Posts tagged “blog”.

Newtonpoetry.com: the rough draft

August 28th, 2008

Newton Poetry on paper

Someday Newton Poetry will have its own domain name, after a certain goal has been reached.

Before that happens, however, I have to draw up a plan. So that’s exactly what I did. If and when Newton Poetry becomes newtonpoetry.com, I’d like to stick with WordPress and do a customized blog. A Newton-looking theme would be great – not on par with some blogs, but sporting a MessagePad-ish theme would fit in nicely.

The rough draft above shows a basic outline of what this site could become.

  1. The overall site would look much like the Newton’s screen looks: a dock at the bottom, notes in between (the blog postings) and icons that mimic the MessagePad’s. Each day’s post could include the little Newton clock and date, with the envelope icon for comments. Something like that.
  2. My original idea for this site was to include the stylus somehow, but on newtonpoetry.com it’ll be a must. But no green. The header, the site, the posts – all on a nice clean white. Maybe some of the icons can be green.
  3. Ah, the sidebar. It’ll have the requisite “archive” and “blogroll” and all the goodies, and maybe some space for an ad or two. This could, possibly, be the spot on the site where green plays heavily, just to set it off from the main body of blog posts.
  4. Here’s the dock. It’s a must, I think, and it could be a great spot for archives and such in place of the sidebar. It’s hard to find good, high-quality images of the Newton’s screen, but if I have to I’ll simply recreate the icons. This may be where I put links to the “About” page and my upcoming “Links” page.

That’s the plan so far. I’ll still have to learn a thing or two about installing WordPress on a host, and how to manage themes, but it can be done. And now I have a basic outline of how I want things to look.

Any suggestions?

Discovered: another Apple Newton blog

August 19th, 2008

Well I’ll be darned – another Newton blog out there!

This one is called My Apple Newton, and it’s a great technical resource for hands-on projects and service comparisons. The blog is authored by Genghis7777 of New Zealand, and offers tips on how to go wireless, the latest software developments, and making Bluetooth connections.

The blog hasn’t been updated since mid May, but it still offers some great reading and handy info.

The best of Newton Poetry

July 24th, 2008

How-to:

Interviews:

Newton Poems:

Newton misc.:

iPocalypse:

Wikipedia: hitting the big time

June 30th, 2008

Newton Poetry makes Wikipedia

Many thanks and kudos to the Wikipedia editor who added Newton Poetry to the list of external links (above) regarding the online encyclopedia’s Newton MessagePad listing.

First we made MacSurfer a few times, and now this. For those of us who practically live on the internet, it’s a pretty big deal.

Goal: 500 visitors a day.

May 12th, 2008

If I make that?

Newtonpoetry.com.

That’s my goal. At least 500 visitors a day (and hopefully a few more comments) and I’ll switch to a unique domain.

More stories of blogging on a Newton

April 3rd, 2008

Mike Manzano, Newton blogger

An oldie but goodie: a 2004 Cult of Mac story about bloggers using their Newtons to upload posts.

Mike (above) runs his Dumb Blogs Have More Fun moblog “almost entirely from his Newton.” What makes the Newton so handy for moblogs? Says Kahney:

the important thing for moblogging is the Newton’s portability; because it’s easy to carry, it’s always handy, and moblogging becomes a regular habit. The same is true of camera phones.

Unfortunately the link to Mike’s blog doesn’t work (you’ll notice that a lot with Newton sites), but this was an interesting look into the beginnings of the blogging craze – especially because it involves Newtons.

DadHacker: working on Newton storage

March 14th, 2008

Pretty cool post over at the DadHacker.com blog everyone seems to be excited about these days (and for good reason – his Donkey Kong story is a trip). Seems the author was one of the original developers on the MessagePad:

There was a lot of great technology hidden away in the guts of Newton. I worked on some other pieces that were neat, but this is what I’m most happy about having shipped. It was a lot of fun to work on. Newton was one of those projects I always felt it was a privilege to be part of.

He tells a great story about the early days of flash memory, and how Newton’s system blew everyone away. Shucks, he says, if “the Newt had had a dock, decent docking support, and a few other things, it would have just killed Palm.” Amen, brother.

