Geekly Update - 03 May 2017

The AskBobRankin Geekly Update

Russian hacker Roman Seleznev was sentenced to 27 years in prison for breaking into the computer systems of more than 500 businesses to steal credit card numbers, which he then sold on the black market.

Is it a flying car or a jetski hoverboard? Either way, it looks pretty cool. Kitty Hawk's FAA-approved "flying car" looks like a giant drone, and can take off and land over water while carrying a human pilot.

Don't try to bring this on a plane. TSA agents at Mitchell Airport in Winconsin seized a suspicious device the owner said was just "art." The unusual home-made smoking device was made from an inert grenade, some padlocks, and a metal box.

Dr. Eric Topol, an advocate of mobile medical tech, recently used an ultrasound device called Phillips Lumify to diagnose his own kidney stone. In January, he took a “full-body selfie” look at all of his internal organs.

How long might you live if you could die only in accidents? An interactive site erected by PollStats can give you the startling answer.

Google and Facebook were duped into wiring $100 million to a Lithuanian phisher. This does not excuse you for clicking on that link in the email from a Nigerian prince.

For up to 7 minutes on April 26, large chunks of data owned by Visa, Master Card, Symantec, and about two dozen banks were diverted to a Russian government-controlled telecom company, Rostelecom. Was this a test preceding a larger hack or just a router programming mistake?

A Florida man used an unsecured WiFi network to broadcast bomb threats via Twitter. The neighbor whose WiFi Terrance Upham used can’t figure out how to set a password on his router, so “I’ll just unplug it” when it’s not in use. Don’t be that guy.

The NSA has shut down its controversial program of collecting American citizens’ email, phone, text, and Internet communications if they involve a foreign correspondent. Privacy advocates cheered.

The latest patches for Android cure over 100 security vulnerabilities. But you may have to wait up to 18 months for your carrier to push the patches to your phone.

AutoVoice, the Google app that lets Android users give verbal commands, is now available to desktop users of the Chrome browser. The setup process is a bit complicated, but it may be worth the rewards.

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