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Remember us? No, you haven't been dreaming - we haven't published an issue of NetBITS since February of 1998. Read on for an explanation of what happened and why we're finally absorbing NetBITS back into TidBITS. Also, to make up for our long absence, we present a selection of TidBITS articles that would have run in NetBITS over the past year. We hope you enjoy this final issue of NetBITS, and if so, consider subscribing to TidBITS by sending email to <tidbits-on@tidbits.com>.
Contents:
Copyright 1999 TidBITS Electronic Publishing. All rights reserved.
by Adam C. Engst <ace@tidbits.com>
The time has come to close the book on NetBITS. For those who joined us while NetBITS was on hiatus, NetBITS was an electronic newsletter that we published between September of 1997 and February of 1998. Our goal with NetBITS was to break out Internet information that we would have published in our flagship publication TidBITS, but that was only peripherally related to the Macintosh. We felt that NetBITS wouldn't be too much more work since we had created so many procedures and so much automation over the years that we could reuse for NetBITS. Plus, a good friend of ours, Glenn Fleishman, was to act as editor in chief, since the rest of us were still busy with TidBITS every week along with our many other individual projects.
<http://www.netbits.net/>
<http://www.tidbits.com/>
From the pure publishing standpoint, NetBITS was a big success. We published some great content (which has now been assimilated into the TidBITS article database so you don't have to guess in which publication an article might have run) and by the end, our readership was over 20,000 people. But we were never able to attract enough advertisers to NetBITS to earn enough to account for the amount of time NetBITS required.
Then, in late January of 1998, the bomb dropped. Glenn was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease, a form of cancer. All of his time and energy immediately had to go toward fighting the disease. The rest of us assembled a final issue and officially placed NetBITS on hiatus, hoping we would find someone to fill in for Glenn and to drum up advertisers for NetBITS. We also spent quite some time talking to other publishing companies about selling NetBITS, but we never found a match.
As the months passed, the likelihood of reviving NetBITS receded. I considered the logistics of making NetBITS a subscription-based newsletter, but I simply couldn't convince myself that more than 10 percent of the readership would pay, say 50 cents per issue or $24 per year to subscribe. Assuming 2,000 readers at $24 per year, NetBITS would earn a total of $48,000, which sounds like a lot until you divide it by a four or five person staff, then take out a third each for taxes. None of us could justify the work for what would end up as about $500 per month. Plus, if we were charging a subscription fee, I wanted to pay authors for submissions, which complicated the numbers even further. Maybe someone else could have pulled it off, but it was beyond my comfort level.
The good news is that after months of chemotherapy, Glenn's cancer went into complete remission. An experience like that changes you, and we understood completely when Glenn went on to work on other projects rather than spearheading a NetBITS revival. You can see what he's been up to, including some writing for a little paper called the New York Times, at his Web site below.
We've learned some lessons from our experience with NetBITS.
Concentrate on what you do well, and play to your strengths. We may be good at publishing electronically, but with NetBITS we failed to play to our strengths in the full TidBITS readership.
The phrase "If you build it, they will come" might apply to ghostly baseball players and curious readers, but it doesn't work when trying to attract advertisers. Ad sales is hard work and requires a skilled professional, and NetBITS should have had that from the beginning.
Everything is more work than it seems. Since we've published TidBITS for so long, we'd forgotten how much work we really put into each issue, between writing and editing and distributing. NetBITS leveraged our technology well enough that our overall workload wasn't twice as high, but we hadn't anticipated how much work it would really entail.
You can do only so much for free. At the end of the day, you have to be able to pay your bills and put food on the table. All of us work on a variety of projects that will never pay because they're the right thing to do. But we have to maintain a balance between the paying and the non-paying or risk being forced to concentrate solely on tasks which generate income.
Although we've absorbed the Internet content that would otherwise have run in NetBITS back into TidBITS (see "TidBITS Articles of Interest" below), we're not totally killing NetBITS. Who knows, something might change in the future such that we want to revive it. But for now, we'll take the advice Kenny Rogers offers in The Gambler - "You've got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em." For now, NetBITS doesn't have the cards, so we've folded its hand.
That said, we'd love to have you join the TidBITS list. Although we can't promise that TidBITS will contain only NetBITS-like articles, the Internet remains a central part of our lives. There's no question that we'll continue to write about topics other than those that are directly related to the Macintosh - check out the next article for proof. We won't subscribe any of you to the TidBITS list automatically, since that's poor Internet manners, so if you'd like to receive TidBITS in email each week, please send a message to <tidbits-on@tidbits.com>. Thank you very much for your support of NetBITS!
by Adam C. Engst <ace@tidbits.com>
As noted above, we've absorbed the content that would have appeared in NetBITS back into TidBITS. Since we've explicitly chosen not to convert NetBITS subscriptions into TidBITS subscriptions automatically, that means that you may have missed a number of useful articles. Many are summarized below.
