Sci-Tech news

• There are 6,500 genetic differences between men and women 

  05-05-2017 01:24 via dailymail.co.uk
  
  Researchers at the Weizmann institute found 6,500 genes that are expressed differently in men and women. It could help in understanding why some genders are more prone to certain diseases.
  
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• Oracle Invokes Force Majeure on Project Jupiter AI Data Center

  24-09-2026 19:03 via technocracy.news
  
  This may be the pinprick that pops the AI data center boom. Oracle buried itself in a massive AI data center boondoggle that went south because they couldn’t get the energy permits needed to run it. Then the financing disappeared. Oracle is using “force majeure” as an excuse to avoid losses and liability. If a court doesn’t strike this down, the entire industry will follow Oracle. This is the proverbial crack in the dam. ⁃ Patrick Wood, Editor.Oracle has invoked for
  
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• Decades-old file security flaws found in Android, Linux, macOS, and Windows

  24-09-2026 19:00 via theregister.com
  
  Security researchers affiliated with Austria's Graz University of Technology have found flaws in the implementation of file notification systems on Android, Linux, macOS, and Windows that leak potentially compromising system information. "We found decades-old bugs on [these operating systems], all rooted in the file-notification subsystems that every modern OS ships to inform applications when files change," said Sudheendra Raghav Neela, a doctoral student at TU Graz, in an email to The Register
  
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• iPhone 18 Pro benchmark boosted by giving it a cold drink

  24-09-2026 18:34 via theregister.com
  
  There’s nothing a quick break for a can of ice-cold sparkling water can’t solve - including improving thermal management on the iPhone 18 Pro, as it turns out. Software developer Matt Birchler provided the data to prove it in a recent blog post detailing a bit of extra experimentation he did with his new iPhone 18 Pro alongside some benchmarking work. To make a long story short, a cold can of La Croix (in Birchler’s case – the cooling potential of an aluminum can isn&rsqu
  
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• CVE flood pushes Ubuntu onto weekly kernel release cycle

  24-09-2026 18:33 via theregister.com
  
  Canonical is speeding up Ubuntu kernel releases to one a week as AI-assisted bug hunting helps bury defenders under an ever-growing pile of CVEs. The Ubuntu maker is overhauling how it ships kernel Stable Release Updates (SRUs), replacing its current four-week regular and two-week security cycles with overlapping two-week cycles that will push a kernel release every week. Canonical says the change is needed because the number of reported vulnerabilities has exploded, with AI deserving some of th
  
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• AI boom could wipe 230 million budget phones a year from the market

  24-09-2026 18:00 via theregister.com
  
  First they came for our natural resources, and now the AI datacenter boom looks set to excise a significant chunk of the budget smartphone market. The latest forecast from Counterpoint Research spells dark skies for sub-$200 pocket 'puters, with shipments expected to fall by around 40 percent between 2025 and 2030, removing more than 230 million devices a year from the market by the end of the decade. Counterpoint attributes the contraction to rising memory and chipset costs, increasingly demand
  
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• Someone went shopping in ASUS's eShop – for customer data

  24-09-2026 17:13 via theregister.com
  
  Asus has warned eShop customers that an intruder got into part of its online store and may have helped themselves to contact details and order records. The PC maker disclosed the incident in an email sent to customers, first reported by KitGuru, in which it said had identified "unauthorized access to part of the Asus eShop environment," although exactly when that access occurred remains unclear. "Our investigation indicates that certain customer order information, including contact details and o
  
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• Ask HPE and NVIDIA the AI data question you cannot ask in public

  24-09-2026 16:49 via theregister.com
  
  EVENT: HPE and NVIDIA are sending their AI infrastructure leads to a dinner table in Washington where nothing said is on the record. The Register is hosting, our editor-in-chief Matt Rosoff takes the chair, and there is one table, on Thursday 29 October. Most AI programs in regulated industries do not stall on the model. They stall on where the data lives, who can reach it, and what an auditor will accept as evidence a year from now. Sovereignty is not one requirement either: what can leave a ju
  
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• Hurricane-like eye emerges in 'blockbuster' nor'easter set to hammer 12 US states: Prepare NOW

  24-09-2026 16:44 via dailymail.com
  
  Millions along the US East Coast have been told to brace for a major Atlantic storm set to cause heavy downpours, flooding and power outages.
  
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• Meta takes on Tamagotchi! Muse Charm gadget lets you use AI without your phone or computer

  24-09-2026 16:34 via dailymail.com
  
  The futuristic device, called Muse Charm, was announced by Meta's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, at the end of the Meta Connect event last night.
  
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• Talk of AI in KDE sets the community ablaze

  24-09-2026 16:32 via theregister.com
  
  A proposal to make KDE an "AI-native" desktop has gone down like a house on fire: screams, flames, people running for safety. There may be no survivors.* Last weekend was KDE's annual Akademy conference and it included a presentation proposing an AI-native KDE. We noted that it seemed likely to polarize the audience. It looks like this was a considerable understatement. In the days since, a debate over proposed restrictions on LLM-assisted contributions descended into bans and a deleted thread.
  
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• DoJ: Uncle Sam bought forensics software from same Russian operation supplying FSB

  24-09-2026 15:43 via theregister.com
  
  US defense and homeland security agencies bought digital forensics software developed by the same Russian operation that also sold its wares to the FSB, according to US prosecutors. The Department of Justice says Oxygen Forensics CEO Lee Reiber and Russian national Oleg Sergeyevich Davydov have been arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud over an alleged scheme to hide the company's Russian ownership and where its software was actually being built. Oxygen Forensics, based in Vi
  
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• First they came for our straws…now it's our bottles! Water containers made from PAPER to go on sale in the UK

  24-09-2026 15:05 via dailymail.com
  
  In a push to clean up the drinks industry, a partly government-funded British business is set to roll out a new line of paper bottles.
  
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• Google to critical infra orgs: Our AI scanners won't be evil, promise

  24-09-2026 15:00 via theregister.com
  
  Google has jumped on the AI-defense-for-critical-systems train with its Scan for Good initiative, and says that its threat-hunting models have already autonomously uncovered critical security issues at hospitals, a municipality, a public rail operator, and major technology providers. So don't fear these bots. The initiative, announced on Thursday, uses Google’s Gemini 3.8 Flash Cyber, a version of the model tuned for software bug hunting and remediation, and Wiz’s Red Agent - this is
  
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• City council may be waking from its Oracle nightmare but the accounting hangover continues

  24-09-2026 14:43 via theregister.com
  
  Europe's largest local authority will go at least one more financial year without auditors being able to vouch for its accounts despite finally reimplementing Oracle Fusion. Grant Thornton expects Birmingham City Council to receive "disclaimer opinions" for 2025/26, 2026/27, and 2027/28 due to problems with historic data. A disclaimer opinion means the auditor cannot obtain enough evidence to express an opinion on the financial statements. It does not mean the council failed to produce accounts,
  
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• Meta ads steered Polish Android users into a premium-rate billing trap

  24-09-2026 13:26 via theregister.com
  
  Poland's Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT Polska) has disrupted an Android toll fraud campaign that used paid Meta ads to steer Polish users toward malicious apps on Google Play. Its investigation documented 1,235 Meta ads, 852 of which promoted 17 apps tied to the operation. Six contained confirmed toll fraud components or direct links to them; the other 11 shared malicious loaders, although researchers could not recover their final payloads. Toll fraud uses malware to enroll mobile subsc
  
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• Sorry, wine snobs! Eco-friendly hybrid grapes score just as well as classic reds - despite long-standing doubts over their appearance

  24-09-2026 13:02 via dailymail.com
  
  A new study suggests one of the biggest assumptions in the wine world could be completely wrong.
  
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• When and how to see the Harvest Moon in 2026

  24-09-2026 12:46 via bbc.co.uk
  
  September's full Moon will rise across on Saturday 26 September. The best viewing conditions currently look to be across southern and eastern parts of the UK.
  
