Need to Know Blog

Choosing a hosting company; 10 things you should look for!

If you are looking to put a website on line, one of the hardest things will be finding a good, reliable web host.

Choosing a web host is not a trivial thing. There are many aspects to consider besides the price, which most of times matter more than the price you pay for hosting. Here are some tips on what to look for:

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Do you use multiple computers at once? Try Synergy!

These days everyone seems to have more than one computer. Usually it’s a laptop and a desktop combination, and I bet that many of you have been a little bit frustrated at times if you needed to work on both of the computers at once. Two keyboards, two mice, two screens, even two different Operating Systems…it can get really nasty.

For a long time the solution to this conundrum existed, it’s just that you were most likely not aware of it. It’s called Synergy.

If you wonder what the word means, I found a lot of definitions, but one that works the best in the context of this application is the following:

The interaction of elements that when combined produce a total affect that is greater than the sum of the individual contributions.

- UNH

Synergy works with most popular operating systems (OSX, Linux, Windows, etc.) so using it becomes even more fun. The idea is simple:

• Install Synergy on both computers (or any number of machines you wish to control)
• Decide which computer’s keyboard and mouse you wish to use to control these computers
  - I put my Sony Vaio laptop in front of my iMac and use Vaio’s keyboard and mouse to control both
• Start the Synergy on the main computer you decided to use and configure it as a "server"
• Start Synergy clients on all other computers and you’re done

At first this will seem too complicated — simply READ the instructions and everything will be very clear on how to set up. Setting up a server is really easy. You configure the screens by saying:

• "Computer 1": 100% from the bottom show screen of "Computer 2"
• "Computer 2": 100% from the top show screen of "Computer 1"

The above configuration simply means — if you go with your mouse pass the bottom of the screen on first computer — mouse will go to the screen on computer #2, and vice-versa, so you can get back easily.

Keyboard follows wherever the mouse is and it’s active on that computer.

If you need any help - just feel free to ask in comments. I’ll gladly help you out If you need a GUI interface for Mac, check out TUAW’s article below.

Synergy can be found on: http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/

And How-To on: http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/running.html

TUAW: http://www.tuaw.com/2005/12/01/quicksynergy/

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