I have a friend with an iBook G4 who is looking for a cheap backup option for her Mac running OS 10.4.  Money is tight, so getting 10.5 is not really an option (in addition to buy a backup drive etc, yes money is really that tight).

What suggestions can you offer for backups that's better than trying to remember to burn a CD once a month?


Question: Have I Been Misplaying France in Diplomacy?
Answer: It sounds to me like both games you've failed to negotiate an alliance with England.  That isn't necessarily your fault, but in order to concentrate on the Med you would need to at least be able to negotiate a neutral England, if not an entirely friendly one.

Some ideas you might want to try


It sounds like in both games you stumbled into an FG alliance that was not in a strong position.  You might do better if you attempted to negotiate the FG alliance from the start.  That way you can be directing the flow of the conflict, rather than reacting to it.
England is likely worried that in an EF alliance, F usually grows faster and is in a more solid position after taking down Germany, while E ends up overextended.  So you'll likely need to give him the better side of the split, and make it clear that you are committing to the South so that E knows he isn't the next target.  You can also make things easier by making sure that England has a good path to grow after the initial attack on Germany, which generally means you want a weak Russia.  At the same time, don't make yourself too inviting of a target for E.  Many alliances are broken due to people who are too trusting and make it too easy for their partner to stab.


The more you play Diplomacy, the more you realize that none of the countries are really better than the others, so don't get frustrated that you didn't get a good result while playing a "strong" country.  Focus on where your negotiations failed to bring the results you wanted, and try to improve on that in your next game.