Remember the days when Washington Post reporters made a difference in the world by exposing corruption at the highest levels of government and evne once brought down a president? Okay, those days appear to be gone. More recently, Ernesto Londono, made headlines sharing his "Hints from Heloise"-esque method of saving his Blackberry that fell in the toilet (gross!).

The solution: rice. Check it out for yourself.

I love these kinds of low tech tips and tricks. Here's a roundup of some of my favorites that I've bookmarked in the past and thought would be worth dredging up on a slow June Tuesday. You can bookmark these tips or print them off and put them under a strawberry magnet on your refrigerator door (Hint from Heloise-style!)

- Attention road warriors: Have you ever overslept through that wimpy excuse of an alarm clock on your cell phone? Here's a great way to give some gravitas to the little guy for next time. Leave your cell in a wine glass on your bedside table. The wine glass will amplify the ring and, believe me, you won't sleep through it.

- What do with those skinny Dell mousepads that come with the computer. What? You'd rather hang on to that dogs playing poker mousepad (me to!). But don't throw away the freebe mousepad. Put it in the breakroom. They make great jar openers.

- Don't let your laptop get overheated. Here's a four dollar solution to keep your most important tool cool all summer. Give it some air circulation sitting atop a baker's rack.

- There's cleaning your keyboard (blasting it with an air cannon or running a credit card through the cracks to bring up the dust bunnies) and then there's spring cleaning your keyboard. That involves actually removing the keys and then blasting away with the air cannon. If you eat at your computer, like the other 99% of the world's work force, you probably need to do this from time to time. For that reason, take a quick snap of your keyboard and print off the picture first. Hang on to that picture for future reference. Otherwise, you'll be crying when it comes time to put the keys back and can't remember where they all go.

- Today's plastic CD holder is tomorrow's bagel sandwich keeper. Brilliant! Not sure about the toxicity of the plastic. Best advised for folks who've already done thier reproducing.

Admit it, you love stuff like this too!