SOUTHPAWAMI  It works well. Imports utf-8 text files which can be made with TextEdit. Parses stuff like the first five books of the Bible, which is over 12,000 lines, with minimal wait. Stable, hasn't crashed on me yet.

dreamlist is small:

font resizing, so you could read the book at an enlarged font of 14, 16, 18, or 20

automatic scrolling window size, so it reads down like a book and starts at the top of the window again

color sections, so when your tired, a left section of green text a right section of blue text make it easier

It's a great application.  
(Version 6.2.2)

SOUTHPAWAMI  It just doesn't get better. It's stable, it's solid, it has a library of options that aren't elsewhere out of box. How can you not like this? The only thing that really isn't nice about this software is that it isn't on Linux or Windows.  
(Version 5.10.1)

SOUTHPAWAMI  It seems there is a rather distracted view of this software. I think I remember paying $25 for the 1.x version I believe, and I'm still happy with it. At that time, Storyist was a very hot piece of software that everyone was happy with getting. My 1.5.2 version still serves me well, and has several features I still don't have a handle on(like the auto linking which interferes with typing if you don't know what's happening). And this software has most everything that's useful to me except a full dark screen with green or yellow type for typing.

I'm sure this 2.x version isn't as bad people are making it out to be.  
(Version 2.1.2)

SOUTHPAWAMI  The 'stable' version is the version you want to download. It works fine, very quick to connect. I have a license to YummyFTP 1.7.2, and use it. I may use the stable version of this depending on how effective it is with file transfers over time.

Yes, it's ugly. It needs a two button mouse. This is true. Most of the multi-platform software that works on Linux, Windows, and OS X don't appear very nice from an image and one-button mouse perspective. The main question is whether it functions. Yes. You simply put your ftp server, user name, and password in the upper box. It remembers it if it connects fully. After that, it will remember until you tell it to forget. Oddly... the option to forget is in the same menu as all your quick bookmarks... making the whole accidents happen a concern.

Permissions is very GUI friendly as well. All 9 options are available via point and click.

The interface takes a minute to get. The empty screen near the top is the log screen. The two screens on the left below that are the files on your computer. In the top one, you pick a directory, and the window below that shows you the contents of that directory. It only seems weird at first... some seconds later your thinking this is fast... and it's the layout that contributes to the impression.

The empty two windows on the right are the remote directories from the host.

It'll take time for me to determine if the file transfer is as reliable as Yummy. It does log into my domain faster, displays the contents of directories faster, and shows a file viewing in a timely fashion.  
(Version 3.3.0-beta2)

SOUTHPAWAMI  The recent update fixed the problems, and the software works great. It is presently significantly better than 1.x ever was.

The developer is right, problems should be reported through proper procedures first, so the developer has a chance to work on these problems before he sees everyone in the world seeing a problem he could have fixed had he known about it.  
(Version 2.0.2-271)

SOUTHPAWAMI  Developer... I was figuring it was a 10.5 issue only. As 10.4 isn't supported anymore as far as I know. The prior macsword I was speaking of crashed after the update, then would not start. I had to go into Application Support through the Library to delete the MacSword folder before it would load up again. After that, it did start, the window just would not display. I deleted the Sword folder as well, but to no avail, it would simply start up and never display a window. I'm sure you've fixed the problem already, and I'll be downloading this version in a moment.  
(Version 2.0.2-269)

SOUTHPAWAMI  This update broke it on my OS X 10.5 which was updated, not freshly installed from 10.4. Not sure why it's broke. I deleted it, downloaded the lasted from macsword.com and it still didn't start up. I'm guessing, though I could be wrong, that this update fixed snow leopard stuff and broke leopard stuff. Doesn't load up enough to update, so, I guess I'll have to keep checking back.  
(Version 2.0-261)

SOUTHPAWAMI  It's fast. The pictures aren't partial either which is often how other browsers obtain this speed.

I can't comment on how useful it is, or what breaks it, but this Firefox 3.5 is speedy like a... well, fox. Significantly faster than any prior beta of 3.5 I've tested, or any recent update of Firefox 3.0.

10.4.11, Core 2 duo, 3gb 667, 64mb shared, & 5400rpm.  
(Version 3.5)

SOUTHPAWAMI  This is the only FREE offline OS X 10.4 Compatible Bible program I know of with translations like NKJV. The program itself is certainly not as comfortable to me as MacSword 1.43, but it is unique, and cut and paste + Textwrangler and I can make faultless files for RapidReader 6 offline.  
(Version 7.0)

SOUTHPAWAMI  Thanks for the info.. I was wondering what has happened to blender for a little while. My 950 I guess. Wings 3D was running like lightning in comparison, and blender used to be much faster. I look forward to 2.5 now.  
(Version 2.49a)

SOUTHPAWAMI  I do see how this is an improvement over MacSword 1.4 series.

- 2.0 easily merges all of the places to click into one window. This is nice. Hope in the future to be able to re-arrange all sections with each other.

I do not see why it was necessary to program only for 10.5 and up. While 10.5 is significantly nicer for the programmer in my opinion, Apple's own programs still have glitches for me in 10.5, which is why I recently went back to 10.4.11. For this reason, I think it would have been nicer for the user to have programmed for the 10.4 series and up.  
(Version 2.0b1)

SOUTHPAWAMI  Pysol 4.82 works far better with a case-sensitive format (Leopard 10.5.7)  
(Version 4.82)

SOUTHPAWAMI  As much as can be said for Opera 10.0b1, you can NOT run Opera 10b1 on a case-sensitive format with Leopard 10.5.7.

After much trial and error over the last year, I finally tri-partitioned my 320gb hard drive for work, games, and school. The first format was case-sensitive as it has shown me a rock like dependability that the simply journaled format doesn't have. The second the normal format so things like WoW work. The third for windows rc 7.

The case-sensitive format has a few things that show up differently

- some programs don't install or work, or work partially like Opera 10b1

- Manga Studio 3.02 EX works faster... significantly

- WoW doesn't install

- Programs appear to crash less and load slightly faster

- There are no temporary duplicate displays when working in finder (Leopard 10.5.7)

As is the standard, Omniweb just works.  
(Version 10.0b1)

SOUTHPAWAMI  It may seem as if I was harsh in my review. I will admit that with the possible exception of Camino 2, Safari 4 is perhaps the Apple-like browser available. Image wise, Safari looks better when you first run it then any other browser. In the case of Opera 10, you have to make display tweaks to make it enjoyable rather than bearable. In the case of Firefox, you have to get plugins/addons and install them. In the case of Camino 2, the more you use it, the more you like it. And in the case of Omniweb 5.10 Sneeky Peek, you have to keep trying to play with the options little by little before you see how much a pleasure it can make browsing the web each day.

So, Image-wise... first run, Safari wins hands down.

Content-wise... various tools and options built into the web browser to help you be more productive, Safari is nearly in last place. As I lean heavily towards content, I can't see much reason to use Safari 4, when options like Opera 10 beta, Omniweb 5.10 Sneeky Peek, and Camino 2 are out. (For example, to even have what I consider basic options you would have in many browsers, you've got to install Glims.)

Safari wins image. Safari watches all the browsers blaze ahead of it in content strength.  
(Version 4.0)

SOUTHPAWAMI  Safari 4 is an average browser.

normal:

- It has basic tabs features

- It has a normal personal bar

- It has a URL and google search on the same bar

pros:

- top sites... same as Opera, Google Chrome, and the Firefox Plugin... except slower

- passes acid 3 test... same as Opera 10 beta and Omniweb 5.10 Sneaky Peek

- functions with dashboard

- downloads are organized

cons:

- no page info feature

- no check page feature

- no sessions

- no tab location changes like Opera or Omniweb

- no thumbnail tabs like Omniweb

- no key function like opera... autofill is useless when more than one person uses the same web browser

Opera 10 is better. Omniweb 5.10 is better. Camino 2 is better.  
(Version 4.0)

SOUTHPAWAMI  Opera 10 beta is quite possibly the best browser I've used to date. As Omniweb Sneaky Peek 5.10 & Apple Safari 4, it is one of the few browsers that passes Acid 3 test. As usual with these browsers, the extra stuff causes a slower load. On my laptop(2.16 ghz, 3GB, 300GB HD 5400rpm, 950 GMA), only Safari 4 is unbearably slow in loading. Omniweb 5.10 sneaky peak is quite nice.. and loads everything well. Something like a mozilla charm, with geek like control, and an acid 3 pass. If it ran on other operating systems, it would be number one.

Opera 10 has speed dial, which is choosing many webpages as presets. Opening up Opera 10 shows the cached picture of the preset pages. Opera 10 reloads the pages much quicker than normal. Opera 9 had 9 pages as presets. Opera 10 has up to 25 pages as presets.

The loading time is slightly slower than Omniweb, but generally much faster than the first load of Safari 4. The loading time of Google Chrome is faster than any of these, though it fails Acid 3 with the Linktest. Acid 3 test is mostly an ECMA script( http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-262.htm ) test as far as I know. What it tests is general Web 2.0 ability which includes DOM, ECMA, & CSS.

Opera 10 beta runs most web pages well. Putting the tab bar on the right makes it quite nice. (Say, with a widescreen... DOCK on right... Opera maximized with tabs on right. No accidental program launches.) The personal bar is ridiculously thick, apparently the Opera team did not think to spend the time to bring to a more reasonable size such as Omniweb and Firefox/Camino features.

Opera 10 beta presently crashes on http://www.worldofwarcraft.com . Also, Opera 10 massacres http://www.mlb.com . (Why do I have to use another browser to check baseball out from mlb?) The other browsers which I've mentioned do not appear to do this. Besides, Fox Sports has a beautiful free game stat list per game via gametrax. So, while there are web pages that Opera 10 beta crashes on, the majority of them Opera 10 beta is stable with. And yes, Omniweb 5.10 Sneaky Peek is more stable than Opera 10 beta.

