News

Java, ASM.js Or Native - Which Is Faster?   Wednesday 14 August

You may think that you already know the answer the question posed in the headline, but some recent research by Mozilla might surprise you. 

Introducing Gremlin The Graph Database   Wednesday 14 August

The latest collection of technologies from open source software development group, TinkerPop, which work in the graph database area has been released. TinkerPop 2.4 includes graph database frameworks, algorithm packages and servers, and has been given the name “Gremlin Without a Cause".

IPython 1.0 Released   Tuesday 13 August

IPython, the open source shell for interactive computing that features a  browser-based notebook with support for code, text, mathematical expressions, inline plots and other rich media, has reached Version 1, after nearly 12 years of development.

SQL Server Pro's Tips For Performance Tuning and T-SQL   Tuesday 13 August

Do your SQL queries run too quickly? I thought not! Many DBAs don’t know where to start performance tuning. The August issue of SQL Server Pro suggests strategies for achieving peak performance. There's also an article on T-SQL Best Practices which is freely available online.

Microsoft Vital Stats   Tuesday 13 August

Microsoft has launched, â€œMicrosoft by the Numbers", a website that brings together information from across the range of Microsoft’s businesses and divisions in a single site in an interactive infographic.

ZTE To Sell Firefox Phones On e-Bay   Monday 12 August

Although Mozilla doesn't expect Firefox OS phones to officially launch in the US until next year, consumers who want to buy one there will be able to do so starting this Friday. The Firefox Phone seems to be moving faster than expected.

Gaming TIOBE?   Monday 12 August

The TIOBE index of programming languages is easy to criticize when it drops your favorite language down the ranks and easy to love when it raises it up by a few positions. However, Perl programmers have a particular complaint and perhaps it is time to fix it. 

Firefox 23 Released and 24 In Beta   Monday 12 August

Firefox 23, which features a new Share button, mixed content blocker and network monitor is on general release. The next version Firefox 24, for desktop and Android, is now in beta.

AquaTop Display - A True Immersive Interface   Sunday 11 August

This is another simple idea with results that go well beyond what you might expect. Take a tub of cloudy water, a projector, a Kinect to sense objects on its surface and you have the first "immersive" interface - literally. You can place your hands in the water and play with the virtual objects projected onto it. See it!

Free Arduino Video Course   Sunday 11 August

If you want to learn how to program and build devices using the Arduino, who could be better placed to tell you about than Massimo Banzi, co-founder of Arduino?

Revenue Generation For Mobile Platforms   Saturday 10 August

It is generally acknowledged that iOS leads the field when it comes to revenue generation from mobile apps. A recent survey from Vision Mobile provides a wealth of information to explain why this is the case and also finds that only 50% of mobile developers are concerned with making money.

IKEA - Augmented Reality Furniture   Saturday 10 August

IKEA, not content with being king of the flat pack furniture market, has moved in the Augmented Reality business. Now you can view the furniture of your choice in the location of your choice with the help of its AR app. 

Gmail Bridge For Persona   Friday 09 August

Mozilla has announced a Gmail identity bridge for its web login system that eliminates the need for site-specific passwords.  Together with the existing Yahoo identity bridge this means that Persona now supports more than 700 million active email users.

Free Windows Phone 8 Development   Friday 09 August

At last Microsoft seems to have realized that if it is going to get the range of apps for WP8 that you find on other phones it has to make it free to create them. In this case free is also limited - but it's a start!

NuoDB Challenges NoSQL   Friday 09 August

NewSQL database NuoDB has been released with support for a range of SQL functions, a preview of the way it will support stored procedures, and support for new drivers and frameworks.

Windows Phone App Studio   Thursday 08 August

Microsoft has launched Windows Phone App Studio. Will this be enough to tempt developers to create apps, and will this in turn attract users to the platform?

Amazon Appstore Now Accepting HTML5 Apps   Thursday 08 August

Amazon has extended the opportunities for distributing web apps and mobile optimized websites by opening up its Mobile App Distribution Portal to HTML5.

AI Is Funny - A Generative Joke Model   Thursday 08 August

Can computers tell a good joke? Is comedy just a matter of statistics or is there something only a human can bring to creating a joke? A joke generator created at the University of Edinburgh suggests that AI can be funny. 

Professional Programmer

Robots Are Rubbish!   Friday 09 August

Well they aren't as good as they could be. I have two robots at home, vac and  mow, and as a programmer I can't help myself from being critical. They are so dumb.

The Core

JavaScript Data Structures - Typed Arrays II   Monday 12 August

JavaScript has typed arrays that let you work easily with arrays of data stored an ArrayBuffer. What do you do if the data isn't in the form of an array but a patchwork of data types, i.e. a structure? The answer is the DataView, but what about endianism? For the complete answer, read on.  

History

Nintendo - The Early History   Wednesday 14 August

Without Nintendo the story of computer entertainment might have begun and ended with Nolan Bushnell and Atari. Although we all know the name, how much do you know about the company, the machine or the men behind it all?