We spent the previous week exploring nefarious life hacks that can make life better for you but worse for others. How you choose to use that information is up to you! Here is the complete series - from printing your own parking tickets to frying an annoying co-worker's motherboard.

The best way to save money on Starbucks is to make your coffee at home. The second best way is to buy it somewhere cheaper. But the third best way is to hack your Starbucks order to pay less for the same (or similar) drink. Some hacks are innocent; others less so. Here's a compilation of the best Starbucks hacks from over the years.

The success of most parties hinges on the quality and amount of booze served and, while serving a big bowl of punch is easier on the host or hostess, serving a punch that people will keep coming back to it is a little trickier. A good punch is so balanced that one might not even realise there was any ethanol floating around in there, and we're going to show you how to make a really good one. (You should, of course, always tell people if you're serving them booze.)

Board games are a safe place to play out conflicts with your family and friends, with the understanding that once the game is over, everyone is on good terms again. That also makes them the perfect place to take out all your petty frustrations and revenge fantasies, under the guise of good fun. Here's how to destroy your opponents with dick moves that will feel like cheats, but are all sanctioned by the rule book.

Dear Lifehacker, Is it possible to get around the government's blocking of illegal torrenting and streaming sites? Also, what about US Netflix? As far as I can tell, it should be legal to access this content if you pay for it.

Polygraph machines, better known as lie detectors, are crap. They can't tell whether you're lying, just whether your body is doing some of the things that bodies do when we're nervous: Sweating, for example. But there are a few tricks that, according to rumour, can let you mess with the results.

Ever since that first "Dear John" letter was delivered by carrier pigeon, breakups have sucked, but social media makes them suck harder. Even if you block, hide and unfriend, you can still be attacked by an unexpected photo of your ex posted on the accounts of mutual friends. Rather than be the victim of such virtual hostility, you should harness the power of social media to fight back, and prove to everyone that you are doing just fine, thanks.

No one should buy their own drinks on their birthday. And besides getting freebies from your obliging friends, plenty of bars will give you a free birthday drink or two if you sign up to their newsletter. If you plan ahead, you can turn that free drink into a free bar crawl.

There are great number of truly evil board games. But there is a game that's the evilest of them all. Diplomacy.

Even if you aren't an especially shy or guarded person, there are a lot of reasons why you might find yourself in a withholding place from time to time. You could be in a personally low or tenuous spot with work, your relationship, or life in general. You might just hate talking about yourself (hi), or you might have reasons that are less temperamental and more practical. In some situations, for instance, it isn't always professionally prudent to be chatty (even if others are encouraging it), or you might be feeling avoidant simply because you're not sure you're in a position to speak on one subject or another.

Good health is a truly priceless thing, but maintaining a decent level of fitness - especially in big cities - can cost a pretty penny. Gym memberships in particular can hit your wallet hard. And personal training sessions? Forget about it: Those can run over $100 an hour, easy, and that's often on top of a gym's monthly membership fee. That's fine, though - because you don't have to pay a dime if you play your cards right.

According to some old Bible verse, you reap what you sow. Alternatively, you can hop over your neighbour's fence and reap the crap out of their tasty, tasty harvest. They sow, you reap. Everybody wins!

Fair warning: This hack is not for the faint of heart. But if you can't afford a train ticket (or are shockingly cheap with no self-respect, like me) this ticket inspector avoidance strategy could be worth pursuing.

When you have kids, people give you gifts. It's wonderful! There are sweet little blankets, jolly jumpers and charming little dolls - all very nice presents from generous relatives and friends.

Manipulation is generally a bad skill to use to get what you want, but sometimes it's justifiable when you have a noble cause. Perhaps you're trying to get someone to live a healthier lifestyle or enjoy an activity with you. When other tactics fail you and it's time to resort to a little manipulative behaviour, here are some tricks you can use to get what you want without being completely abandoning your ethics.

This is one of those pranks for someone who's enough of your friend to not murder you afterwards, but also kind of deserves a little pain. The Mimic script changes characters in a code file to alternative characters that look the same to human eyes, but completely screw up the syntax. I pity the victim.

As an anti-theft measure, clothing stores fasten certain items with security tags so you'll set off an alarm when you leave with the tag still on the garment. Some also spill ink from the tag if you try to remove it yourself.

This isn't a problem so long as the tag gets removed before you leave the store, but sometimes a tag will get missed at the checkout. If that's happened to you, here's what you can do about it.

Dear Lifehacker, Is it okay to have cameras installed in home swimming pools? I want to rig one up for a variety of purposes, but don't want to get fined for doing so! Any advice?

I was coaching an executive on influencing skills this week. I taught him a technique that I have found incredibly powerful. So powerful, you can even use it to great effect, with evil intent.