Existing users, 
User Name Mark Douma
Member Since 2001-03-22
Total number of Feedback Posts: 99
Total number of comments: 20
Last 10 Feedback Posts by Mark Douma [ Search for All ]
LaunchOnTime 1.0.8 (Mac OS X)
The main interface of this application is Cocoa and it appears to be written in Objective-C. In one window it provides a calendar-and-clock style "date picker" interface object, similar to what's used in the Date & Time preference pane of System Preferences. This interface object is also known as an "NSDatePicker" object, and Apple first introduced it in OS X 10.4. So, in OS X 10.4 it's extremely easy for a developer to show a calendar, a simple drag and drop in Interface Builder and a few lines of code, and you're set. Prior to OS X 10.4, a developer could spend months trying to create a similar interface themselves. Versions of OS X 10.3 and earlier are unable display these types of objects which are created in later versions of OS X. [alert admin]
Wednesday, July 25 2007 @ 02:07 PM PDT
VLC media player 0.8.6a (Mac OS X)
Crashing problems fixed! (Workaround)
I took a look at the crash log and discovered that what's causing the crashes is VLC's "libopengl_plugin.dylib". To workaround this issue:
-
1) Launch VLC by itself without opening a file.
2) Open the Preferences window and click the "Advanced" checkbox at the bottom left of the window.
3) In the left area of the window, click the disclosure triangle for "Video" and then select the "Output modules" item. In the pane to the right, there should be a single "Video output module" popup menu.
4) Click the popup button and change the setting from "Default" to "Quartz video".
5) Click the Save button to save your preferences, and then quit out of VLC.
6) Re-launch VLC, open a movie, and enjoy!
Mark Douma [alert admin]
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Tuesday, January 30 2007 @ 10:50 PM PST
Font Reserve 3.1.4 (Mac OS 9, Mac OS X)
Hey, I noticed version 3.1.4 includes some cool bonus features. First, it includes a useless second copy of 74 icon and resource files in the Font Reserve Browser.app/Contents/MacOSClassic/ folder, in addition to the copies in the Font Reserve Browser.app/Contents/Resources/ folder. Not only that, but it even includes the .r (Rez Source File) source code for the resource files. [alert admin]
Post a comment | More Info | 1 of 2 users found this helpful
Monday, June 27 2005 @ 09:42 PM PDT
HexEdit 1.90 (Mac OS 9, Mac OS X)
I'm guessing that you have Stuffit Expander 8.0.0. HexEdit Fat is a single-file, dual-fork CFM Carbon application, while HexEdit.app is a bundle-style Mach-O application. The archive that's provided is a .sit archive. Stuffit Expander 8.0.0 didn't, by request from Apple, set the executable bits of files that were expanded. Mach-O executables need to have their executable bits set to run properly, while permissions on CFM applications are simply ignored. That's why the CFM one runs, and the Mach-O one doesn't. You can get the latest version of Stuffit which should expand the archive "properly" and cause the app to run correctly. Hope this helps.... [alert admin]
Post a comment | More Info | 2 of 2 users found this helpful
Thursday, October 28 2004 @ 08:01 AM PDT
()
Tyaris Major: I couldn't agree with you more! Exactly the same thing I was thinking as I was using it briefly.
I'm not going to give this app a star rating, as it's free, but I'd really encourage the developers to rethink the user interface.
Realizing the Finder's FTP access is read-only, I've perused the some of the FTP clients available. This one comes close, but doesn't quite do it for me.
First of all, if this app is listed as 10.3 only, then why in the world don't you use an NSSegmentedControl as the View switcher widget rather than 3 NSButtons? Also, there's no Alt icon so I can't tell which one is selected (though, yes, I can figure it out by looking at the view the window is in, but still...).
There are just some things of the interface that are close, but not quite, and as such, they bring attention to themselves. Something about the sort-by popup menus didn't seem right to me, so I took a look in Interface Builder. Why in the world would you use a Small System Font on the Regular size NSPopupButtons? Apple advises against mixing sizes across different controls, and you're mixing them right within the control itself. Then, in one of the other preference nib, the text size was changed to 12 point on the NSPopupButton--halfway between System Font and Small System Font. If the size of the control is regular, the text should be System Font. Also, when you resize the NSToolbar to use the Small option, the popup menus still remain standard size rather than changing to a small size along with everything else.
