Alternative Mouse Mat

If you have trouble with your mouse pad and hassle with your mouse....
Then buy a A4 excercise pad and use that as your mouse pad. It really works well and when it gets dirty you can just tear off another strip.
Its also handy to always have a pad to jot things down on.

Never buy another light bulb

This is a very basic idea for those who know about electronics, but how about never changing a light bulb ever again? (or at least for the next ten years).

I have been saved the hassle of replacing some light bulbs in my house by simply wiring a pair of bulbs in series (daisy chain). This increases their life by an enormous amount and since first doing this in 1991 I have still not needed to replace the bulbs. They should easily make ten years. I am not doing this for cost, but just because of the hassle of changing them, falling off chairs etc.

I first tried this on one of those old electric fires with a glow effect as the bulbs seemed to blow every few weeks. I simply wired them in series and up-rated the wattage from 60 to 100W each as they will obviously glow at half brightness wired in series as only have 120 volts across each bulb. You must use identical wattage for each bulb and preferably the same make as well.

Its a bit more difficult to arrange this with normal ceiling lamps and as it needs another bulb holder and the shade may not be big enough for them both, but its worth trying as you will be saved the hassle of changing the things every month or so (and if you are like me, falling off a chair while changing them).

Its also possible with those chanderliers that have three bulbs but you will reduce the brightness by a third and might find it difficult to get higher wattage bulbs if they are those smaller fluted types of bulbs used with chanderliers. However, you may not find the reduction in brightness a problem.

Yes I know those low energy fluoesent bulbs last a long time (I think) but I don't like the colour of the light and flicker and do not use them for this reason.

One final point: When they do eventually blow they will obviously both go out and you won't know which one has blown without testing it individually. But after 10-15 years of running I guess it would be wise to replace them both.