After Apple released its cool Control Strip with the Powerbooks new Control Strip Modules have been showing up all over the Internet. As I am a opposed to all kinds of waste I also hate the waste of battery power on my Powerbook (for very obvious reasons). I took me a while to learn that an internal modem (as well as an external one) can consume power even if you are not connected to anything. All there has to be is some greedy piece of software that gets hold of the serial hardware. Fax software normally falls into this category. So I like to know the status of my modem. There is quite a bit of software available to help you keep track of the modem status. Unfortunately, I did not like what I could get hold of. Either shareware (I hate the waste of money as I only have very little of it as well as using shareware and not paying for it!) or too many features or not the right features.... You know how it is. You want something, you want it exactly the way you want it and you want it fast. That is why I took my old THINK C compiler (V5.04) from the shelf and hacked Andi`s Modem CSM 1.01. It really is a hack, though I do not have encountered any problems on the maschines I have.
If you discover any problems or bugs, please let me know. If you have ideas for new features or wishes please do not hesitate to contact me.
How to use it
To install Andi`s Modem CSM 1.01 just drop it into the Control Strip Modules folder (or the Desktop Strip Modules folder; yes, I heard it works with Desktop Strip but I have not tested it myself) and restart your machine. The display changes according to the status of the modem. Use balloon help to find out what status the icons stand for. Choose an item from the menu to do something to your serial hardware (not YOUR hardware but the hardware of your computer). It should run on any Powerbook that has an internal modem installed and the Control Strip software running. Choosing "AOff" from the menu turns of the power to the internal modem, "AOn" turns it on. Forget about the rest. It was so easy to implement that I could not resist to do it though it may be useless. Oh, I almost forgot to tell you about the cool ringing feature. If you have a sound called "Ringing" in your System file the CSM plays this sound if the modem detects an incoming call. So you can hear the phone ringing even if you do not have a phone connected. You can turn this feature on and off via the menu without having to remove the sound from the System file. There is no status display to inform you if the ring-wakeup feature has been enabled. Whenever the modem goes off-hook a timer appears and keeps track of the time the modem stays off-hook. Isn`t this another cool feature?
PAYMENT
Now we come to the most important part. This is what life is all about. FUN!
So please use Andi`s Modem CSM 1.01 and have fun. BUT if you use it you MUST send me an email (or better a colorful postcard) and let me know where you live (maybe I will visit you some day and check if you really use software I have written) and how you got this CSM and what type of computer and system software you are using and your ideas for other CSMs and …
Mhmm, if somebody wants to pay money for this ingenious piece of software, well, go ahead and do it.
If too many people complain about the "documentation" I will think (no promise) about revising it.
Of course, you can freely distribute this software as long as you do not charge anything for it and keep the CSM and this file together.
And I keep all the rights and I am not responsible for anthing this software does to you or your family or, of course, your computer. Use it at your own risk.
Andreas Beier
In der Au 12
76287 Rheinstetten
Germany
Phone/FAX: +49 (0)721 700366
CompuServe: 100273,3172 (preferred)
Internet: 100273.3172@compuserve.com
ul9o@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de
P.S. The CSM does not support color. Nevertheless, it should look good on color screens. As I am not using icon suites there is no way for the user to add color. To change the look of the display you can modify the SICN.
P.P.S. If somebody offers to let me stay at her/his appartment in San Francisco during MacWorld Expo I am willing to give away the source code. (I do not mind sleeping on the floor.)
