Geekly Update - 17 January 2018

The AskBobRankin Geekly Update

The governor of New Jersey has signed a law that outlaws drunken droning. Unfortunately that law applies only to people operating an unmanned drone aircraft while intoxicated, and not to tipsy politicians endlessly droning on the floor of the state legislature. Operating a drone with a BAC greater than 0.08% could land you in jail for six months.

"Yes, that's BILLION with a B." Mary Horomanski of Erie Pennsylvania was a bit shocked when she saw the amount of her latest electric bill -- just a bit over $284 billion. Her first thought was a problem with the Christmas lights, but it turned out to be a misplaced decimal point. The bill turned out to be just $284.46.

The new SMARTenna+ is a digital broadcast TV signal antenna that uses an internal processor and seven antennas to automatically optimize signal reception. What you’ll do for exercise now that you needn’t get up from the couch is your concern.

Humans’ fascination with flatulence has reached a new low with an ingestible radiotransmitter that tracks gas development from end to end and allows one to monitor its progress via a smartphone app.

The FBI is unable to open 7,775 mobile devices, more than half of those it seized in 2017.

Peg the Duck was missing a foot, apparently after an unfortunate encounter with a turtle early in life. When students at Armorel High School heard about the problem, they used a 3-D printer in the school's tech lab to create a prosthetic leg for Peg, who now looks like duck, quacks like a duck, and walks like a duck.

“P*rn Site Stole French Karate Teacher’s Identity in Cryptocurrency Hustle.” If you’ve been keeping up with tech lingo of the 21st Century, that headline actually makes sense.

Should Equifax and other firms that allow consumers’ personal data to be stolen be fined $100 per victim? Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) have introduced a bill that would do just that.

The first viral video began circulating on the Internet in 1997 as an MP3 file attached to emails. You will not be surprised by its subject, but you might find the back story interesting.

Security experts who participated in a cyber-security quiz were given USB drives by the contest’s sponsor, the Taiwan national police agency. The contestants immediately discovered malware on most of the prizes.

An Ohio man has been indicted on 16 federal charges of spying on thousands of U. S. citizens, schools, and companies via their computer cameras and microphones using the “Fruitfly” malware.

It definitely is not a crime to violate a web site’s terms of service if you are otherwise accessing its content lawfully, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has again affirmed. So leave the most negative review of that restaurant you wish; the worst that can happen is a cease-and-desist letter that may be safely ignored.

Firms that track consumers' online activities have lost hundreds of millions of revenue dollars since September, 2017, when Apple introduced is pretty effective Internet Tracking Protection feature for iOS and Mac OS devices. Fortunately, consumers have not lost their tiny violins.

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