PC maker, inspiration for Microsoft, dead

Atlanta: Henry Edward Roberts, a developer of an early personal computer that inspired Bill Gates to found Microsoft, died on Thursday in Georgia. He was 68.

Mr. Roberts, whose build-it-yourself kit concentrated thousands of dollars worth of computer capability in an affordable package, inspired Bill Gates and his childhood friend Paul Allen to come up with Microsoft in 1975, after they saw an article about the MITS Altair 8800 in Popular Electronics.

Mr. Roberts, an ex-military man, later went on to build careers as a farmer and a physician, but continued to keep up with computer advances.

According to hi son David Roberts, he recently told Mr. Gates that he hoped to work with new, nanotechnology-enhanced machines.

“He did think it was pretty neat, some of the stuff they’re doing with the processors,” said Mr. David Roberts, who confirmed that Mr. Gates rushed to Georgia on Friday to be with his mentor.

According to his family, Mr. Roberts died in a Macon hospital after a long bout with pneumonia.

“Ed was willing to take a chance on us — two young guys interested in computers long before they were commonplace — and we have always been grateful to him,” Mr. Gates and Mr. Allen said in a joint statement released on Thursday .

“The day our first untested software worked on his Altair was the start of a lot of great things. We will always have many fond memories of working with Ed.”

The man often credited with kick-starting the modern computer era never intended to lead a revolution.

Born in Miami in 1941, Mr. Roberts spent time in the U.S. Air Force and earned an electrical engineering degree from Oklahoma State University in 1968.

He later parlayed his interest in technology into a business making calculators.

When large firms like Texas Instruments began cornering the business, Mr. Roberts soon found himself in debt, Mr. David Roberts said. Meanwhile, he was gaining an interest in computers at a time when hulking machines were available almost exclusively only at universities.

A funeral is planned Monday, in Cochran.

Google to stop censoring China search results

Violation of the commitment it had made, says Beijing

Washington DC/Beijing: Google Inc. on Monday evening announced that it would stop censoring the results of its search engine in China. The move follows Google’s allegations of cyber-attacks by China in January — which the Chinese government denied — and subsequent testimonies on the matter by Google, to the United States Congress.

Since Google stopped censoring its results, users visiting Google.cn were being redirected to Google.com.hk, the company said, where uncensored search in simplified Chinese was on offer. “This website was specifically designed for users in mainland China and delivered via our servers in Hong Kong,” said Google.

A search for “Tiananmen Square protests of 1989” on Google.com.hk returned extensive search results for Internet users on China. However, the users were unable to open many of these websites and according to reports searches in Chinese returned no results but only the message, “The connection was reset.”

In a statement Google said evidence it uncovered during its investigation into cyber attacks suggested Google E-mail accounts of “dozens of human rights activists connected with China were being routinely accessed by third parties.”

The announcement said Google was unwilling to tolerate these attacks and attempts to further limit free speech on the web in China — including the blocking of social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Blogger — and that it would therefore not continue censoring results on Google.cn.

Chinese officials attacked the Internet giant for violating the commitment it had made, when it first launched Google.cn in 2006. “Google has violated its written promise it made when entering the Chinese market by stopping filtering its searching service and blaming China in insinuation for alleged hacker attacks,” said an unnamed official at the Internet governing authority at the State Council Information Office told State-run Xinhua news agency. However, Google’s decision was welcomed by bloggers and rights activists in China, who said the move would help bring more awareness to Chinese Internet users about the government’s censorship policies.

“Chinese people want a free Internet, but many are not even aware of what information is being restricted by the government. The fact that they will now be exposed to more information, even if they cannot accessit, is a big change in of itself,” well-known Chinese blogger Michael Anti told The Hindu.

In the statement, Google confirmed that it would continue research and development work in China and maintain its sales presence.