You may not be familiar with the company Tronical but you will know their work because they are responsible for Gibson’s Robot Guitar tuning systems. Well judging by this video it appears that Tronical are about to launch some standalone systems that can be retrofit to pretty much any guitar be it a Les Paul [...]
Category: Stuff
6 Humorous Ways To Annoy Friends On Facebook
Facebook is a fun place to be. You can call anyone from your closest relative to some acquaintance you knew way back in high school a ‘friend’ and not feel awkward because of it. Friends on Facebook are basically people you know and Facebook is a fun place to either get to know people better or just to keep up with the family.
Notice that I mentioned the word ‘fun’ a few times in the previous paragraph. It is true that Facebook is a place to network and to keep up with people. However, it can also be a fun place to play around with your friends.
No, I am not talking about those stupid little games like throwing sheep around or pretending you know anything about farming. I’m talking about just plain old having fun at your friends’ expense. If you are creative enough, you can find all kinds of ways to have fun with each other without selling your soul to any of those applications.
I can come up with a few. Try them out and see if you can pull them off in the spirit of fun without making enemies. Without further adieu, here’s how to go out of your way to annoy friends on Facebook.
1. Go Through Their Profile Pictures, Add Stupid Comments In Speech Balloons & Tag Them.
A friend of mine did this to his sister and the result was hilarious! The idea is to choose a picture where you can see their faces. If they are doing something funny, it’s even better. Go to the page with the picture, right-click and click and save the image. Open it in your favorite image editing program, and add some mad cool text. Use a speech balloon if you’ve got the skills.
Don’t forget to tag them or else what would be the fun?
2. Make Annoying Comments On Their Updates.
Try to be creative in your annoyance here. You could try repeating everything they say (ever done the ‘copying’ game as a kid… or coworker?). This game becomes easier with a tool like Facebook because you can always copy and paste. Indubitably they’ll respond with ‘Stop copying me!’ and that conversation could become endless. You could also respond to every update with something like ‘That’s stupid.’ You may get lucky and have them respond with ‘Why?’
3. Create A Fanpage For A Friend & See How Long It Takes Him To Notice.
Fan pages are fun, but not as much fun as making one for a friend! Make sure you make up lots of goofy stuff that people will know is not true. Share with the world all of their super powers and the type of stuff they like to eat. Just make it totally annoying and you’ll have succeeded.
When the fan page is done, start inviting mutual friends and see how long it takes for the friend to notice. I suppose you could either communicate on his behalf in an annoying manner or just speak about him in the third person.
4. Tell The World Every Single Thing You Are Doing Throughout The Whole Day.
OK, I know this one hits too close to home for a few of you but for the sake of being annoying, take it to a whole new extreme. Don’t just say that you brushed your teeth, but describe it for us. Find every detail of your life that day and describe it.
If you want to make life easier, guess as close as possible how your day is going to be, and what you are going to be doing, and use a tool like HootSuite to schedule posts ahead of time. Schedule them every couple of minutes or even once an hour. Just enough to really get under your friends’ skin.
5. Paste Random Bits Of Code Into Your Status Updates.
Not sure why you’d want to do this, but random bits of code will be sure to annoy your friends. It could also show your techier side at the same time.
You could either use it in conjunction with actually saying something.
or just by itself.
6. Become Infatuated With CAPS Lock.
Ever since the internet began to be popular, the CAPS lock has always meant you are yelling. Start updating using all caps. It’ll really get people’s attention. You may get annoying responses telling you to keep it down as if their ears are actually hurting.
Be careful as you do some of these. You don’t want to bombard your friends with so much annoying garbage that you start losing them. Oh and these are just a few ways to get on the nerves of your lovely friends on Facebook. I know for sure that there are more so share your favorites in the comments, would you?
(Via MakeUseOf.com.)
Use Zip Ties to Repair a Broken Ethernet Plug
We’ve all been there at some point, you’ve got a perfectly functional Ethernet cord that somewhere along the line had its tab broken off. Don’t buy a new one or re-terminate the cord. Fix it with zip ties.
While were no stranger making our own Ethernet cables—you can probably find a few RJ-45 connectors hanging out with the dust bunnies under our work bench—sometimes its not convenient or you dont have the tools to strip an Ethernet cable, strip and reposition the pairs, and re-terminate it. Its an even bigger annoyance when the only reason you find yourself having to do it is a missing plastic tab on the connector plug.
Over at the ever-growing tutorial blog Instructables they have a tutorial on how to fix a broken RJ-45 connector using two zip ties, a razor knife, and a pair of pliers—although if youre going full MacGyver you could skip the pliers. When youre done youll have a functional tab on your Ethernet cable. Check out full tutorial at the link below and if you have your own clever use for zip ties or other inexpensive tools—duct tape anyone?—we want to hear about it in the comments.
