Chimoosoft FAQ

All donations are replied to by hand, so it may take up to a few days if out of town for a trip, etc. Donations are greatly appreciated and we will get back to you, it just may take a few days. In rare cases, we have had issues with a user's spam blocking software preventing our emails from getting through. If it's been a really long time (ie, a week or more) and you still haven't heard back, send us an email with an alternate email address or snail mail address where we can contact you.

We have never had any problems using PayPal and believe it to be perfectly safe as long as you use secure (SSL) connections and choose a secure password. If you absolutely refuse to use PayPal, you may email us to request other options (or look on our donations page for additional ideas). We prefer PayPal if you can do it however. You may be interested to read through PayPal's security information.

If you're donating for one of our freeware products, your donation will make you feel good about supporting the Macintosh freeware community. Isn't it nice to have free programs available for your use? Your donation will also be used to help fund future versions of the products you donated for as well as paying for the bandwidth for this web site.

If you're donating for a shareware product such as Terrabrowser, then in addition to feeling good, you will receive your very own registration number for the product as well as a discounted price on future updates should we decide to charge an upgrade fee.

Note that our unregistred shareware products are not disabled in any way other than with a slight application launch delay. This is to encourage you to try out the programs and make sure they suit your needs before donating for them. Thanks for your support!

This is an older problem; if you experience it, we would suggest that you try a different web browser (such as Safari, Firefox, or OmniWeb), or try again later.

After downloading, mount the disk image (file ending with .dmg) by double clicking on it if it wasn't automatically mounted. Copy the application to your Applications folder by dragging and dropping and then unmount the disk image by either dragging it to your trash or right-clicking and choosing Eject.

Simply drag the application to the trash and empty it.

All of our programs also leave preference files in your ~/Library/Preferences folder which you can remove if you like - just search on the application's name to find them. A few programs such as Terrabrowser leave caches in the ~/Library/Caches folder which you can remove.

A universal binary is a program which contains native code for both PowerPC (PPC) and X86 series (i.e., those made by Intel) processors. This allows the program to run at full speed on either platform; for example, on a PowerBook G4 (PPC) and a MacBook Pro (Intel). Our software which is not available as a universal binary will still run (with the exception of AP Grapher) on Intel based Macs, but it will be running in the Rosetta emulation mode which means that all PPC instructions are converted to Intel instructions at run time. This slows the program down a bit, but since most of our software isn't too processor intensive, you probably won't see a difference. Our universal software is marked with the ying-yang symbol.

Problem report: When I download this and attempt to open it, I get the message "Windows cannot open this file:"

This is on an Intel based computer with an Apple on the front. This system was recently upgraded from a Dell to an Apple, using an "Apple upgrade kit" I purchased on eBay. I've applied all of the stickers according to the included directions, but the "Tie-tain-ee-um" spray paint ran out before I got to the back of the computer. Maybe that's causing this problem.

I'm seeing the same message with all of the other Mac software I download. Thought you'd like to know. Man, Apples totally suck. I'm going to go play solitaire and mess with my registry entries.

- A friend sent this in. ;-)

A localization is a special embedded version of a program which has been translated to another language. Since our products are in English by default, a localization implies any other language. A single program on Mac OS X can have as many languages embedded in it as the author desires; the proper language to use is selected when the user launches the program. To experience one of our international products in a different language, simply drag the desired language to the top of the list of languages in the International system preference pane in the System Preferences. See also our localization page.

Possibly. Please contact us first to see if we're currently accepting localizations for the product you're interested in translating. One drawback of localization is that it makes it more difficult for the program's author(s) to make changes to the user interface in the future without re-localizing everything. Due to this, Chimoosoft's products aren't usually localized until they've reached a fairly steady state which isn't likely to change much for a while. See also our localization page.

Read up about localization for Cocoa programs on Apple's developer web pages. You should know how to use Interface Builder and know what a UTF file encoding is. All nib files, the Localized.strings file, and the Info.plist file need to be translated.

Note that we can only support languages which appear in the System Preferences International preference pane. It would also be helpful if you could include the exact spelling of the name in the System Preferences so we can find it! See also our localization page.

Time and lack of a sample Magellan GPS to work with. Magellan receivers will hopefully be directly supported at some point in the future. For now, you can download the free open source program called MacGPSBabel which downloads waypoints and tracklogs from Garmin and Magellan GPS receivers. Use MacGPSBabel to download and save your waypoints as a GPX file and then open this file with Terrabrowser. Note: make sure you download the version listed as "PPC" and called MacGPSBabel, otherwise you may have problems.

There are many reasons why this may happen. First, note that Terrabrowser and GPS Connect only work with GPS receivers which support a serial connection. Models which have built in USB ports also often have a separate way to connect via serial. Here are a list of things to try: Note that the GPS connection routines on Terrabrowser version 1.5 alpha are not yet complete and may not function. The use of MacGPSBabel is suggested at this time (see below).

