Kibbles & Bytes Blog

I’m a fan of the Post-It note, so I love the fact that it comes on my Mac (plus, it’s better for the environment that way). I’m __not__ a fan, however, of the clutter that occurs when I have several windows open.

I thought I’d explore some preferences to see if I could make the application work better for me, and I found an option I now use all the time: making the note translucent, with the keyboard shortcut of Command-Option-T. So now when I have several notes open, I can still see the other items I’m working on underneath.

There are many more tips to make Stickies a much better app, and “Macostips.co.uk”:http://www.macosxtips.co.uk/ has outlined a top 10 which is worth a read (they like the translucency, too!). “Check it out!”:http://www.macosxtips.co.uk/index_files/10-tips-for-stickies.html

_Hi Everyone,_

It’s Edward Shepard writing for Don this week. Sadly, he was abducted by little grey aliens on Wednesday. He won’t be back until they get tired of hearing about how superior the National League supposedly is to the American League.

We began adding holiday flair to “Smalldog.com”:http://www.smalldog.com this week. I have to admit, it seems early for this. I’d prefer to wait until after Thanksgiving (at least). We all know that retailers are pushing the Christmas season earlier and earlier. A little holiday magic is lost when “Silver Bells” is playing while you’re shopping for Halloween candy. I even read that some Cracker Barrel restaurants already had complete Christmas displays set up at the end of August. That’s absurd! You can still swim in Lake Champlain in August!

While we don’t relish being part of the holiday magic-diluting trend, and we’ve resisted it in the past, this year we recognized that most other businesses in our industry had posted their holiday sales message by 10/31. That’s partly because people really are already looking for holiday and pre-holiday special offers. In this shaky economy, people are planning ahead for their big (and small) purchases. We’re hearing about this on a daily basis.

We’ve posted our “Pre-Holiday Sales Event page here.”:http://www.smalldog.com/holiday After the 24th, that page will become our main holiday sales page. We’ll keep it updated with the most popular items for sale on Smalldog.com, new special offers, and gift suggestions. Even better, we’re going to make sure our holiday offers are competitively priced, easy to purchase, and easy to understand. Finally, our customers will get more than just a holiday purchase from Small Dog; they’ll get an entire team of people dedicated to ensuring that they’re happy with their purchase, and that the purchase was an excellent all-around value.

Now for a final confession: I really do love Christmas and the holiday season in general. It’s fun to decorate our website, even if it seems a little early. Some of my friends are getting tired of hearing me say this, but I already want to get a Christmas tree. I’m getting one the weekend after Thanksgiving. I’m going to make the most of the season, bad economy or not. So Merry–I mean, Happy–I mean, Seasons–eh, still too early for that. How about this: Have a nice weekend!

Ed@Smalldog.com

I took my lawn signs down and took off the bumper stickers. Now we get to replace the excitement of watching the election unfold with the excitement of the peaceful transition of power that makes our country so unique. That transition alone will set the stage for cooperation and hopefully the bipartisan collaboration will stick around a bit. We’ve had a warm week here in Vermont, but it looks like rain and some snow is coming over the weekend. Killington Mountain & Resort just south of us down Route 100 has already opened.

Have a great weekend, and thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

Your Kibbles & Bytes team,
_Don, Kali & Ed_

View specials while on-hand supplies last. Please note that some specials may not be available in our retail stores; check for availability. Also,…

The previous-generation MacBook Pros are going fast. These are brand new, offer nice matte displays, and have a time-tested, reliable design. We’ve upgraded…

Just a note that we regret the omission of the outro in last week’s Kibbles & Bytes (#593). The archives are updated with the corrected issue; see it here:

“Blog.smalldog.com/kibbles”:http://blog.smalldog.com/kibbles

*Start Soapbox*

California, Arizona and Florida all passed laws outlawing same-sex marriage on Tuesday. Small Dog Electronics had joined Apple in opposing this proposition that legalizes discrimination against one group of people. It is a slippery slope and a workplace issue that deserves our attention. I have been active in similar efforts here in Vermont and helped to pass a policy resolution for Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility that states unequivocally:

__”The people of Vermont have long aspired to live together under fair laws that recognize our equality and common humanity. As business leaders, we support the freedom to marry in Vermont. We understand that strong businesses thrive in strong communities. We know that our ability to recruit the most talented employees depends on our ability to attract them to a state with fair and inclusive laws. And we understand that Vermont’s national leadership in civil rights is an important part of who we are as a state. Because marriage is a basic human right and an individual choice, we support full civil marriage for same-sex couples.”__

This issue is one of basic human rights. Couples, whether straight or gay should enjoy the same rights regardless of their sexual orientation. It is a matter of civil rights and equal protection under the law. Perhaps all marriages should become civil unions in the secular society and marriage itself should be a strictly optional label that could be governed by religious or other organizations. The key element, however, is that the rights granted under law should should be identical.

I know that this issue will come up again and hopefully, soon will be resolved intelligently and one more excuse for bigotry and prejudice will be put on the scrap heap of discrimination.

*End Soapbox*

Undoubtedly, November 4 was the most important day nationwide in 2008. I wanted to be a part of that somehow, so I decided to volunteer at the local City Clerk’s Office on Tuesday.

When I arrived at 9AM, the energy was already high. Outside, there were picketers, TV crews and various political hopefuls to greet the voters who came in to cast their votes. Volunteers were ready with their “I Voted” stickers, and people were milling around everywhere.

Once inside, there was a lot to do: over 2,000 absentee ballots needed to be opened, counted (many times double- and triple-counted) and recorded, the ballot-feed machine needed to be emptied, voters needed to be checked in, ballots needed to be handed out and we needed to just be generally available to assist with the process. The day went amazingly smoothly–by about 2PM, more than 3/4 of Washington County’s registered voters in the Montpelier Disctrict had already had their ballots counted.

Since I spent a great amount of time working with the absentee ballots–including hand-transferring the emailed ballots onto the official ballot paper–I got to see how many people voted. Every ballot was anonymous by this point–someone elase had already recorded the absentee voter’s name onto the master list of registered voters, and yet someone else had opened the envelope and put the ballot in a pile (we were an assembly line of about 7 people–a well-oiled machine after a handful of ballots!). It was fascinating to see the voting trends (or seemingly lackthereof); it reminded me of the multiple-choice standardized tests I took in high school after a while!

I was able to do this as part of Small Dog’s Volunteerism Initiative, wherein each employee is mandated to take a (paid) day to volunteer in the community each year. It means a lot to Don to give back to the community, and this is a way that people can do their part without what may be the largest deterrent–sacrificing their pay. I have done a fair amount of unpaid volunteer work in the past, and the bottom line is that it just feels good, and it’s the right thing to do. I’m encouraged to go beyond this one day a year–no matter how busy I may feel–and be more active in community endeavors and volunteerism in the future. With that said, I’m already planning on 2010…

Check out our Flickr page to see some photos from my day at the polls: http://www.flickr.com/photos/smalldog/

Find out more about Small Dog’s programs: http://www.smalldog.com/about