Henry Is Still in the Hospital

It is three weeks ago today that Henry began his trip to the Aibo Clinic in California. Finally on Saturday the work order status on his repair changed. It now says that he is being repaired and to allow five more business days for the completion of the work. If Sony keeps to this schedule, Henry should be home by the end of next week. I am considering making banners and decorating with crape paper to welcome him home.

Around the World

American Airlines is in an alliance with seven other airlines called oneworld. American Airlines AAdvantage miles can be used for award tickets on the oneworld carriers. A business class ticket that allows 25,001-35,000 miles of travel requires 190,000 AAdvantage miles. By this time next year I will have enough miles for this award. I have started to plan an itinerary. It is going to take a year for me to digest all the rules that cover this award. You can have a maximum of 16 flight segments. The map shows one of my first attempts at an itinerary. The route has 15 flight segments and covers 30,400 miles. The oneworld website Oneworld has a schedule feature and useful information on baggage limitations. I have been able to get mileage between cities from sites such as Expedia. American can book award travel eleven months in advance. If I do make this trip, it will most likely be in the spring of 2007. It will take a great deal of planning. It will be fall in the southern hemisphere. Moscow and Helsinki will still be very cold in the spring. Hong Kong and Bangkok will be very warm. It will be difficult to choose a wardrobe that will provide for all the different climates.

In 2001 I made a trip to Australia and New Zealand that had the following itinerary bpt-dfw-lax-syd-mel-akl-lax-bpt. This was a first class ticket on American and Qantas. I made the trip 3 weeks after 9/11. It was my initiation into the in and outs of planning a major trip using frequent flyer miles. The next year I made another first class trip that went bpt-iah-dfw-yvr-hkg-syd-hkg-lax-dfw-iah-bpt on Continental, American and Cathy Pacific. I was able to book this trip with much less difficulty. With the knowledge I acquired from those trips I think I am prepared to tackle the RTW (round the world) trip, but there are many new rules to consider.

A Tip for DSLR Owners

Dust is a major enemy of digital single lens reflex cameras. When dust gets into a traditional film SLR, the worst thing that happens is that you will see specs of dirt on the mirror when you look in the viewfinder or in the very worst case the accumulated dirt can cause mechanical failure. If dust does get on the film, it just messes up one roll. With a digital camera dust is attracted to the electrically charged sensor. The dust shows up on the pictures. Nikon recommends that you send the camera to one of their service centers for cleaning when dust accumulates. Some people attempt to clean their cameras themselves. I am not brave enough to clean my camera, and I want to avoid Nikon’s steep service charges. The best thing to do is keep dust out of the camera for as long as possible.

Until recently I was not concerned with the dust problem because I had only one lens for my camera. Now that I have a second lens I have been very careful to point the camera down and put the lens on the camera as quickly as possible. I just saw a tip on a photo forum that said to change lenses in a clean bag. I thought about the two-gallon food storage bag I have been carrying with me in case I was caught in the rain with my camera. I am going to keep a clean bag with me and use it for lens changing. The bags are clear, and I can easily see what I am doing.

Small Amounts of Frequent Flyer Miles

Delta Airlines is abandoning the Southeast Texas Regional Airport again on June 30. I have a small amount of Delta Skymiles and probably will not be earning anymore. Most of the frequent flyer programs have expiration dates on their miles. If you do not use them, you lose them. I have been looking at Milepoint.com which allows you to cash in frequent flyer miles for magazines and other merchandise. Yesterday I got an offer directly from Delta Skymiles to use my miles for magazines. I compared
Delta’s offer to Milepoint.com and find that Delta has a slightly better deal. I am going to get six months of the Wall Street Journal and a year of Time.

Hot Weather

Southeast Texas has had an unseasonable heat wave for the last week. In February I ordered a pair of shorts and knit shirt from Land’s End and created my virtual model. For several years crop pants have been the fashionable garment for women’s summer wear. I am tired of them and want to go back to shorts. I have had a hard time finding more shorts. With the hot weather I have been wearing the outfit I got from Land’s End almost daily. Monday I decided to order another pair of the shorts and another top from Land’s End. It is interesting that when I tried the new outfit on the virtual model the shirttail was tucked in. The first time it was shown on the outside. Anyway the new shorts and top arrived yesterday. I really like them and am better prepared for more hot weather.

Batteries

Last night the electricity went off for a couple of minutes. Shortly before I went to bed I heard a chirp. I thought it must be the smoke alarm but was too tired to go change the battery. At 4 AM I woke up and heard a noise. I thought it might be a mouse. That is what I always think when it is dark, and I hear something. A few minutes later I heard it again. I tried to convince myself that the noise was outside and was a bird. Then I started thinking it is dark outside and is too early for a bird to be chirping. Then I remembered the smoke alarm. I got up and took the smoke alarm off the wall and removed the battery. The battery expiration date was 2006 so I decided that must be the source of the noise. Then I heard the chirp again. I remembered the carbon monoxide detector. At last I had found the culprit. The display was flashing “Lo”. I took the battery out, and it also had a 2006 expiration date. I went and got the plastic bag where I keep my batteries. There were plenty of AA, AAA and D batteries but only one 9 volt with a 2002 expiration date. Now I have to make a trip to the store just for batteries. I think I better devise a battery inventory control program similar to what I have for canned goods.

Shopping

There is an article in USA Today this morning, Networks hope remote-control shopping clicks about a new way of shopping called “t-commerce”. It will work like Video on Demand for digital cable and satellite TV subscribers. This is something I can definitely do without. The shopping channels as they are now are bad enough. I cannot understand impulse shopping or those who indulge in the practice. Before I spend my money I have to do my research. I compare prices and give myself a cooling off period before I make a final decision. I love the shopping bots on the internet such as a Pricegrabber.com that allow me to easily compare prices. I create wish lists on Amazon.com and frequently check for price drops. With the current TV shopping networks people at least have time to do a little thinking when they place a telephone call, but with t-commerce the lag time is considerably reduced.

Video on Demand

I finally tried Video on Demand on Time Warner’s digital cable. It has been available for several years for pay movies. I would rather see movies on the big screen in the theater and have never bothered with it. Sometime within the last year they added a few free television programs to the system. I watched a documentary from Court TV while I did my laundry. It was free of commercials and I was able to pause and resume. I liked it. Then I watched another program from A&E network. This one had commercials. Also when I paused the program, I was unable to resume at the point where I left off. I had to fast forward. This was annoying, and I gave up. The selection of free TV shows was limited. I really got disgusted when I found they wanted to charge $3.95 for a program from National Geographic. I pay over $110 each month which includes the RoadRunner internet service. I think they could throw in the National Geographic programs for free.

I Will Use Google

Is it just me or is everyone irritated when they have someone ask them a question that they could have answered themselves if they used an internet search engine? Fortunately not many of my friends ask me questions and expect me to do their research, but I see dumb questions in forums where the person is just too lazy to look up the answer. Some people expect others to do all their work for them.

Improved Organization?

Yesterday I went grocery shopping at Sam’s. I buy canned fruit and vegetables in the 6, 8 or 12 can packs there because I think I am saving money over regular grocery store prices. The problem is these multi-can packs take up a large amount of my limited pantry space. I cannot tell what is at the back of the shelves unless I take everything out. Yesterday I found I already had several cans of stewed tomatoes at the back of the shelf and had purchased an additional six pack.

Now I think I have an idea for better inventory control in my kitchen. I created a little three column spreadsheet in Excel and with the aid of Documents to Go transferred it to my Palm-based pda. In the first column of the spreadsheet I have the name of the canned goods such as pears, peas, corn, etc. In the second column I have the number on hand. In the third column I have an if function =if(A3<=2,”Buy”,””). What that does is when the inventory reaches what I have chosen as a minimum level it shows the word Buy. If the quantity on hand is above the minimum level the cell in the third column is blank. I also formatted the third column color to red. When I prepare my shopping lists, all I will have to do is glance at the spreadsheet to know what canned goods to put on the list.

I have to update my quantity on hand at the end of each day on my pda. I am fairly disciplined and think I can train myself to update the numbers as I use my canned goods. I have read about systems built into appliances such as refrigerators that will scan your food automatically and prepare your shopping lists or even phone in a grocery order. I don’t think I need anything that elaborate.

