omniomni/omni-engineering huggingface dataset:
Thomas-Morse MB-4. The Thomas-Morse MB-4 was a prototype American mailplane of the 1920s. It was of unusual design, being a biplane with twin fuselages housing the crew of two and a central nacelle which carried the aircraft's twin engines in a push-pull configuration.

Design and development
The MB-4 was designed to meet a June 1919 specification from the United States Post Office Department for a two- or three-engined mailplane, required to carry 1,500 lb (682 kg) of mail on a single engine. Thomas-Morse chose to use as much as possible of its existing Thomas-Morse MB-3 fighter in order to reduce costs, using two engineless MB-3 fuselages to carry the crew and cargo, with the pilot in a cockpit in the nose of the port fuselage and the co-pilot/mechanic in a similar cockpit in the nose of the starboard fuselage, while cargo was carried behind the crew in each fuselage. Two 300 hp (224 kW) Wright-Hisso H V8 engines were mounted in a central nacelle between the two main fuselages in a push-pull configuration, with fuel tanks mounted between the engines.

The MB-4's three-bay biplane wings were all new, with ailerons on the upper wing. It had a conventional tailwheel undercarriage and had two separate tail assemblies, which were standard MB-3 empennages.  Dual controls were fitted, with the pilot able to disconnect the co-pilot's controls, but there were no means of communication between the two cockpits.

Operational history
The MB-4 made its maiden flight in February 1920. While the aircraft had reasonable speed for the time, it was otherwise poor, with one fuselage tending to take-off before the other, while the engines caused severe vibration which overloaded the aircraft's structure. It was described as the "worst thing on wings" by Jerome Fried, the general plant superintendent of Thomas-Morse.

One aircraft was tested by the US Post Office, but was not used for mail services, and was scrapped in 1921. At least one MB.4 (and possibly 3) was delivered to the United States Army Air Service where it was stored before being scrapped.

The MB-4 was a failure, having extremely poor flying characteristics and being described as the "worst thing on wings", and saw no service other than the trials by the manufacturer, US Army and the US Post Office.

Specifications

See also

References
Notes

Bibliography
Eberspacher, Warren. "Thomas-Morse MB-4". Excerpts from AAHS Journal, Vol. 46, No. 3 - Fall 2001.
"New York Aero Show". Flight, 1 April 1920, pp. 370–373.
Wegg, John. General Dynamics Aircraft and their Predecessors. London:Putnam, 1990. .

External links

"Airisms from the Four Winds". Flight, 25 March 1920. p. 350. (Contains two photos of the MB-4).

1920s United States cargo aircraft
Thomas-Morse aircraft
Twin-engined push-pull aircraft
Twin-fuselage aircraft
Aircraft first flown in 1920
Biplanes
Twin-tail aircraft
Aircraft with fixed conventional landing gear
Östen Mäkitalo. Östen Mäkitalo (27 August 1938 – 16 June 2011) was a Swedish electrical engineer. He is considered to be one of the most important developers in modern times together with Laila Ohlgren, both engineers at Telia. Together they developed the Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) system and were the leading figures, representing Telia and Sweden, in the meetings with the other Nordic countries to find a common standard. Later they developed GSM and led the meetings to find a European and later world standard for mobile communication. They are many times considered the developer of the cellular phone and mobile telephony.

Education and occupation
Mäkitalo was born in Koutojärvi, Sweden, and obtained a master's degree in electrical engineering from Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), while studying for a time he employed as a training assistant and lecturer at the Department of Physics at KTH. He started his professional career in 1961 at Televerket (now merged with TeliaSonera), the Swedish Telecommunications Administration, where he developed the first expansion compressor for high-quality sound.  In the early 1970s, he was accepted as a PhD student at KTH, with Tele Transmission theory as a major and a minor in mathematics. He was a visiting professor at KTH since 2005. He was the elected member of Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences.

Research and inventions
Mäkitalo assisted the development of first ever first generation cellular system and was also a key figure in the development of GSM. Mäkitalo was the part of the group that developed the world's first countrywide paging system with the possibility of sending messages. In addition, he has partaken  in the development of the technology for digital TV sound and digital terrestrial TV. Mäkitalo held about 20 patents, including one on a cellular system with roaming and handover from 1971 (the year after Bell labs applied for patent on a similar system). He was an honorary doctor at Chalmers University of Technology.

Awards and honors
Mäkitalo won numerous awards and honors, some of them were:

1987 - IVA's gold medal for the development of mobile phone technology.
1991 - Received honorary doctorate at Chalmers University of Technology.
1994 - KTH Grand Prize by The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) for Pioneering Research in the Field of Analogue and Digital Radio Technique.
2001 - H. M. The King's Medal from the King of Sweden for important contributions in the field of mobile telephone.

References

External links
Nordic Radio Society

1938 births
2011 deaths
Swedish electrical engineers
20th-century Swedish inventors
People from Övertorneå Municipality
KTH Royal Institute of Technology alumni
Academic staff of the KTH Royal Institute of Technology
20th-century Swedish civil servants
Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences
JIT spraying. JIT spraying is a class of computer security exploit that circumvents the protection of address space layout randomization and data execution prevention by exploiting the behavior of just-in-time compilation. It has been used to exploit the PDF format and Adobe Flash.

A just-in-time compiler (JIT) by definition produces code as its data. Since the purpose is to produce executable data, a JIT compiler is one of the few types of programs that cannot be run in a no-executable-data environment. Because of this, JIT compilers are normally exempt from data execution prevention. A JIT spray attack does heap spraying with the generated code.

To produce exploit code from JIT, an idea from Dion Blazakis is used. The input program, usually JavaScript or ActionScript, typically contains numerous constant values that can be erroneously executed as code. For example, the XOR operation could be used:
var a = (0x11223344^0x44332211^0x44332211^ ...);

JIT then will transform bytecode to native x86 code like:

 0:  b8 44 33 22 11          
 5:  35 11 22 33 44          
 a:  35 11 22 33 44          

The attacker then uses a suitable bug to redirect code execution into the newly generated code. For example, a buffer overflow or use after free bug could allow the attack to modify a function pointer or return address.

This causes the CPU to execute instructions in a way that was unintended by the JIT authors. The attacker is usually not even limited to the expected instruction boundaries; it is possible to jump into the middle of an intended instruction to have the CPU interpret it as something else. As with non-JIT ROP attacks, this may be enough operations to usefully take control of the computer. Continuing the above example, jumping to the second byte of the "mov" instruction results in an "inc" instruction:

 1:  44                                  
 2:  33 22                        
 4:  11 35 11 22 33 44        
 a:  35 11 22 33 44          

x86 and x86-64 allow jumping into the middle of an instruction, but not fixed-length architectures like ARM.

To protect against JIT spraying, the JIT code can be disabled or made less predictable for the attacker.

References 

Computer security exploits
James Wilson King. James Wilson King (1818  – June 6, 1905) was an American Navy Officer. He served as Chief Engineer of the United States Navy. During his career, he held every position in the Navy to which an engineering officer could be called. Today, he is best known for his 1880 book, The Warships and Navies of the World, which has been called "an important book to establish reliable contemporary information." It was republished by the U.S. Naval Institute in 1982.

Career 
King was appointed to the Navy from Maryland as a Third Assistant Engineer on September 2, 1844. During the Mexican–American War, he was attached to the paddle-frigate  and participated in the capture of all but one of the towns on the Mexican coast taken by the Navy. On July 10, 1847, he was promoted to Second Assistant Engineer. King served on all the first steamers that belonged to the U.S. Navy, except the first Fulton.

King was promoted to First Assistant Engineer on September 13, 1849 and to Chief Engineer on November 12, 1852. He was appointed Government Inspector of Ocean Mail Steamers at New York in 1853. In 1858, he was appointed Chief Engineer at the New York Navy Yard.

King was Chief Engineer of the North Atlantic Fleet in the early part of the American Civil War. "Subsequently he was the superintendent of the construction of all the armour-clads built west of the Alleghenies, involving an expenditure in the aggregate of seven millions of dollars".

King was promoted to Engineer in Chief on March 15, 1869. In 1869, President Ulysses S. Grant appointed him Chief of the Bureau of Steam Engineering. In this post, King introduced double-expansion engines into the U.S. Navy. He held this post until March 20, 1873.

During the mid-1870s, King—as chief engineer of the Navy—made many visits, official and private, to Europe, to collect information relating to shipbuilding, machinery, and other aspects of naval warfare. In 1877, he produced a report to Congress entitled, European Ships of War and Their Armament, Naval Administration and Economy, Marine Constructions and Appliances, Dockyards, etc., etc. King's critical evaluations of naval architecture assumed that Congress might soon fund new designs for a re-equipped American Navy. A second edition was published in 1878. King then produced an expanded version of these reports in his 1880 book, The Warships and Navies of the World.

Retirement and death 
King was placed on the retired list on August 26, 1881. He died at his home at 3221 Powelton Avenue, Philadelphia, on June 6, 1905.

Footnotes

Bibliography

External links 

19th-century American naval officers
1818 births
1905 deaths
Military personnel from Maryland
People of Maryland in the American Civil War
Union Navy officers
United States Navy engineering officers
United States Navy personnel of the Mexican–American War
Thomas-Morse MB-9. The Thomas Morse MB-9 was an experimental American fighter aircraft of the 1920s. It was a single-engined, single-seat parasol winged monoplane, but was unsuccessful, being quickly abandoned.

Design and development
In 1921, B. Douglas Thomas, chief designer of Thomas-Morse Aircraft designed two closely related parasol monoplanes, a single-seat fighter, the MB-9 and a two-seat trainer, the MB-10. They were of all-metal construction, with corrugated duralumin skinning.

First to be completed was the MB-10, which had tandem cockpits and was designed to be powered by a  Wright or Lawrance radial engine. In the absence of the intended engine, it was fitted with a  Le Rhône 9Ja rotary engine to allow flight testing to start in late 1921. The MB-10's handling proved to be extremely poor, while it also suffered severe vibration and was structurally weak.

The MB-9 fighter was completed early in 1922, differing principally from the MB-10 in the removal of the forward cockpit and the use of a  Wright Hispano H-3 V8 engine, cooled by a radiator situated (along with the oil tank) in a torpedo-shaped structure under the fuselage. Planned armament was two machine guns; one  and one .

While the MB.9 handled better than the MB.10, it still suffered from the severe vibration and structural problems that plagued the trainer, together with a weak undercarriage and cooling problems. The development of both aircraft was quickly stopped, with the types not being sent for formal evaluation by the United States Army Air Service at McCook Field.

Variants
MB-9
Single-seat fighter powered by 300 hp (239 kW) Wright Hispano H-3 engine. One built.
MB-10
Two seat primary trainer aircraft, powered by 110 hp (82 kW) Le Rhône rotary engine. One built.

Specifications (MB-9)

See also

References
Notes

Bibliography

Angelucci, Enzo and Peter Bowers. The American Fighter. Yeovil, UK:Haynes Publishing, 1987. .
Green, William and Gordon Swanborough. The Complete Book of Fighters. New York:Smithmark, 1994. .
Wegg, John. General Dynamics Aircraft and their Predecessors. London:Putnam, 1990. .

1920s United States fighter aircraft
Thomas-Morse aircraft
Symphony bridge. A symphony bridge or bridge symphony is a bridge which combines the structural support systems of a suspension bridge, a cable-stayed bridge and a cantilever bridge. No such bridges have been built, nor are there any specific plans, although the method has been considered for several bridges in Norway. It was developed collaboratively by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration and the civil engineering consulting company Aas-Jakobsen as a means of building bridges with spans between .

The design is based on two separate roadways which are connected by crossbeams. A symphony bridge would have two pylons, which would be circular in hollow cross-section. The center of the bridge would be supported by a central cable (unlike the conventional two side cables of a suspension bridge) connected to the deck via hangers connected to the crossbeams. The cross-beams and hangers are triangular in form. On both sides of the suspension section, the bridge would be built as a cable-stayed bridge with cables from the pylon. The areas closest to the pylons would be constructed with cantilever support. The designers have stated that the bridge would allow for greater wind stability, more drag, faster construction time, lower cost, and increased access for inspections and maintenance.

