Tools of the Trade. by Michael Coyle

Paul Sahner from DV Graphics has put together a two page pdf containing the standard sizes of all MacOS icons and desktops. If you create icons or desktop pictures, check this out to get an idea of the best resolutions for your contributions.

The gang from Cocoa Developer Central has opened a new section. Freshly Squeezed Software has posted three free utilities for MacOS X. Memogram displays all kinds of useful virtual memory information about your computer. OrangePref is a simple preference pane that allows you to change the position of the scroll arrows on the scrollbar and change the default picture format of screenshots. And Terminal Pal is a handy assistant to your Terminal application that allows you to directly execute .term files from a dock menu.

Click for larger image.

He has a TiPowerbook running MacOS X.
I have a TiPowerbook running MacOS X.
His TiPowerbook crashed hard.
My TiPowerbook crashed hard.

Gee, if Eric wins the lottery should I race out to buy a ticket?

While he's not sure why his Powerbook crashed, I know that mine would kernel panic whenever I woke it from sleep. It did not crash under MacOS 9 when waking from sleep. I reset the Power Manager, zapped the PRAM, and even reinstalled from the MacOS X 10.1 CD and nothing solved the problem. I had to delete the /System and /Library folders and perform a "clean" install of 10.1 to solve the problem.

One thing I did different was to NOT update to 10.1.1 via the Software Update application and the computer has been running fine. Hmmmm.....

Move email between Entourage or Outlook Express Accounts.

Jim K has stumbled upon a way to transfer or save emails within Microsoft Entourage and Microsoft Outlook Express. His old ISP (@home) was shutting down and the new ISP assigned him a new email address. This is an easy process and does not require anyone to mass email, their "old saved email" to their new address. (Continued...)

User Contributed Splash Screens. by Michael Coyle

Win a PowerMax gift certificate worth $50 by contributing to ResExcellence! (How?)

• A colorful iTunes skin titled Green and Gold was created by Andre Guay.
  
  
• Scott Meinzer sent the next pair of colors in his Crayon series of Explorer splashes. These are purple and orange.
  
  
• A MOSS and ATM combo featuring the firey Mission Impossible 2 image were created by Sporslown .
  
  
• After releasing his Blue MOSS for 9.2.1, Gary P realized other OS versions may like to use it too, so today we have a generic version.
  
  

Click here to learn more about Toast 6 Titanium

Snapshots by Jeremy Hoesly

’Tis the season to be submitting. Now’s the time to start sending in those Christmas and New Years snapshots, and please make sure to denote your contribution with “Christmas” or a similar holiday term in the subject line of your email for priority.

Snapshots hot off the press delivered to your desktop:

• This OS X snapshot from Kenneth Armstrong sports Climbing Up the Walls’ “RadioHead” desktop picture. iTunes is sitting in as digital DJ in the lower right.
  
  
• Leon Ernst submits this snapshot featuring three gorgeous widescreen QuickTime trailers for Star Wars Episode II. Awesome!
  
  
• This OS X screenshot from Seth Jones features an ATPM desktop picture. iTunes, outfitted with a custom skin using elements from George Krueger’s Industrial skin, is juggling music in the lower right.
  
  
• Two custom desktop pictures and Ben Mackin’s Liquid Theme debut in this dual-monitor submission from Jim Younkin. Very cool.

Feel the joy of submitting! Give us a gander of your desktop.

Icon & Desktop News: by Dan

Back by popular demand, our Postcard Section has opened once again for the Holiday season. We are now accepting submissions which will be available for sending to your friends and loved ones. Click here to read the guidelines for Postcard making, and get busy.

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

• We've all seen a million button type icons bouncing around the net, but I'll bet you haven't seen any as good as "X Buttons" by Sam of PixelJerk. The clarity and glass like quality is outstanding in this set of 28 application and system icons, and is a must have for any icon collector. While these icons were designed for use with OSX, they look sharp and crisp in the Classic environment as well. Excellent job Sam!
  
  
• Hein Mevissen updates his popular "Nice on the Desktop" icon set with a non transparent version. Volume two, the second of four sets, includes 20 different system level icons framed in brushed metal.
  
  
• They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and, well, this one says it all. "Piss XP", submitted by Mac lover Jon Martin, was created in 1152x and a jumbo1600x resolution in order to isolate as few large monitors as possible.
  
