Macking 666

by Michael Pearce
From the January 2001 Computer Bits

Welcome to the 21st Century, at last!
Just a few more days remain and the '90s are over for good. Yes, I know that there were a lot of people who argued that the millenium began on Odometer Day, 1/1/00. Never mind. This is the real millenium so you might as well celebrate it with a new Mac. Just be sure to get your order in by 12/31 if you want to take it off your taxes next April.
But if you want to get the latest and greatest, wait until Macworld, January 9. That is when Apple traditionally announces new models and price cuts. There is talk of new PowerBooks, but of course Apple isn't talking now so all anyone else can do is guess. Since they cut prices on current models last month, it's a pretty good guess.

CueCat for Macs
Go to http://www.geocities.com/macbarcat/ for info on how to get some use out of this device with your Mac. This hack beats the official drivers to the net. See last month's Bits for more info.

Control Strip is Useful
Tipworld has been running a daily series about the Control Strip, that little tab sticking out of the side of your screen on all Macs after 8.1 or so (and earlier on PowerBooks).
That reminded me that you all need to consider the usefulness of this little device. There are modules that are of no use and should be removed, and others that are so useful that it needs to be kept around. So here's my own take on the Control Strip.
Useless items to remove, if you have a desktop Mac: Media Bay, Battery Level, Spin Down Hard Disk, TV Mirroring and Video Mirroring. These serve no purpose (except for the last two, for a few of you) unless you have a laptop.
These are the strips I maintain in my iBook, running OS 8.6:

There are many 3rd-party Control Strip items available; check VersionTracker to find out what's out there. Virex installs one for a quick virus check, for instance, but I don't use it. I like to keep my strip limited to the ones I use a lot.
To remove useless Control Strip items, just hold down the Option key and drag it out of the Strip onto the Trash. Otherwise open the System Folder, look for the Control Strip Items folder and remove them from there. You will find strip items in here that do not display in your Control Strip if they are not appropriate to your Mac. Remove those too.
Is your control strip tab in an awkward place? Move it anywhere on the left or right edge of your screen (any screen, those of you with multiple monitor systems) by simply holding down the Option key while dragging the strip. Want to keep it around but make it invisible/visible as needed? Open the Control Strip control panel and memorize the key command used to toggle it on and off (Command-Control-S). Assign a different key command, if you like. But get used to this little convenience. It packs a lot of power.

Decoding some attachments
Are you having problems reading certain emails sent as MIME attachments from PCs? One Macintouch reader suggested trying Josh Jacobs' TNEF's Enough, which "allows Macs to read and extract files from Microsoft TNEF stream files ... usually received from Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Outlook users": If the enclosures are from MS Outlook or MS Exchange, they are probably a bastardized (aka proprietary) version of MIME encoding that is the default for message sent in Rich Text Format. I don't think any non-Microsoft email programs handle them natively. I could be wrong [but] have them try TNEF's Enough.
If you have no clue what this is about, you have not experienced the problem and you can ignore this until you do. But keep the info where you can find it later.

Macintosh Products Guide
Many times I get requests, and see others requesting, software for specific vertical markets that is not easily found in stores. Things like specialized databases for medical offices, hotel management software, etc.
A great resource for this information is the Macintosh Products Guide, which is on-line at Apple. The Guide is available in many languages and lists thousands of products that work with Macs. Hit this site first if you are afraid you might be forced to go Wintel to get some needed but obscure feature. Most of these products are too small to be distributed through normal mass channels.
If you are a developer, make sure your product is registered with this site..

Law Office Macking
If you are a lawyer, visit these two sites: Law Office Computing and MacLawyer. Because law offices were a particular focus of Apple's before the 1995-1997 troubles, there were a lot of vertical-market developers making software for Mac-based law offices. These companies are still at it, but they need encouragement (and sales). Apple will be paying more attention to the business market now that they are healthy again, so don't despair; you will be able to remain Microsoft-free, or at least Windows-free indefinitely.

