How-To Geek

Android: Field Trip is a free mobile app that acts like a local tour guide, alerting you to landmarks, historical sites, and unique local attractions. A simple walk around your city’s down town can turn into a history l...

The process of making a large image out of mosaic of smaller image “pixels” is certainly nothing new; this rendition of Starry Night using images from the Hubble telescope, however, is a particularly fitting use of the technique.

Video sharing sites and the internet in general have been a real boon to documentaries, but a lot of times (especially with YouTube) they’re spread all over the place and poorly labeled and described. I found Top Documentary Films a few months ago and have really enjoyed it… the site catalogs videos, with great descriptions and useful tags, so you can actually find all the great free documentaries out there. Like for example, this week they’re featuring The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, a Richard Feynman classic.

Many of the case mods we come across are intricate and packed with custom lighting and other geeky flourished. This case made take an opposite approach, combining aluminum and walnut to create a sleek and stunning living-room friendly HTPC case.

This polished looking standing desk combines a stand alone bar-height counter with extra storage, cable management, and monitor riser. The end result looks like a $$$$ standing desk at a fraction of the price.

Last fall we showed you how to run Android apps on your Windows PC with BlueStacks. Now BlueStacks has partnered with AMD to offer even better Android emulation on AMD-powered Windows machines.

It’s easy to snap away and fill up a memory card, but not quite as easy to share your best pics with your friends and family. How do you get your pics from your camera to your friends’ monitors?

Why settle for zapping ducks on the screen when you could be popping balloons and lighting matches on fire? This awesome (but rather dangerous) hack turns an old Nintendo zapper into a legitimate laser gun.

The last Rubens’ Tube setup we shared with you was but a simple single tube. This impressive setup is six independent tubes that register distinct frequencies of sound in a musical composition as standing flames. Check ...

The Jetsons, the future-oriented animated cartoon series from the 1960s, turned 50 this week. The Smithsonian takes a look at what the show meant, then and now.

Should you leave your laptop plugged in and charging when you’re not on-the-go? What’s best for the battery? What’s best for your user experience? Read on as we investigate.

These impressive Sci-Fi LEGO tributes are an impressive combination of time, money, and a whole lot of LEGO bricks. Read on to see everything from Death Star hangers to adorable robots.

Want an easy and visual way to explain DNS to a curious friend or cubemate? This clean and simple short video does a great job highlighting exactly what goes on during a typical DNS request.

In this wish-we-were-there hands on science demonstration, Dr. Roy Lowry combines liquid nitrogen, hot water, and 1500 ping pong balls into a spectacular lesson.

If you can’t get enough of Star Wars lore, this minimalist set of infographics details major characters, conflicts, and alliances in the Star Wars universe.

If you’re a Netflix subscriber, you’ve got a brand spanking new mobile interface to take for a spin. Last week Netflix released a brand new iOS interface, this week it’s a brand new Android interface.

Photographer Ben Cooper has a soft spot for the Space Shuttles; check out this excellent galleries to see everything from dynamic launch photos to beautiful fish-eye photos of the cockpits.

Sunrise simulators use a gradually brightening light to wake you in the morning. Check out this creative build that combines a microprocessor, addressable LEDs, and a nifty laser-cut bracket to yield a polished and wall-mountable alarm clock lamp.

Earlier this week we asked you to share your must have presentation tools and tricks; read on to see how your fellow readers jazz up their presentations and keep things flowing smoothly.

Last night was the 22nd Ig Nobel award ceremony. If you weren’t there to experience the festivities first hand, don’t despair–you can watch the entire ceremony here.

Last week Valve, the company behind the Portal series, received a crate containing a stunning replica of the iconic Portal turret sentry. Check out this video to see the turret in action.

It’s such an oft repeated warning that it’s firmly embedded in nerd lore: bring a magnet anywhere near your precious computer and suffer the dire consequences. But is true? Is your computer one run in with a novelty magnet away from digital death?

This stylish and compact build makes it easy to enjoy streaming radio without the bulk and overhead of running your entire computer to do so. Check out the video to see the compact streaming radio box in action.

This massive LEGO construction combines 17 distinct modules into a lengthy factory-like conveyance system for five hundred LEGO balls. The variety and creativity of the methods employed is, dare we say, dazzling.

Torchlight II, sequel to the extremely popular Torchlight action-RPG, is available for sale today. With four new classes and a massively expanded world, you’ll have plenty to explore.