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

Michael Semcheski mhsemcheski at gmail.com
Sat Jun 21 00:21:38 EDT 2008


How about a Nokia n810?

http://www.nseries.com/index.html#l=products,n810

It runs linux, fits in your pocket, has a qwerty keyboard, wifi (seems
there's a wimax version too.)  Should be able to find for about $400.  I
don't think you'll easilly beat that.

Mik

On Thu, Jun 19, 2008 at 5:10 PM, David Tessitor <davetessitor at pghfree.net>
wrote:

> 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
> _______________________________________________
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> wplug at wplug.org
> http://www.wplug.org/mailman/listinfo/wplug
>
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