Learn something new.
- Thread starter der_kluge
- Start date
Xath
Moder-gator
Also, here are some things I found out about my Best Buy warranty yesterday.
- If you put a laptop on warranty, you are entitled to a free battery and power cord every year.
- You can extend your warrenty as long as you want by calling the Best Buy number when your warranty is about to expire.
- There is an (apparently secret) Platinum Plan warranty for electronics for about double the price of the normal warranty. If you send your computer in, they'll back it up for free automatically (usually a $90 charge) and you're guaranteed to have your item back in 7 days (usually 4-6 weeks).
I wish I had known about these when I bought my laptop and my camera. It would have saved me alot of trouble.
- If you put a laptop on warranty, you are entitled to a free battery and power cord every year.
- You can extend your warrenty as long as you want by calling the Best Buy number when your warranty is about to expire.
- There is an (apparently secret) Platinum Plan warranty for electronics for about double the price of the normal warranty. If you send your computer in, they'll back it up for free automatically (usually a $90 charge) and you're guaranteed to have your item back in 7 days (usually 4-6 weeks).
I wish I had known about these when I bought my laptop and my camera. It would have saved me alot of trouble.
Warrior Poet
Explorer
Wood fire-building:
In a fireplace, before you start the fire, it helps to light a section of kindling or primer paper (newspaper, for example) and hold it up inside the flue for a few seconds (watch your fingers!). This starts to warm the column of air (which is usually cold if the fireplace has been dormant for a few hours) already inside the flue. Excessive cold air in the flue traps smoke from the logs, sometimes forcing it back into the room, even if the flue is open. Warm the air in the flue, and the smoke flows out nicely, reducing the risk of smoke inside the room.
General fire building at a campfire or in a fireplace: arrange the kindling first, in a slightly pyramidal shape, instead of flat. Then arrange the logs in a similar fashion, leaning together at a common apex, over the little kindling pyramid. It's usually good to start the fire with smaller logs at first (around 2-3" diam., say, and obviously make sure the timber is dry), so that it can catch, before adding larger logs later. The sloped shape of the logs helps the flames course upwards along the length of the wood for a better burn that consumes more fuel and leaves less "dead" spots on the wood. It also ensures nice airflow between the logs, which is critical to a successful fire. Just make sure when arranging the logs that, when they "settle" (fall as they lose material consumed by the fire), they do so toward the center of the fire, and back toward the brick, not forward into the room! This is a great way to build a good fire (don't use liquid fuels as a starter!).
If you don't have a bellows, you can make one very easily, with a section of metal pipe (not plastic), around 3/4" diam., with a threaded end. Attach a "mouthpiece" section to the threaded end that just fits your lips, the way a mouthpiece on a trumpet, trombone, or other brass instrument works. The pipe should be no less than 3' long. Hold the pipe with both hands, and blow down the length of the pipe; the narrow diameter focuses your breath in a very tight area, allowing you to bellows specific areas of the fire (where the embers are) in order to rekindle, and you don't have to get too close, or wind yourself with excessive blowing. It also helps reduce the amount of water vapor you pour onto the fire.
Obviously, the metal of the pipe should be something it's o.k. to put your lips on (never lead!).
More as I think of them,
Warrior Poet
In a fireplace, before you start the fire, it helps to light a section of kindling or primer paper (newspaper, for example) and hold it up inside the flue for a few seconds (watch your fingers!). This starts to warm the column of air (which is usually cold if the fireplace has been dormant for a few hours) already inside the flue. Excessive cold air in the flue traps smoke from the logs, sometimes forcing it back into the room, even if the flue is open. Warm the air in the flue, and the smoke flows out nicely, reducing the risk of smoke inside the room.
General fire building at a campfire or in a fireplace: arrange the kindling first, in a slightly pyramidal shape, instead of flat. Then arrange the logs in a similar fashion, leaning together at a common apex, over the little kindling pyramid. It's usually good to start the fire with smaller logs at first (around 2-3" diam., say, and obviously make sure the timber is dry), so that it can catch, before adding larger logs later. The sloped shape of the logs helps the flames course upwards along the length of the wood for a better burn that consumes more fuel and leaves less "dead" spots on the wood. It also ensures nice airflow between the logs, which is critical to a successful fire. Just make sure when arranging the logs that, when they "settle" (fall as they lose material consumed by the fire), they do so toward the center of the fire, and back toward the brick, not forward into the room! This is a great way to build a good fire (don't use liquid fuels as a starter!).
If you don't have a bellows, you can make one very easily, with a section of metal pipe (not plastic), around 3/4" diam., with a threaded end. Attach a "mouthpiece" section to the threaded end that just fits your lips, the way a mouthpiece on a trumpet, trombone, or other brass instrument works. The pipe should be no less than 3' long. Hold the pipe with both hands, and blow down the length of the pipe; the narrow diameter focuses your breath in a very tight area, allowing you to bellows specific areas of the fire (where the embers are) in order to rekindle, and you don't have to get too close, or wind yourself with excessive blowing. It also helps reduce the amount of water vapor you pour onto the fire.
Obviously, the metal of the pipe should be something it's o.k. to put your lips on (never lead!). More as I think of them,
Warrior Poet
reveal
Adventurer
This conversion table is great for those converting from Metric to US measure and vice versa when cooking.
http://www.recipegoldmine.com/kitchart/kitchart2.html
http://www.recipegoldmine.com/kitchart/kitchart2.html
Rel
Liquid Awesome
If you're ever having cranberry sauce from a can and you want it to retain the can shape then open one side of the can with a can-opener as usual and put a small hole in the other end with a church-key. Then hold the can invertd over whatever bowl or plate you wish to serve it from and blow into the small hole in the bottom. The cranberry sauce will shoot right out into the bowl.
I don't know how useful that really is but it impressed the hell out of my neices and nephews last Thanksgiving.
I don't know how useful that really is but it impressed the hell out of my neices and nephews last Thanksgiving.
der_kluge
Adventurer
Psion said:If you find yourself wanting to put non-'mericun/English characters in your posts, like for example in a favorite performing artists threads when one of them has an uhmlaut in their name
Alternatively, you can just go start-> run > "charmap" All the windows accessories programs can be run without providing a path here, assuming you know the command name.
Queen_Dopplepopolis
First Post
Rel said:
... what is a "church-key"?
reveal
Adventurer
Queen_Dopplepopolis said:
It's a slang term for a bottle opener. You take the pointy end and make a traingular hole in the bottom, like we used to do for the old cans of Hawaiian Punch.
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-chu2.htm
Warrior Poet
Explorer
Triangular shaped end of a bottle opener. It has a small lip to grip the edge of a can. When pressed down on the smooth top of a can, it punches a triangular hole in the can, allowing access to the liquid inside.Queen_Dopplepopolis said:
Juices used to come in completely sealed cans, and you had to punch two holes opposite one another (on the same end of the can) in order to liberate the contents therein (I'm old). They used to make this stuff called Hawaiian Punch, red, super-sugar-juice, came in cans like that. Had to be opened with a church-key. I think the key is so named because it resembles the facade of a church (arched/peaked roof), but I'm not sure about the name derivation.
Warrior Poet
Edit: "And coming in second, it's Warrior Poet, just behind reveal by a nose! In the next race . . . "
Last edited:
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