From Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.system

In article <bTSdnUZhjMkQx5qiXTWJkQ@gbronline.com>, Wesley Groleau <wesgroleau@despammed.com> wrote:

Got these two items from MacUnicorn.

TurboInternet seems to work OK, although
when it says the speed up is 2x it's really
more like 1.2x

But I'm a bit leery of running the other
thing--an app that claims to play games with
other apps' memory spaces. Sounds like an
easy way to crash something.

Anyone have info to confirm or relieve my
skepticism?

I believe "Mac Unicorn Software" is the same guy as "Gadget Software."
He's done "business" under at least half a dozen different names. The
first few times he actually stole other people's software and put his "company's" name on it. Now he's merely offering software that can't
possibly do what it claims to do. Turbo Mem, for instance, is an
application. It has no kernel extensions in it whatsoever. Therefore
it cannot possibly affect Mac OS X's memory allocation. Certainly the
_same_ utility could not work on both Mac OS X and Mac OS X versions
back to 8.6, but this is the developer's claim. The "ghost-color
menus" bug mentioned in the ReadMe for a past version is a well-known
RealBasic bug which was fixed some time ago, indicating that this
program is in fact written in RealBasic. You do not write memory
management software in RealBasic. No, I'm sorry, you just do not.

TurboInternet _at_most_ twiddles some TCP/IP parameters and I bet it
doesn't even do that. Again, there is no way a single program could
work for both Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X, as completely different types of
system patching would be needed by the two OSs to achieve the claimed
features. Not that it does any system patching at all; it is, again,
an application. There is no way for it to know what pages a browser is requesting so they can be cached or analyzed for prefetching. There is
no way for it to intercept download requests and automatically resume
them. Certainly there's no way it can act as a firewall and there's no
way it could encrypt all Internet traffic. For that to work, every
site on the Internet would have to know how to decrypt it! This
feature isn't even addressed in the Readme but is prominent in the
screenshot shown on the Web site.

Consider: why would a programmer who could write advanced software like
an Internet accelerator and a memory manager also write simple programs
like a free disk space monitor and an environmental audio player --
stuff anyone could throw together in an afternoon with RealBasic? I'll
leave this as an exercise for the reader.

At least he's not trying to charge money for his products now, although
I strongly discourage you from "donating."

I doubt you would get any crashes from running any of this software
(aside from the application itself, of course). Mac OS X won't let applications crash other applications. I'd be more worried about a
virus or some kind of password theft.

--
Jerry Kindall, Seattle, WA <http://www.jerrykindall.com/>

When replying by e-mail, use plain text ONLY to make sure I read it.
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.system

Jerry Kindall wrote:

I believe "Mac Unicorn Software" is the same guy as "Gadget Software."
He's done "business" under at least half a dozen different names. The
first few times he actually stole other people's software and put his

Hmmm.....

"company's" name on it. Now he's merely offering software that can't possibly do what it claims to do. Turbo Mem, for instance, is an application. It has no kernel extensions in it whatsoever. Therefore
it cannot possibly affect Mac OS X's memory allocation. Certainly the
_same_ utility could not work on both Mac OS X and Mac OS X versions
back to 8.6, but this is the developer's claim. The "ghost-color

Although it's suspicious, it's certainly possible for a
Carbon app to detect which OS is running and do different
things. I took a chance and ran it a while. It does detect
which App has focus and optimize or pretend to optimize that,
but it would be difficult to determine whether it is really
doing anything worthwhile.

TurboInternet _at_most_ twiddles some TCP/IP parameters and I bet it

It is capable of triggering a dialout, and it does make
a measurable increase in the speed of a download. If
the ethernet interface is up, however, it thinks that
"you are already on the internet" and won't dial out.

doesn't even do that. Again, there is no way a single program could
work for both Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X, as completely different types of
system patching would be needed by the two OSs to achieve the claimed features. Not that it does any system patching at all; it is, again,
an application. There is no way for it to know what pages a browser is requesting so they can be cached or analyzed for prefetching. There is

Well, I don't know whether that's true or not. But I know how
to find out.

no way for it to intercept download requests and automatically resume

I have run two applications that CAN do what you just said.
I do not know whether this one does.

them. Certainly there's no way it can act as a firewall and there's no
way it could encrypt all Internet traffic. For that to work, every
site on the Internet would have to know how to decrypt it! This

I certainly was suspicious of that one!

Consider: why would a programmer who could write advanced software like
an Internet accelerator and a memory manager also write simple programs
like a free disk space monitor and an environmental audio player --

I have been writing simple and complex software for fifteen years.
I have never let the latter make me think I'm too good for the former.

At least he's not trying to charge money for his products now, although
I strongly discourage you from "donating."

No chance of that without prrof that it really does something
more than a slight speed up in downloading. Which it definitely
does, though as I said, is the only thing I have any evidence of.

I doubt you would get any crashes from running any of this software
(aside from the application itself, of course). Mac OS X won't let applications crash other applications. I'd be more worried about a
virus or some kind of password theft.

Yeah, I wondered about that. But all I have to do is run a sniffer
like tcpdump ..... Or even let ipfw log everything, and run the same
session with and without.

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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.system

On Sun, 6 Jul 2003, Wesley Groleau wrote:

back to 8.6, but this is the developer's claim. The "ghost-color

Although it's suspicious, it's certainly possible for a
Carbon app to detect which OS is running and do different
things. I took a chance and ran it a while. It does detect

Yes this is possible to do either of the 2 tasks it claims to do it would
need super user privileges. Unless you got a authorization dialog, or if
it installed itself setuid (in which case you would have had an
authorization dialog when you installed it.

Fred

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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.system

Frederick Cheung wrote:

On Sun, 6 Jul 2003, Wesley Groleau wrote:

back to 8.6, but this is the developer's claim. The "ghost-color

Although it's suspicious, it's certainly possible for a
Carbon app to detect which OS is running and do different
things. I took a chance and ran it a while. It does detect

Yes this is possible to do either of the 2 tasks it claims to do it would need super user privileges. Unless you got a authorization dialog, or if
it installed itself setuid (in which case you would have had an
authorization dialog when you installed it.

Fred

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