News

Older PC Exchange may work in cases where Mac OS 8.5's File Exchange does not

Addie Teagardin and Brooks Weisblat both report problems with using the Ariston USB iRead PC/SmartMedia card reader (running Mac OS 8.5.x). In one case, inserting a SmartMedia card led to a system crash; in the other it resulted in the card being listed as unreadable. I am not sure how widespread such problems may be. However, of particular interest was the work-around that Addie discovered: Reinstalling PC Exchange and Mac OS Easy Open (from Mac OS 8.0) allowed the card reader to work (even though Mac OS 8.5's File Exchange should have made these … Read more

MacPac 2.1 arrives!

More recent reports (from Warren Holz and others) of the suspected new strain of SevenDust/666 virus (as reported last time) now suggest that it may simply be an already known strain C version of the virus - that went undetected by some (although certainly not all) anti-virus detectors. For example, as noted by Symantec's Lee Gummerman: "Norton AntiVirus for Mac does detect and repair (in this case, by deleting) SevenDust C (features of this strain: polymorphic, encrypted, no payload)."

In any case, new versions of The Exorcist and Agax (two freeware utilities that deal with this … Read more

Yamaha firmware update problem when using SCSI cards?

This item has been moved to Troubleshooting SCSI Cards.

Odds & Ends

Kodak and Yamaha conflict We have word that Kodak Type F discs are not compatible with the Yamaha CDR400 and (possibly) the CDR200 drives.

Get Info comments lost when sending email attachments? Scott Rose found that "if you send an attachment through email, any comments in the Get Info box are erased."

Formac SCSI card for iMac needs termination or iMac will not start? Lorenzo Perone found that he could not startup his revision B iMac after installing the Formac iProRaid UW-SCSI card (the one that goes in the "unsupported" mezzanine slot) unless there was a … Read more

Symantec to use StuffIt 5.x technology

Symantec has grappled with the same issue of whether or not to use StuffIt Expander 5.x that I confronted last week. They have chosen to use the 5.x technology, which means that you will need StuffIt Expander 5.x to decompress their March 1999 virus definitions (just released). (Thanks, Monty Solomon.)

Macworld names MacFixIt as "Best Troubleshooting Site"

The April 1999 issue of Macworld has an article titled "The Macworld Web Traveler's Companion." It is essentially a list of recommended web sites, divided intovarious categories. Only the first section ("Mac-Centric Surfing") deals specifically with Mac sites. It has three categories (troubleshooting, shopping and shareware). MacFixIt was selected as the "Best Troubleshooting Site." [The article itself is not yet online; I will provide a link when it arrives.]