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NEC

NEC Corporation (日本電気株式会社) is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered at the NEC Supertower in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It provides IT and network solutions, including cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) platform, and telecommunications equipment and software to business enterprises, communications services providers and to government agencies, and has also been the biggest PC vendor in Japan since the 1980s when it launched the PC-8000 series.

NEC was the world's fourth-largest PC manufacturer by 1990. Its semiconductors business unit was the world's largest semiconductor company by annual revenue from 1985 to 1992, the second largest in 1995, one of the top three in 2000, and one of the top 10 in 2006. NEC spun off its semiconductor business to Renesas Electronics and Elpida Memory. Once Japan's major electronics company, NEC has largely withdrawn from manufacturing since the beginning of the 21st century.

NEC was #463 on the 2017 Fortune 500 list. NEC is a member of the Sumitomo Group.

NEC
Kunihiko Iwadare and Takeshiro Maeda established Nippon Electric Limited Partnership on August 31, 1898, by using facilities that they had bought from Miyoshi Electrical Manufacturing Company. Iwadare acted as the representative partner; Maeda handled company sales. Western Electric, which had an interest in the Japanese phone market, was represented by Walter Tenney Carleton. Carleton was also responsible for the renovation of the Miyoshi facilities. It was agreed that the partnership would be reorganized as a joint-stock company when the treaty would allow it. On July 17, 1899, the revised treaty between Japan and the United States went into effect. Nippon Electric Company, Limited was organized the same day as Western Electric Company to become the first Japanese joint-venture with foreign capital. Iwadare was named managing director. Ernest Clement and Carleton were named as directors. Maeda and Mototeru Fujii were assigned to be auditors. Iwadare, Maeda, and Carleton handled the overall management.

The company started with the production, sales, and maintenance of telephones and switches. NEC modernized the production facilities with the construction of the Mita Plant in 1901 at Mita Shikokumachi. It was completed in December 1902.

The Japanese Ministry of Communications adopted a new technology in 1903: the common battery switchboard supplied by NEC. The common battery switchboards powered the subscriber phone, eliminating the need for a permanent magnet generator in each subscriber's phone. The switchboards were initially imported, but were manufactured locally by 1909.

NEC started exporting telephone sets to China in 1904. In 1905, Iwadare visited Western Electric in the U.S. to see their management and production control. On his return to Japan, he discontinued the "oyakata" system of sub-contracting and replaced it with a new system where managers and employees were all direct employees of the company. Inefficiency was also removed from the production process. The company paid higher salaries with incentives for efficiency. New accounting and cost controls were put in place, and time clocks was installed.

Between 1899 and 1907 the number of telephone subscribers in Japan rose from 35,000 to 95,000. NEC entered the China market in 1908 with the implementation of the telegraph treaty between Japan and China. They also entered the Korean market, setting up an office in Seoul in January 1908. During the period from 1907 to 1912 sales rose from 1.6 million yen to 2 million yen. The expansion of the Japanese phone service had been a key part of NEC's success during this period.

The Ministry of Communications delayed a third expansion plan of the phone service in March 1913, despite having 120,000 potential telephone subscribers waiting for phone installations. NEC sales fell sixty percent between 1912 and 1915. During the interim, Iwadare started importing appliances, including electric fans, kitchen appliances, washing machines, and vacuum cleaners. Electric fans had never been seen in Japan before. The imports were intended to prop up company sales. In 1916, the government resumed the delayed telephone-expansion plan, adding 75,000 subscribers and 326,000 kilometers of new toll lines. Thanks to this third expansion plan, NEC expanded at a time when much of the rest of the Japanese industry contracted.

1919 to 1938
In 1919, NEC started its first association with Sumitomo, engaging Sumitomo Densen Seizosho to manufacture cables. As part of the venture, NEC provided cable manufacturing equipment to Sumitomo Densen. Rights to Western Electric's duplex cable patents were also transferred to Sumitomo Densen.

The Great Kantō earthquake struck Japan in 1923. 140,000 people were killed and 3.4 million were left homeless. Four of NEC's factories were destroyed, killing 105 of NEC's engineers and workers. Thirteen of Tokyo's telephone offices were destroyed by fire. Telephone and telegraph service was interrupted by damage to telephone cables. In response, the Ministry of Communications accelerated major programs to install automatic telephone switching systems and enter radio broadcasting. The first automatic switching systems were the Strowger-type model made by Automatic Telephone Manufacturing Co. (ATM) in the United Kingdom. NEC participated in the installation of the automatic switching systems, ultimately becoming the general sales agent for ATM. NEC developed its own Strowger-type automatic switching system in 1924, the first in Japan. One of the plants almost leveled during the Kanto earthquake, the Mita Plant, was chosen to support expanding production. A new three-story steel-reinforced concrete building was built, starting in 1925. It was modeled after the Western Electric Hawthorne Works.

NEC started its radio communications business in 1924. Japan's first radio broadcaster, Radio Tokyo was founded in 1924 and started broadcasting in 1925. NEC imported the broadcasting equipment from Western Electric. The expansion of radio broadcasting into Osaka and Nagoya marked the emergence of radio as an Industry. NEC established a radio research unit in 1924. NEC started developing electron tubes in 1925. By 1930, they were manufacturing their first 500 W radio transmitter. They provided the Chinese Xinjing station with a 100 kW radio broadcasting system in 1934.

Photo-telegraphic equipment developed by NEC transmitted photos of the accession ceremony of Emperor Hirohito. The ceremony was held in Kyoto in 1928. The Newspapers Asahi Shimbun and Mainichi Shimbun were competing to cover the ceremony. The Asahi Shimbun was using a Siemens device. The Mainichi was planning to use French photo-telegraphic equipment. In the end, both papers acquired and used the NEC product, due to its faster transmission rate and higher picture quality.

In 1929 Nippon Electric provided Japan's Ministry of Communications with the A-type switching system, the first of these systems to be developed in Japan. Nippon supplied Japan's Ministry of Communications with nonloaded line carrier equipment for long-distance telephone channels in 1937.

1938 to 1945
World War II was described by the company as being the blackest days of its history. In 1938 the Mita and Tamagawa plants were placed under military control, with direct supervision by military officers. In 1939, Nippon Electric established a research laboratory in the Tamagawa plant. It became the first Japanese company to successfully test microwave multiplex communications. On December 22, 1941, the enemy property control law was passed. NEC shares owned by International Standard Electric Corporation (ISE), an ITT subsidiary, and Western Electric affiliate were seized. Capital and technical relations were abruptly severed. The "Munitions Company Law" was passed in October 1943, placing overall control of NEC plants under military jurisdiction. The Ueno plant was leveled by the military attack in March 1945. Fire bombings in April and May heavily damaged the Tamagawa Plant, reducing its capacity by forty percent. The Okayama Plant was totally destroyed by a bombing attack in June of the same year. At the end of the war, NEC's production had been substantially reduced by damage to its facilities, and by material and personnel shortages.

1945 to 1980
After the war, production was slowly returned to civilian use. NEC re-opened its major plants by the end of January 1946. NEC began transistor research and development in 1950. It started exporting radio-broadcast equipment to Korea under the first major postwar contract in 1951. NEC received the Deming Prize for excellence in quality control in 1952. Computer research and development began in 1954. NEC produced the first crossbar switching system in Japan. It was installed at Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation (currently Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation; NTT) in 1956. NEC began joint research and development with NTT of electronic switching systems the same year. NEC established Taiwan Telecommunication Company as their first postwar overseas joint venture in 1958. They completed the NEAC-1101 and NEAC-1102 computers in the same year. In September 1958, NEC built their first fully transistorized computer, the NEAC-2201, with parts made solely in Japan. One year later, they demonstrated it at the UNESCO AUTOMATH show in Paris. The company began integrated circuit research and development in 1960. In 1963 NEC started trading as American Depositary Receipts, with ten million shares being sold in the United States. Nippon Electric New York (now NEC America Inc.) was incorporated in the same year.

NEC supplied KDD with submarine cable systems for laying in the Pacific Ocean in 1964. They supplied short-haul 24 channel PCM carrier transmission equipment to NTT in 1965. NEC de Mexico, S. A. de C. V., NEC do Brasil, S. A., NEC Australia Pty. Ltd. were established between 1968 and 1969. NEC supplied Comsat Corporation with the SPADE satellite communications system in 1971. In 1972, Switzerland ordered a NEC satellite communications earth station. The same year, a small transportable satellite communications earth station was set up in China. Shares of NEC common stock were listed on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange in 1973. NEC also designed an automated broadcasting system for the Japan Broadcasting Corporation in the same year. NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH was also established. In 1974, the ACOS series computer was introduced. The New Central Research Laboratories were completed in 1975. In 1977, Japan's National Space Development Agency launched the NEC geostationary meteorological satellite, named Himawari.

During this period NEC introduced the concept of "C&C", the integration of computers and communications. NEC America Inc. opened a plant in Dallas, Texas to manufacture PABX and telephone systems in 1978. They also acquired Electronic Arrays, Inc. of California the same year to start semiconductor chip production in the United States.

1980 to 2000

In 1980, NEC created the first digital signal processor, the NEC μPD7720. NEC Semiconductors (UK) Ltd. was established in 1981, producing VLSIs and LSIs. NEC introduced the 8-bit PC-8800 series personal computer in 1981, followed by the 16-bit PC-9800 series in 1982. In 1983 NEC stock was listed on the Basel, Geneva, and Zurich, Switzerland exchanges. NEC quickly became the dominant leader of the Japanese PC industry, holding 80% market share. NEC changed its English company name to NEC Corporation the same year. NEC Information Systems, Inc. started manufacturing computers and related products in the United States in 1984. NEC also released the V-series processor the same year. In 1986, NEC delivered its SX-2 supercomputer to the Houston Advanced Research Center, The Woodlands, Texas. In the same year, the NEAX61 digital switching system went into service. In 1987, NEC Technologies (UK) Ltd. was established in the United Kingdom to manufacture VCRs, printers, and computer monitors and mobile telephones for Europe. Also that year, NEC licensed technology from Hudson Soft, a video game manufacturer, to create a video game console called the PC-Engine (later released in 1989 as the TurboGrafx-16 in the North American market). Its prototype 3D spec successor, the Tetsujin was originally set to be released in 1992, but the lack of completed games pushed the launch date about early 1993, which was planned debut in Japan. While the PC-Engine achieved a considerable following, it has been said that NEC held a much stronger influence on the video game industry through its role as a leading semiconductor manufacturer than through any of its direct video game products. NEC USA, Inc. was established in 1989 as a holding company for North American operations.

In 1983, NEC Brasil (pt), the Brazilian subsidiary of NEC, was forced to nationalize its corporate stock under orders of the Brazilian military government, whereby shareholder control of NEC Brasil was ceded to the private equity group Brasilinvest of Brazilian investment banker Mário Garnero. Since NEC Brasil's foundation in 1968, it had become the major supplier of telecommunications equipment to the Brazilian government. In 1986, the then Minister of Communications Antônio Carlos Magalhães put NEC Brasil in financial difficulties by suspending all government contract payments to the company, whose main client was the federal government. With the subsidiary in crisis, the NEC Corporation in Japan sold NEC Brasil to Organizações Globo for only onemillion US dollars (US$1,000,000). Shortly thereafter, Magalhães resumed the government contracts and corresponding payments, and NEC Brazil became valued at over 350million US dollars (US$350,000,000). Suspicions regarding the NEC-Globo deal, which included among other things the unilateral breach of contract by Globo founder Roberto Marinho regarding the management of a regional television station in the Brazilian state of Bahia, took to the national stage only in 1992 during the first corruption charges against the impeached Brazilian president Fernando Collor de Mello. Organizações Globo subsequently sold their shares in NEC Brazil, which hit their all-time high during the state monopoly years, back to NEC Corporation in 1999 following the break-up and privatization of the Brazilian state-owned telephone monopoly Telebrás.

In 1990, the new head office building, known as the "Super Tower", was completed in Shiba, Tokyo. Additionally, joint-venture agreements were established to manufacture and market digital electronic switching systems and LSIs in China. In 1993 NEC's asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switching system, the NEAX61 (Nippon Electronic Automatic Exchange) ATM Service Node, went into service in the United States. NEC Europe, Ltd. was established as a holding company for European operations the same year. The NEC C&C Research Laboratories, NEC Europe, Ltd. were opened in Germany in 1994. NEC (China) Co, Ltd. was established as a holding company for Chinese operations in 1996. In 1997 NEC developed 4Gbit DRAM, and their semiconductor group was honored with one of the first Japan Quality Awards. In 1998, NEC opened the world's most advanced semiconductor R&D facility.

NEC had been the no. 1 personal computer vendor in Japan during the 1980s, but it faced increasing competition from Fujitsu, Seiko Epson and IBM Japan. Nevertheless, by the early 1990s, NEC was still the largest, having well over 50% market share in the Japanese market. Competition heated up later as rival Fujitsu started to aggressively market its computers, which were industry standard (x86) instead of NEC's indigenous models.

In June 1995, NEC purchased the California-based Packard Bell company to produce desktop PCs in a common manufacturing plant for the North American market. As a result, NEC Technologies (USA) was merged with Packard Bell to create Packard Bell NEC Inc. By 1997, NEC's share was reduced to about 35%.

In decades, NEC released a new console for its predecessor SuperGrafx, the Japan-only PC-FX, a 32-bit system with a tower-like design; it enjoyed a small but steady stream of games until 1998, when NEC finally abandoned the video games industry.

NEC also supplied rival Nintendo with the RISC-based CPU, V810 (same one used in the PC-FX) for the Virtual Boy and VR4300 CPU for the Nintendo 64, released in 1995–1996, and both SNK updated VR4300 CPU (64-bit MIPS III) on Hyper Neo Geo 64, as well as to former rival Sega with a version of its PowerVR 2 GPU for the Dreamcast, released in 1997–1998. After working the previous chipset on the system. NEC supplied Bandai's WonderSwan handheld console, which was originally developed by Gunpei Yokoi, with the V30 MZ CPU. In the 2000s, NEC manufactured dynamic RAM process chips and produced for the GameCube GPU, Flipper, a graphics card development by ArtX.

NEC celebrated their 100th anniversary in 1999.

2000 to present

In 2000, NEC formed a joint-venture with Samsung SDI to manufacture OLED displays. NEC Electronics Corporation was separated from NEC in 2002 as a new semiconductor company. NEC Laboratories America, Inc. (NEC Labs) started in November 2002 as a merger of NEC Research Institute (NECI) and NEC USA's Computer and Communications Research Laboratory (CCRL). NEC built the Earth Simulator Computer (ESC), the fastest supercomputer in the world from 2002 to 2004.

In 2003 NEC had a 20.8% market share in the personal computer market in Japan, slightly ahead of Fujitsu.

In 2004, NEC abandoned not only the OLED business, but the display business as a whole, by selling off their plasma display business and exiting from the joint-venture with Samsung SDI. Samsung bought all of the shares and related patents owned by NEC, incorporating Samsung OLED, which subsequently merged with Samsung Display.

In 2007, NEC and Nissan Co. Corp. started evaluating a joint venture to produce lithium ion batteries for hybrid and electric cars. The two companies established Automotive Energy Supply Corporation as a result.

On April 23, 2009, Renesas Technology Corp and NEC Electronics Corp struck a basic agreement to merge by around April 2010. On April 1, 2010, NEC Electronics and Renesas Technology merged forming Renesas Electronics which is set to be fourth largest semiconductor company according to iSuppli published data. By Q3 2010, NEC held a 19.8% market share in the PC market in Japan.

On January 27, 2011, NEC formed a joint venture with Chinese PC maker Lenovo, the fourth largest PC maker in the world. As part of the deal, the companies said in a statement they will establish a new company called Lenovo NEC Holdings B.V., which will be registered in the Netherlands. NEC will receive US$175 million from Lenovo through the issuance of Lenovo's shares. Lenovo, through a unit, will own a 51% stake in the joint venture, while NEC will hold a 49% stake. In February 2011, Bloomberg News said the joint venture would allow Lenovo to expand in the field of servers, and NEC's Masato Yamamoto said NEC would be able to grow in China.

On January 26, 2012, NEC Corporation announced that it would cut 10,000 jobs globally due to a big loss on NEC's consolidated financial statement in line with the economic crisis in Europe and lagged in the development of smartphones in the domestic market compared to Apple and Samsung. Previously, in January 2009 NEC has cut about 20,000 jobs, mainly in sluggish semiconductor and liquid crystal display related businesses.

In 2013 NEC was the biggest PC server manufacturer in Japan, with a 23.6% share. In August 2014, NEC Corporation was commissioned to build a super-fast undersea data transmission cable linking the United States and Japan for a consortium of international companies consisting of China Mobile International, China Telecom Global, Global Transit, Google, KDDI and SingTel. The pipeline went online June 30, 2016. It exited from the smartphone market in 2015 by dissolving NEC Mobile Communications, bailing out the other participants in the smartphone joint-venture.

In April 2017, KEMET Corporation announced it would purchase a 61% controlling interest in NEC Tokin from NEC, making NEC Tokin its wholly owned subsidiary. Once the purchase is complete, the company will change its name to "Tokin Corporation".

In July 2018, NEC established its subsidiary, NEC X, in Silicon Valley, to fast-track technologies and business ideas selected from inside and outside NEC. NEC X created a corporate accelerator program that works with entrepreneurs, start-ups and existing companies to help them develop new products that leverage NEC's emerging technologies.

In August 2018, Envision Energy struck an agreement with Nissan and NEC to acquire their automotive battery joint venture. In December 2018, NEC announced that it would acquire KMD, the largest Danish IT company, for $1.2 billion to strengthen its digital government business.

NEC sold its sixty-year-old lighting business in April 2019. As of September 2019, NEC is the largest supplier of AI surveillance technology in the world.

In the first half of 2020, NEC sold a majority stake in NEC Display Solutions, the professional display subsidiary, to Sharp Corporation and decided to gradually curtail the money-losing energy storage business throughout the decade.

Upon the suggested banning of Huawei's 5G equipment led by the United States in 2020, being a diminished supplier, NEC was galvanized to ramp up its relatively small 5G network business to fill the void in the telecommunications equipment markets of the United States and the United Kingdom. NTT, the largest carrier in Japan, invested $596 million for a 4.8 percent stake in NEC to assist this move.

In December 2020, NEC acquired Swiss digital banking solution developer Avaloq for US$2.2 billion.

Operations
As of July 2018, NEC has 6 larger business segments—Public, Enterprise, Network Services, System Platform, Global, and Others. It has renamed its Telecom Carrier business to Network Service.

Principal subsidiaries of NEC include:
 * NEC Corporation of America
 * Netcracker Technology
 * NEC Display Solutions of America (A Sharp-owned company as of July 2020)
 * NEC Europe
 * KMD
 * Avaloq

Products

 * NEC MobilePro – a handheld computer running Windows CE
 * NEC Aspire hybrid small business phone system
 * Electric vehicle batteries (Automotive Energy Supply Corporation, a joint-venture between Nissan, NEC Corporation and NEC TOKIN)
 * NEC mobile phone (see NEC e616)
 * NEC America MultiSync Monitors and Fax devices1
 * NEC digital cinema projector
 * NEC Home Electronics (USA), Inc. / NEC MultiSpeed laptop PCs, MultiSync series PC monitors and Data Projectors
 * NEC Home Electronics (USA), Inc. / TV, Projection TV, VCRs and Home Audio (CD, Amplifiers, Receivers)
 * NEC Technologies, Inc. / Versa series notebook PCs
 * NEC Information Systems, Inc. POWERMATE desktop PCs
 * NEC Information Systems, Inc. Valuestar / NEC POWERMATE hybrid computer
 * NEC (Division unknown) Car Stereos and Keyless Entry Systems
 * Game consoles:
 * PC Engine (TurboGrafx-16 in the US) and all related hardware and successors; co-produced by Hudson Soft.
 * PC-Engine GT (TurboExpress in the US)
 * PC-Engine Duo (TurboDuo in the US)
 * PC-FX
 * Personal computers:
 * PC-6000 series
 * PC-6600 series
 * PC-8000 series
 * PC-8800 series
 * PC-9800 series, also known as PC-98
 * Microprocessors:
 * NEC V20
 * NEC V25

Defense products include: Food
 * J/TPS-102 Self-propelled ground-based early warning 3D radar (JGSDF)
 * Broadband multipurpose radio system (JGSDF)
 * Advanced Combat Infantry Equipment System [ACIES] (JSDF) – Major subcontractor
 * Howa rifle system (JSDF) – Major subcontractor as part of ACIES

 * Ren AI Pan

Laptops

 * ProSpeed
 * Versa pro type VB December 2016

Supercomputers

 * 1983 Announced the SX-1 and SX-2 supercomputers
 * 1989 Introduction of SX-3
 * 1994 First announcement of SX-4
 * 1999 Delivery of SX-5
 * 2002 Introduced SX-6
 * 2002 Installation of the Earth Simulator, the world's fastest supercomputer from 2002 to 2004 reaching a speed of 35,600 gigaflops
 * 2005 NEC SX-8 in production
 * 2006 Announced the SX-8R
 * 2007 Announced the SX-9
 * 2011 First announcement of the NEC SX-9's successor
 * 2013 Announced the SX-ACE
 * 2017 Announced the SX-Aurora TSUBASA computing platform that expands the horizons of supercomputing, Artificial Intelligence and Big Data analytics.