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• HSBC decides Samsung Secure Folder and Android's Private Space are no place for a banking app

  24-09-2026 12:45 via theregister.com
  
  HSBC has blocked its Android app from running inside Samsung Secure Folder and Android Private Space without warning, leaving some customers unable to access online banking. The Register asked HSBC to explain the change. It said the block was "a proportionate security control designed to mitigate a foreseeable security risk. It does not prevent customers from accessing the HSBC UK Mobile Banking app – customers simply need to access our app outside of the virtual space environment." When w
  
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• Meta launches an 'evil Tamagotchi': Muse Charm gadget lets you use AI without your phone or computer

  24-09-2026 12:12 via dailymail.com
  
  The futuristic device, called Muse Charm, was announced by Meta's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, at the end of the Meta Connect event last night.
  
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• For MariaDB, LLMs are the new search engines to win over

  24-09-2026 12:00 via theregister.com
  
  MariaDB has built vector search into its database. Its problem is persuading AI coding tools to tell anyone about it, says the executive chairman of the MariaDB Foundation. "We're so frustrated that the world doesn't understand that MariaDB has vectors," Kaj Arnö tells us. Arnö is speaking to The Register at Percona Live, where rival database vendors seem to be in an unusually collegiate mood. Not that Arnö is above throwing a little shade here and there: "I think we are in a peri
  
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• Experts question whether Salesforce demo breaches SAP API policy

  24-09-2026 11:15 via theregister.com
  
  SAP experts are questioning whether a recent Salesforce public demo of its AI technology would breach the German vendor’s controversial API policy - launched in April - in production environments. Salesforce has denied it would break any of SAP’s access rules. During the keynote presentation at the CRM vendor’s flagship Dreamforce conference in San Francisco last week, Katie O'Neil, Salesforce product marketing director, showed how a Salesforce AI agent was able to perform supp
  
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• Your brain 'changes gear' TWICE in your life - once at age 24, and again at 60, study finds

  24-09-2026 11:11 via dailymail.com
  
  Your brain 'changes gear' twice in your lifetime, according to the results of a massive new study.
  
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• Electric car charging just got even faster: Chinese carmaker's EV battery charges in under five minutes - smashing the previous record by 30 seconds

  24-09-2026 10:57 via dailymail.com
  
  Geely Auto Group, the Chinese owner of Volvo, has used AI to boost the charging performance of its batteries.
  
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• Scientists create an atomic clock so precise it could REDEFINE the second

  24-09-2026 10:53 via dailymail.com
  
  Scientists have built the world's most accurate atomic clock - and it's so precise it could redefine the second.
  
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• Government contractor exposed path to immigration records

  24-09-2026 10:30 via theregister.com
  
  Welcome back to PWNED, the column where we look at all the ways your security can become self-owned. Today’s scary story involves government contractors who just had to make their lives easier at the expense of locking down sensitive information. Have a story about someone leaving a gaping hole in their network? Share it with us at [email protected]. Anonymity is available upon request. Our tale of bureaucratic hell comes courtesy of security researcher Joe Brinkley, who previously worked f
  
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• 'Jeans and a nice top' are BACK! Gen Z goes crazy for the iconic Y2K going-out look - as demand for vintage denim and retro staples surges

  24-09-2026 09:26 via dailymail.com
  
  Data from Fleek, a global AI-powered resale marketplace, has revealed how demand for vintage denim and tops has soared.
  
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• Blood tests find high level of cancer-causing forever chemical in residents near factory

  24-09-2026 09:10 via bbc.co.uk
  
  People living near a major chemical factory in Lancashire are told they could be at risk of serious health conditions.
  
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• Europe’s internet registry wants governance ‘correction’ because its ‘Executive Board’ is not the executive

  24-09-2026 07:31 via theregister.com
  
  RIPE NCC, the regional internet registry for Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Central Asia, has proposed a governance overhaul. The registry (RIR) manages and distributes IP addresses and autonomous system numbers for 75 nations across an area that stretches from Greenland to Russia’s eastern extremities. The organization boasts over 20,000 members. Chief Legal Officer Athina Fragkouli made the case for change this week in a post that says the purpose of the proposed change is “
  
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• Waste sector crisis could see rubbish piling up on streets, experts warn

  24-09-2026 07:13 via bbc.co.uk
  
  There are warnings over a combination of significantly reduced landfill space and a breakdown of Glasgow's main incinerator.
  
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