This site focuses mainly on my adventures with Macintosh computers. If you want to find out what I've done - and/or what I am now doing - this is the place.

About me (Ted Landau)

Mac stuff

My interest in computers dates back to the 1970s. From HP programmable calculators to a mainframe system running Honeywell's Multics OS, I was soon hooked. By the early 1980's, I was using an Apple II at work. In 1983, I decided it was time to get my first home computer. I was about to buy an Apple IIe when word of the Macintosh began to leak out. So I waited. In January 1984, I went to a local computer store the day that the Mac hit the shelves. A few minutes later, my mind was made up. The Macintosh was the train to the future and I wanted to get on board. I bought one that day.

My desire to learn about how the Mac worked went far beyond what I needed to know for my job as a professor. I found myself tinkering with the computer just for the fun of it. The first time I ever got paid for writing about the Mac was when I submitted a tip to MacUser. The tip explained how to edit the "Welcome to Macintosh" text that appeared on the screen at startup. MacUser published the tip and paid me $25.

Macworld and other magazines. My initial "Mac job" was as a writer (and later, a contributing editor) for the MACazine (Bob LeVitus was its editor!). My first article was published in June 1987. I had submitted it in response to the magazine's request for brief articles from readers. Bob called me to say they were going to run the article. He also asked if I would be interested in writing more stuff for them. I thought about it for maybe two seconds, and said yes. And thus, my Mac writing career began. I wrote several more articles over the next year - after which the magazine unfortunately folded. I prefer to think that my arrival and the magazine's departure were unrelated.

Macworld Expo. I attended my first Macworld Expo in Boston in 1987. If you were there, you might have seen me working at the MACazine booth. I have attended virtually every San Francisco and Boston/New York Macworld Expo from 1987 to the present. In the 1990's, I began presenting sessions at the Expo Users Conference, and have continued to do that as well. Starting in 2003, I have also occasionally presented one-day workshop sessions.

Books. In 1993, after working on the project for 18 months, the first edition of Sad Macs, Bombs & Other Disasters was published by Addison-Wesley. By the third edition, the publisher had shifted to Peachpit. The book's fourth (and final) edition was published in 2000.

Mac OS X Disaster Relief, written with Dan Frakes, was published in June of 2002. As its name implies, it just covers Mac OS X.

In 2004, Ted Landau's Mac OS X Help Line was published. This book was an evolutionary leap beyond Disaster Relief. A Tiger Edition of Help Line, the final edition of the book, was published in January 2006. At almost 1200 pages, it is certainly the biggest Mac OS X troubleshooting book ever published!

Note: Prior to publication, the book was briefly titled Mac OS X Help Desk, but (in what was an unfortunately confusing series of name changes), this was dropped in favor of Help Line.

In December 2007, working with Tonya and Adam Engst's Take Control Books, I published my first ebook: Take Control of Your iPhone. It was updated twice, with the third edition released in late 2009 and titled Take Control of iPhone OS 3. I have decided not to update the book again.

MacFixIt. In March of 1996, I started the Sad Macs Update Site which soon became MacFixIt. I sold MacFixIt in 2000, ended my editorship in 2002 and, as of 2009, I am no longer associated with it in any way.

...and more. Beginning in the Fall of 2005, I joined up with the MacNotables group to produce a regular series of podcasts.

In 2005, I was briefly the “Director of Support Services” of Doctor Mac Direct. Created by Bob LeVitus, it was a national tech support service for all things Macintosh. Although a form of the service continues, the original project was ended several months after its launch.

Recognition. My books and MacFixIt have received numerous honors and awards (as listed on other pages here).

In addition, I have twice been included in the MDJ Power 25 (2000 and 2001) as one of the 25 most influential people in the Mac community. I have not been on the list in recent years (although in 2006, I had the "honor" of being mentioned as someone "notable" who did not make the list).

In 2007, I was included on the MacTech 25, a competing list of the most influential Mac people.

Regardless of which of these lists I do or do not make in the future, I continue to have fun doing all this and will continue to do so as long as it remains fun and there are people interested in what I have to say.