In this series, I'll be exploring electromagnetic weapons, how to build them, their function and application to the future, and the amazing possibilities electromagnetism has to offer. First, the electromagnetic pulse generator, or EMP. You've probably heard of these before, a ...more
In this article, I'll show you how to build a coil gun. A coil gun is a device that fires magnetic projectiles at high velocities, using electricity. Coil guns require no explosive propellant, therefor can be fired an infinite amount of time, providing that there is ammunition ...more
Welcome back, my greenhorn hackers! Before we attempt to exploit any target, it is wise to do proper reconnaissance. Without doing reconnaissance, you will likely be wasting your time and energy as well as risking your freedom. In previous guides, I have demonstrated multiple ...more
Want to stop wasting energy charging your USB devices? Transform some cheap solar-powered garden lights into your very own solar USB charger. For step-by-step instructions on replicating this hack yourself, watch this video tutorial. Just watch to see how to build your own sol ...more
Last summer, Universal Pictures released the sequel to the popular 2010 animated film Despicable Me, bringing back everyone's favorite characters—the Minions. They're adorable, yellow, and they speak a gibberish "Banana Language." What's not to love? If you're planning on dres ...more
In this article, I'll show you how to build a simplistic circuit to generate negative ions. Negative ions have been known to contribute to fresher air, happier mood, and general health benefits. However, they also look amazing in the dark (check out the photos below, purple pl ...more
You can blame your naggy mom, a crappy soap bar, and school or work stress for your acne. But ultimately, you should blame yourself. While it's true that your skin type (oily vs. dry vs. sensitive) and how your skin reacts to stress play a big part in blemishes, there is a nur ...more
MAKE magazine never fails to amaze. And this time, John Park tackles a DIY wind-powered generator—and he shows you how to do it! Before you start watching the video tutorial, make sure to download the PDF of this project for reference. So you want to build this wind-powered g ...more
Foodies and big-time chefs like Thomas Keller go crazy for fleur de sel. This finishing salt appears in fancy eateries and cookbooks the world over, and in the early 2000s, it was not uncommon to see diners in a high-end restaurant sprinkle a pinch of fleur de sel on their pla ...more
Systm is the Do-It-Yourself show designed for the common geek who wants to quickly and easily learn how to dive into the latest and hottest tech projects. They will help you avoid pitfalls and get your project up and running fast. In this DIY episode, see how to create light w ...more
The microwave oven is a monumental technological achievement that's saved college students and single people from starvation for decades. Almost 97% of all American households have one, which makes it the most-owned kitchen appliance in US homes right after the refrigerator. ...more
When shopping for a new smartphone, you'll encounter comparisons and spec sheets that are filled to the brim with values like mAh, GB, and GHz. To the average consumer, however, these values are meaningless, so we end up looking at which device has the specs with the highest a ...more
Fifty-four percent of Americans 18 and older drink coffee every day, and why not? With 100 milligrams of caffeine per six ounces of drip coffee, it's just the morning beverage to wake you up and kickstart your day. You can feel the caffeine surge through your body like the Hol ...more
As someone who's dependent on glasses to see on an everyday basis, losing or misplacing them is obviously a bad thing. I can't even see clearly enough to find the glasses that I just lost, so I'm pretty much blind now. Without your prescription eyewear, the world is a blur. P ...more
I was in college, and my 15-inch Sony Vaio laptop was my prized possession. It was my first PC and probably the most important thing I brought with me to my dorm — it was both how I completed my assignments and my primary source of entertainment. How could it turn its back on ...more
Not all batteries are created equal, but one thing's for sure—they all lose capacity over time. Thankfully, the advanced lithium-ion batteries in your MacBook and iPhone are meant to last for several years before they begin to lose their overall charge capacity. Of course, th ...more
There's a 2800mAh battery powering the Samsung Galaxy S5, but even it's no match for the constant day-to-day torture you put it through. Taking photos, watching videos, and playing games can make your fully charged S5 powerless in no time. While there are some features built- ...more
Make a reusable glow stick, glow-in-the-dark-style! Imagine, you'll never have to buy one of those ChemLite's again, because you can reuse this homemade glow stick over and over again. This video tutorial will show you how to make a permanent, reusable glow stick. The material ...more
You may have heard of a signal jammer before, which usually refers to a device that blasts out a strong enough radio signal to drown out the reception of nearby devices like cell phones. Purpose-built jammer hardware is outright illegal in many countries. Still, Wi-Fi is vulne ...more
