From: (Tony Lindsey) xxltony@cts.com
Subject: Mac*Chat#111/01-Jun-96
Mac*Chat#111/01-Jun-96
======================
Welcome to Mac*Chat, the weekly electronic newsletter for everyone
interested in using a Macintosh computer professionally, no matter
what their situation or profession.
See the end of this file for further information, including how to get a free
subscription.
Any [comments in brackets] are by Tony Lindsey.
Highlights Of This Issue
------------------------
We begin the topic of Internet-based Chatting programs, we learn
about several very useful utilities, Epson Pro XL color-printer
users leap to defend their printers, Ken Dunnington tells us
about the new Info-Mac Official Web-site, we get news about two
great utilities that track-down bad fonts, we mention a good
source for Zip disks, we learn about Apple's official Tech
resources newsletter, a teacher asks for the best Mac Web-server,
we get some clearer ideas about how people and software programs
are using the Web, and I ask for some personal help with Open
Transport.
Topics:
Highlights Of This Issue
Editor's Notes - Requests For Help
Online Chat - What's The Best Way To Learn More?
Favorite Utilities, Continued
Inexpensive Color Printers - Epson Fans Reply
New Info-Mac Official Web-Site
Radioactive Font Fixers, Part 1 - Font Box & The FONDler
Price Club Has Zip Disks
Technical Section Starts... Here
Information Alley - Reviewed
What's The Best Mac-Based Web-Server?
Maybe Web-Spiders Aren't To Blame
Open Transport - Help!
Legalisms
Free Subscriptions To This Newsletter
Editor's Notes - Requests For Help
----------------------------------
By Tony Lindsey <TLindsey@cts.com>
I've received a pile of messages from Faithful Readers asking me
how they can do volunteer-work to help me with the newsletter's
operations. I have been thinking about this lately, and
here are my requests:
-----
I'd like some help tracking down contact-information for
corporations. I receive many tips from readers that don't
include the mentioned company's phone numbers, address, URL or
e-mail address, and when I ask them to expand upon it, they don't
know where to start. This forces me to spend time tracking it
down myself. I'd love to be able to fire-off a request for help
from dependable folks before deadline approaches.
See the following sections regarding "CE Software" and "Casady &
Greene" for good examples of what I mean...
-----
I'd also like some step-by-step help in creating a Nisus Writer
Macro. I look at the published instructions and my mind goes
blank. All I want is a macro that deletes every line in a
document that starts with a "bullet" (option-8) character. This
would help me to delete all of the superfluous lines in incoming
e-mail messages that start with stuff like "MIME-" and
"X-Sender:". I'm already flagging those lines with a bullet. I
filter a LOT of e-mail every week, and it's a heap of hand-work
to re-format the data for Mac*Chat.
Online Chat - What's The Best Way To Learn More?
------------------------------------------------
By: Joe Naff, <hrntutor@dmv.com>
I need a chat program that will work on a MAC that will go
through dmv.com. So far I have not found one to download. Since
leaving AOL I have had no chat program. Can you help me? I am
relatively new to this world.
----
Tony's Reply...
By Tony Lindsey <TLindsey@cts.com>
Actually, I've been wondering the same thing - First, I checked
out what was said in the online version of Adam Engst's Internet
Starter Kit:
<http://www.mcp.com/hayden/iskm/mac.html>
Unfortunately, the section on IRC Chat was a lot of stuff I
couldn't use. However, I did find out that he favors a program
called Homer, so I stopped by his ftp site to download it:
<ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/pub/tidbits/tisk/inet/homer-094.hqx>
<ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/pub/tidbits/tisk/inet/homer-clients.hqx>
I'm hoping to clear some room in my schedule to check it out, but
I'd rather lean on my wisest readers for help. So, what is the
current scoop on IRC Chat programs? What's a simple,
well-explained way to set one up and get the best use out of it?
Which one is best, and why?
I'm a bit afraid to do much with them, since I fear that I will
be sucked into constant online chatting. I've tried it a few
times on local BBS's and America Online - I would suddenly
realize that it was 3 AM and my eyes were bugging out of my head.
Now I know how some people get carried away and get $300 monthly
AOL bills.
Favorite Utilities, Continued
-----------------------------
[This continues the discussion of favorite utilities from issues
108, 109 and 110.]
By: Doug Lobdell, Colorado <doug@cos.srs.com>
Web Arranger is the size of a full fledged application, but is
really a Utility because that's the best way to use it.
CE Software
1801 Industrial Circle
PO Box 65580
West Des Moines, IA 50265
<800-523-7638/515-221-1801/Fax 515-221-2258>
<ce_support@cesoft.com>
<http://www.cesoft.com/webarranger/webarrangerpage.html>
It has taken over my life like some people's DayTimers - it's my
contact manager, project manager, scheduler, and log for
everything from major projects at work to how far I've run this
week/month/year. Super easy, very customizable interface (once
you take an hour or so to learn - time well spent). I was super
fortunate to get 1.0 free when CE Software was giving it away. I
don't need the stuff in the 2.0 upgrade that they've recently
released, but for anyone that wants a great PIM with fantastic
internet integration, WebArranger 2.0 would be $49 well spent.
Pick one? You're gonna make me pick one?? Welllll - like I said,
WebArranger now runs my life, so even tho' its an app I'd still
say its my favoritest utility.
-------
By: EdwinW9@aol.com
My favorite utility is QuickDex. In spite of all the "better"
products out there, I use this info application without fail
every day. All of my contacts are stored in a card file. In
addition, I have a card file for technical tidbits, and yet
another for jokes and quotes.
Casady & Greene
22734 Portola Drive
Salinas, CA 93908-1119
<800/359-4920/408-484-9228/fax 408-484-9218>
<c&g@casadyg.com><http://www.casadyg.com>
QDex uses a freeform search, so I often have to search through
four or five hits to get to the one hit I need. Why use such as
an outdated info manager?
There are three reasons I have refused to switch, or even upgrade
Qdex to its latest incarnation.
First, it use 20K of memory. What's better, is that it can keep
several databases or card files open at once. I don't know how it
does this, but I do know that newer products can't do this with
200 or even 200K of memory. The app and card files take up about
400K of disk space. This means that I can carry around a complete
list of contacts, often used tech facts, and on a floppy disk. I
know that I will be able to open up my information on the oldest
and newest of systems. Since the information is on a single
floppy, I never forget to take it with me (as I do my creaky old
PB100). A floppy is very light, too, so when I go into the city,
or on a train, I don't have to lug "portable" equipment.
Second, it starts up in a second or two, even on older equipment.
Even with three substantial card files open, I have NEVER had to
increase the memory partition.
Third, it is a free form database. I simply add a card and paste
information as needed. There is no learning curve.
Alas, some day the program will cease to function, since it is no
longer supported. If anyone knows who wrote this for Casady &
Greene many, many moons ago, I'd like to personally thank the
programmer(s).
------
By Malcolm Dunn, Vancouver, Canada <medunn@vcn.bc.ca>
As an addendum to the reports on PopChar in MacChat, you might
wish to tell readers that PopChar ceases to be freeware after
this version. It's being distributed as PopChar Lite now; the
commercial version will have rather more features. For more info
on the commercial release, check out the following URL:
<http://www.unisoft.co.at/e/products/popchar.html>
Inexpensive Color Printers - Epson Fans Reply
---------------------------------------------
In issue #110, I spoke harshly about Epson's Stylus Pro XL
printer. I STILL consider it to be a High-Aggravation Device,
but I've been hearing from a lot of people who love it... In
next week's issue, we'll hear from the many folks who deeply
admire their Apple Color StyleWriter 2500's.]
------
By: Jeffrey Cusick MD <jeff@cusick.com>
1. Can you tell me where you found an apple Color Laser Printer
for $600? I would love to buy one, and I'm sure 1 million other
people would since it goes for $6,000.
[Yeah, yeah, yeah - Darned spell-checker doesn't have a
"fumble-fingers" option! :->]
How could you possibly compare them? The XL prints large format
that the Color Laser Printer doesn't. You should be comparing the
Color Stylus Pro non XL version.
2. The Epson Color Stylus Pro XL is an excellent printer, as long
as you don't use the postscript software. Many reviews have been
done that explain this. I own a new Epson Color Stylus Pro (non
XL version) that I got from Office Depot for 499$ and I love it.
Even though it's not postscript, it prints beautiful from
Pagemaker. Print quality is very important to me and for that
price, nothing else compares. It blows away the HP, Apple, and
Canon printers in that price range because it can print a dot 25%
smaller. The blacks are better than an HP laser printer 4MP that
I sold to get the Color Stylus Pro. Along with that, the ink
lasts a lot longer than with other ink jets. The disadvantage is
that print times are slow if you use the high res printing. As
with all ink jets, coated paper gets better results.
------
By: Charles Reeves, Jr. <ree@ornl.gov>
Tony, with regard to your comments about the Epson Stylus Pro XL
color printer in Mac*Chat#110, I must strongly disagree with your
assessment.
I have one which I use every day with PowerRIP and my Power Mac
8500/120--works fine for me. Yes, it is a little slow, and
PowerRIP is a memory hog, but what do you expect for $1800 and
13" x 19" very high resolution color PostScript output? You won't
find this quality and size output on any color printer for 2-3
times this price or more. I feel this is well worth whatever
minor aggravations I might have to put up with.
BTW, the best way to get in touch with Epson is through their
CompuServe forum, or send them e-mail to
<74004.1432@compuserve.com>
Monica at Epson technical support has always responded to my
e-mail/postings in a timely manner.
------
By: Gordon Oppenheimer <Gordon_Oppenheimer@qm.airage.com>
We bought the Epson Stylus Pro XL with the ethernet option and
the postscript RIP. Yes, we had our problems. As you mentioned,
the RIP wants lots of memory.
We were also having a terrible time getting the machine to print
on a consistent basis. Some days it just would not print, other
days it was fine. It would always RIP fine but just wouldn't make
it to the printer.
It turns out that we were turning it off every night. This turns
off the printer but it doesn't turn off the ethernet card. A look
at the back of the machine will confirm that the ethernet lights
are still on. This scrambled the ethernet connection.
Our solution is to leave the printer on all the time. Otherwise
we were going to turn off the power strip that it was plugged
into.
All is fine now. Printer works without a hitch.
New Info-Mac Official Web-Site
------------------------------
By Ken Dunnington <fizgig@waystation.com>
There is now an Info-Mac web site at Pacific Hi-Tech:
<http://www.pht.com/info-mac>
which is the 'official' Web site. It has lots of links to other
Web and FTP Info-Mac related stuff (like the Hyperarchive, all
the search engines, and updated lists of mirror sites). It's a
great resource, and finally lets people give one URL when
discussing Info-Mac :). Though I must admit I like the way you
put related URLs as simply </info-mac/...>, since everybody has a
favorite mirror.
[It's the best compromise for me - I can't think of a simpler way
to do it...]
Radioactive Font Fixers, Part 1 - Font Box & The FONDler
--------------------------------------------------------
[In issue #110, I asked for help in tracking down "Radioactive
Fonts" - the bad fonts that cause your Mac to crash. I received
hundreds of response, but I noticed a pattern. There was a large
number of miscellaneous tips (I'll be passing them along in the
next issue), but there was a LOT of good buzz about the two
programs mentioned here.
Of the two, I only have experience with Font Box Professional, at
my client Annie's office last week. It worked fine, with one
warning - READ THE MANUAL. The "One Folder" default will really
screw you up if you're a real Neat Freak. Annie had carefully
squirreled-away her fonts in folders called "A Fonts", "B Fonts",
etc., and within them, she had folders named "Americana,"
American Uncle," etc.
Font Box extracted the fonts and deleted the folders, leaving her
with one folder of several thousand good font suitcases and
printer font files (and you wouldn't believe how slowly that
folder opened) and a smaller number of superfluous or "bad" fonts
in a separate folder. You can tell it NOT to do this, but it
means you actually have to read the manual. Annie's still
grumbling as she rearranges her fonts, a week later. She's not
wild about reading manuals, and neither am I.
