No more WiFi: How to wire your house for Internet

So you’ve read all the studies about our Wireless Wonderland, and you’d like to go wired.

Wire your house with ethernetBut where to even start?

It turns out that wiring up your house or apartment with ethernet cables and switches is WAAAAY easier than most people think.

It’s literally a plug-n-play kind of thing.

There are a few things to keep in mind though before purchasing gigabit ethernet switches and Cat 7 ethernet cable…

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Why is my light switch popping and sparking?

Sparking Light SwitchOne day, you flip a light switch and notice a lovely popping sound. The pop might even be accompanied by a brief blue flash of light from within the switch.

What’s going on here?

Well, it turns out that even if the current rating of the switch has NOT been exceeded, you may have a problem related to inrush current due to the use of fluorescent and especially LED light fixtures…

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Save Money (and your Gizmo) with a new Power Brick

They’re known as power bricks, wall warts, AC Adapters, AC-DC Converters, and probably 10 other names – and they power many of the gizmos you use every day.

But what happens when a gizmo stops working right?

You may think it’s the gizmo itself, but very often it’s the power brick.

It may look complicated, but it’s actually pretty straightforward to get a universal power brick and set it up to breathe new life into your techie toy.

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Roll your own Router with OpenWrt – but not with a Turris

Everyone has a home router, whether they know it or not.

For most of us, our router is the DSL / Cable / Fiber “box” given to us by our ISP.

You can, of course, add your own home router in between your home network and your ISP’s box. This provides an extra level of safety – among other things.

Those of us who are a bit more techie (and crazy) like to roll our own router. There are many reasons for this, not the least of which is security.

Unfortunately, not all routers are created equal, even when they’re “created” by you!

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How to safely clean the dust inside your laptop

Clean your lappy!

Has your laptop ever started to sound like a vacuum cleaner?

Cooling fans start spinning like crazy. If things get bad enough, your CPU can even overheat, halting the laptop and giving you a scary-looking error message.

To avoid such mayhem, you should dust inside your laptop twice a year.

It’s pretty easy. Should your laptop be REALLY clogged up inside, you may need to get a little crazy and start opening things up.

But don’t panic! YouTube will save you…

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Why oscillating multi-tools don’t cut you

It’s time for something completely different!

I’ve wondered for awhile why oscillating multi-tools don’t cut skin.

I know there are many explanations out there, but it appears that many people were in the same boat: We kind of understand, but not really…

Well, that simply won’t do!

Behold the two reasons why these power tools don’t (easily) cut you!

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Left the WiFi on again? Not any more!

I’m not a big fan of WiFi, but I do use it from time to time.

It’s just convenient to use for some gizmos where an ethernet dongle is not supported.

Trouble is, I kept forgetting to turn off my WiFi router when I was done.

And then – two days later – I would discover I was still bombarding myself with magic 5 GHz death rays.

Not any more!!

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Make any LCD computer screen high-end

Much ado has been made about certain brands and types of puter displays and how this kind or that kind looks so much better than the average LCD screen…

It turns out that much of this hoopla is quite often mostly just marketing.

In fact, some displays from certain fruity computer manufacturers in the past were actually technically inferior, yet they still looked really good!

How did they do it?

Easy! The displays were fine-tuned – calibrated, if you will.

Lucky for you, it’s a piece of cake to calibrate your puter’s display yourself.

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Best strippers EVER (um, for techies)

Now, I know that everyone is pretty attached to their favorite stripper.

The trouble is, sometimes this attachment is not terribly healthy…

I’m talking about wire and cable strippers, of course!

After decades of searching – across scorching deserts and over frosty mountaintops – I have come to the conclusion that these strippers really are the best.

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