COVID-19 Coronavirus Info Online

Good Monday morning. It’s March 9th.

Information about coronavirus is changing fast. As a business or community leader, you need to rely on prime sources for your news. We’ll address those today.

1. News To Know Now

1. Apple will pay iPhone 6 and 7 users up to $25 per phone to settle a lawsuit over throttling processors. At issue was a battery problem that was fixed by a software update that also slowed the phone’s performance. Consumers filed suit alleging that the company slowed the device’s performance in order to generate new equipment sales. Read the details at Recode.

2. Twitter has launched an experimental feature in a Brazilian test market that causes some Tweets to disappear after 24 hours like Instagram and Snapchat stories. They’re calling the new content “fleets” because it’s designed to capture fleeting thoughts.

3. SETI@Home software that used a volunteer’s idle computer time for complex calculations and uploaded the results to researchers, is ending public participation on March 31st. The UC Berkeley based program was the first to enlist volunteers in a distributed computing project. Others followed suit, notably Folding@Home focused on genetics and World Community Grid focused on medicine, the human genome, and world hunger.

There are still programs that need your help. I’ve participated in the World Community Grid for years with over 770,000 others. Silver Beacon Marketing’s computers have donated more than 15 years of processing time to the project because all of those minutes when you’re not using your computer add up. Join us or learn more at IBM’s World Community Grid.

2. COVID-19 Information Online

The COVID-19 coronavirus apparently causes nowhere near the amount of sickness and death caused by influenza every year. Government, business, and health leaders understand the deadly trail influenza leaves, which is why flu shots are heavily promoted.

One important distinction between influenza and COVID-19 is that the sickness caused by the outbreak appears to more often result in death. The generally accepted rate of influenza fatalities is 0.1% The most recent World Health Organization rate for the COVID-19 outbreak is 3.4%.

There are well-meaning people posting misinformation online. There are also scammers, price gougers and a lot of quickly outdated information. This set of smartlinks will help you learn reliable information that you want to know.

We will return to regular coverage next week. Meanwhile, you should always feel free to press reply and ask about any digital issues.

3. Coffee Break: Leny, the Golden Retriever

After this crazy week, we all need to pause thirteen seconds and watch a dog slide down a hill and joyously race back up to do it again.

Enjoy this video that racked up more than 8 million views in one week.