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Today's News by Cletus™ Hello 2003! Hard to believe, but on we go into the new year. Next week I will be traveling to MacWorld. I am looking forward to the small break it will provide.
 iCan 1.0b8 is a fully customizable Trashcan for OS X desktops for those who still miss the one in OS 9. This is pretty cool and features the items you would expect. It appears empty when it's empty, and full when it's full, it can be sized independently to that of the desktop icons from 32 to 128 pixels and it is fully customizable using trash themes.
Vizspring Software has sent out PR about an update for Typeset. Typeset is a full-featured font viewing utility designed for the creative professional. Typeset's intended use is to view a collection of installed fonts searching for a good font for a particular project or logo. Version 1.5.2 features the following new features and changes. I have included a partial listing only: - The Manage Favorites window has been redesigned for easier use.
- Added additional scroll wheel support to many windows.
- Fixed many interface glitches involving the menu bars visibility with various windows
- Adjusted the size and position of many controls throughout the application to better follow AHIG standards
- The continuous font display now has correct horizontal and border lines
Better error handling with uninstalled fonts
Fixed Search Results not appearing under Mac OS 9
As Mike mentioned the other day, if you are updating and using the new themes with Mac OS X, you will want to stay on top of the AquaFix releases. Another update just came out yesterday. Version 1.7.2 adds automatic system version detection and restore settings configuration. Be sure you have this on hand prior to using the newer themes.
The other theme related update concerns ThemeChanger 0.5. ThemeChanger switches your theme in Mac OS X. It currently supports .theme, *and* tpkg2 (new in v10). It's still in early alpha so don't expect a finalized product. It is released under the terms of the GNU GPLare. The full list of updated items can be found in the download.
A-Dock X 0.8.2 is the newest release of this application switcher described as being on steroids by the author. There are also 2 new skins : Snow and Autumn, courtesy of Kevin Pott. Changes include: - Fixed preferences not being saved.
- Dock shadow change does not require a restart.
- Corrected problems with hot keys.
- Hot keys are disabled before the Preferences dialog is shown, and re-enabled after the dialog is dismissed to avoid problems.
- Selecting "Preferences" twice does not create two dialogs.
- If the dock was positioned on a secondary monitor, its position wasn't saved. This has been fixed.
. piPop has improved memory handling, the removal of a bug where menus would be blank in the medium quality setting, and improved high quality rendering with the release of 2.1b4.
Macaroni 1.3.2 allows one to automatically run the "clean up" Unix scripts set to otherwise run when most people are asleep— at least their computers are. This release fixes a bug in 1.3 and 1.3.1 where the "restore defaults" button would make the "repair privileges" job disappear.
Have a Press Release? Software or General News? Submit it here: Suggestions!
Icon & Desktop News: by Dan
 Icons - Desktops: Hi Again! We've got another great selection of icons and desktops to feed your need for desktop decoration. Starting off with (6) New Desktops, (2) New Icon Sets, and of course, updated "News From Around the Web", take your time going, and hurry back!
IMPORTANT NOTICE:
Due to the technical problems we experienced over the holiday, a hunk of the Desktop and Icon Archive was lost, and wasn't recoverable. The time period spans from the third week of July to December 23. If one of those unfortunate files was yours, and you want it re posted, please re send it to me using our Browser Based Upload Page. Make sure to mark these files somewhere with the word "REPOST", and include your name, email address and website url if applicable. They will not be re posted without it. I will certainly do my best to add those back to the archives. In an ongoing effort to make it easier for you to send us your Icons and Desktops, we've designed a new Browser Based Upload Page for the task. Just follow the easy to use instructions, and you'll find submitting your artwork is a piece of cake!
- If you enjoyed the previous Bee Icon sets created by Jose Arredondo , you will really like this next set of eight techno bee creatures titled "Bee Droids".
- Jeremy Burnich dedicates a stylish looking set of twelve OSX icons to the outrageously popular band Fischer Spooner.
- GBBXMX desktops by Gramage is the second set of desktops from the author based on the Kaleidoscope Scheme ‘BBX Mercury’ by William Bart (and the adapted OS X Theme ‘BBX Mercury X’ by Max Rudberg). Some of the pics have a thinner border between colors, more in the style of BBXMX, the others have a much thicker one, reminissent of BBXM. This new set includes twelve different variations on the theme, and all come in 1024x resolution.
- The folks over at Digikitten have sent us another batch of their fine desktop submissions to share with ResExcellence readers. By way of introduction, one of Digikitten's missions has been to provide a free place for digital artists to display their work without having to pony up for a server. Kittenbrush by Lotus will be the seventeenth desktop we have the good fortune to post from this ongoing display. This one is available in 1024x resolution.
- Think you're having a bad day, check out this China Cat desktop by Bob Booten, (also known as iBobunot). Comes in 1152x resolution.
- The power of three will cast a spell on you in this "Charmed" Desktop by Maaz. Comes in 1024x resolution.
- Sunglasses are recommended while viewing this steamy desktop by Trc3. Featuring the oh so yummy Brooke Burke, this one comes in 1024x and 1600x resolutions.
- Tom Whalen returns with some new additions to his Nintendo Retro desktop series. Smb Enemies includes three new characters, all available in 1024x resolution.
News From Around the Web: Marmalade Moon releases a couple of new icons at the Marmalade Moon, "Celebration". Break out the party hats! The Rampant Ranch is alive and kicking with all main galleries back online plus new gui goodies to boot! Meramec at Onondaga is a personal photo taken on a camping trip over April Fool's Day weekend 2002, Dogwood is a stock image heavily modified in Photoshop, both Rivendell III and Think Stooge are updated desktops based on earlier art. The Museum of Modern Grosett has added a new gallery entitled "Snowfall." Timeoutofmind.com updates his Desktops page with two new pictures. A new gallery has been added to Hoeslyvista with eight pictures from Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park. MacMonkies cracks open a brand New Year with cool new GUI and a smooth new look. This week's GUI goodies come from fine GUI palaces such as RAD.E8, miX the piX, EA Design, WatiWorks, Prevision, and MacMonkies. In addition, the ole Monkie gets another face lift. 'Nuff said! Grab a vine, swing by MacMonkies, and check 'em out! Mando would like to inform you that http://www.mandolux.com has issued six new desktops: four Vector-based (Abstract/Techno), one Fiery (Charcoal/Chimney) and a new Technosis/Anthraxis (Abstract) desktop. Live Pencil updates with new animations, new emoticons, email effects, and much more to make you smile. So what's up WWW? Icons? Desktop Pictures? News? Inform us! We'll post it!
Click here to learn more about Toast 6 Titanium
Tools of the Trade by Michael Coyle Updated themes for MacOS X 10.2.3 continue to roll in. But first, be sure to update your copy of AquaFix for 10.2.3! Today's updated themes include Luna XP and Silver XP from Max Rudberg. Also from Max is a huge update to his Brushed Series. In addition to the three theme versions (Brushed, Brushed Aqua, and Aqua Widgets), you can now get each style with transparent menus if you wish. The creamy white Siemple para X by Kei Kinoshita has also received an update for 10.2.3. Snag them all in the archive.
As a fellow ProTools user, I was intrigued by Jason Adair's request to add a Menu Command key to ProTools. A commonly used menu item, Bounce to Disk, doesn't have a command key. ProTools doesn't use the standard MENU resource, instead menus are stored in the dreaded CMNU resource! It's hard to find an available key to use in ProTools, but I picked "B" for Bounce to Disk. Clever huh? Launch ResEdit and open a copy of ProTools. Open CMNU ID #3 and delete the B command from "Clear All". This frees it up for Bounce to Disk. Open CMNU ID #2 and add B under Cmd-Key as shown in the image above. Unfortunately, that's not enough. ProTools has additional coding that makes the command keys complicated, so we can never have Command-B equal Bounce to Disk, but you can get Shift-Command-B and that's good enough for me. The key is to select Font options from the Style menu. It seems the Font styles are tied to the different key combinations and not font styles at all! Extended equals Command and Bold equals Shift. Selecting both these options will assign Shift-Command-B to Bounce to Disk. Oddly, that key command is also assigned to "Select unused regions", but the File menu option seems to over ride the other popup menu. So there you have it. It ain't pretty, but it works and doesn't seem to render the application unstable.
