Next year we're going to add some livestock to our operation, and I'm already designing an application for my Palm device that follows our County Extension Office's livestock record keeping guidelines. I hope to get a Symbol SPT-1500 so I can incorporate barcode reading into these applications as well. For a PalmPower article on programming with Quartus Forth, visit http://www.palmpower.com/issues/issue200004/quartus001.html.

Document creation
Liz and I both use Red Hat Linux on our Personal Computers and the Pilot-XFer program to backup our Palm devices daily. We also use Pilot-XFer to install applications. Using txt2pdbdoc, we can import documents from the PCs directly into the memo or DOC format and transmit them onto our Palm devices for later reading, or we can export documents we've created on the Palm unit itself.

This article, for example, was written on a Palm computer. Parts were written while waiting in the barbershop, others while waiting at a railroad crossing for a long, slow train to pass, and some in the garden while watching a new section of PVC irrigation pipe pressurize. Some parts were written on a bench outside a restaurant where I was meeting a friend for lunch and others at the County Extension Office while waiting for a meeting on Small Acreage Management to begin. I also managed to get a few words down while sitting out on our deck watching our dog Leni attempt to figure out how that baby rabbit moved so quickly.

I prefer the doc format as each file is its own database on the Palm device and can be extracted or added individually.

A durable farm tool
I don't have a cover of any kind for the Palm Vx, and I have removed both styli so that the sides provide better grip support. I have had the Palm V and Palm Vx outdoors in temperatures as low as 20°F and as high as 104°F with no problems. It has also been used in snowy and rainy weather. I have dropped it more than a few times, but the earth is a lot softer than the concrete sidewalks and streets in a city environment. I also use it in my woodworking shop where I spend most of my winter days. It survives sawdust just as easily as it does dust from the gravel roads in our rural area.