Ad blocking made Google throw its toys out of the pram – and now even more control is being taken from us [Tue Dec 15 2020]

Hi {NAME}, Daily Headlines - 15 December 2020 ***************************************************************** Ad blocking made Google throw its toys out of the pram – and now even more control is being taken from us We need regulations on web advertising ***************************************************************** Business * Googlers will be working from home until September 2021, says Sundar Pichai, followed by 'flexible' work weeks Chocolate Factory hopes it will 'lead to greater productivity, collaboration and well-being' for staffers * What's the price of failure? For Capita, it's a £140m extension to its MoD recruiting contract Yes, the one that cost the British Army 25,000 new soldiers when IT went live * Capita finally finds buyer for education software biz, private equity Montagu to pay £400m Price believed to be £100m lower than initial estimates * New t-shirt slogan: 'My job was outsourced to an Indian company that moved it to Vietnam' HCL heads to Hanoi in search for 3,000 new workers, which is just two percent of headcount and one quarter's usual hiring rate, but a vote of confidence Data Centre * China Telecom answers US internet routing hijack claims by joining internet routing security team: How do you like them apples? Mind your MANRS as politics meets network security * World+dog share in collective panic attack as Google slides off the face of the internet Gmail and co go TITSUP* * Breaking up big tech can make smartphones interesting again We’re not upgrading to gorgeous new hardware because cloud services have stagnated Personal Tech * Right-to-repair warriors seek broader DMCA exemptions to bypass digital locks on the stuff we own Every three years, people try to patch a poorly crafted copyright law * Not one, not two, but a trio of hinges to potentially break in OPPO's bendy concept phone Tired: Pholdables. Wired: Pholdables you can fold eleventeen times * Asus ROG Phone 3: An ugly but refreshing choice – for gaming fans only Cool off: It ain't Candy Crush on an iPhone, pal * Cruise, Kidman and an unfortunate misunderstanding at the local chemist I'm ready for my close-up, Mr Kubrick * iPhone factory workers riot over unpaid wages in India This is not the way to win more work from China, say some politicians as Samsung signs up to enlarge OLED plant Security * Ransomware masterminds claim to have nabbed 53GB of data from Intel's Habana Labs Miscreants threaten to make files, source code public within 72 hours * Backdoored SolarWinds software, linked to US govt hacks, in wide use throughout the British public sector And what's the impact of months-long compromise? UK.gov won't say – as CISA orders shutdown of machines * Ad blocking made Google throw its toys out of the pram – and now even more control is being taken from us We need regulations on web advertising * US Treasury, Dept of Commerce hacks linked to SolarWinds IT monitoring software supply-chain attack Russia's Cozy Bear fingered, FireEye details injected backdoor and says it's worldwide Software * Why did Johnny and Jenny's exam grades yo-yo over the summer? Here's some of the code behind UK results chaos Ofqual publishes for the sake of 'transparency' but it's clear as mud * Double trouble for Virgin Galactic and Virgin Orbit as aborted test flight and COVID-19 keep both grounded Also: ESA signs contracts for the Space Rider and Boeing's Calamity Capsule aims for March 2021 * Microsoft adds Breakout functionality to Teams that Zoom has had for ages – and people still don't like it Also: PowerShell Crescendo, Visual Studio Code C++ on Pi, and a milestone for SharePoint * Top tip from the original Task Manager taskmaster: Don't put your phone number on that debug message box The Reg takes sneak peek at source tour, hosted by engineer who wrote it Science * Raven geniuses: Four-month-old corvids have similar cognitive abilities to great apes at same age, study finds Animal cognition may be better fit for AI devs than human, adds prof Bootnotes * Tim Cook 'killed' TV project about the one website Apple hates more than The Register Only joking – we're surely still below Gawker in his estimations ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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: