Tom Kilburn: A Tale of Five Computers

One of the preeminent figures in the early history of computer design was Tom Kilburn. Over the course of some 30 years, he made significant contributions to the development of five historically significant computers. Although a natural team leader possessed of a somewhat dominating personality, who inspired in those who worked closely with him great loyalty and affection, Kilburn was, on casual acquaintance, a self-contained man who chose his words with care. Tom Kilburn was born August 11, 1921, in West Yorkshire, England. His father, John William Kilburn, was a statistical clerk who rose to become a company secretary.13Tom had a somewhat specialized education at Wheelwright Grammar School having been permitted by his headmaster to study almost nothing else from around the age of 14. It was hardly surprising therefore he emerged from school as something of a mathematical specialist. In 1940, Kilburn went Sidney Sussex College, in Cambridge, with several scholarships. Wartime courses at Cambridge were somewhat truncated and in 1942, Kilburn graduated with First Class Honors in Part I of the Mathematical Tripos and in the preliminary examination for Part II

Physical characterization of long-lasting hybrid eruptions: the 2021 tajogaite eruption of Cumbre Vieja (La Palma, Canary Islands)

Long-lasting, hybrid eruptions can be of complex description and classification, especially when associated with multiple eruptive styles and multiple products. The 2021 Tajogaite eruption of La Palma, Canary Islands, was associated with a magma-gas decoupled system that resulted in the simultaneous emission of lava flows and tephra plumes from various vents. Even though the tephra blanket (∼2 × 107 m3) represents only 7%–16% of the total erupted volume, it provides fundamental insights into the overall eruptive dynamics. Tephra was mostly dispersed NE-SW due to a complex regional and local wind patterns and was subdivided into 3 units and 11 layers that well correlate at different distances from the vent and with both tremor data and lava emission rate. While plume height varied at the temporal scale of a few hours, the average mass eruption rate associated with the tephra blanket of the different units remained relatively constant (∼3–4 × 103 kg s−1). In contrast, the emission rate of lava largely increased after the first week and remained higher than the overall emission of tephra throughout the whole eruption (average value of ∼6 × 104 kg s−1). Based on a detailed characterization of the tephra blanket in combination with atmospheric wind, tremor, and lava emission trend, we demonstrate the need of (a) multidisciplinary strategies for the description of hybrid eruptions that account for both the duration of individual phases and the quantification of the mass of multiple products, and of (b) dedicated ash dispersal forecasting strategies that account for the frequent variations of eruptive and atmospheric conditions.Research activities were supported by Swiss National Science Foundation (Grant 200020_188757) and by the projects (a) VOLRISKMAC (MAC/3.5b/124) and (b) VOLRISKMAC II (MAC2/3.5b/328), financed by the Program INTERREG VA Spain-Portugal MAC 2014–2020 of the European Commission; (c) Cumbre Vieja Emergencia, financed by the Science and Innovation Ministry, Spanish Government; and (d) Tfassistance, financed by the Cabildo Insular de Tenerife. JER fieldwork was partially financed through NSFGEONERC-DisEqm (NERC Reference: NE/N018575/1) and V-PLUS projects (Prof. Mike Burton).Peer reviewe

The genesis of Information Society machine: Baby Machine, prototype of modern computer

A história da evolução dos computadores até ao protótipo dos actuais computadores.The history of the evolution of computers to the prototype of modern computer

Art, Action Research, and Activism at Artpark

The authors have an ongoing interest in combining local history, culture, and environmental issues as topics for teaching. As newcomers to western New York, we became fascinated with the story of Artpark in Lewiston, New York. High on the edge of the Niagara Gorge, the site of Artpark has a complicated history that has been enlivened by Native Americans, the French, the British, contemporary artists, senators, toxic waste specialists, visiting art teachers, and local students. The passage and effects of time on nature, art, and culture have been an important influence on art production since the beginning of Artpark in 1974. For over two decades, professional artists have been invited to build temporary sculptural installations that were dismantled or deteriorated due to human and natural forces, leaving artifacts on the site that echo works documented primarily in exhibition catalogues

Aspects of command language portability incorporating a machine-independent filestore concept

A brief summary of job control language development precedes a general discussion of possible improvements in command language practice. The user requirements of a command language are considered with special reference to a machine independent basis. "Primitive" functions are defined from this viewpoint. To meet the proposed objective of portability it is suggested that an appreciation of the user interaction with the computer operating system is necessary. This provides the definition of the user profile model based on the user requirements of a command language. A second model is then developed to represent the structure of the operating system. [Continues.

Information-Centric Semantic Web of Things

In the Semantic Web of Things (SWoT) paradigm, a plethora of micro-devices permeates an environment. Storage and information processing are decentralized: each component conveys and even processes a (very) small amount of annotated metadata. In this perspective, the node-centric Internet networking model is inadequate. This paper presents a framework for resource discovery in semantic-enhanced pervasive environments leveraging an information-centric networking approach. Information gathered through different Internet of Things (IoT) technologies can be exploited by both ubiquitous and Web-based semantic-aware applications through a uniform set of operations. Experimental results and a case study support sustainability and effectiveness of the proposal

Master plan for the city of Manchester, New Hampshire, adopted by the planning board December 10, 2009.

Manchester, N.H. master plan, providing a 10-15 year vision for the city

Retrospective on high-level language computer architecture

High-level language computers (HLLC) have attracted interest in the architectural and programming community during the last 15 years; proposals have been made for machines directed towards the execution of various languages such as ALGOL, 1,2 APL, 3,4,5 BASIC, 6.