Taking a Step Back from the Ubiquitous Smart Phone

I admit it, I am somewhat of a techno ascetic and now that I have
bored the reader thoroughly with my prattle on the
[sliderule](http://melton.sdf-us.org/blog/13457.html), let's turn
the dial on the wayback machine forward a couple of decades and talk
about the predecessor to the smart phone, of course I'm referring to
the Palm Pilot.  The little pda may or [may
not](https://www.itpro.co.uk/mobile/30268/is-the-pda-about-to-make-a-comeback)
have faded into obscurity.

Thankfully, I am not too much invested, financially and otherwise,
in my smart phone.  I broke down a couple of years ago and purchased
a refurbished Samsung for about $40 USD and connected it with a
carrier who provides a very low tier "free" service which provides
200 minutes talk time, 500 MB data, and 500 text messages.  The
thinking at the time was that I rarely use the phone, but it would
be good for emergencies and perhaps using the GPS feature.  But
nowadays it is almost accepted as an axiom that our phones are
spying on us, surreptitiously [sending data to third
parties](https://techxplore.com/news/2018-07-smartphone-spying.html)
and the same data is hoovered up by government agencies while it is
enroute to its destination.  Appalled at the level of snooping even
if it is benign (\*chortle\*) has led me to conclude one should
*NOT* have any expectation of privacy or security when using a smart
phone (or nowadays any phone for that matter).  Although I have
opted to keep my smart phone for emergencies, or to send a text here
or there, I decided to perhaps take a step back.  

I needed a place to store my calendar as well as contact list with
at least some semblance of privacy and security.  Blowing the dust
off of my long ago mothballed [Palm Tungsten
E](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_Tungsten#Tungsten_E), I
decided to see if I could resurrect it and make it useful.  To my
surprise, the unit was holding a charge, but most of the apps were
long gone since they are stored in ram on this particular Palm
Pilot.  I still had the Windows CD for restoring the programs, but
it would not play nice with my Linux box using Wine.  Thankfully,
Lubuntu still has a few programs in it's repository for allowing a
Linux box to sync with the Palm, most notably Pilot-Link which at
least allowed me to perform the necessary syncing from the command
line.  The SD card still had a few apps such as
[Plucker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plucker), [The Core Pocket
Media
Player](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Core_Pocket_Media_Player),
a sun compass, scientific calculator,
[Mobipocket](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobipocket) as well as
the standard palm reader.  With Pilot-link, I was able to
successfully transfer the basic apps from the Windows Desktop cd and
I was up and running with a 16 year old pda.  Essentially, the pda
can perform most of the basic functions of a smart phone (without
the bells, whistles and eye candy) minus the ability to make calls.
The caveat with regard to the Tungsten E is that one has to be
vigilant about keeping the battery charged otherwise the operating
system which resides in ram is lost rendering the unit as a brick
until a full restore can be performed from the computer.  It does
not have the same battery life as my smart phone, but it is
sufficient for my needs.

![Palm-Tungsten-E](http://melton.sdf-us.org/images/349px-TungstenE.png)

Image Credit: User:Kguirnela [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)]

Archive.org has a treasure trove of old apps for the Palm, many of
which are still useful and relevant and there are also open source
apps available.

The Palm Tungsten E has no Bluetooth or Wifi to
[exploit](https://www.zdnet.com/article/bluetooth-security-flaw-blueborne-iphone-android-windows-devices-at-risk/)
and as a much older gadget, I can rest reasonably assured that some
unscrupulous entity
([political](http://massprivatei.blogspot.com/2019/02/digital-drivers-licenses-and.html?m=1)
or otherwise) is not pouring countless man hours trying to find a
security vulnerability on a Palm Pilot.

---

Speaking of technology in a broader context, in what is proving to
be somewhat of an embarrassment for Lockheed-Martin a [sixty's era
Indian Mig 21 Bison has shot down a Pakistani second generation
F-16](https://www.businesstoday.in/current/economy-politics/fishbed-vs-falcon-why-the-ancient-mig-21-f-16-kill-is-no-fluke/story/324025.html)
while in close combat.  The western media, as to be expected, has
turned the spin cycle on high to either discredit the evidence or
water down the significance.  It simply demonstrates that newer
technology does not necessarily mean better technology.  In this
case, the older fighter jet was in the hands of a skilled pilot.
Lockheed-Martin...the world is watching and saying,
"hmm...interesting."

Tags: computing, retro