Achievements
Achievements of NEC include:
 * the discovery of single-walled carbon nanotubes by Sumio Iijima
 * the invention of the widely used MUX-scan design for test methodology (contrast with the IBM-developed level-sensitive scan design methodology)
 * the world's first demonstration of the one-qubit rotation gate in solid state devices.
 * As for mobile phones, NEC pioneered key technologies like color displays, 3G support, dual screens and camera modules.
 * Developed a facial recognition system able to detect and distinguish human faces through medical masks.
 * Released the first home console video game system to use compact discs, being the first widely available product to use compact discs as a platform for interactive video entertainment outside of home computer use.

Sponsorships
NEC was the main (title) sponsor of the Davis Cup competition until 2002, when BNP Paribas took over the sponsorship.

NEC between 1982 and 2012 sponsored the NEC Cup, a Go tournament in Japan.

NEC between 1986 and 2003 sponsored the NEC Shun-Ei, a Go tournament for young players in Japan.

NEC sponsored the English football club Everton from 1985 to 1995. The 1995 FA Cup Final triumph was Everton's final game of the decade-long NEC sponsorship, and Danka took over as sponsors.

NEC first time signed the deal to sponsor Sauber F1 Team from 2011 season until 2014 season.

Right after Sauber, NEC continue sponsored Sahara Force India F1 Team for 2015 season until its demise during 2018 season. Since then NEC has sponsored for their last time its successor Racing Point only in 2019 season.

In April 2013, NEC became the umbrella sponsor for PGA Tour Latinoamérica, a third-tier men's professional golf tour.

Sports teams
These started as works teams, but over the years came to include professional players:
 * NEC Red Rockets (women's volleyball)
 * NEC Green Rockets (men's rugby union)

NEC also used to own Montedio Yamagata of the football (soccer) J. League, but just sponsors them along with other local companies.

The following team is defunct.
 * NEC Blue Rockets (men's volleyball)

title: NEC


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Michael Dobbs

Michael John Dobbs, Baron Dobbs (born 14 November 1948) is a British Conservative politician and author, best known for his House of Cards trilogy.

Early life and education
Michael Dobbs was born on 14 November 1948 in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, the son of nurseryman Eric and Eileen Dobbs. He was educated at Hertford Grammar School, Cheshunt Grammar School, and Christ Church, Oxford.

After graduating from Oxford in 1971 with a third-class BA in philosophy, politics and economics, Dobbs moved to the United States. He attended the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, and graduated in 1977 with an MA, MALD, and a PhD in nuclear defence studies. His doctoral dissertation was published as China and SALT: Dragon Hunting in a Multinuclear World. In 2007, Dobbs gave the Alumni Salutation at Fletcher.

Politics
After getting his PhD in 1977, Dobbs returned to England and began working in London for the Conservative Party. From 1977 to 1979, he was an advisor to Margaret Thatcher, who was then leader of the Opposition. From 1979 to 1981, he was a Conservative speechwriter. From 1981 to 1986, he served as a government special advisor. From 1986 to 1987, he was the Conservative Party chief of staff.

In 1984, he survived the Brighton bombing at the Conservative Party Conference. He was called "Westminster's baby-faced hit man", by The Guardian in 1987. From 1994 to 1995, he served in the John Major government as deputy chairman of the Conservative Party.

On 18 December 2010, Dobbs was made a life peer, as Baron Dobbs, of Wylye, in the County of Wiltshire, and was introduced in the House of Lords on 20 December. He sits as a Conservative Peer. Lord Dobbs is also an executive board member of the Conservative Friends of the Chinese. In August 2014, Lord Dobbs was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.

Dobbs supported a Leave vote in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum. In March 2019, he expressed himself critically about the administration of Theresa May, stating that "[w]e have a flat-pack Cabinet that threatens to collapse every time you switch the telly on."

As of 13 October 2022, Dobbs was a member of the advisory board of the Parthenon Project, an organisation that aims "to reunify the Parthenon Sculptures (also known as the Elgin Marbles) currently on permanent display in the British Museum with the other remaining originals in their home city of Athens" in Greece.

Business and journalism
From 1983 to 1986, Dobbs worked at Saatchi & Saatchi as deputy advertising chairman. From 1987 to 1988, he was director of worldwide corporate communications. From 1988 to 1991, he was deputy chairman, working directly under Maurice Saatchi.

From 1991 to 1998, Dobbs was a columnist for The Mail on Sunday newspaper. From 1998 to 2001, he hosted the current affairs programme Despatch Box on BBC Two.

Writing
Michael Dobbs' writing career began in 1989 with the publication of House of Cards, the first in what would become a trilogy of political thrillers with Francis Urquhart as the central character; House of Cards was followed by To Play the King in 1992 and The Final Cut in 1994. In 1990 House of Cards was turned into a television mini-series which received 14 BAFTA nominations and two BAFTA wins and was voted the 84th Best British Show in History. Netflix produced a US version based upon Dobbs's first novel and its BBC adaptation. He was an executive producer of the American series.

His novel, Winston's War (2004), was shortlisted for the Channel 4 Political Book of the Year Award, and his Harry Jones novels, A Sentimental Traitor and A Ghost at the Door, for the Paddy Power Political Book of the Year awards in 2013 and 2014, respectively. His novels are also published in the United States.

Anthony Howard of The Times said "Dobbs is following in a respectable tradition. Shakespeare, Walter Scott, even Tolstoy, all used historical events as the framework for their writings. And, unlike some of their distinguished works, Dobbs's novel [Winston's War] is, in fact, astonishingly historically accurate".

Other work
Dobbs has been a judge of the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and lectures at dozens of literary and fundraising events each year.

Personal life
Dobbs, now a part-time writer, divides his time between London and Wiltshire. He has two sons from his first marriage and two stepsons with his second wife, Rachel.

Charity
Dobbs has raised money for his neighbour, who is paralysed as a result of a rugby injury. He walked from his home town in Wylye to his old school Richard Hale. He completed this on 27 March 2015. He is the patron of eye care charity, the Graham Layton Trust.

Namesake
Dobbs is a distant relative of the US non-fiction author with the same name. The two are sometimes confused.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Michael Dobbs


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G5

G5, G.V, G.5 or G-5 may refer to:

Businesses and companies

 * G5 Entertainment, a video game developer and publisher; see list of PlayStation minis
 * G5, IATA code for China Express Airlines

Electronics and software

 * Canon PowerShot G5, a digital camera
 * Dell G5 Series, a series of gaming laptops
 * G5 bipin, a lamp standard
 * LG G5, a smartphone developed by LG Electronics
 * Logitech G5, a gaming mouse with variable weight and sensitivity settings
 * Motorola G5 project, the failed Motorola PowerPC project to succeed its own PPC 74x
 * PowerPC G5, the PowerPC 970 microprocessor from IBM
 * iMac G5, an all-in-one desktop computer by Apple
 * Power Mac G5, Apple's marketing name for models of the Power Macintosh which contain the IBM PowerPC 970 CPU

Groups and organizations

 * G5, former name for G6 (EU), a group of the largest West European countries
 * G5 (universities), a grouping of five public research universities in England
 * G5 Sahel, an alliance of five countries in West Africa
 * Group of Five, five nations which have joined together for an active role in the rapidly evolving international order
 * Group of Five conferences, college football conferences in the United States

Military

 * G-5-class motor torpedo boat, a World War II Soviet torpedo boat
 * G5 carbine, a Georgian assault rifle
 * G5 howitzer, a South African howitzer
 * PMMC G5, a German light tracked vehicle
 * G.V (pronounced "G5"), a German designation for several World War I heavy bombers:
 * AEG G.V, a biplane bomber aircraft of World War I, a further refinement of the AEG G.IV
 * Gotha G.V, a heavy bomber used by the Luftstreitkräfte (Imperial German Air Service) during World War I

Science

 * G5 star, a subclass of G-class stars
 * Group 5 element, part of the periodic table of elements
 * Haplogroup G2c (Y-DNA), a human Y chromosome haplogroup, formerly known as haplogroup G5 (Y-DNA)

Aircraft

 * Fiat G.5, an Italian aerobatic tourer
 * Gribovsky G-5, a Russian sport aircraft
 * Gulfstream V, an American business jet

Automobiles

 * BYD G5, a Chinese compact sedan
 * Enranger G5, a Chinese compact crossover
 * Gonow Aoosed GX5, a Chinese mid-size SUV previously known as G5
 * Moskvitch G5, a Soviet Formula One car
 * Pontiac G5, an American compact sedan/coupe
 * Riich G5, a Chinese mid-size sedan

Rail

 * G5, station number for Gaiemmae Station, of the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line
 * LNER Class G5, the post-1923 designation for NER Class O steam locomotives
 * PRR G5, a 4-6-0 steam locomotive built for the Pennsylvania Railroad
 * Prussian G 5.1, Prussian G 5.4, and Prussian G 5.5 a series of 2-6-0 steam locomotives built for the Prussian state railroads

Other uses in transportation

 * Yamaha Libero G5, a Japanese-Indian motorcycle
 * G5 Beijing–Kunming Expressway
 * Galactic 05 (G05), a Virgin Galactic suborbital tourist spaceflight in November 2023
 * Mazda G5, a Mazda G engine

Other uses

 * G5 paper, a Swedish paper format additional to SIS 014711

title: G5


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Talk:G5

Does anyone else think those two articles should be merged? Boffy b 17:33, 30 Nov 2003 (UTC)

 * Yes. Although technically they're not quite the same thing, the distinction is pretty delicate, and there's not so much content that an article needs to be split for manageability. Stan 17:46, 30 Nov 2003 (UTC)

title: Talk:G5


text:
Root locus analysis

In control theory and stability theory, root locus analysis is a graphical method for examining how the roots of a system change with variation of a certain system parameter, commonly a gain within a feedback system. This is a technique used as a stability criterion in the field of classical control theory developed by Walter R. Evans which can determine stability of the system. The root locus plots the poles of the closed loop transfer function in the complex s-plane as a function of a gain parameter (see pole–zero plot). Evans also invented in 1948 an analog computer to compute root loci, called a "Spirule" (after "spiral" and "slide rule"); it found wide use before the advent of digital computers.