Other than the one warning, Font Box Professional is hot stuff.
Highly Recommended.]
------
By: Eric Ivancich <ivancich@eecs.umich.edu>
In response to your question regarding utilities to find bad
fonts, the current issue of MacUser, (July, 1996 - The cover has
the words "WEB WAR" on it.) gives three mice to a program called
Font Box Professional Edition.
Insider Software
6540 Lusk Boulevard, Suite 161
San Diego, CA 92121
619-622-9900/fax 619-622-9923
<fontbox@theinside.com>
<http://www.theinside.com>
[The Professional version is up to version 1.8.2 at the moment.
The demo version is found at
</info-mac/font/util/font-box-182.hqx>
The Demo version will do the analysis and create a report of what
it found, but won't do the repairs for you.]
------
By: Corey Levenson, Oakland CA <Clevenson2@aol.com>
I had a problem that was causing me major headaches last January.
System crashes galore. Went to Mac World in SF and chatted with
the folks at Symantec (cuz Norton Utilities and SAM said
everything was cool). They suggested I had a font problem and
directed me to a small booth occupied by a company called
Rascal Software
Santa Clarita CA
<805-255-6823> [I couldn't track down any more info before
deadline]
They sell a font library management utility called "theFONDler".
It checks font folders or individual fonts for corruption (major
and minor problems) and also resolves font conflicts. I bought
the software, ran the program and discovered a corrupted font
(one that I never use!). Once I deleted that font everything was
fine.
------
By Gary Czychi, Mac-Service Altenrhein, Switzerland
<CZYCHI@sgcl1.unisg.ch>
The best font utility that I have seen so far is called
*theFondler* and is written by well-known shareware author Jim
Lewis. It lets you check the integrity of the font, traverses
directories to find printer files for the bitmap fonts that you
have selected, displays FOND IDs, all the different font names,
notifies you of font conflicts and can do much more, too much to
mention and too complicated for me :-)
------
By: Mark Lewis <mwlewis@deltanet.com>
Two names:
Font Box (Insider Software),
Fondler (Rascal and another co. ...basically Jim Lewis who wrote
TypeBook)
[Mac Mall <800-222-2808/310-787-4500/fax 310-225-4005>
<http://www.pc-mall.com>
has Fondler for $68.99, or the Fondler/TypeBook Pro bundle for
$89.99, and has the Font Box Preferred Mac CD (analyzes fonts on
local volumes) for $79.99. or the Font Box Professional CD (local
and network, will create one good set of fonts for all six Macs
on a network and place it on each Mac) for $169.99...]
With these two in your corner, you not only will have folders of
fonts in terrific repair, but they will be well organized and
neat as well. And I mean even if you have hundreds and hundreds
of fonts, as I do.
Truly the Dynamic Duo of font management.
BTW--don't be put off by the recent reviews of either program.
The reviewers missed the point. When you have a corrupted font,
you need as much and as thorough as picture as you can. As far as
repairing a font--who does it? Mostly all you can do is replace
the font. Fondler gives you tons of info, likely more than you
need, but Suitcase misses damaged fonts. Fondler does not.
And as for Font Box--just being able to separate a jammed-full
suitcase of screenfonts into their appropriate piles accompanied
by their printer fonts is worth the price of admission. For me,
anyway.
Price Club Has Zip Disks
------------------------
By Tony Lindsey <TLindsey@cts.com>
This is not something I'd normally re-post, since so many of
Mac*Chat's readers aren't in the USA. However,
<DiMarcus@aol.com> told me that the Price Club is now selling Zip
Drive disks (formatted for IBM, so they need to be re-formatted)
for $90 per pack of six disks. I've also found Pelikan kits at
the Price Club for refillable black Hewlett-Packard inkjet
cartridges (4,000 pages-worth of ink for $39).
Are there any cheap mail-order sources for Zip disks nowadays?
Also, whatever happened to the 200-megabyte Zip disks I heard
about so long ago?
