Kibbles & Bytes Blog

Apple news, tech tips, and more…

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  • “!http://blog.smalldog.com/images/4684.png!”:http://www.smalldog.com/springfever/spring-fever

  • Spring Fever

    We’re all starting to chat the itch to spend some more time outside around the office. Most of us enjoy winter activities throughout the winter months, but we are coming out of one of the worst winters in a long time. There was little snow and many winter activities were cancelled over the past several months. To help get us out of the winter funk, we thought it was appropriate to celebrate “**Spring Fever**”:http://www.smalldog.com/springfever/spring-fever in our stores by putting together some great deals for accessories that you can use to enjoy the warmer weather that is upon us.

    Recently we have brought in products from several new manufacturers of speakers, headphones and iPhone accessories. One of my favorite new items that we have brought in are new “**Bluetooth speakers from Cambridge Audio**”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/87874/. These portable speakers come in a variety of colors, they easily sync to both your computer and iPhone (though not at the same time) and they have an auxiliary connection if you wish to plug the speaker directly into your device. We’ve all been impressed by the ease of pairing the speakers as well as the sound quality. These speakers normally sell for $99.99 but we have the titanium colored ones on sale for **79.99**. They are an excellent quality at this price point. Last week I introduced new Bluetooth headphones from “**BlueAnt**”:http://www.smalldog.com/category/?mmfg%5B0%5D=BlueAnt and we’ve decided to bundle these headphones with a **FREE** Belkin armband for iPhone 6/6s. We are really liking these new headphones! Check out these great “**Spring Fever deals**”:http://www.smalldog.com/springfever/spring-fever and more.

  • How Long Do Computers Last?

    I am often asked how long computers should be expected to last. My usual answer is that depending on what you typically use your computer for and whether you upgrade it, a personal computer should last about five to seven years before it should be replaced. If you have the computer pictured to the right, for example, you may be just a bit out of date!

    To continue using modern websites and applications, a computer’s operating system must be updated periodically. The operating system is the base layer of software in a computer that allows other applications to function. Many applications will not be compatible with an operating system that is more than a couple of years out of date.

    Each new operating system release introduces new features, and requires more computing power to run. If a computer’s operating system is updated without upgrading its hardware, there will be a slight performance decrease on the newer operating system. If a computer undergoes several major operating system updates over the course of its life, the performance decrease can be significant.

    Approximately seven years after the release of a computer, it will no longer have the ability to run the latest operating system. At this point, it may not be long before major websites will no longer work with the computer.

    Apple stops selling parts for its computers after five years, in most areas. After this point, if the computer has a major hardware failure, a used part will have to be found from a third-party parts dealer if the repair is to be performed.

    The bottom line is that if a computer that is already five to seven years old is having hardware or compatibility problems, it may be more economical to forego repairs and save the money to buy a new computer. No one likes spending money, but in most cases it just does not make financial sense to spend hundreds of dollars to put a computer back onto its last legs.

  • The Sadistic Technician

    *WARNING:* Doing what is described in this -tale- tail does have the potential to FRY YOUR SYSTEM if not done correctly. Caveat emptor!

    Sometimes in diagnostics it is hard to re-create the issue described by the customer, so you find yourself having to push different components to their limits. Knowing which is the best tool to stress a particular component is important, so here is a list of my favorite free tools:

    “*Black Magic Disk:*”:https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blackmagic-disk-speed-test/id425264550?mt=12&at=11lb7k This is advertised as a tool to measure disk performance for high quality videos, but to do this it will perform a write test on your hard drive, and if your Mac has a mechanical hard drive, this will help you to determine mechanical failure.

    “*GpuTest:*”:https://openbenchmarking.org/test/pts/gputest-1.3.1 This is a very lightweight and simple GPU stress test. If you think your onboard graphics processor is glitchy and is causing weird graphical issues, then stress test with GpuTest. This tool works well and is simple to use.

