Do you think the Internet is too slow? What if there were a simple thing we could all do to make it faster? Long-time technology writer Cary Lu weighs in with a simple suggestion. Also, learn about hot new Macs from Power Computing, DayStar, UMAX, and Apple; find guides to everything at this week’s Macworld Expo in Boston; and increase your Mac knowledge as Chad Magendanz sets down the definitive word on disk images.
As you may have noticed last Friday, we sent out the first test message to almost the entire TidBITS mailing list. It was quite successful, as was the release of DealBITS that day as well, which was the first stress-testing of ListSTAR/SMTP
Apple Announces New Macs -- As anticipated in TidBITS-337, Apple has announced faster versions of the Power Mac 7600, 8500, and 9500, along with a new top-of-the-line 9500/180MP that features two PowerPC 604e processors running at 180 MHz
Clone Wars Heat Up -- Lest you think Apple is alone in showing off new machines this week, hold on to your socks: Power Computing, DayStar, and UMAX are competing for your attention too
BulkRate to Speak TCP/IP -- Greg Neagle is readying version 2.5 of the shareware BulkRate, an offline message reader for FirstClass servers. BulkRate lets FirstClass users retrieve mail and conference messages for reading offline; version 2.5 supports TCP/IP connections to a FirstClass server, is compatible with FirstClass's threading features, and can use any available serial port for modem connections
TidBITS-338 had a MailBIT pointing Macworld Expo attendees to a Newton-based Boston subway map and noting that Adam will be doing a book signing at the Macmillan booth on Thursday from 11 to 1
Will the Internet ever get faster? Can the Internet backbone capacity ever catch up with the increase in demand, let alone get ahead? Each new Internet development - streaming audio, Internet telephony, video conferencing - increases the traffic
[With Apple's recent flood of software releases and updates, TidBITS has been receiving a number of questions about disk images: what they are, how to use them, and where they came from