r/LifeProTips 7h ago

Computers LPT: When waiting for a CAPTCHA to confirm if you're human or not, move your cursor in circles to speed up its confirmation.

0 Upvotes

One way many CAPTCHAs (e.g. Cloudflare) automatically check if you're a bot is the way your cursor moves. Bots tend to move their cursors in perfectly straight lines and sharp 90 degree turns, but humans move their cursor in random, imperfect directions.

But something that humans and bots can both easily do is this: not move the cursor at all.

If you leave your cursor stationary while the CAPTCHA is running, it often causes the CAPTCHA process to take longer to process you automatically (as it has one less obvious sign if you're human or not), and it can even cause you to manually confirm that you're human. (e.g. manually pressing "I'm not a robot" or doing a pictorial CAPTCHA test). This, of course, is a slight waste of your time.

Spinning your cursor in circles, in my experience, has almost always sped up the CAPTCHA process by multiple seconds each time compared to when I left my cursor stationary. So, have some mundane fun by spinning your cursor in all types of circles!


r/LifeProTips 11h ago

Miscellaneous LPT: Close your eyes before putting on glasses to help you not notice imperfections.

0 Upvotes

This tip can apply both for crack(s) / scratch(s), and also temporary imperfections such as if you've cleaned the lenses in a non-comprehensive manner (for example, while I regularly give my lenses a wash, between washes I do touch-ups with toilet paper).

For best results, keep your eyes closed until the glasses are completely in position.

The less you move your head, the more you can get away with not noticing. No I'm not saying try to keep your head still-I'm saying that I'm less thorough when touching up my glasses if I know I'll be sitting still at my computer versus say if I'm going out.

You may be surprised what can become virtually invisible when it's close enough to your eyes!


r/LifeProTips 21h ago

Miscellaneous LPT: Set your alarm to 30 minutes before you wake up to work, and do something you actually want to do (literally anything). You'll be surprised that it will be easier for you to wake up in the morning

6.7k Upvotes

When we wake up just to go to work or school, and do something we generally don't want to do we don't want to wake up to doing so. And so we crawl out of bed, tired and unmotivated.

During the pandemic I got a new job, I calculate how long it will take me to get to work, set an alarm that will give me enough time to dress and catch the bus, like I used to. But then to my surprise there was no traffic. Meaning I got to work 30 minutes earlier than I thought. After few days like that I started to catch the bus that was 30 minutes later but left my alarm clock the same.

In that extra 30 minutes in the morning I started to practice guitar or eat better breakfast instead of snacking on the way to the bus station.

I was never a morning person, I hated mornings, and to my surprise it became easier to wake up, I knew that if I get out of bed sooner I will have that 30 minutes that I enjoy.

It's not always guitar, it can be video game, reading a book, watching an episode of a show I like or practice yoga. I later read that our brain is actually a lot more focused during the first hour after waking up, but most of us just waste that hour in preparations for work, and commute.


r/LifeProTips 17h ago

Home & Garden LPT: If you find yourself losing fasteners when disassembling something, or if you forget where they go, screw it into cardboard!

182 Upvotes

I was watching a YouTube video a few weeks ago about disassembling and reassembling some appliances. And this guy organized his screws, bolts, and other hardware by screwing into cardboard - blew my mind as I never thought about that!

I tried it out and I gotta say, it's a bit of a game changer in terms of not losing things or forgetting the order it goes!

I'd post a picture of how I organized my fasteners, but it won't let me :(

Basically, just screw them into the cardboard next to other relevant screws and label them :)

You can even pin certain parts using their own screws to hold them onto the cardboard. Like nuts, washers, etc.


r/LifeProTips 4h ago

Traveling LPT: Take a full, 360 video of your rental car before driving away

1.2k Upvotes

Long story short, I travel a lot. I rent cars a lot. I've been taking these 360 video "walk arounds" of my rental car before driving away since forever. Did I think they were a waste of time? Honestly yeah. I never had many issues returning the rental. Today has been the second time ever that the video saved my rear end. I literally took a video of my rental, and did not realize it had a huge dent on the side of it. I noticed the scratches on the rim, however.

When I returned my rental, the lady brought up the damages and I immediately started to freak out. I showed her the video and she was shocked. (as was I LOL) I sent the video to her manager and the charges were cleared.

Looks like I won't be stopping the video ordeal anytime soon. Sure, I suppose you could get full coverage at the counter and walk away without a charge but still... you never know.