    *Yes:* The *yes* command is built into your Mac via a Terminal command. This command runs each core of your CPU at 100%. This is a great tool to see if you CPU is having issues. More on the yes command can be found “*here.*”:http://www.techradar.com/us/how-to/computing/apple/terminal-101-stress-test-your-mac-with-the-yes-command-1305734

    Just for science, I decided to run all three to see what would happen. I used an app called “*HWMonitor*”:http://hwsensors.com, and Activity Monitor (a built-in app; Applications > Utilities) to watch sensor temps and make sure I wasn’t going to overdo it and melt the Mac into a puddle of aluminum and circuit board. I was able to push all cores on the Mac to around 200 degrees Fahrenheit and the GPU peaked at around 180, all while writing large data blocks to the hard drive.

    The computer was extremely unresponsive to while trying to run any other apps while under this stress test. Even opening a Safari window was painfully slow. After the test I rebooted the machine and immediately started to run diagnostic tools across the whole spectrum to see if I had started a slow death of the components and, to my surprise, the machine withstood a 2 hour onslaught of pure technical agony and was fine. That certainly says something about the quality of hardware in my 2011 MacBook Pro i7 15 inch.

  • _Hello Fellow Technophiles,_

    We have all made mistakes in our lives, but for most of us the consequences are relatively minor. Maybe you forgot to pay a bill and it accrues some interest (such as when I forgot to pay my $5 dental co-pay and they tacked 50 cents onto the bill…price gouging!!).

    Maybe you didn’t get an oil change and your engine seizes up and now you are out several thousand dollars (I always get my oil changed on time, so I have no idea why my engine failed).

    Or perhaps you sold your 10% share in what would go on to become one of the most valuable companies of all time and now you are out BILLIONS of dollars.

    Unfortunately for Ronald Wayne, the last example is not a hypothetical scenario. In 1976 Mr. Wayne, who worked at Atari with Steve Jobs, helped found Apple Computers. He drew the first Apple logo, wrote the original partnership agreement, and wrote the Apple I manual. For his assistance, he was awarded a 10% stake in the company. Less than two weeks later, he sold his share back to Jobs and Steve Wozniak for $800 as he was worried that the new company would go into debt and he had assets that creditors could potentially seize.

    I hope this makes you feel better about whatever mistakes you have made lately! I know a little schadenfreude always helps me.

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

  • This is the craziest Presidential election cycle that I have seen. I first got involved when President Johnson was running against Barry Goldwater and that seemed pretty crazy especially after I lost faith with the President over Vietnam. But this time it would be great comedy if the stakes were not so serious. I have to tell you that seeing Donald Trump ask people to raise their hands in a pledge is one of the scariest things I have seen in a long time.

    Voting is so important and our system is messy with primaries, caucuses, super delgates and conventions but it is also the basis of our democracy. I am proud to say that the Vermont legislature passed an automatic voter registration bill unanimously this week, meaning when you get a driver’s license you are automatically registered to vote. You really do not have the right to complain about your leaders if you do not get out and vote. So, exercise your right and go to the polls when the circus comes to your state!

    Thank you so much for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

    Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,

    _Don, Emily & Hadley_

  • Spring Fever

    We’re all starting to chat the itch to spend some more time outside around the office. Most of us enjoy winter activities throughout the winter months, but we are coming out of one of the worst winters in a long time. There was little snow and many winter activities were cancelled over the past several months. To help get us out of the winter funk, we thought it was appropriate to celebrate “**Spring Fever**”:http://www.smalldog.com/springfever/spring-fever in our stores by putting together some great deals for accessories that you can use to enjoy the warmer weather that is upon us.

    Recently we have brought in products from several new manufacturers of speakers, headphones and iPhone accessories. One of my favorite new items that we have brought in are new “**Bluetooth speakers from Cambridge Audio**”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/87874/. These portable speakers come in a variety of colors, they easily sync to both your computer and iPhone (though not at the same time) and they have an auxiliary connection if you wish to plug the speaker directly into your device. We’ve all been impressed by the ease of pairing the speakers as well as the sound quality. These speakers normally sell for $99.99 but we have the titanium colored ones on sale for **79.99**. They are an excellent quality at this price point. Last week I introduced new Bluetooth headphones from “**BlueAnt**”:http://www.smalldog.com/category/?mmfg%5B0%5D=BlueAnt and we’ve decided to bundle these headphones with a **FREE** Belkin armband for iPhone 6/6s. We are really liking these new headphones! Check out these great “**Spring Fever deals**”:http://www.smalldog.com/springfever/spring-fever and more.

