Saturday, October 29, 2011

How to Read Body Language to Reveal the Underlying Truth in Almost Any Situation


How to Read Body Language to Reveal the Underlying Truth in Almost Any SituationYou've likely heard that body language accounts for up to 55% of how we communicate, but reading non-verbal cues isn't just about broad strokes. The same gesture can indicate a number of different things depending on context. In this post, we're going to take a look at three common situations in which non-verbal cues are especially important—detecting lies, going on a date, and interviewing for a job—then explain how to interpret body language more accurately so that you can read between the lines when a person's words aren't necessarily conveying the way that they honestly feel.

We lie a lot. When having a conversation with a stranger, chances are we'll lie in the first ten minutes. Sometimes we'll lie more than once in that same period of time. These may not always be big lies, but we still do it. We all willingly partake in deception from time to time because it helps us avoid conflict, but often we're better off knowing the truth. While words can be deceptive, the human body is a terrible liar. This is where reading body language and using your own effectively, can be extremely useful when communicating with others.

First, the basics.

Body Language Basics

When you're reading body language, your primary goal is to determine whether or not a person is comfortable in their current situation. Once you do this, it's a process of using context and other cues—which we'll get into later—to figure out the specifics. There are plenty of ways a person may indicate their comfort level, but here are a few of the most common.

How to Read Body Language to Reveal the Underlying Truth in Almost Any SituationPositive body language:

  • Moving or leaning closer to you
  • Relaxed, uncrossed limbs
  • Long periods of eye contact
  • Looking down and away out of shyness
  • Genuine smiles

How to Read Body Language to Reveal the Underlying Truth in Almost Any SituationNegative body language:

  • Moving or leaning away from you
  • Crossed arms or legs
  • Looking away to the side
  • Feet pointed away from you, or towards and exit
  • Rubbing/scratching their nose, eyes, or the back of their neck

A single cue can mean a myriad of things. For example, crossed arms falls under the category of negative body language and can suggest that a person is physically cold, closed off, or frustrated. It can even indicate that they've simply had too much to eat. It's necessary to pay attention to multiple behavioral cues as a single one can be misleading. While it will help to indicate comfort level, to really understand why you need to look deeper. This means paying attention to other cues as well as their context. As we get into the specific situations, we'll look at how these cues work together to help uncover the truth in a given moment.

Photo by StockLite (Shutterstock)

Spot a Liar

One of the biggest advantages of learning to read body language well is being able to judge when someone is lying with a fair amount of accuracy. Your intuition is never going to be 100% accurate, but with a little practice you can become more aware of when you're being fed a load of crap. It's very important to recognize what kind of lies you are actually detecting. The techniques we're going to discuss in this section correspond to big lies—the lies people tell when they are uncomfortable or afraid of the truth. These skills will get you almost nowhere in detecting white lies, small lies of omission, and what people do most often: exaggerate. Those types of deception are very hard to detect, and it's important to remember that, regardless of the type of untruth, you'll never know for certain. You can, however, pick up on common cues so you know when to hold a healthy suspicion about what a person is saying.

Pamela Meyer, author of Liespotting, conducted significant research on the ways we lie to figure out the common patterns in our body language. She found that liars often exhibit much of the behavior you'd find in any other uncomfortable person, but with a few very specific additional traits.

How to Read Body Language to Reveal the Underlying Truth in Almost Any SituationFake Smiles
People are bad at offering a genuine smile when they're lying. In fact, a genuine smile (often referred to as a Duchenne smile), is often said to be impossible to fake. This is why many of us end up with awkward family photos. We may think we look like we're smiling, but to most anyone it looks like we're faking it. This is because your smile is in your eyes, or, more specifically, the wrinkles around them. You display a few crows feet when you smile genuinely because your smile pushes up your cheeks which bunches up the skin near your eyes. It's fairly hard to fake this. You need to feel some sort of genuine happy emotion at the time to do it, and when you're uncomfortable this is next to impossible. This is why a non-genuine smile can be a helpful indicator of a lie in progress.

Photo by KQED

How to Read Body Language to Reveal the Underlying Truth in Almost Any SituationStiff Upper Body and Too Much Eye Contact
Liars like to overcompensate when they're lying, and so they'll often try to remain still and offer eye contact. This will often result in so much eye contact it's often a little unsettling, and their body will become stiff because they're attempting not to fidget. Normally, people move and do not hold eye contact for extended periods of time. When uncomfortable, however, people will often rub their neck or eyes and look away to the side. Rather than exhibit the positive body language that would imply comfort, liars tend to opt for doing very little. This, in and of itself, is an indicator. Look for tense shoulders and an unusually high amount of eye contact and you'll be more likely to spot a liar.

Photo by Lindsay Phillips

How to Read Body Language to Reveal the Underlying Truth in Almost Any SituationContext and Paired Behaviors
In addition to all these non-verbal cues, you'll need to pay attention to the context. Liars will often offer more details in their stories, suggest punishments for the "real culprit" if they're being accused of something, and answer you questions with a question to give them time to fabricate an answer rather than provide you with the truth. These behaviors, when paired with standard negative body language and the previously mentioned cues that liars exhibit, give you the right mix of untrustworthy behavior. Separately they may not mean much, but together they point to dishonesty.

It's important to remember, however, that some people are just awkward and exhibit this kind of behavior with regularity. You should take the way a person normally acts into consideration as well. Watch their mannerisms and eye movements when you know they're telling the truth and compare that to the times when you think they're lying. When you see consistent change when certain statements are made, you'll know how this specific person acts when they're thinking of what to say rather than recalling information. Again, this or anything else previously mentioned isn't sufficient in detecting lies. You have to look for multiple cues or what you'll just discover that you're fooling yourself into believing you know the difference between fact and fiction.

Photo by Bifaloo

For more on lie detection, watch Pamela Meyer's TED talk and check out her bookLiespotting.

How to Read Body Language to Reveal the Underlying Truth in Almost Any Situation

Read People on a Date

When you're out on a first date, body language can be an incredibly helpful tool. If you're not paying attention to the non-verbal cues your date is exhibiting, you can often go on talking about something that makes them uncomfortable or they find unpleasant. While you don't want to go into a date hiding who you are, you do want to put your best foot forward so, in the event you are a decent match, you can bring up the riskier topics a bit later once your date already likes you. This, of course, means paying close attention to your date's behavior which can be difficult when you're supposed to be speaking charismatically and listening to what they're saying. With a little practice, however, you'll get the hang of watching for the right signals and won't have to spend much time thinking about them.

