[NTLK] accessories & data extraction was:Re: NewtonWorld 'magazine'

Sonny Hung wrote:
<snip>
> PS: There are also a few ads for accessories that I would like to track down
> personally. You'll have to read them to know what I'm talking about ;-)

I still want the stand that looks like a pcb stand that tilts and
swivels. now if I could find someone who has one who could take some
nice photos and send them to me .... hint, hint. then maybe it could be
replicated.

on another topic

while not a programmer (tho I did play one in a former life ;-) I'm
thinking about the architecture of the data storage in a newton. and I'm
thinking that it could be modeled in a structured database. each soup
would be a table and each table would have a unique field that other
tables could use to link to. using this structure methinks it would be
possible to extract the data from the newton soups, stuff them into
tables and then extract them into whatever format you want. it would be
extensible enough that any proggy that extended the data could have it's
data stuffed into another table yet remain linked.

all of this effort would then get us to the point where there would be
only a single one time programming effort to extract and load from the
newton to a database usable format (or directly into the database, like
mySQL). data extraction could then be in whatever format any application
was willing to import / export, from / to.

automating this little effort would then make it uh kinda transparent.
most proggys can take and spit out ascii or a csv file. a sql statement
can extract into an ascii / csv format and can upload one back into
itself. and yes I realise that some of the data is not text, which makes
  use of mySQL blob fields. but then you'd have a hard time getting
anything else to use one of those anyway.

side benefit is that you'd have a backup of your data;-) and with a
little extra work you could even archive everything that changed (well
ok that's more than a little extra work).

when I get a chance I'll have to play with sloup and xport to see what I
can get (any other soup i/o proggys i should try???

thoughts???

william

ps don't forget I'm still looking for a job and working on my MBA so any
of this is a bit backgrounded and niced, if you know what i mean.

shameless plug here

by the way anyone know anybody in the business that would be interested
in spending a few moments of their time talking with a business analyst?
not looking for someone to necessarily out and out hire me but a little
networking would be nice ;-0

  -- special knowledge can be a terrible disadvantage if it leads you too
far along a path that you cannot explain anymore.

mentat admonition
<http://jobs.collegerecruiter.com/PociengelWilliam>

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