Most Popular Hive Fives of 2010 [Best Of 2010]

via Lifehacker by Jason Fitzpatrick on 12/17/10

Every week we put out a Hive Five Call for Contenders and ask you a simple question: Which is best? From DVD rippers to web hosts and everything in between, here's a look back at the most popular Hive Fives of 2010.

Photo remixed from an original by Matt Katzenberger

The Hive Five gives us a chance to put interesting topics before the Lifehacker readership, see what's popular, and then round up the top five contenders for a vote. Sometimes the winner seems obvious from the start but the real value of the Hive Five isn't finding out the absolute most popular tool around, it's finding out four other very solid options you may have been unaware of.

Five Best DVD-Ripping Tools

You've got DVDs and you've got media servers and portable devices that need to be fed with fresh media. DVD-ripping tools bridge the gap and help you turn your optical media into files you can enjoy without a DVD player.

Five Best Windows 7 Tweaking Applications

Windows 7 brought numerous improvements over previous incarnations of Windows-especially for those making the leap from Windows XP to Windows 7. People still love to tweak and customize their operating system, no matter how many improvements it contains. The Windows Tweaking Hive Five was one of our most popular for the entire year, testifying to the love the Lifehacker readership has for customization.

Five Best Netbook Operating Systems

Netbooks are inexpensive, popular, and prime targets for tweaking and custom operating systems. From Windows, Linux, and OS X as well as custom netbook-centric packages all made an appearance in this popular Hive.

Five Best Email Clients

Despite the popularity of web-based email clients more than a few desktop clients made a solid showing in the email Hive Five. If you're looking for something beyond your web-client that isn't Outlook, it's worth taking a peek.

Five Best Start Pages

The start page is the first thing you see when you open your browser or launch a new tab. If you're tired of looking at your browser's default page, the start pages Hive Five offers a variety of alternative pages.

Five Best Music Streaming Services

You like tunes? You like tunes delivered to you by the magic of the internet wherever you are? Check out the music streaming Hive Five for Lifehacker readers' five favorite music streaming services.

Five Best Computer Diagnostic Tools

Just because computers get easier and easier to use doesn't mean they don't need a checkup now and then. Load up your tool bag with five great tools so that when trouble strikes-and it will-you'll be ready to diagnose the problem.

Five Best Public BitTorrent Trackers

If you're looking to set sail for the Isle of Sharing you'll need some directions. Torrent trackers help you find new files and direct your client to the swarm of people out there sharing them. Check out the five best public BitTorrent trackers to find the files you're looking for.

Five Best VPN Tools

Virtual Private Network software allows you to join together far flung networks and the computers on them as though they were all sitting together in the same office. Whether you need to link your entire office to another office across the country on your home network to your buddy's across town, you'll find a tool to help in this Hive Five.

Five Best Online File Sharing Services

BitTorrent is great for sharing popular files, a dedicated server is great for sharing private files, but what about the times you just want to shoot a big file from your computer to a remote one? When you want to share files with no fuss and in private the five solutions in the file sharing Hive have you covered.

Five Best Tools for Managing Your Multi-Monitor Setup

You've got monitors and lots of them. Grab some apps to maximize your bountiful screen real estate; don't let any of those precious pixels go to waste just idling away. This Hive Five includes tools that extend your task bar, manage your wallpapers, and enhance window and monitor management.

Five Best Offline Backup Tools

If you're not backing up your data you're playing a dangerous game-all disks die, it's just a matter of when. Hop into the Offline Backup Hive Five and grab an application or two to help you wrangle offline backups and ensure your data is secure.

Five Best Personal Web Hosts

Massive enterprise-level web hosting solutions are overkill for private and small-time web sites. In this particular Hive we took a look at the best personal web hosts and what made them well suited for adventures in personal web mastering.

Five Best Places to Buy Cheap Textbooks

Who wants to spend a fortune on textbooks? Nobody, which is why the Cheap Textbooks Hive Five was so popular. If you're in school, have kids in school, or are returning to school yourself, you can save a boatload of cash by shopping on textbook web sites.

Five Best File Encryption Tools

Unless you enjoy people climbing in your windows and snatching your data up, you better be encrypting it. From whole disk encryption to encrypted volumes and portable files, the Encryption Tools Hive Five has everything you need to make sure your tax returns, diary, and extensive Sailor Moon collection is safe from prying eyes.

