Category: ifttt

By Thorin Klosowski, Lifehacker – January 17, 2013 at 11:00AM

Adobe’s Creative Suite is one of the best software packs out there for professionals, but the suite is prohibitively expensive for most people. If you can’t drop the cash, you can still get a similar experience with free or cheap software. Here’s how to build your own Creative Suite.

Adobe Creative Suite is more than just Photoshop: it contains other software that helps you build web sites, design logos, edit video, layout books, and more. Recently, Adobe accidentally gave free access to the 2005 version of Creative Suite for free, and it’s clear demand for even outdated versions of the software is high. You can’t get as great of an experience with free software as you can with Adobe’s offerings, but you can at least get close. Whether you’re a student looking to test the waters of design before diving into the Creative Suite, or you’re just an amateur who doesn’t need all the bells and whistles, these free replacements to Adobe’s lineup offer enough for most of us.

Note: Mac users on OS X Mountain Lion may need to download X Quartz to get some of this software running since Apple dropped X11 support in Mountain Lion.

Best Replacement for Photoshop: GIMP

When it comes to replacing Photoshop, nothing is better than GIMP. GIMP has always been a little rough around the edges, but the recent update to version 2.8 really cleans up the interface and makes it a lot more usable. Alongside a huge list of updates, GIMP added a new single-window mode that mimics Photoshop’s tabbed view, and makes it considerably easier to use. The fact of the matter is, GIMP has come a long way since it was first released, and it’s now a serious replacement for the overpriced Photoshop.

If the slightly different interface in GIMP is throwing you off, it has a Photoshop-based port that looks and operates exactly like Photoshop. Once you’re up and running, take a look at our guide to getting started with Photoshop (which also applies to GIMP) to learn how to do all types of great things ranging from color correction to basic drawing.

Also try: Pixlr Editor (Windows), Paint.NET (Windows), or Pixelmator (Mac, $14.99)

Best Replacement for InDesign: Scribus

Adobe’s desktop publishing software InDesign has been a standard for magazine and newspaper layout for a long time, but the decrease in paper publishing has made it less of a necessary tool. That said, Scribus is free and open source software that can do just about everything InDesign can. Scribus isn’t nearly as intuitive (or pretty) as InDesign, but it gets the job done.

Scribus does things a little differently than InDesign, so it’s necessary to run through the quick-start guide to get started if you’re familiar with how InDesign (or Quark) work. As a program for laying out a few simple pages, a small pamphlet, or even a short book, Scribus works surprisingly well. That said, it doesn’t do a great job at handling a lot of images, and it doesn’t offer that many options for really tweaking the layout. Still, as a free alternative to Indesign, Scribus should work for most people who aren’t pushing out a daily newspaper.

Of course, if you just want to lay out an ebook (which InDesign also does), you have a few other options, including Sigil, and Calibre. Neither is particularly feature-rich, but if you’re just looking to lay out and publish a simple ebook (or PDF), both are free options that handle text and simple layout fine.

Also try: Serif PagePlus Starter Edition (Windows), iStudio Publisher (Mac, $17.99), Swiftpublisher (Mac, $19.99)

Best Replacement for Illustrator: Inkscape

Illustrator’s main claim to fame is vector-based art—the clean, simple art often seen in clipart, web graphics, and a lot of print art. The main appeal with vector graphics is that it’s based on mathematical equations instead of an actual image, so it can scale up (or down) to nearly size which makes it perfect for printing. It doesn’t seem that complicated, but few programs have been able to really replicate what makes Illustrator great. The closest is Inkscape, an open-source program that does just about everything Illustrator can do without the extra bells and whistles (like live trace).

Inkscape can do standard vector graphics really well, and a quick glance at the Inkscape Tutorials Blog showcases a lot of the power people have pulled out of it. If your main goal is to make clipart style graphics, icons, logos, or even do basic single-page layout, Inkscape handles just about everything Illustrator does.

