Buckle up, it's story time. The year is 2002. I'm 17 years old and obsessed with mobile computing. It's a flashy new thing in 2001, I already have a Palm Pilot but lust after versions with color screens, especially Pocket PC. However, something new appears on the market which catches my eye.
In 2001, Fossil Group released its first 8 bit, monochrome smartwatch. Really just an organizer like those previously available before PDAs properly came into their own. You couldn't even enter data into it, just access stuff like stored phone numbers and addresses.
But it was a COMPUTER on your WRIST! Obviously for that reason alone, I had to have it. Luckily for me Fossil was already struggling, so these things could be had for a bargain even 1 year after release. In 2003 they would release the successor, which I later got for Christmas: A full fledged Palm OS device in wristwatch form:
That wasn't for another year though. While I had the Fossil version 1, I enjoyed it mostly for the "I'm living in the future" feeling. I barely used it for anything. It sure ate up batteries too, burning through two CR2032 hearing aid batteries in a couple of weeks. This is the single biggest reason why it didn't get used much.
The other reason was that 17 year old me didn't have many friends or a job, and thus no obligations. As a result I didn't need to remember more than 2 or 3 phone numbers. The one feature the Fossil had that was actually kind of neat was the ability to sync data with Palm Pilots.
It could actually do this with Palm Pilots OR Pocket PCs, but if you wanted to do it with a Pocket PC you needed a different version of the watch. It didn't just have baked in support for both, which would've been more sensible and broadened the appeal.
The thing is...it would sync the data, downloading all the contacts, phone numbers, addresses and notes (!) without any sort of security protection. There wasn't any warning on the device you synced with to notify the owner that a transfer was happening.
So while sitting on the light rail train across from an important looking dude in a suit, I noticed he was tapping away on his palm pilot. A sneaky plan entered my head. On my watch I initiated a sync, and pointed the IR transceiver at his device.
To my surprise, it worked. I got a deluge of data from his device without his noticing. Data I then began to read through right in front of him as he sat there, none the wiser. Only...it was weird. The notes were all about "elders" and "temple recommends" and shit.
I stole a glance at him. He looked normal and sane. So what the fuck was all this dungeons and dragons, larper type language in his PDA? I read more. What the fuck is "sealing"? What the fuck is a "quorum"? Page after page of notes about this guy's personal life laden with strange words and phrases.
I deleted it all, mostly scared I had stumbled across some kind of secret society and not wanting any evidence of my trespass. Google later clarified the meaning of the terms for me, I'd simply been seated opposite a Mormon. I didn't know they used so many shibboleths and mostly thought of them as just another denomination of Christianity until then.
Once the fear subsided, I felt like I'd done something covert and sophisticated. Like I was James Bond, or some sort of high level, elite hacker. When you're 17, even something silly like that makes you feel like a badass.
Stay Cozy!