Sleeper brings sleep capabilities to most desktop Macintosh models. Your hard disks can be set to spin down after a set amount of inactivity, and the screen can be dimmed after a given amount of idle time. For those machines that support it, Energy Star monitors can also be turned off after a specific time period.
Sleeper is distributed through the shareware system. If you use it, please take the time to pay for your copy. It窶冱 the only way we窶冤l be able to continue to support and improve the product, so your payment does matter! Scroll to the end of this help window for more details on how easy it is to register your copy.
窶「 How Do I Set It Up?
The Sleeper control panel contains four tabs, one for each major function. To configure a feature, click on the appropriate tab in the control panel. Once you窶况e turned on a feature, a check mark will appear next to the name on the tab so you can tell at a glance how Sleeper is configured.
窶「 Disk Sleep
Sleeper will spin down both SCSI and IDE disk drives when they have not been used for more than a specified amount of time. To enable this feature, turn on the 窶彜pin down disks when inactive窶 check box. Then use the 窶廛elay窶 slider to tell Sleeper how long to wait after disk usage has stopped before spinning down your disks.
Once you窶况e chosen a delay time, you have to tell Sleeper which disks to work with. The 窶廛isks窶 menu and checkboxes, which enable themselves based on the configuration of your Macintosh, allow you to turn Sleeper on for specific disks. For each disk subsystem in the pop-up menu, the check boxes will be enabled if there is a disk drive at the numbered address. Use the menu to select each disk subsystem in turn, and turn on the check boxes corresponding to the drives you want Sleeper to control. For SCSI disks, the name of the partitions on a disk are displayed when the mouse is over the drive窶冱 checkbox. Holding down the option key and passing the mouse over an enabled checkbox will show the drive窶冱 manufacturer and model number.
Warning: Be careful when using Sleeper to control Syquest drives. Drives from different vendors behave differently, and some will not wake back up after being put to sleep.
The 窶彜pin down only when screen is dimmed窶 check box will prevent Sleeper from spinning down disk drives if the screen is not dimmed. You can use this to prevent Sleeper from putting disks to sleep while you are working on something that does not access the disk frequently.
When the 窶彜pin down all disks together窶 check box is turned on, Sleeper will only spin down disk drives after none of them have been accessed for the delay time. With it turned off, Sleeper will put drives to sleep individually based on when they were last used.
The 窶弩ake up all disks together窶 check box controls whether Sleeper wakes all the disks at once when any one is accessed, or if it wakes them up individually as requests are made to each of them. When waking them all at once, Sleeper does the job in parallel rather than requesting the disks one after the other, so it窶冱 faster if you窶决e going to need all the disks soon anyway.
窶「 Screen Saver
Sleeper窶冱 screen saver turns down the monitor窶冱 brightness after a delay that you specify. To configure it, simply turn on the 窶弑se screen saver窶 check box and then adjust the 窶廛elay窶 slider. Sleeper will watch the mouse and keyboard, and when both have been unused for more than the number of minutes on the 窶廛elay窶 slider, Sleeper will dim the screen.
You can use the 窶廝rightness窶 slider to adjust how dim Sleeper makes your screen. It窶冱 normally set to 0%, which causes the screen to dim completely, but you can adjust it to any brightness in between. When you slide the slider, the screen will dim to that setting so you can see exactly how it will look when it窶冱 asleep.
The 窶廡lash keyboard LEDs when attention is required窶 check box is enabled if you have an extended keyboard. If the screen is dimmed or turned off, Sleeper will flash the keyboard LEDs when an application requires attention (this is usually signified by a beep and/or a flashing icon over the Apple or application menu).
Checking the 窶廛on窶冲 wake for mouse movement窶 checkbox will leave your monitor dimmed even if the mouse is moved. You have to type a key or click the mouse button before the monitor will undim.
The 窶弑se hot corners窶 check box tells Sleeper to watch for the mouse in two corners of the screen. When you put your mouse in the 窶廛im Now窶 corner, the screen saver will dim the screen immediately. When you place it in the 窶廛im Never窶 corner, Sleeper will not dim the screen, even if the screen saver delay has been reached. To change which corner performs these functions, just click on a different corner on the miniature screens.
窶「 Energy Star
The built-in video systems on newer Macintoshes have the capability to turn off Energy Star compliant monitors (they actually do this by turning off part of the video signal, which compliant monitors recognize as a signal to turn off power to the picture tube). If you don窶冲 have an Energy Star compliant monitor, the picture may look very strange because part of the video signal has been turned off. In this case, the Energy Star feature will not offer any energy savings.
If your Macintosh supports Energy Star monitors, the 窶彜uspend monitor when idle窶 and 窶弃ower off monitor when idle窶 check boxes will be enabled. Turning one or both of these on and adjusting the 窶廛elay窶 sliders will tell Sleeper to turn off the monitor when the mouse and keyboard have gone unused for the specified time.
As the labels indicate, 窶徭uspended窶 mode will reduce the monitor窶冱 power consumption to a low level, while 窶徙ff窶 turns off the monitor completely. Your monitor may or may not support both of these modes, and when both are supported, the wake-up time may differ for the two modes. You can simply try each checkbox to determine which one works best on your system.
Turning on the 窶廛on窶冲 wake for mouse movement窶 checkbox will leave your monitor asleep even if the mouse is moved. You have to type a key or click the mouse button before the monitor will wake up from Energy Star sleep.
窶「 Hotkey
Turning on the 窶廣ctivate sleep with hotkey窶 check box allows you to activate Sleeper by hitting a key combination. This will immediately perform whatever sleep functions you have turned on in the control panel - Screen Saver, Energy Star, and Disk Sleep. To set the hotkey, click the 窶彜et Hotkey窶 button and then press the key combination you wish to use.
窶「 Shareware Registration
Sleeper is distributed as shareware. You may try it for 30 days, after which we ask that you either delete your copy or register it by sending $20 (US) via the Kagi Shareware registration service. Upon registration, you will receive free technical support, free upgrades, and a code to disable the reminder message that begins popping up after 30 days.
Cash, check, VISA, MasterCard, American Express, First Virtual and Money Orders can be used for payment. Just click the 窶彝egister窶 button below or run the 窶彝egister SCS窶 program that came with Sleeper. Fill in the online registration form and fax, email, or mail it to one of the addresses below. For credit card and First Virtual orders, your number will be encoded so it can be safely transmitted via fax or email.
There are reduced prices for purchasing multiple copies of Sleeper. These prices are automatically computed by the online registration form when you fill in the number of copies. For large purchases, the site license option will allow you to use Sleeper at all your organization窶冱 offices within a 100 mile (160 kilometer) radius of each other, while the worldwide license option allows you to use an unlimited number of copies. Again, see the online registration form for pricing of these options.
If you would like to submit a purchase order, please do so directly to St. Clair Software at one of the addresses listed in the Technical Support section.
** These addresses are for registrations only **
Email: (Internet) shareware@kagi.com
Fax: +1 510-652-6589
Mail: Kagi Shareware
1442-A Walnut Street #392-ST
Berkeley, California, 94709-1405
USA
Payments sent via email are processed within 3 to 4 days. Payments sent via mail and fax take up to 10 days (plus transit time for mail). If you provide a correct Internet email address you will receive an email acknowledgement. Otherwise, a registration letter will be sent to you via the postal service.
窶「 Technical Support
For questions, suggestions, purchase orders, and bug reports, contact us at one of the following addresses. Note that our Internet email account is read much more frequently than the others.
** These addresses are not for registrations **
Email: (Internet) support@stclairsw.com
(AOL) StClairSW, (CompuServe) 72330,3455
Fax: +1 412-835-4402
Mail: St Clair Software
2025 Mohawk Road
Upper St. Clair, PA 15241-1526
USA
For the latest news from St. Clair Software, information and tips about Sleeper and our other products, and links to some of our favorite places on the web, visit our site on the World Wide Web at:
http://www.stclairsw.com/stclairsw/
窶「 Credits
Sleeper was designed and programmed by Jon Gotow, with user interface tuning by Adel Assaad and administrative support from Jessica Gotow. Additional suggestions, encouragement, and beta testing were generously provided by registered users of previous versions of Sleeper and hard working volunteers around the world.
Sleeper is Copyright 1994-1996 St. Clair Software. Special thanks to Jim Stout for the CDEFs used in the Sleeper control panel, which are Copyright ツゥ1991-1995 James G. Stout. Gamma table fading code was based on Matt Slott窶冱 public domain Gamma Fade library. The SCSI sleep feature was inspired by Ephraim M. Vishniac窶冱 assembly code in SCSI Stop.
Sleeper was produced using Symantec C++, Metrowerks Codewarrior, and Mathemaesthetics Resorcerer.