Fix an LCD Monitor

LCD CapacitorsThis is a story of how I was able to fix a broken and long forgotten LCD monitor. This is a cheap CTX monitor, but I’ve seen this method work on other brands of monitors and I think it is a pretty common problem.

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DIY Brewing Stand

Brewing StandThis is just a quick post about a fermentation / brewing stand I built. It’s made from materials I had laying around so it really didn’t cost anything except for a little time.

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Make Your Own Mash Paddle

Mash PaddleAfter building a mash tun and running my first batch of beer through it, I realized very quickly that trying to stir the mash with a kitchen spoon is not an easy task. There are many types of paddles available to buy online, but in the spirit of homebrew DIY and not wanting to spend much money, I decided to make my own.

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Converting a Cooler into a Mash Tun

Mash Tun Spout ThumbHere is how I converted a cooler (ice chest) into a mash tun (MLT?). For those of you new to home brewing, a mash tun is used for converting starches in the grain to sugar which later is turned into alcohol by the yeast. You mix the crushed grain (mostly barley) with warm water, hold it at a specific temperature for a while (that’s where the insulated cooler comes in) then drain the liquid (wort) out leaving the grain behind. Then you proceed to boiling the wort while adding hops and other additions (the rest of the brewing process).

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How I Unlocked My Cell Phone for Free

Cell_PhoneWhile cleaning up my computer room I ran across an old cell phone that had quit working. It got wet a few years ago on a camping trip when my tent leaked during a rain storm. I tried all the tricks like leaving it in the oven with just the pilot light to help dry it out, but even after a few weeks it still wouldn’t work so I gave up on it. Well, just for fun, I stuck the battery in and it powered right up and said “insert sim card”. I tried plugging in the sim card from my current cell, but since I’ve since changed from T-mobile to AT&T I just got a message about the phone being locked and wanted me to enter an unlock code. So, this started my journey to see if I could unlock it without spending any money.

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