Convert l/100km to mpg

As someone who has recently moved to Canada and purchased a Canadian car I have a real need for this formula.

My Canadian care displays the litres per 100 kilometers my car has used. What if I want to convert that to U.S. miles per gallon (mpg)?

There's a simple solution: divide 235.2 by the litres/100 km. That'll give you mpg.

For example, my new 2009 Honda Fit got 5.9l/100km from Prince Edward Island to Florida. 235.2 / 5.9 = 39.86 mpg.

As a side note, that's a real figure. My new car has excellent fuel economy.

Stop Shelling Out Money for Antivirus Software

I was a big supporter of Symantec Norton AntiVirus for many years. However, I finally reached my breaking point when I discovered not all antivirus programs had to be resource hogs. Symantec is a huge resource hog.

Anyway, I was shelling out money for something that caught viruses but didn't perform too well, all things considered. I did some research and asked friends for advice and opinions.

I recommend Avast. The Home edition is completely free and works really well. It updates frequently and uses far less resources than Symantec. You can take a look and download Avast here if you're interested.

Convert Amps to Watts

Have you ever noticed some appliances are rated in amps only and say nothing about the amount of watts they use?

I'm considering purchasing a small generator to power my pellet stove if/when my power goes out over the winter. Anyway, I needed to determine the amount of watts the pellet stove used by the specifications only stated the amps. I searched online and was pleased to discover it's a simple conversion.

Here's how to convert amps to watts:

1. Determine the voltage an electrical socket in your household uses. If you're in the United States or Canada this is going to be at or very close to 120 volts.
   
2. Determine the amount of amps the appliance uses


3. Convert to watts: volts x amps

Here's an example for my pellet stove:

1. My household utilizes 120 volts


2. My pellet stove is rated at 2.5 amps continuous duty


3. 120 volts x 2.5 amps = 300 watts

There you have it.

Determine Whether a Contact is Actually Offline or Just Hiding (Invisible) on Gmail Chat

I was surprised to discover this the other day. Usually Google is pretty good about not leaving a backdoor like this open.

I'm going to assume you use (or have at least tried) Gmail and used the Gmail Chat functionality. If not, go check out Gmail.

In Gmail Chat you have the ability to set your status to Invisible. This will prevent others from being able to tell you are signed in to Gmail Chat. The advantage is that it allows you to speak with others without getting bombarded by multiple people on those busy days.

So, if one of your contacts is Invisible s/he can see you but you can't see him/her, right? Sort of. While you can't see your Invisible contacts you can determine whether they are simply hiding on Chat.

Here's how to determine if a contact is Invisible:

1. Hover over the contact's name and click Chat


2. Send a message to your contact


3. Did you receive a system message back from Google?


• If you do receive the message [Name] did not receive your chat your contact is truly not signed in to Gmail Chat


• If you do not receive a message your contact is signed in to Gmail Chat but is hiding as Invisible

This handy little trick still works as of today; however, I expect Google will release a patch for the backdoor in the near future.

Make Sure Your Dishwasher is Using Only Hot Water

I learned something from the guy who installed my dishwasher that I'd never heard (or thought of) before: dishwashers don't wait for water temperature.

When you start your dishwasher it'll just using water from your pipes. It'll take a while for your water to heat up so your dishwasher will end up using a bunch of cold water at first.

You can help assist your dishwasher by making sure it only uses hot water. This will make it more efficient at cleaning your dishes. Here's how:

1. Get your dishwasher all ready to go


2. Turn your kitchen faucet on and wait for the water to get hot


3. Once the water is hot turn off your faucet and start your dishwasher immediately

That's it! Now you can be sure your dishwasher is performing at its best.

Connect Your Computer to Your TV Using VGA

I'm a computer geek. I really don't know much at all about TVs and other devices, which is why I was too intimidated to attempt to figure out how to connect my computer to my TV for years...until last night.

I just bought a brand new TV. I got the Toshiba 32" LCD HDTV (model number 32AV500U). Anyway, I really wanted to play a video on my computer and have it display on my TV. I did some quick research on the Internet and discovered that VGA produced better quality than S-Video. Then, I went to The Source, a subsidiary of Circuit City, in Charlottetown.

I successfully connected my computer to my TV and ported over video and audio!

Here's the information about my hardware:

• Computer: Dell Latitude D531 laptop


• TV: Toshiba 32" LCD HDTV (model # 32AV500U)

Here's what you'll need:

1. Video: VGA cable


• I used a Nexxtech 6' VGA Monitor Cable:
  
  


2. Audio: Audio cable with stereo plug at each end


• I used Nexxtech Gold-Plated Audio Cable:
  
  

Here's what you'll need to do:

1. VGA cable: connect one end of the VGA cable to your monitor output on the back of your computer and the other to the VGA input on your TV (mine is labeled RGB and says PC Input).


2. Audio cable: connect one end of the audio cable to your speaker/headphones input on your computer and the other to your audio output on your TV (mine is in the section labeled PC Input).


3. TV: switch the input on your TV (I did this by pressing the Input button my remote until "PC" was selected).


4. Computer: now comes the tricky part. You have to figure out how to tell your computer to send your video to the external source. Look on your keypad for a button labeled CRT/LCD. (On my laptop this is the F8 button and I switch the video output by holding the Function (Fn) button and pressing F8.) Make sure your volume is up fairly high on your computer. Also, be sure to disable your screen saver. It's really obnoxious to be watching the video on your TV and have the screen go blank.

Well, there you have it. Don't be intimidated by technology. You can do it! I only wish I would have figured this out years ago.

I'm always interested to find out better ways to do things so please offer your feedback and suggestions. Is there an even better way to port video and audio from a computer to a TV?