From: xxltony@cts.com (Tony Lindsey) Subject: Mac*Chat#094/30-Oct-95 Mac*Chat#094/30-Oct-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, . 3401-A55 Adams Avenue San Diego, CA 92116-2429 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 Comments Correction Mac*Chat Videotapes - Whattya Think? Guy Kawasaki's New Venture - Read This And Act Promptly! Tech Tool 1.08 Is Available Now Ram Doubler 1.6 Updater Quicken Free Help Online Good Web Site For Font Piggies Publicity For New Web Sites What I'm Looking For Consulting Question Tony's Answer Technical Section Starts... Here Tips For America Online Users - Creating Web Pages, Part One Applescript & Other Scripting Tips Legalisms Free Subscriptions To This Newsletter Highlights Of This Issue ------------------------ I mention my MacWorld Expo plans, ask about hooking the 9500 to MacTCP or a workable alternative, conduct a simple survey, rave about the best, new answer to all the Microsoft/Anti-Mac crapola, rave about the newest TechTool, point out the updater for RAM Doubler, point where online help can be found for Quicken, Dave Kramer directs our attention to the Letraset site, I mention a few great methods for folks who want to promote their new Web sites, I ask for help creating more articles, a question about ethics is asked and answered, I explain the step-by-step method of uploading and downloading some AOL Web pages I created for tutorial purposes, and we learn of many new resources for folks who want to learn about AppleScript and other scripting tools. Editor's Comments ----------------- By Tony Lindsey I'm going to be at the MACWORLD Expo from January 9-12, 1996, held at Moscone Center in San Francisco. I've been asking various folks how to get onto any of the discussions, Q&A and/or panels. I'm finally ready to peek my head out of my home-office and meet the public. I had a small taste of my new-found popularity when I attended an out-of-town Mac-consultant's dinner recently, and most of the people there were already subscribed to my newsletter and knew who I was - A very odd feeling. I had a heck of a time keeping my head from getting swollen from all the nice things people were saying! I'm finally coming to grips with the idea that someone like me can be up on the dais with my heroes, such as Neil Shapiro, Danny Goodman, Adam Engst, Guy Kawasaki and the others. They've become my good friends and peers in the last year, and I can't think of nicer people. I'd really like to meet them (and many of my readers) face-to-face! If you see me at the Expo and say howdy, I promise not to hug you unless you ask me to! Otherwise, I'm available for hugs any time. It's a Southern-California thing - I hope you understand... I'm also up for firm-and-hearty handshakes and brisk nods, for folks with intimacy issues! ------- I have a client who has a PowerMac 9500, and he wants to use either the older MacTCP or Open Transport to access the Internet through a modem. I've been pulling my hair out trying to make the connections work - Who has some good tips for me? I'm afraid to play with it, since I've heard of so many odd bugs. Correction ---------- By Ryan Soulier There was a typo in issue#93 of MacChat: Should read [Thanks, Ryan! He added quite a bit of nice things to say about Mac*Chat, which I deleted for space purposes. I do that a lot, by the way... I always appreciate the kind words, though.] Mac*Chat Videotapes - Whattya Think? ------------------------------------ By Tony Lindsey I have a special request for my readers... I'm being asked to make a series of videotapes for the USA (and elsewhere) that would be a visual version of Mac*Chat. I'd demonstrate WHY people would want to use various parts of the Internet and what it can do for them. This would be in the form of a series, allowing me to show the nicest new stuff out there as it comes up. In order for me to attract video-publishers, I need to have some numbers to throw at them. It's that whole "business pitch" thing. So, here's the request - If you think you would theoretically like to buy an inexpensive, hour-and-a-half-long video that is extremely non-technical and visually-oriented, please send e-mail to me at and put the word "Video" into the Subject line. The deadline for this informal survey is November 12, 1995. **I WILL NOT BE USING THIS FOR JUNK MAIL.** You have my word of honor. Here's what will happen: The messages will be automatically shunted into a storage area on my computer. Once the deadline is past, I'll open the storage area, count the number of messages and then delete them. I'm hyper-sensitive to your need for privacy (and entirely too well-known to survive as a weasel), so please trust me on this. I'd deeply appreciate your help! It would make it easier for me to keep Mac*Chat ad-free. Guy Kawasaki's New Venture - Read This And Act Promptly! -------------------------------------------------------- By Tony Lindsey Here's a top-quality goodie... Pay attention! A few issues back, in the midst of all the Windows 95 hype-o-rama, I was feeling peevish and put-upon. I felt I was getting a faceful of Anti-Mac Bigots making fun of me and my readers just because we prefer Macintoshes. We now have big-gun ammunition against the people who lack Mac-courtesy. The backlash has begun! Guy Kawasaki is somebody I admire and trust. He was the main Mac Evangelist who got people excited about the Mac in the early days. He and Apple parted ways for a few years, but he never stopped evangelizing. Apple finally got smart and hired him back. He's now putting out an electronic newsletter full of Good News For Mac Fans. Yes, I know you're swamped with more reading-material than you can handle (me too), but this is the Real Stuff. Do both steps listed below, right now: **Step One:** To subscribe to the MacWay mailing list... send an email message to include in the body of the message the following text: SUBSCRIBE MACWAY and enter your real name --------------------------- The following step is highly recommended, since it prevents you from being flooded with little messages - It gathers them together into one LONG message. It requires a separate e-mail message, though. **Step Two:** To turn on DIGEST mode... send an email message to: include in the body of the message the string: SET MACWAY MAIL DIGEST ---------------------------- Later on, if you wish to unsubscribe from the list... send an email message to: include in the body of the message the string: UNSUBSCRIBE MACWAY -------- Incidentally, I'm a fan of Guy's books (warm, friendly and enthusiastic), and I would normally tell you about a great book deal he's offering, but I'm not comfortable putting ads inside of Mac*Chat... If you wish to know more, here's the contact info: <800-236-7323/800-231-7323 fax, 414-274-6406/414-274-6408 fax> Tech Tool 1.08 Is Available Now ------------------------------- By Ken Workman An update on _TechTool_ just came to my attention. It appears to have some very good additions to the 1.0.6 version. [Thanks, Ken - I found it at and I found it to be a VERY juicy and worthwhile update to an essential (and FREE) power-tool... In addition to the other two main functions of the older version (properly rebuilding the Desktop, zapping the Parameter RAM), it now contains a button called System Analyzer. It checks to see if your system file is damaged, and it works with US and International versions of the System. VERY nice for anyone who has endured the agony of "hammering in the dark" to try and nail down a nasty problem.] Ram Doubler 1.6 Updater ----------------------- By Tony Lindsey I found the newest updater for RAM Doubler at and, while you're in that neighborhood, you'll find info and updates for the QuickCam and Speed Doubler as well. The new version of RAM Doubler works with the newest Macs, and removes known bugs. Personally, I'd MUCH rather have real RAM chips, but this is a good second-best! Quicken Free Help Online ------------------------ By Tony Lindsey There is quite a bit of free help for Quicken users on the World Wide Web at: This is available for anyone who has Web access. Good Web Site For Font Piggies ------------------------------ By Dave Kramer Letraset, the font and graphics company (which, incidentally, gives a great user group demo!), has a fantastic Web site at One of their incentives to get you to browse their online font catalog is a monthly treasure hunt. If you've got a good eye and can match the font they put on display, you can download it for free!! (Alternately, you can click on every font in their catalog until you find it... ;) Also, they have their Character Choose DA available for free download, and you can see samples of their textures collection, many of which would make tasty backgrounds for a Netscape-enhanced Web site. Publicity For New Web Sites --------------------------- By Tony Lindsey Once you have created a Web site that is acceptable to the general public, you may want lots of people stopping by. These are a few good places to visit to help you get the word out - I suggest you visit them ALL: And, of course - Add the Web site URL and your e-mail address to your business card and flyers! What I'm Looking For -------------------- By tamye@nkn.net (Tamye Riggs) Great job on the newsletter. I really enjoy it, and I usually find at least one item that really helps or interests me. Keep up the good work. If you are looking for submissions, tell me what type of articles you're looking for and I would be happy to make an attempt