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News: Bring the Brothers Grimm Characters to Life This Halloween

Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood and Sleeping Beauty are some of the most horrific fairy tales ever written, but over the course of nearly 200 years they've become watered down and sugar coated for innocent children everywhere. The original tales by the Brothers Grimm are virtually opposites of how we know them today, because they were never really intended for unsullied youngsters. The folk tales came from storytellers across the German countryside, recounting the terrors they've heard ove...

News: Should Kids Be Allowed to Use Facebook and Google+?

It's a question I've been pondering a lot lately. Technically, children under the age of 13 are not allowed to join Facebook. But according to a Consumer Reports in May, 7.5 million children 12 and younger are already on the site. Currently, federal law prohibits websites from collecting personal data from children without parental permission. The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, as it is more commonly known, has been in effect since 1998, but has not been updated since.

News: Google+ Pro Tips Weekly Round Up: Refining Sharing

One of the primary goals of a social network is for you to share what you find interesting with your followers and friends, but on Google+, sharing has so many layers that it can be confusing for most people to really take advantage of it properly. Some of the tools in place that enable you do deal with spam and manage your privacy aren't very clear, so this week's round up is all about how you can share what you want with who you want on Google+.

News: Friday Indie Game Review Roundup: Pennies, Alliances, and Choices

Like a great acting performance, making a really good game is all about choices. While creating or playing a game, those involved have to constantly make small choices that will affect the outcome, either positively or negatively. And the only thing worse than choosing wrongly is not choosing at all. Too many games, especially today, stick to what they're supposed to do from the get-go and avoid making difficult, small, meaningful choices to differentiate themselves and make their performance...

News: Google+ Pro Tips Weekly Round Up: Google+ Community Projects Take Off

This week seems to have gone by in a flash. Maybe it was the three day weekend, but I don't think it accounts for the flurry of activity I've been seeing on Google+. Updates, debates, and new initiatives are unfolding every day, and the best part is that most of them are coming from outside of Google. People love Google+ so much that they want to evangelize to others about it. What more could Google+ ask for?

News: The Best Places to Play Scrabble Online

There's nothing better than playing a game of Scrabble, feeling the smooth wooden tiles in your hand and savoring the heavy fumes of cardboard, cheap wood and plastic as you rearrange the letters on your rack into the perfect word. You try to keep a straight face while you watch your opponent sweat, but you can't help but release that diabolical grin of self-admiration as you play the elusive triple-triple. The score's recorded and you feel sorry for your bitter rival, but then you remember y...

News: 3 Long Awaited Indie Games at PAX That Should Be Released Already!

The small size of most indie game development teams is a strength, but also a weakness. It allows them to take risks and explore revolutionary ideas that a larger company could never justify to its shareholders, but also means they must navigate the game development labyrinth with minimal help, taking much longer than those with big development teams. Some of the most exciting indie games currently in development have been so for years, or look like they will be.

News: Why Rdio.com Is Better than the iTunes Music Store

When Apple‘s iTunes was introduced back in 2001, it rekindled my interest and purchasing of music. I was so excited by the program that I immediately started converting all my rather large collection of CDs into MP3 tracks. I then sold off my CDs and remaining vinyl albums, and used the money for additional iTunes purchases. iTunes made managing and listening music a wholly different experience. But in the last few years, iTunes has taken a back seat to streaming music services, which I find ...

Minecraft: Her Crushed Dreams

What happens when a person who has never played a building sandbox game tries it for the first time? Reality happens. The harsh reality of human nature. You would think playing with friends in a creation game would be utopia, but in truth it's more like being stuck with people that would walk all over you if it provided a softer path.

News: Birds as the Ultimate DIY Architects

The widely used expression "free as a bird" intimates an enviable existence: delicate, yet mighty wings transporting to destinations no human could so breezily venture. But despite their fanciful, superhero ability, in truth, the avian race leads one of the most difficult existences in the animal kingdom. Yes, birds have existed for eons—they likely evolved from small dinosaurs of the Jurassic period—but for these creatures, life can be ruthless.

HowTo: Read Your Own Mind

The days of trundling hoops, hopscotch and painted wooden rocking horses are long since past. The latest trend in toys? Biofeedback. Electroencephalography. A decade into the 21st century, the toy market is awash in products that incorporate functional neural sensors.

How To: Control Running Bamboo

Most bamboo in the United States is running bamboo, because nearly all cold hardy bamboo is the running or invasive type. The tropical bamboos are mostly "clumpers" and stay in a nice, tight clump. Running bamboos spread far and wide and can be very invasive. I grow many kinds of running bamboos and over the past 20 years I've had to learn how to control it's spread.

How To: Get Six Pack Abs

The abdominals can be considered one of the best signals of fitness and strength and is one of the most sought-after muscle groups to develop by both men and women. While the abdominals are very desirable, it can be one of the most difficult areas to distinguish and maintain. This article's purpose is to give you the hard truths, advice, and workout for gaining a hard body and new look.

How To: Fish for bass using the flicker shad bait

Big surprises come in little packages, and that's certainly the case with this flicker shad bait. This flicker shad has been proven to attract bass or any fish that feeds on shad, so if you want to learn more, watch as Wade Bourne of MyOutdoorTV shows you how to fish a flicker shad.

How To: Connect a Bluetooth Mouse and Keyboard to your iPad (or iPhone)!

After years of being a PC technician and Windows System administrator, I had the blind hatred for Apple that I thought I was suppose to have. I swore that I'd never even touch an iPod, let alone buy an Apple product. But I found a new career that drug me out of the Windows server/PC tech room dungeon, and into the bright modern office of a web development firm. Then it happened. After a couple weeks with all this Apple stuff around me, my love for gadgets and (closet) Apple curiosity got the ...

How To: Things to Do on WonderHowTo (04/18 - 04/24)

WonderHowTo is a how-to website made up of niche communities called Worlds, with topics ranging from Minecraft to science experiments to Scrabble and everything in-between. Check in every Wednesday evening for a roundup of user-run activities and how-to projects from the most popular communities. Users can join and participate in any World they're interested in, as well as start their own community.

News: The Trayvon Deception

If you've been reading, watching or listening to the news, you sure know about the Trayvon Martin case. If you visit this site often, you may also have noticed that I've not put up any news on this case. I have my reasons. And this post will describe why.

Don't Get Doxed: 5 Steps to Protecting Your Private Information on the Web

If you follow the Anonymous, Occupy, and IT security scenes, you have no doubt heard about a dox release. What is it? How can it hurt you? And most importantly, how can you protect yourself from it? Some of these steps might seem common sense, while others will be an ah-ha! moment. Your private info is both your biggest weakness and your biggest weapon in your battle to remain anonymous. You must learn how to use it as both.

How To: Prevent Social Networks from Tracking Your Internet Activities

+Nik Cubrilovic discovered last week that Facebook could track your web activities even after you logged out of your Facebook account. After some blatant denials from Facebook spokespeople, Facebook decided to fix the logout issue, but not before +Michael Arrington, on his new Uncrunched blog, made a concise post revealing Facebook's dishonesty: Facebook submitted a patent application for "tracking information about the activities of users of a social networking system while on another domain...

News: The Best Books for Mastering Your Canon EOS 5D Mark II DSLR

The manual that's included with the Canon EOS 5D Mark II is a great starting point for learning the camera, but it's definitely not the only place you should be getting your information from if you intend to master your 5D Mark II. If you don't have the manual, you can download a copy of it here from Canon's website. It's great for learning the basics of the camera, but sometimes it can be vague and hard to follow. In order to capture the full potential of the 5D Mark II, you need to go a lit...

News: The Best 6 Places to Buy Used Camera Equipment Online

Camera manufacturers release new versions of the same cameras, mostly point-and-shoot models, as frequently as Detroit's auto industry upgrades minivans. They also add new lenses regularly, upgrading previous models with adjusted zoom ranges or the image stabilization feature. The same goes for tripods, portable flashes and even camera bags.