Apple's New MacBook Family

Apple just let loose a new 15-inch MacBook Pro at WWDC 2009, with what appears to be the same built-in, non-removable battery (or, non-user serviceable, if we're being proper) as in the current unibody 17-incher. Phil asserts that the cell will last the average user around five years (1,000 recharges), and could last around seven hours under ideal conditions. There's also an SD card reader rather than an ExpressCard slot (seriously Apple -- replaced? -- why not just add it like every other Wintel laptop available today?). Oh, and the starting tag just dropped to $1,699.

• Starting at $1,699 (down from $1,999 in prior lineups)
  
• $1,699: 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB DDR3 RAM, GeForce 9400M graphics, 250GB HDD, SD card slot, no ExpressCard
  
• $1,999: 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB DDR3 RAM, GeForce 9400M + 9600M GT graphics, 320GB HDD, SD card slot, no ExpressCard
• $2,299: 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB DDR3 RAM, GeForce 9400M + 9600M GT graphics, 500GB HDD, SD card slot, no ExpressCard
• 17-inch unibody MacBook Pro remains the same specs-wise (it's the only Apple laptop left with an ExpressCard slot), but it's getting a price cut to $2,499.
• Shipping today

Not enough for you? The 13-inch unibody MacBook has been beefed up and revised, and it's now part of the MacBook Pro line as well. Yep, all the aluminum machines are now Pros, with the same built-in battery promising seven hours of life. The littlest Pro also gets the SD card slot, a FireWire 800 port, up to 8GB of RAM, upwards of 500GB of storage and a backlit keyboard as standard. You just knew Apple couldn't let its remaining white MacBook outperform its more expensive unibody for long, right? It'll be available (today, we expect) in two configurations. 

 

• $1,199: 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB DDR3 RAM, GeForce 9400M graphics, 160GB HDD, SD card slot, no ExpressCard
• $1,499: 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB DDR3 RAM, GeForce 9400M graphics, 250GB HDD, SD card slot, no ExpressCard

Wilder still? A new MacBook Air, which starts at $1,499 (while the SSD unit gets going at $1,799). Yeah, that's $700 less than before. 

 

 

• $1,499: 1.86GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB DDR3 RAM, GeForce 9400M graphics, 120GB HDD
• $1,799: 2.13GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB DDR3 RAM, GeForce 9400M graphics, 128GB SSD

www.apple.com

Windows 7

Windows 7 is the newest version of Microsoft Windows, a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, netbooks, tablet PCs and media center PCs.^[3] Windows 7 was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009,^[4] and general retail availability on October 22, 2009,^[5] less than three years after the release of its predecessor, Windows Vista. Windows 7's server counterpart, Windows Server 2008 R2, was released at the same time.

Unlike its predecessor, which introduced a large number of new features, Windows 7 was intended to be a more focused, incremental upgrade to the Windows line, with the goal of being fully compatible with applications and hardware with which Windows Vista is already compatible.^[6] Presentations given by Microsoft in 2008 focused on multi-touch support, a redesigned Windows Shell with a new taskbar, referred to as the Superbar, a home networking system called HomeGroup,^[7] and performance improvements. Some applications that have been included with prior releases of Microsoft Windows, including Windows Calendar, Windows Mail, Windows Movie Maker, and Windows Photo Gallery, are not included in Windows 7;^[8][9] some are instead offered separately as part of the free Windows Live Essentials suite.^[10]

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P.S- happy halloween</sup>

Electric Pencil

 

Electric Pencil (also known as The Electric Pencil) was the first word processor written for a microcomputer. The original version was created by Michael Shrayer and released for the MITS Altair in December 1976. The TRS-80 version was released almost two years later and it dominated the market until the introduction of Scripsit.

Electric Pencil was one of only five pieces of software inducted into the 80 Micro Hall of Fame in 1983, with the panel stating that Electric Pencil “demonstrated conclusively that a TRS-80 could be used for serious word processing, and was the model for later word processors.”

Origins

Michael Shrayer purchased an MITS Altair computer kit after seeing the January 1975 issue of the Popular Electronics. He later expanded his Altair with a paper punch, video display, and keyboard and he began writing machine language programs.

What became known as Electric Pencil started when Shrayer made some improvements to an editor assembler package called Software Package 1 or SP-1. He named his improved version Extended Software Package 1 or ESP-1. Shrayer decided he didn’t want to use a typewriter to write the documentation for ESP-1 but to use his Altair instead. There were no suitable programs available, so he decided to write his own. As he stated in an 1984 article in Creative Computing:

I developed the original Electric Pencil to document something called ESP-1. At that time, I didn’t even know that a product like Pencil was called a word processor. In fact, Electric Pencil was the first word processor ever written for a microcomputer. I used Pencil to document ESP-1 and then itself.

The new Electric Pencil program was unlike anything else available, and there was great demand for the program. Shrayer began selling it through his company, Michael Shrayer Software, Inc. Peoples wanted versions for computers other than the Altair, and 78 different versions were created for different computers and operating systems by 1980.

The popularity of Electric Pencil made it an early target for software pirates. By one estimate, ten copies were pirated for every legitimate copy sold.

Electric Pencil for the TRS-80

Electric Pencil title screen

Electric Pencil was adapted in 1978 to the TRS-80 Model I by Small System Software. The price was $150.00 for the disk version and $99.95 for the cassette version (with both Level I and Level II versions on the same tape). It was enormously successful, becoming the dominant TRS-80 word processor.

The Electric Pencil advertisements promised a number of features:

Write text, delete, insert, or move words, lines, paragraphs, save text on tape (or disk), then print formatted copy with our TRS232 or Centronics printer (RS-232C with disk version). Right justification, page titling and numbering, transparent cursor and repeating keyboard. Upper case only, or lower case with modification.

 MANUAL

Bit & Byte

BIT

In computing and telecommunications a bit is a basic unit of information storage and communication (a contraction of "binary digit"). It is the maximum amount of information that can be stored by a device or other physical system that can normally exist in only two distinct states. These states are often interpreted (especially in the storage of numerical data) as the binary digits 0 and 1. They may be interpreted also as logical values, either "true" or "false"; or two settings of a flag or switch, either "on" or "off".

In information theory, "one bit" is typically defined as the uncertainty of a binary random variable that is 0 or 1 with equal probability,^[1] or the information that is gained when the value of such a variable becomes known.^[2]

BYTE

A byte (pronounced /ˈbaɪt/) is a unit of information storage representing the smallest addressable element for a given computer architecture. It often designates a sequence of bits (binary digits) whose length is determined by the architecture. However, the use of a byte to mean eight bits has become ubiquitous.

Prefixes for bit and byte multiples
Decimal Value SI 1000 k kilo 10002 M mega 10003 G giga 10004 T tera 10005 P peta 10006 E exa 10007 Z zetta 10008 Y yotta	Binary Value IEC JEDEC 1024 Ki kibi K kilo 10242 Mi mebi M mega 10243 Gi gibi G giga 10244 Ti tebi 10245 Pi pebi 10246 Ei exbi 10247 Zi zebi 10248 Yi yobi

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org