The Register

IBM's SAA and CUA brought harmony to software design... until everyone forgot Retro Tech Week In the early days of microcomputers, everyone just invented their own user interfaces, until an Apple-influenced IBM standard brought about harmony. Then, sadly, the world forgot....

It looks like a fine product, but it's the ecoystem that will determine success Column As we wait for Apple's Vision Pro to arrive after pre-orders opened in early January, complete with a promise of 'spatial computing' perfected, Cupertino's spotty history in the third dimension offers a useful counterweight to the reality distortion field accompanying the device's launch....

Calls for clouds, and scientists, to take care they're not aiding Pyongyang North Korea is investing in its AI capacity, and a think tank has called on cloud computing service providers to do more to ensure the hermit kingdom can't rent the infrastructure it needs to advance its capabilities....

Now that's a Dutch crunch A password-less database containing an estimated 1.3 million sets of Dutch COVID-19 testing records was left exposed to the open internet, and it's not clear if anyone is taking responsibility....

That means Brit spies want the ability to do exactly that, huh? The idea that AI could generate super-potent and undetectable malware has been bandied about for years - and also already debunked. However, an article published today by the UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) suggests there is a "realistic possibility" that by 2025, the most sophisticated attackers' tools will improve markedly thanks to AI models informed by data describing successful cyber-hits....

Another 50-plus products also binned in move to big bundles Broadcom has killed off a VMware software-as-a-service product, despite also moving the virtualization giant's other wares to subscription-only licenses - the sort of arrangement at which SaaS excels....

Five mighty qubits, delivered before deadline, but they won't stop imports of alternatives Taiwanese research institute Academia Sinica has connected a home-brew quantum computer to the internet....

Buyers in Samsung's home will be offered cheaper Galaxies South Korea on Monday decided to abolish its ban on smartphone subsidies - in part to make premium devices more affordable....

Owner pledges to try again once software update improves performance Video A Tesla Cybertruck owner who took his wheeled wedge off-road ended up with busted wheel fairings and self-detaching wheel covers for his trouble - and all without the thing being able to make it up a challenging hill....

Man, 61, cuffed and allegedly attacked after 'faulty' AI software blundered A 61-year-old man is suing US retail giant Macy's and the parent biz of chain store Sunglass Hut for $10 million, claiming he was mistakenly arrested in a robbery case after an inaccurate facial-recognition identification match, and subsequently sexually assaulted in jail....

FTC slams TurboTax's marketing as deceptive Intuit, the maker of TurboTax, is no longer free to tout its tax filing software as "free" when it isn't free to most customers....

Plans for life without the 737 Max 10 after CEO rated door plug blowout 'the straw that broke the camel's back' United Airlines, which boasts one of the world's largest fleets of Boeing aircraft, is considering a future without the next version of the American manufacturer's troubled 737 jet series, the Max 10....

Clock is ticking, in more ways than one Twenty-nine former IBM employees who were denied the opportunity to sue the IT giant for age discrimination by arbitration agreements have petitioned the US Supreme Court to let them bring their claims to court....

Space eggheads invent tools just to get that precious dust After struggling for months, NASA has finally cracked open the canister storing a dirt sample scooped off the surface of an asteroid....

Election officials, judges, politicians, and gamers are in swatters' crosshairs CISA Director Jen Easterly has confirmed she was the subject of a swatting attempt on December 30 after a bogus report of a shooting at her home....

Fancy updating it? Just click in a fresh unit - or that's the idea anyway... Europe's first exascale supercomputer will be delivered as a modular datacenter consisting of container units intended to allow for easier updates or replacement of single modules in future. An Early Access Program has also opened for potential applications for the upcoming system....

Claims FCC's justification for ditching Starlink 'utterly false' Elon Musk has reacted angrily to the Biden administration pledging millions of dollars to bolster high-speed internet access....

Gotta fund that war somehow, eh, Vlad? Apple has paid a fine of 1.2 billion ($13.5 million) to the Russian government after Moscow decided the company violated its antitrust laws by preventing iOS users from going outside the App Store for in-app purchases (IAP)....

More than 5,000 victims claimed over a 3-year period but filing reckons accused didn't even use a VPN A Baltimore man faces a potential maximum 20-year prison sentence after being charged for his alleged role in running an online service that sold personal data which was later used for financial fraud....

Industry vets specialize in the development of small modular reactors Microsoft has hired a director of nuclear technologies to oversee a program to develop small-scale atomic reactors to power datacenters as an alternative to fossil fuels....

Creator of the Network Time Protocol that holds the internet together Obituary Professor David L Mills, one of the original wizards who built the internet, has died at the age of 85, leaving a remarkable technological legacy....

Don't leave us for LLM systems in other clouds, says Big Red Oracle has launched its OCI Generative AI service and introduced new betas to help customers build machine learning models from their own data. All of this as it tries to ensure the LLM bandwagon does not carry data from its systems to other cloud providers....

Pricey AI assistant met with enthusiasm and indifference Just over a week after Microsoft unveiled Copilot Pro and rolled the service out to more customers, users are complaining about performance, and the platform is being met with a shrug by administrators....

Refresh rates stretched as consumers see no need to upgrade... or open wallets Used and refurbished smartphones sales continue to expand by near-double digits but that rate is slowing as elongated refresh cycles for brand new handsets means fewer secondhand devices are becoming available....

French watchdog says non to excessive monitoring of workers as retail giant plans appeal The French privacy watchdog, National Commission on Informatics and Liberty (CNIL), has fined Amazon France Logistique 32 million ($34.8 million) over a system for monitoring staff activity and performance....

