FIGURE E


You can see that a circular gauge has been defined, with a smaller, secondary control. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Getting to your data
The real goal of using PocketLog is to automate your data collection. When you HotSync your Palm device after a data collection session, all your data is automatically uploaded to the PC and formatted for the Microsoft Access database. You can view this database from the PocketLog application (as shown in Figure F), or, if you have Access handy, open the file directly. Currently, PocketLog has no built-in charting or statistical features (although the beta manual includes tips on how to collect such data), and the beta version didn't even support copying from the spreadsheet (although Tescina states that this will be supported by release). You can also export the data as a text file.

FIGURE F


You can check out the data captured in the Windows PocketLog application or build an Access application to do it all. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Conclusions
Although the current release of PocketLog appears to be targeted at the quality control engineers, I can already see many other possible applications. In using PocketLog, I felt I was getting a glimpse at the real future of Palm organizers. Even though the program is elegantly simple. PocketLog feels like a "real" program, not just another utility or organizer. If you want to see an example of the Palm device's potential to become a serious computing platform, look no further than Tescina's PocketLog.

John Kuo is a product designer for Autodesk. He can be reached via email at jkuo@mindspring.com.