News

DirectX Tool Kit For DirectX 12 - 3D For The Rest Of Us?   Wednesday 20 July

Microsoft has announced the extension of the DirectX Tool Kit to DirectX 12. This not only makes DirectX 12 more accessible but highlights the fact that Windows graphics in general has become less accessible. 

DARPA Cyber Grand Challenge AI Will Prevail   Wednesday 20 July

Next month Las Vegas will host the Final Event of the DARPA Cyber grand Challenge as an all-computer cyber-defence Capture the Flag tournament. From an initial field of over 100 applicant seven teams will compete for the $3.5 million prize pool.

Microsoft Admits 1 Billion Target Out Of Reach   Tuesday 19 July

The writing has been on the wall for months and now Microsoft has admitted that it isn't going to meet its own target of having Windows 10 installed on 1 billion devices within 2-3 years of its release.

Bing Developer Assistant Adds C++ Support   Tuesday 19 July

There's a major update to Bing Developer Assistant that means it now offers support for C++.

Google Android Developer Certification Exams Underway   Monday 18 July

Last week Google announced its Associate Android Developer Certification and online exams for this job-oriented credential, intended to help candidates to get an entry-level Android developer jobs, were immediately available on the Udacity platform.

Raspberry Pi Compute Module To Be Upgraded To 3   Monday 18 July

The Raspberry Pi Compute Module is aimed at the "professional" user and is a traditional embedded system, but it is looking a little low on specification. Now we have the news that it is going to be upgraded to the Pi 3's more capable design.

Data Science Competition With Focus on China   Sunday 17 July

A Kaggle contest that opened this week and runs until September 5th offers a top prize of $12,500. It asks Kagglers to  predict the gender and age of mobile device users in China based on their app download and usage behaviors. 

BBC Micro:bit Now On Sale and Shipping   Saturday 16 July

The micro:bit is a remarkable device capable of taking on a variety of roles. Until now it has been the preserve of school children, with one million given away free, via secondary schools. But if you've placed a pre-order for one it should be with you within the new few days. What will YOU DO with it?

Coursera Relaunches Classic Computer Science Courses   Friday 15 July

Many of the Computer Science courses that we feared had been assigned to the scrapheap have reappeared in Coursera's catalog. This has been done unobtrusively and without any announcement and so might miss the attention it deserves.

The Weekly Top 10: Web Development Resources   Friday 15 July

Again this week we've trawled the Internet to bring you posts you might otherwise not have noticed. The topic is Web Development which is a wide remit to chose from.

Joomla 3.6 Improves UX   Thursday 14 July

The latest version of the Joomla! CMS has been released with improvements to the UX.

Microsoft Launches Professional Degree Program With Data Science Pilot   Thursday 14 July

Microsoft has announced Microsoft Professional Degree (MPD) as an employer-endorsed university-caliber route for professional to grow their skills in critical fields. 

The Core

jQuery 3 - Selectors   Monday 18 July

Selectors are what jQuery uses to pick out particular objects in the DOM. While this might start out simply enough, it can appear to be complicated in more testing examples. The trick is to always remember what the selector is doing.

Micro:bit IoT In C - Getting On WiFi   Saturday 16 July

The BBC micro:bit has a radio that works in Bluetooth LE and point-to-point ad-hoc mode, but at the moment it lacks WiFi connectivity. The solution is to use the low cost ESP8266 to make the connection via the micro:bit's serial port. This is an advanced chapter from Harry Fairhead's latest book,  Micro:bit IoT in C .