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Dear Lifehacker,
I dumped a glass of iced tea all over my laptop. Is it completely hosed, or can I save my computer from becoming a paperweight?

Signed,
Tearfully Teed Off

Photo by ryaninc.

Dear Tearfully,
Oh, no! First of all, stop what you’re doing and immediately power down your laptop if it’s still on. Next, remove the battery and stick it in a bag of rice (or just set it somewhere warm and dry), then turn over the laptop and drain out as much of the tea as possible.

Here’s where you’ll need to be patient. Depending on how much liquid seeped in, your computer will likely need several days to thoroughly dry out—though you can speed up the process by waving a hair dryer over it until your arms are ready to fall off. You might try leaving it over a heat vent and let warm air blow over it for a while, but use caution, because some vents can get mighty warm up close.

There’s generally no need to completely disassemble the laptop because they’re designed with an eye toward ventilation. Make sure to keep the its lid open as it dries out, though, so air can circulate around the keyboard.

Some web sites recommend blowing compressed air into your laptop or dousing it with a solution of distilled water and rubbing alcohol. You’re normally going to be better off, though, just letting time do it’s thing and giving your computer a chance to dry out on its own.

After three to five days—depending on how much liquid was spilled—put the battery back in, fire up the laptop, and see what happens. Odds are, your computer will work just fine but if it doesn’t, check into whether your existing warranty, homeowners, or rental insurance covers accidental damage. Your laptop might not be covered, but it never hurts to check.

For even more advice on how to salvage a soaked laptop, check out what some of the folks at Ask MetaFilter have tried, or watch this video for tips.

Love,
Lifehacker

Forgetting to pay a bill isn’t a sign you’re a slacker—you may just have too much on your plate to remember the due date of every single payment you have. Try batching your bills to get them paid on time.

Photo by Abhi.

Personal improvement blogger Chett says even though he had the cash to pay his bills, sitting down every few days to pay bills with due dates spread out across the month was a major pain in the neck. One day, he had an epiphany and came up with a simple solution: Move all your bill due dates to the same time of the month.

We called each one of the companies that we make payments to, i.e. utility companies, phone companies, mortgage, insurance, etc. and ask that the payment dates be changed to dates between the 21st and 26th of each month. Every company was willing to accommodate our request. In the future we will sit down to pay bills once each month. When we finish we will immediately know what residual income is left over and can make plans accordingly. This process should also make debt reduction easier as you can immediately see how much extra you can apply to your smallest payoff to eliminate that debt.

Chett’s idea is perfect for people who, despite the best of intentions, struggle to find time to get bills paid on time. If our past tips on paying your bills on autopilot or automating your finances didn’t cut it for you, give this option a try.

How do you stay on top of your bill-paying schedule? Share your tips in the comments.

Even if you’ve got medical insurance, a bill with your name on it can still end up in your mailbox after a visit to the doctor. Stacy Johnson, author of the book Life or Debt, shares how to lessen your out-of-pocket cost.

Photo by Brittany G

Doctors, like many businesses around the country, depend on your patronage to keep their practices alive, and quite often they’re willing to work with you on the cost of procedures, tests, and services they offer. Johnson has this to say on the matter:

If your health insurance provider agrees to pay 80% of covered procedures, that generally means they’ll pay 80% of what they think is reasonable for that procedure, not 80% of whatever it costs. So find out what your insurance company is willing to pay and if your doctor can do it for that amount.

Asking a doctor to meet or lower the price to closer to what your insurance will cover, although bold, is a good way to cut corners on your medical bill. Chances are you can’t haggle your way into a free set of X-rays, but you still have some freedom to ask for a lower price. Even if they turn you down on the discount, it’s still worth your time to ask next time you find yourself in the ever-dashing backless gown.

Let’s hope you never have to get spray paint off your car, but on the off chance that you do—perhaps after somebody had a little too much fun on Devil’s Night—this guide will help.

Photo by Rick.

If you find your car covered in spray paint, it’s not a particularly envious position to be in. If you discover it early in the morning when the dew is still on the car and the paint is damp, you might just have a chance at getting it off without having to take the car into an auto body shop.

Over at the ever-handy guide site wikiHow, they start the removal instructions with the easy fixes and move into the big guns. The most obvious and easy to apply technique is lots and lots of hot soapy water—as mentioned above, if the paint is still damp from the dew, you’re in luck. If soapy water doesn’t do the trick? You can move up to using Mequiar’s Clay, a clay used by body shops and car detailers to pull things off the paint of a car while leaving the paint behind. Worst case scenario, you’ll need to start trying out solvents like acetone.

