Author Archives: dontai

Presto Pressure Cooker Gasket 09936

Old it is, but made of metal and therefore still serviceable. Our Presto 6 quart pressure cooker model 126002 is over 20 years old and works well for cutting cooking time down for tough cuts of meat. We needed a new gasket, or what they call a “sealing ring”. Tried as I might, no stores in Toronto, Canada carry it that I could find, so I had to order online at…Home Hardware, a store I rarely even consider.

Presto pressure cooker, model 126002, still good after 20+ years. Photo by Don Tai

Presto pressure cooker, model 126002, still good after 20+ years. Photo by Don Tai

SeoOptimizedRankings SEORankingLinks Spam: How to Ban it

Pain in the butt, no doubt, is this spammer. He’s been spamming my blog for the last 6 months and whatever I did in my ban manager, it would not ban. I got mad enough to track him down, figure out how he does it, and hopefully ban him. Take a look at the audit trail he left me in my WordPress Akismet anti-spam filter. I am very thankful that Akismet stopped him from wrecking my blog, and I’ll be more careful and vigilant from now on.

seo plugin
SeoOptimizedRankings.com
ekmyds@gmail.com
107.172.198.171

SEORankingLinks.com
awssjhevf@gmail.com
107.172.206.7

SEORankingLinks.com
eyaqiuylmr@gmail.com
107.172.219.82

Huawei Ascend G520-0000: USB Debugging greyed out

Tried as I might, USB developer options were greyed out on this domestic China smartphone. I searched everywhere on the interwebs and found nothing. Here is my solution.

Plugged usb out, developer options still greyed out. About phone, tapped build number 7 times, developer options still greyed out, nothing.

Then I searched generically for a clue, and found a StackOverflow post at the very end, by sevensevens.

FYI My Motorola Xyboard had an “Off” icon at the top of developer options. Once I tapped that it worked.

answered Dec 24 ’13 at 19:40
sevensevens

How to Get a Visa for China: Toronto

Unforseen circumstances forced us to get a Chinese visa in a rush, here in Toronto. The experience left us a bit shell shocked, bewildered and traumatized. So that others do not experience the same, I’ll blog our travails.

Google “China visa Toronto” and you’ll get a couple of companies that claim they can do your Chinese visa. They are correct, but might charge you over double the cost. There is really only one way to get a visa for China, through VisaForChina.org and if you have sufficient lead time and follow certain steps you can reduce the amount of trauma you experience.

Opening a Cardinal Watch Case that has no Notch or Raised lip

Cardinal watches has been around for quite a long time. I came across a women’s Cardinal watch, but the watch battery was dead. Frustratingly, the rear bezel has no notch, raised lip or pry area, so opening it in order to replace the battery was difficult. Who would make a watch back like this, that would make changing the battery difficult and dangerous?

The Evil that is the Saddle Valve: Remove at Once

As I was putting away something in my freezer I heard a new sound of water running from my fridge. For 14 years this fridge has not made any ice and as far as I knew it could not make ice or cold water. A quick look inside showed me that the water was my ice maker, slowly filling up the bucket we had in the freezer. What to do?

A saddle valve is a clamp that pierces a copper pipe in order to provide water to fridges and humidifiers. They are prone to corrosion and leakage, which is what happened to mine.

A saddle valve is a clamp that pierces a copper pipe in order to provide water to fridges and humidifiers. They are prone to corrosion and leakage, which is what happened to mine.

Brining and then Grilling Pork Loin Chops

The local Chinese grocery store had a sale on pork chops. Since we have never been big meat eaters, it was with some trepidation that I bought some to try, then went home to research the best way to cook it. Little did I know that there are different types of pork chop, and not all are equal. We also did not have them cut it into slices, so I brought home a somewhat square cut of meat. The result was pretty delicious but way too much meat for our family.