Tools of the Trade. by Michael Coyle

Click for larger image in a new window.

While working on a professional ProTools digital audio workstation, I was impressed with a feature that allows you to import a Quicktime move as a track to lay along side the audio for easier syncing of audio elements to picture.. You can't edit the movie with ProTools, but placing sound effects, dialog, and music is substantially easier than with iMovie or Final Cut Pro. Plus ProTools has all those great reverb and compression plugins to fully tweak your audio mix.

Then a light bulb lit up over my head (really it did)! How many of these features are supported in the FREE version of ProTools? It surprised me to find out all of them!

Imagine a situation where you create a great iMovie, but the sound track is complicated and iMovie's audio capabilities are not up to the task. For example, making a decent music edit in iMovie is nothing more than hit-or-miss.

You could print your project to a Quicktime movie for use as a work picture in ProTools. After sweetening the audio in ProTools, bounce the audio mix to an AIFF file for importing back into iMovie. Now your project can win an Academy Award!

Once again, something nice from KDE-Look. There is a simple tutorial on how to create glassy icons in the Aqua style, and this second one shows an additional way to do it.

Melissa, the youngest of our staff members and my lovely daughter, has updated the ResExcellence Links page with eight new sites. In addition, she has checked every link and removed any that have fallen by the wayside. If your site's not listed, use the form on the page to let her know about it.

User Contributed Splash Screens. by Michael Coyle

It's easier than ever to contribute using the new Browser Based Upload Page! If you contribute a file to any section of ResExcellence, you could win a PowerMax gift certificate worth $50 ! (How?)

• You're gonna want to start your Mac over and over to see this beautiful Boot Panel of Jaime Pressly by Frank Stein. The download includes 2 versions.
  
  
• Daniele Foti created a Photoshop splash of an idyllic country scene. <--first time idyllic used on ResEx!
  
  
• This Harry Potter Boot Panel from Jeff Blackburn features the young wizard's castle school.
  
  
• Conrad sends two items to purtee-up your desktop. The first is a 'Fire in the Sky' MOSS followed up with a 'Color of the Sky' About this Mac splash.
  
  
  

Click here to learn more about Toast 6 Titanium

Snapshots by Jeremy Hoesly

Friends, Mac-aficionados, comrades to the cause, lend me your mice. A new submission dropbox is in town. That’s right boys and girls! Now you can upload your snapshot submissions from within your web browser — no FTP client required. Just go to our new Upload page, and see how easy it is to contribute your 2¢ worth to the Mac community.

Get your mid-week snapshots here:

• This dual-monitor snapshot from Fireworx sports a whole Cubase VST audio studio! The Waldorf PPG synthesizer, the free Muon Tau, professional mastering solutions from Waves, some small effects, and two simple sampling modules form a third-party extension suite of audio tweaking goodness.
  
  
• Michel Kakulphimp touts this snapshot sporting an EndEffect desktop picture. OmniWeb is showing his new site currently under construction: Enter the R@ging Monkey. A mugshot of Michel is displayed in the lower left.
  
  
• A custom “Be Deviant” desktop picture and the Iridium Quicksilver Theme debut in this submission from Phanguye. Hein Mevissen’s Nice on the Desktop icons are tucked away in the dock.
  
  
• A “Technosyndrome” desktop picture and the Iridium Quicksilver Theme are showcased in this contribution from Tuchemetallica. QuickTime Player is playing an MPEG video in the lower left.

Show us how you use your Mac. Read the guidelines and then send away!

Icon & Desktop News: by Dan

Announcements:

In an ongoing effort to make it easier for you to send us your Icons and Desktops, we've designed a new Browser Based Upload Page for the task. Just follow the easy to use instructions, and you'll find submitting is now a snap! Just to entice you a little further, contribute a file to any section of ResExcellence, and you might be lucky and win a PowerMax gift certificate worth $50 from our monthly drawing.

