Have you ever tried to do work in a completely silent room? Not only is it nearly impossible, but it also makes me feel like I am doing something wrong. The headline might seem counterintuitive, but it really does work. Background noise is a friend to those looking to concentrate. Music is usually my go-to when I am trying to get a bunch of work done and want to be super productive. It's kind of like a poor man's Adderall. But many people, myself included, can become distracted by lyrics, esp...
What should you do when you're confronted with a mind-numbingly boring task that simply needs to be done?
Scientists are able to control hierarchy in rhesus macaques. They do this by introducing monkeys into groups one at a time, and at least initially the monkeys that are introduced first have higher status.
Cheap deals, great games, and a stable, easy-to-use environment are just a few of the reasons why Valve's online game distributor Steam is so popular. That and it's a great place to interact and play with other gamers, which is why it recently broke records with over 6 million active users logged in at the same time. But one thing that Steam users weren't so crazy about was the inability to install games in more than one directory and partition. If you ran out of space, you either had to unin...
BUD switches (short for Block Update Detector) can be triggered without levers, buttons, tripwires, or any other traditional switches. Instead, they're triggered by changes in block status. That is, placing a block, destroying a block, hoeing grass, clearing snow, etc.
Swedish advertising company, Rolighetsteorin, recently created musical stairs reminiscent of Tom Hanks and Robert Loggia's beloved FAO Schwartz piano scene in Big. The campaign is for Volkswagen, though I'm fuzzy on the connection between the two.
We've featured Temporary Services before, but we thought they deserved a full spread. In this post, we've included some of their How-To drawings and examples of recreated prison art.
The human flag is one of the hardest tricks in all of gymnastics, parkour, freerunning and general playground acrobatics.
When you first become interested in learning how to program, it can be difficult to find a place to start. A lot of questions come up, especially if you're new to the idea of programming entirely. After you pick which language you want to learn, you have to worry about how you're going to write the language.
Things You'll Need A fully working operating system that supports VirtualBox (Windows, OS X, Linux or Solaris)
Watch this "Grease On Your Hands" video tutorial from the Washington Post to see how to change the engine oil in your car properly.
Watch this "Grease On Your Hands" video tutorial from the Washington Post to see how to change your dead car battery properly.
This audio how-to slideshow shares experiences and tips on how to set up a playroom or exercise room for your pet rabbit. Like people, rabbits don't like to be constantly confined in a small cage/space, so setting up an area or room where your rabbit can hop around and relax will make them live happier lives. Follow these helpful tips from an experience pet owner and learn how to set up a playroom for our pet rabbit. Set up a playroom for your pet bunny.
The sun moon stroke in yoga massage helps the body relax after an active work out. Learn how to administer the sun moon stroke with tips from a yoga expert in this free yoga video Do the sun moon stroke yoga massage - Part 1 of 7.
The ComCoachVideo Tutorial is an online learning environment designed to help students improve their oral presentation skills. The website contains video clips illustrating effective and ineffective public speaking practices, as well as an interactive feedback component designed to foster students' ability to critically evaluate presentation segments.
Two friends spend a nice relaxing day at the beach. Only problem is that they were born in 1902.
The CNA certification exam can be stressful at times, especially on the clinical exam portion. However, despite the exam difficulties, everything has a solution. Qualified nursing assistants are preparing various CNA study techniques and CNA study guides just to reduce any test anxieties and stress.
We hang flags to proclaim our patriotic spirit. This is especially true for retired veterans or those who have loved ones serving in the military. Others hang flags representing the seasons, important events, favorite teams or just a cute and whimsical design as decoration. An American flag can be particularly tricky to wash. Red, white and blue all lying together in one inseparable panel can cause the blue or red dye to bleed onto the white. This is not just a problem with an American flag; ...
This may cost a little bit depending on how much streamers and toilet paper you want to buy. Find a house/car that you don't like or just want to pick on.
Minecraft was first released just a few years ago, but when a paradigm-shifting piece of media comes along the rest of the world is quick to take inspiration from it. The absolutely terrible XBLA knock-off FortressCraft was the first, and last month a much more interesting game called Terraria came out on Steam for $9.99. It is clearly inspired by Minecraft, and there is a long checklist of identical features. It is, nonetheless, a very different product, and just might be called the first in...
Is game play king? Or was it that graphics is king? or maybe the story? Arghhh... well, regardless from which school of thought you come from, Tera online has bet most of their chips on game play.
The whole world seems better when you’ve had a full night’s sleep, and if you don’t believe me, you’re JUST FRIGGIN’ WRONG. Studies show that getting enough sleep during nighttime hours can make you less irritable, help you lose weight, and reduce your risk of cancer and other totally bogus-time diseases.
Panasonic announced an interesting concept today that could advance millimeter-wave radar technology for automotive safety uses in detecting pedestrians, bicyclists, and other motorists.
Today's digital cameras record not only the images themselves, but also the metadata behind the scenes, like camera settings, location, date, time, etc. But there's a lot more to say about a photograph. What's the subject? Is it night or day? Outside or inside? Person, place or thing?
If you live in an urban environment, chances are that you've seen this: It's a program started by the FBI to prevent terrorism and general thievery in peaceful and innocent communities all around America. I myself have seen a lot of these, and my previous apartment community was part of this 'program'.
As many of you Null Byters may know, I was planning on writing this article a week or two ago. Better late than never! So, let's get right to it then—choosing the right Linux distro for your needs.
Note: This shower is only visible in the Northern Hemisphere. The Quadrantid meteor shower is one of my personal favorites, mainly because of the amount of meteors it produces. You can sight more than 100 meteors per hour- that's more than 1 meter per minute. Even though that doesn't sound like much, it will make your observing experience much more exciting. The peak is short, typically lasting no more than an hour or so. It is more easily observed on the fourth, with its peak at 1:00 AM EST.
With the plethora of programming that we promote at Null Byte, I figured a lot of you newbies that stop by IRC will need a big boost in the right direction to make your dive into programming a lot easier. A hot question that has been thrown around in IRC a lot when making the initial dive is, "How do I write code?". People who do not know much about computers can't understand how code is written. Code that we write here is usually scripted and written in Python, so we will use it as our examp...
Back when I was a Windows user, I know I'm not the only one who has experienced password loss—that moment where you just can't remember your password. Sometimes it happens to the best of us. So, how can we get into the system without paying a local geek or geeksquad to do it? First, we have to look into how Windows stores their passwords.
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 ...
University video game design programs have been spreading like wildfire around the world over the last ten years. They allow students, researchers and game developers to work on their craft in an academic environment away from the harsh realities of the market, and have led to some interesting products like Fl0w from USC and Ulitsa Dimitrova from Germany. Both games take on topics not often addressed in mainstream games and do so in simple, poignant ways that aim to influence the rest of the ...
I've been unreasonably excited about Dungeon Defenders (NOT DUNGEON DEFENDER!) for almost a year. Playing it at PAX did nothing to damper that enthusiasm. I had a chance this week to speak with co-founder/development director Jeremy Stieglitz and marketing diretor Philip Asher from Gainesville, Florida based developer Trendy Entertainment to find out a little more about the game, and how it came together.
ISOPLETH 63 points (13 points without the bingo) Definition: a type of isogram [n]
Microsoft recently released the first sneak peak of their new operating system, Windows 8, and it's a pretty big departure from the last few major updates. The new Windows 8 was built from the ground up, and is designed primarily as a touchscreen interface, which is perfect for the expanding tablet market. They've ditched the clunky start screen that's dominated Windows 95 through Windows 7, replacing it with grids of application tiles, similar in functionality to an iPad or Android tablet, a...
What Dad Really Wants from You for Fathers Day!
What's the next best thing to being an official scientist? Being a non-official one. A new website called Science for Citizens helps you find the science experiment of your dreams, hook up with the scientists involved, and actually take part in the experiment itself. Here are some examples of what you can do:
Little Ethiopia is the place to get ahold of authentic African cuisine. African food mainly consists of spices and fresh ingredients. Ethiopia is a country in Africa that demonstrates the use of spice in its cuisine. The Ethiopian cuisine follows the Islamic rules, the religion Ethiopians are accustomed to, and its old custom, which is the caressing of the earth. The Ethiopian Islamics prohibit the eating of pork so their meat choices are limited. The Ethiopians are specialist whenit comes to...
