So I was happy and secure in my Macintosh world yesterday, when I noticed that there was a small black box around anything I selected. Odd, but no big deal. I did some surfing and noticed an article in my CNet feed that looked cool. Followed the link and...

Safari crash.

I could go to other sites, but everytime I went to CNet Safari would crash. I decided to restart and noticed that the restart, sleep, and log off commands were duplicated in the Apple menu. The restart did not fix the problem. I then did all of that Mac stuff, PRAM, finder prefs, voodoo dolls, etc. No luck.

Now I start flailing at the problem. System re-install, no luck. I decided I could live with it. Never underestimate the power of denial. That didn't last long and the OCD in me kicked in so I started surfing. I found someone who reported the problem. It turned out to be Universal Access. Apparently if you press the Command F5 key, something called "speakable items" is turned on. It lets you work on a mac if you have no hands. Pretty cool, but it is pretty easy to press Command F5 by accident, but very difficult to press it a second time. If you ever notice a black box around selected items you now know what to do.

I wonder if Apple knows that "speakable items" crashes CNet.