• Red Dead Redemption – By far my vote for the best game of 2010. Not only did it have great graphics and sound, but it had an excellent and engaging storyline as well. You could spend forever in this game if you wanted to with a full on sandbox, lengthy expansions, and an online multiplayer mode. Every time I thought I had beaten the game, a whole new chapter opened up. I can’t think of another game (except for maybe Uncharted 2), that drew me into the story so well. There was one moment where I really was blown away – you beat a “chapter” of the game and this eerie, heartfelt music comes on as you start to travel home – it was truly amazing. (Call of Duty: Black Ops is my runner-up.)

• PlayStation Move – Yeah, I know, I’m a PS fangirl, but some on, even Popular Science named it in their Best of What’s New in 2010. The precision is amazing. I found it hard to believe that it was much different than Wii, but after trying both, I can honestly say that PS Move is much easier to use and way more precise. Not only does the PS Move pick up side-to-side and up-and-down action, but it picks up forward-and-back movement and every angle at which you are holding the controllers. For example, I tried Frisbee Golf and you can see every single twitch that you make with your controller. It really picks up exactly how you are holding the controller and follows your movement all the way through your release. It’s pretty fun, but I really can’t wait until Killzone 3 is released in February. I think that is going to be the first game that really makes people think twice about PS Move. Right now, I haven’t talked to anyone who’s even heard of PS Move – they’re all Kinect crazy. I think Kinect is amazing – but not because of what Kinect lets the casual user do. Kinect is amazing because it really has some extreme tech that hackers and programmers are taking advantage of such as haptic holographics and such. I think that tech with help further other inventions, but I kind of doubt that Microsoft will start opening the same power up to the casual users. Tere is only so much you can do with your body movements to control a game. I can’t really see how anyone could play Call of Duty with Kinect. But with PS Move it could be amazing. Not only do you have all of the buttons for different functions, but you can use motion control as well. 2011 is going to be a great year for video games.

• Sennheiser RS120 Wireless Headphones – Why didn’t I buy these years ago? Seriously. These things are amazing. Not only are they amazing to play games with, but it’s great to be able to play video games without disturbing John and vice-versa. Playing Call of Duty: Black Ops is a little crazy because they pick up every single sound from the game. You thought surround sound was wild – try surround sound headphones.

• Kindle 3 – Excellent buy, but I’m glad I held out until 2010. This little guy has been beyond helpful. I carry it with me everywhere – literally. The clarity of e-ink and smaller size makes a big difference over previous generations. I also love the graphite color much better than the usual white. I find it so easy to read off the Kindle screen – it actually reminds me of a traditional book. I can read it in the light, load hundreds of books, play games, surf the net, etc. It was great to be able to keep all of my personal reading choices and all of my school textbooks with me on one little device. Ahhhh, Amazon, how I heart thee.

• Roku XD|S – I won one of these from a Mashable contest. I was going to buy one for myself for Christmas, so it was perfect timing. This little device is awesome. I loaded it with MOG, Pandora, Hulu Plus, Netflix, Newscaster, YouTube, and a bunch of other “channels,” including, a hunting and fishing channel that John loves. They’re pretty wallet friendly since they range from $59-$99. They use hardly any power (they don’t even have a power switch). We are putting it on a junk TV we got as a spare and are moving it upstairs so we can move the good Samsung monitor downstairs with the PS3 running Hulu Plus, Netflix, and everything else as well.

• Dropbox – Okay, I’ve had Dropbox for awhile, but this year I went ahead and started paying for the service. I have the 50GB plan, which even though I think I’ve put everything I’ve done all year in it, I’m only taking up a third of the space. I use it as my default spot to save all of my files so they all get backed up as soon as I save them. I have a feeling it’s really going to save me one of these days. It also lets you keep versions of files, so if you delete or modify one you can go through to any version you’ve ever saved. Amazing. Plus, I can use it quickly and efficiently on my Droid.

• Pogoplug – Last year’s Christmas gift, but this year was obviously the time I used it the most. Great little gadget. They recently lowered the price on the main model and added a wireless adapter for what they lowered the price to so they actually sent all customers who had previously bought the Pogoplug a free wireless adapter. That’s treating your customers right. I keep everything on hard drives connected to this thing and can access them from anywhere (including my Android device).

• Hulu Plus – Yeah, I definitely signed up for this in Beta. Loving Hulu Plus. It is so convenient to watch whole seasons of shows and catch up on shows I’ve missed without having to worry about expiration dates. I was having an issue with watching it on my PS3 or iPod Touch because the ads would blare (which was horrible with surround sound), but it seems like they adjusted that because it hasn’t seemed to boost on ads for awhile.

• MOG – MOG has been my favorite music service of all time – aside from my trial experience with Spotify (but it’s currently only offered in select countries). I no longer find a need to go “find” music and I haven’t touched my iTunes library in months. With maybe one or two exceptions, every single song I have ever tried to listen to has been in the MOG library. I also has a great Pandora-like radio slider where you can pick an artist and then have it find similar songs by other artists (and you can adjust it to mix in more or less variation). You can also create and share playlists, like/dislike songs and search a huge library. Two other bonuses: they have apps for all smartphone operating systems (with downloading/offline listening) and a Chrome web app.

• Square Reader – It’s a tiny credit/debit card reader that plugs into the audio input of Android or iOS phones and allows you to accept payments. It took a really long time to get the card reader because there were manufacturing limitations and such, but once I got it I tried it out and it’s amazing. Not only is it instant, but it allows you to swipe or type in payment numbers, accept a signature, and send a receipt via email. Very cool. And the money was directly deposited into my bank account the next day.

• Evernote – Yes, these are other services I ended up paying for to receive premium access. Evernote just recently hiked up user limits to 1GB, also, so that was an awesome holiday bonus. It’s very convenient for sending myself recipes, taking photo notes, or most recently, for importing all of my Delicious bookmarks in case that service ceases to exist.

• Remember the Milk – Remember the Milk has been a life saver to remind me of tasks and quickly schedule reminders. Plus, these both have mobile apps, Chrome extensions, etc.

• Google & Skype – Yeah, I know, I’ve been using Google for years, but I am especially grateful for Google this year. Not only do I use a ton of Google services for all of my online needs (Voice, Chrome, Reader, Android, Gmail, Picasa, etc.), but Google Navigation and Places saved our butts as we traveled cross country and it continues to be our guide around Seattle. I use Google Navigation for all of my traveling around in car or on foot when I’m not sure where I am going. We were able to see where we were going while traveling cross country, how long it would take, the distance between turns, were easily rerouted, and we can even decide to ignore highways when there are traffic jams due to Husky football games. We lost signal a lot while coming cross country, but our Droid kept chugging because it had already pre-loaded our route. They recently added a lot of offline functionality, so it should be even easier going across. They only time I lost total signal was in the middle of Wyoming and it was all one giant stretch of highway so I didn’t need the Droid anyways. Skype has just been awesome for making calls. I use Google Voice for texts, voicemail, and a main number, but I use Skype to make calls from my computer or from my phone to someone logged into Skype. For unlimited access, $3/month for Skype is pretty great – $0 for Google Voice is even better.

• Xpenser – My personal finance log. I don’t write down transactions – I enter them in Xpenser. This has been awesome for keeping track of every expense. I don’t even bother to look at my bank account with the exception of maybe once or twice a month. The bank was always delayed and I could never rely on the numbers. With Xpenser, I enter everything and can have multiple reports. For example, I have a Primary report, a Pending report, and a personal spending report for each of us. I can add things in the Pending report and move them over to the Primary whenever I need to. I can tag things for business, or as a credit card charge, can add labels, types, notes, dates, and even receipts if I want to. I usually just access Xpenser at the end of the day to record expenses, but when I’m on the road I can whip out my cellphone and send it an SMS to add expenses as well. Oh, and it’s free.

• Adobe Creative Suite 5: Master Collection – The Adobe Creative Suites are always useful. I use at least one program every single day, whether it’s Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Acrobat, Flash, or any number of other program. I need the programs to make it through any work day. The improvements are welcome. I especially like how they finally made the previously-Macromedia programs look like full Adobe products, and I love the content-aware feature in Photoshop. It’s a major time saver.

• TweetDeck –  I used TweetDeck a ton during my graduate program to keep up with hashtag conversations. I use the desktop app, but haven’t found the Chrome app or Android app very useful. For Twitter on Android I use Twidroyd Pro.

• TextMate – I’ve used TextMate a ton at work. For some reason I can’t use DreamWeaver to access the server, but TextMate seems to be working just fine – it color codes, allows tabbed browsing, and I just recently read an article about extensions that I’m going to try out.

• ProGaming Glasses by Gunnar Optiks – They add slight magnification to the image on the screen, slightly tint the picture, and reduce eye strain (something I suffer not only gaming, but sitting in front of a computer monitor all day at work). They’re supposed to be around $100 but Amazon, like usual, has them on sale for less than half of that.

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There are videos in a variety of different categories. What I most enjoyed were the videos on advertising, marketing, and the spread of information on the internet. This is why I love the internet, social media, and digital media. There is so much information out there. I can’t get enough of how much there is to learn, how easy it is to get your hands on practically any information, and how people display it. Whether it’s videos, websites, photos, blogs, etc. The variety and depth of material is astounding. Check out the video from my last post if you don’t get where I’m coming from. Amazing.

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I went ahead and synced the bookmarks. Of course, it all seemed fine….until it synced again and they all disappeared. Fine. So it was working finally on Safari, but Firefox was having a fit. I uninstalled it on Firefox thinking the add-on was gone. It should work fine now, right? Just make new bookmarks? Working working….restart Firefox. Poof! All bookmarks are gone again. Safari was still working fine, but sporadically choosing which bookmarks to delete. So I uninstalled it for both browsers? Problem solved? Of course not. Apparently this is an issue that remains unanswered by many. But I did get it to work again.

To fix Firefox, the quick and dirty solution is to create a new profile and delete your old one. Apparently it’s a known issue that xmarks messes things up. Nice. Here’s how to use Terminal on OSX to get into the Firefox Profile Manager (For other OS, see articles linked below): /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox -profilemanager


I chose to create a new one and then fully delete my default user (along with deleting my files). Some people may want to chose to just delete the profile and not the files.

There may be other solutions to this problem. I suggest people post them because there seems to be a lot of confusion in forums right now with this issue. I’m not saying the profile solution is the best way to go, it’s just best solution I saw out there and it worked fine for me.

Here’s two articles from MozillaZine that might be useful: Lost Bookmarks & Profile Manager

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8IozVfph7I

I just recently read a post on Mashable entitled Film Released on YouTube, Theaters, DVD and TV for World Environment Day. The film was directed by Yann Arthus-Bertrand and produced by Luc Besson. Glenn Close narrates the 1.5 hour long video featuring high definition, aerial photography of over 60 countries to tell the story of our ecosystem and how humans have affected it.

I’m going to to watch the full video on YouTube the first chance I get. I looks incredibly interesting and the trailer itself is a work of art. For anyone interested, you can watch the trailer and full feature on YouTube for free.

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Every time I sit down to update my networks, I am surprised at how long it actually takes. Between posting photos, posting videos, publishing blog posts, updating statuses…not too mention actually generating the photos, videos, and posts. As always, the more work something takes, the harder people try to figure out a way to make it quicker. Such is the case with the our new social media commitments.

Brian Solis, principal of an award-winning Public Relations and New Media agency writes a number of excellent articles on social media. One in particular, The Social Media Manifesto: Integrating Social Media Into Marketing Communications, is especially valid for this post. Surprisingly, even though it was written two years ago, it seems to precisely describe our current relations on the internet.

Monologue has given way to dialog…Content is the new democracy and we the people, are ensuring that our voices are heard…Those who participate will succeed – everyone else will either have to catch up or miss the game altogether. Engage or die.

Of course that is in regards to marketing. Companies will most certainly go under if they don’t grasp this new technology. But even in a broader scope, I think everyone is starting to feel this pressure, little by little. The more they have pressure, the more they will want to interact or feel left out. More and more I’ll find myself say, “Have you heard from John Doe? I saw his pictures posted on Facebook, seems like he’s having a good time.” If they aren’t already on Facebook, the reply has gone from “What’s Facebook?” to “Man, I really need to join that soon.”

But what if people don’t have the time? It takes too much effort…or it’s too confusing to them. What happens then? It seems that companies are taking care of that. Of course they would. It seems the more social media interactions they can get their hands on, the more they can establish trends, customer satisfaction, buyer needs, etc. Such gives way to the incorporation of Arduino and RFID tags to do the digging for them. Ovens automatically tweet what is prepared, plants tweet whether they need water, trash cans could communicate exactly what you are throwing away, GPS can map where you are traveling, so on and so forth. Applications already in place such as DandyID, Lifestream, and many others can list almost every social network activity that you take part in while you’re doing it. Biometric Facial Recognition software is now being incorporated into programs such as iPhoto and Picasa to identify and tag people in photos. It’s only a matter of time before you can snap a photo with your cell phone and it will be able to identify people in the room and pull up their social profiles. Think I’m exaggerating? We’ll see. In the article, 7 Technologies Shaping the Future of Social Media, Mike Laurie paints a pretty good picture.

What really gets to me is what he touches on at the end of his article, Mind Reading and Natural Language Processing. Sad thing is, it is probably not far off. They are already deep into developing technology that will allow people to just think what they want to say and a computer types it for them (Brain-Computer Typing). Next comes being able to control that computer by thinking what you want it to do and concentrating. Final step is simply thinking what you want to do and the computer interprets your thoughts automatically without much effort. Why wouldn’t the next step be to make not only computers work this way but phones, ipods, etc.? Think I should tweet how crazy this is and your computer does it for you. It sounds outrageous, but it’s just around the bend. It’s already available to some people with limited motor skills.

My question is…does technology that does the work for you actually constitute social media? I think the greatest thing about social media now is that people make an effort to communicate more with each other. Not just each other, but even a broader population then they normally would. Even corporations are listening with increasing interest to what people have to say. In another article by Brian Solis, The Definition of Social Media, he describes the basics of social media:

…a shift in how people discover, read, and share news and information. It’s a fusion of sociology and technology transforming monologue into dialog. It is an evolving phenomenon that has captivated some, intrigued others, and is feared and underestimated by many.

Brian Solis offers two definitions which he thinks could replace the current Wikipedia definition of social media. His first one is closest to the current one:

Social media describes the online tools that people use to share content, profiles, opinions, insights, experiences, perspectives and media itself, thus facilitating conversations and interaction online between groups of people. These tools include blogs, message boards, podcasts, micro blogs, lifestreams, bookmarks, networks, communities, wikis, and vlogs.

So I guess even if computers take over doing our interactions for us, it still constitutes social media. But where is the fun in having our computers communicate for us, without any effort whatsoever? Will we still feel that same euphoria that comes from interacting with another human being?

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The other day, I watched the trailer for the new game, Red Dead Redemption. It’s a Rockstar game that is set to be released some time this fall. From what I’ve read, it is basically Grand Theft Auto, but set in the West during the late 1800s. Usually I’m not into stuff set in the “old West,” but the graphics caught my eye right away. If the graphics are already that good in the trailer and it’s supposedly a huge, open world game from Rockstar, I couldn’t help but be excited. I posted it on Facebook and hours later I get the comment, “You spend so much time in worlds that don’t exist.” Of course it was a joke, not a jab or anything, but I started thinking about why I instantly felt like I had to defend myself.

I’m surprised that given what a digital world we live in, video games still receive such harsh stigma. I’ve loved video games since the first time I played the text game, Zork on our first computer, a tiny Apple II when I was 5. From there I went through several gaming systems including the Turbo Grafx 16, several Game Boy models, several Nintendo models, a Sega Genesis and every one of the Playstation models (PSX, PSOne, PS2, PSP, PS3).

I think the reason that I love video games so much is the challenge. I think another big part of the appeal is that it is the perfect blend of art and technology. Two things I’m very interested in. As time goes on, the challenges get harder and the graphics only get better. The art is no good if the programming isn’t smooth, but even that is making huge leaps. Last year produced some of the best video games I’ve ever seen (Little Big Planet, Bioshock, Metal Gear Solid 4, Grand Theft Auto 4, Fallout 3, SKATE, Burnout Paradise, Uncharted, etc.). This year is supposed to be even better. When you think about how much time and work goes into creating a game, I don’t see how anyone couldn’t appreciate it.

Even my uncle, who is a carpenter by trade, but a programmer in his spare time, appreciates the games. He can’t believe how much the quality of the games improve over just a few months. The worlds are becoming huge and the details are becoming much sharper. The highlights, the shadows, facial expressions, movement of plants in the wind, it’s all advancing at a crazy rate.

I think it’s funny to say that I “spend too much time in worlds that don’t exist” because I only ever have time to spend a few hours ever few months. Before last week, the last time I had saved my game was in the first week in January. That’s 4 months of not even touching a video game. And that’s my average. Every now and then I get into a game for a few days, for a few hours at a time, but that’s usually when I first get it. I’d love to spend hours playing and actually finish a game or two, but I don’t like to steal away from quality time with John, friends, or other family. And in no way do I believe the worlds exist or any of that. I’m not one that dresses up and goes to conventions or meetings or the like. For me, video games are amazing works of art that let my brain take a break while at the same time, making it work extra hard. Instead of bills and appointments and anything else, I’m thinking how to get to a checkpoint while avoiding disaster or in which order to complete quests, etc.

