News

Is Programming Skill Related To Age?   Wednesday 08 May

The aim of a new study was to explore the how software developers skills  vary over time. Does programming expertise grow, plateau, or start to decline? The answer is quite a surprise.

Rackspace Cloud SDK for .NET   Wednesday 08 May

Rackspace has launched Openstack.net, an SDK for .NET developers so you can create web apps for the Rackspace Cloud.

AWS Certification Launched   Tuesday 07 May

Amazon has launched a certification program for developers and administrators who want to be able to show their competence in working with Amazon Web Services.

Brython - Python In The Browser   Tuesday 07 May

Brython is a Python to JavaScript compiler, but it does the whole job in the browser and so makes Python appear to be a client scripting language. 

Intel's $100,000 Perceptual Computing Challenge 2   Tuesday 07 May

Intel is looking for "breakthru apps" in the emerging field of perceptual computing.  A new challenge has just begun with a million dollar prize pool.

EDSAC Celebrated 64 Years After First Run   Monday 06 May

EDSAC entered into computer history by performing its first calculation on May 6, 1949 in Cambridge, England under the supervision of Maurice Wilkes.  To mark the 64th anniversary of this momentous event Google has posted a video.

Hadoop SQL Query Engine Launched   Monday 06 May

Cloudera has announced the general availability of Impala, its open source, interactive SQL query engine for analyzing data stored in Hadoop clusters in real time.

Computer History Up For Auction   Monday 06 May

An online action to be held later this month has a veritable treasure trove of computing history. The 20th century is well represented with an Apple 1, an Apple Lisa, an Altair, and more, but for me the star item is a 17th century Pascaline.

Realtime Fluid Flow - Wow!   Sunday 05 May

It is worth seeing this video of realtime simulated water flow. It isn't perfect, but it is very good, and what can you say but "wow" when you watch all that simulated water sloshing about!

NAO Works With Autistic Children   Sunday 05 May

Aldeberan has announced ASK NAO, an initiative in which it's kid-sized humanoid Robot interacts with children who experience difficulties in relating to people.

Brendan Eich Has Seen The Future - Video Streaming Using Just JavaScript   Saturday 04 May

Brendan Eich claims today that the new Orbx.js video codec is a game changer. The facts are few, but if Eich says so we need to study what few there are. 

FBI Fun With Codes   Saturday 04 May

The FBI has set a new challenge for codebreakers. Amongst all the serious stuff on its site like lists of the most wanted fugitives you'll find a dot code puzzle  just waiting to be solved.

Mathematical Art 2013   Friday 03 May

Mathematical art is not a contradiction in terms. There is beauty in symbols and the forms that they describe. Every year the American Mathematical Society (AMS) organizes an online art show. This year's has just been posted and it's worth a look. 

Where To Make Money From Apps   Friday 03 May

A report from Distimo compares Amazon Appstore and Google Play in terms of downloads and revenue from Android apps. Meanwhile Apple claims it expects to pay developers at least $1 billion per quarter  from now on.

WebMatrix 3 Released   Friday 03 May

Microsoft has released WebMatrix 3, the next version of the free, lightweight web development tool for ASP.NET, PHP, and Node.js. The focus of the new version is integration with Windows Azure, alongside source control tooling for Git and TFS, and the ability to carry out remote editing.

Is Exploiting A Bug Hacking?   Thursday 02 May

Bugs are inevitable, but suppose a user notices a bug that causes strange behavior in the system. Suppose that the user then works out how that behavior could be used to advantage. Is this hacking and is it punishable by law, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act in particular?

Ad Revenue For Windows 8 Apps Collapses   Thursday 02 May

Something has happened to in-app advertising from Microsoft's pubCenter and both developers and advertisers are complaining.

RunRevLive.13 Conference   Thursday 02 May

The fifth annual RunRev Live conference takes place in Edinburgh from May 14-17. As well as the main speaker track, where LiveCode experts share their knowledge, this year's event features two workshops tracks.

Professional Programmer

Tools Doth A Language Make   Friday 03 May

Languages are not islands that can be considered in isolation. They have to be part of a development environment and it is time that this was fully recognized. A language isn't just syntax and semantics. A language is syntax, semantics and an IDE. 

The Core

Task.js Asynchronous Tasks In JavaScript   Monday 06 May

There are some interesting things going on the latest version of JavaScript and already some new uses are being found for them. Task.js uses the new generator facility to build an asynchronous task facility. 

Babbage's Bag

The Meaning of Life   Wednesday 08 May

John Conway's Life isn't just a fascinating program, it's an example of a cellular automaton. The theory of cellular automata (CA) sounds intimidating, but in fact it's simple and fun. It is a deep mystery how complex things arise from simple things – almost without even seeming to try. And how best to implement it?