Geekly Update - 27 July 2016
What do mice think about while watching Orson Welles movies? Are panhandling robots displacing actual homeless people on the streets of our fair cities? And where in the world can you go to get away from crazy Pokemon Go players? Today's Geekly Update is jam-packed with the latest tech news. It's *guaranteed* to make you 146% smarter. Read, think and comment! |
The AskBobRankin Geekly Update
NeoSmart Technologies’ Windows 10 Rollback utility is something to keep on your rescue disk or USB drive. A couple of clicks will undo an unwanted or failed Win 10 installation. It can also configure your system to block unwanted Win 10 installations, and move downloaded Win 10 setup files to another folder of your choice for future use.
If you want to get away from the masses of mental midgets mindlessly meandering while playing Pokemon Go, consider a vacation in the Middle East. The game has been banned in Saudi Arabia because, according to a Saudi cleric, it promotes "gambling, Darwinism, the Shinto religion, Christianity, Freemasonry and global Zionism." It's also banned in Egypt for a better reason: "it makes people look like drunkards in the streets."
The last new VCR machine will roll off the assembly line on July 31, says the last manufacturer of VCR machines, Funai Electric, a Japanese consumer electronics company. Only 750,000 VCRs were sold worldwide last year, and new parts are getting hard to find. So save yours; they’ll be appreciating in value very shortly.
Google permanently deleted 14 years’ worth of work stored on its cloud services and deactivated the GMail account used by avante garde artist and author Dennis Cooper. Cooper claims it was censorship, but he might have censored himself. No backups of your stuff? Oops.
Here's another reason why backups are so critical. All you need to know about this story is in the headline: "Monkeys Destroy Voter Lists at Thai Polling Place".
Firefox will start blocking Adobe Flash content by default in August, but very gingerly. Initially, only a relatively short list of URLs known to install “supercookies” that are hard to delete will be blocked. By May, 2017, users will have to click on an icon to explicitly authorize the playing of Flash content. Or they can do that in Google Chrome right now.
Can't take the heat? Perhaps an armpit fan will help to keep you cool and dry. Just clip the Under the Armpit Cooling Device on your shirt sleeve and you can laugh at the thermometer. But you might want to buy TWO of these gadgets. It can also be attached to the waistband of your shorts to "circulate air to the lower body."
Here is a remote-controlled, lifelike, robotic “homeless person.” It was created as performance art, but the concept has potential for automating panhandling and enabling one beggar to work multiple street corners simultaneously.
“Pepper,” the friendly companion robot for Japan’s elderly, will soon be selling life insurance. Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co. has announced plans to deploy 100 Pepper robots in 80 branches to explain simple insurance products. No job is safe from our robotic overlords.
A water rescue drone is being developed in New Brunswick that will monitor swimmers from the air and drop flotation devices on those who appear to be in distress. What could go wrong?
You can help neuroscientists solve the intractable mystery of how human consciousness works. All you have to do is watch the brain cells of a mouse light up as it watches Orson Welles movies, such as “Touch of Evil,” via the online Allen Brain Observatory. Researchers sincerely want your speculations about what is going on in that mouse’s brain.
Seagate has released the industry’s broadest line of 10-Terabyte hard drives for consumer markets. If you need a 10 TB hard drive, perhaps you are consuming too much Internet.
Your thoughts on these topics are welcome. Post your comment or question below...
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This article was posted by Bob Rankin on 27 Jul 2016
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Most recent comments on "Geekly Update - 27 July 2016"
Posted by:
Jay R
27 Jul 2016
After months of hard work, I have decoded those flashes of light coming from the mouse brain cells. The message is this- "The Touch of Evil comes at the hand of the Orkin Man!" I repent of my wasting all this time, unlike the well spent time reading Bob's emails.
Posted by:
Jay R
27 Jul 2016
A question just arose. Does Robo Hobo accept Bitcoin?
Posted by:
Jkcook
27 Jul 2016
No Pokémon Go in South Korea, either. Apparently South Korea and Google Maps are not friends. It's very sad. You can't even use Google maps as your GPS here.
Posted by:
David
27 Jul 2016
42.
Posted by:
Lloyd Collins
27 Jul 2016
I see no need for the Windows 10 Rollback Utility. I just get more info from Microsoft for each update that uses generic titles, and have caught every sneaky ways that Microsoft has tried to trick me into getting Windows 10. Shame on you Microsoft for your deceit.
Posted by:
RichF
27 Jul 2016
Hard to believe a consumer would need 10 TB's of storage.
Posted by:
Jim
27 Jul 2016
10 TB? My old laptop has only a 320 GB drive and about half of it is unused! Somebody that takes lots of photos could probably use it though.
Posted by:
Bruce
27 Jul 2016
Here is help for the researchers into what the mice think:"Can I eat that?"; "Why can't I smell that?"; "Can I mate with it?"; "Is it after my babies?"; "Who has a cracker? I'm hungry."
Glad to be of service. When you get started on camels, let me know.
Posted by:
halfmoon-mollie
27 Jul 2016
Oh please. Everyone knows what mice think when they watch Orson Welles Movies. Did you never see Pinky and the Brain?
Posted by:
Darcetha
27 Jul 2016
Can't take the heat? Perhaps an armpit fan will help to keep you cool and dry. Just clip the Under the Armpit Cooling Device on your shirt sleeve and you can laugh at the thermometer. But you might want to buy TWO of these gadgets. It can also be attached to the waistband of your shorts to "circulate air to the lower body."
Bob, where can you buy these? I need them because I'm going through menopause. ;)
Posted by:
Betty
27 Jul 2016
Great article......as of this writing, I and Windows 10 are not compatible, especially when downloading and having to redo, and then being asked to delete and get rid of a program that I have been using, because they replace it with another one............I just quit the download and will stay with, and keep my sanity, on what I have that works for me. Maybe the problem with me is that I need to develop some more patience.
Posted by:
Joe
27 Jul 2016
I struggled to come up with a consumer use case for a 10TB drive until I considered YouTube. Active content creators might very well use that much storage, especially if they're uploading 4K video.
Posted by:
RandiO
27 Jul 2016
I cannot be the only Luddite that has never seen a single screen of Pokemon. I dropped out of GameU after the 1992 release of Wolfenstein3D!
http://www.polygon.com/2014/5/22/5741702/wolfenstein-history-retrospective-video
Posted by:
RandiO
27 Jul 2016
Be careful dis'ing larger (and larger) HDDs: I recall well when peeps were saying "who'd need a 1GigaB HDD?" and now they are eating crow soufflé.
Here is a real-life consumer use for a 10TB drive: 1080p/30fps 5Mpixel surveillance camera consumes near 1TB every month...
Posted by:
mmcquown
28 Jul 2016
We already know what is going on in the mice brains: they're planning to take over the world.
Posted by:
Oliver Fleming
28 Jul 2016
robotic “homeless person.”
If you can afford one or more of these. Why would you need to panhandle? You already have enough money to live on?
Posted by:
jd
28 Jul 2016
@Lloyd Collins
AMEN
Using Never 10 from Gibson research.
Hopefully they will stop in a few days.
Posted by:
jd
28 Jul 2016
10 TB Hard drive !!!
Mid 80's when we fired up our first IBM XT the consensus was "OMG who could possibly use that much storage"
Posted by:
Fran
28 Jul 2016
If you are an animator, 10tb would fill up very quickly.