William Yeager

William "Bill" Yeager (born June 16, 1940, San Francisco) is an American engineer. He is best known for being the inventor of a packet-switched, "Ships in the Night," multiple-protocol router in 1981, during his 20-year tenure at Stanford's Knowledge Systems Laboratory as well as the Stanford University Computer Science department.
The code routed Parc Universal Packet (PUP), XNS, IP and CHAOSNet. The router used Bill's Network Operating System (NOS). The NOS also supported the EtherTIPS that were used throughout the Stanford LAN for terminal access to both the LAN and the Internet. This code was licensed by Cisco Systems in 1987 and comprised the core of the first Cisco IOS. This provided the groundwork for a new, global communications approach.
He is also known for his role in the creation of the IMAP mail protocol. In 1984 he conceived of a client/server protocol, designed its functionality, applied for and received the grant money for its implementation. In 1985 Mark Crispin was hired to work with Bill on what became the IMAP protocol. Along with Mark, who implemented the protocols details and wrote the first client, MMD, Bill wrote the first Unix IMAP server. Bill later implemented MacMM which was the first MacIntosh IMAP client. Frank Gilmurray assisted with the initial part of this implementation.
At Stanford in 1979 Bill wrote the ttyftp serial line file transfer program, which was developed into the MacIntosh version of the Kermit protocol at Columbia University. He was initially hired in August 1975 as a member of Dr. Elliott Levanthal's Instrumentation Research Laboratory. Here, Bill was responsible for a small computer laboratory for biomedical applications of mass spectrometry. This laboratory in conjunction with several chemists, and the Department of inherited rare diseases in the medical school made significant inroads in identifying inherited rare diseases from the gas chromatograph, mass spectrometer data generated from blood and urine samples of sick children. His significant accomplishment was to complete a prototype program initiated by Dr. R. Geoff Dromey called CLEANUP. This program "extracted representative spectra from GC/MS data," and was later used by the EPA to detect water pollutants.
From 1970 to 1975 he worked at NASA Ames Research Center where he wrote, as a part of the Pioneer 10/11 mission control operating system, both the telemetry monitoring and real time display of the images of Jupiter. After his tenure at Stanford he worked for 10 years at Sun Microsystems.
At Sun as the CTO of Project JXTA he filed 40 US Patents, and along with Rita Yu Chen, designed and implemented the JXTA security solutions. In 2002 he along with Jeff Altman, then a contributor to the JXTA Open Source community, initiated the effort to establish the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) Peer-to-Peer working group. The working group was created in 2003. Bill was the working group chair until 2005.
As Chief Scientist at Peerouette, Inc., he filed 2 US and 2 European Union Patents. He has so far been granted 20 US Patents 4 of which are on the SIMS High Performance Email Servers which he invented and with a small team of engineers implemented, and 16 on P2P and distributed computing. In the Summer of 1999 under the guidance of Greg Papadopoulos, Sun's CTO, and reporting directly to Carl Cargill, Sun's director of corporate standards, led Sun's WAP Forum team with the major objective, "... to work with the WAP Forum on the convergence of the WAP protocol suite with IETF, W3C and Java standards."
During this same period of time he invented the iPlanet Wireless Services. The latter was a Java proxy between IMAP Mail servers and either WAP Servers, or Web Browers. It proxied the following markup languages: The Handheld Device Markup Language, HDML, the Wireless Markup Language, WML, as well as HTML. This was a one person project supported by SFR/Cegetel in France. The primary goal was to enable email service to WAP phones.
He received his bachelor's degree in mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1964; his master's degree in mathematics from San Jose State University in San Jose, California, in 1966; and completed his doctoral course work at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington in 1970. Then decided to abandon mathematics for a career in software engineering and research to the skepticism of his thesis advisor because Bill thought the future was in computing.


FreeCom


ASM.COM (DOS file)


NUMAlink

NUMAlink is a system interconnect developed by Silicon Graphics (SGI) for use in its distributed shared memory ccNUMA computer systems. NUMAlink was originally developed by SGI for their Origin 2000 and Onyx2 systems. At the time of these systems' introduction, it was branded as "CrayLink" during SGI's brief ownership of Cray Research.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise entered into an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) arrangement with Silicon Graphics International (SGI) to use Numalink as the foundation in some mission critical servers.
NUMAlink 2.
There was no NUMAlink 1, as SGI's engineers deemed the system interconnect used in the Stanford DASH to be the first generation NUMAlink interconnect.
NUMAlink 2 (branded as CrayLink) was the second generation of the interconnect, announced in October 1996 and used in the Onyx2 visualization systems, the Origin 200 and the Origin 2000 servers and supercomputers. The NUMAlink 2 interface was the Hub ASIC. NUMAlink 2 is capable of 1.6 GB/s of peak bandwidth through two 800 MB/s, PECL 400 MHz 16-bit unidirectional links.
NUMAlink 3.
NUMAlink 3 is the third generation of the interconnect, introduced in 2000 and used in the Origin 3000 and Altix 3000. NUMAlink 3 is capable of 3.2 GB/s of peak bandwidth through two 1.6 GB/s unidirectional links.
The name NUMAflex was used for the modular design approach around this time.
NUMAlink 4.
NUMAlink 4 is the fourth generation of the interconnect, introduced in 2004 and used in the Altix 4000. NUMAlink 4 is capable of 6.4 GB/s of peak bandwidth through two 3.2 GB/s unidirectional links.
NUMAlink 5.
NUMAlink 5 is the fifth generation of the interconnect, introduced in 2009 and used in the Altix UV series. NUMAlink 5 is capable of 15 GB/s of peak bandwidth through two 7.5 GB/s unidirectional links.
NUMAlink 6.
NUMAlink 6 is the sixth generation of the interconnect, introduced in 2012 and used in the SGI UV 2000, SGI UV 3000, SGI UV 30. NUMAlink 6 is capable of 6.7 GB/s of bidirectional peak bandwidth for up to 256 socket system and 64TB of coherent shared memory.
NUMAlink 7.
NUMAlink 7 is the seventh generation of the interconnect, introduced in 2014 and used in the HPE Integrity MC990 X/SGI UV 300, SGI UV 30EX, SGI UV 300H, SGI UV 300RL. NUMAlink 7 is capable of 14.94 GB/s of bidirectional peak bandwidth for up to 64 socket system and 64TB of coherent shared memory.
NUMAlink 8 (Flex ASIC).
NUMAlink 8 is the eighth generation of the interconnect, introduced in 2017 and used in the HPE Superdome Flex. NUMAlink 8 is capable of 853.33 GB/s of bisection peak bandwidth(64 links are cut) for up to 32 socket system and 48TB of coherent shared memory.


Nokia N70

The Nokia N70 is a 3G smartphone from Nokia. It was announced as part of the Nokia's new line of multimedia smartphones, the Nseries, on April 27, 2005. It started shipping in September 2005. It runs on the S60 2nd Edition, Feature Pack 3 on Symbian v8.1 operating system. It was succeeded by the Nokia N73. The N70 was popular and sold well.
Features.
The Nokia N70 (Model N70-1) is one of the handsets in Nokia's Nseries lineup of smart phones. It is equipped with a 2-megapixel camera with built-in flash, a front VGA camera to allow video calling, FM radio, Bluetooth, digital music player functionality, and support for 3D Symbian, Java games and other S60 2nd Edition software.
At the time of its launch, the N70 had the most built-in memory alongside its system memory and was the penultimate (before the related N72) Symbian OS 8.x device released by Nokia, since the introduction of their new OS9 platform released in 2003 which offers more flexibility than the original that was made in 1998 and upgraded from then on.
In 2006, Nokia released N70 Music Edition phone.
N70-5 model.
The N70-5 is a variant of the N70 without 3G or a front camera. It was shipped to China, Mexico and East Europe markets and provides a lower-cost option for users who do not want or need 3G services.
Music Edition.
In 2006, Nokia released its Music Edition series for N70, N73 and N91. All had black housing and new sales boxes and packages, and were special for their extra storage capacity as compared to the standard models. Music Edition of the N70-1 model featured a 1 GB memory card, 3.5 mm audio adapter with remote control (AD-41), headphones (HS-28), dedicated music button in place of the multimedia key button. The Music edition also features new themes colored in Green and in Red. The speakers and the Music interface of the phone has been improved.
References.
http://www.sistemyolu.org/forum/nokia-eseries-s60-3-2-phones-nokia-e55-and-nokia-e75-f96.html