to contribute. As an editor of many newsletters and magazines, I know how tough it can be to get good submissions, and on time! But you seem to be doing a great job, and if there is something I can contribute to the cause, I will gladly do it! [Thanks, Tamye - Here's my ideal... I'm thrilled by thoughtful, intelligent reviews of software, hardware or whatever from a subjective standpoint. I let the industry magazines be objective - I want to know what it FEELS like to be living with something every day. I want to know why I should delegate any of my precious time-slices to this e-mail program, that font utility or that new Web site. I also like such reviews to be around 500 words at most. When I go to a friend's place and hear that they are using a new and wonderful utility, modem, cartridge drive or program, I don't want to look at a manual, I want to see it in action. I want to get a feel for what it could do for me and my clients. I want to know that it's being recommended by somebody who doesn't have a secret agenda for promoting it. When you write words about something that pleases you, make me care about it. Get me interested enough to ask around and find out more. If I got my wish, I'd get stuff like this every day, from ALL of my wisest readers. It would sure ease my work-load!] Consulting Question ------------------- By mcohen@nku.edu (Matthew I. Cohen) I am a mac professional myself - I manage the student labs at a local university, and I also do part-time mac consulting on the side. Usually, my clients are of the "on-switch 101" variety - new systems, new software, etc, and they just need some hand-holding. But my latest client has a pretty up-to-date system, and just purchased a 7500/100 to be a workstation, an ARA Fileserver, and a 24 fax server (receive and auto-print incoming faxes). Because of the system 7.5.2 conflicts and the general buggyness of fax software, we have been having some problems. I just spent 3 hours on this system, and there has not been any net change from when I arrived and when I left. I ran all the disk fixes, installed updated extensions, etc, but nothing fixed his problem. I will be contacting tech support for the various software programs, and I'll be returning to implement their suggestions (if any) at a later time. My question is this: Do I charge him for this session? I did work hard for 3 hours, but usually my maxim is no charge if I don't fix it. This is a long-term client, who I will not lose either way, but I'm curious what you would do in such a situation. Tony's Answer ------------- By Tony Lindsey Personally, my policy is "I never punish the client for the problem." I don't bill the client at all until the job is done. If it's not done, I don't get paid. Painful, aggravating and costly, but honest. I make up for the lack of money by making sure I get the karmic payback - I tell the client WHY I'm not charging them. I have never, ever seen a client who didn't like to hear it. Believe me, referrals come from such honesty, and even if they don't come from THIS situation, I like to tell prospective clients of my policy and give them examples. Make hay from it, even if you don't make money. Consider it tuition for your education. I hate doing losing money on an unfinished job, but I sleep better. If I'm able to eventually fix the problem (even if it's months later, like when Apple releases a simple fix) I may adjust my later billing on a subsequent session to account for time spent _productively_, after asking permission to do so. Technical Section Starts... Here -------------------------------- Tips For America Online Users - Creating Web Pages, Part One ------------------------------------------------------------ By Tony Lindsey Well, this has been a heckuva project, taking me many days. I've been working like a beaver, setting-up easy-to-copy-and-improve Web pages for my readers who are using America Online: Just as I get close to finishing, I find out that America Online is now promoting something called "NaviPress" as its new Mac-compatible Web-page designer. To try your own copy, sign onto AOL and go to keyword "navisoft". I wasn't able to test it (I'm way over deadline already) but I should warn you - re-start with the shift-key down (to turn off extensions) BEFORE you try to install it. I may discuss it in a future issue. For the short term, I'm going to start posting what I have written already. It may work better for you. ---------- If you are a bright, inquisitive type who is good at figuring out how things work, you may want to copy what I've done, modify it to match your own needs, and then upload your OWN Web pages. I've listed the steps below. ------ First, create a folder called "Web Page Project" and store it on the