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.
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.]
Want to install a package on your MessagePad – like, say, an update to the Newton’s OS – but wondering how to get started?
I noticed that my Newton 110’s OS was still stuck at version 1.2. I knew Apple.com kept a comprehensive list of old software and driver downloads, so I started there first. This is a good starting page for Newton inquiries; it breaks down your MessagePad model, and leads you to its listing of Newton OS software. Here you’ll find updates, connection software (like the Newton Connection Kit and Utilities), modem drivers, and much more. Browsing through the listing, I found my OS 1.3 listing here:
I clicked on the “read me” file just to see what I was getting into. Then I clicked on the “MP_110_1.3_345333.sea.bin” file and the download started right away. More… »
Screw you, Wired.com:
Arguably the most famous Apple flop of all, the Newton (which was actually the name of the OS and not the device) started out as a top-secret project with a lofty goal: to reinvent personal computing. During its development, the Newton took on many forms, such as the tabletlike “Cadillac” prototype, before its eventual release in 1993 as a smaller and considerably less revolutionary PDA. Although the Newton was available for six years (longer than most other Apple flops), it was a prime example of an idea that was simply ahead of its time, and sales never lived up to Apple’s expectations. When Steve Jobs resumed his stewardship of Apple in 1997, one of the first things he did was to axe the subsidiary Newton Systems Group. By the following February, the Newton was dead.
From their “Learning from Failure: Apple’s Most Notorious Flops” lineup.
by Frances Cornford
With what attentive courtesy he bent
Over his instrument;
Not as a lvrdly congonor who could
Command both wine and wood,
But as a man with a loved woman might,
Inquiving with delight
What alight essential things she had to say
Befau they stated, he and she, to play.
[Read the original. Nice how Cornford equates guitar playing with flirting, and give-and-take between “he and she.” Every guitarist, myself included, knows what she means. Are there “essential things” my Newton has to say? Also, find out why this poem is misspelled.]
A good point about what makes the MessagePad so accessible, from the newtontalk.net mailing list:
A sudden nasty angle to any revival of the Newton came to my mind as I was thinking about how incredibly fortunate we are. The Newton that we know and love has survived the cruel rejection by its parent, Apple, because its construction is such that it’s relatively straightforward to dismantle and otherwise tinker with it. Even if such hardware tinkering isn’t to all our tastes, it’s doable for enough of us that all of us can benefit, and the results are a thriving user base a decade after Apple stopped supporting it, and a machine that’s stable even if it’s no longer cutting edge.
This is a good time to stop and thank all the Newtonians who comprise that hard-core of hardware (and software) fixers, modders and hackers, who help us all fight off Newton-entropy. I hope some day I get a chance to buy all you guys a drink — though perhaps I’ll need to do that a little at a time.
Christian, the smart guy who came up with all this, said a modern-day Newton would be a Mac Mini-style PDA: closed, non-upgradeable, and therefore less fun.
Smart stuff, and I think that’s what makes the Newton so fun to tinker with – namely, you can tinker with it!
Check out the NewtonTalk archives here.
There it is. The video that launched a green revolution. Well…not that green revolution. The earlier one.
Love the haircuts.