As for speed, only Camino 2 beta and Google chrome would satisfy. Opera 10 beta, Safari 4, Firefox 3, and Omniweb 5.10 Sneaky Peek are slow in comparison.(Though a powerful system would make everything seem the same speed) In speaking of those, Camino 2 is as fluff-less as it gets, finally getting the hint to have the 'page info' feature that Firefox has had. It's clean and fast, but without the web page presets that Opera started. (It also fails with a 72 of 100 on Acid 3)

Opera 10 also has a unique feature that is a 'why didn't i think of that?' after you start using it. The menu you get after right clicking on any web page has a 'check web page' on the very bottom, which after clicking, runs the page automatically through w3c's validation service. Besides the usefulness page info button and proper display on Firefox and Camino 2, the check web page feature is easily an amazingly simple and extraordinarily useful tool after you start using it. It puts the power of notifying the webpage maker of problems in the hands of the user. Screen shot of the results, email, tada!

Rabbit trail... why is the page info feature on Firefox and Camino 2 so ridiculously useful? Because, it allows you to see the identifying stuff in the header without looking at the code. The metas of the author, copyright, keywords, language specified, tool to create the web page, etc. Page info makes looking for this information not a chore, but an ease.

Sessions... One of the odder features in web browsers is sessions. Sessions are meant to be saving all the web pages you are on at a certain moment and even saving the size of the web browser at that same moment. By saving the session, you could conceivably go back to the session at a later time when it would be most helpful. If there are 11 websites you use for a certain part of your job, you only to load up the session that pertains to that, and all the pages in that session load at once. In my opinion, Omniweb is better at sessions than Opera is. Opera's sessions are capable, if a bit unnatural to use.

Verdict: While Omniweb Sneaky Peek 5.10 is the most useful browser at giving rights per web page in a quick and timely manner without plug-ins, Opera 10 beta is a multi-operating system(works on mac and windows) with updated speed dial, and unique check web page feature on right click. Besides the problems associated with an over thickness of the personal bar and the lack of the page info feature, Opera 10 beta is a better daily browser than any other at the moment. If all you use is macs... feel free to give the verdict to Omniweb 5.10 Sneaky Peek which excels in ways unexplainable with browsing the web.   
(Version 10.0b1)

SOUTHPAWAMI  The key thing you must remember about this software is the completeness of it. The original... and no, I don't mean the fan club edition... the original has several card games AND decks for those card games. How do you play Hanafuda games(japanese card games) without a hanafuda deck? Once you find the right version, get yourself python 2.6 and install it. The right version has many card decks. The fan club edition doesn't has the hanafuda deck and several other decks. If no hanafuda deck, keep looking for the right pysol version.

This the most complete card game on computers I have yet to play. The numerous games, decks, and simple how to play instructions per game make this program a true luxury game in solitaire games. I have no other card games on my computer save memory. I enjoy playing the hanafuda solitaire games. Only wish it had the multiplayer hanafuda games... but alas.. it is solitaire.

The control gets a little touchy when cards near over lapping cards below them.

Sound... I haven't heard any. I don't want to hear any. And, no sound is far better than bad sound.

The bottom line is:

If you play card games, you should get pysol.  
(Version 4.82)

SOUTHPAWAMI  I did a reformat of my HD. In the reinstall, I've stayed away from Safari beta. Presently... I have Safari 3.2.3 on my machine(which scores only 75 of 100 on acid 3). Which means... Omniweb 5.10 sneaky peak passes Acid 3 without any help from Safari's engine. Add Gopher... and it's quite a toy.  
(Version 5.9.2)

SOUTHPAWAMI  I personally use it for instant messaging. I use it for instant messaging because it does AIM, Yahoo, and some others. Yahoo Messenger for mac doesn't have photo sharing, so there's no other reason to use something else besides Adium. I've never had a problem using Gizmo for voice chat, though Skype usually works a little better in sound quality.   
(Version 4.0.0.266)

SOUTHPAWAMI  OpenOffice appears to work fine on my macbook in 10.5.7, whereas it did not work on my macbook in 10.5.6 as commented previously. Just a friendly update.  
(Version 3.1)

SOUTHPAWAMI  I have to comment, due to the fact that OpenOffice won't load on my computer.

My computer specs are

MacBook

HFS+ format

10.5.6

320GB 5400RPM Toshiba HD

3GB RAM

The tools I use for maintaining my computer are IceClean, MainMenu, & iDefrag(recently did a full defrag of the HD from a DVD boot.. does improve performance... all programs run fine)

NeoOffice runs great on my computer. I have not tried NeoOffice 3 yet, as it is still going through testing. OpenOffice 3.0.0 & .0.1 used to start downloading OpenOffice as soon as I opened them without consent... attempts at options didn't seem to make a difference. OpenOffice 3.1 went through the install, and loaded up to the nice looking blue rectangle with colors and the Sun Microsystems logo.. after that, it has not loaded any more.

