Significant Bits
Commentary
by Sean N. Henderson

Happy New Year to all DACS members! This is my first article for DACS.DOC, so to begin, here’s a little bit about what this Board member is using for gear in 2007.

Last year, my electronic life got some nice upgrades. My wife got me a new Verizon Motorola RAZR in September, my brother got me a new Palm TX PDA, and I garnished a new Gateway laptop for my lengthy commute into Manhattan. Here are my thoughts on some of these upgrades.

Depending on the day, I either really like or despise the RAZR. I like it because it’s a flip phone and fits me ergonomically when I’m talking. The camera feature is handy for sending pictures of our children when they’re doing something funny. The reception and network perform pretty well, and the unit is honest enough about signal strength and availability of signal. (Signal honesty was a problem on both the Nokia 3360 and LG VX3200. I didn’t mind if at times there wasn’t a signal, but when my prior units said I had signal when I didn’t, it really wasted my time.) The battery lasts a reasonable amount of time for such a small unit with so much to do.

Where the RAZR is less appealing is when I have to dial or send a text message, and then the interface is horrible. To be fair, this varies by software version, and mine seems to have all the bugs others’ RAZRs do not have. My pet peeves with the RAZR is that when needing to type in a zero, it’s not possible to “punch through” and it wants me to change editing mode, or press the number 1 key a dozen times. That’s just bad UI design. Unlike the Nokia 3360 or LG VX32000, it is not possible to key on the RAZR without looking.

Next is my new PDA – Palm’s TX. I like the TX’s color screen, the feel of it in my hand as I’m working it, and that it’s a PALM device and not MSCE-based. It has an SD card slot, and can function as a media player in addition to the usual PIM stuff.

My co-worker at Nomura gave me so much grief when I started since I was still using my Handspring Visor Deluxe. I loved the Visor. The Visor still syncs better and/or quicker than the TX. The TX produces more noise in the log output so that it is unknown when syncing produces a message whether something is actually wrong or not. The other thing to think about when making the tech leap in something like PDAs is that the address book on the Visor is somewhat incompatible with the new Palm Address book, and when converting, it blindly puts all the addresses under “Work”. To me it should have been smart enough to figure out that if there’s a home phone number, then the single address supported in the old address book format should go to the home address on the new format, not the work address.

The pros of the TX are many. I love the sharp color screen, and learning the new Graphitti wasn’t hard. I downloaded TCPMP to watch movies on it, and using a combo of DVD Shrink and some other software pieces I’m able to watch my videos on something a lot less bulky than the laptop while commuting. Besides video, the SD card slot makes the unit a capable MP3 player, so I’m looking forward to at some point having the unit be my primary player vs. my Creative Laps unit.

My laptop has been pretty good. It’s a Gateway M6436, and was bought for a very reasonable price. Since we have MS Office on our box at home, and my wife needs it, and I didn’t feel like paying for another license, I took Jim Scheef’s advice and checked out Open Office 2.0. So far, so good. I’m writing this article with it, and did our family newsletter on it, so it works for me.

For commuting into Manhattan via rail, a 15.4" laptop is a little too large, but at home on the couch or dining room table, it’s nice. The keyboard is pretty good for laptops, not too “Chicklety” (my brother’s word), and laid out well enough. Being more of a keyboard-guy than an mouse-guy, I’m always dismayed at the liberty manufacturers take with keyboard layouts.

Sean N. Henderson Is a welcome addition to the board of directors. On top of leading a dual life as a computer-guy and musician. His devices also contribute to his music life as well. He promises more on that next time.