News

Free Library Converts 2D Image to 3D   Wednesday 10 October

Microsoft Research has been hard at work doing impossible things again. This time it's a library of code that converts a 2D video or still image into a 3D depth image.

IBM Pure Data   Wednesday 10 October

IBM has announced new systems combining hardware and analytic software for handling big data.

Learn Python Online For Free   Wednesday 10 October

In a scramble to fills the skills gap, programming is being seen as a good skill to possess. We look at some of the free online options that are on offer if you want to learn Python.

ASP.NET Future Revealed   Tuesday 09 October

Microsoft has updated the roadmap showing the future for ASP.NET. The plans include better templates and work on OData functionality in the Web API.

Web Platform Docs - A Unified Resource for Web Developers   Tuesday 09 October

Web Platform Docs is a new W3C hosted community resource for developers and designers who use open Web standards. Currently in Alpha it already has a wealth of material and is now asking volunteers to add more.

New Kinect SDK   Tuesday 09 October

Microsoft has just announced another upgrade to the Kinect SDK and among the new features is support for Windows 8 and access to more sensor data.

Google Experiments With Paying For Content   Monday 08 October

Google has launched an experiment in paying for online content using Google Wallet. Users are asked to pay less than a dollar in return for permanent online access. How will they react?

CAPTCHA With A Conscience   Monday 08 October

This CAPTCHA asks users to read factual statements and choose an appropriate response. While distinguishing humans from robots, it draws attention to civil rights issues. 

Learn By Building Your Own Computer   Sunday 07 October

Seven years ago, Shimon Schocken and Noam Nisan organized what was perhaps the first MOOC. In their groundbreaking course, From NAND to Tetris, students were challenged to build a modern computer starting from logic gates.

E Is For Electronics Free Coloring Book   Sunday 07 October

Electronics is the rock on which we build our software and as such we need to encourage kids to master, or at least get interested, in the subject. Now you can download a free coloring book aimed at doing just that.

Duke's Choice Awards 2012   Sunday 07 October

The annual awards for Java-powered technologies and contributions to the Java Community were highlighted during last week's JavaOne.

Photo App For Eliminating Shake   Saturday 06 October

If you thought there was no room in the app marketplace for any more photo apps, Vapp, an app for taking jitter free photos, might make you think twice.

Making Users Feel Loved   Saturday 06 October

MIT researchers have invented a jacket that gives users a hug whenever they get a ‘Like’ on Facebook. Next time you’re dreaming up ways to make the users of your apps feel loved and wanted, think a little more wildly. How about giving them an actual hug?

James Gosling At JavaOne   Saturday 06 October

James Gosling appeared onstage at JavaOne as part of the Java Community keynote presentation to talk about the robotics work for which he was awarded one of this year's Duke's Choice Awards.

Firefox Metro Preview Available   Friday 05 October

Mozilla has released an early version of its Windows 8 browser for testing by those working with pre-release versions of Windows 8 - and despite Microsoft trying to wean us off the name, it is called Firefox Metro.

HTML5 Debuts In NetBeans 7.3 Beta   Friday 05 October

NetBean's new HTML5 application development environment, Easel, provides Java developers with a new project type specific to HTML5 with an improved JavaScript editor.

Smartphone Apps Track Users Even When Off   Friday 05 October

Researchers have discovered that most Android applications collect personal information about their users even when the phone is in idle mode with the screen switched off.

Kinect Tracks A Single Finger With A New SDK   Thursday 04 October

Throw the mouse away - you have a finger! Pointing and grasping are natural things to do with your hand and now a company has found a way to make the Kinect depth camera sensitive enough to detect where you are pointing and what you are grasping.

MySQL 5.6 Release Candidate   Thursday 04 October

Oracle has released the MySQL 5.6 Release Candidate at MySQL Connect along with more fully featured commercial versions.

Android and iOS Share Tablet Market Almost Equally   Thursday 04 October

Around a quarter of adults in the US own a tablet and the split between Android and iOS is approaching 50-50.

Professional Programmer

When Open Source Attacks   Friday 05 October

Generally speaking you have to feel good about open source. However, there have been some recent cases in which open source projects are being used against the companies that sponsor them. And this really does not seem a fair way to play.

The Core

Getting Started With jQuery - The DOM   Monday 08 October

jQuery - you can't help hearing about it, but it can seem a bit mysterious. jQuery experts seem to just write compact impenetrable code and even seeing what it is supposed to be doing can be tough. What is jQuery and how do you use it?

This is the first part of a close look at what jQuery is all about.

Babbage's Bag

The LIFO Stack - A Gentle Guide   Wednesday 10 October

The stack is a very simple idea. It is a data structure that has only two simple operations and yet not only is it powerful, it is at the heart of modern computing, both theory and practice. Let's find out more about it.