News

Cordova In Visual Studio   Wednesday 14 May

Microsoft really is backing all the horses. An announcement at TechEd reveals a preview release of Visual Studio support for Cordova. How many ways do you need to create a cross platform mobile app?

Samsung Gear App Challenge   Wednesday 14 May

Samsung has a total prize pot of $1,250,000 for a two-round contest in which devs are asked to take wearable technology to the next level by creating innovative, functional, and original apps for the Samsung Gear 2.  

New Groovy   Wednesday 14 May

A major new release of Groovy has been announced with official support for use on Java 8.

Visual Studio 2013 Update 2 Ready   Tuesday 13 May

The final release of Visual Studio 2013 Update 2 is ready to download with support for universal apps, TypeScript, and tools for working with web apps and Azure.

Code Fellows Reports Hiring Success   Tuesday 13 May

Learn to code and get a good job - that's a message we've all been hearing a lot. Code Fellows, a Seattle-based startup that provides intensive courses in web and mobile technologies offers a money-back guarantee to its alumni and so far has made only two refunds.

The vNext .NET?   Tuesday 13 May

Microsoft seems to be falling back in love with .NET - but is vNEXT the same .NET we know and love or something very different?

Delving Into Data At SDD 2014   Monday 12 May

If you’re developing database or cloud apps, there are some interesting sessions on offer at the inaugural SDD Conference from May 19-23 in the Barbican Centre, London.

Intel Level Up Challenge   Monday 12 May

Intel's Level Up 2014 Contest offers not only cash prizes but also the  chance of commercial distribution of your game on the Steam platform. The deadline is June 2 so there's still time to enter.

Atom Goes Public   Monday 12 May

Just ten weeks after the project was first announced as a private beta, Github has released Atom, its programming text editor, as open source and free for anyone to use.

Robots As UI   Sunday 11 May

Forget Minority Report and all that pointing and gesturing into the empty air like a demented windmill. The UI of the future is a small swarm of robots.

Pick This Year's JavaZone Movie   Saturday 10 May

JavaZone's video are some of the funniest tech videos around and there's not a lot to laugh about when the subject is Java. This year it is your turn to choose the subject - fancy Game of Codes?

New - Firefox OS 1.3   Friday 09 May

Mozilla is still pushing ahead with Firefox OS, which is arguably the most open and easy to develop for mobile platform of all. Version 1.3 is now released and it has some important new features.

Oracle Wins Copyright Appeal   Friday 09 May

At the end of the Oracle v Google trial, which Oracle lost when the jury found no patent infringement and the trial judge ruled here that APIs were not copyrightable so there was no copyright infringement, Oracle vowed to appeal. Oracle has now been granted a retrial and a higher authority says that APIs can be copyrighted.

Google Play Services 4.4   Thursday 08 May

Google Play Services is becoming an increasingly important part of Android - which is exactly what Google wants. Is the latest decimal point upgrade enough to make it essential?

edX At Two and A Course On Cyber-Physical Systems   Thursday 08 May

MOOC provider eDX will shortly be celebrating its second anniversary with a livestream event on Twitter. Meanwhile a new course on embedded systems that emphasizes their cyber-physical nature of has just begun.

Pharo 3.0 Released   Thursday 08 May

A new version of the open source version of Smalltalk, Pharo has been released, representing a major improvement as the result of the efforts of over 80 contributors. Pharo is also migrating to a new website.

Babbage's Bag

The McCulloch-Pitts Neuron   Tuesday 13 May

Nowadays the McCulloch-Pitts neuron tends to be overlooked in favour of simpler neuronal models but they were and are still important. They proved that something that behaved like a biological neuron was capable of computation and early computer designers often thought in terms of them.

Projects

Deep Monitor Your Site   Thursday 08 May

How can you find out how your dynamic web site is working? The answer is to add some sort of monitoring and the temptation to do it yourself should be resisted at all costs. You have better things to do and that particular wheel has been invented.