Today I got to spend some quality time at the conference.  I went to a session on Laptops and PDAs and expected the speaker to partake in some Palm-bashing -- I wasn't disappointed.  After the speaker from USi made the comment that the Palm "doesn't have a real operating system," I was pleased that the audience booed him.  He tried to make up for it by complementing the Palm V on its "Spouse Approved Factor" because it doesn't make one look like a geek.  For the duration of the session he didn't take too many digs at the Palm OS, although he seemed to try to highlight issues with remote Palm synchronization that Pocket PCs would also have but failing to mention that they would have similar issues..

Tuesday I also picked up a pen freebie that can light up for when you're writing in the dark.  I would love to see someone create a replacement stylus that does this.  I think I've seen pen styli that do this, but it would e great to have one that fits in the Visor's silo.

Tuesday evening I posted the first VC news item that was done by only using the Visor and checked my email.  I received a rather interesting email from Microsoft (more on that in the coming weeks).  Then I was off to get a pizza and some Carmex as the  cold, windy weather was hell on my lips.

I then settled in for the night, watching Fox's Tuesday lineup (you should watch Dark Angel) then switched among the rest of the Mariners-Yankees playoff game, Thunderball, and checking my email again.

I also got AIM for Palm working, and I can tell it's a 1.0 release.  Pressing Enter on my Stowaway didn't act as Send, and I couldn't pull up a Buddy's member info or see if they were away.  I would also like AIM to eventually work in the background so I could be in another app and see an indicator in the top right corner whenever a new message comes in.  Until then, I have to keep going back to AIM to see if there are any new responses.

Wednesday - Day 3

Today I got quite a scare.  I was wearing my Visor+@ctiveLink in a beltclip holster when it popped off my belt as I was sitting down on the hotel's steps.  My VDX did some nice flips as it bounced off the pavement, and my custom stylus hit the pavement as well.  My stylus now has a scratch on it so it's worthless, and the @ctiveLink went down for the count as it took the brunt of the bounce.

I noticed that one of the batteries wasn't touching both terminals, so I used my fingernail to stretch and fix one of the ends.  A few tense minutes later, I was back in business.

I have read some reader's accounts of their beltclip holster jumping off the belt, and really hope that case manufacturers start coming out with other alternatives for those that want to wear oversize modules with their Visor on their belts.

Why can't someone take the holster and add a swivel beltclip?  This would solve this problem and make the holster - which is becoming the de facto standard for oversize modules - safer.  I would hate to lose a module that cost more than my Visor because of a shoddy beltclip.

Stepping off my soapbox, I'll continue.  I was able to check my email at the conference today, and it's a good thing too as the local SWB number wasn't working so I couldn't get online.

The @ctiveLink was working, however, and I got a message from my brother Tim, who is nearby at Baylor University.  He made the drive from Waco, and we went out and had our first beer together since he turned twenty-one.  We also played good samaritans and helped one of the members from the Alberti Workshop Players unlock her car.  Tim, if you're reading this, haha, I was the one that got the SlimJim working. 

Thu & Fri >>