[NTLK] New [Old] Newton Owner

Jonathan Schalliol jon at schalliol.com
Mon Apr 12 17:24:55 EDT 2010


Christian, Woody, Matej and Forrest,

Thanks for your posts!

Even though an iPad is about to be ordered and I have a 3GS, I just couldn't go on hearing people bash the Newton upon the iPad release from people who never even saw one.  What I'm going to do with it, I have no idea.  It really is in between the two products, just as its size suggests.  More useful than an iPhone in terms of screen and interface, but the iPad has a more lapop-like use.

120 w/ 2.0 Experience Owning and Selling Newtons______________
As for getting rid of my old 120 w/ 2.0, it was a tough call.  However, it really was too slow for me to do the things I needed to do, though the 2100 really isn't.  I .  The StyleWriter II wasn't very heavy and I actually velcro'd it to the floor of the trunk.  That seemed to do the trick pretty well.  The DC/AC inverter was expensive, but it's not insanely bigger than the old one was.  I ran the Mac section of CompUSA in Indianapolis at the time and got one at cost (really the only retail place you could get Macs in the State and I could order some crazy stuff including 9600s with no ram, hard drive or video cards and Radius, Umax and Daystar Macs with 4 CPUs).  I then just got a couple Mini-din extension cables and ran them through the Camry's folding rear seat up to near where the fuel door release was.  Here's one that ought to work: eBay 220577541957.  Ink should be easily available.  It was really cool, though I just did it because I could and had little reason to do so.

Current 2100______________
Back to the new Newton.  It seems that this unit (which does really look like it was not used) doesn't seem to have a functional backlight, but maybe someone can tell me if there's something I'm missing besides the settings in the sleep menu.  It really looks like it's almost never been used, so I hope that maybe there's something I'm missing.

I would love to get this one up and running.  I have been trying for the last several days to get ether of the UNNA torrents to run, though I haven't found any seeds to show up.  I could host it long-term if someone has a copy floating around.  My home connection is supposed to do 50Mbps down and 10Mbps up.

Getting Connected______________
I have been looking through the sites and archive but am having a bit of trouble figuring out the things I need to do to get this up and running with my Mac.  While I have a Newton car charger, AC charger, Newton Battery (non functioning I hear), 4AA battery pack, Nokia PCS card and cable for connecting to phone, a 10MB PC Card, and (from my personal collection) a Lucent Silver WiFi card.

I would like to get connected via Ethernet (wired or wireless) but lacking a serial cable, I would love to ship my 10MB card to someone willing to help me out with software to get going.  If I could locate a serial cable, I would be happy to pick one up if that's helpful.  I would have my supreme gratitude!  [Could I somehow use a OS 9 PowerBook G3 with PC Card slots to get software on this?

THANKS!

Jon
On Apr 7, 2010, at 10:10 AM, newtontalk-request at newtontalk.net wrote:

> Jon, 
> 
> Welcome back to the wonderful world of Newton!  As a very late adopter -- I
> only finally got my first Newt in 2005 -- I have to confess to a little envy
> that you had the pleasure of using Newtons during your high school and
> university years.  When I graduated high school, "computers" were things
> large, rich companies leased from IBM and installed in large rooms or small
> buildings.   ;-)   
> 
> But I also feel a little astonishment that you could bring yourself to part
> with yours, especially with such a fantastic set-up in your car.  How did
> you stabilize the printer to prevent it tipping and rolling around?   I
> thought of doing something like that with my laptop and a printer back in
> the '80s and '90s, but I never got through the planning and trouble-shooting
> phase and now, I reckon the Newton was more advanced and better suited to
> doing it than the conventional portable computers of that time anyway.  Your
> description has encouraged me.   In fact, if I can come up with a spare
> Newton-compatible printer I might try it now.  An obstacle will be to find a
> way to have any kind of connectivity on the road.
> 
> So welcome back; have a browse through recent posts (last December-ish) so
> you can fix the 2010 bug, and have a look at the threads about "must-have"
> apps (I think it was from around the same time), and perhaps the thread(s)
> about carrying cases and holsters.  The 2100 runs some amazing software and
> there are some handy and cool ways to carry it.
> 
> 
> Shalom. 
> Christian 

> Skip serial and go to ethernet (best with Mac).  You will need to get  
> drivers installed via linear flash card either through requesting a  
> loaner card or sending yours to someone to have drivers installed.   
> Install NCX on your mac and install or backup as needed.
> ethernet will also allow email (Mail V) and some browsing.  Print by  
> emailing to self or use LPR driver to print to CUPS printer.




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