Inside Mac Games Volume 4 #5 & #6/IMG 37 MayJune 1996.iso/More Goodies/eZines/Tidbits/tidbits-324.etx

Text File | 1996-05-27 | 30KB | 589 lines

TidBITS#324/15-Apr-96
=====================

After a weekend that saw the beginning of spring weather and the
   end of the U.S. tax season, we bring you news on IBM possibly
   licensing the Mac OS, an intriguing report on the Pippin (which
   is shipping in Japan), information about the Macintosh version
   of WebLint, and the results of our reviews survey. The issue
   continues with an essay about Internet chain mail and the second
   part of Adam's article on Internet bookmark managers.

This issue of TidBITS sponsored in part by:
* APS Technologies -- 800/443-4199 -- <[e-mail]>
   Makers of hard drives, tape drives, and neat SCSI accessories.
   For APS price lists, email: <[e-mail]>
* Northwest Nexus -- 206/455-3505 -- <http://www.halcyon.com/>
   Providing access to the global Internet. <[e-mail]>
* Power Computing -- 800/375-7693 -- <[e-mail]>
   Now shipping... The Award-Winning First MacOS Compatible!
   Press comments! <http://www.powercc.com/News/quotes.html>
* America Online -- 800/827-6364 -- <http://www.aol.com/>
   The world's largest provider of online services.
   Give Back to the Net -- <http://www.aol.com/give/>
* EarthLink Network -- 800/395-8425 -- <[e-mail]>
   Providers of direct Internet access for Macintosh users.
   For eWorld refugees: no setup fee! <http://www.earthlink.net/>
* DealBITS: New deals for Web authors & Webmasters! <-------- NEW!
   <http://www.tidbits.com/dealbits/> -- <[e-mail]>

Copyright 1990-1996 Adam & Tonya Engst. Details at end of issue.
   Information: <[e-mail]> Comments: <[e-mail]>
   ---------------------------------------------------------------

Topics:
    MailBITS/15-Apr-96
    TidBITS Reviews Listing Survey Results
    IBM Close to Licensing Mac OS?
    Pippin Appears
    Back on the Chain Gang
    ClearInk Ports WebLint to the Macintosh
    More Bookmarks than Books, Part II

<ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/pub/tidbits/issues/1996/TidBITS#324_15-Apr-96.etx>


MailBITS/15-Apr-96
------------------
  We're a little too tired to make much of this fact, but this issue
  of TidBITS marks our sixth anniversary of publication. We started
  publishing TidBITS each week in April of 1990, which makes us one
  of the longest running solely electronic publications. If you know
  of any regularly published, edited publication (mailing lists and
  digests don't count) that is solely electronic, started on the
  Internet before we did, and continues to publish today, please
  drop me a note with a pointer to it. [ACE]


**TidBITS in Dutch** -- Check out the TidBITS home page for a link
  to the first translation of TidBITS (issue #322) into Dutch.
  However, Jan Vanderwegen <[e-mail]>, the
  coordinator of the Dutch translation team, tells me that they
  could use additional help. If you're interested in helping
  translate TidBITS into Dutch, drop Jan and me a note in email.
  With enough people on the translation team, it's easy to spread
  out the work load and make the translation process faster and
  easier for everyone. [ACE]

<http://www.tidbits.com/>


**Nagel to Head AT&T Labs** -- AT&T announced today Dave Nagel
  will leave his position as senior vice president at Apple Computer
  to become the first president of AT&T Labs. AT&T Labs, a new
  research organization formed around what used to be Bell
  Laboratories, includes about 2,000 staff members dealing with a
  wide range of software and communications technologies. Nagel most
  recently led Apple's worldwide research and development group;
  prior to that he headed up AppleSoft. [GD]

<http://www.att.com/press/0496/960415.ala.html>


**FreePPP 2.5 Beta Available** -- The FreePPP Group has released
  FreePPP 2.5b4, the first public beta of FreePPP 2.5. As usual, if
  your PPP connection works well, we don't recommend upgrading yet
  (why fix what isn't broken, especially with beta software?). The
  changes are significant, and most notably, an application called
  FreePPP Setup replaces the Config PPP control panel and its
  elderly interface. The extension is now called FreePPP instead of
  just PPP, differentiating it from MacPPP. The primary parts of the
  FreePPP package missing in this release are documentation, an
  Apple Guide, and some cosmetic interface changes. Be sure to read
  the Read Me file in the FreePPP Folder installed for you in the
  root directory of your startup drive. [ACE]

