id
stringlengths 3
8
| url
stringlengths 32
207
| title
stringlengths 1
114
| text
stringlengths 93
492k
|
|---|---|---|---|
49489681
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MaSMT
|
MaSMT
|
MaSMT is a free, lightweight Multi-agent system development framework, design through the Java environment. The MaSMT3 framework provides three types of agents, namely ordinary agent and managing agent and root agent. The managing agent capable to handle set of ordinary agent and the root agent capable to handle set of manager agents. MaSMT3.0 includes few features than the previous versions. MaSMT 3.0 includes root agent to handle swam of agents, Environment handling features to dynamically store agent's ontology, and notice board has been introducing to see required messages and events. In addition to these main features, agent status monitor has been introducing to view transporting messages.
Multi-agent technology is modern software palindrome that capable of handling the complexity of a software system and providing intelligent solutions through the power of agent communication. A framework is a useful tool to develop multi-agent system and it saves lot of programmer's time and provides standards for the agent development.
About MaSMT
Multi-agent technology is a modern software palindrome that capable of handling the complexity of a software system and providing intelligent solutions through the power of agent communication. A framework is a useful tool to develop a multi-agent system and it saves much programmer's time and provides standards for the agent development.
MaSMT (Multi-Agent System for Machine Translation) released as Open Source under the GNU General Public License (GPL). Hence, the license allows using the software to examine and modify the source code and to develop applications based on the platform. The framework has been completely developed through the Java and provides Cross-platform capabilities. There is no prerequisite on MaSMT agents.
First Open source version of the MaSMT was released on 2 March 2016 for to provide general infrastructure for the multi agent system development. The new version of the MaSMT includes some modification of the MaSMT to achieve best performance. MaSMT3.0 includes few features than the previous version including root agent to handle swam of agents, Environment handling features to store agent's action and mail transport agent to send and reserving messages as emails. In addition to these main features, activity monitor has been introducing to view transporting messages.
Infrastructure
This section briefly describes the structure of the MaSMT agents. The MaSMT framework provides three types of agents, namely ordinary agent, manager agent and root agent. The regular agents are the action holding agents of the framework; precede relevant tasks according to the given messages. A manager agent consists of some ordinary agents within its control. The root agent is the top level agent in the system which is capable to handle set of manager agents. Through the root agent, it is much easy to manage a swarm of agents. Further, manager agents can directly communicate with other manager agents as well as its root agent. Each and every ordinary agent in the system assigns to a particular manager agent. and manager can assign to a particular root agent. A regular agent (ordinary agent) in a swarm can directly communicate only with the agents in its swarm and its manager. The framework primarily implements infrastructure of the agents, required actions to handle agent's environment, message parsing activities to agent communication and action monitoring facilities to view an agent's action for implement multi-agent system easily.
Agent Model
MaSMT agents consist of an abstract model of the agents. Each agent in the system consists of group, role, and agent id. According to the MaSMT architecture, any group consists of one-to-many roles and any role includes some MaSMT agents with independent agent id. Further, MaSMT agents are capable of changing their role or group at run-time. Therefore, an agent can appear in the different swam as it required. However, only one place at a time Figure 1 shows the abstract agent model of the MaSMT system. MaSMTAbstractAgent class is used to model the entire requirement of the abstract model.
MaSMTAbstractAgent
MaSMTAbstractAgent is an abstract model of the each agent in the MaSMT framework and which is used to identify each agent independently. The abstract agent consists of a group, a role, and an agent id. In another word, each agent of the MaSMT system has an id and assigns for the particular group and a role. For instance, an agent in a group ‘communicate’ and role is read_message and id is1 then complete agent name of the abstract agent is donated as; read_message.1@communicate
MaSMT Agent
MaSMTAgent is the ordinary agent in the framework, normally called as an action agent. MasMT agent consists of an abstract agent, two message queues (in-queue and out-queue), access rule, communication module, Environment controller, Status monitor and notice-board reader to handle the agent's functionalities.
MaSMT Agent's Life circle
The MaSMT agent is a Java thread consists of three sections on its life circle such as active, live and end. The active section starts when the agent is going to activate. After completing the active section, the agent moves to its live section. The agent is in the live section while its live property is true. That can be done through the method ‘setLive(false)’ The agent does it all the actions such as read messages reply for the messages are doing in the live section. In addition, a developer can change the delay of the agent's live circle. The end section of the MaSMT agent appears when the agent is going to die. Figure 3 shows the life-circle of the MaSMT agent.
MaSMT Manager
The MasMT Manager is a controlling agent of the system with additional features than the MaSMT ordinary agents. According to the MaSMT architecture, The manager agent consists of an abstract agent, two message queues (in-queue and out-queue), access rule, communication module, Environment controller, Status monitor, notice-board reader, network access agent and Message transport agent to archive managers functionalities. The MaSMT manager can fully control its client agent(s). The Manager agent in the MaSMT creates all its client-agent automatically (as required) at the initialization stage or whenever its use. The manager can directly access its client agents and send messages to them or control them as required. Further, manager agent can control the priority of the agents and the state of the agents. This facility removes the unnecessary workload from its client agents. The in-Queue of the managers is a queue used to store incoming messages. The manager adds messages for the out-queue, where the messages need to send to others group. In addition to the above basic module, MaSMT manager agent consists of net access agent and message transport agent. The net access agent supports client-server communication for the system. This agent provides facilities to connect any managers on the net through the client-server networking. Message transport agent provides message transport facilities to the manager. Figure 4 shows the architecture of the MaSMT Manager. Compare with MaSMT agent, the manager agent has full control of the notice board. Therefore, message transport agent capable to handle peer-to-peer broadcast and notice-board based agent communications.
MaSMT Root Agent
MasMT Root is a special type of Manager agent (MaSMT Manager) that capable to handles managers in the multi agent system. This MaSMT Root agent can fully control its client managers same as the manager handle its client agents. Further, the root agent can create, remove or control (handle agent priority) its client manager(s). The in-Queue of the root agent is a message queue that uses to store incoming messages (messages are coming from another machine). The Root agent also adds messages on out-queue where messages need to send to others machines. Same as MaSMT Managers The Root agent consists of Message transport agent and net access agent to handle messages. Theoretically, Root agent is the top level manager of MaSMT system. Therefore, only one root agent available for a multi agent system in a machine. However, the root agent able to communicate with another root agents through the Net access agent.
MaSMT Messages
Multi-agent systems are distributed systems that normally run concurrently. Communication among others is the hidden factor behind the success of the multi-agent systems. This agent communication is done through the messages. Therefore, number of standard available for the agent communication including FIFA-ACL. With considering all the above, MaSMT uses a message type named MaSMTMessages. MaSMTMessage is a type of agent's communication message, uses to communicate with agents. The MaSMT Messages design by using FIPA-ACL message standards. MaSMT uses MaSMTMessage (a message) to communicate between MaSMT agents as well as another agent through the FIPA-ACL message standard.
MaSMT Message Parsing
This section briefly describes message parsing methods used in the MaSMT system. MaSMT support peer-to-peer, broadcast and noticeboard methods to message parsing.
Application of MaSMT
Using the framework number of the multi-agent system has been developed including Natural Language Processing applications such as English to Sinhala Agent-based Multi-agent system, Sinhala Ontology Generator and Multi-agent based Morphological Analyzer. In addition to the above Intelligent chatbot and a communication platform for Agricultural domain, File sharing application through the distributed environment has already developed through the MaSMT.
References
B. Hettige, A. S. Karunananda, G. Rzevski, "MaSMT: A Multi-agent System Development Framework for English-Sinhala Machine Translation", International Journal of Computational Linguistics and Natural Language Processing (IJCLNLP), Volume 2 Issue 7 July 2013.
B. Hettige, A. S. Karunananda, G. Rzevski, "Multi-agent solution for managing complexity in English to Sinhala Machine Translation", International Journal of Design & Nature and Ecodynamics, Volume 11, Issue 2, 2016, 88 – 96.
B. Hettige, A. S. Karunananda, "Octopus: A multi-agent chat-bot", Proceedings of 8th International Research Conference KDU 2015.
B. Hettige, A. S. Karunananda, G. Rzevski, "Multi-agent System Technology for Morphological Analysis", Proceedings of the 9th Annual Sessions of Sri Lanka Association for Artificial Intelligence (SLAAI), Colombo, 2012
B. Hettige, A. S. Karunananda, G. Rzevski, "A Sinhala Ontology Generator for English to Sinhala Machine Translation", Proceedings of KDU International Research Symposium 2014
HMHR Jayarathna, B Hettige, "AgriCom: A communication platform for agriculture sector", Proceedings of the 8th IEEE International Conference Industrial and Information Systems (ICIIS), 2013.
L D S B Weerasinghe, B Hettige, R P S Kathriarachchi and A S Karunananda. Resource Sharing in Distributed Environment using Multi-agent Technology. International Journal of Computer Applications 167(5):28-32, June 2017.
External links
Free software
|
58493579
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea%20Lawrence%20%28professor%29
|
Andrea Lawrence (professor)
|
Andrea Lawrence (born October 6, 1946) is a computer scientist and educator, and the first African-American to get a Ph.D. from the Georgia Institute of Technology in computer science. She is an associate professor at Spelman College. In 2014, Lawrence was awarded the SIGCSE award for Lifetime Service to the computer science education community. The award honours an individual with a long history of dedicated volunteer service to the computer science education community.
Lawrence completed her undergraduate degree at Perdue University, her Master's at Atlanta University, and her Ph.D. at Georgia Institute of Technology. She has been a faculty member at Spelman since 1985 and has taught classes including Computer Science, the Theory of Programming Languages, and Computer-Human Interactions. She has previously served as Association of Departments of Computer Science/Engineering at Minority Institutions at Spelman.
In 2018, Lawrence was credited by Juan E. Gilbert, the principal investigator for a National Science Foundation-funded programme called "Broadening Participation in Computing", as the reason he finished his own Ph.D. Gilbert said that Lawrence, then chair of the computer science department at Spelman College, motivated him by introducing him to other black computer science doctoral students.
References
1946 births
Living people
African-American academics
Georgia Tech alumni
Spelman College faculty
|
41725205
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social%20hacking
|
Social hacking
|
Social hacking describes the act of attempting to manipulate outcomes of social behaviour through orchestrated actions. The general function of social hacking is to gain access to restricted information or to a physical space without proper permission. Most often, social hacking attacks are achieved by impersonating an individual or group who is directly or indirectly known to the victims or by representing an individual or group in a position of authority. This is done through pre-meditated research and planning to gain victims’ confidence. Social hackers take great measures to present overtones of familiarity and trustworthiness to elicit confidential or personal information.
Social hacking is most commonly associated as a component of “social engineering”.
Although the practice involves exercising control over human behaviour rather than computers, the term "social hacking" is also used in reference to online behaviour and increasingly, social media activity. The technique can be used in multiple ways that affect public perception and conversely, increase public awareness of social hacking activity. However, while awareness helps reduce the volume of hacks being carried out, technology has allowed for attack tools to become more sophisticated.
Social Hacking Techniques
Carrying out a social hacking attack involves looking for weaknesses in user behaviour that can be exploited through seemingly legitimate means. Three popular methods of attack include dumpster diving, role playing, and spear-phishing.
Dumpster Diving
Sifting through garbage is a popular tactic for social hackers to recover information about the habits, activities, and interactions of organizations and individuals. Information retrieved from discarded property allows social hackers to create effective profiles of their targets. Personal contact information such as employee titles and phone numbers can be appropriated from discarded phone books or directories and used to gain further technical information such as login data and security passwords. Another advantageous find for social hackers is discarded hardware, especially hard drives that have not properly been scrubbed clean and still contain private and accurate information about corporations or individuals. Since surfing through people's curbside garbage is not a criminal offence and does not require a warrant, it is a rich resource for social hackers, as well as a legally accessible one. Dumpster diving can yield fruitful, albeit smelly results for information seekers such as private investigators, stalkers, nosy neighbours, and the police.
Roleplaying
Establishing trust by fooling people into believing in the legitimacy of a false character is one of the main tenets of social hacking. Adopting a false personality or impersonating a known figure to trick victims into sharing personal details can be done in person or via phone conversation.
In person
By posing as third party maintenance workers in an office building, medical practitioners in a hospital, or one of many other forms, social hackers can get past security personnel and other employees undetected. In both examples, uniform apparel is associated with specific job functions, giving people reason to trust impersonators. A more complicated manoeuver would involve a longer planning cycle, such as taking up employment inside an organization that is being targeted for an attack.
In the movie Ocean's Eleven, a sophisticated crew of con artists plot an elaborate heist to rob three popular Las Vegas casinos by assimilating themselves in the everyday activities of the casinos' operations. Although the heist is executed in less than a day, the planning cycle is long and notably fastidious. An imperative function of the attack is to present credibility in the roles being impersonated, to which attention to detail is inevitably required.
Tailgating
Tailgating is the act of following someone into a restricted space, such as an office building or an academic institution. Third party maintenance workers, or medical personnel, as mentioned above, often have limited cause to justify their credibility because of their appearances. Similar to role playing, tailgating functions around the assumption of familiarity and trust. People are less likely to react suspiciously to anyone who appears to fit into the surrounding environment, and will be even less liable to question individuals who don't call attention to themselves. Following behind someone in an unassuming fashion may even eliminate the need to establish a rapport with authorized personnel.
Spear Phishing
Online social hacks include “spear phishing” in which hackers scam their victims into releasing sensitive information about themselves or their organization. Hackers will target individuals within specific organizations by sending emails that appear to come from trusted sources including senior officials within the organization who hold positions of authority. To appear convincing, a social hacker's email message has to establish a tone of familiarity that belies any suspicion from its recipient. The email is designed to put forth a request for information that ties logically to the person sending it. Often, company employees will fall prey to these emails and share personal information such as phone numbers or passwords, thinking that the information transfer is taking place in a secure environment. In more sinister scenarios, the emails from hackers may be embedded with malware that infects victims’ computers without their knowledge and secretly transfers private data directly to hackers. From October 2013 to December 2016, the FBI investigated just over 22,000 of these incidents involving American businesses. In total, they saw losses approaching $1.6 billion.
A successful example of spear phishing was highly publicized in the news media in January 2014, when Target, a U.S.-based retailer, experienced a security breach that allowed hackers to steal customers’ credit card and personal data information. Later, it was revealed that the cyber criminals were able to access Target's financial and personal data files by targeting a third party mechanical company that had access to Target's network credentials. The social implications of such a high-profile social hack affect Target's popularity as a retailer, but also consumers’ trust and loyalty towards the brand.
Another example of Spear Phishing happened in June 2015 to Ubiquiti Networks Inc, a network technology company based in the United States. During this act of Spear Phishing Ubiquiti Networks reportedly lost over 46.7 million dollars. The hacking group sent Spear Phishing emails to employees in the finance department. These hackers sent spear phishing emails directly to the finance department's employees posing as company executives. The hackers managed to trick the employees into transferring funds to third party groups over seas. Fortunately for Ubiquiti Networks, 8.1 million dollars were recovered from the hackers.
Security
Although Target may not have been slacking in its security, the hackers were able to infiltrate Target's network indirectly, by identifying a third party company with by access to Target's credentials. The social hack was in defrauding employees of the third party to divulge sensitive information, while the cybercrime was conducted by means of a malware infected email phishing attack. The need for vigilant online security is highlighted by cyber-attacks against corporations like Target as well as other global businesses and high-traffic websites. Even small websites are vulnerable to attacks, specifically because their security protection is presumed to be low. In Target's case, the third party mechanical company had inadequate security software which left them open to a malware attack.
In a similar incident, Yahoo Mail also announced in January 2014 that their system had been hacked and a number of user email accounts had been accessed. While the origin of the cause was unclear, poor security was again at the centre of the trouble. In both cases, large corporations with assumed understanding of security policies were compromised. Also in both cases, consumer data was stolen.
In a study by Orgill et al., an observation is made that “it is important that each person responsible for computer security ask if their system is vulnerable to attacks by social engineers, and if so, how can the effect of a social engineering attack be mitigated.” Using strong passwords is one simple and easy method that assists in such mitigation, as is using reliable and effective anti-virus software. Other preventative measures include using different logins for services used, frequently monitoring accounts and personal data, as well as being alert to the difference between a request for help and a phishing attempt from strangers.
Ethical Hacking
To counter security breaches at the hands of social hackers as well as technical hackers, companies employ security professionals, known as ethical hackers, or more popularly, white hat hackers, to attempt to break into their systems in the same manner that social hackers would employ. Ethical hackers will leverage the same tools methods as hackers with criminal intent but with legitimate objectives. Ethical hackers evaluate security strengths and weaknesses and provide corrective options. Ethical hacking is also known as penetration testing, intrusion testing and red teaming.
Impacting Social Media
The internet affords social hackers the ability to populate content spaces without detection of suspicious behaviour. Social hacking can also occur in environments where user-generated content is prevalent. This includes the opportunity to influence opinion polls and even to skew data beyond a point of validity. Social hacking can also be used to provide favourable reviews e.g. on product websites. It can also be used to counter negative feedback with an influx of positive responses ("like button") e.g. on blog or news article comment sections. Social hacking can cause damage to the online profile of a person or a brand by the simple act of accessing information that is openly available through social media channels.
Technology Appropriation
Technology appropriation can be perceived as a type of social hacking in that it involves social manipulation of a technology. It describes the effort of users to make sense of a technology within their own contexts beyond adopting its intended use. When this happens, the use of the technology can change. Adaptation of a technology can incorporate reinterpretation of its function and meaning, to the effect that the technology itself can take on a new role. Appropriation accentuates that the user adjusts the technology for his own best practice, while adaptation advises that the use sometimes changes in general. For example, advances in today's technology make it easier than ever to portray another person. This method is known as creating a "deepfake". A deep fake is where someone can recreate somebody else's face and voice with a computer program. It is used to fake people saying and doing things they have never done or said before. "Public figures may be more “fakeable” through this method than private ones. Visually routine situations, like a press conference, are more likely to be faked than entirely novel ones." Deepfakes can be very dangerous in the sense that they can be used to fake what people with high authority have said such as, the president and politicians. There have been many articles and discussions over the new discovery of deepfakes such as Youtuber Shane Dawson's video, "Conspiracy Theories with Shane Dawson" where he talks about the conspiracy of deepfakes and what they could mean for the world today.
Social hacking is also affiliated with social enterprise. Social enterprise can be represented in the form of for-profit or non-profit organizations that encourage socially responsible business strategies for long-term environmental and human well-being. The concept of socially hacking new enterprises within the existing capitalist structure is a human endeavour that encourages people to re-evaluate the social systems that we are accustomed to, in order to identify the problems that are not being addressed. New enterprises can then be created to replace the old with systems that reinforce sustainability and regenerative growth.
See also
Certified Social Engineering Prevention Specialist (CSEPS)
Cyberheist
Internet Security Awareness Training
IT risk
Penetration test
Perception management
Phishing
Piggybacking (security)
SMiShing
Vishing
Deepfake
References
Doxing
American phraseology
Propaganda in the United States
Social engineering (computer security)
|
4424100
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STAR%20%28software%29
|
STAR (software)
|
STAR Reading, STAR Early Literacy and STAR Math are standardized, computer-adaptive assessments created by Renaissance Learning, Inc., for use in K-12 education. Each is a "Tier 2" assessment of a skill (reading practice, math practice, and early literacy, respectively) that can be used any number of times due to item-bank technology. These assessments fall somewhere between progress monitoring tools ("Tier 1") and high-stakes tests.
Original meaning
STAR, as an acronym, used to mean "Standardized Test for the Assessment of Reading." This meaning is no longer maintained, as the company has created STAR assessments for skills in domains other than reading. STAR Reading, the first STAR assessment, was originally just "STAR." Since the creation of STAR Math, the original STAR has been renamed to STAR Reading. Confusion may also arise with California's STAR (Standardized Testing and Reporting) or the Supplementary Tests of Achievement in Reading published by the New Zealand Council for Educational Research, but these are not the same assessments.
Purpose
The purpose of the STAR assessments is to provide information to teachers about student growth and achievement in grades 1–12. Students take the assessment and it is scored automatically by the software. Teachers and administrators are able to view and print a number of reports at the individual, classroom, and grade level in order to monitor progress. Teachers can then tailor instruction to individuals and to high-stakes testing requirements.
STAR assessments
Each assessment provides estimates of students' skills and comparisons of students' abilities to national norms. Each is intended to aid with developing curriculum and instruction by providing feedback about student, classroom, and grade level progress. The software reports grade equivalents, percentile ranks, and normal curve equivalents.
Each assessment is standardized and highly correlated to other assessments. Thus, the results predict achievement on other standardized tests. For more on the reliability and validity of these assessments, see below.
All STAR products were available as stand-alone and network software, but now the company strongly advertises the web-based Renaissance Place version.
STAR Reading
The purpose of STAR Reading is to assess students' reading skills. The assessment provides an approximate measure of each students' reading level. The company claims that students can complete the assessment in less than 10 minutes.
STAR Early Literacy
The purpose of STAR Early Literacy is to assess students' early literacy skills in preparation for reading. SEL identifies student reading levels (e.g. Emergent Reader) and provides student performance results for pre-K through third grade students. The company claims that students can complete the assessment in less than 10 minutes.
STAR Math
The purpose of STAR Math is to assess students' mathematics skills. The assessment provides an approximate measure of each students' math level. The company claims that students can complete the assessment in less than 12 minutes.
STAR Spanish
The purpose of STAR Spanish is to assess students' Spanish skills. The assessment consists of reading comprehension for independent readers from grade levels 1–5. However, it can be administered to Spanish speaking students at grade levels 1–12. STAR Spanish tracks students' Spanish reading level, ZPD for independent reading practice of Spanish literature, and Spanish reading growth and overall progress.
Reliability and validity
The reliability of an assessment is the extent to which scores from the assessment will remain the same between two administrations within a short period. The validity of an assessment is the extent to which the assessment measures what it claims to measure.
A number of other studies have demonstrated the reliability and validity of STAR Reading, STAR Math, and STAR Early Literacy. Additionally, a number of studies have demonstrated the correlation between STAR assessments and other tests of similar skills. As with any assessment or test, however, student scores will vary each time the assessment or test is administered. This concept is called the statistical error of a measurement.
External agencies, like the National Center on Student Progress Monitoring (NCSPM), have assessed the STAR products and found them to be technically sound. Additionally, the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL) has categorized STAR Reading and STAR Early Literacy as criterion-referenced and norm-referenced assessments. In this latter case, the STAR Early Literacy package is said to evaluate eight cognitive elements.
STAR Early Literacy was mentioned in the 2006 Readers' Choice Awards: Best Reading Software, a survey by eSchool News.
Criticism
The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) stated in a Summer 2005 letter that it would no longer accept STAR Reading scores for measuring reading "performance progress" for the Reading Improvement Block Grant. However, STAR reading was still permitted for instructional decision making. Since the ISBE issued this letter in 2005, the SEDL has updated its database, and ISBE has now re-categorized STAR Reading as an assessment of reading comprehension.
See also
Renaissance Learning
Accelerated Reader
Accelerated Math
References
External links
Official website
Software for children
Renaissance Learning software
Standardized tests
|
36781262
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sqrrl
|
Sqrrl
|
Sqrrl Data, Inc. is an American company founded in 2012 that markets software for big data analytics and cyber security. The company has roots in the United States Intelligence Community and National Security Agency. Sqrrl was involved in the creation of, and actively contributes to Apache Accumulo and other related Apache projects. Sqrrl’s primary product is its threat hunting platform, designed for active detection of advanced persistent threats.
In January 2018, Sqrrl was acquired by Amazon.
History
Most of Sqrrl’s founders previously worked for the National Security Agency; CEO and Co-Founder Oren Falkowitz, formerly of CyberCommand and Co-Founder Ely Kahn, former director of US cybersecurity policy. Sqrrl's platform relies on the open-source Apache Accumulo technology. Accumulo began development in 2008 and went open source in 2011; Sqrrl was founded in the summer of 2012 to use Accumulo for cybersecurity. Sqrrl was founded in Washington, D.C., but quickly moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts.
In August 2012, Sqrrl announced a $2 million seed round led by Accomplice (formerly Atlas Venture) and Matrix Partners.
In October 2013, Sqrrl received $5.2 million in funding led by Accomplice and Matrix Partners.
In February 2015, Sqrrl raised another $7.1 million funding for its linked data analysis toolkit.
On January 24, 2018, it was reported that Sqrrl had been acquired by Amazon and would become a part of Amazon Web Services.
Threat hunting platform
Sqrrl’s main product is a visual cyber threat hunting platform which combines technology such as link analysis and user behavior analytics. User, entity, asset, and event data are combined into a behavior graph which users navigate to respond to security incidents as well as search for undetected threats. Sqrrl integrates into Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems, such as IBM's QRadar. The platform also integrates machine learning and risk-scoring.
Awards
Sqrrl was mentioned in cyber security industry marketing, such as SC Mag’s Top Innovator award in 2015 and 2016 and a 2017 Cybersecurity Excellence Award in a new "Threat Hunting" category.
See also
Apache Software Foundation
Big data
Bigtable
Cyber threat hunting
MapReduce
Real-time database
User behavior analytics
References
External links
Official web site
The Threat Hunting Project
Cloud computing providers
Organizations based in Cambridge, Massachusetts
American companies established in 2012
Software companies based in Massachusetts
Amazon (company) acquisitions
Amazon Web Services
Software companies of the United States
|
431195
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trac
|
Trac
|
Trac is an open-source, web-based project management and bug tracking system. It has been adopted by a variety of organizations for use as a bug tracking system for both free and open-source software and proprietary projects and products. Trac integrates with major version control systems including ("out of the box") Subversion and Git. Trac is used, among others, by the Internet Research Task Force, Django, FFmpeg, jQuery UI, WebKit, 0 A.D., and WordPress.
Trac is available on all major operating systems including Windows via Installer or Bitnami, OS X via MacPorts or pkgsrc, Debian, Ubuntu, Arch Linux or FreeBSD, as well as on various cloud hosting services.
History
Inspired by CVSTrac, Jonas Borgström and Daniel Lundin from Edgewall Software started writing svntrac in August 2003 using SQLite and Subversion. In December 2003 they renamed it to Trac. In February 2004 the Trac version was changed first from 0.0.1 to 0.1 and then directly from 0.1 to 0.5. That release was followed in March 2004 by 0.6 and 0.7, and 0.8 in November 2004.
Edgewall Software is an umbrella organization for hosting edgewall.org for the community to collaborate on developing open source Python software. It used to offer software development, consulting and support services. Some of the earliest community members to collaborate in the open source development of Trac were Rocky Burt in March 2004, Christopher Lenz and Francois Harvey in May 2004, Christian Boos and Otavio Salvador in December 2004 and Mark Rowe March 2005.
In August 2005 the license was changed from GPL-2.0-or-later to BSD-3-Clause. The first release under this final license was Trac 0.9 in October 2005, which among other features introduced PostgreSQL database support.
Trac 0.10, released in September 2006, was an important release that first introduced the component system that to this day allows plugins to extend and add features to Trac's core. Trac itself since this point consists mainly of optional plugin components that can be disabled or replaced entirely. MySQL database support is added as one such core component. This release added support for version control systems other than Subversion by external plugins. Mercurial support was provided through a separate plugin due to its GPL license restrictions. Trac 0.11, released in June 2008, changed the HTML template system from ClearSilver to Genshi, breaking compatibility with many of the older plugins.
Trac 0.12 was released in June 2010 and became a stable long term release with the latest point release 0.12.7 from July 2015. It added internationalization and localization support using Babel, and allows using multiple version control repositories at once.
Trac 1.0 was released in September 2012, the previous stable long term supported version with the latest point release 1.0.13 from September 2016. It included the previously external plugin for Git version control support.
Trac 1.1.1 from February 2013 through 1.1.6 from July 2015 are releases without long term support and compatibility guarantees, that turned into Trac 1.2 from November 2016.
Trac 1.4 from August 2019 is the current stable release with long term support. It requires Python 2.7 and uses the Jinja template system.
Trac 1.6 is under active development, which works exclusively on Python3. Many of the plugins have also been rewritten to work on Python3 as well as Jinja.
Core features
Trac offers a no-frills approach to project management by deeply integrating ticket tracking, version control (for which multiple repositories per environment are supported), and wiki. It allows hyperlinking information between these systems, include wiki content directly in a ticket or list tickets automatically on wiki pages.
The ticket system can be used for tracking bugs, tasks, issues, incidents or any other kind of ticket. Customized reports can be generated from parametric stored SQL queries or using an interactive ticket query system. There is also an integrated search engine and a fine-grained permission system.
Additional project management features include grouping tickets into milestones and a roadmap where the milestones and their progress are listed and visualized. The recent activity is shown on a timeline page, and users are notified by email or can subscribe to RSS or iCalendar feeds.
Additional features
Trac has an extensive plugin ecosystem which offers many optional features and integration with external tools, and keeps the core system simple and easy to use. Besides the core SVN and Git support, Trac can connect via plugins to many other version control systems, including:
Bazaar
CVS
Darcs
Mercurial
Monotone
Perforce
Other features provided by plugins include:
Account Manager, for user administration purposes
Multiple project support
Spam-Filtering
Blog plugin
Discussion/Forum plugin
Guestbook plugin
Pastebin plugin
XML-RPC plugin, which allows other applications to interact with Trac
Tags plugin, for adding and managing keywords
Continuous integration plugins
See also
Comparison of project management software
Comparison of issue-tracking systems
Software configuration management
TracExplorer - Visual Studio and TortoiseSvn Bugtraq Integration
Agilo for Trac is an agile Scrum tool based on Trac.
Apache Bloodhound is built on top of Trac to add multiple projects support, ease of installation and ease of use.
Apache Allura Python based project management software
Kallithea Python based project management software with good code review support
Redmine though developed in Ruby its design was significantly influenced by Trac
Notes
References
External links
Free project management software
Free software programmed in Python
Free wiki software
Bug and issue tracking software
Cross-platform free software
2003 software
Software using the BSD license
|
13023944
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARMulator
|
ARMulator
|
ARM Instruction Set Simulator, also known as ARMulator, is one of the software development tools provided by the development systems business unit of ARM Limited to all users of ARM-based chips. It owes its heritage to the early development of the instruction set by Sophie Wilson. Part of this heritage is still visible in the provision of a Tube BBC Micro model in ARMulator.
Features
ARMulator is written in C and provides more than just an instruction set simulator, it provides a virtual platform for system emulation. It comes ready to emulate an ARM processor and certain ARM coprocessors. If the processor is part of an embedded system, then licensees may extend ARMulator to add their own implementations of the additional hardware to the ARMulator model. ARMulator provides a number of services to help with the time-based behaviour and event scheduling and ships with examples of memory mapped and co-processor expansions. This way, they can use ARMulator to emulate their entire embedded system. A key limitation for ARMulator is that it can only simulate a single ARM CPU at one time, although almost all ARM cores up to ARM11 are available.
Performance of ARMulator is good for the technology employed, it's about 1000 host (PC) instructions per ARM instruction. This means that emulated speeds of 1 MHz were normal for PCs of the mid to late 90s. Accuracy is good too, although it is classed as cycle count accurate rather than cycle accurate, this is because the ARM pipeline isn't fully modeled (although register interlocks are). Resolution is to an instruction, as a consequence when single stepping the register interlocks are ignored and different cycle counts are returned than if the program had simply run, this was unavoidable.
Testing ARMulator was always a time-consuming challenge, the full ARM architecture validation suites being employed. At over 1 million lines of C code it was a fairly hefty product.
ARMulator allows runtime debugging using either armsd (ARM Symbolic Debugger), or either of the graphical debuggers that were shipped in SDT and the later ADS products. ARMulator suffered from being an invisible tool with a text file configuration (armul.conf) that many found complex to configure.
ARMulator II formed the basis for the high accuracy, cycle callable co-verification models of ARM processors, these CoVs models (see Cycle Accurate Simulator) were the basis of many CoVerification systems for ARM processors.
Availability
ARMulator was available on a very broad range of platforms through its life, including Mac, RISC OS platforms, DEC Alpha, HP-UX, Solaris, SunOS, Windows, Linux. In the mid-1990s there was reluctance to support Windows platforms; pre-Windows 95 it was a relatively challenging platform. Through the late 1990s and early 2000s support was removed for all but Solaris, Windows and Linux - although undoubtedly the code base remains littered with pragmas such as #ifdef RISCOS.
ARMulator II shipped in early ARM toolkits as well as the later SDT 2.5, SDT 2.5.1, ADS 1.0, ADS 1.1, ADS 1.2, RCVT 1.0 and also separately as RVISS.
Special models were produced during the development of CPUs, notably the ARM9E, ARM10 and ARM11, these models helped with architectural decisions such as Thumb-2 and TrustZone.
ARMulator has been gradually phased out and has been replaced by Just-in-time compilation-based high performance CPU and system models (See FastSim link below).
ARMulator I was made open source and is the basis for the GNU version of ARMulator. Key differences are in the memory interface and services, also the instruction decode is done differently. The GNU ARMulator is available as part of the GDB debugger in the ARM GNU Tools.
ARMulator II formed the basis for the high accuracy, cycle callable co-verification models of ARM processors, these CoVs models (see Cycle Accurate Simulator) were the basis of many CoVerification systems for ARM processors. Mentor Graphic's Seamless have the market leading CoVs system that supports many ARM cores, and many other CPUs.
ARMulator II shipped in early ARM toolkits as well as the later SDT 2.5, SDT 2.5.1, ADS 1.0, ADS 1.1, ADS 1.2, RVCT 1.0 and also separately as RVISS.
Key contributors to ARMulator II were Mike Williams, Louise Jameson, Charles Lavender, Donald Sinclair, Chris Lamb and Rebecca Bryan (who worked on ARMulator as both an engineer and later as product manager). Significant input was also made by Allan Skillman, who was working on ARM CoVerification models at the time.
A key contributor to ARMulator I was Dave Jaggar.
Special models were produced during the development of CPUs, notably the ARM9E, ARM10 and ARM11, these models helped with architectural decisions such as Thumb-2 and TrustZone.
See also
ARM architecture
Computer architecture simulator
OVPsim
Qemu
Simics
External links
Official ARMulator information
uClinux GDB ARMulator homepage
RVISS (ARMulator) user guide
Mentor's Seamless homepage
Imperas' homepage : developer of suite of embedded software tools using virtual platform models of the ARM cores
ARM Fast Models Documentation (FastSim)
Red Squirrel Acorn Archimedes Emulator
A list of open source ARM emulators
GNU Debugger
ARM architecture
Free simulation software
Year of introduction missing
|
21985310
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serif%20products
|
Serif products
|
Serif have a range of software products, which are listed below.
Maintained products
Affinity Designer
Affinity Designer is a vector graphics editor for macOS, Windows, and iOS. It is Serif's first Mac app and has been built from the ground up to take full advantage of core Mac technologies including Grand Central Dispatch, Core Graphics and OpenGL hardware acceleration.
Working in Affinity Designer is always live and can pan and zoom at 60fps, transform objects in correct z-order, make adjustments or apply effects in realtime, and zoom beyond 1,000,000%.
Affinity Designer has been very well received by critics and was awarded runner up in Apple's “Best of 2014″, and won an Apple Design Award (ADA) at Apple's WWDC event in San Francisco.
Affinity Designer is available as a free 30-day trial from the Affinity website, and available to buy direct from the Mac App store or from their website.
Affinity Photo
Affinity Photo is a raster graphics editor for macOS, Windows, and iOS. It is Serif's second mac app, and like Affinity Designer has been built from the ground up to take full advantage of core Mac technologies including Grand Central Dispatch, Core Graphics and OpenGL hardware acceleration.
Like Designer, working in Affinity Photo is always live and can pan and zoom at 60fps, with live previews and non destructive application. It support unlimited layers and has a dedicated RAW editing workspace. It supports RGB, CMYK, LAB, Greyscale colour space with end-to-end CMYK workflow with ICC colour management, and 16-bit per channel editing.
Affinity Photo is available as a free trial from the Affinity website, and available to buy direct from the Mac App store or from their website.
Affinity Publisher
Affinity Publisher is a desktop publishing application for macOS, Windows. It is Serif's third mac app.
Affinity Publisher includes StudioLink technology, developed by Serif, which allows owners of Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo to use the vector and raster graphic editing functionality of those applications for editing content directly within Publisher (in addition to its own, smaller set of native vector and raster editing features).
Legacy products (for sale but not maintained)
Serif PagePlus
Serif PagePlus is a desktop publishing (page layout) program developed by Serif. The first version was released in 1991 as the first commercial sub-£100 DTP package for Microsoft Windows. Serif's latest releases all support Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10.
PagePlus is primarily written in C++ using Visual Studio 2008, with a heavy dependence on the Microsoft MFC framework. The Windows GDI library was discarded early in development in favour of an in-house composition engine - supporting advanced bitmap and typeface operations. Said engine currently performs well in comparison to other GDI based products.
PagePlus is generally targeted at the "entry level" DTP user, much of the functionality present in market leading applications from companies such as Adobe Systems is present in PagePlus, such as working in the CMYK colour space. PagePlus also has the ability to view, create, edit and publish PDF files. However Serif has failed to achieve much acceptance within professional circles, partly due to the notable absence of Macintosh versions of its products.
There is a free version of the software, called PagePlus Starter Edition. It is based on an older version of the software and some of the features have been disabled. In order to use this software, the user must download and install the program, then get an activation code through their email in order to unlock the software. The user has access to free designs and templates to download at the site.
Serif DrawPlus
Serif DrawPlus is a vector graphics editor for Microsoft Windows. The latest version, DrawPlus X8, is compatible with Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10.
It has many features that can be expected in such a program, such as graphical effects, gradient fills, transparency, animation and image slicing, and is capable of producing professional, high-quality images.
DrawPlus was often criticised for not supporting the SVG format despite being a vector graphics editor. However, as of version X4 this SVG support has been added.
Like PagePlus, there is a free version of the software, called DrawPlus Starter Edition that is based on an older version of the software with some of the features disabled.
Serif PhotoPlus
Serif PhotoPlus is an image editing program for Microsoft Windows. The latest version is Serif PhotoPlus X8 and is compatible with Windows XP (SP2, 32 bit), Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10.
As well as a number of easy to use editing functions such as the PhotoFix and Makeover studios, PhotoPlus also has some features commonly found in higher end products, such as RAW image import, 16-bit end-to-end editing, high DPI support, High Dynamic Range image merging and LAB colour mode. PhotoPlus boasts some other features which are not commonly found in photo editing software such as non-destructive crop and adjustments, intelligent quick shapes, and a comprehensive image export optimizer.
PhotoPlus is available both as a paid-for version (not subscription based like Adobe Photoshop), or as a cut-down Starter Edition which is completely free.
Discontinued products
Serif WebPlus
WebPlus is a web design program for Microsoft Windows, developed by UK-based software company Serif. It allows users to design, create and upload their website onto the internet without any knowledge of HTML or other web technologies.
Much like Microsoft Word, WebPlus uses WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) drag and drop editing to add and position text, images and links as they would appear on the finished web page. Once a user has designed their site, WebPlus can preview the site in a web browser before uploading the site using the in-built FTP.
The software comes with a variety of pre-designed websites which can be used as a template for quickly designing a site. It also provides drawing tools for creating and editing buttons and web graphics.
WebPlus is available both as a paid-for version, WebPlus X8, or as a cut-down Starter Edition which is completely free.
Serif MoviePlus
Serif MoviePlus is a non-linear editing system created by Serif that allows both professional and home users to edit digital video and digital images.
The latest release, MoviePlus X6, runs on Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.
From the early 2000s, MoviePlus has developed an enthusiastic user base. Originally, it was designed largely for editing video from MiniDV camcorders, largely to produce DVDs. Version 4 released in 2004 was a complete re-write of the previous Version 1. It included the ability to edit and generate Windows Media files and MPEG files as well as DV-AVI. Version 4 ran on Windows 98 SE, Me, 2000 and XP. The current version X6 has added many new features including the capability to edit and generate QuickTime, MPEG-4 and High Definition HDV files.
MoviePlus is affordable and popular with home and semi-professional filmmakers. It can be used to edit material from FireWire-attached MiniDV video from a consumer digital video camera, professional DV camera or HDV camera. The software captures video onto the computer's hard drive, where it can be edited and processed. The result can be recorded on MiniDV tape, converted into a format suitable for replaying on a PC, converted into a format suitable for uploading to a web site, or burning onto a DVD. The current version of MoviePlus X6 requires a minimum of an Intel Pentium 4 Hyper-Threading processor or AMD Athlon XP processor and 1 GB of RAM.
Serif CraftArtist
CraftArtist (formerly known as Serif Digital Scrapbook Artist) is a digital scrapbooking program for Microsoft Windows.
It has many standard vector graphics features, and also includes features designed specifically for digital scrapbooking such as intelligent photo frames, a cut-out studio, photo adjustments and realistic filters effects. It also includes a selection of high resolution photographic assets, and is capable of exporting 300 DPI images for print or upload to photo sharing websites.
References
External links
Official website
Free Downloads of Older Versions of Serif Software
Video editing software
DTP for Windows
C++ software
Desktop publishing software
Windows-only software
|
7597
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Processor%20design
|
Processor design
|
Processor design is a subfield of computer engineering and electronics engineering (fabrication) that deals with creating a processor, a key component of computer hardware.
The design process involves choosing an instruction set and a certain execution paradigm (e.g. VLIW or RISC) and results in a microarchitecture, which might be described in e.g. VHDL or Verilog. For microprocessor design, this description is then manufactured employing some of the various semiconductor device fabrication processes, resulting in a die which is bonded onto a chip carrier. This chip carrier is then soldered onto, or inserted into a socket on, a printed circuit board (PCB).
The mode of operation of any processor is the execution of lists of instructions. Instructions typically include those to compute or manipulate data values using registers, change or retrieve values in read/write memory, perform relational tests between data values and to control program flow.
Processor designs are often tested and validated on one or several FPGAs before sending the design of the processor to a foundry for semiconductor fabrication.
Details
Basics
CPU design is divided into design of the following components:
Datapaths (such as ALUs and pipelines)
Control unit: logic which controls the datapaths
Memory components such as register files, caches
Clock circuitry such as clock drivers, PLLs, clock distribution networks
Pad transceiver circuitry
Logic gate cell library which is used to implement the logic
CPUs designed for high-performance markets might require custom (optimized or application specific (see below)) designs for each of these items to achieve frequency, power-dissipation, and chip-area goals whereas CPUs designed for lower performance markets might lessen the implementation burden by acquiring some of these items by purchasing them as intellectual property. Control logic implementation techniques (logic synthesis using CAD tools) can be used to implement datapaths, register files, and clocks. Common logic styles used in CPU design include unstructured random logic, finite-state machines, microprogramming (common from 1965 to 1985), and Programmable logic arrays (common in the 1980s, no longer common).
Implementation logic
Device types used to implement the logic include:
Transistor-transistor logic Small Scale Integration logic chips - no longer used for CPUs
Programmable Array Logic and Programmable logic devices - no longer used for CPUs
Emitter-coupled logic (ECL) gate arrays - no longer common
CMOS gate arrays - no longer used for CPUs
CMOS mass-produced ICs - the vast majority of CPUs by volume
CMOS ASICs - only for a minority of special applications due to expense
Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA) - common for soft microprocessors, and more or less required for reconfigurable computing
A CPU design project generally has these major tasks:
Programmer-visible instruction set architecture, which can be implemented by a variety of microarchitectures
Architectural study and performance modeling in ANSI C/C++ or SystemC
High-level synthesis (HLS) or register transfer level (RTL, e.g. logic) implementation
RTL verification
Circuit design of speed critical components (caches, registers, ALUs)
Logic synthesis or logic-gate-level design
Timing analysis to confirm that all logic and circuits will run at the specified operating frequency
Physical design including floorplanning, place and route of logic gates
Checking that RTL, gate-level, transistor-level and physical-level representations are equivalent
Checks for signal integrity, chip manufacturability
Re-designing a CPU core to a smaller die-area helps to shrink everything (a "photomask shrink"), resulting in the same number of transistors on a smaller die. It improves performance (smaller transistors switch faster), reduces power (smaller wires have less parasitic capacitance) and reduces cost (more CPUs fit on the same wafer of silicon). Releasing a CPU on the same size die, but with a smaller CPU core, keeps the cost about the same but allows higher levels of integration within one very-large-scale integration chip (additional cache, multiple CPUs or other components), improving performance and reducing overall system cost.
As with most complex electronic designs, the logic verification effort (proving that the design does
not have bugs) now dominates the project schedule of a CPU.
Key CPU architectural innovations include index register, cache, virtual memory, instruction pipelining, superscalar, CISC, RISC, virtual machine, emulators, microprogram, and stack.
Micro-architectural concepts
Research topics
A variety of new CPU design ideas have been proposed,
including reconfigurable logic, clockless CPUs, computational RAM, and optical computing.
Performance analysis and benchmarking
Benchmarking is a way of testing CPU speed. Examples include SPECint and SPECfp, developed by Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation, and ConsumerMark developed by the Embedded Microprocessor Benchmark Consortium EEMBC.
Some of the commonly used metrics include:
Instructions per second - Most consumers pick a computer architecture (normally Intel IA32 architecture) to be able to run a large base of pre-existing pre-compiled software. Being relatively uninformed on computer benchmarks, some of them pick a particular CPU based on operating frequency (see Megahertz Myth).
FLOPS - The number of floating point operations per second is often important in selecting computers for scientific computations.
Performance per watt - System designers building parallel computers, such as Google, pick CPUs based on their speed per watt of power, because the cost of powering the CPU outweighs the cost of the CPU itself.
Some system designers building parallel computers pick CPUs based on the speed per dollar.
System designers building real-time computing systems want to guarantee worst-case response. That is easier to do when the CPU has low interrupt latency and when it has deterministic response. (DSP)
Computer programmers who program directly in assembly language want a CPU to support a full featured instruction set.
Low power - For systems with limited power sources (e.g. solar, batteries, human power).
Small size or low weight - for portable embedded systems, systems for spacecraft.
Environmental impact - Minimizing environmental impact of computers during manufacturing and recycling as well during use. Reducing waste, reducing hazardous materials. (see Green computing).
There may be tradeoffs in optimizing some of these metrics. In particular, many design techniques that make a CPU run faster make the "performance per watt", "performance per dollar", and "deterministic response" much worse, and vice versa.
Markets
There are several different markets in which CPUs are used. Since each of these markets differ in their requirements for CPUs, the devices designed for one market are in most cases inappropriate for the other markets.
General purpose computing
The vast majority of revenues generated from CPU sales is for general purpose computing, that is, desktop, laptop, and server computers commonly used in businesses and homes. In this market, the Intel IA-32 and the 64-bit version x86-64 architecture dominate the market, with its rivals PowerPC and SPARC maintaining much smaller customer bases. Yearly, hundreds of millions of IA-32 architecture CPUs are used by this market. A growing percentage of these processors are for mobile implementations such as netbooks and laptops.
Since these devices are used to run countless different types of programs, these CPU designs are not specifically targeted at one type of application or one function. The demands of being able to run a wide range of programs efficiently has made these CPU designs among the more advanced technically, along with some disadvantages of being relatively costly, and having high power consumption.
High-end processor economics
In 1984, most high-performance CPUs required four to five years to develop.
Scientific computing
Scientific computing is a much smaller niche market (in revenue and units shipped). It is used in government research labs and universities. Before 1990, CPU design was often done for this market, but mass market CPUs organized into large clusters have proven to be more affordable. The main remaining area of active hardware design and research for scientific computing is for high-speed data transmission systems to connect mass market CPUs.
Embedded design
As measured by units shipped, most CPUs are embedded in other machinery, such as telephones, clocks, appliances, vehicles, and infrastructure. Embedded processors sell in the volume of many billions of units per year, however, mostly at much lower price points than that of the general purpose processors.
These single-function devices differ from the more familiar general-purpose CPUs in several ways:
Low cost is of high importance.
It is important to maintain a low power dissipation as embedded devices often have a limited battery life and it is often impractical to include cooling fans.
To give lower system cost, peripherals are integrated with the processor on the same silicon chip.
Keeping peripherals on-chip also reduces power consumption as external GPIO ports typically require buffering so that they can source or sink the relatively high current loads that are required to maintain a strong signal outside of the chip.
Many embedded applications have a limited amount of physical space for circuitry; keeping peripherals on-chip will reduce the space required for the circuit board.
The program and data memories are often integrated on the same chip. When the only allowed program memory is ROM, the device is known as a microcontroller.
For many embedded applications, interrupt latency will be more critical than in some general-purpose processors.
Embedded processor economics
The embedded CPU family with the largest number of total units shipped is the 8051, averaging nearly a billion units per year. The 8051 is widely used because it is very inexpensive. The design time is now roughly zero, because it is widely available as commercial intellectual property. It is now often embedded as a small part of a larger system on a chip. The silicon cost of an 8051 is now as low as US$0.001, because some implementations use as few as 2,200 logic gates and take 0.4730 square millimeters of silicon.
As of 2009, more CPUs are produced using the ARM architecture instruction set than any other 32-bit instruction set.
The ARM architecture and the first ARM chip were designed in about one and a half years and 5 human years of work time.
The 32-bit Parallax Propeller microcontroller architecture and the first chip were designed by two people in about 10 human years of work time.
The 8-bit AVR architecture and first AVR microcontroller was conceived and designed by two students at the Norwegian Institute of Technology.
The 8-bit 6502 architecture and the first MOS Technology 6502 chip were designed in 13 months by a group of about 9 people.
Research and educational CPU design
The 32 bit Berkeley RISC I and RISC II processors were mostly designed by a series of students as part of a four quarter sequence of graduate courses.
This design became the basis of the commercial SPARC processor design.
For about a decade, every student taking the 6.004 class at MIT was part of a team—each team had one semester to design and build a simple 8 bit CPU out of 7400 series integrated circuits.
One team of 4 students designed and built a simple 32 bit CPU during that semester.
Some undergraduate courses require a team of 2 to 5 students to design, implement, and test a simple CPU in a FPGA in a single 15-week semester.
The MultiTitan CPU was designed with 2.5 man years of effort, which was considered "relatively little design effort" at the time.
24 people contributed to the 3.5 year MultiTitan research project, which included designing and building a prototype CPU.
Soft microprocessor cores
For embedded systems, the highest performance levels are often not needed or desired due to the power consumption requirements. This allows for the use of processors which can be totally implemented by logic synthesis techniques. These synthesized processors can be implemented in a much shorter amount of time, giving quicker time-to-market.
See also
Amdahl's law
Central processing unit
Comparison of instruction set architectures
Complex instruction set computer
Electronic design automation
High-level synthesis
History of general-purpose CPUs
Integrated circuit design
Microarchitecture
Microprocessor
Minimal instruction set computer
Moore's law
Reduced instruction set computer
System-on-a-chip
Process design kit - a set of documents created or accumulated for a semiconductor device production process
References
General references
Processor Design: An Introduction
Central processing unit
Computer engineering
Design engineering
|
57014905
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alivecor
|
Alivecor
|
AliveCor is a medical device and AI company producing ECG hardware and software for consumer mobile devices. The company is the first to receive FDA-clearance for a medical-device accessory to the Apple Watch.
History
The company was co-founded by David Albert, a medical doctor and former chief clinical scientist of cardiology at General Electric, along with scientists Bruce Satchwell and Kim Barnett. Albert began working on ECGs for handheld computers in 1990, when the first palm top computer was released by Hewlett-Packard. He received a 1998 patent, along with Satchwell and Barnett, for wireless transmission of ECGs in handheld devices.
In December 2010, Albert demonstrated a prototype of an iPhone ECG through a YouTube video. After the video received attention from the media, Albert was approached by venture capitalists and industry partners to fund the new company. AliveCor received its first $3 million in financing in 2011.
An FDA-approved smart-phone case that works as an ECG was released by AliveCor in 2012. AliveCor ran two clinical trials to test the hardware and the app. The first study investigated how its single-lead ECG compared to a traditional 12-lead device. The second study looked at whether 54 participants with no medical training could determine how to work the phone case. The latter study passed FDA clearance and led to the diagnosis of two serious heart conditions.
The company later released a credit-card sized device. The device required placing finger tips on its sensors for 30 seconds to get a medical-grade ECG reading. The data was sent to the cloud where it could be read by physicians.
While its first ECG devices relied on doctors to analyze the readings, in 2015, the company received multiple clearances by the FDA to offer algorithmic analysis of readings to determine certain heart rhythm problems.
By 2017, the company's software was using neural networks to "train" its products to detect heart problems. The network uses four convolutional layers, with two tied to 300,000 parameters and takes about seven minutes to train on a new user. After about a month of product use, the software builds a heart profile of the specific user, a data-driven model that can detect problems, including how the electrical system within a heart is firing.
AliveCor had recorded about 20 million ECGs by November 2017.
By the end of 2017, the FDA had cleared the KardiaBand ECG reader as a medical device accessory to the Apple Watch. The KardiaBand had been approved for use in Europe earlier in the year. A study by the Cleveland Clinic showed the KardiaBand could distinguish between atrial fibrillation and a normal heart rhythm with 93 percent sensitivity and 94 percent specificity; sensitivity increased to 99 percent with physician review of the reading.
In 2017, the company was conducting research with Columbia University and the Mayo Clinic to determine if the KardiaBand can identify early warning signs of Long QT syndrome, a cause of sudden death, especially in young people.
AliveCor presented research in March 2018 that it conducted with the Mayo Clinic showing that the KardiaBand can detect hyperkalemia, elevated levels of potassium in the blood, with 90% to 94% accuracy. Existing tests for the condition require laboratory blood tests. To create the detection method, a dataset with 2 million ECGs linked to 4 million serum potassium values, collected over 23 years was analysed using artificial intelligence (AI). The company said it would pursue clinical trials and FDA-clearance for the detection method.
As of 2021, AliveCor products had been tested in about 160 clinical studies published in peer-reviewed journals.
Fast Company ranked AliveCor number one in artificial intelligence in its 2018 list of the "World's Most Innovative Companies."
In 2019, the company ended sales of the KardiaBand ECG reader.
Leadership
The company hired former Google and Microsoft executive Vic Gundotra as its CEO in November 2016. Gundotra subsequently hired two senior Google engineers to run hardware and software for Alivecor. Frank Petterson, an engineering lead at YouTube, became VP of engineering. Simon Prakash, a senior director at Google's hardware unit, became VP of products and design. In February 2018, founding CEO Vic Gundotra left the company and Ira Bahr was appointed as interim CEO. Priya Abani, formerly the general manager and director of Alexa at Amazon, was hired as the new CEO in July 2019.
In March 2020, AliveCor announced the appointment of Siva Somayajula, a former Director of Product Software and Services for consumer electronics at Amazon, as its Chief Technology Officer.
Products
KardiaMobile
KardiaMobile is a smartphone-connected ECG recorder for personal use. The user places his or her fingertips on a chewing gum-stick sized device for about 30 seconds and the results are sent to the user's smartphone. The results can be read by the user and also e-mailed to a physician. It was cleared by the FDA in 2012 for detecting atrial fibrillation and normal sinus rhythm.
KardiaPro
KardiaPro is a platform for doctors to monitor their patients using Kardia devices. The platform alerts doctors when a patient's device detects an abnormality. KardiaPro also tracks patient risk factors, including weight, activity and blood pressure and analyzes them with AI to alert doctors to potential issues.
KardiaBand
The KardiaBand was a wrist-band ECG reader for the Apple Watch used to detect atrial fibrillation, approved by the FDA in 2017. The device's SmartRhythm software used artificial intelligence to continuously analyze data from the built-in heart-rate sensor and accelerometer to spot unexpected patterns. Unusual patterns prompted the user to take a 30-second ECG on the device by touching a wristband sensor. Sales of the KardiaBand ended in 2019, after later generations of the Apple Watch incorporated built in ECG sensors.
KardiaMobile 6L
The KardiaMobile 6L is an FDA-cleared personal 6-lead ECG device. The KardiaMobile and the KardiaMobile 6L can detect the three most common arrhythmias—atrial fibrillation, bradycardia, tachycardia or normal heart rhythm. KardiaCare subscribers can access the devices’ advanced determinations including Sinus Rhythm with Supraventricular Ectopy (SVE), Sinus Rhythm with Premature Ventricular Contractions (PVCs), and Sinus Rhythm with Wide QRS. The additional leads from the KardiaMobile 6L allow physicians to see detailed information on a patient's ECG recording.
Veterinary Heart Monitor
AliveCor Veterinary Heart Monitor has been shown to be an effective tool for collecting ECG data in goats and horses.
Financing
In 2020, AliveCor raised $65 million in series E funding led by Omron with Khosla Ventures, WP Global Partners, Qualcomm Ventures and Bold Capital Partners. This follows the raising $30 million in funding from medical-device maker Omron and the Mayo Clinic in 2017. Previous investors include Burrill Life Sciences Capital. Kearny Partners and Oklahoma Life Science are also investors.
See also
Wireless ambulatory ECG
References
Biomedical software
Medical device manufacturers
Medical devices
|
5681361
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal%20Ancestral%20File
|
Personal Ancestral File
|
Personal Ancestral File (PAF), as of 2013, is a discontinued free genealogy software provided by FamilySearch, a website operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It allowed users to enter names, dates, citations and source information into a database, and sort and search the genealogical data, print forms and charts, and share files with others in GEDCOM format. PAF also linked images and other media files to individual records.
History
The history of PAF ran in parallel with the evolution of GEDCOM, the de facto specification for GEnealogy Data COMmunication or exchange.
Version 2.3.1, released in 1994, was the last version written specifically for the Macintosh operating system, though PAF 5.2.18, written for Windows, can be installed on Apple Mac OS X using CrossOver Mac.
In 2004 there were speculations about PAF being made open-source.
Version 5.2.18.0 began with an adaptation of Incline Software's Ancestral Quest program, written by Gaylon Findlay. Findlay has been involved in updates of PAF. Ancestral Quest has been developed separately, although it retains much of the basic visual layout and file structure of PAF.
, PAF was discontinued.
Releases (1984–2002)
The following is a selected release history:
PAF 1.0 (DOS) released in April 1984. Written in BASIC and did not have support for GEDCOM.
PAF 2.0 (DOS, Apple II, CP/M) released in April 1986. Supported an early specification of GEDCOM 2.0. Due to PAF's slowness in BASIC, it was rewritten in C.
PAF 2.1 (DOS, Apple PRO-DOS, Macintosh) released in 1987. Supported an early specification of GEDCOM 4.0.
PAF 2.2 (DOS, Apple PRO-DOS, Macintosh) released in 1989. Supported an early specification of GEDCOM 4.0.
PAF 2.3 (DOS, Macintosh) released in 1994. The Macintosh version was called PAF:Family Records and MacPAF. Supported an early specification of GEDCOM 4.0.
PAF 2.31 (DOS, Macintosh) released 30 Sep 1994. This was the final release of the Macintosh version and only worked on Classic OS - OS 8.5 through OS 9.2.2. Supported an early specification of GEDCOM 4.0.
PAF 3.0 (DOS) released May 1997. Supports the current GEDCOM 5.5 specification.
PAF 3.0M (DOS) released June 1999. A maintenance release of PAF 3.0; Shows as Release 3.01M.
PAF 4.0 released 28 June 1999. (Win9x/NT) Freeware. Supports the current GEDCOM 5.5 specification. PAF 4.0 was based on Ancestral Quest.
PAF 5.0 released in November 2000 (Win9x/NT) Freeware. Supports the current GEDCOM 5.5 specification. First version to support Unicode allowing multiple languages. Included was a standalone read only Palm OS application to view, but not edit, PAF data.
PAF 5.1 released in 2001 (Win9x/NT) Freeware. Supports the current GEDCOM 5.5 specification. Support multiple languages.
PAF 5.2 released 23 July 2002 (Win9x/NT) Freeware. Supports the current GEDCOM 5.5 specification. Supports multiple languages.
Multilingual support
PAF 4.x supported English, Spanish, Portuguese, German and French; PAF 4.0.4 was the last version for French, Spanish, and Portuguese
PAF 5.x supported English, Chinese, German, Japanese, Korean, and Swedish
See also
International Genealogical Index
References
External links
PAF support page at FamilySearch.org
PAF Tutorial at Brigham Young University (2007)
Alternatives to PAF from FamilySearch
Modern Software Experience: A Brief History of Personal Ancestral File
Modern Software Experience: Why PAF is still popular
1983 software
Products and services discontinued in 2013
Discontinued software
Genealogy and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Windows-only freeware
Windows-only genealogy software
|
87365
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEM%20%28desktop%20environment%29
|
GEM (desktop environment)
|
GEM (for Graphics Environment Manager) is an operating environment which was created by Digital Research (DRI) since 1984 for use with the DOS operating system on Intel 8088 and Motorola 68000 microprocessors.
GEM is known primarily as the graphical user interface (GUI) for the Atari ST series of computers, and was also supplied with a series of IBM PC-compatible computers from Amstrad. It was also available for the standard IBM PC, at a time when the 6 MHz IBM PC AT (and the very concept of a GUI) was brand new. It was the core for a small number of DOS programs, the most notable being Ventura Publisher. It was ported to a number of other computers that previously lacked graphical interfaces, but never gained popularity on those platforms. DRI also produced X/GEM for their FlexOS real-time operating system with adaptations for OS/2 Presentation Manager and the X Window System under preparation as well.
History
GSX
In late 1984, GEM started life at DRI as a grow-out of a more general-purpose graphics library known as GSX (Graphics System Extension), written by a team led by Don Heiskell since about 1982. Lee Lorenzen (at Graphic Software Systems, Inc.) who had recently left Xerox PARC (the birthplace of the modern GUI) wrote much of the code. GSX was essentially a DRI-specific implementation of the GKS graphics standard proposed in the late 1970s. GSX was intended to allow DRI to write graphics programs (charting, etc.) for any of the 8-bit and 16-bit platforms CP/M-80, Concurrent CP/M, CP/M-86 and MS-DOS (NEC APC-III) would run on, a task that otherwise would have required considerable effort to port due to the large differences in graphics hardware (and concepts) between the various systems of that era.
GSX consisted of two parts: a selection of routines for common drawing operations, and the device drivers that are responsible for handling the actual output. The former was known as GDOS (Graphics Device Operating System) and the latter as GIOS (Graphics Input/Output System), a play on the division of CP/M into the machine-independent BDOS (Basic Disk Operating System) and the machine-specific BIOS (Basic Input/Output System). GDOS was a selection of routines that handled the GKS drawing, while GIOS actually used the underlying hardware to produce the output.
GEM
Intel versions
The 16-bit version of GSX 1.3 evolved into one part of what would later be known as GEM, which was an effort to build a full GUI system using the earlier GSX work as its basis. Originally known as Crystal as a play on an IBM project called Glass, the name was later changed to GEM.
Under GEM, GSX became GEM VDI (Virtual Device Interface), responsible for basic graphics and drawing. VDI also added the ability to work with multiple fonts and added a selection of raster drawing commands to the formerly vector-only GKS-based drawing commands. VDI also added multiple viewports, a key addition for use with windows.
A new module, GEM AES (Application Environment Services), provided the window management and UI elements, and GEM Desktop used both libraries in combination to provide a GUI. The 8086 version of the entire system was first demoed at COMDEX in November 1984, and shipped as GEM/1 on 28 February 1985.
GEM/1
GEM Desktop 1.0 was released on 28 February 1985.
GEM Desktop 1.1 was released on 10 April 1985 with support for CGA and EGA displays.
A version for the Apricot Computers F-Series, supporting 640×200 in up to 8 colors was also available as GEM Desktop 1.2.
Digital Research also positioned Concurrent DOS 4.1 with GEM as alternative for IBM's TopView.
DRI originally designed GEM for DOS so that it would check for and only run on IBM computers, and not PC compatibles like those from Compaq, as the company hoped to receive license fees from compatible makers. Developers reacted with what BYTE described as "a small explosion"; it reported that at a DRI-hosted seminar in February 1985, more than half of the attendees agreed that GEM's incompatibility with Compaq was a serious limitation. Later that month the company removed the restriction. Applications that supported GEM included Lifetree Software's GEM Write.
At this point, Apple Computer sued DRI in what would turn into a long dispute over the "look and feel" of the GEM/1 system, which was an almost direct copy of Macintosh (with some elements bearing a closer resemblance to those in the earlier Lisa, available since January 1983). This eventually led to DRI being forced to change several basic features of the system. (See also: Apple v. Digital Research.) Apple would later go on to sue other companies for similar issues, including their copyright lawsuit against Microsoft and HP.
In addition to printers the system also contained drivers for some more unusual devices such as the Polaroid Palette.
GEM/2
DRI responded with the "lawsuit-friendly" GEM Desktop 2.0, released on 24 March 1986, with support for VGA displays. It allowed the display of only two fixed windows on the "desktop" (though other programs could do what they wished), changed the trash can icon, and removed the animations for things like opening and closing windows. It was otherwise similar to GEM/1, but also included a number of bug fixes and cosmetic improvements.
In 1988 Stewart Alsop II said that GEM was among several GUIs that "have already been knocked out" of the market by Apple, IBM/Microsoft, and others.
GEM XM
GEM XM with "GEM Desktop 3.0" was an updated version of GEM/2 in 1986/1987 for DOS (including DOS Plus) which allowed task-switching and the ability to run up to ten GEM and DOS programs at once, swapping out to expanded memory (XM) through EMS/EEMS or to disk (including RAM disks, thereby also allowing the use of extended memory). Data could be copied and pasted between applications through a clipboard with filter function (a feature later also found in TaskMAX under DR DOS 6.0). Digital Research planned to offer GEM XM as an option to GEM Draw Plus users and through OEM channels.
The GEM XM source code is now freely available under the terms of GNU General Public License.
GEM/3
The last retail release was GEM/3 Desktop, released on 3 November 1988, which had speed improvements and shipped with a number of basic applications. Commercial sales of GEM ended with GEM/3; the source code was subsequently made available to a number of DRI's leading customers.
While GEM/2 for the PC still provided a GSX API in addition to the GEM API; GEM/3 no longer did.
GEM/4 for CCP Artline
GEM/4, released in 1990, included the ability to work with Bézier curves, a feature still not commonly found outside the PostScript world. This version was produced specifically for Artline 2, a drawing program from the German company CCP Development GmbH.
The system also included changes to the font management system, which made it incompatible with the likes of Timeworks Publisher.
Artline 1 still ran on GEM 3.1.
GEM/5 for GST Timeworks Publisher
Another version of GEM called GEM/5 was produced by GST Software Products for Timeworks Publisher 2.1. It contained an updated look with 3D buttons, along with features such as on-the-fly font scaling. It came complete with all the standard GEM 3.1 tools. This version was produced from GEM 3.13 with only the Bézier handling taken from GEM/4.
ViewMAX for DR DOS
GEM Desktop itself was spun off in 1990 as a product known as ViewMAX which was used solely as a file management shell under DR DOS. In this form the system could not run other GEM programs. This led to a situation where a number of applications (including ViewMAX) could exist all with their own statically linked copy of the GEM system. This scenario was actually rare, as few native GEM programs were published. In 1991 ViewMAX 2 was released.
In these forms GEM survived until DRI was purchased by Novell in June 1991 and all GEM development was cancelled.
X/GEM
Throughout this time DRI had also been working on making the GEM system capable of multitasking. This started with X/GEM based on GEM/1, but this required use of one of the multitasking CP/M-based operating systems. DRI also produced X/GEM for their FlexOS real-time operating system with adaptations for OS/2 Presentation Manager and the X Window System under preparation as well.
Ventura Publisher
Lee Lorenzen left soon after the release of GEM/1, when it became clear that DRI had no strong interest in application development. He then joined with two other former DRI employees, Don Heiskell and John Meyer, to start Ventura Software. They developed Ventura Publisher (which was later marketed by Xerox and eventually by Corel), which would go on to be a very popular desktop publishing program for some time.
Atari versions
Development of the production 68000 version of GEM began in September 1984, when Atari sent a team called "The Monterey Group" to Digital Research to begin work on porting GEM. Originally, the plan was to run GEM on top of CP/M-68K, both ostensibly ported to Motorola 68000 by DRI prior to the ST design being created. In fact, these ports were unusable and would require considerable development. Digital Research also offered GEMDOS (originally written as GEM DOS), a DOS-like operating system aimed to port GEM to different hardware platforms. It was available for 8086 and 68000 processors and had been adapted to the Apple Lisa 2/5 and the Motorola VME/10 development system. Atari eventually decided to give up on the existing CP/M-68K code and instead port GEMDOS to the Atari ST platform, referring to it as TOS.
As Atari had provided most of the development of the 68000 version, they were given full rights to continued developments without needing to reverse-license it back to DRI. As a result, the Apple-DRI lawsuit did not apply to the Atari versions of GEM, and they were allowed to keep a more Mac-like UI.
Over the next seven years, from 1985 to 1992, new versions of TOS were released with each new generation of the ST line. Updates included support for more colors and higher resolutions in the raster-side of the system, but remained generally similar to the original in terms of GKS support. In 1992 Atari released TOS 4, or MultiTOS, along with their final computer system, the Falcon030. In combination with MiNT, TOS 4 allowed full multitasking support in GEM.
Continued development
When Caldera bought the remaining Digital Research assets from Novell on 23 July 1996, initial plans were to revive GEM and ViewMAX technologies for a low-footprint user interface for OpenDOS in mobile applications as Caldera View, but these plans were abandoned by Caldera UK in favour of DR-WebSpyder and GROW. Caldera Thin Clients (later known as Lineo) released the source to GEM and GEM XM under the terms of GNU GPL-2.0-only in April 1999. The development of GEM for PC is continued as FreeGEM and OpenGEM.
On the Atari ST platform, the original DRI sources were ported again to be used in the free and open source TOS clone EmuTOS. New implementations of the AES portions of GEM have been implemented from scratch in the form of XaAES, and MyAES, both of which are fully re-entrant and support multitasking on top of the FreeMiNT multitasking extensions to TOS.
Description
The "full" GEM system consisted of three main parts:
GEM VDI (Virtual Device Interface)
GEM AES (Application Environment Services)
GEM Desktop (an application providing drag-and-drop based file management)
GEM VDI was the core graphics system of the overall GEM engine. It was responsible for "low level" drawing in the form of "draw line from here to here". VDI included a resolution and coordinate independent set of vector drawing instructions which were called from applications through a fairly simple interface. VDI also included environment information (state, or context), current color, line thickness, output device, etc.
These commands were then examined by GDOS, whose task it was to send the commands to the proper driver for actual rendering. For instance, if a particular GEM VDI environment was connected to the screen, the VDI instructions were then routed to the screen driver for drawing. Simply changing the environment to point to the printer was all that was needed (in theory) to print, dramatically reducing the developer workload (they formerly had to do printing "by hand" in all applications). GDOS was also responsible for loading up the drivers and any requested fonts when GEM was first loaded.
One major advantage VDI provided over the Macintosh was the way multiple devices and contexts were handled. In the Mac such information was stored in memory inside the application. This resulted in serious problems when attempting to make the Mac handle pre-emptive multitasking, as the drawing layer (QuickDraw) needed to have direct memory access into all programs. In GEM VDI however, such information was stored in the device itself, with GDOS creating "virtual devices" for every context – each window for instance.
GEM AES provided the window system, window manager, UI style and other GUI elements (widgets). For performance reasons, many of the GUI widgets were actually drawn using character graphics. Compared to the Macintosh, AES provided a rather spartan look and the system shipped with a single monospaced font.
AES performs its operations by calling the VDI, but in a more general sense the two parts of GEM were often completely separated in applications. Applications typically called AES commands to set up a new window, with the rest of the application using VDI calls to actually draw into that window.
GEM Desktop was an application program that used AES to provide a file manager and launcher, the traditional "desktop" environment that users had come to expect from the Macintosh. Unlike the Macintosh, the GEM Desktop was based on top of DOS (MS-DOS, DOS Plus or DR DOS on the PC, GEMDOS on the Atari), and as a result the actual display was cluttered with computer-like items including path names and wildcards. In general GEM was much more "geeky" than the Mac, but simply running a usable shell on DOS was a huge achievement on its own. Otherwise, GEM has its own advantages over Mac OS such as proportional sliders.
Native PC GEM applications use the file extension .APP for executables, whereas GEM desktop accessories use the file extension .ACC instead. All desktop accessories (and also a few simple applications) can be run under ViewMAX without modification.
Known 8-bit device drivers
DDFXLR7 Epson and Epson-compatible printers
DDFXLR8 Epson lo-res, 8-bit
DDFXHR8 Epson hi-res, 8-bit
DD-DMP1 Amstrad DMP1 printer (aka Seikosha GP500M-2)
DDSHINWA Printers using Shinwa Industries mechanism
DDHP7470 DD7470 Hewlett Packard HP 7470 and compatible pen plotters, HP-GL/2
DDMODE0 Amstrad CPC screen in mode 0
DDMODE1 Amstrad CPC screen in mode 1
DDMODE2 Amstrad CPC screen in mode 2
DDSCREEN Amstrad PCW screen
DD7220 Hewlett Packard HP 7220, HP-GL
DDGDC DDNCRDMV NEC µPD7220
DDGEN2 Retro-Graphics GEN.II (Ratfor source code in Programmer's Guide)
DDHI3M Houston Instrument HiPlot DMP
DDHI7M Houston Instrument HiPlot DMP
DDMX80 Epson MX-80 + Graftrax Plus
DDVRET VT100 + Retro-Graphics GEN.II (aka 4027/4010)
DDQX10 QX-10 screen
DDCITOH C. Itoh 8510A
DDESP Electric Studio Light Pen (Amstrad PCW)
DDOKI84 Oki Data Microline
DDBBC0 BBC Micro screen in mode 0
DDBBC1 BBC Micro screen in mode 1
DDCITOLR C. Itoh 8510A lo-res
DDTS803 TeleVideo screen
DDHP26XX HP 2648 and 2627 terminals
DDMF GEM metafile
DDPS PostScript metafile
Known 16-bit device drivers
DDANADXM Anadex DP-9501 and DP-9001A
DDCITOLR C. Itoh 8510A lo-res
DDCNTXM Centronics 351, 352 and 353
DDDS180 Datasouth
DDIDSM IDS Monochrome
DDLA100 DEC
DDLA50 DEC
DDOKI84 Oki Data Microline
DDPMVP Printronix MVP
DD3EPSNL IBM/Epson FX-80 lo-res Printer, see DDFXLR7 and DDFXLR8
DD3EPSNH IBM/Epson FX-80 hi-res Printer, see DDFXHR8
DD75XHM1 Regnecentralen RC759 Piccoline
DDNECAPC NEC APC
DDGSXM Metafile
EPSMONH6
NCRPC4 NCR DecisionMate V
IBMBLMP2 IBMBLMP3 IBM CGA monochrome mode
IBMBLCP2 IBMBLCP3 IBM CGA color mode
IBMCHMP6
IBMEHFP6 IBMEHMP6 IBMELFP6 IBM Enhanced Graphics Adapter
IBMHP743 Hewlett-Packard 7470A/7475A Plotter, see DDHP7470 and DD7470
HERMONP2 IBMHERP3 HERMONP6 Hercules Graphics Card (720×348)
METAFIL6 Metafile
PALETTE Polaroid camera
UM85C408AF UMC VGA Graphics
The DOS version of GSX supports loading drivers in the CP/M-86 CMD format. Consequently, the same driver binary may operate under both CP/M-86 and DOS.
See also
Atari TOS
EmuTOS
FreeGEM
OpenGEM
GEM character set
Atari ST character set
Resource construction set (RCS)
Pantone Color Computer Graphics
References
Further reading
(228 pages)
External links
GEM - history, documentation and links to various open-source GEM projects
Afros - a distribution of Atari OS components (consisting of for example EmuTOS), aimed specifically at ARAnyM
Aranym Atari Running on Any Machine: an open source emulator/virtual machine that can run Atari GEM applications
Creating of TOS (part 1) Landon Dyer, one of original member of "The Monterey Group"
Creating of TOS (part 2) Landon Dyer, one of original member of "The Monterey Group"
GEM demo 1985 Most of the program is about the MAC
Atari ST software
Digital Research software
DOS software
File managers
Formerly proprietary software
Free windowing systems
GEM software
Operating system APIs
Windowing systems
1985 software
|
57978320
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication%20and%20Information%20Technology%20Regulatory%20Authority%20%28Kuwait%29
|
Communication and Information Technology Regulatory Authority (Kuwait)
|
Communication and Information Technology Regulatory Authority (CITRA) (, it is an independent governmental entity in Kuwait
Established by a decision of the Council of Ministers Law No. 37 of 2014 regulating the establishment of the Communication and Information Technology Regulatory Authority.
Citra is responsible for overseeing the telecommunications sector, monitor and protect the interests of users and service providers and regulate the services of telecommunication networks in the country, while ensuring transparency, equality of opportunity and fair competition.
Tasks and Authorized Powers
Protecting consumer affairs
Regulating services, tariffs, and rates within the ICT sector.
Encouraging competition and investment in the ICT sector and preventing unfair competition.
Regulating and licensing telecommunications services.
ICT subsectors
Telecommunications Sector
Operators and Fair Competition Sector
Information Technology (IT) Sector
Administrative and Financial Affairs Sector
References
External links
Citra News
Government of Kuwait
|
4296363
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SurfControl
|
SurfControl
|
SurfControl Plc., was a British software company based in Cheshire, England. The company provided website filtering, e-mail filtering and desktop security software for both enterprise and home users.
SurfControl was acquired by Websense on 3 October 2007. The purchase price was approximately £204 million ($416 million), including deferred compensation and stock option expense. Websense plans to continue the SurfControl business until at least 2011. On 2 April 2008, Websense sold CyberPatrol, the SurfControl parental control software product, to newly formed Internet safety software company CyberPatrol, LLC. According to Websense's quarterly report, they received $1.4 million in cash from the sale of CyberPatrol assets.
Prior to being acquired by Websense, SurfControl acquired a British cloud computing company called BlackSpider Technologies Limited in July 2006 for £19.5m in cash.
Product range
The current product range is called the Enterprise Protection Suite, and includes products for website and e-mail filtering and user security.
The key feature of the SurfControl filtering software is the ability to categorize websites and then allow or restrict users access by selecting categories.
Examples of the categories are:
Adult/Sexually Explicit
Advertisements & Popups
Personals & Dating
Proxies & Translators
Intolerance & Hate
SurfControl also license their URL database and categorization engine to other companies such as Check Point for use in their products and appliances.
References
External links
SurfControl's Official Website
Content-control software
Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange
|
27720639
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lurkmore
|
Lurkmore
|
Lurkmore or Lurkomorye (, a portmanteau of Lukomorye and the English online slang "lurk moar") is an informal Russian-language MediaWiki-powered online encyclopedia focusing on Internet subcultures, folklore, and memes. As of December 17, 2019, Lurkmore contains over 9000 articles. It is one of the most popular humor—as well as internet-meme-related—websites of the Russian Internet.
Content and style
Lurkmore was started as a knowledge base of Internet memes centered on 2ch.ru, the first popular Russian-language imageboard. With time, the project evolved to encompass the broader Runet subculture. It has been called an "informal encyclopedia" about everything. Currently, Lurkmore comprises a wide range of articles, but a very considerable share of them is still about the Internet culture.
Lurkmore articles use a distinctive style, distinguishing themselves with a general informality, semiseriousness, sarcasm, the free use of foul language, and impudence, as well as by sharp criticism of the shortcomings of the considered phenomena. The articles are also characterized by a specific slang—"lurkoyaz" (луркояз)—consisting of Internet slang, assorted words used by padonki and Kashchenists, and Lurkmore's own neologisms.
Rules and policies
Audience
A remarkable feature of the project is the concealment of IP addresses of anonymous participants in the editing history of articles for all users except administrators. The inscription of "Anonimus" is displayed instead of an IP address. The registered participants having a flag of the autoconfirmed participant also have an opportunity to leave any editing not under the name, and anonymously.
Fleeting block in Russia
On 11 November 2012, the IP address of Lurkmore.to was added to the Russian Internet blacklist by decision of the Russian Federal Surveillance Service for Mass Media and Communications, making it inaccessible from most Russian ISPs. A Lurkmore.to owner told journalists that he had not received any communication from Roskomnadzor or the Federal Drug Control Service of Russia before the IP address was blacklisted. Lurkmore.to was removed from the blacklist on 13 November 2012 after the website administrators deleted two marijuana-related articles. In 2015 Homak declared on his Facebook profile that the project will be frozen and become a "culture memorial" due to increasing pressure from Roskomnadzor and other law enforcement agencies, and he left Russia due to general development of situation in Russia.
Awards
Finalist of the 2008 in the humor site of the year category.
Winner of the 2009 ROTOR competition in the humor site of the year category.
Winner of the 2011 AntiROTOR competition.
Winner of the 2012 ROTOR competition in the archive site of the year category.
Winner of four 2012 AntiRotor nominations.
Winner of the Golden Joker prize, ceremony organized by a humoristic magazine Maxim.
See also
Encyclopedia Dramatica
Know Your Meme
Uncyclopedia
References
External links
MediaWiki websites
Wiki communities
Russian online encyclopedias
Russian comedy websites
Mass media about Internet culture
Russian-language websites
Parodies of Wikipedia
|
2119352
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solution%20stack
|
Solution stack
|
In computing, a solution stack or software stack is a set of software subsystems or components needed to create a complete platform such that no additional software is needed to support applications. Applications are said to "run on" or "run on top of" the resulting platform.
For example, to develop a web application, the architect defines the stack as the target operating system, web server, database, and programming language. Another version of a software stack is operating system, middleware, database, and applications. Regularly, the components of a software stack are developed by different developers independently from one another.
Some components/subsystems of an overall system are chosen together often enough that the particular set is referred to by a name representing the whole, rather than by naming the parts. Typically, the name is an acronym representing the individual components.
The term "solution stack" has, historically, occasionally included hardware components as part of a final product, mixing both the hardware and software in layers of support.
A full-stack developer is expected to be able to work in all the layers of the stack. A full-stack web developer can be defined by some as a developer or engineer who works with both the front and back ends of a website or application. This means they can lead platform builds that involve databases, user-facing websites, and working with clients during the planning phase of projects.
Examples
BCHS
OpenBSD (operating system)
C (programming language)
httpd (web server)
SQLite (database)
ELK
Elasticsearch (search engine)
Logstash (event and log management tool)
Kibana (data visualization)
Ganeti
Xen or KVM (hypervisor)
Linux with LVM (mass-storage device management)
Distributed Replicated Block Device (storage replication)
Ganeti (virtual machine cluster management tool)
Ganeti Web Manager (web interface)
GLASS
GemStone (database and application server)
Linux (operating system)
Apache (web server)
Smalltalk (programming language)
Seaside (web framework)
GRANDstack
GraphQL (data query and manipulation language)
React (web application presentation)
Apollo (Data Graph Platform)
Neo4j (database management systems)
Jamstack
JavaScript (programming language)
APIs (Application programming interfaces)
Markup (content)
LAMP
Linux (operating system)
Apache (web server)
MySQL or MariaDB (database management systems)
Perl, PHP, or Python (scripting languages)
LAPP
Linux (operating system)
Apache (web server)
PostgreSQL (database management systems)
Perl, PHP, or Python (scripting languages)
LEAP
Linux (operating system)
Eucalyptus (free and open-source alternative to the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud)
AppScale (cloud computing-framework and free and open-source alternative to Google App Engine)
Python (programming language)
LEMP/LNMP
Linux (operating system)
Nginx (web server)
MySQL or MariaDB (database management systems)
Perl, PHP, or Python (scripting languages)
LLMP
Linux (operating system)
Lighttpd (web server)
MySQL or MariaDB (database management systems)
Perl, PHP, or Python (scripting languages)
LYME and LYCE
Linux (operating system)
Yaws (web server, written in Erlang)
Mnesia or CouchDB (database, written in Erlang)
Erlang (functional programming language)
MAMP
Mac OS X (operating system)
Apache (web server)
MySQL or MariaDB (database)
PHP, Perl, or Python (programming languages)
MARQS
Apache Mesos (node startup/shutdown)
Akka (toolkit) (actor implementation)
Riak (data store)
Apache Kafka (messaging)
Apache Spark (big data and MapReduce)
MEAN
MongoDB (database)
Express.js (application controller layer)
AngularJS/Angular (web application presentation)
Node.js (JavaScript runtime)
MERN
MongoDB (database)
Express.js (application controller layer)
React.js (web application presentation)
Node.js (JavaScript runtime)
MEVN
MongoDB (database)
Express.js (application controller layer)
Vue.js (web application presentation)
Node.js (JavaScript runtime)
NMP
Nginx (web server)
MySQL or MariaDB (database)
PHP (programming language)
OpenACS
Linux or Windows (operating system)
NaviServer (web server)
OpenACS (web application framework)
PostgreSQL or Oracle Database (database)
Tcl (scripting language)
PERN
PostgreSQL (database)
Express.js (application controller layer)
React (JavaScript library) (web application presentation)
Node.js (JavaScript runtime)
PLONK
Prometheus (metrics and time-series)
Linkerd (service mesh)
OpenFaaS (management and auto-scaling of compute)
NATS (asynchronous message bus/queue)
Kubernetes (declarative, extensible, scale-out, self-healing clustering)
SMACK
Apache Spark (big data and MapReduce)
Apache Mesos (node startup/shutdown)
Akka (toolkit) (actor implementation)
Apache Cassandra (database)
Apache Kafka (messaging)
T-REx
TerminusDB (scalable graph database)
React (JavaScript web framework)
Express.js (framework for Node.js)
WAMP
Windows (operating system)
Apache (web server)
MySQL or MariaDB (database)
PHP, Perl, or Python (programming language)
WIMP
Windows (operating system)
Internet Information Services (web server)
MySQL or MariaDB (database)
PHP, Perl, or Python (programming language)
WINS
Windows Server (operating system)
Internet Information Services (web server)
.NET (software framework)
SQL Server (database)
WISA
Windows Server (operating system)
Internet Information Services (web server)
SQL Server (database)
ASP.NET (web framework)
WISAV/WIPAV
Windows Server (operating system)
Internet Information Services (web server)
Microsoft SQL Server/PostgreSQL (database)
ASP.NET (backend web framework)
Vue.js (frontend web framework)
XAMPP
cross-platform (operating system)
Apache (web server)
MariaDB or MySQL (database)
PHP (programming language)
Perl (programming language)
XRX
XML database (database such as BaseX, eXist, MarkLogic Server)
XQuery (Query language)
REST (client interface)
XForms (client)
See also
Content management framework
Content management system
List of Apache–MySQL–PHP packages
List of Nginx–MySQL–PHP packages
Web framework
References
Computing
Web frameworks
|
1324588
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas%20Siebel
|
Thomas Siebel
|
Thomas M. Siebel (; born November 20, 1952) is an American billionaire businessman, technologist, and author. He was the founder of enterprise software company Siebel Systems and is the founder, chairman, and CEO of C3.ai, an artificial intelligence software platform and applications company.
He is the chairman of First Virtual Group, a diversified holding company with interests in investment management, commercial real estate, agribusiness, and philanthropy.
Early life and education
Siebel was born in Chicago, one of seven children of Arthur Francis Siebel, a Harvard-educated lawyer, and Ruth A. (née Schmid) Siebel. His family was Lutheran. Siebel is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he received a B.A. in history, an M.B.A., an M.S. in computer science, and an honorary doctorate of engineering.
Business career
Between 1984 and 1990, Siebel was an executive at Oracle Corporation, where he held a number of management positions. Siebel served as chief executive officer of Gain Technology, a multimedia software company that merged with Sybase in December 1992. Siebel was the founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Siebel Systems, which was acquired by Oracle in January, 2006. Siebel is the chairman of First Virtual Group, a diversified holding company.
Siebel Systems
Siebel Systems was a software company primarily engaged in the design, development, marketing, and support of customer relationship management (CRM) applications. As an executive at Oracle, Siebel proposed the idea of creating enterprise software applications tailored for marketing, sales, and customer service functions. Oracle management declined his proposal. Siebel left Oracle to found Siebel Systems in 1993 to pursue that opportunity. In 1999, Siebel Systems became the fastest-growing technology company in the United States. Siebel Systems grew to over 8,000 employees in 32 countries, more than 4,500 corporate customers, and annual revenue greater than $2 billion before merging with Oracle in January 2006.
C3.ai
In 2009, Siebel founded C3.ai, originally to provide enterprise software for energy management. C3.ai currently provides an enterprise AI software platform and applications for multiple commercial uses, including energy management, predictive maintenance, fraud detection, anti-money laundering, inventory optimization, and predictive CRM. Its customers include 3M, Royal Dutch Shell, the US Air Force, and New York Power Authority. C3.ai was included in the 2019 “CNBC Disruptor 50” list, with a valuation of $2.1 billion. Through C3.ai, he created a collaboration to use AI to help address COVID-19.
Enterprise AI software applies artificial intelligence methods, such as machine learning and neural networks, to solve complex analytical problems in commerce, industry, and government. Organizations use enterprise AI software to increase efficiencies, reduce costs, and improve operations. The US Air Force, for example, uses AI to predict engine failure in aircraft before a failure occurs in order to improve maintenance and increase aircraft readiness.
Digital transformation
Siebel's fourth book, Digital Transformation, became a Wall Street Journal bestseller in July 2019. In the book Siebel discusses how the confluence of four modern information technology vectors—elastic cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence, and the internet of things—is impacting business, government, and society. He characterizes the 21st century as a period of corporate mass extinction. He states that since 2000, 52 percent of Fortune 500 companies have fallen off the list, and he discusses how new companies like Amazon, Uber, Tesla, Airbnb, and others have emerged and grown during this time.
Siebel claims that in order to survive and thrive in the 21st century, organizations must undergo digital transformation by harnessing the four information technologies discussed in the book. The book provides advice to organizations in the form of a 10-point CEO action plan.
Management philosophy
Siebel is a proponent of building a “self-learning corporate culture” that motivates employees to continue their education on the job. C3.ai offers cash awards of $1,000 to $1,500 to employees for each course they complete from a curated Coursera curriculum. In 2019, Siebel initiated a program at C3.ai that pays 100 percent of the costs for employees to complete an online master's degree of computer science (MCS) program from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Employees who complete the MCS degree receive a salary increase of 15 percent, a cash bonus of $25‚000, and additional stock options.
Honors and awards
In 2013, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences elected Tom Siebel as a member.
Siebel serves on the Board of Advisors of the Stanford University College of Engineering, the University of Illinois College of Engineering, and the University of California at Berkeley College of Engineering. He is a Director of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and is the Chairman of the Board for the American Agora Foundation. He was a member of the Trustees of Princeton University from 2008 to 2011. He is the Founder and Chairman of the Montana Meth Project and the Siebel Scholars Foundation, and Chairman of the Siebel Foundation. He was ranked #5 and #3 of the world's top 25 philanthropists by Barron's Magazine in 2009 and 2010, respectively. In 2007 and 2008, he was named one of The 50 Most Generous Philanthropists by BusinessWeek.
Siebel received the David Packard Award for his achievements as a technology entrepreneur and his contributions to national security from the Business Executives for National Security in 2002 and was named one of the Top 25 Managers in the World by BusinessWeek in 2000 and 2001.
Call Center Magazine inducted Siebel to its Hall of Fame in 2000 in recognition for contributions to the business and technology of customer service. CRM Magazine inducted him into its inaugural CRM Hall of Fame in 2003 in recognition of his vision, strong leadership, and enduring commitment to innovation. He has also been named:
Entrepreneur of the Year, EY, 2018
Goldman Sachs Most Intriguing Entrepreneur, 2018
Glassdoor Top CEO, 2018
Entrepreneur of the Year, EY, 2017
Most Admired CEO Lifetime Achievement Award - San Francisco Business Times, 2016
The Chancellor's Citation, University of California, Berkeley, 2014
One of the World's Top 25 Eco-Innovators - FORTUNE magazine, 2014
Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship – The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars of the Smithsonian Institution, 2010
Engineering at Illinois Hall of Fame - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2010
Lewis & Clark Pioneers in Industry Award - University of Montana, 2006
Master Entrepreneur of the Year – Ernst & Young, 2003<ref name=ernstyoung>[http://www.allbusiness.com/company-activities-management/operations/5730353-1.html Northern California Ernst & Young Recognizes Thomas M. Siebel as Master Entrepreneur of the Year], Business Wire</ref>
David Packard Award – Business Executives for National Security, 2002
CEO of the Year – Industry Week, 2002
University of Illinois Presidential Award and Medallion, 2001
Top 10 CEOs - Investor's Business Daily, 2000
One of Top 25 Managers in Global Business – BusinessWeek, 1999 to 2001
Philanthropy
The Siebel Foundation (founded 1996) is active in support of the homeless and underprivileged, educational and research programs, methamphetamine abuse prevention, and alternative energy solutions. The Siebel Foundation created the Siebel Scholars Foundation, the Siebel Energy Institute, and the Dearborn Scholars Fund in Montana. In 2005, Siebel founded the Montana Meth Project.The Anti Drug Lord, Good Magazine, June 2008 The Office of National Drug Control Policy awarded the Meth Project a White House commendation as the most influential prevention campaign in 2006, and Tom Siebel accepted the award on the program's behalf. He was also recognized for his work on the program with the 2006 Director's Community Leadership Award from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.Catalytic Philanthropy – Stanford Social Innovation Review, Fall 2009Tom Siebel: The Energy Free Home Challenge, Forbes, June 2009
In 2001, Siebel donated $32 million to his alma mater, the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, to build the Siebel Center for Computer Science, opened in spring 2004. In 2006, Siebel donated $4 million to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to establish two endowed full professorships, the Thomas M. Siebel Chair in the History of Science and the Thomas M. Siebel Chair in Computer Science. Siebel pledged an additional $100 million gift to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2007. In 2015, the Siebel Foundation launched the Siebel Energy Institute to research the data management of energy infrastructure monitoring data. In 2016, Siebel donated $25 million to build the Siebel Center for Design at the University of Illinois, a 60,000-square-foot multidisciplinary hub designed by architects Bohlin Cywinski Jackson and was completed in 2020.
Political involvement
From 2009 to 2014, Siebel made a total of $335,300 in political contributions. Approximately 90% of this was independent and 10% was for Republican Party candidates.
In September 2008, Siebel hosted a campaign stop for Sarah Palin at his home.Woodside fundraiser for Palin popular, but Democratic women in Silicon Valley skeptical about the Palin effect, Mary Anne Ostrom and Linda Goldston, Mercury News, September 12, 2008Breaking bread with Sarah Palin, Leah Garchik, San Francisco Chronicle, September 18, 2008
In 2013, C3 Energy hosted former Senator Max Baucus from Montana, and Siebel and Baucus discussed the ways in which information technology addresses the utility industry's big data challenge.
In April 2014, Congresswoman Jackie Speier from California met with C3 Energy executives, including Siebel, to discuss how the latest developments in IT are being applied to the power grid.
In February 2022, Siebel donated $90,000 to the Canada convoy protest in Ottawa, and blocking border crossings between Canada and the U.S. to protest COVID-19 vaccine mandates and restrictions.
Personal life
He is married to Stacey Siebel. They have four children and live in Woodside, California, US.
A part-time Montana resident, Siebel owns and operates the Dearborn Ranch in Wolf Creek, Montana, a working cattle ranch. Siebel's time in Montana has extended over a period of 35 years.
Elephant incident
On the morning of August 1, 2009, he and a guide were in Tanzania, observing a group of elephants from 200 yards away, when an elephant charged Siebel's guide and then turned on Siebel, breaking several ribs, goring him in the left leg, and crushing the right.A Golfer Never Forgets, by Jerry Tarde, Golf Digest, July 2010 They radioed for help, but it was three hours before he received any medical treatment. He was flown to the Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi, where they cleaned his wounds and stabilized his leg. He was then flown back to the United States on a 20-hour flight with only 10-hours of morphine and 15 hours of fluids. He had lost half of his fluids and was put in the intensive care unit. He was moved to Stanford Hospital where, over the next six months, they performed 11 surgeries, fixed his ribs and shoulder, and saved his left leg.
In September 2010, a year after the attack, Siebel had undergone 16 surgeries and an Ilizarov apparatus external fixator to mend, lengthen, and reshape the tibia of his right leg. After 19 reconstructive surgeries over two and a half years, Siebel has now made a full recovery. In 2013, National Geographic included Siebel's account in its TV series Dead or Alive: Trampled on Safari.
Books and articlesDigital Transformation (2019)
“Digital Transformation: The Post-Industrial Utility” (Aspenia Magazine, June 2018)
“Why digital transformation is now on the CEO’s shoulders” (McKinsey Quarterly, December 2017)
“The Internet of Energy” (Electric Perspectives, March/April 2015)
“Big Data and the Smart Grid: Is Hadoop the Answer?” (Stanford Energy Journal, October 21, 2014)Taking Care of eBusiness (2001) Cyber Rules (with Pat House) (1999) Virtual Selling'' (with Michael Malone) (1996)
References
External links
First Virtual Group
The Thomas and Stacey Siebel Foundation
C3.ai (formerly C3 Energy, C3 IoT)
American billionaires
American computer businesspeople
American Lutherans
American philanthropists
Businesspeople in software
American technology chief executives
Living people
Gies College of Business alumni
1952 births
People from Woodside, California
|
46561598
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chi-Raq
|
Chi-Raq
|
Chi-Raq () is a 2015 American musical crime comedy drama film, directed and produced by Spike Lee and co-written by Lee and Kevin Willmott. Set in Chicago, the film focuses on the gang violence prevalent in neighborhoods on the city's south side, particularly the Englewood neighborhood.
The story is based on Aristophanes' Lysistrata, a classical Greek comedy play in which women withhold sex from their husbands to put an end to the Peloponnesian War. It stars Nick Cannon, Wesley Snipes, Teyonah Parris, Jennifer Hudson, Angela Bassett, John Cusack, and Samuel L. Jackson.
It was the first film to be produced by Amazon Studios, released in select theaters on December 4, 2015 and on their video on demand service Amazon Instant Video on December 29.
Plot
In Chicago's Southside, as the events are narrated by Dolemedes, a war rages between two rival gangs: the Spartans, led by rapper/gang leader Demetrius Dupree, nicknamed "Chi-Raq" and the Trojans, led by gang lord Cyclops. Demetrius's lover, Lysistrata, grows disillusioned after several outbursts of violence near her, including a shootout at Demetrius's concert, an arson attack at their home while the two are having sex and a young girl, Patti, being accidentally killed in a gang shooting, revealed as the daughter of Irene.
After the fire, Lysistrata moves in with Miss Helen Worthy, a well-read non-violence advocate who suggests she research about Leymah Gbowee, who led a peace movement to stop the Second Liberian Civil War and threatened a sex strike. Inspired by Worthy and Gbowee, Lysistrata organizes a meeting between herself, the Spartans' lovers and the Trojans' lovers, where they agree to withhold sex until the men agree to lay down arms, hence their plea, "No Peace, No Pussy."
The strike rapidly spreads across the city, with women of many neighborhoods and occupations joining the boycott. Despite the strike's enormous membership, the Spartans and the Trojans refuse to cease their war. Following a funeral for Irene's young daughter Patti, Lysistrata speaks with the local preacher Fr. Mike Corridan, who argues passionately against the American institutions that profit from the South Side's wars. Deciding that the problem is bigger than the gangs' resentment, Lysistrata and her women seduce their way into a military armory and capture it from its soldiers and their general, General King Kong.
The takeover of the armory sparks a national crisis, with the military and the police surrounding the site. The forces are barred from storming the armory as it was taken by merely 75 unarmed women who are not holding any hostages. The women's actions also cause their boycott to become famous worldwide, with women from countries all over the world organizing their own sex strikes. Planned by Mayor McCloud and Commissioner Blades, the military tries to lure the women in the armory out by playing seductive music but it fails after the women find the military's earplugs and the men themselves become unbearably sex-starved from the music.
After three months, Cyclops's and Demetrius's gangs begin to grow disillusioned, from the absence of sex and from having plenty of time to think over their fate in a gang. Demetrius remains too stubborn to give up the Spartans but agrees to organize a meeting with Lysistrata after the boycott spreads to Mayor McCloud's wife and to the First Lady of the United States. The city arranges a deal: Demetrius and Lysistrata will meet each other in bed and whoever climaxes first loses and must agree to the other's terms. The deal is cut short by Cyclops arriving to declare he and the Trojans are laying down their guns.
A truce is organized the following day, with Lysistrata, Mayor McCloud, and Cyclops signing a deal to end gun violence and build new hospitals and trauma centers. Demetrius refuses to sign and walks away but is ultimately moved by Miss Worthy's testimony of the death of her daughter, as confessed to by Demetrius's father, Jamel Dupree. He admits that he was the one who killed Irene's daughter and gives himself up for arrest.
Cast
Nick Cannon as Demetrius "Chi-Raq" Dupree
Wesley Snipes as Sean "Cyclops" Andrews
Teyonah Parris as Lysistrata
Anya Engel-Adams as Rasheeda
Jennifer Hudson as Irene
Angela Bassett as Miss Helen Worthy
John Cusack as Fr. Mike Corridan
Samuel L. Jackson as Dolemedes
Michelle Mitchenor as Indigo
D.B. Sweeney as Mayor McCloud
Harry J. Lennix as Commissioner Blades
La La Anthony as Hecuba
Felicia Pearson as Dania
Jay Washington as Besomighty
Dave Chappelle as Morris
Steve Harris as Ole Duke
David Patrick Kelly as General King Kong
Irma P. Hall as Dr. Miss Aesop
Isiah Whitlock, Jr. as Bacchos
Production
Casting
Rapper Kanye West was supposed to star in the film but dropped out, possibly due to scheduling conflicts. On July 21, 2015, it was announced that La La Anthony, Nick Cannon, Wesley Snipes, Jennifer Hudson, Angela Bassett, John Cusack, and Samuel L. Jackson had joined the cast. Dave Chappelle appeared in the film as the owner of a strip club. This film saw Lee reuniting with Bassett, Jackson, and Snipes, having worked with all three actors on earlier films such as Mo' Better Blues, Jungle Fever and Malcolm X.
Filming
Principal photography began in June 2015 and continued production through July. The project hired many local actors and had an open casting call in Chicago on May 9, 2015.
Music
Chi-Raq: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, featuring music from the film, was released via digital download and physical formats on December 4, 2015 through RCA Records.
Release
Theatrical
Chi-Raq was the first original film to be distributed by Amazon Studios In addition, Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate partnered with the company for a limited release in theaters on December 4, 2015, with the film premiering on Amazon Instant Video.
Marketing
The first trailer for the film was released November 3, 2015.
Reception
Box office
The film had a limited release into North American theaters on December 4, 2015. It grossed $1,250,224 from 305 theaters in its opening weekend, including a $15,000+ per screen average on 22 screens in Chicago.
Critical response
Chi-Raq received generally positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has rating of 82%, based on 146 reviews, an average rating of 7.35/10. The site's critical consensus states, "Chi-Raq is as urgently topical and satisfyingly ambitious as it is wildly uneven – and it contains some of Spike Lee's smartest, sharpest, and all-around entertaining late-period work." Metacritic reports a score of 77 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Metacritic also found Chi-Raq to be tied with Steve Jobs as the 27th most acclaimed film of 2015, with five critics having named it the year's greatest and 18 others having ranked it in third place or below.
Accolades
Controversies
The November film trailer was controversial. Criticism included an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune by emergency physician Amy Ho, who argued (before the film's release) that Chicago deaths occurring nightly in local hospitals were used for the purpose of entertainment. Critiques of a similar vein were published on Twitter and other social media sites.
The term "Chi-Raq" is a portmanteau of Chicago and Iraq, as well as an endonym used by some Chicago non-residents to liken the area to a war zone due to its high crime rates. City residents and city council members requested that Lee change the name of the film, and threatened to withhold tax credits that the filmmaker would receive from the city. Lee later called Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel a "bully" and several Chicago aldermen "bootlickers" for their criticisms.
The film's production received more negative press when it was discovered that its music supervisor Thomas "DJ Slugo" Kendricks was charging artists a submission fee in order to have their music considered for the soundtrack. These measures were taken to the film's production team, and Kendricks was fired.
See also
List of black films of the 2010s
List of hood films
References
External links
2015 films
English-language films
2010s crime comedy-drama films
2010s musical comedy-drama films
2010s satirical films
American crime comedy-drama films
American films
American musical comedy-drama films
American satirical films
Films based on works by Aristophanes
Films scored by Terence Blanchard
Films directed by Spike Lee
Films set in Chicago
Films shot in Chicago
Films with screenplays by Spike Lee
Films based on ancient Greek plays
Amazon Studios films
Vertigo Films films
Works based on Lysistrata
2015 comedy films
2015 drama films
Films produced by Spike Lee
Films with screenplays by Kevin Willmott
|
1060606
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arpwatch
|
Arpwatch
|
arpwatch is a computer software tool for monitoring Address Resolution Protocol traffic on a computer network. It generates a log of observed pairing of IP addresses with MAC addresses along with a timestamp when the pairing appeared on the network. It also has the option of sending an email to an administrator when a pairing changes or is added.
Network administrators monitor ARP activity to detect ARP spoofing, network flip-flops, changed and new stations and address reuse.
arpwatch was developed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Network Research Group, as open-source software and is released under the BSD license.
See also
ArpON
arping
Ettercap
References
External links
Source files
Free network management software
Linux security software
Unix security software
Software using the BSD license
|
21482414
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architectural%20drawing
|
Architectural drawing
|
An architectural drawing or architect's drawing is a technical drawing of a building (or building project) that falls within the definition of architecture. Architectural drawings are used by architects and others for a number of purposes: to develop a design idea into a coherent proposal, to communicate ideas and concepts, to convince clients of the merits of a design, to assist a building contractor to construct it based on design intent, as a record of the design and planned development, or to make a record of a building that already exists.
Architectural drawings are made according to a set of conventions, which include particular views (floor plan, section etc.), sheet sizes, units of measurement and scales, annotation and cross referencing.
Historically, drawings were made in ink on paper or similar material, and any copies required had to be laboriously made by hand. The twentieth century saw a shift to drawing on tracing paper so that mechanical copies could be run off efficiently. The development of the computer had a major impact on the methods used to design and create technical drawings, making manual drawing almost obsolete, and opening up new possibilities of form using organic shapes and complex geometry. Today the vast majority of drawings are created using CAD software.
Size and scale
The size of drawings reflects the materials available and the size that is convenient to transport – rolled up or folded, laid out on a table, or pinned up on a wall. The drafting process may impose limitations on the size that is realistically workable. Sizes are determined by a consistent paper size system, according to local usage. Normally the largest paper size used in modern architectural practice is ISO A0 () or in the USA Arch E () or Large E size ().
Architectural drawings are drawn to scale so that relative sizes are correctly represented. The scale is chosen both to ensure the whole building will fit on the chosen sheet size and to show the required amount of detail. On the scale of one-eighth of an inch to one foot (1:96) or the metric equivalent of 1 to 100, walls are typically shown as simple outlines corresponding to the overall thickness. At a larger scale, half an inch to one foot (1:24) or the nearest common metric equivalent 1 to 20, the layers of different materials that make up the wall construction are shown. Construction details are drawn to a larger scale, in some cases full size (1 to 1 scale).
Scale drawings enable dimensions to be "read" off the drawing, i.e. measured directly. Imperial scales (feet and inches) are equally readable using an ordinary ruler. On a one-eighth inch to one-foot scale drawing, the one-eighth divisions on the ruler can be read off as feet. Architects normally use a scale ruler with different scales marked on each edge. A third method, used by builders in estimating, is to measure directly off the drawing and multiply by the scale factor.
Dimensions can be measured off drawings made on a stable medium such as vellum. All processes of reproduction introduce small errors, especially now that different copying methods mean that the same drawing may be re-copied, or copies made in several different ways. Consequently, dimensions need to be written ("figured") on the drawing. The disclaimer "Do not scale off dimensions" is commonly inscribed on architects' drawings, to guard against errors arising in the copying process.
Standard views used in architectural drawing
This section deals with the conventional views used to represent a building or structure. See the Types of architectural drawing section below for drawings classified according to their purpose.
Floor plan
A floor plan is the most fundamental architectural diagram, a view from above showing the arrangement of spaces in a building in the same way as a map, but showing the arrangement at a particular level of a building. Technically it is a horizontal section cut through a building (conventionally at four feet / one metre and twenty centimetres above floor level), showing walls, windows and door openings, and other features at that level. The plan view includes anything that could be seen below that level: the floor, stairs (but only up to the plan level), fittings, and sometimes furniture. Objects above the plan level (e.g. beams overhead) can be indicated as dashed lines.
Geometrically, plan view is defined as a vertical orthographic projection of an object onto a horizontal plane, with the horizontal plane cutting through the building.
Site plan
A site plan is a specific type of plan, showing the whole context of a building or group of buildings. A site plan shows property boundaries and means of access to the site, and nearby structures if they are relevant to the design. For a development on an urban site, the site plan may need to show adjoining streets to demonstrate how the design fits into the urban fabric. Within the site boundary, the site plan gives an overview of the entire scope of work. It shows the buildings (if any) already existing and those that are proposed, usually as a building footprint; roads, parking lots, footpaths, hard landscaping, trees, and planting. For a construction project, the site plan also needs to show all the services connections: drainage and sewer lines, water supply, electrical and communications cables, exterior lighting etc.
Site plans are commonly used to represent a building proposal prior to detailed design: drawing up a site plan is a tool for deciding both the site layout and the size and orientation of proposed new buildings. A site plan is used to verify that a proposal complies with local development codes, including restrictions on historical sites. In this context the site plan forms part of a legal agreement, and there may be a requirement for it to be drawn up by a licensed professional: architect, engineer, landscape architect or land surveyor.
Elevation
An elevation is a view of a building seen from one side, a flat representation of one façade. This is the most common view used to describe the external appearance of a building. Each elevation is labelled in relation to the compass direction it faces, e.g. looking toward the north you would be seeing the southern elevation of the building. Buildings are rarely a simple rectangular shape in plan, so a typical elevation may show all the parts of the building that are seen from a particular direction.
Geometrically, an elevation is a horizontal orthographic projection of a building onto a vertical plane, the vertical plane normally being parallel to one side of the building.
Architects also use the word elevation as a synonym for façade, so the "north elevation" is the north-facing wall of the building.
Cross section
A cross section, also simply called a section, represents a vertical plane cut through the object, in the same way as a floor plan is a horizontal section viewed from the top. In the section view, everything cut by the section plane is shown as a bold line, often with a solid fill to show objects that are cut through, and anything seen beyond generally shown in a thinner line. Sections are used to describe the relationship between different levels of a building. In the Observatorium drawing illustrated here, the section shows the dome which can be seen from the outside, a second dome that can only be seen inside the building, and the way the space between the two accommodates a large astronomical telescope: relationships that would be difficult to understand from plans alone.
A sectional elevation is a combination of a cross section, with elevations of other parts of the building seen beyond the section plane.
Geometrically, a cross section is a horizontal orthographic projection of a building on to a vertical plane, with the vertical plane cutting through the building.
Isometric and axonometric projections
Isometric and axonometric projections are a simple way of representing a three dimensional object, keeping the elements to scale and showing the relationship between several sides of the same object, so that the complexities of a shape can be clearly understood.
There is some confusion over the distinction between the terms isometric and axonometric. "Axonometric is a word that has been used by architects for hundreds of years. Engineers use the word axonometric as a generic term to include isometric, diametric and trimetric drawings." This article uses the terms in the architecture-specific sense.
Despite fairly complex geometrical explanations, for the purposes of practical drafting the difference between isometric and axonometric is simple (see diagram above). In both, the plan is drawn on a skewed or rotated grid, and the verticals are projected vertically on the page. All lines are drawn to scale so that relationships between elements are accurate. In many cases a different scale is required for different axes, and again this can be calculated but in practice was often simply estimated by eye.
An isometric uses a plan grid at 30 degrees from the horizontal in both directions, which distorts the plan shape. Isometric graph paper can be used to construct this kind of drawing. This view is useful to explain construction details (e.g. three dimensional joints in joinery). The isometric was the standard view until the mid twentieth century, remaining popular until the 1970s, especially for textbook diagrams and illustrations.
Cabinet projection is similar, but only one axis is skewed, the others being horizontal and vertical. Originally used in cabinet making, the advantage is that a principal side (e.g. a cabinet front) is displayed without distortion, so only the less important sides are skewed. The lines leading away from the eye are drawn at a reduced scale to lessen the degree of distortion. The cabinet projection is seen in Victorian engraved advertisements and architectural textbooks, but has virtually disappeared from general use.
An axonometric uses a 45-degree plan grid, which keeps the original orthogonal geometry of the plan. The great advantage of this view for architecture is that the draftsman can work directly from a plan, without having to reconstruct it on a skewed grid. In theory the plan should be set at 45 degrees, but this introduces confusing coincidences where opposite corners align. Unwanted effects can be avoided by rotating the plan while still projecting vertically. This is sometimes called a planometric or plan oblique view, and allows freedom to choose any suitable angle to present the most useful view of an object.
Traditional drafting techniques used 30–60 and 45 degree set squares, and that determined the angles used in these views. Once the adjustable square became common those limitations were lifted.
The axonometric gained in popularity in the twentieth century, not just as a convenient diagram but as a formal presentation technique, adopted in particular by the Modern Movement. Axonometric drawings feature prominently in the influential 1970's drawings of Michael Graves, James Stirling and others, using not only straightforward views but worms-eye view, unusually and exaggerated rotations of the plan, and exploded elements.
The axonometric view is not readily generated by CAD programmes which create views from a three dimensional model. Consequently, it is now rarely used.
Detail drawings
Detail drawings show a small part of the construction at a larger scale, to show how the component parts fit together. They are also used to show small surface details, for example decorative elements. Section drawings at large scale are a standard way of showing building construction details, typically showing complex junctions (such as floor to wall junction, window openings, eaves and roof apex) that cannot be clearly shown on a drawing that includes the full height of the building. A full set of construction details needs to show plan details as well as vertical section details. One detail is seldom produced in isolation: a set of details shows the information needed to understand the construction in three dimensions. Typical scales for details are 1/10, 1/5 and full size.
In traditional construction, many details were so fully standardized, that few detail drawings were required to construct a building. For example, the construction of a sash window would be left to the carpenter, who would fully understand what was required, but unique decorative details of the façade would be drawn up in detail. In contrast, modern buildings need to be fully detailed because of the proliferation of different products, methods and possible solutions.
Architectural perspective
Perspective in drawing is an approximate representation on a flat surface of an image as it is perceived by the eye. The key concepts here are:
Perspective is the view from a particular fixed viewpoint.
Horizontal and vertical edges in the object are represented by horizontals and verticals in the drawing.
Lines leading away into the distance appear to converge at a vanishing point.
All horizontals converge to a point on the horizon, which is a horizontal line at eye level.
Verticals converge to a point either above or below the horizon.
The basic categorization of artificial perspective is by the number of vanishing points:
One-point perspective where objects facing the viewer are orthogonal, and receding lines converge to a single vanishing point.
Two-point perspective reduces distortion by viewing objects at an angle, with all the horizontal lines receding to one of two vanishing points, both located on the horizon.
Three-point perspective introduces additional realism by making the verticals recede to a third vanishing point, which is above or below depending upon whether the view is seen from above or below.
The normal convention in architectural perspective is to use two-point perspective, with all the verticals drawn as verticals on the page.
Three-point perspective gives a casual, photographic snapshot effect. In professional architectural photography, conversely, a view camera or a perspective control lens is used to eliminate the third vanishing point, so that all the verticals are vertical on the photograph, as with the perspective convention. This can also be done by digital manipulation of a photograph taken with a standard lens.
Aerial perspective is a technique in painting, for indicating distance by approximating the effect of the atmosphere on distant objects. In daylight, as an ordinary object gets further from the eye, its contrast with the background is reduced, its color saturation is reduced, and its color becomes more blue. Not to be confused with aerial view or bird's eye view, which is the view as seen (or imagined) from a high vantage point. In J M Gandy's perspective of the Bank of England (see illustration at the beginning of this article), Gandy portrayed the building as a picturesque ruin in order to show the internal plan arrangement, a precursor of the cutaway view.
A montage image is produced by superimposing a perspective image of a building on to a photographic background. Care is needed to record the position from which the photograph was taken, and to generate the perspective using the same viewpoint. This technique is popular in computer visualization, where the building can be photorealistically rendered, and the final image is intended to be almost indistinguishable from a photograph.
Sketches and diagrams
A sketch is a rapidly executed freehand drawing, a quick way to record and develop an idea, not intended as a finished work. A diagram could also be drawn freehand but deals with symbols, to develop the logic of a design. Both can be worked up into a more presentable form and used to communicate the principles of a design.
In architecture, the finished work is expensive and time consuming, so it is important to resolve the design as fully as possible before construction work begins. Complex modern buildings involve a large team of different specialist disciplines, and communication at the early design stages is essential to keep the design moving towards a coordinated outcome. Architects (and other designers) start investigating a new design with sketches and diagrams, to develop a rough design that provides an adequate response to the particular design problems.
There are two basic elements to a building design, the aesthetic and the practical. The aesthetic element includes the layout and visual appearance, the anticipated feel of the materials, and cultural references that will influence the way people perceive the building. Practical concerns include space allocated for different activities, how people enter and move around the building, daylight and artificial lighting, acoustics, traffic noise, legal matters and building codes, and many other issues. While both aspects are partly a matter of customary practice, every site is different. Many architects actively seek innovation, thereby increasing the number of problems to be resolved.
Architectural legend often refers to designs made on the back of an envelope or on a napkin. Initial thoughts are important, even if they have to be discarded along the way, because they provide the central idea around which the design can develop. Although a sketch is inaccurate, it is disposable and allows for freedom of thought, for trying different ideas quickly. Choice becomes sharply reduced once the design is committed to a scale drawing, and the sketch stage is almost always essential.
Diagrams are mainly used to resolve practical matters. In the early phases of the design architects use diagrams to develop, explore, and communicate ideas and solutions. They are essential tools for thinking, problem solving, and communication in the design disciplines. Diagrams can be used to resolve spatial relationships, but they can also represent forces and flows, e.g. the forces of sun and wind, or the flows of people and materials through a building.
An exploded view diagram shows component parts dis-assembled in some way, so that each can be seen on its own. These views are common in technical manuals, but are also used in architecture, either in conceptual diagrams or to illustrate technical details. In a cutaway view parts of the exterior are omitted to show the interior, or details of internal construction. Although common in technical illustration, including many building products and systems, the cutaway is in fact little-used in architectural drawing.
Types
Architectural drawings are produced for a specific purpose, and can be classified accordingly. Several elements are often included on the same sheet, for example a sheet showing a plan together with the principal façade.
Presentation drawings
Drawings intended to explain a scheme and to promote its merits. Working drawings may include tones or hatches to emphasize different materials, but they are diagrams, not intended to appear realistic. Basic presentation drawings typically include people, vehicles and trees, taken from a library of such images, and are otherwise very similar in style to working drawings. Rendering is the art of adding surface textures and shadows to show the visual qualities of a building more realistically. An architectural illustrator or graphic designer may be employed to prepare specialist presentation images, usually perspectives or highly finished site plans, floor plans and elevations etc.
Survey drawings
Measured drawings of existing land, structures and buildings. Architects need an accurate set of survey drawings as a basis for their working drawings, to establish exact dimensions for the construction work. Surveys are usually measured and drawn up by specialist land surveyors.
Record drawings
Historically, architects have made record drawings in order to understand and emulate the great architecture known to them. In the Renaissance, architects from all over Europe studied and recorded the remains of the Roman and Greek civilizations, and used these influences to develop the architecture of the period. Records are made both individually, for local purposes, and on a large scale for publication. Historic surveys worth referring to include:
Colen Campbell's Vitruvius Brittanicus, illustrations of English buildings by Inigo Jones and Sir Christopher Wren, as well as Campbell himself and other prominent architects of the era.
The Survey of London, founded in 1894 by Charles Robert Ashbee and now available through English Heritage. A record of notable streets and individual buildings in the former County of London.
Historic American Buildings Survey, records of notable buildings drawn up during the 1930s Depression, this collection is held by the Library of Congress and is available copyright-free on the internet.
Record drawings are also used in construction projects, where "as-built" conditions of the completed building are documented to take account of all the variations made during the course of construction.
Working drawings
A comprehensive set of drawings used in a building construction project: these will include not only architect's drawings, but structural and other engineering drawings as well. Working drawings logically subdivide into location, assembly and component drawings.
Location drawings, also called general arrangement drawings, include floor plans, sections and elevations: they show where the construction elements are located.
Assembly drawings show how the different parts are put together. For example, a wall detail will show the layers that make up the construction, how they are fixed to structural elements, how to finish the edges of openings, and how prefabricated components are to be fitted.
Component drawings enable self-contained elements e.g. windows and doorsets, to be fabricated in a workshop, and delivered to site complete and ready for installation. Larger components may include roof trusses, cladding panels, cupboards and kitchens. Complete rooms, especially hotel bedrooms and bathrooms, may be made as prefabricated pods complete with internal decorations and fittings.
Formerly, working drawings would typically combine plans, sections, elevations and some details to provide a complete explanation of a building on one sheet. That was possible because little detail was included, the building techniques involved being common knowledge amongst building professionals. Modern working drawings are much more detailed and it is standard practice to isolate select areas of the project on separate sheets. Notes included on drawings are brief, referring to standardized specification documents for more information. Understanding the layout and construction of a modern building involves studying an often-sizeable set of drawings and documents.
Drafting
Until the latter part of the 20th century, all architectural drawings were manually produced, if not by the architects, then by trained (but less skilled) draftsmen (or drafters), who did not generate the design, but did make many of the less important decisions. This system has continued with CAD drafting: many design architects have little or no knowledge of CAD software programmes, relying upon others to take their designs beyond the sketch stage. Draftsmen often specialize in a type of structure, such as residential or commercial, or in a type of construction: timber frame, reinforced concrete, prefabrication, etc.
The traditional tools of the architect were the drawing board or drafting table, T-square and set squares, protractor, compasses, pencil, and drawing pens of different types. Drawings were made on vellum, coated linen, and tracing paper. Lettering would either be done by hand, mechanically using a stencil, or a combination of the two. Ink lines were drawn with a ruling pen, a relatively sophisticated device similar to a dip-in pen, but with adjustable line width, capable of producing a very fine controlled line width. Ink pens had to be dipped into ink frequently. Draftsmen worked standing up, keeping the ink on a separate table to avoid spilling ink on the drawing.
Developments in the 20th century included the parallel motion drawing board, as well as more complex improvements on the basic T-square. The development of reliable technical drawing pens allowed for faster drafting and stenciled lettering. Letraset dry transfer lettering and half-tone sheets were popular from the 1970s until computers made those processes obsolete.
CGI and computer-aided design
Computer-aided design (generally referred to by the acronym CAD) is the use of computer software to create drawings. Today the vast majority of technical drawings of all kinds are made using CAD. Instead of drawing lines on paper, the computer records equivalent information electronically. There are many advantages to this system: repetition is reduced because complex elements can be copied, duplicated and stored for re-use. Errors can be deleted, and the speed of drafting allows many permutations to be tried before the design is finalized. On the other hand, CAD drawing encourages a proliferation of detail and increased expectations of accuracy, aspects which reduce the efficiency originally expected from the move to computerization.
Professional CAD software such as AutoCAD is complex and requires both training and experience before the operator becomes fully productive. Consequently, skilled CAD operators are often divorced from the design process. Simpler software such as SketchUp and Vectorworks allows for more intuitive drawing and is intended as a design tool.
CAD is used to create all kinds of drawings, from working drawings to photorealistic perspective views. Architectural renderings (also called visualizations) are made by creating a three-dimensional model using CAD. The model can be viewed from any direction to find the most useful viewpoints. Different software (for example Autodesk 3ds Max) is then used to apply color and texture to surfaces, and to represent shadows and reflections. The result can be accurately combined with photographic elements: people, cars, background landscape.
Building Information Modeling
Building information modeling (BIM) is the logical development of CAD drawing, a relatively new technology but fast becoming mainstream. The design team collaborates to create a three-dimensional computer model, and all plans and other two-dimensional views are generated directly from the model, ensuring spatial consistency. The key innovation here is to share the model via the internet, so that all the design functions (site survey, architecture, structure and services) can be integrated into a single model, or as a series of models associated with each specialism that are shared throughout the design development process. Some form of management, not necessarily by the architect, needs to be in place to resolve conflicting priorities. The starting point of BIM is spatial design, but it also enables components to be quantified and scheduled directly from the information embedded in the model.. Building information modelling can be characterized into 3 different levels ranging from 0-3. These levels represent BIM maturity and distinguishes the amount of cooperation in projects. They gauge information being shared throughout the whole process.
Level 0 is individualized with no collaboration. Individuals are working on their own CAD files separately and working using their own standards. These are known to be more traditional ways which are being phased out therefore no longer being used today.
Level 1 is a mixture of 3D and 2D work. Project teams are required to manage and share data amongst the team. Aspects such as “naming conventions” should be adopted.
Level 2 involves all team members using 3D models. Although they might not being using the same information, the built environment is shared through a similar file formats. This level also introduces construction sequencing and cost.
Level 3 involves working on a shared project model. The model exists in a central environment and can be modified by everyone. Conflicting information is reduced due to real time update on models. Later levels include sequencing components, cost estimation and accounting for upfront costs.
Parametric Design
Parametric design is an example of computer intelligence rising in the field of architecture. It is the creation of complex relationships between models. Measurements in parametric design connect by scripts. Users can adjust and adapt their models based on measurements. Changing one measurement will affect other measurements based on the set parameters. The parametric design uses scalability and adjustments which involve complex organic shapes. It allows for the creation of forms that would not be possible with regular 3d modeling or would take copious amounts of time. Models can decrease production time, therefore, allowing for the time allotted to other times of the design process. An argument with parametric design is the question of practicality. At times, it is unsure whether or not these styles properly comply with users wants and needs. Real-life examples of parametric designs would be The Metropol Parasol in Seville or the Canton in Guangzhou China. These forms have a commonality with complex repetitive patterns which twist, bend and curve in dramatic ways. These lattices are unique and there is a complexity tied with how they look. This is coined as “parametricism” by Zaha Hadid which is a style based on digital animation techniques.
Architectural animation
An architectural animation is a short film showing how a proposed building will look: the moving image makes three-dimensional forms much easier to understand. An animation is generated from a series of hundreds or even thousands of still images, each made in the same way as an architectural visualization. A computer-generated building is created using a CAD programs, and that is used to create more or less realistic views from a sequence of viewpoints. The simplest animations use a moving viewpoint, while more complex animations can include moving objects: people, vehicles, and so on.
Digital Era in Architecture
Schools are producing well versed architecture students who perform in computer assisted collaboration, construction automation and intelligent buildings which promise to have as much impact before the adaptation of technologies. It’s important to understand that architects are problem solvers and critical thinking which has been used since the dawn of man is still being carried on. The idea of innovation, responsiveness and critical thinking will never be “phased out” and always relevant today. Although pure drafting, which involves manually drawing plans for construction, are not being used as often because of CAD, they are training architects to exercise human centered designer and to dive deeper into the culture to ultimately understand clientele . Human centered design involves the human perspective in all steps of the design process .The unpredictability and complexity of humans are unmatched with any pre-programmed systems.
Virtual Reality
Virtual reality in architectural projects helps designers understand spaces from a cognitive perspective. VR stands for virtual reality and explains an experience in a world that doesn't exist. Virtual reality creates an experience generated by a computer program. The use of motion tracking allows for quick manipulation. It creates an individual secluded experience. Architecture firms are using this as a tool to allow employees to learn and create a more engaging experience for both clients and employees. Benefits of VR for architecture include low start-up costs, gaining a competitive edge, avoiding revision, and the duplication of real-world scenarios. By placing a client into the virtual world, the feedback is often more straight forward as the client can walk through based on their needs and aesthetic choices.
Online Practices
Due to COVID-19. architecture firms have increasingly shifted to a digital environment for collaboration. Video conferencing is proving to be a popular way of meeting with clients and simulating the studio environment. Collaboration and communication using programs like Zoom are common consistently being used. Since the beginning of the epidemic, people are expected to be increasingly well versed with technology. Although coordination is often difficult, programs like BIM help improve workflow between both architects clients. However, relationships with clients are harder to facilitate because clients are not able to touch or feel the work. Adaptation is critical as more and more programs are being implemented among the studio to support staff.
.
Architectural reprographics
Reprographics or reprography covers a variety of technologies, media, and support services used to make multiple copies of original drawings. Prints of architectural drawings are still sometimes called blueprints, after one of the early processes which produced a white line on blue paper. The process was superseded by the dye-line print system which prints black on white coated paper (Whiteprint). The standard modern processes are the ink-jet printer, laser printer and photocopier, of which the ink-jet and laser printers are commonly used for large-format printing. Although colour printing is now commonplace, it remains expensive above A3 size, and architect's working drawings still tend to adhere to the black and white / greyscale aesthetic.
See also
Architectural model
Copyright in architecture in the United States
Drawing
Engineering drawing
Layers in a standard architectural drawing
Linear scale
List of museums with major collections of European prints and drawings
Museum for Architectural Drawing, Berlin, Germany
Multiview orthographic projection
Preservation: Library and Archival Science
Structural drawing
Technical drawing
References
Drawing
Technical drawing
|
21887637
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malwarebytes
|
Malwarebytes
|
Malwarebytes Inc. is an American Internet security company that specializes in protecting home computers, smartphones, and companies from malware and other threats. It has offices in Santa Clara, California, Clearwater, Florida, Tallinn, Estonia and Cork, Ireland.
History
Early history and background
Malwarebytes Inc. was informally established in 2004. CEO and founder Marcin Kleczynski, originally from Poland, was still a teenager attending high school in Bensenville, Illinois at the time, and was working as a technician in a computer repair shop in Chicago. He noticed that whenever infected computers arrived, the shop would typically reformat the computer entirely, rather than combat the virus, even if the infection was only minor. Kleczynski later discovered that, when his mother's computer became infected, neither McAfee nor Symantec would remove the malware from his system. He later recalled "I've never been as angry as when I got my computer infected", and professed that his mother told him to fix it "under penalty of death". It was only after Kleczynski posted on the forum SpywareInfo, popular at the time, that he was able to learn how to remove the virus, which took three days.
The company was unofficially founded after this, when Kleczynski conversed and became friends with several of the editors of the forum, who tempted him to buy an unused domain from them.
With one of the site's regulars, Bruce Harrison, Kleczynski wrote the inaugural version of the company's software. In 2006, Kleczynski worked with a college roommate to produce a freely available program called "RogueRemover", a utility which specialized in fighting against a type of infection known as "rogues", which scam computer users into giving away their credit card information through fake anti-virus software. RogueRemover proved instrumental in developing Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, and Kleczynski was able to set up a forum which enabled him to improve the software through feedback. Kleczynski and Harrison formally launched Malwarebytes on January 21, 2008 while Kleczynski was studying computer science at the University of Illinois. Bruce became the VP of Research for Malwarebytes, and further hired Doug Swanson, with experience in freeware development to work for the new company. Marcus Chung, an e-commerce expert who formerly worked for GreenBorder, was hired as chief operating officer. Kleczynski and Harrison reportedly made $600,000 in their first year of selling the software, despite not having met personally at the time.
Post-2010 developments
In 2011, Malwarebytes acquired HPhosts, a website blacklisting company, which tracks blacklisted websites and ad servers, a necessary development to protect against new internet protocol addresses and web servers which distribute malware, and advise internet service providers to shut down those with malicious activity. That year, the company had claimed to have removed over five billion pieces of Malware in three years. The following year, the company launched into the corporate market with an enterprise product aimed at desktop-based anti-malware detection and protection. In 2013, Malwarebytes acquired ZeroVulnerabilityLabs, Inc., a security research and development company founded by Pedro Bustamante, which protects software applications from "known and zero-day exploits used by exploit kits, web-based vulnerability exploits and other corporate-targeted attacks". They expanded their malware removal and protection to the Android platform with the launch of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Mobile, and launched a USB-based product called Malwarebytes Techbench aimed at helping technicians remove malware.
In 2014, Malwarebytes received $30 million in funding from Highland Capital, and by the following year it announced that it had treated 250 million computers worldwide, representing about 20–25% of working business computers. By 2013 it claimed to have removed five billion malware threats from computers in its first five years. In June 2015, the company announced that it was moving its headquarters from 10 Almaden Boulevard in San Jose, California to a new office space on the two top floors of the 12-story 3979 Freedom Circle in Santa Clara, California. The new office is more than twice the size of the former office. The company reported a growth of 10 million users in just one year, from 25 to 35 million active users at the time, and an increase in revenue by 1653% in 2014. In 2015, Kleczynski was named one of Forbes Magazine's '30 Under 30'.
In January 2016, Malwarebytes unveiled advanced anti-ransomware package Endpoint Security, and announced that it had raised $50 million in investment from Fidelity Management and Research Company. Kleczynski stated that the funds would be used primarily for the company's hiring, product development and marketing assets. In June, Malwarebytes announced a strong growth in sales of over 75 percent in the first quarter of the year compared to 2015, with billings surpassing $100 million. The corporate subscription base for the company was reported to have grown by 90%. In September, Proofpoint, Inc. CEO Gary Steele joined the company's board of directors, with Kleczynski citing his "deep expertise in the security software industry, and his proven ability [at] increasing sales revenue" as the main reasons for his appointment. In October the company purchased AdwCleaner, a Windows program used to clean adware and Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUPs) from computers. In February 2017 the company acquired Saferbytes, an Italian security start-up specialized in anti-malware, anti-exploit, anti-rootkit, cloud AV, and sandbox technologies.
In November of 2019, the company joined forces with competitors NortonLifeLock and Kaspersky along with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and non-profits including the National Network to End Domestic Violence and Operation Safe Escape to form the Coalition Against Stalkerware. The coalition seeks to inform, educate and combat the use of tracking apps without consent.
Post-2020 developments
In January 2021, Malwarebytes was targeted by the same nation state actor implicated in the SolarWinds attack and suffered a limited access breach. CEO Kleczynski published a blog post detailing the company’s attack and response.
In February of 2021, Malwarebytes published its 2021 State of Malware Report which shared cyberthreat research including 30 million examples of Mac malware and a 1,055% increase in spyware detections in 2020.
In May 2021, Malwarebytes announced a collaboration with Digitunity to deliver cyberprotection to vulnerable communities underserved by technology access, expanding its portfolio of social impact work.
Executive leadership
Marcin Kleczynski has been the CEO of Malwarebytes since 2008.
In 2018, Malwarebytes hired former CFO of Angi, Tom Fox, to serve as CFO for the company. In 2021 Tom was promoted to President, retaining the title of CFO in this new role.
In 2020, Malwarebytes promoted Chief Revenue Officer Barry Mainz to Chief Operating Officer after he scaled up global marketing, consumer and customer growth and customer success during his two-year tenure with the company.
In 2020 Malwarebytes recruited Dariusz Paczuski as senior vice president of marketing, he was promoted to CMO in 2021.
In 2021, former LogMeIn executive, Mark Strassman joined Malwarebytes as chief product officer.
Services and products
Kleczynski has stated that Malwarebytes, first developed in 2008, has a competitive advantage over many other traditional antivirus programs, many of which were developed in the late 1990s, before the development of many later forms of malware. The New York Times has described Malwarebytes as a "hybrid of heuristics, behavior and a signature engine that is designed to detect and block malware that other vendors can't detect". According to Dean Takahashi of VentureBeat, Malwarebytes complements other antivirus software from vendors such as Symantec and McAfee, with the anti-malware working alongside other anti-virus software to attack the problem from "different directions", remarking that the software both removed infections from infected machines, whilst preventing others from becoming infected in the first place.
As in the early development days with RogueRemover, Malwarebytes continues to support community feedback on its products, and runs two sub-forums complementing the main forum, known as "False positives" and "Malware contribution", with the false positives being reported allowing the company to update its database within hours of posting, and the Malware contribution allowing for users to quickly report malware missed by the software.
Products
Malwarebytes has several products, which were available in 36 different languages. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware offers two different versions, one for free download for home computers, and the other a professional version, with a 14-day free trial in advance, offering "real-time protection against malware, automated scanning, and automatic updating". Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Mobile is a free Android app which protects smartphones from mobile malware, preventing unauthorized access to personal data identifying tracking applications. It has a rating of 4.4 on the Google Play store.
In 2014, the company launched Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 2.0 with an improved user interface and dashboard. The company also launched Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit in the same year, which shields selected applications from attacks by "exploit mitigation to protect vulnerable programs". Anti-Exploit also comes in a free and paid for version for Windows computers. The free version stops exploits in browsers and Java, whilst the paid product adds protection for a wider range of software applications. Anti-Exploit received four stars from PC Magazine in 2015 and won V3 magazine's "Security Innovation of the Year" award in 2014.
In 2016, Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit was merged into the premium version Malwarebytes version 3.0, and the standalone application is now offered only as a perpetual beta.
In January 2016, Malwarebytes unveiled Malwarebytes Endpoint Security, advanced anti-ransomware technology which is described as the "first solution to offer multiple layers of protection against unknown ransomware". The company sponsored a survey with Osterman Research into 540 firms in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Germany and found that nearly 40% of companies had experienced ransomware incidents, of which 34 percent had accounted for loss of revenue. The Guardian reported that one-fifth of British companies had been charged over $10,000 to unlock their files and that there was an increasing demand for anti-ransomware technology. After Endpoint's inception, the beta was reportedly downloaded by some 200,000 businesses and consumers in the first six months of the year.
In 2017, Malwarebytes expanded its portfolio to include mobile products for Mac and Android including Malwarebytes for Android and Malwarebytes for Mac. Malwarebytes also can be ran on ChromeOS, but mainly provides protection against Android threats. Malwarebytes also released Malwarebytes for iOS in 2018 to deliver secure and private mobile experiences for its users. Due to Apple's security restrictions, Malwarebytes for iOS can not remove malware, but does provide basic web protection and spam blocking. In 2020, Malwarebytes Privacy, a VPN offering, was launched.
In 2018, Malwarebytes expanded its business portfolio by launching Malwarebytes Endpoint Protection and Response to monitor, identify and remediate attacks. This offering was extended in 2020 to include server protection for enterprise customers with Malwarebytes Endpoint Detection and Response for Servers and Malwarebytes Endpoint Protection for Servers. In 2020, Malwarebytes also launched Malwarebytes Nebula, a cloud platform for enterprise customers to simplify endpoint management and reporting.
Malwarebytes also has numerous tools such as a Junkware Removal Tool to remove adware, an Anti-Rootkit Beta to remove and repair rootkits, StartUpLITE to boost the speed of the Windows reboot, FileASSASSIN to prevent locked files and a Malware Removal Service to support organizations under an active malware attack.
License and privacy
The software license requires arbitration "in the county where you reside", forbids class action suits, reverse engineering and sharing, and limits warranties and liability. Even the free version may not be shared, since the company tracks use of the product separately for each user.
Malwarebytes' privacy policy lists many types of information they collect and store, including, amongst other things, software running on a user's computer ("programs installed or in use"), "name, email address, mailing address, or phone number... company name, company size, business type... Internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, Internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, the files viewed on our site ... operating system, date/time stamp, and/or clickstream data ... type of device you use, operating system version, and the unique device identifier... language... 32- or 64-bit... Information from the Windows Security/Action Center, including security settings and programs installed or in use... license... the number of seats being managed by that installation of the console[,] Endpoint domain information... organization to which the IP address is licensed, if any".
There are different limits on their use, sale, and sharing of data:
No limits for what they call "non-personally identifiable information ('Non-PII')". "Non-PII ... may include... anonymously generated device identifiers", which are tied to most other data items listed above.
Limited uses for personally identifiable information (PII), including name, address, phone, company name, size and business type, "we do not share PII with third parties" except for situations listed in the Privacy Policy, which include that they "may disclose PII to government ... and private parties ... to satisfy... regulation ... subpoenas... to protect ... the public in general; ... to prevent or stop activity we consider to be illegal or unethical." The company also discloses enough information to provide "advertising based upon your browsing activities and interests."
In general, the company does not put time limits on how long they keep user data, except for IP address or when users ask for deletion of PII:
"we do not retain the IP address... However, we do use it to gather ... continent, country, city, and approximate latitude/ longitude ... The type of connection (dialup/broadband/satellite/mobile) The ISP... The organization to which the IP address is licensed, if any".
"You may access and modify the PII [personally identifiable information]... If you want us to delete your PII... We will delete your information as soon as possible; however, some information may remain in archived/backup copies for our records or as otherwise required by law. We may retain your information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you services, comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes and enforce our agreements." They define PII to exclude device identifiers, so they do not promise to delete these identifiers and user history.
While Malwarebytes saves locations of IP addresses, including for mobile devices, the company has stated that this information is not used to extract GPS locations from mobile devices: "We do not ask for, access or track any location based information from your mobile device at any time while downloading or using our Mobile Apps or Services." The company has not stated if they track antenna locations.
The company also collects detailed information on malware and exploits they find, tied to the user's license number and device identifier, "vendor... File path of exploit process... Command-line arguments passed to the exploit... (Potentially) a copy of the exploit executable itself". The company does not list the license number as PII.
Malwarebytes has a certificate from TRUSTe, which among other things certifies the company "Limits the information collected and limits use to what is specified in the privacy notice."
See also
Antivirus software
Comparison of computer viruses
References
External links
Antivirus software
Companies' terms of service
2008 establishments in the United States
Companies based in San Jose, California
Computer security software companies
Technology companies established in 2008
Software companies of the United States
|
14416685
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ltrace
|
Ltrace
|
ltrace is a debugging utility in Linux, used to display the calls a userspace application makes to shared libraries. It does this by hooking into the dynamic loading system, allowing it to insert shims which display the parameters which the applications uses when making the call, and the return value which the library call reports. ltrace can also trace Linux system calls. Because it uses the dynamic library hooking mechanism, ltrace cannot trace calls to libraries which are statically linked directly to the target binary. Since 0.7.3, ltrace can also trace calls to libraries which are loaded using dlopen().
Example output
The following is the first few lines of an invocation of . It shows ltrace displaying calls to a variety of libraries, including the C standard library (malloc, strlen), POSIX libraries (getuid), X Toolkit Intrinsics (XtOpenApplication), and the X11 inter-client communication library (IceAddConnectionWatch). A call's return value is shown after the = symbol.
[pid 11783] __libc_start_main(0x407420, 1, 0x7fff75b6aad8, 0x443cc0, 0x443d50 <unfinished ...>
[pid 11783] geteuid() = 1000
[pid 11783] getegid() = 1000
[pid 11783] getuid() = 1000
[pid 11783] getgid() = 1000
[pid 11783] setuid(1000) = 0
[pid 11783] malloc(91) = 0x00cf8010
[pid 11783] XtSetLanguageProc(0, 0, 0, 0x7f968c9a3740, 1) = 0x7f968bc16220
[pid 11783] ioctl(0, 21505, 0x7fff75b6a960) = 0
[pid 11783] XtSetErrorHandler(0x42bbb0, 0x44f99c, 0x669f80, 146, 0x7fff75b6a72c) = 0
[pid 11783] XtOpenApplication(0x670260, 0x44f99c, 0x669f80, 146, 0x7fff75b6a72c) = 0xd219a0
[pid 11783] IceAddConnectionWatch(0x42adc0, 0, 0, 0x7f968c9a3748, 0 <unfinished ...>
[pid 11783] IceConnectionNumber(0xd17ec0, 0, 1, 0xcfb138, 0xd17c00) = 4
[pid 11783] <... IceAddConnectionWatch resumed> ) = 1
[pid 11783] XtSetErrorHandler(0, 0, 1, 0xcfb138, 0xd17c00) = 0
[pid 11783] XtGetApplicationResources(0xd219a0, 0x6701c0, 0x66b220, 34, 0) = 0
[pid 11783] strlen("off") = 3
See also
strace – system call tracer for linux
ktrace – system call tracer for *BSD
truss – classic system call tracer
DTrace – Solaris / OS X / BSD / Windows kernel tracing tool
SystemTap – Linux kernel tracing tool
External links
ltrace man page
Rodrigo Rubira Branco, Ltrace Internals, Ottawa Linux Symposium 2007
latrace, a dynamic library call tracer which operates using the LD_AUDIT libc feature
Unix programming tools
|
9897302
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee%20E.%20McMahon
|
Lee E. McMahon
|
Lee Edward McMahon (October 24, 1931–February 15, 1989) was an American computer scientist.
Family and education
McMahon was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to father Leo E. McMahon and mother Catherine McCarthy. He grew up in St. Louis and attended St. Louis University High School. In 1955 he received his bachelor's degree summa cum laude from St. Louis University. McMahon was awarded a regular graduate fellowship from the St. Louis University for study in psychology at Harvard University, where he then obtained a Ph.D. in psychology. His Ph.D. thesis at Harvard University was published in 1963 with the title "Grammatical analysis as a part of understanding a sentence".
He was married to Helen G McMahon and they had two children, Michael and Catherine.
Bell Labs
McMahon worked for Bell Labs from 1963 up until his death in 1989. He worked initially as a Linguistics Researcher and focussed around a language called FASE (Fundamentally Analyzable Simplified English) with the goal of improving communication between humans and computers.
McMahon officially joined the Bell Labs Computing Research Center in 1975.
A project which attempted to clarify the authorship of The Federalist papers connected him to Robert Morris and began his involvement with early Unix development.
McMahon is best known for his contributions to early versions of the Unix operating system, in particular the sed stream editor. McMahon contributed to the development of comm, qsort, grep, index, cref, cu, and Datakit.
McMahon system tournament
McMahon worked on the creation of a pairing system for go together with Bob Ryder of Bell Labs in the early 1960s.
The system was widely used in go tournaments - for example in the U.S. Championship tournaments of 1986.
References
Unix people
Go researchers
Harvard University alumni
American computer scientists
1931 births
1989 deaths
|
10547029
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer%20security%20incident%20management
|
Computer security incident management
|
In the fields of computer security and information technology, computer security incident management involves the monitoring and detection of security events on a computer or computer network, and the execution of proper responses to those events. Computer security incident management is a specialized form of incident management, the primary purpose of which is the development of a well understood and predictable response to damaging events and computer intrusions.
Incident management requires a process and a response team which follows this process. This definition of computer security incident management follows the standards and definitions described in the National Incident Management System (NIMS). The incident coordinator manages the response to an emergency security incident. In a Natural Disaster or other event requiring response from Emergency services, the incident coordinator would act as a liaison to the emergency services incident manager.
Overview
Computer security incident management is an administrative function of managing and protecting computer assets, networks and information systems. These systems continue to become more critical to the personal and economic welfare of our society. Organizations (public and private sector groups, associations and enterprises) must understand their responsibilities to the public good and to the welfare of their memberships and stakeholders. This responsibility extends to having a management program for “what to do, when things go wrong.” Incident management is a program which defines and implements a process that an organization may adopt to promote its own welfare and the security of the public.
Components of an incident
Events
An event is an observable change to the normal behavior of a system, environment, process, workflow or person (components). There are three basic types of events:
Normal—a normal event does not affect critical components or require change controls prior to the implementation of a resolution. Normal events do not require the participation of senior personnel or management notification of the event.
Escalation – an escalated event affects critical production systems or requires that implementation of a resolution that must follow a change control process. Escalated events require the participation of senior personnel and stakeholder notification of the event.
Emergency – an emergency is an event which may
impact the health or safety of human beings
breach primary controls of critical systems
materially affect component performance or because of impact to component systems prevent activities which protect or may affect the health or safety of individuals
be deemed an emergency as a matter of policy or by declaration by the available incident coordinator
Computer security and information technology personnel must handle emergency events according to well-defined computer security incident response plan.
Incident
An incident is an event attributable to a human root cause. This distinction is particularly important when the event is the product of malicious intent to do harm. An important note: all incidents are events but many events are not incidents. A system or application failure due to age or defect may be an emergency event but a random flaw or failure is not an incident.
Incident response team
The security incident coordinator manages the response process and is responsible for assembling the team. The coordinator will ensure the team includes all the individuals necessary to properly assess the incident and make decisions regarding the proper course of action. The incident team meets regularly to review status reports and to authorize specific remedies. The team should utilize a pre-allocated physical and virtual meeting place.
Incident investigation
The investigation seeks to determine the circumstances of the incident. Every incident will warrant or require an investigation. However, investigation resources like forensic tools, dirty networks, quarantine networks and consultation with law enforcement may be useful for the effective and rapid resolution of an emergency incident.
Process
Initial incident management process
Employee, vendor, customer, partner, device or sensor reports event to Help Desk.
Prior to creating the ticket, the help desk may filter the event as a false positive. Otherwise, the help desk system creates a ticket that captures the event, event source, initial event severity and event priority.
The ticket system creates a unique ID for the event. IT Personnel must use the ticket to capture email, IM and other informal communication.
Subsequent activities like change control, incident management reports and compliance reports must reference the ticket number.
In instances where event information is “Restricted Access,” the ticket must reference the relevant documents in the secure document management system.
The First Level Responder captures additional event data and performs preliminary analysis. In many organizations the volume of events is significant relative to the staff. As a result, automation may be applied, typically in the form of a SOAR (security orchestration, automation and response) tool, integrated with an intelligence API. The SOAR tool automates the investigation via a workflow automation workbook. The cyber intelligence API enables the playbook to automate research related to the ticket (lookup potential phishing URL, suspicious hash, etc.). The First Responder determines criticality of the event. At this level, it is either a Normal or an Escalation event.
Normal events do not affect critical production systems or require change controls prior to the implementation of a resolution.
Events that affect critical production systems or require change controls must be escalated.
Organization management may request an immediate escalation without first level review – 2nd tier will create ticket.
The event is ready to resolve. The resource enters the resolution and the problem category into the ticket and submits the ticket for closure.
The ticket owner (employee, vendor, customer or partner) receives the resolution. They determine that the problem is resolved to their satisfaction or escalate the ticket.
The escalation report is updated to show this event and the ticket is assigned a second tier resource to investigate and respond to the event.
The Second Tier resource performs additional analysis and re-evaluates the criticality of the ticket. When necessary, the Second Tier resource is responsible for implementing a change control and notifying IT Management of the event.
Emergency Response:
Events may follow the escalation chain until it is determined that an emergency response is necessary.
Top-level organization management may determine that an emergency response is necessary and invoke this process directly.
Emergency response detail
Emergency response is initiated by escalation of a security event or be direct declaration by the CIO or other executive organization staff. The CIO may assign the incident coordinator, but by default, the coordinator will be the most senior security staff member available at the time of the incident.
The incident coordinator assembles the incident response team. The team meets using a pre-defined conference meeting space. One of the (CIO, CSO or Director IT) must attend each incident team meeting.
The meeting minutes capture the status, actions and resolution(s) for the incident. The incident coordinator reports on the cost, exposure and continuing business risk of the incident. The incident response team determines the next course of action.
Lock-down and Repair – Perform the actions necessary to prevent further damage to the organization, repair impacted systems and perform changes to prevent a re-occurrence.
False Positive – The incident team determines this issue did not warrant an emergency response. The team provides a written report to senior management and the issue is handled as either a normal incident or it is closed.
Monitor and Capture – Perform a thorough investigation with continued monitoring to detect and capture the perpetrator. This process must include notification to the following senior and professional staff:
CEO and CFO
Corporate Attorney and Public Relations
Review and analyze log data to determine nature and scope of incident. This step should include utilizing virus, spyware, rootkit and other detection tools to determine necessary mitigation and repair.
Repair systems, eliminate vector(s) of attack, and mitigate exploitable vulnerabilities.
The Test Report documents the validation of the repair process.
Test systems to ensure compliance with policy and risk mitigation.
Perform additional repairs to resolve all current vulnerabilities.
Investigate incident to determine source of attack and capture perpetrator. This will require the use of forensics tools, log analysis, clean lab and dirty lab environments and possible communication with Law Enforcement or other outside entities.
The “Investigation Status Report” as captures all current information regarding the incident. The Incident response team uses this information to determine the next course of action. (See Ref 2 and Ref 3)
Definitions
First Responder/First level review first person to be on scene or receive notification of an event, organizations should provide training to the first responder to recognize and properly react to emergency circumstances.
Help Desk Ticket (Control) an electronic document captured in a database and issue tracking/resolution system
Ticket Owner person reporting the event, the principal owner of the assets associated with the event or the common law or jurisdictional owner.
Escalation Report (Control) First Responder’s documentation for ticket escalation, the Responder writes this information into the ticket or the WIKI log for the event. The ticket references the WIKI log for the event.
Second Tier Senior technical resources assigned to resolve an escalated event.
Incident Coordinator individual assigned by organization senior management to assemble the incident response team, manage and document response to the incident.
Investigation Status Report (Control) documentation of the current investigation results, the coordinator may document this material in the ticket, WIKI or an engineer's journal.
Meeting Minutes (Control) documentation of the incident team meeting, the minutes document the attendees, current nature of the incident and the recommended actions. The coordinator may document this material in the ticket, WIKI or an engineer's journal.
Lock-down Change Control a process ordered as a resolution to the incident. This process follows the same authorization and response requirements as an Emergency Change Control.
Test Report (Control) this report validates that IT personal have performed all necessary and available repairs to systems prior to bringing them back online.
War Room a secure environment for review of confidential material and the investigation of a security incident.
Report to Senior Management (Control) the incident coordinator is responsible for drafting a senior management report. The coordinator may document this material in the ticket, WIKI or an engineer's journal
Incident Response Steps
Detection – An incident can be detected by a sensor, a network analyst or a user reporting something unusual with his/her PC.
Containment – In the event of malicious network traffic or a computer virus, the Incident Response Manager should stop the traffic by taking the computer off the network.
Clean – Run a virus scan to remove the virus or wipe the computer clean and reimage the machine.
Reverse Engineering – Use computer forensics tools to understand why the malicious traffic occurred in the first place. Once the incident is completely understood make plans to decrease your future risk.
See also
Computer emergency response team
Proactive cyber defence
United States' National Incident Management System
References
Further reading
Handbook for Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRTs) http://www.sei.cmu.edu/library/abstracts/reports/03hb002.cfm
Computer security
Incident management
|
37030382
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United%20States%20v.%20Swartz
|
United States v. Swartz
|
In United States of America v. Aaron Swartz, Aaron Swartz, an American computer programmer, writer, political organizer and Internet activist, was prosecuted for multiple violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 (CFAA), after downloading academic journal articles through the MIT computer network from a source (JSTOR) for which he had an account as a Harvard research fellow. Facing trial and the possibility of imprisonment, Swartz committed suicide, and the case was consequently dismissed.
Background
On January 6, 2011, Swartz was arrested by MIT Police on state breaking-and-entering charges, in connection with the systematic downloading of academic journal articles from JSTOR. Federal prosecutors eventually charged him with two counts of wire fraud and eleven violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, charges carrying a cumulative maximum penalty of $1 million in fines plus 35 years in prison, asset forfeiture, restitution and supervised release.
On January 11, 2013, two years after his initial arrest, Swartz was found dead in his Brooklyn apartment, where he had hanged himself.
JSTOR is a digital repository that archives − and disseminates online − manuscripts, GIS systems, scanned plant specimens and content from academic journal articles. Swartz was a research fellow at Harvard University, which provided him with a JSTOR account. Visitors to MIT's "open campus" were authorized to access JSTOR through its network.
According to state and federal authorities, Swartz downloaded a large number of academic journal articles from JSTOR through MIT's computer network, over the course of a few weeks in late 2010 and early 2011. They said Swartz downloaded the documents to a laptop computer connected to a networking switch in a controlled-access wiring closet. According to press reports, the door to the closet was kept unlocked.
Arrest, charges and indictments
On January 6, 2011, Swartz was arrested near the Harvard campus by two MIT police officers and a U.S. Secret Service agent. He was arraigned in Cambridge District Court on two state charges of breaking and entering with intent to commit a felony.
On July 11, 2011, Swartz was indicted in federal District Court on four felony counts: wire fraud, computer fraud, unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer and recklessly damaging a protected computer.
On November 17, 2011, Swartz was indicted by a Middlesex County Superior Court grand jury on state charges of breaking and entering with intent, grand larceny and unauthorized access to a computer network.
On December 16, 2011, the district attorney's office filed a nolle prosequi declaration in the case generated by Swartz's initial January 6, 2011 arrest. The state charges against Swartz stemming from the November 17, 2011 indictment were dropped on March 8, 2012. The state charges were dropped due to a deal being reached in which the data was returned by Swartz. A report later submitted to the president of MIT about the Swartz case suggests, however, that Massachusetts state law required the Middlesex district attorney to dismiss the charges after the Boston U.S. Attorneys' Office and the Secret Service failed to promptly hand over evidence requested by Swartz's attorney during the Massachusetts case's discovery process.
Writing in Massachusetts Lawyers' Weekly, Harvey Silverglate reported that lawyers familiar with the original case told him they had expected it to be dismissed after a "'continuance without a finding' ... The charge [would be] held in abeyance ... without any verdict ... for a period of a few months up to maybe a couple of years." After the publication of his Massachusetts Lawyers' Weekly piece, Silverglate explained to CNET's Declan McCullagh that if the defendant manages to stay out of further legal trouble after such a continuance, the case is typically dismissed. "Tragedy intervened," Silverglate had written, "when [U.S. Attorney Carmen] Ortiz's office took over the case to 'send a message.'"
According to Verge reporter Jeff Blagdon and the Huffington Post, federal rather than local prosecutors had been "calling the shots" on the prosecution of the case since Swartz's arrest. Both cited a letter from Swartz's attorneys to the Department of Justice.The lead prosecutor in Mr. Swartz's [federal] case, AUSA Stephen Heymann ... and [Secret Service] Agent Pickett directed and controlled the investigation of Mr. Swartz from the time of [his] arrest on January 6 ... Heymann's involvement in the case had commenced very early in the investigation.
Federal prosecution
On April 13, 2011, as part of their investigation, federal authorities interviewed Swartz's former partner, Wired journalist Quinn Norton; she penned an article, "Life Inside the Aaron Swartz Investigation," detailing her experiences in the case.
I mentioned ... a two-year-old public post on ... Aaron's blog. It had been fairly widely picked up by other blogs. I couldn't imagine that these people who had just claimed to have read everything I'd ever written had never looked at their target's blog, which appeared in his FBI file, or searched for what he thought about "open access." They hadn't.So this is where I was profoundly foolish. I told them about the Guerilla Open Access Manifesto. And in doing so, Aaron would explain to me later (and reporters would confirm), I made everything worse.
On July 19, 2011, the July 11th federal indictment was unsealed, charging Swartz with two counts of fraud and two counts related to accessing and damaging a protected computer. According to the indictment, Swartz surreptitiously attached a laptop to MIT's computer network, which ran a script named "keepgrabbing.py", allowing him to "rapidly download an extraordinary volume of articles from JSTOR." Prosecutors in the case said Swartz acted with the intention of making the papers available on P2P file-sharing sites.
Swartz surrendered to authorities, pleading not guilty on all counts, and was released on $100,000 unsecured bail. After his arrest, JSTOR released a statement saying that though it considered Swartz's access to be a "significant misuse" committed in an "unauthorized fashion," it would not pursue civil litigation against him; MIT did not comment on the proceedings.
The New York Times wrote of the case: "a respected Harvard researcher who also is an Internet folk hero has been arrested in Boston on charges related to computer hacking, which are based on allegations that he downloaded articles that he was entitled to get free." The Awl similarly commented that "Swartz is being charged with hacker crimes, not copyright-infringement crimes, because he didn't actually distribute any documents, plus JSTOR didn't even want him prosecuted."
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Stephen Heymann and Scott Garland were the lead prosecutors, working under the supervision of U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz. The case was brought under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which was passed in 1986 to enhance the government's ability to prosecute hackers who accessed computers to steal information or to disrupt or destroy computer functionality. "If convicted on these charges," said Ortiz, "Swartz faces up to 35 years in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, restitution, forfeiture and a fine of up to $1 million."
On September 12, 2012, the prosecution filed a superseding indictment adding nine more felony counts. George Washington University Law School Professor Orin Kerr, writing on the legal blog Volokh Conspiracy, opined that the risk of a maximum sentence in Swartz's case was not high. In an interview with Boston's WBUR, retired federal judge Nancy Gertner said a sentence of 35 years for a case like Swartz's "never occurs." She questioned the propriety of pressing these charges at all. Referring to decision-making by Ortiz's office, she said "this is the example of bad judgment I saw too often," suggesting that a two-year diversion program leading to expunged charges would have been more fitting.
Plea negotiations
Swartz's attorney, Elliot Peters, stated that prosecutors at one point offered a plea deal of four months in prison and pleading guilty to 13 charges, and warned that if Swartz rejected the deal, future deals would be less attractive; and that two days before Swartz's death, that "Swartz would have to spend six months in prison and plead guilty to 13 charges if he wanted to avoid going to trial." Under the six-month deal, after Swartz pled guilty to the 13 charges, the government would have argued for a six-month sentence, and Swartz would have argued for a lesser sentence; the judge would then be free to assign whatever sentence the judge thought appropriate, up to six months. Peters later filed a complaint with the DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility, stating that if Swartz didn't plead guilty, Heymann "threatened that he would seek for Mr. Swartz to serve seven years in prison," a difference in duration Peters asserts went "far beyond" the disparity encouraged by the plea-bargain portion of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.
Andy Good, Swartz's initial lawyer, told The Boston Globe: "I told Heymann the kid was a suicide risk. His reaction was a standard reaction in that office, not unique to Steve. He said, 'Fine, we'll lock him up.' I'm not saying they made Aaron kill himself. Aaron might have done this anyway. I'm saying they were aware of the risk, and they were heedless."
Marty Weinberg, who took the case over from Good, said he nearly negotiated a plea bargain in which Swartz would not serve any time. "JSTOR signed off on it," he said, "but MIT would not."
Two days before his death, JSTOR announced on January 9, 2013 that it would make "more than 4.5 million articles" available to the public free of charge. The "Register & Read" service, in beta for the previous 10 months, was capped at three articles every two weeks (78 per year), readable online only, with some downloadable for a fee.
After his death, Ortiz's office dismissed the charges against Swartz. She said, "This office's conduct was appropriate in bringing and handling this case ... This office sought an appropriate sentence that matched the alleged conduct—a sentence that we would recommend to the judge of six months in a low security setting ... At no time did this office ever seek—or ever tell Mr. Swartz's attorneys that it intended to seek—maximum penalties under the law."
On January 12, 2013, Alex Stamos, a computer forensics investigator employed by the Swartz legal defense team, posted an online summary of the expert testimony he had been prepared to present in the JSTOR case, had Swartz lived to see trial. He wrote:If I had taken the stand as planned and had been asked by the prosecutor whether Aaron's actions were "wrong," I would probably have replied that what Aaron did would better be described as "inconsiderate." In the same way it is inconsiderate ... to check out every book at the library needed for a History 101 paper. It is inconsiderate to download lots of files on shared wifi ...
Federal prosecutory rationale and responses
U.S. Attorney Ortiz asserted after the 2011 indictment that "stealing is stealing, whether you use a computer command or a crowbar, and whether you take documents, data or dollars. It is equally harmful to the victim, whether you sell what you have stolen or give it away."
About the prosecution
At a January 24, 2013 memorial for Swartz, Carl Malamud recalled their work with PACER. He noted that they had brought millions of U.S. District Court records out from behind PACER's "pay wall" and found them full of privacy violations.
We sent our results to the Chief Judges of 31 District Courts ... They redacted those documents and they yelled at the lawyers that filed them ... The Judicial Conference changed their privacy rules.
... [To] the bureaucrats who ran the Administrative Office of the United States Courts ... we were thieves ...
So they called the FBI ... [The FBI] found nothing wrong ...
"Was the overly aggressive posture of the Department of Justice prosecutors and law enforcement officials," he asked, "revenge because they were embarrassed that — in their view at least — we somehow got away with something in the PACER incident? Was the merciless JSTOR prosecution the revenge of embarrassed bureaucrats because they looked stupid in the New York Times, because the U.S. Senate called them on the carpet?"
Former Nixon White House counsel John Dean wrote an article on the legal blog justia.com entitled "Dealing with Aaron Swartz in the Nixonian Tradition: Overzealous Overcharging Leads to a Tragic Result", saying "these are not people who are conscientiously and fairly upholding our federal laws. Rather, they are typically authoritarian personalities who get their jollies from shamelessly beating up on unfortunate people like Aaron Swartz."
George Washington University law professor Orin Kerr wrote on January 15, 2013 that "the charges brought here were pretty much what any good federal prosecutor would have charged." Duke University law professor James Boyle replied in The Huffington Post: "I think that in [Kerr's] descriptions of the facts [and of] the issues surrounding prosecutorial discretion ... he tends ... to minimize or ignore facts that might put [Swartz] in a more favorable light."
In response to a piece by Larissa MacFarquhar in the New Yorker, retired journalist Jane Scholz objected to what she perceived as an effort "to turn Swartz into a hero for facing government prosecution after hacking the JSTOR archive", arguing that "Swartz was apparently familiar with laws protecting proprietary-information-management systems, so he should not have been surprised by the severity of the prosecution's response to his crime. It is a crime, and not a victimless one. I am a retired journalist; during my working years, my salary depended, and today my pension relies, on people paying for copyrighted content. In recent years, as the business that supports journalism has declined, thousands of journalists have lost pay, benefits, and, ultimately, their jobs. [ ... ] I find it ironic that Swartz made several million dollars selling the rights to his own copyrighted programming to Conde Nast. Swartz's is a sad story, but it's not a heroic one." Law professor Mike Maddison commented on Scholz's letter: "it is difficult to find a better example of the glib equation of 'my career isn't the success that it once was' and 'somebody committed a crime' that infects contemporary dialogues about IP rights."
David Aaronovitch noted in The Times that JSTOR was itself a "product of philanthropy" but that it had to charge access fees so that it could pay academic publishers for rights to their publications. He decried the "reckless" behavior of a generation which "cannot be persuaded—yet—that copyright matters".
In contrast, Peter Ludlow in The Chronicle of Higher Education argued that due to the publish or perish nature of academia and the importance that journals' reputations have, "[w]hen an academic signs away copyright to an academic publisher, it amounts to a 'contract of adhesion'—meaning a contract in which one party has all the power and it was not freely bargained" and that "like the original authors, JSTOR had to negotiate its licensing agreements from a position of weakness", which Ludlow illustrated with a bargaining agreement from JSTOR's history, which stipulated that the publishers "be compensated if there was a loss to their (minimal) sales of rights to older materials, and they demanded compensation even before JSTOR covered its own expenses". Ludlow concluded that "Until academics get their acts together and start using new modes of publication, we need to recognize that actions like Aaron Swartz's civil disobedience are legitimate."
Rob Weir, who describes himself as an "associate editor of a very small journal", writes in Inside Higher Ed that "Many wonder why money accrues to those whose only 'creation' is to aggregate the labor of others, especially when some form of taxpayer money underwrote many of the articles. That's a legitimate concern, but defending Swartz's method elevates vigilantism above the rules of law and reason." While he concedes that "JSTOR charges university libraries a king's ransom for its services", he also argues that "even a modest journal is expensive to produce" and that "if you want anyone to read your journal, you'll give it to JSTOR or some other aggregator. Unless, of course, you can drum up lots of free advertising". He concludes that the "information wants to be free" adage fails to account for the "hidden costs within the culture of free", and proposes that "there ain't no such thing as a free lunch" is the appropriate summary of production costs in the Information Age, which he transmutes to "if you can't do the time, don't do the crime" for "hackers and info thieves".
Tim Wu, writing in The New Yorker, called out what he perceived as lack of proportionality, writing that "The act was harmless — [ ... ] meaning that there was no actual physical harm, nor actual economic harm. The leak was found and plugged; JSTOR suffered no actual economic loss. It did not press charges. Like a pie in the face, Swartz's act was annoying to its victim, but of no lasting consequence." Wu went on to compare Swartz's act with that of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, who, according to Wu, "in the nineteen-seventies, committed crimes similar to, but more economically damaging than, Swartz's. Those two men hacked AT&T's telephone system to make free long-distance calls, and actually sold the illegal devices (blue boxes) to make cash. Their mentor, John Draper, did go to jail for a few months (where he wrote one of the world's first word processors), but Jobs and Wozniak were never prosecuted. Instead, they got bored of phreaking and built a computer. The great ones almost always operate at the edge" writes Wu, in support of this thesis that "We can rightly judge a society by how it treats its eccentrics and deviant geniuses—and by that measure, we have utterly failed [in the case of Swartz]."
About the law
After Boyle's Huffington Post column, Kerr returned to the topic, advocating reform of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) under which Swartz was prosecuted. "The problem raised by the Swartz case is ... [that] felony liability under the statute is triggered much too easily. The law needs to draw a distinction between low-level crimes and more serious crimes, and current law does so poorly ..."
Chris Soghoian, a technology policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union, argued similarly, "Existing laws don't recognise the distinction between two types of computer crimes: malicious crimes committed for profit ... and cases where hackers break into systems to prove their skillfulness or spread information that they think should be available to the public." Jennifer Granick, Director of Civil Liberties at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society, both defended Swartz and challenged the scope of the law under which he was prosecuted.
Law professor Stephen L. Carter agrees that the prosecution of Swartz was ridiculous, but also lays the blame on Congress for creating a new type of federal felony roughly every week. Carter considers that the CFAA is a good example of this phenomenon. He writes: "Enacted in the 1980s, before the Internet explosion, the statute makes a criminal of anyone who 'intentionally accesses a computer without authorization or exceeds authorized access' and, in the process, obtains financial information, government information or 'information from any protected computer. Carter then gives the following example: "You're sitting in your office, when suddenly you remember that you forgot to pay your Visa bill. You take a moment to log on to your bank account, and you pay the bill. Then you go back to work. If your employer has a policy prohibiting personal use of office computers, then you have exceeded your authorized access; since you went to your bank website, you have obtained financial information. Believe it or not, you're now a felon. The likelihood of prosecution might be small, but you've still committed a crime." Carter further writes that the problem with the statute was well-known, and that "some federal courts have given the statute's language a narrow construction, but others have read it broadly, and the Obama administration has opposed efforts in Congress to narrow its scope. Alex Kozinski, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, warned in an opinion last spring [of 2012] the government's position 'would make criminals of large groups of people who would have little reason to suspect they are committing a federal crime.
In 2013, Zoe Lofgren and Ron Wyden have advanced a legislative proposal called "Aaron's Law" to amend the CFAA in order to eliminate the aforementioned vagueness and also eliminate the "redundant provisions that enable a person to be punished multiple times ... for the same crime". In an opinion piece for Wired magazine, they wrote that "This is, in fact, what happened to Aaron Swartz — more than a third of the charges in the superseding indictment against him were under this redundant CFAA provision."
Reactions, complaints and post-dismissal motions
Speaking at his son's funeral, Robert Swartz said, "[Aaron] was killed by the government, and MIT betrayed all of its basic principles." Mitch Kapor posted the statement on Twitter. Carmen Ortiz's husband, IBM executive Tom Dolan, replied through his own Twitter feed, @TomJDolan, "Truly incredible that in their own son's obit they blame others for his death and make no mention of the 6 month offer." In Esquire, Charlie Pierce wrote that "the glibness with which her husband and her defenders toss off a 'mere' six months in federal prison, low-security or not, is a further indication that something is seriously out of whack with the way our prosecutors think these days."
Contacted by The Guardian, Ortiz's spokesperson had "no comment" to make on the matter; Reuters reported being unable to contact Dolan. On January 16, 2013, Ortiz released an official statement, in which she reiterated that "I must, however, make clear that this office's conduct was appropriate in bringing and handling this case," and that her subordinates "took on the difficult task of enforcing a law they had taken an oath to uphold, and did so reasonably."
On January 28, 2013, the lawyers for Swartz's estate sent a letter to the Justice Department accusing Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Heymann of professional misconduct. They said Heymann "may have misrepresented to the Court the extent of the federal government's [early] involvement in the investigation."
Emails and reports further illustrated ... that AUSA Heymann was himself involved in the investigation even before Mr. Swartz was arrested on January 6, 2011.
The lawyers also said Heymann "abused his discretion when he attempted to coerce" Swartz into pleading guilty:
Swartz ... naturally felt extreme pressure to waive his rights ... The difference between an offer of four months and a threat of seven years went far beyond the minimal reduction ... that should properly have applied for [a defendant's] "acceptance of responsibility" under the Sentencing Guidelines.
On March 15, the lawyers asked the federal court to modify the protective order on Swartz's file to permit public disclosure of the discovery materials, including the names and titles of MIT, JSTOR and law enforcement employees. The lawyers said that withholding the names would make the documents "less intelligible and thus far less useful to Congress." The First Assistant U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts, Jack Pirozzolo, said he was taking a role in the discussions and would be asking the court to give the affected employees an opportunity to be heard on the proposed disclosures.
The Department of Justice sought to redact the names of the prosecutors involved in the case. On April 3, 2013, a U.S. Attorney's Office spokesperson said, "Our argument against it is that not only does it have an effect on the people involved in the case, but there's also sometimes a residual effect." The Attorney's Office reported threats and hacking attempts against prosecutors already known to be involved: "threatening emails" received by Ortiz and Heymann, the hacking of Heymann's Facebook account and that "Heymann's father, a Harvard professor, received a postcard with his photo in a guillotine". The postcard and some email excerpts were published by Wired magazine.
On May 13, 2013, the court granted the estate's motion in part, permitting public disclosure of much of the material the estate's lawyers had sought to have unsealed, provided that the names of MIT and government employees were first redacted. The estate's argument for disclosure of these names was "substantially outweighed by the interest of the government and the victims in shielding their employees from potential retaliation," wrote Judge Nathaniel Gorton. The judge also ruled that information disclosing details of computer network security at MIT should not be made public. The prosecutors and Swartz's lawyers were ordered to propose the terms of the disclosures and redactions by May 27, 2013.
Kevin Poulsen filed a FOIA lawsuit and in November 2013 obtained the release of 130 pages from the file that the US Secret Service has on Swartz, out of approximately 20,000 pages that the agency has in relation to Swartz.
Of Heymann, BuzzFeed has noted: "Back in 2008, young hacker Jonathan James killed himself in the midst of a federal investigation led by the same prosecutor."
In January 2013, WikiLeaks claimed through its Twitter account that Swartz had been in contact with Julian Assange through 2010 and 2011, and that Swartz may have been a source of leaked materials. If true, this would offer an explanation as to why charges against Swartz were pursued by the federal government despite JSTOR dropping charges and urging that the government and MIT do the same.
Notes
The MIT network administration office told MIT police that "approximately 70 gigabytes of data had been downloaded, 98% of which was from JSTOR." The first federal indictment alleged "approximately 4.8 million articles ... 1.7 million [of which] were made available by independent publishers for purchase through JSTOR's Publisher Sales Service." The superseding indictment characterized the amount as "a major portion of the total archive in which JSTOR had invested ... " removing the estimates.
See also
Academic journal publishing reform
References
External links
Case Docket: USA v. Swartz
. Over 300 subpoenaed documents available for download.
Guerilla Open Access Manifesto
United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts cases
|
27844237
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic%20Stream%20Encapsulation
|
Generic Stream Encapsulation
|
Generic Stream Encapsulation, or GSE for short, is a Data link layer protocol defined by DVB. GSE provides means to carry packet oriented protocols such as IP on top of uni-directional physical layers such as DVB-S2, DVB-T2 and DVB-C2.
GSE provides additional features beyond the pure carriage of IP datagrams that increase the protocol flexibility and applicability. Some key GSE functions/characteristics are:
Support for multi-protocol encapsulation (IPv4, IPv6, MPEG, ATM, Ethernet, 802.1pQ VLANs, etc.)
Transparency to network layer functions, including IP encryption and IP header compression.
Support of several addressing modes. In addition to the 6-byte MAC address (including multicast and unicast), it supports a MAC address-less mode, and an optional 3-byte address mode.
A mechanism for fragmenting IP datagrams or other network layer packets over Base Band frames to support ACM/VCM.
Support for hardware filtering.
Extensibility: additional link protocols can be included through specific protocol type values (e.g. Layer 2 security, IP Header Compression, etc.).
Protocol Outline
The protocol specification has been published as ETSI TS
102 606. An accompanying implementation guidelines
document has been published as ETSI TS 102 771.
IP datagrams, Ethernet Frames, or other network layer packets are encapsulated in one or more GSE Packets. The encapsulation process adds control information such as the network protocol type and address label, and provides an overall integrity check when needed.
The payload frame may be encapsulated in a single GSE Packet or sliced into fragments and encapsulated in several GSE Packets. GSE Packets have in general variable length, in order to match the input IP traffic with minimum overhead.
GSE Packets may be sent in different Base Band frames, not necessarily consecutive or with the same transmission parameters (modulation format, coding rate). No constraint on the GSE Packet position within the Base Band frame is assumed. However, GSE Packets may not be reordered between the encapsulator and the de-encapsulator. In general, a Base Band frame can contain more than a single GSE Packet. Base Band frames may have fixed, or variable length.
GSE does not provide a mechanism for integrity check of single GSE Packet. A CRC-32 is only appended to the last fragment of a fragmented payload to verify the correctness of the reassembly operation. GSE relies on the physical layer being able to ensure the required error detection and/or correction probability.
GSE Header
The GSE Packet header is highly dynamic and provides for many options. The minimum header is two bytes, comprising three flags fields, and a 12-bit payload length field. The diagram below shows all possible fields.
Fragmentation and Reassembly
The basic mechanism of GSE payload fragmentation uses the Start and End Flags, where the Start flag indicates the beginning of a payload frame, and the End flag indicates its end. This is shown in the diagram below.
On DVB-S2, DVB-T2, and DVB-C2 the ACM/VCM modes may cause the Base Band frames to vary in size depending on the transmission conditions. Hence there may be situations where the first fragments of a payload frame have been sent, but the encapsulator is forced to set aside the current payload frame, and start working on a new one. This may e.g. occur when large fragments have been prepared while transmission conditions were fine, but suddenly the conditions deteriorate, and only small Base Band frames are available.
This is when the Fragment ID field becomes important. It is a short-term identification of the payload frame. Whenever the encapsulator needs to move on to the next payload frame, without having finished transmitting the previous one, it uses the next available Fragment ID. That way, up to 256 payload frames can be "kept open" at any time. The decapsulator uses the Fragment ID to pick the reassembly buffer in which to store the fragment.
GSE addresses
The "Label Type" (LT) bits determine how the GSE packet address is encoded according to the following table:
CRC-32 Trailer
Each GSE Packet containing the last fragment for a payload frame, carries a CRC-32 checksum over the payload frame. The checksum is used to detect loss of intermediate fragments.
The checksum is a 32 bit value calculated according to the generator polynomial represented by 0x104C11DB7:
If the last fragment of a payload frame is lost, the decapsulator can not directly detect that fact. It never sees the GSE frame with the End flag set and containing the CRC-32. For this situation, the decapsulator must choose a suitable time-out based on the data-rate and application.
GSE Implementations
Products Supporting GSE
Since GSE packets are directly inserted into base-band frames of the
modulation scheme, GSE products come in the form of "GSE Routers" or
"GSE Modems", which - from the outside - act very much like a DSL
Router or DSL Modem used by consumers. More generically these devices
are also referred to as "GSE Encapsulators". These products have a standard
IP network interface (most often Ethernet or a similar LAN
interface) to collect IP traffic which is to be forwarded over the
uni-directional link on the other end. To optimise the packaging into
base-band frames, these devices typically generate complete base-band
frames with the GSE packets as payload, which are then transferred to
the DVB-S2, DVB-T2 or DVB-C2 modulator through a second
interface.
Here is a (very likely incomplete) list of GSE en- and decapsulators:
Newtec
EL470 IP Satellite Modem
EL970 IP Satellite Demodulator
WORK Microwave GmbH
Challenge Series Satellite High Speed DVB-S2 IP Modem SK-IP
Tebkom GmbH
ODG200 IP/DVB-S2 Encapsulator/Modulator with ACM support
Advantech Wireless Inc.
AMT 75e DVB-S/S2 High Speed Broadcast Modem
Comtech EF Data Corporation
CDM-840 Remote Router
K.S.Transplaneta Ltd.
dpi4502 DVB2 (S2/T2/C2) compliant IPv4 / IPv6 Encapsulator
Computer Modules, Inc.
DVB Rocket™/S2
Ayecka Communication systems LTD
SR1 - Advance DVB-S2 demodulator with hardware based, wire speed, GSE Decapsulator
ST1 - Advance DVB-S2 modulator with hardware based, wire speed, GSE encapsulator
SM1 - Advance DVB-S2 Modem with hardware based, wire speed, GSE EnCapsulator / DeCapsulator
GSE-based IP Service Offerings
There are many IP-over-satellite service offerings, including for
instance ASTRA2Connect from SES or Tooway from
Eutelsat. Little detail is however known about the protocols used
since the receivers are provided as part of the service by the
operators and very little technical detail is disclosed.
References
External links
Obtain GSE Standard and Guidelines from DVB free of charge
DVB Fact Sheet on GSE
GSE project home page at ESA
Opensource implementation of GSE
Television technology
Link protocols
|
18858309
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarizen
|
Clarizen
|
Clarizen, Inc. is a project management software and collaborative work management company.
Clarizen uses a software as a service business model. Clarizen's features include attaching CAD drawings to a project, moving between the project view and design view and an E-mail reporting feature.
In May 2014 Clarizen raised $35 million in venture capital investment led by Goldman Sachs. The round brought investment to $90 million. Previous investors, including Benchmark Capital, Carmel Ventures, DAG Ventures, Opus Capital and Vintage Investment Partners participated.
In April 2020, Clarizen appointed Matt Zilli as its new CEO, replacing Boaz Chalamish who is appointed as Executive Chairman.
See also
Comparison of time-tracking software
References
External links
Official website
Software companies based in California
Web applications
Project management software
Groupware
Software companies of Israel
Software companies of the United States
|
14215702
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TalkTalk%20Group
|
TalkTalk Group
|
TalkTalk Telecom Group plc (commonly known as TalkTalk Group, trading as TalkTalk) is a company which provides pay television and Internet access services to businesses and consumers in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 2003 as a subsidiary of Carphone Warehouse and was demerged as a standalone company in March 2010. Its headquarters are in Salford.
Originally just a provider of fixed line telephony services to consumers, TalkTalk now offers fixed and mobile telephony and broadband services to consumers under the TalkTalk brand, and telephony and broadband services to business customers under the TalkTalk Business brand. Like some other UK broadband providers, TalkTalk has invested in its own exchange infrastructure, known as local-loop-unbundling (LLU), with 92% of its customer base unbundled as of December 2012. In August 2012, TalkTalk became the UK's second quadruple play service after Virgin Media, offering TV, broadband, phone, and mobile services. It no longer offers mobile contracts, (end of 2018) referring existing users to register with O2.
The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was acquired by Toscafund Asset Management in March 2021.
History
Establishment
The Carphone Warehouse's acquisition of Opal Telecom in November 2002 gave it its own switching network providing access to BT Wholesale's landline network. An initial trial was conducted in the Manchester region, and three months later, TalkTalk launched with a guarantee that calls would be cheaper than with their perceived chief competitor BT. TalkTalk Broadband was launched in November 2004.
On 11 April 2006, TalkTalk launched a new broadband service which was promoted as "Free broadband forever" and which offered up to 8 Mbit/s with a 40 GB monthly usage limit for life to all subscribers to their Talk3 International telephone tariff at £20.99/month. Conditions included signing up for a minimum 18-month contract and a £29.99 initial connection fee. That same year, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) challenged the legitimacy of TalkTalk's claim that this service was truly "free". Due to the high number of customers who signed up to the free broadband service, the "Free broadband forever" launch suffered complaints with regard to a long waiting list to join the broadband programme and many difficulties in contacting TalkTalk customer services. In a Sunday Times interview, TalkTalk chairman Charles Dunstone admitted that Carphone's TalkTalk business was "struggling to cope" with the more than 400,000 customers who signed up for high-speed Internet access in the time since the service launched. TalkTalk allowed customers to escape the binding 18-month contract for broadband "if it had failed to keep its service commitments in their case". Dunstone stated "In about 20% of customers there is some kind of problem with the phone exchange, the line, or something else. A customer satisfaction poll by uSwitch in November 2006 placed TalkTalk and Orange joint bottom for customer satisfaction.
By 2005, TalkTalk had 2.5 million customers following the acquisitions of the UK subsidiaries of Tele2 for £11.5 million and One.Tel for £169.6 million. Carphone Warehouse purchased the UK ISP business of AOL in October 2006 for £370m and renamed it AOL Broadband. This had risen to 2.7 million customers by January 2009.
Demerger
In November 2008, Charles Dunstone was reported to be looking to demerge TalkTalk from the main Carphone Warehouse business. The split was confirmed in April 2009, with plans for TalkTalk to become a separate listed company.
Carphone Warehouse agreed to purchase the UK subsidiary of Tiscali in May 2009 for £236 million. The purchase was approved by the European Union Competition Commission in June 2009, and the sale was completed on 6 July 2009. Carphone Warehouse confirmed the business would merge into TalkTalk ahead of the planned demerger. The Carphone Warehouse's full-year earnings statement in November 2009 revealed the TalkTalk customer base had risen to 4.1 million following the purchase of Tiscali UK earlier in the year. Tiscali UK closed to new business on 7 January 2010, and its portal content moved to the TalkTalk website.
