PCBoard Programming Executables (known as PPEs) were used to modify and enhance bulletin board systems running PCBoard. They were programmed in PCBoard Programming Language (PPL). PPL itself is a lot like the BASIC programming language, but variables need to be declared and no line numbers were needed. Access to PCBoard's own functions and settings was available by built-in library functions. PPEs were installed either by assigning them a command from the main menu or by calling them instead of displaying one of PCBoard's text messages of prompts.
PCBoard came with a so-called compiler (PPLC) that created .ppe files from their source code. These were not actually binary files containing machine code, but rather tokenized source code interpreted by PCBoard itself during runtime. Therefore, PPEs run very slow. For example, a PPE calculating prime numbers on a 500 MHz PC would run about as fast as on a Commodore 64.
PPEs were traded a lot in BBS'es as freeware, shareware or even cracked shareware during the heyday of BBS'es. Enthusiast coders created modifications for almost any screen on a BBS that were not always only cosmetic (prompt replacements) and even created new uses, such as "uploaded by:" signatures in the description of any file, MP3 ID3 tag handling, oneliner walls, votings and many games. ANSI graphics were heavily used.
Decompilation
Tools to "decompile" PPE files back into their source code (PPL) were available freely, most notably the french group Aegis Corp's PPLX written by Lone Runner. Variable and function names got lost in the process. PPLC Version 3.40 (that came with PCBoard 15.4beta) used some means of encryption to prevent decompilation of PPE files, to prevent cracking of shareware PPEs. As PPEs were rather powerful and could alter user setting and delete files, sysops liked to decompile PPEs to check them for backdoors.
Lone Runner also wrote the Aegis PPL compiler which produced smaller and faster code than Clark Development's original PPL compiler. Other helpful tools for PPE developers followed. Another PPE De-compiler was PPLDecompiler (PPLD) written by CHiCKEN, a member of the "Swiss Coding Division" of the group Electronic Rats (EcR).
Notable PPEs
The most notable PPEs are:
*EFlag to allow tagging of files for download by lightbars instead of having to type the filename
*The Lemming Pager for paging the sysop, which would display a lemming countdown and his violent death, should the sysop not show up for chat.
*For additional notable PPEs see the main article to PCBoard
Sample Source Code
Here is a short sample source code in PPL, that prompts the user to answer the question "What city are you from?" and saves the entered answer with the user name to a Log file on the BBS computers hard drive.
<pre>
STRING Question, Answer
LET Question = "What city are you from?"
GOSUB ask
END
:ask 'sub to ask a question, get an answer and log them to a file
LET Answer = ""
PRINTLN "@X0E",Question
INPUT "",Answer
FAPPEND 0,"LOG.TXT",O_WR,S_DB
NEWLINES 2
FPUTLN 0,U_NAME()
FPUTLN 0,"Q: ",STRIPATX(Question)
FPUTLN 0,"A: ",Answer
FCLOSE 0
RETURN
</pre>
PCBoard came with a so-called compiler (PPLC) that created .ppe files from their source code. These were not actually binary files containing machine code, but rather tokenized source code interpreted by PCBoard itself during runtime. Therefore, PPEs run very slow. For example, a PPE calculating prime numbers on a 500 MHz PC would run about as fast as on a Commodore 64.
PPEs were traded a lot in BBS'es as freeware, shareware or even cracked shareware during the heyday of BBS'es. Enthusiast coders created modifications for almost any screen on a BBS that were not always only cosmetic (prompt replacements) and even created new uses, such as "uploaded by:" signatures in the description of any file, MP3 ID3 tag handling, oneliner walls, votings and many games. ANSI graphics were heavily used.
Decompilation
Tools to "decompile" PPE files back into their source code (PPL) were available freely, most notably the french group Aegis Corp's PPLX written by Lone Runner. Variable and function names got lost in the process. PPLC Version 3.40 (that came with PCBoard 15.4beta) used some means of encryption to prevent decompilation of PPE files, to prevent cracking of shareware PPEs. As PPEs were rather powerful and could alter user setting and delete files, sysops liked to decompile PPEs to check them for backdoors.
Lone Runner also wrote the Aegis PPL compiler which produced smaller and faster code than Clark Development's original PPL compiler. Other helpful tools for PPE developers followed. Another PPE De-compiler was PPLDecompiler (PPLD) written by CHiCKEN, a member of the "Swiss Coding Division" of the group Electronic Rats (EcR).
