MacAddict002Oct1996

19 a Macs! We Sort ‘Em All Out. ie. A better magazin | — = pee > 200MHz Tower Performa 8 | a > —~/ > Kai’s Power Goo 3 | — / > Descent Il o j > Project X: Apple’s Secret | SS —\ Weapon? eel). SAVOtmeed tc Know to Keen Your Viae TROUBLE-FRE & Get Mac-Smart in 7 steps my 8 What a Mess: Clean Out Your System Folder &@ 21 Things That Can Go Wrong —And How To Fix Them st HTML Secrets i Customize Your Icons New, Improved Cyherdog More! More! More! $7.99 U.S. $8.99 CAN. | UMM | 0 H74470"01096 | SUDDENLY THERE'S AN EXPLOSION IN YOUR HEAD. ou see colors, hear sounds. Something has inexplicably touched you. Congratulations. You have just been inspired. So now what do you do? Bring it to life. On paper, on screen, on a scale never before imagined. With words, with movement, with a heart-stopping new power like never before. You don’t know where it came from. Or where its going, But you know how it will get there. MACINTOSH. Master the Media. .masters.medla. apple.com or cal 800-205-0374 for in THE #1 SELLING PC GAME’ EXPLODES ONTO THE Mac! % Battle with up to 8 players on Mac or PC \ \® Command massive armies over land, sea, and air! Ce 28 campaign scenarios within two story lines ~_AW BIIZTARD ENTERTAINMENT www.blizzard.com *PC Data Jan.-April 1996 ‘Warcraft Il & Blizzard Entertainment are trademarks of Davidson & Associates. All rights reserved. “Requires Power Mac and 12 MB Ram highlights From Newbie to Guru The Seven-Fold Path to Macintosh Enlightenment You won't have to depend on someone else to solve your Mac problems if you know ‘these seven truths of Mac troubleshooting. BY DAVID REYNOLDS The 12-St if your System Folder is tipping the scales at 6OMB or more, then maybe it’s about time you did some housecleaning. Not only will your System Folder be slimmer, but it'll tun better, too. BY STEVEN ANZOVIN The Top 21 Things That Can Go Wrong With ‘Your Mac Here are some problems that you're likely to run into at some time or other. We list the symptoms as well as the solutions. BY RAINES COHEN Too Many *#!@$ Systems ‘Aargh! Apple, ny, Power Computing, and Umax have all released new Macs in the last month. There are now 22 models on store shelves—what's a shopper to do? Let us sort out this fall’s fashion lineup for you. BY DAVID REYNOLDS Great. More big, 6 Customize Icons ugly bugs. Okay, you know how to replace your Mac's standard icons with those created by someone else. Isn't time you created some of your own? Even animated ones! Work with HTML To create a truly individual Web page, you’ll need to know a bit about HTML. Here are our top hints on how to work with it efficiently. Don't let your system run amonk. Dash over to page 28. 4 MacAl ‘Shoot , kill. Shoot, Kill. Ah, the thrill of BatlleMechs at war. Editor’s Note Wherein our editor illuminates the world's deepest mysteries. tters Say what? Are you talking to us? et Info News, trends, trivia, and answers to those nagging questions. Cravir ngs We pick the products that we're lusting after. views A 200MHz tower Performa, HP DeskWriter, Kai’s Power Goo, hot new games, and WebBurst (it lets you create Java applets without programming). Ask Ask Us Well, actualy, ask Owen. We answer your deepest, most troubling questions—accurately, too. PowerPlay Has someone finally made a game that’s smarter than your pet gerbil? An in-depth look at how Anark’s Galapagos uses artificial intelligence. Shut Down The bulletin board of the random and the bizarre. Crammed with 650MB of killer content, The Disc is also a stupendous display of leading-edge multimedia and interactivity. Check out demos, shareware, and software that relate to articles in the magazine. fh Stop on by to talk and link up with the best Mac resources. While you're there, get a load of Guy Kawasaki's Evangelist page— MacAddict is the official host for the ultimate Mac Booster’s Club. Visit Mark’s awesome icons (and Guy Kawasaki's EvangeList page, too) on the Web. EDITORIAL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Cheryl England MANAGING EDITOR Judy Lewenthal ASSOCIATE EDITORS Nikki Echter, David Reynolds, ‘Kathy Tafel, Daniel Drew Turner (reviews) CD-ROM: Thomas Hale (director, development), ‘V. King (editor), Jason Michaels (intern) ONLINE EDITOR Mark Simmons CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Steven Anzovin, Raines Cohen, Joseph 0. Holmes, Ross Scott Rubin ART ART DIRECTOR Ken Bousquet ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR Adam Vanderhoot PRODUCTION PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Richard Lesavoy PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Ken Brandow ADVERTISING PUBLISHER Patricia Neuray REGIONAL AD MANAGER André Lengyel REGIONAL AD MANAGER John Singer REGIONAL AD MANAGER Christina Sorrentino MARKETPLACE ACOOUNT MANAGER Mary Lachapelle SALES COORDINATOR Jana Massey (CIRCULATION CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Gail Egbert CIRCULATION MANAGER Donna Badgett NEWSSTAND MANAGER Bruce Eldridge FULFILLMENT MANAGER Dana Runkle Imagine Publishing, Inc. PRESIDENT Chris Anderson VICE PRESIDENT/CFO Tom Valentino CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER John Montgomery INTERNATIONAL LICENSING: Robert J. Abramson & Associates, nc,, 720 Post Road, Scarsdale, NY 10583 “os a hea 16S 1c sel noe Oy Imagine Publishing, Inc, 160 North Hil Dive, Brisbane, BOs UGA Said Sav posape pat Babar, CA and et adaltiona maling ofices. Newsstand distbuton is handled by Curtis Crculaton Company. Basic subscription ‘ates: one year (12 iseues + 12 CD-ROMs) US. $30.0, funds pice AAT, ATA, A2, AS, B,C& Ci. PRODUCED IN THE UNITED ‘STATES OF AMERICA. ‘sever behoaloar ‘vs hammer CO-R (we sl have i) Find A. Needle in Haystack, CA... Find the customers, suppliers, old friends or golf Alan Needle 251 Petaluma Ave courses you're looking for. Street Atlas USA® 3.0 is Haystack, CA 95015 America’s bestselling mapping software. Use it with Phone Search USA™ 2.0, our digital phone direc- tory, to look up almost anyone and anyplace in the USA — and locate them on detailed maps. fa Best place to buy office svi Office Warehouse ‘Alan Needle 251 Petaluma Ave anyone OSS and anyplace a ———| state Route alread Locale in the USA! | pi'/ NE Just select the listings you want...then locate them on detailed maps! NEW VERSION NEW FOR MACINTOSH Street Atlas USA 3.0 © Seamless street map of the entire USA on one CD-ROM * Incredible map detail * Search by place name, ZIP Code—even street address © Customize maps with notes and symbols © Print detailed, useful maps Phone Search USA 2.0 * Over 80 million business and residential listings on three CD-ROMs * Search by name, phone number or business type ® Search the whole country or just a state, city or ZIP Code * Export unlimited listings Phi Fone Search USA,, 5 Available from your local software retailer, your favorite software catalog or direct from DeLorme at 1-800-452-5931, ext. 110. DELORME Check out our Web site! www.delorme.com Introducing the Microtek ScanMaker Internet Edition™ color flatbed scanner for Macintosh”” Ifyou want to include eye- catching images in your Intemet or Intranet home earth ware pages, get Microtek's | Pea At) Forcapturingimagesfor ScanMaher® Internet | “nrpsipertetrmramtuerse Woes brochuresand Edition colorfatbed —_—| weg || tevskterthisamacng scanner with Adobe == | gual : scanner also includes PageMillImages captured rer | MicroFromters Color! with this scanner will make an image edtingand paint any home page spring tie! | f soware TheSoanMalerInemet | rons The ScanMaker Internet Edition captures photos, — Edition aso includes drawings, and company Microtel’ award-winning logoswwithamazing high- | se | ScanWizard™ scanner light and shadow detain — contoller software. stunning iflke color. ScanWizard features the me ‘Advanced Image Enhancer” wich lets you Includes Adobe PageMill," and sharpen, blur, darken, lighten, saturate, emboss MicroFrontier’s It images and even remove dot pattems from. To quickly and easly create home pages, Microtek includes Adobe's popular PageMill™ software. You don't have to be a software programmer. There's no HTML code to lear. Just point click, drag and place the images scanned with the ScanMaker Internet Edition. scanner. Ina few minutes you've gota home page sure to catch any surfer's eye, TheMiaak’ net ions alate Macintosh brie aesbjectto chang whoo case. SMATEDTSCMA nro Price mersonedisUnad Sate suggested seet pi Enhancer ScanMatrof Meo se; MacashofAple Comput ne; Cori of MeroFerer ape ofAdoe Stes, printed photos or add other special effects to images even before scanning them! For the location of your nearest authorized Microtek reseller call 1-800-654-4160, use our convenient Auto Tech fax back system at 310-297-5101 ot check out Microtek’s home page at http/Avww.mteklab.com or http?/www.microtekusa.com. fling ‘Moe © Extremely life-like color © 2i-bit color depth / Single-pass speed NOWAVAILABLE FROM: MacWarehouse MacMall MacConnection cow Club Mac MacZone MICROTEK Better Images Through Innovation. femarsoeiterdtadears ofthe respacve compares: Microtek Sarita Advanced nage ora ced radars oretepropeny her resperbveholer Pes seccalonsant share Enough electronic mail to make our hair stand on end. ory. I had planned to write a really insightful column about some new technology for our second issue, but I was distracted earlier today by your letters. Tve read all of them—one week into the official on sale date of MacAddict, we've received about 900 letters. (I do, however, wonder if we would have had that many letters if e-mail didn’t exist.) So why have your letters, something many *THE BEST VOICEMAIL. The ‘award goes to the caller who phoned ‘Tom Hale, our CD-ROM genius, got his voicemail, and simply said “Owermw. Owww.” and hung up, *THE MOST ABSURD PR PITCH. The woman who called because she'd heard that there was a new magazine called MacAddict and she wanted to know if we'd be interested in reviewing her company's Windows product. Yes, this really happened. (PR, by the ‘way, is short for public relations) * THE BEST “GIVE ME, GIVE ME" PLEA Gan you send me ‘some sample issues? Four dozen should do, poueddey Bbuly, Auuny y +MOST OBSERVANT READER Mama Lani, keeper of the Rec.Arts.Bodyart Tattoo FAQ noticed that the body art bookmark ina soreen shot on page 45 was obsolete. She didn't provide the correct one, though. *THE BEST FAMILY FIGHT Liza Hillard uses a Mac. Her daugh- ter uses @ Mac. Her son uses a Mac. Her husband, however, uses “that other system.” When she showed him the photos of the Windows user ‘and the Mao user, he handed the ‘magazine back with only one comment, “A$$holes.” Liza stil wants us to keep sending MacAddict. magazines foist off to junior editors, taken so much of my attention? One: They make me laugh. They cheer me up. Two: They make me feel as though we are creating this magazine for our best friends to read. Three: ‘They make me think. Let me give you some examples of what I mean. We've received a lot of letters that made us chuckle or gave us a good guffaw (you'll see several of them in our Letters section this month). But few have been as funny, while still telling us the story of someone's long involvement with the Mac, as this poetic treatise from Robin Kester (Type 117 I keep typing 11 and nothing happens): “Tm a Mac addict. I admit it, openly, and without reservation. Fven if I needed a reservation, it would be worth waiting for. Mac gives me pleasure each and every day. Not just because the mouse feels smooth and warm in my band, or because the display lights my way through life. Not even because each time I boot it up it sings to me, no matter what I did to it to have to reboot. 0/ you beta you beta you bet of. Tove it because its a Mac, and it feels good. No nightmares about Windows. No nightmares about win.ini (I never win.inithing ini.ways), config.sys (beck I don't even have a syster). Plug and play. Plug and play. Why can’t all computers be this way? Istarted on a Mac Plus and used it for ‘years... until the day I killed it Nay, I;put it to sleep. (I wonder if they use AfterDark in the Mac afterlife?) That little Mac Plus served me well—it even converted some of my PC-using friends to ‘Macs, Imagine that—a Mac Plus. Of course, I grew into a PowerPC— went big time ya know... plugin’ and playin’ with the big boys. Woo0000000! Yeab, I'm on top of the bill, me and my Mac, And I'm not afraid to say it: !am a Mac addict.” ‘We get other letters, too, perhaps not as funny, but just as touching. The writers reveal their stories of how they got involved with a Mac, how they use their Mac, and what they love about it. Another letter that 1 ‘especially enjoyed came from Joe Kriz. Joe wrote in that he'd been trying to find the iguana Easter egg on his Power Mac 7100 for the last two hours. He told us about all the things he'd tried to make it work, ending with, “All of this just to look at an iguana flag. I must be WACKOIII!” No, Joe, you're not wacko. You're just like the rest of us Mac enthusiasts. There's this cool thing and you've just got to find it or try it and you won't get any rest ‘until you do. ‘Then there are the letters that make me think, Those with suggestions for things to run in the magazine or to do on The Disc or the Web site, There are letters complimenting or complaining about our design. The letters that ask for either more PC bashing or less. ‘These are the letters that make me rethink some of the things that we are doing, For example, many of you have written in to request that we provide better descriptions of the shareware that we put on The Disc so that you know what, exactly, you're getting before you download. This month's CD includes those descriptions—you'll see this improving even more over time. Others of ‘you have requested that we give you some ‘way to turn off the sound completely. That's a sticky technology problem, but we're making it a high-priority goal to find a solution. Over time you'll see the magazine, The Disc and the Web site evolve. And we'll make those changes with your comments in mind. So folks, keep those cards and letters coming. We are listening. —Cheryl England So why have your letters, something many magazines foist off to junior editors, taken so much of my attention? ae en 40}1pe MacADDICT 7 Keep those cards and letters coming, folks. It's great to hear from you. This Month Reading the day’s mail is now among our favorite things to do. We love your stories, your comments, your jokes. We only wish we bad more space to run all of the wonderful responses Write to us at: MacAddict, 150 North Hill Drive, Brisbane, CA 94005, Attn: Mac Dudes or send e-mail to letters@macaddict.com. Awww, SHucks Thought MacAddict yesterday and I stayed up playing with the CD-ROM until my body couldn't sit up any more. Next I got in bed with the magazine and kept reading the articles until my eyes couldn't focus any more. I think I need a support group. My name is Angela and I am a MacAddict Addict. —ANGELA De Joserit GET ON, GET ACTIVE. Talk {to us and talk to other Mac adidiets on the Web site. Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Damn, I just wanted to say GREAT. —Caase M, Javscat There's always something that comes along that you just have to spend money on, no RECENTLY A couple that surfs together... ‘Marc and Kimberly Bjorkman met in an AOL chat room— Kimberly on a Ilsi and Marc on a Quadra 660AV. They quickly moved the romance to IRC to cut down on their skyrocketing ‘AOL fees and eventually connected in real life, When they got married, they modeled their wedding cake after the machine ‘that brought them together. (Check out their full story at ‘ttp://www.voicenet.com/~bjorkman/.) Got a Mac sighting? ‘Send it to us! 8 MacADDICT ((ileg matter how much you promised yourself not to, and as I finally put down MacAddict, 1 thought, “Oh no!” —Marr Burxs You are absolutely crazy to be starting a Mac Magazine in these dark times for Appl... but ove you for it! —Bow Gourazy I think purple and green look hideous together. And I don't think “Phat” is a word. But I'm thrilled that someone has the guis and the vision to launch a new Mac magazine right now. My subscription card is in the mail. Good luck! —Snernrs Fuevinc Just picked up your firs issue on a drunken whim (nothing personal) and I gotta tell you, [love it!!! —Tivy Mac (McLvriRE) Mac Apvocacy I am sending “Stand By Your Mac” to my brother and his wife because they're plan- ning to buy a (shudder) Wintel PC. I pray to the god of Mac that they will see the light and it's the Macintosh! —Rosert S. UNDERHILL When I visit a computer store, and see all of, those neglected sad Macs, I go over and hit the restart switch and rebuild the Desktop and zap the PRAM. Then I make sure everything is working properly and that the desktop is nice and neat. Is a pity how Macs are neglected by so many stores, especially i Oe. when all the PCs are running just fine! We need to clean up the Mac image. —Bu Morris Mac Love Tam trying to get my Mac- only software development firm off the ground and everybody I talk to says, “Why would you develop software for the Mac now 7” 1 usually mutter something serious about “reduced competition” or “market niche,” but inside 1 am thinking “Because I don't want to develop for anything else.” —ANDREW SPANGLER If I had to use a WinlTel at home I'd quit ‘computing. —Doy MoCuetiavo Nope, Not A CHANCE ‘The Post Office BROKE MY CD!!! Is it possible for MacAddict to send this addicted Mac user a replacement CD? I'd really like to play with OpenDoc! —Barry House Ifyou get a broken, busted, warped, or otherwise destroyed CD, or if you suspect your disc bas not been mastered correctly, contact our Customer Service department. You'll find contact info on page 89. Detaits, DETAILS Shame on you! There's still 45 megs on the CD that needs to be filled! : ) —Mark ‘DescHames Yep, it drives Tom Hale nuts, He says that bis bard drive shows a different amount than does a burn of the CD. You wait—we'll have a happy 650MB disc yet. In “Stand By Your Mac,” when listing the contents of the Mac Addict’s backpack, you left out one key tool—a paper clip. Famous the world over. —Rick BURNELL Just Testinc You In the article “Test Yourself,” you rate question #3’s answer “(c) Open each folder one at a time until you find your file” with 10 7.9 billion miles of open highway and you've got TotalAccess. $19.95 flat rate: Unlimited Internet mileage. The coolest, easiest Internet access on Earth. Every account includes email and a free 2 meg Web site. Call now for your EarthLink Network TotalAccess™ software with Netscape Navigator™ 2.0. 1-800-395-8425 Internet access in over 290 cities in the U.S. and Canada. Software for MACINTOSH, WINDOWS, WINDOWS 95, featuring Netscape Navigator 2.0. EarthLink Network is one of the largest Web space providers in the U.S. and also provides ISDN, Frame Relay, T1 and other Internet services. “There is a one-time set-up fee of $25.00. Prices for Canada are different. EarthLink Network, Inc. 3100 New York Drive, Pasadena, CA 91107. Fax: 818-296-2470 Info via email: info@earthlink.net Live human via email: sales@earthlink.net Visit our Web site at http://www.earthlink.net points, higher than “(b) type Command-F in the Finder.” Call me crazy, but I think the Finder's finder (that’s possessive, not quin- tessential) is a heck of a lot fasier than searching folders one by one! —Tow Nucext Okay, you're crazy ... but you're also right. We goofed. Wack oN THE HEAD ‘The CD is great, although I did need the whack in the back of the head to get more memory. —JouN W. Farris I have been a video editor for years on PC systems. I have had one too many IRQ conflicts and DAM, I mean DMA problems. I have been pushed over the edge and what better computer to get for digital video than the one that is always on the edge of great things than a Mac. —Ken W. Gratant Ox, We Won’r Pay no attention to my colleague from work (an avid IBM fan), Paul, who upon seeing the first issue of your magazine (which I had brought in) exclaimed “Mac Attic! So THAT's where all those computers you like end up...” Jon B, Joxes You BEG To DiFFER I recently bought Full Tilt! Pinball. I disagree with Mr. Linzmayer that it's the most realistic pinball game available. If the angle of the playfield were the only measuring stick, then Td agree. But I get much more realistic sounds and gameplay from Eight Ball Deluxe than Full Tilt! I only now play Full Tilt! for variation, not preference. —B.J. Major In the review of Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, J. Daniel Jones writes, “Later, you'll train raiders and necrolytes for aynr 1oIOT KNOWS that OT mounted attacks and the necralytes can only f@i8® ability to heal the wounded, the dead in Warcraft. respectively.” Any Warcraft addict knows that it is the human Clerics who heal their human comrades, while the Ore necrolytes only have the ability to raise the dead. —Curis (I really REALLY hope I win the Epson PhotoPC digital camera because I need one SO bad for the school where 1 teach!) Beckwrt 10 MacADDICT must defend the use of WriteNow as a word processor. It’s still faster than Microsoft Word on my Power Mac 7100, and takes up a lot less space! —PsreR Gout SOMETHING DIFFERENT Hopefully 1 will be able to stay a reader unless the mother ship comes and picks me ‘up. —LerrOVR X .. and last but not least, Ms. England is as cute as a bug! ;-) —Biu. PeuecRm Yeab, but which bug? Now, for something kind of weird. I have long wondered why some magazines have a distinct smell (that I hap- pen to like). I have some- what concluded that it has to do with the type of ink used in the printing process. Your magazine smells great!!! What is it that contributes to the ‘great smell? —Sreve Scion Our Production Director, Richie, rolled bis eyes and said he didn't know. We'll try to get you a better answer from our printer. Stay tuned. I purchased the premiere issue of MacAddict today. If [ subscribe will I get the next 12 issues and not just 11? Probably a stupid question but I have to beg my wife for the money and she wants to know exactly what 1 will be getting and we have been married 26 years! Thanks. —Gary Prevost Yes, you will get the next 12 issues and discs, not just 11. Say WHAT? The writing in MacAddict is immature and ineffective. The words “cool” and “neat” instance the former, the inability to present information according to customary forms of exposition instance the latter. —Mucuaet Hays T use a PC with WINS at home and use a Power Mac at school. I was disappointed to read all kinds of stories about how the Mac is better, and people bitchin’ and complaining about the success of Microsoft. 1 was really hoping to find a Mac magazine that didn’t fill its pages with trash on how the Mac is so much better. Don't get me wrong, | like the Mac, but I like my PC better. Unfortunately the first issue of MacAddict will be my one and only issue as long as it keeps filling its pages with trash that I don't really care about. —Kerra R. Netson SLIPPED Discs When trying to run the demo of Overture, I get a message saying that I need the font “aloisen.” Any idea where I might find it? — ‘Tow Berarp We've included the Overture demo again this month, and we've included the Aloisen font in the “Install these” folder that’s accessible from the Finder. Put the font in your System Folder and then run the demo. 1 can't get the Bryce 2 demo installer to work! Help me, please! —Mark OuvEr Tuewerr Occasionally, you'll find a demo that doesn’t work properly or is missing a piece. We'll post updates, fixes, and links to working demos on our Web site as soon as we can. 1 couldn't find the System Update 2.0 on the D. I “found it” with Find, but the files seemed to be missing. Is this just my copy or an error in the master? —Jaaes Convouy Sigh Apple can be a bit sticky about their licensing agreements, so the only way to access Update 2.0 was through the Director interface (look for the icon at the bottom of the Resources screen). This month you can get the update via the interface or directly from the Finder (it’s in the Software Updates folder). Like some testosterone-loaded PeeCee game that thinks it's the only thing you'll ever run, the CD resets the Mac’s sound volume to its ‘maximum level! —Nare Moris Director has a glitch that's hard to work around. We're trying to fix it. Meanwhile, we hope you can still enjoy the CD. SIGN OFF “Best proof that God doesn’t exist... Microsoft!” —MIcHAEL JARDEEN “Welcome to Hell. Here's your copy of Windows 95.” —Braoisy Yi Steve Mclvrosi (I was here first!) Retrieve It! 2.5 It's two retrievers in one! Find what youre looking for fast... on your hard drive... ms through hundreds of saved email messages, word processor files, scanned & OCR'd pages, and other documents in seconds. + Swiftly find documents that mention words you specify in their names or content, on any hard drive, zip disk, CD ROM, server, or other volume. * Lets you Open found items, Peek inside them (to quickly locate and copy specific text), Reveal their location in the Finder, and Drag & Drop them. Retries a WH 25 “Very well designed, superbly documented, full featured, and fast.” MacAddict Mi HANI SOLUTIONS: htp:/Avwrw:mvpsolutions.com/ email: retrieveit@mypsolutions.com fax: 415.428.1784 phone: 415.562.3457 CovpUTER WARE 800.725.4MAC Dealer inquiries weleome. and on the Internet Search the World Wide Web for web pages, news, stock quotes, email addresses, and online information about almost anything you can imagine. * Works with your favorite Macintosh Web browser (including Netscape Navigator, Microsoft Internet Explorer, AOL Browser, and NCSA Mosaic) ro search the Internet twice as fast as using your web browser directly. * Uses powerful Internet services like AltaVista, Yahoo, InfoSeek, Fourl 1, and PCQuote to search the Web, online news, classified ads, and Usenet — and look up stock quotes, email addresses, and other online information, + Lets you jump to web pages by clicking on their URLs in found files, And lets you start email messages (using your web browser or email applications like Claris Emailer and Eudora Pro 3.0) by licking on email addresses, * And more! Computer Town 200.613.0622 800.856.9800 800.222.2808 wivwzcybout.com This is a study about you—a very special person—a new subscriber to MacAddict. iv Please complete this questionnaire by placing an “X” in the appropriate box 41 or by writing your answer in the space where applicable. “Your household” refers to all persons living with i ieoeriisy ‘of whether or not they are relatives. About You and Your 1. Are you: male Otemale 2. What is your age? Under 18 36-45 18-24 (146-54 325-35 = 55-64 765 or over 3. What is your current marital status? ‘Married Widowed 7 Single (Never married) oF Separated or divorced 4, What is the highest level of school you have completed or the highest degree you have received? Less than high school graduate High schoo! diploma or equivalent 7.4 year college degree Some post graduate study w/o degree 7 Post grad with degree 5. Which one of the following best describes your present employment status? Please ‘check one answer only. ‘Employed full-time (30 or ‘more hours per week) 7 Emplayed part-time (less than 30 hours per week) I Not employed 6. Do you work at home? Full-time 1 Part-time 7. What is your job title or posi- tion? (Please be specific. For example: Office Manager, Partner, Nurse, Salesperson, Teacher, Doctor, Lawyer, Vice- President, Machine Operator, Software Engineer, etc.) 8. What are your most impor. nt responses or duties Sele ce ae chasing equipment, patient care, assembling engines, etc.) 9. Do you have children? yes Ono 10. Ifs0, how many are in each of the following age groups? 1118 years or older 312-17 years old 76-11 years old (715 years or younger 11. Please place an x in the box that best describes the total combined household income before taxes in 1995. (Please include all income for yourself and all other persons living in your household from all sources.) Under 20,000 520,000 - 29,998 2 30,000 - 39,999 740,000 - 49,999 750,000 - 59,999 77 60,000 - 69,999 770,000 - 99,999 51 100,000+ 1. Do you or anyone in your household own a Macintosh computer? yes Ono 2. Is this your first Mac? Oyes Ono 2A. If not, how many previous Mac's have your purchased or owned?, 2B. Do you own a Mac com- patible? If so, which type? 3A. Which type(s) of system(s) does your household own? 3B. For each type owned— how many of each type does your household own? 3C. For each type owned— were you involved in the purchase decision? yes Ano 3D. Which type(s) of comput- er does your household plan to purchase in the next 12 months? 7 Performa Series 7 Power Mac 7 PowerBook 1 Mac compatible 4. Do you have a CD-ROM drive? Ifyes, which speed?_ 5. Do you frequently upgrade your system and/or peripherals? ‘yes Ono 6. Do you plan to install more RAM? If so, how much? 7. Do you consider yourself a novice, intermediate or advanced user? 8. How long have you been using a computer?. 9. How many hours per week do you spend on your home system? 10. Do you influence others’ purchasing decisions? Tyes Ono 11, How many software titles do you currently own?, 12. How many software titles do you plan to purchase in the next 12 months?, 13. Which are the top three types of software that you pur- chase? Please rank in order with 1 being the most fre- quently purchased and 3 being the least frequently purchased. 7 Games/Entertainment 7 Children's Education/Reference C7 Adult Education/Reterence (C7 Graphics/DTP/Mulitmedia/ Video/Photo Personal Productivity 14, Where do you typically buy software and/or hardware? (Please check all that apply.) Catalog 1 Computer Store/Dealer ‘Consumer Electronics Store 7 Direct from Manufacturer by Phone ‘A Internet ‘Mil or Telephone Order Totter 15. Do you use the Internet at home? yes Jno 16. If you use the Internet at home, how do you gain access? Your Address: Your Phone Number: Thank Youll We appreciate your help, Please mall the completed questionnaire to: Imagine Publishing c/o Jana Massey 150 North Hill Drive Brisbane, CA 94005 Great Games Under $3500 THUNDERING POWER. | EXPLOSIVE ACTION. ‘Terminal Velocity is absolutely the most exhilarating flight game available for the Macintosh. It offers fast 3D texture-mapped graphics, full 360-degree flight movement and 7 weapons of extraordinary destruction. Fight your way through 9 unique planets with an awesome array of spectacular air-to-air and air-to-ground combat action. More red hot arcade action with fv ofthe best arcade (lock, Klondike, Golf Monte Calo and ‘We asked dane of sols fats to help classics ever Moder dy versions of PacMan Gauntlet Pence Slt, Great graphics and on _sdesinthe perfect solitaire paca ‘Aserids Galan’ and Stara” Ines a sequel to sere ip bso Soares what they creed ‘MacWorld 1995 Hal of Fume and runerap fo Inde jo Inchdes 24 new games and brand new ‘Mac Games 1955 Best Arcade Game, intriace fr serious sot gamepiy. (CDROM oy) ox DIAMODSSI ate) colecton of pure Becki tee dens nse ac Garis Cstancingcleconof fre popu st tas Black Video Pe Rete, Sos cast Fan: ice Te best eye cay eames ches, Checker, acannon, Meron ems ie of Ds ero and Dr Pez. sae wee pe The al sce op Sota, Cosson. nines of extra aden, tpi 4 «and down it comes right at you! $249 bates and dwell amongst the fascinating inhabits. (CDROM only) (CDHON cay) 3 (CDROM only) (CDROM onky) Lots more, Call for a free catalog, Available now from your favorite reseller, Ff or by calling 800-220-2714 : MAC Please add $2.95 per order for shipping and handling if ordering by phone, Waar Gop, a 3950 nna ane Se 100 « moa a 540, 75995140 “the disc < month we took your feedback to heart and added usual, The Disc is packed with shareware, demos, tutorials, a host of improvements to The Dise’s interface. We and plenty of amusing surprises for you to discover. Don't be enhanced performance, so screens should load more alraid to click everywhere—you won't break the CD-ROM quickly. We added a control strip that’s available on every and you'll find a lot of extra goodies. Read on to find out screen. And we made it easier to navigate all-around. As more about this month's highlights and haw to use The Disc: MOS RESOURCES “Hove te cursor Resaurens in ere youl inns over the hands to Bi of helptul software. ‘open them. When 2 ‘i Open a folder and you see something You'll get a list of tiles. of interest, click on = - Click on one and you'll itto catch a demo, e see its description. You can then install the file or return to the list. LIVE WIRE We've sel up 9 ‘special area 07) Our ‘Web sife that is acces- site only trom The Dise, You'll get news, software updates, and ‘more. Over time, we'll a even mone interaction. INDEX index ‘has butions which transport you anywhere on ‘The Disc. ‘ 4 itt. HH find all the softwar demos, and tutorials related ta articles in the magazine, When you see The Disc icon in the magazine, you'll know it's: painting here. is 44 MacADDICT Getting Started 1. When you first pop in The Disc, you'll see this window. I If you are running System 7.5.3, you don’t need anything in the “Stuff you might need” folder to run The Disc. If you aren't running System 7.5.3, then you may need some of the files in this folder, if you have an older 680x0- based Mac, click on “Start Here (68K). If youhave anewer | PowerPC-based Mac click “Start Here (PPC),’ if you don't have enough System memory to launch The Disc you can still access and install all of the included software and demos. Just go to the Desktop, open the folders, and browse through them. Clicking on the MacAddict logo won't cause anything fo open, but you can move pieces of the logo around, in essence creating your own jigsaw puzzle. Just close the window and the logo returns to normal, Requirements 4. To access all of The Disc’s features, you'll need 12MB of real RAM if you're running 16MB of real RAM if you're running System 7.5 or later. 2. if you don't have enough RAM, you can still access all of the software, demos and System 7,1 or earlier tutorials on The Disc from the main folder. >. You need a 13" monitor that has a resolution of 640 x 480 and 256 colors. ‘o find Immediate information from our sponsors, go the Index (Option-click on any help screen). Or you can wait until you see a message from them in the lower-right hand corner of the main screen. Clicking on the mes- sage calises a TV screen to slide down from the top of the page, showcasing more information. 2iearose http://www.parsoft.com Guerilla forces have taken control of the beautiful istand of Cuba and once again the A-10 Warthogs must suppress the enemies of freedom. ‘A-10 CUBAI adds more action-packed missions and new features to the award-winning A-10 Attack! 1, asoeeTe 200-695-GAME {csi http://www.domark.com ‘Absolute Zero gives you the best in flight sim technology while immersing you in a ‘sci-fi environment. Engage in 30 missions in three arenas of combat: ai, land, and subterranean, Get ready to fight when aliens erupt from the dormant core of your once peaceful mining colony! (800-827-8364 rr One Baa http://www.aol.com America Online offers access to the world of online news and information, interactive magazines, finance, entertainment, e-mail, free software, shopping, and more. With a point and a click, you can explore the vast resources of the Internet. Sign on and receive 15 free hours. sooamacriay ACPLAY http:/Mwww.macplay.com Blast your way past enemy robots with powerful new tools, leaving their flam- ing hulks in your exhaust. Your ultimate goal: to exterminate the alien robot stronghold from the enemy Base and claim total control. it's all-new levels of outrageous destruction! femora sae 214.a86-7575 | http://www.graphsim.com Take the challenge as F/A-18 Hornet straps you in for the ride of your life. Each of the many scenarios takes you deep into a new conflict in the Middle East. Fly against the newest technolo- Qy and the best trained pilots the enemies of freedom can produce. ed ther. e'll be the first to admit that we're not perfect. In fact, we've | set up a special place on our Web site _| devoted to our imperfections. ff you find a problem with The Disc, stop by http://www.macaddict.com/cdrdin | before you send us e-mail. If the problem is not addressed on the site, | then please let us know about it at letters@macaddict.com. ‘However, we can't take responsi- bilty for others’ mistakes. If a program ‘on The Disc other than our main inte face crashes, please contact the man- ufacturer. They'll be able to give you much better technical support. (You. can usually find contact information in_ the accompanying Read Me fle.) Finally, for those of you who couldn't access Systern 7.5 Update 2.0 because you didn't have enot memory to use The Disc’s front ‘we've included the program in a Software Updates folder that you access from the Finder. ( QuickCa 800-950-5880 3 hittp:/wwrw.connectix.com QuickCards lets everyone create person alized electronic greeting cards that can be sent on diskette or via e-mail to friends, associates, and family. Unlike tra- ditional paper greeting cards, QuickCards are multimedia productions that play on a Mao- or Windows-based computer. As a British secret agent aboard the R.M.S. Titanic, your mission could alter this century. Match wits with an intrigu- ing cast of more than 25 interactive char- acters while exploring the doomed ves- setfaithfully reconstructed in stunning 3D detail. Can you rewrite history before time runs out? 817-424-5638 —_ WarBiuds' http://www.icigames.com WarBirds is the first Internet-based flight simulator. Bombs, rockets, and moving carrier groups... Oh my! Think you're a good shot? Target your foe's wing root, and off comes his wing! Join over 100 pilots from every corner of the earth. 6 we ri , -) Things You Need To Know ‘1 .To exit out of any of the videos on the front page, click on the (unmarked) | button on the far left. 2.When the cursor turns into a lower | cast there's something to click on. Gulf you get a “-108 error* message when attempting to run a demo, you don’t have enough RAM installed to run the demo and the interface at the same time. Go to the Desktop and access the dema from there. Win!Win!Win! lic eeria haces aia re a fantastit new illustration too! ur first contest was ‘so successful, we decided to give you more BONUS stuff, (At press time, the contest for the Epson PhotoPC was still open—we'll announce the winner next month.) We're telling you about the contest in print, but you'll have to use both the CD-ROM and the Web site to win. First, you'll need to find a BONUS hotspot on the main screen of The Disc. Click around; even- tually this charming pterodactyl will squawk at you. Don’t you just want to click on him to see what he does? &Demos ‘emos give you a taste of the products you've read about. Run them from either The Disc’s front-end or from the Finder directly. Some demos are self-tuning videos while oth- ers allow you to actually use the product. Those that fet you use the product are generally “crippled” in some way. For example, you won't be able to access ail of the program's functions or they will expire after a certain amount of time (usually about a month), 1. Warcraft I: Tides of Darkness ‘This awesome sequel to Blizzard's Orcs & Humans will have you ‘screaming for more. (It should be out in September or October.) Play either the orcs or the humans in a few campaigns. While the demo betrays its PC roots—“Exit pro- gram"—the game uses Apple's Game Sprockets technology to bring 3D sound and speech recognition (for entering cheat codes) to Power Macs. Be ‘sure to click on each of the different buildings and charac- ters to hear what they have to say. The peasants are especially dim-witted! (You'll find this demo in the demo folder on the CD.) 2. Mugpet Treasure Island ~~ = ~~ In Activision’s latest game for kids and kid-like adults, you'll need to x 46 MacADDICI ‘aaamemncmsict ~~ Use the thumb on the left to toggle the strip on and off. Back takes you to the previous screen. Menu takes you to the Main (first) screen. ‘” takes you to the Index. *Q" quits the CD. The speaker slider controls. volume. This month the volume stays the same as you've set it, no matter where you go on The Disc. Follow the ptero- dactyl to a screen that looks sort of like @ telephone keypad, After you enter the BONUS (hint) code on the CD-ROM, your Mac coughs up another code to enter on the MacAddict Web site. By filling out a form on the Web site, you'll be entered into our drawing to win a copy of this BONUS software. splat the buccaneers with pies to earn money to buy clothes. Don't hit the customers or you'll lose money. 3. Overture Last month we goofed! To lise the Opcode Overture demo, you needed a font we | didn’t give you. This month | we put that font in the “Install these in your System | Folder only if you need them” folder. Open up the Aloisen font folder and drag the contents onto your 4. Projet X Here's the latest from Apple Research Labs. Using Project X, you can fly through 3D space to navigate Web sites. To find out if Project X can do more than just give great demo, read our story in this month's Get Info. Note: Project X will not work direct- ly from the CD. You will need to copy it to your hard drive. 5. SmartSound ‘SmartSound, from Sonic Desktop Software, helps you compose masterpieces—without the childhood trauma of parentally imposed piano, violin, and accordian Jessons— 5) 1) Aller choosing Maestro (as opposed 1 Editor) we decided tow long the piece should be More Demos 2. The temo version only let us: pick ‘one theme, but at least we knew exactly what we were getting, for everything from home movies to selt-indulgent amuse- ment. Using the demo, we created a MacAddict original background piece in about two minutes. 2. When you click tinish, you can listen ta the piece over and over, or tweak it'in the editor. © Afterlife » Myrmidon » Tork Nemesis » Bonkheads » Shockwave Assault » Kai's Power Goo » Bricks © WebQuick Files wi created installers for all of the programs in the Files area. If you decide you don't want something you've installed, run an uninstaller to get rid of it, One caveat—we can only track the things we put in your System Folder. So for system utilities like Aaron, we can delete the extension, but not the items that exist outside the System Folder. That said, to run the uninstaller, open an installer from the front end or from the der and hold down the Option key—you'll see the uninstall options. Fun and Games MacSokoban MacSokoban is a great little strategy game. It's all brain and no brawn as you manipulate the boxes into their proper Places. Just don’t get suck with two boxes along a wall! Property Property is a tame game where you gather deeds to properties along a tour- sided board, Sound famil- lar? It is, except this game was created by a Brit, so the street names are all screwy. Descent It mu’ Haawl" Curious what Wort mutters under his breath when Sisko won't fight? Look it up in mu’ Haqwl’s Klingon dictionary, System Utilities ShrinkWrap Curious what to do with disk “images?” Use ShrinkWrap to mount image files on the Desktop. The System will be fooled into thinking they're the original floppy disks. To mount image files, simply drag and drop the image file icons onto the ShrinkWrap icon. General Heritage Heritage will help you track your roots, It even imports and exports GEDCOM files. You can also imbed digitized photographs in your family tree. Connectivity NetPresenz. Got a 24-hour Internet con- nection? Set up a Web and 2 FIPp server in no time with Peter Lewis’ NetPresenz. The Program uses your File Sharing preferences to allow the FTP connections, so it's a piece of cake to learn. otPresenz Setup. The Web Site © This Issue TT: issue we give you every possible shareware and freeware tool you will ever need to help keep your Mac in tiptop shape. F Lor "Es Kemi 18 Macd John Norstad’s generous con- tribution to the Macintosh com- munity protects your Mac from viral intections. In addition to diagnosing infections, Disinfectant installs an extension that notifies you When you insert infected floppies. ExAminer ExAminer helps you keep track of your System Folder contents. It can also move files to the disabled folders, enabling you to hunt down conflicts Live Wire ive Wire Is your private connection to our Web site. Hook up and you'll get informa- tion on updates to software on The Disc, sneak previews of our next issue, and hot news about the Mac. There are a few things you should know before connecting, however. If you don't have a modem or a direct con- nection, you're SOL. I you have a modem, but not an ISP account, you can take advantage of a j e k special deal we've set) up. with Earthlink, a 9 2 national ISP. Go to the Live Wire area and click ‘on the “No, I'm not connected” button. You'll get an intro to the Internet, contact informa- tion for other ISPs and information on Earthlink’s special offer. Ask Us (ache-22 This month Owen Linzmayer gives you the skinny on hard- ware caches, Use this utility to find out what you've got. How To PageSpinner Part 2 of Joseph Hoimes' Web School introduces you to HTML. Make your HTML writing easier with this color-coded text editor, ResEdit Even newbies can learn to wreak havoc with ResEdit after reading Kathy Tafel's how-to. Customize individual folder icons, change icons system-wide, and do even more innocent damage with Apple's resource editor. ‘Once you've set up an Internet account, you'll need to start your Internet connection manually. It you're using MacPPP, open the ConfigPPP control panel and click the “Connect Now” button. Choose the “Yes, | am connected” button. You can then connect to an area on our Web site set up especially for users of The Disc. Live Wire is not a real Web browser. For now, all we're able to put into the interface is text. When the technol- ogy allows us to put © Jinks and pictures and QuickTime movies and Java applets and frames@and... well, you get the picture. We're on top of it and will strive to bring you the best. BUNGIE By elord, please strike ham ane Peegin’ clarinet with thelbiggem Bag bolt you can muse The lightning bolt Carol asked for never come. So she diffused her ‘anger by playing ABUSE and filling Leon's instrument with lard. Napalm Bombs, Lightning Prods, and the Death Sabre, Just « few of the loys ot your disposal when you play ABUSE. Created by Crack dot Com, and brought to the Mac by Bungie Software, ABUSE is 360° of side-scrolling action through industrial corridors, caverns, ond picturesque sewers. Lay waste to mutant hordes as you run, jump, and fall in every direction, And 8-person ABUSE network play is he healthy, prison-free way to release your pent-up aggressions toward small, yippy dogs and egomaniacal clarinet players. ‘To get your ABUSE, cll 1-800-295-0060, or visit www.bungie.com, ©199%, Cock dt Cm. Abus end Codd Com or Rodeors of Crack det Com. Bungie sa radamark of Bugle Sofware Produ Corporatio. lights revered get info News, FIND A DEMO of Project X on Navigate the Web The Disc. in a sort of 3D space _Convert Last month, we put a Power Computing PowerWave In 604/150 into the hands of | | Jongytime PC user, James Fp | Fallows (formerly of The Atlantic Monthly and recently pro- moted to Editor of U.S. News & World Report). Our goal: to make him give up PGs forever. So how's it going? We're a bit behind schedule since Jim's pro- motion has kept him a tad busy (200 staffers all needing help NOW). Here's what he has to say 0 far “I was 80 accustomed to IRQ conflicts, memory-manage- ment headaches, differing SCSI addresses, and other Windows delights that | dreaded setting up the Mac. You'll snicker to know that my reaction was ‘Hey, no problem.’ The biggest surprise about the programs and the OS is how hard the Windows world has tried to copy their basics, without yet emulating the ‘it and finish’ that makes the Mec easy.” {sit alla bed of roses? No. Jim has yet to do The True Test: seeing if the Mac can handle the fancy data-sorting and idea-gen- ‘erating tricks he has come to rely upon with Windows software, YoIeEM 20 MacADDICT id other very val Project X Apple’s Secret Weapon? able information ven some of the more jaded types E here at MacAddict were wowed by a demo of Apple's wizzy new Project X: it let us zoom through a 3D rep- resentation of cyberspace. But Project X is no longer just a humble technology pro- ject: I's now a key part of Apple's Internet strategy, according to Larry Tesler, VP of Internet Platforms. So it’s time to take a hard look at what lies behind the demo. ‘The prototype application includes a portion of the Yahoo Web directory in the Meta-Content Format (MCE) used by Project X. Launch the application, and you'll find yourself in a sort-of-three-dimen- sional space, zooming about the Yahoo hierarchy with just a click of the mouse. The hierarchy can also be browsed via a less-exotic, Finder-style out- line. Either way, when you find the page you're look- ing for, a double-click will ‘open it in your Web browser. An upcoming Netscape phug- in promises to make Project X navigation more integral with your Web-browsing experience. Project X's universe is not, of course, limited to the Yahoo directory. You can drag and drop new MCF files into the applica- tion to expand its horizons, or drag folders from your desktop to add their contents to the Project X world. One of the selling points of Project X is that you can meld documents from your desktop and from the Internet into a personalized information space, which can be manipulated at your whim and then exported as an MCF file for use by other Project X buts. Okay, so that sounds like fun. However, Project X faces a couple of major obstacles. ‘The first problem lies in its dependence on MCF files. Rather than analyzing the structure of Web sites on the fly, Project X requires the site's creator to supply an MCF file that represents the that you will want to know. IN PROJECT X, your files rub shoulders with Yahoo. site's structure, To date, only a handful of sites have such files and these are neither comprehensive nor regularly updated. Given the number of files that compose a typical Web site, the rate at which they change, and the paucity of MCF authoring tools, it's unlikely that most Webmasters will create the indexes—and those that do will probably supply only a basic outline, So, how do you create an MCF directory of a Web site? Editing MCF files by hand is tedious work: it makes HIML authoring seem fun. If you have a Mac-based Web server, you can drag your folder structure into Project X, export this hierar- chy as an MCF file and use it as a starting point More promisingly, Geoff King of the Aus-tralian Legal Information Institute is working on a CGI that, automatically generates a current MCF directory that with some refinement will enable sites to sup- port Project X with no extra effort. The second problem lies in navigation. Browsing a Web site with Project X is often quick- er and more elegant than clicking through page after page in a Web browser, but when you reach a page like Yahoo's “Countries” directory and two hundred floating boxes pop up... well, good luck finding Sri Lanka, Of course, overcrowded areas could be reworked for easier Project X navigation, but this would entail extra work for the creator of the MCF file. ‘And there's the rub. Just as a Web site requires regular maintenance and navigation-friendly design, so too do the MCF files. To become a useful tool, Project X needs to do more of the work. —HS Cyberdog Faster, Slimmer, Better s part of its Internet strategy, Apple has committed to aggres- sively supporting Cyberdog, the company's means of integrating the Internet into documents. In addition to public beta tests (when was the last time you downloaded a beta version of the next system software?), ‘THE NEWEST CYBERDOG Apple is updating Cyberdog on ‘a more frequent schedule than its previous software. If Apple can follow through on the rest of its Internet strategy as well as it has with Cyberdog, it might actually beat Microsoft to the land of true OS/internet integration. Version 1.1 includes changes to the OpenDoc-ness of Oyberdog, ‘There's an application icon which launches Cyberdog into its own process-—no more “the Cyberdog mail system is in use by another document” messages. And gone is the disorienting “Document” ‘menu; i's replaced by a more standard File menu with @ Quit item. ‘Ahost of other new features improves Cyberdog's usability, While version 1.0 was a great technology demonstration, this version ‘makes us actually want to use the product. Cyberdog has been opti- mized for faster performance. A new Windows menu item tracks ‘open windows and provides easy access to commonly used docu- ‘ments like the log and notebook. And you can finally drag to select items in a list. Besides these necessary improvements, the new dog has some downright cool features. It supports the Get URL Apple Event, so you ‘can set up Cyberdog as your helper app for everything (before it would just open up the first notebook and do nothing). To aid in What made you choose Flash the FireFly as the host of “Let's Pretend! ‘Space is our Playground!"? That's a good question. We wanted to do something different and we tooked around and saw that ‘gee, nobody is doing fireflies.’ The same thing with the ants. I's something differ- ent. And the firefly has a lot of dimensions... I's multicutural and gen- derneutral. I's a great way to bring children into the creative world without any hang-ups. —James Cooper, Vice President of Ringling Mutimedia AFIREFLY? But why? your transition, Cyberdog will import your Netscape bookmark files and your Eudora mailboxes and nicknames files. And something truly mind-bending-Appletalk servers are now Cyberitems. This means you can embed an Appletalk network browser inside a Web browser A since Cyberdog now supports the embed tag. You /, can click on a link and Cyberdog will open the server in the Finder. Gyberdog is not the lumbering Saint Bernard LAST MONTH'S CYBERDOG it was in version 1.0, but neither is it yet a grey- hound. We'd like to see the browser support text alignment and frames, and have a horizontal scrollbar. Aside from these niggling details, version 1.1 is a well-made, substantive upgrade. As reflected in the new spaniel mascot, Cyberdog is shaping up to be an energetic best friend. —AT 8X CD-ROM DRIVES Faster, But More Expensive ike it or not, CD-ROM you may be wondering “Will I drive rotation speed be left in the metaphoric Dark (how fast it spins the Ages if I don’t buy an 8X drive?” disc) has been cranked yet No, you won't. Although 8X again, this time to 8X. And, yet drives are the new de facto Mac again, the higher speed CD-ROM standard, they aren't necessary. drives deliver marginally better Currently, there is no software speed than their predecessors, that requires 8X speed, and that 4X drives, in some activities and isn’t likely to happen overnight. little or no boost in others. By the time it does (if it ever Whether or not they're fast (or does), DVD should be on the necessary), they are standard scene and the whole disc scene equipment in the latest Macs and will change anyway. as external SCSI drives. Since If you buy a new Mac with fear of obsolescence drives an 8X drive, congratulations. much of the computer market, You're on the leading edge of the CD-ROM curve, and it won't hurt you a bit to have that bit of extra speed. However, if you're in the market for a CD-ROM drive and you don’t want to buy a whole new Mac to go around it, purchase a 4X drive. While an 8X drive will cost about twice as much as a 4X drive (around $300 compared to around $150), you won't get a com- mensurate speed increase for your money and you vont be NOW that’s the Spirit! able to do anything you couldn't We've already mate desktop patterns, with a 4X drive. (If you're really QuickMail forms and color printouts of Power in the market for a bargain, Computing’s promotion for its faster-than-a- check out 2X and 3X drives for Pentium, 25MHz PowerTower Pro, Find it at under $100.) Use the $150 you ‘their Web site: http://www.powercc.com. (Oh, save to buy a few CD-ROMs to ‘and by the way, that's not Sluggo. Nope, play in that brand new 4X box. ‘Sluggo is heavily copyrighted. I's Job.) You'll be glad you did. —DR MacADDICT 24 NEW ‘RAM DOUBLER 2.0 ‘(Connecti Corporation: G00-850- 860; hnp:/wrm-connectx.com; $999 (erp) ships August 7) ‘The Mac’s best virtual up-grade is now even better. RAM Doubler 2 tricks your Mac into thinking it has up to ‘three times as much RAM as it does. You'll need a 68030 or better processor and 8MB of RAM. ACROBAT 3.0 (Adobe: 800-521-1976; mpy/wirmadobe, ‘com; $295 (erp); ships August) ‘Acrobat performs some snappy new tricks: Web surfers can view PDF files directly in browsers, look at documents a page ata time, per- form OCR, do full-text searches of PDF documents, create and use forms with text fields and checkbox- 5, and use buttons and hotspots to contro! embedded movies or sound. All this, and support for Kanji, too, ‘STUDIOPRO 2.0 (Sirota 200-787-2829; np ww.stratadd, ‘com; $1495 (s7); ships late September) ‘StudioPro has been rewritten: you ean create Images without so much ‘sweat, All modeling now happens in the main modeling window; model- ing controts have been improved and include new camera controts, a grid, nudge keys, Bezier curve and polygonal-based modeling features. ‘StudioPro offers new animation ‘techniques, a fester rendering engine, plug-in support, and PAL ‘video output capabilities. it also ‘supports VAML and QuickTime 2.5, DETAREN (Fractal Design: 408-686-5300; tps/wetractal.com:; $449 (sp); ships September) With Detailer, you use Painter's nat- ural media tools (including the Image Hose) to paint directly onto 3D objects. You can create texture ‘maps and bump maps and apply them to models. You can even make images glow and reflect light. Create models within Detailer using simple primitives or import 3DMF, Ray Dream Studio and Ray Dream Designer models. DR and CE 22 MacADDICT nT — SUPER STANDARDS CHRP, or Common Hardware Reference Platform) is touted as the no-fault divorce for the computer world. Supposedly, you'll see computers based on the PPCP specifications from a variety of vendors next year, all running the Mac OS, Tike marriage and divorce, though, PPCP is fraught with enticing fantasies that hide more mun- dane realities. Here are a few: (—] T: PowerP¢ Platform (formerly known as qH1 Fantasy: Ppcr computers will be cheaper because manufacturers will be able to use less- expensive components. Fact: ppcP computers may be a bit cheaper for this reason, but don’t count on plummeting prices. Savings will most likely be less than $100. Fantasy: PCP computers will let you switch between operating systems on a whim. Fact: While this is true, there's a deeper level to this. Who wants to learn more than one operating system? Although many know the Mac OS and Windows NI, Sun's Solaris is a pretty specialized ‘operating system, that relatively few people use. Most PPCP users will still start up with one— ‘maybe two—operating systems, not six. Fantasy: pecp computers are a hardware innovation. Fact: pece computers are standards and mar- keting innovations. PPCP hardware isn't difficult to assemble. And PPCP specs are based on cur- rent components. For example, PPCP-based com- puters should be able to use peripherals designed for the PC world, and while that should make many, especially serious gamers, happy, it’s hardly an innovation. Computer manufacturers—Power ‘Computing among them—say they will easily have hardware ready by the time the PPCP-compatible version of System 7.5.3 ships sometime early in 1997. On the other hand, PPCP manufacturers do say that, because the standards allow for different internal components, hardware built on the PPCE standard may be faster than non-PPCP computers. As far as marketing goes, “ “multiple operating systems” sound great on a press release, and PPCP has those words aplenty. Fantasy: PCP computers are nothing but vapor, Fact: Prototype PPCP computers have already been shown booting System 7.5.3 and Windows NT, and observers say they're fast. DR MACINTOSH MYSTERY, Win this great software! eve created a fiendishly clever Mac-related prob- Jem; it's up to you to supply the solution. Send your answer to: wwwmacaddict.com/contest or snailmail it to us and we'll pick one lucky entrant among those ‘who have the right solution (or something vaguely close if no one can guess) to win a copy of Symamtec’s Norton Utilities, ‘Symantec's SAM and Casady & Greene's Conflict Catcher. Here's the dilemma: Arthur, a naturalist who tracks the furlicking habits of the rare, gray-spotted ocelomar- mot, lives among the redwoods in a cabin with an unreliable ‘wood stove. Because of the cool, moist climate and because the area doesn’t get much sunlight, Arthur spends a lot of his time indoors. In his cabin, he has a Centris 650 and several hundred floppy disks on which he has collected his fur-licking data. After a particularly damp winter, Arthur goes to look at his data from the last three years. The deadline for a national grant for ocelomarmots is looming, and he needs to complete his report. When he inserts the first floppy into his Centris, fear sets in: the disk is unreadable. He ejects the disk, then tries another, It, to, is damaged. He fires up Norton Utilities, but it can’t read either disk. So he tries a few more. All of his old data disks seem to be damaged! Take home SAM, Conflict Catcher, and Norton Utilities ‘Thinking that it might be the age of the disks, he inserts a disk that he used last week. Now it, too, seems to be damaged. “Ah ha,” Arthur thinks. “It must be my floppy drive.” It isn't—a brand-new disk worked. In a fit of despair at the end