There are also a few more minor drawbacks. Many overclocking programs will make it impossible to use the infrared or serial ports at anything other than the normal, factory-set speed. Tornado V and the registered version of Afterburner 3.0 claim to be free from this problem. Keep in mind, this problem is only caused by overclocking, not wait-state tweaks.

More annoyingly, some programs are quietly subverted by more speed. For example, Afterburner 3.0 claims to be able to correct the "system ticks" on your device (so that the time and date will remain accurate). Unfortunately, this doesn't appear to carry through to other timer programs. I narrowly averted a disaster once because of this.

I was proctoring a timed standardized test as a favor to a friend. I used a simple third-party stopwatch program to time the students. Unfortunately, the overclocking apparently reached the stopwatch. About halfway through the exam, I noticed that my Palm stopwatch was running substantially faster than the clock on the wall. I had cheated the students of about a third of their time on several sections and had to correct it by giving them more time to go back and make up the lost minutes. Overclocking almost seriously hurt the scores of a number of innocent exam-takers.

The wheres of overclocking
This is where I provide you with a simple list of the applications that you might come across in your quest for overclocking glory.

Afterburner
Afterburner (at http://www.palmspot.com/software/detail/ps5974a_9882.html) is the patriarch of overclocking programs. Through version 2, it was a freeware program by Jean-Paul Gavini. Now, at version 3, it has been taken over by Daniel Wee and made into shareware. Afterburner 3 is easily worth the eight dollars. It does both overclocking and wait-state tweaking. You can set the clock speed for each program individually. You can set a number of other things that allegedly affect the speed of your device, but completely mystify me. The registered version also eliminates the problems with serial and infrared ports. It's pictured in Figure A.

FIGURE A

Afterburner 3.0 is the patriarch of overclocking programs.

Tornado V
Tornado V (at http://www.iscomplete.org/Tornado_V/isctornado_v.htm) is basically Afterburner, only less well known. Probably because the name isn't nearly as catchy. It's also more expensive, less useful unregistered, and has an irritating "license manager" you must install to run the program. It's pictured in Figure B.

FIGURE B

Adjust the overclocking speeds of individual applications with Tornado V.

Cruise Control
Cruise Control (at http://www.bluenomad.com/cc/prod_cruisecontrol_details.html) is a freeware program that just does wait-state tweaks. It only works on devices using the Motorola Dragonball EZ processor. However, for those of us using that processor and not using a full overclocking program, there's no reason not to get Cruise Control. Wait-state tweaks are harmless, and this is a free program. Cruise Control is also made by the same people who make the staggeringly popular and useful BackupBuddy program, so you know it's high quality. Where's the downside? It's pictured in Figure C.