Geekly Update - 01 December 2021

The AskBobRankin Geekly Update

Instagram is announcing new parental controls and tools for teens, just ahead of Senate hearings that will focus on the impact of the Facebook-owned service on young people. New features will let parents set time limits and give teens the "Take a Break" feature, encouraging users to step away if they've been scrolling for an extended period.

Yesterday, Google took action to disrupt the Glupteba botnet which is known for stealing users’ credentials and data, as well as using the infected computers for cryptocurrency mining. In addition to the technical action, Google is also filing a lawsuit, which they say is the first against a blockchain enabled botnet.

Will the real Satoshi Nakamoto please stand up? Craig Wright, a computer scientist who claims to be the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto and inventor of Bitcoin, was found by a jury to be the rightful owner of a digital wallet holding 1.1 million Bitcoin. The family of David Kleiman, Wright's deceased partner, was suing for a 50% share of the Bitcoin bounty, currently valued at over US$50 billion. Wright now must open the digital wallet to prove he is the owner of the Bitcoin, thereby revealing him as the true inventor of the cybercurrency.

Creepy or Cool? Ai-da is an AI-created robot, and also an artist and performer, currently composing and reciting poetry to honor the 700th anniversary of the death of Italian poet Dante.

Elon Musk says that Neuralink, the brain-computer interface project, is "working well in monkeys" and hopes to have FDA approval in 2022 for use in humans with spinal-cord injuries and neurological disorders. Why humans? Musk says it's "hard to have nuanced conversations with monkeys."

A team of South Korean scientists hopes to rendezvous with Apophis, an asteroid that's on track to buzz Planet Earth in 2029. NASA says Apophis will come within 20,000 miles of Earth, but there's no chance of impact. Still, scientists want to study the asteroid as it comes uncomfortably close, to beef up our knowledge of planetary defense when there is a real future threat.

We've been told that 5G wireless will revolutionize life as we know it, or maybe give us faster download speeds, or maybe not. Now the Federal Aviation Administration is worried that the rollout of "mid-band 5G" by Verizon and AT&T may interfere with the ability of pilots to land planes when visibility is low. The concern is that mid-band 5G may interfere with altimeters, making it difficult for automated landing systems to work.

Vishal Garg, chief executive of mortgage firm Better.com, fired 900 employees on a singel Zoom call. "If you're on this call you're part of the unlucky group being laid off," said Garg, while making the claim that terminated employees were only working two hours a day, while claiming for eight or more. Oh, and if you were one of the lucky ones, the company Christmas party is cancelled too.

If you think humans invented math, you'd be at odds with philosophers and physicists who believe that mathematics is just a part of nature that gives structure to the physical world. They point to honeycombs, cicadas and prime numbers for proof.

And finally... we're Just Here For The Headline: Tesla Allows Drivers To Play Video Games In Moving Cars, Raising Safety Concerns.

Your thoughts on these topics are welcome. Post your comment or question below...