Uses
In addition to determining the stability of the system, the root locus can be used to design the damping ratio (ζ) and natural frequency (ωn) of a feedback system. Lines of constant damping ratio can be drawn radially from the origin and lines of constant natural frequency can be drawn as arccosine whose center points coincide with the origin. By selecting a point along the root locus that coincides with a desired damping ratio and natural frequency, a gain K can be calculated and implemented in the controller. More elaborate techniques of controller design using the root locus are available in most control textbooks: for instance, lag, lead, PI, PD and PID controllers can be designed approximately with this technique.

The definition of the damping ratio and natural frequency presumes that the overall feedback system is well approximated by a second order system; i.e. the system has a dominant pair of poles. This is often not the case, so it is good practice to simulate the final design to check if the project goals are satisfied.

Definition
The root locus of a feedback system is the graphical representation in the complex s-plane of the possible locations of its closed-loop poles for varying values of a certain system parameter. The points that are part of the root locus satisfy the angle condition. The value of the parameter for a certain point of the root locus can be obtained using the magnitude condition.

Suppose there is a feedback system with input signal $$X(s)$$ and output signal $$Y(s)$$. The forward path transfer function is $$G(s)$$; the feedback path transfer function is $$H(s)$$.

For this system, the closed-loop transfer function is given by

 * $$T(s) = \frac{Y(s)}{X(s)} = \frac{G(s)}{1+G(s)H(s)}$$

Thus, the closed-loop poles of the closed-loop transfer function are the roots of the characteristic equation $$1 + G(s)H(s) = 0$$. The roots of this equation may be found wherever $$1+G(s)H(s) = 0$$.

In systems without pure delay, the product $$G(s)H(s)$$ is a rational polynomial function and may be expressed as

 * $$G(s)H(s) = K \frac{ (s + z_1) (s + z_2) \cdots (s + z_m)}{(s + p_1) (s + p_2) \cdots (s + p_n) }$$

where $$-z_i$$ are the $$m$$ zeros, $$-p_i$$ are the $$n$$ poles, and $$K$$ is a scalar gain. Typically, a root locus diagram will indicate the transfer function's pole locations for varying values of the parameter $$K$$. A root locus plot will be all those points in the s-plane where $$G(s)H(s) = -1$$ for any value of $$K$$.

The factoring of $$K$$ and the use of simple monomials means the evaluation of the rational polynomial can be done with vector techniques that add or subtract angles and multiply or divide magnitudes. The vector formulation arises from the fact that each monomial term $$(s-a)$$ in the factored $$G(s)H(s)$$ represents the vector from $$a$$ to $$s$$ in the s-plane. The polynomial can be evaluated by considering the magnitudes and angles of each of these vectors.

According to vector mathematics, the angle of the result of the rational polynomial is the sum of all the angles in the numerator minus the sum of all the angles in the denominator. So to test whether a point in the s-plane is on the root locus, only the angles to all the open loop poles and zeros need be considered. This is known as the angle condition.

Similarly, the magnitude of the result of the rational polynomial is the product of all the magnitudes in the numerator divided by the product of all the magnitudes in the denominator. It turns out that the calculation of the magnitude is not needed to determine if a point in the s-plane is part of the root locus because $$K$$ varies and can take an arbitrary real value. For each point of the root locus a value of $$K$$ can be calculated. This is known as the magnitude condition.

The root locus only gives the location of closed loop poles as the gain $$K$$ is varied. The value of $$K$$ does not affect the location of the zeros. The open-loop zeros are the same as the closed-loop zeros.

Angle condition
A point $$s$$ of the complex s-plane satisfies the angle condition if

 * $$\angle (G(s)H(s)) = \pi$$

which is the same as saying that

 * $$\sum_{i=1}^{m}\angle(s+z_i) - \sum_{i=1}^{n}\angle(s+p_i) = \pi$$

that is, the sum of the angles from the open-loop zeros to the point $$s$$ (measured per zero w.r.t. a horizontal running through that zero) minus the angles from the open-loop poles to the point $$s$$ (measured per pole w.r.t. a horizontal running through that pole) has to be equal to $$\pi$$, or 180 degrees. Note that these interpretations should not be mistaken for the angle differences between the point $$s$$ and the zeros/poles.

Magnitude condition
A value of $$K$$ satisfies the magnitude condition for a given $$s$$ point of the root locus if

 * $$|G(s)H(s)| = 1$$

which is the same as saying that

 * $$ K\frac{ |s + z_1| |s + z_2| \cdots |s + z_m|}{|s + p_1| |s + p_2| \cdots |s + p_n| } = 1$$.

Sketching root locus

Using a few basic rules, the root locus method can plot the overall shape of the path (locus) traversed by the roots as the value of $$K$$ varies. The plot of the root locus then gives an idea of the stability and dynamics of this feedback system for different values of $$K$$. The rules are the following:
 * Mark open-loop poles and zeros
 * Mark real axis portion to the left of an odd number of poles and zeros
 * Find asymptotes

Let P be the number of poles and Z be the number of zeros:

 * $$P - Z = \text{number of asymptotes} \, $$

The asymptotes intersect the real axis at $$\alpha$$ (which is called the centroid) and depart at angle $$\phi$$ given by:

 * $$\phi_l = \frac{180^\circ + (l - 1)360^\circ}{P-Z}, l = 1, 2, \ldots, P - Z$$

 * $$\alpha = \frac{\operatorname{Re}\left(\sum_P - \sum_Z\right)}{P - Z}$$

where $$\sum_P$$ is the sum of all the locations of the poles, $$\sum_Z$$ is the sum of all the locations of the explicit zeros and $$\operatorname{Re}$$ denotes that we are only interested in the real part.
 * Phase condition on test point to find angle of departure
 * Compute breakaway/break-in points

The breakaway points are located at the roots of the following equation:

 * $$\frac{dG(s)H(s)}{ds} = 0\text{ or }\frac{d\overline{GH}(z)}{dz} = 0$$

Once you solve for z, the real roots give you the breakaway/reentry points. Complex roots correspond to a lack of breakaway/reentry.

Plotting root locus
Given the general closed-loop denominator rational polynomial

 * $$ 1 + G(s)H(s) = 1 + K \frac{b_m s^m + \ldots + b_1 s + b_0}{s^n + a_{n-1}s^{n-1} + \ldots + a_1 s + a_0}, $$

the characteristic equation can be simplified to

 * $$ s^n + a_{n-1}s^{n-1} + \ldots + (a_m + K b_m)s^m + \ldots + (a_1 + K b_1)s + (a_0 + K b_0) = 0.$$

The solutions of $$s$$ to this equation are the root loci of the closed-loop transfer function.

Example
Given

 * $$ 1 + G(s)H(s) = 1 + K \frac{s + 3}{s^3 + 3s^2 + 5s + 1}, $$

we will have the characteristic equation

 * $$ s^3 + 3s^2 + (5 + K)s + (1 + 3 K) = 0. $$

The following MATLAB code will plot the root locus of the closed-loop transfer function as $$K$$ varies using the described manual method as well as the  built-in function:

The following Python code can also be used to calculate and plot the root locus of the closed-loop transfer function using the Python Control Systems Library and Matplotlib.

z-plane versus s-plane
The root locus method can also be used for the analysis of sampled data systems by computing the root locus in the z-plane, the discrete counterpart of the s-plane. The equation $z = e^{sT}$ maps continuous s-plane poles (not zeros) into the z-domain, where $T$ is the sampling period. The stable, left half s-plane maps into the interior of the unit circle of the z-plane, with the s-plane origin equating to |z| = 1 (because e0 = 1). A diagonal line of constant damping in the s-plane maps around a spiral from (1,0) in the z plane as it curves in toward the origin. The Nyquist aliasing criteria is expressed graphically in the z-plane by the x-axis, where $ωnT = π$. The line of constant damping just described spirals in indefinitely but in sampled data systems, frequency content is aliased down to lower frequencies by integral multiples of the Nyquist frequency. That is, the sampled response appears as a lower frequency and better damped as well since the root in the z-plane maps equally well to the first loop of a different, better damped spiral curve of constant damping. Many other interesting and relevant mapping properties can be described, not least that z-plane controllers, having the property that they may be directly implemented from the z-plane transfer function (zero/pole ratio of polynomials), can be imagined graphically on a z-plane plot of the open loop transfer function, and immediately analyzed utilizing root locus.

Since root locus is a graphical angle technique, root locus rules work the same in the $z$ and $s$ planes.

The idea of a root locus can be applied to many systems where a single parameter $K$ is varied. For example, it is useful to sweep any system parameter for which the exact value is uncertain in order to determine its behavior.

title: Root locus analysis


text:
D-subminiature

The D-subminiature or D-sub is a common type of electrical connector. They are named for their characteristic D-shaped metal shield. When they were introduced, D-subs were among the smallest connectors used on computer systems.

Description, nomenclature, and variants
A D-sub contains two or more parallel rows of pins or sockets usually surrounded by a D-shaped metal shield, or shell, that provides mechanical support, ensures correct orientation, and may screen against electromagnetic interference. Calling that shield a shell (or D-shell) can be ambiguous, as the term shell is also short for the cable shell, or backshell. D-sub connectors have gender: parts with pin contacts are called male connectors or plugs, while those with socket contacts are called female connectors or sockets. The socket's shield fits tightly inside the plug's shield. Panel-mounted connectors usually have #4-40 UNC (as designated with the Unified Thread Standard) jackscrews that accept screws on the cable end connector cover that are used for locking the connectors together and offering mechanical strain relief, and can be tightened with a 3/16" (or 5mm) hex socket.

The hexagonal pillars (4-40 bolts) at both sides of each connector have a threaded stud fastening the connectors to the metal panel. They also have threaded sockets to receive jackscrews on the cable shell, holding the plug and socket together.

Occasionally the nuts may be found on a cable end connector if it is expected to connect to another cable end (see the male DE-9 pictured). When screened cables are used, the shields are connected to the overall screens of the cables. This creates an electrically continuous screen covering the whole cable and connector system.

