Have you ever attempted to do something on America Online---whether just checking your e-mail, looking up information on a stock, or trying to post something on a message board, and America Online just waits, not doing ANYTHING and not allowing you to do anything, with your normal cursor transformed into a constantly spinning beachball? The worst part is that you can’t cancel your previous action, and you can’t tell America Online to STOP WAITING. If you receive an Instant Message while America Online is waiting, you can’t answer it; while America Online is stalling, sometimes for several minutes at a time, you can’t really do anything---and you can’t even sign off.
StopWaiting for AOL changes all of this. By hitting three keys on your keyboard, you can immediately tell America Online to stop waiting. And thus you can proceed to do other things. StopWaiting can probably end up saving you countless minutes or hours of time. Instead of waiting, you can be “doing.” Start using America Online without the hassle of needlessly waiting.
Use of this software is governed by the clauses of the LICENSE AGREEMENT.
Installation
Setting up StopWaiting is quite easy. You first need to drag the StopWaiting 1.5.1 control panel (not the entire StopWaiting Folder) into the Control Panels folder of the System Folder. Then restart your computer. That’s it.
How to Use
Using StopWaiting is very simple. When you feel that you’ve spent enough time waiting for an action to “happen” on America Online, try the following, in this order:
1) Press Command (aka Apple)-Period. This is the standard, built-in to AOL, method for attempting to stop AOL from waiting, and usually doesn’t work for most things.
2) If that doesn’t work, then hit Command-Option-Period. This will invoke StopWaiting, and should force AOL to give up on the pending task and allow you to move on and do something else with AOL.
Notes (IMPORTANT)
Note that StopWaiting is not guaranteed to work in all situations. There may be times when AOL appears stuck in “beachball mode”, and using the StopWaiting key press won’t help. It will work in most cases, however.
Occasionally, invoking StopWaiting can cause some apparent side effects. For example, if you try to open an e-mail, and cancel its opening with Command-Option-Period, then sometimes the e-mail cannot (temporarily) be reopened. The same thing can happen (and just as frequently) when America Online finally stops waiting (naturally), so when the problem happens, it frequently is a premature occurrence of an inevitable problem. If you sign off, quit the America Online application, and then sign back on, you can re-access anything which you’ve missed.
Settings
StopWaiting works by forcing AOL to produce a harmless error message. As soon as you invoke StopWaiting, this error message will appear. By default, StopWaiting will automatically dismiss this error message the instant it appears. However, you can change this setting by selecting/deselecting the “Instantly dismiss ‘error’ message” preference in the StopWaiting control panel.
Shareware & Reminders
Please do remember (there is a message that reminds you when you start up your computer...) that this program is NOT free, and costs $10. When you register, you will receive a unique code that disables that reminder. You have 20 days to evaluate this software, and if you decide to keep using it past that point, then you are REQUIRED to register. StopWaiting will continue to work for a few additional days past the trial period, but if you haven’t registered, then StopWaiting will disable itself.
You can register StopWaiting, or any of Rampell Software’s other products, over the Internet. The secure, encrypted web address is http://order.kagi.com/?6G&S
Regular ordering is supported, too, at http://order.kagi.com/?6G although the chances of insecurity are infinitesimal.
Please read the included (with StopWaiting) document “How to Register” for more information.
If you use StopWaiting and like it, which we think you will, we ask a small registration fee in return. Please be honest---it’s the only way that you will continue seeing good shareware products and new versions of StopWaiting.
Please use the included “Register StopWaiting” program to register, unless you register over the Internet. Kagi Shareware handles all registrations for us, so please send all information to them, (and all methods of payment made out to them, not us) using the Register StopWaiting program.
The price of StopWaiting goes by the following system:
1- 11 single user licenses, $10 per user
12+ single user licenses, $9 per user
A Site License costs $500 (roughly equal to 50 users) and covers all locations for your organization within a 160 kilometer radius of your site (100 miles). An unlimited number of people and machines may use a site license, within the specified site.
A World-Wide License costs $1200 and it covers all locations for your organization everywhere.
Paying for StopWaiting is fairly simple. Open the Register StopWaiting program that accompanies StopWaiting. Enter your name, your email address, and the number of single user licenses you desire for each program you wish to purchase (or Site or World-Wide licenses). Save or Copy or Print the data from the Register program and send the data and payment to Kagi. See the document entitled “How to Register” for more information.
If paying with Credit Card or First Virtual, you can email or fax the data to Kagi. Their email address is sales@kagi.com and their fax number is +1 510 652-6589. You can either Copy the data from Register and paste into the body of an email message or you can Save the data to a file and you can attach that file to an email message. There is no need to compress the data file, it’s already pretty small. If you have a fax modem, just Print the data to the Kagi fax number.
Payments sent via email are generally processed within 3 to 4 days. You will receive an email acknowledgment entitled “Thanks for your payment” when it is processed. Payments sent via fax take up to 10 days and if you provide a correct Internet email address, you will receive an email acknowledgment. If you use America Online, then your Internet e-mail address is formed by adding “@aol” to the end of your screenname. If you’re not sure what your e-mail address is, then you can send an e-mail to “whatismyemail@kagi.com” and you will receive a message containing your e-mail address.
If you are paying with Cash or USD Check you should print the data using the Register StopWaiting application and send it to the address shown on the form, which is:
Kagi
1442-A Walnut Street #392-6G
Berkeley, California 94709-1405
USA
You can pay with a wide variety of cash from different countries, but at present if you pay via check, it must be a check drawn in US Dollars, on a US bank (or somewhere noted, to be payable by a US bank). Kagi cannot accept checks in other currencies, the conversion rate for non-USD checks is around USD $15 per check and that is just not practical, given the small price of StopWaiting.
If you have a purchasing department, you can enter all the data into the Register program and then select Invoice as your payment method. Print three copies of the form and send it to your accounts payable people. You might want to highlight the line that mentions that they must include a copy of the form with their payment. Kagi can not invoice your company, so you need to act on my behalf and generate the invoice and handle all the paperwork on your end.
Please do not fax or email payment forms that indicate Cash, Check or Invoice as the payment method. As far as we know, there is still no technology to transfer physical objects via fax or email and without the payment, the form cannot be processed.
Payments sent via postal mail take time to reach Kagi and then up to 10 days for processing. Again, if you include a correct email address, you will hear from Kagi when the form is processed.
StopWaiting has a protection/registration system, and when you pay, you will receive a registration code from Kagi that will disable all reminder messages. If you do not have an email address, please enter your complete postal address, including the country in which you reside. However, since StopWaiting is for (and only for) America Online, it is only logical to assume that you will have an e-mail address.
Troubleshooting...
If StopWaiting isn’t working, then chances are that it hasn’t (a) been installed correctly, or (b) been invoked correctly, or (c) both of the above. If StopWaiting is properly installed, then you should see (unless you chose otherwise...) the StopWaiting icon show up when your computer boots up. The StopWaiting icon should appear with all those other icons that show up on the bottom of the screen. Also, if StopWaiting is properly installed, then you should see the StopWaiting “reminder” message shortly after startup. This message comes in the form of a dialog box reminding you that you are using an unregistered version of StopWaiting.
If you see these things, then StopWaiting is installed correctly. If you don’t see these things, then see the file called “Problems with Installation?” included in the StopWaiting folder.
If you see these things, then StopWaiting has been installed correctly. StopWaiting cannot tell AOL to “Stop waiting” as soon as the waiting begins. Rather, you must invoke StopWaiting by hitting Command-Option-Period.
If StopWaiting has caused your computer to crash, then try renaming “StopWaiting 1.5.1” (the file in your Control Panels folder) as “~StopWaiting 1.5.1” Then restart your computer...
If you’ve tried everything here, and nothing seems to work nor help you, then please contact us at:
support@ironsoftware.com
-or-
support@rampell.com
We’ll be more than happy to help you out.
Important Information!
If you find any of this confusing, or if you have any questions, please contact us at:
support@ironsoftware.com
-or-
support@rampell.com
Other Products
-Rampell Software-
Our most popular program, as reviewed by MacUser, The Miami Herald, The Palm Beach Post, and as mentioned in MacWeek (and countless other journals, publications, and local newspapers), is called AlwaysONline.
What AlwaysONline does is automatically answer all those AOL dialogs asking “Would you like to stay online?” These come up every 46 minutes (no matter what), and every 10 minutes of inactivity.
All of our products are available from our web site at:
http://www.rampell.com/software
-Iron Software-
A variety of utilities and games for the Macintosh are available from Iron Software, including MailFetch, a utility for AOL users. Among other functions, MailFetch allows you to check and retrieve your AOL e-mail with a single mouse click, and notifies you if new mail has been downloaded.
Visit our web site at:
http://www.ironsoftware.com
All updates to StopWaiting will be free. Check our web page periodically for information:
http://www.rampell.com/software
StopWaiting is a registered trademark of Rampell Software. All rights reserved.
Release Info
April 4, 1999: StopWaiting 1.5 released.
April 6, 1999: StopWaiting 1.5.1 released, fixing bug with registered versions.
Credits
This help system uses John W. Walker’s excellent show_Help system.
Thanks to those who beta-tested this program, as well.