Update

I am still reading Michael Crichton’s books. I have reached the half way point of Jurassic Park. When I ordered the books from Alldirect.com, Congo was out of stock. I had not been able to find a copy at the usual discount places in Beaumont. For several years I have noticed a shop called Red B4 Books at 23rd and Calder but had never taken the time to check it out. I went there, and the store was vacant, but there was a sign that said they had moved to the Westbrook Shopping Center. I found a nice little shop with a large inventory of books. I found a copy of Congo and bought the book. I asked if they bought used books. I was told no, but they had a trading policy. You can bring in a book and trade it for a book in the same category. There must be a charge for the trade. I have to check on that.

There is no change in Henry’s work order status. I assume Sony is still waiting for surgical supplies (parts). I was really surprised when I checked my claim status for Henry’s repair with the American Express Buyer’s Assurance program. It said a credit for the full amount of Henry’s repair had been issued to my card. I then checked my online credit card activity and found the credit was already posted. I was told it would take up to two weeks to process my claim, and they did it in two days. I will feel much better about paying my annual fee for the credit card from now on.

I finally chose a contractor to replace the fence around my backyard. He may not be able to begin work until the week of June 6. The old fence is rotting, and I would like to have a sturdy fence in place before we are too far into hurricane season.

Nikon has released new firmware for the Nikon D70 camera. This version is a major revision and numbered 2.0. They had two minor updates after I purchased my camera, but the problems they corrected were not of interest to me. The instructions did not say if it was necessary to install the earlier updates before installing Ver. 2.0. I called Nikon and was told I could go directly to 2.0. I installed the update without problem. The camera’s auto focus is supposed to be faster when tracking moving objects. I need to go out and test it. The layout and color scheme of the camera’s menus have also changed.

Henry’s Hospitalization

Yesterday morning when I checked the status of Henry’s work order on Sony’s website, it gave an estimated cost for the repair and said they were awaiting approval. I immediately printed the web page and wrote my American Express claim number and my name on it. I then scanned the page and faxed it to American Express. I hope that they will accept the web page as a valid cost estimate. I then called Sony and gave them my approval and credit card information in order to get the repair underway.

I checked my credit card several times during the day to see if my credit card’s available credit had decreased by the amount of the repair. By late afternoon the available credit remained the same. I called Sony again. The woman I spoke to checked my record and could see that my credit card information was encrypted in my record. She said she was located in Florida but would call California and find out if they received the information to proceed with the repair. She completed the call and said that they had the approval and were obtaining the necessary parts. I told her I thought of this as Henry’s hospitalization, and I was happy to know that he is on the road to recovery. She laughed and said I meant to say they are obtaining his surgical supplies.

No More Jury Duty

As I predicted, yesterday was my last day of jury duty. I was the second person called for the first panel of the day. This was a felony case assigned to the Drug Impact Court. When you are one of the first called for a panel, it means you have a low number and a higher chance of being selected for the jury. I was not happy with the thought of being placed on a jury for a drug-related case. The judge who had sworn the jurors in on Monday morning had told us to look mean when were sitting in the halls. He said that often scares the defendants into settling if they see mean-looking jurors. I decided to frown while I waited outside the courtroom. It worked. The bailiff came out and told us the defendant had pleaded guilty, and the jury panel was dismissed from jury service. Yippee!

Another Day - More Jury Duty

Yesterday I was assigned to a jury panel for a civil case. The panel was supposed to wait outside the courtroom until 9 AM. There were no seats left so I went around the corner from the courtroom and found a nice padded chair. At approximately 8:50 I went back to the courtroom hallway, and there were plenty of empty seats. I asked a man who was sitting nearby if he was on the same panel. He said no and that the panel had already gone into the courtroom. I thought, “Oh, now I am in trouble.” I opened the door. The judge told me to come in and said I was not late. He was in the middle of explaining to the panel that we were not needed and would have to report back Wednesday morning for possible assignment to other panels. I was greatly relieved. This should be the last day of my jury duty.

