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One Dozen Super-Useful (and Free!) Android Apps [Android]

Posted on April 15, 2009
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Six months ago we pointed out the best Android apps to boost your mobile productivity, but since then more free applications have appeared in the Market that offer useful features you don’t want to miss.

Let’s take a look at a few notable free apps that make getting things done with your Android handset easier and more fun. All of these are available in the Android Market on your phone; the apps that have dedicated web sites are linked below.

Gmote: Turn Android into a remote control for your computer and its music and movies with Gmote. Perfect for controlling your media center PC under the television from the couch, Gmote can browse what media files you want to play and offers regular play, pause, rewind, and volume controls (as shown). Alternately, you can go into Gmote’s touchpad mode and drive the mouse on your computer screen with your phone, launching and switching applications. Gmote requires that you install server software on your computer as well as the Android app to work.

Sticky: Android doesn’t come with a built in notes application, but Sticky will give you colored digital Post-Its you can hide or show, drag and drop around your Android home screen.

Nightwatch: If you charge your phone on your nightstand while you sleep, you want Nightwatch. Nightwatch converts Android into a fullscreen clock automatically when you plug it in to charge.

Hungry!: Simplify your visits to the supermarket with Hungry!, a grocery shopping application. Enter the list of items you need to pick up at the grocery store, and check them off as you buy them with Hungry!. You can email your shopping list to your spouse with Hungry!, and see your purchase history and top most-bought items, as well.

Shake Awake: One of Android’s annoyances (that will hopefully be fixed in future releases) is lack of easy access to the keypad when you’re on a call. Right now, when you’re on a call, Android slips into sleep mode, which means you have to mess with the wake button to punch in numbers on the keypad (like a teleconference PIN or to use any number-driven menu system). Shake Awake is here to fix that annoyance: While you’re on a call, a quick movement of the handset wakes up Android for easy keypad access.

Useful Switchers: Easily toggle and configure Android’s settings with Useful Switchers, an all-in-one settings panel. Set your ringer behavior (sound and/or vibration), toggle your Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Airplane Mode, and GPS on and off, set your screen brightness and timeout, and even launch a handy flashlight (bright white screen) all from one pane in Useful Switchers.

Contacts Clean-up: If you’re the type who likes all of the dollar bills in your wallet smoothed out, all facing the same way, and sorted by denomination, then you probably want all your contacts’ phone numbers to be in the same format, too. Contacts Clean-up does just that: you enter the phone number format you like best (with or without dashes, dots, country codes, etc), and Contacts Clean-up will sweep through your contacts list and reformat them all in one shot.

ActionComplete: Practitioners of David Allen’s Getting Things Done productivity system should check out ActionComplete, and GTD manager for Android. Set up your projects, next actions, wait list, and pending lists in ActionComplete, and associate people, places, and tags with each. ActionComplete will notify you when something is due—or if you've got location-awareness on, if you're in the place you've got something to do. (I haven't tested the location awareness/places feature thoroughly myself, but head into the app's preferences to turn on location awareness.) ActionComplete's web site says a web-based version of the app is "coming soon" as well.

No Signal Alert: When you walk into any dead zone where your phone’s got zero bars of cell reception, No Signal Alert lets you know. Especially useful for when you’re expecting that important call that just isn’t coming (because it can’t!), No Signal Alert offers audio, vibration, and status bar alerts when you’ve got no bars.

Free Dictionary Org: Ok, it’s not the fanciest dictionary we’ve ever used, but it’s free and it works like you’d expect: you enter a word to look up (and it suggests words as you tap), and Free Dictionary Org displays a definition fetched from the web (so it doesn’t work offline).

Weather Channel: While it’s not the prettiest weather application you’ll ever see, the Weather Channel app is serious about giving you the current conditions, hourly, 36-hour, and 10-day forecast. Set up multiple places in this app for easy crowing about how perfect it is in San Diego while your relatives are getting hailed on in Oklahoma.

Locale: Make sure your ringer switches to vibrate during that weekly meeting, but goes on full blast at home with Locale, a location-aware settings manager for Android. Based on conditions like battery power, location, date, or time, Locale can change Android’s settings automatically for you.

Even six months later, previously mentioned Compare Everywhere, Shazam, and AnyCut are still prime free Android apps, as well as Secrets password manager and GV for Google Voice users.

Special thanks to the folks at Android and Me and the commenters on this Smarterware post for informing this article. If you’re feeling like some more Android eye candy, check out my Show Off Your Android Flickr group.

What are your favorite useful and free Android apps? Let us know in the comments.

Gina Trapani, Lifehacker’s founding editor, loves a good free Android app. Her weekly feature, Smarterware, appears every Wednesday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Smarterware tag feed to get new installments in your newsreader.





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The Beginner’s Guide to Creating Virtual Machines with VirtualBox [How-to]

Posted on April 10, 2009
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Virtual machines can seem juuuuust a bit too geeky for most otherwise computer-friendly people. That’s sad, because it’s an easy, free way to try or use a separate OS without messing with your hard drive.

What’s virtualization? Why get that nerdy?

