halloween

Mask of you the creepiest Halloween costume yet

Forget shot-in-the-head Osama bin Laden or this really weird clown. The creepiest costume out there this Halloween hits closer to home--it's you.

Japan's Real-f can make you a mask of yourself that's so realistic it's more unsettling than a trip through the Uncanny Valley--it's like buying a condo there. They're called "The Realface" mask and Real-f creates them using a technology it calls Three-Dimension Photo Form, or 3DPF.

The basic concept behind 3DPF is to take a photo and physical impressions of the face and combine all that shape and coloring data into a detailed 3D model.… Read more

How to add sound to anything

I feel a little uneasy writing this one up, since it's such a simple idea, but with Halloween coming up I feel it's my public duty to remind people that you can add sound to your costume or decorations for less than $50.

Now that the iPod's heyday is over, you can pick up a halfway decent MP3 player for as little as $20. Slap it together with one of those ultracompact portable speakers, and you have an inexpensive little sonic grenade that can bring the miracle of music to just about anything.

I know I'll … Read more

Angry Birds Halloween getups so cool it's spooky

The Angry Birds perpetual merchandising machine keeps right on rolling toward All Hallow's Eve.

By now, the never-ending battle between egg-addicted swine and those vengeful, victimized avian avatars is certainly a more well-known feud than the respective tiffs between the Montagues and Capulets, the Hatfields and the McCoys, or even the North and the South.

So, having eclipsed such centuries-old cultural touchstones, it's probably about time we started dressing our kids up like chubby green pigs and pissed-off birds and sending them over to the neighbors' place to beg for corn syrup in all its assorted forms. Who's with me?… Read more

How to play sounds using a computer keyboard

Though it's a sad comment on humanity, apps that play sound effects (preferably crude ones) are a popular source of entertainment. It's in our DNA. I'll bet that early cavemen invented the whoopee cushion before they mastered fire.

But if your sound effect needs are beyond the scope of your garden variety flatulence app, there's an excellent and free piece of software out there called SoundPlant that allows you transform any Mac or PC into a custom soundboard.

Honestly, the idea for this How To came to me as I was walking through my local Halloween … Read more

Angry Birds through the seasons

Angry Birds Seasons lets you play the popular birds vs. pigs game, but with themes that match every season. You can play among jack-o'-lanterns and white-sheet ghosts in the fall; snowmen and Santa-capped pigs during the winter; or brightly colored eggs and bunny hats when it gets close to Easter. You can play whichever season you want right away--you won't need to unlock every level in order to unlock new themed worlds. With that said, the gameplay is no different than you've come to expect with Angry Birds, but maybe that's a good thing--most people love … Read more

Snooki, Lady Gaga top Halloween costume queries

No surprise here: Eccentric pop star Lady Gaga and "Jersey Shore" star Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi are the top Halloween costume searches this year, according to Experian Hitwise. Also big this year are Katy Perry, Michael Jackson, and tween sensation Justin Bieber--though in Bieber's case, people are specifically searching for wigs.

Other Halloween costumes that have been popular searches this year are "queen of hearts," "mad hatter" (those two perhaps in reference to Tim Burton's summer hit flick "Alice in Wonderland"), "catwoman," "gypsy," and "… Read more

Friday Poll: Scariest tech happening of 2010?

So here we are on the verge of another Halloween weekend, and I've yet to be sufficiently scared. That said, as I look back at the year to date, I'm a little freaked out--2010 has had its share of frightening tech moments.

Sure, Facebook faced some serious privacy charges, but Firefox now has a plug-in that lets you spy on everyone on your network. Zoinks!

You likely heard about the Stuxnet virus that went around not long ago. It appears to have been built to disrupt power grids around the world. That's frightening.

At the Black Hat … Read more

Ten sexy nerd Halloween costumes that fail

The Halloween trend for women, it seems, has been to get sexier and more revealing every year. I'd be lying if I said I think that's a bad thing, but there's a problem. Some things should never, ever be made sexy--like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Optimus Prime, or Ghostbusters.

The problem is that not everyone agrees. So there is a Sexy Ghostbuster costume. And a sexy Iron Man getup. And a sexy Optimus Prime outfit.

Unless your Internet connection lives under a rock, you've probably seen the sexy Chewbacca costume that made the rounds a couple of weeks ago. It's disturbing, but just the tip of the sexy-costume-trend iceberg.

I've done some digging at a wonderfully insane Web site called Buy Costumes and have hereby compiled a list of the 10 worst "sexy" costumes that would enrage, entice, or just plain confuse any self-aware geek. Starting with:

10. Sexy Ghostbuster It would be easy to start this one out with a "who you gonna call?" joke, but that would validate that this costume has anything to do with the awesomeness that is "Ghostbusters" aside from a logo. I simply will not do that. The Sexy Ghostbuster costume contains a revealing dress, Ghostbusters-logo hat, and a fake Proton Pack. Because a real Proton Pack would be cost-prohibitive.

9. Sexy Tin Man from "Wizard of Oz" I'm so confused here. The Tin Man is called the Tin Man, with "man" as part of his name. But they're calling this the Tin Woman. Whatever, the Tin Man showed no skin. Know why not? Because he had no skin, he was made of tin. That's why his name wasn't the Skin Man.

8. Ms. Kruger, aka Sexy Freddie I get the idea here: You're a girl who needs to make a splash (slash?) at a Halloween party. You want to be scary and sexy at the same time. Combining the "Nightmare on Elm Street" villain with a short, ripped dress seems like a no-brainer, but I'm lost on this one. Maybe I'm a delicate guy, but the clawed hand isn't one I'd want to hold while bobbing for apples. Or any time. … Read more

10 terrifying games for Halloween

Like film, the horror genre is a staple in video games. With Halloween just a few short days away, we've handpicked 10 just-released or soon-to-be-available titles guaranteed to make you jump out of your seat.

It seems developers have cranked up the gore this year with a follow-up to last year's underrated Saw game, a reboot of the Splatterhouse franchise, and one of the scariest games for PC and Mac we've ever played.

So turn off the lights, keep the flashlight handy, and dive right into our ghastly Halloween gaming roundup.

Still feeling brave after checking out … Read more