Cool stuff for your mac

The following is a listing of cool Macintosh utilities or applications or whatever that I think are cool or worth checking out.

Last updated: 12/14/96

To actually obtain these you may have to look elsewhere, although I've tried to provide links.

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. .. although sometimes it takes a while before the latest and greatest stuff gets uploaded there.
You can get commercial software from the Cyberian Outpost.

WAV is a cool application (actually its not an application) that really shows the promise and potential of opendoc far more than Cyberdog 1.2 alone ever did. Embedding web pages or any opendoc object within a wordprocessing document is cool!

Apple System Software

 

Open Transport/PPP 1.0 is available. Open Transport Native PPP. Pretty nice in my experience.

 

Open Transport 1.1.2 is also available. Provides power pc native (or 68k) tcp/ip networking and lotsa other nice stuff!

 

System Software 7.5.5 (system software) [System 7.6 at b6, and 7.7 at developer stage]
Apple's latest system software (the updater must be installed ontop of System 7.5.3 or later. Thus if you're using a version of 7.5 before 7.5.3 you must also get System Update 2.0 which requires you to already have some version of System 7.5. If you don't have any version of System 7.5 you have to pay money to get it) includes lots of up to date stuff from apple, performance and stability improvements, and is just plain nice so get it, and if necessary go to my cocaine page in the event that you have very obscure networking troubles (which apply to any version of 7.5).

of course... system 7.6 should be purchasable sometime in january

 

 

Latest Apple files

Communications/network/internet/whatever

Eudora Light 3.0.1 (application: email)
is the best freeware mailer. For more features you can pay for Eudora Pro 3.0.1

Fetch 3.0.1 (application: ftp)
for FTPing. Pretty nice. (there's also anarchie which is also pretty cool).

Ircle 2.5 (application: irc) [latest beta: 2.6b7r6]
for using IRC. In case you're some clueless AOL refugee IRC stands for internet relay chat so you can talk with other people by typing (live). There are several IRC clients, but right now this is probably the best to my knowledge. Homer sucks! There are a few in development that might be decent. Ircle 2.6 (the beta) is pretty neat.

Netscape 3.0 (application: web browser) [latest beta: 3.01b2, and Navigator 4 under development as opendoc parts -cool!]
You have to know what this is or you not only suck, you suck the suckiness out of everyone else who sucks. You may wish to use Netscape 2.0.2 instead, if your computer isn't overflowing with ram.
Tip Keep your global history file small. The bigger it gets the more it slows netscape down to hell as it has to compare each link with all the others it remembers to know whether to render it as visited or not visited.

NCSA Telnet 2.7b4 (application: telnet)
For telnetting of course. pretty nice. v 2.7 will never be finalized due to cessation of development, if it makes you feel better there's a finalized version 2.6


YA-Newswatcher 2.3.4 (application: newsviewer)
Lets you read usenet news.

Graphics

GraphicConverter 2.6 (application: graphic editor)
Great for simple editing of graphics. (I use it sometimes) (note that 2.5 has not yet been uploaded to the hyperarchive)

JPEGView 3.3.1 (application: graphic viewer)
lets you look at image files such as jpegs, and gifs. (postcardware).

ImageViewer 4.11 (application: graphic viewer/manager)
same purpose as jpeg view, but nicer in some ways. Lets you delete or do stuff with the files you're looking at rather than have to go into the finder and look for them (if say you're in a slide show). Very useful for me. (Shareware).

Show! 1.03 (application: graphic cataloger)
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).

Multimedia (movies/sound)

PlayerPRO 4.5.3 (application: mod player)
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. May cause crashes. (registration costs $20 or $40 for a CD) There are some other smaller and less bulky mod players you might also want to check out such as MacMikMod 3.0.

Forget Sparkle 2.4.5 (application: movie/mpeg viewer)
This thing looks like crap compared to playing mpegs through quicktime with the beta MPEG for quicktime extension (still in development). Much faster and much better than sparkle. (Once you get the extension you can use Movie Player as a viewer)

Quicktime 2.5 (control panel+extension+app: quicktime you idiot!)
Quicktime 2.5 is pretty cool. Almost a reason to not kill yourself. Includes full and improved MIDI musical instruments, better codecs, sound manager 3.2.1, and more.
On that same page you can find the latest quicktime plugin for netscape

RealAudio 3.0
Audio over the internet

Utilities

AppDisk 1.6.1 (application: ramdisk)
Loads into ram whatever allocation you assign it so you have a ram disk that can be loaded dynamically. Very cool!

BBEdit Lite 3.5.1 (application: text editor)
It doesn't suck! Freeware text editor thats very fast and pretty nice. The commercial BBEdit 4.0.2 (updater from 4.0.x to 4.0.2 available) has lots of nice features (esp. for html editing), although it fails to maintain the immediacy of startup in bbedit lite. The only nonsucky way to edit web pages.

Darkside of the Mac 4.2 (application: screen saver)
Freeware screen saver. Even though I could have AfterDark I used this instead to run my favorite After Dark modules, cuz this is an application, not a messy cdev or extension. (i don't use any screen saver any more because of sleeper)

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

Ram Doubler 2.0 (extension: memory management enhancer)
If you've never heard of ram doubler before i'm not gonna bother explaining. Updates and related items can be found. This latest version is very cool, faster, and the logical ram can be left alone (with page flipping) or all the way up to ram 'tripling.' Definitely check out Connectix's site.

Sleeper 2.1 (control panel: energy+screen saver)
Nice for having your monitor and/or hard disk(s) sleep and saving energy when idle for a time you specify. Replaces functionality of a screen saver and is better (unless you want a pretty little display that serves no functional purpose when you leave your computer alone). Nice! Probably a must have (requires you to pay 20 bucks though to avoid annoying messages after a month of use)!

Snitch 2.1 (control panel: finder enhancer)
gives you more info in get info boxes and lets you change creators and types in info boxes. May have some bugs (I stopped using it as nifty as it was).

ShrinkWrap 2.1 (application: disk mounter)
Allows you to mount disk images, even compressed images. The nicest of the images mounters. This latest version even lets you modify mounted images if you so choose.


Stuffit Expander 4.0.2 (application: archive expander)
expands stuff. Another you suck if you don't know of it already type thing. You may also want to get Stuffit Deluxe (which costs money). (I and most everybody uses it)

Make sure you also check out stuff like Quicktime VR and Quickdraw 3D 1.5 if you haven't already from Apple.

Appearance

some useless things that I don't always use, because they're....useless, but are worth at least checking out.

Aaron 1.5.1 (extension: copland)
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. This may be buggy to some extent, but its worth at least checking out. (I don't use it on a day to day basis).

BeView 1.1 (extension: BeOS)
makes your mac interface look like the BeOS interface. pretty cool to at least check out.

Church Windows 1.2 (control panel + extension: multiplatform)
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. (I don't use it anymore, though it was pretty cool).


Greg's Buttons 3.7.6 (control panel: menu/button enhancer)
shareware that optionally gives you 3D buttons, and different menu fonts and colors.

Power Windows 1.2 (extension: realtime window movement)
moves your windows in realtime (although it leaves a ghost window) its pretty fast on my 7100/66 and kinda cool, but it has no functional purpose, so I don't use it.

Interface

Drag Thing 1.6.2 (application: app/file doc)
palette/doc (not floating) that can hold apps and stuff. Very COOL! I don't use it much though anymore as its functionality was sorta replaced by now superboomerang, but its very cool and i sorta used it like it was a nextstep doc. (works very nicely in combo with extensions strip if you slide it under extensions strip that way they chew up the same desktop real estate and you can hide extensions strip out of the way to unveil your doc. pretty cool anyways).

Extensions Strip 1.2 (control panel + app: control strip pallette)
gives you very nice floating palettes using control strip modules. Dynamically loads modules and is quitable, and just plain very nice. So nice in fact that I use it all the time. (slightly annoys you after 30 days if you don't pay shareware fee)

KeyQuencer 2.0 Lite (control panel: macro/keyboard shortcut maker)
allows you to do lots of things with the keyboard very quickly. Nice!

Hidden Finder Features 1.0.2 (control panel: enables cool stuff)
Cmd-Delete moves files to trash, Cmd-R reveals originals of alias, Cntrol-drag makes alias, no window zooms -all options with this control panels! NICE!

Now Utilities 6.5.2 (control panels + extensions +apps: shortcuts)
Consists of a bunch of components intended to provide you with faster ways to do things.
I find the only one you need is Now Menus. You can get some of the things you get from SuperBoomerang with just NowMenus enabled, as they all share one toolbox. Avoid using ones you don't need as they may either degrade performance or even cause your mac to behave badly (and spanking your mac can be painful, especially if you break it and don't have AppleCare)

PopupFolder 2.0.1 (control panel: finder/dialog box extender)
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. This may be somewhat buggy as some report, but its very nice! (I don't use it anymore as it may cause crashes)

Control Strip Modules

CD Omni Strip 1.3.2 (audio cd controller)
Nice for controlling your computers cd-rom drive as an audio cd player. Comes in a package called Audio Strip, but this module is the only one you really need to do what all the rest do.

Handyman 1.4.1 (application/file doc)
A nice launcher module that plugs into desktop strip or control strip. (I don't use it though).

SoBig 1.2 (available ram + disk space monitor)
Lets you know how much ram you have free and hard disk space free all in one nice little strip panel that can be made pretty small. must have!

Sound Input Strip 1.0
is pretty cool if you like to frequently change your sound input device, and/or toggle playthrough.

System Dropper 1.3
Lets you throw things onto the strip and they (usually) automatically go where they belong in your system folder.

Terminator Strip 2.5
Extremely cool. Lets you hide and unhide your control strip pallette (allowing you to access whats underneath), lets you kill applications and all sorts of neat stuff. must have!

Some other nice modules include process manager which is included in extensions strip (lets you readily switch between applications, quit them, copy them, find them on disk. (must have! or at least try), trashit strip is also pretty cool, there's another strip for switching monitor resolutions, and one included in freeppp for connecting and disconnecting ppp sessions.

Want more?

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

If you're interested in Climate Change and that sorta thing check out the Climate Institute web site which I've been maintaining (for free).

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