Odds & Ends: QuickTime 5.0.2 coming; MouseWorks glitch confirmed; MacAfee re Simpsons; more

QuickTime 5.0.2b2 has been seeded to developers. Sorenson 3 is included. You can now Add and Add Scaled to MPEG movies again. It includes several other fixes, stability and performance improvements.

Kensington confirms MouseWorks 5.6 glitch A MacFixIt reader upgraded to MouseWorks 5.6 (from 5.4.1) and discovered problems with modifier keys. When using the buttons or the popup menu, the modifiers are not activated as they should. For example "Control-Click" behaves like "Click". The same happens with "Command," "Shift" and "Option." Kensington Tech Support replied: "We have had a few reports of this problem on ADB based Macs when using Mac OS 9.1 and MouseWorks 5.6. At the moment we do not have a resolution to the problem and would have to recommend going back to version 5.41 of MouseWorks to regain the lost functionality."

Update: For one reader, this was linked to a conflict with StuffIt's True Finder Integration 5.5.1.

MacAfee re Simpsons worm A MacAfee web page offers advice on eradicating the Simpsons worm: "Reboot your system with the extensions turned off. Delete the file System Folder:Startup Items:Simpsons Episodes." (Thanks, Mark Mason.)

PowerBook G4 surface "wearing out"? Michael Kaye writes: "I've had my G4 PB for 2 months now and everything's been fine. However it the last few days I've noticed that its literally wearing out - that is the paint is wearing off. Specifically where by wrist normally sits on the bottom right hand edge, there are patches where the paint has just worn away. More worrying is that the area I use on my TrackPad most often, has also worn away. Gone is the matt easy slide paint and in its place is a shiny bright patch which unfortunately is not so conducive to sliding making controlling the trackpad very difficult."

Update: Here's a photo showing the discoloration of the TrackPad.

Don't save files in packages! A reminder: A Save dialog box may allow you to save a document inside a Carbonized application/package (as it is really a sort of folder) - such as AppleWorks 6.1.2. You obviously should not do this. Once saved there, you'll have a hard time locating it again. Even Sherlock will not spot it. However, David Oshel (who did this by mistake) found that Greg's Browser could locate the apparently missing file. Other similar utilities would likely also work.

AirPort setup change fixes assorted symptoms Katie Berryhill was having an assortment of problems: (1) Thursby Software's Dave 2.5.2 could not connect via AirPort to the other computers on the network; (2) Virtual PC 4.0 could not see other drives (PC) on the network via AirPort (but would see printers); (3) A PC using AirPort could see the other PCs on the network in Windows Explorer, but PCAnywhere could not see them. It turned out one fix solved all the problems: The AirPort Base Station must be set up in bridging mode (not set to distribute IP addresses in any way).

Pro Skater fix Doug Howle writes: "I installed Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 on my rev. A iMac and it would not run with my Microconversion's Game Wizard Voodoo II card until I disabled the Game Wizard drivers and installed the 3DFX Voodoo2 beta 5 drivers."

SoundSticks item updated We added an update to yesterday's item on SoundSticks problems. It includes a reply from Harman-Multimedia as well as a report confirming that, at least in some cases, the problem is linked to having a GeForce3 card installed.