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Updated 2025-07-09 18:00
USB Cart of Death: The wheeled scourge that drove Windows devs to despair
Stout heart a requisite for software engineers in days of yore Microsoft veteran Raymond Chen has recalled a time when Windows developers encountered the trundling terror of the USB Cart of Death following an unfortunate mistake live on stage during a Windows 98 keynote....
Surface Duo crashes the party as Doctor Who celebrates 60th birthday
Hey Cortana: Why is David Tennant back as the BBC's longest lived space alien? The BBC is celebrating the 60th anniversary of its long-running science fiction series, Doctor Who, by popping a Surface Duo into the hands of actor David Tennant's latest take on the humanoid alien....
FFmpeg 6.1 drops a Heaviside dose of codec magic
You may never have heard of it, but you almost certainly use it, possibly many times a day New versions of this amazingly versatile tool, used in most streaming video services and devices, don't come along very often....
Tata Consultancy Services ordered to cough up $210M in code theft trial
Naughty engineers + inability to work email = $$$ A jury has sided with Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) against Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) over the theft of source code and documentation. A total of $210 million was this week awarded....
OpenCart owner turns air blue after researcher discloses serious vuln
Web storefront maker fixed the flaw, but not before blasting infoseccer The owner of the e-commerce store management system OpenCart has responded with hostility to a security researcher disclosing a vulnerability in the product....
China lobs tech demo into orbit for People's Republic version of Starlink
Another mega-constellation incoming China has launched an Internet Technology test satellite from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China's Sichuan Province....
Taxing times: UK missed out on £1.75B because of digitization delays
Public Accounts Committee slams progress and questions plans Delays to a central plank of the UK tax collector's efforts to provide an end-to-end digital service "mean the Exchequer will likely miss out on additional tax revenue of 1.75 billion," according to a spending watchdog....
Black Friday? More like Blackout Friday for HSBC's online and mobile banking
Think of all the crap discounted things you won't need to buy now HSBC's online and mobile banking systems crashed spectacularly this morning on the busiest shopping day of the year, potentially disappointing early risers looking for a spot of Black Friday retail therapy....
Do we really need another non-open source available license?
No, but here comes the Functional Source License to further muddy the open-source licensing waters Opinion Way back when we loaded software with punch cards and magnetic tape, all programs were "free software" and "open source." Then along came proprietary software, and everything changed. But programmers rebelled and developed the first formal definitions of free and open source software....
UKFast founder Lawrence Jones convicted of rape
Ex-hosting biz boss to be sentenced for historic offences after being found guilty of earlier sexual assault Lawrence Jones, the founder and former chief exec at hosting biz UKFast, is awaiting a prison sentence after being found guilty of raping two women in the Greater Manchester area....
German budget woes threaten chip fab funding for Intel and TSMC
Constitutional court tells govt: Er, about that 60B you handed out... it's not legal A recent ruling by Germany's Federal Constitutional Court has cast doubt over funds earmarked to subsidize the building of local chip factories by companies such as TSMC and Intel, it has emerged....
User read the manual, followed instructions, still couldn't make 'Excel' work
When is a spreadsheet not a spreadsheet? On Call Fridays can often feel like purgatory to prepare for the heavenly weekend, which is why The Register marks the day with a new installment of On Call, our weekly reader-contributed tale of tech support torture....
Europe's Ariane 6 rocket rated 'ready to rumble' after passing hot fire test
Still not reusable, but at least it's getting closer to long-delayed launch The Ariane 6 launcher has successfully conducted a hot fire test -, an important achievement for the Arianespace and the European Space Agency (ESA)....
Singapore to deter crypto investors with tactics like those used on smokers, gamblers
Buying on credit forbidden, affordability tests imposed, and accreditation required for big bets The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) revealed on Thursday its latest cryptocurrency regulations - measures designed to manage the digital payment tokens (DPTs) with measures akin to those some governments treat cigarettes or gambling....
India's space gatekeepers pick Eutelsat OneWeb to provide satellite broadband
Bharti Enterprises-backed outfit beats Kuiper and Starlink The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe) has approved Eutelsat OneWeb to provide commercial satellite broadband services....
Stop shaming service providers for outages, argues APNIC chief scientist
Tech companies should behave like the aviation industry and detail failures to improve safety for all The chief scientist of the Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC), the region's internet registry, as called for operators of digital infrastructure to share more info about their outages....
India diplomatically debuts digital public infrastructure repository with international contributions
Russia's Unified Digital Platform could be yours, along with many other less controversial projects India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has created the Global Digital Public Infrastructure Repository - a collection of code created by governments, made freely available to other nations....