Virtualization is a whole computer concept unto itself, at least on the server/enterprise/big-fancy-corporate level. For home users, talk about “virtual machines” generally refers to x86 virtualization. Basically, it’s software that allows an entire operating system (the “guest”) to run on another OS (the “Host”), whether in a container window, or full-screen, or in what’s sometimes called a “seamless” mode, where just one application is run from the “guest”

Why would you want to run a virtual machine on your computer? Plenty of reasons:

  • You like using one OS, but need just an app or two from another running in their natural environments—Office or Photoshop in Windows (nine times out of 10), a light-on-resources game, or maybe even some uber-cool Linux app.
  • You want to try out some new software, but would rather not chance it mucking up the pretty decent system you’ve got right now.
  • Web sites that don’t play nice with the operating system you’re running (we’re looking at you, almost every streaming site except Hulu and YouTube).
  • You’re intrigued at the idea of trying out a Linux desktop, but the word “partitioning” doesn’t sound like how you want to spend a Saturday afternoon.

For those and many other good reasons, we're going to walk through installing VirtualBox, a free, open-source virtualization tool offered for Windows, Mac, and Linux desktops, and then get virtual copies of Windows XP and Ubuntu running inside them. Installing Windows Vista (Ultimate or Business only, unfortunately) or the Windows 7 beta is about the same process, and almost any Linux distribution is friendly as a virtual machine, but this will give you an understanding of the basic process. Before you even ask, by the way, you can't run OS X as a guest system on Windows or Linux, but the VirtualBox can run most anything else—including those pre-rolled virtual images you find laying around the internet.

I have to note here that VirtualBox is far from the only competitor in this field—in fact, many in the tech community report that VMWare's Workstation offers more features and handles multiple virtual machines better. But VirtualBox is relatively easy to set up, free to install, and works on all three major operating systems.

Setting up

First off, head over to VirtualBox’s Download page and grab the right copy for your system. The only real choice falls on Linux users having to choose between 32- and 64-bit versions for their particular distribution—you don't want to run a 64-bit guest on a 32-bit host machine, if you can avoid it. Linux users should note that while there may be a version of VirtualBox available in their repository, it's usually the Open Source Edition, which may not be as up-to-date as the VirtualBox download page, and doesn't offer support for USB devices, along with a few other odds and ends.

Click through the install screens; in most cases, you won’t have to stop and change anything. You’ll probably get a warning that VirtualBox will have to disconnect and re-connect your network connection for a few seconds while it’s setting up, so finish up any crucial net transfers.

During setup on Windows, you'll be asked to install "device software" or "drivers"—hit "Install" for each, or check the box that indicates you'll "Always trust …" Sun's drivers.

Once VirtualBox is installed, launch it and you’ll arrive at a tauntingly empty screen:

Setting up

Let’s get something running in there. One big advantage of virtual machines over partitioning, dual-booting, and all that other hard-drive-tweaking stuff is the ability to install a system right from an ISO file. So if you’re testing out a Linux system, just download the ISO from Ubuntu, Fedora, or wherever. And if you’ve got an older XP installation disc, you can slipstream the latest service pack into it to create a minimal-hassle installation ISO image, and never bother burning it. While you’re at it, check out Adam’s guide to trimming down Windows to the bare essentials for a real speedy virtual installation ISO. If you’ve got your installation CD or DVD, however, that’ll play, too.

Hit "New" and you'll be asked to give your system a name you'll recognize—in my case, an XP system I'll unleash all my morning Lifehacker test downloads on—and let VirtualBox know generally what variety and flavor it is. Linux users trying out a funky remix can head for Linux->Other Linux.

This next screen asking for a memory allocation seems imposing—I won't give it enough! I'll kill my host system with too much!—but you can entirely change it later on. VirtualBox will recommend a minimum amount, based on the OS you said you were installing, but your common sense will pay off here. I'm usually not running anything intensive on my system with 2GB of memory, so if lost half a GB, or 512MB, I'd probably not notice much. Your mileage will certainly vary, but try peeling off as much as you can at first, then scale it back if you notice your system becoming unstable, or bump it up if you get frustrated with a lag-tastic system-in-a-system.

The next screen asks you to either create a new hard disk image or use an existing one. Assuming this is a first install, keep Boot Hard Disk checked and hit Next to create the image. Hit Next again at the start of the “New Virtual Disk Wizard” (they keep changing the name from “Virtual” to “image,” but it’s all the same), then you’ll be asked to choose a dynamically expanding image or a fixed-size storage. This depends on how much space you’re willing to give your virtual OS. Do you have just 8GB you want to give over, and don’t want it reaching past that? Choose the fixed-size option, set a size amount in gigabytes, and relax. Or you can choose “dynamically expanding,” which, just like it sounds, allots only a little bit of space at first, but will re-report itself to the virtual system as bigger if the OS needs a bit more space.

If you happen to have multiple SATA hard drives in your system, or a fast external SATA, the How-To Geek recommends placing your virtual machine image (the “guest”) on a separate physical drive from the machine running it (the “host”) for better multi-tasking and performance speed, plus a little less wear on a single hard drive. If not, don’t worry about it too much, and don’t go creating separate partitions for your machines, because you aren’t fooling anybody, least of all your system’s I/O bus.

Booting up

Assuming everything went well, you’ll see your new virtual system in the left-hand pane of the VirtualBox window. Huzzah! But before you hit “start,” let’s hit “Settings” and get it ready to roll the right way. The first category from the left-hand menu, General, lets you change how much base memory (or RAM) and video memory is given over to the virtual machine. Unless you’re planning to enable 3D effects, the default chosen for video memory should be fine, and the 3D acceleration box can remain un-checked. Let’s move down to “CD/DVD-ROM.”

Make sure "Mount CD/DVD Drive" is checked. If you're going to install your virtual system from a boot CD or DVD, put it in your computer's drive, then select "Host CD/DVD Drive." If you're using a downloaded or custom-made ISO file, select "ISO Image file," hit the folder icon to the right of the drop-down box, and then hit the "Add" button and browse for the ISO you're using. Once you've added an ISO file to this menu, you can mount it in any virtual machine you're running at any time—kind of a nice feature for files you need to get at often. Hit "Select" to close this dialog.

Back at the main Settings window, head down to the Audio and/or USB menus and enable them if you’re going to be needing sound or access to thumb/external drives while you’re in your OS-in-a-box. Before we get to the “Shared Folders,” which is pretty darned convenient, let’s boot our system. Hit OK and close out your Settings window, then hit Start back at the main box to get rolling.

Whatever ISO or disc you've supplied VirtualBox with will load just like it's on a machine for the first time, and you'll go through the same installation process as if you were loading Windows/Linux/whatever on a hard drive for the first time. You'll get occasional pop-ups from VirtualBox, "notifying" you that a mouse pointer is now in such-and-such a mode, the video display has changed, yada, yada—just hit OK and check the boxes so it doesn't bother you further. Click through all the usual name/username/password/registration jazz you're used to … All done? Great. After however many reboots, you'll arrive at your fresh, clean desktop, which you could start using right away. You might notice, however, that the resolution is limited, the mouse might be jerky, and your sound or USB might not work out of the box. That's where the Guest Additions come in.

Fine-tuning

Head to the “Devices” menu at the top of the virtual OS window (if you’ve accidentally gotten into full-screen mode, hit right-Control+F to switch out) and choose “Install Guest Additions.” In a virtual Windows, you’ll get a prompt like you were installing software you just downloaded; if not, you can open My Computer, open up the CD drive named “VirtualBox Guest Additions,” and run the auto-run software in there. In a virtual Linux, you may just get a CD or DVD mounted and displayed on the desktop. Each Linux system will be slightly different, but the Tombuntu blog’s instructions for installing VirtualBox Guest Additions in Ubuntu hold mostly true: head to where the ISO is mounted as a CD/DVD drive, then run VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run (or the -amd64 version for 64-bit systems). Click through everything, restart your system, and things should be a lot more convenient: Your virtual desktop resizes itself to however big you make its window, the mouse doesn’t get “captured” and require un-locking when you click around, and everything should be a bit smoother.

You’ve got a well-oiled virtual machine at this point, but let’s make it real easy to pass files between your host and guest systems (terminology should be making sense at this point, no?). The VirtualBox makers have described the process for Windows and Linux users in a FAQ post, and I’ve described the virtual-Windows-inside-Linux process in more detail in our guide to running Windows apps seamlessly inside Linux. Giannis Tsakiris has also explained setting up sharing from an XP guest, and the process is much the same for any virtual Windows (although some of the network tools have changed names). Need a bit more? Here’s a quick video guide for a Windows guest system:

Now you’re up and running with a machine you don’t have to feel bad about messing with, or which lets your run the few apps you need in one OS while enjoying the benefits of the one you really want to work in. Wanna explore what kinds of systems you can install, and save yourself some install time while you’re at it? Head over to VirtualBox Images, where you can download and run pre-compiled VDI files (i.e. VirtualBox hard drive images, like the dynamic/fixed kind you created above) for some swap-and-run fun. (Thanks to CherylIshabunny for the link!).

Are you an experienced virtual machine user with suggestions on making the process smoother for beginners? Just starting out and need something clarified? Drop your questions and suggestions in the comments, and we’ll update the post as the good stuff trickles in.





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Hive Five: Five Best Mind Mapping Applications [Hive Five]

Posted on March 29, 2009
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Mind mapping is a great way to add structure to brainstorming sessions and visualize your ideas. Check out the applications your fellow readers use to do their best brainstorming.

Earlier this week we asked you to share which mind mapping application helped you brainstorm most effectively. The votes are in and we’re back to share the results and arm you with the tools to make your next think tank meeting that much more productive.

MindMeister (Web Application, Free)

MindMeister is by far the most simplistic mind mapping tool in the top five, but its simplicity is definitely an asset. Once you’re logged into the service, you can create a fully functional mind map using little more than the directional arrows and the Insert key to add new nodes to your map. Additional customizations like font size and node colors are available for when you want to go beyond the basics. In the upper right corner is a navigation window, handy for when your mind maps become larger than the display space. Exporting is also a strong point for MindMeister; you can export your files to a text outline, PDF, JPG, PNG, or GIF. MindMeister’s history function lets you view past versions of your mind map and revert to them if you desire. You can share your maps for public collaboration or hand-select collaborators. Upgrading from the free account to the premium account gives you some handy additional features like map searching, offline editing, and the ability to export your maps to popular software like FreeMind and MindManager.

Mindjet MindManager (Windows/Mac, $349)

Mindjet MindManager isn't cheap by any means, but you get more than your share of value and sophistication for the hundreds you spend on the program. The interface and feature set of MindManager are very polished, and the primary menus are set up like the Microsoft Office Ribbon. After the initial installation, MindManager walks you through the creation of a sample mind map—helpful both to familiarize you with the interface but also to show you features you may have overlooked. MindManager is definitely oriented towards corporate environments, including extensive integration with the Office suite and support for linking your mind maps directly into common database formats like MySQL and Access. Finding information in large mind maps is easy thanks to topic sorting, filtering, and text search tools. Mind maps can be exported in a variety of formats, but most notably in interactive PDF files and embeddable Flash animations. MindManager is available as a 30 day trial.

