To reduce the database size and server load, all articles from 2004 or earlier are archived here.

Return to MacMegasite

• December 2004 (52)
• November 2004 (33)
• October 2004 (54)
• September 2004 (43)
• August 2004 (41)
• July 2004 (57)
• June 2004 (82)
• May 2004 (53)
• April 2004 (45)
• March 2004 (49)
• February 2004 (40)
• January 2004 (46)
• December 2003 (44)
• November 2003 (48)
• October 2003 (57)
• September 2003 (45)
• August 2003 (54)
• July 2003 (62)
• June 2003 (46)
• May 2003 (47)
• April 2003 (51)
• March 2003 (63)
• February 2003 (69)
• January 2003 (72)
• December 2002 (63)
• November 2002 (70)
• October 2002 (72)
• September 2002 (73)
• August 2002 (41)
• July 2002 (39)
• June 2002 (19)
• May 2002 (3)
• April 2002 (1)

Free copy of ShapeShifter 2.0 from pcweenies.org

pcweenies.org is giving away one copy of Unsanity's ShapeShifter2.0 this weekend! For more information on how you can enter the contest, please visit our website.

[] permanent link

MacintoshDevelopers.net

MacintoshDevelopers.net hosts freeware Macintosh developers, providing 35 MB space, 5 GB bandwidth per month, and a free POP3 e-mail address! Additionally, there are NO FORCED ADS - because our service is limited to this niche market, we don't have as many signups, so we can offer better services.

Go to http://www.macintoshdevelopers.net/ for more details and to sign up.

[] permanent link

Mozilla releases first Firefox release candidate

Mozilla.org today released the first 1.0 release candidate of Firefox. It fixes a long list of bugs (including the annoying one where switching tabs didn't change the window title).

Firefox 1.0rc1 can be downloaded here. A complete list of the bugs that were fixed is available here.

[] permanent link

Mail Factory Drawing

BeLight Software, developers of Mac OS X business productivity software, offers Mail Factory Drawing, a great event to take part in! To win the Grand Prize - a DYMO LabelWriter 330 printer, participants need to purchase Mail Factory, a tool to print envelopes and mailing labels, from October 27th to November 27th, 2004. Each participant gets also 50% discount for Business Card Composer, the elegant software to make business cards.
Find detailed information at:
http://www.belightsoft.com/special/drawing.php

[] permanent link

Apple Security Update 2004-10-27

Apple Security Update 2004-10-27 is now available via the Software Update panel. It fixes the following issue which affects Apple Remote Desktop 2.x:

CVE-ID: CAN-2004-0962
Impact: An application can be started behind the loginwindow and it will run as root.
Description: For a system with these following conditions

• Apple Remote Desktop client installed
  
• A user on the client system has been enabled with the Open and quit applications privilege
  
• The username and password of the ARD user is known
  
• Fast user switching has been enabled
  
• A user is logged in, and loginwindow is active via Fast User Switching
  

If the Apple Remote Desktop Administrator application on another system is used to start a GUI application on the client, then the GUI application would run as root behind the loginwindow. This update prevents Apple Remote Desktop from launching applications when the loginwindow is active. This security enhancement is also present in Apple Remote Desktop v2.1. This issue does not affect systems prior to Mac OS X 10.3. Credit to Andrew Nakhla and Secunia Research for reporting this issue.

[] permanent link

QuickTime 6.5.2 released

Apple has released QuickTime 6.5.2, which is now available for download via the Software Update panel.

QuickTime 6.5.2 is an important release which includes a security update and bug fixes. In addition, this release, includes enhancements in the Apple Lossless Encoder and AAC codecs, as well as improved support for iTunes and other QuickTime-based applications.

[] permanent link

Reading of hard disk on mac os

hi all
I have tried to read the hard disk using c/c++ fuuction fopen(),fread(),fwrite() but i failed to read.
device permissions entry is
crw-r----- 1 root operator 14, 0 27 Oct 09:36 /dev/rdisk0
What i have to do now plz help me
With best regards
darpan

[] permanent link

ShapeShifter 2.0 released

Unsanity today released ShapeShifter 2.0, a major upgrade to their OSX theme changing utility. This is a free upgrade for owners of ShapeShifter 1.x.

The new features in 2.0 include:

• ShapeShifter can now apply themes, icon sets, cursor sets (if Mighty Mouse is installed) and desktop pictures. Each user can have his or her own settings, and these items can be applied independently of each other. Multiple variants of each can be bundled into a single guiKit file for easy distribution, or icontainers, mightymouse sets, and desktop pictures can be added directly to ShapeShifter. ShapeShifter will even select the best sized desktop picture for your monitor if the theme creator included multiple sizes in the guiKit distribution!
  
• Added a new Download tab that can be used to find and download featured themes.
  
• The 'Themes' tab of the ShapeShifter preference pane has been completely redesigned to be more intuitive and to allow independent selection of themes, icon sets, cursor sets, and/or desktop pictures.
  
• The ShapeShifter preference pane now loads virtually instantly after its first launch.
  
• Installed themes are now cached, meaning that they apply instantly if they're in-cache.
  
• The preference pane listing now shows mod packages that are no longer present in the filesystem and indicates that they've been removed.
  
• Added a "Restore Defaults" button that, you guessed it, restores all defaults.
  
• When removing an item from ShapeShifter, it's now clear which variants will actually be removed.
  
• New Theme Capabilities The menubar now supports transparency effects.
  
• Added ability to customize the Finder's sidebar, list, and column view backgrounds.
  
• Added ability to customize the background color of the list and column view in open and save panels.
  
• Added the ability to customize background (and alternating row color) of lists and tables.
  
• Added ability to customize the background color in editable text boxes.
  
• Text within buttons and popup buttons can now have its own unique theme colors - they're no longer required to be the same as the radio button and checkbox text color.
  
• The text of the selected tab in a tab view now has its own theme color.
  
• Toolbar text labels now have their own unique theme colors.
  
• Added support for coloring "placeholder" text within editable text (such as the Find item in the Finder toolbar).
  
• Fixed many minor bugs.
  

[] permanent link

Apple announces iPod Photo, iPod U2 Special Edition

In today's media event featuring U2, Apple introduced the long-rumored iPod Photo, as well as a special edition U2 iPod and iTunes 4.7.

The iPod Photo features a 65,536-color LCD screen with the ability to display photos onscreen. The headphone jack now doubles as an A/V output to present slide shows with music on a TV. The new iPod Photo dock features a similar A/V output.

A 40G model is available for $499 and a 60G model for $599. Both models claim 15 hour battery life, vs. 12 hours for the current iPod models. When used to display a slideshow with music, however, the battery time drops to 5 hours.

The U2 Special Edition iPod is available only in a 20G model with the same specs as the standard 20G iPod but with a black enclosure and a red click wheel.

iTunes 4.7 adds the ability to sync photos with the iPod Photo either from iPhoto or any folder.

For more information, visit http://www.apple.com/ipodphoto/ .

[] permanent link

MacA&D OS9 7.5 and MacA&D OSX Beta

Software Engineering Made Easy for Macintosh

Placitas, NM – October 26, 2004 - Excel Software today announced version 7.5 of MacA&D OS9. MacA&D OS9 is a software engineering tool for Macintosh OS 9 computers that automates requirements management, software modeling, code generation, reengineering and flexible report generation. Popular design methods are supported including structured analysis & design, object-oriented design with UML, data modeling of information systems and real-time, multi-task design.

Excel Software is also pleased to announce a Beta Program for its upcoming MacA&D OSX product. Customers that purchase the Developer edition of MacA&D OS9 7.5 through year-end are invited to participate in the Beta Program for MacA&D OSX. They will receive a free upgrade to MacA&D OSX when it ships in January 2005.

MacA&D OSX is a native Mac OS X edition of the flagship products, WinA&D for Windows and MacA&D OS9 for Macintosh. MacA&D OSX supports requirements management, software modeling, code generation, reengineering and flexible report generation. It builds on an 18-year lineage of MacA&D and WinA&D use by thousands of software developers in consulting, industrial and defense companies. Site license customers include GM, Los Alamos National Labs, Raytheon, Northrop-Grumman, Lockheed Martin, IBM, EDS and CSC.

In addition to modeling enhancements, MacA&D OS9 7.5 adds a new mode for evaluating MacTranslator and a command to export documents to the new XML based format used in MacA&D OSX. Design work including diagrams and tables, text specifications, dictionary information and requirements created in earlier versions of MacA&D or WinA&D can easily be migrated to the new MacA&D OSX product.

MacTranslator is a companion tool for reengineering source code into models. Used in conjunction with MacA&D, it creates structure charts from C, Pascal, Basic or Fortran, UML class diagrams from C++, Object Pascal or Java and data models from SQL. MacTranslator works with the OS9 or OSX editions of MacA&D.

MacA&D OS9 runs on Mac OS 9 or Mac OS X computers in Classic mode. It's available in the Standard edition for $495, Educational edition for $845, Desktop edition for $1295 and Developer edition for $1995. Each product includes step-by-step tutorials, sample projects, printed manuals and PDF manuals on CD. See www.excelsoftware.com for site license information, product descriptions and online ordering.

Excel Software
Ph: (505) 771-3719
Fax: (505) 771-3718
Web: http://www.excelsoftware.com
Email: info@excelsoftware.com

[] permanent link

What makes Apple's Power Mac G5 processor so hot

58 million transistors can drive incredible Power! Apparently, Apple appreciated the choices IBM processor architects made when designing the 970 family. This article provides the 64-bit architecture big picture for the 970 family (A.K.A. the Power Mac G5) and the critical issues in IBM's 64-bit POWER designs, covering 32-bit compatibility, power management, and processor bus design.

[] permanent link

OmniPilot Software, Inc. Pre-Announces Release of Lasso Professional 8

OMNIPILOT SOFTWARE, INC. PRE-ANNOUNCES RELEASE OF LASSO PROFESSIONAL 8

Fort Lauderdale, FL - October 25, 2004 - As OmniPilot Software, Inc. continues to celebrate the 8th anniversary of its Lasso product line the company would like to pre-announce the launch of Lasso Professional 8 Public Beta that will be officially released later this week.

According to Chad Roll, Chief Operations Officer, "Lasso Professional 8 is a tremendous step forward in Lasso's product evolution, we have combined feature requests from customers, with insight from industry experts to produce a robust tool to rapidly deploy data driven Web sites and applications. We have also focused on making sure LP8 is 100% backward compatible with LP7."

As an incentive, users who purchase Lasso Professional 7 before October 31st will receive a FREE upgrade to Lasso Professional 8 - when it is released. Users will also receive an 8 percent discount on the purchase of Lasso Professional 7, if it is purchased before the end of the month.

The key new features of Lasso Professional 8 include:

• New multi-site features allow each site on a server to be isolated in it's own process and configured with unique data sources, security settings, global variables, and more. This leads to enhanced site stability, which is great for ISPs and servers that host sites for multiple clients.
  
  
• On-demand tag loading makes it easy to add or update tags while Lasso is running. LassoApps and tag libraries can be served directly from the Lasso Professional application folder.
  
  
• POP support allows email to be downloaded directly from email servers into Lasso. Improved SMTP support better handles the sending of large volumes of mail and automatically supports multi-part HTML messages.
  
  
• Includes enterprise features such as a built-in SOAP client makes which makes calling remote procedures as easy as calling local custom tags, JavaBeans support, and a J2EE servlet Web server connector.
  
  
• Numerous other features make Lasso easier to use including tag namespaces, new compound data types like stacks, queues, sets, and lists, improved file upload tags, new encryption tags, new parameter tag syntax, deprecated tag logging, and more
  

[] permanent link

First Mac OS X malware reported

Macintouch reports that the first instance of destructive malware for the Mac has been identified. It doesn't appear to spread on its own, however.

It appears as an item called "Opener" in /Library/StartupItems containing a bash script. When a system starts up, this item will run and does the following:

• tries to install ohphoneX, a teleconferencing program
  
• kills LittleSnitch before every Internet connection it makes
  
• installs a keystroke recorder
  
• creates a hidden account
  
• grabs the open-firmware password
  
• Installs OSXvnc
  
• Grabs your office 2004 PID (serial number), as well as serial numbers for Mac OS XServer, adobe registrations, VirtualPC 6, Final Cut Pro, LittleSnitch, Apple Pro Apps, your DynDNS account, Timbuk2, and webserver users.
  
• tries to decrypts all the MD5 encrypted user passwords
  
• decrypts all users keychains.
  
• grabs your AIM logs, and other settings and preferences with info you probably don't want others to have
  
• grabs stuff from your Classic preferences
  
• ghanges your Limewire settings to max out your upload and files.
  
• installs dsniff to sniff for passwords
  
• has your daily cron task try to get your password from the virtual memory swapfile
  
• installs an app called John The Ripper - a password cracker that uses a dictionary method to crack passwords
  
• turns on file sharing and places the information it gathers in a hidden directory called .info inside your public folder.
  

sudo ls -l /Users/*/Public/.info

ls: /Users/*/Public/.info: No such file or directory

[] permanent link

FileMaker Updates FileMaker Pro 7 and FileMaker Developer 7

FileMaker today announced software updates for FileMaker Pro 7 and FileMaker Developer 7, available at http://www.filemaker.com/support/updaters.html. These important updates improve the performance of each of these products.

"If you're using FileMaker Pro 7 or FileMaker Developer 7, which have both been widely acclaimed by editorial reviewers and customers alike, you'll want to download the updates now," said Ryan Rosenberg, vice president, Marketing and Services, FileMaker. "And, if you haven't yet upgraded, now is the time!"

FileMaker Pro 7 v3 updater

Over 300 modifications have been made in areas including text editing, layout editing, scripting, calculations, portals, value lists, import/export, find, spell-checking, security and Japanese language functionality.

FileMaker Developer 7 v3 updater

The updater addresses several areas, including the script debugger, DDR and Developer Utilities, text editing, layout editing, scripting, calculations, portals and more. Please see the Read Me file included with the downloadable update for more details.

FileMaker Server 7 updaters

The company also said it plans to provide the FileMaker Server 7v2 updater and FileMaker Server 7 Advanced -- ODBC/JDBC updater before the end of this month.

About FileMaker, Inc.

FileMaker Pro is used by millions of individuals and workgroups around the world to be more productive and efficient. Business, education and government customers rely on FileMaker to manage people, projects, images, assets and other information. In addition to being the number one-selling easy-to-use database software, the award-winning FileMaker product line also includes low-cost Applications that automate basic business tasks, ready-to-use Starter Solutions, and tools to create and share solutions from the desktop to the web. FileMaker, Inc. is a subsidiary of Apple Computer, Inc. (AAPL).

* At this time, FileMaker Server 7 Advanced cannot be used as an ODBC or a JDBC data source on Mac OS X. FileMaker plans to support ODBC and JDBC on Mac OS X in a future release.

[] permanent link

a crash for all the world to see

I live in Las Vegas, the city of lights. There are big billboards up and down the strip all lit up, well recently one of the biggest casinos had a windows error and I thought the mac fans around the world would enjoy it. I posted it to my blog. www.brianstucki.com

(note: to preserve his bandwidth, I've saved a copy here -- mike)

[] permanent link

Mail Factory 1.4 takes addresses from FileMaker

Today BeLight Software delivers Mail Factory 1.4, a Mac OS X application to design and print envelopes, address and shipping labels. This version adds direct data import from FileMaker databases, recognition of addresses, pasted from other applications (such as MS Word, Safari, Mail), and the ability to crop images:
http://www.belightsoft.com/mailfactory/

[] permanent link

PC-Mac PasswordVault v3.3 improves security and gets licensed by The University of Illinois

ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA -- October 19, 2004 -- Lava Software is now shipping PC-Mac PasswordVault v3.3, a password manager which securely stores website usernames and passwords, Internet banking data and software registration details for convenient and easy access on Windows, MacOS X, MacOS Classic and Linux (x86) computers.

This new version improves security by only allowing service passwords and the master password to be unmasked temporarily, protecting them from observation. New custom build options (available to large organizations, such as universities) include forcing the user to enter a master password the first time PC-Mac PasswordVault is launched, as well as the provision of a Help button which displays organization-specific information about using PC-Mac PasswordVault.

The University of Illinois has purchased site licenses of PC-Mac PasswordVault for their campuses at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), Chicago (UIC) and Springfield (UIS). They chose a customized build of the software which was preregistered, had a backdrop utilizing their University's official colors and logo design, and which included extended desktop licensing (so staff and students could also use PC-Mac PasswordVault on their own home and laptop computers).

The free Lite Edition of PC-Mac PasswordVault v3.3 is available for immediate download from http://www.lavasoftware.com and supports up to 10 services, whilst the Standard Edition supports any number of services. The Standard Edition is priced at USD19.95 per license, and purchasers get download access to the current version of the software for all platforms (both desktop and portable USB flash drive versions), as well as free upgrades for one year. Site licenses for companies, universities and other organizations are available from USD99.00. OEM pricing, customization and rebranding options are available on request.

About the Company

Lava Software Pty. Ltd., a company founded in the State of South Australia in 1997, develops software products across a range of key application areas for all popular computer platforms. More information is available from http://www.lavasoftware.com or by emailing service@lavasoftware.com.

Contact:
Michael Wildoer
Lava Software Pty. Ltd.
GPO Box 215, Adelaide, Australia, 5001
Email: service@lavasoftware.com
Web: http://www.lavasoftware.com
URL for this press release: http://www.lavasoftware.com/prpv191004.html

[] permanent link

Nito, LLC. announces Japanese Localization services for Macintosh developers.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Headline - Nito, LLC. announces Japanese Localization services for Macintosh developers.

October 19, 2004 - Nito provides Japanese Localization services for Macintosh developers. Services come in three basic packages for English to Japanese and Japanese to English including application windows (nib), Localizable Strings, and documentation. Custom Packages as well as Web page translations are also available at costs depending on length and content. All inquiries should be sent to nitosoft@mac.com.

http://www.nitosoft.com Services Japanese Translation

For additional information, contact Chris Long, nitosoft@mac.com

Nito, LLC.
Mac OS X Software
Japanese Translation

CONTACT INFORMATION:
Chris Long
Nito, LLC.
http://www.nitosoft.com

###

[] permanent link

Tiger Early Start Kit for Developers

Apple has announced a $500 Tiger Early Start Kit for Developers, including an ADC Select Membership plus extra materials to help developers make their applications Tiger ready.

The kit includes:

• ADC Select Membership
  
• Pre-release versions of Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger and Xcode 2.0
  
• Exclusive access to the latest Tiger documentation
  
• Direct, one-on-one access to Tiger support engineers
  
• Special developer discount on the latest Apple hardware
  
• GM versions of Mac OS X v10.4 and Xcode 2.0 when available
  

[] permanent link

New iURL 1.3b6 includes iDisk integration and system global hotkey

Kiel, Germany (October 19, 2004) - turingart http://www.turingart.com/ is pleased to announce the immediate availability of iURL 1.3b6 for Mac OS X.

iURL is a universal link management system for any internet power user, who needs to manage more than 50 bookmarks, email-addresses or file system shortcuts. It is designed to be the one central place, which stores any kind of URL, being local file:// URL or internet based http://, https://, ftp://, aim:// and virtually any other URL type.

Besides the well know features like smart group sorting using live filters, preview of still images and QT movies and iURLs Discover (crawl) and Multiload (1 link-multiple files), iURL now comes with interesting new features.

Now, iURL is accessible from virtually any application through a system global hotkey (QuickJump, QuickSearch, supports live search like Apple.Mail or Finder, far faster screen updates, colored links and - probably most interesting - 'Save to' and 'Open from' WebDAV/WebDisk systems like Apple Computer's iDisk and MacNews.de's MacNewsPLUS Disk.

Besides this, iURL integrates well with OS X and provides nice drag and drop functionality.

The unregistered version limits the number of URLs in each database. Furthermore, it limits the number of downloads. Registered iURL removes that restriction.

All users are welcome to join the current BETA test. Comments are welcome too!

Download locations:

English localization: http://www.turingart.com/downloads/iURL-BETA-EN-006.sit
German localization: http://www.turingart.com/downloads/iURL-BETA-DE-006.sit

[] permanent link

Apple introduces new entry level G5

Apple today introduced a new entry-level PowerMac G5 with a single 1.8 GHz G5 processor selling for $1499.

The new configuration includes 256MB PC3200 (400MHz) RAM expandable to 4GB, an 80GB Serial ATA 7200 rpm drive, and a SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW).

[] permanent link

Faster, more affordable iBook G4

Today Apple introduced the fastest, most affordable iBook G4 ever with built-in AirPort Extreme 54 Mbps 802.11g wireless networking across the line and prices starting at just $999. The iBook line includes PowerPC G4 processors running up to 1.33GHz and an available slot-load SuperDrive for burning DVDs.

The new iBook G4 is available in the following configurations:

• 1.2GHz PowerPC G4
  
• 12.1-inch (diagonal) TFT XGA display
  
• 30GB ATA/100 4200 rpm drive
  
• Slot-Load Combo Drive (DVD/CD-RW)
  
• $999
  

• 1.33GHz PowerPC G4
  
• 14.1-inch (diagonal) TFT XGA display
  
• 60GB ATA/100 4200 rpm drive
  
• either Slot-Load Combo Drive (DVD/CD-RW) or Slot-Load SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW)
  
• $1299 with Combo Drive or $1499 with SuperDrive
  

[] permanent link

garage band won't work !!

