Killer Sites
Before we get in to this week’s Freeloader, I’d like to remind you that the annual Freeloader Freeware picks episode is coming up in a few weeks. Send in your freeware picks to brian AT macmerc DOT com.
We’re going to take a break from downloads to look at a bunch of sites each with a kind of connection to free.
Those that know are aware of the slew of free blogging applications. This site lets you shop these by feature. By far, this site offers the most comprehensive examination of content management systems on the web.
The group that brought you the Wikipedia free encyclopedia are testing out a new concept in community maintained news. The experiment in wiki news is viewable and waiting for your contributions.
This new face in print-on-demand offers a no-cost way for you to bring your masterpiece to the masses. Lulu prints and ships your book, calendar or music to buyers you bring to your free Lulu hosted shop.
This site hosts an exhaustive list of Firefox and Thunderbird extensions and themes, including hundreds not listed on update.mozilla.org. In fact, the folks at Extension Mirror even have instructions of updating defunct extension to work in newer version of Firefox and Thunderbird – and host many of these ‘revived’ extensions.
That’s it. Don’t forget to send in your suggestions for 2004′s freeware picks!
Surfing without IE
By: Brian Burnham
MacMerc knows there’s a cheapskate in all of us. In celebration of our miserly ways, MacMerc is introducing a new weekly feature – Free-loader Fridays.
This week we continue our fight to purify our Macs from That Guy from Redmond*.
Sure Internet Explorer is free, but for some of us, one Microsoft application on our system is one too many. So today, let’s take a look into the world of alternate browsers.
*See also Bill, Billy, Dark Lord
Well, first there’s the old, new but can’t-get-it-quite-right Netscape. Although I’ve given the old tank many chances (every time a new version comes out), I have been disappointed by the speed and stability of the miraculous Gecko rendering engine. And the lack of support for Palm and vCards in the address book are do in this one-time great.
For the die-hard Netscape fan (there are about two of you now, right?), this might do. Fortunately for us, there are other choices.
Opera seems to be the only “alternative” browser you see regular reference to on the ‘net. Now in version 5 and Mac compatible back to 7.5 (dust off your old SE!) as well as X, Opera lives up to it’s claim as the “fastest browser on Earth.” You won’t be waiting long for the fat lady to sing – it is quick and full-featured. Plug-ins? They work.
The rub? You can use version 5 for 30 days for free, then come the banners. To ditch the banners, you have to buy it for $39.
The first alternate browser to come out for OS X, Omni quickly stole the spotlight. and how is it? Great. Plug-ins? They work. Speed? Well, it’s much faster than Netscape, but not quite the speed of IE. It’s greatest advantage is also it’s greatest weakness. It is the only browser to take full advantage of OS X’s bells and whistles. As you might have guessed, it only supports OS X, which is fine by me, but might annoy some luddite OS 9 users.
What’s annoying? I’m glad you asked. OmniWeb is free, er, share-sort-of-ware. What does that mean? Who knows. It seems the folks at Omni can’t seem to decide. They let you use OmniWeb “unlicensed”, occasionally annoying you by scrawling “unlicensed” across your window or prompting you to buy it for $29.
I was a little concerned with this one – not knowing what a “chimera” was, but when the installer created an application named Navigator, I felt right at home.
Chimera, or Navigator (or Chimerigator, as I like to call it) is an open source project, which means that rather than worrying about how much it costs, you’ll worry about how often it crashes.
To be fair, Chimerigator (or “the Gator” as I like to call it) munches down pages just fine. It’s shortcomings are in it’s promised but unimplemented features (search, preferences). But, for the adventurous spirit ready to navigate the high seas without help files (not yet implemented), this may be the browser for you. For the rest of us land-lovers, perhaps it’s better to watch this new browsers development safely from the shore.
When it’s all said and done…
There are plenty of browsers competitive with Internet Explorer that come in various flavors of free. For the OS 9ers, there’s Opera. For mainstream OS X users, there’s OmniWeb. For the all-out early-adopter, there’s Chimera. One thing’s for sure, there’s no reason to stay chained to Internet Explorer.
See you next week with another freebie!
OS X menu icons
By: Brian Burnham
It’s Friday. You know you weren’t going to get anything done today anyway, so I’ve found a few freeware goodies to keep you entertained. Who knows, they might fool your boss into thinking you’re still working…
One of the neat new features of OS X 10.1 is the return of menu-bar icons. You’ve probably figured out how to turn on the displays or volume icon. It didn’t take 3rd party developers long to begin making their own. I’ve found a few worth looking at:
For some of us, one dock is too many. For those who have made our peace with the dock, there are plenty of applications out there to maximize the dock’s utility.
This one puts a nice little icon on the menu bar. It’s pretty simple to use. You can configure two separate docks for free. For a $4 registration fee you can add more. Once configured, alternate dock configurations are a menu click away.
