CEMM

CEMM, for Compaq Expanded Memory Manager was the first so-called PC "memory manager" for Intel 80386 CPUs, able to provide expanded memory (EMS) emulation by using the virtual memory features and the virtual 8086 mode of the CPU.
It was present in Compaq DOS 3.10, shipping with the Compaq Deskpro 386 in September 1986.
Overview.
In 1986, Compaq was the first vendor to ship a PC compatible computer with a 386 CPU, the Deskpro 386, and it was natural for them to develop solutions leveraging the specific features of their new hardware and in this case allowing existing EMS-compatible DOS programs to access all the memory.
The implementation was not without its drawbacks. Although CEMM was called an "expanded memory manager", it was really a tiny, protected mode, single tasking operating system kernel, also called a virtual machine monitor (VMM). It had to catch all the interrupts and all the exceptions, and to "reflect" them to the virtual machine where DOS ran. This slowed the machine down a little, increased the latency of interrupts and changed the behavior of DOS programs trying to execute invalid machine instructions. Implementing a VMM was not CEMM's raison d'etre, but EMS emulation required paging, and paging required protected mode. The only way to run existing real-mode DOS and BIOS code was therefore through a VMM.
Because CEMM put the CPU into protected mode, other programs ("DOS extenders") could not do this anymore by themselves. A special API, the VCPI, had to be developed to allow running DOS extender programs. The first CEMM compatible with VCPI was 4.0, provided with Compaq DOS 4.01.
Compaq filed for a patent on the technology in 1987. The patent was granted in 1990 and probably expired in 2007. Compaq was the creator of this technology and the first company to use it. However, over time, QEMM and 386MAX became the standard packages. Windows/386 and later releases contained a built-in expanded memory manager (EMM386) available during Windows sessions and otherwise used for running "multiple" DOS virtual machines. MS-DOS 4.01 (in 1989) and DR-DOS 5.0 (in 1990) popularized the technology outside of the Windows context. Microsoft's EMM386 implementation was based on CEMM.


CHIP (computer)

CHIP (stylized as C.H.I.P.) is a single-board computer crowdfunded by now-defunct Next Thing Co. (NTC), released as open-source hardware running open-source software. It was advertised as "the world's first $9 computer". CHIP and related products are discontinued. NTC has since gone insolvent.
Milestones.
Next Thing Co. was an Oakland, California based start-up company founded in 2013 by Dave Rauchwerk, Gustavo Huber and Thomas Deckert. NTC initially launched CHIP computer via a successful Kickstarter campaign in May 2015. The campaign started with a goal of , and ended with 39,560 backers pledging .
Next Thing began shipping alpha boards to "Kernel Hacker" backers on September 25, 2015. First customer shipping (for Kickstarter backers) began by May 31, 2016. Pre-order opened by December 2015. Pre-order for the original CHIP had stopped by April 4, 2017 as the line was discontinued.
Next Thing Co. Insolvency.
By March 2018, Next Thing Co. had entered insolvency. Many customers still had not received their pre-orders.
Models.
CHIP.
CHIP was the original board, mostly targeting hobbyists. The system is built around the Allwinner R8 SoC processor, which integrates an ARM Cortex-A8 CPU (based on ARM architecture V7-A) and peripherals, such as Graphic Engine, UART, SPI, USB ports, CIR, CMOS Sensor Interface and LCD controller. The CPU is also accompanied by a NEON SIMD coprocessor and has RCT JAVA-Accelerations to optimize just-in-time (JIT) and dynamic adaptive compilation (DAC). There is also an ARM Mali-400 GPU, and a x263,x264 and vp8 hardware video decoder in the R8.
CHIP was upgraded in April 2017 in anticipation of the CHIP Pro to "share a large number of the same components".
Features implemented on this model:
The CHIP is 60 mm × 40 mm in size.
CHIP Pro.
CHIP Pro is similar to the original CHIP board, but uses the newer GR8 version of the chip. It is a system in package (SiP) made by Next Thing Co. It features a 1 GHz Allwinner R8 ARMv7 Cortex-A8 processor with NEON SIMD extensions and a Mali-400 GPU. 256 MB of Nanya Technology DDR3 SDRAM is combined with the R8 SoC into a 14 mm × 14 mm, 0.8 mm-pitch 252-ball FBGA package, simplifying the routing of connections. Instead of having two dual-line 40-pin sockets as on CHIP, it implements castellated edges where the pin holes are designed and optimized to embed to another board with SMT. Most of the CHIP's hardware features are also included in this model.
CHIP "v2" (unreleased).
Few details were available in regard to CHIP's would-be successor or successors except it would have used Next Thing's own SiP GR8 instead of Allwinner's original R8. In addition to feature-sharing with CHIP Pro, the company wanted to "take advantage of CHIP Pro's much more stable supply chain" in order to address the uneasiness in its user base about the future of the product. In responding to user concerns, Next Thing also disclosed that more than one successor product line was in the works.
As Next Thing Co. entered insolvency with its assets and intellectual properties being sold, release of "v2" is improbable.
Hardware extensions.
In addition to open-source hardware and software, Next Thing also published an HPI and an API for users to develop add-ons boards called "DIP" The company produced several DIPs including the Pocket CHIP.
Pocket CHIP and Pockulus.
Pocket CHIP includes a CHIP, a case with a 4.3 inch 480×272 pixel resistive touchscreen, a clicky keyboard, GPIO headers on the top of the device, and GPIO soldering pads inside of the injection mold case. A 5-hour battery is included. Following DIP specifications, the CHIP snaps into the case with no "screws or glues" creating a portable computer. On the lower right corner of the Pocket CHIP is a hexagonal hole that takes a standard #2 HB pencil. Inserting the pencil creates a stand that allows the Pocket CHIP to stand upright on a desk. Likewise, on the lower left is a circular hole for a pen.
PocketCHIP comes loaded with a special edition of CHIP OS that includes the DIP's driver and a couple of additional applications, including a special version of video game console virtual machine Pico-8, a fully functional Linux terminal, a file browser, a terminal based web browser called surf, and modular synthesizer Sunvox.
The Pockulus is a virtual reality setup incorporating a Pocket CH.I.P. that requires some 3D printing.
Other DIPs from Next Thing.
For users who did not want to use the small screen in Pocket CHIP and also did not want to use the built-in composite TV output, Next Thing sold a VGA DIP and an HDMI DIP. Unlike Pocket CHIP, physical dimensions of these DIPs are similar to CHIP, so the snapped assembly looks like a thicker CHIP.
Media coverage and user community.
CHIP received favorable reviews, and constant comparisons to Raspberry Pi. Laura Sydell of NPR asked if the device could "spark a new wave of tinkering and innovation", noting it was also open source hardware. Marco della Cava of "USA Today" said that the device "represent[s] opportunities to both close the technology gap in developing and developed countries alike, while encouraging children to learn coding, due to their approachable design".
Reviewers also noted its low price. Bo Moore of "PC Gamer" said the price of CHIP "[puts] Raspberry Pi 2 to shame", and Ian Paul of "PCWorld" said it made "Raspberry Pi's price seem luxurious". Within days of the launch of its Kickstarter, US national media outlets like "The Washington Post" and Time followed with glowing coverage. Even Fortune joined the chorus with headline "This $9 computer could change the economics of building hardware."
Since its Alpha shipping, CHIP has attracted an enthusiastic user base, communicating mainly on NTC's bulletin board system (BBS). At the time of NTC's demise, the BBS had over 10,000 users, with hundreds of active users and hundreds of postings every month, to a total of over 100,000.
Despite enthusiasm from reviewers and users, Next Thing Co. declared bankruptcy in March 2018, leaving many pre-order customers with undelivered orders.
Archives and continuing support.
While NTC has published many of its hardware and software repositories on GitHub, surviving CHIPsters (as CHIP users call themselves ) also launched an effort in order to preserve useful document, software, and other artifacts by leveraging the Internet Archive (a.k.a. archive.org). One effort is led by a user who has never received his preordered CHIP. Another user set up a standalone site focusing on binary packages and a Git repository.
In addition, the community also has a Wiki site that is independent of NTC.


List of British computers

Computers designed or built in Britain include:


Andy Hopper

Andrew Hopper (born 1953) is Treasurer and Vice-President of the Royal Society, Professor of Computer Technology, former Head of the University of Cambridge Department of Computer Science and Technology, an Honorary Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and serial entrepreneur.
Education.
Hopper was educated at Quintin Kynaston School in London after which he went to study for a Bachelor of Science degree at Swansea University before going to the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory and Trinity Hall, Cambridge in 1974 for postgraduate work. Hopper was awarded his PhD in 1978 for research into Local area computer communications networks supervised by David Wheeler.
Research and career.
Hopper's PhD, completed in 1977 was in the field of communications networks, and he worked with Maurice Wilkes on the creation of the Cambridge Ring and its successors.
Hopper's research interests include computer networks, multimedia systems, Virtual Network Computing and sentient computing. His most cited paper describes the indoor location system called the Active Badge. He has contributed to a discussion of the privacy challenges relating to surveillance.
After more than 20 years at Cambridge University Computer Laboratory, Hopper was elected Chair of Communications Engineering at Cambridge University Engineering Department in 1997. He returned to the Computer Laboratory as Professor of Computer Technology and Head of Department in 2004.
Hopper's research under the title "Computing for the Future of the Planet" examines the uses of computers for assuring the sustainability of the planet.
Hopper has supervised approximately fifty PhD students.
Commercial activities.
In 1978, Hopper co-founded Orbis Ltd to develop networking technologies.
In 1978 Hopper worked with Hermann Hauser and Chris Curry, founders of Acorn Computers Ltd; Orbis became a division of Acorn in 1979 and continued to work with the Cambridge Ring. While at Acorn, Hopper contributed to design some of the chips for the BBC Micro and helped conceive the project which led to the design of the ARM microprocessor. When Acorn was acquired by Olivetti in 1985, Hauser became vice-president for research at Olivetti, in which role he co-founded the Olivetti Research Laboratory in 1986 with Hopper; Hopper became its managing director.
In 1985, after leaving Acorn, Hopper co-founded Qudos, a company producing CAD software and doing chip prototyping. He remained a director until 1989.
In 1993, Hopper set up Advanced Telecommunication Modules Ltd with Hermann Hauser. This company went public on the NASDAQ as Virata in 1999. The company was acquired by Conexant Systems on 1 March 2004.
In 1995, Hopper co-founded Telemedia Systems, now called IPV, and was its chairman until 2003.
In 1997, Hopper co-founded Adaptive Broadband Ltd (ABL) to further develop the 'Wireless ATM' project started at ORL in the early 90s. ABL was bought by California Microwave, Inc in 1998.
In January 2000, Hopper co-founded Cambridge Broadband which was to develop broadband fixed wireless equipment; he was non-executive chairman from 2000 – 2005.
In 2002 Hopper was involved in the founding of Ubisense Ltd to further develop the location technologies and sentient computing concepts that grew out of the ORL Active Badge system. Hopper became a director in 2003 and was chairman between 2006 and 2015 during which the company made its initial public offering (IPO) in June 2011.
In 2002, Hopper co-founded RealVNC and has served as chairman since the company's inception.
In 2002, Hopper co-founded Level 5 Networks and was a director until 2008, just after it merged with Solarflare Inc.
From 2005 until 2009, Hopper was chairman of Adventiq, a joint venture between Adder and RealVNC, developing a VNC-based system-on-a-chip.
In 2013 Hopper co-founded TxtEz, a company looking to commoditise B2C communication in Africa.
Hopper was an advisor to Hauser's venture capital firm Amadeus Capital Partners from 2001 until 2005.
He was also an advisor to the Cambridge Gateway Fund from 2001 until 2006.
Awards and honours.
Hopper is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (FIET) and was a Trustee from 2003 until 2006, and again between 2009 and 2013. In 2004, Hopper was awarded the Mountbatten Medal of the IET (then IEE). He served as president of the IET between 2012 and 2013.
Hopper was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 1996 and awarded their Silver Medal in 2003.
He was a member of the Council of the Royal Academy of Engineering from 2007 to 2010. In 2013, he was part of the RealVNC team to receive the MacRobert Award.
In 1999, Hopper gave the Royal Society's Clifford Paterson Lecture on "Progress and research in the communications industry" published under the title "Sentinent Computing" and was thus awarded the society's bronze medal for achievement. In May 2006, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was a member of the Council of the Royal Society between 2009 and 2011. In 2017 Hopper become Treasurer and Vice-President of the Royal Society and was awarded the Bakerian Lecture and Prize.
In the 2007 New Year Honours, Hopper was made an CBE for services to the computer industry.
In 2004, Hopper was awarded the Association for Computing Machinery's SIGMOBILE Outstanding Contribution Award and in 2016 the Test-of-Time Award for the Active Badge paper.
In July 2005, Hopper was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of Swansea University.
In 2010 Hopper was awarded an Honorary Degree from Queen's University Belfast.
In 2011 Hopper was elected as member of the Council and Trustee of the University of Cambridge and a member of the Finance Committee.
Hopper serves on several academic advisory boards. In 2005, he was appointed to the Advisory Board of the Institute of Electronics Communications and Information Technology at Queen's University Belfast. In 2008 he joined the Advisory Board of the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford. In 2011 he was appointed a member of the Advisory Board of the School of Computer and Communication Sciences at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.
Hopper was Chairman of the Emerging Technologies and Industries Steering Group of the UK Technology Strategy Board and was a member of the Technical Advisory Council for BP.
Personal life.
Hopper married Alison Gail Smith, Professor of Plant Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge, in 1988. They have two children, William and Merrill. He is a qualified pilot with over 6,000 hours logged, including a round the world flight, and his house near Cambridge has an airstrip from which he flies his six-seater Cessna light aircraft.


MP3Concept

MP3Concept is the first trojan horse for Mac OS X, created around April 2004. MP3Concept is benign, it was designed as a proof of concept regarding how a file can be disguised to an end user in a GUI environment on Mac OS X. It is an application bundle that looks like an MP3 file. When launched, it plays a clip of a man laughing. Since its creation Apple has added additional verifications to the Finder to prevent such an attack. Antivirus software also now looks for its characteristics as well.


Magic W3

The Magic W3 is a 4.8" Windows®7 full OS touchscreen microcomputer with voice call functionality. The Magic W3 provides true windowed multitasking, multimedia entertainment, social network connectivity, navigation capability, voice telephony, and the full internet experience. The device is assembled in Malaysia and is expected to be available in November, 2012 in China and Hong Kong, with plans underway to distribute it in other regions.
Specifications.
Processor
Intel Atom Z series 1.6 GHz
Operating System
Windows 7 Home Premium
Display
Touch Screen Size 4.8"
Resolution 800 x 480 WVGA native
800 x 600/1024 x 600 W/SVGA interpolated
RAM
1GB DDR2
Capacity
32 GB SSD
Network
GSM Quad Band
3.5G HSPA
Radio Connectivity
Wi-Fi b/g /n
GPS Transceiver
Dimensions / Weight
141 x 81.5 x 23 mm / 270 g
Battery
3200 mAh 3.7V
2.0 MP Camera (Video Conferencing)
Accelerometer
Vibrate Alert
Peripheral Connectivity
Audio
Hardware Interface
Applications (Apps).
Other Applications Not Supplied


Casio 9850 series

The Casio CFX-9850G series is a series of graphing calculators manufactured by Casio Computer Co., Ltd. from 1996 to 2008.
fx-9750G.
Power.
The back of the device shows a slightly protruding battery case cover, which slides out to reveal the compartment for the four AAA alkaline batteries used for primary power, and a CR2032 lithium button cell used for memory backup when primary power is down or being changed. The device consumes power at the rate of 0.06W, and turns itself off automatically after about 6 minutes of time spent without any keypad activity. Battery life for the primary power cells ranges from 300 hours (LR03 battery) to 200 hours (R03 battery) for continuous display of main menu. Backup cells last up to about 2 years each.
The calculators weigh about 190 grams including batteries, and measure about 19.7 mm x 83 mm x 176 mm. Features include scientific calculations, including calculus, graphing and programming, statistics and matrix operations.
Display.
The display has a graphics resolution of 127 by 63 pixels (the first row and column of pixels are unusable in graphing), and a character resolution of 21 columns by 8 lines. The bottom line is reserved for function key menu tips, and the rest is available for the graphics and character display.
Memory.
The calculators includes program capacity of 26 kilobytes. This is divided among storage blocks for programs, statistics, matrices, lists, static and dynamic graphs and their associated settings, functions, recursions, equations, financial data, and variables (all of which are global). These can be cleared individually or completely in the MEM menu.
When saving files, a file name uses 17 bytes of memory.
A command consumes 1 or 2 bytes.
Graphing.
Graphs can be drawn with split-screen viewing of graphs as well as tables or zooms. Graphed areas can be shaded in customizable colors. The graph viewport can be resized and shifted (these settings can be saved for later retrieval), and points along the graph curves can be traced. Graph solver tools can also be used to find useful points, such as maxima/minima and intersection points. The calculator also has a special section for advanced conic section graphing. Dynamic graphing provides all the functionality of regular graphing, but allows the binding of a variable in the graph equation to time over a value range.
Lists and tables.
Up to 36 lists can be stored and manipulated in various ways in the list manager. The lists can also be used to feed data into inbuilt statistics operations, producing various statistical figures, performing regression analysis, and generating graphs like scatter and box and whisker plots, among others. Tables can be generated from functions, recursive series can be generated, and equations can be solved - both simultaneous and polynomial.
Communications.
The device can link up by cable to a computer (FA-122 and FA-123 (serial) and FA-124 (USB) interface unit and cables) or to another calculator (SB-62 cable) to transfer data, such as programs, equations, graphs etc. It can also connect to a Casio label printer (SB-62 cable). Transmission speed is stated as 9600 byte/s. The calculator can be connected to the EA-100 data logger which is used to read data such as temperature, light intensity, force, voltage, loudness, pH and other such data in the same fashion as the Texas Instruments Computer Based Laboratory and various data loggers for use with the Hewlett-Packard calculators; Sharp also makes such a tool.
The serial link cable was designed and U.S. patented (5504864) by Larry Berg of Purple Computing. It was manufactured by Traveling Software (AKA Laplink.com) and later by Purple Computing for Casio. The common name for the cable used by the companies was "PC-Link". It has a 2.5mm stereo phono plug on one end, the patented electronic circuit inside the plastic bump and a DE-9F on the other for connecting to the serial port of a PC. The circuit converts low voltage low power signals of the handheld device to be compatible with the levels and power of a PC's RS232 serial port. Versions of the circuit were used by many companies from the early 1990s to bridge the RS232/TTL voltage/power gap.
fx-9750G PLUS, CFX-9850G, CFX-9950G series.
Changes from fx-9750G include:
The Casio CFX-9850G was introduced in 1996. As a higher-end version of the FX-9750G series, The CFX-9850G introduced a number of enhancements over that series, the most noticeable being a color LCD display capable of displaying orange, green, and blue. The CFX-9850G was later replaced with updated models that added features and fixed bugs, the CFX-9850G Plus, Ga Plus, GB Plus, and GC Plus. The CFX-9850GB Plus includes a built-in software library, and the CFX-9850GC Plus increases memory from 32k to 64k. Two other models were sold alongside the CFX-9850G series, the CFX-9950G series, which has 64k of memory, and the CFX-9970G, which has symbolic algebra. The series was discontinued with the CFX-9850GC Plus in 2008.
There are French versions where the ab/c and EXP buttons are labelled differently. (French versions: 9750=Graph 30,35,fx-8930GT; 9850,9950=Graph 60,65,CFX-9930GT,9940,9960; 9970=Graph 80)
Power.
Power consumption is same as fx-9750.
Battery life for the primary battery ranges from 320 hours (LR03 battery) to 180 hours (R03 battery) for continuous display of main menu. For continuous operation (5/55 minutes calculation/display), battery life ranges from 280 hours (LR03 battery) to 160 hours (R03 battery).
Display.
CFX models are capable of displaying three colors: orange, blue and green. The colors are handled much like a multi-level grayscale display, in that altering the contrast of a pixel changes its color. A light contrast displays orange, then as the contrast increases, the color becomes blue, then green at a dark contrast.
Memory.
The calculators include program capacity of 28 to 64 kilobytes of memory depending on model:
Software Library.
The CFX-9850GB PLUS and CFX-9950GB PLUS models have a built-in software library, consisting of programs that perform complicated calculations and data processing. For example, operations on differential equations, digital caliper measurements, capacitor charge curves, figure rotations and Riemann sums. These are organized into six sub-libraries, five of them for mathematical computations, and one for scientific instrumentation.
Financial calculations.
A number of financial operations such as interest compounding and amortization are also provided.
CFX-9970G.
Changes from CFX-9950GB PLUS include:


Black Magic (video game)

Black Magic is a multi-directional scrolling action-adventure game written for the Apple II by Peter Ward of Action Software and published by Datasoft in 1987. Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, and Amstrad CPC versions were also released.
Plot.
The evil wizard Zahgrim has turned the good wizard Aganar to stone, removed his six eyes, and placed them in different locations across the land so they may view the destruction being reaped. The player's objective is to find the six eyeballs.
Gameplay.
The player moves through a large, vertically and horizontally scrolling world, picking-up food, arrows, and spells. Roaming enemies can be avoided or shot with arrows. The goal is to find the statue's six eyes scattered across the world, but always in the same locations. The game plays differently depending on the order the eyes are recovered. When one of eyes is collected, stronger types of monsters appear in the world making travel more difficult.
Resources are limited. Food is always on the verge of running out and arrows are in short supply. A large bird can carry the player to a different part of the world, similar to the bat in "Adventure" for the Atari 2600. Shooting the bird with an arrow makes it go away temporarily.
Spells provide alternate approaches to problems. For example, invisibility prevents damage from monsters. Casting Freeze on water immobilizes the creatures in it and allows the frozen surface to be walked across. Every 4000 points, a new rank is awarded: apprentice, wizard, sorcerer, and necromancer. New spells are unlocked with each rank.
Once all six eyes have been found and placed in the Blind Statue's empty sockets, a message appears explaining how to end Zahgrim's rule over the land once and for all. The player is then able to enter Zahgrim's castle, a difficult maze of traps and monsters.
Reception.
The game was reviewed in 1987 in "Dragon" #124 by Hartley and Patricia Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers stated the "Certainly, this is one of the better games in the current crop of arcade/adventure games, as the tasks required to complete the quest are quite varied."


XAMLPad

XAMLPad is software provided with the .NET Framework 3.0 SDK to quickly create simple Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) files. It provides a split screen where the XAML code can be typed and immediately previewed in the XAML renderer.
It is no longer bundled with later Microsoft SDKs.


FamilyPC

FamilyPC was a monthly American computer magazine published from 1994 to 2001. The collaboration between Walt Disney Publishing and Ziff-Davis was a brainchild of Jake Winebaum, with Robin Raskin serving as its first editor-in-chief. The circulation of the magazine was 400,000 copies in 1998.
The magazine itself covered a wide varieties of topics that applied to families. In software, it tended to cover education software, further going into Edutainment software, applications, and creativity tools. An Australian version, "Family PC Australia", was published by APN Computing under the license of Ziff Communications and the Walt Disney Company. The magazine was started in August/September 1995 and was published on a bimonthly basis.
Ziff-Davis shut down the magazine in 2002. When "FamilyPC" was discontinued, Ziff-Davis switched "FamilyPC" subscribers to "PC Magazine".


Forethought, Inc.

Forethought, Inc. was a computer software company, best known as developers of what is now Microsoft PowerPoint.
History.
In late 1983, Rob Campbell and Taylor Pohlman founded Forethought, Inc in order to develop object-oriented bit-mapped application software. In 1984, they hired Robert Gaskins, a former Ph.D. student at the University of California, Berkeley, in exchange for a large percentage of the company's stock. He and software developer Dennis Austin led the development of a program called Presenter, which they later renamed PowerPoint. Also in 1984, Forethought acquired the rights to publish a Macintosh version of a DOS-based application called Nutshell. They named the Mac version FileMaker and it soon became enormously successful.
PowerPoint 1.0 was released in 1987 for the Apple Macintosh. It ran in black and white, generating text-and-graphics pages for overhead transparencies. A new full-color version of PowerPoint shipped a year later after the first color Macintosh came to market. Later in 1987, Forethought and PowerPoint were purchased by Microsoft Corporation for $14 million. In May 1990 the first Windows 3.0 versions were produced. Since 1990, PowerPoint has been a standard part of the Microsoft Office suite of applications except for the Basic Edition. Microsoft PowerPoint would go on to become the most used and sought after presentation suite, having a 95% market share.


FreeMat

FreeMat is a free open-source numerical computing environment and programming language, similar to MATLAB and GNU Octave. In addition to supporting many MATLAB functions and some IDL functionality, it features a codeless interface to external C, C++, and Fortran code, further parallel distributed algorithm development (via MPI), and has plotting and 3D visualization capabilities. Community support takes place in moderated Google Groups.


IBM 533

The IBM 533 Input-Output Unit, announced on July 2, 1953, was a punched card reader and punch that served as the primary input-output unit for the IBM 650 computer. It had two independent card paths, one for reading and one for punching. IBM cards were fed face down, 12-edge first. All 80 columns could be read and punched by the computer as numeric data, but alphanumeric reading was severely limited on the basic 650 and require special control panel wiring.
The 533 could punch 100 cards per minute and had a set of read brushes downstream from the punch station that were used to verify proper punching. The card reader was similar to that on the IBM 402 accounting machine and could read 200 cards per minute. The 533 was controlled by a plugboard control panel, typical of IBM unit record equipment of the time. p. 19 ff
A lower performance (and presumably cheaper) model, the IBM 537, was introduced September 4, 1956. It had a single card path for reading and punching and operated at 155 cards per minute. On January 12, 1959, IBM introduced two faster 650 peripherals, the IBM 543 Card Reader and the IBM 544 Card Punch. Both operated at up to 250 cards per minute.
All were withdrawn on August 18, 1969.


ASCII Corporation

 was a Japanese publishing company based in Chiyoda, Tokyo. It became a subsidiary of Kadokawa Group Holdings in 2004, and merged with another Kadokawa subsidiary MediaWorks on April 1, 2008, and became ASCII Media Works. The company published "Monthly ASCII" as the main publication. ASCII is best known for creating the "Derby Stallion" video game series, the MSX computer, and the "RPG Maker" line of programming software.
History.
1977–1990: Founding and first projects.
ASCII was founded in 1977 by Kazuhiko Nishi and Keiichiro Tsukamoto. Originally the publisher of a magazine with the same name, "ASCII", talks between Bill Gates and Nishi led to the creation of Microsoft's first overseas sales office, ASCII Microsoft, in 1978. In 1980, ASCII made 1.2 billion yen of sales from licensing Microsoft BASIC. It was 40 percent of Microsoft's sales, and Nishi became Microsoft's Vice President of Sales for Far East. In 1983, ASCII and Microsoft introduced the MSX, a standardized specification for 8-bit home computers. In 1984, ASCII entered the semiconductor business, followed by a further expansion into commercial online service in 1985 under the brand of ASCII-NET. As the popularity of home video game systems soared in the 1980s, ASCII became active in the development and publishing of software and peripherals for popular consoles such as the Family Computer and Mega Drive. After Microsoft's public stock offering in 1986, Microsoft founded its own Japanese subsidiary, Microsoft Kabushiki Kaisha (MSKK), and dissolved its partnership with ASCII. At around the same time, the company was also obliged to reform itself as a result of its aggressive diversification in the first half of the 1980s. The company went public in 1989.
1989–2000: Satellites and later projects.
ASCII's revenue in its fiscal year ending March 1996 was 56 billion yen, broken down by sectors: Publications (52.5% or 27.0 billion yen), Game entertainment (27.8% or 14.3 billion yen), Systems & semiconductors (10.8% or 6 billion yen) and others. Despite its struggles to remain focused on its core businesses, the company continued to suffer from accumulated debts, until an arrangement was made That CSK Corporation would execute a major investment into ASCII in 1997.
In the mid-90s, ASCII acquired the company Something Good, and renamed it to ASCII Something Good, through which they developed 3 Sega Saturn Games: "AI Shogi" (1995), "AI Igo" (1997), "AI Shogi 2" (1998).
ASCII originally used the name Nexoft on early American releases. In 1991, they renamed Nexoft to ASCII Entertainment, although releases around this time used the Asciiware name. To focus on supporting the interactive entertainment channel in America, startup company Agetec (for "Ascii Game Entertainment TEChnology") was spun off as an independent corporation in 1998 and later became a fully independent publisher one year later. Co-founder Tsukamoto had left ASCII to create a company of his own in 1992, named Impress.
2000–2008: Ownership changes and dissolution.
On November 26, 2001, CSK Corporation and Unison Capital Partners L.P. announced the approval of transferring the control of its subsidiary ASCII to Unison Capital Partners L.P., effective on March 30, 2002, as part of a strategy to focus CSK's operations on B2B enterprises. The transfer was approved on December 21, 2001. As a part of deal, ASCII's outstanding debt owed to CSK was forgiven, and under Unison's control, the ASCII's Enterbrain and IT publishing divisions would maintain autonomy, while ASCII was restructured to concentrate on PC and IT publishing businesses.
On May 28, 2002, Unison Media Partners announced ASCII would become a fully owned subsidiary of via share exchange, and ASCII would be delisted, effective on October 1, 2002. On November 18, 2002, the Astroarts subsidiary was renamed to ASCII, while ASCII was renamed to MediaLeaves. The former Astroarts subsidiary would inherit the publishing business of the former ASCII. On January 29, 2004, Unison Capital Partners, L.P. announced the sale of ASCII's parent company MediaLeaves to Kadokawa Group Holdings, to be completed in March 2004.
On September 27, 2007, Kadokawa Group Holdings announced the merger between subsidiaries MediaWorks and ASCII under the name ASCII Media Works, effective on April 1, 2008. The merger was approved in 2008.
On January 10, 2010, the formerly named ASCII company MediaLeaves was merged into Enterbrain, dissolving the last of the ASCII entity.
Products.
MSX.
MSX is a standardized home computer architecture, announced by Microsoft and ASCII on June 16, 1983. It was conceived and marketed by Kazuhiko Nishi, then vice-president at Microsoft and director at ASCII Corporation. Nishi conceived the project as an attempt to create unified standards among various home computing system manufacturers of the period. MSX systems were popular in Japan and several other countries. It is difficult to determine how many MSX computers were sold worldwide, but eventually 5 million MSX-based units were sold in Japan alone. Despite Microsoft's involvement, few MSX-based machines were released in the United States. Before the great success of Nintendo's Family Computer, MSX was the platform for which major Japanese game studios such as Konami and Hudson Soft produced video games. The "Metal Gear" series, for example, was first written for MSX hardware.


