Raging Menace
NEWS
July 11, 2015

MenuMeters doesn't work on OS X 10.11 "El Capitan" public beta, and may be permanently broken.

October 22, 2014

MenuMeters 1.8.1 fixes several reported bugs from the 1.8 release..

October 19, 2014

MenuMeters 1.8 updates MenuMeters for Mac OS X 10.10 "Yosemite".

May 5, 2014

MenuMeters 1.7 adds support for compressed memory information on 10.9 "Mavericks".

June 25, 2013

MenuMeters 1.6.1 is now available. This release corrects a code signing issue that was preventing MenuMeters from working on 10.9 preview releases.

July 15, 2012

MenuMeters 1.6 has been released. This is a signed build for Mac OS X 10.8.

July 6, 2011

MenuMeters 1.5 has been released with support for Mac OS X 10.7.

November 1, 2010 - Bringing SideTrack to a close...

As of November 1, 2010 SideTrack has reached end-of-life.

I will continue to offer technical support and license assistance to existing SideTrack customers. However, SideTrack is no longer available for sale or download.

I'd like to thank the many users who supported SideTrack over the years. Your feedback was an invaluable part of SideTrack's success.

Since its first release in 2003 I've been very proud of what SideTrack accomplished. SideTrack users had advanced trackpad functionality years before Apple introduced basic scrolling features. Even today, SideTrack has features and customizations unavailable in the stock trackpad driver.

This has been an enormously satisfying project for me. Covering so many machine models with complex, undocumented hardware has been technically challenging. User feedback, both good and bad, has been an amazing motivator.

Unfortunately, it is no longer practical for me to continue developing SideTrack. Both technical and intellectual property issues prevent me from moving SideTrack forward. Because of these restrictions I've decided it is time to bring SideTrack to a close.

Current customers, your SideTrack license will remain valid. I will continue to handle technical support and serial number issues for existing users. Please contact the support address for assistance.

Comments, questions or concerns? Please contact support.

October 5, 2010

After a long public beta, I've released MenuMeters 1.4.

There are no code changes from 1.4b4, but the build has been updated to work with Xcode 3.2 and its 10.4 SDK. Please contact me if you experience a problem on older machines or OS versions.

At the same time I've released PullTab 1.4 for compatibility with Unsanity APE 2.6.1 and Snow Leopard.

November 15, 2009

MenuMeters 1.4b4 released, correcting a network throughput problem on some models with Snow Leopard.

September 25, 2009

MenuMeters 1.4b3 has been posted fixing a problem with preference file upgrades in 1.4b2.

September 21, 2009

An updated MenuMeters public beta is available fixing all reported issues with the prior beta.

August 30, 2009

A public beta of MenuMeters 1.4b1 is now available with Snow Leopard compatibility and many other changes. This version has not received extensive testing, please report problems to the support address.

August 17, 2009

Snow Leopard is coming soon and compatibility questions have started to appear in my Inbox. As with prior OS upgrades Apple has changed enough to make the transition interesting.

March 7, 2008

Well MacWorld brought us the MacBook Air and February brought us the new MacBook Pro. Both machines have Apple's new "multitouch" trackpad that supports iPhone-like gestures. Unfortunately, this new trackpad is completely new hardware, and SideTrack doesn't know how to talk to it.

Of course this isn't the first time Apple has changed pad hardware. Just like previous generations I've started looking at whether SideTrack can support the new pads. As soon as I have news I'll post here again.

In the meantime, SideTrack should continue to work with all previous generations of Apple trackpad hardware, including the brand-new MacBook models introduced in February.

January 8, 2008

Happy New Year!

With the new year and MacWorld comes the final release of SideTrack 1.6. This new version of SideTrack is considered stable and is fully compatible with Mac OS X 10.5. This free update is recommended for all SideTrack users.

I'd like to thank everyone who contacted me during the beta period. Your feedback was invaluable in fixing SideTrack for Leopard and the 2007 MacBooks.

December 4, 2007

The prior public beta was a great success, many obscure Leopard bugs were reported and fixed. Thanks to everyone who tried it and sent in their reports.

I'm almost ready to call version 1.6 ready for general usage. However, before that happens I'd like to get a little more testing of these new fixes from the last beta.

As with the prior public beta I am obligated to warn you... This is beta software. Serious bugs may exist. Back up your data before installing the beta.

The SideTrack 1.6b3 public beta is now available here [Link removed, see latest news for a final release of SideTrack 1.6].

Please report any issues to my support address.

November 6, 2007

Good news for SideTrack on Leopard! Preliminary testing with my private testers has been very positive. While I'm not quite ready to finalize the next version of SideTrack, I do feel confident enough to offer a public beta.

