Date: Mon, 11 Aug 1997 10:55:40 +0100 From: nik@iii.co.uk To: Marco Molteni <molter@logic.it> Cc: chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Apple Newton MessagePad Message-ID: <19970811105540.52314@strand.iii.co.uk> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.91.970809143221.1174A-100000@dumbwinter.ecomotor.it>; from Marco Molteni on Sat, Aug 09, 1997 at 02:55:12PM %2B0200 References: <Pine.BSF.3.91.970809143221.1174A-100000@dumbwinter.ecomotor.it>
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On Sat, Aug 09, 1997 at 02:55:12PM +0200, Marco Molteni wrote:
> In quest of a way to drastically limit the amount of various-shaped
> pieces of papers floating around my desk, folders and briefcase [1]
> when I need to jot down or to retrieve (!) something (eg University notes,
> memorandum, URLs, ...), I found the Apple Newton MessagePad, which seems
> pretty cool:
>
> 1. LCD display sufficiently wide
> 2. interfaceable to a PC
> 3. handwritten recognition
> 4. real keyboard
>
> Any comment about this toy or suggestions about similar ones ?
I've had a Newton 130 for a little over a year. It's great for the things
I use it for. Specifically;
- Diary
- Contacts
- Flat file database
- Money management
The only problems I have with it are
a) You have to shell out cash to get the programming environment. I'd
prefer Apple to offer a bare bones environment for the hobbyist for
free
b) It's a bit too slow for instant use. Looking stuff up takes an
appreciable amount of time. This is a pain if you're checking out
what's happening on a particular day with a customer who's hanging
on the telephone.
The Newton 2000 solves the speed problem. Sadly, I can't afford one yet.
When I (finally) get my own FreeBSD home box I'm going to spend some time
working on a Newton DB for typically 'Unixy' information. I envisage being
able to wander around the office inspecting the various bits of hardware
on the network and scrawling (literally) the information into a DB on the
Newt. I should then be able to come back to my desk, hook it up to my Unix
box and run some scripts to produce things like named maps and other host
tables, web pages that outline what's where, /etc/aliases and so on and
so forth.
At the moment though, it's just a pipe dream, <sigh> :-(
N
--
--+==[ Nik Clayton is Just Another Perl Hacker at Interactive Investor ]==+--
"The good guys dress in black. Remember that." NC5-RIPE
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