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Most Popular System Rescue Disc: Hiren's BootCD

2013-02-19T22:15:00Z

If your system won't boot, you're running into strange PC performance problems, or you want to test your hardware for failures, you'll need a good system rescue disc to save the day. With the right one, you can boot to it, use your machine like normal if you have to, scan for viruses, test your hardware, fix partitions, repair your operating system, and more. We asked you last week which rescue discs you thought were the best—the most flexible, functional, and packed with the most useful tools. Then we took at look at the five best system rescue discs based on your nominations. Now we're back to highlight the winner. More »

How to Fix Movies that Are Really Quiet, Then REALLY LOUD—Redux [Video]

2012-10-12T19:00:00Z

We've all been there: You're sitting at home, watching The Matrix, and the dialogue is so quiet that you turn up the volume to hear it, when BAM! An action scene comes in, shakes your floor and wakes up all your neighbors. Sound Lock is a simple app for Windows that will save you from these embarrassing moments.

We've shown you how to fix this problem in VLC (see the video below), but if you're watching movies in another app—like our favorite, PotPlayer, or on your Windows-based media center, you were out of luck. Sound Lock is a new app that fixes this problem with any video player and almost no effort.

Sound Lock sits in your system tray and lets you set the maximum volume for your entire computer, so no matter how loud things may get, you won't wake up your neighbors. Just install it, click on the system tray icon, and move the slider down until you reach your desired level. When you watch your movie, the really loud parts should be lowered to the same level as the quiet parts. We know, we know, the volume differences are in there for a reason—but when it's late at night and you don't want to be the jerk that shakes the walls, this is a great solution.

Sound Lock is a free download for Windows only.

Sound Lock

Chocolatey Brings Lightning Quick, Linux-Style Package Management to Windows [Video]

2012-09-12T00:00:00Z

Windows: If there's one thing I miss about Linux, it's being able to install any program in seconds with a quick command. Chocolatey brings that convenience to Windows, with over 300 popular programs in its database.

From VLC to Launchy to Skype and tons of other apps, Chocolatey puts all of your favorite Windows programs right at your fingertips. With just a few keystrokes, you can have a program up and running on your system without ever needing to open a browser, double-click on an installer, or go through any menus. To install Chocolatey, just run the following command in a Command Prompt:

@powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy unrestricted -Command "iex ((new-object net.webclient).DownloadString('http://bit.ly/psChocInstall'))" && SET PATH=%PATH%;%systemdrive%\chocolatey\bin

Then, you can search the chocolatey database for any program using the clist command. For example, clist windirstat will let you know whether WinDirStat is in Chocolatey's database (it is), after which you can install it by typing in cinst windirstat. You may need to say "Yes" to a UAC prompt, but that's all it takes—you'll have WinDirStat up and running on your system in no time. You can even install multiple programs at once, or use Chocolatey in your favorite alternate shell like Cygwin.

I did get a 404 error with one or two packages, but most worked just fine. And, hopefully, if it becomes more popular, we'll see even more packages in its repository (though the list they have is pretty solid). To see it in action, check out the video above, or head to Chcolatey's home page below to read more.

Chocolatey

Use Windows Task Scheduler to Get Email Notifications When Someone Logs Into Your Computer [Privacy]

2012-09-07T12:30:00Z

Ever wonder if someone's using your computer when you're away from it? If so, How-To Geek shows off a simple method to use Windows Task Scheduler to send out an email every time someone logs on.

The process is pretty easy, and the only third-party software you need is the command line email tool, SendEmail. You need to create a new task in Task Scheduler, and set up a trigger so that you receive an email every time anyone logs onto your computer. If you're worried about who's snooping on your computer when you're away, you can find the full guide over on How-To Geek. Once you learn someone is logging in, it's easy to figure out who it might be.

How to Get Email Notifications Whenever Someone Logs Into Your Computer | How-To Geek

Why You Should Start Using a VPN (and How to Choose the Best One for Your Needs) [Security]

2012-09-05T15:00:00Z

You may know what a VPN, or Virtual Private Network, is; you probably don't use one. You really should be using a VPN, and even if you don't think so now, at some point in the future you may consider it as important as your internet connection.

When we took at look at your five favorite VPN service providers, we noticed a few things. First, being the "best" is big business for VPN providers, and they'll fight dirty to be one of them. Second, there are so many VPN providers that it's difficult to choose a really good one. VPNs are not all created equally, and in this post, we're going to look at what a VPN is, why you want one, and how to pick the best one for you. Let's get started.

What Is a VPN?

Put simply, a Virtual Private Network, or VPN, is a group of computers (or discrete networks) networked together through over a public network—namely, the internet. Businesses use VPNs to connect remote datacenters, and individuals can use VPNs to get access to network resources when they're not physically on the same LAN (local area network), or as a method for securing and encrypting their communications when they're using an untrusted public network. Photo by Pavel Ignatov (Shutterstock).

When you connect to a VPN, you usually launch a VPN client on your computer (or click a link on a special website), log in with your credentials, and your computer exchanges trusted keys with a far away server. Once both computers have verified each other as authentic, all of your internet communication is encrypted and secured from eavesdropping.

The most important thing you need to know about a VPN: It secures your computer's internet connection to guarantee that all of the data you're sending and receiving is encrypted and secured from prying eyes.

Whether the VPNs you're familiar with are the ones offered by your school or business to help you work or stay connected when you're traveling or the ones you pay to get you watch your favorite shows in another country as they air, they're all doing the same thing. For much more detail on what VPNs are, how they work, and how they're used, check out this How Stuff Works article.

Why You Need a VPN, or How You Can Benefit from Using One

A VPN alone is just a way to bolster your security and access resources on a network you're not physically connected to. What you choose to do with a VPN is a different story. Usually, VPN users fall into a few separate categories:

The student/worker. This person has responsibilities to attend to, and uses a VPN provided by their school or company to access resources on their network when they're at home or traveling. In most cases, this person already has a free VPN service provided to them, so they're not exactly shopping around. Also, if they're worried about security, they can always fire up their VPN when using airport or cafe WI-Fi to ensure no one's snooping on their connection. Photo by Ed Yourdon.
The downloader. Whether they're downloading legally or illegally, this person doesn't want on some company's witch-hunt list just because they have a torrenting app installed on their computer. VPNs are the only way to stay safe when using something like BitTorrent—everything else is just a false sense of security. Better safe than trying to defend yourself in court or paying a massive fine for something you may or may not have even done, right?
The privacy minded and security advocate. Whether they're a in a strictly monitored environment or a completely free and open one, this person uses VPN services to keep their communications secure and encrypted and away from prying eyes whether they're at home or abroad. To them, unsecured connections mean someone's reading what you say.
The globetrotter. This person wants to watch the Olympics live as they happen, without dealing with their crummy local networks. They want to check out their favorite TV shows as they air instead of waiting for translations or re-broadcasts (or watch the versions aired in other countries,) listen to location-restricted streaming internet radio, or want to use a new web service or application that looks great but for some reason is limited to a specific country or region.
Some combination of the above. Odds are, even if you're not one of these people more often than not, you're some mix of them depending on what you're doing. In all of these cases, a VPN service can be helpful, whether it's just a matter of protecting yourself when you're out and about, whether you handle sensitive data for your job and don't want to get fired, or you're just covering your own ass from the MPAA.

Even if none of the above really sound right to you, you can still benefit from using a VPN. You should definitely use one when you travel or work on an untrusted network (read: a network you don't own, manage, or trust who manages.) That means opening your laptop at the coffee shop and logging in to Facebook or using your phone's Wi-Fi to check your email at the airport can all potentially put you at risk.

We've shown you how to build your own VPN for remote gaming and browsing that also protects your security, shown you how to make a VPN even more secure, and shown you dozens of services that operate free and paid VPNs you can sign up for and use. We've even put the question to you several times to tell us which VPN service providers you think are the best. So how do you pick a solid VPN service?

What Makes for a Good VPN?

The best VPNs offer a solid balance of features, server location, connectivity protocols, and price. Some are great for occasional use, others are geared towards getting around the location restrictions companies put on their apps and services, and others are targeted at people who do heavy downloading and want a little privacy while they do it. Here's what you should look for.

Protocol: When you're researching a VPN, you'll see terms like SSL/TLS (sometimes referred to as OpenVPN support,) PPTP, IPSec, L2TP, and other VPN types. We asked Samara Lynn, Lead Analyst for Networking and Small Business at PCMag, whether or not a user shopping for a VPN should shop for one over another. "SSL is what is commonly used these days. All of these protocols will provide a secure connection," she explained, and pointed out that most solutions are invisible to the end-user anyway. Strictly, each protocol has its benefits and drawbacks, and if you're concerned about this (specifically, PPTP vulnerabilities,) you're probably already aware of them. Most users don't need to be concerned about this—corporate users on the other hand, are probably all using IPSec or SSL clients anyway.
Corporate and Exit Locations: Depending on what you're using a VPN for, your service's location—and the exit locations you can choose—are important to consider. If you want to get around a location restriction and watch live TV in the UK, for example, you want to make sure your VPN service provider has servers in the UK. If you're concerned about privacy or state-sponsored snooping, you may want to pick a service operated outside of your home country. Similarly, if the service is based on the US, they're subject to US laws, and may be forced to turn over usage data to the authorities upon request. Many people make more of this than they should (we've seen overseas services turn over their data to friendly governments without any hesitation repeatedly), but it's important to make sure a VPN has servers in multiple locations—or at least the location you're interested in—when shopping.
Logging: When you connect to a VPN, you're trusting the VPN service provider with your data. Your communications may be secure from eavesdropping, but other systems on the same VPN—especially the operator—can log your data if they choose. If this bothers you (e.g., you're the privacy/security advocate or the downloader), make absolutely sure you know your provider's logging policies before signing up. This applies to location as well—if your company doesn't keep logs, it may not matter as much where it's located. (There's a popular rumor that US-based VPN providers are required to log, in case the government wants them. This isn't true, but the government can always request whatever data they have if they do log.) For a good list of VPN providers that don't log your activities when connected (and many that do), check out this TorrentFreak article.
Anti-Malware/Anti-Spyware Features: Using a VPN doesn't mean you're invulnerable. You should still make sure you're using HTTPS whenever possible, and you should still be careful about what you download. Some VPN service providers—especially mobile ones—bundle their clients with anti-malware scanners to make sure you're not downloading viruses or trojans. When you're shopping, see if the providers you're interested in offer anti-malware protection while you're connected. For example, previously mentioned Hotspot Shield offers malware protection to its premium users. It may not be a dealbreaker for you, but it's always good to have someone watching your back.
Mobile Apps: If you're going to spend money on a VPN service provider (or even if you use a free one, frankly), you should be able to get a consistent experience across all of your devices. Most prominent providers offer desktop and mobile solutions for individual users, and while corporate and school networks may be a bit behind the curve here, they're catching up too. Make sure you don't have to use two different VPNs with two different policies and agreements just because you want to secure your phone along with your laptop.
Price: Finally, go into your user agreement with both eyes open. You should read the privacy policy for the service you're interested in, and be very aware of the differences between free and paid services. For example:
- Free VPN Providers are more likely to log your activities and serve contextual ads while you're connected. They're also more likely to use your usage habits to tailor future ads to you, have fewer exit locations, and weak commitments to privacy. They may offer great features, but if logging and privacy are important to you, you may want to avoid them. However, if you just need quick, painless security while traveling on a budget, they're a great option.
- Subscription VPN Providers usually take your privacy a bit more seriously, since you're paying for the service. It's unusual for them to show ads, although whether they do logging or store data about your usage varies from company to company. They usually offer free trials so you can give the service a shot first, but remember: just because you're paying for a service doesn't mean you shouldn't do your homework.

A mix of features and price make a good VPN, but plenty of bad VPNs masquerade as good ones. Look for articles written by trustworthy sources that discuss the merits of each service based on its features, versus simple rundowns and user testimonials, which are almost always polluted by a combination of fanatical users and corporate bootstrapping in attempt to get their names out to potential customers.

Which VPNs Are The Best?

When we ran our recent Hive Five on VPN service providers, we heard from VPN providers begging to be included, angry CEOs who claimed their company was maliciously left out, and others accusing some of the contenders of illegal or unethical behavior. We took at look at the poll and the claims, and while there's no definitive proof the poll was gamed, we decided to come up with our own top five, based on our own research rather than reader feedback, that are great whether you're the privacy advocate, the student, or the downloader.

Private Internet Access

Supports: Windows, OS X, Linux, iOS, Android
Protocols: SSL, PPTP, IPSec, and L2TP. You can also configure Private Internet Access to work on your DD-WRT or Tomato router (via SSL/OpenVPN) for constant security.
Home Country: United States, and has exit servers in the US, Canada, the UK, Switzerland, Romania, and the Netherlands.
Logging Policies: The service keeps no logs of your activity whatsoever (in fact, the only things they do keep are your email address and payment information,) uses shared IPs, and has committed to keeping your data private. Price: Pricing starts at $7/mo to $40/yr, and you can read more about their plans and pricing here.

proXPN

Supports: Windows, OS X, iOS
Protocols: SSL, PPTP.
Home Country: United States, with exit servers in the US, The Netherlands, Singapore, and the UK.
Logging Policies: proXPN keeps minimal logs of your activity. proXPN collects your email address, payment information (if you're a premium user,) bandwidth usage, connection duration, and login/logout times. They've committed to only keeping those logs for 14 days or less, and promise to never share their logs with anyone, period.
Price: proXPN has a free plan, which limits your transfer speeds to 300kpbs and restricts you to one exit location (Miami) in the United States. Premium accounts unlock support for PPTP (if you want to connect a mobile device or a router,) remove the transfer cap, and allows you to choose from any of the company's other exit locations. Premium plans start at $10/mo, and you can read more about their pricing and plans here.

TorVPN

Supports: Windows, OS X, Linux, iOS, Android
Protocols: SSL (they often refer to it as OpenVPN), PPTP, and full SSH tunneling.
Home Country: Hungary, with exit servers in Hungary.
Logging Policies: The service doesn't log your connection aside from bandwidth usage to compare against your quota, and your payment details. They also are committed to your privacy, and specifically say they won't surrender their data without a Hungarian court order.
Price: Free TorVPN users are limited to 1GB/mo downloaded before they're cut off, and Premium accounts start at 5 EUR/mo ($7mo) for 5GB/mo and go up to 30 EUR/mo ($38/mo) for 100GB. Keep in mind they have a no-refunds policy, and that even though you ride the Tor network, they're a separate entity from the Tor Project. You can read more about their pricing and plans here.

TorGuard

Supports: Windows, OS X, Linux, and iOS and Android via built-in VPN
Protocols: SSL (OpenVPN), PPTP, and L2TP, (with 256 bit security)
Home Country: Panama, with exit servers in The Netherlands, Romania, Ukraine and Panama.
Logging Policies: TorGuard wholeheartedly supports privacy, so you can feel a bit more secure that your connection is secure and anonymous. They purge their logs daily, and only keep payment information and registration info. They don't even keep login/logout times.
Price: Depending on whether you're the privacy advocate, the downloader, or a combination of the two, TorGuard offers plans specifically for anonymity (starting at $6/mo), for torrenting (starting at $5/mo), or for overall VPN services ($10/mo). You can read more about TorGuard's pricing and plans here.

WiTopia

Supports: Windows, OS X, Linux, iOS, Android, webOS, Chromebooks.
Protocols: SSL, PPTP, IPSec, and L2TP (with 256 bit security)
Home Country: United States, with exit servers in 10 US cities, and countries in Latin and South America, Asia, Australia, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East—way too many to list here.
Logging Policies: WiTopia does not log information that can be attributable to individual users, purges logs weekly, and only saves registration information and payment details when you sign up.
Price: $50/yr to $70/yr depending on the level of encryption and protocols you need. They also sell a VPN router you can take with you when you travel. You can read more about WiTopia's pricing and plans here.

Alternatively, Roll Your Own VPN

We've shown you how to roll your own VPN using Hamachi, and even how to set up Privoxy to secure your web browsing once you have your personal VPN set up. Hamachi isn't the only option: you can also download and configure OpenVPN (a free SSL VPN) on your own home server,, or if you have a router that supports it, enable OpenVPN on your home router so you can connect back to it when you're abroad. Combined with Privoxy, you get the privacy and anonymity benefits of a VPN without spending a dime.

Both of these options put control in your hands, and while they're not quite as anonymous as subscription methods or offer international exit locations, they do give you the the most important benefits of a VPN: security, privacy, and anonymity while you're away from home.

Samara Lynn is Lead Analyst, Networking and Small Business at PCMag.com. You can follow her on Twitter at @samaralynn. She graciously volunteered her expertise for this post, and we thank her.

Title image remixed using konmesa (Shutterstock) and Toria (Shutterstock).

How Can I Sell My Skills Beyond a Boring Resume? [Video]

2012-08-20T17:00:00Z

Dear Lifehacker,
Finding a job is tough! How can I market myself and my skills without resorting to an old, boring paper resume? I've seen a lot of webapps designed to help create an eye-catching nameplate site, but which will do the best job of getting me noticed and showing off my work?

