Yes I bought one last year and I don't know how I did without it. My problem was (probably not uncommon) was that I scheduled appointments from three places - my home office, here at school, and mobile with a paper scheduler. The problem was that they were seldom up-to-date with each other. The Pilot solved this. I now have the desktop programs here and at my home office. I bought an extra interface cradle so now I can keep all three locations synchronized. The Pilot was the first PDA that I have found that was 1. powerful enough to be practical, 2. small enough to actually carry in my shirt pocket, and 3. be extensible though programming. The latter is quit interesting - you can find hundreds of additional programs available from third party programmers. Some are free, some shareware and some full tilt commercial. I use, in addition to the packaged applications, a basic database program called JFile. I think it was $20 shareware. I keep relevant data for all of my client's pianos in JFile. The data can be imported without too much trouble to Access or most any other database application that can import comma delimited text files. If you are inclined to do your own programming, you can get the GNC (C language)package for free, a basic interpreter, a high level graphical language called CASL ($70, I think) or go with the commercial package from Code Warrior. I haven't found the need to got to the trouble yet, though I would like a application that I could use to calculate estimates in the field. There is a spreadsheet application that could be used for this that runs about $50. The latest model is the Palm Pilot III, which looks a little smaller, has a nice built-in cover for the screen, has a new version of the operating system and can be synchronized with another PPIII via infrared link. Mark Story, RPT Eastern Washington University mstory@ewu.edu -----Original Message----- From: Pianotoone@aol.com <Pianotoone@aol.com> To: pianotech@ptg.org <pianotech@ptg.org> Date: Monday, June 01, 1998 3:01 PM Subject: Palm Pilot & Piano Teching >Anybody else use tone of these in appt. scheduling > >I am considering the purchase of a Palm Pilot to replace my paper schedule >book. I misplaced my paper book last Friday and went thru a day and a half of >worry until I found it again. (No, I didn't have any backup schedule) I >found it before my Monday appt's, but the experieince started me thinking. If >I scheduled on the computer and then used the Palm Pilot to take in the car, I >would always have backup even if I lost the Palm Pilot. > >Sure would appreciatte pro/con from any users or former users > >Dick Day >Marshall MI
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