Welcome to Sundial! Sundial displays time-lapse photography of a scenic location on your desktop, synchronized to the current time of day and geographical location. These release notes contain instructions for both the online demo and CD-ROM versions of Sundial, as well as last minute information, compatibility notes, common problems & solutions, and a change history.
DEMO INSTRUCTIONS
The online demo version of Sundial comes with one scene at one monitor resolution that changes approximately every hour from dawn to dusk. The demo version also has a 15-day time limit. The CD-ROM version for only $19.95 comes with ten scenes at three monitor resolutions that change every 5 minutes for 24 hours!
To install the Sundial demo, double-click on the enclosed installer. When installation completes restart your Macintosh. Then double-click the demo scene to view it on your desktop. To see a quick preview of the entire demo scene, open the Sundial control panel, click "Choose Scene…", click once on the demo scene and play the preview that appears on the left in the scene selection dialog.
Sundial requires QuickTime 2.1 or later to operate. If you do not have an appropriate version of QuickTime installed on your Macintosh, install it from your system software CD or download it for free from the Apple QuickTime web site at http://www.quicktime.apple.com/.
For more information about Sundial, please refer to the enclosed electronic brochure and manual. To view the brochure or manual you must have the Adobe Acrobat Reader software installed on your system. If you do not have this software you can download it for free from the Adobe Systems web site at http://www.adobe.com/.
To order the CD-ROM version of Sundial for only $19.95, please visit the John Neil & Associates web site at http://www.jna.com/, send e-mail to sales@jna.com, or call (800) 663-2943.
CD-ROM INSTRUCTIONS
To install Sundial, double-click on the installer on the Sundial CD-ROM. If you do not have QuickTime installed on your Macintosh, double-click on the installer in the QuickTime folder on the Sundial CD-ROM to install QuickTime. If you have previously installed the demo version of Sundial, you do not have to re-install the software. Instead, register your demo version by opening the Sundial control panel and clicking the register button. After you enter a valid serial number the demo version will become fully functional with no time limit.
For more information about Sundial, please refer to the Sundial manual.
LAST MINUTE INFORMATION
The following information did not have time to make it into the Sundial manual:
• Sundial works with any display color depth, but looks best and is most efficient when the display color depth is set to "thousands" or "millions". To examine your current display color depth, look in the Monitors & Sound or Monitors control panel.
• The Sundial CD-ROM contains three different sizes of images to match popular display sizes. If these images are too small for your display, larger images are available for a nominal fee from John Neil & Associates.
• There is a very short delay when Sundial updates to the next image in the selected scene, during which you will not be able to type or click the mouse. The exact length of the delay depends on your computer performance. If this delay is a problem on your computer, increase the update interval in the Sundial control panel to reduce the number of Sundial updates.
• On some systems with Virtual Memory enabled, you may experience a pause of up to 30 seconds shortly after Sundial starts up. During this pause you will hear extensive hard disk activity. This pause is normal and will only happen once. To eliminate the pause, enable the "Close scene between frames" checkbox in the Sundial control panel or turn off Virtual Memory in the Memory control panel.
• On multi-processor systems, Sundial may usurp one of the processors, reducing performance. To avoid this problem turn on the "Close scene between frames" option in the Sundial control panel.
• If you experience repeated -2003, -2004, -8961, or -8969 OS errors when starting your computer or changing Sundial settings, try increasing the QuickTime memory limit or enabling the "Close scene between frames" checkbox in the Sundial control panel.
• If you have external SCSI devices and experience random Sundial crashes, try disconnecting all external SCSI devices and see if the crashes go away. If they do, you may have a misconfigured SCSI bus. Check the ID and termination of all internal and external SCSI devices and verify that you are using high-quality SCSI cables. For more information on configuring your SCSI bus, consult your system manual.
COMPATIBILITY NOTES
While we have made our best effort to make Sundial compatible with other applications, some special circumstances exist that you should be aware of:
• AfterDark (Berkeley Systems): Sundial desktop updates may prevent AfterDark from activating. To avoid this problem, turn off the SystemIQ™ activity monitor feature in AfterDark. Also, Sundial is not compatible with the WallZapper feature of AfterDark 3.0 and later, since both Sundial and WallZapper replace the desktop. If you have AfterDark installed with Sundial do not use the WallZapper feature.
• ColorDesk (MicroSeeds): Sundial is not compatible with other applications that replace the desktop. You should disable ColorDesk when Sundial is installed.
• Command & Conquer (Westwood Studios): The Display Library 1.0b1 extension installed by Command & Conquer causes Finder desktop icons to flash every time Sundial updates the desktop. If you have System 8.0 or later you can delete this extension as its functionality is included in OS 8.
• Desktop Pictures (Apple Computer): Sundial is not compatible with other applications that replace the desktop. You should remove any desktop picture that you have selected when Sundial is installed.
• DeskPicture (Peirce Software): Sundial is not compatible with other applications that replace the desktop. You should disable DeskPicture when Sundial is installed.
• Now Contact (Now Software): Some versions of the QuickContact control panel that ships with Now Contact may cause the Sundial control panel to crash if the Sundial control panel is launched immediately after system startup. To avoid this problem, upgrade to System 7.5.5 or later or do not make the Sundial control panel a startup item if you have Quick Contact installed.
• Timbuktu (Farallon): When Sundial is installed on the remote machine, it can be difficult to log-in with Timbuktu over a modem connection because of the time required to transfer the Sundial desktop. To alleviate this problem, disable the "Allow users to connect in color" option in Timbuktu on the remote machine.
COMMON PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS
Problem: The time of sunrise or sunset on your computer is off from actual sunrise or sunset at your location.
Solutions:
• Make sure the date and time are set correctly on your computer.
• Make sure that your location is specified accurately in the Map control panel.
• Make sure that the hours offset to Greenwich Mean Time ("Time Zone") is set correctly in the Map control panel. If you do not know the correct setting for this field, call your long-distance operator. Because of a bug in the Map control panel, this field can be set incorrectly if the Daylight Savings Time box is checked in the Date & Time control panel. See "Starting the Program for the First Time" in the Sundial manual for information on how to avoid this problem when changing the location.
CHANGE HISTORY
Changes from version 2.01 to 2.02:
• Fixed a bug that caused PowerBooks not to auto-switch the scene if the switch scene time passed while the PowerBook was asleep.
• Fixed a bug that caused a crash if the Display Library 1.0b1 extension was installed.
• Fixed a bug that caused a crash if the user entered more than 31 characters in any of the fields of the serialization dialog.
• Added demo mode.
Changes from version 2.0 to 2.01:
• Smoother desktop updates with System 8.0 and later.
• On button now disabled until user selects a scene file.
