Subject: Info-Mac Digest V16 #189 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="Info-Mac-Digest" --Info-Mac-Digest Info-Mac Digest Mon, 19 Oct 98 Volume 16 : Issue 189 Today's Topics: (Q) Macsbug meaning? (Q) TCP Equivalent to Chooser Entry AppleShare Apple's news is sparkling (C) Control Strip management? Free PPP and OS 8.1 Fwd: "Insufficient System Memory to Run Word" Fwd: application/octet-stream. Have I got a memory leak? hidden Desktop files memory leak messed up bookmarks MS Office 98 for Mac Netscape Navigator auto-completion Screen Problem with a Powerbook 520 Set default editor with Sys 7.5? Someone to help me read this MO disk? The Info-Mac Network is a volunteer organization that publishes the Info-Mac Digest and operates the Info-Mac Archive, a large network of FTP sites containing gigabytes of freely distributable Macintosh software. Email Addresses and Instructions: * To submit articles to the digest, email . * To subscribe, send email to with subscribe in the Subject line. * To unsubscribe, send email to with unsubscribe in the Subject line. * To change your address, unsubscribe from the old address, then subscribe from the new address. If that fails, try using the list maintenance form at before contacting us. * Please send administrative queries to . * To submit files for the archive, email the binhexed file with a description to . Submissions must be made by the author or with permission of the author. It may take up to a week to process; check mirror sites for the status of new uploads. FTP and Web Addresses and Instructions: * To submit files larger than 800K, email a description to and then use an FTP client to upload the binhexed file to info-mac.org, using the userid "macgifts and the password "macgifts". Or, click . * A full list of Info-Mac mirror sites is available at the URL below: * Search the archive at . Info-Mac volunteers include Gordon Watts, Adam C. Engst, Demitri Muna, Michael Bean, Liam Breck, Hugh Lewis, Tom Coradeschi, and Shawn Bunn. The Info-Mac Digest is sponsored in part by StarNine Technologies, developers of Internet server software for the Macintosh, including Web and email publishing systems. We'd also like to thank AOL for the main Info-Mac machine. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- --Info-Mac-Digest Content-Type: multipart/digest; boundary="----------------------------" Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="Info-Mac Digest V16 #189" ------------------------------ Date: 16 Oct 98 06:50:33 -0400 From: "D. Scott Beach" Subject: (Q) Macsbug meaning? Listfolk: Whenever I get kicked into Macsbug for the last while, I seem to be getting the same information displayed: You have duplicate dcmds named r2db You have duplicate dcmds named atvb You have duplicate dcmds named drd You have duplicate dcmds named pp You have duplicate dcmds named findsym What's it mean? Did I install duplicate dcmds? Is it complaining or just informing? Please enlighten me if you can. Thanks. I'm on a 7600/132 running OS8.1 - Scott ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ D. Scott Beach, sbeach@front.net A rabid Mac dude in Toronto who's a bit lost just now. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1998 08:34:04 +0100 From: Andy Ockrim Subject: (Q) TCP Equivalent to Chooser Entry AppleShare > I am one of the decreasing number of, lonely Mac users in our company and > life is getting harder for us. They recently stopped routing of apple > talk protocol between the ethernet subnets and for getting data from a > server in another building, I have to use clumsy ftp now instead of > mounting the server volumes. > > Is there an equivalent to the AppleShare tool in the Chooser for doing > the same stuff as with AppleShare not via Tcp/Ip instead? Does anyone >know how NT Machines do it amongst each other? Because from an NT Box in >our Net I can access all servers, also those in other buildings. > > Please help to avoid they find another argument against the few macs > still remaining. Thanks, > In simple terms, all networks operate with within an environment such as Novell or NT, which control the way the servers and client workstations talk to each other. The method by which they talk is by using standard protocols (like appletalk, tcp/ip, ipx etc). It isn't necessary to have Appletalk on a network to allow Macs to mount server volumes, as long as the Macs concerned are running the same protocol as the server. In many cases this could well be IPX, for which there is a Mac client available from Novel. Using this client software on an IPX network would allow Macs to log in to servers and access files and services like any other workstation... without the need to mount any Mac specific support files on the system itself. The trick is to find out which protocols your network is using (the system administrator will know), and find client software for your Mac that provides the same. This approach has made it possible for my ethernet based network, running Novell netware, to have PCs, Macs and NT workstations all providing users with full access to server volumes and resources such as printers. ___ Andy Ockrim Information Systems - Manchester Metropolitan University Email: a.ockrim@mmu.ac.uk Phone: +44 (0)161 247 6597 Mobile: +44 (0)973 179 634 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 23:05:51 -0400 From: abrody Subject: Apple's news is sparkling (C) Dear Digest readers, I can't tell y'all how thrilled I am to hear Apple's latest news. Coming soon to a Best Buy near you... Did someone say Best Buy? Check the news at: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/bs/story.html?s=v/nm/19981014/bs/apple_ 6.html Not to mention all the old Computer Cities now part of CompUSA also will be having Macintoshes available. Now we just need to coax Apple to get on the shelves of Circuit City. It's been a long draught of Apple visibility. Let's write our software developers to get them on the shelves of Best Buy as well, not to mention CompUSA and Circuit City. The paucity of Apple software in the retail stores is what has hurt Apple the most. You need to purchase magazines not found at all newsstands and bookstores (i.e. "MacHome", "MacWorld") just to find out about all the software available via mail order, or already have access to the net. But the fact that most newbies don't yet have access to the net, or aren't near these newsstands and bookstores means all they see is the retail stores. Now that the hardware is there, let's all go out there and get the retail stores to contact the third party Apple software developers and carry their software. Apple is making the first step. We need to follow... IMHO NRN Sincerely, abrody@smart.net ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1998 14:36:28 -0500 From: Vincent Cayenne Subject: Control Strip management? Is there any utility which gives Control Strip management capabilities as Extension Manager does for Control Panels? I use Location Manager to orchestrate my use of a PowerBook 1400 in multiple environments (home, client site, two different office locations) and under different circumstances (acceptable noise levels, T1 or dial-up, differing ISPs, etc. And now there's Contextual Menus Manager to help me deal with the CMMs. So is there anything for Strips? --- Vin's Foursome: Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst. Assume nothing. Expect anything. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1998 13:33:43 -0600 From: Ted Logan Subject: Free PPP and OS 8.1 I use two 3Com/USRobotics 56k v.90 Sportster Faxmodems with x2 running off a PowerMac 7100/80 with MacOS 7.6.1 and off a PowerMac G3/266 with Mac OS 8.1 My local (Tulsa, Oklahoma) Apple/Macintosh dealer has said repeatedly and adamantly as recently as last week that I should *never* install Free PPP in any version on a G3 with OS 8.0 or higher and that if I could use it successfully on my 7100/890 with 7.6.1 I was "one of the few who can make Free PPP work on anything . . . all kinds of problems . . . not developed by Apple," and so forth. I was told to use the OT/PPP control panel or Internet Dialer (same thing) for all connections to the Internet. This turns out to be total hooey. Like many others, some of whom have written to me, I have had recurring, persistent problems attempting to connect with OT/PPP. The software won't connect sometimes with no reported reason or it connects and drops the connection for no reported reason. OT/PPP cannot be configured for specific modem initiation strings and uses the wrong one for USR56kx2v.90 modems. OT/PPP uses modem scripts like the "US Robotics Universal" modem script in System Folder->Extensions->Modem Scripts, which can be opened with BBEdit Lite 4.0 using the "Any File" -- not the same as "All Files" -- selection or with any other text editor offering the "Any Files" selection (word processing software like Claris Works does not). To reconfigure the OT/PPP modem script with the correct commands, you need Modem Script Generator 1.0a1 in the "Misc" (unsupported) section of the Macintosh directory on Apple's Software Updates site. This is tricky business for the initiated and total Greek to the uninitiated. You probably can't hurt your modem by using your own modem script, but you can spend hours getting nowhere if you haven't worked with modems a lot, especially the AT commands and register settings. Fortunately, you may ignore all that and download Free PPP 2.6.2, which is free, from http://www.rockstar.com. Also download their latest Auto Detect DB file, which goes in your System Folder->Preferences folder. Free PPP installs easily and completely, leaving you nothing more to do than restart and run Free PPP Setup from the pulldown menu that will appear as a small phone icon on your menu bar. For setup help, read their well-written, detailed, step-by-step screenshot-illustrated guide, Free PPP 2.6.2 Reference, that is installed in the same folder as the other Free PPP items on your hard disk. You will need to know the same things about your ISP's domain names and addresses that you needed for configuring OT/PPP. If you use a US Robotics modem, the initiation string that has always worked best for my ordinary ISP connections with Macintosh computers over the past 5 years is AT&F1&D0 (that's D-zero). This works as well for other makes, but I don't know which ones. "AT" gets the modem's attention. "&F1" loads a nonprogrammable (read-only) factory configuration for hardware flow control especially for Macs; I believe DOS, Windows, and others use something else. "&D0" sets the modem to Data Terminal Ready (DTR) override, which is desirable for normal ISP dialup connections. It is true that earlier releases and beta versions of Free PPP had problems and took a bit of nerve to install. No more. I recommend Free PPP 2.6.2 to everyone who has asked me, including everyone using Mac OS 8.1. Free PPP is so superior to OT/PPP and Internet Dialer (ack!) that you'll wonder why Apple puts us through all that. I think it's because Apple has always treated modem connectivity like an unwanted stepchild and simply doesn't understand the technology or the equipment. Maybe with 8.5 . . .? ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 21:32:05 -0700 From: Daly Jessup Subject: Fwd: "Insufficient System Memory to Run Word" I have a client whose 6500/275 keeps going to sleep when he leaves it alone awhile. He says it takes up to two minutes to wake back up. I put Energy Saver back into active status and expected to find that it had been set to sleep before it was disabled. But all options were off, and still the machine is sleeping after a period of inactivity. I zapped the PRAM more or less as a magical gesture, but of course that didn't do anything. He has no other "sleep"-type programs on the drive. He is running system 8.1. Does anyone have an idea what might be causing the sleeping? Is this a setting in a disk driver, for instance? The trouble is, it is fairly new behavior. I want to solve it because he says it started some time after my first visit to him. (He's not blaming me, or anything, but... I can tell what's lurking in the back of his mind). ;) Hopefully.... Daly Daly Jessup ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 21:34:43 -0700 From: Daly Jessup Subject: Fwd: application/octet-stream. Dan Alvey asked: >When using Netscape browser with my Mac, I frequently try to download >attachments >labeled "application/octet-stream". Netscape says it doesn't know what to >do woth >this file. I can find no plug-ins to open this file. What's the deal. I >have the >feeling there is a very simple solution staring me in the face. Just tell it to save the file to disk. Once it is downloaded, drop it StuffIt Expander. (Actually, I don't know if that will do it, and have no such download to test rightnow). But if that doesn't work, drop it on the icon of "ya-base64," which is available at many shareware sites. That will decode it. Daly Daly Jessup ------------------------------ Date: 14 Oct 98 21:49:18 -0400 From: "D. Scott Beach" Subject: Have I got a memory leak? Paul Dagleish , Mark Nagata , Peter H. Lipman ,Allan Hunter , Bo Bjulen , Chaz Larson , Oscar Gerardo , and Rob Durnford ALL wrote to tell me that I was dealing with a memory fragmentation problem. Thanks for all your replies. I didn't think it was that, but I've tested it some more and the only discrepnancies I can find that aren't accounted for by memory fragmentation only add up to 2.5 or 3 MB RAM total. That's not much so I'll live with it. Maybe it's OpenDoc or something that isn't reporting its usage properly. I also seemed to miss the fact that Largest Unused Block refers only to "Largest". (literacy is a great thing, eh?) I'll be paying more attention to "Memory Mapper" just to be sure I've got a grip on what's going on here. I'd still like to know why virtual memory or RAM Doubler interfere with AV applications. If it were just a matter of swapping out RAM to disk and breaking the stream of data that being digitised I could understand it. If I'm using virtual memory set to a minimum or RAM Doubler, would there still be that interuption? Do AV applications automatically complain just to be safe even if they don't really need to? Thanks again for the replies. - Scott ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ D. Scott Beach, sbeach@front.net A rabid Mac dude in Toronto. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 20:38:01 +0100 From: Sebastiano Pilla Subject: hidden Desktop files >instantly fixed much to the amazement of the small crowd watching me). My >question is, does it matter to have the two flavors of DB and DF? Since >you can't mix the System 6 style Desktop file with the System 7 style >Desktop files, what about System 7 files with OS 8 files? My sense is >that's OK, but I thought someone else might know more. >From System 7 onwards (thus including OS 8 & OS 8.1), keep both Desktop DB and Desktop DF; if you delete either one of them, the Finder will rebuild it from scratch. On the other hand, finding an invisible file named "Desktop" with type 'ERIK' and creator 'FNDR' on any drive larger than 2MB attached to a Mac running version 7 or newer of the System Software is a potential cause of problems (spurious desktop rebuilds, for example). One likely cause of the presence of that file is the popular utility File Buddy: many versions from 3.x to 4.3.4 (I haven't checked yet the new 4.3.6) when performing a desktop related operation (update, rebuild or replace) do leave a spurious Desktop file on all drives. What's more, that file has a bad modification date (1-1-1904). Years ago I've tried to point out this issue to the author of File Buddy, but he didn't acknowledged the bug. Regards Sebastiano Pilla -- There are _no_ Mac "entry-level" programmers. A Mac programmer is, by definition, an expert. They just acquire more expertise over time. - Mark Hartman ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1998 20:47:32 -0700 From: Bill Rausch Subject: memory leak >Every now and then, I'll check my "About This Computer..." and find that >once the used RAM and the largest unused block get added up, I'm 10 or 20 >MB shy of my 80Mb. I imagine you've gotten a lot of answers by now, but ... The way Mac memory management works is simple to explain with a picture. Suppose all of memory is this line: |-----------------|--------------------------------------------------------| System Free Suppose you start up some programs: |-----------------|------------|------------------|-----|------------------| System One Two Three Free Then quit One and Three but not Two: |-----------------|------------|------------------|------------------------| System Free Two Free Notice that your Free memory is in two separate pieces. If you start program Three again, it will take the first available piece that is big enough: |-----------------|-----|------|------------------|------------------------| System Three Free Two Free Your biggest Free piece didn't change. Now start program One again: |-----------------|-----|------|------------------|------------|-----------| System Three Free Two One Free Now your biggest Free space is much smaller even though you're running the same programs! Your total Free space hasn't changed but it is broken into smaller pieces. If you quit all of the programs then you should get the one big free space back again, although some invisible programs like File Sharing can grab pieces and not let them go. The Mac's virtual memory doesn't change the above any, but it does have two impacts. You have more memory before you run out, and some programs will use less memory so what you have goes farther. This style of memory management was pretty easy to implement back when System 6 came out and didn't break every program that worked under System 5. Some operating systems, such as UNIX, just divide all of memory into sections and keep track of each section independently. Any given program can use any number of sections whether or not they are contiguous. The OS (with proper hardware support) just helps each program pretend that it has a chunk of memory like the pictures above even though the pieces can be scattered all over the place. Mac OS X will have UNIX style memory management, but until then we are stuck rebooting once in a while to get things cleaned up. Bill Bill Rausch, Mac and Unix User and Programmer, brausch@owt.com 613 Lynnwood Ct, Richland, WA 99352 509-375-5147 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 17 Oct 1998 11:57:09 +0100 (BST) From: Michael Rank