to his ‘ocelomarmot watching days, Arthur breaks open an old, damaged disk. There inside, he discovers the culprit behind the global disk failure. What does Arthur find inside the disk? The answer next month. —DR quisae WIP SSE Rie 5 PRESENTS me *EACH PRODUCT PURCHASED MUST BE VALUED AT $24.95 U.S. ($34.95 CANADIAN) OR MORE VisiT OUR MACPLAY WEB SITE AT: HTTP://WWW.MACPLAY.COM Se wel BUY ANY TWO MACPLAY TITLES EACH VALUED AT $24.95 U.S. ($34.95 CANADIAN) OR MORE AND GET ONE FREE BY MAIL. | Name —— OFren EXines NOVEMBER 24, 1996 STATE Zip Cope E-MAIL ADDRESS get inf Virtual Memory Use It or Lose It husky programs greedily demand more and more RAM, you may be tempted to activate virtual memory for an extra RAM boost. But if you're not sure how much virtual storage is enough, or whether you should use it at all, you're not alone. (Turning on virtual memory makes your Mac use empty hard drive space as though it were a RAM chip.) No two opinions on virtual memory are alike, Read your user's manual and you'll find that you should only have virtual memory on when you're short on RAM and then you should quickly turn it off, or suffer slower ‘overall performance. Call Apple public relations and they'll tell you to keep virtual memory running at all times, except when doing high-end graphics. Call Apple tech support and a guy named Greg will tell you to keep virtual memory on at all times. Power Mac native programs will boast a 30 percent speed increase, he The best advice? claims. Of course, he then admits that he needs to Take advantage of “brush up on the subject.” So what's the deal? ‘The best advice is to take advantage of the current rock-bottom RAM prices and beef up your memory. Afterall, there is no substitute for the real thing. But if you can't afford real memory (or don’t want to use Connectix’s RAM Doubler), virtual ‘memory can help you out of a RAM pinch. ‘Your user’s manual is on the mark when it advises against using virtual memory full time. Having virtual memory on will drag you down since your Mac will waste time swapping data to and from your hard disk. If you truly need extra RAM, then limit virtual ‘memory fo a maximum setting of twice the size of your installed RAM. Any more than that and your Mac will begin excessively moving memory around which, again, will decrease speed. For best performance, set virtual memory to the minimum setting—IMB above your low RAM prices. Were Stuff hysica ram Here's what it boils down Reach Out and Touch Over the Internet. re you sick of Whoopi, Candice ‘and Ed O'Neill teling you who the best phone service? Frustrated by telemarketers who believe the world arises at 9 am. on Saturdays in eager anticipation of special long-distance offers? How you like to talk as Jong as you'd like to anyone in the world and not pay a single red dime a minute to any long distance company? Mac, you can exact revenge ‘on the long-distance leaders, at least for now. Internet phones, such as VocalTec’s internet Phone, ‘Phone (formerly NetPhone and soon to be DigiPhone for Macintosh), digitize your voice so it becomes just another data type, happily bounding down the information highway untl it is decoded at the other ‘end and played. Many of the programs are halt-duplex: participants must take turns talking. Some, though, allow both people to talk at the same time, aka full duplex. Apple has even become part of the Net telephony game via its ‘QuickTime Conferencing software, which allows audio as well as video conversations to occur over the Net. There are a few caveats. First, because of the compression, conver- ssations sound like they're coming in through the speaker of an AM radio, although improvements in bandwidth and compression quality will soon Talk as long as you'd like to any- one in the world Nit s ieee eeteeP “and don't pay 4 single red dime a minute to any and Third Planet Publishing's phone company. ‘Apple doesn't give away Macs,but it does offer free propaganda. Here's what you can get (call 800-825-2148): "Mae of Windows?” video to; turn on virtual memory when you're short on RAM, but don’t leave it on all the time. Using virtual memory on likely create digital conversations that rival telephone quality. Second, you must be connected to the internet in order for the phone software to be ina “receive mode.” ff you're not connect- Sanaa Prefer a case-per-case basis won't ‘ed, there's no way to activate the Macintosh?” (LO1749A) slow your daily work and will phone call, You can keep an address °*50 Mac Advantages” forestall potential conflicts — book of people you want to call. if ‘ity Mecha? with high-end graphics pro- they're not there, some brochure (LO1667A) grams. Remember nothing software will give you the is bad in moderation, not even virtual memory. —VE 24 MacADDICT option to record a “voice mail* message. The biggest problem, however, is finding who has what system and when they're connected. While there are several Net telephony products, none ‘of them talk to each other, and few work between Macs and PCs (VocalTec’s Internet Phone is a note- ‘worthy exception; more are on the way). Some internet directory companies like Fourt1 or WhoWhere may ‘step into this role, or it may bbe addressed in the future by new protocols. So, if that’s the state of the art today, what does tomorrow hold? In July, Intemet service provider IDT announced that it ‘would be possible for Net users to place calls to regular telephone Users through its Net2Phone service. There are two catches, though. First, you have to also use IDT as your long-dis- tance service provider. Second, while the rates for such calls are lower than what ‘you might pay for an average long-dis- tance call, they're higher than those for a computer-to-computer call placed over the Internet. What about placing an “Intemet phone call" from a standard telephone? At least ‘one Net telephony vendor is working on it, and on using the Internet for telephone- totelephone calls, Phone company reactions are mixed. Some are trying to introduce legislation to outlaw or regulate Intemet telephony. Others, like NYNEX, are heavily investing in Internet telephony ‘companies like VDO, an Israeli company that delivers video over the Internet. ‘Should you download, install, set up, and use internet phone software? The audio is quite decipherable but below telephone quality and speaking into your Mac's mike may seem awkward. Connec- tions are easily lost, so it’s not as reliable as a regular phone call, Using the internet as a phone is stil not viable for everyday Use, but itis feasible if you make advance preparations. —Ross Scott Rubin MACINTOSH CD-ROM. — a je Ss, the hero? \ GET THE MOST “ORIGINAL” GAME OF THE YEAR! -PC Games AVAILABLE FOR MACINTOSH NOW! DEVELOPED BY DISTRIBUTED BY For more information, call 310.264.5579 Aél\aim Pulse entertainvent, 1920 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA 90405 PointCast Network PointCast infoSluts rejoice! I's a screensaver! it's a custom information delivery service! (But it won't wash your car) It's PointCast Network, and it may be the future of news on the Internet. The PointCast Network, using PointCast client software (soon to be available in beta for Mac users), lets you choose the information you want (selecting from Reuters news, a Standard and Poor's ‘Comstock ticker, AccuWeather forecasts, the SportsTicker, and online versions of Time, People and Money magazines), and when to have it delivered to your ALITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE INFOJUNKIE IN ALL OF US. Mac. PointCast Network uses IP addresses, and will work with America Online, CompuServe and Prodigy. The second best thing about PointCast is that, through SmartScreen, PointCast Network can be used as a screensaver, using your computer's down time to keep you up-to-date. The best part is, since PointCast Network is supported by advertisers, i's free. A beta Macintosh version of the PointCast Network viewer should be available for download at http:/www.pointeast.com. To find out more about PointCast, call 800-586-4733. 0 SAGEM Planet ISDN GeoPort Adapter ColorWeb if you've about HAD IT with people incessantly teasing you about lyour 14.4 GeoPort modem speed and are contemplating the purchase of a rifle (not that we would advocate fury... Sit back, take a deep breath and count to 100), take the ISDN plunge instead, with the SAGEM Planet ISDN GeoPort Adapter. With this hummin’ gadget hooked up to WOW, CATCHY NAME, PRETTY BOX, AND A FAST, EASY ISDN. your Mac's GeoPort (at a {ist price of $495), you'll be able to get up to 128Kbps connections— more than twice as fast as other external ISDN devices hooked up to the Mac's serial port. Prepare yourself for some fast surfing, video conferencing, and (gasp!) being able to talk on your phone while using the modem at the same time on the same ISDN line. Cool, huh? For more information, call 408-446-8690 or use your non-GeoPort- ISDN connection to surf to http:/mww.satusa.com. Pantone Ithough you may question the use of purple and orange on an olive-green background in a Web page, at least you'll sleep easy knowing it looks the same on Thoose @ highlight color: 01d New both a Mac and a PC, thanks to ColorWeb by Pantone. ColorWeb uses the 216 colors that display on both platforms without dither- ing—they pay STEADY COLOR ACROSS THE WEB, ONLY FROM PANTONE. people to find these things out—and makes a color picker out of those colors. Thus, for only $29.95, you can paint in nearly 8-bit color and have the peace of mind that comes with knowing that your results will be consistent across the Web. To gain your piece of peace, go to http://www.pantone.com or call 201-935-5500. PANTONE [N 22-05) Fewer Choices) 26 MacADDICT Cordless MouseMan / GyroPoint LogiTech / Gyration brie factory can't attract a pair of mice this nice. For those interested in a freestyle approach to mousing, LogiTech (610-795-8500 or http://www.logitech.com) has introduced the Cordless MouseMan with a suggested retail price of $79.95 This three-button marvel comes in two parts: a receiver that plugs into the ADB port, and a mouse (no wires) that works up to six feet from the receiver (we've had great results with longer distances, but then the soreen gets pretty hard to read). For those who want to free themselves from the shackles of the mousepad and don't mind the cord, Gyration (800-316- 5432 or http:/;www.gyropoint.com) presents the GyroPoint mouse. When on the desktop, this nifty two- _TAILLESS OR PADLESS: THIS PAIR PROMOTES CHOICE. button mouse works like any other, but when you lift it off the surface, a tiny gyro- scope takes over, turning small wrist motions into mouse movements. For $149 (stp), you, too, can take off from the desktop without special software—the GyroPoint mouse uses the Mac OS mouse driver. —_ . (ce wasnt) ieee | einem meal =| Myrmidon Terry Morse Software \$ Quark Example § plicity have long aeamiemagy. || been words associated with the Macintosh way of doing things. Unfortunately, those words rarely apply to authoring Web pages, what with HTML, graphics fle formats, and the like. Myrmidon (and, no, we can’t pronounce it either— although we think we spelled it right), by Teny Morse ‘Software, adds the touch ofMac class to COMMAND-P TURNS A QUARKXPRESS ee Vet dahl DOCUMENT INTO AN HTML PAGE, REALLY. pane ‘especially for those who have existing documents that they ‘on The Disc. want to publish on the Web. Myrmidon acts like a printer. ‘Simply print your document, and Myrmiidon goes to work, converting it into an HTML document, complete with tables. Myrmidon has ‘some other nifty abilities, including the ability to send e-mail from within any application through Apple Events. To find out more, call 415-858-1017, or download a demo of Myrmidon from httpy/Awwwcterrymorse.com. Perception Systems © a little dance, make a litte love, control your game tonight. it’s possible ‘with the Z6n game controller. This cute litle polyhedron (4” x 4") watches you from its resting place, seeing movement in a cone- ‘shaped area. All you have todo ismove PYRAMID POWER KEEPS AN EYE ON YOUR EVERY GAMING MOVE. in that cone, and the Z6n interprets your movement, letting you play fighting games with actual punches and kicks, or control an A-10 with a finger movement. For $99, you can have a machine that watches your every move and does something about it. To enter the