Very interesting data compiled and analyzed by O'Reilly, using statistical models such as Lasso regression to predict salary based on different factors. It reminds me our own analysis based on simulated (but realistic) data, to assess whether having Python or R (or both) commands a bigger salary, and what is the extra boost provided by these skills, individually. The statistical model used was Jackknife regression, and it was designed for tutorial purposes. The O'Reilly survey is much bigger, based on real data, and it includes many factors, as well as factor selection. It uses standard statistical techniques which might be less robust than Jackknife regression.

SpaceX has successfully landed a rocket on a floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean, for the second month in a row, following a Japanese satellite mission. The unmanned SpaceX rocket blasted off from Florida early this morning to put the communications satellite into orbit, with the launch vehicle's main-stage booster completing a quick return landing on the floating platform. Due to the high altitude of the mission, SpaceX did not expect a successful landing, but the Falcon 9 rocket touched down on the drone platform - nicknamed Of Course I Still Love You - just over eight minutes after launching. SpaceX has successfully landed a rocket on a floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean after a delivering a Japanese satellite into orbit early this morning, and is the second rocket to successfully land in the space of a month. A company webcast showed the 23-story-tall rocketsoaring off a seaside launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air ForceStation at 1:21 am EDT (06:21 BST).

For over 60 years, KFC restaurants have been serving the same secret original recipe to patrons. But Colonel Sanders is going against tradition with a new concept store located in Shanghai, China that lets customers order fried chicken from a voice activated robot. Dubbed'Dumi', the robot is smart enough to handle order changes and substitutes, but its creators say it cannot distinguish other dialects or accents. Colonel Sanders is going against tradition with a new concept store located in Shanghai, China that lets customers order fried chicken from a voice activated robot. Dubbed'Dumi', the high-tech automation can handle order changes, as well as substitutes – but it cannot distinguish other dialects or accents Dumi is a voice activated robot employed at a concept KFC store called'Original '.

If the BA incident had involved a drone, I might have had mixed feelings. Last summer, I was testing a drone. To evaluate the device and its camera, I wanted to find a safe, yet picturesque place to fly. I chose a quiet stretch of beach, a short bus ride south of where I live in Spain. I say quiet: That was until two police officers rolled over the sand dunes on quad bikes and told me to stop.

Mario the plumber may have got there first, but Sonic was always going to catch up. The Strong museum in Rochester, New York, has announced the latest six inductees to its video game hall of fame – and Sega's iconic hedgehog is among them. Also making the grade for this renowned collection of seminal game titles is interactive soap opera The Sims, gangster adventure Grand Theft Auto III, role-playing favourite Legend of Zelda, educational title Oregon Trail and one of the titles that helped kickstart the video gaming industry, Space Invaders. Strong began its world video game hall of fame last year, introducing the concept with the opening six entrants: Doom, Tetris, Pac-Man, Pong, Super Mario Bros and World of Warcraft. The nomination process is open to the public, but the final annual inductees are chosen by a panel of journalists and game scholars.

Over at Data-Mania, I've started a blog series on analytics as a service, specifically focusing on IBM's Watson Analytics technology. I originally planned this series because I wanted to quash some recurring worries I've heard among the data science community. Accordingly, I'll be demonstrating that IBM's Watson Analytics technology was unequivocally not designed to annihilate the careers of data science professionals. What's more, I'll be underscoring just how much IBM is doing to foster, cultivate and enrich the careers of working professionals in the big data and data science space. The Datapalooza event is one major avenue by which IBM is supporting the data science community, seeking to educate the "next generation of data scientists on how to apply their minds, creativity, and tools in the creation of innovative data products." That sounds pretty cool, right?

Robot Wars will soon back on TV in the UK, and a very similar battle is heading for the country's seas. The British Royal Navy will be holding a demonstration of unmanned technology off the coast of Scotland this autumn. And during the event, one company will be trialling the world's first unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) capable of landing autonomously on a moving ship. The British Royal Navy will be holding a demonstration of unmanned technology off the coast of Scotland this autumn. One company, Roke, will be trialling the world's first unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) capable of landing autonomously on a moving ship (test phases pictured) The machines will compete in their very own version of'robot wars' to demonstrate they could be part of the Navy's future.

In the ever-forward-looking world of the Silicon Valley, lately there's been a lot of hype surrounding the use of AI and machine learning processes in order to build the next generation of software products and features -- with Google's self-driving cars taking the spotlight as the representative for this line of thought. Though largely an unproven concept at this point, given that a working, reliable model could yield untold benefits, it's something that a lot of companies are pushing as the "next big thing" in the world of tech. Not to say that the possibility of making it work isn't there, but there's a lot of challenges that go into building "AI" systems that often go undiscussed, which, in most cases, leads to the product's lack of adoption in the long run. I've put "AI" in quotes here, because what gets categorized as "artificial intelligence" in the media these days isn't actually something that's driven by "intelligence", per se -- the majority of AI or machine learning projects tend to be driven by data, rather than the code itself. If you look under the hood of how Google's self-driving algorithms work, you'll see that a lot of its functionality is heavily reliant on the accuracy of Google Maps, which gives the software enough of an understanding of its environment in order for the car to navigate through its terrain.

Let us tell you a little bit about a branch of AI, namely deep learning. It is the software focused on simulating the activities going on in the layers of the brain – neurons in a neocortex, which distinguishes images, patterns, and data. Well, it is, and it wasn't easy to achieve, as it took programmers almost 65 years to get to where they are now. It all started with the development of neural networks in the 1950s when everything circled around simulations of the brain on a very basic level. Twenty years later, the network was able to differentiate patterns and simple images.

It took millions of years of evolution for nature to come up with something that changed the face of the planet forever – the human brain. Now, the new mind is to be born, and the best cyber scientists will be its midwife. Artificial Intelligence is said to be just decades away from creation, and it will probably change life on Earth entirely. Some predict the coming of Utopia, where machines will help humanity fight disease, poverty and even death. But that's as others see a way more darker future, with machines rising up to eradicate humankind once and for all.