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TrackingPoint has done a pretty good re-enactment video of how the fight at the Alamo went down. Except, you know, with the addition of their Precision Guided Firearms. It is a pretty funny vignette if you have about 4 minutes to spare. And, really, don’t we all fantasize of how historic battles would go down […]
The post TrackingPoint Re-Enacts the Alamo… appeared first on The Firearm Blog.
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In between summer and fall, one can easily get surprised while wearing a t-shirt outside. I chuckled quite a few times already. It is then when I like my office most. Sitting in front of the computer with its warm glow, working on WordPress projects harder than ever – well, at least harder than ever since the middle of spring. WordPress is just that kind of a convenient CMS that can get you up and running in no time. Probably that way I can catch up with all the work I have been negligent of. Wait, would I not be quicker if I took a ready-made theme to accelerate things? Lucky me, as Noupe continues with their monthly series of the freshest WordPress themes for self-hosted sites.
via noupe
End of Shirking: 20 Free WordPress Themes Fresh from September 2014
There a many different ways to construct a fire pit, from a simple ring of stones to something with more modern aesthetic like this poured concrete version. While the project is labor-intensive, you can build it in a weekend for around $150.
If you’ve never worked with concrete before, this gives a basic overview on how to build a form, prep the ground, and pour concrete from a bag mix. These principles can be used for all types of indoor and outdoor projects, and you don’t need much more than a form, wheelbarrow, and garden hoe for mixing the concrete. You can see the full list of materials and a step-by-step tutorial at the link below.
Concrete Fire Pit | Home Made Modern
Workshop is a new blog from Lifehacker all about DIY tips, techniques, and projects. Follow us on Twitter here.
via Lifehacker
Build a Modern Concrete Fire Pit from Scratch
While iOS 8 comes with plenty of advantages, upgrading to a new operating system is never without its drawbacks. Maybe battery life just ain’t quite what you’d want it to be, but we’ve got some tips to squeeze the most out of that sucker and stay juiced all day long.
Many of the features on your iPhone are handy if you need/want them. If you don’t, they’re just eating away at that precious battery life behind the scenes, and give you exactly zero help for your trouble. So shut ’em down.
One of the handiest new tricks in iOS 8 is the ability to see what apps are using the most battery life. You can check on your own personal problem children by going to Settings>>General>>Usage>>Battery Usage where you can find a list of apps that are chewing up your battery life.
Where you go from here depends on the apps in questions. You can always try to stop using the app so much, but chances are there are other measures you can take as well, like turning off location polling or push notifications. We’ll cover those a little later on, so just remember the apps that are topping this list and be sure to check back for new culprits whenever your battery life starts to sag.
Parallax is fun, but it’s the definition of "extra." And maybe it even makes you dizzy. Who needs it? Not you. You can turn it off in accessibility settings, by going to Settings>>General>>Accessibility and setting Reduce Motion to on.
AirDrop is great when you are AirDropping. The rest of the time it’s just fidgeting in its seat, looking for another device to play with. Turning it off is easy, just swipe up your Control Center, and hit the toggle.
There’s no need to have your phone searching for Wi-Fi when there’s no trusted network in sight. You’ll save yourself some trouble if you get in the habit of turning of Wi-Fi from the Control Center when you leave the house. Alternatively, you can go to Settings>>Wi-Fi and turn Ask to Join Networks to off. This way your phone will hop on Wi-Fi networks it knows, but won’t look around for more without direct orders.
Google Maps needs to know where you are, yes. But Facebook? Hop over to Settings>>Privacy>>Location Services to get a full list of the apps that are asking about where you are. You can probably turn off about half, and cut down on a lot of GPS polling.
Immediate app updates are rarely a huge deal, but having enough battery always is. Go to Settings>>iTunes & App Store and then scroll down. You’ll see Updates under Automatic Downloads. Turn it off. Just don’t forget to stop by the App Store and update manually now and then. While you are here you can also turn off automatic updates for music in order to prevent U2 albums from appearing on your phone now and in the future.
The brutal downside of good multitasking is running things in the background (duh). But if you go to Settings>>General>>Background App Refresh, you can disable background-runnin’ for the apps that aren’t important. Or all of them if you want to go all the way.
Chances are, auto-brightness keeps you more well-lit than you need to be. You can shut it off and get your mood-lighting on by going to Settings>>Display & Brightness and flipping the toggle. While you’re there, crank that backlight alllll the way down, or as far down as you can handle. If you step outside, that’s what the Control Center is for.
Not every app needs to push its notifications; that stuff takes power. Go to Settings>>Notifications and scroll down to the Include section. Then go on a toggling spree.
If your email isn’t that important, or you have a couple of accounts, go turn the low-priority ones to Fetch instead of Push, which means your phone will go retrieve mail at set intervals instead of having it pushed to you every single time Uncle Harry or a spambot blasts you. This one is pretty dependent on how often you get emails and how crucial they are, so you’ll have to feel it out, but you can set to fetch in Settings>>Mail, Contacts, Calendar>>Fetch New Data
Disabling 4G is going to hurt a little but, but desperate times can call for desperate measures and LTE is a battery-burner. You can choke off the data-hose by going to Settings>>Cellular>>Enable LTE/Enable 4G
But even without all these tweaks, it pays to treat your lithium-ion battery right from the start, especially if you have a new gadget. Just keep on scrolling down for our tips and tricks that’ll work for any phone.
via Gizmodo
11 Tips to Keep iOS 8 From Destroying Your Battery Life
When nuclear winter strikes, it’s highly likely that cockroaches and duct tape will be all that survives. But just because our new post-apocalyptic wasteland might appear bleak doesn’t mean it has to smell bleak, too. At least, that seems to be the train of thought behind the Duck Tape brand’s new line of scented tapes. Because why else would you ever buy scented duct tape? We decided to try a few rolls and find out.
According to the Duck Tape’s website, the scented duct tape is "sure to add a fragrant pop to your Duck Tape crafts, decorations, and repairs." And that "pop" comes in a wide variety of flavors, each one certain to transport you back to your marker-sniffing elementary school days. The new scents include bubble gum, cupcake, grape, lemon, mint, and orange cream.
First and foremost, let the record show that this sweeter smelling cousin to the handyman’s best friend is not for the faint of heart. In preparing for our smell test, I opened up about a dozen rolls of the stuff at my desk. This was, I soon discovered, a poor choice. Allow this excerpt from the Gizmodo group chat to explain:
With just one roll of tape open, the smell is arguably pleasant. Strong and a little too sweet, certainly, but nothing overtly offensive. But it’s incredible how much that scent manages to waft in all directions. After about ten minutes of messing with the rolls, I began to experience a mild burning sensation in my nose and throat. My desk mates were also less than pleased.
But potential loss of brain cells aside, Duck Tape mostly delivers. At first sniff, you can vaguely tell a difference between each type, and it’s not too hard to see what they’re trying to hint at—when you can see, that is. Our blindfolded volunteers had a hilariously difficult time distinguishing between various versions. Grape seemed to be universally easy to judge, but guessing the rest was a crapshoot.
So what would you ever actually need to use scented duct tape for? Well, nothing really. The scent seems to wear off after a few days, but just five minutes spent with the stuff was plenty for us. At about $7 a pop, it’s a fun novelty for Duck Tape enthusiasts and hoarders alike, but other than that, you’re probably better off sticking with the classic silver—a silver that’s mercifully scent-free. Your friends and family will thank you. [Duck Tape]
via Gizmodo
Scented Duct Tape Review: Why Is the Room Spinning?
The world of image editing has changed a lot in the past few years — you’re now about as likely to tweak a photo on your phone or tablet as you are on your PC. Adobe is clearly aware of this shift, as it just bought Aviary and its cloud-savvy image…
via Engadget RSS Feed
Adobe buys Aviary to bring photo editing to more mobile apps
If you’re the person friends, family and coworkers count on to fix their computers, you already know a portable USB toolkit is essential for repairs. GEGeek TechToolkit downloads hundreds of programs and updates itself.
We’ve covered portable app suites before, but GEGeek designed Tech Toolkit for computer repair technicians. It includes apps for finding malware and diagnosing computer problems. It also has portable versions off popular apps like Firefox and Reader, but mostly focuses on system diagnostic, malware removal and windows repair apps. The downloaded kit has over 250 apps.
Best of all: the suite always stays up to date. It uses Ketarin to find the latest updates for the included programs. Check it out at the link below.
