When we classify computers according to size, speed and operation, main frame computer is in the second order as follows:

Super computer, mainframe computer, mini-computer and micro computer. But for the purpose of this tutorial, I’m going to focus on mainframe computer. So just what is a mainframe computer?

The mainframe computers are very large computers and they take up a large space. They are normally used by large organizations such as universities and research establishments where they supply general purpose computing facilities. Banks where large amount of information is collected, sorted and distributed also make use of mainframe computers. Hospitals, government offices and other large organizations also make use of mainframe computers.  Because of their large nature, they are colloquially referred to as ‘big iron’

The first group of manufactures to produce mainframe computers is known as IBM. IBM invented the first generation mainframe in the 1950s and was known as (IBM 700 series). The first of its kind was the IBM 705 released in 1954.

By the 1960s, IBM developed the 2^nd generation model 7000s. This model used transistors. The second generation was a standardized mainframe which made it easier for customers to write business application without needing specialized hardware or software.  Unlike the first generation that came without software and programs were manually initiated.

Then came the development of the 360 mainframe series (all round computing), which marked the beginning of the 3G first general purpose computers. The IBM System/360 (S/360) was a centralized server PC framework family reported by IBM on April 7, 1964, and conveyed somewhere around 1965 and 1978. It was the primary group of PCs intended to cover the complete scope of uses, from little to expansive, both business and commercial. The outline made a reasonable qualification amongst engineering and execution, permitting IBM to discharge a suite of perfect plans at various costs. Everything except the contrary model 44 and the most costly frameworks utilized microcode to actualize the direction set, which included 8-bit byte tending to and double, decimal and (hexadecimal) skimming point counts.

Classical Hollywood Cinema is a term which has been invented by Janet Staiger, Kristin Thompson, and David Bordwell in their innovative study of that same name. In this study, the authors carried out formalist process or analysis on a random selection of one hundred Hollywood films right from 1917 to 1960. They arrived at the conclusion that a distinguished cinematic style developed during this particular period which they called Classical Hollywood Style. Moreover, the authors made it known that this style has been paradigmatic just because of the worldwide dominance of Hollywood cinema. The highly controversial claim of these authors is that filmmakers anywhere usually have a selection between two alternatives. Either they rebel against the classical Hollywood style and attempt to consciously overturn the norms of that style, or they give in to it and carry out its example.

Silent Era

The Silent Era is popularly referred to as the "Age of the Silver Screen" right from 1917 to 1928. During this particular period, there was no synchronized speech or sound to accompany the character's images which was being projected on movie screen. To make room for the absence of sound, on-screen captions used to be utilized to emphasize essential dialogue and points in the story. Most times, projecting silent films on the big screen used to be accompanied by live instrumental music (organist, pianist, or a large orchestra). The quality stylistic elements fundamental to classical Hollywood silent filmmaking used to be implemented by the Silent Era's Director-Unit System. This very system of filmmaking included a totally integrated work force along with a set of employees which had exact areas of responsibility under the management of the film director.

Studio Era

The Studio Era was a moment in film history which began after the end of Silent Era (1927/1928) when "Jazz Singer" was released, the very first full length film which comprised talking sequences in it. The arrival of the Studio Era also indicated the commencement of the "Golden Age of Hollywood." The contribution that Irving Thalberg made was very important in the development of Hollywood's Central Producer System during the Studio Era, although he was Chief of Production at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). As a matter of fact, the successful change process of classical Hollywood film production system from the Silent Era's Director-Unit System right to the Studio Era's Central Producer System in MGM happened to take place under Thalberg's management. His enablement to produce a quality film with aesthetical value was displayed through his unbiased or balanced view of script, story development and budgetary controls, and the use of "star system" in the movie "Grand Hotel."

Classical Hollywood cinema has a style that is usually invisible and uneasy for the average viewer to see. The narrative is been delivered so efficiently and effortlessly to the viewer that it looks to have no source. It magically comes off the screen. Classical Hollywood narrative points to the filmmaking way established during the 1920s and 1930s in Hollywood. It happened to become the ruling style throughout the western world, and against which other styles were judged. Although some challenges have been to it in recent years, it still remains the accepted style for various Hollywood films till now. The Hollywood style is very effective in convincing people about what they see on the screen is real, and that they often have to forcibly remind themselves that it is just 'only a movie'.

