Geekly Update - 10 November 2021

The AskBobRankin Geekly Update

The U.S. Justice Department has announced the arrest of two ransomware extortionists who attacked businesses and government entities in the United States. They seized $6.1 million in funds traceable to ransom payments received by the Russian and Ukranian scammers who were charged with conducting Sodinokibi/REvil ransomware attacks.

Have you seen services such as Afterpay, Affirm, and Klarna offered as payment methods when shopping online? Here's a warning from Wired Magazine about the dangers of so-called 'Buy Now, Pay Later' apps, which give users the option to buy now and pay off the purchase in installments. Consumer advocates say they may entice people into purchases they can't afford to pay.

A UK trade union is seeking protection for remote workers who are increasingly subjected to "intrusive monitoring" while in their own homes. One in three UK workers believe they are being monitored by their employer using cameras and other surveillance technologies. (The other two thirds just haven't realized yet.)

Google has introduced Pet Portraits, a way to discover your pet's "art doubles" using AI and machine learning software that searches for similar images of your for your dog, cat, bird, horse, or other animal in works of art. Download the free Google Arts & Culture app to give it a whirl. (My dog Bonzai found his doggelganger!.)

In other pet news, an Instagram user with the handle PlantATreeCo asked users to post a pet photo, and it would result in a tree being planted. Millions of dog and cat pics were posted, and the original poster realized within 10 minutes that "it was a hard thing to accomplish." It should have taken less than ten seconds for those who posted photos to realize the same.

In his ZDNet article, Why I will never use Zuckerberg's metaverse, Jason Perlow says: "Imagine a world run by Zuckerberg and his gang of Silicon Valley snapperheads? I don't want to experience that. At all. Think of how addicting something like Minecraft is, and then add Meta/Facebook's ethics and business model and practices on top of it. It sounds like a nightmare from Black Mirror or a bad Netflix movie."

CNet reports that cryptocurrency scams are rampant on social media. Cybercrooks are using fake live event videos, bogus giveaways and investment sites on YouTube, Twitter and other social media sites to dupe potential victims into parting with crypto currency. A fake but "verified" profile for Elon Musk was recently used in a Bitcoin scam, claiming that the billionaire would send users 2000 in Bitcoin, if they sent him 1000 BTC.

Researchers in Zurich have developed a tiny robot inspired by the locomotion of the starfish larva. The tiny microrobot, measuring one-fourth of a millimeter, is equipped with tiny hairs just like its "twin" in nature, enabling it to swim around and potentially deliver drugs inside the body with pinpoint accuracy.

You.com is a yet another privacy-focused search engine. It summarizes the Internet for you, based on search types, such as websites, YouTube videos, images, tweets, etc. You can customize and rank search results according to your preferences. You relies mostly on Microsoft's Bing search engine for its results.

Use this discreet hand signal to show you need help. If someone gives you this hand signal on a video call, it indicates that the person is in distress but cannot otherwise communicate that without tipping off an abuser or abductor. A teenage girl abducted in North Carolina recently used the "thumb tuck" signal to alert a passing motorist, who called 911.

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