News

Google Play Indie Contest Finalists Announced   Wednesday 17 January

The finalists of the Google Play Indie Games Contest in Europe have been announced. The competition is open to indie game developers from more than 30 countries. 

Analyzing Alexa   Wednesday 17 January

Although we might be skeptical about the desirability of holding a sustained conversation an Amazon Echo device, Amazon established the Alexa Prize as a serious endeavour in the area of conversational AI and has now made available the 2017 Alexa Prize Proceedings.

What Breaks APIs?   Wednesday 17 January

There is so little information about how we actually code that almost any data is worth looking at. In this case the study is on how and why Java programmers break the APIs that they are creating and evolving. 

Levchin Prize for Real-World Cryptography   Tuesday 16 January

The Levchin Prize is awarded annually for significant advances in the practice of cryptography and its use in real-world systems. This year's recipients,  Hugo Krawczyk of the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center and the OpenSSL team, accepted their awards at the 2018 Real-World Crypto conference. 

Kafka Webview Released   Tuesday 16 January

A new web-based interface for reading data from Kafka Clusters has been released. Kafka Webview can be used for reading data out of Kafka topics and providing basic filtering and searching capabilities.

Supercomputing MOOC on Future Learn   Tuesday 16 January

A free Supercomputing MOOC designed for anyone interested in leading-edge computing technology or the role that computer simulation takes in modern science and engineering restarted on Future Learn on January 15th, 2018.

Stack Overflow Analysis of JavaScript Framework Trends   Monday 15 January

An analysis of JavaScript frameworks based on the proportion of new questions asked about them on Stack Overflow claims that they share a pattern of a quick ascent in popularity followed by a steady decline in interest. 

Microsoft Shuts Coding4Fun - Big Changes At Channel 9   Monday 15 January

Without any warning Coding4Fun, a really useful and fun blog hosted on Microsoft's Channel 9 portal, has gone. There are also rumors of big changes to the portal itself. More proof that Microsoft doesn't value what it has and doesn't communicate with the outside world at all well. 

Pepper's Cone - An Easy 3D Display   Sunday 14 January

Pepper's Ghost is a trick that has been frightening theater goers since Victorian times, but recently it has been receiving some technological upgrades. The latest is Pepper's Cone, a dynamic 3D display that is simple enough to be implemented by almost anyone with some programming and almost no hardware skills. 

MistyThe Robot For Programmers   Saturday 13 January

It is arguable that what we need is a sort of IBM PC of the robot world; a robot that we can use without worrying too much about hardware and just get on with programming. Misty is aiming to be just such a robot. 

Nearly A Third Of Devs Using AI And ML   Friday 12 January

Twenty-nine percent of developers worldwide, or 6,452,000 in all, are currently using some form of AI or ML and an additional 5.8 million expect to within the next six months, according  to a new study by Evans Data. 

Top 10 - Web Design Matters   Friday 12 January

We start this roundup of external blog posts with a guide to flat, aka minimalist, website design. Other posts concern responsive web design. Another key topic is costs and pricing. 

A Neural Network Reads Your Mind   Thursday 11 January

Is this AI or UI? The idea is simple enough - train a neural network to recognize what you are seeing from just your brain activity. Is it even possible?

Rust 1.23 Uses Less Memory   Thursday 11 January

There's a new version of Rust that uses less memory and no longer makes unnecessary copies.  The documentation has also been changed to use CommonMark.

Quantum Computation on edX   Thursday 11 January

A series of three courses from MIT on the theory and practice of quantum computation starts next week on the edX platform. One of the two instructors for the courses, which comprise videos of live lectures in the chalk and talk tradition, is Peter Shor, known for Shor's algorithm.

Professional Programmer

Java Books For Going Further   Monday 15 January

Java is one of, if not the most, widespread programming language. Given its popularity, it's not surprising that our reviewers have scrutinized over 50 books relating to it, both new and classic. This is the pick of recommended titles for programmers who know some Java and want to go further.

History

Adam Osborne Serial Entrepreneur   Thursday 11 January

Adam Osborne isn't a name much in circulation at the moment but we have a lot to thank him for. Some of his "inventions" seem very clunky today "how could you possibly use that " but at the time Adam Osborne was cutting edge and a purveyor of high quality information.