This version has been replaced by v. 1.2. Please go to the new page for information and download link. Posting to this page is now closed.

This is an AppleScript for quickly reporting spam to SpamCop from within Eudora. In addition to queueing a properly formatted spam report in your outbox, it has the following features:

1. NEW!: Submission of multiple selected messages at one invocation.
2. If message has been left on server, script can be configured to set that message to be deleted.
3. Attachments to the spam are deleted automatically, with or without notification, according to user preferences.
4. Script can mark the spam as read, and can optionally trash it or move it to the Junk folder.

Download & Enjoy!

Unfortunately, there aren’t adequate verbs in Eudora’s AppleScript dictionary for a robust implementation of the Junk mail feature. Moving an e-mail to the Junk folder does assign a score of 100 to it (though it takes a while to see that), but I’m not sure if it properly updates the Bayesian filters the way the Junk command does. Consider it a workaround implementation until we either get native verbs for it, or until keystroke programming becomes standard in Mac OS X.

* This script is intended for Mac OS X v 10.2, and Eudora 6, but might also work with Eudora 5.2, though obviously without the Junk mail functionality.

Regardless of the ‘Switch’ ads’ sanguine approach to entering the promised land of Mac OS X, there are some areas in which Mac use can be somewhat frustrating. One of these areas is financial software. Every year, at tax time, I am left wondering what features are going to be left out of the Mac version of either TurboTax or TaxCut, which one will have the most bugs this time, and which one will have the worst support for Mac users. Frankly, if you’re a Mac user, you will always get the short end of the stick when it comes to Intuit and H&R Block’s software. So, which stick is the better for Mac users for the 2002 tax year?
Continue reading ‘Tax Software for Mac OS X’

Ok. Sometimes even the best computers crash. They’re still too primitive for the complexity we push on them. Poor things.

Poor us.

Here’s a script that helps clean up the mess left over from a system crash in Mac OS X (10.2). The script first checks your harddrive and attempts to repair it, then asks you if you want to delete old swap files (virtual memory), and cache files scattered around your system. This script has only been used with Jaguar! You could really damage your system if you use this on some other platform.

Please note: You must have administrative privileges on your Mac in order to install this script.

Continue reading ‘CrashCleaner.sh: Repairs hard drive(s), deletes cache and swap files to help recover from Mac OS X crashes’

Since a lot of Macs aren’t used as 24-hour servers, and are often sleeping or simply shut down, using Cron the old fashioned way doesn’t really hold up for regular UNIX maintenance to be performed.

This page is for an old version. An updated version with full instructions is available at http://theapotek.com/teknotes/archives/000040.html#000040. The new version is only for 10.2 and higher.

I have written a Perl script that simply checks to see how long it’s been since a particular task has been performed, compares the time with how often that task should be performed, and if necessary, executes the task. The script is extensible to any maintenance tasks that output to a log file (and any task can be made to do so). The script also includes the option to send you an e-mail (but only if the task(s) have been executed) including full script output.

Please note: You must have administrative privileges on your Mac in order to install and run this script.

Continue reading ‘XJanitor.pl: Surefire periodic Maintenance for Mac OS X’

According to the last post on this page, Epson now provides direct support for the Axis 1440 print server. I have closed this page for comments, but am leaving it up for historical reasons. Here are notes from Hal:

I got the driver from this page: 8282&BV_UseBVCookie=yes&infoTypeownloads&platform=Macintosh>

I see now that it doesn’t say anything about the Axis 1440, but it worked for me. It is called “Macintosh OS X (v10.1) epson10396.sea.hqx – 3.4MB – posted on 08/06/02″

I have only been using OS X (10.2. for a couple of days now but I think that once the driver was downloaded and installed, I went to the “print center”, clicked on Add, and chose EPSON Appletalk from the topmost pulldown menu. I suppose printing to an IP address would be faster; the Appletalk on
Ethernet is not so bad.

If Epson no longer offers this driver, I will try to post one here.

The origin of these instructions are the quite detailed notes Bernard Saar contributed to the Macintosh support forums <http://discussions.info.apple.com/WebX?13@@.efc404a/13>. My intentions in creating this page is to simply flesh out in more detailed, step-by-step fashion, the wealth of information he and others have kindly provided.

If you are an X-windows user on your Mac, you may want to try setting your Mac up for printing using "gimp-print" instead. It offers a highly polished interface, and full feature implementation for monitoring and configuring your Epson.

I also need to make it clear that even though I am trying to make these instructions as clear as possible, they cannot stand in for a basic understanding of the *NIX command line. That should not dissuade you; it should only mean that you spend some hours learning how to move around a *NIX file system, enter path names and do some basic commands. You should also understand what su and sudo mean (and how dangerous they are). Taking the time before you begin to get the basic concepts down is invaluable. With the power to make these kinds of modifications comes a certain responsibility to self-education. Look for online tutorials on BSD and "tcsh". Or you can go to the MacOSX.org command line interface tutorial.

Continue reading ‘Setting up your AXIS 1440 with Mac OS X v 10.1′