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Featured Articles

There is an unfortunate problem with the new Pico 2 - its input stage has more leakage than you might expect and what is more this is non-linear and so leads to some strange behavior. This is an extract from my newly published book all about the Pico/W and Pico 2/W in C.

RPN or Reverse Polish Notation used to be a basic of the computer programmer's world, but today it is not as well known. Hence there may be some perfectly clued up programmers who are still left wondering what the sausage is doing outside of the bun.

Programming News and Views

In the era of AI, the Raspberry Pi Foundation takes the view that learning how to create with technology has never been more important. Last year it revamped its Code Club network of free coding clubs with the aim of reaching 10 million young people over the next decade.

The new proposals for ECMA Script/JavaScript have reached Stage 3, which means they will soon be with us. Is there room for excitement?

pg_disatch is meant to be a TLE-compliant alternative to pg_later but built on top of pg_cron. What makes it different?

The Linux Foundation has launched the Agent2Agent (A2A) project, an open protocol created by Google for secure agent-to-agent communication and collaboration.

The beta of Biome 2 has been released with improvements including support for custom lint rules using GritQL; support for domains in link rules; and multi-file analysis.

Because so much of his work was top secret, Alan Turing was very much an unsung hero during his lifetime. Recognition of his many achievements dawned gradually and now his reputation is worldwide, as evidenced by the record prices realized last week when a collection of Turing papers were sold at auction with online bidders from the US and China willing to pay well above the estimated values. [ ... ]

Today marks the 115th anniversary of Konrad Zuse. Although his name may not be familiar in English-speaking circles, in Germany he is known as "der Vater des Computers". He does indeed have a strong claim to having invented the very first working computer.

Generative AI is having an revolutionary impact across the board. Some jobs will be lost but more will be created and to get in on the ground floor now is the time to gain a credentials to show employers that you have the skills needed for building AI Applications on the AWS Cloud.

This year's ACM SIGMOD competition winners have been announced ahead of the annual ACM SIGMOD PODS conference which is being June 22-27, in Berlin, Germany.

Microsoft has just released jaz, a JVM launcher optimized for Azure that promises to speed up your cloud-based applications.

The developers of ScyllaDB have announced an updated version of the managed version of its database that is aimed at meeting workloads based on demand.

Books of the Week

If you do make any Amazon purchases via our site, we may earn a few cents through the Amazon Associates program which is a small source of revenue that helps us to continue posting.

Full Review

Author: Mike McGrath
Publisher: In Easy Steps
Date: April 2022
Pages: 192
ISBN: 9781787910379
Print: 1787910377
Kindle: B0F9LDHDBG
Audience: Developers wanting to learn C++
Rating: 4
Reviewer: Mike James

This is the 7th edition of a slim book on C++. Can you really learn C++ in easy steps?

Book Watch

This book shows how to take full advantage of the Pico using the best language for the job - C - which wastes none of the power and gives access to all of the Pico's features. Harry Fairhead reveals what you can do with the Pico's GPIO lines together with widely used sensors, servos, motors and ADCs. After covering the GPIO, outputs and inputs, events and interrupts, Harry gives you hands-on experience of PWM, the SPI bus, the I2C bus and the 1-Wire bus. This updated and expanded edition was prompted by the launch of the Pico 2 and Pico 2W and covers four devices, the new Pico 2 and its WiFi counterpart, the Pico 2W, as well as the original Pico and Pico W.

This book offers engineers a straightforward and practical introduction to Python for technical programming and broader uses to enhance productivity. Raymond Madachy focuses on the core features of Python most relevant to engineering tasks, avoids computer science jargon, and emphasizes writing useful software while effectively making use of generative AI.

This is a hands-on guide to designing, building, and controlling robotic arms, the cornerstone of modern robotics. This is not a book for hardcore engineers--it's written for students, teachers, and tinkerers with no previous experience required. In this book Matt Eaton teaches how to build a robotic arm using simple, affordable parts; control it with an Arduino, and add servos to increase the degrees of motion for progressively complex movements. The book has 26 immersive projects to experience, starting with simple servo circuits and culminating in a robotic arm that operates in 3D space. Readers will also learn inverse kinematics, a mathematical process that enables robots to move, lift, and draw with amazing precision.

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