this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2024
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Yep. I had a Vadem Clio, which was fucking awesome in terms of unique and usable form factor, but it ran CE, which sucked ass. I still used the hell out of it just for drawing and writing though.
I had a Dell axim x51v, which was a PDA that I personally bought for myself, prior to when smartphones were a thing.
At the time I was tinkering with my own exchange server and had it synced to my exchange server (over wireless b) to keep track of classes in college and stuff. I had a metal case for it and everything.... I think it still works, but I have no idea where it is now. Since security has marched forwards at a steady pace, I'm sure that the unit would be less than useful to do the same today since it wouldn't support the encryption used today.
It also had a contact list with all my friends and family's email, phone numbers and stuff in it, so I could look someone up, then call them on my flip phone.
The calendar was by far the most useful. I had one small device (by the standards of that era), which told me when my classes were, what building and room they were in, etc.
I was the nerd carrying a flip phone, PDA, and laptop, around the campus. Took notes on my laptop, used my PDA for scheduling, and my phone for calling/texting. The only paper I carried were course books.
I vaguely remember the Dell PDAs. Didn't they run their own custom OS?
I had a couple of early PDAs. I had a Newton MessagePad 120, which I really loved. I used it to take notes in college all the time. But the screen cracked one in my backpack one day, despite the plastic protector, and I couldn't afford another one.
A while later, I had a PalmPilot. I want to say a III, but I can't remember. I didn't love it, especially the fact that any additional software I might have wanted cost a huge amount of money for a tiny selection, but I got so good at Palm Graffiti that I can still remember every character. I don't think I had another PDA until the smartphone era.
I always liked PDAs, a friend of mine got a palm pilot before I picked up the axim, and I was envious.
I liked the exchange sync as I was able to charge my device while actively syncing to my experimental exchange server, and interacting with that account via Outlook on my PC.
One thing I can say about Microsoft is that they know how to centrally manage independent systems. Between active directory and exchange, you can manage about 60% of your digital life by policy. That's exactly what I did. Made day to day interactions really simple. I also used reoccurring events for classes, and it was super easy to set the time and day-of-the-week for a class, then have it repeat once a week for 20-26 weeks. The events literally stopped when classes were over, and I always knew when and where to be on campus. I migrated the information when I moved everything to Google calendar, when that became a thing. I still have, in my calendar, all my college classes, dates, times, and what room each was in, in my calendar to this day.
I could look up emails, as long as I received them before coming to school, and reference them for classmates, whether about classes and changes to class schedules or if it was a notice from the faculty or something. The axim got me to classes on time consistently and kept me moving. It was particularly helpful when trying to decide what to do after class with friends as I could quickly look up what came next, when, and where we had to be.
Now smartphones do all that.
Even still, it was interesting and kind of nice to have a dedicated device to organize with, independent of distractions like social media.