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Analysts Weigh in on Viacom-DirecTV Carriage Dispute
One analyst calls the stand-off a "lose-lose" situation, while another one says it could be "a serious mistake" for any pay TV operator to not carry the Viacom channels.
Analysts late Tuesday started to weigh in on the networks carriage dispute between entertainment conglomerate Viacom and satellite TV giant DirecTV, predicting who would be hit harder by any fallout if the two sides don't reach an agreement quickly.
STORY: Viacom Networks Go Dark on DirecTV
Most highlighted Viacom's broad viewership strength despite near-term ratings challenges at some flagship networks. But before Viacom channels, including MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central, went dark in DirecTV homes at midnight ET, Evercore Partners analyst Alan Gould described the showdown as a lose-lose situation for the two companies.
"We estimate that DirecTV represents 12-13 percent of Viacom's domestic media affiliate and advertising revenue," he wrote in a report. "Viacom claims its programming represents 20 percent of the viewing on DirecTV, so we would assume DirecTV would lose some subscribers, particularly families that want Nickelodeon."
He estimated that Viacom generally receives about $3 per subscriber per month for its 17 channels, or 26 when including HD feeds. Given their just-ended carriage deal is seven years old, DirecTV likely pays less than $2.50 per subscriber per month, he added.
In his worst-case scenario, Viacom's channels would be off DirecTV for a full year. "We estimate the impact would be about $300 million after-tax to Viacom, or 63 cents per share, a 13 percent hit to our fiscal year 2013 [earnings] estimate," Gould said. "If the channels were off for a year, it would likely reduce Viacom's aggressive share repurchase plan."
Credit Suisse analyst Spencer Wang also warned that Viacom could be exposed to risk in the carriage showdown. Viacom draws a big audience, but doesn't own a broadcast network, broadcast stations or a major sports asset, which peers like News Corp. can use for leverage during carriage and re-transmission consent talks, he argued.
Nomura's Michael Nathanson said though that Viacom should end up getting things its way, highlighting that of total live TV viewership, Viacom has eight channels in the top 30.
"We expect Viacom to ultimately receive affiliate fee step-ups of at least high single digits with DirecTV over the life of the deal, consistent with prior guidance," he said. "We do not believe Viacom is worried about the short-term quarterly impact, and although companies try to avoid public negotiations, we believe Viacom should be able to use this spotlight to prove its affiliate fee worth."
He entitled his report "Will DirecTV Make Dora Cry?" in a reference to Nickelodeon character Dora the Explorer, which the company showed crying during a carriage dispute with Time Warner Cable a few years ago. "Viacom ultimately largely received the increases they were seeking during the company's Time Warner Cable affiliate fee negotiations on New Year's Eve Dec. 31, 2008," Nathanson highlighted.
BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield also wondered if DirecTV CEO Mike White was risking too much with a stand-off with Viacom. "Will Mike White Make the Same Mistake as Charlie Ergen?" his report asked in reference to the Dish chairman who has been in various high-profile carriage battles.
"While Viacom's ratings have definitely softened from where they were 12-18 months ago (MTV's Jersey Shore highs along with Nick's share loss to Disney Channel), we believe a multichannel video programming distributor would be making a serious mistake to not carry the Viacom suite of channels," Greenfield wrote. "While the demographics of Viacom's cable network viewers may be the most exposed to finding Internet-based alternatives, the viewership of online programming is still dwarfed by the size and scale of Viacom's content."
Email: email@example.com
Twitter: @georgszalai


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Preserve Hudson Valley is a grassroots not-for-profit organization. We operate entirely on donations from people like you. Engaging in legal battles is costly and most of our opponents are well-funded. Our opponents would like to see our funds depleted in court battles and therefore, our obstruction to their plans disappear. We cannot, and will not, let them win with this tactic. Your donation is an opportunity to stand up to self-serving organizations who make decisions affecting our region for their own profit, carelessly sacrificing quality of life for the rest of us and our future generations.
Preserve Hudson Valley is made up of regular citizens with jobs and families. We devote much of our free time to the issues that Preserve Hudson Valley aims to rectify and we could always use your help! If you wish to volunteer with Preserve Hudson Valley please contact us.
Awareness is everything. Telling your family and friends about Preserve Hudson Valley and our mission is extremely important and helpful. When you are out around town, or anywhere in the region, make sure to spread the word. Forward our newsletter emails, re-tweet our tweets, share our blog posts, friend us on Facebook; all of these actions are a display of support.

