Short Life L

noob - Short for "newbie." Someone with little to no experience or skill. In some gaming communities, there is fierce debate over the distinction between "noob" and "newb"—one being derogatory while the other simply indicates being a novice. While some may argue the semantic d ...more

Making your way into an online community can be really exciting. Some life-long friendships and lasting romances begin in humble chat rooms and message boards. But for the novice internet user, one of the biggest hurdles can be trying to figure out just what people are saying ...more

Scott Pilgrim vs The World: The Video Game was released on Tuesday August 10th for the PS3 (Download only, $9.99). It will be released for the Xbox 360 on August 25th for 800 imaginary points. We spent a few hours yesterday on co-op and single player and here are our initial i ...more

We are embarking upon a new year. As usual, some of us will make "resolutions." There isn't anything wrong with setting goals for the year. It's actually a good idea. It may help focus the energy we bring to life. A karateka may be excused if he or she makes only one resolutio ...more

“On this day he had lived with that feeling, with death breathing right in his face like the hot wind from a grenade across the street, for moment after moment after moment, for three hours or more. The only thing he could compare it to was the feeling he found sometimes when ...more

I've been curious to watch one of these famed '3D' games for a while now. Last April at NAB, I attended several 3D panels and folks from ESPN suggested that one of the strongest experiences that would bring 3D into the home would be live sports. I've missed opportunities to wa ...more

Like the press covering film and many other specialized fields, video game journalists use all sorts of jargon to convey to their knowledgable readers as much information about a game as quickly as possible. For non or newbie gamers, this can be extremely confusing. Those of ...more

Making your own circuit boards can be a daunting challenge. You have to design a schematic, test it on a breadboard, design the board layout, and then after all of that, you still have to print and etch a board! Luckily, we have Fritzing. Fritzing is a free open-source PCB d ...more

If you've been reading, watching or listening to the news, you sure know about the Trayvon Martin case. If you visit this site often, you may also have noticed that I've not put up any news on this case. I have my reasons. And this post will describe why. Before continuing, I ...more

Computer viruses are terrifying. They are undetectable, dangerous, and operate constantly right under your nose. For the average computer user, there are only a few repair options. You could buy expensive antivirus software that causes more problems than it fixes, you can wipe ...more

In the age of automatic video editors and all around software-assisted creativity, how can a humble blogger help people master a program if said program does all the work for you? This isn’t a theoretical question, dear reader. In the old days (you know, like two months ago), ...more

Today's post is a small go-to guide for beginner programmers in Null Byte. With many of our community members picking up programming from our Community Bytes, it only makes sense to lay out a one-stop guide for your reference. Hopefully this guide will help you make an educate ...more

Problem: You're a PC gamer who absolutely loves The Elder Scrolls series and were eagerly anticipating the release of the newest game, Skyrim. But as much as you'd like to pick up the new game, money is tight. What do you do? Solution: Mods! The previous game in the Elder Sc ...more

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 fav ...more

ClariTrans is a requester on MTurk (www.mturk.com) they pay very well for transcribing short snippets of audio. Here is how you can transcribe their audio snippets properly to ensure your text will be approved and you will be paid: ClariTrans Transcription Formatting Guide S ...more

Over the past few months I've written up several helpful How-To guides to help you with various FarmVille related issues. It's about time I put them all in one place so they are easy to find, learn from and share! It has been a pleasure writing for you all and I do hope I have ...more

Synopsis: Tell one guy that a girl that one of the other guys knows just had some sketchy demonic encounter/satanic experience at some Wicca gathering she went to last night while she was trying to get answers from the past. Then say she’s incredibly creeped out right now and ...more

Red Dead Redemption is hard to pin down in game play and story. The game offers this massive multi-layered world in which the player can roam freely, offering plenty of challenges, beautiful graphics and atmosphere for the player to experience. Yet after some point the whole w ...more

Looking back on Alan Wake, more than a year and a half after its release, it's still one of my favorite games. The graphics and ambience have held up well in comparison to any other story driven game, and it's still the best third-person horror game out there, in terms of game ...more

