ICT news

• A Host of Tech Companies, Including Coinbase, Robinhood, Lyft, and Stripe, Announce Hiring Freezes and Job Cuts

  03-11-2022 23:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  The macro story unfolding today is all the layoffs taking place in the tech industry. "Tech giants including Meta and Amazon have been slowing down their hiring for months, while smaller tech companies such as Robinhood and Coinbase have announced layoffs," reports the New York Times. "But rarely have so many job cuts and hiring freezes in the industry been disclosed on the same day." From the report: The technology industry's slowdown came into even sharper relief on Thursday as Amazon publicly
  
  Read more

• OpenAI To Give 10 AI Startups $1 Million Each, Early Access To Its Systems

  03-11-2022 23:00 via slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: OpenAI, the San Francisco-based lab behind AI systems like GPT-3 and DALL-E 2, today launched a new program to provide early-stage AI startups with capital and access to OpenAI tech and resources. Called Converge, the cohort will be financed by the OpenAI Startup Fund, OpenAI says. The $100 million entrepreneurial tranche was announced last May and was backed by Microsoft and other partners. The 10 or so founders chosen for Converge will recei
  
  Read more

• Steam on Chromebooks Enters Beta, Adds AMD Support

  03-11-2022 22:22 via it.slashdot.org
  It has been almost three years since Chromebook users got word that Steam support is coming to ChromeOS. We're still not totally there yet, but today Google announced that it's ready to enter beta testing. From a report: In a blog post, Zach Alcorn, Google product manager, announced that Steam on Chromebooks is available as a beta with ChromeOS 108.0.5359.24 and later. Steam on ChromeOS entered alpha in March, and Alcorn said the updates announced today are based on "thousands of gameplay report
  
  Read more

• Scientists Zap Clouds With Electricity To Make Them Rain

  03-11-2022 21:43 via science.slashdot.org
  A new experiment has shown that zapping clouds with electrical charge can alter droplet sizes in fog or, potentially, help a constipated cloud to rain. From a report: Last year Giles Harrison, from the University of Reading, and colleagues from the University of Bath, spent many early mornings chasing fogs in the Somerset Levels, flying uncrewed aircraft into the gloop and releasing charge. Their findings, published in Geophysical Research Letters, showed that when either positive or negative ch
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Microsoft Mulls Cheap PCs Supported by Ads, Subs

  03-11-2022 21:01 via tech.slashdot.org
  The Register: A number of job postings -- including this now-closed ad from late September for a principal software engineering manager -- are looking for engineers and others to become part of the "newly formed Windows Incubation team" whose mission is to "build a new direction for Windows in a cloud first world."
  The lofty goal is to "move Windows to a place that combines the benefits of the cloud and Microsoft 365 to offer more compute resources on demand and creates a hybrid app model that s
  
  Read more

• Signal To Roll Out Snapchat-like "Stories" Feature

  03-11-2022 20:20 via it.slashdot.org
  Encrypted messaging app Signal will soon have an ephemeral "stories" feature, with video, pictures or text that disappear after 24 hours. From a report: Signal, often used by journalists, activists and privacy minded individuals, plans to roll out the feature on Monday, the nonprofit's president Meredith Whittaker told Axios at the Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal Thursday. Signal has been beta-testing the feature since last month.
  User updates that last on profiles for 24 hours, often called "sto
  
  Read more

• Vonage Will Pay $100 Million to Settle FTC Allegations of Trapping Consumers in Subscriptions

  03-11-2022 19:40 via news.slashdot.org
  Ericsson subsidiary Vonage will pay $100 million to settle Federal Trade Commission allegations that it created a web of obstacles for its customers to cancel the internet-based telephone service and charged unexpected termination fees. From a report: The agreement, filed in a federal court Thursday, represents the largest settlement of its kind in the FTC's enforcement push against companies that allegedly throw up high hurdles to customers seeking to cancel subscriptions or services. New Jerse
  
  Read more

• Amazon To Freeze Hiring in Corporate Workforce

  03-11-2022 19:02 via slashdot.org
  Amazon will freeze hiring in its corporate workforce as the e-commerce giant deals with an "unusual macro-economic environment," a company executive said on Thursday. From a report: "We anticipate keeping this pause in place for the next few months, and will continue to monitor what we're seeing in the economy and the business to adjust as we think makes sense," Beth Galetti, senior vice-president of People Experience and Technology at Amazon, said in a blog post. The company has already paused
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Delhi's Air a 'Crime Against Humanity'

  03-11-2022 18:21 via news.slashdot.org
  Delhi's 20 million residents were effectively breathing smoke on Thursday as the air quality index (AQI) breached the "severe" and "hazardous" categories in nearly all monitoring stations of the Indian capital, raising calls to close schools. From a report: The AQI exceeded 450 at many places early in the day, according to data from the Central Pollution Control Board. A reading over 400 affects healthy people, with serious impacts on those with existing diseases, the federal government says. Th
  
  Read more

• Remote Indigenous Community Pioneers 3D-printed Homes Set To Change Rural Lives

  03-11-2022 17:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  maxcelcat writes: Indigenous Australians living in remote areas have had a housing crisis for decades now. One community is addressing this by having houses created by Luyten, printed with concrete, built in their settlement. Traditional housing construction a long way from major urban centres is extraordinarily expensive and complicated. Maintenance is also a huge issue, many plumbers, electricians etc. in northern Australia find having their own aircraft is the only way to get around. Which of
  
  Read more

• Toxic Cleanup Technique Can Get More Rare Earth Metals Out of Ores

  03-11-2022 17:05 via science.slashdot.org
  As an added bonus, cleanup after rare earth extraction would be much easier. From a report: A variety of modern technologies, including permanent magnets that have been used in everything from earbuds to wind turbines, rely on rare earth elements. While the metals aren't actually especially rare, they don't occur at high concentrations in the Earth's crust. As such, extracting them is expensive and tends to produce a lot of environmental damage, meaning that most of the supply comes from a small
  
  Read more

• Ukraine War, Geopolitics Fuelling Cybersecurity Attacks - EU Agency

  03-11-2022 16:29 via it.slashdot.org
  Geopolitics such as Russia's invasion of Ukraine has led to more damaging and widespread cybersecurity attacks in the year to July, EU cybersecurity agency ENISA said in its annual report on Thursday. From a report: ENISA's study follows concerns about the role of state actors and the growing range of threats to governments, companies and essential sectors such as energy, transport, banking and digital infrastructure. The agency said geopolitical situations - in particular the Russian invasion o
  
  Read more

• Why Egypt Became One of the Biggest Chokepoints for Internet Cables

  03-11-2022 15:47 via tech.slashdot.org
  When underwater cables congregate in one place, things get tricky. From a report: Look at Egypt on a map of the world's subsea Internet cables and it immediately becomes clear why Internet experts have been concerned about the area for years. The 16 cables in the area are concentrated through the Red Sea and touch land in Egypt, where they make a 100-mile journey across the country to reach the Mediterranean Sea. (Cable maps don't show the exact locations of cables.) It has been estimated that a
  
  Read more

• Stripe Cutting Headcount by 14% as It Readies for 'Leaner Times'

  03-11-2022 15:00 via slashdot.org
  Stripe, one of the world's most valuable startups, will cut more than 1,000 jobs as it seeks to rein in costs ahead of any economic downturn. From a report: The payments company will cut its workforce by 14% this week, returning headcount to the almost 7,000 total from February, co-founders Patrick and John Collison said in an email to staff seen by Bloomberg News. The two vowed to trim expenses more broadly as they prepare for "leaner times."
  "We were much too optimistic about the internet econ
  
  Read more

• Google's Building Package Tracking Right Into Your Gmail Inbox

  03-11-2022 14:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Google is adding package tracking features to Gmail, which should make it easier to see where your orders are at a glance while you scroll through your emails. In a blog post on Wednesday, the company says you'll start seeing "a simple, helpful view of your package tracking and delivery information right in your inbox" in the next few weeks.Gmail will show you the delivery date on the list item for any shipping email, making it so you don't hav
  
