I've come across a few very stubborn Xbox consoles in my day. A previous Null Byte demonstrated how to fix the Xbox with just eight pennies and some electrical tape. But if you've got one of those hell-born boxes that just refuses to be fixed in any way, shape, or form, there is always one last ditch approach. I'm talking about the infamous "towel trick". It works over 90% of the time, from my personal experience. Though, please note: This is only a temporary fix.
UTILIDOR n pl. -S an insulated system of pipes for use in arctic regions 59 points (9 points without the bingo)
(Difficulty Level: from Newby to Expert) Digital cameras can produce freaky sharp images—it’s one thing that sets them apart from film cameras. A DSLR doesn’t have grain, it has noise—and that sounds a lot less charming for a reason. If you shoot at a low ISO, high f-stop and fast shutter speed, you can wind up with a super sharp image that might look great even on a billboard. But sometimes, sharp isn’t everything.
Were you horrified when Gwyneth Paltrow's head ended up in a box in Se7en? Do you share Harrison Ford's opinion that Han Solo should have died in Return of the Jedi? Think Kurt Russell could have handled aliens better in The Thing? Well, sorry—you're out of luck. There's nothing you can do to prevent William Wallace's beheading or Carrie's mayhem. But thanks to MyndPlay, controlling the plot to future films is totally possible.
Running this World has prompted me to think about MTG on a deeper level than I ever have before. In attempts to contextualize it, explain it, research it, and understand the parts of it that I don't yet understand, I have come to an unexpected conclusion: I'm old.
Congrats to WonderHowTo Jackass 3D prank contest winner Grayson Robison! His winning idea: Connect Knoxville to a real life Operation game with shocking devices. Every time a player screws up and the buzzer goes off, the "patient" gets a burning shock to the correlating body part.
Tim Hawkinson is an artist who truly inspires. The Los Angeles based artist creates complex, whimsical sculptures with simple mechanics and basic materials. One of his most notable pieces is the art-world-renowned "Uberorgan", a giant football field sized, fully-automated bagpipe, cleverly constructed with plastic sheeting and pieces of electrical hardware.
Alas, today we continue on the journey to a more environmentally conscious way of being with part 2 of How to make your beauty routine more eco-friendly. Check out part 1 here.
This article will show you how to make a proportionally correct 1/187 (about) size Hubble Space Telescope. I tried to add as many details as possible, but it was hard at such a small size. It was really easy, but it did take a while to make.
This video gives a step by step tutorial how to service a Porsche 944. The service is demonstrated on an S2, but most steps are very similar for other versions.
Insecticides are widespread products which are used daily in our lives. Organophosphorus is the main compound in these products and has toxic effects on our health that may be fatal in some cases.
By trial and error, I have found a good way to remove the door panel from a 2002 Ford Explorer (and other similar years).
The Stun-Gun In this article, I'll show you how to make a small, weaponized highlighter. Before I get into how to built this device, let me warn you. This device is harmful! When used, it can cause burns and/or serious muscle spasms. The voltage is potentially deadly! DO NOT attempt to build this device unless you are experienced with safety, electronics, soldering, and understand circuit schematics.
Solar panels are an amazing invention. Catching energy from the Sun before it even enters Earth's food chain, photovoltaics are like an all-natural nuclear power plant. Unfortunately, the constituted parts of a solar panel are rare, valuable, and subject to the coercive forces of market competition.
Bikes are a great form of transportation. They use human energy more efficiently than any other machine. You can keep it in your closet or hallway. You can even take it on the train in a pinch. However, this portability is also the bike's biggest draw back. If you own a bike in the city, chances are it will be stolen. Locks barely deter thieves armed with bolt cutters and crowbars. Throw the bike thieves for a loop and make a tilt-sensitive alarm. It will hopefully startle your bike's assaila...
Our hacked Kinect series has demonstrated amply how the Kinect is changing the worlds of business, art, medicine and robotics. But where does it go from here? That will be determined by the thousands of dedicated DIYers out there doing work like you've seen here over the last week.
Sure, you go online to email and shop and do research. But have you ever been curious about how the internet actually works? Don't worry, you don't need a degree in computer science to get a handle on how your info gets from point A to point B. Learning the basics of the internet will give you a whole new appreciation for all those emails and chat messages that seem to magically appear. Get ready, because we're about to enter the wonderful world of digital data!
Do you do last minute cramming before you go to the dentist? No, I don't mean reading up on orthodontia in hopes of having an intellectual conversation about crowns with your dentist (how you can talk at all with all those tools in your mouth is beyond me, though dentists always ridiculously try).
In this video series, our expert Michael Raines will teach you how to make hydrogen. He will talk to you about why hydrogen is important, and show you all the supplies and tools you'll need to make hydrogen. Michael will also show you different type of containers for making hydrogen, he'll show you some stainless steel arrays, and teach you how to assemble the electrical connections for your hydrogen making rig. Make hydrogen - Part 1 of 17.
Whenever we make a homemade circuit, we use what are called through-hole components. Any components with long metal leads is a through-hole component. They are great for soldering to, but it's tough to fit enough through-hole resistors and capacitors into a smartphone. To get those last microns, we have surface-mount components for SMDs (surface-mount devices). These are all of those teeny, tiny things you see when you crack open your digital camera or laptop case.
Fans of Doctor Who know that the sonic screwdriver is the ultimate tool. It can unlock doors, turn on lights, detect life forms, solder wires, and sabotage weapons.
It turns out that the popularity of soft circuit electronics has leaked out of the interwebs and into the hands of the U.S. military. Soft circuit electronics allow you to literally sew electronics circuits into fabric using flexible conductive thread instead of wire. Soft circuits can be used for all sorts of fun projects, like the TV-B-Gone Hoodie and the Heartbeat Headband.
Computer viruses are terrifying. They are undetectable, dangerous, and operate constantly right under your nose. For the average computer user, there are only a few repair options. You could buy expensive antivirus software that causes more problems than it fixes, you can wipe your hard drive clean and lose all of your important data, or if all else fails—just switch to Linux.
In my second article of the laser weapon series (see the first part here on CO2 lasers), I'll be expanding on the potential of pulsed lasers.
In this series, I'll be exploring electromagnetic weapons, how to build them, their function and application to the future, and the amazing possibilities electromagnetism has to offer. First, the electromagnetic pulse generator, or EMP. You've probably heard of these before, and their devastating effects on electronics. A simple EMP consists of a capacitor, transformer, trigger, and coil of copper wire. This, when triggered, would produce an intense magnetic field for a brief period, similar ...
In this article, I'll show you how to build a coil gun. A coil gun is a device that fires magnetic projectiles at high velocities, using electricity. Coil guns require no explosive propellant, therefor can be fired an infinite amount of time, providing that there is ammunition and available electricity.
Halloween will be here in just over a week, which means next week these Scrabble Bingo of the Days will become more horrific. This week, there's just a few relevant Halloween seven-letter words for your Scrabble vocabulary, referencing witchcraft and one of the eeriest horror movies of all time, The Thing (not this year's version).
I love my laptop. It goes wherever I go. Unfortunately, that means that it also gets pretty grubby after a while. The screen gets dusty. The frame gets smudgy. The spaces between the keys fill up with crumbs of questionable origins. And my desktop? That thing is a dust bunny magnet.
I like to grow vegetables all year round, and I couldn't afford the big gas bulbs, or the power to run them. The big gas bulbs:
These goggles are great for a stage prop, cosplay, Halloween, or any videos you may make! They're made to look like Sam Fisher's tridents from the game series Splinter Cell.
WonderHowTo is made up of niche communities called Worlds. If you've yet to join one (or create your own), get a taste below of what's going on in the community. Check in every Wednesday for a roundup of new activities and projects.
Camera manufacturers release new versions of the same cameras, mostly point-and-shoot models, as frequently as Detroit's auto industry upgrades minivans. They also add new lenses regularly, upgrading previous models with adjusted zoom ranges or the image stabilization feature. The same goes for tripods, portable flashes and even camera bags.
QI and ZA. QI n pl. -S the vital force that in Chinese thought is inherent in all things
Remember the arcades? Were you saddened when they closed up one by one, leaving no outlet to actually go out and socialize while you played video games? With all the home consoles and internet connectivity, gaming has evolved, but the social factor has been eliminated. Sure we can play against others, but they may be miles and miles away. Remember back in the day when you could go down to the corner store to play your favorite game and show off your skills in front of a crowd? Well, all is no...
The Funny Thing About Dying - A Story of Coping With Loss
Making your own circuit boards can be a daunting challenge. You have to design a schematic, test it on a breadboard, design the board layout, and then after all of that, you still have to print and etch a board!
