Video: . Project Overview Have any old school floppy drives lying around? Get hacking... and transform them into an electronic orchestra! This project uses a myRIO embedded controller and four floppy disk drives. The myRIO effectively plays the disk drives like musical instru ...more
Ironing is a serious chore: hot, unpleasant, and frustrating all in one, but necessary if you don't want to look like you crawled out of bed just before work. While you might only turn to your flatiron when faced with wrinkled clothing, this little appliance packs the power to ...more
Hello, hackers and engineers! Today we are going to dive a tiny bit deeper into the secrets of psychology, and how we can use them with hacking and social engineering attacks. For those of you that haven't looked at any of my other social engineering tutorials, I always tell ...more
From time immemorial, human beings seem to be at odds with one another. When these differences become so heated and unresolvable, it eventually erodes into physical violence. This violence has manifested into some of the most horrific exercises in human history, things which e ...more
There's nothing in this life that we love more than making one ingredient or one food tool do multiple things. It saves money! It saves time! It makes us look smart at cocktail parties! Without further ado, here are several ways to save money, waste less food, and make the mo ...more
Whenever you buy a newer iPhone model, you get a set of Apple EarPods with remote and microphone built-in. Aside from their comfortable design and high-quality sound they provide, these headphones offer additional functionality beyond just pausing and playing music. Below is ...more
There are so many cutesy pink, red, and heart-shaped desserts and drinks put out on Valentine's Day, but none of those really get you into a low-light mood. Instead, turn up the heat with one of these aphrodisiac cocktails for grown-ups. What all experts seem to agree on is t ...more
Leaving your computer unattended, whether at home, work, or a coffee shop, even for just a short while, is enough time for someone to steal it or look at your personal files. While there are ways to deter thieves, it's a little harder to keep snoops away. You could put your c ...more
The internet is forever. When you put something out there, it can easily be re-shared, floating from server to server indefinitely with no way of taking it back. It's a scary thought when you consider that a young adult's grandchildren will one day have access to their drunken ...more
If you're a fan of Thai food, I'm sure you're familiar with sticky rice. There is something so special about its chewy texture and sweet flavor. If you have a desire to make it in your own kitchen but don't have the proper tools such as a traditional bamboo basket or stackable ...more
Welcome back, my hacker novitiates! Eluding and evading antivirus software and intrusion detection systems is one of the most critical tasks of the hacker. As soon as a new exploit is developed and discovered, the AV and IDS developers build a signature for the attack, which ...more
A little cooking mistake can lead to tough meat, spoiled food, and even a bacterial explosion in your kitchen if you're not careful. These five simple, easy-to-fix kitchen mistakes are some of the most commonly made in households around the world. Luckily, you can correct thes ...more
The first few times I posted on some of the Android forums out there, I asked things like "Does anybody how I can make my phone do this or that?" Without fail, the responses to these types of questions were always one word—Tasker. If you're not familiar with it, Tasker is an ...more
Like cigars and whiskey, Lapsang Souchong tea is an acquired taste. Some people never get over the pungent, tarry flavor and intense smell of the beverage, but using it as a rub, marinade, or other seasoning is totally smart. The tea adds a smoky yet not overwhelming flavor to ...more
Welcome back, my fledgling hackers! With this first article, I am initiating a new series intended to convey to my readers the skills necessary to develop your own exploits. As many of you know, soon after an exploit is found in the wild, software developers begin to work on ...more
Eating vegetarian isn't just for vegetarians. There are plenty of reasons, health and economics-wise, to consider forgoing the meat for a meal or three. Rather than get deep into the world of fake meat (although there's many a tasty alternative to be found there, to be sure), ...more
Believe it or not, you can put your money to use very efficiently in a new way: your credit or debit card can serve as a blade in desperate situations. (It might even be handier than dental floss as a brilliant substitution for specialized kitchen tools.) While I wouldn't take ...more
Audiobooks are great because they require little-to-no effort on your behalf. When driving in traffic, why not listen to George R.R. Martin's lengthy A Feast for Crows instead of repetitive, commercial-laden radio? Maybe it harks back to prepubescent bedtime readings, but havi ...more
The other day I was perusing my Instagram when I came upon a curious hashtag... #OnePotPasta. Intrigued, I investigated further and discovered a whole world that was previously unbeknownst to me. How was it possible, I asked myself, to cook pasta with all of the ingredients i ...more
Whether you call it chicken-fried steak, country-fried steak, Milanese, wiener schnitzel, or breaded cutlet, there's something irresistible about a piece of meat that's been treated until it's thin and tender, dredged in beaten egg and flavorful bread crumbs, then fried until ...more
