On Thu, 10 Jul 1997, Ewen, Charles R. wrote:
> I thought I'd drop a note on data collection. We just acquired two
> Newton Messagepad 2000s to use as electronic field notebooks this
> summer. So far so good...
Ah, deja vu all over again, as they say...
I began electronic data collecting in the field back in 1983, I believe.
My first field "computer" was an HP calculator with magnetic strip data
collector. Then the next year I moved up to a Radio Shack 100, then to an
Epson with a mini-tape drive. Finally we here at VCU went whole hog and
bought some McIntosh powerbook 140s (First Generation), but my colleagues
wouldn't let me carry them in the field (right, Robin?). Why not? Because
what do you think happened to the HP, the Radio Shack 100 and the Epson?
Sweat and dirt and electronics just don't mix, and I insist on trowelling
from time to time. Trouble is, when I go to enter data, I enter half the
site matrix into the kyeboard. Ah the days when we wrote our own
data-entry programs in Basic!!!
My first experience with on-site data collection was with Jim Adovasio at
Pitt's excavations at Meadowcroft Rock Shelter. He had a Decwriter
teletype terminal set up in the shelter with a specially installed phone
line leading to the adjacent red-clay boondock road out there by the West
Virginia line. Hey, it worked, and it was 1976 for crying out loud.
Of course, the Decwriter never would have been able to read Charlie's
handwriting, and I doubt that even Newton can read mine!
These days I'm a confirmed retrograde Luddite. Pencils don't break down.
Dan
|