Inspired by review editor Roman Loyola’s dogged insistence on every bit of technology lasting as long as physically possible, I’ve recently decided to resist the blandishments of all new gear and get my trusty PowerBook G4 to last as long technologically possible. Or, however long I can take it before I break down and yield to the KoolAid consumed in these regions every time Apple turns on the klieg lights.

To do that it’s clear that I need to do that which I most love doing: being a degenerate, paper shuffling neat freak. I don’t require things be clean. In fact I have very little interest in this, as the sticky mung that’s accumulated on the lapper will attest to. I just want to be able to find it [stuff, shoes, car keys] when I need to. And I need the desktop to look ordered. And I need it to work well and to know that I’ve not got stuff cluttering up the drive because I’ve slacked on the kind of mental maintenance neat freaks delight in.

So I hit up WhatSize 10.3.92 so I can quickly ferret out that which is slowing me down. I find which files are hogging up the most space and systematically delete all my abortive attempts at iMovie genius, all of my attempts at iPhoto genius and all of my genius literary attempts at genius. I get the 8 gig buffer I need to return my machine to semi-optimal functioning.

On my way to a newer, neater, thinner me.

I then use Xslimmer to de-fatify some of my heavier duty apps. The demo version is free. This thins out big apps where it’s clear I don’t need all of what’s in there. Total elapsed time now 30 minutes.

I delete a few other things, back up all of what’s left [yes, I have learned], empty trash, restart and yes, breathe a sigh of relief because you see, laptop neatness is once again MINE.