35 Amazing Things You Didn't Know Your PC Could Do!

Posted 12/25/2008 at 5:09am | by Maximum PC Staff

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13. Design Your Own Papercraft

The art of papercraft—assembling 3D models with paper— is like origami for geeks. It’s a lot of fun cutting and folding paper mock-ups of robots and videogame characters from blueprints found online, but it’s much more rewarding to craft a model of your own design. It’s easier than you think!

Download Google SketchUp (http://sketchup.google.com), a free and simple-to-use 3D modeling program. Follow the tutorials on the website to design an elementary 3D object or download samples from Google’s 3D warehouse (http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse). Save your Sketchup model, and use the program to export it to Google Earth 4 format (.KMZ extension).

Download and install the trial version of Pepakura (http://tamasoft.co.jp/pepakura-en) and import the .KMZ file. Press the Unfold button, and Pepakura will automatically generate a papercraft design. Print out the sheet to start cutting and folding your model!

Keep in mind that if your Sketchup model is too complicated, the papercraft design will be extremely complex. Don’t go overboard!

14. Make Sure You Closed the Front Door

There’s nothing worse than the nagging feeling that you forgot to close the front door—or that you left the garage door up, or the lights on, or the water running…. Eaton’s Home Heartbeat System (www.homeheartbeat.com) can provide peace of mind by letting you remotely monitor aspects of your home with the use of strategically placed sensors. When something’s awry, you’re sent an email or text message. The $200 Starter Pack includes a wireless base station, an open/closed sensor, and a Home Key for programming the system.

15. Prank Your Coworker

• Skype Conference Call Press the conference call button on Skype and simultaneously call up to 24 people who sit near you. For best results, ring both office phones and cellphones, and to ensure plausible deniability, remember to call your own phones as well. Use Pamela (www.pamela-systems.com) to play an audio clip when people pick up. We think anything said by Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross sets the right tone.
• Autocorrect in Word On a coworker’s computer, open Word 2007, choose Word Options and then Proofing. Click the AutoCorrect button. Next, choose the words you want to be automatically replaced. Try having Word change a coworker’s name to “worthless drone” or all articles to “I hate my job.” Be creative.
• Change Keyboard to Dvorak In XP, go to the Control Panel, select Regional and Language Options, click the Details button on the Languages tab, and choose United States-Dvorak. Soon your coworker will wonder ,day yd. d.nn co ircbi rbv

16. Get a College Education

Take courses from some of the most prestigious universities in the United States—for free. We like to fill our brains via MIT’s OpenCourseWare program (http://tinyurl.com/2t2rfj). Simply browse through the course offerings and download lecture notes, reading materials, tests, and videos for the classes that interest you. Go ahead and take that course in the thermodynamics of biomolecular systems. Be warned that the university states that OpenCourseWare isn’t a replacement for an actual MIT education.

17. Create an Alternate Reality Game

Imagine playing a computer game that plays back—one that starts intruding on your real life, calling you at home, sending you emails at work… freaking you out. That’s the appeal of alternate reality games (www.argn.com), a form of interactive storytelling in which the audience becomes a willing participant in the intrigue.

ARGs hinge on an exciting story—say, a stranger who has uncovered a conspiracy and needs help. Map your complete tale into chapters, with puzzles as milestones. Create cryptograms (http://tinyurl.com/66ejxp), dabble in steganography (http://tinyurl.com/4aphq), or use any of Unfiction’s puzzle tools at http://tinyurl.com/5snq3h to keep your players interested.

Then give your fictional characters full online identities—email addresses, blogs, Facebook and IM accounts—and digitally role-play with your friends. You’ll use all those vehicles to tell your tale in small, real-time chunks over about two weeks. For extra intrigue, make first contact via an anonymous remailer (http://tinyurl.com/5wffqv). The more intrusive the storytelling, the better—call players from and at pay phones or arrange live online chats at specific times for real-time spookiness. After all, it’s just a game, right?

18. Download and Save Flash Video

With popular video sites such as YouTube and Dailymotion funneling thousands of new videos to the web every day, it can take some serious effort to keep up with them all—not to mention, keep track of your favorites. Make it easier on yourself and download and save the ones you want for future viewing. Use Moyea FLV Downloader (www.flvsoft.com). The app is free and easy to use, and it comes with an FLV player, letting you watch your downloaded videos without going online. Convert your videos to MPG or AVI with the free app Pazera (http://tinyurl.com/5r2u33), so you can upload them to your favorite media player.