Also try: OpenOffice Draw (Windows, Mac, and Linux), DrawPlus (Windows), XaraExtreme (Linux), or Torapp (Chrome), iDraw (Mac, $24.99)

Best Replacement for Premiere: Lightworks or VideoLAN Movie Creator

Unfortunately, Adobe’s video editing software, Premiere is one of the hardest programs to replace in the Creative Suite. That said, if you simply need to edit a few home videos, the cross-platform VideoLAN Movie Creator is a very early alpha, but can handle a number of video formats, basic editing, a small collection of effects, and more. It doesn’t come close to the powerhouse that is Premier, but if you just need to do some simple editing, or add a soundtrack to your home movie, VideoLAN Movie Creator does the trick.

Windows users can also check out the previously mentioned Lightworks. The free version allows you to do a lot of basic editing, and if you decide to upgrade to the full version, it’s only $60.

However, if you’re on Linux, you have a couple really solid options. Kdenlive, PiTiVi, and OpenShot are about as close as you’ll get to commercial editing software for free. They’re both a little closer to iMovie than they are to Premier in terms of features, but they work really well.

The fact of the matter is that you’re not going to find a perfect substitute for Premiere, but if you’re just looking to make simple video edits, it’s possible to do it without spending a dime. Once you get going, our guide to video editing will teach you all the basics.

Also try: Avidemux (Windows, Mac, Linux), Magistro (web), iMovie (Mac, $14.99), or Screenflow (Mac, $100)

Best Replacement for Dreamweaver: KompoZer or Learn to Code

What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) editors for making web sites are easy to come by, but few match the toolset included in Dreamweaver. Since Dreamweaver works both as a WYSIWYG editor and a site manager, you’re not going to find a free alternative that does both.

However, KompoZer gets as close as possible while still being simple to use. As a web authoring tool that doesn’t require you to learn HTML, it’s easy to get used to, and you can design a basic web site in a few minutes. The addition of add-ons can also extend its use a little bit. KompoZer is a bit outdated (the last update was way back in 2010), but it can still handle basic CSS and HTML.

All that said, Dreamweaver, along with any WYSIWYG editor, are often criticized for outputting bad code and doing a poor job of teaching the basics of web site design. If your real goal is to get into web design, you’re better off learning to make one from scratch. We’ve got a huge guide for doing just that. The best part? You can learn all the coding you need with free tools, and moving forward you’ll know how to make a web site without relying on Adobe’s expensive software.

Also try: SeaMonkey (Mac), Aptana Studio 3 (Windows, Mac, Linux), BlueGriffon (Windows, Mac, Linux), or Amaya (Windows, Mac, Linux), Flux (Mac, $75), Espresso (Mac, $75)

Best Replacement for After Effects: Blender or Wax

After Effects is a relatively niche piece of software for special effects, and post-production video editing. It’s also one of the cheaper retail options out there. Subsequently, you have a pretty small selection of free software to choose from to replace it.

The closest analog is Wax for Windows. It’s a bit old, but it’s one of the few free choices that can handle video compositing, special effects, and a wide selection of plugins.

Alternately, Blender is a cross-platform tool meant for 3D design that can also handle a suprising amount of composting options. It’s not designed for the same special effects as After Effects, but if you just want to toss some light sabers into that home video you filmed at the Grand Canyon, Blender can do it. It’s also worth checking out BlenderGuru for a huge list of tutorials.

Also try: Jahshaka (was out of date for a while, but has recently relaunched to push a new 3.0 build), Motion 5 (Mac, $49.99),

Best Replacement for Flash: Various Tools

Flash is one of the hardest Adobe tools to replace with free software because Adobe invented the entire system it’s based on. However, depending on what you’re looking to make with Flash, you have a few different options.

If you want to use Flash to create 2D animation, Synfig Studio is your best option. Synfig Studio can do about as much as Flash can do with animation, and once you run through the tutorials it’s a snap to make to make 2D animations. Unfortunately, you can’t export your animations to the Flash standard SWF format, but as a learning tool it works great.

If ActionScript programming is what you’re interested in, Flash Develop is a great coding program built specifically for ActionScript. It’s a little tough to get started with, but once you get the hang of it, Flash Develop can handle all the code that Flash can.

Finally, if making Flash games is more in your interest, Stencyl is an absolutely fantastic free tool for budding game developers. Its tutorials walk you though every aspect you need to know, and the visual design mimics a lot of what you’ll also find in Flash, but works considerably better. The best part? It’s entirely visual, so you don’t need to code, and when you’re done making something, you can instantly export it as an iOS game (Android support is also on the way).

