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.

Work continues on www.my-list.com ··· should have the video portion complete within the next couple of weeks. This portion is written in perl cgi script. I have separated the HTML from the code using templates. This is just reading in the HTML into a string, replacing placeholders with data, them printing the string to the screen. It′s pretty efficient. Would be nice to have some users. Especially one′s who will provide feedback. Using the “New Video” screen, have loaded 158 DVD′s into the system. Seemed to work fine. However, it was really not a good test. After all I know how the system works and therefore used it within those limits. Some real users can prove invaluable insight on how it really works. Have looked for a graphic design person to provide some real graphics for the site. Need a first page that clearly defines my-list using graphics and a few words. It should be contemporary, professional looking and appealing.

Currently planning on coding the CD functionality using PHP. Have not decided what to use for the “Other” functionality. Maybe Python?

Received a serial cable purchase from eBay. However, still can′t connect the Newton and G4. The problem is with the USB converter. The converter only accepts a six-pin cable. Currently this converter, USBi by Wasp Bar Code MT606-3, is used to connect a bar code reader to a USB port. Never took the time to count the number of plug pins. Just noted the device cables looked alike. dumb!

Have downloaded and installed NewTen and NewtSync on the G4. Just need to acquire the appropriate serial adapter and Mac OS X dev driver. Then figure out how to actually connect, and move applications and data to the Newton.

Once data is synced the HP Jornada and Handspring go up for sale at eBay. Going total Message Pad 2100.

www.my-list.com is my pet project. The idea came as our number of accumulated DVD movies grew. When we only had a few DVD′s, its was no problem keeping them organized in our head … We could easily to pick one that fit our viewing mood. However, as this collection grew we lost mental track of its content. To compound this problem our family likes to ask if we have any good movies, and often borrows. Its like we run a family video store. Being a web developer the thought sprang out … Soooo … why not make a web tool which allows one to create an inventory of their DVD′s, share the list with family and friends, and includes a checkout system. Sounded so good why not do the same for CD′s, MP3′s, Books, Tools or anything someone might what to list and control. It could also provide of a list of items people want to sell, trade, or buy …

That was it; my mission was to make this idea a reality.

This week′s highlight was a day at the zoo with Jayson. Jayson is our almost 4-year-old grandson. He′s at that excitable stage with new experiences. Likes to see the animals. The giraffe and orangutan were his favorite this trip. We have made this visit on other occasions. Jayson takes great pride in telling his remembrances of our previous visits. In my view, it′s the children in one′s life that make it all worth while.

It arrived, the Newton 2100, purchased from eBay. Don?t have a clue how it works. Did manage to install the battery pack and turn it on. There was about half a charge left on the batteries. Since the Newton was shipped from Queensbury, NY on the 17th it appears that the battery will hold a charge. Found the original pen in place. However, was disappointed that the cover is missing. This fact was not mentioned in the eBay listing. Included was a nice leather case, modem and ethernet card, software CD, and a Radio Shack variable voltage power source. The Newton back label states it is rated at 7.5vdc the Radio Shack power source is set for 6vdc. There is no 7.5 v setting. The ethernet card is a 3Com EtherLink III Model 3C589D. When I plug the ethernet card in the Newton gives me a message that it doesn?t recognize the card. Looks like some homework is needed. Not comfortable using the power source or ethernet card at this time. Did purchase a dongle separately. So much to learn so little time.