In cooperation with the folks at the Iconfactory, the ResExcellence Icon Archive is proudly offering permanent homes for any and all Pixelpalooza 2002 contest entries. Looking for more exposure? Then bundle them up and send them on over for world wide display. Thanks!

• How about a few tasty "Apple Bytes" from Scott Chitwood? This small but delicious set of 3 OSX icons were originally part of Scott's awesome Pixelpalooza entry, but due to the contest rules, they have had to strike out on their own, and would look awful good on your desktop.
  
  
• Dedicated Star Trek fans will appreciate "Borgcons Vol.2" by Flax Creations. Based on the somewhat cryptic Borg symbol language and font, this is the second of 3 sets made for OSX. Just in case your not into Star Trek, you probably will enjoy the high tech look of these 15 cool icons anyway.
  
  
• "Sandy Beach" by Michael Addison of Macalodeon is the first of many really fine 3-D compositions we will have the good fortune to be posting. Michael uses an amazing variety and range of software to achieve his effects. This one comes in 1024x resolution.
  
  
• Bound to become a net classic, as it undoubtedly will circle the globe, "Terminate" by Patrik B. pretty much speaks for itself! The picture used of Bill Gates was taken in 1998 in Belgium, just moments before an unidentified "assailant" planted a cream pie into his face. If you hadn't already guessed, this desktop is based on the popular Terminator films , and comes in 5 different resolutions.
  
  
• The talented Zack Schnepf returns with another excellent desktop creation titled "Night Gate". Download this powerful backdrop in 1024x and 1280x resolutions.
  
  
• Skeeter submits a stylish two picture Desktop set to dress up your monitor. Unfortunately, the preview doesn't give you a very good idea what these are about, so you may wish download them and take a closer look. Both come in 1024x resolution.
  
  
• Oh so sweet Country Singer "Faith Hill" makes a guest appearance on another page of John Rose's celebrity Sketchbook. It appears that John was quite taken with the Diva, as he has provided us with not one, but three different desktops to choose from, all in 1280x resolution.
  
  
• Will Ernst, steps out into the world of 3-D desktop making with his first ever "Play Series". Featuring two nicely done Bryce renderings, both which come in 1024x resolution. Drop will a line to cheer him on to create even more cool images!
  

News From Around the Web:

Mandolux has just released one new desktop, representing a continuation of the 'Technosis/Anthraxis' desktop theme. The name of this desktop is 'Suspect.'

This week at MacMonkies: 4 new 3-D works (including new works from Ed Allen and Alan Sherwood), 2 new Desktops, and plenty of Monkie Info for everyone! Check 'em out!

Iconfactory Press Release - Las Vegas Collection for OS X Released! Ah, the neon, the high stakes, and all that glitters. Of course they are talking about the mystique that is Las Vegas. The Iconfactory is proud to announce their latest freeware icon release - The Las Vegas Collection.

Gridface is pleased to announce the third and final installment of its Railyard Desktops series.

Flax Creations updates with two new OSX icon sets.

One-Button Mouse has released a new icon set entitled "Ireland". Check it out!

Zensmile.com has released a set of 20 icons for Mac OS X, called "Glass Beads". They are free and available on the web site.

Ethereal Creations updates with two strikingly different desktop images rendered in Poser4 and Bryce5. This release spans the range from the classical to the surreal, so head on over and check those guys out!

The Iconfactory has released an update to its professional Adobe Photoshop filter for creating Macintosh and Windows based icons, IconBuilder Pro. Version 3.1 is a free upgrade to registered users and is available today at The Iconfactory.

Macuserx.com has been updated with 4 new desktops.

So what's up WWW? Icons? Desktop pictures? News? Inform us! We'll post it!

REALbasic News by Erick Tejkowski

This week in REALbasic news:

• 3D Tutorial Online!
• Political Fun
• How does one say...?
• Links, links, and more links!

Visit the Mac Experts!

Today's News by Cletus™

Today we launch another great contest at ResExcellence. The very popular Can Combine Icons. Can Combine Icons by Infinity-to-the-Power-of-Infinity allows Mac OS X users to create impressive customized icons within minutes by using icons and artwork already available. The simple yet powerful, interface scales beautifully and is fun to use both for the novice computer user and the desktop customization freak. Now is your chance to win one of 5 available free registrations.

