Story Lines

I took a class in the fall entitled Writing for Television at Bentley University in Boston. Much of what I learned has helped me through my first year of creative writing. One of the keys to writing television that we learned in the class was that a television show follows the ...more

Dead Island (PC, PS3, 360) had the worst launch of any game in recent memory. The wrong version of the game was released on PC, matchmaking was down for three days on PC, saves were deleted without notice making people start from scratch, and the Feminist Whore (a file found d ...more

If you're a diehard Apple fan, chances are the new iPad 2 caught your eye, stole your heart and emptied your wallet. Who couldn't resist the sophisticated slim-body design or its fascinating new Smart Cover? Well—it seems nobody could. And if you were late to jump on the bandw ...more

Forget CNN. Forget New York Times. Forget BBC. You can even forget the Washington Post. And yes, the Wall Street Journal, too. You no longer need these well-established and reputable news organizations to get your daily fix on what's happening in the world today. At least, th ...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

Without a government for the last eleven days, and amid mainstream discussion of a Euro Zone exit, the Greek people are realizing that the economic and political system as they know it is rapidly descending into chaos. With massive jobless rates that have forced many into bar ...more

As if the title does say enough they have the tag line, "Story of a Nympho" Wow.

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

Multiple airport screeners have been arrested for allegedly taking handsome bribes to look the other way while loads of illegal drugs slipped through security at Los Angeles International Airport, federal officials announced today. Two current and two former officials at the ...more

The US judge handling the Megaupload case noted today that it may never be tried due to a procedural error, a comment that has sparked the anger of Megaupload’s founder. Kim Dotcom is furious with the US Government for destroying his businesses and rendering hundreds of people ...more

The full 30 minute short film by John Hillcoat that was shown on TV. From the description: Red Dead Redemption: The Man from Blackwater The director of The Road and The Proposition, John Hillcoat, brings you an entirely digital Western short film. It uses Rockstar's rich ope ...more

Check out the winner from Beyond the Still's Chapter Two: Job Security. "Job Security" written & directed by Josh Thacker. Chapter 2 entry to "The Story Beyond the Still" contest. See chapter one here: vimeo.com/groups/beyondthestill View the credits for the film here: vimeo. ...more

Toys are not only useful for playtime, they can also be wonderful props to photograph. With the right setting, pose and angle, you can bring your subject to life. To participate in this week’s Phone Snap Challenge, photograph a toy of your own and post it to the corkboard by M ...more

Words that will help you with your writing Alliteration - The repetition of aconsonant sound. This si important because it makes words stand out, and because it can help set the mood for something. Assonance - The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds in neighborin ...more

The first Phone Snap challenge has come to an end and we have a winner! Congratulations to Rob Sawyer, for his funny and creative spin on the infamous Play-Doh character, "Mr. Bill gone MAD!!!". Much thanks goes out to all who participated in the toy challenge. I was very imp ...more

In 1969, the Apollo 11 crew were the first to walk on the Moon, the New York Jets defeated the Baltimore Colts in the third Super Bowl ever, Led Zeppelin released their first studio album, and one of the most pivotal moments in music history happened—Woodstock. But that's not ...more

University video game design programs have been spreading like wildfire around the world over the last ten years. They allow students, researchers and game developers to work on their craft in an academic environment away from the harsh realities of the market, and have led to ...more

The exile is officially over. Let the good times roll. Unequal Technologies has just signed Michael Vick as its corporate spokesman. They have applied for 50 patents that largely employ the Dupont-created Kevlar for "shock suppression". Formally speaking, this is his first pr ...more

Now, I've already had the experience where I go to a Renaissance Faire and can identify the patterns used by various fairegoers to make their costumes. But I had an experience last week that I'm still wondering about. I went to go see Tangled with my boyfriend - a take on the ...more

In 1782, an English plumber named William Watts came up with a clever method for making shotgun ammo. Watts constructed a six story "shot tower", consisting of a series of perfectly lined up holes, drilled into all six floors of the structure. Watts then poured molten lead thr ...more

Born in 1975, the world's first digital camera used a standard cassette tape to record images, rather than today's standard data cards. Vintage 1975 portable all electronic still camera. Via Kodak, Steve Sasson, the inventor of the digital camera, describes it's inception: "I ...more

Toy Story 3 has received rave reviews across the board. Curious, a couple of us here at WonderHowTo went to see it last night. We found it to be decent. Not fabulous. The opening was exhilarating. Full of action and humor and a thoroughly dynamic use of 3D, but the rest of the ...more

Professionally and academically speaking, I am a computer scientist, but I also enjoy lock picking as a hobby, so I thought I would share what knowledge I have with this. Before we start doing anything, first we need to understand the fundamentals of how locks work and then ac ...more

There are no spoilers in this writing, read without worry. Finished Episode 3 of Alan Wake yesterday, impressed by different reasons. I originally bought the game for the possibility of great story, dialogue, and voice acting. That part of the game has been disappointing. Wha ...more

Cell phone jammers, a DIY endeavor for the darker crowd. I'm pretty sure we've all considered having one at some point: whether the obnoxiously loud woman next to you is announcing private bedroom stories to a crowd on the subway, or your kids are grounded from using the phone ...more

This week's review roundup is a diverse lot. They really only have two things in common—their indie origins and puzzle elements. Otherwise, they come from France, Spain and the U.S., a few from unknown designers and one by the guy who inspired Minecraft. Gauge French indie d ...more

An alternative to trick-or-treating every Halloween is to have kids participate in a scavenger hunt. The activity provides the same excitement and still allows you to be with your kids while they participate. A scavenger hunt can be easily organized – here are some steps in pr ...more

Carpe Fulgur translates to something along the lines of "Seize the Lightning" in Latin. Sometimes that is enacted with golf clubs by idiots. But the three intrepid indie video game localizers who work under that name are trying to do it the right way: metaphorically. They are ...more

Were you horrified when Gwyneth Paltrow's head ended up in a box in Se7en? Do you share Harrison Ford's opinion that Han Solo should have died in Return of the Jedi? Think Kurt Russell could have handled aliens better in The Thing? Well, sorry—you're out of luck. There's nothi ...more

ANIMATED FEATURE: Thanks to Tom Berger for another animated movie review! Toy Story 3 finishes off the franchise that was started 15 years ago by Pixar's first feature length film, Toy Story. It's an unsurprisingly fitting end to a great series of films, maintaining all of t ...more

BEST PICTURE, ACTRESS, DIRECTOR, FILM EDITING, CINEMATOGRAPHY: I would go to the ballet all the time if it was this cool! 2008's The Wrestler was a huge stylistic left turn in director Darren Aronofsky's work. It moved abruptly away from the fantastical, painterly style he a ...more

Yeah it's... that's a good movie there Thanks to Tom Berger for another animated movie review! Toy Story 3 finishes off the franchise that was started 15 years ago by Pixar's first feature length film, Toy Story. It's an unsurprisingly fitting end to a great series of films, ...more

In the first part of this series, we took a factual and technical look at the history of the Internet. I explained how all of these wires and servers got here in the first place. Obviously, a firm did not just create and build the Internet around 1995! Now that we know how the ...more

Did you know there is hidden data in your digital pictures? Well, there is, and that data might be a security risk to you. Think back at all of those pictures you're in and are connected with. I'm sure some of those you'd like to distance yourself from. And surely you wouldn't ...more

Introduction I will not go into some time-waster of a story about how I came to build this app. It was a prerequisite in a bigger project I am still tinkering with from time to time. What are QR Codes? No doubt you have seen these all over the place in recent years. Origina ...more

For Windows laptops and PCs it's easy to install Linux. However for Macs, it's a different story. There are people installing Ubuntu on Macbooks and so far I've noticed that they are using 9.10. I've remastered my own Ubuntu 10.04 complete with playing flash videos and other a ...more

Well, we have had a pretty basic story structure in the previous couple of blogs. However, for the third act there is considerable leeway on how this story can play out. You can turn a story like this into a tragedy or comedy. Remember the line from the film Stranger Than Fict ...more

With the mass arrests of 25 anons in Europe and South America, and the rumors of an FBI sweep on the east coast of America floating around, times look dicey for hackers. Over the past few days, a lot of questions have been posed to me about removing sensitive data from hard dr ...more

We're officially seeking Null Byters on a weekly basis who are willing to take the time to educate the community. Contributors will write tutorials, which will be featured on the Null Byte blog, as well as the front page of WonderHowTo (IF up to par, of course). There is no ne ...more

Skyrim really took the cake this year. With its awe-inspiring gameplay, much improved combat and leveling system, and a fresh new look, it's no wonder the game has already received a Game of the Year award. But for hardcore gamers, the fun may be over. You've played the game f ...more

Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood and Sleeping Beauty are some of the most horrific fairy tales ever written, but over the course of nearly 200 years they've become watered down and sugar coated for innocent children everywhere. The original tales by the Brothers Grimm are vi ...more

Culinary collective Studiofeast is known for thinking outside the box, especially when it comes to food. They've hosted inventive and spectacular events like the L Train Lunch, where a high-end meal was served to guests on a moving train, and the Datalicious Last Supper, where ...more

If you follow indie games at all, you've probably heard of Bastion. During its development, it took home numerous Best in Show prizes from E3 and other game conventions while building up an incredible amount of buzz in the games press. Part of what is intriguing about Bastion ...more

Is game play king? Or was it that graphics is king? or maybe the story? Arghhh... well, regardless from which school of thought you come from, Tera online has bet most of their chips on game play. Tera's game play separates this game from the rest. The ability to deal damage ...more

I've decided to write this post so some of the fledgling street artists who may or may not follow this world in the future are informed about two things in the urban art world that are either not discussed at all, or distorted (intentionally or otherwise) to the point of misin ...more

Their were many pedestrians in the scene as,they seen firefighters struggling with the horrifying disaster and they couldn't do much only continue to stare as bodies continued to drop.. Firefighters arrived at the Triangle Shirt Waist Company Fire minutes after the alarm was ...more

Big brother is watching when you're playing around on another system—and big brother is that system. Everything from operating systems to intrusion detection systems to database services are maintaining logs. Sometimes, these are error logs that can show attackers trying vario ...more