Nintendo 64

The (abbreviated as N64, stylized as NINTENDO64) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was first released on June 24, 1996 in Japan, September 29, 1996 in North America, and March 1, 1997 in Europe and Australia. It was the last major home console to use cartridges as its primary storage format until the Nintendo Switch in 2017. As a fifth generation console, it competed primarily with the PlayStation and the Sega Saturn.
Development of the console began in 1993 under the codename "Project Reality". Although the design was mostly complete by mid-1995, its launch was delayed until 1996. The console takes its name from the 64-bit processing unit. It was launched with three games: "Super Mario 64", "Pilotwings 64" and "Saikyō Habu Shōgi" (exclusive to Japan). "Time" named it Machine of the Year in 1996, and in 2015, IGN named it the ninth-greatest video game console of all time. The Nintendo 64 was discontinued in 2002 following the launch of its successor, the GameCube. The Nintendo 64 was critically acclaimed upon release and remains one of the most recognized video game consoles.
History.
Background.
Around the end of the 1980s, Nintendo led the video game industry with its Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Although the NES follow-up console, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), was successful, sales took a hit from the Japanese recession. Competition from long-time rival Sega, and relative newcomer Sony, emphasized Nintendo's need to develop a successor for the SNES, or risk losing market dominance to its competitors. Further complicating matters, Nintendo also faced a backlash from third-party developers unhappy with Nintendo's strict licensing policies.
Development.
Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI), a long-time leader in graphics visualization and supercomputing, was interested in expanding its business by adapting its technology into the higher volume realm of consumer products, starting with the video game market. Based upon its MIPS R4000 family of supercomputing and workstation CPUs, SGI developed a CPU requiring a fraction of the resources—consuming only 0.5 watts of power instead of 1.5 to 2 watts, with an estimated target price of instead of –200. The company created a design proposal for a video game system, seeking an already well-established partner in that market. Jim Clark, founder of SGI, initially offered the proposal to Tom Kalinske, who was the CEO of Sega of America. The next candidate would be Nintendo.
The historical details of these preliminary negotiations were controversial between the two competing suitors. Kalinske said that he and Joe Miller of Sega of America were "quite impressed" with SGI's prototype, inviting their hardware team to travel from Japan to meet with SGI. The engineers from Sega Enterprises claimed that their evaluation of the early prototype had uncovered several unresolved hardware issues and deficiencies. Those were subsequently resolved, but Sega had already decided against SGI's design. Nintendo resisted that summary conclusion, arguing that the real reason for SGI's ultimate choice of partner is that Nintendo was a more appealing business partner than Sega. While Sega demanded exclusive rights to the chip, Nintendo was willing to license the technology on a non-exclusive basis. Michael Slater, publisher of "Microprocessor Report" said, "The mere fact of a business relationship there is significant because of Nintendo's phenomenal ability to drive volume. If it works at all, it could bring MIPS to levels of volume [SGI] never dreamed of".
Jim Clark met with Nintendo CEO Hiroshi Yamauchi in early 1993, thus initiating Project Reality. On August 23, 1993, the two companies announced a global joint development and licensing agreement surrounding Project Reality, projecting that the yet unnamed eventual product would be "developed specifically for Nintendo, will be unveiled in arcades in 1994, and will be available for home use by late 1995 ... below $250". This announcement coincided with Nintendo's August 1993 Shoshinkai trade show.
"Reality Immersion Technology" is the name SGI had given the set of core components, which would be first utilized in Project Reality: the MIPS R4300i CPU, the MIPS Reality Coprocessor, and the embedded software. Some chip technology and manufacturing was provided by NEC, Toshiba, and Sharp. SGI had recently acquired MIPS Computer Systems (renamed to MIPS Technologies), and the two worked together to be ultimately responsible for the design of the Reality Immersion Technology chips under engineering director Jim Foran and chief hardware architect Tim Van Hook.
The initial Project Reality game development platform was developed and sold by SGI in the form of its Onyx supercomputer costing – and loaded with the namesake RealityEngine2 graphics boards and four 150 MHz R4400 CPUs. Its software includes early Project Reality application and emulation APIs based on Performer and OpenGL. This graphics supercomputing platform had served as the source design which SGI had reduced down to become the Reality Immersion Technology for Project Reality.
The Project Reality team prototyped a game controller for the development system by modifying a Super NES controller to have a primitive analog joystick and Z trigger. Under maximal secrecy even from the rest of the company, a LucasArts developer said his team would "furtively hide the prototype controller in a cardboard box while we used it. In answer to the inevitable questions about what we were doing, we replied jokingly that it was a new type of controllera bowl of liquid that absorbed your thoughts through your fingertips. Of course, you had to think in Japanese..."
On June 23, 1994, Nintendo announced the new official name of the still unfinished console as "Ultra 64". The first group of elite developers selected by Nintendo was nicknamed the "Dream Team": Silicon Graphics, Inc.; Alias Research, Inc.; Software Creations; Rambus, Inc.; MultiGen, Inc.; Rare, Ltd. and Rare Coin-It Toys & Games, Inc.; WMS Industries, Inc.; Acclaim Entertainment, Inc.; Williams Entertainment, Inc.; Paradigm Simulation, Inc.; Spectrum Holobyte; DMA Design Ltd.; Angel Studios; Ocean; Time Warner Interactive; and Mindscape.
By purchasing and developing upon Project Reality's graphics supercomputing platform, Nintendo and its Dream Team could begin prototyping their games according to SGI's estimated console performance profile, prior to the finalisation of the console hardware specifications. When the Ultra 64 hardware was finalized, that supercomputer-based prototyping platform was later supplanted by a much cheaper and fully accurate console simulation board to be hosted within a low-end SGI Indy workstation in July 1995. SGI's early performance estimates based upon its supercomputing platform were ultimately reported to have been fairly accurate to the final Ultra 64 product, allowing LucasArts developers to port their "Star Wars" game prototype to console reference hardware in only three days.
The console's design was publicly revealed for the first time in late Q2 1994. Images of the console displayed the Nintendo Ultra 64 logo and a ROM cartridge, but no controller. This prototype console's form factor would be retained by the product when it eventually launched. Having initially indicated the possibility of utilising the increasingly popular CD-ROM if the medium's endemic performance problems were solved, the company now announced a much faster but space-limited cartridge-based system, which prompted open analysis by the gaming press. The system was frequently marketed as the world's first 64-bit gaming system, often stating the console was more powerful than the first moon landing computers. Atari had already claimed to have made the first 64-bit game console with their Atari Jaguar, but the Jaguar only uses a general 64-bit architecture in conjunction with two 32-bit RISC processors and a 16/32-bit Motorola 68000.
Later in Q2 1994, Nintendo signed a licensing agreement with Midway's parent company which enabled Midway to develop and market arcade games with the Ultra 64 brand, and formed a joint venture company called "Williams/Nintendo" to market Nintendo-exclusive home conversions of these games. The result is two Ultra 64 branded arcade games, "Killer Instinct" and "Cruis'n USA". Not derived from Project Reality's console-based branch of Ultra 64, the arcade branch uses a different MIPS CPU, has no Reality Coprocessor, and uses onboard ROM chips and a hard drive instead of a cartridge. "Killer Instinct" features 3D character artwork pre-rendered into 2D form, and computer-generated movie backgrounds that are streamed off the hard drive and animated as the characters move horizontally.
Previously, the plan had been to release the console with the name "Ultra Famicom" in Japan and "Nintendo Ultra 64" in other markets. Rumors circulated attributing the name change to the possibility of legal action by Konami's ownership of the Ultra Games trademark. Nintendo said that trademark issues were not a factor, and the sole reason for any name change was to establish a single worldwide brand and logo for the console. The new global name "Nintendo 64" was proposed by "Earthbound" series developer Shigesato Itoi. The prefix for the model numbering scheme for hardware and software across the Nintendo 64 platform is "NUS-", a reference to the console's original name of "Nintendo Ultra Sixty-four".
Announcement.
The newly renamed Nintendo 64 console was fully unveiled to the public in playable form on November 24, 1995, at Nintendo's 7th Annual Shoshinkai trade show. Eager for a preview, "hordes of Japanese schoolkids huddled in the cold outside ... the electricity of anticipation clearly rippling through their ranks". "Game Zero" magazine disseminated photos of the event two days later. Official coverage by Nintendo followed later via the "Nintendo Power" website and print magazine.
The console was originally slated for release by Christmas of 1995. In May 1995, Nintendo delayed the release to April 1996. Consumers anticipating a Nintendo release the following year at a lower price than the competition reportedly reduced the sales of competing Sega and Sony consoles during the important Christmas shopping season. "Electronic Gaming Monthly" editor Ed Semrad even suggested that Nintendo may have announced the April 1996 release date with this end in mind, knowing in advance that the system would not be ready by that date.
In its explanation of the delay, Nintendo claimed it needed more time for Nintendo 64 software to mature, and for third-party developers to produce games. Adrian Sfarti, a former engineer for SGI, attributed the delay to hardware problems; he claimed that the chips underperformed in testing and were being redesigned. In 1996, the Nintendo 64's software development kit was completely redesigned as the Windows-based Partner-N64 system, by Kyoto Microcomputer, Co. Ltd. of Japan.
The Nintendo 64's release date was later delayed again, to June 23, 1996. Nintendo said the reason for this latest delay, and in particular the cancellation of plans to release the console in all markets worldwide simultaneously, was that the company's marketing studies now indicated that they would not be able to manufacture enough units to meet demand by April 1996, potentially angering retailers in the same way Sega had done with its surprise early launch of the Saturn in North America and Europe.
To counteract the possibility that gamers would grow impatient with the wait for the Nintendo 64 and purchase one of the several competing consoles already on the market, Nintendo ran ads for the system well in advance of its announced release dates, with slogans like "Wait for it..." and "Is it worth the wait? Only if you want the best!"
Release.
"Popular Electronics" called the launch a "much hyped, long-anticipated moment". Several months before the launch, "GamePro" reported that many gamers, including a large percentage of their own editorial staff, were already saying they favored the Nintendo 64 over the Saturn and PlayStation.
The console was first released in Japan on June 23, 1996. Though the initial shipment of 300,000 units sold out on the first day, Nintendo successfully avoided a repeat of the Super Famicom launch day pandemonium, in part by using a wider retail network which included convenience stores. The remaining 200,000 units of the first production run shipped on June 26 and 30, with almost all of them reserved ahead of time. In the months between the Japanese and North American launches, the Nintendo 64 saw brisk sales on the American gray market, with import stores charging as much as $699 plus shipping for the system. The Nintendo 64 was first sold in North America on September 26, 1996, though having been advertised for the 29th. It was launched with just two games in the United States, "Pilotwings 64" and "Super Mario 64"; "Cruis'n USA" was pulled from the line-up less than a month before launch because it did not meet Nintendo's quality standards. In 1994, prior to the launch, Nintendo of America chairman Howard Lincoln emphasized the quality of first-party games, saying "... we're convinced that a few great games at launch are more important than great games mixed in with a lot of dogs". The PAL version of the console was released in Europe on March 1, 1997, except for France where it was released on September 1 of the same year. According to Nintendo of America representatives, Nintendo had been planning a simultaneous launch in Japan, North America, and Europe, but market studies indicated that worldwide demand for the system far exceeded the number of units they could have ready by launch, potentially leading to consumer and retailer frustration.
Originally intended to be priced at , the console was ultimately launched at to make it competitive with Sony and Sega offerings, as both the Saturn and PlayStation had been lowered to $199.99 earlier that summer. Nintendo priced the console as an impulse purchase, a strategy from the toy industry. The price of the console in the United States was further reduced in August 1998.
Promotion.
The Nintendo 64's North American launch was backed with a $54 million marketing campaign by Leo Burnett Worldwide (meaning over $100 in marketing per North American unit that had been manufactured up to this point). While the competing Saturn and PlayStation both set teenagers and adults as their target audience, the Nintendo 64's target audience was pre-teens.
To boost sales during the slow post-Christmas season, Nintendo and General Mills worked together on a promotional campaign that appeared in early 1999. The advertisement by Saatchi and Saatchi, New York began on January 25 and encouraged children to buy Fruit by the Foot snacks for tips to help them with their Nintendo 64 games. Ninety different tips were available, with three variations of thirty tips each.
Nintendo advertised its Funtastic Series of peripherals with a $10 million print and television campaign from February 28 to April 30, 2000. Leo Burnett Worldwide was in charge again.
Hardware.
Technical specifications.
The console's main microprocessor is a 64-bit NEC VR4300 CPU with a clock rate of 93.75 MHz and a performance of 125 MIPS. "Popular Electronics" said it had power similar to the Pentium processors found in desktop computers. Except for its narrower 32-bit system bus, the VR4300 retained the computational abilities of the more powerful 64-bit MIPS R4300i, though software rarely took advantage of 64-bit data precision operations. Nintendo 64 games generally used faster and more compact 32-bit data-operations, as these were sufficient to generate 3D-scene data for the console's RSP (Reality Signal Processor) unit. In addition, 32-bit code executes faster and requires less storage space (which is at a premium on the Nintendo 64's cartridges).
In terms of its random-access memory (RAM), the Nintendo 64 was one of the first consoles to implement a unified memory subsystem, instead of having separate banks of memory for CPU, audio, and video operations. The memory itself consists of 4 megabytes of Rambus RDRAM, expandable to 8 MB with the Expansion Pak. Rambus was quite new at the time and offered Nintendo a way to provide a large amount of bandwidth for a relatively low cost.
Audio may be processed by the Reality Coprocessor or the CPU and is output to a DAC with up to sample rate.
The system allows for video output in two formats: composite video and S-Video. The composite and S-Video cables are the same as those used with the preceding SNES and succeeding GameCube platforms.
The Nintendo 64 supports 16.8 million colors. The system can display resolutions from 320×240 up to 640×480 pixels. Most games that make use of the system's higher resolution mode require use of the Expansion Pak RAM upgrade; though several do not, such as Acclaim's "NFL Quarterback Club" series and EA Sports's second generation "Madden", "FIFA", "Supercross", and "NHL" games. The majority of games use the system's low resolution 320×240 mode. Many games support a video display ratio of up to using either anamorphic widescreen or letterboxing.
Controller.
The controller of the Nintendo 64 is designed in an "M" shape and features 10 buttons, one analog control stick and a directional pad.
The Nintendo 64 is one of the first gaming consoles to have four controller ports. According to Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo opted to have four controller ports because the Nintendo 64 is the company's first console which can handle a four player split screen without significant slowdown.
Game Paks.
Nintendo 64 games are ROM cartridge based. Cartridge size varies from 4 to 64 MB. Many cartridges include the ability to save games internally.
Nintendo cited several advantages for making the Nintendo 64 cartridge-based. Primarily cited was the ROM cartridges' very fast load times in comparison to disc-based games. While loading screens appear in many PlayStation games, they are rare in Nintendo 64 games. Although vulnerable to long-term environmental damage the cartridges are far more resistant to physical damage than compact discs. Nintendo also cited the fact that cartridges are more difficult to pirate than CDs, thus resisting copyright infringement, albeit at the expense of lowered profit margin for Nintendo. While unauthorized N64 interface devices for the PC were later developed, these devices are rare, when compared to a regular CD drive used on the PlayStation which suffered widespread copyright infringement.
On the downside, cartridges took longer to manufacture than CDs, with each production run (from order to delivery) taking two weeks or more. This meant that publishers of Nintendo 64 games had to attempt to predict demand for a game ahead of its release. They risked being left with a surplus of expensive cartridges for a failed game or a weeks-long shortage of product if they underestimated a game's popularity. The cost of producing a Nintendo 64 cartridge was also far higher than for a CD. Publishers passed these expenses onto the consumer. Nintendo 64 games cost an average of $10 more when compared to games produced for rival consoles. The higher cost also created the potential for much greater losses to the game's publisher in the case of a flop, making the less risky CD medium tempting for third-party companies. Some third-party companies also complained that they were at an unfair disadvantage against Nintendo first party developers when publishing games for the Nintendo 64, since Nintendo owned the manufacturing plant where cartridges for their consoles are made and therefore could sell their first party games at a lower price.
As fifth generation games became more complex in content, sound and graphics, games began to exceed the limits of cartridge storage capacity. Nintendo 64 cartridges had a maximum of 64 MB of data, whereas CDs held 650 MB. The "Los Angeles Times" initially defended the quality control incentives associated with working with limited storage on cartridges, citing Nintendo's position that cartridge game developers tend to "place a premium on substance over flash", and noted that the launch titles lack the "poorly acted live-action sequences or half-baked musical overtures" which it says tend to be found on CD-ROM games. However, the cartridge's limitations became apparent with software ported from other consoles, so Nintendo 64 versions of cross-platform games were truncated or redesigned with the storage limits of a cartridge in mind. For instance this meant fewer textures, and/or shorter music tracks, while full motion video was not usually feasible for use in cutscenes unless heavily compressed and of very brief length.
The era's competing systems from Sony and Sega (the PlayStation and Saturn, respectively) used CD-ROM discs to store their games. As a result, game developers who had traditionally supported Nintendo game consoles were now developing games for the competition. Some third-party developers, such as Square and Enix, whose "Final Fantasy VII" and "Dragon Warrior VII" were initially planned for the Nintendo 64, switched to the PlayStation, citing the insufficient storage capacity of the N64 cartridges. Some who remained released fewer games to the Nintendo 64; Konami released fifty PlayStation games, but only twenty nine for the Nintendo 64. New Nintendo 64 game releases were infrequent while new games were coming out rapidly for the PlayStation.
Through the difficulties with third parties, the Nintendo 64 supported popular games such as "GoldenEye 007", giving it a long market life. Additionally, Nintendo's strong first-party franchises such as "Mario" had strong name brand appeal. Second-parties of Nintendo, such as Rare, helped.
Nintendo's controversial selection of the cartridge medium for the Nintendo 64 has been cited as a key factor in Nintendo losing its dominant position in the gaming market. The ROM cartridges are constrained by small capacity and high production expenses, compared to the compact disc format used by its chief competitors. Some of the cartridge's advantages are difficult for developers to manifest prominently, requiring innovative solutions which only came late in the console's life cycle. Another of its technical drawbacks is a limited-size texture cache, which force textures of limited dimensions and reduced color depth, appearing stretched when covering in-game surfaces. Some third-party publishers that supported Nintendo's previous consoles reduced their output or stopped publishing for the console; the majority of the Nintendo 64's most successful games came from first-party or second-party studios.
Color variants.
The Nintendo 64 comes in several colors. The standard Nintendo 64 is dark gray, nearly black, and the controller is light gray (later releases in the U.S., Canada and Australia included a bonus second controller in Atomic Purple). Various colorations and special editions were released.
Most Nintendo 64 game cartridges are gray in color, but some games have a colored cartridge. Fourteen games have black cartridges, and other colors (such as yellow, blue, red, gold and green) were each used for six or fewer games. Several games, such as "", were released both in standard gray and in colored, limited edition versions.
Programming characteristics.
The programming characteristics of the Nintendo 64 present unique challenges, with distinct potential advantages. "The Economist" described effective programming for the Nintendo 64 as being "horrendously complex". As with many other game consoles and other types of embedded systems, the Nintendo 64's architectural optimizations are uniquely acute, due to a combination of oversight on the part of the hardware designers, limitations on 3D technology of the time, and manufacturing capabilities.
As the Nintendo 64 reached the end of its lifecycle, hardware development chief Genyo Takeda repeatedly referred to the programming challenges using the word "hansei" ( "reflective regret"). Looking back, Takeda said "When we made Nintendo 64, we thought it was logical that if you want to make advanced games, it becomes technically more difficult. We were wrong. We now understand it's the cruising speed that matters, not the momentary flash of peak power".
Regional lock-out.
Nintendo initially stated that while the Nintendo 64 units for each region use essentially identical hardware design, regional lock-out chips would prevent games from one region from being played on a Nintendo 64 console from a different region. Following the North American launch, however, they admitted that the cartridges contain no such chips, and the regional lock-out is enforced by differing notches in the back of the cartridges.
Games.
A total of 393 games were released for the console, though there were a few that were exclusively sold in Japan. For comparison, rivals PlayStation and the Sega Saturn received around 1,100 games and 600 games respectively, while previous Nintendo consoles such as the NES and SNES had 768 and 725 games released in the United States. However, the Nintendo 64 game library included a high number of critically acclaimed and widely sold games. According to TRSTS reports, three of the top five best-selling games in the U.S. for December 1996 were Nintendo 64 games (both of the remaining two were Super NES games). "Super Mario 64" is the best selling game of the generation, with 11 million units sold beating the PlayStation's "Gran Turismo" (at 10.85 million) and "Final Fantasy VII" (at 9.72 million) in sales. The game also received much praise from critics and helped to pioneer three-dimensional control schemes. "GoldenEye 007" was important in the evolution of the first-person shooter, and has been named one of the greatest in the genre. "" set the standard for future 3D action-adventure games and is considered by many to be one of the greatest games ever made. This trend followed Hiroshi Yamauchi's strategy, announced during his speech at the Nintendo 64's November 1995 unveiling, that Nintendo restrict the number of titles produced for the Nintendo 64 so that developers would focus on developing games to a higher standard instead of trying to outdo their competitors with sheer quantity.
Graphics.
The most graphically demanding Nintendo 64 games that arrived on larger 32 or 64 MB cartridges are the most advanced and detailed of the 32-bit/64-bit generation. In order to maximize use of the Nintendo 64 hardware developers had to create their own custom microcode. Nintendo 64 games running on custom microcode benefited from much higher polygon counts in tandem with more advanced lighting, animation, physics and AI routines than its 32-bit competition. "Conker's Bad Fur Day" is arguably the pinnacle of its generation combining multicolored real-time lighting that illuminates each area to real-time shadowing and detailed texturing replete with a full in game facial animation system. The Nintendo 64's graphics chip is capable of executing many more advanced and complex rendering techniques than its competitors. It is the first home console to feature trilinear filtering, which allowed textures to look very smooth. This contrasted with the Saturn and PlayStation, which used nearest-neighbor interpolation and produced more pixelated textures. Overall however the results of the Nintendo cartridge system were mixed and this was tied primarily to its storage medium.
