NAOH  The cube with a question mark on usually indicates a plug-in isn't installed.

Does the 3D engine for this widget require any particular browser plug-in?  
(Version 5D)

NAOH  Well, for all those out there who have had trouble migrating their virtual machines to Parallels Desktop 4, it appears the problem is at least in part due to VirtualPC. The issue is apparently mainly affecting virtual machines that have previously been migrated from VirtualPC.

According to a document on the Parallels KnowledgeBase, the solution involves replacing the mouse driver for the default Windows driver, and then restarting the computer before applying the Parallels tools again.

It appears to be the VirtualPC mouse drivers that refuse to budge which are causing the problem. (The VirtualPC Virtual Machine Additions won't have been removed from the system unless you have made a special effort to remove them prior to migrating the system to Parallels.)

The KnowledgeBase article can be found at this URL: http://kb.parallels.com/en/5735

I just followed the instructions on my installation, and it worked!  
(Version 4.0.3522)

NAOH  Wow!

I knew that Americas Army still had a loyal following of Mac gamers, but I hadn't thought they would have brought out a Deploy client for 2.5

As someone who occasionally switches my MacBook Pro over to Windows, and runs AA for a few hours, this is a real blast from the past.

Now, if only the brass who manage the Americas Army project would see that they could earn loads of brownie points by officially supporting the Mac.

Having said that, in my experience the Mac AA gaming community has far fewer people cheating and being abusive than the Windows based community.

This makes me wish I still had a decent PPC machine for gaming.  
(Version 1.34)

NAOH  I have a similar experience to JIMW with regards to the Parallels tools not installing.

The issue appears to be with the installer running out of available space on the hard drive.

I have tried this on two separate virtual machines, and they both fail at the same point.

I suspect that the issue is either with the virtual disk not growing as it should when additional space is needed, or the installer having a fault of some type.

My intention is to try with a brand new installation of Windows, and see if the tools installer has problems then.

At the moment I would recommend that anyone who is upgrading waits for the next release, as they should have a fresh version of the tools then and the most glaring bugs should have been addressed.

(Yes, I guess I am an optimist.)  
(Version 4.0.3522)

NAOH  It looks like a nice and simple implementation, without dumbing down.

However, I think it's worth mentioning that 'Ghost' is a name used by software made by Symantec for cloning Windows PC systems. (Norton Ghost, to be specific, but still owned by Symantec.)

You may need to change the name to avoid them getting on your case.

Having said that, I think Ghost is a good choice of name. Shame it's taken.  
(Version 1.1)

NAOH  A quick note about something I just found out.

It turns out the status window for a selected turret can be moved. I hadn't tried dragging the title bar of the window.

I like that as a feature, but it would be quite nice if the window would automatically appear in a different location if I selected a turret that the window would have covered.

An alternative approach, would be to put status information outside the playing area, leaving a nice empty rectangle for the game to be played in. (Possibly a way to switch between display modes as some users are likely to prefer the floating window approach.)  
(Version 1.0.3)

NAOH  After trying the demo of version 1.0.1 out, I am definitely hooked.

The game premise is wonderfully simple, but quickly mounts to a point where the game becomes a resource management challenge that appears insurmountable.

That is until you find a strategy that works on a particular map.

For instance maxing out all the upgrades on all your turrets isn't always the best way. A turret often works best when it only has to pay attention in one direction. That means that if your turret is close to the path the enemy will take, keep the range setting as short as you can get away with, but crank up the harm it can deal out, and the rate of fire.

While the game is very entertaining, I do have a few negatives to mention.

First: The music gets annoying very quickly, so it is a great mercy that it can be turned off. A choice of less annoying tunes would be a nice addition.

Second: The status window for the turrets sometimes obscures the turret that I want to keep an eye on. It would have been nice if the window could be moved, or even would avoid sitting on top of the chosen turret. In fact, I would like to be able to minimise and/or move all status screens so that I would be able to place turrets anywhere on the map that isn't already occupied by an object.

Third: It would be nice to also have a visual indicator that would appear instead of the voice when the voice is muted.

And finally, a suggestion.

It would be very handy if it were possible to limit the arc of fire on certain turrets. Possibly as a bonus upgrade that is only available after a certain point in the game. This would naturally make the game easier, but could work as a way to extend gameplay once the computer opponent becomes really tough.

All in all, I like Circuit Defenders a lot, but I feel it can still be improved.  
(Version 1.0.3)

NAOH  For what it's worth, Retrospect is still receiving commitment from EMC2.

However, the 'old' Retrospect will soon be retired and Retrospect X will take over. (That is what they plan to call it, according to the blog written by the chief developer.)

The plan is to integrate the Retrospect product into EMC2's other backup products.

