MONOCLAST  Agreed - terrific applicaiton; but an icon like this would be so much better looking, IMO:

http://www.electronichealing.co.uk/resources/Image/penguin_juicer_cream.jpg  
(Version 4.10)

MONOCLAST  StartupSound.prefpane doesn;t sem to work at all on Intel-based Macs. This utility, on the other hand, works flawlessly on both PowerPC- and Intel-based Macs. So I'm revising my review rating for it. : )  
(Version 2.1.1)

MONOCLAST  I used to play this on my Power Mac G5 tower, and loved it; but I was disappointed to find this game runs like UTTER CRAP on my brand-new Mac Pro! The entire game locks up every few seconds, even in the menus before you enter a map! It's completely unplayable. I've re-installed several times from the original CD media and applying updates doesn't help.

Has anyone gotten this game running well on Intel hardware??  
(Version 1.3)

MONOCLAST  It runs fine here on 10.5.

Or are you running 10.3 and refusing to upgrade to 10.4 for some reason?  
(Version 1.2)

MONOCLAST  Last time I used SD, I found it has reformatted all my non-SD cron entries with tab characters between each time element, which made editing on the command line a pain because tabs take up so much more space than spaces! I notified the developer and he said he'd look into it.

Does anyone know if SuperDuper still reformats cron job entries that have nothing to do with SuperDuper?   
(Version 2.5)

MONOCLAST  This is possibly the best SPAM filter I've used in years. And you can't beat the price - especially considering the value! : )  
(Version 1.1rc3)

MONOCLAST  When you sleep a computer, the wireless hardware powers down. There's no way to contact it to wake it up.  
(Version 0.90)

MONOCLAST  VeryVito wrote:

> an attorney might have two documents he wants to keep in an archive

> folder: MoleStationCase.doc (concerning Mole Station, MD) and

> MolestationCase.doc (concerning sexual misconduct). A glance could tell

> the names apart, but in a case-insensitive OS, they would overwrite one

> another.

Then again, if he had used spaces, that problem wouldn't exist to begin with:

Mole Station Case.doc

Molestation Case.doc

Seems very clear to me.

Also, one might argue that someone less computer literate, say a grandmother, might be very confused that she somehow ended up with two files, Rose Bushes.pdf and Rose bushes.pdf in the same folder, because she just happened to download the file from different web sites that happened to capitalize letters in the name differently.

The point is, some people benefit from case insensitivity in a file system. I think Apple realizes this, and I'm glad we have a choice.

VeryVito wrote:

> Also, consider the developer's convention of uppercasing class names,

> such as Button.java, to differentiate them from instance-level

> directives found in button.java.

>

> There are many reasons to choose case-sensitive file systems"=

Sure - there are reasons; but they are, by and large, preferential reasons. In fact, we see many open source project adding support for case insensitive file systems today. The majority of the most popular open source project compile just fine on case insensitive file systems.

VeryVito wrote:

> I think it's only for historical reasons that Apple even includes the

> non-sensitive option in OS X.

That's definitely *one* of the reasons.

sanjaymehta wrote:

> Thanks for the write up - some people do need the obvious to be batted

> around their heads before they get it

I "got it" from the beginning.

I still don't think there is real benefit from using a case sensitive file system.

sanjaymehta wrote:

> my one word attempt ("Unix") was perhaps too subtle.

Too subtle? No. Your one-word attempt was simply inadequate.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Note: I'm in no way excusing Logitech, or any other software maker,

should their software not function correctly on an Apple-supported file

system. Apple does support case sensitivity, and therefore so should

Logitech.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------  
(Version 7.5)

MONOCLAST  That's a neat solution, thanks for sharing; but I have to wonder how moving them (mv src dest) and creating a link to them (ln -s src dest), which is two steps, would be easier than just hiding them, which is one single step.

I'm also not sure how it would be considered better: If you just hide them, and Logitech decides to remove them in the future, there's no problem. But if you move them and create soft links to them, and Logitech decides to remove them in the future, will the links be removed, or will the items you moved get removed. If the latter, will the soft links you created get removed as well, or will they turn into broken soft links?   
(Version 7.5)

MONOCLAST  This is a great application that does a great job of keeping you updated about weather conditions, and is very stable and relatively bug-free. The user interface - in particular the preferences - could use some work in terms of better organization and usability, but what is there works.

