[wplug] Looking for suggestion on technology selection for petition drive

[David Tessitor]

Hi All,

I've not been on the list for several years and nice to be back.  I 
figure there is some good expertise on technologies on the list so I 
need some suggestions.  I'm currently in the midst of a petition drive 
and don't have time to research every possible technology to use in 
verifying voter registrations of people as they sign a petition or just 
before.  In the past:

1) Five years ago and again 3 years ago, I used a laptop with the voter 
database on it, having it on a tray that I wore around my neck.  It's 
not feasible now -- the laptop broke a few months ago; I had to take 
along several batteries of which only one is good now; and it really was 
to cumbersome, heavy, and bulky.

2) Last year I used a cell phone to call someone at a computer who would 
enter the name and street and let me know if the person was registered. 
-- His computer is now acting up; it is tenuous whether he will be able 
to help as much as before, and, even though his computer is faster than 
the broken laptop was, it still usually wasn't as fast for verifying as 
when done directly on site.

Ideally, I would like something that I can put in a cargo pants pocket, 
that would be very easy to enter the first few letters of a name, that 
would be able to easily search through a database of a couple hundred 
thousand records (it's < 50MB), and, if there's more than one match, 
that would display a list of the matches in a list.  I also need to be 
able to hold it in one hand easily and use the other hand to enter the 
data or hold it in one hand and enter with the thumb on that hand.  BTW, 
the database could be local or on a secure webserver, which ever would 
be easiest and fastest to set up.

I have Cricket phone service now.  I would rather not get something that 
needs a long term contract.  I have considered a Blackberry which 
doesn't need a contract, but I haven't heard back from the guy on 
Craigslist who advertised it.  I've thought of getting a smart phone and 
not getting any phone service at all for it, just using it as a pda.  
I've thought of getting just a PDA but haven't the foggiest which would 
be good and I wouldn't want to pay for something that I can't use well 
(I wonder about using a stylus rather than a mini qwerty keypad).  Of 
course for price, cheaper is better as long as it does the trick.

Any suggestions?  Please.

David Tessitor
OpenPittsburgh.Org