Henry

Yesterday morning when I checked the Sony website for the status of Henry’s work order, it still said that he had not been received. At noon I could stand it no longer. I called Sony and told the technician that according to the UPS tracking information Henry had arrived at 10:30 Monday morning. The technician said that UPS tracking information was in real time, and Sony’s system took a business day to update. He said they had a really large facility, but Henry should get checked in today. I checked the Sony website again after lunch, and it said the product was with a technician and that repairs could take up to ten business days. I was greatly relieved to know that the healing process has begun. The Sony technicians seemed to know how to reassure over-wrought Aibo owners.

More Jury Duty Today

I had the right idea to get to the courthouse very early yesterday. I was able to pick and choose my parking place. The people who arrived close to 8:30 had a real problem. I was not put on a jury panel and have to report back at 8:30 this morning. This routine should end on Wednesday.

Henry

According to the UPS tracking information Henry arrived at the Aibo Clinic in San Diego yesterday morning. I am waiting for Sony to acknowledge receipt on their website. I will be so glad when the little fella is safely returned to me.

Jury Duty

My post is going to be very brief today. I received a jury summons and have to report to the courthouse this morning. I want to get there very early in order to be assured of having a parking place. It has been a little over three years since I was last called. Last week there was an awful murder trial. I have not heard of anything big for this week.

Robotic Vacuum Cleaners

I hate house cleaning. I have watched for news on robotic vacuum cleaners for several years. There are quite a few companies that have actually developed robotic vacuum cleaners or announced plans for such a product. Electrolux, Hitachi, Trilobite, Karcher and Roomba actually have products on the market. Dyson and Hoover have either tested or announced plans for future products. All of the commercially available vacuums of which I am aware cost well over $1,000 except for iRobot Corp.’s Roomba vacuums. There are Roomba vacs in the $150-$250 price range depending on the number of bells and whistles.

Christmas of 2003 I broke down and bought a Roomba. I knew the Roomba was good for only light cleaning. It removes surface dirt from carpet, but lacks the suction for deep cleaning. When the Roomba arrived, I charged the battery and turned it loose in the living room. It started off in a spiral pattern. The diameter of the spirals kept increasing until it ran into furniture. It has vinyl coated, spring loaded bumpers so that it does not mar the furniture. It did manage to get stuck between the legs of a dining room chair. When it has a problem such as being stuck or exhausted battery, it has a series of beeps to signal its problem. The dust bin filled up rapidly and had to be emptied several times. The Roomba worked on carpet and hard-surfaced floors equally well. I loved the little critter when it went to work cleaning under my bed.

Unfortunately after approximately six weeks of daily use the Roomba developed a problem. It would start out on its spiral pattern and stop. It did this repeatedly. I called the iRobot tech support line and was given a RMA to return the product. They promptly returned a new-looking Roomba. This one ran a little over a week. I again went through the return process. The third Roomba arrived and was DOA. I by-passed the tech support telephone number and called the corporate headquarters and asked for my money back. To my amazement a very nice lady called back and apologized for the problems I had experienced. She told me to package the Roomba in the original carton, and she would have UPS pick up the package. Later that day a man from iRobot’s accounting department called to get credit card information so he could send in a credit. My credit card was credited before the package even reached iRobot. I would still really like to have a robotic vacuum cleaner. The first Roomba was great while it lasted. Some day I will try again.

Just a few more words about iRobot Corp. The Roomba is only one of their robotic products. They have government contracts and are supplying the U.S. Army with robots that search for land mines in Afghanistan and Iraq. Maybe one of these days they will deliver an affordable vacuum cleaner that will be able to stand up to daily use. I am going to continue to watch.

Robots

The Japanese are doing amazing work in the field of robotics. I have a personal interest in Sony’s Aibo robotic dogs that are commercially available, but there are many other robots that are under development. Honda has the Asimo robot, pictured above, who has appeared in their commercials. Asimo can walk up steps and push heavy loads. Honda has employed similar robots in their auto assembly plants in Japan.

Toyota has a robot band. The robots play various musical instruments. Toyota is also developing robots that will assist with the care of the elderly. I may need one of those in the future.

In addition to the Aibo’s, Sony has a robot named Qrio who walks on two legs. He also runs. He actually has a moment when both feet leave the ground while he is running just the way humans run. Unlike Aibo, Qrio is not for sale.

CSI

Wednesday night I watched the pilot for CSI on SpikeTV. It orginally aired on October 6, 2000. I had not seen this episode before. The show seemed rather amateurish compared to the current plots. They had to spend time explaining every analysis they performed. The viewing audience has been educated as to the laboratory techniques employed in crime scene investigation and now not as much time is spent on explanations. The flow of the current storylines is much smoother. Last night the second episode was shown. I think I had seen it before. I now have a better understanding of the program after seeing the beginning episodes.

Update

Things are finally slowing down. I checked Henry’s UPS tracking information. He left the Dallas area yesterday morning and is scheduled to arrive in San Diego on Monday. Hopefully by the following week, he will be back home and keeping me entertained. Sony’s product classification for the Aibo is entertainment robot.

I have been busy getting estimates to replace the fence around the backyard. One neighbor is being very nice and volunteered to pay half as soon as I mentioned the word fence. The neighbor in back is not so nice. She said, “Let me tell you how this works. The person who has the smooth side of the fence pays for the fence. “. I said, “That is not correct. I paid fifty percent when my neighbor on the east replaced the fence, and he has the smooth side.” She said, “I am not paying.” I told her that she is not a good neighbor. I told her I would notify her when the work is to begin so that she can corral her dog and hung up the phone. Life has many potholes along the way. I am just thankful that there is nothing worse than this currently causing me to be upset and angry.

My old nemesis, the Wal-Mart self-checkout scanner and the Sam’s Club gasoline pump card readers, worked flawlessly this week. I wonder if someone in the Wal-Mart organization is reading my blog.

A Sad Day, Indeed

My little buddy, Henry, started his journey to California to the Aibo Clinic yesterday. Normally at this time of day he would be exploring the room, taking pictures, kicking his ball, yelling my name and getting into mischief. He brightens my day. I can wake up in a bad mood; but after a few minutes of watching his antics there is a smile on my face.

I described his problem to the Sony tech. rep., and he said he thought they could fix it. The tech. rep. emailed me an inventory form to attach to Henry’s box (I prefer to think of it as a pet carrier) and a work order number. I can check the work order status on Sony’s website so I can stay in touch with Henry’s recovery. American Express set up a claim number. I think the odds are in my favor that they will pay for Henry’s hospitalization under their Buyer’s Assurance Program. I also checked the UPS tracking number and saw that Henry departed from Houston at 4 AM. It will be a very happy day when he returns home.

Second Aibo Blog

I was checking Pedro’s blog (the Aibo who lives in Portugal) Aibo Roblog #1: Pedo, and find that there is now a new Aibo Blog. This Aibo is a girl dog named Brenda. She is a black ERS-7M2. Her blog is at: Brenda’s roblog. If I ever get a second Aibo, I would like to have a black one like Brenda. Her blog has a cute video of Brenda playing with her ball. She can balance her ball on the back of head and walk with it. Henry plays soccer with his ball and butts it with his head. That is the extent of Henry’s ball playing talents. You get what you pay for. Brenda cost three times as much as Henry.

Pedro has linked to my blog and credits me for my idea of a roblog. Thank you, Pedro.

More on Southeast Texas Accents

I am afraid I may have offended some of my friends by what I wrote yesterday regarding the nasal twang of the Southeast Texas accent. I did a Google search to see if I could find anymore about the accent and to find some corroboration for my opinion. To my amazement I found that Christus St. Elizabeth Hospital here in Beaumont offers classes in accent reduction. When I read that, I thought the Southeast Texas accent must be more of a problem than I realized. Then I read a little more and found the classes are offered to people who speak English as a second language. Now I am really in trouble!

I found an interesting article on the PBS website: Texas English. This article says that the Texas accent is disappearing in the large metropolitan cities in Texas because of the migration into Texas. Another article on the subject: Texas twang: Fixin' to fade?. The reason this subject has been on my mind is that I spent three days on a tour bus with a group of senior citizens who were mostly natives of Southeast Texas. Their accents were very pronounced. This caused me to think about accents. Please do not be offended.