Repair a Broken Ethernet Plug [Instructables]
(Via Lifehacker.)
Happy Guy Fawkes/Bonfire Night
Remember remember, the Fifth of November,
The gunpowder, treason and plot.
I know of no reason,
Why the gunpowder treason,
Should ever be forgot.
So, the time of year again. 5th of November, more commonly known as Guy Fawkes Night or Bonfire Night. So, I shall give you a bit of backgroud information on the infamous plot and treason of the one Guy Fawkes.
On November the 5th, 1605, a man by the name of Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament, in London.
(For those of you who don’t know where the houses of Parliament are, it’s where the Big Ben is.) Guy Fawkes had earlier infiltrated the Houses of Parliament, laying down more than 36 barrels of gunpowder in the undercroft of the house.
However, this plot apparently leaked out, and in the very early mornings of 5th November, Guy Fawkes was captured by the king’s guards. Far from denying his intentions during the arrest, Fawkes stated that it had been his purpose to destroy the King and the Parliament. Nonetheless to say, very brave man. He was tortured for a period of four days, where he revealed nothing but the names of the people who already have been captured as part of the plot. He was hanged, drawn and quatered on the 31st January, along with number of others implicated in the conspiracy.
A brief summary of the event which took place that fateful night.
Celebrations on this night involve fireworks displays and the building of bonfires on which traditionally “Guys” are burnt. Children are supposed to make a Guy doll, and then burn him on the bonfire. Jolly cheerful, ain’t it?
And now back to the question: Why do we celebrate Guy Fawkes Night?
One simple reason my friends.
Commonly, people celebrate this as the day that Guy Fawkes was captured and the plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament failed.
They celebrate the fact that the Catholic church still ruled with it’s power ad the King didn’t get assasinated.
I know, highly happy occasion, isn’t it?
Me? I celebrate this for a different reason. I reckon this day should be celebrated by what it had hoped to achieve, a show of the people standing up against their parliament. It’s a show of rebellion, an idea that is passed down through the centuries.
We are told to remember the idea, but not the man because a man can fail where an idea cannot.
And four hundred years later an idea can still change the world.
Who knows? Maybe one day, someone might actually succeed in finishing what the Gunpowder Plot started.
Top 10 DIY Projects for an Extra Day Off
It’s the last day of an unusually long weekend, and there’s absolutely nothing on the schedule. Break out the tools and pull up one of these nifty DIY projects to improve your living space and boost your can-do cred.
10. Light up your yard with mason jars
Buy a mess of ground-staked, solar or battery-powered yard lights from your local big box store, and people might be impressed at your ability to space the sticks you plunge into the ground. Convert some run-of-the-mill mason jars into hanging votive lanterns, battery-powered backyard lights, or go the way of weekend editor Jason and make your own solar-powered sun jars, and you’ll get some real kudos, and have a nicer looking yard, to boot.
9. Make your patio a Wi-Fi hotspot
Three different solutions of varying DIY-ness can get your Wi-Fi out to your grassier spaces. A self-powered solar extender is the ultimate in techno/eco-cred. If that kind of cost, soldering, and circuit knowledge is a stretch too far, you can install DD-WRT or boost your household router with Tomato to boost its signal strength and, in the case of DD-WRT, turn an old or spare router into a dedicated repeater. That still involves a bit of installing, though, so for a casual shot at backyard Wi-Fi, try a tinfoil parabola, a wok-style strainer, or a dollar’s worth of extender parts.
8. Build a backyard pizza oven
If you’ve had wood-fired pizza before, you know it’s notably different and tasty, and almost always pricey. You can have the good stuff whenever you feel like building a fire, however, with two different Lifehacker readers’ brick-by-brick instructions. Kevin Lester showed us his fourth pizza oven build, while Mike Wilkie based his two-level oven on Forno Bravo’s extensive wood-fired guide. You can do the same, and become the grill party invitation nobody turns down.
7. Assemble an outdoor movie theater
Your couch can only seat so many people. Your yard or patio, however, can fit as many folks as feel comfortable, and offers a much nicer environment to eat, drink, watch, and enjoy the waning bits of summer air, whether for the kids or with friends. Wired.com has hit upon this project twice, once with a house-mounted sheet and DVD/projector. Then the Geek Dad tackled the idea with a stand-alone outdoor screen, built with PVC pipe, mounted in cement, and ready for easy setup and take-down. You’ll need a decent projector for either setup, but often times, nobody at work minds if the presentation room is a little de-stocked on weekends.
6. Power up your Wii
You can’t pull off the total renovation that you can with an XBox Media Center, but your Wii can do a lot more than let you play tennis against the in-laws. You can surf the web with the recently-made-free Opera browser, and once that’s installed, a free Orb software package lets you use your Wii as a media center. These days, opening your Wii to the Homebrew channel doesn’t even require the purchase of an (admittedly great) Twilight Princess game and extensive hacking, and once that’s done, you can back up and load games from a hard drive, play old-school games in an emulator, and much more.
5. Build yourself a serious knife block
Two or three good, sharp knives are really all you need, but you’ve probably got more than that. If you bought them piece by piece, or don’t want to shell out for a generic hunk of wood, consider making your own wall-mounted magnetic holder for easy access and visual appeal, or cut a holder out of a counter for super-quick access. We’re also partial to Chris DiClerico’s DIY universal knife block, which requires only a few bucks of wood, dollar store bamboo skewers, and access to a table saw.
4. Get creative with enhanced paints
Go beyond the color spread at your local paint store, and you’ll likely find a good deal of neat paints that can inspire some awesome projects. Dry-erase or ‘whiteboard’ paint lets you jot down your ideas anywhere, and that inspired reader Chris Burke to make this awesome wall-size speech ‘bubble’. He also layered some magnetic paint underneath, the kind that lets you hang posters without nails or tacks. If school-style chalkboards are more your speed, you can grab a bucket of chalkboard paint, or make your own, and then craft an erase-as-you-go wall calendar, kid-friendly table, or wall mural (sorry, original link is apparently dead). If they made tinfoil-based Wi-Fi boosting paint, we’d simply declare the whole house in need of a new look.
3. Fold and cut your own furniture
You only occasionally need an extra seat or two for groups of guests, or maybe you just need a cheap place to sit when working in the garage. The Evil Mad Scientist blog suggests buying a few sheets of paperboard or plywood and crafting some flat-packing but sturdy stools. If it’s little ones you’re looking to seat, and entertain while you do so, the FoldSchool tutorial site details how to help kids make their own stepladders, creative kids table seats, and much more. (Original post)
2. Add rope lights for cheap ambient improvements
Gina’s father-in-law used rope lights (and a nifty reverse circuit switch) to craft an automatic pantry light system. Jason added an eye-pleasing and light-improving touch to his extreme home office makeover with strategic rope lights. Other crafty folks have found rope lighting useful for kitchen looks and ridiculously awesome home theater setups. It’s inspiring, illuminating stuff, and fairly easy to get started with.
1. Spruce up a bare wall
Not every notably blank wall in your dwelling requires custom-framed artwork or expensive prints. Gina combined her Flickr account and a few dollars of craft store hardware to craft a sleek wire photo wall, inspired by this wood block example (original link down). Adam found his inspiration in used record stores and great album art, crafting an album art wall on the cheap. If great-looking books are what you want to show off, you can get by with very little by converting a colored wire hanger.
(Via Lifehacker.)
AIRPod: The Compressed Air-Powered Car
At first glance, it may look like any other miniature-sized car, but the AIRPod is far from normal. With seating for 4, this vehicle is powered by compressed air and can travel up to 140-miles on a single charge — 46-gallon tank can be charged full in 8-hours via A/C outlet / 2-hours at an air station. It’s available now, priced from just $7,500. Continue reading for a video.
(Via Tech Blog.)
Back to School: 15 Essential Web Tools for Students
For much of the world, it’s that special time of the year when students head back to school. The good news for students is that even though that means waking up early and doing homework, there are a number of web-based and social tools to help you get through the school year. From staying organized to improving study habits to making sure you reference your research sources properly, the web can help you be a better student.
We’ve assembled a list of 15 of the best applications available for students. What other applications are helping you at school this year? Let us know in the comments!
Stay Organized
The first thing you need to do in order to have a successful school year, is develop a plan to stay organized. If you’re constantly missing due dates or losing track of your notes, you’ll find yourself in a deep hole rather quickly. The following web applications can help you get organized and stay organized.
1. Evernote – Evernote is one of the best note taking applications available, allowing you to sync notes between the web, your phone, and any computer. With Evernote you can save text, audio, and images (like screenshots, entire webpages, or photos taken with your camera phone), and everything — even the images — is searchable, so you’ll never lose track of your notes. One of the ways Evernote really excels is in the number of different methods you can use to add notes to the application, which include via the web, mobile apps, email, or even Twitter.
2. Notely – Notely is a complete, end-to-end solution for taking notes and staying organized. With a course and assignment calendar, note-taking tools, and to-do list, Notely can keep you on top of your schoolwork and assure that you never miss a due date.
3. GradeMate – GradeMate is a free online organizer made with students in mind. With it you can create to-do lists, manage due dates, keep track of grades, and even collaborate with fellow students.
4. Backpack – Initially designed for business users, Backpack is also a great way for students to keep research organized. Backpack is sort of like a single page wiki that lets you keep files, images, notes, and to-do lists in a single place and share them with fellow students (which is great for collaborative projects).