The smaller storage size of ROM cartridges limited the number of available textures. As a result, many games which utilized much smaller 8 or 12 MB cartridges are forced to stretch textures over larger surfaces. Compounded by a limit of 4,096 bytes of on-chip texture memory, the end-result is often a distorted, out-of-proportion appearance. Many titles that feature larger 32 or 64 MB cartridges avoided this issue entirely, notable games include "Resident Evil 2", "Sin and Punishment: Successor of the Earth", and "Conker's Bad Fur Day" as they feature more ROM space, allowing for more detailed graphics by utilising multiple, multi-layered textures across all surfaces.
Emulation.
Several Nintendo 64 games have been released for the Wii's and Wii U's Virtual Console service and are playable with the Classic Controller, GameCube controller, Wii U Pro Controller, or Wii U GamePad. There are some differences between these versions and the original cartridge versions. For example, the games run in a higher resolution and at a more consistent framerate than their Nintendo 64 counterparts. Some features, such as Rumble Pak functionality, are not available in the Wii versions. Some features are also changed on the Virtual Console releases. For example, the VC version of "Pokémon Snap" allows players to send photos through the Wii's message service, while "Wave Race 64"'s in-game content was altered due to the expiration of the Kawasaki license. Several games developed by Rare were released on Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade service, including "Banjo-Kazooie", "Banjo-Tooie", and "Perfect Dark", following Microsoft's acquisition of Rareware in 2002. One exception is "Donkey Kong 64", released in April 2015 on the Wii U Virtual Console, as Nintendo retained the rights to the game.
Several unofficial emulators have been developed in order to play Nintendo 64 games on other platforms, such as PCs, Mac and cell phones.
Accessories.
Nintendo 64 accessories include the Rumble Pak and the Transfer Pak.
The controller is shaped like an "M", employing a joystick in the center. "Popular Electronics" called its shape "evocative of some alien space ship". While noting that the three handles could be confusing, the magazine said "the separate grips allow different hand positions for various game types".
64DD.
Nintendo released a peripheral platform called 64DD, where "DD" stands for "Disk Drive". Connecting to the expansion slot at the bottom of the system, the 64DD turns the Nintendo 64 console into an Internet appliance, a multimedia workstation, and an expanded gaming platform. This large peripheral allows players to play Nintendo 64 disk-based games, capture images from an external video source, and it allowed players to connect to the now-defunct Japanese Randnet online service. Not long after its limited mail-order release, the peripheral was discontinued. Only nine games were released, including the four "Mario Artist" games ("Paint Studio", "Talent Studio", "Communication Kit", and "Polygon Studio"). Many more planned games were eventually released in cartridge format or on other game consoles. The 64DD and the accompanying Randnet online service were released only in Japan, though always having been announced for America and Europe.
To illustrate the fundamental significance of the 64DD to all game development at Nintendo, lead designer Shigesato Itoi said: "I came up with a lot of ideas because of the 64DD. All things start with the 64DD. There are so many ideas I wouldn’t have been allowed to come up with if we didn’t have the 64DD". Shigeru Miyamoto concluded: "Almost every new project for the N64 is based on the 64DD. ... we’ll make the game on a cartridge first, then add the technology we’ve cultivated to finish it up as a full-out 64DD game".
China's Nintendo 64 (IQue Player).
The iQue Player was released on November 17, 2003 after China banned video game consoles. The games that were released in the IQue Player's lifetime (from 2003 to 2016) are "Super Mario 64", "", "Mario Kart 64", "Wave Race 64", "Star Fox 64", "Yoshi's Story", "Paper Mario", "Super Smash Bros", "F Zero X", "Dr. Mario 64", "Excitebike 64", "Sin and Punishment", "Custom Robo" and "Animal Crossing".
Reception.
Critical reception.
The Nintendo 64 received generally positive reviews from critics. Reviewers praised the console's advanced 3D graphics and gameplay, while criticising the lack of games. On G4techTV's "Filter", the Nintendo 64 was voted up to No. 1 by registered users.
In February 1996, "Next Generation" magazine called the Nintendo Ultra 64 the "best kept secret in videogames" and the "world's most powerful game machine". It called the system's November 24, 1995 unveiling at Shoshinkai "the most anticipated videogaming event of the 1990s, possibly of all time". Previewing the Nintendo 64 shortly prior to its launch, "Time" magazine praised the realistic movement and gameplay provided by the combination of fast graphics processing, pressure-sensitive controller, and the "Super Mario 64" game. The review praised the "fastest, smoothest game action yet attainable via joystick at the service of equally virtuoso motion", where "[f]or once, the movement on the screen feels real". Asked if gamers should buy a Nintendo 64 at launch, buy it later, or buy a competing system, a panel of six "GamePro" editors voted almost unanimously to buy at launch; one editor said gamers who already own a PlayStation and are on a limited budget should buy it later, and all others should buy it at launch.
At launch, the "Los Angeles Times" called the system "quite simply, the fastest, most graceful game machine on the market". Its form factor was described as small, light, and "built for heavy play by kids" unlike the "relatively fragile Sega Saturn". Showing concern for a major console product launch during a sharp, several-year long, decline in the game console market, the review said that the long-delayed Nintendo 64 was "worth the wait" in the company's pursuit of quality. Nintendo's "penchant for perfection" in game quality control was praised, though with concerns about having only two launch titles at retail and twelve expected by Christmas. Describing the quality control incentives associated with cartridge-based development, the "Times" cited Nintendo's position that cartridge game developers tend to "place a premium on substance over flash", and noted that the launch titles lack the "poorly acted live-action sequences or half-baked musical overtures" which it says tend to be found on CD-ROM games. Praising Nintendo's controversial choice of the cartridge medium with its "nonexistent" load times and "continuous, fast-paced action CD-ROMs simply cannot deliver", the review concluded that "the cartridge-based Nintendo 64 delivers blistering speed and tack-sharp graphics that are unheard of on personal computers and make competing 32-bit, disc-based consoles from Sega and Sony seem downright sluggish".
"Time" named it the 1996 Machine of the Year, saying the machine had "done to video-gaming what the 707 did to air travel". The magazine said the console achieved "the most realistic and compelling three-dimensional experience ever presented by a computer". "Time" credited the Nintendo 64 with revitalising the video game market, "rescuing this industry from the dustbin of entertainment history". The magazine suggested that the Nintendo 64 would play a major role in introducing children to digital technology in the final years of the 20th century. The article concluded by saying the console had already provided "the first glimpse of a future where immensely powerful computing will be as common and easy to use as our televisions". The console also won the 1996 Spotlight Award for Best New Technology.
"Popular Electronics" complimented the system's hardware, calling its specifications "quite impressive". It found the controller "comfortable to hold, and the controls to be accurate and responsive".
In a 1997 year-end review, a team of five "Electronic Gaming Monthly" editors gave the Nintendo 64 scores of 8.0, 7.0, 7.5, 7.5, and 9.0. They highly praised the power of the hardware and the quality of the first-party games, especially those developed by Rare's and Nintendo's internal studios, but also commented that the third-party output to date had been mediocre and the first-party output was not enough by itself to provide Nintendo 64 owners with a steady stream of good games or a full breadth of genres. "Next Generation"s end of 1997 review expressed similar concern about third party support, while also noting signs that the third party output was improving, and speculated that the Nintendo 64's arrival late in its generation could lead to an early obsolescence when Sony and Sega's successor consoles launched. However, they said that for some, Nintendo's reliably high-quality software would outweigh those drawbacks, and gave the system 3 1/2 out of 5 stars.
Developer Factor 5, which created some of the system's most technologically advanced games along with the system's audio development tools for Nintendo, said, "[T]he N64 is really sexy because it combines the performance of an SGI machine with a cartridge. We're big arcade fans, and cartridges are still the best for arcade games or perhaps a really fast CD-ROM. But there's no such thing for consoles yet [as of 1998]".
Sales.
The Nintendo 64 was in heavy demand upon its release. David Cole, industry analyst, said "You have people fighting to get it from stores". "Time" called the purchasing interest "that rare and glorious middle-class Cabbage Patch-doll frenzy". The magazine said celebrities Matthew Perry, Steven Spielberg, and Chicago Bulls players called Nintendo to ask for special treatment to get their hands on the console. The console had only two launch games, with "Super Mario 64" as its killer app.
During the system's first three days on the market, retailers sold 350,000 of 500,000 available console units. During its first four months, the console yielded 500,000 unit sales in North America. Nintendo successfully outsold Sony and Sega early in 1997 in the United States; and by the end of its first full year, 3.6 million units were sold in the U.S. "BusinessWire" reported that the Nintendo 64 was responsible for Nintendo's sales having increased by 156% by 1997.
After a strong launch year, the decision to use the cartridge format is said to have contributed to the diminished release pace and higher price of games compared to the competition, and thus Nintendo was unable to maintain its lead in the United States. The console would continue to outsell the Sega Saturn throughout the generation, but would trail behind the PlayStation.
Nintendo's efforts to attain dominance in the key 1997 holiday shopping season were also hurt by game delays. Five high-profile Nintendo games slated for release by Christmas 1997 ("", "Banjo-Kazooie", "Conker's Quest", "Yoshi's Story", and "Major League Baseball Featuring Ken Griffey Jr.") were delayed until 1998, and "Diddy Kong Racing" was announced at the last minute in an effort to somewhat fill the gaps. In an effort to take the edge off of the console's software pricing disadvantage, Nintendo worked to lower manufacturing costs for Nintendo 64 cartridges, and leading into the 1997 holiday shopping season announced a new pricing structure which amounted to a roughly 15% price cut on both first-party and third-party games. Response from third-party publishers was positive, with key third-party publisher Capcom saying the move led them to reconsider their decision not to publish games for the console.
In Japan, the console was not as successful, failing to outsell the PlayStation and even the Sega Saturn. Benimaru Itō, a developer for "Mother 3" and friend of Shigeru Miyamoto, speculated in 1997 that the Nintendo 64's lower popularity in Japan was due to the lack of role-playing video games.
Nintendo reported that the system's vintage hardware and software sales had ceased by 2004, three years after the GameCube's launch; as of December 31, 2009, the Nintendo 64 had yielded a lifetime total of 5.54 million system units sold in Japan, 20.63 million in the Americas, and 6.75 million in other regions, for a total of 32.93 million units.
Legacy.
The Nintendo 64 remains one of the most recognised video game systems in history, and the games it spawned have had an indelible impact on the games industry; in particular, the console spawned numerous new franchises as well as establishing a thriving speed running community that persists to this day. Many of its titles have been ported or remastered to newer consoles.
Designed in tandem with the controller, "Super Mario 64" and "" are widely considered by critics and the public to be two of the greatest and most influential games of all time. "GoldenEye 007" is one of the most influential games for the shooter genre.
The Aleck 64 is a Nintendo 64 design in arcade form, designed by Seta in cooperation with Nintendo, and sold from 1998 to 2003 only in Japan.


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Cyrix Cx486

The Cyrix Cx486 was an x86 microprocessor designed by Cyrix. It primarily competed with the Intel 486 with which it was software compatible, would operate in the same motherboards provided proper support by the BIOS was available and generally showed comparable performance. The chip also competed with parts from AMD and UMC.
Production.
Due to Cyrix being a fabless company, Cyrix used Texas Instruments, SGS Thomson and IBM which had their own foundries to manufacture their processors, though this was done under a contract that allowed each company to build and sell Cyrix-designed processors under their own branding.
As a result, there were many versions of the Cx486 and the manufacture of them differed slightly depending on which company had built them, though equivalent chips generally perform near-identically enough than the end user would not notice any difference between them.
The contract with SGS-Thomson outlived the Cyrix Cx486 processor's lifespan in the mainstream market by over a decade with SGS-Thomson still producing industrial solutions built upon the Cyrix design into the late-2000s.
Variants.
The Cyrix Cx486 was available with different features, clock speeds and voltages over the duration of its production.
Cx486S.
Introduced in May 1993, The Cyrix Cx486S, codenamed M5, was designed to be compatible with the Intel 486SX and like the Intel part, did not have a floating point unit onboard which was of little concern to an average user at the time due to most games and applications using purely integer-based code. The processor did, however, sport a 2KB Write-back cache and a special "Write-Burst" signal which offered a slight performance boost in certain applications provided the motherboard was capable of utilizing the feature. The processors were labelled "FasCache" to emphasize this feature as most processors used slower Write-through caches.
Users could upgrade the processor to 486DX specifications through use of an accessory, the Cyrix Cx487S which was an x87 Floating Point Unit coprocessor which fit between the CPU and the socket on the motherboard.
The table below lists the models of this CPU that were produced.
The Cyrix Cx486DLC is a derivative of this processor and was used to upgrade computers on the 80386 platform.
Cx486DX.
Codenamed M6, the Cyrix Cx486DX is essentially the same as the Cx486S except it featured an internal Floating Point Unit and quadruple the amount of cache memory. It was available in a form that allowed lower voltage operation. The processor was found to have comparable performance to competing solutions, but it varied depending on the application.
The table below lists models of this CPU that were produced.
Despite the faster clock speeds, the 50 MHz version of this processor was less popular than the other models Cyrix had produced. This is likely due to VESA Local Bus being common in computers around the time of the processors introduction as the bus was notoriously unreliable when operating at speeds of over 33 MHz. Many peripherals and even the bus itself will exhibit undefined behaviors at higher speeds on a large number of motherboards. This is reflected by Intel and AMD processors operating at 50 MHz where their sales show a similar trait of being less popular. Users could potentially negate this by increasing latency for the memory, cache and bus but this would also cause performance to drop.
Cx486DX2.
Introduced in September 1993 alongside the single clock version was a clock doubling version of the Cx486DX. It was intended to compete with the Intel 80486DX2 and had similar capabilities. Its lower price point than equivalent Intel processors made it a popular choice.
The 50 MHz version is again the least common, this time likely due to the slower bus speed rendering any upgrade questionable as the performance gains would be reduced by the lower bus speed.
The 80 MHz version was introduced in November 1994.
Cx486DX4.
The final version of the Cx486 to bear the Cyrix name was a Clock Tripling CPU which was only available with a 100 MHz Internal Clock. Introduced in September 1995, it was otherwise not vastly different to the older designs and proved to be competitive both performance-wise and price-wise against offerings from AMD and Intel though it was later to market than its competitors.
Legal Dispute.
In 1993, Intel alleged that Cyrix had infringed several patents and initiated legal action. The courts found that Cyrix had indeed reverse engineered the Intel part, but had conceived their own compatible design, the courts also found that Texas Instruments, SGS-Thomson and IBM were licensed to produce Intel designs. Eventually the case was dropped and Intel paid Cyrix $12 million to drop anti-trust charges against them.
The legal battle delayed several of Cyrix's products, causing them to arrive later than competing solutions.
Embedded Solutions.
The Cyrix Cx486DX2 design was used by STMicroelectronics in 1999 for their STPC SoC range. This was essentially a Cyrix Cx486, chipset, graphics and most I/O integrated into a single chip. The CPU performs identically to a Cyrix part at the same clock speed. The STPC was produced until 2008 and was found in a variety of systems, usually small embedded systems for industrial use or Single-board computer devices, such as those using the PC/104 form factor. One notable difference between the STPC and other Cx486 processors is the Host Clock which operates at 66MHz for STPC devices. As such, the 66MHz model does not use clock doubling at all, but the 133MHz version does. This differs from most competing systems, such as the AMD Elan processors based on AMD's Enhanced Am486 core as used in the Am5x86 which still relied upon a 33MHz external clock.


Nokia N86 8MP

The Nokia N86 8MP is a high-end smartphone announced on 17 February 2009 and released in May 2009. It runs on Symbian OS 9.3 (S60 3rd Edition FP2) and is part of the Nseries. It shares similar design features with the N97.
Camera.
One of its main selling points is its Carl Zeiss photography features. It was Nokia's first camera phone to have an 8 megapixel sensor (although late compared to other manufacturers), and features both multiple aperture settings and a mechanical shutter (uncommon features by the standards of camera phones), and a Carl Zeiss lens with a wide angle of view (28 mm equivalent). It also has auto focus and a dual LED flash (3rd generation dual-LEDs), and an AF assist light. Video capture resolution is 640 × 480 pixels (VGA) at 30 frames per second.
The variable aperture adjusts between the three levels of 2.4, 3.2 and 4.8, depending on lighting conditions.
Design.
The N86 continuous the form factor of the Nokia N95 and N85 with its dual-sliding form factor, whilst adding a toughened glass front cover and metal detailing and keypad, making it look and feel premium. It has a 2.6-inch AMOLED display, a fast 434 MHz processor, and an 8 GB internal memory. It also has the same kickback stand as the N85 so it is possible to use as a small standalone screen, and it is possible to configure the opening of the stand to launch applications such as the video player. It also supports the N-Gage gaming platform. The N86 8MP is regarded as the spiritual successor of the N95 8GB due to its feature set in the same sliding form factor, and the commercial failure of the N96. Some regard it a successor of the N82 due to its camera.
Features.
The N86 8MP is a 3.5G or 3.75G(3GPP)device with dual-band HSDPA support, quad-band GSM and Wi-Fi. It has an A-GPS receiver, which links into location-based services via Nokia Maps, and photographs can be automatically geo-tagged. There is also a built-in digital compass, and FM radio, and there is also a FM transmitter. It is rated to give 6 hours talktime, 25 hours music playback and 11 days on standby on a full charge.
Digital TV.
With optional DVB-H Nokia Mobile TV Receiver SU-33W it is possible to watch television on the screen of the phone.
Free navigation.
Ovi Maps 3.03, with free navigation, was released on 17 March 2010 for the Nokia N86. The new version was available via the SW Update application and has a file size of 8.24 MB. The N86, E72, E55, E52, 6730, 6710 (S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2) and all of Nokia's Symbian^1 (S60 5th Edition) devices will get to experience beta-testing and free navigation.
Firmware updates.
6 July 2009.
The Nokia N86 8MP received a big firmware upgrade, to v11.043. That brought official Ovi Store compatibility (with Ovi web site shortcut and option to download the dedicated client), camera tweaks and the usual early firmware bug fixes and improvements.
30 September 2009.
The Nokia N86 8MP received its v20 firmware upgrade a full week or so ahead of schedule. It was 8 MB large for an Over The Air (OTA) update.
Some significant changes were: Improved still image and video quality and Close-up focus, Face detection (indicated by a yellow square) and Red-eye removal were added, New focus point indication (shows where in the scene the camera is focusing).
11 January 2010.
The Nokia N86 8MP got a minor update to v21 firmware. Version 21.006 replaced v20.115 and was a maintenance release, improving performance further and fixing a number of minor bugs.
15 April 2010.
Version 30.009 firmware mainly features the latest Ovi Maps client and is now available via Nokia Software Update (142 MB) and Over The Air (5085 KB).
It includes the latest Ovi Maps 3.03 (with free navigation), the sharing of location via Facebook. RealPlayer interface is tweaked (no more d-pad problem while playing videos) and there are some usual minor fixes and improvements.
20 May 2010.
It includes the latest Ovi Maps 3.04. The new version adds formal support for WiFi as a positioning method as part of an overhaul of the positioning functionality, plus significant performance improvements for search, zooming and map panning, a number of consumer-friendly UI tweaks and the addition of Qype information to the places database.
N87.
The Nokia N87, a successor of the N86, was leaked on the internet with full specifications in December 2009 and then again in early 2010. However it was never released, and instead the touchscreen Nokia N8 was introduced. In November 2010 a prototype of the N87 appeared on eBay which shows it running probably Symbian^3. The listing was removed after some time by the seller. Nokia would never release another high-end non-touchscreen device after the N86 8MP.


TV-out

The term TV-out is commonly used to label the connector of equipment providing an analog video signal acceptable for a television AV input. TV-out is different from AV-out in that it only provides video, no audio.
Types of signals and their respective connectors include:
See AV input for more information.


Seth Neiman

Seth Neiman (born June 27, 1954) is an American computer industry businessperson and venture capitalist in California, and a professional racing driver.
He is the team principal of Flying Lizard Motorsports, which participates in the United SportsCar Championship He currently resides in San Francisco, California.
Youth.
Neiman was born in East Liverpool, Ohio and grew up in Dayton, Ohio. His mother was Judith Klapper Neiman and father was Ralph Bernard Neiman. The second child of four, he had two sisters and a younger brother.
He graduated from Ohio State University with a Bachelor's degree in philosophy and did graduate work in computer science.
Business career.
Neiman was a system architect at Maxitron Corporation in Marin County during the mid-1980s, and then Vice President of Product Development at Dahlgren Control Systems in San Francisco. In 1988, he became Vice President of Product Development for the TOPS Division of Sun Microsystems, that was developing the TOPS network file server system.
In 1994, he joined the venture capital firm Crosspoint Venture Partners, and becoming a general partner before departing. In 1995, he founded Brocade Communications Systems.
Neiman served as a lead investor and board member of various broadband computer networking companies, including Foundry Networks, Avanex, iPass, Shoreline, Juniper Networks, and NexPrise.
He has been Chairman of the Board of eSilicon Corporation since 2011, and a Director at AlephCloud Systems Inc. since 2013. He is also a Director at the facial expression recognition system company Emotient, Inc.
Racing career.
Neiman formed Flying Lizard Motorsports team in 2003. In 2005, he competed in the ALMS GT2 class for the Porsche team as well as finishing third in GT2 class in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He finished 4th at Le Mans the following year and finished 9th in ALMS GT2 points for the same team in 2006. He also drove in four SCCA World Challenge races in the Touring Car class.
In 2007, he finished 10th in ALMS and the car failed to finish at Le Mans. In 2008, he captured a career best 5th place in ALMS GT2 points and finished 6th at Le Mans. In 2009, he again failed to finish at Le Mans and finished 7th in ALMS points.
He returned to the Flying Lizards team he owns in 2010, and competed in his first 24 Hours of Daytona, finishing 9th overall and 2nd in GT.


LOGOS.SYS


Curse (video game)

 is a 1989 shoot 'em up game developed by Micronet for the Mega Drive video game console. It was a sideways scrolling shoot 'em up spread across five levels. Although an American release was planned, it was never officially released outside Japan.
Plot.
The story takes place in an alien solar system and focuses on the history of its two inhabited planets: Parceria and Seneca. For many years, the people of these planets lived in harmony together with the seemingly more advanced Parcerians continually visiting the Senecans. However, something happened on Parceria: something caused the Parcerians to shut off all forms of communication, visitation and activity with Seneca. Over time, Parceria's environment died out, leaving only a planet-wide barren terrain. Hundreds of years have now passed and the current generation of Senecans see Parceria as nothing but a dead husk with the concept of life and companionship on it being mere, long forgotten legends.
One day, an enormous attack force flies from Parceria and attacks Seneca without warning. Confirmed to be the Parcerian Military, the invaders cripple Seneca's defense forces. Besides being well armed and equipped, the Parceria Military is also able to manipulate the wildlife to do its bidding through unknown means, ensuring no possible escape to safety. The desperate people of Seneca eventually discovered an ancient star fighter abandoned by the Parcerians called The Baldanders. Using its super-technology, the people of Seneca use the Baldanders in a counter-attack against the Parcerian invasion to destroy their main battleship: a large, mysterious warship known only as 'Mother.'
Gameplay.
Curse is similar to many other sideways/horizontal scrolling shooters, most notably R-Type. Various power-ups can be collected to boost weapons and speed. The object of the game is to shoot all other enemies that appear on screen and avoid crashing into bullets, enemies or foreground scenery. There are end-of-level boss enemies that stay with the player until they are defeated. There are no difficulty settings but the extends (aka: 1ups) are awarded every 1 million points.
The Baldanders star fighter has an advantage over most scrolling shooter ships at the time in that it is equipped with a shield. When players are hit by bullets or missiles, the shield takes a hit for the ship. The shield can take three hits total before the player's ship is destroyed. Players are equipped with a standard laser shot that can be upgraded when certain power-ups are collected. The player has access to three different upgradable weapons: the V-Laser which fires in three directions, the Wide Beam which can shoot through every foreground object (except for the flying orange iron rock objects) and the Crash Shot a slow firing cluster of gray, explosive crystals that scatter shrapnel in the opposite direction of its impact. Other items includes Homing Missiles which scan over terrain, shield Energy pick-ups, Speed-Ups and Options.
The Options increase the number of the player's standard laser shots and allows the player to fire standard shots upwards, backwards and downwards depending on each Option's direction. Two could be collected at one time. The player can rotate them to two fixed directions: horizontal and vertical using the C button. The player can also use each sphere as a shield against most enemy fire. The Baldanders is equipped with the iconic Shmup Smart Bomb weapon which destroys all enemies and/or enemy shots on the screen using the A button. The Bomb however does not have its own pick-up icon: in order to supply the ship with more bombs, the player has to upgrade either one of the three items available to them completely by picking up the same icon three times in a row. Once the weapon is upgraded, the next icon of the same weapon the player uses adds to the bomb supply.
Reception.
The game utilized full parallax scrolling through most of the game, however, the graphics were not considered as anything special by the reviewers of the time. The game's audio received better reviews and a sound test was available by holding down buttons A and Start on the title screen (various other options were available here for adjusting the game difficulty and other standard features).


Chopper Attack

Chopper Attack, known in Japan as , is a helicopter-based third-person shooter game for the Nintendo 64 released in 1997.
The game features numerous missions in various locations. Missions include bombing the enemy's bases, escorting Air Force One through dangerous jungle terrain, and rescuing prisoners of war. Every mission has a time limit.
Development.
"Chopper Attack" was among the games demonstrated at the November 1996 Shoshinkai show. A two-player split screen mode was worked on, but eliminated by the time the game was released.
Reception.
The game received mixed reviews according to the review aggregation website GameRankings. In Japan, however, "Famitsu" gave it a score of 30 out of 40.


EKA (supercomputer)

EKA is a supercomputer built by the Computational Research Laboratories (a subsidiary of Tata Sons) with technical assistance and hardware provided by Hewlett-Packard.
"Eka" means the number "One" in Sanskrit.
Design.
EKA uses 14,352 cores based on the Intel QuadCore Xeon processors. The primary interconnect is Infiband 4x DDR. EKA occupies about area. It was built using offshelf components from Hewlett-Packard, Mellanox and Voltaire Ltd.. It was built within a short period of 6 weeks.
Ranking history.
At the time of its unveiling, it was the fourth-fastest supercomputer in the world and the fastest in Asia. As of 16 September 2011, it is ranked at 58.


Hamster Monogatari 64

 is a life simulation game for the Nintendo 64 where the player must raise and look after hamsters. It was released only in Japan in 2001.


List of Intel Core i5 processors

The following is a list of Intel Core i5 brand microprocessors. Introduced in 2009, the Core i5 line of microprocessors are intended to be used by mainstream users.


Appendix H

Appendix H is the name of an infamous appendix in Pentium Processor Family Developer's Manual, Volume 3. This appendix contained reference to documentation only available under a legally binding NDA.
This NDAed documentation described various new features introduced in the Pentium processor, notably Virtual Mode Extensions (VME) and 4 MB paging (VME should not be confused with the later Intel VT virtualization technology). VME added an additional feature to the existing virtual 8086 mode that was introduced with the 80386 processor, and included optimized handling and delivery of interrupts to and from virtual machines.
The appendix was referenced by the official chapters in the documentation, provoking irritation among the public who was not allowed to access the detailed descriptions. This started a movement with observers trying to reverse-engineer the information in various ways. Notably, Robert Collins (writing in "Dr. Dobb's Journal") and Christian Ludloff (owner of the sandpile.org website) played a major role in this.


Sun Blade

Sun Blade is a line of blade server computer systems sold by Sun Microsystems from 2006 onwards.
In June 2006, Sun announced the AMD Opteron-based Sun Blade 8000 modular blade server system. The Sun Blade 8000 chassis can hold up to 10 Sun Blade X8420 or X8440 modules.
In July 2007, Sun launched the Sun Blade 6000 Modular System. This allowed up to 10 mixed UltraSPARC and x64 architecture blades. The Sun Blade T6300 and T6320 modules run Solaris and use UltraSPARC T1 and UltraSPARC T2 processors respectively, while the Sun Blade X6220 and X6250 modules use AMD Opteron or Intel Xeon 5000-series processors respectively.
In November 2007, Sun announced the Sun Blade 6048 Modular System, supporting up to 48 UltraSPARC, AMD Opteron and/or Intel Xeon blades.
The X-series blades support Solaris, Oracle Linux, RHEL, SLES, Windows Server or VMware.


J (operating system)

University of the Latin American Educational Center

The University of the Latin American Educational Center is a non-profit private university based in Rosario, Argentina. Established in 1993, it was the first Methodist-related university in Argentina, and the first independent degree-granting university in Rosario.
The origin of this institution can be traced back to the arrival of two missionary teachers sent from the United States by the Methodist Episcopal Church to open an elementary school for girls, the North American School ("Colegio Norteamericano"), in 1875, under the sponsorship of President Domingo Faustino Sarmiento. Junior and senior high schools were added later, and in the 1950s the "Colegio" became coeducational.
UCEL belongs to the International Association of Methodist-Related Schools, Colleges, and Universities (IAMSCU). It is also connected with the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of the United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.


Dahlerup Warehouse

Dahlerups Pakhus (English: Dahlerup Warehouse), originally known as Pakhus 1 (English: Warehouse 1), is a former Warehouse situated on the west side of the Langelinie Pier, opposite the Middle Pier, in Copenhagen, Denmark. Designed by Vilhelm Dahlerup, from whom it now takes its name, it was built between 1892 and 1893.
History.
The Dahlerup Warehouse was originally known as Warehouse 1 and built as part of the Freeport of Copenhagen which was constructed during the first half of the 1890s.
After the free port was closed the building remained in use as a warehouse for a while but then fell into disrepair and was left empty for almost 30 years.
In the 1990s it was thoroughly renovated and is now listed as a landmark.
The Dahlerup Warehouse today.
The building now houses the Danish Enterprise and Construction Authority, a government agency under the Minister of Economic and Business Affairs. It is also home to Denmark's Customs and Taxes Museum.


Yishun Public Library

Yishun Public Library (Simplified Chinese: 义顺社区图书馆), is a public library located in Yishun in the northern region of Singapore, initially opened on 26 February 1998. It serves areas such as Yishun, Seletar, Ang Mo Kio and Kebun Baru planning areas.
Formerly situated in the third level of the Sembawang Town Council building at Block 290 Yishun Street 22, Singapore 760290, it was closed on 23 October 2008 and reopened to the public on 14 November that year, currently within the fourth level of Northpoint City's new extension and closer to Yishun MRT station. The new location has an area of 2000 square metres and has a collection of 150,000 books, 7500 for each section and has a Cafe Galilee which the old location lacked. The cafe was later removed in 2014.
On 15 January 2017, Yishun Public Library was closed for renovation due to the effect of refurbishment and Asset Enhancement Initiative (AEI) at Northpoint. It was then reopened on 3 February 2018.


Old School of Mines, Kimberley

The Old School of Mines building in Hull Street, Kimberley, is where the South African School of Mines was established in 1896, later evolving into the Transvaal University College, and eventually into both the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Pretoria. In 1904 the school was moved to Johannesburg, becoming the Transvaal Technical Institute which, in turn, was renamed the Transvaal University College in 1906. The separation of Johannesburg and Pretoria campuses in 1910 paved the way for establishment of the Universities of the Witwatersrand (1922) and of Pretoria (1930).
Heritage, theatre and tourism.
Kimberley's Old School of Mines building was declared as a national monument (now a provincial heritage site) in 1977 on account of its association with the development of the mining industry, having been erected to house the first technical training school for the mining industry in South Africa. Of architectural interest as well, it is an example of late Victorian style.
In the 1980s-90s the Kimberley Repertory Players converted the building for use as the Hull Street Theatre.
The building was being promoted as a tourist attraction by the Sol Plaatje Local Municipality in Kimberley's tourism website, "Kimberley: the city that sparkles". But heritage conservation issues mark its most recent history in a context of neglect and with construction work on an adjoining property encroaching towards and partially obscuring the building.


