Apple's new iMac was the top-selling desktop computer in November, with Apple getting nearly 10% of market share over the latter part of 1998. [Reuters, 23Dec98. Edupage.]

Apple has had a fifth profitable quarter, having sold 800K iMacs total. Some say the iMac is now the best-selling computer model ever. 45% of iMac buyers are new to the Mac, with 32% being new users and 13% being PC converts. [Steve Jobs. Matt Neuburg , TidBITS, 11Jan99.]

MacOS X ("ten") will first be available on the new blue- and-white Power Mac G3 server, known informally as "Yosemite." Game developers apparently like the server's 3D graphics support, including an ATI Rage 128 card with 16 MB of SDRAM and support for QuickDraw 3D, plus plans to integrate SGI's OpenGL 3D graphics. However, the machine has only three free slots and no SCSI or serial ports. [Matt Neuburg , TidBITS, 11Jan99.]

The new LinuxPPC 5.0 operating system for the Mac allows switching between Linux and MacOS X. Free for download from the LinuxPPC website, or $32 on CD ROM with extra development tools. [TechWeb, 07Jan99. Edupage.]

MacDrive 98 allows Windows 95/98/NT users to read and write files on Macintosh-formatted media, including floppies, Zip, Jaz, SyQuest, CD-ROM, and external hard drives. The HFS Plus disk format, introduced with Mac OS 8.1, supports large disks and files without forcing small files to waste space. Version 3.0 will be announced at Macworld Expo. [Business Wire, 04Jan99. Bill Park.]

One of the most popular products at Macworld Expo SF '99 was Connectix's Virtual Game Station, which lets any G3 Macintosh run Sony PlayStation games. . [Adam C. Engst , TidBITS, 11Jan99.]

Apple's new iMacs come with round mice, which ergonomicists say are too small and difficult to grasp (resulting in too much finger pressure). Macally and others now make better shapes in Apple's Bondi Blue and the new "Life Saver" fruit colors. . (Apple has been suggesting white/translucent mice as going well with any color of computer, but people probably want matching colors. Other computer makers are getting ready to announce their own colored models.)

Apple made its mice with just one button, to avoid confusing users. Now the Nintendo generation has high-bandwidth access to the Web, and they want mice, trackballs, and touch pads that work like game pad controllers. Kensington's new Web Racer has about a dozen extra buttons -- some of them programmable, others dedicated to scrolling and page commands for the Web or in your word processor. See , , or for product lines from the industry leaders, for any PC. Also ($35), ($20), and (touch pads). [Phillip robinson, SJM, 27Dec98, 4F.]

6> Science and mathematics: [Mike Hanafin and Jason Westmacott.]

"Revealing Things," the Smithsonian's first Web exhibit, tells the stories behind everyday objects. . [, net-hap, 20Mar98.]

Alexander Churenkov's website offers animated physics experiments and visualizations: waves, mechanics, interference, thermodynamics, etc. . [<5495.g23@g23.relcom.ru>, sci.op-research, 06Jan99. David Joslin.]

NASA Image Exchange searches nine NASA databases with over 300K images. . [Bert Kortegaard , net-hap, 17Mar98.]

Limited-time offer: Pictures scanned from slides rather than prints have higher contrast and more brilliant colors. Doug Fraser notes that you can get a $100 OfficeMax rebate plus a $100 HP rebate on a $399 HP PhotoSmart Slide/Negative scanner through 30Jan99 (except in CT). See . You can also get double rebates on an HP photo printer. [, 13Jan99.]

You can have fun with the units converter at . How many drops in a dash, or pinches in a teaspoon? How many kilderkin in a nebuchadnezzar? [Alvin Austin , 03Jan99. Tony Kusalik.]

Netlib is a collection of mathematical software, papers, and databases, plus a conference database, top 500 supercomputer sites, parallel tools library, and much more. . [Gerry Boyd , HELP-NET, 04Nov98. net-hap.]

The LMS Journal of Computation and Mathematics can be found at . Topics include both computational aspects of mathematics and mathematical aspects of computation. [Sue Rodd , newjour, 05Oct98.]

Frequently Asked Questions in Mathematics covers topics ranging from the trivial to the advanced. . [Michael Schelling , net-hap, 11May98.]

7> Engineering: [Jason Westmacott and Louis Bookbinder.]

BETA is a a monthly newsletter about technology and its impact on culture. Send a "subscribe beta" message to , or visit to subscribe, read previous BETAS, join a discussion group, or buy books. [David Tomere, NEW-LIST, 24Sep98.]

NETFUTURE is a weekly/biweekly newsletter about technology and human responsibility. Send a "subscribe netfuture your name" message to . Back issues are at . [Stephen Talbott , web4lib, 02Dec97. net-hap.]

The searchable Engineering Resources Database has over 1,300 descriptive entries, collected by Cliff W. Estes. . [, sci.engr.civil, 04Nov98.]

Calculus Wiz is an interactive calculus tutorial for Mathematica, from Wolfram Media Inc. . [, net-hap, 15Sep98.]

Intelligent Manufacturing and Fault Diagnosis (IMFD) is a new special interest group under the Berkeley Initiative for Soft Computing (BISC). Sign up at . [C. Rajagopalan , comp.ai, 04Jan98. David Joslin.]

J. of Intelligent Manufacturing offers PDF page images to subscribers. . [, newjour, 31Jan98.]