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Today's News by Cletus™ ResExcellence Rocks! Oh, you knew that already! Time to move on. What? Well James Thomson, TLA Systems Ltd. is offering a new competitive upgrade or users of Aladdin DragStrip 3 and PowerOn ACTION GoMac 2. This offer allows users of these older products to upgrade to the latest version of DragThing for the reduced price of $19, compared to the regular $25. He writes: "We realize that a lot of people are now moving to Mac OS X and can't take their favourite utilities with them," said James Thomson of TLA Systems, "so we wanted to give them an extra reason to try DragThing which runs natively on Mac OS X today."
Extension Overload 5.9.1 is the latest release of this Extension, Control Panel, CSM & CMM info tool.
- Compatible with Mac OS 9.2.1
- Now with definitions of 5200 extensions, control panels, CSM and CMM, up from 5100 previously
- EO now reads and display description in 'balloon help' or 'CCI™' resources (if available) only when the description is no available in our database. This seldom happen as we have a very comprehensive database.
RandomBackground is software under the GNU Public Licence, Very simply, it changes your desktop pictures, at each login, taking the pictures of a choosen directory or on the internet. If you're a developer, you can download the source code here.
McAfee has re-released the Virex Definitions for September. There was a problem with an error that was due to a memory issue. If you were getting this error, you should download this new version. The 'error 32767' problem was with some Application files. The Strange but as yet unknown error (32767) that occurred when scanning some Application files was a memory-related issue and has now been resolved. It is also recommended to increase the memory allocation for the Virex application. Virex can run low on resources when scanning very large volumes. To do this, select Get Info > Memory and increase the preferred size from 3.5 Mb (the default) to 8 Mb. In some circumstances, this may have to be increased further. Submit Software and General News Suggestions!
Tools of the Trade by Michael Coyle
In MacOS X, the predefined icons for the Toolbar are stored in the Finder.app (/System/Library/CoreServices). You can modify them by viewing the Package Contents (A contextual menu in MacOS 9).
The icons are in the data-fork only format, so create them with Iconographer and copy the data fork into the resource fork with QuickConvert.
In the example above, I changed the Computer.icns to a Powerbook icon, matching my Pismo portable. Ain't I cool? The new icon also appears up in the "Customize the Toolbar" window.
Astronomy Picture of the Day has posted a beautiful image of the Moon.
User Contributed Splash Screens. by Michael Coyle
Win a PowerMax gift certificate worth $50 by having the most popular contribution in the selected category! (How?)
- New on the ResEx scene, hoshi contributed a cool looking iTunes skin titled "Mercury".
- Is he blue because he's holding his breath? This MOSS and ATM combo features soft blue text elements.
- A humour Boot Panel of a Speed Trap was sent by Bill Freeman.
- Tim Mityok updated his UNIX/Mac MOSS for version 9.2.1.
- A replacement text element for Photoshop was created by Ryan Purves.
- A very cool Star Trek Throbber was sent by Robert Temple. I can't wait for the new series in a few weeks!
- A nice MOSS called "Water" was submitted by Dan Leeder.
Support ResExcellence By Visiting Our Sponsors!
Snapshots by Jeremy Hoesly Snapshots for Friday have been posted: - Multiple operating systems come together in this screenshot from Mike Harris featuring Desktopper’s Aquacid K-Scheme. Mac OS 9.1 is emulating Windows 95 under Virtual PC which is connected remotely to a PC running Windows 3.1! It may be a messy setup, but it keeps an Australian radio station on the air.
- A custom “Project Iridium” desktop picture and Brad Smith’s Iridium Theme debut in this dual-monitor OS X submission by Brandon Muhlach. Audion, overhauled with the Widget skin, is dishing out tunes in the upper left of the first screen, whereas Time-X, tweaked with the oVoid skin, is running in the lower left. Icons from Xicons abound.
- A custom “Elizabeth Hurley” desktop picture and an Aqua K-Scheme are showcased in this contribution from John Rose. Audion, equipped with the Nubar face, is cranking out songs along the bottom.
- Andre Schëttler contributes this snapshot sporting a custom “UCC Hitbasement” desktop picture combined with the LCARS K-Scheme. Very chic.
Feel the joy of submitting! Give us a gander of your desktop.
Icon & Desktop News: by Dan  Icons - Desktops: We've got (6) really good Desktops, more current News From Around the Web and (1) very cool Icon set for OSX to decorate your desktop. All on display for today's update!
- "Tritanium Icons" for OSX by wOOge includes 33 elegant metallic system level icons to dress up that new Titanium Powerbook.
- "Powered by Mac OSX" by Richard Morley is one of the coolest desktops I've seen in some time. Created using ElectricImage Universe and Photoshop, this great image comes in several different resolutions.
- "Elle MacPherson Desktop", a hot selection from the "Think Beautiful" series by John Rose, features a black and white composition with the gorgeous Super Model in 1280x resolution.
- Bradford J. Wiles, creator of MacMonkies submits another of his very fine 3-D desktop creations titled "Into the light". Out of the darkness and into the light, the download includes 800x and 1024x resolutions. While you're at it, visit Brad's website for many things to make you smile, and check out his most recent weekly update.
- After a VERY long hiatus, we welcome back MAJArch Studios and several new Desktops created by Melissa. The set comes complete with 3 different stylish backdrops to choose from, all in 1024x resolution.
- Tim Fehr, webmaster for the American Hemerocallis Society (that means Daylilies), submits another four picture desktop set displaying this Lovely Flower. These images feature two unknown daylily cultivars in 1024x resolution. Also included is a 1152x shot of "Janice Brown", winner of the coveted Stout Silver Medal in 1994, for the Titanium G4 Powerbooks
The dawn of a new Aqua Age begins with "StarchildX", conceived by Harvey Lubin of Agrapha Design. This X Odyssey desktop comes in 6 different resolutions.
