Subject: Info-Mac Digest V16 #357 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="Info-Mac-Digest" --Info-Mac-Digest Info-Mac Digest Wed, 27 Oct 99 Volume 16 : Issue 357 Today's Topics: [*] TidBITS#503/25-Oct-99 (C) new iMacs [FYI] Apple's CD ROM driver [Q] LWII problem Backing up networked Mac volumes on PC's with a CD-R CDRW Eudora/PPP Crash (Reply) Menus drop down/Stay Down MIDI Tracks to Audio CD Old 21" monitor OS9 Applescript change PowerSave Our Ship 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. Working with the Info-Mac Digest: * To submit articles to the digest, email . * To subscribe, send email to with subscribe in the Subject line. * To unsubscribe, send email to with unsubscribe in the Subject line. * To change your address, unsubscribe from the old address, then subscribe from the new address. 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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 #357" ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 23:00:00 -0700 From: TidBITS Editors Subject: [*] TidBITS#503/25-Oct-99 TidBITS#503/25-Oct-99 Saturday's release of Mac OS 9 dictates the tone for this issue, with= in-depth coverage of Apple's latest version of the Mac OS. Geoff Duncan= first looks at Mac OS 9 installation and compatibility issues and then= focuses on three major features in Mac OS 9: Sherlock 2, Multiple Users,= and the Keychain. Tune in next week for more Mac OS 9 coverage. Also this= week, we cover the releases of Action Menus 1.0, Microsoft Outlook Express= 5.0, and iDo Script Scheduler 1.1.=20 Topics: MailBITS/25-Oct-99 Mac OS 9 Installation & Compatibility Major Features in Mac OS 9 [Archived as /info-mac/per/tb/tidbits-503.etx; 34K] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 08:51:23 -0400 From: a brody Subject: (C) new iMacs Dear Digest readers, Apple's finally listened in many respects. The new iMacs have DVD, video mirroring to SVGA monitors and TV screens, a better reset switch (instead of reset hole), not to mention Firewire and hard drives starting at 10 GB and Airport. And the DVD drive is not a cupholder type drive, but rather a thin slot in front that you just push the DVD into. And in spite of some complaints to the contrary, the new DVD player does allow fullscreen viewing if use the menus of the DVD player application. All starting at $1200 or 12 months same as cash at $100 a month at Sears, or $1500 and 12 months same as cash at $125 a month for a model with more hard disk space and more RAM. The same as cash offer applies to anyone who has the credit to get a Sears credit card. The $1500 model probably is only worth it if you can't live with 10 GB of hard disk space, and you don't think that you can get an addition 64MB of RAM for less than the cost difference between the two. CompUSA has a similar offer at 6 months same as cash on all Macs purchased with its credit card. In spite of the whole G4 fiasco of both the firmware, and the difficulty in getting chips out, Apple has managed to have better than 50% market share in Japan, and be the top selling computer maker in Japan as well. Let's here it for a job well done. Sincerely, abrody@smart.net Check out over 700 internet sites updated monthly at: http://www.index-site.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 12:43:35 -0500 From: Chaz Larson Subject: [FYI] Apple's CD ROM driver At 10:57 PM -0400 10/22/99, Marlon Deason wrote: >But, the Mac OS CD-ROM driver no longer supports CD-ROM >drives with non-Apple IDs. Actually, the Apple driver has *never* supported non-Apple CDs, except for the one which shipped with MacOS 7.6. Those previous to and subsequent to that one driver [v. 5.3.1] do not support non-Apple CD-ROM drives. So, I guess if you take 7.6 as a starting point, then the Apple driver "no longer" supports third-party drives, but I thought that phrase implied that Apple always had supported them up until some point when they stopped. In fact, the only time they have "supported" them was the time between 7.6 and 7.6.1. Even then, the Apple driver's support of non-Apple mechanisms was a undocumented bonus [perhaps mistake], not a positive statement of support, which is why that support went away so quickly and quietly. The hack referenced does make the Apple driver load for non-Apple CD-ROMs, but net.friends of mine who have tried it [and the net.friend who wrote it] have had inconsistent results. Sometimes the drive appears to work but cannot do Digital Audio Extraction and so forth. If the hack works, great, but don't be surprised if it doesn't do everything right. chazl Someday Mother will die and I'll get the money. Mom leans down and says, "My sentiments exactly, you son