Geekly Update - 07 May 2020

Wanted you to know that at least one old geezer recognized "Ain't got no distractions, can't hear no buzzers and bells, don't see no lights a-flashin', plays by sense of smell..." from Tommy, and I thought it was hilarious!

You gottta be a certain age to understand "Ain't got no distractions, can't hear no buzzers and bells, don't see no lights a-flashin', plays by sense of smell...". And I am!! Thanks for the smile, Bob!

I can't figure out why Microsoft is putting out a reward for hackers to break an Linux OS named Azure Sphere.

I would think regular Linux developers would do this.Of course, Microsoft has a lot of money,so they can do this.Ibet a lot of Linux people could come back and come up with a better IoT Linux OS than what Microsoft is proposing.

Regarding "X Æ A-12 Musk": Just last week I commented in a bulletin board message group that I belong to that it likely would not be long before someone named their child using only emojis. While this is not quite that it is close. :)

The privacy issue is one with which I am struggling as well. Recently, I chose to join the COVID Symptom Study run by ZOE that provides daily info to MassGeneral and Stanford; I have the program on my phone and each day answer if I have been tested and whether I am feeling normal or sick. As security-conscious as I am, committing to the study was not something I would normally do.

Nose in the news - I think the "e-nose" is being developed by Airbus not Boeing - at least the linked article says that.

Twitter's "hurt feelings monitor" isn't new. About 20 years ago, the email program Eudora had a "mood watch" program that looked at the message you were typing and rated it with 1, 2 or 3 chili peppers. If you clicked "Send" on a 3-pepper message, the program would display a question "Do you really want to send this?"

Elon Musk just keeps getting weirder and weirder!

I hope Musk gave his child a usable middle name, since the first name is clearly unusable. Also; the Galaxy A51 appears to be aimed at a different market than the new iPhone SE. That large screen is exactly what SE buyers don't want!

Hello Bob - fix the e-nose link - Airbus (you know the competitor to Boeing) is developing the e-nose - accuracy would be a good thing.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Fixed. Thanks fixit. :-)

There is no longer any real privacy in the US or many other countries. If a hacker or intelligence agency, including police departments want access to your pet computer, they can do it with almost impunity. The privacy organizations are fading fast, and the ACLU seems to be wandering off to the Netherlands. I discovered the other day, when accessing my wi fi library, that a privacy note popped up, taking note of the fact that: Your account can be accessed by the police without warning you. I'm sure the message popped up by error, someone screwing around with the library settings or updating. Then, noticed a parked police car in front of a hospital where a visit was necessary, while parked a distance in front of me holding his smart phone up, so he could shoot through the rear window of the squad car, to record the tag number, I suppose, and the activity of the person parked behind his car. Clever. Then,. we now have an aircraft flying above, collecting information in a City area (I live n a county), in a 32 sq mile area of a high crime region. Supposed to be experimental.
But, frankly experimental projects really turn out to be permanent policies. And, there's more, and the politicos do little or nothing to check on the operations, covert, of their local police departments. It's all gradual, but there is no longer privacy in America, and certainly not much on the internet.

THE WORLD NEEDS THE LORD JESUS CHRIST

U.S. becoming an extra-ordinary surveillance state because of CoViD-19 is like accusing the cow for spilled milk on the kitchen floor.
Maybe the Chinese concocted it so that they can sell more surveillance hardware and beat MobileEye and Carmera to get the majority of the credit.