By Suzann Dodd, ContributorPERSONAL DIGITAL Assistants, those clever little hand held jobbies we tend to call 'Palm Pilots' even when they're not, are the latest symbol of our Cyberian citizenship.
It's cool to whip them out and use the cute stylus to enter dates and addresses and take notes, then fold them into a pocket or purse with this ever so cunning expression.
I've disrupted courtrooms with my jobbie, which is also, ho hum a cellular phone. So I'm cool can't done. But if you look into my purse you'll see a diary with hand written notes, and there's an address book I keep around, and there's nothing written on my PDA which is not duplicated by pen and paper.
I've told Karl's story before, but I'll tell it again.
Karl got a PDA and spent weeks putting his life into it. He had addresses, phone numbers, every conceivable ID number, all his passwords, every one's birthday, every meeting he was to attend from now until the end of time, as well as notes he took in class.
He walked around with his PDA in his shirt pocket so that everyone could see, yes, this is a bona fide Cyberian.
SMASHING ONTO CONCRETE
Then one day the button on his shirt gave way. And out, smashing onto concrete from nearly six feet away came the PDA and there went Karl's life.
As I said in relation to computers, it is not a matter of 'If' it is a matter of 'When.'
Computers will crash. Hard drives will die. It could be that lightening storm, it could be that knocked over cup of coffee, it could be that Uranus is in a bad position to Jupiter. But computers will crash.
Computers will refuse to yield information. It could be a power outage, it could be a virus, it could be a glitched file, it could be that something wasn't saved, but if you put everything on a computer without backing up your work you stand to lose your work.
PDAs are computers. And anything can happen to something which requires a power source and is easily lost, stolen, or broken.
Yes, show off with your PDA but when no one is looking, write all the information down elsewhere.
Never keep everything in one place and that includes PDAs.
