Geekly Update December 7

The AskBobRankin Geekly Update

Those wild-eyed particle physicists at CERN have cranked the Large Hadron Collider up to 11! Previously operating at a mere 450 billion electron volts, it was upped to 1.18 trillion volts, setting a new record. And in *totally* unrelated news, a mysterious blackout has darkened the entire country of France. And Switzerland. Analog watches in Europe are running backward. And there's an awful shrieking, groaning noise coming from deep under the Earth.

A Cambodian mechanic has created Angkor 333-2010, a car that he claims responds to telepathic commands. Yes, but can it bend a fork in the road?

After teaming with OnStar, the North American Aerospace Defense Command's Santa Tracker will now appear on some GPS systems. This year, you will also be able to track his journey on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and Google Earth. Suggestion: If you've been naughty this year, spoof your IP address and ask Santa to deliver your presents electronically.

comScore reports that sales on Black Friday were 11% higher than in 2008. About $595 million was spent online which is a 3% increase over last year’s spending. Well duh... the recession is over! Unemployment is down to only 10 percent! The government never lies about stuff like that, right?

An Arizona Higley School District employee was asked to resign when school officials complained that he downloaded alien-seeking software on all their computers. According to the Arizona Republic, Brad Niesluchowski downloaded SETI@home and BOINC software to seek out life in the final frontier. So unfair! Oh, and he *might* have downloaded a little porn at work, and ummm, cost the district between $1.2 million and $1.6 million. But it was definitely the alien thing that cost him his job.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is planning to overhaul the social network. In his blog this week, he said he plans to remove regional networks and create a simpler model with better privacy control. In response to this announcement, Myspace founder "Tom" will reportedly offer an exclusive library of cute, sparkly images that users can place on their profile pages.

The latest virus making the rounds in your email looks like it comes from the Center for Disease Control. According to AppRiver Security, the message asks you to go to a fake CDC page to create a profile for an H1N1 vaccination program. Instead, it releases an executable file that contains the Kryptik Trojan.

Actor Morgan Freeman and his company Digiboo have an interesting project. They will be launching about 100 kiosks in Hollywood Video Stores next year that will sell movies via a USB download in less than 30 seconds. DRM is layered into each film so that it cannot be pirated. People still go to video rental stores? Huh.

What do Heath Ledger, Barack Obama and Amy Winehouse have in common? They're on Google's "Fastest Falling" list for 2009. Google has released their year end Zeitgeist that lists trends in search terms. The "Fastest Rising" list includes Michael Jackson, Facebook, Twitter and oddly, Sanalika, a Turkish gaming site.

The purchase of NBC by Comcast this week (they now own 51% of its stock,) means that not only will the company have more to offer, it also means that they will be able to produce more On Demand movies. I suspect it will also mean a rate hike for Comcast subscribers.

If you're the type of person that checks their Gmail several times a day, the Gboard has 19 buttons with all the shortcuts you need to make the job go faster. At a price of $19.99, the mini-board plugs into a PC or Mac via a USB port. It's the perfect gift for people who are too lazy to read the GMail Keyboard Shortcuts help page.