GEGeek Tech Toolkit | GEGeek via GHacks
via Lifehacker
GEGeek Tech Toolkit Fixes Windows Computers and Updates Itself
A summary of 17 years of X-Men storylines.
via Super Punch
Guess what? You all know that it’s coming, when it’s coming and where… That’s right! The Annual Oracle Bloggers Meetup, one of your top favourite events of OpenWorld, is happening at usual place and time.
What: Oracle Bloggers Meetup 2014
When: Wed, 1-Oct-2014, 5:30pm
Where: Main Dining Room, Jillian’s Billiards @ Metreon, 101 Fourth Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 (street view). Please comment with “COUNT ME IN” if coming — we need to know the attendance numbers.
Traditionally, Oracle Technology Network and Pythian sponsor the venue and drinks. We will also have some cool things happening and a few prizes.
In the age of Big Data and Internet of Things, our mingling activity this year will be virtual — using an app we wrote specifically for this event, so bring your iStuff and Androids to participate and win. Hope this will work! 🙂
As usual, vintage t-shirts, ties, or bandanas from previous meetups will make you look cool — feel free to wear them.
For those of you who don’t know the history: The Bloggers Meetup during Oracle OpenWorld was started by Mark Rittman and continued by Eddie Awad, and then I picked up the flag in 2009 (gosh… 6 years already?) The meetups have been a great success for making new friends and catching up with old, so let’s keep them this way! To give you an idea, here are the photos from the OOW08 Bloggers Meetup (courtesy of Eddie Awad) and OOW09 meetup blog post update from myself, and a super cool video by a good blogging friend, Bjorn Roest from OOW13.
While the initial meetings were mostly targeted to Oracle database folks, guys and gals from many Oracle technologies — Oracle database, MySQL, Apps, Sun technologies, Java and more join in the fun. All bloggers are welcome. We estimate to gather around 150 bloggers.
If you are planning to attend, please comment here with the phrase “COUNT ME IN”. This will help us ensure we have the attendance numbers right. Please provide your blog URL with your comment — it’s a Bloggers Meetup after all! Make sure you comment here if you are attending so that we have enough room, food, and (most importantly) drinks.
Of course, do not forget to blog and tweet about this year’s bloggers meetup. See you there!
via Planet MySQL
Oracle OpenWorld 2014 – Bloggers Meetup
Over the years, we here at Gizmodo have provided you many, many examples of scientifically backed evidence to shove in the faces of lunar landing conspiracists. But this one might be the most convincing of all: Engineers used 3D modeling to prove, once and for all, that Buzz Aldrin really moonwalked.
Using photographs, video, NASA documents, and maps of the Moon, a team from Nvidia rebuilt the entire lunar landing using the Unreal Engine. After that painstaking work was finished, they used the new GTX 980, sporting Maxwell GPU architecture to address some of the beef that non-believers have with the landing. Namely, the lighting issues. People think it was too well-lit to be real.
With a GTX 980 behind the wheel, there was enough graphical horsepower for the simulation to use Voxel-Based Global Illumination, or VXGI—basically, being able to show how the light from the sun would have behaved (even, in this case, without an atmosphere). VXGI breaks down the entire image into 3D pixels which can show how light is bouncing and reflecting off every surface.
Once the team had analyzed the way the light was playing across the scene, Nvidia’s Mark Daly saw something intriguing:
It was during this research when the demo team uncovered a big clue. A video clip that showed Aldrin descending the ladder had a bright spot of light that seemed to move every time the camera did.
"When the glow started moving, I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s it,’" Daly says.
Was it an artificial light? Or – as one of NVIDIA’s senior GPU architects had suggested – was it a reflection from Armstrong’s bright white space suit? At first, Daly had dismissed the idea that Armstrong’s suit could account for some of the light illuminating Aldrin.
"You figure, ‘How much can some guy in a white suit contribute to the scene?’" Daly says.
Turns out, quite a bit. They could reproduce how that light illuminated Aldrin as he stepped onto the moon’s surface at the exact moment Armstrong snapped his photo. Inside a shot cited by Apollo 11 skeptics, Daly’s team had uncovered hidden evidence that the mission was real.
That’s right, Aldrin’s bright white suit acted as a bounce on the Moon, essentially "lighting" the scene. And that proves—YET AGAIN—that we definitely certainly and absolutely put men on the moon. [Nvidia]
via Gizmodo
New Simulation Offers Definitive Proof the Moon Landing Was Not Fake