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I built a lot of fun stuff for the Newton. I built a Sherlock clone for the Newton (which 15 years later landed me in the middle of the Apple vs. Samsung paten

I built a lot of fun stuff for the Newton. I built a Sherlock clone for the Newton (which 15 years later landed me in the middle of the Apple vs. Samsung patent lawsuit). I also wrote the Java virtual machine available for the Newton. It was a lot of fun for a bored PhD student. My Newtons have recently all died and it's a little sad.

cmrdporcupine 4y ago
I have a couple here that I could sell you, assuming the shipping isn't awful (I'm in Canada). I tried to put them on eBay some years ago but got low-balled and jerked around. Haven't tried them lately, not sure of their condition. One is an original MessagePad in box, the other a late model, I forget, I'd have to go look.
- lostgame 4y ago
  I’m legit interested - I’m in Canada, as well - I’ve always wanted one.
- yobananaboy 4y ago
  Out of curiosity what was your list price? I’ve been starting to collect (got a Mac IIsi with a portrait monitor a few months back) and would be interested in getting a MessagePad in working condition
- Brajeshwar 4y ago
  Cool. May I know a ballpark on the price. My co-founder is in Toronto. I can pick it up some day from him. My Profile has all my contact details.
- cmrdporcupine 4y ago
  UPDATE: I'll spend some time in the basement today going through my crap and I'll find the two Newtons, and do some research on what they might be worth based on condition and what others have gone for. It's time for me to purge anyways. Prefer these go to a nerd's home who will have fun with them, esp if said person has a history with the Newton.
WoodenChair 4y ago
> I built a Sherlock clone for the Newton (which 15 years later landed me in the middle of the Apple vs. Samsung patent lawsuit). Please, tell us more.
- SeanLuke 4y ago
  Around 1998 I built an open source application on the Newton called Hemlock which loaded, parsed, and used Sherlock search templates to grab data from internet sites just like Sherlock did. Sherlock can either search from the internet or can search from files. The Newton didn't have a filesystem: it had a searchable database system. One of the things I was working on, and proposed on Usenet, was to search both the internet and the Newton database system in one shot, though I eventually didn't do it as the Newton already had a great search tool for the database system built in. About 15 years later I walked into my lab and got served with a subpoena by Samsung's legal team for deposition. Everybody's lawyers suddenly wanted to talk to me. They dug through my postings, my software, old files on my laptop, even the old Newtons in my office. Between Apple, Samsung, and the very helpful SFLC legal team, the whole thing was like being dropped into a tank of very nice sharks. One of the patents Apple was going after Samsung for was 8,086,604, the "604" patent. Hemlock, and my proposals on the Usenet for improving it, predated this patent by quite a bit and easily covered most of its claims. Eventually Samsung decided to argue that they didn't violate the patent, rather than argue that it was invalid. That turned out to be the right decision (they won). But had they gone the invalidation route, I'd likely have found myself on the stand in SF. That patent is still live, and my prior art is still ready to invalidate it.
  - alfiedotwtf 4y ago
    > SeanLuke That name rang a bell so I had to look you up. I just have to say, I love your book!
    - SeanLuke 4y ago
      Thank you. Wait, which one?
tiffanyh 4y ago
> I built a Sherlock clone Was "Sherlocked" a term coined yet when you did this? Had Apple started getting inspiration from 3rd party developers yet?
JKCalhoun 4y ago
Did a casino game for the Newton. Maybe the most interesting/memorable part of my brief foray into the Newton was being invited to the Apple Campus and meeting other engineers (I was still so young then). We were each paired with a weird development Newton that was some kind of PCB bento. It was cool to see how the sausage is made (or at least what dev prototypes can look like). I remember too the one engineer I chatted with in the evening that told me, "You could work here." That really surprised me — I thought you had to have a PhD or something to work for Apple. (Not too many years later, I would in fact get a job at Apple.)

cmrdporcupine 4y ago

I have a couple here that I could sell you, assuming the shipping isn't awful (I'm in Canada). I tried to put them on eBay some years ago but got low-balled and jerked around. Haven't tried them lately, not sure of their condition. One is an original MessagePad in box, the other a late model, I forget, I'd have to go look.

lostgame 4y ago
I’m legit interested - I’m in Canada, as well - I’ve always wanted one.
yobananaboy 4y ago
Out of curiosity what was your list price? I’ve been starting to collect (got a Mac IIsi with a portrait monitor a few months back) and would be interested in getting a MessagePad in working condition
Brajeshwar 4y ago
Cool. May I know a ballpark on the price. My co-founder is in Toronto. I can pick it up some day from him. My Profile has all my contact details.
cmrdporcupine 4y ago
UPDATE: I'll spend some time in the basement today going through my crap and I'll find the two Newtons, and do some research on what they might be worth based on condition and what others have gone for. It's time for me to purge anyways. Prefer these go to a nerd's home who will have fun with them, esp if said person has a history with the Newton.

WoodenChair 4y ago

> I built a Sherlock clone for the Newton (which 15 years later landed me in the middle of the Apple vs. Samsung patent lawsuit). Please, tell us more.

SeanLuke 4y ago
Around 1998 I built an open source application on the Newton called Hemlock which loaded, parsed, and used Sherlock search templates to grab data from internet sites just like Sherlock did. Sherlock can either search from the internet or can search from files. The Newton didn't have a filesystem: it had a searchable database system. One of the things I was working on, and proposed on Usenet, was to search both the internet and the Newton database system in one shot, though I eventually didn't do it as the Newton already had a great search tool for the database system built in. About 15 years later I walked into my lab and got served with a subpoena by Samsung's legal team for deposition. Everybody's lawyers suddenly wanted to talk to me. They dug through my postings, my software, old files on my laptop, even the old Newtons in my office. Between Apple, Samsung, and the very helpful SFLC legal team, the whole thing was like being dropped into a tank of very nice sharks. One of the patents Apple was going after Samsung for was 8,086,604, the "604" patent. Hemlock, and my proposals on the Usenet for improving it, predated this patent by quite a bit and easily covered most of its claims. Eventually Samsung decided to argue that they didn't violate the patent, rather than argue that it was invalid. That turned out to be the right decision (they won). But had they gone the invalidation route, I'd likely have found myself on the stand in SF. That patent is still live, and my prior art is still ready to invalidate it.
- alfiedotwtf 4y ago
  > SeanLuke That name rang a bell so I had to look you up. I just have to say, I love your book!
  - SeanLuke 4y ago
    Thank you. Wait, which one?

tiffanyh 4y ago

> I built a Sherlock clone Was "Sherlocked" a term coined yet when you did this? Had Apple started getting inspiration from 3rd party developers yet?

JKCalhoun 4y ago

Did a casino game for the Newton. Maybe the most interesting/memorable part of my brief foray into the Newton was being invited to the Apple Campus and meeting other engineers (I was still so young then). We were each paired with a weird development Newton that was some kind of PCB bento. It was cool to see how the sausage is made (or at least what dev prototypes can look like). I remember too the one engineer I chatted with in the evening that told me, "You could work here." That really surprised me — I thought you had to have a PhD or something to work for Apple. (Not too many years later, I would in fact get a job at Apple.)