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The Italian computer: Italy's Olivetti was an early pioneer of digital computers and transistors

June 2019
IEEE Spectrum 56(6):40-47

DOI:10.1109/MSPEC.2019.8727145

Authors:

Elisabetta Mori

Pompeu Fabra University

“I HAVE MADE MY DECISION: We are going to scrap the first version of our computer, and we will start again from scratch.” It's the autumn of 1957, and Mario Tchou, a brilliant young Chinese-Italian electrical engineer, is speaking to his team at the Olivetti Electronics Research Laboratory. Housed in a repurposed villa on the outskirts of Pisa, not far from the Leaning Tower, the lab is filled with vacuum tubes, wires, cables, and other electronics, a startling contrast to the tasteful decorations of the palatial rooms.

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The city paper the Italian Touring Club

January 2010

M. Iuliano

The Centro di Documentazione del Touring Club Italiano, housed in the Triennale (Milan), keep a huge quantity of documents: descriptions, cartographies and photographs of Italy that, in the same time, concurred to form the idea and the image of Italy and, indirectly, to describe the transformation during the 20th century. The paper illustrates the origins of the cartographic products, through the ... [Show full abstract] detailed analysis of these undervalued resources for the urban history. These maps, advanced documents in the production of the Touring Club, had a central role in the sorts of the association. A brilliant intuition of Luigi Vittorio Bertarelli (1859-1926), based on strong technical and managerial capacities.

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Process of Baluster for Stone Spiral Staircase

October 2013 · Advanced Materials Research

Yan Chen

In modern cities, with the rapid development of economy, various stone spiral staircases were decorated by more and more hotels or guest houses. It was very popular and showed beautiful decoration design style of modern hotel. In this paper, we studied the design process of baluster from stone spiral staircase. A new technical process for baluster of spiral staircase was investigated. We found ... [Show full abstract] much flaws of spiral surface in process of stone staircase and calculated a series of formulas by digital control of bead or wire saw. And one-time-molding techniques will be used in pieces processing. By sample analysis, this new method is more convenient than before. We believe that this stone spiral staircase will be used by more construction in the future.

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February 1963 · L'igiene Moderna

C F SACCANI

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User-Centred Design of Communication Environments and Systems for Disabled People

December 2010 · Knowledge Technology & Policy

The present paper presents the preliminary results of an ongoing research programme carried on at the Politecnico di Milano in the INDACO department in collaboration with a non-governmental organization called Sim-patia. The Sim-patia organization is in charge with the management of a rest house for people suffering from physical and cognitive pathologies that reduce their motion capabilities and ... [Show full abstract] self support in the daily activities. The ongoing research employs user-centred techniques to investigate the physical and cognitive needs of the patients in residence. Preliminary results of the experiments showed the effectiveness of the video communication solution developed for a particular physical environment. This experience is quite significant for our national context since up to now no similar cases have been published in Italy. The present paper illustrates the design approach, the first results of the research project and the evaluation activities performed on the prototyped solution.

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January 1986 · Studies in the Age of Chaucer

Mary J. Carruthers

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The urban domus in late antique hispania: Examples from Emerita, Barcino and Complutum

January 2007 · Late Antique Archaeology

This paper examines the characteristics, evolution and decline of the late antique domus of Spanish towns, using case studies from three cities: Augusta Emerita, Complutum and Barcino. It discusses how, during the 4th c. A.D., urban town houses were dramatically renovated and lavishly redecorated according to the tastes of their owners, the urban elites. These domus, which frequently replaced the ... [Show full abstract] public buildings and open spaces of the Early Roman era, acquired large, apsidal and basilical spaces, in many cases decorated with mosaics and paintings. This study also charts the decline of these domestic buildings, when, from the late 5th, and in some cases the 6th c., they were re-built using poorer materials, subdivided, or re-used for agricultural or funerary purposes.

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Admirable and delectable gardens: uiridaria in early medieval Italy

August 2019 · Early Medieval Europe

Caroline Goodson

This article will chart the usage of a rare term, uiridarium, in the documents of early medieval Italy in order to explore the history of decorative or pleasure gardens between c.600–c.1000. Property documents and placita, alongside a small body of archaeobotanical evidence, suggest a significant change in the planting of cultivated spaces in Italian cities during the early Middle Ages. A few ... [Show full abstract] charters refer to enclosed gardens called uiridaria attached to houses of the highest‐status people in Italy: dukes, kings, emperors, and bishops. We have a glimpse of how they were used and this article makes the case that decorative gardens played a role in the urban performance of the highest echelons of power.

