Cool Mac Gear

The OS X screenshot default file format is TIFF. TIFF files look great and reproduce beautifully, but they are very large and are not supported by Web browsers, which means makes them a poor choice for attaching to emails, and a non-starter for using on Websites.

With TinkerTool or OrangePrefs, you can change the OS X screenshot format to the JPEG "lossy" compression format (or several other graphics formats), which gives you hate substantially smaller file sizes than TIFFs do. A 1 gigabyte TIFF may be reduced to a little as 100k by converting it to JPEG.

However, you don't always want JPEGs either. They aren't good candidates for printing, or for magazine and book reproduction.

One solution is Kevin Wojniak's DropJPEG, a simple little utility that converts images that are dropped on it's icon into JPEGs. It produces images that are much smaller (if there were originally another format besides GIF). DropJPEG is compatible with all image formats that Quicktime can read, as well as picture clippings.

To use DropJPEG, just drag an image onto it's icon. It will then be converted to a JPEG. If your image's name is "mypic.tiff" then it will be renamed "mypic.jpg" in the same folder.

Here's an example. I made a small screenshot of the MoonMenu moon image on my Desktop, which created a TIFF image of 92k.

I then dragged the TIFF to DropJPEG and dropped it on the program icon. A new, JPEG version of the image was created, only 20k in size -- more than four and a half times smaller, and suitable for email/Web posting.

It works.

DropJPEG is freeware.

For more information, visit:
http://www.kainjow.com/dropjpeg.html

Clicks and Drags

From dxtr

Hi Charles,

Sorry to report that I can not click on hilighted text or icons and drag them with another device in Xv2. I am using a TouchStream Stealth and a Macally optical trackball for the test. I am able to move the cursor with either but no go on functioning in concert. Has to be a simple fix, maybe the folks at Unsanity? They do take requests.

seeya
dxtr

Hi dxtr;

Thanks for the info. It's a disappointment. I think I will drop the Unsanity folks a line and see if they're receptive about addressing this.

Charles

Clicking & Dragging in Jaguar

From Guy Teague

Hi Charles:

I've seen you ask before for information on whether you can click & drag simultaneously in OSX. So I think to myself, I have two mice, I can at least try it using OSX 10.2. My mouse is the ubiquitous MS Optical Explorer.

I plugged another optical mouse into my USB hub and both mice were active. I could move the cursor and click with either one of them. So far, so good. However, I ran into trouble when I tried to drag with one mouse while clicking with the other. If you move the mouse you aren't dragging with, windows fly open and slam closed and chaos is upon the desktop. I crashed OmniWeb.

So I closed all applications & I made sure that I kept the 2nd mouse stationary while dragging with the 1st mouse. As soon as I clicked the 2nd mouse it cancelled the drag and the item was not copied to the desktop where I was dragging it.

I have a game controller, but I think it needs USB overdrive to work. Then I remembered I had one of those Powermate devices that pulses a blue neon light. I set it to output a 'click' when the button was pushed and tried the experiment again.

A little different result this time, but probably still not what you need. While dragging an empty folder from a finder window I clicked the Powermate when the folder was over the desktop and the folder 'dropped' from the first mouse and was copied to the desktop.

I guess I have to conclude that I am using the wrong devices to try to duplicate your setup. Hopefully someone who has installed 10.2 will have the proper device to perform the test. If you have an idea of how I could test for you I will be more than happy to try it.

Also, I made a bad typo on my previous email about Tex-Edit and 10.2. I typed the previous version of OSX as 10.5.1 instead of 10.1.5. Your readership, being a sharp bunch of congenial folks will undoubtedly know what I meant. <g>

Thanks,

/guy

Hi Guy;

Thanks for the experimentation. Actually, except for the window openin/closing bit, your description pretty much matches what I've encountered.

When you start to drag with the second mouse, the drag starts momentarily, and then is dropped. This happens with both native USB devices and with ADB devices conected through a Griffin iMate (and all of which work for simultaneous, two-device, clicking and dragging in OS 9).

Charles

OSX.2 w TWO MICE

From Chris Long

C:

You said:

"Something I'm looking to find out is whether 10.2 will support simultaneously dragging with one mouse while clicking with another."

I just went into my boss's office & added a 2nd mouse to his new PowerBook that he just yesterday upgraded to OSX.2 (I also have my copy of x.2 but haven't installed yet) --

re; your question above -- the answer is NO.

Just thought u'd (dis)like to hear.

Thanks Chris;

This then remains an obstacle to switching for me.

Charles

From Larry Singer

I just wanted to say that i've been apprehensive about installing the cat..VERY apprehensive after reading some of the warnings. Nevertheless, it installed BEAUTIFULLY, (clean install and straight upgrade - I've got 2 compuiters and couldn't find a "Clean Install" button the first time). After installing, I shut it down and started it up and it was like magic! AND...I've been afraid to use Word with my important documents thanks to the Night Owl warning... but I have had NO save crashes at all like I had been warned. I'm very impressed...and am finding it's kinda sorta worth the $129 (actually $69 for me as I am blessed to be a student).

Every time I use my computers, I'm waiting for the aforementioned crashes and incompatibilities...but nada!

Just my 2 cents...whatever thats worth these days.

Thanks for the report, Larry.

Charles

10.2 and Partitioning

From David Meyer

#1. Got 10.2 Friday and got it installed over the weekend. You MUST remember to 'retain user preferences' - and if you don't see a button like that you really should go back and look again. My wife didn't see it and we had a rough time - involving both Apple and Earthlink Help Desks - getting her system back on-line. Mine? It changed my log-in icon and there were other not very obvious changes - at least on the surface. I'll dig deeper soon. For now, my usual programs all seem to work at least as well as they did before the upgrade.

#2. I used to partition my drives. This (QuickSilver) is the first HD based system I've NOT partitioned. Partitions have been both benefitial and problematic for me, and I still agree they are generally a Good Idea. I would have partitioned THIS one had there been guidelines offered for doing so. Minimally, I prefer at least three: System, Temp, and Other. System stays un-fragmented, Temp gets very fragmented, and Other (Apps, Games, Docs) gets de-fragged regularly. The usual problem? How big to make each. I've had to re-partition when a new OS has demanded more than I had available.

OS X is Unix, and *nix typically expects a number of partitions for a standard set-up. OS X does NOT follow this pattern, even though BSD, which it is based on, does. Some installation docs have indicated the software needs to be installed on the same 'disk' as the OS. I'd just as soon not guess, especially if it means I'll just have to re-partition, thank you.

Hi David;

Thanks for the report, and the heads up about the user preferences.

I try to give myself plenty of expansion potential for the main OS partition on my computers. So far, no problems.

Charles

10.2 Install On Indigo iBook And 2001 iMac

From Chris Kilner

Hi Charles:

My copy of OS X 10.2 arrived early and I installed it on an Indigo iBook and a summer 2001 iMac last night. Booting, Classic booting, application loading and the Finder are noticeably faster.

Since the iBook only has a 10Gig hard drive and I haven't booted OS 9 (except for Classic) for months, I initialized the drive and installed 10.2. My first "glitch" was that the 10.2 box includes no Classic software, so I needed to resort to my iBook's Software Install disk for a copy of 9.1. Here are the details from Apple, albeit one day late for me: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106966

My only other glitch appears to be Microsoft's fault...their preference folders aren't put in the right place, so you can loose them when running in Classic mode in 10.2. Apple has already posted a solution: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106970

Overall, not a bad upgrade so far. Mail.app's spam filtering is very nice. All my applications and peripherals that worked under 10.1.5 seem to work fine (although I haven't intalled any haxies yet).

The Wintel-types here at work think I'm exaggerating when I tell them how easy it was to upgrade the OS on two computers (and that the new OS made them faster).

One note for those who plan on keeping multiple versions of X on their hard drive...Apple says that 10.2 and other versions of X put incompatible resources into the OS 9 used for Classic, so they can't share a single version of 9: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106967

I'm still testing things, so if I run into any other problems, I'll let you know.

Peace,
Chris

Hi Chris;

Thanks for the report. You're a brave guy installing an OS upgrade in two Macs at the same time. ;-)

Sounds pretty positive so far, although I think Apple is still waaaay premature in not including an OS 9 CD (how much would that cost them in a $129 upgrade?) with Jaguar. Making it less convenient to continue using OS 9 is an unsubtle way of forcing the issue with OS x adoption, but some of us NEED OS 9.

I'm looking forward to checking out Jaguar, but right now my Pismo is 20% - 30% faster in OS 9.2.2 than it is in OS X 10.1, and my work efficiency is better at a factor of about the same magnitude.

Charles

Missing Feature in Jaguar

From Pixel

As you can see on the Apple X web site, there is mention of 'Animated Folder Icons' with Jagaur, there IS NO SUCH THING, nothing in HELP, nothing on apples help sites, and applecare knows nothing about them... And the apple rep at the launch event 'never heard of them'...

MacOS 10.2 on a UMAX S-900

From Laurie Davis

Hi Charles,

I think I saw somewhere that among your collection of computers is a Umax S900. You may be interested that I've installed Jaguar on an S900 with 256 megs of RAM and a Sonnet G4 350mhz card. The install process went very sweetly and all apps appear to work [ie Finder functions, IE 5.2, Mail, iMovie [slow!], iPhoto, etc] the only thing not working so far is the Classic environment, but I think some persistence on my part will get this going. The pleasing thing is how swiftly it boots up and runs and how fluid it feels in use on a less than ideal platform. I've resisted OS X till now but I'm a convert.

Sincerely,
Laurie Davis

Hi Laurie;

Thanks for the report. Very timely, as I am considering upgrading the old UMAX in hope of running OS X on it.

Charles

The OS X Odyssey archives may be accessed here:
http://www.applelinks.com/news/odyssey/

CM

Charles W. Moore