Kibbles & Bytes Blog

  • Security Vulnerability in Safari's RSS Reader

    I use Apple’s Safari web browser almost every single day. I like it and I depend on it. Thus I was alarmed to read that “Brian Mastenbrook recently discovered”:http://brian.mastenbrook.net/display/27 that Safari’s RSS reader is “vulnerable to an attack that allows a malicious web site to read files on a user’s hard drive without user intervention.”

    Apparently this can be used “to gain access to sensitive information stored on the user’s computer, such as emails, passwords, or cookies that could be used to gain access to the user’s accounts on some web sites.”

    Mastenbrook notes that this vulnerability has been acknowledged by Apple. It affects Safari in Leopard and in Windows, but apparently does not affect people using Tiger.

    Originally, it seemed that the solution was very simple: change your default RSS reader from Safari to another RSS application in Safari’s preferences. However, Mastenbrook’s further research showed that this does not completely disassociate Safari all RSS feeds.

    To work around this issue until a fix is released by Apple, Mastenbrook suggests the following steps. Note that I was able to easily do this on all of my Macs.

    1. Download and install the “RCDefaultApp”:http://www.rubicode.com/Software/RCDefaultApp/ preference pane, which you can get “by clicking here.”:http://www.rubicode.com/Software/RCDefaultApp/

    2. This installs into your Mac’s system preferences. Open your Mac’s system preferences by clicking on the Apple in the upper left corner of your Mac’s screen and choosing “System Preferences”.

    3. Click on the the Default Applications option.

    4. Select the “URLs” tab at the top of the window that opens. Now choose the “feed” URL type from the column on the left, and choose a different application (such as “NetNewsWire”:http://www.newsgator.com/INDIVIDUALS/NETNEWSWIRE/ or “NewsFire”:http://www.newsfirerss.com/ which is my preferred desktop RSS app. You can also choose Mail in Leopard, which has an RSS reader and is not affected by the issue.).

    5. Repeat the previous step for the “feeds” and “feedsearch” URL types. Note that you don’t need to set a different app for these options; I chose the “” option here.

    There is no easy workaround for Windows Safari users at this time except to use a different browser for the time being.

    On my computer, I’ve performed the above steps with no difference in Safari’s performance. I’m sure Apple is working on a patch to be released ASAP.

    “Read the original report by clicking here.”:http://brian.mastenbrook.net/display/27

    It’s extremely unlikely that a Safari user would be affected by this. However, it’s almost always better to be safe than sorry. Thank you to Brian Mastenbrook for discovering this issue!

  • _Dear Friends,_

    It is snowing out and the temperatures have warmed up from well below zero for a couple days. We have a Siberian air mass headed our way with the severe cold coming back this weekend. Things just seem to break when it gets this cold for an extended period of time.

    On Monday when it was -25 here at the office, we had a series of weather-related failures. The hot water stopped working until I found a portable heater to put in the closet where the instantaneous hot water heater was located to thaw out the pipes. Grace’s car just stopped working and was left stranded in a cell-phone dead zone. Worst of all, the furnace failed in the warehouse and the crew down there tried to put up a brave face and continue working as the temperatures dipped but ultimately we had to give up our conference room for Mac repairs.

    The cold weather does make for interesting noises from the crunch of the cold snow beneath your feet to the creaking of the house as it contracts and expands from the cold outside and the heat inside. The roads tend to be more slippery during very cold weather because road salt doesn’t work at those temps. Fan Tail likes the cold and snow and she will just roll around in it and run on the trails from our snowshoes. On the other hand, Hammerhead needs to be coaxed to even step one paw out the door.

    It has been a historic week. We had the inauguration playing on many of the Macs in our offices and stores, and pretty much everything stopped as we watched the 44th President of the USA inaugurated in front of a couple million friends. It is simply amazing and encouraging to realize that just 40 years ago we were working for basic civil rights in voting, housing and schools, and that less than 150 years ago, slavery was still common. In 1977, when Vermont was still a sovereign country, our state constitution outlawed slavery, becoming the first country to do so and later, the first state to outlaw it altogether. We now we have an African-American President of the USA. I was so proud to be an American, so proud of my country, and so proud of my President.

  • Quiet Update to Entry-level MacBook

    Apple quietly changed the specs of the entry-level white MacBook this morning. The upside is that it now ships with 2GB of RAM…

  • Inauguration Day

    It’s here! Watch live streams now of this historic event: Cnn.com Hulu.com

  • FEATURED SPECIAL | 01/20/09 – 01/27/09

    Remember the quality keyboards of yesteryear that had clickity keys and real mechanical keyswitches? For the past few years, Matias has been offering the Tactile Pro, which uses old-school keyswitches along with modern touches, such as USB 2.0 ports. They have the feel of Apple and IBM keyboards of 15 or 20 years ago.

    Based on the legendary Alps keyswitch used in the Apple Extended Keyboard and the original Tactile Pro, the Matias Mechanical Keyswitch recreates the tactile feedback and force curve of the original Alps design, ensuring maximum performance, greater comfort, and faster typing speeds. You will feel the difference immediately.

    We recently learned that Matias has discontinued the white Mac-only version of the Tactile Pro 2.0. This model has ™ and other typographic symbols printed right on the keys. Simply hold down the Option key for the bottom-right characters, or Shift and Option for the top-right characters. This means you won’t need to launch other applications to find hard to remember key combinations for international characters, accents, punctuation, mathematical and currency symbols.

    We only have a few of the white Tactile Pro keyboards in stock. They are on sale for $124.99. Once these sell out, we’ll only have the black and silver model in stock. This also has the real keyswitches, but does not have the Mac typographical symbols printed on it.

    See this “by clicking here.”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/43082

  • Follow Us On Facebook and Twitter!

    Remember to sign up to become a fan of Small Dog on Facebook! We will continue to randomly choose two contest winners per month from our Facebook fans as January comes to a close. We are about to choose a Twitter friend by this Friday.

    If you’re not already in our Facebook group, you can join here:
    “Small Dog Electronics on Facebook.”:http://www.facebook.com/pages/Small-Dog-Electronics/18904017006

    Not on Facebook? “Sign up here.”:http://www.facebook.com

    Do you use Twitter? We post Mac tips, tricks, news, contests and more on our Twitter feed. “Small Dog Electronics on Twitter.”:https://twitter.com/hellosmalldog

  • Small Dog Expansion Plans

    Times are tight right now, but Small Dog Electronics vows to make this a productive and successful year. We are hoping to expand this year, and Don was recently interviewed by the Burlington Free Press about our plans for the future.

    “Read the whole article here!”:http://burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20090119/BUSINESS/90118012&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL

  • Repair of the Week

    A MacBook came in over the weekend showing graphic anomalies on the screen almost immediately after pressing the power button. Horizontal lines are easy to diagnose: graphics processor failure. Vertical lines are easy, too: failure of the panel itself. But the patterns on the screen could be any number of things, from the panel itself, to the low voltage display cable, to the graphics processor, to software. I ordered up a main logic board.

    By assuming failure of some part of the graphics processing system, I went ahead and ordered a main logic board. After installing it, and noticing the same exact problem, I reconsidered my diagnosis. What are the odds that the same exact pattern would appear from two graphics processors suffering the exact same failure?

    After scratching my head for a while, I stepped back and went to Apple’s MacBook service manual. There are great step by step troubleshooting guides for every conceivable issue, and while I like to think I have them all memorized, in this case I messed up.

    Remembering that the main system RAM is shared with the graphics processor, I pulled one of the chips from the user-accessible slot. Problem solved. Since the RAM was from us and covered by our lifetime warranty, parts and labor were covered. I only wish I thought of this before keeping the customer’s machine longer than I had to!

  • iPhoto '08 Printing: More Than Meets the "i"

    iPhoto ’08 really has a lot of cool options–and not just for manipulating photos. There are a lot of options when it comes to printing too. The days of just printing a photo (and only that) are over. You can choose fun layouts, multiple photos on a page, shapes, borders and even print things like they’re on a mat board!

    Highlight/select the photos you want to print up. Hit File —> Print

    You will see this screen:

    (Yes, yes, that gorgeous little beauty is me about 20 years ago!)

    On the left, you can choose what kind of border you want to have around the photo. Here, I chose the “Simple Mat” option (so the computer automatically added the tan boarder around the photo I chose). I can just hit Print, frame it, and (depending on the type of paper I used–matte, glossy or standard paper) it can look like I spent a lot of money mounting this picture before I framed it!

    At the bottom part of the screen you have the “Paper Size” and “Print Size” options. “Paper Size” lets you choose from different paper layouts like US Legal Size, US Letter, A4, your own custom size, etc. The “Print Size” will let you choose how small or large you want the picture to be. (How about wallet size? Or heck, you could even blow this picture up to poster size if your printer could handle it and put my cute picture on the fridge!)

    Last but not least, the customize button under the picture will let you choose from the following:

    *Themes:* Change the type of border like in the main print window.
    *Background:* Change the paper that surrounds your photo (the mat). There are about 20 different options from solid colors to fun patterns like the ones pictured below!

    *Borders:* Choose the type of Mat you want. Standard to large.
    *Layout:* You can choose if you want more than one picture (you can go up to four pictures at a time) or if you want the picture shape to be round, oval, vertical, or horizontal, etc.

    Then finally, if you have the picture selected, you can use the “Adjust” button to move the picture around so it fits correctly with the mat/border that you picked. It will also let you change the color, exposure, temperature or reduce the “Noise” of the picture as well, among many other options.

    We will be reporting back on the features in iPhoto ’09 soon!

    Happy printing!