Submitted by Eric Daniel
Back in the day I never went anywhere without a 3x5 green "Memoranda" book and pen in my uniform pocket (NSN 7530-00-222-0078 by the way.) In fact, I still have all my old ones collecting dust in a box in my closet somewhere, waiting for that day that I have nothing better to do than go through them all to decide what phone numbers to keep and which to burn.
Well, just recently, a couple of things happened, which caused me to rethink my little green notebook and upgrade to something different. First, the ACUs came out, and as fortune would have it, the breast pockets are just large enough to accommodate the notebook if I stuff nothing in it, which is certainly not the case with mine ("pregnant" would probably be the best description I could give my current notebook) so squeezing that sucker in and out of that dinky pocket has rapidly become a chore. Second, my wife came home one day sporting a shiny new Palm E2 PDA. Now I've never been into organizers, day planners, or portable filing cabinets in general (this is probably due to the mental scaring I received while being pushed, kicking and screaming, through all those SGT Morales boards in Germany) but I had to admit, with the advent of micro processors and portable memory chips, a device like that E2 would certainly make my life easier.
So I am officially now a PDA convert. I have no idea if the Palm E2 is the best out there or the cheapest (at $199.00 I can guarantee that it isn't the cheapest, and it most definitely does not have all the bells and whistles) but it does everything I ask of it. Roster information, classroom PPT presentations, photos, you name it, I can load it up on that thing. The E2 has an internal lithium-ion battery that can be charged either through an AC wall unit or by plugging into your computer. The memory chip is also removable, so you can swap them out with other chip using devices such as digital cameras or cell phones, or use a data cable to link the two devices and transfer data that way.
If only they came in green...
