Re: Cannot print any Word docs after upgrading to OS X 10.4.9

On 19/3/07 7:49 AM, in article 180320072049164878%nospam@xxxxxxxxx, "Elliott
Roper" <nospam@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In article <C222FFE2.210E2%onlygeneraltaz1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>, CyberTaz
<onlygeneraltaz1@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

<snip>

4- Restart your Mac - and do so *at least* once per week. Don't be duped by
the common misconception that just because it's a laptop that it can simply
be allowed to sleep/hibernate with no ill effects. There's a lot of "house
cleaning" that goes on during shutdown & startup processes.
With respect Bob, there is plenty of evidence that is not really
needed. This lappy runs between OS X updates without ever being shut
down. Most of the janitorial work occurs at 0300, so leaving it awake
overnight once or twice per week is a good idea. If you want to sleep
it every night, then there are a few pieces of shareware, MacJanitor is
one, that will run the overnight cron job cleanups at more sociable
hours. The one task that occurs over a reboot is cleaning up your swap
files. That will only be useful if you are chronically short of memory.
Most of the good word will occur over a log-out log-in cycle. As soon
as a swap file is holding no useful swapped out fragments of programs,
(more or less) it is deleted. Logging out does a good job of achieving
this, but rebooting does get rid of the lot in one glorious sweep.

4a.- Same thing for your apps - if not using them Quit them. Don't let them
mill about in the background. They need to be restarted periodically in
order to "renew their spirit" if nothing else:)
OK, I note the smiley, but you *are* teetering on the edge of cargo
cult computer science here Bob. What *does* happen is that lots of
programs running simultaneously on a memory starved machine will cause
that parking lot called your swap files will get full and tangled. In
practice, there is very little advantage in quitting well written
programs. One with a memory leak, that is one that does not neatly
clean up its working memory, is best restarted often, if not avoided
completely. There is no widespread knowledge of Office programs going
feral in that way.

Having written that, I gotta admit you are right Bob. But you
oversimplified to the extent you reached a partially wrong conclusion.

<snip>

Does all that mean Bob doesn't get a tick for recommending a re-start at
least once a week, O Maestro?

I find (and have always found in OS X) that with intensive use of Word on
long documents for say 4-5 days, I see signs of computerly arthritis (mainly
slow operation in Word; can't quite remember the others right now, given
that I'm in jetlag). What causes it I don't know. I have Macaroni installed.
If I shut down then start, it becomes sprightly again.

I have until now consoled myself by thinking that I'm benefiting from
empirical observation, not superstition, without knowing *exactly* what's
causing it.

Go on, Father Ted, go on ... illuminate me so I can replace
confidence-through-ignorance with self-doubt-through-knowledge. ;-)

Cheers,

Clive
=======

.

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