ICT news

• NOAA Retires Extreme Weather Database

  09-05-2025 05:30 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Thursday its well-known "billion-dollar weather and climate disasters" database "will be retired," a move that will make it next to impossible for the public to track the cost of extreme weather and climate events. The weather, climate and oceans agency is also ending other products, it has recently announced, due in large part to staffing reductions. NOAA is narrowing the array of service
  
  Read more

• Denmark's Main Postal Carrier Ends Letter Delivery

  31-12-2025 11:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  PostNord is ending letter delivery in Denmark after a 90%+ collapse in mail volume. It marks the first known case of a national postal carrier abandoning letters entirely -- a symbolic milestone of a fully digitized society that's sparking nostalgia even among people who stopped sending mail years ago. The New York Times reports: Denmark has had a postal service for more than 400 years. But a steep decline in its use has led the Nordic country's longtime postal carrier to stop letter deliveries
  
  Read more

• Israel Deploys World's First Drone Defense Laser

  31-12-2025 08:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Israel has operationally deployed Iron Beam, a 100,000-watt laser air-defense system capable of shooting down drones, rockets, and mortars at negligible per-shot cost. According to Tom's Hardware, it marks the first real-world deployment of a high-energy laser as part of a modern, multi-layered missile defense network. From the report: The Iron Beam is a short-range line-of-sight laser interceptor that is extremely cheap to run and, therefore, perfectly suited for intercepting low-cost, high-vol
  
  Read more

• Cheap Solar Is Transforming Lives and Economies Across Africa

  31-12-2025 04:30 via hardware.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: South Africans ... have found a remedy for power cuts that have plagued people in the developing world for years. Thanks to swiftly falling prices of Chinese made solar panels and batteries, they now draw their power from the sun. These aren't the tiny, old-school solar lanterns that once powered a lightbulb or TV in rural communities. Today, solar and battery systems are deployed across a variety of businesses -- auto factories and wi
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• 'Foreign Tech Workers Are Avoiding Travel To the US'

  31-12-2025 03:02 via news.slashdot.org
  In an opinion piece for Computerworld, columnist Steven Vaughan-Nichols argues that restrictive visa policies and a hostile border climate under the Trump administration are driving foreign tech workers, researchers, and conference speakers away from the U.S. The result, he says, is a gradual shift of talent, events, and long-term innovation toward more welcoming regions such as Europe, Canada, and Asia. From the report: I go to a lot of tech conferences -- 13 in 2025 -- and many of those I atte
  
  Read more

• First Gaming Handheld With a Folding Screen

  31-12-2025 02:25 via mobile.slashdot.org
  One-Netbook has unveiled the OneXSugar Wallet, the first gaming handheld with a folding OLED display. The Verge reports: The OneXSugar Wallet was announced on China's Weibo yesterday, but with few details about its features and capabilities. That folding OLED screen has a resolution of 2480 x 1860 pixels, and the handheld will be powered by an unspecified "Qualcomm gaming platform flagship processor," but its performance and emulation capabilities are unknown.Based on photos and a video released
  
  Read more

• '2025 Was the Year of Creative Bankruptcy'

  31-12-2025 01:45 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  PC Gamer argues that 2025 was a year full of high-profile AI embarrassments across games and entertainment, with Disney and Lucasfilm serving as the "opening salvo." From the report: At a TED talk back in April, Lucasfilm senior vice president of creative innovation Rob Bredow presented a demonstration of what he called "a new era of technology." Across 50 years of legendary innovation in miniature design, practical effects, and computer animation, Lucasfilm and its miracle workers at Industrial
  
  Read more

• India Overtakes Japan As 4th-Largest Economy

  31-12-2025 01:02 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from DW: India has surpassed Japan to become the world's fourth-largest economy, according to calculations in the Indian government's end-of-year economic review. On current trends, India is expected to overtake Germany to become the world's third-largest economy within the next three years, the review said.The review said India's gross domestic product has already reached about $4.18 trillion, and is projected to reach $7.3 trillion by 2030. On current trends
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Groq Investor Sounds Alarm On Data Centers

