Back in middle school, the word “geek” had no positive association whatsoever for the average kid in class. While the everyday school reality of it all wasn’t as tough as portrayed in a John Hughes movie (I matriculated at a private school for the arts), there were still those kids who were clearly banished to the basement for Dungeons & Dragons marathons while the others went off and seasoned their lives with all things cool, like all-ages moshpits and skateboards.

While throughout my childhood I gravitated more towards Minor Threat and mohawks as opposed to the rickety IBM PS/1 stationed in our home back in 1990, even punk rock could not repress my innermost geeky tendencies. I signed up for a course for young kids at the local college, where we learned how to build robots and machines using mechanical Lego. I developed a deep and almost frightening addiction to Civilization, which was released that same year. I learned to type like a machine gun without having to look down at the keyboard once. I designed posters and greeting cards using some archaic vector application, and thought it was just the coolest thing ever.

Luckily for me, as life progressed and the years went on, geekiness managed to shed its negative connotations and I fully embraced the geek lifestyle and attitude in many different avenues.

However, the world wasn’t about to make my new lifestyle of choice any easier on me - descending from a long line of technophobes (according to my calculations, my parents were the last consumer household to actually showcase a VCR - yes, that’s right, that rickety monster that gobbled up VHS antiques - as late as 2008) and having no geeky genes to rely on, it was time to turn to friends.

I wanted to know everything that could help me make my life a little bit easier - how to defragment my PC, how to try my hand at internet piracy by downloading the entire Epitaphdiscography (sorry, Brett Gurewitz!), how to encrypt my then-secret plans to take over the world, and how to customize just about any program or software I was using to fit my own questionable demands. It was usually my good pals who were phoned urgently when I absolutely needed to get something done - rip old vinyls in order to archive my entire record collection, learn to edit video, or create harmless Flash games.

Luckily for you, the days of chasing others to get things done are over - if only people like Jimmy Ruska had been around when I was in middle school, making videos on almost every possible topic related to technology and the web, perhaps those days of early tech education would have been a total breeze.

In fact, if you have yet to check out JimmyR’s studio on 5min, there’s no time like right now - I totally mean it, you guys. I doubt anyone can watch a single video and not go ga-ga for Jimmy’s helpful, easy-to-understand tutorials, tips and tricks.

For instance, want to know how to bypass those pesky school or workplace censorship programs in order to, say, check up on your Myspace account:

I gotta say, I’ve become a self-proclaimed Jimmy groupie - he just makes everything seem easy.
I view his videos regularly, and I also check up on his blog quite often - and there is always something waiting for me there - usually something decidedly awesome.

For example, just today Jimmy posted a link for the new NIN album, The Slip, which is now available for download, free of charge (unlike many others in his industry, Trent Reznor seems to understand the age of the internet, thank heavens). I just downloaded - and now you can, too!

After weeks underground, working around the clock and enjoying every minute of it, we are stoked to announce the launch of 5min’s new Smart Player!

The new and improved Smart Player offers you a complete video learning experience - for the first time, video, text, images and more join forces to provide you with a comprehensive one-stop shop for instructional content. Needless to say, we are beyond excited to let you all check it out and play around with all of the amazing features the new Smart Player brings to the table.

Now you can go beyond video, and enrich your how-to videos with Add-Ons - text guides and photos meant to enhance the video learning experience. This is an ideal place to incorporate recipes, tabs, lyrics, sketches and diagrams - almost anything you can think of that may help your viewers benefit to the max from your videos.

You can also create Scenes, or storyboards, to accompany your video and provide your audience with a detailed step-by-step visual process to follow.

Looking for the ideal place to plug your blog or website? Place it as a link in any of your videos, and help your viewers find you - that’s what the Links feature is for.

The best part about the new Smart Player is that all of its innovative features are available to you in the traditional watchpage display as well as in full-screen mode, and better yet, even when embedded - meaning you can take this entire neat package with you and use it on your blog or website.

In addition, you control your video viewing experience: click on the Zoom icon in order to zoom in or out of a specific area of the video you’re viewing, advance frame by frame, or opt for slow-motion play and set your own pace.

By clicking on the Related tab, you can easily access more great videos suited to your taste…The possibilities are endless. What are you waiting for? Go Smart!

Check it out here:

We’d love to hear your thoughts on the new Smart Player! Meanwhile, you are invited to play around, explore, and discover all the awesome things that await you at 5min. Can’t wait to upload a video of your own? Simply check out our easy, breezy Smart Upload .

On a personal sidenote, this has been one of the most fun projects I have had the privilege of working on - and no reward comes close to seeing it all go live, of course. Just imagine how great it’s been to finally be able to dream beyond video and add a personal Smart touch to it all. In fact, why not try it out for yourselves?

Cheers,

Ealeal & the 5min Team

Hi all! How are you? This week I have a question for you: What do you do on the internet?

Like all of us, you probably check your mail, surf the main news websites or favorite portals, add friends in Facebook, update your profile on Myspace. Maybe you have a blog that you update regularly, maybe you are a member of some forums or discussion groups. If you read this blog, you probably also make use of your net time to learn some new things right here in 5min. But do you also do other things on the web? Like trying to find love?

All of us probably had a go once, or maybe more than once, at a social network of singles, or a dating site. While online dating services were almost a shameful thing to be listed on when the net was in its early years, nowadays meeting people online became quite a common act. Actually, so common that people tend to use templates to address someone they are interested in, and instead of the long, carefully-written love letters our parents used to send out, guys around the web tend to start a message with “Hi! What’s your age, location and can I have a picture?”

In this spirit, I would like to tell you about one of the most recent additions to 5min.com, Miss Lora. Miss Lora introduces herself as a Romance Expert. She’s started looking for love on the web a few years ago, and since then she had hundreds of men answer her ads (she thinks it’s the red hair), and read thousands more. Miss Lora came up with The Southern Guide to Internet Dating, a guide to everything you need to know when you meet a person online, starting with approaching and writing the right ad, and ending with the first date and what to say (hint: don’t ask if her breasts are real).

“Do not ask about sex, her bra size, or mention anything in your body that can be measured… “

What ‘s great about Miss Lora is that she talk about the basic things we all need to know in relationships and dating, but no one ever bothers to explain. After all, dating is supposed to come naturally, and everybody does it. But Miss Lora knows everyone needs help. What and how to write, what to wear, how to answer the phone – she’s got tips on everything, and she explains it all with her deep southern accent , sassy attitude and magnetic personality, making her videos not only great tutorials, but also really entertaining and fun to watch.

“Miss Lora is gonna be 29 until she dies! And so can you. Really!”

Watch more DIY videos on 5min.com plugin by rob

Miss Lora says some things we all know, but somehow deny, forget or underestimate its importance – like the fact that women love to be complimented, and how everyone’s on the internet actually have a baggage or that women lie about their age. Miss Lora’s charm, charisma and amusing use of unique catch phrases makes her studio worth watching, even if you’re not single and searching. Even though I’m a girl, I think I would definitely date Miss Lora

Really!

When it comes to talents and skills, my nation is probably known throughout the world for two things only: Technology, and Hummus.

Actually, that’s alright, because there are almost daily tech, computers and web innovations here, and the number and expertise of our tech geeks is no doubt one of our greatest achievements. I don’t know about the Hummus. I don’t like it. Don’t tell anyone.

It does have one minor side effect - around the web, we are The Ones Who Live in the Greyness that is advanced tech life. (Actually, my laptop is lime-colored with orange dots on it. No, I’m actually lying). We are often viewed as those who do something important but not really interesting outside the business or computer community.

Knowing this, you can imagine my excitement at the first appearance of Ori Livney, an Israeli Balloon artist, here at 5min. Ori was introduced to most of the Israeli public with an amazingly beautiful television commercial for a cellular company (you can watch it here, but I admit it’s more fun when you understand the words). Ori’s studio looks like a candy store - it’s full of color, sweets-like huge balloons, and amazing creations like a shark, a motorcycle, a whole underwater reef and even some presidential candidates.

Ori works with his hands, blows the balloons up himself, and starts up with some very basic balloon twisting tips and simple figures, getting even into the proper way to blow up a balloon.

Check out Ori demonstrating how to make a balloon flower, and one of his presidential candidates.

Ori’s work is so stunning to me that when I checked up his studio, the first image that came to mind was that of Jareth the Goblin King from Jim Henson’s Labyrinth. Remember how he would create soap bubbles between his fingers, turning them from clear to solid and back, and inside floated the dreams of young Sara? Ori’s balloons are maybe just slightly less see-through and most likely take more work to create, but the magic is there.

Ori and Jareth (David Bowie). Find the Differences.

(source for Jareth’s photo: http://bookshelvesofdoom.blogs.com)

(Source for Ori’s photo: http://www.millenniumjam.com)

Hey all!

How are you? Have you checked our newsletter for all the cool new studios uploaded to the site this week? If not, now is the time!

Today I have a little confession: My parents never wanted me to work in the realm of content and video. Like many parents, they had high hopes for me (a little too high!), and wanted me to become a computer programmer, which in their opinion was a very promising job. But it turned out despite my great addiction to computers and the net, there was one extra skill needed to get through programming classes, which I simply didn’t have. That was Math.

Somehow Math, in high school and after, is considered the arch-nemesis of so many people. Students have nightmares about it, the tests are somewhat impossible to predict, and sometimes even the geekiest of geeks admit to have had a problem with it in their past.

If you, like me, are one of those people who could never find their way in the world of equations and graphs, you might find the same delight as me in our new math tutor on 5min. Luis Anthony provides tips, tricks and ideas that helps dealing with all those tiny numbers and formulas. It actually makes Math look friendly.

Hey, maybe I should go back to high school and give it another try.

Naaaaaah.

The Video Math Tutor explains the basics of studying Math. Check out his funny introduction video for his studio as well!

One last word before I’ll get back to work: since I’m still settling in here at 5min, I haven’t gotten the chance to watch everything on the site just yet. So, if you have a studio you want me to watch, or if you stumbled upon something really unique and interesting, leave me the name of the studio here in a comment or drop me a line, and I promise to watch. Who knows? Maybe you’ll feature on my next blog entry!

Okay, so this week I finally broke down and purchased an iPhone.
This was a surprising turn not because I particularly dislike the iPhone, but rather because I hate - or at least hated - mobile phones in general. I just didn’t jive wall with the thought of being available 24/7, even though I have been toting a cellular phone in my pocket for a while now, since my initial resistance was broken back in 1998. Over the years, my mobile devices were mainly something I used for obsessively playing Tetris, setting my alarm clock, taking pictures on the go, and actually not talking on the phone.

Several events led to me finally forking over the cash and getting my talons on the most hyped mobile device to date, none of which have much to do with mobile technology or extreme dissatisfaction with my former Nokia. In fact, it was a Garage Geeks event I attended last week which finally dropped the Apple anvil on me: surrounded by tech-forward geeks and early adopters, when it was time to exchange digits as a part of the familiar networking circuit, I was simply mortified to whip out my Nokia and hold it for all the world to see. It simply didn’t cut it.

The second reason was that this past week, in a frantic hunt for a killer outfit to wear to a wedding (too bad Rob and Corinne of Threadbanger can’t be my personal fashion designers!), I nearly bought a dress for more than the cost of an iPhone…So I found myself wondering, if you were willing to cough up that much cash for a piece of fabric with a few sequins on it, why not spend it on something a little more durable than that?!

And so, ladies and gents, I may have lost on a drop-dead gorgeous dress by label Rhus Ovata, but I am now the master of my own mobile destiny.

Once again, working at 5min proved to be super-handy as I made my way through “iPhone Newbie” territory, and I’m not just talking about the fact that now I can unlock iPhones in my sleep: all I had to do was turn to Four20’s iPhone Studio. This dude’s got it down, and has videos spanning almost every iPhone application I’ve encountered, from Graffiti to iBlackjack.

Check out this video, for example, showing how to sync music to your iPhone from different computers:

I can already smell the sweet whiff of the iPhone SDK…

Hey guys!

My name is Rotem , and I’m the newest link on the 5min team. I’ll be your Community Director, which means I’m here to answer any question, to give any advice or to solve any problem.

I’d like to tell you a little about myself so you can get to know me better. I live in Tel-Aviv with my two cats, Mini and Fuya (which in Hebrew is like “shoo!”, so you can pretty much guess how she got her name). In my spare time I enjoy art, mainly sculpture. I would also like to become a writer some day. For the time being, I write columns for a few sites, and once in a while publish stories (mostly sci-fi and fantasy) in small magazines.

But actually, I’m not here today to tell you about myself. One of my most enjoyable discoveries in the realm of how-to videos so far was the studio of Gardengirl72, also known as Patti Moreno.

“I was raised in the concrete jungle, New York City. That’s why I say, “If I can do it, then you can too!” (Patti Moreno)

Patti is a city girl who found a way to bring nature into her home. Her videos suggest a lot of gardening tips, but also much more than that! Patti tries to bring her viewers a message of living in harmony with the natural world, even - and especially - in urban environments. Patti’s garden is not only a hobby; it also serves her as the local supermarket store for vegetables, eggs and meat. Patti came up with the term Urban Sustainable Living, which means using whatever you can and have in your natural surroundings to produce more. What started as a way to lose weight, became a way of living for Patti: nowadays she grows much of the food she makes for her family, comes up with new recipes, sells her yard’s extras to neighbors and teaches many people to live more naturally and produce food or flowers in their own little urban gardens.

Garden Girl holding flowers from her own secret garden

In Gardengirl72’s studio, you can find how-to guides for gardening, cooking naturally, farming, raising chickens, shearing rabbits, hand spinning, and much more.

According to Patti, anyone can do it. Try it and see for yourselves!

Watch Patti explain the basics of creating an indoor garden!

That’s it for today, but I promise you’ll be hearing more from me and from my favorite studios here on 5min. Drop me a line!

Yours,
Rotem

“The harder you practice the better you’ll be become; there are no secrets to the game.” - Sheila Masterson, soccer expert.

Coach Emmitt Carney steps up to the mound facing the plate, sweat on his brow, the sun reflecting its light in his opponents eyes. He prepares himself for the pitch. After years of preparation and perfecting his technique he begins the warm-up.

How To Play Football: All About Pass Blocking
Coach Scott Phelps forms a huddle, his teammates are, bound tightly together, listening to his every word as he describes the next play, he looks over his shoulder and his eyes meet those of the quarterback of the opposing team, grabbing the ball pigskin tightly in his hands, he yells one final encouragement for his team to get them ready for the next few moments.

How To Play Soccer: Master Juggling Begins Here!
Sheila Masterson is controlling the ball with enviable skill and speed. She briskly moves herself through each line of defense, dogging various attempts to get at her ball, she positions herself and the ball to align with the goal post and aims for the shot, it’s all clear and with full force and great ball handling she shoots for the goal. The ball flies over 30 yards before passing through the goalies outstretched hands, hitting the net.

All these sport heavy weights have something to offer us; they’ve got years of experience on the field, on the court and in the baseball diamond. Hundreds of games, years of studying technique and posture, drills developed through thousands of hours of practice. They’ve seen it all. These men and women have the skill the required to make it, but they have also opted to teach; to spread their personal knowledge about the sport that they know and love! Baseball, basketball, soccer, football, golf… Heck, they even covered Tee-ball!

5min is proud to present Sport America, a team of dedicated professionals who are here to teach, show and contribute to the 5min community and the world at large. Over 2,000 videos are now available on 5min, for you to learn from and enjoy. Practice with your very own private coach and you can learn from the best and become even greater!

Go ahead grab your weapon of choice, whether it’s a baseball bat, soccer ball, golf club or football, we’ve got it all for you to watch and benefit from!

This is just the tip of the many great studios Sport America has set up here on 5min - so come on, get down with your sporty side!

Game on,

Aron Joseph

Hey there, folks!

We have decided to give you real-time updates of our best and favorite How-To videos using a terrific communication tool called Twitter.

This simple yet effective and fun tool allows you to keep your friends on your radar with minute-to-minute updates from anywhere with a keypad and internet access; whether it be your mobile, Sidekick, iPhone, PSP, desktop PC… or anything else, really!

It’s a pretty nifty tool to keep all your pals updated on your current whereabouts and the groovy things you’re up to lately.

Haven’t Twittered yet? Sign up and get on Twitter to keep up to date with all the fabulous fun at 5min.

After signing up, you’ll be able to stalk us from wherever you are, and receive updates directly to your Twitter account. Check us out here!

So join the hordes, click Follow (the little button right under our logo) and get updated with our latest and greatest every day!

Share, Twitter, spread the word!

- Aron Joseph

Unless you’ve been living under a rock or refuse to check in with any of the news media outlets, you probably know that Super Tuesday is upon us today.

Also dubbed Tsunami Tuesday, and even more dramatically as The Tuesday of Destiny, this particular day is in charge of rolling the dice as far as the upcoming elections go: the day on which the largest simultaneous number of state U.S. presidential primary elections in the history of U.S. primaries will be taking place. This term began in 1988, when many southern states decided to hold their primaries on the same day to try to boost their political importance (in relation to the importance of the New Hampshire primary and Iowa caucuses).

Exciting, isn’t it?
It almost made us forget about Mardi Gras, which is also being celebrated today!

No matter where you are, there are plenty of ways to catch up to speed with expansive news coverage of this very important day. So now that you’ve exercised your legal right to vote, join 5min as we reveal a new side of the leading Democratic candidates, as created exclusively for 5min by world-renowned balloon artist Ori Livney:

Ori, an industrial engineer by profession, is an absolute balloon Jedi, as you can see below. I was blown away by his wearable art projects, like this dress, which took over 7 hours to make! Just imagine the drive, dedication and insane creativity behind it all! Entire outfits crafted from balloons… Who knew, right?

You are most welcome to check out Ori’s online gallery, as well as drop by and see his 5min studio.

As for today’s primaries… From across the pond, things look quite interesting. For those of you who are voting for the very first time (Awww! I remember mine!), WireTap has a concise voter’s guide, giving away some great last minute basics for the confused citizen. If it’s the cold hard numbers you are after, you might want to check out the data polls. Enchanted Learning has a terrific glossary to help guide you through the long political haul leading up to the real thing - the Presidential election in November.



Another fascinating read can be found here, with this study from May 2007 by Eric Schulman and Daniel Debowy, mapping who is likely to win the coming elections. Schulman’s algorithm was able to accurately predict who would win the 2004 elections, and his 2003 algorithm for determining the winners of United States presidential elections correctly determined the winner of each of the 55 presidential elections between 1789 and 2004. However, this year looks like enough of an anomaly to knock the wind out of that algorithm.

Happy campaigning, and may the best human win!