Sci-Tech news

• Mythos discovers 'Squidbleed,' a memory leak that's gone undetected since Clinton era

  23-06-2026 20:07 via theregister.com
  
  Sometimes it takes a while to detect a vuln. A 29-year-old, Heartbleed-style vulnerability in Squid, a popular open-source caching proxy server, silently leaked users' plaintext HTTP requests and potentially revealed sensitive data, including credentials and session tokens, for decades - until AI (and a few humans) saved the day. A security researcher and Mythos Preview found the flaw and reported it to project maintainers, who fixed the code earlier this month. Squid is widely used by large cor
  
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• OpenAI Codex bombards SSDs with needless write operations, costing millions

  23-06-2026 22:50 via theregister.com
  
  Modern SSDs have a limited number of write cycles before they expire. Now, OpenAI is scrambling to fix a flawed logging implementation that has been shortening the lives of Codex users' solid state drives (SSDs) with excessive data writes and lowering the devices' value by a significant amount of money. A bug report opened last week for the company's Codex coding agent warns of the consequences in its title: "Codex SQLite feedback logs can write ~640 TB/year and rapidly consume SSD endurance #28
  
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• Anthropic reimagines Claude in Slack as nosy, always-on agentic AI coworker

  23-06-2026 22:16 via theregister.com
  
  Anthropic is killing off its existing Claude in Slack app in favor of an always-on agentic alternative dubbed Claude Tag that will listen and learn from everything it’s given access to. Claude Tag can now join organizational Slack instances “as a team member,” according to Anthropic’s announcement, where it will have access to whatever channels domain administrators decide upon, as well as the tools, data, and codebases they contain. Anyone in a channel with Claude Tag ca
  
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• 'Frankenstein' rabbits with tentacles sprouting from their heads invade several US states

  23-06-2026 20:05 via dailymail.com
  
  Sightings of rabbits transformed into grotesque, horned-looking creatures with dark, tentacle-like growths emerging from their heads are increasing in the US.
  
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• Meta halts worker tracking for AI training due to privacy fears

  23-06-2026 19:51 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The company had started just two months ago tracking workers’ computer usage for AI training data.
  
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• Space Force goes to (pretend) orbital war following record-fast Rocket Lab launch

  23-06-2026 18:23 via theregister.com
  
  Rocket Lab has just completed one of the most rapid space launches ever, kicking off a complicated exercise that will test the US Space Force’s ability to respond to and characterize potential threats in orbit. The Victus Haze mission, as the project is known, saw Rocket Lab lob one of its Pioneer spacecraft into orbit for the Space Force on June 19 in just 16 hours and 42 minutes, beating the notice-to-launch record set during the 2023 Victus Nox tactically responsive space mission (TacRS
  
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• O2 joins UK 2G switch-off with summer 2029 start date

  23-06-2026 17:56 via theregister.com
  
  Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) will switch off its 2G network starting in summer 2029, meaning that anyone still operating devices that use the technology must start planning an upgrade. The UK network operator says it will start to switch off its 2G signal in 2029 as part of an ongoing mobile transformation plan. This will see it expand and upgrade its 4G and 5G support, leading to reduced energy consumption and a faster and more reliable service for customers. 2G cell networks first started operating
  
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• “It’s That Bad”: Virginia Residents Battling Constant Noise From Data Center Generators

  23-06-2026 17:11 via technocracy.news
  
  This is blatant hypocrisy. There are rules for Technocrat oligarchs, and then there are rules for the rest of us. Forget the environment. Forget the regulations and laws. Forget the people whose lives you are destroying. They don’t care. They are saving the world, after all. The resistance is building to a fever pitch across the nation, from neighborhoods like this one to corporate workers who have had their fill of AI. ⁃ Patrick Wood Editor.For more than a year, residents living nex
  
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• Millions in UK could claim share of £3bn after Apple case given green light

  23-06-2026 17:01 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Apple rejected the suggestion its practices are anti-competitive, saying many customers rely on third-party alternatives.
  
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• Experts reveal how to stop hay fever immediately - as Britain braces for a 'pollen bomb'

  23-06-2026 17:01 via dailymail.com
  
  The UK is on course to see record-breaking June temperatures of 38C today, and those with pollen allergies - officially known as hay fever - are being warned to brace themselves.
  