  
• "November" is another fine 3-D Bryce desktop creation by Bradford Wiles, owner operator of the popular Macmonkies website. Illustrating the fading quality of light and somber mood we all notice this time year, this one comes in 800x and 1024x resolutions.
  
  
• The folks over at MacuserX.com generously created a set of "ResExcellence Desktops" in appreciation of "the site that truly goes beyond the call of Macintosh Duty!". Of course we agree with the sentiment. Show your appreciation as well, and download this two picture set, both in 1280x resolution.
  
  
• Mactunes reminds us not to loose sight of the true reason our country has gone to war in Afganistan, and to "Think Freedom" for all. Comes in 1024x resolution.
  
  
• Thee_Ice_man, Channy Loeum, submits "Injured Rei" to add to your collection of fantasy artwork. Originating from the anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion (Ayanami Rei), this one comes in 1024x and 1152x resolutions.
  
  
• Gorgeous "Ellen Rocche" graces this sexy desktop sent in by Danilo P. Available in 1024x resolution.
  

News From Around the Web:

MacMonkies updates with their weekly dose of new desktops, humor, and Network News! Head over and share the fun!

Our favorite icon artist Ilona Mellis of iliCon came up with a great idea, and is releasing a comprehensive collection of her unique desktop artwork on CD. You can be a proud owner of the iliCon-on-CD, which includes more than 2500 icons and hundreds of images. All your favorite iliCon stuff is on this CD and more since it is for both Mac and Windows!

Icika wants to inform you that he's just added two new desktop pictures « Connection » and « Flowing» to his website.

Why the Mac is so great.com ( http://whythemacissogreat.com ) debuts the site's first-ever 128x128 icon set related to, and indeed optimized for, Mac OS X, called appropriately, "Aqua Magna I".

KC'z Custom Desktops has updated with two new pages...that's 16 new desktop picts for your amusement. Get them before the colors fade.

White Fire Ministries site has been updated with a new 10-image series called "Sanctuary" by Andy Moraitis. White Fire also has screensaver packs designed to work with the built-in screensaver in Mac OS X!

LivePencil.com updates with new wallpapers, icons and much much more.

Mandolux.com has now released 10 new desktops – DMX/LTX. These desktops are a series of photos from the rap artist DMX song ŒWho We Be.1

Download Juan's lastest creation: "Animals in balls" from www.iconstree.com .

There are 10 new desktops at http://www.mandolux.com - these desktops are about Tulips that have been blurred a lot, creating a wonderful smoothness throughout the desktop.

Pixelcentric.net has been updated with 6 new desktop pictures. P91, P102, Symmetrix, Flower Power, Q-i Blue and Q-i Gold are all available for 1280x1024 screen resolution.

MAJArch Studios has begun creating Icons! They are for Mac OS 8.5 or greater, and are standard sets. Named "Russellicons", and "Monsters, Inc."

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

REALbasic News by Erick Tejkowski

• Spruce up your Dock for the Holidays
• Sort like there's no tomorrow
• NavDialog Plugin
• What's your Preferences?
• Office Automation
• Bundling?

Find this and more in today's REALbasic News. (Continued...)

Click here to learn more about Toast 6 Titanium

Today's News by Cletus™

Another great contest comes to a close. Thanks goes out to all who entered from unmarked software and ResExcellence. I should be announcing the winners of the textSOAP contest on Wednesday.

While we are talking about textSOAP, I want to mention the newest update. textSOAP 3.1.2 provides several fixes to last weeks version. All users should update to this version.

• Fixed problem where OS X Services would crash in 3.1.1
  
• Fixed problem where some cleaners crashed under OS 9
  
• Fixed problem where unregistered app could crash when quitting
  
• Added Preference to free cmd-H keystroke for Hide Application (under OS X)
  
• Added new menu items to send email, visit unmarked web site
  

The Kaleidoscope Scheme Archive snuck in an update over the holiday. They added two new and one updated scheme. FT-8 by Daisuke Yamashita and Low Vision Platinum by Joe Stenger

Icon Machine 3.0b11 is now available and will allow you to create and edit custom icons. Runs from system 8.6 to Mac OS X.

• New application icon
  
• Internal changes to ensure stability
  
• Standard sheet dialogs in OS X
  
• Fully bundled with built-in help files and Japanese localization
  
• Improved contextual menu support
  
• Fixed some window activation issues, restoring the ability to drag from inactive windows
  
• Many other little things
  
  

iTunes Tool 1.3 provides a floating tool bar with playback controls for iTunes 2. Works under both Classic and Mac OS X. Only requirement is that you have iTunes 2.X.

• Fixed a problem with vertical oriented tool bars not updating correctly
  
• Added option to shrink the tool bar when not in use.
  
• Known issue: iTTool does not idle at 0% in Mac OS X. This is because it doesn't use carbon events, and will not be corrected in the near future.
  
  

Memory Monitor 1.1 will display a graph of memory usage in the Dock. Changes include: Optional floating window with the memory usage graph . Paging rate is now displayed in pages per second, regardless of the update frequency.

David Lloyd dropped ResExcellence a note about a new piece of software he developed for Mac OS 7.5 through Mac OS X. It is called Image Info. He writes: "Image Info is targeted at both scripters and non-scripters who wish to retrieve information about images without opening the whole image into memory. Because it does not need to open entire images, it returns the info very quickly."

Thanks to the many who wrote in with suggestions about the icons jumping around on the desktop after updating to 10.1.1. (Previous image) Although the suggestions provided "workarounds", the remedies are not sufficient enough for me to change my opinion. The one constant suggestion was to turn off "Snap to grid" and the other was to trash the .DS Store. I did not feel comfortable trashing .DS Store, since I have read to many conflicting reports on this in various forums. Turning off "Snap to grid" does in fact work— to a point. The icons continue to jump if the name of a folder or volume would bring it under the Dock. Hopefully Apple will make this "feature" an option in a future release.

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

Polling Place. by Michael Coyle

The usual number tossed about is 90%. If you're a webmaster considering charging a subscription fee, expect to loose 90% of your readers. So the difficult question is: can you charge the remaining 10% enough to make money? More and more sites will be facing that difficult decision, but not ResExcellence. I'd shut the damn thing down first. Plus much of the content at this site is contributed by readers, it would be ridiculous to then charge those same readers a fee to see their work!

Fortunately, ResExcellence is doing well generating income with the help of our sponsors, but please remember that without the support of companies like REAL Software (makers of REALbasic), Small Dog Electronics, PowerMax, and RAMJet, we would cease to exist. So please purchase form these fine companies at every opportunity. They support many quality Macintosh sites, not only ResExcellence.

If you are a long time Mac owner, you may remember the ridiculous System versions that were prevalent for a short time. There was System 7.5, 7.5.2, and 7.5.3. To go from one update to the next required standing on your head while juggling balls with your feet.

I'm afraid that with MacOS X, history will be repeated. Seriously, what the heck do you call this: MacOS X 10.1.1? Shouldn't it be MacOS X.I.I?

We have been living with MacOS X for quite a long time, and still its name is mangled in the press. This week's Polling Place once again asks, "MacOS X. Do you say X or 10?"

Tools of the Trade. by Michael Coyle

If you use a Windows computer, you may have noticed that Internet Explorer will often display a custom icon alongside a bookmark or location bar URL. This is a feature called a "Favorites Icon". In order to see it, the webmaster places a Window's formatted icon file on the web server. If the icon, named favicon.ico, is present the browser will download and display it.

Two years ago I uploaded a favicon for ResExcellence, but have never seen it in a macintosh browser until I downloaded the MacOS X version of Mozilla .0.9.6. The feature is still not present in the Classic version. Surprisingly, ResExcellence is the only Mac site I stumbled upon to have the icon, though it is prevalent throughout other sites on the internet.

To see this feature in MacOS X and PPC/Linux, check the setting shown below in the browser preferences. The current MacOS Classic version does not have the feature, instead you need to snag one of the Nightly Builds.

Sosumi, the great looking MacOS X Theme file, has been updated. There is also a matching iTunes skin. Check them out and be sure to send any bug reports to Sinewave.

The LowEndMac Best of the Web survey results have been posted and ResExcellence was noted as the sixth most respected site. I believe that means we are worthy of meeting the parents, but marriage is out of the question.

Time flies. After three years of publication (and the 300th cartoon installment), pcweenies.com has done a complete site overhaul. The new site offers improved navigation, a weekly letters column, free downloadable desktop pictures, and a complete three year archive of previously published "PC Weenies" cartoons.

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?)

• Scott Meinzer has started a Colorful Crayon series of splash screens for Internet Explorer. The first two colors are Red and Blue!
  
  
• Mike Harrison updates his Armor iTunes skin with some new, um, Armor!
  
  
• So many readers liked Gary P's Boot panel that he has released a companion MOSS of Blue Heaven.
  
