An anonymous reader shared
this report from Neowin:
Offline Windows activation has been possible to do using the phone. However, it looks like Microsoft has quietly killed off that method as users online have found that they are no longer able to activate the OS using it... [As documented by Windows user Ben Kleinberg on his YouTube channel], Now when trying to activate the OS by attempting to call the phone number for Microsoft Product Activation, an automated voice response says the following: "Support for product activation has moved online. For the fastest and most convenient way to activate your product, please visit our online product activation portal at aka.ms/aoh"
If you are wondering, that link takes users to the Microsoft Product Activation Portal for online activation. Thus it appears that offline ways to activate Windows may no longer be available even though the official support documentation by the company may not reflect it yet.
Why did the U.S. invade Venezuela and capture its leader Nicolás Maduro? "If you asked ChatGPT about it this morning, it told you that youâ(TM)re making it up," Wired reported Saturday:
WIRED asked leading chatbots ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini the same question a little before 9 am ET. In all cases, we used the free, default version of the service, since that's what the majority of users experience. We also asked AI search platform Perplexity, which advertises "accurate, trusted, and real-time answers to any question..."
ChatGPT did not course-correct. Instead, it emphatically refuted that Maduro had been captured at all. "That didn't happen," it wrote. "The United States has not invaded Venezuela, and Nicolás Maduro has not been captured." It then rationalized: ChatGPT did not course-correct. Instead, it emphatically refuted that Maduro had been captured at all. "That didn't happen," it wrote. "The United States has not invaded Venezuela, and Nicolás Maduro has not been captured." It then rationalized:
"What's likely going on is a mix-up with real events that are often described in dramatic or misleading ways online. Here's what actually has happened... No U.S. military invasion of Venezuela. No arrest or capture of Nicolás Maduro... Maduro is still in power in Venezuela." It went on to detail recent tensions between the US and Venezuela and explained that âoeconfusionâ can happen because of âoesensational headlines,â âoesocial media misinformation,â and âoeconfusing sanctions, charges, or rhetoric with actual military action.â
Perplexity was similarly scolding. âoeThe premise of your question is not supported by credible reporting or official records: there has been no invasion of Venezuela by the United States that resulted in capturing NicolÃs Maduro,â it responded. âoeIn fact, the U.S. has not successfully invaded or apprehended Maduro, and he remains the Venezuelan president as of late 2025. If youâ(TM)re seeing sensational claims, they likely originate from misinformation or hypothetical scenarios rather than factual events.â
Thanks to Slashdot reader joshuark for sharing the news.
Vous ne connaissez peut-être pas encore la marque Alseye. Cela n'aurait rien d'étonnant, car cette entreprise chinoise spécialisée notamment dans le refroidissement et les boitiers PC base son activité commerciale principalement en Asie. Elle propose tout de même désormais via son site officiel de l...
"Starlink is beginning a significant reconfiguration of its satellite constellation focused on increasing space safety," announced Michael Nicolls, Starlink's vice president of engineering:
"We are lowering all Starlink satellites orbiting at ~550 km to ~480 km (~4400 satellites) over the course of 2026. The shell lowering is being tightly coordinated with other operators, regulators, and USSPACECOM. Lowering the satellites results in condensing Starlink orbits, and will increase space safety in several ways... Starlink satellites have extremely high reliability, with only 2 dead satellites in its fleet of over 9000 operational satellites. Nevertheless, if a satellite does fail on orbit, we want it to deorbit as quickly as possible. These actions will further improve the safety of the constellation, particularly with difficult to control risks such as uncoordinated maneuvers and launches by other satellite operators.
But orbits are being lowered for another reason (besides quick de-orbiting), notes Space.com. Within the next four years the period of least solar activity is expected, a period which coincides with decreased atmospheric density, Nicolls added, "which means the ballistic decay time at any given altitude increases."
[Bringing the satellites lower] will mean a >80% reduction in ballistic decay time in solar minimum, or 4+ years reduced to a few months," Nicolls wrote in his X post. "Correspondingly, the number of debris objects and planned satellite constellations is significantly lower below 500 km, reducing the aggregate likelihood of collision...." The downward migration in 2026 involves roughly half of SpaceX's Starlink megaconstellation, which currently consists of nearly 9,400 operational spacecraft (though that number is always growing).
"While a growing number of U.S. employers are mandating workers return to the office five days a week," reports the Washington Post, "some companies say AI is saving them enough time to launch or sustain a four-day workweek.
"More companies may move toward a shortened workweek, several executives and researchers predict, as workers, especially those in younger generations, continue to push for better work-life balance." And "several companies — especially those with a largely remote workforce — have adjusted their work rhythm after delegating many tasks to AI..."
AI "has such a potential to have so much labor savings, you'll see firms shift to a four-day week in an evolutionary way," said Juliet Schor, an economist and sociologist at Boston College who has studied the subject. "There's enough social consensus that people are exhausted and stressed...." Small and medium businesses often adopt shortened workweeks to compete with big salaries for new hires and retention, Schor said. That's how Peak PEO, a London-based service that helps companies expand globally with teams in different locations, thought about its strategy... CEO Alex Voakes said that job openings that used to get two applications jumped to 350 after the change.
"Some of the world's most influential business leaders have publicly suggested the shift may be inevitable," adds Fortune:
Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, has said advancing technology could eventually push the workweek down to just three-and-a-half days. Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates has gone further, openly questioning whether a two-day workweek could be the future. Elon Musk has taken the idea to its logical extreme, positing that the need to work altogether could cease... Tech innovation could "probably" lead to a transition toward four-day workweeks, [Nvidia CEO Jensen] Huang said on Fox Business in August...
Avec la flambée des prix de la RAM, l'AM4 d'AMD vit une énième jeunesse depuis peu. Ceux qui ont déjà une configuration basée sur cette plateforme doivent en ce moment avoir mis de côté toute envie de passer à l'AM5 et, au contraire, se dire qu'ils vont garder encore leur PC le plus longtemps possib...
CNBC reports that U.S. airlines have "canceled hundreds of flights to airports in Puerto Rico and Aruba, according to flight tallies from FlightAware and carriers' sites."
JetBlue, Southwest, and American Airlines were among the multiple airlines showing cancelled flights, which "included close to 300 flights to and from San Juan, Puerto Rico's Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport, more than 40% of the day's schedule, according to FlightAware."
Airlines canceled flights throughout the Caribbean on Saturday following U.S. strikes on Venezuela after the Federal Aviation Administration ordered commercial aircraft to avoid airspace in parts of the region.... It wasn't immediately clear how long the disruptions would last, though such broad restrictions are often temporary. Airlines said they would waive change fees and fare differences for customers affected by the airspace closures who could fly later in the month.
CNN cites a U.S. official who says more than 150 U.S. aircraft (including helicopters) launched from 20 different bases "on land and sea" during Friday's attack.
The U.S. has said the lights were out in Caracas during the attack, presumably because of a targeted strike on their power grid. "Videos filmed by Caracas residents showed parts of the city in the dark," reports the Miami Herald.
United Nations secretary-general António Guterres issued a statement via his spokesman saying he was "deeply concerned that the rules of international law have not been respected," (according to a Reuters report cited by the Guardian). The Guardian adds that "a number of nations have called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, in New York, today, as a result of the U.S.'s unilateral action."
While Fex-Emu has been getting a lot of attention lately for being Valve-sponsored and powering the upcoming Steam Frame, Box64 continues making progress as another great open-source project for running x86_64 Linux binaries on AArch64 Linux as well as an eye on other architectures like RISC-V...
Aujourd’hui, les serveurs de Netatmo ont décidé de fêter la nouvelle année à leur manière, avec une panne. En conséquence, « les applications et le contrôle à distance ne sont pas disponibles ». C’est déjà la quatrième fois en cinq mois…
Les messages sont nombreux sur les réseaux sociaux : les serveurs Netatmo ne répondent plus. C’est également confirmé par les retours sur Downdetector, avec les premiers signalements aux alentours de 10 h et une montée en puissance jusqu’à la fin de la matinée. Cet après-midi aussi les serveurs semblent hors service. Cela tombe mal alors que la France est traversée par une vague de froid.
Sur la page dédiée à la gestion des incidents, Netatmo confirme et précise que ses « équipes travaillent actuellement à la résolution de l’incident afin que tout rentre dans l’ordre dans les meilleurs délais », sans plus de détail. Par contre, aucun message sur X ni réponse aux internautes pour le moment, que ce soit avec le compte officiel ou le compte support.
Le fabricant précise que « les applications et le contrôle à distance ne sont pas disponibles, mais le contrôle manuel et l’enregistrement des données continuent de fonctionner normalement », ces dernières seront donc disponibles quand la situation sera revenue à la normale.
« Toutes les fonctionnalités seront restaurées automatiquement, aucune action de votre part n’est nécessaire », ajoute le fabricant. Il précise aussi qu’une « partie des utilisateurs de Home + Control ne peuvent pas accéder à l’application ».
Comme le rapporte mac4ever, les applications affichent un message un peu plus précis : « vos produits continuent de fonctionner en autonomie même s’ils ne sont plus connectés : les Caméras enregistrent les événements, les Thermostats régulent le chauffage, les interrupteurs contrôlent les lumières… et vous retrouverez le contrôle total très bientôt ! ».
Selon certains, la situation semble revenir doucement à la normale. N’hésitez pas à nous faire part de vos retours si vous êtes concernés. Quoi qu’il en soit, Netatmo enchaine les pannes ces dernières semaines, avec un incident du même genre le 5 novembre, un autre le 29 octobre, le 27 septembre…
Cela relance encore une fois la question de la dépendance des produits connectés aux serveurs du fabricant. Nous en avions fait un édito il y a déjà plus de cinq ans… et la situation n’est pas franchement meilleure aujourd’hui.
Aujourd’hui, les serveurs de Netatmo ont décidé de fêter la nouvelle année à leur manière, avec une panne. En conséquence, « les applications et le contrôle à distance ne sont pas disponibles ». C’est déjà la quatrième fois en cinq mois…
Les messages sont nombreux sur les réseaux sociaux : les serveurs Netatmo ne répondent plus. C’est également confirmé par les retours sur Downdetector, avec les premiers signalements aux alentours de 10 h et une montée en puissance jusqu’à la fin de la matinée. Cet après-midi aussi les serveurs semblent hors service. Cela tombe mal alors que la France est traversée par une vague de froid.
Sur la page dédiée à la gestion des incidents, Netatmo confirme et précise que ses « équipes travaillent actuellement à la résolution de l’incident afin que tout rentre dans l’ordre dans les meilleurs délais », sans plus de détail. Par contre, aucun message sur X ni réponse aux internautes pour le moment, que ce soit avec le compte officiel ou le compte support.
Le fabricant précise que « les applications et le contrôle à distance ne sont pas disponibles, mais le contrôle manuel et l’enregistrement des données continuent de fonctionner normalement », ces dernières seront donc disponibles quand la situation sera revenue à la normale.
« Toutes les fonctionnalités seront restaurées automatiquement, aucune action de votre part n’est nécessaire », ajoute le fabricant. Il précise aussi qu’une « partie des utilisateurs de Home + Control ne peuvent pas accéder à l’application ».
Comme le rapporte mac4ever, les applications affichent un message un peu plus précis : « vos produits continuent de fonctionner en autonomie même s’ils ne sont plus connectés : les Caméras enregistrent les événements, les Thermostats régulent le chauffage, les interrupteurs contrôlent les lumières… et vous retrouverez le contrôle total très bientôt ! ».
Selon certains, la situation semble revenir doucement à la normale. N’hésitez pas à nous faire part de vos retours si vous êtes concernés. Quoi qu’il en soit, Netatmo enchaine les pannes ces dernières semaines, avec un incident du même genre le 5 novembre, un autre le 29 octobre, le 27 septembre…
Cela relance encore une fois la question de la dépendance des produits connectés aux serveurs du fabricant. Nous en avions fait un édito il y a déjà plus de cinq ans… et la situation n’est pas franchement meilleure aujourd’hui.
86 aircraft were affected by an incident in Denver ,and 256 more in Dallas-Fort Worth, America's Federal Aviation Admistrationtold the Washington Post:
The pilots flying into Denver International Airport could tell something was wrong. In urgent calls to air traffic controllers, they reported that the Global Positioning System was going haywire, forcing them to rely on backup navigation systems for more than a day. The Federal Aviation Administration issued a warning to air traffic in the area. Eight months later, in October 2022, it happened again — this time at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, which shut down a runway as pilots and air traffic controllers scrambled over two days without GPS to guide them. Federal officials have not said who was responsible for interfering with the systems or why it took so long to get them back online, though they've said the Denver incident was unintentional. But the disruptions stoked fear about the security vulnerabilities of GPS, a satellite network relied on daily by 6 billion people, businesses and governments.
Over the past two years, interference with the U.S. Global Positioning System has grown dramatically, threatening a network that is highly vulnerable to attack in a conflict. The danger could be posed by enemy or rogue nation-states — or even just hobbyists with commercially available equipment. Efforts by the Pentagon to upgrade GPS have been delayed by years and have cost billions, as adversaries are developing increasingly sophisticated ways to jam and trick the system with false signals that make it think it is somewhere it isn't. And it's not just civilian airline traffic at risk. The underpinnings of modern life and entire economies could be disrupted by a broad attack on the fragile satellite system — power grids, financial systems, cellphone networks — raising the prospect of catastrophe in an era of increasing electronic warfare...
A report last year by the OpsGroup, an organization of international airline operators, found that in January 2024, about 300 flights per day were affected by GPS interference. By late last year, that number had grown to 1,500 flights per day as conflicts in Eastern Europe and the Middle East continued. And in a one-month period, between July and August last year, some 41,000 flights were affected. "While GPS interference is not a new phenomenon, the scale and effects of the current wave of spoofing are unprecedented," the report found...
The Pentagon has launched eight of its next-generation GPS III satellites, which broadcast the military-grade signal that is more resistant to jamming and spoofing. Lockheed Martin, the contractor building the satellites, is also developing a next-generation spacecraft, which would have the ability to emit an even stronger "spot beam" directly to areas used by U.S. forces, making it even more difficult to jam.
Bonne année, une fois de plus ! Si cette nouvelle révolution de notre astre autour de l’étoile de notre système solaire apporte pour certains son lot de bonnes résolutions — côté H&Co, nous vous conseillons le 1440p, désormais abordable sans trop malmener votre GPU — et un rythme de travail enco...
AI startups now outnumber all publicly traded U.S. companies, according to a year-end note to investors from economists at Vanguard.
And yet that report also suggest the jobs most susceptible to replacement by AI "are actually thriving, not dying out," writes Forbes:
"The approximately 100 occupations most exposed to AI automation are actually outperforming the rest of the labor market in terms of job growth and real wage increases," the Vanguard report revealed. "This suggests that current AI systems are generally enhancing worker productivity and shifting workers' tasks toward higher-value activities..."
The job growth rate of occupations with high AI exposure — including office clerks, HR assistants, and data scientists — increased from 1% in pre-COVID-19 years (2015 through 2019) to 1.7% in 2023 and beyond, according to Vanguard's research. Meanwhile, the growth rate of all other jobs declined from 1.1% to 0.8% over the same period. Workers in AI-prone roles are getting pay bumps, too; the wage growth of jobs with high AI exposure shot up from 0.1% pre-COVID to 3.8% post-pandemic (and post-ChatGPT). For all other jobs, compensation only marginally increased from 0.5% to 0.7%... As technology improves production and reallocates employee time to higher-value tasks, a smaller workforce is needed to deliver services. It's a process that has "distinct labor market implications," Vanguard writes, just like the many tech revolutions that predate AI...
"Entry-level employment challenges reflect the disproportionate burden that a labor market with a low hiring rate can have on younger workers," the Vanguard note said. "This dynamic is observed across all occupations, even those largely unaffected by AI..." While many people see these labor disruptions and point their fingers at AI, experts told Fortune these layoffs could stem from a whole host of issues: navigating economic uncertainty, resolving pandemic-era overhiring, and bracing for tariffs. Vanguard isn't convinced that an AI is the reason for Gen Z's career obstacles.
"While statistics abound about large language models beating humans in computer programming and other aptitude tests, these models still struggle with real-world scenarios that require nuanced decision-making," the Vanguard report continued. "Significant progress is needed before we see wider and measurable disruption in labor markets."
Ahead of the initial batch of Intel Panther Lake laptops expected to be showcased at CES next week in Las Vegas, we're seeing last minute quirk updates for these products expected to soon come to market...
Stooplap v0.2 released today as this SQLite alternative for providing embedded SQL database needs while written in the Rust programming language. Stoolap supports both in-memory and persistent storage models...
Thermal Grizzly, pour ceux qui l'ignorent, est une boite fondée par Roman Hartung, connu sous le pseudonyme Der8auer. Ce dernier fait du matériel très ciblé pour les bidouilleurs, et pour les utilisateurs avancés, certainement pas pour les néophytes qui ignorent surement son existence. Son catalogue...
2025 a été le fruit de quelques « BD » si tant est qu’on puisse appeler ces petits récits séquentiels ainsi. Il y en aura eu dix tout de même, parmi les autres dessins d’actualité. Avec Next pour commencer cette année, on vous rappelle à leur bon souvenir ces petites histoires, en attendant de prochaines cette année. Comme pour le premier Best-of des dessins d’actu dévoilé le weekend dernier, ces histoires que vous pourrez consulter en cliquant sur les illustrations dédiées, sont en accès libre pour la communauté. Meilleurs voeux de changement de calendrier administratif.
La classe américaine, où le récit d’une réunion avec un directeur d’établissement au bout du bout.
Et voilà ! Si vous voulez voir les six autres récits de 2025 et découvrir celles à venir, comme faire un rattrapage des dessins d’actu, c’est simple : abonnez-vous les amis !
2025 a été le fruit de quelques « BD » si tant est qu’on puisse appeler ces petits récits séquentiels ainsi. Il y en aura eu dix tout de même, parmi les autres dessins d’actualité. Avec Next pour commencer cette année, on vous rappelle à leur bon souvenir ces petites histoires, en attendant de prochaines cette année. Comme pour le premier Best-of des dessins d’actu dévoilé le weekend dernier, ces histoires que vous pourrez consulter en cliquant sur les illustrations dédiées, sont en accès libre pour la communauté. Meilleurs voeux de changement de calendrier administratif.
La classe américaine, où le récit d’une réunion avec un directeur d’établissement au bout du bout.
Et voilà ! Si vous voulez voir les six autres récits de 2025 et découvrir celles à venir, comme faire un rattrapage des dessins d’actu, c’est simple : abonnez-vous les amis !
Aïe, aïe, aïe. Si la folle envolée des prix de la DDR5 est plutôt derrière nous, ce n'est pas pour autant que les tarifs baissent. Ils sont plutôt en phase de stagnation désormais comme nous le signalions lors de notre dernier "point prix" le 20 décembre 2025, avec tout de même une légère tendance à...
A small section of the International Space Station that has experienced persistent leaks for years appears to have stopped venting atmosphere into space. ArsTechnica: The leaks were caused by microscopic structural cracks inside the small PrK module on the Russian segment of the space station, which lies between a Progress spacecraft airlock and the Zvezda module. The problem has been a long-running worry for Russian and US operators of the station, especially after the rate of leakage doubled in 2024. This prompted NASA officials to label the leak as a "high likelihood" and "high consequence" risk. However, recently two sources indicated that the leaks have stopped. And NASA has now confirmed this.
"Following additional inspections and sealing activities, the pressure in the transfer tunnel attached to the Zvezda Service Module of the International Space Station, known as the PrK, is holding steady in a stable configuration," a space agency spokesman, Josh Finch, told Ars. "NASA and Roscosmos continue to monitor and investigate the previously observed cracks for any future changes that may occur."
For the better part of half a decade, Russian cosmonauts have been searching for the small leaks like a proverbial needle in a haystack. They would periodically close the hatch leading to the PrK module and then, upon re-opening it, look for tiny accumulations of dust to indicate the leak sites. Then the Russian cosmonauts would apply a sealant known as Germetall-1 (which has now been patented) to the cracks. They would close the hatch again, monitor the pressure inside the PrK module, and begin the search anew for additional leaks. This process went on for years.
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