I am one of the ‘newbies’ in the world of Blackberry. In my early days of programming, I would get a pager to do ‘on call’ duties on a rotation basis. I still remember the nightmare I used to get as I was put in the pager rotation while working at MCI Worldcom. The nightmare was not due to the fact that I have to wake up in the middle of the night and login, it was due to the fact that I was only on the team for two weeks when I went oncall and I had no clue what was going on from a programming perspective. I did not understand the data or the purpose of the ‘jobs’ that would run every night (As hard as I try to avoid the mainframe Cobol, JCL jargon, it is bound to show up in this post, so ignore those and move ahead). An year or so later, I joined Qwest and went oncall after about three months of my joining there. While the initial two or three weeks were a bit edgy, I soon got very comfortable with it and even volunteered to take oncall duties during Christmas and other holidays if I was in town. But still, a pager was still not something that I fell in love with.
Years later, now, when I think about it, a blackberry is just an extended version of a pager, but something packaged so nicely that , carrying it is seen more as a style than a burden. I am also not sure if they use pagers anymore, even in mainframe shops, may be they are all using blackberries.
I am already a little notorious for my email addiction. Apart from the core sleeping hours of 11 PM to 5 AM or so, I check my six or so different email accounts every 30 minutes or less than that. Now you may ask if I do anything else other than checking emails, yes I do. I have become so efficient in checking my emails that it only takes me a minute or two to switch between Yahoo, Hotmail, Google, ISP email, work email and my alternate hotmail (??). So within about 5 minutes, I would have checked all these accounts and fired off some replies.
Now imagine me carrying a blackberry. Those in Halifax region watchout, I am one of those addicts sending emails while waiting at stop sign and at traffic lights. 
. Well, if Vani is with me in the car, I usually take it a little more easily, but if she is not around, I sometimes send 5 emails on my way back or to work !! I know, I know, it is a berry berry vad habit, and thats why I am here. Is there any help for such addicts? Do you think it will go away as time progresses? I have had the blackberry for a little more than a month now. Any advice??
Venkatesh.
