The Beam

A study of the relationship between platform and creative expression in the Atari VCS, the gaming system for popular games like Pac-Man and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. The Atari Video Computer System dominated the home video game market so completely that “Atari” became the generic term for a video game console. The Atari VCS was affordable and offered the flexibility of changeable cartridges. Nearly a thousand of these were created, the most significant of which established new techniques, mechanics, and even entire genres. This book offers a detailed and accessible study of this influential video game console from both computational and cultural perspectives. Studies of digital media have rarely investigated platforms—the systems underlying computing. This book, the first in a series of Platform Studies, does so, developing a critical approach that examines the relationship between platforms and creative expression. Nick Montfort and Ian Bogost discuss the Atari VCS itself and examine in detail six game cartridges: Combat, Adventure, Pac-Man, Yars' Revenge, Pitfall!, and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. They describe the technical constraints and affordances of the system and track developments in programming, gameplay, interface, and aesthetics. Adventure, for example, was the first game to represent a virtual space larger than the screen (anticipating the boundless virtual spaces of such later games as World of Warcraft and Grand Theft Auto), by allowing the player to walk off one side into another space; and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back was an early instance of interaction between media properties and video games. Montfort and Bogost show that the Atari VCS—often considered merely a retro fetish object—is an essential part of the history of video games.

A boy rides a bicycle down a dusty road. But in his mind, he envisions himself traveling at a speed beyond imagining, on a beam of light. This brilliant mind will one day offer up some of the most revolutionary ideas ever conceived. From a boy endlessly fascinated by the wonders around him, Albert Einstein ultimately grows into a man of genius recognized the world over for profoundly illuminating our understanding of the universe. Jennifer Berne and Vladimir Radunsky invite the reader to travel along with Einstein on a journey full of curiosity, laughter, and scientific discovery. Parents and children alike will appreciate this moving story of the powerful difference imagination can make in any life.

The Conference Proceedings include 11 invited papers and about 200 contributed papers on various scientific and technological aspects of high-power particle beams. The following subject areas are covered: Physics and Technology of High-Power Particle Beams, New Developments in Pulsed-Power Technology and High-Power Accelerators, Diagnostics in High-Power Particle Beam Experiments, High-Power Particle Beam Interactions with Matter, High-Power Particle Beams in Fusion Research, High-Density Z-Pinches, Laser Pumping and Microwave Generation by High-Power Particle Beams, Technical and Industrial Applications of Pulsed Power and High-Power Particle Beams.

Because of an injury, Nadia couldn't practice her balance beam routines all summer. Her ankle is healed now, but she's nervous about being back in competition. It seems like every time she sees her rival, Blaire, her ankle starts to hurt again. Will Nadia find her balance, or will she let Blaire's mean comments keep her from winning?

Professor Yurii A. Anan'ev has a long-standing international reputation for his publications on optical beams and resonators. Now many of his contributions will be readily available for the first time in a book. The generation of maximum power, minimum divergence beams from laser resonators is probably the most important topic in quantum electronics and optics today. The only book of its kind, Laser Resonators and the Beam Divergence Problem covers not only the theory, but also the applications of resonators to real systems as opposed to idealized models. Each rigorous examination of an optical configuration is accompanied by a detailed discussion of its associated applications and of the considerations for the user in practical work. The book contains a wealth of information on the developments in resonator technology, including much material previously unavailable outside the Soviet Union. It is an essential reference source to every researcher in laser science and technology.

This book contains the contributions to the Workshop on the Physics and Applications of High Brightness Electron Beams, held in July 2002 in Sardinia, Italy. This workshop had a broad international representation from the fields of intense electron sources, free-electron lasers, advanced accelerators, and ultra-fast laser-plasma, beam-plasma and laser-beam physics. The interdisciplinary participants were brought together to discuss advances in the creation and understanding of ultra-fast, ultra-high brightness electron beams, and the unique experimental opportunities in frontier high-energy-density and radiation-source physics which are offered by these scientific tools. The proceedings have been selected for coverage in: • Index to Scientific & Technical Proceedings® (ISTP® / ISI Proceedings) • Index to Scientific & Technical Proceedings (ISTP CDROM version / ISI Proceedings) Contents:What Brightness Means (C A Brau)6D Phase Space Measurements at the SLAC Gun Test Facility (J F Schmerge et al.)Performance of the TTF Photoinjector for FEL Operation (S Schreiber et al.)Phase Space Distortions Arising from Magnetic Pulse Compression of High Brightness Electron Beams (S G Anderson)Comparison of the Coherent Radiation-Induced Microbunching Instability in an FEL and a Magnetic Chicane (S Reiche & J B Rosenzweig)Ultrafast Materials Probing with the LLNL Thomson X-Ray Source (G Le Sage et al.)Review of Surface Roughness Effect on Beam Quality (L Palumbo et al.)Application to Advanced Accelerators Working Group D Summary (M Uesaka & P Muggli)Energy Loss of a High Charge Bunched Electron Beam in Plasma: Analysis (N Barov et al.)A Resonant, THz Dielectric-Based Accelerator with Slab Symmetry (R B Yoder & J B Rosenzweig)and other papers Readership: Researchers and graduate students in high energy physics, accelerator physics, high brightness electron beam dynamics and laser science. Keywords:Accelerator;Brightness;Electron Beam;Plasma;Laser;Free-Electron Laser;X-Ray