Subject: Info-Mac Digest V17 #39 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="Info-Mac-Digest" --Info-Mac-Digest Info-Mac Digest Fri, 03 Mar 00 Volume 17 : Issue 39 Today's Topics: [*] M3U Drop Downloader 2.0 [*] OfficePool 2000 [*] Pukool 1.0 [*] TrashScan 1.0 [*] URL Manager Pro 2.6 (German version) [*] VideoZoom 2.2 [*] VSE Update Finder 2.1 - Free tool to find updates [Q] Comparing Printers accelerator speeds Eudora and signatures Eudora menus recovered [Yay!] How do I connect an iBook to External Monitor/LCD Projector Info-Mac Digest V17 #38 TextBroom version 1.3.0 Released Vinyl records into CDs Vinyl records into CDs 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 the words subscribe info-mac in the message. * To unsubscribe, send email to with the words unsubscribe info-mac in the message. * To change your address, unsubscribe from the old address, then subscribe from the new address. * Please send administrative queries to . Downloading and Submitting Files from the Info-Mac Archive: * A full list of Info-Mac mirror sites is available at: * Search the archive via the MIT HyperArchive at: . * To submit files for the archive, email the binhexed file with a description to . Submissions must be made by the author or with permission of the author. It may take up to a week to process; check mirror sites for the status of new uploads. * To submit files larger than 2 MB, email a description to and then use an FTP client to upload the binhexed file to info-mac.org, using the userid "macgifts" and the password "macgifts". Or, click . Info-Mac volunteers include Adam C. Engst, Demitri Muna, Hugh Lewis, Tom Coradeschi, Shawn Bunn, Christopher Li, Patrik Montgomery, Ed Chambers, and Chris Pepper. America Online donated the main Info-Mac machine . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- --Info-Mac-Digest Content-Type: multipart/digest; boundary="----------------------------" Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="Info-Mac Digest V17 #39" ------------------------------ Date: 3 Mar 2000 From: Dan Klein Subject: [*] M3U Drop Downloader 2.0 Have you been bugged out when your peecee friends can download those awesome MP3s they beamed to MP3.com? Do you want to keep just a small file pointing to an MP3 online? M3U Drop Downloader may be your solution! REQUIREMENTS Any Mac that can run Mac OS 9* QuickTime 4.1** NEW IN VERSION 2.0 -- Now that QuickTime 4.1 is scriptable, you have the option to open the MP3 in either your web browser (for systems not upgraded to 4.1) or QT Player 4.1. -- You can now switch between QT 4.1 Player/Web Browser by double-clicking M3U Drop Downloader's icon! -- Worked on this documentation a bit. COST/DISTRIBUTION M3U Drop Downloader is FREEWARE! Please distribute, modify, decompile, or otherwise mutilate for your own pleasure. If you wish to include M3U Drop Downloader on a commercial CD, please notify me before you do and send me a complementary copy. CONTACTING THE AUTHOR Please contact me with any bugs/suggestions for this program. My e-mail address is . UPDATES I will send updates to the INFO-MAC server as well as upload to my iDisk! My login is dmacman2000. Have fun! LEGAL Yeah, all that legal stuff applies too. In other words, you can't sue me for anything over the amount you paid ($0.00) or blame me if your Mac explodes. Although I try to make this as bug-free as possible, there is always an anomaly in every piece of computer software. ______________________________ *M3U Drop Downloader was compiled in and is optimized for Mac OS 9, however it may work under older versions of the Mac OS. **Not necessary, but only if you want to play directly from the QuickTime Player [Archived as /info-mac/comm/inet/web/m3u-drop-downloader-20.hqx; 9 K] ------------------------------ Date: 3 Mar 2000 From: Paul Causey Subject: [*] OfficePool 2000 OfficePool 2000 remains the most comprehensive pool manager for Mac OS on the market with new features that make managing a small 10-entry pool or a the large 1000+ entry pool extremely easy. We are extremely pleased with this new version of OfficePool, said Paul Causey, PachydermÆs chief software engineer. Now customers can create and manage NCAA pools with extreme ease and then publish those results onto the web with a few clicks of a button. OfficePool 2000 also has many other features which make managing office pools a breeze. Features in OfficePool 2000 include: - Fast and easy keyboard entry -- or not (optional button entry is also available) - Create a full web site for your pool (Entries, Standings, Brackets, etc.) with a single click of the mouse (Well, maybe two clicks) - The one and only QuikPik feature which automatically generates completely random brackets. Very useful for those addicted to the lottery and also fun for those who don't know anything about basketball! - Limitless* number of entries (we run our 1000+ entry pool and it's very fast) - Pick the favorites (higher seeds) for the entire bracket with one keystroke (Cmd-F). - Configure your pool to give bonus points for upsets (two different options) - Championship tiebreaker option to break those pesky ties. - Registered version includes ePool 2000, a scaled down version to send out to pool participants so you don't have to enter their picks. PC (Win95/98/NT) and MacOS (68K/PowerPC) versions are included. - Registered Users will also recieve the 2000 NCAA Pool Teams file immediately after the selections are announced. [Archived as /info-mac/game/office-pool-2000-205-ppc.hqx; 589 K] ------------------------------ Date: 3 Mar 2000 From: "David C. Oshel" Subject: [*] Pukool 1.0 Pukool (tm) - Radio Station Identifier Pukool (tm) lets you do a reverse lookup on broadcast frequency, and is in the public domain. It uses the FCCØs 20 Mb. facility.dat file, which may probably still be downloadable from ftp://ftp.fcc.gov/pub/Bureaus/Mass_Media/Databases/facility.zip Absolutely no warranty applies, especially as to the internal format, availability or accuracy of facility.dat or any other document produced by the U.S. government. Enter 0 to get all AM or FM stations in the selected state. Fuzzy lookup will display a range centered on the target frequency. E.g., 1000.0 finds AM stations from 910.0 to 1090.0, while 90.0 finds FM stations from 89.1 to 90.9 in the selected state. FCC data for the U.S. only -- including Puerto Rico, American Samoa, etc. Sorry, no Mexican or Canadian station data is included. Licensed only and Exclude FX options attempt to screen translater stations, inactives, etc. Output to file sends selected facility.dat records verbatim to a user-defined file. Click "?" again for page 2. Use this ABSOLUTELY UNSUPPORTED public domain freebie at your own risk. It was working fine on 1 March 2000. [Archived as /info-mac/comm/pukool-10.hqx; 5060 K] ------------------------------ Date: 3 Mar 2000 From: Michael Coffey Subject: [*] TrashScan 1.0 TrashScan is a freeware utility designed to help detect port scans to a Macintosh on a network. It can monitor ten user-defined ports simultaneously, plus the standard HTTP, FTP, and TELNET ports. TrashScan also can export a log of incidents that can then be forwarded to an ISP for further action. TrashScan requires a PPC with Open Transport installed. OS 8 or later is recommended, although 7 will work. Mike Coffey [Archived as /info-mac/comm/trash-scan-10.hqx; 767 K] ------------------------------ Date: 3 Mar 2000 From: Alco Blom Subject: [*] URL Manager Pro 2.6 (German version) This is the German version of URL Manager Pro. New in version 2.6 of the popular bookmark manager for the Mac is support for the the new iCab Web Browser and support for Apple's Keychain feature of Mac OS 9. URL Manager is now also Sherlock-aware, another feature of Mac OS 9. But undoubtedly the most important improvement in version 2.6 has been has been a complete overhaul of the URL Manager Pro documentation. The new reference material, which is available online in Adobe Acrobat format, includes a tutorial, a brief introduction to URLs, and a complete reference section. "The documentation was completely rewritten from scratch," says Alco Blom, designer and developer of the program. "Our target audience was two-fold: we wanted to make the program as easy as possible to use for users new to the Apple and to the Internet, the iMac public. With them in mind, we took special care with the tutorial. And to help our power users get the absolute maximum from the program, we compiled an exhaustive reference to all of URL Manager Pro's countless options." URL Manager Pro, the professional bookmark manager for the Macintosh for use with Netscape Navigator/Communicator, Microsoft Internet Explorer and iCab, gives users a more convenient way to manage bookmarks, E-Mail addresses and Newsgroups. URL Manager Pro 2.6 is Mac OS 8.6 and Mac OS 9 savvy. It features support for the Keychain of Mac OS 9 and fully supports the new iCab Web Browser. URL Manager Pro can now track the History for multiple browsers concurrently. URL Manager Pro is available in English, Japanese, German, French, Italian, Swedish and Spanish. URL Manager Pro has garnered many glowing accolades in the Macintosh press, including TidBits and Macwelt. "URL Manager ist ein echtes Schnèppchen." - Macwelt. URL Manager Pro is a Kagi Top 10 shareware product. URL Manager Pro is $30 (oder 60 DM) shareware. Contact: Alco Blom - alco@url-manager.com [Archived as /info-mac/comm/inet/web/url-manager-pro-26-de.hqx; 701 K] ------------------------------ Date: 3 Mar 2000 From: Juergen.Mellinger@t-online.de Subject: [*] VideoZoom 2.2 This control panel lets you zoom into PAL/SECAM formatted video input when using Apple's low cost video in hardware as found in 630, 5300, 6200, or similar machines. Zooming into PAL/SECAM video will result in a clearer picture by reducing the amount of scaling that occurs. Version 2.0 introduced automatic adjustment of the system clock according to teletext time; version 2.2 fixes a bug related to this feature. VideoZoom requires a 68k or PPC Macintosh with at least System 7 and video in hardware with a Philips SAA 7xxx