Geekly Update - 12 April 2018

The AskBobRankin Geekly Update

Social media is no longer just about sharing pictures of what you ate for lunch. A new trend among younger parents is "child shaming" -- sharing humiliating videos of their punishments on Youtube and Facebook.

Our eyes are hardening. We can barely see our phones anymore. It’s time to look up at the wide, wide world. No, really, the whole human race is going screen-blind.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress this week, regarding the company's privacy practices. Zuckerberg said "Every piece of content that you share on Facebook, you own and you have complete control over who sees it, and how you share it, and you can remove it at any time." But Wired Security editor Brian Barrett begs to differ.

Highway engineers have found a clever way to get drivers to slow down by laying strategically placed rumble strips that cause a song to played when you drive through the area at the speed limit. But residents of one Dutch village are getting really tired of hearing their national anthem played over and over. https://www.yahoo.com/news/singing-road-strikes-wrong-chord-dutch-villagers-202844588.html

Soylent the meal replacement drink that was available only online, last year, is now available in Walmart and 7-Eleven stores. I'm not sure if I would trust the ingredients listed on the Nutrition Facts panel.

Watch these robots 3D-print an entire bridge.

This just in from the Unintended Consequences department: A bug that Microsoft introduced into a popular open-source archiving app would allow .rar archive files to be used by hackers to take complete control of victims’ computers. Better yet, the compromised app was part of Microsoft’s Windows Defender antimalware system.

Facebook is violating privacy laws with its new facial recognition tech, according to complaints being filed with the Federal Trade Commission by the privacy advocacy group, EPIC. "The problem is that the people Facebook is trying to 'tag' did not consent to being identified," says EPIC president Marc Rotenberg. Zuckerberg: “That’s a problem?”

Amazon is shutting down its subscription cloud storage service for music files on April 30. Here is what you need to know if you’re a subscriber.

Google's Gmail service will get a makeover during the next few weeks, likely becoming more like the mobile Gmail app, as Calendar has. Expect a cleaner, more icon-driven look, plus features such as Smart Reply, scheduled future sendings, and offline work.

Faster, more timely rollouts of Android upgrades could be the blockbuster product differentiator, putting the company who achieves this goal ahead of the pack. LG Electronics hopes to become that runaway best-seller with its new Software Upgrade Center.

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