Macmaps.com software

The following software is available for download. Both these software titles are known to work on Intel Macs.
Eject Disc - developed by the webmaster of this site.
Force Empty Trash - developed by the webmaster of this site.
Spindown fix - developed by the webmaster of this site.
source code for above two applications
The Norton Uninstall script which used to be on this page has been removed. There is another script at Symantec's website which may work better on certain installations.

Eject Disc

Eject Disc (link to download application) - This little application is a result of the research that went into building the user tip:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2315723&tstart=0
It uses the same method to eject discs under Intel Macs as the user tip, only simplifies it by allowing you to avoid the Terminal entirely.
Note, if there is a hardware issue preventing the optical disk from being removed, this script will not work, and you should take the machine in for repair. Here's the source code.

try
do shell script "drutil eject -drive internal"
on error error_message
beep
display dialog error_message buttons {"OK"} default button 1
end try

Force Empty Trash 1.0

For people who just want to force empty trash, this program has been made: Force Empty Trash (link to download application) This has been tested with Mac OS X 10.1.5, 10.2.3 through 10.6. It may work with earlier versions of Mac OS X.
It requires the password you used to setup installation of software on your machine.

A word of caution

If you don't know what to throw into the trash, don't! Some system files on purposely are impossible to delete unless you use Force Empty Trash. Force Empty Trash overrides any protection those files had by default by the operating system. Thus if you drag items to the trash that are protected because the operating system meant for them to be protected, you will find yourself with a non-working system. A workaround if something really goes wrong is an Archive and Install if you have Mac OS X 10.2 or higher. Ask an expert if a specific file is OK to delete before dragging it to the trash, and be sure to mention what folder it is located in. If your system is already not working properly and you dragged that file out of the folder it belongs in, it may be difficult to tell if it OK to delete it. A repair of permissions with either Repair Privileges Utility in 10.1.5 or Applications -> Utilities -> Disk Utility -> First Aid tab -> select hard disk in Mac OS X 10.2 and up followed by a restart from the Apple menu will sometimes clear up files that can be deleted.

Spindown fix 1.1

Spindownfix (link to download application) is a utility designed to do one very simple thing.
It tells the computer if the Energy Saver is off not to spindown non-boot volumes. This problem has been noted as a problem
when doing video capture in Mac OS X, as frames get dropped if the hard drive isn't spinning when files are written to it.

Please read the included readme as this program requires authentication to work.

WARNING!
A user on April 8th, 2008 has reported a serious bug with 10.4.11, in that their hard drive would not stop spinning and the fans started going on forever. Currently investigating the cause.

It has been tested in Mac OS X 10.2.2 through 10.4.2, and may work in earlier versions of Mac OS X, though since I don't have machines using
the older Mac OS X versions, I can't say for sure. There is also another test point where someone has succeeded in using it in 10.4.2.
The only operating system/hard disk configuration it hasn't worked on so far is Mac OS X 10.4.11 with a Maxtor One-Touch hard drive.
However, Cocktail has been known to work in its place. I would caution not to use Cocktail for anything but what a technician recommends, as many of its automated functions can cause more harm than good.

Spindownfix is also available .dmg format (link to download application)

Source Code

The source for both these applications is very simple for those who are curious and know what they are doing with
administrative processes in Applescript:

try
do shell script "rm -r ~/.Trash/*" with administrator privileges

on error error_message
beep
display dialog error_message buttons {"OK"} default button 1

end try
try
do shell script "pmset -a spindown 0" with administrator privileges

on error error_message
beep
display dialog error_message buttons {"OK"} default button 1

end try

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