Facebook essentially strong-armed us all into installing their standalone Messenger app for mobile devices, but the recent initiative that allows third-party development on the platform definitely makes it worth your time.
Now that the Super Bowl is over, you might find that you have an econo-sized bag or two of opened potato chips slowly going stale in your pantry. After all, there are only so many bowls of Buffalo Chicken Pizza Beer Dip you can eat with 'em—and you definitely don't want them to get so old that you have to throw them out.
Lasagna, that layered, creamy baked pasta dish, is a lovely comfort food that's great for a crowd. But if you've ever made it, then you know you're usually left with some leftover lasagna noodles. (Although that's always better than the frustration of running out of the noodles while you're still making a traditional lasagna.) Still, what do you do when you're still left with a bowlful of the wide ribbons?
Dulce de leche is a beautiful, caramel-like spread that you can slather onto bread or use to flavor cakes, cookies, or flan. You can also use it as a drizzle for ice cream, chocolate candies, and pastries. It tastes like heavenly toffee, translates roughly to "milk candy," and is popular all over Latin and South America. A version of the confection is also popular in the Philippines, in Russia, and is known in France as "confiture de lait." The traditional way to make dulce de leche is to slo...
Christmas trees, once decorated and brightly lit, are the penultimate holiday decoration, but authentic pines lose their brilliance fast without any nourishment. Plus, they are major fire hazards without regular hydration. But watering one requires a lot of sliding around on the floor, and it can be hard to tell how much water is in the bowl beneath the dark, prickly branches. These five hacks can help!
Christmas is just around the corner, which means holiday wreaths are decorating many doors across the nation. While we're always fans of a practical DIY, we especially love the edible kind, which are great for last-minute decorations.
Being able to sleep deeply and fully is one of the foundations for real health. When you go without it, you feel subhuman and incapable of dealing with the world—just ask a student who's had to pull an all-nighter or the parents of a newborn. In fact, many studies have shown that lack of sleep or irregular sleep is linked to acne, weight gain, and depression.
Look, I'm no food snob. I once dedicated an entire day to eating only deep-fried things (butter, Twinkies, Oreos, pickles) at the Minnesota State Fair. But even I draw the line at instant mashed potatoes. I mean, why bother? It's not that hard to make perfectly delicious and fluffy mashers yourself.
In case you haven't heard, chia seeds are off of the novelty plant grower and in your supermarket. Why? Because they're a nutrient-dense food loaded with calcium and fiber (18% and 42% respectively of your RDA per one ounce of seeds). There are even some preliminary studies that show chia might be useful in combating diabetes.
Okay, it's true: even the highest quality instant coffee is never going to replace really good fresh beans (and properly cleaning your coffee maker) when it comes to creating a great cup of joe. However, instant coffee does have all kinds of uses in the kitchen, as the smart folks over at Reddit observed.
Listen, I'm not disparaging using really good knives—they can literally change your life, or at the very least, the way you work in the kitchen. However, there are many cutting and slicing tasks where you're better off using a sturdy pair of kitchen shears rather than a chef's or even a paring knife.
Go to a chain supermarket, and chances are you'll see one type of garlic—maybe two or three if you're lucky. However, there's a mouthwatering slew of Allium sativum out there, far beyond those papery white bulbs most of us encounter at the nearest Stop 'n' Shop.
Although your friends might roll their eyes every time you talk about playing Clash of Clans, Call of Duty, or Candy Crush Saga, your excessive gaming habits might actually be making you healthier than everyone else.
Many home cooks were taught never to press down on a burger as it cooks since that would ruin your all-beef patty by getting it to release the juices it needs to stay tender and moist.
It's a small but very real frustration: you want a chilled drink, but you open the freezer only to see nothing but empty ice trays. Fortunately, there's a simple way to make ice cubes quickly—use hot water. Yup, you read that correctly. Hot water freezes more rapidly than cold.
Who doesn't enjoy sitting down to a nice dinner with a cocktail in hand? After a long day, a drink is a great way to unwind. Yet your favorite spirits can do more than just help you relax after work. By utilizing alcohol in the kitchen, you can enhance everything from how food tastes to your health.
Any pizza lover knows that a quality crust is crucial to the whole experience. Good pizza crust should be delicious on its own, for once you get to the edge, it will be without any toppings, sauce, or cheese to disguise a bad character. It should be redolent of fresh, good wheat and taste full-bodied, rather than flat, flabby, or metallic, the way so many big chain and frozen pizza crusts do. The exterior should be crisp, while the interior contains an airy crumb as well as having a tender, s...
Brining is magic. All you have to do is make a mild saline solution, toss in your protein of choice, let it soak, and cook. You end up with incredibly tender, flavorful meat or tofu for very little effort. So why aren't more of us doing it?
Apple has released the 2nd beta of iOS 8, exactly fifteen days after the first version was unveiled at WWDC and subsequently released to developers. I've already shown you some of the new features of iOS 8, like location-based app alerts, randomized MAC addresses, hidden Safari tricks, and a slew of new things in the Messages app. But if you've had the chance the explore iOS 8, let's go through some of the changes that Apple has made to the latest iteration of its mobile operating system.
Just over a month ago, Google made its camera app available to all devices running Android 4.4 and higher. Originally exclusive to Nexus devices, the app got a UI overhaul and a new Lens Blur mode, but lost some features in the transition.
Have you ever fallen victim to a clever Jedi mind trick? Don't worry. It happens. There are evolutionary reasons as to why our brains sometimes give into the oldest tricks in the book. Fortunately, the more you understand the tricks of a salesman, the easier it is to avoid their gripping psychological influence. Clue #1: Too Much Specificity
Bottled water is a rip-off. Not only is it pretty much the same stuff that comes out of your tap for free, but plastic bottles are rarely recycled and thus account for a huge amount of the waste that's overflowing our landfills. Next Up: Water Bottles You Can Eat
The late, great writer Laurie Colwin once wrote that if she were allowed to have only one fruit in her kitchen, she would always choose lemons (or limes, since they can often be used interchangeably).
Nokia's recent foray into the world of Android brought a plethora of goodies along with it. The Finnish smartphone manufacturer offers a slightly different take on our favorite mobile operating system, with customizations ranging from ringtones to its very own app store.
Nintendo fans rejoice! Not only can you play classic NES games on your iPad or iPhone without jailbreaking, you can play Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Color games. And that's not it. Now, thanks to @angelXwind, we can add Nintendo DS to our list of non-jailbreak emulators for iOS 7.
Here's a routine that I'm sure all of us smartphone users go through at least several times a day. You notice your Samsung Galaxy S4's notification LED blinking, grab your phone to see what it is, and enter your PIN. Only instead of anything important, you find that it's just some online store enticing you with sales promotions, or some other email that you could have easily done without.
There are much better things that can go in your iPhone's status bar besides an always-on indicator displaying what carrier you're shelling out money to every month. While it would be nice to get rid of the carrier name altogether at the top of the screen, an even better option is switching it out with something else to better personalize your iPhone.
For as long as I can remember, I've always sucked at wrapping presents. No matter how careful I am, my gift-wrapping usually ends up looking like a toddler did it, so I'm always looking for easy ways to spruce up my packages.
With the Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch only several weeks old, the extent as to what you can do with it is limited since there are only about 70 apps in the Gear Store right now, and a lot of those need the full app installed on your Samsung Galaxy Note 3 in order to function properly.
I've never understood the phrase "smooth as a baby's bottom" to describe a really close shave. I mean, have you ever touched a baby's cheek? It's even smoother and a lot more sanitary. It just doesn't spew off the tongue as nice.
With over a million apps available in the App Store, you'd think that Apple would have come up with a better way to organize them on your iPhone.
Deleting text messages on your iPhone may seem like a pretty simple task, but it's those really simple tasks that usually end up causing headaches later on. Data can stick around, even if you asked it not to, so there's always a slight chance that embarrassing and incriminating texts you supposedly deleted may end up in the wrong hands one day.
Welcome back, my eager hackers! In recent blogs, I've demonstrated how to grab password hashes remotely using Metasploit's meterpreter and pwdump. Once we have the Windows passwords from the SAM file, we can then crack these hashes using tools such as Cain and Abel.
In the UK, 20 percent of divorce filings include the word "Facebook." You may think you're being slick by using the site to chat with your ex, but the problem is that Facebook saves everything, and I mean everything. All someone needs is your login information and they have access to everything you've ever said on Facebook, public or private.
Welcome back, my hacker novitiates! Many of you have written me that you're having difficulty installing and running Metasploit on a variety of platforms. No matter if you're using Mac, Linux, or Windows, I strongly recommend you install BackTrack as your secondary OS, a virtaulization system, or on an external drive. This particular Linux distribution has many hacking and security tools integrated—including Metasploit.
I'm sure that there are plenty of people out there who have no idea what a plague doctor is/was, so I'll start with an explanation.
Forum member Luciano posted a terrific guide on adding hacks to our phone by editing build.prop. The article was great, but one of best things I saw in it was the "What You'll Need" section:
Everyone listens to music. I've got over 3,000 songs in my iTunes library, but am always looking for more, and I'm sure you are too. You can never have enough tunes to rock out to, right? If you're using Windows 8 like I currently am, these are some of the best apps in the Windows Store right now that will help you find new jams for your collection.
When the power goes out, having the ability to contact others becomes extremely important, and your cell phone can be one of the most important tools to have. But if the power is out for an extended period of time, battery life becomes a constant problem.
Perhaps the most important decoration of the holiday season is the Christmas tree. It's where all of the magic happens. If you're not into real Christmas trees, there's always some festive alternatives, but for those of us who can't live without a natural Christmas tree, choosing the right one for the right price can be an impossible task.