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What is your Mac OCD?
- Thread starter nlivo
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Wow I thought I was alone...I always get told I am OCD with my mac...Trash must be emptied the second something goes in the trash...Macbook sleeps next to me in my bed (Last time I left it on the floor, my iPhone fell on top denting the aluminum
. All apps have to be closed when im not using them...I think I just like command+tab and Q..lol What a great machine!!
. All apps have to be closed when im not using them...I think I just like command+tab and Q..lol What a great machine!!
The Finder is an exception. I'm sure it bugs him. I seem to remember an app for PPC Macs that let you move the Finder icon, but I don't think it works for Intel machines.
He loves to run his mouse over the dock and see the letters going from A-Z
Man, I thought I was a weird one for the empty trash thing that everyone seems to have but I'm starting to realize I don't have it nearly as bad as some of you. I used to have more of these things I used to do compulsively but lately, I've kind of let go when I realized how it was disrupting my work flow.
I also wonder how much of these are habits that users picked up during the days when computers just weren't as functional and were much more resource limited.
Take for example, the closing of apps. Yeah, way back in the day when multitasking wasn't even multithreaded, this made sense. These days? Why? I got a C2D with 4GBs of RAM. Right now, I've got 32 items in my dock and only 4 are for inactive apps. There's also 14 icons in my menu bar. Its not affecting stability.
Also, I say you're not getting full functionality out of the system if you're always closing apps, particularly the small ones that don't take too many resources.
Learn to stop caring! Love the atom bomb!
I also wonder how much of these are habits that users picked up during the days when computers just weren't as functional and were much more resource limited.
Take for example, the closing of apps. Yeah, way back in the day when multitasking wasn't even multithreaded, this made sense. These days? Why? I got a C2D with 4GBs of RAM. Right now, I've got 32 items in my dock and only 4 are for inactive apps. There's also 14 icons in my menu bar. Its not affecting stability.
Also, I say you're not getting full functionality out of the system if you're always closing apps, particularly the small ones that don't take too many resources.
Learn to stop caring!
Love the atom bomb!
- Must empty trash as soon as I delete something. Bad habit I know... I already lost some important files like that.
- No icons must be in desktop except devices and Parallels (which I never use!)!
- All windows which I will be using must fill the screen completely
- ALL songs in iTunes must have their artwork and fields are entirely correct!
- As soon as I'm finished using an app, it must be completely quit by cmd-q
- Software aside, I clean my MBP completely after everytime I use it!
- No icons must be in desktop except devices and Parallels (which I never use!)!
- All windows which I will be using must fill the screen completely
- ALL songs in iTunes must have their artwork and fields are entirely correct!
- As soon as I'm finished using an app, it must be completely quit by cmd-q
- Software aside, I clean my MBP completely after everytime I use it!
- Everything must be aligned and in order.
- The trash can must always be empty.
- My Downloads folder must always be clean.
- Always have a tidy desk and a tidy desktop.
- I must keep everything where I can find it.
- I always turn my mouse and keyboard off, even if I go toilet or leave the room for two minutes.
- Nobody is allowed to touch my computers unless authorized by myself.
- I must quit every application I use unless it is running in the background. (e.g. iTunes)
- When using Safari it must always be full screen.
- I'm a total typing freak. My typing must be perfect unless I am tired.
- Everything on my desk must be switched off before I go to sleep.
- I must wash my hands before touching the keyboard and mouse. Even after eating anything or touching anything different.
- My cable management must be perfect.
I can't think of anymore but when I do, I will be first to let MacRumors know.
Mine
- Windows have to always be touching the menu bar, with the words centred to the screen, or the gap between the App menus and toolbar.
- My Spaces have Application all assigned to them, with each have a different type of Application.
- The Dock icons are organised into groups as well as colour order with all the blue ones and red ones separate. (Blues ones obviously on the left due to Finder not being able to move)
- My Bookmarks Bar is in Alphabetical order with groupings for certain pages.
- I'm constantly going through deleting things, even though I have loads of pace on my HDD.
- Keeping the trash empty follows on from that one.
- deselecting items that are on the desktop, clicking on the desktop twice to get rid of them.
- Arrange anything on the desktop by 'Kind'
- Flicking through spaces just to check the applications.
- Applications that aren't in use are quitted.
- Constantly wiping keyboard, or screen. (I even had to do this to my friends Macbook when they were out of the room)
- Constantly checking Mac Rumors
- Windows have to always be touching the menu bar, with the words centred to the screen, or the gap between the App menus and toolbar.
- My Spaces have Application all assigned to them, with each have a different type of Application.
- The Dock icons are organised into groups as well as colour order with all the blue ones and red ones separate. (Blues ones obviously on the left due to Finder not being able to move)
- My Bookmarks Bar is in Alphabetical order with groupings for certain pages.
- I'm constantly going through deleting things, even though I have loads of pace on my HDD.
- Keeping the trash empty follows on from that one.
- deselecting items that are on the desktop, clicking on the desktop twice to get rid of them.
- Arrange anything on the desktop by 'Kind'
- Flicking through spaces just to check the applications.
- Applications that aren't in use are quitted.
- Constantly wiping keyboard, or screen. (I even had to do this to my friends Macbook when they were out of the room)
- Constantly checking Mac Rumors
Just read through this thread for the first time. Very entertaining! Love the one about the guy who reinstalls Leopard every time it crashes.
I only have a few:
* I hate using a mouse. I go to great lengths to figure out ways to avoid having to move a hand off of the keyboard.
* I rarely quit applications. As I rarely turn-off or reboot my macs, almost every icon in my dock always has a little blue dot underneath it. I just hate having to wait the extra second or two it takes to restart an application I use often. I'm surprised so many here quit anything not in use. It's not uncommon for me to have 10-20 apps open at once, including windows running under parallels with at least a few there.
* I always hide applications not in use. Command-Tab and Command-H are probably the two shortcuts I use most often. I never minimize an app because I hate that command-tab doesn't maximize it again.
* Like many here, I like a clean desktop. A co-worker of mine literally keeps his windows desktop completely filled with icons. Sometimes I think he keeps every single file and program on his desktop. Drives me nuts.
I only have a few:
* I hate using a mouse. I go to great lengths to figure out ways to avoid having to move a hand off of the keyboard.
* I rarely quit applications. As I rarely turn-off or reboot my macs, almost every icon in my dock always has a little blue dot underneath it. I just hate having to wait the extra second or two it takes to restart an application I use often. I'm surprised so many here quit anything not in use. It's not uncommon for me to have 10-20 apps open at once, including windows running under parallels with at least a few there.
* I always hide applications not in use. Command-Tab and Command-H are probably the two shortcuts I use most often. I never minimize an app because I hate that command-tab doesn't maximize it again.
* Like many here, I like a clean desktop. A co-worker of mine literally keeps his windows desktop completely filled with icons. Sometimes I think he keeps every single file and program on his desktop. Drives me nuts.
I can relate to the above that are bold'ed. I have gone so far as to remove files from iTunes until I get around to cleaning it up.... My wife gets mad but I think she understands!
Make sure trash is empty.
Tidy dock, tidy desktop.
Login Window when i leave the room, or sleep the computer for a prolonged time or anything. Go mad if i think someone else could use it, without me there.
And i will rip your privates off if you touch the glass screen, dirty dirty fingers.
Tidy dock, tidy desktop.
Login Window when i leave the room, or sleep the computer for a prolonged time or anything. Go mad if i think someone else could use it, without me there.
And i will rip your privates off if you touch the glass screen, dirty dirty fingers.
It sounds like a lot of us are of similar minds. Here are mine:
- NO icons on the desktop other than the three hard drives and my iDisk,
- The dock needs to be shrunk as small as possible
- All folder windows open in icon view with the icons set to 48x48 and are arranged by name
- I run Versiontracker once a week and update all my apps,
- All songs in my iTunes library have correct tags and artwork,
- The monitor is as clean as is humanly possible,
- Once every other week I take my keyboard (white/clear) apart and clean all the keys in Windex and vacuum out all the crumbs that find their way inside,
- Once a week I clean the mouse.
- NO icons on the desktop other than the three hard drives and my iDisk,
- The dock needs to be shrunk as small as possible
- All folder windows open in icon view with the icons set to 48x48 and are arranged by name
- I run Versiontracker once a week and update all my apps,
- All songs in my iTunes library have correct tags and artwork,
- The monitor is as clean as is humanly possible,
- Once every other week I take my keyboard (white/clear) apart and clean all the keys in Windex and vacuum out all the crumbs that find their way inside,
- Once a week I clean the mouse.
My mother hit me once. Once.
Anyway, I'm an OS reinstaller. At least once a year, or after I feel I have the system is "dirty" or riddled with stuff I no longer use I will reinstall.
If you've seen some of my posts before you know that I just love doing it. I can actually sit there and be happy watching the progress bar load for 45 minutes. This also goes for Windows..... but mainly because you can't reinstall it and walk away, you have to sit there and watch XP or else a dialog box could be sitting there, not accomplishing anything. While the Mac OS is generally "clean" and it feels better after a reinstall, for Windows there is a huge difference that I absolutely love, but that's due to it being a mess anyway.
When I do a reinstall, I can't migrate everything over exactly. Same goes for my iPhone. If I do a system restore I love going through and grabbing all the new versions of my apps, Target Disk-ing my personal data and media files. There's the potential for something "bad" to transfer from the previous system, or backup, so I always love starting from scratch. What I usually do is clone with with Disk Utility to a backup, and then create a new, fresh user and then migrate over some data and then do my app reinstalling. For any iPhone update I restore it and set it up "as a new phone", as opposed to "restore from backup", so that I know it is working perfectly.
iTunes, I OCD off and on with that. I try to keep everything labeled and organized properly with the album artwork, but with 20k songs it gets tiring sometimes. I usually start up if I re-transfer everything to iTunes, or find a song that is mislabeled without proper captialization, and go through it for the following couple hours or so.
Even though I'm new to Mac and OS X, I've already found that I have picked up some OCDs.
- Desktop must be empty, except for the Macintosh HD icon
- Trash emptied immediately after placing something in it
- Quit all unused applications
- Screen and keyboard must be spotless, and I will immediately clean off any spec of dust on either
- Immediately trash any .dmg or install package left over after installing something
- A habit left over from my Windows days, Firefox and any other application I use must be maximized to full screen.
- Put Mac to sleep at night using the
icon - Wake it up using keyboard
- Albums in iTunes to have appropriate artwork.
Apps cannot be open if they aren't being used. (Although this is more of an issue due to my "slower" PPC computers.)
Since switching to Mac, I hate cluttered desktops. I nearly have a heart attack every time I see my dad's laptop, which has icons filling every possible space and more.
Since switching to Mac, I hate cluttered desktops. I nearly have a heart attack every time I see my dad's laptop, which has icons filling every possible space and more.
My PB's dents/scratches/marks
Especially the ones on the screen.
Are they still replacing screens for the white spots issue because I have two?
this is more of a RAM issue than processor.
I used to find documents open from a week ago. For some reason I started closing stuff.
Apps that quit themselves when you close the window. I want ALL the apps open that I use. Photoshop especially.
I cannot stand it when my uptime is less than one week.
I hate icons on the desktop but it is the only spot to put to put it if you want to drag it into something. The space becide the dock is good for stuff that you want to get to fast but it will not stay there long. I cannot stand even the HD icon on the desktop.
My screen must be off if I am not using the computer (screen dimming) My 3 year old PB screen is brighter than my Grandma's 1 year old Dell. I use the computer more than she does too. I cannot stand a unused monitor ether meaning the PB screen is in use even when using a external monitor.
Short battery life (my iBook lasted 6 hours while my PB lasts 1:30)
Safari using more than 256 RAM.
Kernel task being the biggest RAM user.
Backlit keyboard being on when I can see the keyboard fine.
Dim / wobbly screens
My PB's LOUD Fan that runs all the time but the computer is scorching hot anyway.
When MacRumors forums when editing posts the save button changes to another button
My screen flashing on for one millisecond every 30 minutes. (would be fine if the screen was LED backlit)
Dirty keyboards
flickering screens (My iBook and lights in general)
Is this the tallest post ever on MacRumors?
Especially the ones on the screen.
I almost have to have a black background and keep the windows off the edges of the screen to cover up a black spot my brother put there.
Are they still replacing screens for the white spots issue because I have two?
LOL
this is more of a RAM issue than processor.
I used to find documents open from a week ago. For some reason I started closing stuff.
Apps that quit themselves when you close the window. I want ALL the apps open that I use. Photoshop especially.
I cannot stand it when my uptime is less than one week.
Since switching to Mac, I hate cluttered desktops. I nearly have a heart attack every time I see my dad's laptop, which has icons filling every possible space and more.
I hate icons on the desktop but it is the only spot to put to put it if you want to drag it into something. The space becide the dock is good for stuff that you want to get to fast but it will not stay there long. I cannot stand even the HD icon on the desktop.
My screen must be off if I am not using the computer (screen dimming) My 3 year old PB screen is brighter than my Grandma's 1 year old Dell. I use the computer more than she does too. I cannot stand a unused monitor ether meaning the PB screen is in use even when using a external monitor.
Short battery life (my iBook lasted 6 hours while my PB lasts 1:30)
Safari using more than 256 RAM.
Kernel task being the biggest RAM user.
Backlit keyboard being on when I can see the keyboard fine.
Dim / wobbly screens
My PB's LOUD Fan that runs all the time but the computer is scorching hot anyway.
When MacRumors forums when editing posts the save button changes to another button
My screen flashing on for one millisecond every 30 minutes. (would be fine if the screen was LED backlit)
Dirty keyboards
flickering screens (My iBook and lights in general)
Is this the tallest post ever on MacRumors?
Oh my effing gawd, this has to be the funniest and sickest thing I have ever read. I have never literally Laughed Out Loud reading a forum before. Wow, I needed that laugh. Thank you.
Seriously, though, I thought I was the only one OCD about my Mac and how things are organized. A few off the top of my head ...
-All unused applications are quit immediately.
-The trash is immediately emptied.
-All folder windows must be the same size.
-Mail and Safari must be the same size (damn Safari keeps opening and inch to the right. Ergh).
-iTunes columns are precisely aligned so there are no horizontal scrollers.
-Coversutra has to be running when iTunes is.
-Only one icon on the desktop: Macintosh HD with a blue label.
-All folders within my Home folder have a blue label.
-Icons on the desktop can never be selected.
This list applies to my 20" iMac and Unibody MacBook Pro.
Ha, here I go...
I have the same empty trash OCD as many of you. That damn thing needs to be empty!
I too have to click the desktop to change the focus to Finder before leaving the desk.
Similarly to above, if anything is selected on the desktop, I have to de-select it before I leave.
I always clear my Safari downloads and close it after I finish downloading. Always.
Related to above, any unnecessary files in my downloads folder (.dmg files after I'm done with it, etc) goes into the trash, and emptied.
I always keep my desktop empty of files, the only thing on it are my HDD's.
All windows must be closed, except the ones I'm using. This OCD has mostly gone away since I discovered Spaces - now windows stay open all the time, just out of sight
Safari's window must be the width of the Apple's startpage, and centered.
I hate to move the windows of any app - I'm a bit OCD about them being in the position it first opened in. A little sick, I know.
I like to reinstall my OS. I'm not as bad as the guy above, I get OCD about reinstalling the OS only 2-3 times a year.
I have the same empty trash OCD as many of you. That damn thing needs to be empty!
I too have to click the desktop to change the focus to Finder before leaving the desk.
