ResExcellence Previous News 08-19-02

Click here to learn more about Toast 6 Titanium

Tools of the Trade by Michael Coyle

The ResExcellence mailbox has been stuffed with email from readers asking how to modify the toolbar and folder icons in MacOS X 10.2. Well then today is your lucky day!

Panic Software has teamed up with The Iconfactory to create CandyBar! This drag-and-drop utility allows you to change: Toolbar icons, Folder icons, Trash, Devices, clippings and more. The folks from IconFactory included a few icon sets to get you started and there are more in the ResEx Archive.

What's that? You say you're a purist and you want to change System icons the old fashioned way? Starting with MacOS X 10.2 the icons which were once in the HIToolbox are now in a file called SystemIcons.rsrc that resides in the folder shown below.

SystemIcons.rsrc is basically a clone of the HIToolbox so all the previous edits relating to icons still apply to this new file. Just open a copy in Iconographer and hack away. Replacing the original SystemIcons.rsrc is best done under MacOS 9 to prevent permission problems.

Run a ScreenSaver Module as your Desktop Picture.

Do you have some CPU cycles to spare? Then you may be interested in this next tip sent in by Michael Conwell. Open the Screen Effects Preference Panel and select your favorite screensaver module. If you don't want to use a screen saver set the activation time at "never". Just be sure to have a module selected.

Open a terminal and type the following line without any line returns:

/System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/
Resources/ScreenSaverEngine.app/Contents/MacOS/
ScreenSaverEngine -background &

In addition to launching the screensaver as a background application, the terminal will return the Process ID (PID) of the program. In the example below the PID is 627. When I'm tired of the effect I would enter into the terminal "Kill 627".

[1] 627
[TiBook:~] coyle% kill 627

Sergio Diaz has updated his site of toolbar buttons for Internet Explorer with a new set from Rusty Mitchell based on Takashi Izawa’s AlumiteX Theme.

Bringing Back the Happy Mac startup Icon
(or any other image!)

Thanks to Ryan Schmidt there is a solution to the second biggest question stuffing my Email In-Box. Follow Ryan's instructions carefully to extract the boring grey Apple logo seen at boot time in MacOS X 1.2 and learn how to replace it with the image of your choice!

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 sent a couple of nice boot panels today. A Blackbird fighter jet is on display in the first, and if you require faster transportation the second contribution features the Starship Enterprise!
She may seem a little spacey in her Switcher commercial, but I think Ellen Feiss is cute as a button. So does Jim Wright ho created this MOSS featuring her.
They say, "Great minds think alike". That must be the case with Larry Streck and Nick Bate. Last week Nick created a Boot Panel featuring the old Apple logo. Also in the queue for posting was a slightly different version by Larry. I hear they both also drive Volkswagon buses!
Speaking of cars, Tom Hastings created a cool ScreenSaver module with images of a beautiful red Chevy Corvette! There are nine images in the set, four of which are visible in the preview image.

08-28-02

Complete Cable Management For The Home & Office.

Today's News by Cletus™

Be sure to enter the Default Folder Giveaway contest going on this week. If you follow any of the many forums concerning Mac OS X, you will see comments about the still poor open/save dialog box that Apple seems unwilling to improve. Default Folder again comes to the rescue as it did so well in any of the legacy Mac OS's. Download the software and see for yourself what can be done with the dialog box, then stop back and enter for a chance to win one of two free registrations St. Clair is offering.

The calendar favorite— PandoCalendar has been updated to version 6.0. This program places a fully functional calendar on your desktop. The look is completely customizable. It offers a lot of features. For instance: You can also have PandoCalendar automatically plot the days you work. Great for people who don't have a Monday-Friday work schedule!

The next version of Renicer X is now available from Northern Softworks. Please pay attention when using this program. While it is true that Renicer is designed to be simple enough for novices, yet flexible enough for the power user, you still should take care.

Description: The Unix underpinnings of Mac OS X allow users to assign priorities to processes with the Renice command. Higher priority processes get more CPU time and vice versa.

Want to better assign some of the less used keys on your keyboard? What started out as a hack to remap the caps lock key to a control key, has evolved into a very nice and well appreciated program. They write: "uControl gives you the ability to take those useless keys, that you're certain would have been better fashioned as something else, and turn them into something useful."

