Blackout 1.21 Doc

Documentation Designed by: Andrew Welch Change History: 1.0 - Inital release on GEnie. 1.1 - A bug which caused Blackout to not work AT ALL on Mac Pluses & SE's was fixed (so much for my Beta tester!) 1.2 - If you set the time until Blackout to more than about 20 minutes, Blackout would freak out and Blackout immeadiately! This has been fixed and in addition, several other minor changes have been made so that Blackout works more smoothly. 1.21 - Fixed a minor problem with the Control Panel portion of Blackout. Personal Notes: Some people have suggested that the stars work in color on Macs that have it… beleive me, I tried that but it really doesn't look good at all. I experimented with all sorts of different coloring methods but none of them looked nearly as good as good old black and white! I may add some other options to Blackout in the future like password protection, etc. depending on how many people are interested. Documentation Introduction Blackout is an INIT which you put in your System Folder that provides an automatic screen blanking function for your Macintosh. Blackout is similar to Pyro™ (a commercially available program) except that Blackout is cheaper, and it works. For neophytes, a screen saver is a program that blanks out the Mac's screen so that you won't ruin your monitor by having the same image on it too long. About 3 years ago when I first bought my Macintosh, I was intrigued by a Desk Accessory called Stars which was meant to be a screen saver. When you chose Stars from the Apple menu, you were sent on a voyage through the galaxy with stars whizzing past you on your Mac's screen. I loved it. The only problem was that it was a hassle to use as a screen saver, as you had to choose it from the Apple menu instead of having it just take over after you hadn't used your Mac for a while. Another minus was that it didn't work on a Mac ][ (at least the version I had didn't). So finally I got down to work and wrote Blackout which, like Stars, is a screen saver that sends your Mac on an interstellar voyage to prevent your expensive screen from getting damaged. Blackout is different then Stars in several ways: • It is an INIT that you put in your System Folder that automatically blanks your screen out after you haven't used your Mac for a while (you don't have to choose anything). • Blackout is fully configurable through the Control Panel DA; you can change the number of stars, how long until Blackout blanks your screen, and other settings. • Blackout works on any Mac from the 512KE on up. It works with multiple screen, MultiFinder, and is fully compatable with most popular applications. Enough said? OK, here's what to do to get Blackout up and running. Simply put the file "Blackout" (it is important that you do not rename Blackout!) in your System Folder and reboot. Next choose your Control Panel fro…