Schoolkids learn coding at GCSE level in curriculum trial
Teenagers could be taught to write their own software programs at GCSE as part of a major overhaul of the UK schools' IT curriculum.
The new approach is being trialled with 100 students in a two-term experiment that will be rolled out across the UK if it proves successful.
Launching the “Behind the Screen” scheme, science minister David Willetts told the British Science Festival in Bradford yesterday that the idea has been in development since 2010.
Willetts said: "[It] will transform the IT curriculum away from computer literacy, which we believe many young people can do earlier, towards instead how they develop software and computational principles; how they can create their own programmes." Read more...
Microsoft previews compiler-as-a-service software
Microsoft will release a CTP (Community Technology Preview) of a new type of compiler its researchers have been building, code-named Project Roslyn, the company executive overseeing the C# programming language announced Thursday.
"This project is about revising what compilers do," said Anders Hejlsberg in a talk at Microsoft's Build conference, being held this week in Anaheim, Calif. "[It] is about opening the compiler and making all that information available so [the developer] can harness all of this knowledge," he said.
Roslyn is a compiler for C3 and Visual Basic with a set of APIs (application programming interfaces) that developers can use to fine-tune their code. It resembles a model developed by Miguel de Icaza's Mono Project, in which the information the compiler generates about a program can be reused as a library. Read more...
What today’s software developers need to know
Today's software developers don't have to worry about many things that their predecessors used to, like coding to minimize RAM consumption even if it means significantly longer execution time, or WAN connections maxing out at 14.4 kilobits per second. (Although, there may be some out-of-fashion skills they could benefit from or that may yet regain relevance.)
However, the reverse is also true: There are many new skills and areas of expertise that today's software developers, hardware developers, system and network administrators, and other IT professionals need that simply didn't exist in the past (where "the past" could be anything from "more than three months ago" to five, 10, 20, or more years) or were only relevant for organizations and applications with immense budgets.
"The list of what you need today that you didn't need before depends on how long ago you went to school, how hard you've worked to keep up on technology, the software industry, and software engineering," says David Intersimone, Vice President of Developer Relations and Chief Evangelist for Embarcadero Technologies. Read more...
MasterCard gives sneak peek into mobile payments future
MasterCard on Thursday gave a sneak peek into the near future of mobile payment systems and said that the Google Wallet application is within weeks of being rolled out commercially.
Google Wallet, announced in May, lets mobile phone users pay for purchases in stores by tapping their phones against point-of-sale terminals. At the tail end of a media and analyst day in New York, MasterCard demonstrated the application as well as other, future mobile payments systems.
Initially, Google Wallet will work only on Nexus S phones, made by Samsung, on the Sprint network. Nexus S phones now on the market incorporate Near Field Communication (NFC) technology on an embedded chip, which allows for payment information to be transmitted via the tapping technique. Read more...
11 Android apps to boost speed, battery life and more
The mobile operating system Android for phones and tablets offers a wide variety of apps and can be quite useful in your professional and personal life. But after you've added a bunch of apps and used it for a while, Android can also get bogged down or unstable, run slowly and/or eat battery juice too quickly.
Like their larger computing counterparts, Android-based devices need to be maintained. Problems can start if the internal storage becomes full (or close to it) or if you're running too many apps or background processes at once (which also decreases battery life). Read more...
NASA discovers first known planet that orbits two suns
NASA's Kepler space telescope has just confirmed the existence of a space oddity that previously existed only in legend (and theory): a planet that orbits two stars rather than one. The system, known as Kepler-16, is located 200 light-years away in our galaxy. Through gravitational analyses, the planet (Kepler 16b) was found to be roughly the size of Saturn, and extremely cold — not exactly conducive to life as we know it. The exciting discovery joins the ranks of the 50 new exoplanets added to the planetary canon earlier this week. Read more...
Gum Drop! leads iPhone Games of the Week
This week was rather light in terms of large iPhone games with epic scale, so we’ll be highlighting a few smaller games in snackable bite-size format. Leading this week is Gum Drop! a new puzzle and word game from Chillingo aimed at audiences of all ages. You can read more details about this exciting game below, but be sure to check out all the top iPhone games this week for a variety of entertaining titles.
Gum Drop! (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
Gum Drop! is such a simplistic and easy-to-learn game that it doesn’t even need a tutorial; you can dive right into the action and start mastering the game within moments. In this lightweight word puzzle game, gumdrops containing various words will be displayed along the left side of the game board. Clicking the icons on the right that correspond to those words will make the icons disappear, resulting in huge combos and the gumdrop stack shrinking. If the gumdrop stack makes it to the top of the screen, you lose. Sounds easy enough, right? Chillingo is certainly one of the master game developers at creating games that are fun for all ages, and Gum Drop! is no exception. Kids will truly enjoy the bright colors and the easy gameplay, and adults just might find this game to be fast paced enough to present a challenge at the higher levels. Just don’t tell the kids that they’re actually learning and not just playing a game! Read more...
Google Propeller Social News Sharing App to Compete Against Flipboard [REPORT]
Google is creating a social news sharing app for iPad and Android that will compete directly with Flipboard, named 2010 iPad App of the Year by Apple. The first word of Google's rumored app that turns social media and news content into magazine-like articles was from Google+ about what he's heard from "someone working with Google" about the news-sharing reader.
"Google is working on a Flipboard competitor for both Android and iPad. My source says that the versions he's seen so far are mind-blowing good."
All Things D's Kara Swisher adds fuel to that fire, saying that her sources have told her the new iPad and Android app is called Propeller, which she calls a "souped-up version of similar reading apps such as Flipboard, AOL's Editions, Yahoo's Livestand, Zite and Pulse."
[More from Mashable: Google+ Allows You to Share Maps]
Given Google's search prowess and ability to categorize and search various content as well as posts within Google+, Propeller could be the news-reading app of the year.
Let us know in the comments what you think Google Propeller will be like.
(Source: old.news.yahoo.com)
Canadian Police Issue File-Sharing Scam Letters Fraud Warning
Canadian authorities are warning Internet users to be vigilant following the emergence of a file-sharing settlement scam operation. West Vancouver police, who have now issued an official fraud warning, say that seniors have been receiving letters claiming they have been caught downloading a range of porn titles. Unsurprisingly, the letters come with an offer to settle for thousands of dollars.
Just under a week ago we reported that mass-lawsuits targeting BitTorrent users had migrated from the United States to Canada.
Having met resistance on home soil, the makers of The Hurt Locker are now sending out letters to Canadian Internet users saying they have been caught sharing the Oscar-winning movie. Settle now for a few thousand dollars, the letters say, or face an expensive legal battle in court. Read more...
TorrentFreak Home About Archives Categories News Bits Contact The place where breaking news, BitTorrent and copyright collide Subscribe via RSS Subscribe via Email Tip Us Off! Search TorrentFreak Happy Birthday Pirate Bay, You’ve Just Turned 8 Years Old Today
It’s one of the longest existences in the entire file-sharing space and bar none it has been the most eventful. We’re talking about the life of The Pirate Bay, the world’s most resilient BitTorrent site. Today the site celebrates its 8th birthday, a massive achievement which may not ever be bettered in terms of longevity, sheer volume of members and material distributed.
By now the story of The Pirate Bay (TPB) and its humble Swedish-only beginnings is a well worn tale. The site’s roots can be traced back to Piratbyrån (The Bureau of Piracy), a pro-piracy organization founded in August 2003. Read more...