Do you remember this commercial? "Yo. Technology boy." … (smile) "That's a really nice computer!"

When I moved to my new laptop (a week or two ago), I got the smallest hard disk available, which is about triple what my old laptop had. To set it up, I considered using the user and file transfer thing that comes with a Mac. I highly recommend that, because it's easy, plus automatic, plus effective, which equals magical. But in my case, I had messed with the guts of my old laptop too much, and the thought of bringing that mess with me didn't feel good. So I schlepped all the files I thought I needed over my work's wireless network into a single folder called Inbox.

Let me tell you about an inbox. <-- There, I wrote an article about it.

Since that one file-copying step, I have been using my computer normally, and now and again I take something out of the inbox and put it where it belongs. A few days ago I did my photo library, for instance. It has been the fastest, cleanest move from one computer to another I've ever done.

By the way, my Inbox folder has a custom icon. I used the icon from a Mail.app mailbox file. In OS X it's easy to do this, but you'd never guess: Get Info on a file that has the icon you like, click the icon in the upper-left of the window so that it highlights in blue, and Copy. Then Get Info on a file or folder whose icon you want to set, click the icon, and Paste. This is also a great way to pull a quick prank on someone.