Netsurfer Digest is your free guide to interesting news, places and resources online. It is delivered by E-Mail to any mailbox reachable via the Internet. Each week it brings you short, crisp newsbites, notices, and reviews designed to provide informative and entertaining snapshots of the vast wired world. You can find out more on our home page and if you like what you see here you can subscribe using the subscription form link listed below. Netsurfer Digest Home Page: "http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/" Subscription Form: "http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/subscribe.html"
This special issue of Netsurfer Digest is produced to coincide with MacWorld Expo. Its purpose is to showcase some of the best Macintosh- and Apple-related netsurfing sites available on the Internet. While certainly not an exhaustive attempt at gathering all things sprung from the Apple seed, it will lead you to major sites. We hope you enjoy this effort. Let us know what you think via the E-Mail form at this URL: "http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/ndemail.html"
UNOFFICIAL, BUT EVENTFUL, MACWORLD EXPO HOME PAGE
If you're reading this at MacWorld Expo do yourself a favor and visit Richard Huff's Unofficial MacWorld Expo Home Page. Yes, you'll find conference shedules, new PowerMac info, and other Expo-related stuff, but more importantly, you'll find a perfect illustration of the true power of the World Wide Web, a list of cool parties and events. "http://www.pacificrim.net/macworld.html"
BATTLE OF THE TITANS: MAC SHAREWARE AND FREEWARE SITES
The FTP archives at Stanford and University of Michigan are the two titans of the Mac archive world. If it exists you can probably find it at one or both sites. Popularity, alas, has its price, and the sites can be difficult to connect to, but persistence has its rewards - frequently hours of mindless shareware game fun. If you like a nice interface to all these files try the superbly useful and well designed Nexor Mac Software Catalog site. It has a searchable and browsable index. Finally the Info-Mac HyperArchive Gopher offers a nice index of many Mac file categories. Stanford: "ftp://sumex-aim.stanford.edu/info-mac/" U. of Michigan: "ftp://mac.archive.umich.edu/mac/" Nexor Catalog: "http://web.nexor.co.uk/public/mac/archive/welcome.html" Info-Mac Gopher: "http://gopher.lcs.mit.edu/HyperArchive.html"
ROBERT LENTZ'S MACINTOSH RESOURCES
This is a great set of Mac resources, possibly the best organized collection of Mac-related links on the Web. Robert has constructed a prime Mac browsing site for everything from games to Web utilities to software, hardware, QuickTime, and even some mind candy. In tribute to the quality of his work you'll notice this path in a number of items below. Put this one on your hot list and say thanks to Robert at "lentz@rossi.astro.nwu.edu". "http://www.astro.nwu.edu/lentz/mac/home-mac.html"
MACINTOSH FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Or FAQs as they are affectionately known around the Net. This collection ranges from "Introductory Macintosh frequently asked questions" to "The Mac Programming FAQ Answer" sheet to "Macintosh for sale frequently asked questions". There are 13 in all, and chances are that your question has an answer somewhere here. "http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/macintosh/top.html"
The best place to find Macintosh-related user groups is directly from the Apple WWW server. There you will find links to ten user groups, ranging from Alaska to South Jersey to the UK Mac Supporters. "http://www.apple.com/documents/usergroups.html"
INFO-MAC: MODERATED MAC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Info Mac is a mailing list and USENET news group (comp.sys.mac.digest) covering a grab bag of Macintosh issues, primarily new software and resource announcements. Indispensible for keeping up with developments. The no-nonsense, minimally graphic Web site has options for searching their extensive archive by title, author and keyword. Full texts of old announcements are also available. All requests to be added to this list along with questions should be sent to the moderators at "INFO-MAC-REQUEST@SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU". Submissions can be sent to "INFO-MAC@SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.Edu". Submissions are scanned to filter out pure speculation or opinion, and messages not pertaining to the Macintosh. "http://www.mid.net/INFO-MAC/" "ftp://sumex-aim.stanford.edu/info-mac/"
This page is nothing but mailing lists and is to the point. Some examples: "Macintosh use for psychologists", "Programming with Think C for the Macintosh", "Mac Powerbook issues", "Macintosh multimedia". "http://ici.proper.com/1/mac/mailing-lists"
