Mac 911

by Christopher Breen

From Peachpit Press

$29.99 (US), $46.99 (CAN) UK £22.99

Review by Gary Coyne

If you've looked at the Macintosh Bible, you've read Christopher Breen. If you're a subscriber to MacWorld and checked out the Mac 911 section, you've read Christopher Breen. In fact, if you have read just about any Mac magazine or a variety of Mac help books in the past 13 or so years, you have read Chrisopher Breen. He's been around for quite some time and he knows about what he speaks.

Apple would do well to give a copy of this book with their newly purchased Macs because this book has one of the best explanations on how to add RAM, hard drives and a few other extra components into your Mac. Providing just the amount of encouragement without sounding like a motivational speaker, Breen lets you know that you CAN do this yourself.

Similarly, Breen has one of the best explanations of how to set up a Network with both OS 9 and OS X that I've ever seen. Many books tend to gloss over this aspect assuming that most people who set up a network will have an IT person to help them through the details, but since more and more homes have Airport networks, it's a great addition to help books such as this.

Also, Breen is not shy about complaining about some vendor's lack of support and/or inaction in regard to the Mac. His rants on slow-to-appear drivers and poor support for such items as sound support, especially from Apple, are a blessed "sound" to my ears. We, as users, would be well advised to follow Breen's points on letters (make that "polite" letters now) to various manufacturers and software companies for updated support for the Mac.

On the other hand, this is also somewhat of a disappointing book. Not that it's not helpful (because it is) and not that it doesn't have lots of great information in it (because it does), but rather it's disappointing because of what could (or should) have been there. Early on in Mac 911, Breen points out if you want a more complete repair book, you want Ted Landau's "Sad Macs, Bombs, and Other Disasters." Additionally, if you want more information on how to use your Mac, you should consider getting Robin William's "The Little Mac Book." Thus, with this in mind, Breen is sort of focusing on having his book become the "Sad Little Mac Book Lite." Admittedly, Breen states that he is writing so his Mom will understand what he's writing and in this regard this is good because Landau can get somewhat technical. So if you are intimidated by "Sad Macs,..." Mac 911 might be great for you.

Much of the book is based on "Oh my gosh, my computer isn't working--what do I do?" With that in mind, there is much Repetition so the reader isn't swinging back and forth between 3-5 different sections as they try to understand hardware, software, and OS idiosyncrasies. While this is great in theory, Breen has at least two major sections on such great software as Conflict Catcher. Extolling the virtues of Conflict Catcher is one thing. Having a full description of it more than once is a wholly different matter.

In Breen's desire for fast reference capability, the first 15 pages illustrate 12 different "Uh-ohs" and an abbreviated "what to do about them." Surprisingly, there is no page showing the 12 Uh-ohs in an index format. While these are great logic breakdowns (i.e., "Your Mac won't start up," and "Your Mac will start up but...") having a simple list to guide you directly to where you want to go is easier than scanning through 15 pages--espicially if you are panicking.

I wish Breen had taken the opportunity to find another person to kick around aspects of this book. I found a variety of curious choices of "what to write and where to place it" throughout the book. For example, early on in the book he has referred several times to zapping the PRAM (and has explained what it does) but not until page 32 does he refer to rebuilding the Desktop. Yet, he doesn't explain what that is or why one does it until page 65.

I was also somewhat disappointed in the lack of technical details in the book. Yes, Breen's mother may not want to know about the problems one can get into when mixing 3-2-2 RAM with 2-2-2 RAM, but others may. This is the kind of information I expect from Breen, but it's not there.

Likewise, Breen mentions how to connect a serial device to a G3 and G4 computer. Regrettably he doesn't warn the reader that this becomes a dead issue with OS X as the new operating system does not and will not support such equipment. While one may elect that adding such a device is their best choice at this point in time, the fact that Breen doesn't point out the long term ramifications means that the user is proceeding with incomplete knowledge.

The last appendix to the book is an extra that doesn't make any sense in the structure of the book but is great to see: a list of the top ten ways you can make yourself disliked in an E-mail group. I'm sure this comes from Breen's experience on E-mail lists and those that have written directly to him. While this list doesn't make any sense in this book, it's a welcome addition.

One weird lack of inclusion was observed in Appendix A: Helpful Resources. Starting off with Mac Publishing he points out (with admitted obvious self-interest) MacWorld Magazine and then continues with a variety of web sites. While I was disappointed that Applelinks was not listed, many other fine web sites were pointed out. But between MacWorld, MacAddict and MacHome Magazine to have ONLY listed MacWorld comes out rather petty.

There is much good in this book coupled with a variety of areas that are surprisingly disappointing. I would like to have found more to like, but it wasn't there.

Buy Mac 911

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