Random Tips

Longtime Ars Technica member Emkorial recently posted a thread in the Ars Lounge entitled “Giving Back: little tips you’re discovered to make life. work or projects easier”. In it, he posited the following advice:

How to perfectly install a power strip – or any device where there are 2 mounting holes – onto a vertical surface:

1. Take power strip. Turn it over.
2. Tear off a piece of masking tape the length of the strip. Apply it to the back of the strip.
3. Using a pencil\pen\poking instrument of choice, poke a hole through the tape where the two mounting holes are.
4. Remove tape from back of power strip and apply tape to mounting surface.
5. Screw in mounting screws where the holes on the tape are.

Viola! Perfectly aligned and spaced mounting screws, with no guesswork involved.

He then asked for other Ars readers to contribute their own tips… and behold, a slew of helpful tips came forth. What follows are a load of random tips that will hopefully make your life a little easier. The tips are divided into two sections: my own tips and tips from other Ars readers.

My Own Tips

If you wear glasses or sunglasses, buy a box of those pre-packaged “glass wipes” (they look like “moist towelettes” but are made specifically for glasses). Put a couple in your wallet to have when you’re out and about. There’s no telling how many times I accidentally got something on my glasses (especially when eating spaghetti or fried chicken), only to find that the bathroom at the restaurant\bar\store is either out of soap or has one of those electric hand dryer things instead of paper towels, or has those cheap-ass blue paper towels that scratch the hell out of your glasses.

Buy a box of those “Shout wipes” if you’re a sloppy eater like me. Keep one in your wallet, especially if you have something important to do (presentation, job interview, etc.) after lunch.

Buy a wallet with a divider in the currency section so you can put your glass and Shout wipes in the wallet.

Buy a package of white cotton handkerchiefs; keep one on you at all times when you’re with a lady. Not only will she consider you a “gentleman”, women think up a thousand uses for the things.

Carry a lighter with you when you go to a bar, even if you don’t smoke. You never know – some hawt chick might ask for a light!

Bic lighters make great impromptu bottle openers.

Lighter fluid does a great job of removing sticker residue.

Have to put some sort of sticker on your car’s windshield for campus parking, neighborhood association, etc.? Fold a corner of the sticker over on itself before placing the sticker on the window. Make sure the corner is small enough to not interfere with adhesion to the window, but large enough so that you can grab the corner and pull with sticker off without a razor blade when the semester’s over.

Want to know if your concert ticket’s legitimate? Hold the ticket in your hand and hold a match or lighter so that the top of the flame is AT LEAST four inches away from the underside of the ticket. Slowly bring the flame upwards towards the ticket… a genuine Ticketmaster ticket will show a burn mark on TOP of the ticket before the underside. If the bottom burns before the top, it’s a fake. Be very careful with this tip: this trick works because the top of the ticket is heat-sensitive. It will burn very quickly. It’s best to try it out on an old ticket stub or the “receipt” that comes attached to your tickets if you get them though the mail before trying it on a “live” ticket. Lisa hadn’t heard of this trick before, and when she tried this for the first time on our Depeche Mode receipt she made a burn spot around the size of a half-dollar before she could pull the lighter away.

Never trust the Germans.

Extended warranties are almost always scams, unless the object in question is portable and expensive (PDA\laptop) and the service plan covers accidental breakage.

Get a large manila envelope or large Ziploc bag. Every time you buy a piece of electronic gear, put every piece of paper related to the gear into the envelope. That way you’ll have a central repository for your electronics receipts and manuals. It’s easy to forget how to do certain tasks if you don’t do them all the time – such as setting up your car stereo after changing the car’s battery. Plus it’s maddening to know that something is covered under a warranty, only you can’t find the receipt to prove it.

If you’re a young, single man… find a female friend and check out her bathroom. Notice that it’s clean (if possibly cluttered). Notice that she has bathmats and hand towels. Notice that she has a box of tissues on the back of the toilet. Notice that she sprung an extra $1.50 for the plastic shower liner. Notice that she throws it away when stuff starts growing on it. Emulate this and the girls won’t be afraid to come over to your place.

I hate to sound like a shill, but it’s true: different stains require different enzymes to break them down. For example, ink requires a different enzyme to remove it from a shirt than fat or glue. Carbona “Stain Devils” come in 10 different “flavors” for different types of stains and work far, far better than “all in one” stain removers like Shout or Spray and Wash.

Tabasco sauce makes a great copper cleaner in a pinch.

Use automatic dishwashing detergent (as opposed to Dawn or some other “hand washing” liquid) to wash complex containers like pitchers with hollow handles. It cleans just as well, yet doesn’t create as much of the annoying, hard to remove “foam” as hand liquid.

“Snapping” your laundry when moving it from the washer to the dryer will reduce the amount of wrinkles you end up with. To “snap” a piece of clothing, hold it with both hands (one hand on each shoulder of a t-shirt, for example) and rapidly move your hands up and down until the shirt makes a distinctive “snapping” sound (similar to the sound a rolled up towel makes when you “snap” someone with it).

Buy Ziploc bags in quantity and in various sizes. They’re the most useful things ever invented. I always use small Ziploc bags to hold screws, parts. etc when I take something apart. They’re great for storing cables, too! They’re indispensable at the beach (for throwing wet clothes into a beach bag), for canoeing (put valuable items inside Ziploc, place bag inside another Ziploc, inflate second Ziploc as much as possible so that bag floats if the canoe gets tipped), for traveling (put “wet” items like mouthwash inside a Ziploc bag in your travel kit so that if it breaks open your clothes aren’t ruined), car trips (use as litter bags, they can also keep sandwich\pizza leftovers dry in the cooler), shipping (inflate a couple of Ziploc bags to mimic Amazon’s “air bag” packing) as well as in the kitchen (cut off a corner to pipe frosting, put dough inside a Ziploc to knead – it keeps your hands from getting dirty!)

The second most useful things every invented are channel locks. Aside from actual DIY\repair-type stuff, they’re also good for opening errant pickle jars and oil filters and work as vise grips in a pinch.

Get a small duffel bag. Put a pair of khakis, a polo and t-shirt in it, along with “travel size” deodorant, shampoo, toothpaste and a toothbrush. Put it in the trunk of your car. This way, if you have too much to drink (or otherwise inexplicably end up at a friend’s house overnight), you always have a change of clothes.

Even though just about every Microsoft Press book about Windows Server 2000 (and above) uses a TLD extension in the examples for setting up AD domains, you’ll save yourself a world of hurt by just naming your AD domain .LOCAL (or any other non-TLD domain).

Keep a notepad by your computer at all times. Any time you try to “fix” a problem, write down all the steps that you do, so that when you give up and call an IT professional, they’ll be able to figure out what you’ve done. Also use the notepad to write down the complete text of any error message(s) you might receive; calling the help desk with “I got some error but forgot to write it down” isn’t helpful to you or the help desk guy.

If you’re too lazy to write down the text of an error message, press ALT+Print Screen. This will capture an image of the message to the Windows clipboard. Open Paint and press CTRL+V to paste capture into an image. Be sure to save it, too!

Thawing meat in the microwave or sink? Remove it from the store’s packaging and put it in a large Ziploc bag. This allows the water to touch all of the meat – assuming that the store packaging had one of those Styrofoam backers – thus thawing it faster. It also allows you to flip the ground beef while defrosting in the microwave without getting your hands yucky.

Frozen meat (beef, pork, chicken) cuts easier than thawed meat. If you’re planning on cutting the meat anyway, cut it while it’s frozen first – it’ll thaw faster , too.

A splash of red wine and cream (or milk) will make any bottled spaghetti sauce taste much better.

Keep a couple of those old-school “springy” clothespins in your kitchen junk drawer. Impromptu uses include: “chip clips” and tea bag holders.

Want to keep a bathroom mirror from fogging due to hot showers? Buy a can of the cheapest shaving cream you can find and put a thin coat of the cream onto the mirror; rub until the mirror is clear again. This will take quite a bit of elbow grease, which is why I emphasized the phrase “thin coat”.

And speaking of shaving cream… if you shave in the shower and find that the shaving cream can is leaving “rust rings” on the porcelain, put the can into a drink koozie – or, even better, use the plastic cap from a Pringle’s can (or the similar “can caps” you sometimes see at the dollar store) on the bottom of the shaving cream cap. Presto – no more rings!

Be wary of buying cleaners and other expensive household items from dollar stores. Many manufacturers create items specifically for sale by dollar stores that use the same container as the product sold in grocery stores, yet hold less than their grocery store counterparts. For example, a small bottle of Tide detergent might contain 32oz. at your local grocery store, yet the same container might hold only contain 25oz. at the dollar store. Doing a “price per ounce” comparison often means that dollar store versions are no cheaper than the ones sold in grocery stores, especially when the grocery store runs a sale.

The next time you paint, pour a little extra paint into a clean Chinese takeout soup container. It’s much easier to do touch-ups later on with the small container than it is to pull out the entire paint can.

Have an old cell phone? Put it in a heavy-duty Ziploc bag along with a cigarette lighter charger and put the bag your car’s trunk. Why? Every cell phone sold in the United States can dial 911 under any circumstances. Whether the phone has been “deactivated”, whether you’re no longer a customer of the phone’s carrier or whether you’re roaming… it doesn’t matter – the phone can call 911 regardless. In an emergency, the spare phone might save your life. NOTE: this tip might not apply to very old cell phones.

Ars Reader’s Tips

NOTE: Some tips have been paraphrased for clarity, brevity and grammar. I have embellished some tips to drive their points home more clearly.

If you are at a party and can’t find the drunkest person in the room… it’s because it’s you.

Need a crossover cable and don’t have crimpers? Cut a pre-made cable in the middle, and connect 1-3, 3-1, 2-6, and 6-2. Twist, tape, Voila!

When wrapping long data cables up into a bundle and zip tying them, don’t just put one zip tie in the middle… use 2 zip ties, one close to each end. It looks nicer, holds the wire together better, and keeps the ends nice and neat.

Dispose of the body properly the first time.

If you’re using a power tool plugged into an extension cord and find it constantly unplugging as you move across the room\garage\yard, tie a simple knot with the two wires, centered on the plug\receptacle when you plug it back in. That way, when you pull on the cord you end up pulling the plug and receptacle together in a knot instead of apart.

If you happen to be on a project with a person who just read a book on the best way to do XYZ and wants to use this project to try it out for the first time, get them shot down early, or change projects. Once they get a toehold, you’re fucked. The ‘great new idea from this book’ will almost always turn out to be complete and utter shit that adds more paperwork, verbiage and general overhead that accomplishes nothing and confuses everyone.

Always be friendly to “the little people.” No one is “beneath you.” Treat the waitress, valet, janitorial staff, etc. with utmost respect, humility and kindness. It will save your ass a dozen times over one day when you need that odd favor.

When painting, there is no need to wash out the brushes at the end of the day if you plan to continue the next day. Instead, wrap each brush in plastic wrap as tightly as possible. The brushes won’t dry out and you can simply unwrap them and carry on where you left off.

Driving way over the speed limit only saves you a significant amount of time if you are traveling a great distance. Driving 85mph on the way home from work only gets you home a minute or two faster and also leaves you open to speeding fines, increased insurance premiums, catastrophic car wrecks and greatly reduced gas mileage.

Before working on a car, run your fingernails over a bar of soap. This keeps grease from getting under your nails. Also, consider using lotion on your hands before working on a vehicle. Dry hands will soak up anything – better it be lotion than car grease.

When working with those tiny nails that end up in smashed finger tips, push them into a strip of cardboard. This will hold the nail upright and steady, but keeps your fingers out of the way. Once you get the nail started, you can just pull the cardboard out and drive the nail home.

To check when boiled potatoes are done, stick a regular table knife into one of them and lift it directly vertically out of the pot. If the potato slides off the knife, they’re done.

Best marital advice ever: If you’re going to fight, fight naked.

If you are re-drywalling a room (or building a new house), take a photo of the wall’s “insides” while you have the sheetrock off… it’s easier to figure out where the studs and electrical stuff are later.

Many jobs can be accomplished with or without the proper tools. However, with the proper tool the time required for the task will be dramatically smaller, and you will not be frustrated as much or hurt yourself as often.

A splash of lemon or lime in rum and Coke makes cheap rum seem better.

Keep the number of the following places on hand at all times: your bank, a local cab company, a good restaurant that requires reservations, a friend with a large capacity vehicle or one who can drive your large capacity vehicle and a friend you can call and bitch\cry\whine at without repercussions (use this last one sparingly).

Any food can be improved with the addition of either bacon or chocolate.

Oven cleaner works very well as resin-gum remover on cutting edges like saw teeth and router bits.

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