Three other good general Mac browsing sites are worth a mention. The Well Connected Mac is still a work in progress, but already contains a nice list of resources to browse. Brian Cole's Mac Repository is strong on links for hardware and software developers. Finally, the Hensa gopher has a very well constructed menu of software categories, with a great top 50 list for both software and Hypercard stacks. We found the popular Cindy Clock (a little desktop clock that displays pictures of super models and the current date and time), the Kennedy Assasination Stack, HyperFrog, and other cool things. "http://rever.nmsu.edu/~elharo/faq/Macintosh.html" "http://www.cs.wisc.edu:80/~tuc/mac/" "http://micros.hensa.ac.uk/micros/mac.html"
The mother of all sites, and a fairly well rounded mother at that. The site sports a clean and straightforward design with text menu items offering various info choices. Under "What's New" you can find QuickTime samples of Apple's new and first ever infomercial, "Martinettis Bring Home a Computer", and a link to the recently opened eWorld site. You can also get details about Apple and its history (SEC filings, stock quote) and a catalogue of all Apple products (quaintly starting with Apple II items!) along with data sheets and customer support items. The biggest netsurfing catches hide in "Apple Developer Services and Products" where you can find a treasury of technical information and tools, including the welcome news that Inside Macintosh will be made available on the World Wide Web this spring. "http://www.apple.com/"
Here you can obtain trial software, automated demos, and screen shots of many Claris products. Under "What's New" you can find out about their latest offering, "Amazing Animation", a multimedia movie creator for kids. Look under "Special Offers" to save big bucks on products like FileMaker Pro, the "From Alice to Ocean" CD-ROM, Claris Organizer, Claris Impact, and others. Also available are software updaters and templates, a technical database for FAQs, and info on how to reach Claris. The best part of the site may be the "Solutions Center". Here you can find a Mac consultant or trainer in your area, pre-assembled solution bundles, as well as information on how to become one of their listed resources. "http://www.claris.com/"
Kaleida is a joint venture of IBM and Apple. They are the developers of the platform-indepedent Kaleida Media Player and of ScriptX, the dynamic object oriented programming language for multimedia. The site is a pretty standard corporate front end, with things like executive profiles, corporate milestones, news releases, technical notes, and services and product info. A highly recommended jewel at this site is "The All-Seeing, Ever-Present Eye At The Center Of The Spinning Vortex Of Existence" page, a collection of links from the creative and occasionally wacky employees of Kaleida. Kaleida: "http://web.kaleida.com/" Eye: "http://web.kaleida.com/u/"
Another joint venture of IBM and Apple, joined in early 1994 by Hewlett-Packard, this small 350-employee firm is working on the next generation object oriented operating environment. If you'd like to swell their employee ranks, check out their "New Job Listing" under "What's New". The most intriguing link is to an article entitled "Is Schrodinger's Cat Object-Oriented?", a rumination on the connection between C++ and quantum mechanics (deep down you knew there had to be one, right?). The link to Object Technology Resources is a wonderfully complete guide to object oriented programming with sources as diverse as trainers, consultants, conferences, associations, and a very extensive reading materials list. Highly useful. Also worth mentioning is their nice home page graphical menu. "http://www.taligent.com/"
Since Motorola provides the heart of the Macintosh, it would be boorish not to mention them here. Their site seems to be in the early throes of construction so the information there is rather sparse. The best part is a link to "The Motorola Archive", an independent archive of various utilities for Motorola microprocessor development maintained at the University of Alberta. But we'll give that to you here directly, as well as the Austin, Tex., Motorola BBS number (512-891-3733). "http://www.mot.com/" "http://nyquist.ee.ualberta.ca/html/motorola.html"
Lately, the one and only Big Blue has been very cozy with Apple. For completeness and your netsurfing pleasure we include a link to their site. It's a superbly done, informative Web space in the form of a newsletter. Recommended. "http://www.ibm.com/"
Here you can find selected top stories from the latest MacUser, an index of past stories, contact information, and more. Articles from the latest issue of MacUser appear here each month as the issue hits the newsstands. Find out who's on the short list for the 1994 Editor's Choice Award (a.k.a. the Eddy). You can also find MacBench 1.1 here, the benchmarking utility used by MacUser to measure Mac performance. "http://www.macuser.ziff.com/~macuser/"
MacWEEK is the weekly cousin of MacUser (both owned by the recently sold Ziff-Davis group). There are the usual articles, back issues and contact info, but also the MacWEEK 200 Report, the magazine's annual survey of the 200 largest Macintosh sites and the 50 largest educational sites. "http://www.ziff.com/~macweek/"
