Technology News: Why Has The Combustion-Based Engine Technology Not Evolved?
Engine combustion technology has evolved considerably each and every decade. The evolution just hasn’t been obvious. Over the last 50 years, auto engineers have figured out a lot …
Read full story => Forbes

Programming News: UIKit Dynamics Tutorial in Swift
The design goals of iOS encourage you to create digital interfaces that react to touch, gestures, and changes in orientation as if they were physical objects far beyond a simple collection of pixels. The end result gives the user a deeper connection with the interface than is possible through skin-deep skeuomorphism.
This sounds like a daunting task, as it is much easier to make a digital interface look real, than it is to make it feel real. However, you have some nifty new tools on your side: UIKit Dynamics and Motion Effects.
Read full story => RayWenderlich

Photography News: Chicago Skylines and Thick Fog Make For Surreal Urban Landscape Photos
Photographer Michael Salisbury is a determined Chicagoan with a desire to slow down and capture the world around him in the most vivid and compositional of ways. It was last month, after a string of severe storms, that he had the opportunity to combine his love for the Windy City’s architecture with some surreal fog that coated the beaches and skyscrapers of Chicago like a blanket. The series is titled June Fog, and the results are astounding. Below are a number of images Salisbury was kind enough to share with us. Enjoy!
Read full story => PetaPixel

“Apple has been working with at least one partner, Swatch, to release a line of smartwatches in a variety of branded styles and price points. Apple and its partners will offer a family of smartwatches to suit all tastes ‘from geek to chic,’ our source says.”
Read full story => CultOfMac

Technology News: 10 technologies that will transform PCs in 2015 and beyond
The PC’s future is so bright, you gotta wear shades. You might write off PCs as archaic or boring. You might take for granted that they’ll get faster, lighter, more power-efficient and more convenient to use over time. But if you stop and consider all the things that go into making a computer better, there’s actually a lot to be excited about. Here are 10 PC advancements that will transform PCs over the next several years.
Read full story => PCWorld

Programming News: Introduction to TypeScript
Microsoft’s alternative to JavaScript adds modularity, generics, and type information while maintaining JS source compatibility. Used to develop applications for browsers, servers, phones, and the desktop, JavaScript has grown to be one of the most ubiquitous programming languages. For all its popularity, the language was not originally designed for the scale and complexity of today’s use cases. One of the key features of programming languages designed for this kind of use is a type system that can enable developers to use modern tooling to refactor, navigate, and detect errors in the code as it grows and changes. TypeScript helps to fill this gap for JavaScript applications. As a superset of JavaScript, TypeScript allows programmers to use their existing JavaScript code and frameworks. TypeScript provides a flexible type system that layers well on top of existing JavaScript, which enables developers to scale their codebases more quickly and with more confidence than with vanilla JavaScript.
Read full story => Dr.Dobbs

Photography News: MIT Will Teach You Photojournalism For Free
If you ever wanted to get more serious about photography, but weren’t quite sure where to start, MIT’s free online course in photojournalism just might be the right entry point. The worst possible outcome is that you might end up a better photographer. It’s not a full-blown photography class–there’s no instructor or peer feedback, and the course assumes you already know a little something and don’t need to learn all the technical aspects of camerawork. Instead, it centers around the type of photography most of us partake in: shooting our environment on the fly. A curated reading list and weekly assignments are designed to guide you in thinking about how to approach subjects and environments. They’re also intended to help you translate the five senses you experience in the living world into a single, dynamic photo.
Read full story => FastCodesign

Technology News: Microsoft Blends 5 Conferences To Create The “Unified Microsoft Commercial Technology Event”
Apparently the team that handled the Windows Vista version naming framework still works at Microsoft. This morning, the software company announced that it will end several of its standalone conferences, including its confabs for SharePoint, Lync, Project, and Exchange, along with its TechEd event. The five events will be replaced, and I promise that I am not making this up, the “inaugural unified Microsoft commercial technology event.” The gist is that Microsoft is bringing its wider enterprise-facing events together, which is worth noting. The event will take place in May of 2015, in Chicago. The company released a blog post on the change, essentially noting that its former conference structure had become dated — with increasing integration across products categories, having separate events was simply too siloed an approach.
Read full story => TechCrunch

Programming News: 6 Myths Preventing Developers from Using Git
Nowadays, you’ll have a hard time finding a professional developer who doesn’t use a version control system (VCS) such as Git. But, there are still a few among us who choose not to use a VCS due to preconceived notions they might have about version control. Here are some myths and excuses that dissuade developers from integrating Git — and any version control system in general — into their workflow.
Read full story => SixRevisions

Photography News: Black and white landscape photography: why rich color is the key to bold mono
Good black and white landscape photography requires more than just converting your dull, overcast scenes to monochrome. In this black and white landscape photography tutorial we explain why strong colours are the secret to dramatic monochrome images and offer our best shooting tips to guarantee images with impact. Good black and white landscape photography requires more than just converting your dull, overcast scenes to monochrome. In this black and white landscape photography tutorial we explain why strong colours are the secret to dramatic monochrome images and offer our best shooting tips to guarantee images with impact. The acknowledged master of black and white landscape photography is Ansel Adams, who’s best known for his images of Yosemite Valley in California, so for this feature we traveled up to our very own Yosemite Valley, aka Wasdale Head in the UK’s Lake District, to try to get the Ansel Adams look.
Read full story => DigitalCameraWorld

Technology News: Why we need to slow down on the gigabit Wi-Fi standard, 802.11ax
Earlier this month, the Wi-Fi Alliance and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) announced that they would begin to look toward 802.11ax, a new successor to the 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard. Though still in the early days, the IEEE has started to set priorities for the new standard. At the top of the list is a four-fold increase in network speed for devices, possibly allowing individual device connections, even for those with limited battery power, to move to the gigabit range for the first time. Sounds awesome, right? Not so fast.
Read full story => VenturBeat

Programming News: Pike Programming Language
This article is about a language that has been relatively undiscovered but is full of interesting features: Pike. It is open source, of course. The syntax of expressions and control statements in the language is very similar to C, so C programmers will find it easy to start coding in Pike or port their code with minor changes. The language is also object-oriented, with automatic memory management, high-level data types, powerful string- and text-processing features, excellent support for network and I/O operations, dynamic loading of pre-compiled shared libraries written in C, and built-in support for event-driven programming via a native event loop.
Read full story => Dr.Dobbs

Photography News: Behind the Shot
A picture is worth a thousand words, sure. But have you ever wondered what was reeling in the minds of the photographer as soon as they released the shutter? We asked several photographers to share their personal favorite shots and the stories behind them. From pulling all-nighters to capture the best lighting to traveling the corners of the globe to touching life tales of their subjects, here’s proof that there’s much more to a photo than simply pointing and shooting. Here, three seasoned photographers recount what it took to get that perfect shot.
Read full story => ZenFolio

Technology News: Offline over the Weekend? Read All the Tech News You Missed Here
In 48 hours, there are 172,800 seconds. If we assume that the average article only take 90 seconds or so to read, that’s enough time to read 1,920 articles, providing you don’t need to eat, sleep or otherwise move. If, on the other hand, you didn’t spend this weekend keeping up with tech news, then you’re in luck; we were paying attention so you didn’t have to. Now it’s your turn though, put on the coffee, set your phone to silent and spend a few minutes catching up on all the tech news and features you missed over the weekend from The Next Web and beyond.
Read full story => TheNextWeb

Programming News: JVM plus Docker: Better together
Docker, the high-profile project for packaging applications in portable containers, can be paired with the JVM (Java Virtual Machine) to fill in gaps in the Java realm, technologists say. The JVM is Java’s solution for application portability across different platforms, but Docker can offer an effective complement, stressed Al Tobey, open source mechanic at Datastax. “It provides a bunch of stuff that the JVM doesn’t do,” Tobey said following his presentation on Docker at a Silicon Valley Java User Group meeting this week. “The JVM has really good sandboxing. It’s very well-respected, it has pretty good memory control. What it doesn’t have is really sophisticated CPU resource control, and so Docker brings that to the table. It also brings the packaging of the entire JVM with the JARs and all the different parts of the app into one container.”
Read full story => InfoWorld

Photography News: Stunning Photographs Of Chicago’s Urban Landscape
Photographer Michael Salisbury, explored his hometown of Chicago to capture the city from various perspectives. Salisbury’s work showcases Chicago in symmetrical compositions colored in vivid hues, making the busy city appear visually arresting despite its jungle of buildings and public transport systems. In some photographs, the high-rise buildings appear to be shrouded by fog and clouds, lending an air of mystery to the beautiful city. Take a look at Salisbury’s work.
Read full story => DesignTaxi

Technology News: The rise of data and the death of politics
Tech pioneers in the US are advocating a new data-based approach to governance – ‘algorithmic regulation’. But if technology provides the answers to society’s problems, what happens to governments?

On 24 August 1965 Gloria Placente, a 34-year-old resident of Queens, New York, was driving to Orchard Beach in the Bronx. Clad in shorts and sunglasses, the housewife was looking forward to quiet time at the beach. But the moment she crossed the Willis Avenue bridge in her Chevrolet Corvair, Placente was surrounded by a dozen patrolmen. There were also 125 reporters, eager to witness the launch of New York police department’s Operation Corral – an acronym for Computer Oriented Retrieval of Auto Larcenists.
Read full story => TheGuardian

Programming News: 6 front-end techniques for Rails developers. Part I: From big ball of mud to separated concerns
Current trends in web development forces us to write more and more front-end code in our applications. Single Page Applications, content changes without refreshing, rich user experience using custom controls – all those requirements needs you to write code. And this code, as any other code, can quickly turn into a big ball of mud. It can happen when you lack proper tools in your toolbox to design it correctly. In this course I want to share with you techniques and tools we’re using in our day-to-day work. Some of those allow you to create easier, more testable code. Some of those allow you to develop it faster, without losing quality. I believe it’s really worth to try these techniques and choose which suits you most. In the part one, I want to present you a simple case of refactoring of a badly written front-end code to a stand-alone micro-app with proper encapsulation.
Read full story => Arkency

Photography News: How to Tell a Story Using Photos
There are times when an activity or event needs more than a single image to tell the whole story. A photo essay or photo story provides the means to reveal several facets of the narrative in visually interesting and dynamic ways. You don’t have to be a photojournalist to practice these techniques. You can apply these simple principles when you are photographing a family event, sports or a social occasion.
Read full story => ThePhoblographer

Technology News: Dispatches From a Connected Future
Unmanned aerial vehicles developed by Yan Wan from the University of North Texas are capable of providing wireless communications to storm-ravaged areas where telephone access is out. The vehicle was one of the cyber-physical systems showcased at the Smart America Expo. Anyone looking for a glimpse into the technologies that will change our lives, businesses and organizations in the coming decades received an eyeful at the Smart America Expo in Washington, D.C. in June. There, scientists showed off cyber-dogs and disaster drones, smart grids and smart healthcare systems, all intended to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. The event brought together leaders from academia, industry and government to showcase the results of six months of rapid team-building and technology development. The Expo demonstrated the ways that smarter cyber-physical systems (CPS) – sometimes called the Internet of Things – can lead to improvements in healthcare, transportation, energy and emergency response, and other critical areas.
Read full story => HuffingtonPost

Programming News: Webinar: Back to Basics 1: Thinking in Documents
New applications, users and inputs demand new types of data, like unstructured, semi-structured and polymorphic data. Adopting MongoDB means adopting to a new, document-based data model. While most developers have internalized the rules of thumb for designing schemas for relational databases, these rules don’t apply to MongoDB. Documents can represent rich data structures, providing lots of viable alternatives to the standard, normalized, relational model. In addition, MongoDB has several unique features, such as atomic updates and indexed array keys, that greatly influence the kinds of schemas that make sense. In this session, Mike Friedman explores how you can take advantage of MongoDB’s document model to build modern applications.
Read full story => mongoDB

Photography News: MIT Has A Free Photojournalism Course You Should Take
Lots of schools now offer free, online courses, but here’s a doozy from MIT: an introductory course about documentary photography and photojournalism that won’t cost you a cent to work through. Published through MIT’s Open Courseware project, the course — Documentary Photography and Photojournalism: Still Images of a World in Motion – was originally taught by Professor B. D. Colen. The class is pretty full-on: there are readings, and assignments you need to work through, plus an image gallery and course material to download too. But it should provide you with a great understanding of the theory and practice of photojournalism. You can investigate it and download the course materials here.
Read full story => gizmodo

Technology News: The Hottest Technology Trends for 2014
Perhaps the most dynamic agent of change in the modern world is Technology. Positive technological innovations promise e breakthrough but due to absence of generous investment, backdated regulatory frameworks and gaps in understanding, solutions to many pressing global challenges are left unanswered. Technology and innovations mostly have a positive impact in our lives. We have expectations from these in the upcoming years. We should definitely be informed about what the firms are doing and in what they are investing and how they are willing to serve the people through such innovations. In this article the top technological trends for the year of 2014 have been highlighted.
Read full story => SaveDelete

Programming News: GitHub data shows developers are turning to Swift
It’s been about six weeks now since Apple released Swift, its new language for iOS and OS X development, which is meant to eventually replace Objective-C. Not surprisingly, since its high visibility debut at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, Swift has already attracted a noticeable amount of interest from developers. It debuted this month at number 16 on the TIOBE Programming Community index, which is based on search web results, and at number 10 on the PYPL Popularity of Programming Language index, which is based on searches for programming language tutorials. Clearly and, again, not surprisingly, Swift is off to a strong start in gaining a foothold with developers. Since the TIOBE and PYPL indices are based on what people are searching for, I wanted to take a look at how much actual Swift code had been written in the first few weeks. Are all of those searches resulting in developers actually learning and writing applications using Swift? To find out, I dug into GitHub Archive data using Google’s BigQuery.
Read full story => ITworld

