First Timers Search Results

How To: Make Torus Knots from Soft Metals

Torus knots are beautiful knots formed by wrapping a line around a torus and tying the ends together to form a loop. The resulting knot has a star-like appearance when viewed from above. The 36 examples with the least number of crossings can be seen at the Knot Atlas's page on torus knots.

How To: Setup an Asterisk Server

Over the years, I have enjoyed playing with Asterisk. I have found Asterisk to be extremely powerful and fun to play with. There are several books and many scattered how to articles out there, but most are outdated and the information required to build Asterisk from beginning to end can be a bit daunting. I wanted to combine all the steps into a single article and share my experience with everyone. If I have left out any steps please let me know.

How To: Make a Dos-à-Dos Book from a Cardboard Box

This is a tutorial on making a dos-à-dos book by recycling a thin junk cardboard box (dos-à-dos means back-to-back). In the video, you'll see how a cardboard box that has four sides the same size will make a triple-book in one. To make a double-book, just take away one side. To make more than a triple-book, add more boxes to the mix. They're great, fun homemade journals!

How To: Recover Deleted Files in Linux

File recovery on Linux is a bit different than Windows. It requires different software than the Windows counterparts because every OS has their own file system. Windows uses NTFS, or FAT file systems, while on the other hand, Linux uses ext-based file systems. I personally use ext4 file system because it's the latest and greatest ext-journaling system and supports a large level of directory recursion and file sizes, but most installations still use ext2 or ext3. When files are deleted from a ...

How To: Make a Human Blockade Lockbox

I'll admit it, yes, I support protesting. It doesn't matter what my opinions are about any individual protest—overall, it is a human right and the only way to avoid tyranny. We can't deify Ghandi and demonize American protesters. That shows a silly shortsightedness that we can't afford to dabble in.

How To: Make Knot Sculptures from Soft Metals

In mathematics, a knot is a closed circle in a three-dimensional space that crosses itself multiple times. Since it is closed, it has no ends to tie, meaning you can't actually create such a knot. However, if you tie the ends together after you create a knot in the standard way, you will have something that is close to the mathematical description. In this post, we will explore the creation of mathematical knot sculputures using copper tubing and solid solder wire.

How To: Recover Deleted Files in Windows

Everyone has deleted a file or folder on accident before. Sometimes people even delete stuff on purpose, only to find out that they needed the files after all. If you're experiencing one of these mishaps, don't worry, file recovery is possible in most cases!

Community Byte: Coding a Web-Based Password Cracker in Python

Welcome to another Community Byte announcement! In the past two sessions, we have coded an IRC bot in Python capable of issuing commands. Since it can issue commands and most of you are new to programming, that project will stay idle for a while. Other commands such as voice and half-op can be easily hacked in via common sense, even if you weren't there for that session.

Math Craft Monday: Community Submissions (Plus Polyhedral Stellation)

It's another Monday, which means it's once again time to highlight some of the recent community submissions posted to the Math Craft corkboard. Additionally, I thought we'd take a look at the process of stellation and make some stellated polyhedra out of paper.Rachel Mansur of Giveaway Tuesdays posted a video from animator Cyriak Harris, which zooms into fractal hands, where each fingertip also has a hand and fingers. A few more details can be found here, as well as some other really cool pic...

How To: Permanently Delete Files to Protect Privacy and Passwords

Permanently deleting files is something that a lot of people aren't aware of. Actually, most people think that once a file is deleted, it is gone forever. This is not the case. Hard drives write to the disk via magnetic charges, positive and negative correlate to 1s and 0s for binary. This is then interpreted into information for the computer to use and access.

Scrabble Bingo Weekly Roundup: Creepy, Deadly Words for Halloween

Pumpkins, murderers, vampires, zombies, ghosts, witches, death… these are all the subjects of last week's Scrabble Bingo of the Days, which focused on words associated with Halloween and horror movies. Did you know there was actually a name for someone who suffocated another person? Did you know that Frankenstein, vampires, and ghosts can all be considered one thing? Did you know that there was actually a word for rotten dead flesh?

How To: Make a Redstone Death Machine

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.

News: Complete Arch Linux Installation, Part 2: Graphical User Interface & Packages

Welcome to the second part of the Arch Linux installation tutorial! We are installing Arch because of the amount of users who want to learn how to get into Linux. Arch is a simple, minimalistic distro, designed not to hold the users hand, but to push them to know their system and customize it to the core. This will make you feel accomplished, as well as give you the extra edge of being knowledgeable of the GNU/Linux operating systems.

News: What Was the First Adventure Game?

Adventure gamers would love to know what was the first adventure game. Well, it was a 1970s computer game titled "Colossal Cave Adventure", also known as "Adventure". Designed by Will Crowther, the game was in FORTRAN and initially had 700 lines of code and data, which was later expanded to 3,000 lines of code and more than 1000 lines of data.

News: Complete Arch Linux Installation, Part 1: Install & Configure Arch

"How do I install Arch Linux?" That question was bound to come up eventually. And with me using Arch, it's no coincidence that all of you want to use it as well. Arch is arguably the best Linux distro available. Distros that come close are Gentoo and some aspects of Ubuntu, but Arch is meant for building your OS from the inside out. Arch is built around minimalism, so you won't get anything by default. It doesn't even come with sound!

News: Math Craft Inspiration of the Week: Electrically Generated Fractal Branching Patterns

Natural processes often create objects that have a fractal quality. Fractal branching patterns occur in plants, blood vessel networks, rivers, fault lines, and in several electrical phenomena. Many of these processes take lifetimes, or even occur on geological timescales. But this is not the case for electrical phenomena. They often occur near instantaneously. One example would be the branching patterns that sometimes occur in lightning.