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?) - Hello Brazil! Elias Sandoval has created a Classic MOSS featuring the flag of your country.
- Featuring a battered Happy Mac logo, Anonymous Prime created this boot image titled "Blue Screen Of Deth".
- There has been discussion in the Mozilla news groups of ditching the dragon and creating a less rebellious splash screen for the browser. This screen from Grainfed would make a selection!
- An iTunes skin from Elias Sandoval is covered with the Jaguares logo.
Complete Cable Management For The Home & Office.
Today's News by Cletus™ I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday break. This time of year always seems to zoom by. Oh by the way, while you are just sitting around on vacation over the holidays, you may want to do a backup of your computer. Why? Because you just never know....
Reminder to all of the special offer being made to ResExcellence readers from Vizspring Software for an excellent price break on Typeset. This promotion is available exclusively to ResExcellence readers. Buy Typeset today and save over 33%. Hurry, offer ends January 1st, 2003.
ChimerIcon 0.6.3 is the latest incarnation of this AppleScript to help change the Chimera Navigator's icons and splash screen. ChimerIcon comes bundled with several icon themes and splash screens. Of course you can get items at ResExcellence also!
 Rooter 1.1 is a new mention on ResExcellence that allows one to launch any Cocoa application with root privileges. It is a Cocoa drag and drop application. Simply drop your application on Rooter and enter your password in the Mac OS X Authentication Panel. You are off and running.
Stop by Unsanity and pick up the newest version of Labels X 1.1.1. Labels X adds file labeling features into Mac OS X. This means, you can apply various color tints to file icons, and sort the files by label. This gives you more freedom and options in organizing your files. The folks at Unsanity say they have fixed a bug with Labels X affecting Recent Items functionality in Mac OS X 10.2.
Another new beta is available for you to try out for LaunchBar. It is version 3.2.7b2. The list of changes is pretty nice and follows: - Much improved Unicode support. Characters with diacritical marks are now handled properly when searching for items.
- LaunchBar now adapts much faster to your preferred abbreviations. You can now re-assign an already used abbreviation to a new item simply by using this abbreviations twice with the new item.
- The latest Chimera builds introduced a slightly modified bookmarks file format that was no longer recognized by LaunchBar. This problem has been fixed.
- The buttons in the Quit dialog now appear in the "correct" order.
Fixed the graphics that appeared too dark due to embedded color profiles.
Played around with themes too much over the holiday? Totally messed up your brand spanking new computer trying out a favorite theme? Then you will want to give AquaFix 1.7.1 a try. Besides making this version completely compatible with 10.2.3, this Application will replace all interface elements with the original aqua ones. A command line version is included in case you can't even boot into OS X.
Virtual Pet Rock! Hmmm, ah well. This is the brain child of longtime reader of ResEx reader Harold Bakker. It was written for Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) or above that and does absolutely nothing but is very cool nonetheless. There are also some utilities to see what sex your rock is and how well it is doing physically. Some icons for the program folder are also available.
I drive my wife nuts with my eclecticism in what I collect. Doesn't everyone have an odd taste or two. For instance, I have always had a fascination for fountain pens, watches and penguins. I have several Mont Blanc pens and I bought my first Rolex in November, and people are constantly getting me penguin items. I also like the odd clay pipe as well. This is kind of ironic as I know that Mike also collects clay pipes. OK so I am weird! Although I abhor shopping I do not mind looking through antique shops. Since it is kind of a slow period over the holidays, let's have some fun and start a forum thread where people can tell all about some of the odd things they like to collect!
Have a Press Release? Software or General News? Submit it here: Suggestions!
Polling Place by Michael Coyle  The server crash cost the Polling Place quite a few votes. Sorry about that.
But even with the reduced numbers, it's apparent ResEx readers have a lot of phones! The peak number is three per household, but a third of you have five or more! I'll have my answering machine call your answering machine! If the independent testing proves correct, the world will have its first human clone. While I believe the world would be a better place with a million copies of me, your opinion may differ. This week's Polling Place asks, "Do you think we should be cloning humans?"