How to Read Body Language to Reveal the Underlying Truth in Almost Any SituationYou're not looking for anything complicated on a date—just the general indications of comfort and discomfort we outlined earlier. This means you're simply paying attention to how guarded your date is with their body. Initially, most people will be fairly guarded. They'll cross their arms, keep a reasonable amount of distance, and keep their palms facing themselves. This is okay and fairly common on a first date, and your goal is to change that body language into something more open and welcoming. You'll do this naturally when you connect with them, but you can encourage open body language by providing it yourself. We tend to mimic the behavior of others to some extent, so if you're warm and comfortable it will help your date change his or her behavior to match. This means keeping your arms uncrossed and open, offering a genuine smile whenever feasible and appropriate, avoiding distance from your date, and even showing your palms. All of these things imply that you're comfortable and will help make your date more comfortable as well.

You also want to be careful not to psych yourself out just because you picked up on some negative body language. Levels of comfort fluctuate frequently on dates because it's often a little nerve-wracking for most people in the first place. Don't worry about making a few mistakes. As a piano instructor would tell you for a recital, if you play a wrong note you should just keep going. Watch the non-verbal cues to see how you're doing and focus on anything that provides positive body language. If you receive extended moments of negative body language, move on to another topic. Of course, sometimes you're just not going to click and the date is going to be an awkward evening full of negative non-verbal cues. If this happens, the same piano-playing principal applies: don't get hung up on a problem—just move on.

Photo by Felix Mizioznikov (Shutterstock)

How to Read Body Language to Reveal the Underlying Truth in Almost Any Situation

Communicate Effectively in a Job Interview

Job interviews are a lot like first dates in the sense that you're trying to convince another person, whom you don't know, to like you. The key difference is that on a date you're both meeting on equal ground. When you go into a job interview, however, the interviewer has most of the power and you have, essentially, none at all. This creates an environment where you're going to likely be considerably more uncomfortable than the interviewer. You'll display negative body language as a result, and that's not good. When interviewing for a job, you want to override any non-verbal communication that makes you seem closed off.

A charismatic beginning can make all the difference, as first impressions are hugely important in hiring decisions. A smile, pleasant handshake, warm greeting, and the previously mentioned positive body language will set the stage for a comfortable interview. You don't know what sort of (potentially negative) expectations your interviewer is bringing to the table, so it's never a bad thing to override them by demonstrating you're a pleasant and charismatic individual.

Offering up the previously discussed positive body language is easier said than done when you're uncomfortable, so the best thing you can do to override that discomfort is to feel prepared. (A lack of preparation is the main reason you suck in an interview, after all.) Even if you begin to feel unprepared later on, walking into the room with confidence will at least help you make that important first impression. To prepare, research the company. Remember a few useful "sound bites" to use and fall back on if you're struggling. Know what differentiates you and makes you special and remind yourself right before you walk into the room. Preparation breeds confidence, and it'll be easier to display positive body language when you're feeling good about yourself.

How to Read Body Language to Reveal the Underlying Truth in Almost Any SituationWhile natural comfort is going to be your most valuable tool, there are a few tricks that can help you out. Assuming American cultural standards, eye contact is more important in a job interview than most other situations. If you have trouble meeting someone's eyes, just look at their mouth. You'll also want to avoid blocking your own eyes in any way, as doing so can convey discomfort (among other negative feelings). Just like on a date, leaning slightly forward is a positive cue for your interviewer. It also helps to appear to be a good listener, as you'll be talking most of the time. When you ask your own questions, or your interviewer has something to tell you, eye contact is especially important. You can also convey that you're in a "listening mode" by occasionally placing part of your hand over your mouth. This helps indicate to others that you're not going to talk and therefore paying attention.

All of this said, every interviewer is going to understand that you'll be a little nervous. It's natural and no reasonable person should or would expect anybody to walk in with no tension whatsoever. If you're a little bit tense, don't worry about it. That much is expected. In fact, too much comfort might convey to some that you're overconfident and not taking the interview seriously. In the end, your fate rests in the hands of another human being so there's only so much you can do. They may not like your shoes or prefer to hire someone younger or older. You never know what you're going to run into, but you can at least try to tip the scales in your favor with the help of some positive body language.

Photo by Tom Wangand Gelpi (Shutterstock)

Remember: Body Language Is Only Part of the Picture

A better understanding of human body language can be useful in your own communication and in understanding others. It can also be a lot of fun to feel like you know what other people are thinking, when they're lying to you, and how comfortable they are in a given situation. That said, you're not a psychic. You can't read minds and the non-verbal cues you interpret are never going to tell you exactly what someone is feeling or thinking with spot-on accuracy. These techniques will help you find clues that can help you understand other people. Use them to communicate better and gain a better awareness of those around you. Don't pretend they're magic. All you're doing is paying closer attention to your natural, human intution.

Find Meanings of Words with Google Dictionary Chrome Extension

I come across new words and phrases daily about which I rarely know, so to understand their meanings I need to go to Google and use the define parameter to get its meaning somewhat like “define haphazard” which will give me the meaning of the word haphazard.

Google uses the database defined at their backend to get the meaning but if you are the person who use Chrome and visit Google or other dictionarywebsite for the meanings, then this article will surely interest you.

Using the chrome extension called Google Dictionary you can get the meaning of any word right in your browser without any need to open any new tab or page. There are two ways of getting the definitions of a word; one is click on the extension which will open a form n your browser where you can search for the word, results will be displayed in that form only.

The other method is simpler than the first one as (after enabling this option) you can just double click any word that you come across and press Ctrl button to pop up a bubble displaying its meaning right over the word. I found this way too cool to use just the issue being you cannot search for a word other than being displayed on the page but for that purpose we have the first method right?

If you like to get the meanings of the words then you surely don’t want to miss out on this extension.

Download Google Dictionary Extension

Linux Desktop Faceoff: GNOME 3 vs Ubuntu Unity


Linux Desktop Faceoff: GNOME 3 vs Ubuntu UnityThe popular Linux distribution Ubuntu recently finalized its move to the new Unity interface, while other Linux distributions are moving to the new GNOME 3 shell. Both interfaces are remarkably different than the Linux environments you're used to, but remarkably similar to one another. So which one is better for you? We delve down and uncover the differences between each.

Both Unity and GNOME 3 bring sweeping changes to the desktop, like big, icon-based app launchers, application docks, and other window management features designed for tablets and desktops alike. Unity is Ubuntu-specific, and Ubuntu 11.10 has removed the built-in option allowing you to easily switch to the classic GNOME desktop. Other Linux distributions, like Fedora and OpenSUSE, have moved to GNOME 3 as their default. Today, we'll look at the differences between these two new desktop environments, and help you decide which one is more likely to suit your particular needs. For an even comparison, we'll be talking about them both from an Ubuntu standpoint, since that's what the vast majority of Linux users have.

If you want to install GNOME 3 on Ubuntu, just head into the Ubuntu Software Center and search for GNOME Shell. Install it, then log out of your system—you should see a small gear icon on the login screen, which you can then use to boot into GNOME 3 instead of Unity.

Main Features

Both environments are remarkably similar, but with a few minor differences and features that make then each unique. GNOME 3 is a bit more minimalistic and adventurous, while Unity keeps a few aspects of the traditional desktop around. Here's how they break down.

Unity Has a Mac-Like Menu Bar, Dock, and a Feature-Filled App Launcher

Linux Desktop Faceoff: GNOME 3 vs Ubuntu UnityThe Desktop: Unity's desktop is fairly similar to GNOME Classic's, except for the large dock on the left side of the screen that replaces the old taskbar. You can still place icons on the desktop, and you can open multiple windows as usual. The title bar is now one unified menu for all your apps, like on Mac OS X: instead of having File, Edit, and other menus within each app's window, you'll now see them in the menu bar at the top of the screen. Each window has a close, maximize, and minimize button, and when you maximize a window, those buttons also appear on the unified menu bar. Unity has two versions: one for low-powered machines, and one designed for regular desktops that has some enhanced graphical effects (like a transparent dock). Even on a powerful machine, though, Unity can be a bit slow at times, which can bring down the overall experience.

Linux Desktop Faceoff: GNOME 3 vs Ubuntu UnityThe Dock: Unity's dock comes with a number of apps already pinned, but you can pin any app by opening it up by right-clicking on its icon and hitting "Add to Favorites". If the dock has more icons than your screen can fit, it will become scrollable—just mouse down to the bottom and it'll automatically scroll down the list so you can access other apps. If you have multiple windows open in one app, you'll see two arrows next to that app's icon, which is nice, and clicking on it gives you an Exposé-like overview of that app's windows.

Unity's dock is sadly not movable from its left-hand position, which is very annoying (Isn't Linux is supposed to be super customizable?). However, despite this annoyance, it does have some nice Ubuntu integration that you don't get in GNOME 3—for example, you can right-click on Thunderbird's dock icon to compose a new message or browse your address book.

Linux Desktop Faceoff: GNOME 3 vs Ubuntu UnityThe Dash: You can access Unity's application launcher—called the Dash—by hitting the Windows key on your keyboard or by hitting the Dash icon at the top of Unity's dock. The Dash is a panel that replaces the drop-down menus of classic GNOME. From it, you can search through all your installed apps, settings, files, or even music from one location. You don't need to click on the search box either—just open up the Dash and start typing. It'll even show you apps that you don't have installed, but that you can download from the Ubuntu Software Center, which is convenient. By default, the Dash searches through your apps, though you can hit the icons across the bottom of the Dash to search through files or music through their own "lenses". This is a pretty nice feature, and it makes the Dash pretty versatile.

It isn't without its annoyances, though. If you manually navigate through your list of apps in the Dash, it'll only show one line of apps in any given category. You have to hit a "More Apps" button to see the full list, which is obnoxious and unnecessary. By default, the Dash only takes up about a fourth of the screen, but you can maximize it to take up the entire screen if you wish—but it still only shows a few apps at a time, wasting all that space and making you click around more. It seems like it takes a million clicks to navigate anywhere in the Dash, so while it makes a fine application launcher, it's far less adequate as a replacement for the old drop-down menus.

Linux Desktop Faceoff: GNOME 3 vs Ubuntu UnityWorkspaces: Unity's workspaces work much like GNOME Classic's. You hit the Worksace button in the dock, and you see four desktops layed out in a grid (though you can edit this number to be whatever you wish). Double click on one, and it'll take you to that desktop, where you can open up more windows and better organize your screen real estate. None of this is very new, but Unity makes it a bit more prominent than older versions of GNOME did.

GNOME 3 Has a Minimalist Desktop, an Organized App Launcher, and a Few Extra Features

Linux Desktop Faceoff: GNOME 3 vs Ubuntu UnityThe Desktop: When you first boot into GNOME 3, you might be a bit thrown off at how minimalist it is. Your desktop is completely blank, with just a sparse menu bar at the top of the screen—you don't even have a dock on your desktop. Not only that, but you can't put files on your desktop by default, and the windows don't even have minimize or maximize buttons. That said, these are pretty easy things to get over—after all, you can still maximize and minimize the windows using keyboard shortcuts or a double-click on the title bar. It also adds a few new window management features, like the ability to snap them to the edges of the screen, similar to Windows 7's Aero Snap feature—perfect if you need to work with two apps side by side. Like Unity, it has some nice desktop effects—mainly lots of smooth transitions and fade-outs—but it performs a good deal faster than Unity, making it more pleasant to use (not to mention very slick).

Linux Desktop Faceoff: GNOME 3 vs Ubuntu UnityThe Activities Panel: When you hit the Activities button, in the upper right-hand corner of the screen (or hit the Windows button on your keyboard), you'll enter the Activities panel. Similar to Unity's Dash, the Activities panel lets you search through all your apps for quick launching, as well as see an Exposé-like overview of all your windows. You can search for apps just by opening Activities and typing, but if you want to manually look through them, you have to click the "Applications" button first. It's annoying, but the Applications menu itself is much less annoying than Unity's Dash overall, and requires far less clicking to navigate. The categories menu on the right is also very simply laid out, which is nice.

While GNOME 3's Activities panel is less annoying than Unity's Dash, it isn't quite as feature-filled. Unity's lenses for searching files and music are great, and the integration with the Ubuntu Software Center is awesome. Since GNOME 3 wasn't built for Ubuntu, you don't get any of that.

Linux Desktop Faceoff: GNOME 3 vs Ubuntu UnityThe Dock: Instead of being on your desktop, like a traditional dock, GNOME 3's dock is part of the Activities panel, showing up on the left side of the screen whenever you open the panel up. The dock is one area in which Unity really wins: GNOME 3's dock just seems half-assed. Not only is it annoyingly hidden away, but adding more icons shrinks it down, à la Mac OS X, as opposed to making it scrollable like Unity's. This doesn't seem like a problem at first, but it gets a lot harder to use if it shrinks down far, and it starts shrinking down long before it fills the entire side of the screen, which is really stupid. It also won't tell you if you have multiple windows open in one app, nor will it give you a preview of that app's windows—you can only see a preview of all currently open windows. And, once again, you lose out on the cool Ubuntu integration features, like the ability to compose a new Thunderbird message by right-clicking its dock icon.

Linux Desktop Faceoff: GNOME 3 vs Ubuntu UnityWorkspaces: GNOME 3 handles workspaces a bit differently than Unity. Instead of having a predetermined set of desktops, you can open the Activities window and drag any of your windows to the right to add them to a new workspace. You start off with only two workspaces, but can add more and more as you need them, which is a much smarter way of handling the whole process.

Notifications: One of GNOME 3's very cool new features is the notifications system. Notifications pop up at the bottom of your screen without being very intrusive, and any that you don't see are accessible from the Activities panel (or by activating the bottom right-hand screen corner with your mouse). Any notifications you haven't seen will be there waiting for you when you come back, which is great for applications like instant messaging.

The Upsides and Downsides of Both

While each environment has its own little differences, the two are largely similar, both in pros and cons. Both interfaces are a bit more pixel-friendly than GNOME 2, especially GNOME 3 (as long as you don't mind the hidden dock). GNOME 3's minimalism also gives it a really clean look, as does its lack of desktop icons—you don't have anything cluttering up your screen but the windows you open. And, with both heavily promoting virtual workspaces and this Exposé-like window overview, you can more easily focus on one program at a time, which is good for those of us easily distracted.

Both have migrated away from the drop-down menu to an icon-based launcher, which almost looks tablet-like—even when they're not being used on tablets. This is definitely a downside during daily use, as you have to move your mouse all over the screen just to click on the apps or settings you want to launch. The ability to hit a key and start typing an app's name is great, though, and something I highly recommend you work into your muscle memory—if you haven't already with something like GNOME-Do—but still, on the occasions you need to manually sift through apps, the launchers seem out of place and much harder to navigate. For what it's worth, though, I found GNOME 3's far less annoying. If you learn your keyboard shortcuts, you'll probably care about all this a lot less, as the keyboard can take you everywhere pretty quickly.

Customizability has also taken an enormous hit with both environments. Back in GNOME 2, you could tweak the layout of the taskbar, install one of many different desktop themes, and customize your drop-down menus at will. Most of this is completely gone in GNOME 3 and Unity, meaning you're a bit more forced into using the environment as its creators envisoned, and less how you envision. This is, sadly, one of the things that made Linux so great, and it's sad to see it going down the tubes. That said, customizability could increase with time, especially after third party developers have more time to create tweaks, but right now, you lose a lot.

The Verdict

Both GNOME 3 and Unity have gotten a lot of flak for drastically changing the traditional desktop paradigm. However, I still recommend trying them both out, because they have a lot of good things going for them—and because this is where all of GNOME's development power is going, now that GNOME 2.x is mostly dead. You won't see features like GNOME 3's notifications panel in a deprecated desktop, so if you want to see any new features in your desktop, you'll need to switch to GNOME 3 or Unity.

Of the two, I personally prefer GNOME 3. It's clean, it looks and feels fantastic, and despite the lack of Ubuntu integration, it's got some nice new features, like the notifications panel and window snapping. Unity isn't without its plusses, like Software Center integration, the global menu bar, and the Dash's lenses, but overall I find it more annoying to work with. Much of this is personal preference, so once again—try them both out if you're on the fence.

Lastly, if you try them out and just can't stand them, you still have a few choices. Installing GNOME 3 will also allow you to use GNOME Classic, which is essentially the GNOME 2 interface built on GNOME 3. Alternatively, you can try Mate, which is a fork of GNOME 2 that attempts to keep it alive and fix bugs where possible. Neither of these are likely to get many new features, though, so unless you're okay with a feature-stagnant desktop, you might want to look elsewhere. KDE is a very solid desktop using the more traditional computing paradigm, and XFCE is an actively developed environment very similar to GNOME 2. And, if you're on a low-powered machine (or just want something simple and fast), I've already shared my love for the lightweight LXDE. The great thing about Linux is that you have a lot of choice, so if you don't like the new defaults in your distribution, change it! There's a lot more to explore out there.

If you've given both a shot, let us know what you think of them in the comments. Politely, please.


A Guide to Sniffing Out Passwords and Cookies (and How to Protect Yourself Against It)


A Guide to Sniffing Out Passwords and Cookies (and How to Protect Yourself Against It)Roughly one year ago, a tool called Firesheep introduced a lot of us to just how easily another person on the same network as you can snoop on your browsing session and even masquerade as you on sites that require a login, like, perhaps most notably, Facebook. Here's a closer look at how network snooping works and how to protect yourself from it.

It's a long post, so I've separated it into two sections. Jump to the one you're most interested in:

How to Get Started As a Network Snoop

Long before Firesheep came along and scared us all by making it trivial to hijack another user's Facebook session, another, more robust cross-platform tool called Wiresharkwas already allowing anyone with a little bit of know-how sniff out usernames, passwords, and authentication cookies on any computer connected to the same network as you.

A Brief Overview of How Your Computer Talks to the Other Computers (and the Internet)

In order to understand what Wireshark does, you first need to understand a little bit about how computers talk to one another over networks and how they use this information to, say, log you into a web site. (I'm not a networking expert by any stretch, so don't worry—I don't have a choice but to make this beginner friendly.)

