Since the O'Reilly people have published an updated set of upkeep items for Mac OS 10.3 which might change a few entrenched habits, this is a day to target two birds...
What's new in the Panther maintenance tips (MacDevCenter) by François Joseph de Kermadec are most notably this:
"Defragmenting a hard drive is a way to make a computer go a bit faster by rearranging the information that is written on it. Some Mac OS 9 users and PC switchers remember that defragmenting was an essential step in their maintenance processes. (...)
The news gets better with Panther. It defrags files (those less than 20 MB, which should be most of yours) on the fly"
and this:
"Here's a Panther-specific tip: at the bottom of the Disk Utility window, you will see a line called "S.M.A.R.T" status. No, this doesn't check your disk's IQ! "S.M.A.R.T" technology is a monitoring system that allows your hard drive to perform self-checks and to warn you when it is about to fail. If you see "verified," your disk is doing well. (...) If you see "About to fail," your disk will fail, and will do so sooner than later. Immediately backup your files and replace the hard drive [~] or contact your nearest Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider."
I once learned something else that De Kermadec warns about the hard way: that a popular third-party disk "repair" tool, supposedly OS X-specific, can do far more harm than good.
The new operating system has already dropped me a few hints that the Panther largely looks after itself when it comes to defragging, which was a regular part of my routine.
No longer. These tips from an Apple forums "helper" provide welcome confirmation of that and also make for a swift refresher course.
 On being informed of how search engines work, A. Non (who goes nowhere near the Internet and thought we submitted our work to Google and the like), set me a little linguistic and pictorial challenge.
Had he specifically asked for Panther, I would have been lost. But...
 ...I said he could use up to six of the terms I'd employed during the previous 35 minutes of cross-lingual wordplay.
His list: "boo-boo" (as in "mistake"), "cage" (as in "John"), "cyber", "feline", "playboy" and "tweak".
"And 'boot-up'," he added. "That's my joker, like in the Loto."
Ok, I admit, this kind of tweaking is stretching it a bit, but do I win?
Thank you, GraphicConverter ... and Kristin Novak, who is a Playboy "cybergirl".
9:39:05 PM link 
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