From The Tips Box: XBMC TV Shows, Condiment Bottles, Credit Card Rewards


Readers offer their best tips for correctly ordering your TV shows in XBMC, keeping explosive condiment bottles, under control, and keeping track of credit card rewards.

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.

Force XBMC to Use the DVD Order for TV Shows

Photo by Bryan Gosline.

Allison discovers a somewhat hidden feature in XBMC that makes for better TV show organisation:

I finally set up my own media centre with XBMC, and love it — but my Firefly episodes kept showing up out of order (because of its notoriously out-of-order airing schedule). I wanted to order it as it was originally intended, like it is on the DVD, but every time I imported it, XBMC would use the original air order instead.

Well, I finally figured out how to fix it. You have to remove the TV show in question from the library, then exit Library mode and find the TV show in your sources list. Go to the context menu (by hitting “C” on yoru keyboard) and choose “Set Content”. If you then go to Settings, you’ll find an option to “Use DVD Order”. After checking “Run Automated Scan” and clicking OK, it imported the show correctly! Such a simple, but hard to find solution.

Squeeze the Air Out of Condiment Bottles to Prevent Messes

Photo by Dov Harrington.

Undecim prevents ketchup explosions with a simple little tip:

I started doing this after an unpleasant experience involving my eyes and a bottle of Sriracha:

Whenever you close a condiment bottle (particularly those that you shake before using) squeeze some of the air out, and hold it while closing the bottle. This way, when you open it again, the bottle will take in air, rather than spaying out what’s stuck around the opening inside the bottle.

Use a Sharpie to Mark Which Rewards You Get on Each of Your Credit Cards

Photo by 401K.

Somedumbguy shares a tip for getting the most out of your credit card rewards:

I saw this on Five Cent Nickel: Label your credit cards in the top right corner with current reward categories (using a fine-point Sharpie) to keep track of rotating categories and maximise your cash back

Change Your Behaviour with Repeated Readings of Your Favourite Articles

Photo by Mori aka ICE.

Audiopocalypse tells us how he makes lasting changes in his productivity:

LH posts a whole lot of articles on how to be more productive and live life better. Most of them overlap with each other (and so we read some of the same good ideas again and again), yet I would wager that a whole lot of us aren’t really taking those ideas and changing our lives with them.

The way we change behaviorally is by thinking. So choose a well-rounded article about what you are trying to achieve, and read it every single day until it is burned into your brain. Not only will you will be reminded every day of what you are trying to do, but it will become a part of your natural thought process. All it takes is making sure you are thinking about it no matter what, and the best way to do that is by reading it every day.

This applies to any kind of behavioural change you are trying to make. Set a trigger to keep you thinking about it every single day.


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