Geekly Update - 26 June 2013

The AskBobRankin Geekly Update

Google says: "Make Yours Mine!" Google is working on a Craigslist-like feature called Google Mine, according to rumor. It will let Google+ users offer physical items they own to selected Circles of friends and acquaintances.

The Des Moines Register reveals the problems that police face in solving crimes of SWATting – placing a hoax 911 call that brings the SWAT team down upon an innocent victim’s home.

The CIA’s $600 million cloud computing platform will be built by Amazon, which won the contract recently. The company is looking for computer engineers with top-secret clearances in Herndon, VA, not far from the CIA’s Langley HQ.

Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom wept upon learning of the greatest data massacre in Internet history as Dutch hosting company LeaseWeb wiped petabytes of data from 630 rented servers that had sat idle since Dotcom’s arrest over a year ago. But more than 1,100 U.S. servers still hold Megaupload users’ secrets.

Aftermarket batteries for a discontinued MacBook notebook (not the MacBook Pro line) may catch fire while charging. Best Buy is recalling 5,100 batteries bearing the ATG logo and model numbers “MC-MBOOK13B” or “MC-BOOK13W.”

Finally, a social network for the antisocial. Hell Is Other People maps the locations of your FourSquare friends and shows the best places to be in order to avoid them.

"Google gagged by Govt." Google wants to publish the number of classified demands for user data that it receives from the government, and the number of user accounts targeted by such orders. The same FISA court that issues the gag orders will hear Google’s First Amendment argument.

Instagram now supports 15-second video clips. Filters can be applied to clips before they are uploaded, to increase contrast, add colors, or convert to black-and-white. Still no cure for vertical frames.

Makerbot Industries, the grassroots champion of consumer 3-D printing, merged with industrial printing giant Stratasys. The deal gives Makerbot $403 million in Stratasys stock and continued independent operation.

If you still have a Commdore VIC 20 in your closet, you may enjoy this History of Early Computing Machines. It starts with the abacus and ends with the IBM Model 5150 PC (1981). Two water-powered computers are included.

Batteries as small as grains of sand have been made with 3D printers. Harvard researchers say the microbatteries can power equally tiny medical devices that have been waiting for sufficiently small but powerful batteries.

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