For the Hålogaland Bridge, which is proposed to have a  long main span, a symphony bridge was considered but was discarded after it was deemed too expensive at a projected cost of 2,380 million Norwegian kroner (NOK), compared to NOK 1,860 for a suspension bridge. The proposed Storfjord Bridge could be built as a symphony bridge.

References

Bridges by structural type
Synthesizers.com. Synthesizers.com is an American company based in Houston, Texas, and founded by engineer Roger Arrick (also a designer of robots) in 1997 and beginning to take orders in 2000, which manufactures analog modular synthesizers for music and sound-effect creation. 

In 2018 Arrick sold the business to long-time employee James Allen.  In September 2023 ownership changed, but the new owners have not made any disclosure or other announcement as to their identity. It appears Roger Arrick is no longer involved.

In December 2023, the Q190 Triple Tuner module was officially released as the first new module designed and manufactured under the new leadership.

Products
Synthesizers.com modular synthesizer products use analog circuitry as did the classic synthesizers produced by Moog, ARP, etc. Systems are constructed using function modules to provide customization and flexibility. Modules include the basic VCO, VCF, VCA synthesizer functions along with more advanced modules such as
sequencers, ring modulators and quantizers. Cabinets of various construction styles are offered to house modules and power components.

Synthesizers.com cabinets and modules conform to the physical Moog Modular (5U tall) form factor.

Moog 960 Sequencer reissue
In 2005, Synthesizers.com began offering a clone of Moog's 960 sequencer. The front panel duplicates the original 960 layout while the electronics required a redesign using currently available circuit components. Recreation of Moog's 961 and 962 accessory modules are offered as well.

Meeting of the Knobs
Synthesizers.com periodically hosts informal public meetings in the Dallas/Fort Worth area where enthusiasts show various sorts of modern and vintage electronic musical instruments.

Gallery

References

External links
 Official homepage of Synthesizers.com

Synthesizer manufacturing companies of the United States
Modular synthesizers
Analog synthesizers
MIDI instruments
Companies based in Tyler, Texas
Companies established in 1996
1996 establishments in Texas
AN/ALE-47. The AN/ALE-47 Airborne Countermeasures Dispenser System is used to protect military aircraft from incoming radar and infrared homing missiles. It works by dispensing flares or chaff. It is used on a variety of U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Army aircraft, as well as in other militaries.

Overview
The AN/ALE-47 countermeasure dispenser system was developed by Tracor, now part of BAE Systems, as an improved version of the older ALE-40 system, with more autonomy and software.  The AN/ALE-47 countermeasure dispenser system is also manufactured by Symetrics Industries, out of Melbourne, Florida. The AN/ALE-47 system can be integrated on a wide range of aircraft, including helicopters, cargo aircraft and fighters. It reached initial operating capability (IOC) in the U.S. Navy in 1998. It has been integrated on 38 different types of aircraft, including the F-16, F/A-18, C-17, CH-47 and UH-60. As of 2008, over 3000 sets have been delivered and the system is used by 30 different nations.

Function
The ALE-47 is integrated with the aircraft's radar warning receivers, missile warning receivers and other electronic warfare sensors. When the aircraft's sensors detect a threat, the countermeasure dispenser system automatically launches radiofrequency and infrared countermeasures at the optimum time to defeat incoming missiles. The ALE is compatible with a wide variety of countermeasures such as different types of flares and chaff. It is also designed to work with advanced future countermeasures.

Components
The ALE-47 consists of a cockpit control unit, sequencer units, countermeasure dispensers and an optional programmer. The cockpit control unit provides an interface with the pilot. A programmer can be added to add extra features, such as advanced threat evaluation. It can also be used to fully integrate the system with an aircraft's glass cockpit eliminating the need for the cockpit control unit. The sequencer units control the dispensers, and are automatically capable of detecting misfires and correcting them. The sequencers are built into the dispenser units on the rotary-wing version. Each dispenser can hold five different types of countermeasures for a total of 30. The whole system can accommodate up to 32 dispensers on fixed-wing aircraft and 16 on rotary-wing aircraft.

