Insomniac is a utility program designed specifically for any portable Macintosh that is able to “wake” itself up (currently, the Macintosh Portable, PowerBook 100, or PowerBook Duo models).
Apple provides you, through the “PowerBook” or “Portable” control panel, a way of setting the wakeup time of your PowerBook. This is very handy for automatically sending faxes or electronic mail in the middle of the night, when rates are lower and computer systems are quieter. However, with these control panels, you can only set a single wake up time.
Insomniac allows you to program up to fifty wakeup “events” (registered copies only). Consequently, you can have your PowerBook wake up and send your faxes at 1:00am, fall back to sleep, wake up at 2:00am to send your electronic mail, and so on. Or, you can use Insomniac to program a repetitive wakeup time (like 1:00am every night) for weeks.
Why an application?
I chose to implement Insomniac as a application for several reasons:
1) To prevent control panel conflicts. With so many control panels out there, it’s likely that if I had implemented Insomniac as one, it would find some control panel to interfere with.
2) Memory flexibility. Memory on PowerBooks is still at a premium, compared to desktop Macs. Don’t want Insomniac to consume memory? Just quit from it - no restarting your computer, like you would with a control panel.
3) Battery life. If you want to prevent a control panel from running, you have to remove it from your System folder, and then reboot. This consumes lots of battery juice. If you don’t need Insomniac, just quit it.
Insomniac is shareware!
Insomniac is a shareware product. If you find it useful, please consider paying the shareware registration fee. Not only will you help to support my efforts, but by becoming a registered user, I will provide you with a secret password that will fully activate all of Insomniac's advanced features. Please see the "Registration form" chapter in this manual for more information.
Why Register?
When you register your copy of Insomniac, you will be able to program up to 50 wakeup events, as opposed to 2 in unregistered copies. Also, you will be notified of future upgrades.
