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Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!pad-thai.aktis.com!pad-thai.aktis.com!not-for-mail From: elharo@shock.njit.edu (Elliotte Rusty Harold) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc,comp.answers,news.answers Subject: Miscellaneous Macintosh frequently asked questions (FAQ) Supersedes: <macintosh/misc-faq_755154010@GZA.COM> Followup-To: comp.sys.mac.misc Date: 20 Dec 1993 00:00:30 -0500 Organization: Department of Mathematics, NJIT Lines: 1079 Sender: faqserv@security.ov.com Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.edu Expires: 17 Jan 1994 05:00:11 GMT Message-ID: <macintosh/misc-faq_756363611@GZA.COM> References: <macintosh/general-faq_756363611@GZA.COM> Reply-To: elharo@shock.njit.edu NNTP-Posting-Host: pad-thai.aktis.com Summary: This document answers a number of the most frequently asked questions about Macintoshes on Usenet. To avoid wasting bandwidth and as a matter of politeness please familiarize yourself with this document BEFORE posting. Keywords: FAQ, Macintosh, Mac, macintosh, mac, misc, miscellaneous X-Last-Updated: 1993/12/18 Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu comp.sys.mac.misc:57125 comp.answers:3092 news.answers:16004 Archive-name: macintosh/misc-faq Version: 2.2.3 Last-modified: December 17, 1993 Miscellaneous Frequently Asked Questions ======================================== comp.sys.mac.faq, part 3: comp.sys.mac.misc Copyright 1993 by Elliotte Harold Archive-name: macintosh/misc-faq Version: 2.2.3 Last-modified: December 17, 1993 What's new in version 2.2.3: ---------------------------- 0.0: The IP address of rtfm.mit.edu has changed again. It is now [18.70.0.209]. Furthermore rtfm files are now stored in uncompressed format. My preferred E-mail address is now elharo@shock.njit.edu though I will still be checking mail at erh0362@tesla.njit.edu for the foreseeable future. 3.2: How can I translate files to a DOS format? MacLink Plus is now at version 7.5, translates over 1000 different file formats, and includes Macintosh Easy Open. 3.3: Should I buy SoftPC or a real PC? The various versions of SoftPC have been consolidated and their prices have been lowered. Combined with the rapidly expanding power of cheap Macs, SoftPC style emulation is looking better and better by the week. See this question for details. 4.0: Security This section has been completely revised. It now consists of the questions: 1. How can I password protect a Mac? 2. How can I password protect a file? 3. How can I password protect a folder? 4. How can I prevent software piracy? 5. How can I keep a hard drive in a fixed configuration? 5.5: What is AutoDoubler? DiskDoubler? SpaceSaver? More Disk Space? Now Compress? Version 1.0.1 of Now Compress has been released and seems to have had most of the bugs shaken out of it. Since Now Compress offers one of the best combinations of features, performance, and price in this category I am now recommending it. SpaceSaver is probably more competitive than I've given it credit for in the past for the majority of people who, unlike me, compress their document files. 6.6: How do they compare to TimesTwo, Stacker, and eDisk? Times Two is now at version 2.0. I still don't know to what extent this version corrects earlier problems. A demo version of eDisk is available for anonymous ftp from the usual places. Finally I added question 6.9: Where can I find the 1984 Quicktime movie? Table of Contents ------------------------------------------------------------------- I. Viruses 1. Help! I have a virus! 2. I think I've found a new virus. What should I do? II. Printing and PostScript 1. How do I make a PostScript file? 2. How do I print a PostScript file? 3. Why won't my PostScript file print on my mainframe's printer? 4. Why are my PostScript files so big? 5. How can I print PostScript on a non-PostScript printer? 6. How do I make my ImageWriter II print in color? 7. Why doesn't PrintMonitor work with the ImageWriter? 8. Why did my document change when I printed it on someone else's printer? 9. How can I preview a PostScript file? 10. Can I attach a LaserJet or other PC printer to my Mac? III. DOS and the Mac 1. How can I move files between a Mac and a PC? 2. How can I translate files to a DOS format? 3. Should I buy SoftPC or a real PC? IV. Security 1. How can I password protect a Mac? 2. How can I password protect a file? 3. How can I password protect a folder? 4. How can I prevent software piracy? 5. How can I keep a hard drive in a fixed configuration? V. Sound 1. How can I copy a track from an audio CD onto my Mac? 2. How can I extract a sound from a QuickTime movie? 3. How can I convert/play a mod/wav/etc. file? VI. No particular place to go (Miscellaneous Miscellanea) 1. Are there any good books about the Mac? 2. How do I take a picture of the screen? 3. How do I use a picture for my desktop? 4. Can I replace the "Welcome to Macintosh" box with a picture? 5. What is AutoDoubler? DiskDoubler? SpaceSaver? More Disk Space? Now Compress? DiskDoubler? 6. How do they compare to TimesTwo, Stacker, and eDisk? 7. Where did my icons go? 8. Where can I find a user group? 9. Where can I find the 1984 Quicktime movie? ADMINISTRIVIA ============= Copyright --------- This work is Copyright 1993 by Elliotte M. Harold. Permission is hereby granted to transmit and store this document as part of an unedited collection of any newsgroup to which it is posted by myself. I also grant permission to distribute unmodified copies of this document online via bulletin boards, online services, and other providers of electronic communications provided that no fees in excess of normal online charges are required for such distribution; i.e. if the FAQ is available on a system, it must be available at the minimum charge for accessing the system. For instance you may post it to most BBS's that charge either a flat monthly fee or a per hour rate. However if there is an extra charge for downloading files over what is charged per normal access, either per hour, per kilobyte, or per month, then the FAQ may not be posted to that system without my explicit, prior permission. Portions of this document may be extracted and quoted free of charge and without necessity of citation in normal online communication provided only that said quotes are not represented as the correspondent's original work. Permission for quotation of this document in edited, online communication (such as the Info-Mac Digest and TidBITS) is given subject to normal citation procedures (i.e. you have to say