Vampire Killer

Vampire Killer is a platform-adventure video game released by Konami for the MSX2 computer on October 30, 1986. It is a parallel version of the original "Castlevania", which debuted a month earlier for the Famicom Disk System under the same Japanese title. However, the MSX2 version was localized first in Europe and thus, was published without the "Castlevania" branding that the franchise would start using abroad in 1987 when the NES version was released in North America (where neither "Vampire Killer" nor the MSX2 platform were released).
Like in "Castlevania", the player controls vampire hunter Simon Belmont, who ventures into Dracula's castle armed with a mystical whip inherited from his father, in order to slay the evil count.
Gameplay.
While "Vampire Killer" shares the same premise, soundtrack, characters and locations as the original "Castlevania", the structure of the game and its play mechanics differ significantly from its NES counterpart. Like "Castlevania", "Vampire Killer" consists of 18 stages, with a boss encounter at the end of every third stage. But in contrast to the linear level designs in "Castlevania", "Vampire Killer" features more labyrinth-like stages, requiring the player to not only seek out the exit to the next stage, but also the skeleton key required to unlock it. Due to the hardware limitations of the MSX2, "Vampire Killer" uses flip screens instead of scrolling. The game can be played with a keyboard or a game controller.
Items and weapons can be obtained not only by breaking through candle stands and certain walls like in the NES version, but also by purchasing them from merchants hidden throughout the castle or by unlocking treasure chests using keys. Simon's default whip can also be replaced with one of four weapons: a chain whip, throwing daggers, an ax, and a cross - the latter two function both like a boomerang and must be retrieved on their return path if the player wishes to preserve them.
There are also four items that Simon can carry with him similar to the sub-weapons in the NES version: a map which shows his current position and the location of the exit (can only be used three times by pressing F2), holy water (used by jumping and then pressing left or right in mid-air), an hourglass (which temporarily paralyzes all enemies by pressing down after jumping) and one of two types of shields. Heart points are used not only as ammunition for the holy water and hourglass (each requiring five hearts per use), but also as currency for merchants.
There are other items that provide more auxiliary effects such as increasing or decreasing the prices of items sold by merchants, temporary invulnerability, increased walking speed and jumping height, and health recovery. After defeating a boss, Simon will start the next stage without any of his previously-accumulated equipment, aside from the number of hearts and the map (if it has not been used up already).
The player starts the game with only three lives and with no way to gain extra lives. There are no continues, unless the game is played the Game Master cartridge on the second slot. Playing with the Game Master will also enable the option to select the stage and the number of lives to start with, as well as the ability to skip screens.


Classpad

Classpad is an Android-based educational tablet computer from Classteacher Learning Systems.
Features and specifications.
The tablet comes with a version of the Android 4.0 operating system with some custom skins and applications provided by Classteacher Learning Systems.
Classpad, touted to be a competition for Aakash, the world's cheapest tablet, is conceptualised to customise education in a way that every student can be reached and participate in the process of learning. The Classpad claims a better battery life, 1.3 GHz processing speed and a built-in memory of 8 GB, which is expandable to 32 GB. The device is also equipped with artificial intelligence.
Students can enter text into the tablet with an on-screen keyboard.
The use of Classpads makes the teachers transfer class works to the students' tablets, share their own content instantly at ease, and conduct tests.


OlivePad

OlivePad VT100 is a tablet computer phone designed and developed by Olive Telecom for the Indian market. It was released on October 23, 2010. It has a dimension of 7-inches with a resolution of 800 x 480 on a capacitive touchscreen supporting multi-touch. The tablet runs the Android operating system (OS) and offers video calling over its 7.2 Mbit/s High-Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) 3G connectivity, among other features.
Hardware.
Powered by an ARM11 600 MHz processor, the OlivePad is based on the Qualcomm MSM7227 chipset, and features 512 MB RAM, 512 MB inbuilt flash memory, and microSD expandability up to 32 GB, aside from a CMOS 3 megapixel camera and webcam. It will be India's first 3.5G tablet with HSUPA support. OlivePad will have quad-band GSM support and also would be available with tri-band WCDMA support.
At the rear of the tablet, there is a 3 megapixel autofocus camera supporting 4x zoom. The tablet also supports Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth, standard USB 2.0 ports, an added compass, G-sensor, ambient light sensor and dual speakers built-in.
The device supports 720p video playback and has a 3.5-mm jack, supporting 3GP, MP4, Audio Video Interleave (AVI) and MP3 formats. Weighing , the 7-inch tablet has dimensions of high, wide, deep, and a 3,240 mAh lithium-ion polymer battery that gives 16 hours of standby time, and 7 hours of talk time.
Software.
The OlivePad runs the Android 2.2 Froyo OS with Android Market support. The OS is not fully standard and is slightly customized. The tablet does not support Flash due to the ARM6 limits.


Empire of the Over-Mind

Empire of the Over-Mind (sometimes Empire of the Overmind) is an interactive fiction game written by Gary Bedrosian and published by Avalon Hill for the Apple II, Atari 8-bit family, and TRS-80 in 1981. A version with an enhanced display for MS-DOS by Bedrosian was published in 1986.
Contents.
"Empire of the Over-Mind" is an all-text adventure game in which the player tries to destroy the Over-Mind, an evil computer that has taken over a magic kingdom.
Reception.
In a 1984 "COMPUTE!" piece on adventure games, Selby Bateman wrote: "One very popular game for Avalon Hill has been its all-text adventure, "Empire of the OverMind" [sic] for Apple II and Atari computers, which is still selling well, notes Jack Dodd, Avalon Hill's director of marketing."
Bill Seligman reviewed "Empire of the Overmind" in "The Space Gamer" No. 49. Seligman commented that "For the price of this primitive program, one could buy two-and-a-half Scott Adams all-text adventures or one full-color graphics adventure from On-Line. Not recommended."


To Preserve Quandic

To Preserve Quandic is a graphical adventure game written by David Karam for the TRS-80 Color Computer and published by Prickly Pear Software in 1984. Taking two full disks, it was larger than both "The Sands of Egypt" and "Dallas Quest", which preceded it. The premise is to preserve the pacifistic Quandic race, who had advanced technology like time machines.


Flushot Plus


Lenovo IdeaPad U300s

The Lenovo U300s is an Ultrabook-class notebook computer.
Features.
The Lenovo U300s features Intel Rapid Start Technology which allows for faster start-up times while conserving battery life. This technology allows the U300s to start almost instantly. The U300s also makes use of m.2 SSDs instead of regular hard drives in order to improve start times.
The U300s' battery can last for up to eight hours. This exceeds the five hours required by Intel's Ultrabook specification.
Design.
The U300s weighs 1.58 kilograms and is only 18.3 mm thick. It measures 324mm in width and 216 in depth. As the case of the U300s does not use a tapered design it incorporates full-sized ports as opposed to the "mini" ports used on many other small laptops.
The U300s has an aluminum case with top and bottom panels in "Graphite Grey" with a silver body in between. As of February 2012 Lenovo has plans to release a "Clementine Orange" version of the U300s. The U300s has a small power brick that is slightly larger than a deck of playing cards.
Hardware specifications.
The U300s includes a 13-inch display, an Intel U series Core i7 or i5 processor, an SSD with options for 128 or 256 GB of storage. The U300s makes use of Intel's HD Graphics 3000 integrated with the CPU, includes an HDMI port, and supports Intel's WiDi standard for wireless graphics.
The U300s features what Lenovo calls "one-button recovery." Pushing a button on the left side of the case allows the user to restore the computer to factory condition. The OS can be re-installed from the recovery partition.
Reviews.
The Computer Shopper wrote that the U300s "delivers on the ultrabook promise of a take-anywhere laptop that doesn't compromise speed or battery life. But the Core i7 CPU and 256GB SSD in our test unit drives up the price too far for most users."
Jack Schofield, writing for ZDNet UK, stated, "The U300s is a convenient machine to carry around. It comes up from sleep in a couple of seconds, and the Flash-memory based SSD (solid state drive) means you start working very quickly. This has been one of the MacBook's advantages for the past decade, and it has taken PC manufacturers far too long to narrow the gap." Addressing some of the drawbacks of the U300s he writes, "As usual with ultraportable PCs, there are a few omissions, too. The U300s lacks an RJ-45 Ethernet port, which I frequently need in hotels, and an SD card slot, which I use all the time for copying files from my digital cameras and audio recorder. Also, there are only two USB ports, though one of these supports USB 3.0."
Riyad Emeran, writing for IT Reviews, wrote in his review of the U300s, "There's no shortage of great looking Ultrabooks on the market, with the likes of the Toshiba Z830 and Asus ZenBook UX31 also vying for your attention. But there is something a bit different about the Lenovo U300s. It feels slightly less indulgent and takes itself a little more seriously, making it potentially more attractive to the business user. It's not perfect, with the reduced size keys on the keyboard being the main bugbear, but you are getting a solid, well designed Ultrabook at a very reasonable price."
The U300s was described by Engadget as being "pared-down and tasteful." It was compared to the Macbook Air in terms of design since, like the Air, it was made from a single sheet of aluminum, and was indicated to be susceptible to scratches, despite the fact that the metal had been sandblasted and anodized. Engadget also criticized the U300s for the lack of a memory card slot, stating that, "it's the only Ultrabook we know of that doesn't have a memory card slot." The keyboard on the laptop received praise and was described as being sturdy and comfortable to type on. The glass touchpad was also received positively, with the reviewer stating that, "it has the best touchpad of any of the new Ultrabooks we've tested."


MECIPT

The Timişoara Polytechnic Institute Electronic Computer (Romanian: Maşina Electronică de Calcul Institutul Politehnic Timişoara), known as MECIPT, is the name used for a family of computers built from 1961 to 1968 at the Polytechnic University of Timișoara in Romania.
MECIPT-1 was a first generation computer built by Iosif Kaufmann and Wilhelm Loewenfeld (1956–1962), a team joined in 1961 by Vasile Baltac. This was the second computer built in Romania after Victor Toma built the CIFA-1 in 1957, and the first in a Romanian university. MECIPT-2 (1962) and MECIPT-3 (1965) followed as second and third generation computer technology.
Parts of MECIPT 1 and 2 are exhibited in the Museum of Banat. In 2011, a 50th anniversary celebration was organized in Timişoara to recall the importance of the MECIPT computers to Romania.


The Ancient Art of War at Sea

The Ancient Art of War at Sea is a computer game developed by Broderbund and released for Macintosh and MS-DOS in 1987 as a sequel to "The Ancient Art of War".
Plot.
The player commands a fleet of ships in this naval-combat simulation which takes place in the late 18th-century.
Controllable ship types include the 44-gun frigate with 250 crew, 74-gun (including 10 carronades) ship-of-the-line with over 600 crew, and the 130-gun (including 22 carronades) flagship with 875 crew.
The player faces one of six opponents, each of which employs a different strategy against the player. Five are historic: the Duke of Medina Sidonia (1588); Martin [sic] Tromp (1639); Blackbeard (1718); John Paul Jones (1779); Horatio Nelson (1805); and a fictitious opponent Thor Foote.
Reception.
"Computer Gaming World" in 1987 stated that "The Ancient Art of War at Sea" "offers a powerful editing system and an enjoyable, playable game" that was superior to its predecessor, with excellent documentation. In 1990 the magazine gave the game three out of five stars, warning that gameplay favored single ships as opposed to fleet actions when fighting enemy fleets. In 1992 the magazine gave the game two stars, stating that it "plays wells as a game, but not as a serious study" and regretting that it was the only Age of Sail game for DOS. "Compute!" in 1988 also praised the documentation and editor. The game was reviewed in 1988 in "Dragon" by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in their "The Role of Computers" column. They agreed that "War at Sea" was better than its predecessor and called it a "must have", giving the game five out of five stars. They particularly enjoyed the ship-to-ship combat.


Talkbits

Talkbits was a free voice mobile app for iOS and Android that combined push-to-talk technology with social discovery. The application has been developed and maintained by OnAir Labs, an international mobile development company. As of December 2013, the Talkbits service is not available anymore.
Users were able to listen to a livestream of messages around their current physical location, send private voice messages to other users, and could join public discussions revolving around different topics. Based in Zurich, Moscow, Istanbul and São Paulo, the company has raised $2 million in venture financing from Russian Runa Capital. It was named among top-10 Russian web startups by The Moscow Times. Talkbits received the best mobile app award on Russian Startup Awards 2013 by The Next Web.
Talkbits was officially launched in US and the UK on February 12, 2013. On February 24 the app was launched on a Turkish market. Soon Talkbits announced plans to be rolled out in Singapore, Indonesia and Brazil, however as of December 2013, the iOS App is not available in the US App store. The Android version is available in Google Play as of March 2014, but the server appears to be shut down.


Olympus C-8080 Wide Zoom

The Olympus C-8080 WZ is a digital camera model manufactured by Olympus. It was first announced on the opening day of the 2004 Photo Marketing Association Annual Convention and Trade Show. As of that time, the C-8080 was set to be Olympus’ first eight-megapixel digital camera for the high-end consumer market. Olympus set the camera's MSRP at $1,149 USD.
One key feature that is described in the name is the optical zoom technique used in this camera. Most compact zoom cameras use the zoom functionality for telephoto work where one details in on a remote subject. This camera allows one to set up the lens to work as a wide-angle lens which comes in handy for group or landscape photography. It has a high resolution lens with 5x zoom (7.1 - 35.6 mm) - equals (28 – 140 mm) in 35 mm film format - and an aperture of 2.4 for wide angle and 3.5 for telephoto. Focus range: normal 0.8 - inf.; macro 20 – 80 cm ; super-macro up to 5 cm.
The metering modes for exposure are: ESP, center-weighted, multi-metering and spot. The metering target mark on the screen can be moved in 13 positions in spot mode. For absolute control a live histogram can be activated and the histogram target mark can be placed in 10.000 different positions. An AEL button can lock the metered exposure.
The camera has two sensors for AF: one is based on contrast detection, the other one on phase-difference detection (P-AF).
The metering settings for the focus are: iESP, spot, full-time AF, P-AF and MF, macro and super-macro. The AF target mark can take 9 positions in spot mode.
Movie clips: 640 x 480 and 320 x 240 both 15 frames per second. Length is only limited by the storage card.
The camera accepts xD-Picture Cards (necessary for panorama shooting), CompactFlash type I and II and IBM microdrives with two slots.
Copying to another slot is possible in the camera.
Data storage is available in TIFF, RAW and JPEG format.
Data transfer connectivity is USB 2.0.
The 8080 has a 4.5 cm tilting sunshine-LCD of 134,000 pixels and the electronic viewfinder has 240,000 pixels.
The C8080WZ was succeeded at least partially by the C7070WZ (2005) this being the continuation of the C5060WZ with much the same specifications of the C8080WZ albeit with a slower lens. The primary difference being the C7070WZ was slightly smaller in dimensions and with a small (cheaper) price differential to the C8080WZ. In practice both cameras had a very similar specification and target market.


Fibre Channel Utility

Fibre Channel Utility is a Mac OS X Server utility for managing Fibre Channels connected to the server. The program will not run without a Fiber Card installed in the server.


M*A*S*H (video game)

M*A*S*H is an action game, based on the TV series, written for the Atari 2600 and published by Fox Video Games in 1983. It was designed and programmed by Doug Neubauer. Ports to the Atari 8-bit family, Commodore VIC-20, Texas Instruments TI-99/4A, Intellivision, and ColecoVision followed.
Gameplay.
Players are tasked with controlling a helicopter and army doctors at varying points, with the mobile army surgical hospital (M*A*S*H) team rescuing wounded to take back to the M*A*S*H 4077. The TI-99/4A version is compatible with the speech synthesizer peripheral, and at times characters say phrases aloud, such as "butterfingers."
Development and release.
"M*A*S*H" began development as part of an initiative by Frank O'Connell and Paul Carter, who collaborated to create the studio Fox Video Games in April 1982. The company pushed "aggressively" to create and market home video games. O'Connell stated that his first major acquisition was getting the rights to make a "M*A*S*H" video game. "M*A*S*H" received heavier promotion than other titles released by Fox Video, and was promoted under Fox's "Games of the Century" banner. Jamie Farr, who portrayed Maxwell Klinger on the "M*A*S*H" TV series, was the official spokesperson for the video game.
In late 1983, O'Connell announced that the price of the game would be cut by half because of an oversaturated Atari 2600 game market.
Reception.
Marc Berman for "Electronic Fun with Computers & Games" felt the game trivialized the war; they found it "heartless" given how "gruesome" the war was, and that lacking the humanity present in the show and film. Despite this, Berman still found the gameplay "terrific." The reviewer for the "Addison-Wesley Book Of Atari Software 1984" found the game boring, agreeing with Berman that the lack of the show's humor and personalities was a problem. An author for "Computer And Video Games" felt that the visuals and audio were "well simulated," though found that controlling a scalpel using a joystick was less responsive than it was on a keyboard. Lisa Honden for "Electronic Games" found it decent to play, but said that it was not very "innovative."
Legacy.
A contest was held, where the person who came up with the best premise for a "M*A*S*H 2" would receive $25,000 USD, with an entry included in copies of the game as well as a "M*A*S*H" T-shirt. Other prizes for those who did not win the money include AMC Jeeps, TI-99/4A home computers, and video games released by Fox Video Games. A sequel never materialized.


IOS 9

iOS 9 is the ninth major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc., being the successor to iOS 8. It was announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 8, 2015, and was released on September 16, 2015. It was succeeded by iOS 10 on September 13, 2016.
iOS 9 incorporated many feature updates to built-in apps. Most notably, Notes received the ability to draw sketches with different tools, image insertion, prominent visual appearance for website links and map locations, and advanced list formatting; an all-new Apple News app aggregates articles from different sources; and Apple Maps received mass transit support, although in a limited number of locations at launch. Major new system updates include proactivity, where Siri and advanced search are combined to make the operating system more contextually aware of information (such as time and location), and can provide the user with information ahead of time. For searching, the proactive intelligence can display instant results in a widget-like format, including weather, sports, news, and more. iOS 9 also added multiple forms of multitasking to the iPad. In iOS 9.3, Apple added a Night Shift mode that changes the color of the device's display to a warmer, less "blue light" containing shade, to reduce any negative eye health effects on users' circadian rhythms. Additionally, iOS 9 brought new user experience functions, including Quick Actions, and Peek and Pop, based on the touch-sensitive display technology in the iPhone 6S. Quick Actions are shortcuts on home screen app icons. Users can preview ("Peek") at content without moving away from the current screen before they enter ("Pop") the previewed content into full view.
Reception of iOS 9 was positive. Critics praised proactivity and Siri for making the Notification Center a central location for all information, and the potential for future updates to improve the functionality. The new multitasking features for the iPad were complimented, as were drawing and photo insertion in the Notes app. However, Apple News was criticized for a low number of decent-looking articles, and Apple Maps was criticized for the limited geographical availability of mass transit support.
Five days after release, Apple announced that iOS 9 had been installed on more than 50% of "active" iOS devices, which Apple described as the "fastest adoption rate ever for a new operating system".
History.
Introduction and initial release.
iOS 9 was introduced at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference on June 8, 2015, with the first beta made available to registered developers after the keynote, and a public beta made available in July. This marked the first time that the general public had been able to test new versions of iOS before official release, with Eddy Cue, Apple's Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services, telling "Fast Company" that the public beta program was started "because of Maps", referring to the company's Apple Maps launch that had significant issues in its early days.
iOS 9 was officially released on September 16, 2015.
System features.
3D Touch.
On the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus, a touch-sensitive display feature called 3D Touch is incorporated into iOS 9. It is similar to Force Touch, which can be found on the trackpad of some Apple MacBook computers. Quick Actions and shortcuts are added to apps that support the 3D Touch feature and are triggered by pressing slightly harder on the app icon. It also introduces actions known as Peek and Pop, which lets users firmly hold to preview ("Peek") any kind of content in a hovering window, before they optionally apply more pressure to enter ("Pop") the content into full view.
The taptic engine in the iPhone 6S provides haptic feedback each time users press the screen harder.
Battery.
iOS 9 comes with two important battery-saving updates. When a phone has been placed face-down, the screen will not light up upon receiving notifications. Apple has also added Low Power Mode, which modifies the amount of energy dedicated to background services and animations. For example, background app refresh and push email are paused during Low Power Mode. When a phone reaches 20% battery level, users are automatically prompted to turn on Low Power Mode, which changes the color of the battery icon in the top row status bar on the screen to yellow. When the battery goes higher than the 80% level, Low Power Mode automatically turns back off.
Design.
San Francisco, a new system font, replaced Helvetica Neue as the system typeface of iOS.
iOS 9 added a new battery widget to the Notification Center that displayed the battery life and charging status of any connected Bluetooth device.
When the shift button is inactive, lowercase letters are displayed on the keyboard, instead of the all-caps representation on previous iOS versions.
Installation.
iOS 9 is a smaller update than iOS 8, requiring 1.3 GB of space, compared to 4.58 GB for iOS 8. Additionally, iOS 9 includes an option to temporarily delete apps to allow the update to install. Once the update has been installed, the apps will be automatically restored. iOS 9 also features "app thinning" functionality, whereby only the necessary assets needed to run apps on each individual device is downloaded rather than the entire app, potentially saving space.
Multitasking.
iOS 9 adds a number of features to the iPad to improve productivity. These include Slide Over, Split Screen, and Picture in Picture, for enhanced multitasking, similar to the experience found on OS X El Capitan. Slide Over allows the user to pull in a second app with a swipe from the right edge of the display. This app takes up 1/3 of the screen and sticks to the right side of the screen, while interactivity within the full-screen app is disabled while left inactive in the background. The feature allows users to perform quick tasks and then dismiss the app again.
If the user taps on the handle next to the Slide Over window or extends the window further towards the left of the screen, the user enters Split Screen, which allows them to interact with two apps simultaneously side-by-side in a 50/50 split. Users can also switch to another app in either Slide Over mode or Split Screen view by pulling down on the handle on top of either app and selecting another app from the list to replace the existing one.
Picture in Picture mode allows users to minimize FaceTime calls or supported videos to a smaller window and continue watching them while doing other tasks on the iPad.
The Split Screen multitasking feature is only available for iPad Air 2, iPad mini 4, and iPad Pro, while the Slide Over and Picture in Picture features are available on the iPad Air, iPad Air 2, iPad mini 2 and newer, and the iPad Pro.
When banner notifications are tapped, causing another app to open, a back button at the top-left corner of the screen has been added, bringing the user back to the previous app.
Night Shift.
Night Shift is a display mode introduced in iOS 9.3. The mode shifts the colors of the device's display to be warmer, similar to F.lux, a popular program for Microsoft Windows and Apple macOS computers. When enabled, it uses the device's clock and geographic location to determine when to turn the feature on or off. Optionally, the user can set a manual schedule, or not have a schedule at all. For ease of access, there is a new Night Shift toggle in the Control Center. The settings for Night Shift are located under "Display and Brightness" in the Settings app, and on top of enabling the feature and setting a schedule, the user can also set the warmth of the display.
Despite being introduced in iOS 9.3 in March 2016, it wasn't possible to use Night Shift and Low Power Mode simultaneously until the release of iOS 9.3.2 two months later. Night Shift requires a 64-bit processor only found in the Apple A7 or newer chips, which means older iOS devices, including the iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPhone 5C, iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad 4, first-generation iPad Mini, and 5th generation iPod Touch, do not receive Night Shift mode.
Performance.
iOS 9 includes performance and speed improvements thanks to the expanded use of the Metal API. Metal was introduced in iOS 8 and was previously limited to game developers. In iOS 9, the use of Metal is expanded to let it handle many of the core user interface elements and graphics.
Proactivity.
Intelligence is one of the main features in iOS 9, consisting of the newly integrated Siri and Search (previously known as Spotlight), as well as "proactivity" throughout the operating system. iOS is now more aware of contextual information (such as time and location), and proactively provides the user with what they may need in advance to save them time and effort. When typing, Search has also been improved to display instant answers in an at-a-glance, widget-like format, similar to that provided in the Siri interface. Search can display current weather, sports scores, news, and more. The Search screen with proactive suggestions can be accessed either by pulling down the notifications window, in the Safari web browser through the search bar, and to the left on the home screen.
The intelligence also extends into apps. For instance, in Mail, events can be automatically added to Calendar if details are found in the message content, and likely additional recipients are suggested during message composition. Siri is also aware of what is currently on screen when it is engaged by holding down the home button.
Security.
iOS 9 introduces multiple security enhancements. It introduces a 6-digit passcode as a default, an extra two digits from the previous 4-digit default, as well as support for two-factor authentication.
The original iOS 9 release in September 2015 fixed a security issue within previous iOS versions where a "flaw allowed anyone within range of an AirDrop user to install malware on a target device and tweak iOS settings so the exploit would still work if the victim rejected an incoming AirDrop file".
Settings.
The Settings app in iOS 9 has a search bar that makes it easier to find settings and options. The user also has options to have notifications be grouped by which app they came from, and the ability to turn on or off Shake to Undo.
Other changes.
On iPad, a two-finger drag on the keyboard moves the cursor freely like a traditional trackpad, making positioning the cursor and selecting text easier. The keyboard-to-trackpad feature is also extended to iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, in which users can 3D Touch (force press) the keyboard to enable the trackpad. Also on the iPad, a shortcut bar has been added for cut, copy, paste, undo and redo functions, and folders display 16 apps per page in a 4-by-4 arrangement, compared to 9 on the iPhone, allowing for an increased total of 240 apps in a single folder.
iOS 9 introduced Wi-Fi Assist, a feature, on by default, that automatically switches the phone to cellular data when the Wi-Fi connection is spotty.
Whenever the user is presented with flight information, the user can click on a link to view a preview for that flight.
App features.
iBooks.
As of iOS 9.3, PDFs saved to the iBooks application via Safari or iTunes can be synced with iCloud.
iCloud.
iOS 9 has a setting that enables an iCloud Drive app on the home screen. iCloud Drive lets the user save and browse files and folders in iCloud.
Health.
The Health app, introduced in iOS 8, has received landscape mode on iPhone. It also added support for reproductive health, UV exposure, water intake and sedentary state data types.
In iOS 9.3, it also tracks sleep, exercise, and weight from the Apple Watch.
Messages.
The Messages (previously iChat) app allows the user to search for text and have that text be highlighted (and scrolled).
Maps.
Apple Maps adds support for transit directions in Baltimore, Berlin, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, New York City, Paris, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Toronto, and Washington D.C., along with "over 300 locations in China".
The Maps app now also has enhanced location details, including a Nearby feature that recommends shops, restaurants and places to drink in close proximity to the user. For places serving food, users can specify exactly what type of food they want.
News.
iOS 9 includes a new Apple News app (replacing the Newsstand app), which aggregates news from different sources in a similar style as Flipboard. The app features a "mobile-formatted layout that loads quickly and has informative animations and full-bleed images". Additionally, News supports RSS feeds from the Safari web browser. At launch, the News app was only available in the United States, but it was expanded to the United Kingdom and Australia with the iOS 9.1 update.
In March 2016, Apple opened the News platform to all news agencies, including independent bloggers.
Notes.
The Notes app has received a number of enhancements in iOS 9, including the ability to draw sketches with a number of different tools, including a ruler for straight lines. Images can also be added, and links to websites and Map locations get a more prominent, visual appearance when added to notes. On the iPad, and on iPhone in landscape mode, Notes has a range of color options for drawing, as well as an eraser. Advanced formatting options including checked, bulleted, dashed and numbered lists.
The app also supports iCloud and allows for easy folder creation.
A secure notes feature, introduced in iOS 9.3, lets an iOS user protect their notes with either a passcode or Touch ID.
Photos.
The Photos app on iOS 9 included the improved scrubber bar in the photo viewer, "Screenshots" and "Selfies" albums, and the ability to hold and select multiple photos easily, without having to delete them individually. It also allows the user to hide sensitive material through a new Hide option. The app also allows the user to pinch to zoom while playing a video.
Safari.
With the release of iOS 9, the Safari web browser allows for third-party content blocking apps. Safari also allows users to customize the appearance of the Reader mode, with options for font and background color.
A few days after the release of iOS 9, ad blocking software had topped the App Store charts, with Marco Arment, developer of a Peace app, saying that "web advertising and behavioral tracking is out of control. ... They're unacceptably creepy, bloated, annoying, and insecure, and they're getting worse at an alarming pace."
Wallet.
The Passbook application was renamed Wallet in iOS 9 and includes many new changes, such as support for store loyalty cards, gift cards, Discover credit/debit cards, and Apple Pay in the UK. The Wallet app can also be accessed from the lock screen.
Developer APIs.
In iOS 9.3, a "Music API" allows developers to integrate apps into the Apple Music streaming service.
Reception.
iOS 9 received mostly positive reviews. Dan Seifert of "The Verge" praised the improvements in Proactivity and Siri, highlighting how the notification drop-down contains most, if not all, the information the user needs. Although he pointed out that Google's Google Now and Microsoft's Cortana personal assistants offer similar services, sometimes with "better and more varied ways" of achieving results, the improvements to iOS "lay the foundation for even more capabilities in the future". Chris Velazco of "Engadget" liked the "small, thoughtful" design changes, but was most impressed by the new multitasking features for the iPad, referring to Split Screen as a "lovely little feature". He did, however, criticize the low number of decent-looking articles in Apple News, writing that "you'll notice a discrepancy in how some articles are handled – most are just formatted text on a white background with the outlet's logo up top" and also noted the limited number of locations in Apple Maps that, at launch, supported mass transit directions. Matt Swider of "TechRadar" wrote that Siri and Proactivity lists were "robust", and enjoyed that notifications were sorted chronologically rather than by app. Samuel Gibbs of "The Guardian" welcomed the changes to the built-in apps such as drawing and photo insertion in Notes, unknown number identification from emails through Phone, and Siri automatically launching the Music app upon plugging in headphones. He also praised the updates to the keyboard, calling it "much easier to use".
Apple is facing a $5 million lawsuit over allegedly slowing the iPhone 4S with iOS 9. This is because according to the lawsuit, the iOS 9 update slowed down the iPhone 4S to the point that the phone was unusable (as performance was sluggish) and that Apple knew this fact (planned obsolescence).
On September 21, 2015, Apple announced that iOS 9 had been installed on more than 50% of "active" iOS devices, as measured by the App Store. According to Apple, this was "the fastest adoption rate ever for a new operating system".
Problems.
Error 53 bricking issue.
In February 2016, news outlets reported that users who updated to iOS 9 on a particular device that had components repaired by a third-party (notably the Touch ID fingerprint recognition sensor) rendered their phone bricked. The issue, named "Error 53", was, according to iFixIt, limited to iPhone 6 and 6 Plus devices. Apple stated:
We protect fingerprint data using a secure enclave, which is uniquely paired to the Touch ID sensor. When iPhone is serviced by an authorised Apple service provider or Apple retail store for changes that affect the Touch ID sensor, the pairing is re-validated. ... This check ensures the device and the iOS features related to Touch ID remain secure. Without this unique pairing, a malicious Touch ID sensor could be substituted, thereby gaining access to the secure enclave. When iOS detects that the pairing fails, Touch ID, including Apple Pay, is disabled so the device remains secure.
Apple released a new version of iOS 9.2.1 later in February to fix the issue.
Date reboot issue.
In February 2016, a bug was discovered that could render 64-bit devices unusable. The bug, caused by setting the time to January 1, 1970, would cause the device to get stuck in a reboot process until the battery died or the time setting shifted past January 1. A similar bug also applies to 32-bit devices, where the battery would report 0% of charge, and the Wi-Fi would be disabled. iOS 9.3, released on March 21, 2016, fixed the issue.
9.7-inch iPad Pro bricking issue.
In May 2016, Apple released iOS 9.3.2. The update was followed by reports that it bricked some 9.7-inch iPad Pros, with a "Connect to iTunes" message, and an "Error 56" message in iTunes that it couldn't restore the tablet.
Apple temporarily stopped offering the 9.3.2 update, until a re-release of the version in June 2016 fixed the issue.
iBooks crash.
The release of iOS 9.3.3 in July 2016 was followed by reports that the iBooks store crashed. However, Apple explained in August that the timing was a coincidence, and the iBooks app crash was a result of a server issue, not the software update.
Spyware attack.
The release of iOS 9.3.5 in August 2016 fixed three critical security vulnerabilities. The vulnerabilities could be exploited to silently enable a jailbreak and allow the malicious installation of a spyware called "Pegasus". Pegasus could intercept and read text messages, emails, track calls, trace phone location, activate the microphone, and gather information from apps, including (but not limited to) iMessage, Gmail, Viber, Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, and Skype.
The discovery of the vulnerabilities dated 10 days before the 9.3.5 update was released. Arab human rights defender Ahmed Mansoor received a suspicious text message with a link and sent it to Citizen Lab. An investigation ensued with collaboration from Lookout that revealed that if Mansoor clicked the link, it would have jailbroken his phone and implanted it with the spyware. Citizen Lab linked the attack to an Israeli surveillance company known as NSO Group that sells Pegasus to governments for "lawful interception".
Regarding how widespread the issue was, Lookout explained in a blog post: "We believe that this spyware has been in the wild for a significant amount of time based on some of the indicators within the code" and pointed out that the code shows signs of a "kernel mapping table that has values all the way back to iOS 7".
News of the spyware received significant media attention, particularly for being called the "most sophisticated" smartphone attack ever, and for being the first time in iPhone history that a remote jailbreak exploit has been detected.
"Broadpwn" Wi-Fi vulnerability.
In July 2017, information on a critical Wi-Fi security vulnerability affecting 1 billion iOS and Android devices was published. The issue, named "Broadpwn", allows an attacker to remotely take control of nearby vulnerable devices and turn affected devices into "rogue access points", further spreading the infection to other nearby devices. Apple released a security patch for the issue as part of its iOS 10.3.3 update, though older devices running iOS 9, including the iPad 2, 3rd generation iPad, iPhone 4S, the first-generation iPad Mini, and the 5th generation iPod Touch were left without an available update, causing concerns over the safety of the iPad 2, 3rd generation iPad, and the first-generation iPad Mini in schools.
iPhone 4S lawsuit.
On December 22, 2015, Apple faced a class-action lawsuit for crippling the iPhone 4S with the iOS 9 update, with some people even going so far as to say that iOS 9 rendered their devices unusable. The 4S only had 512MB of RAM, so it could not handle the iOS 9 update.
In response to the lawsuit, Apple opened a signing window which opened in January 2018 and closed in November 2019, which allowed users to downgrade their iPhone 4S from iOS 9 to iOS 6.1.3. The option to downgrade to iOS 6.1.3 also allowed an over-the-air update to iOS 8.4.1 due to technical limitations preventing a direct update from iOS 6 to iOS 9.
Supported devices.
With this release, Apple did not drop support for any iOS devices, with all devices supporting iOS 8 also able to run iOS 9.


