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From: brion@hounx.UUCP (B.FEINBERG)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Patch for Smart Alarms - disables incessant beeping
Message-ID: <1132@hounx.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 30-Sep-87 14:19:15 EDT
Article-I.D.: hounx.1132
Posted: Wed Sep 30 14:19:15 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 5-Oct-87 01:09:34 EDT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Holmdel
Lines: 58
Keywords: Smart Alarms patch

Hi everyone,

This is my first posting to comp.sys.mac, but I think I finally
have something useful to share.  Apparently many people use the
Smart Alarms desk accessory from Imagine Software.  However, it
has one glaring fault which makes it almost useless in many
environments.  When an alarm goes off, the Macintosh beeps and
shows a display indicating the purpose of the alarm.  That is 
fine.  But if you aren't around to turn off the alarm, it 
continues to beep, at the maximum volume setting of the mac,
about once every minute.  This can drive anyone near the machine
batty.  I called Imagine and complained about this "feature," but
alas, the software was developed in Australia and they offered
little hope of changing the feature (in fact, they suggested 
plugging a phone-jack into the machine to turn off the speaker
completely, but that isn't what I wanted).  I really wanted
all the functionality of the alarms, but I only wanted them to
beep the first time the alarm came up.

So, based on the conviction that anything is possible given 
enough perseverance, I pulled out a copy of Macsbug and traced
through the code in Smart Alarms.  The result is the following
patch which modifies the behavior of Smart Alarms as desired.
Everything works as before, except the alarm only beeps the first
time it comes up. It then remains on the screen, but silently.
Apply the patch to the Smart Alarms Installer program and then
reinstall Smart Alarms.  Please note that this patch is designed
to modify version 2.5US of Smart Alarms that works with Tempo 
and MS Works.  The first version I received crashed if Tempo was
active, but Imagine software sent me the upgrade for free.
Probably the patch will work with the earlier version, but I
make no promises.

Here is the patch

old: 08f0 4eba feec 3f2e 
new: 08f0 4e71 4e71 3f2e 

For any fellow amateurs who want to know what this does -
4eba feec is a jump to subroutine call which jumps to the 
routine that causes the beeps.  The patch simply replaces the
subroutine call with a few NOPs (no operations).  

Incidently, with the above patch, I HIGHLY recommend Smart Alarms
if you use a Mac continuously like I do.


Brion


Brion Feinberg
uucp: ihnp4!hounx!brion
arpa: "ihnp4!hounx!brion"@decwrl.dec.com

Disclaimer:  This posting has nothing to do with my employmer
and is provided as an informational service only.  I have not
investigated whether or not modifying the Smart Alarms code
violates any licensing agreements.