I have a G4 imac 512 ram, and I purchased ilife. imovie, idvd, iphoto and itune are working fine, but garageband won't launch and there's no error message, it just jumps up and down for a short time in the dock. Called support numerous times, no solution. I reformmatted the drive and reinstalled all my apps, nothing. Please help....

[] permanent link

Basasoft releases BasaOne 1.2

[url=http://www.basasoft.com/basaone.php]BasaOne 1.2[/url] is an update to the Web Application Development Environment for HTML, CSS, JavaScript, MySQL and PHP on Mac OS X. Version 1.2 adds QuickTime audio and video support, speed , font drop-down lists, interface enhancements, and more...

[] permanent link

Mac Games and More Posts Part III: Best of Mac Freeware

Mac Games and More posted Part III of The Best of Free Mac OS X Software. This most recent post includes free Mac OS X software (freeware) from independent developers worldwide. A wide range of software categories was chosen: from useful, constructive home and learning utilities and unique tools, to unproductive but amusing applications.

All choices demonstrate excellence in quality and Mac Games and More hopes to give the much needed exposure to the developers who take the time to create free programs for Mac users. In addition, this post encourages Mac users to make donations of any quantity to the developers, when requested.

Part III: The Best of Free Mac OS X Software can be found here:

http://www.macgamesandmore.com/downloadfreemacsoftware2.html

[] permanent link

Navicat 5.2.3 (Mac database tool - MySQL Interface) Released!

This new version of Navicat (MySQL interface) enhances the Batch Job and Scheduling feature and supports MySQL version 4.1.6 (latest version of MySQL server). Database user can now schedule to import XML and DBF file in addition to other popular data formats.

Navicat, a database manager from PremiumSoft, is an integrated GUI tool let you perform MySQL administration and database development in an easier way. Advanced features allow you to import/export data, backup database, transfer data from server to server, create query and manage local or remote MySQL server. It also includes a full featured graphical manager for setting the users and access privileges and more.

An evaluation version of Navicat for Mac OS X 10.1 or later is avaliable for download at http://www.navicat.com/shareware.php3


Navicat (MySQL Administrator) is also avaliable for Windows and Linux.

[] permanent link

Downloads

[] permanent link

Nito, LLC. releases debut application, ichi 1.0.

October 17, 2004 - ichi ($5.00) allows you to view movies in full-screen without QuickTime Pro giving you an uncluttered interface that has a familiar feel.

Version 1.0 of ichi is the debut application from Nito, LLC. ichi can be used for free with absolutely no demo limitations or nags. $5.00 buys you good karma and helps promote further development.


http://www.nitosoft.com

[] permanent link

Win an Airport Express Base Station

GarageBand community iCompositions has announced that it will be giving away an Airport Express Base Station to one lucky registered iCompositions Artist. "We love our community and we want to reward them for their devotion to the site as well as their hard work with GarageBand," said
"iCompositions Record Executive, powermac99." All registered artists are automatically entered to win and others can sign up to be included in the giveaway. The drawing will take place in early November.

[] permanent link

Software Update

I've upgraded the site to Drupal 4.5, the latest version. The old download module is no longer available. Instead, files may now be attached to an article for download and will automatically appear on the downloads page. Only registered users can attach files to their stories.

[] permanent link

Win Freeverse's Airburst Extreme!

pcweenies.org is pleased to announce the return of the PCW Caption Contest! The prize is Freeverse's highly addictive game: Airburst Extreme! For more details on the contest and how you can win, please visit our website.

[] permanent link

Reader Specials from MacResQ

PowerBook G4/500 Titanium 128/ 10gb/ DVD/ 56k/ 15.2" Screen Now only $749.99!

iBook G3/900 128/ 30gb/ DVD/ CD-RW/ 56k/ 12" Screen Normally $719.99, take $10 off with Q-Pon code "BOB"

MacResQ Mini AC Adapter: PowerBook G3 (all), iBook (clamshell), 3400, 2400, 1400 and Duo Series: Normally $59.99, take $7 off with Q-Pon code "CONE"

Griffin iTrip Mini iPod FM Transmitter for Mini iPods Normally $31.99, take $5 off with Q-Pon code "CURIOUS"

Griffin SightLight FireWire Light for Apple iSight Camera Normally $29.99, take $3 off with Q-Pon code "GEORGE"

[] permanent link

Oxygen XML Editor version 5

Syncro Soft Announces New Release of Oxygen XML Editor and XSLT Debugger.

Release date: Oct 15, 2004

Syncro Soft Ltd, the producer of Oxygen XML Editor, has announced the immediate availability of Version 5.0 of its XML Editor and XSLT Debugger. Version 5.0 adds XSLT 2.0 Editor and Debugger, XPath 2.0 evaluator, XQuery Editor, WSDL Editor and SOAP Analyzer, SVG Viewer and a lot of other new features and improvements.

Version 5.0 reinforces the key features available in version 4.2 and delivers an extended set of functionalities improving its effectiveness and usability. It provides complete XSLT 2.0 support including editing, validating and debugging XSLT 2.0 stylesheets as well as transforming XML documents using XSLT 2.0 stylesheets. Editing XSLT 2.0 stylesheets with Oxygen becomes easy because each presented XSLT 2.0 element or attribute in the content completion is accompanied by a short documentation.

The XSLT 2.0 debugger adds mapping from the transformation output result to the document and stylesheet locations that produced that output. This answers the question: What part of the stylesheet generated this output and what was the current selected node in the source? Just click on the output and the corresponding stylesheet and document locations will be highlighted. This feature is available for Xalan 2.5.1, Saxon 6.5.3 (for XSLT 1.0) and Saxon 8.1B (for XSLT 2.0) in the XSLT Debugger perspective.

With version 5.0 you can edit, validate and test WSDL documents. While editing the Web-Services descriptors you can check their conformance to the WSDL and SOAP schema. After defining the descriptor you can check it to see if the defined messages are accepted by the Web Services server. Two ways of testing are provided: one for the currently edited WSDL file and other for the remote WSDL files that are published on a web server. The editor will generate the skeleton for the request. You can edit the request, eventually attach files to it and send it to the server then watch the server response in the response area.

The new XQuery Editor provides syntax coloring and content completion for XQuery keywords, functions and operators. It features validation and transformation support. The transformations can be configured using transformation scenarios similar with the ones for XSLT. Also the XPath 1.0 support was enhanced to allow evaluation of XPath 2.0 expressions.

The simple and elegant look of the Oxygen combined with the complete coverage of the XML editing features, have made it popular in both the corporate and academic worlds providing the necessary tools for the document creation and presentation. For further information on the new features visit http://www.oxygenxml.com/features.html

Pricing and Availability
Oxygen XML Editor and XSLT Debugger is available immediately in two editions:
Multi-platform Academic/Non-profit license costs USD 48.00
Multi-platform Commercial license costs USD 96.00
Oxygen XML Editor and XSLT Debugger can be run on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris and as an Eclipse plugin.

A 30 day free trial may be downloaded from http://www.oxygenxml.com/download.html
To purchase please visit the Oxygen XML Editor store at http://www.oxygenxml.com/buy.html

Oxygen is a registered trademark of Syncro Soft in the U.S. Any other trademarks or service marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE: Syncro Soft Ltd.
http://www.oxygenxml.com

[] permanent link

ipod repair hits new high with color change mods from ipodmods.com

from www.ipodmods.com we have gone ahead and lowered the price for color change mods to our customers to only $35.00 for ALL LCD and Touchpad color change mods. due to overwhelming demand, we have made this offer more affordable to our customers. Not only do we stock all ipod parts, but we specialize in iPod repair for ALL models. We can be reached at: 1.888.763.6637 or email at: sales@ipodmods.com. We are the most affordable ipod repair center on the web today, and will price match any competitor. Call us today for a hard drive upgrade, general ipod repair, or color change modification. Don't be fooled by other companies making overnight promises, we are number one when it comes to turn around time and affordability.

