Tezzo's Technology Blog

Via Steve Bass - Techbite  I added a second monitor years ago and it was sweller than swell. Click a link in an e-mail on the right monitor and watch it appear in the browser on the left monitor. Besides watching my productivity increase (I say that for you business types), it felt wildly cool seeing two screens at once. If you didn't realize, I like cool things. But my gut said, "If two's good, three's got to be better." It is. That's because with three, I'm on the middle screen, writing in Word, doing research in a browser on another screen, and trying out the app I'm reviewing in on the third window. Or if Judy's not around, watching a movie. Once you get used to spending money for the equipment, believe me, adding a second, third, or even fourth screen isn't difficult. Okay, that's the setup. Here's how to do it. The Nuts, Bolts, and Details In less time than it takes for your system to boot up, you can install a second or third mon...

Are you upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7 or buying a new PC? In both cases, you face the same tedious chore: reinstalling all your apps. That means digging out a bunch of CDs and/or downloading programs from various sites, then installing them one at a time. I don't know about you, but I can think of better ways to spend several hours. The Ninite Web site creates a custom software installer with all the freeware and open-source apps you want. Just choose from the dozens of available programs--everything from AVG Anti-Virus Free and Dropbox to OpenOffice.org and uTorrent--and the service builds an installer that will download and load them all. Once you start the installer, you can sit back and relax: Ninite automates the entire process, meaning you don't have to sit around clicking Next a bunch of times. Even better, Ninite automatically chooses the proper version of each program--32- or 64-bit--and eliminates any toolbars that might try to sneak in during installatio...

Learn some basic flash-drive survival skills, like how to copy files to a USB drive and protect a drive from viruses. The other day, my wife asked me how to copy a PowerPoint presentation to a flash drive so she could take it with her to school. I was a little shocked. My very own wife doesn't know how to do this? I've failed as a husband! To make sure I don't fail you, dear readers, allow me to explain the process of copying files to flash drives. Most of you probably know how, but I'll wager it's a mystery to at least some users. There are two basic ways to go about this (both of which start with you plugging the drive into a USB port). First, you can open the document in whatever program you used to create it--Word, PowerPoint, etc.--then save that document to the flash drive by way of the Save As command. Basically, you're rerouting it to the drive . . . More at PC World

A discrete video card is a must for games, but will boost the performance of other applications as well. You can find one that matches your needs and your budget as long as you keep in mind these few simple things. Let's face it: Most of the time people buy a video card (also known as a graphics card) for a non-business PC, it's to play games. Oh sure, discrete video cards may offer additional benefits with video playback or transcoding (and, increasingly, Web browsing), but who are we fooling? The main reason discrete video remains such a huge and fiercely competitive market is because, when it comes to playing games that don't come from PopCap or Big Fish, integrated graphics just don't cut it. The ugly truth about buying a discrete card can be summed up in five sad words: The more expensive, the better. There's almost no way around the fact that the more money you're willing to drop on a video card, the better your gaming experience will be. So if you have...

The iPad's big screen and long battery life make it the perfect gadget for watching TV and movies. Here are the 10 best ways to do just that. When it was first released, many called the Apple iPad, "a big iPod touch." That's debatable, but it does describe one of the best things about the iPad: its big, bright 9.7-inch screen makes it ideal for movie and TV watching. Throw in the iPad's robust battery life and obvious portability, and you've got a top-notch on-the-go entertainment device. Plenty of developers and media companies have figured this out, so there has been a steady stream of new ways to watch TV and movies on your iPad that don't involve iTunes. Some, like Netflix and Hulu, are apps that you download, while others are iPad-optimized sites that help you find and watch the best TV and movies the Web has to offer. If you want to watch TV and movies from your own collection, there are apps for that, and there are even products that let you watch l...

As the use of virus attacks to target online bank accounts by cyber criminals increase, it is important that online banking customers know how to protect their accounts from malicious programs such as viruses and trojan attacks. Only recently there was a report about a ‘trojan’ virus which was described as ‘the most sophisticated and dangerous malware program ever created’ by security experts. Like other online attacks, the program operated discretely by secretly emptying customer accounts while showing them fake statements so that the scam was undetected. However, the following measures can be taken to ensure that your computer remains secured so that online transactions can be made in a safe and secure environment. - Keep your firewalls set to the highest level of security possible. - Ensure that your anti-virus software is operational and up to date. - Never open an e-mail attachment from people you do not know and scan with anti-virus, if you must. - Never double-click on an e-mail...