Do you carry too much crap around with you?

May 7, 2000 8:00 PM

Do you carry too much crap around with you?
[ via PDABuzz ]
posted by baylink (14 comments total)

Almost. It gets difficult when you wear really baggy shorts like I do. When I walk my pockets swing back and forth and all the gadgets bang against eachother and make a great big racket. Running is difficult and loud. Luckily I don't have the massive SkyWriter pager clipped to my belt anymore (although that toy is a very fun thing to have indeed.)
posted by treebjen at 8:22 PM on May 7, 2000

Maybe you need the... eholster.

Oh, this makes me laugh.
posted by Georgina at 9:08 PM on May 7, 2000

I'm leaning towards a fanny pack.
posted by treebjen at 9:46 PM on May 7, 2000

I recently took a cross-country flight and had to get stuff done. So I took out the laptop and started working. I thought about firing up RealJukebox, but then I figured I shouldn't drain my battery so I pulled out my Rio500 and my headphones. A little later, I needed to look up some numbers in my plam pilot that weren't synched with my computer so I took that out. After a while, my Nextel was digging into my hip so I took it off and clipped it on the seat back pocket.

At the end of the flight, the guy who was sitting next to me, who I hadn't really talked to or even noticed, looks up at me and says "So let me guess. You work for a startup?"

I felt so...so...so typical. Ugh. But it's all so FUNCTIONAL and I had damn good reasons for each gadget.

All I can say is you will all know me one day because I will invent the Universal Gadget. That is, if Handspring doesn't beat me to it.
posted by fooljay at 10:38 PM on May 7, 2000

Sorry, but the Universal Gadget is going to come from a cell phone company. Several are already working on similar devices. For example, the next generation of phones based on Qualcomm chips will have MP3 capability, not to mention BlueTooth and GPS. Some of them have an extra CPU built in for purposes of running PDA software. (Oh, and they'll have USB ports, too.)
posted by Steven Den Beste at 10:48 PM on May 7, 2000

Bailing wire and bubble gum. If I build it, they will come... ;-)
posted by fooljay at 2:15 AM on May 8, 2000

Well, Steven, they'd better get the design right.

(I speak as someone who already *has* the design right, but doesn't have $50M.)
posted by baylink at 7:08 AM on May 8, 2000

I've got my own ideas for my perfect Universal Gadget that are probably way different from anybody else's. What I'd like to see is a wide variety of Universal Gadgets that can all play nice together. Steven's USB ports may be the right idea.
posted by harmful at 7:45 AM on May 8, 2000

Nah... Bluetooth.

posted by baylink at 8:35 AM on May 8, 2000

Bluetooth was my first thought, until I saw fooljay's comment on using his gadgetry on an airplane. Remember the case a while back about the guy being kicked off the plane because he wouldn't shut off his cell phone? USB might be suited to at least some applications where RF emissions are undesirable. On the other hand, being able to toss a micro-"server" in my backpack and I/O devices in my pockets without wiring might be nice.
posted by harmful at 8:46 AM on May 8, 2000

The ultimate PDA
posted by inviolable at 10:20 AM on May 8, 2000

Yeah, Sal; I have a version of that that runs on my Pilot.

:-)

And, Brennan: as far as USB is concerned, certainly. I don't *object* to it, but as long as they get the private vs public rings stuff right on Bluetooth, a topic on which I can give you no assurance, it will be more useful to more people -- I was planning to incorporate all of them. AIM at me tonight; I'll fill you in on where I was headed...
posted by baylink at 12:04 PM on May 8, 2000

It ain't a Universal Gadget unless it folds up like a Leatherman!
posted by dhartung at 3:24 PM on May 8, 2000

You've, of course, seen the new one with vise-grips (c'mon, someone, cease and desist me), right?
posted by baylink at 7:42 PM on May 8, 2000