Last night, for no reason at all, I double backed up all of my data, wiped the hard drive on my MacBook Pro and reinstalled my applications from scratch. The whole process including copying 100GBs of data to and from backup took just over two hours. My strategy for a quick and easy rebuilt starts with how I use my computer. By installing less stuff, I archive fewer files, maintain a smaller data footprint, and am able to recover faster from hardware failure, or the occasional urge to nuke and pave.

It all starts at home
Starting with Mac OS X, a true multiuser operating system, Apple introduced the concept of the individual user's home folder. Long heralded by UNIX fanatics as the place to put your stuff, my home folder has been my one stop directory for personal files ever since. Gone are the days of housing things in different folders under the root level of my hard drive. By keeping everything at home I instantly know where to go to retrieve everything that's important.

Organize the Apple way
Inside of your home folder are several default directories supplied by Apple. (Desktop, Documents, Library, Movies, Music, Pictures, Public, and Sites) You can either choose to use or ignore these pre established directories, but I am telling you to use them if only because it will keep you organized Apple's way. If you keep things where Apple expects them to be, like your iTunes folder in Music, or iPhoto Library in Pictures, you will have a easier time migrating your data to a new computer running Mac OS X.

Two Applications Folders
On my computer I am the only user, but I have two applications folders. Applications that have to be installed by an installer program (traditionally installed application) are placed in the default Root Applications Folder (/Applications). Applications that can be installed via drag and drop from a disk image are placed in a Home Applications Folder (~/Applications) I created. The benefit of this deliberate separation is that when backing up my Home folder I can also archive many of the Applications I use most in the version I use them. The remaining applications installed within the Root Applications must be reinstalled later due to their various support files.

The Library
Mac OS X has several Library folders used to store preferences, and application data. The Root Library (/Library) stores data prevalent to all users, while the Home Library (~/Library) stores data specific to you the user. If you are the only user on your computer you may want to move some of files from the Root Library to your Home Library for easier backup and transportation. Third-party Fonts, Preferences Panes, Screen Savers, and Application Support files are just some examples. Be careful what you do in your Root Library as modifications made here may be harmful to traditionally installed applications, your operating system, or other users.

Consolidating personal data into your Home folder will not only keep you organized, but will ensure your valuables make it to the other side of a Nuke and Pave.

Following Gruber's advice I gave BumpTop for Mac a try, and I have to say there is something strongly appealing about it. Maybe it is just the 3D desktop metaphor, or maybe it is the return of an organic file management system not seen since the arrival of the first Macintosh! No matter the appeal I recommend giving it a try if only to find out for yourself.

I will warn you the BumpTop guys know how to get you to pay for their product. By excluding multitouch trackpad gestures from the free version they made me want to lay down my $29 for a Pro license if only to make the whole experience more Mac-like, and allow me to imitate the ease of use demonstrated in their video. Very few longtime Apple developers would exclude Mac-like functionality from their base product in an effort to make you upgrade to a pro license.

I agree with Gruber, BumpTop needs to be more than just a desktop file management system. How about making some of the walls point to other directories within the Home folder? Better yet what if we could post Dashboard widgets or even full blown applications upon those walls for easy access within a 3D workspace? I am just saying if BumpTop's goal is to extend the desktop metaphor past its 2D constraints why stop at just desktop?

After switching from an iPhone to a Palm Pre, to a BlackBerry Tour, the LG lotus was my next step in the logical decent down the smartphone evolutionary path. Surprisingly the LG Lotus is more than just a fashionable feature phone designed for teenage girls.

The LG Lotus is a twist on the classic clamshell form factor by hiding a surprisingly sturdy QWERTY keyboard on the inside. Think iconic Moto RAZR with the reliable keyboard of a Blackberry all squished down into a pocketable square shaped package. It is this unique form factor that makes the Lotus perfect for sending text messages, but also handy for light emailing and web browsing as well.

• Sure the Lotus may not have the email client of a BlackBerry, or the Safari browser of an iPhone, but it does what it can with Opera mini and the Sprint email client.
• To get the most out of Opera mini sync your bookmarks from Opera's desktop browser to Opera mini using Opera Link.
• The Sprint email client, standard on most Sprint phones, is capable of retrieving mail from many popular web mail services including, POP, IMAP, and Exchange email with Outlook Web Access. (If you use exchange you will even have access to your personal, and company contacts which you can download to the phone, but only one at a time.)
• Web and email functionality both require a data plan, but unlike most smart phones you can buy the LG Lotus without one and upgrade to Sprint Everything Data at anytime. You can even remove the data services if you find you are not using them, something you can't do with an iPhone, Pre, or BlackBerry.

In addition to its intelligent form factor, great keyboard, texting, web, and email capabilities LG Lotus also makes a great phone. It is loud and clear, and has a speaker like you wouldn't believe if you have been using an iPhone for the last couple of year. Also holding it against your face feels like you are holding a phone, and not a bar of glass and plastic. Unlike mot smart phones it has the battery life of a mobile phone and not a wallet sized laptop. Without additional capabilities to drag it down the LG Lotus is good to go for several days of standby. When do you last remember your smart phone doing that?

Although it may come in textured red and purple, and be tailored for fashionable teenage girls the LG Lotus is an attractive feature phone if you are looking for top tier text messaging, light web, and email on a nationwide network more reliable than AT&T.

The iMac G4 is the kind of evolutionary design compromise few company's besides Apple would be willing to risk. After the failure of the G4 Cube, which suffered from a high price point and internal components that did not perform well when mounted vertically, Apple needed to move in a new direction. Most computer companies knowing the technology required for an uncompromised product was still years away would have licked their wounds after the Cube and retreated back to a more conventional design. Not Apple, the iMac G4 is a perfect example of a design compromise that lives past its limitations and succeeds in making a memorable statement.

The iMac G4's compromise comes from the fact that flat panel displays need to be mounted vertically, and internal components like the hard drive and optical drive work best when mounted horizontally. Combining the components into a single horizontal enclosure makes viewing the display ergonomically impossible. Combining the components into a single vertical enclosure was not technically feasible at the time of the iMac G4's release. Most computer companies continue to solve this problem by separating the two groups of components, and connecting them with unsightly cables. They cite upgradability as their motivating reason for keeping things modular. Apple instead solved the problem of an all in one personal computer by connecting the two halves with an innovative counter weighted neck that increases the iMac G4's value by allowing its users to effortlessly adjust the display's viewing angle.

My love for the iMac G4 started when I was a Mac Genius working in one of Apple's retail stores. It is one thing to admire the iMac G4 from the outside, and another observe the little internal design nuances that make the iMac G4 special.

• The 17lbs. of pressure Torx screws used to secure the iMac's base and connect both sections of the main logic boards heat sink.
• The split internal power supply that when removed we would hang around a Genius' neck while he worked on the remainder of the machine.
• Five thin white plastic straws that concealed the cables from the neck. (One of them was actually hollow to preserve the illusion of a five spoked wheel design when the iMac G4's base was viewed from above.)
• The white sticker covering the hard drive manufacturing label so when a user looked down through the cooling vents all they saw was white. (Supposedly a remedy proposed so that Steve could not see the ugly hard drive label when he reviewed the product.)

I definitely like the 15" model best. It was the easiest to get the display apart. (It had the most screws and the least plastic snaps.) Apple would provide special styrofoam cradles to position the iMac G4 in while we worked on it. The 20" model was so disproportionate and its base was so heavy to balance the weight of the display. By the time the 20" model was released the iMac G4 design had reached the end of its usefulness.

The release of Google Chrome for Mac (BETA) has brought little if nothing new to the Macintosh browsing offering, and yet coming from a company called Google you will want to give it a try.

Built on Webkit, the same underlying rendering engine as Apple's Safari, Google Chrome is fast, but how fast is up to individual interpretation. I wouldn't say it is noticeably speedier than Safari, however Google's use of DNS pre-fetching to improve page load performance has helped Chrome be first out of the starting gate in some situations.

Chrome's minimalistic interface isn't that different from Safari's, but if there is one thing I like it is the unified search and address bar called Omnibox. No matter what you type in it, be it a URL. or a Google search query, Chrome will figure it out and give you the proper result. I am surprised Apple didn't come up with the Omnibox idea first. People have been typing all of their browsing instructions into the Google search field for years now even if they are only looking for Google.com.

The great debate on whether or not a browser's tabs should be located above or below the address bar has been ignited once again. Google has done what Apple could not with the prerelease of Safari 4, place the tabs above the address field and still make Chrome feel like a Mac application. Does it make a difference in my daily browsing experience? No, but at least with Google Chrome I have the piece of mind that my address field semantically matches my currently selected tab.

We all know Google has redefined the word beta with many of its previous products. Google Chrome for Mac (BETA) is usable, but not feature complete when compared to it's Windows, and Linux siblings. The ability to extract Google web applications as standalone desktop applications in App Mode is not present. Neither is the newly launched Google Chrome Extensions. (Themes are available, but they look so god awful I don't know why any sane Mac user would want to use them.) Overall I haven't found very many issues with Google Chrome for Mac (BETA). All of the most important browsing attributes speed, security, stability, and incognito (porn-mode) are present. Bookmarks cannot be managed in the Chrome beta, but can be imported from either Safari or Firefox. As of writing this review I can also tell you spelling correction doesn't work the way it should. No suggestions for misspelled red underlined words aver appear when the word is right-clicked. The outdated Spelling Panel under Spell-checker options continues to work as advertised.

Would I switch to Google Chrome for Mac (BETA) for all my browser needs? Sure, it is semi-full featured, and ready for prime time if only for the appeal of the Omnibox alone. Still my conviction does not hold much water when you consider there is always a new browser version just around the corner that I am likely to adopt just as easily.