The Main Course

Hi,

This is the main course of my virtual dinner party, in which we get down to meatier matters, while not forgetting about the grandchildren and the vegetarians. Enjoy,

Coz

Subject: Basic 575 help

> I gave my granddaughter
> (age 3.5) my Performa 575 CD with 36 megs of RAM

I don't have a granddaughter, but my little sister does, so I think I understand.

> I was able to install After Dark 3.0

After Dark 3.0 is mucho buggy; conflicts with almost 'everything'; get the free updater to 4.0.3.

> Norton Utilities 3.5, and Tech
> Tool 1.2.1 and they all work fine.

Good job.

> I copied Netscape 4.0.8 onto the HD but haven't tried to 
> install it yet. The problem is trying to install the 
> software for the Robotics 56K faxmodem (which was on it 
> before and working well).

I have a US Robotics v.90 and am very pleased with it. I don't think your granddaughter really needs to send and receive FAXes yet, so why not skip the installer? Let me see if I can find the CD it came with... Wow, found a lot of strange CDs to be re-explored, thanks. Found it; you can use the file U.S. Robotics High Speed without foolin' with the installer. Just drag it to the desktop.

> Puter tells me there is 0 memory available for the 
> installer, which needs 892K or so. According to "About 
> this Computer" there is tons of memory available. 

Some installers like to be run with extensions off.

> and did I mess it up?

Not likely. 8-)

> Also: I checked the Robotics disc with Norton, and it 
> says there are major problems with some damaged resource 
> forks. Is it unusable now? 

Is this a CD you checked?

> Sorry for the length - just trying to explain my problem.
> My granddaughter *really* wants her "Puter" back 

My grandmothers could fix anything, IIRC. I feel the same way when my computer has problems. ;-)

Best of,
Cozmo

Subject: Batch Processing MS Word 6 or 7 to SimpleText and Mail archiving methodologies.

> For some reason I was using MS Word 6 for awhile. I 
> eventually went back to Word 5.1 but now, for archiving 
> purposes I'm looking to convert the lot into SimpleText 
> documents and burn them to CD. Is there a way to do this 
> in a batch? Failing that, what about a way to batch 
> process the MS Word 6 docs to Word 5.1
>
> While I'm at it I suppose the only way to archive old 
> email is to burn the (Netscape) collected Mail file to CD
> along with a copy of a version of Netscape that will 
> read it? 
>
> Any thoughts on this?

Yes.

You can easily do batch conversion with a small application called Document Converter which is part of MacLinkPlus 9.0, and is, in turn, on the OS 8.1 CD. Here's how I use it... I select Document Converter, hold down the option key, and drag it to the desktop to make a copy. Now, I double click the application Document Converter, and select Text Macintosh document as my output file type. The Document Converter renames itself as 'to Text Macintosh document', and quits. Now, I drag the files I wish to convert to this new app, and voilà! SimpleText documents!

A couple of ways to archive your mail might be to save each as a text file, cut & paste to SimpleText, or you can copy and rename your scrapbook, clear all items with as many command - Bs as necessary, and use that as your archive. The advantages of the latter method are several; it gets you around the block size bloat of bigger drives, you can fill it by drag & drop, via clipboard, or by dragging SimpleText files on to the open window, which can be resized to about (large) postage stamp size by holding down command while dragging the lower right corner of the window. The list will probably give you ten other methods, but these are the ones I like. Come on Listers, see if you can give me a new favorite method. I dare ya! ;-)

Coz

From: "Charles W. Moore"
To: coz <coz@lowendmac.com>
Subject: Re: S900
Date: Tue, Sep 12, 2000, 12.26 AM

> To cancel the startup drive, and select next drive with a
> blessed system, you use delete-option-command-shift at 
> startup (DOCS). Your other problem, with OS 9, sounds to 
> me like you have OS 9, but have not done the bug-fix 
> updates to arrive at the current OS 9.0.4. 

>Cozmo

Thanks for the information. I figured there must be a way
to do it with the keyboard, but I had forgotten how. The
DOCS mnemonic will help me remember for next time.

You may be right about the 9.0.4 upgrade. On the other 
hand, I have 9.0 on my PowerBook and do not have the hang
up problem, while my nephew has an identical PowerBook, 
also with OS 9.0, and his does hang. 

Best,
Charles

Subject: MacBinary, or BinHex? Claire wants to know!

> Could you tell me the difference between MacBinary and 
> BinHex files. When given the option of choosing a 
> download from a website, I don't have any idea which one 
> to choose. I'm on a Centris 610, 230hd & 24ram. 

Hi Claire,

Yes, I could, and will. In a nutshell, MacBinary is intended for Mac to Mac file transfer, and is a preferred methodology, regardless of file transfer protocol. BinHex is an envelope which is designed to be used on any computer system especially with FTP. Both will work for you just fine. With BinHex, you will need to strip the envelope, if your application does not strip it for you automatically. You can strip the envelope with the freeware StuffIt! Expander, or by other methods. BinHex files have the mime type extension of .hqx. I usually go for the smaller file size, but if I were on a Windows box, I would go for the .hqx version, and sneakernet it to my machine, or email it to myself. Is that nutty enough for you?

Coz

> Just out of curiosity, how did you eject the CD the 
> first time-before you dragged its ghost to the trash? 

I think the man from Atlantis is on to something here; command-e will leave a ghost, while command-y will not. This oddity was for copying floppies on a one drive, non-HD system, way back when men were men, and HDs were not standard, and were very expensive add-ons. Dragging the CD icon to the trash should not leave a ghost.

Coz

> Try encoding the attachment ahead of time with something like Stuffit.

Encoding generally refers to Base64, uuencode, and BinHex, as opposed to raw data. StuffIt, pkzip, and Compact Pro are examples of compression software. Compression software consolidates and reduces the file size of files to be sent. The encoding schemes are envelopes which contain your data for transmission as text. ;-)

Cozmo

> Can someone jog my memory as to what sort of PC monitor I
> could use with a 475 - VGA, SVGA, EVGA? 

Low End Mac has a page which should explain the monitor options for the 475. VGA will give you 256 colors and the other two, AFAIK, will give you 256, high color, and true color (if you are Windows oriented) or 256, thousands, and millions (if you are Mac oriented). I like RGB. ;-) My 13" RGB was quite inexpensive, plays a lot of games, and is wonderful for art.

Coz

> The Mushashi E-Mail Program can be found at:
>
> http://www.mac.org/internet/
>
> Enjoy !
>
> How is the cat that fried the computer ???

Don't worry; no animals were harmed in the writings on this list. ;-)

Coz

My dozen or so pets would have it no other way.

{]=- In Conclusion -=[}

I hope you enjoyed the Main course. Please stop by next week for the Stinky Cigars & Brandy. I'd like to thank my Mom, my List Mom, Jorma Kaukonen (for writing Third Week in the Chelsea), and Jazbeck Motch. And last, but certainly far from least, Greta, for reading carefully.

Cozmo