Dogs are great people trainers.

Those of you that have dogs know this already, but my girlfriend and I have been learning it over the past few weeks with a new Whippet/Lab mix. It's amazing.

A dog will try to exert dominance over you again and again. If you don't react appropriately, the dog realizes it has power over you. It doesn't respect your authority because it's getting mixed messages. The dog wins.

People are also great people trainers. They teach you how to treat them. They test you to see how you react, often without even knowing it.

I have a great story about a girl I know whose boyfriend had cancelled on her one night. She didn't know what to do, so I suggested she call and say in no uncertain terms that it wasn't acceptable.

She did this. He showed up with flowers.

I don't know for sure, but I imagine kids are great people trainers too. If they whine and get a sugary treat to shut them up, they will detect a pattern and act on it. We teach them to do this. Am I right?

Confidence is a circular pattern. It will reinforce itself in either direction, heading either towards zero or infinity, until it is regulated by an outside force. Whatever outside force stops it is an outpost of dominance, a kind of flag that says beyond this point, you shall not pass.

These flags eventually start feeling like walls, and these walls impact what decisions you make about your life.

Maybe this is the reason you stopped playing guitar, or stopped working out. This may be why you haven't quit your job, I don't know. But the reality is that these markers of confidence are just as fluid as the relationship you have with your dog. They are fluid. They can be changed.

We act as if our life right now is the way our life is supposed to be, but you could just as easily be a CEO as you could be a janitor or homeless or dead. But you happen to be alive, and you happen to gave a fair amount of freedom in your life.

Maybe it's time you exerted it.

In reading about the lives of history's great men, one thing I've noticed is that many of them had a place they could go to be alone with their thoughts. Some of these men had a study where they would retreat to think, read, and write. Others had a garage or workshop where they would tinker and experiment. But what all these rooms had in common was their sheer manliness. They were man spaces, places a man could call his own.

Below we give you a look inside the man rooms of 14 famous men from history. Within these rooms they formulated ideas that would change the world, wrote books that remain classics, and revitalized the dynamic manliness that drove their success. While we all can't have a Carnegie-esque study, perhaps you'll find inspiration from these manly spaces to spruce up your own room or simply the push to find a place where you can get away from it all and in tune with your manliness.

Ernest Hemingway's Writing Studio

The room where Papa wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls and Death in the Afternoon. Ernest Hemingway lived in this house in Key West, Florida for more than 10 years. Needing a place where he could drink a glass of scotch, smoke a cigar, and write about men being men, Hemingway turned the old carriage house on the property into his personal writing studio. The main features in the room are the Cuban cigar-maker's chair and his Royal typewriter. Throughout the room, Hemingway placed mementos he collected from his manly adventures in Africa and Cuba.

Theodore Roosevelt's Trophy Room

After Theodore Roosevelt's Dakota cattle business failed, he came back East to New York and built a home in Oyster Bay, NY. He called his estate Sagamore Hill, and he lived there until he died (with a stint in the White House, of course). It was where Roosevelt would go to relax, romp in the woods, and revitalize his man spirit. The crowning manly jewel of the house was TR's trophy room where he kept his collection of wild game he had hunted in Africa and throughout the American West. The room has a high ceiling and is filled with rich, dark Philippine camagon woodwork. A perfect place for the manliest president to read a book about adventure in the grasslands or to entertain guests and dignitaries.

Frederick Douglass' Office

Frederick Douglass was a true self-made man. He escaped from slavery and through hard work and self-education, became a writer, publisher, speaker and fierce abolitionist. With the money he made from writing and speaking, Douglass bought a 14 bedroom house in Washington, D.C. that he called Cedar Hill. His office was lined with over 1,000 books on a wide variety of subjects, and his walls were adorned with portraits of people he admired like Susan B. Anthony and Wendell Phillips. Douglas would spend up to five hours a day reading and writing in his manly study. At his sturdy wooden desk he penned many of his inspiring speeches and his famous autobiography, The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass.

Thomas Jefferson's Study

The author of the Declaration of Independence also was a master architect. Jefferson designed the home that crowned his beautiful Monticello estate. Jefferson's man space was his study where he'd read about, write about, and ponder liberty and other profound principles in solitude. The busts of great men served as muses for Jefferson. One of the unique aspects of Jefferson's man space is how it's connected to his bedroom. He placed his bed in an alcove in the wall between his study and room. That way Jefferson could roll right out of bed and start working or if he needed to take a power nap after hours of manly meditation and study, he could lie down for a respite.

Mark Twain's Writing Hut

Mark Twain would often summer with his sister who lived in Elmira, New York. Needing a place where he could get some work done, Twain built himself a writing hut on his sister's property. Free from distractions and inspired by the setting, Twain could write in peace and quiet. In this sanctuary of manliness, Twain wrote some of his most widely read and manly works: Life on the Mississippi, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

I love how Twain described his man space in an 1874 letter to William Dean Howells:

It is the loveliest study you ever sawoctagonal with a peaked roof, each face filled with a spacious windowperched in complete isolation on the top of an elevation that commands leagues of valley and city and retreating ranges of distant blue hills. It is a cozy nest and just room in it for a sofa, table, and three or four chairs, and when the storms sweep down the remote valley and the lightning flashes behind the hills beyond and the rain beats upon the roof over my headimagine the luxury of it.

Henry David Thoreau's Cabin

Tired of the distractions of modern living, Henry David Thoreau went to the woods to live a deliberate and simple life. He borrowed some land near a pond called Walden from friend Ralph Waldo Emerson and built himself a simple 10x5 shack. The inside was furnished with a bed, a table, a desk, and three chairs. That's it. Total cost to build his man shack? $28.12. It was in this small hut in the woods that Thoreau would get the inspiration he needed to write his most famous work of Transcendental Philosophy, Walden, Or Life in the Woods. Thoreau's rustic man-hut has inspired men for generations to tear out into the woods, build a shack with their own bare man hands, and start sucking the marrow out of life.

Thomas Edison's Library

Many people argue that Thomas Edison's greatest contribution to science and technology was his Invention Factory in Menlo Park, New Jersey. This series of brick buildings was the first industrial research and development laboratory and is the model for today's corporate and government R&D labs. Nestled in the complex was Edison's personal library. The focal point of the room is the roll top desk that Edison likely used to design cool stuff like the phonograph or Kinetoscope. Edison knew how to hustle and would often work for 24 hours (or more!) straight. He'd take catnaps in a cot that he set up in his library to recharge himself for more work.

John Muir's Study

When John Muir wasn't wandering through Yosemite and pondering the awe-inspiring power of nature, he lived with his wife in a 14-room mansion in Martinez, California that had been built in 1883 by his father-in-law. The Muirs occupied that home from 1890 until John's death in 1914. This was the most fruitful time of Muir's career, and much of his productivity took place within the walls of his study, which he called his scribble den. Seated at his simple wooden desk, Muir laid much of the foundation for the modern conservation movement, penning hundreds of passionate magazine and newspaper articles and writing books on the importance of preserving nature, mulling over how to save the Hetch Hetchy Valley from being dammed, pushing for the creation of National Parks and a Park Service, and taking care of work for his job as the first president of the Sierra Club.

Winston Churchill's Art Studio

In addition to being a first-class statesman, Winston Churchill was a talented artist as well. The man loved to paint. He loved it so much that he built himself an art studio in his estate's garden. When he felt the Black Dog of depression tailing him, he would retreat to his studio and keep the darkness away by putting brush to canvas.

Mark Twain's Billiards Room

Mark Twain is so manly that two of his man rooms made the list. This billiards room took up the entire top floor of his three-story Hartford, CT house where he lived from 1871-1891. The room was off limits to Twain's wife and kids and reserved for Twain and his male guests to shoot pool, smoke cigars, and imbibe spirits. Twain also used the room as a man retreat, a place to write and hide from the domestic chaos on the other floors of the house. Twain explained the reason this special man space was needed in his home:

There ought to be a room in this house to swear in. It's dangerous to have to repress an emotion like thatUnder certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer.

The Wright Brothers' Bicycle Shop

The garage or workshop is a favorite place for men to retreat to, drink a beer, and tinker on their car. The Wright brothers spent hours together in their bike shop fixing bikes and creating the first successful flying machine. Their shop actually changed locations several times, but what stayed the same was the industrial utility of the room and the solitude it offered them to ponder how to get man into the air.

Charles Darwin's Study

Located in rural Kent, England, Charles Darwin's Down House is where the famous scientist lived and worked for over 40 years. Inside the home, Darwin had a private study where he would write in solitude. Darwin was a morning person and felt he did his best work between the hours of 8 AM and 9:30 AM. It was in this room that Darwin wrote his landmark work, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. Darwin lined his shelves not only with books but also with animal specimens he found while taking walks in the afternoons. I'm totally digging that spiral cane and bowler hat placed on the chair in the first picture.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Drafting Studio

Frank Lloyd Wright lived at his Oak Park, IL residence from 1889 until 1909. During these first two decades of his career, Wright developed his architectural practice and style, brainstorming ideas and drafting plans within the handsome home studio he designed himself. Under the octagonal hanging lights, Wright and his associates developed the Prairie style of architecture and designed 125 structures. The magnificent studio is certainly a worthy workplace for such a revered architect; a fellow architect said it offered inspiration everywhere.

Andrew Carnegie's Study

Steele magnate Andrew Carnegie used some of his vast millions to build a 64-room mansion located on 5th Ave near Central Park in New York City. Among its 64 rooms were Carnegie's private library and study where he would spend his mornings either alone or with his personal secretary. He used his library to receive applicants seeking a piece of his philanthropic treasure chest and his study to determine which ones would get funds. The rooms were decked out in typical Gilded Age furnishings- dark hand-carved wood, plush furniture, and decorative ceilings. Along the walls of both rooms were stenciled Carnegie's favorite inspirational sayings like The Kingdom of Heaven is within you. It's pretty amazing what sort of man room you can build when you're the richest guy in the world.

• 30 Days to a Better Man Day 13: Declutter Your Life
• Introducing The AoM Library of Random Man Knowledge
• Motivational Posters: Theodore Roosevelt Edition
• Lessons in Manliness: The Childhood of Theodore Roosevelt
• The Art of Manliness: Best of July 2009

Filed under: Humor, Videos, Animals, NSFW

Remember when dead billionaire hotelier Leona Helmsley left $12 million to her dog, Trouble? That was crazy for two reasons: firstly, it proved that she was, indeed, an evil, heartless monster who would leave more money to a dog than her own grandchildren, and secondly, Trouble the dog obviously could have used a little more cash if she wanted to seriously keep up appearances. And what Maltese wants to go without, right?

In comedian Nick Swardson's sketch (and possible web series) "Wheelchair Cat: Trust Fund Kitty," we're treated to a similar story, except it involves a rich cat that sits on its back and speaks through a computer, which is reason enough to watch.

Cat. Computer voice. Done.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Videos, Cute, Animals

• via:// Have You Seen This?! via Reddit
  
• related:// This is a Cool Attitude
  
• previously:// Sup Dog Lives a Life You Could Only Dream Of

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Not only do we have a dog riding moving a lawn (always enjoyable), but we've also got one of the better reveals we've ever seen. Perfect video? Or perfectest video? Yes. Perfectest. (via Crazy Laugh Action)

WATCH:

Shared by Greg Linch
All the cool kids are doing it.

We're excited to announce the addition of four high-quality news sources to Publish2 News Exchange.

ProPublica, GlobalPost, Texas Tribune, and Texas Watchdog have created their newswires in Publish2's platform for sharing and distributing journalism in print and across the Web.

ProPublica is a Pulitzer-winning nonprofit news organization specializing in investigative journalism on topics including the Gulf oil spill, mortgage modifications, and post-Katrina New Orleans.

ProPublica stories are available for free, for print or online publication, via Publish2 News Exchange.

Here's what Scott Klein, ProPublica Editor of News Applications, finds exciting about News Exchange:

We're excited by Publish2's idea of making the process of syndicating news stories frictionless and intuitive, and think it dovetails well with our strategy of partnering with news organizations who reach influential audiences to have real-world impact. We're looking forward to working with them to get our stories in front of editors all over the world.

Subscribe to the ProPublica newswire today and automatically export their stories to your newsroom's publishing system for easy access to a free and steady stream of award-winning journalism.

GlobalPost is an international news service that employs a core team of more than 50 correspondents around the world and works with more than 125 freelance journalists to produce top-shelf news and features, more important than ever to newspapers as many have cut their own reporting from overseas.

Dave Underhill, Director of Syndication at GlobalPost, had this to say about Publish2:

Publish2 News Exchange provides a variety of platform options for our customers. We deliver our syndication service via RSS, but some legacy newspapers have front-end systems that aren't designed to take in RSS feeds easily. Publish2 will allow them to integrate our story feeds with their own content and other services, which in turn makes it easier for the editors to select and use our material. Simultaneously, their online operations can ingest our RSS and create custom pages for their readers. We look forward to the growth of this service and to providing GlobalPost to new clients in partnership with Publish2.

The GlobalPost newswire is available now in News Exchange for their existing syndication customers. Find out more about becoming a GlobalPost syndication customer here.

The Texas Tribune covers every major issue in the state of Texas as a nonprofit news organization, with a mission to promote civic engagement and discourse on public policy, politics, government, and other matters of statewide concern.

Subscribe to the Texas Tribune newswire now in Publish2 News Exchange to publish their stories in full in print and online for free, in exchange for proper attribution and links.

Texas Watchdog is another Lone Star state nonprofit digging into politics and local issues with original investigative reporting and curation of the best journalism in the region.

Subscribe to the Texas Watchdog newswire in News Exchange to route their reporting to your print edition or website and to your readers at no cost to your news organization.

Ready to get started? Log in now at Publish2.com and search for newswires that suit your news organization's needs.

Want to syndicate your own content, or share it with partner newspapers in your state and across the country? Create your first newswire and give your subscribers and partners permission to subscribe to it today.

New to Publish2? Register now. Publish2 News Exchange is the easiest way to share and distribute content for print and Web publishing.

Any questions? Drop us a line! We're here to help you get started.

GASP! There's a DOGHAIR on my blanket!

just one? luckee

Picture by: dunno source Caption by: desert29rat via Advanced Lol Builder

Recaption This!

View All Captions

The nature of record keeping and government transparency in the information age is rapidly changing. Officials can text, tweet, direct message, send "Facemail," IM or Skype, all from a personal smartphone. That's why yesterday's testimony of David Ferriero, Archivist of the United States, at a hearing on "Government 2.0: Federal Agency Use Of Web 2.0 Technologies" was both critically relevant and useful. (It's embedded below, after the jump.)

Officials are "free to use external accounts as long as emails are captured into records management systems," he said. "Every new technology provides new challenges to what is a record." Ferriero said that new guidance on government use of social media will be released this fall, updating the 2009 guidance issued by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

The biggest challenge, said Ferriero, is whether the record is the whole site or just a portion. "Web 2.0 offers opportunities unimagined a decade ago," he said.

David McClure, associate administrator for citizen services and innovative technologies at the General Services Administration, echoed that sentiment in his testimony."Web 2.0 isn't fundamentally about the technology itself but how people are coming together to achieve extraordinary results," he said, pointing to uses for idea management, ranking or ranking ideas, communication and more. "From an efficiency perspective, a lot of software meets those needs without the need for the agency to build tools, when the market is as robust as it is today."

More on the House subcommittee hearing on Government 2.0 after the jump, including a United States General Accountability Office (GAO) report on Web 2.0 and security in government and videos.

The potential of Web 2.0 technology, as illustrated by the many examples McClure provided in his testimony, is balanced by both risk and privacy concerns. "The expectation is that any tool for government use adheres to the Privacy Act and a Privacy Impact Assessment," said McClure. Applications must be compliant with relevant regulations to be on Apps.gov, said McClure.

Gregory Wilshuen, director of information security issues for the GAO, testified at the hearing about government security challenges posed by the use of Web 2.0 platforms by federal agencies. He delivered a new report, embedded below, and said that the GAO will be looking at the preparation of agencies to retain records from social media platforms. "We've found a number of agencies using technology to interact well," he said. "Several are using technology in an effective manner using videos and blogs." Wilshuen said that the GAO will examine whether information maintained by third-party providers is subject to Freedom of Information requests, which is, as he put it, as "rather strenuous."

In reviewing federal activity, Wilshuen said the GAO found most agencies are using social media platforms. He highlighted three effective examples:

• USAID is using Facebook to inform the public and link to other resources
• NASA is using Twitter to notify the public of the status of missions and respond to questions
• The State Department is using YouTube for public diplomacy

The challenge throughout all of these applications lies in privacy, security and records management, said Wilshuen. "Are these federal records?"

Testimony of United States Archivist

"If we're going to be advising other agencies on how to use these tools, we need to use them ourselves," said Ferriero. For instance, Ferriero said that given the severe budget conditions expected for the year ahead, they're using IdeaScale to crowdsource ideas. Similarly, the National Archives crowdsourced the redesign of its website.

"We need to rethink the definition of a record," said Ferriero. "What part of technology is permanent that we need to keep in perpetuity?" When asked about the areas the committee should focus oversight upon, Ferriero said that it's clear agencies have identified a "moderate to high risk" regarding archiving electronic agencies and that NARA needs to provide more guidance." His written testimony is embedded below:

Testimony of David McClure on Web 2.0 in government

McClure offered one direction for archiving: distinguishing between official government business versus personal use. Some officials have chosen to use multiple accounts for that reason, though gray areas are a real risk given the closeness of Washington society.

McClure was crystal clear on one point: the rapid changes to technology have changed American society. "Web 2.0 tools are essential for responding to shifting expectations of government," he said, citing the hundreds of billions of pieces of content shared on social networks and viewership of YouTube. McClure said that government is "expected to engage" on these new platforms. Using them, however, "should be aligned with core government principles," much as social media is used for business purposes in the private sector. McClure pointed to the Library of Congress, State Department and the TSA's IdeaFactory as examples of agencies using social media to deliver on their missions.

Consumer watchdog: More scrutiny of Web 2.0

Simpson urged the subcommittee not only to look at abstract technologies but also to compare those providing services, their approaches to privacy. In cloud computing and security, there's a "tendency of tech companies to overpraise." Simpson said Google missed the deadline for its Los Angeles cloud implementation, as the city had to come up with more money after Google did not meet security requirements set by the Los Angeles police department. (Google and partner Computer Sciences Corp. agreed to reimburse the city for the cost of the delay, which, according to MarketWatch, should only reach about $135,000).

Simpson reflected that his personal experience of Web 2.0 on the Obama campaign showed him that they can be powerful tools to "improve government transparency, responsiveness and citizen involvement." He balanced that potential with challenges to consumer privacy, including Google's "Wi-Spy" and Buzz missteps and Facebook's changing privacy policy. Simpson also raised concerns about federal agencies implicitly endorsing individual Web 2.0 technology companies, advocating for the enactment of robust privacy laws by Congress with meaningful warnings.

His testimony is embedded below:

Government 2.0, meet politics

Due to continued friction between Republicans and the Obama White House, the oversight hearing got off to a bit of a bumpy start. Politics overshadowed the technology. At issue was the Google Buzz imbroglio that involved White House deputy CTO Andrew McLaughlin and the absence of White House deputy CTO Beth Noveck, who had originally been slated to testify in front of the subcommittee on June 24th. Contrary to earlier reports, Consumer Watchdog's John Simpson did testify.

The substance of the Republican concern goes to whether communications by members of the executive branch are subject to the Presidential Records Act and thus must be disclosed. The position taken by Representative Lacy Clay (D-IL) was that the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), where McLaughlin works, is subject to the Federal Records Act, wherein an individual using a third-party electronic messaging system, such as Gmail, needs to ensure that a record gets into a proper records management system. Given that McLaughlin produced the email records due to a FOIA request and was reprimanded by the White House, Clay considered the matter closed.

Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-SC) did not, nor did Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA). Issa, the ranking member on the subcommittee, has continued to voice concerns about the administration's Google ties. McHenry also raised concerns about reports that White House staff met lobbyists at Caribou Coffee or used personal email accounts to communication, thereby avoiding visitor logs or records management systems.

The issue of officials and staff in the executive branch using non-federal email systems is far from new, however, as Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton noted in her response to McHenry. Among the thousands of emails from the Bush Administration were those sent by Karl Rove, which now appear lost to history.

It is unfortunate that, due to the politics surrounding the hearing, Noveck did not testify, a choice perhaps driven by media reports of a "showdown," as her knowledge of the use of social software by the federal government would have offered insight to both the subcommittee and the American people, to whom she and the Representatives are both ultimately responsible. After votes to subpoena Noveck and adjourn the hearing were denied on party lines, 5-4, the subcommittee heard from the four witnesses. Hillicon Valley reported further on the political wrangling yesterday.

On video, transparency and Government 2.0

The Oversight Committee posted videos of the testimony and the back and forth between legislators. Additionally, House IT staff said the government hearing on Government 2.0 would be streamed at oversight.house.gov. It was impossible to miss, however, that the committee Twitter account, @OversightDems, didn't issue a single tweet about the hearing. An ironic committee policy came to light as well: only credentialed press were allowed to use laptops at the hearing, hampering the ability of government staff, bloggers or citizens to participate in documenting, discussing or posting status updates about the event online. Emily Long, a reporter from NextGov, didn't find the hearing to be social at all. Given the focus on the elements of open government in 2010, participation, transparency and collaboration, or Government 2.0 as described by McClure, wherein lightweight tools are used to share information about government activities, that policy deserves to be revisited.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Related:

• What is Web 2.0?

The buy one, donate one initiatives are coming fast and furious. Hard on the heels of our stories about two such efforts targeting childrennamely, Happy Blankie and Whitten Grey's Project Little Grey Dresscomes news of one designed to help homeless pets.

Launched this spring, the Plus One Movement from Canadian pet food maker Darford International aims to provide fresh, quality food to abandoned dogs awaiting new homes. How it works: Attached to every Darford box of treats and food is an extra meal of the company's Zero/G dog food intended specifically for donation to a dog in need. Specially designed collection hampers have been placed in-store at the roughly 3,000 US and Canadian retailers that carry the Darford brand. Consumers can simply drop their donation meals into those hampers, and participating animal shelters will pick up and use the donated food for local homeless dogs. The video below explains the project:

Some 4 million dogs are euthanized each year in the US and Canada alone, primarily for lack of room and food, Darford notes. Other pet-friendly brands and retailers: time to step up and do your own generous part...?

Website: www.ilovealldogs.org
Contact: info@ilovealldogs.org

Spotted by: Peter von Hahn

My question is why the heck do we always feel like we need to not make the person calling feel bad for waking us up?

You know what? Yes Yes you did wake me up with this call.

Your prayers have been answered: Scottish brewery BrewDog, which has pushed the limits of high alcohol by volume beer before, announced this morning that they'd broken the world record for strongest beer ever with The End of History, a 55% ABV behemoth that is named for Fukuyama's famous work on the future of Western democracy. Oh, and the beer comes wrapped in taxidermied dead animals. (Which BrewDog assures us is roadkill.)

BrewDog made only eleven bottles of The End of History; despite the fact that they sold for either 500 or 700 pounds (~$800 or $1100 US), depending on the animal, the beer is already sold out.

While BrewDog's high ABV beers, which have previously hit 41% ABV and 32% ABV, are a surefire way to draw press attention (and, apparently, make bank), not everyone in the beer world is a fan. The main reason: They stretch the definition of beer.' At 55% ABV, or 110 proof, The End of History is stronger than most vodkas, which are usually around 40% ABV (80 proof). How is that possible?

Beers, as you know, are produced by fermenting a mash of starch and flavoring, but the yeast used in that fermentation process typically dies off at about the 12% ABV mark. As a result, some brewers have developed so-called turbo yeast, which can withstand alcohol concentrations of as high as 20%. But that's a long way off from 55%. To get that extra distance, BrewDog and its chief competitor in the high-ABV arms race, Kleinbrauerei Schorschbrau, use ice distillation, which takes advantage of alcohol's lower freezing point than water to filter out the stuff that isn't alcohol and build up the concentration. Ice beers produced using this process like Bud Ice and Molson Ice are common enough and are widely accepted as beer, but distilling as extremely as BrewDog does raises the question of whether the stuff that's produced is beer' at all or really just a distilled spirit.

Whichever side you come out on, you've got to grant it to BrewDog that they know how to self-promote. Here's the video they put out announcing The End of History:

(BrewDog via BeerNews)

You asked for help with the thorniest problems facing Mac, iPhone, and iPad owners, and we answered, providing 50 foolproof solutions that'll come in handy for anyone who uses Apple gear.

For months now, we've been asking you to send us your most burning Apple questions, and to put it mildly, you came through. The queue in our inbox looked longer than the lines that curled around NYC's 5th Avenue Apple Store for the launch of the very first iPhone. And when we dug into the meat and potatoes of your queries, we could only marvel at the insightful list of vexing technical issues and twinkle-in-your-eye trivia tidbits that you challenged us with. We distilled all those inquiries down to the 50 best, most burning questions about Macs, iPhones, iPads, and Apple itself. Then we put our crack team of experts on the job of coming up with this ultimate answers guide for all things Apple. Struggling with iTunes syncing? iPhone backups? RAID cards? iPad printing? Or just wondering exactly what Steve actually wears every day? The answers await, backstopped and bulletproofed by the pros at Mac|Life.

1. Duplicates in iPhoto

I can't find any options in iPhoto for removing all duplicate pictures in one fell swoop, and I don't want to find and delete them all myself. Any ideas?

iPhoto lacks iTunes' duplicate-deleting prowess, but the shareware app Duplicate Annihilator can fill this gap and free your photo library of clutter. Despite the name, it identifies and tags duplicate pictures with a keyword so you can collect them in a Smart Folder to review and annihilate at your leisure.

2. Wi-Fi Dropouts

Since upgrading to Snow Leopard, my Wi-Fi connection randomly drops for no reason. I still get Wi-Fi reliably on my iPhone, and my wife gets it on her PC. Any advice?

This problem seems to be affecting many Snow Leopard users, so we've come up with a series of steps that should resolve it. Start with the first and work down until the problem goes away:

Update to Mac OS X 10.6.3 or later.

Restart your modem and router.

Upgrade your router's firmware to the latest version, particularly if it's a non-Apple router.

Turn AirPort off then on again from your menu bar.

In your Network System Preference, create a new location and delete all of the previous locations.

One of our best tips for troubleshooting Wi-Fi connection problems is to create one brand-new location and then delete all of your previous locations.

Within your new location, drag AirPort to the top of the service order by clicking on the gear icon and choosing Set Service Order.

Delete all of your preferred networks. To see your preferred networks, click on AirPort in the left margin, then the Advanced button, then the AirPort tab.

Within that Advanced area, click on the TCP/IP tab and turn off IPv6. Then, go into the DNS tab and make sure that your DNS servers are correct. If in doubt, try Google's DNS servers of 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.

Run Keychain First Aid in Keychain Access, which is located in your Utilities folder.

Manually change your router's wireless channel to another channel to avoid interference with other wireless networks. See which channels are being used by other networks with a utility like AirRadar ($20, koingosw.com).

Turn off 802.11n mode on your router, leaving it in 802.11b/g mode only.

Change the security settings on your router from WEP to WPA/WPA2.

Zap the PRAM on your Mac (get instructions here).

3. Multitouch Gestures

Why can't I do the one-finger double-tap to open documents in Snow Leopard?

You can absolutely use the one-finger double-tap on your Multi-Touch trackpad to open documents in Snow Leopard. Simply go into your Trackpad System Preference and make sure that Tap to Click is checked. Your confusion may also stem from the fact that your Multi-Touch trackpad is capable of understanding many gestures. So if you've enabled Dragging or Drag Lock, you might be holding down your finger too long after the second tap. If you've enabled Secondary Click, you might be tapping in the wrong area of your trackpad.

4. Syncing iPhone Photos

When I sync my iPhone, all 6,000 of my MacBook Pro's photos move to the iPhone--very uncool! How do I remove them from the phone and ensure one-way photo transfers to the Mac in the future?

That's at least 5,950 pictures too many. Just connect your iPhone to your MacBook, then select the iPhone in the iTunes sidebar. Click the Photos tab, where you can choose to transfer none of your pictures or just specific iPhoto Albums, Faces, and Events to your iPhone. Re-sync to apply your new settings and get back a few gigabytes on your iPhone.

5. Uninstalling

My Mac still runs processes from a program I deleted. How do I delete an application entirely and prevent this from happening?

Unfortunately, there's no standard way to remove a program from your Mac, but some developers simplify the job by including an uninstaller with their application. It may lurk in the main folder of the app you want to terminate--check those subfolders!--or it might be in the original installer itself. Launch the installer and proceed through it carefully. An uninstall feature may be obvious, or it could be hidden among options to customize the installation process. Be sure to quit the program you want to delete before uninstalling it.

If an application didn't come with an uninstaller, then the only way to delete it is to drag it to the Trash. However, this won't remove preferences and other support files left behind on your Mac. You can use Spotlight to search for the deleted application's name to find these strays, but if you have a lot of applications to remove, consider investing in a dedicated uninstaller like CleanApp, AppZapper, or AppCleaner. These programs automate the process of zapping unwanted programs--and their stuff--off your drive for good.

6. File Compression

I'd like to save hard drive space with the Finder's Compress command, but I'm not getting useful results. I recently compressed a 117.4MB file to just 116.7MB. Am I doing something wrong?

Not all file types can be compressed with the same space-saving results. For example, compressing a ZIP archive won't make a significantly smaller ZIP file. Some files, such as JPEGs, MP3s, and other media formats, have a certain level of compression already built in, but the sizes of text files and uncompressed image file formats can be dramatically reduced with ZIP compression.

7. Remote Control

When I use my iPod touch as a remote for my Apple TV, it appears to only give me access to the Apple TV's library as if it were an iPod. Is there a way to use the iPod touch like the traditional Apple remote? For example, can I use the touch to navigate to the YouTube app and search for videos, or to browse the movie rentals?

Apple's Remote app for the iPhone and iPod touch lets you control the playback of media that you've already purchased or downloaded. But for content that doesn't live on your Apple TV, such as YouTube videos or the iTunes Store, you'll still need your traditional Apple remote to navigate to those screens. However, the good news is that whenever an onscreen keyboard appears on your Apple TV, the Remote app will display its own keyboard, which lets you quickly type what you're searching for.

8. Photo Migration

Can Faces and Places data in iPhoto 09 be moved to another Mac, or do I have to click on all those faces and enter all those locations again?

All your vacation sites and friendly faces will transfer to another Mac with OS X's Migration Assistant, or you can drag your iPhoto library file from your Pictures folder to the same location on a new Mac. When you launch iPhoto on the new machine, you'll be told the locations of pictures containing GPS data must be retrieved again, but custom locations you've entered yourself (for pictures taken with older cameras, say) will remain intact.

9. Gmail, Behave!

I sync Gmail with OS X's Mail, but when I delete a message from Mail, it remains in Gmail's All Mail folder in the sidebar. What's the right mailbox setting to move a message deleted in Mail to Gmail's Trash?

All your Gmail goes into the All Mail folder, whether or not it's been recently deleted and no matter which Gmail folder label is attached to the message. Google's default IMAP Mail settings (available here) are correct, but to send a Mail message directly to Gmail's Trash, you'll have to drag it to the [Gmail]/Trash folder in Mail's sidebar.

10. Crash-Tastic

It always happens at the worst possible time: I'll be using my PowerBook G4 when the screen suddenly dims and shows a Rosetta Stone's worth of languages telling me to restart the computer. Why does this keep happening, and how can I stop it?

Ouch. What you're describing is a kernel panic, a cute name for a not-so-cute problem. An operating system's kernel acts as a bridge between applications and the computer's hardware, and kernel panics are the last-ditch efforts of the operating system to recover from serious conflicts between them. The chief causes of kernel panics are faulty RAM and software incompatible with the operating system you're running. Unfortunately, that range could include any number of bad things that may be happening on your poor PowerBook.

Happily, even a kernel panic isn't the end of the world, and we can offer some pointers to help you figure out what's wrong. The first step is to look at your Mac's history. Was there a time when it didn't get kernel panics? Think back to any (and we mean any) new hardware or software you installed before the panics began. Update or uninstall them one item at a time to isolate the panics' cause until you narrow down the trouble. Also note which hardware and software you're using just before they strike--there may be a pattern. Whatever the issue, your Mac isn't happy, so be sure to back up important files and verify your hard drive with Disk Utility regularly.

Next page: Answers Guide continued >>

11. Get Zippy iPhone Backups

How can I speed up iPhone backups so I'll never have to cancel mid-backup again? They seem to take forever when a couple minutes really should do it.

A. First off, keep your iOS software current. Not only will the latest updates squash bugs and add features, they can improve backup times. To update, sync your iPhone, select it in the iTunes sidebar, then go to the Summary tab.

B. Pare down the number of applications on your iPhone. Application data like in-app purchases, saved games, and new documents are all backed up when you sync, and that can add up to a long wait while the backup progress bar creeps by. To start cleaning house, connect to iTunes, select the Apps tab, then delete your most infrequently used applications. You'll lose the data saved in these apps, but you'll gain speedier backups.

Ask yourself this: Are those apps you never use on your iPhone really worth slowing down your backups?

C. Sync often. If you sync at least once or twice a day, fewer applications will have new data to back up when you reconnect to iTunes. If you can't bear to part with any of the applications on your Home Screen, making multiple faster backups will let you keep all your favorite apps at your fingertips.

D. Keep Camera Roll clean. While the contents of your iPhone's photo library aren't backed up during a sync, the photos, movies, and screenshots in Camera Roll are. Transfer this media to iPhoto as soon as you begin a sync, and delete the files from Camera Roll when the transfer is complete to get this data copied onto your Mac while excluding it from being backed up in iTunes.

More photos = slower backups.

E. Connect to a USB port on your Mac instead of an external USB hub. Not all USB ports are created equal, and connecting to a powered, full-speed USB port that's built into your Mac will ensure the fastest possible transfer speeds during backups. That means you can be off to your next port of call quickly, secure in the knowledge that your iPhone data is safe on your computer.

F. Before you sync to iTunes, purge unnecessary SMS messages, old call histories, and non-essential files downloaded by apps that store data on your iPhone. For example, if you regularly copy files to your iDisk app or productivity apps like DocsToGo, make sure you're only carrying what you need before a backup. Odds are these files live elsewhere on your Mac or iDisk, so there's no need to back them up again.

Junk your old, unused files, too.

12. Time Travel

I've been running Time Machine for months in Mac OS 10.6.3, but I've never seen instructions about how to go back in time and retrieve information. Help!

Mount your backup drive, then launch Time Machine from your Mac's Applications folder. Your desktop will be replaced by a timeline and Finder windows showing your Mac's contents as they were in the past. Just click a Finder window (or click within the timeline) to return to a specific date. You can also search within Finder windows for specific filenames, and more. When you find a missing file, select it and click Restore to return to the present with your document.

13. Rip Encrypted Movies

I want an easy way to download a DVD to my computer so I can put it on my iPod or iPad. I used to use HandBrake, but that no longer works for encrypted DVDs.

HandBrake (free, handbrake.fr) is still the quickest and most reliable tool for directly converting DVDs into video files that will play on your iPod or iPad. But you'll also need to install VLC (free, videolan.org) if you want to decrypt commercial DVDs. Place both HandBrake and VLC into your Applications folder, and you'll be able to convert encrypted DVDs with HandBrake once again.

14. Dump Discs

I want to go disc-free on my MacBook, but a few of my games require a CD or DVD to play. Is there any way to make OS X think the disc is in the drive when it's not?

OS X's Disk Utility can make a duplicate of your game's CD or DVD and save it to your Mac as a file called a disk image. Once created, disk images can be double-clicked to open and mount on your desktop just like a conventional disc (you've already seen them in software installers downloaded from the internet). But there are two things to remember: copy-protection schemes on the disc may prevent duplication, and you should have plenty of room on your MacBook's hard drive before you begin. A DVD's disk image will take up several gigabytes.

To get started, insert the disc you want to dupe, then launch Disk Utility from your Utilities folder. Select the disc in the sidebar, then click New Image in the Disk Utility toolbar, set the image format to DVD/CD Master in the resulting sheet, and save the disk image to your Mac. Next time you want to play your game, double-click the image file, then launch your game normally once the virtual game disc mounts. When you're finished, you can drag the mounted disc to the Trash to eject like any conventional media, leaving the disk image on your Mac for the next time you want to get your game on.

15. Branching Out

Which operating systemsand I mean all of them, not just Mac versionswill run on a PowerPC-based Mac?

The PowerPC processor has become something of a museum piece since Apple abandoned it for Intel's chips, but these Linux distributions can help you breathe new life into G5- and G4-powered Macs. Ubuntu, Yellow Dog, and Fedora all maintain builds that run on PowerPC hardware. When you're looking to run a worthwhile alternate operating system on older Mac hardware, the penguin has you covered.

16. The $1M Question

When will Adobe Flash content be viewable on iPhones and iPads?

Never. In April, Steve Jobs had this to say about Flash on Apple's website: Flash was created during the PC era--for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low-power devices, touch interfaces, and open web standards--all areas where Flash falls short.

17. iLife Oops

I accidentally deleted iMovie and the Apple Loops that came with GarageBand. Can I reload them from the original disc without losing all my other iLife files?

Sure! First, launch the iLife 09 installer from your disc. At the bottom of the final screen is a Customize button that lets you install iLife components individually. Click it, then select the items you want to reinstall. The installer will insist on installing GarageBand along with your missing loops, but your missing applications and files will return to your Mac without affecting other iLife applications and documents, including GarageBand preferences. Just remember to run Software Update afterward to ensure that everything's up to date.

18. iPad Printing

What are the best ways to print from the iPad?

Until Apple decides to build printing into iOS, there unfortunately isn't a best way--although there are several apps in the App Store that might meet your needs.

Canon's Easy-PhotoPrint for iPhone runs on the iPad and will print photos to certain Canon printers. And the App Store is full of plenty of third-party apps that promise printing from your iPad, although in our experience the results are decidedly mixed. PrintBureau ($12.99) searches your network for shared printers. It reliably printed to one--but not another--of the printers on our home network without any intervention. There's an optional free helper application you can run on a Mac to give PrintBureau access to your printers (a solution common to several iPad printing apps), but we'd hardly call that true iPad printing.

We also had success with Air Sharing HD ($9.99), which is packed with features for moving and sharing files with your iPad. It didn't work immediately with our Wi-Fienabled printer, but turning on Printer Sharing on our Mac made all our printers visible to the app. But--like using a companion app--that also requires that you have a Mac running. Ultimately, the least fiddly solution often ends up being emailing yourself a document and printing from a computer. Hopefully Apple has something better in the pipeline

19. Tame Bookmarks

I have tons of Safari bookmarks on my Mac. I don't want them all on my iPhone, but Apple only allows syncing of all or none. Is there a fix?

It's almost elegant. Xmarks (xmarks.com) syncs bookmarks across multiple browsers, and its profiles let you decide which bookmarks appear on specific devices, including your iPhone. Best of all, you can view (and even search) them in a layout formatted for Mobile Safari. Just sign up for Xmarks, follow their instructions, and disable iPhone bookmark syncing in iTunes. Unfortunately, Xmarks doesn't sync new bookmarks made on your iPhone back to your Mac. Like we saidalmost elegant.

Next page: Answers Guide continued >>

20. Stay Safe

How can I tell if someone is using my Wi-Fi?

Elementary, my dear Wi-Fi user! The mystery's solution lies in MAC (Media Access Control) addresses, which are unique codes that identify network devices. Different routers have different ways of showing which addresses (and thus, devices) are accessing your network. If you have an AirPort router, launch AirPort Utility from your Utilities folder, double-click your router's icon, then click the Advanced icon in the resulting window. Click Logging and Statistics, then Logs and Statistics. In the Wireless Clients section, you'll see a graph showing the address of each device connecting to your network. The list will include your Mac, the AirPort router itself, and any other computers, iPhones, game consoles, or other devices using your Wi-Fi connection. Next, match the MAC addresses to your network devices. We'll get you started: your computer's address can be found in the Network section of System Profiler. When you're finished, you'll know the addresses of devices you want on your network, so you can tell when something with a foreign address is using your Wi-Fi. Then the game's afoot!

21. Sim-plify

I have a 1G iPhone that I want to use as a simple iPod touch, leaving aside the phone features entirely, but I don't have the original SIM card. What are my options?

Your options are slim. Unlike later models, the 1G iPhone requires a SIM card to operate as a basic iPod, even after AT&T service has been terminated or transferred to another phone. You can get a new SIM card from AT&T, but this will require signing up for a new phone service contract. Unfortunately, there's no way around this limitation besides jailbreaking your iPhone with one of the methods floating around on the internet.

22. Merge Partitions

Is there any way to un-partition a non-boot hard drive in OS 10.6 without wiping the data?

You're in luck. Since 10.5, OS X's Disk Utility has been able to add and remove partitions from disks without affecting other data on the drive. However, Disk Utility won't merge data from the deleted partition to another partition on the drive, so back up all your data--especially files on the partition you'll be removing--before you begin.

Once all your data's securely backed up, launch Disk Utility from your Mac's Utilities folder, then select the drive in the sidebar (be sure to choose the icon noting the drive's capacity, not just its name). Click the Partition button, then in the shaded box showing the drive's Volume Scheme, select the partition you want to remove. Click the minus button below the Volume Scheme chart to remove the partition (don't worry, it won't disappear right away). Click and drag other partitions to resize them and fill the empty space that will be left behind by the deleted partition. You can also click the plus button to add a new partition that can also be resized. Click Apply to commit your changes and begin Operation: Un-partition.

23. No Scratching

I just bought a new 21.5 iMac (late 2009 model) and found a serious design flaw: the CD slot has sharp aluminum edges that can inflict permanent, irreversible scratches to valuable CDs. Help!

These days, Apple's really into razor-sharp edges. For example, the unibody MacBooks also famously have sharp edges where users rest their wrists, and those very same sharp edges have made it onto the slot on the side of the iMac where CDs are loaded. Luckily, those sharp edges are just on the outside, not on the internal drive itself. So if you carefully and slowly slide in your CD without touching the outside edges, you may avoid scratching your CD. But here's a more practical solution: Put electrical tape around the edges of the slot. This isn't the most beautiful thing to look at, but it's almost guaranteed to keep scratches at bay. Another option would be to purchase an external CD drive to either use as your primary CD drive or to make copies of your valuable CDs. That way, if a CD gets scratched, at least it's not the original.

24. Font Fixes

When using Mail, any font that I use in my outgoing email always shows up on recipient PCs as Courier--that archaic, typewriter style font. How can I get my Mac fonts to translate onto PCs?

In order for a font to be successfully seen on somebody's computer, they need to already have that particular font installed on their machine. If your recipient doesn't have the same exact font as you, their computer will substitute your font with a font that is already installed on their system. This applies to emails, websites, Word documents, almost anything. If maintaining the integrity of fonts is important to you, you'll need to create PDF files or images and attach them to your outgoing email message.

25. App-Update Errors

When I try to update apps from my iPhone, I get a Cannot Connect to iTunes Store error, yet I have no problem downloading new apps, and no problem updating them in iTunes on my computer. What gives?

Assuming the problem is reoccurring and not a freaky networking accident, it sounds like your iPhone (or the problematic apps themselves) may be confused about the status of your iTunes account. This could be because a different user has logged into your iPhone, because you have multiple usernames or passwords tied to your iTunes account, or even because your billing information was recently changed on another device. The easiest place to start is by navigating to Settings, tapping Store, and confirming that yours is the currently active account on your iPhone. If it is, try signing out and signing back in with your most recent iTunes account information, then verify that your address and billing information are correct. If the problem persists, the apps may the culprit. Try updating them in iTunes, then deleting them from your iPhone. Reconnect your iPhone to your computer to sync the updated apps back to the phone. If, down the road, these same applications refuse to update from your iPhone again, deleting them from your Mac and re-downloading them from the iTunes Store may fix this.

26. Make Windows Behave

I have various finder windows set to appear in different views depending on their content. But certain windows stubbornly--and randomly--refuse to remember my preferences. Is it a bug, or am I missing a setting?

Setting a specific folder to open in a particular view (such as columns, icons, or lists) can make browsing files in the Finder a lot easier. Just open and set each folder to your preferred view, then select View > Show View Options in the menu bar and check the topmost button in the resulting window to force the Finder window to always open in that view. Unfortunately, the Finder has ignored these helpful preferences since the earliest days of OS X. Your stubborn folders aren't the first!

Your folders may be confused by corrupt .DS_Store files, the invisible files created by the Finder to store icon sizes, window backgrounds, and more. System utility apps like TinkerTool and Cocktail can reveal or delete these files for you, or you can use the Terminal to delete them yourself if your UNIX Fu is strong.

If those options don't do the trick, your Mac may think you don't have permission to reset the view options of certain folders. Some, like the Applications folder, don't technically belong to any user except the system itself, and only the system (also known as the root user) can make permanent changes to these directories. What looks like random stubbornness may be OS X remembering that it's in charge of these folders, not you.

To show your Mac who's boss, log in as the root user, then set uncooperative folders to the view setting you prefer. Just be careful, and remember to log back into your normal user account and disable root access when the job is done. Moving or deleting the wrong files while logged in as root can have serious consequences for your Mac. Apple explains how to log in as root here.

27. Just Open!

I used to double-click any photo, and it would open in Photoshop. When I installed 10.6, this feature disappeared. Now I have to drop the photos onto the Photoshop icon.

Snow Leopard ignores creator codes, which changed its file-opening behavior--it's all about file extensions now. Right-click a JPG, choose Get Info, and under Open With, choose Photoshop, and click Change All. Do this again for PNG, PSD, TIF, and any other photo file types you want Photoshop to get first dibs on.

28. iPads Kill Wi-Fi

When enough of us use iPads on the office Wi-Fi, it can crash the Wi-Fi itself! I've heard this is a common problem--is there a fix?

You've heard right, and it'll take an OS and/or firmware update from Apple to vanquish this annoying glitch. Until then, know that the issue is caused because an iPad can stop renewing its DHCP lease when it goes to sleep, so if you set your iPad to never sleep (Settings > General > Auto-Lock > Never), you're good. That's hardly ideal, and at Mac|Life HQ, we set up an iPad-only Wi-Fi network, which creates a smaller pool of DHCP leases and keeps the main Wi-Fi network safe. Interestingly, iPads are also prone to other Wi-Fi glitches, like sketchy signal strength, frequent drops, and slow speeds. Bizarrely, one of the first things you should do is increase the brightness upward and turn off the Auto Brightness option (Settings > Brightness & Wallpaper). We can only guess that something's screwy with iPad power management

29. Mac Pros Are Hot

I just wanted to bring to your attention a widespread, frustrating issue that exists with all 2009 Mac Pros. Whenever you play any audio, the CPU rapidly heats up (core temperatures as high as 90 C, CPU heat sink 60 C). This problem exists in 10.5 and 10.6, but does not happen in Windows running in Boot Camp, so it appears to be a Mac OS X bug. And after spending $8,000 on Apple's top machine, I feel like I have been had.