The D-sub series of connectors was introduced by Cannon in 1952. Cannon's part-numbering system uses D as the prefix for the whole series, followed by one of A, B, C, D, or E denoting the shell size, followed by the number of pins or sockets, followed by either P (plug or pins ) or S (socket) denoting the gender of the part. Each shell size usually (see below for exceptions) corresponds to a certain number of pins or sockets: A with 15, B with 25, C with 37, D with 50, and E with 9. For example, DB-25 denotes a D-sub with a 25-position shell size and a 25-position contact configuration. The contacts in each row of these connectors are spaced 326/3000 of an inch apart, or approximately 0.1087 in, and the rows are spaced 0.112 in apart; the pins in the two rows are offset by half the distance between adjacent contacts in a row. This spacing is called normal density. The suffixes M and F (for male and female) are sometimes used instead of the original P and S for plug and socket.

Variants
Later D-sub connectors added extra pins to the original shell sizes, and their names follow the same pattern. For example, the DE-15, usually found in VGA cables, has 15 pins in three rows, all surrounded by an E size shell. The pins are spaced at 0.090 in horizontally and 0.078 in vertically, in what is called high density. The other connectors with the same pin spacing are the DA-26, DB-44, DC-62, DD-78 and DF-104. They all have three rows of pins, except the DD-78 which has four, and the DF-104 which has five rows in a new, larger shell. The double density series of D-sub connectors features even denser arrangements and consists of the DE-19, DA-31, DB-52, DC-79, and DD-100. These each have three rows of pins, except the DD-100, which has four.

Common misnomers
The above naming pattern was not always followed. Because personal computers first used DB-25 connectors for their serial and parallel ports, when the PC serial port began to use 9-pin connectors, they were often labeled as DB-9 instead of DE-9 connectors, due to an ignorance of the fact that B represented a shell size. It is now common to see DE-9 connectors sold as DB-9 connectors. DB-9 nearly always refers to a 9-pin connector with an E-size shell. The non-standard 23-pin D-sub connectors for external floppy drives and video output on most of the Amiga computers are usually labeled DB-23, even though their shell size is two pins smaller than ordinary DB sockets. Several computers also used a non-standard 19-pin D-sub connector, sometimes called DB-19, including Macintosh (external floppy drive), Atari ST (external hard drive), and NeXT (Megapixel Display monitor and laser printer).

Reflecting the same confusion of the letters DB with just D as mentioned above, high-density connectors are also often called DB-15HD (or even DB-15 or HD-15), DB-26HD (HD-26), DB-44HD, DB-62HD, and DB-78HD connectors, respectively, where HD stands for high density.

Cannon also produced combo D-subs with larger contacts in place of some of the normal contacts, for use for high-current, high-voltage, or co-axial inserts. The DB-13W3 variant was commonly used for high-performance video connections; this variant provided 10 regular (#20) pins plus three coaxial contacts for the red, green, and blue video signals. Combo D-subs are currently manufactured in a broad range of configurations by other companies. Some variants have current ratings up to 40 A; others are waterproof and meet IP67 standards.

A further family of connectors of similar appearance to the D-sub family uses names such as HD-50 and HD-68, and has a D-shaped shell about half the width of a DB25. They are common in SCSI attachments.

The original D-sub connectors are now defined by an international standard, IEC 60807-3 / DIN 41652. The United States military also maintains another specification for D-subminiature connectors, the MIL-DTL-24308 standard.

Micro-D and Nano-D
Smaller connectors have been derived from the D-sub including the microminiature D (micro-D) and nanominiature D (nano-D) which are trademarks of ITT Cannon. Micro-D is about half the length of a D-sub and Nano-D is about half the length of Micro-D. Their primary applications are in military and space-grade technology. The MIL-SPEC for Micro-D is MIL-DTL-83513 and for Nano-D is MIL-DTL-32139.

Communications ports
The widest application of D-subs is for RS-232 serial communications, though the standard did not make this connector mandatory. RS-232 devices originally used the DB25, but for many applications the less common signals were omitted, allowing a DE-9 to be used. The standard specifies a male connector for terminal equipment and a female connector for modems, but many variations exist. IBM PC-compatible computers tend to have male connectors at the device and female connectors at the modems. Early Apple Macintosh models used DE-9 connectors for RS-422 multi-drop serial interfaces (which can operate as RS-232). Later Macintosh models use 8-pin miniature DIN connectors instead.

On PCs, 25-pin and (beginning with the IBM PC/AT) 9-pin plugs were used for the RS-232 serial ports; 25-pin sockets were used for parallel ports (instead of the Centronics port found on the printer itself, which was inconveniently large for direct placement on the expansion cards).

Many uninterruptible power supply units have a DE-9F connector on them in order to signal to the attached computer via an RS-232 interface. Often these do not send data serially to the computer but instead use the handshaking control lines to indicate low battery, power failure, or other conditions. Such usage is not standardized between manufacturers and may require special cables.

Network ports
DE9 connectors were used for some Token Ring networks as well as other computer networks.

The Attachment Unit Interfaces that were used with 10BASE5 thick net in the 1980s and 1990s used DA-15 connectors for connectivity between the Medium Attachment Units and (Ethernet) network interface cards, albeit with a sliding latch to lock the connectors together instead of the usual hex studs with threaded holes. The sliding latch was intended to be quicker to engage and disengage and to work in places where jackscrews could not be used for reasons of component shape.

In vehicles, DE-9 connectors are commonly used in Controller Area Networks (CAN): female connectors are on the bus while male connectors are on devices.

DE9 connectors
A female 9-pin connector on an IBM compatible personal computer may be a digital RGBI video display output such as MDA, Hercules, CGA, or EGA (rarely VGA or others). Even though these all use the same DE9 connector, the displays cannot all be interchanged and monitors or video interfaces may be damaged if connected to an incompatible device using the same connector.

DE-15 connectors
Later analog video (VGA and later) adapters generally replaced DE-9 connectors with DE-15 high-density sockets (though some early VGA devices still used DE-9 connectors). DE-15 connectors have the same shell size as DE-9 connectors (see above). The additional pins of the DE-15 VGA connector were used to add increasingly sophisticated monitor-sensing plug and play functionality.

DA-15 connectors
Many Apple Macintosh models, beginning with the Macintosh II, used DA-15 sockets for analog RGB video out. These connectors had the same number of pins as the above DE-15 connectors, but used the more traditional pin size, pin spacing, and size shell of the DA-15 standard connector. "VGA adapters" (i.e. DA-15 to DE-15 dongles) were available but sometimes monitor-specific, or they needed DIP switch configuration, as the Macintosh's monitor sense pins in particular were not identical with a VGA connector's DDC.

The earlier Apple IIGS used the same physical DA-15 connector for the same purpose but with an incompatible pinout. A digital (and thus also incompatible) RGB adapter for the Apple IIe also used a DA-15F. The Apple IIc used a DA-15F for an auxiliary video port which was not RGB but provided the necessary signals to derive RGB.

DE9 connectors

The 1977 Atari Video Computer System game console uses modified DE9 connectors (male on the system, female on the cable) for its game controller connectors. The Atari joystick ports have bodies entirely of molded plastic without the metal shield, and they omit the pair of fastening screws. In the years following, various video game consoles and home computers adopted the same connector for their own game ports, though they were not all interoperable. The most common wiring supported five connections for discrete signals (five switches, for up, down, left, and right movement, and a fire button), plus one pair of 100 kΩ potentiometers, or paddles, for analog input. Some computers supported additional buttons, and on some computers additional devices, such as a computer mouse, a light pen, or a graphics tablet were also supported via the game port. Unlike the basic one-button digital joysticks and the basic paddles, such devices were not typically interchangeable between different systems.

Systems using the DE9 connector for their game port include the TI-99/4A; Atari 8-bit computers, Atari ST, Atari 7800, VIC-20, Commodore 64, Commodore 128, Amiga, Amstrad CPC (which employes daisy-chaining when connecting two Amstrad-specific joysticks), MSX, X68000, FM Towns, ColecoVision, SG-1000, Master System, Mega Drive/Genesis), and the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer.

The ZX Spectrum lacks a built-in joystick connector of any kind but aftermarket interfaces provided the ability to connect DE9 joysticks. NEC's home computers (e.g. PC-88, PC-98) also used DE9 connectors for game controllers, depending on the sound card used.

The Fairchild Channel F System II and Bally Astrocade use DE9 connectors for their detachable joystick as well. Both are incompatible with the Atari connector.

Many Apple II computers also use DE9 connectors for joysticks, but they have a female port on the computer and a male on the controller, use analog rather than digital sticks, and the pinout is completely unlike that used on the aforementioned systems. DE9 connectors were not used for game ports on the Macintosh, Apple III, IBM PC compatible systems, or most game consoles outside the aforementioned examples. Sega switched to proprietary controller ports for the Saturn and Dreamcast.

DA-15 connectors
DA-15S connectors are used for PC joystick connectors, where each DA-15 connector supports two joysticks each with two analog axes and two buttons. In other words, one DA-15S game adapter connector has 4 analog potentiometer inputs and 4 digital switch inputs. This interface is strictly input-only, though it does provide +5 V DC power. Some joysticks with more than two axes or more than two buttons use the signals designated for both joysticks. Conversely, Y-adapter cables are available that allow two separate joysticks to be connected to a single DA-15 game adapter port; if a joystick connected to one of these Y-adapters has more than two axes or buttons, only the first two of each will work.

The IBM DA-15 PC game connector has been modified to add a (usually MPU-401 compatible) MIDI interface, and this is often implemented in the game connectors on third-party sound cards, for example, the Sound Blaster line from Creative Labs. The standard straight game adapter connector (introduced by IBM) has three ground pins and four +5 V power pins, and the MIDI adaptation replaces one of the grounds and one of the +5 V pins, both on the bottom row of pins, with MIDI In and MIDI Out signal pins. (There is no MIDI Thru provided.) Creative Labs introduced this adaptation.

The Neo Geo AES game console also used the DA-15 connector, however, the pins are wired differently and it is therefore not compatible with the regular DA-15 PC game controllers.

The Nintendo Famicom's controllers were hardwired but also included a DA-15 expansion port for additional controllers. Many clones of the hardware used a DA-15 which implemented a subset of the Famicom expansion port and were therefore compatible with some Famicom accessories. Later clones switched to the cheaper DE9 port.

The Atari 5200 also used a DA-15 instead of the DE9 of its predecessor to facilitate the matrix for the keypad. The Atari Falcon, Atari STe and Atari Jaguar used a DE-15.

Other
25-pin sockets on Macintosh computers are typically single-ended SCSI connectors, combining all signal returns into one contact (again in contrast to the Centronics C50 connector typically found on the peripheral, supplying a separate return contact for each signal), while older Sun hardware uses DD50 connectors for Fast-SCSI equipment. As SCSI variants from Ultra2 onwards used differential signaling, the Macintosh DB25 SCSI interface became obsolete.

The complete range of D-sub connectors also includes DA-15s (one row of 7 and one of 8), DC-37s (one row of 18 and one of 19), and DD50s (two rows of 17 and one of 16); these are often used in industrial products, the 15-way version being commonly used on rotary and linear encoders.

The early Macintosh and late Apple II computers used a non-standard 19-pin D-sub for connecting external floppy disk drives. Atari also used this connector on their 16-bit computer range for attaching hard disk drives and the Atari laser printer, where it was known as both the ACSI (Atari Computer System Interface) port and the DMA bus port. The Commodore Amiga used an equally non-standard 23-pin version for both its video output (male) and its port for daisy-chaining up to three extra external floppy disk drives (female).

In professional audio, several connections use DB-25 connectors:
 * TASCAM and many others are using a connection over DB-25 connectors, which has been standardized into AES59. This connection transports AES3 digital audio or analog audio using the same pinout.
 * TASCAM initially used their TDIF connection over DB-25 connectors for their multitrack recording audio equipment. The transported signals are not AES3 compatible.
 * Roland used DB-25 connectors for their multi-track recording audio equipment (R-BUS). A few patch panels have been made which have the DB-25 connectors on the back with phone jacks (or even TRS phone connectors) on the front, however, these are normally wired for TASCAM, which is more common outside of broadcasting.

In broadcast and professional video, parallel digital is a digital video interface that uses DB-25 connectors, per the SMPTE 274M specification adopted in the late 1990s. The more common SMPTE 259M serial digital interface (SDI) uses BNC connectors for digital video signal transfer.

DC-37 connectors are commonly used in hospital facilities as an interface between hospital beds and nurse call systems, allowing for the connection and signaling of Nurse Call, Bed Exit, and Cord out including TV entertainment and lighting controls. The comparatively rare DC-37 connector was also found as the so-called "GeekPort" electronics experimentation breakout connector on the even rarer BeBox computer.

DB-25 connectors are commonly used to carry analog signals for beam displacement and color to laser projectors, as specified in the ISP-DB25 protocol published by the International Laser Display Association.

Wire-contact attachment types

There are at least seven different methods used to attach wires to the contacts in D-sub connectors.

 * Solder-bucket (or solder-cup) contacts have a cavity into which the stripped wire is inserted and hand-soldered.
 * Insulation displacement contacts (IDCs) allow a ribbon cable to be forced onto sharp tines on the back of the contacts; this action pierces the insulation of all the wires simultaneously. This is a very quick means of assembly whether done by hand or machine.
 * Crimp contacts are assembled by inserting a stripped wire end into a cavity in the rear of the contact, then crushing the cavity using a crimp tool, causing the cavity to grip the wire tightly at many points. The crimped contact is then inserted into the connector where it locks into place. Individual crimped pins can be removed later by inserting a special tool into the rear of the connector.
 * PCB pins are soldered directly to a printed circuit board and not to a wire. Traditionally through hole plated (THP) board style pins were used (print) but increasingly gull-wing surface mount (SMD) connections are used, although the latter frequently exhibit solder pad contact problems when exposed to mechanical stress. These connectors are frequently mounted at a right angle to the PCB, allowing a cable to be plugged into the edge of the PCB assembly. While angled connectors traditionally occupied significant room on the PCB, flat SMD connector variants are produced by various manufacturers. Electrical/mechanical anchor points (often soldered) for the connector shell and locking screws are also provided but significantly differ in their position between US and EU connector variants, so that the correct type must be used unless the PCB was designed to accept them both. The PCB connectors are available in variants with either inch or metric pitch of the soldered contacts. Tolerances are typically large enough to allow the mounting of the smaller connectors regardless of the pitch variant used, but this does not hold true for the larger connectors.
 * Wire wrap connections are made by wrapping solid wire around a square post with a wire wrap tool. This type of connection is often used in developing prototypes.

The wire wrap and IDC connections styles had to contend with incompatible pin spacing to the $0.05 inch$ ribbon cable or $0.1 inch$ proto board grid, especially for larger pin counts.

title: D-subminiature


text:
Talk:R4M

Untitled
"Two warheads were available for the R4M, the common PB-3 with a 4kg shaped charge for anti-aircraft use, and the larger PB-2 for use in the anti-tank role"

Soory, but that's wrong - as the designation "Minenkopf" indicates, the normal warhead this rocket carried was a thin-walled, high-capacity charge of about 500 g explosive. The weight of the entire rocket was around 4 kg, so obviously it couldn't have mounted a "4 kg shaped charge".

Only the dedicated anti-tank version of the R4 had a shaped charge, with a weight comparable to that of the HE warhead. -- Right, warhead was about 500 g, that was considered as always lethal against any aircraft. The dedicated AT version was called "Panzerblitz" and looked like a modern AT rifle grenade in shape. Lastdingo (talk) 20:34, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

I fixed an obvious spelling error in the meaning of FFAR but a Google of “FFAR rocket” produced a variety of possible meanings in addition to the one given in the article – Folding-Fin Aircraft Rocket, Forward Firing Aircraft Rocket, Folding-Fin Air Rocket, Free Flight Aircraft Rocket, etc.

I chose words which agreed with the only other reference to the rocket in the wiki but can anyone confirm the correct name? GreatWhiteNortherner 04:37, Feb 24, 2004 (UTC)

Fixed quite a few innaccuracies with warhead, missle types, and added the fact that the R4m was actually first used on the F and G models of the Fw 190. I also added some facts about the missle itself.

I hope to add some images later tonight.

All facts are from German war testing documents and Luftwaffe training manuals.

--Evil.Merlin 20:37, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

The following is in this article. "Overall however the Luftwaffe pilots found the R4M missiles to be highly unpredictable in flight, due to their unguided nature and the use of Revi gunsights for aiming."

It was unpredictable because of their unguided nature but what does the REVI gunsights have to do with this? 13:47, 20 March 2007 (UTC) BernardZ 01:24, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

Link suggestion (with pictures!): http://www.geocities.com/lastdingo/aviation/r4m.htm Lastdingo (talk) 20:34, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

Success rate of the R4M
At the bottom of the page, under "operations," I see some fairly ambitious claims about number of B-17s shot down by Me-262s firing the R4M: fourteen in March and thirty in April. Can those kills be confirmed from other sources? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.8.86.167 (talk) 15:28, 23 July 2010 (UTC)

total nonsense about Panzerblitz III
All German sources state that Panzerblitz III used 75 mm shaped charge, not 210 mm! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.25.39.46 (talk) 12:31, 3 January 2019 (UTC)

title: Talk:R4M


text:
Uru: Ages Beyond Myst

Uru: Ages Beyond Myst is an adventure video game developed by Cyan Worlds and published by Ubisoft. Released in 2003, the title is the fourth game in the Myst canon. Departing from previous games of the franchise, Uru takes place in the modern era and allows players to customize their onscreen avatars. Players use their avatars to explore the abandoned city of an ancient race known as the D'ni, uncover story clues and solve puzzles.

Cyan began developing Uru shortly after completing Riven in 1997, leaving future Myst sequels to be produced by third-party developers. Uru required five years and $12 million to complete. Uru was initially conceived as a multiplayer game; the single-player portion was released, but the multiplayer component, Uru Live, was delayed, released, and then eventually canceled. The online video game service GameTap re-released the multiplayer portion of Uru as Myst Online: Uru Live in February 2007, but the service was canceled again the following year due to a lack of subscribers. GameTap passed the rights to Uru Live back to Cyan, who re-launched the game for free in 2010.

Uru was not as well received as previous Myst titles. Critics admired the visuals and new features of the game but criticized the lack of multiplayer in the retail version and clunky controls. Compared to previous games in the series, which had sold millions of units, Uru's sales were considered disappointing. The game was a critical and commercial disappointment for Cyan, causing the company financial troubles; nevertheless, it has attracted a cult following.

Gameplay
Uru: Ages Beyond Myst is a puzzle-adventure game that takes place in worlds known as Ages. Gameplay can be viewed from first- and third-person perspectives, a departure from other Myst titles. Players navigate Ages from the third-person perspective, but can switch to the first-person view for closer inspection of clues and objects. Players in Uru can neither pick up objects nor carry an inventory of items; puzzle items must be pushed or kicked into place. The onscreen interface is minimal, having no health meters, maps, or compasses to distract from exploration.

Players create their own avatars when beginning the game. Different skin tones, facial features, clothing, and hairstyles are available for customizing these player representations. Players also receive a special linking book, a volume that serves as a portal to a personal world or Age, known as Relto. The main objective of the game is to explore and restore power to other Ages; players must also find seven "journey cloths". These cloths serve as save points in lieu of a game-saving option; characters are transported to the last cloth they touched when they restart. As in previous Myst games, player characters cannot die. For example, falling off a cliff sends characters back to Relto. The personal Age serves as a hub in Uru, containing a bookshelf with linking books to Ages players have explored, as well as avatar customization options and game information.

During the course of the game, players uncover clues about the D'ni, an ancient civilization, and the archeological group dedicated to learning more about them, the D'ni Restoration Council. Aspects of the D'ni civilization such as social structure, marriage, and how Ages came about are also imparted as players progress through the Ages. Players may collect Relto pages, which offer cosmetic customization to the player's personal Age—for example, making it rain or adding a waterfall.

Uru was originally to ship with a massively multiplayer online component, which was delayed and never integrated into the retail release. Initially branded Uru Live, the multiplayer portion was designed to allow two or more players to work together to overcome obstacles or complete puzzles. Players would be able to chat in real time and cooperate in specially-designed puzzles. In previews of the multiplayer component, there were three distinct types of Ages. The personal Age provided links to other Ages, which were unlocked by solving puzzles in prerequisite worlds. Neighborhood Ages were analogous to an invite-only party, and City Ages provided places for players to congregate; IGN called the Age "a giant lounge".

Plot
Uru takes place many years after the events of Myst IV: Revelation. Unlike previous games in the series, Uru's story mixes fictional plot elements with real-world events. According to the game's fictional history, archeologists found an entrance to a vast cave system in the 1980s near a volcano in New Mexico. The caves led to an ancient abandoned city built by the enigmatic D'ni civilization. The D'ni practiced an ancient ability known as the Art. By writing a description of another world, the D'ni created "linking books" that served as portals to the worlds described, known as Ages. Soon after making contact with a single human, the entire civilization suddenly disappeared two hundred years ago. In Uru's story, the video game Myst was created when the archeological leaders approached a development studio, Cyan, and asked them to create a game to educate the public about the D'ni. Myst sold millions of copies, and Cyan continued to produce games based on D'ni findings. In the present day, a group known as the D'ni Restoration Council or DRC reopens the passages to the D'ni caverns and begins to rebuild the abandoned cities.

Players begin Uru's story in New Mexico near the Cleft, a deep fissure in the ground near the entrance to the D'ni caverns. A man who introduces himself as Zandi sits in front of his trailer by the Cleft, encouraging the player to discover the environment and join the exploration. The player stumbles across a hologram of a woman, Yeesha, who tells the story of the D'ni and requests help to rebuild the civilization.

Development
Cyan Worlds began development on its next project after the company finished 1997's Riven, the sequel to the bestselling Myst. The game that became Uru would take more than five years and $12 million to complete. While under development, Uru was codenamed DIRT ("D'ni in real time"), then MUDPIE (for "Multi-User DIRT, Persistent / Personal Interactive Entertainment / Experience / Exploration / Environment"). Uru was officially announced as Myst Online, before being renamed Uru in early 2003. Myst co-creator Rand Miller released a statement along with an outline of the game:

"Uru is a revolutionary adventure game that takes the best qualities of the Myst franchise and makes them even better. The single-player experience will eclipse the beauty, grandeur, and mind-challenging elements of previous titles. Plus, with the option to join a constantly updated online universe, the adventure never has to end. From new machines and puzzles to special events and entirely new Ages, players will find more to do, more to see, and more to explore each time they return—and this time, they can discover everything with old and new friends."

Miller considered Uru a major departure from Myst and Riven in that Cyan wanted to create a persistent world, where actions occurred while the player was not online. Miller did not consider the game a true massively multiplayer online game, saying "there is not leveling and skills and monsters and experience in any artificial sense. The 'leveling' is finding and exploring and owning new Ages that are released regularly; the experience is what you really learn while exploring that will help you later—not points on a scale." Miller considered there to be two benefits to such a system: firstly that players would care more about being part of the story, and secondly that even new players could make discoveries and be part of the community. The game was designed as more of a spin-off than a sequel to previous Myst games, due to the merging of items from the contemporary (traffic cones and T-shirts) to the fantastic (books that transport the user to new worlds).

The game was originally conceived as a multiplayer-only game, where players could meet and solve new puzzles that would be added monthly. At the request of publisher Ubisoft, Cyan eventually developed a single-player portion as well. Cyan announced players would be invited to participate in a multiplayer beta test, which drew 10,000 to 40,000 participants. Uru was released in November 2003, while the multiplayer portion was delayed. Small groups of players were allowed to come online to test the multiplayer part of the game, and journalists were told they would be invited to play soon after, but Uru Live was canceled before being released. Cyan stated that there were not enough projected subscribers to support the service.

Expansion packs and Uru: Complete Chronicles
After Urus release and Uru Lives demise, Cyan announced that new content would be added via expansion packs. The first, Uru: To D'ni, added the never-released Uru Live online content, thus focusing on the past of the D'ni. Uru: The Path of the Shell, extended the story of Uru in the present and added multiple never-before-seen Ages. Unlike the first expansion pack, Uru: The Path of the Shell was not free, but was boxed and sold in stores. Uru, To D'ni, and The Path of the Shell were also packaged together and sold as Uru: Complete Chronicles.

Audio
Urus music was composed by Tim Larkin, who had started his career at game publisher Brøderbund, and lobbied hard to be included on Rivens development team. Larkin worked on creating different sound effects for Riven and was chosen to score Uru after composer and Myst co-creator Robyn Miller left Cyan in early 1998. The music for the game was collected as a soundtrack, Uru Music, that was released in 2003. The game also feature the song Burn You Up, Burn You Down performed by Peter Gabriel used as the official theme song for the game.

Larkin chose the instrumentation for each track based on the various digital environments in the game. When the player is in the game's representation of New Mexico, for example, Larkin used a resonator guitar and flutes, creating what he called something "indigenous to a southwest type of feel that's very contemporary". In other areas Larkin described the game's music as being "less typical than you would find in most games" because of the exotic landscape the developers had created. To create contemporary and exotic types of music in the game, Larkin employed a combination of real and synthesized instruments. Sometimes Larkin replaced synthesized performances with those of real musicians, as in the track "Gallery Theme", where a synthesized vocal part was eventually discarded in favor of soprano Tasha Koontz. To create an exotic feel, Larkin used a group of Maasai tribesmen's chanting, who were recorded during their visit to Spokane, Washington, where Cyan Worlds was located at that time.

The Uru soundtrack received two Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.) nominations in 2004—one for "Best Original Vocal Song (Choral)" for the "Gallery Theme" (which won), and another for "Best Original Soundtrack." Beyond its use in Uru, "Gallery Theme" was later used in the theatrical trailer for Steven Spielberg's film, Munich. The Uru soundtrack comes on an enhanced CD, containing a (nearly) four-minute music video called "Uru: The Makers" and an audio-only interview with Rand Miller and Tim Larkin.

Uru Live
To compensate for the cancellation of Uru Live, Cyan published all the developed online content as single-player expansion packs. Meanwhile, a small group of dedicated fans, many of them the Uru Live beta testers, were allowed to maintain their unofficial servers, called "shards". Cyan released binaries of the original Uru Live servers under the banner Until Uru and coordinated with the fan shards so that players could verify their authentication keys, necessary to play the game. The shards were often unstable and no new content was released; rather, they provided a place for fans to socialize. In February 2006, Cyan opened their own official shard, called D'mala, open at no charge to Uru owners, though an invitation from the community was required. Miller revealed in a letter to fans that Cyan had received "limited funding from a third party that allows us to breathe some refreshing new life and optimism into all things Uru." As with the fan-operated servers, D'mala would feature no new content, instead allowing Cyan staff called "surveyors" to interact with fans and gather information.

In April 2006, GameTap announced it was relaunching Uru Live as Myst Online: Uru Live. A major reason for the resurrection of the game was the fan support. According to GameTap's vice president of content Ricardo Sanchez, "One of the reasons [GameTap was] so attracted to Uru Live is that it had this persistent group that kept it alive during the dark days of its absence." While Cyan devoted its time to Myst Online, it promised not to shut down Until Uru in the meantime, although it would offer no new authentication keys. GameTap released Myst Online in February 2007. A Macintosh version, using the Cider translation layer engine so that Intel-processor Macs did not need a Windows installation to run the game, was released in March. At the time, Myst Online was the only Mac-compatible game on GameTap. New content for the game was released in the form of online "episodes", adding new Ages, puzzles, and plot continuation with each episode. For business reasons GameTap announced in February 2008 that the game would go offline in April; Cyan reacquired the rights to the game and announced that it would give the Myst Online source code and tools to the fans, making the game an open-source project. In 2010, Cyan Worlds released the game free of charge, under the name Myst Online: Uru Live again (MO:ULagain). It is currently hosted on Cyan-maintained servers.

In 2011, Cyan Worlds and OpenUru.org announced the release of Myst Online's client and 3ds Max plugin under the GNU GPL v3 license.

Reception
Initial reception to Uru was generally positive, but less so than previous games in the series. The game has average critic scores of 79/100 and 76.19% from aggregate web sites Metacritic and GameRankings, respectively. Though Uru was a departure from previous Myst titles, the differences were usually praised. Game Informer's Lisa Mason said Uru "successfully updated" the adventure game genre. The visuals and music were highly praised, and GameZone called the world of the D'ni beautifully rendered and brilliantly designed. Newspapers appreciated the contrast Uru offered from violence-filled contemporary games.

The game's third-person controls and the addition of instant failures by falling were not well received. Denise Cook of Computer Gaming World called the third person option "choked" and "quirky". While Cook appreciated the added depth and immersion provided by the real-time rendering, she found incidents such as slipping off rocks, falling into lava, and plummeting into canyons irksome additions to the previously stress-free Myst formula. GameSpy's Carla Harker found several puzzles highly difficult solely due to the poorly implemented control scheme which "never becomes intuitive". Computer Gaming World's Robert Coffey and Cook considered the plot of the single-player release minimal and forgettable.

A major critic complaint about Uru was that the game did not ship with the multiplayer component. GameSpot's Andrew Park questioned why the game shipped with the multiplayer element open only for select players when the component had previously been beta-tested. GameSpy was disappointed that the feature advertised on the box and in the game manual was not available in the product. Reviewer Bob Mandel found that the most disappointing part of the dropped multiplayer game was that "as you progress through the game, a number of tantalizing clues emerge of places you can go and activities you can undertake only through the promised online mode."

Urus sales were considered disappointing, whereas the first three Myst games had sold more than 12 million units collectively before Urus release. Among computer games, The NPD Group ranked Uru ninth for the weeks ending November 22 and December 6, and 13th for the month of December 2003 overall. In North America, the game sold 78,329 units during 2003, and another 18,860 during the first two months of 2004. Although it sold between 100,000 and 400,000 copies in the United States by August 2006, it was beaten by Myst III: Exile's sales in the region. Time magazine pointed to Uru's relative failure as evidence the franchise had lost its touch, a notion the developers of Myst IV: Revelation sought to dispel. Uru's poor sales were also considered a factor in financially burdening Cyan, contributing to the company's near-closure in 2005. The title's original graphics and story nevertheless attracted a cult following.

Uru: Ages Beyond Myst won PC Gamer US's 2003 "Best Adventure Game" and "Best Sound" awards. The magazine's Chuck Osborn called it "the future of the genre" and "an exhilarating innovation". Computer Games Magazine presented Uru with its "Best Art Direction" award, for which it tied with Tron 2.0. The game was nominated in The Electric Playground's "Best Adventure Game for PC" category, but lost this prize to Beyond Good & Evil. It also received a nomination for "Computer Action/Adventure Game of the Year" at the AIAS' 7th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, but was ultimately given to Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

title: Uru: Ages Beyond Myst


text:
Nothing So Strange

Nothing So Strange is a 2002 American mockumentary film written, produced and directed by Brian Flemming in the style of an "independent documentary". It centers on the fictional assassination of former Microsoft chairman Bill Gates on December 2, 1999. The film won the New York Times Claiborne Pell Award for Original Vision at the Newport Film Festival and received a positive reception from Variety.

Plot
At the very beginning of the film, Bill Gates (played by Gates double Steve Sires) walks onto the stage of the pavilion in MacArthur Park, Los Angeles, California on Thursday, December 2, 1999, to give a check for one million dollars to "Literacy For Life" as part of the "Bill Gates Foundation." (The filmmakers intentionally avoided mentioning Gates' family members in the film; thus, they refrain from naming the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.) Upon reaching the stage, Gates is shot dead by a sniper, first in the right shoulder, then the head.

While chasing after the unknown sniper through an abandoned building, a rookie police officer fatally shoots Alek J. Hidell (a known alias of JFK killer Lee Harvey Oswald), a minor anti-establishment figure and minority, in the head. Hiddell is named as the assassin of Gates, a report to this effect is filed by district attorney Gil Garcetti, and the case is closed.

Beyond this point, which occurs before the opening credits are finished, Gates does not reappear and is mentioned only as a wealthy, successful man and the subject of the assassination being investigated. The word "Microsoft" barely makes an appearance in the film, and Gates is portrayed as a well-liked and missed public figure; a very passing mention is made of the existence of anti-Gates sentiment.

However, a group of people dissatisfied with the official version of events organizes into the activist group Citizens for Truth, and sets out to examine the available evidence of the assassination. The organization uncovers numerous details that create reasonable doubt as to the guilt of Hiddell in the assassination, and the possibility that the real assassin is still at large.

The mockumentary follows the organization as they grow in numbers, political prominence, and progress in their investigative efforts. The organization's success reaches a climax at their first annual convention, which is followed by their rapid drop in credibility and visibility to become effectively irrelevant.

Cast

 * Laurie Pike as Debra Meagher
 * David James as David James
 * Mark Daniel Cade as Mark Anderson
 * Keythe Farley as Keith Charles
 * Douglas Glazer as Dan Rivera
 * Valerie Gordon as Valerie
 * Etana Jacobson as Etana
 * Jennifer Lauren as Jennifer Smith
 * Steve Sires as Bill Gates
 * Sarah Stanley as Julia Serrano
 * Philip Anthony Traylor as Alek Hidell
 * Steve Wilcox as Steve Martinez
 * Didi Williams as himself

Production
Flemming was inspired to make a film about a contemporary assassination that grabbed the public attention after wondering what would happen if a Kennedy-style assassination happened during modern times. Through his research on the Kennedy assassination, he became convinced that there was no conspiracy. Flemming himself has no animosity toward Bill Gates, and used many Microsoft products during the making of Nothing So Strange.

Very little of the film was scripted. Flemming has said that he wrote no script, providing perhaps a few important lines, and instead putting the creative effort into the details of the props and artifacts of the story. The "Garcetti Report" on the assassination, for example, is a complete document written by Flemming. The actors improvised most of their own dialogue, interactions, and reflections, and to some extent aiming the direction of the story along with their organization, with minor daily cues from Flemming. Most of the actors had no prior professional acting experience.

Another technique is what Flemming has termed "reality-hacking"; the interaction of the actors in character with the real world. A scene taking place on the protest stage of the 2000 Democratic National Convention was filmed at the real convention, and Flemming crashed a real police commission hearing.

Flemming open sourced all seventy hours of footage he shot, allowing other people to make their own cut.

Release
Prior to release of the film, Flemming registered and developed realistic web pages for a number of the subjects in the film.

Nothing So Strange premiered on January 13, 2002, at the Slamdance Film Festival. After having trouble attracting distributors, Flemming decided to self-distribute the film. It was released on DVD on December 19, 2004.

Reception
Scott Foundas of Variety called it "a smart, aware, polemical work". Doug Brunell of Film Threat rated it 4/5 stars and called it "brilliantly subversive". The Austin Chronicle wrote, "The result is a genre-bending experience that lives up to Daniel Webster's quote: 'There is nothing so powerful as truth, and often nothing so strange.'" Jason Bovberg of DVD Talk rated it 3/5 stars and wrote, "Nothing So Strange isn't quite the alternate-reality puzzle box that it aspires to be. It has an undeniably unique premise, but it quickly devolves into the mundane."

Bill Gates himself stated, "It is very disappointing that a moviemaker would do something like this."

It won the New York Times Claiborne Pell Award for Original Vision.

title: Nothing So Strange


text:
Talk:Macrinus

Move
I moved this to just "Macrinus" because that is how he usually appears in the big list of emperors. Stan 17:57, 30 Nov 2003 (UTC)

War
What an outrageous assumption about Parthia: "historically inferior enemy such as the Parthians". Parthia was no "historically inferior enemy", as was illustrated by Carrhae and the failed expedition of Antony. A better way to phrase something of that intention should instead relate the constant internecine fighting among the Parthians. A blanket statement such as the former is far from correct, however. Alan 20:28, 04 May 2005 (EST)

 * I agree with Alan. The Parthians were until the very end a super-power and her equestrian armies were far from "inferior". Why should it be accorded to Roman incompetence rather than Parthian brilliance? Not only an outrageous assumption, but an enormously ignorant article which fails to mention the two times Marc Anthony lost at Phraaspa (As Julius Caesar too wanted to invade Parthia before his death), Crassus at Carrhae, the initially enormously successful campaign of Pacorus and Labienus, and the fact that Parthia made significant advances into India and Dravidia through the Indo-Parthians under Gondophares and the Pallava? I suggest an imminent change to this. Usually the loss at Carrhae is accorded to Roman incompetence, completely dismissing Surena's brilliance and the fact that this general had a successful record against the Greeks of Mesopotamia (And the accounts of his valour at the city of Seleucia) and such behaviour is something I find to be completely down-playing at Parthian achievements who even brought down the Seleucids, conquering the Iranian possessions.

The Parthians built the second largest defensive wall in the world in Hyrcania and the Parthian legacy of architecture has remained in the form of impressive citadels and castles, the forming of many large cities, their enormous trading by both land and later also by sea. I on the other hand find it rather idiotic to wage a war against a nation that far away, wasting money and resources when previous campaigns were more or less foiled. This is the mere exploit of the lack of Parthian sources. The Parthians were not inferior to the Romans. Graeco-Romans and Iranians alike have their moments of embarassment and triumph, or are Romanophiles going to dismiss the triumph of Shapur I as a mere "Roman miscalculation"? How typical.--The Persian Cataphract 19:22, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Image
Any chance of someone finding a better image to illustrate this article? There are some marble busts of Macrinus (or at least conventionally identified as such) which would be an improvement on the coin. Zburh (talk) 16:14, 3 April 2009 (UTC)
 * I have looked for a bust, google images, google, etc. I found one that fell under creative commons, but, it wasn't suitable for Wikipedia. The image was a CC-BY-SA-NC-3.0, and unfortunately, Wikipedia doesn't seem to accept non-commercial licenses. Mr rnddude (talk) 09:32, 7 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Found an image of the bust that has had its copyright released, of all places on the Suomi version of this article. Mr rnddude (talk) 03:04, 11 July 2016 (UTC)

"The erased emperor" listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has identified a potential problem with the redirect The erased emperor and has thus listed it for discussion. This discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2022 June 20 until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. signed,Rosguill talk 19:22, 20 June 2022 (UTC)

Some contradicting statements about his equestrian origin
The introduction here states: "As a member of the equestrian class, he became the first emperor who did not hail from the senatorial class [...]."

Which is in contradiction with the introduction of the Vespasians article, which states: "Vespasian was the first emperor from an equestrian family and only rose later in his lifetime into the senatorial rank as the first member of his family to do so."

Also it seems in contradiction with the Severan dynasty article, which states about Macrinus: "Although coming from a humble background not dynastically related to the Severan dynasty [...]."

I doubt equestrian rank could be considered all that humble, so this seems misleading. Would someone more knowledgeable please take a look over these statements? MrThe1And0nly (talk) 19:28, 2 November 2023 (UTC)

Julia Domna
The article about her says she committed suicide as soon as she heard of Macrinus' rebellion, while this one seems to suggest that she died of her disease some time later, while placed under house arrest. One of the articles needs to be amended, or, if there are different accounts, both should be mentioned in both articles. 62.73.69.121 (talk) 07:53, 16 February 2024 (UTC)
 * According to Goldsworthy (2009) p. 76, she starved herself whilst under house arrest. Her death was hastened by illness, speculated to be breast cancer. Whether it was her intent to commit suicide or not isn't mentioned. To quote: The new emperor [Macrinus] treated Julia Domna well until he discovered that she was intriguing against him, after which she was placed under house arrest. In protest she starved herself to death, her end hastened by a long-term illness that may have been breast cancer. You can check Birley 1999 and Jones 2005 for their version of events. I don't have either work to hand. Mr rnddude (talk) 08:11, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Macrinus


text:
National government

A national government is the government of a nation.

National government or National Government may also refer to:

 * Central government in a unitary state, or a country that does not give significant power to regional divisions
 * Federal government, the government of a federal state, or a country that gives significant power to regional divisions
 * National unity government, an all-party coalition government, usually formed during a time of war or other national emergency

Specific governments

 * Governments of the Republic of China
 * National Government of the Republic of China, from 1925 to 1948
 * Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China, from 1940 to 1945
 * National Government (Canada), the name of the historic Conservative Party of Canada c. 1940
 * National Government (United Kingdom), the British government from 1931 to 1940
 * New Zealand National Party governments
 * First National Government of New Zealand, the New Zealand government led by Sidney Holland from 1949 to 1957
 * Second National Government of New Zealand, the New Zealand government led by Keith Holyoake from 1960 to 1972
 * Third National Government of New Zealand, the New Zealand government led by Robert Muldoon from 1975 to 1984
 * Fourth National Government of New Zealand, the New Zealand government led by Jim Bolger and Jenny Shipley respectively from 1990 to 1999
 * Fifth National Government of New Zealand, the New Zealand government led by John Key and Bill English respectively from 2008 to 2017
 * Polish National Government (disambiguation)
 * Provisional National Government of the Southwestern Caucasus, a provisional government based in Kars, Turkey
 * Transitional National Government, the Somali government from 2000 to 2004
 * Tsilhqot'in National Government, an indigenous government in British Columbia, Canada
 * Ukrainian national government (1941)

title: National government