BACKPACKER  The 'bloat' seems to be mostly here, when you control or right-mouse-button-click on the app:

Toast Titanium.app/Contents/Resources/Toast DVD Menu Styles

Each 'Menu Style' has 1 large and 1 small psd image/graphics file, except for the NoMenu.psd.

Trash the Menu Styles you think less useful or nice, and save a few hundred MB, and that's before slimming/de-localizing.

If anyone finds 'bloat' elsewhere, please yell.  
(Version 10.0.3)

BACKPACKER  When foreign language support is removed, and foreign documentation is trashed from GC.app/Contents/Documentation, this app is smaller than 80MB ;)  
(Version 6.4.2)

BACKPACKER  The Office removal instructions didn't work for me, either, nor did the Remove Office uninstaller in the folder 'Additional Tools'.

So it was the usually trusty CleanApp I turned to; it took many attempts, dragging various Office apps onto CleanApp, to trash about 1.5GB of Office stuff.

A lot of it was hidden in /private/var/folders/2N and /Library/Automater. Also many files ~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.xxxxxxxxxxx.xxxx

Finally the Microsoft folders in /Library/Application Support and ~/Library/Application Support and ~/Library/Preferences nad to be trashed, and whatever was left in /Applications/Microsoft Office 2008

If nothing else, this showed that CleanApp needs improvement before it can digest Office in one chomp.  
(Version 12.2)

BACKPACKER  Thanks! Shall make a note of that. My guess is that installer does nothing more than create the TTP app within it's folder; the TTP PrefPane and daemon only install upon serializing.  
(Version 5.0.5)

BACKPACKER  AFAIK Coriolis lets the owner of a Coriolis DVD make a new DVD with the updated Coriolis app on it; the DVD itself doesn't get updated.

If one has an older Coriolis Tiger DVD then you can only make another Tiger DVD with a newer app on it; to boot the latest Macs with the newer Coriolis Leopard DVD would require an upgrade purchase.

With the coming of USB-3.0 and ever cheaper external drives, all the disc talk may well become irrelevant.  
(Version 5.0.5)

BACKPACKER  MS's online Help info isn't that great:

The uninstall section just tells you to trash the MS2008 folder in Applications and the MS folder in ~/Library/Preferences. That still leaves a 142MB MS folder in /Library/App Support and many MS files in /Library/Receipt, and another MS folder in ~/Library/App Support. Did I forget any?

As for avoiding re-installing by trashing ~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Office 2008/Microsoft Office 2008 Settings.plist &

/Applications/Microsoft Office 2008/Office/OfficePID.plist ?

The Setup Assistant doesn't always allow you to re-enter a valid key, but asks that you re-install from scratch.

However, the latest OpenOffice 3.1.1_310 build 9413, released on 22nd July'09, looks good .... just a tidy drag-n-drop as usual.  
(Version 12.2)

BACKPACKER  Nice work finding the TTP download location, and could be useful to know.

Care to share ?  
(Version 5.0.5)

BACKPACKER  Thanks for the heads-up, BURAK.

Yes, OO 3.1.0 310m11 Build 9399 is quite snappy on G4 :)  
(Version 3.1)

BACKPACKER  Over the years I've had a few volume directory issues that couldn't be fixed by any of the utilities mentioned here, so it's surprising that DiskWarrior is referred to like the magic bullet.

When DW does straight-forward rebuilds, ie green notifications and no red words (when the new directory will differ significantly from the old one), then it's easy. However, when the red words warn you to manually compare the old directory against the new one, and you've a gazillion files, it isn't so easy.

As for FileSalvage, it very slowly coughs up files that bare little resemblance to your original ones; you get files identified by type (thank you) and lots of digits that you don't recognize, and you have to open each one to ID them again.

So, it's still down to regular backups, and also leaving enough free space on your drive/s to avoid serious disk/directory problems. For things like trash-recovery, TTP5 works fast and well.

TTP5's dials might be something the user can switch on or off in future versions, but as graphical diversion they are tame compared to Drive Genius' (which I've found to be more flashy than effective).

However, those dials ARE something when TTP5 is working on a G3 500MHz PPC with 0.5Gig RAM and ATI-Rage 8MB-VRAM video-card that has no core-image or quart-extreme support.   
(Version 5.0.4)

BACKPACKER  Please don't get personal, dear 'Admin'.

