Necessary or Cool Mac Stuff


NOTE: I'm sorry. This page is getting way out of date. I haven't taken the time to maintain it. I think it may still be of some interest so I'll leave it available in its present form which is almost a year out of date. Hopefully I'll eventually take the time to bring things up to date. Anyways have fun.
Cool stuff for your mac The following is a listing of cool Macintosh utilities or applications or whatever that I think are way cool.

The version numbers are listed. I try to keep these as up to date as possible. Please contact me at jtopping@his.com if any version numbers are not up to date or if you think I suck.

To actually obtain these you will have to look elsewhere.

You can try the searchable Info-mac Hyperarchive Very nice for finding mostly any thing you know the name of, or for browsing other wise.

For some things (such as Sound Manager 3.1) you might wanna go straight to Apple or to go straight to a listing of Apple's newest files check out Apple's newest files.

A fairly selective list of shareware is available at the University of Texas Mac Archive

You can get commercial software from the Cyberian Outpost.


Appearance

First lets start with two useless things that I don't always use, for various reasons, but are worth at least checking out. The rest after that are pretty much essentials for me (yes, even the superficial greg's buttons).

Aaron 1.0 is a cool hack by the author of Greg's buttons that gives you an interface very similar to that of Apple's future operating system Copland. The final release is annoying if unregistered and you may prefer if you can find it to get a prerelease of Aaron 1.0.4b

Church Windows 1.1 allows you to make your windows like some other platforms including NeXT, SGI IRIS, Windows 3.1 and 95, and Xwindows. My personal favorite is the Silicon Graphics WDEF which looks cool and allows you to reshape your windows with much greater functionality from all corners and sides.

Greg's Buttons 3.7.2 is a shareware control panel that optionally gives you 3D buttons, and different menu fonts and colors.

Interface

Desktop Strip 1.2 gives you very nice floating palettes using control strip modules. Very nice.

Handyman 1.1 A nice launcher module that plugs into desktop strip or control strip.

PopupFolder 1.5.1 is commercial software, but there is a demo and updater available. It allows you to easily dig through folders with a hiearchical menu. This speeds up my usage of my computer by a factor of about a bajillion. I have read reports of a newer version 2.0, which is supposed to cost twice as much with some nice, but not revolutionary enhancements.
(Price for 1.5.1= $30, for 2.0 = too much)

System Software

Ram Doubler 1.5.2a If you don't know of this already, you suck. Updates and related items can be found. (note that the a in 1.5.2a does not indicate an alpha release, it's not worth explaining or worrying about).
(Price =$50)

Sound Manager 3.1 Apple's newest sound manager is powermac native and allows asynchronous beeps. I've noticed dramatic improvements in the performance of games and stuff that use sound on my power mac. Get it from Apple.

Utilities

Darkside of the Mac 4.2
A freeware application that is a screen saver. Even though I have a AfterDark I use this instead and run my favorite After Dark modules, cuz this is an application, not a messy cdev or extension.

Eudora Light 1.5.3 is the best freeware mailer. For more features you can pay for Eudora Pro.

GraphicConverter 2.1.4

JPEGView 3.3.1 you suck if you don't know what this is (postcardware).

Netscape 1.1 You have to know what this is or you not only suck, you suck the suckiness out of everyone else who sucks.

PlayerPRO 4.4.2 is a shareware application for playing mods. Very nice, except it's very annoying if you don't register it, because it won't go for more than twenty minutes at a time and confronts you with a dialog box at startup. (registration costs $20 or $40 for a CD)

ResEdit 2.1.3 Good for hacking programs and stuff. If you don't know what this is, chances are you don't need it. (Freeware from Apple).

Snitch 2.0.1 gives you more info in get info boxes and lets you change creators and types in info boxes.

Show! 1.03 allows you to look at multiple gifs/jpegs, whatever as a bunch of previews rather than the finder's dinky little icons and other features (postcardware).

ShrinkWrap 1.4.2
Allows you to mount disk images, even compressed images. The nicest of the images mounters.

Stuffit Expander 3.5.2
expands stuff. Another you suck if you don't know of it already type thing.

Sparkle 2.4.3 Lets you watch MPEG's movies and whatevers. If you have an earlier version then upgrade or perish. Make sure if you don't have System 7.5 you get Quicktime 2.0 and Threads Manager 2.1 to accompany it.

Make sure you also check out stuff like Quicktime VR and Quickdraw 3D if you haven't already from Apple.