See also

Flare (countermeasure)
Chaff (countermeasure)
Electronic warfare
Infrared countermeasures
AN/ALQ-144
List of military electronics of the United States

References

External links 
 Symetrics Industries ALE-47 product page
 Symetrics Industries ALE-47 product brochure
 BAE Systems ALE-47 product page

Electronic warfare equipment
Military electronics of the United States
Raytheon Company products
Equipment of the United States Air Force
Electronic countermeasures
Military equipment introduced in the 1990s
John Bentley Stringer. John Bentley Stringer (17 February 1928 – 4 May 1979) was a British computer pioneer. At Cambridge Maths Lab he worked with Maurice Wilkes creating the concept of microcode. He then became a civil servant firstly at the National Physical Laboratory then at the Government Communications Headquarters.

Publications

References

1928 births
1979 deaths
Members of the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory
British computer scientists
Computer designers
William W. Wood. William Willis Wiley Wood (May 30, 1818 – August 31, 1882) was an engineer of the United States Navy, who served as Engineer-in-Chief of the Bureau of Steam Engineering from 1873 until 1877.

Biography 
Wood was born in Wake County, North Carolina, and after graduation obtained a position at the West Point Foundry.

He was appointed to the Navy from New York on March 15, 1845, with the rank of chief engineer. He spent his first two years in the navy stationed at the Pensacola Navy Yard, Florida. He briefly did special duty at Boston, and then from 1850 to 1853, served on the paddle-sloop  in the Home Squadron.

From 1854 to 1857, Wood superintended the constructions of the engines of the screw-frigate  at Cold Spring, New York. His next appointment was for two years serving in the screw-sloop  on the Pacific Squadron. From 1862 to 1866, Wood spent most of his time on special duty in Philadelphia, New York and Boston. Wood was assigned to the United States Naval Academy from 1866 to 1867. Wood was Inspector of Machinery Afloat in New York from 1870 to 1872.

Wood was promoted to engineer-in-chief in 1872, and was appointed Chief of the Bureau of Steam Engineering on March 20, 1873, his successor was appointed on March 3, 1877. Wood was assigned to special duty in 1878, and was placed on the retired list on May 31, 1880.

Death 

On August 31, 1882, Wood was drowned in a boating accident off Point Lookout, Maryland. He was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

Family 
At the time of his death, Wood was married and had six children:
 Fanny Henderson, wife of Lt. Conway Hillyer Arnold, USN
 Mary Eliza, wife of Lt. Eugene DeForest Heald, USN
 Leiley Weir, wife of Lt. Charles Allston Stone, USN
 Lt. Thomas Newton Wood, USN
 Emily Grace, wife of Lt. Henry Frick Reich, USN
 Master Francis Gregory Wood

Two more, William Willis Wood and Charles Gillespie Wood, had died young.

See also

References

External links 
 
 William W. W. Wood papers at the University of Maryland libraries

1818 births
1882 deaths
Accidental deaths in Maryland
Boating accident deaths
Burials at Oak Hill Cemetery (Washington, D.C.)
United States Navy engineering officers
People from Wake County, North Carolina
People of North Carolina in the American Civil War
Union Navy officers
Jiayuguan–Ceke railway. The Jiayuguan–Ceke railway ()  or Jiace railway () is a railway in northwestern China between Jiayuguan in Gansu Province and Ceke (), a border post in Ejin Banner of Inner Mongolia on the China-Mongolian border.  The railway is  in length and was built from April 2004 to June 2007, and was financed by the Jiuquan Steel Company for its exclusive use to transport coal from Inner Mongolia and Mongolia.  It is the longest railway financed by an enterprise in China.  The line connects the Lanzhou-Xinjiang and the Linhe-Ceke railway.  Planning is under way for a  extension of the railway into Mongolia's Nariin Sukhait mining complex (Ovoot Tolgoi).  In 2011 and 2012, the line carried, respectively, 1.21 and 1.17 million metric tons of coal.

Rail connections
 Jiayuguan: Lanzhou–Xinjiang railway, Jiajing railway
 Ceke: Linhe–Ceke railway, Ejin–Hami railway

See also

 List of railways in China
Rail transport in Inner Mongolia

References 

Railway lines in China
Rail transport in Gansu
Rail transport in Inner Mongolia