The Register

Happy International E-waste Day! Alongside National Dessert Day, National Boss's Day, and World Egg Day, October 14 is also International E-waste Day. To celebrate, the unfortunately named WEEE Forum (that's waste electrical and electronic equipment) has compiled some grim reading.…

What should R&D focus on, and how should we structure grants so they're not just a swap for private sector cash? Momentum is building behind the US CHIPS Act, which aims to revitalize semiconductor manufacturing in America. Now, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is set to ask for public input on two of the programs authorized under the legislation.…

Meta's push to put computing into a headset will end in tears Comment The Metaverse, as the company formerly known as Facebook defines the term in its financial filings, is "an embodied internet where people have immersive experiences beyond two-dimensional screens."…

And by worse, we mean: The endless casinos Scientists have successfully launched a prototype aerial robotic balloon 4,000 feet high over a desert in Nevada to test whether it could one day be sent on a space mission to roam Venus' clouds.…

But, it won't play out the way you think it will Opinion It has become a running joke. "20xx will be the year of the Linux desktop." The punchline is, of course, it will never happen. But the real jape is that there will soon be a year of the Linux desktop. It's just not going to happen the way Linux fanboi have believed it will.…

'Customers will not – at least not in the short term – move exclusively to cloud scenarios' SAP couldn't be clearer with its customers about the challenges they face in application upgrades and cloud migration, but for one reason or another they struggle to get the message. Or perhaps hope it will go away.…

Managed software provider Advanced admits some customer data 'exfiltrated' in August ransomware attack Advanced, a managed software provider to the UK National Health Service, has confirmed that customer data was indeed lifted as part of the attack by cyber baddies that has disrupted operations for months.…

No chance of any peace, not even at 8,900 metres Video Drone maker DJI has claimed a world first by flying one of its Mavic 3 drones around the peak of Mount Everest, capturing some pretty great footage in the process. …

Partners may be dragging the chain a little – perhaps you'd like to hurry them up? Microsoft's campaign to improve the security of its customers and partners – by letting the latter set roles in clients' Active Directory implementations without asking permission – has been extended by four months.…

The demarcation line between IT and stationery is not electricity, but the line between dumb and nasty clearly starts at staplers On Call The seasons turn, the tides ebb and flow. Just as regularly, each Friday The Register delvers another instalment of On-Call, our reader-contributed tale of another sad constant: IT people being asked to do amazingly dumb things.…

Pundit tips next wave of bans will target foreign investment in Chinese tech The USA's restrictions on semiconductor technology transfer to China are about to wreak havoc on the lives of Americans working in the Middle Kingdom, according to former Department of Transportation official and US political expert Steven Okun.…

This is not why this mission was dubbed the 'Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration' The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is in damage control mode after a launch of its Epsilon rocket was terminated with a self-destruct command on Wednesday.…

Hope to combat misinformation with graph of observations that prove what you’re reading is reliable Fujitsu and Japan's Keio University have proposed adding an "endorsement layer" to the internet, to verify information and prevent the flow of fake news and disinformation.…

60 days becomes five months and counting, without any indication government can process or learn from flood of trivial incident reports India's minister of state for electronics and information technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, has hinted strongly that he will again extend the deadline to comply with sweeping new information security reporting rules that were imposed as an essential national defence mechanism.…

Don't get your underwear in a twist Miscreants broke into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' computer systems and stole personal data belonging to "some" members, employees, contractors and friends, the church has confirmed.…

When I saw it, I had to reverse engineer it, Kaspersky's lead security researcher tells us Interview Crimeware targeting banks and other financial-services organizations today features sophisticated capabilities and evasion tools, according to Kaspersky's lead security researcher Sergey Lozhkin.…

Eyestrain, nausea not entirely dealt with, military brass remain committed to AR Microsoft Corp's HoloLens mixed reality goggles need further refinement before they're ready for US soldiers, according to a Defense Department report summary.…

Threatening to destroy them could give them just as much leverage, while averting all out war Comment Let's be clear about something: Even if Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), fell into Chinese hands in the event of an invasion, it wouldn't do them much good.…

Let the battle against latency begin Military contractor Lockheed Martin this week announced plans to integrate Ayar Lab’s optical input tech into future defense platforms.…

Get your own Playstation-on-wheels beginning in 2026, and be prepared to pay subscription fees Sony and Honda have announced plans to jointly produce a "premium" electric vehicle that will be built in the United States, and they want it to be on North American roads beginning in 2026.…

Outsourcing national defence didn't work so well in Ukraine The US Navy is outsourcing its satellite data comms to Inmarsat Government up to $980 million over 10 years, despite the current ructions over who actually owns the orbital bit biz.…

It's all about the Benjamins, says Michael Barr Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr says crypto-assets are "unlikely to grow into money substitutes" because they have proven to be so volatile and posed "novel" risks.…

Impressive distro is somewhere between a tech demo and a power user's tool While many Ubuntu remixes just switch the desktop or replace a few default apps, Zinc changes some of the fundamentals. The result is impressive.…

Immediate ban on new installations in 5G networks, all contravening gear must be gone by end of 2027 The UK government has issued formal legal notices to teleco operators instructing them to remove Huawei technology from the country's 5G networks by the end of 2027, though some interim deadlines appear to have been tweaked after operators claimed they needed more time.…

1.41GW, in fact – enough to power around one million homes There is a wealth of untapped hydroelectric potential in the United States – around 1.41GW of energy flowing through pipes, irrigation channels, and aqueducts.…