Subject: messed up bookmarks My bookmarks have got messed up in Netscape Navigator 4. I think I clicked something wrong during the installation stage. Under the pulldown bookmarks menu there is a bookmark called Bookmarks for Michael Rank which puts all of them in the main Netscape window, but the individual bookmarks do not all appear in the pulldown menu, if you see what I mean... In case it's relevant, the location of the Bookmarks for MR is file:///Hard%20disk%7F/Netscape%20Navigator%AA%20Folder/Essential%20Files/Defaul ts/%7FBookmarks.html. It's not disastrous but is annoying. Can a guru please help. One other very basic question. I have long been unclear as to how to get from an Info-Mac address, eg [Archived as /info-mac/gui/ks/xmac.hqx; 81K] to the downloading site. This doesn't seem to be explained on the Info-Mac home page. Many thanks, Michael ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1998 14:51:12 +0900 From: "Allan Sutherland" Subject: MS Office 98 for Mac Can anyone tell me if it is possible to update the Japanese version of MS Office 4.2.1 to the US version of Office 98 for mac using the US upgrade? Thanks for any help. Allan. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1998 14:19:47 -0500 From: Vincent Cayenne Subject: Netscape Navigator auto-completion I use Netscape Navigator across multiple platforms. Under Windows NT/9x or UNIX, when I type a portion of a URL I've used recently, the entire URL is automatically entered. For example, I type 'is' and 'http://iserve.wtca.org/' is automatically entered since that's the last URL I entered beginning with 'is'. But this doesn't seem to work on the Mac. Is there a setting that I'm unaware of? Or is it a difference in the feature set across platforms? --- 'Tis as said - reality is defined by being described ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1998 18:40:06 +0200 From: zhang@inrets.fr (Phiz) Subject: Screen Problem with a Powerbook 520 Hello All, I've a Powerbook 520 for several years and have no problem. But in recent, it appears a horizontal blackline in the middle of the screen. I don't know what happens. Is the screen is damaged? Any hope to make disappear this blackline? Thanks Phiz ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1998 21:27:38 +0200 From: bromo@flashnet.it (Vittorio Barabino) Subject: Set default editor with Sys 7.5? > > Date: Sun, 11 Oct 1998 04:59:53 +0712 > From: kwick@mitre.org (Ken Wickwire) > Subject: Set default editor with Sys 7.5? > > > Up to about Sys 7.1 one could use something called System7 Pac to change the > default editor from the appalling TeachText to say BBEdit. With Sys 7.5 > and presumably above, the old S7P doesn't do it. Anybody know how it can > be done nowadays, with say Sys 7.5.3 (on a PPC or 68k)? > Tnx kwick@mitre.org I know these solutions: 1) Use the patch "SimpleText Color Menu" by Alessandro Levi Montalcini: the ttxt files are always opened by SimpleText, but it allows you to choose a different "large text handler" if the file exceeds the 32k limit. 2)Of course, set PC Exchange, Internet Config &tc to use BBEdit or TexEdit fotr .txt etc. files 3)of course put Typical on your desktop :) 4)If you use the MacOS easy open trick, never-never use BBEdit as a replacement, but TexEdit, because TE has styles and picutres. Since most programs' readmes are just SimpleText files *with styles and pictures*... they are definitely handicapped if read using BBEdit. (I prefer BBEdit to TexEdit, but I must advise that...). -- Ciao, \+----------+ "La risposta e' dentro di te... Vittorio --| : ) o | ...MA E' SBAGLIATA!!!" /+----------+ Enciclopedia d.Fantascienza: http://www.fantascienza.com/edf ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 20:29:02 -0700 From: Chris Schram Subject: Someone to help me read this MO disk? My trusty old (1993) Fujitsu DynaMO 128 external SCSI drive recently gave up the ghost, and I am choosing not to bare the expense of having it repaired or replaced. Though I used it mostly for backups and archiving non-critical data, one of the eleven disks I have onhand contains some files that would be inconvenient (but not impossible) to recreate. I am looking to find a Macintosh user living on the southern Oregon coast (say between Florence, OR & Smith River, CA) who has a Magneto-Optical drive that can read 128MB media. I would bring a Zip drive to transfer my files. (No, I don't want the disk leaving my hands until I recover my data.) Thanks. Chris Schram -- schram@mail.coos.or.us -- http://www.coos.or.us/~schram -------------------------------- --Info-Mac-Digest-- End of Info-Mac Digest ******************************