Is it just us, or does one of the most popular words bouncing around Apple's hallways these days seem to be "oops"? The mistakes generally seem to be relatively minor things, like info about the ATI Radeon being posted to the UK Apple Store, or this whole "Pro Keyboards don't work fully on older systems" fracas, but we're starting to get the feeling that something's lacking in Apple's day-to-day routine-- be it communication, or discipline, or maybe enough caffeine to keep the guys in the trenches bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Web site slip-ups, in particular, seem to be all the rage these days.

Take, for example, the latest "oops" to issue forth from the folks running Apple's Tech Info Library. While we were too late to see it ourselves, faithful viewer James Ferguson tells us that the web lackeys accidentally posted an article explaining exactly how to bypass Mac OS 9's Multiple Users feature in the event that the administrator password gets lost. Visiting the URL now just produces a "Lotus Notes Exception - Entry not found in index" error, but we're told that even when it was publicly accessible, it was clearly labeled as meant for internal use only.

Even though that data was only made public for a short time, we have to assume that it's since been echoed in various places on the Web, just waiting for "interested parties" to dig it up. Which means that if you're relying on Multiple Users to prevent unauthorized access to your files, you should probably think about switching to Plan B. Then again, if you're paranoid enough to be worried about Apple's temporary leak of "How To Crack Multiple Users," you're probably also paranoid enough to be employing any number of other personal data security methods currently available-- in which case the point is moot anyway.

After this latest little web indiscretion, though, we wish we had the time and resources to hammer away at Apple's site twenty-four hours a day; we get the feeling that any number of interesting bits of information accidentally get posted, albeit temporarily, when they're supposed to be tucked safely behind the Silicon Curtain. Forget about Worker Bee posting trade secrets to a GeoCities account... the real dirt's all kicking around somewhere on apple.com. You just have to know where (and when) to look...