I had to go to our college for checking out the new high voltage laboratory (VJTI). There I was sitting at the ’’quad’’ and reminiscing the great days, the fun, ’’Pratibimb’’ (college festival), the journal writing, the profs. I just sat there brooding over my loneliness now that some of my friends are in US, other at Chennai, one at Ahmedabad, just like fun all over.
I saw a group (just like ours). One of the babes in their group was sporting a new mobile. The other boy pulled out a digital diary and keyed in her name and number. That made me nostalgic. I had a small paper diary - all tattered and torn. It was full of scribbled names and numbers. Some pages had the name/numbers wiped out due to water and then I had overwritten on it with a ball pen. Always someone would be asking for some number and I would pull it out of my back pocket and open some folded pages and give the number - a reliable source! I could see that my group was kind of disgusted at my diary. It was all over on my birthday when they contributed and gave me a gift, something which I longed for, all along - The Casio SF3600 ER digital diary. Boy, I was so overjoyed!
While I thanked each one of them, individually, I remember waking up that full night transferring all the names from my paper diary to my digital diary, and then missing the morning lectures, cause I overslept...LOL.
«« THE LOOK »»
It is small and slim and easily fits in the shirt pocket, though I didn’t quite like the straight stiff thing in my shirt pocket. Besides it gave me a constant fear that I may drop it. As it is I was being ridiculed as stiff walker (because I was exercising - muscle maniac!), this one added more starch to my back. So it would rest mainly in my bag, besides my Casio FX 100S calci - ’’Casio Casio bhai bhai’’. The layout of the display and keyboard was nice, given the compact size.
The display is on top left portion. There are separate keys for calculator function on the side of the display. The keyboard is at the bottom. The keys are small and soft press but easy to operate. A flap cover protects these portions. On the inside of this flap, a sticker lists some features of the diary.
«« THE DISPLAY »»
Tis the main part. It has a 3-line LCD display. More importantly, it has a switchable backlit facility. One of my friends had asked for a number in a theatre, when it was dark. I gave him the number by making utmost use of this facility.
«« THE FUNCTIONS »»
Telephone directory: Probably this is the most used function. In my case this is the only exclusive function that I have exploited. The diary prompts you for name, phone number, cell phone number, pager, cell phone, email id and even a fax number. All that is fine but hmm...the postal address? The only way to enter that is through a Memo function. How many can you store? I don’t know! I have emptied my full telephone diary in it and there is space for more. Total memory is 64 kB. There is also a useful ’’Search’’ button. Just press ’’Kun’’ and press search (in telephone mode) and it gives me ’’Kunal Mhaske’’ and his telephone number, followed by ’’Kunal Tengse’’...(u know him as trust_me on MS...my ace bro)
Editing the numbers is also easy. Just take cursor there (through 4 special cursor keys - up, left, down, right) and start typing. But the next letters/numbers get overwritten. You cannot insert letters. One way out is to key in ’’Enter’’ so that the portion after the letter to be edited comes on next line. Now make the changes and join the line back by deleting the new line character.
Memo: This is just like a text field and I use it to add postal addresses. But you can’t use search with this as it is unsorted and you can just scroll. Here the ’’page up’’ and ’’page down’’ keys come in most handy, instead of the cursor keys.
To Do: Whadya think it is? You want to do something, add to the list. Have you done it already, then mark it completed. This is something that I never really used.
Scheduler: This mode is a tad more better. You feed in the text such as ’’Fund Meeting with Principal’’, then give the date and time. You can also set an alarm as an reminder. But the alarm can be set for the D-day only, not for previous day. Moreover, you cannot allot the same alarm day & time to more than two events.
Secret: I find this absolutely useless. If I had any secrets, I would trust it to my own memory than in my Casio. Besides I am an open book. Having secrets and then playing politics on whom to share and whom not to, doesn’t quite fit my character. But the idea is to put data in this slot and then protect it by a password. Of course one may use it to store pin numbers for credit card ATM access or bank a/c numbers.
Calculator: With FX-100 S in my bag, I never found the need for it. Besides it’s a basic calci.
World Time: Just set the home time and then based on time difference presets, it displays the world time. Maybe of some use!
«« DRAWBACKS »»
For one, it does not have a PC communication capability. Why I am stressing this is because, the data cannot be backed up. You can lose some real important contact information just like that, when you drop it, somebody sees a hole on the backside (reset) and decides to poke in a thin rod, erasing the complete data. Besides just look at the vulnerability. If the battery weakens or even otherwise you remove both the batteries at the same time, you can call the priest, cause all that data is as good as gone.
I have been lucky so far that such a thing has never happened, though I have changed the battery, one at a time. But now I have all these functions in my Nokia 6210 and they are much more better in it, so I have stopped using this diary. It is safely tucked in my cupboard with all the past names and numbers.