Computers

https://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2015/06/06/why-agile-and-especially-scrum-are-terrible/ Agility is a good thing, no doubt, and the Agile Manifestoisn’t unreasonable. Compared to a straw-man practice called “Waterfall”, Agile is notably superior.  This article argues that much of Agile as-practiced is deeply harmful. The writer don’t really think that the Agile/Waterfall dichotomy is useful in the first place. Writer has seen a variety of Agile, →

https://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/processors/chip-hall-of-fame-acorn-computers-arm1-processor Unsatified with the processors then available on the market, the Acorn engineers decided to make the leap to creating their own 32-bit microprocessor. ARM1 was released in 1985. They called it the Acorn RISC Machine, or ARM. In 1990, Acorn spun off its ARM division, and the ARM architecture went on to become the dominant →

https://www.alexkras.com/reverse-engineering-one-line-of-javascript/ This article analyses one line of JavaScript that renders an interesting moving image. You can see it in your browser here. This script was created by author of www.p01.org where you can find this and many other cool demos. The article writer found it was fun trying to understand the code. →

http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/robotics/artificial-intelligence/ai-creates-fake-obama You can’t trust anymore what you see or hear in videos anymore.  Artificial intelligence software could generate highly realistic fake videos of former president Barack Obama using existing audio and video clips of him, a new study [PDF] finds. Essentially, the researchers synthesized videos where Obama lip-synched words he said up to decades beforehand. Such work could →

https://www.techworm.net/2016/09/difference-programmer-coder-developer-engineer.html Do you know the difference between a Programmer, Coder, Developer and Engineer? Different titles can be very confusing even for those who are working in the technology industry.  In reality, it depends upon organization to organization and how these terms are used by them in their industry, as these terms are often interchangeable.  This →

https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/30/15899446/unity-cinemachine-unite-europe-2017-animation Use game engine for animation? It looks feasible soon. The new Cinemachine component that’s coming to Unity’s 2017.1 release  promises to allow that: directorial and cinematography powers. Unity’s Asset Store is full of free 3D models and environments — including the hugely impressive Adam character. Unity is adding a timeline view: Your entire game or animation can sit on multiple layered →

http://spectrum.ieee.org/static/chip-hall-of-fame The stories of the greatest and most influential microchips in history—and the people who built them. →

https://opensource.com/article/17/2/hidden-costs-free-software?sc_cid=7016000000127ECAAY We’re used to hearing of software being described as “free as in freedom” and “free as in beer.” But there’s another kind of “free” that doesn’t get talked about as much: “free as in puppy.” This concept is based around the idea that when someone gives you a free puppy, that puppy isn’t really free. There’s →

http://spectrum.ieee.org/geek-life/hands-on/how-i-built-an-ai-to-sort-2-tons-of-lego-pieces This is an interesting story that combines AI and LEGO. Even second-hand Lego isn’t cheap. Bulk unsorted Lego sells for roughly €10 per kilogram (about US $11/kg), boxed sets go for €40/kg, and collections of rare parts and Lego Technic pieces much more. Consequently, there exists a cottage industry of people who buy new sets and →

http://www.zdnet.com/article/linux-owns-supercomputing/ In the latest Top500 supercomputer race, only two — count ‘em, two — of the world’s fastest computers aren’t running Linux. →