subset: commoncrawl


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Anyone paying attention to what humans do to our planet will not be surprised to hear Stephen Emmott say we need to curb population growth (see The Population Bomb Paul Ehrlich, 1968.)
I plan to read 10 Billion. An except is published by The Guardian. Emmott reminds us that EVERYTHING we humans do uses water, air, land, and energy. Having an energy efficient car or house won't cut it if there are 10 billion people. We are kidding ourselves unless we figure out ways to help each other curb population growth.
The fact that I have only one child had the biggest positive impact on the planet: more important than my efficient car and house, my low-flow toilets, recycling, etcetera. This is the type of harsh truth Stephen Emmott writes about. Now I want to read his book.


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DT: Jamaica: double taxation agreement, Article 2: General definitions
- In this Agreement, unless the context otherwise requires-
the term `United Kingdom` means Great Britain and Northern Ireland including any area outside the territorial sea of the United Kingdom which in accordance with international law has been or may hereafter be designated under the laws of the United Kingdom concerning the Continental Shelf, as an area within which the rights of the United Kingdom with respect to the sea-bed and sub-soil and their natural resources may be exercised;
(i) the term `Jamaica` means the island of Jamaica, the Morant Cays, the Pedro Cays and their Dependencies; and
(ii) when used in a geographical sense the term `Jamaica` includes the territorial waters thereof including any area outside such territorial waters which in accordance with international law and the laws of Jamaica is an area within which the rights of Jamaica with respect to the sea-bed and sub-soil and their natural resources may be exercised;
the terms `one of the territories` and `the other territory` mean the United Kingdom or Jamaica as the context requires;
the term `taxation authorities` means, in the case of the United Kingdom the Commissioners of Inland Revenue or their authorised representative, in the case of Jamaica, the Commissioner of Income Tax or his authorised representative; and in the case of any territory to which this Agreement is extended under Article 28, the competent authority for the administration in such territory of the taxes to which this Agreement applies;
the term `tax` means United Kingdom tax or Jamaican tax, as the context requires;
the term `person` includes any body of persons, corporate or not corporate;
the term `company` means any body corporate or any entity which is treated as a body corporate for tax purposes;
the term `international traffic` includes traffic between places in one country in the course of a voyage which extends over more than one country;
- the term `national` means:
(i) in relation to the United Kingdom
(aa) any citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies who derives his status as such from his connection with the United Kingdom;
(bb) any legal person, partnership or association deriving its status as such from the law in force in the United Kingdom;
(ii) in relation to Jamaica
(aa) any individual who is a citizen of Jamaica;
(bb) any legal person, association or other entity deriving its status as such from the law of Jamaica.
Where under this Agreement any income is exempt from tax or is taxed at a reduced rate in one of the territories and that income is subject to tax in the other territory by reference to the amount thereof which is remitted to or received in that other territory, the exemption or reduction of tax to be allowed under this Agreement in the first-mentioned territory shall apply only to the amount so remitted or received.
In the application of the provisions of the present Agreement by one of the Contracting Governments any term not otherwise defined shall, unless the context otherwise requires, have the meaning which it has under the laws of that Government relating to the taxes which are the subject of the present Agreement.


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Crew SC vs. Impact
When: 1 p.m. today
Where: Mapfre Stadium
TV: Ch. 6, Spectrum Sports Ohio Extra (Ch. 310 and 1310 for Spectrum subscribers)
Radio: WWCD-FM (102.5)
Records: Crew 1-0-0, Impact 0-1-0
Projected starters: Crew — GK Steffen; D Valenzuela, Mensah, Abubakar, Afful; MF Trapp, Artur, Martinez, Higuain, Santos; F Zardes; Montreal — GK Bush; D Petrasso, Cabrera, Raitala, Lovitz; MF Krolicki, Piette, Taider, Edwards, Piatti; F Mancosu.
On the Impact: Went 0-2-0 against the Crew in 2017 and was outscored 7-3. … Ignacio Piatti finished with 17 goals and six assists in '16 and '17. … Jukka Raitala started at center back on opening day for Montreal after playing 28 games at fullback last season.
On the Crew: Gyasi Zardes is one goal shy of tying his 2017 total of two. … Federico Higuain is one goal and one assist shy of 50 in each category over his MLS career. … The Crew has not started a season with two straight wins since 2014.
How it might play out: Don't be surprised if the Crew has to break down a compact Montreal back line and don't be surprised if it succeeds. Montreal is projected as one of the weaker teams in the Eastern Conference, and the Crew lost just three games at home in 2017. Expect the Crew to take advantage of a favorable home matchup.
— Andrew Erickson


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Frank McCourt Dies; Wrote the Memoir "Angela's Ashes"
Monday, July 20, 2009
Frank McCourt, who melted the hearts of millions of readers with "Angela's Ashes," a lyrically poignant memoir of his poverty-stricken Irish childhood, died of melanoma July 19 in New York. He was 78.
Mr. McCourt was a retired teacher in his mid-60s when he wrote "Angela's Ashes," an unflinching and unforgettable account of his family's misery in Limerick, Ireland, in the 1930s and 1940s. It was his first book, published in 1996, and immediately won critical acclaim and a vast readership.
The memoir received the Pulitzer Prize and stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for 117 weeks, including 23 at No. 1. In a review, Washington Post book editor Nina King wrote, "This memoir is an instant classic of the genre."
From the first page, Mr. McCourt enchanted readers with a warm, subtle voice that was by turns funny and sad but always honest.
"When I look back on my childhood, I wonder how I survived at all," he wrote. "It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood."
Mr. McCourt, the oldest of seven children, was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where his parents had arrived from Ireland in the 1920s. But their luck soon ran out, and they moved back across the Atlantic when he was 4. They settled in his mother's native city of Limerick in a house with no electricity or running water. It was next to a public lavatory, where the entire neighborhood dumped buckets of excrement that often flooded the McCourts' floor.
"From October to April, the walls of Limerick glistened with the damp," Mr. McCourt wrote. "Clothes never dried; tweed and woolen coats housed living things, sometimes sprouted mysterious vegetations. In pubs, steam rose from damp bodies and garments to be inhaled with cigarette and pipe smoke laced with the stale fumes of spilled stout and whisky."
A sister and two younger brothers died as toddlers, leaving Mr. McCourt's mother -- the "Angela" of the title -- to raise four sons largely on her own. Mr. McCourt's father, alternately charming and quarrelsome, would spend his meager earnings on drink and come home in the middle of the night, singing songs of Irish heroes.
"The [school]master says it's a glorious thing to die for the Faith and Dad says it's a glorious thing to die for Ireland," Mr. McCourt wrote in a passage laced with pathos and humor, "and I wonder if there's anyone in the world who would like us to live."
In the meantime, the family subsisted on tea and bread. A discarded apple peel or a single boiled egg, cut into slices for the whole family, was considered a treat. Young Frank resorted to thievery to bring home bread, lemonade or fruit.
He had chronic conjunctivitis that left him without lashes on his lower eyelids. At 10, he almost died of typhoid fever and spent more than three months recovering in a hospital. It was the first time he had slept in a bed with sheets or had a full stomach. He also had his first encounter with Shakespeare, writing that it was "like having jewels in my mouth when I spoke the words."
At 13, he quit school to deliver telegrams, stealing time at night to read books under street lamps. His father moved to England to work in wartime factories but failed to send money home, leaving his family more destitute than ever.
One day, Mr. McCourt saw a group of people milling near a church, "waiting to beg for any food left over from the priests' dinner."
"There in the middle of the crowd in her dirty gray coat is my mother.
"This is my own mother, begging. This is worse than the dole . . . It's the worst kind of shame."
"Angela's Ashes" sold more than 5 million copies worldwide, was translated into 17 languages and was made into a 1999 film directed by Alan Parker, with Emily Watson playing the role of Mr. McCourt's mother.
"The memoir is rendered in the present tense, with nary a date or quotation mark in sight," critic Gail Caldwell wrote in the Boston Globe. "The result is a story so immediate -- so gripping in its daily despairs, stolen smokes and blessed humor -- that you want to thank God young Frankie McCourt survived it in part so he could write the book."
Francis McCourt was born Aug. 19, 1930, during his family's brief sojourn in Brooklyn. He sailed back to America on a freighter in 1949 and took menial jobs in hotels and on the docks before being drafted into the U.S. Army during the Korean War. (He described his life in the United States in a 1999 memoir, " 'Tis.")
He used the GI bill to enroll at New York University, talking his way into college even though he had never gone to high school. One of his professors asked a class to write about an object from childhood, and Mr. McCourt wrote about the bed he shared with his three brothers and countless fleas. He received an A-plus for his paper and began to think of being a writer.
After graduating from NYU, Mr. McCourt began teaching in 1958 at a vocational high school on Staten Island and later at a high school on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. He received a master's degree in English from Brooklyn College in 1967 and spent two years doing doctoral studies at Trinity College in Dublin. In 1970, he began teaching literature and writing at New York's prestigious Stuyvesant High School, where he was revered by a generation of students. He often described experiences from his childhood to inspire his students to write about their own lives.
His third volume of memoirs, "Teacher Man" (2005), was called "the best self-portrait of a public-school teacher ever written" by Newsweek's Malcolm Jones.
In time, Mr. McCourt's mother and younger brothers followed him to the United States. When their mother died in 1981, the brothers took her ashes back to Limerick, temporarily losing them during a pub crawl. His father died in 1985.
Long before he retired from teaching in 1987, Mr. McCourt had contemplated writing a book. But it took years for him to find the proper tone of writing, choosing the present tense from a child's perspective, with simple, poetically repetitive diction.
Some people in Ireland were not amused by "Angela's Ashes" and thought Mr. McCourt had exaggerated his family's woes. One childhood acquaintance even tore the book to pieces in front of Mr. McCourt and threw it on the ground.
But Mr. McCourt's brother Malachy, who teamed with him in a two-man revue of stories and songs in the 1980s, said: "In reality, our life was worse than Frank wrote. Insane outbreaks of laughter saved us."
Mr. McCourt, who liked to say that he was the only person he knew who had lived in all five boroughs of New York City, never made more than $37,000 a year as a teacher. He grew wealthy from his books, bought homes in Manhattan and Connecticut and supported relatives in Ireland.
Survivors include his third wife, Ellen Frey McCourt; a daughter from his first marriage; three brothers; and three grandchildren.
After leaving Ireland in 1949, Mr. McCourt saw his father only two more times before he died in 1985. Yet, in spite of everything, he maintained remarkable good cheer about his errant father and the deprivations of his childhood.
"If it hadn't been for alcoholism," he said, "he would have been the perfect father, and my mother -- who would sing love songs about him when there was a little money coming in -- would have been so happy. I'm haunted by the possibilities of what might have been."


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Burn day smoke tools
1. Are today's smoke conditions OK for burning?
- Air quality alerts.
- National Weather Service tabular forecast.
- From the dropdown menu choose 'Hourly FireWx Table.'
- The page's map shows only the Front Range but the site works statewide.
2. Do the paperwork.
- Download forms.
- Notify county smoke contacts.
3. Monitor the smoke.
Visual monitoring
- Smoke monitoring form with tips.
- Guide to estimating particulate concentrations. This is for well-mixed smoke, which usually starts several miles downwind.
- Reference photos, various concentrations of fine particulate pollution (PM2.5).
Instrument monitoring
- Instruments available to government employees.
- DustTrak data analysis spreadsheet. Instructions start with how to download the data.
- eSampler users guide.


