Alfa Romeo 147

The Alfa Romeo 147 (Type 937) is a small family car produced by the Italian automaker Alfa Romeo from 2000 to 2010. The 147 was voted European Car of the Year in 2001, ahead of the Ford Mondeo and the Toyota Prius.

The 147 was launched at the 2000 Turin Motor Show as a replacement for the Alfa Romeo 145 and 146 hatchbacks, and is based on the running gear of the larger 156 saloon. It was available with 1.6, 2.0, and 3.2-litre petrol engines and a 1.9-litre diesel engine. A sequential, paddle operated 'Selespeed' transmission was available from launch. Two trim levels were available, Turismo and Lusso. The 147 was the first Alfa Romeo to feature dual-zone climate control and electronic traction control.

The model was in production for ten years, making it one of the oldest small family cars on sale in Europe at the time of its replacement by the Alfa Romeo Giulietta in late May 2010. In total around 580,000 cars were made.

Styling

The 147 was designed by Walter de'Silva and Wolfgang Egger. The 147 received considerable praise for its styling on launch, later it was awarded with some styling awards. The entire 147 range was revamped in 2004, with the exterior styling changed considerably to be more reminiscent of the new 159 and Brera models, and Alfa Romeo Visconti concept car, most notably for its more aggressive look. The 147 achieved a drag coefficient (C_d) of 0.32.

Connect (users group)

Connect, a 501(c)(6) non-profit association, is Hewlett Packard's largest independent enterprise business technology community.

Formed from the consolidation of Encompass, HP-Interex, and ITUG in May, 2008, Connect is a community of more than 70,000 HP customers, partners and employees. Through a strategic business partnership with HP, Connect engages its members through education, community, philanthropy, and advocacy to HP.

This community of IT professionals delivers information technology solutions for complex and multi-system computing environments, focusing on HP technologies, including HP-UX, HP's NonStop, Blade, HP Helion, Enterprise Storage, Enterprise Unix, OpenVMS, Linux and Windows.

Through its advocacy channels, the Connect membership provides feedback and direction to HP and their partners and has been instrumental in influencing the direction of many HP technologies.

History

The respective Users organizations have been of significant importance as to the development of technology in the so-called mini computer business (departmental computing). It has survived multiple mergers and takeovers, as well as multiple hardware platforms and software platforms. During its history it has been a tradition of self-service and mutual support amongst customers to complement the official vendor support.

Rivers, Roads & Rails

Rivers, Roads & Rails is a matching game similar to dominoes, but with 140 square tiles and in some respects similar to Bendomino. The game consists of square card pieces featuring different coloured tracks. The game was created by Ken Garland and Associates and first published in 1969 under the name Connect. Since 1970 it has been produced by Ravensburger, first in an abstract form, and since 1984 under the current theme with artwork by Josef Loflath. It has also been known under the name Contact.

Game play

Setup

A large area like a tabletop or the floor is used. The tiles are turned face down and all players randomly draw ten tiles and place them face up in front of them. The youngest player is the first player to start. The starting player randomly chooses a face-down tile, and turns it face up in the center of the play area.

Playing

Beginning with the starting player, each player on their turn draws a face-down tile (while there are ones remaining). Each tile has at least one of the river, road or rail on it. The player chooses one of his or her tiles and places it so that it matches up with river, road and/or rail on the tiles that have already been played. If that player cannot play a tile, then they must pass. Play then proceeds to the next player (rules don't specify which direction) until all of the tiles of one player have been played, or no one can play a tile.