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Featured Articles

ESPNow is a flexible peer-to-peer networking mode that is available for use with all ESP32 devices. The problem is that it can be difficult to get started, but not if you follow our simple introduction. This is an extract from our latest book on the ESP in C.

Computer graphics wasn't invented by one man, but Ivan Sutherland had a lot to do with it and his is the name you generally think of first in connection with its development.

Programming News and Views

There is a big backlash against AI at the moment and given the threat it poses to jobs. this can hardly be an unexpected response. However, much of the backlash focuses on how useless and unimpressive it is. This is crazy. AI has achieved so much of its goal in such a short time, this is an entirely untenable position.

A new Advent calendar had joined those for Java, Kotlin and Rust. We now have  Advent of AI, a series of AI engineering challenges from Goose, that is already underway.

LangGrant has announced its LEDGE MCP server that enables LLMs to reason across multiple enterprise databases and generate multi-step analytics plans without transmitting raw data to the model. The system works entirely with metadata and schema context.

Today, December 9th 2025, is the 119th anniversary of the birth of Grace Hopper. Her concern for teaching young people is why Computer Science Education Week and the Hour of Code, now the Hour of AI, are timed to coincide with her birthday. Her legacy also extends into other areas.

Connect to PostgreSQL database instances, run queries, create and manage connections and more, all from inside VSCode. Just announced, the extension simplifies talking to and managing PostgreSQL databases from the ease of the most popular IDE.

Angular 21 has been released with experimental support for Signal Forms, a developer preview of Angular Aria, and the ability to use Angular's MCP Server via AI Agents.

The holiday season is a good time to acquire a new skill - you have the time and don't want to go outdoors. How about getting into electronics and home automation? My recommendation for this is the Raspberry Pi Pico, specifically the Pico 2W, where W indicates in-built WiFi.

A pilot scheme supported by Horizon Europe is investigating the use of AI and robot dogs to detect and mitigate wildfires.

Apache NetBeans 28 has been released with improvements to Gradle 9 support, better handling of the Maven UI, and expanded JUnit integration.

Codacy has launched two new products to help control genAI coding.  AI Risk Hub and AI Reviewer form a code compliance suite that organizations can use for governance of AI-generated code and smart, context-aware code reviews.

Microsoft is adding a "semantic intelligence layer" to Fabric to add  that elevates Fabric from a unified data platform to a unified intelligence platform. The announcement says the extra layer will turn an organization's data into "a live, structured, connected model of how your business operates".

Book Watch

This book looks at using the ESP32's WiFi for IoT projects in which data needs to be shared. Mike James and Harry Fairhead start out with an examination of using FreeRTOS beyond the simple single-task program: using cores, scheduling, locks, synchronization and interrupts. There are chapters covering the different data structures that FreeRTOS provides for inter-task communication, and basic WiFi in station mode.

This book explains the essentials of writing code and applying it to real-world projects. Paul McFedries starts with the essentials of how code works and which coding languages drive tech. He shows to code using Python and JavaScript. The book also offers insights into how new tools like AI can quickly boost coding know-how.

This book tells the history of the development of artificial intelligence through its six essential animating ideas.  Toby Walsh explores how since Alan Turing first posed the question “Can machines think?” artificial intelligence has evolved from a speculative idea to a transformative force. He traces this evolution, from Ada Lovelace’s visionary work to IBM’s groundbreaking defeat of the chess world champion and the revolutionary emergence of ChatGPT.

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