Yesterday I was experimenting with various Palm blogging tools, when my wife reminded me that we had an engagement about 2 hours away. Cool! I had 2 hours to fiddle on the post, and generally play with the new software. So I ran out and got a keyboard, as I’ve finally given up on learning to Fitaly fast enough, and was looking forward to typing in the car..

About 10 minutes into the ride, the screen goes white. No response from anything, not the reset button, not power plus reset, nothing. My T3 has become an expensive and not very good flashlight. Ok, I think I’ve had this happen before, and I recall that just letting the battery die will fix it. 5 hours later, the screen is dark and I figure the battery is dead. I put it on the charger - no charging light. After half an hour, still no light. Uh oh…

I start thinking back, and I remember that last week I had discovered that my cradle at work had been unplugged. I have no idea how long it was unplugged, and it is truly a mystery how my palm stayed charged. It seemed likely that my battery was dead.

I know that sending it back to PalmOne will probably be expensive, so I hit the net found a place selling Palm parts, that also has nice dissassembly instructions for my T3. Screwing up my courage, I figured I’d take the battery out and at least check it with a volt meter.

As it happened, as soon as I disconnected the battery and reconnected it, my palm came back to life! The process wasn’t even that difficult, 6 very tiny screws, and two clips. If you don’t already have some micro-tiny screwdrivers, I highly recommend the ones from Wiha. A hemostat is also a handy tool for disconnecting the battery connector.

So, if your Palm goes into a coma, this might be something to try.

Folks, I don’t know if I’m the only one who suffers this, but I suspect not. There are a lot of business books published out there (14 a day?) and I seem to be surrounded by people who are determined to read all of them. Or, at least, be seen carrying the latest one with plenty of post-its sticking out there and there.

I saw this great link on how to read business books at Cyberlibris. At first, you might wonder why on earth anyone needs to be instructed on how to read a business book - after all, aren’t business folks already pretty well versed in reading? But I think this was a really good idea, because I think it’s way too easy to read these books and see them as step by step or specific instructions on how to solve problems. It’s way too easy to take them literally.

Cyberlibris has the right idea - the concepts and generalities in these books are tools for the toolbox, not an action plan.

I know that WordPress supports email posting, but looking through the posts it seems to be a dicey business. With a trip coming up, and the desire to blog on the go, I thought I would look into the various Palm blogging tools available.

Today I tried Vagablog, Hblogger, and mo:Blog. All have the basic functionality of creating and publishing a post. I can’t comment on the compatibility of programs with the various systems – all I can really comment on is my experience.

Vagablog is the least expensive, at $7. Its registration reminder is unobtrusive and unavoidable – you get 5 posts, and they warn you when the program starts. The interface is very simple – the first screen you arrive at is a post screen, with title and category at the top, and a “post�? button at the bottom. There are no multiple blogs, and there is no way to save a post. This app seems to scream out at folks who are making lots and lots of short posts – key it to a hard button on the palm, hit the button, bang out the entry, hit “post�? and you are done. Very simple. It does not take advantage of the dynamic graffiti area on my T3.

Hblogger is a bit more pricey at $14.95. Its registration reminder is a bit more obtrusive, which is unnecessary – the app runs for 15 days. Why they feel the need to remind me of that every time I try to do something important, I don’t know. It supports the dynamic graffiti area on my T3 just fine.

Anyway, the Hblogger is prettier than Vagablog, and is aimed at a more leisurely posting pace. You get drop downs for HTML tags, Live Journal stuff, and post options. Below that you select the weblog, the definition of which includes which category you are posting to. For whatever reason (perhaps because it was unregistered) there was no space for the post title – just the space for the post itself. After you write a post, you can send it, save it, or move it to the outbox unsent. Not sure what that last one is for. Being able to set up multiple blogs gives the user very easy access to categories vs. typing them out on Vagablog. On the downside, the manual is a bit sketchy, and the subject line for posts is missing in my instance.

Mo:blog is $12.50, and is probably the best deal, although it does not support the dynamic graffiti area. It offers the same level of functionality as Hblogger, but does it in a more attractive package. It also does it with the most annoying registration reminder method I’ve seen yet. At various times, when you are trying to send a post, or doing something else, it will pop up a countdown screen and make you wait for up to 15 seconds.

Even so, between mo:Blog and Hblogger, I would probably pick mo:Blog unless I was using Live Journal, in which case Hblogger’s special LJ features might win the day. Based on features, though, the choice isn’t easy. Both allow image upload and access to VFS for images. Both let you send all unsent posts across multiple blogs in one go. Mo:Blog does manage snippets where Hblogger doesn’t seem to.

Neither does a good job with images, in my opinion. Both allow you to specify a directory to find a file, but they don’t give you any way to look for a file when you go to insert it into a post – you are picking from the files in the directory you specified. This wouldn’t be a problem if all the photos you might want to pick from where in one directory, but they aren’t. Most digicams create a new directory for every 100 pics. If you don’t know the exact directory the file is in, or what the file name is, you’re screwed. So you really have to spend some time with the camera (or accessory software on the palm) to note the name of the file, and it’s location. I can empathize with not adding complete photo browse functionality, but could you at least give us the ability to go up and down directories, and see what files are there?

If you do manage to figure out exactly which file and directory you need, there’s one more hurdle to cross if you are aren’t using integrated networking – when you pull out the photo card to put in the WiFi card to send the post, the image is no longer available. Neither app saves a copy of the image with the post to avoid this.

At this point, I just don’t see either app having useful photo ability. In a pinch it can be done, but it’s more hassle than it’s worth to me.

If I look beyond the photos, I feel mo:Blog has a nicer interface, although that infuriating delay-based reminder may drive it out of my palm yet. It even makes me wait when I cancel out of a menu!

While all three are certainly functional, and Hblogger & mo:Blog offer a fairly complete experience, there are features I want that none of these apps have:

1. I want to be able to pull down existing posts that have been saved as drafts, so I can edit them. If I start a post on the palm, I don’t want to be stuck editing it on the palm. Since posts can be kept on the site as drafts, it makes sense to store them there.
2. I want to be able to adjust the posting date. I tend to get post ideas in clumps, but I don’t want to post them that way. With WordPress, I can simply post-date an entry and it appears when its date passes.
3. I’d like to be able to manage categories, or at least add new ones.

As it turned out, I’ve registered all three. I will play with them further over the next few weeks.

[1/4/2004 - Here is some more on Palm blogging clients]