Offbeat News • The Register

Offbeat

Battlefield 2042: Please don't be the death knell of the franchise, please don't be the death knell of the franchise

Another terrible launch, but DICE is already working on improvements

04 Dec 09:00 | 14

What will life in orbit look like after the ISS? NASA hands out new space station contracts

The end is coming, and nobody wants a homeless 'naut

03 Dec 20:23 | 34

Chill out to the sounds of an expert typing on a variety of mechanical keyboards

A truly rare groove

03 Dec 18:45 | 11

One white cat and a volcano short of a Bond villain: Rocket Lab's Peter Beck shows off the 'Hungry Hippo'

Neutron updated, but the Spectre of SpaceX looms

03 Dec 14:44 | 21

Dev loses copyright appeal over forensic software after judges rule suite was owned by his employer

Did it during work time and got paid for it, affirms Court of Appeal

03 Dec 13:15 | 30

Something for the Weekend, Sir?

A smarter alternative to password recognition could be right in front of us: Unique, invisible, maybe even deadly

Take your breath awayyyyyyyy

03 Dec 10:27 | 75

When you think of a unit of length, do you think of Antony Gormley's rusty anatomy?

Angel of the North asteroid story upsets us mightily

03 Dec 09:30 | 47

Alibaba exec accused of mishandling sexual assault case wants alleged victim to apologise

Manager was fired, now wants his reputation restored with post on a prominent website

03 Dec 03:32 | 13

Ubiquiti dev charged with knocking $4bn off firm's value after insider threat spree

Prosecutors claim Nickolas Sharp even posed as a whistleblower to press

02 Dec 21:05 | 8

ESA's Mars Express picks up plaintive bleeps of China's Zhurong rover, adding much-needed comms redundancy

02 Dec 19:01 | 6

UK data watchdog fines government office for disclosing New Year's gong list

New IT systems set up incorrectly, published CSV files which included names, addresses

02 Dec 15:02 | 21

What a bunch of bricks: Crooks knock hole in toyshop wall, flee with €35k Lego haul

Police still trying to piece everything together

02 Dec 13:00 | 105

Russia: It isn't just us – a bit of an old US rocket might get as close as 5.4km to the ISS

Meanwhile, Soyuz Cluedo continues: It was someone, with the drill, in the habitation module

01 Dec 19:05 | 39

Microsoft shareholders vote for a report into harassment within the company

Median pay gap reporting found less favour

01 Dec 13:08 | 4

ESA's Solar Orbiter sails safely past Earth despite orbiting debris concerns

See if you can guess when the spacecraft thrusters took over

01 Dec 09:59 | 12

We've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Mega-comets lurking in solar systems, spewing carbon monoxide

Comet BB is not only largest of its type that we know of, it was likely active billions of miles from the Sun

01 Dec 06:32 | 11

UK competition regulator to Meta's Facebook: Sell Giphy, we will not approve the purchase

CMA finds that deal would be bad for consumers and tighten Zuck's grip on almost half of £7bn digital ad spend

30 Nov 13:15 | 27

You, me and debris: NASA cans ISS spacewalk because it's getting too risky outside

Broken antenna will have to wait as warning comes in less than 24 hours before airlock opening

30 Nov 12:24 | 39

Hubble space 'scope brings its Cosmic Origins Spectrograph back online

Work continues on code to make the observatory operate happily when control unit message sync glitches out

30 Nov 06:58 | 9

AI-enhanced frog stem cells start to replicate in entirely new ways

Xenobots scoop up loose cells to make more of themselves. We welcome our new overlords

30 Nov 05:01 | 29

Popular

Leaked footage shows British F-35B falling off HMS Queen Elizabeth and pilot's death-defying ejection

Parachute snagged on ship's bows

It's 2021 and someone's written a new Windows 3.x mouse driver. Why now?

For those of you who virtualise Microsoft’s finest and struggle with the pointer, this developer has an answer

Why your external monitor looks awful on Arm-based Macs, the open source fix – and the guy who wrote it

Q&A with the developer of BetterDummy: from macOS secrets to his motivations

You loved running JavaScript in your web browser. Now, get ready for Python scripting

All thanks to CPython, WebAssembly, and some clever developers (And yes, there's Pyodide, too)

NixOS and the changing face of Linux operating systems

As with packaging systems, lightweight efficient approaches look set to lose out

When civilisation ends, a Xenix box will be running a long-forgotten job somewhere

'Keep it running a few weeks.' Fast-forward 5 years. 'Why'd it break, man!?'