Notable PPEs
The most notable PPEs are:
*EFlag to allow tagging of files for download by lightbars instead of having to type the filename
*The Lemming Pager for paging the sysop, which would display a lemming countdown and his violent death, should the sysop not show up for chat.
*For additional notable PPEs see the main article to PCBoard
Sample Source Code
Here is a short sample source code in PPL, that prompts the user to answer the question "What city are you from?" and saves the entered answer with the user name to a Log file on the BBS computers hard drive.
<pre>
STRING Question, Answer
LET Question = "What city are you from?"
GOSUB ask
END
:ask 'sub to ask a question, get an answer and log them to a file
LET Answer = ""
PRINTLN "@X0E",Question
INPUT "",Answer
FAPPEND 0,"LOG.TXT",O_WR,S_DB
NEWLINES 2
FPUTLN 0,U_NAME()
FPUTLN 0,"Q: ",STRIPATX(Question)
FPUTLN 0,"A: ",Answer
FCLOSE 0
RETURN
</pre>
Kideos.com is an entertainment destination for kids to safely watch videos online. Kideos is the newest web property from Earlier Media, a company that provides destinations for children of all ages to learn, watch videos and play games online.
Content
Kideos features content from Disney, PBS and other children's programmers -- which is screened by their Video Advisory Council (a collection of parents and educators who serve as consultants for the company) and then grouped into content categories and age groups. Content also includes viral videos that are safe for children. Kideos.com is free to users. It aggregates videos that are already on the web from sites such as YouTube and presents content from different kids brands such as Disney, Barney, The Muppets and others.
See Also
* Disney
* PBS
* YouTube
* The Muppets
* Fact Monster
* FunBrain
* Dr. Seuss
* Mickey Mouse
Content
Kideos features content from Disney, PBS and other children's programmers -- which is screened by their Video Advisory Council (a collection of parents and educators who serve as consultants for the company) and then grouped into content categories and age groups. Content also includes viral videos that are safe for children. Kideos.com is free to users. It aggregates videos that are already on the web from sites such as YouTube and presents content from different kids brands such as Disney, Barney, The Muppets and others.
See Also
* Disney
* PBS
* YouTube
* The Muppets
* Fact Monster
* FunBrain
* Dr. Seuss
* Mickey Mouse
Reinvent Your Enterprise (ISBN 1-4392-1985-0) is a book by Jack Bergstrand on knowledge work productivity management.
Overview
The book builds upon work from Peter F. Drucker. It integrates research from insights and examples from nearly 200 scholars to establish an archetype for organizations to better manage knowledge work productivity.
The shift from manual work to knowledge work
Peter Drucker demonstrated the shift from manual work to knowledge work was the driver for needing a new management system in the 21st century. This shift from manual work to knowledge work has taken place over the past century and has been the focus on much work from Peter Drucker and Frederick Taylor .
In Reinvent Your Enterprise, a new management system—framework and process—was developed based on the work of Peter F. Drucker, Gareth Burrell, Garth Morgan, Talcott Parsons, and Norbert Wiener. Endorsed by The Drucker Institute, the book describes a knowledge work productivity prototype, and identifies core adaptation principles.
Overview
The book builds upon work from Peter F. Drucker. It integrates research from insights and examples from nearly 200 scholars to establish an archetype for organizations to better manage knowledge work productivity.
The shift from manual work to knowledge work
Peter Drucker demonstrated the shift from manual work to knowledge work was the driver for needing a new management system in the 21st century. This shift from manual work to knowledge work has taken place over the past century and has been the focus on much work from Peter Drucker and Frederick Taylor .
In Reinvent Your Enterprise, a new management system—framework and process—was developed based on the work of Peter F. Drucker, Gareth Burrell, Garth Morgan, Talcott Parsons, and Norbert Wiener. Endorsed by The Drucker Institute, the book describes a knowledge work productivity prototype, and identifies core adaptation principles.
The Center for Effective Organizations (CEO) is a research center in the Marshall School of Business at University of Southern California, founded in 1979.
CEO does research that involves corporations in researching and developing knowledge about how organizations can be more effective and competitive. It also provides executive education programs in human resources management. Business Week ranks them among the "top three university programs".
Staffed by eight faculty and nine additional staff members who provide data analysis and administrative support, the Center is equipped to conduct research projects on a range of issues concerned with organizational effectiveness. There are also eighteen Marshall School of Business faculty members affiliated with the Center.
