Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their laptop. This is my first test of the AlphaSmart, on 2-8-2001.

This is another paragraph. Only problem I have so far is, I need a light or diesel horn to warn me when I hit CAPS LOCK, something I do quite frequently. Oh, there it is, in the lower right corner of the display panel.

And, when I need to correct a typo, no need to destructive-backspace over what I've just written to fix the offending letter. I used the left and up arrows to position the cursor, then just typed in the missing letter, which was inserted. In another case, I typed three letter 'f's in 'offending'. Just position the cursor over one of the three f's and hit backspace. Very logical. Very intuitive.

I normally never read the manual. In this case, I spent five minutes looking over the material which doing an unrelated task. The documentation makes me feel ashamed of my anti-manual bias. Not only is there a user's manual as thick as that which came with my Dell laptop, there's a HARDBOUND tool kit and lessons guide aimed at students in kindergarten, middle school and high school grade levels. The lesson plans are logically organized and attractively illustrated in full color.

From the second I opened the box, everything I've seen has been a really pleasant surprise.

My AlphaSmart came with a laptop-grade fabric carrying case, (3) AA batteries, the USB cable I chose, and the manuals. You might think there'd be more, but you'd be missing the point.

The AlphaSmart is powerful and sophisticated, but SIMPLE. You don't need anything else. Despite my fascination with the presentation and packaging, which is a delight in this day and age, what I really wanted is just to put the batteries in and try it out.

If you want to talk "complicated", I guess I'm the right person. I dig Linux, Windows 2000 and Perl. I'd rather build my own desktop computer from parts than buy one off the shelf. I do all this stuff knowing better than most people that the JavaScript applets and annoying web banners have utterly no meaning without the underlying power of the simple written word (I'm also a Mac person).

Plain ASCII text rules. But, until we generate the content itself, the idea and the message, there is nothing "there" to which we may add bolding, color, font styles, buttons and banners - and no point in adding it.

I had my AlphaSmart up and running in 3 minutes. I composed this text on it in a few more minutes (it saves your work automatically as you go, there is no way to "lose" it, and I'm typing everything in my lap while I wait for Windows to boot up for another task I have to attend to.

To save batteries (three AA Alkalines last 500 hours), I'll shut it down with a simple on/off switch, but I already know that when I turn it on again, my AlphaSmart will find and display this 'file 1' for me. No directory searches needed here, though there is even a 'find' key.

2-16-2001 The last time I sat down in a public place to type notes, I discovered a keyboard problem with my Dell laptop that led to many wasted hours and an eventual service call. That was the day I arrived 2 hours early for a doctor appointment - it's a long story and we can skip it - but it was a wasted two hours. My point: I like my Dell, but it's not an AlphaSmart. I'm composing this at San Francisco International. I can put this work away at the drop of a hat. It is worth my while to fish the AlphaSmart out of my carry bag, even just to jot down a minute or two worth of ideas. My Dell wouldn't have even finished booting.

Again, there is nothing to "save" since this device saves every keystroke. Finally, the perfect travel companion.

I guess that makes me a person who travels with both an AlphaSmart and a laptop, and that would seem confusing to many, even though it makes perfect sense to me. I can take my office with me, but no longer am I forced to "set up shop" to stay productive during idle time.

Believe me, SFO is synonymous with idle time.

Going back to my arrival at the doctor's office two hours early, my only choices were to arrive way early, or risk a massive commute tie-up and being late. As it turns out, the doctor was late because of a different commute bottleneck, so I lost 2-1/2 hours.

My intention had been to review a program I'm writing in Perl. While there's little sense in writing too many paragraphs of code without compiling and testing it, my objective was to review what I had already done, and take notes on directions I wanted to take from there.

Obviously, I can't do the code on my AlphaSmart, but as author, I already know the code, and can take all the notes I want without interrupting this journal. Please pardon me for a few moments while I hit the File2 key on my AlphaSmart and begin another file. This one will be waiting for me at whatever time I'm able to return.

There.