PalmOS no more? :(

[Scott Stevens]

On Tue, 27 Sep 2005 20:45:51 -0400
John Boffemmyer IV <john_boffemmyer_iv at boff-net.dhs.org> wrote:

> Sridhar: I could always sell you my incredibly flawed and limited 
> Palm m130 with partially defective color display (Palm had a recall 
> on them that really didn't give you a working m130 back without 
> paying out the ass for the value of 2 of them... and it would still 
> have the same somewhat flawed display of 50-something thousand colors 
> instead of the proper 64k, amazing what those marketing idiots did). 
> Sorry, had to have a laugh. Also, there used to be a joke/image out 
> there about M$: The next new future: "Windows CE_Me_NT: dumb as a 
> brick and goes about as fast."
> 
> My younger brother got bored one day and did research on reducing the 
> size of Win98 (he does naughty things like program and reverse 
> engineer when he gets bored). He found that if you remove a good 
> chink of the B.S. in Win98SE, you could have a working graphical OS 
> in the footprint of about 48MB, full installation. Obviously, after 
> he tinkered with the research and all, the drive was immediately 
> blanked entirely for legality sake, etc. Just shows how much garbage 
> there really is in there if the newer XP takes about what- 1GB for 
> fully loaded installation? It probably only truly needs (estimating 
> fairly) about 256MB for something that much more complex and
graphical.
> 
> Final thing: looking online for replacement Palm batteries confirms 
> the poor planning and intent on selling those damned things. 
> $30-40.00 US plus shipping for a replacement m130 battery via 3rd 
> party (Palm doesn't even offer it and their tech-help confirmed 
> that)! For a unit only 3-4 years old, that is about double what the 
> unit goes for used, in good to excellent condition, on ebay.
> 
> -John
> 
Yes, but the 'good to excellent condition' unit that is 3-4 years old
probably is also due for a battery replacement.  I recently bought a
Tungsten E and am happy except I do anticipate needing a new battery
before the unit has served it's useful life (I try to wring a lot longer
life out of expensive gear than the manufacturer plans).

To drag things back on topic, battery replacement for portable 'vintage'
machines is always an issue.  My Powerbook 165c (which is _quite_ on
topic here now, I hope) needs a battery that would cost quite a bit.  My
PC Convertable needs a battery, but last time I cracked a Convertible
battery pack, it was just C-size Nicads spot welded together.  I've now
started using a fairly nice 386sx Zenith laptop for assembly language
programming and it's close to time to look into batteries for it (the
brick powerpack is pretty cumbersome.)  The Model 100 is the king of
vintage portables, though, and it just slowly eats regular batteries.