The Register

• Homing pigeon missiles, dead trout swimming, butt breathing honored with Ig Nobel Prize 2024-09-14
  Mad science award ceremony returns to MIT after four years online With less than a month to go before the Nobel Prizes are handed out for the most worthy scientific discoveries of the preceding year, it would be remiss of The Register not to observe the honors conferred by the gong's bratty little brother, the […]
  Richard Currie
• Begun, the open source AI wars have 2024-09-14
  This is going to be ugly. Really ugly Opinion  The Open Source Initiative (OSI) and its allies are getting closer to a definition of open source AI. If all goes well, Stefano Maffulli, the OSI's executive director, expects to announce the OSI open source AI definition at All Things Open in late October. But some […]
  Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
• Meta back at it, harvesting Britons' public Facebook, Insta feeds for AI training 2024-09-14
  I wanna know 🎵 What you're feeling 🎵 Tell me what's on your mind Meta is going to resume scraping the personal public feeds of British Facebook and Instagram users for training AI after reaching an agreement with the UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).…
  Iain Thomson
• Apple AirPods Pro 2 can be sold as hearing aids, says FDA 2024-09-13
  You gotta admit, that speaks volumes for Cupertino America's drug watchdog this week gave Apple permission to market its AirPods Pro 2 as over-the-counter hearing aids, disrupting an industry where traditional devices have often cost thousands of dollars.…
  Iain Thomson
• EU OKs $1.9B aid for Intel Polish plant, assuming x86 giant doesn't end up cutting it 2024-09-13
  That's zloty money but is it too little, too late? Intel is scrambling to stanch the bleeding of its floundering foundry business, but in Poland at least the chipmaker's luck is looking up.…
  Tobias Mann
• AI giants pinky swear (again) not to help make deepfake smut 2024-09-13
  Oh look, another voluntary, non-binding agreement to do better Some of the largest AI firms in America have given the White House a solemn pledge to prevent their AI products from being used to generate non-consensual deepfake pornography and child sexual abuse material.…
  Brandon Vigliarolo
• Feeld dating app's security too open-minded as private data swings into public view 2024-09-13
  No love for months-long wait to fix this, either Security researchers have revealed a litany of failures in the Feeld dating app that could be abused to access all manner of private user data, including the most sensitive images not intended to be kept or shared.…
  Connor Jones
• The Europa Clipper stretches its wings as launch nears 2024-09-13
  Solar arrays are massive... but it's the transistors onlookers are really worried about NASA's Europa Clipper is now less than a month from its October 10 launch, and the US space agency has shown off the spacecraft's giant solar arrays. However, concerns persist over how well the probe's electronics will fare in the harsh Jovian […]
  Richard Speed
• Win 11 refreshes delayed, say PC makers – and here's why 2024-09-13
  Oh and about those AI computers... analysts reckon there are still no killer apps or convincing use cases Admins had better dust off their Windows migration skills if Dell and HP are right that a refresh wave of "aging" commercial PC estates is picking up pace – even though the process is slower to happen […]
  Paul Kunert
• MongoDB CEO says if AI hype were the dotcom boom, it is 1996 2024-09-13
  NoSQL database slinger attempts to reassure investors, kinda Analysis  It is 1996 in terms of the business adoption of AI if it were put on the dotcom era timeline, according to MongoDB CEO Dev Ittycheria.…
  Lindsay Clark
• Post-CrowdStrike catastrophe, Microsoft figures moving antivirus out of Windows kernel mode is a good idea 2024-09-13
  Existing low-level access for security solutions will undergo a rework Microsoft says it's working on Windows to allow endpoint security solutions to operate effectively outside of the operating system's kernel, all with a view to preventing any future CrowdStrike-esque mega-outages.…
  Connor Jones
• Boeing union workers in US reject contract: 96% vote to strike 2024-09-13
  Doubtful processes, risky spacecraft, what else could possibly go wrong? Oh...30,000 staff off work Industrial difficulties can be added to the list of woes at aerospace giant Boeing after members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 751 voted in favor of strike action.…
  Richard Speed
• As Oracle's AWS deal completes Big 3 triumvirate, questions remain over licensing 2024-09-13
  Some users will see the appeal of Big Red stacking its hardware in Amazon's datacenters Analysis  At Big Red's recent CloudWorld shindig in Las Vegas, Matt Garman, CEO of AWS, looked comfortable and relaxed being hosted by arch rival Oracle.…
  Lindsay Clark
• UK watchdog fears Voda-Three merger will balloon phone bills for customers 2024-09-13
  Analysts claim it would be better for competition though Britain's competition watchdog is worried the proposed merger between Vodafone and Three UK could lead to bigger bills for customers, a view rejected by the companies who see it as a chance to transform the local mobile market with fresh investment.…
  Dan Robinson
• 'Hyperscale customer' to take massive datacenter site near London 2024-09-13
  'Commercially sensitive' incognito buyer has a lot more support than last group that tried to build a bit barn near M25 Exclusive  One of Europe's largest datacenter campuses is scheduled to be built in the UK close to the M25 motorway in Hertfordshire, permission pending, with a yet to be identified hyperscale customer set to […]
  Dan Robinson
• Muppet broke the datacenter every day, in its own weighty way 2024-09-13
  Mr Snuffleupagus turned out to be all too real and bad at database resilience On Call  By Friday the weight of the world presses down upon even the most enthusiastic IT pro, which is why The Register uses the last day of the working week to lighten the load with a new instalment of On […]
  Simon Sharwood
• OpenAI's latest o1 model family tries to emulate 'reasoning' – tho might overthink things a bit 2024-09-13
  'Chain of thought' techniques mean latest LLM 'better' at stepping through complex challenges OpenAI on Thursday introduced o1, its latest large language model family, which it claims is capable of emulating complex reasoning.…
  Thomas Claburn
• Japan to put a small red Swedish house on the Moon 2024-09-13
  No, you read that right Tokyo-headquartered company ispace announced on Thursday it is sending a tiny toy red Swedish house to the Moon.…
  Laura Dobberstein
• Cambodian senator sanctioned by US over alleged forced labor cyber-scam camps 2024-09-13
  Do not go on holiday to the O Smach Resort The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued sanctions on Thursday against Cambodian entrepreneur and senator Ly Yong Phat, for his "role in serious human rights abuse related to the treatment of trafficked workers subjected to forced labor in online scam […]
  Simon Sharwood
• Australia’s government spent the week boxing Big Tech 2024-09-13
  With social media age limits, anti-scam laws, privacy tweaks, and misinformation rules Elon Musk labelled 'fascist' Australia's government has spent the week reining in Big Tech.…
  Simon Sharwood