Sci-Tech news

• History: Bizarre shrunken HEAD used as a film prop is confirmed as a real 'ceremonial tsantsa'

  11-05-2021 02:09 via dailymail.co.uk
  
  Experts from the Mercer University in Georgia - among whose collections the head was found - analysed the artefact to confirm that it was indeed genuine.
  
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• High-severity Nvidia bug could crash GPU monitoring on exposed servers

  08-10-2026 20:17 via theregister.com
  
  Researchers found thousands of GPU servers exposing Nvidia's DCGM Exporter to the internet, with hundreds potentially vulnerable to a high-severity flaw that could let unauthenticated attackers crash the GPU monitoring service and disrupt AI workloads. DCGM Exporters read telemetry from the GPUs on a host, including its hardware, utilization, memory usage, power consumption, and error events. Each GPU has its own unique ID, or UUID, and all of these metrics are exposed in plaintext over HTTP. Th
  
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• TSMC taps GlobalFoundries to bolster US silicon interposer production in $2B deal

  08-10-2026 19:22 via theregister.com
  
  A hole in America's domestic supply chain is closing. US-based wafer-fab GlobalFoundries announced a $2 billion partnership with TSMC on Thursday to shore up American manufacturing of advanced semiconductors, like those used in AI datacenters. Under the multi-year deal, GloFo will produce silicon interposers for TSMC's chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) advanced packaging spec at its Malta, New York fab site. Silicon interposers are essential to the production of many multi-die chip assemblies l
  
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• Gremlin now uses AI to break distributed systems faster

  08-10-2026 19:09 via theregister.com
  
  What better way to find out what your system can take than by breaking it? Popularized by Netflix more than a decade ago, chaos testing is the practice of deliberately introducing controlled failures into working systems to test their resilience. Now, a startup that built its business around this practice is using AI to automate more of the testing and troubleshooting process. Gremlin’s Foresight AI, a new add-on to its current “chaos engineering” services, autonomously breaks
  
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• Shai-Hulud worm makes jump to AI infrastructure with Tensorlake compromise

  08-10-2026 18:54 via theregister.com
  
  The credential-hijacking Shai-Hulud worm has struck again, this time burrowing its way into a popular AI agent platform SDK. Multiple security researchers reported Thursday that they had detected Shai-Hulud infection in a recent release of the npm package for version 0.5.144 of Tensorlake’s SDK. That package has somewhere in the neighborhood of 12,000 downloads per week, while its GitHub repository has more than a thousand stars, suggesting it’s quite popular and that the infection c
  
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• Money trail backs leaked chats from extortion crew that walks into US law firms

  08-10-2026 18:09 via theregister.com
  
  Cryptocurrency transactions lend credibility to parts of a purported leak from Russian extortion crew Silent Ransom Group (SRG), according to blockchain researchers. Chainalysis said some wallet addresses in the material match its existing intelligence, although it could not authenticate the entire collection. It posted: "While we cannot speak to the totality of claims documented in the leak, we can confirm that certain leaked SRG addresses sit downstream of millions of dollars in ransomware pay
  
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• Too many quantum startups, too little money to keep them alive

  08-10-2026 17:37 via theregister.com
  
  More than half of quantum computing startups will be out of business by 2030, Gartner predicts, as an overcrowded market struggles to generate enough commercial revenue. The analyst expects customers to reject technologies that fail to achieve fault-tolerant quantum computing – reliable computation despite errors in the underlying hardware. Despite that forecast, Gartner says enterprises are making initial investments as quantum technologies begin to show early signs of practical business
  
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• Fighting GenAI with GenAI: The New Email Security Landscape

  08-10-2026 17:00 via theregister.com
  
  The use of phishing emails as a means of stealing information or implanting damaging malware dates back to the mid-1990s. Although almost as old as the Internet, it remains the instrument of choice for threat actors wanting to pose as trusted organizations or individuals for the purposes of corporate infiltration. In fact its use is on the rise: according to the most recent figures from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), some 26 percent of all cybercrime complaints filed with them are no
  
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• Margaret Hamilton, software pioneer who helped put humans on the Moon, dies at 90

  08-10-2026 16:54 via theregister.com
  
  "Forget It" was the name of a small computer program never thought to be needed, which will nonetheless go down in history along with its author, Margaret Hamilton, the American software engineer who died on September 30, aged 90. Hamilton led development of the onboard flight software for Apollo's command and lunar modules, helping astronauts reach the Moon in 1969. Among her early jobs after joining the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory in 1965 was to write the software for the Apollo abort proce
  
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• The Tokenization Pitch: Turn In Your Gold And ‘Unlock Utility’

  08-10-2026 15:59 via technocracy.news
  
  Get ready to unscramble your brain after you read this article from the venerable Kitco. You will see why you need to read Crucible of Tokens to unpack the pitch. Either the writer doesn’t understand tokenization, or he is a huckster trying to convert your held gold into a tokenized pool in exchange for asset tokens. Either way, this article intentionally misleads the reader. My comments on each point are in blue. Read this carefully! ⁃ Patrick Wood, Editor.Although gold is recognize
  
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• Rust upstart reveals 'reimplementation' of Microsoft Office – with Claude on coding duty

  08-10-2026 15:57 via theregister.com
  
  ArtCraft has added alternatives to Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to its growing collection of Rust applications, which it describes as "clean-room reimplementations" of proprietary software. The projects lean heavily on Claude for development and remain unfinished, but our first look at its Word alternative, WordCraft, suggests they are worth watching. The company's GitHub repositories also include projects modeled on Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere Pro. We fired up WordCraft on an
  
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• CrowdStrike finds possible bank hacker's CV among exposed AI logs

  08-10-2026 15:27 via theregister.com
  
  CrowdStrike researchers investigating attacks on South Korean financial institutions found exposed AI session logs containing operational details and a resume-writing request that may identify the attacker. In a report published Wednesday, analyst Ashley Campion said the prompt named "YY," listed a Chinese university and a location in Guangdong, and gave conflicting age information: 26, but initially a birth date in September 2007. CrowdStrike considers the details likely to belong to the attack
  
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• The hidden danger still lurking at Chernobyl: Scientists discover radioactive fuel fragments have barely changed in 40 years

  08-10-2026 15:26 via dailymail.com
  
  Four decades after the world's worst nuclear disaster, scientists have uncovered a chilling reminder that Chernobyl's radioactive legacy is far from over.
  
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• Do YOU live in an AI danger zone? Former Air Force colonel warns people living near data centres could be 'targeted or killed' by rogue machines

  08-10-2026 15:06 via dailymail.com
  
  People who live near data centres could be targeted by rogue AI, a retired Air Force colonel has warned.
  
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• IBM offloads 'hundreds' of its cloudy VMware customers

  08-10-2026 15:01 via theregister.com
  
  IBM has sold “hundreds” of its cloudy VMware customers to Broadcom partner 11:11 Systems. Under Broadcom’s ownership, VMware slashed the number of cloudy partners it keeps on the books and retained only partners that go all-in on the Cloud Foundation (VCF) private cloud stack. Partners that Broadcom decided not to work with lost the right to resell its software as of October 2025 and may not run VMware-powered clouds after March 2027. IBM was once a top VMware partner, but last
  
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• AI giants promise to play nice with personal data after UK watchdog scrutiny

  08-10-2026 14:35 via theregister.com
  
  Ten of the world's biggest AI developers have agreed to tighten their handling of personal data following scrutiny by Britain's privacy watchdog, which is now turning its attention to autonomous AI agents that don't always play by the rules. The recently rebranded Information Commission's Office (ICO) said Thursday that Amazon, Anthropic, Apple, Cohere, DeepSeek, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Stability AI have either made changes or committed to doing so after the regulator examined their
  
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• Samsung eyes $80B quarterly profit as memory buyers pay the price

  08-10-2026 14:14 via theregister.com
  
  Samsung Electronics expects third-quarter revenue to more than double and operating profit to reach nearly nine times last year's level as the AI infrastructure boom fuels demand for memory. The South Korean company is among the major memory manufacturers benefiting from demand for chips used in datacenter servers and GPUs. Although Samsung will not report its full earnings until the end of this month, its guidance puts sales at between ₩194 trillion and ₩196 trillion (about $145 bil
  
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• 'Mouth of Hell' volcano is waking up: Scientists warn magma is building beneath one of Earth's most dangerous craters

  08-10-2026 13:54 via dailymail.com
  
  The 'Mouth of Hell' volcano may be waking up, scientists have warned.
  
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• Winning the lottery could DESTROY your marriage: Study finds women are more likely to divorce after a big jackpot

  08-10-2026 13:50 via dailymail.com
  
  Winning the lottery is supposed to be the ultimate happy ending. But for some women, striking it rich could come with an unexpected downside - a higher chance of divorce.
  
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• UK and Germany team up against Russian cyberattacks as Brexit rethink looms

  08-10-2026 13:22 via theregister.com
  
  Britain and Germany have announced a partnership to counter cyberattacks and sabotage, particularly from Russia, as Prime Minister Andy Burnham heads to Berlin for talks. Under the arrangement announced Thursday, the countries will share information and coordinate efforts to monitor, deter, and disrupt hostile activity, including threats to critical infrastructure. The announcement comes ahead of Burnham's first face-to-face meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, where security won't be
  
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• Windows Search learns to take orders

  08-10-2026 13:20 via theregister.com
  
  Microsoft's latest Windows Search preview promises faster results and less clutter, while adding a new sideline: carrying out commands such as muting audio or minimizing windows. Following July's improvements, Microsoft began rolling out the new preview yesterday. The Actions feature lets users change settings directly from Windows Search. Typing "mute" into the search box and selecting the resulting action silences the speakers, with a "Done!" message confirming the change. The same applies to
  
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• Microsoft unveils 'Surace' Laptop Ultra

  08-10-2026 11:44 via theregister.com
  
  Microsoft launched some new devices last night, but the big news appears to be a rebrand of the Surface range as "Surace." The typo (we assume) appeared on a slide about the number of ports on Microsoft's expensive hardware. Pavan Davuluri – he who promised that Microsoft would deal with Windows' quality woes – was showing off some of the features of the Surface Laptop Ultra when the slide gave the in-person audience and online viewers an unintended demonstration of Microsoft's quali
  
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• Scientists blame Captain Cook for Australia's deadly mega-fires - more than 250 years after he arrived on the continent

  08-10-2026 11:42 via dailymail.com
  
  Scientists have blamed Captain Cook for Australia's recent wave of deadly mega-fires, more than 250 years after the British Royal Navy officer arrived on the continent.
  
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• Scientists get a new clue to the origin of solar wind 'switchbacks'

  08-10-2026 11:00 via theregister.com
  
  The European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter has enabled scientists to trace magnetic switchbacks in the solar wind's magnetic field back to their source at the Sun. "Switchback" is the name given to an S-shaped kink in the solar wind's magnetic field – a sudden and large deflection. In 2022, the spacecraft gave scientists a full view of the structure (confirming the S-shape), but the origin remained up for debate. At the time, the probe's data suggested it might be near the Sun's surface, bu
  
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• Cheapskates wouldn't pay for security help, got hit by ransomware, and went bust months later

  08-10-2026 10:15 via theregister.com
  
  Welcome back to PWNED, the weekly column where we highlight some of the lowlights in corporate security. This week, we’ll talk about two scenarios, one that ended in tragedy and another that shows the power of a good defense over dedicated phishing attacks. Have a story about someone leaving a gaping hole in their network? Share it with us at [email protected]. Anonymity is available upon request. Both stories come courtesy of Dave Hatter, a cybersecurity and compliance consultant with Intr
  
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• Embedding the human factor into AI agent adoption

  08-10-2026 10:00 via theregister.com
  
  When implementing any kind of technology, the difference between offering employees training and supporting them in adoption is all too frequently misunderstood. But the difference is a significant one. Training is usually a time-limited, structured educational initiative to help people build technical competence and learn how a system works. Adoption, on the other hand, is a continuous, long-term process by which employees use technology to change how they work in order to deliver more value. N
  
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• It's a bird, it's a plane...well, more of a spinning parachute, but really it's a droppable robot boat

  08-10-2026 09:01 via theregister.com
  
  The ALBATROSS, a sailboat drone prototype developed by researchers at Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), lacks the aerial grace of its avian namesake. It doesn't so much fly as plummet – an unsettling start to a sea launch, more so because it's designed to spin like a maple leaf seed as it descends. The sailboat drone's rotation slows its fall and minimizes its impact with the water. This eliminates the engineering challenge of implementing hardware for two modes of mobi
  
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• ICANN reveals bids for new top-level domains

  08-10-2026 07:56 via theregister.com
  
  ICANN has revealed the applicants for new generic top-level domains (GTLDs). As The Register reported in August, this is just the second time ICANN has accepted applications for GTLDs, strings like “.com” or “.net”. For years, only ICANN could create and operate GTLDs. The governance body changed that policy and in 2012 allowed over 1,200 new GTLDs. The organization decided to repeat the process this year and on Wednesday announced it received 1,615 applications. A proces
  
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• 'Earth is almost entirely in the red': Scientists warn 'super-duper' El Niño is still intensifying - and could continue into spring next year

  08-10-2026 06:08 via dailymail.com
  
  Super El Niño is continuing to intensify with new forecasts suggesting the climate phenomenon could maintain its grip on global weather well into next year.
  
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• U.S. Army Bomb Plant Will Arm Eric Schmidt’s Drones

  08-10-2026 05:22 via technocracy.news
  
  Mr. Eric “Don’t be Evil” Schmidt is the former CEO of Google, a member of the Trilateral Commission, and a good friend of the late Henry Kissinger. His drone company, Perennial Autonomy, builds autonomous drones for Ukraine to attack deep in Russia. Schmidt believes that AI-guided drones (“critical force multiplier”) are the future of warfare, and he is positioned to make billions. War is big business but not for the people on the receiving end. ⁃ Patrick Wood
  
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