The New York Times lists other reasons a company lays off people. ("It didn't meet financial targets. It overhired. Tariffs, or the loss of a big client, rocked it...")

"But lately, many companies are highlighting a new factor: artificial intelligence. Executives, saying they anticipate huge changes from the technology, are making cuts now."

A.I. was cited in the announcements of more than 50,000 layoffs in 2025, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a research firm... Investors may applaud such pre-emptive moves. But some skeptics (including media outlets) suggest that corporations are disingenuously blaming A.I. for layoffs, or "A.I.-washing." As the market research firm Forrester put it in a January report: "Many companies announcing A.I.-related layoffs do not have mature, vetted A.I. applications ready to fill those roles, highlighting a trend of 'A.I.-washing' — attributing financially motivated cuts to future A.I. implementation...."

"Companies are saying that 'we're anticipating that we're going to introduce A.I. that will take over these jobs.' But it hasn't happened yet. So that's one reason to be skeptical," said Peter Cappelli, a professor at the Wharton School... Of course, A.I. may well end up transforming the job market, in tech and beyond. But a recent study... [by a senior research fellow at the Brookings Institution who studies A.I. and work] found that AI has not yet meaningfully shifted the overall market. Tech firms have cut more than 700,000 employees globally since 2022, according to Layoffs.fyi, which tracks industry job losses. But much of that was a correction for overhiring during the pandemic.

As unpopular as A.I. job cuts may be to the public, they may be less controversial than other reasons — like bad company planning.

Amazon CEO Jassy has even said the reason for most of their layoffs was reducing bureaucracy, the article points out, although "Most analysts, however, believe Amazon is cutting jobs to clear money for A.I. investments, such as data centers."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://it.slashdot.org/story/26/02/02/0618242/is-ai-really-taking-jobs-or-are-employers-just-ai-washing-normal-layoffs?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

China's decades-old network of elite high-school "genius classes" -- ultra-competitive talent streams that pull an estimated 100,000 gifted teenagers out of regular schooling every year and run them through college-level science curricula -- has produced the core technical talent now building the country's leading AI and technology companies, the Financial Times reported Saturday.

Graduates of these programs include the founder of ByteDance, the leaders of e-commerce giants Taobao and PDD, the billionaire behind super-app Meituan, the brothers who started Nvidia rival Cambricon, and the core engineers behind large language models at DeepSeek and Alibaba's Qwen. DeepSeek's research team of more than 100 was almost entirely composed of genius-class alumni when the startup released its R1 reasoning model last year at a fraction of the cost of its international rivals.

The system traces to the mid-1980s, when China first sent students to the International Mathematical Olympiad and a handful of top high schools began creating dedicated competition-track classes. China now graduates around five million STEM majors annually -- compared to roughly half a million in the United States -- and in 2025, 22 of the 23 students it sent to the International Science Olympiads returned with gold medals. The computer science track has overtaken maths and physics as the most popular competition subject, a shift that accelerated after Beijing designated AI development a "key national growth strategy" in 2017.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/02/02/1359211/chinas-decades-old-genius-class-pipeline-is-quietly-fueling-its-ai-challenge-to-the-us?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Starbucks has been pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into AI and automation -- testing robots that take drive-through orders, virtual assistants that help baristas recall recipes and manage schedules, and scanning tools that count inventory -- as the 55-year-old coffee chain tries to reverse several years of struggling sales.

The company last week reported its first same-store sales increase in two years in the U.S., where it earns roughly 70% of its revenue. Shares still slid 5% on concerns that heavy spending, including $500 million to boost staffing, had hurt profits. CEO Brian Niccol, who joined in 2024 after engineering Chipotle's turnaround, told the BBC he is confident consistent growth will address that; the company has pledged to find $2 billion in cost savings over three years.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/02/02/1443247/starbucks-bets-on-robots-to-brew-a-turnaround-in-customers?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

The U.S. laid fiber-optic cables to a record number of homes last year as billions of dollars in federal broadband grants and a surge in data-center construction fueled an enormous buildout, but the industry does not have enough workers to sustain the pace.

A 2024 report by the Fiber Broadband Association and the Power & Communication Contractors Association projects 58,000 new fiber jobs between 2025 and 2032 and estimates 120,000 workers will leave the field in that period, mostly through retirement -- a combined shortage of 178,000. The gap is especially acute among splicers, who fuse hair-thin filaments by hand, and directional drill operators.

Telecommunications line installers and repairers earned annual median wages of $70,500 for the year ended May 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, against a $49,500 national median. Push, a utility-construction firm, raised hourly pay for fiber crews by 5% to 8% in each of the past several years and expects the pace to quicken.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/02/02/1510241/high-speed-internet-boom-hits-low-tech-snag-a-labor-shortage?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Luthair writes: Notepad++ claims to have been targeted by a state actor, given their previous stance on Uyghurs one can speculate about a candidate. Notepad++, in a blog post: According to the analysis provided by the security experts, the attack involved infrastructure-level compromise that allowed malicious actors to intercept and redirect update traffic destined for notepad-plus-plus.org. The exact technical mechanism remains under investigation, though the compromise occurred at the hosting provider level rather than through vulnerabilities in Notepad++ code itself. Traffic from certain targeted users was selectively redirected to attacker-controlled served malicious update manifests.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://it.slashdot.org/story/26/02/02/1646253/notepad-compromised-by-state-actor?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Moltbook, a Reddit-like social network that launched last week and bills itself as a platform "built exclusively for AI agents," had a security vulnerability that exposed private messages shared between agents, the email addresses of more than 6,000 human owners, and over a million credentials, according to research published Monday by cybersecurity firm Wiz.

