repair
Fix
Get Spray Paint Off Your Car
6:00AM Jason Fitzpatrick | Let’s hope you never have to get spray paint off your car, but on the off chance that you do—perhaps after somebody had a little too much fun on Halloweent—this guide will help. More »
Fix
Use A Candle To Keep Doors And Windows From Sticking
1:00AM Jason Fitzpatrick | Most often used for mood lighting, candles can do double duty keeping stubborn doors and windows from sticking and sliding doors gliding. More »
Fix
Use Cat Litter To Save Your Doused Phone
11:30PM Jason Fitzpatrick | Mobile phones and other portable electronics are supposedly built to survive bumps, bangs, and drops we put them through, but they’re no friend to water. Save your drenched gear with this simple trick. More »
Fix
VehicleFixer Videos Detail DIY Car Repairs
10:30PM Kevin Purdy | If you’re living without a seriously trustworthy mechanic, or you just like to bust out the wrench and fix your own wheels, VehicleFixer.com’s descriptive videos are worth watching. Many of the site’s videos appear to come from old VHS instructional tapes, so the quality’s a bit lacking by modern standards, and the cars are older models—though most of the techniques and parts are going to be the same as today’s units. You’re also treated to the cheapest synthesized soundtrack the tape makers could swing. But the videos on replacing brakes, changing oil, fixing belts and hoses, swapping out filters, and the like are slow, step-by-step, and explained in clear language, which is what really matters when you’ve got the hood open. You might have to do some clicking around, mostly to force more video and sidebar ads upon you, but VehicleFixer is probably still worth it if you want to learn how to get things done on your car. Free to watch, no sign-up required (though the site promises a share-centric members area coming soon). VehicleFixer.com [via MakeUseOf.com] More »
Learn the Basics of Sewing with an Illustrated Guide
3:32AM Kevin Purdy | Have you thought about tackling some of the niftier crafts projects we’ve posted at Lifehacker, but the thought of picking up a needle and thread brings phantom stabbing pains to your fingers? Instructables posts a pretty handy guide to the basics of putting thread through a needle and working with it, including a guide to what kind of equipment you’ll need and an explanation of the most common terms used in how-to guides. It goes a little beyond the scope of, say, sewing a button back on, but it could help you down the path toward paint chip wallets, T-shirt laptop cases, and other DIY goodies. Hit the link to get your thread on. How to Sew [Instructables] More »
Repair Broken Personal Folders in Outlook
7:40AM Kevin Purdy | A slow or error-prone Outlook might mean your Personal Folders—the place where all your appointments, messages, and other data are kept—are corrupt and in need of some fixin’. The How-To Geek shows you the ins and outs of using a built-in Outlook tool to back up and repair your data, and hopefully get Outlook moving a little swifter once again. The Geek’s tutorial should work for most any running version of Outlook. For a backup-only solution, try another free Microsoft tool. Fix Your Broken Outlook Personal Folders (PST) File [The How-To Geek] More »
Fix Stuck Pixels on Your Monitor with Killdeadpixel
10:00AM Adam Pash | Fix stuck pixels on your LCD monitor with web site Killdeadpixel. Like previously mentioned JScreenFix, Killdeadpixel unsticks pixels by displaying a quickly changing, high-contrast graphic over the pixel—but Killdeadpixel does it with a neat little draggable graphic, so you can just place the unobtrusive graphic over your stuck pixel and let it do its work. Despite the site’s name (which is a misnomer), a stuck pixel is normally stuck showing red, green, blue, or a combination of those colors, and that is what this site can help with. A dead pixel, on the other hand, will display only black. Luckily dead pixels can be fixed with another method. Killdeadpixel [via UneasySilence] More »
