The Register

Software giant is already in deep, giving the startup $1 billion in 2019 Microsoft is reportedly in advanced talks with OpenAI to invest more in the seven-year-old research company.…

One laser + one optical chip = more than the traffic of the entire internet European scientists claim to have achieved a data transmission speed of 1.8 petabits per second, all with a single laser and an optical chip. …

Plus better support for some newer Intel wireless and graphics chipsets OpenBSD 7.2 is here, spanning an impressive 14 different computer platforms, including FOSS fans who have the newest Apple Arm-based Mac models.…

Can expensive tech save this reporter's ugly mug? Not likely It's not just Reg readers who recognize the less than satisfactory quality of built-in computer webcams. Appparently, the world's biggest PC maker does too.…

But the solution may need more than a really big database Comment During the keynote of Oracle's annual sales jamboree in Las Vegas, founder and CTO Larry Ellison took the opportunity to offer some profound insight into the state of healthcare in the US and Europe.…

Twitter tells staff it knows of no plans, though. Plus: billionaire's ventures could take heat from Committee on Foreign Investment Elon Musk has reportedly told investors in his Twitter buyout that he will gut the workforce by 75 percent once his court-ordered takeover concludes.…

We didn't have a time unit. That... is... a... disgrace Reg Standards Bureau She may have lost to an iceberg lettuce in the longevity stakes, but Liz Truss managed to win one thing yesterday: serving 44 days before resigning, she is now Shortest-lived Prime Minister in UK History.…

Former staff describe threat as a 'heist' and 'outright attack' on pension scheme IBM intends to withhold tens of thousands of dollars each from certain retiring staff unless they agree to the IT giant's demands.…

And one designed to slip ransomware and data-stealing code onto infected machines URSNIF, the malware also known as Gozi that attempts to steal online banking credentials from victims' Windows PCs, is evolving to support extortionware.…

Ongoing COVID concerns inspire 'cMaSK' tech to monitor breathing, temperature, and fit Scientists in Canada have developed an electronic device to fit inside a surgical mask which they claim helps monitor the wearer's health and how well the mask is fitted.…

Productivity KPIs need a 21st century makeover, say tech bosses Canalys Channels Forum Businesses need to reassess the metrics they apply to determine how productive employees are in the world of hybrid work – or risk staff leaving for a corporate culture that is more flexible and trusting.…

We'd say this was a clear case of RTFM but this rig was so simple it didn't have a manual On-Call After a week of global chaos, put it all behind you with another instalment of On-Call, The Register's weekly tale of readers who were asked to tackle IT turmoil and emerged triumphant.…

Moonlighting is now now OK – if you do it the Infosys way, says CEO Salil Parekh The CEO of Indian tech services giant Infosys, Salil Parekh, has said employees will be allowed to take on external gigs if they secure company approval – a reversal of the position espoused a month ago when the company warned workers that "dual employment" could result in disciplinary action.…

Weird puffy gas giant circles red dwarf Located 580 light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Auriga the Charioteer, there lies an extra fluffy exoplanet with an average density similar to a marshmallow, light enough to float on water. …

Attempted revival of virtual reality is only just beginning and already the cops just want to take a look around Interpol this week unveiled what it has called a Metaverse for police around the world while signalling a lawless virtual universe will not be tolerated.…

Works well, but selection of available apps is meagre First Look Microsoft has decided the Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA) – its offering that runs Android VMs which behave just like another application in Windows – is sufficiently stable that it can be designated version 1.0 and made available to all.…

That's a whole six hours of revenue, but requirements to open the Android ecosystem will hit harder India's Competition Commission has announced it will fine Google ₹1,337.76 crore (₹13,377,600,000 or $161.5 million) for abusing its dominant position in multiple markets in the Android Mobile device ecosystem and ordered the company to open the Android ecosystem to competition.…

The question is: how severe will the Middle Kindgom's response be? Analysis The Biden administration's efforts to stymie China's semiconductor industry appear to have got the attention of chipmakers.…

Scream with us: Aaaaaa-AAH A hospital network in Wisconsin and Illinois fears visitor tracking code on its websites may have transmitted personal information on as many as 3 million patients to Meta, Google, and other third parties.…

Internet mega-souk thinks allegations are a waste of Prime Amazon is facing a £900 million ($1 billion) lawsuit that claims its Buy Box algorithm breaks competition laws by unfairly favoring products sold by the American giant and preferred vendors.…

You can kiss my Californian ass, says ad giant Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued Google claiming the internet titan captured biometric data from millions of Texans without notice and consent.…

Time to start considering forest blazes alongside industrial sources of greenhouse gases, say scientists Researchers studying the effects of California's record-breaking 2020 wildfire season have uncovered some unsettling evidence. The fires in that single year undid all the state's greenhouse gas emission reductions since 2003 by a factor of two.…

Video Electronics Standards Association shows the USB Implementers Forum how it's done The USB Implementers Forum, USB-IF, rolled out the spec of USB 4 version 2 just last month, as you've probably read in The Register. We noted at the time that the nitty-gritty stuff would debut in time for developer events scheduled for November.…

Five-year blueprint to modernize tech estate, but cloud still not for everyone in finance sector UBS, one of the largest private banks in the world, is preparing to send more workloads into Microsoft's Azure cloud in pursuit of lower energy consumption and to accelerate digital services for customers.…

Tick tick tick ... just 8 days to go Billionaire Tesla boss Elon Musk told analysts last night he was excited about his upcoming deal to buy Twitter despite his apparent belief that he will be "obviously overpaying."…