One gripe I have with this application is for several releases now it's polluted the system log with entries like these:

Jul 21 12:36:57 mono Meteorologist[191]: Fetching URL: http://www.weather.com/weather/mpdwcr/tenday?locid=USTX0225

Jul 21 12:41:55 mono Meteorologist[191]: Fetching URL: http://www.weather.com/outlook/travel/businesstraveler/local/USTX0225

Jul 21 12:41:55 mono Meteorologist[191]: Fetching URL: http://www.weather.com/weather/mpdwcr/tenday?locid=USTX0225

Jul 21 12:41:55 mono Meteorologist[191]: Weather.com URL: http://www.weather.com/outlook/travel/businesstraveler/local/USTX0225

And it does this each time it checks for updated weather, which means my logs typically have over FIVE HUNDRED such entries a DAY! For instance, here's the count for today (and the day is far from over):

# cat /var/log/system.log | grep Meteorologist | sort | wc -l

459

Obviously having these messages interspersed with critical messages in the log makes casually scanning the logs for other pertinent information a pain in the ass. In fact, i typically have ti filter the Meteorologist messages out to view my logs efficiently, which means viewing them through the command line and using grep to filter.

This may not bother the developer, but it's surely irritating to others. I realize this is a freeware application, and I'm not giving it a bad rating for this; but I really hope the author will stop logging unimportant data like this to the system log in a future update! Put this stuff in the console log if you must, but keep it out of our system logs, please!  
(Version 1.4.8)

MONOCLAST  Gosh you seem to have so much trouble with this software... Meanwhile it's worked fine for me and many others. It definitely needs improvements in terms of how the application is packaged, but that's largely cosmetic. But the fact is it gets the job done on most systems - certainly those systems that use the HFS default case-INsensitive file system.

I really have to wonder how many of your problems are caused by your stubborn decision to use a case-sensitive file system just because "this is Unix"...  
(Version 7.4.1.1)

MONOCLAST  "Unix"? Really? If that's your sole reason for running a case-sensitive file system, I find that pretty humorous.

In that case, maybe I should start using the 8.3 file name convention since my Macs also run Windows...

Pfft...  
(Version 7.4.1.1)

MONOCLAST  I think you'll find there are quite a few pieces of software that assume the file system is *not* case sensitive. Are you also giving all the other software bad ratings for this?

Personally, I don't see why you'd want to use a case sensitive file system with Mac OS X to begin with. I mean really - who wants to have two files with similar names like ReadMe.rtf and Readme.rtf in the same folder? All you're doing is adding a layer of complexity... and for what gain?  
(Version 7.4.1.1)

MONOCLAST  To WANDA COPER: You gave it a two star rating because it works well but you don't need it?! Tsk tsk...

Personally, I think it's worth the money simply for the "Classic Window Behavior" functionality. Out of all the software out there that claims to be able to make Mac OS X windows behave as they did in Classic, this is the only one that works reliably. That makes it worth every penny, in my book.

Love this tool - great work!  
(Version 2.1.9)

MONOCLAST  Hi Bruce,

Thanks for the kind words and suggestions.

Play Sound uses 0.00% CPU and about 1.0 MB of RAM while idle in the background. Therefore leaving Play Sound running in the background when sounds are finished playing is not a big deal. In fact, it's actually less work for the system to leave it running than it would be to launch and quit Play Sound each time you play a sound.

My goal with Play Sound is to offer Mac users a quick, transparent way to play sound files. Unfortunately, adding a user interface to Play Sound would slow startup times even more, making running and quitting it take even longer.

With that said, I do appreciate your input. I've noted your request, and will consider it for future updates. Or perhaps at some point in the future I'll find time to write a companion application with a user interface for those who want such a thing.  
(Version 1.6.6)

MONOCLAST  I absolutely could not do without this utility. For those of us with large, high-resolution displays, it's very easy to lose track of where your cursor is on the screen. Being able to press a hot key and set an idle timer to see where the mouse is on the screen is a god-send! Thanks so much for offering this great utility to Mac users for free. We really do appreciate it!

It might be nice if this application did screen dimming the way Mousepose does. But for free, I have no complaints, and I would rather it not do that if it meant it was no longer a free utility!  
(Version 1.1)

MONOCLAST  The name of this software conflicts with an already-established piece of open source software called "Synergy":

http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/

The open source Synergy has been around since like 1996. So you probably want to change your name.  
(Version 3.1.1b)

MONOCLAST  Why does it sort by item number?? I would think it would be much better to sort by Time Remaining!

For that matter, shouldn't it let *me* choose how to sort the items, maybe by clicking the column headers?  
(Version 1.1)

MONOCLAST  Because "." does not expand to "the current front-most Finder window". It expands to "the current working directory", which is not nearly the same thing. Try it.  
(Version 2.0.3)

MONOCLAST  EGINZBURG wrote: "Is this software using APE framework from Unsanity that causes MacOS X to slow down???"

