Tuesday, August 20, 2002

With Age Comes Wisdom [John Robb's Radio Weblog] "The critical advice my father (bent with Parkinsons but still the vibrant man that everyone that has ever met him loves) whispered to me today:  children and family.  Subtext:  It's the networks of people that support you and keep you whole after you get old that matter.  A very sobering thought." John's Dad sounds not only loveable, but wise.  Wisdom seems to come with age, but not every parent is loveable enough to really share it with their kids. If you have a parent like that, treasure them.  Because you don't know what you've got until they're gone. The senior Robb's comment leads me to think outloud about how little time we honestly take to actually listen to our parents and family-- especially when they are actually talking to us. How little time we take in today's world to actually listen, question and understand our elders. How little time we take to show them the honor and respect they deserve. It is the ordinary person who can leave the most extraordinary legacies and influences in our lives. The fact that we are losing thousands of the WWII generation per day is a sobering fact that should make everyone of us take a few minutes every day to stay in contact with our elders. 12:08:44 PM

Add a Thumbin' or Keyboard Device to Your PDA Several months ago, Doug and I purchased a couple refurb'ed Handspring Visors Prisms from Fry's.  Well several months have passed and I wanted to share the latest new toys we added to the Prisms as well as a couple tips. After months of being green with jealousy about the ability of the Blackberry crowd being able to "thumb" their way through a wireless email, but being unwilling to shuck out the bucks for the device and the monthly service fees I found a TTech's Fully Portable Mini-keyboard which puts a complete thumb-able keyboard on the Visor for $39.99. However the good news is that the mini-keyboards are also available for Palms, iPAQ's and the Samsung SPH I300 Phone! My only complaint was the driver on the installation disk was 2 rev's old, but installation from the web site was a snap. But add my wireless modem which directly keys into my ISP-- and I'm online in less than 20 seconds. Keyboard Envy: Doug's find required it be something he could take to a meeting or sit at lunch and type of his notes with little fuss.  He hates packing around a notebook computer. His choice was the Targus Stowaway Keyboard. This is a near fully sized expandable keyboard which folds nearly flat and as small as his Visor.  This allows him to type up notes into his PDA as if he were at a computer. The neat thing about this is Targus makes these for Sony's, iPAQ's, Jornada's and the Handspring Visors. Priced at $79.95 they aren't cheap, Doug got his on sale at Fry's for $10 less than  SRP-- however Targus is offering a $30.00 rebate which widdles down the price to at least $49.99.  Doug swears by his. 2:56:18 AM

© Copyright 2002 Mary Wehmeier. Last update: 9/3/02; 2:02:53 AM. Comments by: YACCS