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Selling your Mac? Erase that hard drive
Did you know that Apple, maker of the iPhone, also makes computers? It is true! You might even own one yourself! This tip is for those of you looking to sell your Mac to get an iPhone (or if you're selling it for any other reason in fact). Our friends at Small Dog Electronics have posted some tips on securely erasing your Mac's hard drive BEFORE you sell it to some random dude.Sure, you can just nuke and pave (aka reinstall OS X), but if you're using OS X 10.4 the Disk Utility can make sure none of your data will be readable from that drive (or least not without extreme effort). Head on over to Barkings and check it out.
Roadkill MacBook Pro keeps on keepin' on
Vermont-based blacksmith Jim Fecteau uses his 17" MacBook Pro as a business and teaching tool, and he fully intended to have it handy at a smiths' meeting in Rhode Island... however, one teensy problem, he left it on top of his truck as he drove away from home. Oops. After fruitless searching on the home end, he chalked it up as a loss.Enter Small Dog Electronics, longtime Mac vendor in Burlington, VT. A good Samaritan turned the laptop in and SD contacted Fecteau, who came to pick up the patient. Unfortunately, the laptop had been run over by his trailer, and we all know that's gonna leave a mark. A good chunk of the screen is unusable, and the DVD drive has played its last, but the machine is still operable (!) and could be repaired to full working order. Fecteau would like to go for one of the new Santa Rosa machines, and who can blame him?You can see several more examples of "Mac meets immovable object" physics experiments at Small Dog's 'Maccident' Flickr pool.[via Small Dog Barkings]Thanks Doug
Small Dog Electronics speaks out on theft-in-transit, credit card fraud and more
The other day we told you about the guy who had his (then) newly purchased iPod swapped out for a bar or soap while in transit from Small Dog, a Vermont Apple Reseller. I was amazed at how many people mentioned that similar - and worse - things had happened to them so I decided to ask the reseller at the heart of this particular story just how much of a scourge this really is. Don Mayer, CEO of Small Dog Electronics, had a lot to say on the matter.Q. Has Small Dog had this happen before or since?A. There is a growing trend of theft through delivery services. We receive hundreds of packages each day and send out hundreds, too. It used to be that we could trust shrink wrapped pallets of goods from the manufacturer, however, lately, we have had reams of paper substituted for computers, batteries and old socks seem to be the choice for iPods. We've had bricks sent to us and old books and magazines, too. In just about every case the thefts appear to be happening at one of the shipping facilities. Sometimes the pallets are broken down and re-stacked with the tampered boxes on the bottom of the pallet.[More after the jump...]