A first hands look at the first chapter of the game. "When the wife of best-selling writer Alan Wake disappears on their vacation, his serach turns up pages from a thriller he doesn't remember writing. A dark presence stalks the small town of Bright Falls-"  Suspense thrille ...more

Kick Ass Review Part 2: Gameplay and Design In the game, you can play as Kick Ass, Hit Girl, or Big Daddy. Each charater has a light and heavy attack that can be strung together into small combos. Each character also has three special attacks assigned to the Square, Triangle, ...more

Ok, so you've memorized the list of valid 2-letter words, but when challenged after playing one, can you smugly demonstrate your dominating intellect by spouting out the proper definition? If you're anything like me, chances are you'll find yourself babbling something defensi ...more

Before you go running off to the Apple store, you may want to educate yourself. DVICE is kind enough to compile the 20 biggest complaints about the iPad from a whole slew of reviewers. 1. Upscaling makes old iPhone/iPod Touch apps ugly. "Here's the problem: It looks terrible ...more

Long before the HoloLens or the Magic Leap One, a California-based team of independent filmmakers envisioned what the future of augmented reality might look like. Now, after millions of people viewed the initial short film called "Sight," the directors, operating under the na ...more

Sometimes I forget that I'm also a fiction writer, so I thought it might be a nice change of pace to share one of my stories with you. I wrote this piece awhile ago for an anthology that never came together and I'm tired of just sitting on it. It's one of the more odd stories ...more

It's not an official app, but for fans of Rick and Morty, it's a welcome piece of the series' universe until the recently renewed animated show returns to Adult Swim. Created by New York-based filmmaker Gabe Jacobs, the short experience is designed to be viewed via Snapchat a ...more

UGC beauty How-To video is a true YouTube phenomenon. Considering the internet's tendency toward the male bias, the complete domination of beauty in YouTube's How To & Style section is noteworthy. The video below, by YouTube creator Michelle Phan (9 million views! on her YouT ...more

I remember how fast my Nexus 7 was the first time I turned it on. Boy, do I miss it. Now my tablet is pretty buggy and crashes happen frequently, and I'm sure that goes for many of your Nexus 7s as well. Even if you upgrade to the new Nexus 7 next week, it will eventually deve ...more

While one second may not seem like much, it's the perfect amount of time to encapsulate your day. Photographs are just that, instant snapshots of your day that can send you flying back to that exact moment of time. A couple of months back I visited New York, but I don't recall ...more

Hackers can be notoriously difficult to buy gifts for, so we've curated a list of the top 20 most popular items Null Byte readers are buying during their ethical-hacking studies. Whether you're buying a gift for a friend or have been dying to share this list with someone shopp ...more

This is a little bit different and looks at the new hot iron from Stix2 that can be used for so many things in your crafty life.. and make short work of those pesky hems! In this demonstration I show you the iron and make a gold foil project on fabric, it is a awesome piece o ...more

Procrastination is an ugly beast. At first, it seems so innocent to spend five minutes checking Reddit or Twitter. You'll get started on work right after. Next thing you know, it's 1 a.m. and that paper is due in seven hours. Before you start another YouTube video, know you do ...more

Let's say that you've got the look down, and you have your Steampunk props all ready to go. Congratulations! You're a Steampunk! But now what do you do with yourself? You can sit there, patting yourself on the back, but that gets lonely after awhile. Your props will look nic ...more

Despite longer live spans, almost half a million people die of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) each year, many of them preventable. The decision to move a loved one into a long-term care facility is difficult. Besides worry about how an elderly loved one will adjust, ...more

After years of struggling, it appears BlackBerry has finally figured out how to update its iconic design for modern times. The BlackBerry KEY2 pays homage to past devices such as the Bold 9000 while adapting to modern times with the Android OS. The result is a device that migh ...more

Want to live your life like most high-achieving, successful people? First things first—set your morning alarm clock to at least 5 a.m. and don't be tempted to hit the snooze button. Studies and interviews have shown that many high-functioning CEOs wake up between 4 a.m. and 5 ...more

