Long-time Slashdot reader lpq writes: I followed a link that pointed at a Microsoft security advisory about “.lnk” files. The original link, https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/technet/security/advisory/2286198.mspx, produced this message:

Your request has been blocked. This may be due to several reasons.
1. You are using a proxy that is known to send automated requests to Microsoft. Check with your network administrator if there is any proxy and what User-Agent they are sending in the request header.

2. Your request pattern matches an automated process. To eliminate, reduce the volume of requests over a period of time.

3. Reference ID: 41.70790b91.4823110533.409105b4

It turns out the advisory number doesn’t matter, just the extension for “Active Microsoft Server Page” (https…/.mspx) at the end. I guess there were too many security advisory lookups for MS to handle! *snort*!

The .mspx extension indicates a page using a special internal Microsoft rendering framework with a custom web handler (built in ASP.Net). But I ran some tests Saturday, and observed the exact same glitch described above using three different browsers — Firefox, Edge, and Brave. Anyone have a theory about what’s going on?

Leave your thoughts in the comments. Why is Microsoft blocking its own server pages?

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Source: Slashdot – Ask Slashdot: Why is Microsoft Blocking Its Own Server Pages?

“We’re less than 10 meters away…”
“@AstroBehnken and @Astro_Doug are suited up, strapped in their seats and ready to be welcomed by the crew aboard the @Space_Station,” NASA tweeted an hour ago.

They’re now just 135 meters away from the space station, and you can watch the docking live on YouTube.

1,024,406 people are already watching…
“NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken reported that the capsule was performing beautifully, as they closed in for the docking,” reports the Associated Press. “The gleaming white capsule was easily visible from the station, its nose cone open exposing its docking hook, as the two spacecraft zoomed a few miles apart above the Atlantic, then Africa, then Asia.”
It’s the first time a privately built and owned spacecraft is carrying crew to the orbiting lab. Hurley, the Dragon’s commander, prepared to take manual control for a brief test, then shift the capsule into automatic for the linkup, 19 hours after liftoff. In case of a problem, the astronauts slipped back into their pressurized launch suits for the docking. The three space station residents trained cameras on the incoming capsule for flight controllers at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, as well as NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

UPDATE: At 7:16 PST, soft capture was successfully completed.

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Source: Slashdot – Watch NASA Astronauts on SpaceX Crew Dragon Docking with ISS

Digital Trends reports:
Waymo is planning to relaunch its fleet of self-driving minivans into Bay Area streets on June 8, according to an email acquired by The Verge. However, instead of transporting passengers, the vehicles will instead focus on delivering packages for non-profit organizations #DrawTogether, which gives art kits to children, and Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired…

The pending return to the Bay Area follows Waymo’s restart of its testing program in Phoenix, as lockdown restrictions were eased earlier this month… The autonomous vehicles will also soon also make their way back in Detroit and Los Angeles.

The Verge argues that Waymo “is the latest autonomous vehicle operator to discover that doing deliveries allows it to sidestep restrictions that would otherwise require them to keep their autonomous vehicles off the road.”

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Source: Slashdot – Waymo’s Self-Driving Minivans Return to Phoenix, Detroit, Los Angeles, and the Bay Area