Dive into the archives.
Synchronize your bookmarks on multiple computers
Your bookmarks on your laptop can be the same as the bookmarks on your work computer, which can be the same as your home computer. How? Foxmarks - a cool plugin for Firefox. It synchronizes your bookmarks on 2 or more computers (you can combine your existing bookmarks, or choose to have one set override another). Foxmarks also has an online component - myfoxmarks.com - that allows you to log in and view your bookmarks from any computer, in any browser (no plugin required). You can organize, modify, add, and delete right from their website.
How to find out if a website URL is available
I have a lot of clients who are unsure of how to check if a URL or domain name is available for their new website. They type different URLs into the location bar of their browser, and if no website appears, assume that its available. This is often incorrect — domain parkers buy domains and hold them to resell at a profit; it could also be that someone has purchased the domain name and simply not set their website up yet.
Free high-res image sources on the web
You generally get what you pay for. The best images are purchased from a photographer, or high-end stock houses like Gettyone, Corbis, or the like. For many lower-budget projects, though, or for more general images (I need a photo of the sky), you can find what you’re looking for at a much lower price — sometimes free.
How to take (and save) a screenshot on Windows or Mac
Screenshots, also called screen dumps, or screen captures are useful for showing a problem you’re having with your computer, saving images of websites for archiving, for demonstration, and many other instances when you need to simply show someone else what’s on your screen. Taking these has become second nature to me, but I had a client last week who had never done it before. I walked him through it over the phone, and he was amazed at how easy it is. No special software required.
Test Credit Card Numbers
These came in handy when testing an e-commerce website a few weeks ago. Obviously, the numbers below won’t work for acutally purchasing anything; they’re just for testing the verification process, etc.
How to keep the house clean with a long-haired cat.
I know someone who’s grandma apparently VACUUMS her cats - with the attachment - to keep them from shedding.
As appealing as this may sound, my cat is having none of it. (We actually tried it, for the sake of science.) Here are a few things that have worked for me…
How to refinance a HELOC without involving the bank.
OK, so the obvious answer here is to pay off the balance. Not all of us have $20,000 or so just sitting around to do that with, however. When I refinanced my house a few years ago, I put 80% on a fixed rate mortgage, and the remaining $20,000 on a Home Equity Line of Credit. I didn’t realize that the rate was adjustable until I was at the closing (thank you to the mortgage broker for giving me all of the facts). But at the time, the rate was only 4%, I was paying interest-only for the first 5 years, and my payments were pretty low.
Adjustable rates will adjust, though, and adjust they did. Within less than a year, my 4% had gone up to 10%, and my payments had doubled, and I wasn’t even touching the principle. I looked into doing another refinance, but it hardly seemed worth it, to pay for several thousand dollars worth of closing costs all over again. I could refinance just the HELOC to a fixed Home Equity loan, but the rates weren’t significantly better than what I was paying on my HELOC.
Then, one day, when I was about to shred some balance transfer checks from one of my many credit cards, I had an idea. And I turned off the shredder.
How to get an 800 credit score.
I didn’t think it existed. Well, ok, I thought that if you were 80 years old or so, had no debt, and owned several mansions, perhaps you could have a credit score of 800. I felt pretty good about my score of 764 — until I found out that my friend Brian, age 32 HAS A CREDIT SCORE OF 800. Seriously? Seriously.
How did he do it?
It’s pretty simple, really. It didn’t involve any sort of complicated “piggybacking” strategies, or transferring balances from one card to another one with a higher credit limit. Here’s what he did..
