- Many software and hardware companies of the 1980’s and beyond, began as one or two-person companies offering a CP/M-compatible program, or a 8080 or Z80-based hardware product or system. CP/M was the dominant operating system for the 8080 and Z80 based systems of the microcomputer market in the mid-1970’s through well into the 1980’s. Created by Dr. Gary Kildall before 1975 and sold quietly in that year as CP/M version 1.3 for $70 per disk, it became known as IMSAI’s first diskette operating system IMDOS in 1976. Gary Kildall and his wife formed Digital Research Inc. to sell and support the product. A popular release was CP/M 1.4 in 1978, and later as CP/M 2.0 and 2.2 in 1979. It was popular because it was cheap and non-proprietary, and because it included all the software tools and information necessary to move it to any hardware platform with a terminal and a floppy diskette controller. Proprietary or competing Z80/8080 operating systems of the time were often program-compatible with CP/M. Non-Z80 systems sometimes had a “Z80 card” in order to run CP/M.
- World Report 2024: Singapore (hrw.org)
Singapore’s criminal justice system fell under the international spotlight as the authorities carried out the highest number of executions for drug-related offenses in over a decade, including the first woman put to death in almost 20 years. The government harassed, intimidated, and persecuted civil society activists and independent media practitioners in the lead-up to presidential elections in September, which saw the election of Tharman Shanmugaratnam, a former deputy prime minister and finance minister, to the largely ceremonial post.