SansFractions & SeriFractions

These fractions fonts are used in the production of several newspapers & magazines, including the Knoxville News-Sentinel, Colorado Springs Gazette, and the AARP magazine. Lowe's home improvement centers also hold a site license. They've been featured in the book Macworld Mac Secrets as well as Macworld & MacAddict magazines in the US & several other Mac magazines around the world.

SansFractions is a Helvetica-like fractions font & SeriFractions is similar to Times. They come in both PostScript Type 1 & TrueType formats for Mac & PC. both include a complete set of fractions from 1/2 to 8/9, plus 16ths & 32nds, in both vertical & diagonal orientation. Math symbols are also included.

SansFractions & SeriFractions are available here at myfonts.com.

$29.99 each. Site licenses available.

littlebittyapps

littlebittyapps is a collection of tiny applications that do one little thing.

myCharViewer
Opens the Mac OS X Character Palette, which allows you to select characters that otherwise may not be available with the keyboard.

myKeyViewer
Opens the Mac OS X Keyboard Viewer, which allows you to choose a font and see the layout of characters on the keyboard. This is especially helpful for dingbat (non-letter or symbol) fonts and use of the modifier (shift & option) keys.

The following are helpful with many Apple Menu enhancement utilities, such as Classic Menu, XMenu, SunnyMenu, and MaxMenus.

Log Out
Presents the standard Mac OS X confirmation dialog then logs out the current user.

Sleep
Immediately puts the computer to sleep, just as the Apple menu's Sleep command does.

Restart
Presents a confirmation dialog then restarts the computer.

Shut Down
Presents a confirmation dialog then shuts down the computer.

Download littlebittyapps here. It works with Mac OS X 10.4 and higher, and may work with earlier versions of Mac OS X.

Freeware.

Software Database

Keep track of all of your software (and hardware too) in one easy to use AppleWorks/ClarisWorks database. Can't remember how much unpaid shareware you have? Let Software Database help you sort it out! Need that tech support or upgrade web address or phone number? Version number? Serial number? Here they are in one location.

Software Database 6 is for use with AppleWorks 6, version 5 with AppleWorks/ClarisWorks 5, etc. All are compatible with Mac & PC.

I am trying to create a Software Database '08 with Numbers, now that AppleWorks has been discontinued, but it doesn't look like it will be anything but a pain to use. With Numbers, each "record" is a separate spreadsheet table. There's no sort function outside of within a spreadsheet table, so sorting the "records" is currently like hand sorting a deck of cards. For anything with a few dozen entries or more this is just too unwieldy. I am open to if anyone has any.

Postcardware. In other words, free.

Scroll Bars

Featured in MacAddict magazine and TidBITS, this control panel allows you to choose whether to have a proportionally sized or normal scroll box and if you want single or double ended scroll arrows. The interface is minimal to keep the size down.

Download Scroll Bars here. It works with Mac OS 8.5-9.2.2, including Mac OS X Classic mode.

Freeware.

DropZipper

Featured in MacAddict and MacPeople (Japan) magazines, DropZipper is a drag & drop applet for Mac OS 8.6-9.2.2 that creates a zip archive containing files or folders dropped on it. This is useful when sending files to PC users. Zip is the most common compression format on PCs.

Download DropZipper here. It requires StuffIt Commands 5.5 & StuffIt Engine 5.5 (or higher). If you do not already have StuffIt Engine 5.5 or higher, you can get it as part of a StuffIt package from Allume.

Donationware (American SIDS Institute or equivalent in your country), $10.

Blackjack Solitaire 1.0

I didn't make this one. A guy named Richard Harvey down in Texas wrote this blackjack game back in 1993. Since then it has pretty much vanished from all the big download sites. I had been trying to find him to thank him for creating this game when I stumbled across an article about Terminal Reality's flight simulator Fly! containing his name. He didn't have a web page, so I offered him a home for the game on mine.

Las Vegas, Northern Nevada, and Atlantic City rules are supported, you can play with a 1, 2, 4, 6, or 8 deck shoe, and you can play by yourself or with up to 5 simulated players. The graphics are good, and the game is especially good at helping you learn how to play blackjack. The read me file contains extensive instructions with several pictures. I have yet to find a blackjack game that I enjoy more, even with all the newer ones with fancy animation.

Blackjack Solitaire 1.0 requires a color Macintosh running System 7.0 or higher (not Mac OS X native). It needs about 1MB of free disk space. I've tried it on a Power Macintosh G4 running Mac OS 8.6 and an iMac DV running Mac OS 9 and it runs great, so it shouldn't have any problems on any color Mac. I play it on my PowerBook G4 in Classic mode under Mac OS X.

You can download Blackjack Solitaire 1.0 here. It's "what-it's-worth-ware," but don't send any payments to me. Send them to Richard.