Evan Goldfarb

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Wiki Entry #1: Logic Piano


The Logic Piano was created by William Stanley Jevons, A British Economist and Logician in the mid 19th century. From a young age Jevons was a brilliant young man. He was born in Liverpool, UK to a father who had strong scientific tastes as well as a writer on legal and economic subjects. He was also an iron merchant. His mother was the daughter of William Roscoe, an English historian and a writer. At the age of 15 Jevons was sent to London to attend University College School. He graduated in 2 years and then was off to Sydney, Australia in 1854. Five years later in 1859 he returned to the University College London to get his B.A. and M.A. in moral sciences. He began to write often and soon became a tutor at at Owens College in Manchester. In 1866, he was elected professor of logic and mental and moral philosophy and Cobden professor of political economy in Owens college (William Stanley Jevons, Wikipedia). It was only three years after this that Jevons would create one of the most revolutionary inventions of his and our time, the Logic Piano.


Jevons was a very logical thinker obviously, so much that he created something called "Substitution of Similar's." An example of this would be Jevons picking apart metal (Barrett and Connell, 2005).

Iron is a metal
Metal is an element
Iron = metal
Metal = Element
Therefore, Iron = element


This goes to show just how logical Jevons thought process was. With this in mind, Jevons was using a "logical slate" on which he had his combinations typed up ready for elimination as early as 1863 (Barrett and Connell, 2005). In one of his later pieces The Substitution of Similars, he describes a series of wooden boards with various combinations. This was the outline that would soon turn into one of his greatest inventions. In 1869, fitted within a wooden case, and with a keyboard mounted on the front to operate the substitution mechanism, the Logic Piano was finally built. This incredible piano could deal with up to four terms at a time. Jevons wanted to build a machine with 16 terms, but it simply would have been too big and complicated to make. The logic expressions are typed via the keys (well...more like they are played since it is a piano), and hitting full stop removes all impossible combinations from the screen. The copula is the "=" key and the "finis" key resets the machine (Barrett and Connell, 2005).


Jevons, his logical thinking, and the logic machine/piano anticipate contemporary computing in some way. The logical aspect of computers today run on a system of 1 and 0s (embodied in the circuitry). In 1940, a man named Claude Shannon used Jevons logic and logic piano to present a "symbolic analysis of relay switching curcuits" that Boolean algebra could be used to describe switching circuits (Barrett and Connell, 2005). The computer's of Apple and Microsoft that we use today are made possible because of Jevons' logic and Shannon's. It is amazing how many technological advancements of today's time are due to findings in the 1880s where they barely had any technology whatsoever compared to the 1900s and the 2000s. Sure eventually someone down the line may have figured out how to run computers, but this may have come many years later and today we may not have the laptops, high definition televisions, and many more technological items that we use in our everyday lives. Jevons always considered himself "unworthy" of seeing the logic of the future, but he saw it (Barrett and Connell, 2005). Who knows what he could have done if Jevons was not hampered by the technology of his time.




Wiki Entry #2: Mr. Paul Allen

Overview


Mr. Paul Gardner Allen (born Jan 21 1953) is an industrialist and philanthropist. He gained most of his fame by co-founding Microsoft with Bill Gates. Today he is the 37th richest person in the world being worth about$13.5 billion (Forbes.com).


He is a big time investor, as he is the founder and chairman of Vulcan Inc. (private asset Management Company). Allen has a multi-billion dollar investment portfolio which includes stakes in Diego (A line of high definition Digital Video Recorders produced by ARRIS Group Inc.), Kiha Software (founded by Allen), real estate, and other media/technology companies. He is also chairman of Charter Communications, which provides cable TV, high speed internet, and telephone services to more than 5.7 million people in 29 states. 4th Largest cable operator behind Comcast, Time Warner, and Cox Communications. Allen Also owns three sports teams: The Seattle Seahawks of the NFL, the Portland Trail Blazers of the NBA, and the Seattle Sounders FC of the MLS

How it all began


Allen was born and raised in Seattle to parents Kenneth and Faye. The dynamic duo of Allen and Gates met while they attended Lakeside School. Although Allen was two years older than Gates, they became friends because of their common interest of computers. They would often use the computers at Lakeside to develop their programming skills. After they graduated, Allen went to Washington State University but dropped out after two years to work for a company called Honeywell as a programmer. That company just happened to be in Boston where his buddy Bill Gates was attending Harvard University. Somehow Allen convinced Gates to drop out of school so they could pursue their dream of being software programmers. This would forever change modern technology.


