Fuzzy math
Someone else has probably already pointed this out, but in your September editorial (at http://www.palmpower.com/issues/issue200209/ppeditorial0902001.html), you write:

In comparison to the Palm OS-based CLIE, which has full color, double the screen resolution, a built-in keyboard, a flip lid, and, oh yeah, an MP3 player, the Palm m505 is uninspiring.

The CLIE has four times the resolution of the Palm m505, not double. Double the X resolution and double the Y resolution, which equals four total. (160 x 160 = 25600, 320 x 320 = 102400.)

Dan Harkless

Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz responds
So it's even worse than we thought! See, this is why I went into publishing and didn't use my engineering degree for nuclear physics, which was my first plan. Math, man. It's always in the numbers!

User Interface suggestions
I enjoyed your "The morbid fascination that is Palm, Inc." article.

As a UI (User Interface) designer, I believe they are pulling an "Apple." They started with great UI but continue to just sit on it, not making any changes.

So, I came up with the following ideas and sent them to various people at Palm, both to help them out and to land some contract work with them. You can read the ideas at http://mudtroll.com/palm_concepts/introduction.html.

I haven't heard back from any of them, which is okay, since it was sent unsolicited.

I thought you might be interested.

Thanks,
Matthew B Seigel
Human Interface Designer
Seigel Inocencio

Comments on de-listing
Your story was fairly well written, but I wanted to clarify a small point. The way de-listing works, on the Nasdaq, is after 30 days of the stock being under $1, it is warned. At that point it has 90 days to have 10 days in a row of trading over $1, before it is de-listed. So being 18 days into trouble means it has around 100 trading days before being de-listed. That's almost half a year.

You may have just glazed over the point or simply didn't know. Either way, it's a bit deceiving. I know your main concern isn't the stock, but rather the product. As a share-holder though, I feel responsible, to a point, to make sure information is delivered and interpreted correctly. In a volatile, fickle market, it doesn't take much to affect the price of a stock.

Thank you,
Gerald MacDonald

Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz responds
Fortunately, I haven't had the need to get seriously experienced in all the vagaries of stock de-listing. I also recall reading somewhere that companies are safe if they have a certain level of capitalization, regardless of price, but again, I'm not sure. I do appreciate the qualification, even though right now they're at day 26. No matter how you cut it, for a company like Palm to even get a de-listing warning isn't pretty.

Jerry, I'm definitely hoping they (and many of the other companies in trouble out there) pull out of this slump. But, as you might imagine, for a company that sold for nearly $100/share last year, this is something we're obligated to cover. I am curious, though. As a stockholder, no matter when you bought, this must be pretty distressing for you. What are your thoughts?