BlackCat claims it is behind Fidelity National Financial ransomware shakedown
One of US's largest underwriters forced to shut down a number of key systems Fortune 500 insurance biz Fidelity National Financial (FNF) has confirmed that it has fallen victim to a "cybersecurity incident."...
Maverick Mars chopper has survived way past its warranty – now it's time for a sequel
With Ingenuity still on the Red Planet, engineers have the best of both worlds NASA is planning more ambitious flights for the Mars Ingenuity helicopter as engineers work on its follow-up back on Earth....
Lenovo's USB-C Power Banks pack more heat than expected
Recall issued for fiery surprise Got a Lenovo USB-C Laptop Power bank? Is the model number PBLG2W? There's a chance the device could catch fire, according to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (USCPSC), and Lenovo has issued a recall notice....
AI chip outfit Graphcore's sales to China hit by US export rules
Company hopes more folks needing AI compute globally will offset pain AI chip developer Graphcore is laying off staff in China after ceasing sales in the country, following the introduction of updated US export restrictions....
Industry piles in on North Korea for sustained rampage on software supply chains
Kim's cyber cronies becoming more active, sophisticated in attempts to pwn global orgs The national cybersecurity organizations of the UK and the Republic of Korea (ROK) have issued a joint advisory warning of an increased volume and sophistication of North Korean software supply chain attacks....
Bezos might beat Musk to Mars as NASA recruits Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket
Eyeing an August 2024 launch, if spacecraft is ready for its first mission Blue Origin is expected to launch two small Martian satellites as the first-ever interplanetary payload aboard its upcoming New Glenn rocket, NASA confirmed this week....
Attack on direct debit provider London & Zurich leaves customers with 6-figure backlogs
Customers complain of poor comms during huge outage that's sparked payroll fears A ransomware attack and resulting outages at direct debit collection company London & Zurich has forced at least one customer to take out a short-term loan as six-figure backlogs continue to cause cash flow mayhem....
Greenpeace calls out tech giants for carbon footprint fumble
Net-zero promises or zero-net progress? Greenpeace has savaged global electronics companies, claiming they are simply not doing enough with efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions....
Revival of Medley/Interlisp: Elegant weapon for a more civilized age sharpened up again
Restoration project headed up by Steve Kaisler is gathering steam ANTIQUE CODE SHOW Xerox's pioneering graphical Lisp workstation operating system is not only alive, well, and MIT-licensed, but running in the cloud as well as on modern OSes....
Mirai we go again: Zero-day flaws see routers and cameras co-opted into botnet
Akamai sounds the alarm - won't name the vendors yet, but there is a fix coming Akamai has uncovered two zero-day bugs capable of remote code execution, both being exploited to distribute the Mirai malware and built a botnet army for distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks....
Long-term space missions might make liftoff harder for male astronauts
Study finds galactic cosmic radiation can damage below-the-belt tissues, and the problem may not go away Male astronauts who spend prolonged periods in space may suffer permanent erectile dysfunction, new research has found....
NTT adapts AI network analysis tool to detect faults in nuclear fusion reactors
Here comes the Sun Japan's Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) has taken an AI tool created to monitor telco networks and adapted it to predict anomalies in a nuclear fusion reactor to help keep its experimental power source running....
New Relic warns customers it's experienced a cyber … something
Users told to hold tight and await instructions as investigation continues Web tracking and analytics outfit New Relic has issued a scanty security advisory warning customers it has experienced a scary cyber something....
Broadcom re-orgs VMware into four divisions – none of which mention end-user compute products
Community programs retained but CEO waves farewell Broadcom's acquisition of VMware has concluded, and quickly resulted in the creation of four divisions dedicated to the virty giant's business - none of which appear to include end-user compute products....
North Korea makes finding a gig even harder by attacking candidates and employers
That GitHub repo an interviewer wants you to work on could be malware Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42 has detailed a pair of job market hacking schemes linked to state-sponsored actors in North Korea: one in which the threat actors pose as job seekers, the other as would-be employers....
US watchdog gives itself power to demand documents in AI probes
And offers $25,000 prize to stop voice deepfakes from catching on The US Federal Trade Commission has given itself the power to use compulsory processes - a mechanism that allows it to demand access to documents - for investigations of products and services that use or claim to be powered by AI....
How to give Windows Hello the finger and login as someone on their stolen laptop
Not that we're encouraging anyone to defeat this fingerprint authentication Hardware security hackers have detailed how it's possible to bypass Windows Hello's fingerprint authentication and login as someone else - if you can steal or be left alone with their vulnerable device....
