Quote - What is it?  Looks like an orange swirly thing to me.

 

I think that's the pre-Hal super-computer from the episode of Classic Trek where Capt. Kirk is threatened with being replaced by the Infernal Machine.  It's the episode where the computer runs amok -- for which behavior the Star Fleet officials naturally blame Kirk (after they insisted on allowing the Big Computer to run the ship).  The computer's inventor goes crazy, too.  It's all standard scifi fare -- and the plot uses standard scifi reasoning.

After typing that, I took the time to google it -- the computer was called the M-5 (as hinted by Khai).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ultimate_Computer_(TOS_episode)

Any computer which is given independent decision-making capabilities will inevitably run amok & go on a rampage.  This is a standard and fully accepted principle which is taught to us by scifi movies & television shows.  And the corollary is taught to us, too: that you can defeat such a computerized menace only through acting like an unpredictable human & being illogical in your actions.  Such tactics will invariably confuse the computer & blow its circuits out.

Standard scifi reasoning -- all the way around.

So.....there's a serious danger in upgrading your computer to the Ultimate System, beyond the merely monetary.  Just when you least suspect it: the machine might take over your brain while you are asleep.  Anyone who's a scifi aficiondo will know this: and they will take steps to prepare a guard against it.  They might even yell at their PC -- threaten it a little.  That'll help to keep the machine in line & on its best behavior.

I've got the Palm OS version of Adobe Acrobat Reader.  It works -- although they haven't updated it in a few years.  I was able to successfully convert at least one of my Lightwave .pdf manuals (the one for Modeler) onto my Palm.  I'll likely convert the other manuals, too.  The results aren't perfect -- but it is most definitely usable.

I have a Palm T|X - which offers a nice, rotatable widescreen.  The technology is about 2-3 years old -- the device has 128MB internal memory.  But it's also got an SD memory expansion slot, WiFi connectivity and bluetooth.  I've used it for WiFi in restaurants, motels, etc..  It does a good job.  Even with displaying images.  The one thing that doesn't work so well is DivX video, as no one has developed this for the Palm OS.  There is a workaround, but I haven't needed it enough to try it yet.

So, yes -- you can get images for your books onto the Palm.  You can expand the images for better viewing by tapping on them, and panning around.  It's not ideal -- but it works.  Ideal image display would require a laptop or a notebook computer.  But that's not as easy to carry around in your pocket as a PDA.

I don't really care for smart phones.  It's like talking into a calculator.  IMO, smart phones are too big to be a good cell phone: and the screens on smart phones are too small to be a good PDA.

Something To Do At 3:00AM