|
We have started a new column here at 2T. Confessions From
the Field is a place to share your real feelings (yes,
get emotional) about Hand Held Computers. Who knows better?
You work with them every day and you need to get it out. No
names of manufacturers please. We want to keep this fun and
educational.
Carrie, our editor, will try to be as consoling as possible
whilst offering real world advice. Please email Carrie
HERE We
reserve the right to edit inappropriate language and can not
publish each and every submission. If we publish your
submission we will mail you a designer box of tissues and a
pretty spectacular candy bar.
|
NEW!
Confessions from
WILDWOOD
I work for a
utilities company (name withheld) near Wildwood NJ,
and after the last snow storm, I'm considering
moving to Arizona! Over 700 homes lost power and I
was the one that had to go out into the mess to
inspect the downed lines. Here's how it went....take
a picture of the damage, type up the location and
the description of the damage and record the exact
time I took the picture. Trudge back to the office
after doing 20-25 locations, match up the photos to
their corresponding locations, wrap it all up into a
bundle and send to the main office for processing. I
hate my job and I hate snow. Thanks for listening.
Bill W. Torrontes Jr.
Wildwood, NJ
When I was 15 I
went to Wildwood with my Chess Team. Boy, the
stories I could tell about late nights at the
arcade, eating ice cream for breakfast...we were
such bad a**es! But I digress.
Don't be a snow hater.
What you need
JB is a Hydrus®
Luna with GPS. You can take the photos, input
your data, attach a GPS location and send it all
in one fell swoop, straight to the main office.
One and done! No need to thank me, just let me
come stay at your beach house this summer for
free and we'll call it even Steven, I mean,
Jersey Boy.
Let me know how it goes.
Got a story to
tell? Email Carrie now!
|
Confessions
from the DOCK
My old
hand held was black and smaller than my hand. I had to take
my gloves off ten times a day to use it. . . . One day it
fell into a container and I left it there. Now I wear my
glasses on the job.
Henry S.
Fort Lauderdale, FL
Hard to blame
you Henry, and a familiar story for us here at 2T.
Sometimes companies try to save money by purchasing PDAs
(Personal Data Assistants). These units have keyboards that
are designed for consumer texting not industrial
applications. Taking off your gloves should not be a
necessity when inputting data in the field. If you dropped
a 2T product in a container it would be easily identified by
its bright color and size. You would never leave a
dedicated field tool in a container would you?
|
Confessions
from the ROAD
My boss
gave us these PDAs to read meters. On the third day I had
it
I dropped
it on concrete and it broke into 100 pieces. I picked up
the pieces (most went under a refrigerator) and mailed them
to my boss.
Jim R.
Chico, CA
I’ll bet your
boss learned a valuable lesson? You’re a klutz? No, Jim
your PDA was designed for drops to carpet and not concrete.
PDAs are typically not rated for drop testing because they
are not meant to be dropped. As your boss has learned by
now, it is important to investigate drop test specifications
before investing in a hardware solution. Look for a product
that has at least a 1 meter to concrete drop test
specification. |
Confessions from the Inventor
I'm not lazy, per say. I just like short cuts, making
things easier, and taking "work" out of work- an
inventor of sorts. When I duct-taped my $500 camera to
my $1000 computer, my boss got to thinking. Why not get
a camera and computer in one! Of course he took credit
for that brilliant idea. The introduction of the
JETT•eye was timely. Now I'm into something else;
designing a coffee machine that adds cream, sugar and
stirs. Stay tuned because a real large coffee shop has
my number.
James S. Stewart
Boise, Idaho
Hey
James, Can I call you Jimmy? Jimmy it’s great about
your boss and the JETT•eye. The fact that it’s a 5MP
color camera and a true shutter system makes it
unprecedented. Does your boss work for Two
Technologies? Can we change subjects? That coffee
company, does it have the initials S.B.? I’m
investing. Thanks for the tip. In this economy
investments need to be rock solid. Please let our
readers know about your other inventions (pre patent of
course).
Got a story to
tell? Email Carrie now!
|
Confessions from the Technologically Challenged
I've been using pen and paper to do my job for 30 years
now...so when they gave me this dang PDA with all its
tiny F1s and Alt buttons, I had no idea how to do my
job. Why can't the keys say exactly what they do? I
mean, call me old fashioned but isn’t that the point of
text on a key?
