Who are you and where are you from?

[Cyril92]

Cyril, 36 , living in Paris France. Consultant in Transportation and Management systems. Married and a 4 year old daughter (Pauline).

Bought a C860 at the end of last year (first in france).
Using it as a MP3 reader, PDF reader (news in the suburbs), PIM for work, game emulation (SNES,GB) and perl programming (learning)

My daughter uses it (carefully!) for drawing.

[Tchernobill]

I'm Yan, 26, I live in Montreal Canada.

I have a Zaurus SL-5600 with a SD 256mb card and soon (I hope) a WIFI card :-)

I bought my Zaurus via E-bay cause they dont sell them in Canada.  I choose the Zaurus because it run Linux and is very flexible.

Until I learn how to customize and compile the rom, I use it as a PIM, mp3 player, portable e-book (I have a lot of texts) and to play small games :-)

[jettie1767]

I'm actually new to this forum from New Jersey, USA.  I'm 37 yo and a Director of Development for a financial firm on Wall St.

I first heard of Zaurus PDAs from my boss and was really impressed by it.  I have various Unix and Windows servers at work running a multitude of applications.  At home, I have a Mac Dual G5 and a Sony X505 laptop (thinnest laptop in the world).

I'm a former Palm and Pocket PC user.  Have had a ton of PDAs because I can't seem to find the right one.  But, I do think the Zaurus is it!  Also very fond of cellphones especially those running Symbian.

Anyway, I have a C860, Ambicom WiFi, Ambicom BT, 256mb SD, 512mb CF.

[ncarvalho]

Nuno Carvalho
Oporto / Portugal
SL-5500
 
Male  
25 years old
 

System Administrator / Network Admin / LUG Founder /  Linux (Mandrake & Knoppix) && Windows User

[jamesm]

I'm 23 Years old, living near Reading (UK), I have a degree in Computer Science and am mostly disenchanted with the IT industry.

I run Debian (sarge and sid) on my various computers at home and work and try to find the spare time to contribute back to the free software community.

A sparkly new SL-5600 is currently winging its way to me from the US and I'm anxiously waiting its arrival, at which point my trusty old Psion 5 series will finally be going out to pasture.

Glad to have found such a thriving community

[roderickv]

Wow! I have been away for a few months (very busy) and just read this thread. This is great! So many Zaurus users does ones heart good.

Rod, 45yrs old. I live in Columbus, OH. with my wife of 22 yrs and kids. (I have lived in DC, Charlotte NC and Newport News VA.)
Most recently a Director of IT for a major communications co. Now doing IT Consulting for a business my brother and I own.

Put plainly, I love technology! I have it all, 4 or 5 PCs, a couple of laptops, handhelds, palmtops and PDAs. I have had just about every major handhelp and palmtop at one time or another. My  favorites were the original Zaurus ZR-5800 (still have) and the Psion 5MX (still have it too). But I love my C-860 (see below for accessories)!!

I use it for everything. My favorite apps are: StageOne outliner, KO/PI, KA/PI, PDF viewer, VNC and now textmaker. With my wireless card in I can VNC into my server and control it or browse  the web or check my email from outside on my patio - that is very cool. I love to go to Panera Bread and work there with my C860 and their wireless service (free). With the Z, I can work from anywhere there is a wireless connection! I don't know of anything else as powerful...

[uberjoe]

Joe Lescoulie
23 years old  
Fresno California
I work at a small community college bookstore in the agricultural center of the state. I'm married with a three year old and one more on the way (a boy!). I'm trying to get into the camups IT dept, and not having much luck, as I don't have many "real" credietials, (a+ cert, some cisco traning but no cert   )It seems just saying "But I'm a nerd!" doesn't get you a job. I use my z as an mp3 player, a web browser and a game platform. I've been uning various flavors of linux for a few years now, and like to think I know what I'm doing (I'm supposed to be a pro damn it!) but if you look back at my previous posts it is pretty clear I have a long way to go.

