Hello all,

As some of you may know, I've been working on a little utility that
integrates with Macintosh Manager. It's called LabHand, and you can find out
more about it from here:

<http://www.chac.qld.edu.au/~smacdonald/sw/labhand/>

I've just finished LabHand 1.0b5, which is the fifth version in LabHand's
public beta series.

LabHand works with both MM 1.x and MM 2.x.


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LabHand currently has these features

* Client Updating:
LabHand will connect to a server and download software updates


* Machine-specific Preferences:
When a user logs in, files from a folder on the local Hard Drive are copied
to the user's Preferences folder. This is useful for applications that
require machine-specific serial numbers (ie, a unique serial number for each
machine). You can put different serial numbers into different preferences
file on each computer, and have that file copied to the user's preference
folder when they log in.


* Preference Deletion:
When a user logs in or out, specified items are deleted from their
Preferences folder. Good for getting rid of Web Browser cache files. Using
this and the above feature, you could have scanner preferences copied to a
user's preferences folder on login, and then deleted when they log out. This
means that you won't have gigs of useless files stored on your server.


* Control the Control Strip on Login:
You can tell LabHand to either show or hide (or neither) the Control Strip
when a user logs in. This feature now works properly.


* Automatic ejection of CDs at logout:
If a CD is in the drive when a user logs out, it gets ejected. This feature
now works smoothly too.


* Changing Monitor Bit Depth (the colours of the monitor):
LabHand can change the monitor to a pre-determined bit depth when users log
in, and back again when they log out.


* Changing Sound Volume:
LabHand can change the sound volume at login and logout.


* AppleScript Commands
You can ask LabHand for the current Username and the current Workgroup name.
More details on this will come with a later beta, so for now, just open up
LabHand Extension with Script Editor, and have a look at the syntax.


* Control Strip Module:
LabHand now has a control strip module. Currently it has only two usable
actions, Update Client (which forces LabHand to connect to the Update server
and update the client machine) and Change Location (which lets users change
Location Manager locations). Both of these actions are only available in
System Access or on the Login screen.


* Setting Internet Preferences:
The following Internet Preferences can be set;

Web Home Page
Web Search Page
HTTP Proxy
--> No Proxy Domains
Web Download Folder (this feature works most of the time!)

This option is only useful if you use applications that get their
preferences from the "Internet Preferences" file. Internet Explorer does,
and Netscape Communicator can use some of the settings.


* Restarting if the Workgroup Documents Volume can't be Unmounted:
If a user logs in, opens Internet Explorer, and then IE crashes, certain
files will be left open on the WG Docs volume. This means that the volume
can't be ejected. If you have users logging in using their own usernames and
passwords, the next user to log in on that machine won't be able to access
their documents, because the machine is already connected to the server as a
different user. With this option enabled, LabHand checks to see if the WG
Docs volume is still mounted after the user logs out. If it is, LabHand
tries to eject it. If the volume can't be unmounted, LabHand displays a
message and restarts the machine in 5 seconds.

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LabHand Prefs Editor

LabHand now comes with a Preference Editor. You no longer need to use
ResEdit to edit preferences.

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Known Issues

The "Set Web Download Folder" feature is successful about 90% of the time.
I'm working on the other 10%

There may be bugs. Please let me know when you find them.

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So, what are you waiting for?!?!? Head on over to:

<http://www.chac.qld.edu.au/~smacdonald/sw/labhand/>

and download it. While you're waiting for it to finish downloading, read the
proper documentation:

<http://www.chac.qld.edu.au/~smacdonald/sw/labhand/beta/docs.html>

Please Note: the documentation is a bit of a mess. I'll sort it out when
LabHand approaches its proper feature set.


LabHand (and File Blaster) also has a mailing list:

<http://www.chac.qld.edu.au/~smacdonald/sw/fb/list.html>


LabHand beta 5 will expire at the end of November. I'll have a new version
ready by then (in theory).



If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, queries, nice recipes, or
bug reports, please feel free to contact me.



Best regards,

Stewart
--
________________________________________________________________________
| Stewart Macdonald | Cannon Hill Anglican College |
| Computer Guy | Brisbane, Queensland, AUSTRALIA |
| <http://homepage.mac.com/tiliqua/> | <http://www.chac.qld.edu.au> |
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