Samsung NX5

The Samsung NX5 is an SLR-styled digital mirrorless system camera announced by Samsung on June 1, 2010. It was the second camera introduced that uses the Samsung NX mount for exchangeable lenses.


Efax (software)

efax is an integrated fax program for Unix-like computer systems, produced by Casas Communications Engineering since 1993.
The software allows users to send and receive faxes using a computer, fax modem, and telephone line. It is command-line based, but there are several graphical user interfaces available.
efax is open-source and free software, licensed under the GPL. It is included in several major Linux distributions, including Debian, Red Hat, Mandriva, and others. There is also a BSD version, and it forms part of the Apple Mac OS X Darwin system.


Project Omega

Project Omega is a 1980 video game published by Adventure International for the TRS-80.
Contents.
"Project Omega" is a game in which the player manages a space colony.
Reception.
Jon Mishcon reviewed "Project Omega" in "The Space Gamer" No. 42. Mishcon commented that "A first rate game. I highly recommend it."


Thunder Blade

 is a third-person shooting combat flight simulator game originally released by Sega for arcades in 1987. Players control a helicopter to destroy enemy vehicles. The game was released as a standard stand-up arcade cabinet that featured the use of force feedback, as the joystick vibrates during gameplay. A helicopter shaped sit-down model was released, replacing the force feedback with a cockpit seat that moves in tandem with the joystick. It was a motion simulator cabinet, like the previous Sega Super Scaler games "Space Harrier" (1985) and "After Burner" (1987). The game's plot and setting was inspired by the film "Blue Thunder" (1983).
Versions of the game were later released for the Sega Master System, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, MSX, TurboGrafx-16, Sharp X68000, and ZX Spectrum. The Nintendo 3DS remake was released as a 3D Classic in Japan on August 20, 2014, in North America and Europe on May 14, 2015, and in Australia on July 2, 2015. A follow-up, "Super Thunder Blade", was released exclusively for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis.
Gameplay.
The player controls a helicopter gunship using its chain gun and missiles to destroy enemy tanks, helicopters, and other vehicles and structures, to save his home country. Levels are in either a top-down or third-person perspective view. The boss levels are in the top-down view.
Development.
The game's plot and setting was inspired by the 1983 film "Blue Thunder". The game's title screen is a digitized still from the film.
Reception.
In Japan, "Game Machine" listed "Thunder Blade" on their January 15, 1988 issue as being the fourth most-successful upright arcade unit of the month.
The arcade game was well-received by critics. Clare Edgeley of "Computer and Video Games" called it "a helicopter simulation with several innovative features." She said it was "a brilliant game" with "superb" graphics and gameplay. "Your Sinclair" stated that ""Thunder Blade" is probably the game which took most of your money in the arcades this summer, probably one of the most eagerly awaited coin-op conversions".
At the 1988–1989 Golden Joystick Awards, the Sega Master System version of the game won Console Game of the Year. The ZX Spectrum version also received a Crash Smash award from "Crash" magazine.


CURSOR

CURSOR: Programs for PET Computers was an early computer-based "magazine" that was distributed on cassette from 1978 and into the early 1980s. Each issue, consisting of the cassette itself and a short newsletter including a table of contents, contained programs, utilities, and games. Produced for users of the Commodore PET, and available by subscription only, "CURSOR" was a forerunner of the later disk magazines ("diskmags") that came about as floppy disk drives became common, and eventually ubiquitous, in home and personal computing during the 1980s.
Ron Jeffries and Glen Fisher, of the software company The Code Works of Goleta, California, was "CURSOR"'s publisher and editor, respectively.
Each issue came with five or six programs, preceded by a "cover page" program (which was initially a simple animation, but in later issues became more sophisticated, allowing the user to select a program to be loaded from the tape). Among programs circulated by "CURSOR" included rudimentary animations, such as "Dromeda", which was an adaptation of the film "The Andromeda Strain"; games, such as a version of the "Star Trek" text-based campaign game, "Twonky" (a version of "Hunt the Wumpus"), and "Ratrun", an early dungeon crawl-style game (only with the player as a mouse searching for a piece of cheese in a 3D maze); and simple utility programs such as spreadsheets and code-tweakers (including a utility that allowed the PET to display lower-case lettering). Initially, programs (specifically games and animations) distributed on "Cursor" did not have sound, as the PET did not initially have this capability. As external audio devices such as "Soundware" became available for PET models, sound-capable programs began to appear in "Cursor"; these programs were identified by an exclamation point (!) in the title. For example: "Aliens!" or "Dromeda!".
"CURSOR" was discontinued in the early 1980s when the PET was superseded by other platforms. In total, 30 issues of the magazine were published. Issue #30 had the date May, 1982.
In 1981, McGraw-Hill published the book "PET Fun and Games: Selected CURSOR Programs" by Jeffries and Fisher (), which included the Commodore Basic source code for 31 of the game programs previously released on CURSOR cassettes.


SwissMicros DM42


TPUG Magazine


Atari XEGS

The Atari XE Video Game System (Atari XEGS) is an industrial redesign of the Atari 65XE home computer and the final model in the Atari 8-bit family. It was released by Atari Corporation in 1987 and marketed as a home video game console alongside the Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega's Master System, and Atari's own Atari 7800. The XEGS is compatible with existing Atari 8-bit family hardware and software. Without keyboard, the system operates as a stand-alone game console. With the keyboard, it boots identically to the Atari XE computers. Atari packaged the XEGS as a basic set consisting of only the console and joystick, and as a deluxe set consisting of the console, keyboard, CX40 joystick, and XG-1 light gun.
The XEGS release was backed by new games, including "Barnyard Blaster" and "Bug Hunt", plus cartridge ports of older games, such as "Fight Night" (Accolade, 1985), "Lode Runner" (Broderbund, 1983), "Necromancer" (Synapse Software, 1982), and "Ballblazer" (Lucasfilm Games, 1985). Support for the system was dropped in 1992, along with the rest of Atari's 8-bit computers, the Atari 2600, and the Atari 7800.
Development.
In 1984, following the video game crash of 1983 when Atari, Inc. had great financial difficulties as a division of Warner Communications, John J. Anderson of "Creative Computing" stated that Atari should have released a video game console in 1981 based on its Atari 8-bit family and compatible with that software library. The company instead released the Atari 5200 with almost exactly the same technology as the 8-bit computers, but incompatible with their software.
After Jack Tramiel purchased the company, Atari Corporation re-released two game consoles in 1986: the Atari 7800, which had previously been released in a brief test run in 1984; and a lower cost redesign of the Atari 2600.
Atari conceived the console in a plan to increase the company's console market share while improving sales of its 8-bit home computer family which had started with the Atari 400 and 800. Providing a "beginning computer" and "sophisticated game console" in one device, was thought to convince more retailers and software developers to support the platform. Matthew Ratcliff, who had been contributing editor for "Antic" magazine, recalled this: "Atari executives asked the heads of several major toy store chains which product they'd rather sellthe powerful 65XE home computer for about $80, or a fancy new game system for about $150. The answer was, 'You can keep the computer, give us that game machine!' In May 1987, Atari's Director of Communications, Neil Harris, updated the online Atari community by outlining this plan, noting that the XEGS was intended to further the 8-bit line by providing mass-merchants with a device that was more appealing to their markets.
The XEGS is a repackaged Atari 65XE home computer, compatible with the existing range of Atari 8-bit computer software and peripherals, and thus can function as a home computer. At a more premium , it co-existed with the Atari 7800 and remodeled Atari 2600 and was occasionally featured alongside those systems in Atari print ads and television commercials.
Games.
The XEGS shipped with the Atari 8-bit version of "Missile Command" built in, "Flight Simulator II" bundled with the keyboard component, and "Bug Hunt" which is compatible with the light gun. As the XEGS is compatible with the earlier 8-bit software, many games released under the XEGS banner are simply older games rebadged. This was done to the extent that some games were shipped in the old Atari 400/800 packaging, bearing only a new sticker to indicate that they are also compatible with the XEGS.
Peripherals.
The XEGS was released in a basic set and a deluxe set. The basic set includes only the console, and a standard CX40 joystick with a grey base to match the XEGS rather than its original black. The deluxe set consists of the console, the CX40 joystick, a keyboard which enables home computer functionality, and the XG-1 light gun. The keyboard and light gun were also released separately outside North America. This is the first light gun produced by Atari, and it is also compatible with the Atari 7800 and Atari 2600.
The system can use Atari 8-bit computer peripherals, such as disk drives, modems, and printers.
Reception.
Atari sold 100,000 XE Game Systems during the Christmas season in 1987, every unit that was produced during its launch window. Matthew Ratcliff called the game and computer combination "a brilliant idea", which "has been selling out almost as fast as toy stores can get them in". He said, "The XEGS may not seem like such a hot idea to serious Atari computer users. But just think about it. If you were afraid of computers or don't have the foggiest idea what to do with one, you'd have absolutely no interest in an Atari 65XEeven if it could play great games. However, you'd probably have no compunction about buying a great video game system, the XEGS, as a new addition to the family entertainment center." In 1988, he wrote in "Antic" magazine that, in order to switch between light gun and joystick games, active XEGS gamers are frustrated by the need to continually re-plug their devices and power cycle the system, due to the system's lack of autodetection, which is complicated by its awkwardly downward slanting ports. He said ""Barnyard Blaster" and "Bug Hunt" could have been just a bit smarter" by including the simple routine that he was forced to write and publish as a workaround.


Sony NEX-3N

The Sony α NEX-3N is an entry level rangefinder-styled digital mirrorless interchangeable lens camera announced by Sony on 20 February 2013.


