ZX Spectrum character set

The ZX Spectrum character set is the variant of ASCII used in the British Sinclair ZX Spectrum family computers. It is based on ASCII-1967 but the characters ^, ` and codice_1 are replaced with ↑, £ and ©. It also differs in its use of the C0 control codes other than the common codice_2 and codice_3, and it makes use of the 128 high-bit characters beyond the ASCII range. The ZX Spectrum's main set of printable characters and system font are also used by the Jupiter Ace computer.
Printable characters.
Standard US-ASCII, 0x20–0x7F, is included in the Spectrum character set except that code point 0x5E is an up-arrow (↑) instead of a caret (^), 0x60 is the pound sign (£) instead of the grave accent (`), and 0x7F is the copyright sign (©) instead of the control character codice_1. Note that the use of 0x5E as ↑ was also the case in the older 1963 version of ASCII. The £ sign was not mapped to 0x23 as in the British variant of ASCII (ISO-646-GB), allowing both the pound sign and the number sign (#) simultaneously. The ↑ character is the exponentiation operator in Spectrum's BASIC, just like the ^ it replaces compared to ASCII-1967 is used for exponentiation in many other dialects of BASIC and other programming languages.
Beyond 0x7F, the Spectrum character set uses the high-bit range 0x80–0xFF for special purposes. 0x80–0x8F contain the same 2×2 block graphics characters that the ZX80 character set and the ZX81 character set have (at other locations), also available in the Block Elements Unicode block. However the ZX Spectrum's standard character set does not include the ZX80/81 50% dithered 1×2 block graphics characters. Code points 0x90–0xA4 contain the originally 21 User-Defined Graphics (UDG) characters, and 0xA5–0xFF contain BASIC keywords tokenized as single code points. In the 128 BASIC mode introduced later, this was changed to 19 UDG characters ending at 0xA2 followed by the two new tokens codice_5 and codice_6. Code points 0xC7–0xC9 are the two-character operators codice_7, codice_8 and codice_9, similarly tokenized into single code points. These tokens allow a BASIC command like codice_10 to be entered with the single keypress at the beginning of a line (i.e. in command mode), which generated 0xF6. That is displayed as the full keyword codice_10 on screen but only a single byte token is stored so only that single byte need be parsed by the interpreter or saved to/loaded from external storage such as tape.
All non-UDG Spectrum characters can be mapped to Unicode. The three non ASCII-1967 characters ↑, £ and © are at U+2191, U+00A3 and U+00A9. The 2×2 block graphics characters are in the Block Elements block at U+2580–U+259F although font support for the latter is not universal.
The shape of the UDG characters is mapped to a RAM memory area and is initialized to copies of characters A-U, but can be redefined arbitrarily for example using the BASIC command codice_12. Like all characters in the system font they use an 8×8 pixel grid stored in 8 bytes. Redefining them changes their appearance in subsequent codice_10 statements but it does not change any UDG characters already drawn on the screen. The location of a UDG character's definition can be determined with the BASIC function codice_14 with the character as the argument, e.g. codice_15 for the first one. By default this points to the last 168 (21×8) bytes of RAM at memory addresses 65368 (0xFF58) to 65535 (0xFFFF) for a 48K Spectrum. The location is pointed to by the system variable UDG which can be found at memory address 23675/6 (0x5C7B/C) and can be changed. The TK90X, a Brazilian clone of the ZX Spectrum included an in ROM application to graphically edit these UDG characters, along with functionality to preload then with accented letters used in Portuguese. (For this, the TK90X defined two extra Basic commands at the codes 0 and 1, respectively "trace" and "udg")
The definition of the main system font, 32 (space) to 127 (copyright), are referenced by the system variable CHARS which can be found at memory address 23606/7 (0x5C36/7). It is defined as 256 bytes lower than the first byte of the space character, simplifying the formula for locating a character to CHARS+8×"code point". The CHARS value defaults to the value 15360 (0x3C00), with the system font at the end of the Spectrum's ROM at address 15616 (0x3D00) to 16383 (0x3FFF). Entire alternative fonts can be loaded into RAM and the CHARS variable re-pointed accordingly.
Control codes.
In the control codes area (the C0 range), the Spectrum mostly uses proprietary controls, such as INK and PAPER to control foreground and background colour. However, the common codice_2 and codice_3 code points are the same as in ASCII. Cursor-down (0x0A, ASCII Line Feed) can be simulated with 32 spaces printed with OVER 1 (transparent overprint) and cursor-up 0x0B (ASCII Vertical Tabulation) can be simulated with 32 backspaces. The system ROM has a fault which prevents cursor-right at 0x09 (c.f. ASCII Horizontal Tabulation) from working.
Control code 0x0E is used to indicate that a floating-point number follows, to accelerate text processing. In a Sinclair BASIC program numeric constants are stored as ASCII followed by a 0x0E byte and a 5-byte binary floating point representation. When listing a BASIC program only the ASCII part is used but at runtime only the binary representation is used. Some Spectrum programs exploited this to obfuscate numbers, while others did so to save memory. For example, a BASIC line displayed as codice_18 could contain the ASCII characters for digits 1 and 0 followed by a 0x0E byte and the floating-point representation of 100 instead of 10. Anyone listing that program saw the number 10, but when executed the program jumped to line 100.
Undefined codes.
Ranges 0x00–0x05, 0x07, 0x0A–0x0C, 0x0F and 0x17–0x1F are undefined. In most cases, they will produce a question mark if printed to the display. However, they may be used to represent their literal numeric values in conjunction with certain control codes: for example, 0x10 + 0x07 sets the ink (foreground text) colour to colour number 7 (white).


Sony Alpha 77

Announced by Sony on August 24, 2011 the Sony α77 was the flagship for Sony's midrange Alpha SLT camera line.
The successor to the Sony A700, it is equipped with a 24.3 MP APS-C HD CMOS sensor and has a 12-fps burst-shooting mode.
The camera is fitted with Sony's patented “translucent mirror” technology.
On 1 May 2014 its replacement, the α77 II (ILCA-77M2) was announced with availability in June.
Model variants.
Model variants of the α77 camera body:
Depending on country/market, the α77 camera is also available in different kits:
Lens mount.
Sony Alpha SLT-A77 uses A-mount lens bayonet.
Firmware updates.
On 5 February 2013, Sony released a new firmware" V1.07," with the following enhancement:
Performance.
In the DxOMark Overall Sensor Score test, which is based on all characteristics of a camera sensor, the APS-C (23.5x15.6mm sensor size) Sony α77 scored 78 points, only one point less than the full-format (36x24mm sensor size) DSLRs Sony Alpha 900 and Canon EOS 5D Mark II.
Reception.
Overall the reception for the Sony SLT-A77 since its release has been mixed to positive.
Digital Photography Review awarded the Sony SLT-A77 an overall score of 81% and a silver award, praising its innovative and detailed EVF viewfinder and its fast 12fps shooting mode but criticizing its JPEG quality and noise level especially at high ISO.
Photography Blog gave the Sony SLT-A77 a 5 out of 5 stars praising its innovative EVF display, the inclusion of full 1080p video, built-in GPS, 12fps burst mode, dual control dials, top-panel LCD, a 3-way rear screen and myriad of creative effects such as HDR, Dynamic Range Optimization, creative styles, picture effects and the innovative sweep panorama mode.
Sony α77 II.
The α77 II features a BIONZ X image processor similar to the Sony α7 series. It comes with Wi-Fi, NFC and also has 79 AF points with 15 crossing sensor, 12 fps burst speed up to 60 frames in full resolution, continuous AF video Full HD at 60p and 24p. One of the major features is the new sensor with less noise. GPS has been removed, as has the LED AF illuminator—the pop-up flash is now used for focus assist.


Cyber-shot

Cyber-shot is Sony's line of point-and-shoot digital cameras introduced in 1996. Cyber-shot model names use a DSC prefix, which is an initialism for "Digital Still Camera". Many Cyber-shot models feature Carl Zeiss trademarked lenses, while others use Sony, or Sony G lenses.
All Cyber-shot cameras accept Sony's proprietary Memory Stick or Memory Stick PRO Duo flash memory. Select models have also supported CompactFlash. Current Cyber-shot cameras support Memory Stick PRO Duo, SD, SDHC, and SDXC. From 2006 to 2009, Sony Ericsson used the Cyber-shot brand in a .
Models.
The current lineup consists of:
Currently, W cameras use N-type batteries while most HX, WX and RX cameras use X-type batteries, with some exceptions - smaller cameras like the WX220 using N-type, larger like the RX10 the W-type battery.
Earlier lineup had the following models:
In the past, the W and T-series use Sony N-type batteries While most H-series use G-type batteries.
Features.
3D.
Some Cyber-shot models can take 3D stills by shooting two images using two different focus settings. The technology uses one lens only for the process, and users can later see the images on a 3D TV or on a regular 2D screen. The cameras have been available since 2010.
Geotagging.
Some Cyber-Shot models such as the DSC-HX20V, DSC-HX90V, DSC-HX200V and the DSC-HX400V have a built-in GPS so the user can have their photos automatically geotagged as they are being taken. The feature can also serve as a compass as it shows the user's position on the camera screen.
Tru Black.
Tru Black is a technology developed by Sony which allows a better visualization of the screen, even when there is too much light. It enables LCD screens to automatically change the display contrast in order to enhance the controlling reflectance. In other words, when light hits a display with Tru Black technology, the screen turns opaque as a means to improve the visualization of the content.
Panorama.
All current Cyber-shot cameras are equipped with a panoramic technology branded as Sweep Panorama, which enables the user to capture wide format photographs using only one lens. The photos can be taken and displayed in 2D or 3D.


Piranha (compositing software)

Piranha is a digital imaging application produced by Interactive Effects, Inc. Its features include editing, compositing, conforming, color grading, 2D and 3D paint, and titling. Piranha has been used to produce imagery for feature films, TV shows, and electronic entertainment titles since its debut in the mid-1990s.


Sony NEX-F3

The Sony α NEX-F3 is an entry level rangefinder-styled digital mirrorless interchangeable-lens camera announced by Sony on 17 May 2012.


Sony Alpha 55

The Sony α55 (model variants SLT-A55V with GPS, SLT-A55 without GPS depending on country) is a midrange-level SLT camera, released in August 2010.
Its design is novel due to its being the first digital single-lens translucent camera (SLT), along with the Sony α33. As an SLT it employs a semi-transparent mirror instead of an opaque mirror, which enables phase detection autofocus in live view.
The design also replaces the optical viewfinder present in conventional DSLR with a high-resolution electronic viewfinder. The translucent mirror is fixed in position so does not have to flip up to take a still image, enabling rapid continuous shots of up to 10 frames per second. The static mirror also eliminates "mirror slap", the noise produced by the movement of the mirror during a shutter actuation, making the A55 quieter than standard DSLRs.
The A55 is one of the first four Sony Alpha DSLR / SLT cameras with video mode included, capable of 1080i. It is also capable of shooting 1080p at 30fps. The SLT design means that it is capable of using phase-detection autofocus during video recording. It has body-integrated image stabilization, and a 16.2 MPx APS-C CMOS sensor.
The camera's body-integrated image stabilization produces heat, causing the camera to stop video recording after these recording times:


Republik Twitter

Republik Twitter (stylised as #republiktwitter; meaning The Twitter Republic) is an Indonesian romantic drama directed by Kuntz Agus released in 2012. Starring Laura Basuki and Abimana Aryasatya, it follows a university student in his quest to be with a beautiful journalist.
Work on "Republik Twitter" began in June 2011, when screenwriter Eddri Sumitra Ito began preparing a script. Based on one of his earlier blog posts, pre-production for the story took four months, with another fourteen days shooting and four months post-production. Its themes of social media use in Indonesia were generally well received.
Plot.
Sukmo (Abimana Aryasatya), a student based in Yogyakarta, spends much of his time on the computer, especially on Twitter. He falls in love with another user, Hanum (Laura Basuki), a beautiful journalist whom he has never met face-to-face. Sukmo considers the internet his main way of life, while Hanum finds it an escape from her daily schedule. Finally Sukmo decides to go to Jakarta with his friend Andre (Ben Kasyafani) and meet Hanum, but is stunned by her beauty and, when he sees her speaking to another man, leaves without introducing himself to her.
Before Sukmo can return to Yogyakarta, he is met by Kemal (Tio Pakusadewo), a businessman who is helping politicians better use Twitter during their campaigns. With the help of Andre and his girlfriend Nadya (Enzy Storia), Sukmo rises to Twitter stardom and becomes a powerful voice in the political campaigns. With his newfound status, Sukmo is able to approach Hanum and they begin seeing each other.
Production.
"Republik Twitter" was directed by Kuntz Agus. The Yogyakarta-born director, who had a background in veterinary medicine, had begun filmmaking in 2003, with a focus on documentaries and drawing inspiration from the stylings of Tim Burton and the Coen brothers. "Republik Twitter" was his first feature film.
The script was written by Eddri Sumitra Ito, who had a background in writing historical novels. Ito wrote the screenplay concurrently with his third novel, drawing inspiration from political campaigning in Indonesia and one of his blog posts about Twitter addiction. The film was produced by Kuntz' friend Ajish Dibyo, a manager of the Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival, while the production studios Amalina Pictures and Rupakata Cinema handled other aspects.
Pre-production took four months, beginning when the script was written in June 2011. During the research phase of production, Kuntz and the crew spoke with numerous marketing managers and other professionals who used Twitter for financial gain. They researched the use of fake accounts for marketing, and Twitter celebrities for information on the financial benefits of having thousands of followers. Citra Award-winning actress Laura Basuki was cast in the main role of Hanum; Kuntz decided to make the character a journalist because he found the career "sexy because they tell everything on Twitter except stuff about their personal lives". At the time of the film's release, Indonesia had 20 million Twitter users, making it the fifth most-represented country on the website.
The film underwent fourteen days of shooting and another four months of editing. Krisna Purna composed the film's music, while Khikmawan Susanto and Auvarahma Triangga served as sound designer and sound mixer, respectively. The theme song, "Jatuh Hati" ("Fall in Love"), was written by Ipang Lazuardi, while Potenzio wrote "Twitter Dunia" ("Twitter the World"). Both songs were released as singles in January 2012.
Themes.
Kuntz described "Republik Twitter" as a film about the Indonesian people and their interconnections, not Twitter or social media. He considered Twitter changing the way Indonesians interacted, but not enough to cause social change. Instead, he said, the medium was mainly used for self-promotion. Jenée Tibshraeny, in a review for "The Jakarta Post", wrote that the film explores "overlaps between the online and offline world", resulting in viewers contemplating social issues in the country.
Release and reception.
"Republik Twitter" was released on 16 February 2012. It was the second Indonesian film centred on social media, after "I Know What You Did On Facebook" in 2010.
Tibshraeny described the film as must-see, "if not for a snapshot of Indonesian pop culture, then for a good laugh at yourself for being a part of it." Irma Manggia, writing for the Semarang-based "Suara Merdeka", described the film as light and easy to understand, despite the several schemes shown in the plot.
References.
Footnotes
Bibliography


Pentax *ist DS2


ICL 7502


LatticeMico8

The LatticeMico8 is an 8-bit microcontroller soft processor core optimized for field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and crossover programmable logic device architecture from Lattice Semiconductor. Combining a full 18-bit wide instruction set with 32 general purpose registers, the LatticeMico8 is a flexible Verilog reference design suitable for a wide variety of markets, including communications, consumer, computer, medical, industrial, and automotive. The core consumes minimal device resources, less than 200 look up tables (LUTs) in the smallest configuration, while maintaining a broad feature set.
The LatticeMico8 is licensed under a new free (IP) core license, the first such license offered by any FPGA supplier. The main benefits of using the IP core are greater flexibility, improved portability, and no cost. This new agreement provides some of the benefits of standard open source and allows users to mix proprietary designs with the core. Additionally, it allows for the distribution of designs in bitstream or FPGA format without accompanying it with a copy of the license. Developers are required to keep the core's source code confidential and use "for the sole purposes of design documentation and preparation of Derivative Works ... to develop designs to program Lattice programmable logic devices".


