Pleasantly Surprised Search Results

How To: Repack a Motorcycle Muffler

Periodically, motorcycle and ATV exhaust system can be rebuilt to maintain the proper performance and sound level expected from the exhaust system. My experience was with a dirt bike that had an aftermarket high performance exhaust installed.I bought my 99 XR400 second hand and was happy that it already had some nice mods. Namely the High Rev kit, performance header pipes with an E-Series muffler, and the suspension had been redone with higher spring rates. It has great response and the suspe...

News: Survey Reflection

Why we did the survey? We did the surveys to find out how much people know about their rights, the government, the amendments, and the Constitution in different areas. We passed out surveys to many people of different age, gender, zip code, highest level of education, and ethnicity. We also wanted their opinion on what they know about the government. We also surveyed the highest level of education to find out how much people know from their education.

News: Indie Developer Fights Pirates with Piracy

No Time To Explain is the first game by two man indie developer tiny Build Games. It's a fun and very stylish platformer in it's own right, available for $10 from the tiny Build website. Articles about the game on RockPaperShotgun, Destructoid, and other prominent PC sites helped it develop substantial hype and raise more than $26,000 via Kickstarter to fund development.

News: Massive 30 Foot Tall Shmup Game 'Rocket Bullet Storm' Hits Hungary

Hungarian developer Nemesys Games is best known for making the lighthearted Fortix series, a pair of casual tower defense variants available on Steam. For their latest project, they've decided to expand their horizons, going beyond downloadable sawbuck games. It's called Rocket Bullet Storm, a chaotic old-school shmup similar to the surprising number of others to come out in the last year. The difference is that this one is huge—30 feet tall—and consumes 250 square meters of floorspace, which...

News: Oops, New York Times... Why Is Your PayWall So Easy to Hack?

When the New York Times paywall first went up, there was a whole lot of balking. The idea seemed egregious to most, and the digerati's overwhelming conclusion was that the system would fail. But interestingly enough, there is speculation that the NYT is actually experiencing an increase in their print subscriptions, which according to Business Insider founder Henry Blodgett, is due to users feeling less guilt over buying the print media if, after all, the digital version is no longer free.

How To: How Would You Explain the Kindle to Charles Dickens?

Everyone knows who Charles Dickens is—the famous English author responsible for such iconic novels as Great Expectations, A Christmas Carol and The Adventures of Oliver Twist. But what if this Victorian era novelist (who died in 1870) was resurrected into today’s futuristic world? How would you explain the concept of a technology he’s never seen before? Even something that perfectly fits his area of expertise—books? How would you elucidate the Amazon Kindle?

News: Watch this Baby (Cake) Get Mutilated

While some parents prefer to preserve an element of surprise upon delivery of their baby, most choose to learn the sex from their doctor as soon as they can. More recently, some are even opting for a more "festive" route: announcement in the form of a "gender party", where the boy-or-girl status is revealed in cake form for the first time—not only to the guests, but also to the parents.

DIY Anthropology: International Obscura Day this Saturday. Go Wild.

Calling all curious minds—scientists, anthropologists, relentless tourists: Saturday, April 9th, is International Obscura Day, the day to "explore hidden treasures in your hometown," or so says Atlas Obscura, a website dedicated to public curiosities and esoterica. If you're the kind of person who appreciates public oddities every day of the year, tomorrow is icing on the cake. Celebrate Obscura Day in one of hundreds of locales—from Los Angeles to Sydney, from Berlin to Manila.

News: Monsters in My Pocket

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.

HowTo: Build a Vibrating Lock Pick With a Toothbrush

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.

News: ASTON 2-(SUPERB SHELL REPLACEMENT)

"ASTON-2"-WINDOWS SHELL REPLACEMENT USER INTERFACE, I HAVE BEEN USING IT NOW FOR A WEEK OR SO AND I FIND IT NOT ONLY FASTER, YET MORE INTUITIVE, AND MORE FEATURE RICH THAN WINDOWS EXPLORER.EXE EVER THOUGHT OF BEING...! IT DOES HAVE IT'S LITTLE QUIRKS OR EVEN BUGS HOWEVER...LIKE EARLIER TODAY THE TASK-BAR FOR ASTON-2 WOULD NOT RAISE UP OUT OF AUTOHIDE FOR ANYTHING, I REBOOTED THEN IT WAS FINE AGAIN, THIS COULD BE A WEB BASED BUG THAT INTERFERED, OR LOCAL BAD CODE WITHIN ASTON-2 BUT I DOUBT IT,...

HowTo: Dumpster Dive For Gold

Dumpsters make great swimming pools and skateboard ramps, but when they're full of trash, they're pretty valuable, too. You can get a surprising amount of free booty dumpster diving. If you're a penny pincher who values low cost (re: free) functionality, check out Apartment Therapy's guide to mastering the craft. Below, my three favorite insider tips.

News: Are North Korean World Cup Fans Really Chinese Actors?

World Cup World asks: "How'd North Korean fans get to the game?" Fair and valid question. It's seeming IMPOSSIBLE for any North Korean citizen to get a visa to leave the communist regime (not that they could afford it, anyway) to attend this past week's game. After much initial speculation on whether these fans were the real deal, the mystery has been resolved by multiple news sources.

News: E3 is next week!

E3, the Superbowl event of video games, is next week. This is the event where all major companies reveal their plans for the next year, new technology, and surprise game announcements.

News: Heart Beet Gardening!

Be Still My Beating Heart, it's Heart Beet Gardening! So we all know that eating organic can be a challenge sometime to our pocket books. With tomatoes being $3 a pound some places, I often get asked how can I eat organic without breaking my bank account. One solution, grow your own! Not sure how to do that? Heart Beet Gardening is here to show you how!

How To: Make your TV play DVDs in 3D

How To Make Your Television Play Anything in 3D It could be a while before studios release home versions of big pictures like Avatar (rumored 2011) and Alice in Wonderland in 3D. But you don't need to wait. Provided that you have a 3D-capable HDTV, turning it into a 3D home theater that is capable of playing any off-the-shelf DVD in 3D is surprisingly easy. Here's how to make the conversion

News: FarmVille Uncensored

Innocence meets malignancy.  Expressiveness meets perversion.  Farmville meets Disturbia. Can you top these funny and disturbing FarmVille hay bale art masterpieces?  Surprisingly, few farmers have dedicated their farms to perversity—but maybe more should!  I'm surprised no one has designed boobs yet.  Most seem to prefer swastikas.

News: foraging for food

Are you hungry? One of the great things about Los Angeles is the abundance of food. I'm not just talking about restaurants. You need to get out of your car, and walk around your neighborhood. You could make a great meal just from what you find out on the streets. It's free, and most of it's organic. Just be sure to wash any dirt off of your treasure before you bite.

News: Rockers 'OK Go' Deliver Another Viral Music Video- Rube Goldberg Style

With an impressive series of viral music videos to their name, it is no surprise that the latest video from indie rockers OK Go is another hit. The video is directed by James Frost, in collaboration with Syyn Labs, a collective of engineers that work on elaborate art projects. A huge Rube Goldberg machine was built in a warehouse, for a one-take video for the song This Too Shall Pass.

How To: The Super Simple Trick to Get App Updates & Downloads Faster

You open the App Store to see a huge red number hovering over your profile icon. There's a ton of updates to install, so you tap "Update All." But wait! You needed to check Instagram or send a reply to a timely WhatsApp message, but those apps are now stuck waiting for others to update first. Luckily, you don't need to stick to your iPhone's update queue — you can choose which apps to update first.