I got a new big purse today. How do men carry around a cell phone, and a PDA, do they need those special pants with all the side pockets? This should not be underestimated: women are uniquely poised to adopt portable technology because they have purses.

Sometimes Microsoft interview questions stick with me for years later. Until now I have only been haunted by one: the alarm clock. I should post a spec for it somewhere, but it’s internet connected and has the ability to post shadow pictures on the ceiling of your bedroom. Stars, clouds, jumping sheep, that sort of thing. Then in the morning it broadcasts a reason to get out of bed, such as a birthday party or your to-do list or something inspirational from Deepak Chopra – whatever. Basically an alarm clock that acknowledges that you are lying there for 1/3 of your life and maybe you can do better than looking at drywall. But move over alarm clock, there’s a new question: the split check at the restaurant question. I tried to answer it before I even owned a PDA and cell phone so it was a complete fake from a UI level. I do think it poses a root question, which is how can we set up technology to be as flexible as cash?

My incentive for buying a big purse was the need to go on a budget. Say you have $200 allocated to clothing for a month. (Okay, I didn't say it was a tight budget). How can you immediately check how much of that you’ve spent? How can you enforce the $200 as a limit? You could dedicate a credit card to it, but that’s a big move for such a little expense, and they don’t do customer-set limits very well. Essentially, cash is still your answer. I bought a little coupon sorter thingy and put cash in it, receipts go right back in the file as a record, and when the money’s gone it’s gone. I’ll see how this works. Next thing to try is Pocket Money on my Pocket PC and grafitti down everything when I buy it.

comment []10:06:29 AM