TidBITS Issue #324

TidBITS in Dutch -- Check out the TidBITS home page for a link to the first translation of TidBITS (issue #322) into Dutch. However, Jan Vanderwegen , the coordinator of the Dutch translation team, tells me that they could use additional helpShow full article

15 Apr 1996 | Print

Nagel to Head AT&T Labs

Nagel to Head AT&T Labs -- AT&T announced today Dave Nagel will leave his position as senior vice president at Apple Computer to become the first president of AT&T LabsShow full article

15 Apr 1996 | Print

FreePPP 2.5 Beta Available

FreePPP 2.5 Beta Available -- The FreePPP Group has released FreePPP 2.5b4, the first public beta of FreePPP 2.5. As usual, if your PPP connection works well, we don't recommend upgrading yet (why fix what isn't broken, especially with beta software?)Show full article

15 Apr 1996 | Print

New QTVR Tools and Developer Info

New QTVR Tools and Developer Info -- Finally showing motion with its much-touted QuickTime VR technology, Apple is distributing pre-release versions two new QTVR tools to assist authors with making QuickTime VR panoramas and objects from photographs or computer-generated imagesShow full article

15 Apr 1996 | Print

AIMED Developers Consortium

AIMED Developers Consortium -- A group of third party developers have formed the Association of Independent Macintosh Engineers and Developers (AIMED), a non-profit group dedicated to Macintosh software and hardware developmentShow full article

15 Apr 1996 | Print

TidBITS Reviews Listing Survey Results

For a few weeks in February, we held an informal survey to determine whether or not our readers thought the weekly listing of reviews in the main Mac magazines was usefulShow full article

For a few weeks in February, we held an informal survey to determine whether or not our readers thought the weekly listing of reviews in the main Mac magazines was useful. A few people mistakenly thought we were proposing to cease reviewing products in TidBITS - that was pure invention on their part. Every week for the last six years, the final article in TidBITS has been a listing of the reviews in MacWEEK, Macworld, MacUser, and other magazines. Starting with this issue, we will no longer be typing that information in and including it in TidBITS.

Let me explain the rationale behind the decision, since it wasn't as cut and dried as we had thought it would be. The survey revealed that 70 percent of people voting (1,682 votes) felt we shouldn't bother with the reviews listing. That was a bit lower than I'd expected. The 714 votes that made up the remaining 30 percent were significantly buoyed by 418 email entries, which wasn't surprising since people who can use the Web can read the full text of reviews in those magazines online. Those who only have email access to the Internet aren't so fortunate.

Given those numbers, we set to thinking about the purpose of those review listings. Originally, the idea was to provide an index to the magazine reviews that users could easily search. With all the magazines now having Web sites, that original idea doesn't make as much sense. We were also concerned that by listing those reviews each week, we were in essence advertising for those magazines. It would be one thing if the act was often reciprocal, but TidBITS has only been mentioned in traditional magazines a handful of times over the past six years.

We do recognize that some TidBITS readers have come up with other uses for the reviews listings, especially in countries where it often takes some time for the U.S. magazines to arrive. However, we could include many things in TidBITS that would be useful to some readers, and we must figure out which of those things are the best use of our time and the most interesting to us.

The fact of the matter is that no creative thought goes into typing in reviews from the table of contents of a magazine, and by virtue of that fact, the reviews listing is less interesting to us than most other things we might want to do. Any trained monkey could do that typing, and we prefer to spend our time doing things that only we can do. (Working with someone else to enter all the reviews each week would require coordination work as well, and would still take up space that we would prefer to use for other purposes.) After all, we hope the skills and analysis that we bring to TidBITS is what makes reading TidBITS worthwhile.

In the end, that's the main reason why we will no longer publish the reviews listing in TidBITS. We have to move forward and continue to focus on things that interest us, or else we risk losing interest in TidBITS entirely. The recent April Fools issue is a good example: putting out two issues of TidBITS on two consecutive days is a lot of work, but it's so much fun to fabricate fantastic articles from thin air that it was worth the effort. We've always published TidBITS as much for ourselves as for everyone else, and that's why it's so important the act of publishing continue to be fulfilling for us as well as our readers.

15 Apr 1996 | Print

IBM Close to Licensing Mac OS?

Last week, reports began circulating that IBM's Microelectronics Division was close to an agreement with Apple to license the Mac OS. The agreement would reportedly allow IBM (in its role as one of the primary manufacturers of the PowerPC chip) to sublicense the Mac OS to PowerPC chip buyersShow full article

15 Apr 1996 | Print

Pippin Appears

by Brent Bossom

The Pippin-platform "Atmark" developed by Apple and Bandai is now on display and for sale in Japan. But you can't just drop into your local computer store and pick one up; you'll have to either place an order at a designated dealer or call a toll-free number (something Bandai inexplicably calls a "Digital Distribution System")Show full article

The Pippin-platform "Atmark" developed by Apple and Bandai is now on display and for sale in Japan. But you can't just drop into your local computer store and pick one up; you'll have to either place an order at a designated dealer or call a toll-free number (something Bandai inexplicably calls a "Digital Distribution System"). A unit will then be shipped directly to your home.

