Solving Complex Search Results

News: Sense of Wonder Night 2011 Celebrates Innovation In Game Design

The Tokyo Game Show (TGS) is the biggest video game expo in the most game crazy country on Earth. It is kind of a big deal. As such, their "indie" game showcase/contest Sense of Wonder Night (SOWN) is a major opportunity for developers of all shapes and sizes to showcase their work to important industry leaders and expo attendees. 2011 will be SOWN's fourth year, and it began accepting submissions yesterday.

Goodnight Byte: HackThisSite, Realistic 5 - Real Hacking Simulations

Last Friday's mission was to accomplish solving HackThisSite, Realistic 5, the fifth and last in my series of realistic hacking simulation missions. This time, telemarketers are invading people's privacy, and it was up to us to stop them! The job was to get root on the site and delete the contact database in order to return the right of privacy to its victims.

Goodnight Byte: HackThisSite, Realistic 4 - Real Hacking Simulations

Last Friday's mission was to accomplish solving HackThisSite, realistic 4. The fourth in a series of realistic simulation missions was designed to be exactly like a situation you may encounter in the real world. This time, we are told "Fischer's Animal Products is a company that slaughters animals and turns their skin into overpriced products which are then sold to rich bastards! Help animal rights activists increase political awareness by hacking their mailing list."

How To: Fix the Unreadable USB Glitch in VirtualBox

Many users of the virtualization software VirtualBox may have noticed that the USB system has been pretty buggy for quite a long time. I've had my USB randomly duck out on me way too many times to count. This can really be difficult to deal with when you require access to the devices and files from the host system.

How To: Recover WinRAR and Zip Passwords

Archiving and compression is a great way to store and prepare files for sending. You can reduce the size of a file, turn a group of files into a single file, and even encrypt and password the contents! Just take a look at this image to see how much it compressed a 28GB text file.

News: Portal Free to Download for a Limited Time!

Portal is game design milestone. Originally only available bundled in with larger cousins Half-Life 2 and Team Fortress 2 in The Orange Box, its creators, Valve Software, changed what first person gameplay could be. It's been a stand alone product for much of the four years since its release, but never an expensive one, usually available for $5 on Steam (also created by Valve). If that barrier to entry was too high for you, or you just never got around to trying it, there are no more excuses....

News: Cure Insomnia with the Pzizz Sleep Aid App for Android and iPhone

Dealing with insomnia? Just can't fall asleep at night? Well, there's a few things you can do to escape those restless nights. You can take a hot bath (unless you're a shower person), do some yoga (granted you can do the downward-facing dog), or try a little tapping (if you don't mind smacking yourself in the face). But let's face it—most people who have trouble sleeping use prescription medication or natural remedies like melatonin. If you don't want to be dependent on sleeping pills, then m...

How To: How Area 51 Fooled the Soviets with Fake Spy Planes

Area 51 is the most secretive military base in the United States, a base that U.S. government officials to this day still barely acknowledge because of its top secret development and testing of experimental aircraft and weapons systems. But a slew of Cold War-era documents have finally been declassified, and National Geographic has discovered a rather low-tech method the military used to hide its high-tech prototypes.

UPDATE: The Secret Behind Why McDonald's Hamburgers Won't Rot

For some reason, McDonald's hamburgers are mysteriously unsusceptible to Mother Nature's inevitable toll of decomposition. Yep, you pretty much have to dip a McDonald's cheeseburger in acid if you want it to decompose. So we're left with the question: Why? Why does a McDonald's hamburger retain its original shape, color and texture after 12 years?

News: Rear End Illusions

Let's take a look at the softer side of illusions! Check out the images below and see if you can crack what's really behind these photos. This type of optical illusion is usually referred to as an ambiguous image. Your brain tries to make quick sense out of the information coming in, and sometimes an interpretation of one image gets preference over the other.

How To: Dimensional Analysis

What Is Dimensional Analysis? Dimensional analysis is used to convert units. It's the process of analyzing units to decide which conversion factor to use. It's used by multiplying units by conversion factors, rates equal to 1.

How To: Hate Ugly-Looking Power Strips? Make This Sleek DIY Power Outlet Box for Your Desktop

One of the biggest downsides to having so many gadgets is that you never seem to have enough outlets to power them all. Most of us have a power strip or two to solve this problem, but Instructables user dlewisa wanted something a little nicer looking, so he built this DIY desktop power outlet. For the housing, dlewisa put together a small wooden box using a nail gun and wood glue. He used a sander to round off the corners, then filled in the gaps with wood filler and painted it. You could als...

How To: Access Hidden Mac OS X Settings in Lion and Mountain Lion Without Using Terminal

There are a lot of hidden settings in Mac OS X that you can change by using the Apple Terminal, but if you're not familiar with it, it can be tricky. Mountain Tweaks and Lion Tweaks are two apps created by Fredrik Wiker that cut out the extra step by letting you change those settings without having to use Terminal, therefore making it ridiculously simple. Since Mountain Lion is the latest version of OS X, we'll focus on Mountain Tweaks. There are three categories of tweaks. General Tweaks are...

How To: Print Your Emails in Style with This Steampunk Tape "Ticker Machine"

Last year, Instructables user Horatius.Steam created Dr. Brain, a small computer connected to a model brain that can tell stories and have Skype conversations. But one thing it couldn't do was print, so to solve that problem, he came up with this awesome Steampunk "Ticker Machine". A wooden base and glass dome make up the housing for a thermal printer, and the driver is hidden in a paper tube that's painted to look like wood. A slot at the bottom feeds the paper out from under the dome and a ...

How To: Don't Smoke? Turn Your Car's Ashtray into a DIY Smartphone Dock

If you don't smoke, your car's ashtray is probably either unused or, if you're like me, full of loose change. And if your car is older, unless you've installed one, it probably doesn't have a place for you to plug in your phone. This quick hack by Jalopnik's Jason Torchinsky will solve both of those problems by turning your ashtray into a simple DIY smartphone dock that will charge your phone and let you play music through your car's speakers. After removing and cleaning the ashtray, Jason to...

How To: Make chile paste

Chef Michael Lomonaco demonstrates how to make chile paste. This flavorful paste, which may be stored and used in many dishes, uses a combination of chilies to give it a complex flavor. This may be used as a marinade or paste to season meat. Make chile paste.