Barkings! | The Small Dog Apple Blog

The exploration of the planet Mars continues in earnest as NASA partners with The University of AZ at Phoenix on the first venture for NASA’s Scout Program.

The Phoenix lander is designed and was deployed to study the history of water and habitability potential in the Martian arctic’s ice-rich soil. The project was first launched in August of 2007 and is providing some great theater for anyone interested in space exploration.

Phoenix successfully landed on the planet’s surface on May 26th, and is currently in its 9th Martian “sol” (or Martian day). During the first few sols, the lander’s solar panels successfully deployed (a very important step for a solar powered spacecraft). Then, a slow unfurling of the robotic arm took place, some pictures were taken and sent along back to us earthlings, as well as a successful round of test scoops for the mini shovel being used to collect samples for examination.

The Phoenix flight system team was ready to reach a major goal in the mission by scooping up some dirt and dumping it in the landers “examination bed”, but the orbiting satallite above the planet dumped into a safe mode and is busy rebooting. Hence a delay in results for this highly anticipated first soil sample test.

Meanwhile, the website created to share news of this mission has posted many news articles, images, videos, a blog, AND a Martain Weather Widget. We encourage you to stay tuned here.

For a curious, out of this world (literally) Dashboard weather widget, link here.

Tags: flight, mars, nasa, phoenix, widget

The screen saver function of the personal computer has been around for a long time in the Mac world, and used to be a necessity, as no one wanted a permanent burned in image on their glass CRT tube. With the inception of the LCD screen, there’s far less demand from a technical standpoint to set a screen saver for your computer at all.

That being said, the function still exists, and people do still change their screen saver from time to time. My personal preference is to build a folder of images like comic book cover art, or rock art concert posters, and set the appropriate System Preferences panel to cycle through them.

As I was perusing through Apple’s Downloads section (www.apple.com/downloads), I stumbled upon a new screen saver that’s pretty cool called Holding Pattern – Coach Class 2.2. It says, “Turn your idle computer screen into an airplane window, complete with moving aerial view. Realistic, gentle animation and superb photography make it a truly distinctive screen saver!”

There are over a dozen different aerial locations to choose from including full daylight, or sunset scenes. Anyone care to fly without leaving the ground? Just download this special screen saver found here:

www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/icons_screensavers/holdingpatternscreensavercoachclass.html

Enjoy!

Have you ever wanted to create your own animation on the computer but felt intimidated by the applications needed to pull off a reasonably decent looking project? They’re hard to learn, right? Wrong.

Fret no more! iStopMotion2 Home Edition by Boinx Software is just what you need to create and edit an animated stop-motion type project.

The Home Edition of iStopMotion2 can use digital stills, digital video, or the built-in iSight as sources of content to work with. From there it’s a matter of using the time line to edit panes, smooth over transitions, and add backgrounds. Anyone can do it!

Obviously, the more expensive Express and Pro versions offer some “power” features, as one would expect.

The Home version is aimed at the more casual user, yet is still a creative and educational experience no matter your skill level.

For a comparison chart of features between the Home, Express, and Pro versions, link here.

iStopMotion2 is the type of intuitive software that allows the user to learn while trying it instead of the need to pour over a manual or training exercise.

Get your copy here.

Tags: boinx, home edition, isight, istopmotion2, photos, videos

April is National Volunteer Month, so I thought it would be fitting to share my experience here at Small Dog Electronics. Up until March of 2008, I was a volunteer ambulance driver in our local community’s volunteer rescue organization–the Mad River Valley Ambulance Service (www.mrvas.org).

During the roughly three year period in which I participated, Small Dog Electronics allowed me to be “on call” every Friday and to respond to well over 100 emergency calls during my tenure as a volunteer. While this two or three hour distraction, three or four times a month caused some inconvenience, in that it affected overall productivity for the day, the benefit to the community in helping our neighbors in need was certainly worth it.

Just in 2008 I responded to over 15 calls for anything from recreational related injuries (snowboarding/sledding/skiing/snowmobiling), to automobile accidents (rollovers and collisions), to some more tame calls like your basic “lift assists” or other more minor injuries (allergic reactions, etc).

In almost all cases, the patients were very thankful for the help, and I was even called at home on one occasion by a parent going out of their way to thank everyone involved in what was a stressful incident in their lives for themselves and their child.

Although I have chosen to leave the organization as a full time, trained member, I hope to volunteer for the ambulance service in some capacity in the future as Small Dog Electronics requires employees to take paid time off to commit to community service. There are many volunteer squads who do not receive appreciation from their communities until they are needed, so please get out and be preemptive in this regard.

Visit your local rescue organization when an open house event occurs, or go to that periodic pancake breakfast. Donate money or subscribe to the emergency service, if offered. Better yet, get involved and volunteer yourself.

You’ll be satisfied that you did.

Tags: community, small dog, volunteer