Stuff: white tea; PDAs

[redbird]

I made a cup of tangerine-flavored white tea last night, and came to the conclusion that it's too subtle for me. Now, this may vary with my state of mind, what else I've eaten, and the like (I bought it because I liked it at the store, and I enjoyed the previous cup I brewed a few months ago) or it may be that it's gone stale. Thoughts?

I've been getting frustrated with how slow my current PDA (an IBM Workpad, basically a Palm III clone) is, and went and pulled out the Vx I got on eBay around the same time. And was reminded of why I've been using the Workpad--that Vx has a rippliness in the screen.

So the workpad is on my belt, and I'm back to bidding for Vx's on eBay.

Meanwhile, I need to sort out moving from my PC to the one cattitude replaced with a spiffy new machine, and test whether those old laptops still work, because there's a home for them in Montreal if so.

Comments

[ckd]

Hey, I think I have an old Vx gathering dust in a drawer. Are you coming to Boston in the near future (Boskone, perhaps)?

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

She'll be in Arlington this weekend. Arrangements can be made. *grin* I'd be happy to meet you some evening this week to transfer the Vx if Redbird is expecting a low energy weekend. (I'm going as far inbound as Harvard, so I might as well go a bit further.)

[redbird]

Thank you. As Adrian notes, I'll be in Boston this weekend; I should know by now whether I'll be at Boskone, but I don't. If you and she can get together and transfer stuff, that would be great.

[ckd]

Assuming I can find it (which, since it wasn't in the logical place, is not guaranteed), I'm sure we can figure something out.

If I don't find the Vx, I may find another older Palm device, probably something on the order of an m515. Are you wedded to the Palm V for particular peripherals, or is it a case of "anything Palmish, as long as it comes with a cradle and works with my computer"?

[ckd]

By "older", I should clarify that I mean "older than current"; the m515 is newer than the Vx (faster processor, color screen, 16MB RAM).

[redbird]

As I said, I'm not opposed to that; the second Palm I wore out was, IIRC, a Tungsten something-or-other. If you have one and would like to send it to a good home, I'd be quite happy to accept.

[ckd]

I found the m515; I'm looking to see where the spare cradle wound up. Further bulletins as events warrant. (Though if you have a "universal connector" cradle already, that works too; which Tungsten was it?)

[redbird]

The Tungsten was of the annoying design that required me to use one wire/plug-in to charge it, and a different one to sync; this might be less annoying to people with a different desk configuration, or without cats who think of wires as toys. The hardware that went with it is probably here somewhere.

I have plenty of Palm Vx cradles, I'm happy to say.

[ckd]

The Vx cradle doesn't work with the "universal connector" Palms and vice versa. (Also, it's USB, rather than serial; I don't know if that's an issue for you.)

I'm still looking for the Vx, but I doubt I'll find it at this point; it may well have already been disposed of, or just wound up buried in a box. If I can find the spare m515-compatible cradle, I'll bundle it all up and figure out a way to get it to you, via adrian_turtle or otherwise.

[redbird]

I have a USB port; I think I should look around/see if I can remember where I put the Tungsten cable.

More than you actually asked

[redbird]

I'm not wedded to the Palm V, but I'd rather not switch OSes (so I'm not looking at, say, a Clie)

The current census (assuming I haven't misplaced anything, which I wouldn't bet on) is two Workpads, the Vx mentioned at the beginning of this thread, and a Vx bought on eBay this evening. I'm not wedded to the Vx, but it's a device that does what I want at a price I can deal with--I've broken two PDAs so far (in about five years, not counting the time since I've been using number 3) by repeatedly dropping them, so I don't want to spend a lot of money. And I don't need color or many of the other fancy things.

The software I actually use: Datebk4, the address/phone book feature, memos, to do (occasionally); MetrO, Bubblet, a shopping list app, a calculator called ParensLite, a unit conversion program (handy when it actually matters how many milliliters in a teaspoon or the like). Rarely, a beaming app, tide tables, PicChat, and a T map (with Metro, I don't really need it, and the T is pretty simple anyhow).

If I had a camera built into it, or into my phone, I might use it occasionally, but it's not something I care much about.

Tea and oranges that come all the way from China

[papersky.livejournal.com]

White tea seems to keep OK around here, I doubt it's gone off, but it may just be too subtle for you when it isn't insanely fresh.

The Oolong Tom brought me is the nicest Oolong I've ever had by orders of magnitude, I think that's because it's fresh in a way tea bought here just generally isn't.

[mark356.livejournal.com]

Tangerine-flavored white tea? I'm confused; I was under the impression that white tea was just hot water to which nothing had been added?

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

Mark, I can't tell if you've never had white tea and don't know what it is, or if you have contempt for it because it has a mild flavor and almost no caffeine. (Or if you're getting all your information about it from people who have contempt for it. Which is very possible.) White tea comes from the same plant as green and black teas, but it tastes different because the leaves aren't cooked.

Redbird, white tea is best with water that's NOT boiling. If you brew it with water that's too hot, you can drive off the volatile best parts. Could that be the difference between now and the time you enjoyed it?

[redbird]

If you brew it with water that's too hot, you can drive off the volatile best parts. Could that be the difference between now and the time you enjoyed it?

Quite likely.

[redbird]

White tea is a way of preparing the same Camellia sinensis leaves that are used for green and black teas; it is subtle in flavor and low in caffeine.

The term is also used as a sort of dark joke for, as you say, plain hot water served by people who can't afford tea.

[kate_nepveu]

I know you said you didn't want a lot of bells & whistles on your PDA, but in case you decide you want one that's new and therefore bound to be fast, the Z22 is $100 and I've been very happy with it. You can always delete the e-book reader and games and such. =>