Who knew that hosing a table with copious amounts of cubic metres would trip adult filters?
On Call Friday is upon us so take a moment from glumly hitting refresh on your government website of choice and join us for a story of abbreviations and adult filters in today's edition of On Call.…
AWS hires Rust compiler team co-lead Felix Klock
Amazon Web Services has quietly revealed it has hired Rust compiler co-lead Felix Klock.…
European Space Agency will launch giant claw that drags space junk to its doom
The European Space Agency has formalised its plan to dispose of space junk by using an orbiting claw to grab an old bit of rocket before dragging both the claw and the junk to a fiery doom.…
China’s clouds boom but they’re collectively earning less than Azure alone
China’s clouds grew by 65 percent in 2020’s third quarter, collectively hauling in $5 billion of revenue in the period.…
TikTok given another week to sort out how to sell itself
TikTok has another week to sort out its sale to Oracle, Walmart, and their investor pals.…
Marmite of scripting languages PHP emits version 8.0, complete with named arguments and other goodies
Version 8.0 of the PHP scripting language is scheduled for release on 26 November, which coincides with the US Thanksgiving holiday.…
UK coronavirus tier postcode-searching tool yanked offline as desperate Britons hunt for latest lockdown details
The gov.uk postcode-searching tool for Britons to find out what level of coronavirus lockdown they'll be in until Christmas has crashed on launch and been withdrawn.…
Master boot vinyl record: It just gives DOS on my IBM PC a warmer, more authentic tone
Looking for something to do in quarantine? How about booting DOS from a 10-inch vinyl record?…
Netflix chooses its own judgment in 'Bandersnatch' case: Settle and make the nasty lawsuit go away
Streaming giant Netflix has agreed to settle a lawsuit over the trademark rights to the "Choose Your Own Adventure" series of books.…
HP CEO talks up HP-ink-only print hardware and higher upfront costs of machines that use other toner and ink cartridges
HP might have dropped the Ink Inc from its corporate banner but CEO Enrique Lores is still mining for the black gold: with the firm clawing back cash by slapping away the grubby hands of its pesky “unprofitable customers” from its printing rig.…
Calls for 'right to repair' electronics laws grow louder across Europe
A new report from the UK's House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) argues the country should enshrine the "right to repair" in law and reduce VAT on tech repair services, while Europe's Parliamentarians also voted to further the cause.…
Physicists wrap neutrino detector in cosy blanket to shed light on the Sun's secondary fusion cycle
As we near the northern winter solstice, the Sun continues to produce a steady power output of 384.6 yottawatts resulting from the fusion of hydrogen into helium in two distinct nuclear reactions. Direct observation of the secondary cycle was published in the journal Nature for the first time yesterday.…
Spending Review: We spy a stray £60m – is that all you can spare to help 5G market recover from UK kicking out Huawei?
Among the economic doom and gloom of the UK's Autumn Spending Review, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak inadvertently revealed the sop UK.gov plans to throw to telcos after sacking Huawei from the UK's 5G rollout at the behest of an orange one-term president of the US.…
Privacy campaigner flags concerns about Microsoft's creepy Productivity Score
Microsoft's Productivity Score has put in a public appearance in Microsoft 365 and attracted the ire of privacy campaigners and activists.…
Xiaomi revenues up by a third due to strong phone sales and triple-digit European growth
It has been a difficult year for the mobile industry as economic uncertainty and widespread national lockdowns further depressed the public's appetite for handset upgrades. Some vendors are faring better than others, however, with Xiaomi proving especially resilient.…
Last call: Share your DevOps experiences at Continuous Lifecycle Online 2021
Event If there’s anything that hasn’t come to a halt this year, it surely is software development and service infrastructure work. We know you’ve all been busy so here’s another chance to get in your presentation proposal for our Continuous Lifecycle Online 2021 conference.…
How America attacked Huawei: Former CEO of DocuSign and Ariba turned diplomat Keith Krach tells his tale
The United States’ Clean Network plan has won support from 53 nations and 180 telcos, and Huawei has unwittingly legitimised it.…
Salesforce reportedly poised to scoop Slack for billions
Salesforce is reportedly deep in talks to buy Slack, according to The Wall Street Journal, which says a deal could happen “in days”.…
China ‘firmly opposes’ India’s new round of app bans, says it's violated trade laws
China has responded to India’s new round of bans on mobile apps by attacking the reasons for the banishments.…
Boeing 737 Max will return to flight after software updates, says EU's aviation regulator
The Boeing 737 Max was safe enough to fly without the controversial MCAS system but would not have met safety certification rules, the EU Aviation Safety Agency has said after confirming the airliner will return to European skies in January 2021.…