Newton Poetry

Wondering what that error code your Newton just spat at you means?

Wonder no more, thanks to UNNA’s NewtonOS Error Database, a searchable reference that lets you look for your error code by number, description, or comments from other users. There is also a drop-down list where you can browse error codes by category, like “Data Link Layers” and “Serial Tool.”

Thanks to Matthew Reidsma on the Newtontalk list for the link. Joel over at Inventor’s Emporium posted a Newton eBook of all the OS 2.x error codes, too. Handy!

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.

On the web, the Newton community used to be a very vibrant one. Before Newted crashed, Grant Hutchinson was able to post tons of web pages of MessagePad developers, modders, and tweakers.

Now? Most of those pages are gone. Dead links are everywhere.

So I’ve started a project of sorts: keep a list of actual, working Newton web sites that are still maintained. Barring that, they have to at least be functional.

I’ll probably post another page to this blog (next to the “About” one, above), and add to the list when I discover new sites.

So here’s the call: if you have a site, blog, or community online, I’d love to see it. I’d love for Newton fans and newbies to be able to check out sites that are still up and running.

I’ve got the standards, like UNNA.org and Kallisys and Grant’s Newted site (hopefully it gets up and running again), but I’m sure I’m missing tons of others out there – lost in Internet Land.

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.