Learn how to install Windows 7 and Ubuntu on the same hard drive so you aren’t restricted to the limitations of one or the other.  With this guide, you can dual boot the opposing operating systems and run them in perfect harmony on the same computer.

What You’ll Need:

• Windows 7 installation disk
• Ububtu 9.10 installation image
• Finally, don’t forget to back up your data beforehand.

How it Works:

To put it simply, most of this guide is straightforward and easy to follow. It’s nothing too daunting and even if you’re a little intimidated by the proposition of potentially frying your PC, there’s plenty of screenshots and accurate instructions to keep you on the right track.

Windows 7 is installed first and the hard drive is then configured to accept Ubuntu. Once Ubuntu is installed, the remainder of the guide is telling you how to get them to work together without causing crashes or a complete meltdown of your computer.

More Windows and Linux Projects:

• Free Windows 7 by Hacking XP and Vista
• How to Hack Windows, Mac and Linux User Passwords
• 5 Awesome OS Transformation Packs

Breaking into a computer is an illegal activity but it does help to know how to re-access your own equipment.  So, this post is for informational and ethical purposes only! This how-to covers three OS we use and the methods to crack the log-in passwords.

Windows

For Windows OS, Ophcrack is the tool of choice. It is a free Windows Password cracker based on Rainbow Tables. It has a GUI which makes it easier to run. The software can decipher passwords up to 14 characters in length in a quick 10 seconds.

To use Ophcrack one needs to download the Ophcrack ISO and burn it to a CD (or load it via a USB drive). Run the CD by loading it in the tray and restarting the computer with the power switch. Switch to the BIOS options and set the computer to boot from the CD Drive. The computer boots up and reads the Ophcrack CD which then proceeds to break the password. Use this password to log into the machine.

Ophcrack is a multi-platform software and so can be used for Mac and Linux too.

Mac OS X

Apart from Ophcrack, another simple method involves using the Mac OS X installation CD (for v10.4). Insert and reboot to display UTILITIES. Choose RESET PASSWORD to get a new one. Login using this password. To reset the password in Mac OS X 10.5, reboot the computer and press COMMAND + S.

At the prompt type in:

sck -fy
mount -uw /
launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist
dscl . -passwd /Users/UserName newpassword

Login with the new reset password.

Linux

Power on the computer, press the ESC key and on the boot loader (GRUB) screen select the ‘Recovery Mode’. Press the ‘B’ Key to enter the single user mode. At the default prompt, type in ‘passwd’ and key in your new password. For access to a single account on the system type ‘passwd username’ replacing ‘username’ with the login name for the account you would reset the password for.

A lesson in cracking is also a lesson in security. Joe Tech’s article advocates the use of encryption (Blowfish or AES-128) as a failsafe against password breach.

Is ethical hacking for you? Check out these HacknMod tutorials:

• Top 15 Vital Hacking Software and Tools
• How to Hack WEP using a Mac or Linux
• Encrypt your USB Drive

If anything can go wrong, it will. This means although it can be a bit tedious, we always need to backup our computers. Data backup is not only good practice; it’s an essential one. It may be a spanking new computer or a jalopy for the digital world, data backup is as important as a virus scan or keeping a firewall.

Think of all the files accumulated over the years…one snafu and oops it’s gone. Good news is that data backup solutions can fill that gap for you. It’s out there…it’s easy and importantly, it’s free. One of the backup solutions is built right into your operating system, some of it is on the web and some can be provided by a kind friend.

The Basics:

The easiest and most accessible backup is obviously on another networked computer. Simple file sharing between two computers makes it a routine of copy and paste. Configuration is slightly different among the different systems (Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7). Native Mac backups or with a PC are also pretty much covered.

Manual backups are like heavy duty lifting. Backup utilities like IdleBackup (Windows) and SilverKeeper (Mac OS X) automatically sync folders for you, relieving a lot of the work load.

1. Simple File Storage Sites

Cloud computing is upon us and so why not take a look at some online solutions. Of course, you can go for full system backups which are available at a premium. But we did mention ‘Free’ in the title. A lot of online file storage companies’ offer ample space for free though falling short of complete system backups. Backing up your stuff online thus calls for cherry-picking essential files and safekeeping them online.

Here are a few in the queue:

• Windows Live Skydrive: A total of 25GB for free with a per file size limit of 50MB.
• File Factory: 100GB of free storage with a 300MB file limit. Downer could be the slow speeds.
• Dropbox: For smaller needs – offers 2GB of free storage with neat file syncing features.
• Mozy: 2GB of free storage but with a handy Windows client that makes uploading a cinch.
• Orbit Files: 6GB but with limited choices.

2. Documents, Photos, Music and Videos

Yes, some of these websites do double over for file storage needs. You probably use them every day but never looked at them from this angle.

-  Docs: For your documents, why go any further than the trio of Google Docs, Office Live and Zoho.

- Pics: For your photos, make your online accounts with Flickr, Snapfish, Picasa, Photobucket or Facebook.

-  Tunes: For music, MP3Tunes, File Factory and Deezer sound really cool.

- Vids: For videos, you can give YouTube, Vimeo and Viddler a shot.

The Gizmodo referred choices are aplenty and free. Just remember to do a full or a selective backup. It could be a safety net for a crash.

Check out our other posts about backing up and recovering data:

• How to: Automatic Hard Drive Back Up
• Automatically back up your files
• How to recover a Laptop Hard Drive

• More details about this project
• Hide a hard drive in a power strip
• Recover dead hard drive data

Learn how to rapidly increase your internet speed by using the D-Link DIR-825 dual-band router.  The standard wifi spectrum is filled with dirty signals from Bluetooth and microwaves and that constant interference slows down file transfers and internet connection. “On the other hand, 5GHz 802.11n is clean and incredibly fast – it’s really easy to upgrade if you’ve got a simultaneous dual-band router like the D-Link DIR-825 (cheap on eBay).

How to set it up:

First setup your central router normally, assigning it an SSID and select the 5GHz method where the option is available.  Typically, you can find this under the settings menu but it’s different for various manufacturers.

• See also: Make a DIY Wifi Repeater/Range Extender
• Screw with People who Steal your Wifi

The next important step is to enable the wide channel option.  This allows your two 802.11n signals to be meshed into one, creating the “dual-band” and big increase in speed.  Sometimes menu’s with this option are hidden so you might have to click advanced options in the wireless menu.  See this tutorial for further information.

That’s basically all there is to it and you can now suck in all the download bandwidth your heart desires.  Files will transfer quickly, browsing will obviously be faster, and you can even steam high quality video.  Few all of our internet projects and subscribe for more great weekend projects.

How it works:

• For every character:
• For every bit:
• Send a short pulse if the bit is 1.
• Send a long pulse if the bit is 0.
• Send a silence.
• Send a very long pulse (4 times as long as the shortest pulse).
• Send a silence.

The author says generating and transmitting sound out is the easy part while interpreting the sound via a microphone attached to another computer is quite difficult.  Check out the full documentation and how to.

Occasionally, a pixel on your fancy new LCD monitor will become “stuck” or “dead” which is typically casued by a faulty transistor or unbalanced liquid in the display (LCD = Liquid crystal display, afterall). If you find yourself in such a predicament, don’t worry it’s pretty easy to fix using one of three methods:

1. Software – Running some free software is the first step you should take. Programs such as JscreenFix and UDpixel are some of the best.
2. Using Pressure – Sometimes putting pressure on the display well help redistribute liquid to the harmed areas.
3. Tapping – Similar to the pressure method, tapping the problem area repeatedly (see video for more details)

Further LCD Hacks:

• Retro-tastic Pong Clock
• Cheap and Easy Digital Picture Frame
• Play Xbox Live in your Car

First things first, depending on your budget you either need to dedicate a PC to the task or use old hardware you have lying around; but beware that you need a beefier system if you plan on recording several streams at the same time. If money is not a problem, ideally you would get a low-noise living room case and start from the ground up but just about any 2-3 year old system will do.

Then you need to pick out a TV tuner card. Head over to MythTV’s compatibility site to make sure the card works with the system, but anything with DVB Linux drivers will work. After you’ve lined up the hardware, head over to MythTV’s site and download the their latest ISO, burn onto a CD and start installing.

MythTV is an all-inclusive Linux distro which handles every aspect of the DVR system, but there are other variants that work on OS X and Windows. It has a 10-foot interface, which means that it works perfect from a distance, such as your couch. I would also recommend getting a wireless remote, but a regular keyboard and mouse will do just fine.

Once you’ve set everything up, you will have a very powerful DVR, with remote recording capabilities, DVD playback and archiving features, amongst other TiVo lacking functions. Don’t forget to subscribe to HacknMod and stay updated with daily hacks.

A dirt simple print cartridge trick will allow you to get every last drop from your so-called “empty” cartridges.  It’s so simple, your grandma could do it – All you have to do is press a button on the tiny circuit boards which resets each cartridge.  This resets the cartridge memory enabling you to fully drain each one, saving you cash!

Fantastic, Simple Hacks:

• Super Secret Safe inside a Full Pop Bottle
• How to: DIY Cable Management on a Budget
• Laptop Mod allows Eye to Eye Video Chat

Although the title of this post may sound a bit advanced or intimidating, fear not grasshopper, data visualization is actually quite simple. Using an outstanding program called Processing, we can read data through our computer’s serial port and then display it visually.

We’ll use a wiimote in this tutorial since they’re so many sensors to choose from and you can easily connect it to your pc and read data from it. If you’d like to graph another type of sensor, you’ll use the same methods but probably build your circuit differently. Learn about all sorts of sensors.

Processing is the program I use – It’s pretty easy to learn, uses the same interface as Arduino, and can render 2D and 3D visualizations with small amounts of code. Before you jump in head first, I suggest you check out their examples to familiarize yourself with the code.

1. The Code

Once your sensors are successfully transmitting to your serial port (learn how to send serial data), we can use that data to create a graph, thus creating a whole new perspective on our data. To get you started, we’ll first just graph one variable coming in from the serial port. The results should look basically like the image above.

2. Graphing Mulitple Sensors and Inputs

Similar to the single variable graph above, we now graph multiple values at the same time. It’s a bit more complicated since we have separate the variables. To learn more information about multivariable serial communication with arduino, check out the arduino site.

For non-arduino data visualization, check out some of these fantastic examples.

Don’t miss out on future articles, subscribe for free updates.