Five Best Music Discovery Services

Gone are the days of relying on a local DJ or record shop employee to introduce you to new music. If you're in the mood for new music make sure to check out the Music Discovery Services Hive Five to see where you fellow readers discover new artists.

Most Popular Top 10s of 2010 [Best Of 2010]

via Lifehacker by Whitson Gordon on 12/8/10

Each Saturday, we pore through our favorite tips and tricks to find 10 great hacks surrounding any subject, from food and thumb drives to browsers and Wi-Fi. Here are our most popular Top 10s of 2010.

Photo remixed from an original by Matt Katzenberger

Top 10 Ways to Access Blocked Stuff on The Web

One of the biggest annoyances on the web today is blocked content—whether it's behind a paywall or blocked by your device manufacturer, ISP, or country limits, we rounded up some of the best ways to get past content blockers and access any service you want.

Top 10 DIY Food Geek Projects

If there's one thing we love putting our geeky DIY efforts toward around here (besides technology, of course), it's food. If it's a product of your own hard work, it just tastes so much better. We've done some great kitchen repurposing tricks and food hacks in the past, but if you're looking to go for the gusto these are some of our coolest in-depth food projects.

Top 10 USB Thumb Drive Tricks

Despite what your friends may think, those little USB drives are good for a lot more than just transferring files between computers. It's amazing how something so small can do so much—encrypt data, fix broken machines run portable apps, or even run an entire operating system.

Top 10 Thing You Didn't Know Google Maps Could Do

Sure, Google Maps is great for getting driving directions, but it can do oh so much more. Whether you're on vacation, looking for neat things to do, or just going for a bike ride, Google Maps has got you covered with everything you could want when on-the-go.

Top 10 Things to Do with a New Windows 7 System

Windows 7 brought a lot of cool new features to the world's most popular operating system, but they weren't all easy to find. We went through and found our favorite Windows 7 tips, tricks and tweaks that turn a fresh Windows install into a customized powerhouse (without the need for extra software).

Top 10 Android Apps

It took Android a little longer than iOS to ramp up a following, but about a year after its inception we rounded up some of the best apps available in the Android Market. We skipped over the really obvious choices—Facebook, Evernote, and so on—so Android fans could find some of the best tools that bring Android's strengths to light. Of course, be sure to check out our recent Lifehacker Pack for Android as well for more app recommendations.

Top 10 Creative Ways to Store Your Stuff

We're pretty anti-clutter around these parts, and one of the best ways to prevent clutter (and thus save time by not having to clean it) is to figure out the smartest ways to store all the stuff in your life. Whether it's a DIY solution that gets your stuff off the floor, finding clever places to hide unsightly accessories, or just plain good organization skills, we've got you covered.

Top 10 Uses for Wi-Fi (That Aren't Just Connecting to the Internet)

The invention of wireless networking brought us many great things, but few people realize its use beyond connecting to the internet without plugging into a wall. With Wi-Fi, you can print, listen to music, watch movies, transfer files, and do tons of other things from the comfort of your couch—even if it's far away from your precious Ethernet jack. Add a smartphone to the mix and the possibilities are nearly endless.

Top 10 Must-Have Browser Extensions

We've done browser extension roundups many times before, but with Google Chrome overtaking Firefox among power users and browsers like Safari finally getting extension support, it seemed more appropriate than ever to find the ten must-have browser extensions out there.

Top 10 Hard Drive Upgrades and Fixes

Your hard drive is a pretty crucial piece of equipment to your computer and your workflow, and it should never hold you back. We rounded up some of our favorite upgrades, tweaks, and clever uses for our internal hard drives.

Top 10 External Hard Drive Tricks

After a few years, we all rack up a bunch of extra hard drives that no longer have a place inside our computer. External hard drives, however, can still have purpose after they've been extradited from your PC case. If you've got some external drives collecting dust, here's how to put them to good use.

Top 10 Google Settings You Should Know About

After the Google Buzz fiasco of 2010, we realized there are a lot of great settings buried within Google Apps that deserve to be uncovered. Whether you just use Gmail or you're a fan of the whole Google suite, these settings should help you customize your experience to your liking.

Top 10 Ways Your Brain Is Sabotaging You (and How to Beat It)

Whether you like it or not, your subconscious is constantly playing tricks on you, worming its way into your everyday life without you even knowing. We looked through some of the biggest ways your brain is trying to sabotage your every move, and how to keep it under control.

Top 10 Mac Applications that Should Be on Windows

Sure, we love Windows 7 and all its neat new features, but there are some apps on OS X that the Windows development community just can't hold a candle to. Part one of this dual top 10 revealed the apps we're most jealous of OS X for having all to itself.

Top 10 DIY Cellphone Mods and Accessories

You'd think that a $200 cell phone would be able to do anything and everything, but sometimes it just needs a little outside help. Whether you're trying to restore its original scratch-free look, prop it up on your desk or dashboard, or use it while wearing gloves, we've got you covered with the best DIY projects to enhance your phone.

Top 10 Clever Google Voice Tricks

When Google Voice opened up to the entire US this year, we decided to run down some of the best clever tricks you could use it for—whether it be integration with Skype, GPS, Gmail, or your IM client. Of course, you could always just use it for voicemail and keep your own number, but where's the fun in that?

Top 10 Windows Applications that Should Be on Macs

In part two of our "wishes for other operating systems" top 10 chronicled our favorite Windows apps that are exclusive to Windows (but that we Mac users wish were on OS X).

Top 10 Windows Media Center Plug-Ins and Boosters

We talk a lot about media center software here at Lifehacker, and while programs like XBMC get a lot of voice, we try not to forget the great, built-in Windows Media Center software. These great plug-ins, helper apps, and tweaks take Windows Media Center to the next level of awesome.

Top 10 Privacy Tweaks You Should Know About

Between Facebook, Firesheep, and the continuing BitTorrent saga, privacy was on a lot of our minds this year. If you're looking to keep your computing protected from prying eyes, we've got the tweaks and setups to keep your information safe.

And there you have it—our 20 favorite Top 10 features (that's a whopping 200 tips in total) from the past year. Have a favorite that was less popular and didn't make the cut? Share it with us in the comments. And, if you're looking for even more great top 10s, check out the most popular lists from 2009 and 2008.

Most Popular How-To Guides of 2010 [Video]

via Lifehacker by Adam Pash on 12/6/10

We cover a lot ground every day on Lifehacker, but we get our greatest pleasure from putting together in-depth, step-by-step guides, making complicated tasks easy to do yourself. Here's a look back at our most popular how-to features of 2010.

Photo remixed from an original by Matt Katzenberger

How to Downgrade Your iPhone 3G[S] from iOS 4 to iOS 3.1.3

When Apple released iOS 4, it brought a lot of great features (like multi-tasking) to iOS devices. Unfortunately for iPhone 3G owners, the update slowed their devices to a crawl (and subsequent releases showed little improvement). Some people had luck speeding things up with a few tweaks, but many of us found we were better off downgrading from iOS 4 back to iOS 3.1.3. (If you're one of the lucky few who found their 3G's iOS 4 performance satisfactory and are yearning for more, here's how to enable multitasking and home screen wallpaper on the 3G and iPod touch 2G.

How I'd Hack Your Weak Passwords

While not exactly a straight how-to, security expert John Pozadzides' explanation for how easily he'd hack your weak passwords was a good reminder how important password security is. That's why we also showed you how to set up an easy, any-browser password solution.

How to Back Up and Play Your Wii Games from an External Hard Drive

Apart from video game makers' fear of piracy, there's no good reason why you shouldn't be able to store your Wii games on a hard drive and skip all the optical disc clutter and the hassle of swapping out discs every time you want to play a different game. Our guide to backing up and playing Wii games from an external hard drive puts all your games a few clicks away, cover art and all. As an added bonus, see our guide to hacking your Nintendo DS for easy backups and single-cartridge playback.

How to Ditch Big Brother and Disappear Forever

In an internet world, it may seem impossible to drop off the grid. During this year's Evil Week, we took a closer look at what it takes to ditch Big Brother and really disappear.