where you got it). If you wish to republish this FAQ in a modified form or in a non-electronic medium, please contact me with specific details. I'm normally receptive to non-profits that wish to redistribute it at no charge, and to anyone who is willing to make reasonable remunerative arrangements for non-exclusive republication rights. Disclaimer ---------- I do my best to ensure that information contained in this document is current and accurate, but I can accept no responsibility for actions resulting from information contained herein. This document is provided as is and with no warranty of any kind. Corrections and suggestions should be addressed to elharo@shock.njit.edu. Trademarks ---------- Apple, Macintosh, LaserWriter, ImageWriter, Finder, HyperCard and MultiFinder are registered trademarks and PowerBook is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. Linotronic is a registered trademark of Linotype-Hell AG, Inc. PostScript is a registered trademark and Illustrator and Photoshop are trademarks of Adobe Systems, Inc. Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. PageMaker is a registered trademark of Aldus Corp. AutoDoubler and DiskDoubler are trademarks of Fifth Generation Systems, Inc. StuffIt and StuffIt Deluxe are trademarks of Raymond Lau and Aladdin Systems, Inc. StuffIt SpaceSaver is a trademark of Aladdin Systems, Inc. More Disk Space is a trademark of Alysis Software Corporation. TimesTwo is a trademark of Golden Triangle Computers, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark of AT&T. All other tradenames are trademarks of their respective manufacturers. How to Retrieve the Entire FAQ ------------------------------ This is the THIRD part of this FAQ. The first part is also posted to this newsgroup under the subject heading "Introductory Macintosh frequently asked questions (FAQ)" and includes a complete table of contents for the entire document as well as information on where to post, ftp, file decompression, trouble-shooting, and preventive maintenance. The second, fourth, and fifth parts are posted every two weeks in comp.sys.mac.system, comp.sys.mac.apps, and comp.sys.mac.wanted respectively and include many questions that often erroneously appear in comp.sys.mac.misc. Please familiarize yourself with all five sections of this document before posting. All pieces are available for anonymous ftp from rtfm.mit.edu [18.70.0.209] in the directory pub/usenet/news.answers/macintosh. Except for the introductory FAQ which appears in multiple newsgroups and is stored as general-faq, the name of each file has the format of the last part of the group name followed by "-faq", e.g the FAQ for comp.sys.mac.system is stored as system-faq and the FAQ for comp.sys.mac.misc is stored as misc-faq. You can also have these files mailed to you by sending an E-mail message to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with the line: send pub/usenet/news.answers/macintosh/"name" in the body text where "name" is the name of the file you want as specified above (e.g. general-faq). You can also send this server a message with the subject "help" for more detailed instructions. ============== VIRUSES (1.0) ============== HELP! I HAVE A VIRUS. (1.1) ----------------------------- 90% of all problems reportedly caused by viruses are actually due to mundane bugs in software (and 90% of all statistics are made up :-) ). Check your system with the latest version of Disinfectant, 3.2 as of this writing, by the excellent John Norstad from Northwestern University. Disinfectant is absolutely free and is available from sumex-aim and all the other usual suspects. It's easy to use and can completely protect your system from currently known Macintosh viruses. Releases to protect from new viruses are normally made within a day or two of the first confirmed sighting and capture of a new virus, and make their merry way around the electronic highways faster than any Macintosh virus ever has. I THINK I'VE FOUND A NEW VIRUS. WHAT DO I DO? (1.2) ----------------------------------------------------- DON'T post a report to any comp.sys.mac.* newsgroup. 99% of all suspected new viruses are merely mundane bugs in the system or applications being used; and even if you really have found a new virus, there's nothing we can do about it anyway. You'll only generate a lot of panicked, follow-up reports from people who'll blame every crash of QuarkXPress on the new virus. If your system is protected against known viruses by Disinfectant or one of the other anti-virus packages and you suspect a new virus is causing you trouble, first consult with the most knowledgeable local guru about your problem. Nine times out of ten, he or she will identify it as a boring, ordinary, known bug in the software. If you are the local guru and still think you may have found a new virus, and have thoroughly checked out all other possibilities, then, and only then, send a detailed description of your problem to j-norstad@nwu.edu. Check the Disinfectant manual for procedures to follow before reporting a new virus. Please remember that it is VERY unlikely you have actually found a new virus. Around the world in all of 1992 only four new Macintosh viruses were discovered. Of all the suspected Macintosh viruses which were reported to Usenet before being isolated by a recognized virus expert, exactly none were eventually confirmed. One recent public virus report, the so-called M virus, turned out to be the result of a boring, ordinary bug in a common extension. The report which received the most attention, the so-called Aliens virus, remains unconfirmed and was probably the result of corrupt system software. ============================== PRINTING AND POSTSCRIPT (2.0) ============================== HOW DO I MAKE A POSTSCRIPT FILE? (2.1) --------------------------------------- First make sure a LaserWriter driver is in your System Folder. It doesn't really matter which one although LaserWriter driver 8.1.1 is the best. This driver is avilable from ftp.apple.com in the directory /dts/mac/sys.soft/imaging/laserwriter.8.1 and works with System 6.0.5 and later. If you're using the System 6 driver, you'll need a Laser Prep file in your System Folder as well as the LaserWriter driver and will also need to turn off background printing. Once you've verified that there is indeed a LaserWriter driver in the System Folder, select LaserWriter in the Chooser. A dialog box will probably pop up informing you that the LaserWriter requires Appletalk and asking if you want to turn Appletalk on. Whether you have AppleTalk