The Atmark is configured just as it has been reported by others: a PowerPC 603 (66 MHz) CPU, internal quad-speed CD-ROM drive, 14.4 Kbps external modem, 6 MB RAM (expandable to 14 MB), a game controller, and ports for connecting a television, monitor and other peripherals. The list price has been set at 68,000 yen, or about $635. The price includes four CD-ROMs: Internet Kit (which includes Netscape Navigator and other Internet software), TVWorks (an integrated email, word processing, and drawing package), and a two others with interface software for a computer service called Franky Online.

Bandai plans to release a number of peripherals in June. These include a keyboard with a handwriting input tablet and pen (it looks like a small, white PowerBook and is priced at 9,800 yen), a floppy drive that sits under the Atmark (12,000 yen), RAM expansion cards (2, 4, or 6 MB - no prices have been set), a printer, and various cables for connecting Atmark accessories to a Macintosh (or vice versa). A 28.8 Kbps modem is also said to be in the works.

Bandai advertises over 100 software titles are for sale now or under development, and the titles run the gamut from games and horoscope software to quasi-reference materials ("World's Diving Spots") and interactive music videos. Though some are priced as low as 3,800 yen, most average 6,800 yen (about $65). Bandai has also established an online service for Pippin Atmark users, providing access to Internet services for 2,000 yen a month (for up to 10 hours of use).

More information on Pippin Atmark is available (mostly in Japanese) from Bandai's web site.

<http://www.bdec.co.jp/>

15 Apr 1996 | Print

Back on the Chain Gang

I've had it. I'm sick of receiving chain mail. I'm sure many of you have received these bits of oozing Internet abuse as well, ranging from the Good Times Virus hoax (it is a complete hoax, folks, and the damage it causes stems purely from being redistributed in email) to the latest petition for a worthy causeShow full article

I've had it. I'm sick of receiving chain mail. I'm sure many of you have received these bits of oozing Internet abuse as well, ranging from the Good Times Virus hoax (it is a complete hoax, folks, and the damage it causes stems purely from being redistributed in email) to the latest petition for a worthy cause. Chain mail, if you're unfamiliar with the term, includes any message that asks you to forward it on to a bunch of your friends, leaving the exhortation to continue the forwarding intact. The topic of the message doesn't matter - chain mail of any sort is an abuse of the Internet and of your fellow Internet citizens.

I don't know what happened, but chain mail has been clanking into my mailbox more frequently than ever before. First, the Good Times Virus hoax monopolized the discussion on the Apple Internet Users mailing list for a few days, then I got a copy of the standard "you'll have bad luck unless..." message and its raunchier "you'll have bad luck in bed unless..." cousin. They were followed by chain mail messages encouraging me to support PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) and NPR (National Public Radio). Finally, I received a number of copies of a chain mail prank that hoped to result in tons of people sending a copy of the Bill of Rights to President Clinton's email address on the same day. That prank also appeared in some of the Apple Internet lists that Chuq von Rospach runs, and he unsubscribed the person who submitted it from all the lists within minutes of seeing the message, since chain mail is an express violation of the charter of those lists.

What's so wrong with chain mail that I'm ranting about it in this article? Why is it cause to be blackballed from mailing lists? Why, if you send it to me, will I give you one warning and after that report you to your postmaster with the recommendation that your account be revoked?

Have you ever played the game where you hypothetically place a penny on the lower left corner of a checkerboard, then double the number of pennies on each square, moving left to right and up each row? The second square contains two pennies, the third four, the fourth eight, the fifth sixteen, and so on. I say hypothetical game, because by the last square, you've amassed a vast fortune.

Chain mail has the potential to grow even more quickly. If one person starts a piece of chain mail, they're unlikely to just send it to two other people, and each of those people (if they're sufficiently gullible to forward it on at all) are also unlikely to limit themselves to just two other people each. Many of us have tens of people in our address books, and some people probably have over a hundred people to whom they could send such trash. My impression is that most of the chain mail messages I see have about 25 people in the header, and if that impression is both real and continued at every generation, you can see how chain mail could grow exponentially and significantly slow down delivery of all other mail, as the many mail servers on the Internet struggle to process millions of copies of the same message.

I'm sure there are technical solutions to the problem, and if it continues to get worse, someone will implement them, much as people invented cancelbots to cancel spam postings on Usenet. We shouldn't let it get that far though, since chain mail is not a technical problem. It's a societal problem, and by participating in it you allow someone else to exploit you for their purposes. Even worse, you help them exploit even more people, wasting more time, disk space, and money than before. It's bad enough to be a victim, but it's worse to become an accessory.

So, if you receive chain mail of any sort, don't forward it on. Delete it immediately and break the chain before it has a chance to enslave others. I also always send back a short note (a piece of boilerplate text these days) telling the original sender what they've done wrong and asking them never to repeat the mistake. Perhaps we can put an end to chain mail by refusing to participate and by educating those who are either gullible or don't yet see the error of their ways.

15 Apr 1996 | Print

ClearInk Ports WebLint to the Macintosh

by Jon S. Stevens

Creating basic HTML pages is easy, but creating pages that comply with HTML specifications is not. Everybody makes mistakes and not everybody knows all the rulesShow full article

15 Apr 1996 | Print

More Bookmarks than Books, Part II

This article is the second part of my look at bookmark management utilities. In TidBITS-323 last week, I looked at utilities that offer their own interfacesShow full article