From: xxltony@crash.cts.com (Tony Lindsey) Subject: Mac*Chat#091/29-Sep-95 Mac*Chat#091/29-Sep-95 ====================== Welcome to Mac*Chat, the weekly electronic newsletter biased toward Mac users who are production-oriented professionals. Other Mac users may find many, many items of interest as well. I'd enjoy hearing your feedback and suggestions. Unfortunately, due to the massive numbers of messages I get every day, I can't guarantee a personal reply. Tony Lindsey, . Mac*Chat may be copied freely, provided that all copies are left intact and unedited. Financial donations are gratefully accepted, to help defray the costs of putting-out one of the fastest-growing newsletters on earth. For more information, send e-mail to , with "Donations" in the Subject line. Mac*Chat back-issues may be found within any Info-Mac ftp archive at /info-mac/per/chat and read with any Web browser at See the end of this file for legalisms and info on how to get a free subscription. Any [comments in brackets] are by Tony Lindsey. Topics: Highlights Of This Issue Editor's Notes Warning - Archive Your Data And Old Program Versions Magneto-Optical Drive Prices Drop Again Jaz Drive Info Wanted The Biggest Mac Newsletters Hover Bar Tips For AOL Users - Getting And Installing Apple Software Upgrades First Virtual Feedback Syquest And Iomega Drives Technical Section Starts... Here Organizing Netscape Bookmarks The Upcoming PNG Image-Format Legalisms Free Subscriptions To This Newsletter Highlights Of This Issue ------------------------ I mention a concern about your archived data's value after only a few years, Track down APS's web site (at last) and mention how the price of my favorite drive has dropped again, I ask for more gossip about the Jaz drive, and brag about Mac*Chat's status among its peers (and how to find them). Kelly Clark tells us about a really nice shareware program, I continue my series of articles on how to get the most out of the Internet, a correction (and an opinion) concerning First Virtual, we deeply discuss several external drive types, we find out that Netscape really DOES have a built-in way to arrange bookmarks hierachically, and we learn more about the proposed replacement for the GIF file-format. Editor's Notes -------------- By Tony Lindsey Well, it's been an interesting week - The first few days of opening the door to donations (see issues #85 and 90) have been very busy for me, what with sending-off instructions and de-bugging the procedures. I'll have more news about this later on, but let's say that the experiment has been quite a nice success so far. MANY thanks to everybody who wrote and said such nice things! ----------- I find myself being asked the same question over and over lately - "Is Apple going to die, like everybody tells me it will?" Now, I know we've covered this pretty thoroughly in past issues, but here's my newest thought: There are twenty million Mac users on earth that would rather chew-off one of their own limbs than switch to Windows. Apple is NOT going to die! There is a sports-competition mentality at work here. It's not enough for one team to get more points, there seems to be a desire to see the other team LOSE, and lose big. Somehow, I think I lack the gene that makes me want to smite enemies and grind their bones for my bread. :-> Warning - Archive Your Data And Old Program Versions ---------------------------------------------------- By Tony Lindsey I've been getting a lot of questions lately about the long-term dependability of storage media. Personally, I've been satisfied with the ten-year-plus reputation of my magneto-optical disks (see back-issues 58, 62, 70, 74, 76, 77, 81 and 84). I've been telling people that media longevity is good, but it's also very important to consider whether your data can be accessed later on. As a good example: PageMaker 6.0 just came out. I sincerely doubt that it will read the elderly PageMaker 3.0 or 4.0 data files I've been squirreling away for years. I do my best to translate the old files to the newer format (a real pain in the butt) but I also keep a copy of my older programs, just in case. Consider using ShrinkWrap (see issues 78 and 90 and below) to archive your original program diskettes onto optical cartridges. Magneto-Optical Drive Prices Drop Again --------------------------------------- By Tony Lindsey - By the way - I heard that the price on my Magneto-Optical (MO) drive had dropped again, so I called APS and confirmed it. The 230-meg external drive has dropped from $799 to $499.95 in steady increments of $100. Are there other good, solid, dependable MO drives available for less? I've been recommending APS because I've had good experience with client support from them. APS Technologies (800-677-3294/816-920-4109) e-mail: Updates, etc.: Web site (at last!): Jaz Drive Info Wanted --------------------- By Tony Lindsey Also, has anybody gotten the Jaz drive yet? (see issue #87). I want to know all about how well it works, and stuff like street price. I want your impressions! The Biggest Mac Newsletters --------------------------- By Tony Lindsey If you'd like a good idea of how fast Mac*Chat is growing, and who its sister publications are... The following location on the Web tells you how to subscribe to any of 7,000 electronic newsletters, covering just about any topic. If