Thanks for sympathizing, gang. I feel better today.
(apink @ Mar 5 2006, 01:23 PM)
The shell lets me do a lot of manipulation. For example, if I want to see my appointments for march I just "grep 03/ mycalendar" and I have a clean list. The shell command "cal" prints out monthly calendars if I need them.
Hee Hee. You rock! I love the option of low-tech too.
I was thinking of something like that too, but putting it in the spreadsheet instead. I'll consider this too. But something about that makes me want to rebel. It's pretty darn late in the game to be using such primitive implementations. More power to you if it works for you, but I've gotten tired of 1970's technology.
I feel your pain though. I bought a Zaurus because I was a Palm, Power User for years and got sick and tired of syncing. I want all my info always. I realize that everyone's needs are different, but I think it's worth thinking about. If you are using a USB mouse and kbd with your zaurus propped up at eye level, it's a very usable mini-pc.
You know, I'm thinking of that too.
I was wondering yesterday, "Why do I sync"? To me there are four reasons:
1) To put my data into my backup path (the PC gets backed up every night by a scheduler).
2) In case I need to manipulate a lot of records, it's a lot easier with a real keyboard and screen.
3) To have the data on the PC if I need it for a phone call, etc.
4) To share the data with other people, like my wife, who also uses a Palm and needs to sync for these same reasons.
Well, can I rethink this whole thing and get about the same functionality? That is, can I make the Zaurus my computer at least for PIM applications if not for everything? In a sense, have a (sort of) Palm Desktop on my Zaurus? Maybe.
Item 3 is not a big deal; it is about equivalent to look up a phone number on the Palm, Zaurus, or PC.
Item 2 as you say can be handled by adding a full size USB keyboard. I don't know about a larger screen; it would be nice but how to hook it up to the Zaurus?
Item 1 - someone on another thread said the Cacko PIM data resides on /home/zaurus/Applications/dtm. I'm
guessing this folder would be easy to transfer over to the PC with a USB connection; if so that takes care of that problem. (Actually, I need to just think about getting everything in the Zaurus backed up regularly, not just the PIM data.) Or, if the PIM data could somehow go onto an SD card, even better because I could move the card itself if I wanted to.
Item 4 - I just remembered last night something I found out earlier, that Palm Desktop itself is none too good at sharing data between two people. If you have two users on the Desktop, then the two sets of data are kept independently. There is no provision for commonly-held data, such as addresses of people who are friends of both of us. I have to copy the updated address information manually from one user to another. I can hardly blame Zaurus applications if Palm Desktop does not handle this obvious need!
Anyway I was beaming address book categories from my Palm to the Zaurus last night. Works, but is tedious because the category is not preserved, and I have to re-enter it in every record. I did find
this page that has unix-based desktop aps for Palm handhelds; I'm wondering if there is something out there that has been ported to the Zaurus? It sure would be cool if my wife's Palm could sync to the Zaurus over the IR port.
Another letdown yesterday: I found Hancom Sheet does not run the ballistics spreadsheet I've been working on in Excel. Probably chokes on named ranges, or maybe the iteration. <sigh> So I'll be looking for a better spreadsheet ap too.