This was one great idea. Put in your zip code and it displays the current temperature and conditions on your menu bar.
How does it know? Who cares, it’s a lot easier than getting up and looking out the window. It does require an internet connection.
For those of us still bound to the classic mode, this is a great tool. The icon indicates the status of classic. The menu lets you start or stop classic without having to open the System Preferences. It’s a great way to curb your classic usage and free up system resources.
This little gem is pretty simple. It puts each running application’s icon on the menu bar. The plus: By clicking the icon you get the same menu you get by control-clicking the application’s dock icon. The minus: Your menu bar gets cluttered pretty quickly. Let’s hope the next version comes with filtering settings.
If that wasn’t enough fun to blow your Friday afternoon, try out these “honorable mentions”:
iChoose: a URL launcher
Spy: displays system load info
Menuversum: I dunno, but it looks fun
That’s it for this week, but I’ll be back with more freebies next Friday!
Universal Chat Clients
By: Brian Burnham
At last it’s Friday, and time for another featured download of the week.
The Joy of Chat
Back in the early days of the net when chat was born, many of us found ourselves on IRC (internet relay chat). Today the world’s chatters are broken up over several major chat networks.
The problem of interpolarity
Fortunately, there is a solution without having to simultaneously run multiple chat clients. Enter the universal chat clients:
Fire is perhaps the oldest chat client out there for OS X. It came out in the beta days. Since then it has steadily improved to a veritable bonfire of features. These include support for PGP security, limited file transfer and undocumented “smileys”.
Features and frequent updates make this my at-home chat choice. Fire, like most universal clients, supports ICQ, Yahoo, AIM and MSN
Proteus is a newer OS X client, very similar to Fire. Though initial releases lacked Fire’s stability, current releases nearly match Fire in features and stability.
Proteus has two extra features that set it apart from Fire. First, Proteus has a corresponding menu bar icon (and you know how I love those) and its configurable windows make your chatting more subtle. This is useful if you chat at work and don’t want others to notice. Proteus supports the same chat networks as Fire.
So, “what do I do,” you ask, “if I’m still running OS 9?” Well there is hope. While I have not found a true universal chat client for the “classic” OS, there is another solution. While the above clients do the translating themselves, the Jabber network is composed of servers that do the “interpolation” of the different chat networks, similar to the way IRC works. Thus all you need is a Jabber client, like Jabbernaut. The down side? The Jabber networks can be unstable, as it is constantly being updated. However it is a solution worth investigating.
Also, if you get hooked on Jabber and upgrade to X you’ll be able to use Fore or Proteus to access your Jabber account.
So, until next week I’ll expect to see you on AIM, MSN, ICQ, Yahoo…
Brian
Roll your own Palm Menu
By: Brian Burnham
Now, I know most of you have Monday off, so this week I’m gonna make you work for your fun.
For all those OS X Palm Desktop users who miss the handy Palm menu icon, here’s a quick and free way to bake your own.
Two weeks ago I made mention of Menuversum. Today, using it’s ability to create custom menubar items, we’ll construct a Palm menu in OS X.
First off we need to do a little Applescripting. Create a folder in your Palm application folder called Automation (or whatever). This is where we are going to stash our goodies. Open up your Script Editor and type up a simple script like this: “tell application “Palm Desktop” to make new address” and save it out as an application called “New Address”. Do the same for Datebook and Memo. If you are in to cosmetics, you can cut and paste the Palm icon from Palm Desktop’s about box to your new scripts. Put these new scripts into a folder called “New”.
Next we’ll cough out a couple of handy scripts for the HotSync Manager. Title one “HotSync log” with this code: “tell application “HotSync Manager” to open log” and another “Users” with this code: “tell application “HotSync Manager” to open users”. Put these into a folder called “HotSync”. We’ll link these up in Menuversum in just a minute…
Now, make another folder in the Palm application folder called “Palm Shortcuts” or whatever you think you can remember. Create alias’ of the HotSync Manager and the Palm Desktop application in here. For extra credit you can throw in another Applescript or two. Make one called “Lookup Contact” with “tell application “Palm Desktop” to locate contact” and “Conuit Settings” with “tell application “Palm Desktop” to locate contact”. I should probably mention that Palm does not yet support scripting of Palm Desktop, but it works. Just don’t expect them to know what you’re talking about if you have a problem.
Now, open Menuversum. If Menuversum doesn’t come up in your System Preferences, make sure you have installed all the components in the correct places. If you have any “true” menubar icons (the ones ending in .menu) they will show up. Click the “Menu Builder” tab and drag “File Browser” from the left column to the empty box on the right. This will be your new menu.