Technical Section Starts... Here
--------------------------------
Information Alley - Reviewed
----------------------------
[In issue #109, I asked for somebody to give a review of Apple's
"Information Alley" daily newsletter. I've wanted to begin
subscribing to it, but I cringe at the thought of getting MORE
daily reading-material without trying it first...]
By Grant Neufeld, Ontario, Canada <grant@idcott.idc.com>
The "Information Alley" mailing list is distributed by Apple's
Service and Support Engineering team. This strictly technical
list for both hardware and software covers troubleshooting,
configuration problems, installation, updates, bugs and other
issues that come up when using and supporting Apple computers.
Although its broad scope means that not all of the information is
interesting all of the time - it is free of fluff and provides
specific answers to problems. Personally, I forward pertinent
articles to the people I support, letting them know the
information they need to for their systems - without them having
to get a bunch of other mail about systems they don't use.
I definitely recommend the list to anyone who administers or
supports Mac systems (hardware or software). Other users will
want to subscribe or find someone else to forward any interesting
information.
------
By <ghurlbut@ccmpo-d.draper.com>
"Information Alley" is provided by Apple as a daily mailing list.
It is described as:
[The following is a quote]
The "Information Alley" is a publication of Apple Computer, Inc.,
Support Information Services. It is available to all Apple
customers and Apple computer users through electronic mail
(e-mail).
The goal of the "Information Alley" is to help Apple computer
users get full use of their Apple computers, peripherals, and
software. You are welcome to distribute the "Information Alley"
to anyone.
To subscribe send an e-mail message that contains the following
subject line to:
InfoAlley@lists1.austin.apple.com
* Subject line: subscribe
* Do not type any text in the body of the message itself.
Some recent articles have been:
* Open Transport 1.1: Applications Compatibility Q & A * Copland:
Q & A * Enhanced PCI-Based Power Macintosh Models: New Features *
Tech Info Library: How to Search for Articles.
There are archives of Information Alley at
<http://support.info.apple.com/info.alley/info.alley.html>
What's The Best Mac-Based Web-Server?
-------------------------------------
By Steve Lockwood <lockwoods@nmc1.nmclites.edu>
My school has given me permission to buy an Apple server for our
Mac lab (13 LCII & 9 PowerMacs, all with ethernet connections to
our campus backbone(?)). These machines use primarily
ClarisWorks which lives on their hard drives; we have no network
software. Several departments do want to teach their students
about web page creation on the Mac, and the Education department
wants students to have some idea of what Mac networks they might
encounter when they work in elementary or secondary schools.
Apple sells two server bundles (not counting the unix boxes), one
for AppleShare and one for Internet. Which is the better choice,
if we assume that we'll want to add later what the other bundle
has? Students have in another lab a unix machine for their main
mail & Internet use; our machine can be used for whatever we
want. I'd appreciate any guidance you or your readers can give.
Thank you.
P.S. As you may have guessed, I barely understand any of the
server issues, and I'm ahead of most Mac people here. My field
is English Lit. The various Apple phone numbers I've called have
given very little help.
Maybe Web-Spiders Aren't To Blame
---------------------------------
[In issue #110, I said "There's no WAY I'm getting 32,000 visits
from human beings in a month."]
By Darrell Greenwood <Darrell_Greenwood@mindlink.net>
I guess it depends on the definition of a visit. My ISP provides
logs. I was away for 3 weeks and got 3500 hits on an *unpromoted*
site. With your exposure and content desirability I wouldn't be
surprised at 32,000 hits in a month.
In my case inspection of the logs easily spots the spiders (no
human takes 3 hours to move to the next page) and they are less
than 5% of the hits.
------
By Todd Johnson <toddj@bcwine.com>
WebAudit, has a page on their web site
<http://www.wishing.com/webaudit/browsers_totals.html.
that displays web browser hit statistics on 100,000 random hits
of their clients' pages. It usually shows that Netscape is
responsible for about 90% of all hits, and web robots less than
1% of all hits. I believe these statistics are pretty indicative
of the state of things in the real world. Why wouldn't you
believe 32000 hits? It's not that implausible, given the public
nature of MacChat.
Open Transport - Help!
