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News

a. Virtual PC news

MacCentral had a talk with the developers of Virtual PC, Connectix' eagerly anticipated PC emulator. The Connectix press release says it will ship next week. Mention MacFixIt and Bottom Line will sell you Virtual PC for $137 (rather than its normal selling price of $145).

b. Another MacFixIt award MacFixit received second place in the "Virtual Communities Network" (VCN) MacOS Six Month Award. The award is based on readers' votes.

c. MacWizards summaries Check out the updated and expanded Wizard's Archives web page that lists summaries of questions asked and answered on the MacWizards mailing list.

d. … Read more

Week-end Updates

a. Retrospect 4.0, Dantz Development's new version of its backup utility, has been released. The major attraction is increased speed, especially over a network.

b. A bug fix Mac Restart 2.0.2 is out.

c. CopyPaste 3.3.3 is out. The upgrade features a new collection of Handy Internet Tools.

d. Jeremy's Control Strip Modules 1.7.1 is out. The new version of this collection of modules, which replace and enhance Apple's standard suite, implements new sleep code in the Battery CSM and the Sleep CSM to prevent occasional crashes.

e. ICMP Logger … Read more

b. A Netscape security leak

Speaking of Netscape, CNNfn is reporting a "serious new flaw that affects all versions of Netscape Communications Corp.'s popular Navigator Internet browser software The bug makes it possible for Web-site operators to read anything stored on the hard drive of a PC logged on to the Web site." It was not entirely clear to me if "all versions" also includes Mac versions. (Thanks, Adrian Penalo and MacInTouch.)

Update: The security leak does affect Mac OS systems. As reported in Macworld Daily, Netscape is already at work on a fix - which should appear in about … Read more

Odds & Ends

a. Increasing disk cache size may fix some Netscape woes Skip Press was getting Type 3 errors in Netscape (running under Mac OS 7.6.1 with 32Mb of physical RAM installed). Increasing the memory allocation for the Netscape application is a common bit of advice for problems such as this. However, Apple tech support instead suggested increasing the size of the Memory control panel's disk cache - from 256K to 1024K (32K * Mb of physical RAM). This seemed to eliminate the crashes and general sped up Netscape's loading or pages.

Playing (MPEG) movies with Apple Video Player

The June 12 Info Alley explains how to get Apple Video Player to play movies from your hard drive and offers some hints about playing MPEG movies:

"Apple Video Player 1.6 (included with Mac OS 7.6.x) lets users set a preference to Look on CDs, Look on Hard Disks and Look on Servers. Users can find this preference under the Setup menu in Apple Video Player.

Apple currently supports the playback of MPEG streams with QuickTime and the QuickTime MPEG extension. MPEG streams can be viewed by utilizing the Apple Video Player, QuickTime Movie Player application, … Read more

Illustrator 7: problem printing EPS files?

Rob Rodgers writes: "Since upgrading from Illustrator 6 to Illustrator 7, I've found that many of my files get Postscript errors when sent to the printer. I've taken several files to my service bureau and they also report Postscript errors with EPS files saved with Illustrator 7 compatibility. When I resave the EPS files with Illustrator 6 compatibility rather than Illustrator 7, the Postscript errors disappear."

Update: Two readers reply with additional thoughts on this matter:

James Magee writes: "We too have been experiencing these same problems. It seems to happen to us when printing … Read more

Safety issue with LaserWriter 12/640 PS and LaserWriter 12/640 PS Plus printers

Jeffrey D. Flamm reports that Apple has noted a "potential, minor safety issue" with Apple LaserWriter 12/640 PS and LaserWriter 12/640 PS Plus printers: Some (not all) of these printers do not disable their power when the top cover is opened. If the user attempts to work with the exposed insides of one of these printers, there is a small risk that it could result a "low level" electrical shock. Also, the user may cause damage due to contact with moving parts of the printer.

If you own a LaserWriter 12/640 PS or … Read more

Dealing with Multi-resolutions control strip problems: a follow-up

The Read Me for the Multi-resolutions Control Strip states: "Since the monitor may not support some of the resolutions, you should be very careful when using this control strip module. After each change of resolution, a dialog will appear to ask you to confirm that everything is OK. If you do nothing within 10 seconds, it switches back to the previous resolution. You may also click on 'No' to switch back immediately."

However (as implied last time), this feature does not always appear to work. In this regard, Geza Fabry expands on the advice offered last time:

1. … Read more