Ingenious (and hilarious) projects that aspiring makers will love, brought to you by the tinkerers at Popular Science magazine. From useful, doable gadgets to outlandish contraptions that you’d likely be wise to avoid, this showcase of ingenuity is an entertaining tribute to the inventive spirit. In this book from the science and technology magazine that’s been inspiring everyday people for nearly 150 years, you’ll discover: Geek Toys: Be the life of any party with rad gaming hacks, amazing pyrotechnics, quirky DIY robots, wow-inducing projectiles, and lots of ways to make beer even better. Home Improvements: Pimp out your pad with a laser-security system, an improvised sous-vide cooker, and a life-sized cardboard display of anyone you want. Gadget Upgrades: Want to stash a flash drive in an old cassette? Use a DIY stylus on a touchscreen? Improvise a fisheye lens for your camera? With this book, you can. Things That Go: Give your motorbike a Tron vibe, deck out your car with an action-figure hood ornament, and keep gadgets charged on the go with a solar-powered backpack. …and much more!

In her late 20s, Plaut decided to honor a long-held secret ambition by becoming a New York City taxi driver. With wit and insight, she recreates the crazy parade of humanity that passes through her cab and shows how this grueling work provides her with a greater sense of self.

While the makeup of the digital music landscape has been well documented, there has never been a detailed analysis of what this means for the music creation process. Frank lists 15 points that must change in a song if the artists, songwriters, and producers of tomorrow want a chart-topping hit.

The definitive playbook by the pioneers of Growth Hacking, one of the hottest business methodologies in Silicon Valley and beyond. It seems hard to believe today, but there was a time when Airbnb was the best-kept secret of travel hackers and couch surfers, Pinterest was a niche web site frequented only by bakers and crafters, LinkedIn was an exclusive network for C-suite executives and top-level recruiters, Facebook was MySpace’s sorry step-brother, and Uber was a scrappy upstart that didn’t stand a chance against the Goliath that was New York City Yellow Cabs. So how did these companies grow from these humble beginnings into the powerhouses they are today? Contrary to popular belief, they didn’t explode to massive worldwide popularity simply by building a great product then crossing their fingers and hoping it would catch on. There was a studied, carefully implemented methodology behind these companies’ extraordinary rise. That methodology is called Growth Hacking, and it’s practitioners include not just today’s hottest start-ups, but also companies like IBM, Walmart, and Microsoft as well as the millions of entrepreneurs, marketers, managers and executives who make up the community of Growth Hackers. Think of the Growth Hacking methodology as doing for market-share growth what Lean Start-Up did for product development, and Scrum did for productivity. It involves cross-functional teams and rapid-tempo testing and iteration that focuses customers: attaining them, retaining them, engaging them, and motivating them to come back and buy more. An accessible and practical toolkit that teams and companies in all industries can use to increase their customer base and market share, this book walks readers through the process of creating and executing their own custom-made growth hacking strategy. It is a must read for any marketer, entrepreneur, innovator or manger looking to replace wasteful big bets and "spaghetti-on-the-wall" approaches with more consistent, replicable, cost-effective, and data-driven results.

A field manual on contextualizing cyber threats, vulnerabilities, and risks to connected cars through penetration testing and risk assessment Hacking Connected Cars deconstructs the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) used to hack into connected cars and autonomous vehicles to help you identify and mitigate vulnerabilities affecting cyber-physical vehicles. Written by a veteran of risk management and penetration testing of IoT devices and connected cars, this book provides a detailed account of how to perform penetration testing, threat modeling, and risk assessments of telematics control units and infotainment systems. This book demonstrates how vulnerabilities in wireless networking, Bluetooth, and GSM can be exploited to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability of connected cars. Passenger vehicles have experienced a massive increase in connectivity over the past five years, and the trend will only continue to grow with the expansion of The Internet of Things and increasing consumer demand for always-on connectivity. Manufacturers and OEMs need the ability to push updates without requiring service visits, but this leaves the vehicle’s systems open to attack. This book examines the issues in depth, providing cutting-edge preventative tactics that security practitioners, researchers, and vendors can use to keep connected cars safe without sacrificing connectivity. Perform penetration testing of infotainment systems and telematics control units through a step-by-step methodical guide Analyze risk levels surrounding vulnerabilities and threats that impact confidentiality, integrity, and availability Conduct penetration testing using the same tactics, techniques, and procedures used by hackers From relatively small features such as automatic parallel parking, to completely autonomous self-driving cars—all connected systems are vulnerable to attack. As connectivity becomes a way of life, the need for security expertise for in-vehicle systems is becoming increasingly urgent. Hacking Connected Cars provides practical, comprehensive guidance for keeping these vehicles secure.

A global security expert draws on psychological insights to help you master the art of social engineering—human hacking. Make friends, influence people, and leave them feeling better for having met you by being more empathetic, generous, and kind. Eroding social conventions, technology, and rapid economic change are making human beings more stressed and socially awkward and isolated than ever. We live in our own bubbles, reluctant to connect, and feeling increasingly powerless, insecure, and apprehensive when communicating with others. A pioneer in the field of social engineering and a master hacker, Christopher Hadnagy specializes in understanding how malicious attackers exploit principles of human communication to access information and resources through manipulation and deceit. Now, he shows you how to use social engineering as a force for good—to help you regain your confidence and control. Human Hacking provides tools that will help you establish rapport with strangers, use body language and verbal cues to your advantage, steer conversations and influence other’s decisions, and protect yourself from manipulators. Ultimately, you’ll become far more self-aware about how you’re presenting yourself—and able to use it to improve your life. Hadnagy includes lessons and interactive “missions”—exercises spread throughout the book to help you learn the skills, practice them, and master them. With Human Hacking, you’ll soon be winning friends, influencing people, and achieving your goals.

Shows readers how to create PDF documents that are far more powerful than simple representations of paper pages, helps them get around common PDF issues, and introduces them to tools that will allow them to manage content in PDF, navigating it and reusing it as necessary.