Subject: Miscellaneous Macintosh frequently asked questions (FAQ)
Supersedes: <macintosh/misc-faq_827711986@rtfm.mit.edu>
Date: 8 Apr 1996 18:06:33 GMT
References: <macintosh/general-faq_828986727@rtfm.mit.edu>
Summary: This document answers a number of the most frequently asked 
 questions about Macintoshes on Usenet.  To avoid wasting bandwidth
 and as a matter of politeness please familiarize yourself with this 
 document BEFORE posting.
X-Last-Updated: 1995/05/30

Archive-name: macintosh/misc-faq
Version: 2.3.4
Last-modified:  May 29, 1995
Maintainer: elharo@shock.njit.edu
URL: http://rever.nmsu.edu/~elharo/faq/miscfaq.html

Miscellaneous Frequently Asked Questions
========================================


     comp.sys.mac.faq, part 3: 
     comp.sys.mac.misc 

     Copyright 1993,1994 by Elliotte Harold
     Please see section 5.8 of the general FAQ if you wish  
     to redistribute or revise this document in any way.

     Archive-name: macintosh/misc-faq
     Version: 2.3.4
     Last-modified: May 29, 1995
     Address comments to elharo@shock.njit.edu


What's new in version 2.3.3:
----------------------------

  Mostly this is a maitenance release to improve the setext 
  formatting and change a few URL's.  Also

  2.6) How do I make my ImageWriter II print in color?

  QuickDraw GX lets most applications print in color on an
  ImageWriter II.

  2.9) How can I preview a PostScript file?

  Aladdin Enterprises has released an almost working version of 
  GhostView for the Mac.


          Table of Contents          
-------------------------------------------------------------------

I.   Viruses
      1. Help!  I have a virus!
      2. Reporting new viruses
II.  Printing and PostScript
      1. How do I make a PostScript file?
      2. How do I print a PostScript file?
      3. Why won't my PostScript file print on my mainframe's printer?
      4. Why are my PostScript files so big?
      5. How can I print PostScript on a non-PostScript printer?
      6. How do I make my ImageWriter II print in color?
      7. Why doesn't PrintMonitor work with the ImageWriter?
      8. Why did my document change when I printed it?
      9. How can I preview a PostScript file?
     10. Can I use a LaserJet or other PC printer with my Mac?
     11. How can I print grey scales on my StyleWriter I?
     12.  How can I edit a PostScript file?
III. DOS and the Mac
      1. How can I move files between a Mac and a PC?
      2. How can I translate files to a DOS format?
      3. Should I buy SoftPC or a real PC?
IV.  Security
      1.  How can I password protect a Mac?
      2.  How can I password protect a file?
      3.  How can I password protect a folder?
      4.  How can I prevent software piracy?
      5.  How can I keep a hard drive in a fixed configuration?
V.   Sound
      1. How can I copy a track from an audio CD onto my Mac?
      2. How can I extract a sound from a QuickTime movie?
      3. How can I convert/play a mod/wav/etc. file?
VI.  No particular place to go  (Miscellaneous Miscellanea)
      1. Are there any good books about the Mac?
      2. How do I take a picture of the screen?
      3. How do I use a picture for my desktop?
      4. Can I Replace the "Welcome to Macintosh" box with a picture?
      5. What is AutoDoubler? SpaceSaver? More Disk Space? Are they safe?
      6. How do they compare to TimesTwo, Stacker and eDisk?
      7. Where did my icons go?
      8. Where can I find a user group?
      9. Where can I find the 1984 Quicktime movie?
     10. Do RAM Doubler and Optimem work?
     11. I'm greedy.  Can I triple my RAM?
     12. How do I run software that needs an FPU on a Mac that doesn't 
    have one?

RETRIEVING THE ENTIRE FAQ
=========================

  This is the THIRD part of this FAQ.  The first part is also
  posted to this newsgroup under the subject heading  "Introductory
  Macintosh frequently asked questions (FAQ)" and includes a complete
  table of contents for the entire document as well as  information
  on where to post, ftp, file decompression,  trouble-shooting, and
  preventive maintenance.  The second, fourth, fifth and sixth 
  parts are posted every two weeks in comp.sys.mac.system, 
  comp.sys.mac.apps, comp.sys.mac.wanted, and comp.sys.mac.hardware.misc
  respectively and include many questions that often erroneously appear 
  in comp.sys.mac.misc.  All pieces are available for anonymous ftp from 

   ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/macintosh/

  Except for the introductory FAQ which appears in multiple
  newsgroups and is stored as general-faq, the name of each 
  file has the format of the last part of the group name followed 
  by "-faq", e.g the FAQ for comp.sys.mac.system is stored as
  system-faq.  You can also have these files mailed to you
  by sending an E-mail message to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu 
  with the line:  

   send pub/usenet/news.answers/macintosh/name 

  in the body text where "name" is the name of the file you want as 
  specified above (e.g. general-faq).  You can also send this server 
  a message with the subject "help" for more detailed instructions.  
  For access via Mosaic use 

   http://rever.nmsu.edu/~elharo/faq/faqs.html


==============
VIRUSES  (1.0)
==============

HELP!  I HAVE A VIRUS.  (1.1)
-----------------------------

  90% of all problems reportedly caused by viruses are actually 
  due to mundane bugs in software (and 90% of all statistics are made 
  up :-) ).  Check your system with the latest version of Disinfectant,
  3.6 as of this writing, by the excellent John Norstad from 
  Northwestern University.  See

   ftp://rever.nmsu.edu/pub/macfaq/Disinfectant.sit.bin

  Disinfectant is absolutely free.  It's easy to use and can completely
  protect your system from currently known Macintosh viruses.  Releases 
  to protect from new viruses are normally made within a day or two of 
  the first confirmed sighting and capture of a new virus, and make 
  their merry way around the electronic highways faster than any 
  Macintosh virus ever has.


I THINK I'VE FOUND A NEW VIRUS.  WHAT DO I DO?  (1.2)
-----------------------------------------------------

  DON'T post a report to any comp.sys.mac.* newsgroup.  99% of all
  suspected new viruses are merely mundane bugs in the system or
  applications being used; and even if you really have found a new
  virus, there's nothing we can do about it anyway.  You'll only
  generate a lot of panicked, follow-up reports from people who'll
  blame every crash of QuarkXPress on the new virus.
  
  If your system is protected against known viruses by Disinfectant or
  one of the other anti-virus packages and you suspect a new virus is
  causing you trouble, first consult with the most knowledgeable local
  guru about your problem.  Nine times out of ten, he or she will
  identify it as a boring, ordinary, known bug in the software.  If you
  are the local guru and still think you may have found a new virus,
  and have thoroughly checked out all other possibilities, then, and
  only then, send a detailed description of your problem to
  j-norstad@nwu.edu.  Check the Disinfectant manual for procedures to
  follow before reporting a new virus.
  
  Please remember that it is VERY unlikely you have actually found a
  new virus.  Around the world in all of 1992 only four new Macintosh
  viruses were discovered.  Of all the suspected Macintosh viruses
  which were reported to Usenet before being isolated by a recognized
  virus expert, exactly none were eventually confirmed.  One recent
  public virus report, the so-called M virus, turned out to be the
  result of a boring, ordinary bug in a common extension.  The report
  which received the most attention, the so-called Aliens virus,
  remains unconfirmed and was probably the result of corrupt system
  software.



