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Over the past few weeks my 4Runner will occasionally behave weirdly when pressing on its gas pedal. First When it happens, it is usually when at a standstill and then pressing the gas pedal to move forward doesn’t do anything, not even rev the engine up. The vehicle just idles forward, which is very dangerous if you are in an intersection and can’t move anywhere! (Note that the 4Runner starts and idles just fine.) This can be due to two possible problems. Either the Vehicle Stability Control (VSC) system needs to be recalibrated (described in this post), or the throttle body is dirty and is sticking shut (I will add a post soon about how to clean it). Continue reading
Rather than go to a mechanic to get oil changes for my cars, I always do it myself. It is faster, cheaper, and I can ensure that I get better quality oil this way. Since I just changed my 2001 Toyota 4Runner’s oil last week, I figured I might as well take some pictures and blog about it here since there can be some tricky things with changing the 4Runner’s oil. In fact, the first time I changed the 4Runner’s oil after I bought it I almost resolved to never again do the 4Runner’s oil change myself – simply because I could not get access to the oil filter! Well, now I know better and can give some tips here about doing it yourself. After doing it a few times, you will be very quick at it (this takes me about 20 minutes now), and you don’t have to wait around at your local lube shop! 
My wife’s new Pantech Jest cell phone won’t charge its battery. This has been a recurring problem with new batteries we get for it, too: inevitably it always ends up refusing to charge the battery. If you plug the phone in to charge then the phone will turn on and power up, but it will not give any indication of charging. Then no matter how long it is plugged in, the moment the phone gets unplugged it instantly turns off. The first time this happened our wireless provider replaced the phone, but the new phone exhibited the exact same behavior right out of the box. This meant that the battery was at fault, not the phone, so then our wireless provider replaced the battery which did fix the problem. However, a few weeks later the exact same thing happened. So they gave us another replacement battery (which fixed the problem again). But now this week the same problem has happened a third time. Fortunately there is a solution. 
Normally you don’t need to bleed the brakes after simply replacing the brake pads or shoes. The exception is if while changing the brakes somehow you let air into the brake lines (like if the brake hose detaches from the brake assembly) – in that case you would need to bleed them. Many people also suggest that you should periodically (once every few years) bleed your brakes to help get new, clean fluid into the system. 
When I took a power electronics course at MIT (
How do you install insulation in your attic? It is actually quite easy – and it will keep your home more comfortable all year round and will save you a lot of money. Last year’s winter here in New England was much colder than normal – enough to tack on an additional $1,000 to our heating bill. So I decided it was finally time to bite the bullet and add some more insulation to our attic. For my house, I figure it should pay for itself after two years (or sooner if we have terrible winters or summers ahead). There are a few things to consider when installing your own attic insulation. 
It is nice to be able to track various statistics for your website using Google Analytics. It really helps you understand what pages web traffic tend to visit, how they get there, etc. Another nicety is to track social media responses (e.g., Facebook like button clicks) to your pages. You technically can track Facebook like button clicks using the the Facebook Insights tool (
I recently went on a 1-week business trip followed by a 2-week vacation with my wife and kids. During the three weeks that we were away, some honey bees decided my home would be a good place to set up shop. I knew there was a problem because there were several hundred dead honey bees in my basement directly underneath the only window down there. They were coming in from a hive they had made in the floorboards in an extension from the house. Search Blog
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