Widespread Appeal Search Results

News: The Green House - Vertical Gardening Exterior Walls

This is one concept that I would love to see sweep the urban world. One thing that strikes me every time I visit a major city is how far away they are from anything that is truly alive. Not only is the air dirty, but everyone must buy their produce from the grocery store. If those trucks were to stop coming for any reason, most people, if not everyone, would die of starvation. While this house is covered with ornamental plants, I would love to see this same concept applied to edible plants an...

Coupeville: Mussels, Suds, & Pool

Love their mussels (they sell fresh by the pound if you want to cook your own), their homebrewed Parrot Ale, and playing pool. An institution in Coupeville. Lack of street appeal makes it easy to walk on by (good for us locals), but a don't miss recommendation from me.

How To: Carve dry precious metal clay

One of the appealing things about PMC is the way it can be manipulated like clay, but for some of us, the real fun is carving the PMC after it is dry. This short video demonstrates how to form a ring blank then carve it with files, just as we would carve wax. In this case, though, there are no sprues, no investing, and no casting. Carve dry precious metal clay.

Weekly Tips #3: Making a Build Dynamic

Sometimes, the part of architecture in minecraft that makes something really stand out is not the environment around the build, but the detail in the construction itself. More detail in a building makes that building more eye-pleasing and interesting to look at. However, even extremely detailed buildings can look plain or flat. The reason for this is the wall of it is completely 2D. To make a building really pop, make a surface 3D instead. Not only does it make it more appealing, it adds bett...

How To: Create Beautiful, Aesthetic Houses in Minecraft - Part 1

Aesthetic Houses: What are they? If you've played Minecraft for some time now, you most surely know how hard it is to build a great looking house to live in, that meets both your vision of your dream house and expectations for functionality. This brings us to the definition: in terms of Minecraft, its a structure that dosen't compromise beauty and appeal for functionality.

Google+ Pro Tips Round Up: Week 8

It's been an eventful week for Google+. Facebook decided to up its game and start rolling out several major updates intended to address privacy concerns. We got a glimpse into the future of Google+ via an insightful discussion between +Bradley Horowitz and +Tim O'Reilly. And Google decided to integrate the +1 button more fully with Google+ by allowing users to share directly from the +1 button. That's not all, though—scroll down for more news & updates that occurred in the past week.

News: First MXC. Then Ninja Warrior. And Now… Retro Game Master!

Japanese game shows are legendary for being more extreme (and absurd) than their American counterparts. Chris Farley immortalized the concept in a classic SNL sketch, and MXC and Ninja Warrior have both achieved great success dubbed and subtitled on American television. A big part of their appeal is how demanding they are compared to U.S. game shows. Only a few people have actually won Ninja Warrior in its 23 seasons on the air, and MXC is a constant comedy of failure and pain.

News: DIY Video Chat Robot Lets You Be Two Places at Once

Want to keep an eye on your home while on vacation? Terrorize your family pet while at work? A homespun telepresence robot might be just the ticket! Luckily, thanks to shrinking hardware costs and the efforts of renowned hardware hacker Johnny Chung Lee, building a physical avatar has never been easier! Lee's robot has two important parts: an iRobot Create and a lightweight netbook running Skype. Notable extras include a wide-angle lens and a plastic stand to raise the computer to tabletop he...

News: Make silly putty

This is the Harpo Marx tutorial. We have several recipes for silly putty in our index... with sound, but this version (from our friends at YouTube) is more colorful. We just like it the best. It is aesthetically more appealing than the others; conceived for the visually minded.

News: Think You Have an STD? Pee on Your Phone to Find Out

Relax, it's not as messy as it sounds. Pee-on-a-stick, at home STD tests may be available in UK pharmacies soon, complete with an incredibly convenient app that would save you a trip to the clinic. It works like this: if you suspect you may have an STD, you would pee on a device which is then inserted into your mobile phone. The app then "diagnoses" your sample and returns results.

How To: Repair asphalt cracks

Tired of seeing cracks or holes in your asphalt driveway that negatively impact the "curb-appeal" of your home? There is a simple, yet messy, solution that won't cost you much. By putting in a few hours of time on a weekend, you can again realize what your driveway looked like when it was new! Over time the asphalt will become faded and cracks will develop. Cracks and potholes form due to the freezing and thawing of snow and ice, weed or grass growth in small cracks, and general wear and tear...

Making Electromagnetic Weapons: The Theory Behind EMP Generators

This is the third part of my electromagnetic pulse series (see Part One and Part Two). By now, I've covered the hardware and general concept of electromagnetic pulse generators, but how exactly do they disable electronics? How can an invisible field of energy have such a catastrophic effect on computers, cell phones, and most any other electronics? I'll be answering all these questions in part three of Making Electromagnetic Weapons.

News: XBox 360 Remake-O-Rama!

The aging and maturity of video games as a medium has lead to some unfortunate consequences. One of these, perhaps drawn from the film industry, is the spate of remakes that has overtaken the game market over the last few years. It hasn't been as bad as the remakeorama trend in cinema, but developers have recognized the value in releasing the same thing they already made and making more money off it. Below, a roundup of some remakes of classic games released for XBLA recently, some fantastic,...

How To: Add a Dislike Button to Your Facebook Page

Are you one of countless Facebook users who find the classic Thumbs Up symbol tiresomely sycophantic? You're not alone. Back in August of 2010, the widespread addition of an "official" Thumbs Down symbol to Facebook pages quickly revealed itself to be a scam, but only after countless users opted in.

News: Massive Gawker Hack Reveals the Web's Most Stupid Passwords

This past Sunday, a group called Gnosis launched a massive hacker attack on Gawker media, one of the web's most popular blog networks (Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Jezebel, io9, Jalopnik, Kotaku, Deadspin and Fleshbot). 1.3 million registered users' passwords were compromised, and 188,279 of them were decoded and made public. The biggest takeaway? Many Gawker denizens use downright dumb passwords. (Guess they didn't see their own Lifehacker's story on avoiding such a thing.)

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: Open Your Chakras with Deepak Chopra's Leela for Wii and Xbox 360

Deepak Chopra is one of the last people you'd think to be associated with video games. He's a new age spiritual icon who's built an empire on self-help books and speaking tours, one of which my Marin County liberal parents deigned to drag me to in middle school. Recently, a new outlet for his teachings was announced—a video game project three years in the making, simply called Leela.

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...

Receipt Racer: A Paper and Laser Tangible Video Game

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...

What You See Is What You Get: The Street Art of RERO

Inspired by the beauty of traditional signage printed on doors and buildings, Rero is a French graffiti artist who makes a simple, yet heavy mark. Using the universally common Verdena typeface, Rero brands abandoned public spaces in extreme disarray with his own codified messages based on theories of public use of imagery and private property.

News: Rabbit Ears = Free HDTV

The New York Times reports on the perks of opting for digital TV antennas vs. paying for cable TV. With the exception of the occasional spotty signal, young viewers are finding antennas are the preferable choice, considering savings add up to half the usual cost for cable TV and internet access.