I use a Palm Pilot frequently. I'm home almost every week day when my two sons arrive on school busses. One of the joys of university teaching is the flex time. Arguing helps me refine ideas. And writing things down for publication helps me to clarify and justify.
Teaching is also a good way to review the fundamentals.
I find drawing pictures often helps me to think clearly about something. I think I realized early that I was more likely to succeed with my brain than my brawn. People are endlessly fascinating. There are objective truths to uncover and explain. I helped write a code of ethics for software engineers that was recently adopted by both the ACM and the IEEE Computer Society.