<div id="popup_box_thanks" style="display:none" onClick="close_popup_thanks('popup_box_thanks', 'ts')"><br>Thanks for submitting your tip! All submissions are moderated by an editor before appearing online. We've reset the form so you can enter another tip. Or you can close the tip submission box. <div class="x_close" id="thanks_upper_right"><a href="javascript:void(0)" onmousedown="close_popup_thanks('popup_box_thanks', 'ts'); return true;">Close</a></div></div>
<div class="tbf_row"><div class="tbf_wide_extra_top not_bold">Please submit only technical tips that will help other TidBITS readers better use their Macs, iPhones, and related software and hardware. All product announcements should be sent to <a href="mailto:releases@tidbits.com">releases@tidbits.com</a>.</div></div>
<div class="tbf_left">URL</div><div class="tbf_right"><input type="text" value="" name="tip_link_url" tabindex="3"><span class="tip_description"><br>Enter the URL to a Web page that supports your tip.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="spacer"></div>
<div class="tbf_row">
<div class="tbf_left">Linked text</div><div class="tbf_right"><input type="text" value="" name="tip_link_label" tabindex="4"><span class="tip_description"><br>Enter the name of the page linked above.</span></div>
<div class="tbf_wide"><input type="submit" value="Preview Your Tip" name="preview_tip" onClick="fill_preview('tipbits_enclosure_preview', 'ts', this.form); return false;" tabindex="7"> <input type="submit" value="Send Us Your Tip!" name="submit_this_tip" onClick="handle_tip_submission('ts', '', this.form, 'tip'); return false;" tabindex="8"></div>
</div>
<div class="spacer"></div>
<div class="tbf_row">
<div class="tbf_wide"><span class="fine_print">When you submit a tip, you give us permission to use it. Read <a href="javascript:void(0)" onClick="generic_show_hide('tip_terms')">our terms</a> for more details. All submissions are reviewed before publication.</span></div>
<div class="tbf_wide"><span class="fine_print">Our terms: By submitting a tip, you agree to assign TidBITS Publishing Inc., a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual license to reproduce, publish, and distribute your tip in connection with the TidBITS Web site and associated products in any media. You agree that you created the content you submitted, and that you have the right to assign us this license. You give us permission to use your name, but your email address won't be publicly displayed or shared. We review all submissions before publication, and reserve the right to select which submissions we feel are appropriate for our readers and to edit those we publish.</span></div>
<div id="comment_thanks" style="display:none" onClick="close_popup_thanks('comment_thanks', 'comm')"><br>Thanks for submitting a comment! Please check your email for a link that, when clicked, will verify that you're a real person and cause your comment to appear immediately. <div class="x_close" id="comment_upper_right"><a href="javascript:void(0)" onmousedown="close_popup_thanks('comment_thanks', 'comm'); return true;">Close</a></div></div>
<div class="tbf_wide"><span class="fine_print">Our terms: We reserve the right to edit or delete any comment, so please post thoughtfully. We use your email address <i>only</i> to send you a one-time verification message confirming that you posted this comment. We also store your address to allow you to verify using other Web browsers in the future. For more info, see our <a href="http://db.tidbits.com/privacy.html">privacy policy</a>.</span></div>
<li><a href="/feeds/tidbits.rss" title="Subscribe via RSS" class="gettb">RSS <img src="/images/feed-icon-12x12.gif" width="12" height="12" border="0" class="nav_img" alt="Subscribe via RSS"></a></li>
