[aclug-L] Hand-Held PC shopping

[Jonathan Hall <flimzy@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I am considering the purchase of a hand-held PC or similar device.  The 
main consideration is price... I want something cheap, and therefore 
probably used.  The other features I need are:

* The ability to write and use my own data-entry application.  This 
application will be very simple, probably just a few fill-in-the-blank 
forms, and maybe a few conditionals.  Nothing that couldn't easily be 
done in a Perl/CGI script.  I will then need to be able to transfer the 
collected data to a PostgreSQL or similar database when I'm at my PC 
again (probably daily).  I don't expect to ever collect more than a few 
hundred kilobytes of data before dumping it to the central database, but 
to be safe, it would probably be wise to have up to 1mb of memory set 
aside for that purpose.  I do not forsee the need to transfer data from 
the database to the hand-held.

* The ability to quickly enter data!  What comes to mind is the 
PalmPilot style character recognition thingie (whatever it's called).  I 
think this is probably much faster than typing on a tiny keyboard with 
one hand.  Perhaps this is a standard feature on any handheld anyway, I 
dunno...

* A secondary feature, which I will not use now, but will probably use 
soon if the possibility is there, is the ability to scan barcodes.  
Either natively, or with an add-on device.

* A USB host controller would be nice, so that I can connect to the 
Internet via my mobile phone.  Although I suspect that USB host 
controllers are only available in some of the newest handheld PCs, which 
will probably put the device out of my pricerange.

* The ability to otherwise connect to the Internet, probably via WiFi, 
and then the ability to run useful applications, such as a web browser 
or, more importantly probably, SSH.


I am not particular to any specific brand of hand-held, and I really 
don't care what operating system the device runs, so long as I can write 
my own data entry application (without learning a new breed of assembly, 
or other similarly complex tasks), and can communicate with a 
Linux-based desktop machine via USB, serial, WiFi, ethernet, or carrier 
pigeon network.

And then finally, once a few brands/models have been recommended... 
where might be a good place to buy such a device?  I'll probably default 
to eBay unless there's some other better place to go.

Thank you all for any input you may provide.

-- Jonathan


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