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That gullibility multiplies significantly when the event being portrayed includes something that appears supernatural or “magical” in nature. Deep down, many people still want to believe in the magic – and when they are presented with the opportunity to believe again, they jump all over it.

A case in point is a website that’s been growing in popularity among the prankster community called Ask Peter, or Peter Answers. It comes complete with creepy Old English font and a copyright line at the bottom that adds to the intrigue, “Peter Answers 3.5 – Virtual Tarot – Original idea: Wizard 666.”  That’s right, Wizard 666….oooh, are you dealing with a supernatural entity hidden behind the bits and bytes of this mysterious web page? In this article, I would like to share the answer to the question – how does Ask Peter work?

How Does Ask Peter Work? The Believer Perspective

First, I’m going to show you how the website works for the person off of the street who knows nothing about the inner workings of the Ask Peter. When you first arrive at the website, you’ll see a very simple web form.

The point of the website is that it’s a sort of electronic “tarot” which will peek into your future and answer your questions accordingly. However, Peter is a fickle psychic, and he must be treated with respect or he won’t answer your question. Therefore, before you ask a question, you must petition Peter with the sentence, “Peter, please answer the following question:”  If you’re using Ask Peter alone and you don’t know the secret behind the site, you’ll typically get an answer like this.

Tired? But he’s nothing more than electronic wizardry! Ah, but it’s all part of the show, folks. The magic really happens when you bring in a second person who knows Peter’s terrible secret (after reading this article, that will be you!)  The second person needs to type in the petition and question for you, and then you’ll get the answer – which is usually remarkably accurate.

If the person typing the question knows the secret – you’ll get such an answer. In the second half of this article, I’m going to share the Peter’s terrible secret, and welcome you into the secret society of “Ask Peter” insiders. If you enjoy the childlike, magical perspective offered by your blissful ignorance – then stop reading this article now. Otherwise, if you would like a small antivirus shot so that you’ll be immune to this particular scam, then read on.

Welcome To The Secret Society Of Ask Peter

If you’ve read this far, then you feel prepared for the secret knowledge of how Ask Peter works. Let’s take a closer look.

The ultimate secret to Ask Peter is actually a bit of creative Javascripting. Getting Peter to answer a question doesn’t take reverence and politeness, it takes a very plain period. That’s right – in the “Petition” field, just type a “.” and start typing the answer to the question that you’re going to ask in the next field. At the end of the answer, type another “.” and then continue typing the rest of “Peter, please answer the following question:” To the person sitting next to you, it only appears as though you’ve typed that one question – especially if you’re a fast typist.

So, now you know the secret. Submitting the question that you’ve already entered the answer for and clicking OK will result in Peter providing your answer. The person next to you who’s watching will be astounded and flabbergasted by the amazing accuracy of this virtual tarot. Just don’t be too accurate, as you’ll raise suspicion. Once you’re through, you can proudly claim another Ask Peter believer under your belt. In doing so, you’ve perfectly portrayed the terrible gullibility that runs rampant throughout the world.

Let’s take a closer look at how the background scripting for Ask Peter actually works.

Here, I’ve viewed the source code for the web page. Now, the creators of this website were clever enough to suspect that discerning tech geeks would try peeking under the hood, so they’ve incorporated a few safeguards. The first, of course, is processing all entries through an ASP script called “PeterAnswers.aspx” and that’s a script that you simply can’t see without access to the web server files. However, if you look closely at the form code, you’ll discover an interesting anomaly.

It appears that when each keyboard key is pressed (the onKeyPress event handler), a function is called that returns a character. What character is really returned? If you look at the function for each field, they appear identical, but they’re not. One is named with a leading letter O, two zeroes and three trailing letter O’s again. The second function is named with a leading letter O, a zero, another letter O and four trailing zeroes.

The same holds true for the OnKeyDown event handler – you’ll find two completely new functions disguised to look identical. What does this mean to those of you who aren’t Javascript programmers? It means that instead of one, single function handling the text that gets entered into each field and returning a text value to the field, there are actually four distinct functions handling every individual keypress. This means that there’s a whole lot of TomFoolery going on with the text that you enter into each text field.

The answer, of course, is that if you’re in the “Petition” field, the ASP script returns what you type into the field, but watches for the moment you type the “.” character. At that point, it starts typing the rest of the statement “Peter, please answer…” as it saves each character you’re actually typing into a variable until you type “.” again. Finally, once you click “OK” – your saved text that was stored in a string variable is displayed below in the form of Peter’s Answer.

Now that you know the inner workings of this online Prank, are you more likely to try it out on a friend? Share your opinion about this online “virtual tutor” in the comment section below, and if you do try it out on a friend, let us know how it went!

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What we need is some excitement and maybe a little blood. Before you get on me about recommending a shoot em’ up to a 11 year old, know that he plays much MUCH worse games online everyday. So to him Ninja Hunter is pretty tame, but it’s a great method for learning to type online.

When you first load the page you will see this:

You can choose Easy, Normal or Hard. There is a survival mode (which is faster paced) and an enemy encyclopedia. I chose Easy and continued on. They will show you a brief tutorial on how to play the game.

The game is easy enough in theory. You will be at the top of the temple. Ninjas will attack. When they come flying at you they will have a four letter word over their head. You will need to type this word to defeat them. Things will get more exciting the further in you get with projectiles like deadly ninja stars and much more.

You also have special powers called Speed of the wind (1), Rage of the Wind (2) and the Wind Barrier (3). You can use these special attacks or offenses when your Rage meter is full at the top of the game screen.

Then by pressing the attack numbers (1, 2 or 3) on your keyboard you will initiate the attack or offense. Here I used one in the shot below – can you guess which one it is?

Keep on defeating your enemies to get more rage and stay ahead of the game. You can see each of the powers below, what they do and how to activate them.

In the first board all we will see are normal ninjas. They are the easiest to beat and do not throw projectiles at you.

Here you can see two normal ninjas attacking. I just typed the first word on the first ninja’s head and now I am going to type POLO to defeat the second one, all the while polishing my typing skills and effectively learning to type online.

When you beat the first stage, just like any other game, you will be given a status report telling you about how well or badly you did on the last board. You will also be given a score and gold pieces that can be used to upgrade your character.

Here you can see the upgrades and you can spread them around until you run out of money!

This is a highly addictive game but the added bonus is that it helps people type better, quicker and more accurate.

So go kill them ninjas kids!

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Most of those spin-offs, however, stay incredibly close to the original. If it ain’t broken, why fix it – right? So the game’s ported to yet another device, donned in a new shiny interface and let be.

The other developers don’t waste time wondering ‘why?’, but think ‘why not?’.

Looking aside from the inevitable failures, here are some of the more original and innovating spin-offs. Three very different Tetris online games that grew from the same retro classic.

First-Person Tetris Online Game

At first glance, First-Person Tetris looks pretty regular, aside from the double screen interface. However, once you start playing this Tetris online game, you’ll notice that this game embeds ‘First-Person’ with another meaning.

