ICT news

• US DOJ Sues To Block Hewlett Packard Enterprise's $14 Billion Juniper Deal

  30-01-2025 23:41 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Longtime Slashdot reader nunya_bizns shares a report from Reuters: The U.S. Department of Justice has sued to block Hewlett Packard Enterprise's $14 billion deal to acquire networking gear maker Juniper Networks, arguing that it would stifle competition, according to a complaint filed on Thursday. The DOJ argued that the acquisition would eliminate competition and would lead to only two companies -- Cisco Systems and HPE -- controlling more than 70% of the U.S. market for networking equipment. M
  
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• Google's 10-Year Chromebook Lifeline Leaves Old Laptops Headed For Silicon Cemetery

  30-01-2025 23:25 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  The Register's Dan Robinson reports: Google promised a decade of updates for its Chromebooks in 2023 to stop them being binned so soon after purchase, but many are still set to reach the end of the road sooner than later. The appliance-like laptop devices were introduced by megacorp in 2011, running its Linux-based ChromeOS platform. They have been produced by a number of hardware vendors and proven popular with buyers such as students, thanks to their relatively low pricing. The initial devices
  
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• OpenAI Teases 'New Era' of AI In US, Deepens Ties With Government

  30-01-2025 22:45 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: On Thursday, OpenAI announced that it is deepening its ties with the US government through a partnership with the National Laboratories and expects to use AI to "supercharge" research across a wide range of fields to better serve the public. "This is the beginning of a new era, where AI will advance science, strengthen national security, and support US government initiatives," OpenAI said. The deal ensures that "approximately 15,000 scientis
  
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• Amazon Sues WA State Over Washington Post Request for Kuiper Records

  30-01-2025 20:50 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The company that Jeff Bezos founded has gone to court to keep the newspaper he owns from finding out too much about the inner workings of its business. From a report: Amazon is suing Washington state to limit the release of public records to The Washington Post from a series of state Department of Labor and Industries investigations of an Amazon Project Kuiper satellite facility in the Seattle area.
  The lawsuit, filed this week in King County Superior Court in Seattle, says the newspaper on Nov.
  
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• Google Offering 'Voluntary Exit' For Employees Working on Pixel, Android

  30-01-2025 20:09 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Google is offering U.S. employees in its Platforms & Devices division a voluntary exit program with severance packages, following last year's merger of its Pixel hardware and Android software teams.
  The program affects staff working on Android, Chrome, Google Photos, Pixel, Fitbit, and Nest products, according to a memo from Senior Vice President Rick Osterloh. The move comes after the hardware division cut hundreds of roles last January when it reorganized into a functional model. Google sa
  
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• Oracle Faces Java Customer Revolt After 'Predatory' Pricing Changes

  30-01-2025 17:41 via developers.slashdot.org
  
  Nearly 90% of Oracle Java customers are looking to abandon the software maker's products following controversial licensing changes made in 2023, according to research firm Dimensional Research.
  The exodus reflects growing frustration with Oracle's shift to per-employee pricing for its Java platform, which critics called "predatory" and could increase costs up to five times for the same software, Gartner found. The dissatisfaction runs deepest in Europe, where 92% of French and 95% of German user
  
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• Books Written By Humans Are Getting Their Own Certification

  30-01-2025 17:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The Authors Guild -- one of the largest associations of writers in the US -- has launched a new project that allows authors to certify that their book was written by a human, and not generated by artificial intelligence. From a report: The Guild says its "Human Authored" certification aims to make it easier for writers to "distinguish their work in increasingly AI-saturated markets," and that readers have a right to know who (or what) created the books they read. Human Authored certifications wi
  
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• SoftBank in Talks To Invest Up To $25 Billion in OpenAI

  30-01-2025 16:20 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: SoftBank is in talks to invest as much as $25 billion into OpenAI [non-paywalled source], in a deal that would make it the ChatGPT maker's biggest financial backer, as the pair partner on a huge new artificial intelligence infrastructure project.
  The two companies announced last week they would lead a joint venture that would spend $100 billion on Stargate -- a sprawling data centre project touted by US President Donald Trump -- with the figure rising to as m
  
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• Has Europe's Great Hope For AI Missed Its Moment?

  30-01-2025 15:40 via slashdot.org
  
  France's Mistral AI is facing mounting pressure over its future as an independent European AI champion, as competition intensifies from U.S. tech giants and China's emerging players. The Paris-based startup, valued at $6.5 billion and backed by Microsoft and Nvidia, has struggled to keep pace with larger rivals despite delivering advanced AI models with a fraction of their resources.
  The pressure increased this week after China's DeepSeek released a cutting-edge open-source model that challenged
  
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• India Lauds Chinese AI Lab DeepSeek, Plans To Host Its Models on Local Servers

  30-01-2025 15:00 via slashdot.org
  
  India's IT minister on Thursday praised DeepSeek's progress and said the country will host the Chinese AI lab's large language models on domestic servers, in a rare opening for Chinese technology in India. From a report: "You have seen what DeepSeek has done -- $5.5 million and a very very powerful model," IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Thursday, responding to criticism New Delhi has received for its own investment in AI, which has been much less than many other countries.
  Since 2020, Indi
  
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• Nintendo Loses Trademark Battle With a Costa Rican Grocery Store