When your computer talks to another over a network, they each send packets of data back and forth between one another. These packets do things like negotiate the connection, pass around cookies or passwords to authenticate, and ultimately do the things you want them to do—transfer files, the HTML that makes up a web page, and so on.

What Wireshark Does

What Wireshark does is sniff out the packets being passed around your network—whether they're heading to or from your computer or to or from other computers on the same network as you—and let you poke around at the data passed back and forth in these packets.

When you log into a web site, for example, your browser sends what's called a POST request to a server somewhere on there on the internet. Wireshark can capture that POST request, and if you know where to look, you can find your username and password in plain text—assuming you're logging into a site that isn't using a secured HTTPS connection, which will encrypt that information so you wouldn't be able to make sense of it. (See our previous guide to why you should care about HTTPS on Facebook and other sites for more details.)

To combat this, a lot of sites, like Facebook and Gmail, have turned on HTTPS by default for all communication between your browser and their servers. But there are still a whole lot of web sites out there that don't encrypt logins, and many that use HTTPS for logins but not for cookies.

Cookies are relatively small strings of text set on your browser by web sites. Cookies can be used to track your behavior, they can be used to keep your settings persistent on a web site, and, most importantly for this post, they can identify to servers that you've already logged in—meaning that if you hijack the right cookie, you can masquerade as someone else without ever needing their username or password. (This is what Firesheep did.)

Similar to how it can capture usernames and passwords sent over HTTP connections, Wireshark can also capture cookies for you (or some other nefarious sniffer) to gobble up toward whatever end you prefer, including to gain access to your online accounts. Also similar to the username/password situation, if a site uses HTTPS for all its connections, you won't be able to successfully sniff out and use its cookie.

So now that you know the basics, let's jump right into it:

How to Sniff Usernames and Passwords with Wireshark

A Guide to Sniffing Out Passwords and Cookies (and How to Protect Yourself Against It)
In the video at the top of the post, you can see me demonstrate how to sniff out a username and password when I attempt to log into Lifehacker (which, unfortunately, doesn't use HTTPS). Here, I've rounded up a few other more detailed videos that demonstrate how to use Wireshark to sniff out usernames and passwords (you'll probably want to go fullscreen on the video).

Note: If you're capturing over Wi-Fi, you'll need to run Wireshark in promiscuous modeso that it'll sniff out all the various packets on your network (including those coming from other people's computers). This process varies depending on your device, so you may have to do a little hunting.

How to Sniff Cookies with Wireshark

A Guide to Sniffing Out Passwords and Cookies (and How to Protect Yourself Against It)
This video demonstrates how to sniff out cookies, and while the site it demonstrates the process for (Facebook) now uses HTTPS by default, the same basic method would work for sites that aren't using HTTPS.

How to Protect Yourself from Network Sniffing

The kind of network sniffing demonstrated here is something anyone can do without much experience. As Mike from the password video points out: "Technology is like a gun. You can use it for good, to hunt for your family, or you can use it for bad, to rob a store." This dissection of Wireshark is aimed at education, but the fact is, anyone interested in using Wireshark for skeezy purposes need only spend a few minutes on YouTube to dig up the same information.

So now that you have a better idea of how easy it can be for anyone on the same network as you to poke around and potentially sniff out your passwords, cookies, and so on, what can you do about it? Here's a quick rundown of some of your best bets, from least practical or effective to most effective.

  • Avoid working on the same network as people you don't trust: The kind of network sniffing we've demonstrated here can only be done by people on the same network as you. Keep in mind that it doesn't even have to be an openWi-Fi network—coworkers on your password-protected work network can sniff your packets just as easily as someone at your local coffee shop.

    The catch: You probably don't want to be limited to only using the internet when you're at home or on a network where you trust everyone.

  • Always use HTTPS: A lot of sites—like Facebook and Gmail—have made HTTPS the default connection, and as we explained earlier, packet sniffing won't reveal your password or cookies on a properly encrypted HTTPS connections. Other sites support HTTPS but don't make it the default, which means you often have to manually type in https:// before the rest of your URL. Some of those sites, like Twitter, allow you to set your account to always use HTTPS (for Twitter, go to your Account settings and tick the Always use HTTPS checkbox at the bottom of the page).

    Some sites don't offer an Always use HTTPS setting, which is where HTTPS-forcing browser extensions come in. The most popular is probably the HTTPS Everywhere extension for Firefox (written by the Electronic Frontier Foundation). This extension automatically directs your browser to the HTTPS version of over 1,000 sites. The catch with HTTPS Everywhere is that it only redirects sites in its list, so if you'd like to be able to redirect any site to HTTPS, you may want to check out Force-TLS for Firefox or HTTPS Everywhere for Chrome. Both of these extensions allow you to add new sites to the automatic HTTPS redirect.

    The Catch: First, lots of sites still don't support HTTPS at all, and others only support it for logins (meaning your password is safe, but your session cookie isn't). On a separate technical note, Eric Butler (the developer of Firesheep) noted last year that some sites don't correctly support HTTPS anyway, and on those sites, in order to get the full benefits of HTTPS, you'd need to manually type out the https:// part every time you visit:

    Some sites support full encryption everywhere, but don't implement it properly by failing to set the "Secure" flag on authentication cookies, negating most of the benefits and leaving users at risk. What that means is that any time you type the URL (e.g. "manage.slicehost.com") into your web browser (without explicitly typing https:// beforehand, which people rarely do) you will inadvertently leak your cookies with that first request, prior to being redirected to the HTTPS page. Slicehost and Dropbox are good examples of this mistake.

  • Use a VPN or SSH Proxy (BEST OPTION): A VPN or SSH tunnel will act as the middleman between your computer and the dubiously secure servers on the internet so that everything sent between your computer and your VPN or SSH server will be encrypted—in effect encrypting all traffic that someone on your current network might want to try sniffing. I'm not going to show you how to set up a VPN or SSH server here, but I will point you in the direction of some good do-it-yourself options:
    If you're on a Mac, I'd highly recommend installing previously mentionedSidestep. The app automatically reroutes your traffic through a secure proxy whenever you connect to an open Wi-Fi network, and you can also turn it on any time you want from its drop-down in the Mac menu bar.

