In the old days (before the web) you could not read the operating manual or instructions for an appliance, device, or tool until you got it home and unpacked it. Getting the manual was considered one of the benefits of purchasing the product. In fact, you had to purchase extra copies if you lost the original, or wanted to check it out. It was often only later when you finally had the box opened that you discovered a) it did not permit the function you bought it for, or b) it was a quarter inch smaller than it looked and so didn't fit, or c) it was incompatible with the assessors set you already had, or d) it had no manual!

Those days are gone. You can find a PDF version of the manual for most products on the web if you search hard enough. It is not as easy as it should be, but the smarter manufacturers make it easy to download the specs of whatever they sell.

That leads to this new rule: get the manual first, before you buy.

For a large home remodel I had to purchase a pile of new appliances, lights, plumbing fixtures, hardware, materials, gadgets, and some tools. I instituted a "Manual First, Buy Later" policy, and it had immediate positive effects. Once I identified a possible candidate for purchase, I would google for its manual. Equally important as finding the operating instructions and basic specs, is to get hold of the installation instructions. There are few sites that aggregate manuals and specs of major lines, but often I would wind up at the manufacturer's site. There I would download the PDF and read it carefully. That's where you find out its precise dimensions, its actual power needs, its exact connections, its real compatibility. I lost count of the number of inappropriate bad purchases I avoided by studying the manual and specs first.

What baffles me are the clueless manufacturers who still don't put their installation and operating manuals online in 2012. (I'm thinking of you, LG.) The main result of this process is simply fewer surprises. Less returns, better integration.

I was heartened to see that even the professionals do this. Here is a snapshot of our plumber "at work" in the bathroom. He has his tablet opened to a installation PDF, and his phone is googling a help number for questions brought up by specs in the PDF.

Locating any particular item's installation and operating specs is still not as easy as it should be. Amazon could make it the norm to have the full spec PDF for every item they sell, or Google could try to algorithmically sort them out, or some clever aggregator could centralize them all. But for now it is worth seeking them out first, any purchase later.

-- KK

The sales pitch for an extended warranty is simple: pay some extra money now to extend the manufacture's 90-day warranty another 3 years to save on expensive repairs later. For most appliances an extended warranty is a rip-off. The cost of this insurance rarely pays for itself. Either the device keeps working till just after the warranty period, or the cost of the warranty extension exceeds the cost of replacing the unit. Either way, the money made by selling uneconomical extended warranties is a major source of profit for retailers. That is why they are selling it: because on average most devices don't break during this period. Therefore, the wisdom of the smart shopper: skip the extended warranty.

There are a few exceptions to this rule. At this particular moment in technology, there are 3 major devices that seem particularly repair-prone and problematic, with frequent failures within their first 3 years, and with high costs of repair. According to a study by the independent Consumer Reports (August 2011), those three are: personal computers, refrigerators and zero-turn-radius riding lawn mowers. And because of their frequent failure across brands the insurance of an extended warranty is justified in their cases.

But not all extended warranties (EW) are the same. You can purchase an EW from the manufacturer, from the retailer selling the device, from a third party, or from your credit card company. And different issuers have different selling points.

In the personal computer realm, the best deal is Apple's. As 25-year Apple fans we automatically figure in the cost of AppleCare's 3-year EW for any device we purchase from them. Sad to say, we frequently need it. Happy to say, their service is great. We take the ailing unit to a local Genius Bar, and they swap out what's broken and make it right. Over the years we'd had screens, keyboards, drives, motherboards, power supply, all repaired for no extra costs over the EW. And that is not to mention the great real-human phone support help for any kind of software related questions.

Refrigerators are a different matter. Almost everyone has one, and newer models (particular those with ice makers) can be very complex. In the past few months, we needed to purchase our first new refrigerator. Even our plumber told us that the EW was worth getting for a refrigerator. But what kind? Sears offered one plan. Home Depot another. Visa, our credit card company offered another if we used their card. Square Trade offered third-party service. With the help of Camille Cloutier, we researched all the plans to see which had the best deal using a new LG refrigerator as a test case. Her research is summed up in this table here.

The short answer is that like many other industries, when you get behind the curtain there are really only a few major players. Most retailers and card companies outsource their extended warranty programs to a few industry giants, who rebrand their service, and then outsource the actual repairs to local companies. But because there are so many brands involved in this transaction it is very hard to assign credit or blame when things don't work out. If you read the feedback in forums on refrigerator repairs most unhappy customers aren't making the distinction between the manufacturer of the appliance, or the retail seller of it, or the company selling the EW, or the actual company supplying the repair technicians who come to your house. Those are four different companies for one experience for the customer.

What I found in warranty repair is that the competency of the local service branch probably plays more of a difference in customer satisfaction than anything else, but was the least consistent. If the local agency did a poor job fixing a problem, customers would naturally blame LG, or Panasonic, or GE for crappy quality and service. It is hard to judge the service quality in an EW, but it is essentially the same as the quality of a regular warranty repair -- that is dependent on local crews -- and this is important -- who often service all the different manufacturers. The Maytag man is unusual because most of the others repair technicians are contracted out and work on all brands.

So the choice of EW providers comes down to price and plan. All the policies we examined include a "No Lemon" clause -- if three of the same repairs are made in a 12 month period and a fourth becomes necessary, they will replace the unit, and most of them share the same long list of exclusions. Of all the policies, Visa's was the shortest and least specific. Its instructions on claim processing seemed the most lengthy (to report a problem, they mail you a claims form, you get an estimate and return that claim form, once it's approve, the claim can proceed).

Most 4- to 5-year service plans cost about 20% of the purchase price. Except Home Depot; they charge a flat fee of $100 for a 4-year extended contract on refrigerators (on a large one that's only 4%). It begins when the 1-year manufacturer's warranty ends, so I went with them for our extended warranty on a new fridge. I now have 5 years of service for $100, which seems like reasonable insurance.

-- KK

What's the best device for correcting bad posture?

What's the best silver polish?

Help me find a one-handed multi-tool for my disabled father!

What's the best container for bringing salad to work?

Is there an iOS app that can help me create a constantly running log of GPS locations that I can easily export?

This special issue published by jointly Fine Homebuilding and Fine Woodworking magazines gives in-depth, comparative reviews of several hundred tools. The two sister magazines of Taunton Press roundup all the tool reviews that have appeared in their pages during the past year. They'll test a bunch of jigsaws, or portable table saws, or T-squares, and then give you smart recommendations for the best one to get.

Their selection of candidates for each tool is wide, fairly unbiased by freebies or advertisers, and just not stuck on the newest things; they'll include older models as well. I've used their annual Guide to find and choose a number of great tools for my toolbox. This year's list includes deep reviews of the best routers, miter saws, shop mats, hole saws, paint brushes, bench-top lathes, cordless nailers, and many more. ("201 tools tested" they claim on the cover.)

I like their sensibility -- stressing function over looks, reliability over fancy features, and I have come to trust their judgements. Generally if they recommend something as good, it is. I especially value the non-power tools they review, such as the best first aid "tools" for injuries on a worksite in this issue. Their reviews are is the same spirit as Cool Tools, but they go much deeper and are more thorough.

These annuals are so good I even recommend the past few year's versions, since building tools don't change that fast.

For most of my life I've lived in the Los Angeles area, where the idea of ice on the windshield of the car is only a winter morning fantasy witnessed on television. But last year I spent the winter in Lansing, Michigan, and morning frost was a daily chore to deal with.