Karen McClusky
Ambler, PA
Hi Karen, Well call me old fashioned also. I don’t
know what it is with hand held computer
manu-facturers. They seem to forget that there is a
true user of their products and that
they designed the software so of
course
they know what F-1 does! Here at 2T
most of the comp-uters we ship have keypads printed
with application specific icons and text like STOP,
GO, NEXT, PRINT, PHOTO - you get me, right? Custom
keypads are not a major expense; however it does
require interaction with actual users of the product
to perfect the ease of use. Thanks for sharing
Karen. I like the word
dang too!
|
Confessions from the Deep
One time, when I was taking water samples at a local
pond, I slipped on a rock, my hand held flew out of my
hand and sank right to the bottom. I thought about going
in after it, but I knew my entire day’s worth of data
was destined to rest with the fish. When I told my boss
what had happened, he never evened looked up while
mumbling to take another out of the closet. Maybe if he
gave us water tight units I could have a raise one year
soon.
George Kakaratis
Appleton, WI
George, oh George, oh George. My first boyfriend’s name
was George. He was from Pittsburgh though. Anyway,
let’s call your boss Mike here to really make this
scenario come to life. Mike doesn’t get it George.
Mike was brought up through some industry, maybe yours,
to believe that handheld computers should be
disposable. Someone is not watching the proverbial shop
and you are paying the price. Please ask Mike to give 2T
a call. Our newest baby, Hydrus, sat in our pond here
at the company for over twelve hours at ten feet until
our latest Environmental Test guru Jimmy fished it out.
Because it is sealed to IP67/68 it ran perfectly. Give
me your boss's email and I will have sales get him a
unit for evaluation and I will swear it was all your
idea. Get ready for that raise, George!
|
Confessions from the Bored
I work for a big used car dealership and our brand is
everywhere. On the company trucks, our shirts, our pens,
and even our license plate brackets. This hand held they
have me carrying around everywhere, well, it's just
plain ugly! Since when is "beige" a good color for
anything? The thing reeks of 1996. I've been thinking
about painting it blue and slapping a sticker on it so
I'm not so embarrassed to be seen with the monstrosity.
As I tell my wife every morning, “Honey, after twenty
years, I’m sure glad you’re so nice to look at.” You
get my point Carrie?
Harvey Ahern
Denver, CO
Dang
Harvey, my boss wants me to ask if you’re hitting on me.
He’s very protective. Color. Here at 2T we design in
color. I keep begging the company to come out with a
pink case for breast cancer awareness and a green one
for our green initiative here at 2T. We at 2T want to
show the world how powerful color can be. We produce
hand held computers in crazy colors like, florescent
green, safety orange, periwinkle blue, sunburst yellow,
and fire engine red. We’re sure our competition will
catch on to this color craze, but for now we like that
saying, “let sleeping dogs lie.”
|
|
Confessions
from the FOREST
I used to
scream profanities at trees
when my hand held's battery died.
Bill M.
Trenton, NJ
Dear Bill,
I knew the day we got your call, we could save your sanity
and change your habits. The Hydrus is quite a product, huh?
With a dual smart battery system and 40+ hours, I’ll bet
you’re working overtime! One question. Are you now a tree
hugger?
|
Confessions
from the LOT
Once when
it was raining my hand held started to buzz. It buzzed so
loud, I got scared. Finally the screen went black and the
buzzing stopped. It was a God send! I hated that thing.
Cathi P.
Hauppauge, NY
Cathi, have
your boss call me! IP Ratings are critical for outdoor
applications. Remember the first number denotes protection
against dust/particle intrusion (IP6X) and the second
denotes protection against water/liquid Ingress (IP-X7-8).
You should never be in an outdoor application without an
IP67 rating. With the new 2T Hydrus your days of “Soggy
Computer Syndrome” are over. The Hydrus exceeds IP67 with
an IP67/68 rating. We raised the bar. The IP-67/68 rating
denotes that it is totally protected against dust and can be immersed in
1 meter of water
for over 30 minutes. |
What do you
want to do next:
SEND YOUR CONFESSION
TO CARRIE NOW!
Explore the Hydrus HERE!
Check out the
Hydrus Luna Images! |
|
|