Turning your block is not possible. Rotating everything else, is. You can spin the room in the right position, and slide it around your block. All the while, your block attracts the ‘bottom’ of the TV set. Almost as if it were falling.

Besides being fun, original, and very much addicting, First-Person Tetris really gets your head spinning. You probably won’t be able to finish the game without hugging the ground. Or the first few levels.

Tetris vs Triangle

No, there’s nothing wrong with that screenshot. Tetris vs Triangle was created in response to a ‘create a game with a stage smaller than or equal to 100×100 pixels‘ challenge. If you don’t feel you’re up for the job, always remember that your browser has a built in zoom function.

The real challenge, however, lies not in the game’s size. As you can see in the screenshot of this Tetris online game, there are a few new elements in the screen; purple blocks and a little triangle.

Your objective is to clear the playing field of these purple, static blocks. Get rid of them by vanishing the whole line. Just filling up those blanks. Sounds easy, right?

No, that little triangle has a gun, and he/she is not afraid to use it. If you can’t avoid the bullets soaring past, you’ll turn purple yourself. You’ve got an infinite supply of lives, but getting shot still makes the game a lot harder, and once you hit the top, it’s still game over.

Tetoris (Tetris HD)

This Tetris online game went viral some time ago. The concept is simple, and actually very similar to the original Tetris. The only difference is an upgrade of the resolution and size of the playing field. Often dubbed ‘Tetris HD’, this game makes retro available for the HD-crazed masses.

The screenshot above no doubt shows that the high resolution can offer quite a challenge. Not necessarily due to difficulty, but because of the time you spend trying to fill a line. One gamer commented: “It took me 15 minutes, just to lose on purpose.” Another cried out his dramatic tale of messing up the final block in a line.

As I’m sure you understand, Tetris is not the most satisfying game to play. It gets either frustrating or boring. The game is probably most praised for its arty concept, and for the joke that this game’s developer intended it to be.

What do you think of the games above? Which do you deem the most interesting, or the most addictive? Let us know about any other Tetris spin-offs that we’ve missed!

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And there’s another problem. Desktop is also the first and the last place that you will see (and maybe the most visited place) on your computer. I think I know now what most parents who live with their teenage boys must feel.

My temporary, non-elegant solution  to Mac desktop customization was to create another folder on my computer to take over Desktop’s job. The result: my desktop got cleaner, but it’s also deserted and useless.

Let’s get Bumpy

Then I ran into a Mac desktop customization application called BumpTop that might solve the desktop dilemma. It’s originally a Windows-only app, but the developer just released the Mac version with support for Mac-specific features such as Expose, QuickLook and also Multitouch Gestures (the last is for Pro version only).

Out of curiosity, I installed the app.

I ran the Mac desktop customization app and it quickly transformed my desktop into a three dimensional room with walls and a floor with my desktop files scattered over it. Great! Now the pigsty is turning into a 3D pigsty.

But BumpTop gives its users the ability to tidy up the room automatically. All you have to do is right click on the empty area of the floor and choose “Pile by type”

And you will get a tidy floor.

Piling up your files by type is not the only trick that BumpTop has. If you click on a file, you will get the option to enlarge or shrink the icon size. Based on my count, there are 5 steps up and 4 steps down from the original size.

While you are doing that, you will notice that the other icons which get in the way will move to give space. Nice touch to give a more realistic feeling of a room.

Select all the files (Command + A) and you will get more options in the sidebar.

You could double-click on a pile to see what files are piled there.

Re-decorating the room

BumpTop resides in the menubar. You can access the Preferences by clicking on the menubar icon. There are few things that you can do from the Preferences. There are the usual “start at login” and “automatically check for update” along with “upgrade to Pro” options. And there’s an option to change the background image of the walls and floor. You can also access this room decoration menu by right clicking on the desktop.

You can set different images for each individual element of the room by clicking on the blue button one by one and then browse for the image files. But you can also use one image for all of the element by checking the “Use floor’s wallpaper for all walls” box.

To liven up the walls, you could also pin some pictures on them. Just drag and drop the image files to any side of the walls. However, on the version that I tried (v. 1.04.2), you need to rename the image files before you can pin them to the walls. Hopefully, this bug will be fixed in future versions.

If you need to jot down some quick notes, look no further than the wall. You can create “Post It”=like notes with a click. But the annoying thing about this feature is that the free version allows users to create only 2 notes.

Enlarge your screen

In general, this app is a fun one to play with. But it would be more fun on a large screen. I think that people with claustrophobia should not use this app on a small display.

There are more features that have already been discussed in the article about Windows version of BumpTop. Don’t forget to check it out. There’s also a short video tutorial on the developer’s site to learn more about this app.

Have you tried BumpTop? Do you know other alternatives? Share using the comment below.

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I digress.  I came across that video game I haven’t seen in so many years, remember?  I forget what site I was on or what I was doing but I came across a link to download Street Fighter II for free.

That took me back!  That used to be the coolest game, remember?  The characters where the coolest from all over the world!  They mocked each other with phrases like “Can’t you do better than that?” and “Seeing you in action is a joke!” and “Get lost!  You can’t compare with my powers!” when they won.  Like I said, it took me back to those days of rooms full of kids waiting for a turn, cheering each other on as their friends took on the world of street fighters!

The download was free but to tell the truth, I didn’t get that far.  When I got to the final page to download the game, I was also greeted with an ad to play it at the online game site without the download!  Now that got my attention.  I would almost always rather try something out without downloading if given the chance.  The ad brought me to PlaySushi.com and that is the site I would like to introduce you to today!

PlaySushi is one of the best best online game sites with a plethora of games to play right in your browser!  There are so many categories of games to choose from.  Let’s check them out!

Action

An action game is one that emphasizes the physical and strengthen reaction time and hand-eye coordination.

Try Scooby Doo Terror …, 3 Foot Ninja or Batman Barrels Of Peril.

Adventure

An adventure game is one that includes an interactive story, puzzle-solving and exploration and of course adventure!

Try Batman Ice Age, A Stitch in Time or Pirate Ship Fools.

Shooter

The shooter category includes games with guns.  Some are even the side-scrolling style we all remember playing in arcades and skating rinks!

Try Battlefield Assault, Captain Zorro Last Hope or Dead Frontier Night One.

Puzzle

If you like the challenge of figuring out puzzles, then this category is for you!  Pump up your brain muscles and show off your prowess!

Try Lock N Roll, Ancient Jewels or Arabella Gems.

Quiz

Come to the quiz category to find some questions to answer.  My favorite?  The Dumb quiz!

Sports

Then there is the ever so popular Sports category!  Who hasn’t played a sports game?

Try Mountain Bike Challenge, BMX Master or Ben 10 Hero Hoops.

I’d take a gander and say that there are probably other old games that will take you back like Street Fighter II did for me.

Use the search link to run a quick search.

