Cops really like it when you say "I pay your taxes" or "do you know who I am?" If you really want to make the officers' day, threaten to sue him with a slick and never-heard-before line like "by the time I'm done, I'm going to OWN that department." You're sure to get a smile.

Yep. I'm still with Iron, though I did bring Firefox back. Sometimes I think I just crave something new so I'll find something to bitch about in my current browser. There's probably a life lesson there or something.

Knoif? That's not a knoif.
Damn, is there any good way to spell that?

I've been hearing this more and more lately. The thing is, I don't use Iron out of privacy concerns but because it seems to run smoother than Chrome. Iron has been extremely consistent for me and that's mainly what I want. I always liked Firefox, but their insanely frequent updates break the add-ons all the time.…

Dryer sheets are awesome. Probably toxic to all living things, but they do a lot of little things like this. Damn things aggravate my wife's allergies, otherwise I'd have them everywhere, including... Well, everywhere.

When buying crab cream, ask the clerk if they offer gift wrapping. Or just flat out declare: "It's not for me. It's for my wife."

Do hoodlums read Lifehacker? It's probably so. Damn hoodlums. There's a very good chance that someone in this room is a thief. The only ones I trust are me and thee. And I'm not sure sure about thee.

Presently 23 degrees and dark since 4 p.m. Every winter I swear this is the last I'll spend in Maine and ever winter, here I am.

Every spring I go out to Phoenix for spring training baseball. Every year, I've had fun, except last year when, using a black light, I found not just a scorpion, but a legion of them around our property. After that, I couldn't relax, wondering if those buggers were crawling in the sofa cushions, the bed sheets, my…

You forgot to have someone come in to feed your pets and now they're scattered across the house dead and drawing flies. Are you happy with yourself? Bastard.

This is the kind of shit I love Lifehacker for. It's stuff you think about, but not so much that you're going to go out and ask. Although, I did ask my career bartender brother this very thing once or twice and he told me pretty much the same. Apparently the waving of money is apt to get your ignored. Who knew? It…

Good enough. Soon as I get my backups squared away, I'm going for it. Great idea and tons of help. Really appreciate it, fellows.

I'll bet. The crap you must see.
I was going to upgrade my sugarsync account so I can sync things like c/users/me, but now I'm thinking I should probably just pick up an external drive to move things to. I've been meaning to do that, anyway. Crazy stuff. Not something to be done in haste for sure.

Damn, that is beyond helpful. Really appreciate that. I was thinking I might use one of those drive wipers to remove the partition. There are a couple in particular that seem to be recommended. Good tip on the c/users/me thing. I'll back that up. I have my important documents backed up with SugarSync, so that's a…

This intrigues me. I'd just use my Win7 reinstallation disc that came with the computer? Install it right over the current OS? Beyond backing up, anything else I need to do in preparation? Clearly I need to research this some more. I love the idea of the fresh start. Kicking myself for not thinking of it on my own.…

I don't miss either of them. I've been with SRWare Iron for several months now and I'm extremely happy with it. It's based on Chromium, but dispenses with the tracking and other crap. Nice and smooth. I also liked Pale Moon.

We wouldn't have these 'devastating consequences' if more people would just pee in their backyards.

Oh, yeah. I guess it would go that way, too. Which begs the question, what generally causes a hard drive to fail? I've had a few computers over the years and they all tended to last five years or more, ultimately just bogging down instead of dying outright. I always keep them clean and do the regular maintenance on…

Cliff Claven lived with his mom deep into his 30s and look how well he turned out.

An associated problem is that many people don't know the difference between a failed hard drive and a fixable problem. Friends bring me their machines all the time with no real hope that it can be saved. "Sucker's dead," they'll say, and then run out to by some thousand dollar laptop at Best Buy. More often than not,…