Yes, this seems to be a prevalent problem with the 2009 Mac Pros. Playing any type of audio heats up the Pro precariously close to--but not quite at--dangerous heat levels. If your Mac actually reached dangerous heat levels, it would shut itself down. This increased heat also causes decreased performance. Unfortunately, we don't have any solutions for you, but we're publishing your letter in the hopes that greater publicity on this issue will help get a speedy resolution from Apple.

Next page: Answers Guide continued >>

30. What a Mess!

One of my co-workers spilled juice on his older MacBook Pro, and now the keys are sticky (when pressed down, they don't pop up right away). What's the best way to clean up?

Sounds nasty! Although this particular spill has long dried, we'll start these cleanup instructions from the moment right after spillage to make them more widely useful. So: Immediately power down, disconnect the power cord from the MacBook, and remove the battery (if it's removable). After doing as much as you can with paper or cloth towels, turn the machine over with the lid partly open to allow the liquid to drain, making sure that the laptop doesn't close all the way. Give it about 72 hours to completely air dry and then take apart the machine to thoroughly clean the innards. The website iFixIt.com has great step-by-step guides to taking the keys off and getting your MacBook back to normal. When dabbing at disassembled keys and other parts, we recommend a bit of gauze lightly dampened with rubbing alcohol.

31. Airport Fizzles

I stream my music from iTunes to an AirPort router, but it frequently cuts out. What can I do?

First, make sure your iTunes and AirPort software are up to date. If the problem persists, move your router away from possible sources of interference. Wi-Fi is convenient, but it's not an exact science. Signals can be impeded by microwaves, wireless phones, thick masonry, and more. If dropouts continue, try changing the channel on which your AirPort broadcasts in the Wireless tab of the AirPort section of AirPort Utility.

32. Family Planning

My wife and I have our own iPhones and iTunes accounts, and we're adding an iPad to the happy family. Can we sync both iPhones and the iPad (plus our Apple TV) to a single iTunes account, and share our apps on all devices without affecting our current library and future purchases?

Bad news first: there's no way to merge multiple iTunes accounts into one, so your family will have to keep juggling separate accounts and purchases from your iPhones, Apple TV, and bouncing baby iPad. The good news is that apps, like DRM-protected movies and TV shows, can be used on up to five authorized computers and the iDevices that sync to them. Just open iTunes, select Apps in the sidebar, then drag iPhone applications you want to share from iTunes to a networked computer or removable hard drive. Select File > Add to Library in iTunes on the second authorized computer, then choose the exported apps to load them into that computer's library. These apps won't retain saved data from the original computer, but otherwise they'll be fully operational and can be updated normally. Apple TV purchases, however, will still be tethered to one of your computers. But even these files can be synced and transferred to multiple computers and iDevices.

Here's the better news: Home Sharing, introduced in iTunes 9, simplifies this process by allowing users to drag and drop media to shared computers within iTunes. Activate Home Sharing by selecting Advanced > Turn On Home Sharing. Repeat this step on all your computers, entering one iTunes account username and password on each. Then you can drag media from shared libraries in iTunes' sidebar into a computer's local library at will. Future purchases can be shared automatically by clicking the Settings button at the bottom of Home Sharing iTunes library, then selecting which media you'd like to share. Once you set up all computers on your network, syncing works automatically, zapping new media off to each machine.

33. Double the Addresses

Why do I have duplicate Contact entries on my iPhone but not on my Mac?

Odds are your iPhone has gained multiple groups of contacts after syncing them both wirelessly through MobileMe and through iTunes when you connected your iPhone to your Mac. Whatever the cause, check your iPhone Contact app's Groups. If you see a group named From My Mac in addition to groups you've created in OS X's Address Book, it's a sign your iPhone thinks you have two distinct sets of friends.

It's hard enough to find the contact you're looking for--who needs duplicate entries?

To fix the problem, first back up your Mac's contact data. Connect your iPhone to iTunes, uncheck Sync Address Book Contacts in the Info tab, then re-sync. If that doesn't remove the extra contacts, turn off MobileMe contact syncing in Settings on your iPhone, choosing to delete the existing contacts on your phone. Next, turn Contact syncing back on, and choose to merge MobileMe's data onto your iPhone if asked. Now you should have just one set of contacts shared between your iPhone and Mac. You'll have half the friends, but half the hassles.

34. Conquer Syncing

What's the most elegant way to sync iTunes libraries between work and home computers?

We use SuperSync, a program that lets you sync your iTunes library among multiple computers on local networks or over the Internet. SuperSync's busy interface can seem a little daunting, but in just a few quick steps, you can start copying music from your crib to your cubicle and back again. Casual Fridays will never be the same.

A. Buy the Software

SuperSync looks and feels kinda like iTunes, but is a whole different beast.

To get started, you'll need a copy of SuperSync running on both your home and work computers. Two licenses will set you back $24, or you can snag ten for $34 and give one to your manager for Boss's Day.

B. Make the Connections

When you first launch SuperSync on your home Mac, it loads and displays your iTunes library in an iTunes-alike window organized by genre, artist, and playlist. While SuperSync may look a little like iTunes (and it can even play some unprotected audio files), it's really a conduit and control panel for syncing, not a jukebox. Your DRM-protected files must still be played by an authorized copy of iTunes, although SuperSync will transfer them just fine.

SuperSync can even keep metadata updated across different Macs.

If your music collection doesn't live in your Mac's Home folder, you can point SuperSync to a library stored on a remote or network drive and share from there. To set up sharing, just check the obvious boxes and enter a password in the application's Network preferences. While you're there, you can fine-tune what you sync and how. For instance, you can keep specific media types--all videos, for instance--out of your shared library and pick which metadata changes will be synced back to your home machine. Whether you simply want to copy files or meticulously update their play counts, ratings, and more across your computers, SuperSync has your back.

C. Start the Sync

To sync your library, install and launch SuperSync on your work machine, then turn on sharing and connect to your home computer. This is easiest (and fastest) on a local network, but you can sync your music over the internet by manually forwarding ports on your home router, or by using a UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) router and letting SuperSync do the work for you.

When the syncing starts, SuperSync's interface gets pretty busy.

Once you get both computers talking to each other, you can synchronize your entire library in one go, sync individual files, or transfer albums, artists, and whole genres at once. You can even sync your playlists--both their music files and the lists themselves in the iTunes sidebar. Naturally, files added to iTunes on your work computer can be synced back to your home Mac. Just finish your download in iTunes, then phone home with SuperSync. New files will be noted automatically and can be transferred with a click.

35. Hot Flash

My MacBook Pro has been acting strangely. It will become sluggish, get hot, and the fans will come on at full speed. Activity Monitor shows that a process called PTMD is taking over 60 percent of my CPU. How do I prevent PTMD from taking over my Mac?

This may not be a common question, but it certainly is a burning one! According to Apple's Mac OS X Reference Library, PTMD stands for platform thermal monitor daemon, and it communicates any OS notifications effecting thermal conditions to your hardware. This daemon is supposed to automatically quit itself when it's done communicating, but apparently your Mac erroneously thinks that its thermal conditions are continuously changing, so it's trying to let your hardware continuously know this incorrect information.

This seems to be a new problem that has cropped up for some users in Mac OS 10.6.3, so hopefully it will be fixed in a future update to the operating system. In the meantime, you can manually quit out of PTMD in Activity Monitor (launch it from your Utilities folder) whenever it starts acting up. You may also try resetting your Mac's System Management Controller, which is responsible for thermal management (follow the directions here).

36. It's a RAID

I have Apple's RAID card in my Mac Pro, and it always pops up this error message: Write cache disabled due to insufficient battery charge. But...what is a RAID card, and what should I do?

Apple's Mac Pro RAID Card improves RAID performance and reliability.

RAID stands for Redundant Array of Independent/Inexpensive Disks, and it's a tech that lets you combine multiple hard drives so they appear as one. RAIDs can either be mirrored or striped--in the first, each drive is an exact copy (or mirror) of the other drives, so if one fails, you'll still have all of your data intact on another (known as redundancy). If you configure your drives as a striped RAID, the storage space of all of your drives is added together into one larger drive. This will give you increased performance and increased storage space, but no redundancy unless you've configured your RAID with parity handling (which uses a portion of each drive to hold identical copies of data from one of the other drives). RAIDs can be controlled by software like Apple's Disk Utility or the excellent SoftRAID ($129, softraid.com), or they can be controlled by hardware like your RAID card. The main advantages of a hardware-controlled RAID are increased performance and reliability. With the error message you're receiving, it sounds like the battery on your RAID card has died, so take it into Apple to get replaced.

37. iPad 2

What upgrades will we see in the next version of the iPad? (We emailed a trio of well-known tech experts for their predictions.)

Daniel Lyons
Newsweek

"I'd guess the following:

Front-facing camera for videoconferencing
Multitasking (duh, already announced)
Higher-resolution screen
No Flash
Gorgeous ads that will change your life
Unicorn tears"

Christopher Null
Yahoo! News, Technology

"Dual cameras--a front-facing camera for videoconferencing will be huge for opening up a whole new market for the iPad."

Dylan Tweney
Wired

"One of the things most obviously missing from the current iPad is a webcam. This would instantly transform the iPad into a videophone, and its sizejust slightly bigger than the human facewould be perfect for face-to-face video chats. It's also likely that the next iPad will have more memory and a faster processor. If we're lucky, it might have an HDMI port too, so you can hook it up to a TV to show off photos, videos, and apps. One thing it definitely won't have, though, is support for Adobe Flash. That door is closed, probably forever."

38. Mac Van Winkle

When I wake my MacBook Pro from sleep, it doesn't connect to my Wi-Fi. Sometimes it even forgets the Wi-Fi password. How the heck do I get it to remember?

First, check out the extensive troubleshooting steps that we gave in Question #2 to see if any of those ideas solve your problem. Beyond that, your problem may be caused by one of the following issues:

Two Wi-Fi networks with the same SSID (wireless network name). For example, do you connect to one wireless router that's named Linksys at work and then another router that's named Linksys at home? If so, your Mac may be trying to apply the password from one router to the other router. Rename one of the wireless networks.

Keychain problems. Launch Keychain Access (in Utilities) and delete any AirPort Network password entries for the wireless networks that are giving you problems.

Preferred Networks problem. Go into your Network System Preference, click on AirPort, then the Advanced button, then the AirPort tab. Delete any unused networks, and drag your current network to the top of the list.

Corrupt preference file. Trash the file located at Macintosh HD/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.airport.preferences.plist and restart your Mac.

Security incompatibilities. Try changing the type of wireless security on your router (for example, WPA instead of WEP).

Wireless interference. Turn on interference robustness on your router or change the wireless channel.

Your system may need a general maintenance. Run Disk Warrior on your machine, repair permissions with Disk Utility, empty the caches, and run the UNIX maintenance scripts with Cocktail.

39. Style Manual

What exactly does Steve wear on a daily basis?

We asked our team of fashion experts, and they said, The same dang thing no matter what. So we made them stalk the streets of Cupertino and watch hours of keynote footage to bring you the scoop on Steve's sartorial secrets. That'll show 'em.

Next page: Answers Guide continued >>

40. Sad Mac

My iMac flat-out freezes when I try to wake it from sleep. I ran DiskTools Pro, which verified and repaired my hard drive, but it still hangs after waking from sleep.

This is often a symptom of a failing graphics card or a failing logic board inside your Mac, in which case you would need to take your Mac into an Apple Authorized Service Provider for repair. However, before assuming the worst, you can perform a series of basic troubleshooting steps to rule out other variables that may be causing this symptom.

External devices: When your Mac fails to wake from sleep, try unplugging any external hard drives or peripherals to see if doing so makes your Mac suddenly wake from sleep. If so, those external devices may be to blame.

RAM: You may also have bad RAM inside your machine. You can try to pinpoint bad RAM by either removing one of your RAM chips and see if the problem continues, or by running the Apple Hardware Test to see if it can identify any bad RAM. To run the Apple Hardware Test, take a look at the DVDs that came with your Mac; one of them will say that the Apple Hardware Test is on it. Insert that DVD and restart your Mac while holding down the D key on your keyboard.

Reset your Mac's System Management Controller (get instructions here).

Next, try to rule out the software problems:

Trash the following files and then restart your Mac: Macintosh HD/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.AutoWake.plist and Macintosh HD/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist

Reboot your Mac in single-user mode and run fsck (file system check)--get instructions here.

Back up your Mac, then erase and install Mac OS X.

If all of these steps fail, it's time, sadly, to bring your Mac into an Apple Authorized Service Provider.

41. Stop Time

When Time Machine is running, my Mac virtually comes to a stop. What is happening, and what should I do?

Any time an application such as Time Machine is actively reading or writing to a hard drive, you may notice a tiny bit of a speed loss if you're also trying to access your hard drive as well because the read/write heads take time to physically move to different locations on the hard drive platter.

However, the key phrase is a tiny bit of a speed loss, meaning that the speed loss should be negligible to most computer users. Time Machine is designed to be fast and extremely lightweight, so if your computer is actually coming to a standstill, then something else is going on. The best way to troubleshoot this is by eliminating variables. First, make sure that you do not have any virus software scanning your backup drive. This is a known factor that could slow down your Time Machine backups to a crawl and that may affect your computer's overall speed as well.

Then, eliminate the possibility that your backup drive has a hardware problem by swapping it out with a different backup drive. If you don't have another drive handy, a utility such as Drive Genius ($99, prosofteng.com) or Disk Warrior ($99, alsoft.com) can help you sniff out failing hard drives. Your backup drive must also be partitioned properly, as explained at tinyurl.com/3zne68.

Next, use a different backup program like ChronoSync to see if the slowdowns continue. If they do, ChronoSync will let you see which file is actively being backed up while the problem is happening. It could indicate a problem with that particular file or with your internal hard drive.

Other than that, you can try some general tips to speed up your Mac overall: Upgrade from Leopard to Snow Leopard; purchase faster internal and external drives (7200 RPM or SSD); use a faster connection interface (eSATA or FireWire 800); add more RAM to your Mac; and turn off hard disk sleep in the Energy Saver System Preference (this last one has a huge impact if your hard drive is powered via USB only and has no separate AC power).

42. Display Despair

Why has Apple used so many display interfaces recently, and is the current Mini DisplayPort standard the best tech for the job?

Mini DisplayPort meets VGA with this adapter.

Apple's flirtation with different video interfaces makes it seem like a puppet of the International Dongle Cartel, but it's really all about doing more with ever-shrinking video ports. That includes today's Mini DisplayPort, which can carry video and audio and connects to VGA, DVI, or HDMI displays at resolutions up to 2560x1600. We're not sure if that makes it the best technology, but if it lets us carry just one small adapter that works on both MacBooks and iMacs, we're happy.

43. Feelin' Social

Does Apple have a Twitter account or Facebook page of any sort whatsoever?

YouTube has your favorite Apple commercials.

Steve may be cool with answering emails, but the company isn't too keen on Twitter. There is no official Apple Twitter account. Facebook is a bit more complicated. While Apple hasn't set up an official company page, it has created an App Store Facebook page: facebook.com/AppStore. Our preferred destination, though, is the Apple YouTube channel, which lets us check out all of our favorite Apple commercials: youtube.com/apple.

44. Feelin' Blu

When will Apple include USB 3.0 and Blu-ray in Macs? What's taking so long?

USB 3.0 gear is already trickling onto the market, so it's probably just a matter of time before the first computers sporting the blazing new standard roll out of Cupertino. Unfortunately, Blu-ray is another story. Apple's interest in promoting its HD iTunes movie downloads and Steve's declaration that bringing Blu-ray to the Mac is a bag of hurt don't bode well for Blu's chances on the Mac.

45. Photo Downloads

There seems to be no way to download my photos from my iPhone directly to my Mac without using iPhoto. Even then, I have to drill down through some crazy iPhoto directories in the Finder just to copy the photos somewhere else. Can't I just pull these photos off my iPhone and put them wherever I want?

Any photos that are in iPhoto can be easily and quickly copied somewhere else on your Mac simply by dragging and dropping them out of iPhoto. For even more control over the size, format, and name of your photos, use the File > Export command in iPhoto. You don't need to--and you really shouldn't--be drilling down into any iPhoto directories on your Mac.

Now, onto your next question of bypassing iPhoto altogether. In Mac OS 10.6, the Image Capture application gives you a significant amount of control over what happens when you connect your iPhone. If you have multiple cameras or iPhones, Image Capture even lets you set different preferences for each individual camera.

Image Capture is the place to go to directly download photos from your cameras or to set what happens whenever you connect your cameras.

You could have your iPhone launch Image Capture itself, which lets you manually download your photos into the directories of your choice and then delete those photos from the iPhone. You could have your iPhone launch Preview, which lets you import iPhone photos from the File menu. You could have your iPhone run an AppleScript.

But perhaps best of all, your iPhone could launch AutoImporter, a hidden application that automatically imports photos to the directory of your choice, without you intervening at all. It's located at Macintosh HD/System/Library/Image Capture/Support/Application/AutoImporter, and you can set this application's preferences by choosing AutoImporter > Preferences.

46. Tame MobileMe

I have four Apple devices: two MacBooks, an iPhone, and an iPad. It would be wonderful if MobileMe would do its job and sync all of my calendar and contact information, but I continually have glitches. One of the devices will often stop syncing, and then I have to wipe out data and start all over again. Is there any way to alleviate these problems?

We've heard from an Apple support representative that syncing problems with MobileMe are very common because the MobileMe servers are not yet robust enough to handle more than 1,000 synchronizations before everything needs to be reset from scratch again. While 1,000 synchronizations might sound like a lot, consider that a sync takes place every single time you make a change to a contact or a calendar. The good news, however, is that this same representative told us that Apple is aware of its MobileMe syncing shortcomings and is continuously working to increase the competency of its servers.

In the meantime, if you want to stick with MobileMe syncing, your best bet for solving the glitches you're experiencing would be to follow our extensive guide from our November 2009 issue (or find it online here--scroll down to #37) on how to reset your MobileMe syncing from scratch on all of your devices.

Alternatively, you may want to ditch MobileMe altogether and explore alternatives such as the web-based calendaring and contact solutions from Google, which can synchronize to your iPhone and iPad using Google Sync (google.com/mobile/sync). On your Mac, you can synchronize to Google using Spanning Sync ($25 for one year, spanningsync.com) or use the built-in (but more limited) syncing tools within Snow Leopard's Address Book and iCal.

If you have an extra Mac that you can use as a server machine, you can even take syncing into your own hands by using a product like Apple's Snow Leopard Server ($499, apple.com) or the outstanding Kerio Connect ($540, kerio.com).

