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quietus writes:During the pandemic, Big Tech was booming and hiring new employees as fast as they could. With all that hubbub behind us, and an uncertain economic outlook, those Giants of the Internet are cautiously trimming some of that fat in preparation for leaner times.That, at least, is the argument for the recent wave of lay-offs at Facebook (Meta), Twitter, Amazon, Stripe, SalesForce, Lyft, DoorDash and Carvana. It seems, though, that the recent layoffs at Google might have been a little different.Instead of culling the recent hires, the trusted hands at open source teams, and those teams themselves, are being hit especially hard argues an opinion piece at El Reg.Chris DiBona, founder of Google's Open Source Program Office, Jeremy Allison, co-creator of Samba and Google engineer, Cat Allman, former Program Manager for Developer EcoSystems, and Dave Lester, Head of Google's open source security initiatives, are the main names being mentioned.El Reg's observation might be a coincidence, however; and the way the layoffs are being executed kinda points to that. No exit interviews, but just people's access badges disabled, and firings by e-mail: at least one engineer got the message in the middle of his production shift. Which gave rise to an interesting speculation by former Google engineer Mike Knell:

upstart writes:Leaked emails show Amazon will only hire students and recent graduates:

hubie writes:Interesting study to think about before the big game this weekend:Certain age-related diseases may arise earlier in professional football players, new study finds:

Freeman writes:Intense demand for AI chatbot breaks records and inspires new $20/mo subscription plan:

upstart writes:Finland's Most-Wanted Hacker Nabbed in France:

upstart writes:Trust, not tech, is holding back a safer internet:

upstart writes:"When we pass from this world, you will be the reason we are remembered":

Freeman writes:But out of 300,000 high-probability images tested, researchers found a 0.03% memorization rate:

upstart writes:BMW Recalls Select EVs For Not Making Enough Noise:

upstart writes:New proposals under consultation seek to put the UK at the 'forefront' of crypto technology and innovation:

upstart writes:Our extinct sister species was hunting and butchering big game, according to new research:

fliptop writes:The National Security Agency is doggedly courting laid-off Big Tech workers as the spy agency undertakes one of its largest hiring surges in the last 30 years:

hendrikboom writes:They observed the brains of computer programmers under fMRI while they were reading code:

fliptop writes:AI is now used in virtually all areas of science to help researchers with routine classification tasks. It's also helping our team of radio astronomers broaden the search for extraterrestrial life, and results so far have been promising:

Freeman writes:FDA posted a recall of EzriCare-branded artificial tears and criticized its maker:

c0lo writes:https://www.scienceofintelligence.de/press-release-sheep-are-more-democratic-than-you-think/

upstart writes:NASA has a plan to "skip a generation" of passenger aircraft design to fight climate change:

mrpg writes:A Unique Discovery: Researchers Have Uncovered an Ultra-Rare Piece of Evidence That Dinosaurs Ate MammalsNew research on the preserved gut contents of Microraptor reveals a more varied diet than previously believed:

NotSanguine writes:John Brodkin at Ars Technica is reporting on the shady practices of ISPs.

owl writes:https://www.righto.com/2023/01/understanding-x86s-decimal-adjust-after.html

Intel Cuts Pay to Cut Costsupstart writes:Intel Cuts Pay to Cut Costs:

upstart writes:Twitter is replacing free access to its API with a new paid tier:

upstart writes:Mummification specialists had distinct concoctions for specific parts of the body:

upstart writes:After being acquired by Red Ventures, staff say editorial firewalls have been repeatedly breached:

China balloon: US shoots down airship over Atlantic

upstart writes:The marks might be one of the earliest examples of a coherent notational system:

upstart writes:Cord Cutting Is Hitting Comcast Harder Than Ever:

upstart writes:The newly developed method links quantum and classical worlds and may enhance measurements for quantum computers and other applications:

hubie writes:Did users change their Wi-Fi password, or did they see the nature of IoT privacy?

upstart writes:More supposition than superposition as local media goes on Sci-Fi journey:

upstart writes:With 12 Newfound Satellites, Jupiter Quietly Takes Crown for Most Moons:

upstart writes:Geofence warrants that allow law enforcement to collect location data on mobile device users for criminal probes are under attack by civil rights groups and public defenders:

upstart writes:He codesigned the Internet protocol and transmission control protocol:

hubie writes:Fake listing for Le Nouveau Duluth raises questions about online tourism platforms:

AMD CEO Says It's Limiting Supply of CPUs and GPUs to Maintain High Pricesupstart writes:AMD CEO Says It's Limiting Supply of CPUs and GPUs to Maintain High Prices:

upstart writes:The space agency's next-generation observatory grabbed a detailed view of ringed asteroid Chariklo:

upstart writes:Judge rejects motion to protect Prenda lawyer Hansmeier from further prosecution:

fliptop writes:But Springer Nature, which publishes thousands of scientific journals, says it has no problem with AI being used to help write research — as long as its use is properly disclosed:

An Anonymous Coward writes:Musk is working on enabling money transfers in TwitterJust like Weibo. Similar to Applepay. The ultimate goal of this expansion is to transform Twitter into a comprehensive payment gateway solution, incorporating traditional bank accounts, cryptocurrencies, and other financial services.Musk's goal is to generate $1.3 billion in payments revenue for Twitter by 2028. The news came after Musk revealed he will to allow users to tweet a whopping 4,000 characters making Twitter posts more like Facebook. If this works it could be the western version of Weibo opening up a dominant income stream for the beleaguered platform.

upstart writes:The feds' actions saved victims over $130 million:

upstart writes:TikTok's CEO agrees to testify before Congress for the first time in March:

upstart writes:Fermi Space Telescope Detects First-Ever Gamma-Ray Eclipses in 'Spider' Systems:

upstart writes:The countries have agreed to further restrict what chip-manufacturing equipment can be supplied to China:

Freeman writes:https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/01/massive-yandex-code-leak-reveals-russian-search-engines-ranking-factors/

upstart writes:The war in Ukraine has exposed that widely available, inexpensive drones are being used not just for targeted killings but for wholesale slaughter:

upstart writes:iPhone 14 Crash Detection false positives are now a problem in Japan:

hubie writes:A new study reveals the profound properties of a simple metal alloy:

upstart writes:Russia's Elbrus-8SV CPU goes retro gaming:

upstart writes:U.S. Sanctions Against China Could Hurt Own Domestic Industry: SIA:

So it's been awhile since I last wrote, and I'm a bit overdue for a status update. So, let me give you all the short version on what's been going on.First, I've been doing a lot of backend work to drastically reduce the size of the SoylentNews bill month to month. We had a lot of infrastructure that was either unnecessary, or have gotten so many free tier upgrades that they were being vastly underutilized. Along the way, I've given a lot of fine tuning to bits, although I won't say its been problem free, since we went a few weeks without working sidebars. I'm truly sorry for the delays in getting up and running. My personal life chose to become very exciting in December, and I'm still dealing with the fallout of that entire mess. As such, what I had planned went a bit pear-shaped, and I went unexpectedly radio silent. ...More past the break ...Read more of this story at SoylentNews.