Synergy - 1 Mouse, 1 Keyboard and Many Computers

My home desk has several computers on it, my desktop, my apple laptop and my windows notebook.  It's always been a pain to reach for keyboard of whatever device that I need at the given moment.  A little research led me to a program called Synergy.  This program allows one computer to act as a host and share it's mouse and keyboard on other machines.  The best thing about it is it's FREE.  So basically it allows you to use a mouse and keyboard to control not only the computer they are hooked up to but the other computers on your network.  It's kind of cool to drag your mouse cursor from one desktop to another.  You can copy and paste text from one machine to another but you can't drag files from one to another.  If you have more than one computer on your desk look into this application.

 http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/

Animoto just blew my mind

I needed to do up a slide show for my wife to take with her to her baby shower and I am tired of power point presentations with no flair.  I started searching the web and I came across animoto.com.  They were mentioned in one of the podcasts I listen to a while back and I didn't think anything of it at the time.  I wish I had I could have used them.  I just finished putting together the presentation and I am so amazed at what they can do.  This will take any presentation you need to do to the next level check them out at http://www.animoto.com.  The nice thing is you don't have to install any software on your computer it is all based in the cloud (on the internet).  The quality of the video is alright, I would say youtube standards but they do give you the option to buy a high res version of it and the quality looks great.

If you decide you like it please use the referral code gxdzysrn or click on the links in the post they have my referral code embedded in them it will save you money on a subscription.

The Apple iPad

Last Wednesday Apple announced the launch of it's new Apple iPad. 

I am as much in love with apple products as any Mac user but I am having real trouble trying to figure out if this is a product I would use.  I have a laptop that I use when I need to look up something or if I am just casually surfing the web.  The user interface simply doesn't impress me that much it looks like a big iPod Touch.  Also there is currently no support for multi-tasking.  I consider myself a power user and at any given time can have many things on the go (for example: twitter, a live feed audio feed and a browser).  Is this a replacement for a netbook, I would say quite possibly.  Is this a replacement for a laptop that has some power to it, I don't think so.

The entry level model is going to be hitting the markets in the US at $499.  There is still no word of a release date for Canada.

Gizmodo did a fantastic summary: Apple iPad Everything You Need to Know

Passwords

We currently have a tech tip running that focuses on thinking about your passwords. Some basic rules to follow are:
Don't use they following.
1. The word "password"
2. Your name
3. Your pets or kids names
4. Your birthdate, phone number or address
5. An easily guessable sequence of numbers like 12345
6. A common seque e of letters on a keyboard for example qwerty

Try to keep the following in mind when creating a new password.
1. Passwords should be at least 8 characters long.
2. They should contain at least one change of case.
3. Using a special character like #,@ or $ are a great idea.
4. Base it on random characters and not common dictionary words.

There are secure applications available that can help you increase the strength of you passwords. The utility that I rely on is from lastpass.com. They provide an application that plugs into you browser that remembers your username and password for various websites. It has the ability to generate passwords that are completely random and secure.

Twitter

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter
http;//www.twitter.com