US nuke reactor lab hit by 'gay furry hackers' demanding cat-human mutants
Staff records swiped, leaked by gang who probably read one too many comics, sorry, graphic novels The self-described "gay furry hackers" of SiegedSec are back: this time boasting they've broken into America's biggest nuclear power lab's computer systems and stolen records on thousands of employees. Some of that data has already been leaked, it appears....
Tesla, Musk likely aware of Autopilot deficiencies behind Florida fatality, says judge
Decision means family of man killed in 2019 cross-traffic collision can take carmaker to trial There is "reasonable evidence" that Tesla and Elon Musk were aware of deficiencies in Autopilot that caused the 2019 death of a Model 3 owner, a Florida judge has ruled, opening the way for yet another liability trial....
Author hopes to throw the book at OpenAI, Microsoft with copyright class action
Stop us if you've heard this one before While the chaos unfolding at OpenAI might be amusing to watch, the issue of copyright infringement continues to plague the upstart after yet another lawsuit was lobbed its way....
Cisco whips up modded switch to secure Ukraine grid against Russian cyberattacks
GPS-jamming tactics were doing much more than simply scrambling missile guidance systems Cisco says it has shipped modified switches to Ukrenergo, Ukraine's state-owned electricity grid operator, to help it withstand Russian cyberattacks aiming to disrupt energy infrastructure....
OpenAI's CEO merry-go-round tosses out voice feature for ChatGPT
Unsurprisingly, the app doesn't know what's going on at the company either Despite the revolving door of CEOs at OpenAI, the company has found time to update ChatGPT with a freebie voice feature....
Veteran wingman wants $1.75M from Boeing over emotional turbulence
Cites alleged ageist headwinds A former Boeing employee has filed a brief for damages against the aerospace giant, seeking compensation of $1.75 million for emotional distress after allegedly suffering retaliation for speaking up against "targeting conduct" aimed at older workers....
HP chief throws about AI fairy dust in hopes of reviving slumbering PC giant
What is double of 15% sales shrinkage? HP CEO Enrique Lores is betting a sprinkle of AI dust can regenerate the flagging PC market - and with shipments still in decline across the industry, he can't afford to tease Wall Street....
Robocar tech biz sues Nvidia, claims stolen code shared in Teams meeting blunder
Two companies both online when slide was viewed at presentation Nvidia is facing legal action in the US for theft of trade secrets from a German automotive company, which alleges its ex-employee made an epic blunder of showing something he shouldn't have when minimizing a Powerpoint slide at a joint Microsoft Teams meeting both companies were attending....
Arm's tiny Cortex-M52 packs AI punch for small devices
Helium tech to end up on $1-$2 SoCs claimed to bring big performance gains for ML workloads Arm is aiming to infuse AI into connected devices and other low-power hardware with an addition to its Cortex-M line-up of microcontroller core designs....
Half a kilo of cosmic nuclear fuel reignites NASA's deep space dreams
There ain't no party like a Pu-238 party NASA has celebrated a shipment of half a kilo of plutonium oxide by the US Department of Energy, the largest since US production of plutonium-238 was restarted just over a decade ago....
US cybercops take on 'pig butchering' org, return $9M in scammed crypto
Crims drain wallets of marks after letting them in on 'awesome crypto scheme secret' The US has seized nearly $9 million in proceeds generated by exploiting more than 70 victims across the nation in so-called "pig butchering" scams....
No more staff budget for UK civil service, but worry not – here's an incubator for AI
Today's story was brought to you by the words politician and silly Deputy UK Prime Minister Oliver Dowden said the country's civil service would improve public services by, among other things, setting up an "Incubator for AI."...
Microsoft's bug bounty turns 10. Are these kinds of rewards making code more secure?
Katie Moussouris, who pioneered Redmond's program, says folks are focusing on the wrong thing Interview Microsoft's bug bounty program celebrated its tenth birthday this year, and has paid out $63 million to security researchers in that first decade - with $60 million awarded to bug hunters in the past five years alone, according to Redmond....
UK's cookie crumble: Data watchdog serves up tougher recipe for consent banners
30 days to get compliant with tracking rules or face enforcement action The UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is getting tough on website design, insisting that opting out of cookies must be as simple as opting in....
Palantir bags £330M NHS data bonanza despite privacy fears
Award follows 1 deal during pandemic and 60 million in non-competitive contracts Palantir has secured a 330 million ($412 million) contract to provide the NHS Federated Data Platform (FDP), which the world's largest healthcare provider says is vital to recover from its pandemic backlog....
Fake views for the win: Text-to-image models learn more efficiently with made-up data
Future neural nets will probably use a mix of AI-generated and real info Synthetic images can help AI models learn visual representations more accurately compared to real snaps, according to computer scientists at MIT and Google. The result is neural networks that are better at making pictures from your written descriptions....
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