Just a quick note to let you know how much I enjoy your publication. I have found it to be of excellent quality and I have recommended it to several of my friends. I find it the first place I look when I am getting ready to spend some time wandering around the net. Keep up the good work and thank you for providing such a timely and useful item :)
The Schoonovers
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Just completed my first digest... It was great... Got some excellent urls. Tanx alot for netsurfer. Will be looking forward for the next digest.
Michael Zdyrko
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Its been over a year and i am so pleased i subscribed to netsurfer digest last year or longer. Really no shit! good stuff that is usefull and keeps me ahead of my dweeb associates and clients. "i be phat"
keep up the good work, but be carefull some of your reviews are begining to read like press releases from the corporate world. you know as if no one went to that site. that frightens me, pretty soon one media company will be controling the world.
have you considered special issues dedicated to specific issues and topics? ie, medicine, health, journals (literature), etc.
thank you Mark Dimor
We were going to call Netsurfer "Phat B Us", but we had to change plans when our stationery came back printed "Fat Bus". We do have special issues on occasion, generally devoted to issues or happenings rather than the subjects we cover every week. If we see more support for that sort of thing, we could be led down that path.
- LN
Hello,
I've been subscribed for a while, but I've never actually submitted or anything. I wanted to say thank you for the service. It's a pity I hardly get time to look at the sites you review.
Regards,
Jason Cutler
Gee, thanks. I guess you must read us for our sparkling wit and wordcraft then....
- LN
Ciao! I've been getting Netsurfer Digest from the beginning. I think I even have your very first "E" issue tucked away somewhere in my computer.
Your reviews just keep getting better and better... Your latest issue actually had me laughing out loud.. First time that has happened at my computer. My co-workers are really beginning to worry about me now!
Keep up the great work. I really enjoy seeing all your issues. THANK YOU!
Mike Frick
(p.s.- You may want to check out a great art site at: www.scultura.com)
Better? Or bitter? And if you've read all our issues, you know we covered you last October 2, right?
- LN
That's right, you did.... I forgot about that one (can we consider that
long-term memory loss?
Mike Frick
I've been expanding, but mostly because I no longer walk to work. We're
up to about 60,000 e-mail subscribers and 300,000 hits a month, which we
figure is another 50,000 readers or so.
- LN
What a beauty!
And I haven't begun to read it yet. At last a white background, and
Microsoft as a sponsor!
I was one of the original beta testers. I've changed job since then, but
I'm glad I kept taking the e-mails.
Adam Nealis
Speaking of Microsoft....
Hey!
Did you loose your job at Microsoft or is your portfolio filled with
Netscape stock? Whatsa matter with it? Bugged that cnet sotra liked it?
Bill Gates fail to have you be the Godfather?
Your panning of Explorer3 is simply unwarrented. Do you think that
Microsoft is loosing sleep that they don't have Java yet?
Ummmm, wonder what you'll say when Netscape plays catchup with a new
interface to replace their current clunky countenance.
Chance Smith
I didn't think our article (NSD 2.17) panned the software at all. The
only negative we had to say about it concerned its lack of Java support.
Java was one of THE big deals at InternetWorld conference and every other
industry press release that crosses my desktop talks about it. We stand by
the statement that it's probably a mistake not to have included Java
support. As far as the rest, we either didn't comment or called it
"spiffy". We do think c/net's review was a bit over the top, and said so.
Our article didn't glorify Explorer either, mind you. Which isn't a bad
thing, considering it's our new sponsor. The Web review was written before
we secured the ad.
- LN
Dear Editor,
Sorry to bother you but I unsubscribed from your service a couple of months
ago only to find that I am once again receiving postings from your server.
I have tried in vain to unsubcribe again. I would be grateful if you would
pass on the task of unsubscribing me to the relevant person.
Thank you.
David Toney
I have been trying to unsubscribe to your mailing list for weeks. Each time
I send an unsubscribe I get a confirmation and then a few days later the
digest arrives again. PLEASE, PLEASE, *UNSUBSCRIBE* ME FROM THE MAILING
LIST. My original address was gmcf@mpx.com.au.
Thank you in anticipation.
Geoffrey Fletcher
We get messages of this sort too frequently. When you unsubscribe, you
must do so with the exact address you subscribed with, down to the very
last exact same letter of any exact same subdomain. A good way to determine
the correct address is to check the incoming Digest for the address to
which it is sent. Of course, you must still be able to mail from that
address, as our automaton ignores unsubscribe requests for someone@x.com
that come from someone@mail.x.com, for example.
- LN
Thank you very much for the Macintosh news and information. I was thinking
about canceling my subsciption until I started to notice more and more
Macintosh related information.
Leland Raymond III, D.D.S.
About 25% of our readers use Macs. About 100% of Netsurfer Digest
Editors do. I try to strike a balance between the camps.
