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Twitch has launched a tool that uses machine learning to detect users trying to rejoin chat channels from which they have been banned for abusive behaviour. The gaming-focused livestreaming website said "bad actors" often created new accounts to continue to harass people. From a report: But the new system would warn streamers and chat moderators if a user was a "likely" or "possible" ban evader. It is part of Twitch's long-running efforts to reduce hate and harassment. The company has been criticised over "hate raids", in which unscrupulous streamers send their followers or even automated bots to other channels to harass someone. Often the victims belong to minority or marginalised groups. Creators had demanded the Amazon-owned company do more to counter this kind of hate speech. In September, Twitch announced "phone-verified chat", enabling streamers to require some or all users to verify a phone number before chatting. And the same month, it began legal action against unidentified users allegedly involved in "chat-based attacks against marginalised streamers."

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Windows 11's taskbar is a giant step back in usability compared to Windows 10, and now Microsoft is starting to make improvements. A new update that's currently being tested by Windows Insiders brings the clock and date back to the taskbar on secondary or multiple monitors. From a report: It's a change that multiple monitor users will appreciate, as many have had to install third-party apps like ElevenClock just to get this basic functionality in Windows 11. I've not been shy about criticizing the changes made to the taskbar in Windows 11. I hate the new taskbar, so I'm happy to see Microsoft make this initial change. There's still much more to be improved, and hopefully we see the return of being able to drag and drop files onto taskbar apps and the general customization options. Elsewhere, Microsoft is also making some improvements to the Start menu in Windows 11. The latest 22509 Insider build includes the ability to configure the Start menu to show more pins or more recommendations instead. That makes the Start menu a little more customizable, although many Windows 11 users are also opting for third-party apps here, too.

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Meanwhile, Soyuz Cluedo continues: It was someone, with the drill, in the habitation module

Russian news agency TASS has reported that a chunk of a US Pegasus carrier rocket is due to whizz past the International Space Station (ISS) at a minimum distance of 5.4km this week.…

Companies that run food delivery and ride-hailing apps are concerned that the European Union will push for gig workers to be considered employees rather than self-employed under a forthcoming proposal aimed at bolstering their labor rights. From a report: The draft European Commission proposal, seen by Bloomberg, would apply to any company that controls digital workers' performance by determining pay, controlling communication with customers, or offering future work based on previous performance -- a move that would be sure to hit companies like Uber Technologies, Deliveroo and Bolt Technology if implemented. These workers would have the "rebuttable presumption of employment," according to the draft, which would mean there is an employment arrangement no matter how the contract is worded. The EU's executive arm doesn't have the authority to mandate labor laws across the bloc and would leave it to EU countries to interpret the rules. The proposal, which is expected to made public next week, said some workers will still be considered "self-employed" but doesn't make clear which ones. Platforms that rely on gig work are pushing back against the commission's plans, which they argue risk putting food delivery workers and drivers out of work. They warn against stricter rules like those implemented by Spain, which prompted Deliveroo to pull out of the country and cost thousands of food delivery workers their jobs.

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A British man has become the first patient in the world to be fitted with a 3D printed eye, according to Moorfields Eye Hospital in London. From a report: Steve Verze, who is 47 and an engineer from Hackney, east London, was given the left eye on Thursday and first tried it for size earlier this month. Moorfields Eye Hospital said in a press release Thursday that the prosthetic is the first fully digital prosthetic eye created for a patient. The eye is more realistic than other alternatives, and is designed to have "clearer definition and real depth to the pupil," the hospital said. Other prosthetic eyes consist of an iris hand-painted onto a disc that is then embedded into the eye socket. However, their design prevents light from passing into the "full depth" of the eye, the hospital added in the release. As well as appearing more realistic, the procedure is considered less invasive. Fitting traditional prosthetics requires a mold to be taken of the eye socket, whereas in 3D prosthetic eye development the socket is scanned digitally to create a detailed image. Verze's functional eye was also scanned to ensure both eyes look the same.

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Redmond fiddles with Paint while Windows burns

Users wondering if Microsoft is going to do anything about the holes in its flagship operating system will be relieved to note it has found time to fiddle with Paint dialogs and unleash another Christmas jumper.…

The World Health Organization said Wednesday that 23 countries across the world have reported cases of the highly mutated omicron Covid-19 variant. From a report: "At least 23 countries from five of six WHO regions have now reported cases of omicron and we expect that number to grow," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters during an update Wednesday in Geneva. "WHO takes this development extremely seriously and so should every country. But it should not surprise us," Tedros continued. "This is what viruses do. And it's what this virus will continue to do, as we long as we allow it to continue spreading." The new number comes one day after White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said 226 cases of the variant have been detected across 20 countries. Officials have not confirmed a case in the U.S. yet. The variant, which was reported to WHO by South Africa a week ago, has more than 30 mutations to the spike protein alone. Some of the mutations are associated with a decrease in antibody protection and higher transmission, according to the WHO. Tedros said there is still more to learn about the new variant's effect on transmission, the severity of disease and the effectiveness of tests, therapeutics and vaccines. Several WHO advisory groups have met in the last few days to "evaluate the emerging evidence, and prioritize the studies needed to answer these questions," he said.