[] permanent link

RAID for your Linux server

In a previous article I wrote about using a Linux machine as a file server for my Mac network. Since I depend on the server for storage & backups, it needs to be reliable. One good way to increase a server's reliability is by adding RAID level 1 mirroring. With most Linux systems it can be done for the price of adding another hard drive.

The complete instructions for adding software RAID to a Linux system is available at http://unthought.net/Software-RAID.HOWTO/. In this article I'll clarify the basic steps & give fixes for some snags I ran into.

First, you need to be running a fairly recent kernel (2.4.x or later) with RAID support compiled into the kernel (not as a module). If you don't already have the latest RAID utilities, get mdadm, which is a more modern package than the older raidtools. A good introduction to mdadm is available here.

If you already have Linux installed & running, you can convert the existing drive to a RAID array after you add another drive of about the same size. For convenience it would be nice to be able to boot from the RAID array and have it start automatically. It will probably be easiest to set up if you're using Grub to boot rather than Lilo.

The easiest way to convert an existing system to RAID level 1 without an extra drive is to start with a kernel that has built-in RAID support and understands how to deal with failed disks, which should be the case with most recent kernels. Install the new drive and make sure it has a partition the same size as the partition you want to mirror. For best performance you should use a separate IDE controller from the first drive. You want to create an initial RAID array with only the new disk active and the original disk marked as failed. If you're using mdadm, you would do it with a command such as:
mdadm -C /dev/md0 --level raid1 --raid-disks 2 missing /dev/hdb1

When you reboot, the RAID device should come up. If it's working, mount the RAID device and copy your root file system for it. The commands will be something like:

mount /dev/md0 /mnt/md0
cp -ax / /mnt/md0

Next you want to be able to boot from the RAID device and this was the part where I ran into some difficulty. In order to have the RAID device automatically recognized, you need to change the partition type to 0xfd, which will prevent it from booting normally. In order to get it to boot, you need to specify the RAID device rather than the physical drive as the root device. You also need to install your boot loader, either Grub or Lilo, on the new drive. Make sure the kernel boot parameter specifies 'root=/dev/md0' or you won't be able to start up with it.

If all goes well, you should be able to boot normally but the original drive will probably still be mounted as the root file system. You can fix that by editing /etc/fstab and specifying /dev/md0 for root rather than the current device (most likely /dev/hda1). Finally, if everything is working at this point you can add the original drive to the RAID array. You can do that with a command such as:
mdadm /dev/md0 --add /dev/hda1

To verify that the RAID device is working properly you can examine /proc/mdstat or use mdadm --detail /dev/md0.

Now that your server is running RAID level 1 you have an extra measure of safety since a single drive failure will no longer result in loss of data. It's no substitute for good backups, however, since your data will be lost in the unlikely event of both drives failing.

You can easily back up your Mac's home folder or even the entire drive to the server using common synchronization software such as ChronoSync or PsyncX.

[] permanent link

Apple Mac and PHPNuke

Hi

I have a phpnuke webby The Wolds and a couple of mac users who try to access the site causes there IE to bomb with error 2.

Please please help - i'm struggling to find a solution.

Cheers

Doodlebug

[] permanent link

Apple Fourth Quarter Results: Revenue up 37%

Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2004 fourth quarter ended September 25, 2004. For the quarter, the Company posted a net profit of $106 million, or $.26 per diluted share. These results compare to a net profit of $44 million, or $.12 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Revenue for the quarter was $2.35 billion, up 37 percent from the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 27.0 percent, up from 26.6 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 37 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

The quarter’s results include an after-tax restructuring charge of $4 million. Excluding this charge, the Company’s net profit for the quarter would have been $110 million, or $.27 per diluted share.

Apple shipped 836,000 Macintosh® units and 2,016,000 iPods during the quarter, representing a 6 percent increase in CPU units and a 500 percent increase in iPods over the year-ago quarter.

“We are thrilled to report our highest fourth quarter revenue in nine years,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We shipped over 2 million iPods, our Retail store revenue grew 95 percent year-over-year, and the new iMac G5 has received phenomenal reviews and is off to a great start.”

“We’re pleased to report 37 percent revenue growth for the quarter and operating margin above 5 percent,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the first quarter of fiscal 2005, we expect revenue of between $2.8 and $2.9 billion, operating margin above 7 percent and earnings per diluted share of $.39 to $.42.”

For the year, the Company reported net income of $276 million on revenue of $8.28 billion compared to net income of $69 million on revenue of $6.21 billion in 2003.

[] permanent link

Microsoft Security Updates for Office X & 2001

Microsoft has issued a security bulletin warning of a vulnerability in MS Excel for both Windows & Mac.

If a user is logged on with administrative privileges, an attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of an affected system, including installing programs; viewing, changing, or deleting data; or creating new accounts with full privileges. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer privileges on the system would be at less risk than users who operate with administrative privileges.

Patches are available for Office 2001 and Office X. Office 2004 is unaffected.

[] permanent link

A Better Finder Rename 6.6 for Mac OS X introduces MP3 support

PUBLICSPACE.NET is has announced version 6.6 of its "A Better Finder Rename" Macintosh Finder enhancement. The new version adds support for renaming mp3 music files using their embedded mp3 tag information. A Better Finder RENAME is shareware and costs $19.95. The new version can be downloaded from: http://www.publicspace.net/ABetterFinderRename/

"A Better Finder Rename" is a contextual menu plugin for the Macintosh
Finder which allows users to quickly rename multiple files. "A Better
Finder Rename" is ideally suited for Macintosh webmasters, users who need
to transfer files from or to Windows or Unix, as well as for all other
Macintosh users who deal with large numbers of files.

Feature list:

• interactive/ automatic modes
  
• process subfolders
  
• process files and folders separately
  
• numbered and alphabetcial list creation (e.g. image1, image2, etc.)
  
• replace anywhere in the file name
  
• replace at the beginning of the file name
  
• replace at the end of the file name
  
• add at the beginning of the file name
  
• add at the end of the file name
  
• convert to uppercase
  
• convert to lowercase
  
• convert to Proper Case
  
• reformat number (e.g. File1 -> File001)
  
• manipulate numbers in filenames (add, substract, etc.)
  
• remove characters at the beginning of the file name
  
• remove characters at the end of the file name
  
• remove file extensions
  
• manual batch rename
  
• examples for each mode
  
• fully integrated with the Macintosh Finder
  
• supports drag & drop renaming
  
• supports droplet creation & editing for automating frequent tasks
  
• customizable hot key start up
  

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:

MacOS version: A PowerMacintosh with MacOS 8 or later.

MacOS X version: A PowerMacintosh with MacOS X 10.0 or later

PRICING INFORMATION

US$19.95 for a single user license

US$49.95 for a site license

ABOUT PUBLICSPACE.NET

PUBLICSPACE.NET has provided shareware and trialware for the Macintosh community since 1996. It publishes software products developed by Dr Frank Reiff, currently working as a IT architect for a leading European financial institution.

