Dr Wingnut

Category: Tips and Techniques

  • Durable Goods

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    Dr Wingnut
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    How long should it last?ItemMaximum Life span (Years)Dishwasher10Microwave11Range17-19Bathtub10-15Water heater11-13Ceramic or laminate countertops10-15Garage door opener10Wall and trim paint5-10Exterior paint7-10Washer13Dryer14Refrigerator17Carpet11Wood deck15Gutters30Heat pump15Central air15Minneapolis Star-Tribune, 25 October, 2006 citing National Association of Home Builders and The Home Team Inspection Service maximums.

  • Locked your keys in your car?

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    Dr Wingnut
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    If you lock your keys in the car and the spare keys are at home, call someone on your (or someone else’s) cell phone.Hold your cell phone about a foot from your car door and have the other person at your home press the unlock button of your key fob (clicker), holding it near the…

  • Hello; genius. Ding, ding, ding!

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    Dr Wingnut
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    As I was sitting here reading through the web news with NetNewsWire, I thought, it sure would be nice to have a button on this PowerBook G4 that would toggle the open windows to jump between NNW and Safari where I open items to read them in more detail.  Then it hit me, just use…

  • ICE your cell phone now!

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    Dr Wingnut
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    In Case of Emergency – ICEParamedics will turn to a victim’s cell phone for clues to that person’s identity.  You can make their job much easier with a simple idea that they are trying to get everyone to adopt: ICE.  ICE stands for “In Case of Emergency.”  If you add an entry in the contacts…

  • Moving mail from Outlook to Mac mail

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    Dr Wingnut
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    I scoured the web looking for the best way to convert my wife’s email from Outlook on Windows to Mail on Mac.  It turned out that the best option was to attach to a .mac IMAP account, create a folder for the outlook mail, drag all the Outlook folders into that new folder.  Which copied…

  • Stuff that runs at Windows startup

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    Dr Wingnut
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    In addition to the applications that are in the startup folder, there is another place that contains startup applications.  These items are stored in the registry in the My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run key.  This is a good place to start looking when you can’t figure out where some spyware or other application is being launched from.When you look…

  • DirectX

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    Dr Wingnut
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    Microsoft Windows XP has a command line utility called dxdiag which allows you to test your video card for Directx compatibility.Charles Klopp