@Jimmy_Jazz: grab GIMPshop & Paint.NET as well and see which one suits you best. Don't forget to grab a trunkful of plugins, too!

@Mike Fahey: Huh. I guess it depends on why you snore. I have a deviated septum, and Breathe Right strips work perfectly for me.

:Lifehacker: Seriously, WTF? How can you post something so outright stupid? I try to keep my posts as non-confrontational as possible, but this just crosses the line! What's next, "Don't Wear That Seatbelt And Save Your Life!!!" Tell whoever approved this little piece of moronic crap to lay off the booze next…

@infmom: Whatever cleaning solution you use, don't rub your glasses. Ever. Any grit on them/your fingers/'$38 microfiber eyeglass cleaning cloth'/etc. will be trapped and etch the lens. Instead, use your toothbrush. It will get into every little nook and cranny, can't trap grit, and, once rinsed, will be cleaner…

@RussianTaco: : wince: Whatever cleaning solution you use, don't rub your glasses. Ever. Any grit on them/your fingers/'$38 microfiber eyeglass cleaning cloth'/etc. will be trapped and etch the lens. Instead, use your toothbrush. It will get into every little nook and cranny, can't trap grit, and, once rinsed,…

Even better would be to use Polymorph/Shapelock/Utile Plast/etc. to mold your own. I've used it for years to make everything from a replacement toilet handle connector to washers to a clip-on mount for my cell phone to use its camera on my tripod. Be sure to check out the tips and tricks on each site for more ideas.…

@FiB3R: I hear you, buddy. I try to follow the '2+2' rule, myself: No more than 2 windows open, and the number of tabs in each shall have no more than 2 digits. :D

One issue that would be interesting to know is what kind of power protection, if any, did each of those malfunctioning units have? I used to do hardware service calls for Dell, and fully a third of my calls were on systems that had either inadequate surge protection or none at all. To be honest, I have no idea what…

@madog: I soft-modded an XBox about 5 years ago, and it worked quite well, though I don't remember where I got the howto from. If you just want to play the old games and don't want to set up a launcher, you might want to consider finding a torrent of the BAED disk set. I have the first three, and they are great!

@icefyre: One must-have for setting up new systems is WSUS Offline Update. It saves me literally hours of downloading during setup.

@Cornflower: The perfect match to PortableApps is Nozavi's Portable Software Updater. It makes keeping all of my PA software up-to-date a snap.

@theworldisasheep: Actually, there is a dead-easy way to do that; type 'mountvol' on the command line, where 'X:' is the current drive letter for your external drive. It will give you a list of all of the volumes in your system and what drive letter they correspond to that looks like this:

I probably have the creakiest, most unstable, crash-prone Firefox install in the world, and I wouldn't trade for any other browser. Why is it so bad? Well, let's start with my running the same profile since 1.X, then talk about my infinite history, generally having tabs in multiple windows numbering in the triple…

PLEASE tell me that it prints registration lines in the corners. Trying to line up a couple of dozen pages without them is an exercise in frustration.

Up until about eleven years ago, mine was Dead_Dad. Then I got rid of my modem and P350...

@kayfouroh: Actually, the mighty AB agreed that cold /running/ water, while the best method, uses too much of that precious resource. Instead, cover, then replace the water every 20 minutes or so until defrosted. I suppose that a metal pan /would/ make a good heatsink, but cast iron could rust if not fully seasoned.

@mikeconcar: Not a problem. Just go to [www.wsusoffline.net] and be amazed.

You know, I've fixed untold thousands of problems with small (and not so small) hacks during my life, and, right now, I can't think of a single one that I would say I am proud of. I mean, I've done a lot of things that I thought were nifty, like adding a RGB port to a Sega Genesis and making a 4xPSX2PC interface box,…

Supercook is another good site like this. I gave it the contents of my fridge and pantry and got back over 2000 recipes!

@jeffk: Here's a quote from my wife, who helps out a lot of people with food allergies: