1940s - 1950s: The Development of Early Robotics Technology During the 1940s and 1950s two major developments enabled the design of modern robots. Robotics generally is based on two related technologies: numerical control and teleoperators. Numerical control was invented during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It is a method of controlling machine tool axes by means of numbers that have been coded on media. The first numerical control machine was presented in 1952 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), whose subsequent research led to the development of APT (Automatically Programmed Tools). APT, a language for programming machine tools, was designed for use in computer-assisted manufacturing (CAM). First teleoperators were developed in the early 1940s. Teleoperators are mechanical manipulators which are controlled by a human from a remote location. In its typical application a human moves a mechanical arm and hand with its moves being duplicated at another location.

TEXTBLOCK 1/2 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611663/100438659348

Late 1950s - Early 1960s: Second Generation Computers An important change in the development of computers occurred in 1948 with the invention of the transistor. It replaced the large, unwieldy vacuum tube and as a result led to a shrinking in size of electronic machinery. The transistor was first applied to a computer in 1956. Combined with the advances in magnetic-core memory, the use of transistors resulted in computers that were smaller, faster, more reliable and more energy-efficient than their predecessors. Stretch by IBM and LARC by Sperry-Rand (1959) were the first large-scale machines to take advantage of the transistor technology (and also used assembly language instead of the difficult machine language). Both developed for atomic energy laboratories could handle enormous amounts of data, but still were costly and too powerful for the business sector's needs. Therefore only two LARC's were ever installed. Throughout the early 1960s there were a number of commercially successful computers (for example the IBM 1401) used in business, universities, and government and by 1965 most large firms routinely processed financial information by using computers. Decisive for the success of computers in business was the stored program concept and the development of sophisticated high-level programming languages like FORTRAN (Formular Translator), 1956, and COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Language), 1960, that gave them the flexibility to be cost effective and productive. The invention of second generation computers also marked the beginning of an entire branch, the software industry, and the birth of a wide range of new types of careers.

TEXTBLOCK 2/2 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611663/100438659439

Extranet An Extranet is an Intranet with limited and controlled access by authenticated outside users, a business-to-business Intranet, e.g.

INDEXCARD, 1/2

Censorship of Online Content in China During the Tian-an men massacre reports and photos transmitted by fax machines gave notice of what was happening only with a short delay. The Chinese government has learned his lesson well and "regulated" Internet access from the beginning. All Internet traffic to and out of China passes through a few gateways, a few entry-points, thus making censorship a relatively easy task. Screened out are web sites of organizations and media which express dissident viewpoints: Taiwan's Democratic Progress Party and Independence Party, The New York Times, CNN, and sites dealing with Tibetan independence and human rights issues. Users are expected not to "harm" China's national interests and therefore have to apply for permission of Internet access; Web pages have to be approved before being published on the Net. For the development of measures to monitor and control Chinese content providers, China's state police has joined forces with the MIT. For further information on Internet censorship, see Human Rights Watch, World Report 1999. http://www.dpp.org/ http://www.nytimes.com/ http://www.hrw.org/worldreport99/special/inte...

INDEXCARD, 2/2