Father’s Day ideas for geeky dads!

Not that this would describe me, of course. No sir!

As usual, if you want to support Aiera, take advantage of the Amazon links in the sidebar (and elsewhere) if you were planning on doing any online shopping for the dad(s) in your life this year.

Are you suspicious of the Geek Squad?

Always take it with a grain of salt when you read the words of someone giving a bad report about his former employer.

That said, the idea that Best Buy’s Geek Squad is more of a sales force than a customer service/technical service division doesn’t exactly sound like any sort of surprising revelation.

Mac repair technician used spyware (yes, on OS X) to take naughty webcam pictures of female clients.

But…I thought Macs don’t get malware!

Trevor Harwell, a 20-year-old Los Angeles, California area certified Mac repair specialist is in a load of trouble after police discovered his unusual hobby — installing spyware on female clients’ Macs and using it to take naughty pictures of them remotely.

The young man’s scheme was discovered when one of the victims took her Mac to a local Apple, Inc. (AAPL) Genius Bar, complaining that her Mac was popping up odd OS X system warnings.

The warnings were actually fake, but designed to look like standard system warnings. One of the warnings informed her, “You should fix your internal sensor soon. If unsure what to do, try putting your laptop near hot steam for several minutes to clean the sensor.”

The message reportedly was designed to try to trick the female victims into taking the computer with them into the shower., a 20-year-old Los Angeles, California area certified Mac repair specialist is in a load of trouble after police discovered his unusual hobby — installing spyware on female clients’ Macs and using it to take naughty pictures of them remotely.

The young man’s scheme was discovered when one of the victims took her Mac to a local Apple, Inc. (AAPL) Genius Bar, complaining that her Mac was popping up odd OS X system warnings.

The warnings were actually fake, but designed to look like standard system warnings. One of the warnings informed her, “You should fix your internal sensor soon. If unsure what to do, try putting your laptop near hot steam for several minutes to clean the sensor.”

The message reportedly was designed to try to trick the female victims into taking the computer with them into the shower.

Now, to be fair, I don’t feel as sorry as I probably should for anyone who actually followed the instructions in the above error message. Because, I mean…really? Really? Steaming your laptop? You actually fell for that?

Still…creepy. And yes, Apple computers can get viruses, and malware does exist for them. Not as much as for Windows, but definitely a non-zero amount even so.

My grandmother used to make freezer jam.

It was darn good stuff, too.

Heroes of Neverwinter…another example of what social gaming can be.

Joystiq’s short review of Atari and Liquid Entertainment’s Heroes of Neverwinter, a D&D-based Facebook-based RPG with an isometric, tiled world, is actually quite positive, and demonstrates yet again that social gaming can be about more than just growing corn.

A Lego-making machine…

…made of Lego. Because awesome, that’s why.

Using an iPhone to catch a doorbell-ringing prankster.

A pretty novel use for the phone’s camera.

The city of Leicester, in England, is “not ready” for a zombie attack.

Okay, okay, okay…I get that the zombie infestation survival horror genre is unnecessarily popular these days, but really? Really? First the CDC, and now cities in England? Does someone know something that the rest of us don’t?

Apple’s iCloud lets you re-download banned apps.

So if you lost your installation of iDOS during your last iOS restore, you can apparently get it back once the iCloud service launches this fall.

Holy crap, the Soviets built big planes!

I’ve seen photos of this monster before, but this is the first time I’ve seen the actual aircraft identified and detailed. And in truth, I’m a bit underwhelmed…all this for just six anti-ship missiles?

Speaking of junked military vehicles…

…here’s a neat gallery of floating wrecks in the Suisun Bay Mothball Fleet.

The hunt for the Higgs boson continues to yield no results.

God particle…or no particle at all?

Practical invisibility cloaks?

Well, sort of. We can now print so-called metamaterials — which interact with light in all sorts of odd ways that natural materials can’t — in large sheets, which leads to the possibility of making light-bending cloaks and more powerful lenses.

Non-fatal falls.

And yes, one woman — a flight attendant — survived a 33,000 foot plunge after the plane she was on exploded in mid-air.

The story of skydiver Jill Shields — who actually left a Looney Tunes-type imprint in the ground — is also worth taking note of.

How not to appear crazy on the Internet.

A helpful guide.

Tonight’s post brought to you by RSVPs: