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It’s time again for Small Dog’s Annual Halloween Costume Contest. This is where we dress up in ridiculous and creative costumes, and you vote on your favorite. We’ll pick a voter at random to win a $50 Small Dog gift certificate! Voting continues until Sunday night at midnight.

You can see our costumes on the blog “by clicking here”:http://blog.smalldog.com/article/1396/halloween-contest-view-costumes-and-vote/ Follow the link from the blog to vote on “Smalldog.com”:http://www.smalldog.com/

Visit our Flickr page to see lots of behind the scenes photos “by clicking here.”:http://www.flickr.com/photos/smalldog/sets/72157608534711170/

*Start Soapbox*

Election Day is Tuesday and I encourage all of you to get out to vote. It matters less who you vote for than it does that you take the time to go to the polls. I couldn’t wait, so I cast my vote early this week at the town hall. There are never any lines in Warren, Vermont, but I am so excited about this election that I had to vote now. In typical small-town fashion, I walked into the office and was greeted by long time town clerk Rita Goss, and told her I wanted to vote. She gave me a form to fill out and instructed me to put my name in and sign because she knew all the rest of my information. I guess that comes from sinking deep roots in town–I’ve been voting there for 35 years.

While the big news is the presidential election and I do not want to underestimate the importance of that choice, it is perhaps even more important to inform yourself about the other candidates for state and local elections. It is these folks who will have the most direct impact upon your life and will prove that all politics are local. Here in Vermont, we have strong third party candidates from the Progressives and Liberty Union parties as well as the candidates from the Democrats and Republicans. I vote for all of them at one time or another, and I suppose that’s why I’m still on the Republican’s mailing list. I’m a bit of a wonk so I listen to candidates’ debates, inform myself about their positions on important issues and I take all of my votes very seriously–even for dog catcher (actually, __especially__ for dog-catcher!).

Your vote always matters; it matters to you because you have taken on the responsibility of citizenship and expressed your opinion in the ultimate opinion poll–the election of your leaders. This is a responsibility that is sacred, that many have fought and died for, and something that cannot be dismissed as “unimportant and meaningless.” We have many responsibilities as members of society, but the most significant is our responsibility to vote. *Please VOTE!*

End Soapbox

In OS 9 it was possible to create a “desktop printer,” which made printing as easy as dragging and dropping a file onto a printer icon. The advantage was that you didn’t have to launch an application to open a file before printing it. Fortunately, it’s easy to create a desktop printer in OS X. You can also create a printer droplet that you can keep in your dock for convenient printing.

To do this, launch System Preferences (under the Apple in the upper left corner of your Mac’s screen) and click on “Print and Fax.” In the left pane of this window, you’ll see the printers you’ve installed on your Mac. Drag the icon of the printer from the left pane and drop it on your desktop. The printer icon should appear on the desktop. Drag any file you’d like to print and drop it on this icon–as long as your printer is turned on, the file will print.

You can also drag that icon into your dock. Again, simply drag and drop any file you’d like to print on the icon in the dock for speedy printing. Note that once you drag the printer icon into your dock, you can then get rid of the icon on the desktop by dragging it to the trash. You’ll still be able to use the printer icon droplet in the dock.

__Note: This tip was tested in OS 10.5; feel free to let me know if this works for you in other versions!__

The Chill Pill is here! The Chill Pill is a pocket-sized, self-contained capsule that transforms into two powered speakers. For a limited time, buy the Chill Pill and AC adapter at the same time and save $10.00. The AC adapter will also charge iPods with a dock connector or any iPod when used with an iPod USB cable “(click here to see this cable)”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/34045.

Can’t wait until the election is over? Well, me either. All the excitement and intensity is starting to take its toll!

I’m very excited for Election Day to come, and I am planning to volunteer at Montpelier’s City Clerk’s office on Tuesday as part of Small Dog’s Volunteerism Initiative. Each employee is encouraged to take a paid day off to work to volunteer and perform community service. I figured that the election is the biggest national event this year, and it would be a great day to help out and be part of the process!

Count down these last couple days with the Election 2008 Countdown Widget. See you on the other side! __Note: Requires 10.4+__

“Download here!”:http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/justforfun/election2008countdown.html

Want to know more about Small Dog’s programs and initiatives? Click here:
“Smalldog.com/about”:http://www.smalldog.com/about

This week, Mac OS X v.10.5 “Leopard” turned a year old. It was a slightly rocky launch, but Leopard introduced us to 300+ new features from its predecessor, 10.4, Tiger.

“See all 300 new features here.”:http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/300.html

In honor of Leopard’s birthday, we’ve been posting some of our favorite Leopard-specific tips and tricks on “our blog”:http://blog.smalldog.com. There are way too many to list here, so if you’re interested, check them out. We’ll be posting our Leopard faves through next week.