[NTLK] Newton and Windows compatibility

From: Steve Vander Ark (vderark_at_bccs.org)
Date: Sun Dec 22 2002 - 14:34:33 EST


There was a time when my Newton and my Windows PC got a long splendidly. =
I
used my Newton for "thinking in digital ink," as I used to call it,
outlining my ideas for classes I was going to teach or presentations I =
had
to make. I used my Newton with keyboard as a very portable computer, =
writing
scripts and articles using NewtWorks. I had almost perfect transfers =
between
my 2100 and my Windows PC, using a number of tools: NCU, Xport, and =
others.
The only thing missing was a transfer of an outline in outline form to
PowerPoint, or even to Word, which would have exported to PowerPoint =
easily
enough. I used SimpleMail for email, I had my ethernet card set so that =
I
could access the web using our network at school. It was almost perfect.

But all that has changed, and it doesn't look like there's a solution. =
Ever
since I got my new laptop a year and a half ago, my Newton has been out =
of
the loop. I've tried a number of times without success to make a =
connection.
Recently, as some of my posts have indicated, I have really made a =
concerted
effort, being unwilling to admit that the Newton was obsolete. I do have
some old Macs at my disposal, so I have no problem getting packages =
loaded
and backups made. But my working computer is my WinXP laptop, and in =
order
to have a working system, I need to be able to easily transfer =
information
to it.

The Newton won't. Simple as that. There is apparently no way to do it. I
don't know if the Newton has simply fallen too far behind the world of
modern computing or what, but nothing I try will work. I bought a device =
to
plug into my USB port which is supposed to provide a serial port, but =
when I
try to use it with the Newton, it totally crashes my computer (the only =
time
XP has crashed on me, by the way). I recently got a nice desktop machine =
for
our home, which is networked with my laptop. That wouldn't be ideal, but =
it
would be workable. It has serial ports, so I set up NBU and NCU and gave
each of them a try. Now the Newton will connect, but whenever I try to =
do
anything--backup or load a package--it fails. I have tried Slowdown =
(which
comes with no instructions, so I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with
it). I slid the little sliders down slower and slower, but nothing =
helped.=20

Like I said, there was a time when my Newton was a smoothly integrated,
powerful tool that increased my productivity dramatically. That time is
gone. I still have it on my desk, plugged in and turned on, but I don't =
find
myself reaching for it anymore. I don't do work on it anymore. I haven't
written a document on it in ages. It still works just fine. The keyboard =
is
great (if a bit noisy). I haven't lost my dongle. My storage cards still
have 100k free space on them (I only have 4 meg cards...old fashioned, I
know). But if I can't connect it to my laptop or my desktop machines, =
the
Newton loses so much of its value.

If anyone has solutions to the key problems here, I would be delighted =
to
hear them. No, I'm not going to start using an old PowerPC Mac just to =
get
connectivity. I need to be able to connect my Newton 2100 to a modern,
WindowsXP computer and backup, load packages, and transfer documents.
Otherwise, no matter how much I love my Newton, it will start to gather
dust, just like my Commodore 128. That's just the cold hard truth of it. =
And
that would be a dirty shame.

Steve Vander Ark

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