News

Android Security Hole More Stupid Error Than Defect   Wednesday 10 July

The news has been full of lots of scare stories of how a security hole found in the Android operating system could lead to malware taking over almost any device. The claims aren't too wild, but what is really interesting is that rather than being due to some deep-seated flaw in the security system the cause can only be described as a stupid error.

Online MSc In Computer Science Update   Tuesday 09 July

Georgia Tech is moving towards its Online Master of Science in Computer Science degree and has identified the initial courses and specializations that will be available to students in the pilot program starting in January 2014.

Windows Azure Toolkit For Eclipse Updated   Tuesday 09 July

The Windows Azure Toolkit for Eclipse has been improved to make it easier for Eclipse developers to work with Windows Azure.

Jelly Bean More Popular Than Gingerbread   Tuesday 09 July

Jelly Bean has become the most popular flavor of Android, overtaking Gingerbread which has held this position since November 2011.

UK To Teach Programming Starting At Age 5   Tuesday 09 July

The UK Department for Education has just introduced a radical change in education.It plans to teach "rigorous computer science" to all children from 5 to 14.

LibreOffice Calc To Get GPU support   Monday 08 July

LibreOffice is a well-liked office suite, but not so much its spreadsheet component, Calc, which is known to be slow for even simple calculations. Now AMD has stepped in to provide GPU support that should speed things along.

PowerShell The SQL Server Way   Monday 08 July

The July issue of the online subscription magazine SQL Server provides an 18-page introduction to the capabilities of PowerShell from a SQL Server viewpoint, inviting you to learn how to use the SQLServer provider and sqlps cmdlets.

Rust 0.7 Released   Monday 08 July

Rust, the systems programming language being developed by Mozilla, has reached Version 0.7 and continues to evolve as a safe, concurrent systems language.

A Computer Model Of Fairy Rings   Sunday 07 July

Yes, fairies have nothing much to do with fairy rings. A new computer model explains them away and suggests that circles may be a common property of some types of complex system.

RoboCup 2013 - The Finals   Sunday 07 July

RoboCup 2013 took place in Eindhoven at the end of June. Now BotSport TV has provided the edited highlights in videos that clearly show how falling affects robots differently according to their size.

REEM-C A Full Size Humanoid Robot You Can Buy!   Saturday 06 July

PAL Robotics has been steadily working up to releasing a full size humanoid robot for some time and now REEM-C is ready. You can order one, and get a special deal if you are among the first.

Google Awards Grants For Natural Language Research   Saturday 06 July

Google has awarded over $1.2 million to support research in several areas of several natural language understanding that relate to Google's concept of the Knowledge Graph.

Developing Neural Networks   Friday 05 July

If you have always wanted to know what neural networks are all about then you only need to spend some time watching this video.

Bing Ads A Feature Of Windows 8.1   Friday 05 July

Microsoft has  announced its intention to integrate Bing Ads into Smart Search, so that ads are served when users search for content within their existing data as well as on the Internet.

New Firefox OS Website Documents The UI   Friday 05 July

How do you create "standard" HTML5 apps for a very specific platform like Firefox OS? You need guidance and lots of standard UI components. The answer is Firefox Building Bocks and the new Building Firefox OS website.

Tablet and Enterprise Apps on the Rise   Thursday 04 July

The demand for employee apps from enterprises has led to a marked shift in the types of apps being built. Developers moving to tablets as the emerging app platform, with most developers placing equal priority on tablets and smartphones.

Grab A Pixel - Real Reality   Thursday 04 July

This is the ultimate touch computing interface. It may only be a single pixel, but it is more capable than you might think. See it in action.

Douglas Engelbart, Inventor Of The Mouse, Dies   Thursday 04 July

Doug Engelbart who was probably the first man to understand the true potential and purpose of the digital computer died on July 2nd, 2013 at the age of 88.  As well as inventing the mouse he came up with many other key ideas in human computer interaction.

Professional Programmer

Pick of the Shelf - SQL Server 2012   Wednesday 10 July

The release of SQL Server 2012 has resulted in an avalanche of books designed to guide you through all aspects of working with Microsoft’s server database. The thought of reading an entire bookcase of books is enough to make normal mortals run for the hills. Fortunately, our database experts are far from normal mortals, and they’ve done the hard work of sifting through the books for you to find the best on offer.

The Core

Getting Started with Firefox OS - The UX Building Blocks   Sunday 07 July

The great thing about Firefox OS is that you can build apps without knowing anything much about it. All you need is some HTML, CSS and JavaScript. While this is true, it is also worth finding out how to create a UI that looks and feels like official Firefox programs. To do this you need to find out about the UI Building Blocks. 

Babbage's Bag

Computational Complexity   Tuesday 09 July

A lightning guide to the basic ideas of computational complexity without the maths or the proofs. It's almost more fun than programming!