The Antenna

finding signal in the noise

Items collected from feeds in science_and_technology.txt

science and technology

(date: 2025-04-04 06:07:42)


Ubuntu 25.04 beta takes flight – but this Plucky Puffin is still molting

date: 2025-04-04, updated: 2025-04-04, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

'Pudgy' might be more apt given the download size

The beta version of Ubuntu 25.04, the next interim release of this Linux OS, has arrived.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/04/ubuntu_2504_beta/


30 minutes to pwn town: Are speedy responses more important than backups for recovery?

date: 2025-04-04, updated: 2025-04-04, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

The industry’s approach to keeping quality backups may be masking the importance of other recovery mainstays

Maintaining good-quality backups is often seen as the spine of any organization's ability to recover from cyberattacks quickly. Naturally, given the emphasis placed on them by experts of all stripes, you'd be forgiven for thinking that prioritizing them over anything else would be the way to go.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/04/30_minutes_to_pwn_town/


Hubble Studies a Nearby Galaxy’s Star Formation

date: 2025-04-04, from: NASA breaking news

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the picturesque spiral galaxy NGC 4941, which lies about 67 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo (The Maiden). Because this galaxy is nearby, cosmically speaking, Hubble’s keen instruments are able to pick out exquisite details such as individual star clusters and filamentary clouds of gas and […]


https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/hubble-studies-a-nearby-galaxys-star-formation/


Governments cling to private cloud despite inexorable public cloud adoption

date: 2025-04-04, updated: 2025-04-04, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

The need to scale still battling security worries … on both sides

Governments continue to adopt cloud services, for better or worse, hoping to modernize their IT services, leading big cloud operators to aggressively court public sector bodies for lucrative contracts.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/04/public_sector_private_cloud/


Home Office haunted by 25-year-old asylum system

date: 2025-04-04, updated: 2025-04-04, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

'Full benefit' of replacement will not be realized until old one is shut down, projects watchdog warns

The effectiveness of new IT systems designed to speed up asylum claim processing in the UK continues to be held back by the Home Office's failure to decommission its 25-year-old case management database, five years after it promised to retire it.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/04/home_office_asylum_system/


Alan Turing Institute: UK can’t handle a fight against AI-enabled crims

date: 2025-04-04, updated: 2025-04-04, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Law enforcement facing huge gap in 'AI adoption'

The National Crime Agency (NCA) will "closely examine" the recommendations made by the Alan Turing Institute after it claimed the UK was ill-equipped to tackle AI-enabled crime.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/04/nca_ati_ai_report/


Hubble Spots Stellar Sculptors in Nearby Galaxy

date: 2025-04-04, from: NASA breaking news

As part of ESA/Hubble’s 35th anniversary celebrations, the European Space Agency (ESA) is sharing a new image series revisiting stunning, previously released Hubble targets with the addition of the latest Hubble data and new processing techniques. This new image showcases the dazzling young star cluster NGC 346. Although both the James Webb Space Telescope and […]


https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/hubble-spots-stellar-sculptors-in-nearby-galaxy/


How do you explain what magnetic fields do to monitors to people wearing bowling shoes?

date: 2025-04-04, updated: 2025-04-04, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Techie demoed the effect in about 3 seconds, as On Call again tries to break tech-support world records

On Call  The working week sometimes speeds by, sometimes crawls, and often ends with a crash. Each Friday, we try to avert the latter by delivering a new edition of On Call, The Register's reader-contributed tales of handling ridiculous, ribald, and remarkable tech support requests.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/04/on_call/


Ex-ASML, NXP staffer accused of stealing chip secrets, peddling them to Moscow

date: 2025-04-04, updated: 2025-04-04, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

We're not Putin up with this alleged industrial espionage, say the Dutch

A Russian national appeared in a Netherlands court on Thursday accused of industrial espionage against ASML, the world’s leading manufacturer of chip factory equipment and a key supplier that helps the likes of TSMC pump out top-drawer processors.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/04/amsl_russian_spy/


Retirement funds reportedly raided after unexplained portal probes and data theft

date: 2025-04-04, updated: 2025-04-04, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Australians checking their pensions are melting down call centres and websites

Australian retirement fund operators are scrambling after reports emerged of unauthorized access to customer accounts leading to theft of cash.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/04/australian_retirement_funds_attacked/


China’s chip champ Loongson teases trio of new processors for lappies, factories, maybe servers too

date: 2025-04-04, updated: 2025-04-04, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Probably still behind western rivals, but improved GPU and higher core count can’t hurt

Chinese chip designer Loongson, whose products have been promoted by China’s government, has teased two new designs that will make it more of a contender for mobile and industrial applications. It may also have a new server up its sleeve.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/04/loongson_cpu_update/


Signalgate: Pentagon watchdog probes Defense Sec Hegseth

date: 2025-04-04, updated: 2025-04-04, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Classification compliance? Records retention requirements? How quaint

A US Department of Defense watchdog has opened an investigation into its own Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, over his use of instant-messaging app Signal to discuss government business.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/04/hegseth_inspector_general/


For flux sake: CISA, annexable allies warn of hot DNS threat

date: 2025-04-03, updated: 2025-04-04, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Shape shifting technique described as menace to national security

The US govt's Cybersecurity Infrastructure Agency, aka CISA, on Thursday urged organizations, internet service providers, and security firms to strengthen defenses against so-called fast flux attacks.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/03/cisa_and_annexable_allies_warn/


Debugging Lotus 1-2-3 by fax

date: 2025-04-03, from: OS News

There isn’t a lot to this story beyond the fact that in around 1990 I helped debug someone’s Lotus 1-2-3 set up via fax. But it’s a good reminder of how important the Zeroth Law of Debugging is (see below). Without some sort of online connection with these folks, and with transatlantic phone calls being very, very expensive (I was in the UK, they were in the US) fax was the obvious answer. ↫ John Graham Honestly, this would still be easier today than some of the bug reporting systems I’ve seen.


https://www.osnews.com/story/142044/debugging-lotus-1-2-3-by-fax/


Windows 9x QuickInstall simplifies installing Windows 98

date: 2025-04-03, from: OS News

If you’re elbow-deep in ’90s retrocomputing and maintain a fleet of your own personal seemingly identical but definitely completely different Windows 98 machines, Windows 9x QuickInstall is tailor-made just for you. It takes the root file system of an already installed Windows 98 system and packages it, whilst allowing drivers and tools to be slipstreamed at will. For the installer, it uses Linux as a base, paired with some tools to allow hard disk partitioning and formatting, as well as a custom installer with a custom data packing method that is optimized for streaming directly from CD to the hard disk without any seeking. ↫ Windows 9x QuickInstall gitHub page What you end up with is an easily customisable packaged Windows 98 installation that can be installed onto computers (or in virtual machines, I guess) at blazing speeds. It’s a relatively simple concept, but its implementation is genius and definitely not simple at all. This is a great tool for the retrocomputing community.


https://www.osnews.com/story/142042/windows-9x-quickinstall-simplifies-installing-windows-98/


date: 2025-04-03, updated: 2025-04-03, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

And it can be yours for a rather steep $349

Microsoft's Windows 365 Link has reached general availability, although some may question its value.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/03/windows_365_link/


NASA Supports Wildland Fire Technology Demonstration

date: 2025-04-03, from: NASA breaking news

Advancements in NASA’s airborne technology have made it possible to gather localized wind data and assess its impacts on smoke and fire behavior. This information could improve wildland fire decision making and enable operational agencies to better allocate firefighters and resources. A small team from NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, is demonstrating […]


https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/armstrong/nasa-supports-wildland-fire-technology-demonstration/


Suspected Chinese spies right now hijacking buggy Ivanti gear – for third time in 3 years

date: 2025-04-03, updated: 2025-04-03, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Simple denial-of-service blunder turned out to be remote unauth code exec disaster