or not click OK. Then select Page Setup... from the File menu to format your document for the LaserWriter. Next select Print... from the File menu. If you're using LaserWriter driver 7.0 or later, the Print dialog box that appears will have a radio button for Destination near the bottom. Click PostScript File. The Print button at the top should change to a Save button. Click it and you'll get a standard file dialog asking you what to name and where to save the PostScript file. If you're using LaserWriter driver 6.0.x or 5.2, the procedure is more complicated. When the Print dialog box pops up, position the cursor over the Print button and hold the mouse button down and keep it down like you're going to click and drag. Then, with your other hand, press and hold the K key. If you'll eventually print the file on a non- Apple PostScript printer, especially one not designed with the Macintosh in mind, also hold down the Command key. Using Command-K instead of plain K includes some Mac specific information non-Apple-oriented PostScript printers need to know about. Now let the mouse button up. When you see a message box that says "Creating PostScript file," take your finger off the K key. After you've gotten the message "Creating PostScript file" you should find a file called PostScript0 in the same folder as the application you were printing from. This is the file you just printed. Rename it before you forget what it is. If you print to disk (what this whole process is officially called) more than once, the second file will be called PostScript1, the third PostScript2, and so on. It really is much easier to use the System 7 LaserWriter driver. HOW DO I PRINT A POSTSCRIPT FILE? (2.2) ---------------------------------------- On a Macintosh you'll need the LaserWriter Font Utility available on the high density TidBits disk from System 7 or the More TidBits disk from the 800K distribution. A more feature-rich version called simply LaserWriter Utility is available for anonymous ftp from ftp.apple.com in /dts/mac/sys.soft/imaging. Both utilities allows you to send files to the LaserWriter in such a way that PostScript commands get interpreted as PostScript rather than as text to be printed. If you're printing to a PostScript printer connected to something other than a Macintosh, you'll need to consult your local system gurus. A simple "lpr filename.ps" works on my Sparc, but your mileage may vary. WHY WON'T MY POSTSCRIPT FILE PRINT ON MY MAINFRAME'S PRINTER? (2.3) -------------------------------------------------------------------- Moving PostScript files between the Macintosh and other platforms used to be as dark an art as existed in the Macintosh universe. With the recent release of the LaserWriter 8 driver, it's no longer so complicated. You will need a PPD file for your printer. Many are available from ftp.adobe.com in /pub/adobe/PPDFiles. While their names are unfortunately restricted by Mess-DOS's braindead 8.3 naming convention, the file Filename.MAP should tell you what PPD file your printer requires. Be sure to select the options for PostScript Level 1 and ASCII text PostScript files in the Print dialog box. Finally if you're still having problems try using only genuine PostScript fonts, no TrueType or bitmapped fonts; and don't include any fonts in your document that already reside in the printer or on the host system. (Hugo Ayala's shareware control panel Trimmer will help with this if host available fonts are other than the standard 13 which the LaserWriter 8 driver has an option to omit.) Unfortunately the LaserWriter 8.1 driver is incompatible with a LOT of important software like most Aldus products, Canvas, and QuarkXPress. Until these incompatibilities are fixed you may need to continue using an older version of the LaserWriter driver. In this case you should experiment with your combination of application software, LaserWriter driver, and printer to see what works best. If you're using the System 6 LaserWriter driver, try using Command-K instead of K to create the PostScript file in which the Laser Prep header is included. The System 7 LaserWriter drivers include this header automatically though Hugo Ayala's shareware Control Panel device Trimmer will leave it out. More importantly Trimmer also lets you select which fonts to include in your PostScript file. Try using only genuine PostScript fonts, no TrueType or bitmapped fonts; and don't include any fonts in your document that already reside in the printer or on the host system. The freeware DMM-LaserWriter Stuff can customize your pre-8.0 LaserWriter drivers in several different, useful ways. Among other possibilities this package can modify a LaserWriter driver so that the PostScript files it creates are more compatible with non-Apple printers and printing to disk is the default. The upload to the mainframe from which the PostScript file will be printed may also make a difference. Normally you need to transfer the file in pure Binary format, neither MacBinary nor ASCII. WHY ARE MY POSTSCRIPT FILES SO BIG? (2.4) ------------------------------------------ Versions 7.0 and later of the LaserWriter driver automatically include all the fonts you use in your document plus the LaserPrep information plus the TrueType engine (if you're using any TrueType fonts) in the PostScript file. Thus a 3K document formatted in 90K of fonts can easily produce a 300K PostScript file. If these fonts are present on the system you'll be printing from, they don't need to be included in the document. You can remove them with the shareware control panel Trimmer or the free utility StripFonts. If you're using the LaserWriter 8 driver, you can manually select an option to leave out all fonts or just the standard thirteen faces of Times, Courier, Helvetica, and Symbol though for more control you'll still need StripFonts or Trimmer. HOW CAN I PRINT POSTSCRIPT ON A NON-POSTSCRIPT PRINTER? (2.5) -------------------------------------------------------------- You need one of the payware applications Freedom of the Press or TScript. For most users who only want to print to common printers like DeskWriters, StyleWriters, or Personal LaserWriter LS's, the Light version of Freedom of the Press or the Basic version of TScript will suffice. ($55 street for either). More expensive versions of both products are available that work with more esoteric printers, particularly very-high-end color printers and imagesetters. HOW DO I MAKE MY IMAGEWRITER II PRINT IN COLOR? (2.6) ------------------------------------------------------ Applications such as SuperPaint 