1940s - Early 1950s: First Generation Computers Probably the most important contributor concerning the theoretical basis for the digital computers that were developed in the 1940s was Alan Turing, an English mathematician and logician. In 1936 he created the Turing machine, which was originally conceived as a mathematical tool that could infallibly recognize undecidable propositions. Although he instead proved that there cannot exist any universal method of determination, Turing's machine represented an idealized mathematical model that reduced the logical structure of any computing device to its essentials. His basic scheme of an input/output device, memory, and central processing unit became the basis for all subsequent digital computers. The onset of the Second World War led to an increased funding for computer projects, which hastened technical progress, as governments sought to develop computers to exploit their potential strategic importance. By 1941 the German engineer Konrad Zuse had developed a computer, the Z3, to design airplanes and missiles. Two years later the British completed a secret code-breaking computer called Colossus to decode German messages and by 1944 the Harvard engineer Howard H. Aiken had produced an all-electronic calculator, whose purpose was to create ballistic charts for the U.S. Navy. Also spurred by the war the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), a general-purpose computer, was produced by a partnership between the U.S. government and the University of Pennsylvania (1943). Consisting of 18.000 vacuum tubes, 70.000 resistors and 5 million soldered joints, the computer was such a massive piece of machinery (floor space: 1,000 square feet) that it consumed 160 kilowatts of electrical power, enough energy to dim lights in an entire section of a bigger town. Concepts in computer design that remained central to computer engineering for the next 40 years were developed by the Hungarian-American mathematician John von Neumann in the mid-1940s. By 1945 he created the Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer (EDVAC) with a memory to hold both a stored program as well as data. The key element of the Neumann architecture was the central processing unit (CPU), which allowed all computer functions to be coordinated through a single source. One of the first commercially available computers to take advantage of the development of the CPU was the UNIVAC I (1951). Both the U.S. Census bureau and General Electric owned UNIVACs (Universal Automatic Computer). Characteristic for first generation computers was the fact, that instructions were made-to-order for the specific task for which the computer was to be used. Each computer had a different binary-coded program called a machine language that told it how to operate. Therefore computers were difficult to program and limited in versatility and speed. Another feature of early computers was that they used vacuum tubes and magnetic drums for storage.

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The Post-World-War II-period After World War II the importance of propaganda still increased, on the commercial level as well as on a political level, in the era of the Cold War. The propaganda institutions of the different countries wanted their people to think the right way, which meant, the national way. In the USA the McCarthy-era started, a totalitarian system in struggle against communism. McCarthy even managed to publicly burn critical books that were written about him; and every unbeloved artist was said to be a communist, an out-law. Cold War brought the era of spies with it, which was the perfect tool of disinformation. But the topic as a movie-genre seems still popular today, as the unchanged success of James Bond-movies show. A huge net of propaganda was built up for threatening with the nuclear bomb: pretending that the enemy was even more dangerous than the effect of such a bomb. And later, after the fall of the Iron Curtain, disinformation found other fields of work, like the wars of the 1990s showed us.

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Media Giants Online The following selection does not claim to present an exhaustive listing, but rather picks some of the company's most important assets. Due to the rapid developments in the world of media giants the list is also subject to changes. Broadcasting ABC TV Network with 223 affiliated TV stations covering the entire U.S. ABC Radio Network, with 2,900 affiliated stations throughout the U.S. Owner of 9 VHF TV stations Owner of 11 AM and 10 FM stations Cable TV Systems and Channels/Networks Disney Channel 80 % of ESPN cable TV channel and ESPN International 50 % of Lifetime cable TV channel Internet/Interactive Disney Interactive - entertainment and educational computer software and video games, plus development of content for on-line services. Partnership with 3 phone companies to provide video programming and interactive services. ABC Online TV Production, Movies, Video, Music Disney Television Production studios and Walt Disney Pictures movie studio Buena Vista Television production company Buena Vista Home Video Miramax and Touchstone movie production companies Buena Vista Pictures Distribution and Buena Vista International, distributors for Disney and Touchstone movies Walt Disney Records, and Hollywood Records Publishing 6 daily newspapers About 40 weekly magazines, including: Discover, Women's Wear Daily, Los Angeles and Institutional Investor. Chilton Publications Guilford Publishing Co. Hitchcock Publishing Co. Theme Parks, Resorts, and Travel Disneyland Disney World and Disney World Resort Part owner of Disneyland-Paris and Tokyo Disneyland 12 resort hotels Disney Vacation Club Cruise Lines International TV, Film, and Broadcasting 50 % owner of Tele-München Fernseh GmbH & Co. 50 % owner of RTL Disney Fernseh GmbH & Co. 23 % owner of RTL 2 Fernseh GmbH & Co. 37,5 % owner of TM3 Fernseh GmbH & Co. 20-33 % stake in Eurosport network, Spanish Tesauro SA TV company, and Scandinavian Broadcasting System SA 20 % owner of TVA Other Over 500 Disney Stores, and licensing of Disney products The Mighty Ducks professional hockey team 25 % ownership of California Angels major league baseball team Business Connections with Other Media Companies Joint ventures, equity interests, or major arrangements with Bertelsmann, TCI, Hearst Corp., Kirch, and various other media and telephone companies.

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MIRALab MIRALab is a research laboratory attached to the University of Geneva. Its motto is "where research meets creativity". MIRAlab's objective is to model human functionalities, such as movement or facial expression, in a realistic way.

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The Flesh Machine This is the tile of a book by the Critical Art Ensemble which puts the development of artifical life into a critical historical and political context, defining the power vectors which act as the driving force behind this development. The book is available in a print version (New York, Autonomedia 1998) and in an online version at http://www.critical-art.net/fles/book/index.html

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cryptology also called "the study of code". It includes both, cryptography and cryptoanalysis

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