In March 2010, TalkTalk and Carphone Warehouse demerged becoming publicly listed companies. Dido Harding became CEO of TalkTalk and Roger Taylor CEO of New Carphone Warehouse.
Recent years
In January 2010, TalkTalk launched a protest against the introduction of the Digital Economy Act 2010, and released a video protesting against the law called "Home taping is killing music". Upon the passing of the bill TalkTalk issued a statement on the company blog confirming it would resist attempts to use the bill against their customers.
In a study carried out by UK telecoms regulator Ofcom in 2010, TalkTalk was found to have average speeds of 7.7-9.3 Mbit/sec, while it was advertised as "up to" 24 Mbit/sec.
TalkTalk was warned by the independent communications regulator Ofcom in November 2010 to rectify its billing systems after 62,000 incorrect bills were sent out. The company was given a deadline to correct the mistakes, which it did not meet, and in August 2011 was duly fined £3 million. Ofcom's figures showed that TalkTalk had incorrectly billed over 65,000 customers between 1 January 2010 and 4 March 2011, mainly relating to issues with integrating Tiscali UK's billing system into its own. The company had been overcharging customers for services that had not been received, resulting in the company paying an additional £2.5 million in refunds.
In November 2014, TalkTalk reached an agreement to purchase the ADSL business of Virgin Media, allowing Virgin to focus on its cable broadband offering. Customers were due to begin transferring to TalkTalk from February 2015.
On 8 January 2015, it was confirmed that TalkTalk would purchase the on-demand entertainment service Blinkbox and broadband business of Tesco for around £5 million. The purchase of Blinkbox was finalised immediately, and the transfer of broadband and home telephone customers was due to be completed by the end of 2015. TalkTalk confirmed it would merge Blinkbox into its existing services.
Also in early 2015, TalkTalk transferred 108,000 broadband customers outside its LLU network to Fleur Telecom, a subsidiary of Daisy Group.
2015 data breach
In October 2015, TalkTalk experienced a "significant and sustained cyber-attack", during which personal and banking details of up to four million customers is thought to have been accessed. TalkTalk stated they had received a ransom demand from a group claiming to be responsible. Some customers complained that they were targeted by criminals before TalkTalk disclosed the cyber-attack, and the Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee said "Suggestions that TalkTalk has covered up both the scale and duration of this attack ... must be thoroughly investigated."
Having initially stated that all its customers might have been affected, on 24 October TalkTalk issued a statement saying that a "materially lower" amount of customers’ financial information was stolen, and that the stolen data was not sufficient for money to be taken from bank accounts. On 6 November, TalkTalk stated that the impact of the breach was "much more limited than initially suspected", adding that 156,959 customer accounts were involved, from which 15,656 sort codes and bank account numbers had been taken. This amounts to 4% of customers whose financial data is compromised. There were 28,000 partial credit and debit cards stolen, but as these were "obscured" they could not be used. TalkTalk stated the lost data had not been encrypted, but they were not legally required to encrypt it.
The attack cost £42m to TalkTalk and 101,000 subscribers left in the aftermath of the attack. On 5 October 2016, TalkTalk was fined £400,000 by the Information Commissioner's Office for its negligence on securing clients data.
2016 malware router infection
On 1 December 2016, TalkTalk routers were infected with a modified version of the Mirai malware, leaving hundreds of thousands of customers without Internet access, because of the inability of TalkTalk to keep the routers securely updated. The malware stole the Wi-Fi passwords of the routers. The handling of the Wi-Fi password breach was criticised by several cyber-security experts.
Offer by Toscafund
On 17 December 2020, Toscafund Asset Management announced that it had sealed a takeover which valued TalkTalk at £1.1 billion, taking it private. Toscafund was previously TalkTalk's second largest shareholder. The transaction was completed in March 2021.
Services
Broadband and fixed-line telephony
TalkTalk provides broadband and landline telephone services for private households. The company provides these services generally together in packages, but also separately. Services were also provided under the AOL Broadband brand, which has been used under licence since Carphone Warehouse bought the ISP. AOL Broadband closed to new business in 2014, although some AOL content is available to TalkTalk customers. Customers are also offered "Homesafe", a network-level online security and website blocking system that TalkTalk introduced in 2011. The system is aimed at parents who want to filter web content such as pornography or violence.
Television
The company is one of seven partners in the television venture YouView, and provides IPTV services including access to YouView. It first inherited an IPTV service from the purchase of Tiscali, and renamed it TalkTalk TV in January 2010. TalkTalk closed the service to new business that year and in August 2012 introduced its new service including YouView, TalkTalk Plus TV.
Mobile telephony
In late 2010 TalkTalk launched a mobile telephone service called TalkTalk Mobile, which operates as a mobile virtual network operator on the Vodafone UK network. TalkTalk have also launched a mobile broadband dongle which allows users to access the Internet on the move although you already need to be an existing TalkTalk customer to sign up to these services.
On 17 November 2014 TalkTalk Mobile announced its intention to switch its MVNO from Vodafone to O2.
In January 2018 TalkTalk announced that it will exit the mobile provider space, and began offering its customers reaching the end of their contracts O2 deals instead.
Advertising
The TalkTalk brand was launched with a number of high-profile TV advertisements in 2003, featuring the former public face of BT, Maureen Lipman. TalkTalk's first slogan, "It's good to talk, but it's better to TalkTalk", mocked BT's own "It's good to talk" slogan.
Sponsorships
In 2004 TalkTalk won the sponsorship rights to Big Brother from the UK mobile firm O2. Sponsorship continued until the racism controversy of Celebrity Big Brother 5 after which the company retracted its sponsorship agreement.
TalkTalk began sponsoring The X Factor in 2008, and extended the agreement with ITV plc in May 2013.
Controversies
Sales techniques
In 2005 TalkTalk was accused of using the practice of telephone slamming (changing consumers' residential phone line over to a new provider without their consent).
In November 2012 the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) publicly listed TalkTalk as one of a number of companies that it had concerns about due to unsolicited telephone calls for marketing. The concerns were based on complaints. In response, TalkTalk said that it was working with the ICO to address any issues, that the ICO did not plan any enforcement action against it, and that the number of complaints about its telephone marketing calls had fallen.
Phorm click-stream analysis
In early 2008 it was announced that TalkTalk had entered into an agreement (along with BT and Virgin Media) with the former spyware company Phorm to intercept and analyse their users' click-stream data, and sell the anonymised aggregate information as part of Phorm's OIX advertising service. At the time, TalkTalk confirmed that the new Phorm system, when implemented, would be a strictly opt-in service. In July 2009, Charles Dunstone, CEO of TalkTalk Group announced that TalkTalk had withdrawn plans to introduce Phorm, along with a similar announcement from BT in the same week.
URL harvesting
On 26 July 2010, The Register reported that TalkTalk had begun harvesting URLs accessed by TalkTalk customers as part of a new anti-malware system it is developing in conjunction with Huawei, the manufacturer of its network servers. When a user accesses a web page, the URL is harvested and the servers issue the same URL request with the intention of checking the site for malicious code. TalkTalk claims that no personally identifiable information is being harvested however, like Phorm, some users argue there are some potential legal issues with this harvesting of information. Under relevant UK legislation, URLs are deemed communications content and interception without permission is prohibited.
TalkTalk Ireland
Though TalkTalk never offered its services to customers in the Republic of Ireland, the company maintained customer service centres in Waterford and Sligo. The Sligo centre, originally opened for Toucan, closed in 2010 with the loss of 160 jobs. Some employees were transferred to the centre in Waterford, which at the time was advertising 60 positions.
On 7 September 2011 it was announced that the Waterford call centre would cease operations within 30 days. There was speculation in the Irish press that the jobs would be relocated to Southeast Asia and the UK. The Government of Ireland and its agencies criticised how TalkTalk and its subsidiary TalkTalk Ireland Ltd. dealt with the job losses. The TalkTalk call centre in Waterford closed on 7 October 2011, with the loss of over 570 jobs.
Customer service
The company has been rated multiple times among the worst landline and broadband providers.
References
External links
TalkTalk.co.uk — official website
Telecommunications companies of the United Kingdom
Internet service providers of the United Kingdom
Mobile virtual network operators
Telecommunications companies established in 2003
Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange
2003 establishments in the United Kingdom
|
40149201
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Docker%20%28software%29
|
Docker (software)
|
Docker is a set of platform as a service (PaaS) products that use OS-level virtualization to deliver software in packages called containers.
The service has both free and premium tiers. The software that hosts the containers is called Docker Engine. It was first started in 2013 and is developed by Docker, Inc.
Background
Containers are isolated from one another and bundle their own software, libraries and configuration files; they can communicate with each other through well-defined channels. Because all of the containers share the services of a single operating system kernel, they use fewer resources than virtual machines.
Operation
Docker can package an application and its dependencies in a virtual container that can run on any Linux, Windows, or macOS computer. This enables the application to run in a variety of locations, such as on-premises, in public or private cloud. When running on Linux, Docker uses the resource isolation features of the Linux kernel (such as cgroups and kernel namespaces) and a union-capable file system (such as OverlayFS) to allow containers to run within a single Linux instance, avoiding the overhead of starting and maintaining virtual machines. Docker on macOS uses a Linux virtual machine to run the containers.
Because Docker containers are lightweight, a single server or virtual machine can run several containers simultaneously. A 2018 analysis found that a typical Docker use case involves running eight containers per host, and that a quarter of analyzed organizations run 18 or more per host.
The Linux kernel's support for namespaces mostly isolates an application's view of the operating environment, including process trees, network, user IDs and mounted file systems, while the kernel's cgroups provide resource limiting for memory and CPU. Since version 0.9, Docker includes its own component (called "") to use virtualization facilities provided directly by the Linux kernel, in addition to using abstracted virtualization interfaces via libvirt, LXC and systemd-nspawn.
Docker implements a high-level API to provide lightweight containers that run processes in isolation. Docker containers are standard processes, so it is possible to use kernel features to monitor their execution -- including for example the use of tools like strace to observe and intercede with system calls.
Components
The Docker software as a service offering consists of three components:
Software: The Docker daemon, called dockerd, is a persistent process that manages Docker containers and handles container objects. The daemon listens for requests sent via the Docker Engine API. The Docker client program, called docker, provides a command-line interface (CLI), that allows users to interact with Docker daemons.
Objects: Docker objects are various entities used to assemble an application in Docker. The main classes of Docker objects are images, containers, and services.
A Docker container is a standardized, encapsulated environment that runs applications. A container is managed using the Docker API or CLI.
A Docker image is a read-only template used to build containers. Images are used to store and ship applications.
A Docker service allows containers to be scaled across multiple Docker daemons. The result is known as a swarm, a set of cooperating daemons that communicate through the Docker API.
Registries: A Docker registry is a repository for Docker images. Docker clients connect to registries to download ("pull") images for use or upload ("push") images that they have built. Registries can be public or private. Two main public registries are Docker Hub and Docker Cloud. Docker Hub is the default registry where Docker looks for images. Docker registries also allow the creation of notifications based on events.
Tools
Docker Compose is a tool for defining and running multi-container Docker applications. It uses YAML files to configure the application's services and performs the creation and start-up process of all the containers with a single command. The docker-compose CLI utility allows users to run commands on multiple containers at once, for example, building images, scaling containers, running containers that were stopped, and more. Commands related to image manipulation, or user-interactive options, are not relevant in Docker Compose because they address one container. The docker-compose.yml file is used to define an application's services and includes various configuration options. For example, the build option defines configuration options such as the Dockerfile path, the command option allows one to override default Docker commands, and more. The first public beta version of Docker Compose (version 0.0.1) was released on December 21, 2013. The first production-ready version (1.0) was made available on October 16, 2014.
Docker Swarm provides native clustering functionality for Docker containers, which turns a group of Docker engines into a single virtual Docker engine. In Docker 1.12 and higher, Swarm mode is integrated with Docker Engine. The docker swarm CLI utility allows users to run Swarm containers, create discovery tokens, list nodes in the cluster, and more. The docker node CLI utility allows users to run various commands to manage nodes in a swarm, for example, listing the nodes in a swarm, updating nodes, and removing nodes from the swarm. Docker manages swarms using the Raft consensus algorithm. According to Raft, for an update to be performed, the majority of Swarm nodes need to agree on the update.
Docker Volume facilitates the independent persistence of data, allowing data to remain even after the container is deleted or re-created.
History
Docker Inc. was founded by Kamel Founadi, Solomon Hykes, and Sebastien Pahl during the Y Combinator Summer 2010 startup incubator group and launched in 2011. The startup was also one of the 12 startups in Founder's Den first cohort. Hykes started the Docker project in France as an internal project within dotCloud, a platform-as-a-service company.
Docker debuted to the public in Santa Clara at PyCon in 2013. It was released as open-source in March 2013. At the time, it used LXC as its default execution environment. One year later, with the release of version 0.9, Docker replaced LXC with its own component, libcontainer, which was written in the Go programming language.
In 2017, Docker created the Moby project for open research and development.
Adoption
September 19, 2013: Red Hat and Docker announced a collaboration around Fedora, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), and OpenShift.
October 15, 2014: Microsoft announced the integration of the Docker engine into Windows Server, as well as native support for the Docker client role in Windows.
November 2014: Docker container services were announced for the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2).
November 10, 2014: Docker announced a partnership with Stratoscale.
December 4, 2014: IBM announced a strategic partnership with Docker that enables Docker to integrate more closely with the IBM Cloud.
June 22, 2015: Docker and several other companies announced that they are working on a new vendor and operating-system-independent standard for software containers.
December 2015: Oracle Cloud added Docker container support after acquiring StackEngine, a Docker container startup.
April 2016: Windocks, an independent ISV released a port of Docker's open source project to Windows, supporting Windows Server 2012 R2 and Server 2016, with all editions of SQL Server 2008 onward.
May 2016: analysis showed the following organizations as main contributors to Docker: The Docker team, Cisco, Google, Huawei, IBM, Microsoft, and Red Hat.
June 8, 2016: Microsoft announced that Docker could now be used natively on Windows 10.
January 2017: An analysis of LinkedIn profile mentions showed Docker presence grew by 160% in 2016.
May 6, 2019: Microsoft announced the second version of Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). Docker, Inc. announced that it has started working on a version of Docker for Windows that runs on WSL 2. In particular, this means Docker can run on Windows 10 Home (previously it was limited to Windows Pro and Enterprise since it used Hyper-V).
August 2020: Microsoft announced backport of WSL2 to Windows 10 versions 1903 and 1909 (previously WSL2 was available only on version 2004) and Docker developers announced availability of Docker for these platforms.
August 2021: Docker Desktop is no longer free for enterprise users. Docker ended free Docker Desktop use for larger business customers and replaced its Free plan with a Personal plan.
See also
Singularity - Docker alternative for HPC clusters
DevOps toolchain
DevOps
gVisor
Kubernetes
List of Linux containers
Microservices
OS-level virtualization
Service Component Architecture
Dockerlite
References
External links
Container Terminology - Practical terminology
2013 software
Containerization software
Free software programmed in Go
Free software
Free virtualization software
Linux containerization
Operating system security
Operating system technology
Virtualization-related software for Linux
|
855364
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheating%20in%20online%20games
|
Cheating in online games
|
Cheating in online games is the subversion of the rules or mechanics of online video games to gain an unfair advantage over other players, generally with the use of third-party software. What constitutes cheating is dependent on the game in question, its rules, and consensus opinion as to whether a particular activity is considered to be cheating.
Cheating is present in most multiplayer online games, but it is difficult to measure. The Internet and darknets can provide players with the methodology necessary to cheat in online games, with software often available for purchase.
Bots and software assistance
Aimbots and triggerbots
An aimbot or autoaim is a type of computer game bot most commonly used in first-person shooter games to provide varying levels of automated target acquisition and calibration to the player. They are sometimes used along with a triggerbot, which automatically shoots when an opponent appears within the field-of-view or aiming reticule of the player.
Aimbotting relies on each players' client computer receiving information about all other players, whether they are visible from the player's position or not. Targeting is a matter of determining the location of any opponent relative to the player's location and pointing the player's weapon at the target. This targeting works regardless of whether the opponent is behind walls or too far away to be seen directly.
Some servers allow inactive players to spectate, watching the game from the viewpoints of the active players. Recording of gameplay actions is also often possible. If someone was using a targeting aimbot, the bot would be obvious to the spectator as unnatural exact position tracking. Some aimbots and triggerbots attempt to hide from spectators the fact they are being used through a number of methods, such as delaying firing to hide the fact it shoots the instant an opponent is in the cheater's crosshair. Some Triggerbot programs can be easily toggled on and off using the mouse or keyboard.
Cheat suites may incorporate these in addition to other features, including adjustments to extrasensory perception (ESP), move speed, ammo count, and player radar. Neophytes may colloquially define these suites as aimbot programs.
Artificial lag/lag switch
In the peer-to-peer gaming model, lagging is what happens when the stream of data between one or more players gets slowed or interrupted, causing movement to stutter and making opponents appear to behave erratically. By using a lag switch, a player is able to disrupt uploads from the client to the server, while their own client queues up the actions performed. The goal is to gain advantage over another player without reciprocation; opponents slow down or stop moving, allowing the lag switch user to easily outmaneuver them. From the opponent's perspective, the player using the device may appear to be teleporting, invisible or invincible, while the opponents suffer delayed animations and fast-forwarded game play, delivered in bursts. Some gaming communities refer to this method as "tapping" which refers to the users "tapping" on and off their internet connection to create the lag.
The term "lag switch" encompasses many methods of disrupting the network communication between a client and its server. One method is by attaching a physical device, called a hardware lag switch, to a standard Ethernet cable. By flipping the switch on and off, the physical connection between the client and the server is disrupted. The designers of video game console hardware have started to introduce built-in protection against lag switches in the form of voltage detectors, which detect a change in voltage when the switch is flipped. Some manufacturers have taken counter measures to bypass or trick this detector. This can also be achieved by simply unplugging the Ethernet cord going to the client, causing a disruption in the player's internet connection. Other methods, called a software or wireless lag switch, involve using a computer program. In this method, the cheater runs an application on a computer connected to the same network as the client. The application hogs the network bandwidth, disrupting the communication between the client and its server. However, one cannot do this for an unlimited amount of time. At some point, if no traffic is being received, most game clients and/or game servers will decide that the connection has been lost and will remove the player from the game. In some P2P games, it can result in all players lagging or being disconnected from the game.
More advanced methods are firewall or router rules that apply bandwidth shaping and network latency, a cheat is able to adjust limits on both bandwidth and latency to stay relevant to a P2P network yet have considerable advantage over other players.
Look-ahead
Look-ahead cheating is a method of cheating within a peer-to-peer multiplayer gaming architecture where the cheating client gains an unfair advantage by delaying their actions to see what other players do before announcing its own action.
A client can cheat using this method by acting as if it is suffering from high latency; the outgoing packet is forged by attaching a time-stamp that is prior to the actual moment the packet is sent, thereby fooling other clients into thinking that the action was sent at the correct time, but was delayed in arrival. A partial solution is the lockstep protocol.
World-hacking
World-hacking is a method or third-party program that enables a user to exploit bugs and to view more of a level than intended by the developer.
A common aspect of real-time strategy games is the player's partial limitation or complete inability to see beyond the visibility range of individual game objects that are under their ownership (typically units and structures); this concept is controlled by a mechanism known as the fog of war. World-hacking usually enables the user to bypass this mechanism, either by removing it entirely and/or by rendering objects through the fog that would not normally be visible. In multiplayer modes, this allows for a distinct advantage against the other players who are subject to the intended settings. The advantage gained can be substantial, especially for the average real-time strategy games that rely on the rock paper scissors dynamic to balance out individual objects' varying strengths and weaknesses.
World-hacking may also allow a player to see through solid or opaque objects and/or manipulate or remove textures, to know in advance when an opponent is about to come into targeting range from an occluded area. This can be done by making wall textures transparent, or modifying the game maps to insert polygonal holes into otherwise solid walls. This variation is commonly known as a "wallhack" since it basically allows to the player to see enemies through walls.
World-hacking relies on the fact that an FPS server usually sends raw positional information for all players in the game, and leaves it up to the client's 3D renderer to hide opponents behind walls, in plant foliage, or in dark shadows. If the game map rendering could be turned off completely, all players could be seen moving around in what appears to be empty space. Complete map hiding offers no advantage to a cheater as they would be unable to navigate the invisible map pathways and obstacles. However, if only certain surfaces are made transparent or removed, this leaves just enough of an outline of the world to allow the cheater still to navigate it easily.
Asus released wireframe display drivers in 2001 that enabled players to use wallhacks, announcing the settings as "special weapons" that users could employ in multiplayer games. In a poll by the Online Gamers Association, 90% of its members were against the release of the drivers.
Unsporting play
Boosting / Win trading
Players will set up multiple accounts to play against each other. Usually, the primary account will be allowed to win through a deliberate lack of resistance from the secondary account(s) due to those accounts being unplayed or those players agreeing to lose. The major problem with this method is its high cost, as the boosting player must run at least two instances of the program simultaneously, usually on different PCs, IP addresses, and copies of the game. Additionally, some games allow the replays of matches to be uploaded and viewed by others; if the boosting player accidentally allows this, their boosting match can be seen by others. Some players will reverse roles between games, giving each account an equal win/loss record.
Even without match recordings being seen, players who boost can usually be easily identified, since they will have an unnaturally high number of points in relation to the number of matches played.
Disconnecting
In games where wins and losses are recorded on a player's account, a player may disconnect when he or she is about to lose in order to prevent that loss from being recorded. This is usually done by activating known in-game glitches or through third-party sources via "IP booting" (a feature of firewall software). Some players do this if they feel their opponent is being unfair.
Some games implement a disconnection penalty, usually by recording the disconnect as a loss, a deduction of experience, or even Elo points. Certain games also have a 'disconnect delay' period before the player can disconnect that can last 10–30 seconds. This prevents a player from instantly disconnecting if they are about to die or lose. In some games, if a player disconnects they can receive a warning or even get locked out of online play for a short period.
Rapid Fire Modifications (Macros)
In many games, weapons can be fired in burst fire or single shot fire modes. Modifying a controller or keyboard/mouse to gain the advantage of having a faster firing weapon than the standard player can be considered a method of cheating. These modifications can create an imbalance within the game. In addition to modifying a console or its controller, it is possible to achieve a similar effect on the PC by binding the firing button to the scroll wheel of a mouse, or by using a macro setting that will simulate rapid key presses automatically. However, most games limit the rate at which weapons can be fired, regardless of how fast a player presses the button, in order to limit this form of cheating.
Exploits
Exploiting is the application of an unintended feature or bug that gives the player an advantage not intended by the game design. Exploiting is generally considered cheating by the gaming community at large due to the unfair advantage usually gained by the exploiter. Most software developers of online games prohibit exploiting in their terms of service and often issue sanctions against players found to be exploiting. There is some contention by exploiters that exploiting should not be considered cheating as it is merely taking advantage of actions allowed by the software. Some players view exploiting as a skill because certain exploits take a significant amount of time to find, or dexterity and timing to use.
Farming and stat-padding
In games where achievements and rewards are unlocked by defeating human enemies, especially in unorthodox ways, players may arrange to win or lose against one another in order to obtain achievements without having to play the game linearly. This is also known as stat-padding, swapping, or boosting.
The term farming also refers to the practice of garnering achievements or virtual property for the purpose of real-money-trading. With rare exception, this has no direct effect on the gaming experience of other players; instead, it is a violation of most EULAs and could devalue the virtual property being farmed.
Character sharing
Sharing is when multiple people take turns playing as a single character — mainly in MMORPGs — to gain an advantage by spending more time per day on leveling or farming than an average player would, and consequently having higher stats or better equipment.
Twinking
Twinking is the act of transferring gear intended for higher level characters to lower level characters that would be incapable of obtaining the gear on their own. Twinked characters have a huge advantage over untwinked characters, as well as the rest of the game world. This is usually used by players who wish to create a new character, either to help them level more rapidly or to gain an unfair advantage in PvP (i.e. player versus player, a type of multiplayer interactive conflict). Most MMORPGs tolerate it, provided that the twinked character is not used in PvP combat against non-twinked characters. Often limits on twinking are placed into the game, usually through strict level or stat requirements to equip the item. Circumventing these level requirements would then be further cheating.
Ghosting
Most games allow other participants to observe the game as it is played from a variety of perspectives; depending on the game, perspectives allow an observer a map overview or attach a "camera" to the movement of a specific player. In doing so, the observer can communicate with an accomplice using a secondary communication methodology (in-game private message, third party communication, or even off-line) to inform friendly players of traps or the position of opponents. An observer can be an active player, using a separate computer, connection and account.
Some systems prevent inactive players from observing the game if they are on the same IP address as an active player, on the grounds that they are probably in close physical proximity; when all players from a single IP address are no longer active participants, they are all allowed to observe. However, this restriction can be easily evaded if there are multiple IP addresses available at one location (a common feature of broadband subscriptions), or if the observer installs remote desktop software on their computer, thus enabling their computer screen to be viewed by select other players in real time.
Additionally, this may be used against players livestreaming to platforms like Twitch to observe the player and their team's position and stats. This is often referred to as stream sniping.
Secret alliances
Also known as "teaming or pre-teaming", this form of cheating occurs when two or more players conspire to engage a secret, unofficial alliance of co-operative play to give themselves an unfair advantage over other players. It is considered cheating in many games that have a free for all deathmatch or Last man standing mode. Characteristics of this cheating, in particular, is when players in the same multiplayer server engage in secondary communication between each other using third-party software and/or using remote desktop software to observe the screens of the secret "allies" while one is playing that offers considerable tactical and/or strategic advantages over all other players outside of the "alliance". This type of cheating is very problematic in some games because it is often very difficult to prove as there is no hacking, exploits or game modifications involved, usually requiring the intervention of game server admins to monitor multiplayer sessions in order to catch players engaging in acts of teaming.
Stacking
Stacking involves altering game settings or team lineups to give one or more teams an unfair advantage over others. One example includes arranging a team composed of skilled or professional players against a team with members of lesser skill. Although this may be a valid and accepted practice in real-life sports, in online games stacking upsets less-skilled players who feel that they aren't being given a fair chance. Less ethical rigging involves weighting the game by providing a player or team with an advantage by outfitting them with better (or more familiar) weapons or equipment, or creating a play field that caters to a certain player, team or playing style. This also may involve creating team-size inequalities, for example a 5 vs 10 match. Many games prevent this by preventing players from joining a team with more players than the opposing side, forcing newcomers to balance the teams.
Scripting
Scripting is the use of a program or game feature to automate certain actions or behaviors. The use of scripts may or may not be considered cheating, depending on the behavior involved, and whether said behaviour is replicable without the use of such script. A script may give the user unusually fast firing rate, unobtainable otherwise, or may perform seemingly trivial tasks such as reloading. Some scripts can also tamper with other players' systems by spoofing commands.
Implementation of cheats
In the client–server model, the server is responsible for information security and enforcing game rules. (See "Anti-cheating methods and limitations" below for drawbacks.) In the peer-to-peer gaming model, clients run equal code but are still subject to most of the same type of cheats found in the client–server multiplayer model; however, the peer-to-peer multiplayer model has been deprecated in favor of the client–server model with the wider adoption of high-speed networks.
"Never trust the client" is a maxim among game developers (as well as other developers) that summarizes the model of client–server game design. It means that no information sent from a client should be accepted by a server if it breaks the game rules or the basic mechanics of the game, and that no information should be sent to a client unless it is "need-to-know." For example, a server with no rule enforcement or data integrity checking will synchronize all of the clients with all of the information about all of the other clients. The server will be very fast, but any wallhack program will reveal where all the players in the game are, what team they are on, and what state they're in — health, weapon, ammo etc. At the same time, altered and erroneous data from a client will allow a player to break the game rules, manipulate the server, and even manipulate other clients.
Game code modification
Many cheats are implemented by modifying game software, despite EULAs which forbid modification. While game software distributed in binary-only versions makes it harder to modify code, reverse engineering is possible. Also game data files can be edited separately from the main program and thereby circumvent protections implemented in software.
System software modification
Rather than modifying the game code (which the game itself or a 3rd-party protection system may detect), some cheats modify underlying system components. An example of this is graphics driver modifications that ignore depth checking and draw all objects on the screen—a primitive wallhack. System or driver modification is harder to detect, as there are a large number of system drivers that differ from user to user.
Packet interception and manipulation
The security of game software can be circumvented by intercepting and/or manipulating data (divided into "packets") in real-time while in transit from the client to the server or vice versa (i.e. a man-in-the-middle attack). Interception can be passive or result in active manipulation; either method can be performed on the client machine itself or via an external communication proxy; some aimbots incorporate this method.
Anti-cheating methods and limitations
There are many facets of cheating in online games which make the creation of a system to stop cheating very difficult; however, game developers and third-party software developers have created or are developing technologies that attempt to prevent cheating. Such countermeasures are commonly used in video games, with notable anti-cheat software being GameGuard, PunkBuster, Valve Anti-Cheat (specifically used on games on the Steam platform), and EasyAntiCheat.
Exploits of bugs are usually resolved/removed via a patch to the game; however, not all companies force the patches/updates on users, leaving the actual resolution to individual users.
Authoritative and mirrored server design
Generally, the better the server is at enforcing the rules, the less of a problem cheating will be in the game. In this approach all client functionality either runs purely on the game server or alternatively the game server mirrors the client gameplay and continuously validates the game state. In many mobile games, it is a common practice to run the client game sessions synchronously on the server, using exactly the same user input. The client session is reset when the game sessions become unsynced, thereby preventing cheating.
Server-side game code makes a trade-off between calculating and sending results for display on a just-in-time basis or trusting the client to calculate and display the results in appropriate sequence as a player progresses. It can do this by sending the parts of the world state needed for immediate display, which can result in client lag under bandwidth constraints, or sending the player the entire world state, which results in faster display for the player under the same bandwidth constraints, but exposes that data to interception or manipulation—a trade-off between security and efficiency.
When game servers were restricted by limited available resources such as storage, memory, internal bandwidth, and computational capacity due to the technologies available and the cost of the hardware, coupled with internet connections that were slow, it was believed to be necessary to compromise on security for optimization to minimize the impact on the end-user. Today however, with the increased speed and power of multi-core computers, lower-priced hardware, and the increased availability of broadband internet, this has become less of an issue.
Software obfuscation
Additionally to storing data in non-standard formats, some games also utilize runtime protection through software protectors. The key target is to keep attackers from directly inspecting or modifying compiled software. Protectors utilize any of three methods to protect software.
Encryption solutions will encrypt the code instructions and typically use a multi–layered defense mechanism against any reversing or tampering attempts that target the decryption code directly. Most protection systems in this category encrypt the code and then decrypt it at the application's startup or during runtime. This is the moment at which an attacker will breakpoint, reverse, and inject custom code. Runtime decryption may also add significant processing overhead and lower the game's framerate. Alternatively, some solutions focus on obfuscating the code by inserting jump statements and seemingly random instruction paths. The final and strongest alternative is virtualization. In this approach the encrypted code runs on a virtual CPU that can be markedly different from generic x86 and x64 CPUs as the command set can be unique for each protected file.
The shared weakness of protectors and virtualizers is that they impact performance, either by requiring decryption or by introducing unnecessary CPU instructions. To reduce the overhead code virtualizers are often only used to secure the critical parts of the code base, such as those interfacing with the gamestate and rendering.
Player supervision
Spectator functionality can allow server administrators to monitor individual players and thereby determine whether or not a cheat is in place. One risk of the spectator mode is that in competitive matches the spectator could abuse the mode for spying on specific players and communicating player positions and tactics to the opposing team. Some games get around this limitation by not allowing spectator mode at all, or by delaying the video feed.
Some games have systemized player supervision by allowing the community to review reports of disruptive behavior, determine whether those reports are valid, and apply temporary bans if appropriate. Reports can include data such as screenshots, videos, and chatlogs.
Anomaly detection
Anomalies in player behavior can be detected by statistically analyzing game events sent by the client to the server. The benefit is that this anti–cheat method is non–intrusive to the player's privacy and guaranteed to work on all end–user system configurations. The restriction of this method is that it cannot always be clear whether or not a player is cheating. Highly skilled players can for example develop such a map sense that they may end up being flagged for the use of a wallhack and/or aimbot. On the other hand, players may also cheat in a way that is under the detection thresholds and remain uncaught.
To reduce the amount of false positives, statistical detection systems are often combined with a supervision system that either is community driven or managed by a professional administrator team. In such implementations unusual player behavior can trigger a client-side component to create and upload reports for review.
Pattern detection
Pattern detection systems scan the player's hard drives and system memory for known cheat code or programs. Compared to statistical detection the key advantage is that also the subtle cheaters are detected. Other than this, a pure pattern detection approach generally has few advantages. Experience has shown that keeping detection-based systems up to date is relatively slow and labor-intensive as one needs to constantly track down cheats and update detection patterns. End–users may also be concerned with privacy issues, such as has been the case with VAC (Valve Anti-Cheat) accessing browsing history.
Sandboxing
Sandboxing a software process can protect against potentially malicious actions such as code injection and memory modifications that would otherwise tamper with the game. One of the key benefits of sandboxing is that it can effectively prevent the underlying cheat mechanisms from working, and thereby can avoid the need for banning game community members as cheats simply don't work. Additionally, strong prevention mechanisms can stop many game hackers from targeting the game because of elevated skill requirements. Compared to pattern detection systems, sandboxing is generally not privacy invasive, as the approach requires no data to be uploaded to foreign back-end systems.
System incompatibility
Anti-cheat software commonly use low-level system interfaces not intended by the OS vendor for public use. As a result, they are a common source of incompatibilities with newer versions of operating systems and security measures as well as alternative OS API implementations such as WineHQ. For example, Windows enables Hypervisor-protected Code Integrity (HVCI) by default in every market except Chinese and Korean installations due to anti-cheat compatibility issues.
Ramifications
Game publishers can implement a wide array of consequences for cheating players.
Banning players
Some game publishers may decide to try and permanently ban players who are persistent in cheating and ruining the game community. Such bans are typically placed based on hardware ID or IP address. Consequently, cheaters may develop ways of getting around these bans, by either playing through proxy or VPN servers, or spoofing or changing their hardware configuration.
Some companies and leagues ban suspected cheaters by blacklisting specific installation or serial keys, or user accounts, meaning that the player is effectively prevented from playing the game online. Certain games are known to identify cheaters and "shadow ban" them by placing them in matchmaking with other cheaters only, so as not to let the cheaters know that they have been identified.
While game publishers are known to ban players employing cheats, the actual number of players banned is usually not revealed. Exceptions to this include Blizzard Entertainment, Nexon, and CipSoft, known for banning cheaters in batches, and publicising the number of banned accounts, presumably in order to discourage others from cheating.
Suspension
In some cases a ban may not be permanent and expire after a certain period of time. This approach is commonly used as a ramification for the abuse of game glitches, harassing players, or benefiting from hackers. Temporary bans may also be utilized in case a violation cannot be fully proven, as is common with anti-cheating methods based on supervision or statistical detection.
In-game kick
In general kicking is perceived as a mild ramification, serving as a warning rather than a punishment for the player in question. Some anti-cheat systems may decide to kick players out of a game server when the system integrity cannot be enforced nor be determined with certainty. Other anti-cheat methods may also utilize kicks as an instant punishment for presumably unfair game play behavior.
Some games may also provide the community with the option of voting for particular players to be kicked. Such a system provides the power to self-regulate and effectively get rid of abusive players without depending on supervision or other anti-cheat methods. Even though vote kicking brings many benefits, it may also serve as a tool for trolling or griefing by allowing for legitimate players to be removed out of the game through the voting process.
Demotion
When a violation is the result of farming or stat-padding, it may be too severe of a punishment to suspend or ban players. Some games, therefore, implement a system of demotion in which the offender is moved to a lower rank (demoting), the opposite of a promotion.
Progress-removal
In several games where points are used, if a player is caught cheating they will get their score reset to the base value that is applied when a new player joins the server.
Legal measures
In recent years, countries including South Korea and China have criminalized the sale or use of cheats in video games. The presence of cheaters in online games may push away the legitimate playerbase and reduce overall profits in the industry, leading to game developers working with legislative bodies or enforcement agencies.
Historically, some game companies have also filed suit against individuals or commercial entities that have created and sold cheating tools in video games as a means to curb their use. In April 2013, coder DrUnKeN ChEeTaH was sued by Nexon America for operating GameAnarchy, a popular subscription based cheat provider for Combat Arms, and lost, Nexon being awarded $1.4M in damages. In January 2017, Riot Games successfully sued the LeagueSharp service, which offered a subscription-based hacking service for Riot's League of Legends, with a $10 million award to be paid to Riot. Blizzard Entertainment sued Bossland GMBH for distributing software hacks for several of its games, and was awarded $8.5 million in damages.
See also
Gaming etiquette
Warden (software)
References
Further reading
Exploiting Online Games, Hoglund, Greg, 2008, Pearson Education,
Cheating: Gaining Advantage in Videogames, Consalvo, Mia, 2007, MIT Press,
External links
Aspects of Networking in Multiplayer Computer Games by J.Smed et al., The Electronic Library, volume 20, number 2, pages 87–97, 2002.
Fair Online Gaming Information on Intel's anti-cheat research initiative and technology.
Competitive video game techniques
Video game controversies
Online games
|
238604
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A/UX
|
A/UX
|
A/UX (Apple UNIX) is Apple Computer's implementation of the Unix operating system for Macintosh computers, integrated with System 7's graphical interface and application compatibility. Launched in 1988 and discontinued in 1995 with version 3.1.1, it is Apple's first official Unix-based operating system. A/UX requires select models of 68k-based Macintosh with an FPU and a paged memory management unit (PMMU), including the Macintosh II, SE/30, Quadra, and Centris series. It was never the predecessor to macOS, a variant of UNIX currently bundled with Apple's desktop computers.
Described by InfoWorld as "an open systems solution with the Macintosh at its heart", the operating system is based on UNIX System V Release 2.2. It includes some additional features from System V Releases 3 and 4 and BSD versions 4.2 and 4.3. It is POSIX- and System V Interface Definition (SVID)-compliant and includes TCP/IP networking from version 2 onward. Having a Unix-compatible, POSIX-compliant operating system made it possible for Apple to bid for large contracts to supply computers to U.S. federal government institutes.
Features
A/UX provides a graphical user interface including the familiar Finder windows, menus, and controls. The A/UX Finder is a customized version of the System 7 Finder, adapted to run as a Unix process and designed to interact with the underlying Unix file systems. A/UX includes a CommandShell terminal program, which offers a command-line interface to the underlying Unix system. An X Window System server application (called MacX) with a terminal program can also be used to interface with the system and run X applications alongside the Finder. Alternatively, the user can choose to run a fullscreen X11R4 session without the Finder.
Apple's compatibility layer allows A/UX to run Macintosh System 7.0.1, Unix, and hybrid applications. A hybrid application uses functions from both the Macintosh toolbox and the Unix system. For example, it can run a Macintosh application which calls Unix system functions, or a Unix application which calls Macintosh Toolbox functions (such as QuickDraw), or a HyperCard stack graphical frontend for a command-line Unix application. A/UX's compatibility layer uses some existing Toolbox functions in the computer's ROM, while other function calls are translated into native Unix system calls; and it cooperatively multitasks all Macintosh apps in a single address space by using a token-passing system for their access to the Toolbox.
A/UX includes a utility called Commando (similar to a tool of the same name included with Macintosh Programmer's Workshop) to assist users with entering Unix commands. Opening a Unix executable file from the Finder opens a dialog box that allows the user to choose command-line options for the program using standard controls such as radio buttons and check boxes, and display the resulting command line argument for the user before executing the command or program. This feature is intended to ease the learning curve for users new to Unix, and decrease the user's reliance on the Unix manual. A/UX has a utility that allows the user to reformat third-party SCSI drives in such a way that they can be used in other Macs of that era.
A/UX runs only on 68k-based Macintoshes with a floating point unit (FPU) and a paged memory management unit (PMMU); even then, it only runs on select models. For example, the Quadra 840AV, Apple's fastest 68k Macintosh, cannot run A/UX.
History
A/UX 1.0 was announced at the February 1988 Uniforum conference, seven months behind schedule. It was initially aimed at existing Unix customers, universities and VARs. The system was initially sold pre-installed on the Macintosh II for , although one could add a larger monitor at a higher price, or purchase a kit for upgrading an existing Mac II for a lower price. Third-party software announced with the system's first release includes the Ingres database, StatView, developer tools, and various productivity software packages.
Based on AT&T's Unix System V.2.2 with additional features from BSD Unix. Networking support included TCP/IP, AppleTalk, and NFS implementations, developed by UniSoft. The base system had no GUI, running only via the command line. It was capable of running a single Mac program at a time, using the System 6 interface, although only about 10% of the existing Mac software would run on it.
Released in 1989, A/UX 1.1 supplies the basic GUI of System 6, with Finder, Chooser, Desk Accessories, and Control Panels; and it provisions Unix with the X Window System (X11R3) GUI, the Draft 12 POSIX standard, and overall improved speed comparable to a low end Sun workstation. Having its first POSIX compliant platform allowed Apple to join "a growing list of industry heavyweights" to be allowed into the US federal government's burgeoning $6 billion bid market.
In 1991, based on the AIM alliance, Apple envisioned A/UX as becoming the basis for drastically scaling its concept of Macintosh system architecture and application compatibility across the computing industry, from personal to enterprise markets. Apple formed a new business division for enterprise systems led by director Jim Groff, to serve "large businesses, government, and higher education". Basing the division upon a maturing A/UX, Groff admitted that Apple was "not a major player" in the Unix market and had performed merely "quiet" marketing of the operating system, but fully intended to become a "major player" with "very broad-based marketing objectives" in 1992. Further, Apple believed the alliance with IBM would merge A/UX, AIX, and System 7—thus ultimately scaling the execution of Macintosh applications from Mac desktops to IBM's huge RS/6000 systems.
In November 1991, Apple launched A/UX 3.0, planning to synchronize the two ongoing release schedules of A/UX and System 7. At that time, the company also preannounced A/UX 4.0, expected for release in 1993 or 1994. The announcement expounded upon the historic technology partnership between Apple and IBM, expecting to merge Apple's user-friendly graphical interface and desktop applications market with IBM's highly scalable Unix server market, and allowing the two companies to enter what Apple believed to be an emerging "general desktop open systems market". The upcoming A/UX 4.0 would target the PowerOpen Environment ABI, merge features of IBM's AIX variant of Unix into A/UX, and use the OSF/1 kernel from the Open Software Foundation. A/UX 3.0 would serve as an "important migration path" to this new system, making Unix and System 7 applications compliant with the PowerOpen specification. The future A/UX 4.0 and AIX operating systems were intended to run on a variety of IBM's POWER and PowerPC hardware, and on Apple's PowerPC-based hardware.
In April 1992, a C2-level secure version of A/UX was released. Coincidentally, the AIM alliance had launched the Apple/IBM partnership corporation Taligent Inc. one month earlier, with the mission of bringing Pink to market as a grandly universal operating system and application framework.
Contrary to all announcements, Apple eventually abandoned all plans for A/UX 4.0, never releasing the product. In 1995, PowerOpen was discontinued and Apple withdrew from the Taligent Inc. partnership in December. In 1996, Apple discontinued its Copland project which had spent two years in the public view, intended to become Mac OS 8 and to host Taligent software. From 1996 to 1997, the company deployed a short-lived platform of Apple Network Server systems based upon PowerPC hardware and a customized IBM AIX operating system. Apple's overall failed operating system strategy left it with the badly aged System 7 and no successor. Following its 1996 acquisition of NeXT, Apple introduced 1999's Mac OS X Server, a descendant of the Unix-based NeXTSTEP operating system.
The final release of A/UX is version 3.1.1 of 1995. Apple had abandoned the A/UX platform completely by 1996.
Reception
A/UX 1.0 was criticized in a 1988 InfoWorld review for having a largely command-driven user interface as in other Unix variants, rather than graphical as in System 6; its networking support was praised, though. BYTE in 1989 listed A/UX 1.1 among the "Excellence" winners of the BYTE Awards, stating that it "could make Unix the multitasking operating system of choice during the next decade" and challenge OS/2. Compared to contemporary workstations from other Unix vendors, however, the Macintosh hardware lacks features such as demand paging. The first two versions A/UX consequently suffer from poor performance, and poor sales. Users also complained about the amount of disk space it uses on a standard Macintosh, though comparable to any Unix system.
In the August 1992 issue of InfoWorld, the same author favorably reviewed A/UX 3.0, describing it as "an open systems solution with the Macintosh at its heart" where "Apple finally gets Unix right". He praised the GUI, single-button point-and-click installer, one year of personal tech support, the graphical help dialogs, and the user's manuals, saying that A/UX "defies the stereotype that Unix is difficult to use" and is "the easiest version of Unix to learn". Its list price of is much higher than that of "much weaker" competing PC operating systems such as System 7, OS/2, MS-DOS, and Windows 3.1, but low compared to the then prevailing proprietary Unix licenses of more than . The review found the system speed "acceptable but not great" even on the fastest Quadra 950, blaming not the software but the incomplete Unix optimization found in Apple's hardware. Though "a very good value", the system's price-performance ratio was judged as altogether uncompetitive against Sun's SPARCstation 2. The reviewers thought it unlikely for users "to want to buy Macs just to run A/UX" and would have awarded InfoWorlds top score if the OS was not proprietary to Macintosh hardware.
Tony Bove of the Bove & Rhodes Report generally complained that "[f]or Unix super-users there is no compelling reason to buy Apple's Unix. For Apple A/UX has always been a way to sell Macs, not Unix; it's a check-off item for users."
Legacy
Because A/UX requires very specific raw hardware access, the execution of A/UX within Macintosh emulation software was impossible until the 2014 introduction of the Macintosh II emulator named Shoebill.
Vintage A/UX users had one central repository for most A/UX applications: an Internet server at NASA called Jagubox. It was administered by Jim Jagielski, who was also the editor of the A/UX FAQ.
A/UX Users Group
Between January, 1995 and January 2008, the A/UX Users Group met eighteen times, over dinners in conjunction with MacWorld Expo and Mactivity conferences. The dinners were hosted by Brita Meng (of Shiva), Richard Ford (of Apple, then Packeteer), and Bill Woodcock (Zocalo, then Packet Clearing House).
See also
macOS, Apple's current OS, descended from the Unix-based NeXTSTEP
MachTen, Unix in the form of a Mac OS 7 application
MacMach, an academic Mach-based Unix experiment providing Mac OS 7 as a Unix application
Executor, a third-party reverse-engineered reimplementation of System 7 as a Unix application
Macintosh Application Environment, Apple's Mac OS application layer for third-party Unix systems
Classic, classic Mac OS applications as a paravirtualized Unix process
Star Trek project, System 7 ported as a DOS application for IBM PC clones
MkLinux, Apple-sponsored Mach microkernel-based Linux on Macintosh hardware
References
External links
Official A/UX FAQ and Semi-official A/UX FAQ updates
A/UX retrospective from 2010 at The Long View
A/UX overview and tour
A/UX Installation Tutorial and General Info
Apple Inc. operating systems
Discontinued operating systems
Window-based operating systems
1988 software
|
8759913
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003%20USC%20Trojans%20football%20team
|
2003 USC Trojans football team
|
The 2003 USC Trojans football team represented the University of Southern California in the 2003 NCAA Division I-A football season. They were named the Associated Press and Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) national champions but were denied a spot in the BCS National Championship Game by the BCS selections for the national championship game.
The regular season ended with three one-loss teams in BCS contention: Oklahoma, LSU and USC. USC ended the regular season ranked #1 and LSU #2 in both the AP Poll and the Coaches' Poll. USC lost one triple-overtime game at California, which finished 8–6; LSU had a 12-point home loss against a Florida team that went 8–5; Oklahoma, which had been ranked #1 for most of the season, fell to #3 after suffering a 35–7 defeat in the 2003 Big 12 Championship Game to Kansas State, which finished 11–4. Controversy erupted when the BCS computers selected Oklahoma–LSU as the BCS title game. During the bowl games, USC had a convincing 28–14 win over #4 Michigan in the Rose Bowl while LSU beat Oklahoma 21–14 in the Sugar Bowl (designated the BCS title game). USC remained #1 in the final AP Poll with 48 of the 65 votes, and LSU was ranked, by contractual obligation, #1 in the final Coaches' Poll, though three coaches did not follow instructions and voted USC #1 in that poll as well.
Recruiting
With the late arrival of highly touted quarterback John David Booty, who left high school a year early to attend USC, the Trojans' 2003 recruiting class was considered by some to be the best in the country.
Its legacy included many NFL Draft picks over several years, including five first-round picks.
2004 NFL Draft:
Will Poole (Round 4, Pick 102)
2006 NFL Draft:
Reggie Bush (Round 1, Pick 2)
Matt Leinart (Round 1, Pick 10)
LenDale White (Round 2, Pick 45),
2007 NFL Draft:
Steve Smith (Round 2, Pick 51)
Eric Wright (Finished career at UNLV, Round 2, Pick 53)
Ryan Kalil (Round 2, Pick 59)
2008 NFL Draft:
Sedrick Ellis (Round 1, Pick 7)
Sam Baker (Round 1, Pick 21)
Lawrence Jackson (Round 1, Pick 28)
Terrell Thomas (Round 2, Pick 63)
John David Booty (Round 5, Pick 137)
Thomas Williams (Round 5, Pick 155)
Chauncey Washington (Round 7, Pick 213)
Schedule
The Trojans finished the season with a 12–1 record, 7–1 in the Pac-10.
Game summaries
Auburn
USC opened the season visiting Auburn University: the Tigers were also ranked in the top 10 and had been named a pre-season favorite to be the national champion by at least one major news organization. In his first start, quarterback Matt Leinart led the Trojans on a dominating 23–0 performance.
Roster
References
USC
USC Trojans football seasons
College football national champions
Pac-12 Conference football champion seasons
Rose Bowl champion seasons
USC Trojans football
|
69738432
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexey%20Semyonov%20%28mathematician%29
|
Alexey Semyonov (mathematician)
|
Alexey Semyonov (; born 1950) is a Russian mathematician, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Rector of the Moscow State Pedagogical University, Head of the Department of mathematical logic and theory of algorithms Lomonosov State University, Professor, Dr.Sc.
Biography
Was born in 1950 in Moscow. Graduated from Moscow school No. 7 with in-depth study of mathematics and computer science. He entered the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Moscow State University, from which he graduated in 1972. Remained in graduate school at the Department of Mathematical Logic, scientific supervisor ― Albert Muchnik. Candidate of Sciences in Physics and Mathematics (1975, dissertation «On definability in some decidable theories»), Doctor of Sciences in Physics and Mathematics (1984, dissertation «Logical theories of one-place functions on a natural series», defended at Steklov Institute of Mathematics).
Specialist in the field of mathematical logic, cybernetics, theoretical computer science, education. Along with scientific work, he conducted pedagogical work. Taught at the Kolmogorov boarding school at Moscow State University (SSC MSU) and at the Department of Mathematical Logic at Moscow State University. Professor (1998).
He headed the laboratory of the theory of algorithms and linguistic support of the Scientific Council of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR on the complex problem «Cybernetics», was the deputy head of the project «School-1» of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (headed by Academician Evgeny Velikhov). Co-author of the first computer science textbook for all Soviet schools. Later ― the head of the authors' teams of textbooks in mathematics and computer science for primary and secondary schools. He was the deputy head of the Moscow Department of Education.
Rector of the Moscow Institute of Open Education (1993-2013) which is responsible for the professional development, in-service training, guidance and consulting of all 100,000 Moscow teachers. In 2003 he recreated school No. 179 and returned the mathematician and teacher Nikolay Konstantinov to work there.
Rector of the Moscow State Pedagogical University (2013–2016). Director of the Institute of Cybernetics and Educational Informatics named after A.I.Berg FITs IU RAS (since 2015). Head of the Department of Mathematical Logic and Theory of Algorithms MSU Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics (since 2018).
Editor-in-chief of the «Kvant magazine» (2012–2018). Editor-in-chief of the journal «Reports of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Mathematics, informatics, management processes» (from 2021).
Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the Department of Mathematical Sciences (since 2011), Academician of the Russian Academy of Education(since 2010).
Professor Semenov was a plenary speaker at Second World Congress on Informatics and Education (Moscow, 1996), a key speaker at Workshop “Narrowing the gap between the information rich and the information poor: new technologies and the future of education” at the 46th International Conference on Education (Geneva, 2001), the major author of UNESCO books: Recommendations on ICT in Primary Education, 2000, ICT in Schools. A Handbook for Teachers or How ICT Can Create New, Open Learning Environments, 2005.
Author of over 400 scientific papers in mathematics, computer science and education.
References
External links
Alexey Semyonov — scientific works on the website ISTINA MSU
Alexey Semyonov — scientific works on the website Mathnet
Publications on the website of the journal Kvant
Russian mathematicians
Russian computer scientists
Living people
Moscow State University alumni
Moscow State University faculty
Soviet mathematicians
Soviet computer scientists
1950 births
|
625125
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter%20case
|
Letter case
|
Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (or more formally majuscule) and smaller lowercase (or more formally minuscule) in the written representation of certain languages. The writing systems that distinguish between the upper and lowercase have two parallel sets of letters, with each letter in one set usually having an equivalent in the other set. The two case variants are alternative representations of the same letter: they have the same name and pronunciation and are treated identically when sorting in alphabetical order.
Letter case is generally applied in a mixed-case fashion, with both upper and lowercase letters appearing in a given piece of text for legibility. The choice of case is often prescribed by the grammar of a language or by the conventions of a particular discipline. In orthography, the uppercase is primarily reserved for special purposes, such as the first letter of a sentence or of a proper noun (called capitalisation, or capitalised words), which makes the lowercase the more common variant in regular text.
In some contexts, it is conventional to use one case only, for example, engineering design drawings are typically labelled entirely in uppercase letters, which are easier to distinguish individually than the lowercase when space restrictions require that the lettering be very small. In mathematics, on the other hand, letter case may indicate the relationship between mathematical objects, with uppercase letters often representing “superior” objects (e.g., X could be a mathematical set containing the generic member x).
Terminology
The terms upper case and lower case may be written as two consecutive words, connected with a hyphen (upper-case and lower-caseparticularly if they pre-modify another noun), or as a single word (uppercase and lowercase). These terms originated from the common layouts of the shallow drawers called type cases used to hold the movable type for letterpress printing. Traditionally, the capital letters were stored in a separate shallow tray or "case" that was located above the case that held the small letters.
Majuscule (, less commonly ), for palaeographers, is technically any script whose letters have very few or very short ascenders and descenders, or none at all (for example, the majuscule scripts used in the Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1209, or the Book of Kells). By virtue of their visual impact, this made the term majuscule an apt descriptor for what much later came to be more commonly referred to as uppercase letters.
Minuscule refers to lower-case letters. The word is often spelled miniscule, by association with the unrelated word miniature and the prefix mini-. This has traditionally been regarded as a spelling mistake (since minuscule is derived from the word minus), but is now so common that some dictionaries tend to accept it as a nonstandard or variant spelling. Miniscule is still less likely, however, to be used in reference to lower-case letters.
Typographical considerations
The glyphs of lowercase letters can resemble smaller forms of the uppercase glyphs restricted to the base band (e.g. "C/c" and "S/s", cf. small caps) or can look hardly related (e.g. "D/d" and "G/g"). Here is a comparison of the upper and lower case variants of each letter included in the English alphabet (the exact representation will vary according to the typeface and font used):
Typographically, the basic difference between the majuscules and minuscules is not that the majuscules are big and minuscules small, but that the majuscules generally have the same height (although, depending on the typeface, there may be some exceptions, particularly with Q and sometimes J having a descending element; also, various diacritics can add to the normal height of a letter).
There is more variation in the height of the minuscules, as some of them have parts higher (ascenders) or lower (descenders) than the typical size. Normally, b, d, f, h, k, l, t are the letters with ascenders, and g, j, p, q, y are the ones with descenders. In addition, with old-style numerals still used by some traditional or classical fonts, 6 and 8 make up the ascender set, and 3, 4, 5, 7 and 9 the descender set.
Bicameral script
Writing systems using two separate cases are bicameral scripts. Languages that use the Latin, Cyrillic, Greek, Coptic, Armenian, Adlam, Warang Citi, Cherokee, Garay, Zaghawa, and Osage scripts use letter cases in their written form as an aid to clarity and legibility. Another bicameral script, which is not used for any modern languages, is Deseret. The Georgian alphabet has several variants, and there were attempts to use them as different cases, but the modern written Georgian language does not distinguish case.
Many other writing systems make no distinction between majuscules and minuscules a system called unicameral script or unicase. This includes most syllabic and other non-alphabetic scripts.
In scripts with a case distinction, lower case is generally used for the majority of text; capitals are used for capitalisation and emphasis when bold is not available. Acronyms (and particularly initialisms) are often written in all-caps, depending on various factors.
Capitalisation
Capitalisation is the writing of a word with its first letter in uppercase and the remaining letters in lowercase. Capitalisation rules vary by language and are often quite complex, but in most modern languages that have capitalisation, the first word of every sentence is capitalised, as are all proper nouns.
Capitalisation in English, in terms of the general orthographic rules independent of context (e.g. title vs. heading vs. text), is universally standardised for formal writing. Capital letters are used as the first letter of a sentence, a proper noun, or a proper adjective. The names of the days of the week and the names of the months are also capitalised, as are the first-person pronoun "I" and sometimes the interjection "O" (although the latter is uncommon in modern usage, with "oh" being preferred). There are a few pairs of words of different meanings whose only difference is capitalisation of the first letter. Honorifics and personal titles showing rank or prestige are capitalised when used together with the name of the person (for example, "Mr. Smith", "Bishop O'Brien", "Professor Moore") or as a direct address, but normally not when used alone and in a more general sense. It can also be seen as customary to capitalise any word in some contexts even a pronoun referring to the deity of a monotheistic religion.
Other words normally start with a lower-case letter. There are, however, situations where further capitalisation may be used to give added emphasis, for example in headings and publication titles (see below). In some traditional forms of poetry, capitalisation has conventionally been used as a marker to indicate the beginning of a line of verse independent of any grammatical feature. In political writing, parody and satire, the unexpected emphasis afforded by otherwise ill-advised capitalisation is often used to great stylistic effect, such as in the case of George Orwell's Big Brother.
Other languages vary in their use of capitals. For example, in German all nouns are capitalised (this was previously common in English as well, mainly in the 17th and 18th centuries), while in Romance and most other European languages the names of the days of the week, the names of the months, and adjectives of nationality, religion, and so on normally begin with a lower-case letter. On the other hand, in some languages it is customary to capitalise formal polite pronouns, for example De, Dem (Danish), Sie, Ihnen (German), and Vd or Ud (short for usted in Spanish).
Informal communication, such as texting, instant messaging or a handwritten sticky note, may not bother to follow the conventions concerning capitalisation, but that is because its users usually do not expect it to be formal.
Exceptional letters and digraphs
The German letter "ß" formerly existed only in lower case. The orthographical capitalisation does not concern "ß", which generally does not occur at the beginning of a word, and in the all-caps style it has traditionally been replaced by the digraph "SS". Since June 2017, however, capital ẞ is accepted as an alternative in the all-caps style.
The Greek upper-case letter "Σ" has two different lower-case forms: "ς" in word-final position and "σ" elsewhere. In a similar manner, the Latin upper-case letter "S" used to have two different lower-case forms: "s" in word-final position and " ſ " elsewhere. The latter form, called the long s, fell out of general use before the middle of the 19th century, except for the countries that continued to use blackletter typefaces such as Fraktur. When blackletter type fell out of general use in the mid-20th century, even those countries dropped the long s.
There is a complicated treatment of the Greek Iota subscript.
Unlike most languages that use Latin-script and link the dotless upper-case "I" with the dotted lower-case "i", Turkish has both a dotted and dotless I, each in both upper and lower case. Each of the two pairs ("İ/i" and "I/ı") represents a distinctive phoneme.
In some languages, specific digraphs may be regarded as single letters, and in Dutch, the digraph "IJ/ij" is even capitalised with both components written in uppercase (for example, "IJsland" rather than "Ijsland"). In other languages, such as Welsh and Hungarian, various digraphs are regarded as single letters for collation purposes, but the second component of the digraph will still be written in lower case even if the first component is capitalised. Similarly, in South Slavic languages whose orthography is coordinated between the Cyrillic and Latin scripts, the Latin digraphs "Lj/lj", "Nj/nj" and "Dž/dž" are each regarded as a single letter (like their Cyrillic equivalents "Љ/љ", "Њ/њ" and "Џ/џ", respectively), but only in all-caps style should both components be in upper case (e.g. Ljiljan–LJILJAN, Njonja–NJONJA, Džidža–DŽIDŽA). Unicode designates a single character for each case variant (i.e., upper case, title case and lower case) of the three digraphs.
In the Hawaiian orthography, the okina is a phonemic symbol that visually resembles a left single quotation mark. Representing the glottal stop, the okina can be characterised as either a letter or a diacritic. As a unicase letter, the okina is unaffected by capitalisation; it is the following letter that is capitalised instead. According to the Unicode standard, the okina is formally encoded as , but it is not uncommon to substitute this with a similar punctuation character, such as the left single quotation mark or an apostrophe.
Related phenomena
Similar orthographic and graphostylistic conventions are used for emphasis or following language-specific or other rules, including:
Font effects such as italic type or oblique type, boldface, and choice of serif vs. sans-serif.
Typographical conventions in mathematical formulae include the use of Greek letters and the use of Latin letters with special formatting such as blackboard bold and blackletter.
Some letters of the Arabic and Hebrew alphabets and some jamo of the Korean hangul have different forms depending on placement within a word, but these rules are strict and the different forms cannot be used for emphasis.
