[NTLK] Getting our own house in order

From: Andy Hill <adhill_at_fastmail.co.uk>
Date: Fri May 16 2008 - 11:41:21 EDT

Hi there

Recent threads have made me realise that there might be a great deal
more the Newton Community could do with the mass of software that is
already available, particularly on UNNA. I believe that 'getting our own
house in order' with what we already have is important for two reasons.
Firstly it will be much more attractive to newcommers and secondly it
will be more likely to inspire people with programming skills to take on
new developments. This is in no way a complaint more of a proposal for
consideration and it can be quite disconcerting to work through Unna
finding dead ends or great software that you can't use after the trial
period, web links that are dead or programmes that don't seem to work at
all. Here are 3 ideas.

Idea 1: -
If UNNA could be changed so that each item was categorised and viewed to
show:

Type of licence: Freeware, shareware, etc etc
Works with OS:
Cost: Free or amount £ or $
Contact: Contact details of vendour or not available
Web: links to active web page if available or None if not available.
Links to user set ups and hints: here would be a place for either
descriptions of successful set ups or links to Newtontalk archives etc.
Would save people searching for themes that come round and round.
Photos: Small photos of set ups of the software / hardware working

Also for the search facility in Unna to be changed so that it searched a
number of fields not just the description field. I.e. to make it
googleable.

Idea 2 - Hardware loan scheme.
For Newtontalk to include an option of [AFL] 'Available for loan' or
[WLTB] 'would like to borrow'. How many newtons are just kept as spares
or kept in cupboards for rainy days, when they could be made available
for people to try out for a limited period. Again this could really help
to increase interest. For example we could establish a simple rule of
max 3 months loan where the loaner pays the postage both ways and
replaces if broken.

Idea 3 - A picture tells a thousand words.
It would be great if there was a web page on UNNA or Newtontalk or
elsewhere which members could upload picture of newtons in various
corners of the world i.e. top of Eiffel Tower etc etc. If a site like,
'stuffonmycat' can attract regular uploads, I'm sure this would also.
Photographs in this way could help bring the Newton alive for people
(Unless of course this turns out to prove that we've all got similar
dodgey beards!).

I don't know if any of the above is possible, and ashamably I don't have
the technical nohow but would be happy to help in terms of time.

Does anyone thing any of these have any mileage?

Thanks

Andy

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Received on Fri May 16 11:42:41 2008

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