News

Bitcoin Fork Due To Algorithmic Differences   Wednesday 19 August

We all know that Bitcoin has been a huge success and that it is based on an innovative algorithm that allows a decentralized ledger to be constructed. However, not everything about the Bitcoin algorithm is perfect and now an attempt to make up for its biggest problem has the potential to cause a split.

COBOL for Node.js   Wednesday 19 August

If you had to come up with unlikely language pairings, COBOL and Node.js would score pretty highly as a “least likely to be used together” choice. However, if for some reason you decide your legacy COBOL application needs to be instantly available on the Web, there is now a solution.

Should OpenOffice Be Closed?   Wednesday 19 August

An open letter to the Apache OpenOffice team argues that the project should bow out and redirect potential users to LibreOffice instead.

Atlas Running Wild   Tuesday 18 August

At last Atlas seems to have discovered mobility and has been allowed to go running through the woods. The robot isn't quite "running free" as it is still on a tether, but it certainly holds promise for the future.

Android M Is Marshmallow Running Android 6.0   Tuesday 18 August

The tantalizing wait is over. The tasty treat in the latest Android codename is Marshmallow. For developers the fact that the SDK is Android 6.0 signals important changes.

Squeak 5.0 Released   Tuesday 18 August

Squeak, the open source Smalltalk programming system recently launched a new website. The newly released Version 5.0 introduces the new Spur memory model and associated VM. Squeak can now run on the Raspberry Pi.

Android Face Tracking From Google   Monday 17 August

This is not about tracking Android faces, but human faces. It isn't face recognition, but it is just as useful for many applications where you just need to know where a face is and if it is smiling, say.

Update: The face tracker runs on the client only - no server needed!

NASA's Smartwatch App Challenge   Monday 17 August

NASA is asking developers to design a smartwatch app for use on the International Space Station. The prize is $1,500 and a place in the history of space exploration.

dbForge SQL Complete 5.0   Monday 17 August

The latest version of dbForge SQL Complete has been released with SQL refactoring and code highlighting.

Jupyter 4.0 Completed By Release of IPython 4.0   Monday 17 August

IPython 4.0 has been released, but instead of this being the big package including a notebook and protocol that works with many languages it is just the Python-specific parts. The language-agnostic part of the project are now to be found in Jupyter.

How The Jeep Was Hacked   Sunday 16 August

Now we have the story of exactly how the Jeep Cherokee was hacked so that it could be controlled remotely, a demonstration that ultimately led to a costly recall of 1.4 million vehicles.

Computer Finds New Pentagonal Tiling - With Some Human Help   Saturday 15 August

A new pentagonal tiling of the plane has just been discovered. It is the first in 30 years and we still don't know if there are any more.

Firefox 40 For Windows 10 & For Devs - Update   Saturday 15 August

One feature of the recently released Firefox 40, which was supposed to make Firefox easier to install and use on Windows 10, didn't work. Mozilla has now released Firefox 40.0.2, that fixes the problem together with couple of other bugs affecting Firefox on Windows.

Windows 10 IoT Core - Raspberry Pi Home Automation Contest   Friday 14 August

Windows 10 IoT Core was released this week for use with small devices including the Raspberry PI and to encourage makers to use it there's a Home Automation contest on Hackster.io. Come up with an idea before August 17 to take part.

Display Your App In Android Experiments   Thursday 13 August

Google has launched a site dedicated to encouraging and showcasing projects built with Android to inspire you you to build even more. All apps in Android Experiments gallery will be open source; so not only can you admire them, you can see how they were made.

The Core

Getting Started With NetBeans PHP - Local Projects   Tuesday 18 August

NetBeans is primarily a Java IDE, but it also is a really good way to work with PHP and general HTML/JavaScript projects. The big problem is that the documentation isn't very good. Find out here how to get started with a local project, including debugging, without having to install a LAMP stack. 

History

Steve Wozniak   Thursday 13 August

Co-designer of the Apple computer, Woz is one of the computer pioneers who have changed the way we work and play. He is also something much rarer today, an electronics genius. He has just turned 65, so this seems like a good time to look back on his achievements.