Window Monkey 1.0
Company: Tiger Technologies
Shareware: $20.00
http://www.tigertech.com
Window Monkey is a very cool program that lets you add patterns to windows. While I was a little doubtful about its stability at first, those fears were soon laid to rest. This program worked great for me! (System 7.6.1)
With Window Monkey, you can add your desktop patterns to your windows. The control panel uses .pict clippings, the same as your Desktop Patterns control panel does, so it’s an easy matter to export your custom designs into your Window background. Window Monkey also comes with a collection of its own patterns, so those of you less skillful in the desktop pattern creation process can be at ease. If you like, you can have a different pattern for each window, or keep the same look throughout.
To change a Window pattern, you simply open that window, go to your “View” menu, and select “Pattern”. This will open an easy to use pattern display. (I wonder if someone ever thought of doing the same for the desktop patterns? Nahh, that would make too much sense.)
Also with Window Monkey, you get a new addition to your menu bar. This is a very handy utility that will let you switch between open applications, and select just what window you want to jump to. Also, when you select something to save in (say, ClarisWorks) this becomes a sort of navigational shortcut. Very handy indeed!
Overall, most of you will want to download and give Window Monkey a try. I love it, and I know you will, too! Well worth a look.
Download Window Monkey 1.0
Company: F.I.R.E. Systems, Inc.
Freeware
If you use removable media much, like I do (having a small hard drive), you quickly tire of trying to remember where anything is. Fortunately, there are a few shareware programs that can automate this process.
My favorite is DiskTracker. It’s not an extension, and it doesn’t automatically track disks every time they’re inserted. Personally, this would drive me crazy, as I pop them in and out fairly often. You have to launch it, but, once you do, it quickly and easily records everything. It takes about 15-20 seconds to buzz through an almost full Zip disk. I have four disks (including my hard drive) with 6,200 files, and the catalog only takes up 400k.
You can scan floppies in automatic mode, just sticking one in, waiting a few seconds until it’s ejected, then sticking in the next. You can be warned if the names are the same (such as “untitled”), or it can assign a unique ID number to each. All you ever need to write on the floppy is its number.
The main window works just like List Views in the Finder, with all of the same shortcuts and viewing options, so it’s instantly familiar. DiskTracker can read into stuffed archives. You can add an optional “notes” for each disk, with your own description.
Where it really pulls ahead of the competition is its search capabilities. It’s amazingly fast, much faster than the Finder (since it’s only searching a text list). It can quickly search for duplicates on a disk. You can do custom searches, like the 7.5 Find File, and you can create search filters. These are put together from built-in drop-down menus that offer every criteria you can imagine. The custom filters can be named and saved to use later. It has advanced label printing, for all different sizes. This would be useful for CD’s or fixed archives. There is an extensive online manual, which, though it lacks many navigational features, is well laid out and comprehensive.
Author: John Stiles
Freeware
http://www.cs.csubak.edu/~jstiles/kiss
Boy, I know I’m never going to hear the end of this…
First off, I have a three year-old daughter. She also knows how to use my Mac fairly well. She can click all her games on in the Launcher. She can do so much more than I would have thought a three year old capable of, but then again, kids are kids.
Anyway, Raechel loves games. She used to like KeyWhack when she was a toddler, but now that she’s three, her tastes have matured somewhat. Now, she likes to dress and feed all her babies and stuffed cats and dogs. And now, at least as far as the dressing goes, she can also use my Mac. Enter French Kiss.
French Kiss is a very simple program. You simply drag which clothing you want on or off of the female model. There are many places listed in the Read Me file included with French Kiss that can direct you to where you can go to get new and different graphics for the program, making French Kiss very expandable.
Now, I know that some of you are probably snickering at me right now. And that’s okay! See, I’m “Daddy” and that means that my daughter’s happiness comes first, my tough guy persona be damned. And one of the thing that makes my little Raechel laugh and have fun is this program. Now, I know many of you also have kids. And if yours are anything like mine, they’ll love this program. I figure that girls up to about the age of ten would enjoy French Kiss. I don’t think boys would enjoy French Kiss as much, for obvious reasons. Of course, if someone made this program so you could add gun turrets and missile racks to a Ford truck, you would have a real winner.
All in all, a great program that keeps my little one happy for at least a half-hour each day (when I let her play on the computer for that long). I will, of course, keep my eyes open for other good kids’ programs in the future, and would appreciate any suggestions from you all. If you know of any programs worth reviewing, or that you think my daughter would like, please let me know!
Download French Kiss 2.1.1
Tim Robertson (publisher@mymac.com)
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