Subject: Info-Mac Digest V16 #343
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--Info-Mac-Digest

Info-Mac Digest             Fri, 01 Oct 99       Volume 16 : Issue 343

Today's Topics:

      (Q) Recovering memory after quiting all programs
      Dying hard drives
      Fwd: Q?:  Backup Apps?
      Fwd: Raw format for Linux
      Fwd: Recommend Backup?
      importing word files to Quark
      INFOMAC re red bad solder joint on Apple 15 in display, digest#342
      MacGZip question
      Oops, mea culpa (was: couple questions)
      Q?: Backup Apps?
      Sound problems
      Transferring LPs to AIFF
      trouble w/Power PC 6500
      why no more share/freeware submissions

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Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1999 22:06:21 -0700
From: Chris Schram <schram@mail.coos.or.us>
Subject: (Q) Recovering memory after quiting all programs

On Mon, 27 Sep 1999, a brody <abrody@smart.net> wrote:
>Dear Digest readers,
>Granted, Netscape is a memory hog, and Explorer is better at memory
>management.   But there are numerous other programs that leave their
>residue in MacOS 8.6 even after quitting from them.  Anybody know a
>program that consistently can recover memory that gets allocated to
>the Finder when lots of programs are opened?

Take a look at Mac OS Purge.

-r     9572 Sep 26 1995 cfg/mac-os-purge-101.hqx

As you can see, it's a few years old, but inspite of that works quite
happily on my PowerCenter under MacOS 8.6.

Chris Schram schram@mail.coos.or.us http://www.coos.or.us/~schram/Chris/

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 23:34:06 +0900
From: Tito and Shari Poza <poza@gol.com>
Subject: Dying hard drives

Thanks in part to my influence, my company has purchased several Macs over
the last 4 years. The thing is that we seem to have extremely bad luck with
internal hard disks failing. Here is our track record:

-Peforma 630 IDE drive failed after 4 years
-Performa 6200 IDE drive failed after 2 years
-Performa 5410 IDE drives failed twice in less than 3 years (first time
after about 5 months and the next time about 2 years later)
-PowerBook 150 IDE drive failed after about 2 years

Of the 5 Macs my company has purchased, only 2 have not had hard disk
failures and those two are less than 2 years old.

Is this a problem with the Performa series? Is it the IDE drives? The thing
is that it's making Macs look shoddy and badly made next to the PCs the
company has which have had their problems but have not had any hardware
failures save one used notebook computer that their leasing company gave
them for free.

I'd appreciate any insights into this. The accountant is starting to blame
it on us (the users) and the software we use (mainly Pagemaker, Illustrator
and on one machine, Photoshop). I believe his attempt to blame us is a
result of his ignorance but I'd like to hear theories/comments about why
we've seen so many failures in such a relatively short time. I know all
drives eventually fail and about mean time between failure rates but this
is far worse than anything I've experienced personally with 8 Mac purchases
behind me. However, I never bought a Performa model.

Thanks.

Shari

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1999 20:28:09 -0700
From: Daly Jessup <jessup@san.rr.com>
Subject: Fwd: Q?:  Backup Apps?

Bob G said:
>	Can anyone recommend a good, easy-to-use shareware backup
>application?  One you have used yourself for a while and have confidence
>in?  It's for home use only so I don't really think I need to pay for a
>commercial app sold through the various Mac catalogs.

That's an interesting remark, "It's for home use only." The question 
is, do you want to back it up dependably or not? If it doesn't matter 
because it's just "home use" then why bother at all? And if it does 
matter, then I would recommend getting a tried and true backup 
program. It only takes a "little, tiny error" to wreck a whole 
backup. I would recommend Retrospect Express.

Daly

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1999 20:29:18 -0700
From: Daly Jessup <jessup@san.rr.com>
Subject: Fwd: Raw format for Linux

Johan wrote:

I have tried to download Linux for Mac but it is in raw format and =
Netscape tries to present the data. How can I download it as a file, and =
how do I use it once downloaded? I would like to try Linux and would be =
greateful for an answer.

Have you tried holding the Option key while pressing on the download link?

Daly

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1999 20:33:20 -0700
From: Daly Jessup <jessup@san.rr.com>
Subject: Fwd: Recommend Backup?

--============_-1273459355==_ma============
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"

Will Rogers had asked about backup media. I suggested Jaz drives, and 
Spike wrote back:

You bet ,I have used my Zip 100 drive for 3 years without a hiccup.