Sincerely,
Job Hunter

Dear Hunter,
One of the best ways to get your name and portfolio out there is to set up a site that potential employers can visit to see your work. A "nameplate" site, or a simple web site with your name, a short bio, and links to your work and contact information, is an elegant way to showcase your portfolio and web presence to future employers—or ayone who wants to learn more about you. There are dozens of professional nameplate sites on the web, but the best one for you depends on the skills you want to show off. Here are some options:

The Most Popular, Easiest to Set Up: About.Me

If you have a web presence you want to show off at all, About.Me is a good option. The service is free, looks great, and links users directly to your other social profiles or web sites where they can learn more about you. About.me pages take moments to set up, and when you're finished you get a short custom URL you can give out or put on a business card. You can even sign up for an about.me email address for those contacts to use when they want to reach you.

For Designers and People With Portfolios: Flavors.Me

Although Flavors.me is very similar to About.Me, Flavors.me offers a bit more flexibility when it comes to page design and linked sites and services. You could use it strictly as a jumping off point to your social profiles, but the service also allows you to add photos, video, and custom pages to your profile, so if you have work to show off (pages you've designed, illustrations you've done, etc), your visitors don't have to go too far to see it. If you have a lot of work to show off and you want it front and center to anyone who visits your profile, Flavors.me lets you do that—especially if you pony up the $20/yr for a premium account and all of the features that come with it.

For Students: Seelio

Seelio is a new service that gives students a way to showcase their activities, hobbies, internships, volunteer activities, and clubs in a fun and interactive way. Most students don't exactly have a long resume loaded with work history and special skills, so Seelio offers students a way to add videos, photos, and testimonials to their list of skills and experiences. Think of it as a supercharged resume for the people who need it the most: the ones caught looking for opportunities that require experience, but who need experience to get started. Plus, Seelio is frequented by recruiters and hiring managers looking for student employees and interns.

For Business Owners and Entrepeneurs: Sidengo

Previously mentioned Sidengo offers business owners and people who have a lot of information to communicate to their visitors a set of pages—not just a single nameplate page with links—that they can customize with plenty of information about their business. For example, if you own a restaurant and want a quick, attractive website, you can create one for your business, have a separate page for the menu, a separate page for hours and contact information, and another for photos of the food or seating areas. It's faster than rolling your own website, comes with mobile versions rolled in, and even the free plans offer powerful customization options and features. It's probably overkill if you're selling yourself, but if you're starting a business, it's a great option.

For People with Boring Resumes: Vizify

For those of us who don't fall into the other categories or just have a boring old resume that could use a little spice, previously mentioned Vizify links to your social accounts and web sites and generates an attractive, multi-page visual profile page complete with your work history, social profiles, education history, and more—all without you lifting a finger. You can tweak any of the pages or add or remove social profiles if you think it knows too much about you, but when you're finished, you'll have a beautiful interactive page that potential employers can use to learn all about you and get right to your LinkedIn profile, personal website, and more.

For the DIYer: Roll Your Own

If you don't like the idea of putting your professional portfolio in the hands of a web service, you can get the same results by rolling your own, either by building your own site from scratch or by using a content management system like Wordpress or Drupal. You'll need to register a domain of your own—preferably something like www.yourname.com—and get it hosted with a web host of your choice. If you go the Wordpress route, themes like John Saddington's digital business card and Elegant Themes' Business Card Theme can quickly transform your site into an attractive and informative nameplate, loaded with links to your social profiles, resume, and samples of your work. When you roll your own, it takes more time, but the sky is the limit when it comes to what you can show off to a visitor.

Don't Overlook the Power of Your Resume

All of these personal profiles are great, and when you pick the one that best matches the skills you want to show off you should push it as much as possible, but don't underestimate the importance of a clean, good-looking, plain old resume. We've discussed how getting creative with your resume can help, but don't go too crazy. After all, most hiring managers are looking for standard resumes to scan into their HR system. If you go crazy with QR codes and custom design and images, you might find your resume in the trash because it doesn't scan easily or can't be easily imported to a resume database. Photo by Charlotte West.

We'd strongly suggest picking the best service for you and then dropping the URL (especially if it's a domain you own, like yourname.com) on business cards, on the top of your paper resume, and in the signature of your emails, but don't neglect your regular resume, and don't start thinking you don't need a normal resume because you have one of these services. We may be moving away from traditional resumes as the primary way people get hired, but they're not dead yet. Good luck, and let us know how your job search goes!

Sincerely,
Lifehacker

Title image remixed using Palto.

Five Best VPN Service Providers [Hive Five]

2012-08-19T15:00:00Z

Whether you're killing time at your favorite coffee shop or you're traveling for work and don't want your data falling into the wrong hands, you need a VPN to keep your traffic encrypted and secure. Even so, which VPN service is the best, and which offers the best combination of reliability, features, security, and affordability? We asked you, and this week we're going to look at the top five VPN service providers based on your nominations.

Earlier in the week, we asked you which VPN service providers you thought were the best. You responded, we tallied your nominations, and now we're back to highlight the top five.

BolehVPN

BolehVPN earned praise from many of you thanks to its truly personal touch. You interact directly with the people behind the scenes there, they take feedback and suggestions seriously, and openly work to improve their services. They also offer completely proxied servers, so you can choose to route all of your traffic through them, or just some of your traffic if you choose. All of the basics of a good VPN are there too—anonymous surfing, masked IP addresses, and encryption of all your internet traffic. You can check out BolehVPN's pricing and plans here.

