TheRegister
Experiment suggests AI chatbot would save insurance agents a whopping 3 minutes a day
Researchers at Dakota State University, in partnership with regional insurance carrier Safety Insurance, devised an experimental chatbot called "Axlerod" to assist independent insurance agents. Whether that assistance was substantial is up for some debate.…
Micron breaks ground on humungous NY DRAM fab after beating bats and tree huggers
Micron broke snowy winter ground in New York on Friday to begin building a chip fab that promises to bring up to 50,000 jobs and much-needed computer memory production to US shores, as the AI boom continues to push memory prices up.…
Sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that! PCs refuse to shut down after Microsoft patch
We're not saying Copilot has become sentient and decided it doesn't want to lose consciousness. But if it did, it would create Microsoft's January Patch Tuesday update, which has made it so that some PCs flat-out refuse to shut down or hibernate, no matter how many times you try.…
Windows Backup adds second-chance restore at sign-in
Microsoft has quietly tweaked Windows Backup for Organizations to include restore at first sign-in.…
Ready for a newbie-friendly Linux? Mint team officially releases v 22.3, 'Zena'
The timing is right if you're looking to try out Mint. New improved "Zena" is here – still based on Ubuntu Noble, but now with Cinnamon 6.6 and improved Wayland support, plus better internationalization, new System Information and System Administration tools, and clearer icons.…
German cops add Black Basta boss to EU most-wanted list
German cops have added Russian national Oleg Evgenievich Nefekov to their list of most-wanted criminals for his services to ransomware.…
Meta retreats from metaverse after virtual reality check
Imagine changing your popular brand to capitalize on an emerging tech trend that never emerged. Mark Zuckerberg did just that, and now Meta is backing away from the virtual reality business in which it invested billions.…
Hyperscalers, vendors funding trillion dollar AI spree, but users will have to pay up long term
Software vendors and cloud providers are bearing the burden of the expected trillion-dollar increase in AI spending this year, as investment hits $2.52 trillion, according to Gartner.…
Lawmakers urge FTC to probe Trump Mobile over 'deceptive' marketing
Senator Elizabeth Warren is leading calls for the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Trump Mobile for failing to ship gold phones, months after collecting deposits.…
RondoDox botnet linked to large-scale exploit of critical HPE OneView bug
A critical HPE OneView flaw is now being exploited at scale, with Check Point tying mass, automated attacks to the RondoDox botnet.…
Congress throws NASA a lifeline, leaves Mars sample mission to die in the dust
US Congress has rejected plans to slash NASA's science budget, restoring most funding with one notable exception: Mars Sample Return remains cancelled.…
Researchers scrutinize datacenters' lifecycles, aiming to make them more sustainable
Constructing datacenters accounts for 39 percent of their total carbon dioxide emissions, almost as much as operating them, according to an environmental analysis covering the entire lifecycle of a facility.…
Bankrupt scooter startup left one private key to rule them all
An Estonian e-scooter owner locked out of his own ride after the manufacturer went bust did what any determined engineer might do. He reverse-engineered it, and claims he ended up discovering the master key that unlocks every scooter the company ever sold.…
Just because Linus Torvalds vibe codes doesn't mean it's a good idea
Opinion Vibe coding got a big boost when everyone's favorite open source programmer, Linux's Linus Torvalds, said he'd been using Google's Antigravity LLM on his toy program AudioNoise, which he uses to create "random digital audio effects" using his "random guitar pedal board design."…
Probably not the best security in the world: Carlsberg wristbands spill visitor pics
Exclusive The Carlsberg exhibition in Copenhagen offers a bunch of fun activities, like blending your own beer, and the Danish brewer lets you relive those memories by making images available to download after the tour is over.…
An old parking meter and a Pi make beautiful music together
An enterprising engineer has turned an old parking meter into a jukebox using a Pi Zero 2 and some open source code.…
Engineer used welding shop air hose to 'clean' PCs – hilarity did not ensue
On Call Welcome again to On Call, The Register's Friday column in which we take great delight in telling your tech support stories – mostly the ones involving bizarre behavior and heroic fixes.…
Wikimedia’s 25th birthday gift: Letting more AIs scour pages volunteers created
The Wikimedia Foundation, the org behind Wikipedia and other open knowledge platforms, has revealed it’s signed six more AI companies as ‘enterprise partners’, status that gives them preferential access to the content it tends.…
TSMC sees no signs of the AI boom slowing for at least two or three years
Taiwanese chipmaking giant TSMC has posted huge growth, says more is on the way as the AI boom is not abating, but also pointed to the inevitability of price rises for its output.…
OpenAI invests in brain-interface biz co-founded by CEO Sam Altman
OpenAI, having invested heavily in artificial intelligence, is placing a side bet on organic intelligence.…