A good use for ancient PDAs?

I have an Audiovox Maestro 1032 which has PPC 2002 OS, 32MB RAM, and battery life that isn't any good and it's not worth fixing up. But I had a little idea, how about a way to turn the PDA into like a touch screen keypad hooked to a PC like Star Trek armrest controller? It only runs at USB 1.0 speed so it is way too slow to use as second monitor

Is there a software that works with it? I tried and all I found were for older Palm series.

i had a dell axim X5 and i had a prograb that allowed me to use the pda as a second screen to the computer it was pretty cool, but not super practical. really sell it on craigslist and treat yourself to a steak dinner lol.

If the battery were good (can you find a "new" battery for a reasonable price?) then use it as an eBook reader. That's all I've ended up using my Axim X51 for, despite the fact it could do quite a bit more.

An ebook reader is a good idea, or a dedicated calculator? Or ebay it.

First of all, the 1032 (based on Toshiba e570 but with half the RAM) doesn't have easy access battery. To replace it, you'd have to remove dozens of screws, release a few hidden catches, and take apart the unit completely. It's something average person can't do at all.

battery from repuable web sites seems to be running in the $50 range and from eBay around $20 but the sellers there may be passing off old or used battery. IMO it's not really worth the trouble or expense to fix it up for portable use. So probably eBay the set (cradle, AC adapter, and original M$ Outlook CD)

Beside if I wanted eBook reading or web surfing, a cheap laptop (Linux OS) with wireless support can be had for around $200. I'll have to check a recent issue of MaximumPC they did a coverage of few cheap laptops.