TheRegister
China says its lunar lander passed Luna-landing and take-off tests
China’s Manned Space Engineering Network says the country’s first crewed lunar lander last week completed a comprehensive landing and takeoff verification test, bringing it closer to landing on Luna - and leaving it again afterwards.…
Google fixing Gemini so it doesn't channel paranoid androids quite so often
Google is aware that its Gemini AI chatbot can sometimes castigate itself harshly for failing to solve a problem and plans to fix it.…
Nvidia and AMD reportedly chipping in to Washington’s coffers with 15 percent fee for China sales
Nvidia and AMD will reportedly be allowed to resume sales in China if they cough a license fee amounting to 15 percent of sales.…
India’s services giant TCS lays off over 10,000 for reasons including AI, hikes wages for survivors
Asia In Brief Indian services giant Tata Consultancy Services will shed over 10,000 staff but will give pay rises to most of those who remain.…
Trend Micro offers weak workaround for already-exploited critical vuln in management console
Infosec In Brief A critical vulnerability in the on-prem version of Trend Micro's Apex One endpoint security platform is under active exploitation, the company admitted last week, and there's no patch available.…
DEF CON hackers plug security holes in US water systems amid tsunami of threats
def con A DEF CON hacker walks into a small-town water facility…no, this is not the setup for a joke or a (super-geeky) odd-couple rom-com. It's a true story that happened at five utilities across four states.…
How OpenAI used a new data type to cut inference costs by 75%
Analysis Whether or not OpenAI's new open weights models are any good is still up for debate, but their use of a relatively new data type called MXFP4 is arguably more important, especially if it catches on among OpenAI's rivals.…
NASA won't name the Shuttle picked to move to Texas
The NASA acting Administrator has picked a Space Shuttle to move to Houston, and the lucky vehicle is... NASA's not telling.…
The inside story of the Telemessage saga, and how you can view the data
DEF CON On Saturday at DEF CON, security boffin Micah Lee explained just how he hacked into TeleMessage, the supposedly secure messaging app used by White House officials, which in turn led to a massive database dump of their communications.…
The dead need right to delete their data so they can't be AI-ified, lawyer says
People die but their data may endure, which troubles legal scholar Victoria Haneman.…
The International Obfuscated C Code Contest is back for 2024
The IOCCC, as it's familiarly known, is back after a four-year gap, giving the entrants more time to come up with some remarkably devious code.…
UK unveils plans to 'transform' the consumer smart meter experience
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero plans "tough new obligations" for energy suppliers to boost the long-delayed and heavily over-budget UK rollout of smart meters, while promising better support for those who have already received such a device.…
Humans make better content cops than AI, but cost 40x more
Human content moderators still outperform AI when it comes to recognizing policy-violating material, but they also cost significantly more.…
Chinese biz using AI to hit US politicians, influencers with propaganda
DEF CON A cache of documents uncovered by Vanderbilt University has revealed disturbing details about how a Chinese company is building up a database of US politicians and influencers with whom to share propaganda.…
Meet President Willian H. Brusen from the great state of Onegon
hands on OpenAI's GPT-5, unveiled on Thursday, is supposed to be the company's flagship model, offering better reasoning and more accurate responses than previous-gen products. But when we asked it to draw maps and timelines, it responded with answers from an alternate dimension.…
Ubuntu 24.04.3: Noble Numbat point release slips out quietly
The latest point release of the current Ubuntu LTS is here, with a new kernel and a host of improvements for server and desktop alike.…
Star leaky app of the week: StarDict
As Trixie gets ready to début, a little-known app is hogging the limelight: StarDict, which sends whatever text you select, unencrypted, to servers in China.…
Sudden spike in demand causes issues in Azure East US region
A problem with resources for virtual machines is still affecting users in Azure's East US region after more than a week, frustrated admins have told us, despite Microsoft saying the incident is now resolved.…
Ex-White House cyber, counter-terrorism guru: Microsoft considers security an annoyance, not a necessity
Comment Roger Cressey served two US presidents as a senior cybersecurity and counter-terrorism advisor and currently worries he'll experience a "political aneurysm" due to Microsoft's many security messes.…
NASA boss calls for nuclear reactor on the Moon
NASA's Acting Administrator, Sean Duffy, has directed the US space agency to come up with a plan to deploy a nuclear reactor on the Moon.…