TheRegister
UK names Barnsley as first Tech Town to see whether AI can fix... well, anything
AI-pocalypse Barnsley, a town in South Yorkshire, England, best known for coal mining and glassmaking, is being thrust into the limelight as the country's first "Tech Town" – shoehorning AI into everything from local businesses to public services.…
Firefox makes AI optional, like it probably should have been all along
Mozilla has decided that if AI is going to live in your browser, you should at least be able to kill it when it gets annoying.…
NASA delays Artemis II to March after hydrogen leaks bedevil countdown test
NASA has concluded a Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR) for Artemis II, but recurring liquid hydrogen leaks forced the test to be halted short of completion, prompting the agency to delay the mission's launch to at least March 2026.…
DIY AI bot farm OpenClaw is a security 'dumpster fire'
OpenClaw, the AI-powered personal assistant users interact with via messaging apps and sometimes entrust with their credentials to various online services, has prompted a wave of malware and is delivering some shocking bills.…
British military to get legal OK to swat drones near bases
Britain's defense personnel will be given the authority to neutralize drones threatening military bases under measures being introduced in the Armed Forces Bill, currently making its way through Parliament.…
Microsoft kills standalone SharePoint and OneDrive plans, because they’re not suite enough
Microsoft has slipped out news that it’s killing some standalone SharePoint and OneDrive plans.…
South Korea enlists AI to spot pump and dump schemes on social media, or in Spam
South Korea’s government and main stock exchange have developed and deployed AI-powered tools to detect schemes that aim to send the price of cryptocurrencies and shares soaring so that unscrupulous investors can cash in.…
Elon Musk merges xAI into SpaceX to spread universal consciousness via a sentient sun
Elon Musk on Monday revealed his space company SpaceX has acquired his AI outfit xAI, and that the two will work together to escape the surly bonds of Earthly powers by tapping the sun's enduring glow.…
Notepad++ hijacking blamed on Chinese Lotus Blossom crew behind Chrysalis backdoor
Security researchers have attributed the Notepad++ update hijacking to a Chinese government-linked espionage crew called Lotus Blossom (aka Lotus Panda, Billbug), which abused weaknesses in the update infrastructure to gain a foothold in high-value targets by delivering a newly identified backdoor dubbed Chrysalis.…
Let them eat Pi: RAM shortage bumps Raspberry prices as much as $60
That slice of Pi is getting much more expensive. Everyone’s favorite single-board computer, the Raspberry Pi, is jumping up in price again, with increases ranging from $10 to $60, depending on how much memory your board has.…
Intel welcomes memory apocalypse with Xeon workstation refresh
Intel's workstation lineup is getting a much-needed refresh with the launch of its Xeon 600-series processors, boasting up to 86 cores and clocks topping 4.9 GHz. Chipzilla's timing couldn't be worse.…
There's nothing micro about this super-sized Arduino Uno
Arduino boards power everything from robots to RGB lights, but they're a little on the small side. YouTuber UncleStem has his own solution: build a gigantic, yet fully functional one.…
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Come on, admit it. You like seeing banner ads on your favorite web pages, because they provide a nice break from reading text. If you're honest about this feeling, there's a new extension for you.…
DRAM prices expected to double in Q1 as AI ambitions push memory fabs to their limit
The memory shortage is worse than most of us first thought. Prices on DRAM and NAND flash memory are expected to surge in the first quarter of 2026 as AI-driven hyperscalers and cloud service providers (CSPs) continue to strain supply chains.…
StopICE hacked to send alarming text messages, admins accuse border patrol agent of sabotage
ICE-reporting service StopICE has blamed a US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent for attacking its app and website and sending users text messages warning them that their information had been "sent to the authorities."…
Russia-linked APT28 attackers already abusing new Microsoft Office zero-day
Russia-linked attackers are already exploiting Microsoft's latest Office zero-day, with Ukraine's national cyber defense team warning that the same bug is being used to target government agencies inside the country and organizations across the EU.…
Oracle's first general on-prem release of its .ai database iteration draws skeptics
Last week, Oracle announced the general availability of Oracle AI Database 26ai Enterprise Edition for Linux x86‑64, but 13-year support for 19c and the prospect of AI lock-in might make users think twice about upgrading to it.…
McDonald's is not lovin' your bigmac, happymeal, and mcnuggets passwords
Change Your Password Day took place over the weekend, and in case you doubt the need to improve this most basic element of cybersecurity hygiene, even McDonald's – yes, the fast food chain – is urging people to get more creative when it comes to passwords. …
Snowflake bets $200M that OpenAI makes databases more chatty
Snowflake plans to spend as much as $200 million with OpenAI to bring its models and chatbot into the database vendor's sandbox and toolset. Features such as Cortex AI and Snowflake Intelligence will get a boost from the house of Altman.…
Patch Tuesday meets Groundhog Day as Windows hibernation bug returns
Microsoft rounded off January by adding more devices to the list of those affected by the hibernation issue it claimed had been fixed by an out-of-band update.…