On Call
Protip: If Joe Public reports that your kit is broken, maybe check that it is actually broken
Because now you have a bill to replace all these perfectly functional devices
Poll
Cloudflare launches campaign to ‘end the madness’ of CAPTCHAs
Testing dongle-driven ‘Cryptographic Attestation of Personhood’ and WebAuthn as alternative
Column
Blessed are the cryptographers, labelling them criminal enablers is just foolish
Preserving privacy is hard. I know because when I tried, I quickly learned not to play with weapons
Something for the Weekend, Sir?
Your private data has been nabbed: Please update your life as soon as possible while we deflect responsibility
Because our golf-obsessed boss has wandered off fondling his balls
Latest News
In Brief
This week in AI: Man arrested after cops say he rode in backseat of Autopilot Tesla
Plus: Non-profit ML groups snub sponsorship money from Google
16 May 03:17 |
Updated
China says its first Mars rover Zhurong has landed on the Red Planet
'An important step in our country’s interplanetary exploration journey' – state media
14 May 22:37 | 58
Legal
Google leads Big Tech effort to ensure H-1B spouses can continue working in America
Coalition of 41 organizations oppose labor rule challenge
14 May 20:27 | 3
On-Prem
AMD promises to spend $1.6bn on 12nm, 14nm chips from GlobalFoundries
Also wriggles out of exclusivity deal
14 May 19:22 | 9
Software
Audacity's new management hits rewind on telemetry plans following community outrage
Sorry for trying to add it or sorry for cocking up the comms?
14 May 18:23 | 28
Legal
Apple's expert witness grilled by Epic over 'frictionless' spending outside the app
How easy would it be for customers to depart the walled garden, legal eagles ask economist
14 May 17:18 | 23
Applications
Facebook Giphy merger stays on ice after failed challenge to UK competition regulator
Problem was of social network's own making, says unimpressed judge
14 May 16:29 | 10
Promo
Free SANS Cyber Security Summits: Sign up now, learn online, keep your network safe
Sometimes you need to lift yourself out of the cybersec trenches and look up to the summit
14 May 15:30 |
Security
Tor users, beware: 'Scheme flooding' technique may be used to deanonymize you
By probing for installed apps with custom URL schemes, it's possible to build a 32-bit unique fingerprint
14 May 13:32 | 33
Science
NASA pops old-school worm logo onto Orion spacecraft
Will be visible from the launchpad ... when it finally gets there
14 May 12:39 | 32
Security
Hospitals cancel outpatient appointments as Irish health service struck by ransomware
Russia-based criminals pick soft target in hope of easy gains
14 May 11:45 | 23
Popular
Security
Indian government says 5G doesn’t cause COVID-19. Also points out India has no 5G networks
But won’t reveal who it wants banned from social media over less obvious disinformation
Updated
Guy who wrote women are 'soft, weak, cosseted, naive' lasted about a month at Apple until internal revolt
Ad tech engineer out after autobiography sparks protest – and what does this say about iGiant's hiring process?
Updated
'Biggest data grab' in NHS history stuffs GP records in a central store for 'research' – and the time to opt out is now
'More data, more breadth, more depth... it's the whole f&*king deal'
Software
When software depends on a project thanklessly maintained by a random guy in Nebraska, is open source sustainable?
Much of the OSS world is critically underfunded yet critically important
Science
43 years and 14 billion miles later, Voyager 1 still crunching data to reveal secrets of the interstellar medium
Gazing into the void for at least a few more years yet
Security
Compsci boffin publishes proof-of-concept code for 54-year-old zero-day in Universal Turing Machine
Patch your devi... oh, hang on a sec
Updated
US declares emergency after ransomware shuts oil pipeline that pumps 100 million gallons a day
Oil transport by road allowed after Colonial Pipeline goes down, operator says recovery is under way but offers no recovery date
Updated
Salesforce fell over so hard today, it took out its own server status page
It’s not DNS. There is no way it’s DNS. It was DNS
Column
Blessed are the cryptographers, labelling them criminal enablers is just foolish
Preserving privacy is hard. I know because when I tried, I quickly learned not to play with weapons
Personal Tech
WhatsApp: Share your data with Facebook, or we'll make our own app useless to you
Zuck gets tough just as Germany blocks privacy policy roll-out
STORIES
Databases
Rapping otters and automated database knob-twiddling: An obvious combination in some universe or other
OtterTune to compete with Oracle automation, but also for open source databases
14 May 10:45 | 4
+Comment
NHS-backed org reacted to GitHub leak disclosure with legal threats and police call, complains IT pro
Retention of now-deleted security breach evidence sparks spat
14 May 10:02 | 76
Bork!Bork!Bork!