Suspected Chinese government spies have been exploiting a newly disclosed critical bug in Ivanti VPN appliances since mid-March. This is now at least the third time in three years these snoops have been pwning these products.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/03/suspected_chines_snoops_hijacked_buggy/


University Student Research Challenge (USRC) Awards

date: 2025-04-03, from: NASA breaking news

University Student Research Challenge (USRC) seeks to challenge students to propose new ideas/concepts that are relevant to NASA Aeronautics. USRC will provide students, from accredited U.S. colleges or universities, with grants for their projects and with the challenge of raising cost share funds through a crowdfunding campaign. The process of creating and implementing a crowdfunding […]


https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/armd/tacp/ui/armd-tacp-ui-usrc/usrc-awards/


Artemis II Insignia Honors All

date: 2025-04-03, from: NASA breaking news

The four astronauts who will be the first to fly to the Moon under NASA’s Artemis campaign have designed an emblem to represent their mission that references both their distant destination and the home they will return to. The crew unveiled their patch in this April 2, 2025, photo. The crew explained the patch’s symbolism, […]


https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/artemis-ii-insignia-honors-all/


Sols 4498-4499: Flexing Our Arm Once Again

date: 2025-04-03, from: NASA breaking news

Written by Conor Hayes, Graduate Student at York University Earth planning date: Monday, March 31, 2025 Planning today began with two pieces of great news. First, our 50-meter drive (about 164 feet) from the weekend plan completed successfully, bringing us oh-so-close to finally driving out of the small canyon that we’ve been traversing through and […]


https://science.nasa.gov/blog/sols-4498-4499-flexing-our-arm-once-again/


NASA Astronaut Chris Williams Assigned to First Space Station Mission

date: 2025-04-03, from: NASA breaking news

NASA astronaut Chris Williams will embark on his first mission to the International Space Station, serving as a flight engineer and Expedition 74 crew member. Williams will launch aboard the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft in November, accompanied by Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev. After launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the trio […]


https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-astronaut-chris-williams-assigned-to-first-space-station-mission/


Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellites now boarding the rocket to relevance

date: 2025-04-03, updated: 2025-04-03, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Jeff Bezos' other space business finally shows signs of life with launch scheduled for next week

The first batch of Amazon's Project Kuiper satellites is due to be lofted into orbit next week.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/03/project_kuiper_launch/


Perseverance Rover Witnesses One Martian Dust Devil Eating Another

date: 2025-04-03, from: NASA breaking news

The six-wheeled explorer recently captured several Red Planet mini-twisters spinning on the rim of Jezero Crater. A Martian dust devil can be seen consuming a smaller one in this short video made of images taken by a navigation camera aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover. These swirling, sometimes towering columns of air and dust are common […]


https://www.nasa.gov/missions/mars-2020-perseverance/perseverance-rover/perseverance-rover-witnesses-one-martian-dust-devil-eating-another/


La NASA aumenta su eficiencia con un piso modificado para el avión X-66

date: 2025-04-03, from: NASA breaking news

Read this story in English here. La NASA diseño unas tablas de piso temporales para el avión MD-90, que se utilizaran mientras el avión se transforma en el demostrador experimental X-66. Estas tablas de piso protegerán el piso original y agilizarán el proceso de modificación.   En apoyo al proyecto Demostrador de Vuelo Sostenible de la agencia, […]


https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/la-nasa-aumenta-su-eficiencia-con-un-piso-modificado-para-el-avion-x-66/


When disaster strikes, proper preparation prevents poor performance

date: 2025-04-03, updated: 2025-04-03, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

It's going to happen to you one day, so get your ducks in a row

As Benjamin Franklin famously said: "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," and that's especially true when it comes to disaster recovery.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/03/disaster_planning_preparation/


What Is the True Promise of Quantum Computing?

date: 2025-04-03, from: Quanta Magazine

Despite the hype, it’s been surprisingly challenging to find quantum algorithms that outperform classical ones. In this episode, Ewin Tang discusses her pioneering work in “dequantizing” quantum algorithms — and what it means for the future of quantum computing.

The post What Is the True Promise of Quantum Computing? first appeared on Quanta Magazine


https://www.quantamagazine.org/what-is-the-true-promise-of-quantum-computing-20250403/


NASA Langley’s Legacy of Landing

date: 2025-04-03, from: NASA breaking news

Landing safely on the surface of another planetary body, like the Moon or Mars, is one of the most important milestones of any given space mission. From the very beginning, NASA’s Langley Research Center has been at the heart of the entry, descent and landing (EDL) research that enables our exploration. Today, NASA Langley’s legacy […]


https://www.nasa.gov/general/nasa-langleys-legacy-of-landing/


Mediatek wants to make Chromebooks more like Copilot+ PCs

date: 2025-04-03, updated: 2025-04-03, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Arm-based silicon to help Google hardware muscle in on territory of Microsoft's own Arm-based PCs

MediaTek is bringing out a new chip for Chromebooks that blurs the boundary with Copilot+ PCs, sporting an 8-core CPU cluster and a neural processing unit (NPU) rated at 50 TOPS.


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/03/mediatek_wants_to_make_chromebooks/


Bill Gates unearths Microsoft’s ancient code like a proud nerd dad

date: 2025-04-03, updated: 2025-04-03, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Founder shares 4K Altair BASIC source ahead of 50th anniversary

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has shared the 1975 source code for Altair BASIC.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/03/bill_gates_altair_basic/


Why is someone mass-scanning Juniper and Palo Alto Networks products?

date: 2025-04-03, updated: 2025-04-04, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Espionage? Botnets? Trying to exploit a zero-day?

Updated  Someone or something is probing devices made by Juniper Networks and Palo Alto Networks, and researchers think it could be evidence of espionage attempts, attempts to build a botnet, or an effort to exploit zero-day vulnerabilities.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/03/unknown_scanners_probing_juniper_paloalto/


Zorin OS 17.3 takes the Brave step of changing its default browser from Firefox

date: 2025-04-03, updated: 2025-04-03, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

To be fair, it sounds like the team has ironed out the more controversial features

Comment  The latest version of Zorin OS, a popular Windows-macOS-like Ubuntu Linux remix, looks good, but there's one change that causes this vulture some concern.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/03/zorin_os_173/


EU: These are scary times – let’s backdoor encryption!

date: 2025-04-03, updated: 2025-04-03, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

ProtectEU plan wants to have its cake and eat it too

The EU has shared its plans to ostensibly keep the continent's denizens secure – and among the pages of bureaucratese are a few worrying sections that indicate the political union wants to backdoor encryption by 2026, or even sooner.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/03/eu_backdoor_encryption/


System builders say server prices set to spike as Trump plays customs cowboy

date: 2025-04-03, updated: 2025-04-03, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Tariff moves threaten supply chain stability

The cost of buying servers for business will inevitably rise as a result of US President Donald Trump's trade policies, at least in the short term, as uncertainty grips the supply chain.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/03/trump_tariffs_servers/


Heterogeneous stacks, ransomware, and ITaaS: A DR nightmare

date: 2025-04-03, updated: 2025-04-03, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Recovery's never been harder in today's tangled, outsourced infrastructure

Comment  Disaster recovery is getting tougher as IT estates sprawl across on-prem gear, public cloud, SaaS, and third-party ITaaS providers. And it's not floods or fires causing most outages anymore - ransomware now leads the pack, taking down systems faster than any natural disaster.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/03/heterogeneity_itaas_ransomware_disaster_recovery/


UK government told to get a grip on £23B tech spend

date: 2025-04-03, updated: 2025-04-03, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Former official also points to processes driving up the cost of IT investment

The UK government does not have a clear picture of what it is spending on digital technology, and its approach to buying associated services and products drives up the cost of investment, MPs have heard.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/03/uk_government_told_to_get/


date: 2025-04-03, updated: 2025-04-03, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Think tank report backs data mining for machine learning, leaving artists and rights holders behind

Opinion  Former UK prime minister Tony Blair became famous for standing shoulder to shoulder with allies, even though the fallout from the Iraq war forever sullied his reputation. Nonetheless, the institute that bears his name makes it clear who it stands with when it comes to using copyrighted material to fuel the expansion of machine learning into every human domain.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/03/blair_institute_ai_copyright/


Customer info allegedly stolen from Royal Mail, Samsung via compromised supplier

date: 2025-04-03, updated: 2025-04-03, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Stamp it out: Infostealer malware at German outfit may be culprit

Britain's Royal Mail is investigating after a crew calling itself GHNA claimed it has put 144GB of the delivery giant’s data up for sale, perhaps after acquiring it with the same stolen credentials it used to crack Samsung Germany.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/03/royal_mail_data_spectos/


OpenStack delivers ‘Epoxy’ release, which it hopes will unglue more VMware customers

date: 2025-04-03, updated: 2025-04-03, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

The BBC and Blizzard Entertainment have chipped in with contributions

The Open InfraFoundation has delivered a new version of OpenStack named “Epoxy” and thinks it’s an even better option for those seeking a VMware alternative.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/03/openstack_epoxy_released/


date: 2025-04-03, updated: 2025-04-03, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

GPT-4o likely trained on O’Reilly books without permission, figures appear to show

Tech textbook tycoon Tim O'Reilly claims OpenAI mined his publishing house's copyright-protected tomes for training data and fed it all into its top-tier GPT-4o model without permission.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/03/openai_copyright_bypass/


Wikipedia’s overlords bemoan AI bot bandwidth burden

date: 2025-04-03, updated: 2025-04-03, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Crawlers snarfing long-tail content for training and whatnot cost us a fortune

Web-scraping bots have become an unsupportable burden for the Wikimedia community due to their insatiable appetite for online content to train AI models.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/03/wikimedia_foundation_bemoans_bot_bandwidth/


Americans set to pay more on all imports: Trump activates blanket tariffs

date: 2025-04-02, updated: 2025-04-03, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Tech slugged with higher duties, broad base 10% hike, semiconductors avoid retaliatory levies for now

US President Donald Trump has imposed a base ten percent tariff on imports into America, and higher levies on goods from major producers of digital tech, such as China, South Korea, and Taiwan.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/02/us_tariffs_liberation_day_announcement/


Raw Deel: Corporate spy admits role in espionage at HR software biz Rippling

date: 2025-04-02, updated: 2025-04-02, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Double-oh-sh…

The name's not Bond. It's O'Brien - Keith O'Brien, now-former global payroll compliance manager at the Dublin, Ireland office of HR software-as-a-service maker Rippling.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/02/deel_rippling_espionage/


NASA Makes Progress on Advanced Drone Safety Management System

date: 2025-04-02, from: NASA breaking news

From agriculture and law enforcement to entertainment and disaster response, industries are increasingly turning to drones for help, but the growing volume of these aircraft will require trusted safety management systems to maintain safe operations. NASA is testing a new software system to create an improved warning system – one that can predict hazards to drones before […]


https://www.nasa.gov/missions/aam/nasa-makes-progress-on-advanced-drone-safety-management-system/


Pennsylvania’s once top coal power plant eyed for revival as 4.5GW gas-fired AI campus

date: 2025-04-02, updated: 2025-04-02, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Seven gas turbines planned to juice datacenter demand by 2027

Developers on Wednesday announced plans to bring up to 4.5 gigawatts of natural gas-fired power online by 2027 at the site of what was once Pennsylvania's largest coal plant, as part of a proposed datacenter campus running AI and high-performance computing workloads.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/02/pennsylvanias_largest_coal_plant/


Artemis Astronauts & Orion Leadership Visit NASA Ames

date: 2025-04-02, from: NASA breaking news

As NASA prepares to send astronauts to the Moon aboard the Orion spacecraft, research, testing, and development at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley has played a critical role. Recently, Ames welcomed Artemis II astronauts Christina Koch and Victor Glover and Orion leaders Debbie Korth, deputy program manager, and Luis Saucedo, deputy crew […]


https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/ames/artemis-astronauts-and-orion-leadership-visit-nasa-ames/


What Are the Dangers of Going to Space? We Asked a NASA Expert: Episode 55

date: 2025-04-02, from: NASA breaking news

What are the dangers of going to space? For human spaceflight, the first thing I think about is the astronauts actually strapping themselves to a rocket. And if that isn’t dangerous enough, once they launch and they’re out into space in deep exploration, we have to worry about radiation. Radiation is coming at them from […]


https://www.nasa.gov/general/what-are-the-dangers-of-going-to-space-we-asked-a-nasa-expert-episode-55/


NASA Sets Coverage for Crew Launch to Join Station Expedition 72/73

date: 2025-04-02, from: NASA breaking news

NASA astronaut Jonny Kim will launch aboard the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft to the International Space Station, accompanied by cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky, where they will join the Expedition 72/73 crew in advancing scientific research. Kim, Ryzhikov, and Zubritsky will lift off at 1:47 a.m. EDT Tuesday, April 8 (10:47 a.m. Baikonur time) […]


https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-sets-coverage-for-crew-launch-to-join-station-expedition-72-73/


Crimelords at Hunters International tell lackeys ransomware too ‘risky’

date: 2025-04-02, updated: 2025-04-02, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Bosses say theft now the name of the game with a shift in tactics, apparent branding

Big-game ransomware crew Hunters International says its criminal undertaking has become "unpromising, low-converting, and extremely risky," and it is mulling shifting tactics amid an apparent rebrand.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/02/hunters_international_rebrand/


Raspberry Pi not affected by Trump tariffs yet while China-tied rivals feel the heat

date: 2025-04-02, updated: 2025-04-03, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

CEO hails 'transformative year' as IPO puts 'puter maker on the big board

Updated  Raspberry Pi hasn't felt the sting of US tariffs yet, and having its boards built outside China might give it an edge over rivals, analysts reckon.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/02/raspberry_pi_not_affected_by_tariff/


X-ray Clues Reveal Destroyed Planet

date: 2025-04-02, from: NASA breaking news

This image of the Helix Nebula, released on March 4, 2025, shows a potentially destructive white dwarf at the nebula’s center: this star may have destroyed a planet. This has never been seen before – and could explain a mysterious X-ray signal that astronomers have detected from the nebula for over 40 years. This view combines X-rays […]


https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/x-ray-clues-reveal-destroyed-planet/


NASA Continues Support for Private Astronaut Missions to Space Station

date: 2025-04-02, from: NASA breaking news

NASA is seeking proposals for two new private astronaut missions to the International Space Station, targeted for 2026 and 2027, as the agency continues its commitment to expanding access to space. These private missions enable American commercial companies to further develop capabilities and support a continuous human presence in low Earth orbit. “We are in […]


https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/commercial-space/leo-economy/nasa-continues-support-for-private-astronaut-missions-to-space-station/


Why Everything in the Universe Turns More Complex

date: 2025-04-02, from: Quanta Magazine

A new suggestion that complexity increases over time, not just in living organisms but in the nonliving world, promises to rewrite notions of time and evolution.