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Meet the characters
Ari Kirshenbaum is a psychology professor at St. Michael's College.He teaches several courses including general psychology, animal learning and behavior, behavioral pharmacology, research methods. Prior to coming to St. Michael's College, Kirshenbaum conducted research at NASA's Ames Research Center and in private industry.
The lure of cryptozoology lies in its inherent mystery, Kirshenbaum said in a December 2007 interview.
"Certainly when you have something elusive, like dinosaurs that should be extinct and all that, I think people are pretty captivated by the mysterious."
Those who are drawn to cryptozoology most likely come for many different reasons, Kirshenbaum said.
"I guess I can't entirely speak to the motivations of the scientists that explore these kinds of things," Kirshenbaum explained. "Maybe they have too much free time? Or maybe they're just out to demonstrate that science can take on issues outside of the box."


text: Valassis earnings up 68.6% Published on July 23, 1999. Valassis Communications, Livonia, Mich., said net earnings for the second quarter rose 68.6% from a year ago to $28.5 million. Comparable earnings for 1998 included a one-time charge of $3.7 million. Revenue was up 9% to $195 million for the 1999 quarter. Free-standing insert sales rose 7.9% in the quarter to $145.8 million, and are up 7.4% for the first half of the year. First-half results: net earnings up 45.1% to $62.4 million, revenue up 8.5% to $417.2 million.Copyright July 1999, Crain Communications Inc. Most Popular In this article: News


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There's a plenitude of sites (including our own) recommending and rating just about everything made by mankind. But as important as "what to buy" is knowing what's possible using the products you've purchased. Inner Vision is a weekly digest connecting the dots between great everyday objects and the culture and techniques behind living well with them.
"Why I Hope to Die at 75"
Seventy-five years is all I want to live….The deadline also forces each of us to ask whether our consumption is worth our contribution. Perhaps we'd all live fuller and more productive lives acknowledging our impermanence, rationally factoring death into the equation of a life well lived.
Paranoid Android
Were you amongst the crazy/fortunate few who got their hands on a new iPhone 6/6 Plus? If you're switching over from an Android device, be sure to review this page to simplify the migration of apps, contacts, and calendars from one mobile OS to the other using Copy My Data or AT&T Mobile Transfer.
Smell You Later
At home? Stop and take a great big whiff. I bet you hardly register any scents except one of comfortable recognition. There's a reason we're all afflicted with "nose-blindness" at home but immediately want to buy others an air purifier upon walking into someone else's stinky abode.
How to Achieve Beautility in a Small Kitchen
Working from a small kitchen is probably the closest most of us will ever get to understanding what it's like to live on a boat. Learn the basics of how to organize a small cooking space with equal measures of functionality and style. Remember: "Go for quality rather than quantity."
Animated Sailor Knots Tutorials
Speaking of the life aquatic, how about we all get a little knotty with an Ashley Stopper or a Soft Shackle Edwards?
It's like Tindr … But for Makers
You want to make something yourself … but you don't have the room or the tools to realize your goals. Letsmake connects projects with local workshops and kitchens. The site just launched, so pickings are pretty slim, but the idea is promising for one-person operations just getting started and for those with space to spare.
Rinse, Recycle, Rejoice!
The lifespan of a jar of Nutella in our household is measured in days, maybe even hours. Any smidgen of the chocolate hazelnut spread is usually polished off first by spoon, then by finger, before being tossed into the recycling bin. But other food containers aren't so lovingly cleaned by greed. Remember to wipe/clean recyclable items or your recycling habits may be all for naught.
How Dirty Is Your Kitchen?
We're a society of germaphobes, even though the hope of staving off microbial tenants is completely nil and eliminating microorganisms from our lives is generally a bad idea. How fascinating an experiment to invite a Public Health Department inspector into a residential kitchen, poking around refrigerator shelves and warning against the dangers of the sponge.
Exploring an Edible Landscape
The gist of Boskoi for Android: a GPS for the urban forager, with locations of fruits, nuts, fungi, and other wild eats mapped across the globe. The term "eating out" takes on a whole new meaning.
A Most Pinteresting Archive
This might be my current favorite Pinterest collection, with nary a single thing to purchase: a growing collection of natural specimens of flora, fauna, and mineral. If you prefer a more categorical approach rather than visual, there's also a Google Drive folder to peruse.
Got an interesting story, link, resource, or how-to you think we should check out for consideration for our next issue of Inner Vision? Drop us a line with the subject "Inner Vision" and we'll take a look!


