12/08/2003 Interview with John Schiller- currently serving in Iraq.
Tell us a bit about your current circumstances (what you are allowed to anyway)- how long you have been in Iraq etc. and where you are from?
I'm a Master Sergeant in the US Air Force Reserves currently deployed with my unit to South Central Iraq. We conduct Combat Search and Rescue which involves searching for and evacuating downed aviators and any other combatants who may have gotten themselves into trouble. I am the Medical Element of the squadron and am responsible for providing care and treatment for all our aircrew, maintainers, and support personnel. When not doing that, I sit alert for rescue missions and also run the Flight Medicine clinic here at the airbase.
What PDA do you use at the moment and how many have you had before this one?
I currently use a Sony Clie (!) NX-70 and really love it. It's always at my side whether in the right chest pocket of my flightsuit or on my night table to wake me up every morning. I've had a number of PDA's in the past including a NR-70 (which my wife Tamara is currently using), a couple of Windows CE devices such as an HP HPC (which I hated), a PSION REVO (my first true PDA love), and 5MX (a little too big but better than anything out right now with a keyboard). I have dreams of Sony purchasing the form factor from PSION and making the best PDA the world has ever seen - a guy can dream can't he?
Can you give us a view of what you use your PDA for in Iraq and what you use it for at home?
There is only a little difference in how I use the Clie here as opposed to home. As I said, I use it to wake me up in the morning, to remind me of the seemingly endless meetings I have to attend, and I mainly use it to maintain a very large number of military and medical references close at hand. I love Repligo's ability to capture MS PowerPoint briefings and Adobe Acrobat files as well as PDAMate's ability to manipulate any sort of text and then use Wordsmith to produce very nice documents. I'm currently typing this with my portable keyboard in the desert while working a parachute drop zone. Ah, technology :>)
How has it helped you whilst in Iraq?
Well, if I couldn't use it as an alarm clock I wouldn't be able to get to the gym every morning and I'd be a miserable wreck :>) The other thing is it provides a much needed relief in long, boring meetings by playing Billiards quietly in the back of the room. Seriously though, I think the ability to keep literally tons of reference material at hand is the most helpful aspect of the device. I have referred to ABX Guide for proper antibiotics as well as identifying many of the indigenous bugs in this country. I also have the entire Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary as well as the US Special Operations Medical Handbook, and a large number of Air Force regulations and policies. The one program that does stand out (because a good PDA is only as good as the programs we purchase) is iSilo which has proved indispensable in being able to capture entire webpages for off-line viewing. I use this program many times a day and it just keeps getting better and better. Certainly, last but definitely not the least reason is that I can keep a large number of pictures of my beautiful wife and our three fat, spoiled cats for comfort..
What's the best song you have ever heard?
Really tough question. I guess my all time favorite song would have to be Boston, Hitch a Ride (one of my workout songs) or maybe the Cincinnati Pops version of Overture of 1812 with the vocals from the Vienna Boys Choir (one of my Happy Place songs). I can't decide - sorry :>) I DO have my iPod here with me and use it everyday (I am a TRUE Geek as you can see).
How do you access email and the web whilst abroad?
Actually accessing email isn't a problem here. As you may know, the US Air Force is very technology driven and PC's with LAN access are abundant. I use my personal Sony Viao which I carry most places and just plug in and log on to check email, synch my Clie, or check out my favorite web page which brings me to the next question..
What web sites do you visit? (top 5)
I really don't have time to check five websites a day. Truthfully, I go to Clie Planet, oops, PDANEWS24 first and then go to CNN.com and MSN Home for national and international news. I also go to some Subaru WRX sites when I find the time as I plan to purchase one when I get home.
What one feature would you like to see in a future PDA?
I WOULD REALLY LIKE to see some sort of PSION Revo knockoff made with Palm OS 5 operating system. I feel a design like that would simply create the finest PDA ever made. It would have the beautiful little keyboard and wide screen of the Revo with the simplicity of the Palm OS. I would REALLY like to see the Symbian OS come back as I think it was the purest PDA OS I've ever used but I doubt that will happen. It's a real shame no one (company) has taken the time to purchase rights to it and updated it to color and 16 bit. Shaun: I have to agree totally with the above answer. Would be wonderful to see a Revo sized device with expansion, multi-media and an up to date EPOC system on board. If they release one my Clie would be searching for a new home very quickly:)
What are your favourite 3 PDA applications and games and why?
Without out a doubt, iSilo stands out as my favorite. I've got several 20 + megabyte webpages that I keep handy for reference and also casual off-line reading. With the type of work I do here (or any time I'm deployed), I find myself always going here and there for some odd reason and being able to casually review my favorite sites off-line makes the price of the program more than acceptable. My other two favorites would be Repligo also for reference material review and a new one called PDA Mate which is a beautiful little plug-in to MS Office and Internet Explorer which allows to copy and synch text directly to Memopad, or in my case Wordsmith, where I can then manipulate it into a Word Document. My all time favorite game is (was) Simcity for Palm OS but they didn't see the need to UPDATE IT TO PALM OS 5.0!!! :>( Next to that I enjoy Billiards, Bump Attack Pinball and also Insaniquarium - oops that was four.
Any message for everyone at home?
Not really. I would like to tell everyone that we here in Iraq and everywhere else in the Middle East really appreciate the support of the people back home. Irregardless of your political views (lets NOT get into that), we all appreciate the fact that people see us as serving our countries and trying to do a little good to make life for Iraqi citizens a little safer and more secure.
My thanks to John for answering these questions and giving us an insight to the uses of a PDA in an unusual situation- expect some more interviews soon that are a little different than normal:)