Tech Today w/ Ken May

Back in June, Google announced that it would be ‘retiring’ Health effective January 1, 2012. Now, everything appears to be on-track for the shutdown, with Google sending out a final reminder to Health customers earlier today. You have until the stroke of midnight to access the service or port your data to a competitor — after which point you’ll no longer be able to view information saved to your account, though it’ll remain available to download in .zip format for another year. Want to know more? Hit up the source link for the Google Health FAQ. Google Health’s New Year’s Resolution is to cease to exist, countdown begins to save your data originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 31 Dec 2011 14:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | Google FAQ | Email this | Comments

Visitors to daily deal sites like Groupon are finding a growing number of markdowns on health care services such as teeth cleanings, eye exams, chiropractic care and even medical checkups.

Microsoft might’ve missed the boat when it comes to Tablets, but it might just have an ace up its sleeves. Check out Joshua Topolsky of The Verge touring Microsoft’s Edison Lab, where a team of really smart people are building a magic wall: Stevie Bathiche, director of research at Microsoft’s applied sciences lab, says to “imagine a day where in your home, one wall is dedicated to being your magic wall. A wall where it can teleport you to another world without really going anywhere.” Bathiche shows off a number of systems that aim to accomplish this vision, including a system that projects LED light to detect a human being’s movements in space, and a glasses-free stereoscopic display that can be “steered” by the viewer as they move. Link | More from the Microsoft Research tour series on The Verge

Are you a fan of embiggened bugs? Alex Wild — master of ceremonies over at Myrmecos — has just posted over 600 of his best photographs from 2011, and it is one of the most jaw-dropping collections of insect macrophotography we’ve ever seen. Click through to check it out — you won’t be disappointed. More »

Residents of Venezuela have been treated to a light show that has been going on for thousands of years. One spot on the Catatumbo River gets, regularly, forty thousand bolts every night. The lightning has helped sailors navigate, foiled attacks on the nearby countryside, and is actually responsible for Venezuelan independence. Find out about the most zapped spot on earth. More »

An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from geek.com (based on a report at Droid Life) that makes me consider quitting or at least suspending the very expensive service 3G data service I get from Verizon: “With 2012 about to start, it seems Verizon has decided paying your bill online or over the phone is now worthy of an extra charge. So, from January 15, anyone choosing to pay their monthly bill using either method will incur a $2 charge. Verizon is classing the charge as a ‘convenience fee’ which translates into them deciding allowing you to pay either online or over the phone is a convenience. They also explain in the FAQ above that the fee allows them, ‘to continue to support these bill payment options.’ Really, Verizon? When did offering online payments or accepting phone calls from customers get so much more expensive?” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

One sign of a good judge is being able to set aside his or her personal feelings to uphold the law when it conflicts. We got one of those rulings in this case. The judge condemns Ripoff Report using some of the harshest language I’ve seen in a judicial opinion in a while: Read the comments on this post

Trailrunner7 writes “Just a day after security researcher Stefan Viehbock released details of a vulnerability in the WiFi Protected Setup (WPS) standard that enables attackers to recover the router PIN, a security firm has published an open-source tool capable of exploiting the vulnerability. The tool, known as Reaver, has the ability to find the WPS PIN on a given router and then recover the WPA passphrase for the router, as well. Tactical Network Solutions has released the tool as an open-source project on Google Code, but also is selling a more advanced commercial version.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes “RipoffReport.com contained an admittedly defamatory posting, by one of its users, about a person who operated a Florida corporation providing addiction treatment services. Although the site was asked by the poster herself to remove the post, it refused. A Florida appeals court has ruled that the site is absolutely immune from suit (pdf), and cannot even be directed to remove the offending post, since under the Communications Decency Act (47 USC 230) ‘no cause of action may be brought’ against a provider of an “interactive computer service” based upon information provided by a 3rd party.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The inventions that make up this gallery are strange, unquestionably handmade, and many seem quite useful. Like the one man paddle submarine pictured above, they look like clever and inventive ways to get around, and may not seem so strange when your town gets hit by a flood. However, personal safety clearly wasn’t a consideration when these inventions were built, and some of them look like they might explode right in your face! Link