Jupyter Notebook v5.3.0, Apache Solr 7.2.1 and Lucene 7.2.1, Kibana v5.6.6 and v6.1.2, Filament’s new blockchain software, and more in today’s top stories around machine learning, blockchain, and data science news.
1. The much-awaited Jupyter Notebook version 5.3.0 released
Project Jupyter has released version 5.3.0 of their popular Jupyter Notebook. The Jupyter Notebook is an open-source web application for creating and sharing documents that contain live code, equations, visualizations and narrative text. The new version includes a myriad of bug fixes and changes, most notably terminal support for Windows and support for OS trash. So now the files deleted from the notebook dashboard are moved to the OS trash as opposed to being deleted permanently. Users can upgrade to the latest release by pip install notebook –upgrade or conda upgrade notebook. It is recommended to upgrade to version 9+ of pip before upgrading notebook.
Full details of the release can be found in the changelog.
2. Apache Solr 7.2.1 and Apache Lucene 7.2.1 are now available
Apache has released version 7.2.1 of Solr, their open source NoSQL search platform. Solr features include full-text search, hit highlighting, faceted search and analytics and, rich document parsing, to name a few. The new release includes 4 bug fixes since the last update.
- Overseer can never process some last messages.
- Rename core in solr standalone mode is not persisted.
- QueryComponent’s rq parameter parsing no longer considers the defType parameter.
- NPE in SolrQueryParser fixed when the query terms inside a filter clause reduce to nothing.
Apache have also announced the release of Lucene 7.2.1. Apache Lucene is a full-featured text search engine library written in Java. With this release, advanceExact on SortedNumericDocValues can be produced by Lucene54DocValuesProducer.
Further details of changes are available in the changelog.
3. Kibana 5.6.6 and 6.1.2, the data visualization plugin for Elasticsearch, released
Kibana, the popular data visualization plugin for Elasticsearch, has released two new versions 5.6.6 and 6.1.2. These releases of Kibana include an important security fix. The previous versions of Kibana (5.1.1 to 6.1.2 and 5.6.6) had a cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability via the colored fields formatter. This vulnerability could allow an attacker to obtain sensitive information from or perform destructive actions on behalf of other Kibana users. This issue has now been solved in the new version 6.1.2 and added to v5.6.6. Both the releases are available on the downloads page.
4. Filament releases new software and Blocklet Chip hardware solutions based on Blockchain technology
Filament, a provider of blockchain solutions for IoT and the enterprise, announces new software and Blocklet Chip hardware solutions, which are based on next-gen Blockchain technology.
The new software and hardware solutions enable devices to securely interact and transact against a blockchain.
Filament’s new trusted application software and Blocklet Chip, which are currently in beta, are designed to communicate and interact with multiple blockchain technologies natively. The software is implemented on existing hardware and will deliver a secure distributed ledger technology solution. The Blocklet Chip will allow industrial corporations and enterprises to seamlessly extract the value of recording and monetizing data assets, at the edge of the network, on the sensors themselves.
5. Bitcoin Cash launches a Native Bitcoinj Development Branch
Bitcoin Cash now has its own Bitcoinj development branch. Bitcoinj was the second Bitcoin implementation and the first to target SPV (Simplified Payment Verification) light wallet functionality. Most Android wallets make use of Bitcoinj. The goal of the new development branch is to unify all forks for BCH. The development team wants to expand its functionality and limit it not just on SPV wallets. This Branch will also allow more mobile wallets to support Bitcoinj Cash or switch over from BTC to BCH full-time. Plans to revive the Lighthouse project are also in the wake due to this new implementation. With BCH, crowdfunding through Bitcoin can also become viable again.
The team also hopes to engage more community members to contribute to this particular branch of development.