2.0 and MacWrite II that support the original eight-color model for QuickDraw graphics only need a color ribbon to print in color. The shareware GIFConverter can open and print a variety of graphics file types in excellent dithered color. Jeff Skaitsis's $1 shareware CheapColor can also dither PixelPaint and PICT2 files on an ImageWriter II. If you have a Macintosh with a 68020 or better CPU, the payware MacPalette II provides general purpose color printing from any application that prints on a QuickDraw printer (e.g. NOT Illustrator). MacPalette II is about $45 street. If you need more information the publisher, Microspot, can be contacted at (800) 622-7568. WHY DOESN'T PRINTMONITOR WORK WITH THE IMAGEWRITER? (2.7) ---------------------------------------------------------- Ask the Apple Customer Assistance Center (20525 Mariani Avenue, Cupertino, CA 95014, USA, (800) 776-2333) this one. Meanwhile the above-mentioned MacPalette II provides background printing on an ImageWriter under System 7 and a 68020 or better CPU. SuperLaserSpool works with lesser Macs as well. These are fully commercial products. There are NO freeware, shareware, or other ftpable solutions that work under System 7 so get out your credit cards. At $98 street price for SuperLaserSpool and $45 for MacPalette but only $300 for a vastly superior DeskWriter or StyleWriter II you may want to forgo the software and buy a better printer instead. If you're still using System 6 and have no plans to move to System 7, there is a shareware product called MultiSpool from Italy; but it is not System 7 compatible and prints only under MultiFinder. WHY DID MY DOCUMENT CHANGE WHEN I PRINTED IT ON SOMEONE ELSE'S PRINTER? (2.8) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ There are many different reasons this can happen. Far and away the most common problem is using the wrong printer driver. BEFORE you start formatting your document, make sure you have a printer driver for the printer you'll use for the final draft in your system folder and have selected that printer in the Chooser. Then choose Page Setup... from the File menu to let the application know what sort of output it should try to match the display to. The second most common problem is font confusion. Make sure you know exactly which fonts are in your document; and, if you're printing to a PostScript printer, make sure PostScript versions of these fonts are available to that printer. On newer printers you might also be able to use TrueType fonts; but PostScript is still the standard, especially if you're eventually going to Lino for camera ready output. The third most common source of trouble is poor formatting, especially in Microsoft Word. The Mac is not a typewriter, and you shouldn't use it as one. Don't use tabs as a substitute for indentation; don't force a page break with carriage returns; and NEVER use spaces to position anything. If you're writing a resume (by far the most common source of formatting problems for Word users), give serious thought to using the well-formatted resume template that comes with Word to help you avoid problems with your final printout. IS THERE A UTILITY TO PREVIEW POSTSCRIPT FILES ON THE MAC? (2.9) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Net godhood awaits the first person to write a working shareware or freeware PostScript previewer for the Mac. The payware product TScript allows viewing PostScript files on the Mac, but this is a large package with other purposes and even the light version costs over $50. CAN I ATTACH A LASERJET OR OTHER PC PRINTER TO MY MAC? (2.10) -------------------------------------------------------------- If your printer isn't a PostScript printer with an AppleTalk interface, you need either PowerPrint from GDT Softworks or the Grappler from Orange Micro. Both include the necessary printer drivers and serial to parallel cable to connect a macintosh with any common PC printer including HP LaserJets and DeskJets and Canon BubbleJets. If your printer is uncommon you can always ask the vendors before ordering. Both packages have street prices around $95. ====================== DOS AND THE MAC (3.0) ====================== HOW CAN I MOVE FILES BETWEEN A MAC AND A PC? (3.1) --------------------------------------------------- The simplest way to move files between a PC and a Mac is with a null-modem cable and a reliable communications program. You can get a null-modem cable from any good electronics store. Make sure the cable you buy has the appropriate connectors for the Mac and PC you'll be connecting. Hook one end of the cable to the printer or modem port on your Mac and the other to a serial port on the PC. This should work just like a very high speed (57,600 bps) modem connection except that you'll probably need to turn on local echo in your communications program. If the computers aren't within cabling distance, you can either upload the files to an intermediary mainframe or put them on a floppy disk. The Superdrive sold since the introduction of the IIx is capable of formatting and writing to 3.5 inch PC floppies. Apple includes Apple File Exchange, a minimal program capable of doing this as part of the system software. Apple File Exchange is difficult to use and violates at least half of Apple's user interface guidelines. (Can anyone explain why no other software company violates as many of Apple's user interface guidelines as Apple itself does?) For details on its use please Read the Friendly Manual. If you frequently need to use DOS floppies and you have a Superdrive, you may want to invest in a more transparent solution. The three currently available are AccessPC from Insignia Solutions, DOS Mounter from Dayna, and Macintosh PC Exchange from Apple, all of which automatically mount and format 3.5 inch DOS floppies in a Superdrive without requiring you to run a separate program before you insert the disk. Macintosh PC Exchange requires System 7. If you use DOS Mounter be sure to increase your Disk cache (RAM cache in System 6) to at least 256K. This will substantially improve its performance. HOW CAN I TRANSLATE FILES TO A DIFFERENT PLATFORM? (3.2) --------------------------------------------------------- With the increasing popularity of cross-platform development, many Macintosh programs like Adobe Illustrator 5.0, Adobe PhotoShop, and Microsoft Word 5.1 are able to save directly to a format readable by DOS or Windows programs. You'll still need to mount the DOS floppies in the Mac drive using one of the products discussed above or do a default translation from within Apple