XMind (Windows/Mac/Linux, Free)

XMind is the kind of free application that makes you forget you’re not paying for the privilege of using it. The interface is simple and intuitive to use. You can quickly move through your entire mind map with only a handful of keystrokes or jump over to the outline view for even quicker navigation. In addition to a basic mind map you can also create fishbone, organizational, tree, and logic charts. You can export charts as HTML, images, or text, and XMind comes a free account on XMind.net which allows you to share your charts online and embed them into blogs and web sites. There is a professional version of XMind which expands on the functionality of the base application and allows you to create online charts and collaborate with others. XMind Pro is $49 per year, but most people will find the free version more than robust enough for their mind mapping needs. Portable versions available for all three supported platforms.

FreeMind (Java, Free)

One of FreeMind's strongest selling points is a Java-based implementation. Whether you use it on Ubuntu or Windows, the features and user interface remain consistent. FreeMind is keyboard friendly with the core functionality well covered by keyboard shortcuts—I made the sample mind map pictured here without ever touching the mouse. The visual elements of your mind maps are highly customizable, including custom icons for flagging nodes on the map, color coding, grouping, and more. Mind maps created with FreeMind can be exported as HTML, PDF, and PNG files, among others.The support wiki for FreeMind is extensive and goes well beyond simply explaining how the application functions, covering things like how to add your own keyboard shortcuts and how to make the application portable.

iMindMap (Windows/Mac/Linux, $99-295)

iMindMap can claim two distinctions among the top five tools. First, it's the biggest download—weighing in at 135MB. Second it's the only application on the list developed by Tony Buzan—who lays claim to being the inventor of the mind map. iMindMap takes a different approach to mapping than the other applications in the list. Rather than create new nodes off the main idea by adding boxes, nodes are created by clicking in the center or the main idea and drawing away from it with the mouse. Each new idea is a branch off the center. Strangely, many of basic feature available in free mind-mapping software are only found in the more expensive versions of iMindMap, like the ability to expand and collapse branches. Mind maps created in iMindMap can be exported as PDF, JPG, PNG and text outline; a 7 day trial is available.

A small aside: Although we didn’t include it because the topic of this Hive Five was mind mapping software, it bears noting that nearly 20% of the votes went to analog methods like pencil and paper and using a whiteboard. For all your geeky ways, many of you have much love for good old fashioned analog brainstorming.

Now that you’ve seen the contenders for the crown of Master of the Mind Map, it’s time to log your vote for your favorite:

Which Mind Mapping Software Is Best?
( polls)

Agree with the spread? Can’t believe your favorite mind mapping tool didn’t make the top five? Sound off with your opinions in the comments below.





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Killer Typography Tools and Free Font Downloads [Fonts]

Posted on March 25, 2009
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Whether you’re putting together a resume, flyer, or web page, everyone needs to find and compare fonts some time. Here are some tools that can help you find the perfect font.

In all we’re looking at a slate of excellent tools you can use to organize your fonts and identify and compare them; then we’ll take a quick look at some great resources for downloading new fonts; and finally, we’ll show you how you can make your own font, pixel-by-pixel or from your own handwriting.

Organize and Preview Fonts

Every operating system comes with a built-in font viewer and installer, but sometimes the out-of-the-box options don’t cut it for serious font work. Take a look at a few alternatives.

All platforms with Adobe AIR: Test out words in any font already installed on your system using the free Font Picker application (original post). Enter the text you want to preview and scroll down the list of available fonts, and clear away the ones you don’t want using the X to narrow down your list of choices and compare the finalists in a single window.

Windows only: Organize, preview, categorize, and install fonts on your PC with the free AMP Font Viewer application (our original review). Particularly useful after you feast on the free font downloads listed below, Amp Font Viewer can categorize fonts and even install certain types for a single session, or save uninstalled fonts into a particular folder for archiving and backup. Windows users in search of the perfect font manager should also check out Cfont Pro (our original post).

Mac users, OS X’s built-in Font Book is pretty good for managing fonts, but don’t forget you can also use Quick Look to preview fonts. Linux users, check out Fonty Python (our original post).

Identify and Compare Fonts

Stealing is the sincerest form of flattery, so when you see a killer font and think, “I want that!” you also want to hit up one of these tools.

When you’re dying to know what hot font that web site or magazine is using, upload a digital image to the amazing WhatTheFont webapp (original post), a font-identifying system. If the font you’re trying to ID appears in an image on a web site (like a header), just enter the URL of the image and let WhatTheFont do its magic. If you’re looking to do some font identification on the go, you may also want to the WhatTheFont for iPhone. You’ll have to help WhatTheFont identify what letters are what in the image, and its results will include a few similar options to choose from. Keep in mind WhatTheFont won’t work for custom typography (like in Lifehacker’s header).

To find a font from memory, try out Identifont, a simple webapp that asks a series of questions about the font you want and narrows down the field to options that match your description. You can also enter a known font name and get similar fonts, or a font designer or publisher to get the fonts they’ve created.

Designer types trying to ID fonts from memory who notice things like whether it’s monospaced or serif should check out TypeNavigator webapp. Start by choosing the font form, name, or designer, then check off various attributes of the font down the line in the left sidebar, and TypeNavigator will display fonts that match on the right side.

Web page makers (or bloggers tweaking their CSS) should check out Typetester, a web-based screen font previewer. Enter your sample text into Typetester, and try out up to three different fonts (separated into web “safe” and otherwise), at different sizes and styles side-by-side. When you’ve got the family, size, and style you want to use on your web page, Typetester will spit out the CSS you need to hook it up on your page.

