escapepod 1.0.0d2 available (Mac OS X only)
escapepod 1.0.0d2 has been released (Mac OS X only) -- grab it here:
<a href="ftp://ftp.AmbrosiaSW.com/pub/freebies/escapepod.sit" target="_blank">ftp://ftp.AmbrosiaSW.com/pub/freebies/escapepod.sit</a> (140k)
What is it?
-----------
escapepod is a little application that lets you terminate the frontmost application by hitting Control-Alt-Delete, terminate the Dock by hitting Shift-Control-Alt-Delete, or do a force-logout by hitting Command-Control-Alt-Delete.
escapepod is free; if you have any questions or comments about it, please feel free to contact me at:
Andrew Welch <[email protected]>
WARNING: this is developmental software; use it at your own risk. While it performs as advertised on the machines I have tested it on, I make no warranty about how it will operate on yours.
Why would I want it?
--------------------
There are times that Mac OS X appears to be hung (especially in some games) when it really isn't -- just the frontmost application's GUI is wedged. The Dock also occasionally stops responding under some circumstances, which can be cured by terminating it. Additionally, when the entire GUI appears to be hung, it is safer to do a force-logout than to simply reboot your machine (and it is quicker, too).
Thus, escapepod was created.
Version history
---------------
Version 1.0.0d2
-- Fixed a bug that caused escapepod to not be able to do a force-logout on Mac OS X 10.2.x. Apple apparently changed the bundle identifier for the loginwindow.app
-- Added the ability to force-quit the Dock by hitting Shift-Control-Alt-Delete
-- If another copy of escapepod is running, we kill it before starting up
-- Fixed a minor problem with escapepod's bundle identifier
-- Included a spiffy new icon that is much more OS X-ish -- many thanks to the talented folks at ATMOS for the escape pod graphic from EV Nova
-- Fleshed out the documentation a bit, clarifying the "Alt" and "Delete" key terminology, as well as a few other issues
-- You can now turn off the sounds EscapePod uses, should you so desire. Launch Terminal, then paste this text in to turn escapepod's sounds off:
defaults write com.ambrosiasw.escapepod "Play sounds" '<false/>'
-- If you *really* don't want escapepod to display its splash screen when it launches, you can turn this off as well. Launch Terminal, then paste this text in to turn escapepod's splash screen off:
defaults write com.ambrosiasw.escapepod "Display splash" '<false/>'
.....
Version 1.0.0d1
-- Initial release
<a href="ftp://ftp.AmbrosiaSW.com/pub/freebies/escapepod.sit" target="_blank">ftp://ftp.AmbrosiaSW.com/pub/freebies/escapepod.sit</a> (140k)
What is it?
-----------
escapepod is a little application that lets you terminate the frontmost application by hitting Control-Alt-Delete, terminate the Dock by hitting Shift-Control-Alt-Delete, or do a force-logout by hitting Command-Control-Alt-Delete.
escapepod is free; if you have any questions or comments about it, please feel free to contact me at:
Andrew Welch <[email protected]>
WARNING: this is developmental software; use it at your own risk. While it performs as advertised on the machines I have tested it on, I make no warranty about how it will operate on yours.
Why would I want it?
--------------------
There are times that Mac OS X appears to be hung (especially in some games) when it really isn't -- just the frontmost application's GUI is wedged. The Dock also occasionally stops responding under some circumstances, which can be cured by terminating it. Additionally, when the entire GUI appears to be hung, it is safer to do a force-logout than to simply reboot your machine (and it is quicker, too).
Thus, escapepod was created.
Version history
---------------
Version 1.0.0d2
-- Fixed a bug that caused escapepod to not be able to do a force-logout on Mac OS X 10.2.x. Apple apparently changed the bundle identifier for the loginwindow.app
-- Added the ability to force-quit the Dock by hitting Shift-Control-Alt-Delete
-- If another copy of escapepod is running, we kill it before starting up
-- Fixed a minor problem with escapepod's bundle identifier
-- Included a spiffy new icon that is much more OS X-ish -- many thanks to the talented folks at ATMOS for the escape pod graphic from EV Nova
-- Fleshed out the documentation a bit, clarifying the "Alt" and "Delete" key terminology, as well as a few other issues
-- You can now turn off the sounds EscapePod uses, should you so desire. Launch Terminal, then paste this text in to turn escapepod's sounds off:
defaults write com.ambrosiasw.escapepod "Play sounds" '<false/>'
-- If you *really* don't want escapepod to display its splash screen when it launches, you can turn this off as well. Launch Terminal, then paste this text in to turn escapepod's splash screen off:
defaults write com.ambrosiasw.escapepod "Display splash" '<false/>'
.....
