10 Ways to Upgrade Your Music Listening Experience

June 27, 2012 5:13:04 PM

Top 10 Ways to Upgrade Your Music-Listening Experience

lifehacker.com

You love your music, but your listening experience may not be as great as you think it is. Messy libraries, bad players, crappy headphones, and poorly encoded files are just a few reasons that your songs may not sound their best. Here are our top 10 ways to upgrade your music from every angle.
This post is dedicated to Whitson Gordon , who is responsible for about 80% of the music-related content on Lifehacker (and practically every link in this Top 10).

10. Clean Up Your Music Library

 It's tough to listen to your music if you can't find it. While not particularly sexy, one of the best upgrades you can perform iscleaning up and organizing your music library . Mac iTunes users can benefit fromDoug's AppleScripts , but for the most part this is going to be a pretty boring chore. Put a nice mix together on a separate computer or music player and enjoy your favorite songs while you strip your library of its duplicates and unwanted tracks. It won't be fun, but it'll be well worth the effort.

9. Mix It Up with Some Live Shows

 You can carry around just about any song you want these days, but that's rarely better than seeing your favorite bands live. If you want to make sure you never miss an important show, Songkick is an app for iOS and Android that'll keep an eye on your music library and know when bands you like are playing. It's a free download, and a painless way to keep on top of the performances you don't want to miss.

8. Find Those Obscure Songs by Searching YouTube Comment Threads

 Finding new songs via YouTube can be awesome, except when you can't actually find them. A lot of YouTube videos pick some great tunes and then completely neglect to attribute the musician. You're probably not the only one who has watched this video and found the lack of credit annoying, so your best bet is to expand all the comment threads and search through them for the name. Chances are you'll find it and be able to download the song for yourself.

7. Utilize a Streaming Music Service

 You can fit a lot of music onto a portable media player, but you don't have to limit yourself if you use a streaming music service like Spotify or Rdio . Not only will you have access to a ton of music you don't own, but that access also provides you with a great resource for finding new music you don't know you like yet. Not sure which streaming service to pick? Check out our comparison .

6. Backup and Sync Your Collection Across Computers

 Your music collection will always be difficult to maintain if it spans multiple computers. The easy solution? Syncing. If you're just syncing a bunch of folders you don't have a problem, but if you're dealing with iTunes (and some other music players) you will run into frequent conflicts. To learn how to make syncing work well, check out our guide to syncing iTunes with Dropbox . If you just want to sync locally, you can use Cubby or MediaRover instead. The bonus of syncing online, of course, is that you can access your music collection from anywhere with an internet connection. You'll have to pay storage costs to do this, but it's worthwhile if you want constant access.

5. Unleash Your Headphones' Full Potential with a USB DAC and Amplifier

 When you plug your headphones into your computer—or, especially, your portable music player—you're probably not getting the best possible audio quality. A Digital-Analog Converter (DAC) and Amplifier can correct that problem. The downside is that you have to have an additional gadget attached to your headphones, but this is mostly irrelevant if you're using a desktop computer. Smaller versions are available for portable devices, too, so they're not as obtrusive. They're not that expensive and you can read all about them here .

4. Make Some Truly Smart Playlists

 Smart Playlists are a wonderful, often underused feature of iTunes and many other music players. The reason for their neglect is often a lack of ideas. One fitting option is to create a smart playlist that targets neglected tunes. Just tell it to include anything that hasn't ever been played, or has only been played a couple of times. Another great one is a "best of the year" playlist that aggregates your songs with the most plays in a given year. An easy way to put together smart playlists fast is to tell it to look for a specific word in the comments field of any given song. Then go and add that comment to any song that's relevant and your playlist will update automatically. This might be tedious initially, but whenever you want to add a song to a playlist you can just edit the comments rather than figure out where that playlist is and drag it over. Want more ideas? We've got anentire top 10 just for them .

3. Choose the Right Bit Rate for Your Music

 Some people think bit rate doesn't matter, and others will only listen to lossless files. There's definitely a difference between a 128kbps MP3 and a FLAC -encoded tune, but that difference starts to disappear when you up the bit rate of your highly-compressed music files. In fact, most people can't tell the difference between a 320kbps MP3 and a lossless file (or even less), especially with most consumer-grade headphones and speakers. You should figure out if the bit rate really makes a difference to you and your best bet for encoding your music. You want your music to sound its best, but "best" tends to average at about 192kbps .

