blocks

Sometimes we need to see to believe. I remember understanding on an intellectual level, from a young age, that smoking was bad, but I didn't really get it on a visceral level until I saw a smoker's blackened lungs. The effect was so profound that, to this day, I go so far as to hold my breath when walking past people smoking.

Unfortunately, it's not easy to peer inside our own bodies and check out the health of our lungs. It's also difficult to see the effects sun exposure is having on our skin, especially when … Read more

The U.S. tax season still has a few more days to go before it's over (for punctual filers anyway), but it appears many Americans have already done most of the work needed to file their personal financials.

Research firm Nielsen today released its findings on tax-related-site usage during the busy season. Not surprisingly, given past history, February was the most active site among Americans, with one-quarter of all U.S.-based Web users heading over to tax-related sites. All told, the 53 million Americans who went to tax sites in February viewed more than 1.4 billion pages.… Read more

If you're the type of person who likes a challenge, UnBlockMe from GzDev offers 7,800 levels of difficulty for the serious gamer. The objective, as with most really good games, is simple: get the red block out to the right side of the screen and into a gap in the wall.

UnBlockMe's interface and the mechanics of the game are really quite simple. Just drag the blocks up, down, and sideways to free up the red one. As expected, the game progressively becomes more difficult as you go up the levels, so stick with it if you … Read more

For Bryan Duxbury and Adam Ellsworth, a shared interest in DIY Arduino projects and a conversation at a Christmas party led to a pretty bright idea and an unexpected side business.

The two San Francisco residents are the creators of the Interactive 8bit Question Block lamp--a Super Mario Bros.-inspired piece of home decor. For fans of the game, the lamp should instantly look familiar, as it resembles the blocks that Mario hits to earn coins and other loot. The design alone already makes it pretty cool, but that's not where the fun ends.

To turn the light on or off, you must punch (actually, a gentle tap is enough and recommended) the bottom of the block, and every time you do so, it makes a coin sound just like in the video game. On every eighth tap, you're rewarded with the 1-Up sound. It's a piece of Super Mario Bros. come to life.

This project may never have seen the light of day, however, had it not been for a chance meeting at a company Christmas party. … Read more

Sprint Nextel is getting into the 4G LTE game by building its own network. But to make its dreams a reality, it needs a scarce resource that every other wireless operator around the world is clamoring to get its hands on: wireless spectrum.

And Sprint has already missed two major opportunities. Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal reported that in the first few months of this year, Sprint's board shot down the company's plan to purchase prepaid provider MetroPCS. The company also botched talks with T-Mobile USA for a network-sharing arrangement. The impetus behind each of these … Read more

You may have noticed that practically anyone can call your Skype. While this might be great when the only people who have your number are people you want to talk to, but that isn't always the case.

Today's marketing is pretty aggressive. Because of this, you may receive e-mail, texts, and calls from people trying to sell you something or run a scam. Unfortunately, this spam has leaked into Skype as well. Here are a few quick steps to prevent the people you don't know from contacting you on Skype.

Step 1: Click on the Tools menu … Read more

China's "Great Firewall" is the tongue-in-cheek way to refer to the Chinese government's blocking and censorship of Web sites. And, somehow, that wall has been fractured this week.

It all started when Chinese citizens flooded President Obama's Google+ page over the weekend, leaving thousands of messages ranging from jokes to begging the U.S. president to do something about China's civil rights issues.

Now, Reuters reports that Chinese Internet users have accessed YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter--all sites normally blocked by the Great Firewall.

President Barack Obama's Google+ page was inundated with Chinese comments over the weekend with messages saying, "Mr. President, Please pay more attention to Chinese civil rights," "I want a Green Card," and "the Chinese GOV doesn't represent the Chinese people."

This barrage comes as Chinese citizens caught onto a glitch that allowed them temporary access to the Google+ social-networking site, according to Reuters. Now, each of Obama's posts--going back more than a month--has hundreds of Chinese comments.

China is well known for Internet censorship. Even though the amount of Web users … Read more

You may have recently learned how to block annoying callers on Android by adjusting settings in the caller's contact information. Now, you can handle the next step of ignoring someone--not seeing texts from them--by using NetQin's Mobile Manager for Android. Here's how to get started:

Important note: This app will ignore alerts for people on your blacklist, not prevent them from incurring charges for texts on your monthly bill. If you need a more permanent solution for blocking texts from your phone completely, you will need to contact your wireless provider.

Step 1: Install Mobile Manager&… Read more