Positive news re: Palm Pilot:
The Wall Street Journal -- June 22, 1998
Breakaway (A Special Report): Technology
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The Road Worrier:
When it comes to the office, you CAN take it with you;
But beware: It may be kind of heavy
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By Rich Jaroslovsky
Let's face it: Airline TV commercials to the contrary, most businesspeople who travel a lot aren't really road warriors. "Road worrier" is more like it.
Venture far from your desk and the nagging fears immediately set in. What's going on in the office? Do I have all the information I'll need for my trip? Can the people in the office reach me when they need to? Can I reach them?
Technology -- in the form of laptop computers, wireless phones and all the other modern tools of the mobile executive -- can help assuage those fears. But taking technology on the road can have its own perils and frustrations when the promise of constantly being in touch meets the reality of balky products or inferior service.
It's wonderful that technology can render the concept of being "out of pocket" obsolete. But it doesn't do much good to simply replace it with "the system is down."
When I leave the office, my constant companion is a nondescript black canvas computer bag with a fraying handle, stuffed with a half-dozen or so pieces of business technology. Every gadget is there for a reason, and I'm more or less satisfied with each one.
It's a task in itself to keep all that technology working smoothly -- but there are tips I can share on salvaging a disintegrating electronic address book or shaking down the cellular company for a new phone. Meanwhile, of course, I'm also constantly on the lookout for the next new product to ease my traveler's paranoia.
With that in mind, here's a look at one admittedly idiosyncratic Road Worrier's tools of the trade.
THE COMPUTER
An IBM ThinkPad 770
Yes, it's on the heavy side -- eight pounds, give or take. And yes, it is exorbitantly expensive, at about $4,900. But the ThinkPad 770 is worth every ounce and every penny.
There are two ways you can go in a laptop computer. One is to go cheap, light and underpowered, figuring you will use it as an adjunct to your "real" computer at the office. But I've been there and done that -- and didn't like it. Inevitably, the file that I wanted on the road was on the desktop machine. And for a true Road Worrier, not having ready access to important information is the ultimate frustration.
The other way is to get a laptop good enough to do double duty on both the desktop and the tray table. Using a laptop as your main machine does have a few drawbacks. Lose it or leave it somewhere and everything is gone. And by the time you add on a docking station, monitor and other accouterments to maximize its usefulness as a desktop machine, you could well end up spending even more than the cost of separate office and road computers.
But Road Worriers crave anything that will make their lives simpler. By making your office and portable computers one and the same, you can take it with you.
That's where the ThinkPad comes in. With big-time power and speed, it has enough muscle to handle most any business task I can throw at it. At the office, I link it to the company network and use an external monitor and keyboard. But with its enormous (for a laptop) 14.1-inch active-matrix color screen and ability to easily swap in and out additional components like a CD-ROM drive, it allows me to work comfortably from anywhere.
ThinkPads do have a few quirks that take getting used to. Some people find the mouse substitute -- a little rubber knob the size of a pencil eraser that sticks up from the keyboard -- annoying, though I don't. Then there's IBM's proprietary, nonstandard configuration program, which occasionally picks fights with your Microsoft Windows settings, resulting in odd behavior until you track down the source of the conflict.
Those quibbles aside, though, ThinkPads deserve their reputation as the Mercedes of portable computing.
THE PDA
A PalmPilot Professional
People tend to feel passionate about their PalmPilots, and it's easy to see why. The PalmPilot, for those not yet in the cult, is a shirt-pocket-size gadget from 3Com Corp. that holds your address book, calendar and to-do list, as well as performing myriad other small but convenient functions. You can enter data into the unit by using a small plastic stylus and a form of primitive but easy-to-learn handwriting recognition called Graffiti.
Best of all is its ability to share information with your desktop computer. A small stand hooks up to a port on the back of your computer; you simply put the PalmPilot in the stand and push a single button. The PalmPilot locates the calendar and contact-manager software on your computer and compares the data there with the comparable records in its own memory. A new appointment entered on the PalmPilot also shows up in your desktop calendar; a new business contact you entered on the computer shows up in the PalmPilot. This synchronization feature works with a variety of popular calendar programs, including Starfish Software's Sidekick -- my personal choice -- and calendar software that is bundled with the Pilot.
