Wet shoes are uncomfortable, no one can deny that. Just think about walking around with soaking wet footwear ... and each squishy step you take. Makes you cringe, doesn't it? It can happen in heavy rain, at the beach, or from an unforeseen puddle on the street. And while you can't always avoid soggy shoes, you can rest easy knowing that the next time this happens to you, you know the secret trick to drying your shoes faster without damaging them with excessive heat.
We've all been there. Your phone is on your nightstand, but you're on the couch in the living room browsing the web on your Nexus 7. Then you hear it—a faint sound for a new text message notification from the bedroom.
I know, "Steamdown" conjures images of a hoedown, but "Steampunk prop breakdown" is a bit of a mouthful, I thought.
Welcome to Minecraft World! Check out our full tutorials and make sure to post to the community forum if you have any questions or cool builds you want to share.
A CNC router machine is probably the most useful tool a hobbyist can own, but the price for a CNC machine on the market is way more than the average hobbyist is willing to spend. You can build your own CNC with very basic tools, little knowledge of machinery, mechanics, or electronics, but be warned, these machines are inherently dangerous, so wear the proper protection and use common sense. At the very least, read the instructions and precautions on every tool you use.
Building winter campfires is a great way to stay warm, cook food, and have fun! Learn all about how to make a campfire, from gathering kindling and cutting wood to lighting and fanning the fire, in this free cold weather camping video guide series.
Watch the full gameplay for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow on the Xbox 360. Lords of Shadows is yet another video game in the popular Castlevania franchise, which has been around since the days of the NES. In this lengthy walkthrough, you'll see all the vampire killing action, set in the Middle Ages, with protagonist Gabriel Belmont. This is a handy video guide if you ever get stumped on a level.
If you want to play some beanbag games try making your own cornhole board. With wood and a few tools you and your friends can enjoy endless fun with your very own homemade cornhole board. Now all you need are some beanbags.
A chop (or miter) saw is a power tool used to make accurate cross cuts in wood, plastic, and light metals. It has a fixed blade, attached to a moving arm, that spins over a small worktable. The operator lines up the piece to be cut and drops the saw blade, allowing for quick, easy work. Watch this instructional video series, and decide if the chop saw is a tool you'd like to introduce into your workshop. Lessons include general safety tips, uses for the chop saw, replacing the cutting saw bla...
In this video series, an expert in airbrushing will demonstrate how to airbrush a wood grain effect for a car. He will go through the step-by-step instructions on how to paint a base coat, mix the airbrush paint, apply the color, and add details in a variety of ways. If you have some knowledge of how to airbrush and would like to take on a larger project, or simply want to learn some airbrushing tips and techniques, our expert will walk you through the steps for creating a beautiful effect fo...
In this series of online videos you'll learn step-by-step instruction for building an artist easel for kids. Expert Jon Olson shows you what materials and supplies you'll need for this project, how to design the different parts of the easel, and how to fit them together, as well as tips for sanding and staining the wood. It's an easy weekend do-it-yourself project that will give your kids hours of creative time.
In this online video series, learn from roofing expert Tom Shean how to roof a house using metal roofing tiles. Tom will demonstrate, step by step, how to frame for and install metal roof tiles. Learn from our expert how to install roof battens, how to frame roof valleys, how to frame the roof ridge and roof hips, how to frame counter battens, how to use metal roof framing, how to lay a full course of metal roofing, how to install wood shake tile roofing, how to fasten metal tile roofs, how t...
In this video series learn how to use a nail gun from master carpenter Robert McMahon. Learn about the framing nailer and its features, and the different types of nails for your nail gun. Watch these video to learn through-nailing technique, how to toenail, how to troubleshoot problems with your nail gun, how to adjust the depth gauge, how to avoid splitting the wood when using the nail gun, and how to use the nail gun to pin headers and trim, and how to maintain your nail gun.This series is ...
While some people might like Thanksgiving because of the food, seeing family, or another wholesome reason, many of us also enjoy saving big on the items we've been eyeing all year. Take iPhone cases, for example. Speck, Insignia, even Apple all make cases that can put a dent in your wallet. A good Black Friday deal can mean a shiny new case for your iPhone and some extra dollars in your pocket.
It feels strange to be walking through an open field in a small village in the English countryside. There's no one else around — just the four of us: me, my husband, my 12-year-old son, and my adult niece. The day is spectacular, particularly for England. The sun is shining, and the temperature is in the low '70s.
Our smartphones have outlived the Walkman, iPod, and even stereo systems, to some degree. So it makes sense to treat your iPhone or Android device to a quality pair of headphones, whether you're a hardcore audiophile or just an everyday music lover. This doesn't come cheap, of course, so why not buy them on Black Friday?
So cute, so furry, and so chock full of parasites. While raccoons are fun to watch, they are neither friendly nor clean — and they can make you sick in more ways than one.
Being a city dweller does not mean you cannot save the planet — or your food scraps. Climate change and resource management are big issues. Composting in any size space is not only possible, but it gives you a chance to reduce greenhouse gasses and reuse food scraps. Right now, about 40% of all food in the US goes to the landfill. In addition to planning meals and using your food in creative ways to reduce the amount that goes to waste, you can compost.
Yes, I know it's autumn and the trees are losing their leaves, but the seasons do not decide when I can or cannot enjoy ice cream. No matter how warm or cold is is outside right now, I will remain completely fascinated by rolled ice cream. Yes, rolled.
When alcohol tastes bad, there's little you can do to save it—or so you think. While it might seem easier to toss your entire bottle of old, opened wine, or to give up and drink crappy vodka anyway, there are creative ways to turn a spoiled or just plain bad boozy beverage into one you actually want to drink.
With Passover soon upon us, many Jews are dreading a week (or eight days for Conservative and Orthodox Jews) of making matzo, the staple of their diet. Matzo is also known as "the bread of affliction," and I'm pretty sure it's because by day three or so you're convinced that matzo is the 11th plague.
The spice selection at Trader Joe's is both inexpensive and truly top-notch. According to their site, they deal with some of the highest-quality spice manufacturers in the world and, in working with them directly, they eliminate hidden costs spent on promotions, brand-building, and advertising. This allows the customer to experiment with new flavors and build up their spice rack—without the usual limiting factor of high cost. If you don't have access to a Trader's in your culinary neck of the...
If you think that "pawpaw" is just an affectionate name for your grandfather or a cute way of talking about your cat's feet, you're missing out on one of the most interesting fruits out there.
I'm starting to wonder if the people at Boston Dynamics have ever watched a Terminator movie. Not just because the robotics company with the oxymoronic name develops machines that are able to move around environments with animal- and human-like agility, but because the people testing them seem to take such joy in openly antagonizing their creations. It's one thing to tempt fate by creating superhuman robots that could potentially end mankind. You've reached a whole new level of hubris when yo...
Up until the last 15 years or so, watching the commercials during the Super Bowl was arguably more exciting than the game itself. Super Bowl XXIV featured the San Francisco 49ers blowing out the Broncos, 55-10, in the worst Super Bowl beatdown of all time. The game might not have been that exciting, but the commercials sure were.
One of the hottest trends in the food world right now is "spiralized" vegetables. I will confess that I am a bit suspicious of any diet or food fad that eliminates an entire food group for anything other than physician-ordered health reasons, but something really good has followed in the wake of the Atkins/paleo/gluten-free movements.
Unless your work clothes require dry cleaning, you probably only go to the cleaner a few times a year. And for those few items in your closet for which you do, you have to then find the time and extra budget to make a trip all the way to the cleaners and back again. In the end, it can be quite the hassle.
The launch of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean was also the launch of Google Now, a service that was supposed to one-up Siri, the resident personal assistant for iOS devices. Google Now offered enticing features, but its launch went unnoticed by a great many Android users.
It may not be as large as the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, but the Galaxy S3's screen size is still big enough to make iPhone owners cry themselves to sleep. The 4.8-inch AMOLED display with 720 x 1280 pixels makes the GS3 a great mobile companion—and an even better portable gaming device.
Last time, I showed how to start putting together an AC arc welder from scavenged microwave parts, focusing on the transformer modifications. Now, I'll show you how to finish up your DIY stick welding machine by fixing up the electrical system and performing the finishing touches.
The vast majority of people involved in Steampunk are interested in history but, like with science, there's something about history that we don't talk about very often: The holes.
It's September 1st, 1859, and the Earth looks more or less like something out of an apocalyptic movie or Sci-Fi novel. All communications have failed, it's so bright outside at midnight that people are getting up and making breakfast, and people all over the world are seeing auroras. The solar storm that produced the electromagnetic pulse and caused all this mayhem is known as the Carrington Event, and storms like it happen about about once every century.
Summer is the best friend of poison ivy, oak, and sumac. When the weather is hot outside, people spend more time in the great outdoors, which means more people accidentally running face first into some poisonous shrubs, leaves, and vines. If that sounds like you, instead of suffering through the itch or spending money on expensive pharmaceutical solutions, try some of these home remedies out.
This article is a guide for making Chainmail Armor from start (simple wire) to finish (a finished chainmail shirt). We will be using the European 4 in 1 weave, as this is the most common weave. This is the weave that you usually see in movies. There are several sections to this guide: Materials, Making the Rings, Weaving the Rings, and Making the shirt.
Lidar, a technology first used by meteorologists and aerospace engineers and then adopted in self-driving vehicles, has slowly crept into consumer electronics over the last five years. If you have a Pro model iPhone or iPad, there's a good chance it has a lidar sensor, and you're likely using it whether you know it or not.
As brands and content makers create more augmented reality experiences, the demand for tools to create 3D content grows in kind.
I've covered augmented reality apps for about three years now and the most useful mobile app I've encountered over that time is Google Lens.
Over the last few years, the only thing teased by Magic Leap more than the Magic Leap One itself has been the company's flagship gaming title Dr. Grordbort's Invaders. The game, developed by New Zealand studio Weta Workshop, finally got its debut last week during the L.E.A.P. conference in Los Angeles.
The hype train that left the station years ago has reached its first stop, and now we finally have access to the Magic Leap One, the device many have claimed would revolutionize the augmented reality space at launch. But is that really true?
Apple demonstrated their continued interest and investment into the awesome world of augmented reality during their Sept. 12 event, highlighting a few new AR games that will appear on iPhones thanks to ARKit. But that's not all you can expect — as long as you have an iPhone with an A9 chip or later, there will be a ton of cool new AR tools, games, and other apps to play around from the App Store.
