Charlie Strosscstross@wandering.shop
Jul 4, 2026, 8:26 AMWell shit, David Potter has died:
(Founder of Psion back in the 1980s, just short of 83 years old.)
Replies
Martin Rundkvistmrundkvist@archaeo.socialJul 4, 2026, 8:45 AM@cstross
I used a Psion Organiser for most of the 1992 archaeological fieldwork season, taking data from an EDM surveying instrument. Nowadays we use GPS and a tablet PC.
Renato Ramondarenatoram@fosstodon.orgJul 4, 2026, 10:25 AM@mrundkvist @cstross imagining you and your colleagues swaying to loud EDM (music) in the middle of a field somewhere brought me some mirth 😁
Archeo Rave!
Jul 4, 2026, 5:21 PM@cstross a Psion 5 accompanied me through Mexico and Cuba in 1999. I journaled, read (it was a summer of H Rider Haggard IIRC). I never should have have let it go. A handheld that runs on common batteries (OK, not common in Cuba at that time, but still).
- Charlie Strosscstross@wandering.shopJul 4, 2026, 5:28 PM
@Been You can still find them on eBay! Better still, you can now run them on lithium-ion AA cells that recharge over USB-C!
- Jul 4, 2026, 5:32 PM
@cstross Is there anything better now? Pomera? IIRC the Psion had a usable keyboard (this coming from someone who judges laptop purchases by this criteria: good keyboard, does it run Linux?, price.
- Charlie Strosscstross@wandering.shopJul 4, 2026, 7:25 PM
@Been Pomera keyboard isn't backlit, built in editor only has markdown heading levels (no formatting or links). Current best is probably an iPad/keyboard combo or a MacBook Neo (full Scrivener version, decent battery life) but again: no keyboard backlight.