Featured Articles

Born in 1791, Charles Babbage was the man who invented calculating machines that, although they were never realized in his lifetime,  are rightly seen as the forerunners of modern programmable computers. This is the story of his life, his Difference Engine and Analytical Engine.

So you know how to create an Android app, but do you really know how it works? Here's a basic guide in Kotlin, an extract from my published book Android Programming in Kotlin: Starting With An App.

News

AI Helps Make Chess Better
01 Jan | Mike James

All games have a problem now that AI systems are generally better than human players. Should we give up and leave it to the machines? Perhaps not. AI can make games better by working out the impact of changes.

Over its 24-year history JavaScript has become a multi-purpose language and has accreted a complex ecosystem of frameworks, libraries and tools. The annual State of JavaScript Survey is an attempt to identify the latest trends and to gauge overall satisfaction with it.

There's a new release of JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA, that the developers claim is faster to start up, uses less memory, and has a more responsive UI. IntelliJ IDEA is a well-known Java IDE for web, desktop and mobile development, and the updated version is part of the regular update cycle that has seen three major updates this year.

There are some news items from the past year that deserve a second chance. Here we have one such - although not as well known as the long standing P=NP conjecture, Collatz has fascinated people for the past eight decades and produced almost as many flawed proofs. Now mathematician Terence Tao seems to be close to a proof.

For programmer's wanting to get to know Kotlin, here is a side-by-side comparison of Java and Kotlin covering features, variables, functions, classes, collections and more.

Here's another To Good To Miss (TGTM) item about why ASCII art turns up in code more often than you might expect.

Eben Upton, Raspberry Pi supremo, tweeted that "Raspberry Pi numbers get stale fast. We sold our thirty-millionth unit some time last week (we think Tuesday)." You can only say wow..

In the TGTM item we look at a new robot con that is on the rise - the robot artist that is personified by its promoters to fool the gullible. Meet Ai-Da, a toy with some software designed to be taken seriously by people who should know better.

For any human who has sustained injury from falling Jenga blocks the TGTM news that a robot has developed enough touch and vision to do the task is bitter-sweet.

Today we celebrate the birth of Charles Babbage, the man who invented calculating machines that, although they were never realised in his lifetime, are rightly seen as the forerunners of modern programmable computers.

Here we have an interactive infographic from Neil Green looks at personality types that cause problems for software projects. Better still there's a quiz that reveals what type of dysfunctional developer you are.

Books of the Week

Full Review

Scratch Programming In Easy Steps (2nd Edition)

Reviewer: Lucy Black,  Rating (out of 5): 5

Added to Book Watch

Trend Following Systems (CreateSpace)

The Cult of Mac, 2nd Ed (No Starch Press)

Images from the Black (Independently Published)