Many British publications use the term.

boffin: Noun (British informal) A person engaged in scientific or technical research. [1]

It appears regularly in the Economist, too [2].

[1] https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/boffin

[2] https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2019/08/08/...

You don't often hear Orifice though

That's just the Register. Check out some of their other articles, they pretty much have the same kind of jokes.

El-Reg has been a staple of IT news reporting since the 90's, this is their house style. It's an irreverent play on the red top style of reporting used by British tabloids.

I love that publication and how the register makes fun of the big tech companies, like calling google "the chocolate factory".

That and "fondle slabs" for Apple devices. It's been my daily coffee-break read since they started all those years ago. I don't know if it's the case now, but they wore their ban from Apple events (for not showing enough fawning) as a badge of pride for many years.

This is the normal style of The Register.

The register is a very reputable news site, known for their tabloid-parody style with crude jokes, but very good reporting. They've been around since 1994.

"Is this considered professional journalism nowadays?". No, it's just how that site uses English. They probably think it's funny or something. It's trivial to find an alternative sites for the story.

Don't confuse professional with dry and boring.