NASA had been aiming for the region since before landing because there are 'signs of past water' NASA's long-serving Curiosity Mars rover has finally reached an objective it has been ambling toward since landing on the red planet a decade ago: the "sulfate-bearing unit" of Mount Sharp. …

SOCRadar says sensitive info from 150,000 orgs was exposed, Redmond disputes findings Microsoft has confirmed one of its own misconfigured cloud systems led to customer information being exposed to the internet, though it disputes the extent of the leak.…

What connects a decaying salad vegetable with something called 'the 1922 Committee'? Enter the wonderful and frightening world of British politics The analogy was first drawn by august finance journal The Economist, which said the shelf-life of a lettuce was longer than Liz Truss's period with any actual political power as British Prime Minister, after she "blew up her own government with a package of unfunded tax cuts and energy-price guarantees on September 23."…

Why does it always rain on renters, asks CTO? Listening to the vendors, the analysts, hell, even the government – the direction of travel is obvious. All your server-side computing resources will move to the cloud, like it or not.…

Linux wunderkind's project now an official flavor as 'Kinetic Kudu' brings nine months of updates Ubuntu 22.10 is out, and the biggest change is a new official remix: Ubuntu Unity is now an official flavor.…

We speak to the boffins behind the mission about hits, misses, engineering, and that extraordinary near death scrape This week, the European Space Agency's International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (Integral) spacecraft celebrated the 20th anniversary of its launch – although it was only meant to last five years.…

Don't penalize resellers for selling refurbished kit, educate shareholders on being Earth's friend Hardware makers are currently among the mix when it comes to the problem of environmental sustainability, in part by "penalizing" and competing with resellers that are trying to sell refurbished kit.…

May follow Finland and Germany in adopting Singapore's standard The Biden administration has accelerated its efforts to add cyber security labelling for consumer Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and may join other nations in adopting the scheme pioneered by Singapore.…

Software-as-a-hostage? Freeing yourself from the fluffy white chains is not easy, even in face of inflation Public cloud prices are forecast to jump by almost a third in Europe next year as the cost of borrowing and energy squeeze providers. For the US, the expectation is for the price list to jump by a fifth.…

Boffins say educators need to deal with opportunities and risks of GitHub Copilot and pals Analysis While the legal and ethical implications of assistive AI models like Github's Copilot continue to be sorted out, computer scientists continue to find uses for large language models and urge educators to adapt.…

Changes follow astronaut's headgear filling with water during seven-hour star trek Spacewalks outside the International Space Station are set to resume after NASA temporarily paused all such activity to investigate an issue that caused water to accumulate in one astronaut's helmet.…

There's a fat AMD Rome under the hood and 28TB of storage too Amazon Web Services has doubled the specs of its Snowball edge compute device.…

Wanted: AI experts, data scientists, fintech folk, willing to work in the shadow of repressive regime Hong Kong has decided it wants to become a technology hub again, and has unveiled plans to "trawl" the world for talent to make it happen.…

DoJ cracks down on competing companies that share board members Directors at tech firms SolarWinds, DynaTrace, Skillsoft, and Udemy have resigned after the US Department of Justice raised concerns about overlapping board membership it felt created antitrust problems.…

Australia's Medibank says it's been shown stolen data that includes details of treatments administered to customers Updated Australian health insurer Medibank has revealed it's been contacted by a group that claims to have its customers' data and is threatening to distribute it.…

When we concede that everything has bugs, we wish it wasn't quite everything This week, the US government's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) expanded its ever-growing list of vulnerability in industrial control systems (ICS) and critical infrastructure technology.…

Hundreds of thousands of people's sensitive info poorly protected New York regulators continue turning the screws on organizations with slapdash computer security.…

And would you believe it, employees are not thrilled Exclusive IBM Consulting on Tuesday issued a policy telling US employees located near IBM or client offices that they are expected to be in the office at least three days a week.…

Everyone cool with us plonking down a massive warehouse here? No? Oh well Exclusive Intel is being taken to court in Massachusetts over its proposals to build a distribution and logistics warehouse on the site of its defunct R&D offices and chip factory that closed in 2013.…

Nightmare for those with one-time security codes texted to their phones Verizon has notified some prepaid customers that their accounts were compromised and their phone numbers potentially hijacked by crooks via SIM swaps.…

Don't want to see ads during your trip? Sorry, no app for that Uber has announced the creation of an advertising division dedicated to helping brands "connect with consumers throughout the entire ride process." That's right. The entire ride.…

Remember, remember, the Microsoft trackers DuckDuckGo's macOS browser has entered public beta, opening the privacy-centric browser to anyone on a Mac or MacBook willing to give it a go. …

What did you expect, HoloLens-ready Minesweeper and new skins for Calculator? Microsoft is rolling out the only feature updates this year for Windows 10, with the IT giant describing it as a "scoped and streamlined" effort with a strong focus on security.…

Did we say donate? We meant submit. Megacorp swiftly KOs former blog title Google has offered its tool for pure Go Kubernetes containers to the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) ... and may have thought it was a done deal.…

Verdict in for trial where promo vid showed gravity rather than batteries or fuel cells keeping electric truck moving A federal jury has found the founder of eco-truck outfit Nikola, Trevor Milton, guilty of deceiving investors with exaggerated claims about how close his company was to producing working prototypes of zero-emission 18-wheelers.…