Kibbles & Bytes Blog

  • Terminal Tidbits: The pwd Command

    The *print working directory* command is a useful tool for navigating inside of the *Terminal* command window. It helps locate where you are in the current state of the directory. It is very easy when you are navigating through files and directories too quickly to lose your spot…kinda like your bookmark fe;l out and you can’t find the right page.

    When in Terminal if at any time you get lost, just type *pwd* and press *enter.* It will respond with the “present working directory.” So, when you are moving files *pwd* is a great way to double-check your copy and move locations.

  • Ransomware

    Over the last few years I have noticed an increase in customers being affected by “ransomware.” Ransomware is a type of malware that locks you out of a function of your computer by encrypting it or by locking up your browser. The ransomware offers the option to pay a fee to remove the lock. On a Mac we commonly see this when a user has been locked out of a web browser as the built-in security protocols generally prevent malicious encryption of your data.

    The image at the right and below are two examples of the type of pop up that you may see:

    !http://blog.smalldog.com/images/4718.png!

    As you can see one pop up tries to convince you that there’s a threat and claims to be Apple support. It also provides a number for you to call and get support. The other one relies on including the FBI name in the web address to make it seem genuine. The FBI ransomware relies on a threat to get you to pay them to unlock it.

    Most of the time you can simply avoid ransomware by avoiding sketchy websites and 3rd party software downloads. Thankfully on a Mac it is generally very easy to remove ransomware. The file usually hides in the internet files and can be purged by emptying your recent history. If you are not able to clean it out yourself you can always bring the affected machine to us and we can remove it for you. We provide adware/malware/ransomware removal for $65 and the process usually takes less than a day.

  • It Is Now Safe To Turn Off Your Computer

    No one likes being asked to reboot their computer. When I’m working with someone over the phone to figure out why their computer or mobile device isn’t working, more often than not I hear a groan when I ask them to close their open applications, power the device off completely, and then turn it on again. Yes, this will cause all of the open applications and files to quit. However, this is a crucial step in the troubleshooting process and can completely solve a huge number of software-related issues.

    I can’t count the number of times someone has brought me a computer that had slowed to a crawl, and upon opening it up there are dozens of different applications and files open at once. When I ask about the last time the computer was turned off, often the user can’t remember.

    More often than not, turning the computer off and on again without the “Reopen windows when logging back in” option selected will solve issues like this, along with many odd software glitches. I like to illustrate this by using an analogy: Your computer is like an orchestra, with millions of different instruments playing together at once. As time goes on, the likelihood of any one musician making a mistake increases, and as soon as one musician is playing out of time the rest are soon to follow. When several musicians are out of time with the rest of the orchestra, it will be much easier for the entire orchestra to stop and start again together than for the few musicians to individually struggle to get back in time.

    I would highly recommend rebooting periodically even if your computer is not acting up, to prevent issues from occurring in the future. I typically turn my personal computer off every night. Be aware, closing the lid of your laptop simply puts it to sleep (assuming you haven’t configured your settings otherwise). To fully turn your Mac off, click the Apple logo in the top left corner of the screen, then “Shut Down”. If that fails, or your computer is non-responsive, you can force a shutdown by holding the power button down until the machine powers off.

  • _Hello Fellow Technophiles,_

    As a father of a precocious 3.5 year old, I find myself explaining anything and everything on a daily basis. This gets me thinking more critically about the grammar and the content of the things I say. For example, I realized recently that my kids will likely never actually “dial” a phone even though I still call it dialing. They can input a number, or more likely just tap on someone’s name, but there is no physical dial. Not that those were common even in my day as touch-tone telephone service was first offered in 1963. They will also likely never “tune in” to a TV show with an actual tuner. Again, not something I did often either as cable TV was introduced in 1949 and into my house circa 1984. These linguistic quirks will probably hang on for some time after no one is left who actually used these technologies in their original forms.

    That all being said, I am not nostalgic for the older technology. I can’t imagine going without a cellular telephone. Then, when you consider all of the apps, internet connectivity, built-in camera and microphone, and geo-location services on my iPhone it is truly an amazing and indispensable device (which Apple and I still refer to as a phone). I also do not miss having to watch TV shows when they were aired. I can get almost every show I want between all of the streaming services out there. And thanks to a $4 add on to my Hulu subscription and the “*AdBlock Plus*”:https://adblockplus.org Safari extension I don’t even have to watch commercials anymore. We have a great deal on an Apple TV below, so if you are still tuning in, you should take a look at it and leap into the future.

    I hope you enjoy this “newsletter” that I “typed” and e-“mailed” to you!

    Mike
    “*michaeld@smalldog.com*”:mailto:michaeld@smalldog.com

  • “!http://blog.smalldog.com/images/4717.png!”:http://www.smalldog.com/congratsgrads/congratulations-grads

    Help the Mom or Grad on your list cut the cord this year with great gifts from Small Dog Electronics! Technology is meant to make our lives simpler, faster and more enjoyable. Many of us want technology at the tip of our fingers but we don’t want to be tied down by wires.

    Now through May 23rd, visit Small Dog Electronics and help everyone on your gift-giving list cut the cord! “**Save $50 on the Beats Pill+**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002209 or “**$75 on Beats Solo2 wireless**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002207 **when your purchase ANY new iPad.** Whether you buy an iPad Mini or the new iPad Pro, don’t forget to add Applecare+ to provide not only warranty coverage but accidental damage coverage as well.

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    “!http://blog.smalldog.com/images/4711.png!”:http://www.smalldog.com/congratsgrads/congratulations-grads

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  • Small Dog Electronics is proud to be working with Technology for Tomorrow and AARP of Vermont for a FREE Event on Saturday May 7th from 9am-12pm at the Frederick H. Tuttle Middle School in South Burlington, Vermont.

    The event will be made up of three mini technology workshops. The workshops will cover introduction to iPhones by Small Dog Electronics, internet safety by AARP and Facebook Tips and Tricks by Technology for Tomorrow. In addition to the workshops there will be ample time for questions and answers, as well as one on one time to talk to the presenters.

    This event is not specific to Mac or PC. We will also be raffling off an iPad Mini 2 and 1 hour of consulting time from Small Dog Electronics. All who attend are eligible for the raffle prizes.

    Sign up Today!

  • I’ve got another long weekend ahead of me. We’re building a small horse barn. We’ll be pouring the concrete slab and preparing the site for the actual barn assembly and building in a few weeks. We also have to get ready for our camping season to begin in mid May. There’s not not a lot of rest at the moment around my house even on the weekends!

    Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,

    Don, Emily, Hadley & Amy

  • Any iPad with Beats Pill+ Save $50

  • Save $10 on the Twelve South Surface Pad for iPhone 6/6s Plus

  • Save $10 on the Twelve South Surface Pad for iPhone 6/6s

  • It's the Reliability, Stupid!

    When I was in high school, I worked at the local public access TV station after school. This was my first introduction to actual modern Macs (I don’t count my days in elementary school playing Oregon Trail on a Mac Classic which was already 10 years old at the time). At the public access station, we originally had two Power Mac G4s. These were later upgraded to a Power Mac G5 and an iMac G5. I remember we loved the screen on the iMac, but rendering video took forever. We often found ourselves editing on the iMac and then mastering to a file or a DVD on the Power Mac.

    At the time, I was actually harshly critical of Macs. It’s been so long, I don’t even remember why. Cost? I liked Windows better? Who knows. I was young. I remember I hated them a lot less when we got the iMac because that was my first introduction to OS X. Up until that point I had been using OS 9. So considering my past dislike of Macs, my present praise of them might seem odd.

    If someone asks me today why I’d recommend a Mac, my primary answer would be: longevity and reliability. In 2009, I was given a Core 2 Duo Mac mini. I could never really think of what to do with it, especially when I got it. Over the years it served many functions. During a few periods in between other computers, it was my primary machine. The most impressive thing to me though is that it’s still running with no major problems. No, it’s not a great machine (2.6Ghz Core 2 Duo, 120GB HDD, 1GB RAM). No, it can’t run the latest OS (without upgrading the RAM, I can’t even get it past 10.5.8). All that aside though, it’s been incredibly reliable.

    I’m sure eventually I’ll hit some insurmountable road block that will prevent me from using it anymore, but as of today, it’s the center of my home network. It hosts and serves my media library. It hosts all of my websites. It hosts a RAID I use as a redundant backup destination for Time Machine on my MacBook Air. If I need to run a big download that will take a long time, I let the mini take care of it. All the while it just sits there faithfully, working away 24/7. As a bonus, it doesn’t even consume that much power. Even an old mini like mine typically consumes 15-20 watts at idle.

    I’ve considered replacing it. I’ve considered building a micro-ATX linux box that’s more powerful–one of the biggest letdowns is that Apple doesn’t seem too keen on building performance Mac minis anymore–but I just can’t do it. My mini is just too reliable. When I finally do replace it, it’ll likely be with another mini.

  • Apple Stands Up The Street

    $50.6 Billion in revenue, $10.5 Billion in net profit and $235 Billion in the bank. Let’s get one thing straight, 99.9% of the companies in the world would love to have those kind of numbers. And while this fell into the range of Apple’s forward-looking guidance, it did fall short of the expectations of the analysts.

    This was the first time in 13 years (!) that Apple posted lower year-over-year sales. Apple saw lower iPhone sales than last year at this time. However, keep in mind that was when the iPhone 6 was at its peak. Nevertheless, Apple sold 51.1 million iPhones and said they are having difficulty keeping up with the demand for the recently released iPhone 5se.

    Mac sales and iPad sales also declined as expected with Apple selling a bit over 4 million Macs and 10.25 million iPads. On the bright side, Services revenue increased 20% to almost $6 billion and “other” products which include Apple TV, Apple Watch, Beats and iPod generated $2.189 billion which is 30% growth.

    Apple’s board of directors both increased the dividend paid on Apple shares to $0.57 which is about a 10% raise and increased their share buy-back program. With Apple being so widely held, this dividend increase makes Apple one of the largest payers of dividends in the world. Since the start of their dividend and share re-purchase program, Apple has returned over $163 billion to shareholders, the majority of that being in the form of share buy-backs.

    Apple’s guidance for the current quarter which ends at the end of June also projects a year-over-year decline in revenues. They forecast sales in the range of $41-$43 billion which is also lower than analysts predicted.

    There is no sugar-coating these results which were for the most part, a miss. Forecasting demand, revenue and margin is tricky and there are a bunch of factors that enter into this calculation and a bunch more that are ready to blow up the forecast. International monetary trends, new product introductions are all a bit of a wild card.

    There is some good news hidden in the report. Apple said that the iPhone enjoys an unprecedented 95% loyalty rate, Apple Pay is seeing 1 million new users a week, 13 million people subscribe to Apple Music and Apple’s installed base is 1 billion devices and growing.

    Apple had a huge hit with the iPhone 6 and that did push sales to a peak level last year. It was an anomaly, however, and Apple’s business is still incredibly strong, just a bit more down to earth. You can’t hit home runs every time at bat! Tim Cook says the product pipeline is strong and I believe him.

    Hey, I didn’t have to come up with a new adjective to describe what Apple did to the street this quarter. That’s a fringe benefit. Putting this all into perspective is important. It is not like Apple is losing money or losing customers. In fact, the opposite is true. In three short months, they made over $10 billion in profit and sold millions and millions of iPhones, iPads and Macs! Now, if Small Dog could just do a tiny fraction of that…