One day on a Manhattan bus, the man across from me was busy with a small gadget which he seemed to be reading. Indeed he was. He was reading a book on his Palm!
It was quite readable. I have the same wondrous instrument and was absolutely agog at this possibility.
Can I read some of the books I never had time to read? How about Chaucer or Proust or “War And Peace” or even parts of the Bible?
Project Gutenberg is a non-profit group that scans public domain books, and converts them into ebooks and then you can download these free of charge into your computer and then into the Palm.
But I envision those nights in bed when there’s nothing I want to see on TV, all the books are too heavy to bother holding and page turning, magazine pages slip and slide – and here this small, almost weightless instrument is the very answer before sleep, or during an awake period at 2 am.
I can write this sentence with a stylus. This whole article was transferred to the Palm with Documents To Go which is put out by DataViz, a company that has a number of other very useful programs. My entire, large contact list and its many categories is on my palm wherever I am without my computer. My calendar, too, is up-to-date – and can be added to anyplace. The Palm is a treasure -- I just have to remember to charge the battery now and then.
Before buying a Palm, have someone show it to you. The screen is small and may be hard to read.
A visually handicapped friend uses two add on programs to make her Palm easier for her to read. Teal Magnify can magnify parts of the screen, in case you have problems reading phone numbers.
She also uses Butterfly that allows her to set the colors on her Palm. She finds white text on a black background much easier to read than the black text on a white background.
Other wonders have entered my life in recent months. My old Gateway crashed, and a new computer was essential. A Circuit City manager, on a Saturday at 2 pm said he could get a new computer to me by 4:30 pm. He did. The computer is an XP Hewlett Packard. Its box is a lot smaller. The monitor is a flat screen of a terrific 19 inches, with a blue background. Every morning, it brightens my day.
Another wonder has not yet entered my life, but it will, it will. This is a combination of America Online (AOL) and XM radio. These two companies have joined forces to bring you and me a wealth of online radio programs which will come through your computer speakers any time of day or night. The programs are, of course, a mix of lots of music and lots of talk radio. Again a wonderful late night or sleepless hours mix while I read and reread Mark Twain, all of Blake’s poems, Shakespeare’s plays -- and listen to the 3 B’s, Beethoven, Brahms and Bach, on and on. But maybe their music is all for a much younger generation?
Another wonder has entered my life – and yours as well, even if you don’t know about it. This is the wealth of programs that the AARP is providing its membership. Don’t belong? Hurry and send in your modest fee of $12.50 dollars and then you are entitled to help and information from a nurse on the telephone on a 24/7 basis – and from my experience they are good!
You can get lower cost auto, home, life insurance through the AARP. And they have a dental insurance plan that lets you use your own dentist. Your supplementary health policy is now from United Health Care via the AARP. It is not cheap, but then what is today? Medications are supplied by the AARP pharmacy. If your tax returns baffle you and the accountants are just too expensive for you, the AARP will supply an accountant to you pro bono. Discounts for computer products and especially for travel items are available. Did I forget some? Maybe – call them and find out.
The chief benefit right now is the fight the organization has been putting up about Social Security. No politician from the President on down will want to tangle with the vocal membership in the millions and millions. People eligible for the AARP come from generations used to the idea of standing up to the government to protest unfair, unjust behavior. Washington, watch out – here comes the grey-haired army!