Slashdot Mirror
PDAs as a College Notebook?
Eugene asks: "G'day everyone!
Here's the deal, I study Engineering in college and therefore, I have to write down LOTS of mathematical formulae and such. Now I heard that students of Law/English/etc. find great use of various PDAs
as a notebook replacement(that's pen&paper notebook). I'd like to know if there's a PDA software-solution for quickly writing down math expressions( Something like the equation editor shipped with MS-Word - but if possible with a more intuitive way of entering data). All I could find so far are lots of calculators, that do little in the way of easily entering equations and storing them for later review." Well, that would be one less thing to lug around in the ole backpack. Now if we could only get textboox in digital form...
To wit: where the fuck is our electonic paper already? I've wanted it ever since I saw Captain Kirk using an computer tablet some 35 years ago.
PDAs aren't it. Except for a few people who can do 40 WPM without concentrating using Fitalystamp or something similar, there's no practical input for plain text, never mind math. And how can you possibly keep track of your notes on such a small display? (Even the Newton was too small for this purpose. And of course too big to put in your pocket. The worst of both worlds.)
IBM was on the right track with the Thinkpad 700, which folded flat so you could use an electronic stylus instead of the keyboard. Alas, the 486 processor just wasn't up to serious character recognition, and IBM abandoned this option in later Thinkpads.
(The Transnote is interesting, but I don't quite like the idea of having a separate input device.)
Here's what would make Captain Kirk smile. Somebody comes out with a mass produced pad device. Minimum requirements:
- At least VGA-resolution display
- Stylus input
- Enough processing power and RAM to do serious handwriting recognition
- Mass storage of some kind (hard disk uses too much juice, but anything else is probably too expensive)
- Some kind of comm/expandability option. USB 2 would suffice.
That's it. Don't waste money on a color display -- I'm not going to use it to display graphics. And most of all, don't waste a lot of R&D money on software development. Leave that to the hackers. We've all seen what they can do if you just give them the right platform!Ok, what about something now? Well, if you can't spring for a Transnote, there's always the Crosspad, which was an attempt to market the Transnote's input device as a separate product. No longer in production, but you can get them on ebay for about $150.
I am very skeptical that you are going to find a way to enter formulae as fast as your prof. can write them on the board.
I'd think that a hybrid that captures handwriting as a bitmap for later transcription would be ideal.
I swear I have seen something like the IBM TransNote but more like a normal (paper) notepad with a Palm attached to it and less like a notebook (PC) with a notepad next to it.
Good luck!
-Peter
That really-small, really-cool Sony Vaio device comes to mind... or even an Apple iBook....
You could also look into something like the HP palmtops, or, dare I say it, the Newton.
This is really what the Newton could have become, if it had been given a chance. The problem was that it was waaaaay too ahead for its time!
--NBVB
Put that into star office equation editor thing-e and enjoy...
Wheeeee
Other than those points (mostly a healthy mix of common sense and paranoia) a PDA is far superior to a notebook for student tasks. Unless you need essentially a portable workstation with a large screen for graphics, compilation, viewing PDFs or web pages, the CPU and disk space offered by laptops are overkill, especially given their weight, bulk, fragility, cost, short battery life, OS problems, and appeal to thieves. Beyond backups, a PDA doesn't take any system administration, virus or defragmenting tools, or any other maintenance. With good battery life, you can stop watching the clock and apply your full concentration to your work.
Democracy. Whiskey. Sexy. Pick any two.
I too have yearned for such a device...0 0.cfm">Viewpad 1000 TabletPC</a> and can just imagine reading slashdot over a bowl of cherieos at the dining room table. :)
Found the <a href="http://www.viewsonic.com/products/viewpad10
Intel Celeron 800mhz
128mb sdram
10.4 svga touch screen
stylus
10gb hd
802.11
I did mechanical engineering with a math minor... and between that and the Linux hobby I got exposed to LaTeX pretty early. I've never owned a laptop (or a PDA with a keyboard), so I haven't tried to use it for notetaking, but I'll bet with a little practice that's what would work best. And if you decide that it doesn't work for notetaking, it's a good thing to learn anyway. It produces spiffy-looking reports, translates automatically to MathML, is the preferred submission format of most math/engineering journals, etc. You'd want a laptop with a full size keyboard, not some palmtop 2-finger typing thing, though.