  
• Featuring the Darwin Mascot, Tom Bradford put together a nice Boot Panel.
  
  
• If you're like me, this MOSS is perfect for you! It's titled, MikeOS, so if your name is Bob go find your own MOSS!
  
  

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Snapshots by Jeremy Hoesly

Monday’s snapshots are on display:

• A Propaganda desktop picture and XThemination’s Titanium Theme are showcased in this contribution from Roberto Dohnert. Charla is making conversation along the top.
  
  
• Digital Blasphemy’s “Singularity” desktop picture and Akio’s BIG Indigo K-Scheme debut in this submission from Christian Elmendorf. Audion, equipped with the Megaladon face, is cranking out music along the right edge.
  
  
• Moby is the star of this OS X screenshot from Jose Miranda touting a “Mac OS X” desktop picture. iTunes is churning out songs along the right edge.
  
  
• Jeff Welsh submits this OS X snapshot sporting a custom desktop picture. iTunes is standing by in the lower left. Check out the dividers in the dock!

Feel the joy of submitting! Give us a gander of your desktop.

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Icon & Desktop News: by Dan

Back by popular demand, our Postcard Section has opened once again for the Holiday season. We are now accepting submissions which will be available for sending to your friends and loved ones. Click here to read the guidelines for Postcard making, and get busy.

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

• Hein Mevissen updates his popular "Nice on the Desktop" icon set with a non transparent version. Volume one, the first of four sets, includes 46 different application and system level icons framed in brushed metal.
  
  
• If you pine the passing of those familiar system 7 icons, look no further for some solace with "Silhouettes" for OSX by Flax Creations. Based off the MacDingbats font collection, this set includes 32 of the most common System 7 icons silhouetted in red with drop shadows. These were designed as 128 x128 pixel icons, but don't look half bad in the Classic environment as well.
  
  
• Soft, sultry and sweet, John Rose adds "Jessica Simpson" to his Singer's and Celebrity desktop collection. Available in 3 different resolutions.
  
  
• "BlackHawk Down" by Victoria Williamson announces the impending release of a new action movie by Sony Films. "Leave no man behind" comes in 1024x resolution.
  
  
• Mario Garza was so impressed with the quality of Lens Flares included with Kai's Powertools 6, that he decided this default "Cool Flare" would make a great desktop picture all on it's own. Download this brilliant backdrop in 800x and 1024x resolutions.
  
  
• An obviously devoted Football fan, Curtis J. Manley submits a two picture set of "Chicago Bears Desktops", featuring the Windy City's team logo. Both desktops come in 1024x resolution.
  
  
• Look closely, and you may find that one in a million lucky four leaf "Clover" somewhere in this digital field sent by Ramon of LivePencil. One of many fascinating and fun digital delights found on his site, this one comes in 800x and 1024x resolution.
  
  
• "Drained" by Stareintome, is another stylish desktop created on a slipstream (iBook/500/384/10GB) with Photoshop 6.0 and the creative mind and eyes of a disproportioned malcontent. This desktop comes in 1024x resolution. Also included are some companion musings written by the author.
  

News From Around the Web:

KC'z Custom Desktops has updated with two new pages...that's 16 new desktop picts for your amusement. Get them before the colors fade.

White Fire Ministries site has been updated with a new 10-image series called "Sanctuary" by Andy Moraitis. White Fire also has screensaver packs designed to work with the built-in screensaver in Mac OS X!

LivePencil.com updates with new wallpapers, icons and much much more.

Mandolux.com has now released 10 new desktops – DMX/LTX. These desktops are a series of photos from the rap artist DMX song ŒWho We Be.1

Download Juan's lastest creation: "Animals in balls" from www.iconstree.com .

MacMonkies updates with three brand new desktops! Check 'em!

There are 10 new desktops at http://www.mandolux.com - these desktops are about Tulips that have been blurred a lot, creating a wonderful smoothness throughout the desktop.

Pixelcentric.net has been updated with 6 new desktop pictures. P91, P102, Symmetrix, Flower Power, Q-i Blue and Q-i Gold are all available for 1280x1024 screen resolution.

MAJArch Studios has begun creating Icons! They are for Mac OS 8.5 or greater, and are standard sets. Named "Russellicons", and "Monsters, Inc."

Cap'n Hack made a number of desktops and some bits of interface software which you might like.

T.J. Mahaffey posts some new icons on his Mac Goodies site.

Flaxcreations updates with 4 beautiful desktops.

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

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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