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Garbage Man 1.0

Garbage Man is a small application the enhances Mac OS X's Trash. In the Classic Mac OS, emptying the trash would bring up a dialog box telling you how many items and how much data was stored in the Trash. Effectively it would inform the user of how much disk space would be recovered by emptying the Trash.

For some inexplicable reason Apple left this feature out of Mac OS X, and Garbage Man is a fix.

System requirements:
Mac OS X

Garbage Man is freeware

For more information, visit:

http://homepage.mac.com/the_macman/garbageman.html

Smart Trash 1.0.6

If you want a Trash utility with more features and options than Garbage Man offers, Giuseppe Giunto's Smart Trash adds a menu bar menulet that enhances several functions of the Mac OS X Trash by adding a selection of menu options including:
• selective file deletion,
• extensive logging,
• the ability to empty the trash on specific volumes

System requirements:
• Mac OS X 10.1 or higher
• G5 optimized.

Smart Trash is $15.00 shareware

For more information, visit:
http://www.hyperbolicsoftware.com/

Checking Out iListen 1.6.3

I downloaded MacSpeech's latest 1.6.3 update for iListen over the weekend, and have been checking it out for the past several days.

This version update is mainly for OS X 10.3 Panther compatibility, but includes several other improvements that provide a more consistent user experience when issuing voice commands. All iListen registered users who intend to install Panther on their computers will need to install this update before they can use iListen with the new version of Mac OS X.

iListen 1.6.3 works well, but it does like a lot of processor power, and transcribes dictated text at somewhat slower than real time on my 700 MHz iBook (ViaVoice X offers virtually real time response on this machine). I expect that a G4 would provide better performance in this regard.

iListen also has an annoying habit of unexpectedly quitting and taking down Tex Edit Plus, which is the application I dictate into most, down with it.

However MacSpeech, Inc. advises that iListen should be quit and restarted before/after every sleep/wakeup cycle, and I generally ignore this admonition, so I may be experiencing the predicted "unpredictable behavior" as a consequence.

Back in the "plus" column, iListen's ability to apply dictated text into virtually any field or application where you could normally type is a great advantage.

The only change in the Mac OS 9 version is in the names of certain commands. MacSpeech previously announced that version 1.5 would be the last version for Mac OS 9.

System requirements:
iListen 1.6.3 will run on Mac OS X 10.1.5, 10.2 or higher, including 10.3. It comes bundled with iListen 1.5.5, which will run on Mac OS 9.2.2. You can use the same voice profile under both operating systems. iListen does not run under Classic mode. These are separate Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X applications, but they share the same data.

The update is available free of charge to those using any version of iListen 1.5 and iListen 1.6. Registered users of earlier versions of iListen can upgrade for $39.95 from the company's web site. Included in the update is iListen 1.5.5 for Mac OS 9.

iListen sells for $99 without headset, $149.00 with headset/microphone.

For more information, visit:
http://www.macspeech.com

Re: Eudora 6.0.1 Email Client

From Philippe Braun

Charles,

Thank you for an always-welcome column... Truly an Odyssey :-)

I, too, would really really like to go back to Eudora from Entourage.X, as Mail.app is a little weak across the chest so to speak, but so far Eudora looks far too much like a remnant of the 1980s.

Do you think there is a slight chance that Eudora, one glorious day, will also have
A) Quartz text smoothing and
B) the option for a three-pane window layout, like it's had for ages on Windows?

Being a graphic designer, looks really count to me, obviously...

Thanks again,
Phil
http://www.meshworks.com

Hi Phil;

Thanks for the kind words. Glad you enjoy the Odyssey.

With Eudora being a cross-platform application, the Quartz smoothing might be a tall order. The three-pane interface? Not my cup of tea. I prefer the classic Eudora non-interface interface (I even keep the toolbar turned off), but to each his own. If you like the three-pane motif, have you checked out Mozilla ThunderBird?

Charles

Panther

From Mike Vicente

Charles,

I've been reading your Odyssey for quite some time. I wanted to let you know that I run Panther on a Dual-USB iBook with 256 MB of RAM. The OS is the fastest version of OS X yet. Also, I tried setting up the dual USB input situation. I can hold one mouse button down while moving with the other. Perhaps your problems have been solved with Panther.

I know you like to wait for the dust to settle before upgrading. I've updated 4 Macs with only one software glitch (Netzero, my travelling ISP, is not compatible and the company hasn't issued an update).

Cheers,
Mike

Hi Mike;

Thanks for the report. I'm looking forward to a speed boost with Panther, and thanks for remembering that the dual-mouse input issue is an important one for me. I've been getting along fairly well with my Wacom Graphire II tablet mouse workaround in tandem with a Quill Mouse and aNovember Apple hockey puck USB mouse on the floor for fot clicking, but it will be great if full, OS 9 style simultaneous multiple pointing device support is restored with Panther.

I'm looking forward to the update. Part of my procrastination this time is logistics -- I live 150 miles from the nearest Apple reseller, I'm extremely busy, funds are a bit tight right now due to medical expenses... etc.

Charles

Sticking with 10.2.6

From Tony Torres

Charles,

I just read your column from Friday on sticking with OS X 10.2.6 because it is stable for you. I upgraded to the second release of 10.2.8 and since then have had 2 or 3 kernel panics and my system seems a bit slower. Before the upgrade, my system had been up for 39 days straight for me with no reboots and no logouts and still performing decently. I haven't had any kernel panics in the last week or so and performance doesn't seem as bad as before, but I just wanted to advise you of potential problems and agree with you that you are probably better off sticking with 10.2.6. Also, my performance problems were not related to the cache issues or CPU issues others were reporting elsewhere shortly after the less-buggy 10.2.8 update was released.

Take care,
Tony Torres

Hi Tony;

I've not heard of any compelling reasons to install 10.2.8 instead of 10.2.6. I'm definitely going to go directly to Panther from the latter.

Charles

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

CM

Charles W. Moore

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