Geekly Update - 03 March 2021

The AskBobRankin Geekly Update

The Canadian artist known as Grimes sold almost $6 million worth of NFT Crypto artwork at auction yesterday. If you didn’t already know, NFT stands for “non-fungible token,” a technology that allows (apparently super-rich cool) people to purchase digital goods such as images or video. You can’t hang NFT on the living room wall – it lives as a digital token on a blockchain.

Scientists at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai are “surprised” that a new drug that works so well against depression. Ezogabine uses a different mechanism than existing treatments, opening potassium channels in the brain, leading to significant improvements in depressive symptoms.

A week into Black History Month, Amazon removed a critically acclaimed PBS documentary on Justice Clarence Thomas, “Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words.” Thomas is the only black justice currently serving on the U.S. Supreme Court. The five-star rated video had been on Amazon Prime for months, but is still “unavailable to watch in your location.” Nothing to see here, move along, folks.

This just in from the Creepy or Cool Department: Deep Nostalgia uses (you guessed it) artificial intelligence to animate still photos. The service is offered by online genealogy company MyHeritage, and is designed to take your photos of deceased loved ones and bring them to (digital) life in short video clips.

The Federal Communications Commission has announced a program that provides discounts of up to $50 per month for low-income households needing broadband internet service. The Emergency Broadband Benefit Program also provides up to $75 per month for households on Tribal lands and a one-time discount of up to $100 on a tablet, laptop or desktop computer for those who qualify.

In 1697, a French man wrote a letter to his cousin, and sealed it with a technique known as letterlocking, to safeguard the contents. More than 300 years later, researchers used a 3D imaging technique to reveal its contents without opening or unfolding it.

Walmart is dropping its $35 minimum order requirement for its Express two-hour delivery service for Walmart Plus subscribers. Express Delivery for food, pantry items, household essentials, and other products can cost up to $19.95, but Walmart will waive the fee if you subscribe to Walmart Plus. Anything that provides an alternative or competition for Amazon is a good thing.

If you’ve always dreamed of an open-source, de-Googled version of Android, your dream just came true. The e Foundation is selling refurbished Samsung phones preloaded with the /e/ operating system. A de-Googled Galaxy S9 goes for $380.

Citing user privacy concerns, Google is phasing out third-party tracking cookies, and they pinky-swear that they “will not build alternate identifiers to track individuals as they browse across the web.” Instead, they’ll create “privacy-preserving APIs” which prevent individual tracking and still make advertisers and publishers happy. Huh.

Someone must have noticed that Amazon’s new app icon, which rolled out in January, had what vaguely resembled a “Hitler mustache” in the design. So they’ve made a slight update to the icon that replaced the mustache with a colorful strip of tape.

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