Team Fortress 2 (TF2) is one of the best multiplayer games of all time. It took nine years to make, and the developers have supported it with more post-release free updates than any other game ever. Four years after its release in 2007, it is still immensely popular, and although its price has gone down, Valve has managed to continue making a massive profit by introducing the first successful microtransaction model in a mainstream American shooter. That model has been so successful that it lo...
As a follow up to my article 10 Time Saving Menu Bar Applications for the Mac, this video covers Butler, one of my favorite menu bar applications. Produced by ManyTricks.com, Butler can help you quickly launch applications, websites, and other items on your Mac. It also includes a web search feature, a clipboard manager, a hot key launcher, and much more.
Focusing has always been a problem with photographers, and even with today's digital cameras it's not easy. The most obvious problem is trying to accurately focus on the subject before exposure. Next, you have to choose the correct aperture size in relation to the depth of field, and make sure you're using the correct exposure. Then there's lens aberrations, where a certain ray of light does not converge to a single focal point in the desired image, resulting in some light leaking away from t...
This video gives a step by step tutorial how to service a Peugeot 206 with the 1.4 liter engine. Please note that the video is not in English, but you can follow along by watching the video and following the written instructions below. Work under the car.
Playing Super Mario Brothers for the NES is the first thing I can ever remember doing, at age 3 sitting on the carpet at my grandparents' house. It was a special game for an entire generation, including British youths Andrej and Adam Zamoyski. It inspired them to eventually become video game testers and designers themselves; Andrej at Lionhead Studios and Adam at Headstrong Games, and then Zynga Mobile UK (until recently called Wonderland Software, developers of Godfinger for the iPhone).
Dropbox continues to make headlines with their recent programming blunder which left the accounts of its 25 million customers wide open during a four-hour time span. During the duration, anyone in the world could access any Dropbox profile by typing in any password. And seeing as this wasn't the first security failure, everyone, including the most loyal users are considering dropping the Dropbox.
Age doesn't matter in the world of programming, only skills, and recent high school grad Jack Eisenmann definitely has them. He recently built a homebrew 8-bit computer from scratch, calling it the DUO Adept. A worn television makes up the monitor and speaker system, an old keyboard acts as the input controller and the actual computer itself is housed inside a clear Rubbermaid container, consisting of 100 TTL chips and a ton of wire.
Here's a lovely way to brighten up your table for a dinner party or a lovely gift to give to someone else. Knit a FLOWER NAPKIN RING.
Yesterday, I got an email from my mom. She asked if there was a way to send her colleagues a bunch of links to online documents, rather than weighing down an email with attachments. I knew that Google Docs had what she was looking for. As I started to write her an explanation, I thought, "Hm, I wonder if Google has one of their handy little YouTube videos on this topic."
Video games and movies have a history of interaction dogged by failure. Video game movies and movie video games both tend to be terrible. There has never been a good feature film based on a video game franchise. Even documentaries about games, which should be rife given the rapid rise of games on the cultural stage over the last thirty years, have been few and far between. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters is by far the best, and for several years now has been the only really stirring f...
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.
Lady Gaga and Polaroid's upcoming Grey Label Camera Glasses can record video and snap pictures, but who really wants to show the world what they're up too on those mini LCD screens? It's nothing more than a fancy gimmick between a pop star and a failing company. Isn't the intention of camera glasses to capture things around you as they are? Drawing attention to yourself with clunky video-displaying eyewear kind of defeats the purpose, but that's why they're "fashion" glasses and not practical...
Apple's newest version of their Final Cut Pro software was just released today, built from the ground up for modern 64-bit Mac computers, capable of handling 4K video and featuring the new Magnetic Timeline. But this time around Apple is doing something totally different when it comes to sales, making Final Cut Pro X a download only program from the Mac App Store, meaning no more trips to the Apple Store and no more boxes and discs to keep track of—just purchase from the comfort of your own c...
Pop Art by Mr Whaite is a cool tumblr featuring a series of neon film posters for popular movies. The artist says: "I love neon signs—they’re hypnotic, sexy, sleazy and tacky all at the same time—and I’ve always thought it would be cool if cinemas used them to advertise films. So with that in mind, I thought I’d have a go at designing some animated Movie Neon. My first attempt is Ghostbusters—an obvious choice really, particularly as neon featured heavily in the video for Ray Parker Jr’s sing...
Blizzard Entertainment is considered one of the most successful game developers in the world. Ever since the release of Warcraft: Orcs & Humans (their debut Warcraft game) in 1994, they've set sales records and created genre-defining games with remarkable consistency. But the company wasn't founded in 1994—it all started back in 1991 when they were called Silicon & Synapse.
Just as Smule's ocarina app yields the gentle sounds of a woodwind instrument by simply blowing into an iPhone, Squeal promises to emit theremin-esque noises from the iPad with easy fingerplay. Developed as a collaboration between Hong Kong musician/producer/composer Gaybird Leung and interactive designer Henry Chu, the musical app is a work-in-progress for Henry's ongoing experimental music project Digital Hug.
Video games are the most prevalent type of interactive media, but certainly not the only one. The interactive music video for the song "3 Dreams of Black" by supergroup ROME and digital artist Chris Milk utilizes the latest web design technology, video game influenced art and interactivity, and large crowd-sourced elements to form a compelling work of art. ROME is composed of producer extraordinaire Danger Mouse, Italian film composer Daniele Luppi, Norah Jones, and Jack White. Their recent e...
German photographer Peter Langenhahn's process is incredibly laborious; similar to photographer Lori Nix, he can spend up to three months on a single photograph. But while Nix spends the time constructing elaborate sets, Langenhahn is anchored to the computer, editing.
Video games have been a purely digital medium for some decades now. They exist in the electronic nether, embedded on discs and projected on screens. Since digital distribution has gained popularity, even the physical manifestation of the game disc is going away, leaving games (especially digitally distributed indie games) more ethereal than ever before. It is unclear whether this slightly unsettling fact was on the minds of the three people who made Receipt Racer, but regardless, it stands as...
Giveaway Tuesdays has officially ended! But don't sweat it, WonderHowTo has another World that's taken its place. Every Tuesday, Phone Snap! invites you to show off your cell phone photography skills.
For Windows laptops and PCs it's easy to install Linux. However for Macs, it's a different story. There are people installing Ubuntu on Macbooks and so far I've noticed that they are using 9.10. I've remastered my own Ubuntu 10.04 complete with playing flash videos and other applications already pre-installed on a DVD. Plus, it can boot on laptops with Nvidia graphic cards. If you'd like to see my workaround for Nvidia check out my article on remastering Ubuntu.
It's been a long time coming, but Microsoft has finally released a software development kit (SDK) for the Kinect on Windows 7 PCs. The word "hacking" is no longer needed, thanks to the free beta download available at Microsoft Research that allows anyone with a Windows computer and some coding knowledge to take advantage of the Kinect's motion-sensing capabilities.
I don't know what I'd do without my computer. I can't do my job without the internet. I communicate with employers, friends, and family through emails, video chat and Twitter. I schedule meetings and plan deadlines. I bank. I shop. I read the news. I play games. I watch my favorite shows. Yes, I'd be rather lost without this little plastic box of circuits.
I shot this X-Men: First Class Spoof with the new Technicolor CineStyle picture profile (it was a 5d, as well). I had done some initial testing, when the profile first came out, but never shot a real project on it. This X-Men short is my first real world experience with the profile.
I shot this X-Men: First Class Spoof with the new Technicolor CineStyle picture profile (it was a 5d, as well). I had done some initial testing when the profile first came out, but never shot a real project on it. This X-Men short is my first real world experience with the profile.
A short video on Jon Rafman, Google Street View "photographer" (previously 1, 2).
If you‘re new to Mac, you may not realize that the Dock is not the only place you can access applications and folders. The menu bar of your desktop can also hold a dozen or more applications and plug-ins for easy access to lots of content on your computer.
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...
Want to try HDR? Trey Ratcliff's site Stuck in Customs is THE go-to place for beginners as well as experts. Free tutorials and advanced video tutorials, books, iPhone apps and Creative Commons images for your personal use. Yowza--a jackpot website for photography fans.
Xe Systems, the Private-Defense-Contractor-Formerly-Known-As-Blackwater, has been busy attempting to re-brand themselves. They have a new name, several new sub-names, and have at least titularly shifted their focus to training rather than mercenary work. Controversial founder Erik Prince is no longer with the company, which is now owned by a large investment consortium.
Even with Apple's forthcoming iOS 5 updates to its default camera application, those upcoming features can't match what already exists in Global Delight's Camera Plus Pro. For $1.99, Camera Plus Pro provides users with over 100 tools for every part of the picture taking process, including video recording. It works with all versions of the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad 2 with iOS 4.1 or the later update. Let's examine what it can do, and why you will want to replace Apple's default camera with ...
There are two kinds of beer drinkers—those who just want to drink and those who want to enjoy it. The former usually sticks to the same kind of beer, drinking it habitually, while the latter is always on the lookout for new varieties. They like savoring the taste of a freshly poured dark lager and the roasted aroma of a hearty stout and are always looking for that "Holy Grail" of beer—the perfect combination of hops, malt and yeast. Thankfully, there's a mobile application that gets you once ...
Last week in New York, I saw the new show Otherworldly: Optical Delusions and Small Realities at the Museum of Arts and Design, at Columbus Circle near the edge of Central Park, between Broadway and Eighth. Below is the museum’s description of the show:
So my next project is how to video. How to make your home Energy Efficient for the Summer Months. Its gonna be filled with tips and ways to lower your electricity bill and make your home more energy efficient!
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.
A century ago there wasn't much life available for quadriplegic people. Handicap accessibility was barely even a concept, and lacking medical technology kept any semblance of independence out of reach. Today those unfortunate enough to be paralyzed from the neck down have brighter prospects, but are still unable to participate in many activities. Video games are a great option for those who do not have the use of their legs, but for quadriplegics, the use of a standard controller is not an op...
UK-based artist Matthew Nicholson is a man of many talents: designer, photographer, professional free runner and papercraft engineer—and in the latter of which, he generously posts free downloadable DIY kits for your folding pleasure.
It's not listed as one of the features on the updated Nook e-reader, but there is a web browser hidden inside Barnes & Noble's newest device, you just need to know how to access it. The eBook Reader shows the clandestine web browser on the Simple Touch Reader in the video below, and it's fairly easy to access. Just open up the Nook's search function, type a URL into the search bar and hit the go button. It's that simple.
This video shows how to make a French fish tail braid, side swept across the back of the head. This braid is very unique and actually pretty easy to complete, although it is more time consuming than a regular French braid.
