FIGURE C


Let's watch Mark Walser do a demo. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Figure D shows me (Fredlet) on the left with Dan Royea (of "The Gadgeteer" fame) at a talk about Palm Computing's wireless future given by Motorola. We were simply frothing for new technology and don't think we can wait the five years that Motorola is predicting that it will take to arrive.

FIGURE D


Here's a picture of Dan Royea and me. Roll over picture for a larger image.

David Pogue and I finally met months after having collaborated together on a book via email. Michael Shawver (creator of the UniMount) and I were talking with Brian Ball of PDA University. David looked around and said "Hi" to Michael, then looked over and said "Hi" to Brian. After a minute he finally read my name tag and shouted "Fredlet!" Michael looked at me aghast and said, "You've never met Pogueman before today? But you guys did the Ultimate Guide together!" I thought it was all very amusing.

Of course, no matter where you looked, you could always see someone beaming a business card to someone else's Palm III. It became a kind of treasure hunt for some people I ran into to get as many business cards as they could from the Palm Computing "stars" (i.e., Jeff Hawkins, Donna Dubinski, etc.).

See Figure E for a picture of "PalmPilot: The Ultimate Guide" author David Pogue and Brian Ball of PDA University beaming their business cards to each other. The slang term for this at the conference was "geek sex". I laughed uproariously when someone clued me into this new term!

FIGURE E


David and Brian are beaming their business cards to each other! Roll over picture for a larger image.

Overall, the conference was pretty good. I would have loved to have spent more time talking to all the companies about their products and about new ideas for the Palm organizer, but as the French so aptly put it "c'est la vie." I'd say it rated about four out of five okapis on Fredlet's okapi meter.

Claire Pieterek is a long-time Palm handheld user. On a mission to ditch her Franklin Planner, she bought her first--a Pilot 5000--in May, 1996. She currently owns a Japanese-language Sony Clie 650C, a Sony Clie 710C, and a Palm Zire 71, among others. She is most at home in Chicago and Kyoto, and is a student of life, the universe, and Japanese.