Sci-Tech news

• Pop music 'saw three revolutions'

  06-05-2015 10:19 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The evolution of thousands of pop songs spanning from 1960 to 2010 is analysed by scientists.
  
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• Admin: 'I spent all weekend on my servers' after Microsoft breaks Exchange Server with October updates

  19-10-2026 15:00 via theregister.com
  
  Microsoft has acknowledged that the October 2026 Windows Server updates may be destabilizing Exchange Server. The problems are related to this list of Windows Server updates (see here) and Microsoft makes it clear they are not related to the October 2026 security updates for Exchange Server. The software giant says the bug can hit Exchange Servers running Windows Server 2016, 2019, 2022, and 2025. The glitch might not be immediate and could impact Exchange Server OWA, which can throw up connecti
  
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• Super El Nino is changing the colour of the OCEAN: NASA says waters have become bluer as record-breaking temperatures wipe out marine life

  19-10-2026 14:47 via dailymail.com
  
  Super El Niño is changing the colour of the world's oceans, new NASA satellite images have revealed.
  
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• Microsoft abandons UK AI supercomputer as grid struggles to keep up

  19-10-2026 14:15 via theregister.com
  
  Microsoft has reportedly pulled out of plans for Britain's largest AI supercomputer, because the government-backed project is facing the rather inconvenient problem of having no electricity to run it. The tech giant has terminated its agreement with British AI infrastructure startup Nscale for a planned datacenter in Loughton, Essex, according to The Telegraph, which first reported the withdrawal on Sunday. The decision follows reports that the site, which was supposed to begin operating in 2027
  
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• The workplace intelligence double standard: Why clever women are branded 'hostile' - while smart men are treated better

  19-10-2026 14:00 via dailymail.com
  
  It pays to be clever at work - unless you're female, according to a new study.
  
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• Scientists uncover a simple breathing exercise that can induce an altered state of consciousness

  19-10-2026 13:50 via dailymail.com
  
  According to a new study, a specialised method called 'high ventilation breathwork' (HVB) is capable of producing altered states of consciousness.
  
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• Broadcom Wi-Fi bug turns sweet 16, still lets strangers hijack your router

  19-10-2026 13:28 via theregister.com
  
  A 16-year-old security flaw in Broadcom's Wi-Fi software could let attackers hijack millions of routers without knowing the network password, even though the chipmaker reportedly knew about the problem since 2018. Security researcher Quentin Kaiser disclosed the vulnerability, dubbed "WPSplinter," revealing two bugs in Broadcom's proprietary Wi-Fi implementation that date back to at least 2010. An attempted fix arrived eight years later, but Kaiser claims it didn't fully resolve the problem. The
  
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• Dr Garry Hunt talks to us about the astonishing Voyager probes

  19-10-2026 13:03 via theregister.com
  
  It's been nearly half a century since the Voyager probes launched from Earth on a mission to explore the outer solar system, and they're still running. You can listen to the latest episode of The Kettle on this page, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube. You can also subscribe on those platforms to be notified when a new episode goes live. You're probably familiar with some of Voyager's iconic images, like the Pale Blue Dot and and its portraits of the outer planets. Those photos and observations
  
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• Britain's most dangerous spider strikes again: Blackpool man hospitalised after bite made his leg swell to 'the size of a watermelon'

  19-10-2026 12:44 via dailymail.com
  
  Glenn Priestley, 73, was hospitalised for a fortnight after a noble false widow spider attacked him last month.
  
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• Museum exhibit reveals the intricate workings of a knackered Dell

  19-10-2026 12:15 via theregister.com
  
  Today's entry in the catalog of bork comes from Coventry's Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, where an information terminal is showing more about the hardware behind the scenes than the objects on display. Register reader Jeffrey Borinsky spotted the panel, which should have demonstrated a Jacquard loom in action but was instead displaying a warning about its host PC's failing battery. The Jacquard loom was a clever device dating back to the dawn of the 19th century. It used punched cards to cont
  
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• Microsoft’s second-hand licensing appeal gets the brush-off

  19-10-2026 11:15 via theregister.com
  
  Microsoft has failed to win permission to appeal to the UK Supreme Court in the long-running legal spat with ValueLicensing after the Court of Appeal refused its application. The US megacorp was challenging a November 2025 ruling in ValueLicensing's favor that VL may resell pre-owned software licenses. That judgment was unambiguous, but Microsoft told The Register at the time that it would seek permission to appeal. That request was rejected last week in blunt terms. No reasons were given for th
  
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• Meet your dinner! Woke scientists say giving pigs and chickens names could put children off eating meat

  19-10-2026 10:57 via dailymail.com
  
  Forget chicken nuggets - the next time your child asks what's for dinner, you should tell them they're eating Chico.
  
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• AI’s epic cash call is matched only by its ability to strangle revenue streams

  19-10-2026 10:30 via theregister.com
  
  As it was written, so it has come to pass. A while back, we suggested that given how good AI was at code analysis, it would become possible to clone large applications. And then where would we be? Here, that’s where. An industrious individual has released source code and binaries for Claude-copied Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative Suite programs, disappointingly not calling elements of the latter Fauxtoshop. They’re in pre-alpha states of incomplete bugginess, but with substantial
  
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• AI inference is running into a memory bottleneck. Huawei wants to tackle it with OceanStor M900

  19-10-2026 10:00 via theregister.com
  
  As organizations move from straightforward AI interactions towards longer conversations, complex reasoning and autonomous agents, the demands on their infrastructure are changing. Processing increasingly large amounts of context places significant pressure on memory capacity, while keeping accelerators supplied with data becomes just as important as raw computing power. One particular challenge is the key-value (KV) cache, which stores information generated during inference so models can reuse p
  
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• Is this how the world will end? Scientists warn our dying sun will 'kick' the planets out into space - and it could happen 100 times sooner than previously thought

  19-10-2026 09:07 via dailymail.com
  
  Scientists have revealed a chilling glimpse into our solar system's future, and it looks like doomsday might come a lot sooner than expected.
  
