SPECIALS | 02/03/09 – 02/10/09

Ever wanted to know what the tech department at an Apple Specialist does all day? Well here you go… see the behind the scenes look on our blog:

“Barkings blog: Embedded With The South Burlington Service Department”:http://blog.smalldog.com/article/embedded-with-the-south-burlington-service-department/

Happy Tuesday,

We saw some significant snowfall around this time last week, and it’s great to finally see the entire region covered in snow. Tony and I couldn’t resist taking Friday off to snowmobile up in Island Pond, VT, just a few miles south of the Canadian border. Conditions were excellent, and, being a weekday and all, the trails were pretty empty for the 100 mile ride. I think Owen had as much fun as we did–he spent two whole days with Rebecca, intrepid Small Dog technician, consultant, and one of Owen’s very best friends.

I decided to take advantage of Microsoft’s offer of a free download of Windows 7 two weeks ago, and last night finally got around to installing it under Boot Camp on my MacBook Air. I haven’t made time yet to get to know it, but I’m going to give myself a chance to use it at home to get a better sense of the direction Windows is taking. It’s been a long time since I’ve spent any time with Windows, but immediately I was struck by the similarities between the new Windows 7 and the XP Professional I came to know in a past life. Next week I’ll share some more detailed impressions of that yet-to-be-released operating system.

Until then, thanks for reading and keep in touch.

Matt
“matt@smalldog.com”:mailto:matt@smalldog.com

After 12 Years of faithful service, we are replacing LetterRip Professional with a modified version of Mailman. The new software should be faster and more reliable, which means you should get Tech Tails quicker every week–or at all (win win!).

Make sure your new Mac has the latest version of iLife! As of now, all Macs from Small Dog will either have iLife ’09 pre-installed, a DVD insert of the upgrade, or be eligible for an instant $9.95 rebate.**

You can upgrade to iLife ’09 for $9.95 if you have a qualifying Mac with iLife ’08. The Up-To-Date Program ends March 28, 2009, and applies to Macs bought on or after January 6, 2009.

» “See all qualifying computer models here.”:http://images.smalldog.com/pdfs/ilife09_qualifying_macs.pdf

» “Download the iLife ’09 Up-To-Date form here.”:http://images.smalldog.com/rebates/ilife09_UTD_v2.pdf

Still have questions? Email us at “Sales@smalldog.com”:mailto:sales@smalldog.com or give us a call at 800-511-MACS; we’d be happy to assist you.

*Note that the $9.95 coupon applies only to the purchase of the following Mac (all other Macs include iLife ’09 in the box):*
“MacBook Air 1.6GHz 2GB/80GB”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/70760

» “iLife Retail Boxes are also in stock!”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/72885

__**The iLife Up-To-Date program (and subsequent coupon) is applicable for new Macs only; not valid for demo or used product.__

A 12-inch PowerBook G4 found its way to the Small Dog service facility in South Burlington this week. After upgrading from 10.4.11 to 10.5.4, Mail would no longer display the tens of thousands of e-mails archived there. While it shouldn’t be, it is still very surprising to me that so many computer users never ever back up their computers, even when their entire business depends on the data on their machines. This customer was lucky that it only took a good scare to get her backing up. It seems to me that most customers only back up their hard drives after catastrophe.

First step, as with most all software problems, was to ensure everything was up to date. Software Update in the Apple Menu took care of the 10.5.6 upgrade and a few more. After restarting, the problem persisted.

While it is almost always possible to come up with a solution by one’s self, it is almost always more efficient to ask Google if nothing immediately comes to mind. I did just that, and came up with the answer on Apple’s support discussions site, http://discussions.apple.com.

After quitting Mail, the key was to remove the Envelope Index File (~/Library/Mail/Envelope Index) from the user account. Then, the following was pasted into Terminal:
defaults remove com.apple.mail JunkMailBehaviorHasBeenConfigured
defaults remove com.apple.mail JunkMailHeaderFlags
defaults remove com.apple.mail JunkMailInfoPanelHasBeenShown
defaults remove com.apple.mail JunkViewerAttributes
defaults remove com.apple.mail LastTimeJunkWasVisited
defaults remove com.apple.mail NumberOfMessagesMarkedAsJunk
defaults remove com.apple.mail NumberOfMessagesMarkedAsNotJunk
defaults remove com.apple.mail UseJunkMailHeaderFlags

After pressing Return, I quit out of Terminal and launched Mail. The setup guide appeared, and following the instructions and answering questions logically, the mail database was re-imported – folders, rules, and all preferences intact.

Over the weekend, the Small Dog support e-mail box was flooded with the same two questions. “Is Google broken, or is my computer broken?” and “I thought Macs are immune to the crap out there on the Internet–what gives?”

Google was actually broken. Clicking on any search result would yield a message saying “This site may harm your computer.” Because it was impossible to click through, Google was for about forty minutes completely and utterly useless.

Google does a pretty good job of warning users of susceptible computers (Windows PCs) when they are about to navigate to a potentially harmful site. Not only does the company follow its own motto, “Don’t be evil,” it proactively works with a non profit called StopBadware.org to establish a list of confirmed malicious sites and prevent its users from being exposed to evil in the first place.

And yes–Macs are immune to the malware so common on Windows computers. Don’t worry!