How Make 8 Bit

Welcome back, my greenhorn hackers! Congratulations on your successful hack that saved the world from nuclear annihilation from our little, bellicose, Twinkie-eating dictator. The rest of world may not know what you did, but I do. Good job! Now that we hacked into the malevol ...more

With the explosion of food blogs in the last couple of years, there are more recipes available at the tip of your fingers than ever before. Craving chocolate chip cookies or Sriracha-flavored anything? You're guaranteed to have several thousand versions to choose from. So that ...more

I'm not entirely sure how to describe band Frenchy and the Punk, but if I say things like cabaret, punk, and fun, you'll probably get the idea. Their website calls them "rollicking flapper folk punk cabaret", which is about as many words as you need to describe them. I wouldn' ...more

Some of my Facebook status updates are absolutely hilarious, and sometimes (though rarely) even my friends updates can get me on the floor laughing. And like most of you, I'm sure, when you come across something funny—you have to share it. Due to privacy concerns, among other ...more

First off, let me say this—using real steam power is dangerous, and heavy, and just generally not worth it when you have modern alternatives. Except, you know, if you're a Steampunk. Or this guy: Video: . The guy in the above video makes some awesome gadgets, which are unfortu ...more

For most people, the battery life on a DSLR is more than sufficient, but if you want to do a really long exposure or time-lapse, one charge might not last long enough to get the shot you want. You can always connect it to an extension cord to charge while you shoot, but that c ...more

The Jelly Bean update brought a lot of cool features to the Samsung Galaxy S3, but one nasty bug remained. Something was causing "Android System" usage to be consistently high. Of course, the percentage of this process that is used is dependent on what you're doing at any give ...more

Babies are pretty cool. They do whatever they want, have beautiful women drool all over them, and have more one-on-one boob action than any grown man (or woman) I know. Plus, they get taken around in their own personal rolling thrones. I would invest some serious dough if som ...more

As much as I love my Samsung Galaxy S3, I'm always on the lookout for cool features I can borrow from other smartphones. One of the most recent "borrowed" features I've added to my S3 is the Galaxy Note 2's smart rotation feature, which uses the front camera to detect my face- ...more

We share links on an almost daily basis, usually not even thinking twice about it. Whether you're sending a funny cat video to your sister, or letting your coworker know where to go to download relevant files, there are plenty of reasons you might be giving someone a URL. But ...more

Humans clearly demonstrate altruistic tendencies towards other members of groups with which they identify. One bit of evidence that this is innate comes from studies with oxytocin. Those who inhale the hormone are significantly more likely to sacrifice for the benefit of memb ...more

Those of you who have attended a Steampunk convention in the last year or two may have heard of something called "Tea Duelling" and been intrigued. Tea Duelling is an elegant sport for a more civilized age. Instead of hacking away at each other with long, sharp wedges of meta ...more

For many busy people, time is of the essence, and for others, it's simply just being impatient. But no matter what your vice, having your computer start up as quickly as possible is usually a plus for anyone. If you have Windows 8, the start up times have drastically improved ...more

The newest firmware update for Android, Jelly Bean 4.1.1, has been out for a while now, but not every device has gotten it yet (some never will). One popular device that has recently gotten it is the Samsung Galaxy S III, only they'll be pushing the update out overseas during ...more

Syncing photos onto your iPhone using iTunes can be a bit of a hassle. You have to connect the iPhone, create a folder with the pictures you want exported, and wait until it all syncs onto the phone. This is not only time consuming, but annoying with having to do it every time ...more

Having all of your stuff in the cloud is super convenient if you want to access it on multiple devices, or if you want a backup in case it gets lost or wiped. The biggest downside with services like Dropbox, though, is security. With everything sitting there in one place, the ...more

There was a dynamic mic in my junk box, but without any stand or connection cable. I needed a high-quality microphone to narrate my project videos, so I had to think of a way to build a stand for the mic. This is what I came up with. Video: . I used a 2GB sound recorder for wi ...more

Since the release of iOS 6, there has been a bit of an uproar over some of the new features (the new Apple Maps replacing Google Maps) and certainly over the glitches that always come attached with new operating systems. Downgrading Your iOS So, is there anyway to downgrade f ...more

The iPhone 5 will be here in no time. Pre-orders started at 12:01AM PST this morning and it's expected to start shipping in about two weeks. Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint are all handling unlimited data plans differently, so if you currently have an unlimited plan and are going to ...more

I collect straight razors from the Victorian era and then add some steampunk style. Step 1: Remove the Old Scales Traditional 'scales' (the pieces on each side of the razor) are made from celluloid (invented in 1848) or animal horn. Remove the old scales by clipping off the p ...more

Earlier this week, Spiderlabs' vulnerability researcher Jonathan Claudius discovered a key in Windows 7 and 8 registries that makes it easy for anyone with physical or remote access to a computer get a hold of the user's password hints. When the "UserPasswordHint" key is read, ...more

You know how sometimes you accidentally send a minecart shooting out down your tracks, and you can only watch helplessly as it fades into the distance? And then you know that you have to go find it and break it, so that it doesn't stop up your cart traffic on your tracks. Wel ...more

At the recent DefCon conference in Las Vegas, researchers opened many of the top commercially available gun safes with simple tools like a straw or a paper clip, and in one case, just by shaking it a bit. The investigation began after the researchers, Toby Bluzmanis, Marc Tobi ...more

You must have seen some expensive mp3 players and CD players which have LEDs fixed on them and they dance to the tune looking really pretty. Imagine you could make your own LEDs and configure them to dance to Daft Punk or Swedish House Mafia. I’m going to tell you how it can ...more

Considering how often many of us fly on commercial airlines, the idea that a hacker could somehow interfere with the plane is a very scary thought. It doesn't help to learn that at Defcon, a researcher found that the Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B), transmis ...more

If you use Ubisoft's uPlay browser extension, you should probably get rid of it right now. An Information Security Engineer at Google discovered that the plugin has a hole in it that allows programs to be installed through uPlay, essentially letting anyone who feels so incline ...more

Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8) is out today, available in the Mac App Store for just $20. Unfortunately, installing Mountain Lion requires that you already have a Mac running Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6) or Lion (OS X 10.7). If you're currently running a Leopard system, you're out of l ...more

It may be surprising, but those cardboard toilet paper tubes are dead useful for so many things besides just keeping the circular shape of your TP roll. As shown before, you can make car dash mounts for your mobile phone, but that's just one of the many beneficial uses from a ...more

One of the best things about Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy is how realistic he makes the caped crusader feel. Unlike the Joel Schumacher or even the Tim Burton versions, Nolan's world seems grounded in some level of scientific fact. But just how close is science to actual ...more

This design is super simple and is the easiest invisible door that I've ever seen. Unlike designs that use horizontal pistons, the redstone here is completely hidden underground, and the door itself doesn't create an unsightly dip or gap in the wall. Here's what the mechanism ...more

WordPress started in 2003 with a single bit of code to enhance the typography of everyday writing and with fewer users than you can count on your fingers and toes. Since then it has grown to be the largest self-hosted blogging tool in the world, used on millions of sites and s ...more

I've noticed that a few people using the crypto-currency, Bitcoin are having issues importing private keys to their Bitcoin wallet. This is easy to do and doesn't require anything other than your Bitcoin client/daemon (as of ver0.6.0 ) and the command line. Step 1: Setting Up ...more

Good day! This post will be about cleaning your favorite jewellery. You have to take good care of your treasure, especially if it belonged to your ancestors. And, if it's worth a lot, so much you would not trade it for anything in the world, if possible. Keep it safe in your j ...more

Video: . Video: . Video: . Video: . Video: . Video: . Just because you're drawing a cartoon version of your zombie, doesn't mean you should forget your anatomy and do a rush job. Take your time. Practice anatomy. This is very important for regular human characters and zom ...more

Paper towels are really cool. I like having them around for quickly cleaning up messes and what not. However, I do not have a stand or something similar for my paper towels, so it can sometimes get a bit taxing to pick up the roll and unravel it every time I need a towel. Tha ...more

Everyone loves using their cell phones for everything except actually making phone calls. Whether it's watching streaming video, listening to music or playing video games, it would seem that calling people is almost an afterthought to cell manufacturers in this day and age. U ...more

Cheese makes everything better. It's just a fact. Sandwiches, burritos, and even plain bread all get a benefited flavor quotient when cheese is involved. Let's be honest though, grating cheese is one of the worst things ever. It tires out your hand like no other. Plus, if you ...more

Fresh peppercorns add a delicious and noteworthy touch to many dishes. Some of my favorite dishes that include peppercorns are pepper-crusted steak and peppered spread for crostini. The unfortunate thing about those dishes is that they require a lot of fresh ground pepper—and ...more

Everyone loves grilled cheese sandwiches! They're delicious, portable, and evoke images of your childhood. They really are the ultimate comfort food. What happens though if you're traveling and get the sudden urge for a grilled cheese, but your hotel has no stove? What if you ...more

What is in store for the future? Flying cars? Maybe. Dinner in a pill? Perhaps. How about 4-legged army tank robot dogs? Hell ya! This delights both the Hummer loving He-men and the anti-war pacifists in us. Something that can kick ass and save lives! Perfect. BigDog is a me ...more

Sabrepulse is a UK DJ who uses a laptop and an original Game Boy to make beautiful electronic music. He really needs to get his butt to Los Angeles, I've been waiting for years!

I was raised in the glory days of Japanese RPG's (JRPG's) on the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo. Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest were the biggest game franchises, and real gamers could debate their merits endlessly. We remained engaged in the stories of the games, even though ...more