Desktop so you can find it later on. Now, let's go copy what Uncle Tony created: ------- Here's how I inspect the contents of my own, private, 2-megabyte-limit storage space on AOL: I sign onto AOL, then go to Internet Connection/FTP/Member FTPspace and read what it says. Then go back one level to FTP, then to Go To FTP/Other Site, then type in "ftp://users.aol.com/xxltony/" Go ahead and do those steps. Download each of the files you find in the /xxltony directory into the "Web Page Project" folder. I created them so you'd be able to figure-out what I did. The text files ending with ".html" can be opened in any text editor (such as TeachText or your word processor) and modified. The GIF images are a nice bonus, showing me at home. ------ Comparing the coded text and the final result: Open the text files and have them available so you can compare them to their final appearance on the Web: Start up AOL 2.6 or later, go to the Internet Connection, then to World Wide Web. At the top of the browser page, you'll see the field called "Current URL:" Type in http://users.aol.com/xxltony/ and then hit Return. That brings you to my Web Page. You'll want to save that location in your Hot List for later. Pull down the Services menu, choose "Add to Main Hot List" and choose "Save" under the File menu. Later on, if you want to get back there, pull down the Services menu, choose "Hot List/Main Hot List" and double-click on my page. ---- Flip back and forth between the text files and my pages. See how simple it would be to make changes to the text and create your OWN, simple variation. There is no way you can harm anything by trying, so why not give it a shot? (Just don't forget to save your files as text only). If you did create new variations for your own uses, you would need to upload them into your own directory. Here's how to do it: ------- If your screen name is "chuckie23" then sign onto AOL, then go to Internet Connection/FTP/Go To FTP/Other Site, then type in "ftp://users.aol.com/chuckie23/" Flip over to the Finder and click on the file you want to upload (such as a plain-text file called index.html), and choose "Copy" under the Edit menu. This copies the file's name so you don't mis-type it. Go back to AOL and click "Upload." Paste the file's name into the entry field. Down below, you're given three choices. If it's a text ".html" file, select the "ASCII/Text" choice, and then click the Continue/OK/Add buttons. ONLY add the ONE "index.html" file and then click "Attach." That uploads the file. If you are uploading another file, such as a graphic file stored in GIF format, you would have uploaded it as a Binary file, and added it all by itself. Those are the only two choices I use, personally. To snoop into chuckie23's Web page, you would go check out the following URL: Next issue: Part Two! Applescript & Other Scripting Tips ---------------------------------- [In issue #93, I asked: What are the other recommended books and tutorials, very best utilities, add-ons and Internet sites for AppleScript fans and students?] ------ By Kyle Johnson Check out ScriptWeb: They have taken over the maintenance of the Scripting site from the University of Kansas. There is information on how to subscribe to the Mac-Scripting list (which includes AppleScript, Frontier, MacPerl, etc) along with the digest of the mailing list. They are also maintaining the FTP site at: This site contains various support files, demos, scripts, etc. for most of the major scripting languages. ------ By George H Dick Check out Dave Winer Frontier/Aretha environment! It's wonderful & free. You can write in AppleScript or Dave's Usertalk language.... ----- By Paul L. Suh The place for questions is definitely the MacScript mailing list. Beware that this is a very high bandwidth list, with about 500 people. However, there are some extremely knowledgeable people on the list (such as Jon Pugh, one of the original developers of AppleScript), and if they can't answer it, no one can. [See below for subscription instructions] There is a CFD (call for discussion) floating around on the various Usenet comp.sys.mac.programmer.* groups towards a new group, comp.sys.mac.programmer.scripting or some such, but there's not much going on so far. On Usenet, the places to ask questions seem to be comp.sys.mac.programmer.help and comp.sys.mac.programmer.misc. There's an official FAQ for AppleScript, but parts of it are out of date. It's in the process of being revised, bit by bit. There's an supposed to be an html version on the way, but it doesn't seem to be there just yet. ------- By Paul Schinder The authoritative books are: "AppleScript Language Guide", Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-40735-3 "AppleScript Finder Guide", Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-40910-0 and there's one on the Apple OSAX, but I balked at wasting any more money on Applescript. Another Applescript resource everyone interested in the language should be away of is the MacScripting mailing list (send mail to listserv@listserv.dartmouth.edu with the body line "subscribe macscrpt your name here"), and Apple's applescript-users list has recently shown some signs of life after a long period of dormancy (I don't remember this one for sure, but I believe you send mail to listproc@abs.apple.com with subscribe applescript-users in the body) But I can't join in your paean to Applescript. It's absolutely the worst, most frustrating language I've ever learned (and I've learned many). Its failings, IMHO, are these: 1) only four built in commands. All the rest is done by OSAX and applications, and they sometimes don't work as documented in their Applescript dictionaries. 2) Applescript works by sending Apple events. *Never* expect one statement in an Applescript to "finish" before the next is executed. For example, Jon Pugh, one of Apple script's founders, sent a simple script to the MacScripting list to move the desktop database files of all mounted volumes to the trash and tell the Finder to restart (the best way to rebuild the desktop). I'm sure it works on his machine, but on mine, the Finder does the restart before it gets around to removing the files from my Zip drive. That kind of thing is common. And Applescript is s..l..o..w. For my serious scripting needs, I use MacPerl. I see Applescript as a bludgeon, and MacPerl as a scalpel. There are some jobs a bludgeon can do. I, for example, have AppleScripts to start up PPP and launch my usual TCP/IP apps, I have a script that creates custom icons and previews with JPEGview for all new files in chosen folders. But for my other needs, where I need a language that will work as a programming language should and will work as documented, I use MacPerl. MacPerl takes care of all of my mirroring (I have folders/directories on my Mac and Sun workstation that I keep in sync with Perl scripts on both ends), my Web mirroring needs (I run a script that mirrors a list of URL's locally), and even my downloading. I spend a lot of time off line, and often find URL's that I'd like to see (for example, when reading Mac*Chat). I cut them onto the clipboard, run a script which appends them to a file, and later, when I'm on line, drop the file onto a MacPerl droplet. MacPerl grabs all of the URL's it can (the script can do http:, gopher:, and ftp:) and does appropriate transformations to what it grabs so I can view/use whatever it is later, either on or off line. Instead of a slow Applescript driving the usual TCP/IP apps, one application does the whole job at acceptable speed. There are things that MacPerl can't do, of course (almost anything having to do with resource forks), and that's why I still use Applescript. One other thing people who have scripting jobs to get done on their Mac should be aware of is Frontier/Aretha, which has just recently been released as freeware by Dave Winer. The URL is . I have had little time to play with it, but it seems like a far better designed (read: more like a real programming language), more feature filled language that can do anything Applescript can do. I only wish it had been freeware when I first decided to learn Applescript, because I think I would have been much happier with Frontier. ------- By David E. Moore AppleScript is something we've needed from day one. OK, that's not true. On day one we needed to learn how to use the mouse. But very shortly after that, (well, shortly after we had something more than MacWrite and MacDraw to work with) most of us wanted something like a batch programming language to automate things. Those of us who've been around computers long enough to know just how revolutionary the Mac was (is?), also know that keyboards and batch programming are not evil things. Now that the rest of the world has discovered that the mouse and graphical representation/organization of data are not evil things, it's good to see that Apple has finally provided a simple means to overcome what was once an inherent weakness of the Mac. Legalisms --------- Copyright 1989-1995 Tony Lindsey. Whole issues of Mac*Chat may be copied freely, provided that all copies are left intact and unedited. Small excerpts of Mac*Chat may be reproduced for personal use or by nonprofit groups (such as Mac User Groups) or for other non-commercial publications if full credit is given. Please contact the editor for any other publication requests. 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 / ================= \/ =================================================