ICT news

• Reclassification Is Making US Tech Job Losses Look Worse Than They Are

  10-02-2025 23:20 via it.slashdot.org
  
  According to consultancy firm Janco, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reclassified several job titles, "leading to a downward adjustment of over 111,000 positions for November and December 2024," The Register reports. This revision contributed to an overall decline of 123,000 IT jobs for the year. However, in reality, IT sector hiring is on the rise, with 11,000 new positions added in January. From the report: "Many CEOs have given CFOs and CIOs the green light to hire IT Pros," Janco CEO Vic
  
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• Apple Fixes Zero-Day Exploited In 'Extremely Sophisticated' Attacks

  10-02-2025 22:40 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Apple has released emergency security updates for iOS 18.3.1 and iPadOS 18.3.1 to patch a zero-day vulnerability (CVE-2025-24200) that was exploited in "extremely sophisticated," targeted attacks. The flaw, which allowed a physical attack to disable USB Restricted Mode on locked devices, was discovered by Citizen Lab and may have been used in spyware campaigns; users are strongly advised to install the update immediately. BleepingComputer reports: USB Restricted Mode is a security feature (intro
  
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• Microchip Company Ceases Operations, Pet Owners Urged To Re-Register

  10-02-2025 22:03 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from CBS News: Animal shelters, rescues, and veterinarian clinics around the U.S. are posting on social media telling pet owners to check their four-legged friends' microchips after learning a major microchip company [called Save This Life] is no longer providing services. [...] If you're unsure which company your cats or dogs' chips are registered with, check them. "You can go to your local veterinarian office, a local police station, or even a local animal s
  
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• Microsoft To Adjust Office-Teams Pricing in Bid To Avoid EU Antitrust Fine

  10-02-2025 20:30 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Microsoft has offered to widen the price differential between its Office product sold with its chat and video app Teams and its software sold without the app in a bid to avert a possible EU antitrust fine, according to three sources. The move by the U.S. tech giant comes five years after Salesforce-owned Slack complained to the European Commission about Microsoft's tying of Teams with Office. In 2023, German rival alfaview filed a similar grievance to the EU
  
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• Europe 'Not in the AI Race Today,' French President Macron Says

  10-02-2025 19:59 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: For a man who's spent his career battling to make France more pro-business, Europe's prospects on AI are worrying: an oversight that could cost the bloc dearly. "We are not in the race today," French President Emmanuel Macron told CNN's Richard Quest in an exclusive interview at the Elysee Palace on Thursday. "We are lagging behind."
  "We need an AI agenda," he said, "because we have to bridge the gap with the United States and China on AI." The French leader
  
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• Microsoft Study Finds AI Makes Human Cognition 'Atrophied and Unprepared'

  10-02-2025 19:01 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: A new paper [PDF] from researchers at Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University finds that as humans increasingly rely on generative AI in their work, they use less critical thinking, which can "result in the deterioration of cognitive faculties that ought to be preserved."
  "[A] key irony of automation is that by mechanising routine tasks and leaving exception-handling to the human user, you deprive the user of the routine opportunities to practice their judge
  
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• Man Who Lost Bitcoin Fortune In Welsh Tip Explores Purchase of Entire Landfill

  10-02-2025 18:22 via news.slashdot.org
  
  AmiMoJo writes: A computer expert who has battled for a decade to recover a $743 million bitcoin fortune he believes is buried in a council dump in south Wales is considering buying the site so he can hunt for the missing fortune. James Howells lost a high court case last month to force Newport city council to allow him to search the tip to retrieve a hard drive he says contains the bitcoins.
  The council has since announced plans to close and cap the site, which would almost certainly spell the
  
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• Lyft Eyes Robotaxi Launch in 2026

  10-02-2025 17:44 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Lyft says it will launch a fleet of robotaxis, using self-driving technology from Intel's Mobileye, in Dallas in "as soon as 2026," with plans to scale to "thousands" of vehicles in additional markets in the months to follow. From a report: To signal its seriousness, the company tapped Marubeni, a Japanese conglomerate, to run fleet operations. Lyft's news comes after Uber dropped new details about its plan to feature Waymo's robotaxis on its platform in Austin and Atlanta later this year. And T
  
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• OpenAI Set To Finalize First Custom Chip Design This Year

