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

1. Pour copper sulfate (the blue granules) over a copper electrode in a glass.

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.

If you're anything like us, you were the type of kid who took apart dad's
new radio just to see what was inside. That kind of curiosity never dies,
which is why How 2.0, PopSci's award-winning home for the coolest
tips, tricks, hacks and do-it-yourself projects, wants to see what today's
tech tinkerers are up to.

Have you built something amazing you'd like to
show off? Tried a How 2.0 project and failed miserably? Blown something up
with the kids' chemistry set? If you've invented it, tweaked it, hacked it,

Want some real home theater bragging rights? Instead of buying a projector capable of casting a 14-foot image at 1080p (progressive) resolution-the highest high-definition there is-build one yourself. After all, the front projector´s innards are simple: an LCD lit by a superbright lamp, and a few lenses to magnify and sharpen the image. Retail models start at around $800 and use proprietary $400 lamps that burn out every few years. But cheaper lamps work equally well, and none of the other parts are very expensive. Why not put one together yourself?

How It Works

Cost: $15,000
Time: 10 Months

In 1938 the E.I. DuPont de Nemours Company, known at the time mainly as a maker of explosives, announced what was arguably the single most important invention in the history of legwear: nylon.

Nylon wasn´t discovered by accident or extracted from a natural source. It was one of the first materials engineered from scratch, based on an understanding of polymer chemistry and a desire to plug what was, apparently, a serious hole in the hosiery department.