Creating programs is just part of being a programmer - the other big part is the act of debugging and yet we rarely consider it as an important skill - and yet it is.

Rear Admiral Grace Brewster Murray Hopper was responsible not only for the development of the Cobol language but also for making computers and computing more accessible. Throughout her career she was concerned in promoting programming skills to young people which is why Computer Science Education week co-incides with her birthday of December 9th.

When we sit back and contemplate the replacement of "workers" by "automation", programmers are in a smugly safe position. After all we are the people doing the automation. We are coming for THEIR jobs. But, surprise, surprise - AI is coming for US!

There's a reversal of fortunes In the December 2022 edition of the TIOBE index. C++ is back in third place, which was its traditional spot until ousted by Python in 2019. This time, however, it is Java that C++ has overtaken, relegating Java to 4th place, the lowest it has ever been.

A free, self-paced course by Microsoft gives you the chance to expand your knowledge of Azure Cosmos DB as well as earning a certification.

Google has again revised the timetable for the transition of Chrome extensions from Manifest V2 to Manifest V3. Dubbed the "adblocker killer", Manifest V3 is Google's solution to issues of web security and privacy, but has been repeatedly delayed by both technical and political issues.

GitHub has announced the general availability of granular access tokens on the JavaScript package manager npm, along with a new npm code explorer. Both new features are designed to make it safer to download npm packages.

Amazon has introduced AWS Lambda SnapStart,  a performance optimization that the team says can significantly improve the startup time for applications.

Programmer gifts - easy idea, difficult implementation.  We have ten top fun tee-shirts for giving, buying or just wearing at any time of the year.

Advent of Code 2022 is well underway and as well as the challenge of earning stars for the daily puzzles, programmers are using it to try out new languages and new techniques.

Today, December 9th 2022, is the 116th anniversary of the birth of Grace Hopper. Her concern for teaching young people is why Computer Science Education Week and the Hour of Code are timed to coincide with her birthday. This day is also celebrated as Día Mundial de la Informática in Latin America in recognition of her being a true pioneer of computer science.

Chainguard has announced new capabilities in its software supply chain risk management platform, Chainguard Enforce. These include a software signing service powered by Sigstore.

JetBrains' integrated code quality platform moves from locally hosted development environments to the cloud. Why is that great?

Author:  Tristan Needham
Publisher: Clarendon Press
Pages: 616
ISBN: 978-0198534464
Print: 0198534469
Kindle: B0BNKJTJK1
Audience: The mathematically able and enthusiastic
Rating: 5
Reviewer: Mike James

This book introduces both the recent innovations and fundamentals that make a developer a Java master. Authors Ben Evans, Martijn Verburg, and Jason Clark distill their decades of experience as Java champions, veteran developers, and key contributors to the Java ecosystem into this clear and practical guide. 

This 2nd Edition of Murach’s ASP.NET Core MVC has been revised to provide more coverage of the skills needed to develop websites using the MVC (Model-View-Controller) pattern with ASP.NET Core. Joel Murach and Mary Delamater take readers who know the basics of C#, through coding the way today’s top web professionals do.

In this book GrubHub founder Mike Evans reveals the inside story of how he co-founded and developed GrubHub after wanting a pizza delivered late one night. In Hangry, he details step-by-step the grind of building an innovative business, with each chapter including sharp lessons for entrepreneurs and startups that Mike learned on the fly.