Check out the Apple's Human User Interface guidelines. Read them. Then read them again. Then read them again backwards. Internalize them. [alert admin]
Post a comment | More Info | 0 of 1 users found this helpful
Saturday, August 07 2004 @ 03:55 AM PDT
Fish 1.0 (Mac OS X)
With sound added and a few interface tweaks, this could probably easily walk away with an Apple Design Award. I'd prefer to see the right and left drawers switched around, as I'm used to things like playlists and such in iTunes being on the left side as well. I'd also make the width of the fish list area allowed to resize to accommodate the widths of the fish names (I actually did this myself quick by opening the .nib in Interface Builder.) Would also be nice if like the coloring for the Shark were dimmed unless I selected a shark in my fish list, and other minor things like that.... Would be cool, I think, if the fish would actually eat each other, rather than relying on food... Unless they do that already, I dunno. (That'd be cool if there were piranhas, and you cranked them up on a school of angelfish, lol--blood clouds in the water and stuff...) Sound would be cool too, but my guess is that could get rather complex pretty fast, as the acoustics would vary based on what camera position you were in, and the distance of all the objects are from each other. Then again, there's probably some sort of equation for it, as there is for light. Anyway, cool app overall, and I'm sure it worked well as a final project. [alert admin]
Post a comment | More Info | 1 of 1 users found this helpful
Saturday, July 10 2004 @ 08:35 PM PDT
Panther Cache Cleaner 2.3.5 (Mac OS X)
By the way, regarding .DS_Store files....
Just in case you weren't aware, .DS_Store files hold more than just the view settings for Finder windows. These .DS_Store files are also where the OS X Finder Comments are stored for folders and files which have them set. I'm not sure if the author of this app bothers to point that out anywhere, but if you make regular use of file Comments, the .DS_Store Cleaner function could very well carry the alternate name of "OS X File Comment Stripper". Just something to keep in mind..... [alert admin]
Post a comment | More Info | 6 of 8 users found this helpful
Wednesday, July 07 2004 @ 07:51 PM PDT
Nudge 1.01 (Mac OS X)
Faster than your lousy AppleScript 
Being an AppleScript Studio programmer, I'm familiar with AS and used to use an AS quite like that to help deal with this issue. After using this plugin though, I would never go back. This is probably 3 times faster than with the overhead of a script having to launch and quit everytime I want to use it. I dunno where people get off with 1 star reviews calling a freeware product useless, when the programmer puts forth the effort to create a solution to help the community in need.... [alert admin]
Post a comment | More Info | 3 of 3 users found this helpful
Wednesday, June 16 2004 @ 06:18 PM PDT
Panther Cache Cleaner 2.3.5 (Mac OS X)
Just a few of the problems I came across in the short while I experimented with it: 1) Only running it once, I found that 'PCCEngine' had been added to my login/startup items. I didn't knowingly enable any type of automation stuff and found that rather unexpected. I'd like to be asked first before something like that is done. Not only that, but 'PCCEngine' is a 1.3 MB application that's stored in my Preferences folder?! I'm sorry, no application has any right to be there. If it's a daemon, put it inside the main application's bundle so I don't have to see it or even worry about it. Or, use the Application Support folder like it's meant to be used. 2) The help tags for the "Light Cleaning" option showed that "/Library/Caches/com.apple.LaunchServices.LocalCache.csstore" and "/Users/~/Library/Caches/com.apple.LaunchServices.UserCache.csstore" would be purged. I'm running OS X 10.3.4, Panther. I would expect that an application with "Panther" in its name would be updated enough to run in Panther. The fact is, those 2 Launch Services files are used in Jaguar, not Panther. Panther uses a single Launch Services file stored at the Local Domain level (/Library/ folder). 3) I saw it had the ability to execute the 'lsregister' command to rebuild the Launch Services database. The menu command is "Maintenance > Rebuild LS Database..." Notice the ellipses. Being a little wary of the app at this point, I hesitated before choosing it. But then I thought "Okay, I should be safe, it should bring up a dialog where I can confirm whether to run it or not--after all, that's what the ellipses signify." Well, I was wrong. It actually executed it immediately. Then it informed me that the Finder needed to be restarted (the Finder should've been quit during the whole thing if you ask me). Having no other option, I chose okay. Obviously, the application used a kill command to kill the Finder rather than simply asking the Finder to quit itself (via an Apple Event). Thanks to that, I lost my Finder window arrangement when I didn't have to. A simple one line AppleScript, "tell app "Finder" to quit" can be used to quit the Finder without losing all those preferences. I'm sure I would encounter plenty more, but I don't think I'll be using the app much longer.... [alert admin]
Read Comments (1) | More Info | 8 of 9 users found this helpful
Friday, June 11 2004 @ 10:12 PM PDT
Alsoft MasterJuggler 3.0.3 (Mac OS X)
I agree a demo would be nice, and would definitely help Alsoft at getting users to even know that MasterJuggler is out there. I see user after user who seem to think that the only font managers out there are Font Reserve and Suitcase. If there were 2 competing programs that can do the same thing, I'd go with a Cocoa one over a Carbon one any day. I'd look at FontAgent Pro or MasterJuggler before I'd ever look at Suitcase. I tried Font Reserve and it was in the Trash in under 30 minutes. I know it has some powerful features, but I'd never use them, because I could never get past such a horrible user interface (the way of resizing the upper and lower window sections by having to use 2 separate drag boxes is ridiculous. Use an NSSplitView or whatever the Carbon equivalent would be.) That said, I would be tempted to buy and trust MasterJuggler solely because of the "Alsoft" name alone. I bought PlusOptimizer from them soon after I got my first Mac, and was always pleased with it. DiskWarrior is absolutely incredible software that has saved my butt on several occasions. I'd reason by analogy to say that MasterJuggler should do the same. [alert admin]
Post a comment | More Info | 2 of 2 users found this helpful
Monday, May 10 2004 @ 04:50 PM PDT
Last 10 Comments by Mark Douma [ Search for All ]
You can probably thank the CNET takeover for that.
