Just, co-director of Carnegie Mellon's Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging (www.ccbi.cmu.edu), said making cell phones "hands free" won't help.
"Use of cell phones doesn't just distract the eyes," he said. "The conversation itself also distracts the brain. Making the cell phone hands-free will not help eliminate the brain distraction."
Yeah, I don't know how the bot scene is at MIT these days, but at CMU (zephyr migrated to multiple realm thingies here a while ago) there are bots that have been around for years, one of the more pointless ones being the Cube. The Cube was born in 1996, still in "use" daily, may be vaguely familiar to anyone who saw ye olde Forum 2000.
If "Kahil Jallad, Jonathan Katz, and Bruce Schneier" write a paper, the abbreviation is "Jallad et al".
Can't argue with that. But listing the "most well known" author makes better headlines (and he's certainly the most mentioned of the three in the Yahoo article).
Re:What still surprises me
on
Hacker Survey
·
· Score: 2
Anyone who spends all their professional and personal time DOING THE SAME THING really needs to take a close look at their priorities.
I can't argue with that.:) But sometimes a Perl script or a PDA app (or whatever) can be the grease that makes the wheels of a non-computer hobby/activity turn a lot smoother. So you spend a couple hours looking to see if someone's done it already, and then spend a couple days coding if no one's done it. I'm wondering (in part) whether other geek women never do this, or just never "publish" afterwards. Maybe I'm just a freak, eh.
What still surprises me
on
Hacker Survey
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
... even though it is not a novel finding, is "98% male". This is more skewed than CS graduate school, for pete's sake. Do women never have a need to write code (or tweak/fix someone else's open source code) in their spare time? Or are they just less likely to release it for others to use? (or less likely to answer surveys about it afterwards, maybe?:)
I always used to make strange sentences instead of saying it as it should be
I remember reading _In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson_ about a million years ago. The young english-as-second-language main character said the pledge every day without actually knowing what the words were so let's just say it wasn't quite right. I still remember bits of her interpretation: "and to the wee puppet for witches' hands... with little tea and just rice for all."
Ogg is one ... "Ogg Vorbis" is more than three; although "Vorbis" is two.
As you can see, I have nothing up my sleeve, and nothing in the hat; I place the e^Hogg in the hat and tap it with my wand and now --- but what's that in your ear? Aha! Nine of spades: is this your card?
Um, yes, I know. Fourth FULL weekend is the same as "fourth Saturday [plus the following Sunday if you have an unusually energetic club]". Thus, if you would give the matter 30 seconds' worth of thought, perhaps you would realize that that's exactly why I mentioned setting an appointment for the "4th Saturday".
But I do appreciate your desire to be helpful.:)
Re:You don't even need to learn morse code !
on
Field Day 2002
·
· Score: 2
You can do some plenty fun things with a Tech license; for local communications (which can include things like helping with communication around a marathon course, if you are a "people person"; or experimentation, at high enough frequencies to get enough bandwidth to be interesting for computer networking, if you are a gear-hacking type of person) it's all you need. I know a reasonable number of people who really don't see any reason to bother "upgrading" to a license with more "privileges", even after the recent license restructuring.
But, if you do want to get into long-distance communication (or if you just want a higher license for purposes of willy-waving, which was my primary motivation because honestly Tech covered everything I really wanted to do), my experience was that passing the 5 WPM test was much easier than I expected. (I guess this is not surprising or a sign of extraordinary brilliance on my part, since, I'm told, small children also pass it without difficulty.)
You all might want to let us in a bit earlier on this next year. I am interested, but I have already made plans.
Field Day is always the fourth weekend in June. All you have to do is to mark your calendar for next year now.
(If you have a PalmOS handheld, put in "Field Day" as an appointment for tomorrow, hit Details, Repeat, Month, change "every 1 month(s)" to "every 12 month(s)", and change "Repeat by (Day)(Date)" to "Repeat by Day". This should result in an event that happens on the 4th Saturday Of Every June.)
There.. now you've all got a year's notice. See you on the air in '03.;-)
Re:Distance without relays
on
Field Day 2002
·
· Score: 2
Still, the American Radio Relay League seems so dated. W1AW still broadcasts Morse code practice (!) most of the day.
Well, being able to understand code at 5 words per minute (at least enough to pass a multiple-choice exam, no penalty for guessing IIRC) is still a requirement for the higher levels of ham license in the US. And if civilization collapsed or summer-movie aliens invaded in a big way, Morse code would probably be pretty useful (needs less bandwidth than speech and/or easier to build a transmitter).
I'm not sure how many folks actually use the code after passing exams though..
When I wake up, yeah I know I'm gonna read, I'm gonna read "yo! wake up! geek girls don't exist." When I go out, yeah I know I'm gonna meet, I'm gonna meet a geek who goes "you don't exist".
If you get drunk, yes I know I'm gonna see I'm gonna see the drunk who says I don't exist. Do me a favor, say you know you're gonna be You're gonna be the one who's saying I exist.
'Cause I would post five hundred lines
And I would post them all again
Just to be the girl who posts a thousand lines
To get this through your brain.
When I'm hacking, yes I know I'm gonna be I'm gonna be the chick who's hacking next to you. (And when the credit rolls in for the things I do Don't be thinking that I'll pass it on to you.:-)
When I come home, yeah I know you wish I'd be Wish I'd be the one that comes back home to you. And if I grow old well you'll see I'm still a geek By then I'll have the big ol' glasses for it too.
But I would post five hundred lines
And I would post them all again
Just to be the girl who posts a thousand lines
To get this through your brain.
(da da da da...)
Charity is simply doing something for other people without being payed for it.
Interesting - I would have gone for a slightly longer and more restricted definition, but maybe you consider that to be packed in the word "for".
But software being what it is, Case 1 is hardly ever usable software.
No kidding. (strangely this doesn't seem to stop people from putting it on the web, calling it open source, and hoping someone will (charitably) fix the bugs for them. bah.)
Actually I think you missed my point that even Case 2 might in reality fail to benefit anyone, in which case it doesn't deserve to be called charity. Or indeed actions that temporarily benefit others might be performed for purposes that are intentionally non-benevolent in the long run (irrelevant to most if not all open source software, so no need to dwell on that, but it's the reason I would take more care with the definition - is an open source worm really charity?).
Secondly, writing something without copyright attached is not "charity" any more than owning a home and not shooting any who approach it is "charity"
Owning a home and letting anyone come there to sleep is charity however.
Case 1: Sometimes people write software (or other intellectual artifacts such as, say, furry trek pr0n) "for themselves", without interest in profiting from it in any other way. In such a case, allowing other people to use this artifact (without offering support) costs the original author nothing and does not inconvenience him (until he is sued for making Kirk an ocelot).
Case 2: Other times, people release software (or other aforementioned artifacts) for reasons that they personally find compelling, but with results that do cause them significant personal inconvenience. For example, they may deliberately release "freely" something that they know many people would willingly have paid money to use; they may write something that they don't want themselves but that is desirable to others; they may spend time and resources responding to users (fixing problems, answering fan mail, attending conventions); etc.
The first case, due to the fundamental difference between physical and intellectual artifacts, is not comparable to a home-owning example (at least up until the legal action). The second case, ok, maybe. You could call it "charity" if you focus on the "other people receive intangible benefit" aspect (and if you consider furry trek pr0n to be a benefit). Or you could call it "enlightened self-interest" if you focus on the "author receives intangible benefit" aspect (and if you consider a reputation in the furry trek pr0n community to be a benefit). But I think I'd rather call it "just something that some people do for reasons of their own" so as not to have to decide whether this is really a win for anyone.
(I suppose you're referring to The Mouse? Heh.) It can apply to things that have been created too recently for copyright to have expired... if the author chooses to place them in the public domain rather than to hold the copyright.
Of course, the super hightech feature I'm really jonesing for is a clipboard that can hold an entire memo (and maybe ditch the 4k memo limit while they're at it...)
The things I'd care about are even less flashy... like heap size, segments, and display API.
The caveat is that I don't remember what kind of credentials you need to join the developer program, or if you even need any.
I joined ages ago, so things might be different now. I didn't need any credentials other than being from the U.S. (people outside the U.S. could join too but had to jump through an extra hoop of some kind before getting ROMs and stuff).
Isn't the idea behind sourceforge to host smaller projects that don't have the resources to host their own site?
Well, that's why I moved there anyway. (People may complain about sf but you can't argue that for the one-horse project they have geocities [or other generic free web host] beat all hollow.)
I also think it would be interesting to look at how many "single developer" projects have changed hands at some point. Sort of like "serial monogamy". In the tiny domain that I'm actually familiar with, a fairly common pattern is "lead developer A creates an artifact... after a while A disappears off the face of the earth, and new developer B arises from the pool of fans to take over... after a while B disappears, lather, rinse, repeat". If the source hadn't been "open", the project would have been one more piece of abandonware by the side of the road. Meanwhile B, C, D often have interesting new ideas of their own to add (heck, if they didn't have ideas, they probably wouldn't have taken it over when it was abandoned).
if you want useful mobile computing, I still say buy a freakin laptop!
Well, that really depends on what you need, what you mean by "mobile", and how much you're willing to carry how far. Sometimes even something laptop-sized is too large for the actual utility it provides. I just got back from a conference.. some friends/colleagues got to chatting about checked luggage (one person's had gotten lost by the airline, and as far as I know still hasn't been found) and carry-on luggage (a couple people's had gotten "randomly" searched by the airline last time) and, tangentially, laptops. Some of us agreed that (for the conferences we've been to; YMMV) the only reason we would lug a laptop around on a trip is to give a PowerPoint presentation. Consider the other things you might use it for...
Taking notes: you can use free pens and paper (or a PDA and a Stowaway keyboard if you are me - I've never seen anyone else being that geeky and a couple of folks have come up to me at ICSE just to say that they never had seen it either). The convention site often provides copious writing materials.
Passing notes: I've never seen anyone use a laptop to pass notes;)
Checking email: usually the conferences we go to will provide other options (so you don't have to use the hotel phone lines or the hotel $9.99/day web access) for which you don't need to bring any computing hardware of your own.
Playing games: sure, you can get more sophisticated games on a laptop, but presumably we're talking about killing a few minutes (while the next PowerPoint presenter reboots their laptop because plug-and-play didn't play nice) for which solitaire on a PDA or doodling on real paper is generally adequate. See also "passing notes".
Watching DVDs: ok, you've got me there, but if you're carrying a laptop just so you can watch movies in an airport between flights, you have a stronger back than me.
Getting work done: I suppose some people might find a laptop useful for this. Some things I can't do with a laptop anyway. Some things (reading papers, talking to people) I can do just as well without a laptop. Some things that I can do with a laptop can really wait until I get back to my office where there is a decent sized display. I'm not really into the "taking a wireless laptop outside of the office to bask in the sun" thing even when I'm not travelling. (Sss! The Yellow Face, it burnsss usss!)
Theoretically it should even be possible to give a PowerPoint presentation without bringing a laptop (rely on the computers available at the conference to have PowerPoint installed) but in practice it seems to be a risky business. I've seen a lot of things go just slightly wrong.. versions, fonts, missing images, etc. (Anyone tried that Margi Presenter-to-go springboard module? I'd consider getting one if the price was right, but first I have to figure out what price is right for read-only.)
Also, I notice that before the Treos, Handspring didn't have a handheld with a decent flip cover. The Visors used this clunky snap on cover that was enough of a pain that I never used it unless I was putting my Visor away for long term storage. It's a small thing but I really missed the Palm III's flip cover when I switched from it to a Visor Deluxe.
