The Digital Life from Lökwest - May 2019
It's that time again! Are you ready for some fresh tech news? This month, read about Facebook's latest security breach (yep, again....) and their latest service for the dead. Grab some music at home while you're alive with SiriusXM (no car required). And, don't waste your waking hours - Amazon is speeding up shipping even more.
To get your brain working, we've got a light introduction to artificial intelligence and its world destroying potential, a great article on how seniors are getting screwed online, and a world wide real time emoji viewer.
Plus - tech history, our monthly presentation, a preview of next month's presentation, and more!
How's that to get your May going? 🙂🙂
But first..........
Two minutes of your time please?
Take our First Survey! — lokwest.surveysparrow.com
We're trying out SurveySparrow, a new tool to gather ideas on shaping our services. Do us a favor and fill out this quick point and click survey? We'll share some of the results if we get enough responses, so help us out! (all responses are private and confidential)
Straight to the news
D'oh! Researchers find 540 million Facebook user records on exposed servers — ow.ly
Oops - they did it again, in case you missed it. According to Facebook, the database was internal and no evidence of malfeasance was seen. Ah......huh.........So, with that said - CHANGE your Facebook password if you haven't in a while. DON'T reuse passwords across accounts. USE two factor authentication if you can.
Facebook launches improved controls for memorialized accounts — ow.ly
On the other hand, if you're DEAD, Facebook has your back. All puns aside, this is a very valuable feature when you lose someone you love. If you haven't considered setting up a "Digital Power of Attorney" in the event of your demise, think about it! In Facebook, it's as easy as designating a memorial contact.
SIM Hijacking - Man's $1M Life Savings Stolen as Cell Number Is Hijacked — www.nbcbayarea.com
If you get a code sent to your phone to log in to your bank, it's normally good security. However, if you suddenly see "No Service" on your cell phone for no reason - BE ALERT! Hackers are exploiting the system designed to make your financial, social media, and e-mail accounts safer. Here's how you can protect your accounts.
Get Sirius without the car - SiriusXM's Essential streaming service is here — ow.ly
SiriusXM has launched an $8-a-month streaming service for people with no cars. This is great news if you enjoy some of the Sirius content but don't drive enough to warrant the subscription. We have XM in the car and it's been on the preview channel for 7 years - maybe this will make us think again?!
Amazon Prime? Get (most) of your stuff tomorrow! — ow.ly
I want an oompa loompa and I want it now! Amazon's probably got you covered on that too with their new push - 1 day shipping on most items for Prime customers. Will this make ponying up the $119 annual Prime fee any breezier? The River's betting on it!
Now, how about some interesting reads?
Organize Your Digital Life - Lökwest — www.lokwest.com
Get our top picks on tools to help you organize your digital life in this free presentation! Information organization and curation, bookmark management, and to-do list tools. If you missed the demo portion, never fear! You can see "The Digital Life Live" in person month (details below).
Old, Online, And Fed On Lies: How An Aging Population Will Reshape The Internet — ow.ly
Older people play an outsized role in civic life. They also are more likely to be online targets for misinformation and hyperpartisan rhetoric. This article resonated with us, since many of our clients are going through similar frustrations. Don't worry - at Lökwest, no matter your generation, we'll never leave you behind! 🙂
The basics of modern AI—how does it work and will it destroy society this year? — ow.ly
If you don't know much about artificial intelligence, here's a good weekend read to get you started! And, no....you don't have to worry about the end of the world - just yet! Although there are some amazing developments happening daily...
As always, we aim to entertain!
Google Assistant Gets John Legend Voice, With a Little Help From A.I. — ow.ly
Ever wanted to casually chat with John Legend? Now you can, in the comfort of your own home no less, thanks to a new Google Assistant mode that makes use of Legend’s voice. The neat thing? It's not John reading every clip - it's A.I (see above article 🙂) stitching together responses.
Play this little self-driving game: Who to save, who to sacrifice! — ow.ly
Did you ever wonder who writes the rules for self-driving cars? What happens when the car has to sacrifice something (or SOMEONE) for the better good? Software makes the decisions. Are you ready to play the role of programmer in this little interactive game?
What's the world's emoji? (in real time)
We gotta throw it shout to the developer of this site, who's hosted it on GitHub for anyone to fork and use. In the meantime, it's great fun to pick an emoji and see who's tweeting in real time. We encourage you to check it out. Come on - we know you want to know who's tweeting the beer mug RIGHT NOW!
Before we go, a little history
Let's wish Happy Birthday to Pac-Man on May 22, 1980!
Namco’s upcoming game “Puck-Man” is location tested in a movie theater complex in Japan. After favorable initial testing, the game is slightly tweaked and renamed. While the game was not officially released until later in the year (October 10th in the US), the creators of the game consider May 22 to be Pac-Man’s birthday because it was the first time the game was shown to the general public.
One of the little known facts about Pac-Man is that it was specifically developed to be popular with women. Most video games of that time had a war or sports theme to them and women were generally not interested in those games. Pac-Mac would be the first game popular with both men and women and was the first video game to become a social phenomenon. Pac-Mac generated over $2.5 billion by the 1990’s, becoming one of the highest grossing video games of all time.
Bonus question: Why was the game renamed for U.S. distribution? (scroll to the end for the answer)
Free tech talk May 28th!
(In conjunction with San Clemente Village)
The Digital Life Live! This month, we're covering some of the top technology news in person. Come see the live, extended, early preview of the June newsletter and you'll be informed ahead of the crowd.
See you there!
Details: San Clemente Community Center, 100 N Calle Seville, San Clemente - Multi-Purpose Room. Tuesday, May 28th, 1:30 PM.
Non-Village members, please RSVP to this e-mail if you’re planning on attending.
Bonus question
Midway, Namco’s U.S. distributor, thought that vandals would alter the letter “P” to an “F”. As kids once, we tend to agree......it's tempting.
