shownotes_20121226

Opening
  Every year around this time I take a some time to go through my Macs and try to clean things up a bit and prepare for the new year. I noticed my friend George Starcher was doing the same thing, so I thought it was a perfect opportunity for a show. Here's some ideas, tips, and tricks for performing some yearly Mac maintenance.
Backups
  You should already have a backup plan, if not now is a good time to start one. If so, it's a good time to check and review.
  Making a plan.
    Onsite and offsite
    What kind of backup? Clone vs. Time Machine vs. Selective (archive)
      SuperDuper
      Carbon Copy Cloner
      ChronoSync and ChronoAgent
    What kinds of media?
      DVD
      Hard Drives (Spindle vs SSD)
      Flash
      NAS or Drobo
      Time Capsule
    What do you backup offsite and how? (Services vs. "sneakernet")
      CrashPlan
    Verify your backups and recovery
      Spot check recovering files from various backup systems
      Run Disk Utility or similar tools on drives
        Drive Genius
        Disk Warrior
      Consider replacing older drives (3-5 years?)
Files and Documents
  Take older projects and files and consider moving them to archival storage
    DVD, Drobo, NAS, external drive
    Compress older files/projects
  Look for large files that you might no longer need
    Grand Perspective
    OmniDiskSweeper
    Daisy Disk
  Check ~/Library/Application Support and ~/Library/Preferences for old or removed App support files
  Check ~/Library/Mail Downloads for attachments you no longer need
  Consider breaking up large iPhoto Libraries into small chunks.
    Duplicate the iPhoto Library with a tool like iPhoto Library Manager
    Could also burn sets of images to DVD. I used to use a smart album filtered by year for this.
Analyize your Apps
  Take a look at all the stuff that piled up in your Applications folder
  Use unistaller or app like AppZapper
  Make sure the stuff you are using is up to date
  Consolidate your order and Serical number data
Cleanup and Maintainence
  Using a tools like Onyx or Cocktail
    Onyx
    Cocktail
  Clear system and user caches
    Kernel, CUPS (Common Unix Printing System), Font, Virtual Memory Swap, Dock, Temp files
  Clear and rotate log files
    This should happen normally
  Rebuild Launch Services and/or Spotlight databases?
Networking and Wireless
  Reboot or reset modems and routers
  Remove old devices from the network.
  Consider statically IP addressing devices or enabling DHCP reservations
    System Preferences > Network
    Next, click “Advanced” in the lower right corner, and then select the Hardware tab on the right.
    Note or copy the MAC address for the machine
    Applications > Utilities > Airport Utility
    Select the Airport and click 'Edit'
    Select the “Network” tab and note the DHCP address range.
    Under DHCP Reservations, click the “plus” button
    Give the assignment a description, such as "My Mac" and make sure that "Reserve Address By" is set to "MAC Address".
    Fill in the MAC address you noted earlier and assign an IP address that is in your LAN range, but the range used by the DHCP address range.
Closing
  Feedback to member@maccast.com or call 281-622-4269 (281-MAC-I-AM-9)