BUT the original backup software that came with the drive was c**p. =
Restoring files was uncontrollable (all or nothing) and sometimes it =
just would not work. They may supply something better now.
You may also need to look at a Jazz drive if you want to back up a lot =
of data.
I use the following method to back-up our Macs:
I make a folder called 'back-up bin' and put an alias of everything I =
want to back-up in it.=20
I then use Stuffit to create an archive.
I then "Stuff > Add" from the Archive menu 'back-up bin' to the archive
[first you must check that the stuffit preferences are set to follow =
aliases]
I rename the archive with the date [290999.sit].
When I want to do the next back-up I just do the same again only using =
"Add Match" and set the criteria to "modified after 290999"

This give incremental back-up in small(ish) files that are easy to =
search through should a restore be necessary.
This is important as a total Hard drive failure is quite rare; usually =
the problem is that an important file has been deleted or, more likely, =
overwritten. If you know more or less when the file was last modified it =
is quite simple to find it and drag it out of the archive and onto the =
desktop.
Another reason for this system is that if anybody is working on the =
computer and wants to make sure their work is secure all they have to do =
is put an alias of their work in 'back-up bin'.

It is all a lot simpler than it sounds - but if any of you apple script =
type chaps are out there ...

This is a great explanation of how to do this, and I'm saving it. 
Thanks, Spike. But I want to add that I never used Iomega's backup 
software. I have always used Retrospect, and it is a snap to use, and 
utterly simple to restore from, whether one file or an entire set of 
hard drives.

Daly

--============_-1273459355==_ma============
Content-Type: text/enriched; charset="us-ascii"

Will Rogers had asked about backup media. I suggested Jaz drives, and
Spike wrote back:

You bet ,I have used my Zip 100 drive for 3 years without a hiccup.

BUT the original backup software that came with the drive was c**p. =

Restoring files was uncontrollable (all or nothing) and sometimes it =

just would not work. They may supply something better now.

You may also need to look at a Jazz drive if you want to back up a lot
=

of data.

I use the following method to back-up our Macs:

I make a folder called 'back-up bin' and put an alias of everything I
=

want to back-up in it.=20

I then use Stuffit to create an archive.

I then "Stuff > Add" from the Archive menu 'back-up bin' to the
archive

[first you must check that the stuffit preferences are set to follow =

aliases]

I rename the archive with the date [290999.sit].

When I want to do the next back-up I just do the same again only using
=

"Add Match" and set the criteria to "modified after 290999"

This give incremental back-up in small(ish) files that are easy to =

search through should a restore be necessary.

This is important as a total Hard drive failure is quite rare; usually
=

the problem is that an important file has been deleted or, more likely,
=

overwritten. If you know more or less when the file was last modified
it =

is quite simple to find it and drag it out of the archive and onto the
=

desktop.

Another reason for this system is that if anybody is working on the =

computer and wants to make sure their work is secure all they have to
do =

is put an alias of their work in 'back-up bin'.

It is all a lot simpler than it sounds - but if any of you apple script
=

type chaps are out there ...

This is a great explanation of how to do this, and I'm saving it.
Thanks, Spike. But I want to add that I never used Iomega's backup
software. I have always used Retrospect, and it is a snap to use, and
utterly simple to restore from, whether one file or an entire set of
hard drives.

Daly

--============_-1273459355==_ma============--

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 13:21:01 -0400
From: Jim & Joan <photodesign@mediaone.net>
Subject: importing word files to Quark

In regard to importing Word files into Quark 3 - use the 'Get Text'
command under the Utilities menu

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 02:36:57 -0400
From: "Jim (James G) Hardwick CPA" <hardwick@ordinary.com>
Subject: INFOMAC re red bad solder joint on Apple 15 in display, digest#342

990930

I have an old Radius 2 page color display that I was using with my IIci b4
the hard drive failed, and I had to have a bad solder joint repaired.  A
good local repair shop in Ashland, VA found & re-did it in one hour, $65.
One happy customer here.  FYI the bad spot was on a small rear board
attached to the color gun that was having trouble.  It was a Trinitron
monitor.

My monitor lasted over 9 yrs b4 this problems showed up.  Shame on Apple
for having a problem so soon.

Any good shop should be able to ID it easily in that kind of time.  $200
sound mighty dear.

jh

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1999 21:55:46 +0000
From: Bob Hansmann <bobbyb@cloud9.net>
Subject: MacGZip question

Dear InfoMac subscribers,
	I downloaded MacGZip a while back, and tested it, and it seemed to work
fine, so I compressed quite a few important files which I have saved to
a 100M Iomega Zip Disk.
	After a major unrelated problem, I finally initialized my Hard Drive
and reinstalled everything, including MacGZip.
	My problem is that when I expand any file, either previously compressed
or newly compressed with the newly installed version of MacGZip, the
document will not open up. I get a dialog box stating that the
"Application which created it cannot be found". Most of the docs are in
SimpleText, so the application can indeed be found readily!
	Does anyone out there have experience with this problem?
	many thanks in advance,
	Bob

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 09:43:11 +0100
From: "Charles Arthur, The Independent" <carthur@independent.co.uk>
Subject: Oops, mea culpa (was: couple questions)

On Wed, 29 Sep 1999 17:22:51 +0100 I wrote here:

>On Tue, 28 Sep 1999 11:19:48 -0400, rropeik@WELLESLEY.EDU (Rachel S.
>Ropeik) wrote:
>
>>Is there a way for me to download a free mp3 player for my iMac? ..
>
>Ah, that would be at the Free Lunch Counter, located just west of the end
>of the rainbow, left of the pot of gold.

