Geekly Update November 30

The AskBobRankin Geekly Update

Publishers of the Oxford Dictionary have announced their Word of the Year. Their pick is "unfriend", a verb that means "to remove someone as a 'friend' on a social networking site such as Facebook." To see what words it beat out, including "hashtag", "sexting," and "netbook", visit the Oxford website.

An Illinois teenager was so distressed when his parents took away his Xbox game system, that he called 911 to ask if his parents had the right to do that. Police who arrived at the 15-year-old's home confirmed the worst -- his rights kick in when he moves out.

Super Talent has unveiled a series of CompactFlash 4.1 media cards that can reach read/write speeds of up to 90MB/second. The new media cards, which accommodate the fast read/write requirements of high-end digital cameras, are available in 8, 16, 32 and 64GB capacities. Hey, let's do some math... at 90MB/sec, you could fill that 64GB card in just under 12 minutes. Might want to buy 2 or 3 of those...

Jaguar, aka the Cray XT5 supercomputer, is now considered the fastest computer in the world by overtaking IBM’s Roadrunner. The formal announcement was made at the Portland SC09 Conference this week that Jaguar was able to process 1759 teraflops/second, besting the Roadrunner's 1042 TFlop/sec mark. Prediction: Someone named "W.E. Coyote" will be coming out with an even faster computer very soon.

After a successful launch, Atlantis reached the International Space Station, performed a resupply mission, and returned to Kennedy Space Center last Friday morning. Returning passenger Nicole Stott is the last astronaut who will be transported to or from the space station via the shuttle. There are only five remaining shuttle missions.

If you lose your Blackberry, SmrtGuardwill help you locate it, and optionally send a death ray to erase your messages, passwords and other personal information. You can even remotely listen in to what's going on near your lost phone. SmrtGuard costs $3.99 per month, or $44.99/year for the service.

In an effort to beef up holiday sales, the games Lego Batman and PURE will be included in the Xbox Elite. It remains to be seen if the $299 price tag will bring in the buyers.

Best Buy has created a new gimme gimmick with its Pitch In Card. You create a Wish list and beg friends or relatives to contribute at least $5 to it. Convince about 800 people to pitch in, and you might just get that Sony 52-inch KDL52XBR10 HDTV you've been drooling over.

According to Business Insider, AOL is trying to stay afloat by asking 2,500 of its employees (one third of the workforce) to voluntarily resign as well as offering ICQ (and possibly MapQuest) for sale. CEO Tim Armstrong is feeling the pain as well -- he's foregoing his 2009 bonus, worth around $1.5 million. If there aren't enough buyout volunteers, employees may start hearing "You've Got Pinkslip!" when they login.

Scott Becker in Kansas finally found his daughter April Antoniou after 30 years when she made a Google search and ended up on AprilBecker.com, a site the father had created 7 years ago. The girl's parents separated shortly after her birth and Becker had spent thousands trying to locate her.

Samsung is releasing the Go next week, a compact netbook with Microsoft Windows 7 Starter Edition. The mini Go weighs only 2.8 lbs. and has a LED backlit display and pebble-style keyboard. You can get one through AT&T for $199.99 after mail-in rebate and 2 year contract.