Make Free VoIP Calls from Google Voice

Google Voice is one of our favorite communication tools. Apart from the obvious (it creates one phone number that rings all your phones), you've got tons of clever ways you can put Voice to use. Perhaps the best involves setting up Google Voice with the right provider for unlimited free VoIP calling. Quick bonus: Don't forget about all the awesome ways you can take advantage of free calling in Gmail.

How to Boost Your BitTorrent Speed and Privacy

Whether you use BitTorrent to deliver the latest Linux distribution or to fulfill your entertainment needs, our guide to boosting your BitTorrent speed and privacy will get your downloading faster and obscure your downloading habits from prying eyes.

How to Build a Hackintosh Mac and Install OS X in Eight Easy Steps

We've walked through how to install OS X on non-Mac PC hardware—commonly referred to as a Hackintosh—a couple of times before, but with video walkthroughs of every step of the process, it's never been easier to build a Hackintosh Mac and install OS X.

How to Run Mac OS X in VirtualBox on Windows

We've had lots of fun running OS X on non-Mac hardware, but if you'd rather keep your regular Windows installation and occasionally run OS X in a virtual machine, our guide to running OS X in VirtualBox on Windows will get you up and running.

How to Turn Your iPod touch into an iPhone: 4G Edition

The latest iPhone and iPod touch are nearly identical devices, apart from the inconvenient fact that the latter isn't actually a phone—but that's never stopped us before. With the right tools, you can turn an iPod touch into an iPhone, saving considerable money in the process.

How to Reboot Your Sleep Cycle and Get the Rest You Deserve

Can't remember the last time you went to sleep and woke up feeling rested? Our guide to rebooting your sleep cycle may be able to help you get the rest you need.

How to Quit Facebook Without Actually Quitting Facebook

As Facebook's popularity grows and its maze of privacy options grow more complex, the social network has undergone a lot of scrutiny for the way it handles (or rather, doesn't handle) its users' privacy. Our guide to quitting Facebook without really quitting Facebook helps you stay connected without sacrificing your privacy.

How to Tether Your Android Phone

Tethering your computer to your phone's data plan is great, providing you with an internet connection on your computer anywhere you've got a signal. But the process depends to an extent on your Android phone. When we first showed you how to tether your Android phone, we detailed how to root your phone to enable tethering. For an easier route, you can use tethering apps like PDAnet, Tether, or EasyTether. Before you do tether, here's what you'll want to know first.

How to Get Started with Usenet in Three Simple Steps

Usenet is an old-school, online bulletin board that's also remarkably adept at downloading really big files really quickly. In most cases it's faster than BitTorrent, more secure, and extremely reliable. So if you haven't already, here's how to get started with Usenet in three simple steps.

The Ultimate Start to Finish Guide to Your XBMC Media Center

XBMC is easily our favorite open-source, hackable media center application. We detailed how to build a silent, standalone XBMC media center on the cheap last year, but our start to finish guide to your XBMC media center is sort of like our XBMC bible, and includes our building guide, our step by step or turning it into a video game console. and a whole lot more.

How to Transform Your Windows Desktop with an Amazing Windows Phone 7-Style HUD

Fancy the look and feel of the Windows Phone 7 interface so much you wouldn't mind having it on your desktop? This quick and simple guide will transform your Windows Desktop into a Windows Phone 7-style HUD in just a few clicks.

How to Manipulate People

It's nice to be honest with people and avoid using dirty tricks to get them to bend to your will. Luckily our guide to manipulating people is less about the manipulation and more about spotting it to avoid ending up the gullible victim.

Set Up a Geeky Media Center that Non-Geeks Can Actually Use

The catch to that awesome media center you set up in your home theater? It may be powerful, but no matter how streamlined you made it, it's unlikely most of your loved ones have ever used something like it before. Make things easier on them: Set up a geeky media center non-geeks can actually use.

The Step-by-Step Guide to Digitizing Your Life

If your analog media is collecting dust—or you wish it were—our guide to digitizing your life aims to save it from obsolescence.

Recover Data Like a Forensics Expert Using an Ubuntu Live CD

Whether or not you've gone entirely digital, you've still got a considerable amount of data stored on your hard drive. But hard drives crash and files can be accidentally deleted. Our guide to recovering data like a forensics expert will help you get it back.

How to Install Android on an iPhone in Six Easy Steps

Don't feel like choosing between an iPhone or Android? Install Android on your iPhone and get the best of both worlds. It's not a perfect port yet, and as of this writing it works best on an iPhone 3G, but it's a helluva start.

And there you have it—one year of our best how-tos in one fell swoop. Have a favorite that isn't winning any popularity contests? Let's hear about it in the comments. And if you're still hungry for how-to, take a gander at the most popular how-to guides of 2009 and 2008.

How To Build an Awesome Last Minute Superhero Halloween Costume [DIY]

via Gizmodo by Kyle VanHemert on 10/27/10

Snap! Halloween is here and you're still without so much as a twinkle of an idea of what to be. Thankfully for you, we teamed up with Instructables to bring you these killer costume ideas and guides for making them.

You can thank us later, in fun-sized candy bars.

Ghostbusters Costumes: Did seeing Bill Murray in his proton pack reinvigorate your enthusiasm for ghost hunting? Ghost trapping? Ghost busting? There's still time to build a proton pack of your own! And besides that, the rest of the suit is a piece of cake. Everyone looks good in beige.

Star Wars Costumes: You can never go wrong with a Star Wars costume, and what's great is that there are so many to choose from. Tatooine Luke or Jedi Luke. Princess Leia or Slave Leia. Senator Palpatine or Emperor Palpatine. George Lucas (unpopular) or Zombie George Lucas (less unpopular). The list goes on. And they're not all that hard to pull off! Take, for example, this "low budget Han Solo Halloween costume." Because the real Han Solo wouldn't want you to do it any other way.

Batman Costumes: Whether you want to be the Joker or the Dark Knight himself, a Batman costume can strike the perfect balance between nerd credability and adult respectability. Unless you're dressed in Jim Carey's Riddler costume. That one's pretty goofy.

Iron Man Costumes: Iron Man is arguably the hottest superhero of the moment, and there's no shortage of instructions on how to make your own armor (or arc reactor). And hey, if you get a little too, you know, crazy at that Halloween party, you can just say that you were really playing the part by acting like Tony Stark.

10 Awesome Costumes You'll Never Make: Every year I promise myself I'm going to really grab Halloween by the balls and make a kickass costume, and every year October 30th rolls around and I'm scrambling to get my stuff together. This year I have two days to pull together my zombie cowboy costume. So here, for inspiration if nothing else, are 10 costumes that you would like to make, but probably won't ever get around to.

Halloween Pumpkins: Sure, you say, I've got my costume all set, but what I really need are some high-tech decorations for my Halloween party. Follow these guides for laser pumpkins, remote control pumpkins, Mac-o-lanterns and more. Or really go all out with this Arduino Magic Mirror.

Giz and Instructables hopes you have a safe, fun Halloween. And don't eat all your candy in one sitting.

How to Build a Hackintosh Mac and Install OS X in Eight Easy Steps [Video]

via Lifehacker by Adam Pash on 10/25/10

Building a Hackintosh from scratch—that is, installing Mac OS X on non-Mac hardware—has never been easier, and the final product has never performed better. Here's how it works.

Note: This is our third and most recent Hackintosh build (here are the now-outdated first and second). This time, to make things really easy on you, we put together a video walkthrough of the entire process. You can watch the video in its entirety below, but we've also broken up the video next to the accompanying text in each step below.

The Full Step by Step in Video Form

Best viewed in 720p. Background music by Pex "Mahoney" Tufvession.

What You'll Need

Before you get started building your Hackintosh, you will, of course, need a few supplies.

The Hardware

There's no such thing as a definitive Hackintosh build, and you can find plenty of hardware that will run OS X using this or a similar method, but we're not going to dive into every possible option here. Instead, I've put together a list of the hardware I'm using and that I can guarantee runs like a dream (or at least it does for me). Also, the installation process below is tailored to this hardware; you can still build a Hackintosh using other hardware, but this installation process may not work 100%.

