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One of my abiding quests these days is to try and keep as much breathing space available for Jaguar swap files on my too-small, 4 MB OS X partition. I had about 1.6 MB free before I installed OS 10.2, but even with a lot of shifting and weeding, I was only successful in getting it back up to about one megabyte with Jaguar aboard, and I've since regressed to the mid-800 MB range. There are several shareware utilities that promise to help eliminate unnecessary clogging of hard drive space, so I decided to try one of the small, freeware ones out. Thomas Richard's Cache Out X promises to clear out the System cache entries on your machine and bloated swapfiles, helping you recover disk space and making the system more stable. Cache Out X removes the caches in System, Users, and Library, along with the Internet Explorer download cache and any swapfiles. Optionally it can clear IE's history cache as well. Before I installed Cache Out X, I was instructed to install the (bundled) 24U Appearance OSAX, a scripting addition that extends AppleScript by a few easy-to-use commands to post notifications, display enhanced Appearance alerts, floating message windows, floating progress indicators, and better dialogs. That was accomplished quickly and painlessly, and I then ran the Cache Out X script itself. The process took only a few seconds, after which the user is advised to log out and back in again. The results? I checked my OS X partition's Info dialog before running Cache Out, and noted that I had 780.9 MB free. Upon checking again after using Cache Out, there were 804.2 MB free, so I gained about 25 MB of free space for my trouble, nothing to get up in the night and write home about, but at least a little ground gained.
System requirements:
While on the topic of small utilities, I keep any alias of my System Preferences folder in the Dock, but it's sluggish to open, and seems like overkill when all I want to change is the start-up disk setting or some such. Prefling is a little freeware is a Mac OS X dockling that lets you access all panes of the System Preferences directly from the Dock. which opens and accesses a bit quicker than opening the Preferences window itself. It works as advertised. Another little time saver. 
System requirements:
MSN Messenger Re: OS X killer app Eudora/ Instant Msg/Missing Manual
Re: OS X speedFrom Tom Bender Hi Charles:
Just another option to consider, eh? :-)
Sincerely,
Hi Tom;
Yes, I'm familiar with the good people at SmallDog, who are relatively not too far away in Vermont. I plug their good deals on refurb. 'Books frequently in my "The 'Book Review" column on Low End Mac. :-)
Good to hear of your happy experience with purchases from them. :-)
Charles From Yoon Ha Lee Hello, Read your woes; my sympathies. Doubtless other people will write in with alternatives or hacks.
I will add that I have found Fire
Cheers,
Yoon Ha Lee
Hi Yoon;
Thanks for the Fire tip. Actually, as I said, MSN Messenger works reasonably well for me in OS 9, but Fire may be the answer for OS X.
Charles From George Woodrow III Regarding an application that works *much* better under OS X: Mathematica (in its present version 4.2) is a real, tangible improvement over os 9, and it worked very well in OS 9 as well. Other than raw speed, I'd say that Mathematica under OS X runs better than *any* other platform. The current front end is a straight carbon port, and I expect to see a Quartz enabled version 'soon'. (Theo Gray demoed this at MWSF in January.) When this is released, it will be even better. It's too bad that the software costs so much, because it is a real killer app, regardless of platform. I would also guess that InDesign 2.0 works better under OS X, but I can't make a real comparison, since I used 1.5 under OS 9, and I don't use the program often enough to make a real comparison. Just my thoughts... George Woodrow III
Hi George;
I'm sure there are a number of apps. that work better under OS X. I emphasized that my comments pertained to programs I use regularly on my particular computer.
Thanks for your thoughts.
Charles Eudora/ Instant Msg/Missing Manual From Michael L Johnson Charles Moore Eudora: Like you, I much prefer Eudora having used it for years. I am using 5.11 without problems in both OS 9.2.2 and 10.2.1 & 10.2.2, using same settings files between 9 & Jaguar to access my mail at several mail servers. (I manually backup my Eudora folder in case something goes wrong switching between & Jag. No problems yet.) I have not yet tried Eudora 5.2, as usual letting others bleed on the cutting edge. I will try it once bugs/problems are ironed out and a 5.2x version appears. 5.11 seems to be okay for me in terms of speed, reliability, etc.
Instant messengers:
Does not help you if you need access to Micro$loth message service. Jaguar USB Printer sharing: I have only the original OSX Missing Manual. Where can I download an updater? Seriously, I hope David Pogue's does provide some way for those of us who purchased the first version to gain access to updated Jag info. I don't think I would buy another volume within a year. I macsecrets did this. Michael L Johnson
Hi Michael;
The second edition of Mac OS X: The Missing Manual is an extensive revision with content expanded from 581 to 712 pages, and every page from the original with amended content. The price is also higher by $5.00.
However, it's available at Amazon.com for $20.97 here.
Charles
The OS X Odyssey archives may be accessed here: Note: Letters to Moore's Mailbag may or may not be published at the editor's discretion. Correspondents' email addresses will NOT be published unless the correspondent specifically requests publication. Letters may be edited for length and/or context. Opinions expressed in postings to Moore's MailBag are those of the respective correspondents and not necessarily shared or endorsed by the Editor and/or Applelinks management. If you would prefer that your message not appear in Moore's Mailbag, we would still like to hear from you. Just clearly mark your message "NOT FOR PUBLICATION," and it will not be published. CM
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