Global perils of dirt, glaciers and lizardocalypse overblown, say boffins

Another three ways the world isn't ending right nowA trio of new studies out this week have undermined three of the basic ideas underpinning the belief that the world is facing imminent doom as a result of human carbon emissions and perhaps-associated global warming in past decades. It would seem that the menaces of a runaway feedback loop driven by carbon belching from overheated Arctic dirt,

Infosys vows to fight Indian tax claim

Domestic bill lands with a thudIt’s not just Western technology giants that are being targeted by the Indian government, now local IT services behemoth Infosys has been forced to challenge a Rs.5.77 billion (£68.7m) tax demand by the authorities.…

Blogger better be a billionaire, says 'open access' publisher lawsuit

OMICS offended by 'Beale's List'Blogger Jeffrey Beale, who tries to separate the wheat from the chaff in the world of academic publishing, is being threatened with a _billion_-dollar lawsuit from OMICS Publishing Group in India.…

Computer use irrelevant to education outcomes, says US study

Reading, writing and redundancyThe accepted wisdom that computers are an indispensable tool of modern education is under challenge in a study conducted for Germany's Centre for Economic Studies IFO (CESifo).…

Chocolate Factory chucks out Checkout

Stick your stuff in our WalletGoogle Checkout is the latest product to check into the Chocolate Factory's hospice, with merchants told it will be farewelled in six months.…

AT&T to relax restrictions on FaceTime, video chat

New contractual shenanigans to arrive in June?AT&T Wireless plans to lift some of its restrictions on the use of mobile video chat apps by the end of this year, according to a statement the carrier released on Monday.…

China breaks ceasefire, restarts hacking US government

Officials say it's time to move beyond 'jaw jaw'After a three-month hiatus, Chinese hackers are once again targeting US government sites, according to government officials and the security firm that first uncovered the attacks.…

Alteryx grabs cash to simplify analytics

Lets pointy-haired bosses think they're 'data artisans'Analytics startup Alteryx has grabbed another round of funding to help it get its big-data analysis tools in front of more non-techies at more enterprises with tangled data.…

VMware taps ex-Ciscoer as channel chief

The channel is the key to Virtzilla's impending vCloud Hybrid ServiceJust ahead of the formal launch of VMware's "Project Zephyr" vCloud Hybrid Service public cloud on Tuesday, the company has appointed a new channel chief. And the timing is not accidental, with VMware's channel being a key component of its hybrid cloud strategy.…

Amazon cloud soars far above Google and Microsoft

Bezos & Co's feature-rich cloud casts long shadowAnalysis With last week's gale of Google cloud announcements, it'd be easy to think that the Chocolate Factory has a competitive offering compared with Amazon Web Services. But when you look at the number of services Google fields versus Amazon, that is simply not the case.…

Supreme Court sides with FCC in NIMBY wireless tower spat

Local governments must follow agency's rulesThe US Supreme Court has sided with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that local governments must act within a "reasonable period" – as defined by the FCC – to approve or deny requests by telcos to build new wireless towers.…

Yahoo! adds 1TB of free storage to Flickr in site revamp

Enough space to store every photo ever taken, apparentlyNot content with its $1.1bn acquisition of Tumblr, Marissa Mayer took to a New York stage on Monday evening to debut a redesigned Flickr photo site that includes 1TB free storage for each user – enough room to store 537,731 photos in "full original quality," meaning 6.5 megapixels.…

US Congress excoriates Apple's tax-avoidance shenanigans

Cook to defend 'an American success story' – and billions in unpaid taxes – on TuesdayA US Senate investigation has found that Apple has avoided billions of dollars in taxes through a complex scheme of subsidiaries scattered around the globe, some with no employees and run by top execs back in its Cupertino headquarters.…

Stephen Hawking nixes Intel voice upgrade plan

Physics luminary 'quite upset'Stephen Hawking scuppered an Intel plan to upgrade his voice, sending researchers at the chip giant into a desperate effort to emulate a defunct speech-synthesis chip.…

Azure hops into Australia

Redmond promises a 'major region' real soon nowMicrosoft has announced "the planned expansion of a new Windows Azure major region for Australia"…

UTS Business School bakes SAP into courses

Standalone and Masters units at Oz uni get SAP's take on accountingThe University of Technology Sydney (UTS) is poised to offer courses in SAP.…

Don't Panic! Google FCC filing reveals mystery media device

Nexus Q replacement, or something more Guide-y?Google has filed paperwork with the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a mysterious new media player device, leading to widespread speculation that a successor to the ill-fated Nexus Q may be forthcoming. But if that's true, what's with the Douglas Adams references?…

The iWatch is coming! The iWatch is coming!