<ftp://mirror.aol.com/pub/info-mac/comm/inet/conn/free-ppp-25b4.hqx>


**New QTVR Tools and Developer Info** -- Finally showing motion
  with its much-touted QuickTime VR technology, Apple is
  distributing pre-release versions two new QTVR tools to assist
  authors with making QuickTime VR panoramas and objects from
  photographs or computer-generated images. Though these tools can't
  add hot spots or stitch together series of overlapping photos
  (these functions are still restricted to Apple's obtuse QuickTime
  VR Authoring Tools Suite), they're a good first step on the path
  toward letting real people make QuickTime VR movies.

<http://qtvr.quicktime.apple.com/WhatsNew.htm>

  Perhaps more important than these tools, however, is new developer
  information on integrating QuickTime VR into applications, as well
  as behind-the-scenes motion on the forthcoming QuickTime VR 1.1.
  With luck, developers will be able to integrate QuickTime VR
  content and authoring into applications (like Poser, Director,
  SuperCard, and Bryce) more easily - and I can't imagine a Netscape
  plug-in is too far off. [GD]

<http://dev.info.apple.com/technotes/tn1035.html>
<http://dev.info.apple.com/technotes/tn1036.html>


**AIMED Developers Consortium** -- A group of third party
  developers have formed the Association of Independent Macintosh
  Engineers and Developers (AIMED), a non-profit group dedicated to
  Macintosh software and hardware development. AIMED intends to
  evangelize the Mac to third-party hardware and software
  developers, and also provide feedback to Apple on issues that
  concern Mac programmers. [GD]

<http://www.aimed.org/>


TidBITS Reviews Listing Survey Results
--------------------------------------
  by Adam C. Engst <[e-mail]>

  For a few weeks in February, we held an informal survey to
  determine whether or not our readers thought the weekly listing of
  reviews in the main Mac magazines was useful. A few people
  mistakenly thought we were proposing to cease reviewing products
  in TidBITS - that was pure invention on their part. Every week for
  the last six years, the final article in TidBITS has been a
  listing of the reviews in MacWEEK, Macworld, MacUser, and other
  magazines. Starting with this issue, we will no longer be typing
  that information in and including it in TidBITS.

  Let me explain the rationale behind the decision, since it wasn't
  as cut and dried as we had thought it would be. The survey
  revealed that 70 percent of people voting (1,682 votes) felt we
  shouldn't bother with the reviews listing. That was a bit lower
  than I'd expected. The 714 votes that made up the remaining 30
  percent were significantly buoyed by 418 email entries, which
  wasn't surprising since people who can use the Web can read the
  full text of reviews in those magazines online. Those who only
  have email access to the Internet aren't so fortunate.

  Given those numbers, we set to thinking about the purpose of those
  review listings. Originally, the idea was to provide an index to
  the magazine reviews that users could easily search. With all the
  magazines now having Web sites, that original idea doesn't make as
  much sense. We were also concerned that by listing those reviews
  each week, we were in essence advertising for those magazines. It
  would be one thing if the act was often reciprocal, but TidBITS
  has only been mentioned in traditional magazines a handful of
  times over the past six years.

  We do recognize that some TidBITS readers have come up with other
  uses for the reviews listings, especially in countries where it
  often takes some time for the U.S. magazines to arrive. However,
  we could include many things in TidBITS that would be useful to
  some readers, and we must figure out which of those things are the
  best use of our time and the most interesting to us.

  The fact of the matter is that no creative thought goes into
  typing in reviews from the table of contents of a magazine, and by
  virtue of that fact, the reviews listing is less interesting to us
  than most other things we might want to do. Any trained monkey
  could do that typing, and we prefer to spend our time doing things
  that only we can do. (Working with someone else to enter all the
  reviews each week would require coordination work as well, and
  would still take up space that we would prefer to use for other
  purposes.) After all, we hope the skills and analysis that we
  bring to TidBITS is what makes reading TidBITS worthwhile.

  In the end, that's the main reason why we will no longer publish
  the reviews listing in TidBITS. We have to move forward and
  continue to focus on things that interest us, or else we risk
  losing interest in TidBITS entirely. The recent April Fools issue
  is a good example: putting out two issues of TidBITS on two
  consecutive days is a _lot_ of work, but it's so much fun to
  fabricate fantastic articles from thin air that it was worth the
  effort. We've always published TidBITS as much for ourselves as
  for everyone else, and that's why it's so important the act of
  publishing continue to be fulfilling for us as well as our
  readers.