IOS 6

iOS 6 is the sixth major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc, being the successor to iOS 5. It was announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 11, 2012, and was released on September 19, 2012. It was succeeded by iOS 7 on September 18, 2013.
iOS 6 added a new Apple Maps app, replacing Google Maps as the default mapping service for the operating system; a dedicated Podcasts app, as a central location for podcasts; and a Passbook app, for managing different types of tickets, boarding passes, coupons, and loyalty cards. The App Store received a visual overhaul, bringing a card-based app layout as well as tweaks to search algorithms. Facebook was integrated into the operating system, incorporating status messages, like buttons, and contact and event synchronization to several of Apple's apps. New privacy controls allow users more fine-grained app permissions, as well as an option to prevent targeted advertising. Siri was added to more devices, and updated with more functionality, including the ability to make restaurant reservations, launch apps, retrieve movie reviews and sports statistics, and read items from the Notification Center.
Reception of iOS 6 was positive. Critics noted that the operating system did not offer any significant speed improvements or major redesigned elements, but instead focused on refinements, with a general consensus that Apple "isn't overhauling things for the sake of it". iOS 6 didn't "completely change the way you use your device", but "each of the tweaks [...] will make many daily smartphone actions easier across the board", and critics noted that refinement of "something that already works extremely well" is "something other companies would do well to emulate".
The release of Apple Maps, however, attracted significant criticism, due to inaccurate or incomplete data. The issues prompted an open letter of apology from Apple CEO Tim Cook, and played a contributing role in the dismissal of Scott Forstall from the company, who had supervised iOS development since its inception.
History.
iOS 6 was introduced at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference on June 11, 2012.<br>
iOS 6 was officially released on September 19, 2012.
System features.
Siri.
Apple's Siri intelligent personal assistant, introduced in iOS 5 with the release of the iPhone 4S, was updated to include the ability to make restaurant reservations, launch apps, read items from Notification Center, dictate Facebook and Twitter updates, retrieve movie reviews, detailed sports statistics, and more.
Siri received language support for Italian, Korean, and Cantonese, and device support for iPhone 5, fifth-generation iPod Touch, and third-generation iPad.
In iOS 6.1, Siri was integrated with Fandango, allowing users to buy film tickets by voice. The feature was only available in the United States at launch.
Facebook integration.
Facebook came integrated in several of Apple's native apps with iOS 6. Facebook features could be directly accessed from within native apps such as Calendar, which could synchronize Facebook events; Contacts, which could show Facebook friend information; and the App Store and Game Center, which featured Facebook's like button; as well as through a widget in the Notification Center, which allowed users to post status updates to the social network.
Settings.
The Settings app received multiple changes in iOS 6. The icon was revised to match the System Preferences icon used in the then-named OS X computer operating system developed by Apple; and a "Do Not Disturb" mode was added, which allows users to disable phone sounds. Additional options for Do Not Disturb mode include being able to allow phone calls from a specific group of contacts, and allowing sound on the second call if someone calls repeatedly. A crescent moon icon will appear in the status bar when Do Not Disturb mode is enabled.
New privacy settings became available to users. In addition to "Location Services", the following menus were added in iOS 6: "Contacts", "Calendars", "Reminders", and "Photos". The updated privacy menus allow users more fine-grained privacy permission controls for each app, with new notifications when apps want access to information in each of the categories.
iOS 6 also came with a "Limit ad tracking" user control setting to allow users the option to prevent targeted advertising. Apple's "Advertising Identifier" was described by Apple as "a nonpermanent, nonpersonal, device identifier, that advertising networks will use to give you more control over advertisers' ability to use tracking methods. If you choose to limit ad tracking, advertising networks using the Advertising Identifier may no longer gather information to serve you targeted ads."
In iOS 6.1, a "Reset Advertising Identifier" setting was added to allow users to reset the identifier used by advertising companies.
Other.
iOS 6 added a Twitter widget in the Notification Center, where users could tweet without going into the app. This saved resources.
The Share Sheet interface was updated to display a grid of icons, as opposed to a list, of different apps to which users could share content.
App features.
Maps.
A new Apple Maps app replaced Google Maps as the default mapping app on the operating system. Apple Maps used Apple's vector-based engine, making for smoother zooming. New to Maps was turn-by-turn navigation with spoken directions and 3D views in certain countries, "Flyover" views in some major cities, and real-time traffic.
At launch, turn-by-turn navigation was only available for iPhone 4S and later, and iPad 2 (cellular capability required) and later, while "Flyover" view was only available for iPhone 4S and later, fifth-generation iPod Touch, and iPad 2 and later.
Passbook.
A new Passbook app was added, to retrieve documents such as boarding passes, admission tickets, coupons and loyalty cards.
An iOS device with Passbook can replace a physical card when scanned to process a mobile payment at participating locations. The app has context-aware features such as notifications for relevant coupons when in the immediate vicinity of a given store, and automatic visibility of boarding passes when the user is at an airport, with notifications for gate changes.
Photos and Camera.
The Camera app was updated to include a new Panorama mode that allowed users to take 240-degree panoramic photos.
The Photos app received updates to the Photo Stream functionality, letting users remove images, as well as share custom Photo Streams with other people or the public.
App Store.
The App Store on iOS 6 had a brand new user interface that removed the "Categories" tab and replaced it with "Genius", Apple's search and recommendation engine. It also made use of cards rather than lists to present apps. There were also tweaks to the App Store's search algorithm, resulting in a "trend to favor newer companies", which sparked both developer concerns and praise.
The App Store also updated apps without requiring the iTunes password, and when installing or updating an app, users were no longer automatically returned to the home screen.
Phone.
Upon receiving calls, iOS 6 enabled users to swipe up the lock screen to reveal "Reply with message" or "Remind me later". The "Reply with message" feature shows several pre-determined messages with an option for a custom message, while the "Remind me later" feature offers several options (such as an hour later, when the user gets home, or when the user leaves the current location) to enable a reminder.
Podcasts.
Podcast functionality was separated from the iTunes app and received its own Podcasts app in iOS 6, in order to "centralize and promote podcast listening and downloading for users".
Safari.
The Safari web browser was updated with a full-screen landscape view for iPhone and iPod Touch users.
Reading List, a feature introduced in iOS 5, received offline support, in which text, images, and layout from saved articles get stored on the user's device.
FaceTime.
FaceTime video calling was updated to work over a cellular connection, in addition to Wi-Fi.
Clock.
The Clock app, which had been on iPhone and iPod Touch since their original release, became available on iPad. The clock design looked similar to a Swiss railway clock, and Apple formed an agreement with the Swiss Federal Railways to license the design for its own use.
Removed functionality.
The YouTube app, which had been a default app on iOS developed by Apple, was removed. Apple told "The Verge" that the reason for the removal was due to an expired license, but that YouTube users could still view videos through the Safari web browser. The company also confirmed that Google, which owns YouTube, was developing its own app, with a then-upcoming release through App Store. The Apple-developed YouTube app remained on iOS 5 and previous iOS versions. In June 2017, former YouTube employee Hunter Walk tweeted that Apple contacted YouTube to make it a default app on the original iPhone to ensure mass market mobile launch for the video-sharing service, but required handling development efforts itself. In 2012, YouTube made the "gutsy move" to discontinue the license in an effort to "take back control of our app" by developing it themselves.
Reception.
The reception of iOS 6 was positive. Dan Seifert of "The Verge" wrote that "iOS 6 looks nearly identical to iOS 5. There are a few subtle tweaks here and there [...] But for every small change to the look of iOS details, there are ten things that remain the same." While praising the iPhone 4S for being a "snappy performer", he noted that "When it comes to speed, iOS 6 doesn't feel terribly different from iOS 5". Craig Grannell of "TechRadar" wrote that "iOS 6 is rather like the iPhone 5 or OS X Mountain Lion - the refinement of something that already works extremely well. Apple isn't overhauling things for the sake of it but, in the main, making the iOS experience gradually better. That in itself is something other companies would do well to emulate." Jason Parker of "CNET" wrote that "iOS 6 is a welcome upgrade for any iOS user, but it's not going to completely change the way you use your device. Instead, each of the tweaks here will make many daily smartphone actions easier across the board and offer some relief to those waiting for certain features (sending images from e-mail and call controls, for example)."
Problems.
Maps app launch.
In iOS 6, Apple replaced Google Maps with its own Apple Maps as the default mapping service for the operating system, and immediately faced criticism for inaccurate or incomplete data, including a museum in a river, missing towns, satellite images obscured by clouds, missing local places, and more.
Apple CEO Tim Cook issued a letter on Apple's website apologizing for the "frustration caused by the Maps application", and recommended downloading alternative map apps from the App Store. Scott Forstall, the then-VP of iOS software engineering, was involuntarily dismissed from his role at Apple in October 2012 after he "refused to sign his name to a letter apologizing for shortcomings in Apple's new mapping service".
Advertising Identifier privacy skepticism.
In September 2012, Sarah Downey, a "privacy expert" with the software company Abine expressed her concern that in spite of the new "Advertising Identifier", Apple didn't disclose details on what the identifier was actually based on. She stated: "I need them to tell me why it's not identifying because as we've seen from a lot other "non-identifying" pieces of data, they can identify you quite easily", and that "If you're using the opt-out, [Apple] may no longer gather information to serve you targeted ads. To me, that says they may still collect your information to do things other than serve you targeted ads, like build databases about you to send you marketing or to sell to third parties".
Abnormal data usage.
Many users reported a higher-than-normal data usage after upgrading to iOS 6, causing some to be heavily billed for data largely exceeding their data plan. Steve Rosenbaum of "The Huffington Post" wrote that "The bug is the result of an iOS 6 problem that connects the phone to the cellular data network whenever the phone is connected to a WiFi signal", and also stated that Apple had released a patch.
FaceTime certificate expiration.
In April 2014, users who were still running iOS 6 could not connect to FaceTime due to the expiration of a certificate. Apple released a support document explaining the problem, adding that devices capable of upgrading to iOS 7 must do so to fix the issue, while devices stuck on iOS 6 would receive an iOS 6.1.6 update.
Supported devices.
With this release, Apple dropped support for older devices, specifically the third-generation iPod Touch and the first-generation iPad.


Amiga Survivor

Amiga Survivor was a monthly computer magazine published by Crystal Software. The first issue was published in June/July 1998. This publication originally started as a black and white A5 size fanzine called "The Domain" but eventually became a full-colour A4 magazine. In 2000 the magazine was sold to CS&E. Robert Iveson served as the editor of the magazine. The magazine ceased publication in 2001.


Philips VG5000

The VG5000μ is a computer created by Philips in 1984. It was manufactured in Le Mans by Radiotechnique (RTS) and marketed under the Philips, Radiola and Schneider brands.
Production ended in 1986.


ICL DRS 500


Sol-20

The Sol-20 was the first fully assembled microcomputer with a built-in keyboard and television output, what would later be known as a home computer. The design was a combination of an Intel 8080-based motherboard, a VDM-1 graphics card, the 3P+S I/O card to drive a keyboard, and circuitry to connect to a cassette deck for program storage. Additional expansion was available via five S-100 bus slots at the back of the machine. It also included swappable ROMs with a rudimentary operating system.
The design was originally suggested by Les Solomon, the editor of "Popular Electronics". He asked Bob Marsh of Processor Technology if he could design a smart terminal for use with the Altair 8800. Lee Felsenstein, who shared a garage working space with Marsh, had previously designed such a terminal but never built it. Reconsidering the design using modern electronics, they agreed the best solution was to build a complete computer with a terminal program in ROM. Felsenstein suggested the name "Sol" because they were including "the wisdom of Solomon" in the box.
The Sol appeared on the cover of the July 1976 issue of "Popular Electronics" as a "high-quality intelligent terminal". It was initially offered in three versions; the Sol-PC motherboard in kit form, the Sol-10 without expansion slots, and the Sol-20 with five slots. A Sol-20 was taken to the Personal Computing Show in Atlantic City in August 1976 where it was a hit, building an order backlog that took a year to fill. Systems began shipping late that year and were dominated by the expandable Sol-20, which sold for $1,495 in its most basic fully-assembled form. The company also offered schematics for the system for free for those interested in building their own.
The Sol-20 remained in production until 1979, by which point about 12,000 machines had been sold. By that time, the "1977 trinity" —the Apple II, Commodore PET and TRS-80— had begun to take over the market, and a series of failed new product introductions drove Processor Technology into bankruptcy. Felsenstein later developed the successful Osborne 1 computer, using much the same underlying design in a portable format.
History.
Tom Swift Terminal.
Lee Felsenstein was one of the sysops of Community Memory, the first public bulletin board system. Community Memory opened in 1973, running on a SDS 940 mainframe that was accessed through a Teletype Model 33, essentially a computer printer and keyboard, in a record store in Berkeley, California. The cost of running the system was untenable; the teletype normally cost $1,500 (their first example was donated from Tymeshare as junk), the modem another $300, and time on the SDS was expensive – in 1968 Tymshare charged $13 per hour (). Even the reams of paper output from the terminal were too expensive to be practical and the system jammed all the time. The replacement of the Model 33 with a Hazeltine glass terminal helped, but it required constant repairs.
Since 1973, Felsenstein had been looking for ways to lower the cost. One of his earliest designs in the computer field was the Pennywhistle modem, a 300 bits per second acoustic coupler that was the cost of commercial models. When he saw Don Lancaster's TV Typewriter on the cover of the September 1973 "Popular Electronics", he began adapting its circuitry as the basis for a design he called the Tom Swift Terminal. The terminal was deliberately designed to allow it to be easily repaired. Combined with the Pennywhistle, users would have a cost-effective way to access Community Memory.
In January 1975, Felsenstein saw a post on Community Memory by Bob Marsh asking if anyone would like to share a garage. Marsh was designing a fancy wood-cased digital clock and needed space to work on it. Felsenstein had previously met Marsh at school and agreed to split the $175 rent on a garage in Berkeley. Shortly after, Community Memory shut down for the last time, having burned out the relationship with its primary funding source, Project One, as well the energy of its founding members.
Processor Technology.
January 1975 was also the month that the Altair 8800 appeared on the front page of "Popular Electronics", sparking off intense interest among the engineers of the rapidly growing Silicon Valley. Shortly thereafter, on 5 March 1975, Gordon French and Fred Moore held the first meeting of what would become the Homebrew Computer Club. Felsenstein took Marsh to one of the meetings, Marsh saw an opportunity supplying add-on cards for the Altair, and in April, he formed Processor Technology with his friend Gary Ingram.
The new company's first product was a 4 kB DRAM memory card for the Altair. A similar card was already available from the Altair's designers, MITS, but it was almost impossible to get working properly. Marsh began offering Felsenstein contracts to draw schematics or write manuals for the products they planned to introduce. Felsenstein was still working on the terminal as well, and in July, Marsh offered to pay him to develop the video portion. This was essentially a version of the terminal where the data would be supplied by the main memory of the Altair rather than a serial port.
The result was the VDM-1, the first graphics card. The VDM-1 could display 16 lines of 64 characters per line, and included the complete ASCII character set with upper- and lower-case characters and a number of graphics characters like arrows and basic math symbols. An Altair equipped with a VDM-1 for output and their 3P+S card running a keyboard for input removed the need for a terminal, yet cost less than dedicated smart terminal products like the Hazeltine.
Intelligent terminal concept.
Before the VDM-1 was launched in late 1975, the only way to program the Altair was through its front-panel switches and LED lamps, or by purchasing a serial card and using a terminal of some sort. This was typically a Model 33, which still cost $1,500 if available. Normally the teletypes were not available Teletype Corporation typically sold them only to large commercial customers, which led to a thriving market for broken-down machines that could be repaired and sold into the microcomputer market. Ed Roberts, who had developed the Altair, eventually arranged a deal with Teletype to supply refurbished Model 33s to MITS customers who had bought an Altair.
Les Solomon, whose "Popular Electronics" magazine launched the Altair, felt a low-cost smart terminal would be highly desirable in the rapidly expanding microcomputer market. In December 1975, Solomon traveled to Phoenix to meet with Don Lancaster to ask about using his TV Typewriter as a video display in a terminal. Lancaster seemed interested, so Solomon took him to Albuquerque to meet Roberts. The two immediately began arguing when Lancaster criticized the design of the Altair and suggested changes to better support expansion cards, demands that Roberts flatly refused. Any hopes of a partnership disappeared.
Solomon then traveled to California and approached Marsh with the same idea, stating that if they could produce the design within 30 days, he would put it on the cover of the magazine. Marsh once again hired Felsenstein to design the system. As Felsenstein later noted:
Design effort.
Felsenstein initially wanted to build a terminal following the model of his earlier Tom Swift design, using discrete electronics. Marsh, in parallel, sketched out a version using the Intel 8080. It quickly became apparent the difference in cost would only be about $10, and from then on the original dedicated terminal concept was dropped. Over time the plans changed, and at some point, Marsh told Felsenstein "We want you to design a computer around the VDM display."
Initially, the idea was to sell a kit system, as was common in the industry at that time. The kit concept would make it through to the release, at which time it was known as the Sol-PC. As the design process continued, at some point the decision was made to offer the system in complete form, with all the parts needed for a complete system.
Felsenstein originally thought he was only needed for the initial design, but as the physical layout began it was clear that the layout artist they had hired would not be able to do it on his own. Marsh had a woodworker friend build a large light table and Felsenstein and the layout artist began using it to design the printed circuit board for the motherboard. While Felsenstein worked on the design, Marsh continually came up with new ideas that he demanded to be included. This led to creeping featuritis problems and the final design was not delivered until about two months of "frantic" work.
The final product consisted of a single motherboard with the 8080, a simplified version of the VDM-1, serial input/output, and 1k of SRAM for the screen buffer. A ROM, the "personality module", would include the terminal driver or other code which would begin running as soon as the machine was turned on. The module was designed so it could be removed or inserted without accessing the interior of the machine.
Marsh, meanwhile, was working on the physical design. He demanded from the start that it use walnut sides; while working on the digital clock project he had learned from his woodworker friend that they could get parts for practically nothing if they were small enough to be made from off-cuts. Beyond that requirement, anything was fair. The deadline for the magazine had been pushed back, but there was still little time to finalize the layout before it needed to be photographed. Marsh decided that the machine should have a cassette deck, so they mocked up a machine with a keyboard on the left and cassette player on the right.
The first motherboard arrived 45 days after the project started, and the first cases and power supplies about 15 days after that. By this point it was clear the system was a usable microcomputer on its own, but "the decision was made to soft-pedal the fact until the last possible moment. Once published, all the fuss possible was to be made about its general-purpose nature; but until it actually saw print, it was to be treated first as a terminal."
As the machine increasingly expanded in power, Felsenstein suggested the name "Sol", because they were including "the wisdom of Solomon" in the system. Les Solomon would later quip that "if it worked, they'll say Sol means 'sun' in Spanish. If it don't work, they're gonna blame it on the Jewish guys." Stan Veit later joked to Solomon that they named it after him in another way, "the LES Intelligent Terminal".
Release.
In February 1976, the first machine, a kludged-up box of parts, was readied and flown to New York to show Solomon. As he pointed out the features, Solomon asked what was stopping anyone from putting a BASIC on the personality ROM. Felsenstein, who had been told to avoid referring to it as a computer, simply replied "beats me". When they powered it up the machine would not work, displaying unreadably fuzzy images. Marsh and Felsenstein then flew to Boston to visit the offices of the newly started "Byte" magazine. While there, Felsenstein had time to discover the problem was a tiny bit of broken wire that got stuck under a chip, shorting out two of the video lines. They returned to Solomon's house to demonstrate the working unit.
Due to publication timelines, it did not appear in the magazine until the July 1976 issue, where it was described as "high-quality intelligent terminal". The cover image showed the mockup version; it was packaged in a slim case, not unlike the general shape of the TI-99. By the time the article appeared, the design had changed; the new design had a distinct "step" behind the keyboard that rose up over the expansion chassis and power supply at the back of the case. A bent piece of sheet steel formed most of the case, capped on the left and right by the wooden panels Marsh demanded.
The new design was first shown at the Midwest Area Computer Club conference in June 1976. The machine was not ready for sales at this point, but they did a brisk business selling their existing expansion card line. This was followed by the Personal Computing '76 (PC'76) show in late August in the dilapidated Shelburne Hotel in Atlantic City. The order book was officially opened and Sol was a huge hit at this show.
Soon after, Marsh was invited to demonstrate the Sol on NBC's "The Tomorrow Show". They used a game by Steve Dompier called "Target" to show off the system's capabilities. The show's host, Tom Snyder, ended up playing the game right through the commercial breaks, and they had to force him to give up the machine in order to finish the show.
Sales.
The Sol was initially offered in three versions. The base motherboard was offered as the Sol-PC, available as a kit for $575, or fully assembled and tested for $745. The Sol-10 added a case, keyboard and power supply, was $895 in kit form and $1,295 assembled. Finally the Sol-20 added a keyboard with numeric keypad, and a larger power supply to feed the five expansion slots and a fan to cool them, for $995 as a kit or $1,495 assembled. Advertising of the time referred to the Sol-20 as "The first complete small computer under $1,000". Most systems would require additional pieces, which they bundled as the "Sol Systems"; the Sol System I consisted of a Sol-20, an 8k RAM card, a PT-872 monitor and the RQ-413 Cassette Recorder, for $2,129.
In keeping with the hacker ethic, the company also offered to send out copies of the schematic for the motherboard for the cost of postage, later estimating that somewhere between 40,000 and 50,000 copies were sent. Few, if any, Sol-10s were sold, and the company focused on the Sol-20. The first machines shipped in December 1976. These were also available for third-party sales, and this began the formation of a dealer network among some of the earliest computer stores. By 1977, Processor Technology had a reputation for quality and was among the best-selling computers in the world.
By this time, S-100 machines were beginning to make inroads into business markets. Processor Technology invited all of their dealers to a meeting in Emeryville, California, outside Berkeley, to introduce their Helios floppy disk drive for $1,199, along with their PTDOS system to work with it. They also promised larger memory cards and a color video card. Additionally, dealers could now order 30 days net, as opposed to cash-on-delivery, although to do so they had to put in orders at least once a quarter.
Collapse.
These plans quickly fell apart. The Helios was initially based on a new mechanism from Diablo Data Systems. Diablo had been purchased by Xerox in 1972, and shortly after the Helios was announced, Xerox canceled development of the floppy line. Processor Technology selected the new Persci 270 in its place. The 270 had two drive bays operated by a single drive and stepper motor, which meant a two-drive system was only slightly more complex than a single drive. This was released as the Helios II, at $1,895 for the kit or $2,295 assembled. Processor Technology moved to a much larger factory in Pleasanton, California.
It was at about this point that Radio Shack introduced the TRS-80. Like the Sol, it was a complete all-in-one machine but came with its own monitor and sold for about half the price. Moreover, it was available at hundreds of Radio Shack stores across North America. Sales of the Sol plummeted. Meanwhile, the company failed to introduce any of the other new products it mentioned, notably the color graphics card. When the Apple II appeared with color graphics, it quickly became a best seller.
To add to their woes, Processor Technology had contracted North Star Computers to write a new version of the BASIC for the Sol machines. North Star then began selling the resulting North Star BASIC to other vendors as well. Processor Technology sued North Star, claiming the contract had been exclusive. The suit dragged on, hurting both companies before Processor Technology ultimately lost. To add to the injury, North Star then released a new 5.25-inch drive for the system that sold at half the cost of the Helios. A patch that allowed CP/M to run on the new drives killed off any interest in alternatives like PTDOS, and new business applications like WordStar and Electric Pencil soon cemented CP/M as the standard operating system for all S-100 machines.
Processor Technology continued selling the Helios system and refused to consider replacing PTDOS with CP/M. Helios proved to be highly unreliable and resulted in a lawsuit by those owners that had purchased them. Meanwhile, the company introduced one of its few new products during this period, 32 and 64 KB memory cards based on dynamic RAM which was much denser than the older SRAMs. These began failing at an alarming rate, overwhelming the company's ability to repair them.
These problems caused the company to go bankrupt, and the company was eventually liquidated on 14 May 1979.
Description.
Physical layout.
Looking at the Sol-20 from the front, where the operator would sit, the keyboard was in a typical location with the main QWERTY-style layout on the left and the numeric keypad on the right. The wooden sides of the case were close on either side of the keyboard, potentially interfering with the operator's hands.
On the rear right of the case (as seen from the front), directly to the rear of the numeric keypad, was the power supply, which also provided a fan to cool the circuitry. The main motherboard sat to the left of the power supply, spanning about of the case's width. The motherboard extended forward under the keyboard all the way to the front of the case.
Cassette, parallel and serial ports extended off the back of the motherboard into holes in the case. Directly below the fan, was a UHF connector that produced composite video output. This could be connected to a monitor, or with a bit of work, a conventional television. The processor was near the back of the machine, with the memory and video circuits at the front. This required the video output to be routed to the back of the machine with a coaxial cable running across the top of the card.
Sol bus.
Originally, expansion was going to be handled through an external cage that connected to the main console using two 50-pin ribbon cables. The original Altair bus design lacked signal ground pins for each of its data lines, a decision that had been made in order to reduce pin count and allow it to fit into 100-pin connectors they found in surplus. This led to noisy signals as they all shared a common ground, a topic of considerable derision by many users. When the bus was extended into a ribbon cable, the resulting signals were too noisy to be useful, and Marsh demanded that there be additional ground pins spread across the cable to reduce this noise.
The Sol solved this problem by supporting only one of the two data busses at a time, allowing input or output and switching between them by signaling with the codice_1 pin on the 8080. Since only one bus was being used at a time, they could share a set of eight pins, which allowed the eight formerly dedicated to the second bus to be used as ground lines instead. Ultimately, the idea of using an external chassis was dropped. By this time the decision to use the additional lines for grounds had been made, which had the desirable side-effect of making the board easier to design.
The same 50-pin concept was instead implemented in an internal expansion chassis, the Sol-BPB. This extended vertically upwards from roughly the center of the motherboard. It had five horizontal connectors, and a metal framework on either side mechanically supported the expansion cards. The chassis also had another edge connector at the top, but it is unclear whether this could be used for further expansion. The BPB retained the codice_1 signaling and ground pins of the early design and this quickly became a "de facto" standard for S-100 cards.
This change to the bus design was contentious, as it meant cards for the Altair did not work in the Sol without some adjustments. Felsenstein noted, "I take the position that Bob made me do it, and he takes the position that history will absolve him."
Software.
Three "personality modules" were released with the original systems. CONSOL provided a simple terminal emulator function, along with a small number of additional commands to load and run programs from tape using codice_3. SOLOS added names to the files on the cassette, the codice_4 command for saving data to the tape into a named file, and codice_5 to print out the details of a named program. codice_6 loaded and executed a named program in one step. SOLED included block-mode editing, used on some mainframe systems, but it is not clear if this was actually available.
One commonly used software for the Sol-20 was the BASIC/5 language. This was able to run in even a minimal machine with a 4 KB expansion, but in order to fit it had only single-precision floating point numbers and lacked string variables. An Extended BASIC that ran in 8 KB added strings and other functions. Processor Technology also sold a wide variety of other programs, including many games, on cassette format for the Sol, or on punch tape for other S-100 machines.