Icon & Desktop News: by Dan
 Icons - Desktops: Hi Again! We've got another great selection of icons and desktops to feed your need for desktop decoration. Starting off with (6) New Desktops, (2) New Icon Sets, and of course, updated "News From Around the Web", take your time going, and hurry back!
IMPORTANT NOTICE:
Due to the technical problems we experienced over the holiday, a hunk of the Desktop and Icon Archive was lost, and wasn't recoverable. The time period spans from the third week of July to December 23. If one of those unfortunate files was yours, and you want it re posted, please re send it to me using our Browser Based Upload Page. Make sure to mark these files somewhere with the word "REPOST", and include your name, email address and website url if applicable. They will not be re posted without it. I will certainly do my best to add those back to the archives. In an ongoing effort to make it easier for you to send us your Icons and Desktops, we've designed a new Browser Based Upload Page for the task. Just follow the easy to use instructions, and you'll find submitting your artwork is a piece of cake!
- Deggy extends the most excellent set of Noia Icons designed by Carlitus with his new set of Funky 1 Folder Icons. Combining many new and original application icons with the Noia style folder, this set features 112 handsome icons for OSX.
- Whatever the mood of the moment, one can never have enough Smileys icons in your collection. Benj sends us an original set of his own creation including 8 expressive pieces.
- G merc desktops by Gramage are based on the Kaleidoscope Scheme ‘BBX Mercury’ by William Bart (and the adapted OS X Theme ‘BBX Mercury X’ by Max Rudberg). Using a simple gradient in photoshop, in various combinations, the ‘light’ colors are a close approximation of those in the menubar/titlebar background. The‘dark’ panels are those of the scroll bar tab thingy, and the background for selected menu items. This set includes five different variations on the theme, and all come in 1024x resolution.
- The folks over at Digikitten have sent us another batch of their fine desktop submissions to share with ResExcellence readers. By way of introduction, one of Digikitten's missions has been to provide a free place for digital artists to display their work without having to pony up for a server. Disturbed by Sheis will be the sixteenth desktop we have the good fortune to post from this ongoing display. This one is available in 1024x resolution.
- Yee haw! We have another awesome looking desktop from the folks at Digikitten. Right to Know by Jesse is the seventeenth desktop on display here, and comes in 1024x resolution.
- Bob Ossin submits a cool looking text based Mac Perspective desktop. This one comes in 1024x and 800x resolutions.
- Trc3 sends us a striking looking composition with high tech appeal titled "Building". One of many fine desktops from the author, this one comes in 1024x and 1600x resolutions.
- Avid cinema buff Depovan sends us a poster image from the 2002 release of the movie Victims. In this suspenseful horror movie, four rape victims team up to bring their brutal attacker to justice. He had been tried before on similar charges and acquitted on a technicality. Now the women, led by a determined young doctor are determined to make him pay for destroying their lives. Comes in 1024x resolution.
News From Around the Web: Live Pencil updates with new animations, new emoticons, email effects, and much more to make you smile. Stop over at DV Graphics and pick up two new icon sets for OSX. MacMonkies wraps up your work week with GUI goodies to spruce up your desktop. 2 New Icon sets have been added for your downloading pleasures, along with 2 Christmas themed Desktops on display in the Gallery. Start your weekend with all this and more at MacMonkies.com! Mando would like to inform you that http://www.mandolux.com has issued a new Vector-based desktop titled 'Woman in Orange. widget : widget has got plenty of festive GUI goodies ready to download, from special Yuletide icon set, ‘OS Xmas’, to the third ‘Magnum Opus’ preview collection. And to top it all off, there are two seasonal desktop pictures to compliment your Mac over the holiday season.
Topicons updates with a new icon set called "Cristal System Icons" Hoeslyvista, a digital photography site that's home to over 100 free, high-quality desktop pictures, has opened its doors once again! The site has undergone a complete redesign and contains more galleries than ever before! Most importantly, Hoeslyvista has room to go; so expect more additions to the digital picture archive in the future. So what's up WWW? Icons? Desktop Pictures? News? Inform us! We'll post it!
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