Readers offer their best tips for keeping your desktop clean, collecting small screws during DIY projects, and household objects that works as shoehorns.
About the Tips Box: Every day we receive boatloads of great reader tips in our inbox, but for various reasons—maybe they’re a bit too niche, maybe we couldn’t find a good way to present it, or maybe we just couldn’t fit it in—the tip didn’t make the front page. From the Tips Box is where we round up some of our favourites for your buffet-style consumption. Got a tip of your own to share? Add it in the comments or email it to tips at lifehacker.com.au.
Unlock Twitter 2.1’s Secret Features With Terminal Commands
We’ve shared one of Twitter 2.1’s new secrets, but reader ejg930 reminds us that MacHeist users get a full menu of those secrets, which means we know what to look for in the Terminal:
To enable a black-and-white “Classic Mode”, run:
defaults write com.twitter.twitter-mac Chicago -bool true
To enable a pull-down-to-refresh feature like in the iOS version, run:
defaults write com.twitter.twitter-mac ForceEnableScrollBouncing -bool true
Keep Your Mac’s Desktop Clean by Preventing Desktop Icons
Filkie shows us how to keep your desktop from turning into a sea of miscellaneous icons:
I’ve always tried to keep the desktop on my Mac looking good, but no matter how many hours I spend in Photoshop and Geektool trying to get it to look perfect my one stumbling block has always been my habit of using it as a bit of a file dumping ground.
I have found a nice solution to this though by using one of the options in the Secrets preference pane.
The option allow icons on desktop will prevent you from placing icons on your desktop.
Use a Leather Belt as a Shoehorn
Roeurn shares a clever use for leather belts:
Tuck the non metal end of a leather belt into your shoe, deeper is better. If there is a smooth side, make sure smooth side is up. As you press your foot in, pull the belt out. Put your belt on. Done!
I’ve also used the bottom leg area of a pair jeans I was wearing, but not sure if it’s a good idea for less durable fabrics.
Use Bottle Caps to Hold and Organise Small Screws
Wffjr3782 shares yet another easy way to organize screws during DIY projects:
Use bottle caps during projects to keep track of screws.
When I’m taking apart electronic devices, i use bottle caps to keep track of the screws…I use a fine tip marker to write numbers inside the caps, and place the screws that correspond to that number step of the project inside.
If you don’t have some of the other popular items around, like an egg carton or ice tray, this is something that you probably have on hand.
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