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Table of ContentsThe problem is caused by some very minor corruption of data in the Dates application that is nevertheless tripping up Life Balance. This used to happen only very occasionally when people were upgrading from older Newtons to newer models, but, we are beginning to suspect that the problem may also occur on the MP2100 under some other circumstances.
If you do happen to get this error, we have a small free utility called Dates Checker that can correct the problem in the Dates application. Once the problem in the Dates data is corrected, both the full and the demo versions of Life Balance will perform normally. Please select the file that fits your situation:
Our next update will test for the condition in the Dates data that is causing the problem and correct it automatically if it occurs.
This problem has been fixed in Life Balance 1.1.
If you need to workaround this until you can install the Life Balance 1.1 update, we recommend that you set the task to happen on the first day of the month, then set a lead time of a day or so.
We have had some customers report problems downloading our software to a MessagePad 130 with a memory card from a Windows machine. The software may not download at all, or it may display a message when you tap on it that says that it may not be compatible with your Newton.
Other customers have had success by doing three things:
If this doesn't solve your problem, please contact Llamagraphics and we'll try to help you.
First, be sure that you are using Life Balance 1.0.3 or later. Earlier versions of Life Balance would sometimes get an error trying to post to Dates.
If that doesn't work, it's possible that corrupt data in the Dates area of your MessagePad is causing Life Balance to choke. This is not an uncommon problem with early MessagePads, since early versions of the built-in Dates application would sometimes leave bad data lying around.
You can try using the "Delete" command under the envelope button at the bottom of the Date book to delete all meetings older than 30 days. Frequently this will solve the problem.
If this doesn't solve your problem, we have a utility called the Dates Checker, that will verify the data in the Dates application and correct certain kinds of problems that we know can interfere with Life Balance. Since the Dates Checker has not been widely tested, we recommend that you only use this utility if you are having problems. This utility is available for Mac and Windows.
Version 1.0.1 and earlier of Life Balance would frequently match a new item in your outline to an untitled meeting in your Date book. Version 1.0.2 of Life Balance fixes this problem.
Alternatively, you can fill in titles for these entries in your Date book, or delete them.
The alignment of routine tasks is determined by when you check off the item, as you surmised.
If you need more control than this, then you'll need to use "according to dates". You can make this a bit more natural by dragging the task in Dates to the white area to the left of the calendar, where it is assigned to the day as a whole rather than to a particular time during the day. Under Newton 1.x, hold down on the black bar until it clicks to drag it. Under Newton 2.0, drag the item by its icon.
In your particular case you'll need to create two items in your Life Balance outline since the Newton Dates application doesn't know how to schedule an item every six months. If you currently have "clean the shed" every six months, you'd need to change it to "clean the shed in spring" every year and "clean the shed in autumn" every year.
Routine items are unchecked when you update your Outline or To-do list if they are two "lead-times" or less before the next due date. For example, if you have a checked-off item to "Check the oil in the car" that is next due on Thursday and has a lead time of one day, then an update on Tuesday or Wednesday will uncheck the item.
The priority of an item with lead-time follows a curve similar to the left half of a bell curve. When the due date is far in the future, the priority is nearly (but not quite) zero. At two lead-times before the due date, the priority is half of peak. At one lead-time before the due date, the item has full priority, and it remains at full priority until it is checked off.
You can create a one-off task that can't be done before date x by using "According to dates" and posting the item to the Newton's Date book. If you want the item to stay at the bottom of your To-do list until the starting date arrives, then you can set the lead-time to zero.
There is no specific mechanism for handling items that can't be done after date y. Currently, your only options are to check off the item or select it in the Outline and delete it.
You are correct that the link with the date book is based on textual matching. If you rename an item in Life Balance then we will automatically rename it in the Date book as well, but it doesn't work the other way around. We tried making linking more robust, but ran into problems in our support for Newton 1.x. In many situations, the Date book in Newton 1.x will delete any additional information that another application may have added to an item. In order to maintain the link between Life Balance and the Date book, it was necessary to use textual matching to restore the link.
This put us in an awkward situation where the rules for maintaining the link between Life Balance and the Date book became very complicated. The user could move the item in the Date book, or rename the item, but not both. The user had to run Life Balance frequently enough that it could "keep up" with changes in the Date book. In the end, we decided that the simpler approach of using only textual matching would be easier for users to understand and maintain.
Under Newton 2.0, support for linking between applications is much more robust. If Life Balance is successful, we hope to produce a Newton 2.0-savvy version that would provide more robust, bidirectional linking to the Date book, as well as other features.
We debated this one for a long time. You're right that "situations" better encompasses the concept, but we worried that it was too abstract for new users. "Places" is more concrete, and covers the majority of the cases that we found ourselves and our testers using. Besides, "places" is shorter, and the screen is small. :-)
Yes. We delayed shipment so that we could make sure we could run in the improved environment. Life Balance has been tested with Version 2.0 and is fully compatible.
$39.95 plus $3.00 for shipping via US priority mail. Resellers can contact us at sales@llamagraphics.com for volume pricing.
Yes. We do not yet take AMEX or other charge cards.
Yes. Any Newton compatible PDA is fine.
Llamagraphics, Inc. is considering writing companion software for Mac and Windows users with desktop machines, but for now it is for mobile users with Newton PDA devices only.
Yes, it has been tested with Gaffiti and works fine. Life Balance memory management is quite good, and we aren't limited by available heap space.
Yes, Llamagraphics has a corporate web page which includes a demonstration of Life Balance. It can be visited at http://llama.tempdomainname.com/.
Newton 1.x or 2.x. 300K of internal or RAM card memory. Newton Connection Kit or package installer for Macintosh or Windows.
That is Tutuman, symbol of a well-balanced, if precarious life. Catherine's mother provided the illustration. We are considering the possibility of having the design incorporated into jewelry such as lapel pins, or earrings.
The Llama is our small, powerful and surefooted animal mascot. It was also the mascot for the Newton development team at Apple. Llamagraphics came up with the name Llamagraphics, independently, prior to the release of the Newton when reading about a historical account of a woman explorer who traveled in South America in the early 1900s. The "graphics" part of the name is a reference to our Multimedia work.
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