SHAREWARE NEWS

June 1997

by Louis Bookbinder

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PICNIC TIME!

Dust off that ground-cloth, that baseball glove, that picnic basket. Come on down to Cuesta Park, June 7th at Noon for a completely non-technical afternoon of socializing, eating, drinking (nothing hard, please) and having a wonderful time. Bring hats and plenty of sunblock. And something to share with others.

SEE YOU THERE!

SHAREWARE SAMPLE

This month's Free Sample Shareware has not been selected.

SMUG June '97 Disk of the Month

Once again - a double disk bargain - 2 disks for the price of one!

Assembled by Owen Saxton

8-Ball Emulator 8
Yes, It's Pool. The great old Billiards. There's no game like it. Embark on a simple game of 8-ball. It's a one-on-one alternating barhopping trip, except there's no bar and you don't actually go anywhere. The point of the game is to have fun and burn time. Shareware fee $10.

Backup by Stuffit 1.3e
This is an AppleScript script that will make a stuffed backup file by StuffIt LIte 3.5 or later and automatically replace its content with modified files. After you set up what folders to backup into which disk, only double-click this, then this will choose files which are modified after the modification date of stuffed backup file, and stuff these files into backup file. You need a registered version of StuffIt Lite 3.5 or later. Freeware.

Coffee Timer 1.1
"The Coffee Timer is a very simple countdown timer I built after frying my third coffee pot. Like many other programmers, I often drink coffe while working - I mean Italian expresso coffee, the kind you make with a "moka" coffee pot. However, I don't usually wait for the coffee to be ready before going back to work, which often results in the coffee pot being forgotten on the fire for hours. This is a programmer's solution to the problem: a simple countdown timer with a loud alarm and a couple of other useful options." Shareware fee $10.

DragAnyWindow 4.0
DragAnyWindow is a control panel that allows you to easily move any kind of window, including dialogs, alerts, standard "Open" and "Save" dialogs, game windows and other non-movable windows. It also lets you bring back to the desktop any window that has gone out of sight, or center the front window on the main screen with a single keystroke. Version 4.0 also implements solid dragging, which lets you drag a solid image of the window instead of the outlined shape. Shareware fee $10.

FreePPP 2.5v3
FreePPP is a network extension that enables Internet connections to be made via a modem using PPP (point to point protocol), the protocol used by most Internet service providers. This is the current released version. Freeware.

Glidel 3.4.2
Glidel is a system extension that extends the Finder's drag-and-drop abilities within System 7. You can select any icon currently visible, either on your Desktop or in an open folder, and drag it to one of several options on the File menu, any application or folder in the Apple menu, or any currently running application, via the Application menu. Shareware fee $25.

IC Type 1.1
IC Type is a simple drag-n-drop utility that uses Internet Config to change creator and file types based first on the name extension, and second on the existing file type if the extension mapping fails. IC Type will recursively follow folders, so dropping a folder or disk will attempt to change all files within that folder and its sub-folders. Freeware.

IC TypeChanger 1.2
Drag files onto the icon and their type and creator will be changed, based on the file extension, to whatever you have given it in Internet Config. In addition, you can now also drag folders and disks onto the icon and all files in them will be processed. By using the Option key, you will be presented with a dialog box where you can temporarily override one of IC's settings. Freeware.

Icon Archiver 2.1
The Icon Archiver is an extremely powerful database specifically designed for easy icon storage and retrieval. It can quickly scan whole disks or folders and grab all the icons they contain, including those you won't ever see in the Finder and all icon archives created by other icon utilities. It can easily export them in most graphics formats, including the ones you need for your web pages. All icons are compressed on the fly to save memory and disk space, and archives can contain avery large number of icons. Shareware fee $25.

Instant Folders 1.1b
Instant Folders is a system extension (INIT) that adds a popup menu of your favorite folders to the Open and Save dialog boxes. You can use this menu to quickly switch to a folder, instead of having to dig through the directory hierarchy to find it. The menu can be added to any time it is visible. Shareware fee $5.

Mac FTP List 4.5.3
The Mac FTP List is a list of FTP sites that contain Mac software. There are text and HTML versions available. Freeware.

QuickChar 1.5.5
QuickChar 1.5.5 is a control panel which allows you to easily use characters which are not readily accessible on your keyboard. For users with English language keyboard, this will mean foreign letters such as"é" or "Å" or "ß", while other users can enter characters which do not appear on their keyboards. It also allows you to shorten repetitive typing tasks by defining macros which can be expanded whenever you type a short abbreviation. Shareware fee $8.

Sloop 68K 1.0
Sloop, by Quadratic Software, is a program that adds cursor focusing to the MacOS. What is cursor focusing? Cursor focusing is a different way to navigate between windows. When cursor focusing is enabled, whatever window the cursor is over automatically moves to the front ("acquires focus") without having to be clicked on. This navigational strategy is popular on some other windowing systems such as X Windows. Up until now it has not been available for the MacOS. Shareware fee $20.

