SPECIALS | 01/23/09 – 01/30/09

Times are tight right now, but Small Dog Electronics vows to make this a productive and successful year.

We are hoping to expand soon with new retail locations, and Don was recently interviewed by the Burlington Free Press about our plans for the future.

“Read the whole article here!”:http://burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20090119/BUSINESS/90118012&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL

*At right: Don photographed in our South Burlington store last week.*
__Photo credit: Glenn Russell, Burlington Free Press__

I use Apple’s Safari web browser almost every single day. I like it and I depend on it. Thus I was alarmed to read that “Brian Mastenbrook recently discovered”:http://brian.mastenbrook.net/display/27 that Safari’s RSS reader is “vulnerable to an attack that allows a malicious web site to read files on a user’s hard drive without user intervention.”

Apparently this can be used “to gain access to sensitive information stored on the user’s computer, such as emails, passwords, or cookies that could be used to gain access to the user’s accounts on some web sites.”

Mastenbrook notes that this vulnerability has been acknowledged by Apple. It affects Safari in Leopard and in Windows, but apparently does not affect people using Tiger.

Originally, it seemed that the solution was very simple: change your default RSS reader from Safari to another RSS application in Safari’s preferences. However, Mastenbrook’s further research showed that this does not completely disassociate Safari all RSS feeds.

To work around this issue until a fix is released by Apple, Mastenbrook suggests the following steps. Note that I was able to easily do this on all of my Macs.

1. Download and install the “RCDefaultApp”:http://www.rubicode.com/Software/RCDefaultApp/ preference pane, which you can get “by clicking here.”:http://www.rubicode.com/Software/RCDefaultApp/

2. This installs into your Mac’s system preferences. Open your Mac’s system preferences by clicking on the Apple in the upper left corner of your Mac’s screen and choosing “System Preferences”.

3. Click on the the Default Applications option.

4. Select the “URLs” tab at the top of the window that opens. Now choose the “feed” URL type from the column on the left, and choose a different application (such as “NetNewsWire”:http://www.newsgator.com/INDIVIDUALS/NETNEWSWIRE/ or “NewsFire”:http://www.newsfirerss.com/ which is my preferred desktop RSS app. You can also choose Mail in Leopard, which has an RSS reader and is not affected by the issue.).

5. Repeat the previous step for the “feeds” and “feedsearch” URL types. Note that you don’t need to set a different app for these options; I chose the “” option here.

There is no easy workaround for Windows Safari users at this time except to use a different browser for the time being.

On my computer, I’ve performed the above steps with no difference in Safari’s performance. I’m sure Apple is working on a patch to be released ASAP.

“Read the original report by clicking here.”:http://brian.mastenbrook.net/display/27

It’s extremely unlikely that a Safari user would be affected by this. However, it’s almost always better to be safe than sorry. Thank you to Brian Mastenbrook for discovering this issue!

Apple quietly changed the specs of the entry-level white MacBook this week. The upside is that it now ships with 2GB of RAM (instead of 1GB), and features NVIDIA 9400M integrated graphics with 256MB of shared DDR2 SDRAM; an improvement over the previous Intel GMA X3100 graphics card.

The downside about the new machine is that it now ships with a 2.0GHz processor (instead of the previous 2.1). However, the frontside bus on the new MacBooks has been boosted from 866 MHz to 1066 MHz. That should more than make up for the processor “downgrade.”

The price is unchanged at $999.99, the standard drive remains 120GB, and there is now an option to upgrade to a 320GB drive. The new MacBooks ship with iLife ’09 installed.

Some will grumble about the downgrade of a 2.0 GHz processor from a 2.1 processor, but in my opinion, the much improved graphics, faster bus, and doubled RAM more than make up for it. Indeed, the faster bus should negate the processor difference.
Also, I would much rather have the NVIDIA 9400M graphics over the Intel GMA X3100 graphics.

We are accepting pre-orders now, with deliveries expected next week. See the new machine “by clicking here.”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/73058

I am getting way too excited about my upcoming trip to Tanzania. Normally, I am a last minute packer which infuriates Grace. She likes to pack weeks in advance, while I will just throw some stuff in a suitcase at the last minute. This time, I have been gathering cameras, spare batteries and figuring out how to “pack light” for the trip of a lifetime.

Thanks for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

Your Kibbles & Bytes team,
_Don, Kali & Ed_

To celebrate the Mac’s 25th anniversary, we’re offering an additional 10% off all items on clearance for one week only. Most of these items have already been steeply marked down, with some listed below cost.

You can see “all clearance items by clicking here.”:http://www.smalldog.com/category/x/x/x/Clearance

We have iPod accessories, hard drives (including premium Glyph and G-Tech drives), books, notebook cases, software, games, Mac parts and much more listed.

To get the additional 10% off, simply add any clearance items to your cart and then enter coupon code *10percent* in the shopping cart.

_Dear Friends,_

It is snowing out and the temperatures have warmed up from well below zero for a couple days. We have a Siberian air mass headed our way with the severe cold coming back this weekend. Things just seem to break when it gets this cold for an extended period of time.

On Monday when it was -25 here at the office, we had a series of weather-related failures. The hot water stopped working until I found a portable heater to put in the closet where the instantaneous hot water heater was located to thaw out the pipes. Grace’s car just stopped working and was left stranded in a cell-phone dead zone. Worst of all, the furnace failed in the warehouse and the crew down there tried to put up a brave face and continue working as the temperatures dipped but ultimately we had to give up our conference room for Mac repairs.

The cold weather does make for interesting noises from the crunch of the cold snow beneath your feet to the creaking of the house as it contracts and expands from the cold outside and the heat inside. The roads tend to be more slippery during very cold weather because road salt doesn’t work at those temps. Fan Tail likes the cold and snow and she will just roll around in it and run on the trails from our snowshoes. On the other hand, Hammerhead needs to be coaxed to even step one paw out the door.

It has been a historic week. We had the inauguration playing on many of the Macs in our offices and stores, and pretty much everything stopped as we watched the 44th President of the USA inaugurated in front of a couple million friends. It is simply amazing and encouraging to realize that just 40 years ago we were working for basic civil rights in voting, housing and schools, and that less than 150 years ago, slavery was still common. In 1977, when Vermont was still a sovereign country, our state constitution outlawed slavery, becoming the first country to do so and later, the first state to outlaw it altogether. We now we have an African-American President of the USA. I was so proud to be an American, so proud of my country, and so proud of my President.