Enterprises want to add Alexa-style interfaces to apps

Conversational user interfaces like Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, and Microsoft’s Cortana have caught the attention of developers, with businesses now looking to incorporate the technology into customer-facing apps, consultant firm ThoughtWorks said in assessing recent technology trends. ThoughtWorks’ recently released Technology Radar report noted that conversational UI and natural language processing is a key emerging…

Microsoft to shut CodePlex open source project site

This December, Microsoft will shut down its CodePlex open source project hosting site, deferring instead to code-sharing site GitHub. The site will go read-only in October. CodePlex was launched in 2006 when Microsoft was trying to make a name for itself in open source. But the company acknowledges that GitHub has superseded it, and the…

WikiLeaks’ Assange gets relief from left victory in Ecuador

The win in Ecuador’s presidential elections of leftist government candidate Lenin Moreno will likely have provided relief to WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange, who had been threatened with eviction from the country’s embassy in London by the opposition candidate. The election in the South American country had aroused interest in part because the conservative opposition candidate,…