News From Around the Web: Josh Bishop updates with 12 new desktops and 1 new icon set. Check'um out! Creative Box has updated with a new desktop picture named "Aquatica". Robin Enhorn has updated her homepage where she hosts some desktop pictures. The page is in Swedish, but it isn't that big (4 separate pages) so it wont be hard for someone who doesn't speak swedish to find the pictures. FlaxCreations updates with four new desktop series and Icons for OSX Hoeslyvista has been updated with five new desktop pictures in the characteristic nature style. Those monkey heads at MacMonkies have put together another edition of news and updates, along with 3 new desktops ready for the pickin'! The Iconfactory's very own foreman, Gedeon Maheux, will be making an appearance on the TechTV's show - "Call for Help" on Monday, September 10th, 2001. Gedeon will be demonstrating The Iconfactory's very own IconBuilder Photoshop filter as well as providing tips and tricks for icon authors when designing and creating icons for Mac OS X and Windows XP. The show airs live at 5pm est / 2pm pst. Check your local cable listings to see if you receive TechTV in your area. After a VERY long hiatus, MAJArch Studios is back! Check out 9 new images, some have Apple themes, some are just great desktop patterns. All are for Mac fanatics! Trays' Trove updates with a small change to web site design and 12 new desktops on 8-31-01. There are 8 new desktops at http://www.mandolux.com. The theme of these desktops is heavy artillery (tanks mainly) - hence Heavy Metal. Delereum.com updates with two new icon sets and an itunes skin, itangerine and a new scifi moss Colheres updates with a new icon set (little witches by Lu=EDsa) and two new desktops. So what's up WWW? Icons? Desktop pictures? News? Inform us! We'll post it!
REALbasic Tutorial - Create a Stock Ticker (Part 2) by Erick Tejkowski Last week, we started building a stock ticker application. In that tutorial we looked at how to retrieve stock information from the Internet with REALbasic. This week, we'll discuss how to display and animate the stock information in a traditional Times Square-style sign. (Continued...)
iCloud Indigo - in the Archive now!
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Theme News by Michael Rabe
Colin Cornaby the creator of XMorph is changing to a server that can handle the traffic for this great theme switching program. Meanwhile, you can pick up your copy of XMorph 2.1 Preview from it's new temporary home at the Doghouse.
If your looking for the newest theme from the iCloud series then wait no longer. Now you can find iCloud Indigo along with others in the Theme Archive.
See ya on the flip flop!
If you have a theme you wish to add to the Archive, drop me an email.
Today's News by Cletus™ Hope everyone enjoyed a nice relaxing "long" weekend off. I did not get to golf unfortunately, but did get some paperwork for classes finished. It seems that many software authors spent their time updating their wares. Lots of items to look over below. Oh yeah!— Look for another great giveaway next week....  Sleeper 3.5 is an Energy Saver replacement from St. Clair Software that enhances any Mac's sleep capabilities. Version 3.5 delivers a host of new features and fixes, including the ability to save multiple setting configurations, improved reliability on G4 PowerMacs, powering down of LCD screens, and options to control processor cycling.
Chronos posted StickyBrain 1.3.1 which is a superb sticky note program, plus a whole lot more. A list of changes is not currently available. A-Dock 2.4.1 is the next version of this application switcher program. This a maintenance release for a minor bug. Nifty Neato Software is reporting on their homepage that Snitch is completely compatible with Mac OS MacOS 9.2 and 9.2.1 for those of you that use this program. File Freak 3.4 is a program that offers a new and better way to get at your files. File Freak is compatible with Mac OS 8.6 or higher with CarbonLib or Mac OS X 10.0 or higher. - Fixed a memory leak.
- Now FF writes the prefs file after any significant action instead of just when quitting.
- Thumbnail icon for X.
- Many smaller bug fixes.
Takashi T. Hamada has released LoadInDock 0.71, which monitors CPU loads while visible in the dock
 Iconographer X 2.1 is a 32 bit icon and resource editor. It will read PC & OS X icons also. This highly rated editor includes the following changes:
- Iconographer is now Carbonized and runs natively on Mac OS X.
- The Mac OS X icon format (.icns) files is now fully supported.
- Improved icon format conversion.
- Redone colors palette.
- Live window resizing (only under Mac OS X) and window dragging.
- The usual miscellaneous bug fixes and interface tweaks.
Icon Brush 1.0.2 is also an icon editor and creator. This version adds "Copy With Mask" menu item to copy a part of an image with its mask. It also provides several more bug fixes. DockSwap 1.1 allows access to multiple docks under Mac OS X. - Added tutorial/help and "?"(help) button in main control window
- Changed "Save current dock as" to "Create new dock"
- Now allows you to replace an existing dock preset with confirmation dialog
Maury from RAILhead Design has posted a summation on his experience with Mac OS X 10.1 5G40. Check Tuesdays news for the information you crave! Of note to ResExcellence fans will be this bulleted item: "Yes, any and all icons can be changed with a simple copy/paste just like you can with OS 9." Scheme News: Desktopper has posted an update for Linegraphy 1.2. This is a Kaleidoscope Scheme from Mai. Barebones scheme to be sure! Submit Software and General News Suggestions!
 Polling Place by Michael Coyle
I guess I'm not hip. What a surprise. While most readers wear boxers, I still cling to my briefs (or do they cling to me?)
In this abbreviated week, the Polling Place asks the simple question, "Do you know your ZIP +4?".
In the US, Zip +4 was started many years ago as a more accurate way to route mail. For example, in downtown Chicago, Zip +4 can narrow in on a single building. While I can recall every Zip code in which I have ever lived, I can't remember a single Zip +4 number of mine. I suspect this is related to age. (Isn't everything?)
If you learned your address as a kid before the Zip +4 went into effect, you never bothered to learn the system, but if you grew up knowing your full Zip it's natural to use the longer code. That's my unscientific speculation!
Tools of the Trade by Michael Coyle
More on skinning iTunes. Twist, from TwistedTech, sent a 'txtr' template for you to download that allows you to change the list font in iTunes. The READ ME contains the nitty gritty. Come on Apple, let us change the background color and window definition and we will make skins so cool Windows users will want to buy a Mac!
Russ Grubbs is a good buddy of mine, so when he sends me a stupid picture of his kitten sleeping on a firewire drive by an iBook, I feel obligated to post it. I apologize for the interruption.
Matthew Schmeer needs the help of a ResEx Hack Detective. If you can solve his problem, please let me know too.
A few years ago, I found a little utility on the web that patched Stickies so that pressing a certain key combination collapsed the windows of all open Stickies and tiled the title bars of all sticky notes down the left hand side of the monitor from top to bottom. It might have even been an FKEY resource. I remember this patch being called something along the lines of "Greg's Stickies Hack" or "Craig's Stickies Hack" or something of the sort; it might have been written by Craig Marciniak of SaintEdit, BeforeDark, and GURU fame. Would any of your readers out there remember this little doohicky and could point me to a download location or possibly even have a copy you could forward to me?
 The best collection of outer space desktops I have stumbled upon is at Space.com. Many have a small logo on them, but that shouldn't be a problem for Photoshop wielding ResExers.
User Contributed Splash Screens. by Michael Coyle
Win a PowerMax gift certificate worth $50 by having the most popular contribution in the selected category! (How?)
For the month of August, the winner is Sharon Alvarez with her Matrix MOSS submission! Sharon will receive a $50 gift certificate from PowerMax to pickup some cool Mac stuff.
While not as bad as the McDonald's Monopoly Game, there are a few flaws with the current way the certificate is awarded. Since it's based on the total number of downloads per month, readers who contribute in the final days of the month don't have a prayer of winning. So starting this month, the winner will be randomly chosen from all the contributions in a given month. So it won't make a difference if you send your file on the 1st or 31st, everyone will have a chance of winning.
- Did you ever notice the text box on the MacOS X login screen is off by a few pixels? Well Adrian did and he sends this little patch to fix the problem, along with a nice login replacement and MacOS 9.2.1 MOSS!
- Tom Purtell sent a colorful Zeoulos About this Mac screen.
- Personally, I think it would have been clever to put Kate Moss on a MOSS, but you have to admit she looks pretty darn good on this AOL splash from Jeff Delauney.
- H.P. whipped up a nice MOSS with a red Apple.
- While I admit to not hearing of this cause, Franco Ventimiglia is making a statement with his "NO LOGO" Interarchy Interface.
- A very stylish MOSS and ATM combo of Elle MacPherson was sent by John Rose.
Internet Cleanup
Snapshots by Jeremy Hoesly Which snapshots were viewed the most in August? Check out the Top 10 page.
Wednesday has come upon us and so has another installment of snapshots: - This OS X snapshot from Etreehi touts the “Turbulance” desktop picture. Icons from Xicons lurk about the desktop.
- A custom “SimCity” desktop picture mimicking Santa Cruz, CA and Maury McCown’s AquaX III K-Scheme debut in this creative two-part snapshot from Thomas Haller. Audion, retro-fitted with the Glass face, is cranking out an environmental sound loop in the upper left of the second shot. Various custom icons are visible throughout.
- Rob Hanlon contributes this OS X screenshot sporting Karin Eszterhás’ “After the Rain” desktop picture. Audion, equipped with Matt Hoover’s Communicator face, is dishing out tunes along the left edge.
- Andrew Summerton contributes this OS X submission running on a 604e machine thanks to the efforts of Ryan Rempel. Very cool!
Feel the joy of submitting! Give us a gander of your desktop.
Icon & Desktop News: by Dan  Icons - Desktops: We've got (7) brand new Desktops, more current News From Around the Web and (1) unique Icon set for OSX to dress up your desktop. All on display for today's update!
- "Future Dock Icons 2" for OSX by Hein Mevissen, might redefine the way you think about Icons. This is the second set of 19 unique "organic" free form icons incorporating more popular applications.
- You might want to take a closer look at "Mosaic", the first of hopefully many submissions to be sent in by Jocelyn B. This stylish backdrop comes in 1024x resolution.
- "Retro Latetia", another hot selection from the Celebrity Series by John Rose features the very voluptuous Latetia in 1280x resolution. Don't break your neck turning to look at this one boys.
- Bradford J. Wiles, webmaster and creator of MacMonkies submits another of his great 3-D desktop creations titled "Dolph". This mammal had gone to the Dolph course! Download it in either 800x or 1024x resolution. While you're at it, visit Brad's website for many things to make you smile, and check out his most recent weekly update.
- It's hard to tell by the preview, but "Marvel" by Frank and Tara Turk was patched together from their favorite Marvel comics. This pop collage comes in 800x and 1024x resolutions.
- Chris Ross submits a nicely done version of the "Genius Bar" logo, now appearing at all the new Apple Retail stores. Comes in two 1152x resolutions.
- Taken with a grain of salt, "Buddy Christ", submitted by Damien Sorresso features your own, personal, happy, not-crucified savior, right on your desktop! This is a frame capture from the Dogma DVD, and comes in 1280x resolution. Also included in the download is another capture titled "Sunshot" from the X-Wing Macintosh Collector's Edition CD-ROM, also in 1280x resolution.
- Alas, the identities of the silly characters shown in Spordoff's "Tick Different" escapes me, but they sure do look like they are having fun. This two picture set also includes a "Jennifer" (who?) desktop, both available in 1024x resolution.
News From Around the Web: Hoeslyvista has been updated with five new desktop pictures in the characteristic nature style. "Those monkey heads at MacMonkies have put together another edition of news and updates, along with 3 new desktops ready for the pickin'!" The Iconfactory's very own foreman, Gedeon Maheux, will be making an appearance on the TechTV's show - "Call for Help" on Monday, September 10th, 2001. Gedeon will be demonstrating The Iconfactory's very own IconBuilder Photoshop filter as well as providing tips and tricks for icon authors when designing and creating icons for Mac OS X and Windows XP. The show airs live at 5pm est / 2pm pst. Check your local cable listings to see if you receive TechTV in your area. After a VERY long hiatus, MAJArch Studios is back! Check out 9 new images, some have Apple themes, some are just great desktop patterns. All are for Mac fanatics! Trays' Trove updates with a small change to web site design and 12 new desktops on 8-31-01. There are 8 new desktops at http://www.mandolux.com. The theme of these desktops is heavy artillery (tanks mainly) - hence Heavy Metal. Creative Box updates with the icon set, "The Cubes II". FlaxCreations opens a new Icon section for OSX Delereum.com updates with two new icon sets and an itunes skin, itangerine and a new scifi moss Colheres updates with a new icon set (little witches by Lu=EDsa) and two new desktops. MMICONS announces the release of 9 new icon sets for OSX So what's up WWW? Icons? Desktop pictures? News? Inform us! We'll post it!
Visit the Mac Experts!
REALbasic News by Erick Tejkowski With Labor Day celebrations demanding the attention of U.S. developers, it's been a fairly quiet week for RB news. We still have a few goodies for you, though. - New REALbasic Beta
- Create Custom Classes at the University (Part II)
- db Reports update available
- OSAXen Fixer
Find this and more in today's REALbasic News. (Continued...)
9/3/01 US Holiday of Labor Day...
ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz...............
Shhhhhh. The staff is sleeping late on this traditional last day of summer. Please stop back tomorrow for Theme and REALbasic news, of visit the forum to see what the latest buzz is.
Here are a few notes from your WebMaster. Maybe is was due to a back-to-school special, but this August was the busiest month ever at ResExcellence. Our Little Web Server cranked out over one million pages, and more than 5500 contributions were downloaded every day (167,000 for the month).
Thanks to the contributors, the readers, and especially the section editors keep the pages coming! After several years of holding this together with paperclips and bubble gum, I think we've built a pretty special place on the net!
Today's News by Cletus™  DragThing 4.1 has been officially released by James Thomson. DragThing is an application dock designed to tidy up the icons littering your desktop. A partial list of changes for both Classic and Mac OS X can be found below.
- Enhanced visuals with the ability to draw textures and pictures
in the background of docks. - Unicode and long filename support throughout the application.
- Significant performance improvements on both Mac OS 9 and X.
- Support for the latest Mac OS releases.
Wednesday I mentioned System 9.2.1 No Wait Patch and today Disk First Aid Doubler 1.0.1 is released. Disk First Aid Doubler removes the 2 minute delay, so that your computer will start up faster after a crash and after Disk First Aid has run. The main difference is that System 9.2.1 No Wait is strictly for 9.2.1 and Disk First Aid Doubler 1.0.1 will run on Mac OS 8.5 or higher. Choose your poison. Sig Software has announced the return of Classic Menu, rewritten for the release version of OS X 10.x. Classic Menu brings the classic Mac OS apple menu back to Mac OS X, replacing the system's built-in apple menu (but keeping it within easy reach).
"Like the traditional OS 9 apple menu, it displays the icons and names of files and folders in the Classic Menu Items folder and allows up to 5 levels of hierarchical menus for folder contents.
To get users up to speed on Mac OS X, we are also offering a bundle of Classic Menu and Drop Drawers for just $20, a 20% saving."
DockSwap 1.0.1 is a Dock switcher for OS X. Access the control panel by pressing "Control-ESC" . DockSwap saves all Dock preferences, including hiding, magnification, and persistent apps/files. Switching Docks is as simple as a Control-ESC and a double click. DockSwap also has no Dock icon.
MoonDock 1.1 displays the current moon phase in the Dock. From the Readme: "MoonDock is a small utility designed to run in your Mac OS X system dock and display up-to-date images of Moon phases. MoonDock also enables you to examine phase information for specific dates and times between 2001 and 2015." As of this writing, Symantec NAV virus definitions for Sept. 2001 are available. I am sure that Virex will be close on its heels. Keep an eye out this weekend. Scheme News: Desktopper has posted two more Kaleidoscope Scheme. A.P.S.G. 1.0 is a brand new, pure gold colored scheme by WYZ. This looks really cool. The second scheme is the next version of Aquacid which stands at version 1.0.7b2. This scheme is part of the Aquacid Project. Submit Software and General News Suggestions!
Tools of the Trade by Michael Coyle
In the User Contributions section is a new iTunes skin from an anonymous friend of ResExcellence. It's the first to feature a modified window frame. I asked the author to explain the process and he (or was he a she?) was not only kind enough to explain, but also included some ResEdit templates to make the job easier. (The templates included in iTunes are for Resorcerer.)
The actual window shape of iTunes is hard-coded in the window definition. That can't just be replaced like in the past, because with PowerPC the definition resides in the main code (rather than in the WDEF resource) and it does runtime resource mangling to work its magic. Sometimes progress isn't good for us hackers. What I did change is the graphics which form the border, and as you can see, it gives a very different look. Unfortunately, the corner masks in the pictures don't affect the window shape. Gotchas include the 11-pixel limit on borders (which overlaps but doesn't enclose the window widgets), and the fact that the title will overdraw part of larger borders. This happens in iTunes Classic. In fact, other buttons will do this, too; I had to include part of the window border in my shuffle-repeat-etc. buttons, because masking it out blanked the area to the background, not to the window border sitting behind the button.
Speaking of pictures, although the images' position and size within the picture is contained in the 'PBUT' resource, the pictures are scaled to a hardcoded size in iTunes. So, it's not very useful to change the 'PBUT' resources, unless you want to reindex the PICTs for some odd reason. The one good reason to change the PBUT is to use a different mask, avoiding the mask-sharing problem mentioned in the ResEx tutorial. In a few cases, this could be used to good effect. iTunes Classic rearranges some masks to create an opaque progress bar instead of the original translucent one.
The 'PSLD' and 'PANI' resources, however, do work pretty well to change the effects of sliders and animations (respectively). I didn't do much with the sliders, because there just aren't many pixels to work with, but someone more creative could probably do something interesting. As for the 'PANI', I changed some of the disc-burning animations substantially, and it worked just fine. Just don't change the "Frames" to 0; it doesn't like that. To short-circuit the throbbing burn button, I used one frame that matches the non-throbbing original state.
The 'Txtr' resources can be hacked; by using the Application Font and System Font resources as a guide, I figured out enough to change the lists to Geneva. Unfortunately, the anti-aliasing is built in to the program, and it causes big spacing problems (cutting letters off) for other fonts, so I left that out of the skin. I didn't figure out the 'Txtr' resource enough to write a template for it, unfortunately.
Bart Van den Broeck has also been playing around with the x86 emulator Bochs, but under MacOS X, not Linux. He managed to get Windows 95 running, but not BeOS which was his true goal. In his attempt, the speed of Win95 under Bochs was as slow as it was for me. Bart did ask me to clarify one comment, "Are you saying you can use a VPC image with Bochs?". Yes. I could mount a VPC image under Bochs if I booted from a floppy image, but I couldn't boot directly from the VPC image because many of the config and autoexec.bat files are customized for the VirtualPC emulator. If I knew more about Windows (but why) I may have been able to modify the files. Bart also sent a link for a great archive of XFree software compiled for MacOS X and Darwin.
DV Graphics has completed their Glass Eye trio collection. Included are icons, desktops and an iTunes makeover.
User Contributed Splash Screens. by Michael Coyle
Win a PowerMax gift certificate worth $50 by having the most popular contribution in the selected category! (How?)
- An Anonymous friend of ResEx has submitted an iTunes Skin titled, "Classic". While the window is still square, this skin provides extensive modifications. (Worth a look if you're a skin designer.)
- Andrew "wOOge" sends two more of his cool brushed Aqua Boot Panels for MacOS X. These are for owners of G4 and G3 Desktops.
- A Giant MOSS by Tom Haller features Dali's "Narcissus".
- I don't what it is, but PSICorps means something to Charles E. Leiserson, Jr. He made a BootPanel for X and included a MOSS for Classic Mac.
- The Frenchman Sébastien Lavoie created a MOSS and ATM (French and English) based on "The Destroyer" painting by Frank Frazetta.
Snapshots by Jeremy Hoesly Which snapshots were viewed the most this month? Check out August’s Top 10 page released today, just in time for Labor Day weekend!
With the arrival of the weekend comes another batch of snapshots: - This OS X submission from Will Angel touts EndEffect’s “Mechanical Warfare” desktop picture. Audion, tweaked with Jim Powell’s Cryogenesis face, is sitting in as digital DJ along the right edge. Icons from Icon Factory abound.
- An “Ah! My Goddess!” desktop picture from MacDesktops coupled with the Aqua Theme is showcased in this two-part snapshot from Gerry Hou. Notice how DragThing is configured to act like a dock until moused over. Icon Factory’s AquaSpheres are also displayed.
- Sean Kennedy submits this screenshot sporting MacuserX’s “Jolly Roger” desktop picture and the Aqua Theme. SoundJam, outfitted with Akio’s SlickCorner skin and the LED Spectrum analyzer, is dishing out tunes in the lower left. The Office/Industrial collection available from Icon Factory also shares the spotlight.
- Desktop Imperium’s “Idiorrhythmic” desktop picture and Peter Harte’s Aqua II+ K-Scheme debut in this contribution from Chris Williamson. Audion, overhauled with Akio’s SlickCorner face, is tickling the eardrums in the lower left. Selections from Xicons and Icon Factory are scattered throughout.
Feel the joy of submitting! Give us a gander of your desktop.
Icon & Desktop News: by Dan  Icons - Desktops: We've got (6) excellent Desktops, more current News From Around the Web and (1) unique set of Icons for OSX to snaz up your desktop. All on display for today's update!
- "Future Dock Icons" for OSX by Hein Mevissen, may redefine the way you think about Icons. This unique set includes 19 different "organic" free form icons incorporating a number of popular applications.
- While doing a little bit of "Photoshoppin", Spordoff came up with "Kingdom". This is a stylish three picture set, all available in 1024x resolution.
- Bj Rampton created "Enterprise" to commemorate the launch of "Enterprise", the new Star Trek Based series about to air on UPN. Bj notes that this is an original work created in Photoshop, with various layers incorporated into it. Comes in 1024x resolution.
- Bradford J. Wiles, webmaster and creator of MacMonkies submits another of his great 3-D desktop creations titled "Wells". This picture was inspired by a memory; a memory of another that has yet to unfold. Download it in either 800x or 1024x resolution. While you're at it, visit Brad's website for more fine artwork and check out his most recent weekly update.
- Nasty Nene returns after a quiet stretch with another of his soulful and funky desktop creations titled "Macintosh Planet". Comes in 1024x resolution.
- Harvey Lubin of Agrapha Design submits another delightfully silly "X" desktop creation titled "Aqua Morning". This one comes in 6 different resolutions.
- A fellow that only goes by the handle Etoloco sent us whole series of amazing 3-D desktops created using Bryce 4. The seventh and final selection from this grouping is titled "Spot7", and comes in 1024x and 1280x resolutions. Desktops 1-6 in the series are available in our 3-D archive.
News From Around the Web: There are 14 new desktops at http://www.mandolux.com. These desktops represent a new aerospace series. Creative Box updates with the icon set, "The Cubes II". Macmonkies updates with three new desktops and the weekly news. FlaxCreations opens a new Icon section for OSX Delereum.com updates with two new icon sets and an itunes skin, itangerine and a new scifi moss Colheres updates with a new icon set (little witches by Lu=EDsa) and two new desktops. MMICONS announces the release of 9 new icon sets for OSX Gridface is pleased to announce a set of six Forest Desktops. Mando Gomez of Mandolux wants you to know that he's created an Appreciation day on his site, and wants you to check out the new desktops available there in honor of the event. Ilicon updates with a new desktop series titled Giant 2. Macemes has a new layout for his site Macemes and a cool new Mac OS X icon set called Various icons. Also he has a new desktop picture called Sunny Day. MacuserX.com has been updated with 6 new desktops and 2 new icon sets, Grr and BodyBags Chibi. So what's up WWW? Icons? Desktop pictures? News? Inform us! We'll post it!
Replace your desktop with a real time-rendered image of the earth!
REALbasic Tutorial - Create a Stock Ticker! by Erick Tejkowski This week we'll begin the process of creating a stock ticker. There are already many stock tickers and stock quote web sites out there, but hopefully this project will give you some other ideas for what you can do with REALbasic. This project will appear in two parts. This week (Part 1), we will build a project to retrieve a single quote. Next week, we'll integrate the stock information into a fancy display. (Continued...)
iCloud Graphite - in the Archive now!
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Theme News by Michael Rabe
Hello theme fans! Are you ready for your Thursday theme fix?
Today you can download "iCloud Graphite" the third Classic Theme in the iCloud Series. You can find it along with all our other themes in the Theme Archive.
See ya on the flip flop!
If you have a theme you wish to add to the Archive, drop me an email.
Today's News by Cletus™  FileGeek 3.2 is a tool for viewing/editing file attributes. This version has the following enhancements:
- Updated menus
- Updated Register and About windows.
- Icons in menus.
- "Please wait..." Dialog box now appears when running a task such as mass apply.
ACTION GoMac 2.1.1 fixes a problem that would cause the Action Utilities control panel to unexpectedly quit when switching between items in the control panel
The fifth beta version of PrefsOverload 3 is now out. Please continue to test it out and report any bugs you may find. PrefsOverload 3.0b5 should fix bugs that caused Errors 2 & 3 in the previous beta release of the program. Colin Foster pointed out to me that he has a very similar program available to QuitAll (mentioned last time) called "Quit Anything." The main difference being that his is freeware. A very simple but extremely handy AppleScript application to quit processes. It lets you not only quit multiple processes without having to switch to each one, but also lets you quit background processes. Requires MacOS 8.5 or later. Full AppleScript source included. While you are at Colin's site you'll want to check out his other software items. Such as U.S. (No Help) 1.0.0, Find File 1.1.3 Patch, and ADB Unplugged 1.0.2. One item of interest, is System 9.2.1 No Wait Patch The boot-time version of Disk First Aid (which runs if your Mac crashes and you have "Check Disk" selected in the "General Controls" control panel) waits two minutes after checking and repairing your disk. This patch is designed to do only one thing: change the delay on this dialog from two minutes to 1/60th of a second. It is designed to work with MacOS 9.2.1 and ONLY MacOS 9.2.1.
A-Dock 2.4 is now finalized. This application launcher/switcher is a very popular application that keeps improving. Below is a listing of total changes in this version. - Smaller separators
- Added an option to show each volumes desktop items in the Desktop contextual menu
- Reduced CPU usage
- Improved auto-hiding when the front application goes full screen
- A skin can now provide custom separators
- Favorite folders now display their label color in A-Dock
- Fixed a occasional crash when selecting the command "Lock Settings" in the main contextual menu
- Fixed a bug that could corrupt preferences when moving a favorite
- A drag from a proxy icon in the Finder was creating a clipping instead of moving/copying the folder. Fixed
Iconizer Pro has been updated to version 1.5.2. Iconizer Pro will automatically generate a set of 32 bit full color icons from any pictures to be a background of CD, folder or other container windows. Changes to this version include: - Update Add Items Pro kernel to version 1.5.4. to improve compatibility with Mac OS 9.2.1.
- Navigation Service dialog now loads faster.
- Improve speed of iconizing engine when custom mask (DeepMask) is used.
- Some interface bugs fixed.
Ghost Menu 1.1.0 is a control panel. It makes the menu bar invisible and the control strip. Ideal for work in full screen mode. Similar to Bartender.  FuzzyClock 1.0 is now up to a full version number. FuzzyClock is an alternative menu bar clock which displays the current time e.g. like "five past ten" in the menu bar. It is for use with Mac OS X. This version includes new languages: U.S. English, French, Dutch, Spanish and some German dialects.
piDock 1.3.1 has once again under gone more changes. piDock is a fast and simple hierarchical file navigation and launcher. This version feature lots of changes, all of which are found below: - piDock now runs without an icon in OSX's dock!
- Added more contextual menu support for access to preferences
- Added feature to allow saving of preference settings
- Saved preferences now accessible via contextual menu
- Added option to show mounted volumes in top level menu
- Fixed bug where action performed on aliases would affect the original item rather than the alias
- Changed "Show .app contents" to "Show bundle contents"
- If bundles are not viewable, the file ending is removed. (Mail.app becomes Mail)
- Fixed certain crashes related to organizing top level menu
- Fixed errors related to removing items from top level menu
- Left or Right alignment now saved in "Menus only" mode
- Now harder to inadvertently drag or click an item in piDock menus
Can Combine Icons 1.0 is for Mac OS X and is by Infinity-to-the-Power-of-Infinity. From the ReadMe: "Can Combine Icons is a desktop tool to merge several existent icons into one, in constellations you choose. It was designed for simplicity and usability, and therefore there is no flashy interface, just the bare minimum to do a good job. To make creating batches of similar icon designs easier, the program includes a feature allowing you to create all possible combinations of the dropped icons and save them to the same destination." Scheme News: There are 6 new and 5 updated Kaleidoscope Schemes available over at the Kaleidoscope Scheme Archive. Submit Software and General News Suggestions!
Tools of the Trade by Michael Coyle
 Trev asked: "I would like to know where to locate the icons that appear in the toolbars of MS Office apps so that I can extract some for use and also replace some of them with my own. Where are they located?"
Microsoft? They are in Redmond. Ohhh... the icons! :)
In the Microsoft Office folder, there is another folder called Office. It contains a file titled, "Microsoft Framework 2001" that contains all the toolbar icons as standard ResEdit icon family format.
James Thomson has chosen the four winners of Texturific, the contest to design dock patterns for the upcoming DragThing 4.1. In no particular order:
- Dragon Tongue
- Joerg Fiedler
- Steve Bissonnette
- and our own Dan Flax!
They will all receive a free copy of DragThing. Watch the DragThing site for the posting of the textures to coincide with the release of the next version. Congratulations to the winners!
 Mac-on-Linux 0.9.60 is the latest version of the emulator for PPC/Linux.
It's release coincides with the opening of the online User Guide, a much needed manual for installing and configuring MOL.
For the sake of the challenge, I recently installed Bochs, a x86 software emulator similar in concept to VirtualPC. It runs under Linux and I was curious to see how fast it ran Windows 95. In a word - it sucked. OK, that's two words, but you get the point. One interesting thing I learned is that disk images seem to have a universal format. Using the Linux mdir command, I was able to use view MacOS, VirtualPC, and DOS disk images. In fact, I created the DOS boot floppy for Bochs under MacOS. Can anyone confirm this and send me links to more information?
User Contributed Splash Screens. by Michael Coyle
Win a PowerMax gift certificate worth $50 by having the most popular contribution in the selected category! (How?)
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Snapshots by Jeremy Hoesly Wednesday’s snapshots have arrived: - EndEffect’s “Gravity Well” desktop picture and Peter Harte’s Aqua II+ K-Scheme debut in this submission from Chiva. SoundJam, tweaked with Kentai’s Aqua Drop skin, is dishing out tunes in the upper left alongside iTunes, which is equipped with the Aqua skin. Icons from various sources comprise the hoard of icons amassed on the right side.
