They may have cooled down appreciably since the PowerBook G4 days (a.k.a., "I wasn't planning on a family, anyway"), but Apple's laptops still get fairly warm, a factor which can lead to crashes and other faulty system behavior.

An article on the mighty MacFixIt offers the following solutions to the problem:

-Use Activity Monitor: This tool can be found in the /Applications/Utilities folder and allows users to show down idle tasks or functions that are using an inordinately large percentage of processor capacity.

Per one reader's testimonial:

"I've noticed that Safari can hog the CPU. Sometimes my laptops’ fans will spin up when I am doing nothing more than surfing the web. Activity monitor will report very high CPU usage of Safari. I've found that this may be more of a problem when I have multiple Safari tabs open. [...] Closing safari has helped me."

-The Cutting Board Technique: One reader reported that a standard cutting board provided an open environment that wasn't crowded or packed in an insulating environment (such as on a bed or against clothes). Doug Eldred offered the following advice:

"One of the easiest, cheapest ways to cool a laptop is to place a similar-sized cutting board beneath it. Mine is transparent plastic with a mottled surface, and the little rubber feet that keep it above your counter just about line up with the MacBook's feet. Or, almost any piece of wood/plastic that's the right size plus a few of the small plastic or fibrous 'bumpers' like you'd put on a cabinet door will work for a DIY approach."

If you've found a laptop surface that works well for you, let us know over in the comments or forums.