RICHARD HALLAS  Agreed. I too have both Parallels and Fusion. I've just upgraded to Fusion 3 because of its claimed leaps forward in graphic support, but on testing it I find that it's still far behind Parallels 4! (And yet Parallels 5 has just come out and appears to be better still.)

To cite one specific example, I have Heroes of Might & Magic V installed on my Boot Camp partition, and if I access that via Parallels 4 and try to play it, the graphics are perfect and the performance just about bearable. Fusion 2 was incapable of running the game at all.

Now that I've upgraded to Fusion 3, the game will at least launch and display graphics, but those graphics are badly corrupted, whereas Parallels gets them right. On top of that, whereas the Parallels 4 performance is sluggish, the Fusion 3 performance is so slow as to be utterly unusable (probably less than 1 fps).

So I've always liked Parallels better than Fusion: I haven't seen all the problems with it that other people claim, and it's always performed better for me and had more features than Fusion. I intend to upgrade to Parallels 5 in due course, but as its launch comes just a week after I upgraded to Fusion 3, I can't justify it right now (pity they didn't happen the other way round). I'm also going to wait a bit and hope that Parallels 5 gets included in a bundle or other special offer over Christmas.

This is my only real gripe: the upgrade timing and price. It doesn't feel long at all since I paid for the Parallels 4 upgrade (which I was happy to do), so to ask for more money again at this point feels a little greedy. Also, the new features of version 5 are much less compelling than those of version; I honestly think they should have kept the upgrade price to no more than $30 this time round. I'll definitely upgrade eventually, but will wait a bit this time. I really do like the product, though.

Oh, the one thing I really don't like is the new Parallels application icon. I wish they'd go back to the much better one that they had prior to version 4.  
(Version 5.0.9220.531002)

RICHARD HALLAS  This review is partly to counter the previous 1-star review, whose rating appears to be based purely on the fact that the saver's graphics aren't to the reviewer's taste.

There's an easy answer to this: if you don't like the graphics, don't buy the saver.

Personally, I do like the graphics. They're whimsical and attractive, and there's a decent amount of variety in the four scenes provided (though more scenes would be nice).

As for the saver, it's got lots of options to tweak and play with, plenty of visual variety, and generally does all the things that a screensaver should do. Whether it's worth paying for is a matter for the user (there are tons of good screensavers available for nothing), but Paper Pilots is unusual, distinctive, attractive and just generally pleasing.  
(Version 1.011)

RICHARD HALLAS  All the comments about LotsaWater are all very well, and I agree that that's a great screensaver that's free.

However, Desktop Puddle is better, and it's pretty cheap. I certainly don't regret paying the shareware fee for my copy; it's my favourite watery screensaver.

Some people are saying that LotsaWater is more realistic than this. I disagree; I've just compared the two and find that (a) they're very similar and (b) for me, Desktop Puddle has the edge. Horses for courses, but I wouldn't call it a valid major criticism of either saver; they both look very good, and are very similar. I think that Desktop Puddle's 3D highlighting option for its waves (which LotsaWater doesn't have) helps and make it look a little more realistic.

LotsaWater has a few more options for controlling the detail of the splashes and dimming the screen, but Desktop Puddle has a couple of worthwhile features that LotsaWater doesn't:

(a) the curved screen depth option, which I personally really like;

(b) better image placement choices (current screen, current wallpaper image or random image from specified folder).

Overall I have to say that this is one of my favourite savers, and I like several other of the UselessCreations ones too. Yes, they're shareware, and generally speaking I don't like paying for screensavers, but I've found several of these to be good enough to be worth the modest fee.  
(Version 1.2)

RICHARD HALLAS  Minor little UI comments for the developer:

1. The 'donate' button seems to have no graphic inside it. It's just a white rectangle.

2. The 'Error Numbers' button is slightly misaligned (a pixel too low).

Sorry to be pedantic! Thanks for a handy utility.  
(Version 1.14)

RICHARD HALLAS  Personally, I really like Chocolate Castle. I got it on offer from MacZOT! a while ago, so I only had to pay around half price, which helped. Maybe it's a little on the expensive side at full price.

I agree with the previous reviewer that the graphics and sound aren't exactly state of the art, but it does have its own curious charm. Most importantly, though, it's full of quite intricate puzzles, and becomes reasonably demanding as you progress. The puzzles aren't so hard that you become stuck forever, but some of them are hard enough to cause a fair bit of head-scratching for a while.

So this is certainly not the flashiest or most exciting game out there, but it does have its own unique appeal, and for people who like puzzles it's well worth a look. I certainly don't regret buying it (albeit at offer price).  
(Version 1.06)

RICHARD HALLAS  Really very nice. Pleasingly restful and attractive.

I wish it was anti-aliased, though. Most screensavers seem not to be; is that an OS X limitation, I wonder?

Anyway, this is a nice saver, especially for free. It would be nice to have a few options to tweak, though, such as overall speed and number of snowmen to display. I'd also like to see a bit of horizontally graded colour in the sky, as the scene rotates, as that part of the screen just stays a solid, static blue.  
(Version 1.0)

RICHARD HALLAS  Rather a nice screensaver. However, there's simply no way it's worth the asking price; sorry. If the asking price were $5 instead of $15, or the $15 got you a bundle of screensavers (there are several others from the same developer), then I'd be a lot more interested. But there are better shareware screensavers than this which cost a lot less.  
(Version 1.0)

RICHARD HALLAS  I'm cheesed off with the updater. I downloaded this to update InDesign 5.0.3 to 5.0.4 and ran the updater application. After giving it my password, it just sat there with the spinning blue/white barber's pole icon, not saying what it was doing, and that's how it remained for hours and hours. I left it doing this overnight in case it was actually doing something useful. But after maybe 16 hours of just sitting there with the twirling pole icon, I just quit it. (Note that pressing the Cancel button didn't work; I had to quit it from the Dock menu.) At that point (on quit) it popped up a box saying that the update had been completed successfully, which I don't believe.

Now, InDesign identifies itself in the Finder and in its start-up banner as version 5.0.3, but once it's loaded and I open its Info window, it says it's version 5.0.4. So, what to believe? It's probably a partial installation of 5.0.4 with some components not updated, but it's impossible to tell because there's no log file, and there wasn't even any indication whatsoever of progress from the updater, or even any sign of what it was doing.

I suppose I should be grateful that my copy of InDesign does at least still work (a previous updater once rendered it incapable of launching), but this is far from impressive. In fact, I've had no end of trouble with the CS3 installers in general. When I first installed CS3 on my brand-new 2.8GHz Mac Pro a few months ago, it took literally days to get everything installed successfully, with many forced restarts of the system, because the Adobe installers were so hopeless and just got stuck at different stages (and indeed locked up my computer - hence the forced restarts); I had to try most of them several times before they worked. And that was on a brand-new, 'vanilla' Mac Pro with no other software installed that might have interfered with Adobe's installer. (Oddly enough, I had no problems at all with installing on my previous G5, which died and forced the purchase of the new Mac Pro.)

The software's great once it's installed and working, but I can't believe how much hassle I've had from Adobe's installers and updaters. They're an absolute nightmare, and who wants to risk their working installations being ruined by dodgy installer software? I remember having problems with Adobe installers before (e.g. with the original CS applications). Installers shouldn't be rocket science, and it's high time that Adobe made its installers much more robust and foolproof. There's thousands of pounds of software at stake, per user, in the Creative Suites, and it's mission-critical for the majority of its users. The last thing the customer needs is to have their system messed up by an unreliable updater application.  
(Version 5.0.4)

RICHARD HALLAS  Version 1.1 still doesn't work properly on my new Mac Pro with GeForce 8800 GT. It's better than version 1.0, but it still flickers absolutely horrendously. On my 2007-vintage MacBook Pro, though, it works nicely; very smooth and flicker-free. It'd be nice if the problem could be fixed for all machines.  
(Version 1.1)

