A Zulu Rhapsody

In addition to its role in the project, Zulu the Zodiac is quickly becoming a convergence tool... reducing the number of separate objects I need to carry around while generally improving the efficiency of my life. I have attempted this with PDAs in the past without much success, and as much as I trust and adore my iBook, it's simply too large and IMPORTANT to subject to all the rigors of being constantly at my side. I took it on a 5-day kayak trip a year or so ago, needing it for fireside packet radio and writing, and even though it was well-packaged in multiple waterproof layers I was acutely aware of the potential loss of my inadequately backed-up life archives if something catastrophic were to happen. As it was, the cold night by the campfire on Strawberry Island reduced battery life to about 30 minutes, and I had to run the laptop, moist with condensation, off the inverter in Bubba's power/tracker system.

But with the Zode, I find the depth of resources to at last be sufficiently satisfying that it goes beyond PDA/organizer and becomes a life tool, as essential as Leatherman and wallet. I have about a dozen eBooks tucked into a tiny corner of the 1-Gigabyte SD card now, including medical and field survival reference material as well as plain old good reading, and just acquired the tools to publish my own. The built-in MP3 player allows audio books as well, so I'm about to give those a try... and were I so inclined, I suppose I could rip a whole DVD movie into some arcane format, stuff it onto a card, and watch it while otherwise confined to a seat. The combination of the teensy Wi-Fi card and my Airport Base Station means I can go online in bed or wherever; I've already used this for quick Googlage and the curiously pathological checking of eBay auctions (not to mention surfing when trapped in the reading room with nothing but yesteryear's much-thumbed Cruising World and Mac Addict). All the sync'd organizer functions are a given, of course... as are the entertaining diversions for those times when the brain isn't feeling particularly productive, yet finds solace in the manipulation of flying or rolling virtual objects around a colorful bitmap. And, as a writer, it remains only for me to choose one of the folding keyboards to solve the perennial "curl up anywhere and be productive" problem.

The difference between this and its predecessors must be related to a fast enough CPU to allow interesting apps, coupled with enough fixed and removable memory to allow installation of useful things without simultaneously having to decide what to nuke. There's also an ineffable feeling of quality that makes me enjoy interacting with the Zodiac... and that matters.

All this will be elevated to High Geek Theater with our new "universe interface" application. For me, this has been the Holy Grail for over a decade: a rugged and boatable little wireless front-end graphic console for everything in my life. Imagine the home control suite of tools Writ Large, with the ability to recognize and interact with multiple boats and fixed facilities, graphically present historical data, launch autonomous security or nav processes in embedded systems, act as a live control and instrument panel for any networked substrate, serve up documentation, and offer the usual suite of communication and productivity tools... all without getting in the way or becoming an end unto itself as do so many interesting geek toys. And, since it's off-the-shelf hardware, it's not the end of the world if it slips out of my hand and bubbles its way forever into the murky depths. Just curse fluently, then get another one and re-install the code from network-resident backups.

So that's what I'm working on, driven by an exotic vision of nautical substrates whilst cobbling together an initial test suite here in the lab. (Catherwood welcome screen shot)