Subject: Info-Mac Digest V16 #76 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="Info-Mac-Digest" --Info-Mac-Digest Info-Mac Digest Wed, 01 Apr 98 Volume 16 : Issue 76 Today's Topics: [*] TidBITS#423/01-Apr-98 Can you have two (2) Control Strips? Disk Essentials: just another bad experience Experience with MS Office 98... Freeware or Shareware? Info-Mac Digest V16 #75 Looking for Mac-a-Mug or similar Missing printer icon - thanks & a warning Software for checking similarities (copies, Stop Wintel invasion- Know good accounting software for Macs?? ZIP Install Experience The Info-Mac Network is a volunteer organization that publishes the Info-Mac Digest and operates the Info-Mac Archive, a large network of FTP sites containing gigabytes of freely distributable Macintosh software. For more information, visit the Info-Mac Web site at . 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Or, click . * A full list of Info-Mac mirror sites is available at the URL below: * Search the archive at . Info-Mac volunteers include Gordon Watts, Adam C. Engst, Demitri Muna, Mike O'Bryan, Michael Bean, and Liam Breck. The Info-Mac Digest is sponsored in part by StarNine Technologies, developers of Internet server software for the Macintosh, including Web and email publishing systems. We'd also like to thank AOL for the main Info-Mac machine. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- --Info-Mac-Digest Content-Type: multipart/digest; boundary="----------------------------" Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="Info-Mac Digest V16 #76" ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 1 Apr 1998 00:01:00 -0800 From: TidBITS Editors Subject: [*] TidBITS#423/01-Apr-98 TidBITS#423/01-Apr-98 Apple rocks on this week, with announcements of network computers, new low-priced desktop Macs, and changes to QuickTime's pricing structure. Also this week, TidBITS issues a security challenge, Peter N Lewis of Stairways Software ships a hot new utility, and BoxTop Software finally makes it possible to export HTML from Adobe Photoshop. We round out the issue with a look at VST's EB-451 for PowerBooks with expansion bays. Topics: MailBITS/01-Apr-98 The First One's Free... Who Needs GIFs? TidBITS Internet Security Challenges! Apple Offers Options for QuickTime 3.0 SpellPoacher: Share and Enjoy Apple Ships the Holy Grail VST Bay Not Half-Baked [Archived as /info-mac/per/tb/tidbits-423.etx; 31K] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1998 18:03:10 -0500 From: Gord Shlanger Subject: Can you have two (2) Control Strips? David, Download Desktop Strip 1.2.1 at ftp://ftp.menandmice.is/pub/desktopstrip/ This control strip supports more than one control strip at a time. Enjoy ________________________________________________________________ Gord Shlanger Creative Alliance 47 Sycamore Drive Thornhill, Ontario, Canada L3T 5V3 (905) 707-9300 (tel) (905) 886-1506 (fax) gord@inforamp.net Saying Windows 95 is equal to Macintosh is like finding a potato that looks like Jesus and believing you've witnessed the second coming. -- Guy Kawasaki Macintosh, It Just Works! ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1998 20:36:39 +0100 From: "Jan C.H. Weijers" Subject: Disk Essentials: just another bad experience Ramiro, Talk to your credit card company. They will have an agreement with your supplier that states clearly your card can only be charged if the goods are supplied. In principle Mastercard should return your money, and raise a stink with whomever was supposed to supply diskessentials. On your MC bill there should be a phone number for complaints or questions. Call them and explain your card was charged for undelivered goods. They'll know what to do. Jan > I would appreciate very much to know some suggestions from this community to > recover not my hard disk this time but my $$$ , and if any legal actions can > be started from Spain. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1998 07:34:15 PST From: "Randall G. Floyd" Subject: Experience with MS Office 98... >> Jim Hardwick asked: >> >> >Has anyone installed 98 yet? Care to share experiences, cautions, etc? >snip >> The little assistant (what we get instead of that awful >> paperclip on Windows) is so cute I sometimes start Word just so my daughter >> can watch the assistant for awhile. (I know that sounds stupid, but wait >> until you see him!) > >If I could wring that little assistant's fat neck I would. You can turn it >off temporarily, but it keeps on coming back. Calling it annoying is being >polite. I'd like to find some method of turning it off completely. I'd try >removing all personalities, but since MS Office keeps re-installing parts >you remove, that won't work. > >I wish software companies would start treating its user's as adults or at >least have adult mode as an option. > >....Mike > >Mike Kazlow mkazlow@fsmail.pace.edu >When the above link is down: mkazlow@earthlink.net >Soon to be defunct MikeKazlow@aol.com, kazlowf@pace.edu I personally think Office '98 is fantastic. I find myself actually looking forward to using it (where