decoder/scaler chip. The clock setting feature requires a TV tuner card with a teletext decoder. VideoZoom comes in an English, German, and French version. [Archived as /info-mac/cfg/video-zoom-22.hqx; 139 K] ------------------------------ Date: 3 Mar 2000 From: VSE Customer Support Subject: [*] VSE Update Finder 2.1 - Free tool to find updates VSE Update Finder is a new version of the freeware utility for locating software updates listed among 15 well-known Internet databases. The new version updates some search scripts, recognizes applications better and fixes a bug where the rebuilding of the application list did not work. Further information about VSE Update Finder: http://vse-online.com/update-finder/index.html System Requirements: System 7.5 or later, 5 MB RAM [Archived as /info-mac/app/vse-update-finder-21.hqx; 562 K] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2000 11:38:28 -1000 From: Jerry Levinson Subject: [Q] Comparing Printers I have the opportunity to buy either the HP 2100TN or the Brother HL-1270N (I need a printer with Ethernet and PostScript). The dpi and page speed are comparable enough for me. It would be connected to 6 iMacs, one older PowerMac, and a few old Performas. Any comments, comparisons, thoughts? Thanks, Jerry ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2000 17:57:00 +0000 From: Ezra Nathan Subject: accelerator speeds I've been frustrated in buying an accelerator card because of unavailability. I had determined to buy the Sonnet Crescendo G3 300 MHz 1mg backside cache and I put in an order for that only to discover an XLR8 300Mhz 1 Mg backside cache being advertised =A320 cheaper. The Sonnet failed to arrive on the stated date, so I cancelled that and tried to order the XLR8, but it was out of stock and when it was back in stock the price had risen by that crucial =A320 (because of re-packaging - ugh!). Now I am told that the Sonnet 300Mhz has been discontinued and that a 350MHz one is coming out for =A320 more than the 300MHz ones. Can anyone tell me what speed difference might there be between a 300MHz and a 350MHz accelerator? Is there some table I can use? Going above the 350MHz price will just make it too close to a new, basic iMac to be worthwhile. Thanks, > Ezra Nathan ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2000 10:08:32 -0800 From: Bob Durst Subject: Eudora and signatures With the upgrade to the latest Eudora (4.3.1), I've lost the ability to use Signature Randomizer. Does anyone know how to get it to work with this latest version, or some alternative that provides the same function? -- -Bob D. Builder and pilot of Kinetic Sculpture vehicle "Killer Tomato" Top ten reasons why you should build a Kinetic Sculpture Vehicle: #4 Challenges your ability to calculate water displacement ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2000 16:23:34 -0500 From: Donald Webb Subject: Eudora menus recovered [Yay!] My thanks to the Info-Mac subscribers who have e-mailed me and have posted in the digest encouragement and advice about restoring the "Special" menu in Eudora Pro 4.2.2. First, the good news: the "Special" menu now appears as it should. "Settings" is no longer hidden under "Empty Trash," the "Find" menu is in place, and I can even find things now. The bad news, such as it is, is that if you ever have the same problem, I can't tell you exactly how to fix it. However, I can offer some magic spells, a.k.a. empirical data sans theory: (1) Beware of a plug-in called "Menu Replacement." Experimentation leads me to believe that it alone will cause the problem. I didn't even know it was on my disk until it turned up in the course of some major file-shuffling. Maybe it's an overlooked relic from an earlier version of Eudora. However, that plug-in is not the only suspect. (2) Do not rename the "Eudora folder." Yes, I can hear it now: "Oh no! You did _what_?!" I now think it's a Very Bad Idea; Eudora appears to be fond of its folder name. I am reordering my notions of tidiness and have renamed my backup and archive folders, instead. "Eudora folder" is the active one. (3) Eudora's files and plug-ins need to be stationed in certain folders at certain levels. The arrangement seems rather intricate and sometimes even arbitrary. I haven't tried to understand it but have carefully followed a list kindly outlined at length by a correspondent. At one point I got confused BZZT EUDORA INTERCEPT What do you mean, "got"? Confusion seems to be the climate, not the weather. EUDORA OUT BZZT and made a mistake. The menus reverted to their bad old ways even though Menu Replacement had been deleted. So, it looks like there's more than one way to scramble the menus. Maybe the moral of this story is to sweep up from time to time but otherwise leave well enough alone. Don Webb ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 15:27:00 +0000 From: Lisa Cullen Subject: How do I connect an iBook to External Monitor/LCD Projector Can anyone tell me how to connect an iBook to External Monitor/LCD Projector? Thanks Lisa Cullen Lisa Cullen Email:lmcullen@tcd.ie Dept. of Psychology, Ph: +353-1-6082289 Trinity College, Fax: +353-1-6712006 Dublin. Ireland. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2000 21:10:10 -0800 From: Doug Hardie Subject: Info-Mac Digest V17 #38 >What is the best (highest quality) way to record a CD from a vinyl record? > >I have a G4, a stereo system and a CD-RW which I can hook together. > >My questions are about the route: which program should I use, which file >format should I save in, etc. > >Thanks in advance for the help! > >Michael Silverstein >Materials Engineering >Technion I have started using Coaster which is available at http://www.in.tum.de/~rothc/coaster.html. It will generate the audio files that can be used with Toast to cut audio CDs. That combination works well, but I got fooled by one record where something (not audible) raised the volume on one channel so I raised the other to restore ballance. Now the CD is completely out of kilter. It probably pays to listen to part of the captured files before cutting the CD. AIFF format is normally used for audio files. -- Doug ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 15:43:52 +0100 From: studio@blueline-studios.com Subject: TextBroom version 1.3.0 Released TextBroom has just been updated to version 1.3.0. Fixes include: - The app would sometimes freeze when files from the Finder were dropped into its main window. This problem has been fixed. -"Remove multiple spaces" does now work properly. New features include: -Drag&Drop: Files can now be dropped into the app's window. -Speed improvement of certain functions. TextBroom's home page is at Contact: Daniel C. Kueng BLUE LINE STUDIOS Hueningerst 18 CH-4056 Basel Switzerland ___________________________________ Phone: ++41 61 322 3555 Fax: ++41 61 322 3555 E-Mail: studio@blueline-studios.com Web: www.blueline-studios.com Note: In case this press release bears no relevance regarding your area of activity, please let us know and we will remove your address permanently from all our mailing lists. Thanks for notifying us. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 2 Mar 00 21:13:05 -0800 From: "B.J. Major" Subject: Vinyl records into CDs >What is the best (highest quality) way to record a CD from a vinyl record? > >I have a G4, a stereo system and a CD-RW which I can hook together. > >My questions are about the route: which program should I use, which file >format should I save in, etc. Michael: be advised that if you want the "highest" quality, you usually have to buy expensive software to do that. Granted that kind of software gives you more control and has options for eliminating some or even most of the surface noise of an LP. Personally, I am quite pleased with the results that Iomega's Record-It gives (and the software was free with the purchase of a Zip drive). My LPs are all in good enough shape that a little surface noise doesn't interfere with enjoying the results. Record-It saves what you input through the Mac's sound-in jack in AIFF-C (Compressed AIFF) format. All you have to do after that is convert the files to regular AIFF via the freeware SoundApp application and then the Mac's Toast software will use the AIFF files to burn your CDs. I've been doing this project for several months now on a sporadic basis, I have lots of LPs to convert, and I'm quite happy with the results. --bj Home Page w/Links to my music and tv sites: ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 03 Mar 2000 09:44:33 -0800 From: "Cyrus Roton" Subject: Vinyl records into CDs Michael Silverstein asked: < What is the best (highest quality) way to record a CD from a vinyl < record? I have a G4, a stereo system and a CD-RW which I can hook < together. My questions are about the route: which program should I < use, which file format should I save in, etc. First, you need a pre-amp to boost the phonograph cartridge signal level, and to apply the correct compensation. If the turntable is part of a hi-fi system, then the "line-out" jacks will have a suitable level to feed into the Mac. It is possible to use speaker output to the Mac microphone inputs, but I am nor sure how safe that is. There are several programs which can capture the audio into suitable files for transfer to CD. Coaster is a freeware program which will do the job. But, you will get much better results using a program, like Arboretum HyperEngine, with RayGun plug-in, which features hum filter, noise filter, and click filter. After some experimenting and reading of the manual, you can get nice, clean, recordings, which sound better than the originals. After the files are recorded to hard disk (up to 650 MB per CD-full), they can be copied to CD by the Toast program. You could convert the AIFF files to MGP3 (mpeg), to reduce the size by a factor of ten, and play them from the hard disk. If you copy them to CD in mpeg format, then you would need an MPG3 CD player. Cyrus W. Roton LCDR USN Ret. MITA tech. Chairman, Ridgecrest Apple User Group -------------------------------- --Info-Mac-Digest-- End of Info-Mac Digest ******************************