Subject: Info-Mac Digest V15 #237 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="Info-Mac-Digest" --Info-Mac-Digest Info-Mac Digest Tue, 04 Nov 97 Volume 15 : Issue 237 Today's Topics: [*] TidBITS#403/03-Nov-97 Kaleidoscope (A) I'm a mac newbie. Please help. 512K Mac-Happy ending [A]: I'm a mac newbie. Please help. [A]: new batteries for PB180 [Q] Anyone got experience with Office Jet? ADB optical mouses CD Audio Player & CD Remote CD Audio Player & CD Remote Command-Restart by mistake Command-Restart by mistake Easy View 2.61 and Info-Mac Digests GLOBAL VILLAGE ALERT, LIARS I'm a mac newbie. Please help. I'm a mac newbie. Please help. IIsi hard disks Jaz as Startup Mac OS preferences Mac OS preferences more than 1 startup partition Netscape Freezes OS8 & ATM OS8 & ATM The Info-Mac Network is a volunteer organization that publishes the Info-Mac Digest and operates the Info-Mac Archive, a large network of FTP sites containing gigabytes of freely distributable Macintosh software. For more information, visit the Info-Mac Web site at . Email Addresses and Instructions: * To submit articles to the digest, email . * To subscribe, send email to with subscribe in the Subject line. * To unsubscribe, send email to with unsubscribe in the Subject line. * To change your address, unsubscribe from the old address, then subscribe from the new address. If that fails, try using the list maintenance form at before contacting us. * Please send administrative queries to . * To submit files for the archive, email the binhexed file with a description to . Submissions must be made by the author or with permission of the author. 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We'd also like to thank AOL for the main Info-Mac machine. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- --Info-Mac-Digest Content-Type: multipart/digest; boundary="----------------------------" Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="Info-Mac Digest V15 #237" ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Nov 1997 22:22:19 -0800 From: TidBITS Editors Subject: [*] TidBITS#403/03-Nov-97 TidBITS#403/03-Nov-97 Tired of your eyes being tired? Read on for Jeff Carlson's overview of screen typography - why it works, why it doesn't, and what you can do about it. Fabrizio Oddone weighs in with a solution to the problem of Internet mirror sites, and Geoff Duncan discusses IDE hard disk problems impacting a range Performas and Power Macs. We also pass on announcements of StuffIt Deluxe 4.5, Riven (the sequel to Myst), and GraphicConverter 3.0.1. Topics: MailBITS/03-Nov-97 IDE Recommend Updating Mirror, Mirror on the Internet: QuickestMirror Better Typography Coming to a Screen Near You [Archived as /info-mac/per/tb/tidbits-403.etx; 29K] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Nov 1997 8:50:21 BST From: Alan Gentle Subject: Kaleidoscope Hello, Have been using Aaron + Greg's Buttons for quite some time on my Performa 6200 without any problems and, seeing all of those Kaleidoscope colour schemes appearing, decided to give it a whirl. But, all I got was a totally unacceptable number of 'Floating Point Co-Processor' crashes - some recoverable, some needing a reset. Even clicking over the 'Accent colour' window in the Kaleidoscope control panel caused a crash! A few (!) of the colour schemes seemed attractive but, at the moment, I'm back with Aaron/Greg's Buttons. Any ideas? Is Kaleidoscope normally so fragile? Alan Gentle ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Nov 1997 23:10:53 -0500 From: "Peter J. Paul" Subject: (A) I'm a mac newbie. Please help. > I just got my first Mac. A second hand Performa 5200. There is no > manual that came with it. Upon installing it, I found that my there > is only one port that support either the keyboard or the mouse. I > find it very confusing as the computer need both to run, but there is > only one that it supports. The other ports are not compatible with > the mouse or keyboard's connector. Please help, I dont know where > else to turn to. > > A mac newbie in need.... Don't feel anything but normal. We were all newbies once (and still are in many areas). Anyway, the mouse cable gets plugged into the keyboard and use an ADB cable to go from the port on your Performa to the keyboard. Note that the ADB cable and the mouse cable may go on either side (whichever is comfortable for you). Further note that you need an ADB cable for this connection. It sounds as if you have one, but if not they are easily (and cheaply) acquired. Peter J. Paul pjp@cheerful.