Toronto Man Outruns Streetcars To Show Up Sluggish Transit Network
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: Mac Bauer is fast, but the city’s trams, weighing more than 100,000lbs and traveling at a maximum speed of nearly 45mph, should be far faster than him. And yet as of late December, in head-to-head races against streetcars, the 32-year-old remains undefeated in his quest to highlight how sl … ⌘ Read more

Cybersecurity Employees Plead Guilty To Ransomware Attacks
Two cybersecurity professionals who spent their careers defending organizations against ransomware attacks have pleaded guilty in a Florida federal court to using ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware to extort American businesses throughout 2023.

Ryan Goldberg, a 40-year-old incident response manager from Georgia, and Kevin Martin, a 36-year-old ransomware negotiator f … ⌘ Read more

Despite a Record Year, Airlines Are Grappling With Big Challenges
The global airline industry is on track to post an all-time profit high of nearly $40 billion in 2025, according to trade group IATA, surpassing the pre-pandemic 2019 figure of $26 billion, but carriers are still managing a net margin of just 4% – roughly $7.90 per passenger. Economist adds: Not everything has been in the ascent. European and N … ⌘ Read more

X.Org IMAKE Updated For Those Not Yet Transitioned To Autoconf/Automake Or Meson
X.Org package wrangler Alan Coopersmith at Oracle announced today the release of imake 1.0.11, the newest version of this utility that 20+ years ago was used extensively as part of the X Window System build process for generating Makefiles from a template. With this first imake point release in two years, imake itself can now be built via Meson and there is now support for RISC-V and LoongArch architectures… ⌘ Read more

Singapore Study Links Heavy Infant Screen Time To Teen Anxiety
A study by a Singapore government agency has found that children exposed to high levels of screen time before age two showed brain development changes linked to slower decision-making and higher anxiety in adolescence, adding to concerns about early digital exposure. From a report: The study was conducted by a team within the country’s Agency for … ⌘ Read more

France Pushes Back Plastic Cup Ban By Four Years
An anonymous reader shares a report: The French government on Dec 30 postponed a ban on plastic throwaway cups by four years to 2030 because of difficulties finding alternatives. The ban was meant to start on Jan 1. But the Ministry for Ecological Transition said the “technical feasibility of eliminating plastic from cups” following a review in 2025 justified pushing back the d … ⌘ Read more

Some Meaningful Performance Benefits For Clang + LTO Built Linux Kernels
Over the past few years building the Linux kernel with Clang has matured a lot thanks to upstream improvements to both LLVM/Clang and the Linux kernel. As it’s been a while since our last comparison for GCC vs. Clang built kernels on the resulting system performance, our latest year-end 2025 benchmarking is providing a fresh look at the Linux 6.19 upstream Git kernel built under the latest stable GCC 15 and LLVM Clang 21 compilers. Plus … ⌘ Read more

New York’s MetroCard Era Ends After 31 Years
After more than three decades of service, New York City’s iconic MetroCard is about to retire, as December 31, 2025 marks the final day commuters can purchase or refill the gold-hued plastic cards that replaced subway tokens back in 1994. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has been transitioning to OMNY, a contactless payment system introduced in 2019 that lets riders tap a credi … ⌘ Read more

The Problem With Letting AI Do the Grunt Work
The consulting firm CVL Economics estimated last year that AI would disrupt more than 200,000 entertainment-industry jobs in the United States by 2026, but writer Nick Geisler argues in The Atlantic that the most consequential casualties may be the humble entry-level positions where aspiring artists have traditionally paid dues and learned their craft. Geisler, a screenwriter and WGA membe … ⌘ Read more

Malaria Shows No Sign of Stopping
The World Health Organization’s latest annual malaria report paints a grim picture that’s about to get grimmer, as the United States – which has supplied 37% of global malaria funding since 2010 – pulls back its international health commitments under President Donald Trump. Malaria cases have been climbing since 2015, when progress against the mosquito-borne disease stalled due to insecticide resistanc … ⌘ Read more