RICHARD HALLAS  It's a very nice utility, but why the change of icon? I really liked the old one, derived from the Mac OS 'face' logo, and it made it clear what the utility was for. The new icon is awful, though! Not only does it convey a lot less (the Mac OS connection has been lost), but I dislike the blue-green colour scheme and the face on the top looks like an evil Halloween pumpkin. Ugh! Has Apple kicked up a fuss about adapting the Mac OS face for use here? If not, I'd like to see the old icon brought back, as it was miles better than the ugly new monstrosity. I see no reason for the change, and it's certainly not an improvement in any obvious way.  
(Version 2.7.5)

RICHARD HALLAS  I'm not a chess buff myself, but I believe that Shredder is supposed to be one of the best implementations out there by far, so this is a great deal. Note, though, that this promo version is not the latest and greatest. This is Shredder Classic 3. Shredder 11 and Deep Shredder 11 are newer, improved and more expensive alternatives. But they'll appeal to the real chess buffs, so I guess that Shredder Classic 3 is the best choice for this kind of promo.  
(Version 3.0)

RICHARD HALLAS  Looks really useful. I'm a little surprised that Apple doesn't offer a utility for doing this sort of thing itself, as a standard OS feature.  
(Version 1.4.3)

RICHARD HALLAS  Yes indeed. I'll do that.  
(Version 1.0)

RICHARD HALLAS  I'm replying to two separate posts from amcan12:

> - Single left click of dock folder opens menu and

> shows all subfolders and items, which are all

> aliases anyway.

My point is that if you have a folder alias in the list, that folder alias isn't resolved, so you don't get a submenu showing its contents. You can click it and the contents appear in a new Finder window, which is useful, but that's essentially what Stacks do already. Under Tiger, the contents would be listed in a submenu just like any other non-alias folder, which is what I want.

> - Simply hovering over the subfolder folder in

> menu opens submenu with no problem.

Not if the parent is a folder alias rather than a folder.

- Single left click on subfolders opens it in Finder.

No, it opens the parent folder in the Finder, with the folder itself highlighted as a selection within that folder. That's not what one would expect. Tiger used to open the contents of the folder in a new Finder window. The behaviour of HierarchicalDock is what you'd expect if you Command-clicked on a folder. (That's useful behaviour, but only in situations when you actually want it - i.e. when you're pressing Command!)

Also, the contrast with the behaviour of alias folders is marked: if you click on those, a Finder window opens to display their contents, which is the correct behaviour.

> Why are you guys clicking on folder in menu?

> Simply moving cursor over the folder in menu

> reveals a submenu

As stated, not if the folder is an alias!

Besides, sometimes you want to open a Finder window of a folder's contents without having to dig down through multiple Finder levels. Using a Dock menu to tunnel down the hierarchy quickly and then click on the folder name to open it directly is very much quicker than starting at a high level and double-clicking on umpteen folder icons to get to where you want.

For me, hierarchical Dock menus have two really helpful uses:

1. To be able to launch an application or file that's buried a few levels down within a well-organised disk filing system (which is what I have); and

2. To be able to get directly to a deeply buried folder and open it in the Finder, without having to open a high-level folder and double-click my way down to it through a series of sub-folders.

This new application brings back both of these facilities, and is hence really useful. However, requirement 1 doesn't work quite as well as it might because alias folders don't produce submenus at present, and requirement 2 isn't quite there yet because you can't just click on the name of a folder within the list to open a Finder window of its contents. Currently, you have to open its parent and then open the folder you want manually.  
(Version 1.0)

RICHARD HALLAS  Absolutely fantastic! Superb, wonderful, marvellous...! Thanks ever so much to the developer. This gives near-perfect behaviour, and is miles better than OldFolder, which I'd been using previously.

There's just a couple of small ways in which it could still be improved:

1. Aliases are currently not resolved. Since my primary Dock folder under Tiger was a folder full of alias folders (to give me quick access to various useful locations), this is a nuisance. It would be really great if the developer could correct this, it's by far the biggest problem with the current version.

2. At present, clicking on a folder in a menu reveals that folder, highlighted, within its container folder. That's not as helpful as it might be; it would be better if clicking on a folder opened a window showing its contents. I'd expect a Command-click to reveal the folder itself.

3. With bigger menus, there's sometimes a brief white flash of the screen when they appear (not always, just occasionally), which shouldn't happen. But maybe that's just an oddity with my graphics card (ATI X800).

Anyway, this is really terrific, and the closest thing we're likely to get unless Apple puts the old functionality back officially. Really excellent.

By the way, the ability to show hidden files with a keypress is actually a significant improvement over the old Apple behaviour, so that's great too!  
(Version 1.0)

RICHARD HALLAS  Further to my comment above, the archive has now been updated to contain version 1.5.4. However, for me at least, it won't launch under Leopard (I've got 10.5.1 installed), even though the ReadMe says it's been tested.  
(Version 1.5.4)

RICHARD HALLAS  Warning: Deja Vu 'downgrade'

This latest Leopard-compatible Toast 8 upgrade includes version 3.2.3 of Deja Vu, which is not the latest Leopard-compatible version. The latest Deja Vu is 3.3 for Tiger and 3.4 for Leopard. If you turn on the checkbox in the Toast installer to install Deja Vu, it installs version 3.2.3 even if you have a newer version installed already (I had 3.4). So beware of that. You can of course download and use Deja Vu 3.4 as a free upgrade from its developer's site, but it's a pity that this Toast upgrade doesn't include the latest Leopard-compatible version. It's also a pity that it'll silently downgrade a newer version; that's pretty unfriendly.  
(Version 8.0.3)

RICHARD HALLAS  Annoyingly, the archive has incorrect contents. The ReadMe file refers to the changes in version 1.5.4, but the application supplied is the old 1.5.3, which fails to launch under Leopard. The developer's site also appears to be unreachable at present. I hope the archive gets fixed soon.  
(Version 1.5.4)

RICHARD HALLAS  Last time I played a computer golf game, it was Holed Out! on my old Archimedes! From the screenshot here, the graphics on this new version don't actually look very much better...! ;-) But maybe I'll take a closer look.  
(Version 2.07)

RICHARD HALLAS  I agree with most of the other comments on here. It sounds like an interesting idea, and the technology on which it's based is clever and all that, but really, what's the point? It sounds like the optimal way of doing two things really badly instead of one thing well. You can't work effectively because of the distraction of the video, and you can't watch the video properly because of the distraction of being able to see everything through it. If you want to both work and watch, what's so wrong with watching the video in a window rather than full-screen? I'm sure that's what I'd want to do, once the novelty of Trans Lucy had worn off.  
(Version 2.1)

RICHARD HALLAS  I could do with a tool like this because I have some connection problems on my Mac (sometimes Internet operations go unresponsive for no obvious reason, especially when using Safari). However, this seems like a relatively expensive application for solving just one problem which may be with my ISP rather than my computer, and if it's not fully Leopard compatible yet then that would be a nuisance.  
(Version 2.1.3)

RICHARD HALLAS  With only minor differences, this game is almost identical to Tasty Planet. Quite entertaining, though. A nice touch is the inclusion of unlockable screensavers with which to enhance System Preferences.  
(Version 1.0.1)

RICHARD HALLAS  It's all about gardening, this weekend! Over on MacZOT! today they have a cut-price bundle comprising "Maggie the Gardener 2" and "Tom's Hen House"! (Well, OK, hens aren't flora, but nevertheless a theme is evident...)  
(Version 1.0)

RICHARD HALLAS  The version I get when I download the disc image of the registered copy (not the demo) is the previous Tiger version, not the new Leopard-compatible one. Hence it doesn't work for me yet.  
(Version 10)

RICHARD HALLAS  Excellent value! I approve of 70% discounts.  
(Version )