• Make sure the GPS is plugged in to your computer before you launch the program.
• Check that you have the latest version of the drivers for your USB to serial converter. You can look at our links page for some sites which list Mac OS X software.
• Make sure the protocols match on your computer and your GPS; e.g., if you have chosen the Garmin protocol on Terrabrowser, you must also set your GPS to use this protocol. This is usually accomplished through one of the settings menus on the GPS.
• If you still can't get your GPS to work, try the free MacGPSBabel which is described above. Use it to download your waypoints to a GPX file which you can use with Terrabrowser.

The tracklog and route downloading functionality is not yet complete - for now, please use MacGPSBabel (see above) to download your tracklogs and routes to a GPX file and then open them with Terrabrowser. Terrabrowser 1.5 supports drawing of tracklogs and routes, but the older version 1.1 does not.

Lack of time. Other servers will probably be supported at some time in the future. Send us an email if you find a good one.

Latitude and longitude can be specified in several different ways. Terrabrowser (version 1.5) currently supports decimal degrees, degrees minutes, and degrees minutse seconds. It's important to remember that all longitude values in the United States will be West longitudes which are represented in Terrabrowser with a negative sign (for West). If you forget this sign, then you'll be trying to load an image of a location across the world from what you intended!

Because Terrabrowser relies on the Microsoft Terraserver which uses maps provided by the US Geological Survey, and these maps only cover the United States. If you find a mapping server outside of the United States, please send us an email and it may be supported in a future release.

Terrabrowser 1.5 uses a slightly different registration number that 1.1. Please send us an email with your old number to request a new one. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Unfortunately, Terrabrowser doesn't currently support GPS units with built in USB connections. Some GPS units with USB actually still have an optional serial cable - if you connect this cable to your GPS and purchase a serial to USB converter such as the Keyspan, then you may be able to make it work with Terrabrowser. No guarantees though. You may have better luck with MacGPSBabel for USB support.

Possibly... ;-) Check back later.

Because the Terraserver web site provides poor looking topo maps... They are not very high resolution and have clearly been scanned in. Unfortuantely we're stuck with the quality of maps the Terraserver provides, but on the upside, they're free.

Because they have not yet been added to the Terraserver web site. As soon as they are added, they will immediately be available from within Terrabrowser.

Yes, versions 1.5 beta 3 and later are compatible with Tiger. However, versions prior to 1.5 beta 3 are not fully compatible with Tiger. These older versions appear to work correctly as long as you don't try to save bookmarks. After creating a bookmarks file, Terrabrowser will crash upon launch unless you remove the file. Please upgrade to 1.5 A3 or later.

~/Library/Application Support/Terrabrowser/bookmarks.gpx To get there, go to your home directory first and then open each of the listed folders in turn. You may want to make a backup copy of your bookmarks file.

~/Library/Caches/Terrabrowser/

You can empty the cache from within Terrabrowser by going to the preferences, clicking on the Cache tab, and then clicking on the Empty button.

Note that version 1.1 stores its cache in ~/Library/Application Support/Terrabrowser/Cache

Note that Terrabrowser was created before Google Earth existed and might not have been written otherwise. Bearing that in mind Terrabrowser offers...

• No subscription fee for GPS connectivity and tracklogs - only a very reasonable one time donation.
• Higher quality/resolution maps of some urban areas.
• Additional black and white maps from a few years back.
• GPX file support.
• Image cache for offline use.
• Lightweight browsing - Terrabrowser won't hog your CPU like Google Earth. Of course, there aren't any 3D effects either...

Apple's Airport software update 3.4.1 broke two of the graphs on AP Grapher. AP Grapher relies on an open source header file to access the wireless information. This file hasn't been updated to work completely with the new Airport version, however, two of the graphs still work correctly (which is enough for most people). Try version 1.0 which should work correctly.

AP Grapher versions 0.5.3 and earlier are not compatible with Intel based Macs; try version 1.0 or later which should work.

Refer to the built in help under the Help menu in AP Grapher version 1.0 and above for more information.

On Intel based Macs, some of the statistics will be negative. Higher numbers (closer to zero in this case) are better.

Yes, as long as you have checked the "Float above other windows even in background" option. Just make sure the title bar for the capture me window is active (ie, by dragging the floating window) and then the hot-key should work.

The video recording feature in Capture Me has not been certified to work for videos longer than sixty seconds as it is somewhat experimental. This ability will come in a future release of Capture Me.

Look in the /Library/QuickTime/ (top level of your hard drive) and ~/Library/QuickTime/ folders (in your home directory) and you should see some number of QuickTime component files including at a minimum "Perian.component." If you see any components with "flv" in their names, try moving them temporarily to your Desktop to see if the problem is fixed. Some components interact poorly with Perian and moving them out often resolves problems.

TubeTV was mainly designed to work with YouTube and also happens to work with many other flash video enabled sites. However, as each site does things slightly differently, TubeTV doesn't (and can't) work with all web sites. Some sites won't allow downloading at all while others will just be able to grab the initial advertisement. Send in the URL for any site you'd like to have added, and it will be considered for a future release.