Also try: Hyper (Mac-based HTML5 Editor, $49.99), Microsoft Silverlight (Windows, Mac), Vectorian (Windows), Awesome Animator (Windows), Ajax Animator (browser)

Best Replacement to Acrobat: Preview or PDF-XChange Viewer

Replacing the gigantic, all-encompassing Adobe Acrobat is no easy task. On Windows, we like PDF-XChange Viewer. While its set of free options are limited to reading, annotation, and signatures, that’s enough for most lightweight users. That said, the $40 Pro version does everything Acrobat does and more. So, if you do need to make the upgrade it’s still considerably cheaper than the $300 Acrobat.

Mac users should be able to get by with the built-in functions of Preview for most of their PDF editing and creation needs. Preview can handle annotation, highlighting, editing, signatures, and more. It’s not nearly as robust as Acrobat, but for the bulk of people out there who need simple editing tools Preview works great.

Also try: Formulate Pro, Foxit Reader (Windows, $29 for the Express version, $95 for the Standard), or Nitro Reader (Windows, $119.99 for Pro version)

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As we mentioned, most of the above options won’t replace Creative Suite for professionals, but they’re usually enough for amateurs. They might take a little more work to learn how to use them because they’re rarely as well-designed as Adobe’s offerings, but they’re often nearly as functional. If you do decide to make the upgrade to Creative Suite, remember that the new subscription model makes very little sense when you can snag the student editions even when you’re not a student.

Title image remixed from Africa Studio (Shutterstock).

By Leslie Horn, Gizmodo – January 16, 2013 at 10:20AM

Dads of the world, take note: you don’t have to leave the hairstyling to mom. Got a vacuum? Great. Got one of those snakey tube attachments? Perfect. Pop a rubber band on that bad boy, suck your daughter’s hair up in the tube, and voilà! A perfect ponytail. Cue touchdown dance. More »

By Justin Pot, MakeUseOf – January 16, 2013 at 12:01PM

Edit your partitions from outside your operating system. The GParted Live CD is a simple Linux distro you can use to change the size of your partitions – or wipe a drive entirely. Built around GParted, the ultimate partitioning software, the GParted Live CD is probably the simplest way to use GParted on any computer – regardless of what operating system it runs.

If Parted Magic is a complete toolbox for your computer, the GParted Live CD is more like a single tool. While the latter includes some tools besides its famous partitioning software, it’s decidedly a less diverse offering than the former.

That doesn’t mean the GParted Live CD is not worth having around, though. With a footprint of under 140MB, it can fit on even the smallest flash drives on the market, and its singular focus on partitioning software might be just right for you. With Fluxbox as its desktop, it’s lightweight in a way few distros are anymore.

Using The GParted Live CD

Boot this Linux distro up and one program will load immediately – GParted. This makes sense, as GParted is the reason for its existence, but there are other tools offered. You’ll see icons at the top.

I’ve already shown you what GParted can do so I’m not going to get into that here, but rest assured that you’ll be able to create, delete, move and otherwise edit your partitioning scheme.

As always – back up your data before messing with your partitions. Even if you’re an expert, stuff will break occasionally. You’ve been warned.

This being Fluxbox, you can also browse a menu by right-clicking the desktop. There’s not a lot of non-GParted software to explore here, but must-haves like text editors and Midnight Commander are around if you need them.

There’s also a simple web browser if you need to look something up, but note that you’ll have to run the networking wizard on the desktop before you can use it.

Supported Formats

This CD supports every file system supported by GParted, so if there’s something you can’t do on this CD, it’s because GParted itself cannot do it. Here are my choices while trying to create a partition:

Choice is good. For quick references: Windows uses NTFS, Linux typically uses EXT3 or EXT4, Macs use HFS+ and all three systems can read FAT32 partitions. Good luck, and remember: back up everything before editing partitions. You’ve been warned, multiple times.

Download The GParted Live CD

Ready to give this a shot? You’ll find the ISO file at the GParted home page. You can burn this ISO to CD with most burning software, or you can create a bootable flash drive using LinuxLive in Windows or by using the cross-platform tool uNetBootin.

If you have trouble booting from USB or CD check your BIOS and change the boot order. If you can’t figure out how to do that messing around with partitions might not be the best idea anyway.

Compared To Parted Magic

The centerpiece of both Parted Magic and the GParted Live CD is, of course, GParted itself. If you’ve got an Ubuntu live CD kicking around you can also use that to run GParted – but it’s far bigger than both disks.

Whatever tool you used, if you feel like you messed up completely don’t worry. It might be possible to scan your reformatted hard drive to recover files. It’s worth a shot.

How do you like the GParted Live CD? Let me know in the comments below, along with any other quality partitioning software you’d like to point out. I look forward to the conversation, as always.

The post The GParted Live CD: A Quick Way To Edit Your Primary Partitions [Linux] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

By Andrew Liszewski, Gizmodo – January 16, 2013 at 11:46AM

Dust and moisture are the main enemies when it comes to keeping your photography gear in top working condition. That’s why everything comes with lens caps, and why you should maybe consider upgrading them all to BRNO’s dri+Caps which feature a compartment for a small packet of moisture-trapping silica gel. More »

By Simon Slangen, MakeUseOf – January 13, 2013 at 08:00PM

People are always going on about the Mac user experience; how it just works. For the most part, I agree with them. The operating system is like a smooth breeze, and most of the default applications are top notch quality. There’s really only one standard application that’s painfully lacking in power: Finder.

Finder used to be a pretty good way to browse your computer. It’s still an action-packed application, with many advanced features at the ready, but the user experience just hasn’t sufficiently evolved over time.

There are a number of Finder alternatives, PathFinder ($39.95) and TotalFinder ($18.00) first among them. In fact, Jeffry Thurana reviewed TotalFinder on MakeUseOf back in 2010. However, both applications come with rather serious price tags. I never did find any decent free alternatives, until XtraFinder came along.

XtraFinder

Perhaps ‘Finder alternative’ is not the best way to describe XtraFinder. Rather than running as a standalone application, XtraFinder tweaks Finder with a variety of features; both cosmetic and functional. Below these additions, you’ll find the same basic Finder functionality that you’re used to.

XtraFinder is a lot like TotalFinder. It has the same look about it and a lot of the same features—and then some. In retrospect, TotalFinder is still a bit more polished than XtraFinder. Nevertheless, it’s a great deal. Especially considering that XtraFinder is completely free.

Tabbed Browsing

Perhaps the most important (and most overdue) addition to Finder is the tabbed browsing. Open multiple instances of Finder in one Finder window, similar to how you browse the web. Drag and drop tags to rearrange them, or give them their own window.

In the XtraFinder Preferences, you’ll find a number of settings pertaining to XtraFinder’s tabbed functionality. Cosmetic options, like the option for narrow tab bars, allow you to save even more screen real estate. You can also change the tab style, maybe to match your browser experience. The Google Chrome and Opera tab styles are shown in the screenshot above (in that order).

Other options allow you to change tabbed behavior; opening tabs with the same path, and saving the state of your tabs when you quit Finder.

Most of the navigating actions are already blessed with keyboard shortcuts, but you can tweak these shortcuts in the tab settings as well. Some menu items may not be provided with shortcuts by XtraFinder. Fortunately, Mac OS X provides an easy way to define your own shortcuts.

Dual Panel Mode

Another feature that is added to Finder by XtraFinder can be found in the Tab settings, but really deserves to be highlighted separately. Dual Pane mode allows you to open two tabs side by side, in one finder window. This is incredibly useful for organizing related folders.

XtraFinder allows you to give this second pane its own tab as well. However, I found this to be slightly more unreliable than TotalFinder (which offers a similar feature). If you use a conventional mouse, you can instead configure XtraFinder to open sidebar items in the second pane using the middle-click.

By default, XtraFinder adds an icon to your Mac OS X menu bar. This provides a convenient way of opening a dual pane window. Interestingly, you can also choose whether to divide the window horizontally or vertically.

A Plethora of Useful Tweaks

The features covered above are the most noticeable, as well as the features you’ll likely use the most, but XtraFinder comes with a small arsenal of additional tweaks. Almost all of these are disabled by default, but you can play around with them in the XtraFinder preferences, in the Features tab.

