Save $$$ - Upgrade Your Own Mac Video Tutorials

If you prefer to save money these days (I only know of a few folks that don't), why not try your hand at upgrading your own Macintosh?! The good folks over at OWC have created an extensive and totally free set of instructional videos that show you how to install such items as:

• memory
• hard drives
• optical drives
• accelerators
• PCI cards
• eSATA cables

For me, this is ridiculously cool for several reasons. First, the site is broken down by Mac model so it's incredibly easy to find your computer among the models listed. Second, each video has three versions in order accommodate any bandwidth and monitor size. Third, each video is RATED by skill level, so if you aren't sure if you have the skills to do a particular job, they'll break it down for you.

Lastly - and this is a nice touch - each video give you a breakdown of the tools you'll need to do the job. Of course, if you happen to be missing the proper tools, OWC is VERY happy to sell you their own kit, but even that's awfully cheap.

This is a slam-dunk resource for any DIY'er.

The Easiest Way to Fix Your Mac

Back in the days of OS 9, if your Mac was ever acting strangely, there was a trick you do that was so simple, that anyone – even the motards – could do it and help to maintain their own Macs. Back then, all you needed to do was to rebuild your desktop files and EVERYONE knew how to do that: you just restarted your computer while holding down the option and apple keys. Doing this caused a couple of files that were invisible to be rebuilt which, more often than not, fixed the problem. The upshot? Even if it didn’t fix the problem, rebuilding the desktop files was something that couldn’t cause damage to your Mac. It would ONLY help.

And man: wouldn’t you love to know that there was something like that now for OSX? Well there is and – shock of all shocks – it’s totally FREE. The application is called Applejack and it’s so simple that even a chimp could use it. Maybe not a whale, but come on: whales don’t type well at all, so it’s not a fair thing to expect.

Let’s break it down in five easy steps:

Step One: Head over to sourceforge and download the app to your Mac. Benefits? It’s free and everyone likes free.

Step Two: Install the software. If you want to also check your RAM, choose to do a customized install and also install “MemTest”. Benefits? You’ll get two programs for the price of one.

Step Three: Restart your Mac, hold down the “Command” and the “S” keys to boot into “Single User Mode”. (NOTE: You must use a wired, usb keyboard for this. Wireless keyboards will NOT work) Single User Mode is a fancy term that tells your Mac to “turn off the graphics and boot strictly into text only mode”. Benefits? Seeing your Mac boot into single user mode is seriously cool. In fact, since you’ve probably never SEEN your Mac boot up into plain ‘ole text before, you’ll feel like you’re a computer whiz seeing something rare and forbidden.

Step Four: Type the following “applejack auto restart” and then hit enter. Now go grab a cup of coffee. Benefits? Harvard thinks coffee is healthy.

Step Five: Watch your screen for about five minutes as Applejack runs through five different tasks – running disk utility to repair your internal hard drive, fixing your permissions, cleaning up a series of cache files, validating core preferences and removing all swap files. When it’s finished, your computer will restart auto-magically. Benefits? You’ve just enjoyed an awesome cup of coffee while looking VERY cool to your co-workers.

While this might not fix deeper problems on your Mac, it’s simple, easy and free. Give it a shot and relive your old “rebuild the desktop files” glory days, why don’t’cha?