[NTLK] Waiting for the other shoe.

From: Gavin McKenzie (gavin.mckenzie_at_gmail.com)
Date: Sat Nov 06 2004 - 21:27:22 PST


Boy, it was a good day for me and my Newton. I just want to share a bit.

After being a DOS/Windows since forever, I'm now on day five of my Mac
experience. I don't count the last two years of using my $60 eBay
PowerBook 1400 for Newton development. I really only learned enough
about how to use that ole PowerBook for the purpose of Newton stuff
and nothing else.

I gotta say, that so far I'm mighty happy with my new PowerBook
(despite the fact that there is so much about Mac OSX that I still
haven't even discovered).

Earlier today I picked up a KeySpan USB/Serial adapter. I was
somewhat aprehensive about it given all the threads of woe in NTLK
associated with the KeySpan. I read the KeySpan docs and the docs do
claim that you can install both the OSX and Classic drivers on the
same system, but that the device will be owned by either Classic or
OSX depending on who attempts to talk to the device first. That seems
manageable to me.

I wrestled for about fifteen minutes with the weired "unexpected
error" problem launching NTK that was talked about in this list only
last month.

It took me a minute to realize that I was going to need my PC serial
cable to connect between the KeySpan (which exposes a D9 interface)
and my Newt.

After connecting things together and choosing the right port from the
NTK Prefs everything worked like a charm. Building packages,
downloading, debugging.

And, despite months of unsuccessfully trying to get my
Bluetooth-capable household PC's to share their internet connection
with my Blunt'ed Newt, within a half-hour I had my Newton browsing the
web over a bluetooth connection to my PowerBook which was happily
sharing its wireless internet connection with my green buddy.

[FYI: The trick to getting it working was discovering this article
(and using the simple AppleScripts that are included):
http://stevenf.com/mt/archives/000406.php
]

A few more minutes and I had Escale running. I haven't done an
address-book sync yet though. I'm too chicken. I'm a heavy user of
AddressAccess Pro with lots of custom fields and lots of linking
between people and companies. Regardless, I'm thrilled to just be
using an application other than NCU for the occasional package
download or keyboard usage (though I'll probably use Bluetooth for
package downloads in the future).

So, as I said, I'm waiting for all this good fortune to be dashed.
Waiting for that other shoe.
But for now I'm just damn pleased at how much happier my Newton seems
to be with a PowerBook (instead of a PC) as its companion.

My next trick will be to attempt Escale over my Bluetooth shared
internet connection. Because, that Bluetooth card barely sips power,
unlike my WaveLAN Lucent 802.11b card which, if it were an automobile,
would surely be a 9mpg Hummer.

Gavin

P.S. If any of you know how my winning streak will come to a
screeching halt and crush my spirit, throw me a bone and let me know
so that I won't be surprised when everything suddenly goes sideways.

-- 
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Official Newton FAQ: http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/
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