[NTLK] New here... (and new to the Newton)

Eric Rucker bhtooefr at gmail.com
Sat Dec 12 01:02:28 EST 2009


Decided to test out a theory that I have about Apple products, and got
an eMate 300 a couple days ago.

I'm... really liking this thing. It's annoying in that it does what it
does so much better and faster than my smartphone, which has a 528 MHz
ARM11. (Of course, it runs Windows Mobile, so that explains it.)

I rebuilt the battery pack with 2700 mAh NiMH cells, and we'll see how
it does, but the battery life is looking rather impressive.

For now, I think it's going to get used for some writing, light gaming
(NewtHack, what else do you really need?,) and ebook reading on the
go. Ridiculous battery life will come in handy for an upcoming trip
I'm taking.

I did notice the site for NCT was down, so I'm currently using NCU
with a USB to RS232 adapter (a Prolific chipset-based one,) running at
9600 baud, running my ThinkPad on battery (slows it to 1 GHz,) running
two instances of slowdown.exe set for max slowdown, and running
ncu.exe at Idle priority, and it's just about stable on Windows 7 RC1.
(Haven't shelled out for the final version yet.) Using a null modem
cable that I originally got for transferring files to my IIGS, works
fine.

I could see where an MP2x00's extra speed and memory would come in
handy, but the eMate is still quick enough, and I suck at handwriting
and prefer a keyboard, and they're cheaper (and don't need that dongle
to convert to a real serial port.)

Just thought I'd say hi.

(Oh, and my theory about Apple products... an Apple product must have
a 6502, 65C02, or 65816 as its main CPU to not suck. (Having one
doesn't prevent suckage, though, see the Apple III.) It's now been
disproven, an Apple product can have an ARM and not suck, as well. I
kinda like OS X, but it gets annoying at times (used to use Leopard
daily on an old iBook G4,) and I really dislike all of the hardware
that can run OS X, and don't support the modern Apple at all due to
their policies with the iPhone. Today's Apple isn't the Apple that I
have nostalgia for, the hacker-friendly Apple that made the Apple II.
I don't even like 68k Macs, though, for that matter (both because the
OS is a terrible hackjob under the hood (and before it was hackjobbed,
the OS was rather lackluster other than the graphical interface,) and
because they were used to kill the Apple II for good.) Or Lisae, but
that's probably because they're overrated and overpriced on the used
market.)



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