|
Today's News by Cletus™ I'm back... Who cares? :) I am so far behind everything. Is it worth it going away only to be swamped when you come home? On with the news.
 Samuel Caughron dropped us a note on a couple of great updates from Proteron. The first is LiteSwitch X which is a Mac OS X keyboard application switcher. LiteSwitch X 1.1 is the first version to be fully compatible with Mac OS X 10.2. He writes about this update: "It took us a while, but we were able to offer all of the previous functionality from LiteSwitch X 1.0 without hacking into other programs or introducing any instability to the system."
Proteron is not done there though, they also announced the release of MaxMenus which anticipates Mac OS X 10.2.2. MaxMenus is a powerful utility that adds flexible menus to simplify launching applications and managing documents on Mac OS X.
The popular CMM to batch rename your files, A Better Finder Rename X goes to the next beta stage— 5.0b5.1. A new format with installation allows a script to restart only the Finder versus having to restart the machine. Nice touch.
App Monitor 1.0 is a new mention here at ResExcellence. It is an application to watch the CPU usage of any process on your system. It especially useful to developers who want to control CPU usage of their program. It is new and it is free. It is the authors first attempt at Cocoa, so be nice and provide meaningful feedback.
Benj Bilheimer notified me that Skin A Dock has been updated. It has received a ton of work since the initial release. "Jaguar changed some things about how the Dock worked, so we had to put a lot of effort into Skin a Dock to make it work again. In the process, we made it into a Preference Pane, expanded the set of available skins, added in-program Skin archive access and make it work on icons that change dynamically."
Christopher Holland tells me that he is releasing a small utility that creates 128x128 icons from image files that are dropped onto it. It is called Iconic. Iconic can also remove custom icons from files if you want to batch remove your icons to let Jaguar create them dynamically. Christopher works at Concept House which is also responsible for the Fluid screensaver. I hope he doesn't mind me mentioning that this will also be updated "really soon" :D
Have a Press Release? Software or General News? Submit it here: Suggestions!
Complete Cable Management For The Home & Office.
Tools of the Trade by Michael Coyle Are you sitting in front of your Macintosh IIfx turning green with envy for the MacOS X Aqua interface? Then maybe you should visit Aquamakeover. This site has everything you need to take the Classic Mac and squeeze an Aqua Interface onto that older hardware. After your Makeover, send a snapshot to ResEx to show off your work!
Changing the Terminal Prompt by hoshi In today's tip, you'll learn how to customize the terminal prompt by adding a couple of special text files. First, make a plain text document called .login in your Home folder (note the file name begins with a dot to make it invisible!). Copy the following text and past it into that document: | alias cd 'chdir \!$; source ~/.setprompt' | Now make another plain text document in your Home folder called .setprompt and paste in the following text (again, note the file name begins with a dot to make it invisible): | #!/bin/csh
# file: .setprompt
# assign the prompt variable multiple lines
# escape (quote) the newline each time
set prompt = "\
# pwd = print working directory
`pwd`\
# This is the prompt. Feel free to customize.
x--> " | Re-login to your computer and run the Terminal app. Now whenever you change directories you will see a new prompt displaying the current directory path. For example, type this in the terminal: The prompt will now show something like this: /Users/hoshi/Desktop
x--> | Have fun by experimenting and changing the prompt!
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?) - Today we post a Boot Image from my Alma Mater, Starfleet Academy. Those were the days. Jean Luc and I would wander the campus comparing receding hairlines. Styfe made this image.
- The always clever Jason Wiggins has done is again. MacOS X allows you to set an image as the background in a Finder window. Jason has created dozens of subtle backgrounds for all the common System folders. It's hard to explain. You need to see the preview.
- Just when you thought it was safe to put away that hairy desktop, Michael Helbig keeps the fur flying in these two Jaguar clock faces for Apple's Clock.app. One face for analog, one for digital.
- At first it looks like an image of a beautiful sunset, but upon closer inspection, you see that the tree on the horizon has a single apple (logo) hanging on it.
- If you remember aerial dogfights playing Biplane on the Atari game console (1977), then you'll like this set of four Atari Boot Images from hoshi.