Click on “File Browser” and navigate your way to you “Palm Shortcuts” folder. Check the “icons” box if you’re into that kind of thing. Now grab yourself a couple submenus. Name these by double clicking on them (New and Hotsync respectively). Open them using the triangle and drop a “File Browser” under each. Configure the each file Browser to point to the correct directory where we saved our scripts.
Now, I know you’ve been dying to do it so click on the blank tab at the top of the menu you’ve constructed. Chose Icon&Title. Here you can name your menu “Palm, or with some extra effort you can paste the Palm Desktop icon into Photoshop, change it’s size to 16×16 and save it as a pdf. You can select the pdf by clicking the choose button and selecting it.
Save and name your new menu using the Menu dropdown. Now head back to the Menu Bar Configuration tab and click the + and select your menu. You can arrange their order and hit “apply” to view the changes and test your menu. Save you configuration and you’re done!
Now using this method you are free to make all kinds of menus. And, if you’d like to have some more fun, try scripting the Palm Background application. And, why not be a Saint and share your menus in the forums
Wasn’t that fun? I thought so. See you next week…
Brian
iPhoto Library Manager
By: Brian Burnham
iPhoto, uPhoto, we all photo, and thanks to a nice piece of freeware from Brian Webster we can all photo on the same computer.
iPhoto is a great little program. Like the other iApps, Apple has made it as idiot-proof as possible. This is evident in how iPhoto snaps up your pictures and hides them away deep in your system where you can’t get at them.
One down side to this is that, while you can create different albums, you are not free to move your pictures around or switch to a different collection. At present, if you wish to stash one set of pictures and bring out another you have to navigate your way through a maze of folders or login as a different user.
This is where iPhoto Library Manager comes in. This software allows you to set up different “Libraries” of pictures and albums and switch between them. Create one for work and one for your family without taking a chance of your Florida vacation sneaking into your boss’ presentation.
iPhoto also allows you to share one or more of your libraries with other users – something otherwise difficult, complicated by permissions and folder navigation. iPhoto Library Manager allows you to save your libraries anywhere on the hard drive, and also let you set it’s permissions to allow access to other users.
It’s also worth noting that, though only in its 1.0 release, iPhoto Library Manager is compatible with Apple’s new iPhoto 1.1. What’s more, iPhoto Library Manager is Applescript-able
Until next week, Brian
Quicktime Tools
To mark this weeks preview release of Quicktime 6, I’ve decided to feature a handful of useful and fun Quicktime tools. Best of all, as always, they’re free!
This week we’ll take a look at some useful applications that let you do more with your Quicktime movies.
First up is a great little program called “PresentMovie”, and it does just that. For those of you that are Quicktime Pro veterans, you know the “Present Movie” command displays a movie full-screen (and with no menu bar).
PresentMovie brings this display capability to non-Quicktime Pro users. By dragging a movie to the “PresentMovie” icon, it automatically plays it full screen. To configure settings, launch the app by itself.
If full-screen isn’t you’re style and you prefer to watch movies while you work on your computer, MovieFloat may be a better fit. This little app launches one or more Quicktime movies in floating, always-on-top windows. A visit to the applications preferences gives you a chance to change the settings. Among the playback settings is the ability to change the transparency settings for the movie, allowing you to reveal other windows below the movie. For OS 9 users, check out SteveMovieFloat for similar functionality.
If activism is your bag, check out SaveHollywood. While you won’t preserve an inch of rain forest, you can let the office know what you care about even while you’re away from your computer.
SaveHollywood is a screen saver module for OS X. By dropping it into your Screen Saver folder in your Library, you add it to the selection of built-in screen saver modules. In your System Preferences you can configure Save Hollywood to make a screen saver of one or a series of Quicktime movies which can be displayed in order or randomly.
So, now you can have your Quicktime full screen, on top of your work and even while your Mac is idle. So, after trying out Apple’s new Quicktime 6 preview, you should have plenty of fun with your movies. Yeah, I’m too good to you…
Until next week, Brian
(PS, if you find that QT 6 isn’t treating you right, don’t miss the QT 5 re-installer.
Accessorizing Entourage
Well tomorrow marks one month until the scheduled release of Microsoft’s Entourage Palm conduit. In commemoration of this I decided to feature some of my favorite Entourage add-ons.
Another great “does what it says, says what it does” freeware marvel. This is a little AppleScript drop box that takes the dropped image, and after you specify the max width or height in pixels, it attaches the image to a new message. Not rocket science, but the size-limiting feature is a good way to keep your file size down. This little app comes in two flavors, one built to work with iPhoto, and another built for Graphic Converter.
The next two items are AppleScripts to add to Entourage’s “script menu”. Drop it in the “Script Menu Items” folder in the Microsoft user data directory. After adding your scripts to the folder they show up on the menu
When executed, “SpamReporter” moves the selected “spam” message(s) to the trash, but first forwards them on to uce@ftc.gov, a bunch of government folks paid to eat up spam (and analyze it). If you have a free “SpamCop” spam-reporting account, you can configure the script to send it there for reporting.
Delete Completely for Entourage X
Making up for an annoying missing feature in Entourage, this script completely deletes messages, bypassing the trash. No more double deleting with this convenient addition.
Next month may be find this freeware absolute. Still in beta, Queue Sync came on the scene months before the promise of a Microsoft-made conduit.
What this conduit lacks in finesse and speed (it’s slow) it makes up for in features. Destine, according to the website, to become shareware, Queue Sync syncs your Palm device’s todo’s, addresses, appointments, notes and even email. A great find for anyone with Entourage X and a Palm device, this app is completely useless to everyone else.
For those of you that don’t have Entourage and instead use Apple’s free (and not too shabby) Mail.app, here’s a freebee called “MailSwitcher“. It allows you to share your Mail app with another user without loging out.
Tune in next week for another set of freeware that exploit a little-know feature of OS X. Until then, keep it real,
Brian
At Your Service– Third Party Services for Mac OS X
One of the most unique and unused new features of OS X is support for “services”.
While OS X comes with it’s own set of services, today we’ll look into several free third-party system additions.
The same architecture that brings a system wide spell checking feature opens the door for a slew of enhancement for your Cocoa applications.
First, a note on “services”. These handy little applications live in their own little Services folder. Where that folder is located determines who gets to use the service. If you want all the users on your system to have use of the service, place it in the (hard drive)/Library/Services folder. To limit a services use to one user, place it in the /users/(username)/Library/Services folder.
As mentioned, OS X comes complete with a spell check. If your experience is anything like mine, you’ve found the spell check useful, but not always as capable of supplying useful alternatives. This is a weakness cocoAspell addresses. This alternative to the built-in spell check comes with a preference panel that lets you set a slew of options.
This handy service takes highlighted text from any Cocoa application and opens a Google search results window for it. Nothing complicated here. The service will use your default browser defined in your Internet pane of System Preferences. You can access this command from the application/services menu or with it’s keyboard shortcut shift-command-G.
As simple as the previous, this service takes a highlighted URL and sends it to your browser. The keyboard shortcut got this service is command-/. A note for OmniWeb users: you don’t need this as OmniWeb comes with its own “open with OmniWeb” service.
A very useful service for anyone, well, anti-Word. This service enables a text editing Cocoa application to open Word documents. Now, before you get too excited, realize that the service only handles text, and throws out formating and images. In truth, AntiWordService only strips out the formating and Word specific file data. Good for recovering text from Word documents, but not much more.
Thanks for joining me for a fresh load for freeware. Come back next week for more.
Brian
Special Feature– ThinkFree Office
I hope this doesn’t invalidate all the work I’ve done in the name of free software. This week I’m going to feature a piece of software that is not free. However, I think you’ll find it hard for any freeloader to pass up.
I’d like to note here that I am in no way affiliated with ThinkFree, and my excitement for this software comes purely from the application itself. That out of the way, let’s get down to business.
What could be so good to distract me from my pursuit of free software? Well, picture a full office suite including word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software, all wrapped up nicely in one suite for $49. Now, imagine if it could read and write files in Microsoft Office’s format? That would be ThinkFree Office.
First off, I’d like to say what ThinkFree Office is not. Think free should not be confused with the open-source effort to subvert – er – replace Microsoft Office. This effort currently underway is called Open Office and is an extension of Sun’s free office suite. Also, ThinkFree is not AppleWorks. In my testing experience, ThinkFree at it’s worst is more compatible with Microsoft Office than Appleworks at its best. Not to pick on Apple, but Appleworks is a half-hearted office suite. Not so with ThinkFree. This is full fledged professional software.
ThinkFree Office is a composite of three main applications, Write, Calc and Show. These work as Word, Excel and PowerPoint respectively. You’ll find much of the interface familiar.
I did mention that ThinkFree handles Microsoft Office files better than AppleWorks. To be more specific, ThinkFree opens, without breaking a sweat, Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. However there are limits to what ThinkFree can handle. These are roughly comparable to the format loss experienced when trading files between different versions of Office (ex: Word 98 to Word X).
Specifically, Macros are lost in Excel, Highlighting and Data Merge formating are lost. But, even in its weakness, ThinkFree has a strength. When you open an Office document and ThinkFree Office encounters formating it can’t convert, it warns you. This way you at least know what you’re missing.
Now, ThinkFree isn’t exclusive to the Mac. Since it is written in 100% Java it is fully compatible with Mac OS 9 as well as Windows. It also has the added ability to manage your files in an online “folder” to be accessed from multiple computers. A nice touch.
And, though this software is $49 (and is worth more), you can download a free 30 day evaluation version from ThinkFree’s website.
And you thought there wouldn’t be anything free today. Shame on you.
Brian
