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How To: Don't Like Traditional Christmas Trees? Try Out One of These 7 Festive DIY Alternatives

The concept and structure of Christmas hasn't changed much since its inception. In its infancy, Christians recruited Roman pagans by associating Christmas with the Saturnalia, an ancient Roman festival in honor of the deity Saturn (also held in December). The pagans had long worshiped trees (as did other historical cultures) and would bring them into their homes and decorate them, something that influenced our modern holiday decorations. While certain things such as gifts and ornaments have b...

News: Brain Hacking and Thought-Controlled Quadcopters: The Good and Bad Future of Mind-Reading Devices

Until recently, brainwave-reading devices have pretty much only existed in science fiction. Sure, electroencephalography (EEG), the technology that powers these devices, has been used in medicine and psychiatry since the late 1800s, but diagnosing people's brains and reading their minds are two totally different things. The first EEG headsets available to the public were used mostly in gaming and even in fashion, but in the last few years, they've gotten a little more sophisticated.

How To: Eat for Free at DragonCon 2012

If you're like me, you've already spent a ton of money on your costumes, your badge, and your hotel room, and now you're looking for ways to cut costs. There are all kinds of ways to save money at DragonCon, but many of them involve violating the rules in some way, such as not buying a badge, sleeping on the floor in a hallway somewhere, etc. However, the one thing you can do that is totally not against the rules is eat for free. It requires a little self-discipline and a willingness to eat w...

How To: Make Your Minecart Stations Better Than Ever in Minecraft 1.3

What's nice about Minecraft 1.3 is that it makes minecart stations so simple. Before, you needed redstone and buttons and powered rails in order to make a good minecart station. Now you hardly need anything at all! That said, if you want to be snazzy, all of the minecart stations we covered in this earlier article are still completely functional. You may also want to check out this article on how to make empty minecarts come back to you, if you want some extra bells and whistles.

How To: 10 Creative Ways to Upcycle Your Junk into Usable DIY Chairs

With the upcycling revolution, folks are turning their otherwise useless junk into something functional for the home. Practically anything that you would normally toss or recycle can be reused for a bigger and better purpose. Your milk jugs, chopsticks, toilet paper cardboard, glass jars, and even your old junk computer keyboards can be upcycled into something totally useful around (or away from) the home.

Becoming the Dark Knight: 8 DIYers Show Us How to Build Batman's Belongings

The final chapter of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy is here, The Dark Knight Rises, and if you're anything like me, it made you want to immediately don a cowl of your own and run around punching criminals. Don't forget though, one of the most awesome aspects of Batman is his never-ending supply of crazy gadgets. Unfortunately for most of us, we don't have a billion dollars, nor Morgan Freeman, so we'll just have to make do with some good old-fashioned DIY tricks. Read on for a rundown of ...

How To: Back Up Your Gmail Account (5 Ways of Archiving Gmail Data)

Last weekend, some unlucky Gmail users inadvertently had their email accounts wiped out. Actually, it was 0.02 percent of all Gmail users—or roughly 40,000 of the 200 million who use the email service, due to an "unexpected bug" which affected copies of the data. Gmail does make backup files of everything, so eventually everyone will reclaim their email history. In fact, as of yesterday, Google has successfully restored all information from their backup tapes and has started returning everyon...

How To: Straighten hair with a Brazilian blowout treatment

Ever hear of the Brazilian Blowout? No, it's not that… pervert. The Brazilian Blowout is a special hair treatment that perfectly straightens your hair. It leaves the hair totally frizz-free, shiny and effortlessly manageable. And this treatment is not a relaxer for the hair. Relaxers are very damaging to hair, and the Brazilian Blowout is the exact opposite. It infuses the hair with keratin, a hair protein, that makes the hair exceptionally soft and smooth for at least 12 weeks.

How To: Do drum music for the Chinese Lion Dance

In these lion dance video instruction clips, learn about the music of the Southern style Chinese New Year Lion Dance and how it influences and directs the ceremony. Listen to the cymbals and drums as the Buddha puts the lion through its paces, taunting him with his fan. Learn how the different instruments create emotional soundscapes related to the narrative of the lion dance. Get an in-depth look at Chinese lion dance drum music in this video series, a thousand years in the making.

How To: 16 Tips for Staying Awake When You're Tired

While there's an art to surviving the all-nighter, there's also an art to staying awake throughout the day when you're operating on little to no sleep. In 1964, the record for sleep deprivation was set by 17-year-old Randy Gardner, who stayed awake for an incredible 264 hours and 12 minutes. Now while we're not out to challenge Randy for his title, we can certainly look to him for inspiration in beating back our own fatigue.

How To: Take Back the Internet with This Custom DNS & VPN Bundle

In the early days of the internet, if something was there and not password protected, you could see it. In the process of becoming the indispensable work and entertainment resource that it is, the internet also grew the same borders that countries have while also getting less safe for the people using it. If you want to watch something, you have to hope it was available in your country. If you want to keep your information safe, you have to take some extra steps to make sure that happens. The...

How To: Hear Your Favorite Songs Exactly the Way the Artist Wanted You to Hear

One of the most frustrating things you can experience as a music lover is to hear a song you've heard a thousand times, only to realize you're not hearing it correctly because your headphones aren't giving you the whole picture. A good pair of headphones will give you the exact music experience your favorite artists want you to have. These S6 Bluetooth Wireless Headphones are designed to give you authentic music down to every detail and note, and you can get them on sale for $33.95 — over 60%...

How To: Broaden Your Mac's Horizons with This 5-App Bundle

As great as Macs are, they're often limited by the apps you have installed. Your computer might have the processing power to render a 4-hour movie in the time it takes you to have lunch, but if you don't have the right apps, you're not putting all that power to use. The All-Star Mac Bundle Ft. Parallels Pro gives you access to programs that will put your Mac to use and give you the best functionality out of it, and right now this whole bundle is on sale for $49.99.

How To: Make Project Management Easier Than Ever with This Professional Tool, Now Almost Half Off

Did you know there is a simple trick to making beautiful, professional charts? Whether for your work or for making running your own business easier, Edraw Project Software will make all your projects simple. Right now, a Perpetual License, which includes three-year upgrades and maintenance, is on sale for almost half off, at just $89.99 — that's a 49% discount off the regular price of $179.

How To: Learn to Create Your Own Apple Apps for the App Store with This SwiftUI Course Bundle

If you want to quickly pick up a new skill over the holidays, learning to build your own Apple apps is one of the most impressive ones you can work on. This complete course bundle on SwiftUI and iOS 14 will have you submitting your own iOS apps to the App Store in just two weeks. Right now, The iOS 14 & SwiftUI Bootcamp Bundle is on sale at 95% off, for just $24.99 (regular price $600).

How To: Find the Right App to Schedule an Insurance-Covered Virtual Doctor's Visit Right from Your Phone

The World Health Organization has declared the new coronavirus a pandemic, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends video visits with a healthcare professional to reduce the risk of being exposed to the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. If you are experiencing mild flu-like symptoms, virtual doctor visits may also prevent you from endangering others.

How To: Add, Remove & Reorder the Share Sheet Options on Your iPhone

On iPhones, the share sheet is a powerful yet largely underestimated tool. For the uninitiated, the share sheet is the menu that opens whenever you tap the share button (the box with the up-arrow). This menu features sharing options to first and third-party apps, as well as extra functions like saving, copying, duplicating, and more. Best of all? It's surprisingly customizable.

How To: Hide All Traces of Your Apps & Pictures on Android

Unlike some of the popular app lockers out there, a nifty app fittingly named App Hider completely erases apps, files, and their associated footprints from your smartphone. Think of App Hider as a micro-OS within your smartphone's system. This miniature ecosystem can operate copied apps independently, thus giving it an unprecedented layer of privacy and freedom within your handset.

How To: Track Your Lost iPhone, iPad, or Mac Even When Its Offline — As Long as This Feature Is Enabled

Apple's latest updates to its operating systems add another security feature to its Find My service, so you have an even better chance at locating your lost iPhone, iPad, or Mac should it ever happen. As long as you have the option enabled, you can leverage other Apple users' devices to find yours on the map.

How To: Use Metasploit's Timestomp to Modify File Attributes & Avoid Detection

It is said that the best way to avoid detection when hacking is to leave no trace, and often that means not touching the filesystem at all. But realistically, in most cases, it's impossible not to interact with the filesystem in one way or another. The next best thing to do to throw off any investigators is to change the file attributes to hide activity. We can do this with Metasploit's Timestomp.