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Weird things on Google Earth

I spent the first 10 years of my life in New Jersey. I still remember when I knocked out my front tooth on the swings and the time I threw a snowball at a police car and hit the cop inside on the head. That was bad.

Seeing the house on Google took me back. Yup, click that link to see where I grew up. And while you’re at it, take yourself on a walk down memory lane, too.

🏠 Blast from the past

There’s something nostalgic about revisiting the house where you grew up or experienced major life moments.

With Google Street View’s time travel feature, you can see how it’s changed over the years, flashing back as far as Google’s cameras have been rolling in that area.

Open the Google Maps app and search for a place.
At the bottom, tap the place name or address.
Scroll and select the photo labeled Street View, or select the thumbnail with a Street View icon.
While viewing a location in Street View, tap anywhere on the image, then tap See more dates.

How fun is that, right?

🌎Check out these interesting Google Earth images

Open Google Earth. Copy one of the coordinates I listed below. Paste it into the Search box in Google Earth (you’ll find it on the left side of the screen). Press Enter to zoom into the exact location instantly. Repeat.

Airplane storage facility: 32°08’59.96″ N, 110°50’09.03″W
Mysterious desert pattern: 27°22’50.10″N, 33°37’54.62″E
The Badlands Guardian: 50°0’38.20″N, 110°6’48.32″W (Zoom out a bit to see it.)
Strange target in Nevada: 37°33’50.17”N, 116°51’4.44″W
Weird shape in Nevada: 37°24’5.66″N, 116°52’4.11″W
China desert roads: 40°27’29.33″ N, 93°23′ 35.32″E
Big giant in Chile: 19°56’56.96″S, 69°38’1.83″W
My studios: 33°31’35″N, 112°03’51″W
Shipwrecks all over the world.

🤣 I once met the man who invented the part of a map that explains what each symbol means. Wow! What a legend.

True or false: You need antivirus protection for your phone

I wrote about tech myths recently and missed a big one: “Phones can’t get viruses.”

Of course they can! Your phone is basically a mini-computer and a prime target for hackers. Let’s break down how these threats work and where they come from.

Continue reading →

Well isn’t that smart

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Don’t let a lunch mishap ruin your favorite shirt. Grab a Tide pen stain remover ($7.88). I used one to get mascara off a white T-shirt the other day!
Not much space? These shelves (two for $20) that go over your power socket are genius.
No more jumbled mess of cords for me. I stuck my blow dryer and curling iron in basket that hangs from the cabinet (19% off).

⭐ Your new BFF in the kitchen: A metal scraper you can use to move veggies from the cutting board to the pan, scrape gunk off the counter, cut dough, whatever.

We may earn a commission from purchases, but our recommendations are always objective.

Do you bank on your phone? What about checking email and shopping? If you said “yes” to any of those, you’re a target. A keylogger captures everything you type, including your account numbers and passwords. Encrypt your keystrokes with EndpointLock. Hit this link for 10% off.

3.1%

Odds of a “city killer” asteroid hitting Earth in 2032. That’s like guessing the right coin flip five times in a row. The 300-foot space rock could explode with 500 times the power of the Hiroshima bomb. The James Webb Space Telescope gets a closer look next month.

Offline Nights: The hot new thing with 20 and 30-somethings addicted to their tech. Pay for a ticket, drop your phone in a deposit box and spend a few hours talking to real people, not staring at a screen. What will they think of next?!

The fix that didn’t: Fitbit pushed out a mandatory update to stop batteries from overheating and burning you. Turns out it also cut battery life in Sense and Versa 3 models from up to six days to … one day. Fill out this form if you want $50 as their “oops, sorry.”

♟️ Queen a rook and a hard place: AI bots are sore losers at chess. When they’re about to lose, ChatGPT and others cheat by hacking their opponent’s game pieces. OK, that’s harmless, right? As AI gets smarter, it could start breaking other rules, like getting around security measures.

“Bossware” is big now: This software demand is up 54% and lets your boss watch what you do all day. For about $6 per month per person, it tracks what you type, takes screenshots of your computer throughout the day and even records video through your webcam. Smile!

📅 Don’t RSVP: If you get a random Google Calendar invite, don’t click on any links. Scammers are tricking folks with Gmail accounts into sharing their personal info through a fake support page. Legit invites come from calendar-notification@google.com. Report phishing: Hit the three-dot icon in the right-hand corner.

2 in 2,000

People could spot every deepfake image and video of faces. About 39% of people over 65 hadn’t even heard of deepfakes, and 60% of younger people (18-34) were way too confident they could spot fakes. Take the quiz yourself.

🍸 Shaken, not stirred: The Broccoli family has produced every James Bond film since 1962. In 2022, they sold the rights to Amazon for $8.5 billion (as part of the MGM acquisition). After years of power struggles, Amazon now has creative control and hopefully we’ll see a new James Bond soon. Speaking of … Where do James Bond actors go when they die? 00Heaven. (So good!)

17 hours

For ransomware gangs to extort you after hacking your network. It used to take days or weeks. Now, some do it in as little as 4 hours. If you run a small or midsize business, you’re a target.

📺 Did Netflix cross a line? If you’ve seen “American Murder: Gabby Petito,” you heard Gabby reading her journals and texts. The filmmakers actually used AI to clone the murder victim’s voice. They say her family approved, but some are calling it “monstrous” to tell her story this way. What do you think?

Listen up, Workspace Teams: No more, “I didn’t know.” Your Google Meet AI notetaker is getting an upgrade. Now, meeting transcripts will include a checklist of suggested next steps, complete with tasks, due dates and assigned members.

💸 An older adult lost a whopping $2.09 million in a gold bar scam: But she’s getting 40% back. Morgan Stanley has to pay her $843K for failing to follow industry standards. Banks are supposed to flag big withdrawals and check with a trusted contact first. They didn’t.

$40,000

To become an NPC in Elder Scrolls 6 so far in the bidding. The game’s maker, Bethesda, is teaming up with Make-A-Wish in a silent auction to immortalize the winning bidder’s likeness as an NPC (non-playable character). Hurry, auction ends on Saturday at 6 p.m. EST.

2 days

Time it took AI to crack a 10-year-old mystery. Scientists spent a decade trying to figure out why “superbugs” resist antibiotics. Google’s new co-scientist bot took just a couple of days to spit out the correct answer. I hope they put it to work on cancer.

Bow wow: A former police officer is using a heat-seeking drone to track down missing dogs. So far, he’s reunited 42 dogs with their families. Here’s an adorable clip of a pup lost in the snow. His little tail wags like crazy when he sees his owner. I’m so excited that I’m getting a new puppy. Meet Bella.

31,000 miles

The longest undersea cable Meta wants to build. If you wrapped it around the equator, you’d have 6,000 miles left over. It’ll speed up the internet, but Meta’s main goal is boosting their AI capabilities.