I was at a Quizznos subs around Seattle. The manager (rubber banded?
taped?) a spoon to the end of the credit card signing pen, which stopped
people from absently mindedly walking off with it. Clever!

--
QUOTEBLOG: http://kisrael.com   SKEPTIC MORTALITY: http://kisrael.com/mortal
"God or somebody save us from any society founded on Darwinian principles."
   --Richard Dawkins

I downloaded new messages from alt.hackers on Mon, 25 Sep 2006
12:08:47 GMT, and who should I see posting but Kirk Is
<kisr...@sunfire13.eecs.tufts.edu>! I could scarely believe Kirk Is
<kisr...@sunfire13.eecs.tufts.edu> would remark:

Wow yeah! Almost as clever as taping a STRING to it!

More clever, because it doesn't get in the way of writing, and
installation is easier.

But thanks for your insight.

--
QUOTEBLOG: http://kisrael.com   SKEPTIC MORTALITY: http://kisrael.com/mortal
"Uncertainty in the pressure of vivid hopes and fears is painful,
 but must be endured if we wish to live without the support of
 comforting fairy tales."  --Bertrand Russell

Begin  <QMTRg.22$1n3....@news.tufts.edu>
On 2006-09-25, Kirk Is <kisr...@sunfire13.eecs.tufts.edu> wrote:

I agree, actually. Oh, and Frosty? Please don't forget that posting here
means posting an ObHack as well, whether you are following up or not.
That's the point of the group and it's a pity to let that go to waste.
The volume of interesting traffic is low enough as it is.

ObNoHackTooSmallHack: I a lot of my dishwashing is quick-quick rinsing
of a few items, as I live alone and am too lazy to do it all in batches.
Most liquid dishwashing soap comes advertised as ``contentrated'' or
something along those lines. So, on buying a new bottle of that soapy
stuff, I took the previous bottle, put in a dollop, some water, shake
well, and there's my quick-quick washup liquid. As I'm now less likely
to use more soap than necessairy this also reduces the amount of soap
ending up where it really shouldn't. Sure, small effect, but those do
add up.

Before someone (you know who you are) follows up again with some
argument that he doesn't need an ObHack; you're wrong, you do need one,
no matter what your argument is. Sure mine's small, lame, silly, or
whatever, but I do have one, and you don't. Followups without ObHack
will be duly disregarded.

--
  j p d (at) d s b (dot) t u d e l f t (dot) n l .
  This message was originally posted on Usenet in plain text.
  Any other representation, additions, or changes do not have my
  consent and may be a violation of international copyright law.

I downloaded new messages from alt.hackers on 25 Sep 2006 18:28:52
GMT, and who should I see posting but jpd
<read_the_...@do.not.spam.it.invalid>! I could scarely believe jpd
<read_the_...@do.not.spam.it.invalid> would remark:

<sniphack>

So that means I owe two?
Fine.
I'm a bench jeweler (as opposed to those fat guys who sit behind the
counter selling you jewelry, I actually make it) and I have lots of
itty-bitty tools that kept hiding in nooks and crannies and I needed a
way to keep them from doing so and I needed to be able to see them all
and pick out one when I needed it.
My first hack (lame tho it was) was to use one of those magnetic
strips to stick all my bits and things to.
(Yeah, like I said: lame. But the jewelry catalogs didn't sell
anything like that so it was a sorta hack!)
But now fast-forward 20 or so years and I have many, many more of
these little tools and bits and what-nots and that one magnetic strip
won't cut it.
I s'pose I could be a few more, but I've since moved my shop and added
5 more desks (yep, all for me) and I don't have an area next to the
two benches/desks I use all those various tools/bits at.
So I had one of those old pull-down lamps from the 60's
http://tinyurl.com/odupr
and attached a disk of wood laminated with Formica to the lamp part,
and used peel-n-stick magnet strips wrapped around the circumference
to hold my stuff.
Now I simply pull it down when I need something, and push it back up
when I'm done.
The lamp resides above the space between the two desks.

In alt.hackers, Frosty  <claus...@yahoo.com> wrote:

That reminds me of something I did. I'm pretty sure I have not mentioned
it here.

Years ago I got a screwdriver set that had one handle and a bunch of
standard sized hex-shank bits. It came with a plastic case with snap-in
bit holders. That served me fine for a short while, but soon I had more
bits from other sources. There were a couple of empty pockets and I put
hinged lids over those to hold the excess. That worked find for several
years. Then the plastic hinge of the plastic case started to fail. I
could have put a metal hinge on, but really the whole thing was starting
to feel clunky.

So I got a small toolbox, with no insert, and fashioned a bit holding
insert for myself. What I did was drill a grid of holes into a wood
board sized to the bottom of the toolbox. (My mini drill press made
the grid drilling easy.) All of the holes were slightly smaller than
the shank. Then I took a discardable bit and hammered it into each hole
in turn: this made them all hex shaped holes. Now all of my bits can
be pushed into the holes, where they get held useful side up, for
easily picking what I want. There is enough friction that they don't
fall out, and enough holes that I can sort all of them by style of
bit (flat, philips, robertson, hex, torx, security hex, security torx,
miscellany) with space between them, and room for growth.

The separate bit of wood in there to hold the sockets which had been
part of the original screwdriver set hasn't worked as well. I didn't
have enough variety in drill bit sizes to make all the holes snug,
so many of the holes are larger than the socket, and pieces frequently
fall out.

(My proper socket set also has a wood insert with a grid of holes, and
similar oversizing. I don't have the fall out problem with that
because the toolbox isn't tall enough for the sockets to fall out when
the box is closed.)

My socket set insert I'm pretty sure I've used as a hack here before.
The new hack used for the screwdriver bits is the trick to make the
hex shaped holes which hold the bits so well.

Elijah
------
not sure of the names of some of the more obscure bits