From: Martin Howard (mvhoward_at_mac.com)
Date: Thu Jul 22 2004 - 02:22:37 PDT
Good evening all,
As a new member to this list and, indeed, to the whole experience of
Newton ownership, I thought I'd send an introductory email, something
that, at least historically, used to be considered good email list
behaviour. Such messages serve the dual purpose, and this is no
exception as you'll discover later, of also being a thinly veiled
attempt at eliciting specific knowledge to (typically newbie)
questions. However, I promise that I will give fair warning and thus
anyone who feels that I'm being too impetuous will be in a position to
disregard those portions of my message.
The way that I came to Newton ownership is ironic. Once upon a time,
many eons ago, I owned one of the first PalmPilot models. (My
apologies if I've just offended anyone: I have yet to learn exactly
which letters in the names of competitors' PDAs are canonically blocked
out with asterisks and in the interest of legibility, I opted for full
disclosure.) It served me reasonably well for a while, until I
realized that a) keeping notes and schedules with pen and paper was
cheaper, easier, and rarely required a backup strategy, and b) that
while I loved the email-from-anywhere mobile connectivity that my Nokia
8110i, GPRS, and PalmPilot with assorted software afforded me while
sitting in a tour bus going over the Swiss alps, the novelty factor
wore off and ultimately its usefulness was limited. So, ever since the
Palm III came out and I faced the inevitable 'upgrade or phase out'
decision, I've been without a PDA.
Recently I've been yearning for a connected-but-disconnected PDA and
have surveyed the market over the past couple of months. In the end, a
used Newton MessagePad 2100 appears to do everything I need it to do
(except, possibly, possess a colour screen), beating out candidates
such as the Palm Tungsten T3, Sony PEG-UX50 and the Sharp Zaurus
SL-6000 (a model number that I too this day still feel suggests "sports
car" and not "Linux PDA"). I guess it's some kind of testiment to the
design and engineering teams of the Newton that their PDA still today
competes on relatively equal footing and still comes out on top,
despite having been off the market for more than half a decade.
Perhaps a Tchao's Caveat to Moore's Law?
My main reason for getting the Newton is wireless connectivity. From
what I can understand of FAQs, link collections, and tutorials, it
supports both Bluetooth and 802.11b (WiFi) via PCMCIA expansion cards,
both of which are, for me and my purposes, absolutely necessary in a
PDA. I plan to use it as a lightweight, always accessible WWW "access
point", in addition to an always available, portable IRC client. (BTW,
has anyone written an AIM client for the Newton?) I'll probably not
use the PIM that much, unless it they work with iSync -- given what I'm
finding these days, I wouldn't be too surprised if some enterprising
individual has hacked together a patch for that too!
Which leads me to the aforementioned request for information. I've
read the FAQs, and followed the links, but I'm still pretty unsure of
exactly *which* PCMCIA WiFi and Bluetooth cards work. The WiFi doesn't
seem to have been updated in two years and I know from recent
experience of trying to find an 802.11b card for an HP OmniBook 800CT
that I installed Red Hat on that two years is a long time. These days,
it difficult to find an 802.11b... they're all the faster 11g standard
it seems.
The same goes for Bluetooth. The Blunt page has no timestamp/date on
it. The one card that is mentioned as working (PICO Bluetooth PCMCIA
card) doesn't seem to be available anywhere (for laughs, Froogle "PICO
Bluetooth PCMCIA card" -- I smell an Expansys/Siemens conspiracy! Don
your aluminium beanies!) In fact, the only bluetooth cards I seem to
be able to find on the market are those explicitly mentioned on the
Blunt homepage as *not* being compatible with the Newton.
So, what exactly is the current state of these? What WiFi and what
Bluetooth PCMCIA card that is available *today* should I buy that
*will* work with the Newton? I'd love to hear from people who own and
use a working setup. Not that I don't enjoy stories along the lines of
"there was this bloke down at the pub, right? and his brother-in-law
has this wizz thinga-me-jig..." but they're not the quickest path to
digital bliss and you invariably end up feeling like the guy who wanted
to buy a "record player" in the Monty Python HiFi shop sketch (or was
it "Not the Nine O'Clock News"?).
Since I these days I live in the Bay Area (well, more or less), home of
such wonderful electronic surplus stores as the one in which I got my
IBM clickety-clack buckling-spring keyboard complete with PS/2
connector, and since the Bay Area seems home to more than its fair
share of gearheads, computing eccentrics, and people with more
computers than car tyres, there must be, I tell myself, a Bay Area
Newton Users' Group. Google draws a blank -- other than the Standford
Newton Users Group, but I'm not sure that they'd let my dusty old Jeep
onto the campus.
Meanwhile, I patiently wait until Monday, when my Newton MessagePad
2100 we be delivered to me. I guess I'll get to find out if this baby
is all it's cracked up to be... ;)
Martin.
-- This is the NewtonTalk list - http://www.newtontalk.net/ for all inquiries Official Newton FAQ: http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/ WikiWikiNewt for all kinds of articles: http://tools.unna.org/wikiwikinewt/
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