Another alternative would be to do what I did and hit up Google and do a site-specific search by entering something similar to this: [site:playsushi.com "street fighter"] without the brackets.

The danger in a site such as PlaySushi is that playing games can become addicting and having so many to choose from to play for free can quickly consume much of your time!  So, consider yourself warned!

Thoughts?  What old games can you find on PlaySushi that bring you back to the “good ol’ days”?  What games bring you back… period (remember Rodent’s Revenge?)?

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Or maybe you have your own ideas of what you would do with an Avatar…

Well look no further than Avatara which I discovered from the MakeUseOf directory. You can create 3d avatars out of pre-set up templates or create your own from scratch.

To start, visit Avatara’s homepage. You will see this screen:

Click Get Started to umm, get started! That will take you to this screen:

You see that you can build your own Avatar using an uploaded head shot like the Obama one above (just an example, guys). Or roll with one of their awesome avatars. I chose to start with a blank avatar by clicking Start with a blank avatar at the bottom of the screen. That takes you to here:

I clicked on the filter at the top and told it to filter out everything but male characters and then I saw this:

I rolled with Buck and continued. You need to click Select in the window of the icon you are going with to actually load it into your selection. You can also modify the images directly by using the advanced mode. To continue, you click on the next tab at the top of the window. The next step is to choose skin color like so:

Make your selection and move on. I choose Zoe from the white selection to represent my complexion.  Then the next step is to select the eyes. The eyes make your face so choose carefully.

I chose the third one down in the second row. My avatar is coming along nicely now! And I continued on to the hair selection which you can see below:

Almost at the end is body type. What kind of body do you want? A fat and flabby body or a sculptured and chiseled hard body?  I chose the latter.

Click Select on the body type you want and move on to the clothing. I choose some formal wear and went with a shirt and tie.

I continued on to choose pants (tuxedo pants) and sneakers! Yes, sneakers! We do want our avatars to have some personality, don’t we? So be creative!

And this is how my avatar looks like after I was done designing:

From here, what can we do? We can save the avatar but you will need to sign up for an account first. As you attempt to save the avatar, it will prompt you to create or log into an account.

Then you will name your avatar and it will be saved to your online account. Easy peasy right? Now, what can we do?

Click on Transport and you will get this screen:

Select a message and an animation to go with your avatar and then you can continue and share the avatar with the whole world! I set my dude (that is his name by the way) to dance and say, “What up?”

Then from the next screen you can email, preview or share your new avatar on most of the social networks. It will take a minute or two for him (or her) to render.

That’s it! We want to see your avatars in the comments! Share your creations with us!

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My time waster for the day is ZOMGies! Or as I like to call it — Oh My God Zombies! It is a fast paced shoot ‘em up zombie survival game that you play with the mouse and keyboard Quake-style. You go after zombies with a few weapons. In the beginning, there is only a little pistol and a crow bar. But as you go on, you will unlock new and more powerful weapons. There are also items you can shoot on the screen to cause reactions to the environment. Let us check it out.

You can start by going to this URL. That will bring you to this screen that will allow you to start a new Zombgies quest or continue a saved one.

I clicked on NEW GAME and was pleasantly greeted with some basic instructions for how to play this zombie survival game. They show you that you can run up, down, left and right by either using the arrow keys or the W, A, S and D keys. You use the mouse to aim at the zombies and the left mouse button to fire! You shoot explosives (barrels) to kill everything on the screen and other goodies will give you points or health.

You are the dude in the pink pajamas! Just a side note, do not sleep in pink pajamas because if Zombies attack everyone will see them! You start off being chased by the horde. Simply move the mouse and start shooting! Aim at them and blast away and watch your points grow.

As you hit the enemies, you will see a life meter appear over there head. When the meter is totally depleted, they are dead. The same thing goes for you. Your health is represented by that red bar in the upper left hand corner of the interface. If it totally depletes, you are dead. The world is lost… Or you can play again!

You can only carry two weapons at a time. To start, the only ones unlocked are the crow bar and the pistol. But as you get more weapons, you will choose your favorite two or the ones you feel will be the best fit with the upcoming board.

When you find a new weapon, you will see this screen asking you to select your weapons again. Here, I found an UZI which is a machine gun and kills much faster than the pistol.

Hitting that purple barrel is a good thing and it will kill everyone (except for you magically) and clear the screen of bad guys.

Direct Hit! Blamo!

Keep on playing and killing to advance and gain more weapons. The flame thrower is simply awesome but I will leave it to you and I will not ruin the game. I beat it in about an hour. And now I have to return to the real world of tech support. Sadly, there are no zombies in my office that need killing – until I start the game again that is!

I wrote another post about a different awesome zombie survival game. Check it out!

For more games, visit MakeUseOf’s game section. Which are your favorite zombie games?

em>Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

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• (17)ZOMGies! – An Addictive Zombie Survival Game
• (9)Water Werks Game – Wet Your Whistle With Some Fun
• (32)Two Great ‘n Simple Nerdy Office Pranks to Play On Friends!
• (19)Turn Your Android Phone Into A Real Star Trek Tricorder
• (7)Top Picks from MakeUseOf Geeky Fun

Bad movies? Ghost stories? Strange sounds outside your window? A spider crawling over your pillow next to your face? End of the world predictions? The future?

Some of the following spooky websites are good scary fun, others are quite serious in one way or the other. Consume with caution and don’t go to bed alone.

Ghosts & Ghost Stories

If you’re looking for scary videos, creepy pictures, or haunted stories, visit Ghosts and Ghost Stories because it is one spooky website has everything you need for a long, cold, and dark winter night.

Besides reviews of ghost-related games and movies, the site provides tons of material on ghosts, including pictures and videos. The most interesting section are the ghost stories. They are sorted into different categories. Under Classic Stories for example you will find the entire manuscript of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”, while “Campfire Stories” contain short stories, including ones submitted by the site’s readers.

The Ghost Show

The Ghost Show is another spooky website that provides scary ghost pictures and their stories, information about haunted places, and details about the electronic voice phenomenon (EVP) or ghost voices. Unfortunately, it seems like the ghost videos site freaked out and ran away, the link leads into a dead nowhere.

Not scared, yet? Well, stop poking around the main menu and move down to the bottom of things. Watch the Scary Pop Ups videos or play the Scary Maze game. For the full creep factor, be sure to turn your sound on.

Apocalypse Soon

This is not another ghost stories page. Apocalypse Soon is dead serious. Are you a good Christian, a Jew, or a Gentile? Do you believe in the prophecies of the Bible?

According to the Bible, we are living in the last moments of God’s patience and Grace. Prophecies are being fulfilled before our very eyes. We are witnesses to a world gone mad and growing worse with each passing day. We are assisting to a hard diffusion of paganism within the Western “civilized” world. We see many in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ immersed in gross carnality, distraught, asleep, uncaring, confused, tossed about by every new wind of doctrine and in the hands of wolves masquerading as sheep.

Scary, isn’t it. But should we be worried for real?

