Subject: Info-Mac Digest V16 #266 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="Info-Mac-Digest" --Info-Mac-Digest Info-Mac Digest Thu, 25 Feb 99 Volume 16 : Issue 266 Today's Topics: [*] TidBITS#468/22-Feb-99 (Q) New Harddrives?? (Q) NUM okay now? (Q) Stereo sound out of new B/W G3 minitower (Q) Turning off Wintel-style underlining in menu labels 2.5" IDE <-> desktop IDE adapter? 2.5" IDE <-> desktop IDE adapter? [Q] CPU Slowdown - odd serial port behaviour Alert Sounds Not Working Any c++ compilers for Mac? Any Parallel to SCSI adaptors? CA Cricket Graph Claris email difficulties crashing G3 Blue & White (The fault continues...) GV's New 56kb V.90 Modem Script (C) Help: PB150 won't find PPDs Macintosh Pascal Macs and foreign languages. A few questions. Managing Netscape Messenger Mail Measurement Conversion Software Netscape History questions about switchback, a recently uploaded utility QuickTime & MIDI Read Info-Mac by Easy View Speakerphone software WriteNow 4.0 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. 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 . 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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 V16 #266" ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Feb 1999 21:00:00 -0800 From: TidBITS Editors Subject: [*] TidBITS#468/22-Feb-99 TidBITS#468/22-Feb-99 If you think walking barefoot over hot coals is preferable to setting up a firewall for your intranet or Internet connection, keep your shoes on and read Chris Pepper's article on firewall security (and why you should care even if you're not a network administrator). Also, Adam looks at the pros and cons of Macworld Expo's relocation to New York this July, and we note Palm Computing's release of two new handhelds and Alco Blom's release of Web Confidential 1.2. Topics: MailBITS/22-Feb-99 Follow the Bouncing Expo What's a Firewall, and Why Should You Care? [Archived as /info-mac/per/tb/tidbits-468.etx; 30K] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Feb 1999 12:49:22 +0000 From: Jose Borrero Subject: (Q) New Harddrives?? Any recommendations for buying a new harddrive? I have a 8600/200/AV originally with a 2 GB hardrive. I want to get a larger drive for storing the system, applications and data, then dedicate the original drive for capturing video. What brands are good? should i stick with apple or go with an aftermarket (i.e. Seagate). SCSI i assume is best for my situation, should i go internal or external? also, is there a specific brand of RAM that is best? or should i just look for price? how about VRAM and cache modules? i want to upgrade it all... Thanks in advance... -jose p.s. if this is the wrong group for posting general questions, all apologies, but please direct me to a group that can help... +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Jose C. Borrero jborrero@usc.edu USC Tsunami Research http://www.usc.edu/dept/tsunamis +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Feb 1999 11:19:10 -0800 From: Mark Allen Subject: (Q) NUM okay now? Hi! When Norton Utilities for the Macintosh 4.0 was released, there were all sorts of reports of bugs, including including data loss after using Norton Disk Doctor 5.0. Has Symantec eliminated most, if not all, of these problems in the 4.0.3 update? Thanks! Mark Allen ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Feb 1999 17:14:18 -0800 From: Mark Allen Subject: (Q) Stereo sound out of new B/W G3 minitower I've been reading up on the new Apple blue & white G3 minitowers just recently available. One piece of information I don't see is how to get stereo sound out of these. Is it possible to connect a pair of speakers (what kind?)? If so, how? Thanks! Mark Allen ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 11:04:16 -0800 From: Paul Brians Subject: (Q) Turning off Wintel-style underlining in menu labels After upgrading to OS 8.5.1, my menu labels all have that ugly Wintel style of having the command characters underlined in the menu title. You know, "File" has the "F" underlined. How do I turn it off? I'm not finding the answer in Apple Help. Paul Brians, Department of English,Washington State University Pullman, WA 99164-5020 brians@wsu.edu http://www.wsu.edu/~brians ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 19 Feb 1999 00:46:26 -0800 From: Dieder Bylsma Subject: 2.5" IDE <-> desktop IDE adapter? Next time, I'll take notes. But a few days ago, I was looking through a set of websites and found one that was selling a 2.5" <-> 3.5" IDE cable adapter that would permit a 2.5" IDE drive to be used in a laptop. Now I can't find that page. Any ideas on where I could find just such a thing? thx, D. -- Dieder Bylsma | ______________________________| ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 14:05:12 -0800 From: Dieder Bylsma Subject: 2.5" IDE <-> desktop IDE adapter? oops. I meant to say I wanted to put a 2.5" drive in a desktop. At 00:46 -0800 2/19/99, Dieder Bylsma wrote: >Next time, I'll take notes. But a few days ago, I was looking through a set >of websites and found one that was selling a 2.5" <-> 3.5" IDE cable >adapter that would permit a 2.5" IDE drive to be used in a laptop. Now I >can't find that page. Any ideas on where I could find just such a thing? ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 22:35:39 +0100 From: Ian Goldby Subject: [Q] CPU Slowdown - odd serial port behaviour I wonder if anyone could throw some light on the following problem that has just begun to manifest itself on my LC475 (an old pre-PPC Mac). Recently, I added a mechanical 2-way switch box so that I could connect both my modem and MIDI adaptor to the same serial port and not have to keep fiddling round the back of the Mac. All was well and good. MIDI and internet work fine without any apparent glitches. Downloading has not got any slower or less reliable. But, as soon as I close down Open Transport (yes, Abrody says I should be using MacTCP on such an ancient machine!) the whole Mac slows to a crawl. I can see individual window elements and pull-down menus being drawn, etc. A simple reboot puts things back to normal. Then I connect to the internet, everything is fine, disconnect, and I'm back to snail city. I tried ProcessWatcher and Peek-a-Boo to try and find out what process or thread was hogging the CPU, and discovered that none of them were! (How come the System processes don't show up? Shouldn't there be an 'idle' process?) But if I pull out the serial cable at the cpu, the switch box, or at the modem itself, suddenly we are back to normal speed. Turning the power off to the modem also works. So I guessed that the serial port is still trying to communicate with the modem, even after Open Transport is closed, or the modem is talking to the serial port. Either way, it is generating a torrent of interrupts that cripple CPU performance. To test this theory, I switched the modem back on, expecting it to have forgotten whatever it was trying to do. But I still got the slowdown! So it must be the serial driver. To check this, I used MIDI Mangler to clear the serial port and update the PRAM to reflect that the port is completely unassigned. But no, the Mac still slowed even after doing this! Wrong again... (Incidentally, the MIDI adaptor is powered from the serial port, and indicates power with an LED, showing that the port is active. This makes me suspect that although MIDI Mangler may clear the serial driver, it doesn't actually reset the serial port hardware itself. This might be a clue, but I don't have any idea how to make use of it.) I can avoid this problem just by turning the modem power off as soon as I close my internet connection, or by pulling the serial cable out (but then wearing out the connectors). Or I can reboot. Or, is there a better way? Thanks. Ian ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1999 18:33:22 +0000 From: Tina Subject: Alert Sounds Not Working I have an 8100/110 with 8.5.1 and recently my alert sounds refuse to play? Other applications sound ok but any small sound file from various sources are just silent. I know its not the sound files that are wrong but the machine plays other sounds in other app's - any ideas out there? I am lost for ideas! =( *puzzled* Tina ------------------------------------------------------------ Bill Gates is so rich because he got his wish when he said, "I wish I had a nickel for every time this PC crashed!" "Until we extend the circle of our compassion to all living things, we will not ourselves find peace" - Dr. Albert Schweitzer ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 22:10:36 +0100 From: bromo@flashnet.it (Vittorio Barabino) Subject: Any c++ compilers for Mac? > From: lu@net999.com > For an entry level c++ student, what are the > good and inexpensive c++ compilers for Mac? Yes: Leonardo, in Info-Mac/dev/ -- Ciao, \+----------+ "La risposta e` dentro di te... Vittorio --| : ) o | ...MA E` SBAGLIATA!!!" [da Roma]  /+----------+ Enciclopedia d.Fantascienza: http://www.fantascienza.com/edf ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 19 Feb 1999 11:16:52 -0500 From: abrody@smart.net Subject: Any Parallel to SCSI adaptors? Dear Digest readers, It seems to me a perfect thing to invent if it hasn't already. The SCSI cable and the Parallel cables look almost exactly alike, and many devices made for Parallel for PC could easily be mistaken for SCSI. Note the Zip drive made for PC is a Parallel device, and has 25 pins on the computer end of the cable, just like the 25 pins accepted by your standard beige PowerPC machine. Such