1 Sep
2008
1 Sep
'08
12:38 p.m.
Ray Arachelian wrote:
Alexander Schreiber wrote:
I picked up a surplus/remaindered PoquetPC back in the mid-90s, with
some 2MB SRAM cards and the serial adapter, from California Digital. It
was larger but cheaper than the HP LX handhelds, only ran MS-DOS 3.3 but
was equally practical. Still have it around here somewhere...
One use for the critter was to read e-texts from Project Gutenberg on
the subway in Manhattan during rush hour. The software I used was called
"VR," short for the Vertical Reader. Wonderful stuff, I wound up finally
reading a whole bunch of Burroughs' John Carter stories that way.
There are still signs of VR and this class of palmtop out there. Here
are some links:
Good PoqetPC site with VR available for download:
http://www.bmason.com/PoqetPC/software/index.html#VR
Fourth Q&A here covers VR, but is likely out of date:
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/hp/palmtops-faq/section-9.html
VR is mentioned halfway through this 1999 interview with Avi Meshar of
D&A Software:
http://www.hplx.net/interviews.dasoft.html
FWIW,
--S.
Yes, it was my trustu companion for years, I even wrote some code for it
(to use it as a big clock when giving talks and to read books on it).
Nice. I vaguely remember there was some shareware that let you read text
vertically, and some nice sets of fonts for it too.