I could cry

As I’m transitioning from having cataloged my TapRoomTalk posts to posting new content (and finding my blog voice, ahem, ahem) there’s one topic that has my emotions welling up at my inner geek levy.

In college, my understanding of the potential of the gray on green screen Palm, would forever be rocked by my friend Carl.   Sidling up to me one day like a shady, black market street merchant, he said,”Pssst.  Hey man.  Have you seen this?”  He put in front of my face something that has always amazed me.  It was a text image (or ascii image) of two people….love wrestling.  What might they have been doing?  Well, that’s all in the name.  The program (my goodness, today we’d call it an App) was the Palma Sutra.  Something about forming images out of text, such an unintended use of letters, adds such a different dimension to type.  This was my first impression of the real magic of a Palm Pilot.  The second was looking at another college buddy’s list of tasks.  We were in the radio station.  He was using the stylus to add a check box to a completed task.  The list looked like this:

•    SMOKE WEED
•    SMOKE WEED
•    SMOKE WEED
•    SMOKE WEED
•    SMOKE WEED

I could not believe the unintended uses for this device.  Love manual, helpful reminder to a forgetful Rastafari.  Fast forward to the Treo 180.  A SMART phone.  Then the 300, 755p and Pre.  I was a devotee.  On it’s little keyboard buttons I would take notes on beer and YES, on the 755p, use the dedicated button on the side to make voice recordings.  Find me a phone today that in one motion starts recording such important things as, “Sierra Celebration is out!  Pick some up at Norm’s!”  or “This porter has the subtle kick of Chipotle peppers.”

Hearing that the man responsible for giving Palm the boot may face the firing squad is a little like hearing that your ex failed her new career, is moving back in with her parents and now does table dances at a truck stop.

I wrote a lot of these reviews on my Palm.  The supple little buttons.  My tech buddies (Andy) would laugh at me, but I was sure that there was hope and redemption in the Touchpad and Pre 3.  [___crickets___]  I’m sure my new phone will be able to remotely monitor a nuclear reactor and download images from the Webb Space Telescope that hasn’t even been launched yet.  This app here, allows you to see into the future.

Damn you HP. I have been using a Palm for a decade.   As the youtube animation said, “I like pizza. You like shopping.  Jon Rubinstein likes to crush dreams and find new ways to burn a company to the ground each year.” I guess you could substite Leo Apotheker’s name.  News is breaking that Meg Whitman may be named the new CEO of HP.  I’ll watch it unfold on my Palm Pre while I drink a Crystal Pepsi and eat a McDLT, listening to a Zune in a Yugo that is pimped out with a HD-DVD, Laserdisc, Dreamcast, Betamax, and Nintendo Virtual Boy in the back seat.