K&B SPECIALS | 5/21/10 – 5/28/10

There has always been a high demand for Otterbox cases for the iPhone (3G and 3GS), a line we haven’t carried in the past. But our customers were persistent in letting us know it’s something they really wanted to see in our stores (and online). So, I am pleased to announce, Otterbox has landed!

Whether I am out on the floor with a customer, talking to a fellow employee or even at the local grocery store, people keep raving about their Otterbox cases for their iPhones. The line ranges from “$11.99”:http://www.smalldog.com/search/?find=impact to “$44.99.”:http://www.smalldog.com/search/?find=defender+iphone The great thing about the Otterbox cases for iPhone 3G/3GS is that although they offer a lot of protection, they don’t take away from any functions on the iPhone. All of the Otterbox cases for the iPhone include a screen protector.

* **Impact:**
This case offers a tough silicone protection that you don’t see from any other case. The great thing about silicone is that if you drop your iPhone in this case, the shock will be absorbed. Available in “White”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/76025/otterbox-impact-case-for-iphone-3g-3gs-white and “Black.”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/76026/otterbox-impact-case-for-iphone-3g-3gs-black *$11.99*

* **Commuter TL:**
You’ll get a bit more protection and style to the average iPhone case. There is a translucent polycarbonate shell that clips on over the silicon cover, offering double the coverage. This case allows you to take your iPhone in and out of your pocket or bag very easily. Available in: “Pink”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/76038/otterbox-commuter-tl-case-for-iphone-3g-3gs-pink, “Yellow”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/76039/otterbox-commuter-tl-case-for-iphone-3g-3gs-yellow, “Blue”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/76040/otterbox-commuter-tl-case-for-iphone-3g-3gs-blue, “White”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/76041/otterbox-commuter-tl-case-for-iphone-3g-3gs-white, “Black”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/76042/otterbox-commuter-tl-case-for-iphone-3g-3gs-black, “Red”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/76044/otterbox-commuter-tl-case-for-iphone-3g-3gs-red, and “Green.”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/76043/otterbox-commuter-tl-case-for-iphone-3g-3gs-green *$26.99*

* **Commuter:**
This case is the sleekest case in the line up. This is the customer (and employee!) favorite. It’s a tough, durable case but is still slim. You get three layers of protection with this case: the outer layer is smooth, but looks texturized, which again like the Commuter TL, is easy to take in and out of your pocket.
“Yellow/Black”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/76028/otterbox-commuter-case-for-iphone-3g-3gs-yellow-black, “Blue/Black”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/76029/otterbox-commuter-case-for-iphone-3g-3gs-blue-black, “White/Black”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/76030/otterbox-commuter-case-for-iphone-3g-3gs-white-black, “Black/Black”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/76031/otterbox-commuter-case-for-iphone-3g-3gs-black-black, “Green/Black”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/76032/otterbox-commuter-case-for-iphone-3g-3gs-green-black, “Gray/Black”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/76033/otterbox-commuter-case-for-iphone-3g-3gs-gray-black, and “Burgundy/Black.”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/76034/otterbox-commuter-case-for-iphone-3g-3gs-burgundy-black *$31.99*

* **Defender:**
With the Defender, you are getting pretty much the best protection you can for your iPhone. Even though there is a lot of protective material around the iPhone, it’s not as bulky you will think. This is the “tank” of iPhone cases and is your best bet against bumps, drops and scratches. It also a comes with a detachable belt clip holder.
“Yellow/Black”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/76004/otterbox-defender-case-for-iphone-3g-3gs-yellow-black, “Pink”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/76003/otterbox-defender-case-for-iphone-3g-3gs-pink, “White”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/76005/otterbox-defender-case-for-iphone-3g-3gs-white, and “Black.”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/76006/otterbox-defender-case-for-iphone-3g-3gs-black *$44.99*

**Even more exciting news!** Otterbox is making cases for the iPad! We hope to see them land in the very near future, but until then, we are taking pre-orders. Check the cases out “here!”:http://www.smalldog.com/search/?find=otterbox+for+ipad

I promise this is the last Norton update before we have pictures to share. It is off the lift and ready to get started. I hope that I can finish it off this weekend and then take it to Classic Bike Experience over in Essex, VT to have them check it over before I really put it on the road. I’m not a bad mechanic but it is always good to have someone look over your work, especially on fast motorcycles!

Thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

Your Kibbles & Bytes Team
_Don, Kali & Ed_

_Dear Friends,_

The annual spring conference for Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility was held on Tuesday this week and some of the most exciting businesses in Vermont gathered to hear both of our US Senators, Leahy and Sanders, address the group and then split into concurrent sessions.

I lead a panel on defining the “new Vermont economy” by discussing forward-thinking public policies for the next decades. I had experts on renewable energy, transportation, telecommunications and jobs on the panel. On Monday, VBSR gave our prestigious “Terry Ehrich Award”:http://vbsr.org/index.php/pages/event_detail/event_vbsr_2010_terry_ehrich_award_dinner/ to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield of Ben & Jerry’s on a wonderful sunset cruise on Lake Champlain.

This next week is the Vermont Business and Industry Expo and while we normally have a small booth, we decided this year to actually have a pavilion (which is really just a big booth) and invited a number of our vendor partners to join us for this expo.

Canon, Belkin, Adobe, 3M, NetGear, Promise Technology, Apple Government, XtremeMac, LaCie, Pearson, VMware and Chill Pill Audio are joining us for this important Vermont show. On Wednesday morning, the Deane C. Davis, outstanding Vermont Business of the Year is announced and we are very proud to be one of the three finalists for this award. The winner is always a surprise and we will not know until the time of the award when the Governor announces the company that has won.

I’ve recently spent a few hours cleaning up my iPhoto library. This included adding proper image titles, keywords, updating Places and Faces info, deleting duplicates (and redundant photos in general), as well as deleting albums, smart folders, and slideshows that have outlived their usefulness. Here are a few tricks I discovered that aren’t documented by Apple, and apparently little-known on the web.

Did you know know you can compare an edited photo to the unedited original? This only works in iPhoto’s Edit mode. In Edit mode, simply hold down the Shift key and you’ll see the photo in all its pure, unedited glory.

Also in Edit mode, it’s possible to quickly zoom in on a particular area of a photo. Simply hover your mouse pointer over the area of interest, and then press the *1* key to zoom to 100 percent in, or press the *2* key for a 200% view. Jump back to fit to view by pressing the *0* key.

Want to hide certain photos in your iPhoto library, but don’t want to actually delete them? Simply right-click (or Control-click) on the secret photos and select “Hide Photo” at the bottom of the list. If you want to see your hidden photos, select *View > Hidden Files* in the iPhoto menu bar.

I like Faces (though it’s not __always__ amazingly accurate) in iPhoto ’09. Did you know you can change a person’s Key Photo in Faces? This is the photo that shows on the Faces corkboard. To do this, open a photo of the person in Faces. Right-click on the image you want to be the key photo and choose “Make Key Photo.”

You can also scroll your mouse over the Key Photo in Face’s corkboard view, and while the photos are flipping through, click the space bar on the photo of your choice. That will be the person’s new Key Photo.

Here are some more tips about Faces, “from Macworld magazine.”:http://www.macworld.com/article/141746/2009/07/faces_tips.html

I also enjoy Places, iPhoto ’09’s geotagging feature. It’s fun to see my photos on a map. iPhone photos are automatically geotagged, but my other cameras lack a built-in geotagging tool. It’s easy to manually add this information to a photo, but it’s a chore to do this for a big batch of photos.

However, I discovered that it is possible to copy Places information from photo to photo. Simply select a photo that has been tagged with the correct information, right-click (or control-click) on it and choose “Copy” from the contextual menu. Now select your batch of untagged photos, right-click (or control click) on them, and choose “Paste Location.” Now they all share the same location information.

When you delete a photo from your iPhoto library, it goes into iPhoto’s trash. This gives you a margin for error if you accidentally delete a photo. Over time, iPhoto’s trash can fill up with hundreds or even thousands of photos, stealing gigabytes of space from your hard drive. To see the contents of iPhoto’s trash, click on the trash can icon in the left panel of the iPhoto interface. In iPhoto 09, it’s under the “Recent” header. To empty the trash, click on *iPhoto > Empty iPhoto Trash* in iPhoto’s menu bar at the top of the screen.

*START SOAPBOX*

I am watching the huge BP oil spill on the news every day. I am not happy with the cavalier attitude of BP and the US Coast Guard in controlling the flow of information, much less controlling the flow of oil. The environmental devastation is compounded by the enormous economic devastation that will follow due to the damage to the fishing and tourist industry. But to see the thick oil ruining the fragile wetlands, entering the loop current that may spread the contamination to Florida and up the eastern coast of the USA is horrible.

BP seems to be hiding the true extent of the damage by severely underestimating the amount of oil flowing out of their damaged well and back-stepping on their responsibility to pay for the clean-up effort. I am shocked that the US Coast Guard appears to be complicit in this cover-up. Underwater plumes of oil and soiled beaches are just one aspect of this disaster. It will become more and more visible as the oil begins to wash ashore but the enormous amount of oil spilling is toxic to ocean life and the environmental disaster will take decades to recover.

With one side chanting “drill, baby, drill” and the President capitulating by opening more areas for drilling, I would think that this disaster would have people reconsidering our energy future. While this is an enormous amount of oil, it is a small portion of the oil consumed each day. We are sucking our planet dry of a non-renewable resource and we will soon simply be out of oil. The implications of more drilling are more danger and more environmental damage both in our oceans and in our air from CO2 emissions.

Oil is poisonous to fish, and with the recent report from the UNEP that warns of fish-less oceans by 2050 which states that unless fishing fleets are slashed and protection zones are established, we should all be very concerned about the death of our oceans.

The alternative is to exercise more foresight and prepare our country for a future based upon conservation, efficiency and renewable energy sources. Making this transition will not happen overnight as it takes time to install wind farms and photovoltaic generating sources. There are environmental considerations with any source of energy, but at least when a wind turbine fails, it doesn’t take the environmental toll in the form of an oil well spewing precious oil into the ocean.

The low-hanging fruit in the solution of the problem of oil addiction is conservation and efficiency. Here in Vermont we have an efficiency utility that literally buys the energy we do not use through more efficient appliances, lighting, heating and cooling. The energy we do not use is the safest and most economical of all energy sources. We have a lot of room to gain energy independence simply by subsidizing energy conservation and efficiency measures.

Many people already use compact florescent lights now, and while they do contain a small amount of mercury, the move to LED lighting will not only save energy (they consume a fraction of the energy), but also are safe. It will take mass production and a boost from subsidies and incentives to really launch that industry, although there was a whole floor of LED lighting vendors at the trade show I recently attended in Hong Kong.

For many, many years the oil industry has enjoyed massive government subsidies that encouraged the exploitation of this resource from oil depletion allowances to below-value oil leases. It is time to put that type of massive effort behind the development and deployment of renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, biomass, geothermal and hydro.

Coupled with a real commitment to energy conservation and efficiency, we can buy the time to wean ourselves from oil and preserve that resource for more important uses than burning it in internal combustion engines.

The scale of the environmental disaster in the Gulf is massive and should serve as a wake-up call to really take action to prepare for the day when an economy based upon oil is no longer possible.

*END SOAPBOX*

Want to weigh in? “Post your comment on our blog here!”:http://blog.smalldog.com/article/blow-shine-flow-conserve-but-don-t-drill-baby/