1. Reboot your Mac and simultaneous hold down the command-option-p-r keys. If you do this properly your Mac’s screen will flash and it will cycle a reboot. Keep holding down the keys until your Mac chimes twice. What you’re doing is resetting a chunk of memory that stores settings for all kinds of settings (see below for specific details). Clearing up these settings often resolve wacky problems like screen artifacts, sticky keys on your keyboard, and a lot more.

2. Now restart in Single User Mode by holding down the command-s key (thanks Eduardo!) while your Mac is booting. If you’ve done this successfully, a bunch of Unix code will spew across your screen. Don’t worry! You’re just looking at the underbelly of the beautiful Mac OS. Wait until the text stops scrolling by and you will see a flashing cursor at the bottom of your screen. All you need to do is type:

/sbin/fsck -fy

and hit the return key. fsck is pretty much like the Disk Utility app except that it runs outside the operating system. Like Disk Utility, if it encounters any problems with your files, it will automatically repair them.

Tip: if you run fsck and it says everything is OK but it reports the disk was modified, then run fsck again to ensure there are no problems.

If fsck reports that the problems it encountered couldn’t be resolved, I recommend taking your Mac to the Genius Bar or other authorized Apple repair center. If you’re adventurous, then you should consider purchase some industrial-strength disk utilities like TechTool Pro, DiskWarrior, and/or ProSoft Drive Genius. My help desk uses these tools to repair hard drives so that we can recover data. We then “nuke and pave” the drive by formatting it and reinstalling the OS from scratch.

References

Resetting Parameter RAM: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379

Single User Mode: http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1417

Resolving startup issues: http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1417

Tech Tool Pro: http://www.micromat.com/

DiskWarrior: http://www.alsoft.com/diskwarrior/

ProSoft Drive Genius: http://www.prosofteng.com/products/drive_genius.php

Student Platforms (all)
MacOS = 371 (67%)
Windows = 166 (32%)
Unknown = 5 (1%)

Faculty/Staff Platforms (all)
MacOS = 70 (77%)
Windows = 21 (23%)

• Cost less than $2,000
• Have sufficient power to handle daily applications
• Incorporate truly exceptional WiFi
• Use a 10″ – 12″ screen (so as to not get in the way in crowded classrooms)
• Ideally be light and thin
• Go for hours and hours on a battery charge
• Provide tablet capabilities (this was not a must-have)

In July, 2008 an Apple patent filing got me wondering if Apple was utilizing some sort of brain-scanning technology in their design process:

In fact, I’ve been wishing Apple would create some sort of lightweight hybrid cross between a Newton and a MacBook for years now. Perhaps Apple has been reading my mind?

Then in April of last year all the excitement around netbooks compelled me to opine that Apple would likely opt for a tablet device rather than a netbook. I figured Apple might build such a tablet around the tremendously successful iPhoneOS:

The real key to the success of a Mac tablet would lie in applications. Rather than scaling the Macintosh experience down to a small device, I wonder if Apple might instead scale up the iPhone/iPod touch experience to a tablet. Zillions of application developers have jumped into the iPhone/iPod touch market, hoping to strike gold. If Apple could give these developers the opportunity to easily adjust their iPhone/iPod touch apps for use with a new tablet, the chicken-and-egg problem of getting developers on board would be solved.

Tempted yet again, I wrote in July that an Apple tablet could be a wonderful device for law students:

A thin touchscreen tablet built around ubiquitous connectivity could be the perfect computing device for law students, particularly if Apple were to sell it for less than the price of a MacBook.

You can probably already guess that I think the iPad will be a game-changer. Of course I’m not alone in my Apple tablet obsession. Pretty much everyone in the computing world has an opinion about the iPad, whether positive or negative.

I’m curious about your opinions. Do you think an iPad would be a viable replacement for a MacBook in law school use? Would you buy an iPad for on-campus use and keep a laptop for home and the library? Are you excited by the concept but waiting for the next version of the iPad? Do you feel a touchscreen will just never work on your primary computing device? Is the “closed” nature of the App Store a problem for you? Do you see legal textbooks ever coming to the iPad?

Refurbished MacBook 2.13GHz Intel Core 2 Duo – White for $849
13.3-inch glossy widescreen display
2GB memory
160GB hard drive
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics
Built-in iSight camera

Refurbished MacBook 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo – Aluminum for $999
13.3-inch 1280-by-800 pixel LED-backlit display
2GB memory
250GB hard drive
8x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Built-in iSight camera
Illuminated keyboard

More details at the Apple Online Store