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Today's News by Cletus™ The Greg's Bundle Giveaway contest has come to an end. Thanks for participating. Winner will be announced on Monday! You have today and tomorrow to try your luck at the Greg's Bundle Giveaway. Late Saturday night I will stick my hand into the hat and draw out a lucky winner. Will the luck of the Irish be with you on Saturday? You will never know if you don't enter!  I am getting nothing but nice compliments from the readers for these giveaways. Even the shareware authors are enjoying the increased interest in their wares. If you are a shareware author who would like to get involved in one of these giveaways, please contact me and we will get you in the queue! We have some great giveaways coming up.
 One such recent giveaway that was a phenomenal success was A-Dock. Which coincidentally was just released out of beta testing as version 2.3. A-Dock is a very dynamic launcher/application switcher. It is very similar to the Dock that is found in Mac OS X. This version provides a slew of enhancements and bug fixes. Only a partial list is given below:
- Compatible with Wapp pro 3
- No need for the TSM Fix extension anymore
- There's now a "Quit A-Dock" command in the dock contextual menu, making it handier to install a new version
- The tool tip item from the dock contextual menu now has a hierarchical menu to set the user level
- Added a "Stop showing in A-Dock" command in running apps submenus
- Added a shortcut to hide the front app
- Added a slider in A-Dock Control to set the delay before the contextual menus will auto-pop
- Added "one-click-sticky-menus" for favorite folders. With this option checked, a single click on a favorite folder in A-Dock will display its contextual menu instead of opening it in the Finder
- The Desktop is now spring-loaded. Thus it's possible to drag&drop items to any volume and their subfolders
A bit of good news for StimpSoft, Inc and for us. Previously it was announced that they would be shutting down. This was not good news, as there are several items that ResExcellence readers like and requested be placed in our archive. There was however a work around to this situation that should keep StimpSoft, Inc. open for at least a little while. This is good news indeed, and now those items will remain in our archive!  Peek-a-Boo has undergone some changes, bringing it to version 1.6. This excellent program is a Mac OS Process analyzing tool. With it you can monitor and manipulate all running processes. Additionally, you can "watch how much CPU time each process uses, adjust the CPU time requested by each process, and look at any piece of information available through the Process Manager."
Alex Manannikov has released the next beta version of CharView, Version 1.0b7. This PPC & 68K freeware application "shows all printing characters of any selected font. With this application you can type characters you can't even dream to get from keyboard!" DesktopDemon 3.0 is now available. DesktopDemon will remember virtually everything there is about your desktop setup. If you run a program that "messes up" your setup- such as icons, a quick run of the program will reset the desktop. Based on user requests, this version will now allow you to actually try it out before you get warnings about paying the shareware. Additionally, DesktopDemon has a built-in "Trash Disposal System" and will now save up to 5 different sets within the application preferences. Scheme News: Desktopper has posted several new K-Schemes and one update. In particular, Hitoemume and Sakura by AloeDaioh are new to the Kaleidoscope world. IZA Slate Grey by the ever popular IZA is also new on the scene. IZA Olive Drab, by IZA has been updated as well. Drop by and pick them up. Submit Software and General News Suggestions!
Complete Cable Management For The Home & Office.
Tools of the Trade by Michael
 Derek Gordon sent some simple instructions to replace the clock face in MacOS X. He was also nice enough to send some replacement images!
Select the clock.app and control-click to show package contents, then open Contents/Resources
To replace the digital clock face rename background.tif-->Oldbackground.tif and drag new clockface into the Resources folder.
To replace the analog clockface rename Clock2.tif-->OldClock02.tif and drag new clockface into the Resources folder
Open your Clock.app to see the new faces! Below is a preview of the replacements from Derek that you can download.
A naughty little boy posted some icons that didn't belong to him, yet claimed them as his own. To see the full set of original ICQ Makeover icons, visit Wigwam.
After all our discussions on command line utilities for viewing hard disk space, Ronald Guest from Pepsan & Associates emailed to let me know of some very cool utilities they have. AysMon (Are You Serving Monitor) is a multi-purpose utility for monitoring system resources associated with network services and hard disk space. Take a look at their site for some interesting screenshots.
User Contributed Splash Screens: by Michael Coyle
- It's been awhile since his last visit, but Neo makes his return with a new About this Mac replacement for MacOS 9.1
- Frank sent clever MOSS made to look like a mini snapshot!
- More great work from Laurent Peraldi. Today he sends a set of replacement splashes for Office 2001.
