[NTLK] Adventures with Newton, the beginning

From: Roger Wyatt (rbwyatt_at_gmail.com)
Date: Wed Sep 29 2004 - 20:27:11 PDT


Hello Everyone,

As a new owner of an old scuffed up, but insanely great Newton 2000,
just bought on ebay, I thought I'd introduce myself and say hello.

I've always been intrigued with Newtons.

In fact back in 1996, I owned a Newton 120. While the concept was
great I was frustrated by the handwriting recognition and the lack of
ram, and the difficulties in connecting with my desktop machines.
Though I thought the concept was great I couldn't make it work for me.

Over the years I've used Psions, Palms (and Visors), and HPCs. While
they were productive for me, particularly the NEC 770, I always felt
something was missing.

Like personality and imagination.

I've always kept a good list of Newton Websites and checked them out
regularly. Sometimes I thought I would buy a 2000 or a 2100, but
somehow never did.

Recently my Psion 5mx suddenly dropped dead. I thought this was an
opportunity to check out Newton once again.

This time I got on it. When I saw a Newton 2000 on ebay, beat-up but
reliable and working, with a pretty low "buy it now" price, I clicked,
made the leap and bought the thing. I also bid on, won, and am
awaiting delivery on a keyboard, connection kit, a hp deskjet 340
printer, and a caring case. So I'm developing a system. I need to get
a AA battery pack.

Today my Newton arrived. Within a few minutes I had unpacked it and
had the thing up and running. Hearing it's whimsical sounds, working
with its elegant interface, seeing my owner info showing up in other
parts of the system, I knew that I made the right choice. Newton is
terrific. I even think I'm off to a much better start with the hand
writing recognition. I'm delighted.

Not only do I want to use (heavily) my PDA, but I want to restore and
upgrade it. I want my Newton to be my walkabout machine, always at the
ready for text or a diagram.

I want to run Life Balance on it. Has anybody had any experience with
it on Newton?

The screen is pretty scuffed, so that's the first thing I'd like to
replace it. Before the end of the year I expect to buy one of the
screen replacement kits and have a technician install the upgrade. A
question for the group, who does that kind of work? What would be a
reasonable fee to do this? Any guidance is appreciated.

Once that's done, I'll upgrade it to a 2100.

I'll keep the group informed as to my adventures with Newton.

Later,

Roger

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