I am sure that many people are not having any issues. I suppose there may be some issue with certain laptops.  
(Version 3.1)

SOUTHPAWAMI  Downloaded from macupdate and developers site for mac os x. The about still says 1.0 instead of 1.1.   
(Version 1.1)

SOUTHPAWAMI  As for 5.9.2... it does what you expect a browser to do... including a hundred options you don't expect from a browser. It passes Acid test, Acid 2 test, but not Acid 3 test. It can be fairly memory intensive compared to Camino, though the extra options and options on how the tabs are displayed can make it much more of a comfort.

As for 5.10 sneaky peek. It's a gem. Engine wise, seeing Acid 3 test pass 100 out of 100 really shocks a person used to seeing it fail browser after browser. Loading is faster than 5.9 which is to be expected, and the numerous options OmniWeb gives you in a one stop shop format are always welcome and don't seem to be anywhere else. I would compare it to Firefox 3.1 testing version and Safari 4 testing version... but I didn't find either stable enough to browse with for where I normally browse. However, thus far, Omniweb 5.10 sneakypeek is stable through where I normally browse(though I cringe every update, hoping for the best)  
(Version 5.9.2)

SOUTHPAWAMI  This is the best browser for Mac. Until it went free, I just used what would do, Firefox/Camino/Shiira/Safari/ etc... Now it's free, and I can afford it. Awesome.  
(Version 5.9.1)

SOUTHPAWAMI  Well... it's simple. It in does what it is supposed to do. If you're being lazy with *nix reading, it's another utility that doesn't require shell knowledge.

The rough is this... you drag and drop an unmounted dmg file in a little square box that appears after you open it. A box pops up with the SHA-1 calculated checksum and a little radio button you can click on MD5 to show that checksum instead.

Then, you cut and paste the checksum that you found posted where you downloaded it from into the empty box. Press enter and it tell you either... it's not the right length... that is... you made a mistake cutting and pasting by one letter... it matches... or it doesn't match.

The whole process requires as little knowledge as could be possible for a person wanting to check a checksum manually.

(for those that don't know what a checksum is... or why it's important... i'll try to explain. Say you just spent the last 3 weeks making a program of yours oh-so-sweet. Now, you upload it to your website for others to be able to use it. A person with too much time on there hands thinks it'd be the funniest thing in the world to modify your oh-so-sweet program so that the pictures of the logos now have naked women or hentai with some voice. Well... since you aren't catering to that clientele you might find yourself in a difficult place, right? Hence... checksums are mathematical equations that prove.. 'if they match' that the program/item hasn't been tampered with. Someone out there is saying... why not just tamper with both the program and the displayed checksum. Well... besides other things... that involves a whole lot more work and effort which is fairly pointless since most people don't check the checksums anyway.)  
(Version 1.0)

SOUTHPAWAMI  For the most part, it's quite annoying. The painted moose with the voice "Bruce" isn't so bad.

Sometimes it's funny.

Though I might agree that no mac is complete without it. After all, imagine being in a coffee shop and doing work on your laptop *without* a moose talking to you between switching application priority.

Besides.. the painted moose is good art. And the mute button always works, no?  
(Version 3.5.7)

SOUTHPAWAMI  Positives...

Tart is picky. I like that.

Tart has lots of formats to choose from.. very nice.

Negatives...

Tart has No 'Open Recent...' on the menu!!

Tart has No Help (this probably comes right b4 1.x anyway)

Tart has No way to change the font so you can study the code OR comments in any font you'd like. (I like to study code in Dakota-18 for example)

Tart ALWAYS opens barely too small when I open it for the first time. The upper right pictorial menu is missing the stop button and slightly cutting off part of the Reload button.

Tart has No way to check the actual W3 specifications side to side with code... or at all, actually.

Tart has No way to change the words of the menu options to pictures or pictures to words. (Charset, Content Type, CSS, DTD/Schema.)

Tart has No way to subtract or add or reorganize the menu. (for example... more screen space for analyzing CSS - maybe a '-' button that changes to a '+' button when you use it.)

It's got lots of promise, I agree. I got a lexical error on one of my lines of CSS. I'm still trying to figure out what it's talking about. Today I'm consulting O'Reilly just because we all make mistakes.. but what was my mistake?? Outside of that, all other error messages were clear and easily understood. (such as don't specify a bg color without specifying a fg color. Well... since the fg color is black by default... but it does have a point... and I'll fix it.)

Outside of nitpickin' which would greatly improve the program, the program seems rock-stable. Tiger runs it, and it never crashes. That's a lot of work, I know that had to be a lot of work. It is useable, and does work for it's intended purpose. What is lacks is not necessity... just lots of comfort.(unless your eyes give out a little now and then... then i suppose the font issue is necessity.)

All in all, it's a good program. I'll certainly be downloading updates.   
(Version 0.8.1)

SOUTHPAWAMI  I totally long for the universal distrobution that includes all the patches as a current version...

Outside of patching it often.. NeoOffice is nice when Bean or Pages won't do.   
(Version 2.2.2 patch 8)

SOUTHPAWAMI  .. just to give an actual review..

Sunrise becomes useful to me after turning the homepage to http://www.google.com , and making the bookmark images as small as they can go.

Due to a lack of submenus of bookmarks in the Bookmark menu which is unlike virtually every other browser out there, including Firefox, Sunrise excels at about 7 to 8 bookmarks on a newer widescreen MacBook(consumer). The bookmarks being images and offering color coded labels makes an instant recognition not found with submenu bookmarks.

In light of their bookmarks... which is their strength and their weakness, Sunrise would be quite a bit more useful on a variety of systems if they would allow choosing *which* bookmarks out of all your bookmarks are images, and keeping the rest of the bookmarks in a submenu system in the Bookmark menu. Also, an optionally viewed one line of bookmarks below the url address bar would be welcome.

The other issue, is the 12 tab issue on any old new MacBook(consumer w/somewhat shrunk Dock on the right or left of the screen instead of bottom). After 12 tabs, their is no arrow for a submenu that allows selection of the extra tabs. This is.. annoying. To most people this issue is nonexistent. To the average person that loves trying the newest browsers, this is a feature flaw.

And the third issue, is the no 'load in background tab' feature on right clicking a link. Every time you tell Sunrise to open a link in a new tab, Sunrise *selects* that tab as the current tab. This is a horrible thing if you want to research 10 different pages through Google really quick... you'd simply Google your search, then click each link you wanted to view to open up in a background tab, all the while staying on the same Google search. When you made all your selections, taking only a few seconds if you have a background tab feature, you could then look at each tab that opened in the background.

And... it would be nice if Sunrise added a menu option in the Sunrise menu to Clear All Cache instead of having to visit the Preferences menu.

Prior to 1.5.8, Sunrise seemed to be a little slow on the Acid2 test, which it nows seems to pass as if it were sleeping.

Stability is not Sunrise's strong point, as it's crashed on me a few times too many. However, as of this review, version 1.5.8 hasn't crashed yet.

Strange Yahoo issues like problems moving from Mail to Notes which are plaguing the Opera 9.25 right now, are non-existent in Sunrise 1.5.8

As usual, when a browser is interpreting to standards, many webpages sometimes look hideous, due to simple markup errors on the person responsible(though simple, can sometimes be crazy tough to figure out). So, odd looking webpages are probably not really Sunrise fault.. as I've become confident enough in Sunrise that it is usually more the author than Sunrise(most likely there are exceptions here).

So, by and large... Sunrise is the fastest loading web browser for Tiger that I know I can depend on to be useful and functional to what I commonly need.   
(Version 1.5.7)

SOUTHPAWAMI  When ya just want some quick surfing... get something done kind of thing, Sunrise is just the ticket.

For example, checking mail, or studying kana, or drilling kanji online, Sunrise can't be beat because it's often faster loading websites and often faster loading up than other web browsers like Opera, Firefox, or Safari inside of Tiger.

It's a similar way with Tiger verse Leopard right now. If you need to get something done, chose Tiger, if you want to experiment, choose Leopard.(got both OSs on two separate partitions right now.)

For website testing, obviously finals *should* be tested through major webrowsers, like Firefox/Safari/IE6/IE7/Opera. At least one browser should pass Acid2 testing, which Sunrise 1.5.8 on my system seems to do easily. So... yes.. Sunrise actually could be used for creation stages of websites... maybe..  
(Version 1.5.7)

SOUTHPAWAMI  There is very little I can say about this program as I have not used it very long.

In one word..

Wow.  
(Version 3.1.5)

SOUTHPAWAMI  Fire rocked. It may be dead, it's true. It still rocked.

There were some odd things about fire... like how you opened up a chatroom with a name in Yahoo, and how even if anyone used the same name to create a chatroom in Yahoo Chat, you'd never see their posts and they wouldn't see your posts. You had to invite them to the chat. No other chat program on Mac could do that with yahoo chat rooms. Maybe it was a bug, but it sure was nice.

Of course, Yahoo chat is isn't the same these days, and Adium is more directed towards easily making encrypted communication than they were prior to the Fire project dying, but still, it was a nice program.  
(Version 1.5.6)

SOUTHPAWAMI  Navigator... it came back. Netscape was nice... until 6 bombed. 6.2 was a fix, but IE had the reins by then. Netscape from then on was tolerable, and even SeaMonkey was better(a twin of sorts). Then, Firefox 2.0+ was amazingly slow on a default Intel install without more memory or a faster hard drive than the normal 5400rpm, and Navigator 9 waltzes in, fast on a default setup, as useful as Firefox 2, and making up for Firefox programmers not having enough time to test enough on a default install on any simple new macbook. In other words, if you don't have the extra money for the RAM or the new Hitachi HD for your Intel 950 Graphics Macbook, stick with Navigator 9.

