Like you, I am watching the drama unfold about the biggest bail-out in the history of the world. We are gonna print up a bunch of money and buy up all those bad mortgages so the guys that made those bad mortgages don’t go out of business and drag down the entire economy. The theory is that unless we do this, the credit markets will dry up, businesses and individuals will not be able to borrow money, your credit card line of credit will disappear, your home equity loan will disappear, businesses will be forced to cut back or close, unemployment will rise and we will find ourselves in a downward spiral that will cause a lot of pain.

The problem is that no one knows whether this particular bailout will work and the same guys that got us into this mess want to preserve their golden parachutes, obscene salaries and equity in these companies. The thing of it is that the plan calls for you and I to foot the bill. Throwing around numbers of $700 Billion or a Trillion like it was spare change hides the fact that this bailout amounts to about $10,000 for each family in the USA. If you stacked a Trillion in $20 bills, it would be about 150 miles high!

They’re saying, “hurry up–we gotta do this right now or something is going to hit the fan!” The last time I heard this from the Bush Administration it was “hurry up–we have to invade Iraq.” I find it strangely comforting that both the conservative Republicans and some Democrats are asking serious questions about this plan. It used to be that a conservative was someone who balanced the budget and was careful with spending. What we have seen for the last decade is decreased regulation of banks and wall street financial firms, bizarre financial instruments, nutty mortgages and huge corporate profits and executive compensation while we ship most of our wealth overseas to people who don’t particularly like us to buy their oil.

Frankly, I think that Al Gore has the right answer for the environment and for the economy. Instead of shipping our wealth out of the country, we need to launch the kind of ambitious and outrageous plan that only Americans can do to eliminate our dependence upon foreign oil, to create thousands of good paying jobs creating power from renewable energy sources and from a massive energy conservation and efficiency operation. If we do this, we create real wealth in our economy, real growth and solve environmental and economic problems simultaneously.

I have a lot of trouble mortgaging our economic future to provide more benefits for the top and none for the basis of our economy, the working people in our country. It is clearly time for new economic leadership, but it is also time for leadership that doesn’t rely upon the false promise of trickle-down economics and tax breaks for the wealthy.

*END SOAPBOX*

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_Dear Friends,_

Autumn is officially here, and the leaves are changing colors with some extraordinary bright red maple leaves–especially at the higher elevations. The political season is in full swing here, too. There are three major and a few minor candidates in the VT Gubernatorial race, and they are having several debates all around the state. It is somewhat unique in our very small state that virtually every citizen will have an opportunity to meet each candidate in person, and the debates center around these local issues.

The biggest issues are the state of the economy (just like anywhere else), energy, health care and transportation. We are faced with a decision in Vermont about relicensing our sole nuclear generator. It is past its design life and the owners want it to be licensed for another 20 years. The impact on electrical rates could be significant as it currently supplies about 1/3 of the state’s power; however, concerns about safety and long-term energy independence are driving the debate. Fortunately, while the stands on relicensing vary, all of the politicians see the need to develop renewable energy sources.

Last month (in K&B #582), I mentioned that the town clerk in Warren, VT picked up a new 80GB iPod and Griffin iTalk (to replace the old ones) in order to record their town meetings. I got a call from her recently regarding the battery life of the new iPod–it only lasted about 2 hours out of the 4-hour meeting. I did some research and it turns out that all of the newer microphones for iPods are battery hogs, and that 1-3 hours is the maximum time for the iPod battery (even though it is good for 30-hour playback).

I had the town clerk verify that the battery lasted about that long for playback and started researching a new solution. At first, I thought, “No problem, I’ll just use a Griffin TuneJuice,” which is a battery that hooks up to the 30-pin connector. But they kindly pointed out that wouldn’t work since the microphone already uses the dock connector. So, the ultimate solution was to change to the “Belkin TuneTalk”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/41254 which has a USB charging port on the bottom, and an “APC USB battery pack”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/71704 to add extra juice. Now the town can record their 4-5 hour meetings on the iPod by placing it in the middle of the table.

Grab the specials while on-hand supplies last. Please note that some specials may not be available in our retail stores; check for availability.

One of the great features in Mac OS X Leopard Server is the Wiki component that allows anyone to quickly and painlessly create a community-driven knowledge base for their organization, the public, or for themselves. We decided to create a Small Dog wiki, accessible only from our private networks and by our employees, to help bring consistent training to all new employees. Our Employee Handbook, Operations Manual, and Training Manual are all hosted by the wiki system of Mac OS X Server.

In creating the technical training manual, I found myself wanting high resolution images of icons found throughout the system, but I was limited to sizing them at 128 pixels by 128 pixels. When I tried to enlarge them, they became pixellated or blurry. I solved the problem by modifying the maximum icon size allowed by the system: 512 pixels by 512 pixels.

To do it, open up Terminal (Macintosh HD/Applications/Utilities/Terminal and type

defaults write com.apple.finder DesktopViewOptions -dict IconSize -integer 512

Press return.

Then, killall Finder

Press return.

After issuing the second command, you’ll notice that the desktop and all Finder windows will disappear and quickly reappear. Because icons appear in the Finder, modifications to preferences like this require the Finder to reboot. In my tip a few weeks ago (see the Tech Tails archives at www.smalldog.com/techtails) which detailed some hidden Dock features, it was also necessary to have the Dock process restart for changes to take effect.

If you have a MacBook Air or one of the newest MacBook Pros, you can use the Multi Touch trackpad built into your machine – just “reverse pinch” with two fingers on the trackpad, and you’ll see the icons get bigger and bigger. To insert these icons into my documentation, I would use the built-in screenshot features of OS X, and just drag the artwork into Pages, where I composed the copy.

At this size, it’s easy to see that the folders on your desktop are made from post consumer material! The default hard drive icon has a label on it, legible only at this huge size, that reads “Internal Hard Disk: Handle the hard drive carefully to avoid damaging the circuit board. Make sure you are properly grounded.” Sound advice.

__Note: I used this tip to resize the Terminal icon used in the article. It’s been scaled down to 170×170 to fit the newsletter, but the original 128×128 would have been too small!__

A few years ago, it was unusual for an average computer user to keep an external hard drive permanently connected to his or her computer. This has changed as people have become savvier about avoiding data loss, and as programs such as Apple’s Time Machine have simplified computer back up. Also, digital photos, songs, and movies gobble hard drive capacity, so many people require an external drive to store all their digital media.

The price of drives has dropped dramatically as their use has become widespread. There are now many reliable, worthwhile drives on the market. In some ways, it’s difficult for a drive to stand out in the crowded marketplace.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been using a 1TB EZQuest Thunder Pro A/V drive at work. I’m using it for external storage and as my Time Machine backup drive. It’s connected via FireWire 800 to a 24″ iMac with a 750GB internal hard drive. While EZQuest is not a well known brand, they have a very loyal user base, and Small Dog has successfully sold their products for years.

The Thunder Pro A/V is part of EZQuest’s new family of pro drives emphasizing reliability, near-silent operation, and very fast data transfer speed. It has a compact and attractive anodized-aluminum enclosure, and both looks and feels incredibly solid and well built. While it gets warm to the touch, it never gets hot. The case has a single FireWire port on the front, and has a USB 2.0 port, second FireWire 400 port, FireWire 800 port, and an eSATA port on the back.

As the name implies, the Thunder Pro A/V drive was designed with and for audio/video professionals who need immediate access to media on external drives. Data transfer rates of more than 34MB/sec are possible with the Thunder Pro A/V, making real-time editing and storage possible. The 500GB drive has 16MB cache, while the 1TB model has a generous 32MB cache.

Also, the drives have a 3-year warranty with a 48-hour turn around on all warranty repairs within the US.

I am very happy with my Thunder Pro drive here at work. While it’s designed for A/V pros, it’s ideal for anyone who frequently uses their computer and needs fast, reliable storage. The 1TB size nicely complements the latest iMacs for Time Machine and storage. The 500 GB size is ideal for Time Machine on laptops or machines with smaller internal drives, or for additional storage.

Right now we have them with free shipping, posted below. We sell less expensive consumer-level hard drives, but the EZQuest really is an excellent value for a pro drive.