The Register

STOP AI warns of doomsday scenario, demands governments pull the plug on advanced models Feature On Saturday at the Silverstone Cafe in San Francisco, a smattering of activists gathered to discuss plans to stop the further advancement of artificial intelligence....

Black Escalade motorcade sold separately - of course Need to turn heads and burn cash while out on the town? A new app lets you hire armed bodyguards to escort you around - chauffeur included - provided you're in Los Angeles or New York City....

A year on from the big overhaul of Plasma 6, more functionality appears KDE Plasma 6.3 is here, closely followed by a point release, alongside new versions of the KDE Frameworks and KDE Gear apps collection....

WHAM, bam, no thank you, ma'am? Eggheads at Microsoft have produced a generative AI tool they say can create a three-dimensional game world to help developers design and tweak gameplay....

Because 4G notspots aren't much good to anyone Vodafone and AST SpaceMobile plan to open a research hub this summer to test and validate the integration of orbital services with terrestrial cellphone networks....

Microsoft suggests a move to the cloud Microsoft has issued administrators a 60-day warning - driver synchronization using Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) will be deprecated....

It's probably fine As the risk corridor narrows for asteroid 2024 YR4, the possibility of a collision with Earth in 2032 have increased....

15GB of sensitive files traced back to former software biz Typically shoppers can expect to find tie-dye t-shirts, broken lamps and old disco records at flea markets, now it seems storage drives filled with huge volumes of sensitive data can be added to that list....

NGMN reports what telcos want, but admits most can be delivered by 5G Mobile operators are pushing for consensus on the key components of next-gen 6G networks, warning that a new radio interface could add complexity - though they acknowledge it would also allow for higher data rates....

The FOSS world has replicated most of it in Lazarus Delphi is still very much with us, but the FOSS world also has its own, largely compatible, GUI-based Object Pascal environment - and it's worth a look....

Also hammers another nail into Cortana's coffin with the end of Location History Microsoft had a Valentine's Day gift for Windows Insiders, firing another arrow into the heart of Cortana while also attempting to soothe European privacy concerns....

Showbiz members' passport scans already plastered online A London talent agency has reported itself to the UK's data protection watchdog after the Rhysida ransomware crew last week claimed it had attacked the business, which represents luminaries of stage and screen....

Tech and people behind IoT brooch that reviewers instantly hated will one day pep up printers The AI Pin" produced by company called Humane was a leading tender for 2024's biggest consumer tech flop, but that hasn't stopped HP acquiring some of the code and people behind the device and using it as the basis for a new innovation team that will infuse its printers and conference room kit with AI....

Odd X-ray flashes gave the game away, just few weeks after China-led mission launched The Einstein Probe telescope has spotted evidence of one star consuming matter from another....

Envisions phased introduction dependent on manufacturing commitments United States President Donald Trump has hinted at substantial tariffs on imported semiconductors....

If this makes you feel sick, knowing this happened before ransomware actors started targeting medical info may help An alleged security SNAFU that occurred during the Obama administration has finally been settled under the second Trump administration....

If you want to avoid urgent patches, stop exposing management consoles to the public internet A flaw patched last week by Palo Alto Networks is now under active attack and, when chained with two older vulnerabilities, allows attackers to gain root access to affected systems....

Analyst tells El Reg to expect more of this across hardware brands Acer has become one of the first major computer makers to confirm it will hike laptop prices in the US, citing fresh import tariffs on Chinese-made hardware imposed by the Trump administration....

Because stealing your credentials, banking info, and IP just wasn't enough A new variant of Snake Keylogger is making the rounds, primarily hitting Windows users across Asia and Europe. This strain also uses the BASIC-like scripting language AutoIt to deploy itself, adding an extra layer of obfuscation to help it slip past detection....

What do Redditors think? Well, it wouldn't be Reddit if they were happy Redditors love a topic to gripe about, and this week the focus will likely be on CEO Steve Huffman's claim that paywalled content is coming to the so-called Front Page of the Internet....

Our first look at the default desktop for Fedora 42 and Ubuntu 'Plucky Puffin' The next version of the default desktop for most of the big Linux distros is in beta. Here's what to expect next month, or soon thereafter....

Called it an 'incident' in SEC filing, but encrypted apps and data exfiltration suggest Lee just can't say the R word US newspaper publisher Lee Enterprises is blaming its recent service disruptions on a "cybersecurity attack," per a regulatory filing, and is the latest company to avoid using the dreaded R word....

Scientists refine estimates, but can't yet rule out an impact The latest figures from the European Space Agency (ESA) on the trajectory of asteroid 2024 YR4 show a reduction in uncertainty around the object's orbit while the probability of impact remains low....

Exploit code now available for MitM and DoS attacks Researchers can disclose two brand-new vulnerabilities in OpenSSH now that patches have been released....

Meanwhile, on-prem version of 23ai remains uncertain Oracle has postponed the end of support date for its popular 19c database as users await news of a mainstream on-prem version of its latest database, 23ai....

Lions juggling chainsaws are fun to watch, but you wouldn't want them trimming your trees Opinion Nobody likes The Man. When a traffic cop tells you to straighten up and slow down or else, profound thanks are rarely the first words on your lips. Then you drive past a car embedded in a tree, surrounded by blue lights and cutting equipment. Perhaps Officer Dibble had a point....

