Today's News by Cletus™
The very popular launcher application DragThing has been updated by James Thomson. He states that the release is "primarily a maintenance release with changes needed for the forthcoming Mac OS X 10.2, code named: "Jaguar", but it also has improvements for both Mac OS 9 and previous versions of Mac OS X." The problem fixes include: DragThing not opening after being renamed renamed, problem with docks in full screen applications, loading of Unicode names for color and texture sets and opening the Finder on Mac OS 9. Direct download here.
Although I never really bought into Internet Time, several people I know do indeed use it. If you fall into this latter group, you will be interested in @-time. @-time is a dock-based application that displays the time in several world cities. It also displays GMT (UTC) time and Internet (@) time. Changes include a bump in the number of cities listed, plist preferences, bundle application.
Folder Icon X 1.2.3 provides fixes in several areas. The first is a fix for the error which occurs when the startup icon is a blank icon. The other fixes are for language localization improvements.
I have received at least three emails asking me to mention the freeware WeatherPop. There is also an advanced version which then becomes shareware. It shows you the current weather conditions in the menu bar. If you are stuck in an office without windows or perhaps always in air conditioned building, this will be of use to you.
As the World turns, so do your desktop pictures if you use Live Deskpicture. Paul Software Engineering are working hard on version 2.0b3 and want your input. Give it a try and get rid of the boring, unchanging desktop image you now have!
Mike is always announcing themes for Mac OS X. If you like them and would want to get creative enough to make them, Geekspiff has posted the next beta version of ThemePark for Mac OS X. It is a theme designer, creator, and editor. It can be downloaded here.
Duality has also been updated to version 3.1. This is a Theme and icon set changer. The PR describes this release as follows:
Duality 3.1 is the premier theme changer for Mac OS X. It takes all themes rsrc and .theme. In addition, you can take advantage of themes created using TPKG2, the most advanced and anticipated theme format for Mac OS X. Duality is also the first scheme changer to support Icon Sets. Now, with the icon set format, you also have control over the icons on your computer.
Everyone loves the little eyes that follow your cursor around the screen. Call it a diversion from the mundane. What ever your reason may be, you will want the update to Eyeballs.
Have a Press Release? Software or General News? Submit it here: Suggestions!
Snapshots by Jeremy Hoesly
News Flash: Snapshot reserves found completely empty! Experts are baffled. International plea for snapshot aid has been issued.
Conclude the week with Friday’s slightly smaller snapshot offering:
- Eduardo Alvarado returns with this snapshot sporting a “DSwirl” desktop picture. HAL 9000 icons coupled with Blue Sky Heart’s Alien icons share the spotlight. MoonDock displays the current phase of the moon as a desktop icon.
- Your friendly snapshot editor, Jeremy Hoesly, contributes this dual-monitor snapshot featuring two custom desktop pictures and Eric Lob’s Blue Theme. An opening graphic for a redesign of my personal website, Hoeslyvista, is displayed in Photoshop Elements.
- An Anime Wallpapers desktop picture debuts in this submission from Michael Holdren. Mozilla is featuring a Penny-Arcade comic strip.
See just how easy it is to contribute to ResExcellence! Give our browser-based submission upload page a whirl.
Tools of the Trade by Michael Coyle
Regardless of whether you run Classic or MacOS X, today's Theme Archive has something for you. Ben Boldt adds two conversions of MacOS Themes for Classic Mac: DSK and Sosumi. Laine Lee sent the beautiful Pillowtalk-Sky, a pastel theme for MacOS X. Visit his site to see more of his creations.
John Rose, a regular contributor to ResEx, has posted all his Boot Panels on his home site: John's Sketch Pad. All his desktops, MOSS, and application splashes are also up. Be sure to check out his portfolio to see his great artwork.
More on Coloring the Menu Icons...
After reading the previous edit, several readers have written to say that they can open the package of a (dot)menu application, but then they can't access the "Contents" folder. I had forgotten that this happens to me on occasion too. The solution is to log out and then back in. It must be a bug in the Finder that will be fixed in the new $129 Jaguar. ;)
Jolin Warren sent me some excellent information on Menu Icons. MenuPics is a free utility to help with the changing of TIF images that are used with (dot)menu apps. It automates the backup process and installs some pre-made sets by Hes Nikke. Jolin also sent links for two additional sites that have collections of Menu Icons: Meancode and Forgotten Newbies.
WinExcellence is NOT a new division of ResExcellence.L.L.C. It's the project of 27 year old Kane Garrette. He's weird mix of Windows fan, yet thinks the guys who run ResExcellence are cool. I guess he wants to be like me when he grows up. I can't tell if the site is a joke, or the guy is just a little "special". ResExers, please don't spam him. Just read the silly site and get a chuckle.
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?)
- John Rose sends a great looking Boot Panel featuring the artwork of Gil Elvren. Elvren's posters of Art Deco ladies during the '30s and '40s were Americas vision of the perfect women.
- If you like the green on black look of the Matrix screens, Jeff Stephenson put together a cool MOSS that's more than the usual falling Matrix letters.
- Cerulean sends his first contribution to ResExcellence. It's a Boot Panel featuring Milla Jobovich in a scene from Resident Evil.
- This humorous Mozilla splash was created by Joona Nuutinen.
- Kogepan is a Japa-mation character that's a burnt loaf of bread! Maybe that's why he looks a little grumpy in this Boot Panel from Joshua Banton.
Click here to learn more about Toast 6 Titanium
Today's News by Cletus™
Gary Martin has posted an update to MoonDock. The program displays the Moon phase in the Dock or on the Desktop. This release corrects a start-up issue on some systems when using MoonDock as a Login Item. He has also updated the Help documentation. Additionally the site has his new EarthGlobe V0.9 preview available for you to download and try out. Keep in mind that this program is still under development.
John MacDonnell has developed a very unique item called Refection of Daylight. Here is the description: Refection of Daylight is a freeware application that changes the background of your desktop according to the time. So you'll have a sunny desktop at noon whereas in the evening your desktop will be full of the red sunrays of the sunset which will fade into a starry night. The pages hosts a preview of what exactly happens with the application.
Bernie Zenis has alerted us to an update for MC Font Menu to version 1.3.1. This freeware program for listing all fonts includes a bevy of updates. The first is that it will run fine in Classic under Mac OS X now. It also adds a new option: Affect Menus With Item Count Over XYZ. With this option some non-font menus can be displayed using multiple columns. A bug that prevented it from running under Kaleidoscope and a few other programs has been fixed as well. Stop by Bernie's MC Font page for further information.
Calendar is a really simply, but extrememly well done program for keeping track of your events. The dock icon displays todays date plus the number of events scheduled for today. Calendar comes with several themes. Additionally, and this is cool, it can include upcoming weather predictions. Plus you can create a your own themes using an easy to use theme editor. I was playing around with it the other day. Well done.
Awen software is offering up another screensaver for Mac OS X. It is freeware and called Harusbitcation. It is described as a screensaver for vegetarians. It can be downloaded here.
MacMinute ran a great summary article the other day on the parodies generated by the switch ads. Check for the article for the full listing from July 29. For a taste of a couple, check these two links: Bait and Switch and Ani Moller.
Have a Press Release? Software or General News? Submit it here: Suggestions!
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Tools of the Trade by Michael Coyle
Spencer Cohen gets a gold star next to his name for devising this simple trick to place a hard disk icon next to the Finder icon in the dock. In other words, hard disk icons were limited to the 'Trash' side of the Dock. This little trick allows you to place drive icons on the 'Application' side of the dock.
First copy an application and put it somewhere where you won't want to delete it. Rename the copy the same name as your hard disk. (Comment: be sure to delete any hidden extension like .app!)
Drag the renamed application on to your Dock.
Make an alias of your hard disk and use it to replace the application of the same name whose icon you just dragged onto the dock.
The dock will refer to the same path of the application, but it will open the alias to the hard drive instead!
Unlike this Applescript that was previously covered on ResEx, there is no delay opening the hard disk with this new method.
BloodFly has updated his site with Photoshop goodies and stuff for your desktop. Look for 2 new sets of filters in the Resources section with a total of 12 options. Be sure to visit the desktop section to see the new creations by Bunny (!).
Colorize Menubar Icons by Michael Coyle
Based on a tip from Rodney Noble, this simple tutorial will show you how to add color to menu bar icons in MacOS X. (If you're particularly talented, you can even create replacement icons!)
By default, these Menu Extras are stored in the "/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras" directory. While you can log in as root and edit these directly, I suggest that in your home directory you create the "/CoreServices/Menu Extras" directories and copy any menu apps you wish to edit. (Continued...)
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?)
- She was once the most popular 'actress' featured in contributions. Thanks to Mosley, Lara Croft can once again grace your desktop. Mosely went back to the original 3D game rendered Lara we all fell in love with! Today he sends a nice looking boot panel and login panel makeover.
- Nils Raab submitted a graphite replacement for Internet Explorer's splash screen.
- Featuring a charming image of his wife, Britt Godwin created a Boot Panel for MacOS X.
- Here's a type of contribution we haven't seen in some time. Tony Wu made a cool analog replacement face for the MacOS X clock.app.
- Eye see you! This close up boot panel of an eyeball from Conrad is so unnerving, you'll wish your Mac could boot MacOS X faster!
- The older fruity colored iBooks are featured in this Classic MOSS created by Matthew Harrington.
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Today's News by Cletus™
The PrefsOverload Contest was a great success. Although we do not know what the submissions actually were, Angelo sent in the names of the winners. I suppose that is what most of you want to know anyway, so the suspense is over. Listed below are the three winners. Congratulations to them from ResExcellence and Angelo.
- David Escamilla
- Mark Hosking
- Stephen Ashton
CreaseProof is an application that helps you to change the creator code of files. It happens from time to time that files, specially files downloaded from the Internet, don't appear with the proper icon and doesn't start the application you want when you double click it. This version adds the ability to display the creator code and file type of a file.
The freeware screensaver called Fireworks has been updated to version 0.3.0. Changes in this version are listed as having added more options bringing the total to 11 different types. The maximum number of fireworks, length of the tail, gravity can be set via the preferences.
We haven't heard from Jérome Foucher in a little while. He dropped me a line over the weekend however, about an update for A-Dock to version 2.8.3. The changes for this version he wrote are:
- Added a confirmation dialog to the Quit All command.
- Skins can now provide a pattern for the tool tips background.
- Should have fixed the "favorite application not launching until the user moves the mouse" problem.
- Carbon applications built as Mac OS X packages are now correctly handled by the path submenu and by the "Get Info" and "Reveal in Finder" commands.
- Fixed the crazy-tooltips when using keyboard navigation.
Icon Brush is an AppleScriptable Icon Editor for Mac OS X. Version 2.5 is a free upgrade for those who have previously registered version 2.0. It supports Mac OS X native .icns files and Windows .ICO files. Besides many bug fixes, they report the following additions: A new applescript toolbar. The ability to natively edit Mac OS X .rsrc files. Improvement of the code for graphics and the undo system. And of course, improved AppleScript support.
Guess what.... the Kaleidoscope Scheme Archive has been updated. Toren Valmir alerted me to this fact. Great news! He also left me know that Holly Goodhead has finally been released. Even better news. And it gets better. One of my all time favorites Ion Special Edition is now available also. In addition two schemes: DSX-K2 and AlumiteX-K2 by Takashi Izawa are announced on the page. Plus a very well done BeOS r5.0.3 has been by Jon Alexander. Stop by and check out the archive.
AppleScript Central has added another ten scripts to its arsenal. In this round, they are dealing with Entourage for Classic or X.
Have a Press Release? Software or General News? Submit it here: Suggestions!
Polling Place by Michael Coyle 
Follow along with me as I add up the votes. 15.71% of ResEx readers have never had a mac.com email address. (I'm sure they're wondering what all the fuss is about.)
That leaves about 84% of the readers as having at least one mac.com email address. If you subtract the 48.14% of readers who have only one mac.com email address, that leaves over 36% of ResEx readers who have two or more mac.com email addresses!
If these numbers scale up to the 2 million users of iTools, that means almost three-quarter of a million have multiple emails. Not even considering the backlash Apple has received by changing the policy on iTools and requiring a $50 to $100 fee, the computer maker may have dramatically overestimated the number of actual users.
If this is the case, it's conceivable that in the long run Apple may not sign up enough users to make iTools a viable product.
Ha (you say)! iTools will always be around!
Hmmm... does anyone remember eWorld?
Lucky for them, our favorite computer maker has devised a way to compel us to subscribe to iTools. They will simply require an account in order for new software releases to function.
Let's look at iBackup as an example. There is no reason this software should require an iTools subscription in order to backup to CD-ROM. This is the sort of heavy handed leveraging we have come to expect from Redmond, not Cupertino. And yet here it is.
It's obvious from the complaints by Cletus and myself that we are currently not too happy with Apple. Quite a few forum threads echo our concerns. But are we just grumpy old men? This week's Polling Place asks you to rate your satisfaction with Apple on a scale from 0 to 5.
