Grand Prize Winner

At noon on Friday, June 1st, we announced that the Grand Prize winner of the Confess Your BlackBerry Addiction & Win Giveaway was CrackBerry.com member jimp1947.

A few hours later my phone rang, and it was Jim Palmer, aka jimp1947, calling to claim his prize. Jim was shocked to find out he had won the Grand Prize, and I'm glad to say it went to a worthy recipient -  Jim was actually sitting on the toilet, checking his emails, when he came across the message I sent him notifying him he had won! A True BlackBerry Addict!! Side Note: According to our ongoing poll it appears over 93% of BlackBerry Abusers use their device in the bathroom.

I had a great conversation with Jim, who is still deciding how to spend his winnings (be sure to comment to this post with your advice), and who was good enough to send me a picture and a blurb about himself for the site! So here's more on the winner of the CrackBerry.com Confess Your BlackBerry Addiction & Win Giveaway, straight from the man himself:

Jim Palmer My name is James H. Palmer -- I go by Jim. I am the security officer for eHealthComputing, a division of HMS ( Healthcare Management Systems, Inc.) in Nashville TN. eHealthComputing is an ASP, an "Alternative Service Provider" that offers a complete service package for small and medium sized hospital and psychiatric facilities. Our clients typically provide a local area network and terminals/printers at their facility and we provide all other services via a secure, frame connection between our office in Nashville, TN and the client's site. We currently host clients throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. We presently service 30 to 40 facilities on 8 systems.

I  became a "CrackBerry Addict" as a result of my job. We use a software package that provides 24X7 monitoring of our systems. We had so many problems with the pager we were using that I researched alternatives to the paging solution. The software we were using supported emails & text messaging, so I looked at a number of "smartphones" that provided that capability. I was also interested in providing our support people with the ability to access our system while mobile. I had earlier looked into using the Treos smartphone, but the screen was too small and was not usable.

I finally came across the BlackBerry which, although it also had a small screen, had some additional features that made it attractive. I convinced our department head to order a Blackberry for evaluation.

Since we replaced the conventional pager with the BlackBerry, we have had no problems with paging. And after installing the Idokorro client, we were able to implement effective access to our systems through the BlackBerry device. When we originally received the BlackBerry (an 8703e) I was impressed by the "sexiness" of the device. I asked our purchasing office what kind of a deal I could get (since I was using the same carrier as our company). When I received the information from the wireless SP, I thought "too expensive". But after two months of flawless service on our pager, I reconsidered.

I went ahead and ordered an 8703e for my personal use. I put the Idokorro client on it so that I could hit our systems whenever I need to, which made me feel much more confident in my ability to deal with any problems that may arise, no matter where I may be. I did quite a bit of research on business usage of the BlackBerry, during the course of which I came across the CrackBerry.com website. By that time I also had fallen in love with the BlackBerry, so I registered on the site. I loved being able to check my email whenever I want, and do most of my emailing from the BBerry itself. I have been a PDA user (Palm Pilot) for years, so I really liked being able to combine my phone with my PDA functions.

I am now a solid, confirmed, BBerry user and look forward to future adventures in the BlackBerry world. Needless to say, I was thrilled when I was notified that I had won the CrackBerry grand prize. I am now wrestling with how to use my prize money but, needless to say, becoming a CrackBerry addict has been a real adventure for me.

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