A few weeks ago, Morgan Aldridge wondered if going absolutely retro, with nothing but a Newton eMate 300 and an old Apple StyleWriter, would be possible.
Now, he’s testing himself – and the RetroChallenge – at his word:
The challenge is very open-ended, so I was content with setting a reasonable goal of repairing & updating an eMate 300 as a clean & simple environment for focused writing. It needs the hinge repaired, battery recelled, 2010 patch applied, and a few other issues addressed, so there’ll be more involved than merely clearing away desk detritus. If I manage all that with time to spare, then I’ll venture to craft a working modem script which allows me to get online with AT&T EDGE/GPRS via Bluetooth, but I’m not counting on it.
It’s a heckuva challenge, to use a mid-’90s-era Newton to manage your daily tasks and projects.
Aldridge is trying to use the simplified desk space to organize his life. What could be simpler than a monochrome proto-netbook? He says that being a Newton power user doesn’t make the RetroChallenge that challenging, but he gets two benefits: accomplishing a goal, and completing a contest.
“With less than an hour to go before the start of the challenge in my time zone, I’m very much looking forward to a clean, minimal, and usable Newton desk at the end of the month,” Aldridge says.
Can’t wait to see how it goes, and his results at the end of January.
I have a feeling he may have to resort to using a fax machine as a printer, knowing the stupidities of the StyleWriter line.
Posted by David Kendal on January 4th, 2010.
[…] experiment, inspired by Morgan Aldridge’s and Riccardo Mori’s experiences, will be me attempting to get by – or even be […]
Posted by Newton Poetry — Seven days of System 7 on May 6th, 2010.