{ "version": "https:\/\/jsonfeed.org\/version\/1.1", "title": "Ilya Birman’s Blog: posts tagged lifehack", "_rss_description": "Ilya Birman’s blog on design, cities, music, and life", "_rss_language": "en", "_itunes_email": "ilyabirman@ilyabirman.net", "_itunes_categories_xml": "<\/itunes:category>\r\n<\/itunes:category>\r\n\r\n", "_itunes_image": "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/pictures\/userpic\/userpic-square@2x.jpg?1573933764", "_itunes_explicit": "no", "home_page_url": "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/tags\/lifehack\/", "feed_url": "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/tags\/lifehack\/json\/", "icon": "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/pictures\/userpic\/userpic@2x.jpg?1573933764", "authors": [ { "name": "Ilya Birman", "url": "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/", "avatar": "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/pictures\/userpic\/userpic@2x.jpg?1573933764" } ], "items": [ { "id": "344", "url": "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/all\/figma-offset-path\/", "title": "How to do Offset Path in Figma", "content_html": "

I’ve learned how to do Offset Path in Figma. Say you have a path, and you need to make another one parallel to this one at an offset x<\/i>:<\/p>\n

\n\"\"\n<\/div>\n

You copy the first path and give it a stroke width of 2x<\/i>:<\/p>\n

\n\"\"\n<\/div>\n

Then you do Outline Stroke (⌘⇧O) and adjust the stroke to your liking:<\/p>\n

\n\"\"\n<\/div>\n

And then you remove the unnecessary points:<\/p>\n

\n\"\"\n<\/div>\n

Done! Crazy, but better then “you can’t do it”.<\/p>\n", "summary": "I’ve learned how to do Offset Path in Figma. Say you have a path, and you need to make another one parallel to this one at an offset x", "date_published": "2022-11-04T16:11:01+03:00", "date_modified": "2022-11-08T19:38:04+03:00", "tags": [ "Figma", "lifehack", "solution" ], "image": "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/pictures\/figma-offset-path-1@2x.jpg", "_date_published_rfc2822": "Fri, 04 Nov 2022 16:11:01 +0300", "_rss_guid_is_permalink": "false", "_rss_guid": "344", "_rss_enclosures": [], "_e2_data": { "is_favourite": true, "links_required": [], "og_images": [ "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/pictures\/figma-offset-path-1@2x.jpg", "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/pictures\/figma-offset-path-2@2x.jpg", "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/pictures\/figma-offset-path-3@2x.jpg", "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/pictures\/figma-offset-path-4@2x.jpg" ] } }, { "id": "260", "url": "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/all\/make-lower-case\/", "title": "Make text lower case", "content_html": "

Sometimes you paste a text from somewhere, and it’s all upper case, and you want to make it normal case. Few people know that changing text case is a built-in feature of every text field on a Mac, like cut, copy and paste.<\/p>\n

Edit → Transformations → Make Lower Case:<\/p>\n

\n\"Make\n<\/div>\n

See also: Quickly convert any text to plain text<\/a>.<\/p>\n", "summary": "Sometimes you paste a text from somewhere, and it’s all upper case, and you want to make it normal case", "date_published": "2017-03-18T04:24:50+03:00", "date_modified": "2017-03-18T04:24:33+03:00", "tags": [ "lifehack", "Mac" ], "image": "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/pictures\/make-lower-case@2x.jpg", "_date_published_rfc2822": "Sat, 18 Mar 2017 04:24:50 +0300", "_rss_guid_is_permalink": "false", "_rss_guid": "260", "_rss_enclosures": [], "_e2_data": { "is_favourite": true, "links_required": [], "og_images": [ "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/pictures\/make-lower-case@2x.jpg" ] } }, { "id": "255", "url": "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/all\/how-to-un-hang-a-hung-app-on-a-mac\/", "title": "How to un-hang a hung app on a Mac", "content_html": "

In some cases an app on your Mac would hang: the mouse cursor would turn into a spinning beach ball, and the app would ignore all clicks and key presses. If this doesn’t cure itself in a couple of seconds, there’s not much you can do other than to force quit the app and re-launch it.<\/p>\n

Except that sometimes you can. Open Activity Monitor and select the hung app in the list. It’s shown in red as “not responding”. Then click the gear icon and select “Sample Process”:<\/p>\n

\n\"How\n<\/div>\n

If you are lucky, the app would just magically un-hang!<\/p>\n

I have no idea what this feature is for, and it doesn’t always work. But if the app’s data is very valuable to you, you don’t just want to give up and force quit it. So you can try this. I’ve saved a couple of Photoshop files this way.<\/p>\n", "summary": "In some cases an app on your Mac would hang: the mouse cursor would turn into a spinning beach ball, and the app would ignore all clicks and key presses...", "date_published": "2017-03-09T20:45:48+03:00", "date_modified": "2017-03-09T20:45:27+03:00", "tags": [ "lifehack", "Mac", "software" ], "image": "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/pictures\/un-hang@2x.jpg", "_date_published_rfc2822": "Thu, 09 Mar 2017 20:45:48 +0300", "_rss_guid_is_permalink": "false", "_rss_guid": "255", "_rss_enclosures": [], "_e2_data": { "is_favourite": false, "links_required": [], "og_images": [ "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/pictures\/un-hang@2x.jpg" ] } }, { "id": "233", "url": "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/all\/how-to-not-destroy-apple-cables\/", "title": "How to not destroy Apple cables", "content_html": "

Apple cables suck. If you aren’t particularly careful with them, they get destroyed quickly. But I haven’t destroyed a single one in my life.<\/p>\n

\n\"How\n<\/div>\n

Most people take the power adapter and tightly wrap the cable around it, thus significantly bending it at its weakest point. Instead, let it go freely straight from the brick for an inch, then wrap around. The same goes for lightning and earphones cables.<\/p>\n

Still, Apple cables suck.<\/p>\n", "summary": "Apple cables suck. If you aren’t particularly careful with them, they get destroyed quickly. But I haven’t destroyed a single one in my life", "date_published": "2016-09-28T00:04:36+03:00", "date_modified": "2016-09-28T00:04:31+03:00", "tags": [ "Apple", "lifehack", "photo" ], "image": "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/pictures\/apple-cord-IMG_6203.jpg", "_date_published_rfc2822": "Wed, 28 Sep 2016 00:04:36 +0300", "_rss_guid_is_permalink": "false", "_rss_guid": "233", "_rss_enclosures": [], "_e2_data": { "is_favourite": true, "links_required": [], "og_images": [ "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/pictures\/apple-cord-IMG_6203.jpg" ] } }, { "id": "157", "url": "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/all\/correct-photos-time\/", "title": "Correcting the capture time of your photos", "content_html": "

I prefer my photos’ metadata to include the correct capture time, regardless of which timezone it was taken in. But I would never spend time to figure out how to adjust the built-in clock on my camera. And even if that was easy, I would always forget to do it anyway.<\/p>\n

So when I travel, I just take photos of clocks and then use those to adjust the capture time of the whole set. Usually there are plenty of clocks on transport systems, and, as you know, photos I take mainly have to do with transport<\/a>. This one is from the London Tube:<\/p>\n

\n\"Correcting\n<\/div>\n

In Lightroom, I select the whole set of photos from some trip, then choose a photo of a clock (this does not void the selection), and then I set the photo’s capture time to whatever the clock displays. This makes Lightroom adjust the capture time of all<\/i> selected photos accordingly.<\/p>\n

This method is great because it does not require any discipline: you can adjust time whenever you want. A couple of days ago I needed a photo from 2005, and it had the wrong capture time. I just found a photo of a clock in that set and corrected the whole set in a matter of seconds.<\/p>\n

Sometimes І would notice an accidental clock or watch in some photo and just glance at the capture time. Yep, it is all right with this one from Trafalgar Square:<\/p>\n

\n\"\"\n<\/div>\n

Obviously, the ideal camera should know the time without any<\/i> action on my part, as the iPhone does. Or, better, the camera should be just an iPhone dock<\/a>. But this is unfortunately not the case with my Canon.<\/p>\n", "summary": "I prefer my photos’ metadata to include the correct capture time, regardless of which timezone it was taken in", "date_published": "2014-05-08T17:13:02+03:00", "date_modified": "2014-05-08T17:12:53+03:00", "tags": [ "lifehack", "photo", "technology", "world" ], "image": "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/pictures\/clock-time.jpg", "_date_published_rfc2822": "Thu, 08 May 2014 17:13:02 +0300", "_rss_guid_is_permalink": "false", "_rss_guid": "157", "_rss_enclosures": [], "_e2_data": { "is_favourite": true, "links_required": [], "og_images": [ "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/pictures\/clock-time.jpg", "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/pictures\/watch-time.jpg" ] } }, { "id": "58", "url": "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/all\/convert-to-plain-text\/", "title": "Quickly convert any text to plain text", "content_html": "

Some apps don’t have “Paste unformatted” or “Paste and match style” command. So you want to convert your text to plain text before pasting. What’s the quickest way to do it on a Mac? Here’s what I do:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Control+Space (Spotlight, it may be ⌘Space on your machine).<\/li>\n
  2. ⌘V.<\/li>\n
  3. ⌘A.<\/li>\n
  4. ⌘C.<\/li>\n
  5. Control+Space again.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Now whatever you had in your clipboard is converted to plain text.<\/p>\n", "summary": "Some apps don’t have “Paste unformatted” or “Paste and match style” command. So you want to convert your text to plain text before pasting...", "date_published": "2012-05-14T22:03:20+03:00", "date_modified": "2012-05-14T22:05:09+03:00", "tags": [ "lifehack", "Mac" ], "_date_published_rfc2822": "Mon, 14 May 2012 22:03:20 +0300", "_rss_guid_is_permalink": "false", "_rss_guid": "58", "_rss_enclosures": [], "_e2_data": { "is_favourite": false, "links_required": [], "og_images": [] } } ], "_e2_version": 4259, "_e2_ua_string": "Aegea 12.0a (v4259e)" }