From: "Curt Sampson" <cjs@cynic.net>
> On Mon, 7 Jan 2002, Michael Turner wrote:
>
> > The user could adapt somewhat -- writing larger characters, with a
wide-nib
> > felt-tip, if nothing else. Those who like to write tiny characters
would
> > opt for some other system. Enthusiasts might buy purse-size
whiteboards,
> > erasers and magic markers, to save on paper. (And learn about the
"whisper
> > mode" mic setting on their keitais.)
Curt:
> Oh, now I'm starting to get it. Sometimes it takes me a bit of time to
> catch up to a Consultant of Michael's caliber
If you find Curt's sarcasm a bit over the top, please note that I happen to
count him as a friend, if only because he lets me bum cigarettes off him at
parties. (Including a party I have to get to soon, to which I've invited
him, so I'll make this as short as possible.)
[long, satirical sketch, deleted].
> Thoughout all of this everyone ignored the obvious technological
> loser who just pulled out his Palm Pilot, brought up the ATOK window
> (http://www.justsystem.co.jp/), stroked in his kanji, and a few seconds
> later was done.
Fine. IF you have a Palm Pilot. But some people -- long-time palmtop users
even -- are ditching their palmtops when they find that their new mobile
phone does most of what they were using their palmtop for. This, despite
losing pen input. What's going on here?
Apparently, a lot of people don't want to carry two handheld gadgets. Which
one would you get rid of first? (Yes, it's either-or at the moment, though
mobile-phone/palmtop hybrids might change this, I admit.)
As for the laughable scenario, let's take it down to earth. Why does a
to-do list item have to be entered into your organizer while you're still on
the train? After all, you won't be able to do much about it until you get
off the train, right?
Let's suppose you wanted to use my proposed mode of input for adding to your
to-do list (far from my imagination, but hey, let yours rip). How about:
pulling out a pad of paper, writing your to-do list item on it, then PUTTING
IT BACK. Hassle with the digital photos and the voice input later, when
it's more convenient; for example, when you're sitting in a coffeeshop,
possibly with a small pile of other contributions you want to enter. Since
I envision that the real smarts are server-side, this is pretty much an
off-line input technique anyway.
I was thinking about it more for leisurely replies to e-mail, not for
organizational tasks so much. Tim Foley opined at a TokyoPC panel
discussion that mobile phones are good for wasting time, palmtops for saving
time. This is just another way to waste time with a mobile phone -- a
wildly popular usage category, it appears.
Anyway, the whole approach was probably stupid back when they first started
messing with it, and even assuming you could do it now with camera-equipped
mobiles, wireless communications, and server-side recognition engines ...
it's probably a stupid idea still. As I've said myself a few times already.
-michael turner
leap@gol.com
Received on Tue Jan 8 12:44:39 2002