According to my dictionary, subliminal (the word) means “designed to act on the mind at a subconscious level.” Subliminal (the program) does just that—it sends messages designed to act on the mind at a subconscious level.
It’s a do-it-yourself subliminal message kit, useful for influencing yourself or others, most notably spousal units and bosses. You have total control: how often messages appear, how long they appear for, and even what the messages say.
I don’t know if it really works. I rather doubt it. You see, it’s not really subliminal. Even its shortest display time (1 second) is long enough to recognize and read the message (as long as the message is short, or you’re a fast reader). Truly subliminal messages would appear for fractions of a second, but they wouldn’t be as silly or annoying.
There are lots of ways to use Subliminal—as reminders to yourself, as a humorous reminder to your spouse or boss, or even to amuse your kids.
••How to Use Subliminal••
Subliminal is a cdev—a Control Panel Device. To activate it, open the Subliminal folder, move the Subliminal icon into your System Folder, and then restart your Mac.
Under System 6, choose Control Panel from the Apple menu and select the Subliminal icon from the scrolling list on the left. That will open the Subliminal Control Panel Device.
Under System 7, when you drag the icon to the System Folder you’ll see a dialog box confirming that this is what you want to do. Click OK. Subliminal will automatically be placed in the Control Panels folder within your System Folder. Now restart your Mac. To use Subliminal, select Control Panels from the Apple menu, and then double-click the Subliminal icon.
To select a message file, click the Choose File button and a standard Open File dialog box will appear. Navigate to the Subliminal folder and open one of the Subliminal files, either Boss or Self.
Now, click the Test button. You should see a message appear somewhere onscreen. The messages will continue to pop up at 2-second intervals until you click the mouse while a message is onscreen.
Subliminal has two other controls: “Appear every” sets the frequency with which messages appear; “Display for” sets the length of time a message stays onscreen. Both work the same way, using pop-up menus. To change either one, click on the number in the box and drag up or down until your choice is selected, then release the mouse.
The message files that Subliminal uses are plain text files. You can create and edit files for Subliminal with any word processor that lets you save in “text” format, which is sometimes called “ASCII” or “plain text.” Apple’s TeachText, the text reading and editing program that comes with every Mac, can also be used to create and edit files for Subliminal.
TeachText saves files in the text format automatically, so if you’re not sure how to create a text file with your word processor, use TeachText.
There are only two things you need to know to create or change Subliminal files:
1. The file must be saved in text format.
2. Each message must end in a carriage return.
One last thing: If you get a message that says “Subliminal is not currently installed. Please Restart to install Subliminal,” you may not have enough memory available. Try moving one or more additional INITs or cdevs out of your System Folder (or Extension and Control Panels folders if you’re using System 7) temporarily and then restarting your Mac.
••Suggestions for Using Subliminal ••
Here’s one I’d try if I had a boss: First, use a word processor or TeachText to open the file named Subliminal file—Boss. Change “Your Name Here” to your name. If there are special messages you want your boss to see, type them in. Save the file. (Remember, if you used your word processor, save the file in text format only.) Now, wait for a time when you and the boss’s Mac can be alone together for about 5 minutes. Copy the Subliminal file—Boss and the Subliminal cdev to a floppy, then copy them into your boss’s System Folder and restart the Mac. In the Control Panel, use the Choose File button to select Subliminal file—Boss. Set “Appear every” to 10 minutes and “Display for” to 2 seconds (to make absolutely sure he or she sees the messages.) Now scram.
By the end of the day, your boss will give you anything you like as long as you promise you’ll make the messages stop!
As you might expect, I don’t recommend trying this on a boss with no sense of humor. And, of course, I can’t be held responsible for the consequences.
There are plenty of ways to use Subliminal. It’s a wonderful way to suggest things to your spouse. Try: “Wouldn’t a new Porsche look good in our garage?” or “Hawaii is nice this time of year.” Kids—get anything you want from your parents. Try: “Jason deserves a much bigger allowance” or “Allison would be safer if she had a new car.” Parents—use it to reinforce the rules. Try: “Home past midnight = grounded for a month” or “You will do all your chores, or else.”
Use your imagination. Remember, even at the fastest setting, 1 second, you can read most messages. So your so-called “subliminal” messages are almost certain to be seen. There must be hundreds of other things you can do with it. Go wild.