Amiga Force

Amiga Force was a video games magazine launched towards the end of 1992 by Europress Impact. It lasted for 16 issues before going down with its publishers. The first issue of "Amiga Force" went on sale around September 1992. The magazine would switch to monthly release soon after. "Amiga Force" showed many similarities to other Europress Impact titles, particularly "Sega Force". Unlike rival magazine "Amiga Power", "Amiga Force" decided not to include any coverdisks on the issues.
The magazine went through various designs and staff through its lifetime. The March 1994 issue was the last "Amiga Force" published when Impact Magazines went bust.


Z25 (computer)

The Zuse Z25 was a program-controlled electronic computer using transistors developed by Zuse KG in Bad Hersfeld and put into production in 1963. The word length was 18 bits, though it could also process double-word lengths for accuracy up to 10 decimal digits. The addressable space was 32768 words. The maximum size of the magnetic core memory was 16383 words. The programmable program memory had a maximum size of 4096 words.
For mass storage there was a drum memory available as well as a magnetic tape memory. The magnetic drum had a storage capacity of 17664 Z25 words. The transmission speed was 6900 words per second. The magnetic tape memory had a capacity of 1 million Z25 words and a transmission speed of approximately 33000 Z25 words per second. In- and output was through punched tape and punched cards; it was also possible to print to a teleprinter.
The computer could carry out approximately 7100 arithmetic operations per second at a clock rate of 180 kHz. Several Z25s could be connected in a network. The Z25 could be used for the control and data acquisition of external devices through a program-interrupt system with up to 32 channels.


Beagle Bros

Beagle Bros was an American software company that specialized in creating personal computing products. Their primary focus was on the Apple II family of computers. Although they ceased business in 1991, owner Mark Simonsen permitted the Beagle Bros name and logo to be included on the 30th anniversary reboot of I. O. Silver, released on December 12, 2014 by former Beagle programmer Randy Brandt.
History.
Beagle Bros was founded in 1980 by Bert Kersey and expanded over the years to include a wide variety of staff members, programmers, and designers. Whereas most software companies focused on professional users and business systems, Kersey founded the company with the intention of capitalizing on the "hobbyist" market that had formed when affordable personal computers became more readily available. "Apple Mechanic" allowed users to create their own shape tables (an early form of sprites) to create their own games, "DOS Boss" let users patch the disk operating system, and "Beagle Bag" had a number of games written in BASIC that people could utilize. Beagle Bros' catalog and print advertisements featured many playful programming tips about the Apple II system, many in the form of short Applesoft BASIC programs that took advantage of undocumented or unexpected behavior. Beagle Bros used woodcut and other 19th century artwork in its printed designs.
When the Apple IIgs was released, Beagle Bros was among the first companies to release content for the platform. Both "Platinum Paint" and "BeagleWrite GS" (acquired and repackaged) are still regarded as being among the high points of commercial IIgs software.
Beagle Bros began producing add-ons for the AppleWorks, its first being the MacroWorks keyboard shortcut utility by Randy Brandt. Beagle Bros programmer Alan Bird later devised an API for creating AppleWorks add-ons, which they dubbed TimeOut. TimeOut programmers Alan Bird, Randy Brandt and Rob Renstrom were tapped by Claris to develop AppleWorks 3.0, and the TimeOut API itself became a part of AppleWorks with version 4.0. Eventually the TimeOut API was made public and a number of non-Beagle TimeOut applications were released.
In 1991, Mark Simonsen licensed the Beagle Bros Apple II line to Quality Computers. Quality Computers subsequently went through several acquisitions and no longer exists. Multiple Beagle Bros products were released as freeware in the mid-1990s, including most of the company's early utilities and games. Today, their programs are available on the Internet.
BeagleWorks, the company's main Macintosh product, was licensed to WordPerfect Corporation in 1992, where it became WordPerfect Works. This product was later discontinued after WordPerfect was acquired by Novell. The company also produced a few small Macintosh and PC utilities.
Many former employees have continued to be involved in the software industry, such as Joe Holt who co-authored iMovie, and Alan Bird who worked on Eudora and the OneClick shortcut utility for Macintosh. Randy Brandt created Online Army Knife, an award-winning Macintosh spell checker, and continued publishing AppleWorks products through his JEM Software spin-off. Mark Munz created Deja ][, which allows AppleWorks to run under Mac OS X. The company's founder, Bert Kersey, started a model train company after selling Beagle Bros, and is now retired.


HP Essential Laptops

HP Essential line is a line of entry-level cheap laptops with basic functionality.
Earlier models.
The HP 635 Notebook
The HP 620 Notebook
The HP 520 Notebook is a low-end business laptop made by Hewlett-Packard. It runs either Core Duo T2400 or other Celeron M processors. It can come with Vista Business, Basic preinstalled, or if chosen, Red Hat 10.
The HP 450 Notebook
The HP 255 Notebook
Is a budget laptop.


Atom Ant (video game)


Sony Alpha 37

The Sony α37 or Sony Alpha 37 (model name SLT-A37) is a single-lens reflex style digital camera that replaced the SLT-A35 in 2012. However, the Alpha 37 camera features an electronic viewfinder and a translucent mirror. The main advantage of a translucent mirror is that it needn't flip up out of the way when taking a picture in order to expose the sensor, but the camera can focus and capture images simultaneously. Also the viewfinder can be used while video recording or stills/video playback, which is useful for example in bright sunlight. The camera's 15-point autofocus system can be set to single, continuous or automatic and is arranged towards the centre. The 7 fps burst mode is available only in "speed priority" mode but can reach up to 5.5 fps burst rate in combination with any other settings. The A37 is compatible with Sony Bravia Televisions.


ChiWriter

ChiWriter is a commercial scientific text editor for MS-DOS, created by Cay Horstmann in 1986. It was one of the first WYSIWYG editors that could write mathematical formulas, even on IBM PC XT computers that were then common.
The editor was more oriented to speed and interactive aspect of editing, rather than on visual appearance of the result, therefore, it has its own graphical user interface with bitmap fonts of fixed width. Although popular (easier to use than TeX for many scientists), this unfortunately led to its demise as more text editors with vector fonts for MS Windows began to appear, and in 1996, it has been discontinued.
The basic idea of ChiWriter is that you can add lines above or below the current text line (by half of the base line height), and write text there too. The additional lines are treated as part of the original text line. This can be used to create subscripts and superscripts, and also more complex formulas such as fractions. Combined with the possibility to use several fonts (up to 20) at once, such as Greek alphabet, Cyrillic alphabets, and mathematical and other symbols, ChiWriter is quite easy to write mathematical texts in. Every font has the same fixed dimensions, but you can use different sets for different output devices (for example, you can use low-resolution fonts for screen and high-resolution fonts for printer). You can also manually create the larger objects (such as sums and integrals) by using several symbols for each part of the object.
The editor was quite customizable. There was also a font editor, which allowed to modify fonts and introduce user-designed fonts (including proportional ones) and symbols.
Recently people experience some difficulty with exhibiting ChiWriter documents. A simple solution takes into consideration the fact that in the quality printing mode ChiWriter outputs bit-image print codes which can be redirected into a file (default extension .bin). In the heydays of the editor, the codes Epson ESC/P were the most frequently used. Utility chipbm converts used by ChiWriter subset of bit-image print codes into a file Portable anymap (.pbm) which is loaded by many graphical utilities. For example, utility GIMP allows saving a page afterwards in Portable Document Format (.pdf).
It is still possible to run the application on modern computers, using DOS virtualization software, like VirtualBox or DosBox. This allows to convert the documents into the PostScript format (.ps), using the provided PostScript printer driver. PostScript format can be directly converted into Portable Document Format (.pdf) format.


