The surge protector — that appliance-saving power strip — was invented in 1970. What was its official name back then? Was it … A.) Zap Trap, B.) Power Devourer, C.) Watt Wad or D.) Shock Block?
The answer: A.) Zap Trap. It was the name Harold P. Kopp of Buffalo, New York, coined for his invention to protect electronics against television blowouts. Smart guy, eh?
Tags: electronics, Smart
Not cool: In the latest “What were they thinking?” moment, eBay and Etsy got busted selling AI-generated and Photoshopped celeb nudes for as cheap as $6.39. Targets included stars like Margot Robbie, Selena Gomez and Jenna Ortega. eBay removed the listings and suspended offending accounts, but seriously, where’s the crackdown? It’s high time for some real laws to stop this creepy nonsense.
Imagine being able to quickly scan your kiddo (or yourself) at home. An app created by doctors at the University of Pittsburgh that isn’t on the market yet can do it. But don’t worry — as soon as it is, I’ll make sure you’re the first to know.
🧬 Deceptive DNA: Frustrated customers say 23andMe keeps charging them for auto-renewals they swear they canceled. So frustrating. To add insult to injury, the renewals cost more than the original service. And refunds? Forget about it. 23andMe is sticking to its no-refund policy, claiming they send a 30-day heads-up. I’d be furious.
Don’t let your car steer: Automakers want us to think their semi-automated driving systems are amazing, but the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety begs to differ. In their debut test of 14 systems, guess what? Only Lexus Teammate with Advanced Drive passed. Tesla’s Full Self-Driving and Ford’s BlueCruise got very poor marks. Remember, hands on the wheel at 10 and 2 o’clock is best.
🔓 Change your password: Hackers infiltrated 15,363 Roku accounts through credential stuffing — yep, trying leaked email/password combos from other breaches until they got in. Check HaveIBeenPwned to see if your info is floating around. And remember: Reusing passwords is a no-no.
That didn’t end well: News out now that Stanford University got hit with a major ransomware attack impacting 27,000 folks last September. Hackers swiped IDs, Social Security numbers, digital signatures and credit card info. When negotiations tanked and Stanford failed to cough up the ransom, the baddies uploaded all the info to a dark web marketplace. Yikes.
Shares will be priced at $31 to $34, and get this: The 75,000 most loyal posters and moderators will get first dibs. Let’s see if we have another GameStop situation or if Redditors will buy the stock for keeps.
🚫 TikTok banned: Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a bill to ban TikTok from operating in the U.S. under its current Chinese owners. For the 170 million Americans who have TikTok installed, widescale internet blocking is the only way to stop them from using it. That’s something we don’t do here in the U.S. — at least, not yet.
Karma is real: After Sydney Sweeney’s spicy appearance on SNL, hopeful pervs ran to X looking for “leaked” pics. Surprise, surprise — their creeping led them straight to pop-up adware that takes browsers hostage. Sure, X could moderate this stuff better, but can’t say I feel sorry for them.
