Tech Tuesday: May 17, 2016

Keeping up with new tech is important, and it can be easy to get lost in all the latest tech news. So you don’t get behind, this Tech Tuesday, we’re looking at some of the latest coding news.

• JavaScript is constantly expanding and changing, allowing developers to do more. It has long been dominant on the web, but it’s starting to become more widely used in desktop applications. Using Electron, a development platform that integrates JavaScript with other front-end technologies, developers can make Windows, OS X, and even Linux applications for desktop. A lot of the code written by companies using Electron is open-source, so you can check it out for yourself.
• Amazon is striding out into the tech world after the open-source release of its DSSTNE, pronounced “destiny,” deep learning software. While it isn’t perfected, it’s twice the speed of TensorFlow and deep learning allows the system to make inferences about new data. 
• Flash is becoming even more obsolete, with Google planning to entirely block its content by default. While the top ten used sites, including several social media giants like Facebook and YouTube, would be exempt from this, it will encourage more and more sites to switch to HTML5 in order to not lose traffic. If you’re ready for the death of Flash, you can go ahead and switch over your settings on Chrome. 
• Fabric now has a dashboard where developers can keep up with all of their apps, including activity, number of users, and the crash rate of the app. Mission Control sends you alerts if there’s an issue, lets you rearrange the dashboard, and has an extensive analytics section so you can examine how your app is being used.
• After several previews, Microsoft is set to release a new version of SQL Server on June 1, 2016. Query speed will increase in the latest database product, by up to twenty-five percent, and overall speed is said to be vastly improved as well.  A developer version will now be free, and will have all of the enterprise level features, so that developers can practice coding more easily. There’s even a free version, albeit limited, for production use.
• WordPress heightened security by changing all custom domain sites to HTTPS if they’re hosted on WordPress.com. The change was automatic and WordPress handled everything for the users. Not only did it increase security for the sites, but it also helped with search results since Google announced that HTTPS sites are ranked above other sites in searches.

We’re always on the lookout for the next big thing when it comes to programming. Keep an eye on our blog for the latest news!