  Read more

• Early MakerDAO Developer and Stablecoin Pioneer Found Dead

  03-11-2022 11:00 via slashdot.org
  Nikolai Mushegian, an early developer of MakerDAO, the largest decentralized finance protocol, as well as a contributor to multiple crypto projects, was found dead on Friday in San Juan, Puerto Rico, according to local news outlet El Nuevo Dia. CoinDesk reports: According to the news article, a 29-year-old man identified as "Nicolai Arcadie Muchgian" was dragged by water currents close to Condado Beach. Beach patrols managed to retrieve his body from the ocean but there were no vital signs. The
  
  Read more

• The World's First Offshore Floating Wind-Solar Pilot Goes Online

  03-11-2022 08:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  China's government-owned utility State Power Investment Corporation (SPIC) has launched the world's first commercial offshore floating solar that's paired with an offshore wind turbine. Electrek reports: SPIC is one of five major electrical utility companies in China, and the world's largest photovoltaic power generation enterprise. The pilot is located off the coast of Haiyang, a city in Shandong, eastern China. The project uses Norway-based Ocean Sun's patented floating solar power technology.
  
  Read more

• SpaceX Is Now Building a Raptor Engine a Day, NASA Says

  03-11-2022 04:30 via science.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: A senior NASA official said this week that SpaceX has done "very well" in working toward the development of a vehicle to land humans on the surface of the Moon, taking steps to address two of the space agency's biggest concerns. NASA selected SpaceX and Starship for its Human Landing System in April 2021. In some ways, this was the riskiest choice of NASA's options because Starship is a very large and technically advanced vehicle. However, b
  
  Read more

• The Godot Game Engine Now Has Its Own Foundation

  03-11-2022 03:02 via news.slashdot.org
  The Godot Engine now has its own foundation to continue funding themselves. Previously, they teamed up with the Software Freedom Conservancy to handle fiscal sponsorship duties. Phoronix reports: The Godot engine developers and Software Freedom Conservancy mutually agreed to move the open-source game engine project to its own foundation. The Godot Foundation has been setup in the Netherlands as its own organization modeled after the policies of the SFC. The Godot Foundation is to help this game
  
  Read more

• Google's Text-To-Image AI Model Imagen Is Getting Its First (Very Limited) Public Outing

  03-11-2022 02:25 via tech.slashdot.org
  Google's text-to-image AI system, Imagen, is being added to the company's AI Test Kitchen app as a way to collect early feedback on the technology. The Verge reports: AI Test Kitchen was launched earlier this year as a way for Google to beta test various AI systems. Currently, the app offers a few different ways to interact with Google's text model LaMDA (yes, the same one that the engineer thought was sentient), and the company will soon be adding similarly constrained Imagen requests as part o
  
  Read more

• PlayStation VR2 Release Date and Price Revealed

  03-11-2022 01:45 via games.slashdot.org
  PlayStation VR2 will officially be released on February 22, 2023, for $549.99, and pre-orders will begin on November 15. IGN reports: As revealed by the PlayStation.Blog, PlayStation VR2 will include the PS VR2 headset, PS VR2 Sense controllers, and stereo headphones. There will also be a PlayStation VR2 Horizon Call of the Mountain bundle that will retail for $599.99, and it will include everything from the standard edition plus a PlayStation Store voucher code for Horizon Call of the Mountain.
  
  Read more

• Wharton, Berkeley, NYU Offering Online MBAs For the First Time

  03-11-2022 01:02 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Wall Street Journal: Starting next year, executive M.B.A. students at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania can earn the $223,500 degree from their living rooms. After years of resistance, some of the country's top business schools are starting virtual M.B.A. programs that require only a few days of in-person instruction. Wharton and Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business said they would include options for executive and p
  
  Read more

• Mastodon Gained 70,000 Users After Musk's Twitter Takeover

  03-11-2022 00:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  "More than 70,000 users joined Mastodon on the day after Musk's Twitter takeover announcement," writes Slashdot reader votsalo. "Mastodon is a six-year-old decentralized social media platform that uses 'federated' servers." The Guardian's Wilfred Chan writes: I joined Mastodon this week, and it took a few hours just to master its new vocabulary. Some of it is a little silly-sounding: instead of tweets, you have "toots". Things get trickier after that. Mastodon is not a single website but a netwo
  
  Read more

Follow @newslocke_ict on Twitter!