- Ouch! This Boot Panel of Ali Landry from Trc3 is so hot, the fan on my Powerbook turned on! (rimshot)
Support ResExcellence By Visiting Our Sponsors!
Tools of the Trade by Michael Coyle Two new themes are in the archive. Kevin Husted released the final version of Cappucino. Wow! What an improvement over the beta from two weeks ago - and I thought _that_ looked good! Cappuccino includes a boot image, Login and Boot make overs and other nice touches. Regarding QuickSilverR, Lars says, "Some of you may remember the Iridium Quicksilver theme, which is by far still my favorite. However with the update to Mac OS 10.2 the theme was no longer compatible anymore, and the developers of the theme are untraceable and their website offline. Which left me with only one option, make it compatible myself, so here you go and enjoy it. "  |  | | Quicksilver | Cappuccino | | Click preview for full size image in new window. |
Who's a lucky guy? Jon Breitenbucher is! He is the winner of this month's random drawing from contributors to the site. Jon snagged himself a $50 gift certificate from the good folks at PowerMax! Gee... and all he had to do was contribute to ResEx.
Modifying the default User Template and Creating Multiple Users by Michael Coyle Todd Lyall asks, "Is it possible in OS 10.2 to configure a user account, and then duplicate that account (rename it), and then restrict access to applications? It seems that it could save a lot of time configuring machines by being able to duplicate accounts. Do you have to be a unix guru to do this?" You don't have to be a Guru, but there are a few command line utilities you'll need to learn. Everytime you create a new user in the Accounts Preference Panel, a User folder is created from a template and ownership of that new folder is assigned to the new user. The image below shows the location of the User Template. Now here's a trick: After you create the first new user, log in as that user and set all your preferences. You can set the Dock position, default Finder views, and desktop picture... just about anything. You can now use this Home folder as the template for all other users created on the machine. Open a terminal and we will backup the original User Template. (You will be prompted to enter the root password after a sudo command. ) sudo cp -Rf "/System/Library/User Template" "/System/Library/User Template.orig" In this example, lets say the new user you created was named "dummy". So next we will move the dummy directory and rename it as the new User Template. sudo cp -Rf "/Users/dummy" "/System/Library/User Template" Now, every new user you create from this point forward will have these new preferences. Let's do it another way. In this example, you have already created the "dummy" user and configured all the dummy settings. Now you want to add three new users to the machine: Mom, Sister, and Brother. Open the Accounts Preference Panel and create the three new accounts. This will also create three new folders in the Users directory. We need to delete those folders and copy our template in place of them. Open a terminal and type: sudo rm -Rf /Users/Mom
sudo rm -Rf /Users/Sister
sudo rm -Rf /Users/Brother Next, copy the dummy template and rename it for each user: sudo cp -R /Users/dummy /Users/Mom
sudo cp -R /Users/dummy /Users/Sister
sudo cp -R /Users/dummy /Users/Brother You're almost done, but dummy is still the 'owner ' of all these directories. We need to reassign them to the correct user: sudo chown -R Mom /Users/Mom
sudo chown -R Sister /Users/Sister
sudo chown -R Brother /Users/Brother You should test each account by logging in as the various users and view your handy work. In an academic or business setting, you could even burn your "dummy" directory to a CD and carry it from machine to machine.
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?) - If there was a nation called Apple, this Boot Image would be the currency. This Coin Image is from mini me.
- Stefanie Koerner made a really cool Dock Poof. It has a square geometric design.
- All together now, what's your favorite web site? ResExcellence!!! That's why Homer D Poe made this Boot Image with our name. (Hey, _I_ like it!)
- For any Palestinians in the crowd, Parkov sent this Boot Panel with the flag of the territories.
- The logo of the New York Macintosh Users Group has been boot-imaged by Stryfe.
- And here are two more Boot Images of Transformer logos. This pair is by Chris Scharver.
Calendar & Appointment Scheduler for Mac OS X
Today's News by Cletus™  We have some excellent news to lead off with. Riccardo Ettore will be releasing a final candidate version of TypeIt4Me: TypeIt4Me X 1.0fc1 within the next couple of days. I will be away, but wanted to let you in on this secret. So keep your eyes peeled. It has had an extended beta testing period and is almost ready to go. It has been no small feat getting this up-to-date, let me tell you. Riccardo has been very hard at work. Of course I have participated in the testing and it is very solid on my machines. This program is the first thing I have installed on every system I have ever run. My TypeIt4Me file is even included on my backup data disk I store in another location outside the house it is so important to me.
Rocket Launcher is described as a simple application/file launcher that allows you to launch and switch between applications quickly. The newest version 0.9.5 adds support for changing item location in the menu and automated deletion of items.
Can Combine Icons X 3.0.5 from Infinity-to-the-Power-of-Infinity has been released. " Can Combine Icons allows Mac OS X users to create impressive customised icons within minutes, by using icons and artwork already available." - Dramatic improvement of the quality of created 16x16 and 32x32 icons.
- Creates open folder variations if they are present in the originals (for example the Aqua folder) and the user preference is set. Warning, creates icons larger than 100kB!
- Fixed the occasional accidental creation of a file called "temp.tiff" in the current user's home folder.
- Fixed a crashing bug when batch saving in 10.2 and 10.2.1.
 The excellent Launch Items X is available for download. You can easily customize the program to suit your needs. Changes in this version include:
- Launch Items Menu, a menu extra, now can display the running processes.
- Launch Items Menu can act as an application switcher.
- Launch Items Menu now can display the Japanese texts properly.
Speed Download 1.9.2 is the newest version of this download manager to accelerate your download times. Tons of optimised code graces this release as well as several fixes including: An issue where certain sites would cause SD to download an unwanted ..swf file, minor issues causing unexpected quitting, and a minor bug that could happen with some cookies..
HexEditor 1.85 has been posted by Raphael Sebbe. HexEditor allows you to view/edit raw binary files. You can view/edit the data as multiple integer and floating-point formats, as well as binary and string with any encoding. The list of changes in this release is very long. You can see that here.
I don't care if they sell iPods, but if I see that kid on TV yelling Dude your getting an iPod I will flip!
Dear teacher: Please excuse Cletus™ from class on Wednesday as I will be taking him on a field trip to research soaking in hot tubs and drinking pints. It will also aid in refreshing him. Thanks for your understanding. I am sure his experience will be of a valid educational nature since he will be staying in an Apple room. Expect him back in class on Friday. Thanks!
Have a Press Release? Software or General News? Submit it here: Suggestions!
Polling Place by Michael Coyle  Last week's was open to a lot of interpretation, as can be seen in the forum thread. Most people may have made the assumption that MacOS X would run on generic PC hardware. This would probably be a bad thing because Apple is primarily a hardware company.
But there is nothing to stop Apple from creating computers with x86 processors and key the MacOS X to run only on these computers. This way Apple still sells the hardware that runs their OS. The only way any of these x86 scenarios make sense is if the PowerPC family of chips continues to lag behind the AMD x86 chips. (And please don't kid yourself, the PowerPC clearly lags behind the AMD x86.) It looks as if IBMs PowerPC 970 chip will not ship in Apple computers for at least a year. By that time, the gap will have grown even larger. Maybe by then the Polling Place will show Mac users screaming for a move to an x86 chip. I think it would be wrong for Mac users to be prejudiced against the x86 processor. Most of the hardware inside every Apple computer is already interchangeable with the x86 platform. It's the OS that is important, not the chip on which it runs. It IBM and Motorola can't keep up, then it's in the best interests of the MacOS to switch chips.
Most times I'm proud of this country in which I live, but the handling of the Microsoft antitrust trial embarrasses me. The company is found guilty. The appeals court agrees that they are guilty, but because the presiding judge couldn't keep his mouth shut the case is returned to a new judge. Under the Bush administration, the Department of Justice rolls over and gives Microsoft a slap on the wrist. A slap confirmed last week by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly. I'm sure the folks at Andersen Consulting would love to know what is Bill Gates' secret to beating felony charges. Am I being my usual grumpy old self? What do you think? This week's Polling Place asks, "What do you think of the DOJ vs. MS settlement?"
Click here to learn more about Toast 6 Titanium
|