of a bitch." - They Might Be Giants, I Palindrome I Chaz Larson - chaz at spamcop dot net - http://www.visi.com/~chaz ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 13:48:09 -1000 From: Jerry Levinson Subject: [Q] LWII problem We have a few LaserWriter II models (ntx, f, g, nt) that have the same problem When warmed up, they print text many multiples larger than expected, gray, and off the page. Imagine a page on screen that says "Hello" in 12-point Helvetica, solid black. What comes out of the printer is 36 point, 50% gray. Sentences wrap around the page and print over the beginning of the same line. Swapping motherboards with a printer that does not have the problem fixes it, so the problem is on the motherboard. Must be a bad component. Any ideas as to which component it might be? Is it worth trying to figure this out or should I just find a source of replacement boards? We probably have 6 printers (maybe more) with this problem. TIA, Jerry ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 12:42:47 -0500 From: Chaz Larson Subject: Backing up networked Mac volumes on PC's with a CD-R At 6:36 PM -0400 10/23/99, JCB1@aol.com wrote: >I can mount the Mac volumes in the Win95/98 explorer. However, when I >attempt to copy the files to the CD-RW on the PC, I find that when I finish I >cannot read the CD on the Mac. Are you writing Joliet-format CDs? If so, that's your problem. I burn ISO-9660 CDs on an NT machine running Easy CD Creator every day, and they all read fine on my Macs. chazl Someday Mother will die and I'll get the money. Mom leans down and says, "My sentiments exactly, you son of a bitch." - They Might Be Giants, I Palindrome I Chaz Larson - chaz at spamcop dot net - http://www.visi.com/~chaz ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 12:46:36 -0500 From: Chaz Larson Subject: CDRW At 9:53 AM -0400 10/23/99, Ephraim Fithian wrote: >Is there an application/init to allow me to mount a CDRW disk and >drag files to and from it without using Toast? Direct CD: chazl Turn around! Turn around! There's something there that can be found! Turn around! Turn around! It's a human skull on the ground! - They Might Be Giants, Turn Around Chaz Larson - chaz at spamcop dot net - http://www.visi.com/~chaz ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 12:50:54 -0400 From: Mike Craymer Subject: Eudora/PPP Crash (Reply) Steve, Since upgrading to Eudora 4.2.1 from 4.0, I have also been experiencing frequent Eudora crashes on both a PM 8500 (OS 8.5, Ethernet) and a PB G3 (OS 8.1, PPP). I would have switched back to 4.0 but I'm now addicted to the on-the-fly spell checker. However, since I've disabled automatic filtering (about two weeks ago), the crashes seem to have stopped. I was told by Qualcomm that one of the filters may be corrupted. I'm just now starting to reactive them one at at time to see if one of them is the culprit. In the meantime, manual filtering seems to work fine. -Mike >Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1999 16:33:58 -0400 >From: Steve Seiden >Subject: Eudora/PPP Crash >MIME-Version: 1.0 > >Using a Performa 6360, MacOS 8.6, 88MB RAM, and a couple different >modems, Eudora 4.2.1 (or PPP/Remote Access PPP/freePPP) causes a >disturbing number of freezes. They seem to occur when the "quit" >command is issued to the server after messages are received, or as >soon as I try to open the first message ina Eudora window to read it. >I have checked Eudora's troubleshooting pages and increased memory to >the application, decreased saved e-mail, etc. I have tried different >combinations of PPP/Remote Access PPP/freePPP. But still get far too >many, and Eudora seems to be the culprit. It did freeze last night >while reconnecting via PPP with MSIE in the forefront, but Eudora was >active in the background. I use most of the same software on my >PowerBook 1400 without ever a freeze. Primary difference between the >two platforms is a UMax 600S and its vistascan software which adds a >lot of extensions (Kodak, etc.) > >I believe there is some undetermined conflict. Any experience with this?? > >Steve Seiden > ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 20:39:07 -0400 From: Dwight Early Subject: Menus drop down/Stay Down No, no one has mentioned it. I'll check it out and let you folks know. Thanks again to all who have replied with their solutions. --Dwight At 10:51 PM +0100 10/26/99, Bryan Tucker wrote: >Hi there, > >Probably a bit behind the times, but what I have been using for Sticky menus >is the >appearance manager 1.0.3 initially on OS 7.6.1. > >I'm surprised that no one else mentioned it. > >Bryan. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 12:31:25 -0400 From: Allan Hunter Subject: MIDI Tracks to Audio CD >My son has created several compositions on his PowerMac 7200/120 using a >MIDI software sequencer. Using the Quicktime Musical Instruments, he is >able to play these via the sequencer software through the Mac's >speakers. He would like to burn some Audio CDs as Christmas gifts, but >says he is unable to save his MIDI creations as anything but standard >MIDI files. What he believes he really needs is the ability to convert >his MIDI tracks to Audio CD files, and then burn them to Audio CD format >compact disks. We have Toast and a writable CD drive. We're looking >for advice on what additional software is required to create the Audio CDs. > >Many, many thanks in advance for any help. Feel free to email as well >as to include answers here. > >C. Kurt Holter > >kurt@holterphoto.com >http://www.holterphoto.com Quite simple actually. Open the MIDI file using MoviePlayer. It will convert to a QuickTime movie format. Then export the track as an AIFF sound file. Allan Hunter ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 16:27:52 -0400 (EDT) From: TOM FORD - DUPONT CRD/MS&E Subject: Old 21" monitor Hi- I "inherited" a 21" inch Apple Color Monitor (vintage 1992). My (original) Powerbook G3 can't recognize it. I'm running OS 8.6, have plenty of memory. The System Profiler says: Built-in Display Card: name : chips65550 revision 194 vendor ID 102C It drives my 17" multiscan (vintage 1994) just fine. Not enough VideoRAM? Do I need a driver? Any way to get this thing to work? Thanks. Tom Ford DuPont Send personal replies to: Thomas.M.Ford@usa.dupont.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 12:29:16 -0700 From: Ron Nye Subject: OS9 Applescript change Under OS8.6, I had an applescript in the startup items folder that would line up my disk partition icons in a row at the bottom of the screen, out of the way, i.e.: tell application "Finder" activate select startup disk set position of selection to {84, 565} end tell). With the new OS9 applescript, I get an error message that says this is the wrong command to use with this type of window. This occurs even if I set the new applescript to record, and move them manually, then run the script. I cannot find anything in the Help files to solve this - so...help?! ron nye ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 18:11:15 -0700 From: "Ricardo J. Seijo" Subject: PowerSave Our Ship Hi All: I work in a computer integrated classroom at Virginia Tech. We are having some difficulties with our newly-acquired scanning software. We have two UMAX Astra 1220U scanners that came with the VistaScan 3.1 scanning application, including the PowerSaving- 1220U software. While the scanners are slow and obviously not meant for a lab environment (not our bureocratic decision), there isn't much that we can do about that. The software, on the other hand, is more within our control. I have e-mailed UMAX with several questions stated somewhat differently each time (I've heard they have a semi-automated Customer Service that scans for keywords. UMAX has been of absolutely NO help -- the times they've actually replied, that is. The main problem is that the PowerSaving opens a Settings window onto the Desktop. The app resides in Startup Items so that it will be launched automatically, and its purpose is to shut off the scanner's lamp a set amount of time after boot-up/use. Obviously, we need it so the lamps don't burn out within a week, but we are trying to get the Settings window to either not come up, or disappear without having to go in and manually close it every time we restart. Also, we are worried that users will mess around with the Settings too much. We have tried to AppleScript them, but the app's windows (there's actually only THE one) are read-only (out of AppleScript's reach). The update to VistaScan 3.5.1 comes with a "PowerSavingDRVR" Extension, which sounded promising, but it doesn't seem to DO anything, and I cannot access its info on Extensions Manager. My question, after much babble (I apologize), is this: IS there a way to do what I need to do? Even if it's just hiding the app altogether with a script, it would be better than having it lounging on the Desktop. Is there an alternative sofware that anybody would recommend (free/shareware)? Or even if anybody has had this problem before and knows something about this software that I don't. Thanks in advance, and sorry about the long post. - R ___________________ To take photographs... is putting one's head, one's eye and one's heart on the same axis. - Henri Cartier-Bresson -------------------------------- --Info-Mac-Digest-- End of Info-Mac Digest ******************************