    The Catch: The biggest hole in this option is that at some point along the line, your VPN or SSH proxy needs to submit the unencrypted version of a request to the web server, so if there were someone sniffing packets on the same network as your VPN or SSH server, they could sniff out the unencrypted data going between the middleman and the web server.

You've still got other security concerns to consider if you want to stay safe on public Wi-Fi networks, but the above options can make all the difference for securing your browsing. The best-case scenario is actually out of your control: Web sites and services all implement HTTPS by default for any and all potentially sensitive data.

Avidemux: Free tool to Crop Videos

I have some videos with the extra lines and bars on the top/bottom or the left/right sides. Had these been photos, I would have easily cropped them but I had very limited choice since these were video files.

I came across a free tool called Avidemux, using which you can crop videos easily and remove black bars/lines at the edges of the video. All you have to do is, download and install the tool which is supported on Windows, Linux and Mac.

After you have installed the files, load the video file using the Open menu. Go to Video tab, load the codec so that your file becomes readable likeMPEG-4 XVID. Click on the Filters button after that as this is where you will find the Crop button available.

Now you can provide the pixels in the top, bottom, left and right fields to have the video cropped. This won’t be difficult as you would be able to see the preview of the crop being done right below so that you can make proper adjustments. Click OK to save the changes.

After your video has been cropped, you can save the final image by selecting the save as option and selecting the proper output format.

Download Avidemux

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Manage Youtube Video Quality for all Videos

If you like watching videos online and especially on Youtube then you must have noticed that by default Youtube videos play in 360p video format which can be convenient to many users but not to everyone. Especially when you have a slow connection you would want to make this setting as 240p or lower.

Well changing this is quite uneasy if you are sure what you want the player to be, also Youtube don’t have any such option to modify the settings. You can login into your account and set the video loading option to be according to your internet speed but there is no option to set the video quality.

Here is a Firefox add-on for all those who don’t like changing this again and again and are, of course, on Firefox. The add-on is called as the “YouTube video quality manager” and this add-on allows you to set your video format preference for all the video you watch online.

For example, if you want to see the videos in 480p video format, then just set the add-on according to it, and your videos will load in this setting always, granted this setting exist for the video being watched. The option to change the setting appears in the status bar and you can select any setting with just a click.

Download YouTube video quality manager

How to Migrate All Your Data to iCloud from Google with Minimal Fuss


How to Migrate All Your Data to iCloud from Google with Minimal Fuss

How to Migrate All Your Data to iCloud from Google with Minimal FussWhile most of us use Gmail for all our cloud computing needs, Apple's iCloud actually has some really nice things going for it—especially if you're a heavy Mac and iOS user. I've walked through why you might want to switch from Google's apps to iCloud, so whether you're migrating all your data over or just a few choice items, here's how to move from Google to iCloud without losing any of your existing email messages, contacts, calendars, and documents.

Migrating Gmail Messages to iCloud Mail

How to Migrate All Your Data to iCloud from Google with Minimal FussYou can start fresh with your new iCloud account, but maybe you want access to your email archives all in one place. In that case, you'll have to migrate your current Gmail inbox over. It isn't the quickest process, but we've found that plugging both accounts into an IMAP program—like Apple's Mail—makes it fairly straightforward. Just make sure you follow the instructions belowto the letter. Read through them first, so you understand what you're doing, and then go through each step, one by one. If you make a mistake, you could severely confuse your iCloud inbox and have to start over. Here's what you'll want to do:

  1. First, set up both Gmail and iCloud in Mail.app. Setting up Gmail is easy, and creating a new iCloud email address is as simple as going into System Preferences > iCloud, signing in with your Apple ID, and creating a new Mail account. It should show up in Mail when you're done.
  2. Let Mail download all your messages. You'll see all your Gmail labels set up as folders. Note that iCloud doesn't use labels like Gmail does, so you'll need to go into Gmail and make sure all of your messages are assigned only onelabel—otherwise, you'll get duplicate messages in your iCloud account.
  3. When you're ready to migrate, head into Mail.app and click on Gmail's "Sent Messages" folder. Go to Mailbox > Use This Mailbox For > Sent. Repeat this process with the Deleted Messages folder as well.
  4. Now, you're ready to start moving messages over. Start with the inbox. Go to Gmail's inbox in Mail.app and select all the messages within. Right-click on them and hit Copy To > Inbox > iCloud. This should copy all those messages over to iCloud's inbox. Do not drag and drop the messages; that will remove them from Gmail, which we do not want yet.
  5. Repeat this process for each of your user-created folders—that is, all your Gmail "labels" except All Mail, Important, Starred, and Spam. Create a new folder on the iCloud account (by right-clicking on the iCloud inbox and hitting "New Mailbox), click on the corresponding folder from your Gmail account, select all the messages, and copy them to the new iCloud folder. Be sure to copy over all your sent messages, too, even though they're a Gmail-created folder! Note that if one of your folders is particularly big, you may run into some errors when copying messages. If you get an error, delete all the messages in the iCloud folder you're trying to fill and try the copy again. After another try or two, it should work.
  6. When you're done, you should have a good portion of your messages migrated to the iCloud account. The only messages missing will be the ones that didn't have a label, and weren't in your inbox or sent messages folder. To migrate these, we'll need to delete everything we've migrated so far, and move them from the "All Mail" folder into a new "Archive" folder in iCloud. So, go back to your Sent Messages, Inbox, and other user-created labels and delete all those messages—using the Mail.app interface—from your Gmail account.
  7. Lastly, copy everything from the All Mail folder in to iClouds Archive folder, as you did with the other folders. When you're done, your inbox should look just like it did in Gmail, and you're ready to start using iCloud Mail.

If you want to undelete those messages from your Gmail account just in case, you can head to the Gmail web interface, select all the messages in your Trash, and move them to your inbox. Then, re-archive them all in case you want to move back to Gmail later.