VideoBrain Family Computer

The VideoBrain Family Computer (model 101) is an 8-bit home computer manufactured by Umtech Incorporated, starting in 1977. It is based on the Fairchild Semiconductor F8 CPU. It was not a large commercial success and was discontinued from the market less than three years after its initial release. Some of its lack of success has been attributed to the decision to substitute the APL/S programming language over the then-standard BASIC. Due to the high cost of RAM memory, it only contained 1 KB. It had a full-travel keyboard, unlike some early home computers that featured membrane keypads (and earlier kit machines that used switches), but with a very non-standard layout. It was designed by Dr. David Chung and Dr. Albert Yu.
History.
The VideoBrain Family Computer was designed and produced by Umtech Inc., doing business as the VideoBrain Computer Company of California in 1977. It was not widely available, although Macy's department store briefly carried the computer on its shelves. It was sold in various configurations, and the price ranged from $500 to $1100 depending on the accessories chosen. New software for the VideoBrain was available on cartridge, which was a first for home computer systems (Later price reductions brought costs down to $300 for the computer by itself, and $350–900 for the packaged deals).
Available software ranged in price from $20 to $40 for video games and educational software, and $70 to $150 for productivity tools.
Design.
The VideoBrain Family Computer was built around the F8 processor from Fairchild Semiconductor, and featured 1KB of RAM and a 4KB ROM. It was able to output 16-color graphics and sound to a connected television set through an RF connector. By far its most striking feature was the 36-key keyboard - though the keyboard of the VideoBrain was poorly designed and difficult to use, keyboards were not available on any of the more common video game consoles of the time. Some popular kit-based computers also typically lacked a keyboard, opting for toggle switches instead. The system also features four joystick ports, a cartridge connector, and an expansion port.
The system included four built-in software titles, available if the unit is powered on without a cartridge inserted - a simple text editor, a clock, a countdown timer, and a Color Bar generator.
Two additional hardware modules were marketed that would extend the capabilities of the VideoBrain. The Expander 1 was an interface to various I/O devices. It allowed users to connect a cassette tape recorder for saving or loading data, and included two RS-232 ports for attaching a printer and the Expander 2. The Expander 2 was a 300 baud acoustic modem used by a single program (Timeshare) that allowed the VideoBrain to act as a terminal when dialed into a compatible mainframe computer.
Additional software was sold on cartridges measuring approximately the size of a Betamax tape. The cartridge interface was unique: unlike most video game systems, VideoBrain cartridges had an exposed strip of conductive traces that simply lie flush against a set of pins on the computer itself. Cartridges could contain up to 12KiB of data.
Patent 4232374 titled "Segment Ordering for Television Receiver Control Unit" describes the VideoBrain display hardware.
Images.
"VideoBrain: Screen Captures" at HCVGM
Software.
Because the VideoBrain computer was discontinued so quickly, fewer than 25 software titles were ever marketed for the system. The library comprises a handful of games, educational titles, and productivity software.
Reception.
The VideoBrain largely failed to achieve commercial viability for a number of reasons. Poor design decisions hindered user acceptance; for example, the VideoBrain's confusing and user-unfriendly keyboard made even simple text entry a tedious process. Moreover, the computer did not offer the then-popular programming language BASIC, forcing users to instead adopt APL/S - a far more obscure and difficult programming language. Finally, the VideoBrain software library had trouble reaching a key audience. Most available software was aimed at productivity or educational markets, and lacked any variety of entertainment titles.
Perhaps the largest contributor to the VideoBrain's failure was simply a lack of proper marketing and hardware availability. Public understanding of computers in 1977 was significantly lower than it is today, and many potential consumers simply did not understand the benefits of owning a home computer. Additionally, the VideoBrain was mainly sold through mail-order outfits, and only made a brief retail showing at Macy's Department Stores. (By contrast, video game consoles at the time were easily available in a number of department and toy chains, allowing them to far outsell the VideoBrain Computer System).
Albert Yu said, in an 2005 interview, said he had invited Andy Grove to look over the system and he was skeptical – wondering who would want to buy a computer for the home. Yu also said Grove was skeptical about the Apple II as well but Yu felt that the Apple was successful because it targeted a market (computer enthusiasts) that was easier to sell to. The Apple was also quite a bit more powerful and more expensive. It was an open system, with many expansion slots and fully documented software and hardware – to target the enthusiast community. Although it lacked uppercase, its keyboard was both full-travel and of a normal layout. The VideoBrain, by contrast, was a much more closed design targeting home users with more simplicity and low cost. Even the keyboard was simplified, in terms of the number of keys. Apple created closed systems designed around simplicity later, such as the original Macintosh (which eschewed slots, hard disk support, and the numeric keypad) and the much later iMac (which eschewed slots and the floppy disk).


Samsung NC20

The Samsung NC20 is a subnotebook / Netbook computer designed by Samsung. At the time of its introduction, (February 2009, while in the U.S.A. was on March 2009), it was the first mainstream netbook to use the VIA Nano processor and the first to support the x86-64 instruction set. The 12.1" screen size is larger than typical for this class of ultra portable PC. Its most direct competitors are the Lenovo IdeaPad S12 and the MSI Wind U210.
Technical overview.
Processor and memory.
The Samsung NC20 uses a VIA Nano ULV Processor U2250 (running from 800 MHz - 1,6 GHz) and comes with 1 GB RAM. Internally, the NC20 has one slot for RAM accepting memory modules up to 2 GB.
The hardware is powerful enough to run Windows 7 in everyday situations (web-browsing, email, office applications). However, CPU-demanding tasks (e.g. Flash videos) tend to put the system at its limit.
Display.
The screen is a glossy display and measures 12.1 inches (307 mm) diagonally. It has a native resolution of 1280 × 800 pixels. The screen is LED-backlit. An external display can be used through the standard VGA connector.
Keyboard and touchpad.
The 84-key keyboard is a full-size keyboard, with standard 18.5mm key pitch between keys. The keyboard has also been coated with anti-bacterial Silver Nano ions. The touchpad supports multi-touch gestures.
Storage.
The standard internal hard drive is a SATA 160 GB. It also includes a SD card slot, supporting MMC, SD and SDHC cards for additional storage.
Connectivity.
The NC20 has built-in LAN (10/100 MBit) via a standard-sized RJ45-jack, 802.11b/g Wifi as well as Bluetooth. It also comes with 3 USB 2.0 ports.
Audio and video.
A webcam (Namuga 1.3 megapixel) is built into the display frame, as well as a microphone. Together with the built-in stereo speakers, the NC20 can be used for audio/video conferences (e.g. using Skype), albeit only with moderate call-quality. The webcam picture becomes relatively noisy under low-light conditions and the microphone produces audible noise and picks up vibrations from the harddisk or when typing.
The NC20 also has standard 3,5mm jacks for audio output (headphones / line-out) and input (external microphone / line-in), allowing for far better audio quality than the built-in speakers and microphone.
Criticism.
Not all of the features of this notebook are supported under Linux. Playing video and microphone are partially supported. External monitor support under Linux is not possible. WLAN under Ubuntu is reported to have frequent freezeups.


ANDOS

ANDOS is a Russian operating system for Electronika BK series computers: BK-0010, BK-0011, and BK-0011M. They were based on the PDP-11 architecture by Digital Equipment Corporation. ANDOS was created in 1990 and released first in 1992. Initially it was developed by Alexey Nadezhin (by whose name the system is named) and later also by Sergey Kamnev, who joined the project. It was the only widespread system on BK series computers that used MS-DOS-compatible file system format. ANDOS used the FAT12 file system on 800 Kb floppy disks. For Electronika BK-0011M and BK-0011, ANDOS could emulate a BK-0010 by loading a BK-0010 read-only memory (ROM) image into BK-0011(M) random-access memory (RAM). In minimal configuration, the system could occupy less than 4 Kb of RAM.
The system was able to support up to 64 disk drives (or hard disk drive partitions), and RAM disks in the computer's memory and tape recording. It could also have read-only access to MicroDOS file system format disks, although in the last version, this function was transferred from system core to the file manager and became optional.


Elektronika B3-34

Elektronika B3-34 (Cyrillic: Электроника Б3-34) was a Soviet programmable calculator. It was released in 1980 and was sold for 85 rubles.
B3-34 used reverse Polish notation and had 98 bytes of instruction memory, four stack user registers and 14 addressable registers. Each register could store up to 8 mantissa or Significand digits and two exponent digits in the range to .
The first Soviet programmable stationary calculator the ISKRA 123, using mains power, was released at the beginning of the 1970s. The first programmable battery-powered pocket calculator Elektronika B3-21 was developed by the end of 1977 and released at the beginning of 1978. Its successor, B3-34, wasn't backward compatible with B3-21. The instruction set, hardware architecture and microcode of the B3-34 defined the standard of the later Soviet programmable hand-held and office-deck calculators: , , , . Model numbers do not follow any special order: MK-54 is a slightly upgraded version of B3-34 and MK-56 is its desktop copy, while MK-61 and MK-52 are somewhat more advanced calculators with more operations and even EEPROM (MK-52 only).
Later, at the end of the 1980s, much more powerful calculators appeared on the Soviet market. For example, the calculator or hand-held computer MK-90, which had a graphic LCD display and an internal BASIC interpreter, was essentially a pocket-sized variety of the PDP-11. Due to their high price and the growing popularity of much more powerful personal computers, such as ZX Spectrum, these powerful calculators never gained popularity among the general Soviet population. Therefore, the B3-34-derived calculators are remembered by many as their "first computer".
Despite very limited capability, people managed to write all kinds of programs for B3-34 and its later successors, including adventure games and libraries of sophisticated calculus-related functions for engineers. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of programs were written for these machines, from practical scientific and business software, which were used in real-life offices and labs, to fun games for children. During 1985–1986 the science magazine "Tekhnika Molodezhi" published a science fiction story "Way to Earth" accompanied by programs for B3-34 that could be used to simulate a particular segment of Moon-Earth journey from the story. The Elektronika MK-52 calculator (using the extended B3-34 command set, and featuring internal EEPROM memory for storing programs and external interface for EEPROM cards and other periphery) was used in the Soviet spacecraft program (for Soyuz TM-7 flight) as a backup for the on-board computer.
This series of calculators was also noted for a large number of highly counter-intuitive mysterious undocumented features, not unlike the "synthetic programming" of the American HP-41, which were exploited by applying normal arithmetic operations to error messages, jumping to non-existent addresses and other techniques. A clever step away from the documented path would often cause some highly unusual things. For example, operations over the hexadecimal number 0xF, which looked like a decimal point on the dark screen, could cause a number of bizarre effects, from complete freeze to self-modification of the program, temporary appearance of otherwise invisible undocumented registers and sometimes totally non-deterministic behavior. A number of respected monthly publications, including the popular science magazine "Nauka i Zhizn" ("Science and Life"), featured special columns, dedicated to optimization techniques for calculator programmers and updates on undocumented features for hackers, which grew into a whole esoteric science with many branches, known as "errorology" (Russian "," transliterated "yeggogologiya"). The error messages on those calculators were intended to appear as the English word "Error", which to the Russians looked like a meaningless "ЕГГОГ" ("YEGGOG"). B3-34 and its derivatives helped many Soviet programmers to develop their skills, because programming and debugging required ability to read and write machine code and optimize literally every byte of the program. The microcode of those calculators remains only partially published and some of their "dark secrets" are still a mystery and are still being researched by some enthusiasts.
Like the HP-41 series in the Western countries, the B3-34 and its successors became a legend among some Soviet programmers and computer hobbyists. A number of websites provide the source of hundreds of programs for these calculators, technical documentation, lists of undocumented features and stories about them. Some Soviet hackers managed to modify B3-34 into digital multimeters, control interfaces for model railroads, added tape storage devices and other peripherals. Modern Russian calculators and , designed and manufactured in Novosibirsk since 2007, are partially backward compatible with B3-34 and are also based on reverse Polish notation. However, they are only compatible on function level and don't reproduce the original undocumented features.


CHDK


List of MSX games

The following is an incomplete list of video games for the MSX, MSX2, MSX2+, and MSX turbo R home computers.
Here is listed games released for the system. The total number of games published for this platform is over 2000. (Please see external links)


Spindizzy Worlds

Spindizzy Worlds is a puzzle video game published by Activision, released on the Amiga and Atari ST in 1990. It was later released on the Super Famicom in 1992 and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1993 by Ascii Entertainment and on the Sharp X68000 and the NEC PC-9801 in 1992 by Arsys Software as Spindizzy II. The game is a sequel to the 1986 video game "Spindizzy". Like its predecessor it uses an isometric view, and the player controls a spinning top-like robotic device named GERALD, a Geographical Environmental Reconnaissance And LandMapping Device, that is tasked with exploring and mapping a star system before it is destroyed.
Gameplay.
GERALD has limited controls only being able to move around with the use of braking and accelerating; there is no jumping, attacking or other actions. The player must guide the device through several levels. There are many hazards, enemies, and puzzles based on finding and pressing switches in the correct order, navigating thin pathways without falling off, and finding all gems dotted about a section. GERALD cannot jump on its own, but can reach higher platforms and traverse large gaps by accelerating and jumping over slopes or ramps, or using moving platforms, warps or platforms that make it bounce. GERALD's health, called fuel, is full at the beginning of each level and it depletes slowly over time especially with quick movements. Falling from a height onto a surface, falling off the bottom of a stage, or contact with enemies and hazards also takes away health, but it is replenished in small amounts after finishing a section of a stage and by collecting gems that are found around most levels. Some levels contain enemies, but they only hinder the player's progress and do not have to be defeated to progress and can be avoided. The stages can be viewed from four different camera views at 90° angle rotation from each other and the player has manual control over the camera view; views of objects and paths may be obscured behind other platforms in some views, and easier seen in others.
To start, the level select screen has two "clusters" or star systems, "Easy" and "Hard", named "Easydizzy" and "Spindizzy" in the SNES version. The harder system contains more complex levels and a higher number of levels than the easier system. In both clusters, planets represent levels, and although the player has a choice of which to level to play, the easier outer planets must be completed before the harder inner planets can be selected. The central star is the final stage and can only be selected after all the others are beaten. The levels are all individually named and may have a distinct visual or gameplay style. In the SNES version, once a level has been completed, the planet will explode and the level cannot be revisited; the player is then given a password.
Reception.
The game was ranked the 13th best game of all time by "Amiga Power". Nintendo Magazine System gave the game an overall score of 90/100 stating “An excellent update of a genuine classic, and a long-lasting game that stands head and shoulders above any other SNES puzzlers.” Super Gamer reviewed the SNES version and gave an overall score of 89% stating: "A massive and very tough test of joypad reactions and brains which you'll love or hate."