Showing posts with label tip. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tip. Show all posts

Monday, May 05, 2008

100 Fuel Economy Tips from EcoModder.com


The spiraling cost of filling your tank busting your budget? EcoModder.com suggests more than a hundred ways to improve your fuel efficiency. Some examples ...
  • Clean out your trunk
  • Remove roof racks
  • Check tire inflation
  • Avoid drive-thrus
  • Combine errands
  • Close sunroof and windows
  • Use cruise control appropriately
See more tips...
Hypermiling, Fuel Economy, EcoModding News and Forum - EcoModder.com

Sunday, May 04, 2008

Get Rid Of Junk Mail With These Easy Steps

Link to a transcript of a report by Kelly Frey that first aired May 2, 2008, on WTAE Channel 4 (Pittsburgh) Action News at 5 p.m.
"... more than 100 billion pieces of junk mail are delivered each year. Junk mail in the U.S. accounts for one-third of all the mail delivered in the world. And 44 percent of that mail ends up in a landfill, unopened."
Hate Junk Mail? Get Rid Of It With These Easy Steps - WTAE Pittsburgh
Mailbox with mail
Image details: Mailbox with mail served by picapp.com

Saturday, January 19, 2008

What to Do If You See a UFO


This post follows up an earlier post about the UFO sighting phenomena. MSNBC science editor Alan Boyle offers tips on how to record and document UFO sightings.

UFO viewing tips - Cosmic Log - msnbc.com

Saturday, January 05, 2008

Spam Filter for Your Postal Mail

Catalog Choice is a free service to reduce mailbox clutter by removing you from the mailing lists of distributors of unwanted catalogs and advertising materials. And, it's good for the environment, too. Each year, 53 billion trees are used to produce the 19 billion catalogs that mailed in this country.

Sign up, find your catalogs, then Catalog Choice will contact the mailers and request you be removed from their mailing lists. Note that it does take possibly 10 weeks or more to take efect.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Homemade Windshield Deicer

For many of us, along with winter comes an endless expanse of mornings spent freezing our fingers off scraping ice from our windshields. Rather than walking that chilly road again this winter, the Dollar Stretcher web site suggests several DIY solutions for keeping your windshield ice-free this winter. For example:
To prevent your car's windows/mirrors from icing up... treat the windows before you go to bed each night. The window treatment can be made up of 3 parts vinegar to 1 part water and placed in a spray bottle... [and] will prevent ice from forming.
From other posts in the thread, it sounds like rubbing alcohol can be substituted for vinegar, and the solution can be applied either before or after the ice has formed.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Keynote to YouTube

I stumbled upon a great feature of Apple's Keynote '08 presentation software. You can have your slideshow posted as a YouTube video from within Keynote.

Use the File - Send to - YouTube command and just sit back and wait for the magic to happen.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Use an Empty Soda Can to Boost Your Wi-Fi

According to this video from Green Baby Productions via Metacafe you can boost your wireless for virtually nothing using an empty soda can

 I have not personally tried this tip so proceed at your own risk. Exercise caution when cutting the soda can as the edges may be sharp.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Halloween How To Guides



How to do just about anything Halloween:
  • Party ideas
  • Costumes
  • Pumpkin carving

Halloween How To Guides | eHow.com

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Freecycle Your Used Stuff


If you're like me, you have a lot of used stuff like computer parts, peripherals, PDAs, cell phones, books, CDs, etc., lying around your house stuffed in closets and cabinets taking up valuable space.

Stuff that's too good to trash, but which you no longer have any use for. What do you do with it?

The Freecycle Network is a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Membership is free.

The Freecycle Network

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Top 10 Ways to Sleep Smarter and Better

10. Reduce Screen Time Before Bed
9. Exercise to Enhance Sleep
8. Eat to Enhance Sleep
7. Master the Power Nap
6. Avoid the Soul-Shattering Alarm Buzzer
5. Solve Problems in Your Sleep
4. Beat Insomnia with Visualization
3. Shortcut a Long Nap with the Clattering Spoon
2. Take a Caffeine Power Nap
1. Teach Yourself to Lucid Dream

For more details ...
Lifehacker Top 10: Top 10 Ways to Sleep Smarter and Better - Lifehacker

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Signing The Back Of Your Credit Cards?

The conventional wisdom says you should sign the strip on the back of your credit card immediately upon receipt. This is supposed to be a deterrent to fraud.

On a casual level, this may be true. However, how often have salesclerks actually checked the back-of-the-card signature against your receipt signature. And, if it's a digitally signed receipt, my signature seldom bears even a remote resemblance to the one on the back of the card. And, that's assuming it's not blurred or worn away altogether.

But, don't leave that strip blank, either. golbguru suggests writing "Ask for photo ID" in the space as a more effective solution.

Read more ... Sign The Back Of Your Credit Cards - Useless Fraud Prevention Advice?

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Quick, Easy, Free Reverse Phone Lookup

Quick, easy, free! The only way it would be better is if it were useful, too. It is. Simply enter the area code and the phone number, click Find, and have the caller's name and address in seconds. You can also view a map of the caller's location.

Sullr : USA
Argentina, Belgium, Italy, and France are currently available, too.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Read with Speed

Zap Reader is a very interesting Web site I stumbled upon that may help you read faster. Watch the video clip below and take a look. It's totally free, so what have you got to lose!
ZAP Reader is a web based speed reading program that will change the way you read on your computer. Current beta testers report reading twice as much in half the time—that's a 300% increase in reading speed, without any loss in comprehension! There is nothing to install, it works with most popular browsers, and it's totally free!


If you like this, I suggest you go to the Tools link and put the bookmarklet in your bookmark bar.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

10 Surprising Uses For Aspirin

Here's another collection of tips on how to get more out of common products.

10 Surprising Uses For Aspirin

I always wonder who was the first to attempt this trick and why did they try it.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Ten Uses for Lemons

If you are a regular reader, you know how I love these "clever-uses-for-ordinary-things" kind of articles. This one is about the little yellow lemon.

A favorite use I have for the lemon is to freshen the food disposal in the kitchen. I just cut one up and feed it to the disposal. I liked the dishwasher tip. I'm gonna try that one.

Hippyshopper: 10 eco-friendly things to do with lemons from Eco Street

Thursday, August 16, 2007

How to Get Rid of Ants with Baby Powder

Apparently the baby powder disrupts the ants' scent trail which they use to navigate to and from the colony. So, ants already in your house can't find their way home and those on the outside have no trail to follow in.

How to Get Rid of Ants ~ Lockergnome’s Doing It

Once again, I have not personally verified the effectiveness of this method, but it interesting.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Another Miraculous Product

I've been an advocate of vinegar as multi-use product for some time. The applications for vinegar around the house are numerous. This article from because you value your body lists 62 interesting uses.


Some of these which I particularly like are --

  • Remove stubborn coffee stains from cups and pots. Fill the cup with vinegar overnight, then rinse with hot soapy water.
  • Keep a garbage disposal clean and smelling fresh. Mix one cup of vinegar in enough water to fill an ice cube tray, freeze the mixture, grind the cubes through the disposal, and flush with cold water.
  • Prevent ice from forming on a car windshield overnight. Coat the window with a solution of three parts vinegar to one part water.
  • Prevent lint from clinging to clothes. Add one cup vinegar to each wash load.


62 Little Known Uses Of Vinegar | because you value your body

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Dozens of Tips to Save Money on Gas

wikiHow offers a pretty comprehensive listing of ways you can reduce your fuel consumption and pay less at the pump.

Some simple, easy to implement tips include -
  • Don't drive a car when you don't have to
  • Avoid idling
  • Get a better air filter
  • Slow down and drive at a consistent speed
  • Anticipate stop signs and lights
  • Accelerate slowly from a stop

How to Save Money on Gas - wikiHow

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Super Miracle Wonder Product with Thousands of Uses

The Tacoma Wheelmen's Bicycle Club has posted a seemingly infinite list of uses for this miraculous product. And, you probably have some of this stuff around the house right now.

Among its uses --
  • Removes crayon from walls and carpet
  • Prevents mildew growth on fountain
  • Removes tomato stains from clothes
  • Camouflages scratches in ceramic tile
  • Removes rust from cookie tins
  • Spray on bathroom mirror to keep it from fogging
  • Displaces moisture from submerged cellular phones
  • Cleans clogged inkjet nozzle
  • Coat wire tomato plant cages to keep insects away
  • Removes snarls from horse hair & manes
  • and much, much more
Click here to discover what this wonder product is.

Monday, July 09, 2007

If you want to ____, press 5.

If you want to talk to a human (what a novel idea), the GetHuman 500 database will tell you how.