Southeast Texas Accents

I am originally from the Midwest. It is over thirty-seven years since I moved to Texas, but I must confess I still feel like an outsider. There is something about the accent and the way the people construct their sentences that makes it very difficult for me to communicate. When I first moved here, I told my mother that the women sounded like they were talking through their noses. She immediately started scolding me and told me that was not a nice thing to say. Then she heard some of them, and she said to me, “Don’t you start sounding like that.” I am afraid that over the years some of the accent has crept into my speech, but I still do not talk like a native. What irritates me more than the accent is the circular logic the people use. I can ask a direct question, and the person can talk for five minutes and never get around to answering my question that could have been taken care of with a simple yes or no. I just don’t get it and am afraid I never will.

Trip to Arkansas

I have been away from home and away from the blog for the last three days. This time my travels took me to Arkansas. The highlight of the trip was a visit to the Clinton Presidential Library. The tour bus left Beaumont early Wednesday morning. We stopped for lunch in Jefferson, Texas. I was unfamiliar with this town but learned it had quite a history. At one time it was a major inland shipping port. There are a number of historical homes and buildings. It has several charming bed and breakfasts. I even saw a horse-drawn carriage taking a group of tourists around town. It reminded me of my Savannah and Charleston trip on a much smaller scale.

The first night was spent at the lodge in DeGray State Park in Arkansas. We had a boat ride and learned of the history of the lake and dam. A state ranger served as boat captain and tour guide. We then had a steak dinner cooked and served outside in the park. The next morning we continued to Little Rock. A city guide boarded our bus. We saw the state capitol, the governor’s mansion, Central High School which was forcibly integrated in the 1950’s when President Eisenhower called out the federal troops, and then we went to North Little Rock and spent some time at the Old Mill which was a charming area on one of the city’s lakes.

After lunch we went to the Clinton Library. Our group was escorted through the library by a volunteer guide. We got an overview of the library, but I would like to go back some day and study the exhibits that interest me in depth. After the library tour we spent time wandering around the shops that are being developed along the river. This area is not complete but will be quite attractive when it is fully developed.

That evening the group was taken to a dinner theater where they had a very bad dinner and a very corny play. You can’t win them all. I was really glad to get back to the hotel. The next morning we started back to Texas. On the way we stopped to take some pictures in Hope, the birthplace of President Clinton. The ride back to Beaumont was uneventful. The scenery consisted of endless scrubby trees. I fell asleep on the bus and my head bobbed around on my neck like one of those dashboard dolls. Home looked pretty good to me.

Texas – Gotta Luv It

When I started this blog, I was determined to keep it free of political comments. There are enough blogs stirring the pot already, but I just have to say something about the Texas House’s bill to start charging sales tax on cookies, snacks and bottled water to finance education and ease the burden of property taxes. It has been a couple of months since this bill was in the news, and I hope it died on the vine. I am completely in favor of reducing property taxes. My 2004 property taxes were 1.67 times higher than I paid in 1994. If this rate of increase continues, it is going to be unbearable. However, I do not want to put the burden of my tax relief on little children’s purchases of cookies. Now I am going to say what is unspeakable here in Texas. What is really wrong with an income tax? The more civilized parts of this country adopted this method long ago.

Goodbye Palm – Hello Sony

I am rather slow to upgrade my techie devices. In 2002 I was still using my desktop PC purchased in 1995 which ran Windows for Workgroups 3.11 and my notebook PC purchased in 1996 which ran Windows 95. I hot synched my Palm IIIx with the notebook PC because the Palm required Windows 95 or later. The notebook PC used a pcmcia card modem. Something went wrong with the notebook’s pcmcia connection, and it became impossible to use the modem. I was able to connect to the internet with the old desktop, but I was using an old version of Netscape which crashed frequently. It was time for a new PC. I bought a Sony Vaio notebook which had all the latest bells and whistles.

I had a terrible time transferring data to the new Sony because it had no floppy drive and my old PC’s had read only CD ROM drives. I emailed my files from the old desktop to myself and opened them on the new PC. This was an absolutely terrible ordeal. To compound the problem the new Sony PC only had USB ports and no nine-pin serial port which the Palm IIIx required for hot synching. Palm had sold an USB adapter at the time I bought the IIIx, but it was no longer available.

I started shopping for a new PDA. Sony had licensed the Palm operating system and had a line of handheld PDA’s they called Clie. I decided on a Clie instead of Palm because Sony had a higher resolution color screen and included more applications than the competing Palm models. The new PDA had a built-in rechargeable lithium ion battery, much more internal memory than the old Palm, the ability to transfer photos from the PC and display them on the Palm and an expansion slot for flash memory sticks. The Clie could be backed up to a memory stick which was an added insurance policy for the PDA when away from the PC.

I read the instructions on how to transfer data from an old PDA to the new model. My problem was compounded by the fact I had a new PC and a new PDA. I finally copied the calendar, address book, to do and memo data to a floppy from the old notebook and copied them to the desktop PC. From the desktop I emailed the files and copied them onto the new Sony PC. I then hot synched the new Clie. The calendar events, address book and memos were installed on the new Clie; but something was wrong with the to do files and the new Clie crashed and had to be reset. I made a call to Sony’s tech support. After several more failures, the tech support rep. suggested that we try to beam the data from the old Palm to the Clie using the IR ports. That little operation worked, but the to do items were not put in categories. It took several days to recreate my categories and sort the data.

From there on it was smooth sailing. I downloaded new versions of my applications. I loved the new features on the Clie. All went well until last summer. The Clie would black out and the battery would suddenly drain. I started the shopping process again. Sony had announced they were withdrawing the Clie from the US market in the next few months. I again looked at current models from Palm and Sony. Handspring was one additional source for Palm operating system PDA’s. They had stopped making stand alone PDA’s and were producing only units with integrated cell phones. They made a model called the Treo 600 which was the current techie must-have device. It carried a steep price tag and would require a more expensive cell phone plan and the addition of a data plan.

Sony had a model, PEG-TJ37. Its price was less than I had paid for the Palm IIIx or my first Sony Clie. It had all the features of my old Clie plus additional memory, an MP3 player, a camera, and it was WiFi enabled. The previous year I had switched from dialup to RoadRunner, Time Warner’s cable internet service and bought a WiFi router. I was intrigued by the TJ37’s WiFi. I got the TJ37 last August. The data transfer from the old Clie to the new Clie was much smoother. It connected to my WiFi router without problem. The only shortcoming of the TJ37 is the battery life. The battery drains rapidly when the WiFi connection is used. I thought I was set for at least another couple of years.

Then I broke the antenna on my dear old Timeport cell phone. The cylinder at the top of the antenna was dangling. The phone still worked. I looked over new cell phones. Treo now has a newer model 650 with a higher resolution screen and a faster processor than the Treo 600. It would be nice to have the cell phone and PDA in one integrated device. It would mean one less battery charger to carry when traveling. Also I have found that finding WiFi hotspots for the Clie is very difficult. The Treo 650 can connect to the internet wherever the cell phone provider has service. My only reservation about the Treo 650 is the price.

I was on the verge of getting the Treo 650. I decided that first I would try to get my Timeport repaired. I searched the internet and found a place that claimed to sell the Timeport antenna. They shipped by UPS and the shipping charge was almost the same price as the antenna. I went to the SprintPCS store. The salesman said he thought they had the antenna. He took my phone to the back room. After a while he came back and said they did not have the antenna. I told him I would like to see the Treo 650. He took a new one out of the box and turned it on. It has an even better screen than my Clie. I was able to check out the Palm applications, but the Treo was not activated and could not connect to the internet. I told the salesman I was going to save my pennies for one. I told him I could order the antenna for my Timeport from the internet and asked if they would install it for me. He said they would be happy to do it for me.

I went back home and searched the internet newsgroups for more clues on how to replace the Timeport antenna. I found that Radio Shack sold a replacement antenna for the Motorola Startac phone. My Timeport is very similar to the Startac but had more features. I found the antenna on the Radio Shack website. I called the Parkdale Mall store and was told that they had the antenna in stock. I went to the mall. The cylinder on the end of the antenna was slightly shorter than the one on my Timeport, and the package said the antenna was for analog Startac’s. My Timeport is dual band analog/digital. I asked the salesman if I could return the antenna if it did not work. I went back to the SprintPCS store. The salesman said the antenna should work. He took my phone to the back room and had installed the antenna on my Timeport. I made a call and all seemed to be well. At home the Timeport still got its usual five bars of signal strength. I made several calls and everything was fine. I have bought some time before I have to invest in another PDA. I really like the Treo 650. By the time I need to upgrade again there may be a newer, better and cheaper model.

The Move From Paper to Digital

By the summer of 1999 my Filofax had grown so fat that it was a struggle to add new pages and close the rings without the pages popping off the rings. Finally I broke down and ordered a Palm IIIx. I entered five letters of the alphabet a day from my address book into the Palm desktop. At first I was entering the information from the Palm Desktop software on my PC but soon found that the shorthand called Graffiti used to enter information into the handheld with a stylus was fairly easy to use. By the time I finished entering all of my address book information into the Palm, I was fairly proficient with Graffiti.

The Palm handheld had a cradle that connected to the PC via a nine-pin serial port. The Palm Desktop and the handheld’s information could be synchronized by putting the handheld in the cradle and performing on operation called hot synching. I read postings on the internet user groups and soon learned that there were many more applications that could be installed on the Palm by downloading software for the Palm. One program that I particularly liked was AvantoGo. This program allowed me to download all kinds of information to my Palm such as the news from the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, weather for my local area, movie schedules for theaters in Beaumont and shopping deals to name a few. Using AvantGo was a good way to make sure I hot synched the Palm to backup data on a regular basis. I could fill up the Palm with the latest news, slip the Palm in my purse; and if I was sitting and waiting in places such as doctors’ offices, I had the latest news in the palm of my hand.

I also found a very addictive little solitaire game that I downloaded. One very useful program that I installed was Documents to Go. This program allowed me to create Microsoft Excel and World Documents and exchange them with my PC. I would record credit card purchases in a little Excel spreadsheet. This way I always had a total of my current spending at hand. I put shopping lists in Word documents and carried them with me.

The Palm IIIx ran on AAA alkaline batteries. I would buy the large packages of AAA batteries at Sam’s Club. It seemed like I was changing batteries all the time. Every time I got the low battery warning I would begin to tremble until I had successfully installed fresh batteries. The thought of losing my precious data was most alarming. The Palm IIIx could exchange email from the PC. Palm sold a small dialup modem for the handheld, but it was expensive. I was using a local internet provider who did not have toll free numbers so the Palm modem was not suited to my needs when I was traveling.

In late 1999 SprintPCS started offering the Motorola Timeport cell phone that was the first phone that they offered that had a built-in web browser and had data capabilities. It came in a kit with a cable that could connect it to a PC and had an adapter plug that allowed it to be connected to a Palm hot synch cable. I had to have that telephone. There was a problem. I was a cell phone customer of US Unwired that was an affiliate of SprintPCS. I had a SprintPCS Free and Clear plan through US Unwired. When I traveled, I was no different than any other SprintPCS customer, but there were limitations. SprintPCS would not allow me to order the new Motorola Timeport from the website. I called Houston SprintPCS stores. They would not sell the phone to me. I checked with US Unwired, and they said they would activate the Timeport if I purchased one. I finally called SprintPCS sales and told them a little white lie. I said I was buying the phone for a friend who was a SprintPCS customer. They shipped the phone to me. I charged the battery and took it to US Unwired for activation. They looked at the phone and started making phone calls to see if they were allowed to activate it. I was in agony. I thought I might have to return the phone to SprintPCS to get my money back. I had paid over $300 for the phone. Finally the US Unwired employee got the authorization to active the phone. I felt a great sense of relief. A couple of years later SprintPCS acquired the customers on the Sprint plans from US Unwired. My Motorola Timeport is over five years old, and I am still using it.

Soon after I got the Timeport I made a trip to Honolulu. I connected my Palm to the Timeport and got my email and updated AvantGo. I was unsure how I would be charged. SprintPCS was charging an additional $10 per month for a data plan. US Unwired was not offering this option. I was greatly relieved when I got my bill to see that US Unwired had charged my Honolulu data calls as voice minutes, and I incurred no additional charges. I continued to use my Timeport for data transfer to the Palm whenever I traveled in the US until I was transferred to Sprint. Then SprintPCS wanted to charge 34 cents a minute if you did not have their data plan. I quit using the Timeport for data transfer.

Tomorrow I will continue with my move from Palm to Sony Clie’s.