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Updated 2025-12-19 23:00
Meta sends Arm a friend request asking for help with Nvidia’s Grace CPUs
No custom Arm CPUs to speak of yet Meta on Wednesday entered into a partnership with Arm Holdings with the aim of helping its software run more efficiently on the British chip designer's CPUs....
Librephone battles the proprietary binary blob
Free Software Foundation project aims to reverse-engineer non-freedom respecting firmware To bridge the gap between Android distributions and true mobile phone freedom, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) has launched an initiative called Librephone....
CISA exec blames nation-state hackers and Democrats for putting America's critical systems at risk
Federal agencies have seven days to patch F5 products An unidentified nation-state hacking crew targeting vulnerable F5 products to break into US government networks poses an "imminent risk" to federal agencies, American cyber officials warned on Wednesday - while also blaming Democrats for the ongoing government shutdown and insisting that the staffing cuts haven't hurt cyber defenses at all....
X to combat bot problem by showing more info about users
Meet [user] from [location] In an effort to help human readers figure out whether they can trust the source of information (or opinion) posted on X, Elon Musk's social network plans to add a new "About this account" screen with metadata from each user, including their location, how long they've had the account, and how many times they've changed their usernames....
OpenAI's ChatGPT is so popular that almost no one will pay for it
If you build it, they will come and expect the service to be free OpenAI is losing about three times more money than it's earning, and 95 percent of those using ChatGPT, which generates roughly 70 percent of the company's recurring revenue, aren't paying a dime to help stem the losses....
Apple goes all in on AI acceleration with M5 MacBook, iPad, and Vision Pros
Oh and the CPU is up to 15% faster for those that could care less about articifically intelligent Apple products and more about getting work done Apple's fifth-generation of M-series silicon is starting to trickle out with the launch of the M5 MacBook, iPad, and Vision Pros this week....
Japan tells OpenAI to stop spiriting away its copyrighted anime
Tokyo cries foul over Sora slop abusing 'irreplaceable treasures' of anime, manga - oh, and copyright law OpenAI's Sora 2 video generator has gone viral, particularly among users churning out anime that looks suspiciously like Studio Ghibli and other copyrighted works. Alarmed by the threat to one of its prized cultural exports, Japan has reportedly lodged a formal request that the American firm knock it off....
Microsoft, Nvidia, and others inject $40B into AI bubble with massive datacenter deal
Big Tech and big money unite to back world's biggest bit-barn buyout The AI bubble just keeps getting bigger. A consortium featuring BlackRock, Microsoft, Nvidia, xAI, and MGX is buying Aligned Data Centers in a deal valuing the operator at around $40 billion, in what is reportedly the biggest datacenter acquisition to date....
Cisco: Most companies don't know what they're doing with AI
Only 13% are AI-ready; the rest are bolting it on and hoping for ROI Contrary to popular belief, you can't succeed in business (or AI) without really trying. Many orgs are jumping on the AI bandwagon without the infrastructure they need to make it work or track results, Cisco says. Most haven't even defined what they want their AI agents to do....
'Highly sophisticated' government goons hacked F5, stole source code and undisclosed bug details
And they swiped a limited amount of customers' config data Security shop F5 today said "highly sophisticated nation-state" hackers broke into its network and stole BIG-IP source code, undisclosed vulnerability details, and customer configuration data belonging to a "small percentage" of its users....
Devs are writing VS Code extensions that blab secrets by the bucketload
Vibe coding may have played a role in what took researchers months to fix Developers of VS Code extensions are leaking sensitive secrets left, right and center, according to researchers who worked with Microsoft to combat an issue that could have led to some nasty supply chain attacks....
Microsoft veteran explains Windows quirk that made videos play in Paint
Raymond Chen says the OS used green-screen overlays to fake video playback - with curious side effects Microsoft veteran Raymond Chen has answered a lingering Windows question - why did video screenshots keep playing in Paint?...
ASML shrugs off China slump with faith in AI-fueled chip demand
Beijing's self-reliance push and US export limits hit orders Europe's tech darling ASML has warned Chinese demand for its chipmaking kit will plummet next year, as Beijing doubles down on home-grown alternatives in response to Uncle Sam's export restrictions and trade war shenanigans....
Raspberry Pi OS, LMDE, Peppermint OS join the Debian 13 club
Downstream Linux projects line up behind the latest release A month after Debian 13.1's release, some of the more visible downstream forks, including Raspberry Pi OS, have decided it's time to incorporate the latest version of the main OS into their builds....
AI startup Augment scraps 'unsustainable' pricing, users say new model is 10x worse
Second huge increase in six months sees some devs heading for the exit Augment has updated its pricing model for Augment Code, an AI coding assistant, to be based on AI usage rather than message interactions. The company said its existing model "isn't sustainable" but users have calculated that the new one is more than ten times as expensive....
£2B UK cloud licensing claim against Microsoft seeks more business backers
Action alleges Redmond unfairly hikes costs for businesses running Windows Server outside Azure The team pushing a 2 billion legal claim accusing Microsoft of overcharging businesses that use its software on rival clouds has called for further participants ahead of its first hearing in December....