<li><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=276986548" title="Subscribe to the podcast" class="gettb">Podcast <img src="/images/feed-icon-12x12_podcast.gif" width="12" height="12" border="0" class="nav_img" alt="Subscribe to the postcast"></a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.twitter.com/TidBITS" title="Get Article Updates via Twitter" class="gettb">Twitter <img src="/images/feed_icon_12x12_twitter.png" width="12" height="12" border="0" class="nav_img" alt="Get Article Updates via Twitter"></a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/TidBITS/195314925519" title="Go to the TidBITS Page at Facebook" class="gettb">Facebook <img src="/images/feed_icon_12x12_facebook.gif" width="12" height="12" border="0" class="nav_img" alt="Go to the TidBITS Page at Facebook"></a></li>
<li><a href="javascript:void(0)" title="Sections" class="tabhead" onClick="return showhide('articleslist')">Sections <span id="articleslist_triangle"><img src="/images/nav_triangle_open.gif" width="9" height="9" border="0" class="navtriangle" id="articleslist_tri_image" alt="Click to show or hide the contents of this section."></span></a></li>
<li><a href="javascript:void(0)" onClick="return showhide('stafflist')" title="Staff" class="tabhead">Staff <span id="stafflist_triangle"><img src="/images/nav_triangle_closed.gif" width="9" height="9" border="0" class="navtriangle" id="stafflist_tri_image" alt="Click to show or hide the contents of this section."></span></a></li>
<li><a href="javascript:void(0)" title="Issues" class="tabhead" onClick="return showhide('issuelist')">Weekly Issues <span id="issuelist_triangle"><img src="/images/nav_triangle_closed.gif" width="9" height="9" border="0" class="navtriangle" id="issuelist_tri_image" alt="Click to show or hide the contents of this section."></span></a></li>
<li><a href="javascript:void(0)" onClick="return showhide('abouttidbits')" title="About TidBITS" class="tabhead">About TidBITS <span id="abouttidbits_triangle"><img src="/images/nav_triangle_closed.gif" width="9" height="9" border="0" class="navtriangle" id="abouttidbits_tri_image" alt="Click to show or hide the contents of this section."></span></a></li>
<div class="center_top">Thoughtful, detailed coverage of the Mac, iPhone, and iPad, plus the best-selling <a href="http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/?pt=TB-TAGLINE" style="color:yellow">Take Control</a> ebooks.</div>
<!-- begin centercolumn -->
<div id="centercolumn">
<!-- begin rightcolumn_container -->
<div id="rightcolumn_container">
<!-- begin rightcolumn -->
<!-- rightcolumn is embedded within centercolumn so featured text wraps around it -->
<div id="rightcolumn">
<p class="top"> </p>
<!-- begin tearoff box wide for bio -->
<div class="tearoffbox_wide_container">
<div class="tearoffbox_wide_p">
<p class="tearoffbox_wide_top_p"> </p>
<h5>Author Biography</h5>
<p class="tearoffbox_text"><a href="http://www.tidbits.com/adam/">Adam C. Engst</a> is the publisher of TidBITS and Take Control Books. He has written numerous books, including the best-selling Internet Starter Kit series, and many magazine articles - thanks to Contributing Editor positions at MacUser, MacWEEK, and now Macworld. His innovations include the creation of the first advertising program to support an Internet publication in 1992, the first flat-rate accounts for graphical Internet access in 1993, and the Take Control electronic book series. His awards include the MDJ Power 25 ranking as the most influential person in the Macintosh industry outside of Apple every year since 2000, inclusion on the MacTech 25 list of influential people in the Macintosh technical community, and being named one of MacDirectory's top ten visionaries. And yes, he has been turned into an action figure.
Want more? <a href="http://twitter.com/adamengst">Follow Adam on Twitter</a> for 140-character musings on a variety of topics.</p><p class="tearoffbox_text_email"><span class="shift_down"><img src="/images/gettb_button_email.gif" height="12" width="12" border="0" alt="Send Email to Author"></span> <a href="javascript:void(0)" onClick="document.check_human_6.submit_type.value='email'; document.check_human_6.author_id.value='6'; ShowTipBox('hc_6', 'hc_recaptcha_6', 'cb_item_add')">Email the author</a></p>
<div class="tbf_wide_80" id="hc_rc_6">To help us avoid automated posts and misuse of our site, please enter the words below.</div><div class="x_close_row" id="hc_upper_right4_6"><a href="javascript:void(0)" onmousedown="HidePopupContent('hc_6', 'hc', '6'); return true;">Close</a></div>
</div><!-- end tearoffbox_wide_container for watchlist items -->
<!-- begin tearoff box wide -->
<div class="tearoffbox_wide_container">
<div class="tearoffbox_wide_tips">
<div class="tip_display">
<div class="tips_sponsor_logo">
</div>
<h6>Use Expose to Open Files Quickly</h6>
<p><p>Looking for an easy way to drag a file into a hidden application? First enter Expose's All Windows mode by hitting F9, then hover over an application's window while dragging your file, pause for a moment (or press the Space bar) and that window will spring to the foreground enabling you to open the file within that application.</p></p>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_3822" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_3822">Apple spun off Claris in April of 1987 because Apple felt it was a hardware company, and the only software it wanted to develop was new system software</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=" class="category"></a> | by <a href="/author/Adam%20C.%20Engst">Adam C. Engst</a> | 09 Jul 1990</div></div>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_3823" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_3823">Mitchell D. Kapor and John Perry Barlow have established a foundation, called the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), to address social and legal issues arising from an increasing use of electronic forms of communication</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=" class="category"></a> | by <a href="/author/Adam%20C.%20Engst">Adam C. Engst</a> | 09 Jul 1990</div></div>
<a href="/article/3824"onMouseOver="blurb_slide('3824', 'show')">New Apple Magic</a></h4>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_3824" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_3824">It often seems that some of the magic has gone out of Apple in the last few years, what with the new machines offering few innovative features and the managerial musical chairs</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=" class="category"></a> | by <a href="/author/Adam%20C.%20Engst">Adam C. Engst</a> | 09 Jul 1990</div></div>
<a href="/article/3825"onMouseOver="blurb_slide('3825', 'show')">The fx Terminator</a></h4>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_3825" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_3825">Apple's new SCSI terminators for the Mac IIfx have bewildered a number of new owners who have attempted to daisy chain SCSI devices from their machines</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=" class="category"></a> | by <a href="/author/Adam%20C.%20Engst">Adam C. Engst</a> | 09 Jul 1990</div></div>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_3827" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_3827">The Mac has always been considered a relatively good multimedia machine, although it couldn't quite stand up to the Atari ST's built-in MIDI and the Amiga's excellent video interface</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=" class="category"></a> | by <a href="/author/Adam%20C.%20Engst">Adam C. Engst</a> | 02 Jul 1990</div></div>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_3828" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_3828">Symantec's SUM disk utilities for the Mac has become pre-eminent, and Symantec recently solidified its hold on the Mac utility market by purchasing Peter Norton Computing</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=" class="category"></a> | by <a href="/author/Adam%20C.%20Engst">Adam C. Engst</a> | 02 Jul 1990</div></div>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_3829" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_3829">Although the Macintosh portable market has only begun to offer a few costly alternatives, the IBM portable market offers many choices with features rapidly increasing as prices rapidly decrease</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=" class="category"></a> | by <a href="/author/Adam%20C.%20Engst">Adam C. Engst</a> | 02 Jul 1990</div></div>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_3830" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_3830">Lotus won its three-year old suit against Paperback Software for copying the look and feel of 123. The decision said that Paperback Software had violated Lotus's copyright, although another suit Lotus has brought against Mosaic Software for their 123 clone, Twin, was not mentioned</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=" class="category"></a> | by <a href="/author/Adam%20C.%20Engst">Adam C. Engst</a> | 02 Jul 1990</div></div>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_3831" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_3831">Someone on Usenet recently asked what people thought about charging for technical support via a 900 number. The principle is that the call would not be free but the user would be guaranteed of getting through and getting an answer</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=" class="category"></a> | by <a href="/author/Adam%20C.%20Engst">Adam C. Engst</a> | 02 Jul 1990</div></div>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_3833" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_3833">Macworld devoted much of its July, 1990 issue to the health hazards of computers. Most of the articles actually focussed on the side-effects of working at video display terminals (i.e</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=" class="category"></a> | by <a href="/author/Adam%20C.%20Engst">Adam C. Engst</a> | 25 Jun 1990</div></div>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_3834" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_3834">After what seemed like forever to those of us who use HyperCard, Apple released version 2.0. We'll assume that if you are reading TidBITS, you understand more or less what HyperCard can do and how hard it is to pin down its abilities</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=" class="category"></a> | by <a href="/author/Adam%20C.%20Engst">Adam C. Engst</a> | 25 Jun 1990</div></div>