Photography News: How to Ensure Your Lenses Always Give You the Sharpest Images
It’s a fact: your lenses are much more important than your cameras. They almost define the image quality that will come from the sensor, and they far outlast any DSLR or mirrorless camera made these days. But in order to make sure that these lenses last that long, you’ll need to properly maintain them and calibrate them for the best performance.
Read full story => ThePhoblographer

Technology News: A Car That Is Smarter Than Its Driver Can Cut Pollution
Traffic jams and collisions aren’t only frustrating for drivers, but they multiply emissions and are potentially life-threatening and damaging to the economy. But these problems could dissipate as more vehicles take to the roads equipped to communicate with each other and drive themselves. Speaking at the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center in McLean, Va., yesterday, President Obama touted the benefits of technologies that make driving “smarter.” “I just got a tour of a lab where automakers and government researchers team up to create new technologies that help cars communicate with the world around them and with each other,” he said. “They can tell you if an oncoming vehicle is about to run a red light, or if a car is coming around a blind corner, or if a detour would help you save time and gas.”
Read full story => ScientificAmerican

Programming News: Hackers working on tool to prevent Nest, Google from collecting user data
When Google announced its $3.2 billion acquisition of Nest, many users reacted strongly to the idea of Google having access to their information and data, despite both companies claiming that they wouldn’t share any information. The WSJ published a report last month, however, claiming that Nest and Google eventually planned to share some user data between each other. This report only led to even more privacy uproar. Now, a handful of hackers have taken matters into their own hands and have developed a tool to prevent any user data from be sent back to Nest or Google (via Forbes). The hackers claim that the tool does interfere with the features of Nest at all, including all of the “smart” capabilities. The thermostat itself does not offer any sort of ability to turn off sharing data, although users can turn off WiFi. Doing so, however, breaks the ability to operate the device remotely, get software updates, and view energy reports. This tool simply stops data from being sent to Nest or Google. Everything else remains fully functional.
Read full story => 9to5google

Photography News: The Mistakes Every Rookie Photographer Makes
When a new photographer picks up a camera, they’re very prone to making tons of mistakes that are understandable. But making sure that they get corrected is important to ensuring that you get the best images and your camera delivers the best performance. Here are a couple of ways that rookies mess up often.
Read full story => ThePhoblographer

Technology News: This Armband Wants To Kill Your Computer Mouse
The Internet is falling hard for a new hands-free gadget that lets you control your computer without having to use a mouse. Tech development startup Thalmic Labs is on the verge of releasing the Myo, a wearable armband that allows users to interact with technology through motion commands. Sensors in the device measure the electrical activity in and motion of the user’s muscles, allowing the device to tell when the wearer makes a specific control gesture.
Read full story => HuffingtonPost

Programming News: The Observer Pattern in Java
Lizza decides to get a new dress for her 18th birthday party. She goes online to her favourite website fashionworld.com and selects a perfect Red dress. But oops its out of stock. She tries to find another dress but there is nothing that can replace it. So, she goes back to the dress, registers her email id and click on “Notify Me” button. You must be wondering why am I telling you story of Red Dress? Reason is “Notify Me” button is an example of Observer Pattern. Here is how “Notify Me” button works? As soon as the dress will be in stock she will be notified via an email.
Read full story => DZone

Photography News: The vacation snaps you wish you had taken
From the exuberance of a colourful crowd cheering on racing camels, to sweeping land and cityscapes and intimate close-ups of beautiful creatures in the wild, these are the travel snaps you wish you had taken.
But the spectacular images are actually the winners of the international Travel Photographer of the Year awards and are now on display at a special exhibition in London. The Royal Geographical Society is hosting the series of award-winning images documenting the magnificence and beauty of the Earth and its inhabitants. And if the photos aren’t inspiring enough, the exhibition will also be open for various ‘Enchanted Evenings’ so visitors can see the images lit up at night. The exhibition, which runs until August 17, features photos that won awards in various categories from ‘Wild Stories’ to ‘Vanishing and Emerging Cultures’. From a pair of lions looking proudly at their young cub to a Mongolian shepherd with his snow-covered flock in Mongolia, the photos provide the ultimate travel inspiration and organisers hope they will encourage amateur photographers to start thinking about submissions for the next awards for 2014.
Read full story => DailyMail