Kibbles & Bytes Blog

  • MAC TREAT #200: Digitize Your Signature

    Earlier this week, I was helping a friend of mine write his resume and cover letter for some jobs he was applying to. We were using my Mac, but he’s a native PC user and seemed somewhat aloof while typing. I blamed it on the fact that he was being forced to write and felt a little resistant to the “Mac lifestyle.”

    When the time came to slap a signature on his cover letter, he jokingly asked if I had a digital signing pad. I laughed and said no, though as I am writing this, I realized that I probably could have used my Wacom tablet… Because he is a PC user, I love telling him about all the small neat features that Macs have built-in. I told him that Preview could digitize his signature using the iSight camera. (His demeanor said, “*not impressed*”:http://i2.cdn.turner.com/dr/hln/www/release/sites/default/files/imagecache/textarticle_640/2012/08/10/mckayladisappointed.jpg but I could tell he was jealous.)

    If you would like to digitally sign documents without having to print them (and you don’t own a tablet), sign and scan it. (I should note that I am using a MacBook Pro that has a built-in iSight camera and I am running OS X Mountain Lion (10.8). This should work on any Mac that has a built-in iSight camera running 10.7 or newer. “*Upgrade to 10.8 here!*”:http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=19XpSnZWhPI&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=https%3A%2F%2Fitunes.apple.com%2Fus%2Fapp%2Fos-x-mountain-lion%2Fid537386512%3Fmt%3D12%26uo%3D4%2526uo%253D6%2526partnerId%253D30)

    Then, follow these steps: Grab a pen and blank sheet of blank white (non-lined) paper and fill that thing up with signatures. Sign each one the way you normally would; there is no need to make them huge, though — just leave adequate space in between them.

    Next, open up your doc in your preferred document editing app (mine is Pages). Go forward as if you want to print, but instead of hitting the Print button, click the *PDF* button at the bottom left of the print window. Then click *Save as PDF* from the drop down menu. Save it wherever you will be able to find it later and you’re all set.

    Once we have a PDF version of the document, navigate to it and open it up in Preview. If your PDFs open up in a different app, then you can read this “*Mac Treat #199*”:http://blog.smalldog.com/index.php?id=6953 article about launching files in different apps.

    With Preview open, click on this icon !(image)http://blog.smalldog.com/images/3387.png! to drop down some editing tools. Now click on the signature icon !(image)http://blog.smalldog.com/images/3388.png! and click the option to *Create Signature from Built-in iSight…* This will bring up a new window and activate your iSight camera. Simply hold your favorite iteration of all the signatures you wrote so that the base of the signature lines up with the blue line. Hold still for a second, and a digitized preview of your signature will appear to the right. If you’re happy with it, hit accept and then draw it on your doc. Once it is drawn on, you can resize and relocate it to where you want.

    Now you are all set to give your documents that personal touch with a signature. If you have any questions or comments, I always welcome them. Send them to “*michaelb@smalldog.com.*”:mailto:michaelb@smalldog.com

  • _Hola,_

    It’s Kali writing for Don this week while he, Grace, his daughter Autumn and granddaughter Khadija sun themselves in a place far more southern and warmer than Vermont in the winter! Most of us are dreaming of warmer weather (with the exception of Art, of course), and will likely be jealous of Don’s sandy stories when he returns next week.

    I would definitely classify myself as a “winter person” but sadly, it has lost some of its luster in the past couple years since I simultaneously haven’t been able to strap on my snowboard for a few runs and I constantly have to dress a toddler for the cold (not fun). Well, there’s always next year…

    I’m excited to announce our new “Dr. Small Dog” campaign which will be launching for our customers local to the New England area. Do you have a computer issue but don’t love the idea of braving the mall to bring it in? Is there a network problem where being onsite is crucial? Or, do you just want to wear your PJs without the judgement of being in public? We want to come to you, just as doctors would make house calls when someone was sick.

    While we’re aiming at folks within driving distance of our retail stores, we also offer remote services far and wide (anywhere there’s internet!), and would certainly be open to traveling a farther distance, should it make sense for all involved.

    Have questions about what we offer? “*Click here.*”:http://www.smalldog.com/consulting Want to schedule an appointment? “*Click here.*”:http://www.smalldog.com/doctor The doctor is in!

  • Product of the Month

    13-inch MacBook (Early 2009) Used MacBooks starting at $599

  • Ahhhhh, Vacation!

    This week is a big travel week for most Vermonters since it’s February break for the school kiddies. If you are one of…

  • SPECIAL | Protect Your Mini Bundle Of Joy

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  • SPECIAL | Double Your Storage, Double Your Fun

    The Quirky Split Stick USB Drive serves as a dual purpose USB stick that offers two separate 4GB sticks in one convenient device. Perfect for those on the go who need business __and__ leisure in one spot.

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  • No Jar Jar, either!

    To all those Star Wars fans out there that has just a little geek in you, you will find this interesting. When you have some time and some popcorn, type this into a terminal window.

    @telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl@

    An ASCii movie just for you — those who know how to find it. It’s the full original Star Wars movie in text animation. Typing this command into Terminal takes you to the website where this movie is hosted using a protocol called Telnet, which gives you a text-based connection to a remote host. Then it loads the movie into Terminal and it starts playing. I could have just given you the link to the website where it’s hosted, but where’s the fun in that?

    OK I will give it to you anyway: “*http://www.asciimation.co.nz*”:http://www.asciimation.co.nz

    There isn’t any word on whether or not there will be other episodes; this is just Episode IV in its entirety.

    I challenge anyone to find out how to do this and create the next episode of Star Wars, or even to create something else entirely.

    I stumbled across this while researching other Terminal commands to help with the everyday business that is Small Dog Service.

    Enjoy.

    __(Ed. note- Episode IV and no Jar Jar Binks…hard to go wrong)__

  • iOS vs. OS X

    If you asked most people what the difference between iOS and OS X is, most people would provide answers to the effect of “What’s iOS?” or “One uses a touch screen and the other, a keyboard and mouse.” A third, less obvious answer to this question is important to helping a user gain proficiency with either in the pluralistic Post-PC world we currently live in.

    The first response reveals an interesting effect of the interaction design that Apple has made their priority for the past few decades. The integration of hardware and software that Apple is known for is expressed in the way that a user approaches and uses a device like the iPhone or iPad. The hardware fades away as the user focuses on and immerses themselves in the gesture-based touch interface. While this transition de-emphasizes the importance of the hardware, the direct manipulation of elements on the screen provides a more physical component to the pixels on the screen. The effect is a feedback loop of hardware and software interaction that combines the two so intrinsically that the user might not consider them as separate entities.

    The second response points to an obvious difference in the input devices built into the hardware of the devices that run each OS (operating system). So far, Apple has avoided adding touch-screens to their Macs, and you’ll notice that your iPhone lacks a pointer (replaced by your forefinger).

    I believe that one of the most important distinctions to be made between iOS and OS X is the management of files. First, some background. The reason why your device X has the same data on it today as it did yesterday is because it has memory (in this case, long-term). This is a physical component, usually in the form of a spinning hard drive or a solid state drive, measured in GB (gigabytes). This memory stores everything from the operating system to applications (apps) to documents, photos, music, etc. All of these categories of data are essentially just files and folders (directories), stored in a hierarchical fashion that allows the device to keep track of everything, creating a file system.

    The difference between iOS and OS X is that in iOS, this structure is invisible and in OS X, it is visible through the Finder application. Of course, iOS still stores data just like OS X does, but it’s organized differently. Your iPhone’s apps individually store their own data, so if you want to get access to some bit of important data, tap an app’s icon. In OS X, if you open an app, you’ll likely want to choose *File > Open* and browse through a Finder window to locate the file you wish to open.

    In a possible future where we live in a completely post-PC world, you could imagine a Mac that relies on the app-based storage model for your documents and data like an iPhone or iPad, using iCloud as a conduit. However, I can report that we have yet to enter this post-PC world entirely. And thankfully, this should not stop you from trying to access your documents and data on all of your devices, Mac and iPad alike.

    My recommendation is Dropbox, a service that allows you to bridge the gap that I went on about at length in the previous paragraph. It uses a folder on your Mac and an app on your iOS device. And it automagically syncs them using Amazon’s servers. In some ways, it creates a file system for your iOS device, allowing you to open files from Dropbox and save files from other apps in your Dropbox, allowing them to be accessed on your Mac.

    You can learn more about Dropbox on their site “*dropbox.com.*”:https://www.dropbox.com Sign up, download, and give it a whirl!

  • Power User Data Storage

    I have a growing media library and a GoPro camera that I use to record my sailboat racing, so my storage needs keep growing, and will eventually exceed the capacity of the drives I have right now. I need a system that will aggregate multiple drives for lots of storage and some redundancy. If I were a business, I might buy one of our Promise Pegasus RAID units, but as a consumer, I don’t want to spend quite that much and I don’t want to have to buy all the drives at the same time (or replace them all with identical units if I want to expand). This narrows my choices down to systems that are not pure hardware RAID, but special variants that allow for drives of different sizes.

    One option is to go for fast local storage using the new Drobo 5D. It is a relatively new product from Drobo, and it supports up to five hard drives, as well as an SSD expansion slot to speed up data access. Using Drobo’s Beyond RAID technology, you can put in up to five drives, of up to 4TB of space, and choose one or two drive redundancy support. You can replace failing drives with new ones while it is running, and you can swap smaller drives for bigger drives to grow your storage. It has two Thunderbolt ports and one USB 3.0 port. The Drobo 5D retails for $849.99 and you can find it “*here*”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/82341/drobo-5d-das-array-thunderbolt-usb on our website.

    The other product I am considering is a network-attached storage device (NAS), the Synology 1512+. Synology has a variety of models, but this is their top notch 5-bay unit. Rather than accessing data locally, it would act as a network file server. Its Synology Hybrid RAID system also supports using drives of different sizes and from different manufacturers, and you can run it with one or two drive redundancy, and upgrade on the fly. It also offers further expansion via up to two 5-bay expansion units, so you could have up to 15 drives in one system! Check it out on our website “*here.*”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/81931/synology-diskstation-ds1512-network-storage-server

    The Synology uses a network connection instead of Thunderbolt, so it is not as fast as the Drobo with Thunderbolt, but it does have some extra features that are not on the Drobo. As a NAS system, it is really a server computer with a bunch of drive bays, so it can perform any server functions that they include in their DiskStation Manager software, as well as support other packages that you can install.

    DSM support file sharing, web sharing, photo sharing, media sharing for a digital video collection, music sharing, backup, and a whole bunch of other stuff you can see on “*Synology’s own website.*”:http://www.synology.com/dsm/index.php?lang=enu

    I’m not sure which one I might get in the future, but they are both very cool choices! For drives, I would use the new RAID and NAS-optimized Western Digital RED drives that support time-limited error recovery (TLER), something which might be the topic for another article… View our selection of “*Western Digital Red*”:http://www.smalldog.com/search?search=Western+Digital+RED hard drives on our website.

    Now, as a consultant, I have to give the caveat that drive redundancy does not equal backup. Just because a system can survive the failure of one, or optionally two, drives, it does not mean that you are protected. You should always have any important data backed up on another system. If I plan on storing any unique data on either of these systems (and not just backups of my computer drives), I need to either buy two of them or budget for another storage system to keep a copy of all that data.