News

An Exponential Law For AI Compute   Wednesday 23 May

OpenAI has released an analysis showing that since 2012, the amount of compute used in the largest AI training runs has has grown by more than 300,000x. To put it another way, the computer resources used in AI has doubled every 100 days.

NetBeans 9 RC1 Ready to Go   Wednesday 23 May

NetBeans seems to have survived its transition from Oracle to Apache, but it is still difficult to say how well. The long-awaited version 9 is ready for serious work and you can download the release candidate now.

C# Future Revealed At Build   Wednesday 23 May

A talk by Mads Torgersen and Dustin Campbell at this year's build has given details of what the future of C# will hold, mainly in C# 8. The details come as the latest version of Visual Studio includes initial support for some features of C# 7.3.

What's Important To Get A Developer Job   Sunday 20 May

Visual Studio 2017 15.7 Fully C++17 Compliant   Tuesday 22 May

The latest release of Visual Studio has been launched with improvements to performance, the editor, and debugging.

The Developer Union Wants To Negotiate Nicely With Apple   Monday 21 May

After the publication of an open letter to Apple, asking it to allow free trials for all apps in the App Store by July 2019, developers are flocking to join a newly formed group which aims to campaign for sustainability in the App Store.

Enrol Now For Udacity Intro to Self-Driving Cars Nanodegree   Monday 21 May

Self-Driving Cars;sounds seriously challenging and not for mere mortals. Could it be otherwise? Yes, and that's what Udacity is trying to change with this nanodegree, to render the topic of self driving cars accessible to just about anyone. Enrollment for the next session ends on May 22.

HHVM 3.26 With New Front End   Monday 21 May

The latest version of the HHVM interpreter for PHP/Hack has been released and now uses the HackC compiler front-end. HackC includes a full-fidelity parser (FFP) and bytecode emitter for the Hack and PHP languages.

Google Clips - The Death of the Photographer   Sunday 20 May

Google has invented a camera that can do what a photographer, or should that be videographer, does - pick the moment. It is the last piece of photography that humans were needed for. How it works is an interesting story that might have applications in other areas.

GPS Chief Architect Brad Parkinson Awarded IEEE Medal   Saturday 19 May

We take GPS for granted - we'd be lost without it. But have you ever wondered about who, when and how it was conceived? Brad Parkinson, who has received the 2018 IEEE Medal of Honor for his major role in its invention, is the best person to explain its origins.

Carnegie Mellon Offers Bachelor's Degree In AI   Friday 18 May

Carnegie Mellon is pioneering a Bachelor of Science degree in artificial intelligence beginning in September 2018, to address the growing demand for AI expertise.  

MakeCode for Lego Mindstorms Launched   Friday 18 May

MakeCode for Lego Mindstorms has been launched by Microsoft and Lego. It's a Windows-based system that can be used to code using either a drag and drop code select system, or JavaScript. MakeCode can be used alongside Mindstorms components, servos, motors and Lego bricks.

Firefox 60 Supports WebAuthn   Thursday 17 May

Someday all our problems with passwords could be a thing of the past. Firefox 60 is the first browser to support WebAuthn, a new standard for web authentication developed by the W3C in collaboration with FIDO Alliance and support from Google, Microsoft and Mozilla to provide alternative ways for web access.

Decoding What The Eye Sees   Thursday 17 May

The latest breakthrough in brain function is the reconstruction of what the eye sees from the activity of neurons that form the optic nerve. Man machine neural interfaces get closer.

Apache Impala Adds ODBC Scalar Functions   Thursday 17 May

Apache Impala has been updated to version 3, with new features including the addition of ODBC scalar functions that were missing from the previous release. Impala is an open source, native analytic database for Apache Hadoop that provides a high-performance distributed SQL engine.

The Core

Just JavaScript - The Function Object   Monday 21 May

The function object is the most important object in all of JavaScript and yet we tend to forget that it is an object. Understanding that JavaScript functions are objects is probably the most important step you can take in understanding the language.

History

Douglas Hartree and the Meccano Computer   Thursday 17 May

Analog computers work in a very different way to digital computers. Once they were popular, the mainstay of computing, and who knows they could be again in the future. One thing is sure, the era of building computers from a children's construction kit, Meccano, is most probably over. Find out about Douglas Hartree and the construction kit computer.