Geekly Update 06 03 18

The AskBobRankin Geekly Update

Remember the "email tax" hoax that made the rounds twenty years ago? Well it's back, in a slightly different form, and this time it's no joke. Uganda will tax users of WhatsApp, Twitter, and Facebook 5 cents per day in an effort to stop gossip, sparking “casual or unconstrained conversation or reports … typically involving details that are not confirmed as being true.” There's lots of confusion about how the law will be enforced. I'd be in favor of a hefty fine on people who post fake stories on Facebook without first checking their veracity.

“Faces of Open Source” is a photography project that pays homage to the people who write and maintain code for free. Photographer Peter Adams has created stunning black-and-white portraits of the heroes of license-free software.

Robots are allowed on the sidewalks in Arizona, but only if they are polite.

A tastefully written history of human defecation in outer space, published in “Popular” Science.

Mass storage and RAM would be revolutionized if light could magnetize a semiconductor in 50 trillionths of one second. Here comes the revolution!

Good news: a Tesla Model 3 electric car went 606 miles on a single battery charge. Bad news: the next morning, it had to be towed to a service station because the battery would not recharge.

YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat have all surpassed Facebook in popularity among teens. Instagram is owned by Facebook, but the parent company is none too pleased to be outdone by its child.

The OnePlus 6 “smart” phone unlocks its screen with a more “convenient” face recognition technology that can be fooled by a black-and-white photo. The iPhone X requires a 3D mask of its owner’s face, if that’s any comfort.

An iOS device tracks your every movement and stores all the locations you have visited in its local “Significant Locations” database where it’s perfectly secure, I’m sure.

3D holographic “spells” just like Dr. Strange’s can be cast by a modified Nerf blaster.

Dumbest product of the year? It just may end up being the “Reviver” e-paper digital license plate: $700 plus at least $7 per month for the “service,” more if you want access to the location data this thing will no doubt give to cops for free. The safest place for expensive electronic gear is on the bumper of your car, facing traffic and shopping carts.

Facebook will remove the Trending news section this week while “exploring” other ways to feed news to an increasingly mobile audience that would rather watch video than read.

Hackers based in North Korea continue their attacks against U. S. servers in the government, media, and infrastructure sectors even as the two nations’ leaders prepare for a possible summit meeting in June.

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