Similarly to above, if anything is selected on the desktop, I have to de-select it before I leave.
I always clear my Safari downloads and close it after I finish downloading. Always.
Related to above, any unnecessary files in my downloads folder (.dmg files after I'm done with it, etc) goes into the trash, and emptied.
I always keep my desktop empty of files, the only thing on it are my HDD's.
All windows must be closed, except the ones I'm using. This OCD has mostly gone away since I discovered Spaces - now windows stay open all the time, just out of sight
Safari's window must be the width of the Apple's startpage, and centered.
I hate to move the windows of any app - I'm a bit OCD about them being in the position it first opened in. A little sick, I know.
I like to reinstall my OS. I'm not as bad as the guy above, I get OCD about reinstalling the OS only 2-3 times a year.
I actually have OCD, so I'll spare you my thoughts that occasionally include my Mac, so I'll just list a couple of the bs Monk-ish, cute little habits. If you know what I mean you're probably thanking me right now.
I've always had to have a desktop with no icons on it.
I absolutely hate that I can't get rid of the dock. Hiding it isn't the same.
I hate that I can't move the bar at the top of the screen, I'd prefer it at the bottom, or better yet, on the dashboard.
Programs that don't have a background annoy me. FCP, Avid, Pro Tools, etc drive me nuts when I accidentally click a window barely under another one, or when I click one in another app and it doesn't give focus to that program and all of its windows.
I can't write unless there's pr0n playing.
After the budget for my last movie fell through I want to punch the display when I see a certain actor's name. Just looking at my Mac after that reminds me of hundreds of hours invested, though they did pay for said Mac.
I have to empty the trash immediately after throwing something away.
I zero my HD every month just in case it's stolen, even though I have passwords galore. I wish Macs had biometric hardware.
I get really nervous when somebody uses my keyboard without washing their hands first. If they've been eating something...grumble...grumble...grumble...
I've always had to have a desktop with no icons on it.
I absolutely hate that I can't get rid of the dock. Hiding it isn't the same.
I hate that I can't move the bar at the top of the screen, I'd prefer it at the bottom, or better yet, on the dashboard.
Programs that don't have a background annoy me. FCP, Avid, Pro Tools, etc drive me nuts when I accidentally click a window barely under another one, or when I click one in another app and it doesn't give focus to that program and all of its windows.
I can't write unless there's pr0n playing.
After the budget for my last movie fell through I want to punch the display when I see a certain actor's name. Just looking at my Mac after that reminds me of hundreds of hours invested, though they did pay for said Mac.
I have to empty the trash immediately after throwing something away.
I zero my HD every month just in case it's stolen, even though I have passwords galore. I wish Macs had biometric hardware.
I get really nervous when somebody uses my keyboard without washing their hands first. If they've been eating something...grumble...grumble...grumble...
my god, you people need help. how do you get any work done? are you all like this in the rest of your lives? i am now fearing that because i prefer os x people assume i have a disorder just like you all do.
i am almost tempted to make a video showing not only how messy and dirty my desk and mbp are, but how cluttered and anarchic my desktop and folder 'system' is and what a jumble of open applications are running.
i am however lazy and will simply provide you with this lovely image, get ready to run screaming you poor souls...
do you see? there is 'trash' in the 'trash can'.
the closest i have to a compulsion is really an addiction to RSS feeds.
i am almost tempted to make a video showing not only how messy and dirty my desk and mbp are, but how cluttered and anarchic my desktop and folder 'system' is and what a jumble of open applications are running.
i am however lazy and will simply provide you with this lovely image, get ready to run screaming you poor souls...
do you see? there is 'trash' in the 'trash can'.
the closest i have to a compulsion is really an addiction to RSS feeds.
i am however lazy and will simply provide you with this lovely image, get ready to run screaming you poor souls...
do you see? there is 'trash' in the 'trash can'.
WTF I can't empty it!! AAAAA!!
*dies*
do you see? there is 'trash' in the 'trash can'.
Doesn't bother me, my trash is empty.