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That means the 'forseeable future' at Mountain View is... about two years

What a difference two years makes. Knative has applied to become a Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) incubating project.…

Today, Vice President Kamala Harris' office released a new framework for US space policy, detailing how the Biden administration plans to approach commercial, civil, and military space activity moving forward. From a report: Called the United States Space Priorities Framework, the document keeps many of the same space priorities from the previous administration but adds a new emphasis on using space to help combat climate change and investing in STEM education. The new framework comes ahead of today's National Space Council meeting, the first one to be held under the Biden administration. Harris, who chairs the National Space Council, will convene the policy advisory group at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, DC, at 1:30PM ET today. [...] When it comes to space, the Biden administration is carrying forward many of the priorities set by the Trump administration. Notably, NASA's ambitious Artemis program, which was solidified under Trump, is still a major focus under Biden. And plenty of the topics discussed under Pence's Space Council are included in the new framework released by Harris. A few of the key points include maintaining US leadership in space by sending humans back to the Moon and exploring the Solar System with robotic spacecraft, fostering a competitive, regulatory environment for space companies, and defending against security threats in space while strengthening our space assets. In the biggest break from the previous administration, there looks to be a renewed focus on using space in the fight against climate change. In the new framework, the administration pledges to invest in satellites that can observe Earth from space, helping scientists better understand our changing climate. "Open dissemination of Earth observation data will support both domestic and international efforts to address the climate crisis," the document states. To further drive home this new emphasis on climate research from space, President Biden plans to sign a new Executive Order today that will add five new members to the National Space Council, including the Secretaries of Education, Labor, Agriculture, and the Interior, but also notably the National Climate Advisor.

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Apple is asking a higher court to halt a judge's decision that will force changes to its App Store while a legal fight with Epic Games continues. From a report: Lawyers for the company filed Tuesday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, seeking action by Dec. 8. Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzales Rogers rejected Apple's request to put on hold her ruling allowing developers to steer customers to payment methods outside the App Store, an overhaul the judge ordered in September that could cost the tech giant a few billion dollars annually. The company said at that time it would appeal to the higher court.

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Can we just postpone these changes to next year?

The mixture of performance and efficiency CPUs in Intel's 12th-gen Core processors, code-named Alder Lake, hasn't just caused problems for some Windows gamers – it's led to complications for Linux.…

China is planning to ban companies from going public on foreign stock markets through variable interest entities -- Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter -- closing a loophole long used by the country's technology industry to raise capital from overseas investors. From the report: The ban, intended in part to address concerns over data security, is among changes included in a new draft of China's overseas listing rules that may be finalized as soon as this month, said the people, asking not to be identified discussing private information. Companies using the so-called VIE structure would still be allowed to pursue initial public offerings in Hong Kong, subject to regulatory approval, the people said. The China Securities Regulatory Commission said on its website Wednesday that a media report about banning the overseas listings of companies using the VIE structure is not true, without giving further details. [...] The overhaul would represent one of Beijing's biggest steps to crack down on overseas listings following the New York IPO of ride-hailing giant Didi Global, which proceeded despite regulatory concerns.

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Such memorandums of understanding are all the rage

Singapore and the UK signed three memorandums of understanding (MoUs) this week, hoping to strengthen digital connectivity between the two island nations.…

Thousands of networking devices belonging to AT&T Internet subscribers in the US have been infected with newly discovered malware that allows the devices to be used in denial-of-service attacks and attacks on internal networks, researchers said on Tuesday. From a report: The device model under attack is the EdgeMarc Enterprise Session Border Controller, an appliance used by small- to medium-sized enterprises to secure and manage phone calls, video conferencing, and similar real-time communications. As the bridge between enterprises and their ISPs, session border controllers have access to ample amounts of bandwidth and can access potentially sensitive information, making them ideal for distributed denial of service attacks and for harvesting data. Researchers from Qihoo 360 in China said they recently spotted a previously unknown botnet and managed to infiltrate one of its command-and-control servers during a three-hour span before they lost access. "However, during this brief observation, we confirmed that the attacked devices were EdgeMarc Enterprise Session Border Controller, belonging to the telecom company AT&T, and that all 5.7k active victims that we saw during the short time window were all geographically located in the US," Qihoo 360 researchers Alex Turing and Hui Wang wrote. They said they have detected more than 100,000 devices accessing the same TLS certificate used by the infected controllers, an indication that the pool of affected devices may be much bigger. "We are not sure how many devices corresponding to these IPs could be infected, but we can speculate that as they belong to the same class of devices the possible impact is real," they added.

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EB Associates facing £140k penalty for 107,000 illegal calls

EB Associates, a London-based financial advisory business, is facing a £140,000 fine from the UK's data watchdog after it instigated 107,000 illegal cold calls to people about their pensions.…

Median pay gap reporting found less favour

Microsoft shareholders have voted for a report into the effectiveness of the company's sexual harassment policies while rejecting another on median pay gaps across race and gender.…

Microsoft, Linux Foundation-backed QIR has a chance to make QC source code portable across different systems

The Linux Foundation has launched a group called the QIR Alliance to make quantum computing applications more portable across hardware architectures and simulators.…

Software automation specialist escaping London Stock Exchange

The board of Brit robotic process automation specialist Blue Prism is recommending a £1.243bn cash bid by Bolt Bidco, the subsidiary of tech holdings SS&C that trumped a £1.1bn offer from Vista Equity Partners (VEP).…

Reject the one-size-fits-all approach offered by the cloud giants

Register Debate Welcome to the latest Register Debate in which writers discuss technology topics, and you the reader choose the winning argument. The format is simple: we propose a motion, the arguments for the motion will run this Monday and Wednesday, and the arguments against on Tuesday and Thursday. During the week you can cast your vote on which side you support using the poll embedded below, choosing whether you're in favour or against the motion. The final score will be announced on Friday, revealing whether the for or against argument was most popular.…

See if you can guess when the spacecraft thrusters took over

ESA's Solar Orbiter has completed its flyby of Earth, collecting science data as it did so, and appears to be headed back into deep space without any close encounters with orbiting debris.…