Have I told you lately that I love you?

You make me happy, you keep me safe, you look so hot and sleek. I just adore you!

I’m, uh, talking about my computer. More specifically, my operating system, Mac OSX Leopard.

Yes, I know it’s been out for close to a year now and everyone else has already gotten over that first flush of a new love. I thought I had, as well. Just as I had begun to take Mac for granted, he saved me. He’s my hero.

OK, so I took a little time on my break to day to go through my contacts on my iPhone. For some reason, I had a bunch of duplicates and really wanted to clean things up. Everything looked good until I got home and woke up the iMac. It began to sync with MobileMe and up popped a warning that syncing the address book would result in X number of changes. No problem, I thought. I knew I had nuked a lot of stuff and let the sync continue. Then, I looked at my address book.

Five?

Five contacts?

Oh. Crap.

I nuked about a hundred contacts. Oh. Crap.

Now, this was the first “oh crap” moment I’ve had since I switched from Windows about a year ago. As such, I still hadn’t really had the occasion to change my behavior when a problem arose. My first thought (after panicking) was, “OK, looks like I’ll be on the phone with customer support for a while.” And then the “aha” moment came.

Time Machine! Praise Bob, I have Time Machine!

Honestly, I was never very conscientious about backing up my data. And it turns out that I am probably exactly who Apple had in mind with this feature. Set it and forget it. All you have to do is remember that you have it before you freak out like I did. Two clicks - one to open Time Machine and one to choose your restoral option. That’s it.

This kind of stuff is what turns Apple customers into fans. Rabid, annoying fans.

With systems that work.