Death of a Palm Pilot
Trip Start
Feb 25, 2006
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71
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Trip End
Jun 24, 2009
Today was a very sad day. Everyone that I've met over the past almost 2 years has just disappeared from the face of the earth. Obviously, if you are reading this blog, you are not one of the missing or maybe you are(like me), but anyone that didn't make it into my address book... {POOF} I guess I have to rely on them remembering thechineseguytheymet. But it's not only addresses that went up in smoke. It's been almost 2 years since I synced my Palm Pilot and all the information that I've entered into it over this entire trip has vanished! All the addresses, phone numbers, contacts, trip details, expenses, notes, languages, quotes.... GONE! ALL GONE! All the hidden files containing encrypted bank account information and financial data is either stored in my head or it's GONE! Of course, the reason I pulled out my Palm was to get ABA Routing numbers for a bank account so I could transfer some funds from my donations account to my ATM account. (So far I've only gotten one donation, but it was for as much as I thought I'd receive in total for the whole year. Thanks again, Steven! Stories to follow.) I had heard about system crashes happening to other people like my Dad, but I just figured it was user error. It was working fine one day and the next time I checked it, something shorted out, the batteries were dead and I couldn't even do a hard reboot. The trouble with technology is that you can't live with it, but you also can't live without it. What am I going to do now? Get a little black book and write peoples names, addresses and numbers in it? And then get another book with a calendar? Back to the Dark Ages before Palm Pilots for me.
Comments
The Solution
While it may require a small monthly investment the solution to your woes going forward is to have a managed Outlook account with syncing via the cell network with software like Goodlink. Then whenever you make a change on your Palm it is synced to your remotely hosted and backed up Outlook. In fact you can probably do something similar with a GMail account though I have never looked into it. Sorry to hear about the Palm tragedy. That blows.
Steve
*moment of silence*
Sorry to hear about your Palm dying. I'm sure you've already thought about getting a Geek to take a look and pull any data off the hard drive onto a thumb drive or something (not really sure what's possible, not being a Geek myself). I know that even dead computer hard drives can be combed for information for about $100.
Good luck to you.
Re: The Solution
I looked into Gmail, but didn't see anything that they offer for Palm syncing. But I think as far as a calendar goes, I'll switch to an online service instead of the ancient Palm III I had. Unfortunately, that requires a computer and can't be done on long bus trips unless I get a laptop.
Re: *moment of silence*
The Palm is dead, dead! I couldn't even do a hard reboot. The batteries drained for at least a week and they say you'll lose your data if you remove them for more than 1 minute when changing them. Oh well! Se la vie. Unfortunately, I want to head back to my favorite remote island and now I don't have the mobile number of the lady that runs the bungalows to send a boat for me.