It finally happened...

Well, with all my angst about data loss and back-ups and so on, it finally happend. I lost data from my portable device.

Not the Newton... but from my aging Sony Clie (NR70V)...

It was a strange but impactful loss. I use Datebk5 (which I love and have used since it was Datebk3). I did the usual hotsync one morning before rushing off, only to get to a meeting to find that every datebook appointment that had a time attached was gone! All the untimed events were still there - birthdays, multiple day events with no time, etc. All the timed events... just gone...

So when I returned to the office, I tried to be rational and methodical. I opened the hotsync log, to see that fateful message that the memory was full (it actually wasn't - had a free meg-and-a-half), and that the number of datebook records didn't match. The roughly 1200 on the desktop wasn't the same as the roughly 1200 on the Clie.

I tried to 'revert' and I tried to open an archive. Neither was successful. I was all paranoid about losing unback-up-able data on the Newton, and in the end, my 'trusty' and back-up-ed Clie let me down.

What to do? Everything else on the Clie is fine - address book, notes, apps. But I hesitate to enter any data in the datebook again.

I am still working through the reconstruction ("Hi it's Paul, did we have an appointment set on such-and-such a day?") Really not cool...

The Green crowd will say hey - no sweat, now you can go back to the Newton full-time like the old days. And I am tempted... but I didn't appreciate how adapted I had become to the size of the Clie. I love my 2100, but I don't want to lug it around!

So, for the time being - still using the Newt for project management, still using it for notes and diagrams and so on - I am also using a small, pocket sized paper calendar.

Yes, paper.... comes from trees apparently.

And I shall continue to work through my sudden loss of confidence in the digital medium!