Zén, call 818-907-0575 or 6-mail info@percepsys.com. Sortware Twat HeLps ding true Macintosh enlight- ‘ment isn’t a journey to take alone, You'll weed to carry these utilities with you. (Ta help. we've Included ther on The Disc.) Each set of util ties corresponds to a path th: ‘outlined in the article. Section + Backup: + BU Reminder + Softackup I + SimpleBackup SmartSaver SwitchBack + Synk Maintenance = TechToo! ramBunetious ‘System Heap: + FicHoap * Mac OS Purge + MemiMapper mwctaon 4 + Conflict Catcher Demo + Extensions List + Symbionts Section §: + MacsBug + Terminator Strip Becton 6 Preferences: * CacheBGone tt PRAM: + PRAM Auto. General Utilities These are worth trying out, But didn't Ft Into the story: * ADBProbe + Allas Dragon + Apple System Profiler + Chiron + Finder quitter + Font Box + Inket Tools + Mackrrors + SoftwareFPU + The DiskTools Collection PowerBook Utlities ‘Some special + ResetPwrMor 0 Find alt wt inese program on The Disc here upon the mountaintop, after braving treacherous footing, sheer cliffs, high winds, and a dubious answering machine, you have reached the Macintosh guru. As a supplicant you kneel, make the proper offering of food (a Snickers candy bar often works) and present the Enlightened One with your Mac Conundrum. There is silence, broken only by the sound of wind and the faint, high cry of an osprey, while the guru considers your problem. Then, the guru speaks. Have you tried zapping the PRAM? It doesn’t have to be this way. Liberate yourself from dependence upon others and follow the Seven-fold Path to Macintosh Enlightenment. Along this path, you’ll probe the mysteries of the Macintosh, giving yourself the tools to face a corrupted hard drive without another hike up the mountain. Karma Fottows No TIMETABLE ‘Trouble can—and, according to Murphy, will—strike when you least expect it. Follow the old Boy Scout motto: Be prepared. Here are three simple things you can do to make the inevitable problem less of a problem. 7 paths no substitute for having a copy of your precious data in case there’s an unfortunate loss in the family, Since it's no longer feasible to back up ahard drive to floppy disks in these ays of multigigabyte drives (unless you have several hundred floppies and a few Tips For Backing Up * Decitie which files to back up. Back up all of your documents. And back up some preferences files, because these contain information (like registration numbers and settings) important to the applications that use them. You might also want to back up software that you've downloaded to avoid downloading it again. ‘You don't need to back up applications for which you have installation disks. © Set a backup schedule. Your backup schedule is dependent upon how much you use your Mac. If you save a lot of new data on your hard drive everyday, you should consider a backup every few days; if you don't, then do a backup every couple of weeks. + Remember that the fiest backup is the worst. After the first backup is done, you only need to copy those files that have changed since your last session, which means that the backups should be considerably shorter. free days), making a backup will probably require equipment that doesn’t come with ‘your Macintosh, namely: a tape backup, a Zip drive, or a Syquest drive. We recom- mend using a Zip drive, because it is almost as fast as a hard drive, and at less than $20 for each 100MB cartridge (the rive itself sells for just over $200), the cost can't be beat, Don't be talked into a tape drive, Tape backups are slower than death. Syquest drives are a better alterna- tive to tape, but they can be expensive and their cartridges tend to be unreliable. Once you get a Zip drive, consider some sort of backup utility software. Backup utilities help you track what's been backed up and when it was done. There are commercial products (such as Dantz Retrospect or Leader Technologies’ Power- Merge) and shareware products that can do the job (several are on The Disc). * Have emergency software available, ‘When you do encounter a problem, there is some comfort in having the right tools at hand; not stuck on an inaccessible hard drive. In order to fix an errant Mac, you need to be able to start it up and have soft- ware that can deal with the problem. * Have a Disk Tools floppy available. All Macs come with System software disks, and included in the set is either a Disk Tools floppy disk or a disk image of a Disk Tools disk. If you don't have a CD- ROM drive, you'll need to make a Disk Tools disk. If you do have a CD-ROM drive, make one anyway, because you never know when you might not be able to access your CD-ROM drive. In fact, make two or three copies to guard against the occasional bad floppy. How to Resuito tHE Desktop Fite 1. Restart your Mac with Extensions off. (Some extensions can cause corruption if the Desktop is rebuilt while they are active.) 2. Hold down the Command and Option keys until a dialog box comes up asking if you want to rebuild the desktop. ‘3. Glick “OK.” 4, Wait for the Finder to rebuild the Desktop file, (This could take several minutes, so you can treat it like a commercial break— 0 visit the refrigerator) Mternately, use TechTool, a free utility that rebuilds the Desktop fle for you without reboot- jing your Mac. TechToo! deletes the Desktop database files (rather than just_ modifying them, as the Finder does) and forces the Finder to restart. TechToo! is indispensable for troubleshooting. When the Finder gets going, it sees that ithas to rebuild the Desktop, so it builds an entirely new database. The authors of TechToo! claim that this is better because a regular Desktop rebuild may only modify a damaged Desktop, whereas TechToo! gives you a fresh one every time, ‘The Disk Tools floppy disk contains a minimal system that allows your Mac to start from that floppy disk, as well as Disk First Aid and Drive Setup. These two pro- ‘grams can go a long way toward rehabili- (ating an ailing Mac. + Make a utilities disk. Put any other util- ities on another floppy disk and keep it by your Mac for those times when Disk First ‘Aid and Drive Setup aren't enough. ‘Suggested utilities for your utilities disk are included on The Disc. With the Disk Tools floppy and utilities floppy available, you can start up your Mac, repair a corrupted directory or driver, and perform any other tests or repairs that your utilities will allow. * Perform periodic maintenance. ‘Although problems can strike at any time, there are a couple of things you can do to keep your Mac in good health. * Periodically rebuild the Desktop file. ‘The Desktop file is an invisible database file with information about which documents and applications are on your hard drive, how they should be viewed, and which application to launch when a document is double-clicked. Since it stores information about all the files on your hard drive (even afier you throw them away), the Desktop file can get huge, and because the Finder reads from and writes to the Desktop file frequently, there are many opportunities for disk errors to cause problems. The solution? Rebuild the Desktop file every month or so, or more often if you start seeing generic icons in place of custom ones, or if you get appli- cation-couldn’t-be-found type messages when you know the application exists. + Periodically defragment your hard drive, Fragmentation, a normal part of using a hard drive, doesn’t usually cause problems, but it can eventually slow down your drive. While defragmenting a hard drive isn’t a high priority, it should be done every few months just to keep things at top speed. Commercial software is available to do defragmentation, usually as part of a utilities package. Wuat To Pur On A Uruities Disk ‘Your utilities disk should include a collection of software that will be useful in the event of a crash. Here's our list of things (other than a commercial utilities package) that we like to have around. ‘You'll find all of these on The Disc: * Disinfectant * MacErrors *RAMcheck = * SCSIProbe * TechTool THe Hippen STRUCTURES Your Macintosh peripherals like structure. A lot of structure. After all, they have to keep track of millions of bits of data, and they have to be able to communicate with each other and the mother ship itself, while making sure all the data remains intact. It isn't easy, and mistakes happen. (Yes, even computers make defragmentation and file recovery pro- grams), so you get an added bonus. + Be aware of device drivers. Peripherals use little bits of software (called drivers) that tell the device how to interact with your Mac. If these dri- vers become corrupted, strangeness can mistakes—don't you feel better now?) There are things that can be done to repair a crumbling structure. + Know and love Disk First Ald. Disk First Aid, a utilities program that ships with every copy of the Mac OS, will check and repair the structures on a Disk First Aid, a program that comes free with your hard drive (catalogs, direct- Mae, is much more powerful than you might think. ories, and the like) that are used to organize the files that live there. + Buy and learn to use a utilities pack- ‘age such as Norton Utilities. Although Disk First Aid is good at what it does, it doesn’t perform as many tests and repairs as commercial utilities do. We highly rec- ‘ommend you buy a commercial utilities package. In addition to a disk repair pro- gram, most utilities packages come with if you've trashed a file that you several other applications (such as — really do need (and own a file oe eee eee er ecco, How To Uppare Your Disk First Ao 4. Try not to use the hard drive at al. HARD Disk Driver* Any activity on the hard drive 1. Start up your Mac with the Disk creates the risk of writing over the 4. Start up with your Disk Toots disk, Toots Boppy you put aside while file you want to recover, 2. Launch Drive setup and select your hard drive reading Part One. (You did put one 2. Run your file recovery program. in the window that appears. aside, didn't you?) ‘3. Recover files to a disk other than ‘3. Select Update from the Fuctions menu, 2. Launch Disk First Aid and click on ‘your hard drive (this is another Caution: Drive setup is also used to initialize a hard ‘the Repair button. Disk First Aid place where a Zip drive comes drive, so take care when mousing near the Initialize Notifies you of any probtems that it in handy). Although there are no button, or you could end up with an empty drive. finds and attempts to repair them. guarantees, there is the possibility *This only works for Apple hard drives, If you ‘3. I you pun Disk First Aid on your ‘that you can get your hard work own a third-party drive, read the owner's manual Startup drive, you can only check back from the abyss. that came with it. for problems with that drive by click- jing the Verify button. result, Hard disk drivers can be especial- ly problematic, because they live on the hard drive itself (instead of in a ROM chip or easily replaceable extension), and are subject to corruption, possibly RETRIEVING A FILE You've THROWN Away resulting in the infamous flashing ques- tion mark upon startup, But driver problems aren't only for hard- drives and the Highway Patrol. Corrupted device drivers can also cause problems for CD-ROMs, scanners, or any other peripheral. If you're having problems with a specific peripheral, try reinstalling its driver software. + Bringing the dead to life. Files that have been erased from your hard drive are not necessarily gone for good. When a file is thrown in the trash and the trash is emptied, the Mac doesn’t go through and destroy the file on the hard drive. Instead, it marks the space that the file ‘occupies as “OK to write over” so that when it needs to write something else to the hard drive, it knows it can use that space. A file recovery utility such as Symantec’s UnErase (part of Norton Utilities) may be able to get a file back that has been thrown away. RECALLING THE Past Memory is akin to work- benches in a shop: The more benches you have, the more projects you work on at one time. The inverse rule also applies: The more benches you have, the more clutter you can pile on them. Then there's the problem of too much bench and not enough project (or more commonly, too much project and not enough bench). ‘These all apply to ‘Macintosh memory management. + Koow how to set memory parti- tions, In the Get Info