[NTLK] A most amazing device..

Allow me to regale you with a story of woe that has a happy ending.
   
  In a previous posting, I stated how I replaced my newts one at a time as they each succumbed to irreparable issues (pc card not functioning and sever jaggies) and how now I'm running a Newt I purchased on eBay that I'm quite pleased with.
  Well. This *new* replacement newt is bone stock, and missing one of the door clippys. So, I decided, last night, that I was going to perform my crystal upgrade to boost it's speed (http://newton.tek-ed.com/newtspeed) and replace the missing door clippy. This would require opening my jaggie inflicted Newt to scavenge for parts (those 5mhz crystals are getting hard to find)
  So after removing the parts from the *old* newt (at this point, what newton ISN'T old?) and >>>cracking<<<open my replacement newt, I soldered the crystal in place (those old crystals are a pain to remove) and fired up my newt...it booted and life was good.
  I replaced the door clippy and closed up the newt, happy with the way things turned out...
  The is until I found out that none of the packages on my memory cards were loading....hmmm, the crystal is awfully close to that u6 chip...is that the chip that controls the slots? Did I damage something? I didn't use my Weller soldering iron (still boxed up from my move a year ago) so I use my butane soldering iron...that shouldn't be a problem! Now I'm panicking...OK...let's try several things..several back to back reboots, and the last resort cold reboot...my backups are on memory cards...if this doesn't work, then I won't even have my data anymore!
  Well...that didn't work...
  So, I popped out the memory cards, removed the battery pack and went to bed...luckily my Blackberry has a built in alarm clock!
  The next morning as I was getting ready to leave...the thoughts of purchasing yet ANOTHER replacement newt conjured up thoughts that perhaps this is an omen that I should finally leave the newton platform and embrace something else? Not a pleasant thought, but one that needed thinking given the circumstances...I dreaded this thought and pushed it from my mind..
  As a last resort, I entered my computer room and picked up my now injured newt. Reinserted the battery pack and booted it up...Since this is now a virgin newt (I cold booted it last night) it booted quickly. I went through the calibration and haphazardly inserted one of my memory cards...
  Well, guess what? the Newt started to read the card and loaded the packages. Thinking that this fluke only included the one slot, I inserted my second memory card and it too loaded up it's packages. My newt was resurrected...Somehow, it had "repaired" its self and come back from the barely living!
  OK, this is going to get geeky here, but this reminds me of a Star Trek TNG episode where Data gets infected by a computer invasion that acts like a computer virus on an abandoned high-tech planet. The "virus" causes data to shut down. During this down time, Data's positronic brain reboots to a default mode and when he is restarted, he loads his neural net with a backed up copy of his customizations and memory...
  How like the Newton this is! For something that was abandoned by Apple over 10 years ago, the concept is futuristic even to the minds of the amazed Enterprise crew 300 years in the future!
  This is truly a most amazing device.
  Long live the Newt...Keep the green!
  Ed
  web/gadget guru
  Download Newton packages directly onto your Newton: http://newton.tek-ed.com

"Traveling on a domestic airline with children on board is like traveling with a Chihuahua with diarrhea"
   Jerry Clavner, a sociology and anthropology professor from Cleveland.
                
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