The Comprehensive Water Drop Photography Guide

By udijw, DIYPhotography.net -DIY Photography and Studio LightingAugust 09, 2010 at 07:20AM

Splat!!!Not a long while ago the net was exploding with Corrie White’s Fun with Water set on Flickr. Her control over those drops, their color and their timing was remarkable indeed.

This is why I am very exited to share Corrie’s very extensive guide for water drops photography.

The guide is for all levels going explaining the setup, lights, optional use of a drip mechanism and post.

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Watch Lightsabers Go On & Off

By Robin, ForeverGeekAugust 06, 2010 at 10:50AM

In 2.5 minutes, here is every single time a lightsaber is ignited and retracted in all six Star Wars movies. The video’s maker says that he only included visual, on-screen actions, and not the times when you merely hear a lightsaber being turned on or off, off-screen.

I’m not sure what the point of the video is, other than to satisfy a certain geeky curiosity.

You may be surprised to find that only a handful of these lightsaber actions come from the original trilogy. The vast majority of them, in fact, seem to come from Episodes II and III.

DIY Accessory-Hiding TV Compartment [DIY]

By Whitson Gordon, LifehackerAugust 05, 2010 at 08:00PM

DIY Accessory-Hiding TV CompartmentWhile you could stick a door on your entertainment center to hide your cables and accessories, architect Dan Herchenroether shows us how to hide them behind a wall mounted TV, inside a secret compartment.

Home improvement weblog Apartment therapy has some neat pictures of the setup, and though there aren’t any specific directions, the hack doesn’t look too complicated. You’ll probably have to dig into your wall for this (so be sure you want to do it!), but after that it’s just a matter of mounting your TV on a panel, then connecting that to the wall with some hinges. Note that you’ll probably want an IR repeater so you can still control the devices hidden within the panel—you don’t want to go open it up every time you want to change the channel or turn up the volume. Hit the link for more photos.

Where To Start With DIY Home Security?

By timothy, SlashdotAugust 05, 2010 at 06:53PM

secretrobotron writes “I’m a recent university graduate from a co-op system which has kept me on the move every other semester, so I’ve never really had a permanent place to live, and I’ve never had the opportunity (or the capital) to buy expensive things. Now that I’m working, those restrictions on my life are gone and I’m living in an apartment with things I don’t want stolen. I would love to build a DIY home security system, but I don’t even know where to start since Google searches reveal things like diysecurityforum.com, which help only to an extent for a curious newcomer. Has anybody out there successfully built a home security system on a budget? If so, where did you start?” Related query: When similar questions have come up before, many readers have recommended Linux-based Zoneminder (last updated more than a year ago); is that still the state of the art?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Make an Effective Fruit Fly Trap with No Tools [DIY]

By Jason Fitzpatrick, LifehackerAugust 04, 2010 at 11:30AM

Make an Effective Fruit Fly Trap with No ToolsIf you want to get those annoying fruit flies out of your kitchen without any heavy engineering, this simple trap uses stuff you already have in your kitchen and requires no cutting, taping, or other DIY tinkering.

Home and household blog Apartment Therapy shares instructions for building an ultra-simple fruit fly trap:

Get ready: All it takes is cider vinegar, a jar, dish soap, and plastic wrap. Pour just enough cider vinegar to cover the bottom of the jar. Add a drop of dish soap (it will break the surface tension of the vinegar so the fruit flies can’t just sit atop the liquid). Now, cover the jar with plastic wrap and poke a few holes in the top.

It’s worth mentioning that in the comments of the post readers shared how they skipped using the plastic wrap altogether and it still worked just as well. The flies are attracted to the smell of the cider vinegar and as soon as they land in it they sink. Have a clever way of getting pests out of your kitchen? Let’s hear about it in the comments.

Homemade Fruit Fly Trap [Apartment Therapy]