The Register

Open Source or Source Available? Does anyone really care? Interview Controversial cloud wrangler HashiCorp came out swinging last week at its San Francisco HashiConf shindig when the topic of licensing came up....

Multiple orbiters failed to find a crater matching rumble. Boffins now blame Red planet's internal problems Mars doesn't have tectonic activity but still manages to have marsquakes, according to a paper that probed a 2022 shake detected by the InSight lander....

Smaller, quieter, and expected to deliver millions of packages in coming years Amazon on Thursday released photos of its newest delivery drone, the MK 30, and announced will expand its Prime Air drone delivery operations to Italy, the UK, and an unnamed American city in 2024....

Big Blue in early talks to advance local RISC-V designs India's pursuit of a slice of the world's semiconductor industry has seen it court three major players - Intel, Tower Semiconductors, and IBM - on a single day....

Advise turning off and never using remote desktop protocol, prohibiting private VPNs, not trusting recruiters' due diligence US and South Korean authorities have updated their guidance on how to avoid hiring North Korean agents seeking work as freelance IT practitioners....

Suggests bodycam footage should replace paperwork for simple arrests San Francisco's mayor, London Breed, has proposed drone surveillance and cameras on public buildings to curb the city's crime problems....

Arson case produces a very tricky precedent for anyone who values digital privacy The Colorado Supreme Court has ruled that police can use Google search histories to identify suspects in criminal investigations, leading digital rights orgs to warn the ruling has broad privacy implications for anyone using search engines....

Incidentally, Windows 11 has native rar support now If you needed another reason to keep your installation of venerable decompression app WinRAR updated, Google's Threat Analysis Group says it has spotted a vulnerability patched in August being actively abused by multiple state-backed threat actors....

Or, at least, information that can drive profits anyway Taiwanese manufacturing giant Foxconn plans to build so-called "AI factories" with the help of Nvidia....

'My god, it's full of aerosolized metals!' A group of scientists studying the effects of rocket and satellite reentry vaporization in Earth's atmosphere have found some startling evidence that could point to disastrous environmental effects on the horizon....

Time to close those active sessions Updated Bad news for anyone using Citrix NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway appliances: miscreants have been exploiting a critical information disclosure bug in these devices since late August - almost two months before a patch was issued....

Spending needs to double to $600B by 2030 if we want to stay within 2C warming Renewable energy investments continue to rise, but a key component of our planned zero-carbon future is being ignored, and could endanger the future of Earth: Energy grids....

Games developer latest to row back on WFH flexibility. 'Zoom fatigue is real,' says bigwig The CEO at gaming biz Roblox Corporation has given employees two stark choices: haul their asses to the company's HQ offices three days a week, which means relocation for some, or find a new employer....

And it's going to suck... up more power too Total capacity of hyperscale datacenters is set to grow almost threefold over the next six years on the back of AI demand, substantially increasing the amount of power required by those facilities....

A space station, Venus, and Mars also on the cards but the budget is TBD Flushed with robotic lunar success, India says it has plans to send a crew to the Moon by 2040....

Time to rethink Windows 10 support cycle then? Windows 11 is consistently failing to capture hearts and devices, if recent figures are to be believed....

Who knew 3 million actually means 700 in cybercrime forum lingo? D-Link has confirmed suspicions that it was successfully targeted by cyber criminals, but is talking down the scale of the impact....

Over a million licenses for office software to be used by corporate and frontline workers Amazon has reportedly taken out more than a million licenses for Microsoft's 365 productivity suite....

Actually it might give you a brief edge on those weird morning people If on waking your first instinct is to smash that snooze button, new research may encourage you to let sleeping dogs lie....

Musk's mega-app-in-waiting goes from chopping headlines to profile URLs An ethical hacker has exploited a bug in the way X truncates URLs to take over a CIA Telegram channel used to receive intelligence....

It was a gas while it lasted but 'no public policy' to replace natural gas for heating The UK should abandon its efforts to replace gas boilers for heating homes with hydrogen systems, an independent advisory commission says....

Allege that 'greed and hubris' led Mike Lynch and co to 'pretend Autonomy thrived' The lengthy legal story of Autonomy co-founder Mike Lynch took another turn this weekend as prosecutors snapped back at attempts to have criminal charges thrown out of court....

Singapore summit hears how private sector's constant security sins create risk for sovereigns Senior politicians gathered at Singapore International Cyber Week (SICW) this week to discuss the current state of cybersecurity have articulated their discomfort with finding themselves dependent on Big Tech....

Spies come in from the cold for their first public chinwag Intelligence chiefs of the Five Eyes alliance today warned that Chinese government spies stealing IP and other sensitive data from private companies pose an "unprecedented" threat to national security....

Researchers say ransomware could be on the horizon if success continues An uptick in cybercriminals masking malicious downloads as fake browser updates is being spotted by security researchers....

They never do tell you about the unexpected costs and overly complex implementations Three in every five software purchases are regretted by IT departments for a variety of reasons, including unforeseen costs....