Before you find yourself out on the street swearing and huffing solvents, however, check your insurance. If you have full coverage, you should be reimbursed in the event of vandalism. Check out the full guide for tips, tricks, and additional methods. Have a story or two about saving your car from the midnight antics of local street scum? Let’s hear about it in the comments.

Accidents happen to even the most cautious drivers. If you find yourself in one, AccidentSketch is a simple web-based tool that can help you draw up a picture and generate a report to give to your insurance company.

AccidentSketch uses a simple template system. Cars, road segments, signs, pedestrians, and more all snap to the grid and in the case of small objects like signs can be moved from there. You can change the colors of things, zoom in and out to get as close or wide as you need, and even assign information to parties involved like the license plate numbers of the cars in the accident.

Once you create a diagram you can also generate a text-based report to fill in details that can’t be easily conveyed by the picture. When you’re done you’ve got a tidy accident sketch and report to submit to the interested parties. The service is free and requires no registration.

Have a handy tool and tidbit for dealing with insurance companies and life after a fender-bender? Let’s hear about it in the comments.

Depending on where you live and how clean your driving record is, getting car insurance can burn a sizeable hole in your pocketbook. To help reduce the cost, try doubling (or tripling) up on other policies.

Photo by Robbie Howell.

Financial weblog Wise Bread contends that drivers can save between 10 to 20 percent on their insurance by combining a car insurance policy with, say, a renter’s or homeowner’s policy from the same company. Some companies will even offer the discount for each policy.

It goes without saying that you should only apply this tip if the second (or third) policy is one you need. The post also mentions—like we previously have—that you should always ask for discounts, since they’re generally not automatically applied. Last, shopping around never hurts.

Check out the post for more ways to save on auto insurance, then chime in with your own car money savers in the comments.

Like driver’s license copies and health insurance sign-ups, 401k plans are something most employees sign off on their first day and never look back at. Webapp Brightscope aims to give workers fare more information about how their plan is doing.

The independent site provides a number ranking for companies it can compile data on, taking fees, employer contribution matching, employee participation, and other factors into account. The site doesn’t give a whole lot out about how their rankings are achieved, but it does provide a clean interface to scan all the data you’d like about average account balances, who’s managing the plan, and other data. You can contribute your own findings and comments on a company (anonymously, if you’d like), and see how other companies in the industry match up with their own 401k plans.

It’s not the most fun data in the world to look over, especially given the market conditions, but BrightScope just might inspire you to look at how much you’re putting in, and getting back, from your paycheck withholding. Free to use, sign-ups required for some features.

Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

Our colleague, Sam Abuelsamid, at Autoblog has pointed out the release of a roadside assistance app from automaker MINI. The app, MINI Roadside Assistance [iTunes link], is a collaboration between the automaker and insurance company Allstate and allows one to access roadside assistance as well as the specify its cause

So, say you’re driving your MINI to Las Vegas for your buddy’s bachelor party. During the drive, your car overheats; it’s 120 degrees and you forgot were too lazy to check the coolant before you left, what’d you expect to happen? Well, no need to worry — roadside assistance is just a few taps away with MINI Roadside Assistance.

MINI Roadside Assistance is available as a free download. MINI Cooper not included. More info and a demo video are available at Sam’s article.

TUAWMINI Roadside Assistance can get you and your MINI out of trouble spots originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 20 Aug 2009 23:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There is a whole host of information in our lives that is important—bank accounts, tax records, credit card information—but not usually easily organized together. The Big Book of Everything helps keep important information organized and in one place.

The Big Book of Everything is a workbook created as a free and compact alternative to the massive and expensive It’s All Right Here, a life organizer created by Mark Gavagan.

While The Big Book of Everything weighs in at nearly a tenth the size of It’s All Right Here, it covers the basics quite nicely. Printed off and stored in a folder or binder it makes it easy to organize important personal information for your own use or the use of your next of kin in the event of your death. There are pages for passwords, bank accounts, insurance policy information, tax records, and more. If you fill out a few pages a night you’ll have the entire thing filled out before the end of the month.

The Big Book of Everything is available as a PDF and an Excel spreadsheet.