[ludovicus]

hello my name is Lu and I'm a zaurus addict.  
Been dirty since i got my first fix 1 year ago.  My little sl5500 was on the out at Circuit city(120 bucks), bought my micro-innovation keyboard(40 bucks), 3 wifi cards( 3 bucks each), socket serial connector for cell phone(15 bucks, xtra battery(4 bucks)...  ( they freaked when i had the mother load at the counter...)

30 y.o. married and a linux addict.  I pay for my gadgets by doing a gig as a  pharmacist, for the anesthesiologist, i'm the pain in the ass.
been hacking linux since 98', redhat for dummies and now on debian sarge, married and occasionally get to enjoy the florida sunlight between hurricanes.  Dual PIII 550mhz: Debian Sarge, 2 Laptop D800 Debian Sarge(mine and my wifes), Sager Gamelaptop n5690: Debian Sarge, 1 pIIIghz boxes, bittorent, backup, play divx on tv.

Love cars, 68mustang, 2 hopped up honda's, sad to say my honda is faster... scca soloII cone slayer.

I use txdrug with lots of personal additions specific to my work, mp3, camera occasionally( usually my big catches when I go fishn' ), my personal apache server is great for my compilation of protocols and specific info in my Hospital, kismet, vnc, ..... the list goes on.  

Can't wait until the next model with the mind-link function comes out and I can call all the other Pharmacists and Physicians "Hill Billies".
peace, love, linux....

sl5500
shaprom
sd250mb
cd512
and other stuff on the rebate shelf at circuit city.

[Mitch]

Name: Mitch
Age: So close to 30 it hurts.
Job: Hospital admin (receptionist), hate it but it pays the bills and lets me buy toys.
Also, Social Sciences student
Hobbies: Regularly destroying my computer and rebuilding it, playing with my Z, warwalking (with my Z, would wardrive but can't drive), hating Micro$oft with a passion, and writing love poetry to a woman in my department at work.

[dirkoid]

Dirk, 45, Systems and Network Admin from Columbus, OH. Have worked for the Columbus Metro Library for almost ten years now as Network and Unix guy. Got my RedHat CE cert in 2001 in Durham, NC. Since they wouldn't cover it I had to pay for it myself. Haven't used Windoze since 1999 at work, and finally got my wife's machine converted to SuSE last year. The first thing she noticed was no pop-ups and no crashes.

Hers was the last holdout, now everything at home runs Linux, either Debian for the Sparc boxes, or SuSE on x86.

Started with Sharp sometime in the mid-1990s with the ZR-5800, went to HC4600 and decided to give that up as a bad job. Found the 5800 could go a month or more on a single charge but the 4600 and Winderz could barely go a week. I got tired of having to start from scratch.

Bought my SL-5500 right after they were announced and have worn most of the paint off. Now the screen's flaking out and the keyboard is so loose it's hard to use. Currently it's running tkcROM v2 with someone's async IO enhancement and a 256MB SD card set up as /home.. I can't remember who did the enhancements, but I found it here and highly recommend it for the 5500.

They gave me a Dell Axim at work and after using it for about two weeks I gave it back. The only thing it did well was sync, everything else was useless. Plus there was almost no software available without shelling out dollars. We have so many advantages in the FOSS world I think we get a little spoiled.

So... Just received my SL-6000 about a week ago from amazon, I was so excited to get it I had it overnighted ($35!!). Ordered it with the CF adapter, and 1GB SD card. Man, this is the most beautiful screen I've ever seen on a handheld device.

Currently I collect old Sharp PDAs. Couldn't afford a Wizard back when, now they're $2.00 on eBay. Have ZR5800, ZR5000, ZR3000, ZQ7000, IQ7200, ZQ8000, the printer, fax modem and a bunch of the add-in cards. I just love this stuff.

Currently have: 64MB, 256MB, 1GB SD cards; 64MB CF, Linksys WCF11; Serial IO cables; Sharp Camera card; Sharp Microphone/Headphones; and a Piel Frama case.

