Hate smudges on your gadgets? Scratch it up with a scouring pad!?

Over the last few years, most all notebooks and other gadgets have started coming with glossy finishes that look nice when clean, but never stay that way. A glossy netbook will be covered with smears and smudges for its entire life unless you constantly clean the thing. If you hate smudges on glossy gadgets, Lifehacker has a fix for you that involves a scouring pad and scratching the gadget up.

You take your shiny, smear prone gadget, and sand the surface using one of the scouring pads that would clean your kitchen. Lifehacker recommends using a 3M Scotch Brite pad or ultrafine steel wool.

For the sample Lifehacker used the green Scotch Brite pad and tuned a glossy Eee into a matte finish netbook that looks somewhat like brushed stainless steel. The fingerprints and smudges will then be much less visible after you scratch the thing up. This is a bit at odds with the fact that I normally try to keep scratches off my gear, not add them purposefully.