Warning: China planning to swipe a bunch of data soon, so quantum computers can decrypt it later

Meanwhile, the Middle Kingdom’s military plans an AI offensive – in the labs and on the field of combat

Feds charge two men with claiming ownership of others' songs to steal YouTube royalty payments

Alleged scheme said to have netted $20m since 2017

Australia will force social networks to identify trolls, so they can be sued for defamation

At the same time, will overrule court decision that traditional publishers are liable for comments on social media

You've seen the Raspberry Pi CM4 in a mini-ITX case. Now here's four in a mini-ITX case

How to coordinate 16 Arms

MORE
STORIES

James Webb Space Telescope may actually truly launch this century, says NASA

Will it fly by Christmas? Betteridge's law probably applies

29 Nov 21:58 | 23

UK Home Secretary delays Autonomy founder extradition decision to mid-December

Could be a Christmas surprise in store from Priti Patel

29 Nov 18:57 | 11

UK Space Agency wants primary school kids to design a logo for first Brit launches

Submissions must create a 'sense of pride.' What could possibly go wrong?

29 Nov 12:39 | 58

Nuclear fusion firm Pulsar fires up a UK-built hybrid rocket engine

A win in the rocketry world: 'Flames came out of the right end'

26 Nov 15:20 | 54

Something for the Weekend, Sir?

You forced me to use this fancypants app and now you're asking for a printout?

'Just take the meds, Mr Sloper, and enjoy your holiday'

26 Nov 10:25 | 121

BOFH: What if International Bad Actors designed the vaccine to make us watch more Steven Seagal movies?

Pipe down – Nicolas Cage could be listening

26 Nov 09:30 | 152

India backs away from digital services tax after US pressure

Will keep taxing, but consider payments as credits for future global tax regime

26 Nov 04:01 | 13

Desktop bust and custom iPhone 13 Pro made from melted-down Tesla car for the Elon Musk dork in your life

25 Nov 14:34 | 60

Autonomy accounts whistleblowers may testify at founder Mike Lynch's US criminal trial

Recent legal wranglings sliced, diced, and dished up for your reading pleasure

25 Nov 11:28 | 8

ESA's Solar Orbiter will swing past Earth this week – sure hope nobody created a big cloud of space junk up there

25 Nov 10:33 | 30

Theranos' Holmes admits she slapped Big Pharma logos on lab reports to boost her biz

'I wish I had done it differently' she tells jury in fraud trial

24 Nov 23:10 | 51

NASA boffins seem to think we're worth saving from fiery asteroid death so they're shooting a spaceship at one

Bruce Willis not required

24 Nov 12:28 | 76

LoRa to the Moon and back: Messages bounced off lunar surface using off-the-shelf hardware

... and a damn big radio telescope

24 Nov 09:30 | 49

Genetically modified E coli bacteria produce ink for 3D printing programmable objects

Drug delivery, environmental clean up, building in space among possible applications

23 Nov 19:35 | 13

Joint venture: Uber Eats to offer weed orders in Ontario

O Cannabis! Meanwhile, ride biz back to court in the UK over driver contracts

23 Nov 12:37 | 17

James Webb Space Telescope gets all shook up – launch delayed again

Space agencies have been planning this thing since 1996, so what's four more days?

23 Nov 06:57 | 39

Fancy being an astronaut but didn't go to uni? Your time may have finally come

Japanese space agency wants 'nauts with good eyesight and work experience – no degree required

23 Nov 05:05 | 5

China's hypersonic glider didn't just orbit Earth, it 'fired a missile' while at Mach 5

Middle Kingdom suggests US is making it all up to justify arms development. As if!

23 Nov 00:35 | 100

Russia's orbital insanity is almost beyond redemption – but there's space for improvement

Every debris cloud has a silver lining

22 Nov 09:30 | 94

Beijing issues fines for 43 Big Tech M&A deals all the way back to 2012

Alibaba and Tencent racked up more than ten cases – each

22 Nov 06:58 | 4

Everything but the catch: '90s pop act or a successful mission for Rocket Lab?

2022's plan: Playing with boosters and helicopters

18 Nov 17:30 | 17

Regulators on three continents probing Nvidia's $40bn purchase of Arm, CFO confirms

US Federal Trade Commission latest to 'express concerns'

18 Nov 13:15 | 8

New study demonstrates iodine as satellite propellant... in space

Tech promises to support boom in small satellites

18 Nov 11:46 | 47

It's fake ooze, don't fall for fake ooze: Alien fossils found on Mars might just be simple chemistry, uni pair warn

Similar mistakes have been made in the past, after all

18 Nov 07:29 | 37

RIP Bernie Drummond: Celebrated ZX Spectrum artist and programmer on Batman, Head Over Heels, Match Day II

'He went from crazy doodler to craftsman instantly'

17 Nov 17:02 | 17

Northrop Grumman throws hat in the ring to design NASA's next-gen Lunar Terrain Vehicle

Caution: Story contains questionable Lego recreation

16 Nov 18:34 | 24

A 'national security' issue: UK.gov blocks Nvidia's Arm deal for now, inserts deeper probe

Digi Secretary Nadine Dorries: CMA to 'report to me' on the next steps

16 Nov 14:30 | 64

From the studio that brought you 'Mortal Wombat' comes 'Pernicious Possum'

Woman tells New Zealand police she was held hostage by small marsupial

16 Nov 13:15 | 29

SAP patent not inventive enough to get legal protection, judge rules

Teradata also sees wings clipped in ongoing battle with German ERP giant

16 Nov 10:15 | 17

Russia blows up old satellite, NASA boss 'outraged' as ISS crew shelters from debris

Moscow slammed for 'reckless, dangerous, irresponsible' weapon test

16 Nov 02:46 | 119

A diverse range of processing units linked via interconnects. Sounds familiar? Yes, it's IBM's quantum computing

System Two takes modular, data-center-inspired approach. Plus: 127-qubit Eagle Big Blue hopes will fly

16 Nov 01:55 | 4

NASA auditor's reality check says '2026 at the earliest' for Artemis Moon landing

All stacked up and nowhere to go

15 Nov 17:04 | 11

Bork!Bork!Bork!

Cruel and unusual IT fail upstages Megan Fox. Transformers: Windows in disguise

Check your outputs, kids

15 Nov 11:39 | 21

Ofcom slams slammers: Telcos fined for switching punters' phone lines without their knowledge or consent

Guaranteed Telecom, Met Technologies nurse £35k penalty, and to them that's meaningful

15 Nov 10:46 | 15

Earth's wobbly companion is probably the result of a lunar impact, reckon space boffins

Reflected light points to Moon-like material on recently discovered rock

12 Nov 17:15 | 38

Brit analysts formed pact to crash Autonomy's market valuation, ex-CFO tells US court

Eye-catching claim in an eye-catching case

12 Nov 13:01 | 22

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it an Electron rocket descending to the ocean?

Everything but catching the thing: Rocket Lab prepares for recovery

12 Nov 11:12 | 12

BOFH: You drive me crazy... and I can't help myself

Service provider? You sure about that second bit?

12 Nov 09:15 | 101

Still reeling from the Great Facebook Blackout of 2021? Turns out Zuck is not the worst offender

Uswitch's survey may surprise you – or not. Depends how much you like Reddit

11 Nov 15:00 | 4

ESA tries listening to a red rover on the Red Planet: How did it go? The sound of silence

Mars Express wanted to demonstrate its relay smarts once again, but space agency mum on progress

11 Nov 11:44 | 2

International Space Station fires rockets to dodge chunk of destroyed Chinese satellite

Meanwhile, next crew of astronauts all set to launch on Thursday

11 Nov 02:56 | 30

Google loses appeal against $2.7bn EU antitrust fine for distorting competition in price comparison websites

Was going to buy a spider from a pet shop, then realised I could pick one up on the web. Here all week

10 Nov 14:45 | 37

Swiss lab's rooftop demo shows sunlight and air can make fuel

Proof of concept produces tiny volume of hydrocarbons, but makes a big point

10 Nov 13:13 | 76

Ofcom announces plan to protect endangered species – the Great British phone box

BT is getting axe-happy but regulator's scheme could save 5,000 kiosks

10 Nov 11:45 | 32

Google swats away £3bn Safari Workaround ad-tracking cookie lawsuit in Supreme Court victory

Campaigners' case had 'no real prospect of success'

10 Nov 10:52 | 29

NASA delays crewed Moon landing until 2025, citing technical infeasibility

The space agency wants you to know they are still committed to the project

10 Nov 07:57 | 31

Another 100 space tourists buy a ride from Virgin Galactic: $25k of that ticket deposit is 'non-refundable'

Firm still manages to lose $48m while Italian Air Force waits to board Branson's space jalopy

09 Nov 12:36 | 38

Rolls-Royce set for funding fillip to build nuclear power stations based on small modular reactor technology

Private-sector investment could unlock additional government cash

09 Nov 12:30 | 211

Now that's a splash down: Astronauts spend 8-hour trip to Earth in diapers after SpaceX capsule toilet breaks

Puts a whole new spin on 'To boldly go where no one has gone before'

09 Nov 07:04 | 38

Belgium watchdog reckons online advertisers should be data controllers under GDPR

Real-time bidding advertising tested by European authorities

08 Nov 15:32 | 14

Slapped wrists at Broadcom as FTC approves order against 'anticompetitive' conduct

No more loyalty deals or spanking customers for going elsewhere

05 Nov 18:30 | 3

Hibernating instrument on Hubble roused as engineers ponder message problem

A software workaround for an iffy component looms. Sound familiar?

05 Nov 12:15 | 45

Something for the Weekend, Sir?

