Finally, a quick note about the passing of the EvangeList. If you're one of the 40,000 subscribers who received the Final Message last week, you already know this, but the EvangeList, Guy Kawasaki's pro-Apple mailing list, went out with a whimper after three solid years of keeping the faith-- and, for better or for worse, of unleashing a torrent of electronic flame-mail upon any journalists (and "journalists") who dared to bad-mouth the platform or neglect their Mac homework. In the words of Guy Kawasaki himself, "the original purpose of the EvangeList was to counteract the negative news about Apple and Macintosh." Given that said negative news is largely a thing of the past, Apple decided to retire the EvangeList. At last check, we couldn't even access the web site.

To a certain extent, we agree with Apple's decision; for one thing, sometimes the EvangeList did more harm than good, simply portraying Macintosh users as a mindless cult ready to storm the castle at a mere word from King Kawasaki. For another, the content of the EvangeList had really started to slide lately, and even great shows need to know when to call it quits. For example, consider the final, oh, eight seasons of Married... With Children-- the dreaded "Jefferson Years." Then there's Melrose Place; despite its dubious campy charm, can anyone believe it's only now just getting around to finishing up its lifespan? And just how old are those "kids" on 90210? (Fox, in particular, seems to suffer from "run it 'til it drops, keep pushing it 'til it stinks" syndrome.)

That said, for those of you a wee bit concerned about the future of AtAT, since its original intent was largely the same as the EvangeList's, fear not-- we're not going anywhere until someone cuts the power to our studios. Sure, Apple's in a much less er, "dramatic" position than it was back in 1997 when we first started chronicling the soap opera, but even a prosperous Apple generates more drama than we know what to do with. So don't worry; by the time we're through spouting off at the keyboard, we'll have made 90210's final season look fresh and exciting. And oh yeah, we'd like to give the EvangeList a big posthumous thanks for being there when AtAT announced its premiere episode. We'll miss the ol' 'List, yes we will.