Paris, 19 June 2006
EFITA newsletter / 265 / European Federation for Information
Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment
Point of view (in Fr-English): The ZADI newsletter (in German) disappears
It is a pity. The ZADI newsletter was a great source of information. I believe
that you will regret the end of the efita newsletter because of your lack of
support. When I will tired to edit this newsletter without any financial resource
from the EU and from my own country, it will be the end of the nice adventure.
To escape this fatal issue, could you, dear readers, see this efita newsletter
as an excellent advertisement tool?
See: http://www.zadi.de/
2 nd International Symposium on Centrifugal Fertiliser Spreading, from academic
to applied research
24-25 October 2006 - Cemagref, MONTOLDRE (between Vichy and Moulins, Center
of France).
See : http://www.clermont.cemagref.fr/Geapa/tscf_Pee/tscf_pee.htm
Contact: Philippe ZWAENEPOEL
Mél : philippe.zwaenepoel(a)cemagref.fr
14 June 1951 (from the Writer's Almanac produced by Prairie Home Productions)
It was on this day in 1951 that the world's first commercially produced electronic
digital computer was unveiled in the United States. It was named as the UNIVAC. The first electronic computers were invented during
World War II. Engineers in Great Britain invented the Colossus computer to help
break Nazi codes, and engineers in the United States invented the ENIAC, which
helped calculate the trajectories of missiles.
The ENIAC weighed thirty tons and occupied a gymnasium. With 18,000 vacuum tubes,
it radiated so much heat that industrial cooling fans were needed to keep its
circuitry from melting down. It took two days to reprogram it for each new task.
The men who created the ENIAC decided to go into private business for themselves,
and it was on this day in 1951 that they unveiled their first product, the UNIVAC,
the world's first commercially available electronic computer. It weighed eight
tons, used 5,000 vacuum tubes, and cost $250,000. But it could perform 1000
calculations per second, which was the fastest calculation rate in the world
at the time.
The first customer to buy the UNIVAC was the United States Census Bureau, and
the computer was used to predict the presidential election of 1952, after early
returns began to come in. It correctly predicted that Eisenhower would win.
The president of IBM at the time thought that computers, with all their incredibly
complex vacuum tubes and circuitry, were too complicated. He said, "I think
there is a world market for maybe five computers." But with the invention
of the microchip in 1971, all the processing power of those thousands of vacuum
tubes and punch cards could suddenly be crammed into a space the size of a postage
stamp. Within a decade, the first personal computers, or PCs, began to appear.
For the first thirty years or so of the history of computers, it was mostly
businesses that used them for accounting purposes. But in the 1980s, the word
processing powers of computers made them attractive to writers—although Stephen
King said that when he first started using a word processor, he lost the ability
to pace himself by the number of pages he had written, and his books grew longer
and longer. Russell Baker said, "Computers make writing so painless that
the writer cannot bear to stop. On and on the writer goes, all judgment numbed.
Before you know it, you've written a book." Some contemporary writers still
don't use computers. Joyce Carol Oates writes all her first drafts in longhand.
Don DeLillo still uses a manual typewriter.
But, the novelist Stanley Elkin called his word processor a "bubble machine."
He said, "The word processor enables one to concentrate exponentially;
you have absolute command of the entire novel all at once. You can go back and
reference and change and fix ... so in a way, all novels written on the bubble
machine ought to be perfect novels."
Oecumenical joke
A Priest and a Rabbi are riding in a plane. After a while, the Priest turns
to the Rabbi and asks, "Is it still a requirement of your faith that you
not eat pork?"
The Rabbi responds, "Yes, that is still one of our beliefs."
The Priest then asks, "Have you ever eaten pork?"
To which the Rabbi replies, "Yes, on one occasion I did succumb to temptation
and tasted pork."
The Priest nodded in understanding and went on with his reading. A while later,
the Rabbi spoke up and asked the Priest, "Father, is it still a requirement
of your church that you remain celibate?"
The Priest replied, "Yes, that is still very much a part of our faith."
The Rabbi then asked him, "Father, have you ever fallen to the temptations
of the flesh?"
The Priest replied, "Yes Rabbi, on one occasion I was weak and broke with
my faith."
The Rabbi nodded understandingly for a moment and then said, "A lot better
than pork isn't it?"
Contact: MARC BUYS
Mél : buysmarc(a)aol.com
De gallegos...
Se encuentran Venancio y Manolo y éste último llevaba un pingüino de la
mano y Venancio le pregunta:
- Oye, Manolo, ¿pero qué haces con ese pingüino?
- Pues na, que me lo he encontrao, y no sé qué hacer con él.
- Si serás tonto Manolo, ¿por qué no lo has llevao al zoológico?
- Hombre, pues qué buena idea. Hoy mismo lo llevo al zoológico.
Al día siguiente se vuelven a encontrar, pero Manolo sigue con el pingüino,
por lo que Venancio, extrañado, le pregunta:
- ¿Qué ha pasado contigo, Manolo, no habéis dicho que llevarías al pingüino
al zoológico?
- Hombre, pues lo he llevao..., y nos hemos divertido tanto que hoy nos vamos
al circo...
Contact: Israel KITRON
Email: kitron1(a)terra.com.br
Home depot
Two guys - one old and one young - are pushing their carts around Home Depot.
When they collide, the old guy says to the young guy, "Sorry about that.
I'm looking for my wife, and I guess I wasn't paying attention to where I was
going."
The young guy says, "That's OK. It's a coincidence. I'm looking for my
wife too.
The old guy says, "Well, maybe we can help each other. What does your wife
look like?"
The young guy says, "Well, she is 27 yrs old, tall, with red hair, blue
eyes, long legs, big boobs, and she's wearing tight white shorts. What does
your wife look like?"
The old guy says, "Doesn't matter --- let's look for yours."
Contact: Bernard P AUXENFANS
Email: auxenfansb(a)attglobal.net
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