Thanks. That explains the feeling I've had for some time now. This is fraud by another name, just like the Savings and Loan crisis in the 80s.
Deregulating these guys was bad the first time, and it was a bad idea again.

Hi Sue, I really like your blog and contributions to others.
It sounds like you keep your mac on over night to allow it to repair permissions etc. and that's good.
There is an effective maintenance tool that I use. Tiger (now Leopard) cache cleaner, from Northern Softworks. 30 day free trial - then it's cheap to buy.
I really recommend it. It may help you.
http://www.northernsoftworks.com/leopardcachecleaner.html
If that doesn't help,backing up is not that hard. Burn your docs, apps, mail, photos etc. to DVDs. Make sure you save your /user/ library/ prefs. Then re-install. You're doing spring cleaning this week anyway, right?
Good luck.

I always thought Stevens was unjustly slammed for his too simple analogy. If he had said "bandwidth overload" instead instead of "tubes", he might have got more respect.
//(Fred Tuttle is my hero.)