Oracle Comes On Board
Oracle published a press release announcing that Mac clients can now use the Oracle E-Business Suite, a series of Net-based applications for businesses of all levels. Quoting,
"The Oracle E-Business Suite is a full suite of Web and Java-based applications that allow companies to put their customer interactions, internal operations and supply chain on-line, and enables quick linkages with both suppliers and customers for a seamless business process. With this Macintosh client certification, Apple customers will now be able to access the Oracle E-Business Suite using the Macintosh browser and MRJ (Apple Macintosh Runtime for Java). Additionally, Oracle support services have been expanded to support the Macintosh client, providing reliability, availability and overall satisfaction for customers."

HyperCard Returns at Macworld
Through individuals' efforts on the HyperCard Mailing List, users of Apple's long-ignored tool for developing custom software solutions have purchased exhibit space for the upcoming Macworld Conference and Expo in San Francisco.
The International HyperCard User Group (iHUG) will be located at Booth #3654 in the North Hall of the Moscone Convention Center, January 9-12, 2001.
"The exhibit is an historical event for Apple HyperCard. Never before have users of any software application collectively brought their resources together to present knowledge and information to Expo attendees."
All of the exhibit's pledged funds were collected within six weeks. The exhibit committee's treasurer, Bob Stelloh, explained the experience. "I'm impressed to the point of disbelief that we have attracted that much money so quickly. It is a tribute to the strong feelings engendered by HyperCard. This, in turn, is a tribute to HyperCard itself, that it creates such strong feelings."
The iHUG exhibit will feature impressive presentations scheduled almost hourly across the four days of the Expo. These works were created by people that use HyperCard in everyday life, education, small business and home hobbyists.
"Our HyperCard Mailing List CD this past year was a very successful effort. It was a natural course to use Apple technologies of HyperCard and QuickTime to deliver a polished documentary of the exhibit to our HyperCard-using friends."
Current information about the iHUG exhibit can be found here. Companies and small businesses who use HyperCard and are interested in seeing their names displayed at the exhibit are encouraged to contact the relations officer, Steven Collins.
"There are many who believe Apple HyperCard is showing its age, and the iHUG exhibit will present proof that the software has only reached its adolescence. Apple's G3 and G4 technologies have really increased HyperCard's performance and unleashed its power to Macintosh users."
When HyperCard was first released, I started a weekly HyperCard SIG in the Portland Mac Users Group. Excitement was high, waning only later when Apple seemed to pull away from the initial intense focus. HyperCard readers are still distributed on all Macs, either pre-installed or on the accompanying CD-ROM.

Internet Call Waiting
Thomas Friesen (tfriesen@atorium.com) writes,
The ICW Mac development team at Nortel has made available a free beta of the Internet Call Waiting for Mac (US Version). This software is currently available free of charge.
Internet Call Waiting tells you who's calling when you're online and lets you decide how to handle the calls, without needing any additional equipment or extra phone line.
How does it work? If someone calls while you're online, the ICW Call Manager window with the caller's name and number appears on your computer screen. You can set up Internet Call Waiting to answer the call on the same phone line you are using to access the Internet, or on a another phone line such as your cell phone, play an announcement to the caller or have the caller leave a VoiceNote. The Voice Note is sent to your email address that you can play with your built-in QuickTime software. You can even screen the Voice Note, by listening as the caller leaves the message.
The ICW Mac client software has been under development for a little while, and it is now available as a free public Beta. Built from the ground-up as a Mac application, the Mac version of Internet Call Waiting has the fundamental Mac look in the redesigned Call Manager interface. And while it doesn't have Voice over IP, it does have some pretty cool stuff that you won't find on the PC version, including an option to have your Mac verbally announces incoming phone calls!
Help us bring ICW for Mac out to market. The Mac development team in the eXtremeVoice division of Nortel is working hard to bring this product to a Final Candidate stage. However, Nortel is still gauging the demand for this product in the Mac community. People interested in petitioning Nortel to bring Internet Call Waiting to market should email icw4mac@extremevoice.com.
Better yet, try out the free Beta version. If you like it, continue to use it; the more active users there are, the better the numbers look to the marketing guys. Regardless, let us know how it works for you: email us at the above address.
Happy holidays; have a great millenium.

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

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