Graphical Environment Manager

The Graphical Environment Manager (GEM) was an operating environment created by Digital Research, Inc. (DRI) for use with the DOS operating system on the Intel 8088 and Motorola 68000 microprocessors.

GEM is known primarily as the graphical user interface (GUI) for the Atari ST series of computers, and was also supplied with a series of IBM PC-compatible computers from Amstrad. It also was available for standard IBM PC, at the time when the 6 MHz IBM PC AT (and the very concept of a GUI) was brand new. It was the core for a small number of DOS programs, the most notable being Ventura Publisher. It was ported to a number of other computers that previously lacked graphical interfaces, but never gained popularity on those platforms. DRI also produced FlexGem for their FlexOS real-time operating system.

History

GSX

GEM started life at DRI as a more general purpose graphics library known as GSX (Graphics System eXtension), written by a team led by Don Heiskell. Lee Lorenzen (at Graphic Software Systems, Inc.) who had recently left Xerox PARC (birthplace of the GUI) wrote much of the code. GSX was essentially a DRI-specific implementation of the GKS graphics standard proposed in the late 1970s. GSX was intended to allow DRI to write graphics programs (charting, etc.) for any of the platforms CP/M-80, CP/M-86 and MS-DOS (NEC APC-III) would run on, a task that would otherwise require considerable effort to port due to the large differences in graphics hardware (and concepts) between the various systems of that era.

The Apprentice (UK series seven)

Series Seven of The Apprentice (UK) was a British reality television series, which was broadcast in the UK during 2011 from 10 May to 17 July on BBC One. The first two episodes of the series were aired a day apart from each other; the first on a Tuesday, the next in the usual timeslot of the show, along with subsequent episodes after it. Like the previous series, the final episode was aired on a Sunday. Filming of the series took place during the previous year in Autumn. The series was won by Tom Pellereau.

By the end of the series, several records were made by two of the final candidates in the process. Pellereau initially held the record of least successful winner of The Apprentice, for winning only three tasks, never winning as a project manager and being a PM just once in the series; he now holds joint ownership of the record alongside Series 10 winner, Mark Wright. Along with this, he also became the first winner of the show, to have won fewer tasks than the runner-up, which happened again in Series 8, 9 and 10. Runner-up Helen Milligan, currently holds the record for the most successful candidate in the history of The Apprentice, winning ten out of eleven tasks during this series.

The Apprentice (UK series five)

Series Five of The Apprentice (UK) was a British reality television series which was broadcast in the UK during 2009 from 25 March to 7 June on BBC One; unlike previous series, the final episode was aired during a Sunday Evening timeslot. Auditions and interviews took place during July the previous year, in London, Glasgow, Manchester and Birmingham. The series is unique for having only fifteen participants instead of the usual sixteen in the previous and later series (until Series 10 and 11); the sixteenth member dropped out prior to the first boardroom briefing, owing to personal reasons. The series was won by Yasmina Siadatan.

This series was the last one to feature Margaret Mountford as an advisor to Lord Sugar (then Sir Alan at time of broadcast), after announcing her decision to leave the role and continue her education.

Two new editions of specials that had featured during the previous series, were aired alongside the 2009 series during the final weeks - "The Final Five" on 3 June (followed broadcasting of Week 11), and "Why I Fired Them" on 5 June.

Italy

Coordinates: 43°N 12°E / 43°N 12°E / 43; 12

Italy (ⁱ/ˈɪtəli/; Italian: Italia [iˈtaːlja]), officially the Italian Republic (Italian: Repubblica Italiana), is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Italy covers an area of 301,338 km² (116,347 sq mi) and has a largely Mediterranean and temperate climate; due to its shape, it is often referred to in Italy as lo Stivale (the Boot). With 61 million inhabitants, it is the 4th most populous EU member state. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino and Vatican City.

Since ancient times, Greeks, Etruscans and Celts have inhabited the south, centre and north of the Italian Peninsula respectively. Rome ultimately emerged as the dominant power, conquering much of the ancient world and becoming the leading cultural, political, and religious centre of Western civilisation. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the global distribution of civilian law, Republican governments, Christianity and the latin script.

Roman Italy

Roman Italy was created officially by the Roman Emperor Augustus with the Latin name Italia. It was the first time in history that the Italian peninsula (from the Alps to the Ionian Sea) was united under the same name. In the year 292, the three islands of Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily were added to Roman Italy by Emperor Diocletianus.

Characteristics

Italy (Italia in Latin and Italian) was the name of the administrative division of the Italian peninsula during the Roman era. It was not a province, but became the territory of the city of Rome, thus having a special status. Following the end of the Social War (91–88 BC), Rome had allowed its Italian allies (socii) full rights in Roman society and granted the Roman citizenship to all the Italic peoples.

After having been for centuries the heart of the Empire, from the 3rd century the government and the cultural center began to move eastward: first the Edict of Caracalla in 212 AD extended Roman citizenship to all free men within the imperial boundaries, then during Constantine's reign (306–337) the seat of the Empire was moved to Constantinople in 330 AD.

Italia (yacht)

Italia is a 12-metre class yacht that competed in the 1987 Louis Vuitton Cup.

References