Internet Luminary Jon Postel Dies -- Jon Postel, a networking pioneer who had enormous, unsought power over the Internet, died on 16-Oct-98 during heart surgery to repair a leaky valve

Quark Releases 4.02 Update -- Since shipping QuarkXPress 4.0 for Macintosh last December, Quark has released four minor updates. The latest, a 6.8 MB download, is the 4.02r1 update

Hiatus -- Folks, it's been a fun ride, but we must reluctantly announce that NetBITS is taking a hiatus until April for two reasons. The first of those is that we haven't established the kind of reach that we felt was necessary to attract advertisers and make the publication self-supporting

Question: Can I fax over an ISDN "modem"? Patrick Beart wonders if software exists that would let him send faxes using his ISDN device: "I use the Farallon Netopia for Mac, and love it

I've used the page-layout software QuarkXPress since 1989, and being an early adopter, I excitedly placed an order for the 4.0 upgrade as soon as it shipped

ADSL Stands for "Alright! Dig that Service, Laddie" -- We received a number of terrific letters about our NetBITS Update last issue (see "And Who's Paying for This?" in NetBITS-015) about the coming standard for ADSL service being proposed by a group of computer companies, regional Bell operating companies (RBOCs or Baby Bells), and networking companies

Browser Vendors Cave In, Millions Trapped -- In the latest bizarre turn of events in the browser wars between Microsoft and Netscape, Microsoft has agreed to the Justice Department's demand that Windows 95 be available without Internet Explorer bundled with it, while Netscape has made its browser free and promises to release source code for the upcoming Navigator 5.0. Coincidentally, Microsoft released its fourth quarter 1997 earnings, showing that they netted over a billion dollars in that quarter alone

Multiple Personalities -- Readers sent in many additional options for obtaining multiple email addresses without buying a separate dial-up account from an ISP. John Belamaric notes: "EarthLink Network provides additional email addresses for $4.95 per month." Albert Smith chimes in, "IBM.net allows up to five independent email addresses under one account

Question: How do you deal with attaching files to email? Many of you have asked about how to attach files to email so that the recipient receives them reliably

Long File Names -- In the last few issues, we've been talking about long file names in Windows 95, and how these names are truncated to an alternate 11-character (8-dot-3) version in many cases, including when transferring files to a floppy and then reading them on a Macintosh. David Kilzer wrote in to alert us that Apple is now offering better support for long file names on floppy disks and other media via PC Exchange 2.2, part of the just-released Mac OS 8.1, a free update to Mac OS 8.0

Revenge of the Eight-Track Tape -- Several readers commented about the FAQtoid in NetBITS-013 regarding the lifetime of WebTV. In the FAQtoid, we said that WebTV used standard protocols and could, in fact, be configured to access any ISP using PPP

Question: How does a server know how fast you're connecting? Pete Mundy writes, "I am confused about how a server sending data to you knows what 'speed' (bps) to send the data

How Microsoft Spent Its Winter Vacation -- We're back, and we feel like we spent our entire winter hiatus reading stories about Microsoft. Perhaps the most intriguing part of the Microsoft versus United States Justice Department antitrust case so far is that the judge has done a little experimentation on his own. The Justice Department several weeks ago won a preliminary injunction in which the judge hearing the case barred Microsoft from requiring companies that bundle its Windows 95 operating system to also ship Internet Explorer pre-installed

The Fat Lady Doesn't Drink Coffee -- In the review of the Opera Web browser in NetBITS-012 we said that it supported Java. Unfortunately, as David Rugge pointed out to us, the current 3.0 release does not - although it does handle JavaScript

Question: Could WebTV become obsolete? Beatrice Real writes: "I'm considering purchasing a WebTV unit. Any idea how long it might be around? I bought a CD-Interactive player a couple of years ago and now I can't find customer support or CD-I titles