JavaScript should not be judged as if it was a poor version of the other popular languages - it isn't a Java or a C++ clone. It does things its own way.  In particular it has the comma - what?This is an extract from JavaScript Jems: The Amazing Parts.

The real complexity of any computer system resides in the processor, but do you know how it works? I mean how it really works? How does the code that you write turn into something that does something? When you know how, it's not magic - just a matter of "fetch" and "execute".

Large Language Models, LLMs, like GPT3 and BERT are all the rage at the moment and you can ask if they truly understand anything at all. Now we have an example of the same technology applied to "understanding" HTML - this is super scraping and could remove the human from the loop.

Data Science is a topic that crops up week in and week out on this site. Four new courses added to the edX platform will be of interest to anyone wanting to move into this discipline. Two of the courses are at introductory level and the other two tackle the issue of ethics.

Crawlee is an open source web scraping and browser automation library for Node.js designed for productivity. Made by Apify, the popular web scraping and automation platform.

Meta has identified more than 400 malicious Android and iOS apps this year that target people across the Internet to steal their Facebook login information. The company has reported its findings to Apple and Google and is working to help Facebook users learn more about how to stay safe and secure their accounts.

pgsqlite is a pure python module and command line tool that makes it simple to import a SQLite database into Postgres, saving a ton of time and hassle in the process.

Microsoft announced updates to Azure Cognitive Services at its annual Ignite conference. Azure Cognitive Services is described as bringing AI to developers through APIs that don't require machine-learning expertise.

In the venerable surroundings of the Palace of Westminster,  Ai-Da became the first robot to give evidence to a House of Lords committee. Proceeding were held up for a few minutes for Ai-Da to be rebooted, a timely reminder that she is indeed a machine without any humanity, despite looking human.

JetBrains has released a preview version of Kotlin Multiplatform mobile libraries, an SDK for cross-platform mobile development for iOS and Android. Kotlin Multiplatform can be used to build apps for iOS and Android with native UI from a single shared codebase for networking, data storage, and analytics, as well as the other logic of your Android and iOS apps.

Here is yet another use case for neural networks - this time to identify duplicate questions on Stack Overflow so as to eliminate them, thereby improving the quality of the resource.

Apache Isis, a framework for developing UIs for domain-driven apps in Java, has been updated with a new milestone release. Isis 2 M8 adds new core extensions and has major improvements to its value types.

New releases of two popular APIs update Java's logging battleground. Battleground because there are two front runners. The two APIs in question are SLF4J 2.0.0 and Log4j 2.19.0.

Author: Dr. Robert I. Kabacoff
Publisher: Manning
Date: May 2022
Pages: 656
ISBN: 978-1617296055
Kindle: B09X633939
Audience: Statistical practitioners
Rating: 4.8
Reviewer: Janet Swift

With high salaries to be earned as a data scientist,  R seems to be a useful language to learn R. Is R in Action the way to do it?

The Art of Computer Programming: Combinatorial Algorithms, Volume 4B (Addison Wesley)

This is the latest volume in Knuth's multivolume analysis of algorithms. Volume 4B, the sequel to Volume 4A, extends Knuth's exploration of combinatorial algorithms. The book begins with coverage of Backtrack Programming, together with a set of data structures whose links perform "delightful dances" and are ideally suited to this domain. New techniques for important applications such as optimum partitioning and layout are thereby developed.

For more than 20 years, Charles Petzold's book Code has been a classic, and now he has revised it for this new age of computing. Cleverly illustrated and easy to understand, this is the book that cracks the mystery. You'll discover what flashlights, black cats, seesaws, and the ride of Paul Revere can teach you about computing, and how human ingenuity and our compulsion to communicate have shaped every electronic device we use.

This book looks at how America designed and built the fastest chips and maintained its lead as the #1 superpower. Now, America's edge is slipping, undermined by competitors in Taiwan, Korea, Europe, and, above all, China. Today, as Chris Miller reveals, China, which spends more money each year importing chips than it spends importing oil, is pouring billions into a chip-building initiative to catch up to the US. At stake is America's military superiority and economic prosperity.