Shopping at a thrift store can be a fun adventure, a daunting task, a way to save money, or a combination of any or all of those. There's no question that buying secondhand is almost always cheaper and buying at a thrift store undoubtedly so. But it can also be a lot of work. Here are a few simple tips to make the process a little easier.
It's mid-January and some of you happy tax-paying citizens have already started receiving your W-4s and 1099s in the mail. But before you start filling out your 2010 Federal Tax Return, make sure you're hip to all the tax tricks in 2011. You could end up saving some money!
Google released Android 11 today, Tuesday, Sept. 8. The new update follows seven months of beta testing, which started with Feb. 19's developer preview 1.
If you have a Samsung device, you probably know the hassle of dealing with both the Galaxy Store and the Google Play Store at the same time for apps. Samsung's offering is forced onto you whether you like it or not; however, it's the only way to officially receive essential updates for your Samsung apps. The good news? You can keep on top of these updates with a super simple trick.
Today's fancy cars come with all sorts of options, from power mirrors to working seat belts. Some of us condemned to live in the reality of capitalist recession have no car, or perhaps a very modest one. But your modest car can still have some cutting edge technology wedged into the trunk and dashboard if you know what you want and where to look for parts. Today, we make a parking sensor using a sonic range finder, just like in the vehicles our owners drive!
There is a secret world hidden just beneath the surface of every pond, lake, and stream. Those waters are filled with wails of hideous creates murdering other hideous creatures for food and sport. Beautiful animals like dragonflies and damselflies that you see in the light of day start their lives in this sparse spartan hellscape. Luckily, being giant mammals, we can pluck these creatures from the depths and look at all of their cool behaviors! All you need is a pond, net, and curiosity.
I think it's fair to say that every maker yearns for a 3D printer. You can replace circuit board connectors, fix your glasses, create ski grips, and make whole machines out of printed plastic parts—even a 3D printer. But without a 3D printer on hand, you can always resort to Sugru.
Another week has passed on the online battlefield as the CISPA legislation continues to grind away at our freedom. Here at Null Byte, we try to keep our community informed and knowledgeable at the same time—and that means creating content for them to learn from.
If you've ever been inside of a real laboratory, you probably noticed how expensive the equipment is. You'd never be able to afford even just one of those ultra high-tech machines required to splice genes or split atoms. Even the lesser machines can be prohibitively costly, including a stir plate.
I'm back with the third part to my laser weapon series (see part one and two), and I'll be explaining the function, application, and potential of semiconductor lasers, aka laser diodes.
Last time, we looked at archaic cryptography, so you should have a basic understanding of some of the concepts and terminology you'll need. Now, we'll discuss one of the most important advances in computer security in the 20th century—public key cryptography.
There is a vast amount of knowledge out there on computers! In fact, it is so vast that no single person could ever possibly ever learn everything there is to learn about hacking or computers in general. People usually specialize in a certain field: cryptography, computer security, networking, software development, testing, and so on...It's probably a bit premature to decide what you want your speciality to be, but keeping the question in the back of your mind will help give you direction in ...
We had a blast during last week's social engineering calls. One of our attending social engineers was so clever that she convinced several people on Craigslist that lost items were hers, even if it seemed she couldn't be trusted. But females are better social engineers, naturally. Some say that females have a special knack for manipulating men, but I think that's preposterous. I can't see why that would be true in a million years (note my sarcasm).
It’s that time of year (in the U.S. anyway) when people are focused on getting organized -- or rather wishing they were organized. Being organized is great, it affords physical space, mental space and all but insures higher efficiency. But wishing and doing are two entirely different things. Wondering how to achieve the bliss of knowing where your stuff is? It’s easy... if you start small and don’t waste your valuable time watching TV shows or reading magazine articles on “how to” do it.
Here's something fun for the Null Byte community to do—a coding competition! This week, I wanted to get everyone involved by offering you all a nice library of possible program types to choose from and try to code. At the end of this competition, all of the submitted programs will be reviewed by the community and myself. The coder that receives the most votes will be dubbed THE BEST.
Welcome to Minecraft World! Check out our advanced tutorials and come play on our free server. Harvesting items from animals no longer requires wasting precious time chasing after them. During last Saturday's Weekly Workshop, we built a few different kinds of animal harvesters that worked in different ways, but for this guide we will be building the most compact and easy to use harvesters we made over the weekend.
If you've ever heard software piracy terminology being discussed, I'm sure the term KeyGens came up. KeyGens is short for key generator, which is a program that exploits algorithmic faults in software by generating software license keys that appear to be genuine. Normally used as a technique to protect the source code software and prevent piracy, a key generator exploits the key algorithm to effectively nullify the need for any software licenses. For example, we must try to find patterns in t...
It's almost time for the new year and whether or not you believe that the world is coming to an end in 2012, you'll probably still want to document the momentous occasions that are to come. Here are five different types of photography apps that are available for both the iPhone and Android that will aid in capturing that moment when the clock strikes midnight, as well as many more to ollow throughout the year!
Having bills to pay is one of the worst parts of life, especially around the holidays. And if you're extremely unlucky, you might also have to pay some hefty medical bills. This can put a heavy damper on plans, wants and needs. What's worse? The people that you owe money to are pushy and always bother you to pay in a more timely fashion, or worse, pay bigger premiums.
Welcome to Minecraft World! Check out our advanced tutorials and come play on our free server. A redstone sorting machine can not only cure a cluttered unmanageable Minecraft home, but make for an integral part of an efficient work space. With the redstone sorting machine, your items can arrive at the mere press of a button.
Skype is a great service. It allows a free solution for VoIP to VoIP calls, and cheap VoIP to landline calling. However, a very disturbing, little known fact that might push you away from Skype does exist. If you closely read the terms of service agreement, it clearly says that Skype is allowed to decrypt your messages whenever they please. Here at Null Byte, we tend to enjoy our anonymity, don't we?
An information technology degree from Kaplan University could be the first step towards a potential information technology career.* Earning an IT degree online can seem like a daunting task, but Kaplan University faculty and staff are available to students through email, instant messaging, and phone calls as well as weekly online seminars.
When beginning her journey at Kaplan University, Michell Sturgis was unsure how the demands of working full time and college coursework would impact her life. Kaplan University’s flexible learning schedule and online degree programs allowed her to complete her assignments at her own pace while still being able to spend quality time with her daughter. Michell took the next step forward from her associate’s degree to earning her bachelor’s degree online.
Welcome to Minecraft World! Check out our advanced tutorials and come play on our free server. Oh, the power of redstone! But, what good is any technology if it can't be harnessed for killing? Here's a redstone build for the mad scientist in each of us.
BURKITE n pl. -S a burker 63 points (13 points without the bingo)
Welcome to Minecraft World! Check out our advanced tutorials and come play on our free server. For about the past month, the folks at Mojang have been leaking pre-releases of Minecraft 1.9 and they've added many exciting things. Additions to the game include: potions, new mobs, a new biome, new realms, and something called an enchanting table. I went over how potions work in one of my previous articles and, while they are fun to play with, boy are they confusing!
Nicholas Entertainment Group (NEG) is a Polish independent game publisher that recently got their hands dirty with development. Their first game (with Intoxicate Studios) is the forthcoming horror first-person shooter Afterfall: InSanity, which comes out next month—dangerously close to the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3 and Assassin's Creed Revelations release dates. That's some stiff competition for small company, especially since it's a $35 debut game.
Bingo! No, this isn't the game where balls fly around in machines and players dab their cards with daubers. In a game of Scrabble, bingo refers to the bonus a player receives when emptying their rack in one turn, which gets them an extra 50 points on top of whatever their play was. Even if you had two blanks on your rack and didn't utilize any premium squares on the board, you'd still have an impressive 56-point turn (at least) by using all 7 of your letters.
What if your fridge knew your food and expiration dates? What if your fridge could tell you which ingredients are missing and where you can get them the cheapest?
It may not seem like it, but it's been less than 90 days since Google+ was introduced to the world. Since then, we've seen many great features that have made Google+ one of the most attractive social networks around. Today, we've received even better news: major improvements and feature updates that are truly innovative.
In a previous article where I suggested 104 photographers to follow on Google+, I received a lot of criticism because over 90% of the listed photographers were men. While women are currently not a majority on Google+, they are a definite presence, and they are active. Today, I highlight the best female photographers I've found on Google+ so far. This time I'm taking a slightly different approach. Since the best way to get to know photographers is through their work, I've included one photo fo...
The lack of a search function within Google+ is driving me crazy. It takes me way too much time to find the posts I want to save and refer back to, and it's counter-productive for Google to launch their social networking product without an integrated search.
The indie game scene is constantly expanding, but in 2008, Minecraft, Braid and Angry Birds had not been released, along with all of the other indie games that established the financial viability of the format. Indie games were the all-but-exclusive purview of free Flash game sites and the proud users of TIGsource.com. The Independent Gaming Source is a massive forum for indie game developers to share their projects with like-minded individuals, while seeking help and approval of their games.
Whereas yesterday's segment of Making Art on Your iOS Device focused on the technical elements of drawing from life, today we enter the painterly realm of David Hockney and Jorge Colombo.
You've been on Google+ for a few weeks now. You're loving it. You're exchanging thoughtful posts, pictures with your friends, meeting new people and following lots of interesting, intelligent people. There's just one problem.
Grand Theft Auto 4 was a landmark game. It gave yet another reboot to the already rebooted Grand Theft Auto series, arguably the most prestigious video game in the West. It has a 98 on Metacritic, making it by that measure the best game of modern times. Whatever your stance on the gameplay may be—which has received its fair share of flak in the three years since its release—the graphical steps that the team at Rockstar North took to create their fantasy replica of New York were a major step f...
You've had a hard day at work and need to get out of the house, have a few drinks, but you don't want to go just anywhere—you want the right crowd and the right bar. For those nights, barhopping just isn't the answer, it's SceneTap.
The very basic building block of street art is the tag. Although most people find them ugly, i just think that every artist needs to start somewhere, for street artists, its the tag. Firstly the tag is basicly writing your name, or whatever name you use for your art on a wall in a simple style. (although some tags can be quite complicated) The first step of a good tag is the marker that you will use to write it with. Tags can be sharp and clean, drippy and messy, thick, thin, simple or very e...
ATTENTION COLLISION REPAIR INDUSTRYHave you ever put your stud in your stud gun to repair a dent and the stud falls out before it reaches the panel? Sure it has, it has happened to all of us. However, the new Magna-Spot eliminates this problem with their exclusive (MPS), which secures the pins in the electrode. You can read the press release below to learn more of the benefits.ENTER AND WIN THE NEW MAGNA-SPOT STUD GUNDetails to this contest are going to be revealed in layers as follows:
Attention all National SCRABBLE Association members: You know that newsletter that you get in your mailbox every month or two? That SCRABBLE News mailing from the NSA? Well, they're axing it. No more printed SCRABBLE News. No more ink on your fingertips. No more surprises in your mailbox. It's done for... kinda...
