Hail subscribers to the TBTF mailing list. Some 2,000 of you have signed up since the last issue was mailed on 2000-07-20. This brief note is the first of several I will send to this list to excise the dead addresses prior to resuming regular publication.

While you time the contractions of the newsletter's rebirth, I invite you to read the TBTF Log and sign up for its separate free subscription. Send subscribe with any subject to tbtf-log-request@tbtf.com . I mail out collected Log items on Sundays.

If you need to stay more immediately on top of breaking stories, pick up the TBTF Log's syndication file or read an aggregator that does. Examples are Slashdot's Cheesy Portal, Userland, and Sitescooper.

If your news obsession runs even deeper and you own an SMS-capable cell phone or PDA, sign up on TBTF's WebWirelessNow portal. A free call will bring you the latest TBTF Log headline, Jargon Scout find, or Siliconium.

Two new columnists have bloomed on TBTF since the last issue: Ted Byfield's roving_reporter and Gary Stock's UnBlinking. Lately Byfield has been writing in unmatched depth about ICANN, but the roving_reporter nym's roots are in commentary at the intersection of technology and culture. Stock's UnBlinking latches onto topical subjects and pursues them to the ends of the Net. These writers' voices are compelling and utterly distinctive.