ZiffNet/Mac, also known as ZMac, provides an online connection to MacUser and MacWEEK, and brings news, information, tested shareware and freeware, and exclusive original software to the denizens of CompuServe, eWorld, and AppleLink. The Web site does not have much beyond information telling you how to join and what's available on eWorld and CompuServe, but if you have accounts on those services you may be interested. "http://www.ziff.com/~zmac/"
TidBITS is a free weekly electronic publication that reports on interesting products and events in the computer industry, currently with emphasis on the world of the Macintosh. "ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/pub/tidbits/" "http://www.dartmouth.edu/pages/TidBITS/TidBITS.html"
PowerPC News is a free electronic magazine published every two weeks via E-Mail. The content focuses on various PowerMac news, but includes a generous helping of other computer industry news capsules. They also offer links to commercial sponsor sites which may be of interest to PowerPC developers and users. A listing of PowerPC resources is also included. "http://power.globalnews.com/"
MODEMnotes is an electronic magazine for online Macintosh enthusiasts. The magazine is large (latest issue was 626K) and "filled with useful and fun articles about using your Macintosh, and the software for the Mac that you'll find on the Internet". The size of the E-Zine is explained by the incorporation of color graphics and sound. Latest issue contains info on the game "Barney Blaster", and a game demo for "Marathon". "http://www.aloha.com/~swami/modemnotes.html"
Inside Mac Games, Tele Times, Underground Mac, Low End User, the Mac Report, Macintosh Electric, Mac Net Journal, and others. Also try the Online Journal page at "The Well Connected Mac". "http://ici.proper.com/1/mac/pubs" "http://rever.nmsu.edu/~elharo/faq/periodicals.html"
Outland is an online service with which you can play Macintosh games with people around the world. Serious competitors can partake in multiple games at once, while the glib-at-heart can sit and chat. Using your Internet connection and their free software, you can be out there too, playing the planet. Very nice home page design. "http://www.outland.com/"
TOTWARE - BENJAMIN'S FAVORITE SHAREWARE AND FREEWARE
For the young kid in all of us, this collection compiles the great and dubious in kid's game and educational software. Try your hand at KeyWack, BabySmash, Letter Land, Hurlman ("at least it's non-violent..."), Fatty Bear's Birthday Surprise, Putt-Putt on Parade, and others. "http://www.het.brown.edu/people/mende/totware.html"
The prolific Robert Lentz strikes again with "Macintosh: The Final Frontier", a page chock full of Mac Star Trek stuff. There are the episode guides, the sounds, fonts, icons, screen savers, and even NetTrek, the classic multi-player network game. Fascinating. "http://www.astro.nwu.edu/lentz/mac/software/mac-trek.html"
KAI'S POWER TIPS AND TOOLS PAGE FOR MAC
This site has HTML versions of the book "Kai's Power Tips and Tricks for Adobe Photoshop". They are written by Kai Krause, of Curved Space*Design, who was kind enough to agree to make them available on the Internet. Some great titles include: "Secrets of Chops"; "Filter Skelter: Displace is nice"; "One Minute Quickies: 10,000 volts in 3 steps"; "Composing Atoms out of Quarks, or Pictures in an Exhibition"; and "TilinggniliTTilinggniliT: Tiles in Style". See it just for the cool names. "http://the-tech.mit.edu/KPT/KPT.html"
ODD AND USEFUL MATTERFORM MEDIA SOFTWARE
This eclectic collection of useful and odd pieces of Mac software contains serious programs such as the HTML Grinder Utilities - for changing groups of HTML pages at single stroke - and BBS Biller Billing software, along with such gems as the Sim Hot Springs insipid conversation simulator, the Trakl'bigi overly-vivid verse simulator, and the Talking Clock ("There are lots of talking clocks out there, but this is the only one that also purrs"). Check out the interesting Web implementation of Mac Finder-like folder list expansions. "http://www.nets.com/site/matterform/software/softwarelist.html"
HOW TO MAKE YOUR APPLE MACINTOSH "SPEAK" RUSSIAN
Learn exactly how to do it. You get a list of system resources (e.g. the Russian version of System 7), the MacCyrillic.FAQ, and some notes on configuring MacTCP applications and terminal emulation, and other materials on russification. Try the "Dazhdbog's Grandchildren" link, but it helps to speak Russian. Many pointers to Russian info on the Web make this site worth visiting just for that. "http://www.pitt.edu/~mapst57/rus/russian.html"
OK, this may be kind of cruel but diehard Mac evangelists will enjoy this site. And besides, we can justify it as a service to those who do serious number crunching and may be looking for an alternative platform. This site has a series of papers, posts, and other documents regarding the Pentium bug from Oct. 30 onwards. It's very thorough, and makes for a good exposition of the unfolding problem and various responses to it. "http://www.mathworks.com/README.html"
WELL, AS LONG AS WE'RE MAKING FUN...
"The Top 11 Things People Think the 95 in "Windows 95" Really Stands For." 'Nuff said. "http://www.astro.nwu.edu/lentz/mac/humor/windows95.html"
The Newton has developed quite a following since its introduction, a fact nowhere better appreciated than at the two major Newton FTP archive sites. The first is the Premiere Newton Archive at the University of Iowa. It's a nicely organized effort with instructions on how to FTP the files whose descriptions you will find here. The second is hosted at the University of Texas, and is a more modest collection, but includes links to the Apple FTP sites and to things like Newton News. Iowa: "http://newton.uiowa.edu/" Texas: "http://www.uth.tmc.edu/newton_info/"
Apple's entry into the online frontier has a Web presence. Here you can get a preview of various eWorld forums under "Tour" by clicking on a map identical to the one presented when you log on to eWorld. Other links take you to the ever popular "Job Listing", an informative and amusing "News and Events" publication (you can subscribe for a weekly shot of eWorld news), and the small collection of "Fun Stuff", where you can access the ever popular Useless Sites Page, the Lava Lamp-Cam, and the prolific Carney Corner along with several personal home pages. "http://www.eworld.com/"
Everything you wanted to know about OpenDoc. OpenDoc is the cross-platform, compound document architecture that Apple and other notable companies are developing. They formed Component Integration Laboratories to carry out the work and govern the standard. Another great page from the prolific Robert Lentz. "http://www.astro.nwu.edu/lentz/mac/programming/open-doc/home-od.html"
Jagubox's A/UX Home Page will satisfy your cravings for all sorts of information related to Apple's Unix. There is a bountiful and frequently-updated FAQ, a variety of supported and unsupported patches, utilities, security software, tech notes, and Web stuff, including a ready-to-run port of the NCSA's httpd server. Visit it if for no other reason then to read the penguin quote in the greeting. "http://jagubox.gsfc.nasa.gov/aux/" A/UX users should also give Dolphin a look... It features a number of more obscure ports to the A/UX system and can be found at "ftp://dolphin.csudh.edu/pub/unix/aux".
Dylan is a new language developed at Apple. It is a bold new effort to create a powerful, practical tool for writing mainstream commercial applications. Supposedly, it combines the best qualities of static languages (small, fast programs) with the best qualities of dynamic languages (rapid development, code that's easy to read, write, and maintain). This page has all you could possibly want to know. Serious hackers may also want to try the reference manual. "http://www.cambridge.apple.com/dylan/dylan.html" "http://legend.gwydion.cs.cmu.edu:8001/dylan/interim/interim-contents.html"
This mailing list archive contains mostly AppleScript items. The messages are sorted by various fields for your browsing convenience. Also, you may want to take a look at the AppleScript FAQ if you're interested in working with this language. "http://asearch.mccmedia.com/menus/9538.htm" "ftp://gaea.kgs.ukans.edu/applescript/00applescript.faq"
Try this short article for an introduction to the multimedia authoring language. Written by Ray Valdes,it appeared in Dr. Dobb's Journal (Vol. 19, No. 13, Nov. 1994). A link to Kaleida Labs is there if you want more info. "http://www.kaleida.com/technical/drdobbs/drdobbs-1194b.html"
Info about the Webmaster's favorite language for the Mac. Both standalone and MPW versions of this versatile scripting language exist. "http://err.ethz.ch/members/neeri/macintosh/perl-qa.html"
Three favorites of the Artificial Intelligence crowd. The Prolog page has a number of links to Prolog implementations for the Mac found on the Net. Smalltalk gets a sparse page with three blurbs about Smalltalk products, agents, and an object oriented development workbench. A fairly good Lisp page completes the set. "http://www.cambridge.apple.com/other-langs/prolog.html" "http://www.cambridge.apple.com/other-langs/smalltalk.html" "http://www.cambridge.apple.com/other-langs/lisp.html"
Check out this site for some funky language implementations on the Mac. For odd things like Python, APL, FORTH, Logo and others. "http://www.cambridge.apple.com/other-langs/dynamic-languages.html"
MACINTOSH WORLD WIDE WEB CLIENTS
Three major pieces of software on the Macintosh are battling for mind share in the race to provide cheap and easy access the Internet and the World Wide Web. Chances are, you are using one of them to read this issue of Netsurfer Digest. We would be remiss if we did not include links to: Mosaic: "http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/MacMosaic/MacMosaicHome.html" MacWeb: "http://www.einet.net/EINet/MacWeb/MacWebHome.html" Netscape: "http://www.mcom.com/info/index.html"
USENET NEWS WATCHER, DISINFECTANT, MACTCP SWITCHER
You'll find News Watcher, the nifty free USENET news reader, on the amazing John Norstad's page. If you pay attention, you'll recognize John as the man who brought the world the indispensible Disinfectant virus scanner. You'll also find MacTCP Switcher here, a utility program that makes it easy to save and quickly restore multiple MacTCP configurations. "http://www.astro.nwu.edu/lentz/mac/jlnstuff/home-jlnstuff.html"
GRAPHIC TOOLS FOR THE MACINTOSH WEBMASTER
There are three essential tools which should be in every well equipped Mac-based Webmaster's toolbox. For image display, there is the wonderfully versatile JPEGView image viewer. GifConverter can take an image in a variety of formats and make a GIF file - the universal Web display format. Transparency is a nifty little utility that allows you to change the transparent color index in GIF images. Transparency and JPEGView can be found on the prolific "Aaron G's Projects" page, while GifConverter can be FTPed from the other site below. "http://www.med.cornell.edu/~giles/projects.html" "ftp://mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu/pub/info-mac/grf/util/gif-converter-237.hqx"
If you need to compile for the PowerPC, you're using CodeWarrior, the native development environment for both the new PowerPC-based Macintosh and the existing 680X0-based Macintosh. This is the officially sanctioned Web site for these tools. You can find documentation and support information here, as well as product and pricing information from Metrowerks, the CodeWarrior developers. "http://www.iquest.com/~fairgate/cw/cw.html"
MACTCP PROGRAMMER'S AND USER'S RESOURCE GUIDES
Eric Scouten has put together this Web page which is intended primarily for Macintosh programmers interested in developing client or server software with Apple's MacTCP driver. If you are developing Internet applications for the Mac you will probably want this URL handy. You may also want to hold on to the NCSA URL below for a good manual on MacTCP itself. "http://tampico.cso.uiuc.edu/~scouten/mactcp/" "http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/~jbrowne/mac-tcp.html"
URL STANDARD APPLE EVENT SUITE
Mac TCP/IP networking programs often make use of each other as "helper programs". To make it easier to do this, some of the Mac Internet software developers have designed a simple standard for Apple events that programs can send each other to ask them to open URLs. You can find out more about this standard at this URL. "ftp://ftp.acns.nwu.edu/pub/newswatcher/url-ae-standard.txt"
GRAND UNIFIED SOCKET INTERFACE FAQ
If you're developing Internet applications chances are you will be working with sockets, the ubiquitous UNIX communication mechanism. This FAQ may be of interest to you. "http://err.ethz.ch/members/neeri/macintosh/gusi-qa.html"
Check out their peripherals, like terrific laser printers, scanners, and fax machines, on this very nicely designed page. "http://www.hp.com/DMO/PERIPHERALS/peripherals_main.html"
When you say monitors you probably say NEC. They make those cool 15" and 17" Nec 5FG and 6FG monitors. They also make CD-ROMs, CCD cameras, teleconferencing equipment, and Satellite Earth Station Systems. Try the Japanese server from their home page. "http://www.nec.com/products/"
Utilities, development tools and various applications. "http://www.symantec.com/"
Eudora E-Mail software. "http://www.qualcomm.com/quest/QuestMain.html"
EtherWave, other networking products. "http://www.farallon.com/"
Modems, fax, online services, remote network access products. "http://info.globalvillag.com/welcome.html"
PPP based Remote Access server. Ethernet, and LocalTalk products. Support TCP/IP and AppleTalk over PPP. "http://www.tribe.com/"
OTHER RANDOM SOFTWARE WWW PAGES
Try this page from Brian Cole for a set of links to other companies. "http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~tuc/mac/mac_software_pages.html"
Rather then mention all the trademarks next to all the companies in a space-limited publication such as this we state the following: All the names of companies and products mentioned in this issue are used solely in an editorial fashion, with no intention of infringing on any trademarks or copyright. We hope everyone finds this issue useful and enjoyable. So don't sue us, but do consider becoming a Netsurfer Digest sponsor.
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