Garmin nuvi 2497LMT - Voice controlled, syncs with my phone, does bluetooth calls, works without cell coverage, routes me automatically around accidents or traffic snarls, is lane aware, free map and traffic updates for life. As a consultant, it's down right essential as I have to be dead on time in a major metro and…

I noticed a distinct lack of Indie love. Games like Limbo, Braid and Thomas was Alone among other terrific and innovative titles are well worth experiencing and the cost of entry is less than a movie theater ticket.

I'm a fan of BeyondPod. Polished and easy to use but has more advanced functions like playback speed and such.

By far the best way I've found: Use Swype with a Long(ish) word that it autosuggests on a pattern of swirls that is repeatable or custom dictionary entry. It's robust enough to enable encryption but still offers super quick device access, even without looking. I've tried to "smear" attack my own phone, but due to the…

Sounds like a good project. My suggestion is to make sure you have (A) dedicated fuse to the inverter (B) Sufficent airflow around the device as they get hot all on their own (C) Buy something other than the cheapest of the cheap.

I'm sorry, but almost anything more serious than the most basic media PC is going to need more airflow than that. If I dropped a sunfire in there, it'd be dead in thirty minutes. That setup has no where for the hot air to go aside from out the same front facing vent you are trying to pull cold air from - no the small…

A long time ago I did the same thing with the power inverter and put it in my jeep (not nearly as nice of a job). Things got exciting when it caught fire from overheating.....

Re the Water Bumper: Ok, so I'm not usually the type of person to mention this, but not all plastics are food safe. Given the types of plastic in most cars, I don't think this would be be passing any FDA tests and if it sits there for weeks on end, it could be downright toxic or laden with bacteria. That said, I think…

They actually make such a thing as dog tag silencers. They sell them for the military, but they work for literal dog tags. The going rate when I used them for my tags were $1 each.

The canning process can dilute flavors (makes sense, you're dumping them in water for months to years) so some vendors put in extra sugar, mostly for fruits, as the sweetness gets diluted naturally. You can can your own and control how much goes in there. For short term canning, things like peaches can work without…

What about those of us who want an earbud set? I fly a lot with my new job and the engine whine is killing me, but I don't want full overear cans (too much too pack).

Follow appropriate canning instructions, overfilling can cause it to boil over and not seal properly.

"Canning" has been around for centuries and doesn't often require anything more than heating up whatever you want in a sealed container and removing additional oxygen from getting to it. It's actually quite a simple process.

Worth mentioning, I have a $20-ish Honeywell and it is programmable. It only has weekday vs weekend granularity, but within those two modes it's pretty fine tunable. If you do a decent job of programming it, there isn't any significant disadvantage to the 10X priced Nest.

As someone who made the jump and started their own company, I can't say that the advice on savings unrealistic.

7 years is the usual IRS limit (baring some special circumstances), but other programs ask for proof of income going much further back. My brother had to go through this when he had an accident and ended up on disability (SSI and medicaid, then later medicare). That's just one scenario but since accidents can happen…

While it's far less likely others have experience with it, I actually kind of like Microsofts "DART" Disaster and Recovery tools setup. (Requires MSDN subscription) Basically it's Hiren's boot CD that's MS specific, allows remote access if you choose and has all of the same imaging, virus scanning, registry key…

I'm not sure why they were so against electric pressure cookers, I got an Instapot for the holidays and the thing is great. It's got all of the same pluses they mention - big heavy stainless steel cooker with thick bottom, but it's a LOT easier to use than a traditional stove top model. Sure, it doesn't hit the same…

I'll parrot what a few others have said, there is no "best" camera. They are tools that depend entirely on what you plan to do with them. I pack very different camera gear for long distance backpacking pursuits than I do for shooting a wedding and different still if I'm shooting macro shots vs long range wildlife…

If you think it's simply the signal not getting where it needs, get a cheap digital multimeter if you don't have one (useful for thousands of projects). Set it to check continuity and put the probes on each end of the signal wiring to make sure that your solder joints have a good connection. Youtube has some great…