We have no plans to publish a summary like this again, so we strongly encourage you to subscribe to TidBITS if you'd like to continue to read our Internet-related articles. Obviously, TidBITS focuses more on the Macintosh than NetBITS did, but it's also easy to skip over articles that don't interest you. If you'd like to read a bit more about why we publish TidBITS, see my article in our ninth anniversary issue a few weeks ago in TidBITS-477.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05362>
To subscribe to TidBITS, send email to <tidbits-on@tidbits.com> or visit our Web site and use the subscription form on the home page.
Internet-related Articles -- We've selected the following collection of articles we think you'll like, sorted with the newest first. The GetBITS URL after each summary takes you directly to that article. Pay attention to the upper right side of the window in your Web browser when you're reading an article, since articles may have links to related articles, articles in the same issue of TidBITS, and useful discussions in our high-quality, low-volume mailing list TidBITS Talk.
<http://www.tidbits.com/search/talk.html>
Frontier Demystified
Matt Neuburg peels back the layers of history to explain what it is that the cross-platform Internet content and scripting program Frontier can do.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05351>
Explaining All Those List Headers
The headers at the top of email messages can often prove confusing to human beings, but they're extremely useful for email programs. A new set of standardized headers will help email programs make mailing lists easier to use.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05321>
Groceries in the Mist
Although it isn't available everywhere, Internet grocery shopping has arrived in some locations, and as we discover, it can be a winning combination of quality, cost-savings, and time-savings.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05303>
What's a Firewall, and Why Should You Care
The title says it all. You've always wondered about firewalls, and in this article, Chris Pepper of the Audubon Society explains what you need to know.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05291>
Why Windows Web Pages Have Tiny Text
In this fascinating article, Geoff Duncan talks about the history of typography as part of his explanation of why Web pages designed to look good for Windows users often have tiny text when viewed on a Mac. The reverse is true as well - Web pages designed for viewing on a Mac can seem to have huge text when viewed in Windows. If you've ever wondered why onscreen type can be so inconsistent, read this article.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05284>
The Second Generation of Digital Cameras
They're small, slick, and never need film. If you want to put photos on the Web, or just enjoy taking pictures without the cost of developing, check out Arthur Bleich's two-part article for the scoop on today's best digital cameras.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbser=1063>
Running Linux on Your Mac: An Update
Linux is the darling operating system of the Internet, and several variants make it possible to run on your Macintosh. In this article, Tom Gewecke looks at what's changed from when he wrote about the topic a year earlier.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05229>
Douglas Engelbart: More Thoughts from Cassandra
Douglas Engelbart is responsible for many of the aspects of graphical interfaces (including the mouse!) that we now take for granted. This article looks at his accomplishments and where he thinks today's systems are missing the boat.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05210>
Internet Backup Strategies
With today's higher speed Internet connections, backing up your data over the Internet to secure servers has become a reality. Check out this article for an examination of Internet backup strategies and the best online backup approaches for your needs.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05209>
Walking the Meme Streets of the ACM
The ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work offered a fascinating glimpse into current research that attempts to help people work together better using computer technology.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05203>
AOL Buys Netscape for $4.2 Billion
TidBITS continues to cover the most important events in the Internet world, as we did with the announcement of AOL's acquisition of Netscape Communications.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05189>
Who Do You Antitrust?
In this two-part article, Matt Deatherage probes the situation surrounding the Microsoft antitrust case and concludes... You'll have to read the article for that.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05175>
Move Over MTV, Now There's MP3
It's the hottest technology to merge audio and the Internet, and it has the entire music industry running scared. In this article, guest writer Kevin Savetz looks at the basics of MP3 audio.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05174>
Creating a Simple Ethernet Network
The specifics may vary if you're using a PC, but the basics of Ethernet networking are the same, and this article may prove a useful start.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05085>
Macintosh Internet File Format Primer
Whether or not you use a Mac, if you've ever run across file formats like uuencode, BinHex, Base64, AppleDouble, and more, you need to read this article. Along with basic descriptions of the different formats, it explains some of why sharing files with Macintosh users via email can be tricky.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05066>
Responding to Spam
Don't just accept spam for the evil that it is - help stamp it out. Geoff Duncan explains how to figure out how a spam message made its way to you and how you can find the right person to complain to.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05032>
Image Searching on the Web
You don't want to find text, you want to find a graphic. Well, you can do that on the Internet too, but it's a bit trickier. Tara Calishain gives tips and tricks for successful image searches in this two-part article.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbser=1138>
The Death of Documentation
We've all noticed manuals becoming ever slimmer, and many have disappeared altogether in favor of files or even online help. It's a depressing trend, and it's accompanied by a decrease in the quality of documentation. Does the fault lie with the Internet?
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=04865>
Non-profit, non-commercial publications and Web sites may reprint or link to articles if full credit is given. Others please contact us. We do not guarantee accuracy of articles. Caveat lector. Publication, product, and company names may be registered trademarks of their companies. NetBITS ISSN 1096-4908.