Scientists see sunspot “hibernation” but no Ice Age
Sunspot cycles -- those 11-year patterns when dark dots appear on the solar surface -- may be delayed or even go into "hibernation" for a while, a U.S. scientist said on Wednesday.
But contrary to some media reports, this does not mean a new Ice Age is coming, Frank Hill of the National Solar Observatory said in a telephone interview.
"We have not predicted a Little Ice Age," Hill said, speaking from an astronomical meeting in New Mexico. "We have predicted something going on with the Sun." Read more...
How Steve Ballmer could exit Microsoft gracefully
Particularly after the "Hell no, Steve must go!" chants from big-time investors, insiders, and employees, nobody expects CEO Steve Ballmer to stay at the helm of Microsoft until they pry his SideWinder keyboard from his cold, dead fingers. But no one has reliable deets on when he may depart, either, or how it might all go down, despite titillating rumors that surface regularly.
The latest scuttlebutt appeared on Windows8update.com, which passed along a tip from "someone who shall remain nameless" that SteveB "is set to resign as CEO of Microsoft sometime after the launch of Windows 8." Give the site credit for saying -- twice -- that this was a rumor and not intended to be taken as truth. Read more...
Adobe pushes Reader silent updates
Adobe has switched on silent updating for its popular Reader PDF viewer, the company announced Tuesday.
"[We're] turning the automatic update option on by default for all Adobe Reader users on Windows," said Brad Arkin, senior director of product security and privacy at Adobe, in a post to a company blog yesterday.
The next time an update is detected by Reader, Adobe will present a dialog box asking users to allow silent updating. In the dialog, the box "Install updates automatically" will be checked by default. Read more...
silicon.com CIO50 2011: What’s on the cards for the UK’s top CIOs
With IT seen as the linchpin of the drive to transform government into a leaner beast, it's no surprise that public sector CIOs have such a strong showing in this year's silicon.com CIO50.
Government's prominence on the list of the UK's most influential and innovative heads of IT reflects the calibre and ambition of the work being undertaken within the public sector, as authorities turn to technology to help them become more efficient at a time when there is little money for new projects.
Not only are one-fifth of this year's list public sector IT chiefs, but the number one spot is taken by veteran government CIO Jos Creese - an IT leader committed to technology being more than just a back-office function. Read more...
Photos: Can tech change your behaviour? The Open University investigates
The Jennie Lee Research Laboratories at the Open University's (OU) Milton Keynes campus is home to a number of research projects exploring how a variety of technologies can be used to shape and change human behaviour. This week, silicon.com got to take a look at some of them.
Pictured above is a PhD project utilising Microsoft's Surface touchscreen table PC to run a collaborative tour guide application, enabling up to four people to stand around the table together and build an itinerary for tourists visiting the city of Cambridge.
Its creator, PhD student Richard Morris, wanted to build an interface that allows multiple people to interact with the application at once. Read more...
Citigroup reveals breach affected over 360,000 cards
Over 360,083 credit card accounts in North America of Citigroup were affected as a result of a compromise of its card account management website in May, the bank said in an update on Wednesday.
These were accounts issued in the U.S., the bank said.
Citigroup first disclosed publicly the compromise of Citi Account Online last week, when it said that about 210,000 accounts had been affected. On Tuesday, the Attorney General of the State of Connecticut, George Jepsen, said that Citigroup's disclosures about the data breach failed to explain how it occurred, and what is being done to protect affected customers from potential financial fraud. Read more...
Mobile payments: Who needs NFC anyway?
Starbucks says it has done just fine using basic barcode scanning technology for its successful U.S. smartphone payment system, which raises the question: Who really needs Near Field Communication wireless technology for mobile payments?
Interest in NFC has surged in recent months, with Google recently joining a throng of wireless carriers, banks and credit card companies planning a number of sometimes competing schemes to use the technology for mobile payments in the U.S. Read more...
IBM’s new future: Quantum computing
IBM is marking its 100th anniversary by celebrating its record in technology innovation. It created dynamic RAM, the disk drive and the magnetic strips used on credit cards, among many other inventions. It is one of the most inventive companies in the world.
But the computing industry is moving to a new future as disruptive and as radical as the era that began with the introduction of silicon chips, and that future is quantum computing. These are systems that use the behavior of subatomic particles to conduct calculations now performed with transistors on a chip. Read more...
Yahoo! helps find smartphone ‘apps’
Yahoo! has begun helping people navigate the sea of applications available for Apple iPhones or mobile gadgets powered by Google-backed Android software.
App Search for personal computers and a free AppSpot program for smartphones were crafted to help people find what they seek at Apple's online App Store or the Android Market. Read more...
HP chip quarrel with Oracle hits civil court
Hewlett-Packard (HP) has sued business software titan Oracle for turning its back on Itanium chip technology made by Intel.
HP charged that Oracle was breaking legally-binding commitments to continue designing software for HP's Itanium-based computing systems and was out to steal its customers.
"We believe that this is an unlawful attempt to force customers from HP Itanium platforms to Oracle's own platforms," HP said in a release. Read more...