Many of you who are converted Windows users should be delighted to see the comeback of cut & paste functionality. XtraFinder also caters to Finder nostalgics, who want to see folders on top again, and preferred the colorful icons in the Finder sidebar. Similar to browser navigation, you can set folders to open in a new window or tab when middle-clicked, and go back in history using the delete key. These are only some of the most prominent options. Refer to the screenshot above for a complete list of additional (and optional) Features.

Extend Finder Menus

A lot of actions are accessible through a variety of Finder menus. XtraFinder lets you add some of these to the (often static) right-click context menu. Some of these are especially useful for developers, like New Terminal Here, Launch as Root and Copy Path (in multiple formats).

Other options are just generally useful for organizing files, like New File, Copy to, Move to, Show Hidden Files and the ability to open a dual pane window from your right-click context menu. All of these options can also be extended with a self-specified keyboard shortcut. Per your preference, these shortcuts will work within Finder, or system-wide.

What features do you miss when using Finder? Does XtraFinder provide an alternative, or do you look somewhere else? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below the article!

The post Give Finder The Upgrade It Sorely Needs With XtraFinder [Mac] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

By Melanie Pinola, Lifehacker – January 10, 2013 at 12:30PM

The Egg McMuffin is an iconic breakfast sandwich packing a fried egg, bacon, toasted bread, and cheese in one to-go package. McDonald’s Executive Chef Dan Coudreaut demonstrates how to cook it yourself at home.

You only really need a few simple ingredients and equipment to replicate the Egg McMuffin. The only thing you might not have is a ring mold (to make the fried eggs round), but a mason jar ring could be a good substitute.

Besides the step-by-step instructions here, Coudreaut offers several useful tips (as he did when sharing the company’s Big Mac instructions). For example, you can easily break the egg yolk just by tapping the center of the yolk with the egg shell (around 2:18). Another tip is to add a little water to the pan; this creates steam for cooking the egg and getting it nice and fluffy.

For your future reference and if you don’t care to watch the video, Yahoo!’s Shine has the directions and recipe in one page.

Olympic Games: Best of Our Best Taste – Egg McMuffin | YouTube

By Jeff Starr, Perishable Press – January 10, 2013 at 02:55AM

Following up on much feedback (and this post), here is an update for the 5G Blacklist for 2013. As explained in the 2012 article (and elsewhere), the 5G Blacklist helps reduce the number of malicious URL requests that hit your website. It’s one of many ways to improve the security of your site and protect against evil exploits, bad requests, and other nefarious garbage. If your site runs on Apache and you’re familiar with .htaccess, the 5G is an effective way to secure your site against malicious HTTP activity.

About the 5G Blacklist

The 5G Blacklist is a simple, flexible blacklist that checks all URI requests against a series of carefully constructed HTAccess directives. This happens quietly behind the scenes at the server level, saving resources for stuff like PHP and MySQL for all blocked requests.

How it works

Blacklists can block just about any part of a request: IP, user agent, request string, query string, referrer, and everything in between. But IP addresses change constantly, and user agents and referrers are easily spoofed. As discussed, request strings yield the best results: greater protection with fewer false positives.

The 5G works beautifully with WordPress, and should help any site conserve bandwidth and server resources while protecting against malicious activity.

5G Blacklist 2013

Here is the third version of the 5th generation blacklist:

# 5G BLACKLIST/FIREWALL (2013)
# @ https://perishablepress.com/5g-blacklist-2013/

# 5G:[QUERY STRINGS]
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
	RewriteEngine On
	RewriteBase /
	RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (\"|%22).*(<|>|%3) [NC,OR]
	RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (javascript:).*(\;) [NC,OR]
	RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (<|%3C).*script.*(>|%3) [NC,OR]
	RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (\\|\.\./|`|=\'$|=%27$) [NC,OR]
	RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (\;|\'|\"|%22).*(union|select|insert|drop|update|md5|benchmark|or|and|if) [NC,OR]
	RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (base64_encode|localhost|mosconfig) [NC,OR]
	RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (boot\.ini|echo.*kae|etc/passwd) [NC,OR]
	RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (GLOBALS|REQUEST)(=|\[|%) [NC]
	RewriteRule .* - [F]
</IfModule>

# 5G:[USER AGENTS]
<IfModule mod_setenvif.c>
	# SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent ^$ keep_out
	SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent (binlar|casper|cmsworldmap|comodo|diavol|dotbot|feedfinder|flicky|ia_archiver|jakarta|kmccrew|nutch|planetwork|purebot|pycurl|skygrid|sucker|turnit|vikspider|zmeu) keep_out
	<limit GET POST PUT>
		Order Allow,Deny
		Allow from all
		Deny from env=keep_out
	</limit>
</IfModule>

# 5G:[REQUEST STRINGS]
<IfModule mod_alias.c>
	RedirectMatch 403 (https?|ftp|php)\://
	RedirectMatch 403 /(https?|ima|ucp)/
	RedirectMatch 403 /(Permanent|Better)$
	RedirectMatch 403 (\=\\\'|\=\\%27|/\\\'/?|\)\.css\()$
	RedirectMatch 403 (\,|\)\+|/\,/|\{0\}|\(/\(|\.\.\.|\+\+\+|\||\\\"\\\")
	RedirectMatch 403 \.(cgi|asp|aspx|cfg|dll|exe|jsp|mdb|sql|ini|rar)$
	RedirectMatch 403 /(contac|fpw|install|pingserver|register)\.php$
	RedirectMatch 403 (base64|crossdomain|localhost|wwwroot|e107\_)
	RedirectMatch 403 (eval\(|\_vti\_|\(null\)|echo.*kae|config\.xml)
	RedirectMatch 403 \.well\-known/host\-meta
	RedirectMatch 403 /function\.array\-rand
	RedirectMatch 403 \)\;\$\(this\)\.html\(
	RedirectMatch 403 proc/self/environ
	RedirectMatch 403 msnbot\.htm\)\.\_
	RedirectMatch 403 /ref\.outcontrol
	RedirectMatch 403 com\_cropimage
	RedirectMatch 403 indonesia\.htm
	RedirectMatch 403 \{\$itemURL\}
	RedirectMatch 403 function\(\)
	RedirectMatch 403 labels\.rdf
	RedirectMatch 403 /playing.php
	RedirectMatch 403 muieblackcat
</IfModule>

# 5G:[REQUEST METHOD]
<ifModule mod_rewrite.c>
	RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} ^(TRACE|TRACK)
	RewriteRule .* - [F]
</IfModule>

# 5G:[BAD IPS]
<limit GET POST PUT>
	Order Allow,Deny
	Allow from all
	# uncomment/edit/repeat next line to block IPs
	# Deny from 123.456.789
</limit>

To use: include the entire 5G Blacklist in the root .htaccess file of your site. Remember to backup your original .htaccess file before making any changes. Test thoroughly while enjoying your favorite beverage. If you encounter any issues, please read the troubleshooting tips and/or leave a comment to report a bug.

Note: in some cases it may be necessary to place the QUERY STRING rules before WP-permalink rules.

Pre-changelog notes

The changes made for 5G 2013 are aimed at maximizing compatibility. Unfortunately, a number of required changes are due to improper coding and ignoring HTTP specifications. As mentioned previously, using unsafe characters in URLs obsoletes security measures that are based on pattern-matching, which is integral to the process of blocking malicious activity.

To illustrate, it is possible to protect against a wide range of malicious requests by blocking unsafe characters such as unencoded question marks “?” included within the query string. Firewalls, blacklists, security plugins and scripts are able to safely block such bad requests UNTIL some widely used service such as Google Adwords decides to start including multiple unencoded question marks in their query strings. Suddenly blocking potentially dangerous “?” requests is useless because nobody wants to block legitimate (Google) traffic.

Moral of the story: if you develop for the Web, contribute to its security by encoding your URLs according to spec. If you use security plugins, firewalls/blackists, and scripts that rely on pattern-matching to protect your site, please encourage and educate others about the importance of adhering to HTTP specifications.</rant>

Changelog

Removed from QUERY STRINGS

• Square brackets “[” and “]” (details)
• Colon “:” (details)
• Unencoded question mark “\?” (WP’s preview feature, Piwik, Adwords, et al)
• Removed “(menu|mod|path|tag)\=\.?/?” (WP menus, WP Super Cache, Joomla, Googlebot, et al)
• Removed “environ” (common string)
• Removed “scanner” (various WP plugins)
• Removed “%3E” (common string)
• Escaped backslash, from “\” to “\\”

