Nowadays, the webcam is kind of like the bastard child of a digital camera and a digital video camera; one which can't really record movies as well as a video camera and can't take still pictures as well as a digital camera, and is permanently tethered to your Mac by way of the USB or Firewire cord that keeps it feeding continual information. And yet, somehow, the general prevalence of broadband Internet connections has managed to make the dumb things somewhat useful. Imagine that.

Mac users generally have a mixed relationship with Microsoft these days. The days of militant adversarial advocacy between Mac users and Windows users are over, of course; bitter flame wars and sundered friendships across platform lines have been replaced with an attitude of general coexistence. Windows users admire the Mac for its elegance and simplicity, Mac users admire the Windows PC for its incredible software selection. One thing, however, hasn't changed: Microsoft makes some pretty inefficient, bloated software. While Microsoft software has found its way into virtually every Macintosh out there, there's no reason you should use it more than you absolutely have to. Read on for a few tips on how to minimize your Microsoft dependence.

Last week, I wrote an installment of Hands-On Mac that covered a few basic tips and tricks for sexifying your Mac. While sex appeal is no doubt a crucial element of a secret agent's cover—Hello, Mr. Bond—actual, you know, secrecy is the name of the game. So, with a disclaimer that neither I nor Applelinks are responsible for any kind of possible law-breaking that occurs as a result of this article, go ahead and read on for a few tips to give you that Secret Agent Mac.

Computer geeks love describing their hardware (ha, ha, no pun intended) with language that would make any feminist cringe: computers are sexy, cell phones are sleek, PDAs are curvaceous, Aqua is lickable, etc. Yeah, yeah yeah; this practice seems blatantly compensatory for real human contact which computer geeks stereotypically tend to lack. But more and more, especially with the genius design behind unabashedly sexy gadgets like the iPod and the PowerBook, people are becoming more attractive by virtue of the gadgets they surround themselves with. So while pick-up lines such "That must be an AirPort antenna in your pocket, 'cuz you're sending off some pretty strong signals" will never be in vogue, read on for a few tips on how to sexify your Mac.

When OSX was released to the mainstream, the MAME emulation series (Mac/Geo/CPS) either completed their projects or fell way behind the PC counterparts, and Connectix had VirualPC bought out by Microsoft and VirtualGamestation bought out by Sony—an especially fatal move for VGS, as Sony refused to update or maintain the application and let it die, forever condemned to OS9 systems only. But if those were the golden years of the Mac emulation scene, then now must be the Renaissance, for, slowly but surely, hobbyists are getting the PSX back on the Mac.

Get faster startups and less RAM usage

The actual steps of making a mix CD in iTunes are pretty easy to explain. Create a new playlist in iTunes (Command - N or just choose it in the File menu), locate whatever songs you want to put on the CD in your library and drag them over to your playlist, and arrange them in whatever order you desire. From there, insert a blank CD, click Burn Disc over in the upper right corner, and BAM - your own mix is on the burn. If inspiration hits while you're elsewhere, you can even design your own mix CD using the On-The-Go playlist function on your iPod, save it there, and burn it when you get back. But you could have figured that out by yourself - what you want to know is how to make a good mix CD.

Mac networking made simple

There is, of course, an obvious drawback when it comes to monitor sizes; you can't nearly hope to display as much stuff on a cute little 12" LCD number when compared to, say, my neighbor's LCD display, which he regularly uses to play PS2 games on one half of the screen and watch torrented episodes of 24 on the other half—both halves of which are still larger than my PowerBook. However, with a little bit of fine-tuning, you too can make the most of your 786,432 (that's 1024 x 768) pixels.

Download your Gmail messages to read them offline

Broke? - You don't need a lot of $$ to get a useful Mac

If you really have the laptop bug, nothing else will do