File Exchange. Although translators for Apple File Exchange could theoretically be designed to translate files made by applications without these capabilities, AFE has never really caught on. The best solution is a payware product by DataViz called MacLink Plus. MacLink Plus, about $70 street price, can translate over 1000 DOS, Windows, Macintosh, and NeXT formats back and forth. For $25 more the Pro version comes bundled with a copy of Macintosh PC Exchange. SHOULD I BUY SOFTPC OR A REAL PC? (3.3) ---------------------------------------- The various versions of SoftPC will run most DOS software on a Macintosh as advertised; but even on the fastest Macs, SoftPC will be at most as fast as an original AT. On any Mac slower than an LC III, performance will be at best twice the speed of an original XT. More likely you'll only equal the speed of an original XT. For today's software like WordPerfect 6.0 that's S...L...O...W. Of course slow is relative. I've seen an Amiga running a Mac emulator running SoftPC running a CP/M emulator. That's slow! As part of testing the 486 chip design, Intel ran DOS on a simulation of the 486 chip running on an IBM 3090 mainframe. It took them TWO WEEKS to get to the C> prompt! That's slow. SoftPC on a Classic is actually about as fast as the original IBM PC from ten years ago. SoftPteen megs of free hard disk space (plus any disk space you want to allocate to DOS and Windows files). It includes all of the above plus Windows 3.1 and is optimized to make Windows performance tolerable (if not exactly speedy) on a fast Mac. If you already have the necessary hardware and disk space it actually is significantly cheaper at current street prices to buy SoftPC than an equivalent PC clone. For someane with a 68040 Mac and a lot of memory and hard disk space plus only an occasional need to run DOS or Windows, SoftPC is a reasonable choice. ============== SECURITY (4.0) ============== HOW CAN I PASSWORD PROTECT A MAC? (4.1) ---------------------------------------- A number of payware, shareware and freeware products exist for the purpose of preventing a Mac from being accessed without a password. Some of the more easily defeated products, mostly shareware, use a system extension or startup application to display a splash screen that doesn't go away until the proper password is entered. Most of these can be bypassed by any of several methods including booting off a floppy or a different SCSI device, disabling extensions with the Shift key at Startup, or even dropping into the built-in debugger. Products that are more difficult to defeat (mostly payware) don't allow a hard disk to be mounted until the proper password is entered. Most of these can be defeated by loading a different driver with a hard disk formatter like FWB's Hard Disk Toolkit after booting from a floppy. No program of this type provides hacker-proof security. Nonetheless the better programs do provide a minimum level of protection from casual snoopers or intruders. Art Schumer's MacPassword 3.9.2 is the cheapest ($35) program worthy of consideration in this category. A demo version which expires after sixty days and isn't quite as secure is available for anonywous FTP. Some hard disk formatters also offer optional password protection. Notable in this category is FWB's Hard Disk Toolkit Personal Edition, about $50 mail-order. A number of payware utilities are capable of this and much more. My choice of commercial products in this category is Citadel from Datawatch ($60 street). Citadel is a complete Macintosh security program that provides password protection for hard disks, file and folder protection via DES encryption, screen locking, and the best protection I've ever seen against accidentally locking yourself out of your hard drive while still keeping intruders out. It's not totally intruder-proof, (No such product is.) but it does provide more reliable protection and more value for the money than any similar product I'm aware of. HOW CAN I PASSWORD PROTECT A FILE? (4.2) ----------------------------------------- The best (and in many ways only) means of protecting a sensitive file from prying eyes is encryption. Many encryption utilities are available on the net and as part of various payware products. Most will keep out the casual snooper, but fail miserably when faced with a knowledgable and determined hacker. All but one fail in the face of an attack by an organization with the resources of a large corporation or government. For basic protection I recommend using DES encryption. Several payware and freeware products do this including the above mentioned Citadel and J. Clarke Stevens' $10 shareware MacEncrypt. DES is not unbreakable, but a brute-force attack requires an investment in the seven figure range. The DES algorithm has withstood the test of time, and it's unlikely that any "holes" exist in the algorithm which would allow a cheaper or faster attack provided reasonable intelligence is used in the choice of passwords. (i.e. don't use any variant of a proper name or any word which can be found in a dictionary as a password.) If you truly are worried about an organization with seven figure resources trying to break into your files, you need an encoder that uses a more secure version of DES with a larger keyspace. Currently there is exactly one such product for the Mac, CryptoMactic from Kent Marsh, about $56 street. Its Triple-DES encryption is the most secure protection you can buy off the shelf. HOW CAN I PASSWORD PROTECT A FOLDER? (4.3) ------------------------------------------- A first line of defense would be to use ResEdit, DiskTop, or a similar tool to set the invisible, locked, and nocopy bits on the folders, applications, and documents you want to protect. If there are files in the protected folder that need to be accessed, you can put aliases to them in the Apple menu items folder or use an application and document launcher like Apollo to grant access to them. This won't stop a knowledgeable or determined hacker, and protecting the system folder in this fashion may cause problems under System 7; but it will cure 95% of your random-user-moving-things-around problems. If you want to lock out more sophisticated users, you may want to consider Empower II from Magna ($155 street). Art Schumer's MacPassword ($35 demoware) can also protect folders but only allows one password for all the folders it protects. Thus you can't grant different access levels to different people. You might also consider David Davies-Payne's $10 shareware SoftLock, a utility that can make a disk read only. However this can cause problems with some applications that can't run from a read-only disk. HOW CAN I PREVENT SOFTWARE PIRACY? (4.4) ----------------------------------------- Novice pirates may be stymied by simply setting the nocopy bit on an application or by storing an application on a server and only granting read privileges to it. However anyone who's been around Macs for more than a week knows that StuffIt, Compact Pro, or any of a dozen other utilites can copy read-only files. However for a stand-alone Mac that's used by multiple individuals this may be the best you can do. However for more reliable protection of software on networked Macs consider KeyServer from Sassafras Software. KeyServer installs special code into each protected application so that it won't run without a key obtained from a server. Thus a pirate may be able to copy an application but won't be able to use it. KeyServer asymptotically costs about $20 per protected Mac which may seem a little expensive just to prevent piracy, but KeyServer also works as a license manager. The number of available keys can be set at the server so that only as many keys for a given package as you have legal licenses will be passed out. Therefore you anly need to buy as many copies of applications as will actually be in use at any given time, not as many as you have Macs. KeyServer will more than pay for itself the next time you upgrade or purchase new software. You can get a demo version of KeyServer and various sales propaganda and pricing info by sending E-mail to sassafras@dartmouth.edu. HOW CAN I KEEP A HARD DRIVE IN A FIXED CONFIGURATION? (4.5) ------------------------------------------------------------ Steve Jobs designed the Macintosh with the implicit philosophy (which became explicit when he founded Next) of "one person, at least one CPU." A Mac is intended to be easily customizable and configurable which while fun does not readily lend itself to reliability in a lab based environment where users love to install their favorite TrueType fonts to crash your color PostScript printer, pirated applications to annoy the SPA, RAM hogging extensions that play the 1984 Quicktime movie in a continuous loop as wallpaper and two megabyte System beeps illegally sampled from Star Trek. On stand-alone Macs you probably can't do better than setting the locked bit of files and folders you want to protect and praying. If you have a Syquest or Bernoulli drive, store a copy of the hard disk the way it ought to be on a cartridge and use that to restore the disk to the desired state. If the Mac is attached to a network, however, then Purdue University's freeware RevRDist can automate the process of restoring the hard drives of any number of Macs to desired configurations at specified times. It can replace modified files with original copies, delete unwanted files, install new software, replace old software that may have been disabled, reset preference files, and in short take care of just about anything that depends on the presence, absence, location or contents of specific files (which is almost everything). RevRDist is completely configurable and even comes with source code so you can modify it in the unlikely event it doesn't do exactly what you want. RevRdist does not offer specific protection against destructive users it but does make provisions for running off a floppy so in a worst case scenario a hard drive can be rebuilt automatically after booting off a specially prepared floppy. ============ SOUND (5.0) ============ HOW CAN I COPY A TRACK FROM AN AUDIO CD ONTO MY MAC? (5.1) ----------------------------------------------------------- First you MUST have an Apple CD-300 or CD-300i. No other CD player currently available lets you save audio tracks (though this will likely change in the future). Next you need Quicktime 1.6.1 and an application that can play Quicktime movies such as Simple Player. Turn virtual memory off, put the CD in the CD player, and choose Open... from the File menu of Simple Player. Open the audio track you want and click Convert. Type a name for the new movie, choose a place to save it, and click save. HOW CAN I EXTRACT A SOUND FROM A QUICKTIME MOVIE? (5.2) -------------------------------------------------------- Movie2Snd is a freeware program available from all the usual places which will extract sounds from a QuickTime movie and save them in Mac sound file format. HOW CAN I CONVERT/PLAY A MOD/WAV/ETC. FILE? (5.3) -------------------------------------------------- Balthazar 1.0 will play Windows .wav files and convert them to System 7 sound files. Brian's Sound Tool 1.2 is a free drag and drop sound conversion utility which converts to and from Mac sound files and Windows .wav files. It also converts Soundblaster .voc files, UNIX .au files, and AMIGA AIFF files to Macintosh sound files. MacTracker 1.00 and SoundTrecker 1.0 will play Amiga MOD files. All programs mentioned here are free or shareware and available from sumex-aim in the snd/util directory. ============================================================= NO PARTICULAR PLACE TO GO (MISCELLANEOUS MISCELLANEA) (6.0) ============================================================= ARE THERE ANY GOOD BOOKS ABOUT THE MAC? (6.1) ---------------------------------------------- While there are a number of excellent books covering specific software packages, there are not many books that are generally useful to someone familiar with the net. The Mac is Not a TypeWriter by Robin Williams and The Macintosh Bible, by Arthur Naiman, Sharon Zardetto Aker and a cast of hundreds are two exceptions. Both are published by PeachPit Press and are available in finer and seedier bookstores everywhere. The Mac is Not a TypeWriter should be required reading for anyone using a Macintosh to produce printed matter. It teaches the differences between typing and typography and shows you how to avoid looking like a moron in print. The Macintosh Bible is a reference book that's surprisingly enjoyable reading. It's comprehensive enough to cover most questions that appear in this newsgroup including the not so frequent ones. It also includes lots of information you probably need but didn't know to ask. HOW CAN I TAKE A PICTURE OF THE SCREEN? (6.2) ---------------------------------------------- The Command-Shift-3 FKey that's built into all Macs will take a picture of the entire screen. This won't work while a menu is pulled down and always includes the cursor in the picture. In System 6 Command-Shift-3 only works with black and white monitors on compact Macs. The results are stored in a PICT file on the root level of your System disk. Nobu Toge's Flash-It, $15 shareware, will handle almost all your screen capture needs. It works in black and white and color under both System 6 and System 7, exports images to the clipboard or to PICT files, captures pictures when menus are down, and can capture either a user-selectable region or the entire screen. Baseline Publishing's Exposure Pro ($78 street) covers all the basics and throws in a host of editing tools besides. Sabastian Software offers Image Grabber ($35 street) whose features include timed capture, capture of the entire screen, one window, or a particular rectangle, and scaling of the captured image. If you order Image Grabber please note the spelling. It's two words, spelled correctly. Apparently a grammatical product name is so unusual that three out of three mail-order companies were unable to find Image Grabber in their database until I spelled it out for them including the space between Image and Grabber. You can also order it directly from the manufacturer at (206) 865-9343. CAN I REPLACE THE "WELCOME TO MACINTOSH" BOX WITH A PICTURE? (6.3) ------------------------------------------------------------------- First you need an application capable of saving documents in Startup Screen format such as the freeware XLateGraf or the shareware GIFConverter. Open the graphics file you want to turn into a startup screen and select Save As... from the File menu. Then select Startup Screen as the format to save into. Name the new document "StartupScreen" (no space between Startup and Screen, both S's capitalized) and put it in the System Folder. The next time the Mac starts up you should see the happy Mac, followed by the picture. HOW DO I USE A PICTURE FOR MY DESKTOP? (6.4) --------------------------------------------- If you have a Macintosh with Color QuickDraw in ROM (Mac II and later machines) get the init DeskPict, available from the usual FTP sites. A slightly improved and less buggy version called FunPictures is part of the payware Now Fun. Users of compact Macs (Plus's, SE's, and Classics) can pick up BackDrop from sumex-aim instead. All of these will replace the normal Macintosh desktop pattern with a picture of your choosing saved in startup screen format. (See the previous question.) Before saving your picture in startup screen format be sure to convert it to the default application palette, or your Mac may display color combinations distorted enough to induce flashbacks to that Grateful Dead concert in 1976. WHAT IS AUTODOUBLER? MORE DISK SPACE? SPACESAVER? NOW COMPRESS? (6.5) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fifth Generation Systems' AutoDoubler ($58 street) is a utility that automatically compresses and decompresses most files on your hard disk so that you can store more files on it than you'd otherwise have room for. Ideally you won't know it's present once you've installed it which also means you won't have much control over which files are compressed. The consensus of the net is that AutoDoubler is fast and safe. The only common, known conflicts are with GateKeeper, the Find File function in Microsoft Word 5.x, and A/UX. If you use AutoDoubler, use Disinfectant rather than GateKeeper. AutoDoubler is completely incompatible with A/UX. Don't use AutoDoubler on an A/UX formatted partition. Word's Find File will work on an autodoubled volume, but you need to set it to find all files, not just certain types. DiskDoubler, $52 street, also from Fifth Generation, is a cross between AutoDoubler and Compact Pro. Like AutoDoubler DiskDoubler can automatically decompress files when needed, but the decompression isn't nearly as transparent as AutoDoubler's. Like Compact Pro it only compresses when and what you tell it to compress and can make archives for transmission via floppy or modem. (Please don't use it for files you submit to the net though. Instead use the tighter and more standard StuffIt 3.0 format.) An AutoDoubler/DiskDoubler bundle that combines the two products is available for about $85. Alysis Software's More Disk Space ($39 street) is a competing product similar in functionality to AutoDoubler. As well as transparently compressing files More Disk Space can also make self-extracting and segmented archives for transmission via modem or floppy disk. More Disk Space has several unique features that make it more suitable for use on a network than competing products such as a freeware init that allows all Macs to use files previously compressed by More Disk Space as transparently as if More Disk Space itself were installed and the ability to create a "compression server" that can compress files for all Macs on the network on demand. Thus a network of several dozen Macs could use one $39 copy of More Disk Space. More Disk Space uses the fastest compressor/decompressor on the market, but MDS also saves substantially less space than the other products. More importantly More Disk Space relies on undocumented features of the system which will go away in future system software. I recommend against using More Disk Space. Now Compress ($62) is the latest entry into the increasingly crowded compression arena. It offers automatic and on-demand transparent compression plus archiving compression that's on a par with StuffIt's. Now Compress is fast enough that I don't notice it's installed (as are AutoDoubler and More Disk Space) which is the point where I decide it's not worth my effort to run detailed timing comparisons. Now Compress does compress tighter and thus save more space than any of the competing products. Furthermore it's the only file-level program that will transparently compress almost anything in the System Folder. This is important for those of us with five megabytes of indispensable After Dark modules. :-) I myself use and recommend Now Compress. It's as fast or faster than its competitors; (except for More Disk Space which has too many other problems to be seriously considered) and it frees up more space on a typical hard drive than any competing product. The recent 1.0.1 release has fixed all known incompatibilities. At 60% of the price of Now Compress SpaceSaver ($35) from Aladdin Systems is also a good value, especially since it can create and expand net standard .sit files thus serving both archiving and transparent compression needs. The compression is fast although it's not as tight as the competition's. SpaceSaver does give up some speed by decompressing applications onto disk rather than straight into RAM like other compressors. This may