News

Linaro Makes Android Faster by Recompiling it.   Wednesday 13 June

There is a long-held belief that optimization is best left until never. It is generally believed that optimization is a tough challenge and not a rewarding one. So news that simply recompiling Android 4 makes it run twice as fast is stunning.

A-Google-A-Day goes Social   Wednesday 13 June

Google's daily puzzle site, where the answers can be found via cunning use of search, has just added a social and competitive element.

iOS 6 Announced   Tuesday 12 June

The next version of iOS, Apple's mobile operating system, has been announced at WWDC, Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference taking place this week in San Francisco.

Google Blockly - A Graphical Language with a Difference   Tuesday 12 June

Google Blockly is a graphical language implemented in JavaScript which can compile to JavaScript, Dart or Python. It is open source and a great way to learn to program and an easy way to generate web code.

Extra Data Visualizations for SharePoint   Tuesday 12 June

A new grid and some novel map projections have been added to NetAdvantage for SharePoint, Infragistics' set of web parts for creating visualizations from SharePoint data.

Grady Booch Winner of 2102 Lovelace Medal   Monday 11 June

Grady Booch, whose work evolved into the currently standard Unified Modelling Language and the Unified Process, has been awarded the 2012 BCS Lovelace Medal.

Oracle Cloud - 7 Years in the Making   Monday 11 June

"It's been a long time coming" said Larry Ellison, announcing Oracle Cloud, a new portfolio of software as a service applications, platform as a service, and social capabilities, available on a subscription basis.

GCC Explorer - An Interactive Compiler   Monday 11 June

An intuitive web based tool targeted at C++ programmers and useful for researching,debugging and optimizing code has been made available.

DIY Streetview   Sunday 10 June

If you want to add your own Google-style Streetview to Google Earth, or via your own server, the good news is that now you can. The hardware and the software is available off the shelf.

Cartoon - What's Up With The Kb?   Sunday 10 June

In these days of Terabyte disc drives it hardly seems worth arguing over the difference between 1024 and 1000 bytes - but it does make a difference.

Desktop Games Still Popular   Sunday 10 June

It isn't just smartphone owners who while away the time playing free apps. Desktop PC users have not forgotten the "vintage" games that are still pre-installed on their computers.

A Brief History Of Video Games   Saturday 09 June

In three minutes this nostalgic video will whisk you though the history of video games from Pong to today's 3D realistic epics.

The Joy of Android Apps   Saturday 09 June

If you are an Android developer you probably don't need reminding that Android Apps are Amazing. However, given the keen rivalry there is between the Apple and Android ecosystems, having some facts and figures to back up the claim is welcome.

VS Express 2012 WILL support Desktop Apps   Friday 08 June

In a heroic about-face, Microsoft has just announced that Visual Studio Express 2012 can be used to create desktop apps.

Facebook Rolls Out Its Own App Center   Friday 08 June

Facebook has officially unveiled its App Center, a collection of free social applications for both web and mobile platforms, with an initial offering of around 600 apps.

Google Translate App for Android Update   Friday 08 June

The recent update to the free Google Translate App for Android has added more languages and given it an improved interface - but not all users are happy.

New Azure Services for Hybrid Cloud   Friday 08 June

Microsoft Azure users will now be able to deploy their own virtual machine images, including Linux. This is a big revolution as far as the Windows-centered Azure system is concerned.

on{X} - Good for Non-Programmers and Programmers   Thursday 07 June

on{X} is a very simple rule-trigger programming tool. What is surprising about on{X} is that it is for Android and it is created by Microsoft. As a system intended to make it easy for the non-programmer to create useful apps, it is also of value if you can program and might even encourage some to learn how.

New MCSE Exams Free at TechEd   Thursday 07 June

Attend TechEd this year and you could leave it with the new MCSE Private Cloud certification without having to pay for exams.

Microsoft Ignores Usability and Users - VS 2012 Keeps ALL-CAPS Menus   Thursday 07 June

The recent release of Visual Studio 2012 contained a UI element that few believed could make it into the final version - ALL-CAPS menus. After lots of user criticism and disbelief, Microsoft has moved swiftly to do something about it - by tweaking the typography.

Professional Programmer

MITx Experimental Course Completed - A Report   Monday 11 June

One of the I Programmer team signed up for MITx's first experimental course offering - 6.002x Circuits and Electronics - and now it's all over. As the Final Exam's dust settles, we asked for a full account. Did it work? Was it fun? Did you actually learn anything?

Jailbreaking the Developer   Friday 08 June

Are you concerned about the way that big companies are trying to take control of what you can and cannot program? Is this an infringement of free speech?  Should you care, or just keep playing by the rules and taking the cash?

Babbage's Bag

Inside the Computer - Addressing   Wednesday 13 June

Where you store data is as important to the computer as the data itself, yet the importance of the address is often overlooked. In this introduction to the low-level mechanisms of addressing in assembler, it is surprising how easy it is to recognize familiar high-level abstractions.