My main problem with my $299 PalmPilot Professional was as much my fault as the unit's: It isn't really built sturdily enough to take the kind of abuse a frequent traveler can inflict on it. After about 15 months, my unit was still in one piece, but barely. A piece of Scotch tape held in place a thin piece of the plastic case that broke off. The two halves of the unit easily pulled apart. And every time I removed it from the Velcro backing in the optional leather case, the back of the unit would remain firmly affixed in place, exposing the unit's innards.
Finally, I contacted 3Com, resigned to having to pay for the needed repairs for a unit long out of warranty. Much to my surprise, the company promptly offered me two eminently reasonable options, neither of them involving any cost to me: I could either send my unit in for repair and return, or 3Com would send me a comparable reconditioned unit into which I could transfer my data and then send them the damaged unit. I chose the latter course, and within a few days had neatly effected the swap.
A consumer-friendly policy from a technology company? What a revolutionary concept.
THE CELLULAR PHONE
A Motorola MicroTAC Elite; service from AT&T Wireless Services
A cellular phone may be both the most essential and most frustrating piece of technology for a businessperson on the go. Essential because, in theory, it provides a direct connection to home base. Frustrating because the theory too often isn't the practice.
I don't care what the technology is -- analog cellular, digital cellular, PCS, you name it -- the simple fact is that wireless communication still isn't dependable enough. Calls don't go through, or get broken up, or coverage areas are too small. I use analog cellular service, but friends and colleagues who have chosen other methods seem to grouse about their services nearly as much as I grouse about mine.
But if you can't always count on wireless service, you can at least console yourself with a snazzy new phone every so often.
That's how I got the MicroTAC a year or so ago. Larger than the new generation of "wearable" phones, it nonetheless is light and slender enough to slip easily into a jacket pocket or purse. I got it by simply calling AT&T once my initial service contract ran out and mentioning that I was considering switching to a competitor.
Cellular companies don't often advertise the fact, but they will provide you with a hefty credit toward a new phone if you are willing to re-up for another year's service. Your calls still may not go through often enough, but at least you'll be able to place them with style.
THE PAGER
A Motorola PageFinder; SkyWord Plus service from SkyTel
This is the newest weapon in my arsenal. For years, I resisted the impulse to carry a pager, relying on the cell phone to stay in touch. But the limitations of wireless service finally pushed me to act.
The SkyWord Plus service ($29.95 a month) provides essentially nationwide coverage in metropolitan areas. Even more important, the service stores your messages if it can't deliver them -- if you are out of range, for example, or the pager's batteries die. Thus, it reduces the chances that an important message will simply disappear into the ether.
In addition, SkyWord offers multiple ways for people to page you -- entering a phone number on their telephone keypad, dictating a message to a human operator, sending electronic mail direct to the pager, even filling out a form on a Web page.
THE PERSONAL NOTE RECORDER
A Voice It VT-800 from
Voice It Worldwide
This is the grown-up version of those Yak-Bak toys your kids play with -- a little $129 shirt-pocket-size, two-ounce gadget to capture verbal self-reminders or those little brainstorms you have while driving or sitting on the plane.
Note recorders tend to hold anywhere from 90 seconds to 90 minutes of your spoken pearls; some of them have all sorts of tiny buttons and LCD displays. But the Voice-It is fairly simple as these things go, offering as much as 22 minutes of recording time. I've never used more than a few minutes of that capacity myself, but maybe you're more long-winded. (Unlikely.)
The main drawback of the Voice It is simply that you have to get used to odd looks from others on the train wondering why you are talking into your hand. If you don't mind the pity of strangers, you'll find it a remarkably handy tool.
There they are -- the technological essentials of this Road Worrier's life. Now, if you'll excuse me, I gotta go call the office.
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Mr. Jaroslovsky is managing editor of The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition.
Journal Link: What are your most useful -- and most frustrating -- mobile-technology tools? Join an on-line discussion in The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition at wsj.com |
