Steam on Linux Numbers Dropped to 2.23% in February
“In November Steam on Linux use hit an all-time high of 3.2%,” reports Phoronix. And then in December Steam on Linux jumped even higher, to 3.58%.

But January’s numbers settled a little lower, at 3.38%. And last Monday the February numbers were released, showing Steam on Linux at… 2.23%?

Like with prior times where there are wild drops in Linux use, the Steam Survey sh … ⌘ Read more

2/3 of Node.Js Users Run an Outdated Version. So OpenJS Announces Program Offering Upgrade Providers
How many Node.js users are running unsupported or outdated versions. Roughly two thirds, according to data from Node’s nonprofit steward, OpenJS.

So they’ve announced “the Node.js LTS Upgrade and Modernization program” to help enterprises move safely off legacy/end-of-life Node. … ⌘ Read more

FreeRDP 3.23 Addresses 11 CVEs, Improved SDL Client
For those making use of the open-source FreeRDP project for your Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) needs, FreeRDP 3.23 is out today with 11 CVEs addressed in taking care of various security-related issues that have been uncovered… ⌘ Read more

AMD’s HIP Moves To Using LLVM’s New Offload Driver By Default
A change merged to upstream LLVM Git yesterday for LLVM 23 is moving AMD’s HIP to using the new/modern offload driver by default. This aligns with a prior change for NVIDIA CUDA and already in place for OpenMP offloading too… ⌘ Read more

New Microsoft Gaming CEO Has ‘No Tolerance For Bad AI’
In her first major interview as Microsoft’s new gaming chief, Asha Sharma said that “great games” must deliver emotional resonance and a distinct creative voice, while making clear that she has “no tolerance for bad AI.” Stepping in after Phil Spencer’s retirement, she’s pledging consistency, community trust, and a human-first approach to storytelling as Xbox enters … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft Says Bug In Classic Outlook Hides the Mouse Pointer
joshuark quotes a report from BleepingComputer: Microsoft is investigating a known issue that causes the mouse pointer to disappear in the classic Outlook desktop email client for some users. This bug has been acknowledged almost two months after the first reports started surfacing online, with users saying that Outlook became unusable after the mouse po … ⌘ Read more

Viral Doomsday Report Lays Bare Wall Street’s Deep Anxiety About AI Future
A 7,000-word “doomsday” thought experiment from Citrini Research helped trigger an 800-point drop in the Dow, “painting a dark portrait of a future in which technological change inspires a race to the bottom in white-collar knowledge work,” reports the Wall Street Journal. From the report: Concerns of hyperscalers overspending are o … ⌘ Read more

Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ Explores Stablecoin For Gaza
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Financial Times: Officials working with Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” are exploring setting up a stablecoin for Gaza as part of efforts to reshape the devastated Palestinian enclave’s economy, according to five people familiar with the discussions. The talks around introducing a stablecoin – a type of cryptocurrency whose v … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI Calls In the Consultants For Its Enterprise Push
OpenAI has formed a multi-year “Frontier Alliance” with four consulting heavyweights to accelerate enterprise adoption of its no-code AI agent platform, OpenAI Frontier. TechCrunch reports: The alliance includes multi-year partnerships between OpenAI and four major consulting firms, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), McKinsey, Accenture and Capgemini, to sell its enterpris … ⌘ Read more

Panasonic Will No Longer Make Its Own TVs
Panasonic is handing over the manufacturing, marketing, and sales of its TVs to Shenzhen-based Skyworth, effectively exiting in-house TV production. Ars Technica reports: Skyworth is a Shenzhen-headquartered TV brand. The company claims to be “a top three global provider of the Android TV platform.” In July, research firm Omdia reported that Skyworth was one of the top-five TV brands … ⌘ Read more

ASML Unveils EUV Light Source Advance That Could Yield 50% More Chips By 2030
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Researchers at ASML Holding say they have found a way to boost the power of the light source in a key chip making machine to turn out up to 50% more chips by decade’s end, to help retain the Dutch company’s edge over emerging U.S. and Chinese rivals. ASML is the world’ … ⌘ Read more

IBM Shares Crater 13% After Anthropic Says Claude Code Can Tackle COBOL Modernization
IBM shares plunged nearly 13% on Monday after Anthropic published a blog post arguing that its Claude Code tool could automate much of the complex analysis work involved in modernizing COBOL, the decades-old programming language that still underpins an estimated 95% of ATM transactions in the United States and … ⌘ Read more

Linus Torvalds: Someone ‘More Competent Who Isn’t Afraid of Numbers Past the Teens’ Will Take Over Linux One Day
Linus Torvalds has pondered his professional mortality in a self-deprecating post to mark the release of the first release candidate for version 7.0 of the Linux kernel. From a report: “You all know the drill by now: two weeks have passed, and the kernel … ⌘ Read more

‘How Many AIs Does It Take To Read a PDF?’
Despite AI’s progress in building complex software, the ubiquitous PDF remains something of a grand challenge – a format Adobe developed in the early 1990s to preserve the precise visual appearance of documents. PDFs consist of character codes, coordinates, and rendering instructions rather than logically ordered text, and even state-of-the-art models asked to extract information from them wil … ⌘ Read more

Anthropic Accuses Chinese Companies of Siphoning Data From Claude
U.S. artificial-intelligence startup Anthropic said three Chinese AI companies set up more than 24,000 fraudulent accounts with its Claude AI model to help their own systems catch up. From a report: The three companies – DeepSeek, Moonshot AI and MiniMax – prompted Claude more than 16 million times, siphoning information from Anthropic’s system to … ⌘ Read more

Say Goodbye to the Undersea Cable That Made the Global Internet Possible
The first fiber-optic cable ever laid across an ocean – TAT-8, a nearly 6,000-kilometer line between the United States, United Kingdom, and France that carried its first traffic on December 14, 1988 – is now being pulled off the Atlantic seabed after more than two decades of sitting dormant, bound for recycling in South Africa.
… ⌘ Read more

PayPal Attracts Takeover Interest After Stock Slump
An anonymous reader shares a report: PayPal, the digital payments pioneer, is attracting takeover interest from potential buyers after a stock slide wiped out almost half of its value, according to people familiar with the matter.

The San Jose, California-based company has fielded meetings with banks amid unsolicited interest from suitors, the people said. At least one large … ⌘ Read more

Climate Physicists Face the Ghosts in Their Machines: Clouds
Climate scientists trying to predict how much hotter the planet will get have long grappled with a surprisingly stubborn problem – clouds, which both reflect sunlight and trap heat, account for more than half the variation between climate predictions and are the main reason warming projections for the next 50 years range from 2 to 6 degrees Celsius.

Two … ⌘ Read more

Stressful People in Your Life Could Be Adding Months To Your Biological Age
A study published last week in PNAS found that people who regularly cause problems or make life difficult – whom the researchers call “hasslers” – are associated with measurably faster biological aging in those around them, at a rate of roughly 1.5% per additional hassler and about nine months of additional biological a … ⌘ Read more

Sam Altman Would Like To Remind You That Humans Use a Lot of Energy, Too
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is pushing back on growing concerns about AI’s environmental footprint, dismissing claims about ChatGPT’s water consumption as “totally fake” and arguing that the fairer way to measure AI’s energy use is to compare it against humans.

In an interview with Indian Express, Altman acknowledged that evaporative cooling … ⌘ Read more

Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley Calculate AI’s Contribution To U.S. Growth May Be Basically Zero
The narrative that AI spending has been singlehandedly propping up the U.S. economy – a claim that captivated Silicon Valley, Wall Street and Washington over the past year – is facing serious pushback from economists [non-paywalled source] at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Ch … ⌘ Read more

Is AI Impacting Which Programming Language Projects Use?
“In August 2025, TypeScript surpassed both Python and JavaScript to become the most-used language on GitHub for the first time ever…” writes GitHub’s senior developer advocate.

They point to this as proof that “AI isn’t just speeding up coding. It’s reshaping which languages, frameworks, and tools developers choose in the first place.”

Eighty percent of … ⌘ Read more

Rule-Breaking Black Hole Growing At 13x the Cosmic ‘Speed Limit’ Challenges Theories
“A surprisingly ravenous black hole from the dawn of the universe is breaking two big rules,” reports Live Science. “It’s not only exceeding the ‘speed limit’ of black hole growth but also generating extreme X-ray and radio wave emissions — two features that are not predicted to coexist…”

“How is this r … ⌘ Read more

Le Grand Pillage : l’État va transformer votre épargne en souvenir
Ça y est, le fabuleux destin d’Amélie de Montchalin l’entraîne à la Cour des Comptes. Comme expliqué dans un précédent billet, elle arrive à point nommé pour auditer des comptes qu’elle a largement contribué à mettre dans l’état où ils se trouvent, c’est-à-dire quelque part entre le sinistre et le grotesque. Rappelons les grandes lignes […] ⌘ Read more

Should Job-Seekers Stop Using AI to Write Their Resumes?
When one company asked job applicants to submit a video where they answer a question, most of the 300 responses were “eerily similar,” reports the Washington Post (with a company executive saying it was “abundantly clear” they’d used AI.)

Job seekers are turning to AI to help them land jobs more quickly in a tough labor market…. Employers say that’s having an un … ⌘ Read more

Raspberry Pi Stock Rises Over Its Possible Use With OpenClaw’s AI Agents
This week Raspberry Pi saw its stock price surge more than 60% above its early-February low (before giving up some gains at the end of the week). Reuters notes the rise started when CEO Eben Upton bought 13,224 pounds worth of shares — but there could be another reason. “The rally in the roughly $800 million company has materialis … ⌘ Read more

DNA Technology Convicts a 64-Year-Old for Murdering a Teenager in 1982
“More than four decades after a teenager was murdered in California, DNA found on a discarded cigarette has helped authorities catch her killer,” reports CNN:

Sarah Geer, 13, was last seen leaving her friend’s houseï in Cloverdale, California, on the evening of May 23, 1982. The next morning, a firefighter walking home from work found … ⌘ Read more

AMD AOMP 23.0-0 Compiler Continues Enhancing Fortran Support
AMD AOMP 23.0-0 was released overnight as the latest build of this LLVM/Clang downstream that continues to carry the very latest AMD patches focused on delivering the best support for GPU offloading to Radeon/Instinct hardware with the likes of the OpenMP and OpenACC APIs. AOMP continues to serve as a great leading-edge compiler for the best AMD GPU offloading experience until the patches ultimately work their way into upstream LLVM… ⌘ Read more

Le fascisme vous salue bien
Quentin avait 23 ans et assurait la sécurité des militantes du collectif Némésis, une association de protection des femmes, lors d’une action à Lyon en marge d’une conférence donnée par l’égérie d’extrême-gauche Rima Hassan. Il a été pris à partie et lynché par des militants se réclamant de l’antifascisme, dont certains sont affiliés à la […] ⌘ Read more

Waymo Robotaxi Hits a Child Near an Elementary School in Santa Monica
A Waymo robotaxi struck a child near an elementary school in Santa Monica on January 23, according to the company. Waymo told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that the child – whose age and identity are not currently public – sustained minor injuries. TechCrunch: The NHTSA has opened an investigation into the … ⌘ Read more

Initial AMD GFX13 Target Merged To LLVM 23 Git - Presumably RDNA5
Added to the LLVM 23 Git codebase minutes ago is a pull request adding the initial AMDGPU GFX13 target for their next-generation graphics core IP. AMD GFX13 is presumably for RDNA5… ⌘ Read more

California Becomes First State To Join WHO Disease Network After US Exit
California became the first U.S. state to join the World Health Organization’s Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN), one day after the U.S. formally exited the WHO. The Hill reports: This announcement comes just one day after the U.S.’s withdrawal from the WHO became official after nearly 80 years of membership, havin … ⌘ Read more

Campaigner Launches $2 Billion Legal Action In UK Against Apple Over Wallet’s ‘Hidden Fees’
Longtime Slashdot reader AmiMoJo shares a report from the Guardian: The financial campaigner James Daley has launched a 1.5 billion pound (approximately $1.5 billion) class action lawsuit against Apple over its mobile phone wallet, claiming the U.S. tech company blocked competition and charged hid … ⌘ Read more

Justice Department Opens Criminal Probe Into Silicon Valley Spy Allegations
The U.S. Department of Justice has opened a criminal investigation into Deel over allegations that it recruited a spy inside rival Rippling, according to documents seen by The Wall Street Journal. From the report: An Ireland-based Rippling employee, Keith O’Brien, alleged in an affidavit filed in April that Deel Chief Executi … ⌘ Read more

TikTok Is Now Collecting Even More Data About Its Users
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: When TikTok users in the U.S. opened the app today, they were greeted with a pop-up asking them to agree to the social media platform’s new terms of service and privacy policy before they could resume scrolling. These changes are part of TikTok’s transition to new ownership. In order to continue operating in the U.S., … ⌘ Read more

White House Labels Altered Photo of Arrested Minnesota Protester a ‘Meme’
The White House doubled down after posting a digitally altered photo of Minnesota protester Nekima Levy Armstrong, dismissing it as a “meme” despite objections from her attorney and comparisons to reality-distorting propaganda. “YET AGAIN to the people who feel the need to reflexively defend perpetrators of heinous crimes in our co … ⌘ Read more

PowerShell Architect Retires After Decades At the Prompt
Jeffrey Snover, the driving force behind PowerShell, has retired after a career that reshaped Windows administration. The Register reports: Snover’s retirement comes after a brief sojourn at Google as a Distinguished Engineer, following a lengthy stint at Microsoft, during which he pulled the company back from imposing a graphical user interface (GUI) on adminis … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft Gave FBI a Set of BitLocker Encryption Keys To Unlock Suspects’ Laptops
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Microsoft provided the FBI with the recovery keys to unlock encrypted data on the hard drives of three laptops as part of a federal investigation, Forbes reported on Friday. Many modern Windows computers rely on full-disk encryption, called BitLocker, which is ena … ⌘ Read more

Toilet Maker Toto’s Shares Get Unlikely Boost From AI Rush
An anonymous reader shares a report: Shares of Japanese toilet maker Toto gained the most in five years after booming memory demand excited expectations of growth in its little-known chipmaking materials operations. The stock surged as much as 11%, its steepest rise since February 2021, after Goldman Sachs analysts said Toto’s electrostatic chucks used in NAND chi … ⌘ Read more

The Great Graduate Job Drought
Global hiring remains 20% below pre-pandemic levels and job switching has hit a 10-year low, according to a LinkedIn report, and new university graduates are bearing the brunt of a labor market that increasingly favors experienced candidates over fresh talent.

In the UK, the Institute of Student Employers found that graduate hiring fell 8% in the last academic year and employers now receive 140 applications for each … ⌘ Read more

Wall Street Pushes Solo 401(k)s as More Americans Work for Themselves
An anonymous reader shares a report: A niche retirement plan favored by freelancers is quickly becoming a hot Wall Street sales pitch, as more and more Americans look for ways to shelter a bigger chunk of their paychecks from taxes. Known as solo 401(k)s, they allow the self-employed to contribute $72,000 a year into tax-advantaged retire … ⌘ Read more

China Makes Too Many Cars, and the World Is Increasingly OK With It
After years of Western governments raising alarms about Chinese automotive overcapacity and erecting tariff barriers, an unexpected pivot is now underway as major economies cautiously open their markets to Chinese electric vehicles, Bloomberg writes. Beijing itself has started acknowledging the problem at home. Chinese regulators last week w … ⌘ Read more

Solar and Wind Overtake Fossil Fuels in the EU
Wind and solar power overtook fossil fuels last year as a source of electricity in the EU for the first time, a new report found. Semafor adds: The milestone was hit largely thanks to a rise in solar power, which generated a record 13% of electricity in the EU, according to Ember. Together, wind and solar hit 30% of EU electricity generation, edging out fossil fuels at 29%.

The … ⌘ Read more

Toronto Man Posed as Pilot To Rack Up Hundreds of Free Flights, Prosecutors Say
A Toronto man posed as a pilot for years in order to fool airlines into giving him hundreds of free flights, prosecutors have alleged, in a case that has prompted comparisons to the Hollywood thriller Catch Me If You Can. From a report: Authorities in Hawaii announced this week that Dallas Pokornik, 33, had been charge … ⌘ Read more

Apple’s Secret Product Plans Stolen in Luxshare Cyberattack
An anonymous reader shares a report: The Apple supplier subject to a major cyberattack last month was China’s Luxshare, it has now emerged. More than 1TB of confidential Apple information was reportedly stolen.

It was reported in December that one of Apple’s assemblers suffered a significant cyberattack that may have compromised sensitive production-line … ⌘ Read more

It’s been slightly ice cold: https://lyse.isobeef.org/waldspaziergang-2026-01-23/

When Two Years of Academic Work Vanished With a Single Click
Marcel Bucher, a professor of plant sciences at the University of Cologne in Germany, lost two years of carefully structured academic work in an instant when he temporarily disabled ChatGPT’s “data consent” option in August to test whether the AI tool’s functions would still work without providing OpenAI his data. All his chats were permanently delete … ⌘ Read more

Anthropic’s AI Keeps Passing Its Own Company’s Job Interview
Anthropic has a problem that most companies would envy: its AI model keeps getting so good, the company wrote in a blog post, that it passes the company’s own hiring test for performance engineers. The test, designed in late 2023 by optimization lead Tristan Hume, asks candidates to speed up code running on a simulated computer chip. Over 1,000 people have take … ⌘ Read more

Apple Accuses European Commission of ‘Political Delay Tactics’ To Justify Fines
Apple has accused the European Commission of using “political delay tactics” to postpone new app marketplace policies and create grounds for investigating and fining the iPhone maker, a preemptive response to reports that the commission plans to blame Apple for the announced closure of third-party app store Setapp.

M … ⌘ Read more

‘Almost Everyone’ Laid Off at Vimeo Following Bending Spoons Buyout
Vimeo is laying off employees around the world just months after Italian software company Bending Spoons completed its $1.38 billion acquisition of the video hosting platform. Dave Brown, Vimeo’s former brand VP, described the cuts on LinkedIn as affecting “a large portion of the company.” One video engineer claimed “almost everyone” was laid off, … ⌘ Read more