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Brain-Sucker Productions Releases Upgrade for "Curmudgeon's Eudora Fixer"

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA -- 9 Oct 2000

Brain-Sucker Productions is pleased to announce that Curmudgeon's Eudora
Fixer has been upgraded to version 1.2. Its companion application, Eudora
Sound Mover, remains at version 1.0.1.


New in this version:

For some reason, the way I checked for version numbers didn't work, and
attempting to use it on a copy of Eudora Pro v5.0 failed. This version
ought to work.

Speaking of upgrading, an easier way to reset all your icons to the
expected values has been added. Eudora upgrading programs expect the
resources to be unmodified. Choosing "Reset Changes" from the File menu, or
command-clicking the "Apply" button, will move the original icons back so
that the upgrader can work.


What is Curmudgeon's Eudora Fixer?

Between version 3.1.3 and version 4.0 of Eudora Pro, the display of the
Status column was changed. Instead of letters, such as "S" for "Sent" and
"F" for "Forwarded," users saw icons. Some people, the author included,
thought that the old way was better.

Curmudgeon's Eudora Fixer can generate icons in the user's preferred
typeface, size, and style, and therefore will appear similar to the
old-style display. Users may select the old-style or new-style icon for
each individual Status category, and can even change the letter used for
the items.

Instructions for a simpler (though less flexible) approach to this
enhancement, using Eudora's settings, are also included.

Curmudgeon's Eudora Fixer is US$1 shareware. Site licenses are granted
liberally; contact the author for details. Documentation in the form of an
About box and a text file are also included, and the program makes full use
of balloon help.

System Requirements: Any Apple Macintosh or other computer running MacOS
System 7.0 or later. Qualcomm's Eudora Pro version 4.0 or later is also
required.


Availability and Contact Information

Curmudgeon's Eudora Fixer v1.2 and Eudora Sound Mover v1.0.1 are packaged
together, in the form of a StuffIt 5.0 archive, along with some useful
mail-related sounds. This archive is available immediately from
Brain-Sucker's website: . The
author may be reached by surface mail at
St. John Morrison
PMB 7352
Philadelphia PA 19101
or by email at .

The applications are not limited in any way for non-registered users.
Payment for either program may be made in cash, check, or money order via
surface mail. Non-US currency is acceptable. A secure order page has been
set up on Kagi, through which credit cards may be used:



Brief description

Here is one paragraph suitable for inclusion in new-release notices and ftp
catalogs:

Curmudgeon's Eudora Fixer and Eudora Sound Mover: Enhancement utilities for
Qualcomm's Eudora email client. CEF allows changing the Status column of
Eudora Pro 4.0 or later to your choice of the icons or the characters.
Selectable font, size, and style are used to create icons which are then
installed into Eudora; you can also change the characters which will be
used to indicate message status. ESM allows adding and removing sounds to
Eudora (Pro or Light, v3.1 or later), which can then be used as alert
sounds for mail arrival or problems. Sample sounds are included. Shareware;


About St. John Morrison

"I'm a psychologist, not a programmer," as I sometimes say. But with the
tools available today, you don't really need to be a programmer to release
simple applications which enhance peoples' computer experience!

My degree is in Human Factors, the study of human-computer interaction
among other things. One area of cognitive science that has interested me is
mnemonics: the way memory works. To the point, the arrows in the new Status
icons didn't have any mnemonic context: there is nothing inherent about the
left side of the screen that would say "this has been replied to." But the
letter "R" served that purpose well. On the other hand, I liked the "Timed
Queue" icon.

One of my favorite eZines, TidBITS , recently
published a series of articles about Eudora Pro, sparking intense
discussion of its interface. I took the opportunity to write "Curmudgeon's
Eudora Fixer." It fulfills the human-computer interface goal of enhancing
the pleasure of interaction, performing a small but useful task.

The Sound Mover was included with the Fixer originally, but it was more
appropriate as a separate project. I've had HAL's voice for years, but you
needed ResEdit to get the sounds in there (and even then it could cause
problems if you don't set the flags correctly). I think the vast majority
of people would prefer to use an application meant specially for installing
and removing sounds. People like to customize their computing environment--
witness the success of Kaleidoscope.

Incidentally, it's pronounced "Sinjon." A lot of people ask about that.


Other software by St. John Morrison

* Dancing Lum Biggy: A replacement cursor for RJ Cooper Associates' utility
"Biggy;" displays a dancing character from the Japanese animation series
"Urusei Yatsura" instead of the watch cursor.

* Numerous palettes and buttons for WestCode Software's macro utility
OneClick, including

+ Speak Time Button: Announces the time at regular intervals.

+ Recent Cleanup: Maintains order in the Recent Documents,
Applications, and Servers folders in "Apple Menu Items" by discarding
aliases according to the user's guidelines.

+ Backup Palette: Allows regular unattended archiving of important
files without backing up unneccesary data.

* Quite a number of freeware and shareware applications for the Apple
Newton MessagePad, including

+ TimePak: A variety of clock enhancements, including a large display
for the visually handicapped as well as voice announcements in several
languages.

+ Coinflip: The leader in coin-flipping software for the Apple Newton
Messagepad.

+ Babbage Feat Engine: A utility for "Castle Falkenstein," a
role-playing game set in the Victorian period.

+ LifeKeeper: A utility for "Magic: the Gathering," the collectable
card game from Wizards Of The Coast.

+ Set24 and SetAgendaView: Preference enhancements for the clock and
Dates application.

+ Phone Setter: A utility to enhance synchronization to less flexible
contact managers.

+ Death to 1904: A utility which fixes an occasional problem with
"rogue" repeating meetings.

+- Saint John -+
| "The children of the night-- what beautiful music they make!" |
+- (Bela Lugosi) ----------------------------------------------------+