Cool Mac Gear

I haven't seen much discussion on the Mac Web about the enhanced Icon View options introduced in OS 10.2 Jaguar, which is a bit surprising, because they represent some of the biggest revolutions in Mac GUI presentation and flexibility ever.

The Jaguar Icon View Options dialog offers unprecedented control over icon and Finder view window appearance, that may be applied globally, or just to individual windows.

The first control is Icon Size, a convenient slider that allows you to shrink or magnify icons to suit your needs and tastes. Text size for icon labels is also easily adjustable using a pull down menu to select the desired font size from 10 to 16 points -- something that will be especially appreciated if you have a higher resolution or physically small display.

You can also now position the text label for icons at the traditional bottom or at the right hand side as well.

The old Mac OS "Snap to Grid" control is included in the Icon View Options. Before selecting this one, make sure you have "This Window Only" specified, or you will alter your icon arrangements in every window.

Perhaps the biggest Jaguar icon innovation of all is the option to "Show item info" which adds a second line of label information for each icon, such as the size of a graphic (except for JPGs for some reason), the number of items in a folder, the amount of free space left on a volume, or the length of play time for a sound file or movie. This option of also configures the window in a sort of horizontal scrolling hybrid of column view.

Another option, "Show icon preview," turns graphics icons into thumbnail renderings of the image, or virtually a miniature slide show if you crank up the icon size.

A pull down menu allows you to configure your icon arrangements by name, kind, date modified, date created, or size.

You can also custom-specify the background appearance of each or all Finder windows, with the traditional plain white, or a custom color. Click the little window next to the Color option button and a miniature color picker dialog will appear). This option is not entirely an aesthetic luxury -- it can be very helpful in identifying particular windows when they're collapsed to tiny icons in the Dock.

Finally, you can "wallpaper" the background of your windows with a picture, similar to the familiar desktop picture option. When you click the Picture button, a Select button appears, which when clicked summons a Select Picture dialog. You can use any picture stored anywhere on your hard drive, but will get best results with pictures scaled to resolutions smaller than your main screen resolution.

Tools

From Joseph R. Marceny

First, Tools. My father was a professional carpenter. 45 Years ago he gave me his 16 Oz. claw hammer. It has traveled around the world with me, had it's handle replaced 5 times, looks terrible, but always does the job. OS 9 provides the same utility to many millions. That is good and should not be denigrated. When pop-rivets came about, I decided that I would not get a pop-rivet tool. I have lived quite happily since then. I have now made the decision never to obtain the Partition Toolkit. Hopefully my remaining time will be prolonged because of this decision!

I am a big fan of your articles. Not because I agree with their content but for another reason. It's because they are fun. At first I was resentful of your OS X attitude, but then I conciously made a rule that I was at your site to have nerdy fun. I look forward to every new day on Applelinks. If one looks through the Mac sites, there is actually little original Mac commentary given at length. Much of it is like MacSurfer, simply a compilation of what someone else reported that someone else wrote.

I hope you get very little flack in the future about what you write and don't write. At least you write! Without people like you we Mac gadflies would be relegated to dredge through much drier content. Thank you for your efforts in this regard. I appreciate you.

I have happily erased every vestige of OS 9 from my computer. Contentment reigns! However, in System Preferences, I want to remove the Classic Preference Pane so I won't be reminded of this aspect of my past. Does anyone know how to do it?

Hi Joseph;

I think you get it. ;-)

Incidentally, I used to operate a custom cabinetry and light contracting business, and I have a lot of well-loved carpentery hand tools. I also have three pop-rivet guns -- I think I got my first one, which still works, when I was 14, back in 1965. They made good stuff back then.

Charles

Connecting two OS X Macs

From EBW

Charles,

I remember you previously writing about connecting two Macs together via an Ethernet cable. However, you covered connecting two 9.x computers or one 9.x and an OS X computer together. I've tried several times but have been unable to make the connection work for my laptop and desktop Macs. I don't know whether I need to use Appletalk or not with OS X. I have put the application and data files in the 'Shared' folder under users but nothing appears on the desktop for copying the folder and files on the destination Mac. Any help or suggestions will be appreciated.

My desktop is fairly new and one of the Classic programs will not install (Panorama, a great database program). I have it on the laptop and would like to copy it over to for use on the new desktop.

Your Mailbag and Applelinks in general have become one of my must visit Internet connections for reviews and keeping up to date on all things Mac. I even enjoy the philosophical, religious and (Canadian) political updates.

From sunny California
EBW

Hi EBW;

I find that you "have to hold your mouth right" when configuring mini-LAN Ethernet connections between two Macs.

It is supposed to be possible to connect two OS X Macs via Ethernet using either the TCP/IP or AppleTalk protocols. TCP/IP is reputed to offer better performance, but I've personally had the best luck with AppleTalk.

Open the Network Preference pane, and select Built-in Ethernet in the Show pull down menu. Click on the AppleTalk Tab and check the "Make AppleTalk Active" box.

Open the Sharing Preference pane, and click on the Services tab. Check the Personal File Sharing box in the Service field.

Now when you select Connect to Server from the Go Menu, the other Mac should show up in the left hand box of the dialog. Click its icon and press the Connect button. If all is well, another doialog should appear asking for the name and password the other computer will recognize. Fill in and click Connect. Again if all is well, you should get a dialog allowing you to select any or all volumes on the remote computer.

Hope this helps.

Charles
From snowy, cold, Nova Scotia

Re: OS X Odyssey 246 - Partitioning Revisited Yet Again

From Kevin Ian Larson

Hi Charles,

It has been a while since I last wrote and I just read Odyssey 246: ie:

"Unfortunately, I of course lost all the software installation and configuration work I've done over the past couple of weeks, but better now than later."

I would like to recomend (a little too late) that you use Mike's Bombich' Carbon Copy Cloner; a wonderful utility that can back up your OS X installament among other things. The best part is that said copy is even bootable. (Use your FireWire drive to store the copy.) I used one such drive in order to preserve a last known working build before applying major updates or installing new programs or drivers. If something goes wrong, I fire up the drive start Copy Cloner and I'm good to go. I have a second drive with seven partions where I use one partition for each day of the week to back up my User folder. I have found that I am litle to quick to throw away things that are perhaps important. Once a week, I exchange the User Folder on my bootable backup in order to insure that I'm up to date. Another plus is being able to boot from the FireWire drive and then being able to use disk utilities on my internal drive. Mike's site has lots of tips and information about back up stratagies.

http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html

Yours
Kevin

Yes, Carbon Copy Cloner sounds like a wonderful little tool. I must get around to checking it out.

I have a copy of the OS 9.2.2 System Folder chat came with my iBook on my FireWire drive, and it boots nicely from that.

My system for throwing stuff away, is to empty the Trash only once a week, usually on Sunday evenings, by which time the need to retrieve something too-hastily thrown away during the week has a better chance of having become evident.

Charles

Re: Partition Toolkit

From: Christopher Breen

"However, do you think they would have mentioned it even if it had been available?"

Probably so. It's certainly something that I have to explore before issuing the usual "erase your drive and partition" advice. It's the first time Mac users have a tool to dynamically change a partition and it could alter the way people go about partitioning.

Keep in mind, though, that Partition Toolkit isn't a panacea. For example, you can't use it to delete a partition -- IOW, you can't partition your drive into two volume, decide you don't want one of them, and erase the divide between the two volumes. You can use this tool only to shrink the size of a partition that has extra space on it and then use that extra space for an additional partition.

For this reason, it should be a perfectly reasonable tool (I haven't tested it extensively so I can't completely endorse it) for the OS 9 user who decides he wants to create an additional partition for OS X without erasing all his OS 9 stuff.

Chris

Thanks for the input, Chris.

Charles

PowerBook Workstation Pic

From dxtr

Hi Charles,

Why is your work station on an angle? It looks to be about a 10 degree list to port, maybe yearning for the old days of sailing?

seeya
dxtr

Just sloppy camera work, I'm afraid. As I said, it was a quick and dirty shot. I was finishing off a roll of film in a hurry.

Charles

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

CM

Charles W. Moore

Cool Mac Gear