I've commented before on the problems of combining getting experiences with documenting at least some of them. On earlier trips, I've been impressed with the relative ease with which I've been able to keep in touch. But this time, I thought it might be useful to have "off-line text preparation facilities", so I bought a Hewlett-Packard iPAQ.
These are tiny computers you can hold in the palm of your hand with a simplified Windows operating system called, reasonably enough, Windows Mobile. In their basic form, to enter text you use a stylus to point to characters on a screen picture of a 'QWERTY' keyboard. It sounds dreadful, but I found it easier than expected. The unit arrived a few days before I left, so I was able to try it out and the problems I had I ascribed to "finger trouble" on my part.
But disaster struck on the first leg of the journey. I turned the unit off to conserve power and then it refused to turn on again. Eventually, a re-boot re-activated it, so I thought it must have 'crashed'. The next day, nothing I did would start it. In desperation, I got the mains power unit attached and continued to tinker. When it did turn on, it reported a completely flat battery. This was strange, 'cos the prevous day, I'd charged it fully. Well, I took out the battery and had a scratch at the terminals with a pair of nail scissors. Then I took my emery board and gave the spring-loaded terminals on the PDA which connect to the battery a bit of a polish. Not a nice thing to do to new equipment, I know, but so far it's proved effective. The PDA has ´Wi-Fi´ wireless connectivity. I got this to work for the first time in the hotel in Ushuaia but although e-mail worked and I could look at the internet, I couldn´t use Blogger. I've had the same experience in the hotel in Santiago - connected well all over the hotel but Blogger wouldn't work. Anyhow, it's proved useful and the 'off-line preparation' is the reason you´ve seen the blogs you have. But, I'm afraid, spelling and punctuation has been sacrificed to the need for speed.
