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Technology

Submission + - GM rolls the last big block V-8 off the line (buffalonews.com)

Submitted by
DesScorp
DesScorp writes: "It's the end of an era in auto technology, as the very last big block V-8 engine from GM has rolled off the production line. The L18 engine was the last variant of an engine that had been in continuous production for over 50 years. The big blocks powered everything from the classic muscle cars of the 60's and 70's, to heavy duty trucks today. News last June triggered a rush of orders for the engine. The Buffalo News reported "When GM said last June the L18 would be eliminated by year’s end, the announcement triggered another show of devotion to the product. Some customers ordered two years’ worth of L18s, to put on the shelf for future use". More than 5 million big blocks have been produced over the engine's history."
Cellphones

Android's Success a Threat To Free Software? 416

Posted by Soulskill from the unintended-consequences dept.
Glyn Moody writes "Two years after its launch, Google's Linux-based Android platform is finally making its presence felt in the world of smartphones. Around 20,000 apps have been written for it. Although well behind the iPhone's tally, that's significantly more than just a few months ago. But there's a problem: few of these Android apps are free software. Instead, we seem to be witnessing the birth of a new hybrid stack — open source underneath, and proprietary on top. If, as many believe, mobile phones will become the main computing platform for most of the world, that could be a big problem for the health of the free software ecosystem. So what, if anything, should the community be doing about it?"
Google

Submission + - Android's Success a Threat to Free Software? (linuxjournal.com)

Submitted by Glyn Moody
Glyn Moody writes: Two years after its launch, Google's Linux-based Android platform is finally making its presence felt in the world of smartphones. Around 20,000 apps have been written for it: although well behind the iPhone's tally, that's significantly more than just a few months ago. But there's a problem: few of these Android apps are free software. Instead, we seem to be witnessing the birth of a new hybrid stack: open source underneath, and proprietary on top. If, as many believe, mobile phones will become the main computing platform for most of the world, that could be a big problem for the health of the free software ecosystem. So what, if anything, should the community be doing about it?

Submission + - When Developers Work Late, Should Manager Stay? (earthweb.com) 4

Submitted by jammag
jammag writes: A veteran developer looks back — in irritation — at those times he had to work late, and his unskilled manager stayed too, just to look over his shoulder and add worry and fret to the process. Now that same developer, lo and behold, is a manager himself — and recently stayed late to ride herd over late-working developers. "And guess what? Yep, I hadnâât coded in years and never in the language he had to work with." Yet now he understood: his own butt was on the line so he was staying put. Still, does it really help developers to have management hovering in late evening, even if the boss handles pizza delivery?
Transportation

Submission + - A Requiem for Saab

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "The NY Times reports that auto enthusiasts across the country are dismayed by the news that General Motors is planning to shut down Saab, the Swedish carmaker it bought two decades ago, after a deal to sell it fell apart. Even with its modest and steadily declining sales, Saab, an acronym for Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget, or Swedish Airplane Company, long stood out as a powerful brand in spite of itself. “It wasn’t designed to be a fashion statement,” says Ron Pinelli, president of Autodata, which tracks industry statistics. “It was designed to provide transportation under miserable weather conditions.” Many Saab owners consider the brand’s glory days to be the 1980s, when Americans began buying cars again after a recession and energy crisis. “The cars were communicative,” says Pinelli. “They didn’t try to numb the experience like cars do today.” The cars had odd touches and appealed to those who appreciate the unconventional. Swedish engineers assumed drivers would be wearing gloves, so they designed big buttons for the dashboard. Though the cars were compact, with long hoods and short rear ends, there was plenty of headroom inside. Now Saab, a brand that once had one of the clearest identities in the industry, seems headed for extinction just as automakers are searching for more distinctive designs to help set them apart. “It’s a shame that Saab is a victim,” adds Pinelli ."
Linux

Submission + - Geek Squad Wouldn't Honor Netbook's Warranty (consumerist.com)

Submitted by supersloshy
supersloshy writes: The Consumerist reports an incident where an anonymous reader's netbook's protection plan was apparently voided when he installed Linux on it. "The manager of the Geek Squad informed me that installing Ubuntu Linux on my machine voided my warranty, and that I could only have it serviced if the original Windows installation was restored.", says the anonymous reader. However, his problem was because his "touchpad and power adapter had been broken", which is clearly a hardware issue. He re-installed Windows so he could have them repair his netbook, but they insisted that Linux caused the problem and kicked him out of the store.

Submission + - Hollywood Sets $10 Billion Box Office Record (torrentfreak.com)

Submitted by kamikazearun
kamikazearun writes: Claims by the MPAA that illegal downloads are killing the industry and causing billions in losses are once again being shredded. In 2009, the leading Hollywood studios made more films and generated more revenue than ever before, and for the first time in history the domestic box office grosses will surpass $10 billion.
Editorial

Submission + - Could a meteor have brought down Air France 447? 1

Submitted by niktemadur
niktemadur writes: In light of an Air Comet pilot's report to Air France, Airbus and the Spanish civil aviation authority that, during a Monday flight from Lima to Lisbon "Suddenly, we saw in the distance a strong and intense flash of white light, which followed a descending and vertical trajectory and which broke up in six seconds", the Cosmic Variance blog team on the Discover Magazine website muses on the question "What is the probability that, for all flights in history, one or more could have been downed by a meteor?". Taking into account total flight hours and the rate of meteoric activity with the requisite mass to impact on Earth (approximately 3,000 a day), some quick math suggests there may be one in twenty odds of a plane being brought down in the period from 1989 to 2009. Intriguingly, in the aftermath of TWA flight 800's crash in 1996, the New York Times published a letter by Columbia professors Charles Hailey (physics) and David Helfand (astronomy), in which they stated the odds of a meteor-airplane collision for aviation history up to that point: one in ten.
Operating Systems

Is ext4 Stable For Production Systems? 289

Posted by Soulskill from the work-in-progress dept.
dr_dracula writes "Earlier this year, the ext4 filesystem was accepted into the Linux kernel. Shortly thereafter, it was discovered that some applications, such as KDE, were at risk of losing files when used on top of ext4. This was diagnosed as a rift between the design of the ext4 filesystem and the design of applications running on top of ext4. The crux of the problem was that applications were relying on ext3-specific behavior for flushing data to disk, which ext4 was not following. Recent kernel releases include patches to address these issues. My questions to the early adopters of ext4 are about whether the patches have performed as expected. What is your overall feeling about ext4? Do you think is solid enough for most users to trust it with their data? Did you find any significant performance improvements compared to ext3? Is there any incentive to move to ext4, other than sheer curiosity?"
Announcements

Submission + - Tesla Recalls 345 Electric Roadsters (informationweek.com) 1

Submitted by
viyh
viyh writes: "Tesla Motors has recalled the $109,000 version of its electric Roadster because of bolts improperly installed by contract manufacturer Lotus.

The recall covers all 345 of the luxury automobile built before April 22, the Silicon Valley company said. No accidents have been reported as a result of the flaw.

The problem came to light after a Roadster owner complained of "uncharacteristic handling," Tesla said. An investigation found that the rear inner hub flange bolts on a small percentage of the vehicles were improperly torqued during assembly. A similar problem is behind Lotus' current recall of its Elise and Exige vehicles.

Tesla said it would send technicians to car owners' homes or offices to inspect their vehicles and take them to a repair facility, if needed. Customers will not be charged for the repair.

The Sport sells for a staring price of $128,000.

In March, Tesla unveiled a prototype of its "mainstream" $57,400 electric sedan called the Model S. Tesla expects to start production of the vehicle in late 2011."

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