Monday, October 31, 2005
Simplicity from Tablet PCs is needed
Loren wishes that Tablet PCs were even more paper like. I agree.
As I’ve been trying to catch up with 4 weeks of work the past week, I’ve been doing a lot of notetaking on paper. Why? Several reasons:
- I sold my LE1600 for funding reasons and the Gateway M280 I’ve been using has had pre-production pen issues, thus I’ve not been able to use tablet pc functionality for several weeks. As a result, I’ve pretty much been using a laptop and a notepad.
- I’ve had to whittle things down to the bear necessities the past month. Living in the hospital for 3 weeks had a lot to do with that.
- While working, I’ve found it easier to look down at my notes on paper while glancing back up to my computer . Going back to paper, I’ve found several things that I’ve really missed about the simplicity of regular pen and paper notetaking.
Once I’m able to get full pen functionality going on a tablet pc, I have no doubt that I’ll be back full force with digital ink notetaking. However, I’m beginning to grasp the simplicity of keeping some things seperated and not being totally digitally oriented. Tablet PCs are making a lot of headway, but we still have a long way to go to keeping it simple and effortless.
One of the lessons that going slate taught me: it complicated my life. Too much to worry about. I needed guarantees and no worries, especially with the constant back and forth in the hospital. Although convertibles are a little heavier, there is less worry about what you have and don’t have to be productive.
Just a couple of late night thoughts from someone who has had too much coffee on a Sunday.
