The Register

Measurement nerds enter the 21st century

As incredible as it may seem, until this week the definitive measurement of a kilogram was a cylinder made of an alloy comprising 90 per cent platinum and 10 per cent iridium sat under a glass dome in a room in Paris.…

We never meant to make that widely public which is why we made a public FAQ for it

Microsoft was, and maybe still is, considering injecting targeted adverts into the Windows 10 Mail app.…

El Reg drills into banned technology with Freedom-of-Info request

The US Department of Defense's "do not buy" list of foreign software and equipment turns out to be about as long as the list of bug-free Windows releases or privacy-focused Facebook apps.…

AWS comes up with blanket policies to smother public-facing cloud storage silos

Amazon Web Services is taking steps to halt the epidemic of data leaks caused by the S3 cloud buckets it hosts from being accidentally left wide open to the internet by customers.…

Ex-Oracle man gets top job as another experienced woman exec quits web ads titan

Google Cloud CEO Diane Greene has quit the online ads giant, and will be replaced by ex-Oracle executive Thomas Kurian.…

You've broken the GDPR, baby, Dutch govt's eggheads claim

Microsoft broke Euro privacy rules by carrying out a "large scale and covert" gathering of private data through its Office apps.…

Final update of beloved development adding ARM64

Microsoft devs rejoice! A new version of Visual Studio 2017 has arrived replete with fixes, tweaks and ARM64 support.…

Also: Huawei cloud lands in Africa, Nokia OpenStack, Cisco Nexus BIOS bugs

Riverbed made two announcements covering its SteelHead SD-WAN solution this week – a bunch of enhancements, and subscription pricing options.…

Sells 'intelligent' chassis, removable drive magazine, StorNext base station

Quantum has stepped sideways into the autonomous vehicle testing market with a data logging system integrated with its StorNext multi-tiered workflow file management product.…

Hold on Redmond, don't light those fireworks yet, the dominance will be shortlived

Microsoft's Surface line leapfrogged Apple's iPad Pro as the detachable tablet of choice for tech distributors in Western Europe but that top spot definitely won't be sustained, or so IDC says.…

As shareholders sign off on Big Red's big pay packet for first time in seven years

Oracle is to slurp up software-defined WAN provider Talari Networks for an undisclosed sum.…

Even Softbank balked at these tethered terrors

Google's parent company Alphabet has closed down its biped robot maker Schaft after failing to find a buyer.…

Routine file about accused crim suddenly mentions WikiLeaker's name

An apparent cut-and-paste error has revealed that American prosecutors may have already filed criminal charges against cupboard-dwelling WikiLeaks fugitive Julian Assange.…

$1.4bn match made in heaven

BlackBerry has made its biggest acquisition ever, spending over half of its cash pile to bolster its threat detection unit.…

Gangs Matrix led to 'multiple and serious' breaches of data protection rules, says watchdog

London cops have broken data protection rules by using a controversial database that ranks people's likelihood of gang-related violence but fails to distinguish between victims and perps, and low and high-risk people.…

Guess what happens? Stockholders thaw to idea of cashing in

Dell Technologies has upped the buy price for Class V stock to win support from shareholders that threatened to block the proposed transaction and hinder the company’s return to the US stock market.…

First UK conviction for reckless UAV flying

A Russian-speaking man from Cambridgeshire has become the first person in the UK to be convicted of illegally flying a drone beneath a police helicopter during a search operation.…

EE: We're sorry, Ofcom. Virgin: Why, that's... unjustified and disproportionate!

The UK's comms watchdog claims to have slapped a £13.3m penalty on EE and Virgin Media for fleecing customers who wanted to exit their broadband or mobile phone contracts before they were due to expire.…

Not the best at anything, but a solid, great value performer

Review What if Huawei used OnePlus's Oxygen UI, I found myself musing recently. Wouldn't it be the perfect package? Huawei's amazing RF performance, and bleeding-edge tech, with a UI that didn't actually suck?…

Swipe – open toilet door – and swipe again

Something for the Weekend, Sir? "Work out loud," my prospective new employer tells me, adding that "we are a team, not a family". Sister Sledge need not apply.…