Migrate Google Calendar to iCal

How to Migrate All Your Data to iCloud from Google with Minimal FussMigrating your calendars is much easier than migrating your email.Open up Google Calendar, go to Settings > Calendars, and hit the "Export Calendars" link. This will download all your calendars in a ZIP file to your desktop. Extract the ZIP file somewhere, then open up iCal and go to File > Import. Choose one of your calendars in the folder you just unzipped, and assign it a new calendar in iCal. Repeat this for each of those calendars. As long as the Calendars box is checked in System Preferences > iCloud, all those calendars should sync right up to iCloud with no problem.

Migrate Google Contacts to iCloud Contacts

How to Migrate All Your Data to iCloud from Google with Minimal FussMigrating your contacts is extremely easy:

  1. First, go into System Preferences > iCloud and uncheck the contacts box (that's right).
  2. Open up Address Book and go to Preferences > Accounts. Check the "Synchronize with Google" box and enter your Google credentials when prompted.
  3. Head back into System Preferences > iCloud and recheck the Contacts box. It will ask you if you want to merge your computer's Contacts with your iCloud contacts; pick Merge. Then, it'll tell you that it's going to turn off Google sync, which is okay, so hit OK.

When it finishes, head to the iCloud web interface, you should see all your Google contacts there, imported and ready to go.

Migrate Your Google Docs to iWork

How to Migrate All Your Data to iCloud from Google with Minimal FussGoogle offers an easy way to download any documents you want to your desktop, after which you can just drag them into iCloud:

  • Start by going to Google Docs' web interface and select the documents you want to transfer over. You can select all the documents in your account by clicking the check box at the top of the list.
  • the "More" button that appears and choose "Download" from the list. Make sure you download the documents in Microsoft Office format.
  • Unzip the resulting file anywhere on your computer, like the desktop.
  • Open up the iCloud web interface and hit iWork. Drag all those files you extracted into the iWork interface. They should upload right then and there, and pretty soon you'll see them on all your iOS devices, ready for editing.

  • Most of the data is actually very simple to migrate, so you shouldn't have any problem moving your important work from one service to the other. When you're done, you can access all that data from any of your iOS devices or from the iCloud web interface, no matter where you are, and everything will sync seamlessly. What's even better is that if you get a new computer or iOS device, setting up iCloud takes just a few seconds—you'll never have to worry about complicated account syncing ever again. Have you already given iCloud a shot? Let us know how the migration went for you—or what you did differently—in the comments.

Create Disposable Email Addresses easily with TrashMail

Ever thought of creating a temporary email ID just for subscribing to some newsletter or just for fun which shall expire after specific time? Well if you have ever wanted to create a temporary and disposable email address then here is the solution for it.

With the help of an online service called TrashMail, you can create any number of temporary disposable email addresses and that too easily as the IDs are randomly generated by TrashMail only, so you can just select any ID that you want, set some other options and use it for your purpose.

How TrashMail works?

Using this service is really simple; just create a new email address ontrashmail.net. All mails to this address will be forwarded to your real email address for a number of times you can set up on the form while creating the address.

How to Build a Personal Career Plan and Plot a Course Out of Your Dead-End Job


How to Build a Personal Career Plan and Plot a Course Out of Your Dead-End Job

How to Build a Personal Career Plan and Plot a Course Out of Your Dead-End JobWe've all heard it before: "You're lucky to have any job." But just because you have one doesn't mean you have to just suck it up if it sucks, or it's not the career you want. The problem may be that you're looking at your position as "just a job" and you have no idea what kind of career you want. It doesn't have to be this way.

I know a lot of people who hate their jobs, but when asked what they'd rather do, they're already very close to doing what they're passionate about—they just needed to stop and figure out how to get there. Here's how you can take a good, hard look at yourself, figure out what you really want to do, and work this into a personal career plan that will help you get where you want to go, personally and professionally.

Photo remixed from originals by Ava Verino and Michael Mandiberg.

How to Build a Personal Career Plan and Plot a Course Out of Your Dead-End Job

Take Stock: Evaluate Yourself

Write Down What You Do: The first thing to do if you're going to pull yourself out of a career-related funk is to take stock of where you are professionally. Your job title and resume only say so much about what you do, so spend a few days taking good notes of what you actually do. Start with the core responsibilities of your position (things you would put on your resume), then write down everything else you spend time doing at work, even if it's tangential to your actual "job." Photo by Bill Sodeman.

A good way to get in the habit of doing this is to keep a work diary of your successes, failures, and activities. It's also a good opportunity to get in the habit of doing a GTD-style weekly review, where you take time each week to take stock of what you've accomplished and prepare for the next week. When you're done, sort the list into things you absolutely hate doing, things you don't mind doing and things that you love and wish you could do more of.

How to Build a Personal Career Plan and Plot a Course Out of Your Dead-End JobWrite Down What You Want To Do: Once the list is sorted, it's time to focus on the things you'd like to do more of. Build on those items and write down what you wish you could do every day. Don't be afraid to get far-fetched; if you wish you could get paid to read blogs all day, jot that down. Some people call it "wasting time on Reddit," but the right employer may call it research. Photo bysunshinecity.

Now, start thinking long-term. Ask yourself, "Will I want to keep doing these things in a year? What about two, or five?" Don't be discouraged if you're not sure. It's impossible to know what the future you will want, but try to write down some general thoughts. Ask yourself these questions:

  • What am I best at doing, both personally and professionally? What am I terrible at?
  • Do I want to stay in this job? Or this field?
  • If I want to change jobs, do I want to be promoted into a similar, more senior role?
  • If I want to change jobs, would I rather manage people, or would I prefer to continue doing it all myself?
  • If I want to change industries, which field am I interested in?
  • What is it about that industry that excites me? Has it always interested me?
  • What am I doing already that will serve me well in that field?
  • What type of company would I like to work for? What about that company is most important to me?
  • Would I prefer to work for myself, or become a freelancer, knowing that working for yourself isn't always rainbows and unicorns?
  • Looking at the list of things I love doing, what kind of job uses those skills? Who does those things every day?

Review Your Answers: The point of these questions is to help you evaluate your goals. They help you determine what types of jobs involve the tasks you said you enjoy doing. Pretend you land the perfect job. Now think about where you'd like to go from there. Would you like to keep doing it on a more advanced level? Perhaps you'd like to manage people who do what you do now? When you start thinking about those next steps—without the stress of the whole "where do you see yourself in one/five/ten years" kind of questions (which are largely useless anyway)—you'll find yourself thinking in terms of the career you want, not just your "dream job."