- Cameron Cross returns with this OS X screenshot touting Michael Rabe’s Glass Theme. iTunes is standing by in the lower left.
- MacDesktops’ “Startop 1” desktop picture and Daisuke Yamashita’s Titanium 7 K-Scheme are showcased in this contribution from Sarah Friedlander. Macast is churning out songs in the lower left, and icons from Akio’s BIG Graphite Scheme lurk about.
- A custom desktop picture is featured in this snapshot from Timm along with Kei Kinoshita’s Siemple K-Scheme. Audion, overhauled with the Reintegration Graphite face, is cranking out selections in the upper left. Icons from Icon Factory and Pseudoroom abound.
What’s your Mac look like? Send a snapshot for all the Mac world to see.
Icon & Desktop News: by Dan  Icons - Desktops: We've got (7) excellent Desktops, more current News From Around the Web and (1) pretty set of Icons for OSX to dress up your desktop. All on display for today's update!
- "Crispy Apples Icons", whipped up by Flax Creations, includes a dozen different sharp glassy apple icons for OSX in assorted fruit flavors.
- "Luna", sent in by Crash, is a very pleasing desktop image available in 1024x resolution. Look for the companion set of Splash Screens being posted during the coming days.
- Bj Rampton created "Voyager Journey" desktop to commemorate the 7 year Cruise of the Star Trek Voyager Series, and the amazing job they did at portraying the human condition that exemplifies what humans can become, even under the most difficult circumstances. Comes in 1024x resolution.
- Bradford J. Wiles, webmaster and creator of MacMonkies submits another of his fantastic 3-D desktop creations titled "Ferris Mountain". Drive south between the Seminoe and Ferris Mountains, get stuck in the sand dunes, get ot of the car and look to your right. This is almost exactly what you would see to the west. Download this one in either 800x or 1024x resolution. While you're at it, visit Brad's website for more fine artwork and check out his most recent weekly update.
- Tim Fehr, webmaster for the American Hemerocallis Society (that means Daylillys), submits a beautiful two picture set of a magnificent shade garden located in Newton Mass., and a shot of ELEGANT CANDY, a 1995 Daylilly introduction from hybridizer Patrick M. Stamile, Floyd Cove Nursery in Enterprise, Florida. Both desktops come in 1024x resolution.
- Harvey Lubin of Agrapha Design submits a delightfully whimsical desktop creation titled "Gunfight at the OS Coral". This one comes in 6 different resolutions.
- A fellow that only goes by the handle Etoloco sent us whole series of amazing 3-D desktops created using Bryce 4. The sixth selection out of these interesting compositions is titled "Spot1", and comes in 1024x and 1280x resolutions.
- Autophile Patrick Gerrity submits "TTR Desktops", featuring the 2001 Audi TT Roadster 225 Hp Quattro, with Nimbus Grey exterior and Amber Baseball Optic interior. These photographic desktops come in several resolutions.
News From Around the Web: Macmonkies updates with three new desktops and the weekly news. FlaxCreations opens a new Icon section for OSX Delereum.com updates with two new icon sets and an itunes skin, itangerine and a new scifi moss Colheres updates with a new icon set (little witches by Lu=EDsa) and two new desktops. MMICONS announces the release of 9 new icon sets for OSX Gridface is pleased to announce a set of six Forest Desktops. Mando Gomez of Mandolux wants you to know that he's created an Appreciation day on his site, and wants you to check out the new desktops available there in honor of the event. Ilicon updates with a new desktop series titled Giant 2. Macemes has a new layout for his site Macemes and a cool new Mac OS X icon set called Various icons. Also he has a new desktop picture called Sunny Day. MacuserX.com has been updated with 6 new desktops and 2 new icon sets, Grr and BodyBags Chibi.
There are 40 new desktops at http://www.mandolux.com continuing his series 4.95.
Mike Davidson's Mac File Library (http://24.180.19.107) is back online after a short vacation. After long months of sleep "SASCHA'S PAGE" comes back to life with an overhauled site design. So what's up WWW? Icons? Desktop pictures? News? Inform us! We'll post it!
Visit the Mac Experts!
Today's News by Cletus™ QuitAll Programs 1.2.2 by Carnation Software will quit all running programs. The program will allow for exceptions to quitting everything if you want. Additionally it comes with these features: - You have numerous programs running and want to quit out of most or all of them before running other programs. Normally, you would have to select each program and quit out of each one separately. QuitAll does it with one double-click and a carriage return.
- You are running many programs in a project and want to quit the project and start another one.
- You are getting low on memory and need to re-claim available memory by quitting all programs.
Thermograph 1.3.4 is a utility that monitors and graphs the temperature of your G3 or G4 processor. Features include: - Records the minimum and maximum temperatures.
- Plots the temperature over time so you can see trends.
- Zooms display to aid in examining long-term or short-term trends.
- Multiprocessor ready.
Angelo Scicolone announces the release of PrefsOverload 3.0b4. This version has some major improvements, such as the ability to run on 68k machines. It will also save preference settings for future releases. Additionally, some menu shortcuts have been changed. Micah Lanier dropped me a note about his program ButtonMaker. After a bit of inactivity, it appears a new version is on the horizon. I included a partial screen shot below and there is another one here. "ButtonMaker 2.4 is well into development, and has been completely re-written. New features will become known later on, but I'm very excited with the way things are going. I thought I would provide a screenshot for ResExcellence readers who would like to know where it's going."  piDock 1.2.2 is the newest release of this fast and simple hierarchical file navigation and launcher. Compatible with Classic and Mac OS X, version 1.2.2 brings the following enhancements and fixes to the product.
- Added option for menu only mode to display menu only on right edge of screen.
- Fixed dock going off screen after resolution change.
- piDock now functions for 2 week evaluation period then disables some functions.
- Fixed a bug where menus could appear away from windows edge, or away from dock window.
- Fixed problem with initial animation not filling piDock window.
Submit Software and General News Suggestions!
 Polling Place. by Michael Coyle
The ACNeilson Company will not be happy to hear more than half of ResEx readers only watch about an hour of TV a day! Once the new Star Trek series airs in a few weeks, my total will increase by one hour! Most people have a favorite show they watch every week supplemented by sports of an educational channel like The History or Discovery Channels. Fortunately, my kids don't watch that much tube either, preferring to stare for hours at the computer screen while AIM chats scroll by...