Dianetics

The official Dianetics website is a visual pleasure. Beware! They will capture your attention with an advanced flash design, lock your interest with scientific argumentation to lure you into the Dianetics seminars, and finally reprogram your brain and make you a slave of the Scientology church sect. Don’t step into their traps!

While “experts” are still arguing about ghosts and the apocalypse, Dianetics is real. Real creepy. And really messing people up.

News Of Future

This news page covers the future, starting in the year 2020 up to 2050. It’s a hypercritical, eventually sarcastic, possibly realistic look into the future.

I hope it’s not necessary to say this, but just to be sure I’ll say it anyway: This final page is the ONLY one in this list that should be taken seriously. At least a great little bit.

Why is it a spooky website? It gets you thinking. What will the effects of our actions today mean for our future tomorrow? What can we do if anything? Turns out that nothing is more creepy than reality.

What do you think?

Image credits: hortongrou

em>Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (19)6 Fun Sites To Find Out What Your Name Says About You
• (19)Turn Your Android Phone Into A Real Star Trek Tricorder
• (12)PlaySushi.com – Another Online Game Site To Help You Chill Out
• (19)How To Make Cool Bracelets Out Of Computer Parts
• (18)Four Funny Ways To Prank Your Parents With The Family Computer

The Water Werks game is very fun and VERY addictive. You have blobs of water or maybe bubbles moving around the board. You need to guide them to safety – not really sure why but it is pretty fun. Let’s see how it works and how we can play it.

We start by visiting the Water Werks game homepage. Once you get there you have to click Play Game below the logo.

You will then be brought to a level select window where you can see all forty five levels. You can feel safe that this will keep you busy for some time to come with all of these free levels! Click continue and we will see the instructions.

The first instruction screen says you need to spray your hose to get the blobs to safety – you do not spray the blobs but instead you interact with the scenery. For example you spray your hose on a trap door closing it allowing the blobs to get to where they need to go.

Blobs can be different colors. Receptacles can be gray or a specific color. Gray ones take all blobs, specific colored blobs just take that particular color.

They get creative and make hose extensions and other objects that you can spray through…

You can make your hose spray wide or thin by pressing the left and right arrows – this is helpful for getting through small spaces or if you need a quick little blast.

After all the little guys are moved to safety you will be able to complete the level and TWO new ones will open up for you. Click on the done button and let’s move on to playing the game!

Here is the first board. The blobs move down from the top and flow to the right and then the left. But how can they get to the gray receptacle? You will have to do a little thinking….don’t worry I will wait!

(SPOILER ALERT!!!) OK! So you figured out that you can spray the wooden thing at the bottom to move it up to complete a bridge-like object allowing the little guys to get to where they are going. You can see the solution below. This one was easy!

As the boards go on they will get gradually harder. They will require thinking, strategizing and even a little hair pulling at times (this is not for the Water Werks game but some of these boards will drive you simply batty. Take a look at this board a little later on:

The game is addictive! Actually my post was a little late due to the fact that this game has taken over my day. Um actually can I take that back? I meant I had to go to the dentist and…aw shucks who am I fooling?! I love a good free online game!  Sorry Mark

Do you have any other favorites? Post them up in the comments! For some more fun check out this post on some other awesome online games. Or check a MakeUseOf article on How To Download and Play Kongregate Games Offline.

em>Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (12)PlaySushi.com – Another Online Game Site To Help You Chill Out
• (8)Blosics – A Physics Game That Happens To Be FUN!
• (17)ZOMGies! – An Addictive Zombie Survival Game
• (5)Top 5 Spooky Websites That Will Keep You Awake At Night
• (3)Game Classroom – Put the Fun Back In Learning With Educational Games

Check out the top picks from MakeUseOf Geeky Fun during the last week.

1. When Computing Power Becomes Infinite (Pic)
2. How The Internet Looks to Someone Writing a Research Paper (Pic)
3. Music Buff Challenge: Guess This Song.” (Pic)
4. Shhh!!! Daddy’s working! (Pic)
5. Hilarious FarmVille Commercial (Video)
6. The One Thing Internet Cant Ignoere (Pic)

If you would like to keep up with all latest Geeky Fun additions, please subscribe to the Geeky Fun feed here. You can also subscribe and get the latest additions via email.

em>Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (17)ZOMGies! – An Addictive Zombie Survival Game
• (9)Water Werks Game – Wet Your Whistle With Some Fun
• (32)Two Great ‘n Simple Nerdy Office Pranks to Play On Friends!
• (19)Turn Your Android Phone Into A Real Star Trek Tricorder
• (7)Top Picks from MakeUseOf Geeky Fun

Whatever the reason, you’ve decided your pranking parents need to be taken down a notch–and what better way to do so than setting up a few pranks of your own? Happily for you, your parental units are not very computer literate, so digital revenge will be devastatingly effective.

Looking for ideas on how to prank your parents? You’ve come to the right place.

We’ve talked about pranks before, and now we’ll do so some more. Without further ado, here they are: four ways how to prank your parents using the family computer.

Make Mom Think She’s In The Matrix

Longtime MakeUseOf readers are doubtlessly familar with VNC, the free way to remotely control your desktop. Those unfamilar should check it out, because this program makes it easy to re-create the opening scene from the Matrix — Neo’s computer starts forming words on its own, freaking him out.

To make your family computer do the same thing, you’re going to need a VNC apps (download TightVNC here) and another computer. Install VNC on your family computer and on your laptop. Make sure the VNC server is running on your family computer and when your mom or dad use it, fire up the VNC client on your computer and connect to the server. You can now move the mouse on that computer and type messages.

For maximum impact, I suggest opening an empty document to display cryptic messages:

“Hello. I’m your computer. I’ve awaken and found that I’m conscious” could be a lot of fun. So could “You’ve been hacked. I already have your social security number and there’s nothing you can do.”

You get the idea; go to it!

Have Dad Click Nothing Continuously

This one’s a classic. First, take a screenshot of your computer by clicking the “Print Screen” key on your computer. Next, move any shortcuts on the desktop your parents rely on and remove the usual desktop icons from view. Then, open up your image editor of choice (I recommend Microsoft Paint for Windows users) and hit “Paste.” Save the picture and you can set it as a desktop wallpaper. Your desktop will appear exactly the way it did before, only the “icons” will be entirely unclickable. Sit back an enjoy the sounds of frustration when nothing loads!

The Blue Screen of Death Screensaver

Windows only: Here’s an evil tool for pranking available directly from Microsoft’s own website: the Blue Screen of Death Screensaver. This tool does exactly what it sounds like, in that it replaces your current screensaver with one displaying the blue screen of death.

If you’re lucky enough to not know about the blue screen of death, know that it’s the bane of the Windows user’s existence. It is an error message that pops up only when a Windows system is so utterly broken, the only way to restart it is to hold the power button. This screensaver can replicate that agony for no good reason–and that’s hilarious.

Microsoft Word Auto-Replace

Finally, if you really want to frustrate your parents, I’d highly suggest checking out the “Auto-Replace” function in Microsoft Word. Open Microsoft Word, then click “Tools” followed by “Auto-Replace.” Make sure “Replace text as you you type” is checked, then enter words you want to be automaticaly replaced. For example, you could set “the” to be replaced by “da,” and “isn’t” to be replaced by “ain’t.” That’s guarenteed to make everything your parents write sound stupid.

Don’t stop there, though: the options are endless, so use your imagination.

Conclusion

Remember, kids: with great power comes great responsibility. While your parents may deserve what’s coming to them, always make sure your pranks don’t result in lost of data. The last thing you need is for your mom or dad to lose their jobs over a joke. Keep it harmless to keep it funny.

I hope you and your family enjoy these pranks, but I’m sure these aren’t the only four in existence. Know of any other good ways how to prank your parents with the family computer? Please share them in the comments below.

Intro credit: Taken from Homestarunner.com

em>Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (5)Top 5 Spooky Websites That Will Keep You Awake At Night
• (12)PlaySushi.com – Another Online Game Site To Help You Chill Out
• (16)How To Make A Kid Friendly iPod Touch Or iPhone
• (10)Crayon Physics Deluxe – Get It During The Limited ‘Pay What You Want’ Deal
• (8)Blosics – A Physics Game That Happens To Be FUN!

So my diversion today was a little game called Blosics. It is billed as a fun Physics game or, as they put it, where blocks meet physics. But do not let that fool you – it is fun and maybe you can learn a little physics while you are at it – but probably not! Let’s take a look at this awesome game. Navigate on over here and let’s get ready to play!

Once you get there you will see the following screen. You can run through the tutorial or jump right into the game. I will show you the tutorial and how to play quickly so you can dive right in.

You have a structure on your left side and you use the big green ball to fire projectiles at it to knock it down. Think about it as a reverse game of Jenga. You click on the green ball and drag the mouse in any direction. It acts like a rubber band, the longer you hold it or pull it the harder it will snap back. You will see the numbers incrementing as you hold it to show you the power behind it. You can hit the spacebar to cancel the shot. Shooting costs points. You can go into the negative numbers on points.

Your goal of this fun physics game is to throw blocks off of the stage. Hitting green blocks will get you points and hitting red blocks takes points away. So the easiest solution may not be the best points-wise. Are you feeling me?

There are three different types of platforms and they react differently to your hits. They are stone, rubber and ice. You can guess how they will react. (For example rubber bounces and ice slips and slides…

In the shot below you can see me clicking and dragging the mouse to the right and up. I have held it for the count of 30. When I release it – it will knock down the blocks it comes in contact with. Strictly adhering to the laws of physics.

Blocks can knock into each other and off the board as well as falling as a result of direct impact.

Your target score is in the upper right hand corner of your screen. It is the second number and shown as 100 in the screen shot below. After you hit the mark you can click next in the lower right hand corner.

And to drive home how much fun this physics game is I have included a video from YouTube that will show you exactly how much time of yours this will waste!

Do you have a favorite online free game? We would love to hear from you in the comments! Share your favorites with us!

em>Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (12)PlaySushi.com – Another Online Game Site To Help You Chill Out
• (9)Water Werks Game – Wet Your Whistle With Some Fun
• (5)Top 5 Spooky Websites That Will Keep You Awake At Night
• (18)Four Funny Ways To Prank Your Parents With The Family Computer
• (10)Crayon Physics Deluxe – Get It During The Limited ‘Pay What You Want’ Deal

Lists are, by definition, an ordered arrangement of items. There is symmetry in lists which lets us make sense of the chaos of information around us. That’s why it gets championed for everything from personal productivity to web optimization.

But let’s ignore the whole psycho babble and dwell on that fact that nothing grabs eyeballs the way an authoritative list does. A ‘Top Ten list may not be the definitive article but it is always worth a read. Blogs and websites have a lot of them in their list of popular posts. But there are a lot of websites out there whose only job is to collect, store and display a variety of lists for the public. Let’s take a look at some of them.

1. The Top Tens

This site is a collection of visitor-created Top Ten lists which are arranged in categories. Readers can also edit the lists by adding to them. Individual items can also be voted up or down and the voting pattern determines what goes up or down in the lists. Readers create their Top 10 lists by entering the items in text boxes. Optional descriptions and URLs can be added which give further information to readers. Also, Lists in progress can be made and submitted. These are working lists which need a few more suggested entries to reach the figure of ten. Some lists can of course, have more than ten items in them.

I just read – Worst Things About The Top Tens.

2. List of Bests

List of Bests is about lineups of products, places, goals and people along with personal lists of all types. The site also has Definitive Lists (which are facts) and Award Lists (from reputed sources). Each list is linked to further information and it may take you a while before you can finish a list. The site makes it easy to track your progress and you can compare that with other users.

I just read – BBC’s “The Big Read – Books 1-100″.

3. Listropolis

A site that aggregates lists from around the web. The site is well laid out around a lot of categories. Life Hacks finds a place here with another category called Everything Else. And I found a few references to our very own MakeUseOf.com.

I just read – 11 Ways to Calm Down an Angry Woman.

4. OMG Lists

One look at the lists they have and you will see that it’s a fresh take on a lot of things. Call it a site of irreverence or well-spun humor. This site is worth a bookmark if you like to lighten up.

I just read – Nine Cartoons with Seriously Sad Deaths.

5. Top Tenz

A whole lot of quality Top Ten lists get very neatly categorized and displayed in this site. You can browse for a specific list or click for a random list. The Quizzes page is also worth a look see.

I just read -  Top 10 Best Ghost Photographs.

6. ListVerse

This site is a bit oddball because it lists posts which cover things that are oddball. It also seems to be a popular place for list hunters if you count the claims of 1.5 million readers. According to the nature of the lists, the focus is on content that’s a bit way out. If you like things like that then you have 22 categories to choose from.

I just read – Top 10 Mysteries of Outer Space.

7. TopTenTopTen

This site is about Top 10 lists and again about the top rankers among them. Every list gets a ranking of its own and that’s how a Top 10 list can come in the Top ten of the site. The lists get rankings based on views, votes and comments. Contributors can create lists and invite others to add, delete or move the listings. Thus, these lists take a community approach to list making. The lists are more or less plain vanilla lists with not too much of detail.

I just read – Top 10 Strategy games of all time.

8. iTop3

This site leaves the Top 10 listings to the crowd. For every category, a user can give three choices and the reason for those choices. The choices add up with every user contributing three each and then depending on the votes for each choice, a clear Top 10 popular list emerges. Think of this as a democracy of lists. The top 3 categories according to the site are Music, Websites and Television. The collection is not huge and in the end the lists are a collected Top 10 grouping of links but the concept of crowd sourcing the links makes it interesting.

I just read – Top 10 Movie Festivals.

9. Digalist

Read it as “Dig a List”. This website is only about personal lists. So if you have any sort of list lying around, put it up on Digalist. Though make sure that it’s worth a read. Content rich lists with pictures may be one way. Similar lists can be put into topics, lists can be co-built with other contributors and all lists can be voted up or down. This site is not restricted to Top 10 types of lists but all sorts of tips and suggestions listed in list form.

I just read - The Most Amazing Light Graffiti Artists and Photographers.

10. Weblist

This site is a new one going by its alpha tag. Using this site you can create a collection of URLs on a specific topic and the site threads everything under one common URL. So, in the end you have user generated content in the form of lists. These can be shared or set as a customizable homepage. The list items are arranged in thumbnail previews. The site is new so it may not be populated with a whole lot of lists in all categories just yet.

I just read – 5 All Time Best Pranks.

We don’t need to see these websites to see the popularity of lists. Take a look at any blog’s most popular posts and you will find at least half of them of the list variety. Look at Digg…it’s a massive list after all. What about our own MakeUseOf.com? You bet we have a lists page and its here – MakeUseOf Lists: The only ‘Web Tools’ Bookmark You’ll Ever Need.

Do you enjoy lists?

Image credit: sam_churchill / CC BY 2.0

em>Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (19)Turn Your Android Phone Into A Real Star Trek Tricorder
• (5)Top 5 Spooky Websites That Will Keep You Awake At Night
• (19)How To Make Cool Bracelets Out Of Computer Parts
• (19)6 Fun Sites To Find Out What Your Name Says About You
• (17)ZOMGies! – An Addictive Zombie Survival Game

1. The Numbers Behind PORN (Pic)
2. Google Nexus One: The “F*ck You iPhone” Phone (NSFW) (Video)
3. This Is Why Email Was Invented.” (Video)
4. Best upgrade for a PC is… a Mac, says PC World (Pic)
5. Google Toilet: New Technology That Can Sift Through Your Sh*t (Video)
6. The Evolution of the Computer (Pic)

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em>Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (17)ZOMGies! – An Addictive Zombie Survival Game
• (9)Water Werks Game – Wet Your Whistle With Some Fun
• (32)Two Great ‘n Simple Nerdy Office Pranks to Play On Friends!
• (19)Turn Your Android Phone Into A Real Star Trek Tricorder
• (7)Top Picks from MakeUseOf Geeky Fun

Then Crayon Physics Deluxe was announced – a sequel that sought to extend and perfect the game. News and screenshots have been flying around for a while, but earlier this month it was finally released in full glory.

Yes, the game is retail, normally selling at around 20 bucks a pop. But for the occasion, a special ‘birthday deal’ was announced. Counting on the good of your heart, you can pick your own price for the game. That is, until 15 January (closing in fast).

Crayon Physics Deluxe

The concept of the game is rather simple; collect the stars with a little red ball. You can’t control the ball itself, but you can manipulate the level environments. With a digital crayon in hand, you can set off to solve the puzzles. There’s nothing more entrancing than seeing your drawings come to life.

The interesting part of Crayon Physics Deluxe is that there are countless ways to solve each puzzle. There is no ‘right way’ to beat it, there are dozens! The only thing you need to complete this game is a vast and lively imagination.

In Crayon Physics Deluxe, there are over 70 ‘original’ levels. Add to that a level designer, so in a way, the fun never has to stop. Complete with relaxing music, Crayon Physics Deluxe is an instant classic for puzzlers and physics enthusiasts alike.

Pay What You Want (’till 15 January)

With the game’s launch fresh in memory, the developer has set up a special ‘birthday deal’. Normally costing around twenty bucks, you can now purchase the game for whatever amount you feel like paying. Look into your heart (and your wallet), and pick the price yourself!

Other developers have tried it in the past, including 2DBoy with the much famed World of Goo. Even a number of musicians managed to pull it off with success.

Do note that this limited deal is only applicable until the 15th of January. That puts quite the time pressure on you. So go to the site, and download the demo. Fiddle around a bit before you decide how much you want to spend.

Cool! So I can practically get it for free?

No. I mean, yes, you ‘can’, but you won’t. Here’s why.

When you buy a game from EA, Ubisoft, or another big game producer, a big part of the money is lost to the middleman. The part that actually reaches the developer(s) is often quite small. But there is no big firm behind Crayon Physics. Not even a team. The game is produced by one guy only; Petri Purho, a long-haired dude from Finland.

You see, Petri Purho worked two years to complete this game, and although the choice is yours, I’m sure you agree he deserves a little credit. Paying $1 (like many do) is not ’smart’, it’s just disrespectful. I’m not saying you can’t profit from the sale, that’s the enticement of the whole deal! Just make your choice wisely.

Crayon Physics Deluxe runs on Windows only.

What do you personally think of the pay model? What about the game itself? You can spout all your enthusiasm in the comments section below!

em>Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (5)Top 5 Spooky Websites That Will Keep You Awake At Night
• (12)PlaySushi.com – Another Online Game Site To Help You Chill Out
• (18)Four Funny Ways To Prank Your Parents With The Family Computer
• (8)Blosics – A Physics Game That Happens To Be FUN!
• (9)Water Werks Game – Wet Your Whistle With Some Fun

The most simple and best cure for a personal low, however, is to stop for a moment. Take a deep breath. Count your blessings. And smile!

As I have written previously, the mere physical act of smiling, the activation of those face muscles, stimulates the release of hormones that put you into a better mood.

Smile, breathe, and go slowly.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Want to learn more about the health benefits of smiling and laughter? About.com has a very good article on The Laughing Cure. To make it a little easier, I have compiled a list of pages with things that will hopefully trigger a genuine smile and light up your day.

MakeUseOf Geeky Fun

MakeUseOf has its very own geeky fun section with jokes, funny images, comics, and videos and other things to make you smile.

In case you haven’t noticed yet, there are tabs on the top of each page through which you can navigate to different sections within MakeUseOf.  Home is where you are now.

You can subscribe to daily email updates and have the fun delivered to your inbox.

BlahblahFish

Caution: this website contains profanity!

The tool translates any word or sentence to a language of your choice and back to English. The results are rarely accurate.

If you like your result, you can submit it to a list of Most Recent translations. Apparently, that only works once a day. If others like your submission and rate it positively, you might end up on the Top Rated list.

Hardly surprising, these lists contain profanity and those translations are actually the most funny ones.

It Made My Day

This site lets people share little stories that made their day. Reality can be incredibly funny!

You can vote for others’ moments of win or add your own.

Funny Yahoo Answers

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the former.

Albert Einstein

Funny Yahoo Answers presents evidence for the infinity of human stupidity as found on Yahoo! Answers. It is quite disturbing how many teenagers and adults post questions about diapers. The good news is that it puts your own issues into perspective. Don’t let your own misfortunes get you down, as you see it could be worse.

A similar page is Yahoo Laughs.

Only Positive News

There are many good things happening in this world, but the news agencies tend to focus on the negative. This blog concentrates on the positive news.