AI Platform Alliance probably has Jensen Huang in tears...of laughter History is full of examples of smaller players coming together to take on larger competitors. With the launch of the AI Platform Alliance this week, Arm CPU vendor Ampere aims to do just that in a bid to challenge Nvidia's hegemony....

Lack of local clouds and inflexible offers see users depart. Maybe the new Compass' developer experience tool will be more to their liking The Register's Monday story about Atlassian's looming end-of-support deadline for its on-prem server products has turned up a nasty dilemma for UK users who need local data residency, because Atlassian doesn't offer it and may not do so before support expires....

'Afeela' packs Qualcomm kit, screens galore, runs Android and will have an app ecosystem Video Sony and Honda have unveiled Afeela - a software-defined vehicle the two present as a Qualcomm-powered entertainment system on wheels. Or you could use it for transport....

It's also shorter, lousy under pressure, and needs a dongle on the cheapest iPad Apple has found another reason to embrace USB-C - it's allowed the iCompany to make a cheaper digital pencil....

Annual fee won't be profitable, will require registration of phone number X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, has started a trial $1 fee for new users to cut down on bots Elon Musk blames for many of the platform's woes....

Wear OS is basically Android, so this effort may do some heavy lifting to evade Arm SoCs in future phones Qualcomm has announced it will develop a platform to power devices running Google's Wear OS, based on the permissibly licensed RISC-V instruction set architecture....

Chips cunningly designed to be less powerful and evade sanctions look to be in trouble The US Department of Commerce has extended sanctions against China - and now other countries - in its bid to block advanced semiconductors making it to the Middle Kingdom....

Foundry giant now searching for new home for high-end fab site Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) will abandon plans to build an advanced chip fab in northern Taiwan after residents opposed the project....

Hey, we're still safer than human drivers, says GM outfit The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has launched an investigation of General Motors' Cruise driverless robo-taxis after a pair of recent pedestrian injuries....

A little optimistic, given Blue Origin can't even deliver it themselves yet Bezos-backed space firm Blue Origin has unveiled plans to construct a multi-mission, multi-orbit "space mobility platform," and claims it only needs until 2025 to get the structure in space....

Good news: there's a free scanner to check your kit. Bad news: still no fix Remember that critical zero-day bug Cisco disclosed yesterday? Well, it gets worse....

OTA software update to deal with misbehaving sensor Got a Tesla Model X built between 2021 and 2023? The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has said Tesla will recall almost 55,000 vehicles over a brake fluid warning sensor....

An AI may be able to botch a closing argument, but can it sing Killing Me Softly? Former Fugee, Prakazrel "Pras" Michel, who was convicted of criminal conspiracy charges over attempts to influence the administrations of two US presidents, wants a new trial because he believes his lawyer used AI to craft closing arguments, among other things....

Bill in New York aims to stop spread of ghost guns, but fails to address existing kit or private sales A bill introduced in the New York state assembly last week aims to combat the spread of 3D printed "ghost guns" by requiring a criminal background check for anyone buying a 3D printer....

Perfect antidote to range anxiety ... if it works and they can sort compatibility Researchers in Japan are preparing to test out technology that enables electric vehicles to charge wirelessly while still moving, which could lead to drivers not needing to plug in and charge up as frequently, as well as lighter vehicles with fewer batteries....

Jez and friend's Excel-lent Adventure Today is Spreadsheet Day, an auspicious occasion to celebrate the release of VisiCalc and its descendants. So enjoy a bonus On Call story on us regarding Microsoft's finest, Excel....

If all goes well, production to start 'before the end of the year' Amazon's Project Kuiper has continued to make progress as its pair of prototype satellites get ready to route internet data....

Watch out, 'macroeconomic uncertainty' is at it again as network operators slow deployments Sweden's Ericsson has posted a loss for its third quarter of 2023, blaming "macroeconomic uncertainty" in the market and claimed the situation is so volatile that it can't give guidance beyond the end of this year....

Do it now, no ifs or buts, says advisory US authorities have issued an urgent plea to network admins to patch the critical vulnerability in Atlassian Confluence Data Center and Server amid ongoing nation-state exploitation....

Account holders reach for telephone as mobile and web services crash Online services with UK-based Barclays Bank have taken a nosedive....

System aims to clean mess of high-performance analytics cluttering the modern data stack Flush from securing a $34 million VC investment for his fledgling database company, TileDB CEO, Stavros Papadopoulos, is not planning on returning to the well any time soon....

US spy-tech vendor's tactic deemed 'contrary to the principles of public procurement' The UK's chief commercial officer is warning a government contract with Palantir was awarded against public procurement principles after the US spy-tech biz got a toe-hold in the Homes for Ukraine scheme via a free six-month trial period....

A Weekend at Burn-ins Apple's flagship iPhone 15 Pro Max is having OLED burn-in issues, according to owners of the new smartphone....

Indie C++ Unix-like OS project now has an indie Javascript-capable browser, too A small project with a hobby of defying expectations found a new one to defy, by making its home-grown browser cross-platform....