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• Missing scientist found dead after 11 months took two shocking items with her that cast doubt on suicide theory

  23-06-2026 16:59 via dailymail.com
  
  The mystery surrounding a nuclear lab employee found dead 11 months after she disappeared has deepened as new evidence emerges about her final movements.
  
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• Apocalyptic weather sweeps the globe: UK and Europe suffer intense heatwaves while a Saharan dust storm hits the US - as experts warn extreme events are becoming the norm

  23-06-2026 16:59 via dailymail.com
  
  Billions of people around the world are suffering the wrath of apocalyptic weather events this week.
  
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• Valve opens Steam Machine pre-orders with queue lottery and hefty prices amid AI squeeze

  23-06-2026 16:46 via theregister.com
  
  Valve has opened pre-orders for its forthcoming Steam Machine – but it is going to cost you quite a lot, thanks to the AI-induced storage shortage. However, the company is expecting such high demand that it is setting up an automated lottery system, so that the lucky people whose orders go through will get random places on the waiting list. The machine will come with an AMD Zen 4 hexacore CPU, as we covered back in November when the company's three new hardware models were announced. The d
  
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• 'Do not drive' warnings issued across five US states as destructive storms batter parts of the nation

  23-06-2026 16:12 via dailymail.com
  
  Thousands of Americans have been warned to stay off the roads as extreme weather could turn cars into deathtraps.
  
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• 21,000 Oracle jobs vanish amid Big Red's big bets on AI

  23-06-2026 16:12 via theregister.com
  
  Oracle's workforce shrank by 21,000 over the last year, according to the company's annual report. In June 2025 [PDF], Big Red reported that it employed "approximately 162,000" employees. By June 2026 [PDF], that figure had fallen to 141,000. US headcount fell by 9,000, while the international workforce declined by 12,000. "Our periodic workforce restructurings and reorganizations can be disruptive," Oracle stated. "Deployment of AI technologies across our operations have resulted, and may contin
  
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• Bold move, Cotton: Trump administration tells US techies it expects American quantum computer by 2028

  23-06-2026 15:18 via theregister.com
  
  President Trump has ordered the development of a quantum computer to ensure that the US maintains a strategic technical advantage, along with a nationwide migration to post-quantum cryptography to protect sensitive data against just such a computer. In an executive order signed Monday, Trump directed various federal agencies to establish a national program to deliver a quantum computer, aimed at driving scientific discoveries and keeping the US at the forefront of technology. To be precise, it c
  
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• Kylie Jenner collaborates with Meta on £359 AI glasses with built-in cameras - and they even sing 'Rise and Shine' to you in the morning

  23-06-2026 15:07 via dailymail.com
  
  The £359/$399 smart glasses feature a slim oval frame, which is 'inspired by Kylie's personal style'.
  
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• Microsoft Access finally breaks free of its 22-inch form limit

  23-06-2026 14:36 via theregister.com
  
  Microsoft has demonstrated that there is life in the old dog yet with an update to the Access relational database management system that addresses a limitation stemming from the days of cathode-ray tube monitors. The fix, currently in beta and set to roll out in the Current Channel preview by July 21, 2026, removes a 22-inch form-size limitation dating back to the era of cathode-ray tube (CRT) monitors. It's a weirdly restrictive limitation, considering that widescreen monitors have been around
  
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• AWS debuts Lambda MicroVMs with up to 8 hours runtime

  23-06-2026 13:37 via theregister.com
  
  AWS has introduced Lambda MicroVMs, built on its Firecracker virtual machine monitor, which can run isolated Linux containers with runtimes of up to eight hours, in contrast to the 15-minute limit on containers in Lambda functions. MicroVMs form a new core feature of Lambda, the AWS serverless platform. Developers provide a Dockerfile defining a container along with application artifacts, and upload it to Amazon S3. Lambda builds this into a Firecracker snapshot, which can then be run with multi
  
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• Steam Machine launches with £879 price tag as Valve cites component costs

  23-06-2026 13:25 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Valve said the cost of its PC-console hybrid reflects a broader trend of component costs rising over time.
  
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• How to stay cool as Britain swelters under a 'heat dome' and temperatures soar past 30°

  23-06-2026 12:59 via dailymail.com
  
  A powerful 'heat dome' is expected to send temperatures soaring beyond June's record from 1976 of 35.6C today, with some forecasters predicting highs of up to 38C in parts of the UK.
  
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• Blast from the past as GIMP 0.54 is revived in Flatpak form

  23-06-2026 12:45 via theregister.com
  
  Development of GIMP has picked up speed in recent years, but now its first public release is back as a Flatpak, allowing the 1996 version to run on modern x86-64 Linux distros, even under Wayland, without the nightmare of finding and installing its 30-year-old dependencies. If you are just looking for a quick and lightweight image editor – especially if you want modern features such as edge detection or generative fill – this is not the package for you. It's mainly for the software a
  
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• Your cats don't care about you…or each other! Felines groom one another out of SPITE, study finds

  23-06-2026 12:36 via dailymail.com
  
  Sometimes it can be hard to tell whether a cat likes or utterly despises you - and it turns out they're aloof even with their own kind.
  
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• Brits still reckon Big Tech isn't paying enough tax

  23-06-2026 12:00 via theregister.com
  
  The majority of Britons still believe Big Tech should be contributing more to the public purse, new research suggests. Polling by the Fair Tax Foundation, shared with The Register, finds that 67 percent of respondents believe the UK should ensure large technology companies such as Meta, Google, Apple, and Amazon pay more in Digital Services Tax (DST) to increase their overall tax contribution. The same proportion of Brits said the government should aim to become a world leader in regulating cryp
  
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• Heatwaves could trigger BLACKOUTS this summer: Grid operator warns of a 600% surge in wildfires - leaving vital transmission lines at risk

  23-06-2026 11:59 via dailymail.com
  
  The UK's sweltering temperatures could cause chaos for power grids - leaving Brits at risk of blackouts this summer.
  
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• Thought last night's thunderstorm was intense? Scientists say this could become the NORM - because of climate change

  23-06-2026 11:44 via dailymail.com
  
  Millions of Brits were woken up last night by a huge thunderstorm. Now, scientists have warned that these intense storms could become the norm - thanks to climate change.
  
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• Datacenters dip a toe back into waterborne computing despite obvious challenges

  23-06-2026 11:15 via theregister.com
  
  Siting datacenters either on the water or underwater is an idea that just won't sink, and there is increasing interest in it, despite the obvious fact that water and IT equipment are a potentially disastrous combination. The attraction of having a data facility in or on the water is that it offers virtually limitless natural cooling, which is an increasingly vital consideration for operators deploying hot-running systems filled with GPUs for AI processing. But set against that are potential issu
  
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• Digital indigestion: Fizzy Coca-Cola display chokes on full storage

  23-06-2026 10:27 via theregister.com
  
  BORK!BORK!BORK! Are you a glass-half-full or glass-half-empty person? Some distressed digital signage on the island of São Miguel in Portugal's Azores is running on empty, judging by today's entry into the files of signage silage. Spotted by an eagle-eyed Register reader, a Coca-Cola display has clearly had too much of the carbonated beverage and urgently needs to free up some space, a feeling many an over-caffeinated techie will be familiar with after chugging one Diet Coke too many. It'
  
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• Five Eyes spooks warn AI means infosec incidents can become ‘major operational and financial crises’

  23-06-2026 07:29 via theregister.com
  
  The leaders of intelligence agencies from the Five Eyes nations – Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the USA and the UK – have together issued strongly worded advice calling for leaders to nail cybersecurity basics or fall victim to ruinous AI-powered attacks. “The rapid pace of frontier AI development means cyber risk assumptions can become outdated in months, not years,” the advice warns, and calls for organizations to take rapid action to ensure their defenses remain pote
  
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• India and China are home to 2.9 billion people – and together they bought just 13 million PCs in Q1

  23-06-2026 06:06 via theregister.com
  
  Buyers in the world’s two most populous nations, India and China, bought just 13.1 million PCs in the first quarter of 2026, according to analyst firm Omdia. The firm’s analysts last week declared that Indian buyers acquired 4.4 million PCs – 3.5 million of them laptops – during Q1. That figure represented 32 percent year-over-year growth. “Brands and channels front-loaded their inventory, to secure pricing ahead of anticipated increases,” the firm wrote. &ldq
  
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