ICT news

• What Did 17th Century Food Taste Like?

  15-11-2017 17:40 via rss.slashdot.org
  Benjamin Breen, an assistant professor of history at UC Santa Cruz, looks at art history to figure out what people cooked in the 1600s, and wonders whether it is possible to ascertain the taste of food. From a blog post: What can we learn about how people ate in the seventeenth century? And even if we can piece together historical recipes, can we ever really know what their food tasted like? This might seem like a relatively unimportant question. For one thing, the senses of other people are alw
  
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• Ubuntu Will Have Native AMD ROCm AI/ML and HPC Libraries In Next LTS Release

  10-12-2025 23:20 via news.slashdot.org
  Longtime Slashdot reader MadCow42 writes: Canonical just announced that they're packaging AMD's ROCm libraries (for AIML and HPC with both data-center GPUs as well as desktop/laptop GPUs), directly into the Ubuntu Universe archive. You can run ROCm on Ubuntu today but you have to install it via a script from AMD and manually remove and reinstall for any upgrades or bug fixes. Having it in Ubuntu as a normal Debian package will make it much easier to install and also to maintain in the long run v
  
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• Adobe Integrates With ChatGPT

  10-12-2025 22:50 via slashdot.org
  Adobe is integrating Photoshop, Express, and Acrobat directly into ChatGPT so users can edit photos, design graphics, and tweak PDFs through the chatbot. The Verge reports: The Adobe apps are free to use, and can be activated by typing the name of the app alongside an uploaded file and conversational instruction, such as "Adobe Photoshop, help me blur the background of this image." ChatGPT users won't have to specify the name of the app again during the same conversation to make additional chang
  
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• Cable Channel Subscribers Grew For the First Time In 8 Years Last Quarter

  10-12-2025 22:13 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: On Monday, research analyst MoffettNathanson released its "Cord-Cutting Monitor Q3 2025: Signs of Life?" report. It found that the pay TV operators, including cable companies, satellite companies, and virtual multichannel video programming distributors (vMVPDs) like YouTube TV and Fubo, added 303,000 net subscribers in Q3 2025. According to the report, "There are more linear video subscribers now than there were three months ago. That's the
  
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• Wells Fargo CEO Says More Job Cuts Coming at the Bank as AI Prompts 'Efficiency'

  10-12-2025 19:45 via slashdot.org
  Wells Fargo expects more job cuts and higher severance costs in this quarter that ends in three weeks, bank CEO and President Charlie Scharf said Tuesday at an investors conference in New York. He's also betting on AI to drive efficiency and, eventually, further workforce reduction.From a report: "As we've gone through the budgeting process, and even pre AI, we do expect to have less people as we go into next year," Scharf said at the Goldman Sachs Financial Services Conference in New York City.
  
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• Democrats Warn Their Party May Try To Unravel Any Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery Deal

  10-12-2025 19:09 via politics.slashdot.org
  As the battle over Warner Bros. Discovery grows, two Democratic lawmakers are warning that their party may try to block or unravel any
  acquisition by Paramount when it returns to power. Semafor: In a letter to the WBD board and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent first shared with Semafor, Reps. Sam Liccardo (D-Calif.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) said they were concerned about the national security risk of letting foreign entities control a large portion of the US entertainment and media industry
  
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• Amazon Changes How Copyright Protection is Applied To Kindle Direct's Self-Published Ebooks

  10-12-2025 18:33 via news.slashdot.org
  Amazon says it will allow authors to offer their DRM-free ebooks in the EPUB and PDF formats through its self-publishing platform, Kindle Direct Publishing. Starting on January 20, 2026, authors who set their titles as DRM-free will see their books made available in these more open formats. From a report: The decision to use Digital Rights Management (DRM), a copyright protection mechanism, is set by the authors when they publish their ebooks on Amazon's platform. The company notes these changes
  
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• HDMI Forum Continues To Block HDMI 2.1 For Linux, Valve Says

  10-12-2025 17:51 via linux.slashdot.org
  New submitter emangwiro shares a report: The HDMI Forum, responsible for the HDMI specification, continues to stonewall open source. Valve's Steam Machine theoretically supports HDMI 2.1, but the mini-PC is software-limited to HDMI 2.0. As a result, more than 60 frames per second at 4K resolution are only possible with limitations. In a statement to Ars Technica, a Valve spokesperson confirmed that HDMI 2.1 support is "still a work-in-progress on the software side." "We've been working on trying
  
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• Meta's New AI Superstars Are Chafing Against the Rest of the Company

  10-12-2025 17:05 via tech.slashdot.org
  Meta's newly recruited AI "superstars" have developed an us-versus-them mentality against the company's longtime executive leadership, creating internal friction over whether the team should focus on catching up to rivals like OpenAI and Google or improving Meta's core advertising and social media businesses. Alexandr Wang, the 28-year-old entrepreneur Mark Zuckerberg hired in June to be chief AI officer, leads a team called TBD Lab from a siloed space next to Zuckerberg's office. In meetings th
  
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• Same Product, Same Store, but on Instacart, Prices Might Differ

  10-12-2025 16:25 via slashdot.org
  A study this week has found that shoppers using Instacart are often charged different prices for identical products at the same store at the same time, even when selecting in-store pickup rather than delivery. The Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive policy group, and Consumer Reports organized nearly 200 volunteers across four cities to simultaneously check prices on 20 grocery items. Price differences appeared on nearly three-quarters of the items tested. In one test, more than 40 participa
  
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• Nvidia Builds Location Verification Tech That Could Track Where Its AI Chips End Up

  10-12-2025 15:48 via tech.slashdot.org
  Nvidia has developed location verification technology that could determine which country its AI chips are operating in, Reuters reports, citing a source, a capability that may help address ongoing concerns about the smuggling of advanced semiconductors to restricted markets like China. The feature, which Nvidia has demonstrated privately in recent months but has not released, would be an optional software tool that customers install. It taps into the confidential computing capabilities of Nvidia
  
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• AI Slop Ad Backfires For McDonald's

  10-12-2025 15:00 via slashdot.org
  McDonald's has pulled an AI-generated Christmas commercial from YouTube after viewers pushed back on what they called a distasteful, "AI slop"-filled take on the holidays. The 45-second ad, titled "It's the most terrible time of the year," was a satirical look at holiday chaos -- people tripping while carrying overloaded gift bags, getting tangled in lights, burning homemade cookies, starting kitchen fires -- and ended with a suggestion to ditch the madness and hide out at McDonald's until Janua
  
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• Rubio Orders Diplomats To Return To Using Times New Roman Font

  10-12-2025 14:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday ordered diplomats to return to using Times New Roman font in official communications, calling his predecessor Antony Blinken's decision to adopt Calibri a "wasteful" diversity move, according to an internal department cable seen by Reuters. The department under Blinken in early January 2023 had switched to Calibri, a modern sans-serif font, saying this was a more accessible font for people with disab
  
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• RoboCrop: Teaching Robots How To Pick Tomatoes

  10-12-2025 11:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  alternative_right quotes a report from Phys.org: To teach robots how to become tomato pickers, Osaka Metropolitan University Assistant Professor Takuya Fujinaga, Graduate School of Engineering, programmed them to evaluate the ease of harvesting for each tomato before attempting to pick it. Fujinaga's new model uses image recognition paired with statistical analysis to evaluate the optimal approach direction for each fruit. The system involves image processing/vision of the fruit, its stems, and
  
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• In a Major New Report, Scientists Build Rationale For Sending Astronauts To Mars

  10-12-2025 08:00 via science.slashdot.org
  A major scientific report published Tuesday argues that sending astronauts to Mars is justified by the quest to find life and conduct research that robots alone can't achieve. "We're searching for life on Mars," said Dava Newman, a professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and co-chair of the committee that wrote the report. "The answer to the question 'are we alone' is always going to be 'maybe,' unless it becomes yes." Ars Technica rep
  
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• 'Food and Fossil Fuel Production Causing $5 Billion of Environmental Damage an Hour'

  10-12-2025 04:30 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: The unsustainable production of food and fossil fuels causes $5 billion of environmental damage per hour, according to a major UN report. Ending this harm was a key part of the global transformation of governance, economics and finance required "before collapse becomes inevitable," the experts said. The Global Environment Outlook (GEO) report, which is produced by 200 researchers for the UN Environment Program, said the climate crisis, destr
  
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• OpenAI Joins the Linux Foundation's New Agentic AI Foundation

  10-12-2025 03:02 via news.slashdot.org
  OpenAI, alongside Anthropic and Block, have launched the Agentic AI Foundation under the Linux Foundation, describing it as a neutral home for standards as agentic systems move into real production. It may sound well-meaning, but Slashdot reader and NERDS.xyz founder BrianFagioli isn't buying the narrative. In a report for NERDS.xyz, Fagioli writes: Instead of opening models, training data, or anything that would meaningfully shift power toward the community, the companies involved are donating
  
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• Netflix Faces Consumer Class Action Over $72 Billion Warner Bros Deal

  10-12-2025 02:25 via yro.slashdot.org
  Netflix's $72 billion bid to buy Warner Bros Discovery has triggered a consumer class action claiming the merger would crush competition, erase HBO Max as a rival, and hand Netflix control over major franchises. Reuters reports: The proposed class action (PDF) was filed on Monday by a subscriber to Warner Bros-owned HBO Max who said the proposed deal threatened to reduce competition in the U.S. subscription video-on-demand market. "Netflix has demonstrated repeated willingness to raise subscript
  
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• Ask Slashdot: What Are the Best Locally-Hosted Wireless Security Cameras?

  10-12-2025 01:45 via yro.slashdot.org
  Longtime Slashdot reader Randseed writes: With the likes of Google Nest, Ring, and others cooperating with law enforcement, I started to look for affordable wireless IP security cameras that I can put around my house. Unfortunately, it looks like almost every thing now incorporates some kind of cloud-based slop. All I really want is to put up some cameras, hook them up to my LAN, and install something like ZoneMinder. What are the most economical, wireless IP security cameras that I can set up w
  
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• More People Crowdfunded Basic Needs In 2025, GoFundMe Report Shows

  10-12-2025 01:02 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Fast Company: More and more people are turning to GoFundMe for help covering the cost of housing, food, and other basic needs. The for-profit crowdfunding platform's annual "Year in Help" report, released Tuesday, underscored ongoing concerns around affordability. The number of fundraisers started to help cover essential expenses such as rent, utilities, and groceries jumped 20%, according to the company's 2025 review, after already quadrupling last year.
  
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• Congress Quietly Strips Right-To-Repair Provisions From US Military Spending Bill

  10-12-2025 00:20 via yro.slashdot.org
  Congress quietly removed provisions that would have let the U.S. military fix its own equipment without relying on contractors, despite bipartisan and Pentagon support. The Register reports: The House and Senate versions of the NDAA passed earlier both included provisions that would have extended common right-to-repair rules to US military branches, requiring defense contractors to provide access to technical data, information, and components that enabled military customers to quickly repair ess
  
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• Millions of Australian Teens Lose Access To Social Media As Ban Takes Effect

  09-12-2025 23:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  Australia's world-first ban blocking under-16s from major social platforms has come into effect. The BBC is live reporting the reactions "both from within Australia and outside it." From the report: I've been speaking to 12-year-old Paloma, who lives in Sydney and says she is "sad" about the ban. She spends between 30 minutes and two hours a day on social media. "I'm upset... because I am part of several communities on Snapchat and TikTok," she tells me. "I've developed good friendships on the a
  
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• Apple's Slow AI Pace Becomes a Strength As Market Grows Weary of Spending

  09-12-2025 23:02 via apple.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Shares of Apple were battered earlier this year as the iPhone maker faced repeated complaints about its lack of an artificial intelligence strategy. But as the AI trade faces increasing scrutiny, that hesitance has gone from a weakness to a strength -- and it's showing up in the stock market. Through the first six months of 2025, Apple was the second-worst performer among the Magnificent Seven tech giants, as its shares tumbled 18% through the
  
