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 fallthe 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 Halloween partywhere she networked in hopes of landing a product-design internship for the summer. While thereshe got some tips from someone who had recently interviewed at Accenture. As for the connection with her date? Not so much. "I feel like my approach to the dating apps is it being another networking platform like everything elselike Instagram or LinkedIn," Chau said.

Chau is among a cadre of workers who are using dating apps to boost their job searches. They're recognizing that the online job hunt is broken as unemployed workers flood the systemAI screens out resumes and many job matching programs are overwhelmed. Automation has squeezed human contact out of hiringwhich has pushed applicants to seek any path to a live hiring managerno matter the means.

The overall US unemployment rate continued to climb throughout 2025reaching 4.6%according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And while the number of unemployed high school graduates held steady at about 4.4% in Novemberthe rate for workers with a bachelor's degree rose to 2.9% from 2.5% a year ago. About a third of dating app users said they had sought matches for job hook-upsaccording to a ResumeBuilder.com survey of about 2,200 US dating site customers in October. Two-thirds targeted potential paramours who worked at a desirable employer. Three-quarters said they matched with people working in roles they wanted. "People are doing it to expand their networksmake connectionsbecause the best way to get a job today is who you know," said Stacie HallerResumeBuilder.com's chief career advisor. "Networking is the only way people are rising above the horror show that the job search is today."

Bruce Perensoriginal co-founder of the Open Source Initiativehas responded to questions from Slashdot readers about a new alternative he's developing that hopefully helps "Post Open" developers get paid.

But first"One of the things that's clear from the Slashdot patter is that people are not aware of what I've been doingin general," Perens says. "Solet's start by filling that in..."

Read on for the rest of his wide-ranging answers....

In a newsletter for BloombergAshley Carman discusses the rising trend of long podcasts and their surprising popularity among listeners. "By today's standards of interminable podcast discussionsa nearly three-hour recording isn't even particularly notable," she writeshighlighting recent episodes from Joe Rogan (2 hours; 16 minutes with Adam Sandler)Lex Fridman (8 hours; 37 minutes with Elon Musk)and the Acquired podcast (3 hours; 38 minutes with Lockheed Martin). "Increasinglypodcasters are pushing the outer limits of episode length while stress testing the endurance of their audiences. Popular podcast gabfests can now run on for half a workday or longer." From the report: One might assume such marathon episodes must be the result of a hands-off approach to editing. But this is not the casesaid Ben Gilbertco-host of the Acquired podcast. Every monthhe and his co-host David Rosenthal release a three- to four-hour podcastdetailing the story of a specific company. The in-depth historieshe saidare the result of nine-hour recording sessions and a month of research.

"It's not important to ship every good minute," Gilbert said. "It's important to ship only great minutes. If you're actually intellectually honest with yourselfthat's how to release a really good product." Even with the longer runtimeshe saidtheir audience listens to the vast majority of each episode. Consider their deep dive on Lockheed Martinwhich runs for three hours and 38 minutes. On Apple Podcaststhe average listener consumed 70% of the showhe said. An episode on Nikewhich clocks in at upwards of four hourshad an average consumption rate of 68%. "Every time we made something longer... people only seemed to love it more," he said. On the show's websitethe hosts describe the episodes as "conversational audiobooks." [...]

[Jack Sylvesterexecutive director at Flight Studiothe Bartlett-founded podcast company behind Diary of a CEO] said the team can view data around how much of the audience consumes episodes on YouTube's TV app versus on a phonetablet or computer. TV usagehe saidis ticking up. To give viewers a reason to keep the show on as their primary viewing experiencethey're now making sure the videos have a top-quality polish. Stillin a world in which people scoff at the prospect of a three-hour movie -- and short-form video is the dominant consumption trend in entertainment -- these podcasters are eagerly meandering in the opposite direction. "The short-form obsession ended up creating white space for us," said Gilbert of Acquired. "Whenever you have a trendthat means there's people who feel left behind and want to flock to something new. This sets us apart."

An anonymous reader quotes a report from BleepingComputer: A new campaign tracked as "Dev Popper" is targeting software developers with fake job interviews in an attempt to trick them into installing a Python remote access trojan (RAT). The developers are asked to perform tasks supposedly related to the interviewlike downloading and running code from GitHubin an effort to make the entire process appear legitimate. Howeverthe threat actor's goal is make their targets download malicious software that gathers system information and enables remote access to the host. According to Securonix analyststhe campaign is likely orchestrated by North Korean threat actors based on the observed tactics. The connections are not strong enough for attributionthough. [...]