Here's all the hardware I bought off Newegg for this Hackintosh build:

• Antec Sonata III Case with 500W Power Supply
• ASUS P7P55D-E Pro ATX Intel Motherboard
• EVGA GeForce 9500 GT 01G-P3-N959-TR Video Card
• Intel Core i7-860 2.8GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor
• G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory x 2 (for a total of 8GB); the amount of RAM you choose is optional.
• 
  OCZ Vertex 2 OCZSSD3-2VTX120G 3.5" MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD): This SSD isn't strictly necessary, but in our opinion, SSDs are one of the best upgrades you can make.
• Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
• LITE-ON DVD Writer - Bulk - Black SATA Model iHAS224-06 LightScribe Support

In all, the subtotal on Newegg for all that hardware is $1,123.92; skip the SSD and the second set of RAM, and you've still got a solid machine for an even more reasonable $828.92.

Once you've got all your hardware, you'll need to assemble your computer. Putting together the hardware for your Hackintosh is just like building any other computer from scratch. You mount the motherboard to your case, install your CPU, RAM, graphics card, storage and optical drive, and plug in all the necessary cables. It's always a good idea to read over your motherboard's instruction manual, but if you want a little more help, hit up our first-timer's guide to building a computer from scratch.

The only thing you need to know is that you shouldn't plug your SATA drives into the off-white SATA ports at the bottom of the board. All the rest should work fine.

The Software

On the software end of the spectrum, you'll need a few things. Apart from the obvious (the Snow Leopard install DVD), you'll need to download somes files that'll contain the tools that let you install OS X on your machine. The method I'm using to install OS X on our Hackintosh this time around is a new one by a guy called tonymacx86, and it's really great. I've added direct links to the downloads below, but all credit goes to tonymac for the dead-simple tools.

• A Mac OS X 10.6 Install DVD (which you can buy from Apple)
• MacOSXUpdateCombo10.6.4 package (free from Apple)
• iBoot (from tonymacx86; find the iBoot NVIDIA download link on this post below step two)
• MultiBeast (also from tonymacx86; find the MultiBeast download link on this page below step three)
• Other post-installation files

To make things really easy, you can download the whole shebang (minus the OS X combo update) via BitTorrent here.

I'd suggest downloading everything you need now, and putting MultiBeast, the Mac OS X Combo update, and the post-installation files on a thumb drive.

Install OS X on Your Hackintosh

At this point you should have assembled your PC, and have all the software you'll need install OS X on your Hackintosh. Now it's time for the fun—and easy—part. The process this time around is surprisingly simple, but I'll still walk you through the process step by step.

Step One: Burn iBoot to a Disc

Above I told you to download iBoot from tonymacx86. If you haven't already, unzip iBoot.zip and extract iBoot.iso. Now it's time to burn the file to a CD or DVD. (It's a small bootloader, so a CD will work just fine.)

In Windows: Insert a blank disc, right-click iBoot.iso, and click Burn disc image. Select your disc burner in the next Windows prompt, and hit Burn.

On OS X: Insert a blank disc, right-click iBoot.iso, and click Burn "iBoot.iso" to Disc.

Burning the disc shouldn't take more than a minute or so, and iBoot should be ready to go.

Step Two: Adjust Your BIOS

Now that you've got the iBoot disc ready, it's time to turn on your soon-to-be-Hackintosh and adjust the BIOS so your computer's OS X-friendly. So make sure you've plugged in a keyboard, monitor, and power, and fire it up.

Note: At the time of this guide, I'm using the latest BIOS for this motherboard: P7P55D-E-PRO-ASUS-1002.ROM.

When you get to the first boot screen, press the Delete key to open up your BIOS. Once inside, you'll need to make a few adjustments.

1. On the first BIOS screen, arrow down to the entry labeled Storage Configuration, hit Enter, and change "Configure SATA as" to AHCI. Press Escape once.
2. Next, arrow over to the Advanced tab, then arrow down to the section labeled Onboard Devices Configuration. Hit Enter, find the Marvell 9123 SATA Controller entry, and set it to AHCI. Press Escape.
3. Now arrow over to the Power section and set Suspend Mode to S3 only.
4. Finally, arrow over to the Boot tab, hit Enter on Boot Device Priority, and set your first boot device to boot first from your DVD drive, then set your second boot device as your primary hard drive.

Hit F10 to save your changes and exit the BIOS.

Step Three: Boot from iBoot into the Snow Leopard Install DVD

When your system restarts, put the iBoot disc you burned above into the DVD drive. Assuming you set everything correctly in your BIOS, iBoot should boot into the screen below.

