The Insider News

New Scientist[^]:

Schrödinger's cat, the enduring icon of quantum mechanics, has been defied. By making constant but weak measurements of a quantum system, physicists have managed to probe a delicate quantum state without destroying it – the equivalent of taking a peek at Schrodinger's metaphorical cat without killing it. The result should make it easier to handle systems such as quantum computers that exploit the exotic properties of the quantum world.

Computerworld[^]:

Microsoft drew the ire of online advertisers -- and praise from many privacy advocates -- when in late May it announced that IE10 would have the "Do Not Track" (DNT) option switched on by default. Later, it backed away slightly, saying users could turn it off when they were first told of the feature as Windows went through its setup paces. Do Not Track is a browser feature that signals whether a user wants online advertisers and websites to track his or her movements. Four of the five major browsers -- Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera and Safari -- can send a DNT signal. Google has pledged that Chrome will support DNT by year's end.

Ars Technica[^]:

The lack of central leadership left individual units to figure out things for themselves. The company's marketing? Totally uncoordinated. Its services unit? Directionless from four changes in the top in as many years, and hurting from changes in the sales force. Its products? Too many, too slowly delivered, poorly packaged. Managerial accountability? What's that?

The Code Project[^]:

In this installment we talk to Darrel Miller, an independent ERP and business systems developer.

Diary Of A Ninja[^]:

We’ve all been guilty of it in our development careers at one time or another. When starting out using a language or framework that you’ve never used before you often have no choice but to. What I’m talking about is the act of “copy paste coding”, and it’s as common in the programming world as chewing gum under seats. When you copy and paste other developer’s code into your application it’s important to fully understand what the code does before you continue; or risk joining the many fools that have gone before you.

IBM[^]:

There is a lot of excitement about Big Data and a lot of confusion to go with it. This article will provide a working definition of Big Data and then work through a series of examples so you can have a first-hand understanding of some of the capabilities of Hadoop, the leading open source technology in the Big Data domain. Specifically let's focus on the following questions.

Tali Garsiel[^]:

Web browsers are probably the most widely used software. In this book I will explain how they work behind the scenes. We will see what happens when you type 'google.com' in the address bar until you see the Google page on the browser screen.

Bitboxer[^]:

Ruby and Python. Two languages. Two communities. Both have a similar target: to make software development better. Better than Java, better than PHP and better for everyone. But where is the difference? And what language is “better”? For the last question I can say: none is better. Both camps are awesome and do tons of great stuff. But for the first question the answer is longer. And I hope to provide that in this little article.

The Endeavour[^]:

Here’s a strange detail of floating point arithmetic: computers have two versions of 0: positive zero and negative zero. Most of the time the distinction between +0 and -0 doesn’t matter, but once in a while signed versions of zero come in handy.

Read Write Web[^]:

With the increasing digitization of healthcare, the trend of "Big Data" has been gathering steam. According to a new report from digital health consultancy DrBonnie360, there is an estimated 50 petabytes of data in the healthcare realm. That's predicted to grow, by a factor of 50, to 25,000 petabytes by 2020. The report, which I've summarized in this post, does an outstanding job of profiling the leading products utilizing Big Data in healthcare.

Ars Technica[^]:

In the face of negative press about iOS 6's new Maps app, a bit of detective work by mobile app producer Onavo has unearthed a positive tidbit of news. The company says that iOS 6's Maps app uses considerably less data than its Google-powered predecessor—in fact, Onavo claims the much-maligned Apple Maps is "up to five times more efficient" than the previous incarnation.

Technology Review[^]:

Microsoft's Kinect, a 3-D camera and software for gaming, has made a big impact since its launch in 2010. Eight million devices were sold in the product's first two months on the market as people clamored to play video games with their entire bodies in lieu of handheld controllers. But while Kinect is great for full-body gaming, it isn't useful as an interface for personal computing, in part because its algorithms can't quickly and accurately detect hand and finger movements.

Owened by Owen Williams[^]:

Yes, I have switched to Windows 8 full-time, and it’s not because of the new Metro interface or charms. It’s not because of the ribbon or Internet Explorer 10. It’s really not because of anything you may expect. It’s much more simple than that. Here’s my top reasons I’m sticking with Windows 8 on my laptop.

Computerworld[^]:

Research in Motion Wednesday released a BlackBerry PlayBook OS update that adds full device encryption to secure personal data stored on the device to go along with the already-available encryption for corporate data. The PlayBook OS 2.1 update, which is fully described on a BlackBerry site, is available for Wi-Fi-only BlackBerry Playbook tablets.