News

Google Offers Cash For Security Patches   Wednesday 16 October

Google is offering Patch Rewards of up to $3.133.70 to developers who contribute to improving the security of the open source software that underpin the functioning of the Internet.

Kinect Common Bridge Makes Working With C++ Easy   Wednesday 16 October

If you have created apps for the Kinect using managed code you will not be aware of how much more complex the C++ native API is. Now Microsoft has created an open source library that makes the Kinect much, much easier to use from C++.

Hour Of Code Aims To Reach 10 Million Students   Wednesday 16 October

Code.org has launched an ambitious initiative to introduce more than 10 million students of all ages in the United States to computer programming. The idea is to provide an Hour of Code throughout schools in 50 states during this year's Computer Science Education Week, December 9-15, 2013.

Visualizing 40,000 Code Submissions   Tuesday 15 October

It was, and is, the promise of the MOOC that having such large numbers of students would allow big data to guide how to improve learning. Now we have some numbers and some impressive diagrams that show just how variable programming can be. 

TextTeaser Open Sourced   Tuesday 15 October

TextTeaser, an application that uses Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning to automatically summarize text, has been open sourced.

Windows Phone 8 Update 3 Available To Devs Today   Monday 14 October

Microsoft has provided details of the latest update to Windows Phone 8 and launched Windows Phone Preview for Developers. This gives app builders early access to the operating system so that they can test their apps in advance of it being available on users phones.

JSON Is Now An ECMA Standard   Monday 14 October

JSON, a way to represent data in JavaScript, has spread well beyond its humble origins and has now received the official accolade of an ECMA standard. 

Bounty Hunter Awarded $100,000   Monday 14 October

Microsoft has paid out over $128,000 to researchers as part of its Bug Bounty programs, including $100,000 Mitigation Bypass Bounty to James Forshaw for discovering "an entire class of issues".

Rubinius 2.0 Released   Monday 14 October

Rubinius, the implementation of Ruby designed for concurrency with the aim of running Ruby code fast, has reached the major milestone of 2.0 and has just lost its major sponsor.

Spending a Fortune on Apps   Sunday 13 October

In 2013 apps are expected to bring in $25,000,000,000, which given that the vast majority of apps are either free or cost less than a dollar, seems a staggering amount. But the sheer number of apps available and our appetite for them means that the total spend mounts up.

Grow Your Own Wiring   Saturday 12 October

A simple slime mould can be used to create living wiring between conventional electronic components. Its big problem is that it tends to go on growing and occasionally makes some additional connection but if you cut the main wire - it self-repairs.

PC Shipments Continue To Fall   Friday 11 October

Gartner and IDC have both released figures for worldwide shipments  of personal computers in the third quarter of 2013, revealing that demand for PCs has reduced for the sixth quarter in succession.

Nokia Pulling the Plug on Symbian and Meego   Friday 11 October

Nokia has told developers the Nokia Ovi Store will stop accepting new software or updates from January 2014, two years earlier than originally promised.

COBOL Code Contest Challenge   Friday 11 October

Micro Focus has come up with a novel challenge - create a video game using Visual COBOL Personal Edition. Although this is part of its Academic Program, the competition with a first prize of $1,000 is open to anyone in non-embargoed countries.

Amazon Launches Developer Select   Thursday 10 October

A scheme to improve discovery of mobile apps has been launched by Amazon. The Appstore Developer Select program combines premium placement in the Amazon Appstore and ads on the Mobile Ad Network.

Microsoft's YouTube App Defeat   Thursday 10 October

After a valiant attempt to get Windows Phone users a full functioned native You Tube App, Microsoft appears to have thrown in the towel and the latest "update" to its You Tube "App" is simply a link to the YouTube website, leaving users highly dissatisfied.

The Core

Web Components With X-Tag   Tuesday 15 October

Web components are the great hope of the future of web apps. It seems to have taken forever to get a start on such a basic technology and we don't seem to be there yet. Mozilla's X-Tag is a library that aims to get you ahead of the curve.

A Programmer's Guide to Scratch 2   Thursday 10 October

Scratch is an easy-to-learn and use language that still has all of the features of a real programming language. Find out how it works and what makes it special.