The Register

14 projects canceled as Prime Minister Sunak fulfills a campaign promise The UK government has canceled all plans for new smart motorways, citing "cost pressures" and a lack of public confidence in the tech-enhanced highway stretches.…

But then opted for spreadsheets instead The UK government considered using technology from Palantir – the US spy-tech firm – to help manage the National Health Service while it was disrupted by severe industrial action. But it ultimately opted to use spreadsheets instead.…

Do you like American music? I like American music The German government is examining all Chinese technology in the country's 5G networks amid concerns about national security. The move follows reports last month that Berlin was planning to ban technology from Huawei and ZTE and even require telcos to replace kit already deployed.…

Another attempt is possible later this week, depending on how the troubleshooting goes Today's first orbital launch of SpaceX's Starship and Super Heavy booster was canceled due to a pressurization valve malfunction in the first stage of the combined craft.…

Recruitment company fined £130,000 by data regulator for breaking PECR A recruitment business that sent out an eye watering 107 million spam emails is now nursing a £130,000 ($161,000) fine from Britain’s data watchdog.…

And what are they doing with them? YouTube, lots of YouTube Nestled in UK regulator Ofcom's thoroughly unsurprising report into childhood media literacy for 2023 are a couple of eye-opening stats revolving around device ownership.…

6.4 is based on Ubuntu 22.04.2 with a lot of the questionable aspects fixed Linux Lite version 6.4 is the latest point release from this Ubuntu remix aimed at new migrants from Windows.…

Old architectures just don't stack up Opinion Most data theft does clear harm to the victim, and often to its customers. But while embarrassing, the cyberattack against MSI in which source code was said to be stolen is harder to diagnose. It looks like a valuable company asset that's cost a lot to develop. That its theft may be no loss is a weird idea. But then, firmware is weirder than we give it credit for. It's even hard to say exactly what it is.…

Vows to regroup and come back stronger after failing in bid Palantir is pipped to win A UK consortium bid for the NHS Federated Data Platform — an ongoing competition worth up to £480 million ($595 million) — has fallen at the first hurdle.…

The punishment – Windows 98 administration chores – was far worse than the crime Who, Me? Welcome once more to Who Me? The Register’s confessional column in which readers admit to being the source of SNAFUs.…

Annual shareholder letter warns of ‘softening’ growth for cloud biz, likely lift-off for Kuiper satellite broadband Amazon Web Services sales and support teams are currently “spending much of their time helping customers optimize their AWS spend so they can better weather this uncertain economy.”…

Which is just how Linus Torvalds wants it and who can argue after what he recommended you eat for Easter Version 6.3 of the Linux kernel is on track to debut next week after what emperor penguin Linus Torvalds has described a “nice uneventful release cycle’”.…

Plus: Elon Musk wants Twitter to develop generative AI, and ChatGPT bots are flooding Reddit In-brief OpenAI is not training a fifth version of its generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) and is instead focusing on increasing the capabilities of its latest GPT-4 model, CEO Sam Altman confirmed last week.…

And sets a Martian height record for good measure NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was designed to fly just five times, but last week the little rotorcraft that could clocked up its 50th flight in the red planet’s thin atmosphere.…

Also: Tech players spin up white hat protection, this week's critical bugs, and more In brief Google on Friday released an emergency update for Chrome to address a zero-day security flaw.…

Plus: Warren Buffett’s TSMC worries; CHIPS Act bits China; Japan’s quantum investment; and more Asia in Brief China’s State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing (LIESMARS) has reportedly allowed artificial intelligence to control a satellite.…

Not enough to meet the whole energy suck of sites, but 200 tonnes of CO nothing to sniff at Datacenter biz Digital Realty has several renewable energy projects on the go in the Asia-Pacific region, among them a pretty hefty solar buildout.…

Foreign minister says it's not afraid of the 'big bad wolf' up north Brazil took its first tentative steps towards a relationship with China's tech industry this week in defiance of US efforts to dissuade its erstwhile ally from siding with the Middle Kingdom.…

Where there's a will… The market for stolen ChatGPT accounts, and especially Plus subscriptions, is on the rise as miscreants in countries blocked by OpenAI try to hop the chatbot's geofences.…

And you thought patching your production environment was stressful NASA has successfully installed a major software update to its venerable Curiosity Mars rover, which has been rolling over the Red Planet's landscape for more than a decade.…

Let's go through all the proposed problematic powers, starting with surveillance and censorship Special report United Nations negotiators convened this week in Vienna, Austria, to formulate a draft cybercrime treaty, and civil society groups are worried.…

Actual features pending, please pay us now Elon Musk appears to be advancing his feud with newsletter service Substack by announcing he's turning Twitter into his very own version of the upstart, complete with the ability for users to monetize their followers and offer them long-form content.…

Maybe our prince has come at last A suspected Nigerian fraudster is scheduled to appear in court Friday for his alleged role in a $6 million plot to scam businesses via email.…

Few orbital boosts and we'll get the snaps in eight years The European Space Agency's Juice probe began its eight-year trek to study Jupiter and its major moons on Friday, after launching into space aboard an Ariane 5.…

OK, they're a bit old in terms of Intel kit, but these aren't your regular systems Fault-tolerant computing veteran Stratus has released the latest generation of its ftServer systems, which offer zero downtime for mission-critical applications, but lag behind the rest of the market in terms of the latest technology.…

