News

The Commons Clause - For Good or Bad  
Wednesday 29 August

The current debate about the Commons Clause, and other attempts to place restrictions on open source licences, is dividing opinion. But before taking sides first we need to understand what the Commons Clause does and why it is necessary. 

Genomics Needs Better Compression  
Wednesday 29 August

An article in the IEEE Spectrum highlights a problem that, by my guess, few of us are aware of. The simple fact is that genetics is generating data at such a rate that, without improved compression algorithms, the subject will not deliver on its promise. 

Office 365 And SharePoint Connect Early Bird Discount   Tuesday 28 August

This year's Office 365 and SharePoint Connect conference in Haarlem, with four full day workshops alongside a packed agenda of sessions, is getting close. Delegates registering before August 31 can save €379  with the Early Bird discount and our exclusive I Programmer code. 

Babel 7 Released With Improved TypeScript Support   Tuesday 28 August

Babel was once the lifesaver for many JavaScript projects. It took "future" JavaScript and compiled it to "current" JavaScript. But now the future has arrived, almost, and the question is do we need a compile step to slow things down? 

Deep Learning From Udacity and Coursera  
Monday 27 August

A new advanced nanodegree on Deep Reinforcement Learning from Udacity's School of AI has just started. So has another presentation of Coursera's Deep Learning Specialization taught by Andrew Ng.  

Visual Studio For Mac Improves Reliability  
Monday 27 August

There's a new version of Visual Studio for Mac  with better product reliability, especially in code editing and IDE performance. 

Cloud-connected aibo for USA
Sunday 26 August

Following the recent reintroduction of aibo in Japan, Sony's First Litter Edition for the U.S. will be a limited, all-in-one aibo bundle at a suggested retail price of $2,899, with delivery in time for the holidays. 

Put on Your Dancing Shoes With AI  
Saturday 25 August

Using a deep learning based algorithm, researchers have produced videos in which untrained amateurs appear to have mastered the dance moves of pop stars, perform martial arts kicks and spin and twirl gracefully like ballerinas. 

More Postgraduate Computer Science Options  
Friday 24 August

The Fall is traditionally the start of the University year so if you are considering gaining a Masters degree or other postgraduate qualification now is a good time to make your decisions and complete the application process. Here we look at online options from the Open University and the University of Liverpool. 

ReSharper Gets Integrated Spell Checker  
Friday 24 August

The latest update of ReSharper comes with an integrated spell checker as well as performance improvements and support for C#7.3. 

OpenAI Five Defeated But Undaunted  
Friday 24 August

OpenAI's team of Dota 2-playing bots lost both the games it played at Valve's International Dota 2 tournament this week against top-ranked human professionals in games described as exciting and close. 

Amazon Releases Cameras Recap API  
Thursday 23 August

There's a new API from Amazon that can be used to let apps play video feeds recorded by smart home cameras. The Cameras Recap API can be used to view videos on Echo Show, Echo Spot, Fire TV, and Fire Tablets. 

Apple & Google Face Backlash Over App Store "Tax"?   Thursday 23 August

A new report, and a Bloomberg commentary on it, claims that there is a revolt against the app stores building. Given the current state of the market this seems reasonable, but is it true? There are some interesting statistics to suggest that Apple and Google really need to hope it isn't. 

The Core

Programmer's Python - Properties
Tuesday 28 August

Attributes in Python are easy – until you want to do something more than just have an attribute that can reference an object. In this article we look at some of the real world practicalities of using attributes – we look at properties that work with get and set functions. This extract is from my new book with the subtitle "Something Completely Different". 

Babbage's Bag

Floating Point Numbers
Thursday 23 August

Inconvenient though they may be, fractions are the real stuff of numbers and to work with them we need to know about floating point numbers.