Much of the content this month revolves around customizing the standard finder and navigational interface that drives your mac. Keep in mind that most, if not all, of these programs affect your system on a low level, and may cause conflicts and system corruption. Before using anything on this month's disc, do yourself a favor and back up anything important.
We are NOT RESPONSIBLE for any problems caused by using the software on this disc. If you use our disc, you are doing so at YOUR OWN RISK (please read the legal disclaimer and agreement of usage document at the root level of the disc). We test things out as much as possible before sending it out, but we can't exhaustively test out each piece of software on every type of machine and system configuration each month. If you lose data, or your system becomes corrupted, or your computer blows up, don't say I didn't warn you.
Using the Disc
The Director Interface (i.e. MacAddict Tour)
Pressing command + Q will quit the interface from anywhere in the interface.
When you double-click on one of the "start here" icons (either 68k or PPC), you launch our custom-designed director interface. BE AWARE before doing so that the director interface requires you to have AT LEAST 16 MB of real RAM (i.e. without RamDoubler or some other software ram, such as virtual memory) under system 7.5 and AT LEAST 12 MB of real RAM under system 7.1 to devote to the director interface.
This is IN ADDITION TO the amount of RAM used by your system software. For example, if you have exactly 16 MB of real RAM installed and you are running system 7.5.x, you will not be able to reliably run the interface because your system software takes up some of that RAM.
If you aren't sure what version of the system software you are using or how much RAM you have installed, select the "About This Macintosh..." menu item under the Apple menu in the Finder. The version of your system software and some memory details will be displayed. Without any applications running, look at the number labeled "Largest Unused Block." If it is 16,000K or greater (or 12,000 or greater with system 7.1 or earlier) you can run the director interface.
If you don't have the required amount of RAM, launching one of the "start here" icons is just asking for trouble. It will probably launch, and then at some point your computer will freeze up or give you a strange error.
Okay, Wiseguy, I don't have enough RAM...is my Phat Disc useless?
No! You can still just use the ol' finder to look through the disc and install what you want, even if you can't run the director interface. The disc is organized similarly to the magazine's sections, so you can easily find things that are mentioned in a specific section. You can also see the readme files in the shareware folder and the essentials folder to get more info on the programs in those folders.
Many of the installers will give you information about a program when launched, with the option to cancel before you actually install anything. If you can't seem to find any info on something, try this method. Also, many of our installers do NOT put extensions, control panels, etc. into your system folder for you. They simply install a folder on your desktop with all the necessary parts with instructions on where to put them. This way, you will know exactly what went into your system folder (because you put it there personally) and you won't have to go hunting to get rid of it.
Unfortunately, some of the installers are not made by us, and we can't control their behaviour.
Installing Stuff From the Disc
When you use the software from our disc, PLEASE be careful! We try to test everything before we put it on the disc, but due to possible installer corruptions, bad discs, conflicts with your particular system, a less tolerant cd drive (meaning it is less forgiving of minor flaws on a cd), and a myriad of other variables beyond our control, you may still have problems with some or all of the programs on the disc.
To avoid causing yourself frustration and possibly losing important data, the first thing you should do is BACK UP IMPORTANT FILES before using anything on our disc. Then, install things ONE AT A TIME and try them out to make sure they don't cause problems on your system before installing the next one. You will save yourself a great deal of trouble.
Keep in mind that none of the software on the disc is written by us, so we can only offer limited technical support if you call or email us. You should always try to contact the author or company directly, since they are the ones that wrote it. Again, any program you use from our disc is at your own risk (please read the legal disclaimer and agreement of usage document at the root level of the disc).