PUBLICSPACE.NET publishes the "A Better Finder" series of Finder enhancements and the MacBreakZ! personal ergonomic assistant designed to prevent RSI.

Visit their website at: http://www.publicspace.net/

[] permanent link

[ANN] Java Date Picker v3.2 Released

October 12, 2004 Stand By Soft, Ltd. just released Java Date Picker 3.2, a suite of
professional date components for Swing. The new version brings a new UI delegate API which lets you customize easily the look and feel of the
Java Date Picker components.

The dates available for selection can be restricted according to a specified pattern. Users can also do single or multiple date selection. So far, the available components are a one month calendar, a date time field and an editable date picker.

The components can be internationalized, have support for mouse and keyboard and they can be used with any look and feel (Metal, Motif, Windows, Aqua and custom ones).

This version adds new features and fixes bugs at customers' request:

• Improved the UI delegate API. UI delegates can help you refine the way components look and behave.


• The calendar notifies double-click events.


• Improved JDateEditComponent API with new methods (commitEdit, isEditValid, invalidEdit).


• New autoCenturyYear property.



• Added Norwegian and Swedish localizations for the calendar.


• Bug fixes.

For additional information or trial version, please visit http://www.javadatepicker.com.

[] permanent link

Pairwise sequence alignment in biOpen 1.2

AbOrygen announces the release of new tools for biOpen 1.2. Global pairwise NW uses the algorithm of Needleman and Wunsch (1970) to find the optimum alignment of two complete sequences. Local pairwise SW uses the algorithm of Smith and Waterman (1981) to make an optimal alignment of the best segment of similarity between two sequences. A new demo version of biOpen® is now available to download at http://www.aborygen.com/downloads/biOpen/

[] permanent link

Full listing of GarageBand Jam Pack 3 Contents available

[url=http://www.icompositions.com]iCompositions[/url], the premier desitnation for users of Apple's GarageBand, has posted the internet's first [url=http://www.icompositions.com/news/music_comments.php?id=64_0_1_0_C]complete listing of Jam Pack 3: Rhythm Section's contents[/url] including loops and software instruments. This ariticle is a resource for potential buyers of any of the GarageBand Jam Packs. iCompositions has said that it is working on a similar analysis of Jam Pack 2: Remix Tools.

[] permanent link

Rogue Amoeba Audio Hijack 2.0 giveaway!

pcweenies.org is giving away one registration towards Rogue Amoeba's Audio Hijack 2.0! Contest rules are on the website. Enter to win today!

[] permanent link

Analyzer 4.0 For FileMaker 7.0 Developers

Waves in Motion announces the release of its cross platform solution, Analyzer 4.0. Analyzer 4.0 is the first tool of its kind for FileMaker 7.0 developers who want to document, troubleshoot, and debug their FileMaker 7.0 solutions.

Analyzer 4.0 delivers performance! Imports for a simple solution occur in SECONDS and a larger more complex solution in MINUTES. "Speed was our number one goal for this product, and I believe we achieved that goal," according to Marcus Silving, CEO of Waves in Motion.

According to Eric Jungemann, General Partner, InfoMatrix, LLC, "Analyzer 4.0 is a critical part of our development process. It is extremely helpful in the analysis of FileMaker 7.0 applications created by other parties or converting solutions. It can save hours in scoping work effort. It is important during the development process to find and report on issues. It provides an important element of version control with comparison reports between versions. We simply can't live without it. It is an essential part of any FileMaker 7.0 professional's toolkit. Even better, Waves in Motion improves it all the time!"

Analyzer's legendary problem dots have been expanded to include Orange DotsTM (for dependencies), and Green DotsTM (for references). Finding important information to make programming decisions has never been easier.

Analyzer allows the user to search for objects, and then instantly hot-link to them. Developers become more productive when they can easily track down where a certain field is referenced or where certain functions are used in calculations.

One of the most impressive features of Analyzer 4.0 is its ability to compare one version of a database against another version. Analyzer 4.0 will report any changes, right down to a single-pixel level of accuracy. This feature is very useful for developers working on projects for clients who like a history of all the changes made to a database. Simply run Analyzer before and after the changes and compare the analyses.

Another feature developers will find useful is Analyzer's Element reports, including: field reports, layout reports, and script reports. Developers can determine the level of information analysis they require by choosing between detail or summary reports. Analyzer also allows the developer to add a solution note or an analysis note to any element. The notes are captured in the Element reports. Notes can also be searched.

Analyzer allows hot linking to any element that is in some way related to or dependent upon by the current element. This makes it possible to debug dependencies, and to isolate and print references.

Analyzer also offers developers the ability to trace a script, making it possible to see all the steps touched by one script when it triggers and all the sub-scripts which are triggered. There are two ways to view the script trace report, exploded and condensed. Using these reports, you can quickly trouble shoot dependencies.

For anyone planning to build a solution in FileMaker 7 or convert an existing solution, Analyzer 4.0 is an indispensable tool. Analyzer tracks database file references, embedded layout objects, and script step file references and then presents the information in meaningful reports.

To test-drive Analyzer 4.0 today, please go to: http://www.wmotion.com/analyzer.html

Not ready to upgrade to FileMaker 7? Try Analyzer 3.6: http://www.wmotion.com/analyzer/analyzer_3.html

Educational Discounts are available.

Waves in Motion is a Partner Member of the FileMaker Solutions Alliance and a member of the Apple Developer Program. Imagine the things you can do!

[] permanent link

Inventive Releases iClip 3.3 Productivity Software for Apple Mac OS X

Inventive, Inc. announces the release of iClip version 3.3, their award winning productivity software for Mac OS X. iClip is a multiple clipboard/scrapbook/launcher application designed to improve user efficiency and productivity for various computing tasks.



Newly available in iClip is a way to set multiple "Hot Keys" to quickly control various iClip functions, such as switching to different clipping sets, managing clipping sets, and much more. Also available in version 3.3 is a way to set multiple "Hot Clicks" to quickly control various functions of individual clippings, such as deleting them, editing their name, and much more. Hot Keys and Hot Clicks benefit users in that they save time by instantly accessing commonly used functions without having to use menus for the functions.



iClip functions as a floating window that allows users to store and retrieve various clippings, such as text, pictures, URLs, file aliases, movies, etc. in it's multiple bins. Clippings can be arranged into groups to keep users organized. iClip helps eliminate redundant typing, especially in tasks like filling out online forms. It's widely used to assist general purpose tasks such as word processing, web browsing, and research, while webmasters, graphic designers, and programmers also find iClip to be useful in their more specialized tasks.



Pricing and Availability



iClip 3.3 is available now for Mac OS X 10.2 or later as a "try-before-you-buy" download at http://inventive.us/iClip/ or on CD at select retailers. It can be purchased for $19.95 USD for the trial version or $29.95 USD for the CD version. The version 3.3 upgrade is free to registered users of any previous version.

[] permanent link

Phelios Releases New Game, Little Soldiers

October 4, 2004 – Phelios, Inc, announced the release of their new, strategic puzzle game for Mac, Little Soldiers, made with the PTK game engine. Little Soldiers is a collaboration between Phelios and Square Circle.

