Mark Anbinder leads off this issue with reports on an upgrade to White Pine’s line of terminal emulators and a new package that enables Newton users to connect to the popular FirstClass bulletin boards. We also mention a few more Internet resources from Apple, talk about what you can do with those old Macs, and listen as Geoff Duncan ponders the problem of consumption versus communication on the so-called infobahn.
A number of people wrote to tell me that John Norstad has released NewsWatcher 2.0b3 shortly after TidBITS-233 came out, mentioning 2.0b2. The Internet moves quickly, and something in one issue may be out-of-date by the next (although I'm usually correct as of the day the issue is dated, since I check URLs during editing)
Chuq Von Rospach of Apple wrote to correct and comment on the article about Apple's Internet resources in TidBITS-233. We got the URL for the Apple Business Systems FTP server slightly wrong - the best one is:
ftp://abs.apple.com/abs/
The idea is that when the great coherency campaign begins (and Chuq has plans for it already), that directory will be easy for the other Apple FTP sites to mirror, making it easier to bounce from one to another.
Chuq noted also that the easiest way to get information about and subscribe to the MAE mailing lists is to send email to with "info mae-users" in the body of the message
Jeffrey Norwood writes:
Here's a message I got from AppleCare today. As Dave Barry says, I am not making this up!
"Dear Jefferey [sic] Norwood:
"During August, 1994, the one year limited warranty on your STYLEWRITER II INK CARTRIDGE [their caps, not mine] will expire
Director of Technical Services, Baka Industries Inc.
White Pine Software, one of the leaders in terminal emulation for Digital VT-series terminals, Tektronix terminals, and X services, has announced new versions of its Mac products, and new Microsoft Windows and X-Window products
Adam and I are living examples of the difficulties in getting rid of old computers. We keep our aging SE/30 because we love it and may use it as a server someday and the Classic because nobody will buy it and because we occasionally use it to test programs
One of the frequently asked questions in electronic forums devoted either to FirstClass or Newton devices - "Is there a FirstClass client for Newton users?" - finally has an affirmative answer
In the electronic magazine InterText, I write a sporadic column that's mostly used as a soapbox for my opinions on electronic publishing. Responses to the columns are intriguing: sometimes personalities from the early days of network publishing (only about ten years ago) appear out of nowhere to agree, disagree, or corroborate certain points - and I feel like I'm talking back to my elders