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numbed-salty
May 9, 1996

Internal Apple VAR Memo

You can read a memo to Apple Value Addeded Resellers rgarding the Apple "Repair Program" here!

Surfboard 1.0 Ships for Mac Only!

Abbott Systems is now shipping Surfboard 1.0 - a Web URL manager that looks like a TV-remote and drives your browser so you can channel-surf the Web. Surfboard also features 'one click customer service'. It works with both Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer.

It features an elegant 'consumer electronics' design, with slide-open screen that displays your URL list. You can add URLs with the click of a button, and any hot link can be added by simply dragging and dropping to Surfboard. There is no limit to the number of URL lists you can build, and you can instantly switch between lists.

Just like any remote controller, most operations can be done with the click of a button:

Special 'fast dial' buttons let you 'program' frequently used URLs for instant access without opening the Surfboard display screen to find a URL. You can program multiple URLs into any button, and rename the buttons to categorize the URLs. Button names and contents are saved with each URL list, so when you open a new list you automatically get the buttons for that particular list.

Surfboard also remembers your most frequently visited URLs and keeps them in one convenient button for instant access.

Surfboard also features 'one click customer service' - the logo at the base of Surfboard is a button which instantly sends you to 'The Surf Club', a private Web site devoted exclusively to Surfboard customer service. You can get questions answered, download hot new URL lists and send messages to the Surfboard team!

Surfboard can easily import existing bookmark files from Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer.

Surfboard is available now direct from Abbott for $39 with FREE shipping.

Get CU-SEE Me Beta Software

White Pine Software has posted a free beta version of their videoconferencing software, Enhanced CU-SeeMe at . The final version will be available for purchase this month.

The new version of the software includes 24-bit color support, a white board, high quality audio and video, interoperability with Windows and freeware versions of CU-SeeMe, and support for both
point-to-point and broadcast conferencing.

Expected street pricing for the Enhanced CU-SeeMe is expected to be under $100. You can download a fat binary version of the software here, or here. You must fill out form to a get a serial number to use the software, the form is located here..

Exabyte Finally Ships Mammoth Tape Drive

Originally scheduled to be released last August, Exabyte's new Huge tape drives have started shipping. The drives holdi 20GB of uncompressed data, the new drives compete head-to-head with Quantum's DLT drives, which topped Macworld's latest tape drive performance benchmarks.

Exabyte claims a 6 Mb per second transfer rate. Unlike DLT drives, they will fit into a standard half-height 5.25-inch drive bay such as in most PowerMacs. Exabyte estimates the street price for Mammoth drives will be around $5200, including Dantz Development's Retrospect backup software.

Exabyte also announced its Exabyte 220 Tape Library, outfitted with two Mammoth drives and room for 20 cartridges, giving a capacity of 4 Terabytes. Retail price for the new automated tape library is $20,000.

Chip Sales to Remain "Modest"

The U.S. Semiconductor Industry Association is expected to report only modest gains in chip demand during April. The book-to-bill ratio, which measures orders against sales, is estimated to be between 0.82 and 0.84, up slightly from 0.80 in March. The ratio has been below 1.0 since January, the longest such period since 1989, but is expected to recover by mid-summer.

WWW Publications Expected to Rise 150% Annually

Subscriptions to newspapers and magazines delivered over the World Wide Web in the European market are expected to increase by 150 percent annually, according to the technology consultant Datamonitor. Earlier this year, German media giant Bertelsmann predicted multimedia sales of $1.38 billion by the year 2000, boosted by its linkup with online service America Online. Some analysts are skeptical about consumer demand for the new delivery medium.

AOL Subscribers Hit 6 Million Stock Plunges $7.25

America Online's user base has risen to nearly 6 million subscribers, according to announcements made by the company on Wednesday. Third-quarter earnings also exceeded Wall Street predictions and analysts now expect the company will generate more than a billion dollars in revenue for the year. Despite the good news, AOL's stock fell $7.25 to $62.75.

Apple Seeing the Light on Customer Satisfaction?


The Mercury News is reporting that Apple Computer, Inc.will be looking much more closely at it's Customer Satisfaction index (CSI). Apparently Apple and it's new leadership is beginning to see the importance of taking care of their customer base. I received a call from Apple the other day, they were doing a survey, amongst the usual questions they asked me was a new one. They wanted to know my thoughts and feelings regarding Apples one year warranty? Of course I told them they should cut it back to 6 months (just kidding).

The automobile industry began using the CSI rating system 10 years ago. When the Japanese automobile manufactures were handily beating the pants off of their US counterparts, they began rating each individual dealerships CSI. Over the last 10 years we have witnessed a jump in the quality of American produced Automobiles as well as move by most of the Japaneese automobile manufactures to produce vehicles in US plants.

Let us hope that this is the begining of the "road back" for Apple Computer.

You can read a memo to Apple Value Addeded Resellers here!

The following is from the Mercury News Article:

Apple Computer Inc., struggling to protect its reputation for building high-quality products, rolled out a big repair and replacement program Wednesday that will reimburse dealers for fixing several flawed models of Macintosh personal computer.

The program is not a recall, but is nonetheless likely to confuse Mac owners. Dealers will only be paid to repair defective machines, and customers won't always have an easy way to tell whether routine problems are caused by these defects.

What's more, the need to correct bugs in some of its most popular models -- including most Performa home PCs and many systems sold to schools -- is an embarrassing setback at a time when Apple desparately needs to retain the confidence of the Mac faithful.

Fred Forsyth, Apple's senior vice president in charge of manufacturing, wouldn't give any figures on how widespread the problems are, but he did say, ''We've had more quality issues than we've been used to'' in the last nine months.

Although Apple won't release sales information for individual models, it is believed to have sold more than a million machines in the lines covered by the repair program.

Some of the problems covered by the program will be obvious to users -- such as cracked covers on laptop computers or sudden changes in the colors displayed on a monitor.

But some of the problems can cause the computer to freeze -- a common occurance that can have many explanations. Apple is not offering any guidance on how users can tell whether their machine is covered by the repair program or not.

Several dealers said one model in particular -- the Powerbook 5300 laptop -- has suffered numerous problems, but they also noted Macintosh buyers in general haven't reported a surge in breakdowns.

''I do have to say they (Apple) have slipped a little bit, but we haven't experienced anything major,'' said Gary Gell, sales manager for Compuage Inc., a Macintosh vendor in Los Angeles.

''It does seem to us like we've gotten more calls than ever from people saying that Apple can't help them,'' added Ann Wrixon, executive director of the Berkeley Macintosh Users Group, a non-profit support association with 12,000 members. ''But it if were a major crisis, we would know about it.''

Apple has launched similar repair and replacement programs in the past, although none as big as the effort started Wednesday.

A ''repair extension'' program will cover Power Macintosh and Performa models in the 5200, 5300, 6200 and 6300 families, as well as the Powerbook 5300 and Powerbook 190.

Dealers will now be reimbursed in making specificed repairs for seven years, instead of the normal warranty period of one year. Repairs covered under the program include replacing defective logic boards and video cables on the Performas. For the Powerbooks, the problems include inoperative AC power connectors and plastic cases that crack at the hinge.

Apple is also ordering a ''reseller exchange program'' for dealers' current inventories of the Powerbook 5300 and 190. All units currently held by dealers will be returned to Apple for inspection and, if necessary, repair.

''People have a very high level of expectation with Apple,'' said Ken Krich, president of the Computerware retail chain, based in Sunnyvale. ''Maybe this is a good sign that Apple is upgrading the level of service.''

But the strategy could backfire if its undermines Apple's long-standing reputation for selling reliable computers that work right out of the box.

Forsyth, the Apple manufacturing executive, said the problems cropped up because of pressure to bring new models to market faster and because of the complicated transition to a new microprocessor -- the Power PC chip -- that began in 1994 and continued into 1995.

Apple's share of the PC market is dwindling, creating more pressure to move quickly and forcing the company to report a record loss of $740 million in the first three months of 1996.

''Despite our current financial situation, we're trying to bend over backwards to make sure our customers are happy,'' Forsyth said.

Apple began addressing its quality problems in January, when an internal task force called the Quality Council was formed with representatives from engineering, manufacturing, sales and service.

''The Quality Council has some very important immediate goals,'' Apple said in a memo sent to all employees in March. ''One is to compile and resolve all high-impact quality and customer satisfaction issues with the utmost urgency . . . Another immediate goal is to review imminent product releases and halt manufacturing and release of any product unless it meets Apple's quality standards.''

Forsyth confirmed that some new products are being held up to address quality concerns, but he declined to give any specifics.

Maker of First Class Acquires Delphic Software

SoftArc Inc.'s acquired Internet tools maker Delphic Software Inc. The maker of FirstClass BBS may soon gain new Internet capabilities thanks to the company's acquisition last week of

Delphic, based in Redlands, Calif., is the developer of several Internet gateways for FirstClass and the AL*I Internet Server, a stand-alone Web, FTP, SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), Gopher, Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) and domain name server. Delphic said Markham, Ontario-based SoftArc plans to incorporate the functions of the gateways and AL*I into a forthcoming version of FirstClass.

Mike Marshburn, Delphic presiden said that, "We essentially sold our technology to SoftArc and will be moving up [to Canada] to help incorporate it into their products."

SoftArc reportedly will continue to provide technical support for registered Delphic products. Registered users of Delphic's Internet e-mail gateway for FirstClass will additionally be offered an upgrade to SoftArc's new $495 FirstClass Gateway for SMTP/NNTP.

America Online Updates it's Software to 2.7

You can download the new AOL software version 2.7 (2.1 megs) here.

"Deadly Black Widow on the Web: Her Name is JAVA"

"Don't trust Java online" That's the message from computer and Internet security watchdogs, in response to reports that "hostile" Java applets are stalking the WWW. These malicious applets can destroy data, interfere with mission critical intranets, and gain access to sensitive data.

"The situation is scary," said Stephen Cobb, Director of Special Projects for the National Computer Security Association (NCSA). "Software companies are releasing products on the Internet without even considering the hacker perspective. Enterprise IT managers have to understand there is a real danger allowing users to freely access the WWW. They have to set up policy now to prevent users
from downloading malicious applets and viruses. Users should only be allowed to access trusted domains and Web sites."

According to the NCSA, "a malicious 'applet' can be written to perform any action that the legitimate user can do. The security enhancements announced by Sun Microsystems and Netscape do not fix this flaw CERT (Computer Emergency Response Teams) recommends disabling Java in Netscape Navigator [only Netscape browsers are at issue] and not use Sun's 'appletviewer' to browse untrusted web sites until patches are made available from the vendors." The warnings apply to Netscape Navigator 2.0 and 2.01, and Sun's HotJava browser.

And according to a white paper being released by researchers at Princeton University, "The Java system in its current form canno easily be made secure." The scientists, Drew Dean, Edward Felten
and Dan Wallach, will present their white paper at the 1996 IEEE Symposium on Security, which starts in California Monday, May 6.

According to the scientists, and other sources interviewed by Online Business Consultant (OBC), innocent surfers on the Web who download Java applets into Netscape's Navigator and Sun's HotJava browser, risk having "hostile" applets interfere with their computers (consuming RAM and CPU cycles) or, worse, having an applet connect to a third party on the Internet to upload sensitive information from the user's computer.

The scientists say that even firewalls, software designed to fence-off LANs and Intranets from cyberthugs, are ineffective against the malicious Java code . . . "because the attack is launched from behind the firewall."

This information was made public some weeks back. However, the browsing public, and particularly online business users, are ignoran of the Java risks. In a survey conducted by OBC the vast majority of Netscape users had no idea that Java applets presented a grave risk, and many felt the proponents of Java as an Internet technology, particularly Sun Microsystems, Inc. and Netscape Communications Corporation, were not paying enough attention to the issue. "I have to report this information to my senior executives," said one IT manager. "They are especially anxious to have clarity on the (Java) security issue."

"They are hoping the security issues will just go away," said another responder, one of the few who has researched the security issue. "But it will not. The hackers will continue to find the loopholes and exploit the opportunities."

OBC also interviewed hackers who have designed Java applets to turn cancerous at a future date. Said one hacker: "Even legitimate Java applets can be targeted on the Web and attacked. I have written a Java virus that changes one line of code in a Java applet to render it useless." [A sample
of this type of hostile code is included in the complete Java report in the May issue of OBC]

A computer security expert, Mark Ladue, has set up a "Hostile Applets"site on the Internet. The site is a free service to alert business to the potential dangers. "I've read that article by Dean, Felten, and Wallach, and I agreed with what they had to say as far as they went, but I would paint the picture a little more darkly. It's to the business community that they (Java applets) pose the most serious threat."

Back in March the Princeton group released the following Java report to Sun Microsystems, Netscape and Cern: "We have discovered a serious security problem with Netscape Navigator's 2.0 Java implementation. [The problem is also present in the 1.0 release of the Java Development Kit
from Sun] An applet is normally allowed to connect only to the host from which it was loaded. However, this restriction is not properly enforced. A malicious applet can open a connection to an arbitrary host on the Internet.At this point, bugs in any TCP/IP-based network service can be exploited. We have implemented (as a proof of concept) an exploitation of an old sendmail bug [to reproduce the problem].

Sun issued a patch that plugs the possibility of "spoofing." Netscape modified its software (in version 2.00). However, Netscape's Navigator is readily available in stores and countless millions of World Wide Web users have no idea they are at serious risk. To date OBC has been unable to
obtain official response from Sun or Netscape. The following security claim is extracted from their original white paper on Java:

"Java is intended to be used in networked/distributed environments. Toward that end, a lot of emphasis has been placed on security. Java enables the construction of virus-free, tamper-free systems. The authentication techniques are based on public-key encryption."

However, the Princeton group states otherwise, "If the user viewing the (Java) applet is behind a firewall, this attack can be used against any other machine behind the same firewall. The firewall will fail to defend against (Java) attacks on internal networks, because the attack originates behind
the firewall.

"The immediate fix for this problem is to disable Java from Netscape's 'Security Preferences' dialog. An HTTP proxy server could also disable Java applets by refusing to fetch Java '.class' files. We've sent a more detailed description of this bug to CERT, Sun, and Netscape."

In light of this information, OBC feels it is prudent to avoid using the Netscape Navigator browsers and logging on to insecure Java sites on the Internet until complete safety can be confirmed.

The complete Java report in the May issue of OBC also exposes the mounting dangers of email being attacked by "Trojan horse" Java applets.

*This story reprinted with permission of the Home Page Press, Inc., and Online Business Consultanto

OpenDoc To Link with Cobra

Apple Computer and Iona Technologies announced a plan today at Object World East in Boston to link OpenDoc applications to the large number of applications based on the CORBA 2.0 object architecture.

Iona's Orbix is an object request broker that facilitates communication over a network between CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture) objects. OpenDoc is Apple's answer to Microsofts OLE: a compound document architecture for Macintosh OS, Windows, OS/2, and Unix that allow documents to be created as an assembly of small components or objects.

Iona now plans to ship its Orbix 2.0 for the Mac OS System 7.5 by early fall. The ORB will link OpenDoc applications to the large market of existing CORBA applications, most of them running on Unix servers.

New AOL Plan Gives Break for Heavy Use

America Online today announced a new pricing plan aimed at heavy users with its new 20/20 Plan. The plan will cost $19.95 for 20 hours per month and $2.95 per each additional hour spent online. Under AOL's old pricing structure, users would have to pay $54.20 for 20 hours each month. Thier is also a new plan for less frequent users--$9.95 per month for the first five hours plus $2.95 per additional hour--remains the same.

Most users spend less than their five free hours online, although active users will save a considerable amount on their monthly bills. The 20/20 Plan is expected to appeal primarily to accounts with multiple users, such as those used by families.

The new plan now matches more closely to that of of AOL's competitors. Microsoft Network, charges $19.95 per month for 20 hours, plus $2 each adiditional hour. Most ISPs, including AT&T WorldNet and Netcom, charge approximately $18-$20 per month for unlimited access.

May 8, 1996

Apples Risser to Rise to Treasurer

Apple Computers Jane Risser has been promoted to Vice President and Treasurer. She has held the position since February 1, on an interim basis since, Mary Ann Cusenza resigned.

Risser responsiblities include, liquidity and cash management, foreign exchange and interest rate management, corporate finance, risk management and shareholder relations.

Among Apple's new senior managers, Risser stands out, along with new Vice President of Internet Platforms Larry Tesler, as an appointee who has risen from within. The highest echelon of managers have been brought in from outside: Chief Administrative Officer George Scalise came from National Semiconductor, CEO Gil Amelio's former employer, and Chief Financial Officer Fred Anderson came from Automatic Data Processing, a payroll processing company.

From 1991 to 1996, Risser was director of corporate finance, handling capital structure financing activities, working capital and fixed asset management, corporate performance metrics, and shareholder value analysis. She joined Apple in 1986 as manager of investor relations.

New Stuffit Expander & DropStuff

Aladdin Systems, Inc. has released a new version of Stuffit Expander, v 4.0.1, as well as a new version of DropStuff version 4.0. You can download Expander here, amd DropStuff here.

W3C Releases HTML 3.2 Specification

The World Wide Web Consortium released new HTML specifications that officially recognizes WWW features developed seperately by both Microsoft for its Explorer broser and Netscape Communications for it Navigator broeser.

The W3C, is composed of more than 130 industry members. It is calling the new specs HTML 3.2 , which is a major new release for creating Web pages.

The organization states that the some of the specs additions--including tables, the applet tag, and text flow around images--were originally developed by the now two leading browser vendors and are already beening used with Internet Explorer and Navigator.

The W3C is continuing to work, however, on future versions of the HTML standard, which will support multimedia objects, scripting, style sheets, layout, and higher quality printing.

The consortium today also posted the final PICS (Platform for Internet Content Selection) specification. PICS is designed to allow publishers and developers to create their own ratings systems for content on the Internet.

Update to Copy Doubler 2.0.7 Available

Symantec released a patcher to update Copy Doubler 2.0.5 or 2.0.6 to Version 2.0.7 for better
compatibility with System 7.5.3.

Symantec's ftp server doesn't work well with Netscape and other browsers ftp capability, therefore we can not provide a direct download from "The online MacinStuff Times", you must use Fetch or some other ftp client in binary mode to get the file.

The file is located here:<ftp://ftp.symantec.com//public/mac/doubler/CD207.sea.bin>

Update to SoundApp Available

SoundApp can play or convert files dropped onto it in a variety of formats. In addition, it
supports Play Lists which are lists of sound files that can be saved for later usage. Files in a Play
List can be played or converted as a group or individually. SoundApp supports a randomized
shuffle playback mode and repeated playback of Play Lists.

The following sound file formats are supported:
  • SoundCap (including Huffman-compressed),
  • SoundEdit (including stereo),
  • AIFF, AIFF-C (MACE-3, MACE-6, IMA 4:1 and µ-law),
  • System 7 sound,
  • QuickTime MooV (soundtracks only, including MIDI movies),
  • Sun Audio AU and NeXT .snd (including µ-law, a-law, 8- and 16-bit linear, G.721 and
  • G.723 ADPCM),
  • Windows WAVE (including IMA and MS ADPCM compressed, µ-law and a-law),
  • MPEG Audio (Layers I and II only, requires a Power Macintosh),
  • Sound Blaster VOC,
  • many varieties of MODs,
  • ScreamTracker 3 (S3M) files,
  • Amiga IFF/8SVX (including compressed),
  • Sound Designer II,
  • IRCAM,
  • PSION sound files,
  • DVI ADPCM,
  • Studio Session Instruments and
  • 'snd ' resources (including MACE-3, MACE-6, IMA 4:1 and µ-law).

SoundApp can convert all of these formats to System 7 sound, sound suitcase, AIFF, WAVE and
NeXT formats. SoundApp also supports QuickTime conversion, which allows any QuickTime
recognized format to be converted to a QuickTime movie file. This feature is provided as a
convenience, as it is entirely handled via QuickTime.

You can download the fat binary version of the siftware here.

Now Utilities Free Monthly Updates

Now Software today announced free monthly updates for Now Utilities 6.0. Each monthly update will feature a mix of new Now Utilities Plug Ins, minor enhancements to existing components and
bug fixes. The monthly updates will be available from Now's Web site . The first monthly update will be available May 8, 1996.

"The Internet has given us an opportunity to deliver enhancements to Now Utilities users on a monthly basis. It's a great way for us to continue to add value to Now Utilities even after the sale," said Henry Carstens, General Manager of the Now Utilities Division of Now Software, Inc.

The May update includes the following items:
  • Bug fixes for problems found by early 6.0 users
  • IP Address - a Now Tabs Plug In that displays a user's IP address and helps IS administrators identify address conflicts.
  • Open By - a Now Shortcut Plug In that lets you open files with the application of your choice, e.g. open SimpleText documents in Microsoft Word
  • Arrange Finder Windows - a Now Shortcuts Plug In that lets you manage and manipulate open windows in the Finder. Even save sets of open windows to use in the same configuration later.
  • Copy and Move - a Now Shortcuts Plug In that lets you copy, move and create aliases of selected files and folders. The advantage of this Plug In is that it lets you selected the destination of your copy, move or alias using Now SuperBoomerang for fast, easy access to all the files on your hard disk.
  • Now Up-to-Date Launcher - three Apple Scripts you can run from Now Tabs that launch Now Up-to-Date, Now Contact and Now QuickPad.
  • OpenDoc Parts Launcher - a Now Tabs Plug In that is an easy way to launch OpenDoc editors.
  • Lock and Unlock - a Now Shortcuts Plug In that lets you quickly lock and unlock files and folders
Now Utilities 6.0 has an estimated street price of $89.95. Upgrades from previous versions are $29.95. The monthly updates are available at no charge from Now's Web site . The first update will be posted on May 8,1996.

*Please be sure to use an ftp client such as fetch to download the file, as it is not Netscape friendly!

Prerelease of Mosaic 3.0 - Mac Only!

Only a Mac version is available right now; other platforms, one would assume, aren't very far off. New features include a revamped user interface, background colors and graphics, PNG graphics support, frames support , client-side imagemaps, some interesting HTML 3 <LINK> tag support, HTTP keepalive, and more! Mac-specific features include Open Transport enhancement, Internet Config awareness, balloon help, and speech capability. And of course, all of this still comes with Mosaic's Kiosk mode.

You can down;oad the beta software here.

Let's Keep It Simple Spreadsheet Released

(from press rlease)

Casady & Greene, Inc., developers of award-winning Conflict Catcher(TM)3, announced today the release of Let's Keep It Simple Spreadsheet(TM), the first innovation in Macintosh
spreadsheets in ten years. Using a revolutionary, object-based, drag-and-drop interface and patent-pending technology, Let's Keep It Simple Spreadsheet, written by Steve Wilson and David Wilson of Emergent Behavior, introduces ease-of-use to spreadsheets.

Terry Kunysz, President of C&G, states, "Let's Keep It Simple Spreadsheet provides Macintosh users with the first real innovation in spreadsheets in almost a decade. Its design helps reduce data entry and formula errors because the relationship between different cells is visible and easy to understand. This program will provide a welcome relief to users who are weary of large, overblown spreadsheets that promise results but deliver confusion. No longer do you have to be a trained professional to get spreadsheet capabilities."

Let's Keep It Simple Spreadsheet improves upon the traditional electronic spreadsheet. In the past, spreadsheets were based on complicated formulas which appeared to have no relationship to the working numbers. Let's Keep It Simple Spreadsheet offers highly visual and easy-to-understand relationships. It enables users to solve both simple and complex problems by using an easy, patented drag and drop technology.

This method eliminates the need to type in formulas. Cells and mathematical operators are dragged from several choices of 'palettes' onto blank worksheets and then connected with lines as you would connect a flowchart. This process clearly shows formulas as well as the answers, greatly reducing the chance of errors and providing users with a unique opportunity to retrace their steps instantly. It also provides in-place editing so users can type directly into cells. Users may also create customized palettes for commonly used formulas, further simplifying the process.

Patented 'Smart Operators' automatically adjust the size of output grids to match changes in the size of input grids. This allows the user to perform sophisticated "what if" analyses.

Custom Operators, which are "visual macros", can be created, saved, and easily shared with others, avoiding the need to reinvent the wheel.

Graphs, charts, graphics, headlines, and text notes may be easily added to documents, allowing for clear, professional-looking presentations. Let's Keep It Simple Spreadsheet supports Basic Math, Logic, Statistics, Trigonometry, and Scientific Functions.

Reusable templates are provided for solving a number of common situations, such as: comparisons on buying or leasing a car, analyzing stock portfolios, retirement planning, creating travel expense reports, homework, performing budget projections and much more. Custom or personalized templates may also be created.

Laura Kunysz, Executive Vice-President of Sales and Marketing at C&G, states, "Let's Keep It Simple Spreadsheet rounds out our wonderful line of low-cost C&G software products that are easy-to-use and make sense for us and our customers."

Adobe Shows Suite of Web Publishing Tools

. -At its "Improving Net Expectations" event, Adobe Systems Inc unveiled a comprehensive strategy for making the World Wide Web a more effective and visual communications medium. The strategy outlines a three-part plan for improving the Internet experience which includes cutting-edge new media authoring tools, expanded capabilities for improving Internet printing and information distribution, and driving the graphics standard on the Internet.

As part of the event, Adobe featured more than a dozen of its Web publishing products and technologies including a new Internet printing solution called PrintMill, a new portable imaging model code-named "Bravo", a new interactive authoring technology code-named "Vertigo", and an alpha software for creating high-quality presentation graphics code-named "WebPresenter".

In a series of exciting Adobe partner announcements, JavaSoft announced a two-dimensional graphics API (Application Programming Interface) and its intent to integrate Adobe's "Bravo" imaging model in Java(TM). Adobe and Microsoft announced they will deliver a universal font format called OpenType(TM) and AT&T and Adobe announced a collaboration to provide AT&T's WorldNet(SM) Service customers with personal publishing capabilities on the Web.

Adobe Gives Away Web Presenter

Web Presenter is free software for easily creating graphically rich Web presentations containing multimedia, TIFF and EPS files, an array of fonts, and more.

Use our groundbreaking new technology to easily create stunning Web presentations rich with graphics and multimedia. Then tell us what you think about this free software!

Find out how easy it is to create exciting presentations by downloading an advance copy of alpha software, code-named "Adobe Web Presenter," that's designed to help you make your mark on the World Wide Web. What can you do with this innovative technology?
  • Create Web presentations in a graphical environment - no need to bother with a programming language
  • Drag-and-drop URL links from Netscape directly onto the page
  • Create URL links to any location on the World Wide Web
  • Drag and drop QuickTime movies and sounds into your documents
  • Drag and drop Adobe(R) Photoshop(R) files, scaleable Adobe Illustrator(R) and EPS graphics files, and TIFF images, avoiding time-consuming file-transfer procedures
  • Use any number and type of fonts, in any range of point sizes
  • Place text and graphics anywhere on the page
  • Gain full control over the look and feel of your documents when viewed from any monitor

Whether you're creating a presentation for your World Wide Web site or generating one for distribution over your corporate intranet, Adobe "Web Presenter" can make the process fast and simple. There's no better way to assemble graphically rich presentations containing Web links, multimedia elements, photos and illustrations in native file format, and more.

Since your input is important to us, we'd like to hear what you think about this brand-new technology. So once you've experimented with Adobe "Web Presenter", please tell us what you like and what more you'd like to see. You'll find on-line a comments form where you can provide both general suggestions and bug reports.

You can bypass Adobe fill out page and download the Software for PowerMac here. Software for 68k Mac is available here. Mac Acrobat Distiller PE* is available here. Or if you would like to fill out your name, address, phone etc. then go here.


May 7, 1996

Apples Stock Up 1 3/4 on News of IBM Licensing


Response to yesterday's licensing agreement with IBM has been positive both in the media and on Wall Street where Apple's stock closed up $1.75 to $25.62. According to industry analysts, licensing momentum may pick up amongst manufacturers who can now choose between two large suppliers, IBM and Motorola, for parts and OS licenses. Responding to media questions, IBM said it does not preclude the possibility of making Mac clones in the future.

California Bill: Apply Mail Order Laws to Internet


California Assemblywoman Jackie Speier and Attorney General Dan Lungren plan to introduce a bill that would apply California mail-order laws to commercial transactions conducted over the Internet. At a news conference, Speier referred to AB 3320 as a "gentle approach" to the problem of electronic consumer fraud, requiring that all vendors disclose their addresses and refund policies online and provide a toll-free means of resolving disputes.

Netscapes New Private Software Download Site

Here is a quote from Netscapes new Private Subscription Site. (Looks like free versions of Navigator may soon be a thing of the past.)

"Welcome to the Software Subscription Download site. A Netscape Software Subscription is the
most cost-effective way to stay current with your Netscape products. If you own a Subscription, you have the right to download all minor and major upgrades to Netscape Navigator client software for a period of one year from the date on your invoice.

If you would like more information on upgrades and subscriptions to Netscape products, please go to our Upgrades page. Upgrades and subscriptions can be purchased through Netscape's Quick Purchase page.

To download the latest release of Netscape Navigator client software, please enter your Software Subscription certificate number in the box below. This number can be found in the upper right corner of your certificate.

If you don't have a Certificate Number, and you have purchased a Subscription, please go to Locating Your Certificate Number for instructions.

Multimedia Broadcast Network for Net Coming Soon

Begining later this Fall, Netcast will begin broadcasting over the Interent. A 12 channels of 24-hour-a-day providing live audio programming, including music, news, talk, corporate announcements, and concerts.
Netcast will require a free, and a proprietary browser. Netcast president and CEO Jim Butterworth said, that the browser would not be a full-function browser, but will incorporate thier multimedia content.

Netcast will require at least a 28.8-kbps modem connection to the Net but will be able to run concurrently with browsers such as Netscapes Navigator or Microsofts Explorer.

Netcast hopes to one-up both traditional radio and Internet-based radio by invcluding synchronized visual content as well. The service will compete, however, with at least two other Web radio sites: AudioNet, which provides live feeds of several dozen radio stations, plus a daily staple of live sports and music events, and Pseudo Online Network, which provides audio programming plus videoconferencing and Internet relay chat.

Like many free online publications, Netcast will charge only for advertising. The company says it will be able to deliver precise demographic information about its listeners because they must register to download the free browser.

Stay tuned for more.! (ho, ho!)

MCI & Pac Bell to Quadruple Internet Speed Links

Hoping to cut down on the Internet traffic jams MCI Telecommunications and Pacific Bell are significantly beefing up the capacity of their Net infrastructures. Due to the interents tremendous growth some analysts have been predicting the demise of the Net.

Both Pacific Bell and MCI plan to offer 622-mbps (OC12) connections to the Internet, dwarfing the 155-mbps (OC3) and 45-mbps (DS3) links offered by other Internet service providers now. As a result, both business customers with direct Net connections and users that get online via Internet service providers will notice some relief from the congestion that increasingly brings Internet traffic to a crawl, according to the companies.

For MCI's nationwide Internet backbone, over which 45 percent of all domestic traffic is carried, the switch to OC12 will happen some time next year. "We're on track to do our whole network as OC12 by early next year," said Leslie Aun, a spokeswoman for MCI. She added that most of the company's Internet backbone now runs over OC3 connections.

In the meantime, MCI today announced a more general upgrade to its nationwide network that will aid performance of all its services, including voice, multimedia, and Internet access, by transmitting four fiber optic light streams over a single line.

In the third quarter, Pacific Bell will also upgrade its backbone to OC12 for its network access point (NAP) for Northern California, where more than a dozen local Internet service providers and telcos connect to the nationwide Internet backbone, including The Well, ANS, and MCI. The change should boost capacity by about 400 percent, according to the company.

Pacific Bell will begin testing high-speed switches from StrataCom in the third quarter that will make the new bandwidth possible.

Sanitize Your Explorer, Macify Navigator

For those of you using the Microsoft Explorer Browser and are becoming tired of the flying Windows95 logo, you can now "Sanitize" it.

The Sanitizer modifies Microsoft's Internet Explorer in many ways. The main change to the application is the removal of the flying Windows95 logo from every nook and cranny of the file. In its place you get a MacOS logo. The animation that is displayed while the application is downloading is changed from the moving Win95 logo to a spinning MacOS logo.

is changed to

Sanitizer also changes a myriad of dialogs, alerts, and other screens slightly to really let you know what is going on. It doesn't change any significant piece of the software so you should have no problems. The patch also does not modify the original f ile and works on all 2.0 versions (68k, PPC, Fat).

You can download the patcher here.

And for those readers that want to "Macify" thier version on Netscape Navigator you can download the patcher here.


May 6, 1996

Live 3D for the PowerMac

Support for Live3D on the PowerMac was announced today. The PowerMac Live3D has almost the same feature set as the Windows version:
  • - There's full blown VRML support with:
  • - Full texture support (JPG, GIF, RGB, PNG, BMP, and RAS)
  • - Inlines
  • - LOD
  • - ASCIIText
  • - Anchors
  • - Transparent textures and materials
  • - GZIP support
  • - Support for common Open Inventor nodes
  • - There's also support for:
  • - Background textures
  • - Animated textures
  • - Optional lit textures
  • - Environment mapping
  • - Axis alignment
  • - Sprites
  • - SpinGroup
  • - 3D Studio animations
  • - All Live3D navigation modes and options
  • - Viewpoints with quick keyboard traversal
  • - Headlamp w/ adjustment
  • - Collision detection w/ gravity
  • - Solid, wireframe, and point cloud support
However, this is a first beta, and there are a few exceptions: Performance on the 604 is roughly equivalent to a Pentium.
Performance on the 601 and 603 is adequate when rendering but slow when loading and parsing.
16MB of RAM to run with at least 8MB of virtual memory.
The Command key is used to modify the mouse button to do spinning. You can also hold down the mouse button for a second to popup the Live3D menu.
The toolbar is not yet active.
There are bugs with WWWAnchor.
The popup menu occasionally leaves an annoying black splotch on the screen.
There is currently no parsing or rendering status indicator.
Stability is ok but not great. This is only our first beta so there are still plenty of issues here.
There are some really big VRML files that simply won't work yet.
We crash if we run out of memory.
Java support has not been hooked up yet.
Motion blur and fast render are not supported yet.
There are various palette problems if running in 256 colors, we recommend 16 bit color mode.

Scrolling documents with embedded WRL files is problematic. You can download the beta software here.

In addition to the new release of Live3D and support for the PowerMac, a new web site will be available in the next couple of days. Check it out here.

Quarterdeck to Release "Desktop Server Software"

Quarterdeck Corp. plans to announce a new strategy designed to make personal Web servers widely available to Apples Macintosh user community.

The company is scheduled to announce the free beta version of WebSTAR Personal Edition for the Mac at the Apple World Wide Developer Conference next week.

Quarterdeck reports that WebSTAR PE is designed to allow users to easily publish HTML documents or Mac files and applications on the Internet from a desktop Mac. The product is scheduled for release this June. Java plug-ins will follow in the next few months.

At the Apple conference, Quarterdeck also plans to demonstrate final beta versions of its new WebSTAR Server API running on the Mac platform. The API is designed to replace Common Gateway Interface (CGI) applications with server "plug-ins" that share memory with the server and connect independently to resources on both the Internet and Intranets.

Umax Multiprocessor Tower Coming Soon

Apples Taiwanese market partner , UMAX Computer Corp. this week will be releasing its clone, under the SuperMac moniker, six-slot PCI Mac in the United States. Volume shipments will begin in June, the company said.

UMAX's first clone will be the SuperMac S900L, a $3,995 system with a single 150-MHz PowerPC 604 processor, six PCI slots, 512 Kbytes of Level 2 cache, 16 Mbytes of RAM soldered on the logic board, an Integrated Micro Solutions graphics card with 4 Mbytes of video RAM and a 2-Gbyte hard drive. The S900L will have eight DIMM slots, giving it a RAM capacity of 1 Gbyte, as well as an 8x CD-ROM drive. A similarly configured Power Mac 9500/150 with a quadruple-speed CD-ROM costs about $4,800.

UMAX will also offer the SuperMac S900D, a $3,095 model without a hard drive or display card. In addition, the company said it expects to ship a pair of models later this summer: a $2,500 midrange system code-named RipTide and a $1,500 entry-level model.

While based on Apple's 9500, the S900 models have several changes aimed at boosting performance and reliability for digital video and server applications, UMAX said. Instead of the 9500's pair of PCI controllers, the S900 runs a single controller and a PCI-to-PCI chip. UMAX said this improves data transfer performance between cards by eliminating the need to dip in and out of main memory.

The S900 also uses a different scheme for multiprocessing. Instead of providing a single slot for a card with several processors, the S900 offers a pair of slots for upgrades. The $995 second processor card will depend on the primary card's clock chip and cannot be used in other Macs.
et resellers cover customers in their geographic area.

HyperCard Virus Uncovered

For those of you still using Apples HyperCard a new virus, HC9603, ihas been reported by DataWatch. Symantec's new update to SAM also "kills" this virus. The SAM download page says not with Netscape (there is a supposed bug) and you must download with an ftp client, such as Fetch, if you do not have Fetch you can download version 3.0.1 here.

Mission Impossible Will $15M Promo "Cruise"

Apple Computer Inc.'s mission if it accepts it, is a $15 million promotion with Paramount Pictures' film, ''Mission: Impossible'' starring Cruise to trump up enthusiasm

The movie, is based on the popular television adventure show, will open nationwide May 22.

Faced with its own mission of turning around a second-quarter loss of $740 million, Apple is using the film star Tom Cruise to help pump up its image.

Apples PowerBook computers were selected for use in the new movie, scheduled for release May 22, by Paramount Pictures "Mission Impossible. " Apple stated that its cause is helped by the fact that several of the movies executives, including Cruise, are Mac loyalists.

Print ads will feature a two-page spread of Cruise and headlines urging customers to start their own mission at a specially designed Apple site on the World Wide Web. The Web site will allow participants to play an on-line espionage game that will showcase Apples technologies, including QuickTime, QuickTime VR and others. The site will reportedly use characters and images from the movie in six episodes set around the world.

Apple hopes to lure more people onto the Internet and to get them there through Apple products and technology. Apple also will run 30-second television ads featuring footage from the movie interspersed with images of Powerbooks and set to the well-known ''Mission: Impossible'' theme music.

Apple also is doing promotions in theaters around the country and providing retailers with displays, posters and handouts with the same ''Mission: Impossible'' theme.

Kellogg Co., the movies co-sponsor, will also run a contest on its cereal boxes that offers an Apple PowerBook as its first prize.

HP Replaces 4MP With 5MP

Hewlett-Packard Co. announced a new thier new $2,229 LaserJet 5M will replace the top rated LaserJet 4M PlusThe new 5M comes standard with a 33-MHz Intel i960JF RISC processor, which is 32 percent faster than the previous CPU and a new graphics chip that performs image scaling and halftoning, according to the company.

The new 5M is imilar to the 4M Plus, offersing resolution of 600 by 600 dpi and output speeds of 12 pages per minutei, it comes standrd with 6 Megs of RAM, which can be upgraded to 52 Mbytes.

The 5M duty cycle is35,000 pages per month, up 15,000 from the 4M Plus cycle. It comes with a 250-sheet letter-size tray and a 100-sheet multisize trayOptions include a $299 500-sheet tray, a $349 75-envelope feeder and a $679 duplexing unit.

The 5M comes with parallel and serial ports as well as HP's JetDirect card, which includes Ethernet and LocalTalk ports. A token-ring card is $619; an infrared adapter is $79.

OK Now It is "Official?" IBM + Mac OS =?

IBM will announce this week that it has licensed Apple Computer Inc.'s Macintosh operating system for desktop and PC servers. Analysts are also predicting IBM has a similar strategy for its portables. Sources close to IBM predict that later this summer, IBM will release a reference design for PC and Macintosh portables based on the PowerPC Platform specification.

Reportedly the portable will not be marketed under the ThinkPad brand name, IBM will utilize its manufacturing facility in Japan to produce motherboards and then produce the notebooks for Taiwanese, Japanese and U.S. vendors.

IBM's Mac OS licensing agreement will encompasses System 7 as well as Copland, Apple's next-generation operating system, now due in mid-1997.

Microtek Ships Low Cost 30-bit flatbed

Microtek Lab Inc. announced a new 30-bit-color scanner, the ScanMaker E6, h starts at $599. The scanner captures 10 bits each of data per pixel and optimizes the image in 24-bit color. The E6 has an optical resolution of 600 by 1,200 dpi and up to 4,800 dpi via software interpolation., twice that of the $399 model, the E3.

Microtek offers both a $299 optional transparency adapter and a $199 10-sheet automatic document feeder cost.

The E6 ships includes ScanWizard scanning utility, which lets users adjust brightness, contrast and exposure; tints; shadows and highlights; blur, sharpen and unsharp masking; 16-point gamma curves; and other image controls. The scanner also comes with Caere Corp.'s OmniPage Direct OCR software and MicroFrontier Inc.'s Color It!.

May 5, 1996

First Class Announces Email Server

Softarc announced FirstClass Evaluation Server 2.63 for Mac OS FirstClass Evaluation Server 2.63 for Mac OS is a a full-featured evaluation version of SoftArc's FirstClass multiprotocol electronic mail and group communications server. It will run on any Macintosh with at least 1.5MB of memory and 3 MB HD space free, and accommodates FirstClass client logins over network and modem. This archive also includes the FirstClass Client 3.11 for Mac. You can download it here.

New WYSIWYG Program to Compete with Pagemill


Like PageMill, that Adobe Systems Inc. acquired from Cenneca., a small company has been showing a new cross-platform Web-page editor that mimics many features from PageMill and adds its own feature set.

The program code-named Loma Prieta, is a WYSIWYG HTML-authoring tool. It is being authored by San Andreas Systems of Los Altos, Calif. According to sources, Loma Prieta will run on 680x0- and PowerPC-based Macs, as well as all Windows systems.

Loma Prieta will reportedly will be similar to PageMill. Like Adobe's program. The difference in Loma Prieta from PageMill is the capability to view and edit HTML code, table creation, support for HTML frames, and the capability to embed Java applets and any content that requires a Netscape Navigator plug-in. Reportedly PageMill 2.0 will incorporate many of these features as well

The program will also give Web-page authors estimates of the time it will take to download a finished page at either a 14.4-Kbps or 28.8-Kbps.

San Andreas Systems, which is reportedly seeking a buyer for Loma Prieta, looking to leverage off of the success of Cenneca, by selling its product to a larger 3rd party.

May 4, 1996

Apple Adds New Software

Apple Computer has added new QuicDraw GX software, HyperCard software and a new Disk Image Mounter, you can download them all here.

Insignia Declares SoftWindows 3.0 Up to 50% Faster

Insignia Solutions began shipping SoftWindows 3.0 in March (for Power Macintosh), it stated that the software was 35 % faster. As new Power Macs and Clones were released SoftWindows 3.0 and SoftWindows 95 became even faster, aprox. 50 percent faster.

SoftWindows 3.0 includes Microsoft Windows 3.11 and MS-DOS. Insignias new SoftWindows 95 features TurboStart which starts up Microsofts Windows 95 in a few seconds, compared to up to several minutes it may takes on am actual PC.

SoftWindows allows PowerMac users to run all Windows software at speeds reportedly between 486 33-66Mhz.

New PowerBooks Delayed Again

Apple has reportedly delayed the introduction of Epic, its CD-ROM-equipped PowerBook that was originally slated to be released this July. Sources stated that the Apple will introduce the machine in early Fall along with Hooper, its high end PCI-capable PowerBook.

Reportedly Epic will use a 117-Mhz 603e PowerPC processor and Hooper will use either 180- or 200-Mhz 603e chips. Epic will include an upgradable CPU as well as an optional CD-ROM drive. Hooper reportedly will contain a PCI bus, as well as an optional Level 2 cache and 12-inch LCD screen. Both machines will reportedly ship with either active-matrix or dual-scan color screens; gray-scale LCD screens will not be available. Lithium-ion batteries, which were discontinued from the PowerBook 5300 will reportedly make a comeback.

