Saturday April 19, 2025
12:03
Hacking US crosswalks to talk like Zuck is as easy as 1234AI-spoofed Mark joins fellow billionaires as the voice of the street here's how it was probably done Video Crosswalk buttons in various US cities were hijacked over the past week or so to rather than robotically tell people it's safe to walk or wait instead emit the AI-spoofed voices of Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg.
07:30What to do once your Surface Hub v1 becomes an 84-inch, $22K...Oh. You expected serious suggestions? It isn't just devices unable to upgrade to Windows 11 that are headed to digital landfill this year. The first version of Microsoft's Surface Hub is also destined for the tech trashcan as Windows 10 support ends. So, what do you do with a big black wall ornament?
Friday April 18, 2025
22:50Microsoft Copilot shows up even when it's not wantedJust us or is AI increasingly appearing like an unwanted party guest? Microsoft customers are claiming the Windows giant's Copilot AI service sometimes ignores commands to disable the thing, and thus turns itself back on like a zombie risen from the dead.
18:48Cursor AI's own support bot hallucinated its usage policyMaking up subscription limits as it goes? Super encouraging from a code assistant. Anyways, back to int main(enter the void)... In a fitting bit of irony, users of Cursor AI experienced the limitations of AI firsthand when the programming tool's own AI support bot hallucinated a policy limitation that doesn't actually exist.
18:06Dems fret over DOGE feeding sensitive data into random AIUsing LLMs to pick programs, people, contracts to cut is bad enough but doing it with Musk's Grok? Yikes A group of 48 House Democrats is concerned that Elon Musk's cost-trimmers at DOGE are being careless in their use of AI to help figure out where to slash, creating security risks and giving the oligarch's artificial intelligence lab an inside track to train its models on government info.
15:28Oracle hopes talk of cloud data theft dies off. CISA just resurrected...Some in the infosec world definitely want to see Big Red crucified CISA the US government's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has issued an alert for those who missed Oracle grudgingly admitting some customer data was stolen from the database giant's public cloud infrastructure.
06:27Need a Linux admin? Ask a hair stylist to introduce you to a worried...Lad who 'stays in his bedroom on his computer' emerged ready to deliver brilliant tech support On Call It may be a holiday Friday in much of the Reg-reading world but that won't stop us from delivering another installment of On Call, our weekly reader-contributed column that tells your tech support tales.
Thursday April 17, 2025
17:56Krebs throws himself on the grenade, resigns from SentinelOne after...Illegitimi non carborundum? Nice password, Mr Ex-CISA Chris Krebs, the former head of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and a longtime Trump target, has resigned from SentinelOne following a recent executive order that targeted him and revoked the security clearances of everybody at the company.
17:14Congress wants to know if Nvidia superchips slipped through Singapore...As Huang jets to Middle Kingdom after H20 ban forces $5.5B hit Nvidia's troubles with the US government have just begun: The day after the Trump administration's export restrictions on its AI chips triggered a $5.5 billion charge, US elected officials are now demanding answers about how advanced silicon ended up in China. ...
16:36No rest for the rocketry as NASA's Easter weekend heats upReturning crew and a vital supply launch distract managers from chocolate eggs The US Space Agency has a busy few days ahead as a trio of International Space Station (ISS) residents prepare to return to Earth this weekend, and a critical SpaceX Dragon freighter is readied for launch on Monday.
15:27Small ocean swirls may have an outsized affect on climate, NASA...SWOT satellite lets scientists observe small-scale eddies and waves for the first time A NASA-led satellite mission has suggested that swirls and eddies in the middle of the ocean have a bigger influence on Earth's climate system than scientists previously realized.
14:22Google, AWS say it's too hard for customers to use Linux to swerve...Re-writing applications takes years, is expensive, in-house expertise needed When moving to the cloud, companies with significant investments in Microsoft infrastructure wares simply can't afford to rewrite everything for Linux, so they end up migrating to Azure to dodge the markups Redmond charges for running its server software in competitors' clouds.
12:32Europe's cloud customers eyeing exit from US hyperscalers'It's amazing how fast the change has been' Are customers on the European side of the pond considering a move from US hyperscalers in the wake of recent events? Some of the region's vendors are reporting an uptick in inquiries as organizations mull their options.
11:55TSMC prepping for tariff turmoil, denies joint venture talks with IntelChip contract manufacturer not immune to 'uncertainties and risks' caused by Trump's import taxes TSMC's top brass insist it is not entertaining a joint venture with beleaguered chip biz Intel, though it is steeling itself for potential effects from the Trump administration's ever-changing tariff schemes.
10:34Datacenters selling power back to the grid? Dont bet on it, say...Bit barns in Dublin doubled as battery farms, the rest of the world isnt buying it Analysis The idea of datacenters feeding power back into the electricity grid during peak demand may sound promising, but operators say it's unlikely to catch on beyond a few trials in Ireland because of the cost and technical complexity involved.
09:05Bank of England flirts with offline digital doshNo signal? No problem. But also no solid commitment to Britcoin yet The Bank of England has shown offline digital payment systems can work but plans to study policy choices before giving them the green light.
01:46Whistleblower describes DOGE IT dept rampage at America's labor...Ignored infosec rules, exfiltrated data
then the mysterious login attempts from a Russian IP address began claim Democratic lawmakers are calling for an investigation after a tech staffer at the US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) blew the whistle on the cost-trimming DOGE's activities at the employment watchdog which the staffer claims included being granted superuser status ...
Wednesday April 16, 2025
22:59California sues President TariffAh yes, the courts, that'll totally work World War Fee President Trump's reign of tariffs has been challenged on the left and right by the State of California and the Liberty Justice Center.
22:20Microsoft: Why not let our Copilot fly your computer?Redmond talks up preview of AI agents navigating apps through the UI Microsoft will soon let Copilot agents drive computers through the GUI just like humans by clicking buttons, selecting menus, and even completing forms on screen.
20:16Free Blue Screens of Death for Windows 11 24H2 usersMicrosoft rewards those who patch early with bricks hurled through its operating system Keeping with its rich history of updates that break Windows in unexpected ways, Microsoft has warned that two recent patches for Windows 11 24H2 are triggering blue screen crashes.
19:58Signalgate chats vanish from CIA chief phoneExtraordinary rendition of data, or just dropped it out of a helicopter? CIA Director John Ratcliffe's smartphone has almost no trace left of the infamous Signalgate chat the one in which he and other top US national security officials discussed a secret upcoming military operation in a group Signal conversation a journalist was inadvertently added to.
