Larry Tesler cut and pasted from this mortal coil: That thing you just did? He probably invented it [Thu Feb 20 2020]

Hi {NAME}, Daily Headlines - 20 February 2020 ***************************************************************** Larry Tesler cut and pasted from this mortal coil: That thing you just did? He probably invented it PARC, Apple and Amazon – computing pioneer dies at 74 ***************************************************************** Business * US court responds to Chinese comms giant sueball: There's no Huawei we're lifting ban on federal agencies using your kit Firm told: Contracting with Uncle Sam is a privilege, not a right * The European Commission digital strategy wants to, er, take back control of citizens' data We read through reams of releases to give you the skinny on plans for: AI, 100Mbps min. broadband, data-sharing ... and what's this about a Euro-cloud? * Microsoft crack habit reports: User claims Surface Laptop 3 screen fractured again after repair Split me once, shame on you. Split me twice, shame on, er, you again? Data Centre * Brit telcos score £218m licence fee repayment from Ofcom after penny-pinching regulator loses Court of Appeal case But will you see your phone bills decreasing? * Fire Brigades Union warns of wonky IT causing dangerous delays in 999 control rooms In some of UK's worst flood-hit areas * Now Internet Society told to halt controversial .org sale… by its own advisory council: 'You misread the community mindset around dot-org' Meanwhile, would-be buyer Ethos attempts closed-room meeting to push deal through Emergent Tech * Ring in the changes: Mandatory two-factor authentication, login alerts, targeted ads opt-out after punters voice privacy gripes Smart-home kit slinger does the right thing... under commercial duress Personal Tech * Facebook tells US tax bods: Swear to God, we were only worth $6.5bn in 2010 because we were menaced by... MySpace and smartphones IRS wants Zuckerberg's empire to cough up $9bn in back taxes * Glue's clues: Samsung Galaxy Z Flip dissection reveals a pholdable mired in adhesive Yeah, don't break this one either * Going Dutch: The Bakker Elkhuizen UltraBoard 950 Wireless... because looks aren't everything A comfortable, pleasant non-mechanical keyboard Security * Oi, Cisco! Who left the 'high privilege' login for Smart Software Manager just sitting out in the open? Critical fix for static login headlines latest patch rollout * Assange lawyer: Trump offered WikiLeaker a pardon in exchange for denying Russia hacked Democrats' email America wanted a cover-up of Kremlin ties to DNC intrusion, court told * When the air gap is the space between the ears: A natural gas plant let ransomware spread from office IT to ops Mystery facility hit by 'commodity' infection thought to be Ryuk * Don't use natwest.co.uk for online banking, Natwest bank tells baffled customer Dot-com is all the rage, yo * What do a Lenovo touch pad, an HP camera and Dell Wi-Fi have in common? They'll swallow any old firmware, legit or saddled with malware Are we doing panic about software updates again? Really? OK Software * Larry Tesler cut and pasted from this mortal coil: That thing you just did? He probably invented it PARC, Apple and Amazon – computing pioneer dies at 74 Science * Private equity ponies up £2m to help launch satellites from sunny Shetland by next year What was it Burns said? Something about plans, mice and men Bootnotes * Reddit gets downvoted as site takes a Wednesday tumble World turns to Twitter for reasoned discussion and cat memes * And they said IoT was trash: Sheffield 'smart' bins to start screaming when they haven't been emptied for a fortnight To be fair, all UK cities could benefit from such a scheme... * Vodafone: Yes, we slurp data on customers' network setups, but we do it for their own good MyPr0nStash might not have been the wisest name for that file server after all * Among those pardoned by Trump this week: Software maker ex-CEO who admitted hacking into rivals' systems There's always a tech angle ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This email was sent to {EMAIL} You can update your preferences here: or unsubscribe from this list: Situation Publishing Ltd, 14 Gray's Inn Road, London, WC1X 8HN, UK The Register and its contents are Copyright © 2020 Situation Publishing. All rights reserved. Find our Privacy Policy here: