Thursday, January 8, 2009

NeXTdimension

NeXTdimension (ND) was an accelerated 32 bit color board manufactured and sold by NeXT from 1990 that gave the NeXTcube color capabilities with PostScript. The NuBus card was a full size card for the NeXTcube, filling one of four slots, another one being filled with the main board itself. The NeXTdimension featured S-Video input and output, RGB output, an Intel i860 64 bit RISC processor at 33MHz for Postscript acceleration, 8-32MB RAM main memory and 4MB VRAM for a resolution of 1120*832 at 24 bit color plus 8 bit alpha channel. An onboard C-Cube CL550 chip for MJPEG video compression was announced, but never shipped. A handful of engineering prototypes for the MJPEG daughterboard exist, but none actually function.

A stripped down Mach kernel was used as the operating system for the card. Due to the supporting processor 32 bit color Display PostScript on the NeXTdimension was faster than 2 bit grayscale Display PostScript on the NeXTcube. Since the main board always included the grayscale video logic, adding a NeXTdimension allowed the simultaneous use of two monitors. List price for a NeXTdimension sold as an add-on to the NeXTcube was $US 3,995.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Netscape Navigator

Netscape Navigator and Netscape are the names for the proprietary web browser popular in the 1990s, and the flagship product of the Netscape Communications Corporation, and the dominant web browser in terms of usage share. Yet by 2002 its users had almost disappeared, partly because of Microsoft's bundling (inclusion) of its Internet Explorer web browser software with the Windows operating system software (both Microsoft products), and partly because Netscape corporation did not sustain Netscape Navigator's technical innovation after the late 1990s.

The business demise of Netscape was a central premise of Microsoft's antitrust trial, wherein, the Court ruled that Microsoft corporation's bundling of Internet Explorer with the Windows operating system was monopolistic, an illegal business practice.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Internet Engineering Task Force

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) develops and promotes Internet standards, cooperating closely with the W3C and ISO/IEC standard bodies and dealing in particular with standards of the TCP/IP and Internet protocol suite. It is an open standards organization, with no formal membership or membership requirements. All participants and leaders are volunteers, though their work is usually funded by their employers or sponsors; for instance, the current chairperson is funded by VeriSign and the U.S. government's.

BBN initially chose a rugged zed version of Honeywell's DDP-516 computer to build the first-generation IMP. The 516 was originally configured with 24 kB of core memory (expandable) and a 16 channel Direct Multiplex Control (DMC) direct memory access control unit. Custom interfaces were used to connect, via the DMC, to each of the hosts and modems. In addition to the lamps on the front panel of the 516 there was also a special set of 24 indicator lights to show the status of the IMP communication channels. Each IMP could support up to four local hosts and could communicate with up to six remote IMPs over leased lines.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Hypertext Transfer Protocol

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is a communications protocol. Its use for retrieving inter-linked text documents (hypertext) led to the establishment of the World Wide Web.

HTTP development was coordinated by the World Wide Web Consortium and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), culminating in the publication of a series of Requests for Comments (RFCs), most notably RFC 2616 (June 1999), which defines HTTP/1.1, the version of HTTP in common use.

HTTP is a request/response standard between a client and a server. A client is the end-user, the server is the web site. The client making a HTTP request—using a web browser, spider, or other end-user tool—is referred to as the user agent. The responding server—which stores or creates resources such as HTML files and images—is called the origin server. In between the user agent and origin server may be several intermediaries, such as proxies, gateways, and tunnels. HTTP is not constrained to using TCP/IP and its supporting layers, although this is its most popular application on the Internet. Indeed HTTP can be "implemented on top of any other protocol on the Internet, or on other networks. HTTP only presumes a reliable transport; any protocol that provides such guarantees can be used."

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Publishing Web pages

Web page production is available to individuals outside the mass media. In order to publish a Web page, one does not have to go through a publisher or other media institution, and potential readers could be found in all corners of the globe.

Many different kinds of information are available on the Web, and for those who wish to know other societies, cultures, and peoples, it has become easier.

The increased opportunity to publish materials is observable in the countless personal and social networking pages, as well as sites by families, small shops, etc., facilitated by the emergence of free Web hosting services.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Head and Brain Malformations

Most brain malformations begin long before a baby is born. Something damages the developing nervous system or causes it to develop abnormally. Sometimes it's a genetic problem. In other cases, exposure to certain medicines, infections or radiation during pregnancy interferes with brain development. Types of brain malformations include missing parts of the brain, abnormal growth of certain parts of the brain, and incomplete division of the brain.

There are head malformations that do not involve the brain. Craniofacial disorders are the result of abnormal growth of soft tissue and bones in the face and head. It's common for new babies to have slightly lopsided heads, but parents should watch the shape of their baby's head for possible problems.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Wounds

Wounds include cuts, scrapes, scratches and punctured skin. They often occur as a result of an accident or injury, but surgical incisions, sutures, and stitches also cause wounds. Minor wounds usually aren't serious, but even cuts and scrapes require care. To avoid infection and aid healing

* Apply pressure with a clean cloth to stop bleeding
* Clean the wound with water
* Use an antibiotic ointment to prevent infection
* Bandage the wound if it's in an area that might get dirty
* Watch for swelling and redness
* Get a tetanus booster if you are due for one

Serious and infected wounds require medical attention. You should also seek attention if the wound is deep, if you cannot close it yourself, if you cannot stop the bleeding or get the dirt out, or if it does not heal.