Thursday, May 15, 2003
Pocket PCs Turn Me Into a Stalker
Posted by Brad Adrian in "THOUGHT" @ 01:00 AM
Most of us who love technology and our Pocket PCs recognize that we sometimes do strange or scary things because of our passion for our devices. (Take a look at the "W?BIC!" or ScotteVest threads if you need further convincing.) The times I see my behaviour most dramatically shaped by my love for Pocket PCs are when I see other people using theirs.
For example, yesterday I was visiting my local home improvement store, sorting through a huge stack of plywood, searching for a sheet that wasn't horribly warped. Suddenly, my sixth sense told me that there was another Pocket PC user nearby, and I turned around in time to notice a man walking slowly down the aisle, carefully holding some kind of handheld.
Believe it or not, I can be shy around strangers (stop laughing), and I didn't want to just stare at this guy and what he was doing. So, I let him walk past me, and I slowly made my way to the next aisle. Then, I peered through the open spots in the aisle, trying to figure out what he was using and what he was doing. It soon resembled a scene from an old sitcom, with me stumbling down the aisle, tripping with nearly every step, as I tried to grab peeks at what my "quarry" was up to.
At one point I lost sight of the guy, so I struggled to climb onto a small stack of lumber and squeezed my head into a very small opening in the aisle. No sooner had my head popped out the other side when I heard an ahem! from behind me. I gulped, pulled my head back out and slowly turned around. There in front of me stood the guy with his handheld -- along with three store employees.
"May we help you, sir?" the largest of the four asked me in a stern, condescending tone. "Or would you just like to climb around some more and stalk our plywood sales representative?"
In the end, I don't think my explanation would have been nearly as convincing had I not been carrying both my Pocket PC Phone Edition and Pocket PC Thoughts business cards (Thanks, Jason!). Anyway, the guy I had been following was simply using an iPAQ with a barcode scanner and customized software to manage the inventory of his company's products. He'd scan the shelf tag under a stack of wood and type in the number of pieces in the pile. When he was done, he then hit a <SEND> button and the iPAQ wirelessly dialed into the corporate server and submitted the data. By the next day, more lumber was on its way to the store.
This kind of inventory management and replenishment is just the kind of thing Pocket PCs were made for. The capability to do what I saw has been around for quite a while, but it was still fun to see it firsthand. Not necessarily fun enough to get arrested for, but still fun.
I wiggled out of trouble that time, but it made me wonder: What kind of trouble has YOUR love of Pocket PCs gotten YOU into?
For example, yesterday I was visiting my local home improvement store, sorting through a huge stack of plywood, searching for a sheet that wasn't horribly warped. Suddenly, my sixth sense told me that there was another Pocket PC user nearby, and I turned around in time to notice a man walking slowly down the aisle, carefully holding some kind of handheld.
Believe it or not, I can be shy around strangers (stop laughing), and I didn't want to just stare at this guy and what he was doing. So, I let him walk past me, and I slowly made my way to the next aisle. Then, I peered through the open spots in the aisle, trying to figure out what he was using and what he was doing. It soon resembled a scene from an old sitcom, with me stumbling down the aisle, tripping with nearly every step, as I tried to grab peeks at what my "quarry" was up to.
At one point I lost sight of the guy, so I struggled to climb onto a small stack of lumber and squeezed my head into a very small opening in the aisle. No sooner had my head popped out the other side when I heard an ahem! from behind me. I gulped, pulled my head back out and slowly turned around. There in front of me stood the guy with his handheld -- along with three store employees.
"May we help you, sir?" the largest of the four asked me in a stern, condescending tone. "Or would you just like to climb around some more and stalk our plywood sales representative?"
In the end, I don't think my explanation would have been nearly as convincing had I not been carrying both my Pocket PC Phone Edition and Pocket PC Thoughts business cards (Thanks, Jason!). Anyway, the guy I had been following was simply using an iPAQ with a barcode scanner and customized software to manage the inventory of his company's products. He'd scan the shelf tag under a stack of wood and type in the number of pieces in the pile. When he was done, he then hit a <SEND> button and the iPAQ wirelessly dialed into the corporate server and submitted the data. By the next day, more lumber was on its way to the store.
This kind of inventory management and replenishment is just the kind of thing Pocket PCs were made for. The capability to do what I saw has been around for quite a while, but it was still fun to see it firsthand. Not necessarily fun enough to get arrested for, but still fun.
I wiggled out of trouble that time, but it made me wonder: What kind of trouble has YOUR love of Pocket PCs gotten YOU into?