I agree, you probably want a solution that allows you to simply write on real paper, but have a copy on your palm. To do this you can use something like the smartpad
or from the seiko web site: here
This thing won't allow handwriting recognition, but will "draw" into your palm as you write on the paper. Combined with using the text entry on the palm this could be what you are looking for. Formulas and pictures can be sketched on the paper, and notes can be written on the palm.
Another bonus is that you can a decent size folder to protect your palm, and carry your mobile, pens, etc. etc.
If you ever drop your keys into a river of molten lava, let'em go, because, man, they're gone.
isn't there already a device for the palm series similar to the IBM product that has already been mentioned? it allows you to scribble on an "ordinary" piece of paper that is then fed into the grafiti software.
ofcourse, getting grafiti to recognise mathematical symbols etc isn't going to be the easiest thing in the world...
http://www.mimio.com/meet/index.html
If the professor used this, no one would have to copy notes off the boad.
I use the "Diddle" drawing program to take pictorial/equation notes. It's kludgy going back & forth between the text editor and the drawing program, but it's easier to understand what I wrote later. It's about the simplest way to enter an equation/diagram I can imagine, though. Diddle is based on "Doodle," do a search for either on palmgear or tucows.
"This message is composed of 100% recycled electrons."
In one of my CS courses, there is this one guy in the back that has a PDA with keyboard attachment, and he types in all of his notes into it.
However, it is *extremely* annoying to the rest of us! The keyboard makes that click-click-clack-clack sound, which wouldn't be annoying except for the fact that its in the middle of class.
Imagine if the whole class did that? It'd be as noisy as a touch typing course.
why not a thin small laptop? such as sony's r505. if you are just going to use it for taking notes, probably not much else, you could get an older one. they still have those old, but thin/small ones on Ebay
I, too, thought of using a text-based equation system like TeX or WordPerfect or the above-mentioned StarOffice. But let's face it, for college-level formulae you really need to see the rendered formula to make sure it's right. Debugging TeX source while the professor is moving on doesn't sound workable to me. Do any PDAs even have the processing power to tackle even a one-formula document in reasonable time?
I used to dream that college professors were such clear communicators that taking notes was unnecessary. I did have a professor with handouts good enough to replace attending the class (!), but that was in Linguistics.
P.S: I loved LaTeX, and I, too, recommend it as a good skill. Unlike Micros~1 documents, you can actually debug them, and you get to use your favorite text editor, too! Yay viper!
the really great PDAs that they have in Japan?
I use a Hitachi Persona and my wife can't live without her Sigmarion. These are little half laptop size WinCE based PDA/palmtops. Clam shell design with up to half VGA display, full(enough) size keyboard, plenty of ram for your purposes, PCMCIA support, built in modem, and great touch screens.
I don't know if there is the kind of equation editor you are looking for, but it is very easy to mix keyboard input and touch-screen-scrawled bitmaps in a single doc.
NEC sells some outside Japan, and they are great. The trouble is price. I picked mine up second hand in Osaka for about 200 USD. Great value if you can cope with the Japanese OS. The lack of market volume in the west means that deals like this are hard to find. You can find some NEC 780 or 790 models on eBay and such.
For me the form factor beats iPaq etc hands down. Plenty of screen real estate, but easy to carry. Not pocket-size, but most PDA's wind up in backpacks, cases, etc anyhow. A real keyboard makes any kind of writing easy.
If you are so inclined and have the time, you can get Linux to run on some of them, too.
Sig?
Sigue Sigue Sputnik!!!
Hmm, on further reading it doesn't look like it is enough. Sure, you can enter equations algebraicly but no support for any kind of advanced notation.
Others have suggested some alternatives: Drawing the equations using one of the free tools for the Palm that exports image files, but then you'd have to re-enter the equation in another program for printed output or so it would be legible. Assorted portables that run software you want, whether it be a laptop running maths software or something that let you enter the equations (LaTex, MS Equation thingie, etc)
Bleh!
