Geek culture

'Star Wars' T-shirts stand up to cancer

With every possible entertainment entity from the NFL to M&Ms supporting cancer awareness with special themed events and products, there's no reason the Galactic Empire shouldn't get in on the act.

Stand Up to Cancer, the celebrity-driven charity, is teaming with Lucasfilm to raise research funds by selling four specially designed "cancer fighting" T-shirts with "Star Wars" themes.

Perhaps I should clarify that the shirts themselves have no particular medicinal qualities, but all hands hope the money they raise will continue the fight against all forms of the deadly disease. Each of the four shirts (featuring Darth Vader, Yoda, and Stormtroopers) sell for $24.95, with all proceeds going to SU2C. … Read more

The 404 955: Where we steal this record (podcast)

Leaked from 404 Podcast 955:

Elvis Costello tells fans to "Steal this record." Little Printer chews your feeds into a bite-size newspaper. Groupon stock is tanking, and Jill's here to tell us why! Facebook IPO coming next spring? Bathroom break video 1: Using Siri and Viper to start a car. Bathroom break video 1: Girl totally owns the treadmill.

Buy a DeLorean flux capacitor at the parts store

2011 would be a good year for Doctor Emmett Brown's DeLorean to break down. He can just call up his local O'Reilly and see if it has part numbers "121G" and "121GMF" in stock.

O'Reilly Auto Parts lists a Flux Capacitor and Mr. Fusion Upgrade from EB Enterprises in its online catalog. The parts are compatible with 1981-1983 DeLoreans.

The flux capacitor product listing includes a warning as to the dangers of time travel. Unfortunately, O'Reilly doesn't carry plutonium. You will have to contact your local supplier. … Read more

Philips Bio-light creates mood lighting with bacteria

In 2012, 100-watt incandescent bulbs will be a thing of the past, but fear not, as there's some great energy-efficient lightbulb tech to illuminate the way. It ranges from compact fluorescent lights to LEDs to halogen bulbs, and, if Philips has anything to do with it, bacteria-powered lights.

As part of its Microbial Home project, which also birthed the urban beehive, Philips set about designing a natural lighting system based on biological processes. The result? The Bio-light concept. … Read more

Monitor hack hides your private computing parts

While it may appear that Instructables contributor dimovi has been staring at a blank, white computer screen for hours, he's actually getting some super secret work done.

Dimovi hacked an old LCD monitor with a knife, paint thinner, superglue, and a pair of 3D glasses pilfered from the movies to create a privacy screen that keeps prying eyes at bay.

I know this all sound very MacGyver-ish, but it's actually pretty simple.… Read more

How to help jailbreak future iOS updates

Despite the overwhelming success of Apple's "walled garden" approach to the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, many users still wish to part ways with the benefits of control in favor of the unbridled technology (good and bad) available when jailbreaking iOS. If you are one of those users, you can actually become an integral part of the jailbreaking community.

Jailbreaking your iOS device largely depends on finding exploits in the iOS code that hackers can use to take control of the operating system and install applications and functions not approved by Apple. Those exploits can be found … Read more

The 404 954: Where hey, it's Monday, wanna Cyber? (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 Podcast episode:

Black Friday online shopping actually works, grows 26 percent Best Buy, Verizon, Dell launch Cyber Monday deals. Apple posts Black Friday retail records, despite customers reporting underwhelming discounts. Kindle family soars on Black Friday, but unit sales still elusive.… Read more

Could a monkey do your job?

Yes, the job market is terrible. But if you think outsourcing, increasing use of robots, and a downright lame global economy have made times tough, just wait till other primates start adding to the competition.

The crew that brought us other enlightening infographics--like this classic on the science behind toilet paper orientation--has this tongue in cheek look at the threat that trained monkeys and apes could pose to your next job search. … Read more

Portable audio holiday gift picks

You almost can't go wrong giving the gift of music, so take a look at our top audio picks in this year's Holiday Gift Guide.

My opinion is that one can never have too many headphones since each model offers a different sound profile, but check out these alternatives for the audiophile on your gift list.

A good place to start is obviously a portable music player like the versatile Apple iPod Touch, but I also love the Logitech Wireless Boombox for iPad.

It lets you stream music from any device with a Bluetooth connection (most current smartphones, … Read more

Bonsai Kitty Plush: Relive the outrage

Let's get the disclaimers out of the way. No cats were harmed in the making of Bonsai Kitty Plush. Bonsai kittens were never real in the first place. ThinkGeek's plush toy version is not a real cat.

According to Snopes, the original bonsai kitten site was a tasteless joke that was taken down years ago. You can still view it through the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine if you want to relive the outrage.

The site claimed to sell kittens that had been grown inside glass jars. You can understand why people freaked out, but it was all just a juvenile hoax.… Read more