For the marketeer that has everything – except a CPU fan
You know it's time for an upgrade when your PC gets spanked by a sign
14 May 09:15 | 33
Something for the Weekend, Sir?
Your private data has been nabbed: Please update your life as soon as possible while we deflect responsibility
Because our golf-obsessed boss has wandered off fondling his balls
14 May 08:30 | 78
Offbeat
Chinese AI censors live-streamed Alpacas – beasts with a very NSFW and political back story
Be alert, not a-llam-ed
14 May 07:58 | 12
On Call
Protip: If Joe Public reports that your kit is broken, maybe check that it is actually broken
Because now you have a bill to replace all these perfectly functional devices
14 May 07:26 | 83
On-Prem
South Korea creates $451bn semiconductor stimulus package
Samsung and SK Hynix singled out as nation tries to become a titan
14 May 06:57 | 5
Science
An actress, an internet billionaire, and Tom Cruise walk into a space station ... not necessarily at the same time
It's Space Race 2 for Russia and America
14 May 06:27 | 29
Obit
RIP Spencer Silver: Inventor of the Post-it Note, aka the office password reminder, dies
Pen and sticky paper still a great analog productivity hack
14 May 06:00 | 23
Poll
Cloudflare launches campaign to ‘end the madness’ of CAPTCHAs
Testing dongle-driven ‘Cryptographic Attestation of Personhood’ and WebAuthn as alternative
14 May 03:29 | 72
Off-Prem
Alibaba Cloud growth slows after mystery international customer quits over ‘non-product related’ factors
First loss as a listed company thanks to Beijing’s $2.8bn antitrust fine
14 May 01:55 |
Applications
Italian monopoly watchdog asks Google to cough up a few euros for illegally blocking an Android Auto app
Web giant tells us it's considering its response to €100m fine demand
13 May 23:07 | 7
Updated
Guy who wrote women are 'soft, weak, cosseted, naive' lasted about a month at Apple until internal revolt
Ad tech engineer out after autobiography sparks protest – and what does this say about iGiant's hiring process?
13 May 21:35 | 138
Devops
Open-source developers under corporate pressure to adopt less-permissive licenses, Percona CEO says
Cloud hyperscalers drive projects to slap restrictions on code use
13 May 20:32 | 25
Webcast
You’re heading to the cloud – congratulations. Now, where’s your data?
It’s the one lever you really need to get a grip on
13 May 19:30 |
Software
Microsoft's cloud gets JAMstacked: Azure Static Web Apps greenlit for production
JAM with a distinct whiff of Redmond, as you would expect
13 May 18:24 | 1
Security
Ransomware victim Colonial Pipeline paid $5m to get oil pumping again, restored from backups anyway – report
Anonymous sources get into war-by-media counterbriefing
13 May 17:44 | 74
Off-Prem
Google Cloud and SpaceX buddy up to fling edgy data and cloud services via Starlink
Sign-ups open in second half of 2021
13 May 17:01 | 3
Language Summit
Guido van Rossum aiming to make CPython 2x faster in 3.11
'I got bored sitting at home while retired ... I chose to go back to my roots'
13 May 16:05 | 11
On-Prem
Take-home salary pay cut in 2021? Billionaire Michael Dell feels you, slices off most of own yearly pay
Paid fraction of his fellow execs, though he is worth $50+bn (just don't mention tax)
13 May 15:20 | 6
On-Prem
As Samsung breaks ground on new EUV semi foundry, SK Hynix mulls expanding its logic and contract fab businesses
Analyst: 'Company may need to license 7nm and below process tech'
13 May 13:34 |
Security
Colonial Pipeline was looking to hire cybersecurity manager before ransomware attack shut down operations
Good luck to whoever got that gig
13 May 12:35 | 25
Science
James Webb Space Telescope runs one last dress rehearsal for its massive golden mirrors before heading to launchpad
A few final tests then it's bags packed for French Guiana – and about time too
13 May 11:33 | 38
Video
Man paralyzed from neck down uses AI brain implants to write out text messages
Read my blips
13 May 10:47 | 15
