Geek culture

To install your spanking new flat-panel TV on the wall, you can either purchase a regular bracket or go all out with a made-to-order Art Motion frame.

These window-like frames are compatible with screen sizes ranging from 37 to 65 inches and come in a choice of standard, deluxe, and ultimate versions. The standard edition is designed to clamp onto your TV's bezel, while the deluxe and ultimate equivalents go one step further by offering easier access to the sockets behind the panel.

Meanwhile, a total of 10 speakers and a powerful 100W amplifier have been integrated right into the ultimate version. … Read more

As more and more people turn to e-books and tablets for their reading needs, there are stacks of books gathering dust on shelves, or even worse, being tossed into the trash (for shame!). Thankfully, one California couple is out to rescue these neglected and unappreciated treasures.

Richard and Brenna Neeley from Cerritos, Calif., take old and vintage books, as well as some new ones, and convert them into charging docks for iOS devices. Each dock is handmade to order and features a power cord (wall adapter not included) threaded through the book, with a slot on the front cover to dock your iPhone or iPod. … Read more

Cast your eyes on the freshly unveiled set of Lego "Lord of the Rings" miniature figures.

All of the major characters from the first movie (and a handful of villains) are included in the collection, which debuts this summer. Lego unveiled 14 characters in total yesterday, and the brick maker has done an outstanding job re-creating the characters' iconic appearances. … Read more

Fancy having your own self-guided flying camera mount? One that could get your Canon dSLR soaring over your house and neighborhood for only $2,500?

Kickstarter fans would, so much so that they ponied up triple the $25,000 funding goal for the Eye3 hexacopter, powered by the open-source APM2 autopilot platform.

After all, flying drones, military and civilian, can record stunning footage for a lot less than the price of a helicopter camera crew.

But Kickstarter has poked its finger in the Eye3, pulling the plug on funding. … Read more

Move over, Superman. Humans are flying over the skies of New York City, thanks to marketing agency Thinkmodo.

The viral ad company is flying human-shaped remote-controlled planes around the New York and New Jersey areas to promote the new Fox movie "Chronicle."

In the movie, three teenagers gain a host of superpowers and the ability to fly. The YouTube video showing this controlled phenomenon already has 650,000-plus views, and it's possible more people will see the viral ad than the actual movie. … Read more

The saddest part of the rumor about celebrities getting paid thousands of dollars to send corporate-sponsored Tweets is that it's true.

It started with Internship.com paying Charlie Sheen $50,000 to solicit "Tiger Blood" interns, and today we're exploring the number of ways celebrities make money on the side.

We'll also talk about presidential campaigns embracing modern technology, starting with Romney's crew using Square hardware to grab donations and votes.

We'll also pick at the reasons why Obama and Google strategically ignored the most-voted question from yesterday's YouTube campaign q&a. Plenty of time to talk about late-night snacks, but what about the 4,500 users who have legitimate health concerns?… Read more

Do you groan every time you see those mundane stickers on the back of a car's window representing a family, often using cute stick figures?

Geek things up a bit with the Star Wars family member car stickers by Star Wars Spoofs. Revel in the dark or light side as fans of the franchise honk away as you pass by. The collection features some larger characters for mom and dad, and little pint-size heroes and villains for the young ones. Pricing ranges from $2.75 for pets to $3.75 for kids and $4.75 for parental units. … Read more

It takes real money to build a decent house these days, and it's even more helpful if that money is already in the form of bricks.

Dublin artist Frank Buckley built a house from 1.4 billion euros ($1.8 billion) worth of decommissioned and shredded notes of the currency. The three-room house with a bedroom, bathroom, and living room is Buckley's way of making a statement about the crisis the European economy finds itself in, and Ireland's out-of-control construction boom of the last decade that stands as his country's major contribution to the current continent-wide fiscal emergency.

According to Buckley, the bricks of discarded euro notes he picked up with two trailers from a nearby Mint not only make a decent structural material, they also insulate the home pretty well. He estimates that each brick is made up of around 50,000 former euros. … Read more

They say one man's trash is another man's treasure, and this certainly seems to be the case for Chilean artist Rodrigo Alonso.

Alonso is the mastermind behind the geeky chairs pictured above. They're made from pieces of old tech donated by Chilean recycling company Recycla.

The graphic designer creates the stools by pouring epoxy resin into a mold filled with the e-waste; the legs are made from cast aluminum. Alonso produces the chairs in limited editions, but he also takes special orders. Since no set of e-waste is alike, each piece is original and dyes can also be added to the resin to add color.

For Alonso, the project is more than just a piece of furniture or work of art. The chairs, which are called N+ew for No More Electronic Waste, is also about recycling e-waste. Though consumer electronics companies are slowly becoming more eco-conscious and more recycling programs are being put in place, the amount of e-waste is still expected to rise exponentially by 2020, especially in developing countries. … Read more