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Toolfiddle Blog

Guides for the tools you actually use

Every post here sits next to a tool we built. If the tool answers the question in a second, the post explains the thing behind it: the rule, the trade-off, and where people get caught out.

Strength Sports

IPF GL Points Explained: The Formula the IPF Scores You On

GL points decide Best Lifter at every IPF-affiliated meet, and the formula behaves nothing like Wilks or DOTS at the edges of the bodyweight range. Here is what the numbers do and why two federations can rank the same pair of lifters in opposite orders.

·15 min read
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Latest posts

One guide per tool so far. More from each cluster is on the way.

Aquariums and Fishkeeping

Aquarium Filter GPH and Turnover: What You Actually Need

Rated GPH is measured on an empty box with no media and no lift. Here is how to translate the number on the packaging into filtration your tank will actually get, tank size by tank size.

·16 min
Trucking and Hours of Service

The Adverse Driving Conditions Exception: Two Extra Hours, and the Test You Have to Pass

Two extra hours sounds simple until an officer asks why you thought the snow was unforeseeable. This walks through the knowledge test, the ELD annotation, a full worked timeline, and the misuses that get drivers cited.

·17 min
Baking

Convert a Yeast Recipe to Sourdough: Arithmetic and Timing

Swapping a packet of instant yeast for a lump of starter is the easy half. The half that decides whether your loaf works is subtracting the starter's own flour and water, and rewriting a 90-minute rise into a six-hour one.

·17 min
RV and Towing

How to Weigh Your RV at a CAT Scale and Actually Understand the Ticket

A truck stop scale will hand you four numbers in eight minutes. Here is exactly how to get on it, how many passes you need, and what each line on the ticket means for a trailer, a fifth wheel or a motorhome.

·17 min
Passport and ID Photos

How to Take a Baby Passport Photo at Home Without Stress

Newborn and infant passport photos follow looser rules than adult ones, but only in specific ways. Here is the shot setup, the age bands, the hand problem, and the sizing arithmetic that decides whether it passes.

·17 min
Islamic Inheritance and Faraid

Adopted Children, Step-Children and Inheritance in Islam

An adopted or step-child is not an automatic heir under Islamic inheritance rules. That is a statement about lineage rather than about family, and there are four established mechanisms that do provide for them.

·16 min
Invoicing and Getting Paid

Adding VAT or GST to a Freelance Invoice Without Getting It Wrong

Charging the wrong tax is worse than charging none. Here are the fields a UK VAT invoice and an Indian GST tax invoice must carry, why place of supply decides your tax split, and where US freelancers actually stand.

·18 min
Web Development and Icons

apple-touch-icon: The Size, the Safe Area, and What iOS Does

One 180 by 180 PNG at your site root covers modern iOS. The interesting part is what iOS does to it afterwards: composites transparency onto black, applies its own corner mask, and caches the result harder than anything else on the device.

·14 min
Photo Metadata and Privacy

Do Screenshots Have Metadata? What Phones and Laptops Record

A screenshot carries no GPS and no camera settings, which makes it feel safe. The timestamps, the filename, the pixel dimensions and the visible pixels themselves tell a different story.

·15 min
Strength Sports

Choosing a Powerlifting Weight Class: The Maths Nobody Runs

Before you enter a meet at 83 instead of 93, there is a calculation worth doing. It takes two minutes, it uses your own numbers, and it usually says the cut is not worth what you think it is.

·15 min
Aquariums and Fishkeeping

Aquarium Algae: Identify Which One You Have, Then Fix It

Scrubbing algae without changing what caused it is a treadmill. Here is how to identify the six common types by look and feel, what each one is telling you, and the order to pull the levers.

·17 min
Trucking and Hours of Service

The 150 Air-Mile Short-Haul Exemption: Who Qualifies and How You Lose It

Most drivers who bust the short-haul exemption do it by 20 minutes or by a misunderstanding of what an air mile is. Here are the three conditions, the conversion nobody spells out, and what happens the day you fall outside.

·15 min
Baking

Sourdough Hydration Explained: 65%, 75% and 85% in Grams

Baker's percentage is simple until the levain arrives and quietly changes your number. Here is the full calculation in grams, plus what 65%, 75% and 85% actually feel like in the hand.

·16 min
RV and Towing

Towing Capacity vs Payload: Why Your Half-Ton Can't Tow the Trailer It's Rated For

Your truck's tow rating and your truck's payload are two different ceilings, and payload is almost always the one you hit first. Here is the maths that tells you which trailer you can really pull.

·17 min
Passport and ID Photos

Passport and Visa Photo Sizes by Country: mm, Inches, Pixels

One table covering photo dimensions, head height, background colour and pixel size for seventeen countries and schemes, plus the two structural families every format belongs to and why head height fails more applications than size does.

·18 min
Islamic Inheritance and Faraid

How Much Does a Wife or Husband Inherit in Islam?

A husband takes a half or a quarter. A wife takes a quarter or an eighth, and co-wives divide one share between them. The unpaid dower and the family home complicate all of it, usually more than the fraction itself does.

·16 min
Invoicing and Getting Paid

Invoice Payment Terms Explained: Net 30 and What It Costs You

Net 30 does not mean the money arrives on day 30. Here is what each common payment term does, the arithmetic behind early-payment discounts, and the wording that removes the ambiguity clients rely on.

·17 min
Web Development and Icons

favicon.ico, PNG or SVG: What to Actually Ship in 2026

Old generators hand you 26 files and eleven link tags. You need three files and four tags. Here is what each format buys you, why .ico still belongs at the root, and where SVG quietly falls apart.

·16 min
Photo Metadata and Privacy

Do Your Photos Have Your Location? How to Check Before You Post

Most social networks throw away the GPS tags in your photos. Email, cloud links and marketplace uploads usually do not. Here is how to look inside your own files and see exactly what they are carrying.

·16 min
Strength Sports

Wilks, Wilks 2, DOTS and GL: Why Your Score Changed and Which One Counts

Your total did not move but your coefficient score did. Here is the timeline behind Wilks, Wilks 2, DOTS and IPF GL points, what each refit actually changed, and which number is worth tracking.

·15 min
Aquariums and Fishkeeping

How to Cycle a Fish Tank Properly (Fishless, With Numbers)

A fishless cycle done properly takes three to six weeks and needs exactly three things: an ammonia source, a liquid test kit, and patience. Here is the protocol with actual numbers attached.

·17 min
Trucking and Hours of Service

The 14-Hour Driving Window: What Stops It, What Doesn't, and How to Protect It

Your 14 is the least forgiving clock in Part 395 because almost nothing pauses it. Here is what actually starts it, the three exceptions that touch it, and how to plan a day backwards from an appointment.

·15 min

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