Entries by Peter Kay

When you create a platform designed to spread viral videos, don’t be shocked when violent viral videos go viral

What immediately comes to mind is Darth Vader’s famous quote: “Don’t be too proud of this technological terror you’ve constructed”. The absolutely horrific mass shootings in New Zealand are a first in this new media: horrific events designed from the ground up to go viral.  And the platform delivered. The perpetrators reportedly used Facebook Live […]

Google Docs are the new teen chat app

Another great example of how you can’t stop people from doing what they want and in this case it’s chatting. In this latest twist, kids are using Google docs (which is a commonly used school application for legitimate purposes) as the basis for chatting. There are some hilarious examples, such as copying a teacher’s document […]

Check your Chrome browser for an update and do it right this minute

When Justin Schuh, the “Leading @googlechrome Security and Desktop eng.” says: Also, seriously, update your Chrome installs… like right this minute. #PSA You do it.    Easy way: Click on this link which will take you to your Chrome Settings/Help page ( chrome://settings/help ) and commence checking /installing your update. Follow Justin’s advice. And mine. […]

‘Soft’ robotic hand runs on air pressure and AI

The first time I saw the picture of this hand I immediately thought of the movie I, robot. From the article… We’ve seen examples of robots mimicking humans, but now we’re seeing robots that can autonomously teach themselves how to handle objects. Festo has developed a… — Read on www.engadget.com/2019/02/28/robot-hand-ai-object-manipulation/

Share those friends and family party photos!

You know the deal: everyone shows up at a priceless family party and takes tons of photos, each on their own phone (or worse, for each group shot, 10 different phones take turns at shooting the picture).  Unfortunately, when the party is over, all you end up with are your own photos. Google is attempting […]

Improved Google Drive Search is here

Google Drive/Apps users rejoice!  Search is improved. Just click on the dropdown in the Search box and you’ll see lots of new options, including the ability to separate searching of the file name vs. content in the file. I still wish I could search within a folder only (for those of us still stuck in […]

Chrome Browser on Android reduced mobile data usage up to 70%

Back in the good ‘ol Internet days of dial-up, a common trick was to turn off graphics in the browser by default and only once you arrived at the desired page would you manually press a button and show all the graphics. (Anyone remember Netscape?) Well, what was new in the ’90s is once again […]