A video game console is a computer device that outputs a video signal or visual image to display a video game that one or more people can play. The term "video game console" is used to distinguish a console machine designed for consumers to use for playing video games, in contrast to arcade machines or home computers. An arcade machine consists of a video game computer, game controller and speakers housed in large or small chassis. A home computer is a personal computer designed for home use for a variety of purposes, such as bookkeeping, accessing the Internet and playing video games. While arcades and computers are expensive or "technical" devices, video game consoles were designed with affordability and accessibility to the general public in mind. Unlike similar consumer electronics such as music players and movie players, which use industry-wide standard formats, video game consoles use proprietary formats which compete with each other for market share. There are various types of video game consoles, including home video game consoles, handheld game consoles and dedicated consoles.

Although Ralph Baer had built working game consoles by 1966, it was nearly a decade before the Pong game made them commonplace in regular people's living rooms. Through evolution over the 1990s and 2000s, game consoles have expanded to offer additional functions such as CD players, DVD players, Blu-ray disc players, web browsers, set-top boxes and more. Video game consoles can come in several varieties. Home video game consoles are devices that are meant to be hooked up to a television or other type of monitor, with power supplied through an outlet, thus requiring the unit to be used in fixed locations. Early examples include the Atari 2600, Nintendo Entertainment System and the Sega Genesis, while newer examples include the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Handheld video game consoles are devices that include a built-in screen and a battery so that the unit can be carried around and be played anywhere. Examples of such include the Game Boy, the PlayStation Vita, the Nintendo 3DS. Hybrid video game consoles have elements of handheld systems.

Presently, the only hybrid console is the Nintendo Switch. The first video games appeared in the 1960s, they were played on massive computers connected to vector displays, not analog televisions. Ralph H. Baer conceived the idea of a home video game in 1951. In the late 1960s, while working for Sanders Associates, Baer created a series of video game console designs. One of these designs, which gained the nickname of the 1966 "Brown Box", featured changeable game modes and was demonstrated to several TV manufacturers leading to an agreement between Sanders Associates and Magnavox. In 1972, Magnavox released the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home video game console which could be connected to a TV set. Ralph Baer's initial design had called for a huge row of switches that would allow players to turn on and off certain components of the console to create different games like tennis, volleyball and chase. Magnavox replaced the switch design with separate cartridges for each game. Although Baer had sketched up ideas for cartridges that could include new components for new games, the cartridges released by Magnavox all served the same function as the switches and allowed players to choose from the Odyssey's built-in games.

The Odyssey sold about 100,000 units, making it moderately successful, it was not until Atari's arcade game Pong popularized video games that the public began to take more notice of the emerging industry. By autumn 1975, bowing to the popularity of Pong, canceled the Odyssey and released a scaled-down version that played only Pong and hockey, the Odyssey 100. A second, "higher end" console, the Odyssey 200, was released with the 100 and added on-screen scoring, up to four players, a third game—Smash. Released with Atari's own home Pong console through Sears, these consoles jump-started the consumer market. All three of the new consoles used simpler designs than the original Odyssey did with no board game pieces or extra cartridges. In the years that followed, the market saw many companies rushing similar consoles to market. After General Instrument released their inexpensive microchips, each containing a complete console on a single chip, many small developers began releasing consoles that looked different externally, but internally were playing the same games.

Most of the consoles from this era were dedicated consoles playing only the games that came with the console. These video game consoles were just called video games because there was little reason to distinguish the two yet. While a few companies like Atari and newcomer Coleco pushed the envelope, the market became flooded with simple, similar video games. Fairchild released the Fairchild Video Entertainment System in 1976. While there had been previous game consoles that used cartridges, either the cartridges had no information and served the same function as flipping switches or the console itself was empty and the cartridge contained all of the game components; the VES, contained a programmable microprocessor so its cartridges only needed a single ROM chip to store microprocessor instructions. RCA and Atari soon released their own cartridge-based consoles, the RCA Studio II and the Atari 2600, respectively; the first handheld game console with interchangeable cartridges was the Microvision designed by Smith Engineering, distributed and sold by Milton-Bradley in 1979.

Crippled by a small, fragile LCD display and a narrow selection of g

Annibale Berlingieri is an Italian heir and art collector, best known for his 2008 sale of Andy Warhol's painting Eight Elvises for $100 million. He first commissioned a work of art in 1970, when he had Christo wrap an old carriage at his country villa at Taranto in jute bags. For 40 years, he was the owner of Eight Elvises a 1963 silkscreen painting of Elvis Presley by the American pop artist Andy Warhol, until its sale for $100 million in October 2008 to an unknown buyer, a world record for Warhol. Despite several requests, Berlingieri never loaned this painting. Berlingieri first appeared in the ArtNews top 200 collectors in 1992. Berlingieri is based in Italy, his daughter Livia Berlingieri Leopardi and her husband, Count Piervittorio Leopardi Dittajuti, are art collectors

Artificial Intelligence System was a distributed computing project undertaken by Intelligence Realm, Inc. with the long-term goal of simulating the human brain in real time, complete with artificial consciousness and artificial general intelligence. They claimed to have found, in research, the "mechanisms of knowledge representation in the brain, equivalent to finding artificial intelligence", before moving into the developmental phase; the project's initial goal was recreating the largest brain simulation to date, performed by neuroscientist Eugene M. Izhikevich of The Neurosciences Institute in San Diego, California. Izhikevich simulated 1 second of activity of 100 billion neurons in 50 days using a cluster of 27 3-gigahertz processors, he extrapolated that a real-time simulation of the brain could not be achieved before 2016. The project aimed to disprove this prediction. On July 12, 2008, AIS announced that the first phase of the project had been completed by reaching the 100 billion neuron mark.

The project continued to simulate neurons while they completed the development of the other applications. AIS simulated the brain via an artificial neural network, used Hodgkin–Huxley models; the project utilized. In version 1.08 of the software each work unit received by a volunteer simulated 500,000 neurons for 100 milliseconds at 5 millisecond time steps. The application had four primary modules—for creating neurons, simulating neurons, visualizing neurons, knowledge acquisition. Intention was that the neuronal generator would use genetic algorithms to generate neurons for simulation; the neuron simulator used mathematical models to simulate those neurons. Hodgkin–Huxley models were used, but more models were intended to be utilized in the future; the visualization software was to allow the administrators to monitor and control the neuronal simulators. The knowledge acquisition module involved feeding information to the system and training it to build its knowledge base; the AIS project had simulated over 700 billion neurons by April 2009.

The project was closed in November 2010. Artificial consciousness Blue Brain Outline of artificial intelligence

The Mayor of Casterbridge is a British made-for-TV film, produced by Georgina Lowe for Sally Head Productions and directed by David Thacker, based on the 1886 novel by Thomas Hardy. Appearing in the film are Ciarán Hinds as Henchard, Juliet Aubrey as Susan Henchard, Jodhi May as Elizabeth Jane, James Purefoy as Farfrae, Polly Walker as Lucetta; the series was released as a 2-disc DVD in 2004. As in the original story, Michael Henchard, in a drunken moment, auctions his wife and infant child to a passing seaman. Years Susan meets up with an contrite Henchard, but he subsequently reverts to his original stubborn and unyielding character. In this version of the story, Henchard appears to be aware of his defects of character but, in the end, is unable to get past them because the traditional social tool of forgiveness eludes him; as in the characters of Elizabeth Jane and Farfrae, forgiveness is found and life recovers. But in so many other cases throughout this film, enmity prevails and disaster follows.

Henchard, the Mayor of Casterbridge, is presented as a selfish, atheistic and his atheistic tendencies are not shown in any positive light. Though his character is flawed, Henchard does evoke considerable sympathy because his salvation requires only a change of heart; the pain of his reflexive choices is evident in Ciarán Hinds' presentation of Henchard. Hardy's novel was presented in this DVD with enormous attention to historical detail; the traditional Christian concerns with love and forgiveness and the consequences of selfish behaviour, are presented with the same emphasis as in the text. Ciarán Hinds – Michael Henchard Juliet Aubrey – Susan Henchard Jodhi May – Elizabeth Jane James Purefoy – Farfrae Polly Walker – Lucetta Templeman Reviewed By: Angus Wolfe Murray at Eye for Film Reviewed By: TV Guide Reviewed by: Jim Steel The Mayor of Casterbridge The Mayor of Casterbridge on IMDb

Bruder Spielwaren is a German toy manufacturer based in Fürth. Founded by Paul Bruder in 1926 as a manufacturer of toy components, the family-owned company is considered one of Europe's leading manufacturers of 1:16 scale model toys; the company was founded in 1926 by Paul Bruder and made brass reeds for toy trumpets. Paul's son Heinz Bruder joined the company in 1950 and production of small plastic toys began in 1958. Paul Heinz Bruder joined in 1987, assuming responsibility for product development and production, after which the company underwent a period of extensive expansion; the company exports 70% of its production to over 60 countries, with sales reaching €75 million in 2014 and is one of the few that still manufactures its toys in Germany. Bruder has two main product lines – the Professional series, their primary line, a Roadmax series of toys with a simpler design for younger children, their toys have been recommended by Spiel gut, a German government funded consumer advice committee.

The Professional series is centered around emergency services vehicles, forestry and agricultural machinery. All toys in this series are made to a 1:16 scale and feature vehicles and machinery from Caterpillar, Claas, JCB, Jeep, JLG, John Deere, Land Rover, Mack, MAN, Mercedes-Benz, New Holland, SAME and Scania; some vehicles feature the livery of companies such as DHL and United Parcel Service.. The company has had several of its designs counterfeited over the years, with some of the copies earning Plagiarius Awards in 2006, 2008, 2010, 2013, 2014. Official website

Marian Filar was a Polish concert pianist and virtuoso composer living in the United States. Filar was born in Warsaw, Poland to a musical Jewish family and began studying piano at the age of five. A year or so he gave his first recital at the Warsaw Conservatory as a wunderkind; when 12 years of age, he played Mozart's Concerto in D Minor with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra. He again played with the orchestra the following year and gained the interest of Zbigniew Drzewiecki, the noted piano teacher at the Warsaw Conservatory with whom he studied until the outbreak of the Second World War. Filar was imprisoned during World War II in seven different Nazi concentration camps. In the first death camp, Majdanek, he died from malnutrition and infection, he escaped being sent to the gas chambers despite his legs being so swollen from malnutrition that he was able to stand. After being liberated by the Polish Army he returned to the piano although he did consider studying medicine. While playing recitals in Frankfurt, Germany for the Allied Forces, he went to Wiesbaden, Germany where he sought advice from the renowned German pianist, Walter Gieseking who told him not to quit piano.

Filar studied with Gieseking for five years and toured all over Europe playing recitals and concerts. During this period he performed frequently on German and other European radio programs, he arrived in the United States in 1950, lived there since. His American debut was at the Chautauqua Amphitheater where he played Chopin's Concerto in F Minor and received sensational critiques. Invited to join the Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of Eugene Ormandy he performed in Philadelphia with the Orchestra. In 1951, Filar recorded renditions of six nocturnes, Chopin's Sonata in B Minor, for the now-defunct Colosseum Record Co. in New York City. He made a second recording of 4 preludes by Karol Szymanowski and Etude No 3 in B flat Minor Opus 3, as well as Franciszek Brzezinski]'s Theme with Variations, he debuted in Carnegie Hall on January 1, 1952. Filar subsequently continued his career as a concert pianist all over the United States and South America as well as in Europe, while teaching at the Settlement School of Music in Philadelphia from 1953 to 1958.

He was appointed to the chair at the Temple University School of Music piano department in 1958. Prof. Filar retired from teaching at Temple University in 1988 though he remained an Emeritus Professor in the Boyer School of Music and Dance. In 1992 he went to Poland. In 2002, he co-authored a book about his life during and after World War II entitled From Buchenwald to Carnegie Hall. Filar died in Wyncote, Pennsylvania on July 10, 2012, aged 94. From Buchenwald to Carnegie Hall, University Press of Mississippi, first edition, 2002. ISBN 978-1-57806-419-9