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DIY Projects, Inspiration, How-tos, Hacks, Mods & More @ Makezine.com - Tweak Technology to Your Will

DIY Projects, Inspiration, How-tos, Hacks, Mods & More @ Makezine.com - Tweak Technology to Your Will
by Ken Sharp April 25, 2005 Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) have become a necessary luxury over the last several years. Millions of people rely on these devices to pause and rewind live television, and to keep track of broadcast schedules and record programs for them. Many consider them just as essential to their daily lives as their cell phones. Several months ago, I finally became sufficiently jealous of the millions of DVR owners to motivate me to put a DVR in my own living room. I earn a living as a computer engineer, so I understand how long it can take to write custom software. Here's how I did it. You'll need: with at least 256MB of RAM (512MB is better), plenty of hard drive space, and a good video card. presumably from your existing home theater system). I used a Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-250 card, $149 at hauppauge.com . I used BeyondTV, which was bundled with the Hauppauge card, but is available from SnapStream separately for $70 at snapstream.com . Automation software, $20 at promixis.com

5 Ways To Hack Your Brain Into Awesomeness Much of the brain is still mysterious to modern science, possibly because modern science itself is using brains to analyze it. There are probably secrets the brain simply doesn't want us to know. But by no means should that stop us from tinkering around in there, using somewhat questionable and possibly dangerous techniques to make our brains do what we want. We can't vouch for any of these, either their effectiveness or safety. #5. So you just picked up the night shift at your local McDonald's, you have class every morning at 8am and you have no idea how you're going to make it through the day without looking like a guy straight out of Dawn of the Dead, minus the blood... hopefully. "SLEEEEEEEEEP... uh... What if we told you there was a way to sleep for little more than two hours a day, and still feel more refreshed than taking a 12-hour siesta on a bed made entirely out of baby kitten fur? Holy Shit! We're pretty sure Kramer did this once on Seinfeld. How Does It Work? #4. #3. 1. 2. 3.

AAXA P2 Pico Projector - LCoS Based Hand-held Pocket Projector - LED Micro Projector AAXA Technologies is pleased to introduce the AAXA P2 Pico Projector - the brightest pico projector on the market. Designed for the professional user, the AAXA P2 micro projector employs an ultra-efficient optical engine design, new LCoS chip, and high-power LED to achieve a stunning 33 lumen output at 800x600 resolution. The AAXA P2 projector brings true business presentation capabilities to the micro projector market. Professional features include a direct VGA connector supporting up to 1280x720 resolution for laptop connection, an infrared remote control, dual 0.5 watt stereo speakers, and on-board gamma correction. The P2 is packaged into a pint-sized unit measuring 4.3" x 2.3" x 1" and weighs in at only 260 grams(**). Battery life is rated at 35 minutes, with optional 70 and 180 minute batteries available. Super Color and Image Quality In addition to wide color range & deep color saturation, the single LED light source eliminates motion blur and color break up ("Rainbow Effect").

Free Books A lot of people keep asking about a good list of programming books. Hence, we are building this list to save your time and to spread the knowledge. Some of these books will definitely help us to evolve our coding skills and thought processes for developing better solutions. We will do our best to keep updating this list, hope you find this list useful, here we go. Meta-List Graphics Programming Language Agnostic: NerdDinner Walkthrough Assembly Language: Bash Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide See .NET below Django Djangobook.com Emacs The Emacs manual Thanks Emacser (October 17, 2010) Forth Git Haskell Dive Into HTML5 Java JavaScript Linux Advanced Linux Programming Lisp Lua Programming In Lua (for v5 but still largely relevant) Maven Mercurial NoSQL CouchDB: The Definitive Guide Objective-C The Objective-C Programming Language Parrot / Perl 6 Perl 6 (Work in progress) Perl PowerShell Mastering PowerShell Prolog PostgreSQL Practical PostgreSQL Python Learn REBOL Thanks Nick (October 19, 2010) Ruby Scala Scheme Smalltalk Subversion Vim

