Randomizer This file is the documentation for Randomizer, an INIT that can be placed in the System Folder of an HFS startup disk along with some other optional folders and files. Itıs function is to: 1) Make your file named StartUpScreen into your permanent desktop. 2) Play the MacNifty SoundCap file named StartUpSound. 3) Make the SoundCap file named BeepSound replace your system beep. 4) Change all three of those files so that they will be different next time you startup your Macintosh. This involves a bunch of preparation for it to work. First of all, you need to have a file named StartUpScreen in your system folder. It should have been created by one of the popular utilities that creates StartUpScreen files. Bill Atkinson wrote one and there are a number of others. If worst comes to worst and you live in a Mac wasteland you can buy PaintCutter from Silicon Beach Software. It can make StartUpScreens. Next you must have another folder in your system folder named Screens. This contains other StartUpScreens with other names. It can contain any number of files. The INIT will pick one of these and copy it into StartUpScreen after it plays the StartUpSound file that is discussed next. Now for the sounds you must have a sound file to play. It must be in your system folder and named StartUpSound. Sounds can be obtained from a local enthusiast or, once again, you can go out and buy MacNiftyıs SoundCap hardware and software. Itıs a good deal, so this isnıt such a silly idea. I recommend TV show themes and other recognizable things. The new sound to be copied into this file after it is played is picked from the folder Sounds that must reside in your system folder. Do you see a pattern emerging here? The file BeepSound contains the sound that will replace your system beep. This can be anthing from HAL of 2001 to <>. The source of itıs replacement is a folder named Beeps. Now you are ready to play. In all cases the files will be written over by a file in the folders, so do not make any of the files, StartUpScreen, StartUpSound, or BeepSound, be an original file. All three of these should be duplicates. Tricks and Options You knew that couldnıt be all, didnıt you? Well it isnıt. I have added a few other capabilities. You can skip the randomizing/copying process, which can be somewhat time consuming, by holding down the Option key. Start holding it down as the StartUpSound plays and keep it down until the menu bar appears. This also is a good way of keeping the present setup for the next reboot. You can create sets of files that will go together. If you have a screen, sound, and/or a beep, you can give them all the same name (but leave them in different folders) and once it picks one it will pick the others. For example, if you made a screen, sound, and beep all named Batman then when it picked the screen, it would also pick the same sound and beep. You do not need to have complete sets though, although they must be grouped Screen & Sound or Sound & Beep if you only have two. The most common use I forsee is the Screen & Sound combo. For example, the Batmobile and the sound of Batman and Robin that goes with it. This has one drawback, a random screen can still use the grouped Sound or Beep. To make a Sound or Beep only able to be used with itıs group, I added a naming convention. Any files ending in .Only (any capitalization) can only be used as a combo. You cannot group Sounds together this way, you must use a Screen or the files will never be used. In this way I have Batman.only in my Screens and Sounds folders. They will only be used as a group, never seperately. Where did this stuff come from? The BeepSound INIT and the StartUpSound INIT are from MacNifty. They were released into the public domain. I have provided them here for your convenience. The BackGround INIT came from an INIT named BackDrop that came to me from the misty gray reaches of the Mac world. I do not know itıs author, but I thank him for giving me this idea and I invite him to write. The SwitchStuff INIT was written by me in Lightspeed Pascal. I have released it into the public domain so feel free to give it to your friends, but please give them this document so that they will know about the nifty added features. Jon Pugh Lawrence Livermore Lab Po Box 5509 - L561 Livermore, CA 94550 (415) 423-4239 pugh@nmfecc.arpa or leave a message on the MacCircles BBS (415) 484-4412 lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll