Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation headquartered in Redwood Shores, California. The company sells database software and technology, cloud engineered systems, enterprise software products—particularly its own brands of database management systems. In 2019, Oracle was the second-largest software company by market capitalization; the company develops and builds tools for database development and systems of middle-tier software, enterprise resource planning software, Human Capital Management software, customer relationship management software, supply chain management software. Larry Ellison co-founded Oracle Corporation in 1977 with Bob Miner and Ed Oates under the name Software Development Laboratories. Ellison took inspiration from the 1970 paper written by Edgar F. Codd on relational database management systems named "A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks", he heard about the IBM System R database from an article in the IBM Research Journal provided by Oates.
Ellison wanted to make Oracle's product compatible with System R, but failed to do so as IBM kept the error codes for their DBMS a secret. SDL changed its name to Relational Software, Inc in 1979 again to Oracle Systems Corporation in 1982, to align itself more with its flagship product Oracle Database. At this stage Bob Miner served as the company's senior programmer. On March 12, 1986, the company had its initial public offering. In 1995, Oracle Systems Corporation changed its name to Oracle Corporation named Oracle, but sometimes referred to as Oracle Corporation, the name of the holding company. Part of Oracle Corporation's early success arose from using the C programming language to implement its products; this eased porting to different operating systems. Oracle ranked No. 82 in the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. According to Bloomberg, Oracle's CEO-to-employee pay ratio is 1,205:1; the CEO's compensation in 2017 was $108,295,023. Oracle is one of the approved employers of ACCA and the median employee compensation rate was $89,887.
Oracle designs and sells both software and hardware products, as well as offering services that complement them. Many of the products have been added to Oracle's portfolio through acquisitions. Oracle's E-delivery service provides documentation. Oracle Database Release 10: In 2004, Oracle Corporation shipped release 10g as the latest version of Oracle Database. Release 11: Release 11g became the current Oracle Database version in 2007. Oracle Corporation released Oracle Database 11g Release 2 in September 2009; this version was available in four commercial editions—Enterprise Edition, Standard Edition, Standard Edition One, Personal Edition—and in one free edition—the Express Edition. The licensing of these editions shows various restrictions and obligations that were called complex by licensing expert Freirich Florea; the Enterprise Edition, the most expensive of the Database Editions, has the fewest restrictions—but has complex licensing. Oracle Corporation constrains the Standard Edition and Standard Edition One with more licensing restrictions, in accordance with their lower price.
Release 12: Release 12c became available on July 1, 2013. Oracle Corporation has acquired and developed the following additional database technologies: Berkeley DB, which offers embedded database processing Oracle Rdb, a relational database system running on OpenVMS platforms. Oracle acquired Rdb in 1994 from Digital Equipment Corporation. Oracle has since made many enhancements to this product and development continues as of 2008. TimesTen, which features in-memory database operations Oracle Essbase, which continues the Hyperion Essbase tradition of multi-dimensional database management MySQL, a relational database management system licensed under the GNU General Public License developed by MySQL AB Oracle NoSQL Database, a scalable, distributed key-value NoSQL database Oracle Fusion Middleware is a family of middleware software products, including application server, system integration, business process management, user interaction, content management, identity management and business intelligence products.
Oracle Secure Enterprise Search, Oracle's enterprise-search offering, gives users the ability to search for content across multiple locations, including websites, XML files, file servers, content management systems, enterprise resource planning systems, customer relationship management systems, business intelligence systems, databases. Released in 2008, the Oracle Beehive collaboration software provides team workspaces, calendar, instant messaging, conferencing on a single platform. Customers can use Beehive as software as a service. Oracle sells a suite of business applications; the Oracle E-Business Suite includes software to perform various enterprise functions related to financials, customer rela
The Winter Street Concourse is a pedestrian tunnel connecting the upper levels of the Downtown Crossing and Park Street subway stations in Boston, Massachusetts. It facilitates movement between the Green and Orange rapid transit lines operated by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, alleviates congestion on the Red line; the upper level of Park Street opened as part of the Tremont Street Subway - a streetcar tunnel now carrying the Green Line - in September 1897. It was built as a cut-and-cover tunnel just below the surface of Tremont Street. From 1901 to 1908, the Main Line Elevated shared the Tremont Street Subway. In November 1908, the Main Line was moved to the parallel Washington Street Tunnel under Washington Street. Similarly-constructed just below street level, it included a pair of one-way stations one block southeast of Park Street. In March 1912, the Cambridge Tunnel opened from Harvard Square to Park Street Under, one level below the streetcar platforms at Park Street; the line was extended to Washington in April 1915, to South Station Under in December 1916.
