Broken clip Last week when I was climbing into a car my phone caught the seatbelt buckle and broke the Contour Showcase iPhone case. It had caused the clip to twist enough that it broke the piece that holds the spring and axle in place. The little plastic piece that broke off got lost so there was no way I was going to glue it back together. Plus I don't think glue would have held very long anyway. I considered using epoxy and making a big blob and then sanding it down and drilling a...

I needed to get a keystone coax connector after running a new network drop into an old box. I went to Lowes and they had a single connector for $3 or a 5 pack for $10. I only need one, but $3 is a little much. I was considering getting the 5 pack but even $2 each seems a little much. I also didn't like the way the connector was recessed into the keystone plate. I looked around a little more and what did I find? Blank keystones and the coax couplers sold separately which combined would be...

I'm now on my 3rd device for Netflix. It's so close to working, but it's seriously flawed. The first device I tried Netflix on was my TiVo HD. It worked well enough that I could try out streaming, but it is ancient, it will never be updated, and just barely works. In fact, there were problems with it screwing up the aspect ratio quite often, so within a week or so of signing up for Netflix, I was searching for a better interface. Right after I signed up for Netflix was when they...

These are some mats that my family and friends have been using for a couple of years at the 4th of July party at my house. My mom made them using bed sheets and Foil-Bubble-Foil insulation. The sheets are just sewn into a flat "bag" and the insulation is inserted and then they are sewn closed. At first I thought we would need to quilt them or sew across them to keep everything from slipping but it turned out to not be necessary. It's nice to have something to sit on in the...

I've seen lots of pages out there on making squibs or e-matches, but all of them used some method of making some chemical goop and then dipping your wires in it. I didn't want to mess with making goop, and I didn't want to mail order a bunch of chemicals that make the goop. So far this method that I'm using has worked very well for me, and the only "exotic" thing you need is the nichrome wire. What I'm using is 22-24 gauge solid pair wire, little tiny gold tubes,...