Geekly Update - 10 April 2014

The AskBobRankin Geekly Update

Kristoffer Von Hassel discovered how to log on to an Xbox console without the right password. Microsoft thanked him for sharing this critical vulnerability and added him to its list of recognized security researchers. Kristoffer is five years old.

“Tech neck” is the latest health hazard attributed to technology, and unlike WiFi-leukemia it’s real. People who spend all their time hunched over smartphones get sharp pains and immobility in their necks that chiropractic and steroids can’t cure.

The U.S. has created an atomic clock that will not lose or gain a second in 300 million years, making it three times more accurate than previous clock tech. Now you have no excuse for being late to work.

Oracle’s Java Cloud Service has more than 30 security holes, according to researchers who have released technical details and attack code demonstrating how the flaws can be exploited. Normally, Poland-based Security Explorations holds such information until the flaws have been fixed, but Oracle would not commit to fixing anything.

The oldest torrent on The Pirate Bay is not p**n, music, or a video game. You’ll never guess what it is in a million years. (Here's a hint.)

The countries with submarine fiber optic connections to the most other countries are the United States, the United Kingdom, and … Senegal? Researchers simplified maps of the global fiber network to reveal some interesting findings. The most-connected places tend to have faster and cheaper Internet. If you’re fed up with your cable company, consider moving to Fortaleza, Brazil or Bude in Cornwall, UK.

WiFi speeds of up to 1 Gigabit per second and range measured in miles are just two results of the FCC’s decision to open more radio frequency spectrum to unlicensed experimentation. The move signals the government’s recognition that unlicensed and licensed spectrum uses are complementary rather than competitive.

Ms. Marion Stokes passed away in 2012, but her awesome collection of over 40,000 VHS and Betamax tapes of local and national TV news broadcasts will live on forever, thanks to Brewster Kahle’s Internet Archive.

They're trying to suspend more than just your disbelief. Only €2,250,000 (about US$3.1 million) are needed to make SKYLYS - The flying car – a reality. But so far, the Indiegogo campaign for this product of Mix Aerospace in San Francisco has raised only €130. It ends on May 15, 2014.

Everyone who cares about such things agrees that Apple was founded on April 1, 1976… except for Steve Wozniak, one of Apple’s co-founders. We’ll just have to take away his Internet, then.

The Second Law of Thermodynamics has always stated that entropy – the amount of disorder in a system – never decreases spontaneously. Now it will have to be updated with, “unless you’re a nanoparticle.”

The New York Public Library has put 20,000 maps online and makes them free to download and use. Grab your shovel and go treasure hunting.

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