Now that Wireless connection is a routine event, its time to get nBog working.

Installed nBlog 1.0a8, which includes three packages nBlog, nHTML, and XML-RPC. Then set the preferences. This was the first problem area for me. The instructions at nBog state:

“Before you can use nBlog you must first set up nBlog’s preferences. Tap on the Prefs button and enter your information for host, path, port, username, and password. Tap Save and tap the Refresh Blog List button to retrieve your list of blogs from the internet.”

The instructions included a great screen shot:

As straight forward as these instructions are, my wee little brain didn’t get it.

My humble site is a Movabletype blog that is installed in a subdomain of www.my-list.com. After many trial and error attempts to correctly set nBlog preferences, success was achieved. The key to success was the realization that the Host: preference setting must be the URL where the Movabletype cgi script is installed and not necessarily the blog URL. Also the Path: setting is the path and file name for the cgi script that provides for a remote post. The specific setting which appear to work a some level are:

Host: http://www.my-list.com
Path: /cgi-bin/mt-xmlrpc.cgi
Port: 80
Weblog API: Blogger 1.0
Username: <my username>
Password: <my password>
Title start tag: <b>
Title close tag: </b><br/>
Aways Publish checked

I have two persistent problems. The first is all nBlog action icons with the exception of “User Info” are grayed out and inactive. When the User Info action item is tapped the Newton connects and return the correct user information. The second is when I tap the nHTML package a slip pops up with the message: Sorry, a problem has occurred. (-48809) I have downloaded and reinstalled this package twice. However, the error still occurs.

It works. Have successfully sync data between the Newton and G4 using NewtSync 0.3k. In addition, installed NewtsCape and successfully connected to the internet. To make this happen, WEP was disabled on the Apple Airport, and the TCP/IP address was manually set in the preferences for Hiroshi’s WanLan driver.

My network architecture is detailed above. To achieve wireless connection with the Newton:

1. Installed Lucent (ORiNOCO) WaveLAN Turbo Gold 802.11b wireless
2. DHCP provided by Linksys router
3. Installed Hiroshi’s WanLan driver.
4. Set WEP off on Apple Airport
5. WanLan driver preferences:
    a. Mode – Infrastructure
    b. Channel – 1
    c. SSID –
    d. WEP Key –
    e. Use WEP – Not Checked
6. Internet Setup:
    a. Configuration – Manual
    b. Card – Lucent WaveLAN/IEEE
    c. Local IP Address –
    d. Gateway/Router Address –
    e. Primary DNS/Name Server Address –
    f. Domain Name – None

My collection of movies is legendary within our family. Well legendary may be stretching the point. It’s more likely that I have just accumulated a lot of movies that kids find appealing. Invariably, when family members visit they question what are the new additions. Followed by, lets watch something good. Now that I have put everything into www.my-list.com selecting something good to watch is quite easy. Even Ryan & Ashlyn, two of my grandchildren use www.my-list.com. Both really like it. Ashlyn has checked out a movie through my-list. Ryan uses it to pick something interesting to watch. Particularly useful to him is the ability to view a list of PG movies only. Ryan did identify a problem. He can easily pick a movie, but has a difficult time finding it. So………. the list of videos has been revised to include a unique ID number. Ryan is affixing a color coded label to the edge of each video and marking it with the unique ID. He will then sort the videos by this number. When done finding a movie will be as easy as its selection

The Lucent (ORiNOCO) WaveLAN Turbo Gold 802.11b wireless card purchased on eBay arrived Friday. Spent Friday night and the wee hours of Saturday attempting to get this card to connect. Could not make it happen. Did manage to make a connection with a 3Com eithernet card, so I suspect the problem is with the wireless setup. My home network consists of a high speed connection from sprint wireless broadband to a Linksys router. The router provides DHCP services. Connected to the router is one Apple Airport and a G4 system. One iMac and iBook are connected through the Airport device. The Newton wireless connection attempted was to the G4 system using NewtSync.

Currently have successful connected using a serial cable with Keyspan adapter, and a 3Com eithernet card. In both cases, was able to successfully sync data using NewtSync 0.3k. This is great software.

Have installed Hiroshi’s WanLan driver and tried multiple setup combinations but could not connect. I just get a message that it can’t find my G4. When I replace the wireless card with the 3Com eithernet card the connection is made. At this point I don’t have a clue of what is causing the problem. For now I have just walked away from the problem. Will wait and tackle it again with a more rested brain.

Test again

Well all PDA’s with the exception of two Newton 2100’s are gone. Sold both the hp Jornada and Handspring Visor on eBay. It’s remarkable, that neither of these devices could compete with the capability of the Newton. Input using Palm graffiti was miserably slow. Success was only achieved through the use of a Stowaway keyboard. It was impossible to input text into the Jornada. Handwriting recognition was very poor at best. Had high hopes for the Jornada but ended up very disappointed. It has an impressive colorful screen, but no real functionality.
Still have the Handspring Visor version of the Targus stowaway keyboard. It’s a pretty slick device. Thought it would be nice to convert it to work with the Newton. Raised the question on newtontalk@newtontalk.net and received a wealth of information. Andy put me on to dev.newtontalk.net/~dpadilla/newtondose.htm. This is Daniel Padilla’s site. In it he provides a great wiring diagram an offers his “alfa” driver to anyone interested. He and I have passed several emails. Daniel provided key information, as follows:

“The Visor version uses TTL level signals, you cannot use it with the regular serial port of your Newton as found on the serial dongle, the SER-001 or the interconnect-DB9 cable.
The only way would be using the other serial port available at the interconnect. If you have a interconnect connector, I can send you some wiring diagram and a modified driver.”

