PLANET  VirusBarrier bundled with a Mac Mini 1.83 Intel MacOS 10.56 by German vendor GRAVIS caused serious trouble on the machine of my girlfriend. First the installer freezed. I killed the process after half an hour and restarted. In the disk utility I suddenly had two volumes, but there is only one build in. Looks like a rootkit - it puts the MacOS into a virtual machine, so you are unable to search he term "Intego" with spotlight or finder to remove it correctly -but it is definitely installed and you can see it in the activity monitor or in the terminal using the "top" command. The uninstaller from Integos website dind't find the software components hidden in the system. After searching in the internet I found a hint regarding Intego Icalserver. After killing its process and moving the it to the thrash I restarted. There was no process running, but the external firewire drive for the timemachine update was dead.

I think no virus can cause more trouble than this "protection" software, so beware of that crap.

PS. and OT: under Mac OS 9 they had a software called Netbarrier. It changed the folder "system" in the systemfolder, so Techtool Lite couldn't verify the system anymore.  
(Version 10.5.8)

PLANET  This is the best piece of open source software I've ever used altough the provided "put autopano sift to hugin" script always failed and the developers made a big secret how to use autopano sift with Hugin.

After using the "sift helper" programm for one year I found a workaround:

How to set up autopano sift with HUGIN:

1. Right click on Hugin.app : show folder content.

2. Navigate to the folder Hugin/contents/resources/

3. in the folder "resources" create a new folder: autopano-sift

4. the following files must be copied into the new "autopano-sift" folder:

- autopano

- autopano-complete-mac.sh

- autopano-complete.old.sh

- autopano-complete.sh

- autopano-win32

- autopano.exe

- autopanog

- generatekeys

- generatekeys-sd

- generatekeys-sd.exe

- ICSharpCode.SharpZipLib.dll

- libsift.dll

- showone

- showtwo

5. now autopano sift works fine.

One of the best kept secrets solved.  
(Version 0.7)

PLANET  I'm using Thunderbird 2.0.017 at home with MacOS 10.39 (G4 MacOS 10.39 1.2 GHZ) and at work with SUSE Linux (Dual 2.4 GHZ Intel) for about one year. At home I still have an old 300 MHZ G3 BW with Outlook Express and MacOS 9.21. What can I say, OE on the old machine is twice as fast, Thunderbird is way too slow and it can't show the replied messages. My personal conclusion is to downgrade to OE. One year is more than enough, sorry.  
(Version 2.0.0.17)

PLANET  Safari always wants to autocomplete my adresses and even turning off Javascript doesn't help. The privacy settings are poor compared to Flock or iCab, I'm talking about configurable Javascript filters, the ability to switch plugins on/off as well as filter for webbugs. Sorry, but I don't see any reason to pay for this. I got rid of it and use Flock.   
(Version 2.0.3)

PLANET  My workaround with applescript does not work with MacOS X. Like it seems, moving files via applescript is disabled in OS X.  
(Version 9.0.28)

PLANET  Hi,

ok, just a small example concerning the ergonomical aspect:

Outlook Express:

main window= command 1

adresses= command 2

status=command 3

get messages: command M

Apple Mail:

main window= ??? (did someone found out?)

adresses= command -alt - a

status=command 0

get messages: command -shift- n

You could assume, the second app was written by Microsoft, but it's converse....

Sometimes even MS did their homework as well...and though I'm Apple user since Apple II, I'm not loveblind....  
(Version 2.0b2)

PLANET  forgot to rate flock  
(Version 0.7.12)

PLANET  I recently got one of those Capture One LE versions supplied with a memory card and have to second one of my previous writers: the files you're getting finally are looking quite different than in the preview.

Think about it when you apply sharpening and your results can look quite nice. But sadly C1's file manager is very confusing and the temporary files stored in the pictures folder are huge. If you use this app permanently you have to expect the iPhoto effect: your harddrive gets a rubbish dump very quickly, better go for a bigger one soon.

Compared with other, even free alternatives like the UFRaw Plugin for Gimpshop, Silkypix, Rawker, DCRaw which all are easier in use and delivering excellent results as well, I'm asking myself about what the fuss with C1 online registration and one copy per system folder when I can get the same or even better software for free?  
(Version 3.7.6)

PLANET  Over more than one year ago I sent a suspicious Photoshop 6 copy I acquired at *B*y to Adobe, because they claimed this kind of copies are illegal. Neither got my CD back nor any response since, it's a pity. Therefore I used legal PSE 2 and 3, and with the Earthbound light extension it still works fine for me.

Gimpshop is a big step forward, the most shortcuts for tools working exacly like in PS and PSE for MS-Windows because the command-key is at the control-key. On my 1.2 Ghz G4 with 1.2 GB RAM Gimpshop works fast and stable and the best news is the brand-new free UFRaw plugin:

http://ufraw.sourceforge.net/Install.html#Mac

Although Mac Gimpshops development has a delay compared to the Linux version, it's a very good tool for private use and we can really look forward to the plugins like Refocus, Wideangle Lens, CMYK - and maybe someone who will spent some work on this somewhat elaborate interface.

Gimpshop didn't replaced my PSE yet but I'm working on it. Thank you very much!  
(Version 2.2.11)

PLANET  You may have disabled cookies in your browser, but Flash creates cookies itself. Just right-click at a Flash animation in your browser. In the pop-up choose "settings" and than you're able to see and delete the cookies set by Flash. To disable this behaviour by default, you have to go to the Adobe site and use the settings manager.

http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager.html

If you find that behaviour suspicious like me, Apple Script may help. The only browser you can switch plugins on and off is iCab. But there is a walkaround for Mozilla and others I tried with MacOS 9.22:

First create a folder called: Internet Plugins (off). Then start the script editor, start recording and move the files Shockwave Flash NP-PPC and flashplayer.xpt from the folder "Internet plugins" to the "off" folder. Stop the recording, delete redundant code and save as application "Flash off". Then start recording again and repeat the procedure backwards, save as app "flash on".

Your done.   
(Version 9.0.28)

PLANET  I'm neither a blogger nor I like Flash to view pictures. But I really love Flock not only for it's cool interface, it's IMHO exemplary privacy settings are only topped by iCab. Respect to the developers. But please spend some time making the Mac-version of Flock more Mac-like. We still prefer the keyboard over the mouse. On top of the wishlist: configurable plugin-in settings like iCab, shortcuts for navigation between tabs like iCab, shortcut for the "Home" button. Thank you!

And keep on flocking, you're on the right way!  
(Version 0.7.12)

PLANET  Phoenix Slides is amazing fast, the handling by shortcuts is very Mac-like and ergonomic. It offers lossless JPEG rotation, excellent slide shows even with exif-tags - and no annoying, growing cache like iPhoto- in short:

The best image viewer for the Mac around. Dot.  
(Version 1.2.2)

PLANET  I use the free Silkypix version 2 and 3 with Canon 5D and D60 files and even this light version of the app is simply awesome. Since I discovered Silkypix I'm not enviously anymore about my friends that using Rawshooter.

The temporary files stored in the picture folders are less than huge the Capture One Le ones, the workflow is more linearly, the colors are also very nice. With the Holga-effect preset "toy camera" they are even showing quite a sense of humor.

The Silkypix licence model is remarkable fair as well, you can use the free version WITHOUT limits like watermarks, eSellerate, online registration and so on, until you find the workflow convincing or not. If yes, you can go for the whole thing. Nice, ha? Thus I'll prefer this solution instead of upgrading my Capture One LE licence.

Highly recommended!

Thank you.  
(Version 3.0.6.4)

PLANET  Just tried the Lightzone demo on a 1,24 Ghz G4 with 1,2 GB RAM and it's dead slow. Its basic approach sounds very interesting, but after some days of testing it seems to be alike Extensis Intellihance - a tool for people without any experience in Photoshop, and a annoying slow one.  
(Version 2.3)

PLANET  Thunderbird looks good and has plenty of interesting features like Spamfilters etc. but the real basics like sending mail are still buggy and annoying like in all Netscape builds I´ve ever tried.

I still can't see any mailclient for MacOS X that is only approximate as simple and fast as Outlook Express 5.06 for MacOS 9.

One thing is for sure: neither Apples mail nor Thunderbird is the one I get lucky with. Therefore I still use MacOS 9 for Web and mail.  
(Version 2.0b2)

PLANET  I just want to leave a big "thank you" for this cool, awesome piece of

software. I'm using it in free mode with 10.39 for my private homepage and tried a

copy of Netfinder with OS 9.22 before, but rbrowser lite is even better.

Thank you so much!  
(Version 4.3.9)