Stan's List

Soon laptop batteries could last all day and be recharged from a cartridge. BBC News has a piece on fuel cells as laptop batteries, and what their adoption could mean for laptop usage.

“At the Cebit technology fair in Hanover, Taiwanese hi-tech firm Antig said its fuel cells should be on the shelves of computer shops by early 2007. The first versions of the methanol-using units should keep a laptop going for up to nine hours. Fuel cell technology got a boost recently when international air flight regulators changed rules that banned passengers from carrying flammable methanol onto aircraft.” More …

Regular maintenance is the best way to avoid nasty problems and to ensure that Macs runs at peak performance, but it’s hard to know what to do and when to do it, and even harder to fit maintenance tasks into a busy schedule. Best-selling ebook author Joe Kissell has now applied his commonsense approach to the task of maintaining a Mac.

In TidBIT’s eBook, “Take Control of Maintaining Your Mac” readers will find out how to start on the right foot; what to do daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly; and how to prepare for Mac OS X updates. Joe’s suggestions are based on hard-won experience, so he explains how to monitor a Mac’s health to detect problems before they cause trouble, tells readers where to turn if trouble does raise its ugly head, and debunks commonly suggested panaceas that seldom actually help. Of course, opinions vary on the merits of some of these tasks, so the ebook contains conversations with experts about what they do in particular situations. The ebook even includes a one-page checklist, suitable for posting, as a reminder of what to do when. Take Control of Maintaining Your Mac costs $10, and is available in a $5-off discounted bundle with “Take Control of Mac OS X Backups” for $15.