Geek Weekly: Our top weird tech stories for 5 March

Technology Decisions’ weekly wrap of IT fails, latest tech, new must-have gadgets, ‘computer says no’ moments and more.

Voters, prepare to be hacked. A consultant’s report commissioned by the NSW Electoral Commission warns that China - and al Qaeda, North Korea, Iran, organised crime, anti-coal activists and more - could be planning to hack or disrupt the commission’s iVote online voting system. “The NSWEC has instituted every reasonable process and put in place safeguards to mitigate all identified risks,’ a spokesperson told The Sydney Morning Herald. That’s settled then.

Another way they can track your phone. Researchers have developed a way to track mobile phones by analysing the power consumption of cellular phone towers as they interact with your device. “We are approaching the point where the only safe way to use your phone is to pull the battery out - and not all phones let you do that,” Surrey University’s Alan Woodward told the BBC.

Live long and prosper … $5 at a time. We hadn’t heard of ‘Spocking a five’ before, but in the wake of Leonard Nimoy’s death the practice seems to have taken off in earnest. So what is it? Well, the Canadian $5 note features a portrait of former prime minister Wilfrid Laurier, but some judicious work with a pen transforms him into a reasonable likeness of Star Trek’s science officer. Too much time on their hands?

Hillary’s email fail. Naughty Hillary Clinton. It seems that for all the years she was Secretary of State, she didn’t use her official email account, preferring to use her private email address. Apparently this is more or less against the rules of the Federal Records Act, as it means her communications could not be archived and (if necessary) investigated. But now, she’s had to release 55,000 pages of work-related emails sent to/from her private account. Hmmm. Normally pollies get into trouble for using their official services for private matters, not the other way around.

Awful apps? It seems some users are not impressed with apps put out by Medicare and Centrelink, with some of them saying they have missed out on payments due to an inability to submit reports. The Department of Human Services demurs, saying that the apps have been downloaded 3.7 million times and have processed 36 million transactions.

Are you smarter than a robot? ... Or rather, are you smarter than a Google AI when it comes to playing computer games? You might have been once upon a time, but not anymore, as this video sort of demonstrates:

… maybe if you ate more tomatoes. Then you might be smarter. Or maybe not: