Re: [NTLK] Dare / plea

On 12/07/2009, at 4:15 PM, Jon Glass wrote:
> On Sun, Jul 12, 2009 at 8:47 PM, Grant Hutchinson<grant@splorp.com>
> wrote:

>> Well, my first post was March 6, 2000 ... but I know there's several
>> other NewtonTalkers out there who've been around longer.

I can't remember when I first found NTLK. My subscription has been
through several different list managers, plus I think I recall some
Yahoo(? NTLK2?) fallback list(s?) in the middle there somewhere.

I bought an OMP, I don't remember where -- I *think* I got it via a
friend who worked for an Apple reseller. It was new -- I think it
came with a video in the box explaining various the various OS
features, but I wasn't able to play it because it was NTSC and I only
had a PAL video player. I still have the box with all the manuals,
video and the OMP in storage.

I bought an MP130, I think from the Newton Store in San Francisco.

Several colleagues had Newtons too. We set up an Infrared network
using the Photonics gear in our research labs. We were using it for
wireless email, internet and terminal access (via PT-100) before we
had 802.11 cards.

In the end, I had an MP2000 as my daily machine, which I used for many
years. I have several OMPs, an MP100, my MP130, a few MP2000/2100s
and an eMate. Plus a stack of books, manuals, CDs, the IR networking
stuff, WaveLAN Silver cards, wired 3c509 Ethernet cards, modems,
linear flash cards in various sizes, charging stations, one of the
PCMCIA VGA adaptors (making presentations with that and ... whatever
the software was called used to get a few comments).

The unique thing with the Newton, in my experience, is that it
attracted a community where everyday users vastly outnumbered
programmers. I guess it's not surprising -- it's a much more people-
oriented device than most, but I think it became the Newton's greatest
weakness. There was never much available NewtonScript source code,
and while those who knew it were very generous with their time and
expertise, the environment was not able to move onto a new platform.
There have been some absolute superstars post-cancellation, but not
enough of them to get a critical mass.

My MP2000 used to sit in a custom-made cradle next to my mousepad for
years, but once my mobile phone had the ability to sync with my
calendar and contacts, I found I couldn't be bothered carrying it
around a lot of times. When I moved to the USA a couple of years ago,
I (reluctantly) decided to leave it behind.

I haven't unsubscribed yet though :-)

d

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Received on Sun Jul 12 17:31:53 2009