When you get to this screen, eject your iBoot disc, insert the Snow Leopard install DVD, and press F5 on your keyboard. In few seconds, the iBoot disc in the center should be replaced by a new disc labeled Mac OS X Install DVD. (If it doesn't right away, wait a few seconds and hit F5 again.) Once it does, hit Enter, and your computer will boot into the Snow Leopard installation wizard.

Step Four: Format Your Disk and Install OS X

After a minute or two of loading up, you should be looking at the Snow Leopard installation wizard. Select your language and continue. Before you get started with the installation, however, you'll need to format your hard drive so you can install OS X. So, from the file menu at the top of the screen, select Utilities -> Disk Utility.

Once Disk Utility loads, click on your hard drive in the sidebar and select the tab labeled Partition. Set the Volume Scheme drop-down to 1 Partition (unless you have a reason for wanting otherwise), name the volume whatever name you want, and set the Format to Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Now click the Options button and ensure that GUID Partition Table is selected as the partition scheme.

Now that everything's set, hit Apply. When you're prompted for confirmation, click Partition.

In twenty seconds or so, your drive should be formatted and you'll be ready to install OS X. Quit Disk Utility, and continue with the installer.

The installation is completely straightforward, so just follow along with the default settings. When the installation finishes (the time will vary—it always claims it'll take 30+ minutes, but is normally done in 10 to 20), you'll most likely see the Install Failed screen pictured below.

Don't panic! This is all part of the process. Just click restart, put iBoot back in the drive, and this time, when your computer restarts, iBoot's Chameleon bootloader will give you the option to boot into your new installation. Select it and hit Enter.

Step Five: Update but Don't Restart

The first time OS X loads, you'll see Snow Leopard's fancy welcome video. Once that's done, OS X will walk you through the setup wizard, during which you'll enter in your username, location, etc. Just follow along.

Once you're finished with the setup, you're finally at your new Hackintosh desktop. Since you probably want to use the most up-to-date release, you'll want to update your Hackintosh before adding the finishing touches.

At the time of this writing, 10.6.4 is the most current release, so if you didn't already download the update package above (remember, we told you to put it on your thumb drive?), grab the MacOSXUpdateCombo10.6.4 package from Apple, double-click on the DMG, and run the installer.

When the combo update finishes, you'll be prompted to reboot. Don't reboot your computer—at least not yet. You've got one thing you need to do first.

Step Six: Run the MultiBeast Package

Remember the MultiBeast download from tonymacx86 that we grabbed earlier and stored on a thumb drive (along with other post installation files)? It's time to use it.

Make sure you've plugged your thumb drive into your Hackintosh (or just re-download the files if you forgot to save them to a thumb drive) and open MultiBeast. This tool will allow you to boot from your hard drive going forward, so you don't need to use iBoot every time you want to boot up OS X.

On the Install MultiBeast screen, tick the checkboxes next to EasyBeast and System Utilities, then click Continue. When the EasyBeast installation completes, eject the iBoot disc and restart your computer. Once you've rebooted, you've got one more step to go.

Step Seven: Copy Custom Kexts to Extra Folder, Manually Add Sound and Ethernet Kexts Using Kext Utility

Now it's time to use those other post-installation files you downloaded earlier. So dive into the folder named Post Install and open the folder named Extra/Extensions. In a separate Finder window, navigate to the /Extra/Extensions folder at the root of your drive (in Finder, you can just type Cmd+Shift+G, type /Extra/Extensions, and press Enter).

Now drag all the files from your thumb drive's Extra/Extensions folder into your hard drive's Extra/Extensions folder. Enter your password when prompted, and let Finder replace any files that already exist.

Finally, navigate back to the Post Install folder on your thumb drive. Inside you'll see three files: An app named Kext Utility and two kext files named VoodooHDA.kext and RealtekR1000SL.kext. Drag and drop VoodooHDA.kext onto Kext Utility (enter your password when prompted), and you'll see a window like the one above. Once it says Done, you can quit Kext Utility (click Cancel), and then this time drag and drop Realtek R1000SL.kext onto Kext Utility. (Basically this installs custom audio and ethernet extensions to your system so they work as you'd expect.)

Step Eight: Restart and Enjoy!

