Psion Siena DUCT-Xtreme Skinflint Casemod

Avoiding spending money on a new PDA! Take that, consumerism! Rar! Why spend money on a new PDA when you can spend it on gaffer tape? And then on a new PDA?

There’s a lot of sites out there which describe how the owners of high-end computer systems strive to make them even faster and more powerful by overclocking, installing liquid cooling systems and the like. They also do a lot of work to make the machine more stylish, funky, rugged, or any other style of box. Not one to be outdone, I decided to try it myself. I had an old piece of hardware that worked fine, but just needed some TLC on the case to bring it up to date. The machine – a Psion Siena 512k electronic organiser. I had been given this thing by a colleague when they bought a better model in December 2000.

Him – “Do you want this? I’m replacing it.”
Me – “How much?”
Him – “Well it’s not actually worth anything, so it’s yours”
Me – “Jurassic Park!

The system worked fine, but due to some design idiocy on the part of Psion*, after a few months of use, the flimsy casing around the hinge broke. This meant the ribbon cable connecting the main keyboard to the upper half, containing the screen and the number keypad, was exposed and vulnerable.

So, I got out my trusty roll of gaffer tape and set to it. You can see the futile struggle against reality here: Gallery in new window.

* Psion no longer make PDA hardware – this comes as no surprise when you’re confronted by the Siena. However, they did come up with Symbian, which I’m told is pretty good.