Astrill VPN

Astrill VPN offers simple setup, one-click activation, and low prices. If you're in the market for a new router, they even sell routers pre-configured with Astrill VPN so you don't need an additional client to protect your data. Astrill supports Mac OS, Windows, Linux, iOS, and Android, and sports servers in 17 countries that you can select from, all ready to anonymize your traffic and keep it encrypted while you work or travel. You can see all of Astrill VPN's pricing and plans here.

Hamachi

Hamachi is one of our favorite VPN tools. We've shown you how to secure yourself on public networks with it, and then shown you how to roll your own VPN for gaming, multimedia, and security with it. You have the option to subscribe to Hamachi's managed plan, but it's just as easy to pick up their free client and use that as a VPN when you travel. Since it's so easy to set up, and you can route traffic back through your home internet connection or encrypt it, it's a perfect solution for DIYers.

Private Internet Access

Private Internet Access (appropriately named) supports a surprising number of devices, sports servers in dozens of countries and allows you to choose among them, and even better, doesn't log your activity so you can be completely anonymous and encrypted if you need to be. Sure, the service has everything a good VPN has—encryption, easy-to-install and use clients, and decent prices, but their commitment to anonymity earned high praise from those of you that use the service. You can check out all of Private Internet Access' pricing and plans here.

Witopia

Even though Witopia won our poll last time, and despite sending their customers here to vote for them (friendly reminder that votes emailed to us will not and first-time commenters may not be counted), they made the top five with fair votes. Plus, it's up against stiff competition this time. The service still offers some of the world's best and most robust VPN services though, with a massive network you'll never have trouble connecting to, 24x7x365 customer support, support for just about every transport protocol you could possibly need to use, and an easy-to-use client. Witopia even supports Android and iOS, Chromebooks, and more. Need secure DNS? They've got that too. You can read up on Witopia's pricing and plans here.

Now that you've seen the top five, it's time to put them to an all-out vote to determine the best.

What's The Best VPN Service Provider?

The honorable mention this week goes out to BoxVPN, which many of you praised for its international support and low prices. Also noteworthy is AirVPN, specifically for its high-level data encryption, compliance with data security best practices (which means even they don't know what you're doing), complete and total net neutrality, and the fact that you can pay with bitcoin, if you wish.

Have something to say about one of the contenders? Want to make the case for your personal favorite, even if it wasn't included in the list? Remember, the top five are based on your most popular nominations from the call for contenders thread from earlier in the week. Make your case for your favorite—or alternative—in the discussions below.

The Hive Five is based on reader nominations. As with most Hive Five posts, if your favorite was left out, it's not because we hate it—it's because it didn't get the nominations required in the call for contenders post to make the top five. We understand it's a bit of a popularity contest, but if you have a favorite, we want to hear about it. Have a suggestion for the Hive Five? Send us an email at tips+hivefive@lifehacker.com!

Photo by cloki (Shutterstock).

How to Fix Movies that Are Really Quiet, then REALLY LOUD [Video]

2012-06-22T00:00:00Z

Have you ever watched a movie where the dialogue was almost inaudible, but then all of a sudden an action scene comes in and shakes your house with noise? Here's how to fix that problem in VLC.

While these volume changes exist to make the movie more immersive, they can be really annoying if you have sleeping kids, or neighbors that like to file noise complaints against you all the time. The fix is something called dynamic range compression, and it's available in VLC. You may have to play around with the settings a bit, but in general, here are some good settings to tweak (courtesy of some fellows over at Reddit):

Head to Tools > Effects and Filters and click on the Compressor tab.
Without changing your TV's volume from its usual spot, find a quiet scene in the movie and raise the Makeup Gain slider until the volume is at a comfortable level. This will boost the volume of the entire movie so you don't have to change your TV or computer's volume from its usual setting.
Raise the Ratio slider all the way up. This will ensure that any sound over a certain volume threshold will be turned down to a level you set.
Without changing the volume, find a loud scene in the movie and start playing it. Lower the Threshold slider until the sound is at a non-earthquake-inducing level.
Lastly, move "Attack" up to about 50ms, and "Release" up to about 300ms. This makes everything a bit more fluid, so your movie will change volumes when necessary but it will happen a bit more gradually.

Now try watching your movie. You should notice that, without changing your volume from its usual spot, the dialogue is much easier to hear, but the action scenes stay at an appropriate level. You may have to go back and fiddle with the settings to get everything just right, but it's an invaluable feature for those of us that want to keep the noise level down. Check out the video above for a demonstration using The Matrix, one of the worst offenders of this phenomenon, or hit the link to read more.

Update: It looks like XBMC has a version of this feature as well, for you home theater PC geeks. Huzzah! Thanks to @theediguy for sending this in.

[LPT] Watching a movie and the dialogue is too quiet and the action too loud? | Reddit

DiffPDF Finds Differences Between PDF Files [Downloads]

2012-06-10T18:00:00Z

Windows/OS X: Comparing two different versions of a PDF file can be a nightmare. The open source DiffPDF automates the process, finding differences in both text and appearance.

All you need to do is feed the application two different PDF files, specify whether you want to compare appearance, individual characters, or whole words, and let it run. A few moments later, a side by side window will highlight any discrepancies in red. This is obviously a fringe-use-case application, but it's a huge time saver in the right situation.

DiffPDF | Qtrac via Addictive Tips

Artha Is a Feature-Packed Offline Thesaurus and Dictionary [Downloads]

2012-06-07T19:30:00Z

Windows/Linux: All you wordsmiths and word buffs, this app's for you. Artha is a free thesaurus and dictionary with extensive features, including hot key lookup, notifications, regular expression-based search, and offline use.

Artha is based on WordNet, the large lexical database of English, in which words are linked semantically.

Depending on the term you lookup in Artha, the program will offer not only your typical part of speech, meaning, and synonyms, but other useful details such as derivatives, attributes, domain terms, parts of, and other words that are similar (not exactly synonyms, but with similar meanings at a broader level—e.g., similar terms for "grad" are "scholar" and "student").