Windows LAPS and legacy LAPS don't play nicely under certain conditions, Microsoft says Integrating the Local Administrator Password Solution (LAPS) into Windows and Windows Server that came with updates earlier this week is causing interoperability problems with what's called legacy LAPS, Microsoft says.…

How to PostgreSQL MongoDB out of the equation Halfway up a Himalayan mountain might not be the usual place to start a database company but then maybe FerretDB is not a usual company.…

Despite US blocks to advanced technology nodes Global sales of semiconductor fab equipment grew by 5 percent during 2022 to hit an all-time high, with China the largest buyer despite a fall in its investment amid the standoff with the US over access to chips and other technology.…

Yes, the week-long IT meltdown that sparked a multitude of sarcastic Reg headlines TSB's chief information officer during the British bank's incredible week-long 2018 meltdown didn't check the key supplier responsible for the migration was prepared to push the button before he assured the board that it was, regulators found yesterday.…

OK, here's my question: Would you like to have it on x86 Linux? Friday FOSS Fest If you're old enough to remember After Dark, you might appreciate this: a new screensaver. Yes, in 2023. It was never really about saving screens.…

Depending on use case, the efficiency gains can be significant Interview As chipmakers demand more power than ever, with some chips pushing 700 or even 1,000 watts in the case of some of Nvidia's upcoming parts, datacenter operators are having to get creative about the way they cool these chips.…

Redmond expands a digital ID process for its platform as Musk seeks cash for blue check marks As Elon Musk tears at Twitter's credibility by demanding businesses and individuals pay for their blue verification checks, Microsoft is pushing ts own free digital ID technology to companies and their employees on LinkedIn.…

Middle aged spread begins as it joins IBM Opinion When you turn 30, you're not a kid anymore. For some of us, 30 is a traumatic birthday. For Red Hat, which turned on March 27, it was a cause for celebration. From a business that got started in one of its co-founder's wife's sewing room, it became the first billion-dollar pure-play open-source company and then the engine driving IBM. …

An ill-considered cron job turned into a nasty 2AM job On Call With Friday upon us, and a weekend next on the schedule, The Register once again brings you an instalment of On Call, our weekly reader-contributed tales of being dragged out at all hours to fix failures inflicted by the foolish, flummoxed, or fatuous.…

Kernel 6.2 ditched a useful defense against ghostly chip design flaw The Spectre vulnerability that has haunted hardware and software makers since 2018 continues to defy efforts to bury it.…

Chipzilla reportedly wants more cash. Germany wants a bigger facility. And the EU is lurking with a bigger offer If Intel wants larger subsidies for its Magdeburg mega-fab, German officials think the x86 giant should increase its investments to match.…

Pilot turned CISO says when admitting to an error isn't seen as a failure, improvement becomes easier to achieve To improve security, the cybersecurity industry needs to follow the aviation industry's shift from a blame culture to a "just" culture, according to director of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association Serge Christiaans.…

Raspboss Eben Upton teases products built on AI-enabled edge sensors Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation has revealed it’s made a “strategic investment” in Raspberry Pi Ltd, the designer of popular single board computers.…

Amazon Bedrock offers APIs for multiple models, plus EC2 to run 'em and create custom LLMs On Thursday Amazon Web Services announced a new API platform, named Bedrock, that hosts generative AI models built by top startups AI21 Labs, Anthropic, and Stability AI on its cloud services.…

Think the news has execs at Microsoft 365 or AWS quaking in their boots? A late March outage of Tencent's two major social platforms, WeChat and QQ, resulted in the firing of managers and directors, thereby proving that the hand of justice at the Chinese tech giant is, well, rather strong.…

Go on, take the money and run (Not actual legal advice) Google has — unfortunately for some — fixed a bug in its Pay mobile app that was handing out free money to people.…

Blueprints flogged off to Taiwan's MiTAC An Intel division responsible for designing and planning out server-grade systems is the latest victim on CEO Pat Gelsinger's chopping block.…

As Europe forms task force to steer probes into ChatGPT US Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is lately bent on passing bipartisan legislation enabling independent public audits of commercial AI products before they're unleashed on the world.…

When bragging about your job on Discord gets just a little out of hand? The FBI has detained a 21-year-old Air National Guardsman suspected of leaking a trove of classified Pentagon documents on Discord.…

In Windows 11 it'll soon default to the Snipping Tool. And that's just fine with users, right? Now that Microsoft has put that whole "aCropalypse" privacy problem in the rear view, the software maker is ready to get the Snipping Tool feature in front of more Windows 11 users.…

Alleged killer said to be industry pal, faces one count of murder Updated San Francisco police have arrested a man in connection with the killing of tech executive Robert Lee.…

And not only because not considering their options makes them look bad Sustainability goals such as greater energy efficiency have risen up the agenda with telecoms operators, to the point where these concerns are now claimed to be affecting network architecture decisions for the next phase of 5G deployments.…

Musk's everything app begins to take shape ... by adding links to an outside service In what looks to be another move to turn it into Elon Musk's dream "everything app," Twitter will begin allowing its users to trade stocks via "social trading company" eToro.…

Both FreeBSD 13.2 and OpenBSD 7.3 are here New point releases of both the general-purpose Linux rival FreeBSD and the security-focused, traditional and rather minimalist OpenBSD have landed.…

You don't need alien asteroids, you just need a hydrogen-rich atmosphere and liquid hot magma A new research model shows that Earth's oceans could have formed from interactions between a hydrogen-rich early atmosphere and oxygen within the planet's magma.…