How To: Things to Do on WonderHowTo (01/25 - 01/31)

WonderHowTo is made up of niche communities called Worlds. If you've yet to join one (or create your own), get a taste below of what's going on in the community. Check in every Wednesday for a roundup of new activities and projects. 

First off, thanks to all of our moderators and contributors this past week: Cerek Tunca, Mr. Unknown, Mr. Falkreath, Christopher Voute, Matthew Herman, and Andrew Osbourne. We would also like to extend a warm welcome to Rex Gordon, admin of the newly launched World, Robot Realms.

Lastly, we would like to remind all lurkers on site: WonderHowTo is a community effort, and the site belongs to all of you. The more knowledge we can pool together, the more we can learn from each other. With that said, join in. Write a tutorial. Post to a World (all community corkboards are public!). We are a curious bunch, and we want to see what you've got to share!

Below, this week's highlights: Photographing face spasms, playing with Python, making Minecraft pixel art, tips for living out of your car, and more.

Challenges and Workshops

• Phone Snap!—Sadly, all good things must come to an end, and with that said, this week is our very last Phone Snap challenge. (But don't fret too much, we have another photo-based World in the works, and it's gonna be good... keep your ear to the ground for pre-launch murmurings...) To close off the last in our series of cell phone photography challenges and How-To's (special thanks to admin Elaine Chang!), our final Phone Snap challenge is one to remember. Post your freakiest, funniest phone-snapped face to the community corkboard by Monday, January 30th, 11:59pm (PST) for a chance to win a giant gummy bear on a stick! More details here.

• Minecraft World's Weekly Workshop—Are you a miner with epic architectural ambitions? Then log on to the WonderHowTo Minecraft server on Saturday, January 28th at 5:00 pm EST (2:00 pm PST, 4:00 pm CST) to pick up some extra aesthetics for your castle walls, towers, buildings, and more. More details on the workshop here; if you still haven't joined the server, there are details on getting whitelisted here.

• Not enough Minecraft for you? Then check out Minecraft World's first weekly server challenge. This week's theme is pixel art, so if you've got the design chops, post your most inspired pixel-crafted masterpiece to the Minecraft World community corkboard for a chance to snag some server perks. More info here.

• Astronomical Observing News—Cerek Tunca's Astronomy World is a community hub for posting astronomy inspired pictures, art, news, and more. This week's AON (Astronomical Observing News) highlights stargazing tips from January 27th through the 31st. Click through now for the full rundown!

• Community Byte—Both newbie and veteran programmers are welcome to join Null Byte's weekly community coding projects. Held every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 5:00pm PST, coding sessions take place on Mondays and Wednesdays (instructed by moderator Sol Gates), and HackThisSite walkthroughs take place on Fridays (instructed by admin Alex Long). Meet up on the Null Byte IRC at the appropriate time! More details here.

• Weekend Homework—Looking for another way to get involved with Null Byte? Then check in weekly for Alex Long's Weekend Homework. A couple pending articles up for grabs this week: Can you create a simple port scanner in Python? Or code an SMS bomber with the Gvoice API? If you are up for kindly contributing your knowledge, simply message Alex directly or post an article directly to the community corkboard.

How-To Projects

• Out of water balloons? No problem. Yumi of Secret Tips from the Yumiverse demonstrates how to fold an origami water balloon with just a square piece of paper. Click to enlarge, or click through to view.

• Whether you've come upon hard times, or you're planning a cross-country road trip, Yumi's got some tips for making squatting on-the-go more bearable. Click to enlarge, or click through to view.

• If you've been attending Sol Gates' weekly Python sessions, it's time to put your knowledge to the test. Null Byte contributor and Fear of Lightning World admin ChristopherVoute published two articles on the topic this week: How to send SMS messages + How to make a Gmail notifier, both utilizing the language. For more articles from Christopher, check out the Fear of Lightning blog roll (don't miss this past week's awesome step-by-step on making your very own prank stun-baton!).

• Minecraft World moderator Andrew Osborne posted the first article in a series on preparing builds; click through for a full rundown on terraforming. Contact Andrew or admin Kendra if you're interested in contributing How-To articles on any Minecraft topic of your choice.

• Having trouble coming up with a funny face for Phone Snap's very last weekly challenge? One word: jowler. It's easy; put your camera on flash mode, relax all of the muscles in your face, and proceed to violently shake your head from side to side as you snap a photo. More details here.

• Mr. Unknown of Info Security World has kindly offered his services in the form of tutorial requests. Post any questions or ideas directly to the forum, or contribute info security related links or articles to the community corkboard. This week: Learn how to create a partition in Windows 7; check out the blog roll for more useful articles.

• As mentioned above, this week we welcome Rex Gordon of WonderHowTo's newest World, Robot Realms. Rex has some pretty ambitious projects planned out, and we're anticipating some epic upcoming How-To's. Join the World now to stay updated. Pictured below, Rex's base platform for his 250-pound robot in the works, Magnus.

• Aside from the many Null Byte community contributions in the past week, admin Alex Long posts several notable How-To's. This week: The penny pincher's guide to eating extremely cheap (without relying on ramen!), how to make your own cell phone jammer, how to hack together your own portable, battery-powered USB charger, and more. Check the blog roll for a full rundown.

Got Something to Share?

If you've got a relevant How-To, a source of inspiration, or a finished project, post it to the corkboard in one of the applicable Worlds above. If your project is unrelated to these areas, you can publish a How-To article directly on WonderHowTo, or you can start your own World if you've got the passion—or just post directly to the WonderHowTo company corkboard.

Got a question? Comment below or email rmansur@wonderhowto.com.