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Subject:Re: A PDA in every pocket? From:Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axion -dot- net> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Tue, 18 Oct 2005 14:41:55 -0700
On Tue, 2005-18-10 at 17:12 -0400, Brian Gordon wrote:
> I have had all of the above things at various times,
> but have never found them necessary.
I strongly suspect that the functionality of these devices is often
secondary. They are not
exactly status symbols, since they're so widely used, but tokens of
belonging to a certain group. If people bought them out of necessity,
very few of them would sell.
I used to find a PDA useful, when I was working on multiple projects
on-site. However, now that I do almost all my work from home, a calendar
on my desktop does the same job. It connects to my PDA, but mostly the
PDA just sits on the desktop. I suspect that a captive employee would
have very little use for a PDA unless fairly high upthe corporate
laddeer.
The other hardware is mostly useless to me for the same reason. I'm only
five metres from my business line, and nothing is so urgent that I need
to be always available. In fact, since I'm in the Pacific time zone, and
regularly working with people on the east coast of North America, being
always available might mean unpected calls at 6AM or when I'm relaxing.
So far, not being constantly in touch has had no affect on my ability to
earn a living whatsoever. In many businesses, a so-called emergency can
often wait half an hour or so.
"You bought all the props for a world that never was,
Now there's holes in the mirror, and less and less applause,
We are all ungrateful bastards, like a dog that bit your hand,
All these years and you still don't understand."
- OysterBand, "Too Late Now"
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