Macking 18

New ISP for Mackers
Need an Internet Service Provider (ISP) that provides access from cities besides Portland (and surrounding territories)? Check out MacConnect, the first nationwide access service exclusively for MacOS users.
MacConnect costs $25/month for unlimited access. Included in the package is the usual access software, and TeleFinder, which handles mail, messaging and web page maintenance. MacConnect supports all the other access packages such as Eudora, Fetch, NewsWatcher, CU-SeeMe, etc.
MacConnect is a production of Equinox and GridNet International, an LDDS WorldCom unit that provides the ATM backbone. They use MacOS servers including WebSTAR web servers and the Apple Internet Mail Server and MacDNS. These are combined with 3Com Primary Access devices, CISCO access servers and Stratacom data switches deployed by Gridnet across the national network. MacConnect was launched on November 18, 1996 with local access in over 70 cities in 65 area codes across the US. MacOS Net surfers interested in establishing accounts or seeking information about the service should call 1-800-923-2638 or visit the MacConnect web site.

Farewell To My ISP
I never thought I would be writing this, but by publication time I will have switched my account to SpiritOne and moved my stuff off Teleport. There has been a continual "stream" of troubles, problems with servers, with software and bad modems, busys and non-answers, but the breakdown of the Majordomo mailing-list-server software last month just about clinched it. Oh, there were good explanations on their Web page, but the behavior continues. Majordomo was finally fixed, but what will happen next?
I have held out despite the fact that when I joined, almost everyone I knew who had an Internet account was on Teleport. Now I am one of the few left. Hell, I didn't even have to pay for my account for 18 months because I kept getting new clients to join up. I have not done that in months. I held on when friends with connections said, "Get away while you can. Teleport is falling apart." I knew some of the Mac people who worked there for years, and I decided that when one particular person, who had been there as long as I had been a client, left, then it would be time for me to pull out too.
Last month at the PMUG meeting we discussed ISPs and the overwhelming comments from the attendees were anti-Teleport. People were joining Hevanet (almost as old), Imagina/Zephyr, Europa, SpiritOne (PMUG's provider), Pacifier, even ATT. Too bad no one from Teleport (like for instance James Deibele, the owner) was in attendance; they really need a wake-up call. If so many of the local leaders and power users are pulling out, what kind of a future can the company have?
Those who have been reading my column for a while know that I mostly side with employees against management in any dispute (at least until I have all the facts), because I believe that any company whose employees aren't boring their friends with endless rants about how great their job is, what a cool place to work, etc. is badly managed and in serious trouble. Good companies never suffer from excessive turnover, but the tales coming from inside Teleport are, while nowhere near as bad as what I hear from Stream (and Intel), are nonetheless disturbing.
Since all my mail is sent to me through my own domain name, I can at least move my mail and maybe even my Web pages without breaking all of the long-established links, but moving a mailing list essentially requires shutting down the old one and creating a new one fresh with the subscriber list. Moral: Make sure you have a good ISP who you can live with for a long time, one that won't fall apart in your face. (Not that there is an easy way to tell, of course.) But once a company gets too big to give personal service, and problems get out of hand, maybe it is danger time. Of course, Murphy being what he is, once I am off of Teleport there will probably never be another problem and things will work as well as they used to, rendering all that effort pointless.
The only question remaining is, what will happen to SpiritOne if they wind up as successful as Teleport? My personal prejudices say "nothing bad, as long as the employees love working there." We can but hope.
PS: To make things more interesting, I just won a year's free service from Imagina, the Mac-based ISP I wrote about a couple of months ago. So now I get to try out TWO providers and see how I like their respective differences. Of course I can't really take full advantage of two systems at a time because one of them has to host my virtual domain (moonmac.com) and my Web pages. But it will be a learning experience if nothing else.

Apple, Hire A Clue
I know this is not the place to excoriate Apple (surrounded by Windowsers) but I just left their Web site wondering if their webmaster has ever looked at his own pages! The site is riddled with hyphens in the middle of words (hard hyphens), accented Os (Ñ) caused by the Mac dash character, accented n (’) caused by the curly apostrophe and other obvious errors. The skinny, for anyone doing Web pages: Use Low ASCII Characters Only, or coded special characters from the list in the HTML 1.0 through 3.0 specifications. Make reading easy for all of us.

Genealogy Software
I get calls from people interested in geneaology software for the Mac. This excerpted press release comes from MacWay:
"Reunion is the highest rated genealogy software for the Macintosh (MacUser 1/96, MacWorld 6/95, Mac Home Journal 4/95). If you've got a family, we've got the family tree software you need -- a perfect Christmas gift for yourself, a friend, or family member.
"Reunion automatically creates common genealogy charts, forms, and reports, as well as birthday calendars, mailing lists, questionnaires, indexes, and other lists. It even calculates relationships, ages, and life expectancies.
"Reunion is a Mac-first application for tracking your family history and creating family tree charts and reports. In MacWorld magazine, David Pogue said Reunion 4 'isn't just an outstanding genealogy program; it's an outstanding program, period...'"
For more info, phone Leister Productions, Inc. at 717-697-1378 or check out their Web site at http://www.LeisterPro.com/.

Beware of this Scam
"I do want to make you all aware of a new scam creeping over the phone lines and onto the Internet. The scam works like this: you get a phone call or page or even e-mail saying a loved one has died, you will be sued, or you've won some fabulous prize, and you have to call a given phone number to find out who, avoid the lawsuit, or collect the prize. The phone number, even though it may look like a toll-free call, ends up being a call to the Caribbean. You either call an 809 area code or an 800 number that transfers you to the 809 toll call. They keep you on the phone as long as possible, and your phone bill at the end of the month is outrageous. Remember, there are NO legitimate reasons why someone would want you to call a number in the 809 area code unless you know them personally. Since the 809 Area Code has split or is splitting into more than 18 additional area codes, I suspect this problem is going to get far worse before it gets better. The problem may also surface in the following Area Codes:
Area Code/Country
242/Bahamas
246/Barbados
264/Anguilla
268/Antigua and Barbuda
284/British Virgin Islands
345/Cayman Islands
441/Bermuda
473/Grenada
664/Montserrat
758/St. Lucia
767/Dominica
784/St. Vincent/Grenadines
787/Puerto Rico
868/Trinidad and Tobago
869/St. Kitts and Nevis
876/Grenada
You can visit this Web site for more information: http://www.cris.com/~snorkler/scam.htm.

Missing A Hand?
LillyW@Walters-Intl.com (Lilly Walters) writes in MacWay:
"When I was eleven years old, I lost part of my left hand. I was taught how to type with a simple "touch typing" one-handed system that uses the standard keyboard "normal" people use. I quickly learned to type 50 -80 words per minute.
Over 3 million people in the USA have a disability in their hands and/or forearms, including paralyzations, orthopedic impairments, either congenital or injury related. (USA 1983-1986, from the Digest of Data on Person with Disabilitities, U.S. Department of Education, prepared January 1992)
Today I am the author of many successful books -- a skill I would not have attempted if I could not use a keyboard. My story is featured in the best-selling "Chicken Soup for the Soul" series. Now I get calls and letters from people with the use of only one hand who want to know where they can buy such a typing manual. My own success story began with simple typing skill I learned as a child. I was delighted and excited that my story might help others like me, and jumped on the phone to help these people find the names of a few one-handed typing manuals.
I spent the next two days on the phone, and called rehabilitation experts, occupational therapists, hand surgeons, hospitals, associations and typing teachers. Only two people were even aware it is possible or that a one handed person might WANT to type and they had never persued it for their patients! When I asked - over and over again - "Well what do you tell kids with the use of only one hand about learning to type?" "Oh, it's never come up." 'Never come up?' I think not. I think the problem of learning to type with one hand is ignored and therefore, by default, discouraged.
The option that is being encouraged and promoted is a "special" keyboard. For the majority of people with a hand injury or congenital problem, the need and expense of buying a special keyboard (and carrying it around with them) will merely discourage them. And how tragic when the system, the skill and the keyboard are all close at hand -- their one useable hand.
The One Hand Typing Manual is difficult to find today. When we finally found it we decided to sell it ourselves, so if you can't find it elsewhere, we do stock it here: $11.95, plus $3 shipping. I intend to write a manual myself as soon as I find an appropriate publisher. Email your credit card and shipping info, or mail a check to Royal Publishing, PO Box 1120, Glendora, CA 91740-1120.

Oops (a correction)
Scott (withheld by request) writes,
Just a minor correction to your Nov. 96 Computer Bits column "Macking It." Your statement about extensions is flawed, you state: "It is always running and taking processor cycles, even when idling, waiting for something to invoke it". This is false. Extensions often do take small chunks of system heap RAM, but don't waste any cycles, unless called on for their service. Zero, zip, nada, bupkiss. In fact, because of how the Mac os is designed, only one process at a time can use the cpu; every other process is halted taking zero cycles waiting for control to return. Otherwise, "Macking It" is a good read.
Just another Mac programmer since 1984,
Scott

URLs for Hypochondriacs
I came across a list of web pages for physicians and surgeons through OHSU that may be of interest to the general net.surfer:
CliniWeb, a searchable index to disease-oriented information: http://www.ohsu.edu/cliniweb/
MedWeb for a broad range of topics: http://www.cc.emory.edu/WHSCL/medweb.html
MedWeb Surgery: change the last part of above link to medweb.surgery.html
Center for Disease Control (CDC): http://www.cdc.gov/
American Medical Association: http://www.ama-assn.org/
National Library of Medicine: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/
American College of Surgeons: http://www.facs.org/
Royal College of Surgeons: http://www.reseng.ac.uk/
Neurosurgical Internet Guide: http://sunsite.unc.edu/neuro/
Surgical Simulation: http://www.uchsc.edu/sm/chs/;surgsim.html
Interactive Medical Journal: http://surgery.uchsc.edu/Journal.html

No Microsoft products were used in the production of this column.

email mp at moonmac dot com. (I took out the mailto link because that's how the spammers find me.)