I got hooked on origami sometime after Math Craft admin Cory Poole posted instructions for creating modular origami, but I had to take a break to finish a quilt I've been working on for a while now. It's my first quilt, and very simple in its construction (straight up squares, that's about it), but it got me thinking about the simple geometry and how far you could take the design to reflect complex geometries. Below are a few cool examples I found online.
Astronomy World will be posting a weekly blog post that informs fellow observers upcoming interesting events in the sky. These will include:
Google+ is taking over more and more of Google's core properties. This week, we've seen several announcements from Google blogs about new products, new features, new looks, new integrations. If you're like me, you actually want to know where to go for all the latest information on Google products.
Hey all, I've introduced myself in the forum, but for newcomers, I'm former admin of Giveaway Tuesdays, and current moderator of Phone Snap!
When it comes to social engineering, Null Byte is here to show you how it's done. Social engineering is the key fundamental to unlocking tons of possibilities and opportunities in your everyday life. So, what is social engineering? Social engineering can be called many things. It's taking nothing and turning it into something. It's taking the bad and making it good. Above everything else, it's the art of manipulating the world and people around you—coercing that salesman into giving you a low...
Having an SSH or Secure SHell to tunnel your traffic through is something we have talked about many times at Null Byte. As we know, it allows us to securely route and encrypt our traffic through a remote server, effectively anonymizing us and protecting our traffic from all forms of analysis—simultaneously. We have gone over how to make a home SSH tunnel. However, the question has come up, "How can I get an SSH tunnel to somewhere other than my computer?" This would be useful in a situation w...
MacPhun, the company who brought FX Photo Studio to the iPhoneography community, and MobiTog, have teamed up to create the upcoming International iPhoneography Show. The first exhibition will kick off in New York on December 16-22 at The Soho Gallery for Digital Art. It will feature approximately 200 pictures captured with iPhones by over 150 different artists from around the world, making it the biggest exhibition of iPhone photography of the year. There will also be more international exhib...
A seasonal tradition brought over from Japan to America by Japanese-American farmers, making hoshigaki (as they're called in Japanese) is a fun outdoor autumn project you can do before the winter season really kicks in. Hang a bunch of peeled persimmons on a string outside, wait for three to five weeks, and harvest yourself some naturally dried persimmons during the winter months. Though peeling the fruit and then regularly massaging the fruit every few days after hanging may be more labor in...
This has got to be one of the most clever Easter Eggs I've seen in a long time, especially considering current relations between Mojang (makers of Minecraft), and Bethesda (makers of The Elder Scrolls and Fallout). As seen in the video below, if you go to a certain part of The Throat of the World, the highest point in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, you'll find a Notched Pickaxe. For those who don't know, Markus "Notch" Persson is the lead designer of Minecraft, and the head of Mojang.
Since today (11/11/11) is the last 6 digit binary date this century, I thought we should look at some kinetic binary calculators.
Creating your own video tutorials. Over the last few years we have created a whole database of short video tutorials at helpvids.com - showing you how to use different programs.
With the computer's rapid increases in power and efficiency, computer virtualization has taken the scene by storm. With virtualization software, and powerful enough computer hardware, your computer can run a virtual computer within itself. This effectively gives you multiple OS's on the host OS. This can be used for a lot of cool stuff that your computer would normally be limited by. Let's take a look at a few.
Andrew Lipson builds sculptures based off of Mathematical objects using standard Lego bricks. He has built models of knots, Mobius strips, Klein bottles, Tori, Hoberman spheres (using Lego technic pieces), and recreations of M.C. Escher works.
I don't know what I've been doing in the past when it comes to carving pumpkins, but usually they last a little while. For some reason, the pumpkins we carved this year lasted only two days before they became almost completely engulfed in mold and pumpkin juice. Maybe our apartment isn't suitable for carved pumpkins. I was hoping they'd last until Halloween, but I got to say these pumpkins are way creepier once nature took its course. You may not see it just yet, but you can see the mold real...
A proxy is a server that lets a client to connect to it and forward its traffic. This enables a certain "layer" of protection by masking your IP. An IP address can be used to learn your location and track you on the Internet, thus eliminating any form of anonymity that you may have.
You can do some pretty cool stuff with the golden ratio. The image above is made from taking each quarter-circle in the golden spiral and expanding it into a full circle. In the second image, the spiral and the golden rectangles are overlaid on the the first image, showing how it works.
Game design is sedentary work. Generally its practitioners do their work with their butts planted securely in front of a computer in an office (be it home or away) as their muscles and verbal skills atrophy. Even game journalists are prone to this condition. Not so with Colin and Sarah Northway (pictured below), the husband and wife team behind NORTHWAY Games. Not only do they make really cool indie games, but they do it with just a laptop while traveling the world meeting indie developers of...
RHYOLITE 64 points (14 points without the bingo) Definition: a volcanic rock [n]
I've been hell-bent on complete self sufficiency for a long time now. There was a point where I was living in a self-sustaining community in the mountains in Colorado, and we had a very large greenhouse there. Dragging the hose around to water plants was a real pain, and that stuck in the back of my mind even after I left the place. It would have been much easier to integrate watering into the frame at construction time than doing that hose dance every day.
Portal is game design milestone. Originally only available bundled in with larger cousins Half-Life 2 and Team Fortress 2 in The Orange Box, its creators, Valve Software, changed what first person gameplay could be. It's been a stand alone product for much of the four years since its release, but never an expensive one, usually available for $5 on Steam (also created by Valve). If that barrier to entry was too high for you, or you just never got around to trying it, there are no more excuses....
The Google+ Venice Skate Park photo walk was a lot of fun. We got to hang out with +Brian Rose, +Dave Cohen, +Vincent Mo, and many other Googlers and photographers, taking pictures, learning all about Venice and its colorful history.
Remember last month when we introduced you to Trover? Well, now this great little discovery app for iPhone has completed its beta mode and has officially launched in wide release.
Giveaway Tuesdays has officially ended! But don't sweat it, WonderHowTo has another World that's taken its place. Every Tuesday, Phone Snap! invites you to show off your cell phone photography skills.
Video games have been a purely digital medium for some decades now. They exist in the electronic nether, embedded on discs and projected on screens. Since digital distribution has gained popularity, even the physical manifestation of the game disc is going away, leaving games (especially digitally distributed indie games) more ethereal than ever before. It is unclear whether this slightly unsettling fact was on the minds of the three people who made Receipt Racer, but regardless, it stands as...
I shot this X-Men: First Class Spoof with the new Technicolor CineStyle picture profile (it was a 5d, as well). I had done some initial testing when the profile first came out, but never shot a real project on it. This X-Men short is my first real world experience with the profile.
There are over 425,000 apps in the iTunes App Store and the Android Market has over 300,000 available, which makes it really hard to tell which ones you want and which ones you don't. One of the best ways to find new mobile apps is from your family, friends and colleagues—those who have similar tastes in games and productivity. And it goes both ways, which means you need to share your favorite picks with those around you. But what's the easiest way to do that?
Last week in New York, I saw the new show Otherworldly: Optical Delusions and Small Realities at the Museum of Arts and Design, at Columbus Circle near the edge of Central Park, between Broadway and Eighth. Below is the museum’s description of the show:
Giveaway Tuesdays has officially ended! But don't sweat it, WonderHowTo has another World that's taken its place. Every Tuesday, Phone Snap! invites you to show off your cell phone photography skills.
Prada is genius. If you're a hater, you've never been to the flagship store on Broadway in NYC. The fashion powerhouse enlisted the Office for Metropolitan Architecture and Rem Koolhaas to design the space, a stunning retail location with impeccable service, rotating installations, beautiful architectural details, hypnotizing music, and a gigantic, monolithic glass elevator. (You can go on an interactive tour here).
What do you get when you combine eBay, foursquare, and Craigslist want ads into a single mobile application? A really gnarly mobile bazaar called Zaarly that lets you post wanted products or services based on local proximity and timeliness. It's not a new idea, but it's the first to get it right.
E Ink technology is nothing short of amazing. It recently contributed to the world's first bend-sensitive flexible smartphone, and now it's capable of something even cooler, not to mention astonishingly simpler—flashing digital displays on cloth.
Over years of almost-daily orange eating, I have developed a 90% effective workflow for removing the peel from an orange in one piece. While this might not seem important, people who see me do it generally ask about it, so I thought it would be cool if you would illustrate the process for the world. Having a nice hand-drawn set of instructions to frame on my wall would save me time explaining it to people as well.
It seems the French have carefully observed the hacking achievements of one super clever Carnegie Mellon grad, turning his hack into a modern iPad application-to-be.
These magical beans can keep your coffee hot for hours. Not blazing hot, burn your tongue on the first sip, and not disappointingly lukewarm, but coffee fit for every baby bear—just right. Genius.
Below are a number of balloon artist related books that I have collected over the years. If you do not see a book that you own listed here, please feel free to let me know about it as I would love to add it to my collection. Additionally, I would be more than happy to share information on the books that I have here if you are interested in trying to find them for your own collection. Wishing you all the best in your balloon career...
Why is it so satisfying to squash, snap, squeeze and splatter? You know, squashing a juicy grape, snapping a twig, squeezing ketchup out of a packet—perhaps with your fist—or splattering mud across a sidewalk. But all of these actions are child's play next to animators Laura Junger and Xaver Xylophon's Joy of Destruction. The real joy of destruction is illustrated below—we're talking sawing ladies in half, exploding corn into popcorn with dynamite, burning cities, and rolling over statues wit...
There are hundreds of websites that claim you can win cash or prizes by signing up and using their website. Sadly, most of these are scams but there are a couple out there that are legitimate. I have investigated many of these websites and tried them out personally, with many failures. The one that sticks out the most, for me and many other people, is beezag.com. Beezag is a website that hooks you up with companies that are currently offering cash or sweepstakes entries for prizes they are gi...
As someone who keeps an electric drill in the same 5 foot proximity of a manual wall pencil sharpener, here's a clear cut case of "Why didn't they think of this sooner?!"... Introducing, the coolest drill bit ever: Wowee, just watch it go. The C.H. Hanson Pro-Sharp Finishing Pencil Carpenter proclaims itself as the "world’s first chuckable drill powered pencil sharpener”. It promises to produce "a fast, consistent pencil point every time” and universally fits any drill or 1/4" quick change sy...
Homemade nourishing creams are easy and very simple to make. The ingredients are harmless and natural. It costs a fraction of what you would pay in the market. You also know exactly what goes into the product you make. Since homemade nourishing creams do not contains any preservatives, it's better to produce in small quantities and store it in the fridge to avoid waste.
We know it's fun to break stuff, but Santa sure isn't going to be as good to Michael Tompert next year. The San Francisco digital imaging and CGI artist destroyed a whole slew of brand-new Apple gadgets as a statement on "our relationship with fetish, fashion, freedom, and bondage."