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• How to tell if your online date is a scam artist, according to a former con-man - and why a video call isn't enough to know someone is real

  19-10-2026 09:07 via dailymail.com
  
  Prolific criminals like the 'Tinder Swindler' have tricked victims into giving away hundreds of thousands of pounds, and experts warn that AI has given shameless fraudsters more tools.
  
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• China's growth accelerates as AI boom helps boost exports

  19-10-2026 08:08 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Exports have helped offset weak spending at home, but trade tensions and AI doubts cloud its outlook.
  
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• Engineer was so sick of office pranks, he 'wiped' his antagonist's disk

  19-10-2026 07:30 via theregister.com
  
  Monday mornings are no joke, so The Register always tries to lighten them up with a new installment of "Who, Me?" – our reader-contributed column that shares your stories of workplace japes, mistakes, and escapes. This week, meet a reader we'll Regomize as "Joe" who told us that while studying for an electrical engineering degree in the late 1990s, he scored a gig in the messaging lab at an Australian mobile carrier. "The office there was full of practical jokers," he wrote. "Boxes of conf
  
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• ConnectWise turns off its SaaS-y backup, security, and management services to probe security SNAFU

  19-10-2026 06:31 via theregister.com
  
  SaaS-for-managed services providers ConnectWise has initiated a “service interruption” for its some of its offerings after detecting unauthorized access. ConnectWise offers ERP tailored to the needs of managed services providers (MSPs), plus tools they can use to manage their customers’ environments. Cloud Backup is one of those tools and does what it says on the tin for data stored on-prem, in the cloud, or in SaaS services like M365 and Google Workspace. On October 16, the co
  
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• Anthropic says it will commit 5% of its shares to 'public benefit fund'

  19-10-2026 06:30 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The announcement comes as Anthropic lays the ground for a blockbuster stock market listing.
  
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• ICANN vows to work faster, improve transparency

  19-10-2026 05:28 via theregister.com
  
  Internet governance organization the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has come to the realization it needs to move faster. The org today opened its annual conference in Bali, Indonesia, with an opening ceremony during which chair Tripti Sinha noted that it’s now just over ten years since the US government effectively handed over internet governance responsibilities from the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) to ICANN. Sinha observed that much has changed
  
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• Artemis II astronaut reveals the terrifying moment he feared his crew would be lost in space 'after straying too far from Earth'

  19-10-2026 03:28 via dailymail.com
  
  As Commander Reid Wiseman and his three crew flew over the dark side of the Moon to what NASA had said would be their maximum distance, their odometer continued ticking upwards.
  
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• Linux KVM guest-host escape rated critical, may represent a new way to attack penguin-powered networking

  19-10-2026 02:33 via theregister.com
  
  Paulos Yibelo, the researcher who in early October claimed to have found a guest-host escape flaw in Linux KVM, the hypervisor used by most hyperscale clouds, has named the flaw PwnEscape and warned it might represent a new way to attack Linux – on top of being a 9.3-rated critical nasty in its own right. Yibelo’s work is now CVE-2026-99999. It is a scary bug because it makes a guest-host escape possible with a few malformed IPv4 packets. Such attacks are a nightmare security scenari
  
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• Don't fall for this - how to protect yourself from AI scams

  19-10-2026 01:24 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Trading standards officers say AI is "super-charging" existing scams through clones and fake websites.
  
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• Time Lords kill leap seconds, before they become the new Y2K bug

  19-10-2026 01:01 via theregister.com
  
  The Time Lords at the General Conference on Weights and Measures (GCPM)* have decided to stop introducing leap seconds, citing the likelihood they could cause problems with internet of things devices – and therefore a Y2K scale remediation effort – as a reason for the change. As The Register reported last week, the GCPM works to harmonize Universal Time – UT1, which boffins calculate using the changing speed of Earth’s rotation – and the Coordinated Universal Time (
  
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• New winter forecast reveals complete shift in snow predictions for 2027

  18-10-2026 19:57 via dailymail.com
  
  A new forecast model has revealed the stunning picture of who will and won't see snow throughout the US in 2027.
  
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• David Cameron proposes dedicated dementia drug fund to help patients get access to treatments that could slow decline by a third

  18-10-2026 16:40 via dailymail.com
  
  David Cameron is calling for a dedicated dementia drug fund to help thousands of Alzheimer's patients get access to treatments that could slow the disease's progression.
  
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• IVF boom fuels adoption crisis: Number of children needing a home outstrips approved adopters by 1,600, charity warns

  18-10-2026 15:28 via dailymail.com
  
  Britain is facing its biggest adoption shortfall in decades, with experts warning that the growing popularity of IVF is contributing to the issue.
  
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• The 20-year itch! Record number of married couples are splitting after two decades together, figures reveal

  18-10-2026 15:15 via dailymail.com
  
  The seven-year itch may be a thing of the past, official figures suggest, as Britain's marriages are now most likely to unravel after two decades together.
  
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• To game, or not to game? Scientists say interactive adventures could be key to getting children interested in Shakespeare

  18-10-2026 14:50 via dailymail.com
  
  The days of poring over Shakespeare's texts and struggling through lines of Elizabethan verse could soon be over.
  
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