About Little Soldiers

Little Soldiers is a mind bending, strategic-puzzle game that places you and your compatriots on a range of challenging, classified military missions. Armed with rocket missiles, bullets, building materials, pick axes, and your own mind muscle strength, you must build carefully placed fortification, explode bombs, plan cautiously thought out routes in order to proceed safely to your desired escape areas. Perfect your teamwork skills and decision making because your life, as well as the lives of fellow troops depend on it. Some very tricky situations will force you to be on your toes and to think strategically and to stay completely focused on your goal. You will be briefed at the beginning of each mission and will then follow your orders to complete your given task.
Features
• 8 FREE levels
• 36 levels in the full version
• In-game Tutorial
• Excellent graphics (OpenGL)
• 4 original soundtracks
• challenging, fun puzzles that will give your mind a workout

System Requirements:
• For Mac: OS X 10.2 or higher
• 16 MB of Video Memory
• OpenGL video card

Little Soldiers for Mac, is available online for $14.95.

A free downloadable demo for Little Soldiers as well as more information about the game has been made available online at the Phelios web site: http://www.phelios.com

Direct download : http://www.phelios.net/files/mac/littlesoldiers.sit

Screenshots:
http://www.phelios.com/images/games/littlesoldiers/littlesoldiers1.jpg
http://www.phelios.com/images/games/littlesoldiers/littlesoldiers2.jpg
http://www.phelios.com/images/games/littlesoldiers/littlesoldiers3.jpg

About Phelios, Inc.

Phelios, Inc. is an independent computer game developer creating entertaining games for the MAC and PC platforms. Designed for kids of all ages as well as adults, Phelios strives to create quality games for engaging game play while also providing excellent customer service and free technical support.

[] permanent link

ConvertIt Pro 2.0 Released

MANKATO, Minnesota (October 5, 2004) - Tigsoft is proud to announce the immediate availability of ConvertIt Pro 2.0 for Mac OS X.

ConvertIt Pro 2.0 is a unit conversion program containing over 2300 unit conversions including currency. It features a scientific calculator and online definitions. It has up to 10,000 significant digits of accuracy for the mathematical professionals. There is even an option to add new unit conversions and it will automatically check for updates.

This program is not too advanced for the everyday user. The interface was designed for ease of use while minimizing mouse clicks.

ConvertIt Pro 2.0 costs $17 per copy, and volume licensing discounts are available.
To order, please visit http://tigsoft.3utilities.com or contact Tigsoft at convertit@mchsi.com.

[] permanent link

Advanced Web Ranking v3.3 Released

Release date: October 05, 2004

Manage Your Search Engine Web Rankings

Caphyon LLC is pleased to announce the release of Advanced Web Ranking 3.3, a tool that helps check your web site position on all major search engines. Advanced Web Ranking runs on Mac OS X, Windows 98/2000/XP, Linux and Solaris.

Checking your web site position is a very time consuming task. For example, if you have 10 keywords that you want to monitor, and you want to check the top 20 positions for 10 search engines, you need to perform about 200 (10 keywords * 10 engines * first 2 pages) individual searches to get the results. Then you need to compare the results one by one to find where your site is positioned. It may take you days to complete this task if you do this manually. That's where Advanced Web Ranking comes to help.

Advanced Web Ranking is able to query over 200 search engines and quickly find out if you're moving up or down in the rankings, or if your site is listed at all. It will track the progress of your rankings over time and display that information in an easy to read and understand graphical and tabular reports. It can help you check not just the position of your website but the position of your competitors' web sites as well.

Advanced Web Ranking has the ability to generate and email reports after an update was finished. Couple that with the Scheduled Updates ability, and you will be able to turn on your computer in the morning and find reports on your websites ranks waiting for you in your Inbox. As a SEO, you can have updates being run and sent to your customers every night without even lifting a hand. Various types of reports (Current Rank, Top Sites, Web Site, etc.) can be created in any of the formats Advanced Web Ranking supports (PDF, HTML, Excel, XML or Text). Then they can be emailed to any of the addresses you pick from the Address Book, or saved to a folder where you can access them over the Internet.

What's new in Advanced Web Ranking 3.3
======================================

This version features the ability to extract competition information from search engines, an advanced sorting criteria for all the printable reports and a new template manager for scheduling multiple project updates.

- Added "Number of search results" (competition) information in the reports.
- Added Header and Footer templates.
- Added Visibility stats to the Overview report.
- Added ability to schedule multiple projects.
- Added sort order (by Search Engine or Keyword).
- Added sort criteria (Ascending/Descending/Project Settings).
- Added three new filters: Top20 Up, Top20 Down, Top20 Dropped.
- Added index for HTML reports.

Advanced Web Ranking costs USD $99 for the Professional edition. Users who don't need to create printable reports, or schedule automatic updates can purchase the Standard edition for USD $49.

The application can be downloaded from:
http://www.advancedwebranking.com/download.html

More details about the application can be found at:
http://www.advancedwebranking.com

[] permanent link

Security Update 2004-09-30

Security Update 2004-09-30 is now available via the Software Update panel for Mac OS X 10.3.5 & 10.2.8. This update delivers a number of security enhancements and is recommended for all Macintosh users.

This update includes the following components:

• AFP Server
  
• CUPS
  
• NetInfoManager
  
• postfix
  
• QuickTime
  

[] permanent link

PreFab UI Actions 1.0: "Universal Attachability" for AppleScript

PreFab Software, Inc. and Bill Cheeseman are pleased to announce the release of version 1.0 of their new product, PreFab UI Actions.

UI Actions implements "universal attachability" for AppleScript. With UI Actions, you attach an AppleScript script to a native Mac OS X application. From then on, the script will be triggered automatically every time the user performs the actions you specify in the target application. A UI Action script can respond to all manner of user actions, such as opening or closing a window, selecting a menu item, editing a text field and many others.

UI Actions requires Mac OS X 10.3 Panther or newer.

Download a free 30-day trial version of UI Actions 1.0 now at http://www.prefab.com/uiactions/.

The introductory price for UI Actions is $25. Starting December 1, 2004, the regular price of $35 will take effect. Quantity discounts are available.

PreFab UI Actions is universal. While Apple's Folder Actions and Digital Hub Actions are specialized tools that let your scripts respond when the user performs narrowly defined tasks, UI Actions goes much further. It allows any accessible user interface element in any application to trigger a script in response to any user action. UI Actions opens up whole new worlds of possibilities.

An attached UI Action script can even query the target application for useful information about the user action that triggered it. The information available to a UI Action script includes a reference to the UI element that was affected by the user's action, as well as all of its attributes, such as position, size, title, role and value. Using this information, every UI Action script can draw upon the full capabilities of AppleScript, including Apple's new GUI Scripting, to amplify and enhance the power of the target application.

Power users now have completely new ways to customize their Macintosh. Technical staff and consultants can tailor off-the-shelf applications in ways never before possible. Developers can target their products to specific vertical markets without touching existing code. Individual users can make their Mac even easier to use and more powerful.

PreFab Software, Inc. has unmatched experience controlling the GUI via scripts, releasing PreFab Player in 1994 with continued sales and support today for Mac OS 9 and earlier. In 2003, PreFab entered the world of Mac OS X with PreFab UI Browser, a popular utility to support Apple's new GUI Scripting technology. PreFab UI Actions, implementing "universal attachability" for AppleScript, followed in 2004. Download fully-functional 30-day trial versions at www.prefab.com/scripting.html. UI Browser and UI Actions are based on Bill Cheeseman's Cocoa framework for working with Apple's accessibility API.