Reports: Apple's wrister to have 1.5-inch OLED, test units being builtThe Apple iWatch rumor mill has rumbled to life yet again, with one report that Apple is sampling 1.5-inch OLED displays for the li'l fellow, and a second that long-time iKit assembler Foxconn has received orders for a test batch of the "wearable computing" device.…

Dell JUNKS public cloud in favor of partner tech

"Freedom from lock-in' through product cancellationDell is discontinuing its infrastructure-as-a-service cloud and instead dealing tech to partners as it looks to make some money in the cut-throat world of cloud computing.…

WordPress warns of mass Tumblr defections after Yahoo! deal

Hipster smut is safe for now, says MayerNews of Tumblr's purchase by Yahoo! has prompted a flood of established users to flee that social-media site, according to WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg.…

Flailing QLogic's boss gives up CEO, president gigs

That seat on the board? You can have that too...Simon Biddiscombe, server adapter maker QLogic's CEO and the driver of its Mount Rainier flash-enhanced HBA program, has resigned "to pursue other opportunities," with a search for a new CEO underway.…

Rogue Nokia splinter cell drops its Jolla phone A-BOMB

Ota tuo, vihreä robotti Google!Smartphone upstart Jolla - founded by a bunch of ex-Nokia engineers - has finally unveiled a device. The gadget's technical details are few and far between at this moment.…

They WANT to EAT YOUR COMPUTER - welcome your ANT overlords

Whole corner of America faces life without computersA massive horde of computer-killing "crazy ants" are invading the southeastern US, killing other species as they go.…

Canadian regulators welcome US Bitcoin refugees with open arms

Money laundering not a problem here, ehCanadian Bitcoin traders will not be clobbered by laws similar to those being used to target virtual currency exchanges in America, according to a leaked letter from the country's financial investigations unit.…

Securo-boffins uncover new GLOBAL cyber-espionage operation

Two-pronged attack hits victims in 100 countriesGovernment ministries, technology firms, media outlets, academic research institutions and non-governmental organisations have all fallen victim to an ongoing cyberespionage operation with tendrils all over the world, according to researchers.…

It! Started! With! A! GIF!... Yahoo! Actually! Buys! Tumblr! for! $1bn!

Mayer gets animated, 'promises not to screw it up'Yahoo! has "promised not to screw it up" after agreeing to acquire cat'n'porn blogging site Tumblr for about $1.1bn.…

Petshop iPad fanboi charged with filming up young model's skirt

LAPD throws book at fondleslabberA Los Angeles fanboi has been charged (PDF) with using an iPad to take upskirt footage of an underwear model.…

Amazon cloud-watcher shows some love for Microsoft's Azure

Cloudy beancounter Newvem: 'We're not trying to do 50 clouds ... half-way'Newvem has been peddling its Cloud Care monitoring and costing tools for virty public infrastructure since it uncloaked last November for Amazon Web Services.…

Crack Army pilot to be first PROPER British astronaut IN SPAAAACE

Ground control to Major Tim, countdown commencing, engines onEx-Apache helicopter pilot Tim Peake will become the first bona fide British astronaut in space - and live and work on the International Space Station.…

UK.gov STILL wants to tout pupil data - don't use the word 'product'

Is that a screeching U-turn we hear from Gove? Oh, noAt the end of 2012, Education Secretary Michael Gove told Parliament that he wanted "to share extracts of data held in the National Pupil Database for a wider range of purposes than possible in order to maximise the value of this rich dataset".…