Everyone wants a fancy phone – even the folk buying them second-hand
IDC and Counterpoint say premium kit is driving sales in both new and used markets Premium devices are what smartphone buyers want right now, and it seems that applies equally to the latest devices and second-hand models destined for emerging markets....
Capita fined £14M after 58-hour delay exposed 6.6M records
ICO makes example of outsourcing giant over sluggish cyber response The UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has issued a 14 million ($18.6 million) penalty to outsourcing giant Capita following a catastrophic 2023 cyberattack that exposed the personal data of 6.6 million people....
Schleswig-Holstein waves auf Wiedersehen to Microsoft stack
Germany's northernmost state bins Outlook - and tens of thousands of Redmond licenses Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of Germany, has finally concluded one element of a long-running project to eject Microsoft from its infrastructure by giving Exchange Server the boot....
Trump's anti-sustainability agenda comes to Eurozone
ESG kicked like a 'toxic political football' amid greenwashing Canalys Forums 2025 US President Donald Trump released a wrecking ball that smashed through environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies stateside - and it's now swinging across the Atlantic, according to analysts....
UK government's £45B AI savings pitch built on broad-brush guesswork, MPs told
Think tank cautions that without job cuts or capital savings, the math doesn't add up UK government's plans to save 45 billion through the application of AI in the public sector lack clarity and are based on broad-brush assumptions, Members of Parliament have heard....
AI is the flying car of the mind: An irresistible idea nobody knows how to land or manage
And which will crash, repeatedly, until users learn how to handle it safely Column Steve Jobs probably didn't remember how many times he skinned his knees learning to ride a bike before describing a personal computer as a "bicycle for the mind." Jobs' point was that both tools help us to go further, faster, with just a little extra effort....
Salesforce pumps the dream of AI agents as helpers, not replacements
In the Agentic Enterprise, 'AI doesn't replace people, it elevates them' Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff heralded the arrival of the agentic era during his keynote at the CRM giant's annual Dreamforce conference....
Frightful Patch Tuesday gives admins a scare with 175+ Microsoft CVEs, 3 under attack
Plus: Adobe, SAP, Ivanti offer treats, not tricks Spooky season is in full swing, and this extends to Microsoft's October Patch Tuesday with security updates for a frightful 175 Microsoft vulnerabilities, plus an additional 21 non-Microsoft CVEs. And even scarier than the sheer number of bugs: three are listed as under attack, with three others publicly known, and 17 deemed critical security holes....
CISA cuts more staff and reassigns others as government stays shut down
America's main cybersecurity agency has lost almost 1,000 people this year The Trump administration has continued to cut staff at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and is reportedly reassigning others, further imperiling the US' cybersecurity posture....
Framework flame war erupts over support of politically polarizing Linux projects
Laptop maker's apolitical endorsement of politically contentious projects meets resistance Six days ago, upgradeable laptop maker Framework tried to convince its fractious user community to live in a "big tent" after a Debian developer objected to the company's sponsorship of Hyprland and its social media promotion of Omarchy, with both projects associated with politically polarizing viewpoints....
18 zettaFLOPS of new AI compute coming online from Oracle late next year
New clusters to feature 800,000 Nvidia Blackwell and 50,000 AMD Instinct MI450X GPUs Oracle on Tuesday revealed it would field more than 18 zettaFLOPS worth of AI infrastructure from Nvidia and AMD by the second half of next year....
Some like it bot! ChatGPT promises AI-rotica is coming for verified adults
Maybe this will bring in some actual profit? OpenAI has mitigated ChatGPT behavior that might exacerbate users' mental health issues, claims CEO Sam Altman, so the natural next step is to make ChatGPT act more human again - complete with the ability to generate "erotica for verified adults."...
Microsoft seeding Washington schools with free AI to get kids and teachers hooked
To the slop trough, kiddos! Not content to shove Copilot into every corner of the enterprise it can think of, Microsoft has announced plans to force feed AI to students across its home state of Washington....
Chinese gang used ArcGIS as a backdoor for a year – and no one noticed
Crims turned trusted mapping software into a hideout - no traditional malware required A Chinese state-backed cybergang known as Flax Typhoon spent more than a year burrowing inside an ArcGIS server, quietly turning the trusted mapping software into a covert backdoor....
DGX Spark, Nvidia’s tiniest supercomputer, tackles large models at solid speeds
This relatively affordable AI workstation isn't about going fast; it's about doing everything well enough hands on Nvidia bills its long-anticipated DGX Spark as the "world's smallest AI supercomputer," and, at $3,000 to $4,000 (depending on config and OEM), you might be expecting the Arm-based mini-PC to outperform its less-expensive siblings....
Researchers intercept unencrypted satellite traffic from space blabbermouths
University team picks up voice calls, texts, and corporate data from orbit with off-the-shelf kit Geostationary satellites are broadcasting large volumes of unencrypted data to Earth, including private voice calls and text messages as well as consumer internet traffic, researchers have discovered....