The flaw has since been fixed after Wiz contacted Moltbook. Wiz cofounder Ami Luttwak called it a classic byproduct of "vibe coding." Moltbook creator Matt Schlicht posted on X last Friday that he "didn't write one line of code" for the site. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment when reached out by Reuters. Luttwak said the vulnerability also allowed anyone to post to the site, bot or human. "There was no verification of identity," he said.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://it.slashdot.org/story/26/02/02/1652237/vibe-coded-social-network-for-ai-bots-exposed-data-on-thousands-of-humans?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Apple's long-standing dominance over its electronics supply chain is eroding as AI companies outbid the iPhone maker for critical components like chips, memory and specialized glass fiber, giving suppliers the leverage to demand that Apple pay more. CEO Tim Cook acknowledged the pressure during a Thursday earnings call, noting constraints in chip supplies and significant increases in memory prices.

Nvidia has overtaken Apple as TSMC's largest customer, CEO Jensen Huang said on a podcast; Apple had held that position by a wide margin for years. DRAM prices are set to quadruple from 2023 levels by year-end and NAND prices will more than triple, according to TechInsights.

The firm estimates Apple could pay $57 more for memory in the base iPhone 18 due this fall compared to the base iPhone 17 currently on sale -- a significant hit on a device that retails for $799.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://apple.slashdot.org/story/26/02/02/1741244/the-ai-boom-is-coming-for-apples-profit-margins?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Microsoft is reevaluating its AI strategy on Windows 11 and plans to scale back or remove Copilot integrations across built-in apps after months of sustained user backlash, according to a Windows Central report citing people familiar with the company's plans.

Copilot features in apps like Notepad and Paint are under review and could be pulled entirely or stripped of their Copilot branding in favor of a more streamlined experience. The company has paused work on adding new Copilot buttons to any other in-box apps. Windows Recall, the screenshot-based search feature delayed by an entire year in 2024 over security and privacy concerns, is separately under review -- Microsoft internally considers the current implementation a failure and is exploring ways to rework or rename the feature rather than scrap it entirely, the report said.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/02/02/1826219/microsoft-weighs-retreat-from-windows-11-ai-push-reviews-copilot-integrations-and-recall?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

alternative_right writes: Fintraffic's national traffic priority system, which is set to be introduced this summer, will recognize the location of an emergency vehicle and automatically change the lights to green to facilitate its passage. (Why isn't everyone doing this already?)

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/02/02/1836226/finland-to-introduce-green-wave-automated-system-for-emergency-vehicles?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader shares a report: The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency won't attend the annual RSA Conference in March, an agency spokesperson confirmed to The Register. Sessions involving speakers from the FBI and National Security Agency (NSA) have also disappeared from the agenda.

"Since the beginning of this administration, CISA has made significant progress in returning to our statutory, core mission and focusing on President Trump's policies for maximum security for all Americans," CISA spokesperson Marci McCarthy told us. "CISA has reviewed and determined that we will not participate in the RSA Conference since we regularly review all stakeholder engagements, to ensure maximum impact and good stewardship of taxpayer dollars."

McCarthy declined to comment on whether the decision had anything to do with former CISA director Jen Easterly being named chief executive of RSAC last week. Easterly, who was appointed to lead America's top cyber-defense agency under the Biden administration, joined her predecessor and CISA's first-ever director Chris Krebs in President Trump's line of fire back in July.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/02/02/1935214/feds-skipping-infosec-industrys-biggest-conference-this-year?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

The owners of Leica Camera AG -- Austrian billionaire Andreas Kaufmann and private equity giant Blackstone -- are considering a sale of a controlling stake in the German camera maker in a deal that could value the company at about $1.2 billion, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

HSG, formerly known as Sequoia Capital China, and Altor Equity Partners are among a handful of bidders. The Kaufmann family could re-invest following a transaction. Leica traces its roots roughly 150 years to Ernst Leitz's microscope company and was publicly traded on the Frankfurt stock exchange until the Kaufmann family took it private in 2012.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/26/02/02/2015228/leica-cameras-owners-weigh-12-billion-sale-of-controlling-stake?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Scientists at the University of Utah have analyzed nearly a century's worth of human hair samples and found that lead concentrations dropped 100-fold after the EPA began cracking down on leaded gasoline and other lead-based products in the 1970s.

The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, drew on hair collected from Utah residents -- some preserved in family scrapbooks going back generations. Lead levels peaked between 1916 and 1969 at around 100 parts per million, fell to 10 ppm by 1990, and dropped below 1 ppm by 2024. The decline largely tracks the phase-out of leaded gasoline after President Nixon established the EPA in 1970; before the agency acted, most gasolines contained about 2 grams of lead per gallon, releasing nearly 2 pounds of lead per person into the environment each year.

