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A crash course on DNS
LOGIC member Derek Tsang presents a crash course in DNS. The article explains what the domain name system is, why it exists, how to work with DNS (including zonefiles and A, MX records), and the implications of a centralised DNS system.

Digital Imaging vs Traditional Film
Long-time LOGIC member Ken Nelson has written an in-depth series on traditional 35 mm film and digital imaging. Read about the technology that has recorded memories for a century, and learn about the digital technology that is superceding traditional film. The series is divided into several parts:

• Film - Part I - Background
• Film - Part II - Colour Film
• Film - Part III - Specialty Film

• Digital - Part I - Digital Stills

BBS tutorial
Do you have trouble getting onto our BBS? Be sure to consult Mark Sissons' tutorial.

OS X Tips

Useful Programs

• Want a Trash Can on the desktop instead of the dock? The feature is available from DragThing.
• Do you miss the old Application menu in the upper right corner? The feature is available from ASM.
• If you wished that screen snapshots were JPEG format, or that you could disable previews in column view, or put scroll arrows at both ends of the scroll bar, then you need TinkerTool. You can control font smoothing... Helpful if you have an LCD screen, such as on a laptop.
• FruitMenu lets you configure the OS X Apple menu to some degree.
• Xounds returns all the sound special effects for menus, windows, icons, etc.
• Renicer forces the frontmost program to have higher system priority than background programs, helping you to regains some of the responsiveness of OS 9 and earlier.
• USB Overdrive X lets you take maximum advantage of mice with scroll wheels, extra buttons, etc.
• XRay is helpful for trashcans that don't want to empty, and can fix problems with permission and ownership settings.
• Watson is a fantastic new internet program that far surpasses the abilities of Sherlock. Must be seen!
• PTHClock is a better clock than the one provided by Apple. It incorporates a drop-down monthly calendar feature.
• PTHCPUMonitor puts a small CPU bar graph (options for colour, etc) in the menu bar.
• BrickHouse lets you configure the built-in Apple firewall and DHCP server.
• MemoryStick lets you track your real and virtual memory use. Know when you are relying on your hard drive for virtual memory.
• Print Window gives you the feature of printing windows of files in the Finder, just like in OS 9 and earlier.
• Tri-BACKUP can do a full backup of your OS X to another drive (requires logging in as ROOT).
• Carbon Copy will let you quickly move your OS X installation to another drive or partition. Great tool if you buy a bigger HD and need to move your OS X files. Just dragging the files and folders won't work!
• BroadbandOrganizer improves downloading speed if you have a high-speed internet service.
• System Optimizer X updates executable library prebindings to speed up OS X performance. (Recommended method by Apple to speed up performance).
• HBImageProcessor lets you drag in an image file, adjust for cropping, size, rotation quickly, and then drag the result right into your email message, etc. without altering the original.

Did You Know

• You can't save your password in FirstClass. Newer versions of the FirstClass Client encrypt the password, which our server cannot recognize. To get around this problem, you can create a settings file in FirstClass 5.623, and then use this file with FirstClass.
• Double clicking on the title bar of a window minimizes the window into the dock (same as clicking on the yellow window control at the top left of a window).
• Choosing Get Info... for a file and changing the popup menu lets you access a feature to alter what program will open that file (or all files of that type).
• When you enable file sharing, you are giving your sharing access to just the "Public" folder in your user area. There is a "drop-box" inside this public folder.
• Command-Option-Esc key sequence lets you force-quit a problem program, but to stop a hidden process, you need to launch the Process Viewer utility (in Applications/Utilities/).
• You can grab a screen snapshot that grabs the image after a 10 second delay with the ability to capture menus pulled down, etc. You need to use the "Grab" utility (in Applications/Utilities/). You will also be able to pick a unique cursor pointer (Preferences).
• In System Preferences, you can hold COMMAND while clicking in the upper right window control (the translucent white one) to toggle between three views for the favourites bar.
• In the LOGIN settings in the System Preferences, do not include any CLASSIC applications. Also, do not configure the CLASSIC environment to load at boot time. This avoids a copy & paste bug between CLASSIC and native OS X applications. This problem will hopefully be fixed in the next update.
• You can prepare a new blank disc image in the Disk Copy utility (in Applications/Utilities/) and then burn a CD (if you have a recordable CD drive) right within the program... You don't need to use the Toast application.
• To view the progress of a print job on a laser printer, launch the Print Center utility, and then double-click on your printer in the list. You can suspend/cancel a job in the window that is opened.
• A two-button mouse is very useful in OS X. Consider purchasing one. A right-click represents a CONTROL-click on a single-button mouse. A file can be sent to the trash from the popup menu choices, or you can make an alias of the file. A right-click on the Trash icon lets you choose "Empty Trash." There are many uses of the contextual menus throughout the OS X interface.
• If you choose "About This Mac" while in the OS X Finder, and click on the version number (small text), it will also show the build number and if you click again, your computer serial number.
• If you hold down the COMMAND key, you can change the position of the menu bar controls for display, volume, etc. in the upper right.
• Holding down COMMAND-V during bootup will display all the loading of files for OS X.
• To rename a file without the usual delay, select it by any method, and hit return on your keyboard. You will be able to change the filename immediately.
• For easy startup of the Classic Environment, go to /System/Library/CoreServices/ and make an alias of the file "Classic Startup" located in that folder. Put on the desktop or in your Dock.
• In COCOA programs such as TextEdit and when using the OPEN or SAVE dialog windows, you can hold down OPTION while dragging the window wider... instead of more columns appearing, you will get two columns as wide as you need them to be for reading long file names.
• If you control click or right click on an active application icon in the dock you are presented with a menu. The bottom item in the menu is Quit. While the menu is visible hold down or tap the option key and the Quit menu choice changes to Force Quit.

OS Classic Tips

Useful Programs

• FileTyper lets you alter/view the TYPE and CREATOR codes for any file or program. Also lets you set a folder as invisible.
• CDFinder lets you catalogue your CDs, floppies, zip disks, hard drives, etc. Super fast search will tell you where that missing file is located, even if it is inside of a Stuffit archive.

Look for Useful Program downloads on VersionTracker.

Do you know of a good tip that you think would be useful for this page? Tell us!