1. NOPE. Logitech's software is of their own doing, and nobody else's.

2. The APE framework from Unsanity doesn't "cause Mac OS X to slow down".

3. If your computer is slower after installing Logitech software, then Unsanity is obviously not your problem.

4. Mac OS X has built-in drivers that work for most mouses. Therefore, most mouses (even Logitech's) work without the need to install additional software like this.   
(Version 2.1.3)

MONOCLAST  That's very peculiar. I've got Office 2004 running on twelve or so macs at home and at work and they've all been updating just fine.

At any rate, the good news is because of the way Office files are organized, reinstalling is painless:

1. Delete the /Applications/Microsoft Office 2004 folder.

2. Drag a new copy from the install CD.

3. Run AutoUpdate and let it bring you all the way to the latest version.

All of your preferences and data remains untouched.

A word of advice: If you go this route, don't bother launching any office applications until you have applied all updates. Older versions reading newer data files could potentially throw a wrench in things.  
(Version 11.3.2)

MONOCLAST  Interesting. So what happens if you run AutoUpdater?

You might consider posting to the comp.sys.mac.system or microsoft.public.mac.office.entourage news groups about this - I bet someone there can help!  
(Version 11.3.2)

MONOCLAST  I think it's obvious why Windows users are jealous - not that that has anythign to do with anything.

But for the record, Microsoft *did* openly and publicly admit that they made a mistake letting this update go out before it was ready:

http://www.crn.com/sections/breakingnews/breakingnews.jhtml;jsessionid=A0JFZNNN2RINGQSNDLRCKHSCJUNN2JVN?articleId=196700580  
(Version 11.3.2)

MONOCLAST  Yeah I noticed that too! I just love it when you get faster launches for free. : )  
(Version 11.3.2)

MONOCLAST  "I get an error saying the installer can't find the correct files to update, even though they are there and were updated through 11.3.0 a couple of months back."

This updater is 11.3.2 (two). I believe if you want to apply it to your Office version 11.3.0 (zero) you will have to apply the 11.3.1 (one) update before you apply this one. No?  
(Version 11.3.2)

MONOCLAST  Yep - that's exactly what I was trying to point out. Thanks! : )  
(Version 11.3.2)

MONOCLAST  FWIR, one of the installation scripts in the package did not use quoted paths, and the path they built assumed that hard drive names would not contain spaces. The resulting command had a space in it that effectively caused the entire disk to be "rm" removed. It was a huge problem at the time - so I remember it well.  
(Version 11.3.2)

MONOCLAST  It has to do with the comments people have recently left about this update - namely:

elegraphy wrote:

"Can you imagine that Apple had the same error? This explaines that why Microsoft products always unreliable to use..."

To which I replied:

"Apple has had this same error - and decidedly *worse* errors - before.

Anyone remember the Apple iTunes 2 software update that deleted people's entire home directories? I sure do!

Etc."  
(Version 11.3.2)

MONOCLAST  Oh how quickly you forget. Apple has had this same error - and decidedly *worse* errors - before.

Anyone remember the Apple iTunes 2 software update that deleted people's entire home directories? I sure do!

Or how about the Mac OS X 10.2.8 update that appeared, disappeared, then reappeared after breaking network connectivity for Power Mac G4s, resetting file mappings, and causing startup difficulties? I remember it well.

Or what about those nifty 1st generation Power Mac MDD computers whose fans caused vibrations so bad that the resulting noise was unbearable. It was only after thousands of people complained that Apple finally offered free replacement kits to them.

Or how about the iTunes 4 bug that caused some Windows 2000 systems to hang on boot-up after installation? Oh yes, my friends, it happened!

Give it a rest, please. This was an honest mistake that any software company can make.  
(Version 11.3.2)

MONOCLAST  For anyone interested, I accomplish the same thing with a simple addition to my ~/.bashrc file:

####################################################################

# implement cdf command #

# (changes the working dir to the front-most window of the Finder) #

####################################################################

cdf()

{

eval cd "`osascript -e 'tell app "Finder" to return the quoted form of the POSIX path of (target of window 1 as alias)' 2>/dev/null`"

}

With this added to your .bashrc file, you can open a terminal window and type "cdf" to change the working directory to the front-most Finder window.  
(Version 2.0.2)

MONOCLAST  Note to the developer:

I just clicked the download link and it made Firefox completely unusable because it started downloading it as text into the browser window, which slowed Firefox down to a crawl!

What's worse is it's not easy to figure out the complete download path until you've clicked the download link.

If you will add the following to your apache configuration (you can do this in a .htaccess file), your downloads don't appear as text in web browser windows:

AddType application/octet-stream dmg

More info here:

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20040211102018600  
(Version 1.1.2)