----------------------
By Tony Lindsey <TLindsey@cts.com>
I need somebody who's an Open Transport Jock to walk me through
my Powerbook 520's OT teething problems. I can't donate my Mac
IIcx to St. Rita's until I've successfully shifted Mac*Chat
operations over to the PowerBook. I want OT because it will
finally allow me to dial-up to the Internet, do work, hang up, do
work, then dial-up again. I'm currently having to re-start my
Mac about 12 times a day just to get a typical newsletter out the
door, and it has gotten mighty old.
My problem with Open Transport 1.1 is that it logs on, gives my
password, says everything is dandy, and then no programs can find
the network. Netscape 2.0 says "Netscape was unable to create a
network socket connection." If I use Apple's "Network Software
Selector" program to switch to MacTCP, everything works fine.
I'm currently using FreePPP 2.5a. My usual support-techs are
stumped. Think of the glory you'll earn!
Legalisms and Information
-------------------------
Copyright 1989-1996 Tony Lindsey.
The contents of Mac*Chat may not be republished, either in whole or
in part, without the express permission of the editor. Small excerpts
of Mac*Chat may be reproduced for personal use, or by nonprofit
groups (such as Mac User Groups) if full credit is given, including
this notice, how to subscribe, and how to make donations. Please contact
the editor <TLindsey@cts.com> for any publication requests.
This newsletter is intended purely as entertainment and free
information. No profit has been made in return for publication of
any of these opinions. Time passes, so accuracy may diminish.
Publication, product, and company names may be registered
trademarks of their companies.
-----
This file is formatted as setext, which can be read on any text reader.
I'd enjoy hearing your feedback and suggestions. Unfortunately,
due to the massive numbers of messages I get every day, I can't
guarantee a personal reply. Send all such messages to:
Tony Lindsey <TLindsey@cts.com>
<http://www.cts.com/macchat>
3401-A55 Adams Avenue
San Diego, CA 92116-2429
Tips from readers are gratefully accepted. Please write them in a
user-friendly way, and if you are mentioning an Internet site,
please include a paragraph explaining why others should visit it.
Mac*Chat back-issues may be found within any Info-Mac ftp archive at
/info-mac/per/chat - For example:
<ftp://mirror.aol.com/mir02/INFOMAC/info-mac/per/chat/>
and read with any Web browser at
<http://www.ese.ogi.edu/macchat/>
Current issues may be found on the comp.sys.mac.digests newsgroup.
GETTING A FREE SUBSCRIPTION, STEP ONE:
--------------------------------------
This will cause Mac*Chat to be e-mailed to you automatically,
every week (unless I'm on vacation or just too darned busy):
FIRST, turn off your e-mail program's "automatic signature" feature,
if it has one. Extra e-mail addresses in the end of your message can
create a "Subscription From Hell," with unpredictable, hard-to-fix
problems.
-----
THEN, send an e-mail message to the following address:
listserv@vm.temple.edu
The Subject line on this message is ignored, so it can say anything.
In the body of the message, include the following line:
SUBSCRIBE MACCHAT Your full name
As an example: SUBSCRIBE MACCHAT Juliana Tarlton.
GETTING A FREE SUBSCRIPTION, STEP TWO:
--------------------------------------
In order to protect people from being unwillingly subscribed to
Mac*Chat, a message will arrive in your e-mail, asking for a
one-word response to verify that you DO want to subscribe.
Here's the response you should send:
OK
Notice that it's all-capitals, and nothing but those two
characters. If you follow these instructions, you will receive a
nice long message explaining acceptance of your subscription,
how to end it (if desired) and general mailing-list info.
KEEP THAT MESSAGE! It'll tell you how to un-subscribe when
that day comes.
WHAT DO YOU DO IF YOU HAVE SUBSCRIPTION PROBLEMS?
-------------------------------------------------
Please contact Shrimmy, who handles such things for me.
His e-mail address is
shrim@thunder.ocis.temple.edu
============== ____ ==================================================
Tony Lindsey \ _/__ Free, weekly e-mailed Mac-oriented newsletter
Mac*Chat Editor \X / <TLindsey@cts.com> <http://www.cts.com/macchat/>
================= \/ =================================================