News

Fear And Loathing In the App Store 12 - Apple Rejects Gravity   Wednesday 04 November

Apple's latest UI innovation is Force Touch or 3D Touch, what to call it isn't clear. It basically lets you detect how hard a user is pressing on the touch screen so you have an extra degree of freedom to play with. Now this is an innovation - right? So innovative apps that make use of it are welcome - right? Well, no, not in the closed protective world of the app store.  

How Is Windows 10 Doing?   Wednesday 04 November

With the latest statistics revealing that Windows 10 is on fewer than 8% of desktops, Microsoft appears to be getting desperate about getting users to upgrade. 

Codecademy Adds Java For Beginners   Wednesday 04 November

Codecademy the online interactive platform that offers free coding classes has added a Java course to its portfolio. 

Node.js 5.0 Released   Tuesday 03 November

A new version of Node.js has been released just a couple of months since the introduction of the last major release. 

WPF For JavaScript   Tuesday 03 November

An open source project called Granular has re-implemented .NET's Windows Presentation Foundation on JavaScript. Yes, that's WPF for JavaScript.! You might be wondering why. 

SQL Server 2016 & Azure Data Lake   Monday 02 November

Microsoft has announced CTP 3 of SQL Server 2016 along with Azure Data Lake. 

Babel 6 More Than A JavaScript Modernizer   Monday 02 November

Babel 6 is a JavaScript compiler that targets JavaScript 5 so that you can run the latest version in old browsers. In its latest version it also aims to be a framework for developing JavaScript tools.  

Google Doodle For Boole 200   Monday 02 November

You might have guessed that Google would celebrate the 200th birthday of George Boole, the man who invented the logic that computers and programmers use, with a Doodle. This one is Boolean logic and a complete lesson in itself. 

Celebrate the 200th Birthday of George Boole With Logic   Sunday 01 November

November 2nd 2015 is the bicentenary of George Boole, dubbed the forefather of modern information technology. To mark the event 55,000 school students globally will be learning about Boolean Logic.  

Help Kickstart First Ever PerlDancer Book   Saturday 31 October

The team who created PerlDancer have plans to publish a printed book about it and have opened a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to raise 15,000 Euros. 

Getting Started With Android Studio To Avoid The Zombies   Friday 30 October

Google has just released a new video showing you how to get started with Android Studio - and as a seasonal touch it features zombies, no not zombie code, real zombies. 

VS Update & .NET 4.61 With WPF   Friday 30 October

It is nice to know that Microsoft hasn't forgotten the old ways. New, along with Visual Studio Update 1 RC, is an update to .NET and WPF. 

JetBrains Previews IDE For SQL   Friday 30 October

The team at JetBrains has announced a preview version of their new IDE for developers who work with SQL and databases. The final version will be released in mid November as a part of JetBrains Toolbox. 

Oracle Launches Elastic Compute Cloud   Thursday 29 October

Oracle has announced an alternative to Amazon Web Services EC in the shape of Oracle Elastic Compute Cloud. The announcement was made at OracleWorld in San Francisco alongside a number of other products and services for the cloud. 

DevPost's Sparkathon   Thursday 29 October

A big data online hackathon organized by IBM has prizes totalling $30,000. Contestants are challenged to write supersmart weather apps using Analytics for Apache Spark for Bluemix. 

The Core

Exploring Edison - Pulse Width Modulation   Thursday 29 October

One way around the problem of getting a fast response from a microcontroller is to move the problem away from the processor. In the case of the Edison there are three facilities which can be used to generate signals or communicate with other devices without having to worry about how fast the processor can do the job. In this chapter we take a close look at pulse width modulation including, driving LEDs and servos.

Babbage's Bag

Introduction to Boolean Logic   Monday 02 November

It may sound like a daunting topic, but Boolean logic is very easy to explain and to understand. It represents the simplest of all the logics and the very basis of computing. Today, November 2, 2015, is the 200th anniversary of George Boole's birth and 55,000 school students globally are learning about Boolean Logic.