you view the list of the most-popular newsletters, you'll notice something interesting. Out of the top-thirty newsletters and discussion lists, there are only three that are specifically about a particular type of computer hardware or operating-system. ALL THREE are Mac-related: - TidBITs is #3 - Mac*Chat is #14 at the moment, though it tends to go higher and lower at times. Not bad for something that has only been widely available on the Internet since October of last year! - Info-Mac Digest is currently #28. Interestingly, the Windows 95 discussion is #65! Don't you think there's a story in there somewhere for one of the Mac magazines to cover? For those who aren't familiar with those two other mailing-lists, TidBITs is an excellent newsletter that I've shamelessly copied in many ways. It's more technically-oriented (and not quite as gossipy). You can trust Adam and Tonya Engst's good word. For more info, send e-mail to . Back-issues may be found at The Info-Mac Digest is a very long listing of the new freeware/shareware software and information arriving at the many Info-Mac sites all over the planet. It also contains people's feedback and notes. It's more reading than _I_ can keep up with, but it may work well for you... For more info, send e-mail to Back-issues may be found at Hover Bar --------- By Kelly Clark Regarding your "Grinder" article for AOL users...for those who like that uncluttered look, how about a nifty little program called "Hover Bar"? I use it and love it. You can find it just about anywhere. I think I picked it up on a local BBS. It placed #1 in system enhancements in the 1995 MacUser Shareware Awards. Here's what they say: Hover Bar - Guy Fullerton's program launcher for System 7.5 ($5) is way too cool. Among its features are a floating program-launch palette and multiple clipboards. Here's what _I_ say: When I open my internet connection from my apple menu, Hover Bar appears on the screen. I can drag and drop it anywhere I want and I can place the bar vertically or horizontally. If it "gets in my way" I just use command-escape and it disappears! The same key combination brings it back again. Hover Bar is the answer for those of us who like "neat" desktops. By clicking a tiny icon I can log in, go to FTP, IRC Homer, Netscape, Newsgroups, Eudora...for uploading and attaching chores I simply drop the file in question onto DropStuff, Sound App or Stuffit Expander. All this (and more, if I wanted...I used to keep Claris Emailer on "the bar" for example) on one small neat little bar that comes and goes with one keystroke combination. I love it! Tips For AOL Users - Getting And Installing Apple Software Upgrades ------------------------------------------------------------------- By Tony Lindsey In issue #90, I explained how to get two of the most-important "Grinder" programs. If you have followed the instructions and are ready to continue, then please consider following along with these next steps. Why? Because you're going to have to deal with the awkward, messy parts of the Internet at some point, and the example I use below makes a very good tutorial. These steps work best if you try to connect to AOL while the Eastern USA is going through the very early morning hours or late at night... - Sign on to America Online - Pull down the "Go To" menu and choose "Keyword" - Type "internet" (without the quotes) and hit Return - Click on "ftp" - Click "Go To FTP" - Scroll down to "ftp.info.apple.com" and double-click on it - If it allows you in, maneuver through the directories until you get to Apple.Support.Area/Apple.Software.Updates/US/Macintosh and you'll see the different categories of system software. You can cruise around and look at the various items available for downloading, but what would be a good choice? For folks who are using System 7.1, I strongly recommend going even further down the directories until you find: System/Other_System/System_Update_3.0_1.4MB.sea.hqx This is a very, very good thing to have for System 7.1 users - it's not commonly available through other means, and you won't come to any harm if you install it. However, it needs to go through three changes before you can actually install it. Download that (2.4 megabyte) file onto your desktop, quit from America Online, and you'll find that the file you downloaded has a filename that ends with ".hqx" - That means it's stored in a special, "binhexed" format, and needs to be translated. - Drag that file on top of Stuffit Expander Alias until it darkens, and let go. That's it. The file gets translated, and the old, useless copy goes away. In this case, that leaves you with a file called "System Update 3.0 (1.4MB).sea" This is a compressed, Self-Extracting Archive, so double-click on it to extract its contents onto your desktop again. You can delete the ".sea" version. We're done with it. You will now see a folder called "System Update 3.0 (1.4MB)" It contains two files that end in ".image," meaning that they are files that mimic diskettes. We're about to upgrade System 7.1 to its enhanced, less-buggy version, so please re-start and hold down the Shift key until you see "Welcome to Macintosh - Extensions Off." This avoids unpredictable installation errors. highlight the two "image" files, and drag them on top of ShrinkWrap. Suddenly two diskette icons pop up on your desktop, as if you inserted two diskettes into several diskette drives. The "diskette" called "System Update 3.0 Disk 1" will automatically open, showing you a program called "Installer" Double-click on it, and follow the instructions. After re-starting, you won't need those "image" files any more. Tedious to get all the way through this, yes, and awkward, but it works once you know how. I hope somebody learned something useful! First Virtual Feedback ---------------------- By Ken Laws From issue #90: > Also, a fee of 29 cents per > transaction plus 20 percent of the seller price is deducted. That should be 29 cents plus 2%, or plus 8% for transactions via First InfoHaus. Sellers should also be aware that it usually takes about 100 days before payment is received from FV. There's a built-in wait of 91 days to get around possible refusals to pay billed charges on the buyer's monthly statement, plus a delay of up to a week for small transactions to accumulate (to $10) before FV makes a deposit to the seller's account. That deposit incurs an additional $1 charge. It does seem like a good system, though. I've signed up, to take credit payments for my weekly Computists' Communique advanced-technology research newsletter. [I heard from several folks who wanted to complain that I'm spreading too much Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt, by expressing personal reservations about transferring credit-card information over the Internet. Having hung around with some VERY sociopathic young hackers, I know their capabilities and philosophy. Maybe THEY wouldn't misuse the VISA numbers they cleverly stole from you and 50,000 other people, (and it HAS happened), but they also wouldn't think twice about making that same info available to any scoundrel on earth. Yes, I'm paranoid, but mostly when it comes to protecting my readers. Enough said.] Syquest And Iomega Drives ------------------------- By Doug Huebner An issue or two ago, someone was asking about the Syquest EZ135. I had ordered a Zip drive from one of the Mac mail order places and was told I was #2000 on the waiting list and they had just received an shipment or 40 (out of 440) that they ordered in April. While talking to them I noticed the Syquest drive. They said it would ship in two weeks. So I switched the order. (I also noticed that Best Buy had an adequate supply of Zip drives on the shelf) The drive came as promised, although the spare disks are back-ordered. It is about the same size as the Zip drive, but the media, instead of being a "fat" floppy, is a small hard disk platter in a "jewel case" much like a CD (or the larger Syquest media.) I plugged it in, inserted the disk, turned on the computer and I was in business. Easy as that. (This is a small lie. Since I am a "read instructions last" person, it took me a bit to figure out the little handle on the drive had to be pushed all the way to the right.) The only problem?? is that the disk is half full. There is some demos and some "lite" versions of some software packages. An interesting one is a video type demo for two products by Dantz. The animation itself is just OK. But each comes in four versions: English, French, German and Japanese. Now you can learn to say "lost data" in four languages. After clearing most of that stuff off, I got to start using the drive. (Where do you backup stuff from a backup disk so you can use it to backup what you bought it to back up?) The disk seems fast and, as far as I can tell, transparent in terms of it looking like any other hard disk. I ran a program called "Speedometer" to check the speeds of the disks. My internal (an older Quantum 120) scored 0.68. The external Quantum 340 came in at about 1.1 and the Syquest at 1.2. (This is on a Mac IIcx) The box had no designation as Mac or PC specific. The floppy that came with it was PC format and had some Mac software on it (which I never got to work.) There were two very brief instruction pages included - one for Mac and one for PC. So the question arose, can you use the media to transfer files between Macs and PCs? I called Syquest about transferring files between Macs and PCs using the EZ135. I was told that From PC to Mac, the normal file translators work. Going toward the PC, you need an extra third party program that can run anywhere from $50 to $150. I really like the drive, I just wish the rest of the media would come as I filled up the first disk within a few minutes. --------- By Kass Johns, Electronic Publishing Systems Integrator Regarding issue #89's question by George M Harris, Philadelphia >>I'm wondering if anyone has done a comparison between these two drives, as I'm preparing to buy a backup system in a few weeks. The Syquest appears to be slightly cheaper per megabyte, and is significantly faster. On the other hand, the Zip comes w/ backup software. Any other comparisons? << On my site you will find the "Which SyQuest Should I Buy?" FAQ. [Frequently Asked Questions file] Near the end of the FAQ is a short discussion of Zip vs. EZ135--some pros and cons to consider (including the fact that the Zip drive has non-standard SCSI technology). The actual FAQ is at I am not an employee of SyQuest. FYI--SyQuest Technology, Inc. has their corporate site at Re: Backup apps and removables... I don't know which backup apps support