The cut-and-cover tunnel was constructed with two levels from Tremont Street until halfway between Otis Street and Devonshire Street. The bottom level carried rapid transit trains, while the upper level was constructed as a fare lobby above Washington station and a potential pedestrian passageway east and west of the station; the section of upper level tunnel under Summer Street between Washington Street and Devonshire Street was used as planned as a fare lobby with entrances from Downtown Crossing department stores and as a turnstile repair area, while the section between Tremont Street and Washington Street under Winter Street was cordoned off as offices. On March 9, 1979, that section was opened as an inside-fare-control pedestrian passageway to ease demand on the Red Line.. A ticket counter was located on the mezzanine level of Downtown Crossing station under Winter Street east of Washington Street. On August 13, 2012, the MBTA combined customer services into the Downtown Crossing location as the "CharlieCard Store".
When opened in 1979, only the north half of the tunnel width was open to pedestrians. In 2017-2018, both halves were renovated to create a wider, better-lit passage. Media related to Winter Street Concourse at Wikimedia Commons
Julian Wheeler Curtiss, was president of the Spalding sports equipment company and a pioneering promoter of golf in the United States. Curtiss was born in Fairfield, Connecticut, on August 29, 1858. Among his siblings was older brother, Edwin Burr Curtiss, a lawyer and bookseller, he attended Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven and the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute. He graduated from Yale University in 1879, where he had been active in various sports, crew especially. Curtiss joined the A. G. Spalding Company after college. In 1885 he became secretary of the company, in 1920 president, he retired from the presidency in 1933, but remained on the board, serving as its chair until 1938. On a trip to London in 1892 to buy leather to make footballs in the U. S. he was introduced to golf. He brought home with him $400 worth of equipment and started the first manufacture of golf equipment in the United States. In 1892 with his brother, Edwin Burr Curtiss, others he started the Fairfield County Golf Club, today known as the Greenwich Country Club.
Curtiss served as the club's first President, from 1892–96, again from 1921-34. Curtiss was affiliated with the Amateur Athletic Union and became treasurer of the American Olympic Committee, he was one of the figures, together with Walter Camp and others, responsible at the turn of the twentieth century with popularizing sports in the U. S. and making it a central part of American culture. He designed the first basketball in association with the inventor of the game. From 1902 to 1911 he served as graduate coach of the Yale crew team, turning out five championship outfits, from 1918 to 1940, he refereed many of the foremost crew races in the East. In October 1880, Curtiss married daughter of Joseph S. Case of New York, they settled in Greenwich, Connecticut where Curtiss commissioned the architects Carrère and Hastings, who had designed the original clubhouse for the Greenwich Country Club, to build him a house.. Together and Mary had four children, he was active in Greenwich, serving as the first president of the Greenwich YMCA.
He served on the Greenwich Board of Education from 1913 to 1937, chairing it from 1924 to 1937. He died at Greenwich Hospital on February 17, 1944
The European microstates or European ministates are a set of small sovereign states in Europe. The term is used to refer to the six smallest states in Europe by area: Andorra, Malta, San Marino, Vatican City. Four of these states are monarchies, with all these states tracing their status back to the first millennium or the early second millennium, except for Liechtenstein, created in the 17th century. Microstates are small independent states recognized by larger states, unlike micronations, which are only self-declared and not recognized. According to the qualitative definition suggested by Dumienski, microstates can be viewed as "modern protected states, i.e. sovereign states that have been able to unilaterally depute certain attributes of sovereignty to larger powers in exchange for benign protection of their political and economic viability against their geographic or demographic constraints." In line with this definition, only Andorra, San Marino, Monaco qualify as "microstates" as only these states are sovereignties functioning in close, but voluntary, association with their respective larger neighbours.
