Kibbles & Bytes Blog

As useful and easy as it is to use a mouse to interact with your computer, most of the time it’s much quicker to simply use key commands with the keyboard to access commonly-used functions. Combinations of the Shift, CTRL, Option (Alt), and ⌘ (Command) modifiers multiply your keyboard real-estate dramatically.

But what do these keys mean, and what does the odd little squiggle ⌘ have to do with anything? Shift is obviously a carryover from the typewriter days, physically shifting the mechanism that imprints letters to paper so that capitalized characters are used.

The CTRL key’s origins lie with early teletype machines as a keyboard modifier. The key allowed commands such as ejecting a printed page, clearing the screen or ringing the bell on the terminal.

The Option or “Alt” key is a modifier carried over from keyboards made for early Lisp and MIT computers where it was labeled the “Meta” or ◆ key and allows alternate characters or input. Similar to the function of the shift key.

The command key on an Apple keyboard used to be represented with the typical Apple logo dating to the days of the Apple Lisa keyboard allowing the user access to all of the available application commands by key combinations. However during a development meeting for a new piece of software with significantly more commands than other programs, Steve Jobs remarked on how many little apple icons were on each menu label and exclaimed that the developers were, “Taking the Apple logo in vain” and so the search went out for an alternative.

Susan Kare, Apple’s bitmap artist sought out an appropriate symbol that would fill the void and settled upon a symbol used in Sweden on tourist signs to represent a point of interest. It’s symmetry and simplicity were exactly what was called for. While the symbol, called a Bowen Knot, Gorgon Loop and St. John’s Arms depending on where you go, is common in European history, it’s likely the Swedish “point of interest” icon generally refers to the shape of Borgholm Castle, a popular 13-Century ruin and common point of interest in Sweden, iconized and simplified for tourists.

So the next time you’re zipping through your work, take a second to reflect at the history behind the funky cloverleaf next to your space bar and be happy you’re not taking the Apple logo in vain.

Backing up your Mac is like flossing your teeth: everyone knows they should do it every night, but too many people never get around to it. Unlike flossing, once you set up backups, they don’t require daily attention. And turning on Apple’s Time Machine backup feature is easy—simply open System Preferences > Time Machine, click Select Backup Disk, and pick a hard drive to hold your backups. Still, it’s often overlooked until it’s too late.

There is one more piece to backing up, and one that is just as important as remembering to back up. You need to have an appropriate hard drive and there are tons of options. Choosing the wrong size drive or choosing one with the wrong connections are just some of the common mistakes made and often it means defeat. I have spoken to countless customers who took the right first step, they got a back up drive. But failed to follow through on the plan when they realized they made the wrong purchase and it’s surprising the number of folks who just put that incorrect drive in a drawer and never end up purchasing the correct one.

How Much Space Do You Need?

The first question when looking for a backup drive is how much data it needs to hold. You could put a lot of effort into figuring this out, but for most people, the answer simple. Buy the largest drive you can reasonably afford, as long as it will hold at least two to three times as much data as you have or anticipate creating in the near future. Say you use a MacBook Pro with a 512 GB SSD. You could get by with a 1 TB backup drive, which would be twice as large as your internal drive. But if a 1 TB drive costs $100 and a 2 TB drive costs $130, it’s worth the extra $30 to double the available space. It’s important to note that for time machine to work properly the hard drive must minimally be the same size as your computers internal hard drive, it does not matter if your using all of that drive space. If you have that 512gb SSD drive and an older 256GB drive kicking around it won’t work even if your only using 60GB on your computers drive. You can easily confirm the size drive you have in your machine by going to the Apple symbol located at the top left of your computer screen and then selecting about this mac. Regardless of your operating system this the basic path everyone can take.

How Will You Connect It to Your Mac?

With external hard drives, you need to match the ports on your Mac with the ports on the drive. That might sound tricky, what with USB 3, FireWire, USB-C, and Thunderbolt. Luckily, for most people, the right choice is simple: a drive that supports USB 3. They’re inexpensive, plenty fast for backups and even if you have an older machine it’s backwards compatible to USB 2.0.
Nearly every Mac sold since 2012 supports USB 3, either via the familiar USB-A port or the newer USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 port. If your Mac has only USB-C ports—as would be the case if you have either a MacBook or a recent MacBook Pro—you may also need an adapter cable that’s USB-A on one end and USB-C on the other. We often recommend to customers a combination drive that can connect either via USB 3.0 or USB-C, this takes the worry out of taking home the wrong drive for most Macs in circulation today.

What Type of Drive Should You Buy?

Inside the case, an external hard drive contains either a 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch drive mechanism.

• 2.5-inch drives are smaller, more portable, and usually bus-powered, meaning they get power from your computer instead of from a wall outlet, which makes them easier to hook up and use. They’re also designed to be more rugged.
• 3.5-inch drives usually need to be plugged into power, and they’re less appropriate to carry around. However, they cost less per gigabyte and can be bought easily in sizes up to 8 TB. If you work mostly on a notebook Mac and lead a mobile lifestyle, carrying a bus-powered 2.5-inch drive ensures you can back up while traveling. Such a drive might also be best for a MacBook-equipped college student.

Putting It All Together

Since the hard drive mechanisms are made by a relatively small number companies, the differences between external drives mostly come down to the price, industrial design, and extra ports. We’ve generally had good luck with drives from Lacie, Seagate and Western Digital.
If you are not sure what is the right drive for you and your computer send us an e-mail to sales@smalldog.com or stop into one of our stores. We will gladly help you find the drive that’s right for you and more many, that means a drive that is less than $100.

Dear Friends,

The grass is green, flowers are blooming and birds are singing as the sun comes up in the morning. Aside from arriving just in time for a rainy weekend, Don and Grace seemed to have once again timed their return to Vermont just in time for the full beauty of spring. Last night I spent several hours outside after work fixing fencing and riding our horses. With milder springtime weather finally upon us we try to spend as much time outside as we can, especially after work and school. It’s great to have both my girls old enough to be in the barn with me enjoying time with our horses. My youngest is working on basic steering and confidence on our older mare and my oldest is working on her confidence in riding green horses.

It is hard to believe that Memorial Day weekend and the unofficial start to summer is just around the corner. Many of our readers are familiar with our famous garage sales of the past and the time has come to bring back another Small Dog Electronics garage sale. This garage sale will be a little different than ones of the past, but deep discounts and great finds will remain the same. The sale will go live on Friday, May 25th and will run through the weekend. Keep an eye on our website and Facebook page for updates.

This week’s exclusive Kibbles & Bytes special is the perfect combination for the student on your list this graduation season. I’ve bundled together with a MacBook Pro 3in 2.3GHz i5 Dual Core 8GB/256GB a pair of Beats Studio3 wireless headphones. Beats Studio headphones are my favorite headphones to use when I need to focus in a loud space. I’ve combined these headphones with the perfect computer for the student. The 13in MacBook Pro is perfect for carrying to and from school and a larger 256gb hard drive means plenty of room for music and documents. This bundle normally costs $1849.99 but this week I’ve taken $125 off for Kibbles & Bytes readers and am selling it for $1724.99. Don’t miss out!