News

April Fools 2015 - A Round Up   Wednesday 01 April

Google has made quite a tradition of its April Fool's jokes - so much so that it now takes steps to ensure we notice them. Microsoft also joined in early this year. Though its offering is so tempting it could perhaps last beyond noon today.

Replace By Fee - Bitcoin Modifications   Wednesday 01 April

When we think of the Bitcoin algorithm, we tend to concentrate on the proof of work and how it allows the block chain to be built in a decentralised way. However, the algorithm is so much more and as people find alternative ways of working with Bitcoin, there might be a need to change it. 

Pac-Man Easter Egg In Google Maps   Wednesday 01 April

This year April Fools and Easter Day are only separated by a couple of days and Google has come up with a hidden gem to satisfy both - a Pac-Man game you can play on the streets of some famous places

The Chromium Team Changes Mind - We Will Have Pointer Events   Tuesday 31 March

Recenty we reported that both Chromium and Safari were continuing to support Apple's Touch API, despite the fact that the oposing Pointer API had been adopted as a W3C standard. Now we have the good news that the Chromium team has done a U-turn, leaving Apple to stand alone.

What Influences Women To Pursue Computer Science   Tuesday 31 March

Google Researchers recently presented the findings of a study looking at gender differences in High School students' decisions to study Computer Science.

Dart 1.9 Now With Async And Await   Monday 30 March

The latest release of Dart puts its weight behind the async and await approach to implementing asynchronous code. This really is the only sensible way to do the job.

Node.js Tools For VS Released   Monday 30 March

Node.js Tools 1.0 for Visual Studio (NTVS) has reached version 1.0 and can now be downloaded. The plug in lets you program Node.js within the Visual Studio IDE, and supports editing with IntelliSense, debugging locally and remotely, profiling and deployment of Node.js projects.  

GitHub Under DDoS Attack   Monday 30 March

GitHub is suffering its largest distributed denial of service DDoS attack in its history. The traffic is targeting two urls related to Chinese civil rights and freedom of internet access.

Halt And Catch Fire Season 2   Sunday 29 March

While there was a lot of talk about the TV sitcom Silicon Valley, the more serious drama, Halt and Catch Fire, didn't cause much excitement.

We think it should have and now it's back with a second season. 

Festo's Ants And Butterflies   Saturday 28 March

Every year around this time of year Festo builds some amazing robot or other - last year it was a kangaroo. What could it possibly do to top previous amazing devices? What about some even more amazing robotic insects.

F8 - What's New For Facebook   Friday 27 March

Mark Zuckerberg announced the Facebook Messenger Platform at this week's F8 conference. It will let devs build apps that integrate with Facebook Messenger, a service used by more than 600 million people.

MonoGame - The New XNA   Friday 27 March

There are lots of programmers still bitter about Microsoft's decision to shut XNA down on PC and Xbox. If you still have XNA assets the good news is that MonoGame is a good stand in.

DARPA Wants Analog To Boost Super Computer Performance   Friday 27 March

The first practical computers were analog computers and now DARPA thinks that we might be able to speed things up by bringing them back.

Dart Changes Course - No Longer To Be Native In Chrome   Thursday 26 March

Google has backtracked on its intention to integrate the Dart VM into Chrome and instead the Dart team will concentrate its efforts on compiling Dart to JavaScript. Is this a downgrade of Google's plans for Dart or a new realism?

$1Million Turing Prize Awarded To Database Innovator   Thursday 26 March

The ACM has announced that MIT's Michael Stonebraker is the recipient of the 2014 ACM A.M. Turing Award as a "pioneer in database systems architecture."

Microsoft Launches Azure App Service   Thursday 26 March

Microsoft has launched a new cloud-based service for Azure that provides a single service for building mobile and web apps. It also contains existing tools and services including Azure Websites, Mobile Services and Biztalk Services.

Professional Programmer

JavaScript The Language With Two Names   Thursday 26 March

You have to feel sorry for JavaScript it doesn't even have a name to call itself by. Why is JavaScript such a fragmented entity and does it matter? With ECMAScript 2015 about to be announced as a final standard, now is a good time to consider the names of the web's favorite language.

Babbage's Bag

The Mod Function   Tuesday 31 March

What has modular arithmetic got to do with the real world?
The answer any experienced programmer should give you is "a lot". Not only is it the basis for many an algorithm, it is part of the hardware.