When it comes to dictating what happens when the Galaxy Note 3's S Pen is detached, the stock settings that Samsung provides are severely lacking. There are only two measly options: launching Samsung's own Action Memo app, or displaying the Air Command menu. If you want to la ...more
French toast is one of those things that everybody kind of knows how to make, but few people know how to do really well. And while the dish originally does hail from France (its original name, pain perdu, means lost or wasted bread), it has become a beloved American breakfast ...more
There are a ton of great new features in iOS 8, and one of the most interesting (and perplexing) ones is called "Family Sharing." By utilizing this feature, you are creating a continuity among all of the iOS devices in your family, granting members the ability to share apps, ...more
Break out the office supplies and kitchen utensils, because improving your morning makeup routine is about to get a lot easier. Some of the things you have lying around the house can provide the perfect solution for some of the most common beauty problems. We've collected 10 o ...more
Welcome back, my aspiring hackers! Many of you have installed Kali Linux as a virtual machine (VM) using VMware or VirtualBox, while others have installed Kali (or BackTrack) in a dual-boot system. The drawback to installing these hacking systems as a VM is that it then requi ...more
If you've ever had issues charging your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch, like most other Apple products, the culprit to blame is usually a frayed or damaged cable. It's a common design flaw due to the thinness of the cords and the weak sheath surrounding them — but that's not alwa ...more
When people first learn that their Android device is capable of dual-booting different operating systems, e.g. Linux, they almost universally respond with, "That's so cool." And for those of us ambitious enough to actually try one out, we are typically filled with glee as we s ...more
I'm all about saving time. If there's a quicker way to do something, I'm going to find it. For this reason, whenever I need to search through old emails or compose new ones in Gmail, I do it directly from Chrome's address bar, or as Google likes to call it, the omnibox—and you ...more
Welcome back, my novice hackers! In a recent tutorial, I showed you how to use shikata_ga_nai to change the signature of a payload to evade detection by security devices (firewalls, IDS, etc.) and AV software. Shikata_ga_nai is an encoding module in Metasploit that XORs the ...more
Fish is delicious, and as the Harvard School of Public Health points out, incredibly good for you. There are many studies that show regularly consuming a couple of servings of fish per week can help prevent heart disease and may well reduce your chances of stroke, depression, ...more
When it's most important for me to browse the web incognito, I always seem to forget to enable private browsing. If that sounds like you, it's time you stop making that mistake for good. Manually deleting the cache and browser history is a thing of the past, and as it turns ou ...more
With a root bounty of over $18,000 up for the taking, developers were highly motivated to get the AT&T and Verizon Wireless variants of the Samsung Galaxy S5 rooted. Legendary hacker George Hotz, aka Geohot, has won the race and can now step up to claim his prize. Hotz is not ...more
Back in August, Google introduced Android Device Manager. This new service allowed you to locate, lock, or wipe a lost or stolen Android device from either a companion app or a web interface. Effectively, this is the "kill switch" that legislators are clamoring for. So, as ow ...more
Like Costco's price codes or the tags on your bread, the numerical codes printed on those sticky little fruit and vegetable labels can reveal a lot of information to us consumers. Once you understand the codes, you can look at that little label (also known as PLU, or "price lo ...more
It took many months of cries from all around the internet—and a particularly large groan from an ex-Lifehacker editor-in-chief—but Apple has not only acknowledged the existence of its iMessage problem, it's promising a fix. Update: Apple has finally fixed the issue by creatin ...more
Hard-boiled (also known as hard-cooked) eggs are notoriously easy to mess up. We've all ended up with tough, rubbery egg whites and overcooked yolks that have that unappetizing gray-green ring around the edge. An ideal hard-cooked egg has a firm yet tender white, while the yol ...more
In today's dog-eat-dog world, every minute matters. Whether you're in school or working for the Man, a huge amount of your day is consumed by tasks, assignments, and other kinds of work. Then there's the time you spend playing video games, watching TV, or screwing around on yo ...more
Welcome back, my novice hackers! I have tried to emphasize throughout this "Hack Like a Pro" series that good reconnaissance is critical to effective hacking. As you have seen in many of these hacks, the techniques that we use are VERY specific to the: Operating system, Serv ...more
Unless your work clothes require dry cleaning, you probably only go to the cleaner a few times a year. And for those few items in your closet for which you do, you have to then find the time and extra budget to make a trip all the way to the cleaners and back again. In the end ...more
There are much better things that can go in your iPhone's status bar besides an always-on indicator displaying what carrier you're shelling out money to every month. While it would be nice to get rid of the carrier name altogether at the top of the screen, an even better optio ...more
Unless you like paying exorbitant prices for out-of-contract phones, most of us are stuck with the one we already have for two or more years. The tech industry moves fast, and as new phones are released seemingly every month, your Samsung Galaxy S4 might start looking older by ...more
You probably already know what you want to do when you grab your phone. More than likely, you're either going to make a call, send a text, or open an app. So why can't you just do that right from your Samsung Galaxy S3's lock screen? Instead of entering in your passcode or pa ...more
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Welcome back, my nascent hackers! Earlier, I wrote a guide on finding operating system and application vulnerabilities in Microsoft's own security bulletins/vulnerability database. In this tutorial, I will demonstrate another invaluable resource for finding vulnerabilities an ...more
Most of us have conducted an investigatory science project without even knowing it, or at least without knowing that's what it was called. Most science experiments performed, from elementary to high school students and all the way up to professional scientists, are investigato ...more
Welcome, my neophyte hackers! The aspiring hacker needs to know a bit of Linux to be successful, and probably most importantly, Linux networking. To fill that knowledge gap, I'm offering this guide on Linux networking basics. I assume that you understand a small amount of net ...more
Welcome back, my rookie hackers! Several of you have written me asking about where they can find the latest hacks, exploits, and vulnerabilities. In response, I offer you this first in a series of tutorials on finding hacks, exploits, and vulnerabilities. First up: Microsoft ...more
In my first tutorial on Linux basics, I discussed the importance of hackers using Linux and the structure of the directory system. We also looked briefly at the cd command. In this second Linux guide, I'll spend a bit more time with changing directories, listing directories, c ...more
BitTorrent—corporations hate it with a passion, but the people love it. The notorious file-sharing protocol was responsible for 36.8% of all upstream Internet traffic last year, as well as 10.3% of all traffic. Unfortunately, BitTorrent has gotten a bad rap with its role in p ...more
Welcome back, my hacker trainees! A number of you have written me regarding which operating system is best for hacking. I'll start by saying that nearly every professional and expert hacker uses Linux or Unix. Although some hacks can be done with Windows and Mac OS, nearly al ...more
Dropbox lets you store anywhere from 2 GB to 18 GB of data for free, but if you want more cloud storage you're going to have to pay. Even if you do, Dropbox only gives you 500 GB for a pro membership. So how do you get more cloud storage without paying a dime? Start using Flic ...more
Welcome back, my nascent Hackers! In my last blog, we looked at a passive way to gather information necessary for a hack. The advantage of using passive recon is that it's totally undetectable, meaning that the target never knows you're scouting them and you leave no tracks. ...more
Welcome back, my novice hackers! Most of my tutorials up until this point have addressed how to exploit a target assuming that we already know some basic information about their system. These include their IP address, operating system, open ports, services running, and so on. ...more
The best part about April Fool's Day is that everyone is fair game. Even big tech companies like Google and Twitter get in on the action every year. It encourages even the most uptight, unfunny party-poopers among us to have a little fun driving each other crazy with pranks — ...more
Need to remove wrinkles from your shirt but don't want to bust out the iron and ironing board (or don't even have one)? Well, with a little bit of do-it-yourself ingenuity, you can "iron out" that wrinkly top in no time. For example, if you need to hop into the shower, simply ...more
The creation of private browsing was brought upon by the backlash against ad tracking and other ways that sites and agencies take away users' privacy online. People were tired of getting spammed with ads for Vitamin C pills simply because they visited WebMD. Private browsing i ...more
An internet connection has become a basic necessity in our modern lives. Wireless hotspots (commonly known as Wi-Fi) can be found everywhere! If you have a PC with a wireless network card, then you must have seen many networks around you. Sadly, most of these networks are sec ...more
Safari has a new feature that helps you discover the most beneficial aspects of a webpage without having to dig through the page or read the entire thing — and it works on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. It can make web browsing more efficient and websites easier to navigate while ensu ...more
Some iOS and iPadOS apps offer alternative app icons you can switch between. Beyond that, you'd have to create aliases in the Shortcuts app to customize the look of the app icons on your Home Screen. But that would mean two icons for each app in the App Library. Now, in a new ...more
There are a lot of great features for your iPhone with iOS 18, released Sept. 16, but one of the coolest features is also one of the simplest and most satisfying — one that you'll notice every day you use your iPhone. And for now, it's an iPhone exclusive, so you won't get the ...more