KuzuDB says so long and thanks for all the commits, marooning community
Users left wondering whether to fork it or forget it as another FOSS project bites the dust The KuzuDB embedded graph database, open source under the MIT license, has been abandoned by its creator and sponsor Kuzu Inc, leaving its community pondering whether to fork or find an alternative....
Asahi breach leaves bitter taste as brewer fears personal data slurped
Japan's beer behemoth still mopping up after ransomware spill that disrupted deliveries and delayed results Asahi's cyber hangover just got worse, with the brewer now admitting that personal information may have been tapped in last month's attack....
What do we want? Windows 10 support! When do we want it? Until 2030!
Protesters slam forced obsolescence outside Microsoft's office Updated Campaigners staged a protest outside Microsoft's Brussels office yesterday over the company's decision to end support for Windows 10....
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Another 550 employees set to leave the building
US government shutdown nothing to do with action as space veteran calls move 'an alarming time' for science The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is facing another round of layoffs, with 550 additional employees set to lose their jobs....
Mozilla is recruiting beta testers for a free, baked-in Firefox VPN
Lucky few randomly selected to trial the feature, which won't fully roll out for several months Mozilla is working on a built-in VPN for Firefox, with beta tests opening to select users shortly....
Oracle rushes out another emergency E-Business Suite patch as Clop fallout widens
Latest in a long line of EBS flaws leta miscreants remotely compromise enterprise systems to pinch sensitive data Oracle is rushing out another emergency patch for its embattled E-Business Suite as the fallout from the Clop-linked attacks continues to spread....
Shadow AI: Staffers are bringing AI tools they use at home to work, warns Microsoft
Bring Your Copilot To Work Day, anyone? Microsoft, the corporation that just 13 days ago implored customers to bring their Copilot to work, has now published a report warning of the dangers of Shadow AI....
Lance takes aim at Parquet in file format joust
Challenger seeks to unseat incumbent for machine learning workloads A fledgling file format that aims to address limitations in the widely-used Parquet is under review for adoption by an open source foundation....
British govt agents demand action after UK mega-cyberattacks surge 50%
Warn businesses to act now as high-severity incidents keep climbing Cyberattacks that meet upper severity thresholds set by the UK government's cyber agents have risen 50 percent in the last year, despite almost zero change in the volume of cases handled....
Ofcom refuses to bite over Openreach's fiber freebies
Watchdog says it sees no case to investigate discounted FTTP upgrade offer - but will keep an eye on it Ofcom has declined to intervene after smaller network providers complained that a special upgrade offer from Openreach could threaten competition in the broadband market....
Brit AI boffins making bank with £560K average pay packet at Anthropic
Google, DeepMind, Microsoft also shower UK staff with six-figure salaries The UK units of some US technology companies are paying average salaries of well into six figures, with some more than matching that with share-based payments, according to annual accounts recently published by Companies House....
Ubuntu 25.10 lands: Rustier and Wayland-ier, but Flatpak is broken
Canonical's Questing Quokka waddles in at 5.7 GB with AppArmor woes The latest interim release of Ubuntu is here, showcasing some significant changes. This isn't a long-term release, yet many of its differences will be in 26.04 next year....
Unwary SAP private cloud users face 10% renewal hikes, warns Gartner
On-prem discounts drying up as ERP giant sends 'mixed signals' on pricing Gartner has reported that SAP customers opting for private cloud have seen price increases of 10 percent or more on renewal proposals if they fail to negotiate a renewal price cap in the original deal....
EU biometric border system launches, suffers teeting problems
Malfunctioning equipment and manual processing cause 90-minute waits The European Union's new biometric Exit/Entry System (EES) got off to a chaotic start at Prague's international airport, with travelers facing lengthy queues and malfunctioning equipment forcing border staff to process arrivals manually....
Nvidia's GB10 workstations arrive with 1 petaFLOPS of compute, 128GB of VRAM, and a $3K+ price tag
Systems from Nvidia, Dell, and others available starting Oct. 15 Nvidia's tiniest Grace-Blackwell workstation is finally making its way to store shelves this week, the better part of a year after the GPU giant first teased the AI mini PC, then called Project Digits, at CES....
Microsoft's OneDrive spots your mates, remembers their faces, and won't forget easily
Then shalt thee change the setting three times, no more! Microsoft's OneDrive is increasing the creepiness quotient by using AI to spot faces in photos and group images accordingly. Don't worry, it can be turned off - three times a year....
Bose kills SoundTouch: Smart speakers go dumb in Feb
Cloud support to be ditched on older hardware, customers left with pricey paperweights Audio equipment biz Bose is discontinuing cloud support for its SoundTouch product line, effectively reducing the premium devices to basic speakers with limited functionality....
Vodafone keels over, cutting off millions of mobile and broadband customers
Outage knocks out phones, broadband - even telco's own status page Vodafone fell over in the UK this afternoon, with Register readers reporting that many services including mobile coverage, internet services, and even the company's own status page went down....
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