The post Why Everything in the Universe Turns More Complex first appeared on Quanta Magazine


https://www.quantamagazine.org/why-everything-in-the-universe-turns-more-complex-20250402/


Oracle’s masterclass in breach comms: Deny, deflect, repeat

date: 2025-04-02, updated: 2025-04-03, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Fallout shows how what you say must be central to disaster planning

Opinion  Oracle is being accused of poor incident comms as it reels from two reported data security mishaps over the past fortnight, amid a reluctance to publicly acknowledge all of the events as well as allegedly deleting evidence from the web.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/02/oracle_breach_disaster_planning/


Lagniappe for April 2025

date: 2025-04-02, from: NASA breaking news

Explore Lagniappe for April 2025 featuring: Gator Speaks New beginnings feel a lot like the month of April. It is the heart of spring and the season that symbolizes growth and renewal. April is the perfect time to break free from old routines and try something new. If you have landed here in this website […]


https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/stennis/lagniappe-for-april-2025/


NASA Space Flight Awareness Program Recognizes Stennis Employees

date: 2025-04-02, from: NASA breaking news

NASA’s Stennis Space Center employees were recognized with Honoree Awards from NASA’s Space Flight Awareness Program during a March 10 ceremony in Orlando, Florida, for outstanding support of human spaceflight. Melissa Wagner of Pass Christian, Mississippi, is a NASA contract specialist in the Office of Procurement at NASA Stennis. She received the honor for contributions to […]


https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/nasa-space-flight-awareness-program-recognizes-stennis-employees/


Rocket Test Group Visits NASA Stennis

date: 2025-04-02, from: NASA breaking news

NASA Stennis partnered with Mississippi Enterprise for Technology to host more than 100 members of the 57th Rocket Test Group on March 18-19. The group toured the south Mississippi NASA center on March 19, learning how NASA Stennis operates as NASA’s primary, and America’s largest, rocket propulsion test site to serve the nation and commercial […]


https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/rocket-test-group-visits-nasa-stennis/


Data doesn’t lie, but Microsoft’s new Power BI prices might make you cry

date: 2025-04-02, updated: 2025-04-02, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Hike is no joke and users are not laughing

Microsoft's Power BI price rises have arrived, with some tiers increasing by up to 40 percent.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/02/microsoft_power_bi_hikes/


Literally Windows on arm: here is Windows running on the Pixel Watch 3

date: 2025-04-02, from: OS News

Right off the bat, there is not that much use for a Pixel Watch with Windows on it. The project, as the maker says, is for “shits and giggles” and more like an April Fool’s joke. However, it shows how capable modern smartwatches are, with the Pixel Watch 3 being powered by a processor with four ARM Cortex A53 cores, 2GB of DDR4X memory, and 32GB of storage. Getting Windows to run on Gustave’s arm, as you can imagine, took some time and effort of inspecting a rooted boot image, modifying the stock UEFI to run custom UEFI, editing the ACPI table, and patching plenty of other files. The result of all that is a Pixel Watch 3 with Windows PE. ↫ Taras Buria at Neowin More of this sort of nonsense, please. This is such a great idea, especially because it’s so utterly useless and pointless. However pointless it may be, though, it does show that Windows on ARM is remarkably flexible, as it’s been ported to a variety of ARM devices it should never be supposed to run on. With Microsoft’s renewed entry into the ARM world with Windows on ARM and Qualcomm, I would’ve hoped for more standardisation in the ARM space to bring it closer to the widely compatible world of x86. That, sadly, has not yet happened, and I doubt it ever will – it seems like ARM is already too big of a fragmented mess to be consolidated for easy portability for operating systems. Instead, individual crazy awesome people have to manually port Windows to other ARM variants, and that, while cool projects, is kind of sad.


https://www.osnews.com/story/142040/literally-windows-on-arm-here-is-windows-running-on-the-pixel-watch-3/


FreeDOS: history, legacy, and a valuable resource for old machines

date: 2025-04-02, from: OS News

FreeDOS is a free and open‐source operating system designed to be compatible with MS‑DOS. Developed to keep the DOS experience alive even after Microsoft ended support for MS‑DOS, FreeDOS has grown into a complete environment that not only preserves classic DOS functionality but also introduces modern enhancements. Its simplicity and low resource requirements have made it a cherished resource for retro computing enthusiasts and a practical tool for embedded systems and legacy hardware. ↫ André Machado A short but useful overview of what FreeDOS is. One of my favourite stories about FreeDOS will always be not just that HP offered it as an option on some of its laptops – supposedly because it couldn’t sell laptops without an operating system preinstalled – but also just how convoluted this preinstalled copy of FreeDOS was set up. They shipped several FreeDOS virtual machines on top of a minimal installation of Debian, in a complex web of operating systems and VMs.


https://www.osnews.com/story/142038/freedos-history-legacy-and-a-valuable-resource-for-old-machines/


NASA Webb Explores Effect of Strong Magnetic Fields on Star Formation

date: 2025-04-02, from: NASA breaking news

Follow-up research on a 2023 image of the Sagittarius C stellar nursery in the heart of our Milky Way galaxy, captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, has revealed ejections from still-forming protostars and insights into the impact of strong magnetic fields on interstellar gas and the life cycle of stars.   “A big question […]


https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/nasa-webb-explores-effect-of-strong-magnetic-fields-on-star-formation/


Qualcomm set to move in on UK chip IP biz Alphawave

date: 2025-04-02, updated: 2025-04-02, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Has until month end to make an offer for semiconductor design and licensing shop

Qualcomm has confirmed its interest in buying high-speed connectivity module designer Alphawave Semi, a move that could see yet another major British tech operation swallowed up by a foreign business.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/02/qualcomm_alphawave/


For healthcare orgs, DR means making sure docs can save lives during ransomware infections

date: 2025-04-02, updated: 2025-04-03, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Organizational, technological resilience combined defeat the disease that is cybercrime

When IT disasters strike, it can become a matter of life and death for healthcare organizations – and criminals know it.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/02/disaster_recovery_healthcare/


Oracle faces Texas-sized lawsuit over alleged cloud snafu and radio silence

date: 2025-04-02, updated: 2025-04-02, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Victims expect to spend considerable time and money over privacy incident, lawyers argue

Specialist class action lawyers have launched proceedings against Oracle in Texas over two alleged data breaches.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/02/oracle_breach_class_action/


One of the last of Bletchley Park’s quiet heroes, Betty Webb, dies at 101

date: 2025-04-02, updated: 2025-04-02, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Tip-lipped for 30 years before becoming an 'unrivaled advocate' for the site

Obit  Betty Webb MBE, one of the team who worked at the code-breaking Bletchley Park facility in England during the Second World War, has died at the age of 101.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/02/bletchley_webb_obituary/


Citizen Scientists Use NASA Open Science Data to Research Life in Space

date: 2025-04-02, from: NASA breaking news

How can life thrive in deep space? The Open Science Data Repository Analysis Working Groups invite volunteers from all backgrounds to help answer this question. Request to join these citizen science groups to help investigate how life adapts to space environments, exploring topics like radiation effects, microgravity’s impact on human and plant health, and how microbes […]


https://science.nasa.gov/get-involved/citizen-science/citizen-scientists-use-nasa-open-science-data-to-research-life-in-space/


Specsavers takes off the Oracle glasses, sees better ERP options

date: 2025-04-02, updated: 2025-04-02, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

£5M in savings? Should've gone to third-party support

International optometry company Specsavers has paused the global standardization of its Oracle ERP system and moved to third-party support, saving £5 million ($6.5 million) that can be reallocated to the business.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/02/specsavers_oracle_ebs_standardization/


Speech now streaming from brains in real-time

date: 2025-04-02, updated: 2025-04-02, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Boosted human-computer interface promises better communication for patients who lost ability to speak

Some smart cookies have implemented a brain-computer interface that can synthesize speech from thought in near real-time.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/02/speech_now_streaming_from_brains/


Apple belatedly patches actively exploited bugs in older OSes

date: 2025-04-02, updated: 2025-04-02, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Cupertino already squashed 'em in more recent releases - which this week get a fresh round of fixes

Apple has delivered a big batch of OS updates, some of which belatedly patch older versions of its operating systems to address exploited-in-the-wild flaws the iGiant earlier fixed in more recent releases.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/02/apple_patch_bundle/


North Korea’s fake tech workers now targeting European employers

date: 2025-04-02, updated: 2025-04-02, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

With help from UK operatives, because it’s getting tougher to run the scam in the USA

North Korea’s scamming, thieving, and AI-abusing fake IT workers are increasingly targeting European employers.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/02/north_korean_fake_techies_target_europe/


Forget Signal. National Security Adviser Waltz now accused of using Gmail for work

date: 2025-04-02, updated: 2025-04-02, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

But his emails! Sharing them with Google!