Regina Building

Regina Building, previously known as Roxas Building, is a historic building located along Escolta Street in Binondo, Manila, Philippines. It was designed sequentially by Andrés Luna de San Pedro and Fernando H. Ocampo. The neoclassical beaux-arts commercial structure was built in 1915.
History.
Regina Building, originally known as Roxas Building was designed by Andres Luna de San Pedro, son of Juan Luna and was built in 1915 at the corner of Escolta Street and Calle David in Binondo, Manila. The design combined the styles of neoclassicism and beaux-arts. It was a three-storey structure during the time it was built but was later expanded into a fourth floor by Fernando Ocampo when the De Leon family bought if from the Roxases. The building was renamed Regina Building in 1926.
This building is surrounded on its two sides by two bodies of water, Estero de la Reina and the Pasig River.
Madrigal Steamship company owned by the former senator Vicente Madrigal had its main office in the building. The senator also rented a room here for his staff. Many insurance companies also occupied the structure during its heyday including one of the first Filipino-owned insurance companies (now is Spanish-owned Mapfre Insular Insurance), the Provident Insurance Corporation in 1934. The building now houses several freight forwarding companies.


Hertsi

Hertsi is a shopping center located in Herttoniemi, Helsinki, Finland, the construction of which was completed in the spring of 2020. It is located along Itäväylä, quite close to Herttoniemi metro station. In addition to grocery stores and restaurants, the shopping center includes a library, youth facilities and a kindergarten to be opened later. The previously built shopping center "Megahertsi" is part of the center. In 2021, three apartment buildings with a total of 250 apartments will be completed on the shopping center site.
The lowest store floor in the shopping center is the street level, whose largest store is Tokmanni. On the first floor, on the Prisma level, are located, among other things, Prisma, Kotipizza, Fafa's, Arnolds, the pet store Musti ja Mirri, Silmäasema and Veikkaus Pelaamo. The tenants on the second floor include Elixia, Fitness24Seven, Herttoniemi Library and the City of Helsinki's youth services.
The mall opened on March 19, 2020. The opening ceremony was controversial event, because was held in the midst of a coronavirus epidemic despite recommendations to avoid major events.


Kilwa Masoko Airport

Kilwa Masoko Airport is an airport serving the town of Kilwa Masoko in the Lindi Region of Tanzania.


Calvo Building

The Calvo Building is a historic building along no. 266 Escolta corner Soda Streets, Binondo, Manila, Philippines. Built in 1938, it is an outstanding example of beaux-arts architecture. It served as the home of the radio station DZBB-AM before moving to its present location in Diliman, Quezon City. It now houses the Escolta Museum which contains memorabilia from the past. The building is designed by Ar. Fernando H. Ocampo, Sr..
Marker from the National Historical Commission of the Philippines.
The historical marker entitled Gusaling Calvo was installed on August 14, 2018 inside the building. It was installed by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines.


Plymouth Guildhall

Plymouth Guildhall is located on Guildhall Square in the city centre of Plymouth, Devon, England. It is a Grade II listed building.
History.
The first guildhall can be dated back to the 15th century and is believed to have been located in the Old Town; it was replaced by a second guildhall which was erected in the Southside Street / Woolster Street area in 1440. A third guildhall was built in the Jacobean style at the junction of High Street and Whimple Street in 1607; this was demolished to allow a fourth guildhall, designed by a Mr Eveleigh, to be built and completed in 1800.
The foundation stone for the current building, which was the fifth, was laid by the mayor, William Luscombe, on 28 July 1870. It was designed by Norman and Hine of Plymouth with artistic direction by Edward William Godwin in the Gothic Revival style and built by Messrs Call and Pethick. The building was officially opened by the Prince of Wales on 13 August 1874. The design for the west front, where the entrance now is, involved an octagonal tower on the left and a high square tower on the right. Internally, the principal room was the Great Hall: a pipe organ, made by Henry Willis & Sons, was installed in the hall in October 1978.
The building's role increased in importance when the Three Towns of Plymouth, Devonport and Stonehouse amalgamated in 1914 and municipal functions were transferred to the expanded City of Plymouth.
The guildhall and the surrounding buildings were reduced to shells on the night of 21 March 1941 during the Plymouth Blitz of the Second World War. Paton Watson and Patrick Abercombie envisaged a Beaux Arts city which would have involved the demolition of the Guildhall: their proposal was rejected by one council vote in 1951. Following the restoration of the building, which involved a new roof, entrances and interior, the building was re-opened by Field Marshal the Viscount Montgomery of Alamein on 24 September 1959.
Although the City Treasurer's Department remained in the east wing of the guildhall, the council continued to need more space and most departments moved to Plymouth Civic Centre, located a short distance to the west of the guildhall, in 1962.
Description.
The Great Hall is currently a multi-purpose venue, hosting a range of events throughout the year including graduations, award ceremonies, weddings and civil ceremonies. Fourteen stained glass windows, designed by Frederick Halford Coventry (1905-1997), line the sides of the hall and depict notable moments in Plymouth's history. A large 19th century tapestry, made at Gobelins Manufactory, hangs at the front and depicts Raphael's vision of the "Miraculous Drought of Fishes". Famous performers in the hall have included the rock band Status Quo in March 1973, the rock band Queen in March 1974 and the European Union Chamber Orchestra conducted by Julian Lloyd Webber in April 2009.


Hyde Park Corner (shopping centre)

Hyde Park Corner is a shopping centre in Johannesburg, South Africa.
It is located in Hyde Park at the major intersection of Jan Smuts Avenue and William Nicol Drive. and was completed in November 1969 and built by Murray & Roberts Construction, now renamed Concor.
It was one of the first fully enclosed decentralised shopping centres in South Africa.
It houses permanent mosaic artworks by historically significant South African artists and hosts the yearly Rotary International Art Fair.


Quadrio (Prague)

Quadrio is a multifunctional complex in the centre of Prague, Czech Republic, at metro station Národní třída. It serves mainly as shopping centre and it is also containing offices and residential building. It is also connected with Shopping house Máj, which was built in 1975. Construction of Quadrio complex took place between 2012 and 2014. The building has three underground and eight above-ground floors. Investor of the project was European real estate investor CPI Property Group. It was designer by Czech architectonic atelier Jakub Cigler Architects.
The kinetic sculpture "Head of Franz Kafka" by David Černý is located next to the complex.


Wat Saravan

Wat Saravan is a wat in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. It is located to the northwest of the Royal Palace of Cambodia and southwest of Wat Ounalom. It is said to have over 3,400 manuscripts in what has been described as the largest library in the country.


Park One

Park One is an office building at Kollárovo Square in Bratislava, capital of Slovakia, across the street from the New Scene Theatre. The building contains offices at the upper floors and shops and a restaurant at the ground floor.
History.
The building was under construction since 2006. It was constructed at the upper part of the park at Kollárovo Square, reducing its size and irreversibly changing the disposition of the square. The area, where Park One stands used to contain greenery, benches and a public transport stop.


Higher Institute of Technology of Central Africa

IST-AC (Institut Supérieur de Technologie d’Afrique Centrale) is a higher education institution, part of the Catholic University of Central Africa (UCAC). Its headquarters are in Yaoundé, Cameroon. Management of IST-AC is entrusted to a French engineering Institute (Institut catholique d'arts et métiers).
The main objective of IST-AC is to educate engineers. IST-AC offers hands-on training, with both theoretical knowledge and practical experience, getting students ready for employment. The school is open addressed to all countries in Central Africa, including Angola, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, CAR, DRC, Chad.
Open since 2002, the campus in Pointe Noire, Republic of Congo, emphasizes the first two-year of engineering training, with a program focused on Industrial Maintenance. The campus also offers a sandwich course (cooperative technician training) directed towards the job market, and training for working professionals.
Open since 2004, the campus in Douala, Republic of Cameroon, welcomes students from Pointe-Noire, selected for the second cycle of engineering training. This program is a cooperative program, which means that students spend half of their time in school and the other half working in industry. This three-year training is also open to external two-year Degree students in industrial (mechanical or manufacturing) engineering and to working professionals, selected by their company. The Campus also offers specific professional training and studies focused on improving industrial process and tools.
Across the university, 60% of students study engineering, 20% industrial management and 20% in communication and management.
As of 2011, about one hundred engineers had graduated (promotions 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011); 150 training contracts, with nearly one hundred companies were in effect; and IST-AC hosted a total 240 students (20% female), across five nationalities. Fifteen professional training sessions had been completed. The school graduates approximately sixty students each year.


Lower Bay station


Mirzo Ulugbek (Tashkent Metro)

Mirzo Ulugbek (formerly "50 let SSSR"; “50 years of the USSR” until 1992) is a station of the Tashkent Metro on Chilonzor Line. The station was opened on 6 November 1977 as part of the inaugural section of Tashkent Metro, between October inkilobi and Sabir Rakhimov.


Ed Dueim Airport

Ed Dueim Airport is an airport serving the city of Ed Dueim, in the White Nile state of Sudan.


Obelisk of Montevideo

The Obelisk of Montevideo, officially listed as the "Obelisco a los Constituyentes de 1830", is a monument created by sculptor José Luis Zorrilla de San Martín (1891-1975). It is a three-sided obelisk made of granite, tall with three bronze statues on its sides, representing "Law", "Liberty" and "Force". It has a hexagonal water fountain around it with six spheres on its outer circumference. It is located at the intersection of 18 de Julio and Artigas Boulevard avenues, in Montevideo, at the entrance of the Parque Batlle area. It was built in 1930 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first Constitution of Uruguay and is an homage to the participants of the General Assembly of the first Constitution.
Six years later, a similar but larger monument was built at the intersection of 9 de Julio and Corrientes avenues in Buenos Aires, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the first founding of the city.