“The palm portable keyboard needs a couple of actions to start working First, it needs to be powered. And then, the handshake pin needs to be raised, lowered and raised again. When extracting power from a serial port, you usually get it from the handshaking pins of the computer. But the regular newton serial port has both handshaking signals combined at the HSKo pin. And I had to use that pin for for handshaking. So I got the power from the TDX+ pin.”

“The connector of the MP2000, MP2100 and emate is called Newton Interconnect port. It has audio in-out, power in-out and two serial ports. The serial dongle, SER-001 and interconnect-DB9 cable provide access to the first serial port which has RS-232 levels. To use your Visor keyboard, you’ll need to access the second serial port, that uses TTL level signals, with a interconnect connector. The easier way to get an Interconnect connector is destroying a serial dongle. I think it would be easier to buy a Palm stowaway, that are going for 20 US$ these days at amazon.com.”

It does not seem practical to attempt to convert the Visor version on the stowaway. Will just sell it on eBay and maybe get a Newton keyboard. Not sure it is really needed since text entry is so easy.

Have made major progress on www.my-list.com. The video portion is complete with the accept ion of the functionality to inactivate or delete a authorized share. Worked the entire weekend attempting to finish. Almost made it. Have been just two burned out to look at the code the past couple of day. However, am refreshed and ready to finish. Look forward to others using my-list and getting their comments.

I LOVE MY NEWTON. Have totally switched all PDA services to a MessagePad 2100. Actually purchased a second unit on eBay. This second unit was purchased for only $81. It arrived in surprisingly good shape. Unlike the first unit. This one had a screen cover, and port cover. It also contained all the information from the previous user. With the exception of a scuffed screen. It is great working order. It is now my primary unit. With all the time spent on my-list, there was none left over for coding a notes reader for the G4. It’s a promise…..to start this project this weekend. Continue to read almost every post on www.newtontalk.net. It is a great resource. As a new Newton owner, have learned ton’s from this net.

In the past couple of days two daring soles have logged into www.my-list.com. Their effort is very much appreciated. From the system logs it appears they had no problems. That's encouraging. The video portion of http://www.my-list.com is almost done. There are only four functional items to code.

Successfully downloaded a Notes Soup from the MessagePad 2100. It was easy to do using NewtSync. The download is an XML file of everything in Notes. In reviewing this file it looks to be organized such that each entry has two elements. The one defines its location and the second contains the actual text. Since the development tools have been installed, double clicking the file opens it in the Property List Editor. This gives a clear view of the Soup and the ability to copy and paste entries into other applications. However, it would be much more elegant to have an application which could read and display the contents of the soup in the same format as on the Newton. It should also have the capability of exporting a text file of data in the same format. So here is a new project. The intention is to write it as an OS X Cocoa application. Will start simple and expand it as needs are identified. NewtSync provides Developer Documents that will really be helpful in this effort.

Received the Keyspan USB Serial Adapter today. It included a CD with instructions and drivers. Had previously downloaded and installed the drivers from the Keyspan. However, when the adapter was plugged into the USB port the "Keyspan Serial Assistant " could not find the serial ports. Uninstalled the drivers and reinstalled those provided with the adapter. The provided driver was an earlier version. It asked for a system restart after installation. The "Keyspan Serial Assistant" immediately found the serial ports. Attached dongle, serial cable, and serial adapter ... started "NewTen" selected NewtSync.pkg to install, clicked the Synchronize button and nothing. Tapped the Dock icon on the Newton, selected connect via serial, and tapped connect. MAGIC NewtSync installed on the Newton. Started "NewtSync " on G4 and Newton and synced Names and Clock. Also downloaded the contents of the Newton Soup. What is a soup? It created a file on my desktop that turned out to be an XML file of what looks like the Names from the Newton. Will have to investigate this a little further. This was just too easy. Have many questions, like how to move data from Newton Notes to the G4. That 's another venture for another day . . . now to create an eBay listing to sell one Jornada and Handspring.

Ordered a Keyspan USB Twin Serial Adapter from MicrowareHouse. It hasn't arrived so still have not connected the Newton and G4. Found the MassagePad 2100 manual at MessagePad 2100 User’s Manual. What an amazing machine. Working through the manual revealed capabilities still only wishful thinking on a Palm and Windows CE devices. The Newton is truly a marvel of innovation.

Work continues on www.my-list.com. Much of it was on behind the scenes stuff. However, did add functionality for users to edit any of their registration information. This includes changing user name and password. Have reached a point were the end of the Video section is in sight. Then again it could be the proverbial train at the end of the tunnel. Did get an unsolicited volunteer, Sandy, to input about 20 VCR's. Her effort resulted in only one comment. That was, “it's a pain to have to convert 211 minutes to hours and minutes”. Never thought of that as an irratent. Should revise the input screen to accept either hours and minutes or total minutes and let the system do the conversion.