PreFab Software, Inc. - www.prefab.com/scripting.html

[] permanent link

PCI Releases "The Core" Contact Manager for FileMaker® Pro 7

Subject: PCI Releases "The Core" Contact Manager for FileMaker® Pro 7

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

San Diego, CA - September 21, 2004 - Productive Computing, Inc., a FileMaker Solutions Alliance Partner, today announced the immediate availability of "The Core" Contact Management System. "The Core" is the perfect starting point for any organization which covers all the basic needs of contact management and can be used as a foundation for any FileMaker® Pro 7 based system.

Built from the ground up in FileMaker Pro 7 native format, "The Core" manages all your contacts, individuals, letters, faxes, email, tasks, notes, calendar events and associated documents.

"There are many companies that are poised to rebuild their existing FileMaker Pro 6 or earlier database systems but are wary of the costs and time involved. We feel that "The Core," with its modest retail price of $349.95 for unlimited users at a single site and open source licensing structure, can provide a jump-start in their development."

"Additionally we feel selling "The Core" at this price point can break new market share for FileMaker because it gives independent developers an ability to compete with other generic contact managers such as Act or GoldMine, and at the same time provide the virtually limitless customization that these other products lack. For these potential new customers to FileMaker Pro, it would normally costs thousands in development to get them close to the functionality of what their existing off the shelf contact manager provides. "The Core" has reduced that barrier to hundreds."
- Director of Product Development, Marc Larochelle

With "The Core" you are able to:
- Manage organization or company contacts along with an unlimited number of related individuals.

- Manage an unlimited number of phone, fax and mobile numbers per individual.

- Assign tasks to employees, color coded by priority and attach that task to a contact record.

- Create and link letters, faxes and email correspondence to contact records.

- Generate "mass" marketing via letters, faxes or email.

- Create multiple note entries per contact with auto date and time stamp.

- Create "Yahoo" driving directions from one contact to another.

- Manage individual employee or team calendars and view by month, week or day.

- Create individual or repeated events and link to contact records.

- Assign each event a custom category with its own unique color and text style.

- Complete document management: Attach Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, movie files, picture files or any document and store them directly in the database. There is virtually no limit to the number of documents you can add to the system and the documents are stored in their original format related to a particular organization or individual.

Other plug-ins and solutions available from Productive Computing, Inc.:

* Multi-User Calendar v4 solution:
Built from the ground up as a single file in FileMaker 7 native format, it covers all the basic needs of individual and team scheduling, task management and can be used as a powerful add-on to an existing or new FileMaker 7 based system.

* Outlook Manipulator Plug-in:
Exchange data within Microsoft Outlook® Contacts, Calendar, Tasks and Mail.

* Entourage Manipulator Plug-in:
Exchange data within Microsoft Entourage® (OSX) Contacts, Calendar, Tasks and Mail.

* OSX Address Book Manipulator Plug-in:
Provides a lightning fast two-way data exchange between FileMaker Pro and Apple's OSX Address Book®.

* OSX Mail Manipulator (Coming Soon!)
Provides an efficient way to exchange data between FileMaker® Pro and Apple's OSX Mail®

* File Manipulator Plug-in:
This simple and inexpensive utility plug-in gives FileMaker Pro the power to copy, rename, move or delete files and folders on local or networked drives.

* Calendar Popup Plug-in:
Enter dates, date ranges and times into your fields with a popup interface that includes a year at a glance and a side by side mini calendar for entering date ranges.

* SendFax Plug-in:
The SendFax Plug-in allows you to fax documents directly from your FileMaker® database applications.

* PDF Manipulator Plug-in:
Exchange data between FileMaker Pro and Adobe Acrobat PDF files that have embedded form fields.

* Biometric Plug-in:
Add additional security to your solutions by incorporating fingerprint authentication.

* Multi-User Calendar v3 solution:
Create calendars for your consultants, sales people, technicians, meeting rooms, equipment or anything that requires its own schedule. Option to synchronize with Microsoft Outlook or Microsoft Entourage as well as the web are available.

* IT Asset Inventory solution:
Catalog and label your entire organization's IT assets in one central database solution including Hardware, Software, Users and Passwords.

You can download demos of these plug-ins and solutions at: www.productivecomputing.com

Productive Computing, Inc. is one of the Partner Level members of the FileMaker Solutions Alliance, a 2000 member organization of professional FileMaker pro developers. The company specializes in custom database design and FileMaker Pro plug-in development.

Productive Computing, Inc.
Creating Efficiency Through Automation
Phone: (760) 560-0443
Fax: (760) 732-3410
mailto:info@productivecomputing.com
www.productivecomputing.com
Partner Member - FileMaker Solutions Alliance
FileMaker 7 Certified Developer

###

[] permanent link

Reader Specials from MacResQ

PowerBookResQ "SuperDrive" DVD-R/CD-RW Burner Self Service Upgrade for G4 PowerBooks with existing Combo (DVD/CD-RW) Drive: Now only $179.99!

PowerBookResQ "SuperDrive" DVD-R/CD-RW Burner Self Service Upgrade for G4 PowerBooks with existing CD/DVD Drive: Now only $199.99!

PowerBookResQ 24-Hour Nationwide Upgrade: 60GB, 7200 RPM Hard Drive Installation & Data Transfer Priority Service for PowerBooks & iBooks Normally $329.99, take $20 off with Q-Pon code "60UP"

iKlear Screen Cleaning Kit: Includes 2oz Spray, 3 Klear Kloths and 2 Klear Screen Singles: Normally $11.99, take $2 off with Q-Pon code "KL2"

iPodResQ Self-Service Battery Replacement Kit for 1st & 2nd Generation iPods with a FireWire Port: Normally $29.99, take $5 off with Q-Pon code "PODA"

iPodResQ Self-Service Battery Replacement Kit for 3rd Generation iPods with Dock: Normally $29.99, take $5 off with Q-Pon code "PODB"

[] permanent link

Professional Looking Interface Icons for Developers

InterfaceLIFT, a popular source for quality freeware icons for both Mac OS X and Windows has launched a new section of its web site devoted to developers. The new stock icons collection makes it easier for programmers to find high-quality, royalty-free interface icons that are designed specifically for use in software and web site projects. For the first time there is a single place where developers can go to browse and compare the quality, price, licensing terms, sizes, formats, and quantity of icons availble for purchase from leading designers. Licensing a stock icon collection is far cheaper than hiring out custom design work and the level of polish and professionalism that these icons can bring to a project should not be overlooked.

[] permanent link

Boinx FotoMagico - Your Slideshows will never be the same again

Boinx FotoMagico

FotoMagico allows the creation of stunning, professional slideshows with just a few mouse clicks using images from your iPhoto collection and music from your iTunes music library. For slideshows that are performed live, FotoMagico provides the images in the highest possible resolution and gives the presenter a high level of control and flexibility for their performance. Slideshows can also be exported to QuickTime movies and be distributed on DVDs created with iDVD or Toast.
Boinx FotoMagico 1.0 is available for download immediately from the website http://www.fotomagico.com. License Keys are on sale via Kagi for US $79. A five day demo license for evaluation can be requested at the [] permanent link