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NOTICE: Large moosehead wall lights have finally been invented.

360 Modern is a real estate firm in the Pacific Northwest U.S. that specializes in modern homes. Beautiful stuff.

Handy way to skip all the intro crap on DVDs that is usually forced on you when you throw a disc in your player. Apparently the chapters on DVDs that you can't skip (FBI warnings, copyright stuff, etc.) are flagged, on the disc, as UOP, or User Operation Prohibited. This site lists some of the techniques you can try to skip the ennui.

This colour coordinated bookshelf looks cool, but you might have a hard time finding a particular title.

For chewie edge lovers or corner brownie fans - it's the Edge Brownie Pan. All edges, all the time. Via BoingBoing

Puzzle carpet.

This to That is a handy site that will tell you what adhesive to use when attempting to glue various objects together.

Super creative bathroom tiles.

Skinny house in Brazil.

Apparently there are many LED lightbulbs available already. Via TreeHugger

WiiRoomba. YouTube of a guy controlling his Roomba with a Wii remote.

Hardcore Lost fans have a party and repackage the snacks and beer as Dharma Initiative rations. Make your own with the PDFs that they've so generously shared.

Here's a nice set of home improvement videos with the energetic and snappy Eric Stromer.

Faucet Fountain turns your regular faucet into a drinking fountain.

Kids and the Home Office. Here's a list of tips for the parent that works from home.

Save the Internet.

Great Pac-Man bathroom tile work.

Crazy toaster from the future TODAY!

Here is a nice napkin folding howto site with clean pictures and straightforward instructions. I think the shirt's my favourite.

DIY T-Shirt Rack via Instructables.







Househacker/tags/video

Thorough Home Theatre Construction Howto

Here's an in depth article on turning an average basement into a slick home theatre room. The author illustrates his plans with CAD drawings while detailing many, many issues to consider, including the differences between LCD and DLP projectors, mounting and image keystoning issues and the secrets of progressive scan DVDs.

One of the more interesting things in this piece is how the author used the hard paper columns that builders use to pour concrete along with some marble paint to create some faux marble columns for $20.

Detailed Article on Setting up your First Home Theatre

Alan Lofft of Axiom Audio has written this informative article on the do's and don'ts of setting up your first home theatre. Topics covered include cabling choices, speaker positioning, video tuning, connection types and a ton more. Here's a television tip, from the article:

Try this simple visual test to determine if you have your video image too bright or contrasty. Look at any white area on the screen during scenes from live TV or a movie. It could be the white shirt or blouse on an actor or TV host. Are you able to see detail within the white areas? If you can't, then you are likely running the brightness too high, which washes out fine detail in bright areas. So lower the brightness and/or contrast. There's a reason why control rooms for TV productions and telecasts are always dimly lit: it's because video images on the monitors look best in a dim or darker room and the greatest range of colors and tones can be displayed.

Alan's website is also packed full of home theatre information and worth checking out.
       



Find a Home Theatre Projector with this Exhaustive Database

ProjectorCentral has a large projector database with an extensive criteria filter that enables you to find the projector that works best in your space. If you're planning a home theatre setup, you'll want to know which projectors will work with your available real estate. Feed the site the distance the projector will be from the wall as well as the desired image size and you'll receive a list of suitable units. There is a plethora of other filtering options available too; price, brightness, HDTV compatibility, PC card reader and so forth. Also worth checking out is the site's top 20 overall projectors.

Quick DRIcore Subfloor Video

Askthebuilder.com has a small video up on Google video about using DRIcore subflooring on a concrete basement floor. The video illustrates DRIcore's tongue and groove system as well as the clever levelling squares that DRIcore utilizes to allow the product to be installed on a standard, non-level basement floor.

Install Hardwood Flooring Video HowTo

If you've never installed hardwood floors before but were thinking of doing so, this video will give you an idea of what's involved in the process, from preparation to finishing touches. If you're interested in more environmentally sustainable flooring material options, check out this previous post.

DIY Arcade Cabinet

If you're interested in retro video gaming, you've probably thought about how cool it would be to have an arcade style stand-up video game system in your basement or gameroom. If buying one is out of the question, why not consider building your own MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) unit? This howto describes the steps from cutting the MDF to installing fans, speakers and of course buttons and joysticks. They've included a parts list with costs, which totalled £ 630.79 (about 1,118.19 USD), which is nearly $2,ooo cheaper than the Costco and Target models.


DIY LCD Projector

So this guy combines an overhead projector and LCD projector panel, throws in a screen and for under $175, he's watching sweet, sweet big screen projected video. See also: Tom's Hardware version.

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