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Bundesliga Player of the Week – Bayern Munich's Thiago Alcantara [Video]
Thiago Alcantara is having a dream debut season at the world and European champions.
After a brief settling in period, the Spaniard-Brazilian has gone on to become a key member of Pep Guardiola's Bayern winning machine.
Doing the Barcelona school proud, Thiago Alcantara is averaging more than 80 passes a game, with a success rate of more than 90 per cent this season.
But Thiago even managed to up the ante at Hannover weekend, reaching a Xaviesque success rate of 96 per cent- earning him the accolade of Bundesliga player of the week.
Watch the Bundesliga video report into why Thiago won the award.


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New Head Of Church Installed 1947 Newsreel
(1) Episcopal Bishop Installed - "Washington: Impressive religious scenes mark the installation of the Rev. Henry Knox Sherrill as presiding Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Churches of America. Hundreds attend the impressive rites." Sherrill speaks; (2) March of Dimes - "America falls in stel with the march of Dimes! In Washington, the First Lady and Margaret Truman officially open the drive by placing theirs, and the President's contribution, in the Missouri bottle. In New York, mayor O'Dwyer opens the nation-wide drive to aid infantile victims. Little Nancy Drury is the campaign's 'Dimes' girl." (3) "Skokie IL: After police have rounded up confiscated pin-ball and slot machines, they toss the devices onto a junk pile and set the business on fire with gasoline. The flames 'hit the jackpot'!" (4) "Washington: The first motion picture theatre on rails, the C. & O. 'Chessie Theatre,' inaugurates its regular motion picture program with a premier of the new Universal-International hit 'Swell Guy.' (5) "Colorado: Flying in a special ski-shod plane, two daring hunters take the 'high' road to coyote-hunting, zooming down on the marauding critters to blast them with shotguns. It's thrilling and dangerous." (6) Indochina - "Saigon: In these scenic pictures from Indochina, where Vietnam forces are battling French troops, France's Overseas Minister Moutet arrives by air to speed his nation's defense of its Far Eastern possession." (complete newsreel).
Length: 07:11