I have a Visor Deluxe and I became much much happier when I bought the third-party flip cover sold at flipcover.com. It flips all the way around to the back.
Probably not a silver bullet for everyone (depends on your springboard module usage patterns) but IMHO it's at least worth a look.
Hm, I'll have to find someone local who has one and take a gander at it (since, grumble, it's pretty much impossible to tell from display models inside any local stores, even when the display models still actually function).
to stay slightly more on topic, I remember hearing a "wireless sled" announced for Clie a while back, to be available only in Japan (however I know enough Dance Dance Revolution fans, anime afficionados, and obscure Sony-minidisc-recorder owners that the phrase "available only in Japan" has long since ceased to give me pause). Details were, ah, somewhat lacking. Anyone know if it actually exists and/or has been reviewed by now, or is it still a VaporSled?
Also two more words: bright sunlight. (Vampires and such don't have to worry about this but I have enough outdoor uses for my PDA that I am still swayed by it.)
I too have a Xircom 802.11b module for my Handspring Visor Deluxe. Got the module on ebay. For me it falls into the rather populated drawer of "non-killer apps" (not sorry to have it but would be sorry to have paid anything like list price).
Although our campus has wireless out the wazoo, I've used the module very little, because I rarely leave my desk (and as the poster above implied, throughput is low enough that if you're near your desk it seems faster to walk back to your desk), and when I do roam I usually find that I have left the module at home in the non-killer-apps drawer or in my other pants or something, thus resulting in a sort of "not useful enough to remember to carry it" feedback cycle.
In many of the situations where I would "need" to access the web or other not-too-volatile online documents while stuck in a meeting, I actually know before I leave my desk what pages I would want to consult, which means I can just use Plucker to cache them on my Visor before I go. Your mileage may vary considerably.
As for travel situations (business or otherwise), there aren't many places I go that would have wireless, though this will probably change in the future (possibly even before the advent of food pills, undersea cities, and lunar theme parks). I also have a Xircom modem and that has been somewhat more useful.
Where the main character is vacuum cleaning his keyboard at the end of the training day.
I noticed some cat hair in one of my keyboards one day, not surprising since the cat likes to wander around on the desk when I'm not there. So I turned the extremely-well-used keyboard upside down and shook it to see what came out. (Oh. My.)
Try this over a dark-colored surface. It's kind of scary.
Slashdot Mirror
Pro-copyright news,
like shifting summer breezes,
fans Slashdot fires.
http://www.cmu.edu/cmnews/010906/010906_cell.html
Yeah, I don't know how the bot scene is at MIT these days, but at CMU (zephyr migrated to multiple realm thingies here a while ago) there are bots that have been around for years, one of the more pointless ones being the Cube. The Cube was born in 1996, still in "use" daily, may be vaguely familiar to anyone who saw ye olde Forum 2000.
If "Kahil Jallad, Jonathan Katz, and Bruce Schneier" write a paper, the abbreviation is "Jallad et al".
Can't argue with that. But listing the "most well known" author makes better headlines (and he's certainly the most mentioned of the three in the Yahoo article).
Anyone who spends all their professional and personal time DOING THE SAME THING really needs to take a close look at their priorities.
:) But sometimes a Perl script or a PDA app (or whatever) can be the grease that makes the wheels of a non-computer hobby/activity turn a lot smoother. So you spend a couple hours looking to see if someone's done it already, and then spend a couple days coding if no one's done it. I'm wondering (in part) whether other geek women never do this, or just never "publish" afterwards. Maybe I'm just a freak, eh.
I can't argue with that.
... even though it is not a novel finding, is "98% male". This is more skewed than CS graduate school, for pete's sake. Do women never have a need to write code (or tweak/fix someone else's open source code) in their spare time? Or are they just less likely to release it for others to use? (or less likely to answer surveys about it afterwards, maybe? :)
Why?
I always used to make strange sentences instead of saying it as it should be
... with little tea and just rice for all."