Oops, as has been pointed out - SoundApp and Quicktime 4 are free, and play
MP3s. (Though not VBR-encoded ones as I recall..) I knew this once and then
forgot it after trying to find MP3 players myself. Mac MP3 search sites, as
Rachel also found, don't mention SoundApp or QT4.

Apparently my doltishness on another topic bugged Udo Huth
<udo.huth@auge.de> (over trying to connect a parallel plug MP3 player to a
PBook serial port..

>Good grief, man...
>You cannot connect a parallel device to a serial port.

Without the right drivers. There are commercial packages and even freeware
I've come across which lets you connect PC parallel printers to serial Macs.

>Although this MP3 thing does have a DB25 plug it doesn't mean it's a
>serial device. In the PC world the DB25 is used for parallel and serial
>>connections. The difference between a serial plug and a parallel plug in
>the PC >world is, that one is male and the other is female.
>But if you don't know the difference between serial and parallel -- well,
>then just forget it...

That would make me an end-user seeking help, I guess. Ho hum.

	Charles

 -------------------------------------------------------------------
The Independent newspaper on the Web: http://www.independent.co.uk/
It's even better on paper

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 08:46:29 +0100
From: Steve Smith <smiths@ferndown.tt.slb.com>
Subject: Q?: Backup Apps?

See my home page at:

http://www.s7j7smith.freeserve.co.uk/

I have some ideas there for an automatic backup scheme using 2
shareware Apps - 'SimpleBackup' and my own 'StartOnce'.

--

Cheers

Steve Smith

============================================
Drink upstream of the herd - get a Macintosh
============================================

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1999 22:17:50 -0700
From: Chris Schram <schram@mail.coos.or.us>
Subject: Sound problems

On Wed, 29 Sep 1999, Johann Ganser <hansgans@whyalla.net.au> wrote:

>Somebody must have had similar experiences. It drives me cracy.
>
>I have a Performa 5400/180
>         40 MB Ram
>         OS 8.1
>         Netscape 4.5 (20000k)
>         Quicktime 4.0.1
>
>Whenever a webpage comes in with sound, it plays for 5 - 10 seconds,
>then the screen freezes.
>
>On restart, Norton Crash Guard comes on with the message "The
>application "Finder" has crashed (Unmapped memory exception)"

Many people, myself included, have found that Crash Guard causes more
problem than it fixes. Try disabling it for a while, and see if there
is any change in the way your system functions.

It is quite telling that Crash Guard is conspicuously absent from the
latest incarnation of Norton Utilities for Mac.

[BTW, you should turn off HTML encoding when posting messages to
Info-Mac (and Usenet too). Most readers can't interpret it, and it
comes through looking like garbage.]

Chris Schram schram@mail.coos.or.us http://www.coos.or.us/~schram/Chris/

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 11:55:35 -0600
From: DrBlood <DrBlood@medschool.med.utah.edu>
Subject: Transferring LPs to AIFF

Unsolicited comments from a happy user:

Somehow I discovered a *freeware* app called Coaster:

http://www.in.tum.de/~rothc/coaster.html

Coaster is the best solution for transferring your LP collection to AIFF files
for CD burning or for further compression (MP3). It can detect the silence
between tracks (if there is any!) and automatically makes a new file for each
track. If you are interested in preserving your old LPs and maybe even
listening to them once in a while instead of leaving them lanquishing in the
basement, Coaster is a great solution.

Jerry

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 04:38:39 -0500
From: "Scott A. Gorman" <sgorman@isd.net>
Subject: trouble w/Power PC 6500

Help!
    As of late, I have been having trouble installing anything onto my
6500.  It tells me that the selected disk is either full or locked or it
tells me that a temporary file could not be created.  I am running OS
8.0 with a pretty standard complement of apps (nothin' huge or terribly
technical).
    I have also had quite a bit of trouble with freezes when, for
instance, I try to register Printmaster Gold via the net.
    In the past coupla months I had a major HD crash that involved
reinitializing and the whole bit, but this HD has always seemed to have
a bad sector or something, cuz it's kind of recurrent.

Thanks,
    Scott

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 11:20:25 +0900
From: Tomoya Saeki <saeki@ppc.fc.nec.co.jp>
Subject: why no more share/freeware submissions

Dear readers and publishers,

I quite agree with Dr. Stoyanov.

The latest release news of share/free software was very helpful.
I should understand that the Info-Mac Digests are edited by volunteer,
but i'm not quite happy without them.

Best regards,

--------------------------------

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