Is OSX 10.7 Lion Slow For You? Here's A Quick Fix

A couple weeks ago, Apple released an update to OSX dubbed Lion or 10.7 for those of you keeping track. This was a sweeping update that changed a lot of our familiar functions. This was also the first time an OSX update was available to purchase through Apple's App Store. Second Snack is powered by an iMac and a Macbook Pro so I was eagerly awaiting this latest update. Once installed, I noticed a few applications were running a bit slow. In fact, the whole computer was running a bit weird. I did some research and found a solution that worked for me.

Before you fiddle with anything, always make sure to back up your system. If you aren't already using the built in Time Machine app, you really should be.


Step 1
Go to Disk Utility by typing in Disk Utility in your spotlight (top right). Once in Disk Utility click on your hard drive on the left side of the screen. Then, down on the right side click Verify Disk

Step 2
Restart the computer and hold down the ALT/Option key. Let go when a grey screen with two hard drive icons shows up.

Step 3
Click on the hard drive icon that is label "restore" (or some variation of that)

Step 4
Select Disk Utility and then click continue

Step 5
Select your hard drive right the left side of the screen and click Verify Disk. After it completes, click repair disk, then verify permissions, then repair permissions. Always allow the computer to complete each process before moving on to the next.

Step 6
Restart the computer and let it start up as normal. You will likely see a grey screen for a few minutes with a progress bar moving. After the computer restarts, look at your spotlight. A pulsating dot should be seen in the center of the magnifying glass. Let the computer sit while this dot pulsates and don't open any applications.

After performing this bit of maintenance I noticed my computers both ran much faster than they had right after the OSX update. I was ready to spend some money on more RAM until I read about this tip. I may still do that (who doesn't want more POWER?!) but until then, this fix will keep me going with the same speed and consistency as I had in Snow Leopard.

Comment below if you have questions!

The Long-Term Unemployed Are...Unemployable?

If you've been following this blog since the beginning you'll know that I've spoken about issues revolving around unemployment and getting a job. A big reason I even had the idea to start this site was so that I had something creative to do during a period of extended unemployment I went through. While I've been fortunate to have been working for about a year now, the time I spent out of work has forever changed the way I look at people in this situation. You can imagine my shock and horror as I started hearing about an extremely disturbing trend that effects this very vulnerable group of people. If it wasn't bad enough to be out of work already, then what follows won't help at all.

About a week ago my father-in-law posted a link to Facebook about companies explaining in their job postings that the long-term unemployed won't even be considered for the position advertised. What's more, some companies are advertising that prospective candidates have to be currently employed and that they will not accept anyone who is not working at the moment.

With millions of Americans out of work for an average of 9 months at a time (more than 6 months is considered long-term unemployment) this practice effectively cuts out the already small amount of job opportunities for a huge segment of our population. My local NPR station, KPCC talked about this on the Patt Morrison show a few days after I read that first article. Caller after caller commented on their experience with this practice.

Employment experts from the public and private sector explained in a very passionate way that this method of hiring people is illogical and prolong's our economy's weakened state. The system is unsustainable with this many people out of work. To sweep them under the rug and hope that someone else will hire them is short sighted and hinder's our economy's growth. The explanation for this practice stems from the incorrect notion that people who are unemployed were bad workers to begin with. I know a lot of brilliant people who were laid off. People who were in command of excellent salaries and had huge responsibilities resting on their shoulders. In fact, quite often the better employees who had larger salaries were let go as companies could no longer afford them.

How can you combat this?

If you are a long-term unemployed person, realize that you are fighting against some pretty steep odds. Productivity levels in the United States have actually risen during this recession as employers are able to get more work out of less people. Whether companies can hire more people or not is a different argument for a different time but the fact is that you not only have to compete against your fellow job searchers, but you also have to fight against the notion that you aren't employable.

Stay Busy
While you may not be getting a regular pay check right now, its in your best interest to get out there and get experience to keep your resume current and with the times. While I was unemployed, I did consulting work wherever I could find it. I built small websites for friends, ran research projects and did basic administrative work. I pulled all of these side jobs into a respectable looking self-employed block of work experience for my resume. Grabbing small jobs here and there helped me keep a sense of self-worth and made me more employable by showing that I was still keeping up with my industry and chosen job path.

Be Careful
Its tempting to tell a potential employer once you land that rare interview that you will accept a sizable cut to your salary in order to work. At first it sounds like a great strategy. However, don't let desperation kill your chances of landing a job right away. If an employer hears that you are willing to take a dramatic cut then they instantly wonder if you will take off as soon as a better paying option comes your way.

Have you experienced this first hand? Have you seen job advertisements that have this condition built in? Or are you in a position where you do hire people? Does a person's out-of-work period change the way you think about candidates even though millions are in this situation? We'd like to hear what you guys think about this trend of exclusion. Post up below.

Frequently Asked Questions: Second Snack

When we started this website, I didn't think anyone would really find it all that interesting. Luckily, it seems the content of this blog has resonated with a really diverse audience of people. One thing that has surprised me is the amount of questions we get about the process of keeping this site up and running. As we already talk about ourselves enough around here, I'm going to answer some of the most frequently asked questions in a way that might help you if you are thinking about starting your own blog.

How do you come up with topics?
When we decided to make the Second Snack blog, our goal was to talk about a whole bunch of different things that are important or interesting to us. In order to do this, we do brainstorming sessions about once a month to figure out new topics to write about. The great thing is that sometimes, these topics can grow into long running series of posts with multiple entries. A good example of this is our iPhone app reviews. We got new phones and wanted to share some of the great free apps we've encountered. Thus, several posts a month are born. To figure out topics for your own blog, think about EVERY part of the subject of your blog. If you want to start a child care interest blog, think about everything that goes in to raising kids well. Food choices, products that have helped you out, parenting strategies, etc. Once you get to it the ideas will start flowing.

Do you create the lego designs yourself?
No I'm not that creative. There are a lot of people out there who are but my goal is simply to rebuild sets as they were developed by LEGO. As a kid I used to create my own sets, but as an adult I don't have that same drive to play or experiment with different builds.

Do you keep all your lego sets put together, and if so, where?
Only a select few have the honor to be kept assembled. They currently live on top of our large bookshelves in the Second Snack office.

How many visitors do you get?
There are two ways to track visitors to this site. The first is the build in tracking system that Blogger (which we use to build this site) has available to its publishers. The other is a deeper dive into visitor statistics called Google Analytics. I use Google Analytics in my career so its easy for me to navigate for this site. Its not hard to learn so I suggest implementing the analytics tracking code to your site to get a better idea of whats going on. Second Snack is still within its first year so its hard to track down an average number of visitors. However, in June, we had over 9000 page views.

Does this cost money for you to do each  month?
We only have to pay an annual fee to Blogger of $10. Any other expenses incurred come from the vacations and things we buy that end up getting talked about here on the blog. If you want to start your own blog, Blogger is a great platform to start with.

Are you open to guest bloggers?
We sure are! All we ask is that guest bloggers aren't promoting a business or trying to make sales and that the topic should fit the general tone of this blog. A safe bet for guest authoring some posts would be restaurant reviews, great recipes, app reviews, book reviews, DIY's and how-to's. As long as the subject fits the overall theme of our blog, we'll consider it and will probably publish it.

What happens if you run out of things to say?
Honestly, I didn't expect to have much to say after the first month or two of writing. We're now almost 8 months in to pumping out a post every weekday. Eventually, we're sure we won't be able to post new content every single day. Its probably not a sustainable schedule but we're sticking with it until topics start to dry up. If you are developing topics to talk about, I actually wouldn't recommend following our schedule of one post per day as its extremely hard to maintain if you have a more focused subject. Two posts per week is actually quite good.

Where can we find you in social media?
We don't have a Facebook fan page (should we?) but we do have a Twitter account you can follow. We post links to each post when they come out so you can follow us there and keep in contact. Twitter and Facebook are great ways to get readers to your blog right away. Organic traffic (people from search engines) builds with time but social traffic can be immediate.


Thinking of starting your own website or blog and have questions for us? Post up below and we'll help you out.

Canon Speedlite 430EX II Review

The first accessory I remember wanting to buy for my camera was a flash. Sure, my Canon Rebel XT came with a built in pop-up flash, but more often then not, I was dis-satisfied by the results I had after shooting with it. Of course, even though I knew I wanted one, I didn't actually put in the research to find out why I would want it. All I knew is that to get the right exposure in any situation that wasn't bright sunlight, my shutter had to be open far longer than would be practical with hand-held (no tripod) shots. So how could I improve my odds of getting a good shot? Add more light of course. Enter the Canon Speedlite 430EX.

Before I get in to my review of the flash itself, lets first talk about why you would want to get an external flash in the first place. Why was the built in flash not good enough for me? The on-camera flash sits only an inch above the lens of your camera which means the light source for your shot is coming from the same angle that your camera is pointed. This usually results in the subject of your photo being very brightly lit with huge dark shadows behind them. Its not a natural or very pleasing look especially if your subject is a person! A way to get around this is shooting at a higher ISO (resulting in more noise but faster shutter speeds) and opening up your aperture more. Both are great options because then you are just relying on the natural light of your environment to light your subject. However, sometimes, even the natural light isn't good enough. What you need is a light source. An external flash will be the way to go.

The biggest advantage the 430EX has over the on-camera flash is that the photographer can tilt and pivot the flash head so that the light isn't pointing directly at the subject. Instead, the flash will be pointed at a ceiling or wall to bounce the flash back at the subject. A white ceiling acts as a giant light diffuser and directs the light back down over your subject from above (just like the sun). The result is a far more natural looking photograph without blown out subjects and dark shadows.

Canon has several external flashes that will tilt and pivot. The 430EX is the middle range flash in the lineup between the 580EX and the brand new 320EX. There are a couple differences between the 580EX and the 430EX that might make you want to pick the 580EX. Keep in mind, I am REALLY new to flash photography so my understanding of these differences are very rudimentary. The basic difference is that the 580EX has a bit more power and can act as a master flash that controls other flashes that will be placed off camera in different locations to give your shots multiple light sources. The 430EX is only capable of switching to slave mode to be controlled by wireless remotes or a camera like the 60D which has the ability to control external flashes. While my Rebel XT doesn't have this feature, my brother-in-law has the 60D and we've played around with off-camera flash photography. Setting the 430EX up to act as a slave is extremely simple and synching is a cinch.

Even though I wanted a flash before any other accessory, I actually bought it after my 50mm 1.4 lens. I bought the flash on a whim one day but I have been extremely impressed with how much its broadened my photography. Lighting conditions don't have to limit me anymore. The 430EX has allowed me to focus on my composition and subject matter rather than what ISO, shutter speed or aperture my camera is set to. Don't get me wrong, all those settings are still important but they've now become less of a burden for me.

I've been really happy with how the 430EX has helped me improve my portrait photography. Paired up with my 50mm 1.4, this flash has helped me take some awesome pictures of my friends and family. I know I can always count on perfect lighting in my shot and the features and functions of the flash have let me experiment with where my light source is coming from. The great part about all of this is that it's allowed me to bring back a certain amount of control to my photography. Natural light is awesome, but when I don't have the lighting conditions that will work for me, I can force the shot to have it by using the flash.

Need some amateur advice on getting your first flash? Post up below and either myself or a reader more knowledgeable than I will help you out.

Meme Monday: Control Your Children

Meme Monday brings you a weekly Internet Meme that we have found. Internet Memes are described as something that catches on like wildfire with Internet communities with no outside source of promotion. They exist purely for enjoyment and laughs.