I mentioned the above to the reader (G5 owner) that wrote about stuffit problems with the exe D/L. Here's his later mail:
"After sending my e-mail to you on this subject (inability to deal with ".exe" files on my G5 running Mac OS 10.4.11), I looked for and found a utility which will open such files on a Mac, called "File Juicer". (File Juicer's main claim to fame is extracting images, sounds, etc. but does other things also. It's probably not the simplest util to deal with archives and as I mentioned earlier, Unzip from the terminal seems to also work on self-extracting exe files.-Mike) I downloaded the free trial and it worked perfectly. (I later bought it for $17.95.) The procedure that actually worked to update my Samsung SH-S222L DVD Writer was a follows:
1) I went to the Samsung Firmware update site and clicked on "Apple Mac." (Tab)
2) After the text on the page changed, I scrolled down to the "Attached File" box at the bottom of the page and clicked on "TSDNMAC.zip." (Do not click on the "SE-S084D_TS00.bin" file unless that happens to be the Samsung DVD writer model you have.) Clicking downloaded the file.
3) I unzipped the TSDNMAC.zip file to get the TSDNMAC.app icon, and trashed the zip file.
4) On the Samsung firmware update page, I scrolled up to the top, and in the left corner, clicked on the "Firmware Downloads" box. That took me to this web page.
5) At the top of the page, I selected the product type (in my case it was "DVD Writer - Half Height." Since I knew my DVD model (it's in Apple System Profiler), I clicked and dragged in the "Select All" box down to "Model." Then I typed in the model number (in my case "SH-S222L") and clicked "Search."
6) On the resulting page was a list of all the firmware versions for that model, latest at the top. Under "Attach" at the right of the firmware version list, I clicked on the floppy disc icon in the top row (wanted the latest firmware revision; for my DVD writer, it was "SB03").
7) Guess what: I was taken to yet another page, this one unique to my model (SH-S222L - My page)
8) Then I scrolled down to the bottom of that page, to "Attached File," which in my case was "SH-S222L_SB03.exe," and clicked on the model number and that file downloaded.
9) So now I had both files, but in my case I could do nothing with the ".exe" file until I downloaded "File Juicer." Once I installed that app, I used it to open "SH-S222L_SB03.exe." Opening File Juicer displayed a "Drag Files Here" box, so I did. FJ processed the .exe file and created a folder called "SH-S222L_SB03 Juice."
10) Inside the new folder were one file and four folders, one of which was titled simply "zip." Inside that folder was one file titled "SH-S222L_SB-03.zip." Ah, now we're getting somewhere! (Is this starting to sound like some sort of Windows operation?)
11) I dragged the desired ".zip" file onto my desktop and used Stuffit Expander to unzip it, and this time it worked! (I also trashed the ""SH-S222L_SB03 Juice" folder, and quit "File Juicer.")
12) The unzipped file was a folder titled "SH-S222L_SB03." Inside the folder was... (Merry Christmas!) a file titled "SH-S222L_SB03.bin." There was also an icon titled "tsdnwin.exe," which was of no use. I dragged the "SH-S222L_SB03.bin" file out of the folder onto my desktop. I then trashed the folder and its ".exe" content.
13) Now, finally, I had the two files I needed. Double-clicking the TSDN.MAC.app gave me the window as shown in the "TSDNMAC Upgrade Instructions box at the left of this web page, if you click on that box.
14) The program ran correctly, and I had the latest firmware in my DVD writer. Sorry if you found this boring, but in my world, nothing is easy!
-Bill S."
Amen. And although I've personally never had a firmware update go bad (yet), remember the golden rule about firmware updates - "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" - see if the changes promised in the update are really any benefit to you/list fixes for any issues you've had personally. (And in my world there's another cliche that often rings true - "no good deed goes unpunished")
It had been several years since I checked, but just a reminder for Pioneer owners about DVRflash (http://dvrflash.rpc1.org/) - v2.7.6 there currently. Over the years (going back about a decade here), I've linked to other OS X flashers for some Plextor drives, some NEC drives (and some clones), but when I checked an old link for the latter, it was no longer online.