IBM Close to Licensing Mac OS?
------------------------------
  by Geoff Duncan <[e-mail]>

  Last week, reports began circulating that IBM's Microelectronics
  Division was close to an agreement with Apple to license the Mac
  OS. The agreement would reportedly allow IBM (in its role as one
  of the primary manufacturers of the PowerPC chip) to sublicense
  the Mac OS to PowerPC chip buyers. Unlike Apple licensee Motorola
  (see TidBITS-315_), IBM apparently does not plan to manufacture
  its own Mac clones.

  Undoubtedly a shot in the arm for Apple, this agreement would also
  make good on IBM's long-stated intentions to license the Mac OS.
  However, many analysts quickly pointed out the agreement would be
  more favorable for Apple if IBM were agreeing to make its own
  Macintosh clones. As it stands, IBM is casting an eye towards its
  future PowerPC Platform (PPCP) machines, which will be able to run
  Mac OS, Windows NT, NetWare, AIX, or Solaris. (See TidBITS-304_.)
  Licensing the Mac OS lets IBM offer more operating systems choices
  to motherboard and systems manufacturers buying CPU chips from
  IBM. Presently, however, manufacturers wanting to make Mac clones
  would have to execute a separate hardware licensing agreement with
  Apple.

  If this agreement is finalized, the immediate benefits aren't all
  that clear, though it has interesting future possibilities once
  PPCP machines are on the market. Apple plans to release its own
  PPCP Macintoshes, and though estimates vary, these machines should
  appear is late in 1996 or possibly in early 1997 to coincide with
  the anticipated release of Copland, the next major revision of the
  Mac OS.


Pippin Appears
--------------
  by Brent Bossom <[e-mail]>

  The Pippin-platform "Atmark" developed by Apple and Bandai is now
  on display and for sale in Japan. But you can't just drop into
  your local computer store and pick one up; you'll have to either
  place an order at a designated dealer or call a toll-free number
  (something Bandai inexplicably calls a "Digital Distribution
  System"). A unit will then be shipped directly to your home.

  The Atmark is configured just as it has been reported by others: a
  PowerPC 603 (66 MHz) CPU, internal quad-speed CD-ROM drive, 14.4
  Kbps external modem, 6 MB RAM (expandable to 14 MB), a game
  controller, and ports for connecting a television, monitor and
  other peripherals. The list price has been set at 68,000 yen, or
  about $635. The price includes four CD-ROMs: Internet Kit (which
  includes Netscape Navigator and other Internet software), TVWorks
  (an integrated email, word processing, and drawing package), and a
  two others with interface software for a computer service called
  Franky Online.

  Bandai plans to release a number of peripherals in June. These
  include a keyboard with a handwriting input tablet and pen (it
  looks like a small, white PowerBook and is priced at 9,800 yen), a
  floppy drive that sits under the Atmark (12,000 yen), RAM
  expansion cards (2, 4, or 6 MB - no prices have been set), a
  printer, and various cables for connecting Atmark accessories to a
  Macintosh (or vice versa). A 28.8 Kbps modem is also said to be in
  the works.

  Bandai advertises over 100 software titles are for sale now or
  under development, and the titles run the gamut from games and
  horoscope software to quasi-reference materials ("World's Diving
  Spots") and interactive music videos. Though some are priced as
  low as 3,800 yen, most average 6,800 yen (about $65). Bandai has
  also established an online service for Pippin Atmark users,
  providing access to Internet services for 2,000 yen a month (for
  up to 10 hours of use).

  More information on Pippin Atmark is available (mostly in
  Japanese) from Bandai's web site.

<http://www.bdec.co.jp/>


Back on the Chain Gang
----------------------
  by Adam C. Engst <[e-mail]>

  I've had it. I'm sick of receiving chain mail. I'm sure many of
  you have received these bits of oozing Internet abuse as well,
  ranging from the Good Times Virus hoax (it _is_ a complete hoax,
  folks, and the damage it causes stems purely from being
  redistributed in email) to the latest petition for a worthy cause.
  Chain mail, if you're unfamiliar with the term, includes _any_
  message that asks you to forward it on to a bunch of your friends,
  leaving the exhortation to continue the forwarding intact. The
  topic of the message doesn't matter - chain mail of any sort is an
  abuse of the Internet and of your fellow Internet citizens.