So I noticed that a lot of the writings on this section of wonder how to are by a great author known as Austin Sirkin. I would just like to throw a huge thank you and keep going his way! Thank you for all of the stories and topics Austin, they have helped me learn a lot about ...more

Logan of Supernaturale has posted instructions how to make a pair of homemade undies out of your favorite old tees. Logan says, "I know you've got them, lurking in drawers, the back of the closet, in the "giveaway" pile: those T-shirts that are, for various reasons, both unwe ...more

Back when I worked in the music industry, I never imagined there would be a day that I'd be able to sit in a room surrounded by virtual album covers while listening to beats, but that day is really here. However, while Spotify's collaboration with Magic Leap is a welcome bit ...more

In the case of Apple Watch v. Fitbit, the winner comes down to the judge at hand. Apple currently offers two smartwatches — the Series 5 and the Series 3 — while Fitbit offers three models — the Fitbit Versa 2, Fitbit Ionic, and Fitbit Versa Lite. Whatever your assumptions abo ...more

Last month, Leap Motion's vice president of design and global creative director, Keiichi Matsuda (a member of the NR30), suddenly left the company. Just days later, a story leaked that revealed that Leap Motion had twice failed to lock in a potential deal with Apple. Now, as ...more

Microsoft recently released "Seeing AI," an app aimed to help the blind understand their surroundings. As Microsoft puts it, "the app narrates the world around you by turning the visual world into an audible experience." We asked Matthew Chao, the brother of one of our founde ...more

You've got some free time, so you decide to try out that new puzzle game on the App Store. After a half hour of fun, the game stops. It seems you've run out of lives, and have to wait until tomorrow to play ... unless you drop $0.99 on extra lives. What are you going to do, wa ...more

Playlists are more than just a list of songs that you enjoy listening to while in traffic or hosting a party—they're stories that illustrate who you are or your frame of mind at a certain point in your life. While some of my Spotify playlists are relatively short and expendab ...more

If you've read any health news in the past year or so, you've probably been bombarded with headlines announcing that frequent sitters face certain death, even when you're just relaxing and watching TV at home. From increased health risks and added laziness, sitting is becomin ...more

Newer smartphones are more power hungry than ever before, and the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 has a mighty appetite for amps that only Jenny Craig could possibly curb. On average, your Note 2 (or other Android device) lasts for what, a day, maybe two days before dying. Mine barely l ...more

In the last decade, the number of people working remotely in the US has increased dramatically, and so has their need for technology and software to supplement that remote work. Whether you work from home or a coworking office space, the requirement for highly compatible and h ...more

If you made a resolution for 2020 to get healthier, it's essential to concentrate on your mental health just as much as you do on physical fitness. Running and exercising is great, but a sound mind is integral to a healthy and balanced life, and you can improve your emotional ...more

In the last couple of days there's been a lot of speculation about the powers of Microsoft's HoloLens 2, but few have had a chance to get their hands on one to see if the company's claims live up to what HoloLens inventor Alex Kipman showed off on stage. Nevertheless, amid th ...more

In a way, Twitter is the town square of our era, where people can share and discuss ideas on a wide variety of topics. While the tech giant has its own app for Android, it's pretty bare-bones when it comes to features. This has paved the way for third-party clients that are ri ...more

Virtual reality holds the promise of electronically visiting distant places we'd otherwise struggle to reach, but that teleportation-esque ability isn't possible without the right content. YouVisit created a platform that makes it easy for almost anyone to create immersive 360 ...more

Near Field Communication, or NFC for short, is a feature that allows our smartphones to wirelessly communicate with other devices over a short distance while using almost no power at all. Think of it like a slimmed-down version of Wi-Fi or Bluetooth that can send a small burst ...more

Apple's first AR wearable might not arrive until 2022, but we may have an early preview of what it will be like to wear a pair of its smartglasses via iOS 14. Clues found in the code for the next major version of Apple's mobile operating system point to an app with the codena ...more

Alternate US history is the go-to move for hot new cable and streaming shows, from HBO's Watchmen to Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale, reimagining how things might have turned out is an endless well of narrative inspiration. The latest show to delve into this genre comes from Disne ...more