The hot key lookup makes finding meanings very easy: Press the default combination Ctrl+Alt+W after selecting a word to look it up in Artha.

Notifications shows you word meanings in a balloon tip, so you can continue working uninterrupted.

Finally, you can also look up words using regular expressions. So if you don't know the exact spelling, you can type in something like "sp*g" to get suggestions.

Artha has been out for Linux for some time and more recently released for Windows. Upcoming versions will add pronunciation. Unlike other dictionaries and thesauruses that do their lookups by querying web servers, Artha can be used offline.

Artha

Fragmentarium – Free 3D fractal software

2012-05-06T22:12:53Z

Make your own Mandelbulbs and boxes with this user-friendly generator:

http://syntopia.github.com/Fragmentarium/

Readlists Creates Ebooks from URLs [Webapps]

2012-05-22T14:00:00Z

The team behind Readability has released Readlists, a new webapp that can easily turn a set of articles into an Ebook and send it directly to Kindle, iPhone, iPad, or over email with just a few simple clicks.

Readlists is meant as a more permanent solution to gathering together articles and reading materials than a bookmarking service. You can use Readlist to piece together your favorite internet posts and save them in a handy Ebook format so they never disappear, but one of the coolest features is the ability to send out a public link to your friends and collaborators so they can add sources as well. The books Readlists creates are simple, but it filters out unnecessary content the same way Readability does. On top of viewing your own reading lists you can also check out other popular lists directly from the main page.

Readlists is a free webapp and you can use the service anonymously or with your Readability account. If you've been wanting to start a more permanent catalog of your favorite articles it seems like the easiest way to do it even if software like Calibre has offered a similar feature for a while.

Readlists | via The Verge

Make Your Email Hacker Proof

2012-04-17T23:59:54Z

It's only a matter of time until your email gets hacked. Don't believe me? Just read this harrowing cautionary tale.

When [my wife] came back to her desk, half an hour later, she couldn’t log into Gmail at all. By that time, I was up and looking at e‑mail, and we both quickly saw what the real problem was. In my inbox I found a message purporting to be from her, followed by a quickly proliferating stream of concerned responses from friends and acquaintances, all about the fact that she had been “mugged in Madrid.” The account had seemed sluggish earlier that morning because my wife had tried to use it at just the moment a hacker was taking it over and changing its settings—including the password, so that she couldn’t log in again.

…

The greatest practical fear for my wife and me was that, even if she eventually managed to retrieve her records, so much of our personal and financial data would be in someone else’s presumably hostile hands that we would spend our remaining years looking over our shoulders, wondering how and when something would be put to damaging use. At some point over the past six years, our [email] correspondence would certainly have included every number or code that was important to us – credit card numbers, bank-account information, medical info, and any other sensitive data you can imagine.

Now get everyone you know to read it, too. Please. It's for their own good.

Your email is the skeleton key to your online identity. When you lose control of your email to a hacker – not if, but when you lose control of your email to a hacker – the situation is dire. Email is a one stop shop for online identity theft. You should start thinking of security for your email as roughly equivalent to the sort of security you'd want on your bank account. It's exceedingly close to that in practice.

The good news, at least if you use GMail, is that you can make your email virtually hacker-proof today, provided you own a cell phone. The fancy geek technical term for this is two factor authentication, but that doesn't matter right now. What matters is that until you turn this on, your email is vulnerable. So let's get started. Not tomorrow. Not next week. Right. Freaking. Now.

Go to your Google Account Settings

Make sure you're logged in. Expand the little drop-down user info panel at the top right of most Google pages. From here, click "Account" to view your account settings.

On the account settings page, click "edit" next to 2-step verification and turn it on.

Have Your Cell Phone Ready

GMail will walk you through the next few steps. You just need a telephone that can receive SMS text messages. Enter the numeric code sent through the text message to proceed.

Now Log In With Your Password and a PIN

Now your password alone is no longer enough to access your email.

Once this is enabled, accessing your email always requires the password, and a code delivered via your cell phone. (You can check the "remember me for 30 days on this device" checkbox so you don't have to do this every time.) With this in place, even if they discover your super sekrit email password, would-be hackers can't do anything useful with it! To access your email, they'd need to somehow gain control of your cell phone, too. I can't see that happening unless you're in some sort of hostage situation, and at that point I think email security is the least of your problems.

What If I Lose My Cell Phone?

Your cell phone isn't the only way to get the secondary PIN you need to access your email. On the account page there are multiple ways to generate verification codes, including adding a secondary backup phone number, and downloading mobile applications that can generate verification codes without a text message (but that requires a smart phone, naturally).

This also includes the never-fails-always-works option: printing out the single-use backup verification codes on a piece of paper. Go do this now. Right now! And keep those backup codes with you at all times. Put them in your wallet, purse, man-purse, or whatever it is that travels with you most often when you get out of bed.

What About Apps That Access Email?

Applications or websites that access your email, and thus necessarily store your email address and password, are also affected. They have no idea that they now need to enter a PIN, too, so they'll all be broken. You'll need to generate app-specific passwords for your email. To do that, visit the accounts page.

Click on authorizing applications & sites, then enter a name for the application and click the Generate Password button.

Let me be clear about this, because it can be confusing: enter that specially generated password in the application, not your master email password.

This effectively creates a list of passwords specific to each application. So you can see the date each one was last used, and revoke each app's permission to touch your email individually as necessary without ever revealing your primary email password to any application, ever. See, I told you, there is a method to the apparent madness.

But I Don't Use Gmail

Either nag your email provider to provide two-factor authentication, or switch over. Email security is critically important these days, and switching is easy(ish). GMail has had fully secure connections for quite a while now, and once you add two-factor authentication to the mix, that's about as much online email safety as you can reasonably hope to achieve short of going back to snail mail.