Believe it or not, Microsoft was co-founded by Gates and Allen in New Mexico in 1975. They began to write the first microcomputer BASIC for the Altair, a computer kit based on Intel’s new 8080 chip. Altair’s producer MITS makes Allen the associate director of software. Now Allen has to divide his time between MITS and Micro-Soft. Soon Micro-Soft was gaining publicity and everyone wanted a part of it. Apple commissions Micro-Soft to supply a version of its BASIC for the Apple II and Radio Shack bought a BASIC for its TRS-80. Then, IBM came to Microsoft and asked them to develop and license DOS and BASIC to IBM fro its new personal computer. Allen and Gates moved from New Mexico to Bellevue, Washington and they started the job for IBM. This is the foundation of Microsoft’s remarkable growth.


However, right when things were booming, Allen had to resign from Microsoft in 1983 after being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease. This was treated by radiation therapy and several months later Allen was cured. From 1983 to 2000, Allen was involved in many projects and companies that did not include Gates or Microsoft. Allen came back in 2000 as a senior strategy adviser to top Microsoft Executives.

Allen's other projects/companies


In 1984, Allen founded Asymetrix, a software development company in Washington, to make application development tools that nonprogrammers can use. This company later became Click2learn.com and then later merged with Docent to become Sum Total System in 2004.


In 1992, Allen started Starwave which was a producer of online content sites. Starwave did great work for ESPN SportsZone and ABCNews.com, so much that Disney bought the company for $350 million.


In 1998, Allen bough Marcus Cable which was the 10th largest cable company at the time for $2.8 billion. However, in 2000 Allen would go back to what he helped to create with Gates way back in 1975.


In 2003, Vulcan Ventures began funding Project Halo. Nothing like this had ever been attempted, but Allen being the innovator he is wanted to pursue this idea. This project is an attempt to apply Artificial Intelligence techniques to the problem of producing a digital Aristotle that might serve as a mentor, providing comprehensive access to the world’s knowledge.


Allen also is a major contributor to the SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) project.


Allen founded the Experience Music Project in 2000. This was inspired by his interest in a museum to house his huge collection of Jimi Hendrix memorabilia. It is a one-of-a-kind museum combining interactive and interpretive exhibits to tell the story of the creative, innovative, and rebellious expressions that defines American popular music.

Philanthropy


Allen is also quite the philanthropist. He has given over $1 billion dollars to charity. There are two major foundations in which Allen is involved. There is the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation that supports the work of non-profit organizations that conduct effective community work primarily in the five-state Pacific Northwest region of Washing, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska. The foundation consists of 5 programs: Arts and Culture, Community Development and Social Change, Economic Relief, Education and Youth Engagement, and Science and Technology Innovations Programs (http://www.pgafoundations.com/). The other foundation is the Allen Institute for Brain Science (founded in 2001) is an independent, non-profit medical research organization dedicated to performing innovative basic research on cellular function in the brain and distributing its discoveries to researchers around the world.

Contributions

Works Cited

Wiki#1


Barrett, Lindsay, and Matthew Connell. "Jevons and the Logic 'Piano'" The Rutherford Journal 1 (2005): 1-10. Therutherfordjournal.org. Web. 27 May 2010. <http://www.rutherfordjournal.org/article010103.html>.


"William Stanley Jevons." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 21 May 2010. Web. 27 May 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Stanley_Jevons>.

Wiki #2

"Paul Allen to Take on New Role As Senior Strategy Adviser to Microsoft Board." Microsoft.com. Microsoft, 28 Sept. 2000. Web. 10 June 2010. <http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2000/sept00/allenhackbornpr.mspx>.

"Paul Allen." Wikipedia. Wikipedia Foundations Inc., 10 June 2010. Web. 10 June 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Allen>.

Paul G. Allen. (2010). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved June 10, 2010, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/16187/Paul-G-Allen

"The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation." Paul G. Allen Family Foundations : Home. The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, 2010. Web. 10 June 2010. <http://www.pgafoundations.com/>.

"Welcome to the World of Paul Allen." PaulAllen.com. Vulcan Inc., 2010. Web. 10 June 2010. <http://www.paulallen.com/>.