Smart Dolphins: Victoria network support: computer support and networking
Smart Dolphins is a Victoria network support company. We provide computer support, computer networking, technology consulting and many other computer solutions. Choose Smart Dolphins to get award winning Victoria computer support for your business.
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Ever had to reboot your iOS device because of a frozen app?
Try holding the Home button for at least five seconds – this will forcefully close the currently active app.
Check out this Pod Pointer for further reading about how many apps are currently running on your iOS device and what you can do about it.
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If you’re as busy as I am you like to save time anywhere possible. Don’t waste any more time hitting tab to manually indent paragraphs in Microsoft Word – try this instead:
For newer versions of Microsoft Word (2007 and beyond):
For older versions of Microsoft Word:
This is what it should look like in all versions of Microsoft Word:
Use your newly found free time wisely!!!
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Right-clicking on a file and selecting “Send to” to create a shortcut or move a document is useful.
Holding SHIFT while doing this allows you to “send to” even more locations:
In fact, holding SHIFT while right-clicking on a folder reveals a number of hidden options:
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Excel, OneNote and Word 2010 have a built in screenshot utility, making it easier to create and share screenshots.
On the ribbon you will find a screenshot option under Insert. It will already be populated with all of your running programs, or you can choose to select a specific area of your screen:
Choose what you would like to capture and it is automatically pasted into your document!
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My wife and I love our weekly trip to Costco. We gas up, grab a big shopping cart, and head in to pick up our over-sized food and cleaning supplies. We don’t go crazy. We do buy a lot, but we have a plan. Everything is calculated, priced per volume, and going to be used by expiry. Costco can be a pricey place and leave you throwing out a lot of stuff gone bad if you don’t shop smart.
One thing we always picked up at Costco is paper towel. They have the good stuff and they sell it cheap. We always grabbed a great big package of it and filled up our big pantry. And with lots of it around, why not use it every chance you get?
A few weeks ago we started looking a little harder at our cleaning habits and it was obvious this was a great place to start. Out came the old clothes and a pair of scissors. We experimented with a few fabrics to see what would work. Cotton t-shirts seemed to work better than anything else. We designated a clean bucket and dirty bucket under the sink and filled the cleaned one with our newly created cloths. When the clean bucket is running low the dirty bucket goes in the wash.
So far this is what we have found:
- Paper towel is horrible for cleaning. It falls apart and you need A LOT of it by comparison.
- It is expensive.
- It all goes in the garbage.
That last point was the biggest push for us. We were literally buying garbage, ironically wrapped in plastic. Of course with a good healthy compost you can compost quite a bit of paper towel or recycle. However a lot of the time it is soaked in cleaner, and a lot of people still throw it in the trash. Nobody wants to wipe their face with an old shirt so we did pick up a supply of nice cotton napkins, that has also helped save money.
We’re not perfect, we like our big car, and there are plenty of other areas for improvement. But with only about ten minutes, two buckets we already had, and a few sacrificed t-shirts we are saving about 40 bucks a month and a good percentage of our monthly waste. You don’t need to make huge changes, but looking at behaviors one at a time can present simple and obvious ways of doings things a little better.
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Like your music loud but hate annoying Windows system sounds in the background?
In Windows 7 click on the volume icon in your system tray and choose mixer (Open Volume Mixer in Vista) and turn down or entirely mute the slider under System Sounds:
Voila!
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Security is a funny thing, more of an illusion most of the time, shattered into pieces when a critical system is compromised. For most of us email is weakest link, an opening to the rest of the things we need to keep secure. What damage could be done by somebody with access to your email?
Could you post your email password on the internet and live to tell about it? I could. I’m about to.
Okay, so this isn’t my real email account, but I’m going to use this account to prove a point. I’m putting the following gmail address and password out there because I want one of you to email me from it. I will give five dollars to the first person that can. (seriously) And yes that is the real password.
Email: 2steprocks@gmail.com Password: horriblepassword
There is a catch though, even with my password there is nothing you can do. You’re missing something critical. My phone.
What does my phone have to do with all of this? Well, I’m using something called 2-step verification from Google. Anytime a new computer (or mobile phone, whatever) tries to sign into my gmail account Google will send a six digit code to my phone via SMS. That code then needs to be entered after the password, once every 30 days. Without the code you can’t log in. No ifs, ands, or buts. Without my phone, that password is useless.
Go ahead try to sign in. My five dollars is looking pretty safe right about now isn’t it?
You can find 2-step verification under you Account Settings in your gmail. Just follow the prompts, the setup is very simple.
My wife and I both moved to 2-step verification a couple of months ago and the minimal inconvenience of having to enter that code now and then (no more than every 30 days) is well worth the peace of mind it brings. I would never go without it again.
I’ve been blunt in past blogs about how horrible most people’s passwords are. I say that lovingly, out of concern for other people’s security. But the truth is, most are not nearly as good as they should be. Adding 2-step verification is not a substitute for a strong password, but it sure makes it tough for the bad guys. Remember, the harder you make it, the safer your five dollars will be.
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Want that new Android app but worried it won’t be worth the cash?
Any Android based phone running Android 1.6 or newer allows you to return an app within 15 minutes of purchase for a full refund.
Just Launch Android Market and click on Menu, followed by My Apps. Select the newly purchased app and click on Refund.
No more buyer’s remorse!
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If you’ve accidentally closed a tab in your browser, most modern browsers let you reopen that tab with this command:
CTRL + SHIFT + T
Run the command again and it will open the tab that you closed before that. And so on.
That’s it, that’s all! If you’re itching for more great tips, look no further than here!
