Geekly Update - 08 February 2017

The AskBobRankin Geekly Update

Ransomware shut down the computer systems of Licking County, Ohio, on February 1, forcing county workers to work with paper and pen, without even landline phones. But instead of paying the ransom, IT workers are rebuilding the system from... (drumroll, please...) good backups!

Several States’ bar associations have banned the coolest feature of the new MacBook Pro from bar examinations. Apparently, the Touch Bar on the new computer can be programmed to display exam answers and otherwise facilitate cheating. Technicians will be in exam rooms to ensure that Touch Bars are disabled. Touch Bar-equipped MacBook Pros are outright banned in several other States.

Tired of Windows 10 forced updates and restarts ruining your work? Learn how to specify a window of time when you won’t be using the machine and restarts can take place harmlessly.

Five States are considering “right to repair” laws that would require manufacturers to sell repair parts to independent repair shops and consumers, and to make their service manuals and diagnostic tools available. Nebraska, Minnesota, New York, Massachusetts, and Kansas would enshrine the right to repair for all goods, while Wyoming is targeting only farm equipment. John Deere, for example, claims that since tractors include software they cannot be repaired by farmers.

Have a peek at the very first TV commercial for a cell phone (sold only at Radio Shack), and wonder how they fit the phone on those itsy-bitsy 26-inch screens.

They don’t build servers like this anymore. A Stratus Technologies fault-tolerant server was first booted up in 1993. Since then, it has never crashed; only scheduled maintenance has seen it shut down. This work horse will be put out to pasture in April when the system it’s part of gets updated.

A repository of 3 billion sets of user credentials has gone offline, dealing a blow to amateur “script kiddies.” LeakedSource was compiled from smaller databases of hacked accounts, ostensibly so consumers could check to see if their credentials had been compromised. Rumor has it the U. S. government shut down LeakedSource, but the Justice Dept. isn’t saying.

Comcast is introducing gigabit Internet without fiber optics to business customers in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit and Nashville. The coax-based system relies on the latest DOCSIS 3.1 cable modem standard.

Not news: ransomware locks up hotel’s data. Fake news: ransomware locks hotel guests in their rooms. Real news: ransomware prevents hotel from generating new digital room keys.

The CTL J5X is a ruggedized Chromebook intended for classroom use. Its rigid metal lid can bear up to 300 pounds and includes a whiteboard. The $290 machine survives drops from up to 2.5 ft/76 cm and keyboard flooding with up to 11.2 oz/331 ml. of liquid. If you do manage to break it, the J5X comes with a one-year accidental damage warranty.

Data from Google Street View will be used to make self-driving cars safer by overlaying Street View location data on live video used for navigation. The Street View data will be especially helpful on dark, rainy, or snowy nights.

"Adoptly is an app-based platform that seamlessly connects prospective parents to adoptable children nearby." Actually, you can’t swipe left on a baby, a Tinder-like process that adoption experts called “dehumanizing.” The hoax was created by Ben Becker and Elliot Glass, who brought us another fake app called Pooper last year. You don’t want to know what Pooper purportedly did.

Now we understand why they changed their name. Time-Warner Cable has been ripping off customers since at least 2012, according to a lawsuit filed by New York’s Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman. The suit accuses TWC (now owned by Charter Communications and recently re-branded as “Spectrum”) of promising Internet speeds it could not actually deliver through the obsolete routers and modems it leased to customers.

Say “no” to any so-called “Google Chrome font update” that a website may offer you. It’s a fake font package that actually contains ransomware. Chrome doesn’t need font updates.

A simple invention could put thousands of sewing machine operators out of work. Robots can’t correctly stitch material that bends, so Jonathan Zornow stiffens cloth temporarily with water-soluble polymers.

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