  30-01-2025 14:00 via games.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Techdirt: While most of our conversations about Nintendo recently have focused on the somewhat bizarre patent lawsuit the company filed against Pocketpair over the hit game Palworld, traditionally our coverage of the company has focused more on the very wide net of IP bullying it engages in. This is a company absolutely notorious for behaving in as protectionist a fashion as possible with anything even remotely related to its IP. That reputation is so wel
  
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• CISA Releases Fact Sheet Detailing Embedded Backdoor Function of Contec CMS8000 Firmware

  30-01-2025 13:00 via cisa.gov
  CISA released a fact sheet, [Contec CMS8000 Contains a Backdoor], detailing an analysis of three firmware package versions of the Contec CMS8000, a patient monitor used by the U.S. Healthcare and Public Health (HPH) sector. Analysts discovered that an embedded backdoor function with a hard-coded IP address, CWE – 912: Hidden Functionality (CVE-2025-0626), and functionality that enables patient data spillage, CWE – 359: Exposure of Private Personal Information to an Unauthorized Actor
  
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• Asteroid Contains Building Blocks of Life, Say Scientists

  30-01-2025 11:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Mr. Dollar Ton shares a report from the BBC: The chemical building blocks of life have been found, among many other complex chemical compounds, in the grainy dust of an asteroid called Bennu, an analysis reveals. Samples of the space rock, which were scooped up by a Nasa spacecraft and brought to Earth, contain a rich array of minerals and thousands of organic compounds. These include amino acids, which are the molecules that make up proteins, as well as nucleobases -- the fundamental components
  
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• Astronomers Discover 196-Foot Asteroid With 1-In-83 Chance of Hitting Earth In 2032

  30-01-2025 08:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Astronomers have discovered a newly identified asteroid that has a 1-in-83 chance of striking Earth on December 22, 2032, though the most likely scenario is a close miss. Designated as 2024 YR4, the asteroid measures in at 196 feet wide and is currently 27 million miles away. Space.com reports: The near-Earth object (NEO) discovered in 2024, which is around half as wide as a football field is long, will make a very close approach to Earth on Dec. 22, 2032. It's estimated to come within around 66
  
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• Democrat Teams Up With Movie Industry To Propose Website-Blocking Law

  30-01-2025 04:30 via politics.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: US Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) today proposed a law that would let copyright owners obtain court orders requiring Internet service providers to block access to foreign piracy websites. The bill would also force DNS providers to block sites. Lofgren said in a press release that she "work[ed] for over a year with the tech, film, and television industries" on "a proposal that has a remedy for copyright infringers located overseas that does not
  
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• AI-Assisted Works Can Get Copyright With Enough Human Creativity, Says US Copyright Office

  30-01-2025 03:02 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  The U.S. Copyright Office has ruled that AI-assisted works can receive copyright protection if they contain perceptible human creativity, such as creative modifications or arrangements. However, fully machine-generated content remains ineligible for copyright. The Associated Press reports: An AI-assisted work could be copyrightable if an artist's handiwork is perceptible. A human adapting an AI-generated output with "creative arrangements or modifications" could also make it fall under copyright
  
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• NordVPN Says Its New Protocol Can Circumvent VPN Blockers

  30-01-2025 02:25 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  NordVPN has introduced NordWhisper, a new protocol designed to bypass VPN blocks in restrictive countries like Russia and India by making VPN traffic appear like regular internet activity. Gizmodo reports: NordVPN claims to have found a way to make traffic from its service look normal, though admits that it may not always work perfectly. It also says the NordWhisper protocol may introduce more latency. The protocol is rolling out first to users on Windows, Linux, and Android. Support for other p
  
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• Atari Limited-Edition Asteroids Watches Sell Out Instantly For 45th Anniversary

  30-01-2025 01:45 via games.slashdot.org
  
  jjslash shares a report from TechSpot: Atari teamed up with luxury watch brand Nubeo to celebrate the 45th anniversary of Asteroids with a collection of five limited-edition timepieces. Each watch, originally priced at $1,650 but discounted to $499, was limited to 125 pieces -- and they sold out almost immediately. The watches feature a unique Japanese automatic movement, where three rotating discs replace traditional hands. The smallest disc, featuring the classic Asteroids spaceship, acts as t
  
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• Sony Removes PlayStation Account Requirement From 4 Single-Player Steam Games

  30-01-2025 01:02 via games.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Sony's game publishing arm has done a 180-degree turn on a controversial policy of requiring PC players to sign in with PlayStation accounts for some games, according to a blog post by the company. A PlayStation account will "become optional" for Marvel's Spider-Man 2, God of War Ragnarok, The Last of Us Part II Remastered, and Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered. Sony hasn't lost hope that players will still go ahead and use a PlayStation account,
  
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• Microsoft Makes DeepSeek's R1 Model Available On Azure AI and GitHub

  30-01-2025 00:20 via slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft has integrated DeepSeek's R1 model into its Azure AI Foundry platform and GitHub, allowing customers to experiment and deploy AI applications more efficiently."One of the key advantages of using DeepSeek R1 or any other model on Azure AI Foundry is the speed at which developers can experiment, iterate, and integrate AI into their workflows," says By Asha Sharma, Microsoft's corporate vice president of AI platform. "DeepSeek R1 has undergone rigorous red teaming and safety evaluations,
  
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