Published by KC April 20th, 2007
in Computers, Hardware, Windows, Linux and Palm.
A Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) is also known as a Palm or a Pocket PC. Today, though, there are many more brands and choices than the original Palm. I’m forced to purchase one to fulfill an equipment requirement for my wife, who is headed to nursing school. The number of units out there is pretty big, and companies put out new models all the time, so at the moment I’m pretty confused about which to get. I don’t know much about them yet, but I will outline what I do know in this post.
- Operating System: Palm OS and Windows Mobile (WM) are the choices. Linux hasn’t taken off in the mobile market here in the states. Units can be found with Linux on them, but the drug database will only work on Palm OS or WM.
- SmartPhone: My wife isn’t allowed to have a cell phone in the PDA. That said, if a SmartPhone would work with the phone feature turned off, they might still be an option. It means I could keep it for myself in the future.
- WiFi: Most PDAs have wifi, but it’s a requirement. The drug database needs to be updated daily. Sure, the device can be synchronized with the computer and update that way, but I’d prefer that it be able to update even if she has to spend the night at the hospital.
- SD Card Reader: As I talked about in the PC Purchase Series, an SD card adds a lot of additional storage. The drug database she needs is almost 1GB, so she needs a 1 or 2GB card. Unless she has a…
- Hard Drive: Thanks to the incredible technology in the iPod, hard drive manufacturers have plenty of money to further research very small hard drives. They are now being put into PDAs like the Palm LifeDrive. The LifeDrive is 4GB, which is plenty of space. My only concern about this is that Hard Drives are NOT meant to be banged around. Shaking a spinning hard drive is taunting the data storage gods. Usually, doing so leads to 100% data loss. In reality, shaking a hard drive that is powered on can cause the data reading arm to contact the platters which then damages the surface. Damaged platters = data loss and possible device failure.
- GPS: My wife is HORRIBLE with directions. A GPS enabled PDA would make getting around the city much easier for her. It’s tempting, as long as the price is right.
- Usability: Most important factor. My wife is not a fan of technology. The PDA needs to be as simple to use as possible.
Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be dragging my wife to places like Best Buy and Office Depot to let her try the models. I also need to ask some Cingular reps if the SmartPhones can be used with the sim card removed. Then, of course, I’ll buy them online where it’s a lot cheaper. 
Published by KC April 2nd, 2007
in Computers, Hardware, Evil and Communication.
Last week I mentioned the relation between anti-static bags and EZ-passes. I very briefly mentioned the blocking of transmissions and its relation to RFID security. In this post I’ll go a little more in-depth. RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification System. It’s a widely used technology that is being used in toll readers, corporate ID cards, public transportation debit cards, and even credit cards. Not to sound alarmist, but there’s an ever increasing chance that you have some sort of sensitive information stored on an RFID tag. Continue reading ‘RFID security’
Published by KC March 27th, 2007
in Hardware and Question.
I must admit, the question didn’t arrive with the above phrasing. I changed the equivalent of funny looking bag with warnings on it to ‘anti-static bags.’ Most, if not all, electronics are now coming in silver, pink, or another unique styled bag and covered with warnings about static electricity. Computer components, cell phones, and even my EZ-Pass have all been spotted in these bags. But the standard consumer has no idea why such protection is necessary. There are two main reasons to focus on: protection from static electricity and protection from radio transmissions. Continue reading ‘Question: What are anti-static bags?’
Published by KC March 27th, 2007
in Blog Post.
I’m back from a wonderful vacation. I’m much fuller, much less tired, and ready for some more writing!
Published by KC February 27th, 2007
in Hardware, Blog Post and Communication.
I refer to a news report on CNN.com regarding a military radio frequency band are garage door openers.
Suddenly, the FCC Rules outlined on the backs of electronics mean a lot more to some people than they used to. Primarily the rule that states, “This device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired operation.”
So, what’s going on here? Basically, the garage door manufacturers took a gamble years ago and now they loose. The military reserved a band of frequencies with the FCC, meaning no one else could use the same frequencies unless they were extremely low power. Now that the military is using the frequency for whatever it is that they’re using it for, those transmissions are distorting the garage remote’s signal to the point that it’s unreadable by the garage door opener. A lot of these people are probably looking for someone to blame. The easy targets are the Marines and other military organizations that began using what they previously were not. They’re not at fault. They’re using a frequency band that they had reserved. It was the garage door companies that were getting away with being unlicensed for a short time. The gamble paid off for a while. It might pay off double too, since they might require that people pay them for upgrades for differing frequency band transmitter/receiver pairs. If it was me, I’d call up the company and complain like crazy until they fixed it for free.
