Items tagged with Programming
Depending on how old you are and where you went to school, you might memories of jabbing a potato with nails, wiring it up with copper, and using the seemingly unlikely contraption to illuminate a light bulb. That was high tech stuff back in the day, but it's a different era and today's kids are playing with far cooler toys. One of them is BBC's Micro Bit, a mini PC that's not totally unlike the Raspberry Pi. Having already been used to teach kids in the U.K. how to program, the Micro Bit is headed overseas. BBC gifted 1 million of the DIY PCs to year 7 (sixth grade) students in the U.K. last year, the the roll out happened later than teachers anticipated. Many of them held onto the device until...
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If you're not affected by it, and don't know anyone else who's affected by it, it's easy to brush the issue of gender bias under the rug. The reality, however, is that it's an issue that's proven over and over again to be a serious problem. Apparently, it's even a problem in the programming world. Six researchers from Cal Poly and North Carolina State University banded together to see the effects of gender bias on GitHub, the world's leading open source code-hosting website. GitHub's structure allows project members to submit "pull" requests from the project leader to gain permission to overwrite existing code or add some new code. A simple feature, and one that you wouldn't think would be that...
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While some politicians can't seem to grasp the absolute basics of technology, others are well-versed in it enough to attempt to make a good change in people's lives. One such person is Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, who hopes to make coding a requirement to graduate high school. As a former Chief of Staff to President Obama, his message to the current president might carry a bit of weight. It's Emanuel's belief that students "need to know this stuff". He goes on to say, "In the way that I can get by kind of being OK by it, they can't." Emanuel's intent here seems noble, but whether or not people actually "need" to know how to code is undoubtedly going to be hotly debated. Most people out there are...
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Being a massive company, Google has a ton of cool stats to share, and fortunately, most of those are well-known. Its revenue? That's public information. The same goes for the amount of employees it has and the number of data centers it has scattered around the globe, among many other things. However, some information that hasn't been divulged in the past relates to the amount of storage the company's codebase requires, and the number of lines of codes it encapsulates. It's a good thing it's Friday, because your mind is about to be effectively blown. Speaking at the @Scale conference earlier this week, Google's engineering manager Rachel Potvin treated attendees to some stats that most companies...
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We won't soon look back and remember this week as the brightest in Microsoft's history. With a newly-minted CEO moving forward with around 18,000 job cuts by the end of 2014, it's clear that this is a pivotal point in Microsoft's history. What will become of Windows, Nokia, its cloud services, and its engagement with enterprise will all be shaped in the months ahead. Even the Xbox division, which is viewed by many as a glimmer of positivity within the company, isn't leaving the war unscathed. With firms such as Netflix and Yahoo diving into original content production, Microsoft had bold plans to do similar. With its vast Xbox audience, it stood to reason that it could develop exclusive content...
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For years, many thought that pay-TV companies could continue to do as they pleased, knowing full well that if they never offered their programming online, people would have no choice but to continue to pay ruthless prices for content. Now, we're starting to see exactly how the disruption is going to happen. With Netflix and Amazon already investing millions in their own original content slates, Microsoft is joining the fray this week with Xbox Originals. These programs will reportedly include "documentaries, cartoons, reality shows, and scripted dramas and comedies," and will be developed in-house at Xbox Entertainment Studios. Interestingly, the team is going after a very specific niche: the...
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Not everyone needs to be a geek or even particularly tech savvy, though the latter is a trait that will certainly come in handy time and again. We get it, we all have different interests and what not. At the same time, we're a little taken aback by a new survey indicating that around 1 in 10 Americans (11 percent) think HTML is an STD. Like syphilis. In case anyone reading this is among the 11 percent, HTML is not a sexually transmitted disease. HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is a programming language used to make websites, and while it can incite anger, rage, and frustration (just like any programming language), it's not something you can catch after an ill advised one night stand, even if...
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At the intersection of awesome and banal, there’s this: Code.org, a terrific site that helps kids learn coding from an early age, has a fun 8-step “puzzle” that lets kids program their own custom version of “Flappy Birds”. It’s a simple drag-and-drop sort of programming with blocks that represent actions and event handlers. For example, you start with a “flap” block that you can connect to a “when click” handler. Then you run the program in a small window and observe that whenever you click, the bird flaps. As you complete each of the either sections, there are more and more complex actions that you can implement. You can even select...
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In the quest to build a processor that's an order of magnitude more efficient than what we have available today, the brain is the first thing looked at. Scientists would love nothing more than to fully understand how the brain works, because with that knowledge, not only could things improve on the healthcare side, but computers would benefit as well. Thus, researchers have long been craving for a processor that even partially but realistically behaves just like a brain. It would be able to learn new things as time passes, and enjoy the benefits of unparalleled error-correction. In 2014, a much simpler version of the ideal chip will be made available, which could be the start of great things...
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And just like that, the final nail in the coffin is hammered down. While sales of 3D HDTVs weren't ever remarkable, there was still a slim chance that the technology would garner enough traction to be profitable. But no more. The one and only at-home content hope for 3D was sports. Movies, sure, but mostly the technology would live or die based on the success of sporting events. ESPN 3D was one of the first major 3D channels, and ESPN was one of the first networks to invest heavily in 3D even before it was a proven medium. Sadly, it appears that the bet won't pay off. ESPN has announced, amidst cost-cutting efforts that have impacted jobs across the company, that ESPN 3D will cease by the year's...
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Here's a question: what company is going to be the one to reinvent television? Everyone in the world knows it needs to happen, and we're all just seemingly waiting indefinitely for it to happen. Will it be Apple? A start-up we've never heard of? Microsoft? Intel? Earlier this year, Intel confirmed that it would soon be shipping some type of set-top box to introduce its own spin on pay-TV and the entire living room experience, but we've heard little since. Shocking, right? The content creators and pay-TV operators are being remarkably rigid. The unbelievable amount of fear of having the industry change even the slightest is preventing any progress and innovation from seeping in. But according...
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You had to have expected this, right? With YouTube investing millions of dollars to equip producers with the tools necessary to create actual channels on the service that people would bother to subscribe to, Google was simply laying the foundation for YouTube to become something greater than a repository for weird cat videos and low-quality phone uploads. Instead, it wants to hop on the bandwagon that Amazon and Netflix are riding, where online natives are creating top-notch content for mass consumption. Reports are suggesting that Google is planning a video subscription service for YouTube, with around 50 paid channels to be announced this week. Reportedly, the company is: "looking into creating...
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If you're a conventional TV channel, there's no question that Netflix has your attention. In fact, Amazon as well. Streaming video services the world over are stepping their games up, acting as more than just dumb pipes that channel content made elsewhere. In order to bolster their appeal, they're now diving into the art of content creation. Netflix has a hit on its hands with House of Cards, and now it's clear that the company is planning to dive head-first into original productions. Netflix announced this week yet another new series: Orange is the New Black. It's premiering exclusively on Netflix on July 11th. Created by Jenji Kohan ("Weeds"), the comedic drama starring Taylor Schilling is...
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Homemade gadgets seem to be all the rage these days, and while programming used to be reserved for nerds, it's also becoming a more mainstream hobby. And honestly, a cheaper hobby to get into. With small Arduino boards becoming more popular, Olympia Circuits is jumping into the mix with the Arno Shield. It contains all the components necessary to learn Arduino programming when plugged into an Arduino compatible board without any messy wires. The original Arno Learning Kit was introduced last year, and the Shield provides another way for new users to dive into the world of Arduino and breaks down barriers to learning about microcontrollers. To allow for a wide range of learning projects, the shield...
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