2. Upgrade Your Crappy Headphones on the Cheap

 Just because your headphones are cheap doesn't mean they have to sound that way. A $30 pair can become a $300 pair , you can add noise reduction , turn them into a smartphone headset , and much more . There's nothing wrong with just buying a great pair , but if you want to save some money you can always upgrade the crappier set you already have.

1. Listen to Music Socially and Discover New Songs Through Your Friends

 Ultimately, the number one upgrade to your music is twofold: finding great new songs that you love and connecting with other people through the process. Social media has spawned several ways to make this happen easily, so you can hear about new music you might like through people you like and actually know your interests. Many of the previously mentioned streaming services connect with Facebook so you can see what your friends are listening to, but that's mostly annoying. The best way I've seen to use Facebook to find new music is simply to ask. Post on your wall that you want suggestions of new songs to check out to expand your interests and let your friends come up with a few playlists for you. That should give you plenty to explore for awhile. You can also use services like Monstro ,Soundshare , and Turntable.fm to discover new tunes as well. There are lots of options, so just choose the one that suits you—and your friends—the best.

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Web Security: HTTPS Available from EFF (Chrome and Firefox)

March 3, 2012 9:13:52 PM

HTTPS Everywhere Keeps Your Personal Information Safe on Over 1,400 Sites, Available for Firefox and Chrome

lifehacker.com

Chrome/Firefox: HTTPS Everywhere is a simple extension that, with just a one-click installation, can seriously increase your security on over 1,400 web sites by encrypting your connection.
We've talked before about HTTPS, what it does, and why you should use it . Many sites, like Gmail (and Facebook, with caveats ) have options that let you browse with HTTPS always turned on, but the HTTPS Everywhere extension makes this simpler. Instead of turning it on for individual sites, HTTPS Everywhere will automatically routes all your data through a secure connection on any of its 1,400 supported web sites, keeping your information safe and away from prying eyes—in short, it's an extension everyone should have installed.
HTTPS Everywhere has long been a favorite of Firefox users , but today marks the first time Chrome users can get in on the fun, with a new beta version of the extension that quietly sits in your address bar and switches you to HTTPS whenever possible. The Firefox version has also been updated to 2.0, which adds a new feature called the Observatory which, when turned on, detects encryption weaknesses and will notify you when you're browsing a site with a security vulnerability. To read more about the new version of the extension and install it in your browser, hit the link below.
HTTPS Everywhere is a free extension, works wherever Chrome and Firefox do.
New 'HTTPS Everywhere' Version Warns Users About Web Security Holes | Electronic Frontier Foundation

Tips and Tricks: Protect Your Online Privacy with These Tips

February 23, 2012 9:25:36 AM

Everyone's Trying to Track What You Do on the Web: Here's How to Stop Them

lifehacker.com

It's no secret that there's big money to be made in violating your privacy. Companies will pay big bucks to learn more about you, and service providers on the web are eager to get their hands on as much information about you as possible.
So what do you do? How do you keep your information out of everyone else's hands? Here's a guide to surfing the web while keeping your privacy intact.
The adage goes, "If you're not paying for a service, you're the product, not the customer," and it's never been more true. Every day more news breaks about a new company that uploads your address book to their servers , skirts in-browser privacy protection , and tracks your every move on the web to learn as much about your browsing habits and activities as possible. In this post, we'll explain why you should care, and help you lock down your surfing so you can browse in peace.

Why You Should Care

Your personal information is valuable. More valuable than you might think. When we originally published our guide to stop Facebook from tracking you around the web , some people cried "So what if they track me? I'm not that important/I have nothing to hide/they just want to target ads to me and I'd rather have targeted ads over useless ones!" To help explain why this is short-sighted and a bit naive, let me share a personal story.
Before I joined the Lifehacker team, I worked at a company that traded in information. Our clients were huge companies and one of the services we offered was to collect information about people, their demographics, income, and habits, and then roll it up so they could get a complete picture about who you are and how to convince you to buy their products. In some cases, we designed web sites and campaigns to convince you to provide even more information in exchange for a coupon, discount, or the simple promise of other of those. It works very, very well.
The real money is in taking your data and shacking up with third parties to help themcome up with new ways to convince you to spend money, sign up for services, and give up more information. Relevant ads are nice, but the real value in your data exists where you won't see it until you're too tempted by the offer to know where it came from, whether it's a coupon in your mailbox or a new daily deal site with incredible bargains tailored to your desires. It all sounds good until you realize the only thing you have to trade for such "exciting" bargains is everything personal about you: your age, income, family's ages and income, medical history, dietary habits, favorite web sites, your birthday…the list goes on. It would be fine if you decided to give up this information for a tangible benefit, but you may never see a benefit aside from an ad, and no one's including you in the decision. Here's how to take back that control.

Click for instructions for your browser of choice:

  

How to Stop Trackers from Following Where You're Browsing with Chrome

If you're a Chrome user, there are tons of great add-ons and tools designed to help you uncover which sites transmit data to third parties without your knowledge, which third parties are talking about you, and which third parties are tracking your activity across sites. This list isn't targeted to a specific social network or company—instead, these extensions can help you with multiple offenders.

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• Adblock Plus - We've discussed AdBlock plus several times, but there's never been a better time to install it than now. For extra protection, one-click installs the Antisocial subscription for AdBlock. With it, you can banish social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ from transmitting data about you after you leave those sites, even if the page you visit has a social plugin on it.
• Ghostery - Ghostery does an excellent job at blocking the invisible tracking cookies and plug-ins on many web sites, showing it all to you, and then giving you the choice whether you want to block them one-by-one, or all together so you'll never worry about them again. The best part about Ghostery is that it's not just limited to social networks, but will also catch and show you ad-networks and web publishers as well.
• ScriptNo for Chrome - ScriptNo is much like Ghostery in that any scripts running on any site you visit will sound its alarms. The difference is that while Ghostery is a bit more exclusive about the types of information it alerts you to, ScriptNo will sound the alarm at just about everything, which will break a ton of websites. You'll visit the site, half of it won't load or work, and you'll have to selectively enable scripts until it's usable. Still, its intuitive interface will help you choose which scripts on a page you'd like to allow and which you'd like to block without sacrificing the actual content on the page you'd like to read.
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• Do Not Track Plus - The "Do Not Track" feature that most browsers have is useful, but if you want to beef them up, the previously mentioned Do Not Track Plus extension puts a stop to third-party data exchanges, like when you visit a site like ours that has Facebook and Google+ buttons on it. By default, your browser will tell the network that you're on a site with those buttons—with the extension installed, no information is sent until you choose to click one. Think of it as opt-in social sharing, instead of all-in.

Ghostery, AdBlock Plus, and Do Not Track are the ones you'll need the most. ScriptNo is a bit more advanced, and may take some getting used to. In addition to installing extensions, make sure you practice basic browser maintenance that keeps your browser running smoothly and protects your privacy at the same time. Head into Chrome's Advanced Content Settings, and make sure you have third-party cookies blocked and all cookies set to clear after browsing sessions. Log out of social networks and web services when you're finished using them instead of just leaving them perpetually logged in, and use Chrome's "Incognito Mode" whenever you're concerned about privacy.

How to Stop Trackers from Following Where You're Browsing with Firefox

Many of the essential privacy extensions for Firefox are from the same developers who made their Chrome counterparts, and they work in similar fashion.

• Adblock Plus - AdBlock Plus is just as essential in Firefox as it is in Chrome, as is the Antisocial subscription, which you can install at the Antisocial site. The extension and the subscription together are a powerful combination to remove annoying ads from sites you love, retain the ones that don't bother you, and keep ads and plug-ins from sending data about you without your explicit consent.
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• Ghostery - Ghostery is also available for Firefox, and gives you the same information about the scripts, cookies, and trackers under every site you visit. Click the icon in your status bar to see what information a given site is collecting and sending about you, and you can pick and choose what to allow or what to block.
• Do Not Track Plus - Do Not Track Plus is also available for Firefox, and works the same way as the Chrome version.
• NoScript - NoScript is a great extension and provides you an incredible amount of information about what's happening behind the scenes on any site that you visit—the trouble with it is that that information can be overwhelming, and if you don't allow certain things, the site simply won't work until you do. I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with NoScript for that reason, but if you're serious about not letting anything run on a site without your permission, this is the tool for you.
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• Priv3 - Although it's only available for Firefox, this experimental extension from researchers at Rutgers University and the International Computer Science Institute (ICSI) will protect you from third-party cookies set by Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn. We've mentioned it before , and I still have it installed myself. Like Do Not Track Plus, it doesn't remove elements from a page—it simply makes them inactive until you interact with them.

