Datasheet

17
Chapter 1: Mac OS X Lion 101 (Prerequisites: None)
✓ Don’t unplug your Mac when it’s turned on. Very bad things can
happen, such as having your operating system break. See the preceding
section, where I discuss shutting down your system properly.
Note that this warning doesn’t apply to laptops as long as their battery
is at least partially charged. As long as there’s enough juice in the bat-
tery to power your Mac, you can plug and unplug its power adapter to
your heart’s content.
✓ Don’t use your Mac when lightning is near. Here’s a simple life equation
for you: Mac + lightning = dead Mac. ’Nuff said. Oh, and don’t place much
faith in inexpensive surge protectors. A good jolt of lightning will fry the
surge protector right along with your computer — as well as possibly
frying your modem, printer, and anything else plugged into it. Some surge
protectors can withstand most lightning strikes, but those warriors aren’t
the cheapies that you buy at your local computer emporium. Unplugging
your Mac from the wall during electrical storms is safer and less expensive.
(Don’t forget to unplug your external modem, network hubs, printers, and
other hardware that plugs into the wall as well; lightning can fry them too.)
For laptops, disconnect the power adapter and all other cables (because
whatever those cables are connected to could fry, and fry your laptop right
along with it). That said, you could use your laptop during a storm, if you
like. Just make sure that it’s 100 percent wireless and cableless if you do.
✓ Don’t jostle, bump, shake, kick, throw, dribble, or punt your Mac,
especially while it’s running. Your Mac contains a hard drive that spins
at 4,200 revolutions per minute (rpm) or more. A jolt to a hard drive
while it’s reading or writing a file can cause the head to crash into the
disk, which can render many — or all — files on it unrecoverable. Ouch!
Eternally yours . . . now
Mac OS X is designed so that you never have to
shut it down. You can configure it to sleep after
a specified period of inactivity. (See Chapter 17
for more info on the Energy Saver features of
OS X.) If you do so, your Mac will consume very
little electricity when it’s sleeping and will usu-
ally be ready to use (when you press any key
or click the mouse) in less than a minute. On
the other hand, if you’re not going to be using it
for a few days, you might want to shut it down
anyway.
Note: If you leave your Mac on constantly, and
you’re gone when a lightning storm or rolling
blackout hits, your Mac might get wasted. So
be sure you have adequate protection — say, a
decent surge protector designed specifically for
computers — if you decide to leave your Mac
on and unattended for long periods. See the
section “A few things you should definitely NOT
do with your Mac,” elsewhere in this chapter,
for more info on lightning and your Mac. Often
as not, I leave it on when I’m on the road so
that I can access it from my laptop via remote
screen sharing. So because OS X is designed to
run 24/7, I don’t shut it down at night unless the
night happens to be dark and stormy.
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