I remember reading _In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson_ about a million years ago. The young english-as-second-language main character said the pledge every day without actually knowing what the words were so let's just say it wasn't quite right. I still remember bits of her interpretation: "and to the wee puppet for witches' hands
Ogg is one
...
"Ogg Vorbis" is more than three; although "Vorbis" is two.
As you can see, I have nothing up my sleeve, and nothing in the hat; I place the e^Hogg in the hat and tap it with my wand and now --- but what's that in your ear? Aha! Nine of spades: is this your card?
RTFARRLP -- fourth FULL weekend.
:)
Um, yes, I know. Fourth FULL weekend is the same as "fourth Saturday [plus the following Sunday if you have an unusually energetic club]". Thus, if you would give the matter 30 seconds' worth of thought, perhaps you would realize that that's exactly why I mentioned setting an appointment for the "4th Saturday".
But I do appreciate your desire to be helpful.
You can do some plenty fun things with a Tech license; for local communications (which can include things like helping with communication around a marathon course, if you are a "people person"; or experimentation, at high enough frequencies to get enough bandwidth to be interesting for computer networking, if you are a gear-hacking type of person) it's all you need. I know a reasonable number of people who really don't see any reason to bother "upgrading" to a license with more "privileges", even after the recent license restructuring.
But, if you do want to get into long-distance communication (or if you just want a higher license for purposes of willy-waving, which was my primary motivation because honestly Tech covered everything I really wanted to do), my experience was that passing the 5 WPM test was much easier than I expected. (I guess this is not surprising or a sign of extraordinary brilliance on my part, since, I'm told, small children also pass it without difficulty.)
You all might want to let us in a bit earlier on this next year. I am interested, but I have already made plans.
;-)
Field Day is always the fourth weekend in June. All you have to do is to mark your calendar for next year now.
(If you have a PalmOS handheld, put in "Field Day" as an appointment for tomorrow, hit Details, Repeat, Month, change "every 1 month(s)" to "every 12 month(s)", and change "Repeat by (Day)(Date)" to "Repeat by Day". This should result in an event that happens on the 4th Saturday Of Every June.)
There.. now you've all got a year's notice. See you on the air in '03.
Still, the American Radio Relay League seems so dated. W1AW still broadcasts Morse code practice (!) most of the day.
Well, being able to understand code at 5 words per minute (at least enough to pass a multiple-choice exam, no penalty for guessing IIRC) is still a requirement for the higher levels of ham license in the US. And if civilization collapsed or summer-movie aliens invaded in a big way, Morse code would probably be pretty useful (needs less bandwidth than speech and/or easier to build a transmitter).
I'm not sure how many folks actually use the code after passing exams though..
Bridget - or "88 de N3XDS", heh.
When I wake up, yeah I know I'm gonna read,
:-)
I'm gonna read "yo! wake up! geek girls don't exist."
When I go out, yeah I know I'm gonna meet,
I'm gonna meet a geek who goes "you don't exist".
If you get drunk, yes I know I'm gonna see
I'm gonna see the drunk who says I don't exist.
Do me a favor, say you know you're gonna be
You're gonna be the one who's saying I exist.
'Cause I would post five hundred lines
And I would post them all again
Just to be the girl who posts a thousand lines
To get this through your brain.
When I'm hacking, yes I know I'm gonna be
I'm gonna be the chick who's hacking next to you.
(And when the credit rolls in for the things I do
Don't be thinking that I'll pass it on to you.
When I come home, yeah I know you wish I'd be
Wish I'd be the one that comes back home to you.
And if I grow old well you'll see I'm still a geek
By then I'll have the big ol' glasses for it too.
But I would post five hundred lines
And I would post them all again
Just to be the girl who posts a thousand lines
To get this through your brain.
(da da da da...)
Charity is simply doing something for other people without being payed for it.
Interesting - I would have gone for a slightly longer and more restricted definition, but maybe you consider that to be packed in the word "for".
But software being what it is, Case 1 is hardly ever usable software.
No kidding. (strangely this doesn't seem to stop people from putting it on the web, calling it open source, and hoping someone will (charitably) fix the bugs for them. bah.)
Actually I think you missed my point that even Case 2 might in reality fail to benefit anyone, in which case it doesn't deserve to be called charity. Or indeed actions that temporarily benefit others might be performed for purposes that are intentionally non-benevolent in the long run (irrelevant to most if not all open source software, so no need to dwell on that, but it's the reason I would take more care with the definition - is an open source worm really charity?).
Case 2: Other times, people release software (or other aforementioned artifacts) for reasons that they personally find compelling, but with results that do cause them significant personal inconvenience. For example, they may deliberately release "freely" something that they know many people would willingly have paid money to use; they may write something that they don't want themselves but that is desirable to others; they may spend time and resources responding to users (fixing problems, answering fan mail, attending conventions); etc.
The first case, due to the fundamental difference between physical and intellectual artifacts, is not comparable to a home-owning example (at least up until the legal action). The second case, ok, maybe. You could call it "charity" if you focus on the "other people receive intangible benefit" aspect (and if you consider furry trek pr0n to be a benefit). Or you could call it "enlightened self-interest" if you focus on the "author receives intangible benefit" aspect (and if you consider a reputation in the furry trek pr0n community to be a benefit). But I think I'd rather call it "just something that some people do for reasons of their own" so as not to have to decide whether this is really a win for anyone.
(I suppose you're referring to The Mouse? Heh.) It can apply to things that have been created too recently for copyright to have expired ... if the author chooses to place them in the public domain rather than to hold the copyright.
Of course, the super hightech feature I'm really jonesing for is a clipboard that can hold an entire memo (and maybe ditch the 4k memo limit while they're at it...)
The things I'd care about are even less flashy... like heap size, segments, and display API.
The caveat is that I don't remember what kind of credentials you need to join the developer program, or if you even need any.
I joined ages ago, so things might be different now. I didn't need any credentials other than being from the U.S. (people outside the U.S. could join too but had to jump through an extra hoop of some kind before getting ROMs and stuff).
Isn't the idea behind sourceforge to host smaller projects that don't have the resources to host their own site?
Well, that's why I moved there anyway. (People may complain about sf but you can't argue that for the one-horse project they have geocities [or other generic free web host] beat all hollow.)
I also think it would be interesting to look at how many "single developer" projects have changed hands at some point. Sort of like "serial monogamy". In the tiny domain that I'm actually familiar with, a fairly common pattern is "lead developer A creates an artifact... after a while A disappears off the face of the earth, and new developer B arises from the pool of fans to take over... after a while B disappears, lather, rinse, repeat". If the source hadn't been "open", the project would have been one more piece of abandonware by the side of the road. Meanwhile B, C, D often have interesting new ideas of their own to add (heck, if they didn't have ideas, they probably wouldn't have taken it over when it was abandoned).
if you want useful mobile computing, I still say buy a freakin laptop!
;)
Well, that really depends on what you need, what you mean by "mobile", and how much you're willing to carry how far. Sometimes even something laptop-sized is too large for the actual utility it provides. I just got back from a conference.. some friends/colleagues got to chatting about checked luggage (one person's had gotten lost by the airline, and as far as I know still hasn't been found) and carry-on luggage (a couple people's had gotten "randomly" searched by the airline last time) and, tangentially, laptops. Some of us agreed that (for the conferences we've been to; YMMV) the only reason we would lug a laptop around on a trip is to give a PowerPoint presentation. Consider the other things you might use it for...
Taking notes: you can use free pens and paper (or a PDA and a Stowaway keyboard if you are me - I've never seen anyone else being that geeky and a couple of folks have come up to me at ICSE just to say that they never had seen it either). The convention site often provides copious writing materials.
Passing notes: I've never seen anyone use a laptop to pass notes
Checking email: usually the conferences we go to will provide other options (so you don't have to use the hotel phone lines or the hotel $9.99/day web access) for which you don't need to bring any computing hardware of your own.