[nomeite]

Scotty; age 60, living in Nome Alaska. Sailed here on a 27 foot sailboat a few years ago and the ocean froze solid so I came ashore for the first time in ten years.  Very much a Linux fan, although slightly above beginner in skill level. I have an iBook running Yellow Dog and OS9 plus a couple of Intel  desktop machines running Red Hat and Mandrake.

New SL 6000L owner. First PDA since a palmpilot a few years ago. (which gathers dust in a drawer).
I am very impressed with this machine !

Just got the domain, "mypdasite.com" want to make a pda friendly web site and would like suggestions for 'content'.  Try to make it a useful homepage for Zaurus people.   My 'other' page is nomegifts.com  

[BarryW]

WOHO another Alaskan!!!      Barry, 30, live in North Pole AK, was working as a computer tech for the North Star Borough school district.  Now on an "extended leave of absence" due to budget cuts.  Working as a "Guard Bum" in the air national guard.  Have a 6000 and love it.  Had a iPaq 5550 but getting a stable linux distro was taking too long.  Have a 256mb sd card for apps and a 1GB cf for storing crap.  Mostly run macs, just got a dual 2.5 G5 after 3 months of getting the ship date pushed back.  Keep a few pc's around for linux servers and one winblows machine for gameing.

[dz]

I might as well throw in here.

My name's Roy, and I am living with my girlfriend and best friend here in Philadelphia.  I  am in college and in 3 months I shall be done.  I plan on moving down to Orlando, FL as soon as I am done.  I guess the shootings aren't enough here; I need the hurricanes in Florida..

I have used linux since about 97.  I've had a computer in my hands since I was 6, so 12 years later I'm still going strong.  Been programming (QBasic YES) since I was like 8.  I grew up in #2600 and met many people when I was younger.  They taught me many things, including asm, c/c++ and many, many, many other languages/skills.  I'm going to college for web programming though.  I can teach every single web class they've given me here, but you gotta have that little paper they call a diploma so I didn't really have a choice but to come

Web design is easier than other programming jobs, lets me be more creative, and it usually pays more, so it seemed the logical choice.

I currently have an 860.  I had a 5600 before and was rather disappointed with it.  It didn't live up to the expectations I had for the machine.  I got the c860 though and I haven't even looked back.  This thing does everything for me.  Whether I SSH into one of my servers, listen to music, play nintendo, watch movies; whatever it is, I continue to amaze both myself and my friends.  Everytime I bring the thing out to do anything it attracts attention, and I've even converted some Palm users to the Zaurus market.

At home I run a windows box (I'm a fan of Microsoft Flight Simulator), but my main workhorse is my Slackware machine.  The thing has been going strong for more years than I can count.  It was a Celeron 666 for so long, but I converted it into a MythTV box for a while and it was doubling as my Apache/MySQL server and MythTV box so I 'upgraded' to one of those VIA motherboards with the built-in processor.  I wish I never did; the thing runs even slower now.  Regardless, I had to recompile MySQL and now I get some odd error from MythTV so I just pulled it from the TV and I use it for development only.  I also have my cute new Dell laptop that runs Slackware as well.  A 3.2ghz laptop is a beautiful thing.  I also have a dual PII 450 that sits at my feet.  It has Slackware on it, but I haven't done anything with it.  It is a nice big, full tower, so it also doubles as a table

[fu-ga-zi]

Man I'm late (again)! 5 months no entry in this thread and now me...

Peter, 38, from Germany. Bought a used C760 from a guy in the U.S. Great tool. Love it. Runs Cacko 1.22 since yesterday (moved between pdaXrom, Cacko 1.21b and TKC ROM before).

Studied Medical engineering on a German Polytechnic in the early Nineties, went into IT Support soon after degree. Still there, doing tech support for an Investment Banking Application in one of Germany's bigger banks.

Enjoy this forum, got a lot of help from here. Very interesting to read about all your backgrounds.

Peter

[Merardon]

-=shrugs=- I'm late too, but then again, I haven't exactly been around long. College student studying Computer Security & Investigations in Peterborough, Ontario, currently living at home to save money, which I am exceedingly short of at the moment.