Greenways, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England
Tuesday, 28th May 2002 16:55 BST
Hello All,
I'm a Long-time list lurker, (back to the days of Sean O'Sullivan) but very
infrequent contributor. (Though it's still one of my favourite lists to
read; on or off topic. How else would I know such things about Furbys, or
international soft-drink preferences?)
However a recent house burglary has led to the need a ask a few questions of
the forum, as the Jerk who broke-in wound up stealing most all of my Newton
Stuff.
I still can't decided whether to be really angry about this (which,
surprise, I am) or begrudgingly impressed that the chap passed up all of my
Palm stuff, a PowerBook etc, and went straight after all of the Newton Stuff
as he/they rifled through my house. I will say that the amount of stuff
that can be taken and damage that can be done in the 5-10 minutes that
he/they were believed to have gone through the place, is truly amazing. The
Thames Valley police informed me that there was virtually no chance that
this will be recovered, and that the first thing that most thieves do is to
wipe them clean of info for resale, so they can't be traced. (IF they know
how to do this on a Newt) But at this point, I'm more concerned about
missing hardware than a 'security breach', per se.
ANYWAY, thank goodness I had multiple backups, including a 32 meg card which
was stored separately. In the mean time, I am decidedly Newt-less, but will
be in the USA next week, and hope to arrange a MP2K purchase through either
MacEasy or Mr 2nd Hand, both of whom seem to have the best reputations out
there. (If anyone has any other suggestions, or advice to the contrary, I'd
be grateful)
However, since I have to replace my stuff, it got me thinking about some of
the hardware hacks that I seem to recall having read about on the list in
the past. I seem to recall that there is one hack (SER001?) that will
replace the dongle port with a standard serial port (sounds nifty) and
another that will replace/supplement the crystals that govern processor
speed, yielding a Newton a'la steroids. (Rosetta meets Charles Atlas).
(Also, is this switchable? If so, how?)
Hence, I'd be grateful if anyone could fill me in on who offers these
upgrades, the approximate cost and turn-around time, as well as the
experiences of anyone who has had either of these (or any other hardware
upgrades) done. Recommended? Things to beware of? Other hacks that I
should be considering? (Including how to replace the door-retainer clips,
as it seems these die on most newts, almost certainly including the one I'll
be purchasing).
I figured that if I'm going to get a replacement Newt, I might as well do
the biz on it. Unless this is adjudged to be more bother than it's worth.
Oh, and a couple of other things; I know that all of the Newton Manuals are
available on UNNA (or wherever) but sometimes there's just no substitute for
the genuine hardcopies themselves. If anyone has an extra or unneeded full
set of the books/manuals that came with their MP2000 or MP2100, I'd gladly
pay for shipping + whatever (to the USA, where I have a mailing address, if
that's most convenient), to round up a set. My sets were taken in the
burglary.
Also, if anyone has a spare Newton Keyboard and/or Dongles (in excellent
condition) that they are interesting in unloading, I'd be grateful if you
could notify me off-list, and hopefully we can sort something out. If
memory serves me correctly, I seem to recall that Woo Lee might have one or
two available. But I wouldn't want to deplete his reserves... 8-)
Thanks in advance, gang -- I didn't realise just how much I rely on my Newt
until it was purloined. Drat.
Cheers,
-Ross
P.S. Also, anyone know where those AMUG Newton CD's are available from?
P.P.S. If anyone knows of any outlet that is selling those Newton
'Briefcases', I'd be grateful if you'd let me know. I see Duroc has them
available on ebay from time to time, but I purchased from them once, and
paid for but never received the goods. Fool me once, etc...
P.P.P.S. Sorry this went on so long...
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