ICT news

• AI Can Write Code But Lacks Engineer's Instinct, OpenAI Study Finds

  19-02-2025 15:00 via developers.slashdot.org
  
  Leading AI models can fix broken code, but they're nowhere near ready to replace human software engineers, according to extensive testing [PDF] by OpenAI researchers. The company's latest study put AI models and systems through their paces on real-world programming tasks, with even the most advanced models solving only a quarter of typical engineering challenges.
  The research team created a test called SWE-Lancer, drawing from 1,488 actual software fixes made to Expensify's codebase, representin
  
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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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• Electric Flying Cars Now for Sale by California Company Pivotal

  31-01-2026 23:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  "A future with flying cars is no longer science fiction," writes the Los Angeles Times.
  "All you need to order your own is about $200,000 and some hope and patience."
  The Palo Alto-based company Pivotal has been developing the technology since 2009 and is nearly ready to bring it to market... [Company founder Marcus] Leng engineered an ultralight, electric-powered vertical takeoff and landing aircraft known as an eVTOL. Other VTOL aircraft, such as helicopters, had existed for decades, but Leng'
  
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• Apple Switches to Build-to-Order Systems on Its Web Site

  31-01-2026 22:34 via apple.slashdot.org
  "Apple has gone for a choose-your-own-adventure when shopping for a new Mac," writes long-time Slashdot reader esarjeant.
  Macworld explains:Apple has shifted from selling pre-configured Mac models to a fully customizable build-to-order system on its website, allowing customers to select display size, chip, memory, and storage options... This change emphasizes building a machine within budget rather than choosing from set configurations, potentially preparing for future CPU/GPU core selection wit
  
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• Nvidia CEO Denies OpenAI's $100B Investment from Nvidia is 'Stalled'

  31-01-2026 21:34 via hardware.slashdot.org
  Saturday Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said they still planned a "huge" investment in OpenAI, according to CNBC.
  Friday the Wall Street Journal had reported that Nvidia's plan to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI "has stalled after some inside the chip giant expressed doubts about the deal, people familiar with the matter said..."[T]he talks haven't progressed beyond the early stages, some of the people said. Now, the two sides are rethinking the future of their partnership, some of the people said.
  
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• Blue Origin Announces Two-Year Pause in Space Tourism - to Focus on the Moon

  31-01-2026 20:34 via science.slashdot.org
  TechCrunch reports:
  Jeff Bezos' space company Blue Origin is pausing its space tourism flights for "no less than two years" in order to focus all of its resources on upcoming missions to the moon, the company announced Friday. The decision puts a temporary halt on a program that Blue Origin has been using to fly humans past the Kármán line, the recognized boundary of space, for the last five years. Blue Origin made the announcement just a few weeks ahead of the expected third launc
  
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• Can We Slow Global Warming By Phasing Out Super-Pollutant HFCs?

  31-01-2026 19:34 via news.slashdot.org
  "There's one big bright spot in the fight against climate change that most people never think about," reports the Washington Post."It could prevent nearly half a degree of global warming this century, a huge margin for a planet that has warmed almost 1.5 degrees Celsius and is struggling to keep that number below 2 degrees..."
  [M]ore than 170 countries — including the U.S. — have agreed to act on this one solution. That solution: phasing out hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), a group of gase
  
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• Scientists Found a Way To Cool Quantum Computers Using Noise

  31-01-2026 18:34 via science.slashdot.org
  Slashdot reader alternative_right writes: Quantum computers need extreme cold to work, but the very systems that keep them cold also create noise that can destroy fragile quantum information. Scientists in Sweden have now flipped that problem on its head by building a tiny quantum refrigerator that actually uses noise to drive cooling instead of fighting it. By carefully steering heat at unimaginably small scales, the device can act as a refrigerator, heat engine, or energy amplifier inside quan
  
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• WhatsApp End-to-End Encryption Allegations Questioned By Some Security Experts, Lawyers

  31-01-2026 17:34 via it.slashdot.org
  Several security experts have "questioned the lack of technical detail" in that lawsuit alleging WhatsApp has no end-to-end encryption, reports the Washington Post:"It's pretty long on accusations and thin on any sort of evidence," Matthew Green, a cryptography professor at Johns Hopkins University, said over Signal. "WhatsApp has been very consistent about using end-to-end encryption. This lawsuit seems to be a nothingburger." Nicholas Weaver, a security researcher at the International Computer
  
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• The Bill Gates-Epstein Bombshell - and What Most People Get Wrong

  31-01-2026 16:34 via news.slashdot.org
  The Daily Beast:"Salacious claims from Jeffrey Epstein that Bill Gates contracted an STD following 'sex with Russian girls,' and colluded with the disgraced financier on a plot to secretly slip his wife antibiotics, were revealed in the latest Epstein files release."The New York Times. (Alternate URL)
  "A representative of the Gates Foundation said, 'These claims — from a proven, disgruntled liar — are absolutely absurd and completely false. The only thing these documents demonstrate
  
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• Microdosing For Depression Appears To Work About As Well As Drinking Coffee

  31-01-2026 14:00 via science.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: About a decade ago, many media outlets -- including WIRED -- zeroed in on a weird trend at the intersection of mental health, drug science, and Silicon Valley biohacking: microdosing, or the practice of taking a small amount of a psychedelic drug seeking not full-blown hallucinatory revels but gentler, more stable effects. Typically using psilocybin mushrooms or LSD, the archetypal microdoser sought less melting walls and open-eye kaleidoscopic vis
  
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• Author of Systemd Quits Microsoft To Prove Linux Can Be Trusted

  31-01-2026 11:00 via linux.slashdot.org
  Lennart Poettering has left Microsoft to co-found Amutable, a new Berlin-based company aiming to bring cryptographically verifiable integrity and deterministic trust guarantees to Linux systems. He said in a post on Mastodon that his "role in upstream maintenance for the Linux kernel will continue as it always has." Poettering will also continue to remain deeply involved in the systemd ecosystem. The Register reports: Linux celeb Lennart Poettering has left Microsoft and co-founded a new company
  
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• 'Reverse Solar Panel' Generates Electricity at Night

  31-01-2026 08:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  Researchers at the University of New South Wales are developing a "reverse solar panel" that generates small amounts of electricity at night by harvesting infrared heat radiated from Earth. "In the past, scientists have demonstrated that a 'thermoradiative diode' can convert infrared radiation directly into electricity; when used to convert heat from Earth, they exploit the temperature difference between Earth and the night sky, generating a current directly from heat," notes ExtremeTech. "This
  
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• UK's First Rapid-Charging Battery Train Ready For Boarding

  31-01-2026 04:30 via tech.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: The UK's first superfast-charging train running only on battery power will come into passenger service this weekend -- operating a five-mile return route in west London. Great Western Railway (GWR) will send the converted London Underground train out from 5.30am to cover the full Saturday timetable on the West Ealing to Greenford branch line, four stops and 12 minutes each way, and now carrying up to 273 passengers, should its celebrity stok
  
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• Apple Reports Best-Ever Quarter For iPhone Sales

  31-01-2026 02:25 via mobile.slashdot.org
  Apple posted its biggest quarter ever, with iPhone revenue hitting a record ~$85.3 billion and Services climbing 14% to ~$30 billion. Total revenue reached nearly $143.76 billion."The demand for iPhone was simply staggering," CEO Tim Cook said on a conference call discussing the results. "This is the strongest iPhone lineup we've ever had and by far the most popular."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
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• Belkin's Wemo Smart Devices Will Go Offline On Saturday

  31-01-2026 01:45 via mobile.slashdot.org
  Belkin is shutting down cloud support for most Wemo smart home devices on January 31, leaving only Thread-based models and devices already set up in Apple HomeKit functional. Everything else will lose remote access, voice assistant integrations, and future app updates. The Verge reports: The shut down was first announced in July and impacts most Wemo devices, ranging from smart plugs to a coffee maker, with the exception of a handful of Thread-based devices: the 3-way smart light switch (WLS0503
  
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• GNU gettext Reaches Version 1.0 After 30 Years

  31-01-2026 01:22 via news.slashdot.org
  After more than 30 years of development, GNU gettext finally "crossed the symbolic 'v1.0' milestone," according to Phoronix's Michael Larabel. "GNU gettext 1.0 brings PO file handling improvements, a new 'po-fetch' program to fetch translated PO files from a translation project's site on the Internet, new 'msgpre' and 'spit' pre-translation programs, and Ocaml and Rust programming language improvements." From the report: With this v1.0 release in 2026, the "msgpre" and "spit" programs do involve
  
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• White House Scraps 'Burdensome' Software Security Rules

  31-01-2026 01:02 via yro.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from SecurityWeek: The White House has announced that software security guidance issued during the Biden administration has been rescinded due to "unproven and burdensome" requirements that prioritized administrative compliance over meaningful security investments. The US Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has issued Memorandum M-26-05 (PDF), officially revoking the previous administration's 2022 policy, 'Enhancing the Security of the Software Supply Chain
  
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• Oracle May Slash Up To 30,000 Jobs

  31-01-2026 00:20 via developers.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Oracle could cut up to 30,000 jobs and sell health tech unit Cerner to ease its AI datacenter financing challenges, investment banker TD Cowen has claimed, amid changing sentiment on Big Red's massive build-out plans.
  A research note from TD Cowen states that finding equity and debt investors are increasingly questioning how Oracle will finance its datacenter building program to support its $300 billion, five-year contract with OpenAI.
  The bank estimates the
  
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• Los Angeles Aims To Ban Single-Use Printer Cartridges

  30-01-2026 23:40 via hardware.slashdot.org
  Los Angeles is moving to ban single-use printer cartridges that can't be refilled or taken back for recycling. Tom's Hardware reports: Printer cartridges are usually built with a combination of plastic, metal, and chemicals that makes them hard to easily dispose. They can be treated as hazardous waste by the city, but even then it would take them hundreds of years to actually disintegrate at a waste site. Since they're designed to be thrown away in the first place, the real solution is to target
  
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