Are you using your mouse to help you view Youtube videos? Most all of us will answer this question with a resounding “YES”. Perhaps its time to cross-over to the keyboard. I recently discovered YouTube has keyboard shortcuts to control its video player. I’d been clicking my way through a heap of videos. Using my mouse to control the viewing session was not fluid. For example, when I’d try to click forward or backward to a specific spot I’d invariably go too far. Mouse navigation simply lacked the precision and efficiency I desired in my Youtube viewing experience. So when I discovered the keyboard shortcuts I thought I’d give it…

There are a few abilities you need to prove you’re a proper rockstar. 1) You need to love rock and roll. 2) You need to know how to play an instrument. 3) You need to learn how to break the freakin’ instrument after hours of rocking it. Smashing instruments has been the signature move for rockstars since Bach smashed his first piano (not actually true), but for guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen, destroying guitars may be his primary art(?) with playing them coming in a close second. Malmsteen has broken 100+ guitars over the course of his career, so it only made sense for global engineering group Sandvik to use him as…

As North America’s most influential additive manufacturing event, Rapid + TCT 2019 exists on its own playing field when it comes to heavy-hitting announcements, power lunches, impactful keynotes, and all-around industry influence. Held this year at the Cobo Center in Detroit, Michigan during May 20-23, over 400 3D technology providers alone will make up the exhibition hall—with over 6,000 attendees, 110 conference presentations, and more than a handful of workshops, keynotes, and networking receptions all covering the latest in additive technology applications. “RAPID + TCT is always on the forefront of technology and way ahead of any other conference I go to. If I could only do one conference a…

After nine long years of waiting and watching your favorite characters die untimely deaths, HBO’s Game of Thrones has finally come to an end, and exploring the land of Westeros on television rather than reading it through books holds a special place in every fan’s heart. Dom Riccobene is a product design engineer who proudly takes his love for the series to a whole new level. Using a height map previously made by graphic designer Alexandre De Sève, he adapts the topography of Westeros and uses it to make an AR map of the fictional land with a CNC machine. The physical map measures 24 by 40 inches and is…

Get that stretch out of your system with this week’s Spotify-powered SolidSmack Radio Playlist. It’s fashioned up, ready to make you pull your shoulder blades back and knock out another week of meaningful work while you bob your head to the beat. Whether you’re in the shop milling aluminum, sketching the latest product prototypes or modeling up a 3D storm, consider these tracks as a tool for your process. This week on SolidSmack Radio we’ll fire things off with a remix of Morcheeba’s “Set Your Sails” from FaltyDL before diving into tracks from Beastie Boys, Vanishing Twin, Crumb, Gemma, and others before wrapping up with “My Mistake” from Vampire Weekend.…

Just about every kid (or kid at heart) has wanted to try riding a skateboard. Maybe it’s the thrill of using your momentum as a driving force or the fact that the darn thing comes without brakes; the bottom line is anyone who gets on a skateboard is in for a good time (or at the very least some broken bones). While it’s dang cool to shred down sidewalks and back alleys on an electric skateboard or a vintage “banana board”, nothing quite compares to shredding on a board you made yourself—particularly if said board is made out of (literal) shredded newspaper. YouTube creator The Q took this “shredded” figure…