Re: [NTLK] 2010.....should I be worried?

On Tue, Mar 4, 2008 at 12:32 PM, John Chu <johnchu@acm.org> wrote:
> > Recently someone mentioned a "bug" in the Newt that had something to
> > do with the year 2010.
> >
> > My question is should I be worried?
>
> Likewise, I'm assuming the bug also affects Einstein?

I would assume so, because it's related to how the Newton keeps time.
The clock in the Newton OS is like an odometer. I believe it counts
minutes forward from Jan 1, 1904 (at least that was the date the old
Mac system counted from). Unfortunately, like an odometer, at some
point, it must roll over, and it is then that the problems start. That
will happen in 2010. Avi Drissman, somehow patched the system time so
that it should work past 2010. However, I don't know how he patched
it. I do know, however, that there is a patch, and it's downloadable
from the unna.org archives. I have it installed on my Newton, and so
far, no problems. I also, several years ago (the earliest email I
could find was from 2003, and in it I mention then, that I had done
this "several years ago"--so it was probably a "long time ago" now)
did a bit of testing on the patch. Here's what I recommend doing.

Since it sounds like you haven't yet put much on your Newton, you
probably may not care to back it up, but if you don't you will likely
lose everything on your Newton--no, you _will_ lose everything, so, if
you don't want to lose everything, back up your Newton--several times.
:-) Before a hard reset, I tend to make a backup on my desktop. Move
the backup, and make another, identical one. Next, I put in my backup
card, and back up my internal to this card.

So, once everyhing is backed up, move your Newton clock ahead to some
date in 2010. Right away, you probably won't have any problems--unless
you already have dates from 2010 or into the future. Once the clock is
set, add a meeting or something date-specific. At this point, either
right away, or on waking the Newton up, you will probably find that
your poor Newton keeps resetting itself. The only way I found to stop
this reset loop was to do a hard reset, which empties the Newton of
the calendar items, and sets the clock back to 1996.

Once you've seen what happens, next install the 2010 fix, and do the
same thing--set the date forward, and add calendar items. I would
recommend both adding dates in the next 5 years, as well as moving the
Newton's clock forward through the next 10 years (to 2020, at least).
And make sure that it doesn't go bonkers at some point in the future.
I don't remember how far in the future I did my test, but I am pretty
sure it was a long ways--I think I moved it a century forward, but I
don't recall.

In any case, we all would appreciate hearing what the results of your
test are. In fact, now that I write this, I'm seriously thinking of
trying again--but only with the patch installed. ;-) Why delete it,
just to be forced to do a brain wipe? My model is a 2100, but I also
have a couple 120s, and a 2000 that belong to my kids. I'll borrow
them for the test. :-)

-- 
 -Jon Glass
Krakow, Poland
<jonglass@usa.net>
"I don't believe in philosophies. I believe in fundamentals." --Jack Nicklaus
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