Newton 20MB PCMCIA Memory Card FAQs Please get your favourite beverage, lean back, relax and read the following FAQs thoroughly from top to bottom and back :-) ........................................... Q: How much are they? A: If you promise they won't end up at eBay or be sold elsewhere for a huge profit, they are 15 Euros apiece. Otherwise they are 30 Euros apiece. If I see them sold for a huge profit nonetheless, I will start appearing in your dreams. The unanimous opinion of all in whose dreams I am currently appearing is that this is something you do not want. ........................................... Q: What capacity do they have? A: They are 20MB cards. ........................................... Q: Are they new? A: No, they aren't. ........................................... Q: Have they previously seen heavy usage or been used in a router? A: No, they haven't. They were used in cardiac pacemakers. They have probably not seen more than one or two write cycles. ........................................... Q: Why should I refrain from buying a card that has been heavily used? A: Flash cards have a limited number of write cycles. Most commercially available flash products are guaranteed to withstand around 100,000 of them. If you bought a new or little used card, you'd have a hard time writing to it that often while using it in a Newton. If you were to write to a new card ten times a day every day starting tomorrow, the first problems would appear 37 years from now at the earliest. Cards that have been used in routers, especially old CISCO routers, are quite a different story. These routers used to write that often that the cards sometimes reached the end of their useful life after a couple of weeks of usage. I once learned this the hard way when the card I was using died out of the blue during a developer conference, taking one week's worth of notes with it to the grave. I later learned that it was used in a CISCO router before I bought it. ........................................... Q: How can I pay? A: My preferred method of payment is PayPal. This will increase the total price by 3.9% plus EUR 0.35 because this is what PayPal will charge me. Another form of payment that a brilliant list member from Russia brought to my mind is sending an Amazon gift certificate. It seems that PayPal refuses to create accounts for people from certain countries even if they have a valid credit card. For sending an Amazon gift certificate, a credit card is all you'll need. I can't redeem gift certificates not purchased from Amazon.de, so unless you speak German fluently, please get in touch with me first. ........................................... Q: Is there a warranty? A: Yes. Many people have been using these cards for a long time now, so I don't think a warranty will be required. But since the cards are used, I offer a one month money-back-no-questions-asked warranty. Simply send the card back and I'll refund your payment. ........................................... Q: Is there a legal backing for the warranty you offer? A: No. I am not a company. I'm just a guy who spends most of the time that should be spent on sleeping on Newton issues instead. But I don't think you need to consider legal issues when dealing with me. Long-time NewtonTalk members will know that this is fairly risk-free. But if you are in doubt, by all means please feel free to ask at NewtonTalk before you decide. I'm reading NewtonTalk regularely, but I promise I won't feel insulted :-) ........................................... Q: Will you ship to where I live? A: Yes. I ship worldwide. Three of these cards once reached Brazil after starting their trip in Germany. ........................................... Q: How much is shipping? A: Only what I pay myself. The following prices were valid November 2011 and assume a maximum weight of 500g (DHL) or 25kg (Hermes). One card weighs about 30g. Germany (standard postal services): 1.45 Euros (no insurance, your risk) 4.65 Euros (insured) All other locations (standard postal services): 3.45 Euros (no insurance, your risk) 7.45 Euros (insured) Another option for most European countries is Hermes, who currently charge EUR 9.90 including insurance. They are usually a tad faster than standard postal services. ........................................... Q: How long will shipping take? A: This depends on the shipping type you choose. Using standard postal services (DHL), shipping to European countries usually takes between two and ten days. Worldwide shipping time depends on where you live and on how lucky you are. The shortest air mail shipment to the USA I ever had took two days. The longest surface mail shipment took almost three months. It was a Christmas present for my relatives Down Under that finally arrived around Easter. Hermes is usually much faster. Most times deliver within three days or less, but they only ship to locations in Europe. ........................................... Q: Are you interested in a trade? A: Well, why not make an offer? ........................................... Q: Will the card work in my eMate? A: Yes, but you will not be able to write to it. The eMate will mount it read-only. ........................................... Q: Will the card work in my Newton? A: Yes. I will test every card in a Newton model of your choice before I send it. I have almost every Newton model there is. The test will include formatting the card, loading a 2MB package (OS 2.x models) or a 180kB package (OS 1.x models) onto it and ensuring that said package can be opened. ........................................... Q: I do not own a Newton Interconnect Adapter (a.k.a. "The Dongle"), and I'd rather not purchase one since they are so darn expensive. Can you install Ethernet drivers and solve my bootstrap problem? A: Yes, I can. However... Some of these drivers cannot be installed on a card. They must be installed in the Newton's internal memory. So I will brainwipe one of my Newtons, install all drivers in its internal memory, and then make a backup to the card you'll receive. You restore this backup to your Newton. Although backups can be restored selectively, there's a chance that some of the data currently on your Newton might be lost. So if there's anything in your Newton's internal memory that you can't live without, it would make sense to back your Newton up to another card prior to restoring the backup from the card I sent. ........................................... Q: Can I undo all changes if something goes wrong? A: It's not likely that anything goes wrong. But if you as paranoid as I am, I'd suggest backing your Newton up to a card before you begin. Since a card can only hold one backup, you can't use the one I sent. If you did, you'd overwrite the backup that contains the drivers. ........................................... Q: Can you send me a second card along with the card that contains the backup? A: Yes, no problem. ........................................... Q: Can you install BlueTooth drivers, too? A: The bluetooth driver is included in the backup. ........................................... Q: Can you install the WLAN (WiFi) driver, too? A: The Wifi driver is included in the backup. ........................................... Q: I have heard of the "Newtontalk card lending system". How does this work? A: You buy a card that contains all drivers in the form of a Newton backup. If there's data on your Newton you can't live without, and if you do not have a card of your own to use for this purpose, you buy an second card to back your Newton up to before restoring the backup from the other card. Once your Newton is up and running, you can either keep the cards or send them back. If you keep them, the deal is done. Once I have them back in good condition, I'll refund your payment minus what I paid for shipping and Paypal fee. ........................................... Q: May I answer this post by replying to the NewtonTalk list? A: Sure. Provided you don't mind hard objects moving at an alarming speed towards body parts you'd rather keep intact. If you are interested, please reply off-list. If you just want to comment or praise or condemn or whatever, by all means post to the list, but please oh please delete text passages you aren't referring to before you click on the "Send" button. Be aware that some NewtonTalker list members read this list on their Newtons. Scrolling heaps of quoted text on such a machine isn't exactly fun.