Senior members of the US National Security Council, including the White House national security adviser Michael Waltz, have been accused of using their personal Gmail accounts to exchange sensitive information.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/02/waltz_gmail_security/


Mozilla is rolling Thundermail, a Gmail, Office 365 rival

date: 2025-04-02, updated: 2025-04-02, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Thunderbirds are Pro: Open-source email client to get message hosting, appointment scheduling, more

Thunderbird, Firefox maker Mozilla's open-source email client, is aiming to reinvent itself as a more comprehensive communications platform.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/02/thunderbird_pay_services/


Lightmatter says it’s ready to ship chip-to-chip optical highways as early as summer

date: 2025-04-01, updated: 2025-04-02, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

AI accelerators to see the light, literally

Lightmatter this week unveiled a pair of silicon photonic interconnects designed to satiate the growing demand for chip-to-chip bandwidth associated with ever-denser AI deployments.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/01/lightmatter_photonics_passage/


Not even Intel’s top bosses know what’s on CEO Lip-Bu Tan’s chopping block

date: 2025-04-01, updated: 2025-04-02, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Chipzilla chief asked customers to be 'brutally honest' … which will lead to what changes, we wonder

Vision  Not even Intel's top brass know what's on newly minted CEO Lip-Bu Tan's chopping block.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/01/intel_vision_cuts/


To avoid disaster-recovery disasters, learn from Reg readers’ experiences

date: 2025-04-01, updated: 2025-04-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Nobody’s tested the tapes this decade, thinks to back up the Recycle Bin, or takes care when using rm

On Call Special  How can you avoid a disaster recovery disaster?…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/01/on_call_dr_lessons/


Nvidia’s AI suite may get a whole lot pricier, thanks to Jensen’s GPU math mistake

date: 2025-04-01, updated: 2025-04-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Old naming convention didn't just 'screw up' the NVLink nomenclature - it left money on the table

Comment  At its GPU Technology Conference last month, Nvidia broke with convention by shifting its definition of what counts as a GPU.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/01/nvidia_ai_enterprise_cost/


NASA Receives 10 Nominations for the 29th Annual Webby Awards

date: 2025-04-01, from: NASA breaking news

Since it began in 1958, NASA has been charged by law with spreading the word about its work to the widest extent practicable. From typewritten press releases to analog photos and film, the agency has effectively moved into social media and other online communications. NASA’s broad reach across digital platforms has been recognized by the […]


https://www.nasa.gov/general/nasa-receives-10-nominations-for-the-29th-annual-webby-awards/


NASA’s SPHEREx Takes First Images, Preps to Study Millions of Galaxies

date: 2025-04-01, from: NASA breaking news

Processed with rainbow hues to represent a range of infrared wavelengths, the new pictures indicate the astrophysics space observatory is working as expected. NASA’s SPHEREx (short for Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) has turned on its detectors for the first time in space. Initial images from the […]


https://www.nasa.gov/missions/spherex/nasas-spherex-takes-first-images-preps-to-study-millions-of-galaxies/


Studying Ice for the Future of Flight

date: 2025-04-01, from: NASA breaking news

Thomas Ozoroski, a researcher at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, takes icing accretion measurements in October 2024 as part of transonic truss-braced wing concept research. In the future, aircraft with long, thin wings supported by aerodynamic braces could help airlines save on fuel costs – but those same wings could be susceptible to ice […]


https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/studying-ice-for-the-future-of-flight/


FAA closes investigations into Blue Origin landing fail, Starship Flight 7 explosion

date: 2025-04-01, updated: 2025-04-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

New Glenn landing scuppered by engine problems

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is closing its investigations into both the SpaceX Starship Flight 7 explosion and Blue Origin New Glenn-1 landing failure.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/01/faa_closes_blue_origin_and/


What’s Up: April 2025 Skywatching Tips from NASA

date: 2025-04-01, from: NASA breaking news

April (Meteor) Showers and See a City of Stars! Enjoy observing planets in the morning and evening sky, look for Lyrid meteors, and hunt for the “faint fuzzy” wonder that is the distant and ancient city of stars known as globular cluster M3.  Skywatching Highlights All Month – Planet Visibility: Daily Highlights: April 1 & […]


https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/skywatching/whats-up-april-2025-skywatching-tips-from-nasa/


Microsoft to mark five decades of Ctrl-Alt-Deleting the competition

date: 2025-04-01, updated: 2025-04-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Copilot told us that half a century is 25 years. It feels much longer

Microsoft will officially hit the half-century mark on Friday as the Windows giant turns 50 years old. What do you consider the highs and lows of the company's journey to dominance?…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/01/50_years_of_microsoft/


NASA History News and Notes–Spring 2025

date: 2025-04-01, from: NASA breaking news

The NASA History Office brings you the new Spring 2025 issue of NASA History News & Notes reflecting on some of the transitional periods in NASA’s history, as well as the legacies of past programs. Topics include NASA’s 1967 class of astronauts, historic experiments in airborne astronomy, NASA’s aircraft consolidation efforts in the 1990s, lightning […]


https://www.nasa.gov/history/nasa-history-news-and-notes-spring-2025/


Writing for humans? Perhaps in future we’ll write specifically for AI – and be paid for it

date: 2025-04-01, updated: 2025-04-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

'There needs to be a better economic as well as copyright framework', Thomson Reuters CPO tells us

Interview  Thomson Reuters, based in Canada, recently scored a partial summary judgment against Ross Intelligence, after a US court ruled the AI outfit's use of the newswire giant's copyrighted Westlaw content didn't qualify as fair use.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/01/interview_with_david_wong/


Trump yanks CHIPS Act cash unless tech giants pony up more of their own dough

date: 2025-04-01, updated: 2025-04-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Commerce chief threatens to pull grants so firms double down on US spending

More doubt is being cast over the US CHIPS Act program with the Trump administration threatening to halt payments unless companies in line to receive funding commit to substantially expand their own investments.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/01/trump_chips_act_eo/


Ways Community College Students Can Get Involved With NASA

date: 2025-04-01, from: NASA breaking news

For many students, the path to a NASA career begins at a community college. These local, two-year institutions offer valuable flexibility and options to those aspiring to be part of the nation’s next generation STEM workforce. NASA offers several opportunities for community college students to expand their horizons, make connections with agency experts, add valuable […]


https://www.nasa.gov/learning-resources/ways-community-college-students-can-get-involved-with-nasa/


Google makes end-to-end encrypted Gmail easy for all – even Outlook users

date: 2025-04-01, updated: 2025-04-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

The UK government must be thrilled

Google will soon offer end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) email for all users, even those who do not use Google Workspace, and says it'll do so without imposing any undue stress on IT admins.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/01/google_e2ee_gmail/


Delicious irony as Euro alliance pumps €1M of Microsoft’s money into open source cloud federation tech

date: 2025-04-01, updated: 2025-04-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Fulcrum is region's latest challenge to the hyperscalers

An alliance of cloud service providers in Europe is investing €1 million into the Fulcrum Project, an open source cloud federation tech that gives an alternative to local customers anxious about using US hypercalers.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/01/cispe_fulcrum_donation/


UK threatens £100K-a-day fines under new cyber bill

date: 2025-04-01, updated: 2025-04-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Tech secretary reveals landmark legislation's full details for first time

The UK's technology secretary revealed the full breadth of the government's Cyber Security and Resilience (CSR) Bill for the first time this morning, pledging £100,000 ($129,000) daily fines for failing to act against specific threats under consideration.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/01/uk_100k_fines_csr/


Isar’s first orbital rocket crashes into sea – CEO calls it a ‘great success’

date: 2025-04-01, updated: 2025-04-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

What counts as failure in New Space?