Canon EOS 300D

The Canon EOS 300D, manufactured by Canon, was marketed in North America as the EOS Digital Rebel, in Japan as the EOS Kiss Digital, and was also sold as the DS6041. It is a 6.3-megapixel entry-level digital single-lens reflex camera. It was initially announced on 20 August 2003 at a price point of $899 without lens, $999 with the "kit" lens. It is part of the Canon EOS line of cameras. This was a significant milestone in digital cameras, as it was the first digital SLR offered under $1000.
The 300D was one of the first digital SLR (single lens reflex) cameras that cost less than 1000 euros (£830 at January 2012 exchange rates).
Features.
The 300D is often compared to the prosumer Canon EOS 10D, which features virtually the same CMOS image sensor and image processing chip. Several 10D features can be unlocked and used in the 300D by using non-official firmware.
The 300D polycarbonate bodies were originally available in North America in silver color only, whereas the Japanese version was also available in black. Later, black versions of the 300D were also released in the US and Europe.
The 300D was the first camera to use the Canon EF-S lens mount. It also takes the EF lens mount lenses. Canon introduced the EF-S 18-55mm as the kit lens alongside the 300D. It was available in a USM version in Japan and as a non-USM version elsewhere. Very late production black 300D cameras were available with the USM version in Europe.


Hosebird

Hosebird is the server implementation of the Twitter Streaming API. The Streaming API allows clients to receive Tweets in near real-time. Various resources allow filtered, sampled or full access to some or all Tweets. Every Twitter account has access to the Streaming API and any developer can build applications today. Hosebird also powers the recently announced User Streams feature that streams all events related to a given user to drive desktop Twitter clients.


Mobile daughter card

The mobile daughter card, also known as an MDC or CDC (communications daughter card), is a notebook version of the AMR slot on the motherboard of a desktop computer. It is designed to interface with special Ethernet (EDC), modem (MDC) or bluetooth (BDC) cards.
Intel MDC specification 1.0.
In 1999, Intel published a specification for mobile audio/modem daughter cards. The document defines a standard connector (AMP* 3-179397-0), mechanical elements including several form factors, and electrical interface. The 30-pin connector carries power, several audio channels and AC-Link serial data. Up to two AC'97 codecs are supported on such a card.
Several form factors are specified:


Dmesg

dmesg ("diagnostic message") is a command on most Unix-like operating systems that prints the message buffer of the kernel. The output includes messages produced by the device drivers.
Command.
On many Unix-like systems, the boot process generates a particularly dense stream of kernel messages. Many administrative issues pertain to whether a desired hardware device is successfully enumerated during the boot process, so the diagnostic process for a failed device often begins by inspecting the dmesg output from the kernel identification message to the point where the boot process concludes. Since this buffer can be overwritten by a flood of messages in subsequent operation, many Unix-like distributions store a post-boot copy of the message buffer at or similar secure system location.
It is also common to manually consult the current dmesg buffer after hot-plugging devices, particularly USB devices (especially thumb drives), to determine whether the device has been recognized, the data rate of the port involved (USB 2 and USB 3.0 plugs sit side by side and are hard to distinguish on many systems), what driver has been assigned, and where the device is made visible in the file system. Many distributions attempt to display device-recognition messages on the desktop, often through a taskbar pop-up, but this is not always reliable or the information presented is incomplete. (Furthermore, to be notified on the desktop, the hot-plugged device must be permitted by the system's security policy.)
Many dmesg lines in a traditional system begin with a device name followed by a colon, followed by some detailed text. Often these come in clusters, with the same device showing up on multiple lines in succession. Each cluster is usually associated with a single device enumeration, by one particular device driver (or device facility) associated with the device name.
Each such driver or facility emits diagnostic information in its own chosen format, and generally includes all of the most important technical details, in a dense and arcane notation. The manual page associated with the device driver will sometimes document the message format. For example, device name (SCSI direct access ) is a commonly seen device name associated with USB thumb drives. at the command line—without the trailing number—will bring up documentation for this driver class on many systems. Even if the precise format of the lines written to the system buffer are not described here, the parameters of interest are usually defined, though you might need to further peruse related manual pages (listed at the bottom of a traditional man page) for a complete overview spanning various hardware abstraction layers.
Booting.
When initially booted, a computer system loads its kernel into memory. At this stage device drivers present in the kernel are set up to drive relevant hardware. Such drivers, as well as other elements within the kernel, may produce output ("messages") reporting both the presence of modules and the values of any parameters adopted. (It may be possible to specify boot parameters which control the level of detail in the messages.) The booting process typically happens at a speed where individual messages scroll off the top of the screen before an operator can read/digest them. (Some keyboard keys may pause the screen output.) The command allows the review of such messages in a controlled manner after the system has started.
After booting.
Even after the system has fully booted, the kernel may occasionally produce further diagnostic messages. Common examples of when this might happen are when I/O devices encounter errors, or USB devices are hot-plugged. dmesg provides a mechanism to review these messages at a later time. When first produced they will be directed to the system console: if the console is in use then these messages may be confused with or quickly overwritten by the output of user programs.
Output.
The output of dmesg can amount to many complete screens. For this reason, this output is normally reviewed using standard text-manipulation tools such as more, tail, less or grep. The output is often captured in a permanent system logfile via a logging daemon, such as syslog.
External links.


GNOME

GNOME () is a free and open-source desktop environment for Unix-like operating systems. GNOME was originally an acronym for "GNU Network Object Model Environment", but the acronym was dropped because it no longer reflected the vision of the GNOME project.
GNOME is developed by The GNOME Project, which is composed of both volunteers and paid contributors, the largest corporate contributor being Red Hat. It is an international project that aims to develop software frameworks for the development of software, to program end-user applications based on these frameworks, and to coordinate efforts for internationalization and localization and accessibility of that software.
GNOME 3 is the default desktop environment on many major Linux distributions including Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, SUSE Linux Enterprise (exclusively), Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS, Pop!_OS, Oracle Linux, SteamOS, Tails and Endless OS, as well as Solaris, a major Unix operating system; and is provided as an official edition by Manjaro. The continued fork of the last GNOME 2 release, called MATE, is default on many Linux distros that target low usage of system resources.
History.
GNOME 1.
GNOME was started on 15 August 1997 by Miguel de Icaza and as a free software project to develop a desktop environment and applications for it. It was founded in part because K Desktop Environment, which was growing in popularity, relied on the Qt widget toolkit which used a proprietary software license until version 2.0 (June 1999). In place of Qt, GTK (GNOME Toolkit, at that time called GIMP Toolkit) was chosen as the base of GNOME. GTK uses the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), a free software license that allows software linking to it to use a much wider set of licenses, including proprietary software licenses. GNOME itself is licensed under the LGPL for its libraries, and the GNU General Public License (GPL) for its applications.
GNOME has historically been part of the GNU Project. However, it is no longer part of that project. The name "GNOME" was initially an acronym of "GNU Network Object Model Environment", referring to the original intention of creating a distributed object framework similar to Microsoft's OLE, but the acronym was eventually dropped because it no longer reflected the vision of the GNOME project.
The California startup Eazel developed the Nautilus file manager from 1999 to 2001. De Icaza and Nat Friedman founded Helix Code (later Ximian) in 1999 in Massachusetts; this company developed GNOME's infrastructure and applications, and in 2003 was purchased by Novell.
 During the transition to GNOME 2 around the year 2001 and shortly thereafter there were brief talks about creating a "GNOME Office" suite. On 15 September 2003 GNOME-Office 1.0, consisting of AbiWord 2.0, GNOME-DB 1.0 and Gnumeric 1.2.0 was released. Although some release planning for GNOME Office 1.2 was happening on gnome-office mailing list, and Gnumeric 1.4 was announced as a part of it, the 1.2 release of the suite itself never materialized. GNOME wiki only mentions "GNOME/Gtk applications that are useful in an office environment".
GNOME 2.
GNOME 2 was very similar to a conventional desktop interface, featuring a simple desktop in which users could interact with virtual objects, such as windows, icons, and files. GNOME 2 started out with Sawfish, but later switched to Metacity as its default window manager. The handling of windows, applications, and files in GNOME 2 is similar to that of contemporary desktop operating systems. In the default configuration of GNOME 2, the desktop has a launcher menu for quick access to installed programs and file locations; open windows may be accessed by a taskbar along the bottom of the screen, and the top-right corner features a notification area for programs to display notices while running in the background. However, these features can be moved to almost any position or orientation the user desires, replaced with other functions or removed altogether.
As of 2009, GNOME 2 was the default desktop for OpenSolaris. The MATE desktop environment is a fork of the GNOME 2 codebase (see Criticism, below.)
GNOME 3.
In 2008, an increasing discontent among community and developers about the lack of project direction and technical progress has prompted the announcement of GNOME 3.0. Originally, the plan was to make only incremental changes and avoid disruption for users. This has changed, when the efforts led to creation of the GNOME Shell.
GNOME 3 was released in 2011. While GNOME 1 and 2 interfaces followed the traditional desktop metaphor, the GNOME Shell adopted a more abstract metaphor with streamlined window management workflow (where switching between different tasks and virtual desktops took place in a separate area called "the""overview"), unified "header bar" (replacing menu bar, taskbar, and toolbar), and "minimize" and "maximize" buttons hidden by default (via Client-side decoration mechanism).
GNOME 3 brought many enhancements to core software. Many GNOME Core Applications also went through redesigns to provide a more consistent user experience. Mutter replaced Metacity as the default window manager. "Adwaita" replaced Clearlooks as the default theme.
Criticism.
The release of GNOME 3 has caused considerable controversy in the GNU and Linux communities. Projects aim to provide an easy-to-use and uncluttered user experience has led to some criticized design decisions, like removal of "minimize" and "maximize" buttons, oversimplification of configuration options and visual clues which could lead to confusion.
A few projects have been initiated to continue development of GNOME 2.x or to modify GNOME 3.x to be more like the 2.x releases. The MATE desktop environment was forked from the GNOME 2 code-base with the intent of retaining the traditional GNOME 2 interface, whilst keeping compatibility with modern Linux technology, such as GTK 3. The Linux Mint team addressed the issue by developing the "Mint GNOME Shell Extensions" that ran on top of GNOME Shell and allowed it to be used via the traditional desktop metaphor. This eventually led to the creation of the Cinnamon user interface, which was forked from the GNOME 3 codebase. Audacious migrated to Qt, noting the restrictions of GTK+ 3 as a reason. The LXDE Project, which was experimenting with a Qt port at the time, joined the Razor-qt Team and became LXQt.
Among those critical of the early releases of GNOME 3 is Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux kernel. Torvalds abandoned GNOME for a while after the release of GNOME 3.0, saying "The developers have apparently decided that it's 'too complicated' to actually do real work on your desktop, and have decided to make it really annoying to do".
Over time, the critical reception has grown more positive. In 2013, Torvalds resumed using GNOME, noting that "they have extensions now that are still much too hard to find; but with extensions you can make your desktop look almost as good as it used to look two years ago". Debian, a Linux distribution that had historically used GNOME 2, switched to Xfce when GNOME 3 was released but readopted GNOME 3 in time for the release of Debian 8 "Jessie".
GNOME 40.
GNOME 40 was released on 24 March 2021. It is a major new version, the first to adopt a new versioning scheme. Instead of using a vertical design in its activities overview, GNOME 40 organizes workspaces and the dash in a horizontal fashion. The release also brings new touchpad gestures.
Releases.
Release cycle.
Each of the component software products in the GNOME project has its own version number and release schedule. However, individual module maintainers coordinate their efforts to create a full GNOME stable release on an approximately six-month schedule, alongside its underlying libraries such as GTK and GLib. Some experimental projects are excluded from these releases.
Before GNOME 40, GNOME version numbers followed the scheme "v.xx.yy". Here, "v" is a major version, which can include large changes such as ABI breakage; these have no regular schedule and occur in response to requirements for large-scale changes. "xx" is a minor version, released on the above schedule of approximately every 6 months, in which the 1- or 2-digit number's parity indicates the type of release: if "xx" is even (e.g. 3.20) the release is considered stable, whereas if "xx" is odd, it represents a current development snapshot (e.g. 3.21) that will eventually evolve into the next stable release. "yy" indicates a point release, e.g. 3.20.6; these are made on a frequency of weeks in order to fix issues, add non-breaking enhancements, etc.
GNOME 40 started a new versioning scheme in which a single number is incremented each biannual release. The number is followed by a dot and then "alpha", "beta", or "rc" for a development release or another integer for minor stable releases (much like the "yy" mentioned previously).
GNOME releases are made to the main FTP server in the form of source code with configure scripts, which are compiled by operating system vendors and integrated with the rest of their systems before distribution. Most vendors only use stable and tested versions of GNOME, and provide it in the form of easily installed, pre-compiled packages. The source code of every stable and development version of GNOME is stored in the GNOME git source code repository. Interested users can always obtain a snapshot of the _master_ development branch or any other branch/tag and build a cutting-edge version for their own use.
A number of build-scripts (such as JHBuild or formerly GARNOME) are available to help automate the process of compiling the source code.
Features.
User interface design.
Since GNOME 2, productivity has been a key focus for GNOME. To meet this end, the GNOME Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) were created. All GNOME programs share a coherent style of graphical user interface (GUI) but are not limited to the employment of the same GUI widgets. Rather, the design of the GNOME GUI is guided by concepts described in the GNOME HIG, itself relying on insights from cognitive ergonomics. Following the HIG, developers can create high-quality, consistent, and usable GUI programs, as it addresses everything from GUI design to recommended pixel-based layout of widgets.
During the GNOME 2 rewrite, many settings deemed of little value to the majority of users were removed. Havoc Pennington summarized the usability work in his 2002 essay "Free Software UI", emphasizing the idea that all preferences have a cost, and it is better to make software behave correctly by default than to add a UI preference to get the desired behavior:
Accessibility.
GNOME aims to make and keep the desktop environment physically and cognitively ergonomic for people with disabilities. The GNOME HIG tries to take this into account as far as possible but specific issues are solved by special software.
GNOME addresses computer accessibility issues by using the Accessibility Toolkit (ATK) application programming interface, which allows enhancing user experience by using special input methods and speech synthesis and speech recognition software. Particular utilities are registered with ATK using Assistive Technology Service Provider Interface (AT-SPI), and become globally used throughout the desktop. Several assistive technology providers, including Orca screen reader and Dasher input method, were developed specifically for use with GNOME.
Internationalization and localization.
The internationalization and localization of GNOME software relies on locale.
Desktop.
GNOME provides three different login sessions for desktop:
GNOME Classic.
Beginning with GNOME 3.8, GNOME provides a suite of officially supported GNOME Shell extensions that provide Applications menu (a basic start menu) and "Places menu" on the top bar, and a panel with windows list at the bottom of the screen that lets quickly minimize and restore open windows, a "Show Desktop" button in the bottom left and virtual desktops in the bottom right corner.
GNOME Flashback.
"GNOME Flashback" is an official session for GNOME 3. It is based on GNOME Panel and Metacity (window manager), it is lightweight, has lower hardware requirements and uses less system resources (memory and CPU) than GNOME Shell. It provides a traditional and highly customizable taskbar (panel) with many plug-ins bundled in one package (gnome-applets) including a customizable start menu. It provides a similar user experience to the GNOME 2.x series and has customization capacities as built-in.
GNOME Flashback consists of the following components:
GNOME Shell.
This session is based on GNOME Shell and Mutter (window manager). It is default and offers a mobile-like paradigm for launching applications and accessing open windows and virtual desktops, but through the use of extensions it is possible for the appearance to be that of a traditional taskbar and provide a basic start menu. This session uses more RAM and CPU due to use of JavaScript for GNOME Shell and all of its extensions, and requiring 3D acceleration.
GNOME Shell is the default graphical shell of GNOME. It features a top bar holding (from left to right) an Activities button, an application menu, a clock and an integrated system status menu. The application menu displays the name of the application in focus and provides access to functions such as accessing the application's preferences, closing the application, or creating a new application window. The status menu holds various system status indicators, shortcuts to system settings, and session actions including logging out, switching users, locking the screen, and suspending the computer.
Clicking on the Activities button, moving the mouse to the top-left hot corner or pressing the Super key brings up the Overview. The Overview gives users an overview of current activities and provides a way to switch between windows and workspaces and to launch applications. The Dash on the left houses shortcuts to favorite applications and open windows and an application picker button to show a list of all installed applications. A search bar appears at the top and a workspace list for switching between workspaces is on the right. Notifications appear from the bottom of the screen.
Mobile.
The libhandy library can be used with GNOME Shell to create a responsive user interface that dynamically adapts to device form factor.
Development.
GNOME is developed by The GNOME Project. GNOME development is loosely managed. Discussion chiefly occurs on a number of public mailing lists. GNOME developers and users gather at an annual GUADEC meeting to discuss the current state and the future direction of GNOME. GNOME incorporates standards and programs from freedesktop.org to better support interoperability with other desktops.
GNOME is mainly written in C, XML, C++, C#, HTML, Vala, Python, JavaScript, CSS, and more. A number of language bindings are available.
Development platform.
The GLib data structures and utilities library, GObject object and type system and GTK widget toolkit comprise the central part of GNOME development platform. This foundation is further extended with D-Bus IPC framework, Cairo 2D vector-based drawing library, Clutter accelerated graphics library, Pango international text rendering library, PulseAudio low-level audio API, GStreamer multimedia framework, and several specialized libraries including NetworkManager, PackageKit, Telepathy (instant messaging), and WebKit.
Dependencies.
The GNOME desktop environment does not consist solely of the graphical control element library GTK and the core applications that make use of it. There are quite a few additional software packages that make up the GNOME desktop environment, such as the above.
Wayland or X Window System.
GNOME runs on Wayland and the X Window System. Wayland support was introduced in GNOME 3.10 and deemed "for the majority of users […] a usable day to day experience" by 3.20, at which point Wayland became the default user session. GNOME 3.24 will extend Wayland compatibility to Nvidia drivers. With GNOME 3.30, it is possible to run GNOME without X.Org Server, using only Wayland.
systemd.
In May 2011 Lennart Poettering proposed systemd as a GNOME dependency.
As systemd is available only on Linux, the proposal led to a discussion of possibly dropping support for other platforms in future GNOME releases. Since GNOME 3.2 multiseat support has only been available on systems using systemd.
In November 2012 the GNOME release team concluded there will be no compile time dependency on systemd for basic functionality, like session tracking. For non-basic functionality, like power management, compile time dependency is possible. For example, there is no concept of systemd inhibitors in alternatives like consolekit. A package manager may want to ensure that the system is not turned off while the upgrade is taking place.
Applications.
Core Applications.
There are a large number of GTK and Clutter-based programs written by various authors. Since the release of GNOME 3.0, The GNOME Project concentrates on developing a set of programs that accounts for the GNOME Core Applications. The commonalities of the GNOME Core Applications are the adherence to the current GNOME Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) as well as the tight integration with underlying GNOME layers like e.g. GVfs (GNOME virtual filesystem) and also with one another e.g. GOA (gnome-online-accounts) settings and GNOME Files with Google Drive and GNOME Photos with Google Photos. Some programs are simply existing programs with a new name and revamped user interface, while others have been written from scratch.
Games.
GNOME Games have the look and feel of the GNOME Core Applications and are released simultaneously with GNOME. All have been rewritten to conform to the current GNOME Human Interface Guidelines.
Development tools.
Programmers have written software to provide development tools consistent with the GNOME desktop and to facilitate the development of GNOME software.
GNOME Builder is the new integrated development environment, Anjuta is the older one. Glade Interface Designer software constructs graphical interfaces using the graphical control elements in GTK. Devhelp is an API browser, Accerciser an accessibility explorer.
There are several debugging tools, including Nemiver, GtkInspector, and Alleyoop, have also been provided to facilitate development of GNOME software.
Integration options for third-party development tools (e.g. NoFlo) also exist.
The libsoup library enables access to HTTP servers from GNOME applications.
BuildStream is a flexible and extensible framework for the modeling of build and CI pipelines in a declarative YAML format, written in Python. Its mascot is a Beaver, because beavers build things in a stream.


