ISPs end fight against California net neutrality law

In a win for net neturality, ISPs agreed to end their legal challenge to a 2018 Californa law that bars providers from throttling service. Telecom groups and California Attorney General Rob Bonta today jointly agreed to dismiss the case, reportedReuters. 

It’s fair that say that luck hasn’t exactly been on the telecom industry’s side. Earlier this year, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to reconsider its ruling that California’s law be upheld. And last year, the US DOJ dropped its own lawsuit over the net neutrality law, which the agency had filed during the Trump administration.

“Following multiple defeats in court, internet service providers have finally abandoned an effort to block enforcement of CA’s net neutrality law. This is a win for California and for a free and fair internet,” wrote Bonta in a tweet.

After Trump-appointed FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai overturned the agency’s net neutrality rules in 2017, California’s legislature decided to enact its own law. The state’s net neutrality law, which went into effect in August 2018, expanded on previous federal rules by banning the use of “zero-rating” by ISPs in an anti-competitive manner. Zero-rating occurs when an ISP exempts any of its affiliated services from eating away at a customer’s data caps. For example, AT&T Wireless once exempted HBO Max from the data caps of its internet customers. The company dropped this practice last year, and blamed the impact of California’s law. Digital rights groups like Electronic Frontier Foundation have argued that zero-rating is hostile to consumers, especially those from low-income households.

Federal net neutrality rules that were blocked under the Trump administration have yet to be restored by the FCC under President Joe Biden. That’s because the five-member panel is currently short one member, which they’ll need in order to vote on net neutrality. The agency is awaiting the Senate confirmation of Gigi Sohn. But thanks to intense lobbying from telecom groups and a number of Republicans (and moderate Democrats) in Congress, Sohn’s confirmation is stalled at present.

Facebook accused of deliberately blocking government and health pages in Australia

Whisteblowers are accusing Facebook of purposely blocking government, healthcare and emergency services pages in Australia in order to thwart a potential law that would require platforms to pay for news, according to WSJ. The accusers say the platform …

A simple string of “and”s seem to crash Google Docs pages

And. And. And. And. And. 

For whatever reason that specific string of words seems to be enough to permanently brick a Google Docs page. Noted Google’s support pages mere hours ago, the poster who seemingly discovered this unusual bug is quick to point out that the series of five conjunctions, separated by periods, is case-sensitive (at least if the goal is to cause the document in question to become unusable.) 

Engadget was able to confirm the issue on a 16-inch 2019 MacBook Pro running Monteray 12.3.1 and Google Chrome 100.0.4896.127… and we were summarily greeted by the “Something went wrong” popover as well as its loathsome cousin “Unable to load file.” Reloading the page as prompted results in the same popovers. In effect, a death loop. 

Attempts to replicate the issue on Firefox 99.0.1 on a (significantly older, worse) MacBook Pro running Big Sur 11.1 were not successful but a respondent on the Google Support forums claims to have experienced the same problem on the same version of FireFox. 

What exactly is happening here remains a mystery, though we’ve reached out for clarity on what is likely a small if amusing technical oversight. How this bug was even discovered is itself an enigma, given that there’s rarely cause to pile a slew of Ands on top of each other like this. Project Gutenberg turned up no instances in its database, while a (cursory) search through Google Books produced at least one example — seemingly meant to reproduce the effect of stammering — though it did quite meet the punctuation or capitalization criteria. We’ll update should we hear back. 

Update 5/5/2022 6:00pm: Well, nothing from Google just yet, but a reader reached out on Twitter to illuminate how the and-polypse was found in the first place: poetry! A Hacker News user (who shares the same name as the Google Support poster and is, in all likeliness, the same person) writes: “Discovered by Eliza Callahan triggered by a poem in the middle of her novel. (Friend of a coworker).” 

That poem’s been posted online here if you feel inclined to read it — though the site it’s hosted on notes the novel is “forthcoming.” Here’s hoping the draft was recoverable, Eliza! 

Blizzard’s new VP will be tasked with fixing its workplace culture

Activision Blizzard is continuing a hiring spree in light of its ongoing harassment scandal. Blizzard has hired Jessica Martinez as its first Vice President of Culture. She’ll both implement and expand the game studio’s culture strategy, and lead a learning and development team that will help create a work environment where people feel “safe, valued” and eager to cooperate.