Comment  Yet another rocket exploded over the weekend and – you guessed it – its CEO called the test flight "a great success." This raises the question: what even counts as failure anymore in the world of so-called "New Space" – the VC-fueled and risk-friendly private rocket sector?…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/01/failure_in_new_space/


RISC OS Open plots great escape from 32-bit purgatory

date: 2025-04-01, updated: 2025-04-03, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Modern 64-bit-only chips are leaving the original Arm operating system behind

A new funding effort from RISC OS Open seeks to modernize the operating system for future Arm hardware.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/01/risc_os_open_moonshots/


Asda’s tech separation from Walmart nears £1B as delays mount

date: 2025-04-01, updated: 2025-04-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Lenders told of £175 million project top-up for 2025, four years after buyout

The UK's third-largest supermarket has seen the expected costs of its tech divorce from former US owner Walmart rise to nearly £1 billion ($1.3 billion) after news broke that the project is now expected to run into calendar Q3 of year four, overshooting its original three-year timeline.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/01/asda_walmart_tech_separation_cost/


GCHQ intern took top secret spy tool home, now faces prison

date: 2025-04-01, updated: 2025-04-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Not exactly Snowden levels of skill

A student at Britain's top eavesdropping government agency has pleaded guilty to taking sensitive information home on the first day of his trial.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/01/student_gchq_theft/


Arm reckons it’ll own 50% of the datacenter by year’s end

date: 2025-04-01, updated: 2025-04-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Optimistic much?

Arm expects to see its architecture account for half of the datacenter CPU market by the end of this year, up from 15 percent in 2024, all thanks to the AI boom.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/01/arm_datacenter_cpu_market/


Genetic data repo OpenSNP to self-destruct before authoritarians weaponize it

date: 2025-04-01, updated: 2025-04-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Blame the 23andMe implosion, rise in far-right govt

OpenSNP, a fourteen-year-old open source repository for genetic records, will shut down and delete all its data at the end of April.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/01/opensnp_shutdown/


Microsoft is redesigning the Windows BSoD to get you back to work ‘as fast as possible’

date: 2025-04-01, updated: 2025-04-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

How about making sure OS crashes less, stops hassling us to use Edge? That would improve productivity, too

Microsoft has quietly revealed it’s redesigning the Blue Screen of Death, the notification that Windows presents after it crashes so badly a reboot is the only way out.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/01/microsoft_is_redesigning_the_windows/


Discovery Alert: Four Little Planets, One Big Step

date: 2025-04-01, from: NASA breaking news

The Discovery Four rocky planets much smaller than Earth orbit Barnard’s Star, the next closest to ours after the three-star Alpha Centauri system. Barnard’s is the nearest single star. Key Facts Barnard’s Star, six light-years away, is notorious among astronomers for a history of false planet detections. But with the help of high-precision technology, the […]


https://science.nasa.gov/universe/exoplanets/discovery-alert-four-little-planets-one-big-step/


Sols 4495-4497: Yawn, Perched, and Rollin’

date: 2025-04-01, from: NASA breaking news

Written by Natalie Moore, Mission Operations Specialist at Malin Space Science Systems Earth planning date: Friday, March 28, 2025 Womp, womp. Another SRAP (Slip Risk Assessment Process) issue due to wheels being perched on these massive layered sulfate rocks. With our winter power constraints as tight as they are, though, keeping the arm stowed freed […]


https://science.nasa.gov/blog/sols-4495-4497-yawn-perched-and-rollin/


Intel’s latest CEO Lip Bu Tan: ‘You deserve better’

date: 2025-04-01, updated: 2025-04-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

AMD it is, then. Or Nvidia, Arm, Qualcomm, RISC-V, MOS 6502 …

Vision  Intel's newly appointed CEO Lip-Bu Tan has used his first major speech to admit the x86 goliath needs to shape up, and sketched out plans to turn things around.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/01/new_intel_ceo_major_speech/


Generative AI app goes dark after child-like deepfakes found in open S3 bucket

date: 2025-04-01, updated: 2025-04-03, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Producing this stuff is bad enough, but d'ya really have to leave all of it on the web for anyone to find?

Jeremiah Fowler, an Indiana Jones of insecure systems, says he found a trove of sexually explicit AI-generated images exposed to the public internet – all of which disappeared after he tipped off the team seemingly behind the highly questionable pictures.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/01/nudify_website_open_database/


CISA spots spawn of Spawn malware targeting Ivanti flaw

date: 2025-04-01, updated: 2025-04-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Resurge an apt name for malware targeting hardware maker that has security bug after security bug

Owners of Ivanti’s Connect Secure, Policy Secure, and ZTA Gateway products have a new strain of malware to fend off, according to the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, aka CISA.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/04/01/cisa_ivanti_warning/


ARMD Solicitations (ULI Proposals Invited)

date: 2025-04-01, from: NASA breaking news

This ARMD solicitations page compiles the opportunities to collaborate with NASA’s aeronautical innovators and/or contribute to their research to enable new and improved air transportation systems. A summary of available opportunities with key dates requiring action are listed first. More information about each opportunity is detailed lower on this page. University Leadership InitiativeStep-A proposals due […]


https://www.nasa.gov/aeronautics/armd-solicitations/


Top cybersecurity boffin, wife vanish as FBI raids homes

date: 2025-03-31, updated: 2025-04-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Indiana Uni rm -rf online profiles while agents haul boxes of evidence

A tenured computer security professor at Indiana University and his university-employed wife have not been seen publicly since federal agents raided their homes late last week.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/03/31/indiana_cybersecurity_professor_fbi/


Oracle Cloud security SNAFU latest: IT giant accused of pedantry as evidence scrubbed

date: 2025-03-31, updated: 2025-03-31, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

1990s incident response in 2025

Two Oracle data security breaches have been reported in the past week, and the database goliath not only remains reluctant to acknowledge the disasters publicly – it may be scrubbing the web of evidence, too.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/03/31/oracle_reported_breaches/


NASA Trains for Orion Water Recovery Ahead of Artemis II Launch

date: 2025-03-31, from: NASA breaking news

Preparations for NASA’s next Artemis flight recently took to the seas as a joint NASA and Department of Defense team, led by NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program, spent a week aboard the USS Somerset off the coast of California practicing procedures for recovering the Artemis II spacecraft and crew. Following successful completion of Underway Recovery Test-12 […]


https://www.nasa.gov/missions/nasa-trains-for-orion-water-recovery-ahead-of-artemis-ii-launch/


Nvidia challenger Cerebras says it’s leaped Mid-East funding hurdle on way to IPO

date: 2025-03-31, updated: 2025-03-31, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Wafer-scale AI chip startup apparently smoothed over American concerns around UAE's G42 planned stake

AI chip startup Cerebras Systems says it has cleared a key hurdle ahead of its planned initial public offering (IPO), claiming it resolved concerns about its sources of funding with the US Committee on Foreign Investment (CFIUS).…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/03/31/cerebras_ipo_roadblock/


Old Missions, New Discoveries: NASA’s Data Archives Accelerate Science

date: 2025-03-31, from: NASA breaking news

Every NASA mission represents a leap into the unknown, collecting data that pushes the boundaries of human understanding. But the story doesn’t end when the mission concludes. The data carefully preserved in NASA’s archives often finds new purpose decades later, unlocking discoveries that continue to benefit science, technology, and society. “NASA’s science data is one […]


https://science.nasa.gov/open-science/archival-data-discoveries/


Artemis II Core Stage Integration – Complete!

date: 2025-03-31, from: NASA breaking news

Technicians from NASA and primary contractor Amentum join the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket with the stacked solid rocket boosters for the Artemis II mission at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 23, 2025. The core stage is the largest component of the rocket, standing 212 feet tall and weighing about 219,000 pounds […]


https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/artemis-ii-core-stage-integration-complete/


Career Spotlight: Technologist (Ages 14-18)

date: 2025-03-31, from: NASA breaking news

What does a technologist do? Technologists are professionals who research, develop, and test emerging technologies. They also find useful ways to put new technologies to work. A technologist is an expert in a specific type of technology, often within a specific field. Many industries rely on innovations developed by technologists. Some of these include aerospace, […]


https://www.nasa.gov/learning-resources/career-spotlight-technologist/


Career Spotlight: Scientist (Ages 14-18)

date: 2025-03-31, from: NASA breaking news

What does a scientist do? Science is about exploring answers to questions. A scientist uses research and evidence to form hypotheses, test variables, and then share their findings. NASA scientists conduct groundbreaking research to answer some of humanity’s most profound questions. Most scientists start as project scientists in their early careers. They spend a lot […]


https://www.nasa.gov/learning-resources/career-spotlight-scientist/


20-Year Hubble Study of Uranus Yields New Atmospheric Insights

date: 2025-03-31, from: NASA breaking news

The ice-giant planet Uranus, which travels around the Sun tipped on its side, is a weird and mysterious world. Now, in an unprecedented study spanning two decades, researchers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have uncovered new insights into the planet’s atmospheric composition and dynamics. This was possible only because of Hubble’s sharp resolution, spectral capabilities, […]


https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/20-year-hubble-study-of-uranus-yields-new-atmospheric-insights/


University High Triumphs at JPL-Hosted Ocean Sciences Bowl

date: 2025-03-31, from: NASA breaking news

The annual regional event puts students’ knowledge of ocean-related science to the test in a fast-paced academic competition. A team of students from University High School in Irvine earned first place at a fast-paced regional academic competition focused on ocean science disciplines and hosted by NASA’S Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Eight teams from […]


https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/jpl/university-high-triumphs-at-jpl-hosted-ocean-sciences-bowl/


Check Point confirms breach, but says it was ‘old’ data and crook made ‘false’ claims

date: 2025-03-31, updated: 2025-03-31, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Explanation leaves a 'lot of questions unanswered,' says infosec researcher

A digital burglar is claiming to have nabbed a trove of "highly sensitive" data from Check Point - something the American-Israeli security biz claims is a huge exaggeration.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/03/31/check_point_confirms_breach/


AI datacenters want to go nuclear. Too bad they needed it yesterday

date: 2025-03-31, updated: 2025-03-31, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Silicon Valley's latest energy fixation won't stop the coming power panic

Analysis  Atomic energy is becoming the preferred solution to address the projected bump in megawatts needed to charge AI in the future, but it simply won't come soon enough in many cases.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/03/31/nuclear_no_panacea_ai/


Nova Custom: this week’s sponsor

date: 2025-03-31, from: OS News

Nova Custom, based in The Netherlands, makes laptops focused on privacy, customisation, and freedom. Nova Custom laptops ship with either Linux, Windows, or no operating system, and they’re uniquely certified for Qubes OS (the V54 model will be certified soon), the ultra-secure and private operating system. On top of that, Nova Custom laptops come with Dasharo coreboot firmware preinstalled, which is completely open source, instead of a proprietary BIOS. Nova Custom can also disable the Intel Management Engine for you, and you can opt for Dasharo coreboot+Heads for the ultimate in boot security. Nova Custom offers visual customisations, too, including engraving a logo or text of your choice on the metal screen lid and/or palmrest and adding your own boot logo. They also offer privacy customisations like removing the microphone and webcam, installing a privacy screen, and more. A small touch I personally appreciate: Nova Custom offers a long, long list of keyboard layouts, as well as the option to customise the super key. Nova Custom products enjoy 3 years of warranty, as well as updates and spare parts for at least seven years after the launch of a product, which includes everything from motherboard replacements down to sets of screws. Nova Custom laptops can be configured with a wide variety of Intel processor options, as well as a choice between integrated Intel GPUs or Nvidia laptop GPUs. Thanks to Nova Custom for sponsoring OSNews!


https://www.osnews.com/story/142028/nova-custom-this-weeks-sponsor/


LLM providers on the cusp of an ‘extinction’ phase as capex realities bite

date: 2025-03-31, updated: 2025-04-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Only the strong will survive, but analyst says cull will not be as rapid as during dotcom era

Gartner says the market for large language model (LLM) providers is on the cusp of an extinction phase as it grapples with the capital-intensive costs of building products in a competitive market.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/03/31/llm_providers_extinction/


A New Proof Smooths Out the Math of Melting

date: 2025-03-31, from: Quanta Magazine

A powerful mathematical technique is used to model melting ice and other phenomena. But it has long been imperiled by certain “nightmare scenarios.” A new proof has removed that obstacle.

The post A New Proof Smooths Out the Math of Melting first appeared on Quanta Magazine


https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-new-proof-smooths-out-the-math-of-melting-20250331/


Windows 11 adds auto-recovery, kills offline setup loophole

date: 2025-03-31, updated: 2025-04-02, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Microsoft giveth with one hand but taketh away with the other

Windows Insiders will soon get their hands on Microsoft's attempt to ward off another CrowdStrike incident, and the company is also closing a loophole for users who don't want a Microsoft account.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/03/31/windows_11_insiders/


Nvidia’s latest AI PC boxes sound great – if you’re a data scientist with $3,000 to spare

date: 2025-03-31, updated: 2025-03-31, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

But will they really upend the enterprise PC market? How about software? Networking, anyone?

Analysis  Disrupt? It's an awful hackneyed term that some analysts, consultants and technologists like to use.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/03/31/can_nvidia_shakeup_pcs/


Privacy died last century, the only way to go is off-grid

date: 2025-03-31, updated: 2025-04-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

From smartphones to surveillance cameras to security snafus, there's no escape

Opinion  I was going to write a story about how Amazon is no longer even pretending to respect your privacy. But, really, why bother?…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/03/31/privacy_dead_opinion/


Musk’s xAI swallows Musk’s X in ego-friendly, all-stock deal

date: 2025-03-31, updated: 2025-03-31, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Social media platform magically worth a billion more than what he bought it for

Comment  Billionaire Elon Musk's xAI is to acquire billionaire Elon Musk's X in a deal that values the former at $80 billion and the latter at $33 billion.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/03/31/xai_acquires_x/


European Gaia mapping satellite is retired but proves very tough to kill

date: 2025-03-31, updated: 2025-04-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that

The last commands have been sent to the ESA's Gaia satellite and, after a dozen years scanning the galaxy, the spacecraft is shutting down its computers and boosting out into a retirement orbit around the Sun.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/03/31/esa_gaia_satellite/


Ransomware crews add ‘EDR killers’ to their arsenal – and some aren’t even malware

date: 2025-03-31, updated: 2025-03-31, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Crims are disabling security tools early in attacks, Talos says

interview  Antivirus and endpoint security tools are falling short as ransomware crews increasingly deploy "EDR killers" to disable defenses early in the attack – a tactic Cisco Talos observed in most of the 2024 cases it handled.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/03/31/ransomware_crews_edr_killers/


UK finance watchdog spends millions ‘enhancing’ Workday software rolled out 4 years ago

date: 2025-03-31, updated: 2025-04-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

FCA still splashing on customizing, integrating HR and finance system way after 2021 go-live

The UK's financial regulator is signing a deal worth up to £12.3 million ($15.9 million) with tech services biz Cognizant to make "enhancements" to a Workday HR and finance system it implemented several years ago.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/03/31/uk_finance_regulator_splashes_123m/


When even Microsoft can’t understand its own Outlook, big tech is stuck in a swamp of its own making

date: 2025-03-31, updated: 2025-03-31, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Make things that work for the billions, not the billionaires

Opinion  Since it is currently fashionable to make laws by whim and decree, here are three that should apply immediately across techdom. The following are banned: DoNotReply messages, updates that reset your configuration choices to default, and forced incomprehensible choices.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/03/31/opinion_column_big_tech/


Tech trainer taught a course on software he’d never used and didn’t own

date: 2025-03-31, updated: 2025-03-31, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

'I'm glad you asked that question. We'll get to that tomorrow' (After I research the answer)

