Miscellaneous Tech News
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London Marathon 2020: Athletes to wear social-distancing tech
Staff and athletes in Sunday's London Marathon must wear social-distancing technology around their necks.
The Bump device, which makes an audible alert when the wearer is too close to others, will be worn by the 100 elite competitors and 500 event coordinators. The race, 19 laps of a closed course in St James's Park, screened from public view, is the first major marathon since the Covid-19 pandemic, organisers say. Non-elite runners can participate in a 24-hour virtual version of the event. Designed by UK company Tharsus, the Bump uses radio-frequency technology, allowing organisers to track when athletes and staff are within a defined distance of one another. And if one tests positive for coronavirus in the subsequent two weeks, those who have been in close proximity will be notified. -
@mlnews said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
London Marathon 2020: Athletes to wear social-distancing tech
Staff and athletes in Sunday's London Marathon must wear social-distancing technology around their necks.
The Bump device, which makes an audible alert when the wearer is too close to others, will be worn by the 100 elite competitors and 500 event coordinators. The race, 19 laps of a closed course in St James's Park, screened from public view, is the first major marathon since the Covid-19 pandemic, organisers say. Non-elite runners can participate in a 24-hour virtual version of the event. Designed by UK company Tharsus, the Bump uses radio-frequency technology, allowing organisers to track when athletes and staff are within a defined distance of one another. And if one tests positive for coronavirus in the subsequent two weeks, those who have been in close proximity will be notified.Shoot, I was hoping for shock collars.
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Nintendo wins £1.5m in Switch hacking case
Nintendo has won $2m (£1.5m) in a legal battle against a website that sold tools allowing people to play pirated games on its Switch console.
Uberchips was accused of selling hardware and software that let users install and play games for free. As part of the settlement, it must destroy all its stock and hand over its domain name to Nintendo.
The tools it sold were made by hacking group Team-Xecuter, which Nintendo had also wanted to sue. When that effort failed, Nintendo targeted stores that offered its tools for sale instead. According to the lawsuit, Team-Xecuter designs and manufactures an unauthorised operating system called SX OS and offers tools that install it. -
@mlnews said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
Nintendo wins £1.5m in Switch hacking case
And following on from that
US arrests two members of console hacking group Team Xecuter
Two members of Team Xecuter, a group that develops and sells devices that allow people to play pirated copies of games on their consoles, are in FBI custody.
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@Pete-S said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
VMware buys SaltStack
That could be good, bad, or both, depending on how they go about monetizing it.
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YouTube apologises for mocking long videos
YouTube has apologised and deleted a tweet from its official Twitter account in which it mocked content creators for making videos that were too long.
Under its own rules, adverts can be placed in the middle of videos at least eight minutes long only - shortened in July 2020 from a 10-minute minimum. This means content creators can make more money by making longer videos. YouTubers can also start monetising their videos only once they have racked up 4,000 hours of watch time. "It is like giving your daughter allowance based on hours studied, not grades, then complaining she studies too much," former Amazon Studios strategy head Matthew Ball said. -
@mlnews said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
YouTube has apologised and deleted a tweet from its official Twitter account in which it mocked content creators for making videos that were too long.
Under its own rules, adverts can be placed in the middle of videos at least eight minutes long only - shortened in July 2020 from a 10-minute minimum. This means content creators can make more money by making longer videos. YouTubers can also start monetising their videos only once they have racked up 4,000 hours of watch time. "It is like giving your daughter allowance based on hours studied, not grades, then complaining she studies too much," former Amazon Studios strategy head Matthew Ball said.Seriously, talk about misunderstanding your own incentivization. Who should actually get mocked here?
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Slack is having issues today
Users may be unable to connect to Slack or may be experiencing degraded performance across devices
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Trump Covid post deleted by Facebook and hidden by Twitter
Facebook has deleted a post in which President Trump had claimed Covid-19 was "less lethal" than the flu.
Mr Trump is at the White House after three days of hospital treatment having tested positive for the virus. He wrote the US had "learned to live with" flu season, "just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations far less lethal!!!" Twitter hid the same message behind a warning about "spreading misleading and potentially harmful information". Users have to click past the alert to read the tweet. "We remove incorrect information about the severity of Covid-19, and have now removed this post," said Andy Stone, policy communications manager at Facebook. -
Wisepay: School payments service hit by cyber-attack
Parents who made payments to UK schools in recent days via the Wisepay service have been warned their card details have been compromised.
Wisepay said a hack of its website meant an attacker was able to harvest payment details between 2 and 5 October via a spoof page. Attempted payments to about 300 schools have been affected by the scam. But the firm said only a small number of the pupils' parents would have used its system before it was taken offline. Its managing director said this was because the type of cashless payments made - covering things like exam fees and school meals - would not be done on a daily basis. "Actually, it's quite a small subset of users of the platform," insisted Richard Grazier. The attack occurred on a Friday night and was not noticed until the following Monday morning at 10:00 BST. -
Microsoft's work-from-home policy to become permanent
In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Microsoft Corp. will let its employees work from home permanently, according to media reports.
Citing internal documents, The Verge reported on Friday the tech giant would let its employees work from home permanently. Like other companies, Microsoft will move to a "hybrid workplace" to allow for flexibility once its offices reopen.
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@Dashrender said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
Microsoft's work-from-home policy to become permanent
In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Microsoft Corp. will let its employees work from home permanently, according to media reports.
Citing internal documents, The Verge reported on Friday the tech giant would let its employees work from home permanently. Like other companies, Microsoft will move to a "hybrid workplace" to allow for flexibility once its offices reopen.
Finally, due to pandemic, Microsoft joins tech of the late 20th century. So their work policies are about as far behind as their code is.
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Queen's Birthday Honours 2020: 'Covid-critical' broadband engineers awarded
Two engineers who were on call "day and night" to ensure hospitals, care homes, surgeries and other critical sites stayed online in the early days of the Covid crisis are to be appointed MBEs.
Peter Harding and Andrew Miller helped crucial sites, including the new Nightingale Hospitals, access the broadband connections they required. But welcomed the recognition, but stressed that it was a team effort. Workers at BT, Sky and Ericsson were also honoured. Joining Mr Harding and Mr Miller on the birthday honours list were BT's John Hayday, Reza Rahnama, Karen Smith and Gemma Towers, alongside BT Openreach's Peter Martin and Scott McPartlin. Sky's managing director of customer service, Denise Allan, and her colleague, Ijeoma Nwamaka Ezeilo, were also awarded honours for their services to the telecommunications industry during the crisis. It is believed to be the first time telecoms workers have been recognised in the annual list. -
Culture secretary disowns 'crass' jobs advert
The UK's culture secretary has distanced himself from a "crass" government-backed advert suggesting a ballet dancer retrain in "cyber".
After a social media backlash Oliver Dowden said the advert did not come from his department, adding: "I agree it was crass." Acclaimed choreographer Sir Matthew Bourne was among twitter users criticising the advert. But Mr Dowden said £1.57bn is being invested in the industry. Critics on Twitter called the advert "patronising", saying it showed the government was not helping the arts through the pandemic. Sir Matthew's tweet asked: "This has to be a joke? Right?"
