Chris spends most of his time writing headlines, checking facts, spotting legal problems, editing articles and doing all sorts of production journalism for The Register and The Channel. Every so often he'll pen a feature about ARM processors, embedded engineering or something amusing in the world of science. Before working for El Reg, Chris designed newspapers and worried about print deadlines.
Anatomy of a killer bug: How just 5 characters can murder iPhone, Mac apps
There has been much sniggering into sleeves after wags found they could upset iOS 6 iPhones and iPads, and Macs running OS X 10.8, by sending a simple rogue text message or email.
A bug is triggered when the CoreText component in the vulnerable Apple operating systems tries to render on screen a particular sequence of Unicode …
Four ways the Guardian could have protected Snowden – by THE NSA
The Guardian's editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger fears journalists – and, by extension, everyone – will be reduced to using pen and paper to avoid prying American and British spooks online.
And his reporters must fly around the world to hold face-to-face meetings with sources ("Not good for the environment, but increasingly the …
Chrome, Firefox blab your passwords in a just few clicks: Shrug, wary or kill?
Web browsers Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox can reveal the logged-in user's saved website passwords in a few clicks. There now rages a debate over whether this is an alarming security flaw or a common feature.
Picture this: you've been asked to fix a friend's PC because it's stopped printing pages properly, or you saunter …
Can't agree on a coding style? Maybe the NEW YORK TIMES can help
For decades, dour broadsheet the New York Times and its style guide have presided over the world of posh writing: its English usage manual serves as both a bible for upmarket writers and a blunt instrument with which to beat sensationalist tabloid hacks such as your humble correspondent.
Now the Grey Lady has turned her hand …
Official SCIENCE*: HIGH HEELS make you SEXY (Ladies)
However uncomfortable, overly expensive and impractical killer heels may be, think again before ditching them for your next night out: new science has proved high-heeled shoes definitely make women look sexy.
In the same year CERN boffins found the Higgs Boson in a gigantic underground particle accelerator, an academic study …
Apple supremo Tim Cook's pay packet SLASHED 99% in 2012
Apple boss Tim Cook took a 99 per cent pay cut in 2012 - the year his firm's maps crapp confused iPhone fanbois and rival Android dominated the mobile market.
The chief executive took home a paltry $4.17m in salary and a non-equity bonus, according to paperwork just filed with US financial regulator the SEC, down from the $378m …
ARM knees semi groins with 2 billion chip feat
Two billion processors designed by ARM shipped in the first quarter of 2012, banking the UK chip biz forecast-busting profits for Q2.
While the rest of the semiconductor industry apparently suffered a 4 per cent slump year-on-year in shipments, the Cambridge-based company said it enjoyed a 9 per cent rise - marking the highest …
ARM's ultra-low-power fridge-puter chips: Just what the CIA ordered
Prototypes of a new tiny, ultra low-power ARM-licensed processor will be demonstrated at an engineering conference in California next week. The chips are so small and energy efficient that they're aimed at wirelessly hooking up kitchen appliances, light bulbs and 'leccy meters to your network. And to the CIA.
Will this lead to …
How a tiny leap-day miscalculation trashed Microsoft Azure
As soon as Microsoft's cloudy platform Azure crashed to Earth, and stayed there for eight hours, on 29 February, every developer who has ever had to handle dates immediately figured it was a leap-day bug.
Now the software biz behemoth has put its hands up and admitted in a detailed dissection of the blunder how a calendar glitch …
World's Raspberry Pi supply jammed in factory blunder
Shipments of the long-awaited and heavily fought over Raspberry Pi boards could be delayed thanks to a manufacturing cock-up.
The assembly lines churning out the first 10,000 units used the wrong kind of RJ45 networking jack, according to the team behind the $35 Linux computer, and the parts will need to be replaced before they …
Powerful, wallet-sized Raspberry Pi computer sells out in SECONDS
The first batch of 10,000 ARM-powered Raspberry Pi computers went on sale at 6am GMT on Wednesday - and sold out within minutes.
According to distributor Premier Farnell, there were at least 600 orders, visits or pre-orders every SECOND, producing a 300 per cent hike in web traffic. The electronic component sales site was …
Boffins dig up prehistoric popcorn in Peru
Mankind was scoffing prehistoric popcorn 1,000 years earlier than previously thought, reckons a top archaeologist.
Before anyone along the arid north coast of Peru bothered crafting ceramic art or making cooking pots, let alone building cinemas and other attractions in which the crunchy snack is often wolfed down by modern Man, …
Pollution-gobbling molecules in global warming SMACKDOWN
Elusive pollution-busting molecules are scrubbing our planet's atmosphere at a much faster rate than first imagined, according to gas-bothering boffins.
Reactions by the cleaning agents, known as Criegee intermediates, are also emitting a by-product that forms solar radiation-reflecting clouds that could help cool Earth and …
That Brit-built £22 computer: Yours for just £1,900 or more
The British-designed credit card-sized RaspberryPi computer, eagerly awaited due to its £22 price tag, can be yours this week for a mere £1,900 or more.
The tiny GNU/Linux ARM-powered machine, which is priced less than a textbook, is due to go on general sale by the first half of February, several weeks later than expected …
Explicit pics of glorious rounded globes snapped in festive Saturnalia
While most of us were hanging up gaudy decorations on Christmas trees, or knocking over festive ornaments in festive befuddlement, space boffins were busy processing photos of our solar system's own gigantic baubles.
NASA's Cassini probe has been busy snapping images of Saturn and its moons, highlighting the scale and beauty of …
Stephen Hawking seeks geek to maintain his unique wheelchair
Could you repair and tweak superstar physicist Stephen Hawking's robot voice box and gadget-laden wheelchair? If you reckon yes, then the celebrated author and cosmologist wants to hear from you.
He has a technical assistant job going, with a modest graduate salary, and it involves maintaining the electronic systems that allow …
Psst, kid... Wanna learn how to hack?
Despite all the excitement and expectation encompassing the RaspberryPi, the most remarkable thing about this low-power credit card-sized computer is its price tag: little more than £20 for a fully functional system capable of, among many things, 1080p video playback and hardware-accelerated graphics.
The British-designed Pi is …
