{"id":885,"date":"2007-09-19T14:43:58","date_gmt":"2007-09-19T22:43:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.mhvt.net\/?p=885"},"modified":"2007-09-29T13:20:26","modified_gmt":"2007-09-29T21:20:26","slug":"nice-to-have-mac-software-september-2007-chat-chat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mhvt.net\/?p=885","title":{"rendered":"Nice-to-have Mac Software September 2007, Chat-Chat"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mac<\/a>
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\nThere are many commercial, shareware and freeware titles around. And it’s been one of our important jobs to evaluate new software programs and updates. Of course, there are a ton of software programs even for the Mac minority. So I am going to make some recommendations as to which to choose for each category.
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\n\"Mac<\/a> Anti-Virus<\/strong>
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\nIn the early to mid-1990s, many Mac users had a free anti-virus init\/extension called Disinfectant<\/strong>. It was developed by a Northwestern University professor. Symantec’s Norton Anti-Virus for Mac was already around in 1994, at least. It was called SAM<\/strong> those days.<\/p>\n

By the way, I started downloading files with a 1,200 Kbps modem in 1992. Those days, Mac viruses weren’t rare, but I never got my computers infected.<\/p>\n

Anyway, do we need anti-virus software? The answer is yes. That’s all because of the Internet. Exploiters easily penetrate commercial websites and install webpages to redirect innocent Internet users to free websites where computer viruses await them. Exploiters often hack WordPress website. I was shocked to find out in May that an exploiter posted a spam comment at Apple’s Discussions board<\/u>. (For more information, read an article titled “Apple Discussions Exploited for Porn and Virus,” which was posted on May 5, 2007.) By clicking on the link, visitors were taken to a Lycos-hosted website where a computer virus awaited them. I exposed myself to this spam website on purpose and was indeed infected to a computer virus.<\/p>\n

So which anti-virus software program should we use? Norton Anti-Virus for Mac is still a popular one. But as we noted yesterday, it hasn’t been updated for a long time. It’s still a good deal for PowerPC-Mac users because they update the virus definition almost every week. If you have an Intel Mac, then you should use something else. One option is McAfee<\/strong>‘s VirusScan<\/strong>. It used to be called Virex<\/strong>. Another choice is Intego<\/strong>‘s VirusBarrier X4<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Finally, if you are in college, you may probably ask school’s information technology desk if they offer a free Internet software package. Many colleges and universities nowadays charge a connectivity fee or whatever they call it. In exchange, you are likely to get a free package containing an anti-virus program, FTP software, PPP software…
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\n\"Mac<\/a> Internet Security<\/strong>
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\nKeep in mind that computer viruses existed for years before the Internet was first developed in the mid-1990s. So ‘Internet security’ doesn’t mean that I’m only talking about computer viruses. A notorious kind is key loggers. A key logger is designed to record the keys that a remote user presses. Fortunately, key loggers targeted at Mac users are rare.<\/p>\n\n\n
Whether you have adware, spyware or key loggers secretly installed on your computer, an important measure to take is not to let private information leave your terminal. That’s where Internet security software comes in.<\/p>\n

One popular shareware title in this kind is Little Snitch<\/strong>. If a malicious program tries to transmit data outside of your computer, Little Snitch will display a window, asking you whether you want to reject or accept a connection request. Another popular Internet security software is Intego<\/strong>‘s NetBarrier X4<\/strong>. They are both in Universal Binaries.<\/td>\n

 <\/td>\n\"Little<\/a>
\nScreenshot from Objective Development Software GmbH’s Little Snitch 1.2.4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

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\n\"Mac<\/a> System Utility<\/strong>
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\nIn the mid-1990s, Symantec’s Norton Utilities<\/strong> was THE utility program for Mac. There was another popular utility software called Now Utilities<\/strong>. Now Utilities died out. Norton Utilities survived throughout the rest of the decade and then changed its name to Norton SystemWorks<\/strong>. But partly because of OS X’s improved system stability compared with OS 9 or lower, overall demand for commercial utility software decreased. And Symantec hasn’t updated SystemWorks for a long time. In fact, Symantec is notorious for letting unpopular Mac software titles die out. Anyway, a late comer but still popular Mac utility title is Alsoft<\/strong>‘s DiskWarrior<\/strong>. It’s been updated for Universal. Whichever you use, Norton Doctor or Disk Warrior to fix a hard disk volume, be careful because these utility programs can ruin your drive. And I did get DiskWarrior to ruin my hard disk drive.<\/p>\n\n\n
Another, relatively newer line of system utility software is represented by Yasu<\/strong>, Mac Pilot<\/strong> and OnyX<\/strong>. Because there are so many UNIX commands that are supported by Mac OS X, existing PreferencePanes don’t cover all of them. So it’s nice to have system utility software that will give you GUI access to UNIX commands. For example, the default screenshot format for OS X is PDF. And the default storage location is the desktop. You can change those settings with the Terminal<\/strong> by typing UNIX commands. Or, using system utility software, you can quickly and easily change, for example, the screenshot format to PNG, JPEG, GIF or whatever and the storage location to a specific one.<\/td>\n <\/td>\n\"Mac<\/a>
\nScreenshot from Titanium Software’s OnyX 1.8.3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

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\n\"Mac<\/a> File Backup<\/strong>
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\nIn the late 1990s, Roxio<\/strong>‘s Toast Titanium<\/strong> was a nice-to-have software title, but not a must-to-have one. When the version was 3, Toast Titanium wasn’t that impressive. When it was updated to 4, it wasn’t that impressive, either. But Toast Titanium made an impressive transformation when it was updated to 6.5. It is now THE file backup software program for Mac OS. And I would say that Toast Titanium 7 or 8 is a must-to-have Mac software title.<\/p>\n

Yes, Apple gives you a free program called Disk Utility<\/strong>. You can burn backup discs with it. In fact, there are a few functions that Toast Titanium doesn’t have like Disk Image from Folder<\/strong>. But Toast Titanium is very valuable because of its video functions. You can burn a VCD or SVCD with one video file or more. You can burn your own DVD easily. And Toast even lets you have access to QuickTime components to compress videos.
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\n\"Mac<\/a> Watching Movies<\/strong>
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\nMany people watch movies on their computers nowadays. Apple gives you a free program called DVD Player<\/strong>. DVD Player isn’t quite flexible because you can’t forward or rewind frames. You can’t take screenshots. And it will trigger the setting of a region code for your DVD drive after playing commercial DVDs several times. How about QuickTime? Whether or not you have a pro upgrade, QuickTime has its own limitations. For example, QuickTime doesn’t play AC3 (Dolby) audio. It doesn’t support a mutimedia format called Matroska. QuickTime finally supports full-screen viewing with version 7.2.<\/p>\n

There’s a nice-to-have freeware title called VLC<\/strong>. It’s developed by VideoLAN<\/strong>. VLC will let you watch DVDs regardless of region codes. It will allow you to take screenshots out of DVDs and videos in a format of your choice. The latest Mac version of VLC supports such multimedia formats as AVI, DivX, DV, DVD, Matroska, MOV, MP4, MPEG, VOB and WMV (limited compressors).
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\n\"Mac<\/a> Password Manager<\/strong>
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\nForums and blogs… If you want to post a comment, chances are that you have to register an account at first. If you are an Internet addict, you must have several dozen accounts. You never know when your hard disk drive crashes. Desirably, you probably want to keep all your passwords in one place.<\/p>\n\n\n
We use a shareware title called PasswordMaster<\/strong> to collectively store account information. We like it. But it seems that this software is dead. It’s not available in Universal Binaries, anyway. There are other similar Mac shareware titles like 1Passwd<\/strong>, Password Repository<\/strong> and Safe Place<\/strong>.<\/td>\n <\/td>\n\"PasswordMaster\"<\/a>
\nScreenshot from Password Master X 1.6.3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

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\n\"Mac<\/a> Virtual Disk<\/strong>
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\nIf you have ever run your Mac under the Classic environment, you probably remember Virtual Memory<\/strong> and Ram Disk<\/strong>. These features were originally supported in System 7 (about 15 years ago) and System 7.5, respectively. Ram Disk was a neat feature which allowed the user to create a virtual disk with RAM. You could even run the system inside a Ram Disk. I used to drop Norton Doctor and Norton Speed Disk with a tiny system in a Ram Disk to quickly diagnose system problems and get rid of disk fragmentations.<\/p>\n