If you're working on an ongoing project that requires choosing fonts—or you just want to get more familiar with typography—consider printing out this nifty “Periodic Table of Typefaces” for your office wall (original post).

Free Font Downloads

There are countless places online to both purchase fonts or download them for free. Here are a few good sources for font freebies.

If you’re suffering from font overload, rely on the experts’ picks for best fonts. Designer Vitaly Friedman lists his 25 best free quality fonts here. (Got another quality list of free fonts? Post ‘em up in the comments.)

Make Your Own Fonts

Finally, if someone else’s font doesn’t cut it for you, there are a few ways to make your own.

Turn your handwriting into a font: with YourFonts (free, our original post), or Fontifier ($9). Back in the day I gave Fontifier a test run; see how it works and download my (terrible) handwriting font from my 2006 article, Make your own font.

Design your font pixel by pixel: If your chicken scratch won’t make a good font, you can design a custom font online with the easy FontStruct (our original post). While it’s not a pro tool, FontStruct lets you draw your font pixel-by-pixel in your web browser and download the results. Do the whole alphabet or a single letter, and browse the typographical creations others have created there.

What’s your favorite font or typography tool? Let us know in the comments.

Gina Trapani, Lifehacker’s founding editor, could spend all day playing with fonts. Her weekly feature, Smarterware, appears every Wednesday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Smarterware tag feed to get new installments in your newsreader.





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Five Best Live CDs [Hive Five]

Posted on February 22, 2009
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Live CDs (and DVDs) are versatile tools, allowing you to boot into an operating system without installing anything to your hard drives. Let’s take a closer look at the five most popular live CDs.

Photo by bulinna.

Earlier this week we asked you to tell us which live CD was your favorite. After tallying the votes we’re back to share the top five contenders. The following tools are unique compared to many of our software Hive Fives in that they are entirely independent of the main operating system installed on the computer. Live CDs load into the memory and allow you to use operating systems and accompanying tools without having to perform a permanent installation on the machine.

Knoppix

Knoppix is a Debian-based Linux distribution and one of the first Linux live CDs that was available. While the Knoppix distribution is packed with open-source goodness, one of the most popular uses for Knoppix is recovering files from damaged drives. To that end Knoppix is packed with open-source applications for testing disk integrity, recovering files, reading corrupted drives, and more. There are a total of 2,000 programs packed into the disc covering everything from disc recovery to media playback.

Ultimate Boot CD 4 Windows

The Ultimate Boot CD 4 Windows has a familiar interface. If you’re a Windows user, booting into a copy of Linux to get work done could be disorienting. The Ultimate Boot CD 4 Windows uses your Windows installation discs (only Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 are officially supported) to create a bootable version of Windows contained on a disc. Tons of quality Windows-based tools are included in the custom disc covering everything from backing up and cloning your discs to running diagnostics to partitioning and recovering data. Many of the tools on the disc are tools you may already be somewhat acquainted with, like UltraVNC, Recuva, and CCleaner. If you’re looking for a well packed toolbox that keeps you firmly planted in a comfortable Windows environment, The Ultimate Boot CD 4 Windows is an excellent choice.

Puppy Linux

Puppy Linux belongs to the family of ultra small linux distributions. Weighing in at under 100MB, it can easily be loaded on everything from a CD to a USB drive. The user interface is friendly even for a non-Linux user, and the basic tools you need for partitioning and file recovery are readily available—although it's just as great for web browsing and basic computing. Puppy Linux also has a rather handy feature: If you burn it to a re-writable CD, you can save your user settings for your next session.

BackTrack

BackTrack isn’t going to help you recover your lost vacation pictures, but it will make sure nobody can get into your network to steal them. Packed with 300 tools covering everything from packet sniffing to hot spot probing to brute force password attacks, BackTrack is live CD designed to facilitate penetration testing of computers and networks. Deployed by a skilled user, BackTrack will leave no corner of your computer and network security un-poked, scanned, prodded, and analyzed. If BackTrack was your friend, he’d be the friend who responded to you bragging about how secure your new house was by throwing a brick through the front window to prove otherwise. (You have weird friends.)

Ubuntu

Ubuntu's enormous popularity as the mainstream Linux distribution certainly helps bolster its rank among live CDs. Many a new user to Ubuntu has messed around with the operating system using a live CD before using that very same live CD to install the full operating system. Even if you don't intend to do a full install, just like Puppy Linux you can do all manner of computing tasks without leaving a trace on the computer you're using. The Ubuntu live CD comes packed with Open Office, Firefox, Pidgin, the BitTorrent client Transmission, and the open source image editor GIMP—a decent stable of tools for using Ubuntu as a portable computing platform.

Now that you’ve seen the top five, it’s time to vote on your favorite. Which live CD is the king of the bootable media?

Best Live CD?
( polls)

The following live CDs are worthy of honorary mention: Ophcrack is an extremely efficient rainbow-table based Windows password cracker (here’s how it works). Hiren’s Boot CD is a DOS-based boot disk that is absolutely packed with utilities like Partition Magic, Disk Director Suite, and Norton Ghost. A final nod goes to Gparted, a tool incorporated into many of the above live CDs. GParted is robust disk partitioning tool for creating, destroying, organizing and mirroring hard disks.

The five and accompanying honorable mentions merely reflect the most popular portion of the live CD based tools out there. If you have a tip, trick or tool to add to the heap, sound off in the comments below.