  I don't know what happened, but chain mail has been clanking into
  my mailbox more frequently than ever before. First, the Good Times
  Virus hoax monopolized the discussion on the Apple Internet Users
  mailing list for a few days, then I got a copy of the standard
  "you'll have bad luck unless..." message and its raunchier "you'll
  have bad luck in bed unless..." cousin. They were followed by
  chain mail messages encouraging me to support PBS (Public
  Broadcasting Service) and NPR (National Public Radio). Finally, I
  received a number of copies of a chain mail prank that hoped to
  result in tons of people sending a copy of the Bill of Rights to
  President Clinton's email address on the same day. That prank also
  appeared in some of the Apple Internet lists that Chuq von Rospach
  runs, and he unsubscribed the person who submitted it from all the
  lists within minutes of seeing the message, since chain mail is an
  express violation of the charter of those lists.

  What's so wrong with chain mail that I'm ranting about it in this
  article? Why is it cause to be blackballed from mailing lists?
  Why, if you send it to me, will I give you one warning and after
  that report you to your postmaster with the recommendation that
  your account be revoked?

  Have you ever played the game where you hypothetically place a
  penny on the lower left corner of a checkerboard, then double the
  number of pennies on each square, moving left to right and up each
  row? The second square contains two pennies, the third four, the
  fourth eight, the fifth sixteen, and so on. I say hypothetical
  game, because by the last square, you've amassed a vast fortune.

  Chain mail has the potential to grow even more quickly. If one
  person starts a piece of chain mail, they're unlikely to just send
  it to two other people, and each of those people (if they're
  sufficiently gullible to forward it on at all) are also unlikely
  to limit themselves to just two other people each. Many of us have
  tens of people in our address books, and some people probably have
  over a hundred people to whom they could send such trash. My
  impression is that most of the chain mail messages I see have
  about 25 people in the header, and if that impression is both real
  and continued at every generation, you can see how chain mail
  could grow exponentially and significantly slow down delivery of
  all other mail, as the many mail servers on the Internet struggle
  to process millions of copies of the same message.

  I'm sure there are technical solutions to the problem, and if it
  continues to get worse, someone will implement them, much as
  people invented cancelbots to cancel spam postings on Usenet. We
  shouldn't let it get that far though, since chain mail is not a
  technical problem. It's a societal problem, and by participating
  in it you allow someone else to exploit you for their purposes.
  Even worse, you help them exploit even more people, wasting more
  time, disk space, and money than before. It's bad enough to be a
  victim, but it's worse to become an accessory.

  So, if you receive chain mail of any sort, don't forward it on.
  Delete it immediately and break the chain before it has a chance
  to enslave others. I also always send back a short note (a piece
  of boilerplate text these days) telling the original sender what
  they've done wrong and asking them never to repeat the mistake.
  Perhaps we can put an end to chain mail by refusing to participate
  and by educating those who are either gullible or don't yet see
  the error of their ways.


ClearInk Ports WebLint to the Macintosh
---------------------------------------
  by Jon S. Stevens <[e-mail]>

  Creating basic HTML pages is easy, but creating pages that comply
  with HTML specifications is not. Everybody makes mistakes and not
  everybody knows all the rules. Have you ever forgotten to add that
  </BODY> tag to the bottom of a page? Did you know that the <TITLE>
  </TITLE> tag pair should be enveloped in the <HEAD> </HEAD> tag
  pair? This is where WebLint steps in. WebLint, a syntax checker
  for HTML, can parse your pages for any problems and then - for
  each mistake that it finds - report the line number of the mistake
  and what it thinks the problem might be. WebLint does not modify
  documents, so after you see a report, you must manually correct
  the problems.

  The freeware MacWebLint brings the Unix Perl version of WebLint to
  the Macintosh with the help of MacPerl 5 by Matthias Ulrich
  Neeracher. To use MacWebLint, you must have a copy of the freeware
  MacPerl 5 on your hard disk. Once both MacPerl and MacWebLint are
  installed, all you do is drop files or an entire folder of files
  on the MacWebLint icon. MacWebLint responds by creating a text
  file report and placing that file in the same folder as
  MacWebLint. You can download MacPerl and MacWebLint from the URL
  below.

