Author: Mike Moffit

Director of IT

  • SPECIAL | Keep Your Electronics Clean

    The Monster CleanTouch Pen is the most effective and convenient way to keep your PDA or smartphone clean and free of fingerprints, oils, and smudges. It not only cleans, but leaves a microthin coating to resist fingerprint buildup. The CleanTouch Pen also features an integrated cleaning cloth and a bonus Monster Clean Cloth with antimicrobial protection by AEGIS.

    Act now to save 50% off the original retail price and start giving your touchscreen device the love it deserve.

  • REVIEW: Easily Remove The Background From Your Images

    There’s a pretty cool website out there that some of you photo junkies might want to check out. The site allows you to easily remove the background from your photos to create masks, cutout or clipping paths without the knowledge of knowing how to use Photoshop or having Photoshop itself.

    The website is Clippingmagic.com and it works like so: Simply upload your image, then mark it using green (for the foreground) and red (for the background) and boom! You will have your isolated image.

    I wanted to give this a try, so I used a photo of Waitsfield pup Maya, laying on a busy rug. I marked her with green and marked the rug with red. The result was OK — a little choppy around her long fur, but it wasn’t horrible. I did read on their site that “hair and other partially transparent things such as veils or sheer clothes are not currently handled. This leads to bob-ish “cropped hairstyles in the result.” Something to keep in mind…

    I wanted to try one more, so I used a photo of a MacBook Air sitting on a table — something that I knew would be a little easier to isolate. It produced a much better result than the shaggy dog I tried before. This process works better if your subject is on a fairly simple background (i.e. a person standing against a one color wall).

    The bottom line is that you can remove the background from a photo in Photoshop, but not everyone has that software or knows how to use it. This is a great fast and easy solution for people who might want to isolate the subject of a certain photo (bloggers, take note!).

    This site only works with Google Chrome and Firefox at the moment (sorry, Safari users). Hop on one of those browsers and give it a try!

  • Your Order History Gets A Makeover

    Our IT department has been hard at work over the past month (not that they ever stop working hard) making improvements to our website. Their main goal has been to make it easier for our online customers to shop and for our local shoppers to have access to their records.

    We’re happy to announce that “*Smalldog.com*”:http://www.smalldog.com/ has a revamped Order History system.

    Order History 2.0 (not its official name, but it’s fun to say it) includes a lot more info then the old one ever did. It can show you all of your orders, regardless of the source. For example, if you purchased something from our retail store and from our phone sales team, you will see both of them on your account page. This means that your order history is complete. Our old system was unable to display anything other than web orders.

    Another nice thing to note is how you can easily click a link to take a survey about your experience for each purchase you make. Of course, this is less important for web orders (though if something is incorrect we hope you will let us know), but for phone and retail orders where you are interacting with a real person, we love to hear how it all went.

    If you chose a method that ships with UPS, you can see the tracking history of the package. I don’t do a lot of online shopping, but when I do, I find that none of the websites can track shipping from my account page. I always end up going to UPS or FedEx’s website where I enter my tracking number to get what I want. Not super annoying, but having this feature on our site just makes it that much more convenient than all of the competitor sites out there.

    Stay tuned for more improvements, as we’ll be rolling out new features throughout the rest of the summer. I hope every likes this upgrade as much as we do — we really see it helping out our customers’ online shopping experiences in the long run. Also, if you have any comments on the new system, let us know!

  • MAC TREAT #208: Disable Notification Center

    Back in March, Apple issued their update to the latest OS, and one very convenient thing about Mountain Lion is that the Notification Center will tell you that there are software updates available.

    This can be both convenient and annoying if you are like me and don’t like to run your updates the second they’re available. (Just in case there are any bugs in the system that didn’t get worked out!) For me, that means I swipe to hide the notification and then, 10 minutes later, it is back.

    I have been really lazy about my updates, so I have been swiping to ignore that notification since March and frankly, enough is enough. I should have just run the update to get rid of the notification, but instead, I found a way to disable Notification Center. The process is super simple and not permanent at all.

    Hold down the option key and click on the Notification Center icon in the top right of the screen. This will make the icon turn grey to indicate that it is disabled. If you want it back, simply repeat the process. I have also noticed that if you close the lid to your laptop and reopen it, the Notification Center will be reenabled regardless of how you left it.

    I hope you all find this quick Mac Treat as useful and stress-relieving as I have. Enjoy.

  • _Dear Friends,_

    Seems like I have been on the road a lot lately with visits to Cupertino and then Philly for the Apple Specialists conference last week. It was great to touch base with the other Apple Specialists and Apple folks as we enter “Dads and Grads” season.

    One of the most exciting pieces of news is that just in time for summer, we are launching a new consumer finance program. This new program, which begins on June 1st, provides no-interest financing for 6 months, 12 months or 18 months depending upon the amount on your invoice. Each sale must include an iPad or a Mac, but you can put accessories, services or anything else on that invoice as well. You must pay off the loan at the end of the term or you will be charged interest, but this is a great way to get that iPad or Mac and have plenty of time to figure out how to pay for it.

    We will have all the applications and details at our stores and on our website very soon, but this is an exclusive program for Apple Specialists and I believe that it provides a great opportunity to get that new iPad or Mac.  

    We were exhibiting at the Vermont Business and Industry Expo and Rob Amon put together a fantastic “technology pavilion” with our partners from Canon, Seagate, Burlington Bank Card (iPad POS), “*Mac Practice,*”:http://blog.smalldog.com/article/macpractice-your-resource-for-healthcare-office-management/ Daylite CRM, and “*Green Mountain Software*”:http://blog.smalldog.com/article/green-mountain-software-can-write-an-app-for-that/, plus we found out early yesterday that our booth won “best of show” — and that is always welcome news to the dog lovers here at Small Dog.

    As we head into the Memorial Day weekend, it is important to remember this is not just a holiday that marks the unofficial start of summer. Memorial Day is celebrated to honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our freedom. While the parades and celebrations are tributes to the brave men and women who have fought to protect us from tyranny, a lasting and real commitment to peace is the highest honor we can pay to soldiers. In these dangerous times, it is more important than ever to honor those who are on duty right now sacrificing so that we can enjoy a free society. We may not all agree with the policies that have put our sons and daughters in harm’s way, but honoring their service, sacrifice, and commitment is the duty of all citizens.

    bq. “We must be prepared to make heroic sacrifices for the cause of peace that we make ungrudgingly for the cause of war. There is no task that is more important or closer to my heart.” – Albert Einstein

    As I head out for my traditional motorcycle ride to Maine (hopefully dodging the rain), I always enjoy the unscheduled stops in little New England towns as we wait for the Memorial Day parade to pass.

  • SPECIAL | Two Devices In One

    Apple’s Time Capsule combines your external hard drive for backups and your wireless router into one convenient device. Now you don’t have to worry about multiple power cords, misplacing the data cable or accidentally damaging your external while in transit.

    Back up a lifetime’s worth of memories with Time Capsule, a wireless hard drive that works seamlessly with Time Machine in Mac OS X Leopard and up. It’s also a full-featured 802.11n Wi-Fi base station with simultaneous dual-band support.

    Order your very own 2TB Time Capsule and it will ship free this week only.

  • MacPractice: Your Resource for Healthcare Office Management

    Are you a healthcare professional and an Apple fan? Did you know there’s an Apple solution to manage your healthcare business? You can enjoy the same Apple quality, reliability, and ease of use in your practice as you do at home.

    Small Dog Electronics is now partnering with MacPractice, Inc., the oldest and largest developer of healthcare practice management and clinical records systems based exclusively on the Apple platform. MacPractice products are designed to leverage the powerful features of Apple’s latest versions of OS X and iOS.

    All MacPractice products provide robust yet easy-to-use patient Accounting, Reporting, and Scheduling functions. Also, MacPractice MD, DC, DDS and 20/20 are all “ONC-ATCB Certified Complete EHRs” which means if you are an Eligible Provider (via Medicare or Medicaid) you may be able to receive up to a *$63,000 cash incentive* from the federal government for using a MacPractice system in your practice!

    The local MacPractice reps, Brad and Robin Watkins, each have over 20 years experience providing Apple solutions to healthcare practices. Come by the “*Small Dog Electronics exhibit at the Vermont Business Expo*”:http://www.vtexpo.com this week to meet them and learn more about MacPractice.

    To read more about what MacPractice offers, “*check out our blog*”:http://blog.smalldog.com for the full article and feature run-down. For additional info, check out “*www.macpractice.com*”:http://www.macpractice.com or “*email or call us*”:http://www.smalldog.com/b2b?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=vtbexpo today.