The Raspberry Pi Zero W and Pi 3 Model B+ include integrated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy, and more than enough power to run Kali Linux. They sound like perfect all-in-one penetration testing devices, but the lack of support for monitor mode and packet injection usually meant b ...more
April Fool's Day, aka National Screw with Your Friends Day, is finally here. You can always pull a conventional prank, like strategically placing a whoopee cushion on your mom's chair, but that joke has been exhausted generations before smartphones were around. We live in a d ...more
Steampunking Nerf guns by painting them is a pretty common practice among Steampunks, but unfortunately, the really amazing-looking ones involve literally taking the gun apart, painting it, and then screwing it all back together. Well, I'm glad that some people can do that, b ...more
Make a solar cell from a condom with this video tutorial. Solar energy is plentiful and better for the environment, so why not take an easily accessible commodity (like a condom), and use it to harvest the power of the sun. To replicate this hack at home, you'll need the follo ...more
There are hundreds of delicious ways to enjoy caramel, from chocolate confections to sticky caramel apples and carnival bags of caramel corn. Caramel might be the special sauce that makes every dessert taste better, but it's also surprisingly simple to make. In about 7 minute ...more
Hey, coffee drinkers—your morning cup of joe is killing your metabolism. If you count on coffee to jump-start your day and your diet, you might want to think twice. Swapping a hearty breakfast for a cup of coffee does your body more harm than good. Although caffeine suppresse ...more
When temperatures drop and hit new lows during the cold, winter months, it's hard not to crank the heat up. That means increased energy bills each month, no matter if you rely on gas, electric, or another fuel for heating. Instead of resorting to blankets, coats, and layers u ...more
Repetitive use of apps over time will eat up your storage space with by caching data on your device. This can be useful at first, speeding up your apps by not requiring them to re-download frequently used data, but as a cache grows, even the initial performance improvements ca ...more
Inductive charging is already a reality on popular smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S III and Google Nexus 4, and Apple has recently published a patent that would make inductive chargers a reality for the iPhone. There are also several phones that have the capability for wi ...more
CityVille Guide So you want to win CityVille, or maybe just pass up your friends? Here are a few simple tips to help get you the results you want! Scroll to the end for charts (you know you love charts!!) This information subject to change at any time. CityVille is a brand ...more
It starts innocently enough, with a nosy friend hovering over your shoulder to see what you're texting. Somehow, that doesn't satiate their inexplicable thirst for curiosity, so the first chance they get, they're rummaging through all of your super private photos—even though y ...more
Apple just released its biggest update to iOS 17 yet, and there are 60 exciting new changes for your iPhone. With iOS 17.2, you get a brand new app, more Apple Music enhancements, upgrades in Messages, and a new security feature that was announced last year, as well as changes ...more
The agents of empire do not always arrive with warning. When you are besieged, surrounded, and infiltrated, imagination is often your best weapon against the oppressors. If all you have at hand is some duct tape and a disposable camera, fear not, you have the makings of a powe ...more
Harvest the sun! This easy step-by-step tutorial will show you how to build your own solar heating/hot water system. Green energy is the wave of the future. Stop high oil and gas prices. All we need is 160°. No drilling, no rigs, no refining, no transportation, a no-brainer. ...more
Mobile security researchers at Kryptowire recently uncovered spyware preinstalled on hundreds of thousands of Android smartphones by FOTA provider Adups which was gathering personally identifiable information (PII) such as call logs, app usage data, and even the full contents ...more
If I were a math major, I'd probably be rolling in dough somewhere in Silicon Valley right now, but since multiplying numbers and figuring out tangents gives me panic attacks, I went the English route... pays much better. Still, I never would have graduated if I didn't pass a ...more
If you're a graphic designer, you've probably dealt with clients who sent you the wrong files, like JPG and BMP "source" files. You need to the EPS vector files, but they don't know what that is, and they don't care. They want that image or logo they sent you blown up to poste ...more
When we're dead tired but need to stay awake, we humans can do many things to make the drowsiness go away, from taking a cold shower to downing energy drinks or coffee to acupressure. Unfortunately, our Android devices don't have as many options for staying awake, or the luxu ...more
You're currently playing a heated game of Scrabble or Words with Friends. The game is close, too close for comfort. But you're not sweating because you're confident. You play a huge word that puts you in the lead, but then when your letter tiles are drawn... We've all been th ...more
Warm water is an essential part of life that we sometimes tend to take for granted. Over one billion people, or roughly one-seventh of the world's population, have no access to hot water. Warm water is not only comforting when showering and bathing, but also helps the body ge ...more
An incredible amount of devices use Bluetooth or Bluetooth Low Energy to communicate. These devices rarely have their radios switched off, and in some cases, are deliberately used as trackers for lost items. While Bluetooth devices support MAC address randomization, many manuf ...more
It may sound irrational, but I bet a lot of you actually avoid doing any work at work—but not on purpose. You might be simply struggling with motivation, or you might just be overdosing on the caffeine. Whatever the issue, getting focused takes lots of time and effort. But we ...more
Starbucks is famous for a whole slew of fancy drinks, from white chocolate mochas and caramel Frappuccinos to hazelnut macchiatos. But some of their best drinks come from the secret menu, such as the highly adored dirty chai latte, a variation on their regular chai latte. The ...more
For so many of us, bakeware is bakeware. As long as it's oven safe and able to tolerate the high heat, it's fine to bake in, right? Wrong! Don't Miss: 7 Must-Know Guidelines Bakers Swear By There's more to bakeware than we realize: the different casserole pans, baking sheet ...more
Welcome to Minecraft World! Check out our advanced tutorials and come play on our free server. Harvesting items from animals no longer requires wasting precious time chasing after them. During last Saturday's Weekly Workshop, we built a few different kinds of animal harvester ...more
Climbing into bed and shutting your eyes each night is heavenly—but waking up the next morning isn't. We all hate dragging ourselves out of the comfort of sleep and into the groggy, exhausting work day. Yet starting your day doesn't have to be awful if you know how to hack you ...more
Welcome back, my rookie hackers! As hackers, we are often faced with the hurdle of cryptography and encryption. In some cases, we use it to hide our actions and messages. Many applications and protocols use encryption to maintain confidentiality and integrity of data. To be a ...more
Everything you thought you knew about cooking pasta is wrong. When I took cooking classes in Italy, they taught me to bring a large volume of salted water to a rolling boil, add a drop of olive oil so that the noodles wouldn't stick together, and wait several minutes until it ...more
Induction cooktops are a great option if you're interested in heating food faster and saving energy in the process. They operate a bit differently than other cooktops and you should understand how so, if you plant to own one. This quick tutorial will show you how to use an ind ...more
When you enable Low Power Mode on your iPhone, it's not always clear what measures it's taking to reduce battery drain and conserve power. Changes to energy-hungry features you use daily may be immediately noticeable, but some things you use frequently may be disabled or reduc ...more
All fields of study have their own language. For people interested in learning about microbes, the language can sometimes be downright difficult — but it doesn't need to be. From antibiotics to xerophiles, we have you covered in an easy-to-understand glossary. Terms are liste ...more
While the iPhone XS actually comes with a smaller battery than the iPhone X, Apple claims it, along with the XS Max and XR, offer users longer battery life than last year's first Face ID model. While that may be true, your new iPhone still ships without meeting its full batter ...more
You may remember string art from your elementary school days. If so, it probably makes you think of the 2D geometrical designs that took every ounce of patience you had as a kid. Or those laborious curve stitch drawings, which string art was actually birthed from. But thanks t ...more
As some of you Mad Science readers will remember, we recently covered the separation of water into hydrogen and oxygen using electrolysis. Passing a current through water can rend it apart, but we can also recombine that oxygen and hydrogen to make electricity! This is the pri ...more
In this article, I'll show you how to make an awesome "Death Ray" using the large magnifying lens from an old projection TV. The lens is called a Fresnel lens; a device that employs several ridges to focus light, rather than a complete curve. When sunlight passes through the ...more
First off, don't be frustrated. YOU CAN DO IT! Contrary to the message in the image above, it's NOT over. It's just beginning. And when it comes to solving the New York Times crossword puzzle, the old cliche does apply: practice makes perfect. I've read quite a few books and ...more
Have you always wondered how to make a customizable and efficient TNT cannon in Minecraft? Are you looking to raid some bases on a PVP/factions/griefing server, but don't know where to start? Well, this tutorial will go over how to make a TNT cannon, and the different ways you ...more
What can't coconut oil do? This edible oil, extracted from the copra or meat of a coconut, has done what most other food, beauty, and health trends have not: demonstrated real lasting power. Indeed, the "superfood" continues to make headlines, with its many uses the subject of ...more
Chances are that you've been using your microwave just to nuke leftovers, but they can do so much more than heat up last night's dinner—microwaves can help you peel garlic more quickly, get more juice out of lemons, disinfect your kitchen, dry out herbs, give beauty products n ...more
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 catas ...more
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' ...more