Bee Card

A is a ROM cartridge developed by Hudson Soft as a software distribution medium for MSX computers. Bee Cards are approximately the size of a credit card, but thicker. Compared to most game cartridges, the Bee Card is small and compact. Bee Cards were released in Japan and in Europe, but not in North America because the MSX was unsuccessful in North America. However, Atari Corporation adopted the Bee Card for the Atari Portfolio, a handheld PC released in 1989 in North America. Bee Cards were also used by some Korg Synthesizers and workstations as external storage of user content like sound programs or song data. Even though these systems all use Bee Cards, they are incompatible with each other.
Only a small number of MSX software titles were published on Bee Card: 6 in Japan, and only two in Europe and Italy. In order to accept a Bee Card, the cartridge slot of the MSX had to be fitted with a removable adapter: the Hudson Soft BeePack. The first mass-produced Bee Cards, however, were EEPROM telephone cards manufactured by Mitsubishi Plastics; these were first sold in Japan in 1985. The trade names "Bee Card" and "Bee Pack" derive from Hudson Soft's corporate logo, which features a cartoon bee.
MSX software published on Bee Card.
Hudson Soft and other software publishers distributed at least eleven MSX software titles on Bee Card:
HuCard.
Hudson Soft later collaborated with NEC to develop a video game console called the PC Engine. The companies elected to use Hudson Soft's slim ROM cartridge technology to distribute PC Engine software. Hudson Soft adapted the design for their needs, and produced the HuCard. HuCards are slightly thicker than Bee Cards; also, whereas a Bee Card has 32 pins, a HuCard has 38.


Cybernoid

Cybernoid: The Fighting Machine is a shoot 'em up developed and published in 1987 by Hewson Consultants for the ZX Spectrum, and was then ported to the Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, NES, and Amiga. It was programmed by Raffaele Cecco. The Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Amstrad and Atari ST versions featured a main theme by Dave Rogers, while the Commodore C64 version (later released on the Wii's Virtual Console service) featured a completely different theme by Jeroen Tel.
Gameplay.
In "Cybernoid", pirates have raided the storage depots of the Federation and stolen minerals, jewels, ammunition and the latest battle weaponry. The Cybernoid ship has been dispatched with instructions to retrieve the stolen booty and to return it to storage within a specified time limit. The Cybernoid needs to battle the pirates and their planetary defense systems in order to retrieve the stolen booty.
"Cybernoid" is split into three levels, with each level consisting of several screens that are traversed via a flip-screen system of play rather than scrolling. The hazards in each screen can be different - some will have just enemy pirate ships, some homing missiles, some gun turrets, some indestructible enemies on fixed-paths that have to be traversed and some a mixture of these. The Cybernoid ship can collect power-ups for assistance (including a rear-gun and a giant spiked ball that flies around the ship) and also use a variety of built-in special weapons such as shields and homing missiles.
Shooting pirate ships often leaves power-ups or jewels that Cybernoid can then collect.
The NES version was made by Studio 12 productions, consisting of Chris Harvey as the programmer and Adrian Carless for the graphics. They put a few in-jokes into the title page, the main one being that the Cybernoid ship was designed by "M.Sugden", referencing the British Actress Molly Sugden, who played Mrs Slocombe on the TV series "Are You Being Served?".
Reception.
"Cybernoid" achieved great critical success. "CRASH" magazine awarded an overall score of 96%, with one reviewer exclaiming: "Fantastic! Who needs 16-bit machines when Hewson and Raffaele Cecco can produce games like this on the 8-bit Spectrum?", referring to the smooth animation and addictive gameplay.
"Your Sinclair" also awarded the game 9 out of 10, the reviewer also highlighting the excellent graphics, fast gameplay and the fact that tactics are required to pass each screen. The game was voted number 36 in the "Your Sinclair Official Top 100 Games of All Time".
Sequel.
Following "Cybernoid" a sequel, titled "", was published the following year on the Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum. In 2004 it was one of the games featured on the C64 Direct-to-TV. The plot of the sequel revolved around the return of the pirates in a new Battlestar, again plundering Federation storage depots.
Legacy.
In October of 2018, the game's rights were acquired by Canadian production company Liquid Media Group along with other titles originally owned by Acclaim Entertainment.


Server Monitor

Server Monitor is Apple's IPMI-based tool for communicating with a remote baseboard management controller (BMC) that implements their lights-out management (LOM) system. It is available as part of the server admin tools package on a CD with the server software and as a download from their website. It can manage their Xserve line of servers which are currently their only product line that has such an LOM solution.


Canon EOS 6D

The Canon EOS 6D is a 20.2-megapixel full-frame CMOS digital single-lens reflex camera made by Canon.
The EOS 6D was publicly announced on 17 September 2012, one day before the start of the Photokina 2012 trade show. It was released in late November 2012 and offered at that time as a body only for a suggested retail price of or in a package with an EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM zoom lens for a suggested retail price of .
It was superseded by the EOS 6D Mark II in 2017.
Features.
There are 2 versions of EOS 6D. EOS 6D (N) and EOS 6D (WG):
The EOS 6D is the first Canon DSLR to feature GPS functions and built in Wi-Fi capabilities, which geotag images and allow files to be uploaded directly to Facebook, YouTube, or Canon Image Gateway; transferred to external devices; or sent to be printed on a Wi-Fi-enabled Canon printer. The Wi-Fi capabilities also allow remote control and viewing via many smartphones.
Weighing , the 6D is also Canon's smallest and lightest full-frame DSLR, comparable to the APS-C sensor 60D. The camera supports ISO settings from 50 to 102,400 which can be selected automatically or adjusted manually, an 11-point autofocus system, and an anti-glare LCD screen. The center autofocus point has a sensitivity of −3 EV.
The BG-E13 battery grip, which was made to be used with the 6D, allows the use of six AA cells, or one or two LP-E6 batteries. The 6D has a maximum burst frame rate of 4.5 frames per second. Like all Canon DSLR full-frame cameras, the 6D does not have a built in flash due to the design of the viewfinder.
Video.
The movie image size can be set, as well as the frame rate per second, and compression method. Available modes:
One of the 20 most important cameras of the decade.
Digital Photography Review have chosen Canon EOS 6D as one of the 20 most important cameras of the 2010s.
The Canon EOS 6D was the most commonly used camera in images to be shortlisted in the RMG Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition in both 2019 and 2020.


2200 series

2200 series may refer to:


TDV 2200

TDV-2200 was a series of terminals produced by Tandberg Data from the early 1980s.
Norsk Data sold rebranded versions of the TDV 2200 series under their own designations ND-240/242 (TDV-2215 variants), ND-246/266/267 (TDV-2200/9 variants) and ND-320 (TDV-2200/9S). The rebranded TDV-2200/9(S) terminals had keyboards customized for the ND-NOTIS text processing system.
For Siemens, Tandberg build the similar MTS 2000 series.
Another important customer was Mycron.
It optionally used ISO 646-NO for mapping of the Norwegian characters, which made them a pet hate among UNIX people. (Some users still humorously pronounce the vertical bar as "ø".)
Versions with vector graphics were available, as were versions supporting Thai script and other scripts.
It won several awards for ergonomic design, and its keyboard was widely considered to be one of the best on the market.
Its immediate predecessor was the TDV-2100 series, and its successor was the TDV-1200.


Gamereactor

Gamereactor is a Scandinavian online media network covering video games in multiple languages and a former print magazines network. In 2013, it was "one of the biggest games publications in Europe" according to Develop.
History.
The Gamereactor website was started by Egmont Digital in 1998. Also in 1998, brothers Morten Reichel and Claus Reichel launched online and print magazine Gamez.dk in Denmark, which took over the online sites Gamereactor Denmark, Sweden and Norway (.dk/.se/.no) from Egmont in January 2002.
In 2001, they released Gamereactor Magazine in Norway and soon after in Sweden. Since late 2007 Gamereactor has also been available in Finland, and it also launched in Germany (Online only) in 2009. In 2010 they launched in Italy (Online only), and a Portuguese version came online in 2013. Gamereactor later opened outlets in France in November 2016, The Netherlands in January 2017, and China in January 2018.
On 1 September 2008, Gamereactor International was launched, an English edition of the website and the magazine (PDF). It features news, previews and reviews, with a special interest in the Nordic gaming industry, as well as video content from GRTV. The print magazine launched in the UK in 2013, and in 2017 Gamereactor launched a cross-network English language esports sub-site covering competitive gaming.
In November 2014, the print magazines were discontinued. It was free and distributed via game stores and electronics retailers in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Germany and the UK. The magazine had eight issues every year (not in January or July), and was published in Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, German, English and Finnish.
The magazine has apps for iPhone and Android, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles and Samsung's Smart TV Hub platform.
In 2004, Gamereactor Art Director Petter Hegevall was nominated by Sveriges Tidskrifter Swedish Design Awards. In 2013, Gamereactor Magazine (UK) was nominated in the best Print Magazine category at the Games Media Awards, and in 2015 the team were nominated in the Best Editorial Team (Print) category.
Controversy.
In June 2013, the magazine cover contained a The Last of Us artwork that was modified to remove the character Ellie. The editor posted a blog explaining it was a "pure design issue" and that they have previously modified artwork for covers.


Kodak EasyShare P880

The EasyShare P880 was a high-end bridge digital camera from Kodak. It was announced August 2, 2005, within the Performance series. Its siblings are the P850 and the P712. The P880, however, possesses the largest optical sensor of all three models, with a size of 1/1.8 inches. Distinguishing features include a wide-angle coverage of 24 mm (35 mm equivalent), on screen histogram display, and manual focus-by-wire. In terms of the Kodak product line and price the Performance series are the most sophisticated EasyShare cameras, just below the considerably more expensive Kodak professional DCS pro SLR digital cameras that were discontinued in May 2005.
References.
Reviews
Service and Support
Related Information


Velocity Micro

Velocity Micro is a privately held boutique computer manufacturer located in Richmond, VA (USA), specializing in custom high-performance gaming computers, pro workstations, and high-performance computer solutions. Its extended product line includes gaming PCs, notebooks, CAD workstations, digital media creation workstations, home and home office PCs, home entertainment media centers, Tesla-based supercomputers, and business solutions. All products are custom assembled by hand and supported at the company's headquarters.
History.
Velocity Micro traces its origins to 1992 when founder Randy Copeland began designing and producing high-performance computer systems to run CAD software and other demanding applications. These computer systems were custom-built to facilitate the design process and tailored to the extreme needs of each client. Velocity Micro was officially founded in 1997 as an extension of this highly individualized, high-performance computing philosophy.
In 2001, Copeland accepted the opportunity to appear in "Maximum PC"'s boutique roundup article entitled "Minor League, Major Performance". The quote which appeared in that February 2002 issue – "put together with the kind of care and craftsmanship the behemoth manufacturers can't offer" – propelled Velocity Micro forward and is still used by the company today.
In May 2007, Velocity Micro acquired former competing boutique builder, Overdrive PC, known for their extreme overclocking capabilities they term "HyperClocking." Since the acquisition, Velocity Micro has incorporated HyperClocking into many of its extreme gaming systems. Overdrive PC remains a separate brand under Velocity Micro ownership.
In 2010, Velocity Micro entered the eReader and tablet computer markets with the release of the first Cruz products: the Cruz Reader and the Cruz Tablet (T100). These Android-based devices featured 7" full-color screens. The Cruz Reader utilized a resistive touch screen, whereas the Cruz Tablet made use of the more advanced and responsive capacitive touch screen. Five product generations of Cruz tablets were produced and sold in 7", 8", and 10" screen models with close to a million units in the market by 2012. As of 2013, Velocity Micro no longer supports or offers these or any other Android-based devices for sale.
In 2011, Copeland was named a "Tech Icon" by the "PC Magazine" staff in an article celebrating 30 years of the PC for his contributions to the industry. He continues to have an active role at Velocity Micro as president and CEO.
In October 2019 Velocity Micro announced a partnership with Ansys that would provide access to resources, licenses, and benchmarks allowing Velocity Micro to build custom computers that are tailored to be integrated with Ansys applications. Velocity Micro has also partnered with NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel to provide retail-grade hardware in custom computer builds.
Retail.
In August 2005, Velocity Micro began offering pre-configured, high-performance desktops in select Best Buy stores across the country, followed by BestBuy.com that September. In July 2007, Velocity Micro began offering notebooks and desktops in Circuit City Stores across the country. In November 2008, Velocity Micro announced they were also moving into the online retail outlets Amazon.com, NewEgg, TigerDirect, and Staples. In January 2009, Velocity Micro announced they were moving into Frys stores nationwide. In 2010, the Cruz Reader and Cruz Tablet went on sale at Borders Books as well as their other numerous other retail partners. As of Jan. 2016, Velocity Micro continued to sell desktops and laptops through Newegg.com and Amazon.com.
Awards.
Velocity Micro has won over 60 industry media awards for performance and craftsmanship including 19 Editor's Choice awards from "PC Magazine". CNET, "Maximum PC", "PC World", HardOCP, "Computer Gaming World", and "Computer Shopper" have all awarded Velocity Micro machines high marks. In Sept. 2007, Velocity Micro won PC Magazine's "Reader's Choice for Service and Reliability" Award.
In a July 2008 review from "PC Magazine", the company received an Editors Choice award for its Vector Campus Edition model. In November 2008, Core i7 based systems from Velocity Micro won Editors' Choice awards from "Maximum PC" and CNET. More recently, in April 2013 the Velocity Micro Vector Z25 won and Editors Choice award from "PC Magazine", stating "the Z25 is a midtower PC with all the goods". PCMag.com later went on to name the Velocity Micro Vector Z25 as "Best Mainstream Desktop of 2013" after consideration of all mainstream desktop computers covered during the entire year 2013. In August 2014, Velocity Micro followed up on that award with another Editors' Choice from PCMag.com, this one for its Edge Z55 gaming PC. Said the editors, "The Velocity Micro Edge Z55 blows away the competition ...and costs $3,000 less. We wholeheartedly award the Edge Z55 our Editors' Choice for high-end gaming desktop PCs".
Velocity Micro participated in the 2018 Intel Extreme Rig Challenge and won the award for Best Performance, providing a 40% higher score than the previous year's entry.


SDS Sigma 3


Dot (command)

In a Unix shell, the full stop called the dot command (.) is a command that evaluates commands in a computer file in the current execution context. In C Shell, a similar functionality is provided as the codice_1 command, and this name is seen in "extended" POSIX shells as well.
The dot command is not to be confused with a dot file, which is a dot-prefixed hidden file or hidden directory. Nor is it to be confused with the codice_2 notation for running commands, which is simply a relative path pointing to the current directory (notated in Unix as a '.' character, and typically outside of the Path variable).
Arguments.
The filename is the dot command's first argument. When this argument does not contain a slash, the shell will search for the file in all directories defined in the PATH environment variable. Unlike normal commands which are also found in PATH, the file to source does not have to be executable. Otherwise the filename is considered as a simple path to the file.
In several "extended" shells including bash, zsh and ksh, one may specify parameters in a second argument. If no parameters are specified, the sourced file will receive the set of positional parameters available in the current context. If parameters are specified, the sourced file will receive only the specified parameters. In any case, parameter codice_3 will be the codice_3 of the current context.
Usages.
Since the execution of the source file is done in the invoking context, environment changed within apply to the current process or the current shell. This is very different from scripts run directly by shebang or as codice_5, which are run in a new, separate process space, with a separate environment.
Therefore, the dot command can be used for splitting a big script into smaller pieces, potentially enabling modular design. Sourcing is also often done by the shell on session startup for user profile files like codice_6 and codice_7.
Source.
codice_1 is a shell-builtin command that evaluates the file following the command, as a list of commands, executed in the current context. Frequently the "current context" is a terminal window into which the user is typing commands during an interactive session.
The source command can be abbreviated as just a dot (codice_9) in Bash and similar POSIX-ish shells. However, this is not acceptable in C shell, where the command first appeared.
Some Bash scripts should be run using the codice_10 syntax rather than run as an executable command, e.g., if they contain a change directory (codice_11) command and the user intends that they be left in that directory after the script is complete, or they contain an export command and the user wants to modify the environment of the current shell. Another usage situation is when a script file does not have the "execute" permission. Passing the script filename to the desired shell will run the script in a subshell, not the current context.


Sony Alpha 99

The Sony Alpha 99 was announced by Sony on September 12, 2012. It was the flagship Sony DSLR camera and of the Sony Alpha SLT line until late 2016 when it was replaced by the Sony α99 II.
It features the 24.3MP 35mm full-frame Exmor APS HD CMOS sensor, with the normal sensor range of ISO 100–3200. The selectable sensitivity is up to ISO 25600, which makes this camera able to capture still images in low-light environments. This camera can also combine six images together, to generate a single image with two additional steps of ISO sensitivity. This is also the first Sony Alpha camera to use the new Sony "Mult-Interface" shoe which is a standard ISO shoe with proprietary contacts at the front of the shoe. This allows use of standard ISO hotshoe accessories without the need for adapters as in previous Alpha models. The camera ships with an adapter to allow use of older Minolta-style hot-shoe accessories.
Like Sony's APS-c flagship, α77, the α99 has the ability to record Full HD 1080 video with up to 60p frame rate. In markets outside China, this camera also has built-in GPS that allows recording of position information into the photo. The α99 also uses a three-way tiltable LCD, as used on α77, this feature allows the photographer to view the LCD from any angle. Alongside the lens mount Sony has replaced the traditional autofocus mode selection dial with a "Silent Multi-Controller" which is a customizable dial with silent detents and a central button used for confirmation. The dial's function can be brought up with a press of the central button and then changed using the dial silently during movie or still recording. The dial's functions can also be changed on the fly by long-pressing the button and then selecting whichever function is desired.
For flexibility Sony α99 allows users to use Sony's crop APS-C DT lenses and consequently automatically cropping the image to the smaller frame.
An updated version, the Sony α99 II, was announced at Photokina in September 2016.
Model variants.
Model variants of the Alpha 99 camera body:
Hasselblad HV.
In February 2014, Hasselblad introduced a restyled Sony A99 as Hasselblad HV. According to the company's press-release, their version of A99 is "tough as nails", featuring more robust construction than the original.
Performance.
In the DxOMark Overall Sensor Score test, which is based on all characteristics of a camera sensor, the Sony Alpha 99 scores 89 points, which equals the score of the Nikon D4 and the Phase One P65 Plus medium format camera, with the Nikon D800E, D800 and D600 being the only digital SLRs that get a higher score. Therefore, as of September 2013, the Sony Alpha 99 scores higher than all DSLRs from Canon and all DSLRs except those listed here from Nikon, including their professional models.


Advanced RISC Computing

Advanced RISC Computing (ARC) is a specification promulgated by a defunct consortium of computer manufacturers (the Advanced Computing Environment project), setting forth a standard MIPS RISC-based computer hardware and firmware environment.
Although ACE went defunct, and no computer was ever manufactured which fully complied with the ARC standard, the ARC system has a widespread legacy in that all operating systems in the Windows NT family use ARC conventions for naming boot devices. SGI's modified version of the ARC firmware is named ARCS. All SGI computers which run IRIX 6.1 or later, such as the Indy and Octane, boot from an ARCS console, which uses the same drive naming conventions as Windows. Most of the various RISC-based computers designed to run Windows NT have versions of the ARC boot console to boot NT. These include the following:
It was predicted that Intel IA-32-based computers would adopt the ARC console, although only SGI ever marketed such machines with ARC firmware (namely, the SGI Visual Workstation series, which launched in 1999).
Products complying (to some degree) with the ARC standard include these:


Speech Manager

The Speech Manager, in the classic Mac OS, is a part of the operating system used to convert text into sound data to play through a sound output device such as a speaker. The Speech Manager's interaction with the Sound Manager is transparent to a software application.


Z23 (computer)

The Zuse Z23 was a transistorized computer first delivered in 1961, designed by the Zuse KG company. A total of 98 units were sold to commercial and academic customers up until 1967. It had a 40-bit word length and used an 8192 word drum memory as main storage, with 256 words of rapid-access ferrite memory. It operated on fixed and floating-point binary numbers. Fixed-point addition took 0.3 milliseconds, a fixed point multiplication took 10.3 milliseconds. It was similar in internal design to the earlier vacuum tube Z22. Related variants were the Z25 and Z26 models.
The Z23 used about 2700 transistors and 7700 diodes. Memory was magnetic-core memory. The Z23 had an Algol 60 compiler. It had a basic clock speed of 150 kHz and consumed about 4000 watts of electric power. An improved version Z23V was released in 1965, with expanded memory and a higher processing speed.
The Z23 weighed about .


TruCluster

TruCluster is a closed-source high-availability clustering solution for the Tru64 UNIX operating system. It was originally developed by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), but was transferred to Compaq in 1998 when Digital was acquired by the company, which then later merged with Hewlett-Packard (HP).


Romance of the Three Kingdoms (video game)

Romance of the Three Kingdoms, known as Sangokushi in Japan, is a 1985 video game published by Koei. It is the first game in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" series. Originally released on the PC-88, it was ported to numerous platforms, including the PC-98, MSX, Nintendo Entertainment System (1988), Amiga, MS-DOS, FM-7, Sharp X1, Sharp X68000, WonderSwan, Windows (2003) and mobile phones.
Gameplay.
"Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is a game in which the player governs the provinces of China.
Reception.
In "Computer Gaming World", the game was reviewed by "Dungeons & Dragons" creator Dave Arneson, who wrote that it is "a great historical simulation and will keep players at their keyboards for many a night in order to win their empires. It has economics, intrigue, bribery, covert action, diplomacy, war, and more! There are many ways beyond simple conquest to accomplish one's goals." He concluded: "I most heartily recommend "Romance" to all serious game players out there."
In December 1989, "Computer Gaming World" readers gave it an average rating of 8.96 out of 10, making it the magazine's 13th highest user-rated game at the time. In 1990 and 1993 surveys of historical strategy and war games, the magazine gave "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" three-plus stars out of five.


Chameleon (computing)

Chameleon is a computer workstation design produced at ETH Zurich running the Oberon operating system.
The Seequa Chameleon was also an older luggable computer from the early 1980s, distinguished by being able to run both the MS-DOS and CP/M-80 operating systems.


Nikon E series

The Nikon E series, co-developed with Fujifilm, are autofocus 1.3 megapixel professional grade quasi-full frame (35mm) Nikon F-mount digital single lens reflex cameras (DSLR) manufactured by Nikon since 1995.
The E series included the "Nikon E2/E2S", "Nikon E2N/E2NS" and the "Nikon E3/E3S". The S-variants are identical except they had triple the frame rate and a larger buffer.
Its unique optical system bundles the light of the full-frame lenses to the small 2/3 inch CCD sensor. That gives approximately 4 stops more light at the small sensor, therefore delivering an exceptional (for that time) minimum sensitivity of 800 and maximum 3200 ISO, which remains usable for press and news use.
Technology.
The Nikon E2/E2S and E2N/E2NS use a Nikon F4 subsystem, the E3/E3S uses a Nikon F100 subsystem.
Optical system.
The E series uses a unique additional optical system that enables the small sensor to capture the field of view of a 35mm film, with a crop factor of 1. This comes not at the expense of the F-stop of the lenses, because the light is bundled to the  inch CCD sensor with approximately 16 times smaller area. The result is approximately "4 stops (24 = 16) more light" at the small sensor compared to a full-frame sensor. Therefore, the camera has a minimum full-frame sensitivity of ISO 800 which is equivalent to ISO 50 at  inch. As a result, the noise of the camera at ISO 800 full-frame is equivalent to ISO 50 of the  inch CCD sensor. Nikon could not reduce sensitivity below 800 ISO full-frame, because the little sensor will be overexposed below 50 ISO.
The exceptional high sensitivity up to 3200 ISO (equivalent 200 ISO,  inch) can be seen as an advantage for indoor or available light photography and is important for professional press and sports use, the customer target area.
Although the camera is small for a 90s DSLR, the additional optical system makes the camera deeper compared to today's DSLRs.
Standard Nikon F-mount lenses can be used.
Storage and replay.
A PCMCIA compatible memory card is used. Images are digitally stored as uncompressed TIFF or compressed JPEG. It can be accessed via a SCSI connector. TV replay (NTSC or PAL) is possible.
Variants.
History.
Nikon gained knowledge on digital cameras (still video cameras, with analog storage) by constructing the Nikon Still Video Camera (SVC) Model 1, a prototype which was first presented at photokina 1986. The follower Nikon QV-1000C Still Video Camera was produced since 1988 mainly for professional press use. Both cameras used QV mount lenses, a variant of F-mount lenses. Via an adapter (QM-100) other Nikkor lenses can be fitted.
The Nikon NASA F4 was one of the first cameras with digital storage. Eastman Kodak used Nikon SLR's to design the Kodak DCS 100 and followers.
Nikon E2/E2S.
This first variant was manufactured since 1995 and were also available as Fujifilm Fujix DS-505 and DS-515.
Nikon E2N/E2NS.
Announced 1996. Also available as Fujifilm Fujix DS-505A and DS-515A.
Nikon E3/E3S.
The "Nikon E3" and "Nikon E3S", co-developed with Fujifilm and marketed also as the "Fujix DS-560" and "Fujix DS-565", are autofocus 1.3 megapixel professional grade quasi-full frame (35mm) digital single lens reflex cameras (DSLR) announced by the Nikon Corporation on 15 June 1998 and released in December 1999. The E3S is identical to the E3 except triple frame rate and larger buffer. They are followers of the "Nikon E2N/E2NS".


Commodore Format

Commodore Format was a British magazine for users of the Commodore 64 home computer. It was published on the third Thursday of every month. All 61 issues were produced by Future plc. These came towards the end of the machine's commercial life - from October 1990 until October 1995.
Launch.
The launch editorial staff was dominated by journalists who had worked on "Zzap!64", including editor Steve Jarratt. Sean Masterson was Steve's deputy. Contributions came from Gordon Houghton and Kati Hamza. There was one fresh face - staff writer, Andy Dyer.
The first issue previewed the new cartridge-based C64 GS (Games System). The magazine had 98 pages and came with a games tape known as the "Power Pack". Issue one's tape included a playable preview of upcoming arcade conversion Iron Man, and the full version of Tau Ceti. It retailed for £1.95.
Magazine format.
The magazine's content was varied, but heavily biased towards gaming. Each issue usually kicked off with a news section called "Network 64" - a round-up of the previous month's C64 stories. The section was renamed "Snippets" in later issues. After initially appearing at the very back of the magazine, the "Early Warning!" preview section usually followed. It featured a full-page submarine style "scanner" showing how near to release new games were. The scanner featured six rings; if a game was placed on the outer ring, it was six months from release. Graphics and charts like this made the magazine's information easy to digest and were common. The letters page was next. It featured "The Mighty Brain", a cartoon character noted for its arrogance in answering the readers' questions. "Andy Dyer's Gamebusters" (later by Andy Roberts) provided tips and cheats on the latest software releases, and Paul Lyons' "Inside Info" column answered technical questions. This section was latterly written by Jason Finch and renamed "Techie Tips". And every month there was a large review section of the latest games - those scoring over 90% received the "It's A Corker" accolade, and an "Uppers and Downers" box at the end of each review made it easy for readers to see just how good a game was at a glance.
One of "Commodore Format"′s most famous sections was "Roger Frames Buys Budjit Games". The budget game round-up was accompanied by a story told in three or four cartoons. Drawn by artist Mike Roberts, they were often inspired by the games Roger was playing. Famously, Roger appeared on the cover of the Codemasters game "Tilt". There was also a Roger Frames "UGH! GIRLS" T-shirt, and readers could send in photos of themselves or their friends if they thought they looked a bit like Roger. As Commodore 64 software became increasingly scarce, Roger's column was removed by editor Trenton Webb following a redesign in 1993. But his presence remained in the magazine in one form or another until the very final issue - whose cover he graced.
Power Pack.
Every month, a games tape was attached to the front of "Commodore Format". Known as the "Power Pack", it featured both full games and demos of upcoming software releases. Early issues included cut-down versions of "Spiderman" and "Midnight Resistance" so that readers could road test software before they bought it. On four occasions (issues 16, 25, 27, and 37), the magazine included a second Power Pack tape with extra games or utilities. "The Graphic Adventure Creator" (CF16), "Saracen Paint" (CF25) and "Dropzone" (CF50) were notable "Power Pack" inclusions.
Controversies.
When the publisher of rival magazine "Zzap! 64" filed for bankruptcy in 1992, "Commodore Format" reported that "Zzap!" was no more. "Let's have a moment's silence for the old sizzler," it said (a reference to "Zzap!" awarding highly rated games "Sizzler" status) - only for "Zzap!" to reappear two months later. The rivalry between the two magazines bubbled over in this manner on a few occasions, most regularly in 1992 and 1993 when some suggested "Zzap" was copying "Commodore Format"′s design (see "success" section below).
"Commodore Format" was one of a number of magazines which reported it had seen a running C64 version of Grandslam's "Beavers". It said the animation was "superb". It later emerged that the screenshots were faked on an Amiga in order to gain publicity for the game - which was never made.
In 1993 - after more than a year of the game's production being chronicled in the magazine - issue 38 of "Commodore Format" gave Mayhem In Monsterland an unprecedented 100% score in its review. It has been suggested that as the C64's popularity declined, "Commodore Format" used the game to keep readers interested in the magazine.
And in 1995, the last ever issue of "Commodore Format" featured two games on the "Power Pack" tape by Jon Wells. He claims that he did not give Future plc permission to use them, but that they did so regardless after he turned down their offer of £75 for "Escape From Arth" and "Treasure Isle".
Success.
The magazine was an immediate hit, soon outselling its nearest rival "Zzap! 64". For a short time, "Zzap!" was accused of aping "Commodore Format"′s style - but editor Steve Jarratt said it "wasn't worth going legal. We just outsold them month after month". At its peak, in the first half of 1992, it sold over 60,000 copies a month (see circulation boxout).
Decline.
"Commodore Format" was the last commercial magazine in the UK for any of the three main 8 Bit machines (Spectrum and Amstrad being the other two). It ran until October 1995, long after commercial software for the C64 had ceased to be available in shops (unlike its sister publication "Your Sinclair", which ceased publication when commercial software for the ZX Spectrum also ceased). By its final issue, it was barely recognisable from the one which had first appeared on news stands in 1990. The decline of the C64 meant the magazine was reduced to 24 pages, and it ran increasing numbers of technically oriented articles, while reviews of new games were that of those produced by Public Domain (PD) publishers. It now retailed for £3.25. Editor Simon Forrester was the only full-time staff member of a magazine which once had a five strong team. He wrote almost every word of the last three issues, including the sign-off letter to the readers in the final issue. When Forrester was writing this, at the same time the offices of "Official Playstation Magazine", was preparing its first issue.
The final cover featured Roger Frames and his dog, Debit. The Mighty Brain was slung over Roger's shoulder in a glass jar. Together, they made their way into the sunset. The image dominated the cover, along with the words "THE END".
Online revival.
Some of "Commodore Format's" former staff now write articles and answer questions on an unofficial, dedicated website. The site is edited by fans of the magazine. A number of new Power Packs have also been released.
External links.
Archived Commodore Format magazines on the Internet Archive


Ascendancy (video game)

Ascendancy is a 4X science fiction turn-based strategy computer game. It was originally released for MS-DOS in 1995 and was updated and re-released for iOS in 2011 by The Logic Factory. Ascendancy is a galactic struggle to become the dominant life form, hence the title. The game's introductory cinematic states: "Wildly different cultures competed for the same worlds. In the enormous upheaval that followed, one of these species would gain ascendancy."
The iOS version of Ascendancy was a Universal app, meaning it was designed for both the iPad and the iPhone / iPod touch platforms.
The original "Ascendancy" was released during a golden age of 4X space games in the mid-1990s. Several reviewers praised the game for having great graphics being entertaining, and being fun to play.
The original version of the game won the Software Publisher's Association Codie award for Best Strategy Software of 1996, as voted on by games industry members.
The music of the game was composed by Nenad Vugrinec.
Gameplay.
In "Ascendancy" the player takes on the role of leader of an alien species, tasked with guiding their people into space to explore and colonize other worlds. The player does this by building structures and space ships, researching technology and growing stronger through war or diplomacy.
Players begin with a single colony planet which must be developed. They can select several types of buildings to construct on the planet's surface and can eventually construct spaceships and leave the planet altogether. Ships travel to other solar systems along determined paths, called "star lanes". Spaceships can peacefully colonize unoccupied planets or invade inhabited planets and usurp structures. They can also do battle with enemy planets or other ships.
Ascendancy's primary display is a three-dimensional rotatable model of the star cluster, which details the star cluster's solar systems, starlanes, and civilizations. The player can "zoom in" to view rotatable models of solar systems (including planets and ships); view a planet's surface and use various screens to manage their fleet, planets and research. This play style is similar to the "Master of Orion" series.
Planets.
On each planet the player must manage three areas of development: Research, Industry and Prosperity. Research points are shared among all colonies and allow the player to learn new technology, such as advanced building structures or spaceship components. Industry, meanwhile, is local to each colony and determines how quickly that planet can complete projects. Prosperity determines how quickly a planet's population will grow, providing additional workers for future construction. Players begin with the ability to construct buildings for each of these areas and can discover more as the game progresses.
Planet topography is expressed as various colored squares. White squares are general purpose, where any structure can be built. Green squares increase the output of Prosperity-producing buildings, while red squares improve Industry and blue squares improve Research. There are also black squares, which are initially uninhabitable but can be used later in the game as the player researches technology. Planets have ten orbital squares that can be used to build shipyards, planetary defenses, space ships, and other space structures.
As the player explores other planets they may occasionally find ruins from an ancient civilization. These ruins can be harvested to gain undiscovered technologies, which can significantly alter the game.
Diplomacy.
"Ascendancy" contains a Diplomacy screen where players can offer alliances to other species, declare war and exchange information on star lanes, planets or research. Players can request military assistance from their allies or attempt to end declarations of war with hostile factions. There is also an Intelligence display where the player can view information on the relative power of known species.
Game parameters.
When starting a new game players select several parameters, including their species, a star density, a political atmosphere and the number of opponents.
There are 21 species to choose from in "Ascendancy", each of which has a unique special ability. Some abilities can be used at regular intervals, such as the Capelon's ability to make their colonies temporarily invulnerable. Other abilities, such as the Chronomyst traveling quickly through star lanes, are continually active. All opponent species (numbering from two to six) are controlled by a computer AI and are selected randomly.
The "star density" in each game determines how many solar systems exist in the star cluster - the higher the density the more planets that are available to colonize. Star density affects both the length of the game, as large star clusters will take longer to conquer, as well as affecting how quickly species will encounter each other and how much room they have to grow. Once a density is selected the particular type of each star system is generated randomly at the start of the game.
Selecting a political atmosphere of Peaceful, Neutral or Hostile determines the attitude of computer opponents when they have a colony in the same system as another species.
Even though the player has control over several things, the combination of random opponent species, random planet topography and random star types leads to a large variety of games.
Plot.
Several of the species in "Ascendancy" describe motivations for reaching to the stars. Some species are peaceful diplomats; some are curious explorers; and others want to kill or conquer other forms of life. However, plot in "Ascendancy" is thin. Players are free to imagine a detailed storyline but most plot is restricted to a single introductory screen for each species and a synopsis given at the end of each game.
Development.
The Logic Factory said that inspiration for "Ascendancy" came from "[having] read the fantastic books or watched some of the great shows that have explored the possibility of human contact with intelligent alien life. We do believe that there is a high likelihood that among the many billions of stars and planets just in our own Milky Way, other life is out there. ...This [game] is our own way of being part of that inevitable adventure."
Re-release for iOS.
In 2010 the Logic Factory updated their website and announced that a remake of Ascendancy would be released for the iPhone and iPad, intended as "a fully upgraded remake tailored for modern wireless gaming." The Logic factory said the game would be similar to the original, but with "a complete overhaul" to the interface "in order to operate on mobile, wireless, touch screen devices", as well as having several "upgrades and modifications to the original AI."
An iOS version of Ascendancy was released on the Apple app store on Jan 05, 2011. It has since been removed.
Reception.
Some reviewers sang high praises for "Ascendancy" upon release - the game won the Codie award for Best Strategy Software in 1996, while Next Generation Magazine called Ascendancy "one of the best space-strategy sims" and said "the variety of species will give you hours of replay value." In his 1995 "PC Gamer" review William Trotter called Ascendancy "simply the best game of its type yet published" and gave it the PC Gamer Editor's Choice award. Trotter was also one of the authors of the official Ascendancy strategy guide. Bruce Geryk said "the graphics were excellent, and the method of ship design was quite engaging," while Andy Bucher of PC Gamer UK said "it looks great ... everything looks slick, clean and well designed ... Ascendancy mixes just about the right level of complexity and challenge with an intuitive interface, great graphics and the odd spark of humour." Bucher even noted that Ascendancy had "one of the best tutorials [he'd] ever seen", and said the game's "attention to detail and ease of use is much rarer than it should be."
Other critics decried "Ascendancy", however, for its unchallenging Artificial Intelligence as well as the excessive micromanagement required to compensate, because the AI is not only unchallenging as an opponent, but utterly unproficient at managing the player's planet and ships. In his look back at the history of space games, Geryk said "Ascendancy had the misfortune of being released with just about the worst AI ever in a computer game, to the extent that playing against the computer was almost pointless". Even Bucher said "the key problem lies in the artificial intelligence." A patch was released under the name "Antagonizer", which was specifically designed to make the AI more challenging. It did this by making the enemies far more hostile towards the player but not toward each other, giving them the significant industrial advantage of allowing them to build their first 3 structures on their new planetary colonies in one day each, having the NPC species build the right structures on the right colored squares and having attacking ships stop right outside of range of orbital missile bases the player has in orbit, if they have weapons with sufficient range to attack the planet from a safe distance. The iOS version of Ascendancy released in 2011 included the AI from this patch, as well as other modifications.


List of digital camera brands

This is a list of digital camera brands. Former and current brands are included in this list. With some of the brands, the name is licensed from another company, or acquired after the bankruptcy of an older photographic equipment company. The actual manufacture of a camera model is performed by a different company in many cases. In many cases brands are limited to certain countries. Not all brands of devices that can take digital images are listed here, including many industrial digital camera brands, some webcam brands, brands of cell phones that feature cameras, and brands of video cameras that can take digital stills. Defunct brands are listed separately.
Active consumer camera brands.
, these brands offer some combination of compact digital cameras, bridge camera, digital single-lens reflex cameras (DSLRs), and mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras (MILCs):
Other active brands.
These brands offer only non-camera digital imaging devices, or non-consumer digital cameras:
Defunct brands.
These brands no longer produce digital imaging products:


CandyBar

CandyBar is an unsupported OS X application by Panic and The Iconfactory. Although macOS allows users to change icons for user-level files and folders, this is not possible for system files. The application replaces system icons with icons/docks of the user's choice and supports cataloging of icons. New icons and docks were available also from the Iconfactory website. CandyBar is the successor to The Iconfactory's iControl program for Mac OS 8 and Mac OS 9.
Panic has announced in August 2012 that the application would no longer be supported, and offered it as a free download instead. Further commercial development of CandyBar was hindered by changes in the macOS, it was harder to replace icons with every new version and new icons could cause problems with update of several Mac App Store applications. The final release of CandyBar runs on OS X Mountain Lion. The company also had provided a serial number on its website.


Alien Odyssey

Alien Odyssey is a 1995 action-adventure video game developed by Argonaut Software and published by Philips Media.
Gameplay.
"Alien Odyssey" blends together several game genres, and includes shooting-based action scenes alongside puzzle-centric adventure sequences.
Plot.
The player assumes the role of protagonist Psaph, who faces off against the Dak, a race of cyborg aliens.
Reception.
Reviewing "Alien Odyssey" for "PC Gamer US", Brett Jones called it a scattered and unfocused title that "would be a winner if it stuck with one style." "PC Entertainment"s Bill Meyer was more positive, arguing that the game "should be one of the real sleepers of 1996" because of its quality. "Computer Game Review" recommended the title to fans of "Cyberia".


Miggybyte

Miggybyte was a free disk-based magazine for the Amiga range of computers, published by Pickled Fish Software and edited by Ben Gaunt. From 1995 to 1997 twelve issues were published all being on a single floppy disk only.
The magazine was inspired by "Grapevine", the scene-based disk magazine also for the Amiga range of computers, but "Miggybyte" was not a scene publication.
The publication focused on news about the Amiga, software, games and entertainment. The entertainment section proved to be a main stay of the publication and consisting of jokes and stories from readers. There was even a small classified section and BBS section where many Sysops from around the UK (thought there were a few from the USA too) would publicise their boards.
The interface consisted of two sections, the top part containing the text and in latter version graphics, the bottom the control interface (GUI). The engine behind the publication was called MultiMedia Magazine Creator (MMMC) and was developed by Pickled Fish Software / Ben Gaunt during the time of the publication. A side note here is MMMC was originally a simple text reader designed for the game Maze Madness (F1 Licenceware). MMMC was programmed in the Amiga BASIC language AMOS and also used the Power Packer library to compress the publication onto a single disk.
Distribution.
"Miggybyte" was distributed by post, BBS, FidoNet, PD Software Libraries and the Internet, its main distribution being on Aminet and its WHQ BBS Channel X. Two version were released digitally one in LHA (file format) that omitted any copyrighted Amiga, Inc. files and a DMS (Disk Masher System) version that was a full disk image.


Macintosh Classic

The Macintosh Classic was a personal computer designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer, Inc. from October 1990 to September 1992. It was the first Macintosh to sell for less than US$1,000.
Production of the Classic was prompted by the success of the Original Macintosh, then the Macintosh Plus and finally the Macintosh SE. The system specifications of the Classic are very similar to its predecessors, with the same monochrome CRT display, 512 × 342 pixel resolution, and 4 megabyte (MB) memory limit of the older Macintosh computers. Apple's decision to not update the Classic with newer technology such as a newer CPU, higher RAM capacity or color display resulted in criticism from reviewers, with "Macworld" describing it as having "nothing to gloat about beyond its low price" and "unexceptional". But, it ensured compatibility with the Mac's by-then healthy software base as well as enabled it to fit the lower price Apple intended for it. Nevertheless, the Classic featured several improvements over the aging Macintosh Plus, which it replaced as Apple's low-end Mac computer. It was up to 25 percent faster than the Plus and included an Apple SuperDrive floppy disk drive as standard. Unlike the Macintosh SE/30 and other compact Macs before it, the Classic does not have an internal Processor Direct Slot, making it the first non-expandable desktop Macintosh since the Macintosh Plus. Instead, it has a memory expansion/FPU slot.
The Classic is an adaptation of Jerry Manock's and Terry Oyama's 1984 Macintosh 128K industrial design, as had been the earlier Macintosh SE. Apple released two versions. The price and the availability of education software led to the Classic's popularity in education. It was sold alongside the more powerful Macintosh Classic II in 1991 until its discontinuation the next year.
History.
Development.
After Apple co-founder Steve Jobs left Apple in 1985, product development was handed to Jean-Louis Gassée, formerly the manager of Apple France. Gassée consistently pushed the Apple product line in two directions, towards more "openness" in terms of expandability and interoperability, and towards higher price. Gassée long argued that Apple should not market their computers towards the low end of the market, where profits were thin, but instead concentrate on the high end and higher profit margins. He illustrated the concept using a graph showing the price/performance ratio of computers with low-power, low-cost machines in the lower left and high-power high-cost machines in the upper right. The "high-right" goal became a mantra among the upper management, who said "fifty-five or die", referring to Gassée's goal of a 55 percent profit margin.
The high-right policy led to a series of machines with ever-increasing prices. The original Macintosh plans called for a system around $1,000, but by the time it had morphed from Jef Raskin's original vision of an easy-to-use machine for composing text documents to Jobs' concept incorporating ideas gleaned during a trip to Xerox PARC, the Mac's list price had ballooned to $2,495.
With the "low-left" of the market it had abandoned years earlier booming with Turbo XTs, and being ignored on the high end for UNIX workstations from the likes of Sun Microsystems and SGI, Apple's fortunes of the 1980s quickly reversed. The Christmas season of 1989 drove this point home, with the first decrease in sales in years, and an accompanying 20 percent drop in Apple's stock price for the quarter.
In January 1990, Gassée resigned and his authority over product development was divided among several successors. Many Apple engineers had long been pressing for lower-cost options in order to build market share and increase demand across the entire price spectrum. With Gassée out, a rush started to quickly introduce a series of low-cost machines. Three market points were identified, a very low-cost machine aimed at costing $1,000, a low-cost machine with color graphics, and a more upscale color machine for small business use. In time, these would develop as the Classic, Macintosh LC, and Macintosh IIsi.
Release.
"MacWEEK" magazine reported on July 10, 1990, that Apple had paid $1 million to Modular Computer Systems Inc., a subsidiary of Daimler-Benz AG, for the right to use the "Classic" name as part of a five-year contract. Apple did not renew the contract when it ended. "MacWEEK" speculated the Macintosh Classic would use the same 8 megahertz (MHz) Motorola 68000 microprocessor and display as its predecessors and that the Classic would be priced from $1,500 to $2,150.
On October 15, 1990, John Sculley (then Apple CEO) introduced the Classic at a press conference, announcing that pricing would start at $1,000 and saying, "To reach new customers, we didn't just lower the prices of our existing products. We redesigned these computers from the ground up with the features customers have told us they value most." Apple's new pricing strategy caused concern among investors, who thought it would reduce profit margins. Brodie Keast, an Apple product marketing manager, said, "We are prepared to do whatever it takes to reach more people with Macintosh ... The plan is to get as aggressive on price as we need to be." After the release of the Classic, Apple's share price closed at $27.75 per share, down 50 cents from October 12, 1990, and far below its previous 12-month high of $50.37.
The Classic was released in Europe and Japan concurrently with the United States release. In Japan, the Classic retailed for 198,000 yen ($1,523), more than in the US but matching the price of the Toshiba Dynabook laptop computer.
After spending $40 million marketing the Classic to first-time buyers, Apple had difficulty meeting the high demand. Apple doubled its manufacturing space in 1990 by expanding its Singapore and Cork, Ireland factories, where the Classic was assembled. Air freight, rather than sea shipping, was used to speed delivery. The shortage caused concern among dealers, who blamed Apple's poor business planning.
Macintosh Classics and LCs had been given to Scholastic Software 12 weeks before they were officially announced, and Scholastic planned to release 16 new Macintosh products in 1991. Peter Kelman, Scholastic's publisher, predicted that the Macintosh would become "the school machine of the nineties." The Classic was sold to schools for $800. This, and the availability of educational software, led to the Classic's popularity in the education sector.
Features.
The low-end model was sold with 1 MB of memory, a 1.44 MB floppy drive, no hard disk, and included a keyboard for $999. The $1,500 model used 2 MB memory and a 40 MB hard disk. The Classic features several improvements over the Macintosh Plus, which it replaced as Apple's low-end Mac computer: it is up to 25 percent faster than the Plus, about as fast as the SE, and includes an Apple SuperDrive 3.5" floppy disk drive as standard. The SuperDrive can read and write to Macintosh, MS-DOS, OS/2, and ProDOS disks. The classic also has an expansion slot that is only for memory (up to 10 MB) and/or a 68882 FPU.
The Classic uses the System 6.0.7 operating system with support for all versions up to System 7.5.5. A hidden Hierarchical File System (HFS) disk volume contained in the read-only memory (ROM) includes System 6.0.3. The Mac Classic can be booted into System 6.0.3 by holding down the keys during boot.
Some dealers included a software bundle called Smartbundle with the Classic. Also sold separately for $349, this includes T/Maker's WriteNow word processor, Ashton-Tate's Full Impact spreadsheet program, RecordHolderPlus database, and Silicon Beach Software's SuperPaint 2.0 paint and draw program.
Design.
The Macintosh Classic is the final adaptation of Jerry Manock's and Terry Oyama's Macintosh 128K industrial design, bringing back some elements of the original while retaining little of the Snow White design language used in the Macintosh SE's design. The only remnant of the SE is the stripe across the front panel (bezel) for the floppy drive; the distinctive front bezel lines of the SE were not used on the Classic, and the vertical lines around its base are replaced by four horizontal vent lines, more reminiscent of the original design. Also, the curve of the front bezel was increased to the same radial curve as on the front of both the Macintosh LC and Macintosh IIsi. The screen brightness dial on this bezel was also removed in favor of a software control. This broad, curved front bezel became a signature of Apple product design for much of the 1990s.
The logic board, the central circuit board of the computer, is based on the Macintosh SE design. Its size, however, was reduced using surface mount technology to 9 × 5 inches (23 × 13 cm), half the size of the SE board. This redesign, and the absence of expansion slots, kept manufacturing costs low. This lack of expansion abilities, along with the small screen size and Macintosh's popularity in desktop publishing, led to such oddities as video displays that connected through the SCSI port by users seeking to connect a larger full- or dual-page display to their Mac. The Classic design was used once more in 1991 for the Classic II, which succeeded the Classic.
Reception.
Some reviewers of the Macintosh Classic focused on the processor performance and lack of expansion slots. Liza Schafer of "Home Office Computing" praised the Classic's ease of use and price, but criticized the display because a full US letter page ( × 11 inches) would not fit at full size, and warned those who required high-end graphics and desktop publishing capabilities against buying the Classic. Schafer concluded: "The Classic's value is more impressive than its performance, but its performance will get you working on that novel, database, or spreadsheet." "PC Week" criticized the lack of a faster processor, stating, "The 7.8 MHz speed is adequate for text applications and limited graphics work, but it is not suitable for power users. As such, the Classic is appropriate as a home computer or for limited computing on the road." Similarly, "PC User"'s review concluded, "The slow processor and lack of expansion slots on the Macintosh Classic offset the low prices". "MacWEEK" described it as a "fine, inexpensive replacement for the Macintosh Plus that best embodies the original Macintosh vision six and a half years later". "Computer Gaming World" was more skeptical, doubting that consumers would purchase a black-and-white computer with no hard drive that was only slightly faster than the Mac Plus.
In the February 1991 edition of "Electronic Learning", Robert McCarthy wrote: "Teachers, educational administrators, and software developers are enthusiastic about the new, lower-cost Apple Macintosh computers". Steve Taffe, manager of instructional strategy at MECC, a developer and publisher of educational software, explained his excitement about the Classic: "[it] is terrific – both because it's a Mac and because of that low price. Everyone can now afford a Macintosh." Scholastic, an educational software developer, was also confident of Apple's ability to compete with MS-DOS machines, stating: "They are just as cost-effective and as powerful as MS-DOS computers, but the Apples will have a superior comfort level." Sue Talley, Apple's manager of strategic planning in education, said of the Classic: "we see it going into applications where you need a fair number of powerful stations, but where color is not a big issue." Talley mentioned that it was most suited for writing labs and other basic productivity uses. Many schools decided not to buy the Macintosh Classic because of the lack of a color monitor, an option which the higher-priced Macintosh LC had. The popular Apple IIe Card also increased the LC's appeal to schools. Although the Classic was more popular at first, by May 1992 the LC (560,000 sold) was outselling the Classic (1.2 million).


UNIVAC 60


ELWAT

ELWAT was a family of Polish analog computers constructed at the Military University of Technology and produced in the Elwro company since 1967. 50 units of ELWAT were manufactured which were used to solve differential equations, modeling and control processes.


Saitek X52

The Saitek X52 is an advanced HOTAS Joystick/Throttle combination from Saitek released in 2004.
Features.
The X52 was one of Saitek's flagship products and features both a Joystick and a Throttle. The distinguishing feature of the X52 is the large backlit blue (or green, on an x52 pro) LCD display on the throttle, which displays the mode it is configured, the name of the button being depressed and a chronograph function. The Multi-Function Display (MFD) screen can be used to check programmed command names and use the clock and stopwatch function for timing the legs of your flight plan.
The joystick/throttle combination includes a number of controls, including trim wheels, a thumb operated slider, a mouse control and three eight-way hat switches, and a button under a flip-guard labeled "Safe". The stick includes built in yaw/rudder control, which can be disabled in the case that the user has an alternate rudder control.
The stick/throttle combination are designed to function as a HOTAS system. This means that games can be played without the player ever taking their hands off the controls to use a keyboard or mouse.
The X52 uses only a single spring mounted vertically to keep it centered, while the X52 Pro uses dual springs for stronger centering. This enables quick direction changes on the stick without "clicking" through the axes - a problem common to other sticks which normally feature two springs mounted horizontally. The X52 also features an integrated mouse on the throttle, however it is difficult to use for making quick selections and only functions when drivers and the SST software are installed.
Featuring 23 buttons, three 8-way hat switches and 7 control axes, the X52 gives you 47 basic commands plus the control axes. But when you include the programming options provided by powerful Saitek Smart Technology programming software, which allows you to make use of the 3 position mode switch and Pinkie shift switch, the total number of programmable commands is 282.
Smart Technology (ST) programming software allows gamers to configure their controls to suit their preferred gaming style, and to save the configurations as personal profiles.


Extended Color BASIC

Extended Color Basic is an update to the Color BASIC interpreter for the Radio Shack/Tandy TRS-80 Color Computer series and is the default Basic interpreter, for the Color Computer 2. The Color Computer Basic implementations are somewhat different for the versions of Basic which come with the other family of TRS-80 machines, namely Basic Levels I, II, and III. Assemblers and Pascal and C compilers are available for the different machines in the series. Modified subsets of Color Basic may be found on many of the Radio Shack PC series of pocket computers (PC-1 to PC-4 by Sharp, PC-5, PC-6 to PC-8 by Casio) of the era.
Color Basic was updated again for the Color Computer 3 and some sources refer to it as Enhanced Color Basic. A version containing routines for disk management known as Disk Color BASIC was also developed for these machines. Updates to the language include routines such as Play (for use with the sound facility), Draw (for vector graphics and other things with lines) and other additions as well as undocumented functions such as those inherited originally from the original Color Basic to work with the semi-graphics modes. A fifth programming language for this series of computers is the Basic interpreter which runs on the Radio Shack/Tandy MC-10, a small computer marketed beginning in 1984. Emulators of the Color Computers running this programme interpreter and the others are available for modern computers, some of which require a "snapshot" file of the physical machine.


Eddie (text editor)

Eddie is a text editor which was first released in 1997 for BeOS, and later ported to Linux and macOS. It was written by Pavel Císler, formerly a senior developer at Be, who later worked for Eazel and currently works for Apple and continues to develop Eddie as his pet project, now on macOS. Inspired by the classic Mac OS Macintosh Programmer's Workshop editor, it is primarily intended for working with C and C++ development. However, Eddie supports syntax colouring for HTML, JavaScript, .kon/.widget, Perl, and many other formats. Eddie supports a Worksheet – provides a well-appointed shell that enables the power of bash and the convenience of editing in a normal text window mode.


Crystal Quest

Crystal Quest is an action game originally for the Macintosh. It was written by Patrick Buckland for Casady & Greene in 1987 and was ported to the Apple IIgs in 1989 by Rebecca Heineman. Ports were also made to the Amiga, Game Boy, iOS, and Palm. It was notable for being the first game to support the color displays on the Macintosh II.
The game was based on the original shareware version, "Crystal Raider", one of the supporters of which had been Michael Greene, founder of Greene, Inc. (later to merge with CasadyWare to become Casady & Greene). A sequel, similar to the original game, "Crystal Crazy", was released in 1993.
On February 7, 2006 "Crystal Quest" was released on Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade.
Game Mechanics LLC licensed "Crystal Quest" and launched on Kickstarter to raise money to create a new version in February 2015. As of November 23, 2016, "Crystal Quest" is available on the Steam video game digital distribution platform.
Development.
"Crystal Quest" is easier to play in color mode on the Macintosh version as opposed to monochrome, as more RAM is used, causing enemies to move slower. Improvements and features in "Crystal Quest" over its predecessor "Crystal Raider" include a two-player mode, support for color, improved sound, and a demo mode. A glitch in the demo mode for early copies of "Crystal Quest" caused system errors on one out of ten Mac IIs, and those affected could call Greene Inc. for a replacement copy of the game.
Reception.
"Macworld" reviewed the Macintosh version of "Crystal Quest", praising its action gameplay and colorful graphics, stating that "Crystal Quest" is "Fast, challenging action ... You learn to play in minutes because the game is so intuitive ... "Crystal Quest" is especially fun to play on a color Mac II because the vivid color-cycle graphics rival those of the finest arcade games. ... "Crystal Quest" is the first Macintosh game I've found that truly compares in features and quality with a real arcade game." "Macworld" also praises the "clever" sound effects, stating that "some of the sounds are droll, and some are gross. Kids will love them." but criticizes one particular sound effect, saying that "The sound that accompanies the player's entrance into the gateway at the end of each wave, however, is a digitized pseudo-female-orgasmic gasp that several women I played it for found offensive."


Gargoyle Games

Gargoyle Games was a British software company founded in 1983 by Roy Carter and Greg Follis in order to publish their first game, "Ad Astra". They generally specialized in games for the ZX Spectrum even though the company was originally named with the intention of publishing games for Dragon computers. They also released games on their own label Faster Than Light, as well as on the Elite label.
Two of Gargoyle's releases, "Marsport" and "Heavy on the Magick" were intended to be the first in a series of games but the planned sequels were never released. "Marsport" is often considered an unofficial companion to "Tir Na Nog" and "Dun Darach" due to its similar gameplay.
"Tir Na Nóg" and "Dun Darach" are part of the same series, with "Dun Darach" being a prequel released the following year.


Arndale Board

The Arndale Board is a high-power single-board computer featuring the ARM Cortex-A15 MPCore developed in South Korea.
Overview.
The Arndale Board is composed of four parts: the CPU Board, Base Board, Sound Board, and Connectivity Board.


Beach Volley

Beach Volley is a beach volleyball video game developed by Ocean France for the Amiga, Atari ST, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, and ZX Spectrum, released by Ocean Software in 1989. A stranger interrupts a beach volleyball game and offering the player to join the "Ocean Beach Volley" worldwide tournament, to play against the best from eight other countries. The winner of this competition will receive $250,000 dollars.
"Beach Volley" is the first Ocean France product and one of the first Ocean games to be aimed for the Amiga and Atari ST.
Gameplay.
Follows the base ruleset of beach volleyball. Two teams of two players each trying to score by making the ball land inside the opponents half of the court. First team reaching seven points within six minutes wins and head to another of the eight countries. At five minutes of play, the music changes to a different tune to indicate the player to hurry up. If the player reach the six minutes limit, the player lose the game, even if the player are ahead in points. One or two player at once can play the game, but tournament mode is only available for single player. In singe player mode the player will be joined by an AI controlled player. To help the human player a flickering blue cursor on the ground will indicate where the ball will be landing.
The world tournament consists of a single match in eight different countries, which is seen on a world map. The team team starts in London and the final match will be held in Paris. The team had to take challenges in New York City, Nassau, Luxor, Sydney, Tokyo and Moscow in between too. Every hosting country will be introduced with a little humorous skit, which is usually related to their sights or locations.