Martinez is a 14-year veteran of Disney, where she was a Chief of Staff and advised both the Chief Security Office and the parks’ Chief Technology & Digital Officer. She was known for building a diversity- and values-focused culture, according to Blizzard, and led efforts to harmonize security when Disney bought key Fox studios and channels.

The move comes just weeks after Activision Blizzard hired diversity chief Kristen Hines. It also follows months of employee shuffles and organizational efforts in the wake of the scandal. The publisher has ousted or disciplined numerous workers for participating in or tolerating a hostile work culture, including former Blizzard president J. Allen Brack. It also launched a “Workplace Responsibility Committee” to fight discrimination and harassment. 

Whether or not these measures will be enough still isn’t clear. Activision Blizzard chief Bobby Kotick has remained despite pressure to resign and a New York City lawsuit. The Communications Workers of America union, meanwhile, has filed a complaint with US labor officials accusing the company of silencing talk about harassment lawsuits. While Martinez may bring valuable cultural improvements, there’s still evidence the firm is resistant to some forms of change.

Google Nest cameras now work with Amazon Alexa devices

The smart home ecosystem is getting a little more integrated: Google just updated its Amazon Alexa Skill to work on its latest Nest cameras. So if you already own a variety of Nest and Alexa devices, they’ll work together more seamlessly moving forward. Now, you can stream live feeds from your Nest cameras, doorbells and other devices to anything from your Amazon Fire TV to any Echo device. Amazon made a similar gesture to open up its own smart home ecosystem last month, when it announced that its doorbells and security cameras would work with Google Nest, Ring, Abode and other third-party devices. Amazon’s Ring doorbell already works with Google Home and Apple Homekit.

A few other integrations between Nest and Alexa have been available for a while. For example, if you own a Google Nest thermostat, you can tell Alexa to change the temperature of your home. Older Nest cameras and doorbells have also had limited Alexa abilities, but the new skill allows for even more cross-platform integration. According to a recent post on Google Nest’s blog, the updated skill means Alexa will now support streaming from the Nest Cam with Floodlight, as well as the battery-powered models of Nest Cam and Nest Doorbell to the Echo Show, Fire TV or Fire Tablets.

If you own a Nest Doorbell, you can also talk to people through your door with any of your Alexa devices (such as the Echo, Echo Show, Fire TV and Fire Tablet). Eventually, Alexa will be able to announce when a Nest Cam or Nest Doorbell detects a person at your front door as well.

Fox Sports will offer World Cup pre-game shows on Twitter for every match

You won’t have to leave the social media sphere to catch some of the coverage surrounding FIFA World Cup matches. Fox Sports has expanded its relationship with Twitter to offer live pre-game shows and in-match previews (through @foxsports and @foxsoccer) for every match of World Cup 2022 and Women’s World Cup 2023. You can also expect “near real-time” highlights during play as well as post-match discussions.

The exclusive deal for both the men’s and women’s tournaments is a first for Twitter, according to the social network’s global content head TJ Adeshola. Naturally, you can expect Fox to support the streams through ads.

You’ll still have to use the Fox Sports app or website (plus a pay TV subscription) if you want to stream the matches themselves. Like it or not, the broadcaster still wants to steer you toward its most lucrative business. Even so, this at least offers more ways to immerse yourself in the group stages or build up hype for a must-win knockout match.

Lyft brings shared rides back to more cities, including San Francisco

Lyft is slowly but surely bringing back shared rides in more cities. Users in San Francisco, San Jose, Denver, Las Vegas and Atlanta will once more be able to take shared rides.

That option was suspended soon after the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in March 2020. Lyft started offering shared rides again last summer in select cities such as Chicago, Denver and Philadelphia. The company plans to bring the feature back to more markets in the coming months.

Users can save money by taking a shared ride, since they’ll be splitting the cost with someone else. Ride requests are currently limited to one person. These rides will have a maximum of two passengers, though one can sit in the front if the driver’s okay with it. 

The company also says that drivers can opt out of shared rides without penalty through 2022. Last month, Lyft dropped its requirement for drivers and passengers to wear masks, which are now optional for shared rides too (depending on local rules).

Lyft’s recovery from the pandemic has been slower than rival Uber’s, and greater availability of shared rides could provide a boost to business. This week, the company said it would need to spend more on incentives to entice drivers back to its platform.