Hot on heels of Optus and Dialog breaches, criminals turn sights to insurance sector Medibank, a private health insurer in Australia with 3.7 million customers, has confirmed today it is the latest business down under to fall victim to a digital break-in.…

Not even the world's largest semiconductor manufacturer is immune to chip downturn Taiwanese chip making behemonth TSMC beat revenue guidance for calendar Q3, as expected, but has cut its investment budget by at least 10 percent in the face of the semiconductor market slowdown.…

Now what does that flattened Möbius strip logo remind us of? Logowatch MS Office changed its name to Microsoft 365 years ago, but now appears to be doing a mastercleanse to fully scrub away the brand and embrace the entire suite as "productivity" rather than Office apps.…

Uncle Sam is giving out exemptions like Halloween candy to its allies South Korean DRAM and flash memory chip maker SK hynix has been granted a one-year exemption from US Department of Commerce restrictions that ban exports of advanced chips and equipment to China.…

Ubuntu once again courts controversy, but alternative commands are available Some Ubuntu users are not happy at receiving a promotional message at the command line when upgrading their systems.…

Plus: A fresh Amazon NLRB complaint over 'surveillance' A trade union for Alphabet workers has made two complaints with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against Google and its contractors about the treatment of tech workers at the search giant's US datacenters.…

Keen interest in messaging platform follows $2 billion fines in US Authorities in the US and the UK are taking a keen interest in the contents of WhatsApp messages among bank employees and their associates in the financial services industry.…

Security expert challenges claim that bypassing encryption is essential to protecting kids Exclusive Laws in the UK and Europe have been proposed that would give authorities the power to undermine strong end-to-end encryption in the pursuit of, in their minds, justice.…

Go ahead, feel redundant: machines reduce maintenance time by 12 days and go places humans cannot On Wednesday Toshiba launched its commercialized robot inspection services for power plant turbine generators.…

Two down, 3,234 to go for Amazon's Kuiper service as it chases Starlink Private rocketry outfit United Launch Alliance (ULA) will send its Vulcan Centaur craft into orbit for the first time in the first quarter of 2023 (hopefully), carrying two important payloads.…

Buyer Avangard's ordnance has reportedly been used against Ukraine Extreme Networks has admitted to breaching sanctions on Russian businesses by selling some of its products to a company that was sanctioned following Russia's 2014 illegal occupation of Crimea.…

HR diversity claims via software are rot, according to boffins Claims that AI-powered recruitment software can boost diversity of new hires at a workplace were debunked in a study published this week.…

Judge rejects defense effort to toss warrantless device search on privacy grounds A US prisoner has been charged with orchestrating an $11 million scam from his cell using a hidden … cellphone.…

Plus, the Surface Laptop drops AMD, Studio arrives with an even higher price, and more Ignite Microsoft put a coat of polish on its Surface line this week, including its third-generation tablet powered by an Arm-based CPU.…

Back off FAA, I'm a scientist Fears that 5G C-band signals could disrupt aircraft altimeters are misplaced, US government researchers claim in a report, saying that current efforts to filter any potentially dangerous frequencies are likely enough to combat problems. …

It's almost like there's some midterms coming up Election workers in US battleground states have been hit by a surge in phishing and malware-laced emails in the run up to their primaries and the upcoming 2022 midterm elections.…

Heh, prove us wrong, kids. Prove us wrong NASA now hopes to blast an unmanned Orion capsule atop a Space Launch System (SLS) rocket to the Moon on November 14 after suffering, among other delays, a setback due to Hurricane Ian smashing up Florida. …

Insiders tell of struggle to access patient info, meds without working computers Updated Computer systems are still down at CommonSpirit Health – America's second-largest nonprofit hospital network – more than a week after it was hit by a somewhat mystery cyberattack.…

Gah, for a few milliseconds there, we were willing a cold, faceless corporation to succeed General Motors' newest endeavor is a business unit dedicated to producing energy storage systems – and the automaker left no doubts about who it sees as its top competitor in the space: Tesla. …

Redmond hopes move will lure more to its PostgreSQL managed service Ignite Microsoft is launching a database migration tool to help Oracle users shift to a PostgreSQL managed service on Azure.…

Preview service claims to eliminate risks of migrating mission-critical workloads GCN Google is preparing a mainframe modernization service that intends to simplify and lessen the risk of migrating mainframe workloads to the cloud - a complex process that can be frought with pitfalls.…

Energy granddad wants in on the next generation of atomic tech Uranium fuel producer Cameco Corp and investment firm Brookfield Renewable Partners intend to buy Westinghouse Electric Company in a bid to accelerate a nuclear power resurgence. …

Identity governance and SOCs also on the menu Ignite Microsoft is rolling out its usual host of cloud security features and services at this week's Ignite 2022 conference, with the focus on what's happening in and outside the firewall.…

'The Essence of Repugnant Desire', selling via Boring Company website for $100, will accept Dogecoin Elon Musk, the world's richest man, is threatening to break into the fragrance industry with a scent branded “Burnt Hair – The Essence of Repugnant Desire" and it's already for sale on his Boring Co website.…

We spin up Linux PC vendor's first public version of its in-house OS Tuxedo OS 1 is Ubuntu 22.04, tweaked for the company's own kit, with KDE instead of GNOME, a natively packaged Firefox, and Flatpak instead of Snap.…