Hey, This Sounds Like a Pain!

I know what you're thinking. Yes, this is a pain in the ass. I'll fully acknowledge that. But you know what's an even bigger pain in the ass? Having your entire online identity stolen and trashed by a hacker who happens to obtain your email password one day. Remember that article I exhorted you to read at the beginning? Oh, you didn't read it? Go freaking read it now!

Permit me to channel Jamie Zawinski one last time: "OMG, entering these email codes on every device I access email would be a lot of work! That sounds like a hassle!" Shut up. I know things. You will listen to me. Do it anyway.

I've been living with this scheme for a few months now, and I've convinced my wife to as well. I won't lie to you; it hasn't all been wine and roses for us either. But it is inconvenient in the same way that bank vaults and door locks are. The upside is that once you enable this, your email becomes extremely secure, to the point that you can (and I regularly do) email yourself highly sensitive data like passwords and logins to other sites you visit so you can easily retrieve them later.

If you choose not to do this, well, at least you've educated yourself about the risks. And I hope you're extremely careful with your email password and change it regularly to something complex. You're making life all too easy for the hackers who make a fabulous living from stealing and permanently defacing online identities just like yours.

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NetSpeedMonitor Keeps Your Network Activity in the Taskbar, Shows You Bandwidth Reports On Demand [Windows Downloads]

2012-04-03T11:30:00Z

Windows: If you're worried that some application may be eating into your bandwidth in the background, or just want to keep closer tabs on the bandwidth your computer is using, NetSpeedMonitor is a handy systray utility that lives in your taskbar and shows you at any given time what your actie upload and download speeds are, which applications are using your network connection, what their endpoints are, and can run daily, weekly, monthly, or annual bandwidth reports whenever you need them. Plus, it's free.

There are plenty of tools that will tap your network connection so you can keep an eye on it, but NetSpeedMonitor doesn't require additional drivers, and it integrates perfectly with Windows, running quietly in the background while you do other things. Your up/down speeds are shown in the taskbar, and you can right-click on the app at any time to see which running programs are using your connection—useful for rooting out a rogue app or some malware that's sending data even when everything else is supposed to be closed down.

The app is also useful if you're worried about how much bandwdith you're using. Even though it can only report on one connection on one computer, if you do most of your browsing on that one system, it can give you an idea of how much data you're consuming every day, week, or month. NetSpeedMonitor isn't exactly new, but it is useful. Plus, it's completely free, and available for Windows XP, Windows Vista, Server 2003, and Windows 7, and comes in both 32-bit and 64-bit flavors. Used it before? Have an alternative? Let us know your preferred app in the comments below.

NetSpeedMonitor | FlorianGilles.com via Tekzilla Daily

PlayOnLinux Installs Windows Games and Programs on Linux Hassle-Free [Linux Downloads]

2012-03-30T14:30:00Z

Wine is a great way to run your favorite Windows programs on Linux, but if you don't want to mess with a program's settings to get it just right, free app PlayOnLinux has a bunch in its database that you can install with one click.

PlayOnLinux uses Wine to install these programs, so you aren't getting some half-assed emulation here—this is just a way to quickly and easily install your favorite apps from one simple menu. It has a ton of games, from Starcraft II to Portal to Mass Effect, plus other popular Windows apps like Microsoft Office. Essentially, it takes the technical, behind-the-scenes work and does it all for you, so you can get to using your apps. It'll even install the best version of Wine for each app, meaning you always get the best experience possible. Hit the link to check it out, and see the How-To Geek link for a more in-depth guide on what else it can do.

PlayOnLinux is a free download for Linux systems. It's available in the Ubuntu repositories, too, so you can just grab it right from the Ubuntu Software Center.

PlayOnLinux | via How-To Geek

Screenleap Offers One-Click Screen Sharing for Free, No Sign-Ups or Installs Required [Webapps]

2012-03-28T12:00:00Z

Just when you thought there were plenty of free web services that allow you to easily share your desktop with others, new webapp Screenleap simplifies screen sharing even further. Screenleap allows you to share your desktop with as many people as you choose, without signing up for an account, downloading and installing anything, and does it all for free.

In fact, the only software you'll need on your system to use Screenleap is the Java Runtime Environment, which most people already have. The first time you use Screenleap, you'll have to grant the service permission to run in your browser, but aside from that, the service is completely hassle and setup-free. Just visit the website, click to share your screen, and go. Once your screen is shared, you'll get a link to send to as many people as you want to see what you're working on. The URL is only active while your screen sharing session is live, and while you don't get advanced tools like annotations, zooming, or chat, once it's running, you do get a ridiculously simple way to share what you're working on with others.

Granted, there's no shortage of options for screen-sharing and collaboration. Google+ has it, and we've examined other options in the past, like TeamViewer, LogMeIn, Join.me, and GoToMyPC. Even if you prefer one of those other options, Screenleap may be worth keeping in the arsenal when you don't have the time or energy to fire up one of the others.

Screenleap | via The Next Web

Create a Hidden Encrypted Volume on Your Computer to Hide Sensitive Data When You're Forced to Decrypt Your Machine [Security]

2012-03-20T22:00:00Z

Using full-disk encryption (FDE) is a great first step if you want to protect your data, but sometimes it isn't enough. The U.S. Government can force you to decrypt your data, so if you truly want to stay protected you need to hide your sensitive files elsewhere and use your primary disk as a decoy. Security expert Brandon Gregg explains:

FDE drives still leave your data and personal information vulnerable in at least two scenarios: 1) You are forced to turn over your password (as in Judge Blackburn's District Court ruling), or 2) Someone has hacked into your live machine and remotely recording your keystrokes/data while you work. To address these issues, we are also going to put our personal/business files in an encrypted directory-but not using just any encryption scheme. Encryption with hidden volumes is the key to really protecting your information and rights. With a correctly implemented hidden volume on your encrypted hard drive, you don't have to worry when someone cracks (or coerces you into giving up) the password. When they use it to open the door, they will only see the closet.

