Geek culture

It feels good to own a new Mac notebook. You're on top of the world until you haul your laptop someplace and let your battery run low before realizing that you're a MagSafe adapter short of juicing up. If only you hadn't lost that tiny, but critical, piece of equipment.

Apple changed the MagSafe power adapter hookup for its laptops in 2012, leaving consumers with a few gazillion out-of-date power adapters. To remedy the situation, Apple offered a $9.99 MagSafe to MagSafe 2 converter. It works, but it's small and easy to lose. … Read more

We can't help but leave our DNA all over the place. If you drop a chewed piece of gum or a cigarette butt, it might get picked up by artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg. She may mine it for DNA, analyze the results, and generate a portrait based on the data. That's either really spooky, really cool, or a bit of both.

Dewey-Hagborg's Stranger Visions project combines artistry and science while raising questions about genetic privacy. She starts by collecting genetic material from public places. She then analyzes it at a lab, mining the DNA for information like gender, ethnicity, and eye color.… Read more

When you're young and observing or experiencing abuse, especially when it involves people close to you, it can be hard to find the strength to talk to someone about it. An innovative new advertisement could help direct children -- without alerting their parents or others who may be threatening them -- that there's a way to seek help.

Spain's ANAR Foundation (Aid to Children and Adolescents at Risk) created an anti-abuse ad that uses lenticular printing to display two pictures that differ based on the viewer's height. The group created the ad to reach abuse victims who might be accompanied by their aggressor. … Read more

Mario's multilevel gaming style has endured for good reasons. It's simple, it's fun, and it's addictive. Once you've conquered the realms of Mario and other similar retro games, where do you go next? How about creating your own custom video game? That sounds great, but you'll need to brush up on your programming skills first. Unless, that is, Kickstarter project Pixel Press gets off the ground.

With Pixel Press, you just need the app, a piece of paper, a pencil, and your imagination to create your own game. No coding required.

Here's how it works. You start by printing out the gridded Pixel Press sketch sheet, along with the instructions. You can design five layers on the sketch sheet using certain elements like terrain, hazards, monkey bars, moving platforms, barriers, spikes, portals, and power-ups. You draw all these out onto the grid, with the aim of designing five progressively more challenging levels for your hero to conquer.… Read more

Check out the newest killer app for the Oculus Rift head-mounted display: a guillotine simulator.

Created over the course of two days at Denmark's Exile Game Jam, the Disunion app takes an Oculus Rift wearer to the setting of an 18th century execution, complete with masked executioner and curious crowd. While the player awaits his beheading, he can look around at the stage and blade above him.… Read more

One my biggest disappointments with Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" was its failure to include Tom Bombadil, the immortal woodsman who is immune to the One Ring.

The character has a small but intriguing part in J.R.R. Tolkien's trilogy, but of course there's no room for him in a blockbuster film. Not so, however, with this very cool Periodic Table of Middle Earth, which replaces elements with earthly characters from LOTR and "The Hobbit." … Read more

It's hard being an old Vulcan.

Younger beings come along and just want to vulcanize you.

Old Vulcans have it so bad they drive Mercedes. Young ones, quite naturally, drive an Audi.

These aren't the musings of an addled mind; it's the premise of a new Audi ad. Here we have old Spock, Leonard Nimoy, and young Spock, Zachary Quinto, challenging each other. Yes, they will race each other to the golf club -- loser buys lunch. (Do not attempt.)

Quinto has a very fancy Audi S7. Spock is slumming it in an old guy's Mercedes. … Read more

Whatever your fandom may be, some Lego aficionado has probably already built a massive version of it. OK, so we've already seen a 200,000-piece alien city and a 70,000-piece Serenity spaceship. Now feast your hungry building-block eyes on this stunning 150,000-brick Helm's Deep from "Lord of the Rings."

Built by Rich-K and Big J, the model is 90 percent complete. The Lego fans (under the name "Goel Kim") uploaded the creation to MOCpages, an unofficial Lego fan site where builders share their accomplishments. And what an accomplishment this is. The creators managed to capture the regimented mayhem of the battle of Helm's Deep in incredible detail.… Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Today I learned Dave Chappelle was in a "Home Improvement" spinoff that was actually made.

- Twelve things that will get you banned on Xbox.

- You won't remember anything, including this article, unless you print it out.

- Senate passes Internet sales tax bill by 2-to-1 margin.… Read more