AAXA M2 Micro Projector - LCoS Hand-held Mini Projector - XGA LED Pocket Projector AAXA Technologies is pleased to announce the release of the AAXA M2 Micro Projector, the world's first XGA micro projector. Weighing just 1 pound yet producing a vivid 110 lumen image with Vibrant Color technology, the AAXA M2 Micro Projector is the next generation ultra-portable multimedia projector. With power to produce 100" images*, a versatile media player, built-in storage, and an array of input options, the M2 redefines what is capable in mobile projection technology. The AAXA M2 micro projector is the most powerful and fully-featured projector in its class. The M2 mini projector feature a new high-speed video and image processor that supports up to 1280x720 resolution resolution video at 30 frames per second and a wide array of image and music formats. The M2's connectivity is unmatched with HDMI, VGA, and composite A/V inputs. Additional features include infrared remote control, adjustable tripod, and a 3.5mm audio output for headphones or external speakers. Long LED Life

Top 10 Free Ways To Discover New Music Online Bored with your music and want to discover some new bands or singers? There are two main ways you can do that online. You can use services which create music maps, allowing you to explore artists similar in genre to the artists you already listen to. Some of these websites have a community built around them, which gives fans the opportunity to interact directly with these new talents. Here is a list of 10 free sites to discover new music. TuneGlue TuneGlue is straightforward and easy to use. Using TuneGlue, you start out with 6 similar artists, and can continue to explore and expand on them. Music-Map A less flashy alternative to TuneGlue is Music-Map. Music Roamer Music Roamer adds another dimension to music map sites, by not only providing suggestions of similar artists, but also allowing you to listen to music directly on their site. Bloson The simplest alternative to these first three websites is Bloson. Zune One Track Mind The Hype Machine TheSixtyOne OurStage PureVolume

How to Become an Early Riser It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom. – Aristotle Are morning people born or made? In my case it was definitely made. In my early 20s, I rarely went to bed before midnight, and I’d almost always sleep in late. I usually didn’t start hitting my stride each day until late afternoon. But after a while I couldn’t ignore the high correlation between success and rising early, even in my own life. … and the next morning, I got up just before noon. Hmmm… I tried again many more times, each time not getting very far with it. It’s hard to become an early riser using the wrong strategy. The most common wrong strategy is this: You assume that if you’re going to get up earlier, you’d better go to bed earlier. It seems there are two main schools of thought about sleep patterns. The second school says you should listen to your body’s needs and go to bed when you’re tired and get up when you naturally wake up.

The Treehouse Guide - Tree house building and design reference HOW TO CHEAT AT EVERYTHING | More Intelligent Life - StumbleUpon Over lunch with Simon Lovell, a fascinating former card shark, Allison Schrager learns all sorts of things about how swindlers operate ... Special to MORE INTELLIGENT LIFE "I can spot someone's weakness a mile away. In any room I can pick out the best target," says Simon Lovell, reformed con artist and famed magician, when asked over lunch about the root of his talents. "Take that woman over there." He motions across the room towards a lady speaking to a man engrossed in his menu--"vulnerable, needy, looking for attention from the man she is with, but he won't give it to her. "Or that man over there, over-dressed, too neat, over-confident, thinks he is too smart to be taken." "But ultimately, anyone can be conned, if you have the balls to do it." Simon Lovell should know. Presently, instead of subjecting people to cons, Mr Lovell stars in a one-man off-Broadway show, "Strange and Unusual Hobbies". It requires avid study of psychology and body language. But I would make a poor con artist.

A Cup O' Joe: DIY Facial Scrub | PETA.org - StumbleUpon The following article was written by PETA intern Sofia Hueter. Many of us are accustomed to the daily ritual of guzzling cup after cup of coffee to stay awake because it is so ingrained in our society that habitually drinking something with caffeine in it every few hours is the best way to fight fatigue. Caffeine does, in fact, help to ward off our lingering morning drowsiness, but drinking coffee, though often delicious and enjoyable, is not the only way to get the caffeine fix that your body craves. Did you know that your body can absorb caffeine through the skin? Although the exact concentrations of caffeine that can permeate the layers of your skin is still being researched, scientists do agree that, even if soaking your body with coffee doesn’t deliver the same kick that several cups of coffee do, it can provide you with a nice energy boost. In addition to giving you a pick-me-up, coffee has other benefits. Mix the coffee grounds and olive oil.

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