It took him a year to build and about $30,000 in parts, but Steve Hassenplug has created a truly magnificent robotic chess set, inspired by the magical chessboard in the first Harry Potter movie. Quite a task, but Hassenplug did an incredible job!
Every day of the week, WonderHowTo curators are hard at work, scouring the web for the greatest and most inspiring how-to videos. Every Friday, we'll highlight our favorite finds.
Meet YouTube user kittenandtiger, the mysterious Austrian mouse whisperer. Master of mouse training site Mouse Agility, kittenandtiger has had a love for rodents since a very young age:
Dumb but honest. Like a golden retriever covered in ketchup
Are you tired of doing the same exercises for abs? The jackknife crunch may be the answer to your problems. This exercise effectively works the core muscles. It should be noted that whenever the knees move toward the chest (the jackknife motion), the hip flexors are involved. The hip flexor muscles are actually part of the upper leg. They allow you to kick a ball or lift the knee from a standing position (as in running). Thus, if you are trying to isolate the abs, there are better alternative...
The seated leg extension is used to isolate the quadriceps muscles. The quadriceps muscles are located on the front of the thighs. As you might have guessed, there are four muscles that make up the quadriceps. Each muscle works in unison to extend the knee. In everyday life, the "quads" are used when you jump, walk, sit, kick, or stand.
If you want to improve balance and strength in the leg muscles, try the single leg deadlift (also called the single leg Romanian deadlift). This exercise is primarily going to work your hamstrings and butt. The single leg deadlift comes with a high degree of difficulty because it is performed on one leg. An advanced level of balance and muscular control is required for this exercise. Here are the instructions:
Was it your New Year's resolution to quit smoking this year? Whether you are a first-time quitter or a chronic relapser, this is the year to kick this unhealthy habit for good.
Though making hot chocolate out of instant mix is pretty easy, there is no comparison when it comes to making your own homemade hot chocolate out of quality dark chocolate bars, whole milk, brown sugar, and your own favorite fresh spices.
If you like the idea of napping but have difficulty waking up after 20 minutes, drink a cup of coffee right before you lay down. As caffeine takes about 15 to 20 minutes to take physical effect, you can wake up from your nap ready to conquer the world just as the caffeine high starts kicking in.
If you're like most people, you probably waste a lot of time on the internet. Would your life be fuller, richer, and more productive if you could spend a little less time on Facebook, Reddit, Pinterest, Tumblr, or whatever internet junk food you are addicted to at the moment? Probably.
Whether you love Björk or you hate her, her Wanderlust music video is must-not-miss. Created by Encyclopedia Pictura, a California based production company, the video combines live action, puppets, scale models, and computer generated animation.
In this episode of Photoshop for Video, Richard Harrington takes a look at a new feature in Adobe Photoshop CS4 called content aware scaling. This feature allows a user to define a region or a graphic to scale or not to scale when the image is resized, giving tremendous flexibility to not have certain parts of a photo distorted when other parts are stretched.
In this how to video, Adam Richards demonstrates how to build your own water feature. He has chosen a transportable feature, most suited to a courtyard. You can dress up your garden with this beautiful DIY water feature. Build your own water feature.
The suite nouveau - in this video tutorial from Caffè Fibonacci, Join Tim and Rufus as they toast to the CS Nouveau, and introduce some cool new features of Adobe InDesign CS4 and Adobe Illustrator CS4. See how to use new features in Adobe Illustrator CS4 and InDesign CS4. Use new features in Adobe Illustrator and InDesign CS4.
Fireworks CS4 has some new and improved layout features to take advantage of. This Fireworks CS4 video covers: display rulers, traditional guides, the new tool tips feature, smart guides, and align panel improvements. See how to use these new layout tool features in Fireworks CS4. Use Fireworks CS4 layout tools.
This video shows the way to do standing kick backs. This exercise works the buttocks. You stand facing a wall with hands in front of you resting on the wall. All of your weight should be shifted to the leg your not using. this is a great exercise because you can do it anywhere. Do standing kick-backs.
Suspend one of the guys in the air by rope or cable and swing him back and forth like a pendulum in front of a soccer goal, and then have some really hard-kicking soccer players start firing balls at him . . . either several all at once or one at a time.
InfoWorld has some expertise advice for the new Windows 7 operating system from Microsoft. Now that Microsoft has made the Windows 7 beta available for public download, many people are trying to figure out what's new and different. And many others not willing to risk their PCs by installing a beta OS are curious, too.
Want defined cheekbones, a narrower nose, or a shorter forehead? This how-to video offers some tips for making the most out of what nature gave you. Kendra Richards, makeup artist, uses brown eyeshadow (bronzer works just as well) to contour the face. Learn how to enhance facial features by watching this video makeup lesson. Enhance your features with makeup.
This video shows you how to use the new measurement features in Photoshop CS3 Extended. You learn how to set a measurement scale, save it as a preset, measure items, manage the measurement log, and export measurement data to a spreadsheet program. Check out this video created by Ashley Manning Still now! Use measurement features in Photoshop CS3 Extended.
On Google+, one of the very first creative projects using the popular hangout feature revolved around cooking. Foodies +Lee Allison and +Eric McKee decided to start their own "G+ Cooking School", which has now expanded into the Social Skillet. Although neither have formal training, they're both quite accomplished cooks and skilled instructors. Using hangouts, they've taught their students how to create dishes like margherita pizzas and chicken marsala.
The Canon EOS 40D uses a nine-point focusing system. Learn more about using the focusing features of the Canon EOS 40D Digital SLR camera in this free Canon photography lesson. Use focusing features on the Canon EOS 40D - Part 1 of 9.
Super Mario Brothers! No, wait... Super Meat Boy! Yep, that's right. Meat. As in "cube" steak. As in a square piece of beef with eyes and a shitty grin, who just happens to be in love with a band-aid. I have no idea why. And no matter how shocked you are to see your dinner on your screen, it doesn't change the fact that this platform game is AWESOME!
Search "Pilates animation" on Wonderhowto for other more videos by this user. If you are looking a for a quick pilates reference, take a look at this pilates animation. This a quick & easy, clearly explained diagram of the pilates mat exercise: Classical Pilates for Beginners:
The new sync lock feature in Premiere Pro CS4 is a very useful tool that will maintain the relationship between clips in multiple tracks so that when you are editing you make changes to one clip, Premiere will keep your edits in place by adjusting the other clips in the timeline. Sync lock is a new feature added to Premiere Pro CS4 and this tutorial shows you how and when to use it as it pertains to your normal editing workflow in Premiere Pro. This is especially helpful when ripple editing. ...
zombie suit make up ok the jackass crew walks the streets as zombies then goes door to door knocking on the doors and then when they answer the door one of the jackass members scares the person opening the door and also after the jackass crew is done being zombies a jackass member runs up to another jackass member and kicks him in the nuts by suprise
Take one of the guys, tie him in the center of a really big metal hula hoop by his hands and feet, give him a helmet cam, then kick him in the balls and roll him down a big hill.
You can learn how to do the elementary backstroke which is one way that you can swim. You lay on your back, kick with your feet, and push forward with your arms. Swim the elementary backstroke.
Young skateboard pro Nick Tucker teaches you how to switch heels. It is quite basic the way he describes the foot placement. You must switch olley but kick your foot. Switch heels.
We've provided Google insiders, Google's community managers, authors, and celebrities for you to add to your circles. This week, we've discovered over 100 brilliant photographers for you to follow.
Revit Architecture 2009 is out and has some pretty cool new features. The first one David Fano talks about is Sweep Blend. Imagine taking the blend tool and combining it with the sweep tool. It’s pretty much just that. Like in the blend you pick to shapes “profiles” to blend between except now you can o it along a path. You could easily experiment with surface continuity by importing 3D curves from Rhino but for now this video covers the basics of how the sweep blend feature in Revit Architec...
Breaststroke is a traditional stroke popular with people who like to swim for fitness. It is the slowest stroke, but that does not mean it cannot be swum powerfully and at speed. Follow along in this how-to animation to learn the basics of doing the breaststroke.
Only so much data can be passed through the network and to your computer's networking interfaces. This is limited by the amount of bandwidth you have. The more bandwidth you have, the faster your network connections will be. Not only this, but your transfers will be more parallel and distributed so that all of your speed isn't taken up by one transfer. When all of your bandwidth is sapped and unable to be used, this is called a denial of service, or a DOS.
Last week's Community Byte we got off to a great start! We had a few people build our IRC bot, and all went well. We had some great contributers, ideas, and people willing to learn. So, needless to say, we will be having another. Let's try to get a few more people involved this time!
For most Americans, the bane of the hangover is typically remedied by lots of water, painkillers, greasy food, and a day wasted on the couch. But if you're tired of potato chips and fried eggs, perhaps it's time you enter unfamiliar territory. Below, a combination of unorthodox methods for taming the beast, derived from science, sparkly Whole Foods new ageism, and the far East.
If you've ever been to an amusement park or carnival, or even just been on a stroll down the boardwalk or promenade, then you probably know exactly what a caricature drawing is—those cartoony depictions of people or things with extremely exaggerated or oversimplified features that create a comedic effect. Caricatures aren't just for street artists, though—they also work great for political satire and entertainment purposes.
Sticking with our theme of XBLA games with uninspiring names, we have Outland. This game shares its name with an unrelated sci-fi cult film from 1981, unrelated comic strip from the '90s, and unrelated region in World of Warcraft. Didn't exactly try hard to build name recognition. Other than that, Finnish developer Housemarque has created the best 2D platformer I've seen in years.
I have prepared a stable stuffing how-to for you! For more information about stuffing see this article.
This link features title stills from feature films both past and present. I'd forgotten how beautiful some of the typography is. Some of these would make great movie posters on their own. Especially the Dr. Strangelove one.