- Look out Lara! Brian Zollinhofer sent a nice MOSS from the game Oni.
- The latest beautiful Internet Explorer skin from Dragon Tongue comes in three variations.
- Thomas Haller posts three more MOSS based on great works of art.
Snapshots by Jeremy Hoesly Friday’s snapshots are hot off the press: - Alberto Chávez is back with this snapshot sporting the custom “Spaceship Yamato” desktop picture in conjunction with William Bart’s Darkside Prototype K-Scheme. Audion, tweaked with Chaos Design’s Edge face, is shuffling music tracks in the upper left-hand corner.
- Digital Manipulation’s “Splat Organizer” and Albie Wong’s Mamma Mia K-Scheme debut in this contribution from Rob Hanlon. Audion, overhauled with Akio’s SlickCorner face, sits in as digital DJ in the lower left-hand corner.
- Michaelangelo would roll over in his grave if he knew what Bart Simpson did to one of his masterpieces. Benjamin Hatfield contributes this submission with MacDesktops’ “Bart Painting” in combination with Maury McCown’s AquaX III Graphite K-Scheme. iTunes dishes out tunes in the upper left-hand corner. Icons from our Icon Archive line the right edge.
- This screenshot from Sergio Recabarren sports a desktop picture from OS X build 4K60. iTunes serves up music in the upper left. Icons from Icon Factory are scattered throughout.
- Gavin Robb of Brycetopia submits this screenshot with William Bart’s Hypersleek Pro Jade K-Scheme and a matching desktop picture. Audion, equipped with the ƒ1 face and G-Force visualization plugin, is kicking out soundwaves along the left edge.
- What is a Mac user to do when stuck on a PC at work? Cody Walton copes by making his desktop as Mac-like as possible with the aid of WindowBlinds and the “Quantum Foam” desktop picture. WinAmp manages the background music along the left edge.
Show the Mac world how you’ve tamed and trained your desktop to your own liking. Read our submission guidelines and then fire away!
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Icon/Desktop News 03-16-01 Icon & Desktop News: by Dan  I'm pleased to announce a special addition to the ResExcellence Desktops Archive. Due to popular demand, we've decided to feature 3-D Rendered Desktops in their very own section. This includes artwork created in Bryce, Strata, Infini-D, Studio Max and others . While I'd love to pull a rabbit outa my hat and fill this section to the brim right now, instead I'm looking forward to a pile of new submissions in this category. Thanks!
Icons - Desktops: One brand new Icon Set coming your way, as well as seven really excellent desktops. All on display for today's update.
- "Black Gold Icons" by Gary Larocque of the IconHQ is a complete set of 48 system replacement icons in the "Copland' style. System 7 and above compatible.
- Happy "St.Mac-tricks Day" greetings from Dean Fusaro. This holiday desktop includes a genuine Irish saying, which when translated to English reads: "God Bless All Here", in 1024x resolution.
- Like father like son,15 years old Jay Fusaro is a very big Yankee fan from Long Island. This team desktop was created exclusively for Resexcellence. Thanks to dad Dean Fusaro for encouraging him to send this to us. Comes in 800x600 resolution.
- Zach trys his hand at digital artwork, and comes up with an "Xtreme" desktop. This OSX backdrop comes in 1024x resolution.
- Schack Lindemann updates his Quicktime startupscreen/startupmovie combination titled "Power PC Moss Movie". To use these files, drop them into your system folder without renaming them in anyway. Reboot your system and watch!
- "The Road" desktop by Jonathan, comes at you going 90 miles an hour in 1024x and 1152x resolutions.
- This "Made in Mexico" desktop by John Rose features the gorgeous Salma Hayek in 1152x resolution.
- If you enjoyed the "little guy icons" set by Ra we featured the other day, you will love the companion set of 4 different "little guy desktops." All come in 1152x resolution.
