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Glenn Fleishman

Glenn Fleishman

Glenn Fleishman writes about the past, present, and future. He’s been a technology journalist since the 1990s, contributing to TidBITS since 1993, and to publications like the Economist, Fast Company, the New York Times, Fortune, and many others (many of them long out of business). He’s also a printing historian, specializing in processes used between original artwork and typeset material and the final printed page, concluding flong. Glenn writes the Mac 911 column for Macworld, was the editor and publisher of The Magazine, and regularly appears on technology and nerd-culture podcasts.

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Question: How fast is a residential phone line?

Question: How fast is a residential phone line? Bill Williams sent us the following entertaining query: "Here's a group of questions which have come up several times, drawing varying answers

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Question: How can I print or read a Web page offline?

Question: How can I print or read a Web page offline? Charles Redway asks: "How can I save a page for reading or printing later? Not just the text but the whole page with its pictures and graphics in the right place

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You’re on Report

You're on Report -- As we've noted in previous articles about spam, one method of fighting it is to report the abuse to the network on which the spammer has an account

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Image Ownership

Image Ownership -- Jamie Alexander asked me why I didn't mention compression algorithm patent and licensing issues in the graphic file formats article in NetBITS-007

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Question: What’s surfing got to do with it?

Question: What's surfing got to do with it? Andree Hollander asks, "People continually talk about 'surfing the Internet.' Where does the word 'surf' come from? I didn't think that the word 'net' would be something with which the word 'surfing' would be connected." We happen to know the person who's credited with the first use of the term "surfing the Internet" - Jean Armour Polly , author of The Internet Kids & Family Yellow Pages, 2nd Edition, and publisher of Net-mom News, a weekly 2,000 word email newsletter that focuses on issues surrounding kids on the Internet

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Oooo, Canada!

Oooo, Canada! I confess myself a Canadophile, especially after flying Air Canada recently, and Canada is on the forefront of the unsolicited commercial email (UCE) or "spam" issue as Janet Osborne pointed out in email

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AOL 4.0 Spawn of Satan?

AOL 4.0 Spawn of Satan? Folks, never believe anything you read on the Internet, particularly in heavily forwarded email, unless you can verify it personally

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A Closer View of Web Graphics

Graphics are an integral part of the Web, but the art and science of using them effectively can be confusing for novices and professionals alike. Whether you're a designer, work on a Web development team, or just want to know why the images on your screen look lousy on one site and great on another, this article will help you choose and use the main graphics formats on the Web today: GIF, JPEG, and a new contender, PNG

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NetBITS Complexity

NetBITS Complexity -- We've received a few notes that NetBITS was starting to cause some readers to swoon from technical complexity. Our goal is to explain and offer practical information on topics that are normally brushed over or described incorrectly, and sometimes that requires technical background

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Told Your Friends Yet?

Told Your Friends Yet? For NetBITS to survive and prosper, we need to reach more people, and the best method of achieving that for a tiny organization like ours is by word of mouth

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AOL Revises Spam Controls

AOL Revises Spam Controls -- According to a story on News.com, America Online has changed how users can control what email they receive. Prior to this, AOL's PreferredMail option allowed AOL subscribers to opt in or out of banning mail from a large list of domains and addresses that AOL constantly modified

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8-bit or QP?

8-bit or QP? -- David Knudsen read last week's article in NetBITS-005 on MIME encoding and Quoted-Printable text, and noted that his Netscape mail client offers settings for both "Allow 8-bit" and "MIME Compliant (Quoted Printable)"

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Question: Are addresses checked when sending mail?

Question: Are addresses checked when sending mail? Kurt M. Scudder writes from Denmark wondering if mail programs - Eudora specifically - contact the recipient's computer when sending outgoing mail

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Netcom and Spam

Netcom and Spam -- Apparently, when we reported on Netcom's spam policies last week in NetBITS-004, we were more informed than Netcom's senior management

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Question: What does a local dial-up number do?

Question: What does a local dial-up number do? Richard Wanderman writes about accessing Boston-based TIAC (The Internet Access Company) through a local dial-up phone number in Torrington, Connecticut