a converter would be able to detect whether or not the cable was SCSI or Parallel and be able to convert the signal to SCSI if necessary. There is no reason why PC users should have to buy a second disk drive just to move over to the Mac, if a properly configured cable were made. Of course drivers would be necessary, but note how PowerPrint exists already. Just my opinion, if anybody knows such a cable to exist, please let me know where I can find it? Thank you. Sincerely, abrody@smart.net ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Feb 1999 23:40:34 GMT From: terata@comcen.com.au Subject: CA Cricket Graph Hi All Has anyone out there who is using newer software with CA Cricket Graph found that prints to postscript printers has lined output. Only from Cricket Graph files. The only changes are the software packages that I have loaded, pm6.5 and everything prints fine from there. Any problems with this package that people know of would be appreciated, it is pretty old as we all know. But the friend I have using it is going nuts trying to fix the problem. thanks.. -----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==---------- http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Feb 1999 06:08:16 GMT From: bg4096419@my-dejanews.com Subject: Claris email difficulties I built a mailing list in Claris email in a group setting. Frequently I want to mail a letter to the group and the mail sits queued. How do you get it moving. Also how can one print out the group list. -----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==---------- http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Feb 1999 10:15:26 -0700 From: Melanie Watts Subject: crashing Hello, My powerbook 1400 crashes when moving icons on the desk top, when moving from an application to the desktop or to another application . It also crashes when dowloading a page in a web browser. Crashing does not happen all the time. I have done all teh usual things zap PRAM , turn off extensions , nothing helps. I have 40 megs of physical RAM, RAM doubler and OS 8.5.1. Thanks for your help Melanie ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 13:04:57 +0000 From: mreddy@glam.ac.uk (Mike Reddy) Subject: G3 Blue & White (The fault continues...) You may remember a rather depressed message about a broken DVD drive and the woes of getting the machine replaced: I received this reply from an Info-Mac reader: >From: Nigel Brookes
>Subject: re:G3 Blue & White DVD drive errors! > >I read with absolute horror your info-mac article about your new G3. It >is appaling that Apple UK would treat people this way. I would suggest >that you should immediately reject the machine under the sale of goods >act as being unfit for its intended purpose. >Regards, nige So, I thought you all might like an update. The news is not good! After two weeks, and three trips to London, I finally received an RMA number to give to my dealer, so I could get a replacement G3. This duly arrived, and was faulty! Not the DVD drive, but the video card. [Just as an aside, here is what I did. Tell me if I missed anything] Mac starts up, screen shows blue background and flashes the new ROM folder icon with a question mark. Screen goes omminously dark. Mac appears to boot up correctly. No screen... I check cables... No problem. I check Mac... reseting with "C" key seems to set the CD spinning, but no picture. reseting the PRAM gives the expected beeps, but no picture. I check monitor on nearby PC (Its a VGA job)... Monitor is fine (showing lovely Windows NT...!) NOTE: This monitor worked with the previous G3 (the one with the dodgy DVD drive) and showed the desktop fine in two resolutions 640x480 and 832x??? etc). My conclusion: Mac appears to boot (not a logic board problem); monitor works (not a display problem). No picture (Video card fault???) [End of digression. Answers on a postcard...] so I ring up the Apple Helpline, who put me on to the DOA line (they remember me!), who tell me it is probably a video fault (that's nice!). I explain that this is the second broken machine. They tell me that only 150 DOA macs have been reported in 15,000 sales (I think that is what they said). And I am now back where I started: Dead Mac in London, with the engineer there telling me that they cannot see any fault... I will commit suicide soon! -- The box said: "Requires MS Windows 3.11 or better"... so I got a Macintosh! -- Email: mreddy@glam.ac.uk CU-Seeme: 193.63.130.40 (On Request) Web: http://www.comp.glam.ac.uk/pages/staff/mreddy/ Snail: J228, Dept. of Computer Studies, University of Glamorgan, Pontypridd, Mid Glamorgan. CF37 1DL Wales, UK. TEL: +44 (0)1443 482 240 Fax: +44 (0)1443 482 715 HOME TEL: +44 (0)1443 402 685 (Emergencies only) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 20:57:23 -0500 