The Front Lines

This brief handheld hardware review comes to us courtesy of
Erik Wingren: “I finally took the
plunge and bought the Handspring Treo 190. By combining
Handspring.com's mail-in rebate and the Cingular subscriber
upgrade option, I got the price down to $299. They charge you tax
for the full list price but Ship promptly to your door for free.
Installation of software and configuration of the device was a
nightmare – until I gave up on doing it from my Powerbook that was
associated with earlier Palm devices / users and instead installed
/ configured from a 'Palm free' machine. From there on out, it was
a piece of cake. The optional Treomail app has a long way to go
before it's a killer. The online account management interface is
slow and buggy. Filtering features are very rudimentary, with the
result of wasted bandwidth on downloading junk. I'm testing the
$50 / year Internet edition – the corporate edition might offer
some relief. The form factor is my greatest concern. I'm not yet
convinced that PDA / e-mail / phone should be in the same device.
Browsing and replying to e-mails on the MUNI is cool, but when I'm
drunk I miss my compact and rugged Nokia 8890. Maybe Palm 705i + a
Nokia is a better way to go? I'm finding out.”

And from Jo Dunning on
the other side of the globe: “Hi Chris, here's a good one for you.
I live in a small town / city (population ~30,000) in a small
country (population ~4,000,000, where our capital city of
Wellington has ~400,000). This morning I was at a friends place
when in walked a guy who said: 'Nice bumper sticker' I said: 'Like
my hat, too?' He said:
'Yeah – Chris Pirillo' I said: 'Seen him on TechTV?' He said: 'No,
I'm an original Lockergnome subscriber!' How's that for small
world!? No photos, but the chances of just walking into a fellow
Gnomie like that in New Zealand are about four million to one. He
was a lurker in the LGNG but not a participant like me. He DID
recognize my nickname (dragonsinger), though.” Awesome! Yeah,
we'll be bringing back a message board at some point in the near
future. Most likely, it'll be Web-based this time around. There's
more we could do with both the backend and frontend. I really like
the one over at Leoville.
Of course, y'all will be the first to know.

For some unknown reason, our GnomeSHOPPER database isn't indexing
David's book properly. If you're still looking for a way to get it
online, check out this Amazon.com
page (which also lists titles from our scheduled Gnomedex speakers). Scheduled? You
mean there may be unscheduled appearances? Who knows? Gretchen is
planning on participating in a few pre-conference
activities,
too. It's starting to sound like it's going
to be a weekend-long party (just like it was last year). Sounds
good to me! Good information, good people, good location (in the
middle of our country). If you can't make it, I'm truly sorry -
and I'm serious when I say that you should pre-register ASAP. I'd
hate to have you come out there only to have to be turned down
because the building hit its capacity. Yes, that could very well
happen. Why risk it? Gnomedex would be nothing
without YOU. Of course, you could always stay home and study the
Anatomy
of a Search Engine instead. It's compelling reading, but
nothing compared to the power of meeting a few Internet and
television celebrities (like Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte).