Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Well. I couldn’t have knit a garter stitch scarf during that match. But does Mr Murray have anything left for the rest of the week? Mr Federer, au contraire, sets about his work rather like our dentist, calm and supremely skilful, without any needless expenditure of energy.

I adore the Williams sisters, but I think I can relax today and let them get on with things without my help.

Hat, I remembered Virginia Wade after I posted yesterday. Yes, indeed. By an interesting coincidence, my husband was greatly smitten with her, too, although he never got any closer than the wrong side of a television screen.

Tamar and Mary Lou, I am grateful for your sympathy as I struggle with my husband’s Palm and Documents-to-Go. I failed yesterday after a considerable time-consuming struggle, although I think I may be making progress and I have a couple more ideas for today. Mary Lou, important question: how does a Blackberry change things? Can you email files to it from a desktop? Does it run a word processor?

The idea behind this wretched Palm of ours – and a good one – is to have an easily-pocketable device which can be taken along to libraries when matters of detail are being checked. There in your hand, instead of endless print-outs, is the whole thing. You can see what you’ve written and what you need to discover.

The intention was never for anyone to read the Palm version, although there was once when my husband’s publisher was here – this was in the days before the Kindle – and I went into the study to get them for lunch just as my husband was showing off the Palm, and the publisher saying, “Tell you what, H*mish – we won’t publish it, we’ll just give everyone one of these.” The day may come.

One of the things I regret about the Modern World is the death of the computer manual. It was a form of literature I used to adore. I am sure if I had a Palm manual and a Documents to Go manual which I could take into the bath with me, I could work things out in a trice. The Palm manual is available in .pdf format, and for Documents to Go there is only wretched Help. It’s not the same.

You’ll have gathered that not much knitting was done yesterday. Still, I did most of a Princess edging repeat, and the left front of the cardigan has nearly reached the neck shaping. Progress. There was an article in the Scotsman yesterday about Kinloch Anderson which has solidified my intention of going to see them to study a jabot.

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:39 AM

    Hi Jean, I don't know about the Pre, but my Treo 680 can actually do Word and Excel documents in their native format. I can take an Excel spreadsheet from my desktop, shove it onto the Treo, manipulate it there, save it as an Excel doc, and then put it back on my desktop and work with it there again. If you want to stay in the Palm family, you might have a look at the Treo line.

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  2. I realized I stopped using my Palm for anything which required complex synching, but I really like it for contacts and appointments.
    Some of the more recent Palm options also have wifi access, which could open up more fact-checking options while outside the house.
    (Do Scottish libraries generally offer free wifi access?)
    I wonder if a newer model could relieve you of these synching hassles, then there would be more time for your knitting!
    Maybe someone in your extended circle was just about to switch to an iphone, and would like to give your their recently outdated Palm.
    I don't think an iphone would solve your problem, as I hear they can't cut and paste yet.
    Also I am a bit nervous to move to ical from Palm, as I have put a lot of data into my Palm over the years.

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  3. The Blackberry is more like a tiny computer. It connects wirelessly to your computer and is a real-time calendar, note taker etc. The biggest issue is that it requires monthly service fee, like a cell phone. Since it is a work item, I don't pay for that. It does handle word docs, and excel, etc. Lisa's idea about an updated Palm might make more sense as it would be cheaper, and you could find one used or as a giveaway. I am also with you on the loss of the manual.

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  4. =Tamar9:19 AM

    I agree 100% about the nonexistence of the modern computer manual. It's supposed to be the last-ditch resort when the computer isn't working - so why make it necessary to read it using a computer? For me, if it isn't in print so I can read it without the computer, it doesn't exist. If I ever get the dratted printer hooked up to this machine, I'll be printing out some pdfs. I'll be in hock to the printer ink company but at least certain things will be available even by candlelight.

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