Instructional

If you've never heard of geocaching, you're in for a treat. Chances are that you have a few geocaches right in your own neighborhood. These mini-treasure boxes can be found with GPS coordinates downloaded from the geocaching website and can be a fun way to get outdoors and try something new. All you need is a GPS - even a capable smartphone will do the trick.

After you've found a few caches, it's a good idea to contribute to the sport by making one of your own. Geoaching.com offers a great tutorial on putting together your first cache and finding a good hiding place for it.

Sometimes you just want to do a little heart monitoring without going into debt for the rest of your life (yes, that's a not-so-subtle jab at our wonderful healthcare system). When you can't afford the real thing, this $1 home made electrocardiogram will allow you to monitor your heart as you go into cardiac arrest while opening bills from your previous hospital adventures. This is much simpler than our previously covered homemade ecg, and probably about as accurate (read: not very). [via]

Notice: This ECG cost less to make than an artery clogging burger from your local BK. Therefore, we do not recommend making medical decisions based off of the data received from it.

Here's a great MacGyver tip on how to make a remote (very remote) camera trigger using a couple of walkie talkies. This idea came from the desire to take nature photography from a remote location and a unique viewpoint (although we're pretty sure by "nature" the inventor means "women's locker room").

Anyway - a very cool project. Putting together some simple electronics is required. Go find out how to make your own walkie-talkie camera trigger. [via]

This project creatively uses a cereal box as a cover for a super hip notebook (although if it was us, we'd be even more super hip by putting the cereal box graphics on the outside). Not only that, but it's a good introduction to a simple book binding method (sewing required). This is a great inexpensive alternative to those expensive journals that are all the rage these days and you'll get twice as many looks of approval from the other hipsters. Plus, your doodles and shopping lists will now be complete with 12 essential vitamins and minerals. [via]

Need a hand? A good set of helping hands is crucial for any tiny jobs you might have - especially when dealing with electronics. An extra set of nimble fingers goes a long way. Mike from Instructables has put together a guide for making the ultimate set of helping hands using some commonly available pieces.

DeskSquid / Helping Hands. [Thanks, Mike]

Turn a blank wall opposite any window into a live action wallpaper by effectively turning the entire room into a giant camera obscura. The view from your window will be projected (upside down) onto the opposite wall with the use of only a bit of cardboard, tape, and a lens available from your local optician. The effect is pretty cool - but wouldn't it be possible to flip the image right side up again by using a second lens? [via]

Are you sick of losing at Scrabble? Show that board who is boss by repurposing it into a cool picture frame complete with Scrabblicious tile captions. Next time your friend wants to play Scrabble you can point at the wall and say "Oh, sorry, I'm using the board for something else now."

Scrabble Board Picture Frame.

Okay so those two squares might not look like much, but within them is hidden a secret message! To see the message, you will need to open the images in Photoshop, go to the image/adjustments menu and select "levels..." to bring up the histogram. First do the small one, then the big one.

You can generate your own secret histogram messages using HistoFace, based off of a concept by David Friedman.

Here's another image and what its histogram looks like:

Everyone loves cake! Here's a new take on the old classic that will bring a little bit of color to your next creative confection. By separating your cake batter into several cups and coloring each one just before dumping it all into a cake pan, you can create all sorts of psychedelic patterns in your cake. Yum! [via].