Clever utilities are what really get my mouse twitching.  In the age of the connected home, more of these devices are disconnected from one another.  I have a keyboard and mouse for eight PC's in my home, 3 of which are HTPCs.  The HTCPs in my home all are capable of using a Logitech Harmony Remote control and all are currently using a Rocketfish Bluetooth Keyboard and Mouse Combo, but it still is a bit cumbersome.  Instead of having tons of remote controls on my coffee table, I have a Harmony Remote, a laptop, and my Rocketfish Bluetooth Keyboard and Mouse.  Well, recently, Microsoft's Garage Program featured an application created to help alleviate the need for multiple mice and keyboards for multiple computers.  The application is called Mouse Without Borders.

(more...)

Look, we all know and realize that Windows is the superior operating system to anything else out there.  With that said, I am going to detail ten reasons why this is the case and offer supporting data.  Some of this may be shocking to you if you are a user of another operating system, but please... don't feel inferior.

(more...)

In my career, yes there is a life outside of C.O.D., I am faced with many obstacles; usually regarding printing or scanning.  Recently, it was requested by a customer that printer output be preceded by a separator page.  Luckily, this is not restricted by devices (in most cases) and is rather easy to setup.  This is very helpful in environments that have more than one user printing to a device.  With a separator page, a user can differentiate their print from another person's print.

(more...)

I have had an annoying problem that I just realized I had.  Sometimes, when I am quick clicking through websites or testing on this one, I tend to hit some buttons rather quickly.  Sometimes, they close my windows and other times have no effect.  Well, one time, I accidentally zoomed in on this site with Firefox and never realized that I did so. (more...)

I am a long standing fan of Logmein and their services; I currently utilize their service on all of my PC's and I am quite happy with their product.  However, if you are a user of the Logmein service and realize lately that Aero is not working on your workstation anymore, the mirror driver is to blame. (more...)

I have been hearing rumblings lately that Microsoft's Security Essentials is now available through Windows Update.  The availability of an antivirus application through this type of service means that users will no longer have to scour the web for a link to install it.  So what gives? (more...)

The current security craze is affecting more than our daily computing.  The implementation of various security measures has gone beyond standard security measures and has entered the obscene.  Where do we draw the line between taking precautions and stifling productivity.  IT concerns are valid, immeasurable, and undeniable... however, so is productivity. (more...)

It seems that the world is going crazy; everyone wants everyone else's information.  Some companies are going to great lengths to protect their data.  Laptops have gone missing or stolen with tons of important data on them, copy machines have latent images on the hard drives that can contain vital or important private information on them.  So what can be done about all this?  Some companies, including my own, have started encrypting hard drives.  This is nothing new as types of encryption have been around for thousands of years (ever watch an Indiana Jones movie?), but it seems as soon as something makes the news, the purchasing departments or C level staff finally listens to IT.  (more...)

As our world becomes more digital and the number of "personal" interactions with other people declines, we rely more on email and texting than phone conversations.  There are a few drawbacks to this and I can bet that you have found yourself on one end or the other.  As our interactions move more to email, we have to realize that these interactions are done without understanding inflections in voice and tone. It is becoming more common to misunderstand emails based on this and our responses may be out of line, and possibly detrimental to our career or relationships. (more...)

My Windows woes continue.  This time around, I have been trying to upgrade my Laptop running Windows Vista to Windows 7 Professional.  After initiating the upgrade process it would stall at 62% and give no indication as to what would cause the issue.  Well, after a bunch of research and much less hair, I have an answer for you.  (more...)