[Vimoutliner] Taking Notes

[Noel Henson]

What I have done is purchased a much older Dell Latitude. These have two 
front bays. One for the battery and one for either a battery, floppy or 
CDROM reader. With two high-current battery packs, we get about 10 hours of 
run time between charges. It's kind of small. It only has a 12" screen but 
works fine.

Noel

On Thursday 29 November 2007, Tim Roberts wrote:
> This message is off-topic for this list, but based on past messages, I
> expect this group will have strong opinions, and will not be shy about
> sharing them.
>
> I attend a lot of meetings as a volunteer.  If I don't take notes,
> everything I hear leaks out of my brain almost immediately.  However,
> maintaining paper notes is tedious, especially given the quality of my
> handwriting.  I'm searching for the ultimate note-taking tool.
>
> A general-purpose laptop is problematic, for several reasons.  One is
> battery life.  I rarely have access to power, and some of the meetings
> last 5 or 6 hours.  Another is the weight and delicacy of a full-sized
> laptop.
>
> I started with an HP Jornada 620, which is a CE-based PDA with a 640x240
> screen and a 2/3-sized keyboard.  It worked pretty well, but it was
> tedious to use the small keyboard.  I then found the HP Jornada 820.  It
> is just about perfect.  Lightweight, sturdy, CE-based, 640x480 color
> screen, full-sized keyboard, 32MB, PCMCIA slot for wireless cards,
> compact flash slots, all the familiar apps.  I've used it a LOT.
>
> When I bought it, the battery lasted 8 hours.  That's down to about 3
> hours now; it failed partway through a meeting last week.  And because
> this machine was made in 1998, I can't find replacement batteries any
> more.  (Well, I found one for $242, but I only paid $200 for the whole
> unit.)
>
> So, I'm looking for recommendations.  I tried an AlphaSmart Dana, but it
> isn't backlit.  I've thought about Pocket PC with a foldable keyboard,
> but I'm worried that the screen size would be an issue.  I don't
> particularly care what operating system it runs.  I need to be able to
> type notes in outline form with a small amount of formatting, and either
> send them to my PC at home or send them to a printer.



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  Noel Henson
  www.noels-lab.com	Chips, firmware and embedded systems
  www.vimoutliner.org	Work fast. Think well.