SyQuest, but I have heard that auto backup routines may not be compatible because of the several-step eject, insert routines. I do not use auto backup apps myself, so don't know the answer. If you have to have a mass backup which now requires multiple cartridges, maybe it is time to seriously consider the new 1GB removables coming to market. One quick drag/copy of your internal disk icon, then go to lunch! I manage my backups via organization of my hard drive. Folders for Apps, Utilities, Fonts, Comm, System and then Working. Backing up the first three folders only when something has changed or updated. Comm and System can fit on one cartridge and get more regular backup so updated address lists and prefs get regular backup. The Working folder gets the most frequent backup since I keep all my active files contained within (and they are easily contained within one cartridge). Then I don't have to backup the whole drive at once (using multiple cartridges), just the active parts. (And I am quite anal-retentive about backup--I do it religiously.) Do you _need_ the software that comes with the drive? Many folks are not aware that separate drivers for SyQuest cartridges are _not_ necessarily needed. They are just like hard disks. The boot drivers for your internal drive should mount the cartridges as long as they are inserted and spun up upon startup. Or you can force-mount using SCSIProbe. I see so many folks assume they have to have the drivers. SyQuest cartridges are just Winchester mechanisms in a removable case. Same media as a fixed hard drive! The last thing we all need are a bunch of extra extensions! The driver disks that come with my hard disks never see my floppy drive. I file them away and use my FWB Hard Disk Tool Keep in touch! program for all disk drives, no matter the vendor--I then have complete consistency. Technical Section Starts... Here --------------------------------- Organizing Netscape Bookmarks ----------------------------- [Oh, my - I really stepped in it in the last issue! I asked why Netscape didn't have some built-in method of arranging bookmarks in a hierarchical fashion. I received 194 messages that told me that Netscape DOES contain such a feature. I'm glad to know better (though I still prefer ClayBasket for its ease of use - Just drag stuff around with the mouse) and I'm very, very grateful for the kind tone of the letters. Nobody called me an idiot or anything!] By Jerry South, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA In MacChat #90, Sep 22., 1995, Tony was extolling the virtues of Claybasket for its capabilities to edit Netscape bookmarks. Tony also asked, " Why the heck wasn't this built into Netscape in the first place?" Well, it was and it is. Netscape has pretty much full capability to edit, sort, & organize bookmarks, but it seems that there are many of us who don't know about it. I learned of it from somewhere, quite possibly MacChat! I don't recall the issue, but it was authored by Richard Irwin . I sent him an email requesting further info, and he kindly replied. I'll try to explain below what I learned from Rich and others. **CAUTION** Before working on this, make a copy of your Netscape Bookmarks file called "Bookmarks.html" that resides in system folder/preferences/netscape folder. Call it something like "Old Bookmarks file" and leave it in there. You may screw something up while you're practicing/playing with editing your bookmarks as I describe below, so you can recover the original by trashing the corrupted Bookmarks.html file and renaming your "Old Bookmarks file" to Bookmarks.html. Remember, whatever modifications you make in the bookmarks list will be saved to the Bookmarks.html file when Netscape is quit, and whatever was in that file previously is erased. When Netscape starts up, it looks for the default file Bookmarks.html in the Netscape Preferences folder. 1. Select the "View Bookmarks" option under the bookmarks menu, or poke cmd-B. A dialog box will appear with many options. 2. To create a header (such as "Mac Info" or "Web Searches" or "Fluid Dynamics"), choose New Header form the dialog box. Wait a second or two and the entry called New Header will appear in your bookmarks list just below the location of the highlight bar in the bookmarks window. BTW, you can position that highlight selection bar anywhere you want with the mouse. You can name the new header whatever you wish in the window called "name" in the right side of the dialog box. In fact, you can rename any bookmark or header in that window by selecting (single click) it in the bookmark window. It will appear in the name window, ready for editing. 3. You can move the highlighted (selected) header up or down in the bookmarks list with the up/down arrows at the bottom of the bookmarks window. As you move your header up towards the top (bottom) of the window, you'll see it unindent (I know, that's probably not really an English verb) as it reaches the top (bottom) or another header. Play with it a bit to see the action. 3. Individual bookmarks can be maneuvered around in the bookmarks list by selecting them with a single mouse click, and moving them up or down in the list using the up/down arrows at the bottom. After you have created the headers you want, start moving the appropriate items into their spots with the up/down arrows. You will see the items indent when they reach a header. When they indent, they become part of the header's subgroup. Try it a little, you'll get the hang of it in one minute. All the items moved to a header will indent. 