Re: [NTLK] Fighting Complacency within the Newton Community

From: Chris Browder <newtonusingfox_at_gmail.com>
Date: Tue Aug 01 2006 - 14:46:51 EDT

The Newton community is no different than most any other current or
post-production forum for any technological device (even non-electric
ones).

In the Volkswagen forums (newbeetle.org and ncdubs.com respectivly) I
have contributed lots of things in the past, how-to do this,
resolutions to others problems, etc. Now a days, I just kind of post
updates to what I hve and have not done to my car, my stories of how I
broke things, or stories of unbelievable "it didn't break!" Very
similar to stories in the past on the Newton boards of AOL (to which
in the late 90s I was an administrator of -- at the age of about 16 or
17).

The Macintosh community has always been a diverse and rowdy bunch,
with mild users calling the extremists loyalists and starting drama. I
stepped out of that and into the Volkswagen world, to keep up with my
(then) retail work, the newton got retired and I moved to other
Pen-based platforms to stay on the edge.

What does any of this have to do with NewtonTalk? Well, I have been on
and off it since about 99. I've been a Community leader for AOL/PDAs
and was over the Newton, Windows CE and eventually Palm forums. Today,
I have the idealogical mentality that you can't have a single computer
do everything. That, and, I like to collect things :)

I have an emate that I am journaling with, I am mainly writing down
the darams of my local VW club to one day publish a book on and make
millions. Hey, a boy can dream. Professionally, my MP2100 that I used
for a year at work to log my repairs, I am burned out of the elitist
Macintosh community that upgrades faster than I change socks or my
cats use litter.

Everyone needs help, and admittedly, it's easier to repete the
question than it is to search sometimes. I'm having difficulty with
getting NIE2 to load onto my eMate with the latest patches. NIE1.1
does upload the Internet Enabler, but NIE2's Internet Enabler just
won't load. I've researched it thanks to the Archives and have now
discovered I'll be sending the 1MB card than Jon Glass has sent me to
a friend of Mine in Memphis to install NIE2 onto and then send it back
to me so I can use another program (EEprotect?) to move it to the
internal memory .... what a work around, huh?

I can cite many different instances where the trials and errors of
others combined with the insightfulness of random
strangers/non-posters has lead to a resolution that has benefitted me.
I've been the receiver, giver and accomplice to this with most things
Apple and Volkswagen related.

So to sum it up: every subculture has it's lurkers who never post, has
the poster children, fan boys, drama queens and they all have to learn
to get along. This has been one of the most active threads I have ever
read on here. I think this is a great resource, but between my 9-5 Mac
OS Support job, evenings tinkering on the 73 Bug or adding oil (or a
muffler) to the 2002 bug, VW shows and meetups, Apple training
classes, and my ever loving partner, two cats and a condo to upkeep...
I simply don't have all the time in the world to read every email. I
think many of you guys can agree with that, life doesn't permit me a
day dedicated to Newtontalk. I try and contribute when and where I can
-- software suggestion or support, or heck I'd be like Jon and send
unneeded hardware to you if you needed it (I've given away some 12
G3-based Macs this year alone that get dumped on me when one of my
freelance clients upgrades), because I believe in giving as much as I
take when I can. Even if it isn't giving to the same group -- lending
a hand to help fix an oil leak on a dude's car is just as good a deed
to repay the help someone gave me in getting NIE2 onto my eMate so I
can print my journals out. It's called Karma, and you have to give and
take.

It takes a village, people... :)

-Chris
and his eMate 300 dubbed "lucy," his iMac 2002 dubbed "Luxo Jr," his
iMac G3 dubbed "Jimmy Bondi," his 2002 new Beetle named "Charlie,"
Charlie's VAG-COM equipped IBM ThinkPad named "life saver of the Check
engine light" and his 1973 VW Super Beetle named "Juney," also
starring Lene and Lotus -- the felines.

On 8/1/06, one_audioman@mac.com <one_audioman@mac.com> wrote:
> James,
>
> Very well put! There are some of us in the US that still believe we
> should all have a better command of the "King's English".
>
> Thank you!
>
> Vince
> > On Monday, July 31, 2006, at 06:21 PM, James Wages wrote:
> >
> > Next, profanity (even covered with ASCII symbols) only shows how
> > little one
> > knows. Despite popular thought in the states, profanity does not
> > emphasize
> > your point; it only emphasizes stupidity.
> >
> > Sorry to offend some of your folks by saying this, but I hate senseless
> > words, and profanity is all about senselessness. Here in Japan, there
> > are
> > relative few profane words compared to English, and I must say that my
> > 12
> > years spent here have been a real blessing as a result. I travel back
> > to
> > the US and get smacked with a tsunami of profanity by people who
> > appear to
> > me to be highly uneducated (although many have PHDs and MBAs).
> > Profanity
> > eats away at the brain, whereas normal profanity-free conversation
> > stimulates it. Please consider a more tactful way to stimulate folks
> > on
> > this list. I think you have a lot to contribute, Matt, and I would
> > love to
> > keep hearing it so long as it stimulates the brain in a good way.
> > Otherwise, it goes directly into File-13.
> >
> > Best,
> >
> > James Wages
>
> --
> 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/
>
>

-- 
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/
Received on Tue Aug 1 14:46:56 2006

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