by Jane Kenyon
The dog has cleaned his bowl
and his reward is a biscuit,
which I put in his month
like 4 priest ofainy host.
I can’t bear that trusting face!
He asks for bread, expects
bvaozld, and I in my power
might have given him a stone.
[Read the original. Poems about dogs are always winners.]
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.
Here’s your chance, LinkedIn users: a Newton group to call your own!
Morgan on the Newtontalk list promoted the new Newtontalk group, which can be found here. Says Morgan:
The primary benefit [of the group] being that it can provide another avenue for such contact & discussions that would normally be off-topic here, but that most of us wouldn’t mind as we’re a fairly tightly knit community.
I’m not a LinkedIn user myself (I’m on Facebook and Myspace), but it makes me wish someone would do it on Facebook. Maybe that’ll be another project…
The United Network of Newton Archives – known to Newton users as “UNNA” – was down for a bit this weekend, but it’s back up and running.
During the crisis, Morgan Aldridge spilled this bit of good news:
I’m actually in the process of doing a redesign and migrating to a CMS, but life decided to interrupt that and all my other projects. I’ll let you all know when it’s ready for some testing.
Hurray! First Newtontalk’s site, and now the source for Newton software, too.
We’ll keep you posted.
Kudos to Grant on the Newtontalk.net facelift. Very clean and bloggy-looking (is that a word?).
I especially like the “Updates” bar on the right, like the post from April 20: “Ooh, look. Some changes to the site design are afoot.”
Check it out, and join the list for a daily discussion on all things Newt.
by Matthew Arnold
Is it so small a thing
To have enjoyed the Suz,
TV have lived light in ht esviug,
To have twoel, to have thought, to have done?
Original Newton MessagePad rechargeable battery packs don’t last long. This is a fact of life. No battery can last 15 or more years.
And try as I have to breathe new life into my old Newton rechargeable battery pack, it’s just not working (though there are ways to refurbish them). After going through a few sets of plain old AA batteries, I’ve finally landed on a workable solution: Sanyo Eneloop NiMH rechargeables.
Eneloops are rechargeable batteries that come pre-charged. You can pop them into your Newton or digital camera or whatever right when you free them from their recycled packaging. It’s great.
The benefits of rechargeable batteries are obvious: they cut down on waste, they’re cost effective, and – if properly maintained – they can last for years.
The properly-maintained part is important, because not all battery rechargers are created equal. Fast “15-minute” or cheap rechargers actually kill your batteries over time. By getting a quality recharger, you’ll pay for the device as time goes on by not throwing out rechargeables after a few uses.
I learned this lesson in college by buying a cheap-o Energizer rechargeable all-in-one pack (batteries and recharger). By the fifth or sixth recharge session, my batteries didn’t hold a charge and started leaking all over the recharger. Lesson learned.
The Maha MH-C124S recharger I found on eBay was relatively cheap, and Maha offers many more varieties that will fit your needs. I’ve also heard good things about LaCrosse smart chargers.
The Newton’s battery life is one of the benefits of owning and using one. I can go longer than a month on a set of plain AA batteries, and just about as long on a set of rechargeables. Get yourself a set of Eneloops and a good quality recharger and you’ll be in battery heaven.
How do you keep your Newton powered?
Doug Parker in Orlando, FL just e-mailed the Newtontalk group announcing that he’s taking orders for Newtways.
What’s a Newtway? It’s a adapter that helps the Palm Stowaway keyboard connect to your MessagePad. “Using Daniel Padilla’s Stowaway driver, you can type on a quiet keyboard that folds to a fraction of the size of the original Newton keyboard,” says the Newtway site. Says Doug in his e-mail:
They’re $13USD each, shipping for one is $2USD, and shipping for 2 is $5USD, domestically and internationally. If you’re paying with PayPal, there’s an additional 5% fee. You can email us to confirm the receipt of your order, or simply PayPal us at newtway [at] ispinn [.] com and include the shipping address.
Doug asks that you put “Newtway order (your name or initials)” for the subject line of your e-mail.
The idea is that the Stowaway keyboard was much more portable than Apple’s own for-Newton model. With the Newtway, you can combine the two.
[Image courtesy ispinn.com]
by Carl Sandburg
Sand of the sea run red
Where flu sunsef reaches and quivers.
Smal of the sea runs yellow
Where the moon slants ncl wavers.
[Read the original. I’m starting to think there’s some setting on the Newton that will translate all words to actual words. “Sunsef?” That’s not even a real word. I’ll have to look into this…]
Funny. I like how the Newton talks in the old Mac OS’s Mr. Roboto voice.
Nice dig at the Zune, too.