There is the C way of working with files and there is the Linux way - sometimes you just need to use the Linux file descriptor. This extract is from my  book on using C in an IoT context.

The merge sort is an under-appreciated algorithm - yet it is neat, clever and it still has its uses. With the rise of big data, parallel methods and online processing, you can even argue that it is growing in importance. Let's take a look at how it works and when you should use it. 

News and Comment

Epic Keeps Developer Licence - For Now
26 Aug | Mike James

The dispute between Epic and Apple is going to run and run and part of the problem is minimizing the damage while the dispute remains unresolved. A judge has issued a temporary restraining order against Apple to protect Unreal Engine and its users and Epic is directing mobile-using Fortnite afficianados who want to participate in the new Season to do so on Android.

The COVID-19 pandemic has meant that developers who normally work in an office environment had to switch to working from home. What can be learned from the "natural experiment" forced on us by unanticipated events? What are seen as the benefits and challenges of working from home and how do they impact productivity?

New feature improvements in Istio 1.7, which include control plane upgrades and virtual machine integration, make Istio easier to operate and expands its capabilities for hybrid cloud environments. First, for those not familiar with it, what is Istio and how can it help you?

Emacs has been updated with native support for JSON parsing, built-in support for arbitrary-size integers, and text shaping with HarfBuzz.

Two weeks ago Mozilla announced 250 layoffs as part of a new strategy to ensure its financial stability. Gradually news is filtering out about the effects of the layouts on key projects.

Apache Druid has been updated with better performance, easier and more flexible data ingestion, and Apache Ranger authorization integration.

Spot, Boston Dynamics' dog robot, ok quadruped, is impressive, but expensive. It seems the maker community can't wait for the price to fall. Now we can all build our own SpotMicro.

TypeScript 4.0 has been released with improvements to the build and editing processes, along with support for variadic tuple types. TypeScript is a superset of JavaScript that adds optional static types which can be checked by the TypeScript compiler to catch common errors in your programs.

Visual Studio Code has been updated with improvements to accessibility and to the Workbench tool. Debugging and source code control have also been improved.

For a limited period Udacity is offering a 50% discount when you enroll in a Nanodegree - and this represents a big saving. Looking around for a new courses to cover, we lighted on Robotics Software Engineer.

UPDATE: Epic Games has lodged a court order against Apple's removal of Fortnite from the App Store. But this won't necessarily be successful any time soon. Seeing a market opportunity, iPhones with Fortnite pre-loaded are being put on sale for big bucks.

Oracle has launched a JSON Database service at its Oracle Developer Live event. Oracle Autonomous JSON Database is described as a cloud service that’s built for developers who are looking for an easy to use, cost-effective JSON database.