The Mandatory Beta Warning: This is a beta version. While preliminary testing has shown no major issues, this is a prerelease of a boot time device driver. Serious bugs may exist. Backup your data. I encourage you to have a bootable OS CD available just in case (see the instructions on performing an "Archive" OS reinstallation below).

The SideTrack 1.6b2 public beta is available here [Link removed, see latest news for a final release of SideTrack 1.6].

If you experience problems with the beta please contact the support address.

October 26, 2007

SideTrack 1.5.1 is incompatible with Leopard. Your built-in keyboard will be disabled (external USB keyboards will operate normally).

Due to the severity of the incompatibility you should not install SideTrack on Leopard. If you have an existing installation of SideTrack you should uninstall SideTrack prior to upgrading to Leopard or perform an "archive" install of Leopard.

If you have already installed an old version of SideTrack on Leopard or performed an "upgrade" install of Leopard you will experience the SideTrack compatibility issue (see below for a more complete discussion).

To correct the problem you have two choices:

  1. Boot from your Leopard CD again and perform an "archive" installation. This is my recommendation since it is the simplest course for most users.

    To get an "archive" installation boot from your Leopard CD and start the OS X installer. On the "Select a Destination" page of the installer (the one where you chose the hard drive to install) click the "Options" button. The "Archive and Install" option is available there. It is safe for you to chose to have the archive install preserve your users, home folders and network settings. An archive install will always disable the SideTrack driver.

  2. You can attempt a manual SideTrack uninstall. If you have an external USB keyboard you can attach it to your machine and then remove the SideTrack program files (not all of these files may be present on your machine depending on your version of SideTrack):

    • /System/Library/Extensions/SideTrack.kext
    • /Library/PreferencePanes/SideTrack.prefPane
    • /Library/StartupItems/SideTrack
    • /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.ragingmenace.SideTrack.Daemon.plist

    During removal you will be prompted for your admin password (this is why you need the external keyboard). With the files removed you can reboot and your machine will come up normally.

As before, I apologize for the inconvenience of this issue. I hope to have a public beta of a working Leopard version of SideTrack available very soon.

October 25, 2007

I've been able to confirm with Apple that a very recent change in the Leopard keyboard driver conflicts with SideTrack. It appears unlikely this will be changed in any future OS updates. This change was made after I completed initial Leopard testing for SideTrack 1.5, which is why it wasn't mentioned in the 1.5 release in August (see below).

At this time I am actively researching a workaround. Unfortunately there is simply no time left to create and test the workaround in time for early adopters of Leopard.

Because of the severity of the Leopard bug (total disabling of the internal keyboard on some laptop models) I've decided to release SideTrack 1.5.1. The 1.5.1 installer will warn users when they attempt installation of SideTrack on Leopard.

If you are presently using 10.4 (Tiger) there is no reason to upgrade to SideTrack 1.5.1. You can safely wait to upgrade to the next major version of SideTrack when it is released.

As soon as I know more I will post news. Again, I apologize for the inconvenience.

October 22, 2007

The earlier SideTrack compatibility information I posted was incorrect. Subsequent testing on the very latest seed release indicates that Apple has made a late change to their keyboard driver that conflicts with SideTrack. This is entirely unexpected, and does not appear to be a deliberate change on Apple's part.

At present SideTrack is incompatible with Leopard, preventing the internal keyboard from operating while SideTrack is installed. I have contacted Apple and hope to have a workaround available soon. In the meantime you should not install SideTrack on Leopard.

I apologize for the delay, and hope to have this issue resolved soon.

October 21, 2007

Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) is almost here, and with it comes questions about product compatibility. Because Raging Menace products interact with OS X at such a low level, major OS upgrades can sometimes be a rough transition. However, I have good news about my major products and Leopard:

With the move to Leopard its also time to make another transition. As of Leopard PullTab is officially end-of-life. It is possible that the current version of PullTab will work fine on Leopard once a 10.5-compatible version of Unsanity APE is available. However, if PullTab is broken on 10.5 I have no plans to produce an update. I realize that this change will be a disappointment to the (small) number of PullTab users, but given that PullTab is freeware and I no longer use it myself I can't justify the time required to reverse-engineer Apple's new changes in Leopard.

August 28, 2007

Its been a long time since the last SideTrack update, and for that I apologize. Development was halted last year in response to some serious legal complications with trackpad patents.

I'm pleased to announce that the lawyers are done. The legal issues have been resolved and SideTrack development will be allowed to continue.

As a result, I can now release SideTrack 1.5. The new version includes support for all MacBook and MacBook Pro models Apple is currently shipping (up to August 2007). It also includes initial support for Apple's next generation OS X 10.5 (Leopard).

