Oct 9th, 2008
The Internet: Repair and Do it Yourself Manual for Everything
If you’re not afraid of getting your hands dirty, you can figure out how to fix almost anything with help from the Internet. Sure, the library is a great source of repair and do it yourself project books, but you don’t even have to leave your notebook computer to figure out how to work on various things.
For instance, one of my friends couldn’t figure out what was going on with her Sony Vaio mini tower–and in fact, couldn’t figure out how to open the case (don’t laugh, it was really hard to figure out)! With a bit of search work on Google and Yahoo!, I was able to locate the service manual for her machine and get into it (unfortunately, it turned out her motherboard was dead–but at least I could get her hard drive into a suitable case for backup purposes).
Need to know a bit more about unclogging a toilet? Or dealing with a stuck drain? Want to figure out how to change radiator fluid? Patch a hole in the wall? How about how to mount a camera to bicycle handlebars? Or what to do if a ribbon cable connector on a notebook motherboard fails? All of these are examples of things I needed to figure out how to do, and found great information on these repairs and do it yourself jobs on the Internet. You can even learn things far more esoteric, like how to install Mac OS X on a generic made-for-Windows-and-maybe-Linux box or how to use your cell phone for close to cable modem broadband speeds for your entire home network.
Sites like eHow and Instructables are great resources for those who like to repair, maintain, or get creative with making things. You can also try Lifehacker for some great ideas on Geeking out your life. But Google is your best friend here; there’s lots to learn just by using that search engine and finding out what other people have done when in your situation.
While not everyone likes to get their hands dirty, you can spend less, learn more, and get lots of satisfaction by doing repairs and hacks yourself, and all the knowledge you need is out there, somewhere, on the World Wide Web.
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