Downtime

May 2014

• Google pushes forward with its driverless car

  Caroline Baldwin - Business Editor 29 May 2014

Google says:"Just imagine: You can take a trip downtown at lunchtime without a 20-minute buffer to find parking. Seniors can keep their freedom even if they can't keep their car keys. And drunk and ...

• Scramble the bomb squad, here be PRs

  Warwick Ashford - Senior analyst 29 May 2014

The delivery of a beeping metal box led to the evacuation of a building in Sydney and the deployment of the Australian bomb squad.The delivery was made to the offices of online news site Ninemsn, ...

• Run rabbit, run rabbit, run, run, run

  Clare McDonald - Business Editor 23 May 2014

Picture this everyday scenario. One day you get a phone call from your neighbours asking if you'd like to look after their pet rabbit, Smokey, while they sun it up in the Maldives. You realise it ...

• New building opportunity for Salesforce

  Alex Scroxton - Security Editor 22 May 2014

London Skyline (Photo credit: [Duncan])A flurry of tweets emanating from the keynote at Salesforce's London event tells us that the cloudy CRM giant has big plans to rename London's Heron Tower - ...

• FBI no pot policy weeds out potential cyber warriors

  Warwick Ashford - Senior analyst 22 May 2014

US officials are concerned that cyber defences are going to pot, but FBI director James Comey says the bureau's no-tolerance marijuana policy is hindering the hiring of cyber-security experts. He ...

• Writing novels is such a dos

  Clare McDonald - Business Editor 16 May 2014

Game of Thrones writer George RR Martin has revealed that, while writing his fantasy novels about characters inhabiting an ugly, medieval and primitive world, he himself inhabits an ugly, medieval ...

• Lipstick and bulldogs

  Cliff Saran - Managing Editor 16 May 2014

Lipstick (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Not one to mix his metaphors, a CIO speaking at a recent event described working on the company's previous website as putting lipstick on a bulldog. It's all about ...

• Google's self-driving cars lack explorer spirit

  Warwick Ashford - Senior analyst 15 May 2014

Google's self-driving cars may be ideal for those never stray of well-worn routes, but useless to anyone with a spirit of adventure. While the vehicles are able to take passengers on any ...

• Kids will flock to coding thanks to Shaun the Sheep

  Caroline Baldwin - Business Editor 15 May 2014

The creative brain behind Wallace and Gromit has joined up with the Nominet Trust to encourage kids to get coding. The studios character Shaun the Sheep - who first appeared in the Wallace and ...

• Parent dogs overreact about puppies gaming

  Karl Flinders - Emea Content Editor, Computer Weekly 08 May 2014

Adult mutts are calling on stricter controls on gaming consoles taking up large chunks of puppy quality time.But game makers claims campaigners are barking up the wrong tree targeting the doggy ...

• Skype removes offensive emoticons

  Caroline Baldwin - Business Editor 01 May 2014

Skype has removed a selection of its emoticons for fear that they had the "potential to offend some users." Icons including a "smiley" faces showing the middle finger as well as emoticons (wtf) and ...