Geekly Update - 26 April 2012

The AskBobRankin Geekly Update

IKEA, long known for home accessories that are often too difficult to assemble for the average human, is going into the HDTV business. The Uppleva, which combines TV, furniture and sound into one tidy package, will reach the states in spring of 2013. (Screwdriver and soldering iron not included.)

Saroo Brierley was separated from his Indian family when he was a 5 year-old and used Google Earth to find them again 25 years later.

Deceased rapper Tupac Shakur made an appearance at Coachella 2012. His "duet" with a live Snoop Dogg used digital trickery to give the appearance of a 3-D holographic projection. No word yet on the Elvis, Michael Jackson, Freddie Mercury reunion tour.

Aviva, an insurance company in the UK, accidentally fired 1300 employees in an email blast, then apologized for the error. A precise tally of the number of inadvertently sacked staffers who leapt from the window before receiving the "Ooops, we goofed!" message was unavailable as of this writing.

At the top of CareerCast's Ten Best Jobs of 2012 is software engineer, with the most pleasant environment, little stress, lowest amount of physical demand and good hiring prospects. Other IT positions in the top 20 are systems analyst and Web developer. But any Monty Python fan would be stunned to hear that lumberjack came in LAST out of 200 occupations surveyed!

Best Buy released a list of the 42 big box store locations that it will shut down probably by May 12 (two have already been closed.) Those listed have been notified and several hundred former employees will be repositioned or given severance pay.

Sprint is releasing the Galaxy Nexus this month for $100.00 less than Verizon. With a two year agreement, that means a price of $199.99, saving a whopping $350.00 overall with a $50.00 credit for activating Google Wallet tossed into the deal.

The FCC has fined Google $25,000 for deliberately impeding their investigation of how they gather data for its Street View project from 2007 - 2010. While Google can appeal the fine, this decision finally closes the inquiry.

It's finally okay to write on the wall. Penveu is a multi-color whiteboard pen that doubles as a mouse. The $500 gadget can be used with or without a PC, and will make any projector or large screen display interactive.