4. Double-clicking on a header will expand/collapse items under it. This is very handy, because otherwise it would take many, many up-arrow clicks to maneuver a bookmark up through a fully-expanded list of a hundred or so bookmarks. When you have all your headers collapsed, you can move an entry around quickly, be it a bookmark or a header, as it only navigates the collapsed headers, and you will probably only have about ten of those. 5. There are other option buttons to try that are fairly self-explanatory, but try them out. e.g., you can remove an entry by selecting it in the bookmarks window and poking the "Remove Item" button. 6. Be careful when removing an item. If it's a header, you will be asked if you also want to remove everything under the header! 7. In the future, when you wish to add a bookmark, note that selecting "Add Bookmark" from the main Netscape menu places the new bookmark at the very bottom of the bookmark list. You can move it quickly into its desired destination as described above by collapsing (double-click) all headers first. However, you can also do another trick: poke cmd-B (View Bookmarks), expand the header in which you wish to place the new bookmark, and select the spot just above where you want it to locate. Then poke the Add Bookmark button in the dialog box, and it will be placed just where you want it without any more moves. 8. You can save several different Bookmark files and name them. You can save them using the "Export" button, using the standard Mac dialog. When you want to access them, choose "Import" from the View Bookmarks dialog, and the file will be inserted into your current bookmarks list. But **BE CAUTIONED**, that modification will become PERMANENT in the file Bookmarks.html when you quit Netscape. If you don't want that to occur, you must use the "Remove Item" button appropriately before you quit to restore the Bookmarks.html file to the condition you want. A little practice and you'll be a Netscape Bookmark-Editing Maven. No extra software needed. ------ By Leong Mun Kew, Singapore I don't use Netscape on my Mac, having a direct internet feed on my Sun workstation. The netscape running on X-windows (Ver 1.1N) has that capability built in. Somewhat slow, but I speed up the outlining by editing the file outside Netscape myself. Also, with regard to Netscape palettes on X-windows, you can start up netscape with the -install option, which will force it to use a private colour map, i.e., it can always get the 6x6x6 cube requested. The Upcoming PNG Image-Format ----------------------------- By Tom Lane organizer, Independent JPEG Group, member, PNG development group In issue #90, it was said: > >> 2. Use GIF (or soon, PNG) for icons, line drawings... PNG (pronounced "ping") is the Portable Network Graphics format, which is designed to be the successor to the once-popular GIF format. (Unofficially PNG stands for "PNG's Not GIF.") GIF became decidedly less popular right around New Year's Day 1995 when Unisys and CompuServe suddenly announced that programs implementing GIF would require royalties, due to Unisys' patent on the LZW compression method used in the GIF format. Since GIF had been showing its age in a number of ways even prior to that, the announcement only catalyzed the development of a new and much-improved replacement format. PNG is the result. The above text is lifted from Greg Roelofs' PNG page at which includes pointers to the full PNG spec, lists of applications known to support PNG, etc. etc. PNG is not very widely implemented yet, but that is changing rapidly. Legalisms --------- Copyright 1989-1995 Tony Lindsey. Nonprofit groups (such as Mac User Groups) or other non-commercial publications) are welcome to use any part of the Mac*Chat newsletters if full credit is given. All others will need to contact me. This newsletter is intended purely as entertainment and free information. No profit has been made from any of these opinions. Time passes, so accuracy may diminish. Publication, product, and company names may be registered trademarks of their companies. This file is formatted as setext, which can be read on any text reader. Tips from readers are gratefully accepted. Please write them in a user-friendly way, and if you are mentioning an Internet site, please include a paragraph explaining why others should visit it. Free Subscriptions To This Newsletter ------------------------------------- You may subscribe to Mac*Chat by sending e-mail to: The Subject line is ignored, so it can say anything. In the body of the message include the following line: SUBSCRIBE MACCHAT Your full name As an example: SUBSCRIBE MACCHAT Juliana Tarlton You will receive a nice long message explaining acceptance of your subscription, how to end it (if desired) and general listserv info. You will then automatically receive Mac*Chat in your e-mail box, for free, every week. ============== ____ ================================================== Tony Lindsey \ _/__ Free, weekly e-mailed Mac-oriented newsletter Mac*Chat Editor \X / ================= \/ =================================================