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MailBITS/22-May-00
Next Issue 05-Jun-00 -- Next weekend is Memorial Day in the United States, so we won't be publishing an issue on 29-May-00, although we'll still post important news items throughout the week on our Web site. Look for our next issue on 05-Jun-00, when we'll look at whatever dramatic shifts occurred in the Macintosh world during the break. (We're still smarting from Apple's purchase of NeXT, which happened during our Christmas break in December 1996; see "The NeXT Thing for Apple" in TidBITS-360.) [JLC]
<http://www.tidbits.com/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=00778>
Farallon Ships 11 Mbps Wireless SkyLINE Card -- Farallon Communications is now shipping its SkyLINE 11 Mb wireless networking card, which the company announced in February. The SkyLINE card enables Macintosh PowerBooks and PC laptops with PC Card support access to wireless networks based on the 802.11 networking standard, including networks using Apple's AirPort cards and base stations. The $200 SkyLINE card offers throughputs up to 11 megabits per second (though the actual throughout will undoubtedly be lower), a range of approximately 150 feet (roughly 50 meters), and multi-platform drivers for use with the PowerBook 190, 1400, 2400, 3400, 5300, and G3 Series (running Mac OS 7.5.5 or higher), plus PC laptops running Windows 95/98 or Windows NT (Windows 2000 support planned). Owners of Farallon's 2 Mbps SkyLINE card can upgrade to the 11 Mbps version for $160, although it's worth noting that if you primarily use wireless networking for Internet access, the 2 Mbps throughput of the older SkyLINE card probably isn't a bottleneck. [ACE]
<http://farallon.com/products/wireless/skyline/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05808>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05524>
<http://farallon.com/products/wireless/skyline/upgrade.html>
PowerMail 3.0.1 Adds Manual, Fixes Bugs -- Hot on the heels of version 3.0, CTM Development has released PowerMail 3.0.1, a free upgrade that addresses numerous minor issues with the email client and adds several welcome features (see "Migrating to New Climes with PowerMail" in TidBITS-530). Foremost among the improvements are an updated manual, improved performance, broader undo capabilities, easier filter creation, and fixes for a variety of cosmetic and crashing bugs. If you're using PowerMail 3.0 or evaluating the 30-day demo (which now starts counting from your first launch of the program, rather than from PowerMail's release date), you should definitely download the 2.4 MB upgrade, which requires a PowerPC-based Mac with Mac OS 8.5 or later. [ACE]
<http://www.ctmdev.com/powermail3.shtml>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05930>
Qualcomm Ships EIMS 3.0 -- Qualcomm has shipped Eudora Internet Mail Server (EIMS) 3.0, the latest version of Glenn Anderson's popular email server for the Mac OS. The most significant enhancement in EIMS 3.0 is support for the IMAP 4, which enables users to store messages on the server rather than on users' machines (as happens with the more-common POP3). Current versions of Eudora, Outlook Express, PowerMail, Mulberry, and Netscape Communicator support IMAP on the Macintosh. EIMS 3.0 also offers twice the throughput of version 2.x, enables the administrator to configure the port used for SMTP service (perfect for running EIMS and a mailing list server on the same machine), and other improvements. System requirements include a 68030-based Mac or better with at least 8 MB of RAM and System 7.1 or later with Open Transport 1.1.2 or later, although using IMAP may increase those requirements substantially. EIMS also has a new pricing scheme: new copies cost $400 and upgrades are $150 through mid-August, after which the prices jumps to $500 and $250, respectively. A 60-day demo is available as a 2.3 MB download. [GD]
Poll Results: Paying Your Fair Share -- Prompted by last week's article about the misappropriation activities of Gadget Software, our thoughts turned to the more common situation where people use shareware without paying for it. Reminding people that TidBITS polls are anonymous, we asked, "Of the shareware programs you use regularly on your Mac, approximate what percentage have you paid for?" The results indicate TidBITS readers are generally an honest bunch. Of the 1,180 responses, about 70 percent said they paid more than half of their shareware, with a full 22 percent claiming they pay for absolutely everything. Of the 30 percent of respondents who said they paid for less than half of their shareware, only 7 percent admitted to paying for none of it. The topic also raised some interesting points on TidBITS Talk about why people may not always pay for shareware, how shareware authors could make paying easier, and the increasingly minimal differences between shareware and commercial software. [JLC]
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbpoll=41>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=1037+1038>
Poll Preview: Keeping It to Yourself -- The news media has lately been replete with stories detailing threats to consumer privacy: every day we hear about employers scanning company email, sites tracking every movement of users (and some advertising services tracking users' movements between sites!), or miscreants gaining access to home computers by guessing at an all-too-predictable password. So, this week our poll asks whether you use any specific tactics to protect your privacy online. Responses include using strong (not easily guessed) passwords, blocking or auditing cookies Web sites want to give you, using anonymous email or Web services, or using encryption to protect your data. Vote on our home page - and, yes, our polls are anonymous! [GD]
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