How this betters your life: They always say that two heads are better than one … now imagine your computer is a robot … or a really cool … nvm just trust me two monitors rocks so take one from NIKE

What you need: a desktop with two monitors or laptop and extra monitor

Honestly this post is being written for a few reasons outlined below:

1. Everyone that uses the computer for doing more than one thing at a time should have multiple monitors.
2. Multiple monitors increases the screen space you have for multitasking.
3. Multiple monitors have also been found to cause an increase in productivity (boss … I need an extra monitor to make you more money … 65% of the time this works every time)
4. The most important reason is I am writing an article about a solution that only applies if you have two monitors and it would be foolish of me to assume that most people have two monitors  … soooooooo my plan is to convince everyone in the world that they should have two monitors so my article applies to more of the population. Good plan? I sure think so.

Check out this article on how to set up dual monitors in windows. This article shows you how to set up dual monitors on a mac.

Update (via Johnny G): Another cool solution would be to get a VGA cord and hook your computer up to your flat screen TV. I’ll be doing this soon when I decide which TV to get so i’ll outline my experience with that later on. Thanks for the comment!

Needed for this solution: A Gmail Account, At least 1 other email account

Just for the sake of full disclosure I’m a huge fan of Google and all of their products. Not only are they usually very unique and ground breaking but they are offered for free. You can’t beat this combination.

A little while ago I found myself checking 5 different email accounts daily. Don’t ask how I got myself into this situation because honestly I’m not sure. But once again Google has developed a feature to help those of us with these types of problems. Email forwarding has been around for ages, Although this is a good solution this is not the solution I am going to discuss. My biggest issue with email forwarding is you have to set it up on multiple different email providers and when the email is sent to your central account its not labeled in any way (unless you set up a separate labeling function) and usually the forwarded email still remains in your inbox. Google’s Mail fetch feature solves all of these issues and more.

The simple instructions to set up the Gmail fetch feature is to:

1. Log into your gmail account
2. Click settings at the top
3. Select Accounts
4. Under Get Mail from other accounts select Add account you own
5. Insert the requested information
6. And your all set to go

Here is a detailed set of instructions from Google on how to set up the GMail Fetch Feature.

The great thing about this feature is that when GMail pulls in your emails it labels them for you and even has an option to delete the email from your other inbox. This process frees you from having to check your other inbox ever. Now what about sending email? Gmail also allows you to set up a custom From Address so you can appear to be sending email from that address as well.

Let me know if you have any questions about this solution or if you need any help getting it to work. If you have any other topics you would like to hear about let me know.

JRWorks Technical Solutions can be “IT for You”

Needed for this solution: itunes, apple airport express, stereo system, (iphone for remote ability)

As itunes gains more and more popularity it seems the age of the CD is slowly fading away and to be honest I don’t think I will miss it. A cd case filled with 50 Cd’s playing 12-20 songs a piece was replaced by an MP3 player which can play 1000 of songs. I think that’s a fair trade.

Now to the issue at hand. Have you ever been to or thrown a party? There are a few things essential to every good party. Food, Drinks, and GOOD MUSIC. Now from circle to circle the definition of good music definately varies but that’s outside of the scope of this article. Food .. Check … Drinks … Check … Ok now on to the music. Burning CD’s for your party? That’s out of the question. It’s hardly still ok to burn CD’s for road trips but we’ll get into car audio later. The key  to keeping your party supplied with a steady flow of music is Itunes or another media player. If your computer is hooked up directly to the speakers that will be supplying your party with music that’s cool and you can stop reading here … but for those of us that are out of college or simply don’t want a party full of people having immediate access to our computer (or simply want to learn something SWEEEET) please continue …

First step will be to create a playlist using itunes this will be the music played at your party and can include as many songs as you would like and in whatever order you see fit. Ok so now what? You have a sweet list of songs that you can play on your computer but what about the party? Here is where the fun (and money) comes  to play. For a few dollars (great investment if you ask me) you can purchase an airport express base station which will not only allow you to play music wirelessly but also to print from anywhere in your house to a computer that’s only hooked up to the base station. You may also want to purchase some stereo cords that can be bought through apple or you can just find some at best buy.

Once you have all the necessary equipment you just need to install the airport express software onto your computer. Next you will plug in the stereo cords to your speaker then to the airport express base station. Plug that into the wall and your halfway there. Next open the airport express software you installed on your computer, follow the step by step instructions, then abracadabra you can stream music from Itunes directly into your speakers all wirelessly.

*If you want to be  really cool (and you have an Iphone) you can download the remote app which will allow you to control your play list from your Iphone on your wireless network from anywhere in your house. Basically you have a remote control to change volume and song from anywhere in your house sans the need to point a traditional remote.

**In order to do this you will need to have an existing wireless network set up on your home which most people already do. If you do not have a wireless network set up the Airport Express base station can also be used as a wireless router.

If you have any questions/comments about this article please don’t hesitate to share or if you would like help setting up your own wireless music solution I’ll be glad to help.

JRWorks Technical Solutions can be “IT for You”

Ever had the need to access information on your home (or office) computer but you couldn’t because you were somewhere else? Ever need to help someone trouble shoot a problem but couldn’t see their desktop? I have come across these (and other issues like it) many times throughout my IT career and have finally come across a solution (and it’s free … shhhhh). Log Me In is a remote computer access product that offers many different flavors to fit your needs. There are a few that allow you to help multiple people remotely (these cost money) but they also have a product called Log Me In Free which allows a user to create an account, download software on their computer, then access their computer from anywhere using their account information. It’s as easy as email. All you have to do is remember your log in information and you can access your computer from any computer that has internet access.

You might say “hey I don’t want just anyone having access to my computer”. The good part about Log Me In is that they require you to authenticate (use your password) to your home computer before logging into it. This means that unless you (or a potential intruder) knows the password that is established on your home computer then there is no way for them to access your information. Let me know if you find this information helpful or if you have any other computer issues that need solving.

JRWorks Technical Solutions Can be IT for You.