life hacks

Tommy Tutone can save you money

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Sometimes you run into the grocery store and you don’t have your little “money saver” card with you. Or maybe you’re on vacation and you hate to not get the sale price, but you’re not going to sign up for a store card to place you’ll never be again. Well, in that case, just remember Jenny.

In most stores they can look you up by your phone number. So make like Tommy Tutone and use 867-5309. It works every time, because some other ’80’s loser signed up with that number to avoid giving their real phone number. And you’re definitely not going to forget that number. If you think you will, go watch that video a couple more times. It will be burned in your brain forever.

Link via Sara.

Ingenious Mouse Trap

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We had a mouse at work. That is not the story. The story is how someone from down the hall tried to catch the mouse.

This time the mousetrap was unsuccessful, but it reminded me that I had seen it action before, and it worked. I wondered how I could forget something so awesome, so I decided I better write it down before I forgot again.

  1. Get a trash can with high, smooth walls
  2. Balance a ruler on the edge of the desk, well out over the trash can
  3. Put little bits of cracker or other bait on the end of the ruler

Voilà! The mouse runs out on the ruler to get the cracker, the ruler overbalances, and the mouse falls into the trash can where he waits patiently until you let him out in the morning. Then, when you don’t have the heart to smash in his cute little adorable face, he resumes terrorizing you as normal. It’s kind of a fun game.

I did a quick search on the Internet, and it turns out this is a pretty common trap. (Search for “walking the plank”, which is a fantastic name for this kind of trap by the way)

The results range from the simple:

to the elaborate:

So, next time you need to catch a mouse, you might as well give it a shot. Make him walk the plank! If it doesn’t work, you’re not out anything.

How to break into a padlock

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(Click for larger)

Step 1: Starting at 0, gently pull down as though opening the lock, then slowly spin the dial counter-clockwise until it sticks. If the number is a whole number (i.e. not resting in between two numbers) record it, continuing the process until you reach 0 again. At this point you should have 5 whole numbers.

Step 2: Four of the five numbers will end in the same digit — the one that doesn’t is the last number in your lock’s three-number combo. Since certain numbers on a padlock are inextricably linked, this number narrows down the possible combinations to 100

Step 3: Trial-and-error out the combination grid linked below, and pull the lock open.

Life sentence via Thrillist.

Disposible Phone Numbers

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On occasion, it might be useful to have a disposable phone number. For example, you might want to list something on eBay, or (for the old timers out there) maybe you’re just selling something in the newspaper. So you could publish a temporary phone number that would be forwarded to your regular phone, and people could call you to ask you for more information. Then, when the auction ended or the item sold, you could just cancel that phone number and never think about it again.

Enter iNumber.

As this article points out, this service isn’t really necessary if you have Google Voice, but if you just need a quick disposable number, you might not want to set up an entire Google Voice account. Just go to iNumber and do a one and done.

Hack IKEA

/ Shane / 1 Comment

IKEA is one the greatest stores ever. If you haven’t been, you need to go. When it was easier for us to get to one, we used to go there as entertainment, or as like a tourist attraction for our out-of-town friends. Not only are the prices ridiculously low, but the interesting things they come up with, especially in terms of storage, are amazing. We have many things in our house from IKEA.

But now you can take it a step further, and check out some unauthorized IKEA hacks. Basically, people take items for sale at IKEA and treat them like raw materials, modifying them or combining them to make new, even more awesome products. Not only do the things look amazing, but the really cool part is the way people can look at something and see its potential to be something else. For example, check out the bench made from a shelving unit, or the more creative retractable coffee table. There are even speakers made from salad bowls. Here is an example of a children’s kitchen set created from one of their shelving units:

We have our own IKEA hack of a sort at our house. We were looking for a T.V. stand or cabinet, but we didn’t like the ones that they had. Instead we bought a small shelving unit, and bought doors for it. On one side we used the regular, opaque door, but on the other side we bought a glass door, so that our TiVo, DVD player, etc. could go on that side and the remote would still work. Then we threaded all the cords out a notch we made in the back. Not as inventive as some of the ones on the site, but I was still proud of it!

Tip: Scroll down to the Top Hacks category on the right to see some of the cooler stuff.