Playing games: sure, you can get more sophisticated games on a laptop, but presumably we're talking about killing a few minutes (while the next PowerPoint presenter reboots their laptop because plug-and-play didn't play nice) for which solitaire on a PDA or doodling on real paper is generally adequate. See also "passing notes".
Watching DVDs: ok, you've got me there, but if you're carrying a laptop just so you can watch movies in an airport between flights, you have a stronger back than me.
Getting work done: I suppose some people might find a laptop useful for this. Some things I can't do with a laptop anyway. Some things (reading papers, talking to people) I can do just as well without a laptop. Some things that I can do with a laptop can really wait until I get back to my office where there is a decent sized display. I'm not really into the "taking a wireless laptop outside of the office to bask in the sun" thing even when I'm not travelling. (Sss! The Yellow Face, it burnsss usss!)
Theoretically it should even be possible to give a PowerPoint presentation without bringing a laptop (rely on the computers available at the conference to have PowerPoint installed) but in practice it seems to be a risky business. I've seen a lot of things go just slightly wrong.. versions, fonts, missing images, etc. (Anyone tried that Margi Presenter-to-go springboard module? I'd consider getting one if the price was right, but first I have to figure out what price is right for read-only.)
Also, I notice that before the Treos, Handspring didn't have a handheld with a decent flip cover. The Visors used this clunky snap on cover that was enough of a pain that I never used it unless I was putting my Visor away for long term storage. It's a small thing but I really missed the Palm III's flip cover when I switched from it to a Visor Deluxe.
I have a Visor Deluxe and I became much much happier when I bought the third-party flip cover sold at flipcover.com. It flips all the way around to the back.
Probably not a silver bullet for everyone (depends on your springboard module usage patterns) but IMHO it's at least worth a look.
Hm, I'll have to find someone local who has one and take a gander at it (since, grumble, it's pretty much impossible to tell from display models inside any local stores, even when the display models still actually function).
to stay slightly more on topic, I remember hearing a "wireless sled" announced for Clie a while back, to be available only in Japan (however I know enough Dance Dance Revolution fans, anime afficionados, and obscure Sony-minidisc-recorder owners that the phrase "available only in Japan" has long since ceased to give me pause). Details were, ah, somewhat lacking. Anyone know if it actually exists and/or has been reviewed by now, or is it still a VaporSled?
Two words:
Battery life.
Also two more words: bright sunlight. (Vampires and such don't have to worry about this but I have enough outdoor uses for my PDA that I am still swayed by it.)
I too have a Xircom 802.11b module for my Handspring Visor Deluxe. Got the module on ebay. For me it falls into the rather populated drawer of "non-killer apps" (not sorry to have it but would be sorry to have paid anything like list price).
Although our campus has wireless out the wazoo, I've used the module very little, because I rarely leave my desk (and as the poster above implied, throughput is low enough that if you're near your desk it seems faster to walk back to your desk), and when I do roam I usually find that I have left the module at home in the non-killer-apps drawer or in my other pants or something, thus resulting in a sort of "not useful enough to remember to carry it" feedback cycle.
In many of the situations where I would "need" to access the web or other not-too-volatile online documents while stuck in a meeting, I actually know before I leave my desk what pages I would want to consult, which means I can just use Plucker to cache them on my Visor before I go. Your mileage may vary considerably.
As for travel situations (business or otherwise), there aren't many places I go that would have wireless, though this will probably change in the future (possibly even before the advent of food pills, undersea cities, and lunar theme parks). I also have a Xircom modem and that has been somewhat more useful.
Where the main character is vacuum cleaning his keyboard at the end of the training day.
I noticed some cat hair in one of my keyboards one day, not surprising since the cat likes to wander around on the desk when I'm not there. So I turned the extremely-well-used keyboard upside down and shook it to see what came out.
(Oh. My.)
Try this over a dark-colored surface. It's kind of scary.