John Lister

The US government has seized control of domain names for more than 30 Iranian news sites it accuses of spreading misinformation. The sites themselves are still online but are now much harder to reach. The sites were mostly used by the Iranian ... Islamic Radio and Television Union, which the US Department of Justice says is working on behalf of a Iranian military group the US had formally designated a foreign terrorist organization. It said the sites were posing as news organizations but had actually "targeted the United States with disinformation campaigns and malign influence operations." ( ... (view more)

Social media users are more likely to share posts that criticize political opponents by name than those which praise people and ideas they support according to newly-published research. The pattern was consistent across different sites and people ... with different views. Researchers at the University of Cambridge were exploring what makes some posts on Facebook and Twitter more likely to be shared. Previous research had suggested the main driver was the tone of the language, with negative emotions such as anger, or a "sense of moral indignation" the most likely to lead to a post being widely ... (view more)

What looks very much to be "Windows 11" has leaked online. Most of the changes appear to be cosmetic, though it should boost performance on some PCs. While nothing is yet confirmed, we've effectively moved from "Windows 11 is coming" being an ... interesting rumor to something that seems likely, unless and until Microsoft denies it. Not only has what appears to be a copy of the new system (displaying the Windows 11 name on screen) leaked online, but Microsoft has issued a legal takedown notice to Google demanding it stop including the leak download page in its search results. The notice very much ... (view more)

One of the key ways online advertising works has led to a court case alleging a breach of Internet users' privacy. A civil liberties group is taking legal action saying current regulations are too slow to have any effect. The Irish Council for Civil ... Liberties (ICCL) says IAB Tech Lab, which operates one of the world's main ad set-ups, is sharing revealing data about online activities without user consent. IAB is based in New York, though the legal case is against its branch in Hamburg, Germany to benefit from tighter rules in Europe. (Source: reuters.com ) Real Time Bidding Relies On Data The ... (view more)

The House of Representatives will examine five different proposals for curbing the power of big tech companies. The bills take very different approaches to the task, though it's unclear if any but the least dramatic has a shot at becoming law. There ... could be a couple of reasons why lawmakers have thrown out so many ideas. One is simply a numbers game with the hope that more attempts means more chance of something becoming law. Another is to present some more drastic measures that get rejected in the hope that the "weaker" bills then look more reasonable and balanced. The five bills, as ... (view more)

Microsoft has dropped another strong hint that Windows 10 will be getting a sequel. It's now added an end date for the system. Rumors started getting louder last week that Windows 11 is on the cards. Those came partly from a Microsoft graphic that ... many took to be a not-so-hidden reference to 11 and partly from the wording some Microsoft executives used when promoting an upcoming media event. Now Microsoft has updated its support timetable documents to list Windows 10 Home and Pro as having a "retirement date" of 14 October 2025. That's the first time Microsoft has listed a date for Windows 10 ... (view more)

A bill to boost US technology has received rare bipartisan support in the Senate. The proposed law includes measures on drones, computer chips and video app TikTok. While the "Endless Frontier Act" includes many measures targeted at the US, it also ... includes several that directly target China. They are intended to address fears not just of tech competition but also security threats. The bill passed the Senate by 68 votes to 32. President Biden has indicated he would back the bill, though it's not yet certain it will pass the House of Representatives in its current form. Some critics who are on ... (view more)

Several high-profile websites went offline for around an hour this week thanks to problems with a content delivery network (CDN). The disruption to sites like the New York Times, Amazon and Reddit was a reminder of weak points in the way the ... Internet works today. The problem also affected CNN, the United Kingdom's government sites, online video site Hulu and gaming streaming site Twitch. Not only were the sites unavailable but visitors saw a range of error messages that often weren't much help explaining the problem. (Source: theguardian.com ) The outage is widely believed to be related to ... (view more)

The rumor-mill is filled with claims Windows 11 is imminent. It doesn't seem to be based on much concrete and would certainly be a major change of attitude from Microsoft. Most of the speculation seems to trace back to a Microsoft post on Twitter ... which includes an animation of a window in the shape of the Windows logo, casting a shadow into the room. (Source: bgr.com ) The excitement comes from the fact that although the window has the horizontal line in the middle (making a cross), the shadow intentionally does not. That means the shadow somewhat resembles an 11 (or 111 depending on your ... (view more)

Microsoft is again bugging users to switch their default search engine to Bing. There's a way to get rid of the messages, but strangely it's hidden away in the Edge browser. The pop-up message seen by some users says that "Microsoft recommends ... different browser settings. Want to change them?" and then gives the not-entirely-comprehensive choice of "Yes, change settings" and "Maybe later". It's a sneaky message in a couple of ways. The first is that while it promises "Search that gives back time and money" and "Fast and secure search results with Bing", the message doesn't actually explain ... (view more)