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Over the past few years, the technologies we use to create websites have matured and developed at an amazingly rapid pace. Thankfully, this development hasn't been limited solely to new features being introduced, although these do tend to attract most of the headlines.
This is all great news for any web developer, but the rapid pace of progress has also coincided with an increase in average web access speeds, particularly on mobile devices, as broadband networks have improved and 3G networks have rolled out. At the same time, fully internet-capable smartphones and tablets have arrived and become the web-connected device of choice.
So, the world of the web has undoubtedly changed a lot over the past few years: the tools at our disposal have changed; the way users connect and consume all the content has changed; and the hardware characteristics and performance of the typical access device has substantially altered as well.
The phenomenal progress that the web has undertaken has brought numerous benefits toboth users and developers, but perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of the web as we find it today is that the way users interact with it has changed dramatically. Instead of using native applications on their computers or mobile phones, increasingly web-enabled functionality is being delivered either through the browser, or via an installable app that provides a customised window to the web.
The tools and technology we use to craft websites are now mature enough to enable all of us to become not just web designers, but now app designers too.
The idea that skills acquired as a web designer can be applied to app design isn't a big step, but a common concern amongst designers and developers interested in making the jump is how to translate their experience in one medium to another. In reality, a web app is nothing more than a specialised website running in isolation.
What makes a web app different to a regular website can be boiled down to the way data is stored, retrieved and processed. A typical website will use the client-side HTML layer to present information to the user. When an action is performed, whether it's adding an item to a shopping cart, or marking a to-do item as complete, the website will send a message back to the server, where the action is performed.
In a web app, typically actions are performed on the client, and often the data is stored on the client too. Still, this isn't universal, with exceptions such as Google's range of productivity tools and Adobe's online Photoshop app too.
Setting aside the many examples where the server still plays an active role, it's a reasonable deduction to say that as a web designer or developer, you simply need to work on understanding the peculiarities of app-centric APIs – especially through JavaScript – in order to be able to develop standalone web apps. Thankfully, many of the available libraries and frameworks now make this task much easier. Good documentation and abstraction make it trivial to run a local database, for example, storing and retrieving data without ever having to go to a server.
At a basic level, web apps can be delivered through the browser just like any regular website, although by choosing this deployment method, the specific benefits associated with a particular platform cannot be leveraged. HTML5 does have a number of useful APIs to make use of, allowing for the likes of geo-locational aware scripting, but these are generic and do tend to have a habit of interfering quite a bit with the user experience (by spawning a pop-up dialogue box, for example), which is far from ideal.
Still, your decision over the right way to develop and deploy an app will largely come down to the usage scenario and its appropriateness for the platform. A quick-fix game is likely to be well suited to mobile devices, while an in-depth accounting app is probably more at home on the desktop.See some examples below
Trello is a task management tool where users compile lists using cards. This is a lovely example of how a simple idea can be given a rich interface using standard web tools.
Evernote is a great installable app – but there is also a web app that features all of that core functionality without the need to download anything to your device.
NUS Extra
This app for university students also makes use of the PhoneGap framework to offer a native app experience while leveraging standard web technologies. This app takes advantage of GPS location to show useful products and services near the user.
Google Docs
Google Docs is one of the original set of applications in a browser that helped to demonstrate the power of the web toolset. It offers a range of functionality that rivals desktop-based word processors, but is entirely based in the browser. While it's far from being the prettiest web app, it concentrates on providing a solution to the need for an authoring and collaboration environment, and it remains the standard against which others are compared.
It's not uncommon to hear new developers asking the question: what makes a web app different to a normal website? Underneath it all, the technologies being used are more or less identical between a website and a web app, so it's a perfectly reasonable question to ask. Furthermore, if you were to ask different developers you'd probably find that you get wildly different answers.
In simple terms, a web app is just a website that aims to perform a specific function. Turning that on its head, you might prefer to say that a web app is an application that has been developed using web technologies, such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
Of course, increasingly we are able to access web apps outside of the browser now. Sometimes they're delivered using a wrapper such as Adobe AIR, sometimes they masquerade as native applications for our Android or iOS devices. This makes it that much harder to recognise whether an app is actually a 'web app' or otherwise, but in truth it doesn't really matter!
Using the same tools, you can develop both a website and a web app, often tying into the specific device's native functionality with the latter. This is hugely democratising, because now every web developer is now a potential app developer, and the world of apps will be a far richer place for it.
Many web apps can be equally well deployed via the web browser as a native application. Google Docs is a good example of a web app that exists in the browser. This is used as a selling point for the tool as it enables users to access the service regardless of which device they're using.
There are occasions when it's preferable to be able to provide a standalone desktop application that is installed, launched and closed just like any other native app. This used to be a limiting factor in developing web-based applications, but the landscape has changed dramatically over the past few years.
Spearheading the move to installable apps was Adobe's AIR runtime. This solution provides a web environment (supporting both HTML and Flash) without the need to launch a web browser. The runtime isn't limited to providing a basic environment, however. In addition to the standard web APIs you can access within the browser, AIR provides a series of specialist APIs that allow you to, for example, control and access the local file system.
One of the major benefits of systems such as AIR is the speed at which you can prototype and iterate application design. It's also useful to be able to deploy the same app across many different operating systems, without the need to recode. Popular examples of AIR-powered apps include the original TweetDeck. But AIR isn't the only option available, and it's especially worth having a look at the alternatives if you find you have specific needs, such as a game-orientated framework.
Adobe AIR
Adobe AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) is one of the most established and long-standing solutions for deploying web technologies on the desktop. Originally developed as a solution for wrapping both native HTML/CSS/JavaScript and Flash content to the Mac, Windows and Linux platforms, it has since been extended to provide support for tablets and smartphones. Linux support has been withdrawn, but AIR remains a good solution for deploying web apps across a range of devices and operating systems.
One of the main benefits of the AIR system is the ability to install apps to desktop computers directly from the browser. This makes it easy to publish apps, although this doesn't work for mobile devices.
PhoneGap is designed to provide the structure of a native mobile app, underpinning a processing and user interface powered by web technologies. PhoneGap apps are like having a branded browser that's limited to displaying your chosen web content.
As the name implies, PhoneGap is firmly aimed at the smartphone and tablet market segment. It's a good choice for anyone who subscribes to the Adobe Creative Cloud service as it's included with the standard subscription (although note that you'll still need an Apple developer account to submit apps to the Apple App Store).
Sencha Touch
The Sencha Touch framework provides a boilerplate solution to developing web apps with the feel of a native application, without the need to compile and distribute via the App Store.
There are both benefits and limitations to this approach: as a developer you can reach the maximum number of users by simply encouraging them to visit your website on their mobile device and bookmarking, but you can't charge for your app, and there are limitations to the native hardware you can access.
Sencha Touch is available free of charge, with additional paid-for support services also available to make use of.
Titanium is a very capable alternative to PhoneGap. It works in a very similar way, providing a web-like environment in which your web app can work, and compiling it all into a native application.
However, Titanium differs from PhoneGap in the level of APIs exposed to the platform through the SDK. In short, there are more features available through the SDK, although this brings with it additional complexity.
One of the nicest features of Titanium is the price tag (or its lack of): it's absolutely free to download and experiment with, making it a very good place to start if at the moment you're just exploring the idea of developing mobile apps, rather than diving in head first!


