ICT news

• Is Meta's Huge Spending on AI Actually Paying Off?

  01-02-2026 23:59 via tech.slashdot.org
  The Wall Street Journal says that Meta "might be reaping some of the richest benefits from the AI boom so far."Meta's revenue grew 22% year over year in 2025 to $201 billion, and the company expects even bigger gains in the current quarter, potentially as high as 34%. That is huge growth for a company that brought in nearly $60 billion in the latest three-month period. And Zuckerberg signaled that Meta was just scratching the surface of AI's potential. "Our world-class recommendation systems are
  
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• Bitcoin Drops 40% in Four Months. Bloomberg Blames Absence of Buyers and Belief

  01-02-2026 22:49 via slashdot.org
  October saw Bitcoin reach $123,742. But less than four months later, "The world's largest cryptocurrency slipped below $76,000..." Bloomberg reports, "dropping about 40% from its 2025 peak..."
  "What began as a sharp crash in October has morphed into something more corrosive: a selloff shaped not by panic, but by absence of buyers, momentum and belief."
  Unlike the October drawdown, there's been no obvious spark, cascading liquidations or systemic shock — just fading demand, thinning liquidi
  
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• Walmart Begins Building Out Nationwide EV Charging Network Across America

  01-02-2026 21:22 via tech.slashdot.org
  Walmart, the world's largest retailer, will be adding spaces for electric vehicle charging to parking lots in 19 different states, reports MLive:The move follows up on a plan announced in 2023 to build a network of charging stations at Walmart and Sam's Club stores throughout the U.S... "With a store or club located within 10 miles of approximately 90% of Americans, we are uniquely positioned to deliver a convenient charging option that will help make EV ownership possible whether people live in
  
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• When 20-Year-Old Bill Gates Fought the World's First Software Pirates

  01-02-2026 20:22 via news.slashdot.org
  Long-time Slashdot reader destinyland writes: Just months after his 20th birthday, Bill Gates had already angered the programmer community," remembers this 50th-anniversary commemoration of Gates' Open Letter to Hobbyists. "As the first home computers began appearing in the 1970s, the world faced a question: Would its software be free?"
  Gates railed in 1976 that "Most of you steal your software." Gates had coded the BASIC interpreter for Altair's first home computer with Paul Allen and Monte Dav
  
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• Fourth US Wind Farm Project Blocked By Trump Allowed to Resume Construction

  01-02-2026 18:34 via hardware.slashdot.org
  Vineyard Wind (powering Massachusetts) is one of five offshore wind projects "that the Trump administration tried to hold up in December," reports The Hill.
  This week it became the fourth of those wind projects allowed by a judge to resume construction, the article notes, while even the fifth project "is still awaiting court proceedings."Federal Judge Brian Murphy, a Biden appointee, issued a preliminary injunction blocking the administration's stop work order against Vineyard Wind... According
  
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• Scientists Create Programmable, Autonomous Robots Smaller Than a Grain of Salt

  01-02-2026 17:34 via hardware.slashdot.org
  Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and University of Michigan "have created the world's smallest fully programmable, autonomous robots," according to a recent announcement.
  The announcement calls them "microscopic swimming machines that can independently sense and respond to their surroundings, operate for months and cost just a penny each."Barely visible to the naked eye, each robot measures about 200 by 300 by 50 micrometers, smaller than a grain of salt. Operating at the scale of m
  
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• Microbes In Space Mutated and Developed a Remarkable Ability

  01-02-2026 16:34 via science.slashdot.org
  "A box full of viruses and bacteria has completed its return trip to the International Space Station," reports ScienceAlert, "and the changes these 'bugs' experienced in their travels could help us Earthlings tackle drug-resistant infections..."
  Scientists aboard the space station incubated different combinations of bacteria and phages for 25 days, while the research team led by biochemist Vatsan Raman carried out the same experiments in Madison, down here on Earth. "Space fundamentally changes
  
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• 99% of New US Will Be Green in 2026

  01-02-2026 13:34 via hardware.slashdot.org
  This year in America, renewables and battery storage "will account for 99.2% of net new capacity — and even higher if small-scale solar were included," reports Electrek, citing EIA data reviewed by the SUN DAY Campaign:EIA's latest monthly "Electric Power Monthly" report (with data through November 30, 2025), once again confirms that solar is the fastest-growing among the major sources of US electricity... [U]tility-scale solar thermal and photovoltaic expanded by 34.5% while that from sma
  
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• 99% of New US Energy Capacity Will Be Green in 2026

  01-02-2026 13:34 via hardware.slashdot.org
  This year in America, renewables and battery storage "will account for 99.2% of net new capacity — and even higher if small-scale solar were included," reports Electrek, citing EIA data reviewed by the SUN DAY Campaign:EIA's latest monthly "Electric Power Monthly" report (with data through November 30, 2025), once again confirms that solar is the fastest-growing among the major sources of US electricity... [U]tility-scale solar thermal and photovoltaic expanded by 34.5% while that from sma
  
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• China Executes 11 Members of Myanmar Scam Mafia

  01-02-2026 09:34 via yro.slashdot.org
  The BBC reports:
  China has executed 11 members of a notorious mafia family that ran scam centres in Myanmar along its north-eastern border, state media report.The Ming family members were sentenced in September for various crimes including homicide, illegal detention, fraud and operating gambling dens by a court in China's Zhejiang province. The Mings were one of many clans that ran the town of Laukkaing, transforming an impoverished backwater town into a flashy hub of casinos and red-light dist
  
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• Five French Ubisoft Unions Call For Massive International Strike Over 'Cost-Cutting' and Ending of Remote Work

  01-02-2026 06:34 via it.slashdot.org
  Five French unions representing Ubisoft workers "have called for a 'massive international strike'," reports the gaming news site Aftermath.
  The move follows a "series of layoffs and cancellations" at Ubisoft, the article points out, plus what the company calls a "major organizational, operational and portfolio reset" that will lead to more layoffs and cancellations announced last week. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot even sent an end-of-day message warning that management continues to "make difficult
  
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• US Government Also Received a Whistleblower Complaint That WhatsApp Chats Aren't Private

  01-02-2026 04:11 via yro.slashdot.org
  Remember that lawsuit questioning WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption? Thursday Bloomberg reported those allegations had been investigated by special agents with America's Commerce Department, "according to the law enforcement records, as well as a person familiar with the matter and one of the contractors."Similar claims were also the subject of a 2024 whistleblower complaint to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, according to the records and the person, who spoke on the condition that they
  
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• AI Use at Work Has Increased, Gallup Poll Finds

  01-02-2026 00:46 via slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shared this report from the Associated Press:
  American workers adopted artificial intelligence into their work lives at a remarkable pace over the past few years, according to a new poll. Some 12% of employed adults say they use AI daily in their job, according to a Gallup Workforce survey conducted this fall of more than 22,000 U.S. workers.
  The survey found roughly one-quarter say they use AI at least frequently, which is defined as at least a few times a week, and nearly h
  
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