Yes you can use a PDA to assist you in taking notes. Nothing beats writing down equations quickly as pencil and pen. So this is what you might be looking for:
http://www.seikosmart.com
It allows you to input notes directly into your PDA while either writing on the pad or on normal notepaper on top of the pad. These notes then are saved onto your PDA to be printed/sorted out later in electronic form.
And having notes that look as good as a text book can't be bad. I'd suggest this as preferable to a digital-ink style device.
But as pointed out, if you're transcribing a lecture you will want at least something that can render quickly so you can see how you are doing.
Might I suggest you investigate something along the lines of a sub-notebook? I imagine even an old cheap one will run Linux nicely, or if you have $$$ to spend, something slinky in the Crusoe line.
~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
I know I'm a little late with this suggestion, but here goes:
c ti on=20
Casio has a CE device called the The Cassiopeia "Computer Extender" that comes in two flavors: one with/modem & PC Card (A22T) and one without (A22S). It is made for education. High School and College.
http://www.casio.com/personalpcs/section.cfm?se
The interesting thing about these two PDA/Palmtop devices is that they run 3 really nice Mathematical applications, namely:
1. Maple V for Windows CE-High School/College
2. The Geometer's Sketchpad
3. MRI Graphing Software
Now, all these applications do come at a cost (about $100) each, but then again, the Casio can be found for about $100(new) on eBay or another after market source.
I owned a A22T and the fact that it has two expansion slots (Compact Flash/PC Card) allow you to store a lot of data. And the modem let me share math problems to friends (who have Maple).
For me it was do everything machine. I took it traveling and used it like a digital wallet for any pictures I take and I used it as an MP3 player as well (handles 96kbps/128kbps OK). I could also, check in with friends using the modem. When I got home I could upload any files to a desktop machine.
PROS: The application set: Word, Excel, IE come with the device. Additional programs like MS Money, Pocket Streets, Mobipocket or Palm Pocket Viewer for ebooks, PocketC for development, MS Plus Pack (comes with an Image Viewer and Register Editor), and HUM MP3 Player will complete an excellent device. There is also a lot of older software for the SH3 available on the web (like Python which is too cool).
CONS: quick data entry is not all that possible. The keyboard is small and there is no handwritting software (unless you purchase Caligrapher or similar). The screen is not color, so the mathematical graphs, while very useful, may prove hard to read. Also, the 80mhz SH3 processor is a little slow compared to a device like the HP Jornada 720 which using the new MS standard 206mhz StrongARM. Also, only ARM devices will be used in future HandheldPC/PocketPCs so the applications will start to disappear for this little guy. Also, for those who HATE Microsoft, this is a Windows device. That means no Linux or MAC support.
TO SUM UP: It's worth a look, just don't expect lightning fast data entry.
(void) signal(SIGALRM, (alarm_fired=1)); if (alarm_fired) printf("Revoke is clueless!\n");
I used this combo for my C Programming class. It worked great, and other students were begging me for code snippets that i had typed. Some of my programming assignments were as simple as copying the code from jPilot (Linux Palm frontend) into gVim and compiling. The only thing is make sure you have enough desk space for the folding keyboard. Once, i moved the folding keyboard so that the front was off the desk. The folding stand for the palm collapsed, and the palm fell onto the floor. I had to send it in to Palm to be fixed.
I don't know what to say about the math notation. suff like "z=sin(x^y!/3)" and junk like that (i'm sure what you need to take notes of would be much more advanced) isn't very convenient.
If you want to go the slim laptop or tablet route, MathCAD might just be right up your alley. It's basically a mathematical word processor. It's no Mathematica, but it would probably work. The student price is $120. That's if you want to run Windows on a laptop or (maybe?) web pad. If you you're a Linux guy (like myself) then i'm not sure. You might try lyx like the other person suggested (i've never used it). I have used MathCAD, and it was really nice, although I was just using it for Calculus. I used it a long time ago, and i don't know how good or bad the program or the company is now. But it did a great job for me back when.
I take notes on my PDA (a Jornada) every day with the help of a Stowaway keyboard (I got it on sale for $50! wee hoo). I can't imagine bringing a laptop to class anymore.