Having to deal with the stuff myself, I wondered if there were a better way as it seemed there are so many other ways to remove ice from all kinds of surfaces. So I went to the local hardware store and bought a quart size spray bottle with an adjustable nozzle, and a quart of rubbing alcohol (isopropyl alcohol freezes at around -128F--OH) at the local drug store.

The next morning it took a few tries to find the right nozzle setting, but after I got it down the ice quickly melted as the car engine warmed up. I was on the road in much less time and with no new scratches on the windshield. Overall, I have found that a bit of alcohol is a much better method for removing ice from my windshield.

I'm interested in purchasing an e-reader of some kind (i.e. must use e-ink tech, no LCD screens) and wondering if anyone has any suggestions about which reader lends itself most to tinkering / extending / hacking? Are there any that make it possible to install your own software? (It would be cool to see i.e. Emacs running on one.)

Nook Color, hands down. Unfortunately, your eInk criterion limits you to cheap Chinese knockoffs. If you're willing to go LCD, you won't be disappointed with a Nook Color.

Cyanogen makes the ROM for it, and they are nearly impossible to brick. Heck, you can run a custom ROM right off the microSD card, never putting your warranty in jeopardy. And, because it's Cyanogen, you can read nearly anything, and have full Android Market access.

-- Christopher

Nook Color
$249
Available from and manufactured by Barnes and Noble

Cyanogen Nook Color Rom
Free
Available from Cyanogen

Have a different answer to this question? Submit your own!

For non-Solid State Drives (SSDs) I would use a tool like the open source TrueCrypt full-disk encryption. Using the software you want to encrypt the entire disk, including all system partitions, and then change the key to a very long random string. Then format the drive.

If you put sensitive data on a non-encrypted SSD then a good way to physically decommission the drive is to heat it with a propane torch until the PCB catches fire. At that point the magnetic domains aren't magnetic anymore.

Written by you.

Here's how. In the comments of this entry describe a cool tool you are giving as a gift this year. To a family-member, co-worker, or friend. It can be a previously reviewed Cool Tool, or even better, a new one we don't know about. We'll comb through the submissions in a week or so and then highlight the best of suggestions collected into a full-fledge roundup on the front page.

So what cool tool are you planning to share with others? And why? It can be anything useful (and, okay, even playful). Keep it real. Bonus points for including a link.

Thanks to all of our readers who have written in to notify us about malware warnings that the site has prompted in the past couple days. I wanted to update you that the malware was all removed by Thursday afternoon, although it took a bit longer for the warning messages to come down.

Please accept my apologies for not publishing this notice sooner. When we discovered the issue, we immediately and completely locked down site publishing for the clean-up and initial diagnosis, hence the silence on our end. I do want to address a couple of specific concerns you may have. The malware that the hackers injected onto the site was located in an invisible link -- this is not something you could have accidentally "clicked on." So visiting Cool Tools would not put you in any danger of malware. The reason these folks embed links in high-traffic sites like this in order to get higher page ranks from Google. Second, our sys admin has tested the site extensively on multiple machines, both Windows and OSX -- all of our machines remain uninfected.

We're continuing site updates this weekend and should be back to a normal publishing schedule Monday morning. You may notice some lag time in comment publication until then. Please accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience, and our thanks and appreciation for your concern.

-- CC

It was a mighty fine experiment: Take an original fast-forward science fiction writer, who has been subscribing to Cool Tools from day one (before it was a blog), who edited the final issue of the Whole Earth Catalog's zine (the original model for Cool Tools), and who had worked with me many times before (appearing on the cover of the first issue of our zine Wired) -- take this fellow and turn his creative mind towards the utilitarian workaday routine of Cool Tools. That was the idea a month ago in hiring Bruce Sterling as editor of Cool Tools.

Well, that fine experiment did not work out. Bruce Sterling is retiring from his very energetic stint as Cool Tools editor. Some kind of personality mismatch. These things are always mysterious, even when they work. No big deal. Only thing is to move on. I am really looking forward to working with Bruce again because if you want "think different", if you want true originality, street level honesty, entertaining insight, and a remarkable stylist, Bruce Sterling is your guy. Really. I learn something from Sterling in every encounter with him, and I am easily bored. Sterling has never bored me.

Cool Tools is boring in that workaday jeans and boots sort of way. Utilitarian. WYSIWYG. No "skins." So we are going to stick to our workaday useful ways. The newest new Cool Tool editor, Elon Schoenholz, is not boring but not flashy either. Elon was one of the 200 candidates rounded up in the casting call last month. He has experience as a editor and reviewer at Consumer Guide, Mountain Bike magazine, a weekly paper, and is currently a professional architectural photographer. His home site is here.

As always, most of the reviews on this site are written by readers (and every one of them by actual users). This site is only as good as the material that flows into it. The job of Elon, or Bruce, or Steven, or Charles, or myself, is only to sift, edit, tidy up, and to head off misunderstanding before the review is posted. Send Elon a rave about your favorite cool tool; address to elon at schoenholz dot c o m.

To reiterate what is wanted:

Cool Tools publishes only positive reviews of stuff that works. We love tried and true tools, rather than flimsy and faddish gadgets that only look good on the screen. A cool tool...

1) Is not commonly known, or if known, not appreciated for this particular use.
2) Really works over a long time period.
3) Is significantly better than the competition.
4) Assists individuals (verses institutions) in self-empowerment and self-learning.
5) Is not one you've invented, sell, or promote.

The ideal Cool Tool review begins: "Over the years I've tried dozens of tools to accomplish X, but this one is by far the best thing. After using this tool every day for 2 years, it continues to amaze me. The problem it solves for non-professionals is this..." and it goes on to say why this item is so wonderful compared to other choices.

Spray-On Cooking Oil As Expedient Wetsuit Remover

As a triathlete, I practice the transition during every training session, meaning I try to remove my wetsuit in super fast time.

Every Friday last summer I swam in a lake in my Promotion triathlon wetsuit. I spent the whole summer struggling to get off my wetsuit. I tried slopping some water down the front before getting out of the water, Superglide and all kinds of things. My Ironman friend swears by Pam Spray On Cooking Oil. He's used it for 17 years and has had no damage to his wetsuits. You can't buy Pam in the UK (at least not cheaply). All I could find was Frys spray on oil. I bought a pump-action one since this is more eco-friendly.

I got to the lake one Friday and sprayed a generous coating on my legs. I was sure the oil would come off during my hour-long swim so I didn't really expect it to work. As I clambered out of the water I unzipped my wetsuit, ripped it down to my waist and then pulled it off my legs. I couldn't believe how effective this is. Triathletes normally try to pull a wetsuit down enough that they can tred on it to pull the rest of it off. I hadn't managed to do this all summer, but on my first attempt using cooking oil, I was instantly able to get the wetsuit down. Absolutely perfect!

-- Carl Myhill

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Chopsticks for Whisking

On one of my trips to Asia, I noticed an omelet chef at breakfast using a pair of chopsticks to whisk the eggs. Since then, I have kept several pairs of good quality chopsticks in my kitchen for whisking and stirring jobs where a traditional balloon whisk is simply too big and can't get into the container's corners, or if the pot does not have a rounded bottom. Simply grasp the chopsticks together as if they were a pair of pencils; hold towards the thick end. For more whisking power, slightly separate the two thin ends. As with a balloon whisk, most of the power should come from moving your forearm from the elbow, with your wrist providing a whip-like follow through. -- Aryeh Abramovitz

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Tie Wraps in a Bike Repair Kit

I would strongly suggest adding tie-wraps or zip ties to any bicycle repair set. They can hold a whole lot of things in place when screws get lost... I'm speaking here as an avid cyclist (I do about 2 to 3000 kilometers every year, most in vacations). -- Michiel Kemeling

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Prevent Flat Bike/Motorcycle Tires

Here's an easier way to flat-proof your bicycle: make a flap of stiff plastic that extends in front of the back wheel until it nearly touches the pavement. Then glue or rivet a rubber flap to the lower edge that brushes against the pavement. A bleach bottle is a particularly good source of plastic since you can gain some stiffness from curve to the neck, and depending on your bicycle design, you might even profit from the neck itself. I learned this many years ago when I was a motorcycle mechanic and discovered that perhaps 90 percent of all flats are on the back wheel. The reason: the front wheel stands the object up, the back wheel runs into it. All the flap does is knock the object back down, and that's all that's necessary. I put one these on my motorcycles and have never again had a flat in more than thirty years and hundreds of thousands of miles of riding. I put them on my bicycles too, and never have flats. -- Bill Babcock

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Quick Ways To Open a Shrinkwrapped CD

I got my start writing about music, so I received review copies of a lot of CDs. Since the days of physical, shrinkwrapped CDs are numbered, I feel compelled to share the two solutions I picked up. 1) To cut the shrinkwrap, vigorously rub one side of the disc on the corner or leg of a desk (preferably a metal one). Don't rub the face of the case, otherwise you'll scratch it. 2) To remove the barcode sticker binding the edge of the case: pry open the case at the hinges, then use the leverage to pull the sticker off in one long, quick movement.

These are so simple, I was able to do both in a minute with my left hand (I'm right-handed).

-- Steven Leckart

Shrinkwrap removal...

Sticker removal...

All of you 220,000 RSS subscribers to COOL TOOLS should detect little difference, but all of you 450,000 unique visitors to the website should notice a redesign. This new layout tweak piggybacks on an upgrade to the Movable Type blogging software undergirding this site. Because of this upgrade we now have user comments available for each cool tool. Click on the blue COMMENTS button at the bottom of each review to see the comments so far, or to add yours. Yes, please add yours. We'll be moderating comments closely to be sure they are constructive. This is your chance to add your own experience, positive or negative, to the usual COOL TOOLS rave.

The new design also makes it easier to access the 5 year's worth of previous reviews on the site. We've devised a visual grid which should allow you to browse the back list quickly and smartly. Clicking on a category on the left hand list (in gray) will bring you to the grid.

If you prefer to see more of them in abbreviated form, click on the LIST view in the upper right. Or if you want to systematically study the archives in full-review mode, as one long scroll, click on the FULL view. (Currently, not all the thumbnails of past items have been upgraded and imported into the new design. That should happen soon. In the meantime they are rendered as gray boxes.) You can also choose to view the archives chronologically. The monthly pages permit the same three views: GRID, LIST and FULL.

COOL TOOLS' new design was created by Thomas Marban. Thomas is the genius behind Popurls, which, for the past two years, has been and continues to be the first website I visit each morning. In a previous review I raved about Popurl's fantastic dashboard for blogosphere. It is a meta-aggregator; it aggregates the blog aggregators. On one big page you can skim over what the major blogs are saying, and dip deeper with a mouse-over, or click on it for the actual story. It is much much faster than any  RSS reader. You can scan the major blogs in about 5 minutes. Marban's Popurls was the inspiration for many imitators, including Guy Kawasaki's AllTop, but Popurls is much more useful because it remains a well-design one page. So well-designed in fact that I asked Thomas to re-design COOL TOOLS. Besides the two improvements I mentioned, there are others sprinkled through the site. Like any redesign there are some implementation bugs; if you find one, let me know. Marban is now innovating other cool tools, which are worth inspecting.

Putting Marban's design into code was the job of MT-master Wayne Bremser. It's not easy overhauling a ship while it is still cruising, but that is what upgrading and redesigning a large 5-year-old blog site with no down time is like. Wayne is an ace programmer and designer himself. I recommend him highly.

Finally, we encountered some security issues in our site during the upgrade. There was a weird hack that was scary because even after inspecting the logs we had no idea how the leeches got in. It was very subtle. No one would see anything amiss in COOL TOOLS unless you googled a few common spam words. Then you'd see a parasitic page on our site that was pirating our Google-juice. We had deep parasites and we didn't even know it. Anyway, turns out when you have this kind of disease you need a specialist. Tony Hansmann is a UNIX security expert, who came, looked, saw, and made a few very select, very deliberate moves and sealed the holes. It was like watching a judo black belt make the exact minimal essential stroke. Or a doctor diagnosing the site's health. He can do a lot of other esoteric high-end cures, but Hansmann is basically a website doctor.  Also highly recommended.

All the while Camille Cloutier made sure each day's review was up and in good order. I am constantly amazed at the amount of energy required to keep an active blog site going. It's like tending a zoo or garden. Not a day goes by that something falters, breaks, needs an upgrade, or tweaking, or some kind of attention.  Doing nothing is not an option because the world moves around us. New versions of browsers, no versions of readers, new gadgets, new features all require us to keep working on the site. Let us know how we can make it better.

I got this great tip from marketing innovator Seth Godin. I think its a good one for anyone putting on a conference or large meeting. Like Seth, I attend many conferences and the time and manner in which the organizers are thanked is not effective or efficient. Seth has a small improvement I plan to adopt:

Approximately 5% of the official welcome speech consists of a litany of thanks. The list is impossible to remember, said too fast and dull. Not only is this a total waste of time for most attendees, it doesn't even satisfy the core objective, which is thanking and rewarding the folks who helped. And it certainly doesn't encourage others to look forward to helping out.



The solution is pretty simple, thanks to Powerpoint and digital cameras.

Prepare for the talk by taking pictures of each person. If they're shy, you can even do photographs in groups of two or three. Good photos, clever photos, funny photos... photos that are interesting are best.

Then, create a new presentation. Put each photo on its own slide, preferably with a well designed ID below it (it should be on a black box, with a nice sans serif font reversed out. Like you see on cable TV news.)

String one after the other. Build a dissolve transition between each one. Program it to put up a new slide every two seconds--don't go too slow!--and to loop the presentation.

Ten minutes before you're due to start, while everyone is finding their seats, run the presentation. It'll cycle 5 or 10 times before you start speaking. When you get up, start your presentation and just dive into the meaty stuff.

Every single person you feature will be famous! "Hey, I saw you in that loop!"

And you won't have wasted your valuable presentation time.

-- from Seth's Blog by Seth Godin

Every Mac comes with a long, bulky power cord and a small 2-prong nub. You can interchange them, but both are far from optimal for travel and field work (i.e. conference/convention blogging). Here's my fix: use a power cord from a Sony PlayStation. There are other cords that will also fit into the Mac power brick, but the PlayStation cord is easy to find. Where the Mac power cord is too thick to easily coil or toss in a bag -- and has a ground prong* so it's limited to those types of AC outlets -- the PlayStation cord is ostensibly perfect. It fits into the Mac power brick, coils up nice and small and has two prongs. Plus, you can leave your giant Mac cord at your desk back home and don't have to deal with dust bunnies every time you get ready to go out the door. I always keep one PlayStation cable stashed in my bag, so I only have to transfer the brick to the bag. This trick's good for any Mac laptop from the last 4-5 years, I'd guess, if not longer. In the last four years, I've used it on a 12 inch PowerBook, 13 inch MacBook, MacBook air and 2 MacBook pros. There used to be a video game where you had to fit shapes into brackets before an entire rig blows up. Can't remember what it's called, but that mindset is kind of how I first recognized the shape on the Mac plug.

-- Brian Lam

*NOTE: using a ground prong is a safety precaution; although it's generally not advisable to switch to a two-prong, this has worked fine for me for years and if you're in a pinch, I highly recommend it.

Sony PlayStation Power Cord
$6
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Sony

Related items previously reviewed in Cool Tools:

Tips for Conference Bloggers

Mac OSX: The Missing Manual

PowerSquid

Although my name sits above, someone else has been editing Cool Tools for the past 12 months. Steven Leckart has been coordinating and selecting the reader-written reviews, editing them into clarity, double-checking the purchasing information and scouting out the related items (his idea, too).  Readers of the blog probably haven't noticed him, because of this back-stage position.  In fact, I've only met Steven in person once myself, for 5 minutes in passing; as in the age of the internet, everything is done remotely from our homes. Readers of the weekly email version of Cool Tools (you can sign up here) do see him because the emails come from him, rather than me.

Visible or not, there is more work than appears in keeping this site simple, reliable, efficient and clear. My goal has always been to provide direct recommendations of great stuff, without a lot of distracting noise. Steven has done this with flair and quiet professionalism. He is much more thorough and diligent than I ever was. His day job is a freelance writer, researcher and fact-checker for Wired.

This week is the one year anniversary for Editor Leckart. Would you give him a round of applause, along with a recommendation for great tool that you love (hint hint)? Cool Tools runs on the enthusiasm of readers like you.

He is steveleckart gmail com.

White Vinegar vs. Toilet Bowl Rings

This is a tip in response to the pumice scourer. I used to scrub fruitlessly at toilet bowl rings until one day I tried pouring in some white vinegar (maybe a cup or two) and leaving it overnight. Everything came off in about a minute after that. I use a standard toilet brush and find the stains/deposits come off with very little effort, sometimes after leaving the vinegar in just for 20 minutes. I got the idea from the fact that vinegar is a mild acid and that it seems to be the main ingredient of most homemade ecological cleaning recipes out there. Been doing it for a couple of years, no effect to the porcelain that I can see.

-- Jeff Lindberg

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Rubberbanded Pliers

For a small vice for doing quick fiddly work, I use a pair of pliers with an elastic band wrapped around the handles. Adjust the tension by wrapping the band round more or less times. You can use them as a clamp so both your hands are free, or you can leave gluing things to dry. I learned a variety of elastic band tricks when working as a theatre lighting tech. They're also great for temporarily attaching cables to lighting rigs by looping them around the bar and cable then looping the tail end of the band around the dowel (used a lot of electricity tape prior to being shown this). It has always seemed to me the less tools you use, the more familiar you become with them and the more uses you find for them.

-- Sam Henderson

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Plastic Bag Epoxy Mixer

When you need to get some epoxy in a very small space, or don't have room to make a mess around what your gluing, try squeezing the product into one corner of a heavy plastic bag. Mix it in the corner between your fingers. Then cut the corner of the bag to size and apply it where it's needed -- pastry bag style. First saw this tip in "Fine Homebuilding," which recommended using it to mix color pigment into calking.

-- Michael Visnick

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Plastic Stretch Wrap Packing

If you are moving yourself, you don't need boxes for most non-fragile items such as books. Just stack the books, wind some stretch wrap around them, and you're done. This is a cheap, quick option and since the wrap is transparent, you can see what you've got -- a very useful feature when you have not yet unpacked but you need to find something. I even use stretch wrap to contain and protect clothes on hangers. When you unpack, you cut off the stretch wrap, and there's virtually nothing to throw away (no empty-box disposal problem).

-- Charles Platt

When a couple of the little rubber feet (LRF) came off the bottom of my laptop, I tried without success to re-attach the small bits of rubber with "super glue", rubber cement, and a hot-glue gun. After the last attempt, I realized that the rubbery material used with the hot-glue gun could by itself serve as an LRF replacement. This worked so well I ended up ripping out the still-attached LRFs. By now the hot-glue replacements have served longer than the original LRFs.

-- Preston L. Bannister

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I had a white board with old old writing on it - I tried Windex, alcohol, etc, to little avail, then my girlfriend suggested using a whiteboard marker - they are full of the correct solvent! Just color over what you want to erase and wipe it away. Doh!

-- David Spargur

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Eighth inch shock cord is wonderful stuff. However, it can be hard to keep knots in shock cord. I use cable ties to fasten loops in shock cord, and I have never had a cable-tied loop slip. Shock cord loops have body, so it is easy to clip things into them and easy to throw a shock cord loop over a hook, they absorb shock, and it does not hurt if you fall on them. I first saw this trick being used to attach rescue whistles to life preservers; since the shock cord stretches, the whistle does not dangle too much (a long length of cord might wrap around your throat) but the whistle can be pulled up to the mouth. Since then, I have found that cable-tied shock cord loops are great for key rings, to use to hang things on wall hooks, as lanyards, and to elastically attach valuables, such as cameras, to belt loops to discourage theft while keeping the camera ready to use. And of course, you can cable-tie loops to the ends of a length of shock cord and use it as a clothesline.

-- Jock Chung

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I rub my nose with my finger and put the tip of my finger in a soda or beer that has too much foam. The oil from my nose does a remarkable job of getting rid of the foam quickly so I can drink sooner.

-- Penley McQueen

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Sure you can buy special plastic "chip-clips" to keep your snack bags closed, but they're expensive. Or you can use clothespins, but they're bulky and don't always stay put. Binder clips, those little spring steel clamps available at any office supply store, are perfect for resealing opened bags of dried snacks or or frozen food. The versatile little jaws are strong enough you can even use them on cardboard containers. I fold my bags at the corners and roll them down to keep things really airtight. The clips also come in a variety of different sizes.

-- Tom Lundin

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When your container of shaving oil is empty, try filling it with olive oil from the kitchen instead of spending $15 on a new stuff. I discovered that when I ran out a few years ago & I haven't looked back since. Olive oil does just as good a job and costs almost nothing per shave. People have been shaving with olive oil for thousands of years, there's no reason not to continue doing so.

-- Mark James

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When I need to solder a connection to a leaky pipe, I just stick a piece of bread into the pipe to sop up the drips while I fire up the blowtorch.

-- RW

To track whether the dishes in your washer are clean, use a wet erase marker to write "Dirty" or make a fancy "D" on the inside door of your dishwasher when loading dirty dishes. When you run the dishwasher the mark washes away, so you'll know they are clean.

-- Carl DeCesare

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Don't pay for a anti-fogging bathroom mirror! The mirror fogs because the glass temperature is colder than the air causing the moisture dissolved in the air to condense. Just wipe the off the excess condensation and lightly blowdry the mirror and it will stay fog-free. Don't overdo it with the blow-dryer -- you don't want the mirror to crack from uneven expansion.

-- David Spargur

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I've moved many many times, and this hint has saved my sanity. Whether you're using professional movers or relying on your (good) friends, you can use this hint.

In your new place, pick a space that is out of the way, such as a spare bedroom, the basement or garage, and put every box there. I mean every. single. box. If it says kitchen, put it there. Bedroom? Put it there. Bathroom? Put it there. If you can manage it, you can loosely group the boxes there by room. But do not let a single box infiltrate the rest of your living space.

Without those boxes in the way, you can slide your furniture around until you have it situated the way you like without boxes getting in the way, and voila, your space is instantly livable.

Then you start emptying boxes one by one. As a box is emptied, break it down and toss it, recycle it or store it. You'll find you're fully moved in in very short order, and if you're not, nobody can tell but you!

-- Katherine B

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Wintergreen oil (methyl salicylate) is the most penetrating of all penetrating oils. It is available at most drugstores at minimal cost. If you work on old machinery that is anywhere near saltwater (or salted highways) it's an essential weapon in tackling otherwise hopelessly rusted/frozen threads. It smells good, and though toxic and not to be kept within reach of children, is intended for topical application to human skin.

-- George Dyson

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Here is a much simpler way to keep paintbrushes soft, especially between coats: Don't clean them, put them in a plastic bag, and put them in the freezer. You can start painting with them right away, and when you are done, just put them in again. Eventually, you want to clean them (if you are changing colors, for instance) but I have had paintbrushes in the freezer for months and they are just fine when you take them out again.

-- Espen Andersen

Nintendo Wii
(But will you be able to order this game?)
$570
Available from Amazon

Garmin Street Pilot C340
(Real men use real he-man navigational systems)
$225
Available from Amazon

Sony Portable Reader
(Real electronic ink book thingie for e-books)
$225
Available from Amazon
Or $300 from J&R

Here's a question I don't get asked every day. A friend of mine is an executive assistant for a guy who runs an investment firm.

She says, "Every year, my boss has me buy a Christmas present for each of his employees in this one investment group. Last year I got them all high end iPod Nanos which had just come out and were quite difficult to get. But there doesn't seem to be one standout techie type gift for this year. My husband says it's the Playstation 3s but I am on all kinds of wait lists. Do you have any other suggestions? We mostly prefer to give each of them the same thing. The employees are: Male, average age 25. Unmarried. Very ambitious, hard working. Travel a lot. Kind of cool, trendy guys who like gadgets. Price range is between $200 to $450; that range would be preferable though we're not too sensitive on this point and can go higher for a cool gift. Any suggestions?"

OK, did you get that? Not too sensitive on the price point! So I asked a few friends of mine if they had any recommendations to ease my assistant friend out of her dilemma. Their suggestions follow below.

And BTW, what would YOU like for your ultimate gift this year? Let's not be cheap. It just has to be COOL.

-- KK

Lego Mindstorms NXT Robotics System
(For big little boys)
$250
Available from Amazon

Nixie Tube Clock Kit
(Get the 6-tube version, so you can see the seconds flick along)
$150
Available from TubeClock

Titanium Brompton Folding Bike
(Throw it in your trunk, take it on the train, store it in your closet.)
$1,520
Available from NyceWheels

Buffalo Terastation
$610
(One whole omygod terabyte of fail-safe RAID storage for your digital EVERYTHING!)
Available from TechOnWeb

The Dragon Flyer V Ti with EyeCam and Thermal Stabilization
(It's the only RC chopper that any idiot can fly)
$850
Available from DraganFly Innovations

Butterfly Livingroom Flyer
(Tiniest, slow flying RC airplane for flying in your living room)
$240
Available from PlantracoHobbies

Sony Cybershot DSC-T50 Digital Camera
(It's got 3x optical zoom, 7 megapixels and fits in your shirt pocket)
$485
Available from Amazon

I have worked with postal employees and highway workers for several years now, and the dog repellent they recommend is to obtain a 3% or less solution of ammonia from your local drug store (chemists). If you sniff test the solution and it's still too strong dilute it 50/50 with water. Load the solution into a squirt bottle or a small toy squirt gun. This repels the animal without harm - especially if you aim for the nose.

A dog's sense of smell is so important to it that when the ammonia overwhelms his olfactory nerves, he will rapidly change his mind about attacking, and take his nose elsewhere. He will usually recover fully in 1/2 to 1 hour. I have not tested this on animals, am just passing on what my fellow road workers claim works.

-- Robert Chamberlin

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I have a small wet/dry vac that I use as a substitute for renting a rug cleaner to spot clean my rugs and furniture. Use soap and water in a spray bottle or just pour it out of a glass on the spot. Rub it in with a brush or your fingers and then suck it up with the wet/dry vac. Rinse the spot with plain water two or three times the same way. It works great. I've done this to get juice off of my car seats as well.

-- Stephen Foss

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Wooden, spring loaded clothes pins are one of the handiest gadgets in the kitchen. They are very cheap and long lasting. I have a couple dozen in use at any one time fastening the open tops of almost any kind of food that comes in a bag. This can be a bag of chips, bread in a bag, the cereal package inside the box, bags of half used frozen foods. Clothes pins are way better than twist ties, rubber bands, and the standard bread bag clip. They can also be used to hang up damp dish clothes, towels, and pot scrubbers. I have a wire rack over my sink that holds many sink related tools, as well as items hung by clothes pins to dry. (This all begs the issue of using them with a clothes line to serve as one of the most basic of solar power appliances to dry damp, washed clothes - a sorely under utilized way to save energy and money, as well as impart a natural fragrance that can't be beat with any chemical scent.)

-- Michael Kuhn

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A helpful idea for extending the life of expensive shop-vac filters is to put a layer of (used but clean) pantyhose over the filter when installing it. This will catch most of the large particles and prevent them from lodging deep in the crevices.

-- Peter Lovell

That CarChip E/X thing is definitely a cool tool. I thought you might be interested in a similar option that costs $0. All Shucks/Checkers stores (as well as most Autozones and probably every other car store chain of similar type) will read the fault codes out of your car for free. You just pull up and ask them to come out with their code reader and they'll do it. I've done this many times with my two cars and it's saved me the ridiculous $75 charge every time.

-- Neil Enns

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A useful source of strong wire that is universally available in every closet is a coat hanger. Keep one in the car and one in the toolbox. Uses include tieing things, creating temporary supports, unblocking drains, opening cars, fishing for lost items that are out of reach, replacement aerials, weird 12v lighting tracks, and fabricating special tools and jigs. I've even seen them used to make Christmas decorations. Probably as useful and universal as duct tape, only cheaper. It even functions well as a clothes hanger provided you don't overload it. Available for free from dry cleaners when you get your clothes back though once you get two together in a closet they do seem to breed.

-- Steve Burrows

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One area where WD-40 has shortcomings is in any area where it will dissolve the original lubricant such as on the rods of foosball tables. Where this falls short, the solution of solutions is Pledge spray furniture polish. Works like a charm and lets you pull those really mean nasty shots that scare your opponents' children.

-- Zav

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Eighth inch shock cord, the elastic stuff that holds tent poles together, is fifty cents a foot and works great for a portable backpack-able clothes line. An overhand knot on a bight at either end and you are good to go -- double the line over to stick your garments through if it is windy. Half the price of the travel clothesline reviewed earlier and multipurpose -- in a pinch you can replace shoelaces with it, lash stuff to your bag, repair tent poles, etc. You can buy shock cord from lots of vendors.

-- Jason Morningstar

A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim quickly he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke. He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed and getting to the patient within 3 hours, which is tough. Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. But doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:

1. Ask the individual to SMILE.
2. Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.
3. Ask the person to SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently, ie: It is sunny out today)

If he or she has trouble with any of these tasks, call 9-1-1 immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.

-- Passed along by Michael Hawley

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For small, point & shoot digital cameras, there is always the problem of holding it steady in low light situations. I happened upon something -- the "Chain Pod" -- that was used back when the first 35mm cameras appeared. To make one is easy -- just buy a 1/4" #20 thumb screw from Home Depot and a 6' length of small chain. Drill a hole in the thumb part of the screw and attach the chain. After attaching it into the tripod mount hole, just step on the chain and pull the camera upwards until taut. I was thrilled by how light it is (and portable -- in your pocket!) and how well it works.

-- Bryan Quattlebaum

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I must confess I owe Martha Stewart for this one: All my power cords, other computer cables, phone cables, power-strips, and even the DSL modem and the wireless router are contained in a wire basket (from Hold Everything or Pottery Barn or Ikea or something) which is hung from the bottom of the desk by four screw hooks. Leaves plenty of room to stretch my legs without the fear of yanking out a cord or kicking a power switch with my feet.

-- Charles Kiblinger

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Clear silicone rubber makes an excellent fabric glue, especially for hard-to-sew fabric like T-shirts. Small holes can be easily sealed nearly invisibly in three steps or small pieces of fabric can be used as patches, visible or invisible. There are no problems with laundry--it goes through the washer and dryer just fine without losing adhesion or being damaged by the heat of the dryer.

I've been doing this for years with EXCELLENT results.

-- Michael Rudas

I am no painter but I do normal household paint jobs and furniture work sometimes. The last reasonably nice paint brush I bought was $25. I turned it into a useless stiff paddle within a few days by not cleaning it enough (it's hard for a non-professional to tell when all the clear polyurethane sealant is really rinsed out of a brush). Instead of throwing it away, I soaked it in lacquer thinner (not just mineral spirits) for a few minutes and then used a "painter's comb." The stainless-steel comb side pushes the bristles apart, lets more solvent into the middle of the bristles, and reshapes the brush, and the wire-brush side pushes dried gunk out. It worked so well I kept going and resuscitated three other "ruined" brushes I had thought were goners. Took about 5 minutes each. Cheaper than buying new brushes all the time. No doubt old hat to the professional painters out there....Readily available at home centers and paint supply stores.

-- Charles Kiblinger

*********

I cook a lot and like to use garlic. One downside of properly cleaning and chopping and slicing garlic is the smell permeates your skin. Years ago, I heard on NPR that if you rubbed your hands under cold water with something made of stainless steel, the smell would be eliminated. I didn't believe it, but it works. You can buy "fancy" soap-shaped or garlic-shaped stainless steel objects to do this with, but no need. Go into your drawer and get out a butter knife or spoon instead. This really works!

-- Michael Raab

*********

This is a straightforward application of a standard telephone company service -- but I find it extremely useful. It's a way to have only one phone number.

I have a cellphone, but I don't give out the number! When I am going to be away and it is desirable to monitor calls to my home line, I simply switch on its forwarding service. (I record the code in my home phone's "dial" memory. It can also be set, remotely, from the cellphone.) I may do it for just a few hours when I am expecting an important call -- or for many days; my wife and I routinely use it when we travel.

Having just one phone number simplifies life for both me and the people who want to talk to me.

-- Bob Spinrad

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I needed a frisbee once....only had a paper bag. Well, I found that a paper bag rolled inward from top to bottom, spiraling as you roll, then making it round when you get to get to the bottom makes a wonderful, colorable, recyclable, dog-eatable, adjustable-sized, FREE frisbee. They fly lumpy if you weight them irregularly. A ribbon can be put in a central hole for pretty effect or short range retrieval throws, stopping it inches from its target. Can also be used as a mask, paper plate, quiet drum, paper taco, beret, kite, yoyo...etc. and can be restored to bag function easily

I discovered this 30 years ago and have made uncountable numbers since.

-- Terry Hill

My last two digital cameras have "interval" shooting capability. Since starting to use it, I have found a myriad of everyday uses. Here, in no particular order, are some. (1) made a 100 shot slide show of 800 miles from Tucson to Los Angeles by building a little headrest rig for the camera, (2) set up the camera for a friend, so she could review her new dog's settling in her house (great fun!!), and (3) recorded voltage levels over an extended period by photographing a multimeter readout, looking for spikes.

-- AK

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A dental pick has a strong, very thin, sharp wire on a comfortable handle which is great for reaching inside places where nothing else can enter. It can be used for removing dust bunnies, retrieving nuts and bolts dropped inside the mechanism, removing the insides of nature specimens, ca...a...a...refully removing a paint spot in the wrong place.

-- Alfred

*********

A dental pick has a strong, very thin, sharp wire on a comfortable handle which is great for reaching inside places where nothing else can enter. It can be used for removing dust bunnies, retrieving nuts and bolts dropped inside the mechanism, removing the insides of nature specimens, ca...a...a...refully removing a paint spot in the wrong place.

-- Alfred

*********

Other ways to stabilize a bike so that it is less likely to fall over are to tie the front wheel and the downtube together. It can be a piece of string, a shoelace, a strip of "velcro", a large rubber band (with the ends hooked over the "bosses" on the downtube). The effect is twofold, first, to keep the front wheel inline so that the fork and front wheel don't pivot and let the bike fall over, and secondly, just to keep the bike from rolling forward or backward.

-- John Fears

*********

As a sea kayak guide, I need to be able to illustrate ideas to people and point things out. But I often work in the high arctic, there are no trees and even no sticks or driftwood. I use my extra light tent pole section as a pointer and general sand diagram maker. The other guides I work with think I am looney bringing this thing with me up north, especially with the very strict weight limits on a twin otter. Still, I use the thing all the time and have even started to bring it on trips that I do where there are trees!

-- Charlie van Straubenzee

I was shown this knot earlier this summer as a way to secure my boot laces, which were constantly coming untied. My boss, who taught me it, called it the "super knot." How to make it: (if you tie your shoes with one loop then wrap another loop around it) - pass the loop through a second time. (bunny ears method) - pass one ear though a second time.

I've tested this knot for 8 weeks of hiking around in the forests of New Hampshire and it has never come untied. I noticed that Ian's Shoelace Site has some other recommendations for knots, but I cannot vouch for their security. I know that the Surgeon's Shoelace Knot works for me.

-- Sam Johnson

See Ian's Shoelace Site for pictures and a clear explanation.

A seasoned traveler who ventured further into third world slums than I ever would told me about this nifty trick-of-the-trade. Make a good color copy of your passport, including the covers. Align the inside sheet of your passport data with the outside passport cover sheet. Glue together. Laminate. Score and fold. You now have a fairly official looking travel document.

I have found that for most purposes -- changing money at a bank, rentals, hotel front desks, and even police -- this passport clone is sufficient. You hide or store your real one and use this one for everything else except crossing borders. I don't know why, but most people seem happy to accept it. It may be because it seems like some new futuristic version 2.0 passport and who are they to question it?

(According to the US Passport Agency, it is perfectly legal for you to make a color copy of your passport -- although Kinko's can't -- and in fact they recommend you do so.)

