From The Tips Box: Picture Frames, iPhone Home Buttons, Windows Hibernation


Readers offer their best tips for hanging picture frames, using an iPhone with a broken home button, and waking Windows PCs up from hibernation.

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.

Hang a Picture Frame Perfectly Every Time with a Piece of Paper

Photo by Chris Satchwell.

Tchrman35 shares a trick for hanging picture frames without the trial and error:

When hanging a frame or decorative piece that uses more than one nail, grab a piece of paper, some painter’s tape (masking tape would do), your level, and a ruler. Assuming the loops are installed levelly into

the frame, you can use this easy trick to hang it dead level every time.

Lay the piece face down and place the sheet of paper on the back so that the loops are covered. Mark their locations on the paper.

Using the ruler, draw a straight line between the two loops.

Now, set your piece aside. Take the paper to the desired location for the piece. Use the line you drew to level the holes, then TAPE IT TO THE WALL. Hammer your hangers THROUGH the paper, using the marks as guides. Then rip the paper out!

If you’re worried about the loops not being installed level, just make sure your paper overlaps the edge you want to level, and make a crease across the edge. Then use that to level the paper before you tape it to the wall.

For larger pieces, tape multiple pieces of paper together. You don’t have to cover the whole back of the piece. You just have to have enough to make a straight line between the hooks! (And maybe enough to reach the levelling edge.)

Work Around a Broken iPhone Home Button with AssistiveTouch

Bilbo Baggins lets iPhone users know that there’s still hope for broken home buttons:

Got a less-than-responsive home button? Try the Virtual Buttons! With the advent of iOS5 came new the “AssistiveTouch” option. Found in Settings > General > Accessibility, this menu will add a floater button onto your screen at all times, which, when opened, lets you simulate button presses, multi-fingered gestures, and yes, home button presses. No jailbreak required!

Reboot Windows Instead of Resuming From Hibernation

Bompboy07 shares a useful little tip for Windows laptop users:

Just found something out: if you hit the space bar when resuming from hibernation, it’ll ask you if you want to do a clean boot instead.

Show System Information on Lion’s Login Screen

Kevin brings back one of OS X’s greatest stupid geek tricks:

Remember in old versions of OS X, how you could click on your computer’s name on the login screen and get extra system info? That’s gone in Lion by default, but I saw on Cult of Mac that you could bring it back with a terminal command:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow AdminHostInfo HostName

After you’ve run the command, log out, and you should be able to click on the clock in the upper right-hand corner to cycle through all that info again — like your computer’s name, your version of OS X, and your IP address. It still isn’t as great as Snow Leopard’s, which could show your serial number and stuff, but still cool.


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

Here are the cheapest plans available for Australia’s most popular NBN speed tier.

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