mathieutozer.com

I really really hate when I sit down to do something with technology and then have to give up after an hour of failures, not because I've done anything wrong, but just because the technology failed to work.

Such is often the case with technologies that come from or have anything to do with Palm, that nasty operating system and company that wont let you easily connect with a Mac (I had to buy third party software some time ago) to do anything worthwhile. It won't let you copy anything but a prc to the main memory, and god forbid you ever need to delete files of the trashy thing. Uninstalling applications is an appalling affair of going through and finding all the related files in the flat home directory browser of the device. And once you're done, if you sync with your computer, it will 'handily' replace all your hard work with fresh new files, and you're back to square one. DUMB.

I actually gave up using my Clié PEG-TH55 many many months ago. It's useless for any of the following.
1. Taking notes.
2. Managing contacts.
3. Managing appointments.
4. Sending email.
5. Taking photos (even a hard reset won't fix this).

The only thing I have had marginal success with is reading eBooks and browsing some websites - those that didn't render to unreadable sizes.

Since I found it a good reading device, I have had on my todo list for a while to set it up again as an eReader, since my Librié is buggered. I especially thought it would be nice to have my RSS feeds update themselves in hotspots. Should be easy, right? The Missing Sync asks for Palm software. Palm asked for all kinds of personal information, then didn't even have any Clié on their support list, so I download one I think might be generic - Palm V or something. At the very last part of the installation, it tells me something went wrong, and whether I want to quit or try again. Neither changes anything. Anyway, the software loaded, so I figure all is ok, and I install the Missing Sync, restart... and wait, no Missing Sync executable anywhere on my system. Sigh. But it used to work... I try another approach, download the Palm installation file and bluetooth to phone, to copy over to memory stick, to... wait, oh damn it can't find my Sony Duo to regular MS converter. This clearly isn't meant to be.
One last crack. There's a download link available on the webpage, clearly stated that it is 'unsupported'. Ah well, dang, I consider myself a power user. Type into the itty bitty palm keyboard the address and go to download, but it ends up displaying the binary as text file. Palm OS fault? Turns out it's the websites - I download on my Mac and it's txt file there too.

Is all this because I'm using a Mac? Or because I have failed to notice some software that is out there that makes all this just work? Unfortunately I don't think there is. Actually, I've read many a blog post (Will Shipley : I am really angry at Palm) about how bad Palm and Palm systems are to setup and use. What's going on!?

Another shot at google for 'Web based RSS readers'. See, I think it would be neat if Google Reader, which I have used in the past, had a smaller screen interface that worked on the likes of Palm. That way I wouldn't have to mess around with syncing and all the rubbish above. Unfortunately Google Reader doesn't have that feature yet, and no one else does it seems.

One thing I've finally learnt: I've really got to stop buying anything from Sony. It's just not good enough! Save us Apple!!

Teaching Cocoa
Originally uploaded by toolmantim.