How To: Things to Do on WonderHowTo (03/28 - 04/03)

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.

Thanks to all of our active moderators and contributors from this past week: Christopher Voute, Silverbug12, Brandon, Cerek Tunca, Blixten, Simon Laflamme, and K. Met. If you want to see your name listed here, then STOP LURKING and join in!

WonderHowTo is a community effort, and the site belongs to all of you. So, the more knowledge we can pool together, the more we can learn from each other. Join in. Write a tutorial. Post to a World. We're a curious bunch, and we want to see what you've got to share!

Below, this week's highlights: DIY emergency lighting, melting glass with drain cleaner, building a spy plane drone, Scrabble tile frames, and more!

Challenges and Workshops

• Minecraft World's Weekly Workshop — You're playing Minecraft and you have to use the bathroom. What do you do? You build a bathroom to keep your mind off of having to go to the bathroom! Don't know how? Hop on the official WonderHowTo server this weekend with Kendra and learn how to create a fully functional restroom. Be there Saturday, March 31st at 12 PM (PST). More details here. If you still haven't joined the server, see how to get whitelisted.

• Minecraft World's Weekly Challenge — Bring a little magic into your Minecraft life with this week's wizard tower project. There are so many different possibilities when building your own wizard tower, depending on what type of wizard you are, so we're dying to see what you come up with. Join the server and start creating now, then post your magical tower build to Minecraft World's community corkboard for a chance to snag some server perks. More info here.

• Minecraft World's Redstone Competitions — Players on the Minecraft server have been dying to show off their redstone skills, so Minecraft World moderator iDwarf has started a weekly competition on just redstone. The first official redstone competition calls for your best redstone elevator, so give it a try! The winners and a new competition will be announced every Wednesday, so keep an eye out.

• Astronomical Observing News — Stay current on what's going on in the skies above with Cerek Tunca's weekly Astronomy World feature, AON. This week, you're in for a rare treat involving the Little and Big Dippers. Click here for a full rundown of the stargazing events for March 28th through April 3rd. And join the World to share your astrophilic knowledge.

How-To Projects

• You never know when a power outage will occur, so it's a good idea to stock up on candles and flashlight batteries. But really? Who likes preparing for an emergency when it's so much more exciting to react to an emergency? Yumi of Secret Tips from the Yumiverse gives four easy DIY methods for creating your own light sources at home during a blackout. Click to enlarge, or click through to view.

• Ever dream about being able to dream about flying or walking through walls in your dreams? Well, no more dreaming! Turn your dreams into a dreamality with these tips on lucid dreaming. Click to enlarge, or click through to view.

• How are you at building rockets? Not so good? Then come learn with William Finucane of Mad Science, who just launched his galactic invasion with Mad Science's very own Space Program. But he needs your help. The goal? To eventually launch a rocket from a high-altitude weather balloon and deliver a payload into suborbital space. If you're more into the chemistry side of science, then check out his article on how to dissolve glass with sodium hydroxide.

• Christopher is starting an ambitious project in Fear of Lightning, and if you've ever thought about building your own spy plane, this is as close as you'll probably get. In his first article on building a DIY spy drone, he tells us that it won't cost more than $800 and shows us the different UAV body options out there. Interesting in making your own spy drone? Then make sure to follow the Fear of Lightning blog to stay up to date. Ask whatever questions you may have in the forum.

• Missed last week's Minecraft workshop on building an airport autowalk? Well, you can still create your own zigzagging travelator thanks to Kendra's followup tutorial. She also has some other builds for you to try out, including a converting enchantment table and a super secret room with a completely invisible redstone trigger. Just remember where you need to place the trigger—you don't want to be locked out of your own secret stash, do you? Stay tuned to Minecraft World for more tutorials... or share with us your own guides!

• Want a slightly different variation than Kendra's redstone boat dock in Minecraft? Brandon, aka TehGeekFather, gave us all a quick tutorial on how he made his automatic dock. Check it out.

• Allen has been away from Null Byte for the last week, but still managed to give a quick tutorial for the community on using iptables to secure Linux networks. But we still need your help in Null Byte! If you've got a how-to project or some sweet code to share, post them up on Null Byte's community corkboard.

• When we aren't playing Scrabble, we're using Scrabble pieces to satisfy our creative craving. There are definitely millions of uses for old Scrabble letter tiles, but sometimes the simplest ones look the best. K. Met broke out here Scrabble letters to give her picture frames a little edge, and you can, too. Check out the tutorial if you want to make one.

I Made It

• In the Astronomy World, Blixten was nice enough to share with us an image of a conjunction involving Jupiter, Saturn and our Moon. Quite an impressive shot. Got some astrophotography skills yourself? Post your images on the Astronomy World corkboard!

• I also had something to share this week, as I tried out Will's jam jar jet experiment. I ran into some problems, but that's half the fun of an experiment, right? Watch the video below to see how my jar jet finally succeeded. However, I do plan to try again!

• Simon Laflamme shared his amazing (and complex) Snakes and Ladders game in the Minecraft World. It's got over 250,000 redstone wires involved. But the best thing is that you can download and play it! Check it out below.

• There's been more activity than usual on the Minecraft server, with tons of building going on, thanks in part to the weekly challenges and workshops. Here's just a little of what's been shown off on Minecraft World's community corkboard. Want to get in on the action? Join the server.

Also, don't forget to start building your wizard towers for the Minecraft challenge this week.

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 jmeyers@wonderhowto.com.