-- KK

I know that the paragraph about Flyaway Indoor Skydiving in last week's Cool Tools was just an excerpt from the book Eccentric America, but I'd like to add a bit to that information. First, as you may have noticed, Flyaway Indoor Skydiving also has a location in Pigeon Forge, TN (near Dollywood -- doesn't everyone know where that is?). Second, this type of wind tunnel is not the best. I would like to recommend SkyVenture instead. Their most convenient location is in Orlando, FL. The difference between the two is that Flyaway's technology results in a sort of "hill of air" with a dead ring around the inside of the tunnel--thus you can "fall off" the air stream, which is especially easy when you are not used to flying your body. SkyVenture's, on the other hand, offers a flat surface of wind, so to speak, that reaches horizontally all the way to the edges of the tunnel. I'm not sure exactly how SkyVenture's works so well, except I know they have multiple fans which "suck" from the ceiling rather than blowing from the bottom. SkyVenture's is so much like real skydiving that skydivers train there and become very competitive while making relatively few actual skydives. I've been in both wind tunnels and I would have a hard time recommending Flyaway after having experienced SkyVenture. Besides the fact that Flyaway is not "authentic" in terms of skydiving experience, it's also a bit unnerving to be able to fall off the air stream, I think.

Anyway, I don't think a wind tunnel itself would really fall into the category of a "cool tool"--but I just don't want anyone to be misled into thinking that Flyaway is the best or only wind tunnel out there! (I have no affiliation with either wind tunnel; I just had one of the most fun experiences of my life at a skydiving skills camp at SkyVenture, whereas my experience with taking my family to Flyaway--before I was aware of the difference in wind tunnels--was just so-so.)

-- Maria Blees

SkyVenture
Technorati Profile

BTW, they seem to have quite a few locations, not just Orlando.

The problem: Nice road bikes that don't have kickstands. You have to lean them against something but sometimes they roll and fall over. Ouch!

Solution: Before your ride, take a wine cork and cut one end into a wedge with two simple cuts that make a nice tapered end. Then squeeze one of your break handles and insert the wedge end into the gap that appears between the handle and the hood. This keeps the brake deployed and your bike won't roll. Viola!

It's free, fast, and the cork stows away unnoticed in your jersey pocket or tool bag. Whatever your opinion of synthetic wine corks, they work wonderfully well when cut for a bike brake.

I learned the trick 25 years ago from a bike shop owner in Virginia, yet I have yet to find a cyclist who knows about it. My biking friends are converts.

-- Steve Leveen

The age of the informed consumer is coming about and people are picking and choosing bits of the shopping experience from different channels. My friend and I worked on this, its getting some blog hits at the moment. Basically a phone based price check against amazon items. You call, you enter the isbn, it tells you the prices, whilst you're shopping in store. We did it for ourselves originally, we purchase a lot of computer manuals but it seems to be useful to others as well...

Amabuddy

-- Surj Patel

*******************

Reader Michael Hohl figured out this wonderful way to make your computer Y10K compliant. That is, how to set your computer so that it displays the 5-digit date it will need when we reach the years after 9999: that is 10000 and beyond. In anticipation of that time, you can set this year's date to 02005 if you have Mac OSX Tiger. Here are step-by-step directions. Be first in your neighborhood to have all your documents and files future-proofed.

MIchael Hohl

Great tides software, easily set for locals, like our end of Sausalito and Petaluma.
Mr. Tides

-- Stewart Brand

**************

Most public libraries have online reservation systems. I haven't browsed the library shelves in months. Anytime I see an interesting title now I jump over to the library's web site and reserve it if possible. I get up to 25 books/CDs in my queue at any given time, and quite often it's full. I just head to the library periodically and there's always something or other waiting for me with my name on it. It's not a tool, per se, but I use it as often as I do my SOG Paratool (Leatherman knockoff).

-- Mike Lietz

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Joke a Day

It's so much more than just a joke site. It's comprehensively funny and personal. The owner does his level best to keep kids under 18 off the site, as the content is meant for adults only. The forums are beautifully managed and moderated, such that neither flames nor "me too" posts are tolerated. I've seen users as young as 21 and as old as 82 on the forums, and what they have to say is always relevant and interesting. Members of this online community quickly become friends, and parties are thrown throughout the year where people from all over the country and even the world come to hang out together.

This site and the people on it are terrific!

-- Marie Cassidy

Hoggans will make just about any sort of pack or bag to order. I had them make a large fanny pack about 5 years ago. It ran me about $30, but it's quite large, and is made of rubberized sailcloth, so it's waterproof and pretty indestructible. They can make small ones to order too.

Hoggans

-- Don Suarian

****************

I just bought an old house and was trying to figure out how to seal all my older wooden windows. We have storm windows, but they don't make a perfect seal, and anyway I wanted my interior windows to seal better. I tried the usual plastic sheeting approach, but it wouldn't stick well to my stained wood. Then I found DAP SEAL'N' PEEL Removeable Caulk (I got it at Home Depot).

This is wonderful stuff. It's clear, and you just lay a bead down across all the open spaces in your windows. Then, in the summer, you can just peel it off and it isn't supposed to harm painted (and I hope, stained) surfaces. DAP says this "unique removable weatherstrip caulk provides a watertight and weatherproof seal. Seals out drafts and moisture. Peels away easily when removal is desired. Won't damage painted surfaces. Interior/exterior use."

Also available from Amazon

-- Schutz

***************

Have you used the Google SMS service? Google has a service where you text message a name such Record Shop, Indian food, etc. and the zip code or city you're in to 46645 and it messages back to your phone with the info. It's a really nice way to look up businesses when your traveling and away from a computer.

Goggle SMS

-- Andrew Jones

Living in the South, we have thunderstorm and severe weather that pop-up all summer long. There are many websites which offer Doppler radar images for various parts of the country, but none do it better than My-cast.com. It offers real time Doppler radar images - unlike most weather sites (weather.com, WSI, accu-weather)  that often delay the images by more than 20 minutes. In addition, each radar image can be "center" on your location. For example, instead of seeing the radar image's center at the radar site, my-cast.com allows the user to center on your home, your vacation home - making it simpler to gauge the location and speed of approaching storms. They will even send you an e-mail alerting you of tornado, hurricane, and thunderstorm warnings. All of this is free. One final feature (for a small monthly fee) you can have these images delivered to you on your cell phone. If you have Java or BREW-enabled mobile phones, you can use this service to check conditions and forecasts, view animated radar for your location, and get severe weather updates. Great for pilots, boaters, soccer coaches, etc.

Gregg Lewis

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Public Radio Fan

One of the very best finds online ever. The sound quality is perfect. Unbelievably great. A perfect 10.

-- Joseph Stirt

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Your world textiles entry makes me wonder if you know about Beneficial Ts, a division of Patagonia? This is part of their effort to make organic cotton products more widely available. They're really aimed at doing bulk runs, so they aren't happy about selling smallish quantities - but I've bought as few as a dozen shirts at a time. Great quality, OK prices (compared to other blank Ts), help save the earth.

Beneficial T's

-- Chris Kantarjiev

If you are ever even remotely near Nazareth, PA, go visit the Martin's Guitar factory. It's one of the best factory tours I've ever been on. And I don't even play the guitar. Most "tours" these days are perfunctory tours (or not even a tour at all). This is detailed and you get right next to the people who are handcrafting these instruments. It makes you really appreciate how they're made.