  31-12-2025 00:20 via slashdot.org
  Axios reports that venture capitalist Alex Davis is warning that a speculative rush to build data centers without committed tenants could trigger a financing crunch by 2027-2028."This critique is coming from inside the AI optimist camp," notes Axios, as Davis' firm, Disruptive, "recently led a large investment in AI chipmaker Groq, which then signed a $20 billion licensing deal with Nvidia. It's also backed such unicorn startups as Reflection AI, Shield AI and Gecko Robotics."Here's what Davis h
  
  Read more

• China Mandates 50% Domestic Equipment Rule For Chipmakers

  30-12-2025 23:40 via slashdot.org
  China is quietly mandating that chipmakers use at least 50% domestically made equipment when expanding capacity, "as Beijing pushes to build a self-sufficient semiconductor supply chain," according to Reuters. From the report: The rule is not publicly documented, but chipmakers seeking state approval to build or expand their plants have been told by authorities in recent months that they must prove through procurement tenders that at least half their equipment will be Chinese-made, the people to
  
  Read more

• Toronto Man Outruns Streetcars To Show Up Sluggish Transit Network

  30-12-2025 23:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: Mac Bauer is fast, but the city's trams, weighing more than 100,000lbs and traveling at a maximum speed of nearly 45mph, should be far faster than him. And yet as of late December, in head-to-head races against streetcars, the 32-year-old remains undefeated in his quest to highlight how sluggish the trams, used by 230,000 people daily, truly are.Some races have pushed him closer to his limits as a runner. On other occasions, the car has been
  
  Read more

• Cybersecurity Employees Plead Guilty To Ransomware Attacks

  30-12-2025 22:21 via yro.slashdot.org
  Two cybersecurity professionals who spent their careers defending organizations against ransomware attacks have pleaded guilty in a Florida federal court to using ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware to extort American businesses throughout 2023.
  Ryan Goldberg, a 40-year-old incident response manager from Georgia, and Kevin Martin, a 36-year-old ransomware negotiator from Texas, admitted to conspiring to obstruct commerce through extortion. Between April and December 2023, Goldberg, Martin, and a third unn
  
  Read more

• Despite a Record Year, Airlines Are Grappling With Big Challenges

  30-12-2025 21:42 via tech.slashdot.org
  The global airline industry is on track to post an all-time profit high of nearly $40 billion in 2025, according to trade group IATA, surpassing the pre-pandemic 2019 figure of $26 billion, but carriers are still managing a net margin of just 4% -- roughly $7.90 per passenger. Economist adds: Not everything has been in the ascent. European and North American airlines, which account for three-fifths of the industry's net profits, have had to contend with circuitous long-haul routes to avoid Russi
  
  Read more

• Singapore Study Links Heavy Infant Screen Time To Teen Anxiety

  30-12-2025 21:01 via science.slashdot.org
  A study by a Singapore government agency has found that children exposed to high levels of screen time before age two showed brain development changes linked to slower decision-making and higher anxiety in adolescence, adding to concerns about early digital exposure. From a report: The study was conducted by a team within the country's Agency for Science, Technology and Research and the National University of Singapore, and published in The Lancet's eBioMedicine open access journal. It tracked 1
  
  Read more

• France Pushes Back Plastic Cup Ban By Four Years

  30-12-2025 20:21 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: The French government on Dec 30 postponed a ban on plastic throwaway cups by four years to 2030 because of difficulties finding alternatives. The ban was meant to start on Jan 1. But the Ministry for Ecological Transition said the "technical feasibility of eliminating plastic from cups" following a review in 2025 justified pushing back the deadline.
  It said in an official decree that a new review would be carried out in 2028 of "progress made in replacing sin
  
  Read more

• New York's MetroCard Era Ends After 31 Years

  30-12-2025 19:41 via news.slashdot.org
  After more than three decades of service, New York City's iconic MetroCard is about to retire, as December 31, 2025 marks the final day commuters can purchase or refill the gold-hued plastic cards that replaced subway tokens back in 1994. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has been transitioning to OMNY, a contactless payment system introduced in 2019 that lets riders tap a credit card, phone or smart device at turnstiles.
  More than 90% of subway and bus trips are now paid using the tap-a
  
  Read more

• The Problem With Letting AI Do the Grunt Work

  30-12-2025 19:02 via slashdot.org
  The consulting firm CVL Economics estimated last year that AI would disrupt more than 200,000 entertainment-industry jobs in the United States by 2026, but writer Nick Geisler argues in The Atlantic that the most consequential casualties may be the humble entry-level positions where aspiring artists have traditionally paid dues and learned their craft. Geisler, a screenwriter and WGA member who started out writing copy for a how-to website in the mid-2010s, notes that ChatGPT can now handle the
  
  Read more

• Malaria Shows No Sign of Stopping

  30-12-2025 18:21 via science.slashdot.org
  The World Health Organization's latest annual malaria report paints a grim picture that's about to get grimmer, as the United States -- which has supplied 37% of global malaria funding since 2010 -- pulls back its international health commitments under President Donald Trump. Malaria cases have been climbing since 2015, when progress against the mosquito-borne disease stalled due to insecticide resistance and chronic underfunding.
  In 2024, the world recorded 282 million cases and 610,000 deaths,
  
  Read more

• Nepal To Scrap 'Failed' Mount Everest Waste Deposit Scheme

  30-12-2025 17:41 via news.slashdot.org
  A scheme to encourage climbers to bring their waste down from Mount Everest is being scrapped -- with Nepalese authorities telling the BBC it has been a failure. From the report: Climbers had been required to pay a deposit of $4,000, which they would only get back if they brought at least 8kg (18lbs) of waste back down with them. It was hoped it would begin to tackle the rubbish problem on the world's highest peak, which is estimated to be covered in some 50 tonnes of waste. But after 11 years -
  
  Read more

• Camera Makers Went Weird in 2025 - and That's Exactly What the Shrinking Industry Needed

  30-12-2025 17:02 via tech.slashdot.org
  The camera industry shipped 6.5 million interchangeable lens cameras last year -- a 50% decline from 2010's peak -- yet 2025 may have been the most creatively ambitious year in nearly two decades of digital photography. DPReview's Richard Butler argues that this year's releases displayed "invention, experimentation and niche-tickling lunacy" not seen since digital's earliest days.
  Interchangeable lens shipments rose 11% in the first ten months of 2025 compared to last year, and fixed lens camera
  
  Read more

• Some Audiobooks Are Outselling Hardcovers

  30-12-2025 16:20 via news.slashdot.org
  In a year when print book sales have slipped 1% to 679 million copies through early December, according to Circana BookScan, audiobooks continue to carve out territory that once belonged exclusively to hardcovers, and in several notable cases this year, the audio versions have outright outsold their physical counterparts.
  S.A. Cosby's southern crime novel "King of Ashes" moved more copies as an audiobook than as a hardcover, according to publisher Macmillan Audio. The same is true for celebrity
  
  Read more

• Life in a Shrinking Japan

  30-12-2025 15:40 via news.slashdot.org
  Japan's demographic transformation is no longer a distant forecast but an accelerating reality, and the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research now estimates the country's population will fall to roughly 100 million by 2050 -- more than 20 million fewer people than today.
  The share of residents aged 65 and over stood at 29.4% as of September and is expected to reach 37.1% by midcentury. The dependency ratio -- children and older adults supported by every 100 working-age peo
  
  Read more

• 'One of America's Most Successful Experiments Is Coming to a Shuddering Halt'

  30-12-2025 15:00 via news.slashdot.org
  The six-decade flow of highly skilled Indian immigrants to the United States -- a migration pattern that produced some of the country's highest-earning households, several Nobel laureates, and the CEOs of Google, Microsoft, and Pepsi -- appears to be grinding to a halt amid rising anti-Indian rhetoric from Republican officials and chaos in the visa system, according to New York Times.
  Indian student arrivals at American universities fell 44% this year, even as Indians had just become the largest
  
  Read more

• 22 Million Affected By Aflac Data Breach

  30-12-2025 14:00 via it.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from SecurityWeek: Insurance giant Aflac is notifying roughly 22.65 million people that their personal information was stolen from its systems in June 2025. The company disclosed the intrusion on June 20, saying it had identified suspicious activity on its network in the US on June 12 and blaming it on a sophisticated cybercrime group. The company said it immediately contained the attack and engaged with third-party cybersecurity experts to help with incident
  
  Read more

• Meta Just Bought Manus, an AI Startup Everyone Has Been Talking About

  30-12-2025 11:00 via meta.slashdot.org
  Meta has agreed to acquire viral AI agent startup Manus, "a Singapore-based AI startup that's become the talk of Silicon Valley since it materialized this spring with a demo video so slick it went instantly viral," reports TechCrunch. "The clip showed an AI agent that could do things like screen job candidates, plan vacations, and analyze stock portfolios. Manus claimed at the time that it outperformed OpenAI's Deep Research." From the report: By April, just weeks after launch, the early-stage f
  
  Read more

• PhDs Can't Find Work as Boston's Biotech Engine Sputters

  30-12-2025 08:00 via science.slashdot.org
  The Wall Street Journal reports that Boston's once-booming biotech sector has hit a sharp downturn, leaving newly minted Ph.D.s struggling to find work as venture funding dries up, lab space sits empty, and companies downsize or relocate amid rising costs and policy uncertainty. The Wall Street Journal reports: Boston's biotech sector, long a vital economic engine for one of America's wealthiest metro areas, is sputtering. A double whammy of cutbacks in venture capital and government funding hav
  
  Read more

• Researchers Make 'Neuromorphic' Artificial Skin For Robots

  30-12-2025 04:33 via hardware.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The nervous system does an astonishing job of tracking sensory information, and does so using signals that would drive many computer scientists insane: a noisy stream of activity spikes that may be transmitted to hundreds of additional neurons, where they are integrated with similar spike trains coming from still other neurons. Now, researchers have used spiking circuitry to build an artificial robotic skin, adopting some of the principles o
  
  Read more

• Russian Enthusiasts Planning DIY DDR5 Memory Amidst Worldwide Shortage

  30-12-2025 03:02 via hardware.slashdot.org
  Amid a global DDR5 shortage and soaring prices, Russian hardware enthusiasts are experimenting with do-it-yourself DDR5 RAM by sourcing empty PCBs and soldering memory chips by hand. Tom's Hardware reports: The idea comes from Russian YouTuber PRO Hi-Tech's Telegram channel, where a local enthusiast known as "Vik-on" already performs VRAM upgrades for GPUs, so this is a relatively safe operation for him. According to Vik-on, empty RAM PCBs can be sourced from China for as little as $6.40 per DIM
  
  Read more

• Fedora Continued At The Forefront Of Upstream Linux Innovations In 2025

  30-12-2025 02:25 via linux.slashdot.org
  Phoronix's Michael Larabel is "reliving some of the best moments for Fedora Linux in 2025" by highlighting the year's most popular news around the distro. Throughout 2025, Fedora continued to lead upstream Linux innovation with bold changes like Wayland-only GNOME, newer kernels, architecture cleanups, and experimental features -- while openly grappling with controversial shifts such as dropping 32-bit support and modernizing long-standing subsystems."Fedora Linux this year continued in punctual
  
  Read more

• 'Pull Over and Show Me Your Apple Wallet'

  30-12-2025 01:45 via mobile.slashdot.org
  Longtime Slashdot reader theodp writes: MacRumors reports that Apple plans to expand iPhone and Apple Watch driver's licenses to 7 U.S. states (CT, KY, MS, OK, UT, AR, VA). A recent convert is the State of Illinois, whose website videos demo how you can use your Apple Wallet license to display proof of identity or age the next time you get carded by a cop, bartender, or TSA agent. The new states will join 13 others who already offer driver's licenses in the Wallet app (AZ, MD, CO, GA, OH, HI, CA
  
  Read more

Follow @newslocke_ict on Twitter!