Original feedback item : Read More
Wednesday, March 18 2009 @ 10:09 AM PDT
I'm sure he'd love to, but as a developer who also has products listed here on VT, we basically, as far as I can tell, no longer have the control over such things like we once did several months ago. For example, a couple months ago, I could click on the link for Developers up at the top of this page and edit my product description, or submit a new version, etc., all using the familiar…
Original feedback item : Read More(1 words)
Thursday, January 01 2009 @ 11:37 PM PST
I just tried iSafe Pro 1.2 out to see if I could determine what files it might create, but unfortunately, I keep getting cryptic RealBasic errors such as "An exception of class OutOfBoundsException was not handled. The application must shut down." If you let me know what files it creates (the database type files), I can look into the issue. Offhand, I can't think of any reason why Font Finagler 1.0 would be causing this,…
Original feedback item : Read More(1 words)
Thursday, January 24 2008 @ 12:00 AM PST
IMPORTANT !!! bug - it changes file permissions
As far as I recall, I've never seen the behavior that you're seeing, regarding the changed permissions. Well, actually, I've never used the Trim Architecture feature, for that matter. If you're only removing languages, I doubt you'll see this behavior, since Mach-O executables are never touched. Running the Trim Architecture feature could possibly alter the permissions, though this feature can do a whole lot worse than that. (That's why I wouldn't bother running it) ;-).
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Tuesday, August 08 2006 @ 07:13 AM PDT
Not any better than Font Finagler ... except free
"This is really as unhelpful to a creative agency as Font Finagler ... we need a utility, like Smasher, that also purges Adobe and Microsoft caches... professionally, this is useless"Smasher does not properly delete the system's font cache files. To verify this, run it, but before restarting, run Font Finagler to see which files it missed.
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Tuesday, May 16 2006 @ 08:33 PM PDT
You'll probably need to compile the app with gcc 3.3 for it to work properly in 10.2 and above. The default compiler, gcc 4.0.x, should work properly in 10.3 and above. Hope this helps....
Original feedback item : Read More
Monday, February 13 2006 @ 10:09 AM PST
Finally a competitor for Fontforge?
http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/
Original feedback item : Read More
Wednesday, November 30 2005 @ 05:34 PM PST
Installing Apple's CHUD Developer tools allow you to turn off one of the processors
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Sunday, July 31 2005 @ 02:39 AM PDT
There is no such thing as "Dashboard" separate from an instance of a widget. That thing you see in the Dock is not a running application, although Apple made it to look like that. (What other application that's running (has the black triangle underneath it) in the Dock can you drag out of the Dock and have it go "poof"? None. You're able to do it here because that icon doesn't represent a running process). When…
Original feedback item : Read More(1 words)
Tuesday, May 24 2005 @ 10:49 AM PDT
To expand on that slightly: CFM (Non-Carbon) - runs in OS 9 only. CFM (Carbonized) - can usually run in both OS 9 and OS X. (Example: most Adobe apps.) Mach-O (Carbon) - Carbon application that will only run in OS X. (Example: Finder, QuickTime Player, iTunes) Mach-O (Cocoa) - Cocoa application that will only run in OS X. "CFM" (Code Fragment Manager) is a fancy way of saying "OS 9 executable format." "Mach-O" is a fancy way of saying "OS…
Original feedback item : Read More(1 words)
Tuesday, March 29 2005 @ 08:37 PM PST
