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Keeping up with macro viruses

After my comments last week about the proliferation of Word macro viruses, Susan Lesch wrote back with some suggested documents to learn more about this mess:

a. "The WildList," by Joe Wells. Originally just covering PC viruses, it was updated last year to help Macintosh users track macro viruses.

b. "Macro Virus List" includes over 500 macro viruses, including both those found only in labs as well as in the "wild."

c. "Who Writes This Stuff?", by Sarah Gordon. Explains a bit about virus-writing experiments and why they may not be … Read more

AppleVision 1710 goes black again! (more on the GoMac conflict)

On today's MRP, Eric chronicles his troubles with the infamous 1710 monitor going black after a recalibration with GoMac installed. This is a essentially a more serious symptom of the general GoMac/recalibration conflict mentioned here previously. Eric tried many of the standard solutions to try to get the monitor back. None worked - until he used the trick of accessing the Mac connected to the monitor via another Mac connected with Timbuktu - and then accessing the Monitors & Sound control panel to reset factory defaults (details are on his page). This solution has been tried by others … Read more

Text: Now you see it; Now you don't; Now you see it again

Here are two weird problems with the Mac OS. In the first case, text that you add, later disappears. In the second case, text that you delete, later returns.

a. Vanishing Comments text Try this: Open the Get Info window of any file on a floppy disk. Type in some text to the Comments box. Close the window. Now eject the disk (it actually may be sufficient merely to close the window that contains the file). Now go back to the Get Info window again. Your comment text may have vanished! This happens to me every time - on two … Read more

Technote on Mac OS 7.6.1

(a) ObjectSupportLib and (b) Resetting the Power Manager a. We have previously covered the confusion over all the different versions of ObjectSupportLib that exist. Apple now has an official explanation in a new Technote 1095.

b. How to reset the Power Manager on each of the different PowerBook models is another frequent source of confusion. I had covered this issue in a now-deleted MacFixIt Reports item (it is now included in the third edition of Sad Macs). Apple explains it in a new TIL file (#0014449) and April 4 Information Alley article.

Technote on Mac OS 7.6.1

Apple has released Technote 1096 on the Mac OS 7.6.1 Update (the Update is still expected next week). Mac OS 7.6.1 is exclusively a bug-fix and compatibility update. As stated in the Technote: "This update is not intended to deliver any new features, nor does it deliver updates to technologies already available through download sites on the Internet and online services."

The biggest change, as previously promised, is the elimination of almost all Type 11 errors. "Now most of these errors will instead 'unexpectedly quit' the foreground application."

The Technote also makes … Read more

Updated Disk Copy 6.1 coming

I have received information that a new version of Disk Copy 6.1 (6.1.2?) will be available shortly. This was confirmed by a similar report on MacInTouch yesterday. Apple has a web page describing the importance of this utility - as regarding using software updates downloaded from Apple's servers.

PPP Menu 2.0.1 fixes bugs; FreePPP 2.6 beta is out

The bad news: PPP Menu has generated what may well be a record number of bug reports sent here to MacFixIt - at least in such a short period of time. In addition to the bugs mentioned last time, I also have reports of PPP Menu leading to Type 11 errors, problems with ARA, problems with dialing up when not requested, a conflict with PhotoGIF, problems with Navigator, and more.

The good news: PPP Menu 2.0.1 is now available. The authors claim that it fixes "99.9% of the bugs reported."

On related news from Rockstar: … Read more

Netscape Communicator Beta 3 is out; memory requirements reduced

Steve Dagley (author of FreePPP and currently a member of the Netscape Technical Staff) informs me (regarding my comments about Netscape Communicator last time): "The current reviews of Communicator are based on the Beta2 release. The new Beta3 release will have a much smaller memory footprint. Amazing may not be a strong enough description for the reduction. For the smallest footprint you need to have RAM Doubler installed or Virtual Memory turned on (i.e. file mapping is enabled)."

Version Master: corrections to the "verdict" item

In my previous posting on this matter, I stated that visitors to the web site (who are not using the Version Master application) can edit the listings. This turns out to be only partly true. You can edit the URL but not the other data. I also stated that Symmetry does not check this information before adding it to the database. Tom Reahard assures me that this is not the case; the URL data is checked for accuracy before it is posted. I have corrected these inaccuracies in the original report. On all other issues, the report remains as originally … Read more