Mac Troubleshooting

Even the most loyal Macintosh fan knows that there are many ways in which their Mac can misbehave. When it does, Sad Macs, Bombs and Other Disasters is the book to turn to. The author, Ted Landau, talks to Amazon.co.uk about Mac troubleshooting and his views on Mac OS X--Apple's next-generation system

Amazon.co.uk: When did you first discover Apple computers, and how did you become a professional Mac troubleshooter?

Ted Landau: I discovered Apple computers around the time the Apple II came on the market. I was already interested in home computers and was a regular visitor to local computer stores. Eventually, I had access to Apple II and Apple IIe computers where I worked (at Oakland University), but never bought one. The original 128K Mac was the first computer I ever owned (I also bought a Radio Shack "notebook" computer around the same time).

I still don't consider myself a "professional" troubleshooter because I have never had any formal training. I am just a dedicated amateur. My enthusiasm for computers always led me to spend more time working with them than whatever was needed for the specific task at hand. Eventually, I became the unofficial tech support person for my department. Through an almost chance series of events (too long a story to relate here), I started to get work writing about Macs for magazines such as MacUser . That eventually led to my writing Sad Macs.

Amazon.co.uk: Your bestselling book Sad Macs, Bombs and other Disasters is up to its fourth edition now. What new help and topics can readers expect from this edition?

Landau: The previous edition of Sad Macs was published about three years ago. At that time, Apple's PCI-based Macs (e.g. 7500, 8500) were new and Mac OS 7.6 had just been released. Since that time, we have seen the release of Mac OS 8.0-8.6, Mac OS 9.0-9.0.4 and Mac OS X Public Beta. Apple has also completely revamped its hardware line-up to include the iMac, iBook, and Power Mac G4. The new edition of Sad Macs keeps pace with this change. It has been completely revised to cover all the new troubleshooting info relevant to this new hardware and software, including coverage of such technologies as DVD, USB, and FireWire.

Amazon.co.uk: The new edition includes a section on Mac OS X. What do you think of Apple's next-generation system, and do you foresee that it will make your troubleshooting job more or less difficult?

Landau: The jury is still out on this. However, as I stated in an editorial posted to MacFixIt (macfixit.com/reports/macosx.shtml#clouds), I am concerned that the UNIX-basis for Mac OS X is such a radical departure from the existing OS that, at least in the short-term, troubleshooting will be much more difficult than it is now. At the very least, Mac OS X will require a bunch of new troubleshooting skills.

Amazon.co.uk: Why do you think the Mac platform retains its almost fanatical following, in the light of the dominance of the Windows operating system, and younger contenders such as Linux?

Landau: I can't speak for the rest of the Mac community about this. But I can tell you why I have remained fanatical. It is two things. First, the Mac had, and still has, the most elegant and easy to use operating system that has ever come down the pike. I used a Windows PC for a year or so and it did nothing to alter my opinion on this. PCs may be fine when all is going well. But when trouble strikes, the Mac is a far easier platform for fixing problems. Second, because Apple makes both the main hardware and the operating system for their computers, it can integrate these two in ways that other platforms can never do. It makes many PCs, even very good ones (such as Gateway) seem awkward by comparison.

Amazon.co.uk: Your MacFixIt Web site started out as an offshoot of the Sad Macs book. How has it evolved in the years since you first started?

Landau: The primary purpose of the Web site, at first, was to provide updated information to readers of Sad Macs . Initially, almost every item on the site was linked to a specific page in the book. In fact, the name of the site was the "Sad Macs Update Site". However, it soon became evident that people were coming to the site that had never even heard of Sad Macs . They just wanted troubleshooting tips. So, I decided to shift the focus of the site away from Sad Macs and renamed it MacFixIt. A few months later, I started accepting advertising.

Over the next couple of years, the main changes were in (1) the design of the site (especially trying to get a more attractive and professional look) and (2) the nature of the content (more emphasis on time-sensitive late-breaking news with daily updates and more emphasis on reader-submitted material rather than drawing from my own work).

Finally, about a year and a half ago, we added the MacFixIt Forums. Just the Forums alone now get over 1 million visits per month.

Amazon.co.uk: How has the Internet changed since you produced your first Web page?

