Technology, eh?

I use a nice shiny new Dell Axim X50v to which I recently switched after breaking the trusty Palm IIIx that I'd been happily using for years. It took me a long time to get over hating just about everything on the Axim. I was aware it was really Microshaft's software I don't like rather than the machine -with the sole exception of the truly lousy battery life, that is. These days I've mellowed out a bit over that (What, you? Mellow? Never!), but I still think everything about Palm OS is better. From the desktop interface - most of your customers don't need all that crap that clutters up Outlook, Bill - to not being able to security lock individual phone numbers. I know some quite famous people -no, I won't be mentioning any of them here- so I want their numbers protected. (I'm not as thick as Paris Hilton.) I don't, however, want to have to unlock my adress book every time I need a number from it.

So why didn't I buy a new machine from Palm? Easy; because just like Tony & co they ignore what everyone tells them. I posted a lot on Palm boards when I had one and they all asked for the same things of a new machine:

1. Better battery life and a replaceable battery.
2. Wi-Fi built in.
3. Silent alarm mode.
4. Voice recorder (god knows why, the Axim has it, I've never used it).

What did we get from that list? Bugger all. Yet PalmOne boasted about how they'd listened to thier consumers and given them what was being asked for in the T5. Those were in order of preference as far as I could make out, by the way, and item#1 is why I decided Palm gould go fish for my money. Just like the i-pod it's a throwaway. The battery dies and you're screwed. Or you have to pay them a bloody fortune to replace it. A £350 PDA is not a disposable and this was supposed to be an upgrade. I got at least three months out of a pair of AAAs in my IIIx, three hours and at most two years life in a T3 or T5 isn't an improvement, people.

Why this rant? As it happens I'm having a bad technology day. I put in a new USB 2.0 card the other day and now my printer won't behave so I'm sitting here downloading about half a gb of new drivers in the hope that they'll make it work. On dial-up. Then today I'm sitting in a great wee pub called The Goat that offers free wi-fi internet access and decide to update my Blog. But this site just crashes my Pocket Internet Explorer as soon as it loads. Great.

The Goat, by the way, can be found here:

1287 Argyll Street, just up from the Kelvingorve museum and not as far along as The Park Bar. Oddly, they don't seem to have a website, but that may just be because I can't find it on Google...