Phoebe (computer)

The Phoebe 2100 (or Risc PC 2) was to be Acorn Computers' successor to the Risc PC, slated for release in late 1998. However in September 1998 Acorn cancelled the project as part of a restructuring of the company.

Specification

Processors running at 300 MHz were being sampled by Acorn in September 1998, with 360 MHz versions also expected.

Development

In November 1996, the design of what was to become Phoebe 2100 was started. The design took into account a number of perceived weaknesses of the Risc PC design, a slow memory architecture, limited I/O capability, limited expansion, and not adhering to industry standards. To overcome these weakness a number of design objectives were created; Harness the full potential of the StrongARM CPU, support multiple processors, add support for PCI expansion, offer the best possible graphics, run existing RISC OS applications and to provide enhanced RISC OS functionality. An additional design objective of reusing the same case as the Risc PC was dropped due to power supply requirements and electrical interference problems.

Computer (disambiguation)

A computer is a program machine that receives input, stores and manipulates data, and provides output in a useful format.

Computer may also refer to:

Human computer

The term "computer", in use from the early 17th century (the first known written reference dates from 1613), meant "one who computes": a person performing mathematical calculations, before electronic computers became commercially available. "The human computer is supposed to be following fixed rules; he has no authority to deviate from them in any detail." (Turing, 1950) Teams of people were frequently used to undertake long and often tedious calculations; the work was divided so that this could be done in parallel.

The first time the term "Computer" appeared in The New York Times was February 3, 1853; an obituary stated:

Since the end of the 20th century, the term "human computer" has also been applied to individuals with prodigious powers of mental arithmetic, also known as mental calculators.

Origins in astronomy

The approach was taken for astronomical and other complex calculations. Perhaps the first example of organized human computing was by the Frenchman Alexis Claude Clairaut (1713–1765), when he divided the computation to determine timing of the return of Halley's Comet with two colleagues, Joseph Lalande and Nicole-Reine Lepaute.

List of Courage the Cowardly Dog characters

This is a list of characters from the Cartoon Network animated series, Courage the Cowardly Dog.

Main characters

Courage

Courage is the series' protagonist, and an overly frightened purple beagle dog who lives in Nowhere, Kansas. He was abandoned as a puppy after his parents were sent into outer space, but was adopted by Muriel Bagge. Her husband, Eustace, regularly mistreats him. Ironically, given his name, Courage is a genuine coward, but still goes to great lengths to protect his owners; to the end, he often gets injured, sometimes quite brutally, or almost killed and only surviving through his determination and/or pure luck. Despite his cowardice, Courage is very clever and resourceful when the situation demands it, outsmarting the villains most of the time. Aiding him at saving the day is a self-aware, sarcastic and seemingly omniscient Computer that he keeps in the attic with which he could consult for information in how to remedy any predicament he faces (though it never fails to badmouth him in one way or another). He got his name when Muriel found him as a puppy alone in an alley and remarked that he must be quite brave to be there by himself.

Phoebe (bird)

The genus Sayornis is a small group of medium-sized insect-eating birds, known as Phoebes, in the tyrant flycatcher family Tyrannidae; they are native to North and South America.

They prefer semi-open or open areas. These birds wait on a perch and then catch insects. Their nest is an open cup sometimes placed on man-made structures.

They often slowly lower and raise their tails while perched.

The full list of species is:

The Magic School Bus

The Magic School Bus is an edutainment multimedia franchise that consists of a book series, a TV series, and several video games among other things. Each of the stories within the franchise centers on the antics of a fictional elementary school teacher, Ms. Valerie Frizzle, and her class, who board an anthropomorphic Type A school bus, which takes them on field trips to impossible locations, such as the solar system, clouds, the past, and the human body. The class pet Liz, a lizard, accompanies the class on their field trips.

History

The first media in which this franchise was developed was the Magic School Bus book series. Craig Walker, vice-president and senior editorial director at Scholastic Co., stated that the concept began with the idea of combining science with fictional stories, and Joanna Cole (who had written both science and humor before) and Bruce Degen were then approached with creating such a series. Walker also states that his own memories of school field trips and of a teacher he had once, served as further inspiration. The first book "At the Waterworks" was written in 1985 and published the following year. The books are written in the first person from the point of view of an unnamed student in "the Friz's" class. Cole and Degen started a new series called Ms. Frizzle's Adventures in 2001, which teaches social studies, eventually producing three books in that series. Microsoft Home started publishing Magic School Bus software in 1994.

Phoebe (magazine)

Phoebe: A Journal of Literature and Art is a literary journal based at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia and first published in 1971. It publishes one print issue and one online issue each year in addition to running annual contests in fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. The journal has served as a space for up-and-coming writers, whose style, form, voice, and subject matter demonstrate a vigorous appeal to the senses, intellect, and emotions of readers. According to the Phoebe constitution, "We insist on openness, which means we welcome both experimental and conventional prose and poetry, and we insist on being entertained, which means the work must capture and hold our attention, whether it be the potent language of a poem or the narrative mechanics of a short story."

Notable Contributors

Matt Bell (author), Dorothea Lasky, Karen An-hwei Lee, Richard Bausch, Joshua Ferris, Russell Edson, Jenny Boully, Cornelius Eady, Kim Addonizio, Katie Ford, Thomas Lux, Jacob M. Appel, Yusef Komunyakaa, C.K. Williams, Ray DiPalma, Keith Waldrop, Michael Palmer (poet), Cathy Park Hong, G.C. Waldrep, and Rosmarie Waldrop