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Fire in Berlin factory won't 'significantly' impact output, says ASML
Dutch semiconductor lithography bigwig reports net sales up by a thirdContinue readingASML – the outfit that oufits the chipmakers with chipmakers – believes the recent fire at its Berlin factory on 2 January will not have a "significant impact" on its output in 2022.
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Microsoft sends HoloLens 2 into a care home... Nope, not a headline gag about retiring the tech. They actually did this
Hands-free kit a 'game changer' for doctors assessing residents during pandemicContinue readingMicrosoft has bragged about how its HoloLens 2 is being used by doctors to assess care home residents in a COVID-safe way.
One might wonder if the elderly haven't suffered enough during the pandemic without throwing Microsoft's Augmented Reality technology into the mix. However, with rules and guidance making in-person appointments a little tricky, having a staffer don the goggles while a doctor looks on remotely is not a terrible option.
Microsoft unveiled the follow-up to its clunkier predecessor in 2019. At the time there was much rejoicing concerning 3D models and collaboration. Recent events have made that remote collaboration pitch seem somewhat prescient.
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NASA's Curiosity finds signs of ancient life on Mars. Or maybe not. More data needed
Rover heats up samples, sniffs carbon signature associated with biological processes on EarthContinue readingNASA's Curiosity rover has collected samples of rock from the surface of Mars that are rich in a type of carbon associated with biological processes on Earth.
Is it a sign of ancient life? Well… maybe. It could be the result of methane having been released into the atmosphere of Mars by bacteria. That methane was then maybe converted into "larger, more complex molecules" by ultraviolet light, which rained down to the surface and were preserved (replete with distinctive carbon signature) in the rocks.
At least that's how it works on Earth. The explanation could also be non-biological. It could be down to the interaction of carbon dioxide gas in the atmosphere with ultraviolet light, or perhaps millions of years ago the solar system passed through a giant molecular cloud rich in the type of carbon detected.
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US mergers doubled in 2021 so FTC and DoJ seek new guidelines to stop illegal ones
Last set of rules written in 2010 – a whole different era in tech termsContinue readingThe US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DoJ) Antitrust Division are launching a joint public inquiry as a first step to modernising merger guidelines and preventing anticompetitive deals.
"Times have changed because the advent of the digital economy has transformed industry," said the DoJ's assistant attorney general, Jonathan Kanter, in a press conference on Tuesday. "The digital revolution has not only impacted new markets like tech, but markets across our economy, many of which have been rebuilt from the inside out."
FTC chair Lina Khan said it was time for a merger review because the number of global deals reached in 2021 was the highest ever recorded – at a whopping $5.8 trillion – with the DoJ receiving twice the number of merger filings as in 2020.
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UK government backs away from proposals to remove individuals' rights to challenge AI decision making
Meanwhile, ICO says government should not be choosing its CEO in debate over its future independenceContinue readingThe UK government is backing away from proposals to remove individuals' rights to challenge decisions made about them by artificial intelligence following an early analysis of its consultation process.
In its response to the consultation "Data: A new direction", which set out proposals for changing UK data protection law following the nation's departure from the European Union, the government would look to the "efficacy of safeguards" with respect to automated decision-making about people, rather than the removal of safeguards, Harry Lee, deputy director, data protection and data rights, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport told a conference yesterday.
In September 2021, the government published a consultation that suggested it could water down individuals' rights to challenge decisions made about them by AI.
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I own that $4.5bn of digi-dosh so rewrite your blockchain and give it to me, Craig Wright tells Bitcoin SV devs
Oh look, another High Court sueball over cryptocurrenciesContinue readingA man who claims he's the creator of Bitcoin says his private keys to £14m of Bitcoin SV were deleted by hackers in 2020 – and now he's suing developers to forcibly give him access to internet coins he "owns but cannot access."
Craig Wright (yes, him again) is suing 15 people and one Swiss company in the hope of forcing them to "re-write or amend the underlying software code" so Wright can get his hands on a large amount of Bitcoin SV.*
The High Court of England and Wales recently ordered Wright to pay the court security for costs in case he loses, with the resulting judgment shedding light on yet more English litigation involving Wright and Bitcoin.
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COVID-19 was a generational opportunity for change at work – and corporate blew it
Faux flexibility – and then back in the office where we can keep an eye on you ...Continue readingSent home to wait out the Omicron wave of the seemingly never-ending COVID-19 pandemic, office workers throughout much of the world naturally will be wondering what comes next.
The frequently changing circumstances of the last 24 months appear to have permanently altered the character of work – but scratching the surface reveals the same old patterns dressed up in new buzzwords.
Working from home asked firms to find a new flexibility in all of their operations. So how is it that nearly every firm has found exactly the same answer? We've gone from five days in the office to three – yet those work-from-home days always seem to be Mondays and Fridays. Everyone still has to be in the office from Tuesday to Thursday, so that "teams" can stay "aligned" with the "direction" and "goals" of the organisation.
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UK police lack framework for adopting new tech like AI and face recognition, Lords told
Governance structure is 'a bush, not a tree' – whatever that meansContinue readingUK police forces have no overarching rules for introducing controversial technologies like AI and facial recognition, the House of Lords has heard.
Baroness Shackleton of the Lords' Justice and Home Affairs Committee said the group had found 30 organisations with some role in determining how the police use new technologies, without any single body to guide and enforce the adoption of new technologies.
Under questioning from the Lords, Kit Malthouse, minister for crime and policing, said: "It is complicated at the moment albeit I think most [police] forces are quite clear about their own situation."
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Ad blockers altering website code is not a copyright violation, German court rules
Browser filter biz Eyeo defeats Axel Springer – but case against Google poses similar risksContinue readingAd-filtering biz Eyeo on Tuesday celebrated the defeat of a copyright claim that threatened to break the web, though that risk hasn't entirely been put to rest in the US.
Eyeo was sued last year by German publisher Axel Springer for allegedly violating its copyrights by altering its websites with its browser extension AdBlock Plus.
The publisher has tried unsuccessfully for years to have the German court system declare Eyeo's business model illegal. Eyeo offers its ad-blocking browser extension and simultaneously runs a program called Acceptable Ads which displays approved ads to consenting AdBlock Plus users and requires large publishers to pay a fee if they want to participate.
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Autonomy's Mike Lynch gets yet another judgment date as US extradition wrangling continues
Brit exec plays extremely expensive game of hurry up and waitContinue readingAutonomy Trial Mike Lynch will have to wait a week to find out if he can have his extradition from the UK to America kicked into the long grass – while the High Court in England has set itself yet another deadline for its epically long judgment on the HP/Autonomy merger.
These were the only two substantial snippets to emerge from Tuesday's court hearing as Lynch sought to push back a deadline for UK Home Secretary Priti Patel to make a decision on his extradition case, as reported yesterday.
Mr Justice Swift, sitting in the Administrative Court for Tuesday's judicial review hearing on the extradition, said he would hand down judgment next week after listening to barristers Alex Bailin QC for Lynch and Mark Summers QC for the US government.
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ESA boss gives update on stricken Sentinel-1B imaging satellite: All is not lost yet
Still borked, 1C and 1D are waiting in the wingsContinue readingESA Director General Josef Aschbacher has addressed the issue of the space agency's borked Copernicus Sentinel-1B spacecraft in his first annual press conference.
The last useful bit of data from the Earth observation satellite came last year, and as of yesterday attempts to revive the equipment to normal working order have come to naught.
It's an interesting anomaly: the spacecraft remains under control and, according to Aschbacher, "the thermal control system is properly working and the regular orbit control manoeuvres are routinely performed." However, attempts to reactivate the power unit that's holding back the transmission of image data have proven unsuccessful.
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