Alright, so maybe it isn't exactly possible to have that many songs in your iPod (yet), and yes, those were just numbers that have been randomly typed, in order to exaggerate a point. In any case, let's lower the count down to, say, 500. Honestly, how quickly can you find that one specific song out of everything that you've managed to cram into that 60GB drive? And by the time that you do find it, are you actually still in the mood to listen to it?

Well fear not, as one brave individual who just can't bear to be made to wait for his dose of music, has developed a system to further optimize the way you navigate on your iPod.

The basis of this system is actually rather simplistic: set-up 26 alphabetical smart playlists by artist, each beginning with a different letter of the alphabet. For artists beginning with "The", just set up a separate smart playlist that begins with "The _A" and so on and so forth. And for groups who are just too cool to use the alphabet or numbers? They can get assigned to the lovely "@" playlist.

Give it a try. After all, who knows...maybe your playlist will get famous one day. You wouldn't want reporters to see all that clutter on your pod, now do you?

We all know that most of us keep at least two different email accounts - one for work and one for personal use, then there's others who also keep emails for groups, community newsletters, website, for stalking, and so on and so forth. We also all know how tedious it can be to have to log in to each of these accounts separately. That was then. Now, say hello to the ability to access all your mail, all at once.

This is made possible by, first and foremost, having the WebMail extension installed in your system. This extension integrates website-based email accounts into Mozilla Thunderbird, and allows Thunderbird to download and to send emails using the website. The extension is known to be slick, as itÂ?s just a case of downloading the core package plus the package for the particular service youÂ?re using, installing them, restarting Thunderbird, and then setting up the account.

To get started, you will need to install WebMail first and at least one of its optional components. Once WebMail is up and running, the next thing to check for is if the the status of the enabled servers are "running". This can be viewed in the Options menu. This is also the menu that should display the list of supported domains.

From there, you can move to creating a POP account by going to the main menu and opting to create a new account. You may then set your name and email address in the Identity Page. Then, just enter the appropriate server information and the domain name, follow the instructions until you reach "Finish", and you're all set!

Support is currently available for Yahoo!, Hotmail, Gmail, Libero, Lycos, AOL and Mail.com accounts.

According to Apple, it's a good idea to repair disk permissions as a regular maintenance task after upgrading or installing new software. But what exactly does that mean, repairing permissions?

Every file and folder on a Mac OS X hard drive has a set of permissions that determine which user(s) have access to each item. So a user needs the right permissions to open and edit a particular file. Permissions also determine which items the OS can access and modify, and which files are accessible by applications.

The Repair Disk Permissions function checks certain files and folders on the MacÂ?s HD to see if the permissions settings are not in conflict with the Mac OS X. Any permissions that do not conform are changed to match the systems expected settings.

An Â?incorrectÂ? permission can create  problems when OS X tries to access or modify those files. If you experience trouble logging in to your account, printing, launching applications, or booting the machine, it could be a case of mismatched permissions.

If an Apple or third-party developer application needs access to a particular file or folder to function, permissions glitches could prevent access causing malfunction. The Repair Disk Permissions function can fix such problems by ensuring that certain files have the correct permissions.

Permissions also perform security functions. Many system-level files permissions are set to stop users from meddling with these files. If the permissions on certain system-level files were accidentally changed to remove these restrictions, it could lead to a serious security breach. Repairing permissions can reset the security to prevent unauthorized access. And that's why Apple says repairing permissions on a regular basis is a good idea. Any more questions? Great! Because you can find Q&A article on repairing permissions right here.

At $69, Apple's Bluetooth Mighty Mouse is not exactly the cheapest electronic rodent on the block. But if you're willing to open it up to make it more battery-efficient, this reduced power hack may be for you.

Ram, the mouse hacker, was playing with his Mighty Mouse when he noticed its LED came on and off on the bottom of the mouse. When the mouse was not in sync with a Mac, this LED would blink. Once sync'ed, the LED would go out if the mouse is in use. When the mouse is stationary, the LED would go on an stay on. He measured the power usage of the mouse and was proven right: The mouse seems to use less power when in use and the LED is off than when it's resting and the LED is on. Thinking like a hacker, RAM proceeded to devise a way to double battery life "depending on your mouse usage behavior."

He dismantled his Mighty Mouse to remove the pesky power-draining LED. "In the end the hack still saves some power but no where as near as what I was expecting," he says. It's your mouse (make sure it's yours) and if you want to wreck it turn it into an energy miser, well, consider this your warning. Proceed at your own risk! Click here for the how-to.

Eleven steps. That's what it takes to convert a Boot Camp install to Parallels. Eleven may come off as a small number, but the courageous colddiver, who made the successful transition, said the whole process was a "painful" one. Trading off the Boot Camp's partition for the virtualization offered by Parallels offers two major challenges: first, backing-up the Boot Camp partition and converting it into VM .hdd file; next, repairing your Windows install so that it can work under the significant hardware change.

If you feel like you can brave through the eleven steps - after all, reviews say that Parallels is indeed better than Boot Camp - then check out the steps here. If you think the process is too much of a hassle, you can always start from scratch in Parallels.

Don't you find it frustrating sometimes that the files that you need are well hidden from you view? Most especially if you're using a GUI program to open a Unix file? Although these editors have a "Open Hidden" function included, I think most of us would prefer to have everything be drag and drop.

Don't despair. This little show-all-files trick could be a very big help to ease you of your burdens. All you have to do is whip out Terminal and type, defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES and press Enter. The command will take effect once you relaunch Finder.

The downside to this trick is that, you guessed it, you get to see ALL of your files. Just make sure to inspect what a folder is holding before you delete it. Otherwise, you might end up losing very important data. If you want to revert to your previous settings, just open Terminal once more, repeat the command, but this time instead of YES type in NO, then press Return and relaunch Finder.

AirPort is a local area wireless networking system from Apple based on Wi-Fi and is certified as compatible with other 802.11b devices. Now of course, products from a major company would be costly. There is just no way around it. An AirPort Express Base Station would cost you $129.00, while it would be $70 more for the AirPort Extreme, add to that tab the AirPort Extreme card coming in at $79.00. You don't have to say it. A hefty price tag, I know.

Thankfully, there are daredevils like Mark Hoekstra from Geek Technique, that is willing to go the extra mile to look for cheaper alternatives. In this tutorial that he made, all that you need is a Lucent WaveLAN Orinoco Silver card and a lot of patience.

Those that want to try this how-to, just make a note that Mark's iBook is a dual-USB with 600MHz G3 and 384MB with a modified keyboard. Now that you have the bulk of what you need, let's get to it.

This would be the first of the things to go in your card. Remove the black plastic from the card. According to Mark, he wanted to do it with care but unfortunately, the only way to remove it is to pry it open.

Check out the rest of the steps after the jump!

Widgets are fun but were designed to be functional. Now, if you're like most Apple People (the one's who are not widget pack rats, anyway), you probably install the widget first before running it to see if it is something that serves your need. If the answer is no, you go through the uninstall process, unless you don't mind sifting through a sea of widgets on your Dashboard to find the one that you need.

Did you know you can test a widget without installing and uninstalling it? Yes, you can! And here's how. When the widget installer window loads, press and hold Command and Option. This changes the Install button to a Run button:

Hit the Run button and you can use the widget the same way as the "installed" widgets. You can modify settings, move it, view its output plus it appears on the Dashboard and its directory. However, when you close it, the widget wonÂ?t add to clutter your Dashboard bar because it's not there! Just one of those little-known tricks that can make a big difference!

No, you won't be able to run Xbox 360 games on your Mac - yet. However, this little hack may be handy if your XBox and your cable modem are in separate rooms,  and you don't want to shell out $100 for a wireless adapter.

Step 1:  turn off your Xbox 360 and connect a standard ethernet crossover cable from the network port of the 360 to the ethernet port on your Mac. On the Mac, go to System Preferences>Sharing.  Click the "Internet" tab.  On the "Share your connection from..." drop-down, select AirPort. Check Built-in Ethernet on the box underneath, then press 'Start'. You will get a cautionary dialogue box; accept it. Your window should look like this:

Step 2:  Turn on your 360, go to the dahboard and navigate to the System pane. Select "Network Settings" and then "Edit Settings". Change IP settings to Manual. Back in OS X, enter Terminal and type, without quotes: "ifconfig en0". The first IP address, which is probably 192.168.2.1, is your Gateway address.  Enter this on your Xbox. For IP address, enter 192.168.2.2, and 255.255.255.0 for the Subnet Mask.

Step 3: Save your settings on your Xbox 360. It  may automatically test the new connection; ignore this, because it will fail. Go back into the settings menu and this time choose DNS Settings, making this manual as well. Next, you'll need to go back into Terminal and type in "dig" (again, without quotes) and press enter. At the bottom of the results you will find a line saying "SERVER:" (see below). The IP address following (underlined below) is your Primary DNS server, so enter that into your Xbox. Don't enter anything under Secondary DNS server.

In Network Settings on the Dashboard, select "Test Xbox Live Connection". You should now be able to connect to Xbox Live.

Multifunctional. That is one characteristic that we are all looking for when considering buying any kind of device or gadget. And let's face it, it's a major selling point if a product can do a variety of things instead of just one. I think Apple has this in mind when they designed their power adapter (some refer to it as power adapter duck) for the iBook.

Rougemonk, in one of his "mental driftings", had made a realization on the potential of it being a sort of universal adapter for all your laptop needs. The design allows you to just replace the plug itself with any of their other travel adapters. This is also works vice versa. You can take the plug and insert it into your standard charger, eliminating the need for other cords. Now, you have more room for other important things. So you can say goodbye to all that bulk now. Buhbye.

Just take note that this is grounded on the the power supply's ability to convert power on its own. You can check by reading the underside of the unit. It should read, AC Input: 100-240V~50-60Hz.