Working with Downloaded Files
I found this article interesting—but I seem to have another downloading problem. I have just installed Mac OS X, which, by and large, seems great. But when I try to save an e-mail from …@yahoo.com.au, it appears to save, but displays only machine-code gibberish. I am using Netscape 6.2 because it is OS X-native and other Web pages appear to be downloading fine. I hope you can shed some light on this problem.
—Andrew Lyons
I set up a Yahoo mail account (US, not AU) using Netscape Communicator 4.75 and saved a complicated mail file (with graphics and formatted text). When double-clicked, it opened in Netscape Communicator and was readable. It also was readable from text editors. There is a menu at the bottom of Communicator’s “Save As” window with format choices. Did you inadvertently save as “source” instead of “text”? That could be why you see gibberish. —Gregory Tetrault
Update Mac OS 9.0.4?
First question: What good is Mac OS 9.2 relative to OS 9.0.4? From the Apple site, It seems like it has plenty of problems but I can’t find anything about its presumed virtues.
Second question: (Running OS 9.0.4 on a PCI G4) For reasons having to do with having to remove and then replace a defective hard drive, I now have two internal drives installed, properly jumpered for master and slave. The master drive is a large, recent-model ATA Ultra (HFS+). The slave is a quite old, small (500 MB) ATA unit (HFS). Both drives contain startup volumes. If I do not select a startup disk, either of the two may be chosen as the startup disk. If I select the master drive, occasionally the slave is used as the startup disk.
Here comes the zinger: if I select the slave drive for startup, the system starts up on the master drive and the slave disk is nowhere to be seen. That is, it doesn’t show up for muster, and Drive Setup can’t see it either. This is most un-Macintosh behavior, possibly having to do with the age of the slave drive (scavenged from an old Performa box), but it performed flawlessly when for a time it was the only drive mounted in the G4. Any thoughts? I hope so.
—Ed Williams
I would stick with 9.0.4. I am running 9.0.4 on some of my machines and 9.2 on others. I have not experienced problems with 9.2 but see no real incentive to upgrade unless you will be working with OS X.
It sounds to me as if you have jumpered the drives incorrectly. Some ATA drives are misleading because they have a master mode and then a second jumper setting for master if the drive is in a two-drive bus. In other words you must jump the master differently if there will be a slave drive present. Otherwise you will get erratic behavior such as you are experiencing. —Evan Trent
Booting with Norton SystemWorks on a New Mac
I purchased a new iBook, a 600MHz G3 with Mac OS 9.2.2 and Mac OS 10.1.2. I am unable to run my Norton Utilities 6.0 Speed disk to optimize my hard drive. Holding down the letter C while starting up from the Norton Disk does not work. How can I get Norton to work? Thanks.
—Joseph Younse
I recommend that you get the latest Norton Utilities update (6.0.3 as of today). Then you will need to create a new startup disk.
Option 1: Create a second hard disk partition that contains an OS and Norton Utilities. Boot from this partition to optimize your main partition.
Option 2: Create a startup disk on an external drive (hard drive or removable), install Norton Utilities, and boot from the external drive.
Option 3: If you have a CD burner, you can create a bootable CD that includes an OS version compatible with your iBook and Norton Utilities. I recommend that you perform a clean install of 9.2.2 (a universal installation that will work on many Mac models) on your hard drive, restart from that OS, install the Norton Utilities extensions into that OS, and then copy the System Folder and your Norton files onto a CD. You can also add any other utility programs to the CD. I used option 3 to create a bootable troubleshooting CD that works with all my Macintosh computers. —Gregory Tetrault
Adding Memory to a Rio
I bought a 64 MB SmartMedia card. When I put it in, the internal is 64 MB, but the external is still 0. I don’t know why it won’t give me extra memory. I heard you have to download something. Are you suppose to download something into your Rio 500? My version for Rio 500 is 1.04. How do you upgrade it?
—Kurt Binnig
Try this Sonic Blue page. I also added a chip to my Rio 500 and it made it much more fun! Now, of course, I’ve caved and bought an iPod, but the Rio lives on for my roommate. —Ellyn Ritterskamp
Weather Software
I want my weather to be on my screen so I can see it without searching. Can you tell me a way to do this? Your best fan,
—Buddy
My favorite is Son of Weather Grok. It works on both OS X and OS 9, and in OS X can even use the dock to display the info. —Daniel Chvatik
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Reader Comments (7)
Ref. Apple knowledgebase article #25134.
Symptom: The amount of available space on your computer's hard disk seems to be dramatically decreasing even though you're not saving any large files on it. This symptom seems to occur especially after the computer stops responding or "freezes" when you are using a graphics application like Photoshop.
Products affected: Mac OS 9.0 through 9.0.4
Solution: Install Mac OS 9.1. An update to Mac OS 9.1 is available from Apple Software Updates.
king_kornpop@yahoo.com
The best suggestion we can offer is to see if you can borrow a larger Smart Media card and try it. It's highly improbably that you'll damage anything by trying a larger card. The worst-case scenario is that the player will either display an error and not function until a proper-size card is inserted, or only 128MB of the card's full capacity will be recognized. If it does work, then go buy yourself a larger card.
Otherwise, you should search for a Rio-specific forum to see if anyone's found a hack to use larger cards.
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