The Meanings of an Abbreviation (PDA) to Me by James Pate Williams, Jr., BA, BS, MSwE, PhD

The initials PDA have at least two definitions in my mind: Personal Digital Assistant and Public Displays of Affection. I will define Personal Digital Assistant as a computerized palmtop computer. One of the first Personal Digital Assistants was the Palm Pilot running the venerable Palm Operating System. I took a course at Auburn University in the Spring of 2002 taught by my research advisor, a genius, Professor Richard Chapman entitled Comp 7500 Mobile Computing. We learned how to program Palm OS devices and some primitive cellphones. I loved writing Palm OS C computer language code for my Palm Pilot. I did some networking programs on the Palm Pilot using a specially designed analog modem. I made an A in the class. I still have my Palm OS books. The Palm Pilot used a stylus and had special easy to draw symbols for letters. This form of handwriting and handwriting recognition was called Palm Graffiti. My research advisor and another of his PhD students patented a new handwriting set of characters for Palm OS devices. I wrote Java code to emulate the handwriting system using the mouse on desktop workstations for my research colleague.

I do not like Public Displays of Affection. I believe such gestures mean that there is some insecurity of the partners in their relationship. I especially find kissing and cuddling offensive in public, please save such activity for your bedroom.

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Author: jamespatewilliamsjr

My whole legal name is James Pate Williams, Jr. I was born in LaGrange, Georgia approximately 70 years ago. I barely graduated from LaGrange High School with low marks in June 1971. Later in June 1979, I graduated from LaGrange College with a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry with a little over a 3 out 4 Grade Point Average (GPA). In the Spring Quarter of 1978, I taught myself how to program a Texas Instruments desktop programmable calculator and in the Summer Quarter of 1978 I taught myself Dayton BASIC (Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) on LaGrange College's Data General Eclipse minicomputer. I took courses in BASIC in the Fall Quarter of 1978 and FORTRAN IV (Formula Translator IV) in the Winter Quarter of 1979. Professor Kenneth Cooper, a genius poly-scientist taught me a course in the Intel 8085 microprocessor architecture and assembly and machine language. We would hand assemble our programs and insert the resulting machine code into our crude wooden box computer which was designed and built by Professor Cooper. From 1990 to 1994 I earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from LaGrange College. I had a 4 out of 4 GPA in the period 1990 to 1994. I took courses in C, COBOL, and Pascal during my BS work. After graduating from LaGrange College a second time in May 1994, I taught myself C++. In December 1995, I started using the Internet and taught myself client-server programming. I created a website in 1997 which had C and C# implementations of algorithms from the "Handbook of Applied Cryptography" by Alfred J. Menezes, et. al., and some other cryptography and number theory textbooks and treatises.

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