Am 28.02.2008 um 04:33 schrieb V. Lee:
> Hello Listers.
>
> I'm new to the list, and the reasons are:
Hello Vivian!
I'm a writer and journalist based in Germany. I've been using Newtons
for over four years now, and they have proven useful way beyond
expectations. In some ways they can't even be compared to things I
used before (like the Atari Portfolio, Palm stuff and fullblown
laptops), one of the reasons precisely being the handwriting
recognition (HWR) they provide. That said, there are some limitations
which have to be taken into account.
Taking notes, writing short letters, poems, short prose and other
texts not longer than say 1000 characters on a Newton 2100 is ok. But
as good as the HWR is - it's far from perfect. Writing texts on a
Newton which depend on the continuous flow of ideas and concepts over
a prolonged time isn't advisable IMHO. There have been reports of
people who've supposedly written novels via HWR on the Newton. This
may be possible if your handriting is neat and precise to begin with.
Mine is the very opposite of that, and it speaks volumes that an MP
2100 can reasonably put up with it at all.
Still I have been writing my last three novels with the help of two
2100s and an eMate, and this doesn't only mean the actual writeup but
the conceptualization phase as well. But it also means a mixed
employment of HWR and keyboard input on the 2100s and no HWR input on
the eMate at all - HWR on the eMate in my experience is excruciatingly
slow and simply unusable. The eMate is the best mobile typewriter I
ever used, and nothing but.
On a daily basis I carry a setup like this
http://concord.antville.org/static/concord/images/dsc01508a.jpg
everywhere I go. Even with the keyboard and the rather voluminous bag
the overall affair is lighter and smaller than most affordable laptops
(the EEEPC aside). And the combination of instant on, form factor and
a whole variety of input methods (let's not forget about audio notes)
still makes it unique.
Some words about the internet and connectivity. Yes, theoretically you
can do all kinds of things with a 2100 netwise, but it's never been
anything but a drag to me. Connectivity, on the other hand, has never
proven such a challenge for me as for others on the list (lucky me).
I've been regularly using serial, cabled ethernet and infrared
connections both with Win98SE and WinXP. Granted, cabled ethernet took
some tinkering with to work, and infrared was only one way from my
2100s to my XP-box - but for text, all of this was more than adequate.
Recently I switched to OS X. Since then I'm on a serial connection
again, using Simon Bell's NCX and a German make of serial to USB
adapter:
Works very well. According to my experiences you might be best off
with serial connections on any OS, especially if text is a priority to
you.
Good luck!
Marcus
http://www.cityinfonetz.de/homepages/hammerschmitt/high.html
http://jpgmag.com/people/MH2
http://concord.antville.org/
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Received on Thu Feb 28 07:20:42 2008
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