A Brief
INTRODUCTION

If I didn’t know better, I’d say this has been one enormous blunder.  My writers backed out on me, citing causes ranging from college to canine pregnancy.  Several system crashes occurred while making sure some netwares were 32-bit clean and System 7.1 compatible (the hard way: by running them).  Two fine pieces of tech-noir fiction were lost in digital transit, and the author vanished soon therafter.  Yet Cyberlink 1.0 hit the nets regardless.

I can safely admit, now, that this has all been for the best.  I’d say my writing skills have improved out of necessity.  I’ve learned to keep my system obsessively safe from corruption, and back up daily to an external drive.  I never really thought that she was an overwhelmingly talented writer, so no great loss there.  And boy, oh BOY, have I acquired a taste for coffee...

Cyberlink 1.0 is a publication for Mac users; it assumes that you’re running System 7.1 (7.0 at least).  Each column is dedicated to a particular field of that most revered profession we call hacking, defined as “screwing around with your machine until it is perfectly indistinguishable from an alien technology to the innocent eyes of Licensed Apple Dealers” (®©™!?!).

This issue represents an initial spread of topics; if you want to see something discussed, wish to submit an article, new column, hint, or tidbit, I emphatically urge you to do so.  Cyberlink eagerly encourages submissions of any type; chances are, they will be published in the very next issue!

Please address anything pleasant you send to:

                                          America Online:  Shadowrun
                                              Compuserve: 72303,1270
                                         Internet: shadowrun@aol.com

Please address all death threats to:

                                Internet: negodan@minerva.yale.edu

He’ll thank you for it.

A Letter from
THE EDITOR

He is catered to by countless hardware vendors...he is casually mentioned in the pages of periodicals...he bears the title indicative of a fully justifiable interest in computers... “I’m a Power User.”

It is one of the Buzzwords I most dearly hate:  catalogs classify high-end hardwares by it, justifying the price tag on their latest toys.  Software reviewers class the most expansive and esoteric programs in the same category.  Derogatory toward the “casual” user, yet elusive in the search for definition, the Power User is yet another product of steroids ‘n liposuction dynasty.  He needs the best of everything to facilitate his dynamic work with computers...he measures hard drive space in Gigs...he thrives on CD ROMs and Video boards...his multipage megamonitor doubles as a tanning lamp/microwave...his custom-configured system cost more than a Harley of the same year.  Mentioning that he only uses it for MS Word and Excel, with a few screen savers and a Tetris DA on the side, and calls a technician to reconfigure SAM for him because he forgot the password...this would be nit-picking.  The goliath on his desk, with its myriad tentacles snaking to a few phone jacks, three daisy-chained surge protectors, and countless powerful peripherals, stands as silent testament to his computing genius.  He who can pull off the most MIPS wins...

Then there’s the real world, where a Commodore 64 owner can write a virus just as easily as the client of a UNIX server.  Knowledge is the real key; the hardware expands possibilities, but it doesn’t supplant the seed of innovation.  The greatest MacWares were written on the venerable MacPlus.  An old SE can be rigged to run like a CI.  The Classic can run 96% of all MacWares...knowledge and organization, intelligence and persistence are the tools of the true power user.

The person who can do all that he wants to and make the most of his computing is the only power user worth mentioning.  Our aim in this issue is to help the reader pull off the aforementioned feat at minimal cost: organization and personality, along with cleverly chosen Share- and Freewares, can make your system run more smoothly and effectively than any custom-configured gargantua that comes off the line.  Read the articles in the order they appear in, implement the tips and guidelines, write to us with comments, live long and kick ass.  Only when you know every last inch of your home turf can you confidently explore the rest of the matrix!

                                                                           Sincerely Yours,

                                                                           Shadowrun

 Shadowrun’s Guide to
MAXXING OUT YOUR MAC

The core of your computer is the operating system.  There are several measures you can take to cut down on the CPU load and better organize the desktop you work on.  A Mac properly customized to it’s user’s needs performs better than any other machine on this planet; the effort it takes is well worth the results.

                                       Before you begin...
       Make sure you have backups of EVERYTHING on your HD.

•REMOVE THE UNNECESSARY

Search for Apple Menu Items, Control Panels (cdevs) and Extensions you don’t need or want (many find the MAP cdev useless; a b/w Mac has little need for a COLORS cdev).  If you use only one monitor, trash the MONITORS cdev.  Don’t use EASY ACCESS?  Lose it.  Not on an Appletalk net?  Lose APPLESHARE, SHARING SETUP, and the USERS & GROUPS DATA FILE.  Insulted by the presence of the PUZZLE?  Trash it.  INSTALLER TEMPs cluttering the System Folder?  Terminate ‘em.  Unless you need it, remove the System6 Keyboard Setting from your SYSTEM suitcase, along with any sounds you don’t want.  Trash unwanted Fonts, Screen Saver modules, and anything else you don’t want or need.  Since everything’s backed up, take off any games you no longer play or applications you no longer use.  Make certain that you get rid of all Extensions, Prefs, Control Panels, and Aliases belonging to the latter programs as well.  Find every little gizmo that you never use or don’t want, and get rid of it.  Again, it is essential to avoid later anguish that you back up EVERYTHING you trash...the Mac works in strange and mysterious ways, and those seemingly useless Prefs may cripple a treasured program by their absence.

• ESTABLISH A HIERARCHY

Organize your folders; when you double-click on your hard drive, you should be presented with a hierarchical menu of choices (System Folder, Applications, Utilities, Documents, Games, etc...).  When you open the Applications folder, you should see an ordered listing of programs.  When you open the Documents folder, you might be presented with more choices (graphics, word processing, databases, spreadsheets, etc.).  Place commonly accessed collections, such as a Clip Art or Creative Writings folder, on the desktop.  Consider placing frequently used applications, or aliases thereof, in the Apple Menu Items folder.

• STREAMLINE DISPLAY FUNCTIONS

View “by Name” instead of Icon.  Set your VIEWS cdev to “Straight grid”, “Always snap to grid”, select the smallest file icon button, and turn off all of the view-by-name options (“Size”, “Kind”, “Label”, “Date”, etc.).  In particular, the calculation of folder sizes ties up the processor considerably.

WETWARES

• 5 NETWARES YOU SHOULDN’T DO WITHOUT

MenuChoice:  An astoundingly elegant Control Panel by Kerry Clendinning, MenuChoice facilitates the creation of hierarchical submenus in the Apple Menu.  With clever options such as a Desktop Menu and a recently opened items launchpad, MenuChoice goes far beyond being a poor man’s Square One.  Shareware.

SpeedyFinder7:  A very well-conceived System 7 booster, Victor Tan’s SpeedyFinder7 adds great functionality to the System 7 Finder (things that Apple should have done but didn’t).  SpeedyFinder7 can stop “zoom” rectangles (major speed-eaters), maximize Finder copy speed, Assign a command-key to the Make Alias function, show floppy types (SS, DS, HD), resolve aliases, add a Cmd-Q Quit option to every File menu (even the Finder!), and several useful trash functions.  It does more work than any cdev it’s size that we’ve seen.  Shareware.

FileBuddy:  From Laurence Harris, FileBuddy is a utility that makes you wonder how you made it this far without it...It is the most complete shareware desktop maintenance program out there.  It cleans out unattached preferences and aliases, gets rid of unused ICON files, rebuilds the desktop file, and has a drop key function superior in simplicity and functionality to any other.  Shareware.

TattleTale:  A general assessment utility from John Mancino, TattleTale tells you SO much about SO many facets of you machine’s status, it has been known to seed paranoia in the weak minded.  It assesses CPU, volumes and drives, nubus, monitors, SCSI, ADB, serial devices, system software, file, and active process status...and then lists it all for you in a surprisingly readable outline format.  Shareware.

FirstClass Client:  This front-end Telecom program from SoftArc is made to take full advantage of the FirstClass BBS program.  Over the past few years, FirstClass BBSs have sprung up in so many area codes around the country, no self-respecting matrix runner can afford NOT to own it.  Freeware.

• CYBERLINK ESSENTIALWARES TOP 9

9.  ResourceThief (Netware)
8.  File Lister (Netware)
7.  StuffIt Deluxe (Corpware)
6.  Disinfectant (Netware)
5.  ZipIt (Netware)
4.  Gatekeeper (Netware)
3.  ZTerm (Netware)
2.  Norton Utilities (Corpware)
1.  ResEdit (Netware)

IC

• THE HARDWARE HORIZON

The AV Macs:  Incorporating the first genuinely revolutionary design in years from Apple, the AV (audiovisual) Mac line holds much promise.  With a Digital Signal Processor chip and full-motion video, 16-bit audio, voice recognition and telephony technologies built right into the motherboard, these machines make multimedia more than a buzzword.  Like all new designs, the AV line has a few notable problems (incomplete conduit design, DSP software in short supply), but it seems an excellent concept to build later models (PowerPC?) around.  It also presents an opportunity for Apple to redeem it’s product lifespan record (IIvx: the four-month wonder) by supporting DSP technology in the corpwares to come.

PowerPC:  Yet Another Miracle, we don’t expect so much revolution as evolution from this batch of YAMs.  A family of chips, all touted as superior to the Pentium processor; whether they’re better or worse, what machines will they run in and when will practical applications for them come into sight?  Stay tuned...