<ftp://sparc.clearink.com/pub/mac/>

  [As Jon explained it when I asked, "ClearInk provides services
  associated with marketing products and maintaining a presence in
  cyberspace, including HTML programming and back-end scripting,
  pinpointing and capitalizing on strategic areas of the Internet
  for executing innovative programs, and installing and/or
  maintaining systems to perpetuate these programs." That sounds
  like a lot of work, and one thing Jon did to help was to port
  WebLint to the Macintosh. ClearInk has made the port publicly
  available; Jon says its partly as a way for ClearInk to
  "contribute back to the Net for all that we have received." -
  Tonya]

<http://www.clearink.com/>


More Bookmarks than Books, Part II
----------------------------------
  by Adam C. Engst <[e-mail]>

  This article is the second part of my look at bookmark management
  utilities. In TidBITS-323_ last week, I looked at utilities that
  offer their own interfaces. This week I'm changing gears and
  investigating bookmark managers that rely on the Finder to
  organize, categorize, and search through your bookmarks. A few
  additional programs have straggled in since last week, so look for
  the third part of this article in the next issue of TidBITS,
  covering everything I missed in the first two parts.


**CyberFinder 2.0** -- Aladdin Systems' $30 CyberFinder control
  panel (with a 15-day fully functional demo) is completely
  integrated into the Finder, so your bookmarks appear to be files
  in Finder windows. CyberFinder can create "libraries" that look
  like folders in the Finder, and you can store bookmarks for all
  the common URL schemes in these libraries. Creating new bookmarks
  is a matter of either grabbing a URL from any application with a
  user-defined hot key, or pressing Shift and choosing New Bookmark
  from the Finder's File menu. Replacing Shift with Control toggles
  that item to New Library. You launch URLs by double-clicking the
  bookmarks in the Finder, or by selecting a URL in any application
  and pressing another user-defined hot key. The actual URL is
  accessible if you select the bookmark and choose Get Info from the
  Finder's File menu.

  CyberFinder's power is undeniable, since it piggybacks on the
  Finder's sorting and searching capabilities, and there are some
  nice touches, such as opening bookmark files from a variety of Web
  browsers as libraries (which makes moving to CyberFinder easier).
  CyberFinder's ease of use is very good, but it also inherits the
  Finder's clunkiness. In addition, some utilities, like Now Menus,
  don't see CyberFinder libraries as Macintosh folders, although I
  circumvent that problem by storing bookmarks in true folders
  rather than libraries, trading the larger file size of individual
  files in the Finder for the flexibility offered by Now Menus.
  CyberFinder has two notable problems: its bookmarks aren't
  available unless the control panel is loaded (but see URL Clerk
  below), and it can't grab the <TITLE> tag from a Web page if
  you're snagging a URL from a Web browser. Overall, however,
  CyberFinder is my pick for the best and most flexible of the
  bookmark managers.

<http://www.aladdinsys.com/cfintro.htm>


**DropURL** -- Perhaps the simplest of the bookmark utilities that
  rely on the Finder for their database work, Peter Marks's
  <[e-mail]> free DropURL 1.1 uses Internet Config to
  launch a URL listed in the first line of a text file dropped on
  DropURL. If you change the creator of the text file to "DURL" (a
  utility to do this is included), you can double-click the file to
  launch its URL. Only the first line is used, so any additional
  lines are available for comments or descriptions. DropURL has no
  capabilities for easily capturing URLs or creating these text
  files - that's all up to you.

<ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/pub/tidbits/tisk/inet/drop-url-11.hqx>


**Duke of URL** -- Although it uses the Finder for all database
  work, the postcardware Duke of URL 1.0 is unique in a number of
  ways. It works only with Netscape and saves a URL launcher of the
  current Netscape page as a mini AppleScript application. You must
  activate Duke of URL manually by launching it for each page you
  wish to record, and it's quite slow to work, both in saving URLs
  and launching them. In part because it relies on the Finder and
  AppleScript, Duke of URL ends up not being particularly usable in
  comparison to many other options.