- LN
In NSD 2.15 you referred to the One True Computing MacGod. I thought you
might enjoy an essay I wrote on that theme 10 years ago: The Computer as
God? My thesis was that we were refighting the Protestant Reformation in
the 1980's. The Computer was God, Steve Jobs was Martin Luther (who said
every man ought to talk directly to his own computer) and IBM the Roman
Catholic Church (Don Estridge was Ignatius Loyola). The essay is available
on my Web page at www.elew.com.
The religious aspects of Apple's culture will make its turnaround extremely
difficult.
Ed Lee
So who are the Jews? The original coders (they were called programmers
then, no?) at Xerox? The ENIAC group? C?
- LN
Had never thought of that before you asked (since the Jews didn't figure in
the Reformation), but now that you asked the answer is clear: the hardware
engineers who designed and built the computers. It was their concepts about
the computer that dictated its 1010 (binary 10) commandments. Once the
software guys (programmers, Christians) got hold of the machines they
pretty well ignored anything the engineers had to say about it.... Their
attitude is that the world is about software, not hardware.
That of course makes me one of the Jews (I'm an electrical engineer who
helped to design the first solid state computer at Burroughs ElectroData in
the late '50s).....which explains my cynical attitude towards software
professionals for the last 40 years. I've watched the software guys usurp
the computer, and then disown some of the principles and all the people who
made their religion possible.
Xerox, by the way, is more like the Greek Orthodox church... first with the
icons!
Anyway... great question, and the metaphor holds up on even a grander scale!
Ed Lee
The anti-Apple bias is blatantly obvious in today's article regarding
Apple's online business plan. Anyone writing an article for an e-zine ought
to at least be able to spell names correctly (it is Tesler NOT Testler).
This was my first visit to your publication.
Buzz Hill
Uhhh, no. I've been using Macs since 1985. Netsurfer Digest is put
together on my three-month-old 7200/90. Heck, I'm even an Evangalista
getting Guy Kawasaki's MACWAY digest. We don't have the resources to
fact-check everything. We made a spelling mistake, yes, but that doesn't
automatically equate to an anti-Apple bias.
- LN
Hi, there.
I am having problems with my ISP. Could you please let me know if your mail
bounces back? I need to know in order to inform their technical support.
Sorry about this,
Thanks :-)
Paolo
This isn't a task I eagerly perform, but catch me on the right day and I
might even do it for you. I don't remember if Paolo caught me on the right
day....
- LN
The Chlorine Chemistry Council is proud to announce their new web site.
Chlorine is an essential elemental building block. This site is designed to
promote better understanding of the science of chlorine chemistry and its
role in products and processes that enhance our quality of life and
standard of living.
We would appreciate it if you would review and create a link of this site
to yours. The url to the site is:
http://c3.org/ Our e-mail address is:
info@c3.org.
If you do create a link, please let us know, so we may be able to find it
on your web site. Thank you very much for your help.
Hey, do you guys know Paolo? If you want to submit your site to the
Digest, at least pretend to read it, OK?
- LN
But wait...I really like chlorine. Drink it every day and use liberally
in my spicy chicken salad recipe.
Oh, I see, we just did give them a link, didn't we.
- Arthur
Here is a copy of our press release, in WORD 6.0 format. If you have any
questions, don't hesitate to mail me.
Name withheld to save face
Pay attention, kids: 1) I don't use Word 6.0. 2) I trash unsolicited
attachments. So do most other Net journalists I know.
- LN
As 80 gazillion people have probably mentioned to you, the links to other
places on the newsletter don't work. Must not have a jump name set. FYI
Ed Callaway
And then....
I lied - the links to other places in the HTML newsletter do work, when you
open the newsletter as a file in Netscape. However, they don't work in the
mail area. I think that they used to, so I'll pass the word on to Netscape.
Ed
Are you using the Netscape 3.0 beta? We have had two other people report
this, and both problems were found to be with that software.
- LN
Hey thanks -
We read the review and enjoyed all of the positive comments. We will
definitely put it on our "Thanks" page. Also, we really liked the fact
someone noticed our use of white space ("umm, blackspace").
It means a lot to the staff here at Enter to be recognized by Netsurfer
Digest. We like how you review sites. It allows the reader to get a good
feel about what the site is all about before you go there.
Thanks again,
Andrew Vitale
Publisher
Thanks Andrew, but you and all the other Web developers out there
deserve the praise, not us.
- LN
Dear Editor,
This may sound like a message from a novice, and well it should. The
messages I receive from Netsurfer are coming in formatted in a strange way,
with various symbols, etc. Very difficult to read. I'm sure it has
something to do with which version of your letter I'm getting. I'm
connected through Internet provider and use Eudora Light to download and
read my messages. I'm using Windows 95 on a PC. Any help or suggestions
would be appreciated.
Thanks.
Ed Perva
What makes people named Ed send us mail, anyway? This is covered
somewhere in the first mailing you get from us, but here's a reminder:
1) Save the incoming html Digest as a text file with a suffix of ".htm" or
".html", such as "NSD22.htm" (NOT "NSD22.txt.htm" though; one dot only per
file name).
