Kibbles & Bytes Blog

  • FEATURE OF THE WEEK | 12/30/2008 – 01/07/09

    Did anyone you know get a Mac for the first time this holiday season? Worried they might be confused about their new system, or might not be getting the most from Mac OS X and the Apple hardware? If so, we’ve created some specials on Apple books and DVDs just for them (or you, if you’re going to their primary tech support).

    “Switching to A Mac for Dummies Book – FREE shipping!”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag18702/

    “Mac OS X Leopard for Dummies Book – FREE shipping!”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag18701/

    “Leopard, Mac OS X 10.5: Visual QuickStart Guide – FREE Shipping!”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag18598/

    “The Macintosh iLife 08”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag18699/

    “Mac Video Training’s Quick Start Your Mac – 50% off with FREE shipping!”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag18615/

    “Mac Video Training’s Quick Start to iMovie ’08 – 50% off with FREE Shipping!”:http://www.smalldog.com/specials/72416

    “Mac Video Training’s Quick Start to iPhoto ’08 – 50% off with FREE Shipping!”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag18617/

    Also, don’t forget to recommend “Kibbles & Bytes”:http://www.smalldog.com/newsletters and “Tech Tails”:http://www.smalldog.com/newsletters to new Mac users!

  • From the Archives: Choosing a Good Password

    __Originally written by Troy, Tech Tails #__

    Besides finding a perfect spouse, I think that one of the more difficult things in life is choosing a password. When I first began using computers, having only a small list of passwords was pretty simple. However as your responsibilities grow and as more and more websites demand password protection, I find it a struggle to keep up. I have already run the gamut of family names and birth dates and now struggle to find the meaning of life, or at least the current passwords, so that I do not forget them in the weeks to come. I believe a coworker has the perfect answers to these password questions. He searches his room for interesting objects and then changes the spelling of them and uses them as his passwords.

    The Apple Knowledge Base has a helpful article on how to choose a good password. In this article are hints on how to develop good passwords and where to use them.

    “Read it here.”:http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106521

    “Good passwords are over 8 characters long and contain a mix of many different character types. Avoid using city names, street names, names of people (real or fictional), pet names, words found in a dictionary or popular book, phone numbers, birthdays, anniversaries, or simple combinations of these. Avoid using a recognizable spatial pattern of keyboard characters, such as a couple diagonal lines of keyboard keys, such as ‘njimko’.”

    However, creating a good password is only half the battle. You then have to figure out if this is a password that you are going to use forever, or if it is something that you are going to change often. A good password for your user account on your own machine is something that you may never have to change, so it can be something pretty complex. However there are a lot of websites out there that require you to change your password often. On Apple’s Service Provider website, for example, you are forced to change your password every three to four months. In addition to that, if your web browser is idle for more than several minutes, you have to log back in. Needless to say, having a good secure password that is easy to use is essential.

    In the above mentioned Apple Knowledge Base Article, you will also see some great links on how to change passwords in multiple venues such as Keychains, Open Firmware, Safari, and your System Preferences. However, if you use Apple’s Filevault feature of OS 10.3 and you lose its password, you are out of luck and will lose all of your data. Be especially careful with that password! Resetting a user account password in OS X is one of the most common phone calls we get here at
    Small Dog, and it is a fairly simple procedure. Here is an excellent article from the Apple Knowledge Base that will tell you how to do this from OS 10 to OS 10.4:

    “Read it here.”:http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106156

  • 6GB of RAM in your MacBook?

    Now and again, Apple’s technical specifications state a maximum amount of RAM that’s not actually correct. It was the case with the iMac G4, and believe it or not, it’s the case with some MacBooks and MacBook Pros. Any 2.2GHz or faster MacBook Pro, and any MacBook made in November 2007 or sooner, actually supports 6GB of RAM, not 4GB! Like all our RAM, the 4GB PC5300 chips carry a lifetime warranty and are guaranteed Mac compatible.

    You can tell the speed of your Mac by selecting About This Mac from the Apple menu on the upper-left corner of your screen. If your MacBook Pro is at 2.2GHz or faster, it will accommodate the upgrade, but it’s a bit tougher to tell if your MacBook qualifies. Your MacBook’s serial number is the best way to know for sure whether it can hold 6GB.

    Your serial number is very deliberately constructed. The first two characters tell you where the machine was manufactured, the third tells you the year in which it was manufactured, and the fourth and fifth characters tell you the week it was made. Let’s take a hypothetical serial number and dissect it – say, W88231FMYK0. W8 indicates that the machine was made in the Shanghai, China facility. The second 8 indicates the year of manufacture (2008). And the fourth and fifth characters show the week it was made. So, we know from this serial number that the MacBook was made in Shanghai in the 23rd week of 2008.

    How does this relate to RAM in your MacBook? Well, MacBooks manufactured in the 48th week or later in 2007 qualify for the 6GB RAM upgrade. When you look at your serial number, you can ignore the first two characters, as it really doesn’t matter where your machine was made. But make sure the third character is 7 followed by 48 or higher. Any MacBook made in 2008 qualifies for the upgrade.

    I know your next question already: What about requiring matched pairs of RAM for fastest performance? Well, I’ve never really believed that the average user can tell a difference between a machine with matched pairs and one without. There are several studies out there confirming that the infinitesimal speed loss from not interleaving is more than offset by the availability of more physical memory. Any time you can avoid the use of virtual memory, you’re going to see a big speed boost.

    You’ll be excited to know that the unibody laptops all support 6GB as well! We hope to have the PC8500 4GB chips in stock soon.

    It’s a bit complicated I know, but our sales team is trained to know whether your machine qualifies. Swing by one of our stores or give a ring and we can help.

  • Parental Control When There Are No Parents Around

    The holidays are known for being a time when the kids can’t wait to unwrap the present of their dreams! What used to be wishes for ponies and Red Ryder carbine-action BB Guns has now turned into the desire for a 2.53Ghz MacBook Pro with 4GBs of RAM and an AppleCare Protection Plan. While some might say, “At least they can’t shoot their eye out!”, giving your child their first computer can bring some warranted concerns. It came as no surprise to me that over the past two weeks I’ve had more and more concerned parents asking me about the Parental Control options in Leopard and I’m beginning to realize how under-publicized they are.

    While Parental Controls have been around for many years now, it was Leopard that really took that concept to a more sophisticated level that allows for as much flexibility as there are parenting styles. While this article can’t cover all of the detail that Apple has put into it, I at least wanted to highlight the perks.

    Any Standard or Managed account can be accessed and controlled by the Parental Control panel within System Preferences (it should be mentioned that by setting Parental Controls the account will become Managed even if it was a Standard account). The first screen in Parental Controls, System, shows the ability to use Simple Finder, as previous OSs have. This shows a very simple desktop with one or two folders and not much else. I’m honestly not a fan of Simple Finder and I think that by using the Parental Controls pane’s new features there are ways to make a much better customized environment. For example, “only allow selected applications” is a great way to ensure that your children (or guests) can only use specific applications. These don’t have to be Apple applications, as the “Other” option allows you to choose any application within your Applications folder. Want your child to only be able to access Safari and MS Word, but not get to games or iChat? Easy! You can even change settings here so they can’t burn DVDs/CDs, change their password or modify their Dock (which is great for toddlers who constantly drag applications out of the Dock).

    “Content” allows parents to hide profanities in the Dictionary and to restrict Safari access either by giving it a list of the sites the Managed Account can access or by giving it a list of sites it can’t access. There’s even an option to limit access to adult sites automatically by using a built-in filter. This is a point where I like to remind parents that while this might be too restrictive for older children or some parenting styles, it’s certainly applicable for very young children or those in an unsupervised environment. “Mail & iChat” offers further restrictions for those who want their children to only send and receive mail or messages from those on an approved list. Children can then send permission requests to add new addresses directly to their parents. There can also be time restrictions set on Mail and iChat. “Time Limits” allows parents to set both weekday and weekend time limits so that the computer is literally unusable once an allotted time-frame is up. There’s even a “Bedtime” option to lock them out during certain hours of the day or night.

    Want to follow up to be sure that Safari is restricting the right sites or that chats are appropriate? “Logs” gives parents a full log of all of the websites visited, all of the iChat logs and all of the Applications used and for how long. Things get even better when parents realize that there’s an option to control all of these Parental Controls remotely on their own Mac! Do your children have more than one computer they can access in the house? Manage them all from one computer.

    While Parental Controls might not be for everyone (in fact I’m sure there are a few people out there thinking this is another horrid reenactment of the V-chip), they can be a valuable asset to parents who want to help their children develop in a computer-centric society while still being there to hold their proverbial hand. The brevity of options allows for as much or as little control as desired and it’s all fully customizable. Curious? Why not create a test account on your computer and give it a whirl!

  • Happy Tuesday,

    After a warm and blustery weekend that melted almost all the snow, I awoke this morning to a few fresh inches in the yard. I’m hoping the warm spell will be the only one this winter. Local ski areas took a real hit in what is usually a very busy time of year for them. Mad River Glen’s main mountain remains closed a few days after temperatures dropped below freezing!

    I appreciate the honest feedback–good and bad–from all of you regarding our transition to this new HTML format. We’re aware of several problems with the way Tech Tails is rendered in some email programs, and hopefully they’ve all been resolved with this issue.

    All the best for a healthy, fulfilling 2009.

    Matt
    “matt@smalldog.com”:mailto:matt@smalldog.com

  • Matt talked about our first snowmobile adventure last weekend. Tony, who is the president of the local club convinced us to trailer up to the base of Camel’s Hump in the middle of a blizzard because the trail up there had been groomed. After futzing with the battery on one machine for a couple hours (those little connectors are a pain!) we made it up and had a great ride in the woods until Matt’s machine stopped working about 5 miles from civilization. We tried to tow it out of there but couldn’t make it up the hill so unfortunately, we had to abandon it on the side of the trail in the snow bank and double up going back. We learned a lot and the groomer will haul Matt’s sled out one of these days.

    We got a bunch of snow this past week, I think there is over 4 feet at my house already! Thanks for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes! Have a wonderful holiday and happy 2009!

    Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,

    Don, Ed, Kali

  • FEATURE OF THE WEEK | 12/26/2008 – 01/02/09

    Did anyone you know get a Mac for the first time this holiday season? Worried they might be confused about their new system, or might not be getting the most from Mac OS X and the Apple hardware? If so, we’ve created some specials on Apple books and DVDs just for them (or you, if you’re going to their primary tech support).

    “Switching to A Mac for Dummies Book – Free 3-day shipping!”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag18702/

    “Mac OS X Leopard for Dummies Book – Free 3-day shipping!”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag18701/

    “Leopard, Mac OS X 10.5: Visual QuickStart Guide – FREE Shipping!”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag18598/

    “The Macintosh iLife 08”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag18699/

    “Mac Video Training’s Quick Start Your Mac – 50% off with FREE shipping!”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag18615/

    “Mac Video Training’s Quick Start to iMovie ’08 – 50% off with FREE Shipping!”:http://www.smalldog.com/specials/72416

    “Mac Video Training’s Quick Start to iPhoto ’08 – 50% off with FREE Shipping!”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag18617/

    Also, don’t forget to recommend “Kibbles & Bytes”:http://www.smalldog.com/newsletters to new Mac users!

  • Don's 2008 Prediction Recap

    *SPORTS*

    MLB Baseball: Okay I’m getting really tired of saying “wait until next year” so this is absolutely the year that the Cubs make it to the World Series and beat the Boston Red Sox in 7 games. Geoff and the rest of the Red Sox fans will paper my wall with signed $1 bills. How can they miss with a new right fielder named Kosuke Fukudome? Lou Piniella will have a powerful line-up with Fukudome, Soriano, Lee and Ramirez. – ??Wrong again, just wait until next year!??

    NBA Basketball: The Boston Celtics will have the best record of any Celtics team ever, will have the best record in the NBA and will go all the way to hang the 17th NBA title banner in the Garden by beating the Spurs in 6. Kevin Garnett will be MVP. – ??The Boston Celtics hung #17 and are the world champs well on their way to #18??

    NFL Football: Some Pats fans are okay but some of the Pats fans are incredibly obnoxious. The Pats look like one of the best football teams ever and will post the undefeated record and the SuperBowl win. Next fall, look for the Pats to have their first loss within the first two games of the season. – ??Wrong – they lost the third game but won the first two??

    Olympics – the summer Olympics in China will be simply spectacular and the USA will dominate the gold medals. – ??The USA did great at a great Olympics??

    *WEATHER*

    After the great start to the snow season, Vermont will have one of the snowiest winters in years with three “dumps” of over two feet before spring. Temperatures will remain mild with little below 0° F. Spring will be here early again and I’ll be riding my motorcycle in Vermont by the end of March. More storms and freak weather will be seen in most parts of the country as Mother Nature tries to shake off her hot flashes. – ??All True??

    *POLITICS*

    Not much will happen in Congress during this election year with a lame duck President. The deficit will soar due to declining economic growth and the continued demands of the wars and the escalating cost of health care.

    Barack Obama will win the democratic nomination by May and John McCain will win the republican nod. Obama will be elected in a close election with at least two third party candidates drawing votes from both sides.

    Vermont Governor Jim Douglas will be only the second incumbent governor in the state’s history to be voted out of office.

    Democrats will control both houses of congress but not by a veto-proof margin.

    ??I did pretty good here — all right except the close election and Governor Douglas was re-elected by a strong margin versus two liberal candidates??

    *WORLD*

    In a tragic repeat of last year, Iraq will continue to drain resources and kill young soldiers and innocent civilians, and the Iraqi people will continue to suffer. (This is unfortunately, the identical prediction from the last two years!) What a tragic waste of resources! – ??OMG – yes, sad but true.??

    In the face of new scientific evidence that climate change is much worse and getting worse faster, more countries will join the fight against climate change. Climate change will begin to influence everyone’s life. – ??I calling this one as right.??

    Pakistan will be the scene of the next major conflict driven by religious extremism. – ??Close, unfortunately.??

    Israel and the Palestinians will finally sign a peace deal and there will be a two-state solution. – ??Not yet, unfortunately. Can we peacefully end this conflict, please???

    *ECONOMY*

    Gasoline prices will exceed $5/gallon by the end of the summer – ??High and then low??

    More high efficiency cars will make it to market – ??Not very many, just wait a couple years??

    Renewable energy and conservation/efficiency companies will create thousands of jobs and create a new sector of economic growth – ??Yes, wind turbines, energy conservation and other renewables are creating non-exportable jobs NOW and will be even more next year??

    The will be a sharp correction in the stock market with the Dow losing 20%. – ??And then some…??

    *APPLE*

    Apple stock will be split 4 to 1 and will reach $100 a share ($400 adjusted) – ??nope AAPL lost over 50% of its value??

    Apple will post its best operating results ever for 2008 and 2009 – ??YES??

    Apple’s Macintosh market share will continue to grow and will exceed 12% – ??YES??

    Apple will expand its hand-held computing/cell phone platform with new offerings – ??not yet, soon to come perhaps??

    The iPhone will see two new models – ??Yes if you count black and white 3G models??

    An Apple subcompact featuring flash memory drives will be introduced – ??MacBook Air!??

    AppleTV will be enhanced – ??Yes, if you count AppleTV Take 2??

    Apple will make one surprising major acquisition – ??Nope??

    *SMALL DOG ELECTRONICS*

    Small Dog Electronics will post record sales for the 3rd year in a row – ??Yes??

    Small Dog will unveil a new web site with new looks and functionality – ??Yes??

    Small Dog will open two additional retail stores – ??Not yet??

    Small Dog Electronics will have 65 employees by the end of the year – ??up to 40??
    Small Dog Electronics will recycle over 75 tons of eWaste – ??Blasted through that one with 155 Tons at one event – we are now the only electronics retailer that can claim to have recycled more electronics than we have sold!??

    *PERSONAL*

    I will go on a motorcycle trip of over 3000 miles – ??Yup – Sturgis, SD and back??

    I will not wear a tie all year – ??Another year under my belt??

    I will have two new computers – ??Two MacBook Airs and a MacBook Pro??

    *35 predictions, 21 right, 13 wrong, batting .600 for 2008. See next week’s Kibbles for my prognostications on 2009.*

  • 2008 – A Timeline of Notable Apple Events in 2008

    Continuing an end-of-year Small Dog tradition, the following is a timeline of notable events for Apple Inc. in 2008.

    It’s worth noting that while Apple’s market share continued to expand rapidly in 2008, the value of Apple’s shares (AAPL) took a beating. As of this writing, AAPL is down 56% for the year. It started at $193, and is trading at $85.50 today. At its lowest point, it was trading at $80.00 on November 20. The stock was strong mid-spring through the summer, but crashed along with the rest of the market in the autumn.

    *January 08* Apple announces Penryn Mac Pros and Xserves. “With 3.2 GHz 8-core Xeon processing, a 1600 MHz front side bus and 800 MHz memory, the new Mac Pro uses the fastest Intel Xeon architecture on the market.” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.

    *January 09* Warner, Paramount, Disney, Fox, Lions Gate to Join iTunes Rentals

    *January 15* At Macworld San Francisco, Apple announces several new products, including Time Capsule, iTunes movie rentals, AppleTV Take 2, MacBook Air, and iTunes 7.6. Apple also announces Phone Software Update & SDK Release date.

    *January 16* Microsoft launches Mac Office 2008

    *February 01* Microsoft Makes $44.6 Billion Bid to Acquire Yahoo

    *February 05* Apple Announces a 16GB iPhone and 32GB iPod touch

    *February 05* Canalys reports that iPhone has 28% of U.S. Smartphone Marketshare for Q4 2007.

    *February 09* Yahoo Says ‘No’ to Microsoft’s Bid

    *February 11* Mac OS X (Leopard) 10.5.2 Update Released

    *February 12* Apple releases Aperture 2.0

    *February 12* Apple releases Apple TV ‘Take 2’ software update. Apple TV owners can now rent movies without the use of a computer in standard and high definition formats.

    *February 26* Apple Releases Intel Penryn-Based MacBook Pros with Multitouch – MacBook Pro includes the latest NVIDIA graphics processors, now with up to 512MB of video memory,and Apple’s innovative Multi-Touch trackpad, first introduced in MacBook Air. Processor speeds up to a 2.6 GHz. The 17″ model offers an optional LED screen.

    *February 26* Apple Releases New Penryn Based MacBooks with faster processors and larger hard drives.

    *March 06* Apple Releases iPhone SDK, featuring ActiveSync, Exchange, WPA2, Push Services.

    *April 03* Apple becomes #1 music retailer in U.S. Wal-Mart is second, Best Buy third and Amazon is fourth.

    *April 08* Apple (finally) ships Final Cut Server

    *May 01* Apple TV Update: Buy movies on iTunes the same day as the DVD is released, buy movies directly from Apple TV.

    *June 09* WWDC – .Mac becomes MoblieMe with an URL of Me.com, Apple Announces iPhone 3G, Mac OS X ‘Snow Leopard’ is announced.

    *July 09* iPhone 3G launch, App Store Launch, MobileMe launch

    *July 16* Apple sends apology letter, 30-Day extension to MobileMe customers for botched MobileMe roll-out.

    *August 18* Apple now provides 60 day extension to all MobileMe subscribers for botched MobileMe roll-out.

    *August 28* Steve Jobs obituary accidentally published by Bloomberg.

    *August 19* According to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), Apple still tops the list as highest in customer satisfaction for personal computers.

    *September 09* Apple’s Let’s Rock presentation unveils new 4th Generation iPod Nano, 2nd Generation iPod Touch, 120GB iPod classic, iTunes 8 with HD TV shows, Grid View, Genius Playlists, NBC, refreshed iPod shuffles colors, new in-ear headphones

    *September 23* Adobe Unveils Creative Suite CS4, GPU Accelerated Photoshop

    *October 14*In an event called “The Spotlight Turns to Notebooks”, Apple intros MacBooks and MacBook Pros with new unibody aluminum cases and an entirely new way of building notebooks from a single block of aluminum. These are touted as the industry’s greenest notebooks.

    Beyond unibody enclosure, other features include-Mini DisplayPort for video out, improved NVIDIA graphics across the entire line, instant-on LED-backlit displays, and Glass Multi-Touch trackpad with new Multi-Touch gestures. The unibody MacBooks lose their FireWire port, but FireWire is retained in all MacBook Pros and a $999 white MacBook Apple touts as its entry-level model.

    MacBook Airs Get Penryn processors, MacBooks and Pros Intel Montevina Core 2 Duo Processors. MacBook Pros processors now run up to 2.8GHz.

    The 17″ MacBook Pro retains the same appearance but now ships with high resolution 1920 x 1200 LED-backlit display and a larger 320GB hard drive, and an option for a 128GB SSD drive.

    *October 14* Apple introduces 24″ LED Cinema Display with built-in iSight and innovative streamlined design. The only inputs MiniDisplay Port, making it compatible for new MacBook line.

    *October 24* Apple Publicly Opposes California Proposition 8 (Ban on Same Sex Marriage)

    *December 01* Simpsons Mock Apple with “Mapple” skit, video from the show goes viral and fills email inboxes around the world.

    *December 01* Apple offers free licensing of Mini DisplayPort Spec.

    *December 16* Apple announces that Steve Jobs will not give the 2009 Macworld keynote, and that Apple will not have a presence at future Macworld Conferences. Phil Schiller will instead give the Apple keynote. Speculation that Steve Jobs and Apple’s withdrawal has to do with Jobs’ health is shot down when it is revealed that Apple had decided months ago to discontinue its annual Macworld presence, as tradeshows had become a very minor part of Apple’s outreach efforts.

    *December 22* iPhone in Vermont – confirmed! And the year ends on a positive note!