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The grotesque in Medici taste and patronage /

January 1970

Robin O'Bryan

Typescript. "This dissertation examines the role of grotesque decoration and architecture as a signature expression in the commissions of the two Medici popes, Leo X and Clement VII."--Abstract. Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Virginia, 2000. Includes bibliographical references (v. 1, leaves 364-408). Photocopy.

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An Etruscan-Italian eave-sima with the scene of a naumachia from Mainz

January 2004

R. Känel

In the Museum für Antike Schiffahrt (Museum of Ancient Shipping) in Mainz there is a massive terracotta panel decorated with a relief formed from a mould. Both the quality of the clay, and the formal and technological characteristics suggest that the object is an Etruscan-Italian architectural terracotta, and therefore comes from Central Italy. Judging from the special shaping of the lower edge, ... [Show full abstract] it certainly is a eave-sima, i. e. an element which was originally attached in a vertical position at the edge of a roof. A comparison with the new finds from Fregellae shows that the example from Mainz was part of a private house and decorated the rectangular opening of the roof over the atrium. The finds from Fregellae also provide a date in the first half of the 2 nd century BC. The panel from Mainz is especially notable for is unusual subject: it shows the scene of a naumachia in an axial-symmetrical composition and thus belongs to the earliest pieces on which military motives occur in ancient architectural decoration.

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Elizabeth Keithline: Objects lost and found again

November 2005

N. Sausser

Elizabeth Keithline, a weaver, has developed a highly individualistic process to transform ordinary objects into a three-dimensional sculptures. In her first successful three dimensional experiment, involving a wooden Victorian chair, the weaver used the process of 'lost wax' to set the chair on fire in her suburban yard and burned it slowly to ash. What remained was a steel ghost of the original ... [Show full abstract] chair, tempered but intact. With the Lost House project, the weaver worked with an entire gallery space. Creating a life-sized impression of a house by hanging wire beams from the gallery ceiling, Elizabeth has made a space that can actually be entered and experienced. Lost House speaks of the elusive nature nature of memory and how the past lives on only as a fragmented remnant.

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Castle Villages, Rediscovering Urban Habitats Regeneration Project

October 2016 · Space

Yoon Solhee

A village emerges from the mist, leaning in to the Hanyangdoseong, with the Seoul City wall along its steep slope - namely a castle village. Some slate roof houses covered in scanty sheets appear, and a multitude of multiple family unit homes surround the walls, accompanied by tangled electric wires.... While this may seem like any other village, a tide of change has recently begun to creep into ... [Show full abstract] this area. This area is part of a castle village regeneration plan designated areas for castle villages include a total of 22 villages situated in the nine regions, first announced by Seoul Metropolitan Government in 2014 and as a means to provide a system for improving aged housing estates through common community utilities in different parts of the village. Beginning with the announcement of the Hangcheon Village project last August, plans have been put in place to launch such active projects in another metropolitan areas. This report will focus on the primary precedent of these projects, the Hangcheon Village project, in order to observe the current status of castle village regeneration projects that aspire to be reborn as urban residential estates. reported by Voon Solhee

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The Municipium of Brigetio Roman Houses at Komárom / Szőny-Vásártér

January 2011 · Periodica Polytechnica Architecture

Although the overall topography of Brigetio is more or less clear, as some of the Roman ruins were still visible in the 19th century, not much was known about the civil town, the municipium of Brigetio. The research excavations of 1992-2011 have brought to light the remains of several Roman houses, workshops and two streets. This part of the town was inhabited by the Romans from the very ... [Show full abstract] beginning of the 2nd century AD to the second half of the 3rd century AD. At the end of the 2nd century AD the elongated dwelling houses were fit with hypocaust heating systems and richly decorated with wall-paintings. Like other cities in Pannonia, Brigetio also had its most prosperous times under the Severan dynasty. The paper presents the architectural results of the twenty years of archaeological investigation of the site.

Last Updated: 22 Oct 2024