Mac OS X doesn’t come with this feature any more. But there are several Mac shareware\/freeware titles that will let you create a virtual disk with RAM. Esperance DV<\/strong> is one of them. And it’s available for PPC and Intel Macs. I have never used them, but there are other titles including Ram Disk Creator<\/strong>, Disk Velox<\/strong> and ramBunctious<\/strong>, which I suppose, all function like Ram Disk under the Classic environment.<\/p>\n

There are a few good reasons why you still want to use a virtual disk. No. 1, you may want to have a volume that is accessible easily when you save files. No. 2, by using a virtual disk, you can reduce chances of damaging your hard disk drive. The Internet has given people easy access to downloadable files. Since hard disk space is limited, you probably download files, delete some of them, download more and on and on If you write data over and over with limited disk space, you can shorten the life expectancy of your hard drive at a great degree.<\/p>\n

If you decide to use Esperance DV, you have to be careful with it a little. If you pull an Ethernet cable off your terminal, a virtual disk will vanish. I don’t know why it’s designed this way. If the Ram Disk disappears, of course, you will lose all the data in it. And it can not be recovered.
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\n\"Mac<\/a> Graphic Editor<\/strong>
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\nThere are many graphic editors for Mac OS. There are Fireworks<\/strong> and Photoshop<\/strong> from Adobe Systems. Another popular graphic editor is Corel Painter<\/strong>. It was originally a shareware title, I think. And it became very popular in the mid-1990s. GraphicConverter<\/strong> (GraphicConverter X) is another popular shareware title that became famous in the mid and late 1990s.<\/p>\n

Personally, I was using GraphicConverter till I I bought the academic version of Macromedia Studio 3 in 2000 for $150, I think. Fireworks wasn’t that great at that time. It was merely designed for use in web designing. Now, I mostly use Fireworks, way more often than Photoshop. And I haven’t used GraphicConverter since I started using Fireworks. We like Adobe Fireworks because it makes it easy (1) to handle different layers on the same plane, (2) to change the resolution of an image and (3) to change the graphic format of an image and compression. Anyway, whatever we say, the best graphic application should depend on your needs. So I hope you have met the best one.
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\n\"Mac<\/a> Video Editor<\/strong>
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\nIt’s virtually Apple’s Final Cut Pro<\/strong> versus Adobe’s Premiere Pro<\/strong> for Mac OS. Since I have never used it, I don’t know what to say about Avid Express. As you probably know, Adobe Premiere was dead till recently for Mac OS. In fact, we were using Adobe Premiere because of its easy use. But since Adobe discontinued Premiere about 3 years ago, we were obliged to switch to Final Cut Pro. Now, we like Final Cut Pro a lot and A World of Video Tutorials wouldn’t exist without it.<\/p>\n

We can’t say which is better Final Cut Pro 6 or Adobe Premiere CS3 as we haven’t used the latter. In our opinion, the success of Premiere all depends on its relationships with Photoshop<\/strong> and After Effects<\/strong>. After Effects is industry-standard software for visual effects. Apple’s Motion<\/strong> is somewhat behind After Effects. As for Motion 2, it didn’t allow the user to put a group<\/u> of layers in 3D. Another weakness of Motion (Motion 2) is lack of light source. Furthermore, one terrible weakness of Final Cut Studio as a whole is lack of graphic editor. Apple doesn’t have a graphic editor. Motion recognizes Photoshop’s individual layers but doesn’t recognize Photoshop’s filters. In other words, After Effects does recognizes Photoshop’s effects.<\/p>\n

But Adobe’s Production Premium (After Effects + Premiere + Photoshop + Flash + Illustrator + Soundbooth + Encore) is not that perfect. Its sound editor Soundbooth<\/strong> is relatively unknown to Mac users. Mac users should be more comfortable with Logic<\/strong> or Soundtrack<\/strong>. Moreover, the retail price of Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premiere is $1,699, $400 more than Apple’s Final Cut Studio 2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are many commercial, shareware and freeware titles around. And it’s been one of our important jobs to evaluate new software programs and updates. Of course, there are a ton of software programs even for the Mac minority. So I … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":342,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apple-mac"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mhvt.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mhvt.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mhvt.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mhvt.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/342"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mhvt.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mhvt.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mhvt.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mhvt.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mhvt.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}