Comes mere months after Western intelligence agencies warned of attacks on water providers Southern Water confirmed this morning that criminals broke into its IT systems, making off with a "limited amount of data."...

Three years after leveraged buyout, $240M ERP plan yet to bear fruit Supermarket chain Asda has extended its deal with Walmart, the US retail giant that once owned the UK business, to support backend ERP systems after a project to replace them hit delays....

How to manage 740 million items of behalf of the Armed Forces? The UK Ministry of Defence's efforts to better manage its 11.8 billion ($15 billion) of inventory hinges, in no small part, on a sweeping digital transformation program that involves modernizing legacy tech systems, but the department's track record is worrying MPs....

So this is the AI revolution We know that "AI" is all the rage for now, but the recent experience of a DPD customer suggests that just because you can replace customer support with a chatbot doesn't mean you should....

16GB of RAM should be enough for anyone that wants to run models locally. GPUs, NPUs and more kit will be needed, too Comment What is an AI PC? What is its killer app? Both are open questions , although we do know that running AI models locally - not over the network like when you're playing with ChatGPT - requires significant grunt on your desk or lap....

Choice between seeing pitches or paying on Facebook and Instagram might break the law Meta has been accused of automatically enrolling Europe-based users of its Facebook social network into the ad supported version of the service if they've not yet chosen between the free and paid subscription options, an action which would violates EU rules....

Cloud-ready software and implementation from your preferred consultants, on one bill Amazon Web Services has made a bid for even more of the cloud business by allowing third-party services to be sold on its Marketplace....

JAXA plans to reveal whether mission nailed its self-selected landing site later this week Data from Japan's Smart Lander for Investigating the Moon has been downloaded, and the machine switched off - with just 12 percent of battery capacity remaining....

Goggle-eyed Beijing wants technical and identity standards China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) released a list last Friday of 60 experts from academia, government and business selected by Beijing to define standards for the metaverse....

'Aleksandr Ermakov' isn't allowed down under after being linked to ten-million-record leak Australia's government has used the "significant cyber incidents" sanctions regime it introduced in 2021 for the first time, against a Russian named Aleksandr Gennadievich Ermakov whom authorities have deemed responsible for the 2022 attack on health insurer Medibank Private....

New York's LL144 rated too broad, but researchers hope others can learn from that mistake A study into the effectiveness of a New York City law targeting bias in AI hiring algorithms has found the legislation is largely ineffective....

Meanwhile, OpenAI is hiring an 'elections program manager' for $190,000+ Robo-calls featuring the faked voice of US president Joe Biden's are advising voters not to participate in the state of New Hampshire's Tuesday presidential Primary Election, the state's Attorney General Office warned on Monday....

If you're still running a vulnerable instance then 'assume a breach' More than 600 IP addresses are launching thousands of exploit attempts against CVE-2023-22527 - a critical bug in out-of-date versions of Atlassian Confluence Data Center and Server - according to non-profit security org Shadowserver....

AI can only automate parts of some jobs, and the kit required is too pricey Human labor can accomplish some jobs more cheaply than computer vision systems, according to a study led by researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology....

Loanbase admits massive loss of customer data to thieves, too AerCap, the world's largest aircraft leasing company, has reported a ransomware infection that occurred earlier this month, but claims it hasn't yet suffered any financial losses yet and all its systems are under control....

Or, you could just rent an expensive Windows VM in the cloud - just a thought, says Redmond You can now officially run Windows 11 on an M-series Mac. Well, at least as a virtual machine anyway since Microsoft hasn't seen fit to allow Mac users to run the OS on baremetal just yet....

Handy feature as FAA expands inspections to 737-900ER aircraft On Sunday, the US Federal Aviation Administration recommended that air carriers operating Boeing 737-900ER aircraft conduct a visual inspection of mid-exit door plugs to be certain that doors on the aircraft are attached properly....

Biden's challenger model shot down despite super PAC support A ChatGPT-powered bot trained to mimic Congressman Dean Phillips (D-MN) - the long-shot challenger to Joe Biden - is dead before it had a chance to woo voters after OpenAI banned its developer for violating its T&Cs....

Effective altruism blamed for Silicon Valley's desire to heal humanity's woes Billionaire tech bros have a "tendency to play God," according to one of the Almighty's representatives on Earth....

Pop goes the test article. As planned Sierra Space has inflated a full-sized test article of its Large Integrated Flexible Environment (LIFE) habitat beyond bursting point to demonstrate how the module might behave in the harsh environment of space....

'The federal government has almost entirely abdicated its responsibility' For a country that prides itself on being free, America does seem to have an awful lot of spying going on, as the new Street Surveillance Hub from the Electronic Frontier Foundation shows....

Talking points echo those of Ramaswamy and DeSantis as they drop out of the race A Florida man has chosen the next cultural wars flashpoint he will rally behind in an effort to mobilize the 2024 US presidential electorate: central bank digital currencies (CBDCs)....

Spotting and tackling a widespread problem is a challenge Open source burnout has reared its head once again, this time in relation to the Rust project. However, the issue is not new, nor are the solutions....

Critics claim now-fixed vulnerabilities weren't disclosed, flag up grouping of multiple flaws under one CVE Critics are accusing major tech companies of not sticking to the rules when it comes to registering vulnerabilities with the appropriate authorities....

'Substantial increase in AWS calls' triggers takedown notice A plugin and library to permit the control of Haier, Candy, and Hoover appliances recently received takedown requests from Haier Europe's Security and Governance department....