Monthly Archives: November 2013

How to calibrate your Ultra Fine Sharpie Holder for Silhouette Cameo

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https://www.etsy.com/listing/170374838/ultra-fine-sharpie-holder-for-silhouette?

Insert the Sharpie into the adapter. The plastic tip should fit snugly into the hole in the front.

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Insert the adapter with marker into your Silhouette Cameo but don’t lock it in place yet.

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Quickly press on the locking mechanism until it is all the way down. This will cause the adapter to slide up to the precise distance from your piece of paper. Quickly release the locking mechanism. You should see the adapter slide up.

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Turn the lock and you’re ready to print! The whole process should only take a moment once you get the hang of it!

See it in action below.

Launch Google Chrome Twice With Different Users

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Google Chrome is a solid web browser. It’s fast, generally reliable and will sync all your data with their servers, all your computers and mobile devices. It wont let you launch 2 instances which causes problems when using multiple desktops and it wont let you sign in as 2 users at the same time. There are some easy steps to make this possible however.

Step 1: Create a shortcut to chrome. Go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\ which is the default Chrome install directory. Right click on chrome.exe and choose “Create shortcut”

Step 2: Right click the new shortcut and choose “Properties”

Step 3: In the properties popup find the box labeled Target and add -user-data-dir=C:\Chrome\user2 be careful to paste only the underlined text onto the end of the Target text field. You don’t want to change anything else or your shortcut might not work. You can change user2 to any folder which allows you to have as many different instances as you want. You’ll need 1 shortcut for each instance.

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Step 4: Hit ok and launch Chrome via the new shortcut. You can use that shortcut to start a second instance on your second desktop or sign in as an entirely different user. Chrome will automatically sync your settings for this new instance so all your bookmarks and addins will transfer over if you want them.

Desktops v2.0

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The quest for amazing software continues. This time it comes in an unusually small and simple package. Desktops v2.0 is a minuscule program available from Windows Sysinternals website and is hosted on the Microsoft website. This gem weighs in at 61kb or roughly 4% the size of a floppy disk you might have owned 15 years ago. The size means it’s not going to slow down your system or consume a lot of hard drive space.

What it does:

Despite it’s tiny size it packs a serious software punch. With the press of a keystroke you can now have up to 4 completely independent desktops available on your computer. Mac users might recognize this functionality from the built in Mission Control app. It’s frequently used as a point of contention between the 2 operating systems.

Why you want it:

Effectively you can have 4 computers running within all the same hardware. This gives you impressive organizational flexibility. Keep all your movie watching and song playing apps open off screen waiting for you to finish that paper you were working on. Or for the more tech savvy, keep all your test programs open on one desktop while you program on the other. The possibilities are limited by your creativity and workflow but having the option is worth the extremely small amount of effort to obtain it. Being officially part of the Microsoft world gives me more confidence in it than your average 3rd party app. Especially given how bad the software attempting to perform this function has been previously.

How to get it:

The setup for this program is easier than installing Chrome on a new computer. Go to the website – http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/cc817881.aspx and download or follow this direct download link. Copy the one file and double click to launch. Configuration is 2-3 clicks and you’re done.

Desktops V2.0

The super simple configuration screen for Desktops V2.0

 The Dark Side

Some programs don’t like being open in both places. Most programs which have an icon in the bottom right corner (the app tray) will not be very happy about running on a second desktop. Most of these applications check to see if they are running already and wont understand why you’re asking them to launch again. Google Chrome is probably the most notable example of this. To get Chrome working on your 2nd desktop follow these instructions.

Additionally, the Windows Start menu will only open on the primary desktop. This can make getting the apps you want to run a bit more challenging. This hasn’t been much of a problem for me as 99% of the applications I use have icons on the task bar and desktop. If you’re running into consistent issues try adding a shortcut to this folder C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs This is where windows stores your start menu and all the shortcuts contained within.

Overall the good outweighs the bad by quite a lot. It’s definitely worth a look and “uninstalling” is as easy as deleting the Desktops.exe file from your computer. Happy multitasking!