==============================
PRINTING AND POSTSCRIPT  (2.0)
==============================

HOW DO I MAKE A POSTSCRIPT FILE?  (2.1)
---------------------------------------

  First make sure a LaserWriter driver is in your System Folder.  
  It doesn't really matter which one although LaserWriter driver 8.2.2 
  is the best.  This driver is available from 

   ftp://ftptoo.support.apple.com//pub/apple_sw_updates/US/Macintosh/Printing%20Software/LaserWriter%20Software/LaserWriter_8.2.2.hqx

  and works with System 6.0.5 and later. If you're using the System 6 
  driver, you'll need a Laser Prep file in your System Folder as well as 
  the LaserWriter driver and will also need to turn off background 
  printing.  Once you've verified that there is indeed a LaserWriter 
  driver in the System Folder, select LaserWriter in the Chooser.  
  A dialog box will probably pop up informing you that the LaserWriter
  requires Appletalk and asking if you want to turn Appletalk 
  on.  Whether you have AppleTalk or not click OK.  Then select 
  Page Setup...  from the File menu to format your document 
  for the LaserWriter.  Next select Print... from the File menu.

  If you're using LaserWriter driver 7.0 or later, the Print
  dialog box that appears will have a radio button for Destination
  near the bottom.  Click PostScript File.  The Print button at the
  top should change to a Save button.  Click it and you'll get a
  standard file  dialog asking you what to name and where to save 
  the PostScript file.

  If you're using LaserWriter driver 6.0.x or 5.2, the procedure
  is more complicated.  When the Print dialog box pops up, position
  the cursor over the Print button and hold the mouse button down and
  keep it down like you're going to click and drag.  Then, with your
  other hand, press and hold the K key.  If you'll eventually print
  the file on a non- Apple PostScript printer, especially one not
  designed with the Macintosh in mind, also hold down the Command
  key.  Using Command-K instead of plain K includes some Mac specific
  information non-Apple-oriented PostScript printers need to know
  about.  Now let the mouse button up. When you see a message box
  that says "Creating PostScript file," take your finger off the 
  K key.
  
  After you've gotten the message "Creating PostScript file" you
  should find a file called PostScript0 in the same folder as the
  application you were printing from.  This is the file you just
  printed. Rename it before you forget what it is.  If you print to
  disk (what this whole process is officially called) more than once,
  the second file will be called PostScript1, the third PostScript2,
  and so on.  It really is much easier to use the System 7
  LaserWriter driver.


HOW DO I PRINT A POSTSCRIPT FILE?  (2.2)
----------------------------------------

  On a Macintosh you'll need the LaserWriter Font Utility
  available on the high density TidBits disk from System 7 or the
  More TidBits disk from the 800K distribution.  A more feature-rich
  version called simply LaserWriter Utility is available from

   ftp://ftptoo.support.apple.com//pub/apple_sw_updates/US/Macintosh/Printing%20Software/LaserWriter%20Software/LaserWriter%20Utility%20%287.6.2%29.hqx>

  Both utilities allows you to send files to the LaserWriter in such
  a way that PostScript commands get interpreted as PostScript rather
  than as text to be printed.  If you're printing to a PostScript
  printer connected to something other than a Macintosh, you'll need
  to consult your local system gurus.  A simple "lpr filename.ps"
  works on my Sparc, but your mileage may vary.


WHY WON'T MY POSTSCRIPT FILE PRINT ON MY MAINFRAME'S PRINTER?  (2.3)
--------------------------------------------------------------------

  Moving PostScript files between the Macintosh and other platforms used
  to be as dark an art as existed in the Macintosh universe.  With the
  LaserWriter 8 driver, it's no longer so complicated.  You will need a
  PPD file for your printer.  Many are available in

   ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/PPDfiles/

  While their names are unfortunately restricted by Mess-DOS's 
  braindead 8.3 naming convention, the file  

   ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/PPDfiles/DOS/FILENAME.MAP

  should tell you what PPD file your printer requires. 

  Be sure to select the options for PostScript Level 1 and ASCII 
  text PostScript files in the Print dialog box.  Finally if you're 
  still having problems try using only genuine PostScript fonts, no
  TrueType or bitmapped fonts; and don't include any fonts in your
  document that already reside in the printer or on the host system. 
  Hugo Ayala's shareware control panel Trimmer will help with this
  if host available fonts are other than the standard 13 which the
  LaserWriter 8 driver has an option to omit.  See

   ftp://rever.nmsu.edu/pub/macfaq/Trimmer.sit.bin

  If you've installed QuickDraw GX you can ignore PPD files.  
  So far in my limited tests I've found that the PostScript files 
  produced by QuickDraw GX seem to be quite portable across different 
  printers.

  Unfortunately the LaserWriter 8.1 and later drivers are
  incompatible with older versions of most Aldus products, Canvas, and
  QuarkXPress.  Until you upgrade you may need to continue using an
  older version of the LaserWriter driver.  In this case you should
  experiment with your combination of application software, LaserWriter
  driver, and printer to see what works best. If you're using the
  System 6 LaserWriter driver, try using Command-K instead of K 
  to create the PostScript file in which the Laser Prep header is
  included. The System 7 LaserWriter drivers include this header
  automatically though Trimmer will leave it out.
  
  More importantly Trimmer also lets you select which fonts to 
  include in your PostScript file.  Try using only genuine PostScript 
  fonts, no TrueType or bitmapped fonts; and don't include any fonts 
  in your document that already reside in the printer or on the  
  host system.

  The freeware DMM-LaserWriter Stuff can customize your pre-8.0 
  LaserWriter drivers in several different, useful ways.  Among other
  possibilities this package can modify a LaserWriter driver so that
  the PostScript files it creates are more compatible with non-Apple
  printers and printing to disk is the default.  The upload to the
  mainframe from which the PostScript file will be printed may also
  make a difference.  Normally you need to transfer the file in pure
  Binary format, neither MacBinary nor ASCII.  See

   ftp://rever.nmsu.edu/pub/macfaq/DMM_LW_7_Stuff.sit.bin


WHY ARE MY POSTSCRIPT FILES SO BIG?  (2.4)
------------------------------------------

  Versions 7.0 and later of the LaserWriter driver automatically 
  include all the fonts you use in your document plus the LaserPrep 
  information plus the TrueType engine (if you're using any TrueType 
  fonts) in the PostScript file.  Thus a 3K document formatted in 90K 
  of fonts can easily produce a 300K PostScript file.  If these fonts
  are present on the system you'll be printing from, they don't need
  to be included in the document.  You can remove them with the
  shareware control panel Trimmer or the free UNIX utility StripFonts.
  If you're using the LaserWriter 8 driver, you can manually select 
  an option to leave out all fonts or just the standard thirteen 
  faces of Times, Courier, Helvetica, and Symbol though for more 
  control you'll still need StripFonts or Trimmer.  See

   ftp://rever.nmsu.edu/pub/macfaq/Trimmer.sit.bin
   ftp://rever.nmsu.edu/pub/macfaq/StripFonts.shar


HOW CAN I PRINT POSTSCRIPT ON A NON-POSTSCRIPT PRINTER?  (2.5)
--------------------------------------------------------------

  You need one of the payware applications Freedom of the Press
  or TScript.  For most users who only want to print to common
  printers  like DeskWriters, StyleWriters, or Personal LaserWriter
  LS's, the  Basic version of TScript will suffice.  ($55 street).  
  The more expensive versions of TScript also works with more 
  esoteric printers, particularly very-high-end color printers 
  and imagesetters.


