At Casa de Bathgate, we don’t have a conventional TV. A few years ago we got rid of the old box we had and replaced it with a 20″ iMac and a USB digital TV tuner. So we get HDTV free from our antenna, and we can watch DVDs and listen to music on the Mac (it’s plugged into our stereo).

It’s a great setup, and it’s served us well. Recently, we started getting little video glitches and artifacts when doing graphics-heavy stuff like watching The West Wing. It just kept getting worse and worse (and I don’t have a high tolerance for imperfection [outside myself]) so something needed to be done.

I had a bit of spack and told Sally this was just going to be another thing to put on my list, it’ll take forever to find anyone about this online, I don’t have time to take this to the Apple store etc etc.

I went to settle down and read TIME for five minutes on the stairs, then I poked my head around the corner and asked what she was up to. She was sitting at the computer and announced that she’d found the problem and the solution on the Apple support forums.

Sure enough, it turns out that the system is running too hot, so we downloaded the excellent SMCFanControl to increase the lowest speed of the system’s fans. Problem solved.

I looked at her, impressed, and she shrugged and said, “I’m the helper.”

What a score.

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