Geekly Update - 12 June 2019

The AskBobRankin Geekly Update

Blancco Technology Group, a data security firm, purchased 200 used hard drives from eBay and Craigslist. They found that over two thirds of them contained personally identifiable information or sensitive corporate data. Even though the sellers claimed they had reformatted or otherwise wiped the data, Blancco found emails, spreadsheets, passport photos, birth certificates, financial records, resumes, and other data.

By typing the letters A W E S O M E while a youtube video is playing, the red progress bar that shows the time remaining will exhibit a rainbow effect.

3 Rivers Communications, a cable TV provider in the state of Montana is discontinuing TV service to their customers. They claim that competition from Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu and other streaming services was the reason for their decision. They will continue to provide telephone and broadband internet service.

Residents of Mexico City are buying fake phones, on purpose. Muggings and armed robberies are so common there (over 70 every day), it's become necessary to carry a $20 dummy phone that can be handed over to street thieves. I first read about this story in This Is True, an entertaining and thought provoking newsletter published by my friend Randy Cassingham.

Ninety percent of funeral homes are not disclosing their prices online, at least voluntarily. But Funeralocity is collecting prices for funeral homes across the country and has listed many of them on a new website. Consumers can find prices, locations and contacts for funeral homes throughout the US.

A deepfake video of Mark Zuckerberg was posted on Instagram, in which the Facebook CEO is shown bragging about Spectre, a secret tool that enabled him to collect and control data on billions of people. Deepfake is technique that uses artificial intelligence to create realistic videos of people apparently saying things they never actually said.

What's all the fuss about Huawei smartphones being banned in the U.S. and other countries? The core issue with Huawei is concern about its close ties to Chinese government and fears that its phones and 5G networks could be used for spying.

Fujifilm Instax Mini LiPlay is a digital camera that doubles as a photo printer, and can add an audio clip to your prints.

Uber plans to begin trial deliveries of fast food by drone in San Diego this summer. But your piping hot pizza won't land on your front porch. Deliveries will be to "designated safe zones" where Uber drivers will unload the package take it to the customer’s doorstep.

Snapchat’s gender swap filter lets you pretend to be the opposite gender, generating a fake name and profile photo. The controversial feature was used by a 20-year-old male college student to catch a police officer attempting to hook up with an underage teen girl.

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