Technical Search Results

News: The Role of a Gaffer

Both on and off the set, the Gaffer or Chief Lighting Technician is one of the most important positions around. Though the average movie goer most likely has no idea the job even exists, they probably don't know what 99% of the other crew is/does either.  

News: Make a Battery Out of Money

Hunkin's Experiments offers over 200 science experiments freely available in comic strip form. The experiments are organized in 18 different categories, covering a wide range from simple trickery to more technical experiments. The author, Tim Hunkin, is a trained engineer turned cartoonist, and also responsible for TV series/site The Secret Life of Machines (worth a look).

Tor vs. I2P: The Great Onion Debate

In my recent Darknet series, I attempted to connect the dots on the Deep Web. I covered the two largest anonymity networks on the Internet today, Tor and I2P. While my initial four articles were meant as an introduction, I ended up receiving a lot of interesting comments and messages asking the technical differences between the two. I'd like to thank all of you for letting me know what was on your minds, as you should always!

News: Sun Picture from My New Solar Telescope

There is going to be an annular solar eclipse on May 20th that will be visible in a narrow pathway that covers part of Eastern Asia and the Western United States. The eclipse will be seen as a partial eclipse over a much greater region of the World. I live in Redding, California, which luckily happens to be right in the center of the path, giving a perfect ring of fire effect during the peak of the eclipse.

News: First Things First

Welcome to Compute & Conquer! This article may seem a little basic. We all have an idea of what a computer is but the fundamentals are necessary. Without knowing how something works, how can we determine a problem and find a solution when something goes awry? Way too often, I find myself helping someone with a very "easy to fix" problem on their computer. A problem which could have either been avoided or fixed had they had the basic knowledge of how to use a computer. Even worse, I've seen to...

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: Japan's Flying, Tumbling Reconnaissance Sphere Soars at 37 MPH

Flying orbs. At first, you might think of the Tall Man and his army of flying sentinel spheres, equipped with zombie brains and a mini-arsenal of saw blades, drill bits and shooting lasers. But these flying orbs weren't conceived from the evil mind of a superhuman mortician—they were designed by Fumiyuki Sato, a researcher at the Japanese Defense Ministry's Technical Research and Development Institute—for something other than deadly deeds.

Wheels of Steel: A Virtual Turntable in Your Browser

Wheels of Steel is a virtual browser-based turntable emulator created by Scott Schiller, a Canadian developer who works on Flickr at Yahoo. This project will appeal to those who A) dig turntablism and B) are knowledgeable in web development. I know nothing of the latter, but from what I can tell, Wheels of Steel appears to be significant because unlike its predecessors, it employs CSS3 instead of flash. Since I'm not familiar with the topic, here's Scott on the history and technical details o...

News: Enter the Weird World of Hojamaka Games

Without Japan, video games would not be very fun. Atari's early work was important, but Japanese developers, publishers, and hardware makers were responsible for almost every major advance in video games for the first 25 years of their mainstream existence. In recent years, it has often been said that they have become less relevant than Western developers. In the indie games movement— (our area of greatest interest here at Indie Games Ichiban)—Japan does not have anywhere near the presence th...

News: The World's First Teensy, Weensy 3D Printed Bikini

For the hefty price of $200 and up, you can be the proud owner of the world's first 3D printed bikini. And not just the first bikini, but reportedly the first functional and affordable item of ready-to-wear 3D printed clothing on the market. Created by Continuum Fashion, the N12 3D printed bikini is revolutionary because it addresses the technical challenge of creating flexible "textiles" with 3D printed material. The bikini is made of a material called Nylon 12, which is entirely waterproof.

How To: quit a battle without fleeing

Isn't it so annoying when you're happily walking along the border of an area, and suddenly a monster drags you into battle? Then you would have to waste your time fighting someone not on your quest list, and then you would end up losing a lot of your health and maybe even fleeing.Well, here we have a solution! The secret is this: press the Esc key while in battle. That should be self-explanatory.Accidently get into battleSo you accidently walk into a battle and want to leave. Pretty easy step...

News: Yes, more 3D.

This is a follow up to my last post on watching games in 3D. My main concern (because apparently I'm something of a technical snob, since no one else I went with considered it an issue), was that I perceived a lack of definition for a theater presentation.

News: MIT Student Invents $3 Blood Sucking Plunger That Could Speed Up Healing for Millions

The medical field has known for some time now that negative pressure (re: suction) can drastically speed up wound recovery time. However, the machines that are currently available are quite expensive, and not an option for third world countries. Enter MIT student Danielle Zurovcik. The doctoral student has created a hand-powered suction-healing system that could completely revolutionize first aid in developing nations. Her device goes for only 3 bucks a pop.

News: Story Behind the Still - Chapter 3 Winner

I recently shot a short film for director Keegan Uhl for Canon’s Beyond the Still contest and our film “The Beach” won first place. We had a lot of fantastic support getting the film done, and I’m really glad to see people liked what we put together. Keegan put in a ton of work and it’s always rewarding to win something like this, especially when the film was done all out-of-pocket. My Gaffer on the film, Matt Irwin was awesome as well. He provided a lot of his own equipment, and even provide...

News: Supersonic Space Diver With Death Wish

Felix Baumgartner plans to leap a record 120,000 feet, breaking four world records. If all goes well, Baumgartner will set records for highest altitude freefall, longest distance freefall, highest manned balloon fight, and fastest speed freefall (he will actually break the sound of speed!). 

News: Mapping Your Music Collection with Mufin Player for Android

These days, there seems to be an endless amount of music player apps accessible on the web, from Pandora to Cantio, and the amount available in the mobile market is constantly growing. If you have an Android device, you're probably well aware of Jukefox, which lets you listen to your music collection on the go and provides you with a new way to interact with your songs, with 2D and 3D mapping of your albums. But as good as Jukefox is, it has problems (mostly technical).

May 21st: End of the World or Zombie Apocalypse?

Could the world really be coming to an end tomorrow? Presuming you believe the biblical prediction from 89-year-old Harold Camping, May 21st, 2011 is undeniably Judgment Day. If you have confidence in that prophecy, you're probably not even reading this because you're too busy either A) preparing for the Rapture or B) sitting in your backyard bunker hoping to outwit annihilationism.