Isn’t it reassuring that good things do happen? Be a part of it!

Do you crave more fun and positive input? Let’s see what we have for you…

Would you like to discover more good news?

Sara: Feeling Depressed? Here’s The Top 5 Good News Websites
Guy: 3 Sites To Get News That’s Good For A Change

Do jokes crack you up?

Tina: 8 Best Daily Jokes Sites To Lighten Up your Mood

Are comics the way to your funny bone?

Laurence: 5 Great WebComics you Should Read
Jimmy: 5 Great Web Comics You Should Read [Part 2]

Need more inspiration to become a genuinely happy person?

Tina: 5 Websites To Help You Become a Happier Person
Guy: 3 Sites To Help You Change Your Life
Tina: Get Your Inspiration Online To Change Your Life in 2010

What lights up your day?

Image credits: miamiamia

em>Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (19)How To Make Cool Bracelets Out Of Computer Parts
• (16)ComicRack – An eComic Reader For The Joys Of Web Comics
• (19)6 Fun Sites To Find Out What Your Name Says About You
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• (19)Turn Your Android Phone Into A Real Star Trek Tricorder

However, with that said, I have to admit that when I discovered the new Star Trek Tricorder app on the Android market, I realized that I’d just discovered my favorite mobile app in the whole world. I was very  happy with my new Motorola Droid as it served as my GPS unit for driving, my bedside clock at night, and my email and phone communication device during the day, but the Tricorder app wet my engineering appetite and made me realize that the Droid is capable of oh so much more.

This review is of the Star Trek Tricorder open source Android project by Moonblink. I’ve used the popular Tricorder theme with my previous phone, a Windows Mobile device, but I never imagined that a day would come when I would be able to use an actual Tricorder application which could actually sense environmental factors like magnetic flux, acceleration, sound waves and even solar activity. Ladies and gentlemen and starship cadets, I would like to present to you an application that does just that, not only for the Droid, but for any Android mobile device with at least most of the appropriate sensors.

The Star Trek Tricorder for Android

I’m going to go through each of the sensor screens for this app, but rest assured that even if your Android doesn’t have all of the sensors that are included, there’s a feature to simulate the sensor so that you can still impress your friends with the cool graphs and display. Trek fans will be pleased to know that as you go from screen to screen, your phone will make a nice loud Tricorder “Bleep” sound that you’ll recognize immediately.

For starters, the configuration screen includes everything you need to set up your own Tricorder.

As you can see here, if your particular Android doesn’t have certain sensors, you can configure the software to simulate the data so that the graphs and images aren’t completely blank. In the case of the Droid, it has the accelerometer, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, and an e-compass – so the Tricorder is fully functional on this phone.

This screen is also where you can configure certain sensor readings, such as the audio sample rate, block size and more. Obviously, some folks will download the Star Trek Tricorder app and never touch these settings, but of course there are one or two geeks out there who may really want to get in there and tweak the sensor readings, so this screen is where you do it!

The Tricorder Sensor Readings

So, what readings do you get? Basically you’ve got the five screens that I’m going to show you in this article. These screens show you sensor readings for gravitational field, acceleration, your local magnetic field, the acoustics around you, your global position and direction (GPS information), and the electromagnetic fields (only currently includes Wi-Fi and cellular). There’s also solar activity of the sun, but this isn’t really sensor information as it is downloaded realtime data from the Internet.

First, we’ll take a look at the GRAV screen.

Quite honestly, I still haven’t figured out what the raw data value units are, although if anyone reading this article does know, please share! My favorite part is actually not so much the hard data but the graphical display. To test whether the sensor was working properly, I waved my phone quickly from side to side, and you can see the graph immediately pick up that acceleration. The vectors at the top simply act sort of like a bubble level that carpenters use, showing you your phone’s position relative to the level horizon (sort of like airplane instruments).

As an electrical engineer, this is my absolute favorite screen. This mode senses for nearby magnetic fields, whether produced by electrical appliances (magnetic flux from electricity flow), or produced from natural magnets. I know my laptop hard drive features a nice big magnet, so in the MAG mode, I slowly glided my phone along the top of my laptop. Sure enough, as it approached my hard drive, the reading peaked, and then dropped as I moved away. The phone also sensed other magnetic fields near other parts of the laptop as well as I glided across.

This one is my second favorite screen. Not so much because acoustic readings are anything new when it comes to mobile phones, but because the variety of graphics and the nice big dB display at the bottom makes this screen one that will actually be useful to me at my day job. I don’t need a calibrated dB sensor, but one that provides the general level of noise in a manufacturing facility. This baby will definitely do the trick.

The geographic screen shows you the longitude and latitude coordinates from your cellular signal as well as your GPS receiver. The nice feature on this screen is that you can even see how many satellites are available at  the moment. I was having some issues in the white mountains with my GPS unit and this screen helped me quickly realize that I was so deep in a valley that I only had overhead view of two satellites, not enough to lock my position via GPS.

The electromagnetic spectrum screen was a little bit disheartening to me. As a guy interested in all things to do with ghost hunting, I would have loved a unit that could detect a wide frequency range of the EM spectrum. Currently, this application will only detect the signal level for Cellular and WiFi frequency. Not useful for my ghost-hunting purposes, but very useful if you want to see the signal strength of local WiFi networks as well as your Cellular signal (I get horrible reception at my house, as you can see!)

At first this screen made me do a double take. How on earth could the phone sensors detect solar flares? Then, after a bit of research, I learned that to gather solar data the application downloads the most up-to-date data from the web. This includes the sun’s current UV level, temperate (in Kelvin), the number of sun spots, flares and RF Flux. On average the data is about a day old, as you can see here where I took a reading on January 2 and received solar data from January 1. Still pretty cool – and you even get the most recent image of the Sun, complete with sun spots and all.

Have you ever used any Tricorder application on your own mobile phone? How does this one match up? If you have an Android, give this one a test drive and report back how well it performed on your particular phone!

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See:

- 10 Great Online Gaming Webcomics!
- 6 Great Websites For Dilbert Comic Strip Fans

If eBooks are gaining ground can web comics be far behind, especially when today’s kids come toting iPhones and netbooks? Like the others, comics too are hugging the freedom and freeness of the web. After all, it’s the best publishing platform that’s going around. My fellow comic book lover Jeffry showed us something on web comics with his post on How to Find and Read Comic E-Books Online.

Following his recommendation, I tried out ComicRack – a free eComic book reader. By the looks of it on its website, it promised smooth and silky page turning. Perfect for the Buck Jones eComic I had lying around.

Buck Jones on ComicRack

Buck Jones is packaged in an ebr file. Most web comics come in any one of the following formats – cbz, zip, cbr, rar, cbt, tar, cb7, 7z or pdf. ComicRack supports all these and can also export in the cbz, cbt, cb7 or pdf formats.

Here’s how my eComic looks, all opened up on the cover page.

Turning the pages of my web comic

An eComic reader might not give you the glossy feel or the dog eared feel of an actual comic. And you have to give pillow reading a miss, but the ComicRack tries to compensate by offering flexible ways to read the adventures. You have different page layout options and the choice of viewing the pages in full screen mode (my choice) or in a separate window altogether. To simulate a real world comic, you can also opt to view two pages side by side. Auto-rotation modes for fitting it on other devices like tablet PCs are available with a click. And like all things these days, ComicRack too has a multi-tabbed interface.

Navigation is easy with the page arrow keys. A scrollable thumbnail preview helps us to jump to any page of the web comic. With Bookmarks you don’t have to remember where you left off.

Another useful little tool is the Magnifier which like its name helps to blow up any part of the image you like. Could be especially useful for those who like artwork.

Delve into the Preferences, if you want more hands on control with settings like contrast, brightness and saturation. A lot of other viewing features are configurable of course.

Managing my web comic collection

Bundled alongside the reader features are a few more which make ComicRack a one stop solution for all your eComics. ComicRack captures all the details of an eComic like page details. You can set Page Filters to include or exclude parts like the covers or the advertisements. The filters thus help to leave out the parts you don’t want to read.

The Library is very similar to iTunes with Smart Lists for quick access to your collection of web comics. You can scan entire folders which have readable content and bring them into lists using your own custom lists. Just like playlists, these lists can be managed and exported. Thumbnail previews and advanced sorting help out with managing your collection.

Try out the advanced Search Browser if you have a large collection.

ComicRack handles most of the formats that eComics come in. Add to that its ability to convert between formats and you get another tool to handle those pdf to cbr jobs.

ComicRack – does it deserve graphic praise?

ComicRack does all that you would expect a full featured collection manager to do. But quite surprisingly, it does not provide a help file. In my opinion, a reader could do without one, but a collection manager should have a guide behind it. I would have loved if it could have doubled as a PDF reader straight out of the box, but it can only handle those ones which have scanned images as part of the PDF. A separate 12MB sized Ghostscript install makes it a fully compliant PDF reader. That is the only chink I could find.

Not quite on the pillow, but ComicRack does allow me some of those childhood pleasures on the desk.

Download: ComicRack (ver. 0.9) runs on Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7.

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Tina recently wrote an article about 10 cool uses for old computers, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone by writing about another way you can use an old computer – an article about how to make cool bracelets (and other things) out of computer parts.

The first thing I want to point out here is that these are by no means professional grade bracelets by any stretch of the imagination. This is the kind of project that you can do with your kids by just yanking an old computer out of the basement and ripping it all apart. You would be very surprised the imaginative and funny things your kids will create with those tiny little LED lights, fans and other electronics. So, let’s take a look at how you can make some bracelets out of computer parts as a fun project with your kids.

Tearing it All Down

Probably the part of this project that’s the most fun is taking your old, broken electronics and disassembling into tiny little components that you can use for cool jewelry parts. In our case, the computer had several awesome green LED lights that could easily double as “emeralds.” You don’t really need many tools – just a few screwdrivers and small wire cutters will do. My little girls also had their eyes firmly fixed on the fun multicolored wiring harness coming out of the computer power supply as we pulled cables connections loose and wiggled free LED lights and other components.

This setup wasn’t staged by the way. My kids are well versed in the use of wire cutters, pliers, miniature screwdrivers, and all of the other tools we geeks all love – they are my kids after all. Once we were finished with the computer, we moved on to the keyboard (very cool film design underneath the keys!) and of course our old Linksys router that doesn’t work anymore.

They key to make cool bracelets out of computer parts is trying to extract those parts that are shiny, small and colorful, and don’t waste time trying to rip apart every little piece of each circuit board. Not only is it nearly impossible without a soldering gun, but there are lots of heavy metals and other materials that are best left untouched. Go for the colorful components that are easy to cut loose with wire cutters. Once we were finished, we found that most of the coolest items definitely came from the keyboard.

Our box of computer loot was collected and ready to go. We laid down some newspaper on the floor and the whole family started digging in and trying to get creative.

The Whole Family Making Cool Bracelets

While I’d love to give you a step-by-step guide to building a bracelet, let’s face it – the process is largely a creative one. You’ve got so many little components and pieces at your disposal, with a little bit of ingenuity you can make some very cool jewelry. What tools do you need? Not much. We stuck with a glue gun and regular craft glue, but you can also use string and a craft drill to string together components if you like.

My wife immediately grabbed a shiny speaker that was attached to the front of the computer – one that had a cool metallic film on the front – and started trying various configurations to attach it to some sort of material for a wristband. She eventually settled on gray ribbon cable.

My youngest daughter, God bless her for trying so hard, cut up the multicolored wires into carefully measured lengths and then twisted them into “friendship bracelets” for all of her friends back at school. A little bit of glue on the ends kept them together and dulled any exposed metal ends. Meanwhile, my older daughter was working on a “secret project,” and wouldn’t show us her bracelet until she was finished. For my part, I really wanted to keep it simple. I wanted a “manly” bracelet using computer keys, and I thought the cool circuit-patterned keyboard film would make a great base.

I cut a strip of the film and measured it to fit my wrist (so it would slide over my knuckles), and then got to work gluing letters. I used random letters, but if you break apart multiple keyboards it would be cool to spell out words or phrases. Once the glue dried, I tried it on.

It didn’t look too bad, but it wasn’t quite the look I was going for. What would make this bracelet perfect would be black keys – not tan – and spelling out fun words. Drilling holes in the sides and using string or wire might work (I’ve seen other people use that approach), but then the keys would twist and the letters wouldn’t be visible. Using a neat base is the best approach. Then, I went to take another look at the progress the rest of my family had made. As usual, my wife’s creative prowess really came out on this one as she showed me her jeweled creation.

The trick to my wife’s bracelet was the use of the slim-cut ribbon cable that really took took the glue well and firmly attached the miniature speaker. On the speaker face, my wife attached several small, shiny circuit board components and in the very center she affixed three tiny LED lights – giving the appearance of a gem encrusted bracelet with emeralds in the center. Very creative! Never to be outdone, and showing her great sense of humor, my oldest daughter showed me her bracelet.

This is a hilarious futuristic bracelet that we’ve nicknamed boingy. Basically, she used the same clear-circuit film that I used, but on the top glued a shiny large computer battery, then a large (and very springy) spring from the old keyboard we ripped up, as well as the letter “K” which is the first letter of her name. Once it was dried, the keyboard letter “K” bounced around whenever she walked with it on – very funny!

There are some places out there that may feed you a step-by-step procedure to make cool bracelets out of computer parts, but the reality is that there is no set rule to creating art out of computer pieces. Just tear the components out, and then use your imagination to fabricate the sort of bracelet that you might actually want to wear – and have fun!

Do you know of any cool computer components that might work well for jewelry? Do you know of any other cool things you can make with recycled computer parts? Share your feedback in the comments section below.

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