Microfibre Cloths

Over the years I have purchased a number of microfibre cleaning cloths to clean and maintain my electronics. Until recently I bought them at a local electronics store, or in the computer department at Staples. They were not cheap; I think the cheapest I found was about $6.00. I was willing to pay the price, particularly to clean my iPad and iPhone. Nothing else removed fingerprints as well or as quickly. They lasted a long time, but I did change them periodically because I didn't want to risk them picking up grit that would scratch the more fragile screens on my laptop and TV.

All that changed recently. I was in the cleaning section at Costco buying dish soap (another bargain, 4 L of dish soap there costs just a bit more than 600 mL at the grocery store), when I saw a box of eight microfibre cleaning cloths for under $10.00. I brought home a box to try out. They are different from the electronic cloths. They feel kind of soft and fluffy like a nice bath towel. When I tried one out, I was blown away. The fluffy surface must increase their surface area. Two swipes and my iPad looked great. My laptop is getting a bit long in the tooth, but a thorough cleaning with one of these cloths made it look like new.

I now have a cloth in my desk drawer, one in my headboard in my bedroom, and one in my computer bag. I did a presentation for a customer the other day, so I gave my laptop and iPad a quick clean before I went in. It was great to not have to show my customer a grubby screen.

By the way, they are also great for cleaning eye glasses.

Three Finger Salute for the Mac

Welcome back to the blog. As I mentioned in a previous post, I've been participating in NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month. The goal of the event is to write a 50,000 word novel in the month. Everyone who writes 50,000 words wins. The good news it that I won! In fact, I blew it out of the park, hitting the 50,000 word mark on November 21. I have spent the week or so since then editing my first draft. The bad news is, the event was so time consuming that it kept me away from blogging.

So here I am, back with a short post to whet your appetite.

I am sure that any longtime Windows user know the three finger salute. The app you are  running locks up. Maybe the misbehaving app locks up your whole computer. Hold down these three keys, Control, Alt and Delete, simultaneously, and you may be able to close the bad app and regain control of your computer.

Is there a Mac equivalent? It turns out that there is. Say it with me everyone: Command, Option, Escape. What does it do? It opens the Force Quit dialogue box. Scroll to your misbehaving app, then klick "Force Quit".  Usually this will shutdown the bad app and restore full control to your computer. There is another way to reach the Force Quit dialogue box. It is quite rare for a troubled app to completely lock down a Mac. Usually you can mouse out of the bad app. If you can, mouse over to the Apple Menu (top left of the screen), click the Apple, then select Force Quit.

If you are running a full screen app, the Apple Menu may not be on your screen. It can usually still be accessed by moving your mouse to the top left, causing the menu bar to drop down. If not, say it with me again people: Command, Option, Escape!