Speed Message II is an application designed for small networked environments -- particularly those whose users can't afford the money required to get a full-fledged commercial E-Mail package.
This program enables users on these TANs ("Tiny Area Networks") to communicate via text and short voice messages. All that is needed is a small network of Macs, System 7.x, this program, and the desire to communicate!
Features
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o Text and Voice messages can be sent (apart or simultaneously) to any other Mac
running this program.
o Messages that have been created (or received) may be saved to disk and re-used
at a later time.
o The user can specify how long a message waiting in the background will wait be-
fore it gives up the ghost.
o Those who send messages will receive notification if a message they sent to
another Mac did, in fact, give up the ghost. This way, they know if they need to
send the message again, or try an alternate means of communication.
Changes from the previous version
-------------------------------
o Interface, interface, interface! It's a "kinder, gentler" interface. Much improved.
o Text messages can be longer than that stupid 256 character garbage. Now
you can send up to 32K of text!
o Voice and text can be sent at the same time! Yay!
o Messages can be stored to and retrieved from disk.
o Sender is notified of failed message attempts.
Installation/Preliminaries
------------------------
To install Speed Message II, just put on your hard drive!
If you want the program to launch upon startup of your Macintosh, make an alias of it and stash that critter in the Startup Items folder in your System Folder. You are then "message ready".
It was suggested to me that this should be made into an Extension or Extension/Application combination. I elected not to do this for two reasons. One is that Extensions cannot send or receive AppleEvents, which is the foundation upon which this program is built. Second, since this program allows voice mail, it requires a bit more memory than it otherwise may have. If ever the user gets in a memory crunch, all they have to do is quit Speed Message II to free up some RAM. Sure this will disable the ability to receive mail, but it is short term (perhaps) and the ability can easily be reinstated simply by launching the program again. If it were an Extension, the memory it uses would not be recoverable without restarting the Mac and disabling the Extension. A far less convenient solution.
Oh, one note...it is a good idea to rename the program to something a little more meaningful. For instance, I am using this program at my place of employment, and I have the program running as 'Scott's Mail Box'. Why, you ask? Well, because when you attempt to select to whom you want to send a message (discussed below) you are present with a dialog box that actually lists the programs running on the other Mac's. It is to one of these programs that you will actually connect in order to be able to send your message. So, if you change the name, it'll be easier for others to find the desired target.
This is vague: 'Macintosh IIci:Speed Message II' (who is it?)
This is good: 'Macintosh IIci:Scott's Mail Box' (aha!)
This is better: 'Scott's Mac IIci:Scott's Mail Box' (but requires changing the name
of the Mac (via Network Identity panel in Sharing Setup Control Panel).
Finally, to allow Speed Message II to work, you must have program linking enabled on all Macs involved! To do so, open the Sharing Setup Control Panel and click the 'Start' button in the Program Linking panel.
Sending A Message
-----------------
To send a message is very simple. Bring Speed Message II to the front (if it is not running, launch it). Select 'New Message' from the File menu. A window with several buttons and an area into which you can type text will appear.
What the buttons mean (left to right).
o Reply - simply returns a message (with added text presumably) to the sender.
It should be dimmed on a new document.
o Voice - displays a dialog into which you can record a short voice message to
be attached to this document. To hear the message you created, select
'Play Voice Message' from the Special menu or hit Command-L. To
remove the voice select 'Remove Voice Component' from the same menu
or press Command-R.
o Open - allows you to open an existing message that resides on your disk. This
functionality is duplicated with the 'Open' option in the File menu.
o Save - permits you to save the frontmost message to disk. This option is also
duplicated in the File menu.
o To: - this option allows you to select the target of this message. A dialog box
will appear. On the left it lists Macs on the network. On the right it lists
programs on the selected Mac capable of receiving your message. Only
Speed Message II (or whatever it's called) will appear on this list.
o Send - Send the message to the target you specified with the 'To:' button! This
button is enabled only when you have selected a target.
To send a message, type in your text and record your voice component, select the target via the dialog box described under the 'To:' button description above and click the 'Send' button. That's all there is to it!
If your message is not received by the target (which could happen if the program is in the background and they are not present in the room to bring it to the fore), a notification will be sent to you so that you can either retry later or use a different means of communicating your message.
Receiving A Message
------------------
If someone is sending you a message, you will either have to do nothing to receive it (which happens when the program is the frontmost), or you will be notified by a little flashing 'Mail' icon in the upper right of your screen telling you to bring the program to the front. You must do this to receive the message.
Once the message is received, the voice component, if any, will be played. You can then elect to save the message, add more text to it and reply, or simply dispose of it.
Preferences
-----------
There are two things about the program you can change (other than its name, of course). One is the sound by which you are tipped off that a message awaits you. The other is the duration (1 to 15 minutes) that SMII will wait in the background with a message before it just chucks the whole thing because you ignored it.
To change either of these options, select 'Preferences' from the Edit menu and manipulate the dialog that appears accordingly.
End
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That is really all there is to it. Now, go send lots o' messages to your friends!
Shareware Notice!
-----------------
This program is shareware. Yup. So, if you want to keep it (after giving it a trial run, of course) you must send a check for $10.00 (a small price to pay -- US Dollars only, please) to the address below. You'll then be free from extreme feelings of guilt and you might even feel all warm and fuzzy inside...er, then again, maybe not.
Send the $10.00 fee to:
Scott A. Johnson
3916-12 Newport Avenue
Fort Wayne, Indiana 46805
Please note that this address will probably change sometime in 1993, after which you should send a note to DevScott on AOL for the latest address.
How Speed Message Came to Be...
-----------------------------
Prior to joining the IS department of the company for whom I painstakingly toil, I worked in the Sales department as a special cost analysis kind of person. For a brief time I had a single employee (kinda) who helped me get special quotations out to customers. She had a Macintosh IIsi and I had a Macintosh IIci. We both loved our Macs. Anyway, there was often a need for me to contact her or for her to contact me with a question, but we were far apart from each other in the office. But not far apart enough that I couldn't convince the sales manager (my superior at the time) to purchase the equipment necessary to connect us, which was essentially a phone line and two PhoneNet connectors. Wow! Network city! System 7 file sharing heaven! Now all I needed was a way to send notes to my cohort over there on the other side of the wall. Hmmm...gosh, I didn't want to spend $100 or $200 dollars just to send a note or two (nor did my supervisor :/ ). Hence, SpeedMessage (the first) was born. It just so happened that System 7 had recently been released and I was learning to program the Mac using all these wonderous new capabilities. AppleEvents caught my eye and I chose to use them for this simple task of sending notes.
My fellow Mac enthusiast and I used the program with great success for awhile. But I got the urge (as I usually do) to improve upon my new creation. So, I added voice capabilities to SpeedMessage. Unfortunately, I could (and can) only send very short voice messages (because I still know very little about the PPC Toolbox). But simply having the ability to add a voice annotation was still way cool. I felt comfortable enough with the program, that I released SpeedMessage as my first shareware/freeware product. This was sometime in December of 1991. Of course, looking back, I now see all of its numerous deficiencies and decided that an update was required...hence Speed Message II. I hope this new version will serve all its users well!