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Jump to a New Career with a Killer Resume and Plan [How To]

Posted on February 18, 2009
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Whether you're suddenly unemployed or just looking to change up, starting out in a new career is daunting. Take our advice on how to write—and plan—your way into a new field.

Photo by Yo Spiff.

Why switch careers?

Blogger, career writer, and Brazen Careerist founder Penelope Trunk knows from jumping ship. From her own ups and downs at work, both office-based and freelance, she’s compiled a (relatively) low-stress approach to making the switch. More important: She lists reasons why you should and shouldn’t move on:

Here are some bad reasons to switch careers:
1. You hate your boss. (Switch jobs, not careers.)
2. You want more prestige. (Get a therapist – you’re having a confidence crisis, not a career crisis.)
3. You want to meet new people. (Try going to a bar, or Club Med. What you really want is to get a life. Pick up a hobby.)

Here are some good reasons to switch careers:
1. You want a role that is more creative, more analytic or more management-oriented.
2. You want to live in a location that does not accommodate your current career.
3. You want more flexibility or fewer hours.

Drafting the resume

Now that you’ve set your mind to making the big move, let’s talk text.

Alexandra Levit, career specialist and author of How’d You Score That Gig?, graciously offered to provide some guidance on writing a resume for a new career path:

  • Getting past the minimum requirements: Use a functional format that lists achievements by general skill area. Most fields want your transferable skills, like project management and client relations.

    For example, if you spent a few years working at a toy store, but you want to get into architecture, you might highlight a project management skill and say that you managed a semi-annual special parents night, which included activities geared toward 150 regular customers. You should also focus on results you've achieved rather than job responsibilities—so instead of just saying that you sold infant-related toys and merchandise, you could say that you were named as the top infant toy salesperson, generating revenues of approx. $20K. By doing these things, you show that you have the right combination of talent and skills to get the job done, even if you don't have specific experience in that industry.

  • Avoid looking like a job-hopper: Hold each job for at least a year before you consider a change. Individuals who switch more often become known as chronic job jumpers, and employers either consciously or subconsciously avoid these candidates. Especially in this competitive climate, when a hiring manager sees a resume listing four jobs in three years, he won’t wait to hear your explanation. He’ll think that you can’t hold down a job, and he will move on to the next person.

    If you do have a history of moving around a lot, I suggest removing the months from your chronology line. For example, saying that you worked at a place from 2007-2008 sounds a lot more palatable than November 2007-March 2008. Also, if you have JUST quit a job or have been laid off, say that you have been at your last position from 2006 to present.

As for the rest of your text, we’ll recommend one of the five tactics we’ve suggested to rebuild your resume: Start with a list of reasons why you’re great, then distill it into your resume. All the other stuff—fonts, vertical bars, exact wording of "coffee-grabbing intern"—is just finesse. Start with a blank text editor or sheet of paper, and start throwing down whatever skills you have that the others don't. By doing so, you form the basis for a punchy, concise resume, and (bonus!) you hone your talking points for your interview. Photo by emdot.

Now onto the cover letter, often as important in getitng a hiring manager’s attention:

Don’t bore your next employer with your layoff story

Cynthia Shapiro, career strategist and author of What Does Somebody Have to Do to Get a Job Around Here?, points out to the Wall Street Journal that taking the time to explain your layoff not only wastes cover letter space, but won’t win you many sympathy points these days, as there are a lot of layoff stories to be told.

When applying, avoid expressing bitterness or self-pity. Many layoff victims send cover letters that blame the economy for their job loss, says Ms. Shapiro. There’s no need to even point out the fact that you’ve been laid off. “If your last work day was in October, your résumé will say that,” she explains.

Photo by sunshinecity.

In the same article, an IBM hiring manager notes that in a crowded, competitive group of candidates for a consulting job, what helped her pick the winner was a “can-do attitude.” More importantly, that applicant didn’t make a lot of requests, requirements, or pitch themselves for an exact job doing a precise thing. Get the job first, then work your way into the working environment you dream of.

What to expect (and plan for)

Not to keep hitting on the suck-it-up nail, but crossing into an entirely new realm of experience and work probably requires a bit of sacrifice. To jump-start a stalled job search, you might have to start humble and work your way into career confidence.

Career specialist Levit explains that process in detail for us:

  • Ease into a new career one foot at a time: Perhaps this means earning a paycheck at a more attainable job while doing a part-time internship in your new field, or taking an adult education class or workshop on the weekend. The only way to find out if you’re passionate about something is to try it – ideally with as little risk as you can manage.
  • Remember that any progress is good progress: In the quest to uncover a source of meaningful work, your worst enemy is inertia. Make an effort to do one thing, like e-mailing a networking contact or attending an event, every morning, every day, or before you do something else—that moves you a bit closer to your big-picture goal.
  • Have realistic expectations: Even if you’re lucky enough to finally get and hold a job in your dream career, there’s no such thing as the perfect work situation; dream job doesn’t mean “cushy” job. As your mom always told you, anything worth having in this world requires some effort. There will be some days you feel like shutting the alarm off and going back to sleep, especially if you’re being made to do grunt work at first, but many more ahead where you feel more energized by the prospect of work than you ever thought possible!


Your advice

If you've successfully gone from apples to oranges in your career, or even just from apples to different-colored, slightly sweeter apples, by all means—tell us how you got there in the comments.