From: Al Bloom Subject: GV's New 56kb V.90 Modem Script (C) Yes, I gripe a lot. That's what curmudgeons do. But I also give credit where it is due (I hope). I just sent the following note to tech suppt at Global Village: > >I noted on VersionTracker the other day that you had just released the >version 1.1.1 modem script (GV V.90 Flex Preferred) for my new GV 56K >v.90 modem. I snagged it real quick. It wasn't supposed to help my >situation, but I was grasping at straws. > >The university's computing center (Virginia Tech, the vt.edu) recently >converted from 14.4kb modems and SLIP to 56kb V.90 modems and PPP. The >PPP part worked nicely with my old 14.4 Teleport Gold, so I got your >latest and greatest. And I applied the 2.20 ROM upgrade. And I could >not get reliable access to the university. Awful slow and more lack of >connection than not. I was getting a tad frazzled. > >The 1.1.1 modem script solved the problem. I dunno what you did, but it >was a Good Thing. Connection (and disconnect) is markedly faster. And I >connect on the first try much more often than not. And I connect at higher >speeds (42-44kb) than with the old script. I suspect my unconditioned >phone line can't do better. Heck, I can remember when conventional >wisdom had it that 2400 baud was the best an unconditioned phone line >could do. > >I'm, if not ecstatic, certainly not frazzled. Thanks. > No, I'm not ecstatic. When I got my GV 56kb V.90 modem, I checked the GV web site and found (1) I needed the 2.20 ROM updater and (2) the modem script that came with the modem was fine. Wrong on (2) anyway. When I tried to register the modem with GV on the web, I needed a serial number that was not anywhere. I made up one (123456) that the dumb web form accepted, but I could not actually submit my registration. Netscape hung, big time, every time I tried. I wrote a note to GV tech support which was massively ignored. Had the 1.1.1 modem script not been posted on Versiontracker, and had I not known to check Versiontracker every few days, I'd be back to my 14.4kb modem and wondering who I might stick with the new GV 56kb. But all is now well. GV tech suppt may never see or respond to my note of thanks, any more than they responded to my cry for help of last month, but Uncle Al, The Kiddies' Pal, is a happy camper. But I can't help thinking US Robotics might have been a better choice. Al Bloom ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 19 Feb 1999 08:35:44 +1300 From: Gary Bowering Subject: Help: PB150 won't find PPDs Hi, I'm running System 7.5 update 2 (7.5.3) on a PB150. I had a screen and logic board fry so have swapped my HD and modem into a another old PB150 with, I'm told, a SCSI chain fault (although I haven't tested this yet). My problem is this: Chooser can see the modem and set it up. It can also see LaserWriter 8 and the HP Laserjet extensions. But it can't find the HP4MP PPDs. I've re-installed the software, moved the PPDs out of the Printer Descriptions folder, moved them back... and can't think of anything else! Does anyone have any ideas on what might be wrong? Please e-maail me at bowering@paradise.net.nz Thanks, Gary ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 20:38:11 GMT From: no.junk.casgrain@ere.umontreal.ca (Philippe Casgrain) Subject: Macintosh Pascal Edmond Cambier wrote: > > Good afternoon all Digest-Readers, > Being retired(67) I am starting on my LC2 with Think Pascal 4.0.1 > I find a bit my way with the language but the Interface to the Mac...is a > big problem. The six Inside Macintosh Books lie on the table but I don't > know how to use al that stuff. Please could someone help me on my > way...Many thanks in advance. > First question: Does someone know an FTP-Site specific to Macintosh Pascal > language? (Maybe I could download some programming code to see how it is > done.) Have a look at http://www.pascal-central.com/ for lots of links and source code. Also, http://cafe.AmbrosiaSW.com/macintosh-pascal/ looks like a pretty good way of learning Mac pascal & Toolbox. Philippe -- remove no.junk to reply via email. Sorry about that. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Feb 1999 13:40:52 -0000 From: "=?iso-8859-1?Q?Fran=E7ois_Rossi?=" Subject: Macs and foreign languages. A few questions. After not working with Macs for nearly two years, I now have to use G3 with OS 8.5 and applications involving foreign languages. Thus I have a few questions for any language specialist: - Do foreign language kits work with OS 8.5 ? - Do I need these kits to work with Quark Japanese, Korean .... ? - Can various kits be installed on the same machine ? - Do various Quark applications work together (i.e. the dongle issue if I had Qk Jap + Korean on one machine) ? - Are there any other applications apart from Quark to do editing in foreign languages ? Thanks for your help. Francois Rossi Praetorius f.rossi@praetorius.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 20 Feb 1999 08:54:54 +0000 From: David Huston Subject: Managing Netscape Messenger Mail I am baffled by the filing/folder system in Netscape Communicator/Messenger for 4.5. I purchased a G3 recently(heavenly!) and I wanted to transfer my old stored messages from the old computer to the new one. But I can't seem to do this. When I copy my Communicator folder onto a Zip and open it up in the new computer, the message files are gone. It starts with a blank slate. I've searched everywhere in my HD for the Messenger files, but they are not visible. This must be a problem for lots of people. How do I get the old Messenger folders on to a different computer? Thanks David Huston Cleveland, OH ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 20 Feb 1999 21:40:53 -0500 From: Jeffrey Frankel Subject: Measurement Conversion Software Does anyone know of any shareware/freeware for the performance of measurement conversions? The particular conversion I'm interested in is footcandles to lumens and vice versa. I realize that it would not be too difficult to put something workable together in a spreadsheet or database, but I'm interested in something "pretty" that's pretty much point-and-click for the end user. -- Jeff Frankel Windsor, Maine USA ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Feb 1999 00:06:54 -0800 (PST) From: Doug Hardie Subject: Netscape History I once saw how to retrieve the history from Netscape (not the current session history, but one thats more involved). I didn't have any need for it then and have forgotten how. Now I need it. -- Doug ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Feb 1999 21:37:45 EST From: Luskin@aol.com Subject: questions about switchback, a recently uploaded utility I decided to try Switchback 2.7, but could not load it. I got a message that Switchback could not be opened because InterfaceLib-PBXGetVolInfoSync could not be found. What is it, and where does it come from. I always get nervous when I get messages like this, since I feel like other shoes are going to drop, usually at some colossally inconvenient time. Also, would anyone have the author's email address. Michael B. Luskin ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 19 Feb 99 15:27:18 +0100 From: Jean-Philippe Pellet Subject: QuickTime & MIDI I'm using QuickTime 3.0.2 with OS 8.5.1 on a 603e @ 100Mhz Performa, and half of the time I try to play MIDI files with QuickTime using either SoundApp or Movie Player, my computer freezes. I have tried activating only the needed extensions, i.e. QuickTime & Musical Instrument, but I have the same result. Is this a known bug? Are there any updates, or workarounds? Any help would be appreciated. --Jean-Philippe ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Feb 1999 15:53:03 +0900 From: "Magnus Hoek" Subject: Read Info-Mac by Easy View Hi there In the old Eudora days I could always read Info-Mac by saving the E-mail and then open it using Easy View. I later switched to Outlook Express. If I save an Info-Mac E-mail and then try to read it with Easy View, only the header is left. All the contributions are chopped away. Any suggestions ? Yeah, another question regarding Outlook. Is it possible to get the nice initial reply text automatically, e.g.: 22 Jan you wittingly wrote: < bla, bla bla... TIA Magnus Hoek ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Feb 1999 13:29:56 -0600 From: Gib Henry Subject: Speakerphone software >Date: Sat, 13 Feb 1999 09:43:11 -0700 >From: DrBlood >Subject: Speakerphone software > >Digest readers, > >I am looking around for an app that will allow me to use my Mac as a >speakerphone. Another feature I would like to have would be voice mail. >So far >I have only seen the "Voice-stf" software from STF inc. Does anyone have >experience with any of these kinds of products that can help me with my >deciion? Please reply directly since I am way behind in the archives. Consider MegaPhone from Bing Software (http://www.bingsoftware.com/). Cheers, -- Gib Henry ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1999 19:11:01 -0500 From: Eric Pihlgren Subject: WriteNow 4.0 I am currently using WriteNow 3.0 and would like to upgrade to 4.0. However, the product has been discontinued. Is there a site where I might download it? I know The Learning Company has obtained the rights to the program, but their web site had no info on it. Thanks. ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ Eric Pihlgren Email: Project Coordinator phone: (313) 993-1387 Wayne State University fax: (313) 993-1372 -------------------------------- --Info-Mac-Digest-- End of Info-Mac Digest ******************************