James Ashley, Atlanta-based Microsoft MVP and author of Beginning Kinect Programming with Microsoft Kinect, has been running monthly challenges since around the release of the HoloLens Developers Kits. Each month, those of us who follow what happens in the community can look forward to seeing what creative ideas come out of these challenges. It has been a treat, to say the least, and who knows ... maybe one of us here at Next Reality even won one of these before his time here.
Bastion is an indie game available via the XBLA or on the PC. If you're trying to earn first prize in the Slinger Range proving ground challenge for dueling pistols, you may be having a hard time. It's fairly difficult, but by spamming the mouse button and shooting fast, you should be able to walk away with first prize.
Windows Powershell is a powerful but unwieldy tool for web developers, with which the PowerGUI interface is a great means on interacting. This video will show you how to use SnippetManager, recently declared "Best Add-On" in "PowerGUI Challenge 2010", to create and manage code snippets to use in your projects.
Finding all of the occult shrines in Assassin's Creed Brotherhood is a challenging but rewarding task that will net you many gamer points worth of achievements / trophies. This video will show you how to find and open the Catacmobe di Roma shrine and get the Undertaker 2.0 achievement / trophy.
The Gold Keys in Fable 3 are needed for unlocking all sorts of fun legendary weapons and such, but finding them all is appropriately challenging. If the tedium of searching for them has gotten to you, watch this video to learn where to find and unlock each and every one of the gold keys.
The first Maroon 5 album, Songs About Jane, was an awesomely funky love story, and the songs all sound great on piano and are practically guaranteed to draw potential sexual partners to you. Watch this video to learn how to play the song "Sunday Morning" on piano. It's fairly challenging, so watch out.
Making balloon animals are fun, but what about balloon crustaceans!? Just as fun if not more fun! Great for kids parties, seafood lovers and more, the balloon lobster is a great project! This project isn't for beginners though, but if you're feeling up to the challenge, check out this video to get a full walkthrough of how to create the balloon lobster.
One of the reasons we love Halloween is because the spooktacular holiday lets us go all out and get crazy with our makeup without getting condescending, awkward looks on the street.
If you're new to football (soccer) and are confused about how to defend against the opposing team, this vide directly from the developers at EA is designed to help you out. You will learn about basic defense moves including switching players, challenging, standing tackles, slide tackles and more!
As a guitar player, you will be faced with various challenges in your career, and one of those are being able to blend in with your rhythm section without stepping on anybody elses toes. One way is playing inversions of triads to give a fresh and unique sound to your rhythm and lead guitar playing. In this video you will learn about rearranging triad shapes to make inversions.
The vacuum cleaner is the most elaborate piece of cleaning equipment many people have, and they should last a long time. Their power cords, however, are generally not very durable. If yours have gotten worn out or actually broken, it's not too challenging to replace it yourself. This video will show you exactly how to do it on a Hoover WindTunnel vacuum.
Okay, solving a Rubik's Cube one-handed in 15 seconds is pretty impressive. If you find solving a Rubik's Cube with two hands to be lacking in challenge and flair, try doing solves using only one hand. There is a technique to it, and this video will teach it to you. Basically, you just turn R and U a lot and rotate the cube.
Old camera equipment like flashes and lenses are often praised by modern photographers, but getting them integrated into new digital photography setups can be a challenge. This video will show you some tips for using old flashes with new digital cameras, including a great trick for making your digital camera recognize the flash by covering one specific contact. Don't get a new flash, use an old one with the skills you learn in this video.
If you like folding paper stars and think they're a cinch, this omega star should give you quite a challenge. This omega star is an intricate fold that looks beautiful when complete. Perfect atop that pine tree in your living room (during holidays hopefully). This step=by=step video takes you through each fold of the paper origami 3D omega star, so pay attention.
John Park poses a kitty conundrum: Who's going to feed the cat while you're on vacation? Using a motor from an old VCR, he creates an automated feline feeder. While building this Make: magazine project, John learned that newer VCRs have safeguard technology, limiting access to the motor. Watch John as he demonstrates his solutions to this challenge.
So you want to get your legs in shape quickly? The drill demonstrated in this how-to video is not only fun, but just a bit challenging and a great way to work your legs without injuring your knees. Supporting extra weight trains your feet to become a productive part of your swimming. Watch this video swimming tutorial and learn how to practice a double medicine ball eggbeater drill to improve leg strength.
CaptainDisillusion challenges the urban legend of a gas station ghost that's talked about by newcasts across the country. Find out the tricks or illusions of low quality video footage.
Welcome to our Indiana Jones special. This week, we've been challenged by Eric Zala, the director of "Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation" to create an awesome face melt effect for cheap! This is probably Indy Mogul's grossest effect yet, so you better not get nauseous or anything, because you might just want to use this for your film!
Katherine and Kimberly Corp show you how to do a thirty minute (30 min) pilates workout to tone your abs, strengthen your core, and improve spinal flexibility. This is ideal for beginners, and advanced practitioners looking for a challenge.
Think the crane is the end all be all of origami birds? Think again. While folding cranes is an excellent way to build finger dexterity for future projects, if you are already at an intermediate level in origami folding then it's time to start challenging yourself!
God of War 3 is one of the baddest, gruesome, and greatest games to ever hit the PS3. Aside from the beautiful gameplay and great story-telling, the action/adventure game doesn't just end with the story. There are also challanges that need to be met. In this tutorial, you'll find out how to complete the Bare Hands challenge easily. It may require a couple of chances, but is pretty easy to get. Enjoy!
In this instructional dance video, learn how to perform the famous "Salsa Disco" dance move using different amounts of spin. A lot of dancers get caught up in the fact about knowing very little moves, but in reality, by adding doubles and triples in their current salsa dance combination - they become almost new.
David Wygant teaches you how to screen the crazy girls and meet more fun and challenging women. When women act crazy, you will want to stay away from them, it is not a good atmosphere to be in. When they're smart and calling you out, challenging out and asking questions, you start to feel attraction. You can get to know a woman by simply texting or emailing her. This will open up the doors for a lot of conversation, some if it requires. You do have the added bonus that you can see the other p...
Supreme Deer Hunting is a Facebook game from MindJolt Games. Challenge your hunting skills in this classic hunting game. Earn points to upgrade your gear for better hunting. Realistic shooting with range, weapon accuracy, etc. Trophies for reaching certain goals.
Team USA member Derek Eoff and USBC Senior Technician Tim Robben discuss the strategies for playing the more challenging patterns.
Learn how to do the pigeon pose designed for strengthening and opening the back. You will learn Kapotasana, or pigeon pose,
The chunin exam. It's one of the hardest parts of Ninja Saga. Can you pass the test? Or do you need a little help on this exam?
If $200 was too much for you to get in on some Star Wars augmented reality action, Best Buy is now selling refurbished Star Wars Jedi Challenges sets for $79.99 and new ones for $99.99.
If you or someone you know has younger kids and you're looking for an augmented reality toy, Pai Technology has just the educational option for you.
LARPing, or live action role-playing, can look a little silly because it requires a lot of imagination to suspend reality. But mixed reality technology like the Microsoft HoloLens can change all of that with voice commands and special effects.
Hone your origami folding skills - as well as craft a pirate-chic treasure chest that can actually store your precious plunder - by checking out this origami video. Your finger dexterity will be challenged by the curved fold, an advanced origami fold that leaves the leagues of angular folds behind in the dust.
CGI and live action shots get together in almost every big-budget Hollywood movie these days, but combining them in one shot can be challenging for the uninitiated. This video will teach you all about using CGI in live action films, including the use of 3D Studio Max, Blender, and other software to do the animation, rendering, compositing, and other digital steps to making great CGI-live action integration happen.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic is one of the best offensive footballers in the world, and makes great use of this move, called a Popcorn, to flick the ball into the air and get a nastier angle on his shot. This video will teach you how to do the move if you have the skills, it is quite challenging but devastatingly effective if you can get it right.
No, it doesn't use actual dragonscales. This technique actually uses two different sizes of rings with the proper aspect ratio (at least three of the larger rings have to fit through the smaller ones). If you have enough rings, then just follow along to master this challenging technique.
This video will show you how to pull off a really cool bar tricks on your fellow drinkers using only an olive, a brandy snifter, and two napkins. The challenge is to move the olive from one napkin to another without touching the napkins using only a brandy snifter. The trick is spinning the olive the snifter and moving it upside-down to the other napkin.
Cardio intervals, circuit training, plate exercises...when it comes to fitness, it seems like there's always a fancy name for what are essentially really easy yet effective strength building, fat burning, and toning exercises.
Making a Flash animation character walk one step is pretty easy. Making them walk the same way over and over using a walk cycle is more challenging. This video will teach you how to animate a walk cycle in Flash CS4 or CS5, making use of the Bone Tool that was a big new addition to Flash CS4. The end result looks really good, and yours will too if you follow these instructions.
Remember Harry Potter and the Triwizarding Tournament from "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"? If you consider yourself any type of repectable Harry Potter fan, then you know that Harry retrieved a dragon egg from his challenging dragon during the first round of the tournament.
In the 13th century, Giotto demonstrated his art skills to the pope by drawing a perfect circle freehand. This can be just as challenging in the digital age as it was in his time. This video will teach you how to create a perfect circle within a polygon using meshflow in Cinema 4D. It may not get you a job with the pope, but it will improve your 3D modeling skills.
Fabric is challenging to depict in art because of its many folds and the complex ways that light plays off of it. This video from accredited 3D art instructor Andrew Klein will teach you how to sculpt fabric using the popular 3D sculpting program Zbrush. He outlines the forces that can be applied to fabric and how to model those forces digitally in your art.