Nepal To Scrap ‘Failed’ Mount Everest Waste Deposit Scheme
A scheme to encourage climbers to bring their waste down from Mount Everest is being scrapped – with Nepalese authorities telling the BBC it has been a failure. From the report: Climbers had been required to pay a deposit of $4,000, which they would only get back if they brought at least 8kg (18lbs) of waste back down with them. It was hoped it would begin to … ⌘ Read more

Camera Makers Went Weird in 2025 - and That’s Exactly What the Shrinking Industry Needed
The camera industry shipped 6.5 million interchangeable lens cameras last year – a 50% decline from 2010’s peak – yet 2025 may have been the most creatively ambitious year in nearly two decades of digital photography. DPReview’s Richard Butler argues that this year’s releases displayed “invention, … ⌘ Read more

Some Audiobooks Are Outselling Hardcovers
In a year when print book sales have slipped 1% to 679 million copies through early December, according to Circana BookScan, audiobooks continue to carve out territory that once belonged exclusively to hardcovers, and in several notable cases this year, the audio versions have outright outsold their physical counterparts.

S.A. Cosby’s southern crime novel “King of Ashes” moved more copies a … ⌘ Read more

Intel’s Xe Linux Driver Ready With Multi-Device SVM To End Out 2025
Intel’s open-source graphics driver engineers are ending out 2025 with a bang. Sent out today was the final drm-xe-next pull request of the year of new feature material ready for the next version of the Linux kernel. Today’s pull adds support for SR-IOV scheduler groups as well as multi-device Shared Virtual Memory (SVM) support… ⌘ Read more

LLVM 22 Lands NVIDIA Olympus CPU Scheduling Model
NVIDIA’s Olympus are the ARM64 cores found within the upcoming Vera CPU that will be paired with Rubin. Olympus cores are claimed to be twice as fast as NVIDIA’s current CPU cores found in Grace and based on Neoverse-V2. Earlier this year the open-source compilers landed initial support for Olympus while now a proper CPU scheduling model has been upstreamed into LLVM 22… ⌘ Read more

Life in a Shrinking Japan
Japan’s demographic transformation is no longer a distant forecast but an accelerating reality, and the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research now estimates the country’s population will fall to roughly 100 million by 2050 – more than 20 million fewer people than today.

The share of residents aged 65 and over stood at 29.4% as of September and is expected to reach 37.1% by midcentury. The dependenc … ⌘ Read more

‘One of America’s Most Successful Experiments Is Coming to a Shuddering Halt’
The six-decade flow of highly skilled Indian immigrants to the United States – a migration pattern that produced some of the country’s highest-earning households, several Nobel laureates, and the CEOs of Google, Microsoft, and Pepsi – appears to be grinding to a halt amid rising anti-Indian rhetoric from Republican offici … ⌘ Read more

22 Million Affected By Aflac Data Breach
An anonymous reader quotes a report from SecurityWeek: Insurance giant Aflac is notifying roughly 22.65 million people that their personal information was stolen from its systems in June 2025. The company disclosed the intrusion on June 20, saying it had identified suspicious activity on its network in the US on June 12 and blaming it on a sophisticated cybercrime group. The company said it imme … ⌘ Read more

Linux 6.19 Kernel Benchmarks With X86_NATIVE_CPU Optimization
Added to the Linux kernel earlier this year was the new X86_NATIVE_CPU Kconfig option to enable compiler optimizations for the local/native CPU in use when building the Linux kernel. In effect about ensuring that the “-march=native” compiler flag is set for the kernel build for optimizing the Linux kernel build for your processor being used. Back with Linux 6.16 I ran some benchmarks of the Linux kernel build with X86_NATIVE_CPU to gauge the impac … ⌘ Read more

XWayland Gets Patched For Incorrect Pointer Coordinates
An important fix has made it into the X.Org Server XWayland codebase ahead of the new year. XWayland has been fixed to avoid sending incorrect pointer coordinates to X11 clients on pointer enter events… ⌘ Read more

The Open-Source OpenGL & Vulkan Drivers Enjoyed A Rather Remarkable 2025
The open-source OpenGL and Vulkan drivers making up Mesa had another very successful year. Even with all the years being invested into Mesa largely by Intel, AMD, Valve, Red Hat, and others, the upward trajectory continues for Mesa on expanding the hardware support, punctually adding new Vulkan extensions, and racking up other wins… ⌘ Read more

Meta Just Bought Manus, an AI Startup Everyone Has Been Talking About
Meta has agreed to acquire viral AI agent startup Manus, “a Singapore-based AI startup that’s become the talk of Silicon Valley since it materialized this spring with a demo video so slick it went instantly viral,” reports TechCrunch. “The clip showed an AI agent that could do things like screen job candidates, plan vacations, and analyz … ⌘ Read more

PhDs Can’t Find Work as Boston’s Biotech Engine Sputters
The Wall Street Journal reports that Boston’s once-booming biotech sector has hit a sharp downturn, leaving newly minted Ph.D.s struggling to find work as venture funding dries up, lab space sits empty, and companies downsize or relocate amid rising costs and policy uncertainty. The Wall Street Journal reports: Boston’s biotech sector, long a vital economic eng … ⌘ Read more

Researchers Make ‘Neuromorphic’ Artificial Skin For Robots
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The nervous system does an astonishing job of tracking sensory information, and does so using signals that would drive many computer scientists insane: a noisy stream of activity spikes that may be transmitted to hundreds of additional neurons, where they are integrated with similar spike trains coming … ⌘ Read more

Russian Enthusiasts Planning DIY DDR5 Memory Amidst Worldwide Shortage
Amid a global DDR5 shortage and soaring prices, Russian hardware enthusiasts are experimenting with do-it-yourself DDR5 RAM by sourcing empty PCBs and soldering memory chips by hand. Tom’s Hardware reports: The idea comes from Russian YouTuber PRO Hi-Tech’s Telegram channel, where a local enthusiast known as “Vik-on” already perfo … ⌘ Read more

It Took 6+ Years For Linux’s “New” Mount API To Be Properly Documented In Man Pages
In demonstrating one of the gaps of man pages in modern times and likely having hindered the adoption of the Linux kernel’s new mount API, it took more than six years for those system calls to be properly documented within man pages. The Linux “new” mount API was introduced back in mid-2019 with Linux 5.2 and since supported by key file-systems after several years but not until weeks ago was this file descriptor based mount API sco … ⌘ Read more

Fedora Continued At The Forefront Of Upstream Linux Innovations In 2025
Phoronix’s Michael Larabel is “reliving some of the best moments for Fedora Linux in 2025” by highlighting the year’s most popular news around the distro. Throughout 2025, Fedora continued to lead upstream Linux innovation with bold changes like Wayland-only GNOME, newer kernels, architecture cleanups, and experimental features – … ⌘ Read more

‘Pull Over and Show Me Your Apple Wallet’
Longtime Slashdot reader theodp writes: MacRumors reports that Apple plans to expand iPhone and Apple Watch driver’s licenses to 7 U.S. states (CT, KY, MS, OK, UT, AR, VA). A recent convert is the State of Illinois, whose website videos demo how you can use your Apple Wallet license to display proof of identity or age the next time you get carded by a cop, bartender, or TSA agent. The new st … ⌘ Read more

Tough Job Market Has People Using Dating Apps To Get Interviews
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Most people use dating apps to find love. Tiffany Chau used one to hunt for a summer internship. This fall, the 20-year-old junior at California College of the Arts tailored her Hinge profile to connect with people who could offer job referrals or interviews. One match brought her to a Hallo … ⌘ Read more

Sam Altman Offers $555K Salary To Fill Most Daunting Role In AI
OpenAI is offering a $555,000 salary (plus equity) to recruit a new “head of preparedness,” a high-pressure role tasked with anticipating and mitigating extreme AI risks. “This will be a stressful job, and you’ll jump into the deep end pretty much immediately,” said Sam Altman as he launched the hunt to fill “a critical role” to “help the world.” Th … ⌘ Read more

Nvidia Takes $5 Billion Stake In Intel Under September Agreement
Nvidia has completed its previously announced $5 billion investment in Intel, buying over 214 million shares at a fixed price after the deal received clearance from Federal Trade Commission. “The leading AI chip designer said in September it would pay $23.28 per share for Intel common stock, in a deal that is seen as a major financial lifeline for the … ⌘ Read more

China Drafts World’s Strictest Rules To End AI-Encouraged Suicide, Violence
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: China drafted landmark rules to stop AI chatbots from emotionally manipulating users, including what could become the strictest policy worldwide intended to prevent AI-supported suicides, self-harm, and violence. China’s Cyberspace Administration proposed the rules on Saturday. … ⌘ Read more

Stingless Bees From the Amazon Granted Legal Rights in World First
Stingless bees from the Amazon have become the first insects to be granted legal rights anywhere in the world, in a breakthrough supporters hope will be a catalyst for similar moves to protect bees elsewhere. From a report: It means that across a broad swathe of the Peruvian Amazon, the rainforest’s long-overlooked native bees – which, un … ⌘ Read more

After a Decade of Dead Ends, $70 Million Rides on Locating Flight MH370
More than a decade after Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished over the Indian Ocean en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, the marine robotics company that located Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance is preparing to resume its hunt for the missing Boeing 777. Ocean Infinity, a UK and US-based seabed survey firm, began searching a 15, … ⌘ Read more

How Windows 10 Earned Its Good Reputation While Planting the Seeds of Windows 11’s Problems
Windows 10’s formal end-of-support arrived in October, and while the operating system is generally remembered as one of the “good” versions of Windows – the most widely used since XP – many of the annoyances people complain about in Windows 11 actually started during the Windows 10 era, ArsTe … ⌘ Read more

Hyprland 0.53 Released With New Launcher For Crash Recovery & Safe Mode, New Welcome App
Hyprland 0.53 was released today as the last feature update to this Wayland compositor for 2025… ⌘ Read more

Americans Are Watching Fewer New TV Shows and More Free TV
Americans are settling into streaming habits that should worry Hollywood executives, as new Nielsen data analyzed by Bloomberg reveals that not a single new original series cracked the top 10 most-watched streaming shows in 2025 – the first time this has happened since Nielsen began publishing streaming data in 2020.

The shift extends beyond origi … ⌘ Read more

GOG and CD Projekt Founder Acquires 100% Ownership of GOG
Michal Kicinski, who co-founded both CD Projekt and the DRM-free digital games store GOG back in 2008, has acquired 100% ownership of GOG from CD Projekt, bringing the platform full circle to one of its original creators.

GOG was already operating as part of CD Projekt through its Sp.z.o.o. subsidiary, but Kicinski now takes complete control of the company. T … ⌘ Read more

VC Sees AI-generated Video Gutting the Creator Economy
AI-generated video tools like OpenAI’s Sora will make individual content creators “far, far, far less valuable” as social media platforms shift toward algorithmically generated content tailored to each viewer, according to Michael Mignano, a partner at venture capital firm Lightspeed and who cofounded the podcasting platform Anchor before Spotify acquired it.

Speaki … ⌘ Read more

‘Why Academics Should Do More Consulting’
A group of researchers is calling on universities to treat consulting work as a strategic priority, arguing that bureaucratic obstacles and inconsistent policies have left a massive revenue stream largely untapped even as higher education institutions face mounting financial pressures. (Consulting work refers to academics offering their advice and expertise to outside organizations – industry, … ⌘ Read more

‘I Switched To eSIM in 2025, and I am Full of Regret’
Google’s Pixel 10 series arrived this year as the company’s first eSIM-only lineup in the United States, forcing users who wanted to review or buy the new phones to abandon their physical SIM cards entirely. Ryan Whitwam, a senior technology reporter at Ars Technica, made the switch and now regrets it, he says. “In the three months since Google forced me to give up my phys … ⌘ Read more

Job Apocalypse? Not Yet. AI is Creating Brand New Occupations
The AI industry, for all the anxiety about mass unemployment, is quietly minting entirely new job categories that require distinctly human skills – empathy, judgment, and the ability to calm down a passenger trapped inside a broken-down robotaxi. Data annotators are no longer just low-paid gig workers tagging images. Experts in finance, law, and medicine now … ⌘ Read more

Global Hotel Groups Bet on Customer Loyalty To Beat Online and AI Agents
The world’s largest hotel chains are aggressively pushing customers toward direct bookings as they brace for a future where AI “agents” could reshape how travelers find and reserve rooms. Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt and Wyndham have all expanded their loyalty programs and perks in recent months, aiming to reduce their reliance on onli … ⌘ Read more

The Performance Of Arch Linux Powered CachyOS On AMD EPYC Servers
One of the more interesting announcements over the holiday period thus far is that moving into 2026, CachyOS is looking to develop a server edition for their Arch Linux based operating system. CachyOS has garnered quite a following among Linux enthusiasts and gamers for its competitive out-of-the-box performance, employing some of the optimizations by Intel’s now defunct Clear Linux distribution, and pulling in all of the goodness from upstrea … ⌘ Read more

LG Launches UltraGear Evo Gaming Monitors With What It Claims is the World’s First 5K AI Upscaling
LG has announced a new premium gaming monitor brand called UltraGear, and the lineup’s headline feature is what the company claims is the world’s first 5K AI upscaling technology – an on-device solution that analyzes and enhances content in real time before it reaches the panel, … ⌘ Read more

NTFSPLUS Linux Driver Renamed To Just “NTFS” With Latest Code Restructuring
One of the unexpected Linux kernel surprises of 2025 was NTFSPLUS being announced as a new driver for Microsoft’s NTFS file-system with better performance and more features compared to the classic read-only NTFS driver or the “NTFS3” kernel driver that Paragon Software submitted upstream. That NTFSPLUS driver has continued expanding its feature set and robustness and sent out today was the third iteration of the patches. Now this driver is s … ⌘ Read more

UK Accounting Body To Halt Remote Exams Amid AI Cheating
The world’s largest accounting body is to stop students being allowed to take exams remotely to crack down on a rise in cheating on tests that underpin professional qualifications. From a report: The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), which has almost 260,000 members, has said that from March it will stop allowing students to take online exams i … ⌘ Read more

Ask Slashdot: What’s the Stupidest Use of AI You Saw In 2025?
Long-time Slashdot reader destinyland writes: What’s the stupidest use of AI you encountered in 2025? Have you been called by AI telemarketers? Forced to do job interviews with a glitching AI?
With all this talk of “disruption” and “inevitability,” this is our chance to have some fun. Personally, I think 2025’s worst AI “innovation” was the AI-powered web … ⌘ Read more

Linux’s Cache Aware Scheduling On AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D 3D V-Cache
One of the many interesting Linux kernel innovations I have closely been following this year has been the proposed Cache Aware Scheduling support. I have shown the Cache Aware Scheduling performance on AMD EPYC as well as the Intel Xeon 6 Granite Rapids performance, but what about desktops? In this article is a quick look at Cache Aware Scheduling with the Ryzen 9 9950X3D… ⌘ Read more

Updated Linux Drivers Posted For Legion Go & Legion Go S Configuration
Open-source developer Derek J. Clark continues leading the efforts on improving the Lenovo Legion Go series hardware support under Linux. Posted today was the second iteration of the HID driver work for the Legion Go and Legion Go S for configuration support with the built-in controller HID interfaces… ⌘ Read more