News From Around the Web: The Iconfactory, is pleased to announce that Monday, March 26th through Friday, March 30th is OS X Fest at the factory. In order to celebrate the release of the new OS on the 24th, they will be releasing a new OS X savvy icon set every day of the week. Ilicon's Flower Fashion desktops continue with another two ladies in scented petals. Brian drops a line to say that Etherbrian has updated with 2 new icon sets. Woo-hoo ... stop the world ... ahem. Thanks! My favorite website, Flax Creations (wonder why?) has been updated with 3 new desktops for your viewing pleasure. Xochi announces that version 3.0 of Kaxo.com is now up and running. Any pointers, gripes or donations are much appreciated. Colheres uploads a new version of their site to celebrate its first birthday. All sections were updated, and there are a new icon set and a new desktop picture ready for download. For all you history buffs, look for the opening soon of greatestpictures.com Brycetopia has been updated with new pictures, movies, and more for your viewing pleasure! Samuel Thurber announces the first set of icons to be released on his site. The Devil's Desktop has been updated with 5 new desktops and 2 new fonts. Also the url has changed and now has it's own domain name: www.macuserx.com Ra's Page updates with four new desktops to compliment his latest set of icons titled "this little guy". Steve Sobek's site has been updated through the course of this week with four new desktops and an Explorer splash! Gary from the IconHQ announces to the world that his site has been redesigned. After a couple of grueling weeks of reworking Rampant Mac, Scott has one new desktop
'Quantum X' posted plus a complete redesign of the site. Look for preview of 'Quantum X' right here as well. Akio has just released two new iPacks on his site. They are kinda of an upgrade for his Sharp Indigo and Sharp Graphite Schemes, but can be used with any Scheme. Mendelini is proud to present two brand new icon sets: Liquid Buttons X and Farewell, Classic. So what's up WWW? Icons? Desktop pictures? News? Inform us! We'll post it!
Visit the Mac Experts!
Theme News by Michael Rabe
Ok boys and girls, it's Thursday and that means it's time for themes news. Zack Rothauser of iMac Island has released "iMac OS Blueberry" (find it in the Theme Archive).
At Doghouse Online you can see two previews of soon to be released themes! "Surged!" is the first theme by Adam Betts and myself and will be released Tuesday here at ResExcellence. The second theme "Delta" won't be released for awhile, but you can still take a peek!
Applescript News by Michael Coyle
Howard Peters has a clever solution to a problem with the "Network Setup Scripting" extension. This is a little esoteric, so hang on for the ride.
In the AppleScript Guidebook section entitled "Network Scripting", the scripter is told to protect the database during write operations by using a "begin transaction - end transaction" block.
Bill Cheeseman of the Applescript Source Book web site states that this is not the correct way to handle database transactions; the begin and end terms don't even belong in the "Network Setup Scripting" dictionary. Instead, in conformity with the AppleScript Language Guide, one should use a "with transaction - end transaction" block.
Because "end transaction" is in the application's dictionary, every time you compile a script, you must manually delete the word "transaction" from every "end transaction" statement; the Script Editor then places the word "transaction" back there after checking for dictionary match, and the script is compiled. If you don't delete the word "transaction" you will get an error from the Script Editor.
This rapidly becomes maddening.
The solution: use ResEdit.
- Open a copy of "Network Setup Scripting" (version 1.1.1), open the "aete" resource "Open Transport Terminology".
- At offset 0010CC change the 20 or space character to a 5F or underbar character.
- Close and save.
Replace your copy of "Network Setup Scripting" in the Scripting Additions folder. The dictionary entry has been changed to "end_transaction" and won't cause any further annoyances during script compilation.
See the tip on "Dealing with Transactions" for full details of the transaction problem.
3/15/01 Snapshots by Jeremy Hoesly Thursday’s cast of snapshots is on stage: - This screenshot from Conrad features Chillyday’s “An Autumn Day” desktop picture. iTunes is serving up music in the lower right. A smattering of icons from Icon Street, RAILhead Design, and Chillyday propagate the desktop.
- Garrett Cox sent in this submission with a modified version of the “Quantum Foam” desktop picture. iTunes is kicking out soundwaves in the center, and icons from Xicons are clustered along the right edge.
- The custom “iBall Aqua” desktop picture and Maury McCown’s AquaX III K-Scheme are showcased in this snapshot from Josselin Guédes. iTunes provides the background music along the top. Custom icons also abound.
- The “Quantum Foam” desktop picture and Maury McCown’s AquaX III K-Scheme debut in this contribution from Fuji Sartono. Icons from RAILhead Design are also featured.
- Robert Stack submitted this snapshot sporting the “Gin~Sing” desktop picture and theme he named. iTunes, retro-fitted with an alternate pattern, is dishing out tunes along the top. Icons from MacGrounds also make an appearance.
- Homer’s about to blow you away with a smile in this contribution from Carrie Winter touting Nohomers’ “Homergun” desktop picture. Donut icons from ResExcellence’s Icon Archive are nestled in the upper right-hand corner.
Show the Mac world how you’ve tamed and trained your desktop to your own liking. Read our submission guidelines and then fire away!
