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Paper vs PDA

Dayplanner_2"I woke up today, and grabbed my Palm Tungsten E off my dresser after a night of being charged. Before I shoved the PDA into my jeans - I turned it on to see the battery status.

Guess what? It would not turn on. I mumbled under my breath and my wife, once again, started listing why she loves paper more. I also got input from MANY others.

My wife says:
 
Paper is more secure. Why? Many times I've typed up documents on the computer and have forgot to save it or have hit a button and lost my work. The worst that could happen with paper 1) it can be misplaced (and found) or 2) lost or stolen (never recovered). The same things can happen to a PDA or other technology. Furthermore, most likely someone would want to steal a PDA or computer instead of paper. The chances of theft of paper are much lower than with technology. With a PDA (technology) data can be destroyed due to technology failure - not human. You might wake up one day (as I did) and find your data lost."

"The Fight With My Wife"
Discussion at smallbiztechnology.com

January 18, 2005 in Current Affairs | Permalink

Comments

I carry a bound journal wherever I go - I like to jot down thoughts, ideas, writing whenever the muse strikes. Sometimes it can be pages and pages at a time, so the PDA has never appealed to me; although a Tablet PC does have a certain siren call to it.

No doubt this is rare, but I lost my last journal recently in Thailand and my boyfriend lost his Palm Pilot. Yes, we were both caught up in the tsunami, but our luggage was all "safe" and sound in a hillside bungalow. (I did not take the journal because I was going on a snorkeling trip.) Our place was too far to go back to rescue it and besides we didn't have the key. Many tourists lodgings were looted, and I'm sure they could have cared less about taking my journal per se, but they just grabbed the whole daypack. In fact, I often carry my journal in a purse of some sort, so the stolen factor isn't quite one of the advantages of paper - at least for me.

Posted by: Evelyn Rodriguez | Jan 18, 2005 11:05:12 AM

Good news! The journal has been found somewhere strewn about (it was not hit by tsunami, but looted in the ensuing evacuation) by the bungalow resort owners and they will mail it back to me! Note the b-friend's PDA was surprisedly (not) never found. So I take back the stolen factor comment.

This is harder to express, but something about putting hand to pen to paper also makes me viscerally connect and imprint with what I am writing in a more powerful way than I do via typing or graffiti'ing.

Posted by: Evelyn Rodriguez | Jan 20, 2005 4:46:05 PM

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