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Still More You Don't Otherwise Get

Back to school? Chick magnets work only on the clueless. They've never worked on the educated.


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So what else is there you don't otherwise get with Mac OS X?

Still More in Xfile

The advantageously priced (even more so if you're an academic) Xfile subset of the ACP has a number of additional utilities.

  • FileInfo. This how you control all 'beige box' cruft in your file system control block.
  • MD. Creates six sovereign message digests for any given file. Used extensively to 'sign' ACP and Xfile downloads.
  • Rixcomp. Once voted the greatest hacker tool of all time by Phreak, this compares both files and directories on the fly and tells you if they differ and how they differ. Rixcomp is also smart enough to check the inodes and the file systems the items are located on.
  • Rixmode. Open up or clamp down your files and directories in one fell swoop. Use either an absolute permissions mode or a mode mask. Drop files on Rixmode or do everything recursively in batch.
  • Rixstamp. See and edit all Unix time stamps on your files and directories. As with Rixmode you can do this either through drops or by batch recursion.
  • TMI. Perhaps the ultimate Unix file system tutorial. Shows you what you can and can't access and why. Also includes an additional three levels of file system information as returned by respective APIs as well as two levels of so called 'mount info'. Exports its findings in text format so you can study them at your leisure.
  • Undercover. Navigates through your file system and lets you control what is and isn't hidden in the Finder. Goes anywhere - even where permissions normally won't permit.
  • Xattrib. Unix file permissions in a perhaps (at least for beginners) more readable 'non-octal' way. Gives you full access to everything including sticky and set ID bits as well as extended user and system flags.
  • Xfind. Search inside dropped files for a key string or sum sizes of all dropped items. Works recursively to enable nested searches.
  • Xsed. Batch stream editing with a graphic interface. Designed to not burden your system under extensive operations. Simply enter 'find what' and 'replace with' strings and drop thousands of files all at once. This entire Rixstep site was once redesigned with this utility in under five minutes.
  • Xshelf. 'A place to put things.' Save shelves and trade them with your friends. Make shelves of shelves. The idea was based on the NeXTSTEP shelf in the File Viewer but is so much more. Integrated into all the ACP applications so each opens its own series of shelves at startup.
  • Xstamp. Comparable to Rixstamp but instead attacks the file time stamps used in HFS. Is therefore specific to the latter.
  • Xstrings. Look inside binary files for telltale strings. Faster than you can imagine and as most ACP utilities will export its findings in text format.

That's sixteen (16) super applications for Mac OS X. They cost - at the most - US$45. That's less than $3 a pop. And if you're 'academic' you get an additional US$10.05 shaved off the price.

You won't find a better deal anywhere but most importantly you won't find software like this - geared above 'punter level' and to your needs - anywhere else either.

At least do yourself a favour and try it.

The Big Kahuna

Or you could go all out and splurge on the ACP - where you get more than can be easily covered here. Do that and you're down to less than US$2 a pop.

And it's all subscription based, meaning you get updates continually. And if you're an ACP subscriber you get new software titles too - at no additional cost.

Give it a look - and good luck in your studies. And be sure you purchase either the one or the other - so the Linux laptop people don't get a chance to laugh at you.

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