SHAREWARE NEWS
March 2000
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I wish there were a cheap data format intermediate between CD-ROMs and HD floppies. Each month when we put together the DOMs we bemoan the same problem: Too much shareware is too big for floppies, but it takes too long to fill a CD-ROM. As you know, a floppy can hold 1.4M of data, a CD-ROM 650M. A factor of almost 500. What we would like is something like 10M or even 20M. CD-ROMs are pretty cheap, but not as cheap as floppies. They DO have advantages - high speed and safety from accidental erasure. The drawback is that if you are done with one, you can't use it for anything except a drink coaster!
I would like other members of the club to think about this. A monthly CD is out of the question - we do not have the resouces to fill one each month. A mostly empty CD seems like an awful waste. But floppies are just about obsolete. One idea was to fill up a CD with some large standards like IE and NN and other free, standard software that we need to change infrequently, and have a variable section for new shareware. Since we charge $10 for CDs, we could keep the last 2 months on the CDs so you would have to buy them half as often - and spend the same amount - to get all the shareware we collect. (I think this might reduce our annual CD-ROM sales, but maybe I am wrong)
But I would like other ideas. It is quite a problem. We have to get out of the floppy era, but need something practical for us all. Email any of the shareware team with your ideas.
-Louis
This month's Free Sample Shareware is no longer available. See
current month.
Decoder 2.07 - Shareware
Decoder will decode any file that has been encoded using the
uuencode, binhex, AppleSingle, MacBinary (I, II, or III), or MIME
encoding formats. Just drop a file, multiple files, or a folder, onto
the Decoder application icon and it (they) will be decoded. Decoder
will determine the encoding method and decode accordingly. $20
Earthbrowser 1.0.3.sit - Shareware
This beautifully-rendered 3D model of the Earth shows you, in
real-time, how the night shadows are falling onto it and the clouds
overhead in any given part of the world. The clouds are updated four
times daily and are automatically downloaded and displayed onto your
model with your Internet connection. It features city lights and
locations, ocean depth colors, full-screen mode, screen saver mode,
global time calculation for any city, and more. Requires a PPC
running Mac OS 7.5 or later, Open Transport, and an Internet
connection. $19.95
Gerry's Attraction 2.0b3 - Postcardware
This app will allow you to explore two popular "attractors",
shapes defined by the evolution of equations that model convection
over time. The program traces up to 5000 points following either set
of equations from the original Lorentz Attractor or the Rossler
Attractor. To the non-physicist, this eye-candy of an app will let
you play with visual particles that scatter and flow as you tilt the
plane or move the mass directionally. Free
IPNetMonitor PPC 2.3.2 and
IPNetMonitor 68K 2.2.1
This set of tools is for anyone who regularly surfs the Net. This
package contains a collection of internet tools, including Test
Connectivity (Ping), Trace Route, Name Server Lookup, Who Is, Finger,
Monitor, and Subnet Calculator. Requires a PPC running at least Mac
OS 7.5.3 and Open Transport 1.1.1. $20
Redux 2.6.2
Redux is a simple but comprehensive Backup utility. It is simple
to use, will do scheduled backups. The backups can be from any volume
to any other volume, internal or external. However, it will not back
up to CD-Rs. Free.
SCSIProbe 5.1.2 - Freeware
This freeware SCSI diagnostic and mounting utility will display
pertinent information about your SCSI connected devices. There is no
support for this software, so use at your own risk. 68k and PPC
compatible. This is Adaptec's version.
Tip O' the Month
A few months back I warned about a bug in MS Word which could cause you to lose saved work IF YOU SAVE TOO OFTEN! Paradoxically, MS Word would keep saving copies to a work file, and then after about 250 of them, lose track of where they were and start all over! If you did that last save and then quit, you ended up with nothing!
A friend of mine had something like that happen - with Claris Works. I don't really know if the same bug exists in CW or not - but I know what you should do to keep from having your work evaporate:
SIMPLY MAC
If you ever open a folder and see - NOTHING - but the bar at the top says 3 items, check the scroll bars. Sometimes something happens and you get scrolled way, way far from the icons.
Easy to solve, without resorting to a lot of scrolling: in the View menu either change to list, or click Cleanup. Click on the resize button to get the best window for what you have.
Another use of the View menu - if large icons are STILL too small, set them to buttons. They get bigger AND one click launches the application!
And finally, one change with MacOS8 which was a step backward - you can no longer change the order of the fields in list view. But you CAN remove one of the fields. If you remove the "Date Modified" field, the next one should be size, which is PROBABLY what you want. They fixed this in MacOS8.5. And remember, DONT SHOW FOLDER SIZES! It slows the system down enormously!
My choices, only, out of hundreds of items every month. Drop me a
note for YOUR favorite. Links below are either info about or actual
downloads, and include commercial products, as well as shareware.
These do NOT include demos or beta releases. You might check out
Version Tracker for
more.
® means update to recently released DOM item. Wish we could catch
them all....
APPLE
AirPort 1.1 - for the AirPort Card and the AirPort Base Station
Mac OS 9 Audio Update 1.3 - improved audio support for USB Macs
MRJ 2.2 - Mac OS Runtime for Java to run Java apps & applets, SDK also new
CorelDRAW 8 LE - new freeware version of the popular graphics application
Eudora Pro 4.3.1 - popular email client, now offered as freeware
GraphicConverter 3.8 - view, edit, and convert most any graphic file format
AOL Instant Messenger 3.5898 - instant chat/voice notification utility between online users
LinuxPPC 2000 - Unix OS for Power Macs
Intuit Quicken 2000R3 - finance management software
SETI@home 2.0.2 - client for the collaborative effort: Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence
Aladdin ShrinkWrap 3.5.1 - creates and mounts exact duplicates of disk images, server busy
C&G SpellCatcher 8.1.1 - multi-lingual spell checker, dictionary, thesaurus...
Tex-Edit Plus 2.9 - excellent text editor with all the features for most text file needs
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other sources credited where known. Trademark credits, where omitted, remain with their owners - updated 18 February 2000 |
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