Most of us who write and read Writing on Your Palm are incorrigable gadget fiends. Web vendors are our singles bars; at the least, in a bar one has dim lighting, clothing a size too small, and alcohol to cloud the mind. The gadget fiend has no such excuses. Hard specs list the foibles and features, but we willingly overlook faults for a tawdry (but oh so expensive) summer fling. Woe be the palm fitting computer who falls into our covetous hands. Perhaps the little toy is not curvaceous enough? Too heavy? Buttons become too loud? Through no ill use the casing begins to creak? Crow's feet developing on that lustrous, smooth plastic screen? The sprightly fellow has lost a step? Even the best of them last a short time before we trade them for a younger, stacked model, despite all our protestations of perfection.

But the cycle has broken! I have found the perfect PDA! It is the Zodiac. Jeff had already given it his approval. And I'm not going to add much more. The price point cannot be beat, for the machine one gets. It has 2 SD slots, 320x480 screen, and $299 for the 32 MB version of the machine. Pricegrabber reports the Toshiba 800 remains at approximately $550. I got a half-VGA machine for almost half the price. The most important reason I became dissatisfied with the iPaq 2210 is, through no fault of its own, it had a constraining 240x320 screen. It should be enough. I fidgeted with fonts when I should have been reading. I bounced between a 10 or 12 point font for Georgia or IFC Charter. The fonts seemed either too large or too small. The low words per page (or screen) with the 12 point font disappointed me, although I preferred using it for long periods of reading. The screen has always been the reason I upgraded. My first machine was a Visor Pro; it didn't take long for me to replace it with the Prism. A PocketPC detour lasted about 2 years (240x320), and I would have continued with this platform had I been able to afford the Toshiba 800 (480x640). But if that price ever lowers, I would have found perfection at last...