Some of us are just trying to alert you that some software-spamming might be going on.  
(Version 1.8.2.4)

BACKPACKER  Ho, Terry

So you posted here. as well:

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/30023/aimersoft-video-converter

as one of the replies to BACKPACKER ?  
(Version 1.8.2.4)

BACKPACKER  Ho, Terry

So you posted here. as well:

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/30023/aimersoft-video-converter

as one of the replies to BACKPACKER ?  
(Version 1.8.2.4)

BACKPACKER  It's $10.27 as of today.

Why isn't more time being spent improving the app than twiddling with its price ?  
(Version 1.1a)

BACKPACKER  Checking the website here:

http://memtools.info/mtg3/purchase.html

memTools Pro is now US$5.27 !

C'mon, make it a prefpane which keeps user-settings, and earn more stars.  
(Version 1.1a)

BACKPACKER  From the article mentioned below:

"As RAM optimizers force the available-memory counter up, they force other processes' data and code out of memory. Say that you're running Word, for example. As the optimizer forces the available-memory counter up, the text of open documents and the program code that was part of Word's working set before the optimization (and was therefore present in physical memory) must be reread from disk as you continue to edit your document. The performance degradation can be severe on servers because the file data that's cached in the standby list and in the System working set (as well as the code and data used by active server applications) might be discarded."

That's what iFreemem does since it only does manually activated 'deep' memory recycling.

From memTools' Help :

"Note try to avoid going too deep as it just causes potentially useful cache to be discarded and the MAC then has to re-cache various program caches. Try to use the least to do the job, and you will usually get incredible free memory performance."

I'm typing this from a 500MHz G3 iMac with 512MB of RAM memory and using memTools' Recycle By Time option (set closer to 'fast' for 300 sec. intervals). Firefox is noticeably smoother like this.

If only memTools was a preference-pane and remembered its user-settings, then maybe call it 'Pro' ;)  
(Version 1.1a)

BACKPACKER  My initial impressions of v5.0.1 :

TTP5.0.1 does auto-directory-backup faster than v4.6.2 (it actually stopped working in the old version and could not be resumed).

Using the SMART test, TTP5 quickly and graphically produces a list of about 30 criteria on the hard-drive state.

Those venting here, about improvements over v4.6.2 for example, should maybe look at the Micromat forum, where serious discussion is found.

http://www.micromat.com/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&Itemid=42&func=view&id=7633&catid=21  
(Version 5.0.1)

BACKPACKER  I was confused because the apps from Aimersoft and iSkysoft were the same.

In cases of re-branding (rare), many consumers usually prefer the 'original', for obvious reasons.

I'm researching this further.  
(Version 1.8.2)

BACKPACKER  As with their 'media converter' this is another re-branded iSkySoft app ?

http://www.iskysoft.com/video-converter-mac.html

Confusing...  
(Version 1.8.2)

BACKPACKER  This app seems identical to iSkysoft's iMedia Converter which was listed on VersionTracker one day before.

Peeking into the application-packages, they are the same app, but with different developer/app icons.

Confusing ....  
(Version 2.0.0.10)

BACKPACKER  While testing Synk Standard and Pro on exact backups, neither current version seems to backup app-icons always. Synk Standard v6.4.1, however, did exact-backups with app-icons intact.  
(Version 6.4.2)

BACKPACKER  Having used tools like iDMG to access bzip2 high-compression, it was a nice surprise to return to Stuffit to find that its v13.0.1 'Best Binary Compression' (custom-set at highest level) beat everything else I've tried so far. The time penalty for high-comp settings doesn't seem as great as that for older versions, and the sitx files are much smaller than bzip2-type files.

The only quirk has been occasional crash-on-quitting under Leopard PPC on a Quicksilver G4.  
(Version 13.0.1)

BACKPACKER  It doesn't take that much effort to configure NB X5 or to navigate its interface. I didn't have to go through all 175 pages of the manual, although it was both very helpful and fun to read.

My gripe is that although the NB X5 dmg opens to reveal installer folders for various languages, using the English installer (for example) results in multi-lingual Intego apps. Please clean up the installers. Thanks.  
(Version 10.5.3)

BACKPACKER  Just from a marketing viewpoint, maybe it would be better to demo the latest products.