To coincide with the Can Combine Icons contest is the announcment that the program has been updated. Version 2.1.0 provides a good dose of improvements and bug fixes. New features can be found bleow and the homepage contains the a list of bug fixes.

• Pasting of pictures as well as icons
  
• Several new disks, and the Aqua standard document added to the Library
  
• New documentation using Help Viewer (Help menu)
  
• 8 bit icon is saved for compatibility
  
• Option to save obsolete icon resources for compatibility with older systems
  
• Flip through the icon lists using the arrow keys
  
• Visual feedback indicating drop locations
  
• Unlimited Undo/Redo support
• Tool Tips and other major interface changes
  
  

uControl maps your control key to it's rightfully intended place on your laptops keyboard; the place thats currently occupied by the oft-unused caps lock key. The update has been repackaged for easy install, and the program now works with a variety of USB keyboards. Also remaps the enter key next to the space bar (on the TiBook anyway) to an open-apple/command key.

MOX Optimize 1.7.5 will configure hidden options and accelerate Mac OS X. There were many changes to this version, including adding compatibility with Mac OS X 10.1.3

Memory Usage Getter 2.0b2 provides one of the first (IMHO) useful memory usage interfaces for Mac OS X. You actually are shown the names of the applications running instead of some obscure text.

• Now has a TRUE graphical user interface, thanks to AppleScript Studio
  
  
• Can refresh memory usage without relaunching the application
  
  
• Can display only memory usage of top 17 memory-using processes (this will be fixed later)
  
  

Click image for a full view of my iBook reading.

Spellbinder 1.0 provides GUI for the update_prebinding CL tool. From the author: "Spellbinder runs the update_prebinding command line tool. I made this to make using this command easier than running it from the Terminal whenever I needed to do it, such as when disk images begin to mount slowly or if I desire to free up RAM."

Prefling 1.5 is a dockling for accessing system preferences directly. The update now lists third party preference panes in the local, network and user libraries. A much requested feature.

Pic2Icon is a program that creates beautiful 128x128 Mac OS X icons for your pictures. Simply drop pictures or folders full of pictures onto the application and it will start creating icons. Changes to version 1.2 include:

• Drop Shadows, even for arbitrary shapes!!!
  
  
• Dog Ears!
  
  
• PDF Support
  
  
• Quicktime Movie Support (.mov)
  
  
• Dutch Localization
  
  
• Significant speed improvement processing through files
  
  

Pet Peeve: When some inspiring person creates a new GUI application to perform a function in Max OS X only to be ridiculed in (any) forum by some other person saying that you can already do this in the Terminal window. Well DOH! I doubt this is the point. Many people could care less about command lines. I know I have typed about two lines in terminal and quite frankly find the information useless for my needs. If you prefer terminal then use terminal. If you prefer the GUI format, then use this.

Have a Press Release? Software or General News? Submit it here: Suggestions!

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Polling Place by Michael Coyle

This last poll what a surprise. I would have expected half the readers made the move to MacOS X, but the fact that 20% don't even use it at all was a shock. In the forum thread and through emails, the most common complain was slow video on G3 computers. Still, Apple users appear to be upgrading faster than Windows users. The ResExcellence web server logs tell me that most Wintel users still run Windows 98 and NT!

The recent Federal Court ruling that overturned an FCC rule limiting the amount of media outlets a company could own in a single market will make the next few years interesting. In Chicago, the media giant is the Tribune Company which owns a popular radio station, broadcast TV channel, and Cable news outlet, and a major newspaper. The old rules that barred their ability to gobble up additional outlets have been removed. It makes you wonder how power will shift in the future. This weeks Polling Place asks, "From which company do we have more to fear in the future?"

(If you pick "Another", please let us know who you think it is in the Forum thread.)

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Tools of the Trade. by Michael Coyle

At first glance, it looks as if modifying the appearance of Mozilla is daunting task, but once you turn the key and open the door, you can customize any aspect of this XUL rendered browser. For starters, let's change the throbber.

Mozilla ships with two skins that can be selected from the View-->Apply Theme menu: Classic and Modern. I prefer the latter, so we can start by making a copy of the theme file, located in the Chrome folder in the Mozilla application folder. Find modern.jar and make a copy of it. This file is a zip archive containing all the images used to render the look of the Mozilla skin.

If you need a Zip/UnZip utility, you can take your pick from a VersionTracker listing.

After unzipping the copy, you are left with a folder titled skin. Work you way down to the folder called brand as shown below.

There are two GIF images in the brand folder: the "At Rest" throbber and the animated throbber. Using your favorite graphics application you can create your own, or (lucky for Mozilla users) all of the preview images of the Explorer throbbers in the ResExcellence archive are animated gifs that will drop right into the brand folder! You just need to pick a frame and make a single gif of it.

If you are the adventurous type, browse the folders and images with in the Modern skin and you will learn you can customize any aspect of the browser's appearance. Mozilla provides a tool to make this easier, but unfortunately, given the rapid pace of Mozilla development, the theme tool has lagged behind.

KDE-Look.org posted a cool Matrix desktop.

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User Contributed Splash Screens. by Michael Coyle

It's easier than ever to contribute using the new Browser Based Upload Page! If you contribute a file to any section of ResExcellence, you could win a PowerMax gift certificate worth $50 ! (How?)

• For MacoS X, Oscar Javier sent a great set of replacement TIFFs for the common menubar applets. Simple instructions are included.
  
  
• It isn't a Budweiser frog, but Eloy Duran sends a cute Boot Panel with a green little hopper.
  
  
• Nicole Lenz sure has a pair of pretty green eyes! You can see them in the MOSS and ATM combo from Conrad.
  
  
• If you own Disk Tracker, Stephen Horlander created an Aqua styled replacement splash.
  
  
  

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Support ResExcellence By Visiting Our Sponsors!

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Snapshots by Jeremy Hoesly

Friends, Mac-aficionados, comrades to the cause, lend me your mice. A new submission dropbox is in town. That’s right boys and girls! Now you can upload your snapshot submissions from within your web browser — no FTP client required. Just go to our new Upload page, and see how easy it is to contribute your 2¢ worth to the Mac community.

Snapshots are ready for Monday:

• This snapshot from Alexander sports a custom desktop picture. Aki Kawamura, a Japenese “active mascot” is standing around in the lower left. Audion is dishing out tunes along the left edge, and icons from Icon Factory are scattered throughout.
  
  
• Heronymo Allen sends this two-part screenshot featuring the “Plasma Storm” desktop picture. Intriguing.
  
  
• Blue Sky Heart’s “Crucible” desktop picture is showcased in this contribution from Cody along with matching icons. Music is being piped in from the upper left.
  
  
• This submission from Matthew Hunt touts RAILhead Design’s “Electric” desktop picture. Chimera, a Mozilla-based browser, is running along the top. Selections from our Icon Archive, Xicons, and Icon Factory reside in the dock.

Show us how you use your Mac. Read the guidelines and then send away!

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Icon & Desktop News: by Dan

Icons - Desktops: We've got (6) New Desktops, (2) New Icon Sets, and of course, updated "News From Around the Web". All on display for today's update!

Announcements:

In an ongoing effort to make it easier for you to send us your Icons and Desktops, we've designed a new Browser Based Upload Page for the task. Just follow the easy to use instructions, and you'll find submitting is now a snap! Just to entice you a little further, contribute a file to any section of ResExcellence, and you might be lucky and win a PowerMax gift certificate worth $50 from our monthly drawing.

In cooperation with the folks at the Iconfactory, the ResExcellence Icon Archive is proudly offering permanent homes for any and all Pixelpalooza 2002 contest entries. Looking for more exposure? Then bundle them up and send them on over for world wide display. Thanks!

• Icon meister Hein Mevissen expands his Hardware Icons for OSX series with "Hein's Hardware 2.0". This set includes 13 realistic looking pieces of digital technology to add to your collection.
  
  
• Hippie Jack thought that since OSX incorporates so much of NeXTstep, there should be a little more of NeXT in the interface. With that in mind, he made a single but great looking NeXt folder Icon in the briefcase style.
  
  
• Not only does the digitally talented Zack Schnepf make fine desktops, but does a fiine job with a digital camera as well. Take a look at this beautiful panoramic night shot of one of downtown Portland Oregon's Steel Bridges, and you will see what I mean. Comes in 1024x and 1280x resolutions.
  
  
• "Ambitious Lemon's desktops" by Gregg Mendez, is a must have series of 5 different free form "interface" backdrops. Today we're previewing "Tenblue", the final in the series, available in 1024x resolution. Download this one direct from Greg's site, or look over the other new desktops you find there, and choose your own favorite.
  
  
• I could barely contain myself when I ran across this cuter than you know what 3-D "Bed Monster" desktop created by a fellow who calls himself Gunther. Visit the site and check out all the other great artwork available there, you won't be sorry.
  
  
• Conrad celebrates his tooth brush and paste. No, he didn't take this photograph with that in mind, it was actually taken as part of a photography assignment in which he was supposed to photograph the interesting things one does in everyday life. This one comes in 1280x resolution, and oh yes, don't forget to brush after each meal to keep those chompers pearly white!.
  
  
• Meet Toenails, the skiddish feline owned by Bradford J. Wiles of Macmonkies. Afraid of dogs, vacuum cleaners, and anything that moves! I believe he is asking "Who Let The Dogs Out". Download this slightly pissed off pussycat in 1024x and 800x resolution.
  
  
• Fontaine L submits several more California Coastline snapshots for the arm chair traveler in the crowd. These three were actually taken by his good friend Tiffany (tiff@ucla.edu), on an excursion to Malibu, California. Well, she was excursioning, and he was working. All come in 1024x resolution.
  

News From Around the Web:

Iconfactory Press Release - Las Vegas Collection for OS X Released! Ah, the neon, the high stakes, and all that glitters. Of course they are talking about the mystique that is Las Vegas. The Iconfactory is proud to announce their latest freeware icon release - The Las Vegas Collection.

Gridface is pleased to announce the third and final installment of its Railyard Desktops series.

Flax Creations updates with two new OSX icon sets.

One-Button Mouse has released a new icon set entitled "Ireland". Check it out!

Zensmile.com has released a set of 20 icons for Mac OS X, called "Glass Beads". They are free and available on the web site.

Mandolux has just released two new desktops called 'Snowflakes'.

Ethereal Creations updates with two strikingly different desktop images rendered in Poser4 and Bryce5. This release spans the range from the classical to the surreal, so head on over and check those guys out!

MacMonkies has added 7 new Desktops to the Gallery. Included in this week's bunch is an Olympic piece from Todd Darland and 3-D works from Ed Allen and Alan Sherwood. Hop into your Cyber Cruiser and have a look!

The Iconfactory has released an update to its professional Adobe Photoshop filter for creating Macintosh and Windows based icons, IconBuilder Pro. Version 3.1 is a free upgrade to registered users and is available today at The Iconfactory.

Macuserx.com has been updated with 4 new desktops.

Live Pencil updates: ICONS: 13 new icons in a new series of METALLIC LETTERS. IT IS YOU: Our 12 year old friend Zach will make us smile and even laugh. NEW SECTION! LETTERS FOR YOUR E-MAILS: You will start your paragraphs with a special letter.

So what's up WWW? Icons? Desktop pictures? News? Inform us! We'll post it!

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Free Spirals! by Erick Tejkowski

Today we'll look at how to draw a spiral with REALbasic. In the process, we will also learn an important secret of top programmers: let someone else do the work! (Continued...)

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Calendar & Appointment Scheduler for Mac OS X

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