One click, one goal, one mission: To get a one-touch flush solution

Gimme gimme gimme fried chicken

05 Nov 09:30 | 76

So it is possible for Jeff Bezos to lose: Court dismisses Blue Origin complaint about Moon contract award to Elon Musk

NASA and SpaceX to resume working on the next lunar lander

05 Nov 03:18 | 27

22-year-old Brit accused of Twitter SIM-swap heists charged with $784k cryptocurrency theft

He's in Spain, faces extradition to the US to stand trial

04 Nov 13:30 | 26

NASA picks spot at Moon's South Pole to perform first ice-drilling experiment

Featuring two sidekicks: A rover using Nokia's 4G and a hopping recon bot

04 Nov 07:11 | 19

SAP expects to rid car fleet of fossil fuel engines by 2030 – but still more than happy to take money from oil industry

Promises to stop ordering combustion engine vehicles by 2025

03 Nov 20:29 | 19

Samsung releases pair of jeans that can't do anything except cover your legs and hold a Galaxy Z Flip 3

Who needs big pockets, right? Other than, you know, literally everyone

03 Nov 13:30 | 72

Remember the 'guy in a jetpack' seen flying close to passenger jets? Probably just balloons, says FBI

Ah well, back to panicking over imaginary drones, then

03 Nov 04:06 | 23

What a clock up: Brit TV-broadband giant Sky fails to pick up weekend's timezone change, fix due by Friday

We say GMT, you say BST, let's call the whole thing off

02 Nov 14:30 | 106

Of course we've tried turning it off and on again: Yeah, Hubble telescope still not working

Science suspended as engineers study synchronisation issue

02 Nov 12:32 | 54

SpaceX-powered trip to ISS grounded by 'medical issue'

It's not COVID-19 and it's not an emergency, insists NASA

02 Nov 05:39 | 22

Google lab proposes solar-powered moisture farming to provide water for billions

From Tatooine to Earth

01 Nov 12:13 | 59

New World: Grindy? Check. Repetitive? Check. Fun? We hate to say it... but check

Goddamn it, Jeff Bezos' lot can make a passable MMORPG after all

30 Oct 09:38 | 31

Trick or treat? Massive solar storm could light up American skies this Halloween

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a warning of a geomagnetic storm

29 Oct 22:03 | 22

Microsoft surpasses Apple as world's most valuable biz, by stock price at least

iBiz sunk by scarce chips and Microsoft's Azure cloud cash faucet

29 Oct 20:00 | 11

Juno what? Jupiter's Great Red Spot is much deeper than originally thought

Boffins release treasure trove of findings from NASA probe, including weird cyclones around the poles

29 Oct 13:26 | 7

Something for the Weekend, Sir?

Remember when you thought fax machines were dead-matter teleporters? Ah, just me, then

No, things were NOT better in the past, so leave them there

29 Oct 10:38 | 132

Assange psychiatrist misled judge over parentage of his kids, US tells High Court

Didn't make clear he was their dad... Why? In case CIA harmed them, suggests his barrister

28 Oct 14:37 | 159

50 years have gone by since the UK's one – and only – homegrown foray into orbit

Hopefully not another half century before the next... although launchpads are pricey

28 Oct 10:56 | 53

Pack your bags – we may have found the first planet outside of our galaxy

Alas, we will have to wait 70 years to confirm the sighting

28 Oct 02:04 | 37

'We will not rest until the periodic table is exhausted' says Intel CEO on quest to keep Moore's Law alive

From developers and Mount Evans ASICs to zettascale-by-2027 promises – what's Chipzilla got planned for us?

28 Oct 00:58 | 55

Teen bought Google ad for his scam website and made 48 Bitcoins duping UK online shoppers

'If he was an adult he would be going inside' – judge

27 Oct 13:27 | 69

UK science suffers as lawmakers continue to dither over Brexit negotiations

Horizons Europe carrot dangled amid protocol wrangling

27 Oct 10:30 | 201

31-year-old piece of hardware not working very well: Hubble telescope back in safe mode over 'synchronization issues'

James Webb Space Telescope in line for a December flight

26 Oct 11:03 | 100

Google deliberately throttled ad load times to promote AMP, claims new court document

'Nice comparative boost' for AMP claimed to be achieved by actively slowing other formats

26 Oct 08:30 | 45

Samsung boss Lee Jae-Yong convicted and fined for drug abuse

Took Propofol, aka ‘the milk of amnesia’ or 'the drug that killed Michael Jackson'

26 Oct 07:48 | 6

Jeff Bezos wants to build a business park in space

Pretty ambitious – none of this Blue-Origin-led consortium can put humans in orbit yet

26 Oct 00:04 | 46

Amazon warehouse workers in New York to labor watchdog: We want our union vote

Unions face test on Staten Island after defeat in Bessemer, Alabama

25 Oct 23:18 | 15

Electronic Frontier Foundation ousts co-founder John Gilmore from its board

He's free of governance duties now, but still an emeritus member

25 Oct 05:58 | 21

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