Sync Tip of the Day

I have a computer at work and one at home, but there is always something on one machine you need on the other. It will happen, and it will be involvement when it happens. Two handy free solutions have recently made themselves know to me.

1. If you have a Mac, sync your addressbook with Yahoo! you don't even need a Yahoo! email account, Sync your address book with Yahoo!. They provide simple step by step instructions
2. For Mac or PC users, or if you use both. Dropbox is the most elegant solution for keeping files in sync on all your machines at once. It even makes sharing files and photos incredibly easy. Everything synced in the background, super quick and responsive. All its nifty features are laid out in a video over at getdropbox.com. Dropbox is in private beta right now, but we have invites. Drop us a comment and we'll invite you to join (if we still have any invites left by the time you read this)

Find Tip of the Day

Internet browsers have a feature that allow you to find a word on the page. You go to the Edit Menu -> Find on this Page or Ctrl+F on your keyboard. (Sorry, don't know the Mac shortcut - my guess is Command+F). Anyway, it will search through the page to find the word and by clicking next, you can see all the occurrences on that page.

This may be an obvious tip for some, but I didn't learn it until a couple years ago and it is quite helpful.

Bonus tip that I learned from The Office: You can use the Find and Replace (also Edit Menu) in Word Processing programs. Every time you have a word, you can change it to another word. In the show, Michael (aka Detective Michael Scarn) replaced "Dwight" with "Samuel L. Chang" (idiot sidekick).

Blogging Tip of the Day

If, when using Blogger, you are publishing a post and continually get the message, "Your blog is taking longer than expected to publish. Click here to continue to wait," it actually means that it has published your blog, contrary to whatever it may lead you to believe.

Wireless Tip of the Weekend

If you're unfortunate enough to be relegated to use a PC, check to make sure you've upgraded to WinXP Service Pack 2 before you attempt to connect to any wireless routers made in the last decade. If you have not, you'll have to figure out what the heck a "network key" is instead of a wireless password. Silly Windows.

Backup Tip of the Day

If you have more than 2GB of data to backup and don't want to continue paying a monthly fee, we at TodD labs discovered something that might be of interest to you. Brought to you by Dreamhost, a leading web hosting company, they offer "Files Forever." This service is great if you already have a hosting account because you pay a one-time fee of $0.01 per 4MB. So, if you're having to store tons of large files in perpetuity, you simply upload them, tell Dreamhost where they are, and pay your one-time fee. You never pay monthly for it, just once and done!

Quote Tip of the Weekend

The type geeks out there, know there is a difference between different quote marks, such as ", “ and ”. The latter two are proper typographically, the first is just what they invented for the type writer. Word and other programs will automatically use their “smart quote” feature to convert a boring quote into open or closed quotes. But what if the program your using isn't smart enough. On a Mac just his Option-[ for open double quotes, and Option-Shift-[ for close double quotes. Use Option-] and Option-Sift-] for single quotes. To do it in HTML use ‘ ’ “ and ” for ‘ ’ “ ” respectfully. On Windows, it is Alt+0145, Alt+0146, Alt+0147 and Alt+0148.

Thanks to P22's Tip of the Month, Mountain Dragon's HTML Entities Examples, Tip sheet on special characters Dave M. and Citizen Grim.

Homepage Tip of the Day

So everyday when you sit down at your computer, there may be a few web sites that you always visit. They have just become part of your daily ritual. May be you have them organized under your bookmarks, but sometimes what you really are looking for is buried under lots of links. Depending and your usage there may be a better solution. Check out Only2Clicks, that service gives you some big ol icons of the sites you visit often. Set it as your homepage and as soon as you launch your browser you're just a click or two away from your most used sites. Maybe even more accurately, you don't need to go to those websites you just need the information off of them. Such as sports scores, stocks, headlines and the weather. Try iGoogle, I use this service and has enough customization for most uses. If you really want to go all out, and need data from a wider range of sites try Netvibes. Happy Browsing~

CSS Tip of the Weekend

For those who care, I learned a valuable bit of CSS glory from a competing media firm under my own roof. Thanks, Fowler!

When working with background images and colors within a DIV, you may want to have a DIV contain a background image that does not repeat, and then a background color to the remaining area where content overflows the image area. I had always had some issues doing this, so Fowler clarified it all for me. There are two ways you can do it properly, and then an incorrect way (which I had been using.)

Proper Way #1

background: #fff url(img/myimage.jpg);

Proper Way #2

background-color: #fff;
background-image: url(image.jpg);

Improper Way

background-color: #fff;
background: url(image.jpg);

Resize Tip of the Weekend

This one happened by accident! Have you ever been working in a program on your Mac that has multiple columns you can sort by (like Mail, iTunes, etc.?) Sometimes you'll encounter data in one of these columns that is WAY too long for the width you have set for that column. For example, someone sends you an email where the subject contains more data than most people put in the entire message.

For example, check out this iTunes store list.



Notice how the album column isn't wide enough for the content? I used to DRAG the column header over to resize, and then I discovered, accidentally, that double clicking on the column header (directly between the columns) will elongate (I hate that word) the column to fit the content! It's amazing--give it a try!

Password Tip of the Weekend

Here is a good little article explaining how hackers crack passwords and then offers tips to make a password that is easy to remember yet hard to crack. Read the article at Baekdal.com

A couple of tips I will add to that as you create passwords.

1. Never type a password you mind loosing on an protected Wi-Fi network. It is amazingly easy to grab a password that is flying over the air unencrypted.

2. Don't use the same password for secure and unsecure sites. If it is a little, no name operation, who knows how secure his sever is. Or if the web address starts with "http://" who cares how secure their server is, cause the password could get nabbed along the way. Look for "https://" at the beginning of your web address to avoid this.

3. Beyond what they mention in the article, one of my favorite ways to create a memorable yet secure password is to use a phrase and use the first letters off of the words. Such as "I like working at Creative Group in Wilmore, Kentucky". My password might be "ilwacgiwk". Now that is fairly secure. However, mix in some special characters, numbers and caps to kick it up a notch and you could get "Ilw@8GiWilmore,KY", which is more secure, but less fun to type, then any passphrase mentioned in that article.

4. For Mac OS X users, there is a built in tool to help you come up and/or check the level of security of your passwords. Open up your "System Preferences" under the Apple menu. Click on accounts, and then click Change Password. You don't need to actually change your password, just click on the little key icon. The "Password Assistant" comes up. If you want it to make up a password for you just select "Type: Memorable" and drag the slider to how long you want the password to be. If you want to make your own password, just to check how secure it is, select "Type: Manual" Then type in your password, if the security graph is about a third of the way up you're doing pretty darn good. (Just make sure to hit cancel in the change password box to keep from changing the password to your user account.)

Speaker Buying Tip of the Day

When buying computer speakers, since it is near impossible to fine reviews on cheap speakers, you have to find other means of evaluating the quality of the devices. Here is our basic guide, just look for the LED color on the front of one of the speakers:

• Red LED: These speakers are alright
• Greed LED: Better than red, but still not your best buy
• Blue LED: Buy these ones, Blue LED are always a sign of quality products.
  

Thanks Dave

iChat Tip of the Weekend

If you're an iChat user with a lot of buddies, you may notice that your buddy list quickly occupies a lot of your screen's real estate. If you're looking to make your buddy window a bit more svelte, make your buddy list the active window, then go to View and uncheck "Show Buddy Pictures." You'll be surprised at how much you really don't care what your friends' buddy icons are.

Computer-on-the-Cheap Tip of the Day

If your budget is too limited for the high-end models, but you still need a computer for a very specific purpose, Popular Science has step-by-step instructions on how to build your own for only $72.

I was gonna save up for a couple months to build my next computer, but now I learn that I'm already there!


While you're at it, you can build your own lightsaber for only $11.20!

MacBook Tip of the Day

Even though it's not officially supported, Final Cut Pro will run on a MacBook (non-Pro). Color and Motion won't though, but who uses those anyway. Hello $1100 mobile edit bay!

Google Tip of the Weekend

Right here on Tip of the Day, thanks to Fowler, we have all the information you ever wanted on how Google ranks pages!

iPod Tip of the Day

So yea have an iPod, and there is always the struggle on how to listen to it in your car. The iTrip and other FM transmitters are a popular "solution". As with many other in-quote solutions out there, it doesn't always work. The biggest trick is to find an empty station, that is surrounded by other empty stations. That gives you something to do on a boring Sunday, but its not exactly fun.

Belkin has come to the rescue with their new web tool
my best FM stations. Just punch in your zip and you've got a great starting point to finding a clear station!

Save Moo-lah Tip of the Day, Part 1

I recently received in my inbox a list of 50 things you can do to help take care of our world and save some money in the meantime. That email was titled "Going Green" although my husband would rather emphasize the fact that it saves you money, rather than worry about the possibility that he accidentally married a liberal. Some of the suggestions were easier than others. For example, I don't currently have $8500 for a solar water heater, even if it will pay for itself in six years. Sooo, that one's not likely to happen. My condensed list of "so easy it's stupid" things we can all be doing, will follow over the next few days.

1. Update your lighting
Make it a policy to buy energy efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs. You can now get a variety of shapes and perfectly match the color hue and lighting for each room. They look good and use at least two-thirds less power than regular lighting.

2. Wall Warts
Those clunky power adapters draw energy from the wall all the time. Unplug them individually or attach them to a power strip and turn off the whole switch when not in use. Around 75-percent of all electricity in a home comes from appliances that are turned off, but are still plugged in. Make sure that you only have those appliances plugged in where you're actually using the electricity. You will save on bills and we as a society will save on energy

3. Save Water
Place a water bottle filled with liquid or pennies into your toilet's water tank. This will cause the tank to use less water every time you flush. Plenty Magazine Managing Editor Deb Snoonian estimates it wil save you about a quart to half a gallon per flush. (Seriously - her name is "Snoonian?")

Font Tip of the Day

Getting bored with your font collection, but don't have loads of cash to drop on fonts? Look no further. A web developer has compiled a list of the Top 25 Free Fonts. These ain't no illegal fonts, neither. These are 2Legit2Quit. (Hey, hey!) Some are great, and very reminiscent of Veer fonts. As you poke around this post, also be sure to check out other fonts (free and for-pay) from these generous foundries.

Mac/Windows Tip of the Weekend

You may not know this, but on all of Apple's new Mac you can run not only Mac OS X, but also Windows. You can do this with the Apple solution, using free Boot Camp software, but you have to restart your computer every time you switch OSes. Or, even cooler, you can run Windows, where in belongs, in a separate window in the Mac OS using Parrallels. Note: both solutions require that you purchase Windows separately.

RSS Followup of the Weekend

A few months ago we gave you an overview of RSS Feeds and how to use them. The problem is that you may not want to leave yet another program open and running all the time, it's just one more thing to check. How about email? Everyone who is even remotely interested in RSS Feeds already uses email. Check out RssFwd a little free service that will email you the contents of an RSS Feed every time it is updated! Just head to the site and type in our address: http://tips.petervcook.com and then it will ask for your email address.

Another little self promotional update. Amanda's Quotebook has been completely reprogrammed and it now 200% cooler than before. You can sort by quoter, the archive is all pretty and we've added an RSS Feed. So pair that with the above tip, and you could have an email delivered every time someone posts a new quote.

Google Tip of the Day

Google, the fun loving company they are. Always has a fun "new product" on April Fools Day. This year it's free commode based Wi-Fi.

Update: Turns out Gmail had their own prank too.

Reveal Tip of the Weekend

We all love how standard-fare programs on your Mac organize your music, photos, videos, fonts, etc. But occasionally, you may need to locate an actual MP3 from your iTunes playlist to email to a friend (Note: Pete & Jay Enterprises does not condone illegal, illicit music piracy.) or locate a font and send it to a printer, etc. While Macs make it easy to store and organize such files, you don't want to have to go through countless subfolders to find that song or font. But, Mac makes it easy (if you know the shortcut) to easily locate these files in Finder. If you're in most programs, hitting "Command-R" (for REVEAL) will reveal the file in its Finder window.

Remembering Tip of the Day

If you think of something during the day that you have to do, but you're in the middle of eight different tasks, on the phone, and late for a meeting, do this: Open an e-mail window in Outlook or whatever e-mail client you have and type the thing you need to remember in the subject line or body. Then, later in the day when you are closing windows or shutting down your window, you will be prompted to do something with that message window and thus be reminded to do the dire task.
-Christy (StephChurch's roommate)

Pranking Tip Of The Day

It's Monday. 9:22 am. You're already bored to the max, and it's only the first day of your work week. You need a solution. FAST. I got it for you.

Ingredients: Scotch Tape

Directions: Pick your target to prank. Usually an unsuspecting nincompoop works best. Sneak to their office when they're not around, and tape down their "ALT" key on their keyboard, so it's constantly depressed. Whenever they try to click or type, they will get really strange pop-ups and things. It will take them HOURS to figure out what is going on.

Now, word to the wise. Don't try this on your boss like I did. She happened to come in late and needed to do something IMMEDIATELY and called because "the internet wasn't working." At which point, I had to coyly remove the tape from her poor keyboard, but if my boss didn't understand my prankish ways, I could've lost my job over a piece of tape.

iTunes Tip of the Day

This tip is dedicated to those of use who are suckers from free stuff even if it sucks. There are 13 songs available for free on the iTunes Music Store by obscure artists! You'll be able to experience hits from greats like the 'Scissor Sisters', 'Miri Ben-Ari' and 'Le Tigre'. Yep I haven't heard of them either, but they're free! Fellow iTunes junkies will notice that they never saw a link to such an album on the main page. "How do I find it?" you might ask. It'll pop up when you buy a new iPod and plug it in, but if your not up for dropping $99 on a new iPod shuffle you can still download them if you have the link.

Thanks to Macworld's Mac 911 Blog for today's tip