As for OmniWeb, Safari, Shiira, iCab, and Opera... I'm going nuts trying to cater a little to them. Camino, IE7, Firefox, SeaMonkey, and of course Navigator(which is Firefox with a different face and much faster on Mac than the fox) all show my floats fine that I hand programmed. Hopefully today I'll learn what one simple thing I'm missing, but until then, as amazing as OmniWeb is(and it is pretty amazing, customer support is fantastic), my floats are in a painful sort. And I would ignore them except for one glaring issue... Opera is the web browser on the Wii. Given the popularity of the Wii and that every friend of mine wants or has it, there's little choice.

Navigator 9 is nice... the Page Style selection from the server that's in Firefox, but not in Camino is present. So is page info. It doesn't pass the Acid2 test like OmniWeb. And iCab seems to pretend to pass it, I know I've crashed iCab going back and forth to the test. So, until the fox is 3.0, I suppose Navigator won't pass acid2. Safari 3 passes the acid2 test, but it's in beta. Shiira and Opera also pass the Acid2 test. My only quest is if I say float: left... shouldn't the browsers that pass acid2 float the next div by the div that says float: left ?  
(Version 9.0)

SOUTHPAW  This is it... this fills that gap of trying to find some card or two to memorize your kana and katakana. Let's be realistic, when you learn japanese, it's in Romanji. But wait! In Japan, they have romanji as ESL over there. It's implemented FOR foreigners. After enough study, you discover that the structure of the written language is in syllables... rather than one letter plus one letter equals a syllable. The kana, that is, the hiragana and katakana are characters that mean individual syllables. Yes, that does mean that Brian translates to 'Bu-ri-a-n'. However, after you learn it's a modular language, have spent time in Transparent and Eurotalk software, you find that you're lacking in reading 'anything!' in japanese. You search libraries from city to city, to find a Jewel of a book set, called Modern Japanese A Basic Reader 2nd Edition Volume I and II. After you find that diamond in the rough at Barnes and Noble online store ( http://www.bn.com ) , you buy it, Only to find that it's from a teacher at Cambridge and goes at a seriously accelerated pace, which, although it does come with kana tables, you find yourself scurrying back to your language programs, which you once thought were sometimes hard. As if by sheer grace of God, you find that while owning a mac, and wishing for good free software, you hear of this Single Brain Cell company that puts out Japanese gnu software like iHop serves pancakes. You rush to the site. You find the downloads section. You find it doesn't download. What?!? Yep, that's right, QUEST customers can't download this. Say What?!? Finally, out of utter desparation, you go back to that old Earthlink dial-up that has served you well, and one day, as if angels are singing... at past 4 in the morning, downloads from the site are working. Woo hoo!! You quickly make hast to download every stinkin' language software and screensaver the site has. Ever so carefully, you download one at a time, waiting for each download to finish, not wanting to miss out on the grand opportunity of good software. Finally, after getting them all downloaded, stored, and filed, you resolve to back up the software on cd so you never have to try that again.

Although you decide to pay the man, as the software is truely worth donation, clear memories of the pains of trying to download in your mind cause a cd-r to be pulled out, before the donation button is pressed.  
(Version 1.0.4)

SOUTHPAW  You are not paying for the Linux. You can download the Linux for free. You are paying for the CDs, Manual, Packaging, etcetera.

What people are forgetting, is that there is over 1000 programs that are included on four CDs with the purchase. (That's a lot of time saved from downloading) Many of these programs were written for the purpose of providing free functionality where it previously cost money. So, even though many of you have never heard of the names of the programs(because many are Linux only), the individual functionality is often nearly equal to and sometimes equal or greater than popular commercial applications that cost money.

Included programs, like MOL(Mac on Linux which runs OS9 and OSX) and Bochs(PC emulator which supports up to Win98) are useful for compatibility purposes.

Updates to programs are from people that want to update the programs, rather people that are paid to create updates for programs. Finding updates sometimes takes a little searching.

YDL is based off RedHat Linux. It is less resource intensive(or can be adjusted) than XP or OSX, which means it will run faster than those operating systems at daily tasks. Most applications written for Linux are written for pc, so new applications that you would like to use that aren't YDL can be recompiled via the source code to the ppc format. Which means that there is no re-writing neccessary... something like if you could run Windows software on your mac without having to re-write the software(without having to buy VPC). Very convenient.

Linux isn't for the person that doesn't know anything about computers, unless they have a ravishing desire to learn. However, if you know little, are willing to try out a number of freeware programs till you get the hang of them, then maybe over a thousand free programs included with your operating system will be a very luxurious thing.  
(Version 4.0)

SOUTHPAW  You might be right. All in all, it seems to be the only bootup Linux on the ppc platform anyway. Other Linux distributions run via X11 and one pre-alpha KDE version runs native with OSX desktop.

Still, some open soure software is tremendously impressive in its functionality for being donationware only. The fact is, maybe you do have to re-compile the 386 versions to get ppc versions for certain software like blender, but the fact remains that with thousands of free applications, the effort of learning how to use these applications far outweighs the pain of dealing with paying for upgrades of software for 10 more years. I mean, I've been on computers for about 16 years, and the last 5 years have been about making money off upgrades and plug-in software. Well, I'm tired of paying for the blasted Adobe stuff, or Macromedia stuff, or Microsoft stuff, or even Apple stuff. I'm fed up with it. It costs too much money, money that could be spent on better things. With Open Source software, and Open Source operating systems(Linux), upgrades are always free, and the software almost always is too.

Besides, the application that comes with nearly every Linux called Bochs will run Windows 98(which incidentally the application is available for osx too) and MOL(Mac On Linux) will run osx. And the more I use GIMP 2, the more I like it. The same goes for blender.

I mean... come on, if over one thousand free applications come with Yellow Dog Linux... how can it be that bad?

To further enunciate, you are not paying for the linux, you are paying for all the ways it cost to get to you, such as the box, the cds, the manual, etcetera. YDL is free. You can download it for free at certain servers on their website.  
(Version 4.0)

SOUTHPAW  In professional 3D animation, it is often neccessary to be able to have a "universal man" and make him fatter or skinnier, taller or shorter, etc... that an animation with many characters might be able to be done in a year or two rather than ten.

You can try the same kind of thing with Blender with the "Make Human" tool that has a pre-alpha 2.0 release for Windows and Mac available at http://projects.blender.org/frs/?group_id=16  
(Version 2.35a)

SOUTHPAW  According to http://www.blender.org/ , blender 2.35a still has a number of bug reports and other issues being reported, that 2.36 is planning to add no new features, but rather fix everything they've heard is working incorrectly. blender 2.36 "may" be out as early as next week. (-=`

**Heres the candidate change list**

("release candidates" means they'll aim to fix all mentioned, hopefully all the right people needed will be present and kindly do the detective code work.. aka.. debugging)

2.36 release candidates

- Critical bug! Deformed mesh didnt give correct 'orco' (original texture coordinates) anymore on render,

- 3D Window: using SHIFT + hotkeys to set layers in Layer menu (MKEY) only accepted last hotkey with using "OK" button.

- 3D Window: the "Render this view" option (OpenGL preview render) sometimes crashed in shaded mode and/or with Armatures.

- IpoWindow (animation curves); NKEY panel "XMin" and "Xmax" buttons didn't work proper on large changes (>100 frames).

Mesh editmode:

- "Separate loose parts", crash on empty mesh (with no verts)

- ALT+B loop select could go haywire on certain cases

- Hide/Reveil damaged FGon flags

- Oops Window (not Outliner) didn't show Lamp textures nor Material Ipos - correctly

- Tools: Join Meshes (CTRL+J) now accepts Vertex Groups to be joined properly

- EditMode undo: converting Curve to Mesh, entering editmode, and invoke an "undo" crashed.

- Global undo; buttons sending redraw events gave extra undo push called "Make single user or local".

- Global undo: crash solved in large changes of Lattice resolution button.

- Added several undo pushes where it was missing

- MetaBalls: using particles to duplicate Metas caused crash on adding new Meta Object

- Curve Deform, Windows only, deformation was flat (2D) in default settings

- Appending data from other files accidentally cleared current Scene ScriptLinks

- Appending data in PoseMode crashed Blender

Render:

- solved several cases of unitialized variables, causing black scanlines or other render errors. Windows only.

- with multipe 3D windows in a Screen, with one having its own layers "unlocked" and set different, caused wrong render results. Now it only renders Local View or local layer settings with F12 hotkey and mouse in the specific window.

- Invoking render in Mesh EditMode gave wrong texture coordinates on Subdivision Surface

- Transparent raytracing didn't make specular transparent

- Crash fix on render cyclic Nurbs Surface with Cube mapping

- Sun Solaris: error in refreshing buttons in frontbuffer (on highlight) has been defined to be a bug in Sun OpenGL. Is reported, Sun engineers work on it.

Game engine:

- fix for stereo window creation in Unix X11

- fix for forces with new timing system

- fix for using Python delattr() or 'del Obj.Attr'

- Alpha sort now works for linked (ALT+D) objects

- uses Polytope collision now for faster mesh intersection tests

- Mouse over sensor does work now for ortho cameras.

Yafray:

- Crash fix caused by improper check if plugin was loaded

- Closed Nurbs surface crashed on render

- Added nearly full support for Blender's procedural textures, with the exception of 'envmap', 'magic', and 'plugin' modes. The stucci texture also is not exact match, since it cannot be fully emulated in yafray because of implementation issues. It will work best for low turbulence values

- Import: DXF Polyline import fix, for Cinema4D files (among others).

