About Me

PBX I'm Paul Bissex, and e-scribe.com is my consulting business. I build web applications using open source software, especially Django. In the '90s I did graphic design for newspapers and magazines. Then I wrote technology commentary and reviews for Wired, Salon.com, Chicago Tribune, and lots of little places you've never heard of. Feel free to email me.

Book

I'm co-author of "Python Web Development with Django", an excellent guide to my favorite web framework. Published by Addison-Wesley, it is available from Amazon and your favorite technical bookstore as well.

Colophon

Built using Django, served by Apache and mod_wsgi. The database is SQLite. The operating system is FreeBSD, on a VPS hosted at Johncompanies.com. Comment-spam protection by Akismet. Vintage topo imagery from the Maptech archive. The markup engine is Markdown.

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Stuff I Use

Akismet, del.icio.us, Django, dpaste.com, Emacs, FreeBSD, Freenode, jQuery, LaunchBar, MacPorts, Markdown, Mercurial, OS X, Postfix, Python, SQLite, Subversion, TextMate, Trac, Ubuntu Linux, wmii

Spam Report

At least 70644 pieces of comment spam killed since January 2008, mostly via Akismet.

The Palm Foleo

Foleo Palm has announced the Foleo laptop-ish-device, which they are pitching as a smartphone enhancer. Interesting turnabout from the days of the original Pilot, which was pitched as a "Connected Organizer" that was dependent on your computer. The Foleo is a computer designed to be dependent on your phone.

I'm adding a reminder alarm (into my Palm TX, naturally) for 3 years from today, to go buy one of these on eBay for $75 and put Linux on it!

Update: Never mind!

Wednesday, May 30th, 2007
fun + hardware + linux + palm
3 comments

Some related posts: My Palm TX runs Windows 98 • Best feature of the new MacBook Pro • Selling beat-up stuff on eBay • Palm TX: First Impressions • Evolving a new keyboard • Ubuntu, I buntu, we all buntu • Kaypro model numbers • Hizzitachi • Project idea: G5-style Mini • Hard life for hardware

• Comment from Chas Emerick , later that day

This would be mostly moot if only device and mobile OS makers would make getting one's laptop online through the phone as easy as this Foleo thing does.

The saddest thing about all this is that this is just an eMate with internet access and less functionality. This is totally useless for us geeks, but it *might* be perfect for the sales guy, executive, etc. What's old is new (yet) again.

Wow, I'm sounding old now...!

• Comment from Chris Blow , 1 day later

huh?

i don't get it.

you sync your phone to your foleo to your laptop to your bloglines and then your imap?

or is it the other way around?

• Comment from Paul , 1 day later

Something like that.

I think "TRASH YOUR LAPTOP" would have been a more straightforward marketing angle for them. How many of these "mobile" businesspeople are lugging around 10 lbs of laptop + accessories just for email, web apps, and little MS Office documents? Those people don't even like computers. A shot of a smiling woman drop-kicking her Dell Perspiron 12000 into the ocean and then, as she walks away across the strand, pulling out her Foleo like an oversize compact...

Palm, you clearly need my marketing genius. We can still save you.