Visit the Mac Experts!
Today's News by Cletus™ There is still plenty of room in my In box for your entry in the Greg’s Bundle Giveaway. A little detective work on your part, and supplying the correct answers to a couple of questions will get you entered in the drawing. Greg’s Bundle consists of; Greg’s Browser, SmoothType and Power Windows. A great prize! Clixsounds has posted their new sound file for the week. This time it is an alert sound going by the name of "Beer Belch." As always, you can try out the sound in your browser with the Flash Plugin installed prior to downloading it.  Gideon Greenspan has posted an update to his excellent Drop Drawers application. Version 1.5.2 adds some minor usability improvements. This is a super cool program. If you have never used it, you must give it a try. Drop Drawers will provide you with "floating pull-out, snap-shut drawers on the sides of your screen to store text, URLs, aliases, pictures, sounds, movies and anything else." Remember that Drop Drawers comes as a Carbon application also. If you need further background on Drop Drawers or its author, check out our interview with Gideon Greenspan.
 Over the years of collecting mp3's and opening them in many different players, I have ended up with a mix different file types. I downloaded and tried iTunes Associator to convert them to what I am using now exclusively: iTunes! That is what iTunes Associator does, it changes the file type and file creator codes of any mp3 file to associate them with iTunes. This version adds several new filters which include:
- .mp3 suffix filter
- MPEG filter
- QuickTime filter
- SoundApp filter
- MacAMP filter
PopChar Pro 1.3.2 is now available for download. PopChar Pro installs a menu that shows all characters available in the current font. This makes typing of special characters a whole lot easier. You no longer need to remember keyboard combinations. There is also a lite version available. Fixes in this version include the following: - Clicking the PopChar Pro floating window while a pop-up menu was open caused the current application to hang.
- PopChar Pro's floating window caused crashes and freezes in AppleWorks 6.
- PopChar Pro now works with Microsoft Office 2001 (see the PopChar Pro Users Guide for details).
- PopChar Pro didn't insert selected characters when Window Monkey was also installed under Mac OS 9.1.
- The keyboard equivalents and the ordinal number displayed in the PopChar Pro menu were not properly redrawn when certain Kaleidoscope schemes were used.
- Under certain circumstances, the PopChar Pro Installer displayed a false virus alert.
 ResExcellence readers, are you up for a new challenge? Seth Lowe is looking for some help in what he is calling an Open Source project for REALbasic developers. He is working currently on a new chat client for use with Yahoo! Chat. His product is called "miChat!" miChat! interfaces with Yahoo! Chat to provide access from your computer without having to use their chat interface through your web browser. miChat! provides a simple interface, modelled in some respects after the iChat plug-in control Yahoo!
Seth Lowe writes: "miChat! was created in an effort to solve my complaints with Yahoo!'s poor java-based technology. Work has been going really well, and so far I've impressed myself and others with miChat! However the time necessary to expand the project. As a result I have decided to open the project up to a set of willing developers, in the open source spirit. If anyone is interested please contact me for further details." Mac Uptime 1.0 (download) is now available. This will allow you to track how long your Mac has been up and running. Requires CarbonLib 1.2. Submit Software and General News Suggestions!
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Tools of the Trade by Michael
 You may remember a recent Terminal article dealing with df and du under MacOS X. It seems some options are missing in the X versions that are available under other unixes. Rob Griffiths set out to solve the problem!
I've uploaded a package of four pre-compiled commands (df, du, ls, and dircolors (to control the colors of the new ls)) to my website. Feel free to grab it and install it on your MacOS X box if you wish.
Rob is very modest. In his email he never even mentions he runs a great site: MacOS Hints.
My absolute, must have utility under classic Mac is KeyQuencer. A reader recently emailed Charles Haspel from Binary Software to ask about the utilities future under MacOS X and he replied...
We don't actually know what KeyQuencer's fate will be at this point. It is unclear from the MacOS X beta and the small amount of information provided by Apple whether KeyQuencer is possible in OS X.
It certainly works in Classic apps and it does not seem at the moment that everyone will make the move quickly, even Apple isn't planning on shipping computers with OS X as the only option until at least summer supposedly, so we are forced to play a wait and see game. It certainly hasn't affected sales so far. Sorry I don't have a better answer but until we can pick apart the details of OS X we won't know.
Two Faced Mac updated with a new really cool desktop. In the news they mention an upcoming comprehensive MacOS X Screenshot gallery.
Elbert Wall created some replacement background PICTs for iTunes and Quicktime, and realized they'd make pretty good desktop patterns too! Check them out on his iDisk site.
User Contributed Splash Screens: by Michael Coyle
- Bernhard Feurstein created a nice looking MOSS in the style of MacOS X.
- Felix sent a Smiling Mac makeover for iTunes!
- Based on well known works of art, Thomas Haller sends his first three MOSS contributions.
- Last week it was light-sabers, this week it's regular sabers! See three saber cursors from Michael Rabe.
- A cool looking Explorer splash was created by Sam Freak.
Snapshots by Jeremy Hoesly Look Sharp! Wednesday’s snapshots are coming on the scene: - This snapshot from Cenahn touts the “Aqua Stripes I” desktop picture and AquaX III Graphite K-Scheme, both from RAILhead Design. iTunes is providing background music in the lower right-hand corner. Selections from Icon Factory and Perfect Yosemite reside on the desktop.
- Josselin Guédes is back with a refined version of his “Think Love” desktop picture in combination with Maury McCown’s AquaX III Graphite K-Scheme. iTunes is shuffling music tracks along the top. Custom icons also abound.
- Helen is back with this submission bearing an inspirational desktop picture and Michael Rabe’s GG Blautopas Theme. The Contraption icons are also shown.
- Erik Veland’s “Mac OS X” desktop picture and Ieka Tihsonik’s Platinum Box K-Scheme are showcased in this screenshot from Nathan Lavertue. Audion, retooled with the custom Mazi Goz face, is taking music requests in the upper right.
- Game Wallpapers’ “BioWare Logo” desktop picture and William Bart’s BBX Platinum K-Scheme debut in this contribution from Matt. Icons from Kaleidoscope’s website, Icon Factory, icons.cx, and Lustrazor roam the desktop.
- This snapshot from Arjun Rau sports Digital Blasphemy’s “Chamelea” desktop picture coupled with William Bart’s Ultrasleek Designer Graphite K-Scheme. Audion, overhauled with the ƒ1 face, is tickling the eardrums in the lower right. Perfect Yosemite’s PY3 Graphite icons lurk around the desktop.
Show the Mac world how you’ve tamed and trained your desktop to your own liking. Read our submission guidelines and then fire away!
Icon/Desktop News 03-14-01 Icon & Desktop News: by Dan  I suppose it would be safe to say that Spring has just about Sprung in many parts of the country. After a long and hard winter for most of us, that's welcome news. In my neck of the woods the flowering Cherries and Plums are about to put on quite a show, soon to be followed by a myriad of other blooming things. Chins up, we're almost there!
Icons - Desktops: One brand new Icon Set coming your way, as well as seven really excellent desktops. All on display for today's update.
- In Mac OS 8.5, Apple introduced 32-bit icons. These new icons allowed for a larger, 256 color palette, and transparent masks. However, most icons are still 8-bit. To solve this deficiency, Brien Edick created "Icon Replacers II", another volume of commonly found icons now converted to 32-bit.
- Natural beauty highlights John Rose's striking "Autumn" desktop. This "think different backdrop comes in 1152x resolution.
- P. Groset pays tribute to the great Gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt with his "Swingin’ with Django" desktop. Comes in 1024x and 800x resolutions.
- Samuel Thurber releases a most excellent Hi-Tech desktop titled "Graphite Flavorin", in 800x resolution. Visit Sam's site for more GUI goodies.
- Manny Velazquez submits for your approval two brilliant desktops from the "Metaphysical Series". This set includes "Ascension" and "X Divine", both coming in 1024x resolution.
- Steve Sobek creates his own futuristic vision of "1984". This pic was done in Bryce 4, and is based on the Apple commercial that announced the Macintosh during the 1984 Super Bowl, and comes in 1024x resolution.
- Dream Static thought you might enjoy the visual company of the sexy Salma Hayek on your desktop. "Wild Wild Salma" comes in 3 different resolutions.
- One more extra fine desktop creation by the prolific and digitally artistic Dean Fusaro. "Virus" comes in 1024x resolution.