SndSampler 3.3.1
SndSampler is the ultimate tool for recording, editing, and working with Macintosh sounds. SndSampler is simple enough for the novice but contains many powerful features which will appeal to the sound-editing professional. It will work on any Mac running System 7.0 or later. It is helpful, but not necessary, for your Mac to have a sound input device. Of course you won't be able to record sounds in this case, but you can still edit existing sounds. Shareware fee $20.

Software Database
Keep track of all of your software in one easy to use ClarisWorks 4.0 database. Can't remember how much unpaid shareware you have? Let the Software Database help you sort it out! Need that tech support or upgrade phone number? Version number or serial number? Email, regular mail, or web address? Here they are, all in one central location! Macintosh or Windows. Postcardware.

Spy 2.51 US
Spy shows a list of all the processes which are active, even the background processes. It gives you some details such as launch time, used CPU time, and memory usage. Spy allows you to bring one of the processes to the front or to kill a process. Shareware fee $10.

StickyClick 1.2
StickyClick sort of simulates having a "lock" button on your mouse or trackball while accessing the menubar. By quickly clicking in the menubar, the Macintosh will be made to think that the mouse button is still down and keeps the menu open. You release the button locking by clicking and releasing again. Freeware.

TechTool 1.1.4
TechTool performs a number of useful diagnostic and cleanup functions for your Mac. Previous versions could zap the PRAM, rebuild the desktop and analyse the system file. The current version can now properly clean a floppy drive's heads. If you have Mac OS 7.6, you need this instead of earlier versions. Freeware.

WebFree 1.0
WebFree is a control panel that works with existing web browsers to let you, the individual, take control over what you see when you visit web sites. It allows you to be the editor for the web sites you visit, You can use it to screen out advertisements, unwanted images or links, and web cookies. The goal of WebFree is to make your web surfing more productive. Shareware fee $20.

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SECURITY ALERT!

A Power Mac 5500/6500 cache defect affects only a limited number of systems early in the production run. The problems typically appear when using the Installer, and a cache-disable utility provides a temporary workaround. [MacIntouch]

Several readers have reported a "segment loader" crash that occurs as the SAM Intercept extension loads at startup - but only after installing the May Definitions update. Users can increase the size of the SYSZ resource to fix this (or upgrade to a Mac OS later than 7.5.1) [MacFixit] (Check out MacFixit at http://www.macfixit.com/ )

Tip O' the Month

From Your Shareware Team

Nothing exciting this month. Some philosophical mumblings about troubleshooting.

You have to be organized. There are no magic bullets you shoot at your mac and problems get blown away. If you do not know how your mac works (on a simple, basic level), you will not be able to understand the problems you are having. Sorry about that, but no pain, no gain.

First, you have to be able to recognize when you have a problem. Really! Lots of times I get calls from a desparate Mac owner who is not having a problem - he/she just didn't realize this is the way Macs work! So play around, read any manuals or books you can find, talk to other mac users, come to the Q&A period or the tutorial sessions at SMUG. And before you load new software, READ THE *@^$#$@! MANUALS!

Second, you have to know WHEN the problem occurs. "Sometimes" aint gonna hack it. If a problem happens randomly, in any application, with any background environment, any time of day or night, you better think about getting a new Mac. It seldom happens like that. It is usually when you do one kind of activity (like saving a file, or turning on the modem.....), often in one application. Or only on startup. KEEP A LOG! Keep a notebook by your mac, and when something goes wrong, write down what application you were in, what you did just prior, what files you have open, etc. ANY info which might help. About the third time it happens, you will see a pattern.

Thirdly, if you are a happy mac owner, you will often play with your system. We encourage that by offering all sorts of fancy items of shareware that change the way your mac works. We try to keep bugs away from you, but THEY WILL HAPPEN. Keep any additions - or subtractions - in the same log. When a problem occurs, look back and see what you changed before the problem.

Finally, have patience. If all problems had obvious solutions, they wouldn't be problems. Solving real problems takes time. Take the information you have, sit down, and make a recovery plan. Have someone to call. Write down a sequence of actions to reliably re-produce the problem. Then list a lot of things to try and do them one by one. You can solve it, guarranteed!

SIMPLY MAC

Mac basics we sometimes forget

There are a lot of ways to scroll up and down in a window. Mostly people just use the scroll bars. I get particularly annoyed when someone scrolls down to the next page using the down arrow clicked repeatedly. (1: they could just hold the mouse button down and get faster scrolling and 2: they could just move up a quarter-inch to the gray area of the scroll bar and jump a whole page at a time!). But if you don't want to grab the mouse and try hitting the scroll bar - try the PageUp and PageDown keys ( on extended keyboards). There is a limitation, however: Page up and Page down do not work in some text applications like Netscape if you click anywhere else after loading the page. You need to click the scroll bar again for the keys to work. Works fine in Eudora, however.

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