improve compatibility with future systems but slows decompression and contributes to file fragmentation, especially on very full disks. Documents normally need to be decompressed onto disk regardless of compressor, and SpaceSaver is faster than most for compressing and decompressing documents. However since any form of compression reduces redundancy in data and makes corruption of files more likely, I don't compress my document files. Since application files don't change nearly as often and since I'm therefore a lot more likely to have multiple backups of them, I feel much safer only compressing applications. But if you do compress your documents, SpaceSaver is quite competitive. SpaceSaver's only known major incompatibilities are with Norton Utilities' Directory Assistance II, MacPassword, Empower II, and SuperATM. Symantec has promised to fix the Directory Assistance Conflict in the next upgrade to the Norton Utilities, and a ResEdit fix is available on request from Aladdin. The incompatibility with SuperATM can be cured merely by renaming SpaceSaver ~SpaceSaver so it loads after SuperATM. MacPassword and Empower II are just not compatible with SpaceSaver. HOW DO THEY COMPARE TO TIMESTWO, STACKER, AND eDISK? (6.6) ----------------------------------------------------------- Golden Triangle's TimesTwo ($83 street) is a unique hard disk driver backed by a misleading advertising campaign. Unlike the file-level compressors discussed in the previous section TimesTwo is not an init that patches the file system. Rather it is a hard disk driver similar to Drive7 or HardDisk Toolkit. After a disk is formatted with TimesTwo the Finder will report the disk as twice the size it actually is; e.g. a forty megabyte disk will seem to be an eighty megabyte disk. TimesTwo then uses compression to try to fit eighty megabytes of data into the forty megabytes that's really there. If it can't compress well enough to fit the eighty megabytes of data it promises (and it generally can't), it creates a phantom file to take up the space it overestimated. All data written to the disk will be automatically compressed. This is the exact opposite of the marketdroid promises that TimesTwo works without compressing anything. In fact it compresses everything. Stacker ($95) and eDisk ($62) work similarly to Times Two, the main difference being that they are added on top of your current hard disk driver rather than in place of it. This may allow you to retain the partitions and other features of your current driver if it's one Stacker or Edisk is compatible with. However both are incompatible with a number of other driver level programs including several disk formatters and security programs, most notably the latest Apple driver for asynchronous mode on the 68040 Macs. Alysis has made a very functional version of eDisk available for anonymous ftp. The only restriction is that it compresses at most 3-2. You can find it at sumex in the Compress-Translate directory. Driver level compressors allegedly increase disk savings by compressing everything whereas file level compressors exclude certain frequently accessed files like the desktop file, most things in the System Folder, and the hard disk data structures from compression. However the existing file-level compressors use more efficient compression algorithms than existing driver level compressors so they normally save you as much or even more space. Furthermore the exclusion of frequently accessed files from compression vastly improves the speed of file-level compressed disks. Under driver level compression since every file needs to be decompressed when read or compressed when written, a driver-level compressed disk is noticeably slower than the same Mac with a non-compressed disk or even a Mac whose disk has been compressed with a file level compressor. As one Apple VAR put it, "installing TimesTwo is like dipping your drive in molasses." Stacker and eDisk have equally high coefficients of virtual viscosity. Driver level compressors are more popular in the PC world where its common to find a fast 486 CPU driving a slow IDE hard disk so that the time savings from reading fewer physical blocks outweigh the time lost doing decompression. In the Macintosh world the opposite situation, a fast SCSI disk coexisting with a slow 68000 CPU, is more common so driver level compression doesn't work as well. Using a file-level compressor on a disk already compressed by one of these products will gain little if any space and will probably cut your disk access speed in half again so you should use either driver-level or file-level compression, not both. All the transparent compression programs have had a number of bugs and incompatibilities in their initial releases; and TimesTwo Stacker, and eDisk are no exceptions. Unlike the file-level programs, however, there have been a number of reports that the first releases of all three of these utilities have caused data loss and even corruption of entire hard disks. It is as yet unknown whether these bugs are fixed in more recent versions. Given the known incompatibilities, guaranteed speed loss, and significant risk of data corruption associated with driver level compression, I recommend that you do not use any of these products at this time. WHERE DID MY ICONS GO? (6.7) ----------------------------- Your icons have passed on to a better place, but with a little magic it's normally possible to resurrect them. Several utilities including Norton Utilities for the Mac and the freeware drag-and-drop utility Save-A-BNDL should retrieve your icons. Rebuilding the desktop (Question 4.3 in the Introductory FAQ) should also restore your icons. WHERE CAN I FIND A USER GROUP? (6.8) ------------------------------------- You can contact Apple's user groups liason office at (800) 538-9696, extension 500. They'll be happy to provide you with contact information for a local Macintosh user group. WHERE CAN I FIND THE 1984 QUICKTIME MOVIE? (6.9) ------------------------------------------------- Try csc.ucs.uwplatt.edu [137.104.128.241] between 8 P.M. and 6 A.M. Central Standard Time. It's stored in /Quicktime/1984. The total file is 13.9 megabytes though it's split into five StuffIt segments of about 2.9 megabytes each. Be sure to ftp it in Binary mode, not the usual default of ASCII. This site has several other popular Quicktime movies including a recent Saturday Night Live "Newton" commercial. -- Elliotte Rusty Harold Department of Mathematics elharo@shock.njit.edu New Jersey Institute of Technology erh0362@tesla.njit.edu Newark NJ 07103 ..