I have a notetaker device that was out of date when I got it in 2006, but since it's primary functions are as a word processor, calculator, and occasional calendar/alarm/stopwatch, that isn't too problematic. The problem is that the battery stopped holding a charge last year, and I haven't been able to replace it. My productivity has declined noticeably since then. It also seems to lend itself to working with external distractions: when I was attending college, I could get quite a lot done during classtime without it negatively impacting academic performance, it made going places or watching TV with family both tolerable and not-useless, and is much better for working with music than my laptop.

I decided to try using it this morning, but that did not go as planned. This evening, people left the house with comedy central playing (the Stewart-Dawkins interview replayed), so I decided to try bringing it out again. And this worked pretty much perfectly, even after people returned.

I should fix that battery. The company that sold the device will do replacements for prices several times that of batteries with the same specs on the internet, but I don't know if the battery is too unique for random internet batteries to work (and I can't find a screwdriver). This should not be a difficult problem. That it is says more about me than the device/battery/company.