Musk's latest attempt at a 'maximally truth-seeking' bot arrives Grok 3 has begun rolling out. xAI founder Elon Musk describes the chatbot as "a maximally truth-seeking AI, even if that truth is sometimes at odds with what is politically correct."...

There's everything to play for, but there ain't no Play Store Huawei is bringing its triple-fold Mate XT smartphone to a global audience, but with an eye-watering reported price tag, the question is - who will want to buy it?...

The science of the appliance and opening the lid of the black box to find... it's just software Interview The tech industry has a habit of reinventing itself every few years. Kelsey Hightower would like someone to come up with a glossary because software is software, no matter what it gets called....

Integrations with third-party software await chosen provider A UK electrical infrastructure biz is seeking a systems integrator to help it migrate from a 25-year-old SAP ERP system to the latest S/4HANA platform in a contract set to be worth almost a quarter of its annual turnover....

Admits it will be saying 'goodbye to talented people' in UK amid fears of jobs being offshored to India Lloyds Banking Group this month launched a review of the technology and engineering professionals working in the UK operation with headcount reductions inevitable and some roles being offshored to Lloyds Technology Center in India....

Customers told to pay up, quit, or wait for promised alternative innovation' coming real soon now Avaya has advised customers and resellers of a planned evolution" of its products that starts with a requirement to license at least 200 seats worth of its SaaS-y contact center wares by June 30, 2025....

Devices containing crypto wallets tracked online, then in the real world Indian authorities seize loot from BitConnect crypto-Ponzi scheme Devices containing crypto wallets tracked online, then in the real world India's Directorate of Enforcement has found and seized over $200 million of loot it says are the proceeds of the BitConnect crypto-fraud scheme....

Nation also orders thousands of GPUs to advance local AI smarts South Korea suspends DeepSeek, which vows to return in better shape Nation also orders enough GPUs to train many more LLMs South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission has suspended local availability of apps from Chinese LLM-and-chatbot developer DeepSeek....

Penguin Emperor's weekly State Of The Kernel post went astray Next time autocomplete takes over and you accidentally send an email to the wrong person or group, perhaps it will be a little solace to know that one of the world's most accomplished technologists - Linux kernel boss Linus Torvalds - just made that same mistake....

EnCharge claims 150 TOPS/watt, a 20x performance-per-watt edge Interview AI chip startup EnCharge claims its analog artificial intelligence accelerators could rival desktop GPUs while using just a fraction of the power. Impressive - on paper, at least. Now comes the hard part: Proving it in the real world....

If MS-DOS could play Doom, surely a battleship gray button was a possibility? Veteran Microsoft engineer Raymond Chen has responded to suggestions that the Windows 95 setup was overly complicated. People wanted to know: Why not just do that whole thing in MS-DOS?...

Flaky demand for PCs and smartphones blamed NAND flash prices are expected to slide due to oversupply, forcing memory chipmakers to cut production to match lower-than-expected orders from PC and smartphone manufacturers....

Very unlikely, but could make for a neat light show if it does There is a chance, albeit slim, that asteroid 2024 YR4 could hit the Moon, creating a new crater and an explosion that might just be visible from Earth....

Known for popping zero-days of yesteryear, Microsoft puts Apple devs on high alert Microsoft says there's a new variant of XCSSET on the prowl for Mac users - the first new iteration of the malware since 2022....

'Satisfied' the risk to national security is 'a real and significant one' that should not be 'prolonged' The High Court of Justice in the UK has rejected a plea from a China-owned operation for a temporary injunction on a government order requiring it to sell its stake in a Scottish chip design business....

A 'synthesizer for websites' lets you experiment and improvize your way to CSS Interview Loken is a new type of tool which aims to let website designers feel their way towards a design in the same sort of way as musicians do with a software synthesizer....

Old Lady of Threadneedle Street to pay millions for 'amended implementation methodology' The Bank of England has nearly doubled the money it is dedicating to partner spending for an Oracle cloud transformation, which it began imagining in 2020....

Trade body wants recommendations fast-tracked and fabs designated critical national infrastructure Almost two years after the British government published its National Semiconductor Strategy, calls are growing for bolder action and a faster implementation of its recommendations to deliver on its stated goals....

When asked to offer honest feedback, maybe pause to ponder how well you play office politics Who, Me? Welcome to a fresh Monday, and therefore a new installment of "Who, Me?", our reader-contributed column that shares your stories of making workplace mistakes and scraping your way to safety afterwards....

Shhh. Don't tell Hock Tan about those Xeons that unlock functions when you pay a fee Broadcom is reportedly contemplating a play for Intel....

DevOps team did the dirty on a database Data management vendor Veeam has admitted to an embarrassing oopsie: messing up a restoration job and erasing data....

PLUS: DOGE web design disappoints; FBI stops crypto scams; Zacks attacked again; and more! Infosec In Brief A security researcher has found that Google could leak the email addresses of YouTube channels, which wasn't good because the search and ads giant promised not to do that....

PLUS: Pacific islands targeted by Chinese APT; China's new rocket soars; DeepSeek puts Korea in a pickle; and more Asia In Brief The head of Fujitsu's North American operations has warned that the Trump administration's tariff plans will be bad for business....

El Reg shows you how to run Zyphra's speech-replicating AI on your own box Hands on Palo Alto-based AI startup Zyphra unveiled a pair of open text-to-speech (TTS) models this week said to be capable of cloning your voice with as little as five seconds of sample audio. In our testing, we generated realistic results with less than half a minute of recorded speech....