Met Office: Invest in supercomputing to tackle climate change

The UK Met Office has called for increased investment in its computing infrastructure to enable it to maintain its leading role in climate change research. The weather and climate monitoring organisation's research formed a large part of the recent Stern Report, which projected a calamitous economic impact if climate change is not tackled. But, the Met Office says, much more work is needed if it is to fully answer the questions that policy makers and the public are now asking about climate change. ...more

BT delivers new visual search system to Tate Online

BT has come up with what it calls a smart search product for people who don't know much about art but know what they like. The new Carousel system is available for visitors to the Tate Online website, where users can view a selection of art works. By clicking on something they like, they are shown a series of similar objects. ...more

AOL takes aim at IM abuse

AOL has joined an initiative aimed at preventing abuse of instant messaging technologies. The developer of AIM has signed up to the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG), a body looking into ways of preventing messaging abuse problems, including spam, viruses, forgery, fraud and other malicious attacks. Members include ISPs, telecoms carriers and other software developers, though not AOL's main IM rivals, Microsoft and Yahoo!. ...more

Sony Vaios receive a value makeover

When you think of Sony notebooks the chances are that high-spec, well designed but expensive models come to mind. With the launch of its Centrino-based Vaio FS-Series, Sony is addressing the needs 'of demanding but value-conscious consumers'. 'We know that even at the entry level, buyers now expect a lot of a notebook,' said Jun Koyama, Marketing Director for Vaio Europe. ...more

Intel turns to Extreme UV lithography for printing shrinking processors

Intel has passed two milestones in the development of extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, a technology for building the ever smaller microprocessors of the future. Intel has set itself the goal of printing circuitry as small as 30 nanometers (nm). The chip giant has installed the world's first commercial EUV lithography tool and set up an EUV mask pilot line. ...more