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Platforms to Target for Media Distribution System?

Submitted by
Goodgerster
Goodgerster writes "I'm writing a web service and I'm being asked by potential investors which platforms it will run on. I hadn't given the matter much thought, but I have noticed that a lot of websites, such as Wolfram Alpha or Google Maps, now have iPhone apps and the like. Aside from the obvious big three (Symbian, Android, iOS), what platforms should websites write standalone apps for?"
Open Source

Happy 18th birthday to the open source movement ->

Submitted by Julie188
Julie188 writes "On this day, in 1992, version 0.1 of 386BSD (you might know it as Jolix) was released. Now, some might say March was the true birth date, as that was the original release of 386BSD, version 0.0. But it wasn't until the second, more usable, 386BSD release that users began developing unofficial patchkits to fix bugs and enhance aspects of the system. And that ushered in a new era of development."
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Paper questions whether gravity is a force->

Submitted by couch_warrior
couch_warrior writes "An article in the NYTimes describes a paper by physicist Erik Verlinde, in which he questions whether gravity is a fundamental force at all. Instead he appears to propose that the effects of gravity are simply the accumulated effects of increases in entropy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/science/13gravity.html

While it is not stated in the article, an analogy might be made to the former belief that "fire" was an element. It was easy to observe that when you let the fire out of wood, you were left with ashes (earth). Therefore fire+earth=wood. However, "fire" is simply the aggregate release of energy as the carbon and hydrogen in the wood combine with oxygen and are reduced to a lower entropic state. Gravity, like fire, may not be a "thing" all by itself, but rather a cumulative effect of a net reduction in entropic states."
Link to Original Source

Comment: Re:It's madness that this is not the default. (Score 1) 750

by Goodgerster (#31295348) Attached to: Should I Take Toyota's Software Update?
Sorry, when I say "cut power to the engine" I mean cut the power from the engine, i.e., the link between the engine and wheels. Also, to clarify, the instruction was to stamp the brake as a first priority and, having started to apply maximum force, hit the clutch with the other foot. The optimal solution is to hit both together, but this introduces additional thinking time.

Comment: It's madness that this is not the default. (Score 1) 750

by Goodgerster (#31295058) Attached to: Should I Take Toyota's Software Update?
When I discovered the existence of automatic transmissions as a child (we Europeans primarily use the more efficient manual transmission), I asked how it stopped the engine from stalling when the brake pedal was applied. My father told me that the brake pedal was also connected to a clutch. This would obviously cut power to the engine when the brake was in use.

The force from an idling 1580cc turbodiesel, even without a stuck accelerator, extended the emergency stop distance of my learner car by a non-negligible distance, at least a couple of metres. This is why my driving lessons included engaging the clutch after the brake when performing emergency stops.

Now I have recently learned from Slashdot that, seemingly, in most automatics the brake pedal doesn't even cut the throttle. Given that many automatic cars in the US seem to be connected to 3000cc six-cylinder behemoths, I am sure this worsens the stopping distance for those cars a great deal more than a couple of metres. How many people has this particular design flaw killed over the last fifty-odd years?

Comment: This man is not studying in London (Score 5, Informative) 538

by Goodgerster (#30758904) Attached to: Man Uses Drake Equation To Explain Girlfriend Woes
He is studying at the University of Warwick, which is near Coventry. It is far away from London. He is "studying in London" in the same sense that all Californians are residents of San Francisco. Has FOX News' target audience never heard of any English city besides London?

When you make your mark in the world, watch out for guys with erasers. -- The Wall Street Journal