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Lengthen the Life of Your Dishwasher – DIY Life

mike — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 01:57:43 +0000

Lengthen the Life of Your Dishwasher – DIY Life
Like most appliances, dishwashers often get neglected (until, of course, they suddenly stop doing their job). With a bit of routine maintenance, though, you can prolong the life of your dishwasher long after its sticker date. Here are a few easy tips for keeping your dishwasher in tip top shape:

1. Keep your hot water heater set to the temperature recommended by your dishwasher’s manufacturer; you can locate this info in your user manual. Forgotten where you stashed that old manual? Try Google-ing the model of your appliance; many manufacturers post their product manuals online.

2. Run a monthly cleanse cycle on your dishwasher. Simply empty a packet of sugar-free lemonade where you normally place detergent and run the dishwasher through a normal cycle.

3. Check the interior racks of your dishwasher. If the paint is wearing off, consider investing in a dishwasher repair kit to prevent scratches on your pots and pans.

4. Soak the spray arm with diluted vinegar monthly to clean off any scum build-up.

5. Be sure to regularly check the food trap for any residue that may have been acquired in a few weeks time.

So go ahead, show your dishwasher a little TLC — and avoid those dreaded prune hands!

Mobile Air Mouse

mike — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 01:48:41 +0000

Mobile Air Mouse is an iPhone/Touch app with software that runs on your computer. The phone/touch then acts as a remote control/keyboard for your computer.

Very useful as a remote for your HTPC, and the app is only $1.99

Guest Mode for Windows

mike — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 15:51:59 +0000

Windows 7 will be building this functionality in, but it is currently available for XP and Vista.

Microsoft has made available SteadyState. This program allows you to create a user, and control what they have access to. It also allows the user’s changes to be rolled back when they logoff.

Great for the kids, or guests that want to use your machine to check their email, but you don’t want them making any accidental changes to your system.

Sling camera bags.

mike — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 00:08:19 +0000

I currently have a backpack, but have been looking at something that will allow me to carry the camera, and yet have quick access to it. The backpack is nice because you can carry the camera and other stuff, but it doesn’t provide quick access to the camera.

Thus far, I’ve come across 2 bags that look very good.

Lowepro Slingshot AW100 (and larger sizes in the AW200 and AW300) and the Tenba Photo Sling series, especially the new Gen 3 bag.

The Tenba has a nicer look than the Lowepro bags, and the Gen3 slots between the AW100 and AW200 in size. It’s a bit more expensive, but it appears it is better built. I haven’t seen the Tenba yet, but I will be looking at one before I make a decision.

Icon Editor

mike — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:25:10 +0000

IcoFX appears to work very well. Allows one to extract icons out of exe and save as ico or a regular image (jpg, gif, bmp, png) format for usage elsewhere.

Digital photo recovery – ZAR image recovery function

mike — Thu, 15 May 2008 17:17:37 +0000

Image and file recovery tool. Comes highly recommended by users on LifeHacker.

Digital photo recovery – ZAR image recovery function

Uninstaller application

mike — Wed, 14 May 2008 11:57:45 +0000

Revo Uninstaller does a better job than the built-in one. Also includes a startup manager.

Also, it’s free!

File and Directory usage tool

mike — Wed, 14 May 2008 11:41:39 +0000

WinDirStat works very nicely. Looks like Explorer, but with details about file/directory usage in it. Can easily and quickly see where your harddrive is being used.

Rechargeable Batteries

mike — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 12:25:28 +0000

A very interesting article over at Coding Horror about rechargeable batteries, and the games the manufacturers play (although they do it in all industries. Megapixels for cameras, GHz for computers, HP for cars…).

A good place to buy is Thomas Distributing. That’s where I ordered my charger, as I live in Canada, and Amazon.ca doesn’t carry electronics. I got mine on sale, so it was less expensive than Amazon anyway.

I’ve ordered the La Crosse Technology BC-900, so expect a followup post once I’m done. One nice thing is it contains adaptors for C and D batteries. You put AA batteries into the adaptors to power items that require the larger batteries. Very nice!

Inexpensive cables

mike — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 19:58:51 +0000

Monoprice provides an inexpensive source for cables. From audio to computer, so check them out.

Where to download music legally — and, in one case, for free

mike — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 03:35:39 +0000

Where to download music legally — and, in one case, for free

The free one is Jamendo.

FAQ – CHDK Wiki

mike — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 12:44:28 +0000

Via Tips from the Top Floor

Add a lot of functionality to your Canon Powershot camera. RAW shooting, live histogram, more histograms, Depth-of-field preview and many more power features.

CHDK Wiki

Outsmarting your airline – Joel on Software

mike — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 14:55:01 +0000

Ever wondered where a flight is? The FlightAware sight mentioned doesn’t appear to support Canadian airports/airlines unless the flight is going to/coming from the US, but if you’re in the US, you can check the status of any flight. Where it is, current speed, expected arrival time etc.

Outsmarting your airline – Joel on Software

Looking for a font?

mike — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 18:39:02 +0000

Checkout Font Freak.

DIM: Digital Image Mover

mike — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 01:47:01 +0000

A freeware program for moving images off your camera and onto your hard drive. Allows for many levels of customization to control the directory structure and file naming that will be used.

DIM: Digital Image Mover

Photo gallery software (but only if you have a webhost already)

mike — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 20:13:28 +0000

Photo gallery software for your own site. Looks quite full featured.

Gallery

Toronto transit map – TTC, GO Transit, VIVA, etc. all on one Google map!

mike — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 18:53:14 +0000

Very nice usage of Google Maps to show TTC routes. Much better than trying to use the PDF that the TTC provides.

Toronto transit map – TTC, GO Transit, VIVA, etc. all on one Google map!

Interactive Digital Photomontage

mike — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 13:19:07 +0000

From the Microsoft tool, this appears to be the source project that they then wrapped up in a GUI and promote as Group Shot.

This site is interesting because they provide some concrete examples with uses other than improving a group shot.

Interactive Digital Photomontage

TPN :: The Digital Photography Show � Blog Archive � Great Free Utility From Microsoft.

mike — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 13:11:10 +0000

Started listening to this podcast just recently, and if you’re interested in photography, it’s worth checking out. The hosts are interesting, and they get some top name guests too.

The following is a utility from Microsoft for fixing group photos if you have multiple versions of the same photo, but with the usual variations from person to person.

I haven’t tried it myself yet, but will definitely be looking at it.

TPN :: The Digital Photography Show � Blog Archive � Great Free Utility From Microsoft.

Digital Photography White Balance Suggestion

mike — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 03:12:16 +0000

Just listened to a podcast from The Digital Photography Show (Podcast #2), and their guest suggested using the Cloudy setting for White Balance. Since I always shoot in Raw, I can compare various settings. White Balance of Cloudy really does give excellent results in different lightings. It gives a more saturated look with indoor and outdoor pictures. Very good tip to try.