Re: [NTLK] Frozen Newton Project Rebirth?! :)

From: Vaguely Radio (vradio_at_maine.rr.com)
Date: Sat Jun 26 2004 - 15:26:43 PDT


On Thursday, June 24, 2004, at 03:54 PM, Sonny Hung wrote:

[snip]

> This maybe a dream to some but this can be a reality if you have a
> strong
> desire to get one...
> If this doesn't fly at least I'll know how to get things like this
> done in
> the future...

Well, while we're dreaming, may I take a flight of fancy myself?

Perhaps this would be an opportunity to work on an unofficially-dubbed
"MessagePad 3000". It could include all the available hardware hacks
as standard items, and possibly by the time it ever saw the light of
day (we're dreaming here, remember?) it would also contain some new
hardware hacks in development of which we've heard a few rumblings from
PCBMan. If we decided to include the various hardware upgrades, it may
reduce or alter the type of moulds that would be made (e.g., if there
were a built-in SER001 board planned, it may be possible to design an
enclosure that would accommodate it more readily).

Dream with me...?

Hardware:

- "frozen" Newton case mouldings
- SER001 board (did I hear of an upgraded version coming soon?)
- chip speed upgrade
- higher internal memory capacity than MP2100
- any other doodads people could think of in time for production -
built-in ethernet/wi-fi/bluetooth? (I know, I know, this is utter
ludicrous fantasy)
- things of which my tiny mortal brain cannot even conceive?

Software:

- ROM upgrades of some sort? Is it possible to "copy" a rom (dubiously
legal I realise - perhaps the originals could be destroyed after
copying?) and, in doing so, also add additional built-in software
contributed by our crack team of Newton coders? I'm not exactly
talking about NOS 3.0, here... Some other candidates for built-in
software on ROM might be hardware drivers, NIE2.0, etc., assuming of
course that a new ROM could be fabricated and would be more capacious
than the original factory issue. I don't know enough about this so I'm
just throwing the idea out there. Very likely it can't be done as I
explain it...

The "assembly line" of dedicated volunteers could put the units
together from gutted MP2k/2100s (spare parts used where possible).
Hey, while we're thinking of revamping the externals, why not do as
much as we can to revamp the internals as well? Perhaps if we could
get a bulk deal of some sort we could get the 2k internals more cheaply
(eBay? J&K Sales?).

Ah, a wonderful dream. I'd buy one.

-Dan

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