This book foregrounds the pressures that three transformative technologies in the long sixteenth century-the printing press, gunpowder, and the magnetic compass-placed on long-held literary practices, as well as on cultural and social structures. Sheila J. Nayar disinters the clash between humanist drives and print culture; places the rise of gunpowder warfare beside the equivalent rise in chivalric romance; and illustrates fraught attempts by humanists to hold on to classicist traditions in the face of seismic changes in navigation. Lively and engaging, this study illuminates not only how literature responded to radical technological changes, but also how literature was sometimes forced, through unanticipated destabilizations, to reimagine itself. By tracing the early modern human's inter-animation with print, powder, and compass, Nayar exposes how these technologies assisted in producing new ways of seeing, knowing, and being in the world.

War is part of American history. This book examines how military technology both molded and reflected interactions between American military institutions and other American institutions. The growth of engineering and science has reshaped military technology, organization, and practice from the Colonial era to the present day. At the same time, military concerns influenced, and and sometimes channeled, American engineering and scientific development American Military Technology chronicles the interactions of technology and science with America's armed forces from colonial times to the end of the 20th century. Each period of the nation's history brought new and influential changes to the interaction of the military and technology, such as: The Beginning of the The Military-Technological Revolution, 1840-1865: The introduction of modern small arms, steam power, and technology, science, and medicine Militarization and Motorization, 1900-1914: The naval arms race, torpedoes and submarines, and the Signal Corps and the Airplane. Science, Technology, and Vietnam, 1965-1971: McNamara's Pentagon, Technology in Vietnam, Smart Bombs and Guided Missiles. The book is an excellent springboard for understanding the complex relationship of science, technology, and war in American history.

This book aims to make Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) accessible to the modern reader by refashioning the great scientist's masterpiece Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations Relating to Two New Sciences in today's language. Galileo Galilei stands as one of the most important figures in history, not simply for his achievements in astronomy, physics, and engineering and for revolutionizing science and the scientific method in general, but also for the role that he played in the (still ongoing) drama concerning entrenched power and its desire to stifle any knowledge that may threaten it. Therefore, it is important that today's readers come to understand and appreciate what Galilei accomplished and wrote. But the mindset that shapes how we see the world today is quite different from the mindset -- and language -- of Galilei and his contemporaries. Another obstacle to a full understanding of Galilei's writings is posed by the countless historical, philosophical, geometrical, and linguistic references he made, along with his often florid prose, with its blend of Italian and Latin. De Angelis' new rendition of the work includes translations of the original geometrical figures into algebraic formulae in modern notation and allows the non-specialist reader to follow the thread of Galileo's thought and in a way that was barely possible until now.

A riveting introduction to the complex and evolving field of geospatial intelligence. Although geospatial intelligence is a term of recent origin, its underpinnings have a long and interesting history. Geospatial Intelligence: Origins and Evolution shows how the current age of geospatial knowledge evolved from its ancient origins to become ubiquitous in daily life across the globe. Within that framework, the book weaves a tapestry of stories about the people, events, ideas, and technologies that affected the trajectory of what has become known as GEOINT. Author Robert M. Clark explores the historical background and subsequent influence of fields such as geography, cartography, remote sensing, photogrammetry, geopolitics, geophysics, and geographic information systems on GEOINT. Although its modern use began in national security communities, Clark shows how GEOINT has rapidly extended its reach to other government agencies, NGOs, and corporations. This global explosion in the use of geospatial intelligence has far-reaching implications not only for the scientific, academic, and commercial communities but for a society increasingly reliant upon emerging technologies. Drones, the Internet of things, and cellular devices transform how we gather information and how others can collect that information, to our benefit or detriment.

A true revolution has rocked the space industry, as Silicon Valley and new startup companies around the world have shaken up the status quo. This has in turn triggered a hefty response among traditional aerospace companies, launching the sector into the new Space 2.0. This book explains how and why this remarkable change has happened, starting from the industry's origins during the Space Age and working its way to the present day. No other industry in the world has experienced the dramatic shift in technology and services as rapidly as the field of satellite services and rocket launch systems has. This book analyzes the dynamic shift over the past decade in how satellites are designed, manufactured, launched, and operated. It also turns an eye to the future, discussing the amazing feats and potential issues we can expect from this shifting arena by 2030. With its beginner-friendly writing style and plethora of illustrations, this book serves as a perfect introductory text to students and professionals alike wishing to learn more about the key trends in the field of space applications and launch systems.

This book is an important outcome of the Fifth World Internet Conference. It provides a comprehensive account of the new trends and highlights of global Internet development over the past year, covering network infrastructure, information technology, digital economy, world internet media, cyber security, and international cyberspace governance. This year, the book improves the Global Internet Development Index System and adds more countries into the assessed list, in order to reflect more comprehensively, objectively and accurately the general situation of the world Internet development and thus to provide reference for all countries in promoting Internet development and governance.

CoCo: The Colorful History of Tandy's Underdog Computer is the first book to document the complete history of the Tandy Color Computer (CoCo), a popular 8-bit PC series from the 1980s that competed against the era's biggest names, including the Apple II, IBM PC, and Commodore 64. The book takes you inside the interesting stories and people behind this unique, underdog computer. Both noted computer science and technology advocates, authors Pitre and Loguidice reveal the story of a pivotal period in the home computing revolution from the perspective of Tandy's CoCo. As these computers were sold in Radio Shack stores throughout the United States and other countries, they provide a critical point of reference for key events in the unprecedented evolutionary period for the PC industry in the 1980s. The book also features first-hand accounts from the people who created and promoted the CoCo, from the original Tandy executives and engineers to today's active product creators and information keepers. The CoCo impacted many lives, and this book leaves no stone unturned in recounting this fascinating slice of the PC revolution that is still in play today. From early telecommunications experiments to engineering and budgetary challenges, it covers all the aspects that made the CoCo a truly personal, useful computing experience in as small and inexpensive a package as possible.

This book examines instances of transformative dissent, turning points or shifts in popular mobilisation patterns in contemporary India, while adopting a historical approach and analysing past events. Exploring the different continuities and discontinuities in mobilising patterns and dissident agency in India, the authors present a heterogeneous insurrectional pattern that pivoted around issues of caste, class, religion, land reform, labour, taxation and territorial control, with anti-colonialism movements becoming prominent in the first half of the twentieth century. The authors move beyond this to explore more recent templates of mobilisation which surfaced towards the end of the twentieth century, during India's liberalisation period. With growing marketisation and technological advancement, unprecedented changes in social relations, growing economic opportunities and cultural transfusion taking place, the country became a 'New India' - one which aspired to be a global player in the wider technological public sphere. Tracing the historical trajectories of social movements in India, this book examines recent trends in digitised dissidence and explores new frontiers of protests, providing fresh insights for those researching the history of social movements, South Asian and Indian history and postcolonial studies.

The life story of the highest decorated soldier of the Wehrmacht. Many photos of Rudels aircraft.

Manufacturing computers in series was quite a feat in the 1950s. As mathematical as it gets, the machines discussed here were called X1 and X8. The industrial achievement combined with the background in a mathematical research center made the company Electrologica a legend in Dutch computing. The tales in this book are told by those who have a right to tell. Highly engaged professionals take readers back to their pioneering work with the machines and in retrospect unveil some of the values, which went without saying in the 1960s. To disagree, Paul Klint relates the contrasting views on software in Dutch research traditions. ALGOL culture: Frans Kruseman Aretz takes the reader along to the detailed decisions on constructing compilers and shows the values of an ALGOL culture transpiring. Signposts: Dirk Dekker for the first time 'owns' his algorithm for mutual exclusion. In particle physics: Rene van Dantzig's use case was an Electrologica X8 computer controlling two other computers in three-dimensional detection of colliding particles. Early steps in AI: Lambert Meertens' tale of the X8 machine composing a violin quartet comes with his original presentation, as well as the code in ALGOL 60. The reflections of first hand experiences combine well with the second thoughts of historical research into archival sources. Historians Huub de Beer and Gerard Alberts offer a view into the boardrooms of the local enterprise Electrologica, and of the electronics multinational Philips. Where pioneers and historians meet in an inspiring dialogue, the reader gains a view on the often implicit decisions constituting the field. Fortuitously, a copy of the X8 was retrieved from Kiel, Germany, and put on display at Rijksmuseum Boerhaave, Leiden. Sparked by the very material presence of an X8, the present book takes stock of the state of historiography of Electrologica. Gerard Alberts is an associate professor in History of Digital Cultures, retired from the University of Amsterdam. Jan Friso Groote is a full professor of Formal Methods at the Eindhoven University of Technology.

An immersive account of a tragedy at sea whose repercussions haunt its survivors to this day, lauded by New York Times bestselling author Ron Suskind as "an honest and touching book, and a hell of a story." In March of 1984, the commercial fishing boat Wind Blown left Montauk Harbor on what should have been a routine offshore voyage. Its captain, a married father of three young boys, was the boat's owner and leader of the four-man crew, which included two locals and the blue-blooded son of a well-to-do summer family. After a week at sea, the weather suddenly turned, and the foursome collided with a nor'easter. They soon found themselves in the fight of their lives. Tragically, it was a fight they lost. Neither the boat nor the bodies of the men were ever recovered. The downing of the Wind Blown has since become interwoven with the local folklore of the East End's year-round population. Its tragic fate will never be forgotten. In this "riveting man-vs.-nature story and compelling tribute to those who perished" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), journalist Amanda M. Fairbanks seeks out the reasons why an event more than three decades old remains so startlingly vivid in people's minds. She explores the ways in which deep, lasting grief can alter people's memories. And she shines a light on the powerful and sometimes painful dynamics between fathers and sons, as well as the secrets that can haunt families from beyond the grave.

