Barkings! | The Small Dog Apple Blog

Last Friday I went to Unity, NH and attended the unity rally with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. This Friday I will be in the annual 4th of July parade in Warren, Vermont. These events are a symbol of why I love my country and why I work so hard to make it a better place for all of us.

It is only in our country that a woman and a black man could become major candidates for the most powerful elected office in the world. It is only in our country that this could happen without violence and that the people choose who will lead them. Even more remarkable is that these two rivals for this office came together in a small town in New England and both gave impassioned speeches that left many in the crowd in tears.

The message of hope and concern for the direction of our country and its people was apparent but even more apparent was that both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have devoted their lives truly to public service. In this spotlight of a presidential race, it seems only the strongest can survive the scrutiny and contentious debate.

Jammed into the school yard were thousands of supporters eager to hear both Senator Clinton and Obama speak. They both spoke TO the crowd as if we were truly in this together united in the desire to make our country better. I am proud of these two, just as I am proud of Senator McCain for his life of service to our nation. But mostly I am proud of the USA and our founding fathers for devising a system that allows for peaceful change, liberty and independence.

We will celebrate this independence in Warren, Vermont for the 60th year of the Warren parade. We will draw in excess of 10,000 people to our village of about 1000 to witness the parade and party. Politicians will march with an diverse set of home-made floats, including me with Hammerhead in the sidecar of the motorcycle. Then there is a street party and later, adult strawberry drinks at my house followed by fireworks.

Independence Day. For me it is a celebration of the Declaration of Independence where the infamous words ring as true today as they did in 1776 –

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…

Happy Birthday USA!

Tags: 2008, barack obama, change, hillary clinton, rally, unity

In the past, I have written reviews of many ergonomic keyboards as alternatives to the Apple stock keyboards. My interest in ergonomic keyboards came from my experience with RSI – repetitive stress injury. Early on at Small Dog, I developed a serious case of carpal tunnel syndrome in both wrists. It was so severe that I ultimately needed surgery and opted to do both wrists at the same time. This led to some interesting moments for several weeks where I was pretty useless except for talking on the phone, but luckily, Hapy and Artie picked up the slack. While my surgeon told me I’ll never suffer from CTS again, I have been a believer in ergonomic keyboards ever since.

My earliest ergonomic keyboard was the Apple Adjustable keyboard that made a good attempt to be more wrist-friendly, and I eventually moved on to the Kinesis Advantage Pro keyboard, which I’ve been using for several years now. This is the ultimate ergonomic keyboard; however, it is difficult to learn to use and I’m pretty much the only person at Small Dog that is able to use it. It took me about two weeks to recover my typing speed as I learned the keyboard, but once I did, the comfort was amazing and my speed and accuracy increased dramatically. One of the biggest barriers (other than the learning curve) has been the price of the Advantage Pro–it retails for about $360, and even with our $30 discount to $329.99, it’s a lot of money to spend!

Kinesis has just released a new keyboard called the FreeStyle, and they were kind enough to send me a sample to test. The keyboard was created with input from ergonomists and health professionals and provides adjustability that will meet most users’ preferences. The FreeStyle Solo keyboard offers a range of distance between both keying modules (from zero to eight inches of separation) to accommodate a wide variety of shoulder widths. There are two add-on accessory bundles that give it additional versatility, and both include the essential wrist pads. The Incline accessory mounts the keyboard securely to a base and allows for a fixed split and tented orientation. It has a 10 degree fixed tenting and the splay is adjustable up to 30 degrees. The VIP (V-Lifter and Integrated Palm supports) accessory allows for 10 and 15 degree tenting.

For my initial testing, I used the Incline accessory. It took me a little bit of time to adjust from the Advantage Pro, but I found the new FreeStyle Solo to be a great new ergonomic keyboard. True to form, it works without any drivers–just plug it in. The keyboard also includes some useful Hot Keys including Web Page forward and back, Beginning of line, End of line, Cut, Undo, Copy, Select All and Paste. Additional top line keys go beyond Apple’s standard keyboard by offering Force Quit, Brightness, two Exposé actions, Dashboard, Play Audio and Audio Volume, Toggle Dock and more.

The keyboard includes double wide Escape, Delete and Backspace keys which enable faster typing (and correcting!). The quiet and tactile key switches have low force which reduces typing effort. I don’t know if I will stay with the FreeStyle or go back to the more expensive Advantage Pro, but this is a very powerful new offering from Kenesis. They are the experts in ergonomic keyboards–at just $99 for the keyboard and $40 for either of the add-on kits, the FreeStyle is truly a value. If you do a lot of typing, you should consider this keyboard to help reduce RSI and increase your productivity and typing comfort. Highly recommended!

Those of you that know me also know that I am a lifelong Boston Celtics fan. So much so that my office has autographed pictures of famous and not so famous Celtics from over the years.

I try to watch every game and when I was a kid, I would listen to Celtics games on my transistor radio under my pillow, spinning the dial to find Johnny Most’s gravely voice. I have “Lucky” the Celtics leprechaun mascot tattooed permanently on my shoulder, too!

I was thrilled to see Danny Ainge sign Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett and then on cloud nine as the Celtics marched to a league-leading 66 game winning season. I was on the edge of my seat throughout the playoffs and last night when the Celtics spanked the Lakers to win it all, I was screaming, clapping and celebrating and stayed up to watch all the interviews and re-plays.

My favorite moment was when Kevin Garnett and Bill Russell embraced at center court and Kevin shouted – “I got mine, I got mine!”

My son went wrong somewhere in his youth and has been a lifelong Lakers fan, making for many wagers, arguments and fun. This time, the wager was that the loser has to wear the winner’s t-shirt of choice for a week and take the winner to the regular season game between the C’s and the Lakers next year wearing that shirt. I picked a nice shirt with all 17 of the Celtics championship banners on it for Hapy to wear. I’ll be sure to post some pictures.

Here’s to the Celtics, world champions! and especially to my favorite three players, Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce and Glen (Big Baby) Davis!

Tags: boston, celtics, don, lakers, nba

A couple of months ago I noticed a sample of the Kensington Slimblade on Hapy’s desk and thought it would be a good time to check out a new mouse.

I’ve been a trackball guy for many years and went back to a mouse with the introduction of the Apple Mighty Mouse Bluetooth because it gave me the control of the trackball with the small footprint and advantages of the mouse.

With the best of all worlds why would I switch to Kensington? Well one of the great benefits of owning Small Dog Electronics is that I get to try out all these great electronics (read -toys).

The Slimblade feels great in my hand and the 360° trackball is smooth to operate. The batteries have not shown any sign of wearing out yet after 3+ months and is supposed to last 6. Push the mode button and the fuel gauge shows you just how much juice is left.

The mouse connects via BlueTooth and is warranted for 5-years, too. There are three modes activated my the mode button, mouse only- it acts like a mouse, trackball only and both. I always keep it on both, using the mouse for selecting between windows and the fingertip trackball for scrolling around a document.

I highly recommend the Kensington Slimblade – it is the only mouse I’ll use now.