Monday, January 29, 2007

The computer

A computer is a machine for manipulate data according to a list of commands known as a program. Computers are tremendously adaptable. In fact, they are universal information-processing machines. According to the Church–Turing theory, a computer with a positive minimum entrance capability is in principle capable of performing the responsibilities of any other computer. Therefore, computers with capability ranging from those of a personal digital supporter to a supercomputer may all achieve the same tasks, as long as time and memory capacity are not consideration. Therefore, the same computer design may be modified for tasks ranging from doling out company payrolls to controlling unmanned spaceflights. Due to technical progression, modern electronic computers are exponentially more capable than those of preceding generations. Computers take plentiful physical forms. Early electronic computers were the size of a large room, while whole modern embedded computers may be lesser than a deck of playing cards. Even today, huge computing conveniences still exist for focused scientific computation and for the transaction processing necessities of large organizations. Smaller computers designed for personage use are called personal computers. Along with its convenient equivalent, the laptop computer, the personal computer is the ubiquitous in order processing and communication tool, and is typically what is meant by "a computer". However, the most general form of computer in use today is the embedded computer. Embedded computers are usually comparatively simple and physically small computers used to control one more device. They may control equipment from fighter aircraft to industrial robots to digital cameras. in the beginning, the term "computer" referred to a person who performed numerical calculations, frequently with the aid of a mechanical calculating device or analog computer. In 1801, Joseph Marie Jacquard made an improvement to the presented loom designs that used a series of punched paper cards as a program to weave involved patterns. The resulting Jacquard loom is not considered a true computer but it was an essential step in the growth of modern digital computers.
Charles Babbage was the first to conceptualize and design a completely programmable computer as early as 1820, In 1801, Joseph Marie Jacquard made an improvement to the presented loom designs that used a series of punched paper cards as a program to weave involved patterns. The resulting Jacquard loom is not considered a true computer but it was an essential step in the growth of modern digital computers.
but due to a combination of the restrictions of the technology of the time, limited finance, and an incapability to resist tinkering with his design, the device was never really constructed in his lifetime. By the end of the 19th century a number of technologies that would later prove helpful in computing had appeared, out such as the punch card and the vacuum tube, and large-scale automated data giving using punch cards was performed by tabulating equipment designed by Hermann Hollerith.During the first half of the 20th century, many technical computing wants were met by increasingly difficult special-purpose analog computers, which used a direct mechanical or electrical model of the problem as a base for subtraction (they became ever more rare after the development of the programmable digital computer). Sequence of gradually more powerful and stretchy computing devices were construct in the 1930s and 1940s.

Monday, January 22, 2007

The last telephone system you’ll ever need

In the current climate, every business has to scrutinise every investment morecarefully than ever to ensure they are getting the very best value. This is trueparticularly when it comes to telephony systems, where choice is plentiful, andtechnology moves so quickly that traditional telephony technologies are alreadybecoming obsolete.Swyx develops software-based telephony systems that work like any othersoftware application, such as email, instant messaging and CRM, through yourexisting data network and server application. So you can take full advantage ofall the benefits of business-class VoIP – without having to invest in expensivenew telephony hardware.In addition, the Swyx system has the potential to build into a powerful businesstool. Because a Swyx system is Microsoft Windows based, it integratesseamlessly with your existing IT infrastructure, including all your individualbusiness applications such as security systems, Office applications, Finance andCRM systems and customer support infrastructure, giving you one seamlesscommunication system that will move and grow with your business no matterhow many people, sites or locations you expand into.Swyx is constantly developing its solutions to meet the changing needs of yourbusiness. So whatever your business, and whatever your stage of development,choosing an IP telephony solution from Swyx will give your business morepossibilities, more agility, more choice and more communication, making it thelast telephone system you’ll ever need.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Atlanta International Airport

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, locally known as Atlanta Airport, is largely located in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia, USA and was the world's busiest airport in 2005. However, according to the FAA, Chicago's O'Hare International Airport is on track to take the title back for 2006. Recent flight capacity increases of 40% promise to propel Hartsfield's future growth.

Hartsfield accommodated 980,197 takeoffs and landings in 2005, and handled 88.4 million passengers according to projections. Many of these flights are domestic flights from within the United States where Atlanta serves as a major transfer point for flights to and from smaller cities throughout the Southern United States. As such, it is the subject of an old joke stating that regardless of where one is going in the afterlife, s/he will have to connect in Atlanta to get there. Hartsfield-Jackson also has fifty-seven percent of their passengers flying elsewhere. As an international gateway to the United States Hartsfield-Jackson ranks seventh; JFK International in New York City is first.

The airport is located partly within the southern city limits of Atlanta and is adjacent to the city of College Park, Georgia, which is south of the city limits of Atlanta. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is the primary hub of Delta Air Lines, Air Tran Airways and Atlantic Southeast Airlines. The airport is located in Fulton and Clayton Counties.

Friday, January 05, 2007

Philosophy of space and time

Space has a range of definitions:
One view of space is that it is part of the fundamental structure of the universe, a set of dimensions in which objects are separated and located, have size and shape, and through which they can move. A contrasting view is that space is part of a fundamental abstract mathematical conceptual framework within which we compare and quantify the distance between objects, their sizes, their shapes, and their speeds. In this view space does not refer to any kind of entity that is a "container" that objects "move through". These opposing views are relevant also to definitions of time. Space is typically described as having three dimensions, and that three numbers are needed to specify the size of any object and/or its location with respect to another location. Modern physics does not treat space and time as independent dimensions, but treats both as features of space-time – a conception that challenges intuitive notions of distance and time.
An issue of philosophical debate is whether space is an ontological entity itself, or simply a conceptual framework we need to think about the world. Another way to frame this is to ask, "Can space itself be measured, or is space part of the measurement system?" The same debate applies also to time, and an important formulation in both areas was given by Immanuel Kant.
In his Critique of Pure Reason, Kant described space as an a priori intuition that allows us to comprehend sense experience. With Kant, neither space nor time are conceived as substances, but rather both are elements of a systematic framework we use to structure our experience. Spatial measurements are used to quantify how far apart objects are, and temporal measurements are used to quantify how far apart events occur.
Schopenhauer, in the preface to his On the Will in Nature, stated that "space is the condition of the possibility of juxtaposition." This is in accordance with Kant's understanding of space as a form in the mind of an observing subject.
Similar philosophical questions concerning space include: Is space absolute or purely relational? Does space have one correct geometry, or is the geometry of space just a convention? Historical positions in these debates have been taken by Isaac Newton, Gottfried Leibniz, and Henri Poincare. Two important thought-experiments connected with these questions are: Newton's bucket argument and Poincare's sphere-world.

Monday, January 01, 2007

In Astronomy

Space refers collectively to the relatively empty parts of the universe. Any area outside the atmospheres of any celestial body can be considered 'space'. Although space is certainly spacious, it is not always empty, but can be filled with matter — say a tenuous plasma. In particular, the boundary between space and Earth's atmosphere is conventionally set at the Karman line.