Help me find the big(program) one that got away.
April 24, 2012 7:11 PM Subscribe
Help me find this obscure software from the dawn of Mac OS X. It was a desktop fishy that let people take screenshots of your desktop remotely.
It was around '99 or 2000. This programmer made this cool but useless little app. When you ran it, a red snapper appeared on your desktop. On the side it had a http:// xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx. That IP number was your computer. If someone entered that into their browser, the Snapper would take a picture of your desktop and send it to the person. The viewed the pic in their browser.
Other clues: My memory is fuzzy but the he/she worked for a big tech company by day and then programmed these little apps at night. He/she made other apps but I don't remember the others.
He/she had a thing for cats. There was some kind of OS X icons with a cat theme. There was possibly a cat web cam.
He/she also made a whole bunch of icons for OS X. One was a solar system theme.
It's possible, possible, that some of these little icons and apps came on a MacAddict magazine CD. I may be misremembering this. I had a lot of MA discs at that time.
It's also possible that this was an OS 9 app. At the time I used both operating systems. So I don't remember which one it was.
I'd like to know:
1.the name of the programmer.
2.If there's a copy of the program I could get.
3.Bonus: Source code of program.
It was around '99 or 2000. This programmer made this cool but useless little app. When you ran it, a red snapper appeared on your desktop. On the side it had a http:// xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx. That IP number was your computer. If someone entered that into their browser, the Snapper would take a picture of your desktop and send it to the person. The viewed the pic in their browser.
Other clues: My memory is fuzzy but the he/she worked for a big tech company by day and then programmed these little apps at night. He/she made other apps but I don't remember the others.
He/she had a thing for cats. There was some kind of OS X icons with a cat theme. There was possibly a cat web cam.
He/she also made a whole bunch of icons for OS X. One was a solar system theme.
It's possible, possible, that some of these little icons and apps came on a MacAddict magazine CD. I may be misremembering this. I had a lot of MA discs at that time.
It's also possible that this was an OS 9 app. At the time I used both operating systems. So I don't remember which one it was.
I'd like to know:
1.the name of the programmer.
2.If there's a copy of the program I could get.
3.Bonus: Source code of program.
Best answer: Mac Orchard says it's SnapperHead from Bains Software, run by Navdeep Bains.
There's contact info, but no download.
posted by Mad_Carew at 8:16 PM on April 24, 2012
There's contact info, but no download.
posted by Mad_Carew at 8:16 PM on April 24, 2012
Best answer: The download at Tucows still works. And it (surprisingly) runs OK for me on 10.6.8. I thought I'd ditched Rosetta somewhere along the upgrade line, but apparently it's still buried there…
posted by Pinback at 8:29 PM on April 24, 2012
posted by Pinback at 8:29 PM on April 24, 2012
The readme from the Tucows download says that Bains purchased the app from John Schilling of Stimpsoft, who died in 2011. Schilling was the cat fancier you're thinking of.
posted by Mad_Carew at 8:59 PM on April 24, 2012
posted by Mad_Carew at 8:59 PM on April 24, 2012
Just came back in to post what Mad_Carew said. Although the icon packs are no longer available on his website, Googling seems to find some for download at various icon sites e.g. InterfaceLIFT.
posted by Pinback at 9:21 PM on April 24, 2012
posted by Pinback at 9:21 PM on April 24, 2012
"John Schilling of Stimpsoft, who died in 2011"
Is this true?! Aww. I loved some of his stuff!
posted by drstein at 5:32 PM on April 27, 2012
Is this true?! Aww. I loved some of his stuff!
posted by drstein at 5:32 PM on April 27, 2012
I did a quick re-google and I can't find where I saw that reference. Sorry, but the best I can do right now is "I heard it on the Internet."
posted by Mad_Carew at 9:45 AM on April 29, 2012
posted by Mad_Carew at 9:45 AM on April 29, 2012
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That one's currently called Web Snapper , and they are now using a turtle.
posted by Quisp Lover at 8:14 PM on April 24, 2012