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• 2025 Will Be World's Second or Third-Hottest Year on Record, EU Scientists Say

  09-12-2025 22:22 via news.slashdot.org
  This year is set to be the world's second or third-warmest on record, potentially surpassed only by 2024'S record-breaking heat, the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said on Tuesday. From a report: The data is the latest from C3S following last month's COP30 climate summit, where governments failed to agree to substantial new measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reflecting strained geopolitics as the U.S. rolls back its efforts, and some countries seek to weaken C
  
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• Microsoft 365 Prices Rising For Businesses and Governments in July 2026

  09-12-2025 21:41 via it.slashdot.org
  Microsoft has announced that it will raise prices on its Microsoft 365 productivity suites for businesses and government clients starting in July 2026, marking the first commercial price increase since 2022. Small business and frontline worker plans face the steepest hikes: Business Basic jumps 16.7% to $7 per user per month, while frontline worker subscriptions surge up to 33%. Enterprise plans see more modest bumps, ranging from 5.3% for E5 to 8.3% for E3. Microsoft attributed the increases to
  
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• The Inevitable Shape of Cheap Online Retail

  09-12-2025 21:01 via slashdot.org
  Pinduoduo in China, Shopee in Southeast Asia, and Meesho in India operate in markets that could hardly be more different -- an upper-middle-income industrial state, a stitched-together archipelago of under-banked economies, and a country where three-quarters of retail is unorganized and e-commerce penetration sits at about 7% -- yet all three have landed on the same business model.
  These platforms run asset-light marketplaces specializing in cheap goods and slow delivery, monetizing through logi
  
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• How Pokemon Cards Became a Stock Market For Millennials

  09-12-2025 20:28 via games.slashdot.org
  The Pokemon Trading Card Game has quietly transformed into something its creators never intended: a speculative asset class dominated by adults hunting for profit while children struggle to find a single pack on store shelves. The resale market has climbed so high that the latest set, Phantasmal Flames, had a rare Charizard illustration valued at more than $800 before anyone had even pulled one from a pack -- a pack that retails for about $5.3.
  Ben Thyer, owner of BathTCG in Bath, has watched hi
  
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• Microsoft To Invest $17.5 Billion in India

  09-12-2025 19:15 via slashdot.org
  Microsoft announced on Tuesday its largest-ever investment in Asia -- $17.5 billion over four years starting in 2026 -- to expand cloud and AI infrastructure across India, fund skilling programs, and support ongoing operations in the country. The commitment adds to a $3 billion investment the company announced in January 2025 that is on track to be spent by the end of 2026. A new hyperscale cloud region in Hyderabad is set to go live in mid-2026 and will be Microsoft's largest in India, comprisi
  
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• What Happens When an 'Infinite-Money Machine' Unravels

  09-12-2025 18:25 via news.slashdot.org
  Michael Saylor's software company Strategy, formerly known as MicroStrategy, built a financial model that some observers called an "infinite-money machine" by stockpiling hundreds of thousands of bitcoins and issuing stock and debt to buy more, but that machine appears to be breaking down. The company's stock peaked above $450 in mid-July and ended November at $177.18, a 60% decline. Bitcoin fell only 25% over the same period. The gap between Strategy's market cap and the value of its bitcoin ho
  
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• Xbox Is Bleeding Out

  09-12-2025 17:50 via games.slashdot.org
  Microsoft's Xbox consoles were conspicuously absent from Black Friday's winners, failing to crack the top three in U.S. sales during one of the retail calendar's most important weeks. According to Circana analyst Mat Piscatella, the PlayStation 5 captured 47% of Black Friday week console sales ending November 29, followed by the Nintendo Switch 2 at 24% and -- somewhat remarkably -- the NEX Playground, a Kinect-like Android device aimed at children, at 14%.
  Microsoft ran no promotions on its con
  
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