Once you've finished writing all of this down, you should have a pretty good self-evaluation. This is valuable in itself, and can help you ground yourself in your current job or negotiate with your boss on those tasks that you really hate and how you can do more of what you enjoy (and are strongly suited to.) Now you're ready for the next step: actually building your plan.

Take Notes: Build Your Career Plan

Research the Jobs You'd Like To Do: Now that you know what you'd like to do, it's time to find jobs that let you do it. Here's how:

  • How to Build a Personal Career Plan and Plot a Course Out of Your Dead-End JobVisit Your Local Library or Career Center: Sometimes the best way to find a job that matches up with your skills and desires is to ask a more experienced person. A chat with a reference librarian or specialist at a career center will put you on the right track towards career guides and resources that can help you translate your dreams into a job title you can aim for. Photo by CUS Visual Media.
  • Chat with Your HR Rep: If your company has an HR rep, they're the person you should go to if you want to learn more about what careers are available in your company. Obviously your company's HR rep has a vested interest in making sure you're successful in your current job (we hope!) and that you stay at your current company, so if you like your company and just dislike your job, they may be able to help.
  • Scour Job Search Sites: Most people are used to searching job sites for job titles. Try searching for a function or task that you enjoy instead. If you like spending all day on Twitter or Facebook, search for "Twitter" or "Facebook," or better yet, search for "social networks" or "social media." Most job search engines will match your keywords with job responsibilities as well as required skills in job listings.
  • Take a Career Assessment Test: The CareerPath test (from the folks behind CareerBuilder) is a good one that blends elements of a personality test with a career assessment test. The results will help you understand what kinds of jobs and careers make heavy use of the passions and skills you have. You can find more tests at About.com.
  • How to Build a Personal Career Plan and Plot a Course Out of Your Dead-End JobTalk To People About Their Careers: Sometimes word of mouth is the best way to find out how to translate your passions into a job you'll love, as we'vepreviously discussed. Ask your friends and family, even your colleagues about their previous jobs. Highlight the things that you enjoy and ask them if they've ever heard of a job that does those things. You'll be surprised: often the side-responsibilities you like at your current job are primary responsibilities at another job. Photo byNASA Goddard Space Flight Center.


    For example, one of my best friends is saddled with sending dull, dry sales emails for the company she works for. It's a long and difficult process, and she says she would like it more if she had better tools to do it. However, she reallyloves seeing the number of people who open those emails, who gets which flavor of message based on their purchase history, and what they click on when they open them. To her, it's just the crap her boss doesn't feel like doing, so she gets to do it. At my old company it's called Campaign Analysis, and there are tools that would make her life easier (not to mention a paycheck she'd probably like as well.) When I explained this to her, she was surprised. Because she had a clear picture of the things she liked and disliked about her job, it was easy to point out that there are jobs out there that could give her an opportunity to do what she enjoys every day.

Research Where Those Jobs Lead: Once you have an idea what types of jobs you'd like to have (even if it means you've rediscovered how much you enjoy your current job), start thinking in terms of a long-term career. Do some research on where those jobs usually lead. A good place to start is the Occupational Outlook Handbook from the US Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the My Skills, My Future career search site.

How to Build a Personal Career Plan and Plot a Course Out of Your Dead-End JobIf you're interested in systems administration, think about what your life would be like after you get the job. After a few years, would you like to manage other administrators, or would you be happier taking on increasingly technical and challenging projects? In most technical roles, it's one or the other. Which would you prefer if you do land that job, and what happens to other people who get it? Photo by East Capital.

You'll also want to find out whether the career you want requires education, degrees, or certifications to advance. Some organizations will only promote if you show you're advancing your skills as well as performing well on the job, and others will only consider you for promotions if you go out and get a relevant degree, or take classes relevant to your job. Continuing education isn't a bad thing, but you don't want to reach for a career you want only to find that you're stuck after taking the first step.

For example, when I was a Project Manager, eventually I learned that a promotion wouldn't be forthcoming until I earned my Project Management Professional (PMP) certification. When I started looking at other companies, I learned that having one makes you more marketable. So I went out and got it to move my career to the next level—I had the time to study and the money to put into the test. Not everyone has that, but I certainly wish I had known it would be necessary before I started out as a PM.

By the time you finish this research, you should have an idea of where the careers you're interested in will take you, and whether you like those possible paths or not. Of course, you can't predict everything: you may discover a love of management when you think you're going to be an engineer forever, or invent a new application while doing software development that leads you to start a new company. The important thing is to think past the job offer you'll hopefully get, be flexible, and start visualizing the career you'd like to have.

How to Build a Personal Career Plan and Plot a Course Out of Your Dead-End Job

Take Action: Make Your Move

By now, you should have your self-evaluation finished, and a few ideal career paths all mapped out. Congratulations: you have a personalized career plan, based on your interests and your skills. Now all that's left is the hard part: deciding which direction you'd like to take. Your career plan shouldn't be a dead document. Keep researching jobs that match up with your goals, and keep talking to people about what opportunities they have in their organizations for people who do what you'd rather do all day. Photo by Quinn Dombrowski.

Once you decide on a direction, you'll have to determine whether or not the first step is something that requires education, a completely new job, or something you can start with your current gig. You may be getting valuable experience now that can lead you to the career you love, given time. Alternatively, it may be time to jump ship and work to the career you want to have, even if it feels like you have no relevant experience.

Regardless of what you choose to do, even if it's nothing for now, there's tremendous value in taking stock of your strengths and weaknesses and where you are professionally. You can use that information to make your current job more bearable just as easily as you can use it to find a new direction. Spending a little time making a map of how you want your career to evolve can save you weeks or even years of toiling away in a job or career that brings you no joy.

Are you happy with your career path or are you ready for a change? How are you planning for that change, or if you've made the leap, how did you do it? Share your experiences in the comments.

Google’s Keep note-taking app is getting a new feature courtesy of Android 14 that’s a huge time-saver, even if Samsung got there first

  There’s a certain balance that needs to be achieved with lock screen functionality. You can’t give away too much because of, well, securit...