Sites hit the nail on the head
Right about now the urge to tackle fix-it projects and home or garage improvements is driving people to assorted Web sites or e-mail lists to find ideas and advice.
We offer up two nice Web sites that give handy advice for homeowners or do-it-yourselfers.
Instructables.com.
It’s Learn to Solder month at Instructables, a site filled with amazing and detailed plans on how to do all sorts of useful, and sometimes odd projects.
This is the site that helped us learn how to use sugar cubes to rub off painted letters on a cell phone case.
It’s also where we found instructions on how to make a paper sombrero.
Those fond of tinkering with circuit boards might take a stab at the plans here for making a hot-air soldering gun.
Cell phones and DVD players are two other categories loaded with ingenious and useful tips.
Wikihow.com
Not as large and not as techie as Instructables, Wikihow.com has a growing reputation for sensible, easy-to-follow plans for a wide range of useful projects.
It does offer dozens of suggestions on practices and processes, more than just plans requiring cutting, soldering or hammering.
One whole section here deals solely with tips for driving a car. Other sections go into great detail on transporting bulky objects, such as a boat.
And now for something totally different:
Fatfingers.co.uk
It used to be great fun (and profitable) to check out misspelled words on eBay. Internet chat rooms had numerous stories of being able to find a “Compaq labtop” for $100 on eBay, all because the seller misspelled laptop.
Fatfingers tries to help bargain-hunters track down similar instances of auction misspellings.
It’s easy to use. If you stick in a phrase like “Dell laptop” it will hunt down any examples on eBay that are misspelled versions.
But the bad news is that it’s fairly rare to find those examples. Most eBay sellers find their misspellings right at the point of listing an item.
The good thing about Fatfingers is the advanced search option, which we highly recommend. That search allows for lots of variables by which to select through the vast eBay universe. It allows you easy ways to limit items to those nearest in location; it also pops up advice and warnings when something in the listing seems out of the ordinary.
Mixed Nuts looks at assorted Web sites worth noting. Suggestions can be sent to txt@spokesman.com.