Well, my two weeks of "no technology" (except for my
Newton) is over...I'm back in civilization! (and on
Kauai, it's tough just getting a dial-up internet
connection!)
The bad news is I believe that the x-ray machine on
Kauai damaged my Newton.
Here's the story:
Remembering that there was someone on this group who
said that he believed that the magnets in the motors
for the conveyor belts generated a strong enough
magnetic field to damage his Newt, I asked the machine
operators many, many times about damage to my Newt. I
even talked to supervisors and was assured that the
x-ray machines in no way will cause any damage to my
"palm type device". I placed my Newt on an upside-down
tray (to elevate it from the motors on the conveyor)
and placed a second tray upside-down on top of it to
keep the Newton in place.
We flew from Dulles to Dallas to San Francisco to
Honolulu then Kauai, Got x-rayed at all those airports
without a problem except Kauai (since that was my
destination). Then spent my week in Kauai and took
notes on my Newt the whole time.
We get to the Kauai airport, I take my Newt and place
it on an upside-down tray again. One of the people at
the machine tried to put it in the tray and I had to
stop him and place it back on the upside-down tray
again (where do they get those people?) When the
Newton came out the other end, one of the machine
flunky's asked me to turn the Newton on...it wouldn't
turn on...I thought that perhaps the battery was dead.
I fortunatly had the wall-wart and plugged it in...it
still wouldn't turn on. I flipped the crystal switch
thinking that a solder joint broke...no dice. I went
with a security officer to their office to fill out a
report and tried another outlet in that office...still
no dice...one of the security officers even said that
the "palm" wasn't even working before I placed it in
the machine! I then said, "look, if this machine
didn't work, why would I lug it around with me
half-way around the world? That just doesn't make
sense!" I wanted to say something else, but held my
tongue.
So, I filled out my report, took all power out of the
Newt, removed the cards and packed it away. When I got
home, I went to bed. I came to work, plugged the Newt
in and it will not power up. It's been at least 24
hours with no power so now I'm at a loss. Later on
tonight I'm going to open it up and check my soldering
to make sure that none of the crystal wires are
loose...as it is, if it does come back, I'm probably
going to loose all my notes I took in Hawaii!
So, this is a word of warning...Newtons do not like
those x-ray machines! If you have to place the Newt on
one of those machines, be prepared. Create a statement
that says that if the Newt fails to power up after
going through their machine they will be fully
responsible for the device. Find a supervisor, have
him/her observe that the Newt is working correctly.
Have them sign the document. Send the Newt through the
machine and then turn it on afterwards. If it works,
great...if not...well, then you have problems!
Otherwise, you'll get the same stuff I got "oh, we've
never had a problem x-raying palm type devices.
Federal regulations require that we x-ray all
computers. I don't know, perhaps disguise the Newt as
a make-up case?
I'll find out later on tonight if the newt has a loose
wire or not. Otherwise...I'm going to leave the power
off for 3 days...we'll see.
Ed
web/gadget guru
http://newton.tek-ed.com (download Newton packages)
http://npds.tek-ed.com (my NPDS server and it's new subdomain)
=====
Just because you're a genius, doesn't make you a smart guy!
- The Powerpuff Girls -
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax
http://taxes.yahoo.com/
-- Read the List FAQ/Etiquette: http://www.newtontalk.net/faq.html Read the Newton FAQ: http://www.guns-media.com/mirrors/newton/faq/ This is the NewtonTalk mailing list - http://www.newtontalk.net
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Sun May 05 2002 - 14:03:04 EDT