HOW DO I MAKE MY IMAGEWRITER II PRINT IN COLOR?  (2.6)
------------------------------------------------------

  Applications such as SuperPaint 2.0 and MacWrite II that
  support the original eight-color model for QuickDraw graphics only
  need a color ribbon to print in color.  The shareware GIFConverter
  can open and print a variety of graphics file types in excellent
  dithered color. Jeff Skaitsis's $1 shareware CheapColor can also
  dither PixelPaint and PICT2 files on an ImageWriter II. See

   ftp://rever.nmsu.edu/pub/macfaq/GIFConverter.sit.bin
   ftp://rever.nmsu.edu/pub/macfaq/CheapColor.sit.bin
  
  If you have a Macintosh with a 68020 or better CPU, the
  payware MacPalette II provides general purpose color printing 
  from any application that prints on a QuickDraw printer (e.g. NOT
  Illustrator).  MacPalette II is about $45 street.  If you need 
  more information the publisher, Microspot, can be contacted 
  at (800) 622-7568.  If you're using QuickDraw GX, it can serve 
  the same purpose (though with a much larger memory footprint).
  

WHY DOESN'T PRINTMONITOR WORK WITH THE IMAGEWRITER?  (2.7)
----------------------------------------------------------

  You need to upgrade to System 7.5 and install QuickDraw GX. This 
  requires a Mac with at least five megabytes of RAM.  Eight megabytes
  is a more realistic figure.  However the background printing in
  QuickDraw GX is quite stable and does not significantly decrease 
  the speed of foreground applications.

  The above-mentioned MacPalette II provides background printing 
  on an ImageWriter under System 7 and a 68020 or better CPU.  
  SuperLaserSpool works with lesser Macs as well.  These are fully
  commercial products.  There are NO freeware, shareware, or other 
  ftpable solutions that work under System 7 so get out your credit 
  cards.   At $98 street price for SuperLaserSpool and $45 for
  MacPalette but less than $300 for a vastly superior DeskWriter or 
  StyleWriter II you may want to forgo the software and buy a 
  better printer instead.

  If you're still using System 6 and have no plans to move to 
  System 7, there is a shareware product called MultiSpool from Italy; 
  but it is not System 7 compatible and prints only under MultiFinder.
  See

   ftp://rever.nmsu.edu/pub/macfaq/MultiSpool.sit.bin



WHY DID MY DOCUMENT CHANGE WHEN I PRINTED IT ON SOMEONE ELSE'S PRINTER?  (2.8)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  There are many different reasons this can happen.  Far and away 
  the most common problem is using the wrong printer driver.  BEFORE 
  you start formatting your document, make sure you have a printer 
  driver for the printer you'll use for the final draft in your system 
  folder and have selected that printer in the Chooser.  Then choose 
  Page Setup... from the File menu to let the application know what 
  sort of output it should try to match the display to.

  The second most common problem is font confusion.  Make sure 
  you know exactly which fonts are in your document; and, if you're 
  printing to a PostScript printer, make sure PostScript versions of 
  these fonts are available to that printer.  On newer printers you 
  might also be able to use TrueType fonts; but PostScript is still 
  the standard, especially if you're eventually going to Lino for 
  camera ready output.

  The third most common source of trouble is poor formatting,
  especially in Microsoft Word.  The Mac is not a typewriter, and 
  you shouldn't use it as one.  Don't use tabs as a substitute for
  indentation; don't force a page break with carriage returns; and 
  NEVER use spaces to position anything.  If you're writing a resume 
  (by far the most common source of formatting problems for Word 
  users), give serious thought to using the well-formatted resume 
  template that comes with Word to help you avoid problems with 
  your final printout.


IS THERE A UTILITY TO PREVIEW POSTSCRIPT FILES ON THE MAC?  (2.9)
-----------------------------------------------------------------

  Net godhood awaits the first person to write a working shareware 
  or freeware PostScript previewer for the Mac.  The payware product
  TScript allows viewing PostScript files on the Mac, but this is a 
  large package with other purposes and even the light version costs
  over $50.  Aladdin Enterprises' GhostView can preview some PostScript
  files, but tends to crash. Be sure to save your work before launching
  it.  See

   http://www.webcom.com/~glyphic/projects/macgs.html
   ftp://ftp.cs.wisc.edu/pub/ghost/aladdin/mac/ 

  Adobe's Acrobat Distiller (part of Adobe Illustrator and
  Acrobat Pro) can convert most PostScript files into PDF files
  you can view with Acrobat Reader or Illustrator.  See

   ftp://ftp.adobe.com//pub/adobe/Acrobat/Macintosh/2.0.1/AcroRead.mac.hqx


CAN I ATTACH A LASERJET OR OTHER PC PRINTER TO MY MAC?  (2.10)
--------------------------------------------------------------

  If your printer isn't a PostScript printer with an AppleTalk
  interface, you need either PowerPrint from GDT Softworks or the 
  Grappler from Orange Micro.  Both include the necessary printer 
  drivers and serial to parallel cable to connect a Macintosh with 
  any common PC printer including HP LaserJets and DeskJets and 
  Canon BubbleJets.  If your printer is uncommon you can always 
  ask the vendors before ordering.  Both packages have street 
  prices around $95.


HOW CAN I PRINT GREY SCALES ON MY STYLEWRITER I?  (2.11)
--------------------------------------------------------
 
  The StyleWriter II driver 1.2 works with the StyleWriter I 
  and will print greys.  You can get it from 

   ftp://ftp.support.apple.com/pub/Apple%20SW%20Updates/Macintosh/Printing Software/StyleWriter II (1.2).hqx

  Updated versions of Print Monitor and Printer Share are also 
  available.  See

   ftp://ftp.support.apple.com/pub/Apple%20SW%20Updates/Macintosh/Printing%20Software/PrintMonitor%20(7.1).hqx
   ftp://ftp.support.apple.com/pub/Apple%20SW%20Updates/Macintosh/Printing%20Software/Printer%20Share%20(1.1.1).hqx

  When printing on a StyleWriter I with this driver, be sure 
  not to select the Clean Print Head option in the Print Options 
  dialog box.  This damages the print head of the StyleWriter I. 
  The StyleWriter I+ patch will remove StyleWriter II specific code 
  from the driver including the option to clean the print head.  See

   ftp://rever.nmsu.edu/pub/macfaq/StyleWriter_I+_patch.sit.bin


HOW CAN I EDIT A POSTSCRIPT FILE?  (2.12)
-----------------------------------------

  In the most basic sense PostScript files are just ASCII text, so
  if you're familiar with the PostScript programming language you can
  edit PostScript in any good text editor.  However if you want to edit 
  the PostScript files graphically, you need Adobe Illustrator 5.5.
  Use the bundled Acrobat Distiller to turn the PostScript file into
  a PDF file which Illustrator can import and edit.  If the file
  includes embedded EPS bitmap images you may also need Photoshop or
  another paint program to edit those.



======================
DOS AND THE MAC  (3.0)
======================

HOW CAN I MOVE FILES BETWEEN A MAC AND A PC?  (3.1)
---------------------------------------------------

  The simplest way to move files between a PC and a Mac is with 
  a null-modem cable and a reliable communications program.  You can 
  get a null-modem cable from any good electronics store.  Make sure 
  the cable you buy has the appropriate connectors for the Mac and PC 
  you'll be connecting.  Hook one end of the cable to the printer or 
  modem port on your Mac and the other to a serial port on the PC.  
  This should work just like a very high speed (57,600 bps) modem 
  connection except that you'll probably need to turn on local echo 
  in your communications program.

  If the computers aren't within cabling distance, you can either
  upload the files to an intermediary mainframe or put them on a
  floppy disk.  The Superdrive sold since the introduction of the
  IIx is capable of formatting and writing to 3.5 inch PC floppies. 
  System software versions 6.0 though 7.1 include Apple File Exchange, 
  a minimal program capable of doing this as part of the system 
  software.  Apple File Exchange is difficult to use and violates 
  at least half of Apple's user interface guidelines.  (Can anyone 
  explain why no other software company violates as many of Apple's 
  user interface guidelines as Apple itself does?)  For details on  
  its use please Read the Friendly Manual.
  
  If you frequently need to use DOS floppies and you have a
  Superdrive, you may want to invest in a more transparent solution.
  The three currently available are AccessPC from Insignia Solutions,
  DOS Mounter from Dayna, and Macintosh PC Exchange from Apple, all
  of which automatically mount and format 3.5 inch DOS floppies in a
  Superdrive without requiring you to run a separate program before
  you insert the disk.  Macintosh PC Exchange requires System 7 and
  is bundled with System 7.5 and System 7 Pro.  If you use DOS Mounter 
  be sure to increase your Disk cache (RAM cache in System 6) to at 
  least 256K.  This will substantially improve its performance.


HOW CAN I TRANSLATE FILES TO A DIFFERENT PLATFORM?  (3.2)
---------------------------------------------------------

  With the increasing popularity of cross-platform development, 
  many Macintosh programs like Adobe Illustrator 5.x, Adobe PhotoShop,
  and Microsoft Word 5.1 are able to save directly to a format readable 
  by DOS or Windows programs.  You'll still need to mount the DOS 
  floppies in the Mac drive using one of the products discussed above 
  or do a default translation from within Apple File Exchange.

  Although translators for Apple File Exchange could theoretically
  be designed to translate files made by applications without these
  capabilities, AFE has never really caught on.  The best solution is
  a payware product by DataViz called MacLink Plus.  MacLink Plus,
  about $70 street price, can translate over 1000 DOS, Windows,
  Macintosh, and NeXT formats back and forth.  For $25 more the Pro
  version comes bundled with a copy of Macintosh PC Exchange.  Some
  translators are also bundled with some of the CD versions of 
  System 7.5.


SHOULD I BUY SOFTPC OR A REAL PC?  (3.3)
----------------------------------------

  The various versions of SoftPC will run most DOS software on a
  Macintosh as advertised; but even on the fastest Quadras, SoftPC
  will be at most as fast as an original AT.  This may be adequate
  for text based software, but graphics-oriented programs like most
  games will slow to a crawl.  On any Mac slower than an LC III,
  performance will be at best twice the speed of an original XT. 
  More likely  it will only equal the speed of an original XT.  For
  today's software like WordPerfect 6.0 that's S...L...O...W.  On 
  the other hand SoftWindows on a PowerMac 6100 can achieve speeds
  equivalent to a 20 MHz 386.  For Windows that's comparable speed
  to an LC and somewhat faster for DOS.  This is tolerable if not fast
  by today's standards.  (For much better performance buy the optional
  $299 cache card.)  A PowerMac 7100 or 8100 may even reach speeds 
  approaching a 25 MHz 486 which makes for an acceptable if not 
  spectacular Windows machine.

  Of course slow is relative.  I've seen an Amiga running a Mac
  emulator running SoftPC running a CP/M emulator.  That's slow.  As 
  part of testing the 486 chip design, Intel ran DOS on a simulation 
  of the 486 chip running on an IBM 3090 mainframe.  It took them 
  TWO WEEKS to get to the C> prompt!  That's slow.  SoftPC on a 
  Classic is actually about as fast as the original IBM PC from 
  ten years ago.

  SoftPC comes in three versions for 68040 Macs (SoftPC 3.0,
  SoftPC Professional 3.1 and SoftPC 3.1 with Windows) and one
  version for PowerMacs (SoftWindows).  All versions of SoftPC emulate
  an 80286 with an 80287 math coprocessor, support extended memory,
  and let you copy and paste between DOS and Mac programs. SoftPC 3.0
  ($99 street) supports 16 color EGA graphics.  SoftPC Professional
  3.1 ($185 street) requires a 68030 Mac, adds support for 256 color
  VGA graphics and expanded memory, and includes Netware client
  software.  SoftPC with Windows 3.1 (68040 version: $300 street,
  native PowerPC version $200 street) requires a 68040 or PowerPC Mac
  with at least 10 megs of free RAM and fourteen megs of free hard
  disk space (plus any disk space you want to allocate to DOS and
  Windows files).  It includes all of the above plus Windows 3.1 and
  is optimized to make Windows performance tolerable (if not exactly
  speedy) on a fast Mac.  If you already have the necessary hardware
  and disk space, it actually may be cheaper at current street prices
  to buy SoftPC than an equivalent PC clone.  For someone with a
  PowerMac and a lot of memory and hard disk space plus only an
  occasional need to run DOS or Windows, SoftPC is a 
  reasonable choice.


SHOULD I BUY EXECUTOR OR A REAL MAC?  (3.4)
-------------------------------------------

  ARDI's $99 Executor/DOS 1.2 allows some Macintosh applications 
  to run on a PC.  It also lets a PC read and write Mac formatted high 
  density floppies and hard disks, and at only $99 Executor's doesn't 
  cost much more than a dedicated utility to do this alone.  That this 
  works at all is nothing short of amazing and a tribute to the talents 
  of ARDI's programmers, especially since they've received no help from 
  Apple.  However the limitations on what it will run are decidedly 
  non-trivial.  For instance it won't run the Finder, System 7, 
  HyperCard or many other applications and does not support color, 
  extensions, serial ports or printing.  Version 2.0 which is due 
  out sometime last summer will remove some of these limitations 
  and add support for color and printing.  Upgrades will be $59 
  for Executor 1.2 owners.
.
  Executor requires a 386 or better processor, a VGA monitor, 
  five megabytes of disk space, four megabytes of RAM and a mouse. 
  Given the limitations of the current version you're probably better 
  off buying a cheap Mac than Executor.  If you'd like to see for 
  yourself you can ftp a demo copy from 

   ftp://oak.oakland.edu/pub/msdos/emulator/

  A NextStep version for both Intel and Motorola machines which
  does support printing and the serial ports is also available, but
  it's more expensive: $499 commercial, $249 educational.  You can 
  retrieve this from

   ftp://ftp.cs.unm.edu/pub/ardi/Executor_NEXTSTEP


SHOULD I BUY A DOS COMPATIBILITY CARD OR A REAL PC?  (3.5)
----------------------------------------------------------

  WARNING: This question and its answer are known to be seriously
  out of date.  It will be fixed in the next revision.

  The Apple DOS Compatibility Card puts a genuine 486SX/25 PC with
  DOS 6 inside your Mac.  This is a real PC, not an emulator, and can 
  run any software you can run on a stock 486SX PC.  Windows is not 
  included but can be added by the user.  DOS shares your Mac's RAM and 
  hard drive with the Mac system and applications.  However the card 
  does contain a slot for an optional 72-pin SIMM.  If this SIMM is 
  present then the DOS card will use it instead of borrowing memory 
  from your Mac.  COM and parallel ports are mapped to the Macs modem 
  and printer ports.  Networking is questionable, and there's no 
  SoundBlaster support or means of adding ISA cards.
  
  This NuBus card is supported only on the Quadra 610 though it 
  is reputed to work in the Centris 610 and the Quadra 800 as well.  If
  your desk space and funds are limited and you've got the extra hard
  drive space to spare for DOS applications and files, this is a solid
  value at about $400 street, half the price of the cheapest stand-alone
  486SX PC's.
.

==============
SECURITY (4.0)
==============

HOW CAN I PASSWORD PROTECT A MAC?  (4.1)
----------------------------------------

  A number of payware, shareware and freeware products exist 
  for the purpose of preventing a Mac from being accessed without 
  a password.  Some of the more easily defeated products, mostly
  shareware, use a system extension or startup application to display
  a splash screen that doesn't go away until the proper password is
  entered.  Most of these can be bypassed by any of several methods
  including booting off a floppy or a different SCSI device,
  disabling extensions with the Shift key at Startup, or even
  dropping into the built-in debugger.
  
