Around the blogosphere there have been "issues" reported with 10.4.11, Tiger's latest update.  Many users have thrown up their hands and have resorted to a reinstall of the OS.  Here are some suggestions to ensure you do not have to endure the sometimes negative outcome of a reinstall.

Quicksilver in Real Life from Matt McInerney on Vimeo.

Great stuff.  If you aren't familiar with Quicksilver, we Savants highly recommend it.  It's free and available from blacktree.com .  Merlin Mann of 43Folders, personal productivity specialist, is a huge proponent of Quicksilver. 

We here all love it and are baffled when we can't hit command-space and get our little command window!  HMPH!

If you have more than one IR-equipped computer at the same location, you'll probably want to "pair" each computer with a specific Apple Remote. Pairing sets the computer to take commands only from the specified remote. You can pair your computer with only one remote at a time.

To remove the pairing, open System Preferences, click Security, and click the Unpair button. Your computer will now take commands from any remote.

To prevent your computer from being controlled by any remote, select "Disable remote control infrared receiver" in the Security preferences pane.

Many people don't know this, but in most applications on MacOSX "Tiger" you can see the definition or synonym of a word instantly.  Here's how it works:

1. Hover the cursor over the word you want to learn more about
2. Hold down Command (Apple Key) + Control + D
3. A pop-up will appear above the word with the definition
4. If you want to see the synonym, click where it shows the name of the dictionary, at the top of the pop-up window, and select Thesaurus.  If the pop-up goes away, repeat step 2 quickly (without holding down the keys long).

We find this feature enormously easy to use and handy.  One more thing: it does not work with Firefox or Camino! 

Enjoy!