A PDF that outlines the planned features can be found at the following link: http://www.emcinsignia.com/assets/ds_retrox_en.pdf  
(Version 6.1.230)

NAOH  Just a quick query about what this application is capable of.

Is it possible to connect via a serial connection and modem?

I still have a lot of devices which must be managed via serial connections. Because of this, I'm still using ZTerm, which hasn't been developed for quite a few years.

I could do with an alternative and am hopeful that this may be it.  
(Version 0.9.6.1012)

NAOH  Hi Alex,

Many thanks for the reply.

I just thought I'd mention that while Safari will usually unpack .zip files, that's not the default behaviour for all browsers.

In fact, I usually disable any such behaviour on browsers that I use.

This is mainly to avoid the browser accidentally launching an application or script.

Anyway, thanks for making the change. It makes life a little easier.

By the way. You may want to check that Wenger and Victorinox, who are the companies that make Swiss Army Knives are OK about you using a picture of their product in your icon. (From the look of the logo on the knife I think it's a knife made by Victorinox.)

It would be a real shame if they decided to give you a hard time about it.  
(Version 1.74)

NAOH  I've found that when a .dmg file is hosted on a web server that doesn't know how to deal with that type of file, some browsers automatically add .zip to the end of the filename.

In those cases, I've just removed the .zip file extension and the file opens fine.

That may work in this instance.  
(Version 2.0)

NAOH  I just tried out Swiss Converter for the first time, and found it worked fine for me. (I'm using Mac OS X 10.5.4)

However, I do have a few comments to make.

Firstly: It would probably be a good idea for the developer to include the name of the application in the zip archive that we download. It took me a while to figure out that the file called '1.32.zip' was the Swiss Converter download. A filename such as 'SwissConverter_1.32.zip' would have been far easier to identify.

Secondly: The currency converter appears to have all the components to be a useful tool. However, it is let down by the fact that it needs the user to type in the exchange rate manually. This makes the conversion more of a hassle than most other currency converters.

Despite its rough edges I think this tool shows a lot of promise.  
(Version 1.32)

NAOH  RANDYHARRIS: I think you have missed out on the joys of cron.

cron is a scheduling utility that has been built into Mac OS X from the very first version.

The only thing keeping a lot of people from using cron, is the fact that it's a command line application.

However, over the years there have been graphical front ends to cron for Mac OS X that provide easier access.

Just search for cron on MacUpdate, and you'll find loads of them.

I'm not criticising Scheduler, it could quite possibly be capable of things that cron isn't.

However, I do think that your statement that the Mac has no scheduling capabilities beyond iCal is misinformed to the point of being erroneous and misleading.  
(Version 5.0.4)

NAOH  This type of utility looks like it will be particularly useful for anyone who works with server volumes.

I have frequently experienced that I am prevented from unmounting server volumes because some application has a file open. (Or so I'm told, by the error message that appears.)

My main suspect is Spotlight. It seems that Spotlight will not always quit its search agent cleanly after a search. This is particularly when searching Windows servers.  
(Version 1.0)

NAOH  While it's a neat little tool, I'm puzzled as to why it is only possible to enter a value in the box for horizontal.

Sometimes I know the vertical value, and would like to find out the horizontal one.

It would be useful to have the option to calculate in both directions.  
(Version 1.5.12)

NAOH  After playing Mountain Tanks for a while, I have thought of a few ways to add some variety and challenges to the game.

For instance by having a game mode where the player only has access to unlimited bombs rather than rockets.

This would mean having to work out the angle of the ground in front of the target as well as the time delay on the fuse.

Another suggestion would be to have games where either the elevation of the turret is fixed, or the power is fixed.

Also, when a players tank is hit, it might be an idea to make a random type of ammunition unavailable to that player for the following round.

As a final suggestion.

How about a map where the only light that is available, is the light from explosions or flares that the players themselves have to fire?  
(Version 1.6)

NAOH  Just a quick mention that the version 1.5 that was linked here is a PowerPC version.

It would seem the developer has just spotted this, and has pulled the file from the server.

Hopefully he'll put a Universal Binary version up there soon.  
(Version 1.5)

NAOH  This app is exactly what I need.

With this tool, I am able to stress-test hardware before and after swapping a component.

If the old component gave out after x minutes while this app is running and the new component keeps ticking, I can be reasonably certain that the new component is reliable where the old one wasn't.

If I were to add one thing to my wishlist, it would be to have a feature that gradually fills up physical memory.

(Possibly with an indication of how much physical RAM is being used.)

That way I could use it to pinpoint intermittent faults in RAM as well.

Many thanks for a useful app.  
(Version 1.5)

NAOH  Many thanks for fixing it so quickly.