If a car-salesman asked me to sit in an '08 model to get a feel of the '09 auto, I'd wouldn't be too thrilled.

Also, why are the Coriolis products found at http://www.netjapan.co.jp different in version/build numbers ?  
(Version 3.1)

BACKPACKER  Tools of this type invariably advise having a recent backup ready, just in case something goes awry during defragging or re-partitioning. With cost of storage dropping and interface speeds increasing, just cloning that backup increasingly becomes a viable alternative to using such tools.

Maybe in recognition of this, drive-restore is found in iDefrag/iPartition to offset the risk of power-cutoff etc.. I mean, if it's risky, I may as well risk nothing more than an easy clone.

Another very useful feature missing from Drive Genius 2.x is partition table/scheme conversion, particularly when there's still a lot of switching going on between APM and GUID schemes etc. as Intel Mac usage grows.

Features like shredding, disk-checking/repairing, intializing, iconizing can easily be found elsewhere, but serious defragging and repartitioning tools are rather rare.  
(Version 2.1)

BACKPACKER  v3.6.4 doesn't show up in the developer's site anymore, and they've not notified anyone, even when I emailed Softobe to ask why.  
(Version 3.6.4)

BACKPACKER  Thanks for restoring the proper exporting of created screensavers for Leopard PPC.  
(Version 2.5.2)

BACKPACKER  Ever since the v2.5 betas, attempts to load/invoke exported screensavers result in this error:

"Can't load screensaver. Uncaught exception 'NSInvalidArgumentException', reason: '*** -[FMColor cancelAllDelayedSelectors]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x1f826230"

This error message is a combination of the error-popup and the crash-report that is generated due to the error invariably crashing System Preferences.

This happens whether the created screensaver is exported directly into the ScreenSavers folder (root or Home) or installed by double-clicking from elsewhere on the drive.

10.5.4 on PPC (G4 1.33-dual), ATI Radeon 9600 256MB VRAM.  
(Version 2.5.1)

BACKPACKER  DB 4.1.20 was silently updated, in July 2007, to BDBv526. From what I can see, the component change was a Unix resource named Cdrw32.bdb created 3/July/2007.  
(Version 4.1.20)

BACKPACKER  DB 4.1.20 was silently updated, in July 2007, to BDBv526. From what I can see, the component change was a Unix resource named Cdrw32.bdb created 3/July/2007.  
(Version 4.1.20)

BACKPACKER  From macrumors:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=505414&page=3

"Somewhere within the Office 2008 12.1.1 Update package is an item named 'updatables' which shows that multi-language versions of Microsoft Office Setup Assistant are sought, in particular the Plugins/SLT.bundle inside it. This bundle was introduced in the SP1 Update (12.1.0) and is not found in the original MSO2008 install.

Opening up the Office 2008 SP1 Update (12.1.0) package, and looking inside Packages for Office2008_en_core_12.1.0.combo.pkg, I opened this one up with Pacifist to look for the Microsoft Office Setup Assistant updater/installer. Inside, we find the SLT.bundle in its multi-language state. When this is extracted with Pacifist onto the hard-drive somewhere (desktop will do), it can then replace the one embedded in your existing Office 2008 SP1 installation. (Like many, I had also removed all language localizations and, in so doing, changed the SLT.bundle inside Microsoft Office Setup Assistant)

After doing the above, and after a couple of goes (no Safe-boot or logging-out required), the Office 2008 12.1.1 Update went fine, and the 12.1.1 apps work."  
(Version 12.1.1)

BACKPACKER  From macrumors:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=505414&page=3

"Somewhere within the Office 2008 12.1.1 Update package is an item named 'updatables' which shows that multi-language versions of Microsoft Office Setup Assistant are sought, in particular the Plugins/SLT.bundle inside it. This bundle was introduced in the SP1 Update (12.1.0) and is not found in the original MSO2008 install.

Opening up the Office 2008 SP1 Update (12.1.0) package, and looking inside Packages for Office2008_en_core_12.1.0.combo.pkg, I opened this one up with Pacifist to look for the Microsoft Office Setup Assistant updater/installer. Inside, we find the SLT.bundle in its multi-language state. When this is extracted with Pacifist onto the hard-drive somewhere (desktop will do), it can then replace the one embedded in your existing Office 2008 SP1 installation. (Like many, I had also removed all language localizations and, in so doing, changed the SLT.bundle inside Microsoft Office Setup Assistant)

After doing the above, and after a couple of goes (no Safe-boot or logging-out required), the Office 2008 12.1.1 Update went fine, and the 12.1.1 apps work."  
(Version 12.1.1)

BACKPACKER  About the full-featured FS Preview window:

Can that window be entitled with the task-in-process (ie Exact Synch, Incremental Synch, Exact BackUp etc.) to dispel any doubts about what is being previewed ?

Might it even be possible to change tasks from within the Preview window, just by changing the window-title ?

Thanks for the ongoing work on FolderSynchronizer.  
(Version 3.6.4)

BACKPACKER  Thank you for the new Help information.  
(Version 2.35)

BACKPACKER  With v2.30 iDMG now retains the settings last used before quitting.

In iDMG Help, will you also explain the File System selections and their effects/consequences ? Thanks Patrick.  
(Version 2.3)

BACKPACKER  Patrick,

HFS+ and UDBZ (slider all the way right) gave me better compression than UDZO.

After trying UDZO and setting the slider, the slider was kept to the right when I tried UDBZ.

I wish I could keep that setting (like a preference) every time iDMG is launched, since high-compression read-only dmg is what is most often needed.

All the best in your studies.  
(Version 2.2)

BACKPACKER  Re: drag-&-drop onto iDMG's 'Drag here' icon. In v2.1 it works, for me, like a jaw that's hinged on it's bottom-left corner, and opens up to gobble a folder when it is dragged towards the right-side of the dotted-box icon. Imagine the fun if/when this action is accompanied by a nice chomping-grinding sound :]

I'm using iDMG almost daily since I discovered that the combined selection of HFS+ and UDBZ produced the smallest read-only disk-images possible. Or am I wrong? Any way that a user could make the right selections by being guided by balloons or something ?  
(Version 2.1)

BACKPACKER  Revision 4 of MediaEdit 3.0.1 (released April 8 '08) has fixed the crashing in the Audio function when USB-headphones were or were not used, or plugging and unplugging them.

Thanks for being on the ball!  
(Version 3.0.1r3)

BACKPACKER  Revision 3 of MediaEdit 3.0.1, released April 7 '08, finally works on my G4 with Leopard. Thanks.

BTW, as with v3.0.0, selecting Audio (on the right-hand-side of the Project window) consistently causes crashing if my USB-headphones aren't plugged in. It seems like M.E. remembers that I first tried it with the headphones, and now requires them for the Audio function always. Unplugging the headphones in Audio also causes the crash ('An exception of class NilObjectException was not handled. The application must shut down.')  
(Version 3.0.1)

BACKPACKER  Using the same 5MP JPEG as before, I tried 200% pixel-size enlargement.

The PZP stand-alone app. produced a 9.7MB file, while the GFPP plug-in made a 6.4MB image, both set for best quality.

Side-by-side Preview magnifications show the GFPP image to be more defined.  
(Version 2.3.2)

BACKPACKER  Using the same 5MP JPEG as before, I tried 200% pixel-size enlargement.

The PZP stand-alone app. produced a 9.7MB file, while the GFPP plug-in made a 6.4MB image, both set for best quality.

Side-by-side Preview magnifications show the GFPP image to be more defined.  
(Version 2.3.2)

BACKPACKER  I've just tried the Genuine Fractals PrintPro 5.0.4 and the PhotoZoom Pro 2.3.2 CS3 plug-ins on a 5MP JPEG (732KB) for 1000% pixel-size enlargement.

PZP took about 38 minutes on a G4-dual 1.33GHz (upgraded) Mac with 1.5GB RAM, both CPUs just over 70% mark. The resulting image was over 216MB with same quality as the original JPEG.

GFPP used full capacity from both CPUs, and never completed it's task; many minutes into the process, CS3 froze.  
(Version 2.3.2)

BACKPACKER  Noise Buster 3.0 was stable in CS2 and Elements 4 on my Quicksilver G4 (OSX 10.4.9), and produced very satisfying results even in Automatic mode.  
(Version 3.0)