So long, farewell

September 24, 2024

👋 So long, farewell: Without warning, Russian cybersecurity provider Kaspersky Lab deleted its anti-malware protection from its subscribers’ computers and replaced it with something called UltraAV. This comes after the U.S. government added Kaspersky to its national security concern list because of its ties to the Kremlin. If you were using Kaspersky for antivirus protection, try my antivirus pick instead.

Tags: antivirus, computers, cybersecurity, malware, protection, provider, security, warning

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How to protect your teen on Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat

Social media is a minefield of dangers for teens, exposing them to extreme content like anorexia “thinspiration,” drug culture, hardcore pornography, suicide glorification and even predatory grooming. Algorithms push the darkest corners of the internet right onto their screens, sometimes with devastating consequences.

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Companies and agencies that want to read your body parts

Have you paid with your palm at Whole Foods yet? Did the TSA scan your face the last time you were at the airport? Using biometric info like your fingerprint and face can save a little time, but a whole lot of security risks come along for the ride.

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32-year-old finds Lego stuck in their nose after 26 years

A guy finally dislodged a little Lego piece he stuck in his nose at age 6. Way back when, he stuck one of the little plastic bricks and a Lego man up his nose. Mom got the Lego man out but didn’t realize the individual brick was still in there. All that time, the 32-year-old dealt with congestion, asthma and sleep apnea. Such a crazy story!

4 companies

Account for almost half of Nvidia’s revenue, or about $100 billion so far in 2024. So who are they? They’re not talking, but my bet is on some combo of Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI and Tesla. I’m saddened to report Komando isn’t on the list.

Can your phone be rigged to explode?

This past week, a frenzy of small explosions rocked Lebanon, causing thousands of injuries and killing at least 25 people. The cause? Thousands of Apollo AR924 pagers and ICOM walkie-talkies blew up in the hands of members of Hezbollah leaders and their families.

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800 miles traveled

For a kitty who went missing on a family trip to Yellowstone. Rayne Beau (what a name!) made it all the way from the national park to Roseville, California, on his own. Two months after he went missing, the family got a notification his microchip was in the area.

33 days

How long the average home cook spends planning Thanksgiving. That’s two weeks each on the guest list and menu planning, plus three days of food prep and cooking. Get going! You don’t want to make Thanksgiving a cluster-pluck.

1 in 5 remote workers

Naps during the workday. A new survey revealed 33% of remote workers take calls in the bathroom and 17% watch TV or play video games. Working hard or hardly working?

1x a week

How often the National Security Agency says you should reboot your phone. Sounds like a no-brainer, but it works to combat zero-click exploits. Zero-click flaws mean a hacker can get in simply by sending you the right code. Avoiding that is def worth a weekly restart.

$1 million-plus invested

Into an old cruise ship purchased on Craigslist. A tech entrepreneur spent 15 years restoring the 293-foot vessel. It was built in Germany in 1955, inspired “The Love Boat” and was in the 1963 Bond movie “From Russia with Love.” After they decided to sell the slice of history, it mysteriously took on water and was decommissioned. Weird, right?