I also am extremely picky when it comes to games. If I play at someone else’s house or at an arcade, I don’t really care how bad the graphics are or how horrible the script is. It’s an entirely different case if I’m the one buying the games. If I’m going to play a game, I need to buy it. Renting just doesn’t do it for me because if I’m going to start it, eventually I want to finish it and I don’t like having a deadline over my head. If I’m going to buy it, it at to at least have an 9/10 if not 10/10 rating. Sometimes I give in if it’s 8.5 or 8.75 if little defects won’t really hurt the gameplay (like the Guitar Hero/Rock Band games).

Now I’ve tried things like Second Life and gaming online, but it gets old quick. I had a friend who played 1/3 of an entire year on World of WarCraft in college. Now that’s “living” in the world. I just like to visit. I am also someone who likes to game on my own. If people want to watch that’s fine, but if there’s some sort of puzzle or such, I want to tackle it. There’s no challenge in Second Life. It was very cool at first to see what people were setting up, but where’s the challenge? I’d rather get some mental stimulation from a game from time to time and spend all the time I can with friends and family, face-to-face.

I will always love video games. They will only continue to improve and they will only get more difficult. It’s a challenge that’s fun and entertaining and can be turned on and off whenever I like. If you’re skeptical, I suggest you give them a shot. And if you’re going to, at least pick a decent game on a decent system before judging it too quickly. I’ll guarantee that you’ll walk away with at least a tiny bit of appreciation.

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I honestly had never really heard of this until this week, but it seems that every day there’s a new article in gadget and consumer news about card skimming. Card skimming is a con where people retrofit ATM machines with hidden cameras to read your credit card numbers when you slide your card in. The mini cameras can be hidden behind plastic fittings that look like the usual ATM casing, inside information boxes, and any number of other spots. Sites like the Consumerist and Gizmodo are recommending that you give any ATM machine a look over before you slide in your card.

A few articles on card skimming:

• Credit Card Skimming: How thieves can steal your card info without you knowing it (via NetworkWorld)
• Rogue’s Gallery of ATM Skimmers (via Consumerist)
• Attack of the Card Skimmers: It’s Happening Right Here, Right Now (via Gizmodo)
• A Man Finds an Actual Card Skimmer in the Wild, in the Flesh (via Gizmodo)
• Credit Card Fraud – Skimming (via Wikipedia)

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They tell us where to eat, how to find friends, when to make a left turn.

Oh, and they can also make a phone call.

What a great starting set of lines. It’s so true. With the dawn of the Apple App Store (and subsequent app stores), you really can get software that perform almost any function that you need at any given time. What, you don’t have Midomi? Even then it’s only a few clicks and problem solved. You can find restaurants, keep track of expenses, make calls, text, update Twitter, check sports scores, etc. all from your cell phone. I think what’s even more impressive is that these services aren’t even limited to Apps on a smartphone. There’s numerous services you can sign up for that let you access information without even having a smartphone, just by using simple SMS (text messages).

I think I could live without my phone, my computer, etc. pretty easily for a set amount of time, but being the gadget freak that I am, I’d start to feel withdrawals within a few days. I have been in the habit lately of trying to avoid plugging in my computer on the weekends (unless I have a job deadline). I also try not to use it too much at night. During those times though, I find that I still have to check my email, Twitter, etc. I just use my iPod Touch. I think it’s a good compromise. I do not own a iPhone or other smartphone (although I may update this Summer). I find that I can achieve a perfect balance between my cellphone (Samsung Alias with flip QWERTY keyboard), my iPod Touch, and my laptop. I use my laptop most days, for the majority of the day. When I’m not “plugged in” I use my cellphone’s SMS capabilities on the go or my iPod Touch if I happen upon a wireless hot spot or in my apartment.

If I don’t need wireless, I prefer my iPod Touch. I keep track of my expenses, track notes, play games, write drafts of blog entries, listen to music, etc. If I need to say, update my Twitter, Facebook, Netflix Queue, etc. and I don’t have wireless, I can easily do all that and more from my cellphone via SMS. I could “live without” my phone, but I certainly wouldn’t want to.

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1. Top 10 Social Networks For Entrepreneurs – Mashable
2. Self-healing polymer advance could mean scratch-free iPhones – Ars Technica
3. The Elements of Social Architecture – A List Apart
4. A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy – Clay Shirky’s Writings About the Internet

Useful Apps/Sites:

1. Project Dragonfly “…experimenting in real time with your ideas in 2D and 3D… ”- Autodesk
2. Path Finder “The Mac OS X file browser with moxie.” – Cocoatech
3. MacJournal “Mac journaling and blog software” – Mariner Software
4. Blip.fm – Be a DJ Online (listen to different music online)
5. XPenser.com Track personal expenses (by SMS, email, etc.)
6. Dial2Do.com Access different services via cellphone (voice commands)

Exciting Tech News:

1. iPhone OS 3.0 – http://bit.ly/OvdwI
2. iPod Touch 2g Jailbreak – http://bit.ly/h00Gn
3. Google Voice – http://bit.ly/DcmXa
4. Sirius XM iPhone App – http://bit.ly/aYGMY

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#9 Spotlight Can Do Math – Definitely didn’t know this one. I always find myself opening Calculator to perform calculations. Apparently OS X Leopard has a built-in feature where you can simply press Command-Space to pop open Spotlight, start typing in an equation, and press Return. Tada!

#13 Safari’s Private Surfing Is Not So Private – Fortunately, I don’t use Safari anyways, and my computer is my personal machine. BUT, if you are often at work, school, or some other public place, and enter pages you may not want people knowing you enter, this may be helpful. Private Browsing actually stores your preferences so anyone (boss, IT, etc.) can see your history by using the Terminal and typing: dscacheutil -cachedump -entries Host . You can purge this by typing this into the Terminal: dscacheutil -flushcache

#15 How To Reset Your iPod or iPhone – Okay, so I already knew this one…but since it’s extremely useful if you have an iPod touch or iPhone (and something I’ve had to use numerous times), I’ve included it. Just press and hold the wake/sleep button (top of device on the left) and the Home button at the same time until the Apple logo appears. Let go and let it reboot. (For clickwheel iPods it’s the Menu and center buttons at the same time.)

#18 Play Tetris In The Terminal – This is awesome . (1) Launch Terminal, (2) Type emacs and press Return, (3) Press Escape, then type x, (4) Type tetris

#20 The Dock Is Cool, But It Ain’t Perfect – Add A Recent Items Stack: (1) Open Terminal, (2) Type defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-others -array-add ‘{ “tile-data” = { “list-type” = 1; }; “tile-type” = “recents-tile”; }’ and press Return. Type killall Dock and press Return, (3) When it restarts, Control-Click to customize….or….to make dock icons magnified really big if you have them really small, just hold Shift-Control when you mouse over them.

#32 The Finder’s Not the Only Way to Access Files On Your Mac – Shares info on the app Path Finder ($39.95) which you can use as a replacement Finder with more features. Cool.

#33 Zap Your PRAM – Delete your parameter RAM: (1) Shut down the computer, (2) Turn on the computer, (3) Press and hold Command-Option-P-R before the grey screen appears, (4) Release once the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.

#36 Use Encrypted Disk Images to Hold Super Secret Files – (1) Launch Disk Utility, (2) Choose File > New > Blank Disk Image and enter a name for your image. Notice where it is going to save and change if necessary, (3) Select size, (4) Choose 128-bit AES encryption from the drop-down, (5) Choose read/write disk image from Image Format drop-down, (6) Create.

#45 Use FSCK If Safe Boot Isn’t Enough – Reboot your Mac while holding down Command-S. At the command-line, type: /sbin/fsck –fy. Let it do its thing. If you get: ** The volume (name_of_volume) appears to be OK, then everything is good. If you get: ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****, then keep running FSCK until you get the first message. When you’re done, type: reboot, in the command-line prompt. Your Mac will restart.

#46 Fix Startup Issues With Safe Boot – Hold down the Shift key when you start or restart. Once you do that successfully, restart it in normal mode.

#48 Essential Third-Party OS X Utilities – PRODUCTIVITY: Quicksilver (free beta), AUDIO: Audio Hijack Pro ($32), MENU: FruitMenu ($12), ICON: CandyBar ($29), BACKUP: Déjà Vu ($24.95), CLEAN-DESKTOP: DragThing ($29)

#50 Play Snake in the Terminal – (1) Launch Terminal, (2) Type emacs and press Return, (3) Press Escape, then type x, (4) Type snake

And that’s that. Again, these are just a few of my favorites or ones that I find especially helpful. Here’s the link for the official Mac|Life article.

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