Friday 26 March 2010

So Now I Know

Why one should never put anything warm into a refrigerator.  I’ve known that for a long time but I didn’t know why.  Yesterday I was reading an Annabel Langbein cookbook which had a sidenote explaining why.  Apparently if you attempt to refrigerate before cooling the mixture will chill on the outside but not the centre and bacteria build-up is possible.

Why one should take the battery out of a laptop if it is to be kept plugged into the mains.  My laptop battery is failing after less than two years and, when trying to find a replacement, I came across the advice that I should never leave the battery in the laptop when using it, in effect, as a desktop.  The battery should be charged over 50% and taken out and stored in a cool dry place.  It should be used/recharged about every 4 weeks because a battery left on its own still consumes some of its own power.  So now (if I ever manage to find a replacement battery for my Mesh/MSI laptop) I shall obey those instructions and hope for a longer life for the next battery.

Why Opera is a great web browser.  I have been using Opera for about a month.  I also use Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari and Windows Explorer 8.  Generally I use Firefox for blogs.  The reason I use different browsers is that when I have different accounts open I can use a separate browser for each account.  However I discovered that Opera has a mail utility as part of the browser.  I would venture to suggest that it is far superior to Outlook Express (which is no longer available with Windows 7), Mozilla Thunderbird and Windows Live Mail.  And I mean superior by a huge margin.  Particularly if you have multiple mail accounts you access on POP then I think it is worth a look.

4 comments:

  1. WOW - I didn't know about bacteria forming, but for some reason, we've always let food rest and cool before putting it into the refrigerator - unless it was just small amounts. Isn't it funny...I'm like that, somehow knowing there's a reason why I do things but not knowing the why of it. hahaha

    I did not know about the battery thing needing to be taken out! I thought that if one used their laptop without plugging it in, allowed the battery to get low and then recharge, that was a good practice for it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've been having battery problems with my laptop for months. Since the desktop one crashed the laptop has been plugged in most of the time. Oh well. Guess I'll have to read the instructions carefully when I do get a new one.

    With the refrigerator... what I always heard was that you should not put warm things in it because that will temporarily raise the temperature in the refrigerator, which will affect other things you keep in there as well (causing growth of bacteria etc not only in the new dish but in other things already in there)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes Heather you are absolutely correct about the battery being allowed to get low and then recharge (although that can only be done for a certain number of times anyway). That used to be the case with all batteries because of 'battery memory'. But I though most batteries now had got over that problem. It's such a hassle too with a laptop's short battery charge capacity (my laptop's was only about 90 minutes when new). What I didn't know was that leaving it plugged in all the time destroyed it. I suppose what it comes down to is that batteries just don't last for ever. We live and learn. I suppose!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I had heard the same reason as Monica for not putting warm things in the fridge so that's two reason for not doing it. (Three if you add the extra electricity needed to boost the temperature back down again.)

    ReplyDelete