2000-01-11

Whoa!! It's been two years since I wrote anything here.... Kind of funny to read about what I was trying to do at that time. I do have to say that things are getting better.

Basically I just want to use my Palm

2000-01-21

For at least two years now I have dreamed of having a database of some information on my Pilot that would synch with my desktop. My goal was to have a bunch, starting with all the software I owned.

This would be useful in many ways, including:

• Backing up my registration info, including serial numbers
  and even the name and email address that I used to register.
• Keeping track of versions: registered, latest, the one in use
• A place for links to web sites.
  (browser bookmarks/favorites don't cut it.)
• Keeping track of when and how much I paid
• Having a quick reference when asked about what software I was using
• My ratings and comments.

A friend of mine here said something to me a month or so after she bought her Pilot a few years ago. She held it up and said, "Ken, my whole damn house could burn down, but I have my Pilot." I knew exactly what she meant.

I really look at this thing as a $200 backup of my most important data, especially the address book. Or even an expensive handheld business card entry pad: I hate doing it at a keyboard and my CardScan is on the shelf. 'With the Pilot I can enter 5 name cards standing on the train home from a meeting and be done with it.

I have actually been pretty successful by putting all this information into address book section of my PIM (personal information manager),  EccoPro, listed under the company's name and all the other key information as a note.. But this didn't give me the spreadsheet view that I was looking for on the desktop. Nor was I able to sort it.

Another goal I had was to be able to take some of this data and export it to HTML and put it up on the web periodically. How many times have you had someone ask you the URL for some software you are using. Well, if I had all this info in one place I could export it as a table or report and put it all up somewhere to point people to. What a time saver this would be.

It would also be useful as a one stop web site after a reinstall. I could just go to that page and have one-click access to the software. And often when I travel or work around town I am downloading the same programs for people to use on their machine: TweakUI, RegEdit, etc. Stroud's has been one of my favorite sites for years. Here is an example of the report view of my data that I was looking for.

Once I had the software database set up I would then to have one each for other things: hardware, books and books on tape that I owned and even one for magazine subscriptions. I am not going to be in Japan forever and notifying all those companies of my new address could be a nightmare.

I purchased both QuickSheet and JFile, hoping they would do the job. Problem was neither had their own desktop application.

QuickSheet would install itself as an Excel plug in and for JFile I used something called JetFile that would let me open and work with JFile databases in Access. Unfortunately is wasn't that simple. Those two office apps are just too bloated and I my last machine I could never keep either of them open for very long without getting memory problems.

I emailed the authors and they kind of knew what I was looking for, but not really. That was then and things have changed. I have a new machine that allows me to have more apps open at the same time. And there are more choices when it comes to database apps for the Pilot and desktop apps to work with the data.

When I do a reinstall or migrate to a new machine Access or Excel are the last things that I put on it. I actually just installed Office tonight with Access, Excel and FrontPage after going over a month without.

But my Pilot HotSync Manager and PIM are the first things to go on. If I can't get at my registration information right away it's going to be a lot of work.

So why am I writing all of this. Well, I decided to try again. And things look promising. After spending hours checking Palm Pilot sites like PalmGear.com and in the newsgroups. Also found a good comparison page.

I tried ThinkDB for a about 2 hours before deciding to register. It comes with a very snappy little desktop app for working with the databases you  have created. It doesn't allow me to export reports or tables as HTML, but it does Import/Export and I will be giving it a try soon.

I would say that I already have 80-90% of the important software registration information on the Pilot and I can breathe a little easier. I would never want "my whole damn house to burn down", but if it did I would be a little better off now.

1999-06-07

My Pilot - a PalmPro with the Palm III died over the weekend and I have to decide what to do. I sometimes joke about waiting for my present PalmPilot to break so I have an excuse to update to a new one, but this is no joke. This is the third 'break'. First problem with this one, but the first one I sent back for repairs twice within the warrantee period. Now it is past warrantee so I don't many options.

I don't think I will take a serious look at the Window CE machines as I have heard that they suck and there is going to be a total rewrite by the end of the year, but I wouldn't mind the Compact Flash support and multimedia stuff.

Taking a look at the Casio E-100, though. Read about it in PC Mag.

1999-02-23

Last year I bought database app for the Pilot called JFile and really liked it. I also bought JetFile so that I could work with the database in Access. Access is bloatware, so this didn't work out. I have been waiting for a desktop app that works with the JFile database. I think I found one, but haven't given it a try yet. It's called JFTrans. I hope to give it a try soon. Access is not required to use it. Yes!