Study Better
When you sit down to study, you want to arm yourself with the best web tools available to make sure you get the most of your study time. By utilizing the tools listed in this section, you can get more done, and do it more quickly, so that you can have more time for fun and still be prepared for that upcoming test or paper.
5. StudyRails – StudyRails is perfect for those who have trouble blocking out distractions when it comes time to study. The site lets users schedule study time and alerts them (by text message) when it is time to drop everything and hit the books. But where StudyRails really becomes important for chronic procrastinators is that it can be set to block out your favorite web sites and computer applications during scheduled study time. That way you won’t be tempted by Twitter or World of Warcraft when you’ve set aside some time specifically to write a paper.
6. Diigo – When you’re reading books for class, you probably use a highlighter and sticky notes to mark off the passages that are of particular note to what you’re studying. But what do you do on the web? Diigo is a web-based highlighter and sticky note system that lets you annotate your web research. You can also share your work with classmates.
7. Delicious – Delicious is the quintessential bookmarking application on the Internet. If all you want to do is collect all the web resources you’re using for a class, project, or paper under a single tag, Delicious is one of the best and easiest to use tools you can utilize.
8. Mindmeister – There is a slight learning curve involved, but once you get use to them, one of the best ways to organize your thoughts and research is through mind maps. And one of the best online mind mapping tools is Mindmeister, which lets you both easily create mind maps, and also collaborate on them with your classmates. They offer special discounted academic pricing for students.
Work and Collaborate
Web-based and social tools can also help you to actually get your work done and collaborate with others in your class on group projects. From word processing to presentations, the apps in this category will help you turn in complete and polished work.
9. Google Docs – Google Docs is one of the best online word processing and spreadsheets applications available, and it offers great collaboration features that allow you to work together on group assignments. In fact, we use it often here at Mashable to keep track of who is working on what and collaborate on posts and projects. The two main advantages of using Google Docs over more feature-rich applications like Microsoft Word (which is also a great application that I use on a daily basis) is that Google’s offering is free and, more importantly, you can access your files from anywhere. Also check out Adobe’s Buzzword.
10. EtherPad – EtherPad takes collaborating on written documents to a completely new level by allowing a group of people to edit a document at the same time and actually see what everyone else is writing as they write it. When used by multiple people meeting in person or combined with a VoIP app like Skype, EtherPad can be an amazing collaboration tool for group studying or hashing out who is doing what on a group project.
11. Sliderocket – It would be hard to get through your school career without having to give a presentation, and one way to make your presentation more memorable is with a great set of slides. SlideRocket is an awesome online presentation building tool that lets you create beautiful, multimedia rich presentations, that are accessible from anywhere. Also check out Empressr.
12. WikiDot – If you’re working in a group project, you’ll want to keep everyone on the same page, and one of the best ways to organize your thoughts as a group is by using a wiki. WikiDot is a great, simple, wiki hosting solution that students can utilize to create an unlimited number of wiki pages to organize their projects and group research.
Cite Right
Now that you’ve got your work in order, you’ll want to make sure you have everything properly cited, because like clichés, accusations of plagiarism are something you should avoid like the plague. The tools below will help you to keep track of your sources and cite them properly when the time comes.
13. CiteMe – This Facebook application from the Online Computer Library Center lets you search the world’s largest library catalog by title, author, subject, or ISBN and get properly formatted citations in APA, Chicago, Harvard, MLA, or Turabian style.
14. EasyBib – EasyBib is one of the most popular online bibliographic tools, letting you automatically create citations in APA, Chicago/Turabian, and MLA styles. Over 218 million citations have been generated using the site since 2001. Also check out Ottobib.
15. Zotero – If you need to cite your work in a more obscure style, then check out Zotero. This Firefox extension automatically collects your research sources and then lets you create citations in any of one of over a thousand different styles. Zotero also lets you take notes on your sources and is available in over 30 different languages.
(Via Mashable!.)
Hid.im Converts Torrents into PNG Images
Hid.im is a new web-based service that allows users to hide .torrent files inside PNG images. This means that users can easily upload hidden torrent files to their favorite image hosting service and forums, or use it as an avatar on social networking sites without being censored.
(Via TorrentFreak )
Brian May’s homemade guitar
Seven Sexton sent us a link to this awesome 1992 video of Queen‘s Brian May talking about “The Fireplace,” his famous electric guitar that he and his dad built from scrap bits such as a mantle from a 100-year old fireplace (hence the name), a chunk of a table, a spring from a motorcycle, a piece from his mother’s knitting needle, etc. Amazingly, this is not some fragile relic he keeps in the closet, but a working guitar, one you’ve heard on many Queen songs. His family was poor and his dad built most of their home electronics, including their television and radio. Wonderful, inspiring little piece. I love the opening quote from him:
I’m still a kid. Basically, I LOVE the sound of the guitar. I love making it. I love standing there and making that noise.
(via MakeOnline)
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