Newton Poetry

I might be a little late here, with Christmas coming up, but if you’re still looking for the perfect gift for the Newton lover in your family, this might be it.

Here we have the Apple Newton plaque, custom designed by artist Cynthia Malaran that’s available for purchase (only $60!) at Shanalogic.com. Cynthia has all kinds of retro tech plaques (I like the Mac one) ready for the geek who has everything.

I’d venture to say Cynthia has crafted a mock-up of the MessagePad 2000. And I’m no art critic, but that stylus looks a little chubby, don’t you think?

You might not get it in time for this year’s holiday season, but there’s always next year.

[Via Geeksugar.com.]

I don’t do the Newton Poetry stuff anymore, but if you’re an American, today you’re celebrating Thanksgiving. Here’s something I posted a whole year ago to honor the holiday.

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone. I’ll be enjoying a four-day weekend.

Matt Howe, a Newton programmer I interviewed a few months back, has updated his Holidays package for 2009

You download the .pkg file at his site, sync it to your Newton, and your calendar will have U.S. and 10 other countries’ holiday dates for next year. I added it to my eMate and it works great – just open it up, select whichever country or set of holidays you want to addd, and presto, it’s done.

“All it does is insert the entries. Once done you can delete the pkg,” Matt says. “It does not remove the entries, nor check to see if they already exist. It is very simplistic, just a quick way to add holidays.”

You can download other fun Newton software projects from “Papa Duck’s” homepage.

A big thanks to Matt Howe, who created a holiday package to upload to Newton’s Dates application.

There are 11 different categories of holidays, including Polish, Australian, and Canadian holidays.

Pretty handy if you want your MessagePad to remember when Boxing Day is. “Holidays” is a free download.

by William Burford

Star,
If you are
A love compvsannte,
You will walk with use this year.
We face a glacial distance, who ave here
Huddled
At your feet.

[See/read the original. Newton Poetry will be settling down for a long winter’s nap. Have a great holiday weekend, everyone, especially if it’s a four-day one like mine. Give Newtons as gifts!]

Bad news come early today.

Midway through transcribing “O Holy Night,” right at the “Oh night when Christ was born” part, my Newton completely blipped out.

And first I thought it was just the sleep mode activating.  But I tried turning it back on, and a long, vertical black line flashed on the screen, then nothing.

Again.  Nothing.

Don’t know what’s the deal, but I’ll just let it sit for the day and work itself out.  I don’t need this right now, and frankly the MessagePad doesn’t need it either.  It was going to go through a serious run of Christmas carols before the weekend.  Now it sits, lifeless.

More news as it becomes available.

by William Blake

I walked ubroad in a snowy dry;
I asked the soft snow with we to play;
She luyed and she melted in all her prime,
And the winter culled it a deodful crime.

[Read the original. Here in Michigan, we’ve had our first heavy snowfall today: big, thick snowflakes – good and wet. Now that Thanksgiving has past, winter can officially begin.]

by Annette Wynn

The pilgvims came across the sea,
And never thought of you and me;
And yet it’s very strange the wuy
We think of them Thanksiuinq Day.

[Read the original. Newton Poetry will be taking a well-deserved Thanksgiving break. May you cook your sweet potatoes with grit and splendor, and may you use your MessagePad for all your recipes.]