The vacuum tip is great! So simple, yet very effective. Thanks, Flasher and Whitson!

In my experience, the cheapest cables last the longest. I know this doesn't hold true in all cases, but my parents bought Monster component cables and some other overpriced HDMI cable. Both had a thick mesh covering which made flexing the cables impossible. The HDMI cable ends fell off, and we threw away the…

@rott: Mine's the 4,1 so I guess I have the early 2008 model.

Love Mint. Simple, easy-to-use tool I can use to check my balance—and a whole bunch of other stuff I haven't tried yet.

Unfortunately the inline controls only work on newer MacBook models. The first thing I did when I got those headphones was try them on my MacBook. I was pretty disappointed when they didn't work.

Steam was selling Battlefield: Bad Company 2 for $7 during their Christmas sale. Getting games free is cool and all, but I'd rather not deal with cracked servers, cracked patches, etc. Especially if the real thing is only $7.

I just switch the left and right earbuds. They stay in my ears better and it makes for more comfortable pillow listening.

I just switch the left and right earbuds. They stay in my ears better and it makes for more comfortable pillow listening.

@dhowayan: Or Pr0n Jeremy.

I still don't see the need for a camera on an iPad, much less two. Conference calls would be cool, but for everything else it doesn't make sense.

@Gonzie: Immediately what I thought of. Well done, sir.

Dell is going crazy with all these deals. I bought an Alienware M11x (usually $750-$800) for $500 on Cyber Monday. However, it is sitting at a nice $600 right now.

@Cornflower: Haha that's a good point. I counted (well, used the Bible app and searched) and found 17 occurrences of the word "suddenly" in the Gospels, most of which were placed at the beginning of each sentence.

@pjcard: So it's assurance that nothing would short and fry any of the components? That makes sense. I guess it is a better idea since they're both dirt cheap.

Just scored an Alienware M11x for $250 off (regularly $750) on SlickDeals. I was originally going to buy an iPad, but a gaming rig seemed like a much wiser purchase.

I've never heard of an opto isolator. Couldn't a regular NPN transistor be used, with the collector connected to the power rail (the flash's voltage requirement), the emitter connected to the flash, and the base connected to an Arduino output pin? The LED and phototransistor seem like overkill.

@ohnoitsaspider: I gave all the records, receipts, etc. to the bank and they said they'd do all the could. With only a Craigslist ad, though, I didn't think there was much to go on. This person had obviously done it several times before under different names, e-mails, etc.

I usually start with StartRunmsconfig in the case of a sluggish computer. In all of the cases I've seen, the user has Normal startup selecte, thereby loading every single program or service.

@ohnoitsaspider: I got it from Apple initially. Then I found a better deal on Craigslist, was blind by the obvious scam, and paid for it. I realized an hour later it was a scam, but it was too late.

Say what you want about Apple, but I bought a pair of Beats by Dre for $100 off last year. Yes, they're overpriced to begin with. Yes, I could have bought Sony or Sennheiser cans. But I never found another store that shaved $100 off headphones.