Read about featured Gadgeteer - Frankie Rossi

Gadgeteer Article

August 15, 2002

Name: Frankie Rossi
Website: www.pocketloft.com
Location: Washington

My name is Franklin Rossi and I live in the somewhat boring state of Washington. I am 15 years old and soon to attend the 10th grade in high school.

I think I would be a good Gadgeteer because I have been in the computer world for a while now. I currently own the Sony CLIE NR70v as my “main brain” and also have a Visor Prism, a Palm Vx, a Palm VII (broken, but working on it) and Palm IIIxe. That is my current stash of PDA devices running PalmOS. I also have an HP Jornada 545, and the iPaq 3650. I spend lots and lots of money on these toys to keep me busy during the day and to work on during the night. I love taking apart some of these to see what’s inside and what makes those things tick. Of course I have held myself back from opening my NR70v but time will come when the warranty is out and the NR is out of date. It’s sad but I almost can’t wait. I also have a really nice and new dell laptop that I am typing this on now on my flight to Houston for summer vacation. It’s the 8100 series and is really sexy. At home I have a Gateway desktop Select series that is getting older (almost 2 years now) that runs as my website server to hold all my pictures of palm pilots and reviews I do for a website I am with. A friend and I run www.pocketloft.com and I do a lot of the news and reviews there so check it out sometime. My typical day during school is, go to school of course, then come home, go straight to the computers, which I find myself usually on the Palminfocenter forums by which I mysteriously go by mentalsrule and my ultimate goal is to become a moderator for any part in the forum. From getting home at 2:30 to about 6:00 I can be found in my computer room working on my site or writing a quick story or review, or you can find me in other places of the house but only with of course my laptop. Networking is always fun, especially when you can go anywhere in the house and a few hundred feet outside. At school I am known as the biggest nerd/geek/computer loving freak in town. I am usually the tech support for my local friends and my relatives personally, and over the phone for those in Texas, and relatives far away. Its fun and cant wait to get a job so I can do that AND get paid.

My preference is PalmOS, mainly because it’s so much easier to get things done faster, with a touch of a button and tap with the stylus which I can get most of the information I need. Windows CE and PPC 2002 are very appealing to the eye and can go great if I want to get wireless networking or internet, major storage with CF cards etc, and just plop a voice note on it, while listening to some MP3’s. But now that I have a CLIE, which has spoiled me rotten, I have MP3, a great looking screen, a very appealing OS and great and geeky body to go along with it.

I think I deserve to be the Gadgeteer of the month because for one I love your site, am there all the time, and send friends there when they want to know the full scoop on a handheld, which you usually always have a great review on. Because I have a no limit attitude with my learning the skills of everyday use, and extensive advanced use on both palms, and computers, and last but not least, just because I love PDA’s all together. I can’t go hardly a day or two without mine, without having some type of withdrawal symptoms and a major attitude change.

So please pick me for your Gadgeteer of the month!

Thanks, Frankie Rossi.

PS – Enclosed I attached my picture of my 9th grade yearbook pic. Honestly it’s the best school picture I think I have ever had!..