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Prior to the ride start, Steve informed the collective group that the ride would likely split apart along the way, with the Performance Group pulling ahead and the Peloton Group holding a slower pace behind.It was an accurate prediction. Knowing that we had a total of about 60 miles to ride, several Peloton Riders dropped the 24 to 25mph pace down to a more reasonable 17 to 20mph.
Somewhere along our ride out to Discovery, we picked up a cyclist who had been riding on his own, but latched on to the Group's wheel as he saw us ride by. Turns out, he's a very well-conditioned triathlete on a race team—a Machine. As we departed Discovery Park, he ended up out front. Aside from a few miles here and there, he pulled the group pretty much all the way back to Folsom. Having someone pull that long is a bit of a blessing and a curse. While it's nice to benefit from a draft all the way home, part of our conditioning requires that each of us take turns "pulling" to help build our respective strength. Nevertheless, today, I was quite content to simply reap the "blessing" of The Machine's willingness to keep pulling.
On the way back, the testosterone seemed to slowly start to flow again. The pace slowly inched its way up to a range of between 22 to 24mph. With such a big group and so much traffic on the trail, alertness, use of signals, and verbal call-outs become so very important. Fortunately, every one seemed to be aware and alert of the safety issues.
Eventually, the Group split into two again on the way back, although I have to confess I'm not sure where. Six of us reached the Hazel Bridge and realized we were on our own and had dropped a number of riders. We continued on, feeling a bit guilty, but also knowing that everyone was quite capable of making their way back. As we neared the ride start at the Folsom Bridge, five of us added an optional up-and-back to Beale's Point for good measure. The Machine—who was still with us and happy to pull—didn't disappoint on the slow, steady grade up to Beale's. Chuck and Joel attempted to sneak an attack ay the top of the hill in to show The Machine that they still has somethin' in them, but a couple of quick clicks of The Machine's gears and a huge burst of energy from those quads of his kept them in check. Meanwhile, Stan was gasping for air at least 100 to 200 yards back.
All in all, quite a ride. Definitely the biggest Cycle Folsom Group ride I've ever been part of. We had a few new riders with us, as well as a relatively new rider. I'm hopeful they enjoyed it as well. They looked great during the ride.


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