Even though I may not have been thoroughly impressed by the products at the show, there were plenty of products worth mentioning. These in no way relate to each other - I just found them interesting at the show or in press materials

The FreeSoft Company recently shipped the long-awaited 3.0 release of their popular Second Sight bulletin board software. Second Sight 3.0 is the successor to Red Ryder Host and Second Sight version 2.1; the company also publishes White Knight, the popular terminal software formerly known as Red Ryder. Although graphical interface BBS software and mail packages such as FirstClass, TeleFinder, and NovaLink Pro have taken over much of the Mac-based BBS, service bureau, and email market, text-based BBS software such as Second Sight is still popular

The software hit of Macworld SF was definitely Connectix's RAM Doubler. Roy McDonald, Connectix's president, said that they sold about 3,000 copies at the show, and about another 3,000 through normal channels

We're off to Macworld on Wednesday (so use my ZiffNet/Mac account for urgent email), and it promises to be an exciting show. Steve Maller of General Magic wrote to tell us that Andy Hertzfeld and Bill Atkinson, two of the major deities in the Mac developer pantheon will give the first public demonstrations of Magic Cap and Telescript technologies at the tenth anniversary keynote address, which looks like it will be on Thursday morning at 10:00. I've finalized the details of the book signing, so if you're around on Friday afternoon at 1:30, come to the Hayden booth (#718) and I'll be more than happy to sign copies of the Internet Starter Kit for Macintosh

The annual Netter's Dinner, as ably organized by Jon Pugh , is scheduled for 6:00 PM Friday the 7th this year. You must RSVP to Jon by Wednesday night to attend the buffet-style dinner at the Hunan on Sansome at Broadway, but only RSVP if you're sure you can make it since the overall bill is based on the reservation count.

First Annual ZMac 5K Fun Run at Macworld Expo. For those whose idea of exercise is more strenuous than channel surfing, ZiffNet/Mac is holding a 5K (right, 5,120 bytes) fun run at Macworld

Beth Gaynor writes: Your recent Mac-awareness comments reminded me of something that happened when I was buying a skirt for my trip to Macworld (yay!)

[Craig O'Donnell is the author of Cool Mac Sounds (ISBN 1-56830-067-0), the second edition of which was recently published by Hayden Books. We reviewed the first edition in TidBITS #155, and if the second edition improves on the first as I suspect it does from the information Craig provides below, it's worth checking out for those who work with sound on the Macintosh

We all know that the traditional QWERTY layout of the keyboards most of us use constantly is foisted upon us by the mechanical typewriters of yore. It seems that unlike bell bottoms and disco music, the QWERTY layout is here to stay

For a mere $250 plus shipping, you can order from APDA (Apple's developer-support wing) a year's subscription to the Developer Mailing. Each month you receive a newsletter and a CD. The CDs are filled with stuff that Apple wants to put into the hands of software authors

This is it - the last issue of 1993. I'm taking a few weeks off from TidBITS and email, so please don't expect quick responses. The next issue will appear on 03-Jan-94 and may break my self-imposed 30K barrier as I clean out articles for which I haven't found room recently

Macworld Signing -- I don't know the details, but I will be happy to sign copies of my book at Hayden's Macworld booth. Stop by the booth to check the times and dates.

The Quicken 4 Updater to Release 6 is now at as: ftp://mac.archive.umich.edu/mac/misc/update/ quicken4r6updater.sit.hqx

Connectix has announced RAM Doubler, an extension that provides twice as much RAM for opening applications on any Mac II or greater Mac with at least 4 MB of RAM

After counting the trailing zeros in the estimates of the economic loss to the county if Apple pulled out, one Williamson County commissioner changed his vote