Order

Apr 27 2009

RetroMac Special– a Look Back at 9

Steve Jobs may have held the funeral service, but the OS now termed a classic is far from dead.

Years of Mac OS programming has left us a legacy of great software and freeware for Mac OS 9. This week we’ll take a look at a few of my picks…

FileCM

Most of these enhancements mimic what were envied Windows features that have since been incorporated into OS X. The first of which is FileCM by Andy Finnell. This indispensable add-on comes in the form of a Contextual Menu item.

filecm1 RetroMac Special a Look Back at 9

When installed, FileCM adds the ability to copy files from one folder and paste them into another with a “right” or control click.

filecm1 RetroMac Special a Look Back at 9

Going one step beyond OS X, it also allows you to cut a file from one location to paste elsewhere and allows you to paste items as an alias. Nice.

Joke Ridge

This control panel adds the ability to open Windows “Joliet” formatted CDs without file name truncation. This may not seem like a big deal, but when you have to rename a dozen or so GRAPH~01.JPG files, you won’t be laughing.


Natural Order

Another quirky little feature of OS 9 was it’s habit of listing numbered files out of order.

naturalorder1 RetroMac Special a Look Back at 9

As cute as that was, it’s nice to see things in their “natural order”. This System Extension by Stuart Cheshire fixes the Finder’s and other applications’ dialogue boxes to list numbered files like this:

naturalorder2 RetroMac Special a Look Back at 9

Essential? No, but it is a great fix. This is the first and only of today’s utilities that will function in the “classic mode” of OS X.

Jerry’s Finder Patch

Before you get scared by the idea of a “patch”, know that Jerry has this down to a science. This self applying patch to your Finder adds useful keyboard shortcuts for things like sleep and shut down along with a slew of other enhancements. Jerry’s redefined Finder also has a larger memory heap and a “quit finder” command.

jerrysfinder RetroMac Special a Look Back at 9

Install it for yourself to find its many more features, but remember, should something go wrong and cause you to lose your data (including your 700 megs of ABBA mp3′s) it’s not our fault. I claim no responsibility for your music tastes. Having said that, I have never had a problem with this patch, or ABBA.

Until next time, keep it real with the Classic OS.

Brian

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Apr 27 2009

More Menu Extras

Menu extras have become the hack of choice for many OS X users looking to add convenience to the Aqua interface. This week I’ll show you a few new ones worth adding to your menu bar.

tvMenu 1.0b1

This is the first of two cool Menu Extras from Hunter Interactive. This menu Extra, once set up, shows you your local TV listings. You can set up favorite stations as well as program notifications. Very useful in getting you off one boob-tube and on to another.

DesKalc 1.0b1

If you are tired of the ridiculous hunt for the Calculator, you’ll find this a must-have. DesKalc, another gift from Hunter Interactive, is a simple drop-down calculator. My one complain: it doesn’t seem to work with the keypad.

MenuPrefs 1.0.1

This one is pretty easy to figure out. Go directly to your preference pane of choice by selecting it on the menu. Supports system and 3rd party panes. Preference options allow you to customize the order and even which panes are listed.

Sharing Menu 1.0

This one is useful if you are frequently changing your Sharing status. You can start up and shut down all kinds of file and printer sharing, including web and Windows sharing without taking a time-consuming trip to the Sharing preference pane. Sharing Menu is a very convenient way to manage your file sharing.

I hope you’ve managed to populate your title bar nicely. If you still have some white space left, you’ll have to keep tuning in for more great freeware add-ons.

It’s good to be free, isn’t it? Until next week,

Brian

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Apr 27 2009

What Is File System Journaling?

Brought to you by: James

Have you ever wondered, “What is File System Journaling”? Don’t worry, most of us have. File System Journaling was originally a feature only available to the server world. Finally, File System Journaling has made it to our favorite home computers.

Have you ever wondered why web servers seem to be in 100% working order after a crash/restart? File System Journaling is the answer. FSJ keeps a constant record of changes made to the volume after each startup. Should an unforeseen event occur, such as a power failure or kernel panic, FSJ will return your HFS+ volume to its last know “good” state.

FSJ keeps you up and running against most unforeseen accidents. The effect of restoring the drive to its last known “good” state is hardly noticeable (except for the fact that everything works perfectly). This effect also helps prevent drive errors by removing any partial data written at the time of the unexpected shutdown. The record that FSJ keeps also helps to progressively speed up start time, and uses very little disk space.

Are you in OSX 10.3 or higher? If you are, have you noticed that your drive does not need to be repaired after an unexpected shutdown? Have you noticed that your startup has been getting faster since you installed 10.3 or 10.4? Both of these are due to that fact that FSJ is enabled on 10.3′s and 10.4′s installation.

How do you enable FSJ in 10.3 or higher? All you have to do is restart from your 10.3 disk, open Disk Utility (under the ‘Installer’ menu), select your drive, and hit the ‘Enable Journaling” button. If you don’t have 10.3 or higher, just download and run Journalizer (note: FSJ requires 10.2.2 or later). If you have a new hard drive that you want to set up with FSJ active, just choose to format it was “HFS+ (Journaled)”.

Keep in mind, that if you’re a fan of using fsck, you’ll have to enter ‘/sbin/fsck -fy‘ instead. But trust me, you won’t find any errors. Have fun with FSJ!

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