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The First-Timer’s Guide to Building a Computer from Scratch [DIY]

Posted on February 11, 2009
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If you've never done it before, the idea of building a computer from the ground up can seem very intimidating—but it's one of the most satisfying projects a tech enthusiast can take on.

Being more of a software gal than a hardware geek myself, I was the only Lifehacker editor who had never built a PC from scratch. So when I needed a new PC late last year, I took the plunge and built my custom system. I'm so glad I did—the project turned out to be one of my proudest accomplishments of 2008. If you've cracked open your PC before to install a new hard drive or TV capture card, but you've never built a whole new system from the ground up, it's not as difficult as you might think. Here are my notes for first-timers who want to build instead of buy their next computer.

Why Build Instead of Buy

“But computers are so cheap these days,” you say. “Why waste the time and energy building your own system when you can get a great machine fully assembled and shipped to your door?” That’s a great question. Building your own PC will not save you time. It might save you money, but that’s not even the best reason to do it. For me, it was a fantastic hands-on educational experience. It gives me a deep sense of satisfaction every single day when I press the power button on my tower, watch it light up, and know that I plugged in the wire that goes from that light to the motherboard. Building your PC takes the mystery out of what’s going on inside that black box you spend hours on per day.

There are other good reasons to build instead of buy, too. With your own build you can customize your system just how you like and make your perfect media center or gaming machine. You can save money if you already have some parts (though see my warnings on the dangers of a “Frankenbuild” below). Upgrading your PC in the future becomes easier and cheaper since your parts aren’t tied to a particular manufacturer. With a custom build you can do fun stuff like overclock your CPU and get more bang for your buck, or install OS X where it was never intended to run.

In short, building your own PC makes you feel like a badass.

What You’re Getting Into

Don’t get me wrong, though: building a PC (for the first time especially) takes research, time, gumption, patience, and a willingness to deal with several WTF moments. If you’ve never cracked a PC’s case and installed parts, like a new hard drive or a video card, start there first. If you’ve got that experience under your belt, you might think that building a new PC is just a matter of snapping together a few parts. It is, but building from the ground up takes much more than an hour or two. My build took two full days, one online order, one returned motherboard, two trips to Fry’s, one condescending sneer from a sales associate when I asked a newb question, and one trip to Radio Shack. If that sounds like a lot, well, it was, and there were moments in the process when I wished I’d just bought a Dell. But when it finally all came together, all the sweat makes the results even sweeter.

Where to Start: Researching and Buying Your Parts

You scared off yet? No? Good. Let’s get down to it. There are a gadzillion articles on the internet about building your own PC, but many are way out of date, or just don’t get specific about what exactly you should buy. When I had to start researching what parts to purchase, of course I turned to savvy Lifehacker readers to help me out. Several readers mentioned Ars Technica’s excellent system buyer’s guide, which breaks down exactly what parts you’d want for one of three levels of computer: a “budget box,” a “hot rod,” or a “God box.” The 2008 guide published last fall; make sure you use the most recent one when you start your research. I started by plugging parts from Ars’ “hot rod” system list into Newegg to get a sense of price and see if there were any deals, coupons or upgrades. In the end I didn’t use Ars’ exact recommendations, but it was an awesome, up-to-date, jumping-off point.

Your research into parts is the most important stage of the process. For first-timers it can be bewildering, and you will have questions. Just keep reading, take notes, consult with forums or sales associates, and remember that if you make the wrong purchase you can always return it for the right one. In the photo to the left you’ll see my build’s case, motherboard, power supply, CPU, and RAM. (I had a video card, DVD drive, and a hard drive from an old machine I planned to use in my new build.)

See this entire comment thread for more resources on deciding what parts to buy for your budget.

Get Down and Dirty

Once you’ve got your hot little hands on all the parts you need, the real fun begins. There are two stages to your build: the hardware stage, and the software stage. Adam’s already covered how to install each individual hardware component. Here’s the list:

Once you’ve got everything plugged in and mounted inside your case, leave the case sides off and plug in your keyboard, mouse, monitor, and power, and press the On button. This is the moment of truth. The first time you see the lights come on and the system setup appear on-screen, you’ll feel like you’ve just arrived at the top of Mount Everest.

If the machine doesn't power on, or there's no video signal, or the keyboard doesn't work—just unplug everything and check your connections. It took me a few hair-pulling, teeth-gnashing attempts to get my new build to boot properly. If it doesn't work the first time, take a breath, unplug it all, and try again. Don't cry; that won't help.

Once you’re into the machine’s BIOS setup, key around and make sure the motherboard recognizes your DVD or CD drive and your hard drive. You’ll need those working in order to install your operating system. Everything there? Now set your boot sequence to check your optical drive first. Insert your operating system’s disc into your CD or DVD drive, and restart the machine. Now your operating system’s setup will launch on boot, and you can install away.

In the meantime, blast very loud rock music, strut about the vicinity, arms upraised, and revel in your greatness.

Mistakes I Made That You Can Avoid

When you build your first PC, keep a few things in mind I wished I’d realized before I started.