47. The Other Team

I'm running Windows 7 on my Mac using Boot Camp. How do I maintain my computer so both the Mac and Windows platforms stay healthy? And how can I make a clone of my computer that captures both?

For tips on how to keep your Windows 7 partition healthy, you'll want to turn to our sister magazine Maximum PC (this is a good place to start), where you'll find the experts on all things PC-related. Although conventional wisdom about PCs dictates that you'll want to defragment your Windows hard drive regularly and immediately install antivirus software on your Windows partition, those are two things that Mac users are not required to do.

Your Mac will continue to maintain its health as long as all those hundreds of thousands of Windows viruses can't reach your Mac files from within the Windows 7 environment. And they won't be able to since Boot Camp only allows you to read your Mac partition but not write to it.

If you gotta run Windows 7, Boot Camp can get it done on your Mac.

However, if you install a program like MacDrive 8 ($49, mediafour.com), you'll have full read and write access to your Mac partition...and so will all those Windows viruses. So be doubly sure to have antivirus software on your PC side.

To clone your entire computer, you'll need to make two clones: one for your Mac partition and one for your Windows partition. For the Mac partition, use a tool like SuperDuper ($28, shirt-pocket.com) or Carbon Copy Cloner (donations requested, bombich.com). For your Windows partition, we recommend Winclone (donations requested, twocanoes.com).

48. Log Me Out

My iMac has separate user accounts for my wife and me, plus a Guest Account for when we have parties and people are drawn to the 27-inch screen to play. Can the Mac automatically return to the login screen after some period of inactivity? I don't want guests to have access to our accounts, and I don't want my wife to have to remember to log out when she's finished. I just want it to go back to the login screen to force the next person to log in as a user or guest.

No problem--head to System Preferences > Security and check the box for Log Out After X Minutes of Activity, setting X to be any number you like. While you're there, make sure Disable Automatic Login is checked too. That way, the login screen always appears when you start up, instead of a default administrator account.

The auto-logout option is in System Preferences > Security.

mac apple iphone itunes drive iphone itunes drive files sync ipad click system computer problem apps file data folder library router first hard network syncing partition photos windows airport machine home disk preferences launch delete store hardware iphoto utility applications software account computers devices supersync image sure need select wireless open application connect drag mobileme control lets raid different update backup networks macbook media work disc finder settings card sharing mail user check sidebar remove multiple contact access itself leopard start backups gmail flash transfer play photo font speed snow unfortunately news button deleted ipod drives sleep running touch view screen shared game genius edges remote address trash camera problems page double operating duplicate options pictures remember iphones printing phone message name kernel steve users google voice icon example program utilities lock used change instructions window service information install automatically guide external answers locations accounts created backed missing download boot root issue pros folders guest current sharp purchases youtube bookmarks original preference password authorized restart happening contacts security channel documents addresses preferred advanced steps space power free cameras setting panics dvds ilife video gear music capture printers handbrake ipads login merge shirt macintosh facebook taking battery share wake write ptmd tech increased camp photoshop directories reset particular general management heat audio thermal imac live faces installer future wrong trackpad process support doing certain recently save search interference manually deleting connection experts macs questions wife seems keychain servers location affecting appears videos showing return knowledge port roll internet question xmarks across common solution garageband favorite faster directly shows yourself whenever burning serious include continued happy installed think disable hard drive disk utility snow leopard operating system utilities folder backup drive voice control image capture raid card itunes account answers guide guide continued disk image page answers ipad printing itunes sidebar ipod touch sharp edges boot camp guest account system preferences mac partition apple store home sharing macbook pro mac pros system preference speed loss airport router hardware test app store mini displayport blu ray applications folder finder windows sim card camera roll hard drives preferred networks itunes library library preferences preferences systemconfiguration apple hardware bad ram address book double click windows partition genius bar itunes store control dialing login screen wireless networks passcode lock apple products kernel panics mobileme syncing iphone backups facing camera synced back troubleshooting steps parental controls apple questions named linksys front facing activity monitor system management thermal conditions management controller disk warrior error message mac pro storage space network system facebook page twitter account home folder favorite apple apple commercials iphone launch service order iphoto directories antivirus software different backup external devices service provider authorized service 000 synchronizations donations requested windows viruses tiny bit previous locations apple authorized drm protected itunes select usb port photo library wireless channel kernel panic copy files syncing iphone launch disk adobe flash keychain access encrypted dvds finder window mail folder remote app double tap left behind open documents iphone photos touch trackpad duplicate pictures file types apple remote traditional apple finger double image file first launch network devices heat levels itunes accounts dangerous heat airport tab 2009 mac future purchases bad news contact syncing launch supersync advanced button multiple computers multi touch menu bar root user volume scheme valuable cds deleted partition resulting window airport utility dns servers outgoing email view options problem persists billing information burning apple home mac answers guide continued page answers guide library preferences systemconfiguration voice control dialing apple hardware test apple authorized service authorized service provider favorite apple commercials front facing camera dangerous heat levels multi touch trackpad network system preference traditional apple remote launch disk utility burning apple questions system management controller ]]>Mac|Life all
First shared by - Avi
syndication+ 0 | Search 1 | Shares 1

You asked for help with the thorniest problems facing Mac, iPhone, and iPad owners, and we answered, providing 50 foolproof solutions that'll come in handy for anyone who uses Apple gear.

For months now, we've been asking you to send us your most burning Apple questions, and to put it mildly, you came through. The queue in our inbox looked longer than the lines that curled around NYC's 5th Avenue Apple Store for the launch of the very first iPhone. And when we dug into the meat and potatoes of your queries, we could only marvel at the insightful list of vexing technical issues and twinkle-in-your-eye trivia tidbits that you challenged us with. We distilled all those inquiries down to the 50 best, most burning questions about Macs, iPhones, iPads, and Apple itself. Then we put our crack team of experts on the job of coming up with this ultimate answers guide for all things Apple. Struggling with iTunes syncing? iPhone backups? RAID cards? iPad printing? Or just wondering exactly what Steve actually wears every day? The answers await, backstopped and bulletproofed by the pros at Mac|Life.

1. Duplicates in iPhoto

I can't find any options in iPhoto for removing all duplicate pictures in one fell swoop, and I don't want to find and delete them all myself. Any ideas?

iPhoto lacks iTunes' duplicate-deleting prowess, but the shareware app Duplicate Annihilator can fill this gap and free your photo library of clutter. Despite the name, it identifies and tags duplicate pictures with a keyword so you can collect them in a Smart Folder to review and annihilate at your leisure.

2. Wi-Fi Dropouts

Since upgrading to Snow Leopard, my Wi-Fi connection randomly drops for no reason. I still get Wi-Fi reliably on my iPhone, and my wife gets it on her PC. Any advice?

This problem seems to be affecting many Snow Leopard users, so we've come up with a series of steps that should resolve it. Start with the first and work down until the problem goes away:

Update to Mac OS X 10.6.3 or later.

Restart your modem and router.

Upgrade your router's firmware to the latest version, particularly if it's a non-Apple router.

Turn AirPort off then on again from your menu bar.

In your Network System Preference, create a new location and delete all of the previous locations.

One of our best tips for troubleshooting Wi-Fi connection problems is to create one brand-new location and then delete all of your previous locations.

Within your new location, drag AirPort to the top of the service order by clicking on the gear icon and choosing Set Service Order.

Delete all of your preferred networks. To see your preferred networks, click on AirPort in the left margin, then the Advanced button, then the AirPort tab.

Within that Advanced area, click on the TCP/IP tab and turn off IPv6. Then, go into the DNS tab and make sure that your DNS servers are correct. If in doubt, try Google's DNS servers of 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.

Run Keychain First Aid in Keychain Access, which is located in your Utilities folder.

Manually change your router's wireless channel to another channel to avoid interference with other wireless networks. See which channels are being used by other networks with a utility like AirRadar ($20, koingosw.com).

Turn off 802.11n mode on your router, leaving it in 802.11b/g mode only.

Change the security settings on your router from WEP to WPA/WPA2.

Zap the PRAM on your Mac (get instructions here).

3. Multitouch Gestures

Why can't I do the one-finger double-tap to open documents in Snow Leopard?

You can absolutely use the one-finger double-tap on your Multi-Touch trackpad to open documents in Snow Leopard. Simply go into your Trackpad System Preference and make sure that Tap to Click is checked. Your confusion may also stem from the fact that your Multi-Touch trackpad is capable of understanding many gestures. So if you've enabled Dragging or Drag Lock, you might be holding down your finger too long after the second tap. If you've enabled Secondary Click, you might be tapping in the wrong area of your trackpad.

4. Syncing iPhone Photos

When I sync my iPhone, all 6,000 of my MacBook Pro's photos move to the iPhone--very uncool! How do I remove them from the phone and ensure one-way photo transfers to the Mac in the future?

That's at least 5,950 pictures too many. Just connect your iPhone to your MacBook, then select the iPhone in the iTunes sidebar. Click the Photos tab, where you can choose to transfer none of your pictures or just specific iPhoto Albums, Faces, and Events to your iPhone. Re-sync to apply your new settings and get back a few gigabytes on your iPhone.

5. Uninstalling

My Mac still runs processes from a program I deleted. How do I delete an application entirely and prevent this from happening?

Unfortunately, there's no standard way to remove a program from your Mac, but some developers simplify the job by including an uninstaller with their application. It may lurk in the main folder of the app you want to terminate--check those subfolders!--or it might be in the original installer itself. Launch the installer and proceed through it carefully. An uninstall feature may be obvious, or it could be hidden among options to customize the installation process. Be sure to quit the program you want to delete before uninstalling it.

If an