Articles

• After Dark Release 4.0 •
Size: 22.4 MB (23,494,026 bytes)
After Fullinstall :35541K

I my self no longer use screen savers for many reasons.  First I believe screens savers are addictive, I have like every version AD makes (and they make a bunch).  Second they take up way too much memory. I have had problems with screens savers and connections to my FC server, I think it may use mst of the CPU and memory. Finally I think 30 megabytes is a little much for a screen saver. I mean I could install WCII instead of AD.  I have to admit that the new AD is far better than the origianl in all ways. They have done a great job in creating ideas, hiring good graphic artists and cleaning out all the bugs. Many of the modules are similar in style to the Toy Story AD.  Previous to After Dark 4.0's release we have come across an early version of 4.0 (3.0beta) which many called 4.0.  That beta was very buggy and crashed often. Recently AD has released as a part of AD4.0 ADonline, this I had problems getting to work since I had a TCP error occur on AD.  I assume it will get new articles from different locations on the internet.  To all those Flying Toaster junkies, YES they are better than ever. I expect AD to have a 5.0 version out soon.  

---AREA_51

• IRC Newbies •

   For those of you who are new on IRC and act pretty lame, I highly recoommend that you read the Guide_to_Lameness v1.0.  It covers details on every aspect of being lame and how to avoid it, please, along with reading channel FAQs, you should take the time to read this as well.  For some reason, there has been an onslaught of newbies in the channels in the past week, and it's getting to the point of being really rediculous because of the _extremely_ lame questions being asked.  Think before you speak, and read the guide to lameness, it'll help you drastically.

• Iconizer 1.0 •

   Some of you who actually bought Marathon II have seen what this sweet ware does.  For those who haven't seen it, it takes PICTs and places them in finder windows via ICON documents.  Copy a PICT to the clipboard, launch Iconizer, and specify a folder to save it to.  Be advised, this ONLY works in 256 colors, but is nevertheless pretty damn slick.

• E-mail Bombing •

   For those of you interested on e-mail bombing and how to do them, I highly recommend reading the docs distributed by SonicWurst.  The file is distributed as "Email Bombs/SonicWurst."  The file tells what is needed to accomplish this (no special tools), and has a very large listing of mailing lists that you can subscribe to.  If you absolutely hate a certain internet user, check this out, a great way for revenge!

• The Jackal •

  Making his name well known in the Elite Macintosh Community, The Jackal has cracked a great number of warez for all of us.  His most popular crack is the FMPViwer v7.  This crack was discovered by the Claris Corporation (when it was at version 5), and they came up with another way that their users could have passwords so that the crack would work.  They were wrong, The Jackal came out with version 6, which bypassed the method of making the password 'invisible.'  Now version 7 introduces a couple bug fixes found in version 6.

   Do you need to find this crack?  Look for it being offered in #macfilez.

• ShadowBot 1.0tr38 •
http://www.bcpl.lib.md.us/~jbafford/shadowbot/

After using this bot for the past couple weeks, I thought it was necessary
 to provide
some documentation for un-discussed portions of the bot in the
 author's
docs.  Hopefully this will clear up any confusion.

If you need help on any command located in the command list in the GUI

menus of the bot, chances are, it's not available in the documentation.

No problem, most commands have information about them within the bot.

Simply type !help <command>, but replace <command> with whatever the

command is that you are enquiring about.  Typing !help shitlist will

give you EXTENSIVE information on levels 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the

shitlist.  I found this to be quite helpful when banning people from

channels that I operate my bot on.

Unfortunately, the only thing that is still unclear to me is the level

protection in the userlist.  I'm unsure what each level does, but it

seems to me that level 4 should only be for people who are NEVER to

be kicked out of a channel (like other bots, for example).

ShadowBot is really customizable.  You an change things from the

command characters, channel settings, channel protection methods, to

the strings that the bot uses within the channel itself.

I took the time to write an EXTENSIVE step-by-step instructions on

operating the bot from an IRC channel.  This is especially helpful

to others in the userlist on the bot who will need to learn commands

for bot usage.  This file is customized (somewhat) for #ntbbs, but

feel free to take a look at it and modify it for your needs.  It can

be viewed at http://altitude.firsttech.com/ntbbs/irc/bot_usage_1.5.html

• Norton Utilities or MacToolsPro? •

Since Norton Utilities and MacToolsPro seem to rule in the field of diagnostic/repair, I'll explain which is more important and why.

Norton Utilities 3.2.1 is the most current version, and does everything from optimize your HD, diagnose/repair HD problems, to fixing damaged files.  Norton Utilities is very fast, and includes a feature to "Show Damaged Disks."  This feature is quite handy when trying to repair a disk that isn't currently mounted.  Norton will try it's best to repair or at least diagnose the Disk.

MacToolsPro is currently at version 4.0.4 and has a few extra features that Norton does not.  The best feature that I've foundt o be quite handy (especially when only one HD is present) is the RAMBoot feature.  This will copy necessary system files, and MacToolsPro to a RAMDisk in order to fix the HD that is used as a startup disk.  This is a MAJOR plus when working on a Mac with only one HD.  The message "This disk cannot be repaired because it is the startup disk" gets to be VERY annoying when you try to diagnose and fix it.  MacTools also has a Virus check as well, but I'd advise users to run Virex or SAM if they are worried about viruses.

Each ware has it's pluses and minuses.  MacToolsPro can get EXTREMELY slow when fixing a disk.  It is not uncommon for Norton to find things wrong with a disk when MacTools does not, and vice versa.  I *highly* recommend keeping copies of both of these wares on your HD in event of a crash or HD problems.  As a Mac tech, it's common knowledge to repair a damaged hard drive with BOTH programs before declaring it "OK."