  • Beware of the “Frankenbuild.” A great way to save money on your new PC is using parts that you’ve already got around. But I was overly optimistic about what items from my very old Dell tower would work in my new system. I assumed my hard drive would work (it did, but it was an IDE drive, which I wound up replacing with a faster SATA model), I hoped my video card would work (it didn’t), and I thought my DVD drive would work (it did). In the end I wound up buying parts I thought I’d be able to reuse, so my total price wasn’t as low as my initial estimate.
  • Expect mishaps. I bought the wrong motherboard. Well, not the wrong one, but one that didn’t have a FireWire port, which I wanted. Well, I had a FireWire card, but it didn’t fit into the motherboard. Anyway, I figured all this out after I installed the CPU, which meant I had to remove it from the board, break the thermal compound seal, and ship the motherboard back. When I got the new motherboard and reinstalled the CPU, because the thermal compound left there didn’t work anymore, the machine would start and within 10 seconds overheat and shut itself off. Next thing you know I’m scraping hardened thermal compound off the CPU with Goof Off and a credit card, and reapplying fresh from a tube I had to pick up from Radio Shack. Lesson: there will be mishaps. Expect crap to go wrong. Be confident in your ability to fix it after you Google the solution to the problem hundreds of people have had before you did.
  • Read the frakkin’ manual. With years of tinkering in my PC’s case under my belt, I went into my build eager to start working and only skimmed the user guides and online howto’s before I started. Don’t do that. Open and read the full-on manual that comes in the box with every single one of your parts. If you’re not sure about something said manual includes, do your research before you plug anything in.
  • Buy locally if you can. My initial parts order was from Newegg, which was great price-wise, but really sucked when I had to return my motherboard, because I had to pay shipping fees and a restocking fee. With a Fry’s down the road, I regretted not just buying everything at the store itself from the get-go to to make returns easier.
  • Give yourself lots of time. I wrongly assumed I’d be able to finish my build in a day, but it took two whole days and stressed me out because they were work days. Don’t build a new PC when you’re on deadline or otherwise pinched for time. Give yourself a whole weekend and a clean and spacious work area that you can leave filled with packing debris and electronic parts strewn about for a few days.

Have you built your own PC? Are you considering taking the leap? Let us know how it went or what you’re thinking in the comments.

Gina Trapani, Lifehacker’s founding editor, loves turning on her new PC every single day. Her new weekly feature, Smarterware, appears every Wednesday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Smarterware tag feed to get new installments in your newsreader.






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How to Dual Boot Windows 7 with XP or Vista [Windows 7]

Posted on January 9, 2009
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If you’re dying to try out Windows 7 but aren’t ready to give up your installation of XP or Vista, let’s take a look at how to dual boot Windows 7 with XP or Vista.

Step 0: Download the Windows 7 Beta and Burn It to a DVD

Assuming you’ve already downloaded a fresh copy of Windows 7, you’ll need to burn it to a DVD in order to do a fresh installation. To handle this task, grab a copy of the most popular CD and DVD burning tool ImgBurn, burn the ISO to a DVD, and move right along to step 1.

Step 1: Partition Your Hard Drive

Before you go installing Windows 7, the first thing you need to do is create a new partition on your hard drive to hold the new installation of Windows. Partitioning your hard drive will vary depending on whether you're running XP or Vista—namely because Vista has a partition tool baked in, XP does not.

Partition Your Hard Drive in XP

To partition your hard drive in Windows XP, you’ll need to download some sort of third-party partitioning software. There are a lot of options available, but I prefer to stick with the previously mentioned GParted live CD, a free, open source boot CD that can handle all kinds of partitioning duties.

To use it, just download the GParted Live CD, burn it to a CD, then reboot your computer (booting from the disc). You’ll boot right into the partitioning tool. HowtoForge’s previous guide to modifying partitions with GParted is a great place to start, but it’s a fairly basic procedure:

  1. Resize your current OS drive to free up enough space for a Windows 7 partition (the minimum system requirements ask for 16GB).
  2. Create a new partition from the newly freed space.
  3. Apply your changes.

Partition Your Hard Drive in Vista

The folks at Redmond were kind enough to include a disk partitioning tool in Vista if you know where to look. So go to Control Panel -> System and Maintainence (skip this one if you're in Classic view) -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management. Once you launch the Computer Management tool, click on Disk Management under the Storage heading in the sidebar. It's partitioning time.

Luckily we’ve already gone down this road before in step-by-step detail, complete with pictures, so check out our previous guide to creating a new partition in Vista. In a nutshell, you’ll need to shrink your current OS partition to free up at least 16GB of disk space (per the Windows 7 minimum system requirements), then create a “New Simple Volume” from the free space.

Step 2: Install Windows 7

Now that you’ve done all the heavy lifting, it’s time for the easy part: Installing Windows 7 on your new partition. So insert your Windows 7 disc and reboot your computer (you’ll need to have enabled booting from your DVD drive in your system BIOS, but most PCs will have this enabled by default).

Once the DVD boots up it’s a simple matter of following along with the fairly simple installation wizard. When you’re choosing installation type, be sure to select Custom (advanced) and choose the partition you set up above. (Be careful here. Choosing the wrong partition could mean wiping your other Windows installation altogether, so make sure you pick the new partition you just created.)

After you select the partition, go grab yourself a drink and let the installer do its work. Windows will run through some installation bits, restart a few times in the process. Eventually you’ll be prompted to set up your account, enter your license key, and set up Windows. Keep your eyes open for fun new Windows 7 features, like your new homegroup (and the accompanying password). When it’s finished, you’re up and rolling with your new Windows 7 installation.

Congratulations! You should now have a new entry for Windows 7 on your boot screen when you first start up your computer. You've now got all the tools necessary to dual-boot Windows 7 and XP or Vista—or even to triple-boot Windows 7, Vista, and XP.

This isn’t the only way to set up a multi-boot system by any means, but it’s how I pulled it off. If you’ve got a method of your own that you prefer, let’s hear it in the comments.






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