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This is a simple short tip on how to copy one or more layers and/or layer groups to a new Adobe Photoshop document.

1. Open the document you want to duplicate layers from.
2. Create a new document you want the duplicated layers to be placed in or open a current document.
3. In the Layers panel, select the layer(s) and/or group(s) you want to copy.
4. Right click what you selected in the Layers panel and choose Duplicate.
5. In the popup there is a "Destination" section. In the dropdown pick the name of the document you created/opened in step 2 and click OK.
6. Done! If you checkout the new file you made/opened earlier in step 2 you will see your layers/groups have been duplicated to there.
7. Alternatively, you don't have to create the new document first, in the "Destinations" dropdown the bottom option is "New" which means it will create a new document for you. You just have to fill in the "Name" field which is the title for the new document.

I think that title gets a +5 on the geek scale So, I've tried to do this before with my old HTC HD2 and had mixed results. The problem I had back then was that MyPhoneExplorer would get launched when any USB device was connected, not just the phone. As you can imagine that was a bit annoying. Now I have a shiny new Samsung Galaxy Note I thought it was a good time to take another stab.

What is the goal? I use a free application called MyPhoneExplorer (MPE) to sync Outlook 2010 x32 with my phone. I sync my contacts, calendar, notes, tasks and custom directories. It works really well but you have to connect the phone and then manually load MyPhoneExplorer. That's means loading it from the start menu and then clicking the multi-sync option. How much effort is that?! Ok, not much but it's more than I can be bothered doing each time. The goal is to get MPE to load automatically when the phone is connected, do an automatic multi-sync and then close MPE. Took me like an hour to work it out and searching the depths of the interweb it seems nobody else on the planet has posted how to do this so I felt it would be a nice thing to share.

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Who wants to know what the legal UK residential sound levels are? There are none! I know crazy right. To make things even more fun, the council don't even have to come to your house or your neighbours. They entirely base their decision on what the other person says and any "witnesses" they can scrounge up. Don't be mistaken into thinking the councils ASB Action Team are there to mediate because they are not. They just want to shut you up and close the case as soon as possible. There is a common misconception that the council must send someone out with a sound measuring device, sit in your neighbours place and detect the level you are producing. That is a myth. As I said, they base their decision solely on the word of your neighbours and their friends. How do I know all this? Well I'm on the receiving end of a noise nuisance complaint.

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This has seriously had me screaming long streams of swear words but I finally sussed it out. What was I trying to do? Well I recently installed Windows 7 and therefore did a fresh install of Outlook 2010 as well. I had saved my old PST file so now I had just done "File->Account Settings->Data Files" and then added it there. It seemed ok but then I started getting phone calls from people asking why I hadn't replied to their emails. Turns out I was a doofus and thought that my PST file would also hold the account settings. Wrong!

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After doing a fresh install of Outlook 2010 I noticed an area above my email accounts titled Favorites. I don't use this, I don't plan on using this and it takes up about 2cm of vertical space which is much needed with all my email accounts. It's easy to get rid of but you have to know where to look.

• Expand the top ribbon bar if it is not already open and choose the "View" tab.
• Click on the "Navigation Pane" option and then choose the "Favorites" item.
• That's it. That menu option acts as a toggle to turn it on and off.

See, I said it was easy