gHacks technology news » how to http://www.ghacks.net A technology blog covering software, mobile phones, gadgets, security, the Internet and other relevant areas. Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:37:16 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 5Min Life Videopedia http://www.ghacks.net/2008/10/16/5min-life-videopedia/ http://www.ghacks.net/2008/10/16/5min-life-videopedia/#comments Thu, 16 Oct 2008 18:45:07 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=7680 Youtube sits tightly on its spot as the number one video portal in the world. It’s extremely hard to compete Youtube, comparable to the problems that search engines have to compete with Google. One way of dealing with this challenge is to provide a specialized video service. 5Min is one of those specialized video portals. It provides access to thousands of Do It Yourself and How To videos. While it is not the only video portal in that niche it provides access to interesting functions that the other portals do not provide.

Videos are archived in categories like Tech, Food or People and can be played without having to register an account at the video portal. The website offers the usual “social web” features like rating videos, leaving comments, embedding videos and bookmarking them.

The videos on the main site have about the same resolution that Youtube provides but the player provides additional functionality like zooming in, slowing down or increasing the brightness of the video. Even more interesting than that is the so called Smart Player which opens the video and controls in fullscreen mode.

The resolution of the video is increased in that mode. It pretty much looks like a standalone video player in that mode. The functionality in that mode remains the same with the exception that it is a tad easier to browse related videos, add-ons and external links all without having to leave the page or stop the video from playing. Access to additional videos is given on that page as well which means it is entirely possible to stay in that mode and watch many videos.

5min

Registered users can upload their own videos to the website. It is possible to edit video details while uploading the video which is another interesting feature.

The contents are extensive, lots of videos to chose from. Most videos have a playtime between 1-5 minutes but there are some that have a longer playing time. 5Min is a specialized video portal that provides enough videos to put it in a top spot of the Do It Yourself video portals. The player surpasses the players of most video portals by a mile and is reason enough to check the site out.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2008/10/16/5min-life-videopedia/feed/ 1 Find out how its done with Wonder How To http://www.ghacks.net/2008/01/31/find-out-how-its-done-with-wonder-how-to/ http://www.ghacks.net/2008/01/31/find-out-how-its-done-with-wonder-how-to/#comments Thu, 31 Jan 2008 10:31:27 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2008/01/31/find-out-how-its-done-with-wonder-how-to/ Ever wanted to know how to tie a Windsor knot, Reuse an old PC as a server or eavesdrop on a bluetooth headset ? If you answered that question with yes you should be heading out to Wonder How To, a website containing thousands of how to videos that explain things visually the easy way.

Wonder How To has lots of categories like Sports, Software and Food. Each of those main categories is further divided into several subcategories, the software category for instance has a Photoshop and MS Office category. Videos are not hosted in the website but on video portals like Youtube or Google Video.

Videos can be commented on, rated, send to friends or bookmarked – the usual assortment of ways to interact on such websites. Member playlists are an excellent idea however. Members create playlists and everyone can watch them afterwards. The playlist could be fitness, computer or music related for instance and contains several videos of interest of that category.

wonder how to

Registration is required to be able to use some of the functions and view some of the videos on the website. It’s a quick and painless process, email does not have to be verified and you can immediately continue surfing.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2008/01/31/find-out-how-its-done-with-wonder-how-to/feed/ 3 Instructables tells you how to do it http://www.ghacks.net/2007/11/20/instructables-tells-you-how-to-do-it/ http://www.ghacks.net/2007/11/20/instructables-tells-you-how-to-do-it/#comments Tue, 20 Nov 2007 08:08:40 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2007/11/20/instructables-tells-you-how-to-do-it/ How do you cut a Mango, add more Gigabyte to an Ipod Mini, build a Geometric Cut Paper Table Lamp or date a girl who is way out of your league. ? All of those questions and many more are answered on the Instructables websites which is a community driven website showing people how to create and do things. Two type of instructions are available and it depends on the author if the instructions are by video or by screenshots.

Visitors can choose from nine categories ranging from Art to Life and Tech. Each category contains a lot of how to instructions, most of the time several hundreds that address such a variety in topics that it is hard to classify them at all sometimes. I was especially interested in the Food category which showed me how to harvest bananas (not so interesting), tetris ice cubes (warmer), easy perfect pancaces (even warmer) and Han Solo in a carbonite chocolate bar! (fantastic).

A lot of how to instructions can be found that work well with kids. They either please and delight them because you have created something that looks nice and interesting (no not the Barbie Doll Electric Chair) but Write or Draw with Light, Ice Gems and the
Pop-Up Pyramid.

This is a great website that has lots to offer, check it out. Thanks to Make Use Of for finding this gem.

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