Sponsor network
CEO's corporate sponsor network consists of 50 corporations that provide financial support to the Center. These corporations also provide research locations and participate in the educational programs that are offered by the Center. An advisory board made up of representatives from the CEO corporate sponsor network provides overall direction and guidance to the Center.
Center research
Research in the areas of compensation, performance management, employee involvement, organization change and design, organizational learning, human resources management and work teams has positioned CEO as an authority in these fields.
Fortune Magazine recently mentioned CEO as one of the major sources of research information on U.S. industrial competitiveness.
CEO research findings have been published in the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Harvard Business Review, Organizational Dynamics, Human Relations, and the Journal of Applied Psychology. CEO research findings have been reported and quoted in business and popular publications including Business Week, Fortune, Industry Week, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. They have also been presented on the Today Show, CNN, MSNBC, and CNBC.
Center seminars and publications
CEO conducts several annual seminars for human resource professionals. Topics include talent management, strategic organization design, HR metrics and analytics, implementing organizational change, advanced organization design, leveraging leadership, and strategy analysis.
The Center maintains a publication series containing over 400 articles written by members of the Center and affiliated faculty. Since the creation of the Center, its research scientists have published over thirty books, and over 400 articles and book chapters.
The Certificate in Human Capital and Effective Organizations (HCEO)
Another program that CEO offers is "The Certificate in Human Capital and Effective Organizations" (HCEO), which is a five-seminar program that is designed to develop "Human Resource leaders". The program guides participants through a 1-3 year course of study to help them master the HR analytics tools.
Certificate Program in Organization Design
Participants who want to receive a certificate in organization design can do so by completing two workshops: one in Strategic Organization Design and the second in Advanced Topics in Organization Design, and by satisfactorily completing a project that demonstrates proficiency in working through a substantial organization design or redesign.
Research scientists
* Edward Lawler
* John Boudreau
* Jay Conger
* Jay Galbraith
* Alec Levenson
* Sue Mohrman
* Jim O'Toole
* Susan Resnick-West
* Chris Worley
CEO does research that involves corporations in researching and developing knowledge about how organizations can be more effective and competitive. It also provides executive education programs in human resources management. Business Week ranks them among the "top three university programs".
Staffed by eight faculty and nine additional staff members who provide data analysis and administrative support, the Center is equipped to conduct research projects on a range of issues concerned with organizational effectiveness. There are also eighteen Marshall School of Business faculty members affiliated with the Center.
Sponsor network
CEO's corporate sponsor network consists of 50 corporations that provide financial support to the Center. These corporations also provide research locations and participate in the educational programs that are offered by the Center. An advisory board made up of representatives from the CEO corporate sponsor network provides overall direction and guidance to the Center.
Center research
Research in the areas of compensation, performance management, employee involvement, organization change and design, organizational learning, human resources management and work teams has positioned CEO as an authority in these fields.
Fortune Magazine recently mentioned CEO as one of the major sources of research information on U.S. industrial competitiveness.
CEO research findings have been published in the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Harvard Business Review, Organizational Dynamics, Human Relations, and the Journal of Applied Psychology. CEO research findings have been reported and quoted in business and popular publications including Business Week, Fortune, Industry Week, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. They have also been presented on the Today Show, CNN, MSNBC, and CNBC.
Center seminars and publications
CEO conducts several annual seminars for human resource professionals. Topics include talent management, strategic organization design, HR metrics and analytics, implementing organizational change, advanced organization design, leveraging leadership, and strategy analysis.
The Center maintains a publication series containing over 400 articles written by members of the Center and affiliated faculty. Since the creation of the Center, its research scientists have published over thirty books, and over 400 articles and book chapters.
The Certificate in Human Capital and Effective Organizations (HCEO)
Another program that CEO offers is "The Certificate in Human Capital and Effective Organizations" (HCEO), which is a five-seminar program that is designed to develop "Human Resource leaders". The program guides participants through a 1-3 year course of study to help them master the HR analytics tools.
Certificate Program in Organization Design
Participants who want to receive a certificate in organization design can do so by completing two workshops: one in Strategic Organization Design and the second in Advanced Topics in Organization Design, and by satisfactorily completing a project that demonstrates proficiency in working through a substantial organization design or redesign.
Research scientists
* Edward Lawler
* John Boudreau
* Jay Conger
* Jay Galbraith
* Alec Levenson
* Sue Mohrman
* Jim O'Toole
* Susan Resnick-West
* Chris Worley