Now that you've updated and installed a few extensions customized to your hardware, you're ready to restart your computer, boot directly from your hard drive, and enjoy your new Hackintosh.

A Note on Performance and Other Loose Ends

I've been using this system for a couple weeks now, and in all my testing, everything's been working like a charm. If you're interested in benchmarking, here's how my build fared on Xbench (spoiler: the total score was 303.38).

As I mentioned above, you don't need to buy a pricey SSD (a regular hard drive will work fine), but the system with the SSD is fast, especially on startup. I've added a handful of startup applications to my login items, including apps like Chrome. When my system boots, all of my startup applications are running before my desktop fades in from blue—it feels more like resuming from sleep than rebooting.

Another thing to note: About this Mac identifies the processor as i5, but it's a superficial issue. You could manually edit the text file that populates those fields, but I won't go into that here.

Finally, keep your iBoot disc handy. In the event something does go flaky, especially if you end up having any problems booting directly from your hard drive, you'll likely want that iBoot disc on hand for troubleshooting.

Huge thanks go out to my Hackintosh-helping pals Onetrack, Stellarola, and Davide, to tonymacx86 for his great tools and work, to videographer extraordinaire Adam Dachis, and to the Hackintosh community.

Fun (With Learning) Websites For Kids You Probably Haven’t Heard Of

via Free and Useful Online Resources for Designers and Developers by AN Jay on 9/23/10

This is one of the very best list of its kind where you can find incredibly Fun (With Learning) Websites For Your Kids You Probably Haven’t Heard Of.  These would be great enough to bookmark or just for get in your knowledge because if you do not have kids yet then you will surely have in future. I hope everyone of you will like this list for your kids. This is absolutely helpful for parents, teachers etc. Just take a look at them and share your thought’s here.

You are welcome if you want to share more useful websites for kids that our readers/viewers may like. Do you want to be the first one to know the latest happenings at  smashingApps.com just subscribe to our rss feed and you can follow us on twitter as well.

Kidopo

Kidopo is an innovative start up, aiming to improve children basic skills of reading, drawing, math, crafts and computers- preparing them for tomorrow’s world. This is one of the best online source for children learning and playing on the net, within a safe and educational content.

kidthing

kidthing leverages the power and global reach of the Internet to deliver fun and engaging content to kids everywhere, yet keeps them off of the World Wide Web and all of the inappropriate and potentially harmful things that they can encounter there. In simple words, kidthing is a safe and secure place for kids to learn.

TotSpot

TotSpot makes it fun, simple, and secure to create a private website for your baby, toddler, or child, and share it with your friends and family. You can share photos, upload private videos, track milestones, and create growth charts in an easy-to-use and beautiful environment. Beyond the basics of website building, They also have a vibrant community of groups related to babies, kids, and toddlers for parents and families to participate in.

Kideos

Kideos is the premier destination for kids to safely watch videos online. Each video on Kideos has been screened by their Video Advisory Council before it makes it onto the site. This is great to empower parents to feel comfortable allowing their child to spend time on Kideos, while also making sure children have a thoroughly entertaining experience.

Game Classroom

Too often educational materials and lesson plans fail to make learning an enjoyable experience for students. Game Classroom provides a fun and educational environment for students in Kindergarten through 6th grade. As online games become increasingly pervasive in the home, This is a great site that adults can trust and children will enjoy.

StoryJumper

You kids can use StoryJumper to build their own book which is very interesting habit you could wish for your kids. They can make adventure stories, fairy tales, treasure maps, photo books, calendars… whatever they can imagine.

Whiz Kid Games

There is nothing special in this website except it has some very interactive games that your kids might like to play and enjoy. All the games available there has some little stories that would help your kids to learn as well.

kidyos

kidyos is the best of the web for kids. A fun place for kids to enjoy and an easy way for parents to organize their child’s online media. It is intended for children 6 months to 6 years old. With kidyos, you don’t have to look for new content, because kidyos constantly search for new material and bring community suggestions into their library. Most importantly, all the content on kidyos is pre-screened and suitable for kids.

ChessKid

ChessKid is a safe place for kids to learn and play chess online. Your kids will not have contact with strangers. You as a parent here manages your kids’ access and friendships online and can monitor their activity.

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