Removed from USER AGENTS

• Commented out match for blank/empty user-agent “^$” (PayPal, WP-Piwik, et al)
• Removed match for “libwww” (used by Lynx browser)

Removed from REQUEST STRINGS

• Double forward slash “//” (Pingdom, gtmetrix, et al)
• Removed match for “/cgi/” (Fancy indexes, Authentication)

Added to QUERY STRINGS (5G 2013)

• “TRACE” and “TRACK”
• “base64_encode.*\(”
• “\|%3E”
• “GLOBALS(=|\[|\%)”
• “REQUEST(=|\[|\%)”
• “`”
• “(\"|%22).*(<|>|%3)”
• “(<|%3C).*script.*(>|%3)”
• “(javascript:).*(\;)”
• “(\;|\'|\"|%22).*(union|select|insert|drop|update|md5|benchmark|or|and|if)”

Other changes

Optimized syntax, improved formatting.

Troubleshooting

If there is an error, remove the code and make a backup of your original .htaccess file (if you haven’t already done so). Investigate the URL for whichever page is blocked or not working, making note of any non-alphanumeric characters or anything else that looks unusual. With a good idea of what to look for, examine the 5G directives to see if anything looks similar. If so, try removing (or commenting out) the offending line (or characters) and see if that resolves the issue.

If that doesn’t work, further investigation is required, and there are numerous ways of going about it. Here is a good walkthrough of my halving method of isolating problematic code, which I recommend unless you have your own favorite way of troubleshooting 😉

Show support

If you benefit from my work with the 5G and would like to show support, consider buying a copy of my book, .htaccess made easy. You’ll get a complete guide to .htaccess, exclusive forum access, and a ton of awesome techniques for configuring, optimizing, and securing your site. Your generous support allows me to continue developing 5G/6G and other awesome resources for the community. Thank you!

Disclaimer

The 5G Firewall is provided “as-is”, with the intention of helping site administrators protect their sites against bad requests and other malicious activity. The code is open and free to use and modify as long as the first two credit lines remain intact. By using this code you assume all risk & responsibility for anything that happens, whether good or bad. In short, use wisely, test thoroughly, don’t sue me.

Learn more..

To learn more about the theory and development of the 5G Firewall, check out my articles on building the 3G, 4G and 5G Blacklist. The 6G beta article also contains some good information. And if all that’s not enough, a quick search for “blacklist” in the sidebar should also yield many results.

By Jason Kottke, kottke.org – January 09, 2013 at 10:36AM

This f*cking guy shows you the f*cking pool, the f*cking ice cream bar, the f*cking ocean, and every other f*cking thing on the ship.

(via @nickkokonas)

Tags: video

By Alan Henry, Lifehacker – January 08, 2013 at 05:15PM

If you’re getting your own business cards printed and you don’t have a ton of money or access to professional printers, there are great online services willing to help you out. Most of them offer high quality cards, great selection of size, card stock, and designs, and fast delivery. Last week we asked you which sites you thought were the best, and then we took a look at the five best business card printing sites based on your nominations. Now we’re back to crown the winner.

Moo easily took the top spot with close to 56% of the overall vote. The service, which offers great customer service, a broad set of designs and card options, and great-looking cards that you can customize almost every inch of, took the lead early in the voting and just never gave it up.

In second place with 26% of the overall vote was the budget-friendly VistaPrint, which offers super-cheap (and in some cases, free) business cards if you have the right coupon codes. JukeBox took third place with over 7% of the votes cast, thanks to its beautiful paper and stock options, truly unique designs, and great customer service. In fourth place with 6% of the vote was OvernightPrints.com, and bringing up the rear with close to 5% of the votes cast was GotPrint.

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

By John Goerzen, Lifehacker – January 08, 2013 at 05:00PM

Two years ago, my son Jacob (then 3) and I built his first computer together. I installed Debian on it, but never put a GUI on the thing. It’s command-line, and has provided lots of enjoyment off and on over the last couple of years. The looks of shock I get from people when I explain, as if it’s perfectly natural, that my child has been able to log in by himself to a Linux shell since age 3, are amusing and astounding. Especially considering that it is really not that hard. Instead of learning how to run an Xbox, he’s learned how to run bash. I like that.

