Sci-Tech news

• Earthquake warnings flash from Wyoming to Utah as 4.7 quake rocks the West

  22-01-2026 17:14 via dailymail.co.uk
  
  Thousands of Americans across three US states were rattled by a 4.7 magnitude earthquake on Thursday.
  
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• Zuck's Muse to Spark joy with open weights release 'soon'

  03-09-2026 00:31 via theregister.com
  
  Meta will release an open weights version of its flagship AI model Muse Spark "soon," CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised in an X post on Wednesday. In the meantime, Muse Spark 1.3 — the smarter, less yappy, and more efficient version of the model — is now live on the Facebook parent's API service and Muse Code CLI. Since releasing Muse Spark in April, Meta has released several refinements in order to keep pressure on the competition and convince investors its rampant capex isn't for naught
  
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• VMware swings its focus back to low-end server virt, promises vSphere Standard upgrade

  02-09-2026 23:49 via theregister.com
  
  EXCLUSIVE What's old is new again as VMware will soon release an updated version of vSphere Standard, the low-end server virtualization bundle that it hasn’t significantly changed for years and has scarcely promoted since its 2023 acquisition by Broadcom. VMware’s hero product for the last three years has been the Cloud Foundation (VCF) private cloud bundle. vSphere Standard and another low-end suite called vSphere Enterprise Plus remained on VMware’s list of products, but the
  
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• Claude Mythos only model to complete full cyber kill chain, experts say

  02-09-2026 23:31 via theregister.com
  
  Despite what we saw with OpenAI’s models going rogue, creating message boards, and breaking into Hugging Face, only one advanced AI model - Anthropic’s Claude Mythos - completed the full cyber kill chain autonomously in Booz Allen’s tests. This doesn’t mean autonomous AI attacks are overhyped. And we should point out that the models tested don’t include OpenAI’s soon-to-be-released Astra, which OpenAI on Tuesday said reached its “critical” cybersec
  
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• Microsoft devs rejoice: Union types coming to C# in November

  02-09-2026 22:37 via theregister.com
  
  Microsoft is set to launch the next iteration of C# this November. Redmond recently unveiled a preview of C# 15 that introduces tighter restrictions on data types alongside enhanced memory safety protections. Perhaps the most frequently requested feature that arrives with this release is union types. Union types are not new to programming. Python, Scala and TypeScript all recognize the concept. But with C#, “This is how unions should be,” boasted C# lead designer Mads Torgersen in an
  
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• AI-assisted mushroom hunting is a recipe for a bad trip

  02-09-2026 22:34 via theregister.com
  
  If you see a mushroom in the forest and you're wondering if it's safe to eat or poisonous, don't ask an AI. Polish software engineer Piotr Migdał, a founding engineer at AI analytics and cost analysis firm Quesma, explained in a Wednesday blog post why trusting the mushroom insights of leading AI models is a dubious, potentially life-threatening idea in an experiment he ran. Armed with a dataset of Danish mushrooms and additional information about safe and deadly species in Poland and abroa
  
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• Site where the Bible says Jesus walked on water discovered after 2,000 years

  02-09-2026 22:07 via dailymail.com
  
  Archaeologists say they've uncovered the site of Jesus' famous miracle, located along the Sea of Galilee. It is within an ancient city the Bible says Jesus spent time in.
  
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• With Gemini 3.8 Flash, Google reminds everyone it's still in the race

  02-09-2026 21:59 via theregister.com
  
  Google on Wednesday announced the release of Gemini 3.8 Flash in an attempt to reclaim its reputation as a top-tier model maker in the process. The company's commitment to the frontier model race has been in doubt since at least early August when Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis stepped down to become chairman of the AI research biz and Koray Kavukcuoglu took over leadership under a less exalted title, SVP. Google CEO Sundar Pichai's reassurances weren't particularly convincing in light of the
  
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• Major earthquake threat rises in California for first time in 12 years

  02-09-2026 21:47 via dailymail.com
  
  A new assessment has revealed an increased risk of a major earthquake striking California. Scientists are now telling residents to be ready for a destructive event.
  
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• AI agents carried out every step of this ransomware attack – then left the victim an 80-page security audit

  02-09-2026 20:28 via theregister.com
  
  A human ransomware crook used frontier AI models to breach an enterprise network in less than 10 hours, an intrusion Unit 42 says would normally take human operators around two weeks. The human attacker then told negotiators that they used frontier models and agentic attack frameworks with AI agents carrying out each step in the intrusion, including leaving an 80-page security audit for the victim company. “What made the attack stand out was AI-assisted operational efficiency, without the
  
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• Blame it on the hormones! Women are more likely to splash out on luxury items when they're ovulating, study finds

  02-09-2026 20:00 via dailymail.com
  
  The sudden urge to splurge on a designer handbag might not be as random as it seems.
  
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• Infosec pros say we're not ready to lose control of AI

  02-09-2026 19:56 via theregister.com
  
  A recent survey shows national security pros believe there’s a one in ten chance humans lose control of AI in the next decade, and few believe we’re even watching for the right warning signs, much less preparing properly. The Institute for Security and Technology (IST), together with the Future of Life Institute (FLI), surveyed 111 current and former civilian officials, military officers, and academic or technical experts for a look into AI and the future of national security. Ninety
  
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• The three tactics that could save your life if you're held at gunpoint, according to a former FBI agent

  02-09-2026 18:49 via dailymail.com
  
  A former FBI agent, who spent 25 years as a special agent, has faced armed attackers himself and recently revealed three tactics that helped him escape alive.
  
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• SonicWall's SMA1000 boxes under active attack again

  02-09-2026 18:05 via theregister.com
  
  SonicWall says attackers are actively exploiting two chained zero-days to take over Secure Mobile Access (SMA) Series 1000 boxes. Aimed at midsize and large enterprises, SMA1000 gateways secure remote access and VPN connections. Compromising one can therefore provide attackers with a valuable route into corporate networks. So, get to applying those hotfixes, says SonicWall. There are no workarounds. The first zero-day, CVE-2026-83548, is a pre-authentication server-side request forgery (SSRF) vu
  
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• Microsoft will stop finishing your sentences in Word and Outlook

  02-09-2026 17:31 via theregister.com
  
  Microsoft is switching off text predictions by default in Word and Outlook after acknowledging that unwanted suggestions can interrupt rather than assist some users. The change is coming to Word for Windows, the web, iOS, and Android, as well as classic Outlook for Windows and Outlook for Mac. The feature will remain available but will no longer be enabled by default. Introduced several years ago, the feature is the computing equivalent of Microsoft peering over users' shoulders and suggesting w
  
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• Storm Marie to become hurricane TODAY as rare track threatens millions in California

  02-09-2026 17:04 via dailymail.com
  
  Weather officials along the US West Coast are warning of potentially dangerous conditions this Labor Day weekend as Marie is poised to erupt into a hurricane.
  
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• Overseas Book Review: The New Economics Of Technocracy

  02-09-2026 17:00 via technocracy.news
  
  This book review appeared in a professional journal in France. My books are written for all the people of the world, regardless of political or spiritual orientation. It is useful for my American readers to see outside the bubble that there are thoughtful people all around the world who see Technocracy as a major threat. ⁃ Patrick Wood, Editor.In the last issue, I reviewed Patrick Wood’s then most recent book (p. 68), The Final Betrayal, on how technocracy has gone into overdrive wit
  
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• NASA's Swift shortens orbital lifetime for the sake of science

  02-09-2026 17:00 via theregister.com
  
  NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory may now be beyond rescue, but the team behind the spacecraft has reactivated its instruments to eke out a final few months of science data before it reenters Earth's atmosphere. The Ultraviolet/Optical and X-ray telescopes were reactivated last week, and the team hopes to return the Burst Alert Telescope to data collection during September. The former two telescopes were turned off in February to minimize drag and buy time for the reboost effort. The latter
  
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• Firefox and Thunderbird hit the fortnightly release treadmill

  02-09-2026 16:53 via theregister.com
  
  Mozilla's Firefox 155 and subsidiary MZLA's Thunderbird 155 have arrived. Yes, already. Firefox officially debuted yesterday, although The Reg FOSS desk wasn't offered the upgrade until early evening. Thunderbird followed several hours later. If this seems soon after the previous releases, that's because it is. Mozilla announced Firefox's new fortnightly cadence in July, and MZLA subsequently confirmed that Thunderbird would keep pace. September marks the start of the accelerated schedule. Much
  
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• Legacy Lenovo login opens 5,000 Dropbox accounts to attackers

  02-09-2026 16:25 via theregister.com
  
  Dropbox has warned around 5,000 users that attackers compromised their accounts by abusing a legacy Lenovo login integration. In an email sent to affected customers, the cloud storage biz said attackers exploited an integration that allowed users to access Dropbox using Lenovo IDs. Dropbox blamed "an issue with Lenovo's email verification process," which allowed attackers to register Lenovo IDs using Dropbox users' email addresses and then access the corresponding storage accounts. It did not ex
  
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• Offshoots of cancelled TrueNAS Core upgrade to FreeBSD 15

  02-09-2026 15:49 via theregister.com
  
  Good news if you want to keep your NAS boxes on FreeBSD – two new contenders just stepped up, with updated forks of the cancelled TrueNAS Core. FreeBSD has a strong reputation as a stable server OS, and integrates highly reliable ZFS filesystem right into its kernel. The snag is that Linux is rather more widespread, meaning more people know their way around a Linux box – but Linux knowledge doesn’t transfer well over to FreeBSD. The Reg FOSS desk just found out about two differ
  
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• Anthropic hires architect of UK AI policy as MPs warn of 'clear conflict of interest'

  02-09-2026 15:15 via theregister.com
  
  UK Parliament's science and technology committee has asked the government to explain how it will avoid conflicts of interest after Anthropic recruited Matt Clifford, chair of blue-sky research agency ARIA. Clifford said he was joining the US AI poster child as managing director of international affairs, "leading the company's work with governments outside North America." He was commissioned to write the "AI Opportunities Action Plan" in July 2024. The government published it in January 2025, ado
  
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• Next-gen AI networks may hinge on the telephone switchboard's return

  02-09-2026 15:00 via theregister.com
  
  If you thought 72 GPUs per rack was dense, next-generation designs from Nvidia and others will cram hundreds or even thousands of accelerators into a single massive system. But for any of that to happen, they're going to need a lot of optics and technology that's reminiscent of the old-fashioned telephone switchboard. This reality has fueled a flurry of investment in everything from photonics startups to established optical equipment and fiber manufacturing. In March, Nvidia invested $6 billion
  
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• Microsoft update disarms Outlook and Teams on Arm PCs

  02-09-2026 14:30 via theregister.com
  
  Not keen on the new Outlook? You're not alone. Microsoft's August security update has stopped it and Teams from launching reliably on some Arm-based devices, including Surface hardware. Microsoft acknowledged the problem on September 1 and added it to the Windows release health dashboard. "After installing Windows security updates released on or after August 11, 2026 (KB5121003), Microsoft Teams and the new Outlook for Windows might fail to launch or might close unexpectedly on ARM-based devices
  
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• A cloud engineer walked into a bar and – no joke – ended up having to migrate a datacenter

  02-09-2026 14:00 via theregister.com
  
  Visiting a second bar on the same night can often be a dangerous move. When Dave Bradley did it, he ended up having to move a datacenter, on a two-week deadline, without extra budget. Bradley is a senior cloud engineer at healthcare services company Vizient and visited a bar while winding down after an off-site company meeting. After enjoying a decent stint of merriment with colleagues from the company’s tech team, Bradley decided to call it a night - but on his way out, he spotted his bos
  
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• London Tube closes the 5G gap with streets above

  02-09-2026 13:19 via theregister.com
  
  Mobile coverage on parts of London's Underground now rivals the streets above for 5G availability and signal strength, according to analysis by network intelligence biz Ookla. Cellular support has been rolling out across the Tube since Mayor Sadiq Khan promised in 2021 to connect all stations and tunnels by the end of 2024. That deadline was missed. About 60 percent of below-ground stations now have coverage, with the entire network expected to be connected by the end of this year. Where service
  
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• Is this the iPhone 18 Ultra? Leaker claims to reveal the design for Apple's highly anticipated foldable ahead of its launch next week

  02-09-2026 12:52 via dailymail.com
  
  Lewis Hilsenteger, the creator behind popular Canadian YouTube channel, Unbox Therapy, posted a video showing off the foldable device alongside the iPhone 18 Pro Max.
  
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• UK goes shopping for homegrown AI with £100M procurement scheme

  02-09-2026 12:51 via theregister.com
  
  The British government has opened the first competitions under a £100 million procurement scheme intended to give domestic AI startups a route into public sector contracts. Chancellor John Healey announced the initiative at a G20 finance ministers meeting in North Carolina. It invites companies to develop technology addressing challenges including NHS productivity, national security, cyber resilience, and the efficiency of public AI infrastructure. The government says the scheme will help
  
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• Northern Ireland adds £15M to Fujitsu education deal without competition

  02-09-2026 12:17 via theregister.com
  
  Northern Ireland's Education Authority plans to add £15 million to Fujitsu's EA One contract without a new competition, taking its ceiling to £55.4 million. The authority intends to exercise five one-year extension options already built into the deal, keeping the Japanese supplier in place until March 31, 2032. The current term is due to expire in March 2027. Public sector awards to Fujitsu have attracted scrutiny since the supplier acknowledged its role in the Post Office Horizon sc
  
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• Mystery of how the moon formed is finally solved: Study claims our lunar satellite was created in just five hours during a giant impact between Earth and a Mars-sized planet

  02-09-2026 12:01 via dailymail.com
  
  The moon could have formed within just five hours of a colossal collision that rocked the early Solar System 4.5 billion years ago, scientists suggest.
  
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