Inetd

inetd (internet service daemon) is a super-server daemon on many Unix systems that provides Internet services. For each configured service, it listens for requests from connecting clients. Requests are served by spawning a process which runs the appropriate executable, but simple services such as "echo" are served by inetd itself. External executables, which are run on request, can be single- or multi-threaded. First appearing in 4.3BSD, it is generally located at codice_1.
Function.
Often called a super-server, inetd listens on designated ports used by Internet services such as FTP, POP3, and telnet. When a TCP packet or UDP packet arrives with a particular destination port number, inetd launches the appropriate server program to handle the connection. For services that are not expected to run with high loads, this method uses memory more efficiently, since the specific servers run only when needed. Furthermore, in inetd's "nowait" mode of service management, no network code is required in the service-specific programs, as inetd hooks the network stream directly to stdin and stdout of the spawned process. For protocols that have frequent traffic, such as HTTP and POP3, either inetd's "wait" mode of operation, or a dedicated server that intercepts the traffic directly may be preferable.
Setup.
The list of services that will be serviced is given in a configuration file, usually codice_2. A GUI for managing the configuration file is an optional accessory. The daemon may need a signal in order to re-read its configuration. For an example, telnet can be configured as follows (line taken from a machine running AIX version 5.1):
 telnet stream tcp6 nowait root /usr/sbin/telnetd telnetd -a
The first word, codice_3, is the official name of the service. It is resolved using the system database to map port numbers and protocols to service names. In this case, codice_4 should contain:
 telnet 23/tcp
The second and third words describe the type of socket and underlying protocol respectively. The codice_5 database is consulted.
The fourth word is the wait/nowait switch. A single-threaded server expects inetd to wait until it finishes reading all the data. Otherwise inetd lets the server run and spawns new, concurrent processes for new requests.
The fifth word is the user name, from the codice_6 database, that the service program should run as.
Finally, the path and the arguments of an external program are given. As usual, the first argument is the program name. In the example, inetd is told to launch the program codice_7 with the command line arguments codice_8. inetd automatically hooks the socket to stdin, stdout, and stderr of the server program.
Generally TCP sockets are handled by spawning a separate server to handle each connection concurrently. UDP sockets are generally handled by a single server instance that handles all packets on that port.
Some simple services, such as echo, are handled directly by inetd, without spawning an external server.
Creating an inetd service.
This is a simple inetd service, written in C. It expects a command line argument containing a filename for a log file, and then it logs all strings sent through the socket to the log file. Note that this is a very insecure example program.
int main(int argc, char **argv)
 const char *fn = argv[1];
 FILE *fp = fopen(fn, "a+");
 if (fp == NULL)
 exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
 char str[4096];
 /* inetd passes its information to us in stdin. */
 while (fgets(str, sizeof str, stdin)) {
 fputs(str, fp);
 fflush(fp);
 fclose(fp);
 return 0;
The example uses stdio functions and it responds to network traffic coming in on stdin. In this case, we want all messages logged to a single file, so we only want one instance of the service running to service all requests. This means UDP is the correct protocol to use. First, an unused port number must be selected. In this sample, 9999 will be used. The codice_4 entry will look like this:
 errorLogger 9999/udp
And the entry in codice_2 will look like this:
 errorLogger dgram udp wait root /usr/local/bin/errlogd errlogd /tmp/logfile.txt
This tells inetd to run the codice_11 program, with the commandline: codice_12 (refer to the inetd.conf man page for information on the other arguments). The first argument contains the filename to be used for the log file: codice_13. inetd will run the service when needed, and attach port 9999 to the input and output streams, and all strings sent to that port will be logged to the file. By specifying wait, it tells inetd to only use one instance of the server to handle all requests.
Note: the functionality of the above example is usually implemented by using syslog and a process like syslogd. syslogd would normally be started in parallel with inetd, not as an inetd service.
inetd replacements.
In recent years, because of the security limitations in the original design of inetd, it has been replaced by xinetd, rlinetd, ucspi-tcp, and others in many systems. Distributions of Linux especially have many options and Mac OS X (beginning with Mac OS X v10.2) uses xinetd. As of version Mac OS X v10.4, Apple has merged the functionality of inetd into launchd.
The services provided by inetd can be omitted entirely. This is becoming more common where machines are dedicated to a single function. For example, an HTTP server could be configured to just run httpd and have no other ports open. A dedicated firewall could have no services started.
systemd supports inetd services, and expands socket activation beyond IP messaging (AF INET+6) to include AF UNIX, AF NETLINK and more.
Security concerns.
While the inetd concept as a service dispatcher is not inherently insecure, the long list of services that inetd traditionally provided gave computer security experts pause. The possibility of a service having an exploitable flaw, or the service just being abused, had to be considered. Unnecessary services being disabled and "off by default" became the mantra. It is not uncommon to find an codice_2 with almost all the services commented out in a modern Unix distribution.


Vaio VGN-TX2

The Vaio VGN-TX2 was a subnotebook, or ultraportable, computer made by Sony.
Overview.
The Vaio VGN-TX2 stands out by its quiet operation, long battery life and low weight compared to similar models from other manufacturers. This required a low-power processor to be chosen, and as a result, the clock speed remained at 1.1 GHz for the "HP" and 1.2 GHz for the more expensive "XP" model. The other difference between the two models is that the HP has 512 MiB of RAM and the XP 1 GiB. To achieve the low weight, Sony chose a carbon-fibre case. It was released in September 2005.
Versions.
The TX had been released into four types in North America, with the 600, 700, 800 and TXN series. The 600 series came with a 1.2 GHz Pentium M processor and 60 gigabyte hard drive. The 700 series is similar, except it had a 1.3 GHz Pentium M processor and 80 gigabyte hard drive. The 800 series had the same hard drive as the 700 series but instead had a 1.2 GHz Core Solo processor, giving it even longer battery life than its predecessors. This iteration of the TX line also had a built-in fingerprint reader. The TXN model was only available in North America and is similar to the TX800, except it had a built in Sprint EVDO modem and antenna whereas the TX800 series lacked either. The previous TX600s and TX700s had built-in Cingular EDGE modems and antennas. The TXN models were also slightly heavier and thicker than all other TX models to accommodate the built-in Sprint EVDO WWAN modem.
Features.
The TX series used 1.8-inch hard drives with most units having 512 MB of ram built into the motherboard and one RAM slot free to be upgraded to 1.5 GB of RAM max, whereas some higher-end models have 1 GB of RAM built in and so were able to be upgraded to 2 GB of RAM max.
They also had an instant-on feature, which has become a common feature in notebooks since HP introduced it in their notebooks in late 2004 which lets one play DVD movies, view photos from a memory stick or SD card or play music CDs without booting up to Windows.
It has different model names outside North America. The VGN-TX2 is the European–Japanese equivalent of the VGN-TX7XXP for instance and the VGN-TX3 is identical to the VGN-TX8XXP.
All models used the older PCMCIA card standard whereas some of its competitors at the time opted to use the newer Expresscard format.
Like most Vaio notebooks, this model had a widescreen display, in this case with a resolution of 1366×768 pixels and 11.1 inches diagonally which gives it a 16:9 aspect ratio vs 16:10 for most other widescreen notebooks. It weighs 1.25 kg. Within the Vaio range, its weight is undercut by the Vaio PCG-X505, which weighs only 780 g and the recently released Vaio G series. However, these latter models do not have a built-in optical drive.
The TX also can be fitted with an extended battery which has roughly twice the capacity as its standard battery. The standard battery has roughly 7800 mAh capacity.
The final release of the TX such as the VGN-TXN2X series known in North America and VGN-TX5 in Europe were preloaded with Windows Vista Business edition instead of Windows XP Professional.
Now superseded.
The TX series was superseded by the Sony Vaio TZ series in April 2007 which featured ULV Core 2 Duo processors, an Expresscard slot, and other updates. It retained the same size 11.1" LED backlit LCD and AV Mode/buttons.


Command substitution

In computing, command substitution is a facility that allows a command to be run and its output to be pasted back on the command line as arguments to another command. Command substitution first appeared in the Bourne shell, introduced with Version 7 Unix in 1979, and has remained a characteristic of all later Unix shells. The feature has since been adopted in other programming languages as well, including Perl, PHP, Ruby and Microsoft's Powershell under Windows. It also appears in Microsoft's CMD.EXE in the codice_1 command and the codice_2 command.
Syntax and semantics.
Shells typically implement command substitution by creating a child process to run the first command with its standard output piped back to the shell, which reads that output, parsing it into words separated by whitespace. Because the shell can't know it has all the output from the child until the pipe closes or the child dies, it waits until then before it starts another child process to run the second command.
This C shell example shows how one might search for all the C files containing the string codice_3 using codice_4 and then edit any that are found using the codice_5 editor. The syntactical notation shown here, codice_6 ... codice_6, using backquotes as delimiters, is the original style and is supported by all the common Unix shells.
vi `fgrep -l malloc *.c`
Objections have been raised to both the syntax, how it's typed, and the semantics, how it works.
While easy to type, an important factor for an interactive command processor, the syntax has been criticized as awkward to nest, putting one command substitution inside another, because both the left and the right delimiters are the same. The KornShell (ksh) solved this with an alternative notation, codice_8 ... codice_9, borrowing from the notational style used for variable substitution. Today, most UNIX shells support this syntax. Microsoft's PowerShell also uses this notation, with the same semantics.
vi $(fgrep -l malloc *.c)
The semantics, breaking the output into words at whitespace, has also been criticized. It worked well on early Unix systems where filenames never contained spaces but it doesn't work at all well on modern Windows and Linux systems where filenames certainly can contain spaces. In either of these previous examples, if any of the filenames matched by the codice_10 wildcard contains a space, that filename will be broken into two separate arguments to codice_5, clearly not what was intended. Hamilton C shell solved this with a double backquote notation, codice_12 ... codice_12, that parses into words only at line breaks.
This is an example of command substitution
using the codice_14 operator in PowerShell:
$MyVariable = (ls)
echo $MyVariable
Expression substitution.
A related facility, expression substitution, is found in the languages Common Lisp and Scheme, invoked by using the comma-at operator in an expression marked with the backquote (or "quasiquote") operator, and in ABC, by using an expression enclosed between backquotes inside a text display (string literal). For example, the ABC command produces the output .


Arnie II

Arnie II, developed by Zeppelin Games in 1993, is a computer game and sequel to "Arnie". It was written by David Sowerby with graphics by Neil Hislop. The music was created by Andrew Rodger. The game's manual says that "Arnie has been chosen to perform four missions that require stealth, skill and extreme violence."
The muscleman shoots and bombs his way through four enemy-infested territories:
There are enemies on every level, from simple infantry armed with rifles, mortars or rocket launchers to machine team teams, missile batteries and tanks. Most of the opponents are stationary and stolidly fire in a single direction; however, foxholes release cannon-fodder at a constant rate.
To destroy such nests or to efficiently dispatch groups of soldiers, Arnie has a limited supply of grenades. Some dead foes drop more powerful weapons as well as invaluable first aid kits and extra lives.
Although the game's name alludes to Arnold Schwarzenegger, "Arnie II" is not a licensed title and is not based on any movie.
Reception.
Commodore Force thought this was a disappointing sequel, criticising the poorly implemented isometric perspective and weak enemy AI. It received a score of 57%.