Ok, as I suspected, the error is not with the machine, but with the operator.
On a Mac, the magic re-boot keys are: ctrl-apple key-power key. That re-boots it. If you are using Leopard, you should be running “Time Machine”, and after the re-boot you can go right back to what you were working on.
It sounds like you don’t like your Mac, and your Mac knows it!! ;) <denotes wry, joshing tone.
Dislike is probably too kind of word. I have no desire to be part of the “Mac Community” and not needing a computer to make me feel superior to others I do just fine with PCs. They just work and work simply in an intuitive way. Unlike the re-learn everything you’ve ever known about a computer Macs.
I also don’t go to Starbucks, I drive a Chevy, shop at Wally world and Target, do not own a pair of Birkenstocks or a designer dog and I am a happy meat eating, Midwestern, conservative heterosexual, i.e., not your typical Mac owner.
And just for the record my Mac keyboard does not have any key designated as a “Power” key. I guess you have to be a member of the Mac inner circle to be told which key is the power key. Again on a PC it is the very well defined control/alt/delete which are all clearly marked as such.