Readers offer their best tips for cleaning up small items with a vacuum, getting around Android Market hangups, and more effectively proofreading your writing.
Don't like the gallery layout? Click here to view everything on one page.
About the Tips Box: Every day we receive boatloads of great reader tips in our inbox, but for various reasons—maybe they're a bit too niche, maybe we couldn't find a good way to present it, or maybe we just couldn't fit it in—the tip didn't make the front page. From the Tips Box is where we round up some of our favorites for your buffet-style consumption. Got a tip of your own to share? Add it in the comments, email it to tips at lifehacker.com, or share it on our tips and expert pages.
Use Pantyhose to Protect Your Vacuum Cleaner from Harmful Items
Patdavid shares another way to find small objects you've dropped on the floor:
I like the flashlight tip for finding small dropped objects, but what about in shag carpet?
My favorite trick is a vacuum cleaner and panty-hose. Stretch the panty hose over the vacuum cleaner suction end, vacuum for a few minutes, et voila!
Java-Princess uses this trick for protecting her vacuum from more harmful messes:
In the light of the flashlight tip for finding small object (pun intended - that's why it's awful) I'm going to share my method of picking up styrofoam particle debris from the packaging that accompanies every item that is mailed to my office - UPS I hate you!
If one doesn't have an intern to hand picking up the crumbs is extremely tiresome. If you use a vacuum cleaner the styrofoam always melts inside on something important or costly to replace, getting on your hands and knees isn't an option (I'm paid too much!) and sweeping is, well... counterproductive.
Slip an old nylon stocking over the vacuum cleaner pipe and push it up the tube with a ruler or similar. Replace the bristle assembly thing to hold the stocking in place and go to work on the styrofoam. After you're done just throw away the, by now styrofoam crumb-filled stocking (or if you're Francesca, simply empty and wear later) and bask in the radiant glow of your clean vacuum cleaner.
This trick is great for retrieving things you dropped down the drain, too.
Search the Web for Android Apps when the Market Gives You Grief
Michael reminds us of a way to grab Android apps when the Market isn't doing its job:
I was in a bind today and needed to tether my Droid, but forgot my cord. I didn't have a wireless tethering app on my phone, and the Market kept crashing when I tried to download and install it (right in my desperate time of need, of course!). After a few minutes, I remembered you don't need to install apps through the Market—so I just Googled the Wireless Tether app and realized it had its own home page, APK and all. Just make sure your phone is set to install apps from non-Market locations (it's in Settings > Applications). It may seem obvious, but when you're in a bind, you might forget it's an option.
Change the Font of Your Writing for More Effective Proofreading
Isaaclyman lets us know another way to better proofread your work:
Here's my rule for essays: Times New Roman or Arial fonts only, 12 point, and a bare minimum of styling. Simplicity is beauty.
But if you want to proofread and critique your own essay, a great way to get a new perspective on it is to change the font before you read it. Arial Narrow is a good one; Impact can be okay for shorter essays. Curly or novelty fonts can be helpful, or possibly annoying.
By switching the font, you will sidestep any blind spots you've developed for your own work, and bring stylistic inconsistencies to your attention.
Don't forget to change the font back before you turn it in.
It's somewhat similar to this tip, but quite a bit easier. Just another good way to distract yourself from the text.
List Your Evernote Notebooks in a Custom Gmail Gadget
Patrick shares a tip for heavy Evernote users in Gmail:
I am always forgetting the names of all my notebooks that I use for organizing a large number of PDFs that are emailed to me every day. To make my life easier I enable the lab feature Add any gadget by URL and have created my own gadget that is just a list of my notebooks. (It could also be a list that hyperlinks to them, but that was more than I wanted).
The code is below, and I host it on Google's own module hosting to save hassles.
<>?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<Module>
<ModulePrefs title="Evernote" height="300"/><Content type="html"><![CDATA[<div style="text-align:left"><ul><li>Notebook1</li><li>Notebook2</li><li>Notebook3</li><li>Notebook4</li><li>Notebook5</li><li>Notebook6</li><li>Notebook7</li><li>Notebook8</li><li>Notebook9</li></ul></div>]]></Content></Module>This means I can easily see the list anytime I forget which notebook a particular file should go to.
You can always host it on Dropbox too.