Projected costs for the new Epic series PowerBooks are said to be $2,000 - $3,500, and the Hooper between $4,500 - $6,500.
  • Hoopers PCI bus will be used for three different functions.
  • Video port
  • Expansion bay
  • On the Motherboard as a card slot. (Reportedly the PCI card slot will not be "standard".)

Update to Netscape Navigator

Netscape has placed an update to Navifator, the new version is Navigator 2.0.2, you can download it here.

Martha Stewart Big Mac User

Last night while watching the syndicated television show "Extra" a segment aired about "media Queen" Martha Stewart. During the segment they showed Martha busy in her office, surrounded by not one, or even two, but three Macs. I was able to see a duo, a 14" Apple AV monitor and what looked like a PowerMac 7500.

It's nice to see a "media queen" supporting the Macintosh platform. You can visit Martha Stewarts "unofficial web site" here.

May 3, 1996

StuffIt Deluxe Turns 4 Gains Internet Savvy

Aladdin Systems announced StuffIt Deluxe 4.0.

Some of the significant enhancements of StuffIt Deluxe 4.0 include better integration with the Finder, more Internet support, improved e-mail support, increased speed for compression and expansion operations, SpaceSaver(tm) icon "tagging", and file segmentation via drag
and drop.

True Finder Integration
Aladdin has further developed its True Finder Integration by bringing more compression, expansion, and file translation features into the Finder. A new addition to StuffIt Deluxe is the True Finder Integration (TFI) control panel which acts as a central location where users can tailor all

StuffIt Browser
StuffIt archives can now be viewed and manipulated in the Finder.To either UnStuff and Stuff a file from a StuffIt archive, the user simply drags the file from an open archive onto the desktop.

Magic Menu
Magic Menu supports more Internet archiving and encoding file formats including "tar" (from Unix systems) and segmented and multi-part UUencoded and BinHex files. Besides expanding compressed files, Magic Menu can Stuff files and join files segmented with a StuffIt product.

Archive Via Rename
Another True Finder Integration feature which makes compression and expansion effortless is Archive Via Rename. A user simply adds ".sit" or ".sea" to a file or folder name and it will instantly be converted into a StuffIt archive or self-extracting archive.

Internet Improvements
StuffIt Deluxe 4.0 now allows users of Eudora to Stuff and mail a file or folder right from the Finder. By simply selecting an item in the Finder and choosing "Stuff and Mail" from Magic Menu.

Faster Stuffing And Expansion
StuffIt Deluxe 3.5.1 (the previous version) included the introduction of features accelerated for Power Macintosh, but StuffIt Deluxe 4.0 is now even faster. Power Macintosh users will see Stuffing occur up to 20% faster than before. The expan-sion of many file formats is up to 50%
faster, including StuffIt, BinHex,and ZIP.

New StuffIt SpaceSaver Tagging
StuffIt SpaceSaver, Aladdin's transparent compression component, now features a new "tag icon" feature that users have been requesting. A user can configure SpaceSaver to superimpose a small "tag" on file icons which have been compressed with SpaceSaver. This allows users to quickly
discern which files on their disk have been SpaceSaver-compressed.

Informed Filler for Newton

Shana Corporation announced the release of Informed Filler for Newton, Shana's mobile electronic forms solution. Fully integrated with the Informed desktop, this latest addition to the Informed product line allows forms to be filled out by Newton users everywhere.

Informed Filler for Newton lets you start the electronic forms process right where you gather the data, and it can help you eliminate paper forms - and clipboards, and files - in the field. The Newton MessagePad delivers on the basic business need to collect data: Informed Filler for Newton capitalizes on that, and lets you integrate the forms process to the desktop, so that data collected on the road can be part of a company's office system as well.

Filling out forms with Informed Filler for Newton gives the user access to 'intelligent form' features such as calculations, defaults, choice lists, radio buttons and on-line help. These speed up the forms fill process and improve accuracy. The form data you collect can then be sent directly to an Informed form on a Mac OS-based personal computer where it can be changed, mailed to others, approved with a secure digital signature, tracked as it moves through the company and even integrated with corporate databases. At a single stroke you can eliminate the need to transcribe data from paper forms, a time consuming and often error-prone process.

Targetted at mobile forms users, Informed Filler for Newton will have particular applications in many fields. The inspection process, for example - from insurance appraisal to airplane maintenance - can be managed entirely electronically, reducing cycle times every step of the way.

Informed Filler for Newton has an SRP of US $195, and comes complete with Informed Designer. System requirements include a Macintosh desktop computer to design forms; Informed Designer* 1.4.4 or later (included with Informed Filler for Newton); Informed Manager/Filler 1.4 or later (1.4.4 recommended), for sending data to the desktop (available separately); Mac* OS 7.0 or later; NewtonOS 2.0 or later.

Farallon, PSINet, & SurfWatch Offer $37,500 in Grants


Farallon Computing, Inc. today announced it is partnering with PSINet Inc.and SurfWatch Software, Inc. to offer its Farallon Education Internet Challenge Grant Program, a $37,500 grant program designed to assist schools who are interested in implementing Internet education into class curriculum.

With the participation of other leading Internet companies such as PSINet and SurfWatch Software, Farallon is able to offer five grants, each valued at $7,500 worth of Internet products and services including Farallon's Netopia Internet Router and Up & Running, Guaranteed! support program, industry-leading Internet software, one year of PSINet's LAN-ISDN service, and license packs of SurfWatch, the leading Internet blocking software. The Farallon Education Internet Challenge Grant
Program will provide five winning schools with the hardware, software and services needed to give them Internet access.

"Our mission is to mainstream the Internet," said Alan Lefkof, president and CEO of Farallon. "The first step is to educate our children and that's why this grant is so important." "PSINet has been committed to bringing the Internet to educational institutions since our early days with the New York State Education and Research Network," said Bruce Ley, vice president of marketing, corporate services for PSINet. "We are pleased to participate in the Education Internet Challenge Grant, the latest in a series of special programs developed exclusively for schools and colleges."

Education Grant Offer Farallon and its partners will offer a valuable reward to schools with innovative ideas on Internet education. The $7,500 grant each winner will receive includes:

Farallon's Netopia Internet Router enables a school to gain high-speed Internet access over a shared high-speed ISDN (128K) line. Designed with the broadest set of on-board connections and maximum ease of use, one Netopia easily connects an entire school to the Internet.

Farallon's Up & Running, Guaranteed support program eliminates the hassles of gaining Internet access. Farallon will set up service with the school's phone company and Internet service provider (ISP), and remotely configure the router to get the entire school network on the Internet.

Twenty-five licenses of key Internet connectivity and exploration software including TCP/IP, Eudora Lite email, and the Netscape Navigator web browser.

PSINet's LAN-ISDN service for one year. Schools will receive a Class C (255 addresses) Internet license and full 2 B Channel (128K) ISDN support from the world's leading Internet service provider.

A license pack for twenty-five users of SurfWatch, a tool to restrict student access to undesirable or sexually explicit sites on the Internet. The software blocks more than 5,000 sites and the password protected on/off switch provides the ability to allow or prevent access.

Application Requirements and Selection Process All interested teachers should submit proposals on behalf of their schools. The proposal should detail how the school plans to incorporate the Internet into the class curriculum for the 1996-97 academic year. An ongoing commitment to using the Internet for teaching and learning will be a key facet of successful proposals. Creativity of ideas, and the appropriateness of ideas to the level of students being taught, will be more important than the quantity of ideas proposed.

Interested teachers should contact Farallon at (510) 814-5000 to request an application or can download it from Farallon's web site at . Teachers need to submit applications to Farallon by May 15, 1996 in order to qualify for the grant, with winning applicants notified by May 31, 1996.

Apple & SkarTrax Bring College Radio to the Web

Apple Computer, Inc. today announced that it is working with SkarTrax Entertainment, Inc. to create The College Life Radio Network which is expected to come online August 1, 1996. The College Life Radio Network is designed to bring the top college radio stations around the nation into cyberspace.

As part of Apple's effort to bring college radio to the Internet, Apple will donate 120 Macintosh Performa computers to college radio stations around the country. The Internet-ready computers will assist in communicating music airplay as well as aid SkarTrax in providing the most accurate and up-to-date Top 35 listings in the country. The weekly charts are expected to be published on The College Life Radio Network this summer and will be linked to Apple's Web site.

"College radio represents the essence of alternative, independent music," said Duncan Kennedy, senior manager of Apple's interactive music group. "Apple is aiding in making the college radio disc jockey of 1996, the Internet jockey of the next millennia."

The College Life Radio Network will include the top 120 college radio stations nationwide. The recording industry will be able to use the network to see the top 150 records both nationally and regionally, actual spins, programming from each college radio station and the actual times that the records were played. In addition, in the future, the recording industry should be able to coordinate radio interviews, in-store appearances, and digital uploading of new singles to the college radio
stations as well as communicate amongst themselves.

The College Radio Life Network is expected to include digital distribution of singles and advertising from record labels to college radio stations as well as live Internet broadcasts from college radio stations. For more information, contact SkarTrax Entertainment at (610) 383-9565. SkarTrax Entertainment of Coatesville, Pennsylvania is a specialized marketing company geared towards the college market. SkarTrax offers online services used by 400 college radio stations, student activity boards and 14.5 million online students.

Siegfried & Roy Show (Las Vegas) Use Macs

This great story from (Nancy Godfrey-Kozoriz)

After the posting you sent about Mac in the Hard Rock Hotel here in Las Vegas, I thought I'd send you a note about Macs where I work.

I work at the Mirage (a primarily Wintel company...sigh) here in Las Vegas. Specifically, I work in the showroom for the Siegfried & Roy show. Contrary to the rest of the organization, Macs are primary computers here for the show.

The music and sound design for the show was created on Macs, and an elderly MacII runs all the digitized sound for the show. Our musician/midi-wizard who runs the sound for the show keeps a Quadra 630 on his desk as a back-up, but so far he's not had to use it. This is with over six years of continuous use! A Mac Plus is being used to run settings for the main house sound console. Unfortunately, this is the second of those we've had to use. The power supply on the first died in a blaze of glory, and another Mac Plus was dragged out of a cabinet to replace it.

A Mac SE is one of the seven lighting control consoles, and plans are in the works to upgrade our Vari-lite control console to their new Mac-based proprietary operating system. Lighting equipment and hang information is kept on a Mac 630, using John McKernon's "Lightwright" software. This information was previously stored on a Wintel system, but is now switched over for ease-of-use. We also use this machine for Internet access while at work.

Our maintenance records and proceedures for the showroom are kept on Macs. Since our show runs mostly with custom equipment, maintenance of it is vital to the show.

We also use Macs for in-department business and e-mail, too. One employee used FileMakerPro to create computer versions of all our standard Mirage Hotel forms, for purchasing, etc. When shown this, one of the VPs in the hotel commented that he'd been trying to get this done on the Wintel machines for YEARS with no success. Our in-department Macs are connected on an AppleTalk network, with plans to move to Ethernet soon.

The only significant parts of the show that are not run on Macs involve either computer equipment running software designed for a specific motion-control purpose or the three Auto-Cad workstations being used to design new scenic elements. And our main lighting board uses OS/2 as its operating system, not Windows.

Overall, I'd have to say that, because of their reliability and ease-of-use, Macs have made a significant contribution to what is now the most profitable theatrical show in history.

Hope this is helpful to you!

Nancy Godfrey-Kozoriz
Siegfried & Roy Theatre
Mirage Hotel/Casino
Las Vegas, NV

You Can use WorldNet on a Mac (if you try hard)

This unedited tip from a reader , Doug Eldred
For those who are trying to figure out how to use WorldNet from a Mac...

Until AT&T formally releases Mac support ("real soon now"), you'll need to activate your WorldNet account from a PC. Once that's done, look at file C:\WORLDNET\DIALER\REG.INI (assuming default installation) because that's where the phone number, username, and password are located.

NOTE that the username is of the form "123456789@worldnet.att.net" and the password is encrypted; you do NOT want to use YOUR OWN name, nor the clear-text password you entered, nor any of the Eudora parameters you'll see in reg.ini, though those may be useful for setting up Eudora or the mailer of your choice. And yes, you must enter the ENTIRE "username" including everything after the at-sign, and be careful when you enter both fields because case matters and the password is apt to have some strange characters in it.

For MacPPP (and presumably FreePPP) you don't need any "script" at all, just set up the phone number, port, port speed, flow control, etc. and enter the username and password into the "Authentication" window.

For MacSLIP PPP, the only "script" you need is to dial the phone; the username and password should be put in the "options" windows and you should check the "CHAP Authentication" box there also.

*As if we had nothing better to do with our time?

Claris Lowers Price on its Email Client

Claris Corp. announced that as of May 1, 1996 a new lower price point on its email client software, Claris Emailer, to $49 (US.)

Claris Emailer was originally developed by Guy Kawasaki's Fog City Software. Emailer allows users to, send, reply to, receive, forward, copy to, file e-mail messages in an unlimited number of named "filing cabinets". The software also allows you to receive email from multiple online services.

You can download a 30-day free trial of Claris Emailer here or here.

*Editor note. This is the software that we use and it is awesome!

New 3D Book Available

A new book which covers 3D on the Mac was released by Charles River Media. The author, Craig Lyn covers 3D graphics and how to create them with your Mac.

The book covers topics such as, story boarding, modeling, lighting, animating, rendering. It
includes a CD-ROM with 3D images, animations, demo versions of more than two-dozen applications, tutorials on specialized subjects and provides tips for beginning and professional users.
The 486-page sells for $39.95.

Apple to Licenses QuickTime 2.5 free of charge


Apple announced at Internet World this week it will make QuickTime 2.5 available to free of charge to all developers. It also announced that a QuickTime plug-in will be built into Netscape Navigator 3.0 (Gold.)

Apple's vice president of Internet platforms Larry Tesler, stated that by making QuickTime 2.5 available free of charge will help make the software an industry standard. Microsoft Corp. is developing its own competeing software named ActiveX mutlimedia.

A new version of QuickTime also goes into beta testing this week, it will also have support for streaming video and M-JPEG file formats..

Apple Adds German PowerTalk

Apple Computer has added System 7.5.3 PowerTalk upgrade for the German version to it's software archives. Again usually you download directly from "The online MacinStuff Times", but there are 7 parts to the download. If you need this software you can get all 7 parts (seperately) from here.

Update to SoundMachine

SoundMachine 2.6 is available. It fixes a bug with using the hack window on some 16 bit sounds. The audio support has been slightly expanded to be compatible with the format supported by ConvertMachine. Various miscellaneous and cosmetic improvements. You can dowmload a fat binary version here. Don't forget that this is shareware, please send your $10 if you use the software.