It is architecturally similar to the Linux Advanced Radio Terminal and the Intel StrongARM reference platform. It has processor Intel StrongARM 200+ MHz, 64MB of RAM, 32MB Flash ROM and may use cheap smart-cards with capacity 8KB. It has also USB connectivity and software modem so might be connect to the internet. 320x240 LCD interface in Simputer is with a touch panel overlay on liquid-crystal display. Operating system runs on a version of the Linux Kernel (computer science). Type of the software used in Simputer is text-to-speech. This tool may use speakers and microphone because it has special jacks. It has also built-in Infrared Data Association (IrDA) port. The device is powered by 3 AAA sized NiMH batteries.
The Simputer Trust has licensed to manufacturers to produce devices based on the Simputer. These companies are: PicoPeta Simputers and Encore Technologies.
The tool developed is very generic and has similarities to many other countries. It is ideally suited for developing and under developed countries like: India, Azerbaijan, Mauritius, Mongolia, Ghana, Uzbekistan, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Thailand or Vietnam.
Stonewall UK
Stonewall UK is a gay rights organisation in the United Kingdom which was named after the Stonewall riots.
It was created in 1989 by Labour Party members who were trying to change section 28 of the Local Government Act. Many famous people, such as Sir Ian McKellen and Michael Cashman were among those who made it. Stonewall is in London. Stonewall Scotland has offices in Edinburgh and Glasgow and Stonewall Cymru is based in both Cardiff and Bangor in North Wales.
Stonewall showed ideas for change to the government. It did not start out as a membership organisation. Since Labour came into power in 1997, however, it has now become active in developing policy (political ideas) to protect the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
Some of Stonewall's best known early work was backing legal test cases in the European Court of Human Rights. These included:
In the last few years it was successful in parliamentary lobbying. Its previous director Angela Mason (1992 to 2002) was awarded an OBE "for services to homosexual rights". Under her direction, Stonewall persuaded parliament to change the 2002 Adoption and Children Bill so that lesbian and gay couples were treated the same as heterosexuals. Under its current Chief Executive, Ben Summerskill, it was closely involved in successful parliamentary campaigns to repeal Section 28 of the Local Government Act (2003); make attacks on gay people separate crimes (that is, "anti-gay hate crimes"), through the Criminal Justice Act 2003; introduce the Civil Partnership Act 2004 giving gay and lesbian couples "civil union" almost the same as a civil marriage; and introduce the "2007 Sexual Orientation Regulations" under the Equality Act 2006, to stop discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation.
Stonewall helps 300 big employers across Britain by giving advice and support to lesbian and gay staff. These companies include IBM, Credit Suisse, the Inland Revenue and the Royal Navy.
The "Education for All" campaign was started in 2005. Stonewall and 70 other organsiations help to stop homophobic bullying in British schools. Section 28 of the Local government Act made any sort of teaching about homosexuality difficult, and the Education for All campaign started after section 28 was repealed.
Grass-roots activists such as Peter Tatchell have accused Stonewall of allowing discrimination by holding regular meetings of celebrities and politicians. The meetings were supported by big businesses such as HSBC, even though HSBC is accused of dismissing someone because of their sexual orientation.
Stonewall supported the Civil Partnership bill. Many other groups did not, and they formed a group called the "Coalition for Marriage Equality", saying that the new Civil Partnership Bill made a separate yet equal system "not unlike apartheid". Many LGBT people who were not part of these groups liked the bill, and Stonewall got a lot of new members. Now Stonewall gets more money from its 10,000 individual supporters than it does money from its business supporters.
James Branch Cabell
James Branch Cabell (1879 – 1958) was an American writer. He wrote fantasy fiction. His name is pronounced "CAB-ble".
Cabell was born and lived most of his life in Richmond, Virginia. He spent the winters in Florida until the death of his first wife in 1949. He retired in Florida.
Cabell was born into a rich Virginian family. His father, Robert Gamble Cabell II (1847–1922), was a physician. His mother, Anne Harris (1859–1915), was the daughter of Col. and Mrs James R. Branch. Cabell's great-grandfather, William H. Cabell, was Governor of Virginia from 1805 to 1808. Cabell was the oldest of three boys . His brothers were Robert Gamble Cabell III (1881–1968) and John Lottier Cabell (1883–1946). His parents separated and were later divorced in 1907.
He went to the College of William and Mary in 1894 at the age of fifteen. He graduated in 1898. While an undergraduate, Cabell taught French and Greek at the college. Ellen Glasgow, a writer and close friend of Cabell said that he had a friendship with a professor at the college which some people thought was "too intimate". Because of this, Cabell had to leave the college. He was later allowed back and finished his degree.
Cabell worked from 1898 to 1900 as a newspaper reporter in New York City. He returned to Richmond in 1901. In Richmond, he worked several months for the "Richmond News".
Many things happened to Cabell in 1901. His first stories were accepted for publication. It was believed for a short time that Cabell murdered John Scott, a rich person in Richmond. There was a rumor that Scott was "involved" with Cabell's mother.
In 1902, seven of his stories appeared in national magazines. Over the ten years, he wrote many short stories and articles. These were published in well-known magazines including "Harper's Monthly Magazine" and the "Saturday Evening Post".
Between 1911 and 1913, he worked for his uncle in the office of the Branch coal mines in West Virginia. On November 8, 1913, he married Priscilla Bradley Shepherd. She was a widow with five children from an earlier marriage. In 1915, Priscilla gave birth to a son, Ballard Hartwell Cabell. Priscilla died in March of 1949. In June 1950, Cabell married Margaret Waller Freeman.
During his life, Cabell published fifty-two books. These included novels, genealogy, collections of short stories, poetry, and miscellanea. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1937. Today, the modern languages house and an endowed law professorship at the College of William and Mary are named for him.
Cabell died of a cerebral hemorrhage. He is buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond.
In 1970, Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond named its main campus library "James Branch Cabell Library". In the 1970s, Cabell's library and personal papers were moved from his home on Monument Avenue to the James Branch Cabell Library. The collection includes some 3,000 volumes, manuscripts, notebooks and scrapbooks, periodicals, letters (including conversations with noted writers such as H.L. Mencken, Ellen Glasgow, Sinclair Lewis and Theodore Dreiser), newspaper clippings, photographs, criticisms, printed material, publishers' agreements and statements of sales.
The VCU undergraduate literary journal at the university is named Poictesme after the fictional province in his book "Jurgen".
Cabell published about fifty books. Most of these are not well known. His eighth book, "Jurgen", (1919) was the most popular. The hero, Jurgen, goes on a journey through ever more fantastic places. He even goes to hell and heaven. Everywhere he goes, he seduces the local women, even the Devil's wife.