Things you should know by now, but only just discovered

mrtomaytohead wrote:

Awesome find on the windows calculator.

I never knew home electrical color coded the hot wires as black until I went to replace a switch in my house. I figured all electrical would have followed the red = hot, black = ground before that.

Ouch. That's a hell of a thing to find out the hard way. (There's a reason I check wires before I touch them, color coded or not.)

Also, neat on the windows calculator stuff. Still probably easier to google it, but handy. (Google calc, if anyone hasn't found it yet. 6 meters in yards gets you the answer as the first result. Works for just about anything.)

mrtomaytohead wrote:

Awesome find on the windows calculator.

I never knew home electrical color coded the hot wires as black until I went to replace a switch in my house. I figured all electrical would have followed the red = hot, black = ground before that.

Seriously? Black wire in homes is hot? That's just messed up.

I learned a short time ago that cashews grow on the end of a fruit. The original shell of the cashew is an irritant like poison ivy. They need to be properly roasted to get rid of the toxin. No wonder they are so expensive!

Kannon wrote:
mrtomaytohead wrote:

Awesome find on the windows calculator.

I never knew home electrical color coded the hot wires as black until I went to replace a switch in my house. I figured all electrical would have followed the red = hot, black = ground before that.

Ouch. That's a hell of a thing to find out the hard way. (There's a reason I check wires before I touch them, color coded or not.)

Also, neat on the windows calculator stuff. Still probably easier to google it, but handy. (Google calc, if anyone hasn't found it yet. 6 meters in yards gets you the answer as the first result. Works for just about anything.)

Thankfully I did not find out the hard way. In my supreme lack of understanding of electricity I always proceed with extreme caution, and when things did not look right, I looked it up. Something that could so easily kill should not be have so easily confused standards. Similarly, cold water on my washing machine is the red knob. I do wonder if that one is backwards, but I haven't bothered to check.

Red knob for cold = wrong. That's for sure.

As far as colours for house wiring, that can get pretty dicey. There are "conventions" but you can always end up with something like this:

IMAGE(http://www.electrical-online.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Basic-Light-Switch-2.gif)

Even though the "in" wire was according to "conventions", when you open your light switch, you are in for a surprise. So yeah, never assume colour coding when it comes to household wiring.

Oh, and don't worry too much. 120V has a very slim chance of actually killing you. It'll zap you good, but unless quite a few fluke circumstances align, it won't be enough to kill you.

I thought it was also smooth wire and ribbed wire, not just color.

TempestBlayze wrote:

I thought it was also smooth wire and ribbed wire, not just color.

Smooth will kill. Ribbed will cause pleasure.

CTRL+E on my XP calculator turned it into an old-school HP calculator format. Is that what you're talking about? (scurries off to test on every different OS in my house...)

Yeah, I just found out about the black = hot in home wiring too. Always figured black was ground. Thankfully I did it the easy, mildly embarrassing way and not the hard way.

ctrl+alt+arrow key changes your screen orientation relative to the monitor. Discovered when a student had somehow done it by mistake and was wondering why their "screen is upside down" figuring they must be tripping I go look only to find it was in fact upside down. You can also do sideways, who exactly is this feature for?

krev82 wrote:

ctrl+alt+arrow key changes your screen orientation relative to the monitor. Discovered when a student had somehow done it by mistake and was wondering why their "screen is upside down" figuring they must be tripping I go look only to find it was in fact upside down. You can also do sideways, who exactly is this feature for?

For users with monitors that rotate.

MoonDragon wrote:

Oh, and don't worry too much. 120V has a very slim chance of actually killing you. It'll zap you good, but unless quite a few fluke circumstances align, it won't be enough to kill you.

But holy jumping jesus on a jigsaw does it hurt.

Kannon wrote:
MoonDragon wrote:

Oh, and don't worry too much. 120V has a very slim chance of actually killing you. It'll zap you good, but unless quite a few fluke circumstances align, it won't be enough to kill you.

But holy jumping jesus on a jigsaw does it hurt.

I once had 210 volt go in my right hand, up my arm across my chest just above my heart and, out the left arm. Not fun at all.

It re-doubled my paranoia of electricity and, caused me to buy a live circuit tester to use after that. Remember kids flipping the switch isn't good enough, sometimes that light is on the emergency circuit which isn't controlled by the wall plate.

ALWAYS CHECK THE BREAKERS AND VERIFY!
(I'm yelling because of my own stupidity that could have killed me.)

Kannon wrote:
MoonDragon wrote:

Oh, and don't worry too much. 120V has a very slim chance of actually killing you. It'll zap you good, but unless quite a few fluke circumstances align, it won't be enough to kill you.

But holy jumping jesus on a jigsaw does it hurt.

You should see what 40000 Volts does to you. (Doesn't kill, but you may wish it did)

krev82 wrote:

ctrl+alt+arrow key changes your screen orientation relative to the monitor. Discovered when a student had somehow done it by mistake and was wondering why their "screen is upside down" figuring they must be tripping I go look only to find it was in fact upside down. You can also do sideways, who exactly is this feature for?

That's one of the office favorites when people leave their desktop unlocked. It only works once but it does get a good reaction. Given time I like to pen love letters to my fellow employees from those who dare to leave their desktops unlocked but half the time they come back when I am half way done.

On the topic at hand ... hernias. Always funny how you much you learn when you become afflicted with something. Not sure why but hernia was just a word I assumed was related to pulling a muscle or something. I have since learned much more about the topic.

How easy it is to open the case on old model 360s. I had a broken black one, replaced with a second hand white one, and put off swapping the cases (looks better on TV stand with black TV, PS3 and amp) for over a year. At midnight last night, I just decided to get on with it, and it took no time at all.

There was a time that I would have taken one apart just out of principle.

I didn't find out until my late 30s that the best treatment for an itchy bug bite is deodorant. I'm not sure whether antiperspirant will work or not, but I know deodorant does.

It takes quite awhile to set in, typically 20 to 30 minutes. But once it gets going, the itch completely disappears, and it will be gone for a long, long time.... frequently 48 hours, with the long-lasting varieties. If it does come back, it will be very slow. As long as you apply some more when you first notice the itch again, it will barely bother you.

Once it's fully working, the relief is total.

The hard part, though, is waiting the initial half hour. That can be maddening.

Ctrl+Alt+End works the same as Ctrl+Alt+Delete in Remote Desktop.

MoonDragon wrote:

Red knob for cold = wrong. That's for sure.

As far as colours for house wiring, that can get pretty dicey. There are "conventions" but you can always end up with something like this:

IMAGE(http://www.electrical-online.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Basic-Light-Switch-2.gif)

Yeah. The colour of the wires has nothing at all to do if the circuit is live or not. And if you don't have a circuit tester you should get one before you even think about getting near any wiring at all.

And don't leave tools lying around either when working on wiring. Kids are curious. It takes all of 2 seconds for some kid to pick up a flathead screwdriver and poke it into a live outlet.

Yeah from what I understand, in a house Black=Hot, White=Neutral, Green=Ground.

Most, if not all homes only have 2 phase power so you can plug in Dryers, and Ovens, and those will usually have a Black/Red=Hot.

When you are fooling around with 3 phase power, Black/Red/Blue=Hot.

Malor wrote:

I didn't find out until my late 30s that the best treatment for an itchy bug bite is deodorant. I'm not sure whether antiperspirant will work or not, but I know deodorant does.

Table salt does a pretty good job with bug bites too. Apply margarine first to get the salt to stick, then pour some salt on the bite and rub the salt into the skin. The sodium counteracts the enzymes in the (bug) saliva that causes the itch.

I'll try deodorant next time though, i'd never heard that one before.

Jeff-66 wrote:
Malor wrote:

I didn't find out until my late 30s that the best treatment for an itchy bug bite is deodorant. I'm not sure whether antiperspirant will work or not, but I know deodorant does.

Table salt does a pretty good job with bug bites too. Apply margarine first to get the salt to stick, then pour some salt on the bite and rub the salt into the skin. The sodium counteracts the enzymes in the (bug) saliva that causes the itch.

I'll try deodorant next time though, i'd never heard that one before.

You can use toothpaste for itches as well.

Malor wrote:

I didn't find out until my late 30s that the best treatment for an itchy bug bite is deodorant. I'm not sure whether antiperspirant will work or not, but I know deodorant does.

It takes quite awhile to set in, typically 20 to 30 minutes. But once it gets going, the itch completely disappears, and it will be gone for a long, long time.... frequently 48 hours, with the long-lasting varieties. If it does come back, it will be very slow. As long as you apply some more when you first notice the itch again, it will barely bother you.

Once it's fully working, the relief is total.

The hard part, though, is waiting the initial half hour. That can be maddening.

Try putting some Mentholatum ointment on your next mosquito bite. My wife introduced me to that last year (when I was being eaten alive by Taiwanese mosquitoes) and that stuff works pretty quickly. I'll have to try the deodorant option next time to compare/contrast.

Jeff-66 wrote:

Table salt does a pretty good job with bug bites too. Apply margarine first to get the salt to stick, then pour some salt on the bite and rub the salt into the skin. The sodium counteracts the enzymes in the (bug) saliva that causes the itch.

Interesting... I live only a couple blocks away from a forest with a marshy bog in it. We get more than our fair share of mosquitos during the summer. I will have to try this.

Apparently if you heat up the bite it will denature the proteins in the bug saliva and do the same thing. But this is a tricky thing, the temperature required is close to skin damage, I've seen a couple of tools that do this but have never tried one myself.

Another home remedy you probably haven't heard of is salt for ulcers. If you get a mouth ulcer coat a wet toothpick in table salt and press it to the wound. This will hurt like hell initially and make your mouth drool in horror (so do this over a sink). But the pain will go away after a couple applications and usually the next day the ulcer will have "sealed over" and no longer cause pain. Even if it doesn't stop hurting this greatly speeds recovery times.

I usually just mix up some warm salt water. Tends to do the same thing.

My Paw-paw always used sulfur powder and vaseline for chigger bites. Can you still buy sulfur?

TempestBlayze wrote:

I learned a short time ago that cashews grow on the end of a fruit. The original shell of the cashew is an irritant like poison ivy. They need to be properly roasted to get rid of the toxin. No wonder they are so expensive!

I also learned this very same thing just this past Tuesday, while on a business trip to NJ...

One space after a scentence. How the hell am I going to break that habit? And how the hell did nobody here ever mention that?

I asked my wife to proof a document. She called me on it. I wouldn't believe her, so I researched it. A habit which is the result of limiting technology. This is particularly galling because of what I do. Architecture schools around here shunned the use of computers for fear of it limiting design. Having learned to use CAD and 3d packages, I've been a proponent of mastering the tool to prevent it from limiting your ability, instead of condemning it for limiting the ability of those who do not master it.

It's also considered an aesthetic error among typesetters.

I have to say, I like the extra space. Change will be hard.

Did I miss any? Had to go back and delete several.

Tamren wrote:
MoonDragon wrote:

Red knob for cold = wrong. That's for sure.

As far as colours for house wiring, that can get pretty dicey. There are "conventions" but you can always end up with something like this:

IMAGE(http://www.electrical-online.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Basic-Light-Switch-2.gif)

Yeah. The colour of the wires has nothing at all to do if the circuit is live or not. And if you don't have a circuit tester you should get one before you even think about getting near any wiring at all.

And don't leave tools lying around either when working on wiring. Kids are curious. It takes all of 2 seconds for some kid to pick up a flathead screwdriver and poke it into a live outlet.

Around here you're supposed to tape code the wire at the terminal if you're doing a 3-way. No not that kind of three way.

Ghostship wrote:

One space after a scentence. How the hell am I going to break that habit? And how the hell did nobody here ever mention that?

I asked my wife to proof a document. She called me on it. I wouldn't believe her, so I researched it. A habit which is the result of limiting technology. This is particularly galling because of what I do. Architecture schools around here shunned the use of computers for fear of it limiting design. Having learned to use CAD and 3d packages, I've been a proponent of mastering the tool to prevent it from limiting your ability, instead of condemning it for limiting the ability of those who do not master it.

It's also considered an aesthetic error among typesetters.

I have to say, I like the extra space. Change will be hard.

Did I miss any? Had to go back and delete several.

Yeah, a figured this out a few years ago. I still can't break the habit.