I really enjoy playing StuntManiaPro when I want to wind down after a stressful day at work.

And it looks like version 2 is getting even better.

By the way, does anything happen when a level has been cleared on a 'Just Go Crazy' game?

(I'm sure I've managed to totally clear several of the levels, but nothing happens.)  
(Version 2.0)

NAOH  Many thanks for clarifying that so quickly!

(Also, it may be an idea to put a mention about the counter being reset for each update on the FAQ.)  
(Version 2.0)

NAOH  There seems to be a problem with the Pro 2.0 version on Intel Macs.

When double-clicking on the application, I get an alert which tells me: "You can't open the application StuntManiaPro_2_UB.app" because it is not supported on this architecture."

If I look inside the application package by using Show Package Contents, I am able to launch the game by opening StuntMANIA!pro2 from inside the package.

As I'm only allowed to download the game a limited number of times, I am concerned I may use up my allotted downloads on versions of the game that don't work properly.

Do the developers have a means of dealing with this situation?  
(Version 2.0)

NAOH  Since the file is now available again, does this mean the issues he discovered with VMWare have been identified?

Also, does this version work properly with MacFUSE 1.0.0 on Leopard?

(Leopard requires user-installed filesystems to be in a different location to previous versions of the system.)  
(Version 1.1004u4)

NAOH  I can think of a few situations where this may be useful.

One of which is where a machine is being accessed remotely.

Or if it is running headless.

I've also found using the alt key to be tricky, if the keyboard is a Windows style keyboard.

This utility might not have a wide audience, but it can be a time saver.  
(Version 1.0)

NAOH  Hope that greek site doesn't get dumped on from a great height by Cisco.

It seems Cisco are determined to control access to their software for some reason or another.  
(Version 4.9.01.0080)

NAOH  It works wonderfully for me.

I've managed to connect to a range of FTP servers.

(Not tried SSH yet.)

One thing that I would like added, is a way to allow FUSE to take control of NTFS volumes.

I have seen instructions on how to do this manually, but it really is too much hassle.

It would be great if there were a menu option to choose an NTFS volume that were mounted through the Mac OS X driver. Doing this would unmount the volume in question and re-mount it through FUSE.

The only two variables involved appear to be the volume name and the volume identifier. They should be easy enough to obtain from the OS.

Apart from that one wish, it's showing huge promise.

Keep up the good work!  
(Version 1.1)

NAOH  For those who may have difficulties opening the file that downloads, just rename the file extension from .dmg.bz2 to simply .dmg

For some reason, the filename is changed when downloading.  
(Version 10.3.92)

NAOH  It seems Safari mistakenly downloads the file as a .dmg.bz2 file, rather than just a .dmg file.

This means that when you try to open it, the contents get hashed up by the unpacking process.

If you simply rename a Safari download to .dmg before opening, it opens fine.

The possibility is that the server the file has been hosted on, is configured to identify .dmg files as .bz2 in the MIME information. This would cause Safari to dutifully mark the file with the .bz2 file extension.  
(Version 1.1.2)

NAOH  It seems Safari mistakenly downloads the file as a .dmg.bz2 file, rather than just a .dmg file.

This means that when you try to open it, the contents get hashed up by the unpacking process.

If you simply rename a Safari download to .dmg before opening, it opens fine.

The possibility is that the server the file has been hosted on, is configured to identify .dmg files as .bz2 in the MIME information. This would cause Safari to dutifully mark the file with the .bz2 file extension.  
(Version 0.2.2b)

NAOH  It seems Safari mistakenly downloads the file as a .dmg.bz2 file, rather than just a .dmg file.

This means that when you try to open it, the contents get hashed up by the unpacking process.

If you simply rename a Safari download to .dmg before opening, it opens fine.

The possibility is that the server the file has been hosted on, is configured to identify .dmg files as .bz2 in the MIME information. This would cause Safari to dutifully mark the file with the .bz2 file extension.  
(Version 1.1.2)

NAOH  I would like to know a little more how TrueDisc works.

From the description, it seems to create parity information in a separate area of the disk. This would indeed hold true to the claim of being able to recover the data on the disk, even with missing portions of data. It would also mean the data doesn't need to be saved in a particular format in order to be recoverable.

As it stands, the product description is a bit too full of 'marketing speak' for me to get a clear idea of what it actually does.

For a while I was wondering if it required me to buy special media, in order to use the software, rather than conventional CDs, DVDs or Blu-Ray disks.

If the product does work as I postulated above, then it is a very nice and easy way to allow recovery from optical media.

In any event, I think the software makers could make a little more technical information available to potential customers. Maybe on the website. That way we can make informed decisions about what we are actually buying.  
(Version 1.0)