News From Around the Web: For all you history buffs, look for the opening soon of greatestpictures.com Brycetopia has been updated with new pictures, movies, and more for your viewing pleasure! Samuel Thurber announces the first set of icons to be released on his site. The Devil's Desktop has been updated with 5 new desktops and 2 new fonts. Also the url has changed and now has it's own domain name: www.macuserx.com Ra's Page updates with four new desktops to compliment his latest set of icons titled "this little guy". Steve Sobek's site has been updated through the course of this week with four new desktops and an Explorer splash! Gary from the IconHQ announces to the world that his site has been redesigned. After a couple of grueling weeks of reworking Rampant Mac, Scott has one new desktop
'Quantum X' posted plus a complete redesign of the site. Look for preview of 'Quantum X' right here as well. Akio has just released two new iPacks on his site. They are kinda of an upgrade for his Sharp Indigo and Sharp Graphite Schemes, but can be used with any Scheme. Mendelini is proud to present two brand new icon sets: Liquid Buttons X and Farewell, Classic. Just to let you know, there are 2 new desktop pictures available at exitmusic: playinpool and subway! There is a new icon set from The Little Dark Room called "Runes". There are 10 new desktops at http://www.mandolux.com The theme of these desktops is the continuation of the X Series (as in Mac OS X). The title of these desktops is "Gutenberg v2". Colheres posts their March Calendar, by Ana So what's up WWW? Icons? Desktop pictures? News? Inform us! We'll post it!
Visit the Mac Experts!
3/13/01 Snapshots by Jeremy Hoesly Tuesday’s batch of snapshots is ready. Roll up your sleeves and dig in: - Desktopia’s “Beyond the Ice” desktop picture and Toren Valimir’s I/OS Titanium LE K-Scheme debut in this snapshot from Nick Adams. iTunes, tweaked with an alternative pattern, is serving up music in the upper right-hand corner. Icons provided by Xicons are scattered thoughout.
- This simple but rock-solid submission from Dennis Best sports a custom desktop picture. FKeys are assigned to launch various programs, and the In and Out boxes contain all clutter instead of the desktop.
- Subtle is definitely not the word to describe Oscar Bodini’s contribution sporting an anti-Dark Side desktop picture by Mike Davidson. Opera, a lean browser recently ported to the Mac, is surfing in the upper right-hand corner. Icons from icons.cx and Mendelini are also showcased.
- A desktop picture from Bang-Olufsen is shown off in this snapshot from Silus Cruse coupled with Maury McCown’s AquaX III K-Scheme. Icons from icons.cx line the right edge.
- The “Moon Cube” desktop picture and William Bart’s Platinum BBX K-Scheme are showcased in this screenshot from James. iTunes, retro-fitted with aqua buttons, is sitting in as digital DJ in the lower left-hand corner. Space icons roam the desktop.
- Josh contributed this submission bearing Mandolux’s “Sweeet” desktop picture. SoundJam, equipped with the Aqua skin, is kicking out soundwaves in the lower right. Ron Watson’s Industrial Office icons and selections from Perfect Yosemite and icons.cx are in the spotlight.
Show the Mac world how you’ve tamed and trained your desktop to your own liking. Read our submission guidelines and then fire away!
Calendar & Appointment Scheduler for Mac OS X
Today's News by Cletus™ The Extension Overload Giveaway went very well. Close to 300 entries kept my e-mail program busy throughout the week. ResExcellence and authors, Teng Chou Ming and Peter Hardman would like to thank all who entered the Extension Overload Giveaway. Congratulations go out to the winners. - Larry Pohl
- Ian Fuller
- Gary Little
 Moving right along into this weeks contest. Greg Landweber is offering his excellent Greg's Bundle ( Greg's Browser, Power Windows and SmoothType) to a lucky person who can answer a couple of questions about his shareware program "SmoothType." Get your Deerstalker cap on and do some sleuthing. Test your knowledge, enter the contest and maybe win a bundle!
Akio has updated all of his A-Dock Skins to incorporate two new features in the new version of A-Dock: tool-tip background and font color customizing. However there is no reason to wait he writes, as they are fully compatible with the current release of A-Dock.  I have to take a moment and thank everyone who answered my concerns about installing 9.1 on my iBook Graphite SE. I received over 30 e-mails just on this subject. I initially sent thank you messages to those writing, but soon dropped this idea as I could not keep up. I spent Saturday morning installing Mac OS 9.1 on the iBook and had no problems at all. I did a clean install and used Conflict Catcher to merge my old system folder into the new one. 2-3 readers did report sleep problems, but on desktop models only.
The only thing I needed to change from my previous set up, was to turn on the security extensions as I was having major problems with my scripts in Entourage. I remembered AppleScript Central had a blurb on this. Apart from that, all has been very smooth and trouble free.
Sleeping Cat Software has posted their first version of DeskPictRotator Pro. As the name indicates, DeskPictRotator Pro is an application for changing the desktop pictures in timed intervals. Give this new application a try and let me know if you want it added to the Software Archive. Steven Massey has posted version 5.0 of his text editing application StevePerfect. StevePerfect supports the latest Macintosh advances that Apple has yet to include with Simpletext such as themes, internet access, true worldscript support, a music player capable of playing mp3 or quicktime audio, movie viewer for quicktime files, MPEGs and VCDs, live internet media content and a really easy user interface. While it looks great under Kaleidoscope and the various Aqua Schemes, for users of MacOS X, there is a preview carbon version of StevePerfect X available for a true Aqua experience A little diversion. I found this article on MacSurfer to be a very interesting read. Perhaps you will also. Kine courtesy of Tadashi! Submit Software and General News Suggestions!
Click here to learn more about Toast 6 Titanium
The Polling Place by Michael
 This poll certainly filled my inbox with angry letters! How dare I imply MacOS X will be released unfinished!
Call me silly, but if MacOS X ships without playback support for DVD's, I'd call that unfinished. Maybe you're the kind of person who doesn't need that DVD Player/Burner in your new G4, or maybe you don't mind temporarily downgrading to Mac Classic in order to play DVD's, but just about 70% of ResEx readers would call that an unfinished OS.
This week's Polling Place wonders if you have ever put your money where your mouth is! Have you ever owned Apple stock?
Tools of the Trade by Michael
Thanks to everyone who filled my mailbox with information on the various memory chips and speed differences. Michael Artz was the first to mention an Apple TIL (How did I miss that?) and Mark Vogler was first with a link to the TransInternational site.
Tony Palina recommends reading the Kinsington Memory Guide, and Jason Miller mentioned a MacFixIt comment on the problem.
To summarize, it is a slight performance bottleneck. Apple doesn't feel it's a concern, but memory manufacturers feel it is. My opinion is to be very careful when getting that 'free' 64 meg memory module with your next Mac purchase. You may want to spend a little more and get the fastest memory.
MacInstruct has posted an Interactive Tutorial for learning the basics of PERL. If you're running MacOS X or Linux, give it a look! Yum, perl. Couldn't run ResExcellence without it!
Two Faced Mac has posted a new MOSS and Desktop picture, and DV Graphics has updated with 2 new desktop sets and a set of 24 ATM replacements.
Tip-o-the_Hat to Small Dog Electronics! This long time sponsor of ResExcellence is celebrating their 6th year in business. If you're interested in pre ordering MacOS X, they plan to have plenty of copies March 24th, and you can get a coupon for a free pint of Vermont's finest Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream with your purchase of OS X!
Two new fonts from Fontosaurus Text! Checkout Untitled and Reedbert.
User Contributed Splash Screens: by Michael Coyle
- Resmason has created two new clocks! Check them out to see if they'll add to the style of your desktop!
- In honor of the White Sox winning three in a row, I'm posting this Giant Sox MOSS by Paul Rouffa! Come on, how about some MOSS for the other MLB teams. Frankly I'm surprised I haven't been inundated by gloating New York fans. :)
- Christian Brady wanted to remove the flowers from ICQ so he made these replacement icons.
- ResEx regular Steve Sobek send two variations of a nice looking Photoshop splash.
- In the last of the series, here is a cool transparent Earth throbber for Explorer by John Hall.
- Smile and the whole world smiles with you, so take a look at this Smilin Mac MOSS and get the ball rolling!
Theme News by Michael Rabe
Vortex! Click for better preview
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I know it's not Tuesday, but I promised I would release the long anticipated "Vortex" theme on my birthday. You can find it at the Theme Archive. I hope you enjoy this theme as much as I loved making it.
Well it looks like themes are starting to make a comeback. With more and more people learning how to make themes you should have a lot more from which to choose! By Thursday, I will have a preview of "Surged!", the first theme from Adam Betts and me.
Zack Rothauser over at iMac Island will be releasing his next theme called iMac Blueberry today or tomorrow. I was a beta testers for this theme and it looks like it's good and stable. He plans on following it up with all of the iMac flavors.
Snapshots by Jeremy Hoesly I’m back from my vacation all refreshed and ready to tear into the submission pile again. Here’s my first fruits: - This screenshot from Timo Andres shows off the K10K website and Concerto piano program in the background. Icons from icons.cx are in the foreground.
- This snapshot from Sam Bowman sports a desktop picture from Digital Blasphemy. iTunes is shuffling music selections along the bottom. Custom icons along with selections from Icon Factory propagate the desktop.
