digg_url = 'http://digg.com/mods/Mod_Your_PC_for_Triple_Boot_Vista_XP_and_Ubuntu';
Lucky you; you just received a brand new shiny PC for your [fill in the occasion: birthday, anniversary, graduation, holiday]. Unfortunately, your new rig almost certainly came preinstalled with Windows Vista, and youve got a ton of legacy software that require an older 32-bit Windows OS for operation. Whats a poor Vista PC to do?

Periodic Table: And be sure to check out Theodore Gray's one-of-a-kind periodic table at periodictable.com.

2006

January

Making a Perfect Match

Make Your Own Sparks

Cost: $270
Time: 20
Minutes
Safe | | | | |
Crazy

Build a Battery

Cost: $20
Time: 3
Hours
Safe | | | | |
Crazy

When you´re tearing downhill on your snowboard, it´s a little distracting to take off your glove and dig out your iPod just to, say, hit pause. Instead, build this simple radio-frequency ID system and control your iPod by waving your hand in front of your coat.
A tag sewn into your glove sends instructions to a reader stashed in your pocket.
Unwire Your iPodCost: $161Time: 6
HoursEasy | | | | |
Hard

Cost: $5,000
Time: 1 Week
Easy | | | | |
Hard

See the video at the bottom of the page for a behind-the-scenes look at PopSci's fiery photo shoot. For excerpts from the shoot, click here

Creating a Salt Cloud

Cost: $500
Time: 2
Hours
Safe | | | | |
Crazy

The Bubbling Cauldron

Want a real witches´ brew? Mix soap-bubble solution with dry ice, or use liquid nitrogen for bubbles that release fog when they pop. In the following video, PopSci´s contributing mad scientist, Theodore Gray, uses the help of a few young assistants to create cauldrons of toil and trouble.

Here´s how it´s done:

There are great things to come in the future, jet cars and all that. But the past held a few wonders too-for example, jars of mercury available at the corner apothecary. Just 50 years ago, people treated the shiny
liquid metal like a toy. Sadly, I´ll never experience the strange sensation of sticking my entire arm into a barrel of mercury, as kids once did during factory tours. Today mercury is considered a horrific poison, so bad that schools are evacuated for
a broken thermometer.

Make CO2 Ice Cream

Cost: $150
Time: 15 Minutes

Safe | | | | |
Risky

For an illustrated photo how-to, launch the gallery.