  • Power to the People

    On Friday at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, a high school student named Esha Khare (who specializes in nanochemistry) placed in the top three for creation of a super-capacitor that someday could charge mobile devices within 20-30 seconds.

    Capacitors are electronic components that store energy like batteries but with some differences. Batteries can hold a lot of charge with low voltage and discharge their energy slowly. Capacitors do not hold a lot of charge but can hold extremely high voltages and are capable of discharging very quickly. Capacitors do not store their energy in chemicals like batteries and can be small.

    Until now their low storage capacity has meant we can’t use capacitors in place of batteries. This new device apparently has the advantages of both; high energy capacity coupled with small size. When fully developed it could mean a radical shift in the way any device that uses batteries is designed.

    The new device can withstand 10,000 charge and recharge cycles compared to normal rechargeable batteries that can withstand 1,000 charge and recharge cycles. Currently Esha Khare’s invention is being used to power LEDs, but the $50,000 scholarship winner has gained attention for major tech companies including Google.

    Read more here: “*NBC News – Technology.*”:http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/teens-invention-could-charge-your-phone-20-seconds-1C9977955

  • Boot Camp Revisited

    So I wrote this article before the last one, “*Failure to Boot…Camp*”:http://blog.smalldog.com/techtails/tt870/ was published, because I solved my own problem. Once that article was published, I started receiving very helpful emails from our readers about solutions to problems I was having.

    Anne W. gave me some tips about formatting, so that when I ran the Windows installer, I was reformatting the Windows partition from FAT32 to NTFS. A customer named Dave responded and gave me a link to downgrade Windows 8 to Windows 7, legally, thank you. I ended up using an install disc I had for my PC at home — the last remaining PC with Windows 7! Yes, I had used the license already, but I used the 30 days or so to activate Windows to upgrade using my Windows 8 install disc.

    You might be asking how I managed to use my Windows 7 and 8 CDs when my optical drive doesn’t work? I found out there was a clothes tag inside the drive that was from a pair of snowboard pants. I pulled out the tag, and lo and behold, I was able to use CDs again. That made things easier. I was able to properly use Boot Camp because my computer required that you use an optical drive for the installation of Windows, at least if you want to use the Boot Camp utilities for the Apple hardware.

    Once Windows 7 was installed, it all worked beautifully, but once I made the upgrade to Windows 8, things started to get interesting. I needed to reinstall the track pad and keyboard drivers because the compatibility from Windows 7 to Windows 8 wasn’t there. My trackpad wasn’t seen at all but with the help of an external USB mouse I was able to reinstall the drivers and then everything ‘clicked’ back into place.

    There are still a few things concerning me about Windows 8 on my machine, however. The start up time is horrid, and there are a few graphical anomalies every now and then, but they are all things I can deal with in order to get what I need out of Windows 8. Everything from the experience and compatibility with data recovery software to complement the Apple software I use at work.

    I’m doing all this to learn and to test to see if it would be practical for us to use in the tech department at SDE, and so far it all looks promising.

    Thank you to those that gave feedback on my last article. I enjoyed reading the helpful material provided by those who emailed me their hints and tips.

  • Hello Readers,

    I am looking forward to a week of rain and hopefully some thunder and lightning! We could use the rain and cooler weather for sure. I’m going to throw down a bunch of grass seed tonight and hope for the best when I look outside next weekend.

    A week of rain like this will put every green thing in Vermont into super-grow mode. Strawberries are coming soon, along with all the rest of the best summer offers…I can’t wait.

    Sometimes I wonder if I’m really hearing what I’m hearing when someone tells me about things like, one-way missions to Mars (which I would TOTALLY try to get on if I was not married) and nano tech capacitors that can be used as a batteries, so someday your laptop battery might be as small as a watch battery. Just things I never thought I would see and get stupidly thrilled about when I read them. The flip side of that is that I have a hard time letting go of old tech even as I embrace the new.

    This week, Kyle follows up to answer some of the questions left unanswered in his article from last week, and Shawn talks about the nano capacitors I mentioned earlier. Rob Amon steps in to talk MacPractice, a local business that will be at the VT Business EXPO happening all day Wednesday and Thursday.

    Thanks for reading,

    Liam
    “*liam@smalldog.com*”:mailto:liam@smalldog.com

  • Failure to Boot…Camp

    To give a little background before launching into this article: I am a junior technician compared to some here at Small Dog Electronics….