Did something like that ever happen to you?

[karinatwork]

Well, this morning my computer went on strike, and I was trying to make my active sync connection work again. I was having a coffee (more precisely, a French vanilla cappuccino), and my colleague and I were chatting (talk about multi tasking). So while holding my h1910 in front of me, she says something funny, I burst into laughter but with my mouth full of cappuccino, and of course, that sticky stuff splatters all over the place, and especially onto my pocket pc.

Well, that shut my laughter up pretty quickly. Her's not, of course. Anyway, I rush to the restroom, and using my trusted microfibre cleaning cloth I cleaned up the mess and it seems nothing serious happened. I had a screen protector on but no case. At first I thought the screen wasn't responding anymore 8O but right now everything seems to be in order.

I feel so dumb right now. These things happen to me all the time. :oops: I must be the clumsiest person ever. Please make me feel better and tell me that something like that happend to you too! :)

Karin

[RickP in AZ]

The scariest thing my Pocket PC has undergone was baptism.

It was laying on the side of the desk when my then 5 year old daughter went to reach for the bottle of watter which was also on the desk. Boom, the bottle tips over, dropplets sprinkle the screen, and suddenly my iPAQ goes weird and a soft reset brings absolutely nothing. Terror grips my heart as I rush into the bathroom.

Holding the with the holes of the connectors down to drain the water I crank up the hair dryer to "Low/Cool" and recite a few "Moni Hums." 40 minutes later I turn it back on and everything is back to normal. (I can't remember whether or not I had to do a hard reset or not, I was just happy to have her back.)

Other than that I have been extremely lucky.

[EcS]

Ah Karen, where shall I start?

How about the time I moved something for a group picture of the team & inadvertantly unplugged ethernet to the staging server for a project that was about to demo to the client? None of us noticed - it took an excited call from the account exec to wake us up.

Or maybe the time a co-worker had his small child on his lap while worling at home with his notebook. How was poor Aaron to know that his daughter was about to get very ill all over the computer?

Then there's the iced tea incident with the server farm... Never mind.

[karinatwork]

Uhhh, feeling a little better already. :)
Keep it coming!

[bdegroodt]

Ummm, I'd never spit on my PPC under normal conditions.

However, for a brief period, when I would drink coffee, it would make me cough uncontrollably. One time at a breakfast meeting where we were attempting to land some funding, I took a drink of coffee, and the cough came...My mouth full of coffee ended up all over the suits seated across the table from us. No check that time.

[CTSLICK]

So there I was...a new EM-500 owner and a tremendously proud one at that. Then there was that day...

I am at a meeting when someone pipes up that they need an email address which I know I have in my shiny new EM-500. But wait...whats this...competition?? Some old school throwback starts shuffling around in their Franklin Planner for the email address. HAH! I'll give them a little demo on the wonders of new technology. I reach down into the side pocket of my jacket and draw out my PDA with the speed of an old west gun fighter. But then it all went bad. As I bring my pda up to table level it slips from my grip (in its shiny new leather EB Case) and proceeds to begin a hockey puck style slide across the table. Time and motion seem to slow as I realize my EM-500 is headed straight for a cup of coffee. A coffee cup would have been too easy...no...this was a styrofoam cup of coffee. With no hint of deceleration my beloved new device crashes into the cup of coffee sending it and its contents flying in all directions. I note that my pda has slowed but is still headed for the edge of the table. It disappears over the edge of the table followed by the sickening thud of it pancaking onto the floor (carpeted thankfully). As I stand up semi-stunned to begin my mad rush to the other side of the table to rescue my PDA I hear a dripping noise...you know...the noise coffee makes when its dripping off a table and landing on a LEATHER CASE.

I figure my Casio is no more for this world as I pick it up carefully and promptly leave the meeting room to get paper towels. I remove it from the case and after some blotting I hold my breath and hit the power button...nothing. My heart sinks...I'm doomed. I note that the battery door is popped out slightly. I realign it and once again hit the power button. LIFE...but at what cost...I am greeted by the Pocket PC initialization screen. Its alive but has a serious case of amnesia.

ActiveSync restores my wonderful little device to full life again. I am lucky...perhaps luckier than the person who was using the Franklin Planner. It seems that a large portion of the coffee that I launched with my PDA landed on his planner. Several pages were ruined. HAH! Technology triumphs! Lets see him do a restore from backup on those ruined pages!

[Pat Logsdon]

It was a dark and stormy day, swollen with ill portent. My Casio e125 was nestled snugly in its new leather Vaja case. Life was good.

I work on the fifth floor of a six story building, and had been feeling particularly out of shape, perhaps due to the steady diet of ho ho's, washed down with venti mocha frappuccinos.

To combat the pending porkiness, I had decided that I should take the STAIRS instead of the elevator. For some reason, my enthusiasm for exercise only extended to the trip down - I still took the elevator back up. I may have good intentions, but I'm not STUPID.

The first 4 floors were fine, almost worked up a sweat! I reached the last landing above the ground floor and pivoted on the carpet in my rubber-soled GH Bass shoes. I step forward, and the toe of my shoe catches on the carpet bunched up at the edge of the stair. I begin to fall forward, and time slows to a trickle.

My right hand flies toward the handrail, and I desperately hope that my hand can reach that metal rail before my hip (and my Casio) can. Alas, my angle and velocity are too great, and my hip hits the rail and continues on a downward path, easily lifting the beltclip off of my belt and flinging my Vaja case high into the air.

I manage to steady myself a second later and stop my fall, but it's too late for the Casio - it's turning end over end, falling now towards the steps and the concrete landing below.

bounce

bounce

bounce

*TINK*

If this sequence had been in a martial arts movie, I'm fairly certain that the expression on my face at this point would have been EXACTLY the same as the young apprentice who realizes that his master has just been killed (http://www.emotioneric.com/emotionfill/masterkilled.html).

When my heart started beating again, I ran down and picked up my baby. Aside from a very faint hairline crack running from the top left corner of the screen to the bottom right, nothing was wrong, aside from the fact that the impact had turned the unit on. No data loss, no flickering, no weirdness.

Needless to say, I have never taken the EVIL STAIRS again, and I get my exercise elsewhere. :mrgreen:

[Steven Cedrone]

I have to tell you, those were some funny posts!!! :lol: I guess it's true, laughter is the best medicine!!!

Steve

[davidspalding]

and my colleague and I were chatting (talk about multi tasking). So while holding my h1910 in front of me, she says something funny, I burst into laughter but with my mouth full of cappuccino, and of course, that sticky stuff splatters all over the place, and especially onto my pocket pc.

Um,... so much for multitasking? ;)

Yeah, at the Marin County Fair (1998), I was reaching under the table for something ... after chiding my young teen techie charges NOT to drink their sodas in teh web site booth ... during my fumbling I just happened to trip the power strip, which brought down 2 workstations ... our Novell server ... which was the link for the entire Multimedia Funhouse's web access ... cries of "... Hhhhey!" started burbling up from the surrounding boothes.... Connectivity was restored shortly, but the hard drive had lost some stuff ... we had to restore the web site from the off-site web site to our local server. All because I was fumbling under the table to keep the cables out of the way and out from under foot. ... Live and learn.

Yours,

Latte drinker

[andrewlwood]

I have a very nasty habit of putting things in my shirt pocket and then bending over to pick stuff up - whoops.

Happened with my first ipaq repeatedly - d'oh. But the worst one was when I put my lovely new nokia 6100 into my shirt pocket , and bent to pick up my carry-on luggage in a heathrow airport toilet cubicle. whoops again... but not 'tink', rather 'sploosh'. 30 minutes under the hand dryer and it was still not working, but I had to rush for my flight. Fortunately 12 hours on a plane seemed to help it, and by the time I landed it was working again.

Good job I flushed too...

[davidspalding]

I don't wear anything on a belt clip either. I've dropped Nokia phones which leaped off my belt more times than I'd care to remember. Belt clips are a Satanic conspiracy to keep us buying new gadgets.... :evil:

I think Nokia belt clips are particulary attracted to commodes. Women have the right idea keeping their stuff ina purse. I learnd from that years ago by using single-strap packs and fanny pouches.

[Janak Parekh]

I don't wear anything on a belt clip either. I've dropped Nokia phones which leaped off my belt more times than I'd care to remember. Belt clips are a Satanic conspiracy to keep us buying new gadgets.... :evil:
Heh. This is why everything goes in my two pants pockets. If it doesn't fit there, I need a different solution. :lol:

--janak

[ekconrad]

Brand new Pocket PC... leaving from home in the morning to drive to work... I had a large amount of junk to carry out to the car, but not enough time, so I put my Pocket PC in my back pocket to free up some carrying utensils... Well, my short term memory kicked in and I completely forgot my precious was in my back pocket... sit down and then I realize my dreadful mistake.

End result... cracked screen, no worky worky.

[rcobourn]

Well, in the amazing iPAQ survival category, mine takes the cake. I was bending over near the pool to pick up something when my 3635 in it's beautiful Vaja case, in a PC Sleeve with Symbol 802.11b card in it, complete with 128MB CF card, decided to jump off my belt and take a nice refreshing swim. I quickly grabbed the poll with the net on it, and fished it out, but it was certainly in the water for 45 seconds or a minute by the time I got it. After draining the water as best I could, I disassembled both the iPAQ and the PC Card Sleeve, and shook out as much water as I could. I then let them dry for about 2 weeks... it was about that long before the shock wore off and I could stand to find out if they worked. The Vaja case had survived nicely... a little leather conditioner and it was good as new. The SD card was fine, and when finally reassembled, the iPAQ and PC Card Sleeve both worked perfectly. I've since retired that 3630 in favor of a 3875, but it's still functional. The only victim was, surprisingly, the Symbol Wireless card.

Moral of the story: keep your iPAQ nice and cool so it doesn't crave a refreshing swim.