davide marney writes: Orders for Alienware Aurora R12 and R10 gaming PC configurations placed in California, Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Vermont, or Washington will not be honored because of power consumption regulations, reports PC Gamer. “Any orders pl…
Microsoft: Component Shortages Not Going Away Any Time Soon
An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: In reporting its Q4 FY21 earnings, Microsoft disclosed that both its Surface and Windows revenues were affected negatively by supply-chain constraints. While remote work has continued to fuel PC demand, M…
Google Delays Return To Office, Mandates Vaccines
Google is postponing a return to the office for most workers until mid-October and rolling out a policy that will eventually require everyone to be vaccinated once its sprawling campuses are fully reopened. The Associated Press reports: The announcemen…
YouTube Channel ‘Tech Support Scams’ Taken Offline By Tech Support Scam
The Tech Support Scams YouTube channel, operated by host and creator Jim Browning, was deleted after a tech support scam convinced Browning that the only way to secure his account was to delete it. The Register reports: “So to prove that anyone can be …
What That Google Drive ‘Security Update’ Message Means
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: A security update will be applied to Drive,” Google’s weird new email reads. If you visit drive.google.com, you’ll also see a message saying, “On September 13, 2021, a security update will be appli…
WoW Will Remove ‘Inappropriate References’ Following California Lawsuit
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Engadget: The official World of Warcraft Twitter account has announced that it will take immediate action to “remove references that are not appropriate for [its] world.” While it didn’t elaborate on what those …
‘Programming Is Hard’ Considered Harmful
theodp writes: The commonly held belief that programming is inherently hard lacks sufficient evidence,” begins CS Prof Brett Becker in [an article published in the journal Communications of the ACM]. “Stating this belief can send influential messages t…
Astronaut Watches Russian Space Station Module Fall From Space In Fiery Demise
On Monday, astronauts said goodbye to a cornerstone of the International Space Station and captured stunning images of the compartment burning up in Earth’s atmosphere. Space.com reports: A Russian Progress cargo vehicle towed the module, called Pirs, …
UK Government Backs Scheme For Motorway Cables To Power Lorries
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: The government will fund the design of a scheme to install overhead electric cables to power electric lorries on a motorway near Scunthorpe, as part of a series of studies on how to decarbonize roa…
EFF Sues US Postal Office For Records About Covert Social Media Spying Program
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Postal Service and its inspection agency seeking records about a covert program to secretly comb through online posts of social media users befo…