Neat Net Tricks

Reminiscent of our Thanksgiving ( in the U.S.) and with apologies to my favorite artist, Norman Rockwell:  Has it come to this ?

I’ve heard of the hazards of second-hand smoking but I didn’t think our computers could be the victim. Seems that Apple has refused, in two separate instances, to work on computers “due to tar from cigarette smoke.” Reading more closely, it seems that  the customers had Applecare warranties but were denied repairs because that would require employees to come in contact with nicotine, on OSHA’s list of hazardous substances; thus,  the repair would be hazardous to the employee’s health.

What could be more hazardous to their health? Leave the computer plugged in when they take the cover off the tower.

This is another one of those stories of suggesting “be careful of what you do on Facebook.” Simply: lady posts her photo on Facebook, smiling and having a good time. Insurance company sees the photos. Insurance company stops benefits they were paying her for depression. The whole story is here .

I read where Tiburon, California, a suburb of San Francisco, has just decided to install six cameras at a cost of $200,000. Everyone entering or exiting the town will have their license plates photographed and matched against a police database. If you don’t want a taste of Big Brother, better detour around the town.

The holidays are fast approaching and you’re probably like me, in a quandary over what to get someone who has everything. Well, may I suggest the USB Burger Hand Warmer and Massager ? For just $12 you can “massage your tired/painful body parts”. At first look, I thought it would also keep my sandwich warm, but I guess not.

Now, let me get this straight. I feel a cough coming on. I pull out my trusty cell phone and cough into it. It matches my cough with a database of 1,000 patients and tells me if I have a respiratory illness.

Yep, that makes about as much sense as some of those iPhone apps I’ve heard of. And lest you think I make this stuff up, you can read more here .

Bill and Melinda Gates thinks it makes sense, too. Their Foundation gave $100,000 toward the research.

If you don’t know the definitions of these words, you’re not ready for 2010:

unfriend
hashtag
intexticated
netbook
paywall
sexting
funemployed
zombie bank
birther
choice mom
death panel
teabagger
brown state
green state
ecotown
deleb
tramp stamp

They will all be in the 2010 New Oxford American Dictionary. The first one, “unfriend” has been selected as the “Word Of The Year” for 2009. It means “to remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking suite such as Facebook.”

You’ll have to look up the others. After doing just that, the word from here is “omigosh”.

Dnt txt & drive. Nearly 6,000 have done so and not survived. Yet, a recent survey of 800 teens showed one-third of those ages 16 and 17 have texted while driving, and 48% of teens age 12-17 have been in a car while the driver was texting. Just plain dumb, isn’t it? I once could tell if a driver was DWI when he swerved off the road, now I figure he’s just communicating.

A friend tells me I’m being too hard on Facebook, that it’s an excellent form of communication and “don’t knock it until you try it.”

Maybe so….. but in the meantime, beware of the latest worm, Koobface. It takes over your PC, then sends messages to your friends with links to intriguing sites that are infested with malware. Within the past few days, at least 300 groups on Facebook have been infected.

At the risk of sounding smug, since I’m not on Facebook, that’s one less thing to worry about this morning.