We'd say Ghostery, AdBlock Plus, and Priv3 are the essentials here. Do Not Track Plus and Priv3 cover some of the same territory, so you can go either way there, and as with Chrome, NoScript is for advanced users looking for more granular control. Firefox's "Do Not Track" feature is worth enabling as well, even if many sites circumvent it with well-placed cookies and social plug-ins that are all but required if a site wants a social media presence or solid placement in search results these days. Additionally, make yourself familiar with Firefox's privacy and content settings. As with any browser, we suggest you log out of services when you're finished, and set Firefox to clear your private data, cookies, and browsing history when you close the browser. If you're more worried about some sites than others, you can always just clear thosecookies when you log out.

How to Stop Trackers from Following Where You're Browsing with Internet Explorer, Safari, and Opera

Firefox and Chrome may get the spotlight in the browser wars, but those of you using Safari, IE, or Opera aren't totally safe just by virtue of your browser choice. Just this week, Google was caught with its hands in the cookie jar (no pun intended) circumventing cookie protection controls in Internet Explorer 9. Nik Cubrilovic has an excellent writeup of the situation , and he points out that they're not alone by any means. In response, Microsoft has published a tracking protection add-in for IE9 to stop them.
Regardless of your browser, the same types of basic maintenance we mentioned are in order. Do Not Track Plus is available for Safari and IE users, there's a special build of AdBlock for Safari . for Opera , and even Internet Explorer . NoScript or ScriptNo fans can use NotScripts for Opera to get the same effect. These are a few examples, but look around—its likely that while some of the extensions mentioned above may not be available for your preferred browser, someone's taken the initiative to write a similar add-on that gets the job done.

Mobile Browsing

Mobile browsing is a new frontier. There are dozens of mobile browsers, and even though most people use the one included on their device, there are few tools to protect your privacy by comparison to the desktop. Check to see if your preferred browser has a "privacy mode" that you can use while browsing, or when you're logged in to social networks and other web services. Try to keep your social network use inside the apps developed for it, and—as always—make sure to clear your private data regularly.
Some mobile browsers have private modes and the ability to automatically clear your private data built in, like Firefox for Android , Atomic Web Browser , and Dolphin Browser for both iOS and Android. Considering Dolphin is our pick for the best Android browser and Atomic is our favorite for iOS , they're worth downloading.

Extreme Measures

If none of these extensions make you feel any better, or you want to take protecting your privacy and personal data to the next level, it's time to break out the big guns. One tip that came up during our last discussion about Facebook was to use a completely separate web browser just for logged-in social networks and web services, and another browser for potentially sensitive browsing, like your internet shopping, banking, and other personal activities. If you have some time to put into it, check outour guide to browsing without leaving a trace , which was written for Firefox, but can easily be adapted to any browser you use.

If you're really tired of companies tracking you and trading in your personal information, you always have the option to just provide false information. The same way you might give a fake phone number or address to a supermarket card sign-up sheet, you can scrub or change personal details about yourself from your social network profiles, Google accounts, Windows Live account, and others.
Change your birthdate, or your first name. Set your phone number a digit off, or omit your apartment number when asked for your street address. We've talked about how to disappear before , and carefully examine the privacy and account settings for the web services you use. Keep in mind that some of this goes against the terms of service for those companies and services—they have a vested interest in knowing the real you, after all, so tread carefully and tread lightly if you want to go the "make yourself anonymous" route. Worst case, start closing accounts with offending services, and migrate to other, more privacy-friendly options.
These are just a few tips that won't significantly change your browsing experience, but can go a long way toward protecting your privacy. This issue isn't going anywhere, and as your personal information becomes more valuable and there are more ways to keep it away from prying eyes, you'll see more news of companies finding ways to eke out every bit of data from you and the sites you use. Some of these methods are more intrusive than others, and some of them may turn you off entirely, but the important thing is that they all give you control over how you experience the web. When you embrace your privacy, you become engaged with the services you use. With a little effort and the right tools, you can make the web more opt-in than it is opt-out.

February 23, 2012 8:57:52 AM

Microsoft, Google and Netflix want to add DRM-hooks to W3C HTML5 standard

boingboing.net

Microsoft, Google and Netflix want to add DRM-hooks to W3C HTML5 standard

A proposed anti-copying extension for the WC3's standard for HTML5 has been submitted by representatives of Google, Microsoft and Netflix. The authors take pains to note that this isn't "DRM" — because it doesn't attempt to hide keys and other secrets from the user — but in a mailing list post, they later admitted that this could be "addressed" by running the browser inside a proprietary hardware system that hideverything from the user.

Other WC3 members — including another prominent Googler, Ian Hickson — have called for the withdrawal of the proposal. Hickson called it "unethical." I agree, and would add "disingenuous," too, since the proposal disclaims DRM while clearly being intended to form a critical part of a DRM system.
In an era where browsers are increasingly the system of choice for compromising users' security and privacy, it is nothing short of madness to contemplate adding extensions to HTML standards that contemplate designing devices and software to deliberately hide their workings from users, and to prevent users from seeing what they're doing and changing that behavior if it isn't in their interests.
Writing on Ars Technica, Ryan Paul gives a good blow-by-blow look at the way that this extension is being treated in the W3C:

Mozilla's Robert O'Callahan warned that the pressure to provide DRM in browsers might lead to a situation where major browser vendors and content providers attempt to push forward a suboptimal solution without considering the implications for other major stakeholders.
Some of the discussion surrounding the Encrypted Media proposal seem to validate his concerns. Mozilla's Chris Pearce commented on the issue in a message on the W3C HTML mailing list and asked for additional details to shed light on whether the intended content protection scheme could be supported in an open source application.
"Can you highlight how robust content protection can be implemented in an open source webrowser?" he asked. "How do you guard against an open source web browser simply being patched to write the frames/samples to disk to enable (presumably illegal) redistribution of the protected content?"
Netflix's Mark Watson responded to the message and acknowledged that strong copy protection can't be implemented in an open source Web browser. He deflected the issue by saying that copy protection mechanisms can be implemented in hardware, and that such hardware can be used by open source browsers.

"Unethical" HTML video copy protection proposal draws criticism from W3C reps(Thanks, Rob! )

February 17, 2012 9:49:04 AM

Bruce Schneier's Liars and Outliers: how do you trust in a networked world?

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Bruce Schneier's Liars and Outliers : how do you trust in a networked world?

John Scalzi's Big Idea introduces Bruce Schneier's excellent new book Liars and Outliers , and interviews Schneier on the work that went into it. I read an early draft of the book and supplied a quote: "Brilliantly dissects, classifies, and orders the social dimension of security-a spectacularly palatable tonic against today's incoherent and dangerous flailing in the face of threats from terrorism to financial fraud." Now that the book is out, I heartily recommend it to you.

 

It's all about trust, really. Not the intimate trust we have in our close friends and relatives, but the more impersonal trust we have in the various people and systems we interact with in society. I trust airline pilots, hotel clerks, ATMs, restaurant kitchens, and the company that built the computer I'm writing this short essay on. I trust that they have acted and will act in the ways I expect them to. This type of trust is more a matter of consistency or predictability than of intimacy.
Of course, all of these systems contain parasites. Most people are naturally trustworthy, but some are not. There are hotel clerks who will steal your credit card information. There are ATMs that have been hacked by criminals. Some restaurant kitchens serve tainted food. There was even an airline pilot who deliberately crashed his Boeing 767 into the Atlantic Ocean in 1999.
My central metaphor is the Prisoner's Dilemma, which nicely exposes the tension between group interest and self-interest. And the dilemma even gives us a terminology to use: cooperators act in the group interest, and defectors act in their own selfish interest, to the detriment of the group. Too many defectors, and everyone suffers — often catastrophically.

Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust that Society Needs to Thrive

Best Sites to Raise Money to Help Get Your Ideas Off the Ground

February 9, 2012 8:24:48 PM

The Best Sites to Raise Money and Get Your Ideas Off the Ground

lifehacker.com

If you have a brilliant new idea for an mobile app, a handy gadget, a smartphone case that does something cool, an album you want to produce, or even a comic book you want to publish, it's never been easier to get your idea in front of a lot of people and raise money to make it a reality. There are dozens of free and cheap sites designed to boost new ideas, but not all of them are best for your idea. Here's how to pick the best one for you.
Sites like Kickstarter and many others all cater to people with ideas they believe can make it big, but who need money to get them off the ground. The community supports the idea, everyone chips in, and with luck and enough interest and the right amount of money, the product gets made and the contributors usually get first cut or a special perk. Still, even though Kickstarter gets a lot of press, it's not necessarily the best one for your idea.

For The Most Attention: Kickstarter

Kickstarter is the major player in this space, and for good reason. The service gets a lot of media attention, and even though the majority of Kickstarter projects don't go anywhere, it's become the go-to destination for anyone looking to crowd-fund their projects thanks to a few high-profile projects that managed to raise a lot of money. It's not the biggest crowd-funding community, and it's not even the one with the best track record, but it's incredibly easy to use, popular with angel investors and people looking for the next big idea to invest in and get behind, and well organized. Idea creators can set up their profiles for free, founders can pledge as much or as little as they choose, and no money changes hands until time runs out or the project is fully-funded. If the project is fully funded, Kickstarter takes 5% off the top, and the rest goes to the inventor or creator to make their idea happen.

For App-Builders, Game Designers, and Developers:IndieGoGo

IndieGoGo is actually larger than Kickstarter, and more people there use it for more types of projects. The site takes 4% off the top of your fundraising if you reach your funding goal, and encourages creators and developers to offer perks to the community for funding their projects. Unlike some of its competition, IndieGoGo also has its doors open to charities and non-profits. The site is particularly popular with software and app developers, although all sorts of creative projects are up on the site for funding, including documentary and independant films, education projects, and international aid projects. IndieGoGo also has the benefit of being a global site, available to users around the world.

For Inventors and Gadget Creators: Quirky

Quirky has an excellent track record, and some of our favorite gadgets started as Quirky ideas. The process of getting your idea in front of the Quirky community is a bit more involved than at other sites. You submit your idea, the community weighs in first on whether or not it's an idea that could be made into an actual product before it goes in front of the world for fundraising. That's the key, while other sites focus on creative endeavors, most Quirky projects are tangible products that can be manufactured and sold. The Quirky community is active and engaged in idea building and product design and development, and a lot goes on long before the idea ever gets on the site for presale fundraising. Pricing is on a sliding scale—people who get in early can get lower prices than people who get in later, and once the product is made, Quirky can work to manufacture it themselves, or work with a major retail partner to get it on store shelves everywhere.

For Musicians: Bandcamp

We touched on this topic a bit in our previous story on how to release music online so music-lovers can get to it , but while SoundCloud was one of our favorite options for releasing your music for free, allowing people to remix it, and comment on it, Bandcamp is another great solution for musicians looking to set up a free storefront on the web to allow people to buy and download their music directly. Artists and fans both love Bandcamp, and the service handles the entire payment platform, from set-your-own-price albums and songs to artists with a mix of free and paid songs in their discography. Artists can also sell merchandise through their stores, and Bandcamp takes a slice off the top depending on the artist's sales. Fans and music lovers on the other hand get a social platform where they can follow and interact with their favorite artists, get alerts when new music is released, and discover new artists through their friends.

For Crafty Types: Etsy

Crafty types are already well aware of Etsy and how the platform works. When people who made their own hand-made goods, arts, and custom crafts wanted an online storefront that catered more to their needs than a general auction site like eBay, Etsy was born. The site has dozens of categories, including clothing, art, jewelry, household accessories, and more. While most people know Etsy as a craft-lovers haven, the site is also home to a number of stores that manufacture products you wouldn't associate with "arts and crafts," like wall decals, custom motorcycle helmets, and even edible crafts like homemade cookies and beef jerky. Where other similar sites help you get seed money for an idea, Etsy is more of a traditional store, meaning you have to have your idea off the ground and your product ready for sale—even if it's a single item—before you can sell it.

For Global Users: RocketHub

Many of these sites limit their membership to users in the United States, but RocketHub is one of the largest global communities dedicated to crowd-funding new ideas. RocketHub combines a traditional crowd-funding site where individuals can promote and raise money for their own ideas and pet projects with a funding bank where people with inspired ideas can connect with sponsors, non-profits, and funding groups who are willing to share some cash with a particularly motivated or passionate individual. The service works much like Kickstarter or IndieGoGo—sign-ups are free, and the site takes a 4% cut.
Different crowd-funding sites have different goals and different audiences. Depending on the type of idea you have and the audience you want to reach, you have an array of sites to choose from, and this is just the beginning. For example, if you have a random request or want to get the crowd's help in funding a life event like a wedding or a vacation, you can try GoGetFunding , and if you're an industrial designer, Yanko Design is a great resource for like-minded designers.
Whichever site you choose to get your ideas off the ground, make sure it's one where the community is aligned with and supportive of your ideas, and you'll have no trouble raising the funds needed to make it a reality. Have you used any of these sites to crowd-fund a project or idea? Share your experiences in the comments below.