My other favourite board started this thread, and I kinda liked it.
Do you have any techniques that are worthy of the above?
My favourites:
On some elevators, if you keep the button pressed to the floor you want to go to, you get an EXPRESS elevator to that floor. (It won’t stop)
On Meridian Company phones, the ADMIN menu is **ADMIN on the keypad. The password is ADMIN
The backdoor is **CONFIG. The password (Can’t be changed) is CONFIG
I don’t think this really applies, but someone called me McGuyver once for suggesting this to them.
If you’re in need of a heat pack - get a large sock (preferably the potato sack looking kind that men wear) fill it with “non instant” rice, tie a knot in the top and microwave for up to 2.5 minutes.
Voila - Free Moist Heat
Don’t know if this fits the parameters but if you hit shift 5 times on the keyboard you turn on sticky keys.
I’ve posted this before and it was a real hit, so I’ll post it again. The best part about it is its counterintuitiveness.
If you’re talking on a payphone in a noisy bar or on a busy street, don’t cover your other ear with your free hand – cover the MOUTHPIECE. You’ll hear the other party clear as a bell.
How does it work? The mouthpiece mic is purposely designed to send a sound signal into your earpiece – it’s called talkback (or backtalk) – so you can hear what you sound like to the other party. But it also funnels ambient noise right into your ear. Cover up the mouthpiece and all you’ll hear is the other party.
This is a sort of survey, so I’ll move this thread to IMHO.
stuyguy, that makes so much sense. I can’t believe I’ve never thought of that before. Thanks!
How well will it work with mobile phones though? I know they work on the same principle.
I used to dazzle friends with this one:
You need a phone with an actual hang up mechanism (as opposed to the newer phones that have an “off” button). You can dial a number by tapping out the number on the (can’t think of a word for it…) hang up mechanism. So if the number starts with 228, you hit it twice, pause, hit it twice, pause, hit it eight times. Do this with the rest of the number; zero is ten. It was used to bypass keypad locks which i’ve never seen anyway.
as a techie this one has proven useful.
A lot of people when setting up XP don’t bother configuring the Administrator account/password. Windows always creates one - even if you don’t tell it to - but it won’t necessarily appear on the login screen (so you don’t realise it exists, but at least no-one can see it and use it to log in)
BUT…
if you restart the computer in “Safe Mode” it appears and anyone can use it because it won’t have a password…
Pulse dialing returns! I went and tried it after I read your post. I dialed my phone number that way, but it took a while to get it down.
(not as silly as it sounds: if I heard anything other than a busy signal I knew I did it incorrectly)
If your car is behaving as though it has a bad starter (won’t crank, but battery is OK), get a broomstick and reach down into the engine compartment and bang on the starter housing. Then try it again, and it will usually fire up.
-Andrew L
Since my fiancee is his biggest fan (she’s been called Patty and/or Selma multiple times) I feel compelled to say: it’s MacGyver, darn it! 