Since I am a longtime wearer of what the wife calls "Tighty-Whities", I was surprised the son was making the switch to boxers from briefs! Coyle men have a long tradition of white briefs. Am I suddenly uncool? It use to be if your underwear was showing above your pants, you were probably a plumber, now it's considered the style. What about you? This week's Polling Place asks what gets between you and your Calvin Kleins? (Ladies, try selecting the choice of the man in your life!)
The Grand Opening of the Apple Store in Woodfield by Michael Coyle
 This is the second Apple branded store I have been to in the Chicagoland area. The first was in 1981 on Michigan Avenue, not far from where the next area store will open in a few months. I was a twenty-one year old assistant engineer barely making ten-thousand a year and walked into the store to see a 128K Fat Mac selling for over $3000. The sales people wouldn't give me the time of day, and shortly thereafter, the store went out of business.
Would these new Apple Stores fare any better? (Continued with lots of pictures...)
User Contributed Splash Screens. by Michael Coyle
Win a PowerMax gift certificate worth $50 by having the most popular contribution in the selected category! (How?)
Support ResExcellence By Visiting Our Sponsors!
Snapshots by Jeremy Hoesly Come get your snapshots for Monday: - Rampant Mac’s “Quantum X” desktop picture and Michael Rabe’s Glass Theme debut in this OS X submission from Vince Canger. iTunes, retooled with a custom James Zakany-inspired skin, is kicking out selections in the lower right. Vince is featured skateboarding in QuickTime Player.
- This screenshot from Tranced Emotion features a desktop picture from Chapter 3 Desktop Imperium along with Arlo Rose’s Onyx K-Scheme. Selections from Icon Factory are scattered throughout.
- A custom desktop picture and the Platinum Tech 2000 K-Scheme are showcased in this contribution from Rob Jones. Cabrio, overhauled with the Looks Like a Menu skin, is shuffling music along the right edge. Custom icons also roam about.
- Elizabeth Hurley stars in this snapshot from John Rose featuring the “English Gold” desktop picture and Carl Pitts’ Black Gold Blockers K-Scheme. Audion is dishing out tunes in the lower left.
What’s your Mac look like? Send a snapshot for all the Mac world to see.
Icon & Desktop News: by Dan  Icons - Desktops: We've got (8) excellent Desktops, more current News From Around the Web, (1) great set of Icons for OSX and (1) Super Classic Set to spiff up your desktop. All on display for today's update! *Editor's Note: I've received an awesome amount of desktop submissions in the last several weeks, and ask you to be patient in waiting for your artwork to get posted. It's all safe and sound on my hard drive, and will come to the top of the heap shortly. Thanks!
- "Glass II Icons" for OSX, designed by DVGraphics, is a cool set of 27 glassy spherical buttons in all of the currently available iMac colors.
- Rodrigo de O. Grecchi sends us a small set of "Super Icons" to beautify your desktop. These icons are companions to the group of "Super Desktops" Rodrigo sent in awhile back to the Archives.
- It's been a while since Ilicon's last update, but your patience is about to be rewarded. As promised, Giant II, the second part of the amazing pattern like Desktop Picture series, is finally here. She hopes you'll find the wait was well worth it!"
- Bradford J. Wiles, webmaster and creator of MacMonkies submits another of his excellent 3-D desktop creations titled "Twister". Download this one in either 800x or 1024x resolution. While you're at it, visit Brad's website for more fine artwork and check out his most recent weekly update.
- "Britney Desktops", another great two picture set from the Celebrity Series by John Rose, features the talented and cute Britney Spears in 1280x resolution.
- Harvey Lubin of Agrapha Design submits one of those politically incorrect desktop creations titled "Monkey Boy". "Think Different...but not THAT different. This one comes in 6 different resolutions.
- A fellow that only goes by the handle Etoloco sent us whole series of amazing 3-D desktops created using Bryce 4. The fifth selection out of these interesting compositions on display is titled "Spot6", and comes in 1024x and 1280x resolutions.
- Dino Fusaro of Dean's Designs sends us a preview of the last desktop from his Powerbook G4 series titled "Powerbook Heights". It comes in 1152x768 to match the new G4 PowerBook's screen resolution.
- Chris Shewchuk (Wonko the Sane) created "Gorillaz Metallic Foam" specifically for his TiBook G4, so it will look best on those machines. However, he also threw in a trimmed down version for use on 3:4 aspect monitors as well. These come in 1152x and 1280x resolutions.
- Here's another great nature shot submitted by Peter Mac of the Aussie feather tailed "Glider" making an amazing leap towards it's favorite food, the Banksia tree. This desktop comes in 1280x resolution.
News From Around the Web: Gridface is pleased to announce a set of six Forest Desktops. Mando Gomez of Mandolux wants you to know that he's created an Appreciation day on his site, and wants you to check out the new desktops available there in honor of the event. Ilicon updates with a new desktop series titled Giant 2. Macemes has a new layout for his site Macemes and a cool new Mac OS X icon set called Various icons. Also he has a new desktop picture called Sunny Day. MacuserX.com has been updated with 6 new desktops and 2 new icon sets, Grr and BodyBags Chibi.
There are 40 new desktops at http://www.mandolux.com continuing his series 4.95.
Mike Davidson's Mac File Library (http://24.180.19.107) is back online after a short vacation. After long months of sleep "SASCHA'S PAGE" comes back to life with an overhauled site design. Two new 3-D pics and one new desktop as well as fresh News and updates will be posted this Wednesday at MacMonkies! Check 'em out! Noen Design returns with more desktops, desktop badges, icons, cursors, appearance patterns application splashes, iTunes and QuickTime makeovers, sounds and MOSS August 19. 2001 - Tray's Trove Updates With Eight New Desktop Designs. Creative Box has updated with new desktop pictures titled "QuickSilver" and "the[box]2". So what's up WWW? Icons? Desktop pictures? News? Inform us! We'll post it!
Need more workspace? Get Virtual Desktop!
You can now upload your contributions (include a READ ME) to the ResExcellence
ftp drop box, and let us know with an email. Be sure to read the Submission Policy
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