News

C++ Where Is It Heading? C++17   Wednesday 06 July

C++ is moving really fast at the moment, well for C++. After C++14 we now have a proposal for C++17 and a new C++ every three years. Look out for C++20. So where is the language going?

Robots Improve Performance At Warehouse Picking   Wednesday 06 July

The second annual Amazon took place alongside  RoboCup 2016 in Leipzig, Germany last week and was won by Team Delft. While still not outperforming humans, some of this year's finalists put up an impressive performance.

Orion 12 Rolls Out   Tuesday 05 July

The Eclipse Orion team has released Orion 12, the latest version of the browser-based IDE. The new version adds full support for the ECMAScript 2015 language specification, along with better project configuration capabilities, and support for eslintrc.* files.

Coursera and IBM Join Forces in India   Tuesday 05 July

Coursera is partnering with IBM to strengthen the developer ecosystem in India via its Full Stack Web Development Specialization. Twenty Indian students will be awarded up to $120,000 per year in IBM Cloud credits.

Ruby On Rails Reaches 5.0   Monday 04 July

The latest version of Ruby on Rails has a new framework and API mode.

Google Promotes Google Play With An App   Monday 04 July

You might have missed the fact that Google has created a free app - Playbook - which is designed to get Android developers to make more and better use of Google Play.

DASH - A Smart Shopping Cart   Sunday 03 July

Big advances are being made with AI and Robotics but so far it hasn't had much impact on our everyday lives. What we really want is help with is routine tasks, so a retail shopping cart that will locate and transport the items you want to buy in the supermarket and check them out for you sounds promising.

The Awesome Megaprocessor Is Finished   Saturday 02 July

This is a gloriously crazy idea - build a computer from scratch using transistors. No integrated circuits, just transistors. It seems like an impossible task but no - it's finished. 

N Is For Nougat AKA Android 7.0   Friday 01 July

Google has revealed that the next version of Android will be named Nougat - which may cause some problems due to variations in its pronunciation - and will be version 7, with a new statue added to its growing collection at the Googleplex. 

The Weekly Top 10: PHP Web Development Resources   Friday 01 July

PHP is the focus of this week's round up of interesting posts from external blogs. Among the mix you'll find guidelines to reduce complexity, a comparison with HHVM and an excursion into Docker. We start with praise for PHP and end with a rant about its shortcomings. 

SilentKeys A Privacy Aware Keyboard   Thursday 30 June

Could Preevio's innovative keyboard be the perfect answer to the privacy concerns arising from the monitoring and tracking of all our daily activities that take place online?

Azure Functions For Serverless Computing   Thursday 30 June

Microsoft has released Azure Functions, a competitor to AWS Lambda, providing a way for you to create functions for the cloud without having to set up or manage the underlying infrastructure.

eBooks

Java - Command Line Programs   Friday 01 July

Many Java programs don't make use of a GUI interface at all they are run from the command line. It is important to master this simpler form of program if you are going to build utilities implement services or more trendy microservices. From the point of view of learning Java command line programs are also a good way to find out about some basics without the complexity of Swing to worry about. We take a careful look at how data types and code build a program.

Projects

Micro:bit Commando Jump with The Microsoft Block Editor   Monday 04 July

The BBC Micro:bit, which goes on sale this month having already shipped 1 million into UK schools, is a remarkably capable computer and is intended to get you started with coding in a very hands-on way. Its big limitation for games programming is that it only has a 5x5 LED matrix display. What sort of game could you possibly program on that!