Lots of other good posts, too, including a link to a Newton video I’ll be posting soon.

Header under construction

March 11th, 2008

Forgive the header changes – I’ve been playing around with a custom look for Newton Poetry.

The one above is the one I’m leaning to, but maybe you saw yesterday’s header and liked it better:

Blue-style Newton Poetry header

Let me know. I’ve also played around with a parchment-style header, to go with the “poetry” part of the site:

Parchment poetry header

I like changing the theme to fit the season, or the holidays, so the current masthead won’t be around forever.  Maybe when I pick a style I can keep it as the default, and switch things up periodically.  One of these days, I’d love to abandon the template design and break out with my own CSS wizardry (something I’m learning, and I do own the “newton poetry” domain.)

Any blog header stylists out there want to take a shot at it, I’d love to see your work.

HowTo: Make a ‘Newton Poem’

February 28th, 2008

“What the heck is this site all about, anyway?” you may ask yourself.

Others have. Misspelled words, an abandoned piece of hardware, and a green screen – what does it all add up to?

I got the idea for Newton Poetry after hearing the term used to describe the gibberish MessagePads spit out from time to time when the handwriting recognition software falls short of its ideal. Then I saw someone had written the entirety of Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky” poem into a Newton, and I though, “boy, there’s an idea.”

So let’s see how I do it. More… »

Welcome to Newton Poetry.

February 25th, 2008

What this blog will cover.

I took my first look at the “Most Popular Pages” feature on WordPress, and – to no surprise – a few poems were the most viewed posts here on Newton Poetry.

There are tons of people, myself included, who look for specific poems, analysis of poems, and collections of certain authors’ poems, and sometimes those searches land them here. Which is cool, but sometimes I wonder if the jabberwocky they’re presented makes any sense to them.

After all, my Newton 110 misspells words all the time. One commenter even asked me what the hell was going on, and when was I going to learn how to write correctly. He never took the time to see what this site was all about – namely, putting poems into the Newton and blogging what the MessagePad spits out. Put in “my heart breaks” and the Newton might read it as “my fart burps.” It’s one of the fun hobbies someone can play with on the Newton.

But part of this site has also turned into a “how-to” lesson for new Newton users like myself. As I discover tools, or try out new abilities, I like to share them. Just in case someone comes along (as someone recently did, on this 68k MLA forum posting) that is totally green to the Newton, I’d like Newton Poetry to be a handshake and a “welcome home.”

Take faxing. I tried it out, and it was super easy. Someone could definitely discover how to do it themselves (if Apple’s good at anything, its an intuitive interface). But should they do a quick Google or blog search on faxing with a Newton, I would hope Newton Poetry would pop up and help them out.

And like any Apple fan, I’m always interested in the wider world of Macintosh, iPods, iPhones, Apple history, and trends on where my favorite company is heading. No Newton is an island, and so from time to time Newton Poetry will touch on things that I find interesting. Like the iPod Shuffle announcement, or the decision over whether or not to wait and buy an iPhone.

The Newton community is still a sizeable group, and there are die-hards out there that keep the faith and keep the platform going. They’re very accepting of newbies (thankfully), mostly because they’re so proud of the product they champion, and they freely part with best practices on how to get the most out of the MessagePad. That means I don’t have to reinvent the wheel, and figure all this stuff out on my own.

DIY culture, however, says that you gain enjoyment out of the process and the end product, and few consumer electronics have inspired as much modding as the Newton. It was never intended to be a Twitter client – because it came out before Twitter was ever even thought of, natch – but I’ll be darned if someone didn’t figure out a way to make it work. That’s what makes the community so fun.

So there we go. Newton Poetry will highlight Newton Poetry, as always, but will also touch on how-to tips, Newton history, other Apple products (especially the portable varieties), and low-end tech culture in general. Call it a mission statement – whatever. I love poetry and literature, I love Apple products old and new, and I love playing around with my Newton.

If that’s not inspiration enough for a blog, I don’t know what is.

Welcome to Newton Poetry.