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First, Some Background What is REST? REST, or in the full form, Representational State Transfer has become the standard design architecture for developing web APIs. At its heart REST is a stateless client-server relationship; this means that unlike many other approaches there is no client context being stored server side (no  Sessions ). To counteract that, each request contains all the information necessary for the server to authenticate the user, and any session state data that must be sent as well. REST takes advantage of the HTTP request methods to layer itself into the existing HTTP architecture. These operations consist of the following: GET - Used for basic read requests to the server PUT- Used to modify an existing object on the server POST- Used to create a new object on the server DELETE - Used to remove an object on the server By creating URI endpoints that utilize these operations, a RESTful API is quickly assembled. What is an API In this sense...

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Google patents ad tech linking restaurant to taxi ride --> Google's graphic shows what customers might see on their smartphones Continue reading the main story Related Stories Chrome extras targeted by ad firms The robots are coming, watch out Technology giant Google has patented a way of linking online ads to free or discounted taxi rides to the advertising restaurant, shop or entertainment venue. The transport-linked ad service could encourage consumers to respond more often to location-based special offers, experts say. Algorithms would work out the customer's location, the best route and form of transport, Google says. Analysts have welcomed the idea. Gregory Roekens, chief technology officer at advertising company AMV BBDO, told the BBC: "This is trying to turn advertising into a utility and remove barriers for consumers. It's a really interesting idea." Location-based Advertisers will mine hu...

A team of international experts has been rebuilding our most iconic ancient ancestors from the bones up - starting with a Neanderthal Continue reading the main story A team of scientists has created what it believes is the first really accurate reconstruction of Neanderthal man, from a skeleton that was discovered in France over a century ago. In 1909, excavations at La Ferrassie cave in the Dordogne unearthed the remains of a group of Neanderthals. One of the skeletons in that group was that of an adult male, given the name La Ferrassie 1. These remains have helped scientists create a detailed reconstruction of our closest prehistoric relative for a new BBC series, Prehistoric Autopsy. La Ferrassie 1 is one of the most important discoveries made in the field of Neanderthal research. His skull is the largest and most complete ever found. The discovery of his leg a...

By Robin Banerji BBC World Service, Bakhchisaray   After persecution during Soviet times, Crimean Tatars have returned to their homeland in Ukraine where they are trying to rebuild their lives. Rustem Eminov, now in his mid-40s, was sent into exile when he was just three-months-old. His family was forced to leave the Crimea and was resettled in far-away Central Asia. It was not until the breakup of the Soviet Union, when he was in his 20s, that Eminov was finally able to live in the land of his birth. Over cups of green tea in a room shaded against the fierce sun, he tells me his story.   Like many Crimean Tatars, Eminov grew up in exile   Now a specialist in the history of the Crimean Tatars, Eminov is the director of ethnography at the Historical and Culture Reserve in the old Crimean town of Bakhchisaray. A handsome clean-shaven man, with a smile on his face and an open manner, my wife and I meet him ...

  Malala Yousafzai is one of thousands of Pakistani children whose education has been interrupted The Taliban's attempt to kill teenaged activist Malala Yousafzai in Pakistan earlier this month underlines the dangers that the militant conflict holds for the country's schoolchildren. Tens of thousands of school pupils have been displaced along with their families from areas across Pakistan's tribal belt on the Afghan border where the Taliban have carved sanctuaries for themselves. Thousands were deprived of an education as the militants carried out a persistent campaign against secular education, destroying nearly 1,000 schools since 2006. Years of military operations in these areas have led to further destruction. While militants have been driven out from some areas, the territory they once occupied has not yet been fully secured under a civilian administration. And many significant sanctuaries still remain, especially in North Waziristan, parts of Sout...

Spain's nuclear legacy By Gerry Hadden PRI's The World Continue reading the main story On a sunny morning in 1966 two US Air Force planes collided and dropped four nuclear bombs near the village of Palomares in southern Spain. There was no nuclear blast, but plutonium was scattered over a wide area - and Spain is now asking the US to finish the clean-up. The US government calls nukes that go astray "Broken Arrows" and on 17 January 1966, Palomares got four of them. Overhead, at 31,000ft, an American B-52G bomber collided with a KC-135 tanker plane during routine air-to-air refuelling and broke apart. Three of the bomber's H-bombs landed in or around Palomares, the fourth landed about five miles offshore in the Mediterranean. Manolo Gonzalez says he was standing outside when he heard a tremendous explosion. "I looked up and saw this huge ball of fire, falling through the...