Luxembourg, much larger than all the European microstates combined, nonetheless shares some of these characteristics. Some scholars dispute the status of Vatican City as a state, arguing that it does not meet the "traditional criteria of statehood" and that the "special status of the Vatican City is best regarded as a means of ensuring that the Pope can exercise his spiritual functions, in this respect is loosely analogous to that of the headquarters of international organisations." The European microstates are all of limited size and population, have limited natural resources. As a result, they have adopted special economic policies involving low levels of taxation and few restrictions on external financial investment. Malta is a full member of the European Union, while the other five European microstates have obtained special relations with the European Union. Many of the microstates have entered into a customs union with their larger neighbours to improve their economic situation. Most of them lack marked borders.
While the microstates have sovereignty over their own territory, there are a number of small autonomous territories, which despite having their own independent government, executive branch, judiciary and other trappings of independence, are nonetheless under the sovereignty of another state or monarch. Akrotiri and Dhekelia Åland Islands Faroe Islands Gibraltar Bailiwick of Guernsey, consisting of three separate sub-jurisdictions: Guernsey and Sark Isle of Man Jersey, one of the Channel Islands Mount Athos The Sovereign Military Order of Malta is a Catholic lay order, a traditional example of a sovereign entity under international law other than a state. Unlike the Holy See, sovereign over the Vatican City, the Order has no territory. However, its headquarters, located in Palazzo Malta and Villa Malta, are granted extraterritoriality by Italy, the same status is recognized by Malta to its historical headquarters, located in Fort St Angelo; the Order is the direct successor to the medieval Knights Hospitaller known as the Knights of Malta, today operates as a charitable and ceremonial organization.
It has permanent observer status at the United Nations and has full diplomatic relations, including embassies, with 100 states and it is in more informal relationships with five others. It issues its own stamps, coins and license plates, has its own army medical corps; the wars of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars caused the European map to be redrawn several times. A number of short-lived client republics were created, the fall of the Holy Roman Empire gave sovereignty to each of its many surviving Kleinstaaterei; the situation was not stabilized until after the Congress of Vienna in 1815. Following World War I and World War II a number of territories gained temporary status as international zones, protectorates or occupied territories. A few of them are mentioned here: A 1955 novel called The Mouse That Roared by Irish-American writer Leonard Wibberley features an imaginary European microstate called the Duchy of Grand Fenwick; the novel was adapted to a play and film. Association football club AS Monaco FC, though based in Monaco, plays in the French football league system.
In contrast, Malta maintains its own league system with a 14-team top division. Some of the European microstates are members of the Games of the Small States of Europe. Countries that participate at the Games of the Small States of Europe are: Andorra, Iceland, Luxembourg, Monaco and San Marino. Enclave and exclave Games of the Small States of Europe Article from The Economist, 24 December 2005, "Castles in the Air" GlobaLex, "The Micro-States and Small Jurisdictions of Europe"
The Wallkill Valley Railroad is a defunct railroad which once operated in Ulster and Orange counties in upstate New York. Its corridor was from Kingston in the north to Montgomery in the south, with a leased extension to Campbell Hall, it crossed both Rondout Creek. The railroad was founded in 1866 and ceased regular service in 1977. Throughout its history, the Wallkill Valley Railroad was owned by a variety of companies, including the West Shore and New York Central railroads, as well as Conrail. After its closure, portions of the rail bed were purchased by municipalities along the corridor and were converted to rail trails; the Wallkill Valley Railroad was founded in 1866, was constructed to match the Erie Railroad's six-foot gauge so that it would be easier to transport goods from one railroad to the other. It was operated by the Erie for the next ten years after its construction, it came to New Paltz in 1870, bridged Rondout Creek and the Delaware and Hudson Canal in 1872. That year, steamboat Captain Thomas Cornell became president of the railroad, though people thought that he bought the railroad just for his own sake.
He left his post soon thereafter. Newspaper articles suggested that it was a financial scandal, the Wallkill Valley went bankrupt. However, Cornell purchased it again in 1877, he learned Later, with the help of his step-son Samuel Coykendall, that the West Shore Railroad was chartering a route to New York City and that the new route would pass through Kingston on the way. Cornell responded by chartering an extension for the Wallkill Valley right into West Shore-chartered land. What this meant to the West Shore was that it could have a new branch; the West Shore purchased the line at a price of $1,000,000 in 1881. The line soon became the rural Wallkill Valley Branch of the West Shore Railroad, although the locals whose profits were wiped out during the previous bankruptcy didn't agree with this. An occasional scheme was hatched to extend it to the Pennsylvania coal mines to bring more money to the railroad, though it was never successful; the New York Central bought the West Shore Railroad in 1884 when passenger service was declining, as with most rural branches.