I used to despise using it). I happen to like the office assistant, too. The real language help is unbelievably intuitive and has had the correct suggestion in the list nearly every time I asked for help. Even if I don't know the exact terminology of what I'm wanting to know, if I can just describe it somewhat closely, it usually comes up with what I need; I'm constantly amazed. Gone are the days of looking through the ridiculously poorly constructed help index of Office (which is still ridiculously poorly constructed based on the few times I actually tried to look for something in it). Mike, I seem to have had no trouble turning off the assistant by simply clicking its close box (which the assistant will tell you if you ask it). Clicking the question mark icon in the tool bar turns it back on, or selecting a help topic does also. If you want help without the use of the assistant, select 'Contents and Index' from the 'Help' menu (the assistant told me that, too). There are also some other suggestions for disabling the assistant under 'Troubleshoot the Office Assistant'. Get there by asking the assistant (for one example) 'Why can't I turn off the Assistant?'. HTH, Randall ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 01 Apr 98 08:50:10 GMT From: Ian.Goldby@powertech.co.uk Subject: Freeware or Shareware? Peter Kay wrote: >Some of us ... would very much appreciate being told by software uploaders >whether the file is freeware or shareware. ... The shareware concept is >great and some shareware is excellent, but I still want to know the nature >of the transaction BEFORE I download. Seconded! Can I suggest that an abstract form is placed on the info-mac web site, to make it easier for contributers to ensure they have included all the vital information about a submission. I can't even work out what a program does from some of the abstracts I read. Ian ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1998 14:21:01 -0800 From: wizard@technologist.com (Ron Bischof) Subject: Info-Mac Digest V16 #75 ~Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 21:32:30 -0500 ~From: Jeff Breuer ~Subject: PowerComputing Problem ~ ~Hello, all. Im in one big jam and hope someone out there can help me. ~ ~Three weeks ago I bought a Power Computing PowerCenter Pro 180 MT. When ~I opened the box, inside the packet with the bundled software was a note ~from Steve Kahng at Power Computing that said that "due to a temporary ~CD shortage," a Mac OS 8 CD was not included in the box, but that ~everything was pre installed on the hard drive. ~ ~Power Computing will be sending you this CD within days, the note ~said. Well, its been weeks and still there has been no startup CD. ~ ~So I called Power Computing today. Nobody answered, so I tried ~keying-in random extensions. No luck. I went to their web site and got ~the number for the company handling tech support and called them. They ~said there WERE no more CDs containing the system software (and they ~claimed they only had 3 of them to work with in their shop). They ~recommended I go to the vendor I bought the machine from, Mac ~Warehouse. ~ ~I did. They said they had no Power Computing system CDs. So I asked ~them to send me a Mac OS8 CD to boot from when the system got wiped ~out. They refused. They offered to give me an RMA number to return the ~entire mess, but I didnt because I wanted to keep the machine. ~ ~I called Apple. After several dozen calls to lots of people, the ~bottom-line answer was: No. Well sell you a brand-new copy of OS8 (and ~*that* may not even work properly, the guy insinuated, since you cant ~trust those Mac wannabes) -- but other than that youll get no help from ~us. What a friendly bunch. Im ready to go back to the tyranny and ~oppression of the other guys. ~ ~Heres my request: Does anyone out there have a Power Computing 604e ~machine that came with OS8 and an OS8 Power CD that they would be ~willing to lend me so that I can make a CD copy of it? I'll pay all the ~FedEx charges, and anything else. Theres nothing illegal or shady ~about this, since I do have a machine with OS8 already on it (and could ~show you the sales receipt); and I certainly wont run off with your CD ~if youd be good enough to lend it to me to copy. ~ ~If you can help, or if you can offer any advice on this, I sure would ~appreciate it. If I can't find the proper CD with the system and proper ~drivers, I may have to return the purchase, and I don't want to do that. ~ ~Please reply by email, as Im not a subscriber to the list yet. ~ ~Thanks in advance. ~ ~Jeff Breuer ~Arlington, Virginia ~H: 703-845-3461 ~O: 703-299-9470 ~email: jbreuer@clark.net ~ Jeff: I don't know why you had difficulty reaching Power Computing, I just spoke to them last week. Try them again. If you don't meet with success, I suggest you take Apple up on it's offer. There's nothing different about the Power CD, other than the bundled software and CD-ROM Toolkit OEM version. OS 8.1 includes updated ATI video drivers. You can upgrade to the latest version of CD-ROM Toolkit from FWB for a reduced price. I have 5 