Geekly Update - 03 May 2012

The AskBobRankin Geekly Update

Anders Breivik, the man who killed 77 people in Norway last summer, said at his trial that he practiced shooting people by playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

iPavement is a clever company in Spain that produces small square tiles that can be utilized as portable WiFi/Bluetooth hot spots. Due out in July, each will have its own OS and include access to library, mapping and other apps.

Last fall, Philips Lighting received $10 million from the DOE for coming up with a winning EnduraLED light bulb that is 83% more efficient than a standard one and can last about 30,000 hours. The bulbs, which are just starting to reach retailers now, will cost about $60 each, but some (taxpayer funded) rebates are available.

Need cash? You can earn a quick $20,000 by reporting a software bug related to Google, YouTube or Blogger services. The Vulnerability Reward Program has been around since 2010 and has so far distributed over $400,000 in bounties. But be forewarned... you only get $10K for finding an SQL injection exploit.

Microsoft announced that it has sold Facebook a portion of a patent agreement they recently purchased from AOL for $550 million. Facebook gets control of 650 patents, enabling them to legally menace wannabees and competitors.

Thirty years after the birthing of the Net comes the Internet Society's Hall of Fame in Geneva, Switzerland. Thirty three entrepreneurs and engineers are included in the first go round with the likes of Vinton Cerf (TCP/IP designer), Tim Berners-Lee (inventor of the World Wide Web), Jon Postel (creator Internet protocols) and many others who helped to create, promote and popularize the Internet.
I certainly hope that Bob Taylor and J.R. Liciklider (two of my Internet heros) make the cut next year. See my article History of the Internet for some fascinating glimpses into how the Internet became what it is today.

Apple's annual Worldwide Developer Conference will take place this June and has already sold out of non-transferable tickets. A developer wants to go so badly that he placed an ad on Craigslist offering to buy one for $1,600 and have his name legally changed so that he could use it. (He also volunteered to do jury duty for the seller.)

The long-rumored Google Drive has arrived -- a cloud storage service where you can stash your files, video and photos. You get 5GB for free and can upgrade up to 1 terabyte.

A team at MIT turned their Green Building into a giant Tetris game. An outside console allowed players to drop, move and rotate the colored blocks.

Facebook has begun testing its Support Dashboard, meant to keep users informed after they use the "Report" button to flag abusive or offensive content on Facebook. Oh, and by the way... I am SO sorry about that "1001 Ways to Cook a Kitten" posting I made last week. Is there a "Never Mind" button? :-)