prismejon
05-28-2003, 11:27 PM
This story describes my long road to acquiring a PocketPC. It begins almost a year ago, in August 2002. Microsoft had a workshop on C# and Visual Studio.NET at my university (I'm taking a master in computer science). At the end of the workshop they announced a competition for all the students at NTNU: "Create a mobile solution for the PocketPC platform" - the three best solutions would get a Qtek 1010 PocketPC Phone edition!
So I thought "this PocketPC thing is way cool!". The entry deadline was December 9th, so I went to the library and borrowed a couple of C# books. During my lectures that semester I planned my application and when I started to get confident with C# and VS.NET i started working. In the middle of November I got a mail telling that the deadline was moved to January 31st. Shoot! Now I had to wait even longer for my first PPC (I agree that I might have been a little optimistic..). On the other hand I thought the Christmas holiday would give me some more time to work. Even though I was almost finished at that point, it ended with me delivering at 23:45 on January 31st ("A project takes up all it's available time..").
During this hole period I also surfed almost all the PPC-sites on the web, including this one :D. I soon realized I wanted a PPC with integrated WiFi and a CF-slot. The Toshiba E740 was very tempting. And when the E750 was released in March I developed a strange eye-twitch.. I still hadn't heard from Microsoft. The problem with the E750 was that I wasn't available in Norway yet, and the price was way above what my student loan could support. But when my inlaws went to the US in the beginning of April I eyed my chance. I explained it all to them and they wanted to help me out. To make it short, as this story already is getting too long, the E750 wasn't available in stores yet - only online. They found the E740, but after reading about the E750 it wasn't an alternative. I tried to order from several web shops (to have it sent to their hotel), but none accepted my international VISA. Palmyes.com gave me some great support, but in the end it unfortunately didn't work out. Being this close to getting one turned my Easter holiday into a little downfall.. (man I'm a nerd! and maybe exaggerate a little).
During this whole process I sent mails to Microsoft asking when the contest winners would be announced. "Soon" was the reply.. I kept surfing on PPC-sites (by that time I already had quite a software collection downloaded, just in case I'd wake up with a PPC under pillow), then I came by an add in the "Buying & Selling"-forum concerning a Toshiba E755. This was in the beginning of May. I contacted the seller and I he agreed to ship to Norway. The money transfer and shipping took some time, but finally May 21st my precious had arrived :clap: !! After all this waiting I was starting to get nervous that my first PPC would be a big disappointment, but the E755 was great!! Maybe the timing wasn't the best as I still had an exam to go, but listening to mp3's while playing solitaire or downloading the matrix teaser on the campus WiFi sure beats reading about databases.. Thanks to my girlfriend (who kidnapped it) I managed to get some reading done.
After I finished my last exam (May 26th) I got a mail from Microsoft saying that the they were going to give out the prizes at the conference they were having in town (May 27th). So I showed up and listened to a two hours lecture about SharePoint (got a MSDN shirt and USB-hub in the break yeah!). Then at the end of the lecture; the prizes for the contest. You've probably guessed it by now: I WON! Heck, the Microsoft guy even called me a real programmer, hehe.
So now I'm sitting here in my MSDN shirt with two PocketPCs. Quite a luxury problem! I've decided to try to sell the Qtek as the Toshiba is all I want in a PPC and I've already got a nice little cellphone. Why am I writing this you may ask :?: Frankly I don't think I deserve to be a "Pocket Pupil" anymore, so I'm hoping that my 50th post will do the trick :wink: !
Anyway thanks for reading if you haven't already fallen a sleep :zzz: !
So I thought "this PocketPC thing is way cool!". The entry deadline was December 9th, so I went to the library and borrowed a couple of C# books. During my lectures that semester I planned my application and when I started to get confident with C# and VS.NET i started working. In the middle of November I got a mail telling that the deadline was moved to January 31st. Shoot! Now I had to wait even longer for my first PPC (I agree that I might have been a little optimistic..). On the other hand I thought the Christmas holiday would give me some more time to work. Even though I was almost finished at that point, it ended with me delivering at 23:45 on January 31st ("A project takes up all it's available time..").
During this hole period I also surfed almost all the PPC-sites on the web, including this one :D. I soon realized I wanted a PPC with integrated WiFi and a CF-slot. The Toshiba E740 was very tempting. And when the E750 was released in March I developed a strange eye-twitch.. I still hadn't heard from Microsoft. The problem with the E750 was that I wasn't available in Norway yet, and the price was way above what my student loan could support. But when my inlaws went to the US in the beginning of April I eyed my chance. I explained it all to them and they wanted to help me out. To make it short, as this story already is getting too long, the E750 wasn't available in stores yet - only online. They found the E740, but after reading about the E750 it wasn't an alternative. I tried to order from several web shops (to have it sent to their hotel), but none accepted my international VISA. Palmyes.com gave me some great support, but in the end it unfortunately didn't work out. Being this close to getting one turned my Easter holiday into a little downfall.. (man I'm a nerd! and maybe exaggerate a little).
During this whole process I sent mails to Microsoft asking when the contest winners would be announced. "Soon" was the reply.. I kept surfing on PPC-sites (by that time I already had quite a software collection downloaded, just in case I'd wake up with a PPC under pillow), then I came by an add in the "Buying & Selling"-forum concerning a Toshiba E755. This was in the beginning of May. I contacted the seller and I he agreed to ship to Norway. The money transfer and shipping took some time, but finally May 21st my precious had arrived :clap: !! After all this waiting I was starting to get nervous that my first PPC would be a big disappointment, but the E755 was great!! Maybe the timing wasn't the best as I still had an exam to go, but listening to mp3's while playing solitaire or downloading the matrix teaser on the campus WiFi sure beats reading about databases.. Thanks to my girlfriend (who kidnapped it) I managed to get some reading done.
After I finished my last exam (May 26th) I got a mail from Microsoft saying that the they were going to give out the prizes at the conference they were having in town (May 27th). So I showed up and listened to a two hours lecture about SharePoint (got a MSDN shirt and USB-hub in the break yeah!). Then at the end of the lecture; the prizes for the contest. You've probably guessed it by now: I WON! Heck, the Microsoft guy even called me a real programmer, hehe.
So now I'm sitting here in my MSDN shirt with two PocketPCs. Quite a luxury problem! I've decided to try to sell the Qtek as the Toshiba is all I want in a PPC and I've already got a nice little cellphone. Why am I writing this you may ask :?: Frankly I don't think I deserve to be a "Pocket Pupil" anymore, so I'm hoping that my 50th post will do the trick :wink: !
Anyway thanks for reading if you haven't already fallen a sleep :zzz: !