  10-02-2025 17:02 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  OpenAI is pushing ahead on its plan to reduce its reliance on Nvidia for its chip supply by developing its first generation of in-house AI silicon. From a report: The ChatGPT maker is finalizing the design for its first in-house chip in the next few months and plans to send it for fabrication at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, sources told Reuters. The process of sending a first design through a chip factory is called "taping out."
  The update shows that OpenAI is on track to meet its ambi
  
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• Euclid Telescope Captures Einstein Ring Revealing Warping of Space

  10-02-2025 16:20 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Europe's Euclid space telescope has captured a rare "Einstein ring," showing light from a distant galaxy bent into a perfect circle by the gravity of another galaxy sitting between Earth and the source, the European Space Agency said.
  The phenomenon, spotted around galaxy NGC 6505 some 590 million light-years from Earth, reveals the warping of space predicted by Einstein's theory of relativity. The background galaxy, located 4.42 billion light-years away, appears as a complete ring of light arou
  
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• DeepMind Chief Dismisses DeepSeek's AI Breakthrough as 'Known Techniques'

  10-02-2025 15:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis downplayed the technological significance of DeepSeek's latest AI model, despite its market impact. "Despite the hype, there's no actual new scientific advance there. It's using known techniques," Hassabis said on Sunday. "Actually many of the techniques we invented at Google and at DeepMind."
  Hassabis acknowledged that Deepseek's AI model "is probably the best work" out of China, but its capabilities, he said, is "exaggerated a little bit."DeepSeek's launch la
  
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• Server Attack Stops the Presses at US Newspaper Chain

  10-02-2025 13:09 via news.slashdot.org
  
  They publish 77 newspapers in 26 U.S. states, according to Wikipedia. But this week a "cybersecurity event" at the newspapers' parent company "disrupted systems and networks," according to an article at one of their news sites which quotes an email sent to employees by the publishing company's CEO. "We have notified law enforcement of the situation."
  And the company "has not released print or e-editions in most markets this week," according to the Augusta Free Press, "originally telling subscrib
  
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• Trump Orders Treasury Secretary To Stop Minting Pennies

  10-02-2025 09:41 via news.slashdot.org
  
  President Donald Trump has ordered Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to halt penny production to cut government spending, according to a Truth Social post on Sunday. The U.S. Mint spent 3.69 cents to produce and distribute each penny last year, resulting in a $85.3 million loss on over three billion new pennies.
  The one-cent coin accounts for more than half of all U.S. coin production despite having about 250 billion pieces already in circulation. Canada, Australia and several other countries hav
  
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• Aaron Swartz Sculpture's Unveiling at Internet Archive Attended by 300

  10-02-2025 09:08 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  "The Internet's Own Boy" was inscribed below the bust, according to the San Francisco Standard, adding that the 312-pound marble statue "was crafted using a mix of AI-driven robotic milling and traditional hand carving."
  It was unveiled Friday at the Internet Archive auditorium for a crowd of around 300 people. "Aaron's legacy is bringing people together to make change, said Cindy Cohn, the executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
  "There's a renaissance happening now in Aaron Sw
  
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• Free 'T-Mobile Starlink' for Six Months Announced During Super Bowl. Also Available to Verizon and AT&T Customers

  10-02-2025 05:09 via mobile.slashdot.org
  
  Today T-Mobile announced what they're calling "the next big thing in wireless" — T-Mobile Starlink. But the real surprise is "The beta is now open for absolutely everyone — yes, even Verizon and AT&T customers — to register for free access until July."
  And, as they explained to Americans watching the Super Bowl, "If you can see the sky you're connected."
  Now in public beta, this breakthrough service, developed in partnership with Starlink, uses straight-out-of-a-sci-fi-movi
  
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• Job-Search Sites Try Shaming Companies That 'Ghost' Job-Seekers

  10-02-2025 01:34 via it.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shared this report from Fortune:More than 14 million job seekers' applications went completely ignored in a single quarter last year, according to one hiring platform. Now, sites like Greenhouse and LinkedIn are experimenting with new ways to hold companies accountable for making the hiring process so miserable for applicants. Three of the biggest job search sites — LinkedIn, Indeed and Greenhouse — have put tools in place to highlight which companies frequently r
  
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