My Dog ate My Homework
Why am I blogging so infrequently? My original plan had been to write fresh content once a week, but sometimes, my work gets just too hectic to take the time. This week, however, I’ve been spending literally hours with T-Mobile tech support, beginning Sunday afternoon, trying to get my Palm Tungsten E2 PDA to connect with the bluetooth from my Motorola Razr cell phone so I can get e-mail and Internet Access from my PDA. This way, I can go on short business trips and not take my laptop.
I depend on my handheld as my datebook and directory — I love it because it’s so light and easy to transport. I’ve had a PDA for years, updating each time to a newer models with richer features. The Tungsten is my fifth PDA, and I thought it would be the answer to all my technical dreams.
I could use my little Palm handheld device to load any Microsoft Word documents I might need while away. With an infrared folding keyboard, I would be able to do work on an airplane, without relying on a stylus to input data.
Getting Internet and e-mail is supposed to be fairly simple to configure. You put input information that enables your cell phone to “speak” with your PDA and you use your cell phone as the conduit to the Internet.
My Technology Gripes
I have spent more than three hours on the phone over a number of days, and I have spoken to more than 15 people at T-Mobile, with various types of muzak keeping me company as I have been transferred from person to person in tech support hell. Now I am a Tier 3 (top) level challenge.
But my gripes aren’t only about T-Mobile. Why would you produce a PDA that can do things that only tech support and a $24.95 book (How to do Everything with Your Palm Handheld Fifth Edition) can help you figure out? I’m not a techie, but I’m not an idiot. Manufacturers don’t even publish manuals anymore; you have to download the entire thing, which is a ridiculously cumbersome process. I will qualify this frustration: Gen-X and Gen-Ys have an instinctive feel for technology and never look at manuals, and having had a number of Palm OS PDAs, I concede the operating software is intuitive, unlike my previous HP iPAQ.
I really don’t have time to keep spending on getting this resolved, yet I have so much invested in getting this right, that I must take the time.
About Food Worth Reading
In the meantime, while I wait, I’m reading the current issue of Fast Company, which is focused on food (a fascinating issue, if you haven’t seen it). And, since I’m in a technology mode, there’s a wonderful profile on Homaro Cantu Jr., the mad scientist of cuisine who uses a Class IV laser, as well as carbon dioxide and liquid nitrogen in concocting the most inventive dishes at Moto. There’s another feature on Avero, makers of restaurant software called Slingshot, used by such high-profile chefs as Alain Ducasse, Joel Robuchon and Bobby Flay. It allows restaurants to mine data easily and intuitively so they can have decision-making tools at their fingertips. The software enables them to be on top of the sales performance of each menu item and each server, and enables them to find new efficiencies in food costs, labor and logistics.
INSIGHT: Food, like everything else, is merging with technology, which is a good thing. But it’s only going to work if the technology is readily accessible by everyday people like me. We don’t have hours to waste while 15 people try to help us make it work.
