Life Hacks – Spoken Edition

When you get offered a new job, you might need some time to think things over before you say yes or no. Asking for a specific length of time, instead of stalling other ways, can give you the time you need while keeping the employer from losing interest. As soon as you get extended a job offer, employers will usually ask that you give them a response as soon as you can. Taking a new job isn’t like deciding what to eat for dinner, though, so it’s understandable if you need some time.

It’s good to recognize what’s good in your life (even, and especially, when it seems like the rest is terrible). But if you express that in the form of gratitude journals, prayers, or meditation, you’re sort of making that feeling a solitary one. What about the people in your life you’re truly thankful for? Couldn’t you tell them how you feel? Well, no, a lot of us might say. That sounds super awkward.

If you've owned a car for awhile, chances are you've locked your keys inside. You can pay to have a professional break into your car for you, or you can just learn how to do it yourself to save both time and money. Note: This should go without saying, but do not use this knowledge to break into someone else's vehicle. That is illegal and not particularly nice. Use this to unlock your car when you lock your keys inside.

We need to meet with people for a variety of reasons. Sometimes we want their help in finding a job, or perhaps we need their expert advice on something we're trying to accomplish. Either way, Sean Blanda over at the 99u put together a great, concise sample that can serve as a model next time you need to ask someone for a meeting. Hey Josh, Sean Blanda here, managing editor of 99u.com. I’ve been following your work and really enjoy your email newsletter.

People have always been able to reach out to the Instagram users they follow, and receive replies to their comments, by using the messaging feature baked into Instagram Stories. Thanks to a new questions sticker Instagram debuted, you now have a more formal (and fun) way to conduct interviews with your followers, fans, and friends.

iOS: There are plenty of incredible password managers out there—1Password and LastPass come to mind—but Mozilla has password-management aspirations of its own. The company just released two new new mobile apps as part of its Test Pilot program and one, Firefox Lockbox, is a pretty convenient way to pull up your passwords on your iPhone and iPad. Here’s how it works.

Most people don't keep large sums of cash around the house. But if you have a sizable amount and need some storage options apart from the recommended fireproof safe, here are a few other places to drop your bills. Photo by Tracy O. Money weblog Frugal Dad says it's a good idea to keep some emergency cash on hand at home, and offers seven stealth places to store your money.

Super Glue and its off-brand cousins are the next best thing to duct tape when it comes to good-enough repairs, but heaven help you if it spills. Luckily, there's a guide to getting SuperGlue out or off of nearly anything. Photo by ATKR. Lots of folks know to reach for the nail polish remover to get glued things unstuck, but the acetone in the remover can damage and discolor surfaces. According to the makers of Super Glue, you can actually use hot water to get yourself out of your gluey mess.

Google Docs is a great free writing tool with a ton of great hidden features, including the research tool. You can save yourself some time and use the research sidebar to automatically insert the appropriate citations you need for your paper. The research sidebar is great for finding studies and academic papers on many subjects, but Chris Hoffman at The How-To Geek suggests taking advantage of the research sidebar's ability to insert perfect citations and footnotes as well.

Reader Paul writes in with an interesting tip for using relative paths in a batch file: you can use a special code to represent the current path—useful for batch files on a Flash drive. We've previously covered a similar way to create shortcuts that run off a USB stick—but if you need the full path to the batch file regardless of the machine you plugged it into, you can substitute %~dp0 anywhere you want to use the current path of the batch file.

As useful as a U.S. passport is for seeing most of the world, it doesn’t grant you easy access everywhere. Some countries have strict policies about who they let in, and acquiring tourist visas to those countries can be almost impossible—without the right approach. If you’re hoping to travel to countries like Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Iran, or other harder-to-access countries for U.S.

If you’re an American Express Membership Rewards cardholder, you might be able to save money with the points you’ve earned. Eligibility varies, but according to Slick Deals, there’s a possibility of getting 20 percent off your purchases on Amazon by paying for them with Amex points. Here’s how. Check Your Eligibility Not all Amex cards are eligible, but here’s a list of which ones are.

Mac: I just finished updating the Lifehacker Pack for Mac, and I wish I could have included every application or utility that I, or others, find useful. Unfortunately, a best-of-the-best list requires one to make a few tough decisions, lest you find yourself filling your system with 50 new apps—all useful, but maybe a little overkill for your more reasonable needs. CleanApp is one program that was on my contender list, but never quite made it to the final article.

I disliked many things about living in Florida, but my main complaint was that I could never quite cool down. For three-quarters of the year, going outside rendered me absolutely useless (because I’m a pale and pasty nerd), and taking a “cooling” shower didn’t help that much, simply because the water never got cold enough. Eventually, I figured out a system for bypassing water temperature entirely.

Terminal power users already know that a log of all the commands you execute are kept in history. (Go ahead, type history to see them.) Last week we saw that you can sudo your previous command using the !! (bang-bang) notation. Well, you can also search your command history as you type using the very useful Ctrl+R key combination. Give it a try: in the terminal, hold down Ctrl and press R to invoke "reverse-i-search.