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Navy Using Palms Aboard Their Ships

Sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS Constellation look to the stars to help find their way, but for a growing number of other tasks, they gaze at their Palms.

Many of these seamen received their Palm Pilots from the Navy. Currently the Navy provides nearly all new officers with these handheld computers. Graduates of the Naval Academy, and many other programs also get use of one of these devices.

Lt. Mike Biemiller says that using a Palm Pilot cuts his workload in half. As he is making his comments he watches a Hornet jet landing onboard the ship. Lt. Biemiller records the landing data onto his Palm Pilot. He will upload the information to the ships network at a later time.


Recording landing data was once a tedious task. The landing signal officer would have to record the data onto a paper notebook. After leaving the deck the officer would then copy the information into a larger binder, and also type a copy on the ships desktop computer. Palm Pilots have streamlined the process considerably, and Navy member wrote the program that is currently being used.

The widespread distribution of handheld computers has helped boost morale aboard the Constellation and spurred ingenuity by sailors who are developing their own software to automate routine naval tasks such as the pilot logging software. One sailor is quoted as saying, "I use games when I'm waiting in line," adding that, "There are a lot of lines in the Navy."

Still, the sailors are limited in their use of the Palm Pilot. The sailors aren't able to load new programs onto their machines while at sea, and programs must be scanned for viruses once brought onboard.

Navy Using Palms Aboard Their Ships





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