Geekly Update - 03 July 2018
If the first cyber attack happened 184 years ago, does that prove Al Gore is a time traveler? Why is Mickey Mouse so happy about new security procedures at Orlando International Airport? And what's the best low-tech way to keep school kids from cheating on standardized tests? This issue is guaranteed to make you 146% smarter -- you'll see why. Read, think, and, comment! |
The AskBobRankin Geekly Update
The $4,000 Centrex sit-or-stand desk features just about every geekly convenience except a piggy bank from which to pay for the desk.
"Wood-be hackers..." The first cyber-attack happened in France, in the year 1834. Two crooked bankers hacked the national government’s wooden semaphore system. Their perfidy went undetected for two years.
All international travelers passing through Orlando’s airport will have their faces scanned, even U.S. citizens. Mickey Mouse feels much safer now.
Soon every car, not just the Tesla 3, will come with a digital key that uses your smartphone to lock and unlock the car. An industry-wide standard for digital keys has been adopted by major automakers, Apple, LG, and Samsung have endorsed the new standard.
We knew it was coming and here it is. A burger-making robot is now replacing teenagers in a real-world restaurant.
Algeria knows how to prevent students from cheating during standardized tests. Government officials simply turned off the country’s Internet access for the test day.
Comcast customers in the USA, some of whom have been without service for four days, might wish they were in Algeria, where the outages are predictable and shorter in duration. Comcast blamed the problem on "two unrelated fiber cuts to our network backbone providers."
Western New York’s Lockport School District could have spent $4 million in government technology grants to equip children with gear that would help them learn, but instead the district bought a face recognition system that will be used to track every move of children as young as five years.
In completely unrelated news, Microsoft says its face recognition API is now much better at correctly identifying persons of color. Now, if only we could find persons of color on Microsoft’s Face API homepage.
Some monitors sold as having 1440p resolution may actually have downgraded 4K panels, because the latter are cheaper these days. That’s a problem for discerning eyes.
“Revenge p*rn” is evil, unquestionably, So why did Google mount a last-minute lobbying effort against a NY state legislature bill that would have criminalized posting n*ked pictures of an ex without permission?
Owners of ancient Pentium III CPUs and other obsolete processors have quietly been cut off from security updates of all Windows versions.
Your thoughts on these topics are welcome. Post your comment or question below...
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This article was posted by Bob Rankin on 3 Jul 2018
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Article information: AskBobRankin -- Geekly Update - 03 July 2018 (Posted: 3 Jul 2018)
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Most recent comments on "Geekly Update - 03 July 2018"
Posted by:
Jane
03 Jul 2018
The term "crooked bankers" is redundant. When someone mentions bankers, crookedness is assumed
Posted by:
Daniel
03 Jul 2018
I remember some time ago that many if not most ATM's were still using Win XP. Microsoft was temporarily still updating those-- even after they stopped for the general public. I wonder what major security issues will be caused by MS stopping support of PIII computers? My guess would be that there are some workhorse PIII computers that are just sitting there running vital systems and this will be a big issue.
Posted by:
Dave
03 Jul 2018
Opps! While out camping my phone died. Now without a key I will have to walk 100 miles to the nearest phone charging station so that I can walk back to get my car.
Posted by:
Egbok
03 Jul 2018
I can just imagine a burger joint with no workers and the manager now wants $15 per hour!
Posted by:
thom r
03 Jul 2018
Any chance Lockport is in congressman Collins jurisdiction?
Posted by:
David
03 Jul 2018
My state rep has his office in a local bank building. I've always thought that cuts out the middleman.
Posted by:
David maguire
03 Jul 2018
no need for thieves to search for your car keys, steal your phone steal your car
Posted by:
Mark
03 Jul 2018
I bet the burger making machine isn't running Windows. And I hope no medical equipment is.
Posted by:
Jeanine
04 Jul 2018
Omg, "wood-be hackers." This is a hoot. I never knew the clacks towers in Terry Pratchett's Discworld had a real-life counterpart!
Posted by:
Geoff
04 Jul 2018
Seriously, I would love to hear the justification of the Lockport school district for facial recognition software. Sounds a little like some folks went to college and got a degree, but missed out on the education.
Posted by:
Jay R
05 Jul 2018
Geoff- I'm thinking that today there is a new meaning for a college BS degree. And BA is Bogus Academia. I don't think that the PHD has gotten a new meaning.
I wonder if Robby the Robot got a job at the Golden Starches, if he would start saying, "Danger, Will Robinson! Go see the Red Head with Pigtails. The food is safe and tastes much better. Danger, Will Robinson!"
Not only good data, but much amusement can be found here. Thanx, Bob!
Posted by:
rocketride
05 Jul 2018
@ Jeanine
There's not a whole lot in the Discworld books that doesn't have real-world counterparts-- that's a big part of the fun.
Posted by:
LindaHD
15 Jul 2018
Thank you Bob for the article about Microsoft's non-support of Win7 since it explains a current problem I have.
I don't use my laptop much since I've retired, but I needed it for a trip in late June. When I booted my laptop Microsoft updates immediately downloaded and began to install. Long frustrating story short - two hours before leaving for the airport my laptop still wouldn't load/execute Win7.