Lately, Jacob (now 5) hasn’t been spending much time with it. He isn’t really at a stage where he wants to push his limits too far, I think, but yet also gets bored with the familiar. So I thought it was time to introduce a GUI in a limited fashion, perhaps to let him download photos and video from his Vtech toy camera (that takes real low-res photos and videos which can be downloaded over a USB1 link). He’s familiar with the concept, at least somewhat, having seen GUIs on Terah’s computer (Gnome 2) and mine (xfce4 + xmonad).

So last night, Oliver (age 2) and I went down to the basement on a mouse-finding expedition. Sure enough, I had an old PS/2 mouse down there that would work fine. The boys both helped string it through the desk up on our play room, and were tremendously excited to see the red light underneath it when the computer came on. Barely able to contain the excitement, really. A bit like I remember being when I got my first mouse (at a bit of an older age, I suppose.)

I helped him them in as root for the very first time. (Jacob typed “root”, and I typed the password, and provided the explanation for why we were telling the computer we were “root”.) Jacob and Oliver alternated typing bits of some apt-get command lines. Then while we waited for software to download, I had to answer repeated questions of “how soon will the mouse work?” and “what does ‘install’ mean?”

Finally it was there, and I told Jacob to type startx. I intentionally did not install a display manager; more on that later. He pressed Enter, the screen went blank for about 5 seconds, and then X appeared. “Excited” can’t begin to describe how they acted. They took turns playing with the mouse. They loved how the trash can icon (I started with XFCE) showed trash IN the trash can.

But they are just learning the mouse, and there’s a lot about a typical GUI that is unfriendly to someone that isn’t yet proficient with a mouse. The close buttons are disappointingly small, things can be too easily dragged on and off the panel and menus. When I sat down to think about it, the typical GUI design does not present a very good “it always works the same” interface that would be good for a child.

And then it occurred to me: the perfect GUI for a child would be simply xmonad (a tiling window manager that can be controlled almost entirely by keyboard and has no need for mouse movements in most cases.) No desktop environment, no file manager in the root window. Just a window manager in the classic X way. Of course!

So after the boys were in bed, I installed xmonad. I gave Jacob’s account a simple .xsession that starts a terminal and xmonad.

Today, Jacob informed me that he wanted his computer to look “just like yours.” Playing right into my hands, that was! But when he excitedly typed startx, he said it wasn’t just like mine. Uh oh. Turns out he wanted the same wallpaper as my computer uses. Whew. We found it, I figured out that xli(1) loads it in the root window, and so I added a third line to .xsession. More delight unlocked!

Jacob mastered the basics of xmonad really quickly. Alt-Shift-C to close a window. Alt-Shift-Q to quit back to the “big black screen”. Alt-Shift-Enter to get a terminal window.

We launched thunar (the XFCE file manager) and plugged in his camera. He had a good deal of fun looking at photos and videos from it. But then I dropped the true highlight of the day for him: I offered to install Tuxpaint for him. That’s probably his favorite program of all time.

He watched impatiently as apt-get counted down 1m30s for tuxpaint and its libraries. Then we launched it, and he wanted to skip supper so he could keep playing Tuxpaint on “my VERY OWN COMPUTER!”

I’d been debating how to introduce GUIs for a very long time. It has not escaped my attention that children that used Commodores or TRS-80s or DOS knew a lot more about how their computers worked, on average, than those of the same age that use Windows or MacOS. I didn’t want our boys to skip an entire phase of learning how their technology works. I am pleased with this solution; they still run commands to launch things, yet get to play with more than text-based programs.

At bedtime, Jacob asked me, very seriously:

“Dad, how do I start tuxpaint again?”

“First you log in and type startx. Then you can use the mouse.”

Jacob nods, a contemplative look on his face…

“Then,” I continue, “you type tuxpaint in the terminal, and it comes right up.”

Jacob nodded very seriously a second time, as if committing this very important information to long-term memory. Then gave a single excited clap, yelled “Great!”, and dashed off.

I introduced my 5-year-old and 2-year-old to startx and xmondad. They’re DELIGHTED! | The Changelog

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John Goerzen is a programmer, sysadmin, Debian developer, and dad from Kansas. He writes about all these things on his blog.

Image remixed from shooarts (Shutterstock).

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