Kibbles & Bytes Blog

So there you are. Hammering away at your keyboard, not breaking eye-contact with your monitor, your eyes observing intently the letters that manifest themselves against the white backdrop of your e-mail window with each click and clack of your fingertips. Before you realize it you have moved just a bit closer to your screen, your eyes feel strained and you have that little headache growing again.

These, my friends, are some of the side effects of prolonged exposure to artificial blue light. I’m sure many of us out there have the firsthand familiarity with the effects of the dreaded blue light, but those who might be a little unfamiliar let’s take a closer look.

We know light is made up of electromagnetic particles that travel in waves. These waves emit energy, and range in length and strength. The shorter the wavelength, the higher the energy. These varying wavelengths are each represented by a different color and they’re grouped into the following categories: gamma rays, x-rays, visible light, infrared light, and radio waves. Put all of these together and you have the electromagnetic spectrum, visible blue light is the neighbor to ultraviolet which as we know is quite harmful. Blue light has a very short wavelength and thus it contains a higher amount of energy.

This isn’t to say all forms of blue light are “bad”, by any means. In fact, quite the opposite. Let’s break down blue light in the forms of natural and artificial. Natural blue light is found virtually everywhere you look. It’s the reason the sky is blue, and it’s the reason our bodies tell us when it’s time to sleep. On a physiological level, blue light is quite beneficial for not only our physical wellbeing, but also our mental state. One could argue that it’s the reason some of us get bummed out when hit with a string of rainy days, and the same reason we feel joy when the sun comes back around again!

However, in this age of information, we’re subjected to artificial blue light on a daily basis. Devices such as your cell phone, your computer screen, your television, your tablet and energy efficient lightbulbs all mimic and imitate natural blue light. This fact is and of itself, is of course not inherently adverse to our health and wellbeing but overuse and prolonged overexposure to these devices can counteract the positive effects that natural blue light has on our bodies. Issues ranging from disruptions to sleep cycles, increased risk of depression, back and neck pain and of course permanent eye damage.

So what can we do to find the balance? Luckily for us all, more and more developers are taking steps to counter the adverse effects of artificial blue light. A new addition to macOS Sierra, 10.12.14, was Night Shift. When enabled, Night Shift will adjust colors of your display to the warmer, less intense colors on the spectrum when the sun goes down. Night Shift can also be found on your iOS devices, assuming you are updated to at least iOS 9.3. (Note: not all devices running the prerequisite iOS/OS are capable of running Night Shift) The shift in warmer colors has been shown to lessen the exposure and intensity of the artificial blue light and it’s also is more in-sync with our circadian rhythm, which governs the natural sleep cycle. Too much exposure to artificial blue light before heading off to bed has been shown to adversely effect our chances at getting a good night’s sleep, but reducing that blue light glow to a warmer color has yielded great results for me, personally.

A problem that many e-mail users have is receiving too many unwanted e-mails. I often receive automated e-mails for receipts or promotions that I don’t necessarily want to stop receiving, but are not important enough for me to want to receive a notification about them on my phone or e-mail client. For Gmail users, this problem can be easily solved by setting up a filter.

By creating a filter, you can ensure that e-mails are matching a specific pattern, like from a certain e-mail address or containing a certain phrase in the title or message are caught and filtered. They are automatically marked as read or sent to a specific locations. You create a filter by opening Settings from the Gmail website ( located in the gear icon), and navigating to “filters and blocked addresses” tab. From there you can click the “create a new filter” button to set the parameters for the filter.

I have dozens of filters set up on my Gmail accounts. Every few weeks or so, I look through my recently received e-mails to see if any could have been eliminated by setting a filter. The goal is to never receive an e-mail notification on my phone about an e-mail that I don’t want to reach. As you use more online services you will receive more e-mails that you might want to filter out.

Hopefully this quick tips helps you to keep your in box a bit less chaotic and allow you to focus on the e-mails you really want to see.

No longer the stuff of science fiction, drones are becoming more and more prolific in our modern world for personal and commercial use. Sounding like an angry beehive on steroids, most popular consumer-level drones are what are classified as quadcopters, having 4 propellers providing lift and control. Powered by batteries and electric motors with a sophisticated electronic brain to provide stability, these human-controlled devices often contain detailed HD or 4K cameras which can take spectacular video and images from a perspective only birds and the CIA have been able to experience until now.

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In addition to getting those awesome aerial shots, you may be surprised to know that when flying one you are actually considered by the government to be piloting an aircraft. Easy, Maverick, this doesn’t mean that you get your gold wings or a fancy helmet. What it does mean is that there are laws that are attached when taking a drone out to fly.

To the Federal Government, a drone is considered an Unmanned Aircraft System, or UAS. If you’re based in the USA most drones, aside from the little $10 novelty toys you can buy at a drugstore, have to be registered with the Federal Aviation Administration. You can “register online”:https://registermyuas.faa.gov/ easily and it only costs $5 for three years, but if you fail to register, you can rack up expensive fines and even up to three years in prison, but that’s obviously in extreme cases.

If you’re planning on using your drone for commercial purposes such as selling your footage or delivering pizzas, you’ll need to take a “few more steps”:https://www.faa.gov/uas/getting_started/fly_for_work_business/ which includes passing an initial aeronautical knowledge test. The good thing is that you can “study online”:https://www.faa.gov/uas/getting_started/fly_for_work_business/becoming_a_pilot/ and prepare ahead of time.

Once you have registered, you will want to follow these guidelines:

* Don’t fly higher than 400 feet.
* Always keep your drone within sight.
* Avoid flying in the dark, strong winds, and/or bad weather.
* Don’t fly near other people or property until you’re very confident in your ability to maintain control and pilot the vehicle.
* Avoid airports and military-controlled areas to prevent accidentally filming something classified and getting the men-in-black called on you. Also if you do fly within 5 miles of an airport, you have to notify air traffic control.
* Avoid flying over private property as much as possible as privacy is always an issue.

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What it really comes down to is that you’re operating an aircraft which can potentially crash into other aircraft, wildlife, buildings, people, power lines and has the potential to give you the ability to cross barriers and fences to access areas that someone else may not want you to have access to. Please use common sense and be courteous, follow local laws and regulations and don’t annoy, harass or trespass on your neighbors. Let’s keep that awesome footage coming.

Summer is officially here and an already short Summer in Vermont feels even shorter with all the rain we continue to get. We really only get 2 months of summertime weather here in the Green Mountains. I continue to think positively that the continuous rain in the daily forecast will come to an end. The one plus is that I’m taking every advantage I can to enjoy the sunshine when it does come out.

I was talking to a customer last week who, like me, is doing his best to enjoy the warm summer weather every chance he can. We’ve been experiencing a lot of sudden showers. One minute it’s sunny and in a matter of minutes it’s pouring down on us. Unfortunately for the customer I was talking with his MacBook Air was caught in one of these sudden showers. He had been working on his MacBook Air on his deck and listening to music, while cooking dinner a pop up shower erupted and he unfortunately forgot his computer was on the deck. Well you can guess what happened next, another tragic story if liquid damage to a computer. These kinds of accidents happen all of the time, I could write a book about all the ways I’ve heard of how a computer ended up with liquid damage. Broken shampoo bottles in suite cases, the cat running across the desk and hitting the glass of water on the way by and the champagne toast that didn’t go as planned. Thankfully, for some customers this worry and concern is now by the wayside. With Apple’s introduction of AppleCare+ for Mac, customers can now have peace of mind when it comes to life’s mishaps with liquids and their computers. Many customers choose to skip AppleCare because of the Macs reliability, but with the added protection of accidental damage everyone should be purchasing AppleCare+ for Mac with your computer purchase. Apple now also only gives you 60 days to get this protection, so I strongly encourage it at the time of purchase. AppleCare+ can make your next trip to the service department a lot less stressful!

I hope everyone has a safe and memorable 4th of July weekend. Our offices will be closed as well as our retail locations so that everyone can enjoy this special holiday.

Thank you for reading.
Emily Dolloff
“emily@smalldog.com”:mailto:emily@smalldog.com