Cool Mac Gear

The Mac OS Calculator has never been one of my favorite Mac features. The rudimentary little utility in the Classic OS, which has changed little sense System 6 days, it's there, it works for basic calculations, but that's about all you can say for it.

The OS X Calculator is much improved. It starts up way too slowly, at least on my 500 MHz G3 machine, but once up and running, it's a very decent little software calculator. I especially like the virtual paper tape option. It also now has advanced math functions for folks who can use them. However, there's still room for improvement, and alternative calculators seem to be one of the more popular third - prairie shareware and freeware projects.

Koala Calc caught my eye because it seemed to have an especially rich feature set. Its scientific calculator functions are not much use to me, as I am a math and science ignoramus, but its facility for weights and measures conversion sounded very interesting.

Koala Calc is a modest download at about 1.25 MB. Installation couldn't be simpler, involving just mounting the disk image and dragging the application to a convenient location on your hard drive.

Koala Calc also starts up at least twice as fast as the OS X Calculator.

When you first start it up, Koala Calc looks and works like a nice but unexceptional Desktop calculator, but check that "Advanced Functions" button, and the real power of this application is released. A side drawer opens revealing a set of enhanced function options, such as a comprehensive set of scientific math functions. But as noted, what I find especially cool is the conversions panel.

I live in Canada, where we officially converted to the metric system more than twenty years ago, but I don't much like metric, and I still by default think in Imperial measure, and no doubt will continue to do so until they carry me out. Indeed, while many Canadians, especially younger ones, have embraced the metric system, I find that most still tend to refer to their weight in pounds, their height in feet and inches, and there car's fuel consumption in miles per gallon.

The fact that a substantial proportion of my journalistic output is published in the US also makes having a good weights and measures converter around handy.

Koala Calc's works great, with an assortment of pull-down menu choices for converting the value you enter in the calculator window from one measure to another -- kilometers/miles; acres/hectares; grams/ounces; etc.. Very slick.

The voice recognition and voice feedback features are also very useful for folks like myself who have typing pain issues.

The list of KoalaCalc features includes:
• Numerous mathematical functions including trig and log functions plus 10 individual memory banks
• Conversion to and from dozens of units (inches to millimeters, pounds to kilograms, etc.)
• Basic statistical calculations on up to 10 data sets including t-tests and analysis of variance (ANOVA)
• Built-in tape recorder (contents can be saved, recalled, or printed)
• Voice recognition input (great for people with limited use of their hands)
• Voice feedback (button pressed and/or computed value can be read aloud)
• Built-in expression calculator which supports brackets and the proper order of operations
• Probability calculator computes exact p value based on the F distribution, with or without epsilon correction (this unique feature is useful for statistical calculations) • Constants menu which can be customized
• No silly 2nd function button - all features have their own button
• Most buttons including advanced scientific functions include keyboard shortcuts - a real time saver
• Help on how to use each button is provided by simply leaving the mouse cursor over a button for a few seconds
• User can set various preferences including
• Advanced features can be hidden to reduce the size of the footprint

New in this version:
• fixed bug which sometimes caused keystrokes to be sent to the expression calculator even though advanced features were turned off
• corrected errors in electron charge and gravitational constants menu
• added shortcut key (command-T) to toggle visibility of tape window
• clicking conversion and expression calc results now transfers values to main display only if not blank
• corrected error in stats calc 'del' button help tag  
System requirements:
• Mac OS X 10.1.2 or higher
 
KoalaCalc is freeware  
   
For more information, visit:
http://www.macropodsoftware.com/koalacalc/

OS X Odyssey 208 - ISP problems

From James Rae Smith

Hello Charles

While I find it surprising that, as a technical journalist, writing on Mac matters and regularly trying out new Mac software and utilities, you never discovered that many of the OS 9 control panels have the ability to store multiple configurations, ( and by the way you can switch between various sets of these using another control panel called Location Manager ), this is also probably your greatest asset. There must be many in the creative professions like my Graphic Designer wife who are more than a little technophobic and you speak very eloquently for them, and they are a very significant portion of Apple's user base. I positively dread moving my wife's business from OS9 to OSX, and your columns prepare me for all the earache I will get. Thanks.

