

There was a magic time when screens were still
monochrome and everything was run off of standard
batteries.  This was the time of the marvelous Palm
III series (pre-color).  I got one off of eBay for
about $20 and started playing around with it!  It
was like the sinclair zx81 had been to me 20 years
ago -- a tiny kick in the pants!

I collected as many periphrials that still seemed
useful now and took my system out for a spin in 
note-taking circles.  Fantastic!!

** Ultimate Destinations **

I gave the first Palm III to my daughter and it 
lives in a drawer unused. I have a spare than was
bought to fix a broken screen on the first.  I now
have the groovy Palm IIIxe (the best of the series)
with 8megs of ram.  Marvelous for typing with the
GoType keyboard (I need to get a spare for when the
old one dies) and even better with my Happy Hacker
ps/2 interface and a good IBM clicker keyboard!

The wonder of this set up is how much you can do
with rechargable AAA batteries.  I am looking at a
flexible solar panel that will recharge the batts
in situ and I will never have to open the back again
(except to replace spent AAAs).  Nerdvana!!