TidBITS#324/15-Apr-96
=====================
After a weekend that saw the beginning of spring weather and the
end of the U.S. tax season, we bring you news on IBM possibly
licensing the Mac OS, an intriguing report on the Pippin (which
is shipping in Japan), information about the Macintosh version
of WebLint, and the results of our reviews survey. The issue
continues with an essay about Internet chain mail and the second
part of Adam's article on Internet bookmark managers.
This issue of TidBITS sponsored in part by:
* APS Technologies -- 800/443-4199 --
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* Power Computing -- 800/375-7693 --
Now shipping... The Award-Winning First MacOS Compatible!
Press comments!
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--
Copyright 1990-1996 Adam & Tonya Engst. Details at end of issue.
Information: Comments:
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Topics:
MailBITS/15-Apr-96
TidBITS Reviews Listing Survey Results
IBM Close to Licensing Mac OS?
Pippin Appears
Back on the Chain Gang
ClearInk Ports WebLint to the Macintosh
More Bookmarks than Books, Part II
MailBITS/15-Apr-96
------------------
We're a little too tired to make much of this fact, but this issue
of TidBITS marks our sixth anniversary of publication. We started
publishing TidBITS each week in April of 1990, which makes us one
of the longest running solely electronic publications. If you know
of any regularly published, edited publication (mailing lists and
digests don't count) that is solely electronic, started on the
Internet before we did, and continues to publish today, please
drop me a note with a pointer to it. [ACE]
**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 help. If you're interested in helping
translate TidBITS into Dutch, drop Jan and me a note in email.
With enough people on the translation team, it's easy to spread
out the work load and make the translation process faster and
easier for everyone. [ACE]
**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 Labs. AT&T Labs, a new
research organization formed around what used to be Bell
Laboratories, includes about 2,000 staff members dealing with a
wide range of software and communications technologies. Nagel most
recently led Apple's worldwide research and development group;
prior to that he headed up AppleSoft. [GD]
**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?). The
changes are significant, and most notably, an application called
FreePPP Setup replaces the Config PPP control panel and its
elderly interface. The extension is now called FreePPP instead of
just PPP, differentiating it from MacPPP. The primary parts of the
FreePPP package missing in this release are documentation, an
Apple Guide, and some cosmetic interface changes. Be sure to read
the Read Me file in the FreePPP Folder installed for you in the
root directory of your startup drive. [ACE]
**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 images. Though these tools can't
add hot spots or stitch together series of overlapping photos
(these functions are still restricted to Apple's obtuse QuickTime
VR Authoring Tools Suite), they're a good first step on the path
toward letting real people make QuickTime VR movies.
Perhaps more important than these tools, however, is new developer
information on integrating QuickTime VR into applications, as well
as behind-the-scenes motion on the forthcoming QuickTime VR 1.1.
With luck, developers will be able to integrate QuickTime VR
content and authoring into applications (like Poser, Director,
SuperCard, and Bryce) more easily - and I can't imagine a Netscape
plug-in is too far off. [GD]
**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 development. AIMED intends to
evangelize the Mac to third-party hardware and software
developers, and also provide feedback to Apple on issues that
concern Mac programmers. [GD]
TidBITS Reviews Listing Survey Results
--------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst
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.
IBM Close to Licensing Mac OS?
------------------------------
by Geoff Duncan
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 buyers. Unlike Apple licensee Motorola
(see TidBITS-315_), IBM apparently does not plan to manufacture
its own Mac clones.
Undoubtedly a shot in the arm for Apple, this agreement would also
make good on IBM's long-stated intentions to license the Mac OS.
However, many analysts quickly pointed out the agreement would be
more favorable for Apple if IBM were agreeing to make its own
Macintosh clones. As it stands, IBM is casting an eye towards its
future PowerPC Platform (PPCP) machines, which will be able to run
Mac OS, Windows NT, NetWare, AIX, or Solaris. (See TidBITS-304_.)
Licensing the Mac OS lets IBM offer more operating systems choices
to motherboard and systems manufacturers buying CPU chips from
IBM. Presently, however, manufacturers wanting to make Mac clones
would have to execute a separate hardware licensing agreement with
Apple.
If this agreement is finalized, the immediate benefits aren't all
that clear, though it has interesting future possibilities once
PPCP machines are on the market. Apple plans to release its own
PPCP Macintoshes, and though estimates vary, these machines should
appear is late in 1996 or possibly in early 1997 to coincide with
the anticipated release of Copland, the next major revision of the
Mac OS.
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"). 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.
Back on the Chain Gang
----------------------
by Adam C. Engst
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.
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 rules. Have you ever forgotten to add that
tag to the bottom of a page? Did you know that the