Again, I apologize for the long delay of this release. The prolonged silence wasn't something I wanted, but it was an important part of making sure SideTrack could continue development.

November 5, 2006

In what is becoming a all-to-familiar situation, Apple has once again changed the trackpad hardware on the new (October 2006) MacBook Pro models (Core 2 Duo). This prevents SideTrack 1.4.1 from working on these machines.

The good news is that the changes appear to be very minor. I expect to have a fix available shortly. If you have a new October MacBook Pro (Core 2 Duo) and would like to help test the fixes you can contact me at the support address.

June 3, 2006

By popular demand I've updated PullTab for Intel based Macs. The new version requires Unsanity's Application Enhancer 2.0. You must upgrade to APE 2.0 for Intel compatibility.

June 1, 2006

SideTrack 1.4.1 fixes a USB reset issue for 2005 iBook G4 models.

May 19, 2006

SideTrack 1.4 is now available with support for all current MacBook and MacBook Pro models, as well as other fixes and improvements.

February 27, 2006

With the MacBook work still ongoing, now is a good time to provide an update for PowerBook and iBook users. SideTrack 1.3.1 fixes a bug on October 2005 PowerBooks and improves tap recognition for all models.

February 22, 2006

Today I had my first chance to handle a production model of the MacBook. It appears that Apple has again changed both pad hardware and data format with the MacBook. Frustratingly, this is substantially different than the prerelease MacBooks shown at MacWorld. Those machines used pad hardware identical to the previous generation of PowerBook.

What does this mean? It means my prediction from January is no longer true. A substantial SideTrack update will be needed to gain compatibility with the MacBooks. I'll be starting work on an update as soon as possible. My best guess is that will take several weeks.

As before, if you have a MacBook and would like to beta test when the new version is ready drop me an an email.

January 25, 2006

Thanks to the help of some dedicated testers, MenuMeters 1.3 has been released. MenuMeters is now a Universal Binary and runs on both PowerPC and Intel based Macintoshes.

January 10, 2006

Well, the Macworld keynote has come and gone. Here's my plan for the big transition to Intel / Universal Binaries:

Other products will be updated later, for example PullTab won't be updated till an Intel version of Unsanity's APE system is available.

November 22, 2005

SideTrack 1.3 is now available. This new release is compatible with the October 2005 PowerBook trackpads as well as all previous PowerBook and iBook models.

October 25, 2005

Well it looks like Apple will be keeping me busy this month... Early indications are that Apple has changed pad hardware again in new 15" and 17" PowerBooks released last week (October 19, 2005). SideTrack will install on these machines but will not operate properly (unreliable tracking). Based on preliminary reports the changes are minor and should not take long to fix once Apple ships me a new machine. I'm working on an update and will announce something as soon as I am able.

August 26, 2005

It took a bit longer than I hoped, but SideTrack 1.2.1 is now available.

SideTrack now supports all 2005 PowerBook and iBook models as well as addressing potential kernel panic on ADB trackpads. The new version also corrects a kernel threading issue that fixes a number of problems with other software that interacts with the IOKit HID system.

August 3, 2005

Several users have let me know that the new July 2005 iBooks (PowerBook6,7) aren't recognized by SideTrack 1.2. It appears Apple is using a different USB identifier for the hardware in the new iBooks. A new version of SideTrack will be released this weekend with full support for the new iBooks.

July 31, 2005

Flynn at kodachi.com has released his fKeys project, which is the beginning of a replacement for uControl on Tiger. If you've been missing uControl's key remapping on Tiger I recommend you check it out.

July 25, 2005

I'm pleased to announce the release of SideTrack 1.2. The new version supports the new proprietary trackpad hardware found on the 2005 model PowerBooks (Apple's USB trackpad). All standard SideTrack features (edge scrolling, corner taps, etc.) are supported.

At this time two-finger scrolling is not supported on the new PowerBooks, I am still investigating this possibility for a future release.

May 30, 2005

Because of changes in Xcode 2.0 MenuMeters 1.2.1 was broken on Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar). MenuMeters 1.2.2 corrects this problem.

May 26, 2005

MenuMeters needed some minor updates for Tiger, as well as fixing a bug with ShapeShifter. MenuMeters 1.2.1 is now available.

SideTrack development for 2005 PowerBooks is proceeding nicely and early betas are getting a lot of good fine tuning. A public release will be available soon.

April 25, 2005

Another permissions problem on Tiger has been corrected, here's SideTrack 1.1.2a. Sorry for the inconvenience.

April 24, 2005

SideTrack 1.1.2 has been released and fully supports Tiger.

Also, a user has noticed that dynamic menu updates in MenuMeters is not working on Tiger. This is harmless but I'll be working on a fix as soon as I am able.