Anyone here uses a PDA for blogging? I do, and quite often too. My PDA is or was a Dell Axim X51v and it was just upgraded to the A12 firmware only 24 hours earlier. This Dell device is a wonderful tool to have with its brilliant VGA display and a very fast 624Mhz X-Scale processor, very fast that is for a PDA. I am also a story writer and I usually feel most inspired just when I am at the very limits of consciousness, right at the doorsteps of the portal to the world where my dreams begin to take form and become my reality. So my PDA is always right beside me at my bedside ready to be called into action the moment I feel the need to jot something down. It is both my inkless pen and my paperless notepad. Have you ever noticed anyone writing on his PDA while sitting in a restaurant or while waiting for his number at a bank? Hardly I would think! Well I do that quite a lot, writing in a restaurant or in a bank, and hardly anyone took notice of me too. I dare say that I would have attracted a lot more attention had I been using a notebook computer instead. I can still remember the 386 and 486 computers that I had a little more than ten short years ago, cutting edge technology and state of the art then. Today my Axim with its 1 Gb CF card and 2 Gb SD card has more storage and processing power than those desktop units I was so proud of not so long ago. With the bundled suite of Mobile Word, Mobile Excel, Mobile Powerpoint and Windows Media Player this device has everything I need for a mobile office and entertainment system, an indispensable tool I can ill afford to be without, and boy will I miss that little fellow…. Just early this morning I had to rush to the city for some much needed provisions. Somehow the drive downtown was accomplished without encountering any of the anticipated traffic jams. ‘Too good to be true’ I thought. Found a parking space just on the other side of the road to the my destination the bustling, busy and noisy market place. ‘Much too good to be true’ I thought again, ‘I’ll be back home in no time at all’! I set a brisk pace as I crossed the busy road, meandering the non stop stream of busses and the cars of the early morning shoppers, before reaching the other side of the road quickly enough. Then I heard it, a barely audible ‘clack’ coming from the road beside me, upon hearing this, I also noticed an obvious lessening of the weight which has been a constant pull at the side of my belt where hung my PDA and my mobile phone… ‘Omigosh, my PDA’ my thought screamed at me. I quickly looked back and saw the black leather case of my faithful little Dell Axim lying on the road a few feet behind me. Then as I made the instinctive turn to double back I was greeted with the sudden blare of twin horns which were quite obviously designed to startle and stun, and they did exactly that to me as I was made to stop dead on my tracks. The horns belonged to a 48 seater bus weighing no less than five tons for sure. Now even if you were to spread that weight over four wheels, we would still have more than one ton of bone crushing downward force on each wheel. I broke into cold sweat and felt blood leave my face as with deathly agony I watched the front wheel of the monster turning over the helpless body of my little PDA. Almost slow motion like, I could see the wheel going over frame by frame, stretching the drama of the occasion more than was necessary, much like an over zealous play of words of an over descriptive story much like this one... (ok, ok I get the message). Because there was no scream, no crunching of bones, no crack, no special sound effects, no nothing of that sort, I prayed that my PDA survived that one hell of a David and Goliath encounter, but alas it was not to be as with tears in my eyes, I held the lifeless and broken body of my faithful old friend in my hands. No blinking lights, no beeps… even the usually annoying click of a tap would be most welcomed now. My dear old personal assistant who has been constantly at my side almost everywhere I go, quite literally twenty-four-seven, was definitely well and truly dead. In the aftermath of this tragedy, will I get another replacement quickly enough? Would you immediately get another golden retriever puppy to replace your Goldie who was just ran over by a truck? Unsympathetic Dell of course would not replace a physically damaged unit no matter what leaving me with the decision of whether or not to part with some more of my hard earned cash for another Axim. Or should I just hold out for the upcoming model which should be coming out in the next twelve months or so? But boy, do I miss the little bugger…. ||{1}||