Brandon suggests using a bad password for the "closet" (your encrypted hard drive—not the sensitive data), such as password. It'll get cracked easily, which will encourage the person looking at your data to believe that you're not smart enough to hide and encrypt your truly sensitive data elsewhere. Keeping that data in a secret volume is a very clever trick and requires hardly more work than encrypting your disk in the first place. If you're looking to keep your files secure, this is a great way to do it.

Three steps to properly protect your personal data | CSO Online via Quora

Console2 - A Better Windows Command Prompt

2011-06-08T05:13:59Z

I was working on my Mac today and while I maintain that the OS X finder is as effective as shooting your hands fill of Novocaine, I remain envious of the simplicity of their Terminal. Not much interesting has happened in the command prompt world in Windows since, well, ever. I actually blogged about text mode as a missed opportunity in 2004. That post is still valid today, I think. Text is fast. I spend lots of time there and I will race anyone with a mouse, any day.

I blogged about Console2 as a better prompt for CMD.exe in 2005. Here we are 6 years later and I hopped over there to see Console2 was still being developed. They were on build 122 then, and they are, magically and to their extreme credit, still around and on build 147. Epic.

Open Source projects may be done, but they are never dead.

I downloaded Console2 at http://sourceforge.net/projects/console/files/ and put it c:\dev\utils which is in my PATH.

Here's how I set it up for my default awesomeness.

Right-click in the main console and click Edit | Settings.
Under Console, set your default Startup Directory
Under Appearance|More, hide the menu, status bar and toolbar.
Under Appearance, set the font to Consolas 15. Not 14, not 16. Black background, Kermit green foreground color.
Set Window Transparency to a nice conservative 40 for both Active and Inactive. Not too in your face, but enough glassiness to say "I'm a subtle badass."
Under Behavior set "Copy on Select"
Under Hotkeys, change the New Tab 1 hotkey to Ctrl-T because that's what it should be. You'll have to click on the hotkey, then in the textbox, then type the hot-key you want AND press Assign for it to stick.
Under Hotkeys, change Copy Selection to Ctrl-C and Paste to Ctrl-V then rejoice and wonder why Windows doesn't work like this today. At this point, you may want to device if you want "Copy on Select" to happen automatically under Behavior. That'll save you the Control-C if you like.
Now, the subtlety. Under Tabs, you (if you are me) want two default tabs, one for CMD.EXE and one for PowerShell because you don't like your peas and carrots to touch on your plate.
- Set your Console|cmd.exe first tab to this shell if you want it to be a Visual Studio command prompt. Be aware of the PATH if you are not on x64 like I am.
  - %comspec% /k ""C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\VC\vcvarsall.bat"" x86
  - I also set my icon to the vscommand.ico custom awesome VS icon I created a while back.
- Then, make another Tab called PowerShell with this path:
  - %SystemRoot%\syswow64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe
  - And I used the vspowershell.ico icon 'cause I'm into flair.

You'll have a nice "New Tab" option where you can make one of either shell. Note the general loveliness of this understated shell. I can open a new Tab with Ctrl-T (or lots) and use Ctrl-Tab to move between them. I took the screenshot with the background so you can see the transparency.

One final reason why Console2 rocks? It's freaking resizable in two directions, unlike the Windows CMD.exe console.

Console2 is a great little front-end for your existing shell, no matter what it is. Note that Console2 isn't a shell itself, it's just a face on whatever you are already using. Enjoy.

PdfMasher Turns PDFs into Ereader-Friendly HTML the Right Way [Video]

2011-07-12T19:00:00Z

Windows, Mac, and Linux: PDFs are great, and while many ereaders do support them they're just not optimized for viewing. There are also plenty of apps that convert PDF to HTML to help solve this problem, but that tends to destroy the great formatting you get with a PDF. Basically, you always have to sacrifice something. With PdfMasher, you don't.

PdfMasher lets you import a PDF and turn it into an HTML document that actually doesn't suck. When you're making the conversion you select and identify certain text blocks so it knows what's what. That way it won't just throw text anywhere, but treat it like the kind of text it is. You can also ignore irrelevant pages, link footnotes, and more. While PdfMasher is in early development and still has a ways to go, it's shaping up to be a really handy ebook conversion tool. If you want it now, it's available for free for Windows, Mac, and Linux (although donations are appreciated).

PDFMasher | via Ghacks

You can follow Adam Dachis, the author of this post, on Twitter and Facebook. Twitter's the best way to contact him, too.

Plug in a USB Cable The Right Way (The First Time, Every Time) by Looking at The Seam [Annoyances]

2012-02-24T20:00:00Z

Plugging in a USB cable is often an exercise in frustration, involving multiple jiggling and flipping attempts when really this should be a straightforward connection. Avoid this annoyance going forward: Look to the USB connector's seam.

We've mentioned before that the USB symbol on cables can tell you which way is up and thus help you plug it in the right way every time, but sometimes that symbol isn't there (e.g., on a flash drive).

In lieu of making your own marker on the cable or drive to note which way to plug it in, look for something that is on every USB connector: the seam. Lifehacker reader coren tipped us off to this. The seam should be facing down when you plug the USB cable or flash drive into a horizontal port.

Apartment Therapy confirms this and says that for vertically oriented ports, the seam should be facing left.

So, remember, seams down or left, and goodbye USB frustrations. Update: the actual orientation might not be down and left for your system, as some commenters have noted (e.g., if you have a cheap case). But, once you know how your system's USB ports are aligned with your USB cables' seams, then you know how to plug it in every time going forward.

Clever USB Connection Solutions and Tips | Apartment Therapy