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Nov 1997 02:52:13 +0000 From: i.burt@netmatters.co.uk (Ian Burt) Subject: 512K Mac-Happy ending There are a few interested parties out there who will be pleased to hear the 512K Mac I was given to fix now boots up thanks to Chaz Larson for sending me OS versions from 0.1 to 2.0, thanks again Chaz, V 0.1 did it, and also to Bill Stanford, who informed me that Disk Charmer 2.0.9 formats 400K floppies both HFS and MFS. I'm actually embarrassed because Bill emailed me a copy of Disk Charmer and it was already sitting on my hard drive. That'll teach me to read the manuals I guess. Also thanks must go to Adam van Gaalen for starting the ball rolling for me, William Arsenault for offering to send original floppies before I realised they weren't needed, to Al Bloom for being Al, and all the rest who responded, far too many to reply to. Incidentally Al I shouldn't worry about the Digest going down the tubes. So many good souls responded to my original shout that I could start a mailing list. The guy who owns the Mac is now looking for an original mouse so he can actually get further than the desktop. But that's another story. Thanks again gang for being your usual supportive selves. Keep the faith, Ian But you who walk facing the sun,what images drawn on the earth can hold you? http://www.netmatters.co.uk/users/i.burt ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Nov 1997 15:21:04 -0800 From: Maurice Mike McNeil Subject: [A]: I'm a mac newbie. Please help. >I just got my first Mac. A second hand Performa 5200. There is no >manual that came with it. Upon installing it, I found that my there >is only one port that support either the keyboard or the mouse. I >find it very confusing as the computer need both to run, but there is >only one that it supports. The other ports are not compatible with >the mouse or keyboard's connector. Please help, I dont know where >else to turn to. The mouse plugs into the keyboard, either on the end or in the middle. Turn the keyboard over and you should find two adb ports, use either one to plug the kb into the computer and the other for the mouse. You can plug the mouse into either end for left or right handers. Enjoy, that is a pretty good machine. You definitely want to get a Mac OS book (e.g. Mactintosh Bible, Mac's for Dummies) to walk you through some of the wonderful things it can do. Since you got it used, there is no telling what the settings are, what condition the hard drive is in, etc. If you have Norton Utilities installed on the machine use Disk Doctor to check your HD. If not, look for the utility Disk First Aid. You may want to consider getting OS 8.0 which will have an emergency start up disk which will allow you to repair the HD with Disk First Aid. If you do get OS 8.0, ensure that you download from Apple or AOL (I think) Drive Setup 1.3.1 or later. There was a bug in 1.3.1 that affects 5200s. -----|----- 0-0 (_)+ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Nov 1997 15:22:49 -0800 From: Maurice Mike McNeil Subject: [A]: new batteries for PB180 My experience is that Apple batteries are not a good as some third party batteries e.g. VST. -----|----- 0-0 (_)+ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 04 Nov 1997 10:15:22 +0000 From: "J. Eickhoff" Subject: [Q] Anyone got experience with Office Jet? Hi , has anyone got experience with these new HP Printer/Scanner/Fax magic machines OfficeJet XYZ? Thanks Jens.Eickhoff@dss.dornier.dasa.de ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Nov 1997 08:23:08 +0100 From: cbuser@access.ch (Christian F Buser) Subject: ADB optical mouses Mark Allen wrote: > Are there mouses using exclusively optical techniques (no moving parts) > available for the Mac ADB interface? If so, does anyone have experience > with these? Is the pointing resolution better or worse than the standard > mouse? I had an "A+"-mouse for my MacPlus long ago, and it was fully optical. I think there is (or: was) an ADB-version as well. But I don't know whether the company who made them is still in business. You needed a special mouse pad (like a mirror with a printed grid) so that the mouse could "see" if and how you were moving it. Worked very well. Hope this helps. Best wishes, Christian. -- Christian F. Buser - phone (+41-56) 426 64 86 Obere Kirchzelg 12, CH-5430 Wettingen (Switzerland) Look at ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Nov 1997 19:15:22 -0800 (PST) From: Daly Jessup Subject: CD Audio Player & CD Remote Gordon Moynes asked: >It is my understanding that due to a lack of standards for audio CDRoms >that there are no applications that automatically enter the info specific >to the CD when you insert one. > >I have heard of an available database that could possibly be transferred in >the form of a preference file, either for a specific app, or via the CD >Remote Program in the preference folder. > >If anyone can enlighten me on this it would be much appreciated. It is called InCDius b Glenn R. Howes. You can find it by searching for Macintosh shareware at http://www.shareware.com. I believe current version is 1.1b4. Daly Jessup Daly Jessup mailto:jessup@san.rr.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Nov 1997 17:37:40 -0600 (CST) From: Chaz Larson Subject: CD Audio Player & CD Remote At 3:14 PM -0700 11/1/97, Gordon Moynes wrote: >It is my understanding that due to a lack of standards for audio CDRoms >that there are no applications that automatically enter the info specific >to the CD when you insert one. I don't believe the track names, etc. are even available on an Audio CD. The problem is not a "lack of standards", it is that the Audio CD standard doesn't include track information apart from number and duration. >I have heard of an available database that could possibly be transferred in >the form of a preference file, either for a specific app, or via the CD >Remote Program in the preference folder. If you want to transfer data you've already entered to another machine, just copy "CD Remote Programs" from one machine to the other. CD Coyote: allows you to: - Edit all disc information without inserting the CD to the CD-ROM drive. - Save the disc informatin to a TEXT file with user defineable options. - Merge many 'CD Remote Programs' files to just one so You can share 'CD Remote Programs' files with Your friends. - Add discs to the 'CD Remote Programs' database. Audio CD must be inserted (if it is not there allready) to the CD-ROM drive to get the identification number from the disc. - Remove discs from the database. - Sort discs alhabetically in the database. Additional features: - Find and Find Again commands to search for a text string in the database. - Control the CD-ROM drive. Includes play, pause, continue, skip to previous or next track and stop playing of audio CD's. Eject any CD in the CD-ROM drive. It's free. There is a java application that will get track information from a server when you insert a CD, saving you the trouble of keying the info in yourself. I don't know where that is available offhand. I installed and tried it a couple of times with no success, but I didn't keep at it very hard, since I don't think that typing the names in takes too long. chazl - 11.3.1997 - chaz@visi.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Nov 1997 17:37:38 -0600 (CST) From: Chaz Larson Subject: Command-Restart by mistake At 9:07 AM -0500 11/2/97, Paul Kleeberg wrote: >What key sequence can I use to >close that box? G chazl - 11.3.1997 - chaz@visi.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Nov 1997 02:57:12 -0500 From: Squirrelly Subject: Command-Restart by mistake At 09:07 -0500 11/02/97, Paul Kleeberg Might Have Wrote This Mess: >I have been using the Cmd-Del feature of the MacOS 8 Finder to toss items >into the trash. On occasion I miss and hit Cmd-on/off instead and I get >the ">" cursor in a modal dialog window. What key sequence can I use to >close that box? > Paul, If this is the Debugger Box (I think it is) just type a "g" (without quotes), and press enter. It should go away. If you have MacsBug installed, you will get a more intimidating window, but the same applies. Squirrelly ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 04 Nov 1997 11:01:19 +0200 From: ELB Subject: Easy View 2.61 and Info-Mac Digests Here we go again. For about a year now, both under QuickMail 3.x and Netscape 3.0, each time I receive an Info-Mac digest I have to go into QUED and replace the line: --------------------------------------------------------------------- with the line ------------------------------ in order to be able to read the digest in Easy-View 2.6.1. I have subscribed to Info-Mac with the NO MIME option but that hasn't helped. So, I was wondering if anyone could tell me how I could edit the Easy-View script so that instead of looking for the 2nd line above as the separater between messages, it would just use the the 1st line above? Of course, any other solution would be more than welcome too- but I'm really getting tired of having to make these changes all the time (note that I get another bboard digest and there, for some strange reason, no manipulation is necessary in order to read it in Easy View). MUCH thanks in advance, E. Blasberg elb1@netmedia.net.il ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Nov 1997 13:16:26 -0500 From: diz2000@aol.com (Diz2000) Subject: GLOBAL VILLAGE ALERT, LIARS I recently bought the 56k modem from Global Village. They told me they w= ould sell it to me for $169.99, ONLY if I sent them my old modem. If I faile= d to return the old one they would charge me an extra $100. The internal Global Village 28.8 that came with my Mac 6400/200 is no lon= ger manufactured or supported. So basically they told me to buy another one= , newer and fast, and more expensive, or to shove the old one up my ass. I ended up sending the new one back because it was no faster than my brok= en down 28.8. However, they have pretended not to receive it and refuse to= give me a refund. I have canceled the charge on my visa so nothing lost ther= e, but their lack of customer service and honesty is alarming. And consequentl= y, you can buy a Global Village modem in any catalog for $169.99, and you don=92= t need to send your old one. Another lie. So BUYER BEWARE!!!! ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 03 Nov 1997 21:31:25 -0800 From: caryn@halcyon.com (Caryn Roberts) Subject: I'm a mac newbie. Please help. (A copy of this message has also been posted to the following newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.digest) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Oct 1997 16:52:19 GMT From: maug58@dial.pipex.com (xix) Subject: I'm a mac newbie. Please help. I just got my first Mac. A second hand Performa 5200. There is no manual that came with it. Upon installing it, I found that my there is only one port that support either the keyboard or the mouse. I find it very confusing as the computer need both to run, but there is only one that it supports. The other ports are not compatible with the mouse or keyboard's connector. Please help, I dont know where else to turn to. A mac newbie in need.... ------------------------------ Plug the keyboard into the port on the back of the Mac. Plug the mouse into the *other* port on the keyboard. The keyboard has two ports, usually on either end of the keyboard. Peace, Caryn -- visit me at: ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Nov 1997 18:40:40 -0600 From: cbbccm2@tthsc6.lubb.ttuhsc.edu (Clinton MacDonald) Subject: I'm a mac newbie. Please help. maug58: On Thu, 30 Oct 1997, maug58@dial.pipex.com (xix) wrote: >Upon installing it, I found that my there >is only one port that support either the keyboard or the mouse. I >find it very confusing as the computer need both to run, but there is >only one that it supports. You have probably figured this out already yourself, but the mouse and keyboard plug into *each other*. The Apple Desktop Bus (ADB) connection supports serial (in-line) connections. The keyboard plugs into the ADB port in the back of the machine (the angular little icon that looks like a electric light pole). The mouse then plugs into the keyboard, either into the right hand side or the top center. If you don't see the connector on the keyboard, it is possible you have an incompatable (i.e. non-Apple) keyboard. I'm sure you are kicking yourself right about now.... ;-) >A mac newbie in need.... Welcome to the Mac world! You will find yourself getting a little smarter and a little better looking, now that you have joined the Forces of Light. Best fishes, Clint -- Clint MacDonald | ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Nov 1997 15:04:51 +0000 From: drm21@mole.bio.cam.ac.uk (David Micklem) Subject: IIsi hard disks I have two old IIsi's, one with an intermittant fault in the power supply that makes it useless. Both have 80MB hard disks, and I'd like to use the one from the broken computer to boost the storage on the working one. Is it possible to put two HD's on the internal SCSI chain of the IIsi? If so, what cable(s) are needed? I had a quick peek inside, and couldn't see any easy way of daisy chaining them... Also, both machines have a once-adequate 5MB RAM. I vaguely recall that there used to be piggy-back cards that allowed you to slot two RAM modules into a single SIMM slot. Can anyone remember if they existed and who made them? I guess that if they still exist they must be pretty cheap given how cheap RAM is now. Many thanks for your help, David Micklem, drm21@mole.bio.cam.ac.uk US$100 charge for unsolicited mail. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Nov 1997 07:20:38 -0500 From: ddowling@netdepot.com Subject: Jaz as Startup I installed OS8 on a Jaz as the startup drive. Now every time I startup, when the desktop appears I am asked to insert the Jaz cartridge which is already inserted or I could not have gotten to the desktop. I click on the cancel button and all is fine. I have preferences set to not eject the cartridge at shutdown and it does not. How do I get beyond this annoyance. I did not have a problem with Jaz prior to it being a startup. D. Dowling ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Nov 1997 19:15:23 -0800 (PST) From: Daly Jessup Subject: Mac OS preferences Someone wrote: >> (I'm running a PowerMac 8500 Mac OS 8) >> >> Three settings don't hold whenever I restart -- >> >> 1) Under Edit-->Preferences, whatever I change my screen font to, it >> reverts back to Geneva 10 >> >> 2) If I turn File-Sharing off, it turns back on >> >> 3) If I change the Trash to not warn before emptying, it reverts back to >> warning >> >> Has anyone had this problem? I can't find any of these preferences to >> delete, and I don't want to reinstall the System. Any advice? TIA. Hartmut Buhrmester answered: >These settings are stored in the Finder Preferences file. You should move >the file to the trash and the Finder will build a new preferences file the >next restart (you can't immediately delete the file). I, too, am running an 8500/180. I have had the Finder Prefs lose their settings frequently since installing System 8. Lately, there's a new wrinkle on the Finder problem, which is that the Finder goes totally bad, and I get Error 41 on restart, even with extensions off. I looked it up and it apparently means something like "Can't load the Finder." I have to replace the Finder from a backup. I am now keeping a spare Finder stored on a second hard disk as I am having to replace my Finder about once a week. This strikes me as pretty strange. Is anyone else noticing this? (In between total failures of the Finder, the system runs as smoothly as melted butter.) Daly Jessup Daly Jessup mailto:jessup@san.rr.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Nov 1997 08:23:15 +0100 From: cbuser@access.ch (Christian F Buser) Subject: Mac OS preferences Randy Scutt wrote: > Three settings don't hold whenever I restart -- > 1) Under Edit-->Preferences, whatever I change my screen font to, it > reverts back to Geneva 10 > 2) If I turn File-Sharing off, it turns back on > 3) If I change the Trash to not warn before emptying, it reverts back to > warning Did you check whether your Mac keeps the time correct? If not, you need to replace the battery on the mainboard. Best wishes, Christian. -- Christian F. Buser - phone (+41-56) 426 64 86 Obere Kirchzelg 12, CH-5430 Wettingen (Switzerland) Look at ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Nov 1997 08:23:21 +0100 From: cbuser@access.ch (Christian F Buser) Subject: more than 1 startup partition NCICCHECK@aol.com wrote: > If I keep another System folder on another partition it will > default to that system on startup no matter which partition is chosen in > the startup disk control panel. That is quite normal. The startup device control panel ONLY looks at the SCSI Id-number of the drive and does not distinguish between partitions you made. Therefore, having more than one system folder on the same drive (on different partitions) has the same effect like having them on the same volume - it may be disastrous! You could - depending on the formatting software you used to partition your drive - hide one or the other partition containing a system folder by disabling the "mount automatically"-feature (possible with Silverlining and HardDisk Toolkit, and probably others). So if you decide to change to the other system, you need to go to your drive utility and change the mounting features of the two partitions: make the invisible one visible, and vice versa. You also could try to use "System Picker" or other utilities, but I have no experience with them at all. Best wishes, Christian. -- Christian F. Buser - phone (+41-56) 426 64 86 Obere Kirchzelg 12, CH-5430 Wettingen (Switzerland) Look at ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Nov 1997 10:44:10 -0800 From: "Clare N. Shumway" (by way of Info-Mac Subject: Netscape Freezes I am running Netscape Communicator 4.0.3 with OS 8 on a Power Mac 7500; 98% of the all goes well. However, freezes occur when I attempt to open visit certain specific pages. At first I thought that it was because that page included Java, but this is not always the case. Most recently it occurred when trying to visit an Apple site to download (of all things) MacsBug. The only consistent finding is that the same pages cause the freeze on subsequent days. Can anyone explain this? Clare N. Shumway ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Nov 1997 14:16:40 -0500 From: ddowling@netdepot.com Subject: OS8 & ATM Read me files said that the installer from OS8 CD would install the latest version of ATM 4.03 with OS8 (Acrobat Install(. I only get 4.0? Where is 4.0.3. Is the update available somewhere? D. Dowling ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Nov 1997 19:18:07 -0500 From: ddowling@netdepot.com Subject: OS8 & ATM Read me files said that the installer from OS8 CD would install the latest version of ATM 4.03 with OS8 (Acrobat Install). I only get 4.0? Where is 4.0.3. Is the update available somewhere? D. Dowling -------------------------------- --Info-Mac-Digest-- End of Info-Mac Digest ******************************