ICT news

• 34% of AP CS Students Couldn't Solve This Java-Based 2D Array Question

  26-06-2023 03:13 via developers.slashdot.org
  
  96,000 American students took this year's [Java-based] AP Computer Science A test. And more than a third — a full 34% — missed question #4.
  It asks test-takers to write two methods for the class BoxOfCandy — one that moves a Candy object to the first row (of a column), and one that finds and returns a Candy object of a specfic flavor, removing it from the box.Long-time Slashdot reader theodp shares some thoughts:- "If 34% of students are not getting any points, it's a test ques
  
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• The Microsoft-OpenAI Files

  23-01-2026 00:20 via slashdot.org
  Longtime Slashdot reader theodp writes: GeekWire takes a look at AI's defining alliance in The Microsoft-OpenAI Files, an epic story drawn from 200+ documents, many made public Friday in Elon Musk's ongoing suit accusing OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman of abandoning the nonprofit mission (Microsoft is also a defendant). Musk, who was an OpenAI co-founder, is seeking up to $134 billion in damages. "Previously undisclosed emails, messages, slide decks, reports, and deposition transcripts reveal how
  
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• Waymo Launches Robotaxi Service In Miami, Extending US Lead

  22-01-2026 23:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  Waymo has launched its paid robotaxi service in Miami, marking its sixth U.S. market and the company's first expansion of 2026. CNBC reports: As U.S. competition has lagged, Waymo's planned 2026 expansions could lock in rider demand and loyalty in the U.S. To start, Waymo will offer its services within a 60-square-mile area that includes Miami's Design District, Wynwood, Brickell and Coral Gables neighborhoods, the Google sister company said.The company began testing its vehicles in the Florida
  
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• Google Begins Offering Free SAT Practice Tests Powered By Gemini

  22-01-2026 23:02 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: It's no secret that students worldwide use AI chatbots to do their homework and avoid learning things. On the flip side, students can also use AI as a tool to beef up their knowledge and plan for the future with flashcards or study guides. Google hopes its latest Gemini feature will help with the latter. The company has announced that Gemini can now create free SAT practice tests and coach students to help them get higher scores. As a standa
  
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• NASA Eyes Popular PC Hardware Performance Tool for Its Flight Simulators

  22-01-2026 22:22 via science.slashdot.org
  NASA Langley has initiated the U.S. government software approval process to install CapFrameX, a benchmarking tool popular among PC gaming enthusiasts, on its cockpit simulators used to train test pilots. The space agency reached out to CapFrameX, not the other way around, according to an X post from the company.
  NASA builds custom flight simulators from scratch for experimental aircraft like the X-59, a supersonic jet designed to produce a quiet thump rather than the traditional sonic boom. The
  
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• Half the World's 100 Largest Cities Are in High Water Stress Areas, Analysis Finds

  22-01-2026 21:44 via news.slashdot.org
  Half the world's 100 largest cities are experiencing high levels of water stress, with 38 of these sitting in regions of "extremely high water stress," new analysis and mapping has shown. The Guardian: Water stress means that water withdrawals for public water supply and industry are close to exceeding available supplies, often caused by poor management of water resources exacerbated by climate breakdown. Watershed Investigations and the Guardian mapped cities on to stressed catchments revealing
  
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• Moderna Curbing Investments in Vaccine Trials Due To US Backlash, CEO Says

  22-01-2026 21:01 via science.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Moderna does not plan to invest in new late-stage vaccine trials because of growing opposition to immunizations from U.S. officials, CEO Stephane Bancel said in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Thursday. "You cannot make a return on investment if you don't have access to the U.S. market," Bancel told Bloomberg TV on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos. Bancel said regulatory delays and little support from the authorities make the market size "
  
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• eBay Bans Illicit Automated Shopping Amid Rapid Rise of AI Agents

  22-01-2026 20:22 via slashdot.org
  EBay has updated its User Agreement to explicitly ban third-party "buy for me" agents and AI chatbots from interacting with its platform without permission. From a report: On its face, a one-line terms of service update doesn't seem like major news, but what it implies is more significant: The change reflects the rapid emergence of what some are calling "agentic commerce," a new category of AI tools designed to browse, compare, and purchase products on behalf of users.
  eBay's updated terms, whic
  
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• Workday CEO Calls Narrative That AI is Killing Software 'Overblown'

  22-01-2026 19:45 via tech.slashdot.org
  Workday CEO Carl Eschenbach on Thursday tried to ease worries that AI is destroying software business models. From a report: "It's an overblown narrative, and it's not true," he told CNBC's "Squawk Box" from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, calling AI a tailwind and "absolutely not a headwind" for the company.
  Software stocks have sold off in recent months on concerns that new AI tools will upend the sector and displace longstanding and recurring businesses that once fueled big pr
  
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• Schools, Airports, High-Rise Towers: Architects Urged To Get 'Bamboo-Ready'

  22-01-2026 19:05 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: An airport made of bamboo? A tower reaching 20 metres high? For many years, bamboo has been mostly known as the favourite food of giant pandas, but a group of engineers say it's time we took it seriously as a building material, too.
  This week the Institution of Structural Engineers called for architects to be "bamboo-ready" as they published a manual for designing permanent buildings made of the material, in an effort to encourage low-carbon construction and
  
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• China Lagging in AI Is a 'Fairy Tale,' Mistral CEO Says

  22-01-2026 18:20 via news.slashdot.org
  Claims that Chinese technology for AI lags the US are a "fairy tale," Arthur Mensch, the chief executive officer of Mistral, said. From a report: "China is not behind the West," Mensch said in an interview on Bloomberg Television at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Thursday. The capabilities of China's open-source technology is "probably stressing the CEOs in the US."
  The remarks from the boss of one of Europe's leading AI companies diverge from other tech leaders at Davos, who
  
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• Autodesk To Cut 1,000 Jobs

  22-01-2026 17:44 via slashdot.org
  Autodesk said today it plans to cut approximately 1,000 jobs, or roughly 7% of its workforce, as part of what the company described as the final phase of a global restructuring effort aimed at strengthening its sales and marketing operations.
  The maker of AutoCAD and other digital design software said a significant portion of the cuts will fall within customer-facing sales functions.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
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• What a Sony and TCL Partnership Means For the Future of TVs

  22-01-2026 17:08 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  How would Sony ceding control of its TV hardware business change the industry? The Verge has an optimistic take: [...] As of today, Sony already relies on different manufacturing partners to create its TV lineup. While display panel manufacturers never reveal who they sell panels to, Sony is likely already using panels for its LCD TVs from TCL China Star Optoelectronics Technology (CSOT), in addition to OLED panels from LG Display and Samsung Display. With this deal, a relationship between Sony
  
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• 'Stealing Isn't Innovation': Hundreds of Creatives Warn Against an AI Slop Future

  22-01-2026 16:29 via slashdot.org
  Around 800 artists, writers, actors, and musicians signed on to a new campaign against what they call "theft at a grand scale" by AI companies. From a report: The signatories of the campaign -- called "Stealing Isn't Innovation" -- include authors George Saunders and Jodi Picoult, actors Cate Blanchett and Scarlett Johansson, and musicians like the band R.E.M., Billy Corgan, and The Roots.
  "Driven by fierce competition for leadership in the new GenAI technology, profit-hungry technology companie
  
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• Nvidia Allegedly Sought 'High-Speed Access' To Pirated Book Library for AI Training

  22-01-2026 15:40 via yro.slashdot.org
  An expanded class-action lawsuit filed last Friday alleges that a member of Nvidia's data strategy team directly contacted Anna's Archive -- the sprawling shadow library hosting millions of pirated books -- to explore "including Anna's Archive in pre-training data for our LLMs."
  Internal documents cited in the amended complaint show Nvidia sought information about "high-speed access" to the collection, which Anna's Archive charged tens of thousands of dollars for. According to the lawsuit, Anna'
  
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• 'No Reasons To Own': Software Stocks Sink on Fear of New AI Tool

  22-01-2026 15:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  The new year was supposed to bring opportunities for beaten-down software stocks. Instead, the group is off to its worst start in years. From a report: The release of a new artificial intelligence tool from startup Anthropic on Jan. 12 rekindled fears about disruption that weighed on software makers in 2025.
  TurboTax owner Intuit tumbled 16% last week, its worst since 2022, while Adobe and Salesforce, which makes customer relationship management software, both sank more than 11%. All told, a gro
  
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• Half of Fossil Fuel Carbon Emissions In 2024 Came From 32 Companies

  22-01-2026 14:00 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Inside Climate News: Just 32 companies accounted for over half of global fossil carbon emissions in 2024, according to a report published Wednesday by the U.K.-based think tank InfluenceMap. That is down from 36 companies responsible for half the global CO2 emissions in 2023, and 38 companies five years ago. The analysis is the latest update to the Carbon Majors database, which tracks the world's largest oil, gas, coal and cement producers and uses produc
  
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• Wikipedia's Guide to Spotting AI Is Now Being Used To Hide AI

  22-01-2026 11:00 via news.slashdot.org
  Ars Technica's Benj Edwards reports: On Saturday, tech entrepreneur Siqi Chen released an open source plugin for Anthropic's Claude Code AI assistant that instructs the AI model to stop writing like an AI model. Called "Humanizer," the simple prompt plugin feeds Claude a list of 24 language and formatting patterns that Wikipedia editors have listed as chatbot giveaways. Chen published the plugin on GitHub, where it has picked up over 1,600 stars as of Monday. "It's really handy that Wikipedia we
  
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• Blue Origin's Satellite Internet Network TeraWave Will Move Data At 6 Tbps

  22-01-2026 08:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Blue Origin has unveiled an enterprise-focused satellite internet network called TeraWave, which promises up to 6 Tbps speeds via a mixed low- and medium-Earth orbit constellation. TechCrunch reports: The TeraWave constellation will use a mix of 5,280 satellites in low-Earth orbit and 128 in medium-Earth orbit, and Blue Origin plans to deploy the first ones in late 2027. It's not immediately clear how long Blue Origin expects it will take to build out the whole network. The low-Earth orbit satel
  
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• Weight-Loss Drugs Could Save US Airlines $580 Million Per Year

  22-01-2026 04:30 via science.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: Weight-loss drugs like Ozempic have transformed millions of lives with easily administered treatments and quick results. Now it turns out the dropped pounds may have a surprising perk for airlines, too: lower fuel costs, as slimmer passengers lighten their aircraft's loads.According to a study published last week by Jefferies, a financial services firm, the four largest U.S. carriers -- American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Air
  
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• FBI's Washington Post Investigation Shows How Your Printer Can Snitch On You

  22-01-2026 03:02 via hardware.slashdot.org
  alternative_right quotes a report from The Intercept: Federal prosecutors on January 9 charged Aurelio Luis Perez-Lugones, an IT specialist for an unnamed government contractor, with "the offense of unlawful retention of national defense information," according to an FBI affidavit (PDF). The case attracted national attention after federal agents investigating Perez-Lugones searched the home of a Washington Post reporter. But overlooked so far in the media coverage is the fact that a surprising s
  
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• 'America Is Slow-Walking Into a Polymarket Disaster'

  22-01-2026 02:25 via news.slashdot.org
  In an opinion piece for The Atlantic, senior editor Saahil Desai argues that media outlets are increasingly treating prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi as legitimate signals of reality. The risk, as Desai warns, is a future where news coverage amplifies manipulable betting odds and turns politics, geopolitics, and even tragedy into speculative gambling theater. Here's an excerpt from the report: [...] The problem is that prediction markets are ushering in a world in which news becomes
  
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• Apple Reportedly Replacing Siri Interface With Actual Chatbot Experience For iOS 27

  22-01-2026 01:45 via apple.slashdot.org
  According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple is reportedly planning a major Siri overhaul in iOS 27 and macOS 27 where the current assistant interface will be replaced with a deeply integrated, ChatGPT-style chatbot experience. "Users will be able to summon the new service the same way they open Siri now, by speaking the 'Siri' command or holding down the side button on their iPhone or iPad," says Gurman. "More significantly, Siri will be integrated into all of the company's core apps, including
  
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• Spotify Lawsuit Triggered Anna's Archive Domain Name Suspensions

  22-01-2026 01:02 via yro.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: Spotify and several major record labels, including UMG, Sony, and Warner, have taken legal action against the unknown operators of Anna's Archive. The action follows the shadow library's announcement that it would release hundreds of terabytes of scraped Spotify data. Unsealed documents reveal that the court already issued a broad preliminary injunction, ordering hosting companies, Cloudflare, and domain name services, to take action. [...]
  
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• Apple Developing AI Wearable Pin

  22-01-2026 00:20 via apple.slashdot.org
  According to a report by The Information (paywalled), Apple is reportedly developing an AirTag-sized, camera-equipped AI wearable pin that could arrive as early as 2027."Apple's pin, which is a thin, flat, circular disc with an aluminum-and-glass shell, features two cameras -- a standard lens and a wide-angle lens -- on its front face, designed to capture photos and videos of the user's surroundings," reports The Information, citing people familiar with the device. "It also includes three microp
  
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• Nova Launcher Gets a New Owner and Ads

  21-01-2026 23:40 via slashdot.org
  Nova Launcher has been acquired by Instabridge, which says it will keep the app maintained but is evaluating ad-supported options for the free version. Android Authority reports: Today, Nova Launcher announced that the Swedish company Instabridge has acquired it from Branch Metrics. Instabridge claims it wants to be a responsible owner of Nova and does not want to reinvent the launcher overnight. However, the launcher still needs a sustainable business model to support ongoing development and ma
  
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• HAM Radio Operators In Belarus Arrested, Face the Death Penalty

  21-01-2026 23:02 via tech.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: The Belarusian government is threatening three HAM radio operators with the death penalty, detained at least seven people, and has accused them of "intercepting state secrets," according to Belarusian state media, independent media outside of Belarus, and the Belarusian human rights organization Viasna. The arrests are an extreme attack on what is most often a wholesome hobby that has a history of being vilified by authoritarian governments in
  
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• Ozempic is Reshaping the Fast Food Industry

  21-01-2026 22:22 via science.slashdot.org
  New research from Cornell University has tracked how households change their spending after someone starts taking GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Wegovy, and the numbers are material enough to explain why food industry earnings calls keep blaming everything except the obvious culprit.
  The study analyzed transaction data from 150,000 households linked to survey responses on medication adoption. Households cut grocery spending by 5.3% within six months of a member starting GLP-1s; high-income h
  
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• Half of World's CO2 Emissions Come From Just 32 Fossil Fuel Firms, Study Shows

  21-01-2026 21:45 via news.slashdot.org
  Just 32 fossil fuel companies were responsible for half the global carbon dioxide emissions driving the climate crisis in 2024, down from 36 a year earlier, a report has revealed. The Guardian: Saudi Aramco was the biggest state-controlled polluter and ExxonMobil was the largest investor-owned polluter. Critics accused the leading fossil fuel companies of "sabotaging climate action" and "being on the wrong side of history" but said the emissions data was increasingly being used to hold the compa
  
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• Adobe Acrobat Now Lets You Edit Files Using Prompts, Generate Podcast Summaries

  21-01-2026 21:01 via slashdot.org
  Adobe has added a suite of AI-powered features to Acrobat that enable users to edit documents through natural language prompts, generate podcast-style audio summaries of their files, and create presentations by pulling content from multiple documents stored in a single workspace.
  The prompt-based editing supports 12 distinct actions: removing pages, text, comments, and images; finding and replacing words and phrases; and adding e-signatures and passwords. The presentation feature builds on Adobe
  
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