Geekly Update - 25 July 2018

The AskBobRankin Geekly Update

The first self-driving car was a 1986 Mercedes. It did over 130 kph on France’s Autobahn. Here is the story of its invention and how it came to be almost forgotten.

Google Translate spews creepy apocalyptic messages if you do things like type “dog” 18 times and translate from Yoruba to English. Garbage in, garbage out.

This just in from the "Don't Confuse Me With Facts" department: A was driver cited by a California Highway Patrol officer for going 99 in a 65 mph zone. The man argued that he wasn't going that fast, and tried to convince the officer that the readout on his radar screen was actually the current temperature.

Windows 10 is now the first operating system in history to display leap seconds.

Cisco has removed an undocumented admin password from one of its most popular bandwidth monitoring software, used by ISPs worldwide. The vulnerability went undetected for decades.

Apps that claim to support your mental health may actually be driving you crazier.

The FCC has opened its public comments period on the subject of whether to allow the proposed merger of T-mobile and Sprint; comments will be accepted through August 27, 2018.

An app named DRUID helps you evaluate your degree of impairment before driving a vehicle. It does not measure blood levels of substances but your reaction times and other pertinent metrics.

Google has been fined $5 billion (USD) by the European Union for unfair competitive practices that limit users’ choices of search engines. The issue arises from the fact that Google provides the Android operating system for free, and it powers 80% of all smartphones. However, Google has over $103bn in cash and plans to appeal.

Rolls Royce plans to deploy robotic cockroaches to repair its airplane engines.

Skype users are rebelling against Microsoft’s radical redesign of the app. Somehow this story sounds very familiar.

Graphics cards prices are falling sharply as declining cryptocurrency prices reduce demand for the cards to be used as crypto-mining platforms.

Facebook will deploy its first Low Earth Orbit satellite in 2019, beginning a network of satellites that will support broadband delivery without the latency of satellites in geostationary orbits.

This just in from the "I Always Feel Like Somebody's Watching Me" department: A driver has been booted by Uber, Lyft, and his livestream platform after it was revealed he’d been livestreaming passengers without their permission.

Microsoft discovered three Russian attempts to infiltrate U. S. political campaigns and helped the government foil them.

The “MoneyTaker” hacker gang has stolen over $14 million from Russian banks. Here’s how they do it.

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