Macking 55

New StuffIt Deluxe
Aladdin Systems presented their newest version of StuffIt Deluxe at the Portland Mac Users Group (PMUG) last month. I have not been a user of this suite of compression/decompression utilites before because all of my own needs have been well met by the free StuffIt Expander and shareware DropStuff.
The new version, however, has added some very useful new features and at a special user-group price of $50 ($20 to upgrade previous versions and $80 for first-time, non-user-group buyers) I could not resist. I was all set to hand in my order form that night.
(I didn't have to order it; the ghods got me one of the free copies in the drawing after the meeting.)
It was the new features that sold me. Finally, StuffIt Deluxe 5.5 will decompress DiskDoubler files. (The free version does not.) This has been a long time problem for people who used to use Disk Doubler, last owned and finally abandoned by Symantec. DD used a proprietary compression algorithm that StuffIt could not decompress. Now I guess Symantec figured it might as well cut loose with the source code and it's about time. Get rid of that aging copy of DD Expander; it probably breaks under OS9 anyway.
But I got excited with a new utility included: DropZip. Drop a file or a folder full of PC-compatible documents (Word files; JPEGs, WAV sound files, MPEGs, etc.) onto DropZip and it creates a .zip file that you can mail to PC users. Up to now you have had to convince them to get a free copy of Expander for Windows to decompress your files, and since installing anything onto Windows is a headache, some people didn't try or couldn't figure out how to do it. No more.
In fact, you can even create self-extracting Zip files in .exe format. All they have to do is double-click to extract them. If you are frequently sending stuff to PC users this will make both your lives much simpler.
5.5 can be set to never convert PC text files, preserving older versions of PC PDF documents which, when converted under older versions, ceased to be readable by Acrobat.
Magic Menu is part of 5.5 and this gives very cool addons to the finder. First, it lets you decompress a file by simply removing the .sit from the filename, or compress by adding it to the name.
It allows more finder-like movement of documents into and out of archive documents: just double-click .sit files to open an archive window listing the files within, and then drag one out onto the desktop or drop another file inside.
StuffIt Deluxe 5.5 is OS9-compatible.

PowerBar Replacement
DragThing is another Aladdin product filling a need I have been seeking for months now, ever since the developer of PowerBar announced that he was dropping development of the product. I had been turning clients onto PowerBar for years and it is loved and used by many of them. Well, don't fear because PowerBar will continue to work unsupported for years, as long as you use OS 8.6 or older, but at $20 ($15 for user group members) DragThing looks like a very good alternative.
(These products are launchers; applications that create button bars into which you can create quick links to any application, document or folder on your drive. OS 8.5 or later lets you do some of this in Finder windows, but the convenience of PowerBar has had me hooked for some time. Apple's own Launcher is a very clunky and difficult free alternative that has been around since the earliest Mac days.)
I wrote to Scott Johnson, writer of PowerBar, and he told me that the final version is 3.2, posted to the usual sites, and does not require a registration number to operate. He accepts payments for it but does not require them. Since it is getting hard to find it at any of the download sites, and Scott's own domain is down, I have mirrored it here.

MacAttack
Well, someone finally noticed us. OS9 can host a denial-of-service (DoS) attack instituted from outside a network, making it look like your Mac is responsible. Info can be found at CERT (Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute), and all kinds of information regarding viruses, DoS attacks and other network problems may be found at the CERT home page.
Briefly, a denial-of-service attack involves sending huge amounts of data packets to the target machine, rendering it impossible to use the net, and this bug allows use of a Mac to both disguise the origin of the packets and amplify the amount of data being sent.
Apple has released a patch to OpenTransport which closes the loophole that allows this kind of misuse of network. The problem is limited to only those Macs on DSL or other 24-hour Internet connections, running OS9 or some versions of 8.6, and with a static IP address and no firewall protection.
Of course, the hastily-assembled patch came with its own bugs but now a current version (Open Transport 2.6) is available at Apple.

OS9 continued
There are still problems with this OS, but as updates get released more problems go away. Right now there are issues with CD-ROM burners using Toast. You must use version 3.5.5, and you need to disable the Toast CD Reader extension, which causes system slowness and crashes. If you boot with the CD-R turned off and the extension enabled it will not load (displays an X through its icon at startup) but if it is turned on and the extension loads you have the problems. Remove it entirely until a fix becomes available, or at least disable it in the Extensions Manager.
The other Toast problems is that the program can't mount its own disk images under OS9. A workaround is to use DiskCopy or Aladdin's ShrinkWrap to mount the image, then go ahead and burn the CD. The fix should be available from Adaptec by the time you read this.
I have been warning everyone for months not to get the OS9 upgrade, but what about those of you who have no choice: Plan 9 is already installed on your new Mac? You gotta pay close attention to the bug list on MacFixIt, Macintouch, and VersionTracker web sites. I have had my first few clients with 9 installed and, out of the box, everything works. If you are very careful about bringing over software from your older machine, you should be able to live with the OS reasonably well. Just make sure you write down the name of every extension and panel you install so you know what to remove it things break down. And most important, make a folder called ObjectSupportLib and put it in your Extensions Folder. This will prevent the damaging library file from being installed by older, poorly-written installers (like Adobe PhotoDeluxe). Quark 3.3.x breaks on some G4 models under 9 but strangely works on others. There is a new version of Suitcase (8.2) at the Extensis site for OS9 users; you can download a free updater that works on your existing install, or a new installer if you type in your serial number on the download page. Also available is a version that works as a demo for 30 days, during which you can buy a serial number from Extensis to make the demo into a final registered version.
Oh, and there is also a bug with the Apple Audio Extension 1.0 that causes a G4 to hang when shutting down while still connected to a dialup connection. Normally you see the PPP Disconnecting dialog and then the shutdown continues. To fix, disable the extension, or download Audio Update 1.1 from Apple's site and look for possible bugs in it as well. The extension is needed to support the Harmon-Kardon iSub speaker for the new iMacs, and also sound output on DVDs.
DiamondSoft, publisher of FontReserve has released a patch to fix the known font problems under OS 8.6 called "FONT Fixer for 8.6." The Apple fix, "Font Manager Update," can cause a slowdown under Quark 4.0.4 and a crash under PageMaker 6.5. The problem is caused in some applications contain an embedded font that displays bullet characters when typing in a password field. If you have experienced these problems with the Font Manager Update, go get Font Fixer and use that instead.

Getting .exe Attachments
Since I am on several people's joke-forward lists, I have been getting attachments in the form of .exe files (Windows executables, or mini-applications). I have been responding with a message explaining why this is not a good idea. Most Windows users are not aware that they are unusuable on Macs, and more important, are not aware of the virus threats contained within. I think we all need to work to put an end to .exe attachments, and to that end I send this message:
"Please don't forward or send out .exe files any more. There are two reasons for this.
"1) they are useless on Macs, and
"2) they are the primary cause of viruses on Windows machines. Some viruses (like Melissa) read your email address book, compose a personal message that appears to be from you, attaches itself to the message and sends it out to the people on your list. The recipient gets mail that appears to be from a friend, launches the attachment, and kaboom.
"The only way to put an end to this problem is to stop using the .exe format to forward fun items to friends. Since most of these are animated GIFs, JPEG images, .wav or other sound files, then please take the time to convert them back to these formats before sending them. There has never been a virus masquerading as one of the above file formats. Thank you."

No Microsoft products were used in the production of this column.

email mp at moonmac dot com. (I took out the mailto link because that's how the spammers find me.)