  Products that are more difficult to defeat (mostly payware)
  don't allow a hard disk to be mounted until the proper password 
  is entered.  Most of these can be defeated by loading a different
  driver with a hard disk formatter like FWB's Hard Disk Toolkit
  after booting from a floppy.  No program of this type provides
  hacker-proof security.  Nonetheless the better programs do provide
  a minimum level of protection from casual snoopers or intruders.
  
  Art Schumer's MacPassword is the cheapest ($35) program
  worthy of consideration in this category.  A demo version which
  expires after sixty days and isn't as secure is available from

   ftp://rever.nmsu.edu/pub/macfaq/MacPasswordDemo.sit.bin
 
  Some hard disk formatters also offer optional password protection.  
  Notable in this category is FWB's Hard Disk Toolkit Personal Edition, 
  about $50 mail-order.
  
  A number of payware utilities are capable of this and much
  more.  My choice of commercial products in this category is Citadel
  from Datawatch ($60 street).  Citadel is a complete Macintosh
  security program that provides password protection for hard disks,
  file and folder protection via DES encryption, screen locking, and 
  the best protection I've ever seen against accidentally locking
  yourself out of your hard drive while still keeping intruders out. 
  It's not totally intruder-proof, (No such product is.) but it does
  provide more reliable protection and more value for the money than
  any similar product I'm aware of.


HOW CAN I PASSWORD PROTECT A FILE?  (4.2)
-----------------------------------------

  The best (and in many ways only) means of protecting a
  sensitive file from prying eyes is encryption.  Many encryption
  utilities are available on the net and as part of various payware
  products.  Most will keep out the casual snooper, but fail miserably
  when faced with a knowledgable and determined hacker.  All but one
  fail in the face of an attack by an organization with the resources
  of a large corporation or government.

  For basic protection I recommend using DES encryption.  Several
  payware and freeware products do this including the above mentioned
  Citadel and J. Clarke Stevens' $10 shareware MacEncrypt.  

   ftp://rever.nmsu.edu/pub/macfaq/MacEncrypt.sit.bin

  DES is not unbreakable, but a the only known attack requires  
  an investment in the seven figure range.  The DES algorithm has 
  withstood the test of time, and it's unlikely that any "holes" 
  exist in the algorithm which would allow a cheaper or faster 
  attack provided reasonable intelligence is used in the choice of 
  passwords.  (i.e. don't use any variant of a proper name or any 
  word which can be found in a dictionary as a password.)
  
  If you truly are worried about an organization with seven
  figure resources trying to break into your files, you need an
  encoder that uses a more secure version of DES with a larger
  keyspace.  Currently there is exactly one such product for the Mac,
  CryptoMactic from Kent Marsh, about $56 street.  Its Triple-DES
  encryption is the most secure protection you can buy off the shelf.


HOW CAN I PASSWORD PROTECT A FOLDER?  (4.3)
-------------------------------------------

  A first line of defense would be to use ResEdit, FileTyper, or 
  a similar tool to set the invisible and locked bits on the folders
  applications, and documents you want to protect.  If there are
  files in the protected folder that need to be accessible, you 
  can put aliases to them in the Apple menu items folder or use an
  application and document launcher like Apollo to grant access to
  them.  This won't stop a knowledgeable or determined hacker, and
  protecting the system folder in this fashion may cause problems
  under System 7; but it will cure 95% of your
  random-user-moving-things-around problems.

  If you want to lock out more sophisticated users, you may want
  to consider Empower II from Magna ($155 street).  Art Schumer's
  MacPassword ($35 demoware) can also protect folders but only allows
  one password for all the folders it protects.  Thus you can't 
  grant different access levels to different people.  You might also
  consider David Davies-Payne's $10 shareware SoftLock, a utility
  that can make a disk read only.  However this can cause problems
  with some applications that can't run from a read-only disk.  See

   ftp://rever.nmsu.edu/pub/macfaq/MacPasswordDemo.sit.bin
   ftp://rever.nmsu.edu/pub/macfaq/SoftLock.sit.bin


HOW CAN I PREVENT SOFTWARE PIRACY?  (4.4)
-----------------------------------------

  Novice pirates may be stymied by simply storing an application 
  on a server and only granting read privileges to it.  However anyone 
  who's been around Macs for more than a week knows that StuffIt, 
  Compact Pro, or any of a dozen other utilities can copy 
  read-only files.
 
  For more reliable protection of software on networked Macs
  consider KeyServer from Sassafras Software.  KeyServer installs
  special code into each protected application so that it won't
  run without a key obtained from a server.  Thus a pirate may
  be able to copy an application but won't be able to use it.
  KeyServer asymptotically costs about $20 per protected Mac which
  may seem a little expensive just to prevent piracy, but KeyServer
  also works as a license manager.  The number of available keys can
  be set at the server so that only as many keys for a given package
  as you have legal licenses will be passed out. Therefore you anly
  need to buy as many copies of applications as will actually be in
  use at any given time, not as many as you have Macs. KeyServer will
  more than pay for itself the next time you upgrade or purchase new
  software.  You can get a demo version of KeyServer and various
  sales propaganda and pricing info by sending email to
  sassafras@dartmouth.edu.


HOW CAN I KEEP A HARD DRIVE IN A FIXED CONFIGURATION?  (4.5)
------------------------------------------------------------

  Steve Jobs designed the Macintosh with the implicit philosophy
  (which became explicit when he founded Next) of "one person, at
  least one CPU."  A Mac is intended to be easily customizable and
  configurable.  While fun this capability does not readily lend itself 
  to reliability in a lab based environment where users love to 
  install their favorite TrueType fonts to crash your color PostScript
  printer, pirated applications to annoy the SPA, RAM hogging
  extensions that play the 1984 Quicktime movie in a continuous loop
  as wallpaper and two megabyte System beeps illegally sampled from
  Star Trek.  On stand-alone Macs you probably can't do better than
  setting the locked bit of files and folders you want to protect and
  praying.  If you have a Syquest or Bernoulli drive, store a copy of
  the hard disk the way it ought to be on a cartridge and use that to
  restore the disk to the desired state.
 
  If the Mac is attached to a network, however, then Purdue
  University's freeware RevRDist can automate the process of
  restoring the hard drives of any number of Macs to desired
  configurations at specified times.  It can replace modified files
  with original copies, delete unwanted files, install new software,
  replace old software that may have been disabled, reset preference
  files, and in short take care of just about anything that depends
  on the presence, absence, location or contents of specific files
  (which is almost everything).  RevRDist is completely configurable
  and even comes with source code so you can modify it in the
  unlikely event it doesn't do exactly what you want.  RevRdist 
  does not offer specific protection against destructive users, but 
  it does make provisions for running off a floppy so in a worst 
  case scenario a hard drive can be rebuilt automatically after 
  booting off a specially prepared floppy.  See

   ftp://rever.nmsu.edu/pub/macfaq/RevRdist.sit.bin


============
SOUND  (5.0)
============

HOW CAN I COPY A TRACK FROM AN AUDIO CD ONTO MY MAC?  (5.1)
-----------------------------------------------------------

  First you must have a CD-ROM drive that supports this feature.
  Currently this means an Apple CD-300, CD-300i or CD-300+ or a 
  drive built around one of the following mechanims: the Chinon 535,
  Hitachi 6750, NEC 3x, Sony 561, and Toshiba 3301, 3401 and 4101. If
  you have a non-Apple drive you'll also need FWB's CD-ROM Toolkit
  software, about $55 mail-order, since the driver software bundled
  with non-Apple drives don't yet support this feature.  Next you need
  Quicktime 1.6.1 or later and an application that can play Quicktime
  movies such as Simple Player.  See

   ftp://ftp.support.apple.com/pub/Apple%20SW%20Updates/Macintosh/Supplemental%20System%20Software/QuickTime%20(1.6.1).hqx
   ftp://ftp.luth.se/pub/infosystems/www/ncsa/Mac/Apple/SimplePlayer.sit.hqx

  Turn virtual memory off, put the CD in the CD player, and choose 
  Open... from the File menu of Simple Player.  Open the audio track you 
  want and click Convert.  Type a name for the new movie, choose a place 
  to save it, and click save.


HOW CAN I EXTRACT A SOUND FROM A QUICKTIME MOVIE?  (5.2)
--------------------------------------------------------

  Movie2Snd is a freeware program available from all the usual
  places which will extract sounds from a QuickTime movie and save
  them in Mac sound file format.  See

   ftp://rever.nmsu.edu/pub/macfaq/Movie2Snd.sit.bin


HOW CAN I CONVERT/PLAY A MOD/WAV/MIDI ETC. FILE?  (5.3)
-------------------------------------------------------

  Balthazar will play Windows .wav files and convert them to
  System 7 sound files.  Brian's Sound Tool is a free drag and drop 
  sound conversion utility which converts to and from Mac sound files
  and Windows .wav files.  It also converts Soundblaster .voc files,
  UNIX .au files, and AMIGA AIFF files to Macintosh sound files.
  MacTracker and SoundTrecker will play and convert Amiga 
  MOD files.  See

   ftp://rever.nmsu.edu/pub/macfaq/Balthazar.sit.bin
   ftp://rever.nmsu.edu/pub/macfaq/BriansSoundTool.sit.bin
   ftp://rever.nmsu.edu/pub/macfaq/MacTracker.sit.bin
   ftp://rever.nmsu.edu/pub/macfaq/SoundTrecker.sit.bin

  To play MIDI files you need QuickTime 2.0, bundled with 
  System 7.5 and probably available on a local bulletin board.  You 
  also need an application that can play Quicktime movies such as 
  MoviePlayer.

  If the MIDI files come from another platform (such as a post
  in alt.binaries.midi) you first need to change  their filetype to 
  "Midi".  Any standard tool such as ResEdit or FileTyper can do 
  this.  Alternately you can use Peter Castine's free drag and drop 
  application MidiTyper.  See

   ftp://rever.nmsu.edu/pub/macfaq/MidiTyper.sit.bin
   ftp://ftp.apple.com/dts/mac/tools/resedit/
   ftp://rever.nmsu.edu/pub/macfaq/FileTyper.sit.bin

  From within your Quicktime savvy application select Open...  
  from the File menu.  Click once on the file you want to convert.
  If your file doesn't show up in the dialog box at this point
  then you didn't correctly set its filetype.  Remember that the
  filetype needs to be "Midi" with a capital "M" and a small "idi."  
  The "Open" button in the standard file dialog box should change 
  to "Convert."  Click the Convert button.  The file will be 
  converted to a Quicktime movie your Mac can play.  



=============================================================
NO PARTICULAR PLACE TO GO  (MISCELLANEOUS MISCELLANEA)  (6.0)
=============================================================

ARE THERE ANY GOOD BOOKS ABOUT THE MAC?  (6.1)
----------------------------------------------

  While there are a number of excellent books covering specific
  software packages, there are not many books that are generally
  useful to someone familiar with the net.  The Mac is Not a
  TypeWriter by Robin Williams and The Macintosh Bible, by Arthur
  Naiman, Sharon Zardetto Aker and a cast of hundreds are two
  exceptions.  Both are published by PeachPit Press and are 
  available in finer and seedier bookstores everywhere.
  
  The Mac is Not a TypeWriter should be required reading for
  anyone using a Macintosh to produce printed matter.  It teaches 
  the differences between typing and typography and shows you how 
  to avoid looking like a moron in print.
  
  The Macintosh Bible is a reference book that's surprisingly
  enjoyable reading.  It's comprehensive enough to cover most
  questions that appear in this newsgroup including the not so
  frequent ones.  It also includes lots of information you 
  probably need but didn't know to ask.


HOW CAN I TAKE A PICTURE OF THE SCREEN?  (6.2)
----------------------------------------------

  The Command-Shift-3 FKey that's built into all Macs will take 
  a picture of the entire screen.  This won't work while a menu is
  pulled down and always includes the cursor in the picture.  In
  System 6 Command-Shift-3 only works with black and white monitors
  on compact Macs.  The results are stored in a PICT file on the 
  root level of your System disk.
  
  Nobu Toge's Flash-It, $15 shareware, will handle almost all
  your screen capture needs.  It works in black and white and color
  under both System 6 and System 7, exports images to the clipboard
  or to PICT files, captures pictures when menus are down, and can
  capture either a user-selectable region or the entire screen.  See

   ftp://rever.nmsu.edu/pub/macfaq/FlashIt.sit.bin
  
  Baseline Publishing's Exposure Pro ($78 street) covers all the
  basics and throws in a host of editing tools besides.  Sabastian
  Software offers Image Grabber ($35 street) whose features include
  timed capture, capture of the entire screen, one window, or a
  particular rectangle, and scaling of the captured image.  

  If you order Image Grabber please note the spelling. It's two
  words, spelled correctly.  Apparently a grammatical product name is
  so unusual that three out of three mail-order companies were unable
  to find Image Grabber in their database until I spelled it out for
  them including the space between Image and Grabber.  You can also
  order it directly from the manufacturer at (206) 865-9343.
  
  
CAN I REPLACE THE "WELCOME TO MACINTOSH" BOX WITH A PICTURE?  (6.3)
-------------------------------------------------------------------

  First you need an application capable of saving documents 
  in Startup Screen format such as the freeware XLateGraf or the
  shareware GIFConverter.  See 

   ftp://rever.nmsu.edu/pub/macfaq/GIFConverter.sit.bin
   ftp://rever.nmsu.edu/pub/macfaq/XLateGraf.sit.bin

  Open the graphics file you want to turn into a startup 
  screen and select Save As... from the File menu.  Then select 
  Startup Screen as the format to save into.  Name the new document 
  "StartupScreen" (no space between Startup and Screen, both S's 
  capitalized) and put it in the System Folder.  The next time the 
  Mac starts up you should see the happy Mac, followed by the picture.


HOW DO I USE A PICTURE FOR MY DESKTOP?  (6.4)
---------------------------------------------

  If you have a Macintosh with Color QuickDraw in ROM (Mac II 
  and later machines) get the init DeskPict

   ftp://rever.nmsu.edu/pub/macfaq/DeskPict.sit.bin

  Users of compact Macs (Plus's, SE's, and Classics) can pick 
  up BackDrop instead.  

   ftp://rever.nmsu.edu/pub/macfaq/BackDrop.sit.bin

  All of these will replace the normal Macintosh desktop pattern with 
  a picture of your choosing saved in startup screen format. (See the
  previous question.) Before saving your picture in startup screen
  format be sure to convert it to the default application palette, 
  or your Mac may display color combinations distorted enough to 
  induce flashbacks to that Grateful Dead concert in 1976.


WHAT IS DISK DOUBLER?  MORE DISK SPACE?  SPACESAVER?  NOW COMPRESS?  (6.5)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Symantec's Norton DiskDoubler Pro ($80 street, formerly known 
  as SuperDoubler) is a utility that automatically compresses and
  decompresses most files on your hard disk so that you can store 
  more files on it than you'd otherwise have room for.  As well as
  transparently compressing files DiskDoubler can make self-extracting
  and segmented archives for transmission via modem or floppy disk. 
  Ideally you won't know it's present once you've installed it.  
  Norton DiskDoubler Pro is a bundle of what was previously known as
  AutoDoubler, Disk Doubler, and Copy Doubler, which are no longer
  available separately. The consensus of the net is that DiskDoubler is
  fast and safe. The only common, known conflicts are with GateKeeper,
  the Find File function in Microsoft Word 5.x, and A/UX.  If you use
  DiskDoubler, use Disinfectant rather than GateKeeper.  DiskDoubler is
  completely incompatible with A/UX.  Don't use DiskDoubler on an A/UX
  formatted partition.  Word's Find File will work on an autodoubled
  volume, but you need to set it to find all files, not just certain
  types.  As of this writing Norton DiskDoubler Pro is the only 
  transparent compression product that's PowerMac native, so it's
  an easy choice for any PowerMac owner who wants to expand their 
  hard disk space.

  Alysis Software's More Disk Space ($39 street) is a competing
  product similar in functionality to SuperDoubler.  More Disk Space 
  has several unique features that make it more suitable for use on 
  a network than competing products such as a freeware init that 
  allows all Macs to use files previously compressed by More Disk 
  Space as transparently as if More Disk Space itself were installed 
  and the ability to create a "compression server" that can compress 
  files for all Macs on the network on demand.  Thus a network of 
  several dozen Macs could use one $39 copy of More Disk Space.  
  More Disk Space uses the fastest compressor/decompressor on the 
  market, but MDS also saves substantially less space than the other 
  products.  More importantly More Disk Space relies on undocumented 
  features of the system which will go away in future system software.  
  I recommend against using More Disk Space.
  
  The latest entry in the increasingly crowded compression arena
  is QuickFiler, a portion of Now Utilities 5.0 which takes the place
  of the discontinued Now Compress.  Now Utilities includes many other
  features besides compression and is thus the best overall value
  despite its $70 street price.  The QuickFiler component of Now 
  Utilities  offers automatic and on-demand transparent compression 
  plus archiving compression that's on a par with StuffIt's.  QuickFiler 
  is fast enough that I don't notice it's installed (as are DiskDoubler 
  and More Disk Space) which is the point where I decide it's not worth 
  my effort to run detailed timing comparisons.  QuickFiler does 
  compress tighter and thus save more space than any of the competing 
  products.  Furthermore it's the only file-level program that will 
  transparently compress almost anything in the System Folder.  This 
  is important for those of us with five megabytes of indispensable 
  After Dark modules. :-)  I myself use and recommend QuickFiler.  It's 
  as fast or faster than its competitors; (except for More Disk Space 
  which has too many other problems to be seriously considered) and it 
  frees up more space on a typical hard drive than any competing product.  
  If you'd like to try before you buy, check out the time-limited demo

   ftp://rever.nmsu.edu/pub/macfaq/Now_Compress_Demo.sea.bin
  
  At about half the price of Now Utilities or DiskDoubler, 
  SpaceSaver ($35) from Aladdin Systems is also a good value,
  especially since it can create and expand net standard .sit files
  thus serving both archiving and transparent compression needs.  The
  compression is fast although it's not as tight as the competition's. 
  SpaceSaver does give up some speed by decompressing applications onto
  disk rather than straight into RAM like other compressors.  This may
  improve compatibility with future systems but slows decompression and
  contributes to file fragmentation, especially on very full disks. 
  Documents normally need to be decompressed onto disk regardless of
  compressor, and SpaceSaver is faster than most for compressing and
  decompressing documents.  However since any form of compression
  reduces redundancy in data and makes corruption of files more likely,
  I don't compress my document files.  Since application files don't
  change nearly as often and since I'm therefore a lot more likely to
  have multiple backups of them, I feel much safer only compressing
  applications.  But if you do compress your documents, SpaceSaver is
  quite competitive. SpaceSaver's only known major incompatibilities
  are with Norton Utilities' Directory Assistance II, MacPassword,
  Empower II, and SuperATM.  A ResEdit fix for the Directory Assistance
  conflict is available on request from Aladdin.  The incompatibility
  with SuperATM can be cured merely by renaming SpaceSaver ~SpaceSaver
  so it loads after SuperATM.  MacPassword and Empower II are just not
  compatible with SpaceSaver.


HOW DO THEY COMPARE TO TIMESTWO, STACKER, AND eDISK?  (6.6)
----------------------------------------------------------- 

  Golden Triangle's TimesTwo was a unique hard disk driver backed by a
  misleading advertising campaign.  Unlike the file-level compressors
  discussed in the previous section TimesTwo is not an init that
  patches the file system.  Rather it is a hard disk driver similar to
  Drive7 or HardDisk Toolkit.  After a disk is formatted with TimesTwo
  the Finder will report the disk as twice the size it actually is;
  e.g. a forty megabyte disk will seem to be an eighty megabyte disk. 
  TimesTwo then uses compression to try to fit eighty megabytes of data
  into the forty megabytes that's really there.  If it can't compress
  well enough to fit the eighty megabytes of data it promises (and it
  generally can't), it creates a phantom file to take up the space it
  overestimated.  All data written to the disk will be automatically
  compressed.  This is the exact opposite of the marketdroid promises
  that TimesTwo works without compressing anything.  In fact it
  compresses everything. It's reassuring to know that the market does
  sometimes punish such sleazy advertising.  Golden Triangle is out of
  business and TimesTwo is no longer either sold or supported.

  Stacker ($95) and eDisk ($62) work similarly to Times Two, the
  main difference being that they are added on top of your current
  hard disk driver rather than in place of it.  This may allow you to
  retain the partitions and other features of your current driver if
  it's one Stacker or Edisk is compatible with.  However both are
  incompatible with a number of other driver level programs including
  several disk formatters and security programs, most notably the
  latest Apple driver for asynchronous mode on the 68040 Macs. 
  Alysis has made a very functional demo version of eDisk available 
  with the only restriction that it compresses at most three to two.
 
   ftp://rever.nmsu.edu/pub/macfaq/EdiskDemo.sit.bin

  Driver level compressors allegedly increase disk savings by
  compressing everything whereas file level compressors exclude certain
  frequently accessed files like the desktop file, most things in the
  System Folder, and the hard disk data structures from compression. 
  However the existing file-level compressors use more efficient
  compression algorithms than existing driver level compressors so they
  normally save you as much or even more space. Furthermore the
  exclusion of frequently accessed files from compression vastly
  improves the speed of file-level compressed disks.  Under driver
  level compression since every file needs to be decompressed when read
  or compressed when written, a driver-level compressed disk is
  noticeably slower than the same Mac with a non-compressed disk or
  even a Mac whose disk has been compressed with a file level
  compressor.  As one Apple VAR put it, "installing TimesTwo is like
  dipping your drive in molasses."  Stacker and eDisk have equally high
  coefficients of virtual viscosity.
  
  Driver level compressors are more popular in the PC world where it's
  common to find a fast 486 CPU driving a slow IDE hard disk so that
  the time savings from reading fewer physical blocks outweigh the time
  lost doing decompression. In the Macintosh world the opposite
  situation, a fast SCSI disk coexisting with a slow 68000 CPU, is more
  common so driver level compression doesn't work as well. This may be
  changing though.  Stacker is now PowerPC native and may soon be able
  to decompress files so quickly that disk access speed may actually
  improve when it's installed.  I haven't seen any benchmarks to show
  this yet, but I expect that if current PowerPC chips aren't quite
  fast enough to make this a reality, the next generation will be.
  
  Using a file-level compressor on a disk already compressed by one of
  these products will gain little if any space and will probably cut
  your disk access speed in half again so you should use either
  driver-level or file-level compression, not both.
  
  All the transparent compression programs have had a number of bugs
  and incompatibilities in their initial releases; and TimesTwo
  Stacker, and eDisk are no exceptions.  Unlike the file-level
  programs, however, there have been a number of reports that the first
  releases of all three of these utilities have caused data loss and
  even corruption of entire hard disks.  It is as yet unknown whether
  these bugs are fixed in more recent versions.  Given the known
  incompatibilities, probable speed loss, and significant risk of data
  corruption associated with driver level compression, I recommend that
  you do not use any of these products at this time.


WHERE DID MY ICONS GO?  (6.7)
-----------------------------

  Your icons have passed on to a better place, but with a little
  magic it's normally possible to resurrect them.  Several utilities
  including Norton Utilities for the Mac and the freeware drag-and-drop 
  utility Save-A-BNDL should retrieve your icons.  See

   ftp://rever.nmsu.edu/pub/macfaq/SaveABNDL.sit.bin

  Rebuilding the desktop (Question 4.3 in the Introductory FAQ) 
  should also restore your icons.


WHERE CAN I FIND A USER GROUP?  (6.8)
-------------------------------------

  You can contact Apple's user groups liason office at 
  (800) 538-9696, extension 500. They'll be happy to provide you 
  with contact information for a local Macintosh user group.


WHERE CAN I FIND THE 1984 QUICKTIME MOVIE?  (6.9)
-------------------------------------------------

  Try ftp://csc.ucs.uwplatt.edu/Quicktime/1984/ between 8 P.M.  
  and 6 A.M. Central Standard Time.  The total file is 13.9 megabytes 
  though it's split into five StuffIt segments of about 2.9 megabytes 
  each.  Be sure to ftp it in binary mode, not the usual default of 
  ASCII.  This site has several other popular Quicktime movies 
  including the Saturday Night Live "Newton" commercial.


DO RAM DOUBLER AND OPTIMEM WORK?  (6.10)
----------------------------------------

  Connectix's RAM Doubler ($50 street) uses the PMMU on 68030 and
  68040 Macs to fool the system into believing the Mac has twice as
  much memory as it actually has.  RAM Doubler provides the extra
  memory through a combination of compressing data in RAM, letting
  applications borrow memory from other programs that aren't using
  their full allotment, and storing data that would normally be in
  RAM on the hard disk.  RAM Doubler requires System 7 or later.  It
  performs as advertised, providing more RAM for your applications.
  RAM Doubler does this more efficiently and with less speed penalty
  than virtual memory (which can't be used at the same time as RAM
  Doubler) though most Macs do slow down by 5-10% when using it.  RAM
  Doubler works better with multiple applications than with a single
  memory hog like Photoshop.  Rule of thumb: For best performance
  the memory used by the system plus the largest application 
  partition should be less than or equal to your physical RAM size.
  
  Ideally RAM Doubler will be transparent to your system, but
  there are incompatibilities between it and some applications and
  extensions.  In particular you should watch out for extensions like
  CopyDoubler or SpeedyFinder which can slow your system to a crawl
  when they try to use all the extra RAM they think they have (but
  really don't) for caching files.  RAM Doubler is also incompatible
  with FAXstf 3.0, UltraShield, Times Two and the various development 
  versions of MacsBug.  It works with MacsBug 6.2.2.  If you must use  
  a development version of MacsBug, use 6.5d4 or later and RAMDoubler 
  1.0.2 or later.  In general if an application works with virtual 
  memory, it should work with RAM Doubler.  

  The Jump Development's Group Optimem is a more expensive ($80 street)
  competing product.  Optimem doesn't increase available memory like
  RAM Doubler does.  Instead it forces applications to make more
  efficient use of the memory they have.  Optimem doles out RAM to
  applications only as they need it rather than allocating fixed size
  partitions at startup like the Finder normally does. Go to the Finder
  and look at About this Macintosh... in the Apple menu.  All the light
  blue (or white on a black and white monitor) space in the bar beside
  each application is RAM that application has been allocated but isn't
  using. Optimem makes that memory available to other applications.  In
  effect it forces them to share. If you have a lot of white space in
  your memory bars, then Optimem can help you.  If you don't then RAM
  Doubler is certainly a better choice. OptiMem and RAM Doubler may be
  used together.  However this is going to turn RAM Doubler into little
  more than another version of virtual memory since it does its RAM
  compression tricks using allocated but unused space while Optimem
  eliminates that space. Since Optimem is less transparent than RAM
  Doubler, Optimem is incompatible with more applications.  Optimem
  can, however, be disabled on an application by application basis. 
  The one big advantage OPtiMem has over RAM Doubler is that it doesn't
  require a PMMU.  Thus it will run on 68000 series Macs like the Plus,
  SE, and Classic.


I'M GREEDY.  CAN I TRIPLE MY RAM?  (6.11)
-----------------------------------------
.
  You need RAM Doubler 1.0.1 or 1.0.2 for this trick.  You can't 
  do this with RAM Doubler 1.0, 1.0.3, 1.0.4 or 1.5.  Turn RAM doubler  
  off and reboot your Mac.  Then open RAM Doubler with ResEdit.  Open 
  the "Main" VCMD resource and use ResEdit's Find command to find the hex
  digits A868.  Just before these digits are the hex numbers 0002 0000.
  This is a hexadecimal fixed point number that tells RAM Doubler how
  much to multiply the RAM by.  Change it to 00030000 for a  RAM tripler,
  00040000 for a RAM quadrupler, and so on.  Then restart twice.  You
  will now have even more RAM.  Of course the the more RAM you ask for,
  the more likely it becomes that RAM Doubler will need to use virtual
  memory to meet your RAM demands thus slowing down your Mac.  For large
  quantities of RAM Apple's virtual memory is faster than RAM Doubler.
  
  You can also use fractional multipliers as long as you remember that
  the number you're changing is a hexadecimal fixed point number with
  the "hexidecimal point" between the second and third bytes.  For
  example two and a half would be 00028000 which would make a "RAM
  Double-and-a-halfer"
  
  This trick is even easier with RAM Doubler 1.0.1.  Instead of opening
  the VCMD resource open the 'pref' resource. This resource contains
  several fields.  The one you want is called "multiplier value."  This
  field contains one hexadecimal fixed point number, 00020000.  Change
  it to 00030000 for a  RAM tripler, 00040000 for a RAM quadrupler, and
  so on.
  
  Spencer Low's five dollar shareware product MaxRAM wraps a nice
  interface around this procedure for those who aren't comfortable
  exploring the bowels of their software with ResEdit.  More
  importantly MaxRAM even works on RAM Doubler 1.0.3 and 1.0.4 (though
  not yet on RAM Doubler 1.5 :-().  See

   ftp://rever.nmsu.edu/pub/macfaq/MaxRAM.sit.bin


HOW DO I RUN SOFTWARE THAT NEEDS AN FPU ON A MAC THAT DOESN'T HAVE ONE?  (6.12)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  John Neil's $10 shareware ($20 for native PowerPC version) extension  
  Software FPU will emulate a floating point coprocessor on an FPUless 68020 
  or 68030.  See

   ftp://rever.nmsu.edu/pub/macfaq/SoftFPU.sit.bin

  This will let most (though not all) software that requires  
  an FPU run, albeit slowly.  Software FPU does not work on 68000 Macs. 
  Version 3.0 will let some programs work on a 68LC040 Mac like the 
  Quadra 605, but due to a bug in the 68LC040 chip many programs may 
  crash.  You'll need to test each program you use for compatibility.
  Motorola may release a fixed version of the 68LC040 sometime in 
  the second quarter of 1994.  Software FPU is MUCH slower than a 
  real FPU.  It will not improve floating point performance for
  applications that do not absolutely require an FPU.  Finally note
  that an earlier version of the same program called "PseudoFPU" is
  still available at some archives.  This is inferior to the current
  version of Software FPU and should not be used.

-- 
   Elliotte Rusty Harold
   elharo@shock.njit.edu
   elharo@escape.com
..