Classical Hollywood Cinema is the moment of the film industry which commenced with the release movie of; "The Birth of a Nation." It includes both the Studio Era and Silent Era of filmmaking. Unique to Classical Cinema is the mode of production during this period of time which encouraged the directors of film to picture their works from the angle or perspective of an employee of the studios instead of as an auteurist who demonstrates creative influence over their works along with an individual film style. The Classical Cinema period came to an end in the 1960s during the time that the motion picture industry brought in a new Post-Classical film style through auteurist film directors along with the release of "Bonnie and Clyde" (1967) also with other landmark films of that period.

Essential to the studio system is the marketing strategies for motion pictures used by the main Hollywood film studios was rather uncomplicated and straightforward because the studios acquired most of their money through theater box office ticket sales in all part of America. At that period, there were five main studios which owned a theater chain, distribution arm, contracts with actors, production studio and, as well as a technical support personnel. These studios were referred to as the "Big Five" and included Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO), Warner Brothers, Twentieth Century-Fox, Paramount Pictures, and Loew's, Inc. (owner of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer). Their income came from the monies that the theaters pay for renting films from studios. So far the "Big Five" studios were controlling almost all theater throughout America; they received most of their revenues from box office ticket sales.

To elongate their power further over the movie houses in America, these studios stepped up to manage almost all of the little independently owned theaters as well. Through the contracting method of "block booking", the theater owners required to show a block of films (usually in blocks of ten) at their film house. The independently owned theater will not be able to receive any films from studio if they did not agree to purchase a block of films from the studio. Therefore, at the Studio Era moment, the Hollywood film industry was closely managed by the mighty studio moguls. Nonetheless, a federal court case declared block booking illegal in 1948. The Supreme Court of the United States declared that the vertical integration of the majors is against the federal anti-trust laws and gave order to the "Big Five" companies to divest or deprive themselves of their theaters for a period of five years. The studio era system was brought to a close 1954 due to this decision.

In a temperate London restaurant, two people meet to talk about their marital challenges. They both agree that they need more time, not actually realizing that there is really no time left. In the background, away from the real action, an argument that is unexplained has starts to brew, as a waiter is mocked by a wild-eyed stranger. "Sir, I didn't do anything," the waiter claims emphatically to his boss. He looks to be right but it doesn't matter.

We will not have the knowledge of what the stranger's complaint is, only that it shows the opinion of Milcho Manchevski's devastating "Before the Rain": the violence escalates mysteriously and organically, in ways that mean that there cannot be any innocent bystanders in a hair-trigger, explosive world. In a film that unpredictably unfolds, with a Mobius-strip structure curiously like that of "Pulp Fiction," the one constant which becomes an air of foreboding. Seeing a small boy playing with a machine gun, a pregnant woman in a cemetery, the birth of a lamb; any of these things can indicate sudden disaster.
"War torn" is the better likened cliche for events happening near Mr. Manchevski's native Macedonia, but this very film takes a more spontaneous view of violence than that. "War is a virus," propose a doctor in this film, providing an unruly model for uncontrollable peril Mr. Manchevski explores. The rain in the title is the hard rain described by Bob Dylan. And also the Macedonian hilltop determining where much of the film reveals is divided by such a stubborn bitterness that every parts of the landscape have different weather.

It's a special occasion when two first-time directors with films as largely effective as Lee Tamahori's "Once Were Warriors" and "Before the Rain" make their New York debuts on the same day. Mr. Tamahori has the crude force between the two, while Mr. Manchevski has the poetry. Working in an elliptical, sophisticated style, he joined film makers as disparate as Atom Egoyan ("Exotica") and Krzystof Kieslowski ("Red") in finding the deepest meaning to his story in hauntingly inclined connections. Ideas that challenge purpose, like the immutability of violence and hatred, may be best approached in this manner.

"Before the Rain," which opens at Lincoln Plaza, starts with and returns to a remote Macedonian monastery, which could seem a safe haven from random bloodshed. It begins peacefully, with the sight of a beatific-looking young priest, Kiril (Gregoire Colin), working in a vegetable garden. When he returns to his bedroom, he finds a surprise: an Albanian girl, Zamira (Labina Mitevska), with strangely close-cropped hair, lying there on his bed. There’s actually a language barrier between these two, and there’s the added restriction of Kiril's vow of silence.

Death starts to make its entrance as the monks meet for prayers: armed Macedonian villagers arrive; they demand to search for Zamira at the monastery in their hunt, who they mentioned is a killer. So nervous that they wind up shooting a cat, the intruders do not see in Kiril the purity obvious to the audience. They rob him of any refuge he might have known as a young monk, leaving him totally adrift when the episode was over. Mr. Manchevski needs no more dreadful image of an uncertain, dangerous world than the sight of Kiril’s lost at the end of this episode.

This first section of the film is called "Words." The next story that is told, "Faces," looks separate and may or may not really occur next in time. Set in London, it shows Katrin Cartlidge as Anne, working in a photo agency. When first seen, Anne is without purpose looking at two uncovered chests, one of Madonna's, and the other is that of a hollow-eyed, starving man. "Before the Rain" makes use of such juxtapositions with chilly authority, to powerfully ironic effect.

Anne has been involved with a rakish Pulitzer Prize-winning Macedonian photographer, Aleksandar (Rade Serbedzija), with an expressive view of war. "Peace is an exception, not a rule," is what Alex maintains. But meanwhile, Anne's mother blames her pregnant daughter of a different kind of carelessness. "No problem is so formidable that you cannot just walk away from it," her mother says in an uncaring manner. As a matter of fact, "Before the Rain" demonstrates an overwhelming argument for the contrary point of view.

Alex returns back to his family for an episode called "Pictures" after breaking off with Anne at the London sequence moment, (Mr. Serbedzija, a respectful magnetic presence, looks more at ease during the non-English-speaking parts of the film.) Not having visited his place in sixteen years, he sees his home half-destroyed and armed relatives and friends, who happen to be Macedonian Christians, going round the tiny village. Albanian Moslems are doing likewise, nearby at a neighboring settlement.

The former sweetheart of Alex, who might be Anne in another life, lives in the Moslem village and scarcely dares talk to him. That’s not Alex's only motive for sensing how dangerous and absurd these divisions have become. Incidentally, he takes a weapon away from a boy that is half-naked and finds that the uncle of that child looks angry. It is not really clear maybe the uncle thinks the boy is simply irritated to see him lose his gun or he was endangered.

Mr. Manchevski's taste for imprecision sometimes guides "Before the Rain" into clamoring paradoxes, so that it doesn’t unravel with the utterly satisfying completeness which "Pulp Fiction" did; after this movie coils back to its denouement, a minor narrative thread including photographs of Zamira and Kiril is left deliberately without been explained. Neither the occurrence of such loose ends nor the film's gentle straining of its rain metaphor reduces the final impact of an engulfing vision.

Impaled in horror, "Before the Rain" views the promise of violence leak into every last area of its narrative. Mr. Manchevski narrates his story smoothly and leaves his spectators with a warning so strong to be ignored. BEFORE THE RAIN Written (in English, Macedonian and Albanian, with English subtitles) and directed by Milcho Manchevski; edited by Nicolas Gaster; director of photography, Manuel Teran; production designers, Sharon Lamofsky and David Munns; music by Anastasia; produced by Cedomir Kolar, Cat Villiers, Sam Taylor and Judy Counihan; released by Gramercy Pictures. Broadway at 63d Street, at Lincoln Plaza. Running time: 116 minutes. This film isn’t rated. WITH: Labina Mitevska (Zamira), Katrin Cartlidge (Anne), Gregoire Colin (Kiril) and Rade Serbedzija (Aleksandar).

