MONOCLAST  You are mistaken. This software can't disable your mouse. It's nothing more than a preference pane and a startup item.  
(Version 1.1b2)

MONOCLAST  This is too little, too late, Ambrosia. You had a good product in Snapz Pro several years ago. Since then, you've let it languish. Long-standing bugs persist, and features that should have been updated ages ago stayed the same for far too long.

I can't tell you how infuriating it is to record a movie only to watch Snapz Pro create the movie file on the desktop only to just as quickly remove it never to be sen again, just because some QuickTime codec changed and Snapz threw up because of it. It's just as aggravating to have Snapz refuse to react to the assigned keyboard shortcut!

Way back in 2005, I submitted a simple feature request to Ambrosia regarding the fact that Snapz won't remember which shadow setting you make according to the type of screen shot you take. If I typically take full screen shots with no shadow, and window shots with the normal window shadow, and selection shots with the square shadow, why must I constantly switch back and forth? I suggested that Snapz Pro would be much better if it would remember which shadow I use for each type of screen shot . In all this time, Ambrosia hasn't bothered to respond:

I mentioned it to them again in 2007 - again with no response:

In 2006, I asked about an option to have Snapz Pro NOT restore the cursor to it's original position after taking a screen shot. It may seem to be a good idea to restore the cursor position, but it is unnerving and non-intuitive at best, if you ask me. Ambrosia never responded:

I've since tried Screen Flick and it's great. Sorry, Ambrosia.  
(Version 2.1.3)

MONOCLAST  Personally, I have not seen Play Sound reach 10 MB of memory usage; though I suppose it's possible if you queue up enough large sounds. Even so, if you'll compare all the processes listed in Activity Viewer with Play Sound, you'll see most other applications you leave running all the time use lots more RAM than this. Under 10 MB isn't very much at all in comparison.

I have noted your feature request to add a user interface to Play Sound. Unfortunately, adding a menu bar and window would not only increase the memory footprint of the application substantially, but would also make it take much longer to launch and quit. Also you should know you are only the second person out of tens of thousands of other users who has asked for a user interface. Most users of Play Sound seem to be perfectly happy with it the way it is, and wouldn't use the user interface anyway. I'm not of the opinion most users should suffer just because one or two users happen to want Play Sound to be something it's not. Remember: Play Sound is designed from the ground up to be a fast, simple, faceless sound player.  
(Version 1.6.7)

MONOCLAST  Mind passing me a download link to 4.9.01.0090??  
(Version 4.9.01.0100)

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)

MONOCLAST  There is a really nice system preference pane, called StartupSound, that lets you control the volume of the startup chime. Very handy for those f us with our Macs hooked up to loud sound systems!:

http://macupdate.com/info.php/id/16425

It uses a very simple, but reliable method, I belive - all it does is set the volume lower (or however you want) just before shut down, so that the next time the computer starts up, the volume is already set to that level.

I've used it for over a year now and it's been very reliable. The only time StartupSound doesn't work is immediately after a kernel panic.  
(Version 2.0)

MONOCLAST  You know, I keep waiting for an update to address this; but it seems most people are somehow able to simply ignore how slow and sluggish Delicious Library is.

This has got to be THE slowest, most CPU-hungry application on my computer! Even large historically-slow applications such as Microsoft Word & Entourage, etc. are several times faster than Delicious Library.

Delicious Library was noticeably slow when I first installed it on my Powerbook Titanium 800MHz with no items in the database. But I figured it wasn't unbearable at that time; so I bought it. But as time goes on and I add more titles to the database, it gets even slower!

Now, with 732 items in my database right now, I literally wait 25 freaking seconds just for it to launch, and other operations such as simply searching for a title or adding a new title are just as laboriously slow. Frankly I am surprised other people aren't complaining about this! This can't possibly be how the creator intended the user experience to be, can it?

Also, considering how Delicious Library automatically imports a seemingly endless and often completely insane list of genres from Amazon, how hard could it have been for them to allow you to simply add your own genres that actually make sense to YOU? (For instance, I notice that Amazon's complete list of genres for "28 Days Later" is "Zombies". Zombies?? That's it?? How about "Science Fiction", to start??? "No problem", you say, "I'll just add a 'Science Fiction' entry under the genre." Only you can't because Delicious Library won't actually let you add more! No. Instead, you are stuck with (a) Amazon's batty genres, or (b) you can *replace* some or all of theirs with your own - but you can't have both - no, that would just be too easy!

I hate to sound harsh, but I'm really starting to wonder if I made the right decious purchasing Delicious Library.  
(Version 1.6.2)

MONOCLAST  nemesys wrote: Not true. FruitMenu is a $10 shareware.

Ummm...huh?

* App Switcher Menu = $15 shareware

* FruitMenu = $10 shareware

Therefore, FruitMenu is cheaper, like he said.  
(Version 2.1.7)

MONOCLAST  My PowerMac G5 tower is the original, first-release model that happens to be "Machine Model: PowerMac7,2" and it has pleenty of temperature sensirs. But this app refuses to run on it, instead displaying the error: "No working temperature sensors found.". That error message is misleading, because i doubt the app is really using the existence of temperature sensors as a gauge. Instead, I imagine the app simply looks at the model number and compares it to an internal list of certain supported model numbers. Please change the error message to one that actually reflects the method you use to determine whether your app will run (for instance "This model Macintosh is not supported by this app.")

