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Using Google as a quick spell checker

January 22nd, 2006 by Jim

I consider myself a good speller, but from time to time I need to quickly find out if my spelling of a particular word is correct. This happens very frequently while working on a customer’s website, hacking out a new web app for my company, and even while writing for this blog.

Google steps in…

You might be wondering why I would waste Google’s bandwidth to look up words, or even why I would waste my own time with the hassle of opening a web browser. The truth is Google can offer me the fastest word lookup for my (possibly specific) situation. All of my use cases listed above involve a web browser, which is already open and ready for my input. And Google is so fast it does not seem to matter how you use it, or how frequently. Besides, I would be very surprised if any of you even try this trick. 😀

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List of Windows XP Environment Variables

January 14th, 2006 by Jim

The following table lists the system and local environment variables for Windows XP. This information is difficult to locate when needed, so I decided to post it here for quick reference.

Tip: To quickly open your user’s hidden Application Data folder…

  1. Open the Run menu (Windows Key + R)
  2. Type %APPDATA% in the prompt, and press Enter.

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