The Insider News

BBC News[^]:

Today's chemistry kits have a different emphasis. Some of the bigger sellers recently have included one capable of making edible creations tied to film franchises and a perfume kit aimed at girls. These kits are not capable of the experiments of old. "What used to be in chemistry sets that are not in there anymore are actual chemicals," says Cook. "Given the right instruction booklet, the older set would allow the user to create all sorts of experiments - blow things up, create smoke bombs, create stink bombs."

InfoWorld[^]:

The company has wrapped up its new OS and starting shipping it to OEMs, but where are the must-have Metro apps? Among the details still missing about Windows 8 is the price of the operating system. Microsoft has not revealed pricing for "System Builder," the license required for home-built PCs and Macs adding a new virtual machine running Windows 8.

the pluralsight blog[^]:

The real story is that Microsoft is taking some big chances and doing exciting things they’ve never done before… and that scares the HECK out of us! But our fear and overall shock at the radical change in direction shouldn’t make us lose sight of the fact that some real innovation is coming our way, whether we’re ready for it or not.

Windows Server Blog[^]:

Get out your calendars and free up some time on September 4. That’s when Windows Server 2012 will be generally available for evaluation and purchase by all customers around the world. On that day we will also host an online launch event where our executives, engineers, customers and partners will share more about how Windows Server 2012 can help organizations of all sizes realize the benefits of what we call the Cloud OS.

Blogging Windows[^]:

People will be able get Windows 8 starting on October 26th either by upgrading for $39.99 or on a new PC or device. And if you buy an eligible Windows 7 PC today, you will be able to purchase an upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for $14.99 (U.S.) through the Windows Upgrade Offer. However, we have a number of programs that provides various audiences early access to the Windows 8 RTM code to help prepare for Windows 8 as it enters the marketplace this fall. Read on for details.

Building Windows 8 Blog[^]

Today marks an important milestone in the Windows 8 project. The Windows 8 team is proud to share with you that a short while ago we started releasing Windows 8 to PC OEM and manufacturing partners. This means our next milestone will be the availability of exciting new models of PCs loaded with Windows 8 and online availability of Windows 8 on October 26, 2012.

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Anonymous vows revenge over logo trademark[^]
Anonymous has promised to take down the websites of a French online fashion retailer that has trademarked the iconic Anonymous logo and slogan.

Technology Review[^]:

Pleasing the crowd at the Black Hat and Def Con computer security conferences that took place in Las Vegas last week is relatively easy: simply hop on stage and confidently show how to compromise, or "pwn," a system that no one has hacked into before. Notoriety, cash, and multiple offers of work can be the rewards for those who demonstrate truly novel attacks. But some speakers at this year's events say that the obsession with breaking into systems has gone too far, and are calling for their community to show more interest in advancing defense techniques, which don't have such cachet.

Telerik[^]:

“Why build for Windows 8 now?” “Why not wait until a future date when the platform is more stable?” These questions are valid from a consumer and an enterprise point-of-view and I’ll try to explain why we believe that you should start writing applications for Windows 8 today.

The Windows Phone Developer Blog[^]:

It’s a question that’s probably crossed your mind as you design and publish your own apps. Well, we were curious, too. Recently the Marketplace team spent time crunching download stats and doing side-by-side comparisons of the top 50 apps in each Marketplace category looking for clues. The result? While there’s certainly no magic formula for instant success, the analysis showed that best-selling apps do have things in common—lessons you can apply to your own apps to help boost downloads and revenue.

mathbabe[^]:

It’s a good thing that data algorithms are getting democratized, and I’m all for there being packages in R or Octave that let people run clustering algorithms or steepest descent. But, contrary to the message sent by much of Andrew Ng’s class on machine learning, you actually do need to understand how to invert a matrix at some point in your life if you want to be a data scientist. And, I’d add, if you’re not smart enough to understand the underlying math, then you’re not smart enough to be a data scientist.

The Economist[^]:

There are also direct analogies between natural language and computer code. Well-written code is light on the computer's memory, and runs smoothly; well-written prose is easy on the reader's working memory, and reads easily. Badly written code will cause errors in execution; badly written prose can cause errors in interpretation. Some people will never learn to write. Some will never learn to code.

Macdrifter[^]:

In my continuing efforts to migrate off of WordPress, I now understand some of my biggest mistakes and flaws. Here are ten of them.

Ars Technica[^]:

The US court responsible for hearing patent appeals is showing fresh signs of disarray over the question of when software-based "inventions" can be patented. We recently covered a decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that upheld a patent on the idea of using a computer to perform a particular kind of financial transaction. Now, just a couple of weeks later, the same court has reached the opposite conclusion about a patent on using a computer to manage a particular type of life insurance policy.

The Atlantic[^]:

E-readers have been around long enough now that the novelty has largely worn off. To be sure, we still get the occasional article or blog post celebrating the smell of "real books" and denouncing the disembodied fakery of text on a screen, but not nearly as many as in recent years. E-readers are simply part of the reading landscape now -- the first Kindle was released almost five years ago -- and it's time for a midterm progress report. How is the technology developing? What has been accomplished and what remains to be done?