Passenger service was abandoned in 1937. After the abandonment of passenger service some of the former Ulster and Delaware locomotives were sent to operate on the Wallkill Valley Branch, since they were light enough to cross the Wallkill Valley's Rosendale Bridge; those locomotives were all gone by 1949, the branch was soon dieselized. Conrail entirely abandoned the branch, though it was considered as a new route to Allentown, via Kingston, Campbell Hall and the Lehigh and Hudson River Railway, it was discovered in 1977 that the piers supporting the Rosendale Viaduct had shifted, that repairs were not worth the money to keep the line open. The physical plant was formally abandoned in 1982, the infrastructure was torn out and sold for scrap, except for the Rosendale trestle; the process of dismantling the railroad took from 1983 to 1984. The remaining spur from DeGroodt's Paving in downtown Walden to the Campbell Hall Metro-North station is used for freight service by Norfolk Southern; the station in New Paltz remains along the trail, though the station in Gardiner burned down in 2002.
Walden station was moved to a village park, remains intact. The Middletown and New Jersey Railroad provides freight service on the line. Portions of the line in both Ulster and Orange Counties have been converted into rail trails, described here from north to south. Note that north of River Road in Rosendale, the Wallkill Valley Railroad runs in the Rondout Valley; the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail runs 12.2 miles from Gardiner through New Paltz to Rosendale. The addition of an 11.5-mile section in 2009 extended it farther north to Kingston. The Walden–Wallkill Rail Trail has been paved and runs from NY 208 in Wallkill south to Walden, NY, in Orange County. Parking availability is limited to street parking; the section of the rail bed north of Rte 208 to Birch Road is owned by the Town of Shawangunk but is unimproved. The 1.4 mile section from Birch Road north to Denniston road is owned by the New York State Department of Corrections where the Shawangunk Correctional Facility and Wallkill Correctional Facility are located.
This section is closed to the public. Kingston Union Station Binnewater Rosendale New Paltz Gardiner Wallkill Walden Montgomery Campbell Hall 1. Ulster and Delaware Railroad Historical Society 2; the Old "Up and Down" Catskill Mountain Branch of the New York Central Best, Gerald M.. The Ulster And Delaware: Railroad Through The Catskills. San Marino, CA: Golden West Books. ISBN 0-87095-041-X. Mabee, Carleton. Listen to the Whistle: An Anecdotal History of the Wallkill Valley Railroad. Fleishmanns, NY: Purple Mountain Press. ISBN 0-935796-69-X. Sylvester, Nathaniel Bartlett. History of Ulster County, New York, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men and Pioneers: Part Second: History of the Towns of Ulster County. Philadelphia, PA: Everts & Peck. ISBN 978-1-55787-130-5. Ulster and Delaware Railroad Historical Society Wallkill Valley Railroad Co, documents and photos Wallkill Valley Rail Trail https://wallkillvalleyrailroad.com/
The 47th Group Army was a group army of the People's Liberation Army It was stationed at Lintong District, Xi'an, Shaanxi as part of the Lanzhou Military Region. It was disbanded during the Chinese military reforms which had begun two years earlier; the 160th Division was created in March 1949 basing on the 1st Training Division of Northeastern Military Region. The division became a part of 47th Corps. In August 1949 the division was disbanded. Liang Xingchu: 1948-May 1949 Cao Lihuai: 1949-1952 Zhang Tianyun: 1952-1956 Li Huamin: 1956-1960 Yan Deming: 1960-1964 Li Yuan: 1964-1975 Hu Bohua: 1975-1980 Zhang Defu: 1980 Dong Zhanlin: 1985 Qian Shugen: 1985-1992 Guo Boxiong: 1992-1994 Zou Gengwang: 1996-2000 Chang Wanquan: 2000-2002 Xu Fenlin: 2002-2003 Peng Yong: 2003-2011 Cao Yimin: 2011-2013 Zhang Lianyi: 2013–present Zhou Chiping Li Renlin Liu Xianquan Chen Fahong Sun Zheng