[Tfug] PDA non-usage

[Bexley Hall]

Hi, David,

--- David Cowell <davidwcowell at cox.net> wrote:

> The biggest obstacle to PDA usage is that we already
> easily accomplish most of the tasks that we would
> like to move to a PDA.
> 
> For example, if someone gives you their telephone
> number, you jot it on a piece of paper... if you're
> me, you don't put a name on it, either. So
> why on earth would you fiddle around pulling a PDA
> out and eentsy-weentsy typing everything in
> (including a name), for something you may never
> need again? Five seconds versus 20-30 seconds.

*If* you'll never need it again, fine.  But, if
you are like *most* of us, I suspect you have an
address book *somewhere* at home/$WORK?  I would
imagine it has *some* names, addresses, birthdates,
list of spouse names, offspring and other "data"
that you would not want to forget about certain
folks who are "significant" in your life (be
they friends, family or business).

> On top of this, remember that if you have a
> duplicate system of
> information storage and retrieval you will have a
> harder time retrieving
> any one bit of information if that information is
> filed in randomly
> between systems. (Say somewhere between 1.4 and 2.0
> times the searching
> time of the more efficient system: "Let's see... did
> I have my PDA with me at that moment?")

I don't find it a problem.  *All* my contact info
is stored in my PDA.  Prior to that, it was stored
in a pen-and-paper address book.  I don't keep
things like that "on my computer" because:
- I may be working from any of several different
  computers at any given time
- I don't want to have to boot a machine just to
  look up an address/phone number
- I don't want to carry a computer around with me
  when I (might?) need access to this sort of
  information
- I don't want to run even the remotest risk of
  something harvesting other people's personal
  information off of one of my machines (for the
  same reason, I don't keep any of *my* personal
  information on any of my machines!  :> )

The PDA works (well?) for me IN THIS ASPECT as I
don't *need* to carry this data with me most of
the time (though if I am going on a trip, I grab
the PDA just in case I need to access any of that
information while away from home).

I would imagine phone numbers, nowadays, are stored
in ubiquitous cell phones -- leaving folks tethered
to *that* instead of a PDA.
 
> Efficiency would require abandoning one method or
> the other. Otherwise,
> reduced efficiency will result, at least in the
> short run.
> 
> So guess which method most of us abandon? The one
> that requires additional effort at the present
> moment.

I'm not sure of that.  Note that cell phones are
assuming more of these capabilities (they really are
pretty trivial to implement -- and, when a provider
gets smart and starts implementing this stuff
SERVER SIDE then the door will swing *wide* open).

IMHO, the problem has to do primarily with the
data entry capabilities of most handhelds (phones,
PDAs, etc.) as well as the overall user interface...
the screens are just too damn small and any
sort of navigation that you need to implement is
going to be clumsy, at best.

> The way I see it, the only people who would change
> to a PDA are either
> highly motivated to do so (I know but one person who
> has done so, and he
> is a self-made multi-millionaire) or are so young
> that the change in
> procedure would cause minimal relearning.

I'm not sure of that, either.  Like most things,
there is a concious (or, most often, SUBconcious)
cost-benefit tradeoff involved.  I have a friend
who can't live without his PDA -- despite *hating*
it!  (he has 4,000 contacts in it that he has to
be "current" with at any time for his $WORK)
 
> This, incidentally, is why "old fogies" find it hard
> to adapt to new
> technologies. They have become so adept at the older
> way that the loss
> of time in learning the new way of doing something
> that they already do
> quite acceptably (at least by their own standards)
> is something they
> view as wasted time. (Most of us are not terribly
> interested in future
> savings of time. Additionally, the older we get, the
> more times we have
> gotten huckstered by promises of time savings that
> just didn't pan out.)

I'm not sure I would agree with that, either.
I find some people are just plain *lazy* -- they
just don't want to learn *anything* new.  This
is not necessarily age-related.  There is an
*astonishing* figure related to the number of
"devices" returned by users for the sole
reason that "they couldn't figure out how to use
them" (I won't cite a number without backup but
it was *huge*... 25 - 50% IIRC).

Much of this can be blamed on poor designs.  (ever
look at how telephone systems -- PBX's -- are
programmed??  :< )  Usually, this is a consequence
of trying to save money *somewhere*/somehow in the
design (i.e. not wanting to add a separate button
for some purpose).  But, often it is just a lack
of *thinking* about how the device will be used,
ABused, etc.

For example, it costs *pennies* to design devices
to be powered by "wall warts" of *any* polarity
(AC, DC+ or DC-).  This would eliminate a *lot* of
different wall warts for all these tiny portable
devices.  I.e., you would just have to get the
"right voltage" and "right sized connector"...
instead of right voltage, polarity, AC/DC, connector.

Yet, this isn't how things are designed.  :<

> So, I guess you could say that you're an old fogey.
> :) Like most of us.

Naw, Olde Farte but never an old fogey!  :>

--don


      ____________________________________________________________________________________
Never miss a thing.  Make Yahoo your home page. 
http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs