From The Tips Box: 7-Zip Icons, Long Conversations, Wet Weather

Readers offer their best tips for fixing 7-Zips ugly interface, getting out of conversations with long-winded people, and dealing with wet play equipment.

Every day we receive boatloads of great reader tips. From the Tips Box is where we round up some of our favourites. Got a tip of your own to share? Add it in the comments or send it using the contact tab on the right.

The 7-Zip Theme Manager Replaces 7-Zips Hideous Icons with Something Prettier

Trong shows us a helpful tool in fixing the ugly interface of our favourite archive manager for Windows:

I didn’t like the interface when I first used 7-Zip. Years later, I found the 7-Zip Theme Manager and life has changed!

This tool is pretty awesome. It has a ton of built-in themes for both 7-Zip’s interface and its Windows Explorer icons for Zip, Cab, 7z and other archive files.

Use an Alarm to Get Out of Long, Boring Conversations

Photo by Digitpedia Com.

BritishAcademic shares an evil office trick:

I’ve discovered a nifty, if slightly evil trick for getting out of conversations with people.

I don’t know about you lot, but at my work there’s a couple of people I occasionally need to talk to, who have a tendency to ramble on about all the problems in their lives. Maybe I should care, but I don’t.

So what I do is set my watch on a countdown timer for a small number of minutes, and enter the fray. If I get a quick answer, great, problem solved. But if they go on and on about stuff, eventually the watch beeps and I’ve got the perfect excuse to grab a quick answer for my question and leave. (Note, I’m a science guy, so there’s always a sample I can blame. Other workplaces may need different excuses.)

The one downside to this though is that you really need to establish the beeping as something you use. (And luckily it makes a good GTD tool.) But I wouldn’t recommend doing it every time you talk to one particular person, or they’re going to figure it out.

You could even set the alarm to match your ringtone and say you have an important call. Slightly evil? Most certainly. But at the same time, it does seem less rude than saying “You know what? You talk to much. Please shut up and answer my question.” Though I’m sure there’s another better way to go about this.

Bring Towels to the Playground to Clean Up After Rain

Photo by Esther Gibbons.

Lars shares a quick tip for parents dealing with the wet weather:

In the Northeast we’re just getting to playground weather for the kids. Sometimes there is condensation or left over rain water on the equipment (especially the slides), so I always make sure to bring a big towel with me so I can dry everything off before the kids start playing. I just leave a few in the trunk of the car now so I never forget.