Although the perpetrators of the Dev Popper attack aren't knownthe tactic of using job lures as bait to infect people with malware is still prevalentso people should remain vigilant of the risks. The researchers note that the method "exploits the developer's professional engagement and trust in the job application processwhere refusal to perform the interviewer's actions could compromise the job opportunity," which makes it very effective.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: Every jobseeker welcomes an invitation to a second interviewbecause it signals a company's interest. A third interview might feel even more positiveor even be the precursor to an offer. But what happens when the process drags on to a fourthfifth or sixth round -- and it's not even clear how close you are to the 'final' interview? That's a question Mike Conley49grappled with earlier this year. The software engineering managerbased in IndianaUShad been seeking a new role after losing his job during the pandemic. Five companies told him they had to delay hiring because of Covid-19 -- but only after he'd done the final round of interviews. Another three invited him for several rounds of interviews until it was time to make an offerat which point they decided to promote internally. Thenhe made it through three rounds of interviews for a director-level position at a company he really likedonly to receive an email to co-ordinate six more rounds. "When I responded to the internal HRI even asked'Are these the final rounds?,'" he says. "The answer I got back was: 'We don't know yet.'"

That's when Conley made the tough decision to pull out. He shared his experience in a LinkedIn post that's touched a nerve with fellow job-seekerswho've viewed it 2.6 million times as of this writing. Conley says he's received about 4,000 public comments of supportand "four times that in private comments" from those who feared being tracked by current or prospective employers. [...] In factthe internet is awash with similar stories jobseekers who've become frustrated with companies -- particularly in the techfinance and energy sectors -- turning the interview process into a marathon. That poses the question: how many rounds of interviews should it take for an employer to reasonably assess a candidate before the process veers into excess? And how long should candidates stick it out if there's no clear information on exactly how many hoops they'll have to jump through to stay in the running for a role? Google recently determined that four interviews was enough to make a hiring decision with 86% confidencenoting that there was a diminishing return on interviewer feedback thereafter.

"John Sullivana Silicon Valley-based HR thought leadersays companies should nail down a hire-by date from the start of the recruitment processbecause the best candidates only transition the job market briefly," reports the BBC. "According to a survey from global staffing firm Robert Half62% of US professionals say they lose interest in a job if they don't hear back from the employer within two weeks -- or 10 business days -- after the initial interview. That number jumps to 77% if there is no status update within three weeks. "

Google Hire is the latest Google service on the chopping block. The job application tracking system was launched two years ago "in an effort to simplify the hiring processwith a workflow that integrated things like searching for applicantsscheduling interviewsand providing feedback about potential hires into Google's G Suite," reports TechCrunch. "It was built mostly for small to medium sized businesseswith a price that ranged from $200 to $400 a month depending on how many G Suite licenses you needed." From the report: In an email to customersGoogle says: "While Hire has been successfulwe're focusing our resources on other products in the Google Cloud portfolio. We are deeply grateful to our customersas well as the champions and advocates who have joined and supported us along the way."

On the upside: it's not getting the axe immediately. In factyou can keep using it for over a full year; Google says it won't actually be shutdown until September 1st of 2020. Just don't expect any new features to be added. Google also notes that it intends to stop taking payment for the product in the meantimesaying in a support FAQ that customers will see no additional charges for Google Hire after their next billing cycle.

In honor of FreeDOS's 25th birthdayproject founder and coordinator Jim Hall agreed to answer the 10 best questions submitted by Slashdot readers. You asked and he answered! Read on for Jim's interview.

FreeDOS was originally created in response to Microsoft's announcement that after Windows 95DOS would no longer be developed as a standalone operating systemaccording to Computerworld's 2016 interview with FreeDOS's founder and project coordinatorJim Hall. "I packaged my own extended DOS utilitiesas did others," he explains on the FreeDOS web site"and we found other public domain or open source programs that replaced other DOS commands."

But that was back in 1994when Jim Hall was still a college student. He went on to spend 11 years as a CIO in local government and the public sectorand served a year on the GNOME Foundation's board of directors. Now it's been 25 yearsand as a prominent free software advocateHall contacted Slashdot to remind us that the FreeDOS Project "will turn 25 years old on June 292019. This is a huge milestone for any open source software projectand especially for an open source DOS project."

So in honor of FreeDOS's 25th birthdayhe's agreed to answer the 10 best questions submitted by Slashdot readers. Leave your questions in the comments. (Ask as many questions as you'd likebut pleaseone per comment.) We'll pick the very best questions and forward them along for answers.

What else has Jim been up to? "I've decided I want to focus on coachingadvisingand mentoring IT Leaders," explains his page on the FreeDOS site. "I am starting an IT Executive Consulting practiceIT Mentor Group LLCto help IT Leaders with strategic planning and organizational turnarounds. I am really excited for this new opportunity. It's not every day that you start your own business!"

Jim Hall is also Slashdot reader #2,985...

"Jim isn't rich or famous," wrote RobLimo back in 2000"just an old-fashioned open source contributor who helped start a humble but useful project back in 1994 and still works on it as much as he can." At this URL you can read the questions he was asked by Slashdot users in 2000 -- and the answers he gavejust six years into the FreeDOS project.

Then leave your own best questions in the comments below -- one question per comment -- and we'll send them along to Jim to answer for the 25th anniversary of FreeDOS.

You askedhe answered!

Bill Ottmanfounder and CEO of social networking site Minds.comhas answered more than a dozen questions that Slashdot readers sent his way. Ottman has addressed a wide-range of queries surrounding how Minds.com makes use of tokens; how many users the platform has; andwho is Minds.com aimed for. You can read his answers below. For those of you who are going to give Minds.com a tryyou can find Slashdot there.

As you may have noticedFacebook is not cool anymore. The social juggernaut has been mired in controversies -- infamous privacy scandals or the company's ruthless "grow fast and break things" approach to gain usersto name a few. Luckily enoughsome people are trying to build new social networks and are coming up with interesting original ideas. Minds.com is one such social network.

The open source social networkwhich has been operational since 2012works on a point-earning/exchange system to give users full control over the reach of their posts. One of the complaints people have with Facebook and Twitter is that they feel their posts are not being seen by all of their friends. Minds.com lets users earn points and then trade those points to boost their posts on the platform. Users earn tokens by being active on the platform and engaging in uploadingvotingcommenting and other similar activities. They can then use these tokenswhich can be exchanged within the platformto boost the reach of their posts. The company last year launched a cryptocurrency reward program based on the ethereum blockchain for all users on the platform. Minds says it does not determine what should be censored. Users are free to post whatever they want. (You can follow us on Minds.)

We are excited to announced that Minds founder and chief executive Bill Ottman has agreed to do an interview with us. If you have a question about Minds.com for him or his take on the current social networking spacefeel free to ask it in the comments section below.

Swapnil Bhartiyawho runs the blog TFIRhad a chance to interview Linus Torvalds at Open Source Summit in the second half of August this year. (Some context: The interviewwhich was published this weektook place before Mr. Torvalds said he needs to take a step back to reflect on how he has dealt with the community over the years. Since thenwe have learned that Mr. Torvalds is returning to his position.) In the wide-ranging interviewMr. Torvalds has touched a wide-range of subjectsincluding formulating workarounds for the problematic hardware bugs (MeltdownSpectre)and Chromebooks gaining traction (though it is still not a machine that he could use for his work yet). He also talked about companies gleaning a lot of data about their usersregulations(a tad bit of politics)Linux community.

Greg Kroah-Hartman (aka Greg K-H) joined Mr. Bhartiya and Mr. Torvalds for the second half of the interview. On SundayMr. Bhartiya published an additional interview of Mr. Kroah-Hartman.

You asked questionswe've got the answers!

Christine Peterson is a long-time futurist who co-founded the nanotech advocacy group the Foresight Institute in 1986. One of her favorite tasks has been contacting the winners of the institute's annual Feynman Prize in Nanotechnologybut she also coined the term "Open Source software" for that famous promotion strategy meeting in 1998.

Christine took some time to answer questions from Slashdot readers.

Christine Peterson is a long-time futurist who co-founded the nanotech advocacy group the Foresight Institute in 1986. One of her favorite tasks has been contacting the winners of the institute's annual Feynman Prize in Nanotechnologybut she also coined the term "Open Source software" for that famous promotion strategy meeting in 1998. Now Christine's agreed to answer questions from Slashdot readers. We'll pick the very best questions and forward them along for answers.

InterestinglyChristine was also on the Editorial Advisory Board of NASA's Nanotech Briefsand on the state of California's nanotechnology task force. Her tech talks at conferences include "Life Extension for Geeks" at Gnomedex and "Preparing for Bizarreness: Open Source Physical Security" at the 2007 Singularity Summit. Another talk argues that the nanotech revolution will be like the information revolutionexcept that "Instead of with bitswe should do it with atoms," allowing molecule-sized machines that can kill cancer and repair DNA. Her most recent publication is "CyberNanoand AGI RIsks: Decentralized Approaches to Reducing Risks." Christine graduated from MIT with a bachelors in chemistry.

So leave your best questions in the comments. (Ask as many questions as you'd likebut pleaseone per comment.) We'll pick the very best questions and forward them along for answers.

You askedhe answered!

For Slashdot's 20th anniversary -- and the 23rd anniversary of the first release of Red Hat Linux -- here's a special treat.

Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst has responded to questions submitted by Slashdot readers. Read on for his answers...

You askedhe answered!

Lithium-ion battery inventor John B. Goodenough has responded to questions submitted by Slashdot readers. Read on for his answers.