2) Open a text processor (your e-mail program may work, too) and the text
file you saved in step 1, and delete the e-mail header (everything before
but not including the first (HTML) line). This is an optional step to make
it look nicer. Save the file.
3) Open your Web browser. In the "File" menu there should be a command like
"Open File". Use this to find the saved digest on your hard drive and open
it.
- LN
A satire newspaper featuring world, national and community news,
entertainment news, as well as humor, advice, horoscopes and cartoons. The
online version of the popular parody newspaper published since 1989,
circulation 70,000.
Name withheld by decree
(sigh) You can't imagine how many people forget the URL with their
announcement in the heat of the moment....
- LN
Netsurfer Editor:
The Netsurfer Digest is a valued tool. I appreciate the brief paragraphs
introducing the possibilities associated with each site. The headers, when
presented without the supporting text, are more effective puzzlers than
informers. The attempts at lightness tends to obscure the content. I'm
uncertain about what I would do were I assigned the responsibility of
writing the banners for each URL, but one change I would make would be sure
that levity did not obfuscate.
Sincerely,
Stan Detering
Yeah, I get carried away sometimes. Our writers help out, too. We'll try
to improve.
- LN
In a message dated 96-06-02 03:30:54 EDT, you write:
>Ben and Jerry's home page. Their adamant if possibly misguided stand
The Netsurfer Digest is great. However, I fully agree with Ben and Jerry on
the subject of rBGH and was disappointed to see your editorial comment that
they were "possibly misguided".
Renee Lewis
If I have a bias I bring to NSD, it's my contempt for pseudoscience.
I'll almost never put astrology, homeopathy, or similar fiction disguised
as fact in NSD (unless it's done with particular aplomb and humor) because
I think it's potentially harmful, physically or mentally.
On humans, rBGH has no direct effect. It is a hormone, and hormones are
proteins, and proteins are destroyed during digestion. It may have some
minor detrimental effects on cows, but is cow welfare a fair trade-off for
human comfort? Who knows - certainly not me. But it's possible it is, and
it's possible that the rage against rBGH is misguided. One of the
consequences of the availability of knowledge in our society is that little
nothings - like Malar on apples - blow up into big bruhahas. Big problems,
like Mad Cow Disease, also blow up. It's hard to tell the difference, so
why not help out with a snide remark?
- LN
Regarding Sung Chang -
The SHE you mentioned, is actually a HE. The internet is a sexless place.
Bill Mitchell's 'City of Bits' has a comic with two dogs in front of a
computer, caption reading "On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog."
Elizabeth L. Kang
I know. The URL changed the day we sent out the Digest. It happens. I
contacted Sung Chang and found out our writer was mistaken in sexing him.
It happens to me all the time, for more obvious reasons (Males named
"Laurie" are a Canadian/Brit habit).
Oddly - or maybe not - Sung himself sent me the same Bill Mitchell quote.
- LN (a.k.a. Laurie)
Just wanted to let you know that both of you did a great job on the
recently broadcast edition of PBS's "Life on the Internet". I missed the
first run, but found out about (and subsequently subscribed to) Netsurfer
from the feature on PBS's page that accompanies the series. So when I
caught a rebroadcast of the episode last week, I really enjoyed the fact
that I was already just slightly familiar with the work you're doing.
Getting to put your faces to your names and hear the commentary re: the
hows and whys was a real treat.
Thanks for the great work you're doing. I really appreciate and value your
advice and guidance.
Pat Oregon
Who you saw on the show was Arthur Bebak, our esteemed publisher and
editor emeritus and Sun Ming, not me. I was just a flunky then, only dreaming
of holding the fates of the likes of you in my palm. Now, though I wield
the power I do, I'm still bitter over missing out on the TV op, especially
since it was a Canadian production, and Canada is my home and native land,
glorious and free.
- LN
I recently saw a piece on Discovery Channel's Cyberlife about your company
and I wanted to let you know it gave me additional Inspiration to get my
own business site up and running. Hope I didn't waste too much of your time
with this fluff!
Thanks,
Andre Barbeau
Ditto.
- LN
Address your letters to
editor@netsurf.com.We don't hate Microsoft - really, we don't
Unsubscribing problems
Mac News
Apple and its turnaround plan
Spelling is important to publishing
Do you want us to come make you some tea, too?
How not to request a review
How not to send a press release
Links in HTML newsletter don't work
Re: Review
How to use the HTML version
URL???
Headlines
Bovine growth hormone
>against rBGH (bovine growth hormone) is spelled out in detail.
The Internet is a sexless place
NSDTV
Publisher: Arthur Bebak
Editor: Lawrence Nyveen
Letters and signatures edited for clarity and brevity.
NETSURFER DIGEST © 1996 Netsurfer Communications, Inc.
All rights reserved.
NETSURFER DIGEST is a trademark of Netsurfer Communications, Inc.