ICT news

• GOG Joins European Federation of Game Archives, Museums and Preservation Projects

  15-01-2025 23:40 via games.slashdot.org
  
  GOG.com, a European digital distribution platform known for offering DRM-free video games, announced they've joined the European Federation of Game Archives, Museums and Preservation Projects (EFGAMP). From the release: "GOG was created with video game preservation in mind," said Maciej Golebiewski, Managing Director at GOG. "Classic games and the mission to safeguard them for future generations have always been at the core of our work. Over the past decade, we've honed our expertise in this are
  
  Read more

• Bluesky Is Getting Its Own Photo-Sharing App, Flashes

  15-01-2025 23:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Independent developer Sebastian Vogelsang is building a photo-sharing app for the decentralized social network Bluesky, leveraging its AT Protocol and his earlier app, Skeets. The app, called Flashes, will offer features like photo and short video posts while integrating seamlessly with Bluesky. TechCrunch reports: When launched, Flashes could tap into growing consumer demand for alternatives to Big Tech's social media monopoly. [...] To make this work, Flashes simply filters Bluesky's existing
  
  Read more

• Telegram Shuts Down Z-Library, Anna's Archive Channels Over Copyright Infringement

  15-01-2025 22:20 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: In 'piracy' associated circles, Z-Library has one of the most followed Telegram channels of all. The shadow library's official channel amassed over 630,000 subscribers over the years, who were among the first to read site announcements and other key updates. Z-Library previously had some of its messages removed due to copyright infringement. While it didn't upload or directly link to infringing material on Telegram, rightsholders allegedly c
  
  Read more

• UnitedHealth Hid Its Change Healthcare Data Breach Notice For Months

  15-01-2025 21:41 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Change Healthcare has hidden its data breach notification webpage from search engines using "noindex" code, TechCrunch found, making it difficult for affected individuals to find information about the massive healthcare data breach that compromised over 100 million people's medical records last year.
  The UnitedHealth subsidiary said Tuesday it had "substantially" completed notifying victims of the February 2024 ransomware attack. The cyberattack caused months of healthcare disruptions and marked
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• LinkedIn Wants You To Apply For Fewer Jobs

  15-01-2025 21:01 via slashdot.org
  
  LinkedIn has unveiled an AI-powered "Job Match" feature to discourage users from applying to positions they aren't qualified for, aiming to address recruitment inefficiencies in a tight job market. The tool, the Microsoft-owned firm said, analyzes users' experience against job requirements to provide detailed qualification summaries, going beyond basic keyword matching. Premium subscribers will receive more granular match data.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
  Read more

• New Jersey Governor Pushes Phone Ban in Schools

  15-01-2025 20:22 via news.slashdot.org
  
  New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy called for a statewide ban on cellphones in K-12 classrooms during his State of the State address on Tuesday, citing concerns over student distraction and mental health. The Democratic governor, in his final year in office, also proposed full salary payments for state workers using parental leave and expanded full-day pre-K programs across the state.
  The cellphone initiative follows similar restrictions in seven other states, including California and Florida. A Pe
  
  Read more

• FTC Sues Deere Over Farm-Equipment Repair Restrictions

  15-01-2025 19:41 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  The U.S. Federal Trade Commission sued Deere & Co on Wednesday for allegedly monopolizing the repair market for its farm equipment by forcing farmers to use authorized dealers, driving up costs and causing service delays.
  The lawsuit, joined by Illinois and Minnesota, claims Deere maintains complete control over equipment repairs by restricting access to essential software to its dealer network. The action seeks to make repair tools available to equipment owners and independent mechanics. FT
  
  Read more

• 'Mistral is Peanuts For Us': Meta Execs Obsessed Over Beating OpenAI's GPT-4 Internally, Court Filings Reveal

  15-01-2025 19:01 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Executives and researchers leading Meta's AI efforts obsessed over beating OpenAI's GPT-4 model while developing Llama 3, according to internal messages unsealed by a court in one of the company's ongoing AI copyright cases, Kadrey v. Meta. From a report: "Honestly... Our goal needs to be GPT-4," said Meta's VP of Generative AI, Ahmad Al-Dahle, in an October 2023 message to Meta researcher Hugo Touvron. "We have 64k GPUs coming! We need to learn how to build frontier and win this race."
  Though M
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• DJI Removes US Drone Flight Restrictions Over Airports, Wildfires

  15-01-2025 18:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Chinese drone maker DJI has removed software restrictions that previously prevented its drones from flying over sensitive areas in the United States, including airports, wildfires, and government buildings like the White House, replacing them with dismissible warnings.
  The policy shift comes amid rising U.S. distrust of Chinese drones and follows a recent incident where a DJI drone disrupted firefighting efforts in Los Angeles. The company defended the change, saying drone regulations have matur
  
  Read more

• PowerSchool Data Breach Victims Say Hackers Stole 'All' Historical Student and Teacher Data

  15-01-2025 17:41 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: U.S. school districts affected by the recent cyberattack on edtech giant PowerSchool have told TechCrunch that hackers accessed "all" of their historical student and teacher data stored in their student information systems. PowerSchool, whose school records software is used to support more than 50 million students across the United States, was hit by an intrusion in December that compromised the company's customer support portal with stolen credentials, allow
  
  Read more

• Microsoft Will Not Support Office on Windows 10 After October 14

  15-01-2025 17:00 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft will stop supporting its Microsoft 365 (formerly known as Office 365) desktop applications on Windows 10 after October 14, the day the company is retiring the old operating system, it said.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
  Read more

• Even Harvard MBAs Are Struggling To Land Jobs

  15-01-2025 16:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Nearly a quarter of Harvard Business School's 2024 M.B.A. graduates remained jobless three months after graduation, highlighting deepening employment challenges at elite U.S. business schools. The unemployment rate for Harvard M.B.A.s rose to 23% from 20% a year earlier, more than double the 10% rate in 2022.
  Major employers including McKinsey, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have scaled back M.B.A. recruitment, with McKinsey cutting its hires at University of Chicago's Booth School to 33 from 71.
  
  Read more

• Google is Making AI in Gmail and Docs Free - But Raising the Price of Workspace

  15-01-2025 15:43 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Google is bundling its AI features into Workspace at no extra charge while raising the base subscription price by $2 to $14 per user monthly, the company said Wednesday. The move eliminates the previous $20 monthly fee for Gemini Business plan that was required to access AI tools in Gmail, Docs and other Workspace apps.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
  Read more

• Microsoft Relaunches Copilot for Business With Free AI Chat and Pay-As-You-Go Agents

  15-01-2025 15:30 via slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft is relaunching its free Copilot for businesses as Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat today, complete with the ability to use AI agents. From a report: Copilot Chat is Microsoft's latest attempt to get people used to using AI at work and relying on it enough to tempt them into paying $30 per month to get the full Microsoft 365 Copilot.
  Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is essentially a rebranding of what was once Bing Chat Enterprise before Microsoft rebranded it to just Copilot. It crucially now incl
  
  Read more

• Meta Says It Isn't Ending Fact-Checks Outside US 'At This Time'

  15-01-2025 14:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from CoinTelegraph: Social media platform Meta has confirmed that its fact-checking feature on Facebook, Instagram and Threads will only be removed in the US for now, according to a Jan. 13 letter sent to Brazil's government. "Meta has already clarified that, at this time, it is terminating its independent Fact-Checking Program only in the United States, where we will test and refine the community notes [feature] before expanding to other countries," Meta told
  
  Read more

• CISA Releases Microsoft Expanded Cloud Logs Implementation Playbook

  15-01-2025 13:00 via cisa.gov
  Today, CISA released the Microsoft Expanded Cloud Logs Implementation Playbook to help organizations get the most out of Microsoft’s newly introduced logs in Microsoft Purview Audit (Standard). This step-by-step guide enables technical personnel to better detect and defend against advanced intrusion techniques by operationalizing expanded cloud logs. 
  The playbook details analytical methodologies tied to using these logs. Specifically, the playbook offers:An overview of the newly intr
  
  Read more

• TikTok Users Flocks To Chinese Social App Xiaohongshu

  15-01-2025 11:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  hackingbear shares a report from the Associated Press: As the threat of a TikTok ban looms, U.S. TikTok users are flocking to the Chinese social media app Xiaohongshu -- making it the top downloaded app in the U.S. Xiaohongshu, which in English means "Little Red Book" is a Chinese social media app that combines e-commerce, short video and posting functions, enticing mostly Chinese young women from mainland China and regions with with a Chinese diaspora such as Malaysia and Taiwan who use it as a
  
  Read more

• Parallels Can Now Run x86 Windows and Linux On Apple Silicon Mac

  15-01-2025 08:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Parallels Desktop now supports running 64-bit x86 operating systems on Apple Silicon Macs through its proprietary emulation engine, enabling users to run traditional Windows and Linux distributions. However, performance is said to be "really slow." How-To Geek reports: The latest Parallels Desktop 20.2 update adds early support for x86 emulation on Apple Silicon, allowing traditional x86 PC operating systems to work on newer Mac computers. There were already apps like UTM that could do it (most
  
  Read more

• US Deaths Expected To Outpace Births Within the Decade

  15-01-2025 04:30 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Hill: The number of deaths in the U.S. is expected to exceed the number of births by 2033, according to the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) annual 30-year projection of the U.S. population released on Monday. That estimation comes seven years earlier than what the CBO estimated in its 30-year population outlook released last year. At that time, in January 2024, the CBO projected deaths to outpace births by 2040. The CBO's 2025 report projected low
  
  Read more

• Australian Open Avatars Helping Tennis Reach New Audience

  15-01-2025 03:02 via slashdot.org
  
  The Australian Open has introduced a project called AO Animated -- "near-live, commentated coverage of the Australian Open, free to anyone across the world via YouTube, enhanced via a stream of comments from a like-minded online community," reports The Guardian. Blending real-world data with virtual avatars, the animated coverage has garnered significant viewer interest, especially among gamers and tech enthusiasts. From the report: [I]t's no surprise a project called AO Animated has taken off a
  
  Read more

• Pixelfed, Instagram's Decentralized Competitor, Is Now On iOS and Android

  15-01-2025 02:25 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Pixelfed has launched its mobile app for iOS and Android, solidifying its position as a viable alternative to Instagram. The move also comes at a pivotal moment, as a potential Supreme Court ban on TikTok could drive users to explore other social media platforms. Pixelfed is ad-free, open source, decentralized, defaults to chronological feeds and doesn't share user data with third parties. Engadget reports: The platform launched in 2018, but was only available on the web or through third-party a
  
  Read more

• OpenAI's AI Reasoning Model 'Thinks' In Chinese Sometimes, No One Really Knows Why

  15-01-2025 01:45 via slashdot.org
  
  OpenAI's "reasoning" AI model, o1, has exhibited a puzzling behavior of "thinking" in Chinese, Persian, or some other language -- "even when asked a question in English," reports TechCrunch. While the exact cause remains unclear, as OpenAI has yet to provide an explanation, AI experts have proposed a few theories. From the report: Several on X, including Hugging Face CEO Clement Delangue, alluded to the fact that reasoning models like o1 are trained on datasets containing a lot of Chinese charac
  
  Read more

• US Finalizes Rule To Effectively Ban Chinese Vehicles

  15-01-2025 01:02 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: The Biden administration finalized a new rule that would effectively ban all Chinese vehicles from the US under the auspices of blocking the "sale or import" of connected vehicle software from "countries of concern." The rule could have wide-ranging effects on big automakers, like Ford and GM, as well as smaller manufacturers like Polestar -- and even companies that don't produce cars, like Waymo. The rule covers everything that connects a vehi
  
  Read more

• Microsoft Pauses Hiring In US Consulting Unit

  15-01-2025 00:20 via slashdot.org
  
  A week after announcing performance-based job cuts similar to those at Meta, Microsoft said it also plans to pause hiring in part of its consulting unit. CNBC reports: The changes by the U.S. consulting division are meant to align with a policy by the Microsoft Customer and Partner Solutions organization, which has about 60,000 employees, according to a page on Microsoft's website. The changes are in place through the remainder of the 2025 fiscal year ending in June. To reduce costs, Microsoft's
  
  Read more

Follow @newslocke_ict on Twitter!