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March 23, 2006

Two Web Articles: Web Standards & Palm PDAs

I managed by sheer coincidence to have 2 articles published on the web on Wednesday: an article on Web Standards and an interview about how I use my Palm PDA.

Web Standards: Why Bother?
First is an article I write for Bob Walsh's MyMicroISV weblog called Web Standards: Why Bother?. It's an overview of why owners of Micro Independent Software Vendors (MicroISVs) should consider using "Web Standards" to build their company website, rather than complex, old-school nested tables with font tags and spacer gifs. I provide a brief overview of the benefits to be had by using Web Standards, XHTML and CSS to build your website along with links to resources.

¿Qué hay en el Zire 72 de Mike Rohde?
Next, a little while ago, Albert Cuesta from Canal PDA, a Spanish-language PDA site, write and asked if I'd do an interview. I thought it'd be fun, so I said yes and gave Albert everything he needed. Yesterday he wrote to tell my my interview was online: ¿Qué hay en el Zire 72 de Mike Rohde?. Now don't go thinking I can understand or can reply in Spanish — Albert was kind enough to translate my answers! :-)

FYI, here are my answers in English, if you're curious:

Current occupation
Design Director for MakaluMedia Group, designing logos and corporate identity, websites, application icons, user interfaces and print materials. Founded and published The Palm Tipsheet from 1998 to 2003. Member of PalmSource's Palm OS User Council and maintain a PalmSource Expert Guide forWriting, Text Editing & Word Processing. Finally, I write and maintain my own personal weblog.

Current & Previous PDAs
Palm Zire72s is my current PDA. I like PDAs and devices with good balance, in this case the Zire 72 has a nice size, bright screen at 320x320 pixels, good battery life, onboard camera and optional WiFi with an SD card.

I also own a Dana Wireless, great for writing on the road because it has an excellent full-size keyboard, onboard WiFi and 20-some hour battery life. This machine is a dream for writers and bloggers.

Previous PDAs: Palm Tungsten E, which was also a nice balanced device, but was damaged accidentally. Sony Clié N610C, which was a wonderfully balanced device with great battery life, nice size and high res screen. Handspring Visor Deluxe, PalmPilot Personal and my first device, a Pilot 1000.

Regularly-used accessories
256MB SD card, Palm WiFi SD card, Vaja leather case, Belkin Sync & Charge cable.

Full list of applications you currently carry in your device (excluding applications inclided in the OS).

Applications Documents To Go; e*Mail; Eudora; iSilo; MyBible; Shadow; Splash ID; Splash Photo; WebPro; BDicty; DayNotez; eReader; Foreign; JFile 5; Noah Pro; PayOff Plus; SiEd; SlovoEd; SnapperMail; TipMe; TripBoss; upIRC; Wordsmith

Utilities BackupBuddy VFS; Colorize; DigiMe; FileZ; InstantText; MissingSync; TealLock; TomCatalog; PW Generator; Uninstall; Switch5

Games GoMocu, Hmaki, Vexed

Which of the above applications do you consider essentials and why?

e*Mail - for syncing email from Entourage Mac via the QueueSoft Entourage conduit, so I can read and reply to emails offline

Eudora - nice for checking emails when I'm using the SD WiFi card.

iSilo - for reading news and blogs offline in conjunction with iSiloX for Mac OS X.

WebPro - Great for web reading when using the SD WiFi card.

Splash ID - For managing my private data; love the integration with its desktop application for Mac OS X.

MyBible - for reading and reference to the Bible at church and on the go.

NoahPro - Great for quick lookups of words I'm curious about.

BackupBuddy VFS - My backup lifeline should the Zire ever lose battery power. Love that my data is all safely backed up on my SD card.

FileZ - Super utility for managing files on the Palm.

LauncherX - very nice tabbed interface to all of the stuff on my Palm.

Hmaki, Vexed - Good for stress relief when necessary. :-)

March 23, 2006 10:56 PM | Blogging | add to del.icio.us