Have an old-school tabula recta lying around? No? Then just print out the chart below. Nothing ensures better password security than this centuries-old cipher technique. Here's how it works, via Wikipedia:
Here's another cool hack using the Kinect, albeit one beyond the reach of most of us. Some students, staff, and professors at MIT have developed "hand detection" software using the Kinect's motion sensor. Below is a demonstration of this software. It recalls Tom Cruise's iconic scenes from the movie Minority Report.
What was your first experience with Kinect? Mine was through my friend Robert. (He's in the blue shirt above.) I was over at his place, and he and his girlfriend had just gotten a Kinect. After much futzing with the Kinect because it kept falling off their flatscreen TV, they finally got it to stay.
Screw gaming, let's get to the serious stuff! Here's an amazing video of a Kinect hack that lets one see what its camera sees - in 3D.
First single by Oz BODYCON & Hanna Great.
Christmas is almost over— all of the presents are unwrapped, all of the prime ribs have been eaten, the whole family's drunk off eggnog— and soon it will be time to forget about Christmas until next year.
According to Amazon.com, Kindle was their best-selling item this year, which means many, if not all of you are playing with a brand new Kindle on Christmas Day. Of all of Amazon's Kindle models, the Kindle 3 (6") will be the most common eReader in everyone's hands, either the Wi-Fi version or the 3G model.
A group of nano-scientists from the University of Glasgow have created the world's smallest Christmas card, measuring in at 200 micro-meters wide by 290 micro-meters tall. (BTW, a micro-metre is a millionth of a meter, and the width of a human hair is about 100 micro-meters.)
Tonight is the night. Christmas Eve. The night where Santa Claus and his trusty reindeer soar across the skies to deliver presents to all the good little boys and girls around the world. But tell me— do you know where Santa Claus is right now?
The crew from NASA's International Space Station wish planet Earth a heartwarming Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. (Check out flight engineer Cady Coleman's hair. Zero gravity is awesome.) For the nostalgic, the legendary Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the Moon, wishes the world Merry Christmas in s live television broadcast from lunar orbit, December 1968:
Tol Barad sounds pretty exotic, but really, what doesn't in World of WarCraft: Cataclysm? If you're a WoW: Cataclysm player and haven't heard of the Tol Barad zone yet, then what in the hell have you been doing? Letting a bot play your game? Maybe the WoW Glider? Tsk, tsk.
By Ethical Traveler As the world becomes ever more interconnected, being an ethical traveler becomes both easier and more urgent. Travelers today have access to far more information than we did even 10 years ago. We can observe–almost in real time–the impact that smart or selfish choices, by governments and individuals, have on rainforests and reefs, cultures and communities.
Forget Christmas, it's all about Festivus these days. But what is Festivus? When is Festivus?
On last week's Gizmodo Shooting Challenge, submittors were challenged to create photos that could be seen in 3D, simply by refocusing the eyes to merge two appropriately placed white dots.
One of the all-time great arcade games of my youth returns to next-gen gaming consoles. Now I wish I owned one...
A few friends and I were recently sitting around and talking about old action figures we had when we were kids. We talked about Visionaries, Super Naturals, Battle Beasts, and others. Finally, we got around to talking about Monster in My Pocket. As a confirmed monster fanatic, Monster in My Pocket was obviously a favorite of mine, and it's the first place I ever heard of several monsters, including the Baba Yaga, who I was later to get to know much better via Hellboy.
We all love it when the Google logo changes to celebrate or commemorate special events— pop-culture touchstones, civic milestones, scientific achievements and holidays— their latest one for this holiday season is a Christmas card to everyone— an interactive Google Doodle with 17 artworks from different artists, each depicting a seasonal greeting from a variety of cultures and countries.
Well, Ol' Man Winter is upon us yet again, blasting us with his icy breath. When I was a kid, I loved wintertime because it meant the prospect of sledding, snowball fights & missed school days in which to enjoy both. Now that I'm 45, however, my attitude toward the season has taken a complete 180-degree turn: I find myself dreading it because of the likelihood of being snowed-in for days on end, and the certainty of being forced to endure the frigid temperatures.
Meet Krampus, St. Nick's evil companion of traditional Alpine mythology. According to Wikipedia, the freaky tradition was particularly popular with the Austrian Nazi-allied fascists, circa mid-1930s:
The number of ways to work and travel are infinite but we only got as far as 101 travel jobs to inspire you… quit stalling and get out there.
Now that Minecraft is officially Minecraft Beta, it's time to do some of your own enhancements, and skins are a great start.
Gizmodo's interactive breakdown of the iPhone 4, Blackberry Torch, Nokia N8, and Google's Nexus One examines the wholesale cost of hardware versus the end retail price, as well as how each company prioritizes each category below:
Christmas is just a few days away, which means everyone is out shopping for last minute gifts. But wait— you still need some Christmas cards! The stores are going to be packed and Hallmark's going to have huge lines— so now what?
CalTech's Kenneth Libbrecht reveals the sublime beauty of snow crystals when photographed with a specially designed snowflake photomicroscope. The physicist is author of the Field Guide to Snowflakes and The Secret Life of a Snowflake, and recently posted an instructional guide for growing your own snow crystals.
The Camino de Santiago in Northern Spain is one of the world’s most popular Pilgrimages. Filmmaker Mark Shea wished to explore the spiritual affect the Camino (Way of St. James)
Great job to everyone in the class - you have all come a long way. Keep practicing after effects and you will forever have one of the most powerful tools in your movie making arsenal.
Despite the recent problems with the 1.04 update for PlayStation 3 gamers, Call of Duty: Black Ops remains a juggernaut for Activision in the gaming community, and its sales alone prove it.
These days, when people say "gaming", you think of Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Even the Wii. How could you not, with games like Black Ops, Gran Turismo 5 and Wii Sports in every retail store known to man? But if you're the type of gamer who sits in front of the computer screen playing MMORPG, MMORTS and sandbox games, then gaming has an entirely different meaning. If you don't know what those mean, then you've probably never heard of games like World of WarCraft, StarCraft II and more importa...
Forget backpacking through the Himalayas— Google lets you enjoy the vistas from the comfort of your own home with Google Earth. Forget about snorkeling on your next trip to the Bahamas— you can go under the sea without even getting wet with Google Ocean. Forget about stargazing with your portable telescope— Google Sky brings a million stars to your fingertips. Forget about that application to NASA— you no longer have to be an astronaut to enjoy the terrain of nearby planets, thanks to Google ...
Oooh...looks like Amazon's having a sale on their word games for Kindle. Of which Scrabble is one of them. If you've got a Kindle, you should not miss out on this!
CityVille Guide So you want to win CityVille, or maybe just pass up your friends? Here are a few simple tips to help get you the results you want!
Umbra, penumbra. Not exactly abracadabra, but if you've taken an astronomy class, you know exactly what the umbra and penumbra are. And any Earthling would agree that the umbra is the best place to be during a solar or lunar eclipse.
The New Yorker profiles Shigeru Miyamoto, the father of modern video games, whose spawn includes world-changing classics such as Mario and Legend of Zelda:
It was bound to happen. And just as anticipated, it took less than a day before someone successfully rooted the new Nexus S smartphone from Google and Samsung.
"The Christmas Song" is the Christmas song of all songs, but many know this holiday favorite under a different name— "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire". It may not be as old as other Christmastime favorites, like "Jingle Bells" or "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", but thanks to Mel Tormé and Bob Wells, it's now a quintessential Xmas song, even for ukulele players.
Somewhere in the faraway land of Russia, the female form is used for more than one of the most popular deadly sins. The women pictured below made a pin up calendar to... ahem, arouse... awareness of Russia's social and economic issues by posing in politically-themed cosplay.
Thanks to Microsoft’s XBOX 360 motion-detecting system, Kinect, the world is becoming a play place for sci-fi style virtual reality. One of the latest hacks demonstrates the next best thing to regular old air guitar... virtual reality air guitar: Artist Chris O'Shea explains how it works:
Unbeknownst to the general public, picking a lock can be a very easy process once you get the hang of it (yes, surprising AND frightening). A vibrating lock pick set takes the general ease of picking even further by speeding up the process. Now, with the help of Invent Geek, you can make your own DIY Vibrating lock pick for about a tenth of the price of a manufactured kit.
Live in the future (à la Star Trek, circa 1966) with uiproductions' pneumatic air-powered sliding door:
Leaving you with this little link on the goodness of honey. I figure it is a good way to start this all off on the right foot because honey is amazing and just tastes so great.