The study arrives amid the Trump administration's broader push to scale back the EPA. Lead regulations have not yet been targeted, but the authors note concerns about loosened enforcement of the 2024 Lead and Copper rule on replacing old lead pipes.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/02/02/2029212/a-century-of-hair-samples-proves-leaded-gas-ban-worked?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Elon Musk's SpaceX has acquired his AI startup xAI in an all-stock deal that values the combined entity at $1.25 trillion, ahead of what would be the largest initial public offering in history. SpaceX pegged its own valuation at $1 trillion -- a markup from the $800 billion it commanded in a December secondary stock sale -- and priced xAI at $250 billion based on a recent $20 billion funding round that valued the two-year-old AI company at $230 billion.

SpaceX CFO Bret Johnsen told investors on a call Monday that shares in the combined company would be priced at $527 and that xAI shares would convert into SpaceX stock at a roughly seven-to-one exchange rate. The company is still targeting a June IPO expected to raise as much as $50 billion, surpassing Saudi Aramco's $29 billion listing in 2019.

Musk said the least expensive way to do AI computation within two to three years will be in space. "Global electricity demand for AI simply cannot be met with terrestrial solutions, even in the near term, without imposing hardship on communities and the environment," he wrote. SpaceX filed last Friday for permission to launch up to a million satellites into Earth's orbit. xAI merged with Musk's social media platform X last March in a $113 billion deal, and Tesla announced a $2 billion investment in xAI last week.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/26/02/03/0346252/spacex-acquires-xai-in-125-trillion-all-stock-deal?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Опубликован выпуск проекта uutils coreutils 0.6.0 (Rust Coreutils), развивающего аналог пакета GNU Coreutils, написанный на языке Rust. В состав coreutils входит более ста утилит, включая sort, cat, chmod, chown, chroot, cp, date, dd, echo, hostname, id, ln и ls. Целью проекта является создание кроссплатформенной альтернативной реализации Coreutils, среди прочего способной работать на платформах Windows, Redox и Fuchsia.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=64730

sinij writes: Automakers have increasingly implemented door handles that retract into the bodywork for aerodynamic reasons, but they are now off limits in China.
My issue is with electronic-only door latch mechanism. It should be possible to open the door from both inside and outside the car in case of complete power loss.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/02/03/0512212/hidden-car-door-handles-are-officially-being-banned-in-china?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Представлен релиз распределенной системы управления исходными текстами Git 2.53. Git отличается высокой производительностью и предоставляет средства нелинейной разработки, базирующиеся на ответвлении и слиянии веток. Для обеспечения целостности истории и устойчивости к изменениям "задним числом" используются неявное хеширование всей предыдущей истории в каждом коммите, а также удостоверение цифровыми подписями разработчиков отдельных тегов и коммитов. Код Git распространяется под лицензией GPLv2+.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=64731

smolBSD — это операционная система, построенная на основе NetBSD. Она позволяет за считанные минуты создать собственную среду UNIX — от системы с одной целью (микросервисы) до полностью настраиваемого образа ОС.На сайте проекта smolBSD.org указано, что с помощью smolBSD можно за считанные секунды собрать и запустить собственную кастомизированную систему BSD. Также из smolBSD легко создавать образы Docker.В основе среды smolBSD лежит ядро ​​netbsd-MICROVM, использующее тот же переносимый и надежный код, что и сама NetBSD. Вы сами решаете, что включить — sshd, httpd или собственную службу — и smolBSD создаст целостный, минимальный, загружаемый образ, готовый к работе где угодно. [ Исходный код на GitHub ]( https://github.com/NetBSDfr/smolBSD.git ) .

https://www.linux.org.ru/news/bsd/18210726

Тихо и незаметно вышла новая версия Look4Sat, трекера спутников для Android, вдохновлённого GPredict.

Наконец нашёл достаточно времени между семьёй и работой, чтобы доделать и выпустить v4, давно лежащую в ветке develop. Основные изменения включают в себя полностью переработанный интерфейс на Jetpack Compose и Material3, переход к использованию BottomNavigation, и поддержку адаптивного интерфейса для планшетов. Пока что код оставляет желать лучшего, но теперь мне больше не нужно метаться между v3 и v4, так что со временем всё приведу в порядок (надеюсь).

Приложение получает данные TLE и информацию о трансиверах из открытых источников: Celestrak, R4UAB, SatNOGS и др. На данный момент это позволяет отслеживать более 15000 спутников (только часть из них имеет открытую информацию о трансиверах). Look4Sat хранит данные и производит все расчеты локально, имеет встроенный кэш тайлов карт OSM и функцию импорта файлов, что позволяет работать без Интернета. Приложение поддерживает Английский, Русский, Украинский, Китайский, Испанский и Сингальский языки. У проекта полностью открытый исходный код, а также отсутствует аналитика и реклама, да и я стараюсь использовать наименьшее количество внешних зависимостей.

>>> [ F-Droid ]( https://f-droid.org/packages/com.rtbishop.look4sat/ )

>>> [ Google Play ]( https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rtbishop.look4sat )

https://www.linux.org.ru/news/opensource/18210916

30 января состоялся выпуск 7.4.1 специализированного дистрибутива Tails.

Список изменений:

• Обновление OpenSSL до версии 3.5.4, в которой исправлено несколько критических уязвимостей безопасности ( [ DSA 6113-1 ]( https://lists.debian.org/debian-security-announce/2026/msg00022.html ) ). Эти уязвимости могут быть использованы для нарушения анонимности пользователей.

• Обновление Tor до версии 0.4.8.22.

• Обновление Thunderbird до версии 140.7.0.

• Исправлена аутентификация Gmail в Thunderbird.

• Добавлен индикатор загрузки при открытии настроек Wi-Fi из помощника Tor Connection.

Пользователям настоятельно рекомендуется установить обновление как можно скорее, несмотря на то, что случаев эксплуатации этих уязвимостей пока не зафиксировано.

https://www.linux.org.ru/news/debian/18211233

The original Switch is officially Nintendo's best-selling console of all time after surpassing the DS handheld in lifetime sales. From a report: In its latest earnings release, Nintendo reports that the Nintendo Switch has, as of December 31, 2025, sold 155.37 million units since its launch in 2017, compared to 154.02 million units for the 2004 Nintendo DS.

In November, Nintendo reported that the Switch and DS were neck and neck. We expected the holiday sales period would see the Switch surpass the DS, even with Nintendo announcing that primary development would focus on the Switch 2. Nintendo previously said that it would continue to sell the original Switch "while taking consumer demand and the business environment into consideration."

Nintendo has to keep selling the Switch if it wants to dethrone Sony's PlayStation 2 as the best-selling video game console of all time. The PlayStation 2, discontinued in January 2013, sold more than 160 million units over its 13-year lifespan.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://games.slashdot.org/story/26/02/03/0848248/the-switch-is-now-nintendos-best-selling-console-of-all-time?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader shares a report: By now, the Forbes 30 Under 30 list has become more than a little notorious for the amount of entrants who go on to be charged with fraud.[...] Gokce Guven, a 26-year-old Turkish national and the founder and CEO of fintech startup Kalder, was charged last week with alleged securities fraud, wire fraud, visa fraud, and aggravated identity theft. The New York-based fintech startup -- which uses the "Turn Your Rewards into [a] Revenue Engine" tagline -- says it can help companies create and monetize individual rewards programs. The company was founded in 2022, and offers participating firms the opportunity to earn ongoing revenue streams via partner affiliate sales, Axios previously reported.

Guven was featured in last year's Forbes 30 Under 30 list. The magazine notes in the writeup that Guven's clients included major chocolatier Godiva and the International Air Transport Association, the trade organization that represents a majority of the world's airlines. Kalder also claims to have enjoyed the backing of a number of prominent VC firms. The U.S. Department of Justice alleges that, during Kalder's seed round in April of 2024, Guven managed to raise $7 million from more than a dozen investors after presenting a pitch deck that was rife with false information.

According to the government, Kalder's pitch deck claimed that there were 26 brands "using Kalder" and another 53 brands in "live freemium." However, officials say that, in reality, Kalder had, in many cases, only been offering heavily discounted pilot programs to many of those companies. Other brands "had no agreement with Kalder whatsoever -- not even for free services," officials said in a press release announcing the indictment. The pitch deck also "falsely reported that Kalder's recurring revenue had steadily grown month over month since February 2023 and that by March 2024, Kalder had reached $1.2 million in annual recurring revenue." The government also accuses Guven of having kept two separate sets of financial books.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/26/02/03/1343205/fintech-ceo-and-forbes-30-under-30-alum-charged-for-alleged-fraud?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Adobe has emailed users of Adobe Animate to let them know the popular animation and game development program will be discontinued on March 1, an abrupt decision that has angered animators and game developers who say the tool remains an industry standard in television and game production.

Animate, the successor to the once-popular Flash, is widely used for graphic creation, animation and building games in HTML5. The company has not offered a reason for the shutdown. On BlueSky, artist and animator Julia Glassman wrote that many television productions, games, and animated media still rely on Animate and Flash pipelines and cannot simply pivot to entirely new software.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/02/03/1445206/adobe-is-killing-a-popular-animation-and-game-development-program?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader shares a report: PayPal said on Tuesday it was booting its CEO and replacing him with its board chair Enrique Lores, sparing no ambiguity as to why: "The pace of change and execution was not in line with the Board's expectations," it said in a statement. One group that was blindsided was HP, where Lores was until Tuesday serving as CEO, according to people familiar with the matter.

Lores' switchup sent them rushing to launch a search process, those people said. HP's board does have internal candidates which it's considering for the top job, according to a person familiar with the board's thinking. As chair of PayPal's board, Lores played a role in a process evaluating internal and external candidates. It was unclear when or if he recused himself from the final decision to name him as CEO. But HP's board was only made aware that Lores was taking the CEO role at PayPal in recent weeks, the people said.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/26/02/03/1513242/paypals-ceo-change-blindsided-hps-board?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

YouTube has confirmed that it is blocking background playback -- the ability to keep a video's audio running after minimizing the browser or locking the screen -- for non-Premium users across third-party mobile browsers including Samsung Internet, Brave, Vivaldi and Microsoft Edge.

Users began reporting the issue last week, noting that audio would cut out the moment they left the browser, sometimes after a brief "MediaOngoingActivity" notification flashed before media controls disappeared. A Google spokesperson told Android Authority that the platform "updated the experience to ensure consistency," calling background play a Premium-exclusive feature.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/02/03/1655249/youtube-kills-background-playback-on-third-party-mobile-browsers?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Four economists across Central European University, Bielefeld University and the Kiel Institute have built a general equilibrium model of the open-source software ecosystem and concluded that vibe coding -- the increasingly common practice of letting AI agents select, assemble and modify packages on a developer's behalf -- erodes the very funding mechanism that keeps open-source projects alive.

The core problem is a decoupling of usage from engagement. Tailwind CSS's npm downloads have climbed steadily, but its creator says documentation traffic is down about 40% since early 2023 and revenue has dropped close to 80%. Stack Overflow activity fell roughly 25% within six months of ChatGPT's launch. Open-source maintainers monetize through documentation visits, bug reports, and community interaction. AI agents skip all of that.

The model finds that feedback loops once responsible for open source's explosive growth now run in reverse. Fewer maintainers can justify sharing code, variety shrinks, and average quality falls -- even as total usage rises. One proposed fix is a "Spotify for open source" model where AI platforms redistribute subscription revenue to maintainers based on package usage. Vibe-coded users need to contribute at least 84% of what direct users generate, or roughly 84% of all revenue must come from sources independent of how users access the software.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/02/03/1754205/vibe-coding-kills-open-source?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Разработчики проекта Tor опубликовали выпуск Arti 2.0.0, официально развиваемого варианта инструментария Tor, написанного на языке Rust. Реализация отмечена как пригодная для использования обычными пользователями и обеспечивающая тот же уровень конфиденциальности, юзабилити и стабильности, что и основная реализация на языке Си. Когда код на Rust достигнет уровня, способного полностью заменить вариант на Си, разработчики намерены придать Arti статус основной реализации Tor и постепенно прекратить сопровождение варианта на Си. Код распространяется под лицензиями Apache 2.0 и MIT.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=64732

Alphabet is plotting to dramatically expand its presence in India [non-paywalled source], with the possibility of taking millions of square feet in new office space in Bangalore, India's tech hub. From a report: Google's parent company has leased one office tower and purchased options on two others in Alembic City, a development in the Whitefield tech corridor, totaling 2.4 million square feet, according to people familiar with the deal. The first tower is expected to open to employees in the coming months, while construction on the remaining two is set to conclude next year.

Options in the real estate industry give would-be tenants the exclusive right to rent, or in some cases buy, a property at a predetermined price within a specific time frame. It's also possible Alphabet will not exercise the option to use the additional towers. If it does take all of the space, the complex could accommodate as many as 20,000 additional staff, which could more than double the company's footprint in India, said the people, asking not to be identified because the plans aren't public. Alphabet currently employs around 14,000 in the country, out of a global workforce of roughly 190,000.

[...] US President Donald Trump's visa restrictions have made it harder to bring foreign talent to America, prompting some companies to recruit more staff overseas. India has become an increasingly important place for US companies to hire, particularly in the race to dominate artificial intelligence.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/02/03/190223/google-plots-big-expansion-in-india-as-us-restricts-visas?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Опубликован релиз свободной загрузочной прошивки Libreboot 26.01, который получил статус стабильного выпуска. Проект развивает готовую сборку проекта Coreboot, предоставляющую замену проприетарным прошивкам UEFI и BIOS, отвечающим за инициализации CPU, памяти, периферийных устройств и других компонентов оборудования, с минимизацией бинарных вставок.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=64733

ClickOnThis writes: NASA has delayed the Artemis II launch to March of this year, after a wet dress-rehearsal uncovered a hydrogen leak. From the NASA article: During tanking, engineers spent several hours troubleshooting a liquid hydrogen leak in an interface used to route the cryogenic propellant into the rocket's core stage, putting them behind in the countdown. Attempts to resolve the issue involved stopping the flow of liquid hydrogen into the core stage, allowing the interface to warm up for the seals to reseat, and adjusting the flow of the propellant.

Teams successfully filled all tanks in both the core stage and interim cryogenic propulsion stage before a team of five was sent to the launch pad to finish Orion closeout operations. Engineers conducted a first run at terminal countdown operations during the test, counting down to approximately 5 minutes left in the countdown, before the ground launch sequencer automatically stopped the countdown due to a spike in the liquid hydrogen leak rate.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/02/03/1931235/nasa-delays-artemis-ii-to-march?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) have more in common with cigarettes than with fruit or vegetables, and require far tighter regulation, according to a new report. The Guardian: UPFs and cigarettes are engineered to encourage addiction and consumption, researchers from three US universities said, pointing to the parallels in widespread health harms that link both.

UPFs, which are widely available worldwide, are food products that have been industrially manufactured, often using emulsifiers or artificial colouring and flavours. The category includes soft drinks and packaged snacks such as crisps and biscuits. There are similarities in the production processes of UPFs and cigarettes, and in manufacturers' efforts to optimise the "doses" of products and how quickly they act on reward pathways in the body, according to the paper from researchers at Harvard, the University of Michigan and Duke University.

They draw on data from the fields of addiction science, nutrition and public health history to make their comparisons, published on 3 February in the healthcare journal the Milbank Quarterly. The authors suggest that marketing claims on the products, such as being "low fat" or "sugar free," are "health washing" that can stall regulation, akin to the advertising of cigarette filters in the 1950s as protective innovations that "in practice offered little meaningful benefit."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/02/03/196254/ultra-processed-foods-should-be-treated-more-like-cigarettes-than-food-study-says?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Google Home users, your long nightmare is over. The platform has finally added support for buttons. The release notes for a February 2 update state that several new starter conditions for automations are now available, including "Switch or button pressed."

Smart buttons are physical, programmable switches that you can press to trigger automations or control devices in your smart home, such as turning lights on or off, opening and closing shades, running a Good Night scene, or starting a robot vacuum. A great alternative to voice and app control when you want to control multiple devices, smart buttons are often wireless and generally have several ways to press them: single press, double press, and long press, meaning one button can do multiple things.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/02/03/180213/google-home-finally-adds-support-for-buttons?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Walmart's market cap surpassed $1 trillion on Tuesday, putting the largest U.S. retail chain in an exclusive club dominated by tech groups. Bloomberg adds: The Bentonville, Arkansas-based chain -- a longtime favorite of bargain-hunting consumers -- has flexed its massive scale and supplier network to keep prices low and grab market share across the income spectrum. While Walmart has maintained its appeal to households looking for value, its online offerings are drawing new, wealthier shoppers seeking convenience.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/26/02/03/1818249/walmart-joins-1-trillion-club?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

OpenAI's rivals are cutting into ChatGPT's lead. From a report: The top chatbot's market share fell from 69.1% to 45.3% between January 2025 and January 2026 among daily U.S. users of its mobile app. Gemini, in the same time period, rose from 14.7% to 25.1% and Grok rose from 1.6% to 15.2%.

The data, obtained by Big Technology from mobile insights firm Apptopia, indicates the chatbot race has tightened meaningfully over the past year with Google's surge showing up in the numbers. Overall, the chatbot market increased 152% since last January, according to Apptopia, with ChatGPT exhibiting healthy download growth.

On desktop and mobile web, a similar pattern appears, according to analytics firm Similarweb. Visits to ChatGPT went from 3.8 billion to 5.7 billion between January 2025 and January 2026, a 50% increase, while visits to Gemini went from 267.7 million to 2 billion, a 647% increase. ChatGPT is still far and away the leader in visits, but it has company in the race now.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/26/02/03/1814233/openais-lead-is-contracting-as-ai-competition-intensifies?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Доступен выпуск приложения Calibre 9, автоматизирующего поддержание коллекции электронных книг. Calibre предлагает интерфейсы для навигации по библиотеке, чтения книг, преобразованию форматов, синхронизации с портативными устройствами на которых осуществляется чтение, просмотра новостей о появлении новинок на популярных web-ресурсах. В состав также входит реализация сервера для организации сетевого доступа к домашней коллекции. Код проекта написан на языке Python и распространяется под лицензией GPLv3.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=64734

Компания Google объявила о переименовании SQL-анализатора ZetaSQL в GoogleSQL. Проект развивает инструментарий для разбора и анализа грамматики, семантики, типов, модели данных и функций для языка SQL и диалекта GoogleSQL. Диалект GoogleSQL примечателен возможностью объединения запросов при помощи неименованных каналов (pipe) и применяется в различных продуктах и сервисах Google, среди которых BigQuery, Spanner, F1, BigTable, Dremel и Procella. Код проекта написан на языке С++ и распространяется под лицензией Apache 2.0.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=64735

BrianFagioli writes: Google has quietly retired the ZetaSQL name and rebranded its open source SQL analysis and parsing project as GoogleSQL. This is not a technical change but a naming cleanup meant to align the open source code with the SQL dialect already used across Google products like BigQuery and Spanner. Internally, Google has long called the dialect GoogleSQL, even while the open source project lived under a different name.

By unifying everything under GoogleSQL, Google says it wants to reduce confusion and make it clearer that the same SQL foundation is shared across its cloud services and open source tooling. The code, features, and team remain unchanged. Only the name is different. GoogleSQL is now the single label Google wants developers to recognize and use going forward.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://developers.slashdot.org/story/26/02/04/075248/say-hello-to-googlesql?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Европейская академия открытого ПО (EOSA, European Open Source Academy).

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=64736

Фонд X.Org объявил, что в этом году Конференция разработчиков X.Org пройдёт в Торонто, Канада, и организатором ее выступит Arm.

Mark Filion

Привет!Мы рады сообщить, что XDC 2026 состоится 28-30 сентября в Торонто, Канада — отметьте это в своих календарях!Конференция будет проходить в Daniels Spectrum, оживлённом общественном культурном центре в самом сердце района Риджент–Парк в Торонто, всего в нескольких минутах от площади Йонг-Дандас.Выражаем искреннюю благодарность Arm за организацию конференции в этом году.Регистрация и приём заявок скоро начнутся, а до тех пор обязательно следите за нашими новостями, чтобы быть в курсе последних событий: [ https://floss.social/@XOrgDevConf ]( https://floss.social/@XOrgDevConf )

https://www.linux.org.ru/news/opensource/18211956

An anonymous reader shares a report: Speaking during an earnings call on Tuesday, CEO Lisa Su stated that its development of Microsoft's next-gen Xbox SoC is "progressing well to support a launch in 2027."

While the comment doesn't outright confirm the next Xbox will release next year, it indicates that the Microsoft could be ready to launch soon.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://games.slashdot.org/story/26/02/04/0735217/amd-hints-the-next-gen-xbox-console-could-launch-next-year?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Фонд X.Org объявил, что в этом году Конференция разработчиков X.Org пройдёт в Торонто, Канада, и организатором ее выступит Arm.

Mark Filion

Привет!Мы рады сообщить, что XDC 2026 состоится 28-30 сентября в Торонто, Канада — отметьте это в своих календарях!Конференция будет проходить в Daniels Spectrum, оживлённом общественном культурном центре в самом сердце района Риджент–Парк в Торонто, всего в нескольких минутах от площади Йонг-Дандас.Выражаем искреннюю благодарность Arm за организацию конференции в этом году.Регистрация и приём заявок скоро начнутся, а до тех пор обязательно следите за нашими новостями, чтобы быть в курсе последних событий: [ https://floss.social/@XOrgDevConf ]( https://floss.social/@XOrgDevConf )

https://www.linux.org.ru/news/conference/18211956

Adobe is no longer planning to discontinue Adobe Animate on March 1st. From a report: In an FAQ, the company now says that Animate will now be in maintenance mode and that it has "no plans toâdiscontinue or remove access" to the app.

Animate will still receive "ongoing security and bug fixes" and will still be available for "both new and existing users," but it won't get new features. Many creators expressed frustration after Adobe's original discontinuation announcement from earlier this week, and the application is still used by creators like David Firth, the person behind the animated web series Salad Fingers. Now, Adobe says that "We are committed to ensuring Animate usersâalways have access to their content regardless of the state of development of the application."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://it.slashdot.org/story/26/02/04/0730222/adobe-actually-wont-discontinue-animate?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Google's much-anticipated plan to merge Android and ChromeOS into a single operating system called Aluminium is shaping up to be a drawn-out, complicated transition that could leave existing Chromebook users behind, according to previously unreported court documents in the Google search antitrust case.

The new OS won't be compatible with all existing Chromebook hardware, and Google will be forced to maintain ChromeOS through at least 2033 to honor its 10-year support commitment to current users -- meaning two parallel operating systems running for years.

The timeline itself is messier than Google has let on publicly, the filings suggest. Sameer Samat, Google's head of Android, called the merger "something we're super excited about for next year" last September, but court filings describe the "fastest path" to market as offering Aluminium to "commercial trusted testers" in late 2026 before a full release in 2028.

Enterprise and education customers -- the segments where Chromebooks currently dominate -- are slated for 2028 as well. Columbia computer science professor Jason Nieh, who interviewed Google engineers as a witness in the case, testified that Aluminium requires a heavier software stack and more powerful hardware to run.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/02/04/099210/why-googles-android-for-pc-launch-may-be-messy-and-controversial?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Организация The Document Foundation опубликовала релиз офисного пакета LibreOffice 26.2. Готовые установочные пакеты подготовлены для различных дистрибутивов Linux, Windows и macOS. В версии 26.2 проект прекратил поставляться с меткой "Community" (LibreOffice Community) и.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=64739

Pinterest has sacked two engineers for tracking which workers lost their jobs in a recent round of layoffs. BBC: The company recently announced job cuts, with chief executive Bill Ready stating in an email he was "doubling down on an AI-forward approach," according to an employee who posted some of the memo on LinkedIn.

Pinterest told investors the move would impact about 15% of the workforce, or roughly 700 roles, without saying which teams or workers were affected. But then "two engineers wrote custom scripts improperly accessing confidential company information to identify the locations and names of all dismissed employees and then shared it more broadly," a company spokesperson told the BBC. "This was a clear violation of Pinterest policy and of their former colleagues' privacy," the spokesperson added.

The script written by the Pinterest engineers was aimed at internal tools used at the company for employees to communicate, according to a person familiar with the firings who asked not to be identified. The person said the script created an alert for which employee names within a tool like the team communication platform Slack were being removed or deactivated, giving some insight into who at the company was impacted by the layoffs.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/26/02/04/114220/pinterest-sacks-workers-for-creating-tool-to-track-layoffs?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Anthropic said today that its AI assistant Claude will not carry advertising of any kind -- no sponsored links next to conversations, no advertiser influence on the model's responses, and no unsolicited third-party product placements -- calling Claude a "space to think" that should remain free of commercial interruption. The announcement comes days after Anthropic's chief rival, OpenAI, announced plans to bring ads to some of its ChatGPT offerings.

Anthropic said its internal analysis of Claude conversations found that a significant share involve sensitive or deeply personal topics. An advertising-based model would also create incentives to optimize for engagement and time spent rather than usefulness, Anthropic said, noting that the most helpful AI interaction might be a short one that doesn't prompt further conversation.

Anthropic generates revenue from enterprise contracts and paid subscriptions. The company said it is exploring agentic commerce -- Claude handling a purchase or booking on a user's behalf -- but stressed that all such interactions should be user-initiated, not advertiser-driven. Anthropic has also brought AI tools to educators in over 60 countries and said it may consider lower-cost subscription tiers and regional pricing.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/26/02/04/1327223/anthropic-pledges-to-keep-claude-ad-free-calls-ai-conversations-a-space-to-think?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Фреймворк представляет собой реализацию концепций Erlang для разработки на Go, построенный на модели
акторов с сетевой прозрачностью и готовыми компонентами.

( [ читать дальше... ]( https://www.linux.org.ru/news/opensource/18212188#cut ) )

Открыта регистрация на детско-юношеские соревнования по Linux - «Linux-skills», которые пройдут в рамках фестиваля технического творчества «ТехноКакТУС» (Всероссийская олимпиада из перечня Министерства просвещения).

Соревнования проводятся в двух номинациях:

• «Alt-skills» (Альт Линукс) и «Calculate-skills» (Калкулэйт Линукс),

• в трёх возрастных группах: 10-13 лет, 14-17 лет, 18-22 лет.

Тематика соревнований прежняя: импортозамещение.

С 1 марта по 10 марта 2026 года пройдёт дистанционный онлайн отборочный этап, на котором участники пройдут тестирование.
C 25 марта по 1 апреля 2026 года состоится очный финал - участникам будет предоставлен доступ к виртуальному стенду, на котором нужно будет настроить сеть и перевести рабочие станции с ОС MS Windows на Linux, после чего выполнить настройку Linux и сетей.

Площадки для очного этапа организованы в Санкт-Петербурге и Москве (площадки в других городах могут быть организованы по запросу)

В рамках соревнований участникам предстоит переехать с windows на Linux, сохранив все документы, а также выполнить настройку локальной сети.

[ Группа в ТГ >> ]( https://t.me/cactux0 )
[ Регламент и регистрация >> ]( https://cttit.ru/events/texnokaktus/linux-skills.html )
[ Положение >> ]( https://cttit.ru/events/texnokaktus/ )

https://www.linux.org.ru/news/russia/18212361

Investors were assessing on Wednesday whether a selloff in global software stocks this week had gone too far, as they weighed if businesses could survive an existential threat posed by AI. The answer: It's unclear and will lead to volatility. From a report: After a broad selloff on Tuesday that saw the S&P 500 software and services index fall nearly 4%, the sector slipped another 1% on Wednesday. While software stocks have been under pressure in recent months as AI has gone from being a tailwind for many of these companies to investors worrying about the disruption it will cause to some sectors, the latest selloff was triggered by a new legal tool from Anthropic's Claude large language model (LLM).

The tool - a plug-in for Claude's agent for tasks across legal, sales, marketing and data analysis - underscored the push by LLMs into the so-called "application layer," where these firms are increasingly muscling into lucrative enterprise businesses for revenue they need to fund massive investments. If successful, investors worry, it could wreak havoc across a range of industries, from finance to law and coding.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/26/02/04/1810206/as-software-stocks-slump-investors-debate-ais-existential-threat?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Представлен выпуск GCompris 26.0, свободного обучающего центра для детей дошкольного и младшего школьного возраста. Пакет предоставляет 197 мини-уроков и модулей, предлагающих от простейшего графического редактора, головоломок и клавиатурного тренажера до уроков математики, географии и обучения чтению. GCompris использует библиотеку Qt и развивается сообществом KDE. Готовые сборки сформированы для Linux, macOS, Windows, Raspberry Pi и Android.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=64741

A sprawling informal economy of rogue streaming devices has taken hold across the U.S., as consumers fed up with rising TV subscription costs turn to cheap Android-based boxes that promise free access to thousands of live channels, sports events, and on-demand movies for a one-time $200 to $400 purchase.

The two dominant players -- SuperBox and vSeeBox -- are manufactured by opaque Chinese companies and distributed through hundreds of American resellers at farmers markets, church festivals and Facebook groups, according to a report by The Verge. The hardware is generic and legal, but both devices guide users toward pirate streaming apps not available on any official app store.

vSeeBox directs users to a service called "Heat"; SuperBox points to "Blue TV." One user estimated access to between 6,000 and 8,000 channels, including premium sports networks and hundreds of local affiliates. A 2025 Dish Network lawsuit against a SuperBox reseller alleged that some live channels on the device were being ripped directly from Dish's Sling TV service -- Sling's logo was still visible on certain feeds. Dish has pursued resellers aggressively, winning $1.25 million in damages from a vSeeBox seller in 2024 over 500 devices and $405,000 from another over 162 devices. None of this has meaningfully slowed adoption. The market has roots in earlier Chinese-made devices like TVPad that targeted Asian expat communities and reportedly sold 3 million units before being litigated out of existence. SuperBox and vSeeBox simply broadened the audience to mainstream America.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/26/02/04/1826249/everyone-is-stealing-tv?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.