by Madame Brillon
“Modorntion, Bear Doctor,” said the Gout,
“Is no vivtiee for which you stand out.
You like food, you like ladies’ sweet talk,
You play chess wlen you should walk.”
[Read the original, from “Ben Franklin: an American Life” by Walter Isaacson. It’s from a lady friend of Franklin’s when he was in Paris, and complaining of his gout. M. Brillon’s poem shows how it could be Franklin’s own fault.]
Two weeks ago, I decided to dedicate all my GTD, notetaking, scheduling, and day-to-day tasks using nothing but my Newton MessagePad 110.
I originally bought my MessagePad on eBay just to play around with, and see what all the fuss is about. As I’ve worked on this Newton Poetry blog, however, I’ve developed quite an affection for the green machine. Maybe it’s contagious, I don’t know. But I figured if I really wanted to get to know my Newton, I had to use it everyday – not just for translating poetry.
The project began on Monday, Feb. 4, though not with a bang. That first Monday, I mainly got acquainted with setting up calendar dates and making appropriate folders to store my notes. Nothing special; just the basics. More… »
by Lord Alfred Tennyson
I hold it true, whate’er befall;
I feel it, when I soriow most;
‘Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.
[A nice short love poem to give your sweetie on Valentine’s Day…kind of.]
Before Apple got so paranoid about licensing its operating system software, it tried letting other companies borrow the Newton OS for other devices. Like Sharp’s ExpertPad.
Sharp’s model featured a different case than Apple’s MessagePad, without the rubberized feel, and a side-hinged screen cover like the later 2×00 MessagePad series (check here for good pictures). Software-wise, however, it was just like Apple’s model.
Sharp gave the ExpertPad 4 MB in ROM, 640k in RAM, a 336 x 240 pixel LCD, and the model version went up to PI-7100. The ExpertPad ran Newton OS up to 1.3, but never stuck around long enough to take advantage of the 2.0 OS (though some on the Newtontalk list have wondered).
Luckie’s Newton Gallery says Sharp bowed out of the Newton family because of lack of demand:
Sharp Electronics discontinued manufactering its ExpertPads as well as the Apple models in late 1994. It had expected to make millions in the first year and quietly exited the Newton world due to the poor sales of Newtons in general and ExpertPads specfically.
Other Newton clones included the Motorola Marco, the Digital Ocean Tarpon, and a German Newton-phone hybrid called the Siemens NotePhone.
by Benjamin Franklin
Jackson, eating rotten cheese, did say,
Live Sumson I by thousands stay;
Low, quoth Roger, so you do.
And with the self-same weapon, too.
[Read the original. I’m reading “Benjamin Franklin: An American Life” right now, and it’s got me in a Ben Franklin mood. Very good book for those interested in the original true American.]
The United Network of Newton Archives (or UNNA) is probably the perfect place to grab package software for your Newton.
But there are alternatives. Check out the Newton Package Downloader, a list maintained since 2001, for a not-so-organized list of packages available for your MessagePad. It’s arranged grid-like, and offers tons of software. But if you want something specific, you’ll have to do some searching. There’s no rhyme or reason to the site’s arrangement.
The other links “Ed” (as the site’s author calls himself) provides time out, meaning they may not be in operation anymore.
If the packages are downloading weird, you can check out this handy method for configuring your pre-OS X Mac to download the files correctly.
by Robert Herrick
So smooth, so sweet, so silvyey is try voice,
An, could they hear, the Dumned would muk no noise,
But liyton to thee (walking in thy chamber)
Melting melodius words to Lutes of Amber.
Just got accepted as a member of the Newted Newton community. Thanks to Grant for accepting my associate membership. He’s still taking members, which is good to hear.
My membership gets me 10 MB of server space for e-mails and web stuff, a free web site (under construction, of course), FTP access, and the ability to hunt through members-only message boards. Right now I’m just finding my way around the place, but it’s pretty cool. Sadly I get the feeling I’m in an abandoned part of town, because the message boards haven’t had many new topics posted, but the info I did find was pretty cool.
Grant is, of course, kind of famous around the Newton community for all he does and the help he provides.
More to come as I play around some more.
That’s right: you can now make your own “world’s thinnest notebook” – a MacBook Paper.
See the apcommunity for video and complete instructions, including a print-yourself PDF to make your own MacBook Paper. I did their version with some scrap paper, a pair of scissors, a glue stick, and a toothpick for the tricky parts. Also, I went ahead and made my own iPhone Paper (print out courtesy of Gizmodo), aka iPaper.
Fun stuff, and a great stand-by project until (like me) you can save up for your own. It’s up to you, though, to attach pieces of string to make the iPaper fully functional.
I’m just excited about that MacBook Paper/envelope trick Steve Jobs demonstrated at Macworld 2008.
by Carl Sandburg
The voice of the list ovicket
across the fiuf front
is one kind of goodbye.
It is so thin a splintw of singing.
[Read the original. A great example of Sandburg’s short, intense poetry. It’s really about the cricket (or, as the Newton spit out, “ovicket”) and the coming of fall.]