<a href="/article/3835"onMouseOver="blurb_slide('3835', 'show')">C Shells by the C Shore</a></h4>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_3835" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_3835">Last week's article on Ostrakon, an application shell for THINK C, garnered a response that we feel worth mentioning this week. We said then that compiler packages often came with skeleton applications for people to flesh out, but that Ostrakon took this idea one step farther by providing extensive documentation and commented code</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=" class="category"></a> | by <a href="/author/Adam%20C.%20Engst">Adam C. Engst</a> | 25 Jun 1990</div></div>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_3836" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_3836">Some of you may remember reading about an ambitious and generous project to create an inexpensive sound digitizer from plans and software donated to the Mac community by a group calling themselves The SID Trio</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=" class="category"></a> | by <a href="/author/Adam%20C.%20Engst">Adam C. Engst</a> | 25 Jun 1990</div></div>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_3837" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_3837">Faced with the contradictory news of the new low-cost Mac (MacCheap?), a number of people on Usenet have started talking about the possibilities of reverse engineering the Mac ROMs along with the rest of the Mac hardware</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=" class="category"></a> | by <a href="/author/Adam%20C.%20Engst">Adam C. Engst</a> | 25 Jun 1990</div></div>
<a href="/article/3838"onMouseOver="blurb_slide('3838', 'show')">Wanted: Color SE</a></h4>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_3838" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_3838">This is yet another article inspired by discussions of the low-cost Mac and what it should be. We may even write an article on the low-cost Mac itself one of these days, although a few more facts and a bit less rumor will be necessary first</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=" class="category"></a> | by <a href="/author/Adam%20C.%20Engst">Adam C. Engst</a> | 25 Jun 1990</div></div>
<a href="/article/3839"onMouseOver="blurb_slide('3839', 'show')">Yet More Compression</a></h4>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_3839" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_3839">Compression is an excellent way to save space and is more elegant than using larger and larger hard disks or faster methods of data transmission. MIT's Media Lab does a great deal of work on newer and more efficient methods of compression for this very reason</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=" class="category"></a> | by <a href="/author/Adam%20C.%20Engst">Adam C. Engst</a> | 25 Jun 1990</div></div>
<a href="/article/3841"onMouseOver="blurb_slide('3841', 'show')">The Art of the Interface</a></h4>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_3841" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_3841">We've stuck to software reviews so far in TidBITS, but a new book has recently come to our attention that may merit a review once we've found and read it</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=" class="category"></a> | by <a href="/author/Adam%20C.%20Engst">Adam C. Engst</a> | 18 Jun 1990</div></div>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_3842" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_3842">HyperCard may be a commercial failure, but it certainly hasn't failed to generate a myriad of add-ons. Although stacks are seldom sold outright, utilities for creating stacks are quite popular</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=" class="category"></a> | by <a href="/author/Adam%20C.%20Engst">Adam C. Engst</a> | 18 Jun 1990</div></div>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_3843" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_3843">Programming on the Mac has been long bemoaned as a hard task because of the difficulty involved in programming the interface itself. It is much harder to write a graphical interface than it is to work with a command line, something that many IBM-clone programmers are discovering with Windows 3.0</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=" class="category"></a> | by <a href="/author/Adam%20C.%20Engst">Adam C. Engst</a> | 18 Jun 1990</div></div>
<a href="/article/3844"onMouseOver="blurb_slide('3844', 'show')">NFS on the Mac</a></h4>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_3844" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_3844">As the high end Macs approach the low end workstations (which in turn are dropping quickly in price), methods of connecting the two become more necessary</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=" class="category"></a> | by <a href="/author/Adam%20C.%20Engst">Adam C. Engst</a> | 18 Jun 1990</div></div>
<p class="cat_next">
<a href="/index.cgi?article_author=Adam%20C.%20Engst&full_search=1">start of results</a> | <a href="/index.cgi?article_author=Adam%20C.%20Engst&full_search=1&search_start=199">previous 20 results</a> | <a href="/index.cgi?article_author=Adam%20C.%20Engst&full_search=1&search_start=201">next 20 results</a> | <a href="/index.cgi?article_author=Adam%20C.%20Engst&full_search=1&search_start=204">end of results</a>