TheRegister
Open Document Format turns 20, but Microsoft Office still reigns supreme
It's been 20 years since the Open Document Format (ODF) became a standard, marking a milestone in the push for open, vendor-neutral file formats — and the beginning of a long but largely unsuccessful attempt to loosen Microsoft Office's grip on the desktop.…
Trump wants to fire quarter of NASA budget into black hole – and not in a good way
The White House has proposed slashing NASA's budget by 24 percent, dropping it from $24.8 billion to $18.8 billion. If approved, it would mark one of the agency's deepest single-year cuts in federal support, and crash its inflation-adjusted funding to levels not seen in decades.…
Meta blames Trump tariffs for ballooning AI infra bills
World War Fee Meta's AI ambitions are going to cost more than expected thanks to increased competition and — who could have seen this coming? — the Trump administration's obsession with tariffs, which is driving up the price tag of key components.…
Oregon State University's Open Source Lab is running on fumes
Higher education across the USA is facing federal funding cutbacks – and now the Oregon State University (OSU) Open Source Lab (OSL) is in trouble.…
NATS custody battle ends with CNCF and Synadia sharing nicely
The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) has reached an agreement with Synadia, the company behind open source messaging system NATS, which will see it control the trademark, domain name, and GitHub repositories.…
Raspberry Pi slices Compute Module 4 prices
Raspberry Pi has bucked tech industry trends and cut prices for the 4 GB and 8 GB variants of its Compute Module 4.…
Disney Slack attack wasn't Russian protesters, just a Cali dude with malware
When someone stole more than a terabyte of data from Disney last year, it was believed to be the work of Russian hacktivists protesting for artist rights. We now know it was actually a 25-year-old California resident.…
Generative AI makes fraud fluent – from phishing lures to fake lovers
RSAC Spam messages predate the web itself, and generative AI has given it a fluency upgrade, churning out slick, localized scams and letting crooks hit regions and dialects they used to ignore.…
20% discount offer on Windows 365 expires around same time as Windows 10 support
Microsoft has announced a price cut for Windows 365 alongside a not-so-subtle suggestion that Windows 10 users might consider taking advantage of the offer to keep security updates flowing.…
Three Brits charged over 'active shooter threats' swattings in US, Canada
Three young Brits are accused of stateside swatting offences and will appear in a UK court today to face their charges after a joint investigation by the FBI and Merseyside cops.…
TikTok fined €530M after EU user data ends up on servers in China
Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC) has confirmed a fine of €530 million ($600 million) against social media biz TikTok for transferring European user data to China.…
UK's smaller broadband operators face tough road ahead, consolidation possible
Alternative network providers (altnets) are facing tough competition from the big players in the UK broadband market, with consolidation likely in the face of slowing growth in fiber internet uptake.…
British govt agents step in as Harrods becomes third mega retailer under cyberattack
Harrods, a globally recognized purveyor of all things luxury, is the third major UK retailer to confirm an attempted cyberattack on its systems in under two weeks.…
The Telegraph jumps the gun on World War III
World War III might have begun this week, according to British broadsheet The Telegraph.…
Open source AI hiring bots favor men, leave women hanging by the phone
Open source AI models are more likely to recommend men than women for jobs, particularly the high-paying ones, a new study has found.…
Techie solved supposed software problem by waving his arms in the air
On Call Welcome once again to On Call, The Register's reader-contributed column that each Friday serves up your stories of biting into half-baked tech support problems.…
Trio arrested in £3M UK bribery probe over Microsoft datacenter build in Netherlands
UK authorities on Wednesday arrested three individuals in connection with a multi-million-pound bribery probe tied to the construction of a Microsoft datacenter in the Netherlands.…
China turns on ‘minors mode’ that ensures kids only see wholesome socialist content online
China has flicked the switch on ‘Minor’s mode’, a subset of its internet in which under-18s will only see wholesome content.…
Siri? Will tariffs hurt Apple? Tim Cook says brace for a $900 million whack, for starters
Apple believes the USA’s new tariffs policy will impact its finances by at least $900 million in its next quarter, has re-organized its supply chains to protect itself from whatever comes next, but can’t predict the impact on its business.…
Liz Warren, Trump admin agree on something: Army should have right to repair
The US Army intends to secure the right to repair its own equipment, a right that hasn't always been available under past procurement contracts - and one of the very few things that Democrats in Congress and the Trump administration broadly agree upon.…