RICHARD HALLAS  It's a very nice program, but a bit of a luxury to buy for people who don't make presentations. I personally still use version 1, which was free, because all I ever use it for is to find the pointer if I've lost it on my large monitor. Paying for a slightly more refined visual effect is overkill for that purpose, so I haven't bought version 2, but it's a very nice piece of software for what it does.  
(Version 2.5.1)

RICHARD HALLAS  I'd like this, but right now seems a bad time to buy such a utility. I don't know what kinds of improvements will be introduced with Leopard (which I pre-ordered yesterday) or whether this program will even remain appropriate after the OS X 10.5 update.  
(Version 2.6.2)

RICHARD HALLAS  I am impressed, at least, by Koingo's generosity, and I haven't even downloaded this software yet. I've got all of their other applications (every single one) because they offered them once as a big bundle at an almost give-away price. Some I don't use at all but others are very handy, and they all seem to be of a decent quality. I'm not sure how useful to me Librarian Pro will be, but at a 67% discount I'm buying it just to show a bit of extra support to what appears to be an unusually open-handed company.  
(Version 1.0.8)

RICHARD HALLAS  This looks extremely useful! I spent some days transcribing some long interviews using iTunes a couple of months ago, and it was a rather trying exercise. I wish I'd known about this at the time. I think I'll get this for potential use in the future.  
(Version 1.21)

RICHARD HALLAS  Pity they haven't done a version of Snooker. I'd be much more interested in that. I'm also not very keen on their smoked glass interface, which is just yet another unwanted window style variation.  
(Version 8.0)

RICHARD HALLAS  Fantastic! Excellent implementation and a really worthwhile discount! Bargain.  
(Version 2.21)

RICHARD HALLAS  Good grief! How much?! I'm sure this is very interesting, and I'd love to play around with it, but even the special offer price is ridiculously expensive for a program of this nature.  
(Version 1.2)

RICHARD HALLAS  Crumbs! This is a very significant bargain if it's something that you know is going to be useful. But it's hardly the sort of thing you can just buy as an impulse purchase, which is usually the case here on the MacUpdate Promo, so I'm pretty surprised to see it here and wonder who it's aimed at. The people who actually need it are likely to have bought it at full price, and for those like me who'd be quite interested in playing with it but can't justify it as a 'luxury buy', it's too expensive even at the promo price. Great deal, though.  
(Version 1.0)

RICHARD HALLAS  This is a good, enjoyable game with a great deal of variety and interest. The only problem is that it really is far too easy. Beyond an occasional sticking-point, there's not really a lot of challenge, and you can play through the whole thing in a single sitting without much trouble. But there's probably enough variety in it to make an occasional replay worthwhile, so it's reasonable value at the sale price. I'd feel a bit cheesed off it I'd bought it at full price, though. (I got it cheap in an earlier promotion elsewhere.)  
(Version 1.0.3.1)

RICHARD HALLAS  Looks like something out of James Bond (GoldenEye). "I spiked him! I yam invincible!"  
(Version 2.6)

RICHARD HALLAS  This would certainly be a nice one to win!  
(Version 1.6)

RICHARD HALLAS  I'd consider this if I hadn't just got Intaglio as part of the MacUpdate bundle a couple of weeks ago.  
(Version 2.3.1)

RICHARD HALLAS  I have to say, this does appear to be the most realistic of the fish tank simulations available for the Mac, and I like the fact that you can turn on anti-aliasing, which makes it look even better.

Something that's not clear from the description is the fact that you get both a screensaver *and* an application version (which work in essentially the same way). The screensaver's good for normal screensaver use, but the application lets you play with the software more easily. Very nice indeed overall.  
(Version 2.0)

RICHARD HALLAS  Yes please!  
(Version 4.7.2)

RICHARD HALLAS  It's handy for people who don't want to use the full FileVault on everything.  
(Version 2.0)

RICHARD HALLAS  This sounds handy.  
(Version 3.0.11.3370)

RICHARD HALLAS  I think this is just what I've been looking for. I'd overlooked it before, but it seems most impressive.  
(Version 6.1.1)

RICHARD HALLAS  This is very interesting. Because it uses the VNC protocol, it appears that it'll work with any computer that has a VNC client for it, so it could be another Mac, a Windows PC or some other operating system. That's a very neat idea; definitely worth investigating.  
(Version 1.0.2B1050)

RICHARD HALLAS  It's a great app. The only trouble is that there'll almost certainly be a pay-for upgrade when Leopard comes out, so it's got a very limited lifespan. I felt a bit aggrieved when I was required to pay again for Tiger Cache Cleaner not long after having bought Panther Cache Cleaner, so I didn't bother to upgrade.  
(Version 3.2.11)

RICHARD HALLAS  Amazing! Who'd have thought that the age-old 'Worm' concept could be so interesting? Very clever indeed, though the 'hyper' levels (Klein Bottle, Spiral etc.) can be pretty confusing.

I'd like to see options to set the thickness of the lines and to go full-screen, and it would be good if you could 'win' a level and progress to a new shape. (Perhaps you can, but I haven't seen it happen yet!)

A genuine 'Apple' level (apple shape with stem, as in the application icon) would be a fun addition.

As it stands, though, it's really impressive.  
(Version 1.0)

RICHARD HALLAS  Beautiful. A few configuration options would be nice (size, speed and number of snowflakes, colour cycling options for the background etc.), but the defaults are nice and, as it stands, this is certainly the best-looking snowy screensaver I've seen so far. The snowflakes look particularly delightful, and the animation is very smooth. It'd be nice if the background colours could be chosen by the user, as I don't like one colour to remain static on the screen for too long in a screensaver, and if the background colour could start off in different shades depending on the time of day, that would be a nice touch.

For a version 1.0, though, this is really very nice indeed.  
(Version 1.0)

RICHARD HALLAS  Excellent little widget. Superb presentation, nice animation and a good, neat size: not so small as to be fiddly, but no bigger than it needs to be.

Only two negative comments:

1. The ghost showing the squares in which you can place pieces occasionally fails to show up.

2. The game is too easy. I can beat it just about every time even on the hardest skill level. At least one even harder skill setting would be useful.

Overall, though, an extremely nice widget.  
(Version 1.1)

RICHARD HALLAS  A very nice little puzzle game - a decent implementation of 'Clumps'.

It'd be nice to be able to have a one-click option to collapse matching tiles (all that double-clicking gets a bit much after a while), and maybe an extra theme or two would be good (there are two user-selectable ones; more would be nice), but overall this is a really neat little widget.

I've already spotted an Easter Egg! Click three different single blocks in a row and a small Easter Egg symbol appears for each... and on the appearance of the third egg, the widget swings round to reveal a third theme, involving a perfectly nauseating photograph of a man we all love to hate. I won't spoil the surprise here, though; check it out!  
(Version 1.0)

RICHARD HALLAS  Further to my previous comment...

Although there's no mention of a Finder fix (or indeed problem!) in the FruitMenu 3.1.1 update, it's worth noting that, after installing this latest version, my previous problem with FruitMenu crashing the Finder has now gone away.

So, three cheers. I'm happy again!  
(Version 3.1.1)

RICHARD HALLAS  This 3.1 update causes a big problem on my PowerBook G4 (OS 10.2.6): now that I have it installed, pop-up/contextual menus no longer work in the Finder. The menu bar across the top of the screen works OK, but contextual menus, path menus from the drop-down Path button in Finder toolbars, and pop-up path menus (Command-click) from Finder window title bars, all cause the Finder to die. It just quits and then reloads a few seconds later, with no error message. Anyone else see this?

It's probably a conflict between FruitMenu and something else I've got installed, but as yet I don't know what it is. Problem reported to Unsanity but no response so far. This started when I installed FruitMenu 3.1, and the previous version (3.0.1) was fine. Very annoying...  
(Version 3.1)