For many of you, the MacSense experience is based primarily on our monthly DOCMaker issue. For those of you who are not yet on the web, we would like to keep you abreast of some of the exciting happenings at MacSense Online (www.macsense.com).
HotBits
HotBits is the MacSense news area at our web site. We file stories there nearly every day--most of them with hot-clickable, hypertextual links to take the reader directly to more information of interest. In between the time the January issue appeared (in December) and the time our February DOCMaker issue was ready, we filed over 80 HotBits stories.
Access to our web site and HotBits is free. If you do not have web access you can still pick up HotBits as they come by subscribing to our HotBits Personal Delivery Service, (see the Macsense FAQ--below). And don't forget that subscribers to our new CD-ROM edition get the HotBits Personal Delivery Service included at no extra charge.
AudioBits
From time to time we have reported on the latest developments with Progressive Networks RealAudio software. RealAudio is a sound streaming technology which allows web browsers to hear sound files immediately (rather than having to wait until the entire file is downloaded). At MacSense we became part of the RealAudio Server for the Mac OS beta program in early January and we were able to post audio interviews direct from San Francisco at the Macworld Expo. Our readers favorite: the Guy Kawasaki interview.
Our new AudioBits section on the web is where you will find sound clips of our interviews. In the future, we hope to have sound clips of our columnists reading their monthly contributions to MacSense. We are actively looking for a sponsor for this program--Contact AudioBits@MacSense.com if you are interested.
Performance improvements
Our web site sees an increasing flow of visitors each day. We have been undergoing expansion to better serve these users. In January we added Open Transport networking software which greatly enhances the speed of transactions. We also upgraded our FTP software and email software to take advantage of the new Open Transport. We have also set up a special monitor station which checks the site every few minutes to see if it is functioning and has the ability to reboot the web server if necessary. Using this method we have reduced our downtime to five minutes or less.
Netscape 2.0 Capabilities
With the release of Netscape 2.0 and the appearance of various plug-ins (See the February QuickBits) we have taken the liberty of modifying parts of the site to take advantage of the new technologies. In the past week we have added graphics and animations based on Sizzler, Shockwave and JavaScript. Because many of our web visitors use browsers other than Netscape 2.0, these areas of our site are optional.
The MacSense FAQ
The web site ends up fielding numerous questions about the various MacSense projects. We have consolidated the most frequently asked questions--and their answers--into the MacSense FAQ. The FAQ covers most of the issues dealing with our main features including the DOCMaker Edition, HotBits, AudioBits, the MacSense CD-ROM, our FTP site and more. You can get a copy of this document by sending an email to: FAQ@macsense.com and putting the word "MacSenseFAQ" into the Subject field of the message.