Version 1.0.0d1
-- Initial release
Comments
love.that.app
Thanks Andrew.
Any chance we'll ever see an update to classihack? Pleeeease?
<strong>Any chance we'll ever see an update to classihack? Pleeeease?</strong><hr></blockquote>
hrm. I'll have to look into seeing whether it is still doable or not on Jaguar. It was only marginally useful anyway, though.
That alone should be incentive to investigate if it is still possible. I'm sure others could find it helpful too, but ENV development in ResEdit is the #1 priority here.
<strong>Yeah, my problem is always with big games because I have a problem with X and my graphics card (just the ATi RagePro128) and games always lock up, but the last escapepod didn't ever help.</strong><hr></blockquote>
If this is a kernel-level bug in the device driver, it is possible that escapepod will not be able to get you out of that situation.
it has (unfortunately) been very useful to me.
this should be standard in OSX
If this is a kernel-level bug in the device driver, it is possible that escapepod will not be able to get you out of that situation.<hr></blockquote>
It happens in all of the games that do hardware rendering and from what I gather, I'm not an isolated incident. Do you know of any such kernel level bugs with the default cards on G4 400 Sawtooths?
A few games seem to have no problem (EV Nova behaved while demoed it), but I don't know if they use hardware rendering.
I also have issues with things like screensavers and iPhoto going into full screen mode.
<strong>the best... thanx moki
it has (unfortunately) been very useful to me.
this should be standard in OSX</strong><hr></blockquote>
One other thing that i think should be standard...
If the OS runs out of disk space, really weird stuff starts happening. Settings aren't retained, programs just fail to work -- all sorts of weird stuff.
Mac OS X should warn you if you are running low on disk space, and it should keep a 10mb temp file that it can decrease the size of on a dynamic basis, to keep the machine running properly so the user can free up some disk space.
<strong>One other thing that i think should be standard...
If the OS runs out of disk space, really weird stuff starts happening. Settings aren't retained, programs just fail to work -- all sorts of weird stuff.
Mac OS X should warn you if you are running low on disk space, and it should keep a 10mb temp file that it can decrease the size of on a dynamic basis, to keep the machine running properly so the user can free up some disk space.</strong><hr></blockquote>
i agree. that frickin memory problem has borked my iTunes library more than a few times [pavlov will never lern]. i quit itunes so infrequently (and therefore save the library infrequently) that when i get this memory shit, i lose several days of additions. and i [acquire] a lot of "legitimate" [music] in that time. arrgh.
Thats where to gripe and suggest... kinda useless here.
zo
<strong>One other thing that i think should be standard...
If the OS runs out of disk space, really weird stuff starts happening. Settings aren't retained, programs just fail to work -- all sorts of weird stuff.
Mac OS X should warn you if you are running low on disk space, and it should keep a 10mb temp file that it can decrease the size of on a dynamic basis, to keep the machine running properly so the user can free up some disk space.</strong><hr></blockquote>
i'm working on a lil' prog, should be done and on sf.net later today.
<strong>oh come on El Presidente, I thought you woulda known <a href="http://www.apple.com/macosx/feedback/" target="_blank">http://www.apple.com/macosx/feedback/</a> pretty well then
Thats where to gripe and suggest... kinda useless here.
zo</strong><hr></blockquote>
We've already submitted the bug through developer channels, actually.
I suggested it here, because I was thinking of building something like that into escapepod. Would anyone find it useful?
<strong>oh, and by the way, the download link for Escape Pod is really flakey. Takes a dozen attempts to download it, usually zero K files appear. I finally got it but it was a hassle n a half</strong><hr></blockquote>
hrm, strange... were there any errors? What if you do curl -O <url>
<strong>
I suggested it here, because I was thinking of building something like that into escapepod. Would anyone find it useful?</strong><hr></blockquote>
Yes!!!! I am always nervous about running anything with Photoshop Elements on my PB because I keep running into this problem.