Adam Engst
Adam C. Engst is the publisher of TidBITS. 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 now owned and operated by alt concepts. 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.
Last week Farallon began shipping a voice digitizer that should make voice mail and voice additions to files an easy reality. Farallon's new product, the MacRecorder Voice Digitizer, can be used to input voice messages to many Macintosh electronic mail systems, including QuickMail 2.2x from CE Software, Microsoft Mail 2.0, and WordPerfect Office Mail.
The new Voice Digitizer does not come with sound editing software and is targeted to people who wish to add simple sounds or voice to a Macintosh file
Computers are fairly good about not using natural resources and not creating unnecessary waste products. In fact, one of the design features in our original conception of TidBITS was that it would never generate waste paper
We currently face a dilemma with TidBITS. We have found alternative sources of information so we no longer rely on the trade magazines much at all any more
In all the discussions about what the new Macintosh computers will have in terms of hardware, it seems that much of the original simplicity of the Mac has been lost
Software Toolworks will acquire Monogram, maker of Dollars and Sense, a popular home finance package, at the end of June. Owners of Dollars and Sense need not worry, though, since Software Toolworks will continue to support Dollars and Sense, and the upgrade to version 5.0 will still be released in a month or so
An INIT called STEROID has been discovered to be a Trojan Horse. It falsely claims to accelerate QuickDraw on 9" monitors but in fact contains a time bomb that will erase all mounted volumes (floppies and hard disks) on July 1st, 1990
Color PostScript printers still cost more than their speedier monochrome counterparts, but now that they list for under $8,000, they should become more widely available
Several people on Usenet report that CompuServe has killed its National Bulletin Board service as of June 1st, 1990. In its place is a new bulletin board service that charges $1.00 per line
Deciding what events in the computer industry merit mention in TidBITS is a difficult task, since the headline grabbing events are not always the most interesting ones
The Macintosh virus count increased by one last Monday when a new virus called either MDEF or Garfield was found at Cornell University. Contrary to an article in MacWEEK, the virus was found by Gordon Suggs of Cornell Information Technologies and Adam Engst of TidBITS
Bob Boynton reports on a Washington Post article that claims Sony will introduce the Data Discman, a portable text reading system. The hand-held system consists of a 3" CD-ROM drive, a ten line screen, and a small keyboard
Microsoft never formally announced Windows 3.0, so its release last week was not officially late, though users had been waiting anxiously since early this year
Despite numerous criticisms, HyperCard has been extremely popular among Macintosh users because of its ease of use and flexibility. Clones were inevitable, and Silicon Beach introduced SuperCard and Olduvai introduced PLUS (now marketed by Spinnaker) to complement HyperCard
A common question on Usenet is how to use the Mac to read mail and Usenet news directly, without having to use a mainframe or workstation and their less-intuitive interfaces
A/UX, Apple's version of Unix for the SE/30 and Mac II line never gained a great deal of popularity. Version 2.0, due out in June, should help A/UX's reputation significantly though, judging from the rave reviews it has received on Usenet