In my short career as a freeware/shareware author, I've developed the following utilities:
MyBattery (shareware)
 
Current version: 2.2.3
Runs on: Any notebook Macintosh (Macintosh Portable, PowerBook, or PowerBook Duo)
Requires: System 6.0.8 or later
Registration fee: $10
MyBattery is the essential battery monitoring tool for Macintosh notebook owners! David Pogue of MacWorld loved its "super-cool fuel gauge." MyBattery features include:
• A variety of graphical displays of current battery voltage, such as bar graph, "gas gauge", and line plot (voltage vs time) displays.
• Accurately estimates how much battery life remaining - and it "learns" to adjust the estimate to be more accurate for your particular PowerBook.
• Multiple battery support.
• Indicators for AppleTalk, CPU Speed, and battery charger status.
• User-configurable menu bar displays.
• Color & grayscale support.
• Battery charger status (hi-charge, lo-charge, running off internal battery).
• Compatible with any portable Macintosh that supports the Power Manager (Macintosh Portable, all PowerBooks, Duo's, etc.).
• Compatible with System 6.0.8 or later (System 7.x friendly).
• Stand-alone application, for minimum conflicts and maximum RAM flexibility.
Insomniac (shareware)
 
Current version: 1.0.2
Runs on: Macintosh Portable, PowerBook 100, any PowerBook Duo
Requires: System 6.0.8 or later
Registration fee: $10
Some PowerBooks (the Macintosh Portable, PowerBook 100, and the Duos) have the ability to wake themselves up. This is very convenient, for automatically sending faxes or email in the middle of the night.
However, the "PowerBook" or "Portable" Control Panel provided by Apple only allows you to enter a single wakeup time. This prevents you from scheduling multiple wake-up sessions. For example, if you wanted to send your faxes at 1:00am, and then download some files at 2:00am, you'd have to stay up until 1:00am, and reset the wakeup timer manually.
Insomniac allows you to program up to fifty wakeup "events" (registered copies only). Therefore, you can have your PowerBook wake up several times during the night, or even program it to wake up once a night for weeks on end.
Threshold (shareware)
 
Current version: 1.0.4
Runs on: Macintosh Portable, any "all-in-one" PowerBook (100 to 180c)
Requires: System 7.0 or later
Registration fee: $10
As we PowerBook owners all know, the PowerBook is smart enough to warn you when your battery is getting low. Unfortunately, these warnings can be conservative, especially with external batteries.
Threshold changes all that! With Threshold, you can adjust the voltages at which the warnings occur. This allows you to alter the warnings so that they come up later than usual, giving you more productive battery time. In addition to the default Apple warnings, you can program up to three custom warning sets.
Threshold sports a concise graphical display. It shows an analog graph representing current battery voltage, with the current warning points illustrated. There is also a battery status indicator, an elapsed timer, and a sleep button. You can also easily adjust the warning thresholds via up & down arrows.
Of course, color and grayscale displays are supported.
DeepDischarge (shareware)
 
Current version: 1.1.0
Runs on: Any PowerBook with a NiCad or NiHy battery (140 through 180c, Duos)
Requires: System 7.0 or later
Registration fee: $5
NiCad and NiHy batteries, like the ones used in most PowerBooks, are subject to a "memory effect" that can diminish their ability to hold a charge. This effect can be cured by fully discharging your battery before recharging it.
DeepDischarge will quickly and efficiently discharge your battery, much faster and more thoroughly than the technique recommended by Apple in your PowerBook's manual. It provides both visual and audible status on how the discharge is proceeding.
ClockSync (shareware)
 
Current version: 0.9.0
Runs on: Any Macintosh
Requires: System 6.0.7 or later (filesharing required)
Registration fee: $5
If you have two or more Macintoshes, you probably notice that the clocks drift apart as time goes by. This can range from being a minor nuisance to a real pain, especially if you tend to do a lot of file synchronizing between the two Macintoshes. ClockSync synchronizes the clocks between two Macintoshes, by setting the clock of "servant" Macintoshes to be the same as the clock of a "master" Macintosh. While really helpful in large Macintosh networks, it's also a big help if you just have two!
This is probably the simplest utility to operate. Place a copy of ClockSync on your "master" file server, and run it from your "servant". ClockSync will automatically sync 'em up!
CPUSpeedDisplay (freeware)
 
Current version: 1.0.2
Runs on: Any notebook Macintosh (Macintosh Portable, PowerBook, or PowerBook Duo)
Requires: System 6.0.8 or later
Registration fee: None
CPUSpeedDisplay is a teeny application for any notebook Macintosh. It does what it says: it displays the current CPU speed in Megahertz. I wrote this utility to aid me in developing other utilities, and I thought it might be handy for others as well.
Where are they?
The latest versions of these programs are posted by me in the following places:
• America Online - the Macintosh Utilities Forum (keyword: MUT, or use QuickFinder to search for JBKezer).
• CompuServe - The PowerBook software libraries in the Macintosh Forum (go: MACINTOSH).
• Internet - The Sumex-aim Macintosh archives, and the University of Michigan Macintosh archives.
The utilities may be found on other online services, as gracious people spread them around.
More Information
If you desire more information about any of these programs, please contact me at:
