When your Mac is central to your home, it only seems natural to decorate it for the holidays. Historically, the Mac has enjoyed lots of creative holiday-themed enhancements, and Mac OS X continues the tradition.

Aahhhh, it's that special time of year again: the weather's getting colder, the lights are on even during the day, and there is that festive atmosphere all around. People wearing a gentle smile on their face and a twinkle in their eyes, eagerly awaiting the celebration of the year, their cheeks glowing with joyful anticipation. Yes, Macworld Expo San Francisco is drawing near!

Shion brings open source INSTEON control to the Mac. Let one thousand flowers bloom.

I'm not saying that I'm an elitist Applecentric snob, no wait, yes, i am. And a lot of the UI decisions made me roll my eyes. The five screens before you can play any game, the mismatched dialog boxes without consistent font usage, the fact that you must pay 5 bucks for a Web browser, the fact that there doesn't seem to be easy third party development for an Internet-savvy device.

Missing Sync for Palm OS 6.0.2-beta lets Leopard users sync with their Palms.

Here's something that should have gone into Wireless Hacks, 2nd Edition - network two Macs together using Bluetooth and PPP.

In a little end-of-the-year present to my Mac and my eyes, I replaced my fridge-size CRT with a wide-screen LCD. It supposedly has the same innards as the Apple Cinema Display for $300 less. So far, so good....

Wow! Big response to my post, made with tongue only partly in cheek, accusing Microsoft of designing Office apps to crash on Macs. More on my experience as a crash test dummy, plus other perspectives.

It has to be deliberate: Almost nothing crashes on my Mac except Microsoft products, which do so frequently and with gusto.

The little USB plug protectors packaged with my new Mac were so over-engineered that it seemed like a shame to throw them away. Then I thought of this hack.