Donations

Some of you may notice the new PayPal Donate button in the upper right corner of the site. I'm not begging for money, and the site's not going anywhere. But someone in one of the many discussion threads supporting Wes Salmon suggested that he and the former moderators of PDA Buzz could get together, set up a new site, and busker-like, ask for donations if people liked what they found on the site.

Given my fondness for the busker way, I thought I'd try the same thing here. I'm not asking for money and there's certainly no obligation on your part, but if you're feeling particularly generous and the stuff you find at Writing On Your Palm informs or entertains you, don't be shy about kicking a buck or two my way once in a while.

Power-sucking Keyboard

Is it my imagination, or has the battery life on my Jornada taken a sharp turn southward since I started using the HP Pocket Keyboard? I saw mine drop to 25% today for I think the first time ever since I've owned the device. Jornada and thumbboard owners: do you see a decrease in juice when the thumbboard is attached? Email me with your impressions, or post on the discussion board.

Make Your Feelings Known

If you're as outraged as I am about Handheld Media Group firing Wes Salmon, drop them a line and let them know how you feel. While they claim it's just a financial decision, nothing more, I'm not sure I buy it. Wes was given the choice of being fired or doing what had been his full-time job without pay for six months to regain ownership of the site. Essentially, it looks like they gave Wes an offer they knew he'd have to refuse. This way they can say they tried to keep him while acquiring one of the web's leading community sites without having to pay much for it. This may backfire disastrously for them as most of the regulars in that community have quit the site in a touching show of solidarity, many of them taking refuge in the forums of other sites like Pocket PC Thoughts.

In the words of Dennis Miller, though, "Of course that's just my opinion. I could be wrong."

Given that I'm only 60 miles north of their offices in Colorado Springs, I'm tempted to drive down there and give Rick, Denny and Dave a piece of my mind in person. For now I'll avoid any potential time in the hoosegow and stick with the rather formally worded letter below.

I can't express the level of my disappointment in learning that Handheld Media Group ousted Wes Salmon from the web site he created. Once a great community for PDA enthusiasts, PDA Buzz will be a shadow of its former self without Wes and the diligent moderators who quit in a show of loyalty after Wes was let go.

I realize your official stance on the matter is that due to the depressed tech economy, PDA Buzz can't pull in enough ad revenue to support a full-time employee to run the site. I respectfully suggest that if that were indeed the case, HHMG should have forseen than back in February and either not purchased the site, or at least not made the pretense of keeping Wes on and that PDA Buzz would be business as usual.

I will remove the link to PDA Buzz from my website, and I will encourage my readers to voice their opinions to you on this matter as well. While I used to make it a habit to visit "da Buzz" twice a day or more, I see no reason to return in the future.

Sincerely,

Jeff Kirvin
Editor, Writing On Your Palm

Happy Independence Day

To all my US readers, have a happy and safe Fourth of July!

Giant-thumbed Mutant

Okay, maybe I'm just into change for the sake of change. (Not that there's anything wrong with that...) Despite the fact that I stopped using my hp pocket keyboard shortly after writing a glowing review back in February, I'm back to thumbing away.

What changed? First off, I finally got Stellarmetric's HPHotKey app to work properly. This little $5 gem adds many of the navigational features I missed before, like access to the Start Menu, Today screen and hardware buttons without using the stylus.

Second, I think I decided, "I own the dang thing, so why not use it?" So far, it's been far more useful to me than earlier in the year, and my typing has been more accurate. Who knows, maybe this will convince me to invest in a SnapNType if I spring for an iPAQ 3900 down the road...

Building a Better Mousetrap Dept.: Knowing all the bone-headed mistakes publishers are making today, if you were going to invent a new kind of publishing company, how would you do it? Seth Godin mentioned recently some of his ideas for a new kind of record label, but a lot of those ideas (like Internet-only sales and no radio airplay) don't translate to publishing very well.

I sat in a restaurant over lunch recently, reading my copy of Preston & Child's Thunderhead on my Jornada. (Good read, btw.) The waitress walked over and said, "Got a new toy?"

"I'm just finishing a good book," I said.

She was amazed, and asked me if I could download whole chapters at a time. When I explained that I had nearly three hundred complete ebooks on my Jornada, that just about blew her mind. She said it was the coolest thing she'd ever seen. I get that reaction a lot. Most people don't even know you can carry hundreds of books in your pocket.

That's the audience I want to reach: "normal" people that have never really thought about ebooks, who might not even know ebooks exist. Would you try selling ebooks to the "un-teched," or does a new publishing company have to sell books on tree pulp in brick & mortar stores to reach the masses?

Join the discussion in the WOYP forum.