[whpalmer4]

Originally Posted by Ricochet

I watch this Apple application called "Activity Monitor" to monitor my memory usage and how much disappears and how fast. It is divided into Five sections: Free, Wired, Active, Inactive and Used. The wired remains a constant because I have a Bluetooth Wireless connection for my system.

"Wired" in this context has nothing to do with networking: it refers to memory used by the operating system and not available to user programs.

The "Active" and the "Inactive" fluctuates. But at times the more and more memory simply disappears into the "Inactive" category.

Yes, that's what you would expect. It doesn't mean that the memory doesn't work, just that the running programs aren't referencing as many different locations as they were. For example, if you launched a photo editor and had it put up many photographs on your screen, then decided to edit just one of them, the photo editor would initially use a lot of memory, but might not actively use all of it once you focused on one image. You would see the active memory use drop, and inactive memory would grow, and once you quit the photo editor, free would grow.

When the combined demand for memory by all of the running applications exceeds the physical memory installed, the operating system copies the contents of some of the least recently used memory to the disk and juggles frantically to allow you to get 10 lbs of natural fertilizer in a 5 lb sack. You might think of it as an office where there are more people than desks, but the people take frequent breaks, and the office manager clears off your desk when you get up, puts the stuff in a file cabinet, and allows someone else to use the now vacant desk. When you come back, you may get your old desk back, or a different one, but the same stuff will be on it, just as you left it.