MacOS 9: Time Prefs?? WTF!?? (No, NOT Date and Time Preferences!)

Factual Questions
1

I still have and use my 7100, as a second computer and with an accelerator card in it. A while back, I used it to connect to FileMaker Server up in the server room, and FileMaker reported back that the date format in use on the local machine did not match that being used by Server, did I want the log to use system defaults or use the local machine settings, blah blah blah…I glance at the menu bar and, sure enough, it is reporting the time as 9:2:7 followed shortly by 9:2:8.

A quick journey to Date and Time Control Panel fixes nothing, settings are default except for displaying seconds. Hmm, the Date and Time Preferences must be hosed, I think to myself, so I dig them out of Preferences and trash them. Later on I reboot. Problem hasn’t fixed itself. I’m in a hurry so I leave it.

So yesterday I go at it again. Open Date and Time CP, select “Custom”, try to force it to use normal “6:07:04 PM” nomenclature, no joy. Try other settings: Australian; 24 hour; etc; nope, I’ve still got this weird format where single-digit minutes have no leading zeros and no AM/PM (despite being in 12-hour mode). Trash the Date and Time Preferences again and reboot. STILL not fixed. I open the Preferences folder and root around in it and find a file, blank icon, named “Time Prefs”. Time Prefs??? OK… I trash it and reboot. The time is 5:14:03 PM, very nice.

So this morning I dig the file “Time Prefs” out of the trash can and inspect it. It is not of type “pref”, but then a few other prefs files aren’t either. It is, in fact, of type “ReEg”, and the creator code is “aLw$”. I do a Sherlock search for other files of the same creator and find a duplicate copy of the same file in the old MacOS 8.1 System Folder which is on a different drive. Hmm, and 8.6 was installed on top of a clone of 8.1, so that’s probably where the file came from. Hmm again, 8.1 in turn was installed on top of a clone of 7.6 and I still have that old System Folder on a partition too. But no “Time Prefs” under 7.6.

System 7.6, in fact, uses the same Date and Time Control Panel that 8 and 9 use (give or take a version increment and some additional synchronization features and whatnot). I can’t recall EVER having had a standalone Time control panel…so what is this thing? Creation and Modification Dates are identical: 3/3/98.

File Type and Creator Database I go to doesn’t have any listing for the type or the creator code. I pry the file open with BBEdit and the file contains only this string: 2971765482. ResEdit says it has no resource fork, so that’s the entire file.

Alta Vista and Google only bring me pages written in other languages in which “reeg” or “alw” are found.
Mysteriouser and mysteriouser!

All right, what IS this file and how did it get in my Preference folder, and why does MacOS 9 pay attention to it?

2

My vote is for that it’s some third party’s software that managed to screw with the clock. Maybe it even confused the D & T control panel (I have to admit that part’s difficult to understand.)

I don’t have it on any of my local partitions – I’ve got 8.6, 8.0, and 8.1 installs on them – no “Time Prefs”, no type “ReEg”, no creator “aLw$”. I could check 7.6 (on a 6200 in perfect working order found abandoned on the street last week!) but I doubt I’d find anything new. So it’s not in the usual system install. Could it have been a partly deleted ‘Network Time Prefs’?

As a last ditch effort, I tried searching on 3/3/98 creation dates. Not much – some Code Warrior demos, the QuickDraw Read Me, the US Robotics Modem Script. The most interesting one was Acrobat Reader 4.0 – all the files had this creation date, with other mod. dates. Don’t know why Acrobat would need time prefs.

Hey, all this searching made me just do something weird. I’ve suddenly got this ‘torn off’ applications menu. I’ve only been using 8.6 a few months – I’m assuming it’s part of that. It appears to have been some move of the mouse, I don’t think I touched the keyboard. How do I get it back if I want it again?

3

panamajack, if you click on the applications list on the menu bar at the top right, you get a list of the running applications with a checkmark next to the active one. If you hold the click and drag the menu farther than it actually goes, it will form the menu you saw. Click, then drag, and you should see it form an outline of the floating palette before you release the mouse button.

I think it was a feature that started with OS 8, and it still works in 9.2.

4

Thanks for that, AudreyK

AHunter3 – I just checked at mammals.org and ‘aLw$’ is not a registered creator type (neither is ‘ReEg’, but that’s not important). I would think most companies would register the codes, though it might have been overlooked for prefs if they use a code distinct from their app. I don’t know how frequent registration is with shareware and the like.

The other option is that all the file info & the file was damaged. I can’t think it would be a lost part of the system – why wouldn’t they have chosen a lower-case code, and why wouldn’t they have registered it even it’s only for internal use?

(Incidentally, Apple TN1134 deals with preferences file types & creator codes.)