Angus has the right idea. This would be a good scout troop project and would make a nice iPhone cover. It might be useful for fund raising and could serve as a gift to a loving parent. It and the Altoids survival kit might also make for a nice adjunct to a camping trip.

Besides the home, consider three things: taxes, land, and location.

I was going to ask the same thing. A sauce that can be made in bulk and frozen in portions would be worth its weight in roux.

The one thing I'd disagree with is "don't tag everything". I would make that "don't tage everything immediately". I have two tags that I use for stuff that you probably don't tag: "hold temporarily" and the traditional "miscellaneous". Periodically I look for items with no tags. Then I decide that they've outlived…

And I thought Google Glass looked geeky.

If you have, as I do, a set of casual shirts and a set of office shirts, you can hang the casual shirts to the left and the office shirts to the right, take shirts to wear from the outside, and put laundry in the middle. This also works with things like sock drawers - take from the front and put freshly washed in the…

I have to throw it out there. First, it is one of the more readable and understandable languages. Second, there is still a heck of a lot of COBOL code out there in production and COBOL programmers are dying out.

The date certainly has nothing to do with the birth of Jesus (shepherds watch their flocks by night in the spring when ewes give birth) and America has done its best to return the holiday to its roots - a party at the winter solstice to celebrate that the days are going to start getting longer. America celebrates in…

No it didn't.

Two easy suggestions. First, when not actively browsing/downloading/streaming data, switch the phone to 2G (2, not 3). You'll still get calls, texts, and app syncs. Second, pick a dark, solid color, non-animated wallpaper.

Goose down parka (not jacket) with hood to cover you from head to butt. Over the last decade I've gone through several Baxter State Parka's from LLBean and I'm about ready for another one.

For games with more dice, or if you don't have a toy container, get one of the inexpensive food storage containers from the grocery store like these from Glad:

You can't beat the Model M. It was number one five years ago (http://lifehacker.com/5058929/the-be…) and nothing's changed. It's still produced by Unicomp (http://pckeyboard.com/) and is available with a USB connector (as opposed to the old PS/2 connector).

As one who started programming half a century ago and can write assembler language and read machine code, don't try C outside of a university program. It's harder than you will need for years.

I don't delete anything (browser history, emails, files) ever, if I can avoid it. Science gave us terabytes for a reason.

Keep in mind the theory behind a formal place setting - you use the utensils from outside to in. In other words, if your first two courses are soup and salad, the soup spoon and salad fork are the outside utensils. If you don't have a particular course, you don't set that utensil (e.g. if you have cake but not…

I've looked at the plans (because over the years that's where the money goes) and the choice of phones. I came to the conclusion two years ago that a Galaxy Nexus on T-Mobile's $30 plan with 100 minutes, unlimited text, and 2.5gb of unthrottled "4G" data was the best (assuming they have coverage where you live).…

One piece of clothing advice for those just entering the world of "formal" parties. Get a blue blazer and khaki bottoms (pants for men, a skirt for women). Men should add a blue oxford cloth button down shirt and blue tie, women a blue blouse. That outfit and your age should get you through just about any party that…

I would add a step zero: figure out why you want to do this. If you think you will save money, you'd do better at a manufacturer's outlet buying an open box computer.

Hah. Even the NSA would have trouble reading my writing. Of course, so would the recipient. Zero information. Perfect security.