Messukeskus Helsinki

Messukeskus Helsinki, Expo and Convention Centre (formerly Helsinki Fair Centre) is the biggest and best-known convention center in Finland. It is located in the capital city of Helsinki, in the district of Pasila, a short walk northwards from the Pasila railway station.
Messukeskus Helsinki organizes exhibitions, meetings, conferences and other events: each year about a hundred different trade shows and public fairs and over 2,200 meetings and congresses. The largest regularly occurring exhibitions are Matka Nordic Travel Fair, The International Boat Show, and the Helsinki Book Fair. The centre has over one million annual visitors.
The premises of Messukeskus Helsinki include seven exhibition halls, 40 meeting rooms and the 4,400-seat Amfi Hall auditorium. There is a Holiday Inn hotel located immediately next to the centre.
History.
Messukeskus Helsinki is owned by The Finnish Fair Corporation, which was founded on 19 October 1919 to promote Finnish trade and industry and to boost confidence in domestic production opportunities after the turbulent years of gaining independence. The first fair was held in the summer of 1920 in the field next to St John's Church in Helsinki. The fair became a huge festival with more than 120,000 visitors and nearly 1000 exhibitors. Professionally organised fairs established themselves in Finland right away. Just one year later, in 1921, the next event was considerably more commercial in nature than the first fair.
In 1935, the Finnish Fair Corporation had own premises built in Helsinki's Töölö district. When finished, Messuhalli hall (now known as Kisahalli) on main road Mannerheimintie was the largest exhibition venue in the Nordic region. It was the exhibition base for four decades.
In 1975, the company moved to current premises into eastern Pasila.


Malanje Airport

Malanje Airport is an airport serving Malanje, the capital of Malanje Province in Angola.
The Malange non-directional beacon (Ident: MA) is east of the airport.


Santa Fe (fort)

Santa Fe de la Ribera was a fort constructed in 1602, by Alonso de Ribera at the confluence of the Biobio River and Vergara River, near the island of Diego Diaz. Its first garrison was two companies of soldiers, under the captains Francisco de Puebla and Alonso González de Nájera, who was in command of the place.


Al-Asmakh Tower

Al Asmakh Tower (formerly the IBQ Tower) is a building in West Bay Area in Doha, Qatar. Its design was inspired by New York City landmark Empire State Building. Its height is 227 meters. It has six basements, ground, mezzanine and 34 floors.


Crotona Theatre

Crotona Theatre at 453 East Tremont Avenue, in Bronx, New York opened in 1912 showing vaudeville. It had 2,210 seats and was one of William Fox’s first large theaters. Designed by Thomas W. Lamb, it had a Beaux Arts auditorium wainscotted in marble and red tapestry covering the walls. Movie showings were added and in the silent era a twelve-piece orchestra and a three manual Moller pipe organ (Op. 216) provided accompaniment. It closed in 1959 and became a factory/warehouse.
The theater is pictured during a street view scene near the beginning of the 1958 movie "The Colossus of New York".


RTNC Congo Building

RTNC Congo Building is a skyscraper in Kinshasa, DRC. The 22 story building houses the headquarters of Radio-Télévision nationale congolaise. It is located on Avenue Pierre Mulele.


Mariana Grajales Airport

Mariana Grajales Airport is an airport serving Guantánamo, a city in Cuba. It is located near the villages of Paraguay and Las Lajas.
Construction.
The runway was built during World War II by the US Navy as a reserve airfield for the US Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. Up to the 60's was known as "Los Caños" aerodrome.
Facilities.
The airport resides at an elevation of above mean sea level. It has one runway designated 17/35 with an asphalt surface measuring .


Embassy of Germany, Prague

The Embassy of Germany in Prague is located on Vlašská street (formerly "Wälsche Spitalgasse"), in the Malá Strana district of Prague, Czech Republic.
Since the establishment of diplomatic relations between West Germany and Czechoslovakia in 1973, it has occupied the large Palais Lobkowicz. The Baroque palace with an extensive garden was finished in 1707. It was acquired by the noble House of Lobkowicz in 1753, who in 1927 sold it to the Czechoslovak state.
East German refugees.
In the eve of the Revolutions of 1989, the palais became the resort of numerous East German refugees who had reached Prague, climbed over the fence and camped out in the grounds. While there were small groups hiding there occasionally since the embassy was opened in 1974, the number rose to several thousands in September, causing serious problems of supply and hygiene.
Behind the scenes the West German government negotiated with East German authorities and the Soviet Union how to solve these worsening conditions. When Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher in the evening of 30 September stepped on the balcony to announce an agreement on the refugees' voyage to West Germany, the crowd cheered on the keyword "Ausreise" (departure). This event marked an emotional and significant moment in German history.
Until 3 November when the East German authorities closed the border with Czechoslovakia, many more GDR citizens fled to the embassy in the following weeks, wearing down the patience of the Czechoslovak authorities which gave in eventually, letting all East Germans travel directly to West Germany. Thus, they broke their part of the Iron Curtain, the Czechoslovak border fortifications during the Cold War. On 9 November 1989 the Berlin Wall fell, and the Czechs would succeed in the Velvet Revolution.
These events are commemorated by a golden statue of a Trabant car on four legs in the garden of the embassy.


Cape Town Civic Centre

The Cape Town Civic Centre is a building on the Foreshore in central Cape Town, South Africa that serves as the headquarters of the City of Cape Town, the municipality that governs Cape Town and its suburbs.
It was completed in 1978, and is made up of two blocks. The Podium Block is a low-rise building which houses the City management, including the Council Chamber and the Mayor's Office. The Tower Block is a 98-metre-tall, 26-floor high-rise block that houses the administrative offices of the municipality; it is a long, narrow building that crosses Hertzog Boulevard, with the road passing underneath the central part of the building. The arch where the road passes under the building acts as a very powerful wind tunnel and some of the highest windspeeds can be found along this corridor. This has at times endangered pedestrians and impacted important events like the Cape Argus Cycle Race.
The Civic Centre trunk station of the MyCiTi bus rapid transit system is located along Hertzog Boulevard beneath the Tower Block.


Tomb of the Hakims

Hakim's Tomb (; "Hakeemon ka Maqbara") is a 16th-century tomb located in the city of Hasan Abdal, Pakistan, across from the Gurdwara Panja Sahib. The tomb complex also includes the Tomb of Lala Rukh, traditionally attributed to a Mughal princess. The tomb was built for two doctors ("Hakims") to the Mughal court, the brothers Hakim Abdul Fateh Gilani Masiuddin, and Hakim Humayun Khwaja Gilani.
History.
The tomb was ordered to be built by the Mughal emperor Akbar's minister and superintendent of construction, Khawaja Shamsuddin Khawafi. Khwaja had intended the tomb to be built for himself between 1581 and 1583, but the two royal "Hakimss" were buried there at the command of Emperor Akbar in 1597. Akbar visited the site after returning from one of his trips to Kashmir.
Architecture.
The tomb is octagonal and is a two-story structure. A large Persian style "iwan" gateway arch is found on each of the cardinal sides of the tomb, and span the height of both story. Flanking the large "iwans" are 4 smaller niches - also built in the Persian style. The tomb is fronted by a small fish pond.


Azerbaijan State Agricultural University

Azerbaijan State Agricultural University (, literally "Azerbaijan State Agricultural University"), also referred to as the Azerbaijan State Agricultural University (Az. AA), is a public university located in Ganja, Azerbaijan. The university has eight schools, 3830 students and 560 faculty members. In addition, there is a teaching site in Gazakh with nearly 500 correspondent students.
History.
Azerbaijan State Agricultural University traces its history to the Baku Polytechnical Institute's Department of Agriculture, which was established on November 14, 1920. Originally located in Baku, the school was original formed in 1920 after the invasion of the Red Army and the establishment of the fledgling Azerbaijan SSR. The new government decreed that the previous technical school, Baku Polytechnicum, would close and be replaced by Baku Polytechnical Institute, a more traditional polytechnic institute. The new school focused on training engineers in a broad range of industries: agriculture, civil engineering, electromechanical, economics and oil. The new school went through many name changes over the years as its emphasis changed to meet the needs of Azerbaijan. In 1923 the school changed its name to Azerbaijan Polytechnical Institute. In March 1929, the Azerbaijan Communist Party decreed that the school be split into three independent schools covering agriculture, economics and oil.
Today the university is the only state school in Azerbaijan that offers a university-level degree for the agricultural sector.
Ex-rector Məmmədtağı İbrahim oğlu Cəfərov died and his replacement was appointed on November 21, 2008
Building.
The main building of Azerbaijan State Agricultural University located at 276 Atatürk Street, was built in 1897. “Zemstvo” office called DUMA was settled there. In 1908 the building was turned into the residence of the Governor of Ganja Governorate. Azerbaijan Democratic Republic operated in this building in 1918 when the capital was Ganja. The meetings of the Parliament of ADR were held in this building formerly. The ADR museum is located in the nearby building built in the ancient historical-architectural style.


Betong Mongkhonrit Tunnel

The Betong Mongkhonrit Tunnel () is the first and largest road tunnel in Thailand. It is located in Betong, Yala Province, Thailand. It is a curved tunnel, 268 metres long, connecting the town centre with a newer part of the town to the South-East. The tunnel was opened on 1 January 2001.


Teatro Lira Paulistana

Teatro Lira Paulistana was a theatre in São Paulo, Brazil.


Cap Blanc Lighthouse

The Cap Blanc Lighthouse (also known as the Ras Nouadhibou Lighthouse) is an active lighthouse located on Ras Nouadhibou (French: "Cap Blanc") in Mauritania. Constructed in 1910, it is today located only a few feet from Mauritania's border with Western Sahara. In recent years the lighthouse has been incorporated as the rear range light of a pair of leading lights. A modern fiberglass light structure forms the front of the range. The lighthouse serves as a landfall light for the port of Nouadhibou. A few kilometers northeast near Cansado is the Pointe de Cansado lighthouse, built in 1913.


Maisons Jaoul

Maisons Jaoul are a celebrated pair of houses in the upmarket Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, designed by Le Corbusier and built in 1954–56. They are among his most important post-war buildings and feature a rugged aesthetic of unpainted cast concrete "béton brut" and roughly detailed brickwork.
History.
The buildings were drawn in 1937 but were only built postwar for André Jaoul and his son Michel. They were for a time owned by English millionaire Peter Palumbo, Baron Palumbo. They now belong to two sisters who live there with their families. The Maisons Jaoul have been protected by the French government as historical monuments since 1966, at the request of André Malraux.
Design and Construction.
The son Michel (or Jacques Michel) Jaoul worked as an architect in Le Corbusier's office and in 1988 was in charge of the renovation of the houses. The construction of these vaulted houses signals a new trend in Le Corbusier's work, and the Maisons Jaoul can be considered his first "New Brutalist" work.
"...Shallow concrete vaults cast against a permanent framework of thin bricks set in place without the use of centering. These brick spans served as permanent molds for the shell concrete vaults cast in place on top of them. Tied with transverse steel rods, the vaults bear on continuous concrete beams that extend the length of each house at every floor. These beams in turn transfer the weight to load-bearing brick walls that enclose the houses on every side."