Sigma DP2

The Sigma DP2 is a high-end compact digital camera introduced by the Sigma Corporation. It features a 14-megapixel Foveon X3 sensor (2652 × 1768 × 3 layers), the same sensor used in its predecessor, the Sigma DP1 and in the Sigma SD14 DSLR, a fixed 24.2mm 2.8 lens (41mm equivalent), a 2.5” LCD and a pop-up flash.
With its predecessor, the DP1, it is one of the few "compact" cameras that featured sensor with a size equivalent to APS-C. Sigma claimed this (comparatively large) sensor size would result in DSLR quality images from a small, pocketable camera. The camera does not include auto or scene modes as it is not aimed against the average consumer. The DP series are therefore targeted against professional photographers or enthusiasts seeking a compact, yet capable camera.
It was announced in September 2008, and began shipping in 2009.
Differences to the DP1 include a lens that is one stop faster, f/2.8 vs. f/4.0, 24.2 vs. 16.6mm(35mm equivalent of 41mm vs 28mm) and a faster processing chip, the True II image processor, which is shared with the Sigma SD15 DSLR.
Though claimed difficult to use, it shares many features and limitations found in rangefinder cameras such as the Leica M6, and with its mechanical-feedback manual focus, snaps images with zero shutter lag.
In February 2010, Sigma released an updated version of the camera, the Sigma DP2s. The DP2s offers a new AF algorithm, a "power save" mode and a modified rear design with new labeling of the buttons. The imaging sensor itself remained the same.
In 2012, Sigma released the 'Merrill' range of the DP series, with a much improved sensor.
Software.
Sigma Photo Pro.
SIGMA Photo Pro is an exclusive software package for displaying and manipulating RAW images taken with all SIGMA digital cameras on your computer.
It can be used with raw X3F and JPEG files from all SIGMA digital cameras.
The software is free to download and install for both Windows and MacOS operating system.


Apricot Picobook Pro

The Apricot Picobook Pro is the first product of the reformed Apricot Computers. It is a netbook based on the VIA NanoBook, first shown to the press on October 15 2008.
Reception.
The Apricot has been very poorly received. A review by PC Pro in 2009 gave it 2 stars awarding it the worst marks of the notebooks on test in the categories of build quality, speaker quality, keyboard and cursor quality, and screen quality, and saying to avoid it at all costs. A "first look" review by IT Pro in 2008 also awarded it two stars, calling it unattractive, with a dubious build quality and saying that it is all but impossible to type on.


Casio FX-850P

The Casio FX-850P is a scientific calculator introduced in 1987 and sold until 1999.
Specifications.
User's manual at http://www.usersmanualguide.com/casio/calculators/fx-850p
The calculator had a BASIC interpreter, MEMO function, a formula library. The built-in 8 kB memory could be expanded using the optional Casio RP-8 (8 kB) or RP-33 (32 kB) RAM expansion modules. An optional Casio FA-6 interface board provided a cassette tape recorder connector, a Centronics printer connector and an RS-232C port. The calculator could print data and listings on any Centronics printer; printing graphics required the Casio FP-100 plotter-printer.
Later, Casio released the FX-880P, which had 32 kB built-in memory. With a RP-33 expansion module, this model could be upgraded to a total of 64 kB.
The memory layout is:
Memory area A000-FFFF was either available as user memory (if expansion was present), or would simply repeat the contents of 0000-1FFF
A few glitches are:
The internal function library was programmed in BASIC itself and could be extracted with a BASIC decompiler.
Any function in the library can be executed from a regular BASIC program by using GOTO "LIB0:NNNN" where NNNN is the function number (e.g. 5010 for prime factorization). The command GOTO "LIB0:0400" executes a self-test program.
Characters 252 to 255 were user defined. They could be defined by issuing the command DEF CHR$(n)="HHHHHHHHHH" where n ranges from 252 to 255 and the H's are 10 hexadecimal digits (5 bytes). Every byte defines the pixel pattern for a column. Since a column is 7 pixels high, the least significant bit of every byte is ignored.
The CHR$(26) would activate a different character set for Katakana and Kanji characters. CHR$(27) would deactivate Kanji.
Via a serial cable the calculator could connect to a PC or to another Casio FX-850P, allowing the transfer to MEMO and stored programs.


Ferguson Big Board

The Big Board (1980) and Big Board II (1982) were Z80 based single-board computers designed by Jim Ferguson. They provided a complete CP/M compatible computer system on a single printed circuit board, including CPU, memory, disk drive interface, keyboard and video monitor interface. The printed circuit board was sized to match the Shugart 801 or 851 floppy drive. This allowed attachment to up to two 8 inch or 5 1/4 inch floppy disk drives . The Big Board II added a SASI interface which could be used to drive hard drives, enhancements to system speed (4 MHz vs. 2.5 MHz) and enhancements to the terminal interface.
One version of the Big Board was used in the Xerox 820.
Hardware.
The Big Board was sold as an unpopulated printed circuit board with sockets for integrated circuits, with documentation and options to purchase additional components
The Big Board design was simple enough to build a system around that many people with no prior electronics experience were able to build and bring up a capable computer system of their own at a cost far less than that of a fully assembled system of the time. In this way, the Big Boards anticipated the DIY PC clones that became popular later. In its most popular form, the fully assembled and tested Big Board need only be connected to a power supply, one or two eight inch floppy disk drives, a composite monitor, and an ASCII encoded keyboard in order to provide a fully functioning system. A serial terminal could be used in place of the monitor and keyboard, further simplifying assembly. The only tool required for basic assembly was a screwdriver for the terminal block power connections.
The design was also simple to modify for the sake of system expansion and enhancement. Many different modifications to increase the system clock speed were possible, including some that required nothing more than jumpers (e.g. the 3.5 MHz speed upgrade obtained by jumpering the clock divider, with no software modifications or changes to the ICs on the board.) There was also a minor industry in user-installable system upgrades such as real time clocks, 4 MHz upgrades, double density floppy upgrades, character enhancements for the display (reverse video, blinking, etc.), and the addition of hard disk interfaces such as SASI and SCSI. Most of these upgrades were accomplished through the use of daughter boards that plugged into existing IC sockets on the board, with the original IC either replaced by a more capable IC or placed into a socket on the daughter board.
It was possible to upgrade the memory to 256 KB, which was extremely large for the time. While not directly supported by CP/M, the extra memory could be used to implement a ram disk, caching of the operating system image (to greatly improve warm boot time), or a print spooler.
The Big Board II (1982) incorporated many of the most popular upgrades for the original Big Board into its design. It also featured a small breadboard area that allowed for many simple upgrades to be performed without the addition of daughter boards.
Software.
The Big Board was designed primarily to run the CP/M operating system, version 2.2. It came with a monitor program in ROM called PFM-80 which was the "software front panel" of the system. The source code listing of PFM was a feature of the first and second issues of Micro Cornucopia. PFM featured many well-documented routines that could be employed in user code.
The board featured 3 spare 2K ROM sockets that allowed for the addition of additional firmware. Popular additions were Tiny BASIC, FORTH, and enhanced versions of PFM.
Documentation.
The Big Board came with a full set of schematics, a document titled "Theory of Operation", the PFM-80 User's Manual, instructions for assembly and testing of the Big Board, a parts list, and addenda to these. The Theory of Operation described the details of the operation of the system, including the CRT controller, floppy disk controller, serial communications, memory bank switching, and connector pinouts.
Specifications.
Big Board I
Big Board II
Big Board Community.
The success of the Big Board spawned Micro Cornucopia magazine. Many Big Board kits included a subscription flyer for the magazine.
The magazine regularly featured user reports, hardware upgrade articles, and reviews of third party products. The magazine's publisher hosted the SOG (Semi Official Get-together) annually, where the magazine's readers would join staff and writers for white water rafting, potluck feasts, and technical discussions.
Third Party Products.
The Xerox 820 computer was based on the Big Board; "InfoWorld" stated that its "considerable virtues ... lie mostly in its use of the Big Board's design". Shugart Associates was a common source of floppy disk drives, as was Tandon Corporation.
Taylor Electric Company provided the "Better Board", including floppy disk drive interface enhancements, enhancements to PFM, and corrections to the original assembly and testing instructions bundled with the Big Board.
SWP Microcomputer Products of Arlington, TX (formerly Software Publishers) provided the Bigboard Dual Density upgrade, which provided both hardware and software to allow the Big Board I to use dual density formats on its drives.
Micro Cornucopia provided many products to enhance the Big Board computers, including speed upgrades, utility software and development tools both on ROM and on disk, and I/O enhancements.
AB Computer Products sold enclosures, monitors, and pre-punched I/O panels targeted at Big Board users.
D&W Associates of Rome, NY sold monitors, ASCII-encoded keyboards, and power supplies targeted to the Big Board market.
Paradise Valley Electronics of Moscow, ID sold a version of FORTH, as well as graphics upgrades and utility software for the Big Board.
Several manufacturers, including JBW and Andy Bakkers sold SASI interface kits.
Kuzara Enterprises of San Diego, CA (formerly Design Technology) sold printer interfaces that allowed the Big Board to use the full feature sets of the Xerox Diablo printers.
Several manufacturers provided real time clock upgrades as a CPU daughter board.
Andy Bakkers sold a 1 MB RAM Disk daughter board for Big Board II.
Kenmore Computer Technologies (from Buffalo, NY) offered the Ztime-I calendar/clock board kit and software. Calendar/clock circuits enabled early computers to time-stamp data and perform time-sensitive tasks with accuracy.


Sega Zone

Sega Zone was a Sega orientated publication from Dennis Publishing in the early 1990s. "Sega Zone" had split off from the former multiformat console title "Game Zone", which continued as a Nintendo magazine. Early Dennis Publishing staff members included launch editor Amaya Lopez, deputy editor Vivienne Nagy, and staff writer Martin Pond.
In 1993 "Sega Zone", along with "Game Zone", was sold to Future Publishing. During this period "Sega Zone" had the following familiar Future names working for the magazine; Tim Norris (editor), Tim Tucker (deputy editor), Josse Billson (staff writer) and Stuart Campbell (longtime contributor).
In early 1994 Future Publishing itself sold the "Sega Zone" title onto Maverick Magazines. The same year the titles faded away.