Landau: It has changed in every way imaginable. When I first started, Yahoo was just a search engine with no additional features, and there were little if any other competing search engines (I think Alta Vista and Excite were just getting started).

Among Mac pages, we were still on the frontier. Most sites had not yet bothered to get their own .com address and were still using the longer convoluted URLs that came with being served from other other sites. The look-and-feel of the site was much less important than it is now, as even the most amateurish-looking site (my own included!) did well if the content was deemed worthwhile. There was also no advertising. And there was much more cross-linking and cooperations among the independent sites. Now we view the other sites more as competitors, each one vying for the limited pool of advertising dollars.

There was also less push to get information out the second it is available; a day or so later was deemed okay. When I first covered a Mac Expo on MacFixIt, I think I was the only independent site doing it "live". Now, I am one of dozens of sites that do this. And info about Jobs' keynote addresses are online even before he is done speaking.

Finally, there was a larger number of sites and it was not clear which ones would eventually emerge as the "big" sites. Now there is clear division between the "big" and "little" sites and it is much harder for a new site to become successful.

Amazon.co.uk: On your MacFixIt site you sometimes mention Mac peripherals which have particularly impressed you. What equipment do you use with your Mac that you just can't do without?

Landau: I am addicted to using AirPort. Being able to use a laptop to access the Web anywhere in the house is just wonderful--especially in combination with a cable modem that provides instant 24/7 access. Speaking of a cable modem, that is probably the number #1 peripheral I could not do without.

Backing up my hard drive is critical. The problem has always been that hard drive capacity grows faster than back-up devices do. For example, it is no longer practical to back-up a 30GB drive to Jaz cartridges (there was a time when my entire drive fitted on one or two Jaz cartridges). Currently, my Ecrix tape drive does a great job, but I suspect in a year or two I will need something else.

I also enjoy having Monsoon speakers for listening to MP3 files. And, although not essential, I am having fun with my new CD-RW drive. It's great to be able to make custom audio CDs or startup discs.

Amazon.co.uk: How about software? What applications do you use which you feel make the most of your Mac?

Landau: Photoshop still remains my all-time favourite application. What it can do is almost magical. Especially given that Apple includes iMovie free with a Mac purchase, it is an amazing application for doing video.

The capabilities of Web page editing programs (such as GoLive and Dreamweaver) has grown exponentially. I recall when PageMill was first shown at an Expo; it was the first WYSIWYG HTML editor and it created a sensation. By the way, this was before Adobe purchased it.

ViaVoice worked much better than I had expected. And no other program has yet improved on AppleWorks' frame-within-a-document level of integration. Finally, game software continues to break new barriers every year. If the original version of Myst was released as a new product this year, it would likely be a failure.

Amazon.co.uk: Which games (if any) do you play on your Mac, when you want to wind down?

Landau: I love playing games on the Mac, but I no longer have as much "free" time to do so. Consequently, I have had to reluctantly abandon games that have steep learning curves and/or take a long time to master or make significant progress (such as Myth or Starship Titanic ). I had a great time with Star Wars Racer and I still enjoy good pinball games (Golden Logres is fabulous).

Amazon.co.uk: Do you have any other projects in the pipeline?

Landau: I have other projects in the pipeline for MacFixIt. For starters, we expect to have an e-mail newsletter starting soon (it may be available before this interview is posted). There are other MacFixIt projects, but nothing I can talk about now. There may eventually be a CD-ROM version of Sad Macs . And you can be certain that I will eventually have Mac OS X coverage in book form (either in an update to Sad Macs or as an entirely separate book).

Amazon.co.uk: What would you most like your Mac to do that it can't now?

Landau: I would like the Mac to be completely wireless. Not just AirPort wireless, but everything wireless. No matter what peripheral you decided to add, the Mac would be able to sense that it was nearby and would make a fast wireless connection almost automatically. With this in place, you could, for example, have different peripherals in different rooms of your house. As you carried your laptop around, it would automatically hook up to whatever was in a certain range. So, if there was a digital camcorder sitting in your kitchen, when you carried your iBook into the room, it would automatically "connect" to it.

Then, I would like speech technology to work as well and as fast as using a keyboard.

And of course, the CPU, memory, graphics cards, and all media devices should be 1,000 times faster than they are now--so the words "wait" and "computer" are never used in the same sentence.