After googling a bit, I found how to use irdaatach and irs (from
pkgsrc/commds/birda) to let me hotsync my palmpilot via my IR port.
But -- if I run those commands out of, say, rc.local, do they consume
laptop power?  In other words, is there any harm in letting them run?
I have no other applications that might conflict with jpilot, so that's
not an issue.