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Clearing Up the Confusion E-Zine Vol 03 Issue 01
------- Clearing Up the Confusion E-Zine -------
Vol 3, Issue 1
Anyone who has a toddler running around the house knows how messy
things can get. In our case, while Kaylie is a complete delight,
(http://kaylie.cyberdatasolutionsllc.com) she is certainly no
exception. It seems without fail, no matter how careful you are
putting on the bib, some stray food particles (or even large
chunks of banana) somehow find their way into her clothes. As
such it is vitally important that we have access to good laundry
facilities.
So try to imagine our chagrin when we were preparing to head down
to Texas for Christmas, the dryer started acting up. OK, it
sounded like we were drying tennis shoes and maybe a bowling ball
in there. So what were we to do? See the article below to find
out.
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In This Issue...
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1. Article: Mr. Fix-it
2. Shameless Self-Promotion
3. The Fine Print
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1. Article: Mr. Fix-it
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Let me tell you about my brother. Andy (or A.J.) is a mechanical
genius. He can fix almost anything. He remodeled his own
basement. Messing around with his car is almost second nature.
Broken appliances practically sit up and beg when he walks in the
room. I suspect that the reason he has such mad skillz is that
he got my helping of "Mr Fix-it" in addition to his own. I'm not
completely hopeless -- I do know which end of the hammer to use
to hit my thumb -- but cracking open a major appliance and
attempting to make it work *better* afterward seems like an
exercise in futility.
So, when the dryer went out, the thought of actually trying to
figure out what was wrong left me feeling kind of queasy.
Fortunately, my inherent "frugality" made me realize that I
should probably at least give it a whack. The upside would be a
repair that would cost relatively little. The downside would
mean a call to a professional. Of course, I would have to do
that anyway, so, screwdriver in hand, away I went.
After wrestling the dryer away from the wall, I spent a good
amount of time trying to take off the back panel without much
luck. I finally decided to call upon the wisdom of the 'Net for
some assistance. After a few Google searches, I discovered that,
instead of taking the nineteen screws out of the back of the
dryer (which caused the machine to begin losing structural
integrity in a bad way), I could remove the two screws in front.
I found a number of sites which had some good general points.
One or two of the parts suppliers had sections for user feedback,
some of which were reports of their experiences.
DoItYourself.com had an article or two, needless to say, but
often the authors seemed to assume that I had knowledge either of
technique or tool that I just didn't have.
Then I discovered eHow (http://ehow.com).
I've written before about EzineArticles.com, the site which
allows you to write articles for anyone to use. eHow is a
similar service, but with a specific mission to publish "How To"
tutorials. Members of the community can write articles about
whatever they know, and other members can rate or comment upon
the success they've experienced following the instructions.
I quickly found a tutorial on how to change the blower wheel on a
Maytag washer (one of the most common problems with the Maytag,
apparently). I followed the clearly delineated steps (with
pictures!) and in an hour I had a dryer that was more silent than
I remember it being in a long time. All that for about $30 (the
cost of the replacement part).
eHow has articles on how to fix appliances, to set up
electronics, and to save your relationship. I even found an
article on how to make your own bourbon -- not that I plan on
making any, of course, but it was an interesting read. The
quality of the articles does vary with the author, but the
ratings system tends to help the cream float to the top.
If you should find yourself with a small home project to get
done and you think you might like to give it a try yourself
before calling in the pros, you might want to give eHow a look.
Whether or not you actually tackle the task, you might at least
get a feel for the trouble involved. If nothing else, it will
allow you to make a more informed decision on whether you want to
call in a professional.
If you do use eHow to help you accomplish some project around the
house, I would love to hear about it. Drop me a line at:
gpeters@cyberdatasolutionsllc.com.
Copyright 2009, Greg Peters
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2. Shameless Self-Promotion
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The "Clearing Up the Confusion" E-Zine is a production of Greg
Peters, owner, chief cook, and bottlewasher of Cyber Data
Solutions. CDS has been helping website designers develop better
web presence for their clients for more than a decade. Visit us
on the Web at www.cyberdatasolns.com to see how we can help your
webmaster.
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3. The Fine Print
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Clearing Up the Confusion E-zine, please email Greg Peters at:
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