But putting aside the question of your other reasons for not wanting to give up OS9, I do think you are being a little short sighted over your objections to OSX "causing" your ISP problems. In actual fact if you care to get your hands dirty there are comprehensive diagnostic networking tools built in to OSX so your chances of finding out what went wrong and correcting it in OSX with supplied tools are much better than in OS 9. You can either dive into the terminal if you are feeling geeky and brave, or if you are prepared for them to work rather slower, Apple has put an Aqua coat on them in the form of the Network Utility which lives in the Utilities folder inside your Applications folder. They are still geek tools so you have to read up on them, but they might help you in the future.

Secondly the advice you got from another poster was spot on. When OSX seems to be causing trouble, as often as not the problem is a corrupt preference file. These are found in your home folder inside ~/Library/Preferences/. Do keep a second user account which you keep as clean and standard as possible and use mainly to diagnose whether this is your problem. If so it is usually not hard to determine which of the preference files to trash, and even if you have to throw the lot out you can usually be back in business within 30 minutes or so. I have had to do this just once in the last year of using OSX.

Another thought occurs to me as to why your OS 9 installation was so much more stable than my experience. Apart from not having any MS installed extensions in your system do you also only have a small number of fonts? I have always had to have a lot, and any dodgy ones can just make your OS 9 system unstable in ways that are very hard to diagnose. OSX does not seem to suffer in the same way, though I do miss ATM Deluxe.

All the best
James

Hi James;

I would be extremely cautious about describing myself as a "technical journalist." A journalist who writes on technical topics and does a lot of research perhaps. I am actually pretty much of a technological ignoramous in both the software and hardware fields.

This column, and other ones that I write, are very much intended to be, as one reader suggested a while back, a chronicle of everyman's adventure in the wonderful world of the Mac OS.

It's also not so much that I don't want to give up on OS 9, but rather that OS X has not yet proved itself to be an adequate replacement.

Pertinent to that, and with regard to your observation about the diagnostic functions built into OS X, a key issue for me is TIME. I don't have any. Consequently, the essentially trouble free nature of OS 9 in my experience, requiring only an occasional restart to unscramble the memory heap, is very appealing to me. Most days I simply don't have a spare 30 minutes to go on a diagnostic fishing expedition. Four or five minutes for an OS 9 reboot and restart of my applications every four five days doesn't really cramp my style very much by contrast.

I actually do have a second OS X user account which is relatively pristine (I doubt that it has an hour's cumulative use) that I originally created to address a ViaVoice install issue. However, time is again of the essence. When I'm in a hurry it's a lot easier just to boot back into OS 9 and have the hassles disappear. ;-)

My font set is basically whatever is installed by default, and I only use a small handful of them.

Charles

OS Stability

From Michael Snider

Hi Charles--
You've always said that OS 9 was, for you, a model of stability, but in Odyssey 209 you say "I think my record uptime in OS 9 is 15 days with out a restart (all 8-12 hour workdays with lots of apps. open), and I typically go 4-5 days without restarting."

I run OS X 24/7 on a dual-USB iBook and a G4 iMac. I constantly run and use Radio Userland, BBEdit, Tex-Edit Plus, Chimera, Apple's dev tools, Graphic Converter, iMovie, ircle, Interarchie, iChat, Yahoo Messenger (with a web cam when I'm not actively using iMovie), iTunes, iCal, iSync, LiteSwitch, Launchbar, terminal, PocketNotes, MacJournal, and Deskstatic. I never quit these apps (Radio UserLand sometimes quits on its own.).

I work at my Macs only 4-5 hours a day, since it's not my paying job, but those are solid hours. I'm connected to the Internet 24/7 via DSL, run an external Firewire hard drive and use a chron process for nightly backups while I sleep, and share my Internet connection with the iBook via Software Base Station. I share a Brother USB Laserwriter over Airport. I sync my Handspring. I watch DVDs. I burn demo CDs of my band using files I mix on my Macs. I take the iBook back and forth with me from Maryland to North Carolina, where it lives on a different Airport network. And since the Public Beta, with the exception of required restarts after system upgrades, I have had to restart exactly once, on one of the computers. That is stability.

Best,
Michael

BTW--instread of restarting, try just logging out and back in. Lots quicker. But I never did that often (every 3 weeks, maybe?) and I haven't done it at all since 10.2.0.

Hi Michael;

No argument. I did not intend to imply anything like stability equivalence between OS 9 and OS X. The latter is pretty crash-proof. I think my no-restart record in OS X is about six weeks, and I've very rarely been *obliged* to restart X.

I only maent that a restart of OS 9 every four or five days is not particularly onerous.

Re: logging out/in; I tired that with my odem problem last week, but it took a real restart to sort things out.

Charles

Connecting in OS X between two CPUs

From David Layman

I saw your article on the web about connecting two Macs together with a crossover cable under OS 9. I bought a crossover cable and want to do the same thing in OS X 10.1.5 on both computers, but I don't succeed ... I plugged the cable in both computers, enabled Appletalk on both of them and then chose connect to server from the Finder menu, but either the computers don't appear, or if they appear in Appletalk I cannot log in, although I use an administrator login an password ...

Do you know an exact procedure (like the one you put online for OS9) for linking two Macs under OS X together to exchange files ?

I use a plain Ethernet cable (not crossover) between a 500 MHz iMac (the old DV SE) and a dual USB 600 mhz iBook. So it partly depends on what machines this person has.

Secondly, the writer does NOT have to turn on Appletalk. I forget the details, but that's for old CPUs/OS 9.

Thirdly, be advised that 10.2 is MUCH more dependable than 10.1.5 in this area. Rendevous makes a HUGE difference. For some reason, on the iMac, I ALWAYS have to go to System Preferences/Sharing/Services Tab and turn ON "Personal File Sharing." I don't know why it doesn't "stick."

Otherwise your advice is accurate.

David Layman

Hi David;

Thanks for filling in some blanks.

My reference to AppleTalk pertained to my suggestion to try connecting the two machines in OS 9.

Charles

More on OS 9 Remote Access

From Eric Matthieu

One other thing worth mentioning: if you're dealing with multiple ISPs - and not just different phone numbers - you'll also need to pay a visit to the TCP/IP control panel. It too has a Configurations option (this time from the File menu) that will enable you to keep different server settings.

FWIW, the Modem control panel also has a Configurations option. I'm not sure how useful it is, other than saving a mouse-click or two (hardly the same as entering/re-entering all the other settings in Open Transport). Maybe I'm missing something, but it just seems redundant when you can easily change modem settings through the CP.

Eric

Re: dual boot

From Philip Day

I notice you made no mention of actually creating a new account and testing again.... My point is that it is not OS X that is causing your connection problem but that of your particular users configuration. Creating a new user and entering in your settings would take at least, oh 5 minutes. This would allow you to determine whether this is OS X, OS X configuration or user configuration setting.

As an example I've occasionally had problems in OS 9 with corrupted TCPIP, Network and System Preference files allowing TCPIP file access, but not allowing access to the net.

Both of us have often used Extension Manager:SET> OS 9 All to determine which extension is causing a problem. My suggestion is very similar to that technique. My OS X experience was dismal - with the Beta - to very impressive - with 10.1.5 and now 10.2

I could tear apart 7.6, but realized that it needed some time to mature. Cupertino did not build a full fledged OS X in a day, anymore than 8.0 was perfect out of the box

Your test procedure and statement is flawed as you have not established a control and have not eliminated variables.

Currently your opinion should be: I have verified that a particular Users OS X setup is problematic, NOT that OS X is problematic.

I may be wrong, but at least I am willing to test the idea..... unless you simply *want* X to be a villian

Hi Philip;

What I *want* is for OS X to be as "it just works" predictable and dependable as OS 9 has been for me, but it's a few bricks shy of that load yet.

I perceive our dissonance in approaches as being that you apparently are an inductive thinker, where I tend to be deductive in my address of problems.

Ergo, when, on the same computer, with the same dialup hookup, a problem (erratically) manifests with one OS and not the other, I'm inclined to deduce the likelihood that it's an issue with the OS (or configuration) where the issue manifests.

Since it works most of the time in my basic OS X setup, and the malfunction shows up and goes away at random, it doesn't seem to me that configuring a new user identity would prove anything other than that it was currently functioning/malfunctioning. The fact that a reader reported virtually identical problems with his OS X dialup underscores my deductive presumption that this is some issue in OS X.

Charles

Re OS X Odyssey 209 - Chimera 0.6.0 -- scrolling speed

From Bill DeVille

Charles:

You complained about the scrolling speed of Chimera in Mac OS X. I suspect that you are talking about selecting text from a Web page.

Good news about really fast selection of text: Just double-click on the first word of the selection you wish to make (to highlight the word), hold down the SHIFT key, grab the scroll bar, drag it down to the last word of the intended selection, and single-click on that last word. The selection is highlighted and can be copied. (Also works in reverse -- last word to first word of the desired text selection.)

This is MUCH faster than just scrolling down. Works with Mozilla, Chimera, and OmniWeb -- but not with Internet Explorer. Works with lots of other well-behaved Mac OS X applications, as well.

Regards,
Bill DeVille

Hi Bill;

Thanks for the selection tip. However, I was actually referring to scrolling Web pages. The Mozilla-based browsers are all sluggish at this, although Chimera is the best of the bunch. iCab is much faster.

Charles

From Rich

Hope this helps.

seeya
dxtr

___

Thanks; I expect that it will.

Charles

Indeed it has! Thanks, Charles and dxtr; I should have my OS 8.6 upgraded to OS 9.1 in time for Thanksgiving, at which I will offer up gratitude for helpful folks like you.

Cheers,
Rich

:-))

Charles

Re 11/22 Column Echoes Many Complaints

From Francis McSweeny

Dear Mr. Moore,

To respond to Allan's problem,

"… a message pops up to tell me that "the specified server cannot be located." When I look at the status bars on my Internet Connect window, the Send bar shows signals trying to push through, but the Receive bar is a dead blank."

Apple has issued a modem update which may help. The hyperlink is impossibly long to paste here, but if you go to Apple Support and search for "modem", "Mac OS X Modem Update" should show up. That's how I found it.

Francis McSweeny

Thanks Francis.

Here's a quick link.

Charles

OS X Odyssey 209 - Chimera 0.6.0

From Wilbur Pan

Hi Charles,

Regarding your OS X Odyssey 209 column -- you state that Chimera "didn't support one of the Web banking sites I use."

Actually, it may not be Chimera's fault. It may be a conscious decision on the bank's part not to make online banking available for certain browsers.

The Register has an article on this issue. Here's the link:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/23/27756.html

Here is a webpage with more information on financial institutions that do not play well with Mozilla-type browsers:

http://blue-labs.org/financial-shames.php

Wilbur Pan

Hi Wilbur;

Perhaps; but iCab works, and it's not a mainstream browser either. Netscape 7 works too.

Charles

Usin dem big wrds again

From dxtr

Hi Charles,

solipsismic??

"Hi Philip;

Notwithstanding your solipsismic examples, my contention remains that this is another OS X flakiness problem."

In context did you mean sophomoric ??

This is as close as I could find in the Dictionary;

SYLLABICATION:
sol·ip·sism
PRONUNCIATION:
so̺lʼĖp-sÄ–z'Éùm, so̳ʼlÄ–p-
NOUN:
Philosophy 1. The theory that the self is the only thing that can be known and verified. 2. The theory or view that the self is the only reality.
ETYMOLOGY:
Latin so̳lus, alone; see s(w)e- in Appendix I + Latin ipse, self + ╄ism. OTHER FORMS:
solʼip·sist ╉NOUN
sol'ip·sisʼtic ╉ADJECTIVE

So clue me in..... still Love as the X turns!!

seeya
dxtr

Hi dxtr;

I was referring to Philip's assertion that my deducing that the problem was an OS X issue because I wasn't experiencing it in OS 9 was excessively subjective. Perhaps a clumsy stretch as solipsism, but the best I could come up with on short notice. ;-)

Solipsistic would have been correct, I see."Solipsimic" was a hasty guess.

Charles

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

CM

Charles W. Moore

Cool Mac Gear