Newton Poetry

The on-again, off-again nature of this year’s Worldwide Newton Conference seems to be resolved, as event organizer Ryan Vetter pieces together details of the upcoming Newtonpalooza.

There were serious doubts as to whether the conference was going to happen. I had asked Vetter for details about the event several months in advance so I could prepare for a continent-wide road trip to Vancouver, British Columbia to attend. After not hearing anything back, I assumed the whole deal was kaput.

Finally, at the beginning of July, Vetter responded to the calls for details and sent out a message that WWNC was, in fact, still a go.

Since then, Vetter has gone on the Retro Maccast to give more details, and has updated the WWNC page with more specifics on available lodging locations in Vancouver.

As it stands, I will be unable to attend. The late notice and lack of specifics was enough to kill the trip for me. For one, I would have wanted to plan my road trip months ago. Two, the cost of a few night’s stay in downtown Vancouver is prohibitive.

I do wish everyone who attends a good and productive conference, and I’ll post updates as I see them. But sadly, because of all the WWNC start and stops, you’ll have to count me out.

I really do appreciate it. It’s probably the highest, most gracious compliment Newton Poetry has received so far.

Well, besides all the cuss words in the comment section.

By the way, you can follow Newtontalk on Twitter, or head to the only full-powered, highly-specialized e-mail list that discusses all things MessagePad, eMate, handwriting recognition, and poutine.

The gang at Newtontalk have provided me with tons of advice, articles, helpful leads, and loads of laughs. They’re quick to respond when you have a Newton-related issue, and their encyclopedic knowledge of the platform is staggering.

As a relative newcomer, I bow to their collective wisdom.

Browsing through eMate battery and recharging articles, I came across Apple’s Power On Procedure After Extended Storage support post. It goes on to describe how to reset your eMate 300 if the battery fails to show a correct charge, and quotes from the eMate 300 User’s Manual.

It’s amazing to me that Apple still hosts these how-tos from, what, 12 years ago? I’ve found a few Newton-related articles this way, and all of them have been helpful.

None of the articles are updated by Apple anymore, of course. But the fact that Apple still hosts them is a benefit to the Newton community – especially new MessagePad and eMate users who are trying to get the basics down.

Maybe a full linked list, with all the support posts, would be helpful.

“I spend too much time on my MacBook Air—for work and for play—and it’s high time I spent more of it with my girlfriend, dog, a camera, and Newton MessagePad. Exploring. Documenting. Overland.

Join me.”

– Morgan Aldridge, on his new travel/adventure blog rikuwoiku (or “to travel overland”).

Chris Foresman over at Ars Technica does a great job of covering the Newton’s 2010 Patch:

If you are the sort of person who would just as soon have your Newton pried from your cold, dead hand, Köppen’s solution should keep your trusty device in operating condition at least until you or your Newton biodegrades—whichever comes first.

Heed NewtonTalk’s Twitter feed, however, because there are always a few trolls under the bridge.

In fact, these days, I avoid comment sections all together unless the blog or site has a reputation for civil conversation.

Matt Howe, part-time Newton developer and full-time Santa look-alike, uses a combination of Google Maps, U.S. Geological Survey topographical maps, MS MapPoint, a dash of Google Earth, and Paint Shop Pro to make hiking and driving maps for his Newton.

Howe gives the nitty-gritty on his Santa Matt’s Ramblings blog, including how to use GPSMap Lite and the Newton Toolkit to make his maps digestible to his MessagePad.

Howe even developed his own app that translates latitude and longitude into decimal degrees.

The instructions are great if you’re a hard-core Newton user with a knack for tinkering and creating your own maps. Howe’s instructions lend a bit of DIY cred to the whole process. These days I’ve become spoiled with the iPhone 3G in my pocket.

Read the my profile on Matt Howe on other Newton project he’s worked on.

Here’s Apple co-founder (and dancer extraordinaire) Steve Wozniak demonstrating software called Quickscript, a handwriting recognition package based on MyScript. His tool? One of those fancy Modbooks.

Woz praises the Newton MessagePad several times during the video.

“I used to love that Newton,” he says.

[Courtesy of Mike Sforza at NewtonTalk.]

Here at Newton Poetry, there is One Supreme Operating system, and therefore most posts relate to the Newton interacting with the Mac environment.

I realize, however, that there are other operating systems out there. And, while I’m not a user, I respect that Newton fans can be Windows and Linux users. With Windows, there are tons of tips and how-tos on how to make connections and upload packages and whatnot. Sadly, we don’t hear as much from the Linux side.

Let’s put our operating system differences aside and help Newton users be better Newton users, shall we?

To start, I found the Newton and Linux mini-HOWTO, a site filled with questions and answers (like “How to upload a Newton package to Linux” and “Which Linux software is available”).

Some of the info seems to be dated. For instance, the author talks about Windows-emulating WINE to be a project slated in the future tense. Plus a few of the links are dead. But the basics are all there.

To get connected, there’s Newtonlink.  There are a few more Linux applications for the Newton over at TuxMobil.

Then again, you can always replace Linux on your PDA with the Newton OS. I’m just sayin’.

Any Linux users out there that have successfully paired their Ubuntu with a MessagePad or eMate? Let me know in the comments.

From Stanford’s Ethical Issues in Engineering:

In some fields of contemporary engineering in some countries, engineers work extremely long days and weeks, often under deadlines. Such engineers are often under immense pressure to achieve often-unrealistic project goals, as was the case from 1989 to 1992 during the development of the original Apple Newton. Psychiatrists coined the phrase “Silicon Valley Syndrome” to refer to the fact that the divorce rate and levels of alcohol and drug abuse are much higher in Silicon Valley than in the U.S. as a whole.

The “immense pressure” claimed one victim during the Newton’s development: programmer Ko Isono, who committed suicide on December 12, 1992.

Isono was said to have succumbed to the extreme pressure and deadlines while working on the first Newton MessagePad.

Yesterday, the Unofficial Apple Weblog announced that 2010 would be a dire year for Newton users. Some strange Year 2010 bug was bound to make MessagePad fans drown in tears of obsolete sorrow.

It’s too bad TUAW’s Steven Sande jumped the gun, because – as of a few weeks ago – Eckhart Köppen released a patch fixing the Y2010 bug. A quick browse through the Newtontalk list or, shucks, even this modest blog, would’ve brought Köppen’s patch to light.

Sande later fixed his oversight, but attempted to cover his tracks by making fun of Newton users.

“Frankly, considering the caveats listed on the update page, I think it would be a much better idea just to get an iPhone, guys!” he wrote.

Frankly, Steve, we’re doing just fine, thankyouverymuch – even if we don’t qualify as “mainstream consumers.”

What’s weird is that TUAW, at least twice in the last year or so, has reported on this exact same story, offering incremental updates on the situation. Both articles (along with the other Newton articles TUAW has posted, which help to keep the Newton in the public’s eye) are easily found using the blog’s Newton tag.

Do they not discuss Newton matters at the TUAW office before posting on them?

I appreciate that Sande gave an update on his error, but the little dig at the end is what got me.

Also, I can’t help but feel “Newtapocalypse” – as TUAW’s headline reads – sounds clunky. The “a” stuck in the middle adds an unnecessary syllable to the phrase. I much prefer “Newtpocalypse,” if only because it sounds more like the original “apocalypse.”

Four syllables. Rolls off the tongue nicely.

[Thanks to Newtontalk for the heads-up.]