Dennis Paulson writes:
> Neil, how much does your "palmtop" field-note taker cost? Both Apple and
> Sony have produced tiny machines that will plug into Macintoshes, but
> they're in the $600 range, somewhat more expensive than a 4x6" looseleaf
> etc.

Dennis, you are right. The cost is about $600. Furthermore, these
machines are not very powerful. I do not own one, in fact I don't
own a computer (except the old 8086 which I use as dumb terminal
to get to the UNIX machines at UW, and paid $100 for (about $80
too much !) ). I think that a year or three wait will produce quite
a pwerful little machine for a couple of hundred bucks, perhaps
with a mini version of visual basic installed, which could be used
to write some nice tally programs. An ideal would be a "screen-touch"
activated user input which in addition is waterproof (for pelagics
and other Pacific NW trips). I think this is about all we can hope for
in three years wait, although I do like the idea of your song recognition
program (I believe such things are currently available but are still
in the research phase and are prohibitively expensive), you could simply
point your palm-top (or better yet module installed in your class ring)
at the bird, and it would identify the bird, update the tally for that
species, and communicate the information by cell-phone to your home
system. I think we have a few decades wait.

Neil J. Fergusson ******************
1405 1/2 NE 56th St. * Baffins *
Seattle, WA 98105 * or *
(206) 517-5466 * bust *
cccc at u.washington.edu ******************