This app really should work on *all* PowerMac G5 towers, and all other Macintosh models with G5 processors, since they all (as far as I know) have temperature sensors.

Comparing model numbers is the wrong way to go about determining if a computer has temperature sensors. I suggest rewriting your code such that it truly looks for the existence of temperature sensors. For example, have a look at the way the open source application called "X Resource Graph" determines if the host Mac has temperature sensors:

http://www.gauchosoft.com/Software/X%20Resource%20Graph/

Or, you might examine the output of the "ioreg" utility to see if the host Mac has temperature sensors:

ioreg -n IOHWSensor | awk '/location/ || /current-value/ || /"type"/' | sed -e 's/[^"]*"//' -e 's/" =//' -e 's/location//' -e 's/type//' -e 's/"//g'  
(Version 1.0)

MONOCLAST  RONIN_2046 ALANR wrote:

>> "Firefox is hands down the best browser available feature wise. One simple

>> example: Firefox is the only browser which supports multiple logins via the

>> keychain for a single site."

>

> How do you enable this feature? (Version 1.5.0.2)

Easy. You just go to the web site in question, log in once with one username and password, then log out, go back, and log in with another username and password. Firefox stores all of the username/password combinations you used in the Password Manager. To view stored passwords, go to Firefox Preferences > Privacy > Passwords, and click View Saved Passwords.  
(Version 1.5.0.2)

MONOCLAST  I have had nothing but problems with 1.5.0.2. It's horrible.

After applying this update, Firfox hangs a lot for no apparent reason, DNS lookups fail for no apparent reason, the Location bar becomes completely uneditable at times, and I've had the application crash on me several times.

I've tried creating new profiles, new user accounts, etc. - problems persist.

I'm going back to 1.5.0.1 until they get these issues straightened out. They need to go back to the drawing board on this version.   
(Version 1.5.0.2)

MONOCLAST  Ummm the problems you desribe could very well be indications of a hardware problem, especially considering updating the firmware changed nothing. Contact ATI or whoever sold you the card.  
(Version 109)

MONOCLAST  The download link appears to be an FTP link to an FTP server. It's possible your web browser is not able (for whatever reason) to download stuff through the FTP protocol.

Try this one instead:

http://www.twilightandbarking.com/FTP/Public/Software/ChangeShortName/ChangeShortName-1.1.3.dmg

Or try using an FTP client to download it from the FTP URL.  
(Version 1.1.3)

MONOCLAST  Fantastic, must-have utility!

I've used this utility to change short user names on multiple Macs with Mac OS X 10.4.x. I've even used it via the command line through an ssh session connected to a remote Mac I maintain for a family member.

The utility has worked as advertised on every system I have used it on. While there are instructions for what to do if a rename goes awray, I have yet to need them. It's proven to be very reliable.

The only potential gotcha is one that is readily mentioned in the documentation: after a rename, you may need to tell certain applications (iPhoto in my case) where the new library is. Luckily, doing this is fairly straight-forward!

Overall, this utility is *THE* way to change your short user name in current versions of Mac OS X. Highly recommended!  
(Version 1.1.3)

MONOCLAST  I have sucessfully used this on the current version of Tiger, 10.4.5.  
(Version 1.1.3)

MONOCLAST  I'm not sure how hard you really looked. I found it almost immediately in the included Read Me. Heck, for that matter, the product *description* even says you can press the Escape or Command-Period (-.) keys to abort sound play!

"Stopping Sound Play

You can abort sound play immediately at any time one of two ways:

• by pressing the Escape or Command-Period (-.) keys on your keyboard

• by sending Play Sound the stop command

Example:

This script causes Play Sound to abort all currently-playing sounds:

tell application "Play Sound"

stop

end tell

Note: Using either method to stop sound play will clear all queued sounds from the queue."  
(Version 1.6.3)

MONOCLAST  StartupSound.prefpane has done this flawlessly for a long time:

http://macupdate.com/info.php/id/16425  
(Version 2.0.3)

MONOCLAST  Sorry; but even $5 for an AppleScript that you have to drop files on is too much, especially considering there's a Finder contextual menu plugin / system preference panel called PathSnagger (previously known as CopyPath) that does this and much more, for free!

http://macupdate.com/info.php/id/13623  
(Version 1.1)

MONOCLAST  Overall, nicely done. : ) It's small, fast, stable, and fairly intuitive - and the price is right!

Here are some suggested improvements:

- Make the file name larger or bolder so that it stands out more in the Quick Change window. It kind of seems lost in there - I found my eyes had to scan the whole window the first time I ran the app to get my bearings. I think it'd be less jarring if the filename stood out more.

- The ability to manually type in a file type and creator is a must; but it would be nice if I could alternatively click a "Same As" button next to those fields to choose any file that already has the file type or creator I want, and have the field automatically populate with the correct file type or creator code. That way if I am unsure of the code, but I know of another file that already has it, I can just pick that file. If you impleement this, please do implement separate buttons for file type and creator - in the majority of situations, I think most folks will only want to change one of the two.

- It'd be nice if Quick Change would bump the modification date of the

parent directory by a second or so, so that the Finder will

reexamine and redisplay the file with the new creator icon during it's next open

window scan (every few seconds). (You can bump the modification date using PBGetCatInfo and PBSetCatInfo.)

Other than these small things, this is a top-notch little utility! Thank you very much for offering it to the community for free!  
(Version 2.6)