P stands for Personal in PDA (confessions of a computer geek)

PDA stands for Personal Digital Assistant. This is the descriptor for those wonderful hand-held gadgets that keep track of all your appointment and contacts (and their detailed contact info), allow you to access email remotely, and some even can let you call people (cell-phone integrated). What they really are are little computers that are hand-sized. They used to be only for rich business people, but now most middle class people are getting them with their phone. They will eventually be as common as IPods. What is surprising is how PERSONAL they become.


I have one. It looks just like the one in the picture, except, being the geek that I am, I have modified the software that runs it (to an extreme measure). I got it about 5 years ago because I suffer from a severe case of CRS and am ADD. This means I need something to yell at me 10 minutes before I need to do it or it never gets done. Some people marry for that feature, but I thought people may look at me funny if I took my wife with me into meetings.

So, after a few years I have really become dependent on it. It's like my little friend. The only problem is that after a number of years a little part broke inside it and it would lose all its information every so often. Not a good thing, but what was I to do?

One of my very cool coworkers had one he wasn't using and very generously let me use it for a while to see if I would want it. In trying it I realized how in love I was with my own PDA. My PDA seemed to do everything better. Even though my coworker's PDA was a newer version with more features, mine just seemed better to me. I finally had to give his back; I just couldn't give up my own.

This left me no option but to fix my PDA. Now for some people this wouldn't be an option, but as an UBERgeek I knew that if it could be fixed, I could fix it. My first stab at the problem was to call Dell (who made my PDA) to see if I could get the part. They were not very nice. They told me that the part wasn't fixable and I had to replace the whole thing. After arguing with them for an hour I hung up the phone and yelled a defiant "PASHAW!!!" very loudly at it.

So I called on my SUPER ubergeek buddy Jeffery, who will attempt to fix anything with wires, no matter how foolish the attempt may be. I like him in part because he never thinks he can't do it. I knew that if anyone would have an idea, he would.

Can you believe that resourceful bastard found the exact part I needed on E-Bay? I don't know how he pulls this stuff off, but he sent me a link to the holy grail of my PDA dilemma. I had the part ordered in no time.

The next problem was installing it. It was very technical, and I can see that Dell really didn't want me to work on this PDA myself as they went to great lengths to hide all the screws. It was very complicated, and a little scary. I was operating on my little friend after all. It was like doing heart surgery on your best buddy!!!

So, after digging deep into the bowls of my PDA I pulled out the defective part and inserted the new one. I sewed it all up and, in a moment of truth, turned it on. My heart quickened as I waited to see if that beautiful "today" screen would ever appear again on its shiny screen.

It did! It worked! I then spent all night restoring its memory and testing it. Indeed, it seemed as good as new. It was only then, while cleaning up all my tools and readying myself for bed, that I found a screw. Yes, a screw. And it clearly belonged somewhere in the recesses of my PDA. I looked at my PDA, then back at the screw again. I went back and forth for like 10 minutes.

The PDA worked wonderfully without it, and I knew that to put it back in I would have to take it all apart again. Taking it apart the first time had been risky, and I would likely just do more damage than I would fix if I put that screw back in. So I did nothing. But I hated that I had erred in this manner, and the extra screw kept bothering me until I talked to Jeffery again.

He has a great philosophy that made me feel so much better: If there's a piece missing when you reassemble something, but the device still works, then don't worry. You just made it more efficient! So now I think, my PDA works better than it ever did and is now one screw lighter. Go ME!!!