Who, Me?  Wait, what? It's Monday again? That means it's time for another instalment of Who, Me? What's that, you ask? It's The Register's Monday column in which we tell your tales of technological messes and celebrate your escapes.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/03/31/who_me/


Cashless society could be why fewer kids are eating coins and sticking things up their noses

date: 2025-03-31, updated: 2025-04-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

NHS boffins think there's a connection, but ’snot all good news: Swallowing batteries is even more dangerous

Researchers from the UK’s National Health Service believe increasing adoption of cashless payments may be having an unexpected payoff: Fewer kids are swallowing coins and seeking medical help to remove them.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/03/31/nhs_foreign_body_removal_study/


Intel and Microsoft staff allegedly lured to work for fake Chinese company in Taiwan

date: 2025-03-31, updated: 2025-03-31, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

11 companies, including SMIC, accused of disguising outposts so they can illicitly serve Beijing

Chinese tech companies created entities in Taiwan and disguised them so they had no connections to China, so they could lure top tech talent to work on significant projects.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/03/31/china_disguised_tech_companies_taiwan/


China cracks down on personal information collection. No, seriously

date: 2025-03-31, updated: 2025-03-31, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

PLUS: Indonesia crimps social media, allows iPhones; India claims rocket boost; In-flight GenAI for Japan Airlines

Asia In Brief  China last week commenced a crackdown on inappropriate collection and subsequent use of personal information.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/03/31/asia_tech_news_in_brief/


The 32bit RISC OS needs to be ported to 64bit to survive, seeks help

date: 2025-03-30, from: OS News

RISC OS, the operating system from the United Kingdom originally designed to run on Acorn Computer’s Archimedes computers – the first ARM computers – is still actively developed today. Especially since the introduction of the Raspberry Pi, new life was breathed into this ageing operating system, and it has gained quite a bit of steady momentum ever since, with tons of small updates, applications, and new hardware support, including things like support for wireless networking. This development has always been a bit piecemeal, though, and the pace has never been exceptionally fast. Now, though, time really is ticking for RISC OS: popular RISC OS platforms like the Raspberry Pi are moving to 64bit ARM only, and this poses a big problem for RISC OS: most of it is written in pure 32bit ARM assembly. As you can imagine, the supply of capable 32bit ARM boards is going to dwindle over the coming years, which would put RISC OS right back where it was before the launch of the Raspberry Pi: floundering, relying on old hardware. This is obviously not ideal, and as such, RISC OS Open Limited wants to take a big leap to address this. Since 2011, ROOL has successfully delivered dozens of community-funded improvements through its bounty scheme. While this model has enabled steady progress, it is not suited to the scale of work now required to modernise RISC OS. The Moonshots initiative represents a fundamental shift: focused, multi-year development projects undertaken by full-time engineers. The first Moonshot aims to make the RISC OS source code portable and compatible with 64-bit Arm platforms, a prerequisite for future hardware support. ROOL has already scoped the work, identified key milestones, and built cost models based on realistic employment and project management needs. ↫ Steve Revill in a ROOL press release They’re going to need a dedicated team of several developers working over the course of several years to port RISC OS to 64bit ARM. That’s going to require quite a bit of money, manpower, and expertise, and considering ROOL has only collected about £100000 worth of donations over the past 14 years, I can see why they’re aiming to go big for this effort. All these giant technology corporations with trillion dollar stock valuations are currently relying on ARM technology, so you’d think they could empty a few socks and cough up a few million to get this effort funded properly, but alas, we all know that’s not going to happen. I hope ROOL can make this work. RISC OS is a ton of fun to use, and occupies a unique place in computing history. I would be incredibly sad to see technological progress leave it behind, when what amount to chump change for so many wealthy companies and individuals could save it.


https://www.osnews.com/story/142025/the-32bit-risc-os-needs-to-be-ported-to-64bit-to-survive-seeks-help/


Microsoft makes it even harder to use a local account on Windows 11

date: 2025-03-30, from: OS News

Do you want to install Windows 11 without internet access or without an online Microsoft Account? It seems Microsoft really doesn’t want you to, as it has removed a very common and popular way of bypassing this requirement. In the release notes for the latest builds from the Dev and Beta channels, the company notes: We’re removing the bypassnro.cmd script from the build to enhance security and user experience of Windows 11. This change ensures that all users exit setup with internet connectivity and a Microsoft Account. Let me blow your minds and state that I don’t think online accounts for an operating system are inherently a bad idea. I would love it if I could install Fedora KDE on a new machine, optionally log into some online “Fedora Account”, and have my customisations and applications synchronise automatically. It would save me some time and effort, and assuming it’s all properly encrypted and secured, I don’t think the risk factors are particularly high. The keyword here is, of course, optionally. Microsoft wants every Windows 11 user to have a Microsoft Account instead of a local account, and would rather not make it optional at all. Of course, this is still Microsoft, a company wholly incapable of doing anything right when it comes to operating systems, so even making this script available again during installation is stupidly easy. It took a few nerds mere moments to discover you could just make some registry changes during installation, reboot, and have the script return to its rightful place. Oh Microsoft. Never change.


https://www.osnews.com/story/142023/microsoft-makes-it-even-harder-to-use-a-local-account-on-windows-11/


Oracle Health reportedly warns of info leak from legacy server

date: 2025-03-30, updated: 2025-03-30, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

PLUS: OpenAI bumps bug bounties bigtime; INTERPOL arrests 300 alleged cyber-scammers; And more!

Infosec in brief  Oracle Health appears to have fallen victim to an info stealing attack that has led to patient data stored by American hospitals being plundered.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/03/30/infosec_news_in_brief/


Blue95: Fedora Atomic Xfce converted to a Windows 95 desktop

date: 2025-03-30, from: OS News

Blue95 is a modern and lightweight desktop experience that is reminiscent of a bygone era of computing. Based on Fedora Atomic Xfce with the Chicago95 theme. ↫ Blue95 GitHub page Exactly as it says on the tin. This is by far the easiest way to get the excellent Chigaco95 theme for Xfce set up and working in a polished way, and it also contains a few different application choices from the regular Fedora Xfce desktop to improve the illusion even further.


https://www.osnews.com/story/142021/blue95-fedora-atomic-xfce-converted-to-a-windows-95-desktop/


Microsoft releases Windows 11 roadmap tool to help make sense of Windows 11’s development

date: 2025-03-30, from: OS News

I’ve complained about the utter inscrutability of the Windows release process for a long time, with Microsoft seemingly using channels, build numbers, code names, date-based version numbers, and so on interchangeably, making it incredibly hard to keep track of what is being released when. It turns out even Microsoft itself started losing track, because it’s now released a roadmap for Windows 11 development. In the roadmap tool – of course it’s a tool – you can select a platform, which isn’t x86 or ARM, but Windows PC or Copilot+ PC, a version (23H2 or 24H2 for now), a status (In preview, Gradually rolling out, or Generally available), and a channel (Canary, Dev, Beta, or Retail), after which the roadmap tool will list whatever features match those criteria. Do you now see why people might want such a tool to keep track of what the hell is going on with Windows? Anyway, as the date-based version numbers – 23H2 and 24H2 – may already make clear, this seems more like a roadmap about where development’s been than where development’s going. The problem for Microsoft, of course, is that it maintains several different Windows variants with different feature sets and update schedules, and users, too, can of course opt to stick to certain versions before moving on. The end result is this spaghetti, which makes it hard to untangle when you’re getting which feature. Anyway, if you’re elbow-deep in the Windows spaghetti, this tool may be of use to you.


https://www.osnews.com/story/142019/microsoft-releases-windows-11-roadmap-tool-to-help-make-sense-of-windows-11s-development/


Dash to Panel lives on, thanks to Zorin sponsorship

date: 2025-03-30, updated: 2025-03-30, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

There's also a new release of the Zorin OS distro

The handy GNOME extension Dash to Panel will live on, under its present maintainer, after winning financial backing from one of the distros that uses it.…


https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/03/30/zorin_and_dash_to_panel/