Tezzo's Technology Blog

If you have two or more PCs in your house, you've probably wished for an easy way to keep certain types of data in sync between them. All you need is Microsoft's SyncToy 2.0 , an unsupported but effective tool that creates "folder pairs" between PCs. Once you set up a pair, all it takes is one click to sync the contents of the two folders. For example, maybe you do most of the MP3 downloading on your PC, while your wife stores the family's digital photos on hers. Ideally, those files would be in sync and up to date on both your machines. That's not only convenient, it also creates an extra backup in case one of the two systems dies an untimely death. More at PC World

GIMP - which stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program - is a testament to how open source applications can successfully compete with their proprietary, commercial counterparts. Rich with an amazing set of useful tools and effects filters in a user-friendly GUI, GIMP is an excellent application for image editing and graphics creation. In this article, you’ll find 10 excellent sites that feature design tutorials and information about GIMP. 1. Gimp-tutorials.net etc., etc. More here

The hot story on PC World these days is a humongous collection of " 100 Incredibly Useful and Interesting Web Sites ." I'm still wading through it, and it got me thinking about my faves--you know, spots that I keep going back to. Here are some really practical Web sites that I've come to depend on. Terrific Reference Tools OWL, the Online Writing Lab , gives you a way to look up the whys and wherefores of grammar. The Phrase Finder is a handy thesaurus for phrases. Need a fact checker? Refdesk.com has all the facts--or links to them--you'll ever need. Visiting LibrarySpot is like walking in to the local library and walking into the reference room. Let's say you've got 15 barrels of oil and need to know how many gallons that is. Digital Dutch Unit Converter can tell you it's 630. The site covers just about everything anyone could need to convert... you've just got to see for yourself. One thing that Digital Dutch doesn't handle, though, is m...

As part of my recent migration to a new PC , I needed to find the product keys for various programs I was planning to reinstall. Easier said than done. (When, when will I organize this disaster area of a home office?) Fortunately, I found a sweet utility that saved me hours of rummaging through boxes. Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder quickly and efficiently finds the product keys for installed programs, then lets you print them for safekeeping. More at PC Mag

CHANGE Change Terminal Server Session properties CHKDSK Check Disk - check and repair disk problems CHKNTFS Check the NTFS file system CHOICE Accept keyboard input to a batch file CIPHER Encrypt or Decrypt files/folders CleanMgr Automated cleanup of Temp files, recycle bin etc., etc. Windows XP Commands

There are a few reasons to know your connected devices' IP addresses. For one, it's invaluable in troubleshooting. After making sure your unresponsive device is actually plugged in, the next step will nearly always be to point your PC's browser at its IP address and make sure that something having to do with the device appears, such as a configuration page, or at least the device name. This leads to another reason: Often, a device's "home page"—what you see in your browser when you type in the device's IP address—will give you easier access to device options, and in some cases, more settings and extras. How can you find devices' IP addresses? Through your router's configuration screens. In your browser, type in your router's IP address, then find the DHCP client table among the config screens (which vary by router brand), which shows all devices connected (physically or wirelessly) through the router (if a device doesn't appear, make sure...

Here is a quick summary for those of you who don’t want to read the whole article: 1. Always use strict doctype and standards-compliant HTML/CSS 2. Always use a reset at the start of your css 3. Use opacity:0.99 on text elements to clean up rendering in Safari 4. Never resize images in the CSS or HTML 5. Check font rendering in every browser. Don’t use Lucida 6. Size text as a % in the body, and as em’s throughout 7. All layout divs that are floated should include display:inline and overflow:hidden 8. Containers should have overflow:auto and trigger hasLayout via a width or height 9. Don’t use any fancy CSS3 selectors 10. Don’t use transparent PNG’s unless you have loaded the alpha   The complete article from Antony Short is here .