Nixie: The wearable drone
Imagine being able to take a picture while rock climbing, bike riding, hiking, snowboarding and more without having to miss a step. That’s what Nixie aims to do. Nixie is a tiny wearable drone that lives on a user’s wrist and, when launched, can fly around to take photos and videos before returning back to the user.

“Nixie takes the picture that you wish you could always have, but couldn’t because you didn’t want to stop the action,” said Jelena Jovanovic, project manager of Nixie, in a video by the Creators Project.

Nixie is one of the Top 10 finalists in Intel’s Make It Wearable Challenge, competing for US$500,000. It uses an Edison chip in order to track users and avoid obstacles.

CloudFlare launches Universal SSL
CloudFlare wants to make SSL encryption more accessible. The company just recently launched Universal SSL, making SSL encryption free to everyone.

“Yesterday there were about 2 million SSL-enabled sites active online,” explained Matthew Prince, cofounder and CEO of CloudFlare. “By the end of the day today, CloudFlare will have rolled out free SSL to another 2 million—almost doubling the size of the encrypted Web. Universal SSL allows anyone to have state-of-the-art encryption without the expense and complexity it used to require.”

SSL is the cryptographic technology securing the Web, and according to the company SSL, is often difficult to set up and configure. To access Universal SSL, all a site needs to do is sign up for CloudFlare’s free service.

More information is available here.

Clasp: An open-source Lisp implementation for C++
Temple University chemistry professor Christian Schafmeister has developed Clasp: an open-source project born of the Common Lisp language that allows programmers to interoperate with C++.

Schafmeister announced the first “very alpha” release of Clasp in a blog post, with 10% of the Common Lisp symbols not yet implemented, and full testing yet to be completed. The open-source implementation also uses the LLVM compiler framework for just-in-time compilation to native code. Clasp can also interface with the LLVM C++ library, and according to him, it allows automatic cleanup and refactoring of existing C++ code and new LLVM compiler creation.

“The goal is to integrate these two very different languages together as seamlessly as possible to provide the best of both worlds,” Schafmeister wrote. “The C++ interoperation allows Common Lisp programmers to easily expose powerful C++ libraries to Common Lisp and solve complex programming challenges using the expressive power of Common Lisp.”

Clasp is looking for contributing developers, and future plans for the language include full Common Lisp compliance, direct C++ incorporation, a Windows port and multi-threading.

Oracle releases new HTTP JavaScript plug-in and JSON APIs for MySQL 5.7
With a new plug-in from Oracle, MySQL 5.7 now “listens to HTTP and speaks JSON.”

Oracle and MySQL developer Ulf Wendel announced a development preview of the plug-in in a blog post, explaining how the HTTP Plugin for MySQL 5.7 will let HTTP clients and JavaScript users connect to MySQL using HTTP. The HTTP proxy loaded into MySQL also comes with three news APIs for developers for JSON integration: key-document for nested JSON documents, CRUD for JSON-mapped SQL tables, and plain SQL with JSON replies.

Wendel did admit that at this point the JSON integration is only so-so, but the APIs are far from finalized, and MySQL 5.7.4 will have QL functions for modifying JSON for searching documents and new indexing methods.

More information can be found here.

Akamai introduces new Cloudlets
Akamai Technologies is launching extensions of the company’s solution to help simplify the development and delivery of multi-screen Web experiences. Akamai’s Cloudlets are being introduced with Edge Redirector, Visitor Prioritization and Image Converter; Akamai plans on introducing new Cloudlets regularly over time.

Edge Redirector is meant to help customers manage URL redirects for search engine optimization, marketing campaigns, or site content and architectural changes. Visitor Prioritization is aimed to offer a user-friendly waiting room experience when back-end apps become overloaded due to spikes in visitor traffic. And Image Converter is designed to simplify creating, storing and maintaining derivative images.

“With the introduction of Cloudlets, we continue to extend the value our platform provides to our customers via a new set of capabilities that are designed to provide a positive impact on the overall user experience,” explained Ravi Maira, vice president of the Web experience business unit at Akamai.

Vista Equity Partners to acquire TIBCO Software
TIBCO Software has announced that it has entered into an agreement to be purchased by Vista Equity Partners, a private equity firm focused on software, data and technology-enabled businesses. Vista will pay US$24 per share, totaling to approximately $4.3 billion.

“The sale of TIBCO to Vista will provide our shareholders with immediate and substantial cash value, as well as a compelling premium,” said Vivek Ranadivé, Chairman and CEO of TIBCO.

The transaction is expected to close during the fourth quarter of 2014 ,and is subject to approval by TIBCO stockholders, regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.