box for every application (just select the application in the Finder and type Command-I or select Get Info from the File menu to see it), there's a place where you can set the amount of memory an application uses. Listed in that box is the suggested size (which can’t be changed), a minimum size (the absolute least amount of mem- ory with which an application can run), and a preferred size (the application will take up to this amount of memory if it's available). If your application runs slowly, try increasing its memory allocation; howev- er, if you're running in a tight memory situation, and you need all the RAM you can scrape together, try decreas- ing the preferred size. You can decrease the mini- mum size, but if you go below a c tain point, the appli- cation may crash because of insufficient memory. If you've entered the minimum size danger zone the MacADDICT 31 syjed 2 7 paths DID YOU KNOW “a MEMORY MAPPER reveals how your Mac divides its RAM ‘among afl the things that demand it. Total Memory: System Softvare 7.5.3 Updated to Revision 2 © hope Comte, ho, 1985-1995, Power Maint Largest Unused Block: 22.50% | | Te rere 108 ete Rei Now® Wier Sasi sears — — i e020 310% 4700 ‘THE ABOUT THIS MACINTOSH box also displays how RAM is divided. The Largest Unused Block item doesn’t necessarily show how much RAM is available, however. Finder will notify you when you try to close the Get Info window. * Understand the System heap and fragmented memory. Selecting About This Macintosh from the Apple menu while in the Finder will call up a profile of how that it would take over 700 high-density floppy disks to memory is being used hold as much Information as on your Mac. Here a 1GB hard drive? At 1/8” you'll see how much width per floppy, a stack of built-in memory your 700 would stand nearly90 = Mac has, how much feet tall; or, placed side-by- side, they would stretch total memory it has (this can be different nearly half a mile. Martha 4 Stewart could surface a sma f°" the | bu pessrecili cle, memory if you're using RAM Doubler or Virtual Memory), and the Largest Block Remaining. Notice that this doesn't say ‘You have set the Minimum and Preferred sizes below 5,928K, which may cause “microsoft Word” to cr fire you sure you want to continue? 5 (cs) DANGER WILL ROBINSON! Setting your application's memory size below its minimum is a recipe for trouble. Total Free Memory. If you've had a few applications open at the same time and you close one or two, and then start another, you may be fragmenting your ‘memory, which is similar to fragmenting ahard drive, When multiple programs are running, they each take up a block of RAM. When you close one, it gives up its block, but the programs that were opened after it still hold on to the blocks that they have. ‘That means that if you start up your Mac, launch three programs and then quit the first, you can have your free memory split between two places. To remedy this, sim- ply quit all open programs. This returns your free memory to one single block. If you notice that the Largest Unused Block reading plus the amount of memory used by applications doesn’t ‘match the amount of memory you have ‘on your Mac, your System heap has been fragmented. To remedy this you can | restart your Mac, or use FixHeap (included on The Disc), a utility that will defragment the System heap. * Set your Disk Cache. The Disk Cache (settings are in the Memory Control Panel) is a block of RAM set aside to hold ofien-referred-to instructions. The idea is that if your Mac can find what it needs in RAM rather than on the hard drive, it will perform faster. But the point where you notice the differ- ence. If you don't notice an increase no matter how high you set the cache, put it at 32K so that you get as much RAM as you can out of your system. Microsoft Word Info Microsoft Word Microsoft Ward 6.0.1 pplication program 2 MB on disk (4,382,536 bytes ed) st Abulafia: Applications: Word Processors: Microsoft Word 6: Mon, Apr 8, 1996, 12:28 PM /ed, Jun 12, 1996, 4:30 PM 1, Copyright © 1983-1995 Microsoft Corpor ation | Comments: Ltecked Preferred size: Note : Memory requirements will decrease by 3,918K if virtual memory is turned on in _the Mernary control pane! THE GET INFO COMMAND reveals a wealth of information and memory control. Cache Sie =p ge Memory cS because the Disk Cache increases the size of the System heap (and slows down some programs) it’s not a good idea to crank it as high as it will go. Qu ‘aac on dk 48H pee ee @ om snotan eran: a the cache should be have raged on for years. We offer ees peer has these bits of wisdom BB ie: (unless you're using Gore Photoshop, in which case | you'll want to set it at 32K): [ Lass ‘Try playing around with dif- ferent Cache settings. If you THE MUCH- DEBATED disk cache settings can be changed notice a speed increase, in the Memory contro! panel, along with ather memory- leave the Disk Cache set at related settings. A Quick-‘n-Dirty Trousie-sHootiNG GuIDE In general, certain symptoms man- date specific solutions. To get rid of general strangeness, we recommend the following steps: > Rebuild your Desktop. It's not a cure-all, but it won't hurt, + Scan the hard drive with Disk First Aid or Symantec's Norton Utiities. * Check your 881 setup (if you've recently fiddled with your SCSI setup). +» Check for Extension conflicts. * Update disk drivers, « Tap the PRAM, = Bo a Clean Install of your System. (Since TechTool scans System files for corruption, try using i first before doing a Clean install. This may save you ‘some trouble.) MANAGING ConFLict All is not harmonious inside your Mac. Extensions, Control Panels, the System, and appli- cations all strugole for the same resources, and sometimes this strug- gle turns into a fight. A little extension skir- mish might cause some oddities (such as menu bar conflicts or data corruption) in your Mac, but a major battle may result in system freeze. Ifyou think you've become collateral damage in an extensions battle, here's what you should know: porarily—up and running, at least long enough to find the offending extension, + Know how to use the Extensions Manager. Apple has thoughtfully provided the Extensions Manager to help with Extensions conflict. Through this Control PaneV/Extension duo, you can control what loads at startup, making it easier to track down any unruly Extensions. Conflict Catcher from Casady & Greene does everything the Extensions manager APPLE'S EXTENSIONS MANAGER makes it easier + Know how to start up with to track down unruly extensions. ‘extensions off. Turning off al exten- sions when starting up your Macintosh can be a life saver. Hold down the Shift key while starting up, and your Mac will give you the mes- sage “Extensions Off’ below the Welcome To Macintosh message while loading the System software. ‘You may be surprised at how fast your Mac is ready to go; all those Extensions and Control Panels take time to load and use memory. Jf your Mac freezes while start- ing up, this should get you—tem- does, and more. It deals with Extensions and Control Panels, and it works with Chooser Extensions, Apple Menu items, fonts, and and it helps diagnose Exten- sion conflics. We recommend you bring your Mac back safely from the Extension conflict front lines, you need to hunt down the Extension that's causing the problem. If you added an Extension or Control Panel just before the trouble started, try turning that item off. if that doesn't solve the problem, turn all your Extensions off, and then back on one at a time, restarting each time, until the problem shows up. The last Extension you ‘turned on is most likely the culprit. Either remove it, or try it in combination with other Extensions to find out who is fighting whom. Conflict Catcher makes managing Extensions and tracing conflicts easier. GRACEFUL EScaPes When bad things happen— and they do, even to nice Macs—there are ways to take only a glancing blow instead of a full-on punch to the solar plexus. * Force Quit. A few useful key combina- or side of the case: one with a triangle and ‘one with a circle, The triangle key is the Reset key. Push it and the system chimes and resets. The circle key, though, is the key to strange and arcane powers. Push it and the system drops you into the debug- trouble. The most com- mon is the Force Quit. To quit a program (including the Finder), tions can get you out of Force “simpletent” to quit? Unsaved changes willbe lost, Cow) CD try pressing Command- Option-Escape. Your Mac will ask if you want to quit. Force Quits are useful when a program has frozen, or something has gone wrong and you can't quit. + The interrupt key. On most older Macs, there are two buttons located on the front Wuen THE Reset Key Doesn’t Work COMMAND-OPTION-ESCAPE lets you force your Mac to quit. get. (On newer Macs, push the Power key on the keyboard and hold down the Command key to produce the same effec.) © MaceBug. MacsBug is a debugging Init. It lives in the System Folder and when a ‘System Error happens, it puts up a screen full of numbers and letters. Don't be intim- ‘dated. At the bottom of the screen is a command line. If you have a ‘System Error and you've installed MacsBug, it vill pop up and you can restart by yp- ing rs or rb and hitting — return (rather than having to use the Reset key). This saves a lit- le wear and tear on your Mac, because the Restart command allows it to pre- pare for the restart. Fora list of coo! things to do with MacsBug: go to hutp://ww:biddeford.com/~benyc/Macsb ughtml. To the average user, the debugger isn't useful, But you're running, ‘@ program that freezes and won't respond to the Force Quit key com- bination, tr this. (Press the key with the circle to get to the debugger youll see a dialog box with a > prompt) Here's what to do next: * Push the Programmer's key. (in older Macs, it’s the small key with the triangle symbol on top. On newer Macs, i's the Command Power key, which also has a triangle on it) You'll be presented with a white box that has a greater-than (>) sign on the left. This is the prompt. (ff the white box doesn't appear, you may as well reset your Mac— its too far gone to benefit from anything else we can do here.) + Type SM 0 ASFA: Hit the retum key. This makes your computer do a hex dump (a partial dump of what's in memory) of the local seg- ment. The window will il wth a bunch of numbers and letters. + Type 6 0 (zero): Hit the Retum key. {fall goes well, you should be back in the Finder. Any unsaved ‘work that was in the frozen program is now gone, but you should be able to save work in any other open program. Restart your Mac as. soon as possible after doing this, because it probably isn't stable, Alternately, you can try a straight shot to the Finder by typing GO FINDER after the > prompt then hitting return. You may or may not be put back in the Finder after this, MacADDICT 33 EXPosing CORRUPTION Disk structures aren’t the only thing that can become corrupt- ed. Your Mac's Parameter RAM (PRAM) and Preferences files can also succumb to the dark side. + Tap the PRAM. ‘The causing strange behavior in the applica- tion that created it. If you notice an application or Control Panel acting strangely, try throwing away its Preference file, This may clear up the problem. Be careful about just willy-nilly throwing out Z PRAM is a little bit of Preference files. They contain settings for 7 RAM that stores the program to which they belong, and a information about some of them contain serial numbers. If your Mac (such as you're using a program such as Word or s ‘mouse settings Photoshop, you may have hours of tweak- and which printer ing stored in that preference file. If you fs selected). That don't want to lose these settings and information, which you've been backing up your Preferences doesn't get erased files, try replacing the suspect file with an when you shut down, — earlier version from your backup disks. can get corrupted. You can * Know how to do a Clean install, A Clean IF THINGS STILL purge (or zap) your PRAM Install puts a brand spankin’ new System DON'T WORK, with just a few steps. Folder on your hard drive and renames try reading the System * Clean out the your old one Previous System Folder. You 7.53 license agreement Preferences files. should care because resources in your backward while Sometimes a Preference file System (or Finder, or other bits of System burni