Writing on the River
July/18/2006 12:00 PM Writing
I’m a big fan of using
the right tool for the job when getting words down on
(virtual) paper. I like to write but I hate dragging
anything out in the field that I don’t have to. On
the other hand, I’m not very good at transcribing my
journals from a notebook into a document file.
I wrote a series of newspaper articles during both my Appalachian Trail thru-hike and Mississippi River trips for the Greensboro News and Record. During those trips I was largely dependent on public libraries for their computers and Internet access to post articles and photos. While libraries are wonderful about letting me use their systems, this isn’t the most optimal set-up for many reasons. Hours of operation, distance from where I was staying, and just the issue having to go to one more place just to upload 1,000 words and a few photos. There’s got to be a better way. Maybe there is.
For the next trip I’m planning on using something like a Palm 680
with a folding keyboard for writing
and photo management. As is stands now, I do
most of my writing at home on an old Handspring
Visor and folding keyboard that I can’t manage
to kill. I love the convenience of just whipping
out the PDA and hammering out a few words at the
drop of a hat. For just getting words on paper,
it’s hard to beat. The battery life on those old
black and white units are incredible—I’ll go for
about three weeks on a set of AA’s. The downside
is that I don’t have WIFI or a card reader for
the photos with that setup.
We did use
a Pocketmail email device
for much of our
short emails on the river. It was very easy to
upload and download text emails, but no provision
for photos. There’s an audio modem on the back, so
you just dial a toll-free number from any phone,
hold the unit to the receiver, then get you
emails. Very handy.
I’ve also demo-ed a unit from Alphasmart called a Dana. It’s a Palm-based unit that’s the size of a thin laptop, with a great keyboard and usable black and white screen. Batteries last about 40 hours, and it has built-in (but slow) WIFI. For just basic word processing, this is thing is great, and it’s built like a tank. But then there’s no real provision for photos...
What I want is a flash-based PDA with lots of memory, built-in WIFI, folding keyboard, and a battery life of at least 20 hours. That, and a benevolent benefactor to foot the bill for another long trip.
I wrote a series of newspaper articles during both my Appalachian Trail thru-hike and Mississippi River trips for the Greensboro News and Record. During those trips I was largely dependent on public libraries for their computers and Internet access to post articles and photos. While libraries are wonderful about letting me use their systems, this isn’t the most optimal set-up for many reasons. Hours of operation, distance from where I was staying, and just the issue having to go to one more place just to upload 1,000 words and a few photos. There’s got to be a better way. Maybe there is.
For the next trip I’m planning on using something like a Palm 680
I’ve also demo-ed a unit from Alphasmart called a Dana. It’s a Palm-based unit that’s the size of a thin laptop, with a great keyboard and usable black and white screen. Batteries last about 40 hours, and it has built-in (but slow) WIFI. For just basic word processing, this is thing is great, and it’s built like a tank. But then there’s no real provision for photos...
What I want is a flash-based PDA with lots of memory, built-in WIFI, folding keyboard, and a battery life of at least 20 hours. That, and a benevolent benefactor to foot the bill for another long trip.
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