-- Jeff Gates

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Two-inch diameter concave mirror from Edmund Scientific magnifies your face when you look into it, and the shorter the focal length, the more magnification you perceive. While this mirror is intended no doubt for high school students conducting optics experiments, I use it to examine my own eyes. Why, you ask? Because when I am traveling, there is a small but tangible chance that I may get a particle of foreign matter in one of my eyes at a time when there is no one around to see it and remove it. (I once paid $200 to an emergency room, merely for removal of a tiny piece of soot adhering to the underside of an eyelid.) I don't use contact lenses, but I am imagine this problem is more acute for people who do. The downside of transporting the mirror is that it is fragile, but I have managed to avoid breaking mine for a couple of years now, and recently I was glad that I had it when I was in Florida on my own, everything was shut down because of a hurricane...and I got something in my eye.

-- Charles Platt

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Dumond Tech is designed as a bicycle chain lubricant that goes on wet and then dries, leaving a long-lasting polymer coating behind. It's great for lubing all sorts of things around the house. The only down side is that this stuff is hard to find. I bought mine at REI's flagship store in Seattle. You may also be able to find it at full-service bicycle shops.

-- Brian Grutzius

This makes filtered cigarettes at a fraction of the cost of manufactured cigarettes....I got it and all my supplies at
http://www.StuffYourOwn.com

-- T. G.

**************

What's worked for me in keeping dogs away from my bike is a simple squirt gun filled with plain water. Maybe the dogs in my area are all sissys but they now stay out of range of my squirt gun. I bought some ammonia in case the dogs stop fearing the plain water in the squirt gun. If needed I would only add a bit to the water, mostly for the smell, hopefully not enough to be blinding like pepper spray, but so far I haven't needed to escalate to this form of mild chemical warfare.

-- James Bowlin

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Sheldon Brown's website is a treasure trove of bicycle information. He has articles from how to mount a bike to how to build a tandem out of two old frames. I have pretty much read every article on his site, and built a tandem bicycle and a fixed gear (one speed, no coasting) bicycle with his help. Most recently I have enjoyed a collection of responses by Jobst Brandt on a variety of topics. (As Sheldon says, Brandt is best known in the bike industry as the author of The Bicycle Wheel, the definitive text on the theory and practice of building spoked bicycle wheels). Sheldon's bicycle glossary is also very useful for describing different bicycle related terms. It can also give a bit of history.

-- Sam Johnson

Mercedes-Benz

Here is one of several great cars you can't get in the U.S - the Mercedes A series. This is my preferred alternative to the Smart. The Smart is toylike, very useful for a single person or couple to get around the very heart of the city. I wouldn't like to travel a couple of hundred miles in one. Mercedes, the builders of the Smart, have another model series, the A Series, which is small on the outside and big on the inside. Really. That's because they put the flat engine under the passenger compartment. Inside the car is at least as big as an E Series Mercedes sedan. Outside, it's smaller than a VW Golf. Its ride is sedan-like, even luxurious, not choppy. It's peppy, even. I'm sure others will have their favorite candidates of great cars you can't get, too.

-- Louis Rosetto

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I have to give proper respect where due: Mayor Bloomberg's New York City communication system 311 works and works well. So many of our needs from the government are simply needs for information and this handles it beautifully. I've used it several times and have always been satisfied. So simple and so effective: talking to someone who knows the city infrastructure.

-- Stephen Turbek

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The replaceable filter on my large shop-vac is nearly $20. But I can extend its life significantly if I clean it every now and then with my old vacuum (the one with the bag). It cleans out the crevices and pores of the shop vac filter and makes it nearly as good as new.

-- Durwin Sharp

***************

I've been trying to figure out what to with our 401k funds and have found the best discussions are on Morningstar.com, especially on the "Vanguard Diehards" board, even if your 401k plan doesn't offer Vanguard. These people are serious, conservative investors, which is useful even if you're not conservative in approach. The boards are free, even though Morningstar charges for other premium information.

-- Elizabeth Logan

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Penny Alcohol Stove

A very simple, efficient, ultra light backpacking stove, that one can build with only a few tools. Created by Mark Jurey.

-- Eagle

I saw your recommendation for engineer's scales, and thought I'd pass along a little Adobe Illustrator tip. Whenever I move into a new apartment, I measure each room, door and window so I can lay out the furniture without straining my back. I draw the rooms in Illustrator, using the graphic design standard (my field) pica scale, which works like this: 12 picas to an inch, 12 points to a pica. In this way, I'm able to type in 12p4.125 (shorthand for "12 picas, 4.125 points") for 12' 4-1/8". If I need to scale it up, I type 150% or 200% in the Page Setup dialog to increase the drawing size/decrease the page size, which makes it easier to jump to a fullscreen view of my drawing by pressing Cmd-zero. Hope that's helpful to you in your endeavors.

-- Todd Patrick

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With a pair of scissors, a small slit can be cut to make the velcro strip stay on one end of the cable. See the third picture on this
page

-- Adam Beson

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St. Claire Inc., a technical communications company, has a FANTASTIC web page where you can register for free, and by clicking away (picking a heading, symbol and typing in text) you can generate .pdf files of safety signs of all kinds. You can certainly customize safety signs VERY specifically for any kind of local condition or situation.

-- Tony Prudori

St. Claire Inc.

Most "single use" cameras have a single AA battery inside, which many film developers save. You can go to a film development shop and ask for a box of batteries. And they will give them to you for free. We are told not to recharge regular AA batteries because they are supposed to explode. I have a surge protector and a charger and put both in a bucket (just in case) and recharge many AA's for an hour or 2. No boom yet.

-- Alex Zavatone

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Visual Thesaurus

This is a thesaurus done in flash. It has an intuitive interface that's fun to use. You just type any word in the search box and your word appears in the center connected to related words and meanings. It all is sort of floating/hanging on the screen. It features audio pronunciations and spell check. I found this on the web 4 years ago as an experimental flash project, at the time it was free. Now you can now try it for free. They offer an online and a desktop version at a very reasonable price.

-- Jade Assassin
[also suggested by Danny Flamberg]

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I have a typical "fishbowl" manager's office. Unfortunately, the furniture layout precludes the use of a whiteboard in my office. Instead, I use standard dry-erase markers to write on my office window. I get lots of strange looks from folks walking by, but many have commented on the practicality of the idea. Straight windex and paper towels to clean.

A few other whiteboard tips: Cleaning whiteboards can sometimes be a problem. The little "pop-up" wipes that Expo sells are completely useless. They seem to make future writes on the surface stick even more. Also not recommended is expo's spray-pump cleaner. Both seem to clean the surface so well, the future writes require more cleaning solution to remove, instead of a standard eraser. I did a bunch of testing, and found a product called "Plasti-Kleen" which does an awesome job of cleaning the surface, but most importantly, preps it for future writing, so only a dry-write eraser is needed. Awesome stuff.

The Suppplies Room

-- Gregory Winer
[Window writing also suggested by Duane Morin]

Buy a disposable camera (with flash) and put it in your glove compartment. The batteries last for several years and if you end up in a collision, you can reach over, open the pouch and document the whole thing. No need to kick yourself for leaving your digital camera at home, leaving your digital camera in the car (and getting it stolen), or having to discern the damage and argue your case based on some crappy 40kb cameraphone jpeg.

-- Tim Noble

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This looks to be a pretty cool service. They will check your site on all known browsers and then provide the pages. $20 for a day. You can get 200 captures for free as a trial. Is there anything similar out there?
Browser Cam

-- KK

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If you only own one refrigerator magnet, make it this one:
Elsewares

Also available from Amazon

-- Ryan