Despite widespread consensus that China's digital revolution was sure to bring about massive democratic reforms, such changes have not come to pass. While scholars and policy makers alternate between predicting change and disparaging a stubbornly authoritarian regime, in this book Shaohua Guo demonstrates how this dichotomy misses the far more complex reality. The Evolution of the Chinese Internet traces the emergence and maturation of one of the most creative digital cultures in the world through four major technological platforms: the bulletin board system, the blog, the microblog, and WeChat. Guo transcends typical binaries of freedom and control, to argue that Chinese Internet culture displays a uniquely sophisticated interplay between multiple extremes, and that its vibrancy is dependent on these complex negotiations. In contrast to the flourishing of research findings on what is made invisible online, this book examines the driving mechanisms that grant visibility to particular kinds of user-generated content. Offering a systematic account of how and why an ingenious Internet culture has been able to thrive, Guo highlights the pivotal roles that media institutions, technological platforms, and creative practices of Chinese netizens have played in shaping culture on- and offline.

We live in a moment of high anxiety around digital transformation. Computers are blamed for generating toxic forms of culture and ways of life. Once part of future imaginaries that were optimistic or even utopian, today there is a sense that things have turned out very differently. Anti-computing is widespread. This book seeks to understand its cultural and material logics, its forms, and its operations. Anti-Computing critically investigates forgotten histories of dissent - moments when the imposition of computational technologies, logics, techniques, imaginaries, utopias have been questioned, disputed, or refused. It asks why dissent is forgotten and how - under what circumstances - it revives. Constituting an engagement with media archaeology/medium theory and working through a series of case studies, this book is compelling reading for scholars in digital media, literary, cultural history, digital humanities and associated fields at all levels. -- .

This book evaluates the importance of various historical sources and discusses their role in the creation and transmission of scientific knowledge. It presents an annotated translation of the introductory words given by Johan Ludvig Heiberg to his translation of the works of Archimedes. Further, it offers English translations of and commentaries on selected fundamental works by Ernst Hellinger and Gabrio Piola, which lay the groundwork for the modern theory of advanced materials, and also examines the criteria used to evaluate scientific works.

Packed with fascinating biographical sketches of female engineers, this chronological history of engineering brightens previously shadowy corners of our increasingly engineered world's recent past. In addition to a detailed description of the diverse arenas encompassed by the word 'engineering' and a nuanced overview of the development of the field, the book includes numerous statistics and thought provoking facts about women's roles in the achievement of thrilling scientific innovations. This text is a unique resource for students launching research projects in engineering and related fields, professionals interested in gaining a broader understanding of how engineering as a discipline has been impacted by events of global significance, and scholars of women's immense, often obscured, contributions to scientific progress.

A critical examination of the rise of wearable EEG monitors. From Fitbits to GPS trackers, wearables promise to help us understand and improve ourselves in quantified ways. We count our steps, track our location, and even monitor our brain waves as we strive to achieve better fitness, clearer direction, or a more focused mind. But why do we rely on wearables to learn about ourselves? In Instrumental Intimacy, Melissa M. Littlefield questions our desire for mechanistic guidance by examining brain-based EEG wearables that promise to improve sleep, relationships, self-knowledge, and learning. Littlefield focuses specifically on EEGs' transition out of the laboratory and into the hands of consumers. While other brain-imaging technologies (such as MRI, PET, and MEG) are used only in specialized laboratories, human electroencephalography (a.k.a. EEG) is embedded in portable, user-friendly devices. These direct-to-consumer wearables visualize brain activity as accessible data, and many offer the promise of self-optimization. Littlefield's illuminating book brings the histories of EEG to bear on the contemporary development of EEG wearables via case studies of EEG-based sleep aids, bio-mapping instruments, fashionable surveillance tools, and athletic training devices. The author argues that, over the past century, applied uses of EEG helped to create new states of mind to be monitored and manipulated, as well as discourses about the existence of brain waves and their viability as a tool for brain optimization. By contextualizing and analyzing EEG wearables, Instrumental Intimacy provides a crucial intervention in an emergent consumer market and in the scholarly fields of STS, critical neuroscience, and the history of technology.

Perhaps better than any other city, Manchester illustrates the historical relationship between the growth of science and the growth of industry - a relationship which is topical now, as it has been for two centuries. This introduction provides a sketch map and some references for those who would like to explore this local and regional history.

The book provides an overview of the fascinating spectrum of semiconductor physics, devices and applications, presented from a historical perspective. It covers the development of the subject from its inception in the early nineteenth century to the recent millennium. Written in a lively, informal style, it emphasizes the interaction between pure scientific push and commercial pull, on the one hand, and between basic physics, materials, and devices, on the other. It also sets the various device developments in the context of systems requirements and explains how such developments met wide-ranging consumer demands. It is written so as to appeal to students at all levels in physics, electrical engineering, and materials science, to teachers, lecturers, and professionals working in the field, as well as to a non-specialist scientific readership.