- UI: Option to switch left/right mouse didn't work for floating panels. It then still selected stuff behind the button.

- UI: Added code to disable "Emulate 3 button mouse" when "Left mouse select" option is chosen. This can't work together unfortunately... because of 1 button mouse owners.

- Python:

- crash fixed with Meshes having edge data

- crash fixed with unlinking Text block being in use by ScriptLink

- OSX: crash solved for using audio in Engine.

NEW:

- Fixed selection of Objects in Solid draw mode. Selection was just always not what you wanted, the rules for wireframe (cycling) can't be used then.

New rule is;

- it always selects the frontmost visible item (wires too), unless:

- frontmost is active/selected already, then it picks the 2nd

- mouse didnt move 2 pixels while selecting, then it starts cycling

- Mesh EditMode: Removed co-planar restriction for creating FGons. These now can span an entire tube.

- AO render; "Use sky" or "Use tex" now also take option "Use distances" into account, so you can control shades of AO better.

- Render: static animated particle systems now allow to be animated with Material and Texture ipos. Only shows in render.

- Render: Material option "Ztransp" now can be reflected in raytraced mirror.

- Render: Unified Render now supports Gaussian filter sampling

- Global undo: using number buttons gives better Undo push names (check ALT+U menu)

- Game engine: Objects without texture faces now render in their assigned Material colors, and with lighted faces. This shows with ALT+Z textured view mode too.

- Added more cases to update "Shaded View" on changes with buttons or tools.

- Lasso Select now works in UV FaceSelect and Edit Mode Curve, Surface, Lattice. Missing still: MBall and Armature Edit Mode.

-------

long list ain't it? Well, 2.35 was a huge feature update, it only makes sense that many little bugs now need to be squashed.  
(Version 2.35a)

SOUTHPAW  I'd agree with Brian Moore, Laptops are meant to be portable, not hindering. Now... you may need a newer faster laptop for serious Blender work, but a 29.95 Kesington 3-button mouse with a USB connection solves the missing button problem pretty quick.  
(Version 2.35a)

ANONYMOUS  It's nice to re-live some of those old mac days. Even back on that air force base in Panama(i hope that's the right base i'm remember; went to a few bases ya know)... what fun computers.

The application works *almost* fully. As I'm running 10.3.6, I'm noticing that the hide function *command+H* doesn't work. Nor does the menu command for Hide. It's as bad as an adobe application in that aspect.. except that photoshop and elements actually work sometimes with their *modified* hide keyboard commands (adobe;why can't they just keep some ease of use basics???, sure the menu Hide command works.. grr.. lol.. ending rant on adobe).

Like much of the "reliving the past" programs, it's fraught with a simple and highly annoying quirk. Fix the quirk, and the game will be as good as it's always been. Heck, why not improve on it after fixing the quirk? Why not add user choice to the size of the puzzle, and then add user customizable 2 color schemes?

Still, thanks for the fun, it looks like will be on my dock for a little while yet.  
(Version 1.0)

SOUTHPAW  blender 2.35a is the current version as I write this. It is available at http://www.blender3d.org/. There were significant changes from 2.34 to 2.35, so much so, that there was problems getting them all to work smoothly. 2.35a was released a few days after 2.35, fixing the glitches in all the new available features. Remember these days, blender most certainly has global undo feature, as well as internal ability to work with Yafray .7, so you don't need to open up a new application for the ray tracing software. As well, Make Human 2.0 pre-alpha is linked through http://www.blender.org/ . This program allows the professional ability to make a human and modify their features, just as professionals need to in 3D animation. Remember it is "pre-alpha" though.

blender 2.35a does want a bit more processor is some things, like it's photo viewer. This new version however is impressive in it's massive functionality... and so you might consider buying the 2.3 blender manual and 2.3 blender game manual(bn.com walmart.com amazon.com) to get about 1500 pages of not-so-light reading out of the way.

As always, blender has maintained a very small size, which is amazingly impressive when considering it's power now.

The only feature that seem to be missing to me from the 2.35a version for osx is the import/export functionality of Cinema4D, Maya, and 3DSmax. I have requested that these features be added, but was told that the right person needs to contribute to the programming in order for these import/export specifics to come to be.

Why should I buy a book about 2.3 when 2.35a is supposed to be so different?

Because 2.35a has all the same functionality 2.3 did and a whole lot more. If you get books on it, you'll learn how to effectively use the program, rather then just playing with the program, as well as learn 3D animation principles that are important to all 3D animation applications.

~good luck to you all, and happy rendering~

by the way, don't forget links like http://www.gimp.org/ (photoshop clone through x11) and http://www.openoffice.org/ (ms office clone through x11) and http://www.wings3d.com/ (not as powerful as blender, but much easier to learn) and http://kde.opendarwin.org/ (kde native osx project, pre-alpha)  
(Version 2.35)