Uber receipts are crashing Microsoft Outlook

You might not want to check your Uber trip emails at your work computer in the near future. BleepingComputernotes Microsoft has identified a formatting bug that freezes Outlook whenever you open some messages with complex tables, including Uber receipts. The glitch crashes Word, too. The problem began with a recent standard release (Current Channel Version 2206 Build 15330.20196 or newer), but existing beta and Current Channel Preview versions also suffer.

The company has already developed a fix that will reach beta users “shortly,” and should reach everyone through a patch arriving August 9th. If you can’t wait that long and would rather not check your mail on the web, you can revert to the earlier version in Windows by running Command Prompt instructions in Microsoft’s support document (linked above).

This isn’t the first significant Outlook bug of the year. Microsoft fixed search bugs in January and July. However, those didn’t bring the email client to a screeching halt — this is a flaw you’re more likely to notice, particularly if you rely on Uber for business travel.

Sheryl Sandberg officially steps down as COO of Meta

It’s the end of an era at the company formerly known as Facebook. Sheryl Sandberg has officially stepped down as Chief Operating Officer on August 1st, as revealed by a SEC filing noticed by TechCrunch. In the filing, Meta said Javier Olivan is now the company’s COO and that Sandberg will only remain an employe until September 30th. After that and going forward, Sandberg will serve as a member of Meta’s Board and will receive compensation as a non-employee director. 

Sandberg first announced that she was leaving her role as COO of Meta after 14 years in early June. Mark Zuckerberg revealed at the time that Olivan will take on the COO role, but that his responsibilities will be different from Sandberg’s. Olivan will have a “more traditional COO role where [he] will be focused internally and operationally, building on his strong track record of making our execution more efficient and rigorous,” the company CEO said. 

As The Wall Street Journal noted in a piece about Sandberg back in June, she joined Facebook in 2008 and led the business side of the company, allowing Zuckerberg to focus on engineering work. In more recent years, she became the face of the social network when it comes to leading public response to controversies, such as the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Before Sandberg announced her departure, The Journal reported that the Meta COO used company resources to help kill negative reporting about Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, who she was dating at the time. In mid-June, the publication also reported that Meta’s lawyers are investigating Sandberg’s use of the company’s resources and employees for her foundation and to promote her book Option B. 

Sandberg is leaving the company just as it has started preparing for “serious times.” In a meeting with employees, Zuckerberg revealed that Meta is experiencing “one of the worst downturns [it has seen] in recent history.” As a result, Meta had to slash its target number for new engineers this year. In addition, company leadership reportedly told managers to identify poor performers and to “move to exit” them if they can’t get back on track. 

Amazon offers same-day Prime delivery for select retail chains

Amazon is giving some Prime members access to another perk they can take advantage of if they’d like to buy from a store nearby but can’t be bothered to put on outside clothes. The e-commerce giant has announced that Prime subscribers in more than 10 metro areas in the US will now be able to shop from select local brick-and-mortar stores through Amazon and then have the items delivered to their home on the same day. At the moment participating retailers include apparel brands PacSun, Superdry and Diesel, as well as popular vitamin retailer GNC. 

To order from the participating retail stores, customers can browse their curated selections on the Amazon app or website and then choose same-day delivery upon checkout. Amazon will forward the order to the customer’s local store to be fulfilled by associates. An Amazon delivery partner will then pick up the order from the retail location and deliver it to the customer. Delivery is free for purchases above $25, but will set customers back $3 for orders below that amount. That said, buyers can also choose to buy and pay online but pick up their orders in person, which sounds like a great option if they just don’t want to browse in-store and line up to pay. 

As TechCrunch notes, this is the e-commerce giant’s latest move to keep up with rival services that offer same-day deliveries, such as Instacart. It also ensures it’s not falling behind competitors in any way: Walmart, for instance launched a same-day delivery service for local retailers last year. The new Prime perk is now available in a handful of US cities, including Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Miami, Phoenix, Scottsdale, Seattle and Washington D.C. Amazon says it will expand it to more cities, as well as introduce new retailers into the service, including Sur La Table and 100% Pure, in the coming months. 

The Morning After: Did Microsoft just neg Activision Blizzard?

In a recent filing, Microsoft told New Zealand’s Commerce Commission that Activision Blizzard produces no “must-have” games. Weird thing to say when the company plans to spend $68.7 billion to buy the gaming giant behind Call of Duty, Overwatch, Diablo…

Report: The US organ transplant network is failing desperate patients

The US network that matches donated kidneys, livers and hearts with desperate patients has serious issues and “needs to be vastly restructured,” according to a government review seen by The Washington Post. It reportedly relies on out-of-date technology, has crashed for hours at a time and has never been audited by federal for security or other flaws by federal officials.  

The current system has been administered by the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) for 36 years. That non-profit is overseen by the Health Resources and Services Administration. Around 106,000 people are on a waiting list for organs, with most seeking kidneys. Over 41,000 organs were transplanted last year, setting a record, but 22 people die each day waiting, according to the article. 

In its review completed 18 months ago, the White House’s US Digital Service recommended that the government “break up the current monopoly” held by UNOS. “In order to properly and equitably support the critical needs of these patients, the ecosystem needs to be vastly restructured.” A big sticking point is that the government has never been allowed to inspect the computer code behind the system, because UNOS hasn’t allowed it. “The code is extremely large,” said UNOS chief executive Brian Shepherd. “They can come in and ask for specific pieces.”

The Washington Post obtained the review in draft form as it has yet to be finalized. Leaders of the Senate Finance Committee who saw the report reportedly warned DHS officials that they had “no confidence” in the security of the network, asking the White House to step in to protect it from attacks. “We request you take immediate steps to secure the national Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network system from cyber-attacks,” wrote committee chair Sen. Ron Wyden and Sen. Charles E. Grassley. 

The other main issue is the requirement for manual input that can lead to mistakes or create timing issues for organ matches. “When nearly 100 percent of hospitals use electronic records, the notion that we rely on human beings to enter data into databases is crazy. It should be 85 to 95 percent automatic,” a former chair of the UNOS liver transplant policy committee told The Post.

The transplant results are the most disconcerting part of the report. In the US in 2020, 21.3 percent of donated kidneys weren’t transplanted, according to a report. That compares to 9.1 percent in France, 10 to 12 percent in the UK and eight percent in the Eurotransplant consortium of eight EU countries including Germany. “You would be hard pressed to think you couldn’t at least get 5 percent better [in the US], which would be thousands of transplants,” a former HHS official told The Post. For more, check out the article here.