- EndEffect’s “Dream Larvae” desktop picture coupled with Richard Bensam’s Ink K-Scheme are showcased in this submission from Matt Heerdt. SoundJam, outfitted with the Pill skin, is dishing out tunes in the upper right. Selections from Gort’s Icons are scattered throughout.
- Helen is seeing red in this contribution featuring the Y3K Theme. Lindkvist’s Things icon set is also on display.
- Wasted Youth’s “Growing Up” desktop picture and Albie Wong’s ByCrom! K-Scheme debut in this snapshot from Olivier Meulenyzer. Macast kicks out soundwaves along the top.
- Pippin, Apple’s unsuccessful venture into the video game console arena, is the star in this submission from Michael Orticari in the form of a custom desktop picture. Cool!
Show the Mac world how you’ve tamed and trained your desktop to your own liking. Read our submission guidelines and then fire away!
Complete Cable Management For The Home & Office.
Icon/Desktop News 03-12-01 Icon & Desktop News: by Dan  Right from the get-go of my term here at ResExcellence I've received approximately 10 desktop submissions to every one Icon Set. I realize that icon making takes a lot more time and patience and are precious creations. Yet in my daily forays around the Mac GUI community at large I see many new and exciting icon sets appearing on a regular basis. So, once again I send an open invitation encouraging any and all pixel artists to submit their Icon Sets to our Archives. They will get great exposure, and land on many more desktops than you can imagine. Thanks!
Icons - Desktops: One Excellent OSX Icon Set coming your way, as well as seven really fine new desktops. All on display for today's update.
- "Copper Numbered Buttons" by Dragon Tongue are designed for OSX. These 32 bit 128x128 icons are designed to match Dragon Tongue's latest "copper' skin for Internet Explorer 5.
- "Quantum X" by Scott Chitwood of Rampant Mac is the latest of his 3-D masterpieces to premiere on ResExcellence. Visit the site for the download and check out the extensive site redesign as well as the other excellent items to be found there.
- Hot out of the digital ovens of John Rose comes "Apple Cookies". This delicious Apple-Centric desktop comes in 1280x and 1024x resolutions.
- Dean Fusaro continues to surprise and delight us with his artistic versatility and "Contrasts". This stylish desktop comes with a right handed docking area in 1024x resolution.
- One size fits all when it comes to Apple's Airport technology and Spase Boy's "Spase Station" desktop. All your Base are belong to us comes in 1024x resolution.
- "Weird Bars" by our friend Xochi peels back the layers of perception with this brushed metal gradient backdrop in 1280x resolution.
- If anyone you know has doubts about the power of the Mac OS, proudly display Nasty Nene's "Believe It OS" desktop to make sure they know how things really are. Comes in 1024x resolution.
- Another fine desktop creation by the prolific and artistic Dean Fusaro, "Alien Brain" comes in 1024x resolution.
News From Around the Web: Steve Sobek's site has been updated through the course of this week with four new desktops and an Explorer splash! Gary from the IconHQ announces to the world that his site has been redesigned. After a couple of grueling weeks of reworking Rampant Mac, Scott has one new desktop
'Quantum X' posted plus a complete redesign of the site. Look for preview of 'Quantum X' right here as well. Akio has just released two new iPacks on his site. They are kinda of an upgrade for his Sharp Indigo and Sharp Graphite Schemes, but can be used with any Scheme. The Devil's Desktop has been updated with 7 new desktops, 2 new icon sets, 1 new font and 1 new Daytimer Planner page. Mendelini is proud to present two brand new icon sets: Liquid Buttons X and Farewell, Classic. Just to let you know, there are 2 new desktop pictures available at exitmusic: playinpool and subway! There is a new icon set from The Little Dark Room called "Runes". There are 10 new desktops at http://www.mandolux.com The theme of these desktops is the continuation of the X Series (as in Mac OS X). The title of these desktops is "Gutenberg v2". Colheres posts their March Calendar, by Ana Brandon Muhlach opens a new website for posting desktop pictures at 1152 x 768 resolution. Visit the site for more explanation on this. Ra's Page updates with a new set of icons titled "this little guy". Look for this set coming to the ResExcellence archives in the next week as well. Tray's Trove updates with 8 new desktops. Brian Edick has created Maciconist, a place for mac users who like to make icons. To start sending messages to members of this group, simply send e-mail to maciconists@yahoogroups.com So what's up WWW? Icons? Desktop pictures? News? Inform us! We'll post it!
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