  • Lynx (Not the Cat)

    When you want to browse the web, chances are you’re using Safari, Google Chrome, Firefox, or Internet Explorer. Those are the heaviest hitters in the browser world currently. They all do pretty much the same things at this point, though each offers unique perks.

    There are of course lots of lesser known smaller, niche browsers that all have different histories. Many of them are used by people who became comfortable with them and don’t see the need to use anything else. Back in college I used “**K-Meleon**”:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-Meleon a lot. I knew a professor who really preferred “**SeaMonkey**”:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SeaMonkey. When I was using linux more heavily, I had a broader library of browsers like **Chromium**, **Konqueror** and **Epiphany**.

    For the most part, even the smaller browsers I listed function almost identically to the more mainstream ones. Each browser tends to use one of the major rendering engines like WebKit (used by Safari, Chrome, etc), Gecko (used by Firefox) or Trident (used by Internet Explorer). Even if you’d never used one of the browsers I listed, chances are you’d be able to pick it up pretty quickly.

    There’s one very important browser I’ve left out though. One you probably haven’t heard of. It’s called **Lynx**. Originally created and released in 1992, it’s a completely text-based browser that can run on just about anything. I use it a lot when I’m ssh’d into servers. Sometimes I just want a secure browser on a machine I don’t trust. I can open up a terminal window, ssh into my server, fire up Lynx and browse away securely.

    Lynx converts all webpages to plain text. So you can’t view videos or listen to audio. It also doesn’t support javascript. It’s a very different web experience, but I’ve found it to be completely capable. I can read blogs, view and participate in Reddit threads, read over forums, etc. It’s more than enough to meet my needs. It also colors text so it’s very easy to see what’s a link and what isn’t. It has a variety of color and background color schemes to denote italics, bold, lists, etc.

    Here’s google.com on Lynx:

    p{text-align: center;}. !http://blog.smalldog.com/images/4679.png!

    Because everything is converted to plain text, Lynx can be an excellent browser for visually impaired users since it can easily be hooked into screen readers or “**refreshable braille displays**”:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refreshable_braille_display. This was actually how I found out about it in the first place. As a web developer, I need to try to make sites as accessible as possible. Viewing a page in Lynx can help show you what important content won’t be displayed properly. Having alt tags on images for example will allow a text-browser like Lynx to read out a description of the image it can’t display.

    Here’s smalldog.com on Lynx:

    p{text-align: center;}. !http://blog.smalldog.com/images/4680.png!

    If you want to give Lynx a try, the easiest way is by using a standalone OS X app called “**Lynxlet**”:http://habilis.net/lynxlet/. Though Lynx can be used on virtually any system if you compile it from source.

  • Expand your mind…er..text

    Speed Up Your Fingers with Text Expansion

    With all the advances in computing and communications, it’s amazing that–after nearly 150 years!–we still use the keyboard layout from the world’s first practical typewriter for entering text into our Macs, iPhones, and iPads. Sure there are some improving dictation solutions out there but typing is by far how we input text. But we have not gotten that much better as typists, nor do we enjoy typing more–if anything, we increasingly abbreviate to avoid typing, hence “LOL, BRB, etc.” Text messaging aside, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to type less without compromising meaning or making your text look like it was composed by a trained monkey? Thanks to text expansion features built into OS X and iOS, and extended with third-party utilities, you can.

    For basic text expansion capabilities in OS X, look in System Preferences > Keyboard > Text, and in iOS 9, go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Text Replacement. For both, you can enter a phrase, and a shortcut that expands into that phrase when typed and followed by a space or punctuation character. (Tip: If text expansion doesn’t work in a Mac app like Mail or Safari, make sure Edit > Substitutions > Text Replacement is selected.)

    If you’re signed into the same iCloud account on both your Mac and your iPhone, for instance, the text expansions sync between them automatically. So, you can type “smh” and tap the Space bar to get “Shaking my head!” typed out for you, regardless of what device you’re using. (Another tip: don’t create abbreviations that you will also want to type normally. It might seem like a good idea to use “np” for “No Problem,” but that will get in the way of talking about Nurse Practitioners.)

    With such a useful feature built into OS X and iOS, why would you want to spend money on a third-party utility, like “**TextExpander**”:https://smilesoftware.com/textexpander (Mac and iOS), “**Typinator**”:http://www.ergonis.com/products/typinator/ (Mac), or “**TypeIt4Me**”:http://www.ettoresoftware.com/products/typeit4me/. Unfortunately, OS X’s text expansion feature doesn’t work in all apps (it likely won’t work if the app lacks the Edit > Substitutions > Text Replacement menu command). The interface for creating new substitutions is cramped and hard to work with, you can’t configure the trigger characters that cause abbreviations to expand, and you can’t include text with styles, variable text like the date, or even graphics.

    That’s where text expansion utilities shine. They can include styled text and graphics in expansions, insert the current date and time, respect case when expanding abbreviations, include the contents of the clipboard in expanded text, automatically fix common typos, create fill-in-the-blanks snippets that you customize on each expansion, and much more.

    Here are some ideas for the kinds of things you might want to turn over to your computer for typing:
    Long or complex words or phrases, such as scientific names. Aedes aegypti, anyone?

    *Your address, phone number, and email address. One of my favorites is “@d” which inserts my email address. I get real tired of typing email address, phone numbers, etc. Text expansion speeds that up!

    *Boilerplate text for common email replies.

    *The current date and/or time.

    *Special characters, so blb could expand to the British pound symbol £.

    *Unix commands for Terminal, such as using ssh to log in to a remote computer.

    I am sure you can come up with dozens that might work for you and speed up your typing. So think about what bit of text you might want expand automatically and give text expansion a try today!

  • _Dear Friends,_

    I am off to Daytona for the 75th Bike Week. We went out to the 75th anniversary of the Sturgis Bike Week so it is only appropriate for us to hit the one sort of in our neighborhood, too. We will be riding on our 2003 Victory motorcycles and trying to avoid any big roads.

    Sugaring season in Vermont is well underway and this time of the year in Vermont always reminds me when we used to sugar the old-fashioned way. Now it is mostly pipelines and big sugaring operations but back when we lived in North Wolcott, Vermont I had a big work horse. The horse was kind of untrained but hitching her to the sled with the big heavy sap gathering tank made her behave. We would tap the trees by hand, hang buckets and as the sap began to flow we would tramp through the deep snow to empty the buckets into the tank. One horsepower was a lot of power as the horse would make her way through the sugar maples and the tank got full. We would take it to our makeshift sugaring arch and boil the sap into yummy syrup. Some of the best times! I still prefer the “grade b” syrup over fancy grade.

    This week’s Kibbles & Bytes exclusive brings back the “**Chill Pill six-pack special.**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002006/ These little portable speakers have been around for a long time and I need to reduce our inventory. So, you can get 2 Black, 2 Red and 2 White Chill Pill speakers for only $29 this week. They make great gifts and are great for camping or just hanging out in the yard. Normally, they are $9.99 each but this week 6 for “**$29!**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002006/

  • It is definitely feeling like spring here in Key West as the flowers are blooming and we wake up each morning to the birds singing (okay and the roosters crowing, too). I get the morning snow (or lack thereof) report from Emily every day and spring hadn’t quite arrived up in Georgia when I was there, either.

    Grace and I are heading up to the 75th Annual Daytona Bike Week for a couple days and then hitting a Cirque du Soleil show in Miami on the way back. Somewhere in there I will be writing Kibbles, perhaps on my iPad mini 4.

    Thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

    Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,

    _Don, Emily & Hadley_