PowerCenter Pros in my client base (3 210s & 2 240s). One of those 240s is mine. I've upgraded them all from 7.6.1 using an Apple OS 8 CD and to 8.1 from web download. The CD from Apple will likely be 8.1 anyway. With the exception of the CD-ROM driver, the PowerCenter Pros were designed to work with 8.0/8.1. Contact me if you have additional questions. -- ________________________________________________________________________ Ron Bischof Bischof Consulting Services http://home.pacbell.net/bconsvcs/ email: wizard@technologist.com | pager: 310/636-7866 | fax: 310/649-6598 In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer. - Camus ________________________________________________________________________ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 1 Apr 1998 20:35:08 +1200 From: Nick Mortimer Subject: Looking for Mac-a-Mug or similar Back in days when MacPluses ruled the world, I remember seeing an application (possibly shareware or a demo) called Mac-a-Mug. It let you put together an police/identikit type picture with different sorts of eyes, noses, hair etc. But I've never seen anything like it since. Does anyone know if Mac-A-Mug, or anything similar, is around these days? -- Nick Mortimer, 170 Signal Hill Road, Opoho, Dunedin, REPUBLIC OF NEW ZEALAND email: epidote@es.co.nz home ph: intl+64-3-473-9340 office ph: 477-4050 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1998 15:52:07 -0500 From: Jane Ann Tun Subject: Missing printer icon - thanks & a warning Thanks to Bas S., Dennis D., Louis B. and Neil F. for their replies to my question about the Apple Color StyleWriter 4500. I tried all of your suggestions but nothing worked - for good reason! Today I -finally- got through to the Apple support guru here in Canada, only to be told that this printer does not use a desktop printer icon. Which I presume means that the Drag'nDrop capability won't work with this printer. The tech man couldn't tell me why the printer icon was eliminated. Also, if you're a writer and use only the black ink cartridge, which is small, Apple does not offer a larger all-black cartridge to take the place of the color+black cartridges combined. So I anticipate spending a fortune replacing that tiny black cartridge (which costs $49.99 here). There was a third-party large all-black cartridge that worked with my Stylewriter 2500, but , again according to the Mac guru, none is available for the 4500. Now I'm REALLY in mourning for my 2500 - it died a painful death at the start of our ice storm in January. Thanks again for your help, guys. This list is the best. Jane ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 01 Apr 1998 09:14:39 +0200 From: FranCois Lombard Subject: Software for checking similarities (copies, I'd like to find software that compares 2 text files and return a similarity percentage. Even a rather crude comparison of phrases could be usable, as I know the problem isn't as simple as it seems. The use for this would be to detect student papers that have been copied from previous work (plagiarism). Any too high percentage would mean I go and compare manually. But I need to screen a real lot of files. Ideally this software could be fed one reference file and a folder full of files and would return a similarity percentage with each file. I've already considered the comparison or difference features of many programs that show 2 files side by side highlighting any difference. These seem to be aimed at finding a few differences in mostly similar text. This doesn't do, as the files compared would have lot's of differences. I need something that finds similarities hidden in mostly different texts. It would be good if this software is capable of finding similarity even when a phrase is modified by adding or removing a few words. I could use shareware, $ware, source code, scripts, and could consider an offer from someone programming this. I'm sure there are a lot of techers out there that could use this so maybe there's a niche for a shareware developper. The interfacing could be rather simple, but I'd love a real Macintosh-grade user experience. If needed I could run it under SoftPC ou SoftWindows. FranCois Lombard FranCois Lombard lombardF@uni2a.unige.ch - Centre informatique Pedagogique /2-4 Rue Theodore de Beze /CP 3144 CH- 1211 Geneve 3 Switzerland +41 22 318 05 30 Fax + 41 22 318 05 35 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 16:15:16 -0600 From: Ted Logan Subject: Stop Wintel invasion- Know good accounting software for Macs?? >Hello to anyone who knows or works with the accounting, > >My friend works for a company where they all use Macs. The accountants >currently use Flexware because it supports multiple users. They just >hired some new accountants. The new accountants (coming from PC world) >are disappointed with Flexware's speed and limited capabilities - maybe >due to the steep learning curve. They want to buy PCs so they can use >the software they are familiar with. > >My friend and I are afraid this is the beginning of the Wintel invasion. > >We need your help: >- What other accounting software are available for the Macs?? "Acumen" is one; it runs off 4th Dimension relational database software. "MAS90" is another (written in Business Basic in versions ranging from Windows and Mac to Unix). Both are advanced, sophsticated systems (MAS90 is for CPAs but can be tweaked to run large organizations). Acumen is in Arizona (New Mexico?), I believe. I think MAS90 is in or near Palo Alto. An Internet search should bring them up easily enough. Both of these are relatively high-level, multi-module, expensive programs. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1998 20:39:56 -0500 (EST) From: Al Bloom Subject: ZIP Install Experience I'm in the middle of another "interesting" experience. Maybe one or more of y'all might profit. Or maybe I just need to scream. We got our fed tax refund last week, and I decided to add ZIP drives to the Bloom's three computers -- 7300, 5300, and PowerTower. I might have missed something, but it seemed Club Mac was the only usual mail order suspect from whom I could order ZIP drives for all three machines. Almost worked out of the box. The internal ZIP and bracket went into Leslye's PowerTower right smart sort of. The Power's 5.25" bays do not lend themselves to easy access. I thought I'd hurt something, either in the box or in my body, before I could pry off the metal cover on the topmost free bay. And, unlike the internal CD-ROM drive, the bracket didn't latch on the right hand side. Whatever. Seems OK with only left hand side screw-down. The Powerbook's ZIP is just too cool. Replaces the floppy drive. Swap out is disgustingly easy. And the internal version is *lots* smaller than an external. Neat! Pricey to be sure, but neat. Then I installed the second desktop-internal unit into my 7300. Lovely. Not a clue in the Apple-bracket instructions as to how to actually do the deed. Nor what to do about the metal frontpiece in the 7300 that would cover the ZIP if I put it back in the box. Took me a couple tries to get the ZIP properly positioned in the bracket -- top mounting holes, set the front of the ZIP far enough forward so at least the plastic is past the front of the bracket. This is much forward of the plane of the internal CD-ROM drive. That's OK. It slides into the opening in the new front plate. The Apple-brand bracket fits loosely over the 7300's internal mounting rails. Make sure the ZIP drive is as far forward as the new front plate allows lest your ZIP disk neither inserts nor ejects due to running into the side of the panel. Oddly enough the 7300's ZIP worked just long enough to install the Iomega software. Then it went goofy. ZIP Tools has a Mac and a PC partition. After the install, it only saw the PC partition. No problem with the ZIP disk itself. Did the same fool thing with the ZIP Tools disk that came with Leslye's drive. Leslye's drive saw both disks Mac. I recalled several I-M notes saying that one should be sure to get the latest ZIP drivers. So I checked the VSTTECH and IOMEGA web sites. Sure nuff. The VST driver was 0.1 out of date (1.0 to 1.1), and the vanilla Iomega driver was *way* out of date. The unit shipped with 5.1, and the latest is of the 5.5.1 persuasion. The VST upgrade was worth the download. The 1.0 driver yields a major slowdown in the already slowish 5300. I dunno yet if the Iomega upgrade is worth the powder to blow its nose. By the time I'd downloaded it, my Iomega drive had pretty much quit. It was stuck in "eject." I could not insert a disk into the drive. I called Club Mac tech support. I first spoke with Dan. He agreed that I had a goofy ZIP drive. He said he'd ship out a replacement immediately (due Tuesday by Fedex 2nd day), and he'd fax me instructions on how to return the deader. After four hours without a fax, I called back. Dan was at lunch. They're a tad retarded on the left coast. I spoke with Joshua. He looked up my file. Is your fax number sumthin-4224? Not quite. It's sumthin-2224. Little wonder Dan's fax didn't get through. But why didn't he call my voice number, which they had accurate? Ah well. Joshua faxed the return instructions. But the RMA number was blank. This was Friday night. I turned to my imaginary dog Toto and allowed as how we weren't in Kansas any more. Monday I called Club Mac. Got Joshua again. Why no RMA number on the fax? I gave it to you over the phone. No you didn't. Well then Dan must have. No, he didn't. Joshua gave me the RMA number. Fedex picked up the deader an hour later. OK, today is Tuesday. The day Goodwife Bloom had to be home to sign for the replacement internal ZIP drive. No Fedex. Leslye is irrigated. I don't much blame her. I'm not feeling real dry myself. There's nothing particularly unusual about this experience. When you save money by using mail order and doing your own install, you find out why a third party charges you 1.5 arm to do it for you. Things ain't always perfect. My dentist's opinion to the contrary (He says I grind my teeth), I can handle this. Al Bloom -------------------------------- --Info-Mac-Digest-- End of Info-Mac Digest ******************************