News

Let's Teach Kids To Code!   Wednesday 30 January

The movement to bring programming back to the main stream and to make it a natural part of education seems to be gaining momentum. The only thing surprising is that it ever fell out of the mainstream! Hear what the creator of the Scratch programming language has to about it.

Update for Try F#   Wednesday 30 January

Microsoft has updated its Try F# web portal for developers with additional domain-specific tutorials for those wanting to learn the fundamentals of F#.

VoltDB 3.0 - In-memory DB   Tuesday 29 January

There’s a new version of VoltDB, the in-memory relational database, with changes including JSON support and speed improvements. The team is reporting sub-millisecond latency for transactions in a relational database.

Revenue From Apps For iOS and Android   Tuesday 29 January

Distimo's report on the global app store market shows that there is a lot of money to be made from apps but that much of it goes to a small number of highly successful apps.

W3C Draft For Device-Independent Input   Tuesday 29 January

The World Wide Web Consortium has published a draft that aims to standardize device-independent input event handling by creating a set of events that map diverse inputs to a single user intention.

Canonical Wants Help With Ubuntu Phone Apps   Monday 28 January

Having announced its range of phones earlier in the month,  Canonical is now looking for developers to help in its plans to have a dozen “core apps” ready to go for Ubuntu Phone when it hits the shelves.

Apps Have to Give Back to Facebook   Monday 28 January

Updated policies spell out that using Facebook for any product or service that replicates one of its core features isn't going to be tolerated unless Facebook gets something in return.

New 'Swarm' Computing Center   Sunday 27 January

TheTerraSwarm Research Center has been set up to address the huge potential (and associated risks) of pervasive integration of smart, networked sensors and actuators into our connected world.

A Robot With A Chainsaw!   Sunday 27 January

If are a fan of the Sci-Fi genre of the robot apocalypses you may well not want to give a robot a chainsaw to wield. If, on the other hand, you are a creative artist then it seems well worth the risk, as this video demonstrates.

Lotus 1-2-3 Launched 30 Years Ago Today   Saturday 26 January

Today marks the 30th anniversary of Lotus 1-2-3, the spreadsheet that propelled businesses large and small to buy and use PCs to deal with everyday financial operations.

WITCH Computer Gains Guinness World Record   Saturday 26 January

The Harwell Dekatron computer nicknamed WITCH has been recognized as the world's oldest original working digital computer.

How Algorithms Changed The World   Saturday 26 January

This infographic sets out to show the impact programming has had. It is indisputable that software has touched most things in the modern world, but you might still be surprised by the selection of algorithms in this chart.

Top University For Computer Science   Friday 25 January

Are you looking for the most prestigious academic institution at which to pursue Computer Science? If so the latest ranking from Shanghai Jiao Tong University should help you.

Windows 8 - Success Or Fail?   Friday 25 January

Microsoft announced record revenue for the financial quarter ending December 31, 2012 attributing some of this success to its new Windows devices. But is Windows 8 actually the success story Steve Ballmer claims?

Hadoop Tutorial Launched   Friday 25 January

A sandbox environment for Hadoop has been announced by Hortonworks, and is aimed at giving new users an easy way to learn how to use Hadoop.

Build A Better America With Civic Hacking   Thursday 24 January

A National Day of Civic Hacking, to take place in June 2103, has been announced by the United States Office of Science and Technology Policy. The idea is to use publicly-released data, code and technology to solve local challenges.

Chrome Native Client Goes ARM and Portable   Thursday 24 January

Chrome Native Client (NaCl) allows you to write native code web apps.  Now you can use it for ARM processors and it is fairly easy. In the near future you will be able to create architecture-independent native modules - which might seem something of a contradiction.

Mozilla Develops Security Testing Framework   Thursday 24 January

Mozilla is working on an open source security framework called Minion that you’ll be able to use to give your web applications a security check.

The Core

Getting Started With jQuery UI   Monday 28 January

jQuery UI is built to work with jQuery. If you are  already using jQuery, it is recommended as an addin to make your pages look like more than just HTML. Let's see how easy it is to get started.

Babbage's Bag

The Programmer's Guide to Chaos   Wednesday 30 January

You might well think that “chaos” isn’t something that really should be mentioned in the same breath as “computer” but you’d be wrong. Here's an overview of a  fascinating and disturbing topic and one that every programmer should know something about.

Projects

Gmail, Spreadsheets and Google App Script   Friday 25 January

If you have to administer an email list, creating a Google App Script to process email bounces and send the relevant data to a spreadsheet is not only useful but also a good example of using scripts.