The following is a listing of cool Macintosh utilities or applications or whatever that I think are cool or worth checking out.
Last updated: 12/3/97
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.
Apple's latest system software. Unfortunately works only on 68040s and ppcs (leaving those with older macs behind). Pretty damn nice. Generally more solid, stable, and slick than previous versions of mac os, although it still leaves plenty of room for improvement in rhapsody for improved multitasking, reliability, and responsiveness. Its remotely possible you may want to go to my cocaine page in the event that you have very obscure networking troubles.
Fetch
3.0.3 (application: ftp)
for FTPing. Pretty nice. (there's also anarchie which is also
pretty cool).
Ircle 2.5
(application: irc) [latest beta: 3.0b9r3]
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 3.0 (the beta) is
pretty neat.
Netscape 4.04
(application: web browser)
You have to know what this is or you not only suck, you suck the
suckiness out of everyone else who sucks. You can get a whole
bunch of crap in communicator, however if all you want is a web
browser (like me) just get the standalone version and dont trouble
your computer with crap you don't need.
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.
Better
Telnet (application: telnet)
For telnetting of course. pretty nice.
YA-Newswatcher
2.3.4 (application: newsviewer)
Lets you read usenet news.
JPEGView
3.3.1 (application: graphic viewer)
lets you look at image files such as jpegs, and gifs.
(postcardware).
ImageViewer
4.5 (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).
Forget sparkle (application: movie/mpeg viewer)
This thing looks like crap compared to playing mpegs through
quicktime with the beta
MPEG for
quicktime extension. 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
RealPlayer
5.0
Audio and even video over the internet
BBEdit
Lite 4.0 (application: text editor)
It doesn't suck! Freeware text editor thats very fast and pretty
nice. The commercial BBEdit
4.5.1
(updater from
4.5 to 4.5.1 available) has lots of nice features (esp. for html
editing). 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
3.0 (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 4.5 (which
costs money). (I and most everybody uses it)
Make sure you also check out stuff like Quicktime VR and Quickdraw 3D 1.5.3 if you haven't already from Apple.
some useless things that I don't always use, because
they're....useless, but are worth at least checking out.
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.
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.
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!
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
I couldnt possibly compete with the Macintouch page for bringing timely links to interesting things, or software Macintosh related.
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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