<http://www.kei.com/duke-of-url/>


**NetSnagger** -- Rod Morehead's free NetSnagger 1.1b3 sports only
  two features. It lets you create Launchers, which are NetSnagger
  files you can double-click in the Finder in order to launch the
  URL associated with them. It also lets you create Draggers, which
  are NetSnagger windows that facilitate retrieval of files stored
  at Info-Mac and UMich mirror sites. You open a Dragger window to a
  specific mirror, then drag the partial URL to a file (say, from an
  Info-Mac Digest) into that window. NetSnagger works with Internet
  Config to retrieve the file, or, if you're using a Launcher, to
  launch the appropriate URL with your preferred Web browser.
  Creating Launchers and Draggers is a bit clumsy, but using them is
  relatively easy. All sorting and searching of Launchers relies on
  the Finder, and although it's nowhere near as useful or elegant as
  CyberFinder, NetSnagger is an application and it's free.

<http://rampages.onramp.net/~rmore/netsnagger.html>


**URL Clerk** -- The freeware URL Clerk 1.1 <[e-mail]>
  offers a few features not found in other Finder-using bookmark
  launchers. URLs (one per file) are stored in text files URL Clerk
  can create for you if you drop an appropriate text file or
  clipping file onto the included Bookmarker application. Another
  option lets URL Clerk convert text or clipping files automatically
  to its bookmark format after launching them. It can launch
  CyberFinder bookmarks, which might be handy if you normally use
  CyberFinder but don't have it loaded. Unfortunately, as with many
  of the Finder-based bookmark managers, there's no easy way to
  create URL Clerk bookmark files - you must do it manually in one
  of a few different ways. Double-clicking any URL Clerk bookmark
  launches URL Clerk, which in turn launches the URL in the Internet
  Config-specified helper application. URL Clerk is simple, but ends
  up being so simple that it's mostly useful to CyberFinder users.

<ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/pub/tidbits/tisk/inet/url-clerk-11.hqx>


**Web ShortCuts** -- WhollyMac's $18 (with a 15-day trial) Web
  ShortCuts 1.0 relies on the Finder for all of its searching,
  sorting, and organizing. Its main claim to fame is that it lets
  you create an icon for the Finder file that holds a URL. Creating
  the icon is as simple as selecting something onscreen, although
  the entire process requires copying a URL, switching to Web
  ShortCuts, choosing New from the File menu, pasting in the URL,
  clicking the Clip Image button, selecting an image to turn into an
  icon, clicking the Save As button, and finally naming and saving
  the file in a Standard File dialog. Launching a URL is far easier
  - you can either double-click it or, if you're running Netscape,
  you can simply drag the icon from the Finder into the Netscape
  window. Despite the clever icon grabbing feature, Web ShortCuts
  just doesn't seem sufficiently easy, nor does it offer much over
  free programs like NetSnagger.

<http://www.whollymac.com/wholymac.html#Web ShortCuts>


**My Pick** -- I'm slightly surprised by my final choice of
  bookmark managers. Despite the fact I feel increasingly hampered
  by the Finder, after testing all of the bookmark managers I've
  looked at for these articles, I settled on Aladdin's CyberFinder,
  although I use it in a specific manner. I created a Web URLs
  folder, and using Now Menus, gave it an icon in my menubar so it's
  available all the time. Within that folder, I created yet more
  folders, including one called Unfiled URLs, and I set CyberFinder
  to save all snagged URLs to that folder. When I capture a new URL,
  I immediately open the Unfiled URLs folder from my iconic Web URLs
  menu. I then name the file appropriately, and using the feature of
  Now Menus that lets you drag files into a hierarchical folder that
  Now Menus has created, move the bookmark into the appropriate
  folder. I also keep a To Check Out folder toggled open within the
  Unfiled URLs folder, so if I grab a URL quickly without knowing if
  it will be worth keeping, I stuff it in the To Check Out folder
  for later perusal. Even better, since I can use Now Menus to
  assign keyboard shortcuts to menu items, I can now go to Yahoo or
  Alta Vista or a couple of other sites with a press of a key, no
  matter what I'm doing. Although the Finder can be slow and clumsy,
  CyberFinder turned out to be the best solution for me.

  To be complete, I also like Casey Fleser's ClipFiler FKEY, since
  it's a great way to stuff random bits of text into a SimpleText
  file. I haven't quite decided if I plan to use ClipFiler or
  WebArranger for this task, since after Matt Neuburg's article
  about WebArranger in TidBITS-313_, Tonya and I sat down and
  figured out more about how WebArranger works (and it's very cool,
  if you can get past the massive confusions). Another possibility
  is a future version of MailKeeper, if it makes it easier to
  recategorize text and generally improves the interface.

  Tune in next week for a grab-bag of the various programs that
  escaped my notice the first time around, along with a few
  additional tips and techniques.

  $$

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