Newton:  For the better part of a year, they said “It’s coming!”.  Now it’s here, and it seems as though Apple has thrown us the proverbial bone.  A pathetic piece of technology, it is one half gimmick and one half flimsy material; I have yet to note any SUBSTANCE behind this project.  While the palmtop-powerbook is a great idea (and that is very much what Newton is), they’ve failed miserably in placating the Mac community with this offering; either Apple invests some quality in the Newton project, or it rots.

Megamodems:  Zyxel has for some time been marketing a 19.2Kbps modem.  The piece is very well made and conceived, and runs smoothly, cooly, and powerfully.  Why no explosion in sales?  The large nets are still trying to catch up to 9600, let alone 14400...the speed of the Zyxel modem is very useful, but only if there’s an identical one the other end of the conversation.

Older Macs:  Mail order houses are liquidating “obsolete” Macs at literally unbelievable prices...a Mac II for $600....a IIsi for $750...the hardy Classic II for $650?  In this period of MegaMac obsolescence machines (the Quadra 800 kills the competition, but the 840av may yet slay the 800...), the mortal users can benefit tremendously from price cuts on all things “mid-range”.  Hold out another season, and you’ll face a decision between new rollerblades or a IIci...

Powerbook Peripherals:  The new generation of Powerbook modules is finally priced reasonably, and there are a few real gems:  a zero-footprint HD (500Mb), a dock assembly for easy attachment to desktop Macs, and several ultra-light clip-on printers that make it a portable contract foundry.  Also the new 14.4Kbps internal modems, sporting very reasonable price tags, offer Fax/Voice options.  All in all, it’s a great time to pump up your powerbook.
CITYSPEAK

• OUTLET LEVEL

The Polyglottal Shopper:  Wandering Times Square with a friend from Thailand, I quickly discovered what some of the pictographs on store signs mean,  ranging from “stolen goods” to “opium”.  It would seem that a multilingual reader may well an enlightened customer make: one sign read “tariff-free integrated circuits”, another “cheaply acquired computers, all flavors”!

A Burgeoning Market?:  Those barely-there PC clones, built by unknown companies and displayed between camcorders and false Rolexes, are finally feeling the burn.  Most of the shopkeepers we asked complained of dying sales, and one had gone so far as to offer Performas and reconditioned Classics alongside his Clones collection.  A battered and torn “Licensed Apple Dealer” stood in the corner...

Pentium Ready:  One of the cutest gizmos I found while wandering the electronics shops was a ZIF socket...the blue plastic, Zero Insertion Force type.  It seems that for $1.25, you can buy one, glue it onto a PC motherboard (choose a suitably important spot, say, onto the REAL processor), and claim your wares to come Pentium-ready ($300 Markup).  Though such an act would constitute fraud on some level, and is morally reprehensible, I find it all too funny for words.

Hacker House?:  One of the more interesting computer shops is a loft, where the craftsman lives.  He owns a 486 and rents a Quadra, and writes programs.  All kinds, all reasons, all prices; his deal is that you can buy from his existing library (prices range from $20 to $75), or you can commission one.  If he likes the concept you want written, he’ll charge you a price in his normal range (and add the program to his own library of saleworthy wares).  His programs are incredibly well copy protected, but otherwise highly elegant and refined in design and function.  And the rate at which he turns them out is inhuman: one program every WEEK.

• ARCADIA

Violence Sells:  A shocking proportion of today’s video games center on fighting and bloodshed.  At least half of the games in each arcade Have titles like “Mortal Champion” and “Final Battle”.  They range from the relatively innocuous to the genuinely brutal.

Mortal Kombat:  Midway’s offering is the last word in fight games...photorealistic digitized people (not characters...people) fight to the death in a Bruce Lee “Enter the Dragon” type tournament.  With blood flying everywhere and fatalities performed every round (decapitation, disintegration, and evisceration are the highlights), this game seems to be the king of the hill in the senselessly violent category of digital pornography.  Naturally, I’m an overnight devotee...
LAST BITS

Q&A:  Any questions submitted to Cyberlink regarding computing will be answered to the best of our ability in this column...of course, for there to BE a column, there must first be questions.  Submit.

Letters to the Editor:  This will be the Opinion side of our OpEd bookends.  Again, my opinions go into the Letter from the Editor, so I need to hear YOUR opinions for there to be a column.

Ex Miscellanea:  You want to see something else in these pages?  Submit an article or new column?  Try your hand at writing for us regularly?  Go for it!  Cyberlink encourages reader participation in all ways...

Submit to:  AOL - Shadowrun, Compuserve - 72303,1270, Internet - shadowrun@aol.com