TransparentDock 2.0.1 requires Mac OS X 10.2, and allows one to adjust the level of transparency of the Dock. A built-in reset option allows returning the dock to its original state.

Folder Icon X is an Mac OS X-native application providing a simple way to create a customized folder and document icons by placing another icon on a standard plain icon. It has been updated to version 1.2.6 with the following changes:

Folder Icon X is now fully compatible with both Mac OS X 10.1 and 10.2.
Allow to add the logo icons via the Finder's contextual menu.

Bob Levitus (Dr. Mac) talks about various ways to rebuild the desktop in Mac OS X over at OS X FAQ. He also references this program in the article— Desktop RebuilderX.

Thanks to Timothy Collins who was kind of enough to pass along some information he discovered concerning Mac Help being so slow. Tim had a similar experience and discovered that by trashing the archived Mac Help files in your users/home/library/preferences/Apple Help Prefs folder it seemed to clear up the delay. Perhaps there was some confusion on the Mac OS X system as to what to use(?) What ever the reason, it does indeed work much faster now. I checked the Mac Help on the iBook also and discovered even on the G3 the speed was good since deleting the 10.1.5 archive.

I still feel there is some additional slowness due to accessing the internet, especially if connected on a cable 24/7. The little image below is at the bottom left of the Mac Help section. It will be interesting to see if this "News" item changes over time.

I have come to this conclusion; that the speed increase on the G4, going from 10.1.5 to 10.2 is just sooo much faster that I failed to appreciate the speed increase on the iBook G3. While it was not as great, a speed increase was there.

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

08-27-02

Tools of the Trade by Michael Coyle

Yesterday you heard me gripe that I had trouble installing MacOS X 10.2. Ironically, the main problem was not with the MacOS, but with my backup program: Retrospect Express 5. Since I was going to perform a major software update, I wanted to backup all my partitions and reformat the drive in order to resize some of the partitions (too many MP3s!).

I have been using Retrospect for almost 10 years under Classic Mac with out a problem. On Saturday, I backed up my MacOS X partition to an external firewire drive and after the restore it all appeared to work perfectly, but MacOS X would not boot! It hung at the startup icon. Since the backup was complete (except for not booting X), I thought I'd run a little experiment so I reinstalled MacOS X 10.1 and tried another backup, making sure that every directory was selected. The result was the same. MacOS X would not boot after restoring from Retrospect. And ideas?

So now I have this MacOS X partition that won't boot, but I tried installing 10.2 on top of it anyway because I wanted to keep all my preference settings. Well, THAT didn't work. The domain names would not resolve under 10.2.

So I bit the bullet and did a clean install of 10.2 and everything is fine (after reentering all of my preferences!).

As for Retrospect, the backup software has a difficult job! Sorry to say it, but the Macintosh file system is a mess. It's stuck in this half-way point between data fork versus resource fork. Unix hated resource forks. MacOS Loves them. And with all the invisible BSD directories, it's had to be certain what files are tagged for backup! Here is an interesting article that discusses the problem.

Some favorite features return with 10.2

If you have ever seen my desktop snaps, I live for the Propaganda desktop tiles. In Classic, X, and Linux, they are the only desktop image I'll use. MacOS X 10.2 finally allows me to tile an image and randomly change it after a specified time. The Desktop Preference also does a nice fade between the images that gave em an idea. Every half hour you could take a series of exterior photos of a scene from a camera on a tripod. Then save them as desktop pictures that change every 30 minutes and you will have the day pass on your desktop.

Two shareware programs do this already, EarthDesk 1.2.1 and HourWorld Live Deskpicture X. While these are fine programs, it's interesting that the same effect can be accomplished only using a System Preference.

System Sound Sets return (sort of).

If you look in the folder shown below you'll notice folders for common applications that contain sound files for certain actions; moving a file to the Trash for example. You can replace these with your own AIFF audio files as long as you keep the same name. (These sounds can be turned off in the Sound Pref Panel).

Also regarding sounds, the keyboard Volume keys now make an odd rubber quake sound when you use the Function Keys to change the volume. The sound file is stored in the folder shown below. Again, feel free to replace it with another sound as long as you keep the same name. Also in this folder are the images that are used for 'Heads Up Display' of volume, brightness, and contrast changes. These can be changed to more colorful options!

Max Rudberg has updated some of his themes for MacOS X 10.2. Among them are Milk, Brushed, SmoothStripes and Aqua Square.

Also updated for 10.2 is the Pillowtalk-Sky theme by Laine Lee. To help other themers, Laine offers this:

"Maybe the info.plist file that's included with the download will help clear up some of the mysteries about 10.2 for themers, I had to do some digging anyway.

Looks like you have to restart to see new icons now instead of just logging out.

I installed it with Duality 3.1 and it seemed to work OK, but it took an awful long time. If you had trouble, you could get the destination paths from the info.plist file and use Uptowner, to unlock the destinations and copy the files manually."

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?)

This FBI Logo Boot Panel was sent by Le Bandito. I could tell you his real name, but it's TOP SECRET.
Just in case your 10.2 desktop isn't furry enough, Rick sends a Jaguar Dock Poof!!
Those timeless goofballs, the Three Stooges are featured in this MOSS from Scott Chitwood.
Rhythm Collective maybe a band, but I can't tell and Aias Cienfuegos didn't tell me in his READ ME! Still, it's a cool looking Boot Panel.

08-26-02

Polling Place

Today's News by Cletus™

ResExcellence and St. Clair Software are proud to be participating in another terrific software giveaway. The featured software for this contest is Default Folder X. Two free registrations will be given away. Awarded 4 mice in the July issue of MacWorld magazine, Default Folder X fixes the problems in the Open and Save dialogs of Mac OS X-native applications.

Now that Mac OS X 10.2 is out, there have been and will continue to be many compatibility updates coming out. It did not take very long for my newly loaded Mail.app to get a real test as it was hit hard with PR. I want to announce everything I have concerning those updates and pull the information into one short list for the readers of ResExcellence to peruse. The updates below are either specifically updated for Mac OS X 10.2 or have simply been updated! I have listed GUI specific related items first (in no particular order), followed by readers (other) favorite items over the years next.

Mac OS X 10.2 and other popular updates:

Themer: Anche 2.8— Themer is a theme switching application that comes with a number of pre-tested custom themes that modify the look and feel of Mac OS X.

Gerry's ICQ Resources 1.0— This patch will modify look&feel of your ICQ program from ICQ Inc.

Switcheroo 2.0— A Dock replacement that does away with the oversized icons and clunky interface while adding features like "Hide On Switch" and improved drag-and-drop.

Yellow Button 1.0b8— Dock replacement program.

wClock 2.0— wClock is a replacement menu-bar clock which provides convenient one-click access to a pop-up monthly calendar.

MenuCalendar 1.1e— Provides a small calendar drawer for the menu bar.

Desktop Effects 0.1— Makes the screensaver of choice your desktop background

ThemePark X 1.0b7— ThemePark is the premiere application for creating themes (also known as skins) on Mac OS X.

MaxMenus X 1.2— MaxMenus adds customizable menus to the corners of any display.

XMonitor 1.5.1— Graphs CPU, RAM, disk, 'net, PPP, IP and more statistics.

PTHClock X 2.0.2— PTHClock is a very simple menu bar clock/calendar program for OS X.

piPop 2.0.5— piPop is a small utility for navigating files and folders by using a hierarchical menu in the Finder.

Multiple Launcher X 1.0.3— Multiple Launcher X is an Mac OS X-native application allowing users to create a stand-alone launcher.

Classic? X 2.1— Xgadgets provides a simple visual way to know when and if Classic is running.

Trash X 1.5.1— Trash X is a fully functional trashcan for Mac OS X.

Memory Monitor X 1.2.1— Displays the memory usage in its Dock icon (and optionally in a floating window).

TinkerTool X 2.3— TinkerTools allows you to customize the look of Mac OS X's Aqua interface.

IconIt X 1.1— IconIt will save you hours of copying and pasting icons from one file to another.

Keyboard Maestro X 1.2b2— Keyboard Maestro is your hot key solution that allows you to perform a multitude of tasks simply by pressing a keystroke!

PrefsOverload 5.0— PrefsOverload is a full-featured tool for managing the Preferences Folder

XOptimize 1.0a— Xoptimize performs the same system level optimization that installing the developer tools triggers.

System Optimizer X 3.1— Speed up your system, internet and save RAM.

POPmonitor X 2.0.2— POPmonitor allows you to delete unwanted e-mail from your mailbox without downloading it to your computer first!

HP DeskJet Driver X 2.0— I used this update, so I wanted to make sure you do not run into the same problem I did which is: After installing you MUST delete the printer from the Print Center listing, and re-select it. Otherwise the applications trying to print will crash.

My Install: Maybe this will help any of you who have yet to take the plunge.

I have now completed my update to 10.2. I have both computers: G4 733 and Graphite iBook SE 466 partitioned. Since the original "beta" install of Mac OS X, my applications have resided on one partition for both Classic and Mac OS X. The only applications that reside on the Mac OS X partition are those installed by Mac OS X. I have all my important files and documents etc. on yet a third partition. I use alias' in my Home folder to access anything from these partitions. In other words, Mac OS X is pretty much the only thing on the partition. You would think I would just do a completely clean install then. I decided to use the archive and clean install however. Hoping to save some time having to re-enter information. I have not had an ounce of problems on either machine. Once I saw everything was working, I started up in Classic and deleted the archive on the iBook to see the affects. There were none. I will remove the other archive from the desktop next week.

My Three Cents:

¢ Likes: Rendezvous, Faster performance on G4, Preferences finally appear to be sticking now. Classic load time much improved.

¢ Dislikes: Really feels slower on G3 iBook compared to 10.1.5, the boring, if not ridiculous gray on gray Apple startup screen. Help Center is glacially slow and virtually useless. It took five minutes to generate the Mail help section. Apparently it accesses additional/most up-to-date information on the net.

¢ Disapointments: Mail: Some nice enhancements offset by someones idiotic idea of a better organizational folder structure. Now my mail comes into 4 different in boxes and I have multiple subfolders in the Trash! I was able to delete two of the in-boxes and all sub Trash folders. Address book— in the future it may be the main database of information, but currently doesn't seem to communicate with anything but Mail and iChat. Good and bad at the same time.

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

Polling Place by Michael Coyle

Instead of Napster, most readers have turned to another Peer-to-peer file sharing system, but surprisingly, 10% have stopped downloading and another 9% have bought more CDs. While it may first look like the RIAA attempts to stop music sharing are a failure, it appears that every time they crackdown at least a small percentage of users stop the practice and buy more CDs - exactly what the RIAA wishes to accomplish.

Of course, we're just one teenager away from having a new P2P file sharing system that could just as easily increase the number of files shared online. It's for this reason the MPAA is seeking the legal authority to hack its way into your computer to be certain you do not have any "unauthorized" music files, and the worlds largest operating system is more than happy to help.

It seems that if you use Windows XP and perform a reformat and reinstall of the OS (a common troubleshooting recommendation on that platform) all of your MP3 files will refuse to play in the Windows Media Player because you are no longer authorized as their owner. Microsoft provides a variety of tools to reassign ownership to you, but they require you are connected to the net and register the files with Microsoft. Isn't that special!

Tomorrow, I'm going to cover the horrendous time I had installing MacOS X 10.2 on my Titanium Powerbook. Previous system upgrades, say from System 7 to 8 or from 8 to 9, were always nail-biters, but if you got into trouble you could boot from the installer CD and have access to the files on your hard disk. With MacOS X, you no longer have this ability. The install CD will not let you leave the install program and allow a "rescue" operation. Must these major operating system upgrades always include days of troubleshooting and hunting down updates to favorite utilities? Am I the only one having these problems? That's why this week's Polling Place question asks, "How did your last major OS upgrade go?"

08-23-02

Today's News by Cletus™

Major updates are being released from Unsanity. Why do I say major? If you use any of their programs— from the freeware to the insanely cheapo $7.00 ones, you know how big a deal this is to bring compatibility to Jaguar (10.2). Over the last two days the following items have been updated: ( I included a partial listing of feature updates and all programs are either free or free to registered users).

FruitMenu to version 2.5:

This version of FruitMenu is compatible with Mac OS X 10.1 and later (including 10.2 "Jaguar").
Redesigned the GUI to make it less cluttered and easier to understand and use.
Added 'Move To' for contextual menus to quickly move the selected file or folder into the folder of your choice.
(Jaguar only) Added 'Unlimited' folder scan depth option - no more 5 level limits on browsing directories!

WindowShade X to version 2.1:

WindowShade X is now compatible with Mac OS X 10.2 "Jaguar".
Moved the haxie to our new Application Enhancer backend.
Fixed numerous bugs and optimized some code.

ClearDock to version 1.1

You can now select the Dock background window colors and opacity to match your tastes.
Fixed a bug with disappearing gray text in the Dock menus.

Hide From Dock is a utility that will enable a Hide menu item in your applications Dock menus. Apple's Dock natively supports this feature, but its configuration file just tells it not to display it. While this looks fine if you don't use Dock menus a lot, it's a shame for multi-button mice users.

Marco Balestra has released Super Empty Trash. It is described as an AppleScript applet that will empty the Trash with administrator privileges.

Lemke Software has posted many bug fixes in the release of GraphicConverter 4.4.4. The healthy sized list of updates can be found here.

Super Get Info 1.0.9 has been posted from Bare Bones Software. This is a great program! Have you ever given it a try?

Super Get Info now supports viewing and editing of Mac OS X's Finder comments. (Note that Mac OS 9-style comments are not accessible under OS X, and thus not available to Super Get Info.)
Super Get Info now has the capability to copy and paste icons, by selecting the items icon in the same manner as for a Finder info window.
Email addresses in vcard previews are now presented as clickable mailto links.
Links in HTML document previews now behave like links in a web browser.

Now for some really good weekend reading. The premier issue of MacBase will be released! Let me tell you this much, it is jammed with information, tidbits and little known jewels. Plus it is my kind of reading where the fulff is absent and the facts presented quickly. MacBase is a PDF based magazine with full featured articles and pictures. MacBase is essentially free. To get an issue of MacBase all you need to do is sign up for our mailing list. The initial 50 page issue of MacBase has 6 feature articles, 5 how-to's, 8 reviews, and 5 different columns. The feature articles vary from Macintosh gaming to getting free pictures to use while the how-to's show you how to hack your Internet Explorer and work with Applescript. All of this for free!

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

08-22-02

Calendar & Appointment Scheduler for Mac OS X

Tools of the Trade by Michael Coyle

In spite of all the obstacles, appearance themes for MacOS X continue to trickle out. To try and make your life easier, Ben Boldt has posted detailed descriptions on the resources involved in the theme creation and which tools are needed to create your masterpiece.

Here is a very cool idea! According to the website, "AlbumScript is a simple AppleScript you can modify to make your own dock links. The script works by trying to play a playlist for the album, If it doesn't exist it will create one for you, this may take a few seconds on the first run but subsequent runs will be quicker. If you have an album cover, a scanner, Adobe Photoshop, and Iconographer you can construct your own album icons with the same theme. Import your favorite albums into iTunes and play them from cool dock icons!

I misunderstood what Derek Gordon was doing with his Fur theme. There are TWO themes: one called Fur (which comes in three screen sizes), and another called Just Fur which doesn't have any black spots (and comes in once size for all screens). The Theme archive has been updated to show both versions. You can always find the latest versions and more GUI goodies on his iDisk.

Jason Harris has updated and released ThemePark 1.0b7, the Mac OS X theme creation, design and editing software. This version restores the ability to export transparent pxm# images, allows proper use of scrollwheel mice, improves documentation, and has numerous other optimizations and bug fixes. Thanks Jason!

After a server upgrade, X Themination is back on the air. They have posted an unlined version of the default Aqua theme under MacOS X 10.2. It's called "Simple Aqua".

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?)

Nick Bate took the ol' multi-colored Apple logo, gave it a nice 3D look, and incorporated it into a MacOS X Boot Panel. (Note: first use of "incorporated" on ResEx! We're getting smarter all the time.)
Once again the fur is flying at ResExcellence! Julio Mariutti submits a Dock.app replacement background set. No animals were harmed in the making of these images.
The nice looking Danger Girls Boot Panels were contributed by John Rose.
In red rocket's latest Boot Panel, he claims it's a famous porn star. (I wouldn't know!) Don't worry Mom, it's rated PG (maybe PG-13).

08-21-02

Click here to learn more about Toast 6 Titanium

Today's News by Cletus™

SwitchRes is an utility built around a Background Only Application (‘Daemon’) and a Control Panel for defining its settings. It will allow you to control and automate the resolutions of all your monitors. Always a very popular program in Mac OS, you will want to give this program a try now under Mac OS X. SwitchRes X is currently in version X.0.0 beta 5.

Brian Wilson dropped me a note about two new releases from Unsanity designed for use with Mac OS X 10.2. ClearDock and Metallifizer are both are Application Enhancer modules. While Apple is making it very difficult to modify Mac OS X, Unsanity is providing great relief for us. Both programs are of course freeware! To find out more about Application Enhancer 1.0, visit this page. To find out more about the just released modules, read below.

ClearDock 1.0
Description: Removes the Dock background on Mac OS X 10.2 "Jaguar"
Metallifizer 1.0
Description: Adds or removes brushed metal appearance for Cocoa applications on Mac OS X 10.2 "Jaguar"

Unsanity also had this little blurb on their page concerning the effects of Jaguar on their current list of software:

MacOS X 10.2 "Jaguar" release is coming, and we are busy at work to keep our haxies compatible! Some substantial progress has been done in that direction already, and we are pretty positive we'll be able to upgrade all of our haxies to operate fully in Jaguar by the time it ships. Thank you again for your support, participation, caring and emails!

Custom Splash Installer by Mallet and Bare replaces many popular programs' splash screens with ones that you have made or downloaded. This update provides compatibility with the following programs:

Netscape 7 PR 1
Adobe Acrobat Reader 5
Chimera 0.4

Wilfried de Denterghem has released the next version of EightBall X. This fun little tool is a dockling that allows you to have the well-know magic EightBall right in your Mac OS X Dock ! Just ask a question out loud and press the EightBall to get a viable answer.

SwapTop 1.8 provides the user with a chance to schedule and download a new desktop picture every day. Never get bored again as you see a randomly provides desktop each and everyday. The description for this release states that version 1.8 adds support for grayscale Webshots images, fixes a problem where heavily pixelated images could be displayed, adds Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) compatibility, and several minor bug-fixes.

SmallScreenX is a useful little program when performing a task that requires you to test what it will look like at a monitor size different from what you are using. True you can switch the "real" resolution, but why take the time and bother when you can use this program to simulate the same thing. Previous made for pre Mac OS X systems, this version (by a different author) allows you to have multiple-moveable-resizeable screens open at a time (supports dual-monitors) along with other nifty features. The page is hosted on .Mac and come and goes, so I found a listing for it at Version Tracker.

Youpi Key is the popular Macro automation tool that provides the user with hot keys for running actions. These action shortcuts can easily be associated with specific applications or used with the system in general.

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

08-20-02

Tools of the (Fur) Trade by Michael Coyle

Want to add more color to Apple's CPU load monitor application? Jasper Hauser has worked out a modification to allow it! Because he's an especially nice guy, Jasper has also posted on his page two color variations for you to download.

A ton of Boot Panels, icons, and desktop pictures have been posted on Brad Jones' site, AquaHQ.

Derek Gordon has released a final version of his MacOS X Fur Appearance Theme. The next update should add MacOS X 10.2 compatibility.

Do you have an Ericsson T68i cell phone? Mark Degg says the Bluetooth capabilities are fantastic! He has put together a site with links and details on changing the theme on the phone, interfacing it to the Mac, and more.

If you get 10.2 in a couple of days, heed this warning from a ResEx reader:

"I am a technical support agent for Apple, and a daily visitor to your page. I came across something I thought you should share with your readers. I installed 10.2 yesterday and immediately afterwards, the first thing I did was try to apply a theme to my desktop using MetamorphX.

My roommate, also working here, did the same thing but using some other program. and a different theme. We both experienced the exact same issue. If you use an existing theme, since Jaguar changes how some of the resources work, your finder will vanish.

Using a force quit dialogue only shows multiple finders launching over a slow period of time. Restarting will leave you with blank screen and the log-in window phasing in and out of existance preventing you from being able to log-in. This resulted in me having to do an immediate clean install of the 10 (Thank God for that new feature). It was a very unhappy experience."

Not that they owe us anything, but Apple sure doesn't make it easy for users to customize the interface under MacOS X. The recent update of iTunes rendered all the previous skins incompatible. Now it seems the same is true with Appearance Themes.

Do you use MacResourceDog? I do almost daily in conjunction with QuickConvert to modify resouces under MacOS X. I recently chatted with the Johannes Illenberger, the programs developer. I inquired if an update was in the works and he didn't think so. His concern is that he doesn't feel there is a need for a resource editor under MacOS X. If you use MacResourceDog and would like to see its development contine, try dropping Johannes a friendly email and let him know how much you like his application!

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?)

Gawd, I'll be glad when this week is over and we can forget about all this Jaguar fur stuff! Until then, check out this furry Internet Explorer splash from SniZe.
red rocket sends two MacOS X boot panels that couldn't be more different. The first features the lovely Lindsey Hartley, the second is simply a small line of text against a white background.
For my tastes, this is a very nice Mozilla splash from Johan Josefsso.

08-19-02

Polling Place

Today's News by Cletus™

Ted Pearson has updated his program Toolbar Icon Changer. Toolbar Icon Changer is an application that allows easily changing the icons on your Finder toolbar, i.e. "Computer," "Documents," "Home," etc, without needing to use the terminal or log in as root, or know much more than how to click a button. Changes in this version include:

New Icon— just look to your right—>>
Instructions for converting non-icns icons using Iconographer
Better errors, explaining what they mean
Better open panel for finding the icon you wish to use

Refinement continues on Multiple Launcher X. This very popular launcher program adds compatibility for Mac OS X 10.2. Further enhancements and changes can be found below:

Added a "Simulate Launching Actions" command in order to test the functions of launchers.
Added a "Launch Selection" command, so that users can launch the
selected item from the main list.
The "Launch Selection" command can also be accessed from the contextual menu of the main list.
Handle errors of the "Export" button when the main list is empty.

Speed Download has been updated to add new Mac OS X and Classic plugins. YazSoft also added bug fixes for better handling of URLs with the @ sign, and a bug in the version checking mechanism.

Mouseki is an on-screen keyboard for Mac OS X. It is designed to allow keyboard input in situations where it isn't possible to use a keyboard - be they kiosks or physical impairments such as RSI or disabilities. There are no special files you need, no special software and no special hardware. Just install it and type into your favorite application. Requires Mac OS X 10.1 or later.

Can Combine Icons X 3.0.3 takes several icons or images and helps you design some outstanding custom icons. Version 3.0.3 adds Mac OS X 10.2 compatibility, and several new icons in the library, and fixes some bugs. I also noticed this on the page as well: "Can Combine Icons 2.1.0 was awarded the Runner-Up prize in the "Best Mac OS X Student Product" class of the Apple Design Awards 2002." Belated Congratulations to David Remahl .

Simple Search for Mac OS X provides a GUI front end in the form of a tab that can attach to either side of your monitor. As you can see from the image below, it stays out of your way until needed. You choose your search site from the popup menu, enter your query and hit return to submit. Simple as that. This version adds transparency options to the window.


Tabbed along monitor edge.	Simple Search Bar fully opened.

LoadInDock is a tiny application which shows the CPU load in the Dock. Version 0.7.3 fixes and incompatibility with the upcoming Mac OS X 10.2

Folder Icon X is now fully compatible with both Mac OS X 10.1 and 10.2 with the release of version 1.2.5.

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

Polling Place by Michael Coyle

Unexpectedly, the number of PDA users has changed very little over the past 17 months. According to this ZDNet article, sales of PDAs have leveled off. It seems the futuristic prediction of everyone walking around with a wrist watch PDA is a little ways off yet!

During the hay-days of Napster, I kept a pad of paper on my car dashboard. If a song was played and I didn't have the CD, I jotted down the name and snagged it online later that day.

With the demise of Napster, I have totally stopped downloading music. Why? Not sure. I've tried Limewire, but it seemed more of a hassle than it was worth. What about you? This week's Polling Place asks, "With the demise of Napster, I now get my music..."