This is the very first period, the place where we can start to be fairly sure of as to how a huge deal of the music that has survived really sounded. The first written secular music started from the 12th century troubadours (in the form of ballades, estampies, virelais,etc.), but many notated manuscripts come from places of learning mostly associated with the church, and thus unavoidably have a religious basis.

Gregorian plainsong and chant which are monodic (i.e. written as a single musical line) progressively developed during the 11th to 13th centuries to organum (i.e. double or three lines moving at the same but independently, thus almost unintentionally representing the commencements of harmony). Organum was formerly rather stifled by solid rules governing rhythm and melody, which had absolutely led to the Ars Nova period during the 14th century, ultimately represented by these composers;  Landini, de Vitry, and Machaut.

The 15th century witnessed increased freedoms, most especially in terms of what is perceived as ‘polyphony’ and 'harmony'. Composers were still almost all given to choral writing, and some instrumental compositions that have survived frequently give the impression of being vocal works in guise, but remove the words.

There is obvious latest delight in contrast and textural variety, so that a particular part of text could be enhanced, for example, by a vocal part dropping out progressively, only to return at a unique moment of emphasis. Dunstable, Dufay, Despres and Ockeghem were the four most powerful composers of the 15th century.

The second part of the sixteenth century witnessed the commencements of the tradition that many music lovers associate with normal feel of 'classical' music. Progressively, composers shifted away from the modal style of harmony that had predominated for more than 300 years, towards the arrangement of their work into minor and major scales, hence, imparting the powerful sensation of each piece possessing a definite tonal centre or 'key'.

This was also a golden period for choral composition as flow of acapella masses, anthems, madrigals, psalms and motets where been written by the masters of the age. Also, instrumental music, especially keyboard music, came into its own for the very first time in the form of variations, fantasias, and dance movements (pavanes, galliards etc.). Composers of this particular note include Palestrina, Frescobaldi, Victoria, Gibbons, Lassus, Byrd, Alonso Lobo, Tallis, Duarte Lobo, Dowland, Cardoso and Gesualdo.

During this Baroque period, the bases were laid for about the next 300 years of musical expression: the modern orchestra came into existence, with opera (including the chorus, aria, overture, recitative and prelude), the sonata, concerto, and modern cantata. The soft-grained viol string family of the Renaissance period was gradually substituted by the bolder violin, cello and viola, the harpsichord was discovered, and all instrumental groups made essential advances.

Until around 1700, the old modes exerted themselves by adding color to certain chord progressions or melodic lines, but from the commencement of the 18th century, the modern harmonic style based on the minor and major scales was effectively pan-European. Choral music did not dominate any longer, and as composers shifted more to writing idiomatic instrumental works for ensembles of increasing color and variety, so 'classical' music progressively started to work its way into the fabric of society, being played outdoors at special functions or dinner parties (e.g. Handel's Water Music), or such as a spectacle in the form of opera. On a real domestic level, every rich lady would possess a spinet to play, and at meal-times the rich and large houses would call musicians to play what was famously referred to as Tafelmusik in Germany, of and which Telemann was perhaps the most popular composer.

The following were outstanding of the seventeenth century composers who made way for this famous explosion of 'classical' music,: Alessandro Scarlatti, Corelli, Schutz, Monteverdi, Buxtehude, Lully and Purcell. Still, the most famous composers of that period, indeed those who define the sound of Baroque music by their names at its most colorful are Rameau, Handel, François Couperin, Johann Sebastian Bach,  Domenico Scarlatti, Vivaldi, and Telemann, all of them at their creative apex during the first period of the eighteenth century.

The time since the Great War is without any doubt the most bewildering of all, as composers have pulled in several apparently opposing and contradictory directions. Typical of this dilemma during the inter-war years, for example, were the Lehar, Austrians and Webern, the former was experimenting with the highly advanced and compressed form known as 'serial structure', while continually Lehar was yet indulging in an operetta style that would not have looked to be out of place for more than half a century beforehand.

So the styles adopted are diverse throughout the greater part of this recent century that only by experimentation could listeners discover by themselves if certain composers are to their real taste or not.