News

A Neural Network Chatbot - Surprisingly Human?   Wednesday 01 July

Given the controversy surrounding chatbots and the Turing Test, it would seem unwise for neural networks to challenge the same problem. As you might guess, they have and the result is the predictable over-claiming of the result. 

Atom 1.0 - GitHub's Hackable Editor Becomes Stable   Wednesday 01 July

A year after launching a public beta GitHub's open-source code editor Atom has gone stable. Atom 1.0 has improved performance and support for ES6 language features and no longer has limitations on file sizes.

Supreme Court Refuses To Reconsider API Copyright Decision   Wednesday 01 July

In the latest twist to the Oracle versus Google lawsuit over Java and Android, the Supreme Court has declined to consider Google's petition to reconsider the issue of copyright, essentially finding in favor of Oracle.

Visual Studio 2015 To Launch Before Windows 10   Tuesday 30 June

VS 2015 will be launched on July 20th - nine days before we get our hands on the final version of Windows 10. Nine whole days to create some universal apps? Perhaps, perhaps not. 

Predix - A Platform for the Industrial Internet Of Things   Tuesday 30 June

Predix, GE's forthcoming platform for the Industrial Internet is a cloud-based platform designed for building and powering industrial-strength apps. As GE prepares to share details about the Predix platform, a promotional app has been created to set the scene.

Google App Engine for PHP   Tuesday 30 June

Google has announced that its App Engine for PHP is out of beta and generally available. Google App Engine for PHP is a scalable environment for running PHP-based web applications in the cloud.

IFTTT Maker Channel   Monday 29 June

The online service for connecting online services and automating tasks has opened a channel whereby DIYers, Makers and hardware hackers can add its facilities to their projects.

Amazon Uses Machine Leaning For Fraud Detection   Monday 29 June

In an attempt to improve the quality of reviews on its US site, Amazon has introduced a new machine-learning platform that has been developed in-house.

Google Drops Support For Eclipse - It's All Android Studio Now   Monday 29 June

It can't come as a surprise - Google announced long ago that it was stopping work on the Eclipse Android Developer Tools - but now it has ended support as well. It is well beyond time to move over to Android Studio.

Detecting Nudity With AI And OpenCV   Sunday 28 June

Algorithmia, the site that acts as a marketplace for algorithms, now has available a convincingly  successful method for detecting nudity in color photographs.

JavaScript Added To Oxford English Dictionary   Saturday 27 June

The latest update to the OED, which records the meaning of over 600,000 words that make up the English language, has one notable addition that developers have taken for granted for a long time - JavaScript.

Eclipse Mars Released   Friday 26 June

The Mars release (v4.5) of Eclipse with additions for Java and improved Maven support is available for download.

Cheerp C++ To JavaScript   Friday 26 June

You may know of emscripten as being the goto C++ to JavaScript compiler, but there are others. Cheerp, for example, does the job in a slightly different way and its latest version 1.1 is faster.

Amazon Opens Up Alexa To Developers and Third Parties   Thursday 25 June

Amazon's Alexa provides a cloud-driven way to add voice technology to services and devices and there's a role, and the potential for seed funding, for both developers and hardware manufacturers. 

Update To Windows 10 SDKs On The Way   Thursday 25 June

Microsoft has been making some amazing progress on the Windows 10 front, although not enough to make a July launch seem sensible. On the other hand, the Windows 10 SDK has been previewed and then nothing. Now Microsoft seems to have woken up to how important this component of Windows 10 is. 

The Core

Quadtrees and Octrees   Tuesday 30 June

If you do any advanced work in graphics, sooner or later you will meet the Quadtree or its 3D relation the Octree. For this reason alone they are worth knowing about, but they are also something you should have in your armory of data structures.

Android Adventures - Resources   Thursday 25 June

So far we have overlooked resources, but the subject can be ignored no longer. Resources serve too important a purpose in Android. They not only make localization easier, they are key to creating apps that adapt to the device they are being run on.