In the Arabic and Arabic-based alphabets, letters in a word are connected, except for several that cannot connect to the following letter. Letters may have distinct forms depending on whether they are initial (connected only to the following letter), medial (connected to both neighboring letters), final (connected only to the preceding letter), or isolated (connected to neither a preceding nor a following letter).
In the Hebrew alphabet, five letters have a distinct form (see Final form) that is used when they are word-final.
In Georgian, some authors use isolated letters from the ancient Asomtavruli alphabet within a text otherwise written in the modern Mkhedruli in a fashion that is reminiscent of the usage of upper-case letters in the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic alphabets.
In the Japanese writing system, an author has the option of switching between kanji, hiragana, katakana, and rōmaji. In particular, every hiragana character has an equivalent katakana character, and vice versa. Romanised Japanese sometimes uses lowercase letters to represent words that would be written in hiragana, and uppercase letters to represent words that would be written in katakana. Some kana characters are written in smaller type when they modify or combine with the preceding sign (yōon) or the following sign (sokuon).
Stylistic or specialised usage
In English, a variety of case styles are used in various circumstances:
Sentence case
"The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" A mixed-case style in which the first word of the sentence is capitalised, as well as proper nouns and other words as required by a more specific rule. This is generally equivalent to the baseline universal standard of formal English orthography.
In computer programming, the initial capital is easier to automate than the other rules. For example, on English-language Wikipedia, the first character in page titles is capitalised by default. Because the other rules are more complex, substrings for concatenation into sentences are commonly written in “mid-sentence case”, applying all the rules of sentence case except the initial capital.
Title case (capital case, headline style)
"The Quick Brown Fox Jumps over the Lazy Dog" A mixed-case style with all words capitalised, except for certain subsets (particularly articles and short prepositions and conjunctions) defined by rules that are not universally standardised. The standardisation is only at the level of house styles and individual style manuals.
Start case (First letter of each word capitalized)
"The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over The Lazy Dog" Start case or initial caps is a simplified variant of title case. In text processing, title case usually involves the capitalisation of all words irrespective of their part of speech.
All caps (all uppercase)
"THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPS OVER THE LAZY DOG" A unicase style with capital letters only. This can be used in headings and special situations, such as for typographical emphasis in text made on a typewriter. With the advent of the Internet, the all-caps style is more often used for emphasis; however, it is considered poor netiquette by some to type in all capitals, and said to be tantamount to shouting. Long spans of Latin-alphabet text in all upper-case are more difficult to read because of the absence of the ascenders and descenders found in lower-case letters, which aids recognition and legibility. In some cultures it is common to write family names in all caps to distinguish them from the given names, especially in identity documents such as passports.
Small caps
""Similar in form to capital letters but roughly the size of a lower-case "x", small caps can be used instead of lower-case letters and combined with regular caps in a mixed-case fashion. This is a feature of certain fonts, such as Copperplate Gothic. According to various typographical traditions, the height of small caps can be equal to or slightly larger than the x-height of the typeface (the smaller variant is sometimes called petite caps and may also be mixed with the larger variant). Small caps can be used for acronyms, names, mathematical entities, computer commands in printed text, business or personal printed stationery letterheads, and other situations where a given phrase needs to be distinguished from the main text.
All lowercase
"the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog"
A unicase style with no capital letters. This is sometimes used for artistic effect, such as in poetry. Also commonly seen in computer languages, and in informal electronic communications such as SMS language and instant messaging (avoiding the shift key, to type more quickly). Apple co-founder Steve Jobs used all-lowercase (in cursive) in his signature.
Headings and publication titles
In English-language publications, various conventions are used for the capitalisation of words in publication titles and headlines, including chapter and section headings. The rules differ substantially between individual house styles.
The convention followed by many British publishers (including scientific publishers, like Nature, magazines, like The Economist and New Scientist, and newspapers, like The Guardian and The Times) and many U.S. newspapers is sentence-style capitalisation in headlines, i.e. capitalisation follows the same rules that apply for sentences. This convention is usually called sentence case. It may also be applied to publication titles, especially in bibliographic references and library catalogues. An example of a global publisher whose English-language house style prescribes sentence-case titles and headings is the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
For publication titles it is, however, a common typographic practice among both British and U.S. publishers to capitalise significant words (and in the United States, this is often applied to headings, too). This family of typographic conventions is usually called title case. For example, R. M. Ritter's Oxford Manual of Style (2002) suggests capitalising "the first word and all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs, but generally not articles, conjunctions and short prepositions". This is an old form of emphasis, similar to the more modern practice of using a larger or boldface font for titles. The rules which prescribe which words to capitalise are not based on any grammatically inherent correct–incorrect distinction and are not universally standardised; they differ between style guides, although most style guides tend to follow a few strong conventions, as follows:
Most styles capitalise all words except for short closed-class words (certain parts of speech, namely, articles, prepositions, and conjunctions); but the first word (always) and last word (in many styles) are also capitalised, regardless of their part of speech. Many styles capitalise longer prepositions such as "between" and "throughout", but not shorter ones such as "for" and "with". Typically, a preposition is considered short if it has up to three or four letters.
A few styles capitalise all words in title case (the so-called start case), which has the advantage of being easy to implement and hard to get "wrong" (that is, "not edited to style"). Because of this rule's simplicity, software case-folding routines can handle 95% or more of the editing, especially if they are programmed for desired exceptions (such as "FBI" rather than "Fbi").
As for whether hyphenated words are capitalised not only at the beginning but also after the hyphen, there is no universal standard; variation occurs in the wild and among house styles (e.g., "The Letter-Case Rule in My Book"; "Short-term Follow-up Care for Burns"). Traditional copyediting makes a distinction between temporary compounds (such as many nonce [novel instance] compound modifiers), in which every part of the hyphenated word is capitalised (e.g. "How This Particular Author Chose to Style His Autumn-Apple-Picking Heading"), and permanent compounds, which are terms that, although compound and hyphenated, are so well established that dictionaries enter them as headwords (e.g., "Short-term Follow-up Care for Burns").
Title case is widely used in many English-language publications, especially in the United States. However, its conventions are sometimes not followed strictly especially in informal writing.
In creative typography, such as music record covers and other artistic material, all styles are commonly encountered, including all-lowercase letters and special case styles, such as studly caps (see below). For example, in the wordmarks of video games it is not uncommon to use stylised upper-case letters at the beginning and end of a title, with the intermediate letters in small caps or lower case (e.g., , , and DmC).
Multi-word proper nouns
Single-word proper nouns are capitalised in formal written English, unless the name is intentionally stylised to break this rule (such as the first or last name of danah boyd).
Multi-word proper nouns include names of organisations, publications, and people. Often the rules for "title case" (described in the previous section) are applied to these names, so that non-initial articles, conjunctions, and short prepositions are lowercase, and all other words are uppercase. For example, the short preposition "of" and the article "the" are lowercase in "Steering Committee of the Finance Department". Usually only capitalised words are used to form an acronym variant of the name, though there is some variation in this.
With personal names, this practice can vary (sometimes all words are capitalised, regardless of length or function), but is not limited to English names. Examples include the English names Tamar of Georgia and Catherine the Great, "van" and "der" in Dutch names, "von" and "zu" in German, "de", "los", and "y" in Spanish names, "de" or "d'" in French names, and "ibn" in Arabic names.
Some surname prefixes also affect the capitalisation of the following internal letter or word, for example "Mac" in Celtic names and "Al" in Arabic names.
Unit symbols and prefixes in the metric system
In the International System of Units (SI), a letter usually has different meanings in upper and lower case when used as a unit symbol. Generally, unit symbols are written in lower case, but if the name of the unit is derived from a proper noun, the first letter of the symbol is capitalised. Nevertheless, the name of the unit, if spelled out, is always considered a common noun and written accordingly in lower case. For example:
1 s (one second) when used for the base unit of time.
1 S (one siemens) when used for the unit of electric conductance and admittance (named after Werner von Siemens).
1 Sv (one sievert), used for the unit of ionising radiation dose (named after Rolf Maximilian Sievert).
For the purpose of clarity, the symbol for litre can optionally be written in upper case even though the name is not derived from a proper noun. For example, "one litre" may be written as:
1 l, the original form, for typefaces in which "digit one" , "lower-case ell" , and "upper-case i" look different.
1 L, an alternative form, for typefaces in which these characters are difficult to distinguish, or the typeface the reader will be using is unknown. A "script l" in various typefaces (e.g.: 1 l) has traditionally been used in some countries to prevent confusion; however, the separate Unicode character which represents this, , is deprecated by the SI. Another solution sometimes seen in Web typography is to use a serif font for "lower-case ell" in otherwise sans-serif material (1 l).
The letter case of a prefix symbol is determined independently of the unit symbol to which it is attached. Lower case is used for all submultiple prefix symbols and the small multiple prefix symbols up to "k" (for kilo, meaning 103 = 1000 multiplier), whereas upper case is used for larger multipliers:
1 ms, millisecond, a small measure of time ("m" for milli, meaning 10−3 = 1/1000 multiplier).
1 Ms, megasecond, a large measure of time ("M" for mega, meaning 106 = 1 000 000 multiplier).
1 mS, millisiemens, a small measure of electric conductance.
1 MS, megasiemens, a large measure of electric conductance.
1 mm, millimetre, a small measure of length.
1 Mm, megametre, a large measure of length.
Use within programming languages
Some case styles are not used in standard English, but are common in computer programming, product branding, or other specialised fields.
The usage derives from how programming languages are parsed, programmatically. They generally separate their syntactic tokens by simple whitespace, including space characters, tabs, and newlines. When the tokens, such as function and variable names start to multiply in complex software development, and there is still a need to keep the source code human-readable, Naming conventions make this possible. So for example, a function dealing with matrix multiplication might formally be called:
SGEMM(*), with the asterisk standing in for an equally inscrutable list of 13 parameters (in BLAS),
MultiplyMatrixByMatrix(Matrix x, Matrix y), in some hypothetical higher level manifestly typed language, broadly following the syntax of C++ or Java,
multiply-matrix-by-matrix(x, y) in something derived from LISP, or perhaps
(multiply (x y)) in the CLOS, or some newer derivative language supporting type inference and multiple dispatch.
In each case the capitalisation or lack thereof supports a different function. In the first, FORTRAN compatibility requires case-insensitive naming and short function names. The second supports easily discernible function and argument names and types, within the context of an imperative, strongly typed language. The third supports the macro facilities of LISP, and its tendency to view programs and data minimalistically, and as interchangeable. The fourth idiom needs much less syntactic sugar overall, because much of the semantics are implied, but because of its brevity and so lack of the need for capitalization or multipart words at all, might also make the code too abstract and overloaded for the common programmer to understand.
Understandably then, such coding conventions are highly subjective, and can lead to rather opinionated debate, such as in the case of editor wars, or those about indent style. Capitalisation is no exception.
Camel case
Camel case: "theQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog" or "TheQuickBrownFoxJumpsOverTheLazyDog" Spaces and punctuation are removed and the first letter of each word is capitalised. If this includes the first letter of the first word (CamelCase, "PowerPoint", "TheQuick...", etc.), the case is sometimes called upper camel case (or, illustratively, CamelCase), Pascal case in reference to the Pascal programming language, Initial Caps, or bumpy case.
When the first letter of the first word is lowercase ("iPod", "eBay", "theQuickBrownFox..."), the case is usually known as lower camel case or dromedary case (illustratively: dromedaryCase). This format has become popular in the branding of information technology products and services, with an initial "i" implying "Internet ready", "integrated with the internet", or maybe "intelligent". An initial "e" implying "electronic" with an inference to email (electronic mail), e-commerce (electronic commerce), or the pizzaz of anything electronically arcing.
Snake case
Snake case: "the_quick_brown_fox_jumps_over_the_lazy_dog" Punctuation is removed and spaces are replaced by single underscores. Normally the letters share the same case (e.g. "UPPER_CASE_EMBEDDED_UNDERSCORE" or "lower_case_embedded_underscore") but the case can be mixed, as in OCaml modules. The style may also be called pothole case, especially in Python programming, in which this convention is often used for naming variables. Illustratively, it may be rendered snake_case, pothole_case, etc. When all-upper-case, it may be referred to as screaming snake case (or SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE) or hazard case.
Kebab case
Kebab case: "the-quick-brown-fox-jumps-over-the-lazy-dog" Similar to snake case, above, except hyphens rather than underscores are used to replace spaces. It is also known as spinal case, param case, Lisp case in reference to the Lisp programming language, or dash case (or illustratively as kebab-case). If every word is capitalised, the style is known as train case (TRAIN-CASE).
Studly caps
Studly caps: e.g. "tHeqUicKBrOWnFoXJUmpsoVeRThElAzydOG" Mixed case with no semantic or syntactic significance to the use of the capitals. Sometimes only vowels are upper case, at other times upper and lower case are alternated, but often it is simply random. The name comes from the sarcastic or ironic implication that it was used in an attempt by the writer to convey their own coolness. It is also used to mock the violation of standard English case conventions by marketers in the naming of computer software packages, even when there is no technical requirement to do soe.g., Sun Microsystems' naming of a windowing system NeWS. Illustrative naming of the style is, naturally, random: stUdlY cAps, StUdLy CaPs, etc.
Case folding and case conversion
In the character sets developed for computing, each upper- and lower-case letter is encoded as a separate character. In order to enable case folding and case conversion, the software needs to link together the two characters representing the case variants of a letter. (Some old character-encoding systems, such as the Baudot code, are restricted to one set of letters, usually represented by the upper-case variants.)
Case-insensitive operations can be said to fold case, from the idea of folding the character code table so that upper- and lower-case letters coincide. The conversion of letter case in a string is common practice in computer applications, for instance to make case-insensitive comparisons. Many high-level programming languages provide simple methods for case conversion, at least for the ASCII character set.
Whether or not the case variants are treated as equivalent to each other varies depending on the computer system and context. For example, user passwords are generally case sensitive in order to allow more diversity and make them more difficult to break. In contrast, case is often ignored in keyword searches in order to ignore insignificant variations in keyword capitalisation both in queries and queried material.
Unicode case folding and script identification
Unicode defines case folding through the three case-mapping properties of each character: upper case, lower case, and title case (in this context, "title case" relates to ligatures and digraphs encoded as mixed-case single characters, in which the first component is in upper case and the second component in lower case). These properties relate all characters in scripts with differing cases to the other case variants of the character.
As briefly discussed in Unicode Technical Note #26, "In terms of implementation issues, any attempt at a unification of Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic would wreak havoc [and] make casing operations an unholy mess, in effect making all casing operations context sensitive […]". In other words, while the shapes of letters like A, B, E, H, K, M, O, P, T, X, Y and so on are shared between the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic alphabets (and small differences in their canonical forms may be considered to be of a merely typographical nature), it would still be problematic for a multilingual character set or a font to provide only a single code point for, say, uppercase letter B, as this would make it quite difficult for a wordprocessor to change that single uppercase letter to one of the three different choices for the lower-case letter, the Latin b (U+0062), Greek β (U+03B2) or Cyrillic в (U+0432). Therefore, the corresponding Latin, Greek and Cyrillic upper-case letters (U+0042, U+0392 and U+0412, respectively) are also encoded as separate characters, despite their appearance being basically identical. Without letter case, a "unified European alphabet"such as ABБCГDΔΕЄЗFΦGHIИJ...Z, with an appropriate subset for each languageis feasible; but considering letter case, it becomes very clear that these alphabets are rather distinct sets of symbols.
Methods in word processing
Most modern word processors provide automated case conversion with a simple click or keystroke. For example, in Microsoft Office Word, there is a dialog box for toggling the selected text through UPPERCASE, then lowercase, then Title Case (actually start caps; exception words must be lowercased individually). The keystroke does the same thing.
Methods in programming
In some forms of BASIC there are two methods for case conversion:
UpperA$ = UCASE$("a")
LowerA$ = LCASE$("A")
C and C++, as well as any C-like language that conforms to its standard library, provide these functions in the file ctype.h:
char upperA = toupper('a');
char lowerA = tolower('A');
Case conversion is different with different character sets. In ASCII or EBCDIC, case can be converted in the following way, in C:
#define toupper(c) (islower(c) ? (c) – 'a' + 'A' : (c))
#define tolower(c) (isupper(c) ? (c) – 'A' + 'a' : (c))
This only works because the letters of upper and lower cases are spaced out equally. In ASCII they are consecutive, whereas with EBCDIC they are not; nonetheless the upper-case letters are arranged in the same pattern and with the same gaps as are the lower-case letters, so the technique still works.
Some computer programming languages offer facilities for converting text to a form in which all words are capitalised. Visual Basic calls this "proper case"; Python calls it "title case". This differs from usual title casing conventions, such as the English convention in which minor words are not capitalised.
History
Originally alphabets were written entirely in majuscule letters, spaced between well-defined upper and lower bounds. When written quickly with a pen, these tended to turn into rounder and much simpler forms. It is from these that the first minuscule hands developed, the half-uncials and cursive minuscule, which no longer stayed bound between a pair of lines. These in turn formed the foundations for the Carolingian minuscule script, developed by Alcuin for use in the court of Charlemagne, which quickly spread across Europe. The advantage of the minuscule over majuscule was improved, faster readability.
In Latin, papyri from Herculaneum dating before 79 CE (when it was destroyed) have been found that have been written in old Roman cursive, where the early forms of minuscule letters "d", "h" and "r", for example, can already be recognised. According to papyrologist Knut Kleve, "The theory, then, that the lower-case letters have been developed from the fifth century uncials and the ninth century Carolingian minuscules seems to be wrong." Both majuscule and minuscule letters existed, but the difference between the two variants was initially stylistic rather than orthographic and the writing system was still basically unicameral: a given handwritten document could use either one style or the other but these were not mixed. European languages, except for Ancient Greek and Latin, did not make the case distinction before about 1300.
The timeline of writing in Western Europe can be divided into four eras:
Greek majuscule (9th–3rd century BCE) in contrast to the Greek uncial script (3rd century BCE – 12th century CE) and the later Greek minuscule
Roman majuscule (7th century BCE – 4th century CE) in contrast to the Roman uncial (4th–8th century CE), Roman half uncial, and minuscule
Carolingian majuscule (4th–8th century CE) in contrast to the Carolingian minuscule (around 780 – 12th century)
Gothic majuscule (13th and 14th century), in contrast to the early Gothic (end of 11th to 13th century), Gothic (14th century), and late Gothic (16th century) minuscules.
Traditionally, certain letters were rendered differently according to a set of rules. In particular, those letters that began sentences or nouns were made larger and often written in a distinct script. There was no fixed capitalisation system until the early 18th century. The English language eventually dropped the rule for nouns, while the German language keeps it.
Similar developments have taken place in other alphabets. The lower-case script for the Greek alphabet has its origins in the 7th century and acquired its quadrilinear form (that is, characterised by ascenders and descenders) in the 8th century. Over time, uncial letter forms were increasingly mixed into the script. The earliest dated Greek lower-case text is the Uspenski Gospels (MS 461) in the year 835. The modern practice of capitalising the first letter of every sentence seems to be imported (and is rarely used when printing Ancient Greek materials even today).
Type cases
The individual type blocks used in hand typesetting are stored in shallow wooden or metal drawers known as "type cases". Each is subdivided into a number of compartments ("boxes") for the storage of different individual letters.
The Oxford Universal Dictionary on Historical Advanced Proportional Principles (reprinted 1952) indicates that case in this sense (referring to the box or frame used by a compositor in the printing trade) was first used in English in 1588. Originally one large case was used for each typeface, then "divided cases", pairs of cases for majuscules and minuscules, were introduced in the region of today's Belgium by 1563, England by 1588, and France before 1723.
The terms upper and lower case originate from this division. By convention, when the two cases were taken out of the storage rack and placed on a rack on the compositor's desk, the case containing the capitals and small capitals stood at a steeper angle at the back of the desk, with the case for the small letters, punctuation, and spaces being more easily reached at a shallower angle below it to the front of the desk, hence upper and lower case.
Though pairs of cases were used in English-speaking countries and many European countries in the seventeenth century, in Germany and Scandinavia the single case continued in use.
Various patterns of cases are available, often with the compartments for lower-case letters varying in size according to the frequency of use of letters, so that the commonest letters are grouped together in larger boxes at the centre of the case. The compositor takes the letter blocks from the compartments and places them in a composing stick, working from left to right and placing the letters upside down with the nick to the top, then sets the assembled type in a galley.
See also
All caps
Alternating caps
Camel case
Capitalization
Capitalization in English
Initial, or drop cap
Grammatical case
Punctuation
Roman cursive
Roman square capitals
Shift key
Small caps
Text figures
Unicase
Notes
References
External links
One of this paper's conclusions: all-caps is harder to read.
Alphabets
Capitalization
Orthography
Typography
Articles with example C code
|
5134069
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan%20Francis
|
Ryan Francis
|
Ryan LeChanc Francis (March 17, 1987 – May 13, 2006) was an American college basketball player. At the time of his death, he was the starting point guard for the USC Trojans. He was murdered during a trip to his hometown in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, after his freshman season at USC.
College career
As a freshman, Francis was the starting point guard during the 2005–2006 season for the USC Trojans and averaged 7.1 points, 3.7 assists and 1.6 steals per game. He ranked seventh in the Pac-10 Conference in assists and fifth in steals which was good enough to make the honorable-mention pac-10 all-freshman team selected by the conference coaches. His jersey number was 12. It has been suggested that after basketball he planned to enter coaching or work with criminals.
High school career
Francis was a standout at Glen Oaks High School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He averaged 22 points and five assists per game in his senior year and led his team to a perfect 36–0 record and the Class 4A state title in 2005. Francis also won the MVP award for the state championship game and was named the 2005 Louisiana Class 4A Outstanding Player.
Murder
Francis was shot and killed about 3:30 a.m. May 13, 2006 while riding in a car in his hometown of Baton Rouge. As the vehicle pulled up to a stop light, the driver of another vehicle got out and opened fire. The shooter was identified as D'Anthony Norman Ford, also 19. According to the police report, Ford was driving an SUV and pulled in front of the car carrying Francis after recognizing the car's driver as someone he had been involved in a dispute with earlier that night, Francis was sitting in the back seat where he was shot multiple times; the two other occupants of the car identified Ford in a police line-up.
Being honored
Francis' funeral was held on May 20, 2006 at Greater King David Baptist Church, North Location in Baton Rouge, he was buried in nearby Southern Memorial Gardens. Coach Tim Floyd and the USC Basketball team flew in to attend. NCAA rules permitted USC to pay for both the entire funeral expenses and the team's travel to Louisiana. USC established The Ryan Francis Endowed Scholarship in honor of Francis.
For the 2006–2007 season, the Trojans Men's basketball team wore black #12 on their jerseys in honor of Francis. USC announced a tribute to Ryan Francis in a basketball game on March 17, 2007, the day that would have been Ryan's 20th birthday. The day was during the post-season tournament period in college basketball, and defying pre-season expectations, the USC basketball made it to the 2007 NCAA Basketball Tournament, and was placed in its first game on Friday, March 16. Honoring a promise to the memory of her son, Paulette Francis flew to Spokane, Washington to watch the Trojans basketball team play their first game in the NCAA Tournament, speaking to the team before their 77–60 victory over Arkansas.
See also
List of basketball players who died during their careers
References
External links
Biography at usctrojans.com
USA report on the shooting
ESPN report on the shooting
1987 births
2006 deaths
2006 murders in the United States
Basketball players from Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Deaths by firearm in Louisiana
Male murder victims
Murdered African-American people
People murdered in Louisiana
USC Trojans men's basketball players
American men's basketball players
Point guards
|
73299
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois%20Institute%20of%20Technology
|
Illinois Institute of Technology
|
Illinois Institute of Technology (Illinois Tech) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to 1890, the present name was adopted upon the merger of the Armour Institute and Lewis Institute in 1940. The university has programs in architecture, business, communications, design, engineering, industrial technology, information technology, law, psychology, and science. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".
The university's historic roots are in several 19th-century engineering and professional education institutions in the United States. In the mid 20th century, it became closely associated with trends in modernist architecture through the work of its Dean of Architecture Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who designed its campus. The Institute of Design, Chicago-Kent College of Law, and Midwest College of Engineering were also merged into Illinois Tech.
History
The Sermon and The Institute
In 1890, when advanced education was often reserved for society's elite, Chicago minister Frank Wakely Gunsaulus delivered what came to be known as the "Million Dollar Sermon." From the pulpit of his South Side church, near the site Illinois Institute of Technology now occupies, Gunsaulus said that with a million dollars he could build a school where students can learn to think in practical not theoretical terms; where they could be taught to "learn by doing."
Inspired by Gunsaulus' vision, Philip Danforth Armour, Sr. (1832–1901) gave $1 million to found the Armour Institute—and Armour, his wife, Malvina Belle Ogden Armour (1842–1927) and their son J. (Jonathan) Ogden Armour (1863–1927) continued to support the university in its early years. Armour claimed it was his best paying investment. When Armour Institute opened in 1893, it offered professional courses in engineering, chemistry, architecture and library science.
Illinois Tech was created in 1940 by the merger of Armour Institute and Lewis Institute. Located on the west side of Chicago, Lewis Institute, established in 1895 by the estate of hardware merchant and investor Allen C. Lewis, offered liberal arts as well as science and engineering courses for both men and women. At separate meetings held by their respective boards on October 26, 1939, the trustees of Armour and Lewis voted to merge the two colleges. A Cook County circuit court decision on April 23, 1940, solidified the merger.
Mergers and changes
The Institute of Design (ID), founded in Chicago by László Moholy-Nagy in 1937, merged with Illinois Tech in 1949.
Chicago-Kent College of Law, founded in 1887, became part of the university in 1969, making Illinois Institute of Technology one of the few technology-based universities with a law school.
Also in 1969, the Stuart School of Management and Finance—now known as the Stuart School of Business – was established thanks to a gift from the estate of Lewis Institute alumnus and Chicago financier Harold Leonard Stuart. The program became the Stuart School of Business in 1999.
The Midwest College of Engineering, founded in 1967, joined the university in 1986, giving Illinois Tech a presence in west suburban Wheaton with what is today known as the Rice Campus.
In December 2006, the University Technology Park at Illinois Institute of Technology, an incubator and life sciences/tech start-up facility, was started in existing research buildings located on the south end of Mies Campus. , University Tech Park at Illinois Institute of Technology is home to many companies.
Today, Illinois Tech is a private, PhD-granting university with programs in engineering, science, human sciences, applied technology, architecture, business, design, and law. It is one of 23 institutions that comprise the Association of Independent Technological Universities (AITU).
Growth and expansion
Illinois Tech continued to expand after the merger. As one of the first American universities to host a Navy V-12 program during World War II the school saw a large increase in students and expanded the Armour campus beyond its original . Two years before the merger, German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe joined the then Armour Institute of Technology to head both Armour's and the Art Institute of Chicago's architecture program. The Art Institute would later separate and form its own program. Mies was given the task of designing a completely new campus, and the result was a spacious, open, campus set in contrast to the busy, crowded urban neighborhood around it. The first Mies-designed buildings were completed in the mid-1940s, and construction on what is considered the "Mies Campus" continued until the early 1970s.
Engineering and research also saw great growth and expansion from the post-war period until the early 1970s. Illinois Tech experienced its greatest period of growth from 1952 to 1973 under President John T. Rettaliata, a fluid dynamicist whose research accomplishments included work on early development of the jet engine and a seat on the National Aeronautics and Space Council. This period saw Illinois Tech as the largest engineering school in the United States, as stated in a feature in the September 1953 issue of Popular Science magazine. Illinois Tech housed many research organizations: IIT Research Institute (formerly Armour Research Foundation and birthplace of magnetic recording wire and tape as well as audio and video cassettes), the Institute of Gas Technology, and the American Association of Railroads, among others.
Three colleges merged with Illinois Tech after the 1940 Armor/Lewis merger: Institute of Design in 1949, Chicago-Kent College of Law in 1969, and Midwest College of Engineering in 1986. Illinois Tech's Stuart School of Business was founded by a gift from Lewis Institute alumnus Harold Leonard Stuart in 1969, and joined Chicago-Kent at Illinois Tech's Downtown Campus in 1992; it phased out its undergraduate program (becoming graduate-only) after spring 1995. (An undergraduate business program focusing on technology and entrepreneurship was launched in fall 2004 and was for a while administratively separate from the Stuart School. It is now part of the school, but remains on Main Campus.) The Institute of Design, once housed on the Mies Campus in S.R. Crown Hall, also phased out its undergraduate programs and moved downtown in the early 1990s.
Although not used in official communication, the nickname "Illinois Tech" has long been a favorite of students, inspiring the name of the student newspaper; (renamed in 1928 from Armour Tech News to TechNews), and the former mascot of the university's collegiate sports teams, the Techawks. During the 1950s and 1960s, the nickname was actually more prevalent than "IIT." This was reflected by the Chicago Transit Authority's Green Line rapid transit station at 35th and State being named "Tech-35th", but has since been changed to "35th-Bronzeville-IIT." In the 2010s, school administrators began a move to reintroduce the "Illinois Tech" nickname, to decrease confusion with the Indian Institutes of Technology that share the IIT abbreviation and with ITT Technical Institute whose abbreviation is similar.
In June 2020 Illinois Tech launched the College of Computing and the revamped Lewis College of Science and Letters. The College of Computing houses the computer science, applied mathematics, and information technology and management departments, as well as the industrial technology and management program. The revamped Lewis College added the biology, chemistry, food science and nutrition, and physics departments to the remaining humanities, psychology, and social science departments. With the launch of the College of Computing and revamped Lewis College of Science and Letters, the School of Applied Technology and College of Science were dissolved.
Today
In 1994 the National Commission on IIT considered leaving Mies Campus and moving to the Chicago suburbs. Construction of a veritable wall of Chicago Housing Authority high-rises replaced virtually all of Illinois Tech's neighbors in the 1950s and 1960s, a well-meaning but flawed attempt to improve conditions in an economically declining portion of the city. The closest high-rise, Stateway Gardens, was located just south of the Illinois Tech campus boundary, the last building of which was demolished in 2006. But the Dearborn Homes to the immediate north of campus still remain. The past decade has seen a redevelopment of Stateway Gardens into a new, mixed-income neighborhood dubbed Park Boulevard; the completion of the new central station of the Chicago Police Department a block east of the campus; and major commercial development at Roosevelt Road, just north of the campus, and residential development as close as Michigan Avenue on the east boundary of the school.
Bolstered by a $120 million gift in the mid-1990s from Illinois Tech alumnus Robert Pritzker, former chairman of IIT's board of trustees, and Robert Galvin, former chairman of the board and former Motorola executive, the university has benefited from a revitalization. The first new buildings on Mies Campus since the "completion" of the Mies Campus in the early 1970s were finished in 2003—Rem Koolhaas's McCormick Tribune Campus Center and Helmut Jahn's State Street Village. S. R. Crown Hall, a National Historic Landmark, saw renovation in 2005 and the renovation of Wishnick Hall was completed in 2007. Undergraduate enrollment has breached 3,000. To further boost their focus on biotechnology and the melding of business and technology, University Technology Park at Illinois Tech, an expansive research park, has been developed by remodeling former Institute of Gas Technology and research buildings on the south end of Mies Campus.
Academics
Academic units
Illinois Tech is divided into five colleges (College of Computing, Armour College of Engineering, Lewis College of Science and Letters, College of Architecture, Chicago-Kent College of Law), an institute (Institute of Design), one school (Stuart School of Business), and a number of research centers, some of which provide academic programs independent of the other academic units. While many maintain undergraduate programs, some only offer graduate or certificate programs.
In 2003 Illinois Tech administrators split the former Armour College of Engineering and Science into two colleges known as the Armour College of Engineering and the College of Science and Letters. The Armour College of Engineering is composed of five departments: the Department of Biomedical Engineering, the Department of Biological and Chemical Engineering, the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, the Department of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering, and the Department of Computer and Electrical Engineering.
In 2013, Illinois Tech administrators reorganized the College of Science and Letters and Institute of Psychology, forming the College of Science (Department of Applied Mathematics, the Department of Biology, the Department of Chemistry, the Department of Physics, the Department of Computer Science, and the Department of Mathematics and Science Education), and the Lewis College of Human Sciences (the Department of Humanities, the Department of Psychology, and the Department of Social Sciences).
The Institute of Design was founded in 1937 as the New Bauhaus: Chicago School of Design by László Moholy-Nagy. It became known as the Institute of Design in 1944 and later joined Illinois Institute of Technology in 1949.
Illinois Tech also contains the College of Architecture. This college began in 1895 when trustees of Armour Institute and Art Institute merged the architectural programs of both schools to form the Chicago School of Architecture of Armour Institute.
The School of Applied Technology was founded as the Center for Professional Development in 2001 to provide technology oriented education for working professionals. In December 2009 Illinois Tech announced the formation of the School of Applied Technology, composed of undergraduate and graduate degree programs in Industrial Technology and Management (INTM) and Information Technology and Management (ITM), as well as non-credit Professional Learning Programs (PLP). These programs were all formerly part of the Center for Professional Development. Professional Learning Programs offers noncredit continuing education courses and certificates, corporate training, a Professional Engineering Exam Review program, international programs including English as a Second Language instruction, short courses and seminars ranging from a few hours to several days in length. In 2014 the Department of Food Science and Nutrition was formally launched within the School of Applied Technology, formed from degree programs originating within Illinois Tech's Institute for Food Safety and Health (IFSH). The School of Applied Technology was dissolved in June 2020; its departments and programs remained, split between the new College of Computing and Lewis College of Science and Letters.
Chicago-Kent College of Law began in 1886 with law clerks receiving tutorials from Appellate Judge Joseph M. Bailey to prepare for the newly instated Illinois Bar Examination. By 1888 these evening sessions developed into formal classes and the Chicago College of Law was established. It was not until 1969 that the school was incorporated into Illinois Institute of Technology.
With a bequest from Illinois Tech alumnus and financier Harold Leonard Stuart the Stuart School of Business was established in 1969. In addition to the M.B.A. and PhD, Stuart offers specialized programs in Finance, Mathematical Finance (provided in conjunction with the Illinois Tech Department of Applied Mathematics), Environmental Management and Sustainability (provided in conjunction with the Chicago-Kent College of Law and Department of Civic, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering), Marketing Analytics, and Public Administration. The PhD program in Management Science offers specializations in Finance and Analytics.
Illinois Tech also offers many dual admission programs including programs in medicine, optometry, pharmacy, law, and business.
Rankings and recognition
Illinois Tech was featured on Princeton Review's 2014 list of 378 best colleges in the United States and on its list of Best Midwest Colleges.
Illinois Tech was ranked as a tier 1 university being the 96th best university nationally (climbing seven places up from the previous year), and the third best university in the Chicago metropolitan area (after the University of Chicago and Northwestern University), based on U.S. News & World Reports "Best Colleges 2019."
Illinois Tech was featured as No. 24 on Newsweeks College Rankings 2012: Most Rigorous Schools list.
Illinois Tech was ranked the 72nd best graduate school for engineering in U.S. News & World Report's "Best Graduate Schools 2014."
Chicago-Kent was ranked as a tier 1 law school being the 68th best law school nationally (5th in Trial Advocacy, 11th in Intellectual Property Law, and 21st in Part-time Law) based on U.S. News & World Report."
According to the U.S. News & World Report, Illinois Tech's Aerospace Engineering was ranked 21, Materials Engineering was ranked 59, Chemical Engineering was ranked 60 and Biomedical Engineering was ranked 61.
Illinois Tech was designated in 2015 as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the National Security Agency, acknowledging the substantial focus on cybersecurity and digital forensics in formal degrees, certificates, and specializations in programs offered by the College of Computing.
Historic architecture
Illinois Tech has four campuses.
The main campus is located at 10 West 35th Street in Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood and houses all undergraduate programs and graduate programs in engineering, sciences, architecture, communications, and psychology. The downtown campus, which was renamed the Conviser Law Center in early 2020, at 565 West Adams Street in Chicago houses Chicago-Kent College of Law, Stuart School of Business, and the graduate programs in Public Administration. The Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Campus in Wheaton, Illinois houses some degree programs in Information Technology and Management. This campus opened its doors in January 1991. Moffett Campus in Bedford Park, Illinois, is home to the Institute for Food Safety and Health. Moffett Campus was donated to Illinois Tech by CPC International Inc. in 1988.
VanderCook College of Music shares Illinois Tech's Main Campus: VanderCook College of Music and offers cross-registration for Illinois Tech students.
The Illinois Tech main campus, known as Mies Campus, is centered around 33rd and State Streets, approximately south of the Chicago Loop in the historic Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, part of the Douglas community area. Also known as the Black Metropolis District, the area is a landmark in African-American history. Following rapid growth during the Great Migration of African-Americans from the south between 1910 and 1920, it became home to numerous African-American owned businesses and cultural institutions and offered an alternative to the race restrictions that were prevalent in the rest of the city. The area was home to author Gwendolyn Brooks, civil rights activist Ida B. Wells, bandleader Louis Armstrong, pilot Bessie Coleman and many other famous African-Americans during the mid-20th century. The church where Emmett Till's funeral was held is less than a mile south of the campus. The nine extant structures from the period during the Great Migration when the area became known as the Black Metropolis District were added jointly to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986 and designated a Chicago Landmark in 1998.
In 1941, the Chicago Housing Authority began erecting massive public housing developments in the area. By 1990, the Illinois Tech campus was encircled by high-rise housing projects rife with crime. The projects were demolished beginning in 1999, and the area began to revitalize, with major renovations to King Drive and many of the historic structures and an influx of new, upscale, housing developments. Neighborhood features include Guaranteed Rate Field—home of the Chicago White Sox—Burnham Park, and 31st Street Beach on the Lake Michigan waterfront, and historical buildings from the heyday of the Black Metropolis era, including the Chicago Bee Building, the Eighth Regiment Armory, and the Overton Hygienic Building. The campus is bordered on the west by the Chicago 'L' Red Line, which runs parallel to Lake Michigan north to Rogers Park and south to 95th street. The Green Line bisects the campus and runs north to the Loop and then west to the near west suburbs and south to the Museum Campus and the University of Chicago.
Today, Illinois Tech continues to support the Historic Bronzeville area by sponsoring non-for-profits such as The Renaissance Collaborative.
Architecture
The campus, roughly bounded between 31st and 35th streets, Michigan Avenue, and the Dan Ryan Expressway, was designed by modernist architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, "one of the great figures of 20th-century architecture," who chaired the IIT School of Architecture from 1938 to 1958. Van der Rohe's master plan for the Illinois Tech campus was one of the most ambitious projects he ever conceived and the campus, with 20 of his works, is the greatest concentration of his buildings in the world. The layout of the campus departs radically from "traditional college quadrangles and limestone buildings". The materials are inspired by the factories and warehouses of Chicago's South Side and "embod[y] 20th century methods and materials: steel and concrete frames with curtain walls of brick and glass." The campus was landscaped by van der Rohe's close colleague at Illinois Tech, Alfred Caldwell, "the last representative of the Prairie School of landscape architects." Known as "the nature poet", Caldwell's plan reinforced van der Rohe's design with "landscaping planted in a free-flowing manner, which in its interaction with the pristine qualities of the architecture, introduce[d] a poetic aspect."
On the west side of Mies Campus are three red brick buildings that were original to Armour Institute, built between 1891 and 1901. In 1938 Ludwig Mies van der Rohe began his 20-year tenure as director of IIT's School of Architecture (1938–1959). The university was on the verge of building a brand new campus, to be one of the nation's first federally funded urban renewal projects. Mies was given carte blanche in the large commission, and the university grew fast enough during and after World War II to allow much of the new plan to be realized. From 1943 to 1957, several new Mies buildings rose across campus, including the S.R. Crown Hall, which houses the architecture school, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2001.
Although Mies had emphasized his wish to complete the campus he had begun, commissions from the late 50s onward were given to Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), prompting Mies to never return to the campus that had changed architecture the world over. SOM architect Walter Netsch designed a few buildings, including the new library that Mies had wished to create, all of them similar to Mies's style. By the late 1960s, campus addition projects were given to SOM's Myron Goldsmith, who had worked with Mies during his education at Illinois Tech and thus was able to design several new buildings to harmonize well with the original campus. In 1976, the American Institute of Architects recognized the campus as one of the 200 most significant works of architecture in the United States. The new campus center, designed by Rem Koolhaas, and a new state-of-the-art residence hall designed by Helmut Jahn, State Street Village, opened in 2003. These were the first new buildings built on the Main Campus in 32 years. Illinois Tech opened its first new academic building in nearly 40 years in October 2018, when it dedicated the Ed Kaplan Family Institute for Innovation and Tech Entrepreneurship.
In 1976, American Institute of Architects named the Illinois Tech campus one of the 200 most significant works of architecture in the United States. Mies Campus was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.
Sustainability
In 2010 Illinois Tech received the Princeton Review's highest sustainability rating among universities in Illinois, tied with the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.
Notable buildings
S. R. Crown Hall
S. R. Crown Hall, erected in 1955, was considered by Mies to be one of his greatest architectural achievements. To provide for a flexible, columnless interior, he suspended the roof from four steel girders supported by eight external columns spaced 60 feet apart. S. R. Crown Hall, home to Illinois Tech's College of Architecture, has been described as an "immortal contribution to the architecture of Chicago and the world." S. R. Crown Hall was granted National Historic Landmark status in 2001. A $15 million renovation, completed in August 2005, modernized the structure with energy-saving mechanicals and windows, along with needed technology upgrades for computers and the Internet—all while carefully preserving the architectural integrity of the building, inside and out. Additional improvements were completed in 2013.
State Street Village
State Street Village (SSV), a student residence hall designed by Murphy/Jahn architects on the southeast corner of 33rd and State Streets just south of the campus center, was completed in August 2003. Helmut Jahn, who studied architecture at Illinois Tech under Mies van der Rohe in the late 1960s, is responsible for the innovative design of the residence hall. The structure is composed of three separate five-story buildings, joined by exterior glass walls that muffle noise from passing trains on the adjacent "L" tracks. SSV houses 367 students in apartment-style and suite-style units.
McCormick Tribune Campus Center (MTCC)
The McCormick Tribune Campus Center (MTCC) at 33rd and State Streets opened in September 2003. Designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, considered one of the "10 most influential living architects by the American Institute of Architects," the campus center arranges various areas around diagonal pathways, resembling interior streets, that are extensions of the paths students use to cross the campus. The design includes a concrete and stainless steel tube that encloses a 530-foot stretch of the Green Line elevated commuter rail ("L") tracks, passing directly over the one-story campus center building. The tube dampens the sound of trains overhead as students enjoy food courts, student organization offices, retail shops, a recreational facility and campus events.
Ed Kaplan Family Institute for Innovation and Tech Entrepreneurship
The newest addition to the Mies Campus came from Chicago architect, and College of Architecture professor John Ronan, who was selected to design the Ed Kaplan Family Institute for Innovation and Tech Entrepreneurship. Ronan's building, the first new academic building in more than 40 years, was completed in 2018. In 2019, the Kaplan Center won the American Institute of Architects Chicago Chapter' s highest architectural design award.
Campuses
Illinois Institute of Technology has four campuses in the Chicago area. A portion of the 120-acre Main Campus, identified as the Illinois Institute of Technology Academic Campus, was entered onto the National Register of Historic Places in 2005. The complete 120-acre campus, also known as the Mies Campus, was designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, universally considered one of the 20th century's most influential architects and the director of the architecture program at Illinois Tech from 1938 to 1958. In 1976, the American Institute of Architects recognized the Illinois Tech main campus, centered at 33rd and State Streets in Chicago, as one of the 200 most significant works of architecture in the United States. S. R. Crown Hall, home of Illinois Tech's College of Architecture, was named a National Historic Landmark in 2001.
The Illinois Institute of Technology Academic Campus undertook a series of projects with Peter Lindsay Schaudt Landscape Architecture, Inc. (now Hoerr Schaudt) in 2000 to revitalize the historic campus. Keeping in spirit with the original design of landscape architect Alfred Caldwell (1903–1998) who worked closely with van der Rohe, the landscape architects at Peter Lindsay Schaudt played upon his concept of horizontality and favored a native plant palette. The projects created cohesive formal and informal spaces for students and faculty to relax and gather that honor the connection between the original architecture and landscape architecture. The projects included State Street Boulevard, Crown Hall, Federal Street, State Street Village, a planting restoration for Crown Hall, the IITRI Tower Renovation, and the IIT Research Park. Upon their completion in 2005, the firm Peter Lindsay Schaudt submitted the projects as a single entry for the National ASLA design competition, winning the General Design Award of Honor.
The 10-story Downtown Campus at 565 West Adams Street, designed by Gerald Horn of Holabird & Root and built by Illinois Tech in 1992, is home to Illinois Tech's Chicago-Kent College of Law and Institute of Design (ID), as well as the downtown campus for the Stuart School of Business. The Downtown Campus was renamed the Conviser Law Center in early 2020. The Institute of Design has re-located to the Ed Kaplan Family Institute for Innovation and Tech Entrepreneurship on the Mies Campus.
The 19-acre Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Campus in west suburban Wheaton, designed by Solomon Cordwell Buenz & Associates, Inc. for Illinois Tech and dedicated in 1990, offers graduate programs, upper-level undergraduate courses, and continuing professional education.
The five-acre Moffett Campus in southwest suburban Bedford Park was designed in 1947 by Schmidt, Garden, and Erickson and was donated to Illinois Tech in 1988. It houses the Institute for Food Safety and Health (IFSH), which includes the National Center for Food Safety and Technology, a unique consortium of government, industry, and academic partners.
Student life
There are numerous student organizations available on campus, including religious groups, academic groups, and student activity groups.
Three of Illinois Tech's major student organizations serve the entire student body: the Student Government Association (SGA), the Student Union Board (UB), and TechNews. SGA is the governing student body and acts as a liaison between university administration and the student body, serves as a forum to express student opinion, and provides certain services to student organizations such as official recognition and distribution of funds. Union Board serves as the main event programming group and plans more than 180 on- and off-campus events for students annually. Founded in 1938 UB is responsible for the emergence of the school spirit and booster group Scarlet Fever. TechNews is the campus paper and serves as a news outlet for campus interests and as another outlet for student opinion in both a weekly paper edition and online format; it has existed since at least the 1930s.
Illinois Tech hosts a campus radio station, WIIT, with a radio studio in The McCormick Tribune Campus Center. WIIT was originally an AM radio station through the 1960s, using the name WIIT Radio 64. It was simulcast on AM 640 and stereo FM 88.9 by the end of January 1972. The station was forced to change its callsign to WOUI in 1972 because WIIT was similar to WAIT (AM). After the WAIT callsign was dropped, the IIT station eventually returned to its original call letters, WIIT, on February 23, 2001.
In September 2007 the university opened a nine-hole disc golf course that weaves around the academic buildings on Mies Campus and is the first disc golf course to appear within the Chicago city limits.
In anticipation of the opening of The McCormick Tribune Campus Center, the on-campus pub and bowling alley known as "The Bog" ceased operations in 2003. However, in response to students, faculty, and staff who missed the former campus hangout, The Bog reopened in February 2007 and is now open every Thursday and Friday night offering bowling, billiards, table tennis, and video games. The Bog is also home to the campus bar, which serves beer and wine, and hosts weekly events such as comedians, live bands, or karaoke nights on its stage.
In fall 2007, the third generation of a cappella groups was formed, The TechTonics, a coed group of students. Within a year the organization expanded and now includes an all-male group, the Crown Joules, and an all-female group, the X-Chromotones. IIT A Cappella performs a variety of shows on campus as well as off campus and in the midwest. They perform shows at the end of each semester which showcase everything they have learned.
Illinois Institute of Technology Mies (Main) Campus has an established Greek System, which consists of seven Illinois Tech fraternities (and one VanderCook College of Music fraternity) and three sororities. Fraternities Pi Kappa Phi, Delta Tau Delta, Alpha Sigma Phi, Phi Kappa Sigma, Sigma Phi Epsilon and Triangle Fraternity and sororities Kappa Phi Delta, and Alpha Sigma Alpha have chapter houses on The Quad. The Omega Delta fraternity do not.
Athletics
Illinois Tech's athletic teams, known as the Scarlet Hawks, features men's baseball, basketball, cross country, lacrosse, soccer, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field, tennis, and volleyball; women's sports are basketball, cross country, lacrosse, soccer, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field, and volleyball. The Scarlet Hawks athletic program completed the transition to NCAA Division III Athletics in 2018.
The university previously competed in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) at the NAIA Division I level in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) until the 2012–13 season.
Illinois Tech discontinued its men's and women's basketball programs after the 2008–09 season, but reinstated them beginning with the 2012–13 season. The men's basketball team played in its first United States Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Championship in March 2017. Although the team lost to Concordia Alabama, the Scarlet Hawks finished the season at 22–6. Illinois Tech also has a cricket team as a part of non-varsity sports level that competes in Division II of the Midwest Cricket Conference.
Illinois Tech joined the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference in 2018, coinciding with the program's acceptance as a full NCAA Division III member.
Notable people
Notable faculty (current and former)
Virgil Abloh, fashion designer (Creative Director for Louis Vuitton and Founder of Off-White x Nike), entrepreneur, DJ
John L. Anderson, professor of chemical engineering
Lori Andrews, professor of law
Wiel Arets, professor of architecture
Shlomo Argamon, professor of computer science
Carol Ross Barney, adjunct professor of architecture
John F. O. Bilson, professor of finance, dean of Stuart School of Business
Harry Callahan, professor of photography
Cosmo Campoli, professor of sculpture
Patrick Corrigan, professor of psychology
Michael Davis, professor of philosophy
Martin Felsen, associate professor of architecture
Lance Fortnow, dean of the College of Computing
Susan Fromberg Schaeffer, assistant professor of English
Lois Graham, professor of mechanical engineering
S. I. Hayakawa, professor of English
Mar Hicks, associate professor of history of technology
Fazlur Khan, adjunct professor of structural engineering
Albert Henry Krehbiel, professor of art
Walter McCrone, professor of microscopy and materials science
Karl Menger, professor of mathematics
László Moholy-Nagy, professor of design
Art Paul, designer, creator of Playboy logo
Walter Peterhans, taught 'visual training' course for architecture students
Sonja Petrović, associate professor of applied mathematics
Nambury S. Raju, professor of psychology
Edward Reingold, professor of computer science and applied mathematics
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, professor of architecture
John Ronan, professor of architecture
Mohammad Shahidehpour, Bodine Chair professor of electrical and computer engineering
Tamara Goldman Sher, professor of psychology
Arthur Siegel, professor of photography
Abe Sklar, professor of applied mathematics
Susan Solomon, discover the hole in ozone layer, leader in Atmospheric Chemistry, inducted in National's Women Hall of Fame
Robert Bruce Tague, professor of architecture
David Tannor (born 1958), theoretical chemist, Hermann Mayer Professorial Chair in the Department of Chemical Physics at the Weizmann Institute of Science
John Henry Waddell, professor of sculpture and art
Nobel laureates
Leon M. Lederman, professor of physics; Nobel laureate in physics (1988); director emeritus of Fermilab; founded the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
Herbert A. Simon, professor of psychology; political, economic, psychological and computer science polymath; Nobel laureate in economics (1978)
Jack Steinberger, physicist; Nobel laureate in physics (1988); studied chemical engineering at Armour Institute of Technology but his scholarship ended and he had to leave
See also
Architecture of Chicago
Center on Nanotechnology and Society
Chicago–Kent College of Law
IIT Physics Department
IIT Research Institute (IITRI)
McCormick Tribune Campus Center
References
External links
Official athletics website
Finding aid for the IIT – New Campus Center Competition fonds, Canadian Centre for Architecture.
Engineering universities and colleges in Illinois
Technological universities in the United States
Universities and colleges in Chicago
South Side, Chicago
Universities and colleges in DuPage County, Illinois
1890 establishments in Illinois
Educational institutions established in 1890
USCAA member institutions
Private universities and colleges in Illinois
Douglas, Chicago
|
19686742
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic%20prescribing
|
Electronic prescribing
|
Electronic prescription (e-prescribing or e-Rx) is the computer-based electronic generation, transmission, and filling of a medical prescription, taking the place of paper and faxed prescriptions. E-prescribing allows a physician, physician assistant, pharmacist, or nurse practitioner to use digital prescription software to electronically transmit a new prescription or renewal authorization to a community or mail-order pharmacy. It outlines the ability to send error-free, accurate, and understandable prescriptions electronically from the healthcare provider to the pharmacy. E-prescribing is meant to reduce the risks associated with traditional prescription script writing. It is also one of the major reasons for the push for electronic medical records. By sharing medical prescription information, e-prescribing seeks to connect the patient's team of healthcare providers to facilitate knowledgeable decision making.
Functions
A "qualified" e-prescribing system must be capable of performing all of the following functions:
Patient's identification
Generating a complete active medication list, possibly incorporating electronic data received from an insurance provider
Access to patient historical data
Prescribe or add new medication and select the pharmacy where the prescription will be filled.
Work with an existing medication within the practice, this can involve viewing details of a medication, remove a medication from the active medication list, change dose, etc., for a medication or renew one or more medications
Printing prescriptions
Electronically transmitting prescriptions to a transaction hub
Conducting all safety checks using an integrated decision support system, known as a Drug Utilization Review. Safety checks include: automated prompts that offer information on the drug being prescribed, potential inappropriate dose or route of administration, drug-drug interactions, allergy concerns, or warnings of caution
Flagging availability of lower cost, therapeutically appropriate alternatives (if any)
Providing information on formulary or tiered formulary medications, patient eligibility, and authorization requirements received electronically from the patient's insurance provider
System integration capabilities (e.g., connection with various databases, connection with pharmacy and pharmacy benefit manager systems)
Educational capabilities (e.g., patient education, provider feedback)
Model
The basic components of an electronic prescribing system are the:
Prescriber - typically a physician
Transaction hub
Pharmacy with implemented electronic prescribing software
Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM)
The PBM and transaction hub work closely together. The PBM works as an intermediate actor to ensure the accuracy of information, although other models may not include this to streamline the communication process.
In addition to pharmacies, medical tests can also be prescribed.
Prescriber
The prescriber, generally a clinician or healthcare staff, is defined as the electronic prescribing system user and sign into the system through a verification process to authenticate their identity.
The prescriber searches through the database of patient records by using patient-specific information such as first and last name, date of birth, current address etc. Once the correct patient file has been accessed, the prescriber reviews the current medical information and uploads or updates new prescription information to the medical file.
Transaction hub
The transaction hub provides the common link between all actors (prescriber, pharmacy benefit manager, and pharmacy). It stores and maintains a master patient index for quick access to their medical information as well as a list of pharmacies.
When the prescriber uploads new prescription information to the patient file, this is sent to the transaction hub. The transaction hub will verify against the patient index. This will automatically send information about this transaction to the PBM, who will respond to the hub with information on patient eligibility, formulary, and medication history back to the transaction hub. The transaction hub then sends this information to the prescriber to improve patient management and care by completing and authorizing the prescription. Upon which, the prescription information is sent to the pharmacy that the patient primarily goes to.
Pharmacy
When a pharmacy receives the prescription information from the transaction hub, it will send a confirmation message. The pharmacy also has the ability to communicate to the prescriber that the prescription order has been filled through the system. Further system development will soon allow different messages such as a patient not picking up their medication or is late to pick up medication to improve patient management.
Imaging
When an imaging center receives the prescription, the imaging center will then contact the patient and schedule the patient for his/her scan. The advantage of ePrescribing radiology is that oftentimes when a patient is handed a paper script, the patient will lose the prescription or wait to call and schedule. This can be disastrous for patients with severe underlying conditions. The imaging center will call and schedule the patient as soon as the referral arrives. There are mobile ePrescribing portals as well as web portals that handle this well, and there are advantages.
Benefits
Compared to paper-based prescribing, e-prescribing can improve health and reduce costs because it can:
Reduce prescribing and dispensing errors
Decrease the work needed to execute a prescription
Speed receipt of prescribed drugs
Avoid more adverse drug interactions and reactions
More reliably offer to substitute less expensive drug alternatives by checking the formulary of the insurance provider in the doctor's office
Improve medication compliance (taking the prescribed medications on time) by reducing lost and unfilled prescriptions and minimizing patient costs
Reduce the incidence of drug diversion (drug abuse) by alerting providers and pharmacists of duplicative prescriptions for controlled substances.
Safety improvements are highly desirable; in 2000, the Institute of Medicine identified medication errors as the most common type of medical error in health care, estimating that this leads to several thousand deaths each year.
Improving patient safety and quality of care
Illegibility from handwritten prescriptions is eliminated, decreasing the risk of medication errors while simultaneously decreasing risks related to liability. Oral miscommunications regarding prescriptions can be reduced, as e-prescribing should decrease the need for phone calls between prescribers and dispensers. Causes of medication errors include mistakes by the pharmacist incorrectly interpreting illegible handwriting or ambiguous nomenclature, and lapses in the prescriber's knowledge of desired dosage of a drug or undesired interactions between multiple drugs. Electronic prescribing has the potential to eliminate most of these types of errors. Warning and alert systems are provided at the point of care. E-prescribing systems can enhance an overall medication management process through clinical decision support systems that can perform checks against the patient's current medications for drug-drug interactions, drug-allergy interactions, diagnoses, body weight, age, drug appropriateness, and correct dosing. Based on these algorithms, the system can alert prescribers to contradictions, adverse reactions, and duplicate therapies. The computer can also ensure that clear and unambiguous instructions are encoded in a structured message to the pharmacist, and decision support systems can flag lethal dosages and lethal combinations of drugs. E-prescribing allows for increased access to the patient's medical records and their medication history. Having access to this information from all health care providers at the time of prescribing can support alerts related to drug inappropriateness, in combination with other medications or with specific medical issues at hand.
Reducing time spent on phone calls and call-backs to pharmacies
According to estimates, almost 30 percent of prescriptions require pharmacy callbacks. This translates into less time available to the pharmacist for other important functions, such as educating consumers about their medications. In response, E-prescribing can significantly reduce the volume of pharmacy call-backs related to illegibility, mistaken prescription choices, formulary and pharmacy benefits, decreasing the amount of time wasted on the phone. This ultimately impacts office workflow efficiency and overall productivity in a positive manner.
Reducing time spent faxing prescriptions to pharmacies
Both prescribers and pharmacists can save time and resources spent on faxing prescriptions through a reduction in labor costs, handling costs, and paper expenses waste due to unreliability.
Automating the prescription renewal request and authorization process
With e-prescribing, renewal authorization can be an automated process that provides efficiencies for both the prescriber and pharmacist. Pharmacy staff can generate a renewal request (authorization request) that is delivered through the electronic network to the prescriber's system. The prescriber can then review the request and act accordingly by approving or denying the request through updating the system. With limited resource utilization and just a few clicks on behalf of the prescriber, they can complete a medication renewal task while enhancing continuous patient documentation.
Increasing patient convenience and medication compliance
It is estimated that 20% of paper-based prescription orders go unfilled by the patient, partly due to the hassle of dropping off a paper prescription and waiting for it to be filled. By elimination or reducing this waiting period, e-prescribing may help reduce the number of unfilled prescriptions and hence, increasing medication adherence. Allowing the renewal of medications through this electronic system also helps improve the efficiency of this process, reducing obstacles that may result in less patient compliance. Availability of information on when patient's prescriptions are filled can also help clinicians assess patient adherence.
Allowing greater prescriber mobility
Improved prescriber convenience can be achieved when using mobile devices, that work on a wireless network, to write and renew prescriptions. Such mobile devices may include laptops, PDAs, tablet computers, or mobile phones. This freedom of mobility allows prescribers to write/renew prescriptions anywhere, even when not in the office.
Improving drug surveillance/recall ability
E-prescribing systems enable embedded, automated analytic tools to produce queries and reports, which would be close to impossible with a paper-based system. Common examples of such reporting would be: finding all patients with a particular prescription during a drug recall, or the frequency and types of medication provided by certain health care providers.
Limitations
Although e-prescribing has the ability to streamline workflow process and increase the system's efficiency, challenges and limitations that may hinder the widespread adoption of e-prescribing practices include:
Financial Cost and Return on Investment (ROI) - The costs associated with purchasing, implementing, supporting and maintaining such a system may be beyond the means of most small clinical practices, and noted to be one of the greatest implementation barriers. Health care workers who are responsible for medical prescription, especially those in small practices, inner-city areas, or remote rural settings, may bear more than their fair share of the cost associated with e-prescribing. This is in response to the various other stakeholders that may reap the benefits from such a system, without having to financially support it, disseminating their risk substantially. Clinical practices therefore need to invest significantly in both hardware and software, with varying costs based on system specifications (stand alone system or entire EHR system). Even clinics that receive free e-prescribing systems may face financial costs pertaining to management of the interface, customization due to flexibility, training, maintenance, and upgrades. On top of this, the clinic must also take into consideration the lost time and efficiency during the transition period of implementation. As a result, large urban areas may see the greatest ROI when compared to those in rural areas.
Change management - Many underestimate the challenges pertaining to change management when transitioning from paper-based prescriptions to e-prescribing. This is especially true in busy practices where healthcare providers and associated staff are accustomed to their current management system, in which case change management becomes extremely important. Potentially difficult and time-consuming analysis may be needed to understand how to change workflow around the management of prescriptions with the introduction of an electronic system. The change also requires pharmacists to increase their awareness of new types of errors associated with e-prescribing, in order to best target their activities to reduce clinical risk. As a result, steps must be taken to ensure effective planning, training, support, and continuous quality improvement for successful transition.
Hardware and software selection - Choosing the right hardware platform and software applications can be a rather daunting task for practices, especially in regards to small and busy settings. Many have limited access to expert information technology personnel/staff, leading them to struggle with how to get started, appropriate vendor selection, cost and function negotiations, and most importantly, long term support to ensure continuous functionality and meaningful use.
Erroneous alerts - The inability to effectively use clinical decision support systems due to the erroneous triggering of pop-up alerts with ill-defined software is also a great limitation. Under such circumstances, many opt to turn the notifications off, disabling one of the system's most beneficial aspects.
Integrity of data input - Accidental data entry errors such as selecting the wrong patient or clicking on the wrong choice in a menu of dosages may occur. Software vendors can reduce errors by continually reviewing user feedback and follow best practices in user interface design.
Security and privacy - As with many eHealth solutions, privacy of patient information stored in electronic format may lead to the possibility of novel errors, such as inadvertently divulging protected health information on the Internet through inadequate security practices. Instances of negligence may also arise, where employees may forward prescriptions to organizations outside its intended use. Another security issue that needs to be addressed up front is the verification of electronic signatures, in ensuring the medical integrity of the prescriptions received by pharmacists. Hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies are counselled to be protected with firewalls, use strict computer permission settings, and remain vigilant toward signs of an intrusion.
System downtime - Periods of system downtime may arise, either due to network-related issues, hardware failure, or loss of electricity. The inability to use electronic prescribing when the system is not accessible is of great concern, and must be addressed with the discussion of fall-back procedures and mechanisms when such situations arise.
Patient Access Lost - In the event of a development beyond the control of the patient, such as a software malfunction in the health care provider's office, the patient can no longer ask the care provider for a paper prescription to take to a pharmacy (in New York, where e-prescribing is mandatory with exceptions; other states to follow suit) in order to obtain needed medicines. States such as New York, Connecticut, Maine and Pennsylvania do however, allow a prescriber to issue paper prescriptions in cases of temporary technological or electronic failure. This leaves the patient at the mercy of technicians or other undiscoverable workers.
By country
Australia
The vast majority of community medical prescriptions in Australia continue to be delivered on paper, either in printed or hand-written format. Electronic prescription in Australia is currently provided by two service providers, MediSecure and eRx. Both services can be integrated into many of the existing clinical and pharmacy prescribing software systems. Since December 1991, they have become interoperable allowing bilateral transfer of information.
Bangladesh
Private companies started working with electronic prescriptions. On 2017 July easypres.com launched Bangladesh’s first cloud-based electronic prescription and patient management software for Doctors in Bangladesh. Within a year, more than a thousand doctors registered for the software out of 83 thousand registered MBBS doctors in Bangladesh for this Digital prescription writing software. High court of Bangladesh issued a rule that doctors need to write the prescription in readable format meaning they need to use software of ALL caps later while writing prescription. This software also stores the medical history of patients and doctors can access these data easily from anywhere using the Internet.
Canada
On March 22, 2016, the Government of Canada allocated funds to Canada Health Infoway to develop an e-prescribing service. Infoway is working with Health Canada, the provinces and territories and industry stakeholders to create PrescribeIT, a multi-jurisdiction e-prescribing service. Infoway will create, operate and maintain the service, along with its partners. The service will be financially self-sustaining and is designed to be scaled across the country and will enable prescribers to electronically transmit a prescription to a patient’s pharmacy of choice. Physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners and other prescribers will be able to use the system either through their existing electronic medical record or through a standalone application. Health Canada included supporting better prescribing practices, including e-prescribing, as part of its Action on Opioid Misuse plan.
Until recently in Canada, it was the position of Health Canada that, to allow for e-prescribing, amendments to Part C of the Food and Drugs Regulations made under the Food and Drugs Act, regulations made under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and possibly regulations made under Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act would be required. After further review, Health Canada has concluded that there are currently no regulatory impediments to moving ahead with electronically generated and transmitted prescriptions and that these are permissible to the extent that they achieve the same objectives as written prescriptions. Provinces and territories wishing to proceed with e-prescribing are obligated to ensure that electronic prescriptions meet existing regulatory requirements and achieve the same objectives as written prescriptions. For example, there must be evidence of a genuine practitioner/patient relationship, and in the case of controlled substances, pharmacists filling prescriptions must verify prescriptions are signed by the practitioner before selling or providing drugs containing controlled substances to a patient. Health Canada has collaborated with Canada Health Infoway on the development of a technical document entitled Ensuring the Authenticity of Electronic Prescriptions, in order to provide advice about how to ensure the authenticity of electronic signatures.
Czech Republic
The Czech healthcare system is moving towards a mandatory electronic prescribing system to take effect in 2020. Patients and clinicians will have access to the prescribing records. Codes and names of medications are allocated by the State Institute for Drug Control.
Estonia
Electronic prescriptions were introduced in Estonia in January 2010 and by mid-2013, 95% of all prescriptions in the country were being issued electronically.
e-Prescription, is a centralized paperless system for issuing and handling medical prescriptions. When a doctor prescribes medicine using the system, he or she does so electronically, with the aid of an online form. At the pharmacy, all a patient needs to do is present an ID-card. The pharmacist then retrieves the patient’s information from the system and issues the medicine. Because the e-Prescription system draws on data from the national health insurance fund, any state medical subsidies that the patient is entitled to, also appear, and the medicine is discounted accordingly. Another major advantage of the system is that doctor visits are no longer needed for repeat prescriptions. A patient can contact the doctor by e-mail, Skype or phone, and the doctors can issue repeats with just a few clicks, and the patient can collect the medicine from their closest pharmacy. 99% of all prescriptions in the country are issued electronically. This frees up time for patients and doctors, and reduces administrative strain on hospitals.
Europe
The use of electronic prescription has been designated as an important strategic policy to improve health care in Europe. The aim of the European Union is to have a cross-border electronic healthcare system in Europe which will enable EU citizens to obtain e-Prescriptions anywhere in Europe. The Scandinavian countries are leading Europe in deploying e-Prescription. Other countries which use the prescription process routinely are Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Iceland, Greece, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The European Union is pushing for more cross border health data exchange. Despite favourable attitudes towards cross border e-Prescriptions, multiple perceived barriers impede its incorporation in clinical practice. There are varying interpretations and implementations of data protection and confidentiality laws in the 27 member states. Infrastructures are not in place to support the system and stakeholders in some jurisdictions are reluctant to embrace e-health due to the high cost and the lack of security of the systems. Member states have varying degrees of health care policy, privacy enforcement and laws concerning data protection, telecommunication services and digital signature with regards to e-Prescription. Interoperability of different systems is only a partial solution. Security and enforcement of privacy must also be equally enforced.
India
In India some private hospitals started using electronic prescription. But a major step was taken by government of West Bengal in August 2014 when they started the process of issuing e-prescriptions instead of hand-written instructions in top government hospitals.
The biggest advantage of the system is that a patient has all his medical data stored in the server of state health department which can be referred to in future.
In the private sector number companies have initiated to build software to support Electronic Prescription in India. ERXPAD.COM is one among the pioneer player offer cloud based electronic prescription software (erx) in India.
Russia
With the development and implementation of electronic technologies in Russian healthcare system, electronic prescription became part of the project called EMIAS. EMIAS is the digital system designed to increase the quality and access of the medical aid in the public health facility. The project was designed and being implemented as part of «Digital city» program in execution of the Moscow Government's order from April 7, 2014 (as Moscow government amended on 21.05.2013 № 22-PP).
The system offers special portal Emias.Info, that provides appointment service to the patients and client area with different services including e-Prescription. Government social program allows getting pharmaceutical products for free or with the discount, depending on the category of the citizen.
United Kingdom
About 420 million repeat prescriptions are generated in the UK each year - about 200 for each general practitioner each week. They account for about 80% of the cost of medication in primary care. Paper based Repeat Dispensing Services were introduced by the NHS in 1991, and in 1992 it became possible to use the NHS Electronic Prescription Service for this purpose. In 2017 awareness of the scheme among patients was low.
In October 2017 Keith McNeil, NHS England's chief clinical information officer demanded that NHS hospitals should be moved rapidly onto electronic prescribing in the light of research showing it would cut serious prescribing errors by more than half. There was no information about the extent to which it is happening in hospitals.
After successful pilots in London and the East Midlands it was agreed in April 2018 that electronic prescribing should be introduced in all urgent care settings in England, including NHS 111 and other Out-of-hours services so that dispensed medication can be ready for collection at a pharmacy when patients arrive. £78 million was allocated in December 2018 to encourage progress with implementing electronic prescribing in NHS organisations which were struggling.
United States
In the United States, the HITECH Act promotes adoption of this technology by defining e-prescribing as one meaningful use of an electronic medical record. Standards for transmitting, recording, and describing prescriptions have been developed by the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs, in particular the SCRIPT standard, which describes data formats. Elsewhere in the world, health care systems have been slower to adopt e-prescribing standards.
Adoption of e-prescribing technology has accelerated in the United States, in large part, due to the arrival of Stage 2 of meaningful use. One of the Stage 2 core measures is: "Generate and transmit permissible prescriptions electronically (e-Rx.)" In order to meet this measure, practices must prescribe and transmit at least 50 percent of permissible prescriptions electronically.
According to data released in May 1991 by Surescripts, a company which operates the nation's largest health information (e-prescribing) network, roughly 317,000 office-based physicians now e-prescribe in the United States.
A more recent report released by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT in June 2012 finds that 48 percent of U.S. physicians use e-prescribing systems. National growth in e-prescribing over the period September 2008 through June 2012 increased over 40 percent, with individual states increasing adoption anywhere from 28 percent to 70 percent.
Ukraine
Starting from April 2019, ePrescription is one of the key components of the reimbursement system in Ukraine. The e-prescription module integrates all primary care physicians (over 23,000 doctors) and almost 50% of pharmacies across the country.
While the launch of e-prescription was done quickly, the quality was not compromised. The development of the tool was completed according to international standards as well as HL7 FHIR medical data requirements. Ukrainian eHealth system is a two layer system with central core component developed as storage of dictionaries and rules and private IT-companies who offers e-prescription’s functionality through interfaces of the doctors and pharmacists. The e-prescription code is open and available.
As a next step of expansion of eRx functions in Ukraine, Ministry of Health of Ukraine develop the technical requirement for substitution of oldfashion, paper-based prescriptions with digital eRx for all applicable medicines.
See also
Electronic Prescriptions for Controlled Substances
XML
Data theft
Medical privacy
References
Further reading
External links
Clinicians Guide to e-Prescribing
Pharmacy
Health informatics
Medical terminology
|
6084862
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenEV
|
OpenEV
|
OpenEV is an open-source geospatial toolkit and a frontend to that toolkit. OpenEV was developed using Python and uses the GDAL library to display georeferenced images and elevation data. The application also has image editing capabilities and uses OpenGL to display elevation data in three-dimensions.
History
The original version of OpenEV was developed by Atlantis Scientific (renamed Vexcel) as a prototype viewer for the Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure. Its development was supported by the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing GeoConnections program and J-2 Geomatics (Canadian Department of National Defense). The goal was to create a free, downloadable, advanced satellite imagery viewer that allowed users to work interactively with CGDI data.
Vexcel, Inc. was acquired in May, 2006 by Microsoft and left the software to Mario Beauchamp and a team of developers. OpenEV has since been used by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the American Museum of Natural History. It was also the base for the CIETmap software, which is now developed also by Mario Beauchamp.
Supported data
OpenEV supports numerous raster and vector formats such as shapefiles. Since it uses the GDAL library to display images, it supports the same formats.
See also
Geospatial Data Abstraction Library
References
External links
Free software programmed in Python
Free GIS software
Software that uses PyGTK
Remote sensing software
|
64048187
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria-Florina%20Balcan
|
Maria-Florina Balcan
|
Maria-Florina (Nina) Balcan is a Romanian-American computer scientist whose research investigates machine learning, algorithmic game theory, theoretical computer science, including active learning, kernel methods, random-sampling mechanisms and envy-free pricing. She is an associate professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University.
Education
Balcan is originally from Romania, and earned a bachelor's degree in 2000 from the University of Bucharest, earning summa cum laude honors with a double major in mathematics and computer science. She continued at the University of Bucharest for a master's degree in computer science in 2002, and then earned a PhD in computer science in 2008 from Carnegie Mellon University where her research was supervised by Avrim Blum.
Career and research
After working as a postdoctoral researcher at Microsoft Research New England, she was appointed assistant professor in the Georgia Institute of Technology College of Computing in 2009. She returned to Carnegie Mellon as a tenured faculty member in 2014.
Balcan served as program committee co-chair for three major machine learning conferences, including COLT 2014, the International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML) 2016, and the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) 2020. She is the general chair for ICML 2021.
Awards and honors
Balcan is a Microsoft Faculty Fellow (2011), a Sloan Research Fellow (2014) and a Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellow (2015). She was awarded the 2019 Grace Murray Hopper Award by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), for her "foundational and breakthrough contributions to minimally-supervised learning".
She is a 2021 Simons Investigator.
References
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Romanian computer scientists
American computer scientists
Romanian women computer scientists
American women computer scientists
Romanian emigrants to the United States
University of Bucharest alumni
Carnegie Mellon University alumni
Georgia Tech faculty
Carnegie Mellon University faculty
Sloan Research Fellows
|
17946175
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C.%20J.%20Gable
|
C. J. Gable
|
C. J. Gable (born Carl Gable Jr. October 19, 1987) is a former Canadian football running back. He was signed by the New Orleans Saints as an undrafted free agent in 2011. He played college football for the University of Southern California Trojans. He has also been a member of the Denver Broncos (NFL), Nebraska Danger (IFL), and Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Edmonton Eskimos (CFL).
Early years
Gable attended Sylmar High School in Sylmar, California. By his sophomore season, he had garnered attention for his play at free safety. He was a 2005 Parade High School All-American before joining the Trojans for the 2006 season. At Sylmar, as a sophomore he had a total of 80 carries, 509 yards, 7 touchdowns as a part-time running back. As a junior, now the full-time running back he had a total of 180 carries, 2,023 yards, 23 touchdowns. As a senior, he had a breakout season having a total of 202 carries, 2,086 yards, 27 touchdowns and came up just short of the school rushing record of 2,095 set by Ryen Carew in 2002. He is the only running back to rush for over 2,000 yards back to back in Sylmar High School history.
College career
Gable became the first freshman to ever start an opener at running back for USC when he started at Arkansas in 2006. Gable suffered a season-ending injury in the third game of the 2007 season. He ran a 4.68-second 40-yard dash in the summer of 2008. Gable competed for playing time at running back and kick returner as a sophomore in 2008. Gable originally wore #25 when he began his USC career, but had it changed to #2, his number in high school; when he arrived at USC, #2 was already worn by wide receiver Steve Smith. However, Smith left for the NFL after the 2006 season and Gable was able to reclaim his old number.
He decided not to declare for the 2009 NFL Draft and returned to USC as a fourth-year junior.
Gable ran for 617 yards and 8 touchdowns in 2008, while also returning 7 kicks for 196 yards and a 93-yard touchdown return against Stanford. In 2009, he ran for 102 yards on 24 carries. Gable also returned 19 kicks for 348 yards in '09.
Professional career
New Orleans Saints
Gable went undrafted in the 2011 NFL Draft. On July 26, 2011, Gable signed as an undrafted free agent with the New Orleans Saints. He was waived on August 5, 2011.
Denver Broncos
On August 6, 2011, Gable signed with the Denver Broncos, but was waived on August 29.
Nebraska Danger
Gable was signed by the Nebraska Danger of the Indoor Football League on October 24, 2012, but was released on February 28, 2013.
CFL career
Hamilton Tiger-Cats
Gable was signed by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League on April 2, 2013. CJ Gable had a strong first season in the CFL. He was a threat both rushing the ball and receiving the ball out of the backfield. Gable totaled 782 rushing yards on 130 carries, with 7 touchdowns as well as 598 receiving yards on 54 catches with 5 touchdowns. He was the 2013 winner of the Frank M. Gibson Trophy as runner up for the CFL's Most Outstanding Rookie Award.
Gable's second season in the CFL was marred by injury. He only played in the first 6 games of the season before injuring his foot and shoulder. He wound up with just 138 rushing yards on 30 carries (4.6 average) for 2 touchdowns, with 18 catches for 224 yards and 2 more touchdowns. In late February 2015, Gable and the Tiger-Cats agreed to a contract extension which will keep Gable in Hamilton through the 2017 CFL season. His third season with the Ti-Cats was similar to his second season in that he missed significant playing time due to injury. The 2016 season was a return to form for Gable, as he played in 15 games for the Ti-Cats, rushing the ball 126 times for 693 yards (5.5 average) and 3 touchdowns. He also caught 39 passes for 404 yards and one receiving touchdown. Gable earned divisional All-Star honours for the second time in his career as a result of his strong play in 2016. Gable returned in 2017 as the team's primary running back, playing in nine of the club's first 13 games. Gable carried the ball 74 times for 466 yards with 5 touchdowns for the Ti-Cats in 2017.
Edmonton Eskimos
On October 2, 2017 the Edmonton Eskimos acquired C.J. Gable via trade, in exchange for two unnamed players from their negotiation list. In four regular season games with the Eskimos Gable carried the ball 72 times for 367 yards (5.1 avg) with two touchdowns (he also caught nine passes for 99 yards and one touchdown). In two playoff games Gable had 28 rushing attempts for 161 yards with three touchdowns. Following the season he was re-signed by the Eskimos to a two-year deal. Although Edmonton missed the playoffs with a 9-9 record, Gable's 2018 proved to be a career year, rushing for his first 1,000 season. In 16 games, Gable had 196 rushes for 1,063 yards with 7 touchdowns, in addition to 34 catches for 212 yards and another score. Gable had another strong season in 2019, carrying the ball a career high 205 times eclipsing 1000 rushing yards for the second consecutive season. Following the season Gable was not re-signed by the Eskimos and became a free agent on February 11, 2020.
Gable signed a one-day contract with the Tiger-Cats to retire as a member of the team on April 1, 2021.
Career statistics
References
External links
USC Trojans bio
Hamilton Tiger-Cats bio
1987 births
Living people
American football running backs
Denver Broncos players
Hamilton Tiger-Cats players
Nebraska Danger players
New Orleans Saints players
Players of American football from California
USC Trojans football players
People from Sylmar, Los Angeles
Edmonton Elks players
Canadian football running backs
Canadian Football League Rookie of the Year Award winners
|
57555564
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RockMyRun
|
RockMyRun
|
Rock My Run (stylized as RockMyRun; trademarked slogan: "The Best Running Music in the World™") is a mobile running/fitness app founded in 2011 that provides running and workout music in the form of DJ mixes. It is owned by Rock My World, Inc., a technology company based in San Diego, California. The app allows users to listen to these professional DJ mixes on their smartphone while running or working out to enhance and motivate their performance.
Rock My World, Inc. also developed the app Jolt.ai for the software Slack.
History
During the early stages of the company, Rock My World, Inc. raised more than $2 million in funding generated by the Irvine Company's The Vine SD and from institutional investors including Skullcandy, ZTE and Lighter Capital and were admitted to the Plug and Play Tech Center in Sunnyvale and to the tech incubator EvoNexus in San Diego. In an interview with co-founder and ex-Qualcomm staff Adam Riggs-Zeigen, he said that "from the beginning [their] big goal is to help people live healthier lives."
Speaking for Reuters in 2014, Riggs-Zeigen said: "We want to help people enjoy running more and perform better, because those are the keys to getting them to do that activity again." Also in 2014 for ABC News, he explained: "We help people run for longer, farther and faster, and do things they never thought were possible. It's amazing how the right music combined with the right tempo does that. There's strong research that shows music paced with your stride helps improve performance by up to 15 percent. There's a lot of evidence to making sure you have the right beat for your stride."
Features
The RockMyRun app contains thousands of mixes or "stations" produced by its professional DJs intended to increase enjoyment and performance during exercise. DJs who have provided mixes for the app include David Guetta, Zedd, Steve Aoki, Major Lazer and Afrojack. All of the music can be personalized based on the user's steps per minute, heart rate or ideal cadence allowing the user to "always hear the right music at the right time at the right tempo".
All RockMyRun mixes are organized into stations to help users discover music that suits their needs. RockMyRun contains mixes of all genres and each station is categorized into their respective genres and displays tags to let users know the type of music contained in the mix.
RockMyRun has two membership types; it is free as a standard member, but for uninterrupted listening and additional features, users can upgrade to a paid "Rockstar" membership.
Appearances in media
RockMyRun has been featured on television programs such as The Today Show on two occasions and on The Rachael Ray Show, and in positive reviews by many publications and websites including The New York Times on four separate occasions, TIME, The Huffington Post, The Denver Post, Men's Fitness, Real Simple, The Vulcan Post, The L.A. Times, Glamour, Paste magazine, PCMag, Dubai Week, BetaNews, CNET, CNBC, Reuters, Insider, Tom's Guide and Yahoo! Tech.
RockMyRun has also been mentioned/recommended in books/publications such as A Practical Guide to Teacher Wellbeing by Elizabeth Holmes and Applying Music in Exercise and Sport by Dr. Costas Karageorghis.
In a positive review by David Strausser for AndroidGuys in 2015, he praised the app in a detailed review, saying "The mixes are incredible and the rates are reasonable. The app is quick, beautiful."
In 2018, Redbull.com recommended RockMyRun in preparation for the Wings for Life World Run in their article "10 essential hacks for running to work to get you in World Run shape".
In 2019, The Fashion Spot included RockMyRun in their list of "The Best Workout Apps for People Who Hate to Work Out", saying: "RockMyRun matches music to the tempo of your running pace – the music literally follows your steps/heart rate. The app has thousands of mixes/music options along with tracking capabilities."
Partners
RockMyRun is partnered with the following brands/companies:
C25K
Del Taco
JLab Audio
iFit
Active Network, LLC
Night Nation Run (the world's first running music festival)
Lady Foot Locker
Mayweather Boxing + Fitness
Mio Global
Orangetheory Fitness
Red Rock Apps
Tapout Fitness
References
External links
Internet audio players
Internet properties established in 2011
Mobile applications
American music websites
Exercise organizations
Exercise equipment
Fitness apps
Mobile music apps
American companies established in 2011
2011 establishments in California
Companies based in San Diego
Running mass media
Software companies based in California
Sports software
Android (operating system) software
IOS software
WatchOS software
Windows Phone software
|
46510670
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect%20Writer
|
Perfect Writer
|
Perfect Writer is a word processor computer program published by Perfect Software for CP/M, subsequently rewritten and released as Perfect II by Thorn EMI Computer Software for IBM PC compatible computers. It was written in C and famous for its stability. It was an enhanced version of MINCE, which itself was a version of Emacs for microcomputer platforms. Emacs itself was too heavyweight to fit within the 64kb RAM limit of most microcomputers. Like MINCE, it included a floppy disk based virtual memory system.
Along with its companion spreadsheet (Perfect Calc), and database (Perfect Filer), Perfect Writer was bundled with early Kaypro II and Morrow computers, as well as with the Torch Computers Z80 Disk Pack add-on for the BBC Micro and had a list price of USD$349. In the UK, it was bundled with the short lived Advance 86B PC (a near IBM compatible). It supported up to 7 buffers, had a character transpose command, undo, footnotes, and indexing. Its capabilities were very close to that of the dedicated word processors of the day. Perfect Writer's ability to cut and paste between documents open in multiple buffers was an advantage over WordStar.
Perfect Writer supported a number of add-on programs, Perfect Speller and Perfect Thesaurus, also published by Perfect Software, along with third party software such as Plu*Perfect published by Plu*Perfect Systems. Plu*Perfect included "D", a dired-like file browser that was deemed "the best of all directory displayers" by Stewart Brand.
Perfect Writer was originally published by Perfect Software. Later versions of the product were developed and maintained by Knowledge Engineering in Austin, Texas. The thesaurus was designed written and maintained by George O. Jenkins, Jr.
References
External links
Text Editors Wiki
Perfect Writer screenshot gallery
Emacs
CP/M software
Commodore 128 software
DOS software
Text editors
Word processors
Discontinued software
|
56160987
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernel%20page-table%20isolation
|
Kernel page-table isolation
|
Kernel page-table isolation (KPTI or PTI, previously called KAISER) is a Linux kernel feature that mitigates the Meltdown security vulnerability (affecting mainly Intel's x86 CPUs) and improves kernel hardening against attempts to bypass kernel address space layout randomization (KASLR). It works by better isolating user space and kernel space memory. KPTI was merged into Linux kernel version 4.15, and backported to Linux kernels 4.14.11, 4.9.75, and 4.4.110. Windows and macOS released similar updates. KPTI does not address the related Spectre vulnerability.
Background on KAISER
The KPTI patches were based on KAISER (short for Kernel Address Isolation to have Side-channels Efficiently Removed), a technique conceived in 2016 and published in June 2017 back when Meltdown was not known yet. KAISER makes it harder to defeat KASLR, a 2014 mitigation for a much less severe issue.
In 2014, the Linux kernel adopted kernel address space layout randomization (KASLR), which makes it more difficult to exploit other kernel vulnerabilities, which relies on kernel address mappings remaining hidden from user space. Despite prohibiting access to these kernel mappings, it turns out that there are several side-channel attacks in modern processors that can leak the location of this memory, making it possible to work around KASLR.
KAISER addressed these problems in KASLR by eliminating some sources of address leakage. Whereas KASLR merely prevents address mappings from leaking, KAISER also prevents the data from leaking, thereby covering the Meltdown case.
KPTI is based on KAISER. Without KPTI enabled, whenever executing user-space code (applications), Linux would also keep its entire kernel memory mapped in page tables, although protected from access. The advantage is that when the application makes a system call into the kernel or an interrupt is received, kernel page tables are always present, so most context switching-related overheads (TLB flush, page-table swapping, etc) can be avoided.
Meltdown vulnerability and KPTI
In January 2018, the Meltdown vulnerability was published, known to affect Intel's x86 CPUs and ARM Cortex-A75. It was a far more severe vulnerability than the KASLR bypass that KAISER originally intended to fix: It was found that contents of kernel memory could also be leaked, not just the locations of memory mappings, as previously thought.
KPTI (conceptually based on KAISER) prevents Meltdown by preventing most protected locations from being mapped to user space.
AMD x86 processors are not currently known to be affected by Meltdown and don't need KPTI to mitigate them. However, AMD processors are still susceptible to KASLR bypass when KPTI is disabled.
Implementation
KPTI fixes these leaks by separating user-space and kernel-space page tables entirely. One set of page tables includes both kernel-space and user-space addresses same as before, but it is only used when the system is running in kernel mode. The second set of page tables for use in user mode contains a copy of user-space and a minimal set of kernel-space mappings that provides the information needed to enter or exit system calls, interrupts and exceptions.
On processors that support the process-context identifiers (PCID), a translation lookaside buffer (TLB) flush can be avoided, but even then it comes at a significant performance cost, particularly in syscall-heavy and interrupt-heavy workloads.
The overhead was measured to be 0.28% according to KAISER's original authors; a Linux developer measured it to be roughly 5% for most workloads and up to 30% in some cases, even with the PCID optimization; for database engine PostgreSQL the impact on read-only tests on an Intel Skylake processor was 7–17% (or 16–23% without PCID), while a full benchmark lost 13–19% (Coffee Lake vs. Broadwell-E). Many benchmarks have been done by Phoronix, Redis slowed by 6–7%. Linux kernel compilation slowed down by 5% on Haswell.
KPTI can partially be disabled with the "nopti" kernel boot option. Also provisions were created to disable KPTI if newer processors fix the information leaks.
References
External links
KPTI documentation patch
Linux kernel features
Virtual memory
Hardware bugs
X86 architecture
|
22181404
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feliniopsis
|
Feliniopsis
|
Feliniopsis is a genus of moths of the family Noctuidae.
Species
Feliniopsis africana Schaus, 1893
Feliniopsis albilineata (Warren, 1912)
Feliniopsis albiorbis (Warren, 1912)
Feliniopsis annosa Viette, 1963
Feliniopsis annosa annosa Viette, 1963
Feliniopsis annosa anuosoides Hacker & Fibiger, 2007
Feliniopsis asahinai (Sugi, 1982)
Feliniopsis baueri Hacker & Fibiger, 2007
Feliniopsis berioi Viette, 1963
Feliniopsis breviuscula (Walker, 1858)
Feliniopsis confundens (Walker, 1857)
Feliniopsis confusa Laporte, 1973
Feliniopsis connivens Felder & Rogenhofer, 1874
Feliniopsis connivens connivens Felder & Rogenhofer, 1874
Feliniopsis connivens felix Hacker & Fibiger, 2007
Feliniopsis connotata (Warren, 1912)
Feliniopsis consummata Walker, 1857
Feliniopsis consummata consummata Walker, 1857
Feliniopsis consummata tulipifera Saalmüller, 1891
Feliniopsis dargei (Laporte, 1973)
Feliniopsis dinavana (Hampson, 1908)
Feliniopsis discisignata (Wileman & South, 1920)
Feliniopsis distans (Moore, 1882)
Feliniopsis duponti Laporte, 1974
Feliniopsis duponti dargei Laporte, 1973
Feliniopsis duponti duponti Laporte, 1974
Feliniopsis germaine (Laporte, 1975)
Feliniopsis grisea Laporte, 1973
Feliniopsis gueneei Laporte, 1973
Feliniopsis hoplista Viette, 1963
Feliniopsis hosplitoides Laporte, 1979
Feliniopsis hosplitoides aarviki Hacker & Fibiger, 2007
Feliniopsis hosplitoides hosplitoides Laporte, 1979
Feliniopsis hyperythra Galsworthy, 1997
Feliniopsis hyposcota (Hampson, 1911)
Feliniopsis incerta Roepke, 1938
Feliniopsis indigna Herrich-Schäffer, 1854
Feliniopsis indistans Guenée, 1852
Feliniopsis inextricans (Walker, 1858)
Feliniopsis insolita Hacker & Fibiger, 2007
Feliniopsis ivoriensis Laporte, 1973
Feliniopsis karischi Hacker & Fibiger, 2007
Feliniopsis kipengerensis Hacker & Fibiger, 2007
Feliniopsis kobesi Hacker & Fibiger, 2007
Feliniopsis knudlarseni Hacker & Fibiger, 2007
Feliniopsis kuehnei Hacker & Fibiger, 2007
Feliniopsis laportei Hacker & Fibiger, 2007
Feliniopsis laportei dallastai Hacker & Fibiger, 2007
Feliniopsis laportei laportei Hacker & Fibiger, 2007
Feliniopsis legraini Hacker & Fibiger, 2007
Feliniopsis leucostigma (Moore, 1867)
Feliniopsis ligniensis Laporte, 1973
Feliniopsis lucipara (Wileman & West, 1929)
Feliniopsis macrostigma (Snellen, 1880)
Feliniopsis medleri Laporte, 1973
Feliniopsis milloti Viette, 1961
Feliniopsis minnecii Berio, 1939
Feliniopsis nabalua (Holloway, 1976)
Feliniopsis nigribarbata Hampson, 1908
Feliniopsis niveipuncta (Hampson, 1911)
Feliniopsis opposita (Walker, 1865)
Feliniopsis parvula Hacker & Fibiger, 2007
Feliniopsis peridela (Wileman & West, 1929)
Feliniopsis politzari Hacker & Fibiger, 2007
Feliniopsis quadrispina (Holloway, 1979)
Feliniopsis rufigiji Hacker & Fibiger, 2007
Feliniopsis sabaea Hacker & Fibiger, 2001
Feliniopsis satellitis Berio, 1974
Feliniopsis securifera (Wileman & West, 1929)
Feliniopsis segreta Berio, 1966
Feliniopsis septentrionalis (Rougeot & Laporte, 1983)
Feliniopsis siderifera (Moore, 1881)
Feliniopsis somaliensis (Laporte, 1974)
Feliniopsis subsagula D. S. Fletcher, 1961
Feliniopsis talhouki Wiltshire, 1983
Feliniopsis tamsi (Berio, 1974)
Feliniopsis tenera Viette, 1963
Feliniopsis theryi (Laporte, 1975)
Feliniopsis thoracica (Walker, 1858)
Feliniopsis tripunctata (Chang, 1991)
Feliniopsis tulipifera (Saalmüller, 1891)
Feliniopsis viettei Hacker & Fibiger, 2001
Feliniopsis wojtusiaki Hacker & Fibiger, 2007
References
Berio (1966). Annali del Museo civico di storia naturale Giacomo Doria 76: 216, fig. 5.
Berio (1974). Annali del Museo civico di storia naturale Giacomo Doria 80: 218, fig. 3.
Fletcher (1961). Ruwenzori Expedition 1(7): 199, fig. 32.
Hacker, H.H. & Fibiger, M. (2001). Esperiana Buchreihe zur Entomologie 8: 594, pl. 29, fig. 11 & 13.
Hacker, H.H. & Fibiger, M. (2007). Esperiana Buchreihe zur Entomologie 3: 59-178.
Hampson, G.F. et al. (1892-1937). Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma: Moths
Hampson (1908). Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phalaenae in the British Museum 7: 129, text fig. 28.
Herrich-Schäffer (1854). Sammlung neuer oder wenig bekannter aussereuropäischer Schmetterlinge pl. 27, fig. 130.
Laporte (1973). Bulletin du Muséum national d'histoire naturelle ser. 3, Zool. 126: 1487–1491.
Laporte (1973b). Bulletin de la Société entomologique de France 78: 63–64.
Laporte (1974). Bulletin mensuel de la Société linnéenne de Lyon 43: 250, fig. 15.
Laporte (1979). Spixiana 2: 108, fig. 4.
Saalmüller (1891). Lepidopteren von Madagascar p. 321, fig. 195.
Schaus & Clement (1893). On a Collection of Sierra Leone, Lepidoptera 33, pl. 2, fig. 10.
Viette (1963). Bulletin de la Société entomologique de France 68: 34–35.
Walker (1857). List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum 11: 591.
Hadeninae
|
309470
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explicit%20Congestion%20Notification
|
Explicit Congestion Notification
|
Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) is an extension to the Internet Protocol and to the Transmission Control Protocol and is defined in RFC 3168 (2001). ECN allows end-to-end notification of network congestion without dropping packets. ECN is an optional feature that may be used between two ECN-enabled endpoints when the underlying network infrastructure also supports it.
Conventionally, TCP/IP networks signal congestion by dropping packets. When ECN is successfully negotiated, an ECN-aware router may set a mark in the IP header instead of dropping a packet in order to signal impending congestion. The receiver of the packet echoes the congestion indication to the sender, which reduces its transmission rate as if it detected a dropped packet.
Rather than responding properly or ignoring the bits, some outdated or faulty network equipment has historically dropped or mangled packets that have ECN bits set. , measurements suggested that the fraction of web servers on the public Internet for which setting ECN prevents network connections had been reduced to less than 1%.
Passive support has existed in Ubuntu Linux since 12.04 and in Windows Server since 2012. Passive support in the most popular websites has increased from 8.5% in 2012 to over 70% in May 2017. Adoption across the Internet now requires clients to actively request ECN. In June 2015, Apple announced that ECN will be enabled by default on its supported and future products, to help drive the adoption of ECN signaling industry-wide.
Operation
ECN requires specific support at both the Internet layer and the transport layer for the following reasons:
In TCP/IP, routers operate within the Internet layer, while the transmission rate is handled by the endpoints at the transport layer.
Congestion may be handled only by the transmitter, but since it is known to have happened only after a packet was sent, there must be an echo of the congestion indication by the receiver to the transmitter.
Without ECN, congestion indication echo is achieved indirectly by the detection of lost packets. With ECN, the congestion is indicated by setting the ECN field within an IP packet to CE and is echoed back by the receiver to the transmitter by setting proper bits in the header of the transport protocol. For example, when using TCP, the congestion indication is echoed back by setting the ECE bit.
Operation of ECN with IP
ECN uses the two least significant (right-most) bits of the Traffic Class field in the IPv4 or IPv6 header to encode four different code points:
00 – Non ECN-Capable Transport, Non-ECT
10 – ECN Capable Transport, ECT(0)
01 – ECN Capable Transport, ECT(1)
11 – Congestion Encountered, CE.
When both endpoints support ECN they mark their packets with ECT(0) or ECT(1). Routers treat the ECT(0) and ECT(1) codepoints as equivalent. If the packet traverses an active queue management (AQM) queue (e.g., a queue that uses random early detection (RED)) that is experiencing congestion and the corresponding router supports ECN, it may change the code point to CE instead of dropping the packet. This act is referred to as “marking” and its purpose is to inform the receiving endpoint of impending congestion. At the receiving endpoint, this congestion indication is handled by the upper layer protocol (transport layer protocol) and needs to be echoed back to the transmitting node in order to signal it to reduce its transmission rate.
Because the CE indication can only be handled effectively by an upper layer protocol that supports it, ECN is only used in conjunction with upper layer protocols, such as TCP, that support congestion control and have a method for echoing the CE indication to the transmitting endpoint.
Operation of ECN with TCP
TCP supports ECN using two flags in the TCP header. The first, ECN-Echo (ECE) is used to echo back the congestion indication (i.e., signal the sender to reduce the transmission rate). The second, Congestion Window Reduced (CWR), to acknowledge that the congestion-indication echoing was received. Use of ECN on a TCP connection is optional; for ECN to be used, it must be negotiated at connection establishment by including suitable options in the SYN and SYN-ACK segments.
When ECN has been negotiated on a TCP connection, the sender indicates that IP packets that carry TCP segments of that connection are carrying traffic from an ECN Capable Transport by marking them with an ECT code point. This allows intermediate routers that support ECN to mark those IP packets with the CE code point instead of dropping them in order to signal impending congestion.
Upon receiving an IP packet with the Congestion Experienced code point, the TCP receiver echoes back this congestion indication using the ECE flag in the TCP header. When an endpoint receives a TCP segment with the ECE bit it reduces its congestion window as for a packet drop. It then acknowledges the congestion indication by sending a segment with the CWR bit set.
A node keeps transmitting TCP segments with the ECE bit set until it receives a segment with the CWR bit set.
To see affected packets with tcpdump, use the filter predicate (tcp[13] & 0xc0 != 0).
ECN and TCP control packets
Since the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) does not perform congestion control on control packets (pure ACKs, SYN, FIN segments), control packets are usually not marked as ECN-capable.
A 2009 proposal suggests marking SYN-ACK packets as ECN-capable. This improvement, known as ECN+, has been shown to provide dramatic improvements to performance of short-lived TCP connections.
Operation of ECN with other transport protocols
ECN is also defined for other transport layer protocols that perform congestion control, notably DCCP and Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP). The general principle is similar to TCP, although the details of the on-the-wire encoding differ.
It is possible to use ECN with protocols layered above UDP. However, UDP requires that congestion control be performed by the application, and early UDP based protocols such as DNS did not use ECN. More recent UDP based protocols such as QUIC are using ECN for congestion control.
Effects on performance
Since ECN is only effective in combination with an Active Queue Management (AQM) policy, the benefits of ECN depend on the precise AQM being used. A few observations, however, appear to hold across different AQMs.
As expected, ECN reduces the number of packets dropped by a TCP connection, which, by avoiding a retransmission, reduces latency and especially jitter. This effect is most drastic when the TCP connection has a single outstanding segment, when it is able to avoid an RTO timeout; this is often the case for interactive connections, such as remote logins, and transactional protocols, such as HTTP requests, the conversational phase of SMTP, or SQL requests.
Effects of ECN on bulk throughput are less clear because modern TCP implementations are fairly good at resending dropped segments in a timely manner when the sender's window is large.
Use of ECN has been found to be detrimental to performance on highly congested networks when using AQM algorithms that never drop packets. Modern AQM implementations avoid this pitfall by dropping rather than marking packets at very high load.
Implementations
Many modern implementations of the TCP/IP protocol suite have some support for ECN; however, they usually ship with ECN disabled.
ECN support in TCP by hosts
Microsoft Windows
Windows versions since Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista support ECN for TCP. Since Windows Server 2012, it is enabled by default in Windows Server versions, because Data Center Transmission Control Protocol (DCTCP) is used. In previous Windows versions and non-server versions it is disabled by default.
ECN support can be enabled using a shell command such as .
BSD
On FreeBSD, ECN for TCP can be configured using the sysctl. By default, it is enabled only for incoming connections that request it. It can also be enabled for all connections or disabled entirely.
NetBSD 4.0 implements ECN support for TCP; it can be activated through the sysctl interface by setting 1 as value for the parameter.
Likewise, the sysctl can be used in OpenBSD.
Linux
Since version 2.4.20 of the Linux kernel, released in November 2002, Linux supports three working modes of the ECN for TCP, as configured through the sysctl interface by setting parameter to one of the following values:
disable ECN and neither initiate nor accept it
enable ECN when requested by incoming connections, and also request ECN on outgoing connection attempts
(default) enable ECN when requested by incoming connections, but do not request ECN on outgoing connections
Beginning with version 4.1 of the Linux kernel, released in June 2015, the mechanism, as specified in RFC 3168 section 6.1.1.1, is enabled by default when ECN is enabled (the value of 1). The fallback mechanism attempts ECN connectivity in the initial setup of outgoing connections, with a graceful fallback for transmissions without ECN capability, mitigating issues with ECN-intolerant hosts or firewalls.
Mac OS X
Mac OS X 10.5 and 10.6 implement ECN support for TCP. It is controlled using the boolean sysctl variables and . The first variable enables ECN on incoming connections that already have ECN flags set; the second one tries to initiate outgoing connections with ECN enabled. Both variables default to , but can be set to to enable the respective behavior.
In June 2015, Apple Inc. announced that OS X 10.11 would have ECN turned on by default, but the OS shipped without that default behavior. In macOS Sierra, ECN is enabled for half of TCP sessions.
iOS
In June 2015, Apple Inc. announced that iOS 9, its next version of iOS, would support ECN and have it turned on by default. TCP ECN negotiation is enabled on 5% of randomly selected connections over Wi-Fi / Ethernet in iOS 9 and 50% of randomly selected connections over Wi-Fi / Ethernet and a few cellular carriers in iOS 10 and 100% for iOS 11
Solaris
The Solaris kernel supports three states of ECN for TCP:
no ECN
use ECN
only advertise ECN support when asked for.
The default behavior is . As of Solaris 11, full ECN usage can be activated via .
ECN support in IP by routers
Since ECN marking in routers is dependent on some form of active queue management, routers must be configured with a suitable queue discipline in order to perform ECN marking.
Cisco IOS routers perform ECN marking if configured with the WRED queuing discipline since version 12.2(8)T.
Linux routers perform ECN marking if configured with one of the RED or GRED queue disciplines with an explicit ecn parameter, by using the sfb discipline, by using the CoDel Fair Queuing (fq_codel) discipline, or the CAKE queuing discipline.
Modern BSD implementations, such as FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD, have support for ECN marking in the ALTQ queueing implementation for a number of queuing disciplines, notably RED and Blue. FreeBSD 11 included CoDel, PIE, FQ-CoDel and FQ-PIE queuing disciplines implementation in ipfw/dummynet framework with ECN marking capability.
Data Center TCP
Data Center Transmission Control Protocol (Data Center TCP or DCTCP) utilizes ECN to enhance the Transmission Control Protocol congestion control algorithm. It is used in data center networks. Whereas the standard TCP congestion control algorithm is only able to detect the presence of congestion, DCTCP, using ECN, is able to gauge the extent of congestion.
DCTCP modifies the TCP receiver to always relay the exact ECN marking of incoming packets at the cost of ignoring a function that is meant to preserve signalling reliability. This makes a DCTCP sender vulnerable to loss of ACKs from the receiver, which it has no mechanism to detect or cope with. , algorithms that provide equivalent or better receiver feedback in a more reliable approach are an active research topic.
See also
Backward ECN (BECN)
Network congestion avoidance
Type of service (ToS)
References
External links
ECN web page by Sally Floyd
(BCP 124), Specifying Alternate Semantics for the Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) Field, S. Floyd, (November 2006)
Linux kernel support for defining a per-route/destination congestion control algorithm (merged in Linux kernel 4.0)
Network performance
Transport layer protocols
Flow control (data)
da:Undgåelse af datanet-trafikforstoppelse#IP ECN
|
66039
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel%208008
|
Intel 8008
|
The Intel 8008 ("eight-thousand-eight" or "eighty-oh-eight") is an early byte-oriented microprocessor designed by Computer Terminal Corporation (CTC), implemented and manufactured by Intel, and introduced in April 1972. It is an 8-bit CPU with an external 14-bit address bus that could address 16 KB of memory. Originally known as the 1201, the chip was commissioned by Computer Terminal Corporation (CTC) to implement an instruction set of their design for their Datapoint 2200 programmable terminal. As the chip was delayed and did not meet CTC's performance goals, the 2200 ended up using CTC's own TTL-based CPU instead. An agreement permitted Intel to market the chip to other customers after Seiko expressed an interest in using it for a calculator.
History
CTC formed in San Antonio in 1968 under the direction of Austin O. "Gus" Roche and Phil Ray, both NASA engineers. Roche, in particular, was primarily interested in producing a desktop computer. However, given the immaturity of the market, the company's business plan mentioned only a Teletype Model 33 ASR replacement, which shipped as the Datapoint 3300. The case was deliberately designed to fit in the same space as an IBM Selectric typewriter and used a video screen shaped to have the same aspect ratio as an IBM punched card. Although commercially successful, the 3300 had ongoing heat problems due to the amount of circuitry packed into such a small space.
In order to address the heating and other issues, a re-design started that featured the CPU part of the internal circuitry re-implemented on a single chip. Looking for a company able to produce their chip design, Roche turned to Intel, then primarily a vendor of memory chips. Roche met with Bob Noyce, who expressed concern with the concept; John Frassanito recalls that "Noyce said it was an intriguing idea, and that Intel could do it, but it would be a dumb move. He said that if you have a computer chip, you can only sell one chip per computer, while with memory, you can sell hundreds of chips per computer." Another major concern was that Intel's existing customer base purchased their memory chips for use with their own processor designs; if Intel introduced their own processor, they might be seen as a competitor, and their customers might look elsewhere for memory. Nevertheless, Noyce agreed to a $50,000 development contract in early 1970. Texas Instruments (TI) was also brought in as a second supplier.
TI was able to make samples of the 1201 based on Intel drawings, but these proved to be buggy and were rejected. Intel's own versions were delayed. CTC decided to re-implement the new version of the terminal using discrete TTL instead of waiting for a single-chip CPU. The new system was released as the Datapoint 2200 in the spring 1970, with their first sale to General Mills on May 25, 1970. CTC paused development of the 1201 after the 2200 was released, as it was no longer needed. Six months later, Seiko approached Intel, expressing an interest in using the 1201 in a scientific calculator, likely after seeing the success of the simpler Intel 4004 used by Busicom in their business calculators. A small re-design followed, under the leadership of Federico Faggin, the designer of the 4004, now project leader of the 1201, expanding from a 16-pin to 18-pin design, and the new 1201 was delivered to CTC in late 1971.
By that point, CTC had once again moved on, this time to the Datapoint 2200 II, which was faster. The 1201 was no longer powerful enough for the new model. CTC voted to end their involvement with the 1201, leaving the design's intellectual property to Intel instead of paying the $50,000 contract. Intel renamed it the 8008 and put it in their catalog in April 1972 priced at $120. This renaming tried to ride off the success of the 4004 chip, by presenting the 8008 as simply a 4 to 8 port, but the 8008 is not based on the 4004. The 8008 went on to be a commercially successful design. This was followed by the Intel 8080, and then the hugely successful Intel x86 family.
One of the first teams to build a complete system around the 8008 was Bill Pentz' team at California State University, Sacramento. The Sac State 8008 was possibly the first true microcomputer, with a disk operating system built with IBM Basic assembly language in PROM, all driving a color display, hard drive, keyboard, modem, audio/paper tape reader and printer. The project started in the spring of 1972, and with key help from Tektronix the system was fully functional a year later. Bill assisted Intel with the MCS-8 kit and provided key input to the Intel 8080 instruction set, which helped make it useful for the industry and hobbyists.
In the UK, a team at S. E. Laboratories Engineering (EMI) led by Tom Spink in 1972 built a microcomputer based on a pre-release sample of the 8008. Joe Hardman extended the chip with an external stack. This, among other things, gave it power-fail save and recovery. Joe also developed a direct screen printer. The operating system was written using a meta-assembler developed by L. Crawford and J. Parnell for a Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-11. The operating system was burnt into a PROM. It was interrupt-driven, queued, and based on a fixed page size for programs and data. An operational prototype was prepared for management, who decided not to continue with the project.
The 8008 was the CPU for the very first commercial non-calculator personal computers (excluding the Datapoint 2200 itself): the US SCELBI kit and the pre-built French Micral N and Canadian MCM/70. It was also the controlling microprocessor for the first several models in Hewlett-Packard's 2640 family of computer terminals.
Intel offered an instruction set simulator for the 8008 named INTERP/8. It was written in FORTRAN.
Design
The 8008 was implemented in 10 μm silicon-gate enhancement-mode PMOS logic. Initial versions could work at clock frequencies up to 0.5 MHz. This was later increased in the 8008-1 to a specified maximum of 0.8 MHz. Instructions take between 5 and 11 T-states, where each T-state is 2 clock cycles.
Register–register loads and ALU operations take 5T (20 μs at 0.5 MHz), register–memory 8T (32 μs), while calls and jumps (when taken) take 11 T-states (44 μs).
The 8008 is a little slower in terms of instructions per second (36,000 to 80,000 at 0.8 MHz) than the 4-bit Intel 4004 and Intel 4040. but since the 8008 processes data 8 bits at a time and can access significantly more RAM, in most applications it has a significant speed advantage over these processors. The 8008 has 3,500 transistors.
The chip (limited by its 18-pin DIP) has a single 8-bit bus and requires a significant amount of external support logic. For example, the 14-bit address, which can access "16 K × 8 bits of memory", needs to be latched by some of this logic into an external memory address register (MAR). The 8008 can access 8 input ports and 24 output ports.
For controller and CRT terminal use, this is an acceptable design, but it is rather cumbersome to use for most other tasks, at least compared to the next generations of microprocessors. A few early computer designs were based on it, but most would use the later and greatly improved Intel 8080 instead.
Related processor designs
The subsequent 40-pin NMOS Intel 8080 expanded upon the 8008 registers and instruction set and implements a more efficient external bus interface (using the 22 additional pins). Despite a close architectural relationship, the 8080 was not made binary compatible with the 8008, so an 8008 program would not run on an 8080. However, as two different assembly syntaxes were used by Intel at the time, the 8080 could be used in an 8008 assembly-language backward-compatible fashion.
The Intel 8085 is an electrically modernized version of the 8080 that uses depletion-mode transistors and also added two new instructions.
The Intel 8086, the original x86 processor, is a non-strict extension of the 8080, so it loosely resembles the original Datapoint 2200 design as well. Almost every Datapoint 2200 and 8008 instruction has an equivalent not only in the instruction set of the 8080, 8085, and Z80, but also in the instruction set of modern x86 processors (although the instruction encodings are different).
Features
The 8008 architecture includes the following features:
Seven 8-bit "scratchpad" registers: The main accumulator (A) and six other registers (B, C, D, E, H, and L).
14-bit program counter (PC).
Seven-level push-down address call stack. Eight registers are actually used, with the top-most register being the PC.
Four condition code status flags: carry (C), even parity (P), zero (Z), and sign (S).
Indirect memory access using the H and L registers (HL) as a 14-bit data pointer (the upper two bits are ignored).
Example code
The following 8008 assembly source code is for a subroutine named MEMCPY that copies a block of data bytes of a given size from one location to another.
In the code above, all values are given in octal. Locations , , and are 16-bit parameters for the subroutine named . In actuality, only 14 bits of the values are used, since the CPU has only a 14-bit addressable memory space. The values are stored in little-endian format, although this is an arbitrary choice, since the CPU is incapable of reading or writing more than a single byte into memory at a time. Since there is no instruction to load a register directly from a given memory address, the HL register pair must first be loaded with the address, and the target register can then be loaded from the M operand, which is an indirect load from the memory location in the HL register pair. The BC register pair is loaded with the parameter value and decremented at the end of the loop until it becomes zero. Note that most of the instructions used occupy a single 8-bit opcode.
Designers
CTC (Instruction set and architecture): Victor Poor and Harry Pyle.
Intel (Implementation in silicon):
Ted Hoff, Stan Mazor and Larry Potter (IBM Chief Scientist) proposed a single-chip implementation of the CTC architecture, using RAM-register memory rather than shift-register memory, and also added a few instructions and interrupt facility. The 8008 (originally called 1201) chip design started before the 4004 development. Hoff and Mazor, however, could not and did not develop a "silicon design" because they were neither chip designers nor process developers, and furthermore the necessary silicon-gate-based design methodology and circuits, under development by Federico Faggin for the 4004, were not yet available.
Federico Faggin, having finished the design of the 4004, became leader of the project from January 1971 until its successful completion in April 1972, after it had been suspended – for lack of progress – for about seven months.
Hal Feeney, project engineer, did the detailed logic design, circuit design, and physical layout under Faggin's supervision, employing the same design methodology that Faggin had originally developed for the Intel 4004 microprocessor, and utilizing the basic circuits he had developed for the 4004. A combined "HF" logo was etched onto the chip about halfway between the D5 and D6 bonding pads.
Second sources
See also
Mark-8 and SCELBI, 8008-based computer kits
MCM/70 and Micral, pioneering microcomputers
PL/M, the first programming language targeting a microprocessor, the Intel 8008, developed by Gary Kildall
References
External links
MCS-8 User Manual with 8008 data sheet (1972)
The Intel 8008 support page unofficial
The DigiBarn Computer Museum's page on Bill Pentz' Sacramento State machine, a full microcomputer built around the 8008
8008 Assembly Language Reference Card
Computer-related introductions in 1972
8-bit microprocessors
|
64064127
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emteria.OS
|
Emteria.OS
|
Emteria.OS is an Android based operating system (OS). The application of the OS is mainly purposed for industrial applications such as internet of things, digital signage, vending machines, point of sale or smart city.
Introduction
The emteria.OS is a commercial operating system developed by German company emteria GmbH. It extends the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) platform with additional applications and services with the focus on industrial use cases.
Based on AOSP, emteria.OS is fully compatible with existing applications and components for Android. Also, as an advantage of Android, emteria.OS brings improvements in uniform UI and a rich framework for app development into different industrial devices.
The platform can be used for reliable industrial applications and products such as point of service systems, smart homes, infotainment installations, as well as for ATMs, and ticketing machines.
Market goals
Emteria.OS started with Android 7 for Raspberry Pi 3B/3B+, which is a popular maker board and used in industry for proof of concept (PoC) and prototyping. Later a version for RPi CM3 was released to support custom RPi-based devices. Recently, extending the list of supported platforms to devices based on Qualcomm and NXP chipsets provides a reliable operating system for production.
Features
The product aims at increasing adaptability of Android and simplifying its customization. It improves Android features in order to be hardware independent OS and brings simplicity in configuration and management of devices. Emteria.OS includes Board Support Packages (BSP) for different hardware platforms. For simplicity and efficiency BSP for the corresponding hardware platform is automatically downloaded and installed during installation process along with the Android system image.
The emteria.OS adds new features to standard Android, in order to make the operation and management for product manufacturers easier:
App management: it provides an infrastructure for adding private application stores, which companies can use to bring their own apps onto a custom hardware, like Google’s Play Store and Apple's App Store
Simplified customization and provisioning: system settings can be changed via provided web portal, while certain changes like resolution adaptation or driver inclusion in standard Android would require a recompilation of the whole OS. In addition, it allows users to preinstall their settings and applications on many devices instead of installing plain Android and configuring everything manually on each single device. Besides, as the Android image usually consists of several partitions (like BSP, data, system), a provided emteria installer simplifies the installation processes. While consumer devices include a bootloader with Fastboot support, flashing industrial hardware typically means mounting its internal (eMMC) or external (SD cards) memory directly and creating required partitions
Device and configuration management: clients can monitor their devices remotely and add, start, stop, or delete an application or change system settings on the fly
Security updates: unlike standard Android, security updates are installed automatically in emteria.OS which helps the producer to keep the device more secure
Autostart apps: it allows the user to activate or disable the apps for automate starting after booting the device
Kiosk mode: it allows the system to run only certain apps for the users which increases the security with avoiding unnecessary user access to crucial system files and settings
More extra features are built-in connectivity with a VNC and SSH server
Supported hardware
A list of supported devices is given as the following table:
See also
List of custom Android firmware
References
External links
Android forks
|
51280448
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MEGABYTE%20Act%20of%202016
|
MEGABYTE Act of 2016
|
The Making Electronic Government Accountable By Yielding Tangible Efficiencies Act of 2016 (or the MEGABYTE Act of 2016) is a United States federal law which requires the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to issue a directive on the management of software licenses by the US federal government.
The directive will require the chief information officer (CIO) of each federal agency to develop a comprehensive software licensing policy covering roles in relation to software license management, an inventory of software licenses held by the agency, an analysis of software usage and agency goals covering the use of software within the agency.
The agency CIO must subsequently report after one year and then at five-yearly intervals of the financial savings which have resulted from improved software license management.
The bill was sponsored by Senator Bill Cassidy and Representative Matt Cartwright, and enacted after being signed by President Obama on July 29, 2016. The Congressional Budget Office argued that mostly "the bill would codify and expand current policies and practices of the federal government", but expected that "most of the savings in this area will probably be achieved through current efforts to make cost effective decisions when acquiring software".
In accordance with the act requirements, OMB published M-16-12 Category Management Policy 16-1: Improving the Acquisition and Management of Common Information Technology: Software Licensing.
This established the Enterprise Software Category Team (ESCT), co-managed by GSA, DoD and OMB. It required agencies to appoint a Software Manager for the entire agency. It requires a continual agency-wide inventory of software licenses, Ongoing analysis of license utilization, and reporting of cost savings/avoidance made possible by this policy.
The House of Representatives' Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations and Information Technology has integrated software policy and inventory monitoring into its oversight of executive agencies' Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act implementation.
References
External links
MEGABYTE Act Software Inventories Released under Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), Various Agencies
Acts of the 114th United States Congress
Information technology management
|
17496868
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antics3D
|
Antics3D
|
Antics3D was a real-time 3D animation software program published by Antics Technologies. It is used by amateurs and professionals to create 3-dimensional, animated visualisations of events in a variety of industries. Filmmakers form the largest userbase, who use the software for pre-vizualisation, storyboarding and machinima. However, the software is also used in forensic animation, education, training and many other areas which benefit from animated visualisations. The user interface in Antics3D, which is significantly easier than in traditional animation software, has in large part contributed to its uptake in these sectors that lack animation expertise.
The software applies the drag and drop and point and click paradigms to animation, allowing users to create virtual sets, import props and characters, direct the characters to perform actions, and use virtual cameras to record scenes which can be edited on a timeline. Unlike traditional animation software, the possibilities for a user are limited - scenes will always utilise (at most) characters, cars, rooms and other common objects. However, this allows for much more intuitive user interaction, where "intelligent" props respond in obvious ways without the user needing to define the desired response. For instance, a character can be commanded to walk across a room by simply selecting the destination - the user does not need to directly animate the character's legs, arms, etc.
On November 28, 2008, the company's website at www.antics3d.com reported that the software was no longer available and no future versions were planned. The reason given was that the cost to develop and support the software had outstripped revenues. A community discussion board has sprouted up at http://previz.yourbb.eu, and there is a community blog at http://antics3d.blogspot.com. The last files—which require a now unattainable serial number to work—may be downloaded from http://antics3dprofessional.fileburst.com. Recent update showed antics3d homepage as well as above link non-working.
History
Antics Pre-Viz (V1)
After showing a beta version of Antics at SIGGRAPH in 2004, Kelseus officially launched Antics Pre-Viz in April, 2005 at NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) in Las Vegas, Nevada. The initial version of the program was aimed at non-specialist users such as art-directors and editors who wished to create pre-visualizations or storyboards of scenes in a screenplay. When the company changed their name to Antics Technologies later that year, they also changed the program's name to just "Antics", dropping the "Pre-Viz" at the end.
Antics V2
At SIGGRAPH 2005, Antics Technologies launched an upgrade, Antics3D V2, which introduced a fully integrated timeline and improved animation workflow and the user interface. At this time the BBC began using Antics V2 as part of their training program in film production.
Antics3D V3
In December 2007, Antics first released a free version of its software. Antics3D V3 had a free BasePack version and a paid ProPack version. This change in marketing was an effort to expand the user base of the program to include machinima, crime scene re-creation, marketing and the amateur animation filmmaker. Among the improvements in V3 were the ability to scale content up or down in size, a new content viewer, improved camera controls and import capability of BVH animations and FBX and 3DS models.
With the release of V3 in December, 2007, Antics Technologies began to distribute two different versions of its program: the free BasePack and the paid ProPack versions. The free version of Antics3D is known as the BasePack. It includes basic core content for scene creation along with the ability to download additional free content from the Antics Content Warehouse online. Premium content packs, released in bi-monthly intervals, are also available for purchase by BasePack users. Assets include 3D characters, buildings, props, sets, terrains, audio files, animations and character poses.
The ProPack is the paid version of Antics3D, currently priced at $595. In addition to all features of the BasePack, ProPack users also receive full customer support and a license to activate Antics V3.1 on up to two computers. Paid ProPack users have free-of-charge access to all content add-ons, including premium content packs until Dec 3, 2008. The ProPack also comes with a 3ds Max Exporter Plugin which allows the user to export into Antics3D: geometry, textures, skinned/rigged characters, kinematic or vertex animations, morph targets and their animations, object hierarchies, keyframes as poses and geometry as bounded floors.
Antics3D V3.1
V3.1 was released in April 2008. It expanded import capability to include SKP models from Google SketchUp and a built-in browser to import content from the Google 3D Warehouse.
Antics3D V4
Antics3D V4 was released in August 2008 and improved several facets of the program, from the user interface to the smoothness of animations. The biggest addition to V4 was shadows and lighting, which now allows users to dynamically light their scene in dramatic ways.
Antics3D V5
Antics3D V5 was released in October 2008. Among other improvements, it features character emotions and expressions. When V5 was released, Antics Technologies stopped offering a free version of Antics3D. V5.1 (containing some minor updates) was released to users in March 2009.
Reviews
StudioDaily.com (Film and Video Magazine), February, 2005, pp. 14–22. Reviews Antics-PreViz
Digit Magazine, November, 2006, Page 71. Reviews Antics V2
Digital Producer Magazine Online, April, 2007. Reviews Antics V2.5
DV Magazine (online), December, 2007. Reviews Antics V3.0
Renderosity.com, March, 2008. Reviews Antics V3.0
References
External links
Community discussion board
Ammo Previz's Community blog
Last available versions of the files
Antics Official Site
Antics Official Forum
Antics Official Blog
Antics 3D Community Blog
Antics Video Tutorials on YouTube
Examples of Antics Machinima
Ammo Previz example clip2
Ammo Previz example clip1
Interview with Roger Stone, Dev Director, Antics Technologies
Mike Jones Article on Antics/Moviestorm GUI
Phil Rice Machinima Blog "Antics Stepping it up"
3D graphics software
Machinima
Film and video technology
|
42363103
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GoodData
|
GoodData
|
GoodData is a software company headquartered in San Francisco, California, in the U.S., with additional offices in Europe and Asia. GoodData provides data and analytics infrastructure, including embeddable analytics and composable data and analytics.
History
GoodData was founded in 2007 by Czech entrepreneur Roman Stanek. Stanek had previously founded and served as CEO at NetBeans, which was acquired by Sun Microsystems in 1999, as well as Systinet Corporation, which was acquired by Hewlett Packard in 2006.
The company was founded in April 2007 as "Good Data Corporation" in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
It received investment in July 2008 from Tim O'Reilly, Esther Dyson, and private equity firm Windcrest Partners for a total sum of $2 million.
In 2009, the company received funding from Andreessen Horowitz, O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, General Catalyst Partners, and Windcrest Partners across two rounds totaling $5 million. Funding continued with in 2010, 2011, 2012, and in late 2012, bringing its capital raised to $53.5 million. The company announced $22 million in funding led by TOTVS Ventures in 2013.
In 2014, GoodData said it provided software to 30,000 companies.
In 2019, GoodData announced a partnership with Amazon and the integration with Amazon Redshift data warehouse solution.
On May 20, 2020, GoodData and Visa Inc. announced an investment and strategic partnership.
On July 15, 2021, GoodData announced a partnership with unified analytics platform provider Vertica.
On July 27, 2021, GoodData said it received a $45 million credit facility from J.P. Morgan & Co. to "grow its global sales and engineering teams while continuing to invest in building solutions for modern, enterprise-grade analytics."
Software products
GoodData is a business intelligence and analytics company that is known primarily for its embedded analytics solutions. In 2021, it expanded its cache of capabilities to include GoodData.CN (GoodData Cloud Native) and composable data and analytics.
References
External links
Official website
Data visualization software
Business software companies
Data companies
Companies based in San Francisco
Software companies established in 2007
Software companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area
2007 establishments in California
|
732716
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List%20of%20open-source%20video%20games
|
List of open-source video games
|
This is a list of notable open-source video games. Open-source video games are assembled from and are themselves open-source software, including public domain games with public domain source code. This list also includes games in which the engine is open-source but other data (such as art and music) is under a more restrictive license.
Open engine and free data
The games in this table are developed under a free and open-source license with free content which allows reuse, modification and commercial redistribution of the whole game. Licenses can be public domain, GPL, BSD, Creative Commons, zlib, MIT, Artistic License or other (see the comparison of Free and open-source software and the Comparison of free and open-source software licenses).
Open-source games with non-free data
Only the game engines in this table are developed under an open-source license, which means that the reuse and modification of only the code is permitted. As some of the games' content created by the developers (sound, graphics, video and other artwork) is proprietary or restricted in use, the whole games are non-free and restricted in reuse (depending on the content license). The motivation of developers to keep own game content non-free while they open the source code may be the protection of the game as sellable commercial product. It could also be the prevention of a commercialization of a free product in future, e.g. when distributed under a non-commercial license like CC NC. By replacing the non-free content with free content, these games could also become completely free. In practice, many projects include a mixture of free and non-free own content.
Open-source remakes with non-free data from the proprietary original
The video game remakes in this table were developed under an open-source license which allows usually the reuse, modification and commercial redistribution of the code. The required game content (artwork, data, etc.) is taken from a proprietary and non-opened commercial game, so that the whole game is non-free. See also the Game engine recreation page.
Source-available games
Video games in this table are source-available, but are neither open-source software according to the OSI definition nor free software according to the Free Software Foundation. These games are released under a license with limited rights for the user, for example only the rights to read and modify the game's source for personal or educational purposes but no reuse rights beside the game's original context are granted. Typical licenses are the creative commons "non-commercial" licenses (e.g. CC BY-NC-SA), MAME like licenses or several shared source licenses.
Proprietary developed games, later released under varying licenses
For games that were originally developed proprietary as commercial closed source product, see also :Category:Commercial video games with freely available source code.
See also
List of open-source game engines
List of open-source first-person shooters
List of commercial video games with available source code
List of commercial video games released as freeware
List of freeware games
Linux gaming
References
External links
Open source games list
Video game lists by license
|
16948263
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EShop%20Inc.
|
EShop Inc.
|
eShop Inc. (formerly known as Ink Development Corporation) was an American computer software company founded on May 10, 1991. It was originally founded in San Mateo, California in 1991 to develop products for Go Corporation's PenPoint operating system. In later years, it developed software for the Windows for Pen Computing and Magic Cap platforms.
In 1993, it was renamed to eShop Inc. and developed electronic commerce software, focusing primarily on the "business-to-consumer" marketplace. eShop Inc. launched eShop Plaza on November 7, 1995, which included stores from online merchants.
eShop was acquired by Microsoft on June 11, 1996 for less than $50 million and eShop's technologies were integrated into Microsoft Merchant Server. Pierre Omidyar, one of the founders of eShop, earned over $1 million from the deal and later founded eBay.
References
External links
"IBM, Microsoft do some power shopping", article on CNET
Software companies established in 1991
Microsoft acquisitions
Defunct software companies of the United States
Software companies disestablished in 1996
1991 establishments in California
1996 disestablishments in California
1996 mergers and acquisitions
Defunct companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area
American companies established in 1991
American companies disestablished in 1996
|
35255287
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminal%20Operating%20System
|
Terminal Operating System
|
A Terminal Operating System, or TOS, is a key part of a supply chain and primarily aims to control the movement and storage of various types of cargo in and around a port or marine terminal. The systems also enables better use of assets, labour and equipment, plan workload, and receive up-to-date information.
Terminal operating systems generally fall under one of two categories depending on supported cargo type, namely, containerized or non-containerized. Large container terminals typically require yard management functionality in a TOS, whereas bulk dry and liquid cargo terminals do not.
Terminal Operating Systems often use other technologies such as internet, EDI processing, mobile computers, wireless LANs and Radio-frequency identification (RFID) to efficiently monitor the flow of products in, out and around the terminal. Data is either a batch synchronization with, or a real-time wireless transmission to a central database. The database can then provide useful reports about the status of goods, locations and machines in the terminal.
The objective of a terminal operating system is to provide a set of computerized procedures to manage cargo, machines and people within the facility to enable a seamless link to efficiently and effectively manage the facility.
Terminal operating systems can be stand alone systems, managed as a service or use cloud technologies.
In its simplest form, the TOS can data track cargo in and out of a terminal.
Functions
A Terminal Operating System may be used to do some or all of the following functions:
Shipping
Terminals requiring various types of ship transport
Container terminals using Containerization for LO-LO (lift on Lift Off) operations such as these require plans for efficiently loading and unloading Container ships docked within their Terminal.
A port using RO-RO ships require plans for efficiently loading automobiles, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, trailers or railroad cars that are driven on and off the ship on their own wheels.
Rail
Terminals that require the arrival and departure of cargo on trains such as container trains or bulk cargo.
Road
Handle the receival and release of Cargo for transshipment from other modes of transport or storage.
Yard management
Creating Shipping list or keeping track of Warehouse levels. Tracking machine moves around the terminal.
Invoicing/Reporting
Invoicing and providing reports for internal and external use.
Inventory
Keeping track of Inventory and storing its movements.
Cargo Type
Various types of cargo can be managed dependent of terminal type. This includes containers, dry bulk, liquid bulk, break bulk and vehicles (roll-on/roll-off).
External Clients
Terminals may wish to communicate with the following through their Terminal Operating System:
Terminal operators
Freight forwarder
Shipping line or shipping agent
Container operators
Port authority
Pilots, tugs and mooring gang
Cargo owner (eg. oil companies)
Customs office
Vendors/Suppliers
There are several suppliers of Terminal Operating Systems available.
Cofano
CommTrac
GullsEye
Hogia
Infyz
iPortman
Mainsail
MarineBerth
Master Terminal
Navis
Octopi (by Navis)
OPUS Terminal
OSCAR
Solvo.TOS
Softpak
Total Soft Bank
See also
Electronic data interchange
References
External links
How to Choose a Terminal Operating System
Logistics
|
1616712
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced%20Simulation%20and%20Computing%20Program
|
Advanced Simulation and Computing Program
|
The Advanced Simulation and Computing Program (or ASC) is a super-computing program run by the National Nuclear Security Administration, in order to simulate, test, and maintain the United States nuclear stockpile. The program was created in 1995 in order to support the Stockpile Stewardship Program (or SSP). The goal of the initiative is to extend the lifetime of the current aging stockpile.
History
After the United States' 1992 moratorium on live nuclear testing, the Stockpile Stewardship Program was created in order to find a way to test, and maintain the nuclear stockpile. In response, the National Nuclear Security Administration began to simulate the nuclear warheads using supercomputers. As the stockpile ages, the simulations have become more complex, and the maintenance of the stockpile requires more computing power. Over the years, due to Moore's Law, the ASC program has created several different supercomputers with increasing power, in order to compute the simulations and mathematics.
Research
The majority of ASC's research is done on super-computers in three different laboratories. The calculations are verified by human calculations.
Laboratories
The ASC program has three laboratories:
Sandia National Laboratories
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Computing
Current supercomputers
The ASC program currently houses two supercomputers on the TOP500 list for computing power. The Sequoia, which was the world's fastest supercomputer from June to November 2012 and the 12th fastest in November 2019, is currently being used for simulation and testing in the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Cielo, which is also located in Los Alamos National Laboratory, is 134th on the TOP500 list for most powerful computer as of November 2017. Cielo is researching classified information. Although these computers may be in separate laboratories, remote computing has been established between the three main laboratories.
Previous supercomputers
ASCI Purple
Red Storm
Blue Gene: World's fastest supercomputer, November 2004 – November 2007
ASCI Q: Installed in 2003, it was a DEC AlphaServer SC45/GS Cluster and reached 7.727 Teraflops. ASQI Q used DEC Alpha 1250 MHz (2.5 GFlops) processors and a Quadrics interconnect. ASCI Q placed as the 2nd fastest supercomputer in the world in 2003.
ASCI White: World's fastest supercomputer, November 2000 – November 2001
ASCI Blue Mountain
ASCI Blue Pacific
ASCI Red: World's fastest supercomputer, June 1997 – June 2000
Elements
Within the ASC program, there are six subdivisions, each having their own role in the extension of the life of the stockpile.
Facility Operations and User Support
The Facility Operations and User Support subdivision is responsible for the physical computers and facilities and the computing network within ASC. They are responsible for making sure the tri-lab network, computing storage space, power usage, and the customer computing resources are all in line.
Computational Systems and Software Environment
The Computational and User Support subdivision is responsible for maintaining and creating the supercomputer software according to NNSA's standards. They also deal with the data, networking and software tools.
The ASCI Path Forward project substantially funded the initial development of the Lustre parallel file system from 2001 to 2004.
Verification and Validation
The Verification and Validation subdivision is responsible for mathematically verifying the simulations and outcomes. They also help software engineers write more precise codes in order to decrease the margin of error when the computations are run.
Physics and Engineering Models
The Physics and Engineering Models subdivision is responsible for deciphering the mathematical and physical analysis of nuclear weapons. They integrate physics models into the codes in order to gain a more accurate simulation. They deal with the way that the nuclear weapon will act under certain conditions based on physics. They also study nuclear properties, vibrations, high explosives, advanced hydrodynamics, material strength and damage, thermal and fluid response, and radiation and electrical responses.
Integrated Codes
The Integrated Codes subdivision is responsible for the mathematical codes that are produced by the supercomputers. They use these mathematical codes, and present them in a way that is understandable to humans. These codes are then used by the National Nuclear Society Administration, the Stockpile Steward Program, Life Extension Program, and Significant Finding Investigation, in order to decide the next steps that need to be taken in order to secure and lengthen the life of the nuclear stockpile.
Advanced Technology Development and Mitigation
The Advanced Technology Development and Mitigation subdivision is responsible for researching developments in high performance computing. Once information is found on the next generation of high performance computing, they decide what software and hardware needs to be adapted in order to prepare for the next generation of computers.
References
Supercomputing
Research and development in the United States
|
16189376
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MonaRonaDona
|
MonaRonaDona
|
MonaRonaDona is a browser hijacker that uses unique tactics through popups or alert messages stating that you are infected with a virus.
It uses this message to send users on a hunt for a MonaRonaDona remedy only to run into other malicious websites.
Vendor description
MonaRonaDona is known to come from various rogue programs such as Registry Clean Fix and Unigray Anti-Virus.
Infection
MonaRonaDona is usually downloaded through the Unigray Anti-Virus program or certain ads for Registry Clean Fix. MonaRonaDona remains inactive at times and is left undiscoverable by anti-virus programs. MonaRonaDona uses stealth tactics only presenting itself with an infection message.
Symptoms
MonaRonaDona displays the following false warning message in an attempt to scare users into searching for a fix.
“Hi, My name is MonaRonaDona. I am a Virus & I am here to Wreck Your PC. If you observe strange behavior with your PC, like program windows disappearing etc, it’s me who is doing all this. I was created as a protest against the Human Rights Violation being observed throughout the world & the very purpose of my existence is to remind & stress the world to respect humanity.”
This message sends computer users searching the internet with the likelihood of them running into another malicious website spending their money on something bogus.
MonaRonaDona installs the following Windows registry keys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\MonaRonaDona
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MonaRonaDona.com
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\\Window Title
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express\\Window Title
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\\Window Title
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\\DisableTaskMgr
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\\DisableTaskMgr
Known variants
MonaRonaDona behaves unlike other known Rogue software. MonaRonaDona has its own characteristics and may come from the rogue software Unigray Antivirus. MonaRonaDona was also identified as the TROJ_MONAGRAY.A trojan infection.
See also
Malware
Spyware
Adware
Rogue software
Wikipedia's Spyware removal category
References
External links
MonaRonaDona "virus
Windows trojans
|
53025636
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBeaver
|
DBeaver
|
DBeaver is a SQL client software application and a database administration tool. For relational databases it uses the JDBC application programming interface (API) to interact with databases via a JDBC driver. For other databases (NoSQL) it uses proprietary database drivers. It provides an editor that supports code completion and syntax highlighting. It provides a plug-in architecture (based on the Eclipse plugins architecture) that allows users to modify much of the application's behavior to provide database-specific functionality or features that are database-independent. This is a desktop application written in Java and based on Eclipse platform.
The community edition (CE) of DBeaver is a free and open source software that is distributed under the Apache License. A closed-source enterprise edition of DBeaver is distributed under a commercial license.
History
DBeaver was started in 2010 as a hobby project. It was supposed to be free and open-source with a good-looking and convenient UI and to include frequently used features for database developers.
The first official release was in 2011 on Freecode.
It quickly became a popular tool in the open-source community.
In the same year, the official web site was founded and the community support forum (now moved to GitHub) was created.
In 2012 an Eclipse plugin version was released - since then DBeaver has become one of the most popular database extensions for Eclipse (top 50-60 among all Eclipse extensions).
Shortly after, various software vendors started to integrate with DBeaver (mostly as an extensions to their proprietary Eclipse RCP products: Zend Studio, NXTware, DeltaDNA, etc.).
In 2014 the Enterprise Edition (EE) version was released. The EE version is based on CE but also provides support of NoSQL/BigData databases (Cassandra, MongoDB and Redis) and includes a few additional Eclipse plugins.
In 2015 DBeaver source code/community has moved to GitHub.
In 2017 DBeaver CE was relicensed under Apache License (starting from version 4.x).
In July 2017 DBeaver EE version became commercial in order to support CE version.
Supported platforms and languages
DBeaver is a cross-platform tool and works on platforms which are supported by Eclipse (Windows, Linux, MacOS X, Solaris). DBeaver is available in English, Chinese, Russian, Italian, and German.
Versions
Full list of all released versions
Community Edition
Community Edition (CE) is the initial version of DBeaver. It was released in 2010 and became open-source (GPL) in 2011.
CE version includes extended support of the following databases:
MySQL and MariaDB
PostgreSQL
Greenplum
Oracle
DB2 (LUW)
EXASOL
SQL Server
Sybase
Firebird
Teradata
Vertica
SAP HANA
Apache Phoenix
Netezza
Informix
Apache Derby
H2
SQLite
SnappyData
Any other database which has JDBC or ODBC driver.
Besides relational databases, CE version supports WMI driver (Windows Management Instrumentation – works only in Windows version).
Eclipse Plugin Edition
After a year, and in response to multiple user requests an Eclipse plugin version was released on Eclipse Marketplace.
This version is used by programmers who use the Eclipse IDE for software development and need a database management tool right in their IDE. The Eclipse plugin includes most features of Community Edition and is also released under GPL license.
Enterprise Edition
DBeaver 3.x announced support of NoSQL databases (Cassandra and MongoDB in the initial version). Since then DBeaver was divided on Community and Enterprise editions.
Enterprise Edition has support of NoSQL databases, persistent query manager and a few other enterprise-level features. The EE version is not open-source and requires the purchase of a license (a trial license can be generated free of charge).
List of additional features:
Cassandra
MongoDB
Redis
Persistent QM
JSON documents editor (mostly for MongoDB)
Eclipse EE features (resources management, Marketplace UI)
Features
DBeaver features include:
SQL queries execution
Data browser/editor with a huge number of features
Syntax highlighting and SQL auto-completion
Database structure (metadata) browse and edit
SQL scripts management
DDL generation
ERD (Entity Relationship Diagrams) rendering
SSH tunnelling
SSL support (MySQL and PostgreSQL)
Data export/migration
Import, export and backup of data (MySQL and PostgreSQL)
Mock data generation for database testing
There are differences in the features available across different databases.
See also
Comparison of database tools
HeidiSQL
SQuirreL SQL Client
References
External links
Data modeling tools
Database administration tools
Eclipse (software)
IBM DB2
Microsoft database software
MySQL
MariaDB
Oracle database tools
PostgreSQL
Software using the Apache license
|
66684601
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart%20D.%20Lee
|
Stuart D. Lee
|
Stuart Dermot Lee (born 3 February 1966) is a British specialist in information technology at Oxford University Computing Services and a Reader in E-learning at Oxford University, but is best known for his scholarly books on J. R. R. Tolkien.
Biography
Lee was born to Irish parents. He was educated at Bancroft's School, Essex. He read English and Economics at the University of Keele. He gained an M.A. in English literature at King's College London, and gained his PhD in Old English literature there in 1992, with a thesis on "Judith, Esther, and the Maccabees". He then obtained a postgraduate certificate in Education.
Lee briefly lectured at Royal Holloway and Bedford New College before moving to the University of Oxford, where he worked on the use of information technology for teaching. In 1996 he became head of the Centre for Humanities Computing there. In 2001 he became head of the university's Learning Technologies Group, and in 2005 director of computing systems and services for Oxford University Computing Services.
Reception
A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien
Jorge Luis Bueno-Alonso, reviewing A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien for Tolkien Studies, described Lee as "one of the outstanding names of recent Tolkien critical scholarship and co-author of one of the most imaginative books on the relationships between Tolkien’s fiction and medieval English literature (Lee & Solopova [2005])". Of the book, he wrote that it brought order to the morass of publications on Tolkien, and noted that it finally brought Tolkien into the canon of Anglo-American studies as it was one of the "prestigious" Blackwell Companion series. He described the challenge of making a brief 25-page overview of Tolkien's life, undertaken by John Garth in the volume, "an ", ("a work of giants").
Andrew Higgins, reviewing the book for the Journal of Tolkien Research, welcomed the "eminent line-up" of authors (naming Tom Shippey, Verlyn Flieger, Dimitra Fimi, John D. Rateliff and Gergely Nagy) of the work's 36 articles, and called it "joyous indeed that after many years of polite (and not so polite) disdain and dismissal by establishment “academics” and the “cultural intelligentsia”" that Tolkien had reached the "academic pantheon" of Blackwell Companions. Higgins applauded Lee for "the overall thematic structuring of this volume, which offers a progressive profile of Tolkien the man, the student and scholar, and the mythopoeist. I found Lee’s ordering of these papers most helpful".
Awards and distinctions
2008 Leaching award, Oxford University
2009 Higher Education Authority National Teaching Fellow
Books
Literary
2005 The Keys of Middle-earth (with Elizabeth Solopova), Palgrave Macmillan.
2006 Key Concepts in Medieval Literature (with Elizabeth Solopova), Macmillan.
2013 A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien (edited), Wiley Blackwells.
Information technology
2000 Digital Imaging: A Practical Handbook, Facet.
2001 Building an Electronic Resource Collection: A Practical Guide (with Frances Boyle), Facet.
References
1966 births
Tolkien studies
People educated at Bancroft's School
Alumni of King's College London
Alumni of Keele University
Living people
|
40126444
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexon%20Computer%20Museum
|
Nexon Computer Museum
|
The Nexon Computer Museum is a museum on Jeju Island, South Korea. It opened on July 27, 2013. It is known as one of the first permanent museum in Korea that is dedicated for the history of computer and video games. In 2017, the museum houses 6,900 items including personal computers, video game consoles, arcades, and software. The museum's supporters include institutions such as Computerspielemuseum Berlin and International Center for the History of Electronic Games, and IT companies such as Nexon, Softmax, Gamevil, Oculus VR, Thalmic Labs, Take-Two Interactive, Sony Computer Entertainment, etc.
The principle of Nexon Co. Ltd.'s museum is to interact and communicate with a range of visitors from across boundaries, by collecting, preserving, researching, exhibiting and educating historic digital artifacts.
General
The Nexon Computer Museum is displaying one of the original Apple I. Purchased from Sotheby's on June 15, 2012 for $374,500, their Apple I is one of only six that are still fully operational. This Apple I successfully operated in 2010 and 2013. A video footage of their year 2013's Apple I operating test was revealed in G-Star 2013, as part of the Nexon Computer Museum's moving exhibition PC Road Show. Their collection also includes the original Altair 8800, Commodore PET, IBM Personal Computer and classic Korean computers such as Zemix V, SPC-1500A, IQ-1000, FC-100D etc. that were developed and/or distributed by Samsung, Daewoo, and Goldstar (now LG). The museum also provides several gaming software available for visitors to play, such as Space Invaders, Galaga, Prince of Persia (1989 video game), Hanme-Type Writing Teacher and various others. It also offers various education programs to local communities.
1st Floor: Welcome_Stage "Computer as Theatre" - concentrates on the history of personal computers
2nd Floor: Open_Stage "Between Reality and Fantasy" - concentrates on the history of video games and next-gen technologies
3rd Floor: Hidden_Stage "The Real Revolution" - concentrates on education programs and open source based inventions
B1 Floor: Special_Stage "Crazy Arcade" - concentrates on the history of arcade games
Projects
The museum also aims to research and archive MMO games, which is one of the strongest video game genres in South Korea. In 2014, Nexon Computer Museum restored and preserved the earliest (year 1996) version of graphical MMORPG Kingdom of Winds, which is also available to play online. In addition, it provides regional education program such as 'NCM Kids Panel', 'Integrated Kids Workshop HAT', 'Open Workshop', etc.
On June 17, 2015, the museum released its '360 Virtual Museum', which offer a virtual tour of the Nexon Computer Museum's collection.
April 6, 2016, free mobile application 'NCM Mobile Application' was launched for both iOS and Android, which allows users to look for and share pictures and information of 440 major artifacts.
From April to November 2016, Nexon Computer Museum held its first on-going Virtual Reality contents festival ‘2016 NCM VR OPEN CALL’ to raise public interest in Virtual Reality and support new challenges of content creators. Six awardees were chosen among 58 works in various genres including travel, horror, fairy tale and education.
With total 5mln KRW(final amount to be paid after tax) as award, all winners had the opportunity to have Develop Week and Artist Talk program* with independent exhibition in Nexon Computer Museum VR zone. The winners also had a special pop-up museum exhibition at Nexon Korea building at Pan-gyo, South Korea.
On November 3, 2016, Nexon Computer Museum commissioned the winners of 2016 NCM VR OPEN CALL as 2017 NCM Accelerator: VR Project to support further contents development of the artists. Nexon Computer Museum will fund each team from 0.5 to 1 million KRW monthly along with international exhibition, networking and mentoring for a year. Starting from 2016 NCM VR OPEN CALL, Nexon Computer Museum hopes to be a stable companion of the artists to mount new challenges.
History
Established July 27, 2013.
Restored the earliest version of graphical MMORPG Kingdom of Winds on May 27, 2014.
Museum Remark: Keyboard & Mouse exhibition since July 19, 2014.
360 Virtual Museum since June 17, 2015.
'NCM Mobile Application' launched April 6, 2016
'2016 NCM VR OPEN CALL' from April to November, 2016
See also
Nexon Co. Ltd.
References
External links
Official website (Korean): http://www.nexoncomputermuseum.org/
Official website (English): http://www.nexoncomputermuseum.org/english/
Official Facebook page (Korean): https://www.facebook.com/NexonComputerMuseum
360 Virtual Museum: https://web.archive.org/web/20150703152130/http://www.ncm360.org/
Video game culture
Museums established in 2013
Museums in Jeju Province
Computer museums
|
29857650
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ConnectWise%20Control
|
ConnectWise Control
|
ConnectWise Control is a self-hosted remote desktop software application owned by Connectwise Inc., a software developer based in Tampa, Florida, United States. It was originally developed by Elsinore Technologies in 2008 under the name ScreenConnect.
History
Elsinore Technologies developed ScreenConnect in 2008 as an add-on to their RMM Software IssueNet in order to assist in providing remote support to end users. They later began distributing the software as a standalone product.
Acquisition by ConnectWise
On February 11, 2015, PSA company ConnectWise announced their acquisition of the ScreenConnect software in order to improve the remote control features of the latest release of their RMM Software, LabTech. ScreenConnect, LLC announced that, despite being acquired by ConnectWise, they would continue to operate under their original name in addition to offering their software as a standalone product.
Starting in early 2017, ConnectWise changed the name of ScreenConnect to ConnectWise Control, saying that this was to simplify their software under one company.
Product
How it works
The product is a self-hosted server application that permits the primary user to host the software on their own servers, PC, virtual machine (VM), or virtual private server (VPS). Once installed, the central web application can be made visible inside and outside of the local area network (LAN). ConnectWise Control has a proprietary protocol and exposes an open architecture structure that can be utilized by users to implement custom plugins, scripting, or various integrations.
A generic use model would start with a host initiating a session through the central web application. A participant would then join a session by clicking on an email link or via the guest page of the application. An unattended client can be created and deployed to a targeted machine without the need for human intervention.
The executable is ScreenConnect.ClientService.exe (x86) on Windows based OSs, and is a signed by a COMODO RSA Code Signing CA certificate [Publisher: ScreenConnect Software].
Features
Most commonly expected features for a product in this arena are present. Examples include reboot and reconnect, drag and drop file transfer, screen recording, safe mode support, multiple monitor, command line access, wake-on-LAN, VoIP, chat, and a custom toolbox for quick deployment of support tools.
In addition to features that facilitate communication, ConnectWise Control also offers complete control over branding and customization of the product design, logo, color scheme, icons, text strings, and localization.
Security
The software is self-hosted providing users the ability to control the flow of data behind their own firewall and security implementations. ConnectWise Control uses 256-bit AES encryption to package and ship data, supports two factor authentication, has server level video auditing, and granular role-based security. Forms-based and Windows Authentication are optional authentication methods for security purposes.
Compatibility
Host (presenter or technician): can utilize Mac, Linux, Windows, iOS or Android operating systems.
Guest (customer or participant): can connect from Mac, Linux or Windows. ConnectWise Control can also be utilized to remotely support Android devices, with complete view and control available for devices manufactured by Samsung.
Technology
Server
The on site ConnectWise Control server is self-hosted, and runs as a .NET Framework application. On Microsoft Windows it runs as a set of services. On Linux and OS X it runs as a daemon on a bundled fork of the Mono Runtime. Since 2015, ConnectWise Control launched a cloud platform, providing another way to use the ConnectWise Control software with no local server installation required.
The ConnectWise Control server runs as a set of three discrete services:
The Web Server service is an outward-facing ASP.NET HTTP application and serves as a portal for both technicians and their end-users
The Relay service provides outward-facing in-session communication and operates on TCP sockets. Communication is encrypted with the AES-256 block cipher.
The Session Manager service provides a data store for both the Web Server and Relay services. It is implemented as WCF SOAP web service.
Clients
ConnectWise Control sessions are arranged through the web application. Once users join sessions, a ConnectWise Control client is launched to connect to the Relay service. ConnectWise Control targets clients based on device and operating system:
The .NET client is targeted to Microsoft Windows computers and is activated with a custom URI Scheme which starts the session from an installed handler on the controller's workstation. For end-users joining a support session, a variety of bootstrappers can be used including Microsoft's ClickOnce technology.
The Java client is targeted to OS X and Linux computers and is activated with Java Web Start.
The iOS client is targeted to iPhones and iPads.
The Android client is targeted to Android phones and tablets.
Licensing model
ConnectWise Control is commercial software. Licenses sit in a pool and are available to any user on any workstation. There are three types of license: a single concurrent that allows one simultaneous connection per license, an unlimited which allows an unlimited number of concurrent sessions as long as all sessions are utilizing the same server, and enterprise licenses which provide flexible options for SaaS, multi-user, or custom functionality.
The concurrent license types are bought as a one-time purchase, with lifetime support. A subscription model is used for updates, which are free during the first year after purchase, after which the "update license" must be renewed. Pricing for updates depends on when the update license was last-renewed.
Misuse
The program under its previous name of ScreenConnect has been used in fraudulent technical support scams where the fraudster is able to gain the control of the victims computer by telephoning and tricking the user to install the software and permitting a connection. The free trial period has been utilitized to avoid any software costs in doing this, and similar products such as TeamViewer, AnyDesk and Ammyy Admin have also been used for the scam.
See also
Remote support
Remote desktop software
Desktop sharing
Web conferencing
Comparison of remote desktop software
Comparison of web conferencing software
List of Desktop Sharing Software
References
External links
Product homepage:
https://www.connectwise.com/software/control
Documentation:
https://docs.connectwise.com/ConnectWise_Control_Documentation
Remote desktop
Windows remote administration software
MacOS remote administration software
Internet software for Linux
Web Conferencing
Internet Protocol based network software
Proprietary software
|
28742051
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Package%20development%20process
|
Package development process
|
A software package development process is a system for developing software packages. Packages make it easier to reuse and share code, e.g., via a software repository. A formal system for package checking can help expose bugs, thereby potentially making it easier to produce trustworthy software (Chambers' prime directive). This in turn can help improve productivity for people who produce and use software, as part of a software development process or software development methodology.
Discussion
In this context, a package is a collection of functions written for use in a single language such as Python or R, bundled with documentation. For many programming languages, there are software repositories where people share such packages.
For example, a Python package combines documentation, code and initial set up and possibly examples that could be used as unit tests in a single file with a "py" extension.
By contrast, an R package has documentation with examples in files separate from the code, possibly bundled with other material such as sample data sets and introductory vignettes. The source code for an R package is contained in a directory with a master "description" file and separate subdirectories for documentation, code, optional data sets suits for unit or regression testing, and perhaps others. A formal package compilation process
checks for errors of various types. This includes checking for syntax errors on both the documentation markup language and the code as well as comparing the arguments between documentation and code. Examples in the documentation are tested and produce error messages if they fail. This can be used as a primitive form of unit testing; more formal unit tests and regression testing can be included. This can improve software development productivity by making it easier to find bugs as the code is being developed. In addition, the documentation makes it easier to share code with others. It also makes it easier for a developer to use code written months or even years earlier. Routine checks are made of packages contributed to the Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN) and under development in the companion open-source collaborative development web site, R-Forge. These checks compile the packages repeatedly on different platforms under different versions of the core R language. The results are made available to package maintainers. In this way, package contributors become aware of problems they might otherwise never encounter themselves, because they otherwise would not have easy access to those alternative test results.
An interesting research question would be to compare the quality of contributions to different software repositories and try to relate that to features of the language and accompanying package development process. This could include trying to compare the rate of growth of contributed software to the degree of formality and enforcement of standards for documentation, testing, and coding.
See also
Package management system for combining software packages in different languages into an operating system.
Software repository for collections of packages to share.
Software development process or Software development methodology for a more general discussion of software development.
References
Repository
Software development process
|
28759513
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multifactor%20design%20of%20experiments%20software
|
Multifactor design of experiments software
|
Software that is used for designing factorial experiments plays an important role in scientific experiments and represents a route to the implementation of design of experiments procedures that derive from statistical and combinatorial theory. In principle, easy-to-use design of experiments (DOE) software should be available to all experimenters to foster use of DOE.
Background
Use of software
Factorial experimental design software drastically simplifies previously laborious hand calculations needed before the use of computers.
During World War II, a more sophisticated form of DOE, called factorial design, became a big weapon for speeding up industrial development for the Allied forces. These designs can be quite compact, involving as few as two levels of each factor and only a fraction of all the combinations, and yet they are quite powerful for screening purposes. After the war, a statistician at Imperial Chemical, George Box, described how to generate response surfaces for process optimization. From this point forward, DOE took hold in the chemical process industry, where factors such as time, temperature, pressure, concentration, flow rate and agitation are easily manipulated.
DOE results, when discovered accurately with DOE software, strengthen the capability to discern truths about sample populations being tested: see Sampling (statistics). Statisticians describe stronger multifactorial DOE methods as being more “robust”: see Experimental design.
As DOE software advancements gave rise to solving complex factorial statistical equations, statisticians began in earnest to design experiments with more than one factor (multifactor) being tested at a time. Simply stated, computerized multifactor DOE began supplanting one-factor-at-a-time experiments. Computer software designed specifically for designed experiments became available from various leading software companies in the 1980s and included packages such as JMP, Minitab, Cornerstone and Design–Expert.
Notable benefits when using DOE software include avoiding laborious hand calculations when:
Identifying key factors for process or product improvements.
Setting up and analyzing general factorial, two-level factorial, fractional factorial and Plackett–Burman designs.
Performing numerical optimizations.
Screening for critical factors and their interactions.
Analyzing process factors or mixture components.
Combining mixture and process variables in designs.
Rotating 3D plots to visualize response surfaces.
Exploring 2D contours with a computer mouse, setting flags along the way to identify coordinates and predict responses.
Precisely locating where all specified requirements meet using numerical optimization functions within DOE software.
Finding the most desirable factor settings for multiple responses simultaneously.
Today, factorial DOE software is a notable tool that engineers, scientists, geneticists, biologists, and virtually all other experimenters and creators, ranging from agriculturists to zoologists, rely upon. DOE software is most applicable to controlled, multifactor experiments in which the experimenter is interested in the effect of some process or intervention on objects such as crops, jet engines, demographics, marketing techniques, materials, adhesives, and so on. Design of experiments software is therefore a valuable tool with broad applications for all natural, engineering, and social sciences.
Notes
External links
Response Surface Methodology: Process and Product Optimization Using Designed Experiments, 4th Edition
Design and Analysis of Experiments, 9th Edition
DOE Simplified: Practical Tools for Effective Experimentation, 3rd Edition
RSM Simplified: Optimizing Processes Using Response Surface Methods for Design of Experiments, 2nd Edition
Warning Signs in Experimental Design and Interpretation
NIST Eng. Stats Section 5 Process Improvement
Design of experiments
Statistical software
|
6911609
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C4%20%28conference%29
|
C4 (conference)
|
C4 was a Macintosh software developers conference held in Chicago, Illinois. The conference ran from 2006 through 2009. It was created by Jonathan Rentzsch after the demise of MacHack. In May 2010 Rentzsch announced that he would no longer operate the conference due to a dissatisfaction with Apple's policies toward iPhone OS development and the lack of a strong negative reaction from the Apple developer community.
Etymology
The name C4 stands for Code Culture Conspiracy Conference
C4[0]
The first C4 conference was a two-day event held at the University Center in downtown Chicago. It was held on October 20 and October 21, 2006, with an optional trip to Adler Planetarium's TimeSpace show for attendees on October 22. Due to that year's Chicago Marathon, attendees unable to stay downtown were provided free passes to the Chicago 'L' railway system for the weekend (an arrangement referred to as "Plan 'L'").
Presenters
Steve Dekorte, software developer
Drunkenbatman, blogger, organizer of Evening@Adler (held at Adler Planetarium)
Brian W. Fitzpatrick, developer of Subversion, Fire and Apache Portable Runtime
John Gruber, coauthor of Markdown and influential blogger (see Daring Fireball)
Gus Mueller, creator of VoodooPad
Jonathan Rentzsch, software developer
Brent Simmons, creator of NetNewsWire
Aaron Hillegass, software developer and Cocoa instructor at Big Nerd Ranch
Paul Kafasis, software developer and founder of Rogue Amoeba
Notable attendees
James Duncan Davidson, former Sun Microsystems engineer, creator of Tomcat and Ant
C4[1]
The second C4 conference was held at the Chicago City Centre Hotel on August 10–August 12, 2007. Like the first conference, C4[1] was organized by Jonathan Rentzsch.
Presenters
Tim Burks, RubyObjC developer
Drunkenbatman
Adam Engst, publisher of TidBITS
Bob Ippolito, PyObjC developer
Daniel Jalkut, developer of MarsEdit (acquired from Brent Simmons)
Jonathan Rentzch
Cabel Sasser, co-founder of Panic Inc.
Wil Shipley, creator of Delicious Library
Shawn Morel, VMware developer working on Fusion
Daniel Lyons, senior editor at Forbes magazine and writer of The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs under the pseudonym "Fake Steve Jobs", was scheduled to speak at C4 but was unable due to an illness.
C4[2]
The third C4 conference was held at the Chicago City Centre Hotel on September 5–September 7, 2008. Like the previous conferences, C4[2] was organized by Jonathan Rentzsch. He announced the conference via Twitter feed on April 23, 2008.
Presenters
Alex Payne, developer for Twitter
Brent Simmons, creator of NetNewsWire
Buzz Andersen, creator of PodWorks
Craig Hockenberry, creator of Twitterrific
Mike Lee, former developer for Delicious Monster and Tapulous
Rich Siegel, founder of Bare Bones Software
D. Richard Hipp, architect and primary author of SQLite
Wil Shipley, founder of Delicious Monster
C4[3]
The fourth C4 conference was held at the DoubleTree Chicago from September 25 to September 27, 2009. It sold out within eight hours of the initial announcement. This year's version featured Blitz talks, talks held between the conference's standard presentations. In these talks, speakers were held to 5 minutes per presentation, with each slide having a maximum of 20 seconds on screen.
Presenters
Augie Fackler, Google engineer
Christopher Lloyd, creator of Cocotron
Dave Dribin, founder of BitMaki
John C. Welch
Jonathan Rentzsch
Matt Drance
Michael Lopp, author of Rands in Repose
Peter Wayner
Patrick Thomson
References
External links
C4[0] schedule
Jonathan Rentzsch's blog posts about C4
Photos of C4 by attendee James Duncan Davidson at Flickr
Photos of C4 by presenter John Gruber at Flickr
Apple Inc. conferences
|
36739680
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air%20Defense%2C%20Tactical%20Air%20Command
|
Air Defense, Tactical Air Command
|
Air Defense, Tactical Air Command (ADTAC) was a Named Unit of the United States Air Force, and operated at the Numbered Air Force echelon of Tactical Air Command. It was responsible for the air defense of the United States, and was last stationed at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia. It was last assigned to Tactical Air Command, and was inactivated on 6 December 1985.
ADTAC was established when the Aerospace Defense Command (ADCOM) was inactivated as a Major Command on 1 October 1979. Aerospace Defense Command's atmospheric defense resources (interceptors, warning radars, and associated bases and personnel) were subsequently transferred to ADTAC. The command was, essentially, a transition organization between the Aerospace Defense Command, and the transfer of the air defense mission from the USAF to the Air National Guard in 1990.
It consisted of over 25,000 military and civilian personnel performing duty at radar sites, missile warning stations, fighter interceptor bases, satellite tracking centers, and command and control centers throughout the world. The command had the responsibility to provide operationally ready interceptor aircraft and aircrews for air defense alert 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. These assets had to be capable of scrambling to identify and assist or engage unidentified or hostile airborne objects approaching or entering United States airspace without proper approval. These scrambles were initiated from the respective region headquarters based on information derived from radar site data and previously known or expected airborne traffic. During increased states of readiness, these same ADTAC assets would provide additional air defense forces to CINCNORAD to provide early warning information, attack assessment, and air defense of North America. During peacetime operations, the mission of ADTAC was to command, train, manage, and evaluate forces required for the above-mentioned air defense contingencies. In doing so, the tasks of preparing budget proposals, acquiring equipment, and providing support requirements, were essential to providing ready air defense forces.
Components
Subordinate to the ADTAC headquarters element were six air defense air divisions (20th, 21st, 23d, 24th, 25th and 26th), Air Forces Iceland, the Distant Early Warning Line, and the Air Defense Weapons Center The six air division commanders also functioned as the NORAD region commanders for their particular regions during wartime operations. Each air division had responsibility for a specific area of the country.
Each air division was commanded from a Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) blockhouse, which housed the division's command and control center, plus associated air defense radar and computer hardware. There were 80 Long Range Radars (LRRs) and 21 radar squadrons in the SAGE radar site system.
Subordinate to each air division were assigned fighter interceptor squadrons. The fighter units allocated to ADTAC consisted of seven Air Force and 10 Air National Guard units. The Air Force fighter squadrons were equipped with F-4 Phantom II and F-106 Delta Dart aircraft. The Air National Guard units had the F-101 Voodoo, F-4 Phantom II, and the F-106 Delta Dart.
The Distant Early Warning Line provided early warning of attack from a system of 31 radar sites stretching from Alaska to Greenland.
The Air Defense Weapons Center was the primary location for training air defense forces. F-106 and T-33 pilot and instructor pilot training, as well as weapons controller training, was conducted here. Tactics research and development and weapons system evaluation were important aspects of the Weapons Center's mission.
ADTAC also acquired two Martin EB-57 Canberra electronic faker aircraft units, one Air Force and one Air National Guard, each with the mission of providing electronic countermeasure training. By flying simulated target missions to test radar sites, command and control facilities, as well as interceptor aircrew performance, these units provided additional valuable training for strategic air defense forces.
Realignments
HQ ADTAC remained at Peterson AFB, Colorado to direct the transition into TAC, which was eventually moved to Langley AFB in July 1981. In essence, Tactical Air Command became the old Continental Air Command (ConAC), of which, TAC and Air Defense Command were part of during the postwar years.
In 1979 there were fewer than 100 long-range aircraft detection radars covering the United States, Alaska, Canada, and Iceland, The old SAGE (Semi Automatic Ground Environment) System with its 1950 vintage computers and radar sites, was being replaced by the JSS (Joint Surveillance System) in 1983 using modern technology computer technology and joint-use (Federal Aviation Agency and Air Force) radar sites. The Joint Surveillance System would consist of radars, Regional Operations Control Centers (ROCCs), and communications and support facilities. The ROCCs would be phased in to replace the SAGE blockhouses as command and control centers. The old SAGE system was designed for both peacetime and wartime functions. The JSS/ROCC system was designed primarily for peacetime, or until the tactical situation required transfer of control to an E-3A Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) designated for air defense. The six continental U.S. SAGE centers were to be replaced by four ROCCs. Two additional ROCCs were planned, one by the Canadians for the defense of Canada, and one for Alaska. The 552d Airborne Warning and Control Wing, located at Tinker AFB, Oklahoma, was part of Tactical Air Command and supplied E-3A AWACS aircraft for strategic air defense purposes.
Interceptor aircraft transferred to ADTAC during the reorganization consisted of F-101 Voodoo, F-106 Delta Dart, and F-4 Phantom II fighters. The F-101 was the oldest and was possessed by three Air National Guard units, plus the Air Defense Weapons Center at Tyndall AFB. The F-101s at Tyndall were used mainly as simulated target aircraft employing electronic counter measures (ECM) and for towing targets for testing and training. Due to its age and problems in supporting the F-101, it was soon deleted from the inventory. By the fall of 1982, all F-101s, including those at Tyndall, had been retired; and, except for those at Tyndall, had been replaced by the F-4 Phantom II. The F-4 and F-106 remained in the interceptor inventory. The F-4 was possessed by Air National Guard squadrons and the 57th Fighter Interceptor Squadron in Iceland. The F-106 was possessed by Air Force and Air Guard squadrons. Modification of the F-106 through the years had improved its fire control system in an attempt to keep it up-to-date, but did not update its armament except for the addition of a gun. TAC planned the eventual conversion of all the Air Force F-106 squadrons to the F-15 Eagle and F-4 units to the F-16 Fighting Falcon Air Defense Fighter (ADF) variant. The two squadrons of EB-57 Canberra aircraft transferred to ADTAC were retired from the inventory by 1983. These aircraft were previously used for target training missions and electronic countermeasure training.
Both active-duty and Air National Guard squadrons under state control were administratively assigned to TAC though their state ANG control for the air defense mission. On 9 December 1985 these ADTAC Air Division units were placed under the newly activated First Air Force at Langley AFB, VA, which later moved to Tyndall AFB, FL in 1991. This arrangement remained in effect until the last F-106 was retired by the 177th FIG of the New Jersey Air National Guard and all Regular Air Force and ANG F-101 and F-106 units had transitioned to either the F-4, the F-15 or the F-16.
The Air Defense Weapons Center at Tyndall AFB, Florida was reorganized and a new organization was activated, the 325th Fighter Weapons Wing (FWW). The 325th FWW, through its subordinate units, conducted an extensive training program for air defense aircrews and weapons controllers; the USAF Interceptor Weapons School (IWS) trained instructors in all phases of interceptor weapons systems and employment. F-106 training was conducted by the 2d Fighter Interceptor Training Squadron (FITS). This unit was re-designated the 2d Fighter Weapons Squadron (FWS) on 1 February 1982. The 2nd FWS's mission continued to be F-106 training with plans to convert to the F-15 Eagle starting in the fall of 1983. All continental USAF sub-scale and full-scale drone aerial target operations were consolidated in the 82d Tactical Aerial Targets Squadron (TATS). The Weapons Center's drone facilities, proximity to the Gulf of Mexico air-to-air gunnery ranges, and experienced personnel, made it compatible with many of TAC's training programs.
Transfer to Air National Guard
The 20th and 21st Air Divisions were inactivated on 1 March and 23 September 1983 and their assets merged into other Air Divisions. On 6 December 1985 First Air Force was re-activated by TAC and assumed the assets of ADTAC, which was inactivated.
Air Forces Iceland was transferred to First Air Force on 6 December 1985
Table of Organization
see: Distant Early Warning Line for information on the DEW chain of early warning radar stations in Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Iceland.
Headquarters, Air Defense, Tactical Air Command
Langley AFB, Virginia
20th Air Division/NORAD Region
Fort Lee AFS, Virginia
Interceptor Squadrons:
48th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron (Inactivated 1991), Langley AFB, VA
119th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, NJ ANG, Atlantic City, NJ
159th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, FL ANG, Jacksonville, FL
Radar Squadrons:
660th Radar Squadron (Inactivated 1980), MacDill AFB, FL
671st Radar Squadron (Inactivated 1980), NAS Key West, FL
679th Radar Squadron (Inactivated 1981), NAS Jacksonville, FL
701st Radar Squadron (Inactivated 1988), Fort Fisher AFS, NC
770th Radar Squadron (Inactivated 1980), Fort George G. Meade, MD
771st Radar Squadron (Inactivated 1981), Cape Charles AFS, VA
792d Radar Squadron (Inactivated 1980), North Charleston AFS, SC
21st Air Division/NORAD Region
Hancock Field, Syracuse, New York
Interceptor Squadrons:
49th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron (Inactivated 1987), Griffiss AFB, NY
101st Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, MA ANG, Otis AFB, MA
134th Defense Systems Evaluation Squadron, VT ANG, Burlington, VT
136th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, NY ANG, Niagara Falls, NY
Radar Squadrons:
655th Radar Squadron (Inactivated 1979), Watertown AFS, NY
762d Radar Squadron (Inactivated 1984), North Truo AFS, MA
766th Radar Squadron (Inactivated 1980), Carswell AFS, ME
772d Radar Squadron (Inactivated 1984), Gibbsboro AFS, NJ
773d Radar Squadron (Inactivated 1981), Montauk AFS, NY
23d Air Division/NORAD Region
Duluth International Airport, Minnesota
Interceptor Squadrons:
87th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron (Inactivated 1985), K.I. Sawyer AFB, MI
171st Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, MI ANG, Selfridge AFB, MI
Radar Squadrons:
665th Radar Squadron (Inactivated 1988), Calumet AFS, MI
753d Radar Squadron (Inactivated 1979), Sault Sainte Marie AFS, MI
754th Radar Squadron (Inactivated 1988), Port Austin AFS, MI
756th Radar Squadron (Inactivated 1980), Finland AFS, MN
24th Air Division/NORAD Region
Malmstrom AFB, Montana
Interceptor Squadrons:
5th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron (Inactivated 1988), Minot AFB, ND
17th Defense Systems Evaluation Squadron (Inactivated 1979), Malmstrom AFB
178th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, ND ANG, Fargo, ND
186th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, MT ANG, Great Falls, MT
Radar Squadrons:
780th Air Defense Group (Inactivated 1984), Fortuna AFS, ND
785th Radar Squadron (Inactivated 1980), Finley AFS, ND
25th Air Division/NORAD Region
McChord AFB, Washington
Interceptor Squadrons:
318th Fighter Interceptor Squadron (Inactivated 1989), McChord AFB, WA
123d Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, OR ANG, Portland, OR
Radar Squadrons:
758th Radar Squadron (Inactivated 1988), Makah AFS, WA
761st Radar Squadron (Inactivated 1980), North Bend AFS, OR
777th Radar Squadron (Inactivated 1981), Klamath AFS, OR
26th Air Division/NORAD Region
Luke AFB, Arizona
Interceptor Squadrons:
84th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron (Inactivated 1981), Castle AFB, CA
111th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, TX ANG, Ellington AFB, TX
194th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, CA ANG, Fresno, CA
Radar Squadrons:
682d Radar Squadron (Inactivated 1980), Almaden AFS, CA
666th Radar Squadron (Inactivated 1980), Mill Valley AFS, CA
751st Radar Squadron (Inactivated 1981), Mount Laguna AFS, CA
775th Radar Squadron (Inactivated 1980), Cambria AFS, CA
776th Radar Squadron (Inactivated 1980), Port Arena AFS, CA
Air Defense Weapons Center
USAF Interceptor Weapon School
Tyndall AFB, Florida
Air Forces Iceland
NAS Keflavik, Iceland
57th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron
667th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron (Inactivated 1988), Hofn AS
932d Air Control Squadron, Rockville AS
References
Combat Squadrons of the Air Force: World War II. Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Office of Air Force History, 1982.
Cornett, Lloyd H. and Johnson, Mildred W., A Handbook of Aerospace Defense Organization 1946 – 1980, Office of History, Aerospace Defense Center, Peterson AFB, CO (1980).
Rogers, B. (2006). United States Air Force Unit Designations Since 1978.
Numbered air forces of the United States Air Force
Air defense units and formations of the United States
Military units and formations established in 1979
Military units and formations disestablished in 1985
|
55373979
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018%20in%20the%20United%20States
|
2018 in the United States
|
This is a list of events in the year 2018 in the United States.
Incumbents
Federal government
President: Donald Trump (R-New York)
Vice President: Mike Pence (R-Indiana)
Chief Justice: John Roberts (New York)
Speaker of the House of Representatives: Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin)
Senate Majority Leader: Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky)
Congress: 115th
Events
January
January 1
The 2018 North American cold wave takes place, with record low temperatures in the Midwestern and Eastern United States. Times Square in New York City has a temperature of 9 degrees Fahrenheit, with −4 degrees Fahrenheit wind chill, in addition to Omaha having a temperature of −15 degrees Fahrenheit (−26 degrees Celsius) on December 30, 2017, lower than the previous record set in 1884.
Retail sale of marijuana begins in California, the largest U.S. state to allow the sale of marijuana for recreational use.
January 3 – President Donald Trump boasts on Twitter that his nuclear button is "much bigger" and "more powerful" than North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's.
January 6 – The 2017–18 United States flu season causes dozens of deaths.
January 8 – The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reports that 2017 was the costliest year on record for climate and weather-related disasters in the United States.
January 9– The 2018 Southern California landslides occur, killing at least 13 people, and injuring 25. The main damage occurs in Montecito, California, which was nearly burned by the Thomas Fire a month prior.
January 10– The city council of Washington, D.C., renames the street outside Russia's embassy after Boris Nemtsov, an opposition politician and critic of Vladimir Putin who was shot dead outside the Kremlin.
January 11 – During a meeting with lawmakers about immigration, President Trump is reported to have asked, "Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?" His remarks are condemned as "racist" and "shocking" by a UN spokesman. (comp. Donald Trump racial views) The government of Botswana demands a clarification, and Ambassador Earl R. Miller is asked if the USDS regards Botswana as a "shithole" country. The event is termed by many media outlets "Shitholegate".
January 12 – A Baltimore woman who was a patient at the University of Maryland Medical Center is taken outside and left by hospital employees in freezing temperatures wearing nothing but her hospital gown and socks. She is stranded until bystander Imanu Baraka calls 911.
January 13 – The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency sends a false alarm warning of an incoming ballistic missile attack, causing widespread panic across the state.
January 15 – Police in California arrest a couple, 57-year-old computer engineer at Northrop Grumman David Allen Turpin and his wife, 49-year-old Louise Anna Turpin, who allegedly held their 13 children captive, some chained to beds in the dark.
January 16
Democrat Patty Schachtner wins the special election for Wisconsin's 10th Senate District, the same district President Trump won by 17 points.
A meteor is reported near Michigan that causes a magnitude 2.0 earthquake.
January 18 – Scotland Yard reveals that U.S. actor Kevin Spacey is being investigated over a third accusation of sexual assault in the UK, from 2005.
January 20 – Senate Democrats block a bill that would have kept the government running until mid-February and the government shutdown of January 2018 begins and Naomi Parker Fraley dies to do cancer.
January 22
Amazon opens the first Amazon Go store to the public, the first completely cashier-less grocery store, located in Seattle.
Minnie Mouse receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in recognition of her 90th anniversary.
January 23 – A tsunami alert is triggered after an 8.0-magnitude earthquake is recorded off the southern Alaskan coast.
January 24
Disgraced Olympic gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar receives a prison sentence of up to 175 years after testimony from nearly 160 of his victims.
President Trump attends the World Economic Forum at Davos in Switzerland.
January 30 – President Trump gives his first State of the Union Address. 75 percent of State of the Union viewers approved of Trump's address.
February
February 2 – President Trump approves the release of a controversial Republican memo accusing the FBI of abusing its powers during the inquiry into alleged Russian meddling of US elections.
February 4 – The Philadelphia Eagles win their first Super Bowl in franchise history by defeating the New England Patriots, 41–33, in Super Bowl LII, ending a 57-year championship drought.
February 5 – The Dow Jones share index closes down 4.6%, its biggest drop since the 2008 financial crisis.
February 6 – SpaceX successfully launches its Falcon Heavy rocket from LC39A at John F. Kennedy Space Center.
February 9–25 – The United States compete at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea and win 9 gold, 8 silver, and 6 bronze medals.
February 14 – A mass shooting occurs at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, resulting in 17 passings. It is the deadliest high school shooting in the United States, surpassing the 1999 Columbine High School massacre.
February 15 – Pearl Fernandez pleads guilty to the murder of her son Gabriel Fernandez, an eight-year old tortured and killed in California. Her boyfriend Isauro Aguirre is also later convicted of murder in relation to the case.
February 16
Special Counsel Robert Mueller announces that 13 Russians have been charged with interfering in the 2016 Presidential election.
Black Panther, directed by Ryan Coogler, is released by Marvel Studios as the 18th film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). It becomes the second-highest-grossing film of 2018 and the ninth highest-grossing film of all time at that point (now the thirteenth), earning $1.347 billion during its run.
February 18 – In Stock Car racing, Austin Dillon wins the 60th running of the Daytona 500. Darrell Wallace Jr. finishes 2nd highest finish for an African-American in the Daytona 500.
February 22 – Teachers and other education personnel in West Virginia go on the first ever statewide strike in state history.
February 23
President Trump announces a plan for the largest ever package of sanctions against North Korea, aimed at cutting off revenue for its nuclear program.
President Trump's former deputy campaign manager, Rick Gates, admits charges of conspiracy and lying to investigators in a plea deal.
February 24 – Paul Manafort is indicted with five federal criminal charges including money laundering and foreign lobbying violations.
February 25 – In the wake of concerns about gun control, a number of major companies announce they are severing ties with the National Rifle Association (NRA) – including Alamo, Allied Van Lines, Avis Rent a Car, Budget Rent a Car, Delta, Enterprise, First National Bank of Omaha, Hertz, Met Life, National, SimpliSafe, Symantec, Teladoc, and United.
March
March 1 – President Trump announces tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminium imports.
March 2 – A huge windstorm strikes Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., closing bridges and schools and causing thousands of power outages.
March 4 – The 90th Academy Awards, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, are held at Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, with Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water winning four awards out of 13 nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell respectively win Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Gary Oldman wins Best Actor for Darkest Hour and Allison Janney wins Best Supporting Actress for I, Tonya. The telecast garners 26.5 million viewers, at that point the least-watched televised ceremony in Oscar history.
March 5 – Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine sues agricultural giant Monsanto, alleging the company concealed dangers posed by a toxic chemical compound it manufactured for nearly a half century.
March 6 – Gary Cohn, a top economic adviser to President Trump, resigns his position.
March 7
Stormy Daniels, an adult film actress who alleges she had an affair with President Trump, files a lawsuit against him alleging that a nondisclosure contract she signed is invalid.
Florida passes a law by 67–50 votes to raise the age to buy a gun from 18 to 21 after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.
March 9
President Trump accepts an invite from Kim Jong-un through South Korean officials for a meeting by May.
Former drug firm executive Martin Shkreli is sentenced to seven years in federal prison for defrauding investors.
March 13 – Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is fired (effective March 31) by President Trump. CIA Director Mike Pompeo is nominated to replace him.
March 14
Democrat Conor Lamb wins the 2018 special Congressional election in Pennsylvania's 18th congressional district, previously considered a safe seat for Republicans.
The Senate passes, by 67 to 31, a bill to reform the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, a set of post-financial crisis rules.
President Trump appoints Larry Kudlow to be Director of the National Economic Council, succeeding Gary Cohn.
March 15 – A pedestrian bridge collapses at Florida International University, resulting in 6 fatalities.
March 16
Former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe is dismissed for "lack of candor" days before he was due to retire with pension rights. McCabe denies the claims and insists he was targeted because of his involvement in the Russia inquiry.
Facebook suspends Cambridge Analytica, a data firm accused of mishandling Facebook user profiles.
March 19
Uber suspends all of its self-driving cars worldwide after a woman is killed by one of the vehicles in Tempe, Arizona.
British TV station, Channel 4, airs a documentary about Cambridge Analytica, the data analysis company that worked for Donald Trump's presidential campaign. Undercover reporters, talking to executives from the firm, discover the use of bribes, honey traps, fake news campaigns and operations with ex-spies to swing election campaigns around the world.
California residents are ordered to evacuate ahead of a storm described as an "atmospheric river".
March 20 – Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg receives a formal request from the British government to answer questions regarding Cambridge Analytica and the "catastrophic failure of process" behind the data breach.
March 21 – It is reported that the Opioid epidemic may be worse than previously thought due to omissions on death certificates.
March 22
President Trump announces tariffs on up to $60bn in Chinese goods and plans to limit the country's investment in the US. The Dow Jones falls sharply in response.
President Trump replaces his National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster with former United Nations ambassador John Bolton.
March 24 - The anti-gun violence rally March For Our Lives, led by survivors of the Parkland shooting, are held in more than 900 cities nation and worldwide and included families, parents and children, students and teachers, politicians, war veterans, the developmentally disabled, celebrities and survivors of mass shootings that occurred at schools and other public places. Described as one of the most advocative marches since the Vietnam War, the rally's main goal was to push for new bigger and higher restriction on guns around the world while also honoring people who lost their lives to weapon violence.
March 25 – Advocates warn that Congress needs to devote more money to address the growing opioid epidemic.
March 26
Six children are killed by their adoptive mothers, Jennifer and Sarah Hart, when their SUV intentionally drives over a California cliff in a mass murder-suicide. Both perpetrators were known to have abused their six children before the crash.
President Trump orders the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats following the ex-spy poisoning case in the UK.
March 28 – At least 12 states are reported to be suing the Trump administration over inclusion of a citizenship question on the 2020 census.
March 29
Russia announces it will expel 60 US diplomats and close the US Consulate in St. Petersburg in retaliation for the US expelling 60 Russian diplomats.
President Trump nominates Ronny Jackson, current physician to the President, to replace Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin.
Mark Zuckerberg disavows a 2016 memo on Facebook's expansion plans, saying in a statement that Andrew Bosworth "is a talented leader who says many provocative things. This was one that most people at Facebook including myself disagreed with strongly. We've never believed the ends justify the means."
April
April 3 – Three people suffer gunshot wounds when a female shooter, Nasim Najafi Aghdam, attacks the YouTube headquarters in California, before killing herself.
April 4
China announces 25% tariffs on 106 US Products, including cars and soybeans.
Thousands of people gather in Memphis, Tennessee, to mark the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
April 6 – The Trump administration imposes sanctions on seven Russian oligarchs and 17 senior government officials, accusing them of "malign activity around the globe".
April 9 – The FBI raids the home, office and hotel room of President Trump's long-time lawyer, Michael Cohen, pursuant to a federal search warrant.
April 10 – Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is questioned in a joint session of several US senate committees, after the revelation that 87 million people had their private information accessed by Cambridge Analytica.
April 11 – House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan announces that he will not run for re-election in November.
April 13 – President Trump orders targeted strikes in Syria to retaliate for a suspected chemical weapons attack.
April 17 – Southwest Airlines Flight 1380, a Boeing 737-700 suffers an engine failure at cruise altitude, debris enters the fuselage causing substantial damage to the aircraft and loss of cabin pressure and diverts at Philadelphia International Airport. One passenger dies and seven are injured.
April 18 – Coffee chain Starbucks is the subject of racism accusations when two black men are arrested at its Philadelphia store when asked to used a restroom reserved for paying customers.
April 19 – Jim Bridenstine is confirmed as the next NASA administrator.
April 20 – Smallville actress Allison Mack appears in court on charges of sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy and forced labor conspiracy.
April 22 – Four people are killed at a Waffle House restaurant in Nashville, Tennessee, when a naked gunman shoots them with a semi-automatic rifle before fleeing on foot. The gunman is captured the next day after a manhunt and James Shaw Jr. propelled to national fame as a hero after disarming the armed aggressor and saving others in the restaurant.
April 23 – French President Emmanuel Macron arrives in the U.S. for a three-day visit, during which he meets President Trump and makes a speech to Congress.
April 24 – Joseph James DeAngelo, a suspect in the Golden State Killer case, is apprehended after law enforcement matched his DNA to the serial rapist and murder.
April 26
TV star Bill Cosby is found guilty of three counts of aggravated indecent assault.
CIA Director Mike Pompeo is confirmed as Secretary of State by the Senate.
Veteran TV anchor Tom Brokaw is accused of sexual harassment by a former NBC News anchor.
April 27 – Avengers: Infinity War, directed by the Russo brothers, is released by Marvel Studios as the 19th film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and the sequel to 2012's The Avengers and 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron. It becomes the highest-grossing film of 2018 and the fourth-highest-grossing film of all time at that point (now the fifth), earning $2.048 billion as the fourth film to cross $2 billion. The film is also one of the most expensive of all time (unadjusted for inflation).
May
May 1 – A study conducted by health services company Cigna reveals that American adults are experiencing a "loneliness epidemic" with nearly half of Americans reporting they sometimes or always feel alone (46 percent) or left out (47 percent).
May 2
The state of Iowa approves the so-called "heartbeat" bill, banning most abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected.
A C-130 military plane crash in Savannah, Georgia kills nine people.
Following a series of small earthquakes, the USGS warns that the Kīlauea volcano in Hawaii could erupt. Two days later it erupts, there are stronger earthquakes and Hawaii declares a state of emergency, evacuating 1,700 residents.
May 4
The national unemployment rate hits 3.9 percent, the lowest rate since 2000.
The Trump administration announces an end to the special Temporary Protected Status program for 57,000 Hondurans.
May 5
NASA's InSight spacecraft, designed to study the interior and subsurface of Mars, successfully launches at 11:05 UTC, with an expected arrival on November 26, 2018.
The state of California becomes the world's fifth-largest economy, with the state's GDP surpassing that of the United Kingdom's.
In horse racing, pre-race favorite Justify wins the 144th running of the Kentucky Derby, becoming the first horse since 1882 to win the race while unraced as a two-year-old. The race was run under the wettest conditions in its history; by post time, more than 2.8 inches (7.1 cm) of rain had fallen on race day, breaking a record that had lasted since 1918.
May 8
The Senate Intelligence Committee releases an unclassified version of its investigation into Russian cyberattacks in 2016, concluding: "Russian-affiliated cyber actors were able to gain access to restricted elements of election infrastructure. [...] In a small number of states, these cyber actors were in a position to, at a minimum, alter or delete voter registration data; however, they did not appear to be in a position to manipulate individual votes or aggregate vote totals."
New York's attorney general Eric Schneiderman resigns over multiple allegations of assault.
President Trump announces his intention to withdraw the United States from the Iranian nuclear agreement. In a statement, former U.S. President Barack Obama calls the move "a serious mistake".
The National Centers for Environmental Information reports that April 2018 was the coldest month in the U.S. since 1997.
May 9 – The California Energy Commission introduces its 2019 Building Energy Efficiency Standards, requiring all new homes to be fitted with solar power from 2020. It is the first state in the US to enact such a law.
May 10
At around 2 a.m. local, President Trump ceremoniously greets three freed Korean-Americans, who were detained by North Korea for more than a year for "anti-state activities", on Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.
NASA's Carbon Monitoring System (CMS) is cancelled by the Trump administration.
May 11 – U.S. fighter jets intercept two Russian TU-95 bombers in Alaskan airspace.
May 16 – President Trump meets with Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
May 17 – The Kīlauea shield volcano on the Big Island of the state of Hawaii erupts from its summit, shooting ash into the sky.
May 18 – A school shooting takes place at Santa Fe High School in Texas. Eight students and two teachers are killed and ten other people are injured.
May 20 – U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin states that the Trump administration will put its proposed tariffs on Chinese imports "on hold", averting fears of a trade war between the two countries.
May 21 – The Supreme Court, in a 5–4 ruling, upholds a law preventing employees from filing class action lawsuits against their employers over pay and hour disputes.
May 23 – It is reported that Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, received a secret payment of at least $400,000 to fix talks between the Ukrainian president and President Trump.
May 24 – Actor Morgan Freeman is accused of sexual harassment by eight women.
May 25 – Harvey Weinstein is charged with rape and several other counts of sexual abuse involving two separate women after turning himself in to police in New York City.
A school shooting occurs at Noblesville West Middle School shooting in Noblesville, Indiana. A thirteen-year-old boy opens fire and injures a male teacher and a female student, who amazingly survive. The teacher, Jason Seaman, is praised for saving many others after tackling the armed aggressor and the girl, Ella Whistler, amazingly survives after being shot five times.
May 28 – The Center for the Study of the Drone at New York's Bard College estimates that just over 900 law enforcement agencies, fire departments, and emergency services across the country are now using drones, no longer seen as a novelty by officials.
May 29
ABC TV cancels comedian Roseanne Barr's show after she tweets a racist comment, likening Valerie Jarrett to an ape.
Missouri Governor Eric Greitens announces his resignation (effective June 1) amid a sex scandal.
Starbucks temporarily closes its stores for one day to undergo racial sensitivity training following an incident in April in which two black men were arrested in its Philadelphia store.
May 30
By a majority of 23–12, the California State Senate votes to approve a bill that would reinstate the net neutrality regulations repealed by the Federal Communications Commission in December.
The FDA approves the first artificial iris.
May 31 – The Trump administration announces that it will extend its tariffs on imported steel (25%) and aluminium (10%) to include the EU, Mexico and Canada, starting at midnight.
June
June 4 – In a 7–2 decision (Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission), the Supreme Court rules in favor of a Colorado baker who, citing the First Amendment's protection of religion, refused to create a customized wedding cake for a homosexual couple.
June 6 – Thousands of people gather at Arlington National Cemetery to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. Key speakers included Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Congressmen John Lewis and Fred Upton, President Bill Clinton, Senator Ed Markey, nonprofit leader B.J. Stiles, gun control advocate X González, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, labor leader Dolores Huerta, a rendition of "This Land Is Your Land" by Kenny Chesney and finally, members of The Kennedy Family Tree: Congressman Joe Kennedy III and daughter Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.
June 7 – The Washington Capitals defeat the Vegas Golden Knights in game five of the 2018 Stanley Cup Finals to give the Capitals their first Stanley Cup in franchise history and the first championship for the city of D.C. since the Redskins won Super Bowl XXVI. Capitals left-winger Alex Ovechkin is the series MVP.
June 8
The U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory unveils Summit as the world's most powerful supercomputer, with a peak performance of 200,000 trillion calculations per second, or 200 petaflops.
Celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain and fashion designer Kate Spade both die of suicide, leading to growing concerns of alarming public health that can lead to people living with breakdowns and mental health before asking others if can have any intention on taking their own lives.
The Golden State Warriors defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers, four games to none, to win the NBA Championship.
June 8–9 At the G7 summit in Canada, President Trump pushes for the reinstatement of the G8 (to include Russia). He also proposes the elimination of tariffs.
June 11–12 – In a historic first, President Trump meets with Supreme Leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, in Singapore.
June 14 – The Sand Blaster roller coaster on the Daytona Beach boardwalk derails. Six people are taken to hospital, with two suffering traumatic injuries.
June 15
A judge cancels Paul Manafort's bail and orders that he be jailed for alleged witness tampering.
Pixar Animation Studios' 20th feature film, Incredibles 2, the sequel to 2004's The Incredibles, is released in theaters. It is currently Pixar's biggest financial success, grossing over $1.242 billion worldwide.
June 17 – A shooting at an all-night arts festival in Trenton, New Jersey, leaves one person dead and seventeen people injured.
June 18
70 former U.S. Attorneys deliver a letter to Jeff Sessions, urging that he end his "dangerous, expensive, zero tolerance" migrant policy, which separates children at the border, calling it "inconsistent with the values of the institution in which we served."
Rapper XXXTentaction is shot and killed in Deerfield Beach, FL on the same day fellow rapper Jimmy Wopo is also shot and killed in his hometown of Pittsburgh.
Big City Greens debuts on Disney Channel.
June 19
The United States announces that it will withdraw from the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Koko, a western Lowland gorilla largely known for having learned to communicate in American Sign Language, dies in her sleep in California.
Antwon Rose Jr. a 17-year-old African-American man is shot and killed by white Pittsburgh police officer Michael Rosfeld.
June 22- Jahi McMath who was declared brain-dead following a tonsillectomy in 2013 dies in Oakland, California.
June 25
Motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson announces that it will shift some production outside the U.S. as a result of retaliatory tariffs introduced by the European Union.
Epidiolex, for the treatment of epilepsy, becomes the first drug derived from marijuana to win federal approval.
June 26 – The Supreme Court upholds President Trump's travel ban in a 5–4 decision.
June 27
In a landmark 5–4 decision that overturns Abood v. Detroit Board of Education (1977), the Supreme Court rules in Janus v. AFSCME that it is a violation of the First Amendment for public-sector unions to compel non-members to pay fair-share representation fees.
Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy announces that he will retire from the United States Supreme Court on July 31, prompting Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to vow that Kennedy's successor will be confirmed by the fall.
June 28
The 2018 North American heat wave begins.
575 women protesting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement are arrested during a demonstration outside the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C.
Five people are killed in a mass shooting in the newsroom of The Capital newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland.
Mass arrests of Occupy ICE demonstrators are made by Homeland Security agents at an ICE facility in Portland Oregon.
June 30 – Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrate across all 50 U.S. states against family separations carried out by the United States.
July
July 5 – Scott Pruitt resigns as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, effective July 6. He is replaced by Andrew Wheeler.
July 6
U.S. tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese goods come into effect, as President Trump suggests the final total could reach $550bn. China accuses the U.S. of starting the "largest trade war in economic history" and announces immediate retaliatory tariffs.
Ant-Man and the Wasp, directed by Peyton Reed, is released by Marvel Studios as the 20th film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and the sequel to 2015's Ant-Man.
July 9 – President Trump nominates Brett Kavanaugh, a circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, to become an Associate Justice for the Supreme Court of the United States.
July 11 – President Trump attends the NATO Summit in Brussels.
July 12 – President Trump arrives in the UK. The four-day visit includes talks with Theresa May, tea with the Queen and a trip to Scotland. There are mass protests in London, featuring a 'Trump baby' blimp flown over Westminster.
July 13 – Special counsel Mueller charges 12 Russian intelligence officers with hacking during the 2016 election.
July 16 – President Trump meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin for private talks in the Finnish capital Helsinki. In a press conference afterwards, Trump praises Russia and Putin, drawing sharp criticism from both Republicans and Democrats alike. Senator John McCain describes it as "one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory."
July 18 – In an interview with CBS News, President Trump says he holds Putin personally responsible for interference in the 2016 US election; a sharp contrast to his earlier comments in Helsinki.
July 19
The Trump administration proposes limiting habitat protections for endangered species.
17 people die after an amphibious "duck boat" capsizes while carrying 31 tourists on Table Rock Lake, Missouri.
President Trump invites Vladimir Putin to visit America.
July 20 – The New York Times reports that President Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen secretly recorded his client discussing payments to Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who says she had an affair with Trump.
July 26
Tesfaye Cooper is convicted of hate crime and aggravated kidnapping charges in Illinois and sentenced to seven years in prison for his role in the 2017 Chicago torture incident. He is the fourth and final member of an African-American group to be convicted in relation to the kidnapping of a mentally disabled white man in Chicago who livestreamed their torture of him on Facebook, shouting "F*** Trump" and "F*** white people" while doing so.
The share price of Facebook drops by almost 20 percent after the company warns investors that user growth has slowed following the Cambridge Analytica data leak scandal. More than $109bn is wiped from its market value, the biggest stock market loss in corporate history, which includes a $14.5bn personal loss for founder Mark Zuckerberg.
Michael Avenatti, the attorney for porn star Stormy Daniels, claims he is representing three other women who were allegedly paid by Donald Trump, AMI and Michael Cohen to keep quiet.
July 28 – John Delaney announces his candidacy for U.S. president in 2020.
July 29 – Wildfires in northern California continue to rage across vast swathes of land, destroying hundreds of structures and causing several deaths.
August
August 1 – President Trump calls for the Russia investigation to end "right now", urging Attorney General Jeff Sessions to halt the inquiry into alleged election meddling, while accusing special counsel Robert Mueller of being "totally conflicted".
August 2
The U.S. Department of Commerce proceeds with applying revised tariffs on Canadian newsprint.
Apple, Inc. becomes the first public company to achieve a market capitalization of $1 trillion, as its share price exceeds a new record high above $207.
August 5 – President Trump admits that his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., attended a meeting at Trump Tower during the 2016 election campaign "to get information on an opponent," but insists it was "totally legal and done all the time in politics – and it went nowhere. I did not know about it!"
August 6 – The ongoing wildfires in California are officially declared as the largest in the state's history.
August 7
The U.S. reimposes sanctions on Iran.
Harvard University has four Black women faculty deans for the first time in history: Michelle Ann Williams (School of Public Health), Tomiko Brown-Nagin (Radcliffe Institute for Advance Study), Bridget Terry Long (Graduate School of Education), and Claudine Gay (Faculty of Arts and Sciences).
August 8 – Missouri voters vote against the right-to-work law by 67% to 33%.
August 10
In a landmark case, Monsanto is ordered to pay $289m to 46-year-old Dewayne Johnson, after a jury rules that the company's Roundup weedkiller caused his terminal cancer and that the corporation failed to warn him of the health hazards.
A Horizon Air Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 is stolen from Seattle–Tacoma International Airport with no passengers on board, prompting F15 fighter jets to scramble and intercept. After being contacted by Seattle/Tacoma air traffic control, the plane crashes near Ketron Island in Pierce County, Washington, killing the 29-year-old male pilot.
The Democratic National Committee reverses its ban on accepting donations from the fossil fuel industry.
August 12
NASA launches the Parker Solar Probe to study the Sun at close range and the solar wind.
The Unite the Right 2 rally is held at Lafayette Square near the White House in Washington, D.C.. Organized by Jason Kessler to mark the anniversary of the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which ended in violence, the rally attracts some 20 to 30 of Kessler's supporters and thousands of counter-demonstrators amid a heavy police presence.
August 14 – Nebraska executes Carey Dean Moore, who was convicted of murder, in the state's first execution for 21 years and the first by lethal injection.
August 15 – Former CIA Director John O. Brennan, an outspoken critic of Trump, has his security clearance revoked by the President. The move is criticized as political retribution for Brennan's comments.
August 19 – The Last Sharknado: It's About Time airs for the first time on Syfy.
August 16
"The Queen of Soul" Aretha Franklin dies from pancreatic cancer at age 76 in her Detroit home.
August 21
Police in Iowa announce they have found a body in Poweshiek County during their investigation into the Disappearance of Mollie Tibbetts. They were led to the site by suspect Cristhian Bahena Rivera, an undocumented immigrant.
Michael Cohen, who worked as a lawyer for Donald Trump from 2006 until May 2018, pleads guilty to eight charges: five counts of tax evasion, one count of making false statements to a financial institution, one count of willfully causing an unlawful corporate contribution, and one count of making an excessive campaign contribution at the request of a candidate or campaign.
Paul Manafort, the former election campaign chairman for Trump, is convicted on eight out of eighteen charges of tax and bank fraud.
August 22 – Mark Chapman, the man who shot and killed former Beatle John Lennon in 1980, is denied parole for the tenth time.
August 23 – Intelligence specialist Reality Winner is sentenced to five years and three months in prison as part of a plea deal after pleading guilty to felony transmission of national defense information.
August 25 – Arizona Senator John McCain dies at his home in Cornville, Arizona from glioblastoma, a rare aggressive form of brain cancer he had been battling for the past thirteen months at the time, four days before his 82nd birthday.
August 26 – A mass shooting occurs during a Madden NFL 19 tournament at the Jacksonville Landing in Jacksonville, Florida, resulting in three fatalities including the perpetrator.
August 28
California approves S.B. 100, a proposal to transition the state to 100% emissions-free electricity sources by 2045.
Shayna Hubers is convicted of the 2012 murder of her boyfriend Ryan Poston for a second time. Her previous conviction in relation to his fatal shooting had previously been overturned due to a member of the jury being ineligible.
September
September 5
In an editorial in The New York Times, an unnamed senior Trump official writes that members of the administration are working to frustrate parts of the President's agenda to protect the country from his "worst inclinations". Trump responds by calling the anonymous writer "gutless" and the newspaper "phony".
Hurricane Florence becomes the first major hurricane of the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season.
September 8 – The Cortlandt Street subway station reopens in Lower Manhattan, 17 years after it was destroyed by the 9/11 attacks.
September 14 – Hurricane Florence makes landfall in North Carolina, with evacuation warnings in place for more than a million people.
September 15 – NASA launches ICESat-2, the agency's most technologically advanced ice-monitoring spacecraft to date.
September 16 – Christine Blasey Ford alleges that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in the early 1980s.
For only the fourth time in its 72-year history Chick-fil-A opens breaks its longstanding tradition and opens its doors on a Sunday to provide food for the victims of Hurricane Florence that struck North Carolina. The restaurant chain is typically closed on Sundays because of the owner's religious beliefs but makes a rare exception in an emergency situation
September 22 – Christine Blasey Ford agrees to testify against Brett Kavanaugh the following week.
September 23 – A second woman comes forward with sexual misconduct claims against Brett Kavanaugh.
September 25 – TV star Bill Cosby, 81, is given a three to 10-year jail term for drugging and molesting a woman in 2004. Judge Steven O'Neill designates Cosby a "sexually violent predator", meaning he must undergo counselling for life and be listed on the sex offender registry.
September 26 – A third woman accuses Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct.
September 27
Christine Blasey Ford appears before a Senate Judiciary Committee to give evidence against Brett Kavanaugh.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) files a suit in New York alleging securities fraud by Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
October
October 2 – The Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi is murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, triggering a diplomatic crisis between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.
October 5 – A Star Is Born is theatrically released by Warner Bros. A remake of the 1934, 1957 and 1976 versions, it was a critical and commercial success, grossing over $436 million worldwide and receiving praise for the performances Bradley Cooper (who also directed), Lady Gaga and Sam Elliott as well as the screenplay, cinematography and music.
October 6
The Senate confirms Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination by a vote of 50–48, amid controversy over sexual assault claims against him.
Twenty people are killed in a crash involving a limousine transporting birthday party guests in Schoharie County, New York. It is the deadliest transport crash in the U.S. since Colgan Air Flight 3407, also in New York state, which claimed 50 lives in 2009.
October 9 – America's ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, a senior Trump cabinet member, resigns unexpectedly.
October 10 – Hurricane Michael approaches the Florida Panhandle, attaining peak wind speeds of 155 mph (250 km/h) and becoming the strongest hurricane to ever make landfall in that region.
October 17 – After 50 years of performing the characters Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch longtime Sesame Street puppeteer Caroll Spinney announces his retirement in 2015 Spinney's role was limited to voice only due to health problems.
October 20 – President Trump announces that the US will "terminate" the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty over alleged Russian violations.
October 24 – After a bomb was found at the home of George Soros in the suburbs of New York, suspected explosive devices are also sent to former US President Barack Obama and ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The latter devices are intercepted by technicians who screen mail sent to former US officials. The Time Warner building in New York (home to news broadcaster CNN) is also evacuated, after a package containing an explosive and suspicious powder is found addressed to former CIA Director John Brennan. Additional suspicious packages, addressed to Democratic Representative Maxine Waters and former Attorney General Eric Holder, are investigated by law enforcement.
October 25 – A suspicious package is found in Tribeca, New York City, addressed to actor Robert De Niro. Authorities also find two packages in Delaware, addressed to former Vice President Joe Biden.
October 26
Two more suspicious packages are found, addressed to New Jersey senator Cory Booker and the former director of national intelligence, James Clapper.
The perpetrator, Cesar Sayoc Jr., is captured in Plantation, Florida, in connection with the mail bombing attempts. He is questioned by FBI agents with the Joint Terrorism Task Force.
October 27 – A mass shooting occurs at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, leaving 11 congregants dead. A 46-year-old male suspect is arrested and charged on making anti-semitic chants.
The Cathedral of Learning which normally lights up following Pitt's football victories is darkened on this day out of respect to the 11 victims killed in this morning's shooting at Tree of Life Synagogue.
October 28 – The Boston Red Sox defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers, four games to one, to win their ninth World Series Championship.
October 29 – 800 U.S. soldiers are deployed to the Mexico–United States border as a part of Operation Faithful Patriot, reinforcing the border against incoming Central American migrant caravans.
October 30
NASA announces that its Kepler space telescope mission has ended, with the telescope having run out of fuel two weeks before, after nine-and-a-half years in space. The telescope discovered 2,681 exoplanets, with a further 2,900 candidates at the time of its retirement. The spacecraft also discovered that there are more planets than stars in our galaxy.
The Supreme Court of Hawaii approves the resumption of construction on Mauna Kea of one of the world's biggest telescopes, the Thirty Meter Telescope, costing $1.4 billion. Some native Hawaiians, regarding the mountain as sacred, opposed the construction since 2015.
Memorial services are held for the victims of the Tree of Life synagogue shooting that had occurred three days earlier among the attendees are members of the Pittsburgh Steelers who attend the service of Cecil and David Rosenthal sister of former community relations manager Michele Rosenthal. Steelers coach Mike Tomlin moves his press conference from noon to 1:00 so he can attend the service.
November
November 2 – Bohemian Rhapsody, a biographical film about Queen singer Freddie Mercury, is released in theaters nationwide. The film documents the true life and career of Mercury during the height of his career with Queen, including the band's memorable performance 1985 performance at Live Aid. The film received mixed reviews from critics and while the editing, singer's direction, the portrayal of Mercury's sexuality and the lives of the other band members were criticized, Rami Malek's performance and the music sequences received praise. It also contained a number of historical inaccuracies, becoming a major box office success, grossing over $905 million worldwide on a production budget of about $50 million, becoming the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2018 worldwide and setting the all-time box office records for the biopic and drama genres.
November 6
Mid-term elections: The Democrats gain 40 seats to take control of the House of Representatives, but lose two seats in the Senate.
Gubernatorial elections: The Democrats gain seven new seats.
Michigan becomes the tenth state to legalize recreational marijuana.
November 7
Attorney General Jeff Sessions tenders his resignation at President Trump's request.
12 people and the perpetrator are killed in a shooting at the Borderline Bar and Grill, in Thousand Oaks, California, about 40 miles (65 km) north-west of Los Angeles.
November 8
The White House shares apparently doctored footage posted by InfoWars, a conspiracy theory website, showing Jim Acosta making contact with a Trump aide, in a bid to justify its suspension of the CNN reporter's press pass.
Federal judge Brian Morris of the U.S. Court in Montana rules that the Keystone Pipeline cannot be built until a new Environmental impact assessment is completed. Four months later, on March 30, 2019, President Donald Trump issued a new permit.
November 8 – 25 – Major wildfires in California, including the Woolsey in southern California and Camp to the north, leave 91 dead and at least 1,000 missing, with more than 250,000 residents forced to flee. President Trump suggests that wildfires could be stopped by spending "a lot of time on raking and cleaning".
November 12 – Marvel Comics cowriter and CEO Stan Lee dies from a combination of organ failures and aspiration pneumonia, a month shy of his 96th birthday. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (which was released the following month) and both Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame (which had just finished wrapping up filming production at time and released respectively in March and April 2019) were all dedicated to his long lasting legacy.
November 16 – Green Book is released and documents the true life about African American classical and jazz pianist Don Shirley (played by Mahershala Ali) who travels the Deep South which was segregated at the time while Italian American bouncer Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen) served as his driver and bodyguard. The film received positive reviews from critics, with praise for the two lead stars performances, despite the fact that it also drew some criticism of its depiction of both race and Shirley.
November 21 – Walt Disney Animation Studios' 57th feature film, Ralph Breaks the Internet, the sequel to 2012's Wreck-It Ralph, is released in theaters to critical and commercial success on a similar level as its predecessor.
November 23 – Volume II of the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) is released.
November 26 – SpongeBob SquarePants creator Stephen Hillenburg dies at the age of 57 from ALS.
November 29 – President Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen pleads guilty to lying to Congress in relation to the Russia inquiry.
November 30
Former 41st President George H. W. Bush dies from Parkinson's disease at the age of 94 at his home in Houston, Texas. His passing was announced the next morning and at the time, he was both the nation's oldest and longest living president. (Jimmy Carter (who was born four months after Bush) held the record for being America's oldest living POTUS in March 2019.)
Anchorage is hit by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake.
December
December 11 – The Balangiga bells, which had been taken by the United States Army from Balangiga, Eastern Samar in 1901 as war trophies during the Philippine–American War, are returned to the Philippines after 117 years of U.S. possession.
December 12 – Michael Cohen, the ex-Trump lawyer who once said he'd "take a bullet" for the president, is given a 36-month jail term.
December 13 – In a rare rebuke to the White House, the Senate votes 56–41 to end US military assistance to Saudi Arabia's intervention in Yemen over alleged war crimes. It passes a separate resolution that holds Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman personally responsible for the death of Saudi dissident Jamal Kashoggi.
December 14
US District Judge Reed O'Connor rules that a key part of the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional.
Denise Williams is found guilty of the murder of her husband Jerry Michael Williams, who disappeared in December 2000 and was assumed to have accidentally drowned at Lake Seminole, Florida.
December 18 – The Donald J. Trump Foundation is shut down, amid allegations that President Trump and others illegally misused its funds.
December 20 – Defense Secretary Jim Mattis resigns, effective February 28, 2019, after failing to persuade Trump to reconsider his decision of the previous day to withdraw the remaining American troops from Syria.
December 21
The Dow Jones closes at 22,445.37 after its worst week since 2008.
Aquaman, directed by James Wan, is released as the sixth film in the DC Extended Universe, becoming currently the franchise's biggest financial success.
December 22
A partial shutdown of the government begins after Congress fails to agree a budget.
U.S. envoy Brett McGurk resigns over Trump's decision to pull troops from Syria.
December 24 – Actor Kevin Spacey is charged with sexually assaulting a teenager at a bar in Massachusetts in July 2016 and ordered to appear in court on January 7.
December 31 – Senator Elizabeth Warren announces her intention to run for president in the 2020 election.
Deaths
January
January 1
Robert Mann, violinist and composer (b. 1920)
Milton P. Rice, politician (b. 1920)
Jon Paul Steuer, actor and singer (b. 1984)
Betty Willis, soul singer (b. 1941)
January 2
Frank Buxton, actor, writer, author, and director (b. 1930)
Emily Dole, professional wrestler (b. 1957)
Rick Hall, record producer, songwriter, and music publisher (b. 1932)
Thomas S. Monson, religious leader and writer (b. 1927)
Betty Woodman, ceramic artist and sculptor (b. 1930)
January 3
Fred Bass, bookseller (Strand Bookstore) (b. 1928)
Heriberto Hermes, Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1933)
Rob Picciolo, baseball player and coach (b. 1953)
Alan Sagner, public servant and political fundraiser (b. 1920)
January 4
Dick Bestwick, football coach (b. 1930)
Brendan Byrne, politician (b. 1924)
Gerard Conley, politician (b. 1929)
Carmen Cozza, baseball and football player, and coach (b. 1930)
Bruce Halle, auto parts executive and philanthropist, founder of Discount Tire (b. 1930)
Jack N. Merritt, army general (b. 1930)
January 5
Robert Q. Crane, politician (b. 1926)
Carole Hart, television writer (b. 1943)
Norman Lamb, politician (b. 1935)
Jerry Van Dyke, actor (b. 1931)
John Young, astronaut (b. 1930)
January 6
Horace Ashenfelter, Olympic athlete (b. 1923)
Thomas Bopp, astronomer (b. 1949)
Rita Crocker Clements, political organizer (b. 1931)
Marjorie Holt, politician (b. 1920)
Bob Jenson, politician (b. 1931)
William R. Ojala, politician (b. 1925)
Jimmy Robinson, recording engineer (b. 1950)
Dave Toschi, police detective (Zodiac Killer) (b. 1931)
Frank Varrichione, football player (b. 1932)
January 7
Will Gay Bottje, composer (b. 1925)
Joe Ellis Brown, politician (b. 1933)
Tom Dowling, football coach (b. 1940)
Anna Mae Hays, military officer and nurse (b. 1920)
Tom Netherton, singer (b. 1947)
Dick Young, baseball player (b. 1927)
Doug Young, voice actor (b. 1919)
January 8
Bruce Cole, humanist (b. 1938)
Geoffrey G. Eichholz, German-born educational leader in health physics (b. 1920)
Frank Kreith, Austrian-born mechanical engineer (b. 1922)
Denise LaSalle, singer, songwriter, and record producer (b. 1939)
George Lindbeck, Lutheran theologian (b. 1923)
Kynaston McShine, curator (b. 1935)
James N. Morgan, economist (b. 1918)
Chuck Murphy, prelate (b. 1947)
Myron Rush, Kremlinologist (b. 1921)
Charles H. Turner, American attorney (b. 1935)
January 9
Terence Marsh, British production designer (b. 1931)
Joseph Wayne Miller, actor (b. 1981)
Milton J. Rosenberg, psychology professor and radio host (b. 1925)
January 10
Charles Davis, Olympic sports shooter (b. 1927)
John Sherrill Houser, artist (b. 1935)
William B. Keene, judge (b. 1925)
Katherine Kellgren, narrator and actress (b. 1969)
Tom Luken, politician (b. 1925)
Doreen Tracey, British-born American performer (b. 1943)
January 11
Doug Barnard Jr., politician (b. 1922)
Gene Cole, athlete (b. 1928)
Stephane Gauger, Vietnamese-born film director and screenwriter (b. 1969)
Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr., lawyer (b. 1929)
John W. Hennessey Jr, academic (b. 1925)
Edgar Ray Killen, Ku Klux Klan leader and convicted murderer (b. 1925)
January 12
Lisa Chedekel, journalist (b. 1960)
Frankie Muse Freeman, civil rights attorney (b. 1916)
Robert W. Hamilton, legal scholar (b. 1931)
Keith Jackson, sports commentator, journalist, author, and radio personality (b. 1928)
John V. Tunney, politician (b. 1934)
January 13
Jean Porter, actress (b. 1922)
Naomi Stevens, actress (b. 1925)
January 14
Barbara Cope, rock 'n' roll groupie (b. 1950)
Paul Lustig Dunkel, American flutist and conductor (b. 1943)
Dan Gurney, racing driver (b. 1931)
Bill Hughes, jazz trombonist (b. 1930)
Mario Martinez, weightlifter (b. 1957)
Samuel A. Schreiner Jr., writer (b. 1921)
Milton Shadur, federal judge (b. 1924)
Marlene VerPlanck, jazz singer (b. 1933)
Hugh Wilson, film director and television producer (b. 1943)
January 15
Romana Acosta Bañuelos, public servant (b. 1925)
Bob Barton, baseball player (b. 1941)
Anshel Brusilow, American violinist and conductor (b. 1928)
Edwin Hawkins, musician (b. 1943)
Dick King, American politician (b. 1934)
Mathilde Krim, Italian-born HIV/AIDS researcher (b. 1926)
William Scharf, artist (b. 1927)
Mike Shanahan, professional sports team owner (St. Louis Blues) (b. 1939)
Wilse B. Webb, psychologist and sleep researcher (b. 1920)
January 16
Bill Bain, management consultant (b. 1937)
George Bandy, politician (b. 1945)
Bradford Dillman, actor (b. 1930)
LaFayette Duckett, politician (b. 1918)
Kingdon Gould Jr., diplomat (b. 1923)
Tyler Hilinski, football player (b. 1996)
Julie Beth Lovins, computational linguist (b. 1945)
John Monteith, actor, writer and director (b. 1948)
Timothy J. O'Connor Jr., politician (b. 1936)
Thomas Newman O'Neill Jr., federal judge (b. 1928)
Harold Rosen, politician (b. 1925)
John Spellman, politician (b. 1926)
Jo Jo White, basketball player (b. 1946)
January 17
John M. Andrist, journalist and politician (b. 1931)
Landrum Bolling, political scientist and academic administrator (b. 1913)
Paul Booth, political activist (b. 1943)
Ed Moses, artist and painter (b. 1926)
Arno Motulsky, German-born geneticist (b. 1923)
Herbert Schmertz, public relations executive (b. 1930)
January 18
Julius Lester, civil rights activist, writer, musician, photographer, professor (b. 1939)
Edward C. Rochette, numismatist (b. 1927)
B. L. Shaw, educator and politician (b. 1933)
Anthony Allen Shore, serial killer and rapist (b. 1962)
Henry Soles Jr., chaplain and author (b. 1935)
Mae Tischer, politician (b. 1928)
Stansfield Turner, admiral and academic (b. 1923)
January 19
Harvey R. Blau, attorney and executive (b. 1935)
Lin Bolen, television executive and producer (b. 1941)
James C. Browne, computer scientist (b. 1934)
Olivia Cole, actress (b. 1942)
John Conboy, television producer (b. 1934)
Ed LaForge, politician (b. 1935)
Dorothy Malone, actress (b. 1924)
Fredo Santana, rapper and singer-songwriter (b. 1990)
Allison Shearmur, film producer (b. 1963)
Moose Stubing, baseball player (b. 1938)
Barbara Weil, artist (b. 1933)
Leslie Wyche, community activist (b. 1944)
January 20
Wendell Castle, furniture designer and artist (b. 1932)
John Coleman, American meteorologist (b. 1934)
William Cousins, judge (b. 1927)
Terry Evans, blues and soul singer, songwriter and guitarist (b. 1937)
Naomi Parker Fraley, naval machinist (b. 1921)
Bill Johnson, 57, American baseball player (b. 1960)
Jerry Keeling, American-born Canadian football player (b. 1939)
Bob Smith, American comedian and author (b. 1958)
Jack Whitten, artist (b. 1939)
January 21
A. Dean Jeffs, politician (b. 1928)
Jim Johannson, American ice hockey player (b. 1964)
Lyle Mehrkens, politician (b. 1937)
Connie Sawyer, actress (b. 1912)
January 22
Carl Blair, painter and sculptor (b. 1932)
Andrew Carroll, 32, American ice hockey player (b. 1985)
Dale Engstrom, politician (b. 1917)
Billy Hancock, musician (b. 1946)
Ursula K. Le Guin, novelist (b. 1929)
William Joseph McDonough, banker (b. 1934)
Preston Shannon, blues singer, songwriter and guitarist (b. 1947)
Annie Young, politician, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (b. 1942)
January 23
Robert Dowdell, actor (b. 1932)
Galen L. Stone, American diplomat (b. 1921)
Ezra Swerdlow, film producer (b. 1953)
Wyatt Tee Walker, American pastor, civil rights leader, and theologian (b. 1928)
Lari White, American country singer (b. 1965)
January 24
Bill Budness, football player (b. 1943)
Jack Ketchum, author (b. 1946)
Warren Miller, American ski and snowboarding filmmaker (b. 1924)
Raymond Nimmer, legal scholar (b. 1944)
January 25
Daniel M. Buechlein, Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1938)
Dan Foster, medical researcher (b. 1930)
Bill Logan, American basketball player (b. 1934)
Floyd Miles, blues guitarist, singer and songwriter (b. 1943)
John Morris, American film composer (b. 1926)
January 26
Kendall Carly Browne, actress (b. 1918)
Buzz Clifford, American singer (b. 1942)
Raphael Cruz, acrobat and actor (b. 1986)
Elizabeth Hawley, journalist (b. 1923)
Joe M. Haynes, American politician (b. 1936)
Von G. Keetch, religious leader (b. 1960)
Cyrus Yavneh, producer (b. 1941)
Isaiah Zeldin, Reform rabbi, founder of Stephen S. Wise Temple (b. 1920)
January 27
Robert McCormick Adams Jr., anthropologist (b. 1926)
Jerry Butler, pornographic actor (b. 1959)
Alfred Hübler, German-born American physicist (b. 1957)
Robert Parry, investigative journalist (b. 1949)
Dennis Peron, American cannabis and LGBT activist (b. 1945)
Jerry Sneva, racing driver (b. 1949)
Mort Walker, comic artist (Beetle Bailey) (b. 1923)
January 29
Hilton McConnico, American designer (b. 1943)
Rick McKay, filmmaker (b. 1956)
Robert D. McWethy, submarine captain (b. 1920)
Eddie Shaw, saxophonist and songwriter (b. 1937)
January 30
John W. Kern III, judge (b. 1928)
Charles E. Lindblom, academic (b. 1917)
James McCray, opera singer and teacher (b. 1938)
Mark Salling, actor (b. 1982)
Clyde Scott, football player (b. 1924)
Victor W. Sidel, physician (b. 1931)
Kevin Towers, baseball executive (b. 1961)
Louis Zorich, actor (b. 1924)
January 31
Richard N. Berry, politician (b. 1915)
Rasual Butler, basketball player (b. 1979)
Leah LaBelle, Canadian-born singer (b. 1986)
Del Delker, gospel singer (b. 1924)
Gabriel Fackre, theologian (b. 1926)
Oscar Gamble, baseball player (b. 1949)
Jack Halpern, chemist (b. 1924)
Elizabeth Hartley, archaeologist and curator (b. 1942)
John Fitzallen Moore, physicist (b. 1928)
William O'Connor, artist (b. 1970)
February
February 1
Cliff Bourland, athlete (b. 1921)
Dennis Edwards, singer (b. 1943)
Sonia Gechtoff, painter (b. 1926)
Nicholas von Hoffman, journalist (b. 1929)
Barys Kit, Belarusian-born rocket scientist (b. 1910)
Michael O'Hara, Olympic volleyball player (b. 1932)
Frank L. Oliver, politician (b. 1922)
Sewall Shurtz, Olympic fencer (b. 1933)
Alan Stout, composer (b. 1932)
February 2
Jon Huntsman Sr., businessman and philanthropist (b. 1937)
Joseph Polchinski, theoretical physicist (b. 1954)
February 3
Sam Cataldo, politician (b. 1937)
Leon "Ndugu" Chancler, jazz/pop drummer (b. 1952)
Pierre Conner, mathematician (b. 1932)
Roy Dietzel, baseball player (b. 1930)
Michael Harner, anthropologist and author (b. 1929)
George Shadid, politician (b. 1929)
Bill Teale, educator (b. 1947)
February 4
Edwin Jackson, football player (b. 1991)
John Mahoney, British-born actor (b. 1940)
February 7
John Perry Barlow, internet activist, writer and lyricist (b. 1947)
Mickey Jones, drummer (b. 1941)
Pat Torpey, drummer (b. 1953)
February 8
Ben Agajanian, football player (b. 1919)
Carl K. Benhase, football coach (b. 1929)
Robert A. Gross, physicist and engineering scientist (b. 1927)
Algia Mae Hinton, blues singer and guitarist (b. 1929)
M. Cecil Mackey, academic administrator (b. 1928)
John Martinkovic, football player (b. 1926)
Lovebug Starski, rapper and disc jockey (b. 1960)
Sandra L. Townes, judge (b. 1944)
February 9
Reg E. Cathey, actor (b. 1958)
John Gavin, actor and diplomat (b. 1931)
February 10
Jeff Bell, political consultant (b. 1943)
Fran Bera, aviator (b. 1924)
Troy Blakely, music executive and talent manager (b. 1949)
Richard C. Lamb, astrophysicist (b. 1933)
Stephen A. Mahin, structural engineer (b. 1946)
Donald Mark, judge (b. 1926)
William Merriweather Peña, architect (b. 1918)
Calvin Edouard Ward, concert pianist (b. 1925)
February 11
Anthony Acevedo, soldier and diarist (b. 1924)
Michael Cohen, physician and anthropologist (b. 1937)
Vic Damone, singer and actor (b. 1928)
Jon D. Fox, politician (b. 1947)
Jan Maxwell, actress and singer (b. 1956)
Tom Rapp, singer-songwriter (b. 1947)
Andy Rice, football player (b. 1940)
February 12
Marty Allen, comedian and actor (b. 1922)
Louise Latham, actress (b. 1922)
Daryle Singletary, country music singer (b. 1971)
February 13
Edward M. Abroms, film editor (b. 1935)
Scott Boyer, singer, songwriter and musician (b. 1947)
Chyskillz, hip hop producer (b. 1969)
James W. Downing, naval officer and author (b. 1913)
Tito Francona, baseball player (b. 1933)
Sandra Love, politician (b. 1945)
Victor Milan, author (b. 1954)
George P. Steele, military officer (b. 1924)
Peter Daniel Truman, politician (b. 1934)
February 14
Lois Barker, baseball player (b. 1923)
Lerone Bennett Jr., scholar and author (b. 1928)
Don Carter, investor (b. 1933)
Marty Dolin, American-born Canadian politician (b. 1939)
Billy Henderson, football coach (b. 1928)
Arthur J. Moss, cardiologist (b. 1931)
John Pitman, journalist (b. 1940)
February 15
Lassie Lou Ahern, actress (b. 1920)
Tom Brewer, baseball player (b. 1931)
Don J. Briel, theologian (b. 1946)
Leo Cahill, American-Canadian football coach (b. 1928)
Chuck Klausing, football player and coach (b. 1925)
J. Clay Smith Jr., jurist and author (b. 1942)
February 16
Jim Bridwell, free climber (b. 1944)
Little Sammy Davis, blues singer-songwriter and harmonicist (b. 1928)
Eleanor Winsor Leach, academic (b. 1937)
Harry R. Purkey, politician (b. 1934)
Mike Walker, gossip columnist (b. 1945)
February 17
Jim Dickey, football coach (b. 1934)
Beebe Freitas, pianist and vocal coach (b. 1938)
Boyd Jarvis, music producer (b. 1958)
Kenneth Kester, politician (b. 1936)
February 18
Günter Blobel, Silesian-born Nobel biologist (b. 1936)
Peggy Cooper Cafritz, social activist and educator (b. 1947)
Peirce F. Lewis, geographer (b. 1927)
Larry Lolley, state judge (b. 1945)
Lee Harris Pomeroy, architect (b. 1932)
Barbara Wersba, youth writer (b. 1932)
February 19
Harry Blevins, politician (b. 1935)
Fred Carr, football player (b. 1946)
Max Desfor, photographer (b. 1913)
Thomas Lockhart, politician (b. 1935)
Robert McKim, politician (b. 1945)
Larry Smith, puppeteer (b. 1938)
Jim Springer, basketball player (b. 1926)
February 20
David Caron, legal scholar (b. 1952)
William H. Friedland, rural sociologist (b. 1923)
DeWitt Hale, politician (b. 1917)
Waldo R. Tobler, geographer and cartographer (b. 1930)
February 21 – Billy Graham, evangelist and Southern Baptist minister (b. 1918)
February 22 – Nanette Fabray, actress (b. 1920)
February 23
Dom Anile, football coach and executive (Indianapolis Colts) (b. 1937)
James Colby, actor (b. 1961)
Allen B. Rosenstein, systems engineer (b. 1920)
February 24
Irwin Belk, politician, philanthropist and retail executive (b. 1922)
Ed Leede, 90, basketball player
Bud Luckey, actor and animator (b. 1934)
James McIntosh, rower, Olympic silver medalist (1956) (b. 1930)
Charles Byron Wilson, neurosurgeon (b. 1929)
February 25
Dan Fegan, basketball agent (b. 1961)
Cynthia Heimel, columnist, author and humorist (b. 1947)
Richard Hundley, pianist and composer (b. 1931)
Burton Leland, politician (b. 1948)
John C. Mula, art director and production designer (b. 1942)
Frank Sander, law professor (b. 1927)
Bruce Nelson Stratton, radio personality (b. 1943)
February 26
Paul De Meo, screenwriter and producer (b. 1953)
Jim Dobson, baseball player (b. 1939)
Jim L. Gillis Jr., politician (b. 1916)
Sean Lavery, ballet dancer (b. 1956)
Benjamin Melniker, film producer (b. 1913)
Carmen A. Orechio, politician (b. 1926)
Michael J. Pikal, pharmaceutical scientist (b. 1939)
Gary H. Posner, chemist (b. 1943)
February 27
Gertrude Alderfer, baseball player (b. 1931)
William H. T. Bush, venture capitalist and financier (b. 1938)
Bill Lignante, comics artist(b. 1926)
Daniel Perlsweig, racehorse trainer (b. 1926)
February 28
Barry Crimmins, comedian and social activist (b. 1953)
Keith English, politician (b. 1967)
Marc L. Marks, politician (b. 1926)
Harvey Schmidt, musical theatre producer and writer (b. 1929)
Naomi Siegmann, artist (b. 1932)
William R. Trotter, author and historian (b. 1943)
March
March 1 – Anatoly Lein, Russian-born chess grandmaster (b. 1931)
March 2
Billy Herrington, gay pornographic actor (b. 1969)
Ronnie Prophet, Canadian country singer (b. 1937)
March 3 – David Ogden Stiers, American actor (b. 1942)
March 5 – Hayden White, American historian (b. 1928)
March 6 – Donna Butterworth, American actress (b. 1956)
March 7
Gary Burden, American rock album cover artist (b. 1933)
Woody Durham, American college basketball radio announcer (b. 1941)
Chuck Ortmann, American football player (b. 1929)
Bill Pulte, American real estate developer (b. 1932)
Thomas L. Rhodes, American political activist (b. 1939)
Charles Thone, American politician, Governor of Nebraska (1979–1983), U.S. Representative (b. 1924)
March 8
Ron Franklin, American jockey (b. 1959)
John P. Fullam, American federal judge (b. 1921)
Togo D. West Jr., American public servant (b. 1942)
Hal Wick, 73, American politician (b. 1944)
Kate Wilhelm, American author (b. 1928)
March 10
Donald Collins, American politician (b. 1925)
Buddy Cruze, American football player (b. 1933)
Michael Gershman, American cinematographer, director and camera operator (b. 1944)
Henry Koffler, Austrian-born American academic (b. 1922)
Gene Rhodes, American basketball player (b. 1927)
March 12
Nokie Edwards, American musician (b. 1935)
Ken Flach, American tennis player (b. 1963)
Craig Mack, American rapper (b. 1970)
March 14
Alfred W. Crosby, American ecological historian (b. 1931)
Steve Mandell, American bluegrass guitarist and banjoist
March 15- Augie Garrido NCAA baseball coach who won 1,975 career games the second most of any NCAA Division I coach (b. 1939)
March 16 – Louise Slaughter, oldest member of the United States House of Representatives (b. 1929)
March 17
Jim Hendricks, American actor and DJ (b. 1949)
Sammy Williams, American actor (b. 1948)
March 18
Karen Anderson, American writer (b. 1932)
Chuck Arrobio, American football player (b. 1944)
Cloria Brown, American politician (b. 1942)
Killjoy, American singer (b. 1969)
Jerry Schoonmaker, American baseball player (b. 1933)
Hazel Smith, American country music journalist, publicist, and singer-songwriter (b. 1934)
March 20
Peter George Peterson, American banker (b. 1926)
William Smith, American Olympic wrestler (b. 1928)
March 22 – Morgana King, American jazz singer and actress (b. 1930)
March 23
DuShon Monique Brown, American actress (b. 1968)
Debbie Lee Carrington, actress and stuntwoman (b. 1959)
Zell Miller, politician; Governor of Georgia (1991–1999), U.S. Senator (2000–2005) (b. 1932)
Delores Taylor, American actress, writer, and producer (b. 1932)
March 25 – Linda Carol Brown, American campaigner for equality in education (b. 1943)
March 27
David Humm, American football player (b. 1952)
Tom Martin, American politician (b. 1948)
Jerry Moses, American baseball player (b. 1946)
Kenny O'Dell, American country singer-songwriter (b. 1944)
James "Quick" Parker, American-Canadian football player (b. 1958)
Rosendo Rodriguez, American convicted rapist and murderer (b. 1980)
Robert Hugh Willoughby, American flautist (b. 1921)
March 28
Armand Arabian, American jurist (b. 1934)
Travis Hill, American football player (b. 1969)
Walter E. Johnston III, American politician (b. 1935)
William Prochnau, American journalist (b. 1937)
Caleb Scofield, American rock bassist and singer (b. 1978)
Daryl Thomas, American basketball player (b. 1965)
March 29
Don Colpoys, American baseball coach and manager (b. 1934)
Stephen Reinhardt, American judge (b. 1930)
Ed Samcoff, American baseball player (b. 1924)
Anita Shreve, American author (b. 1946)
Rusty Staub, American baseball player (b. 1944)
Paul Van Arsdale, American hammered dulcimer player (b. 1920)
March 30
Alias, rapper (b. 1976)
Drue Heinz, American literary publisher (b. 1914)
March 31
John Mack Flanagan, American disc jockey (b. 1946)
Charles Goodwin, American linguistic anthropologist and semiotician (b. 1943)
Ted J. Land, American politician (b. 1936)
Peg Lautenschlager, American attorney and politician, (b. 1955)
James McAlister, American football player (b. 1951)
Leonard D. Wexler, American judge (b. 1924)
April
April 1
Amsale Aberra, Ethiopian-born American fashion designer (b. 1953)
Bob Beattie, skiing coach and sports commentator (b. 1933)
Steven Bochco, American television producer and writer (b. 1943)
Foster Diebold, American academic (b. 1932)
Robert F. Gatje, American architect (b. 1927)
Audrey Morris, American jazz singer and pianist (b. 1928)
April 2
Susan Anspach, American actress (b. 1942)
Clyde Billington Jr., American politician (b. 1934)
P. L. Thibaut Brian, American chemical engineer (b. 1931)
Alton Ford, American basketball player (b. 1982)
Morris Halle, Latvian-born linguist (b. 1923)
Tuiloma Pule Lameko, Samoan politician (b. 1934)
Connie Lawn, American journalist (b. 1945)
Bill Rademacher, American football player (b. 1942)
Laura Roslof, American illustrator (b. 1948)
Burton Smith, American computer scientist (b. 1941)
April 3
Ron Dunbar, American songwriter (b. 1940)
David Edgerton, American entrepreneur, co-founder of Burger King (b. 1928)
David J. Foulis, American mathematician (b. 1931)
Eugene M. Grant, American real estate mogul (b. 1919)
Mary Hatcher, American actress (b. 1930)
Dale Haupt, American football coach (b. 1930)
Charles McDew, American professor and civil rights activist (b. 1938)
April 4
David Bonetti, American art critic (b. 1947)
Burt Boyar, American voice actor and author (b. 1927)
Don Cherry, American singer and golfer (b. 1924)
Gertrude Jeannette, American actress (b. 1915)
C. Shannon Mallory, American Anglican prelate (b. 1936)
Soon-Tek Oh, South-Korean-American actor (b. 1932)
Stuart Pottasch, American astronomer (b. 1932)
Johnny Valiant, American professional wrestler and manager (b. 1946)
April 5
Tim O'Connor, American actor (b. 1927)
Frederick D. Reese, American civil rights activist, teacher, and minister (b. 1929)
Cecil Taylor, American pianist and poet (b. 1929)
April 6
Daniel Akaka, educator and politician (b. 1924)
Dorothy Garlock, American historical romance author (b. 1920)
Donald McKayle, American dancer and choreographer (b. 1931)
April 7
Agni Vlavianos Arvanitis, American biologist (b. 1936)
Gerald Ayres, American studio executive and film producer (b. 1936)
Samuel B. McKinney, American civil rights activist and pastor (b. 1926)
April 8
Nathan Davis, American jazz musician (b. 1937)
Chuck McCann, American actor (b. 1934)
Joe McConnell, American sports announcer (b. 1939)
April 9
Barney A. Ebsworth, American business executive and art collector (b. 1934)
Jonathan M. Hess, American philologist (b. 1965)
Kimberly G. Smith, American biologist (b. 1948)
April 10
Yvonne Staples, American singer (b. 1937)
Jean Marzollo, American children's author (b. 1943)
J. D. McClatchy, American poet (b. 1945)
Richard Muth, American economist, gallbladder cancer (b. 1928)
Alastair Rellie, British intelligence officer (b. 1935)
Matthew Stark, American civil rights activist (b. 1930)
April 11
Karen Dawisha, American political scientist and writer (b. 1950)
Patrick F. McManus, American writer (b. 1934)
Mauro Panaggio, American basketball coach (b. 1934)
Mitzi Shore, American comedy club owner (b. 1931)
Alexander Welsh, American literary scholar (b. 1934)
Kevin Wortman, American ice hockey player (b. 1969)
April 13
Art Bell, American broadcaster and author (b. 1945)
Miloš Forman, Czech and American film director (b. 1932)
William Nack, American journalist and author (b. 1941)
April 14
David Buckel, American LGBT rights lawyer (b. 1958)
Daedra Charles, American basketball player (b. 1969)
Hal Greer, American Hall of Fame basketball player (b. 1937)
Sam Hamill, American poet and publisher (b. 1944)
Michael D. Healy, American military officer (b. 1927)
Robert Holmes, American football player (b. 1946)
Gerald Nachman, American journalist and author (b. 1938)
Kirk Simon, American documentarian (b. 1955)
April 15 – R. Lee Ermey, American actor (b. 1944)
April 16 – Harry Anderson, American actor and magician (b. 1952)
April 17 – Barbara Bush, First Lady of the United States (b. 1925)
April 18 – Bruno Sammartino, Italian-American professional wrestler (b. 1935)
April 19
Allan Campbell, American microbiologist (b. 1930)
John Duffie, American baseball player (b. 1946)
Walter Moody, American convicted murderer (b. 1935)
Gil Santos, American sportscaster (b. 1938)
April 20
George Alusik, American baseball player (b. 1935)
Earle Bruce, American football coach (b. 1931)
John Petercuskie, American football coach (b. 1925)
James F. Sirmons, American broadcasting executive (b. 1918)
Al Swift, American broadcaster and politician (b. 1936)
Charles Zwick, American civil servant (b. 1927)
April 21
Dee Hardison, American football player (b. 1957)
Robert Kates, American geographer (b. 1929)
Jim Miceli, American politician (b. 1935)
Verne Troyer, American actor (b. 1969)
April 22
Ken Hofmann, American businessman (b. 1923)
Richard Jenrette, American investor (b. 1929)
Dave Nelson, American baseball player and broadcaster (b. 1944)
Charlie Rice, American jazz drummer (b. 1920)
Kona Schwenke, American football player(b. 1993)
Hoyt Patrick Taylor Jr., American politician (b. 1924)
April 23
Don Bustany, American radio and television broadcaster (b. 1929)
Bennie Cunningham, American football player (b. 1955)
Bob Dorough, American pianist, singer and composer (b. 1923)
Jerrold Meinwald, American chemist (b. 1927)
Walter Mengden, American attorney and politician (b. 1927)
Alice Provensen, American children's illustrator and writer (b. 1919)
Arthur B. Rubinstein, American composer (b. 1938)
Bob Schermerhorn, American college basketball coach (b. 1943)
Art Simmons, American jazz pianist (b. 1926)
Arthur R.G. Solmssen, American novelist (b. 1929)
Edward W. Tayler, American literary scholar (b. 1931)
Leland B. Yeager, American economist (b. 1925)
April 24
Marv Rackley, American baseball player (b. 1922)
Quentin Sickels, American football player (b. 1927)
Susan Williams, American marine biologist (b. 1952)
April 26 – Charles Neville, American R&B and jazz musician (b. 1938)
April 27
Kristin Nelson, American actress, painter and author (b. 1945)
Paul Junger Witt, American film and television producer (b. 1941)
April 28 – Larry Harvey, artist and philanthropist (b. 1948)
April 29 – Robert Mandan, American actor (b. 1932)
April 30
Tim Calvert, American rock guitarist (b. 1966)
Joel Kovel, American environmentalist and anti-war activist (b. 1937)
Ralph Stephan, American rower (b. 1929)
David Wiegand, American journalist (b. 1948)
May
May 1
Arthur Barnard, American sprinter and Olympic bronze medalist (b. 1929)
Dennis Claridge, American football player (b. 1942)
Ninalee Craig, American-born Canadian teacher (b. 1928)
Carl W. Duckworth, American politician (b. 1955)
Raymond D. Dzendzel, American politician (b. 1922)
Phil Gowan, American historian (b. 1953)
Robert B. Kennedy, American politician (b. 1940)
Chuck Missler, American evangelist and author (b. 1935)
John "Jabo" Starks, American drummer (b. 1937)
Betty Workman, American politician (b. 1925)
May 2
Dick Edell, American lacrosse coach (b. 1944)
James Thorp, American electrical engineer (b. 1937)
Chris Walsh, American politician (b. 1952)
May 3
Jim Argue, American politician (b. 1952)
Davida Coady, American pediatrician (b. 1938)
Dan Grimm, American football player (b. 1941)
David Pines, American physicist (b. 1925)
Bob Prewitt, American college basketball coach (b. 1925)
Junior Rodriguez, American politician (b. 1936)
Joe Scannella, American football coach (b. 1929)
May 4
Steve Coy, British-English musician (Dead or Alive), (b. 1962)
Paul Bloodgood, American artist (b. 1960)
Edwin G. Burrows, American historian and professor (b. 1944)
Bobbie Louise Hawkins, American poet and author (b. 1931)
Larry Hunter, American college basketball coach (b. 1949)
May 5
Frederic H. Dustin, American businessman and philanthropist (b. 1930)
Stanley Falkow, American microbiologist (b. 1934)
Wilson Frost, American politician (b. 1926)
Aaron D. Panken, American rabbi (b. 1965)
Dick Williams, American singer (b. 1926)
Roy Wright, American baseball player (b. 1934)
May 6
Sam Aanestad, American politician (b. 1947)
Raymond Book, American politician (b. 1925)
Dick Casull, American gunsmith (b. 1931)
Daniel Cohen, American writer (b. 1936)
Charles W. Steger, American academic (b. 1948)
Brad Steiger, American author and paranormal researcher (b. 1936)
Ray Szmanda, American radio personality (b. 1927)
May 7
Crosbie E. Saint, American military officer (b. 1937)
Gayle Shepherd, American singer (Shepherd Sisters), (b. 1936)
Scott Wilson, American bodybuilder (b. 1950)
May 8
Anne V. Coates, British film editor (b. 1925)
George Deukmejian, politician; Governor of California (1983–1991) (b. 1928)
May 9
Poldine Carlo, American writer (b. 1921)
Tom Dooley, American football referee (b. 1935)
Tom Fletcher, American baseball player (b. 1943)
Richard Haag, American landscape architect (b. 1924)
May 12
Billy Brewer, American football player and coach (b. 1935)
Nick Drahos, American football player (b. 1919)
Geoffrey Hendricks, American artist (b. 1932)
Chuck Knox, American football coach (b. 1932)
Donald Gary Young, American business executive (b. 1949)
May 13 – Margot Kidder, Canadian-American actress and activist (b. 1948)
May 14 – Tom Wolfe, author and journalist (b. 1930)
May 15 – Joseph G. Clemons, American soldier (b. 1928)
May 16
Joseph Campanella, American actor (b. 1924)
Hugh Dane, American actor (b. 1942)
May 17
Skip Finn, American Ojibwe politician (b. 1949)
Craig Harbison, American art historian (b. 1944)
Lawrence Jegen, American legal scholar (b. 1935)
Anthony Michael Milone, American Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1933)
Jon Sholle, American musician (b. 1948)
Tom Von Ruden, American athlete (b. 1945)
May 19 – Robert Indiana, American artist (b. 1928)
May 20
Richard N. Goodwin, American writer (b. 1931)
Patricia Morison, American actress (b. 1915)
May 21
Dovey Johnson Roundtree, civil rights activist, ordained minister, and attorney (b. 1914)
Allyn Ann McLerie, Canadian-American actress, singer, and dancer (b. 1926)
Clint Walker, American actor (b. 1927)
May 22 – Philip Roth, American writer (b. 1933)
May 24 – Jerry Maren, American actor (b. 1920)
May 25 – Bill Mallory, American football player and coach (Indiana Hoosiers, Miami RedHawks, Colorado Buffaloes), (b. 1935)
May 26
Alan Bean, astronaut (b. 1932)
Ted Dabney, electrical engineer and co-founder of Atari, Inc (b. 1937)
May 27
John DiFronzo, American mobster (b. 1929)
Gardner Dozois, American science fiction writer and editor (b. 1948)
Connie Kurtz, American LGBT rights activist (b. 1937)
Russell Nype, American actor and singer (b. 1920)
Donald H. Peterson, American astronaut (b. 1933)
Russ Regan, American music business executive (b. 1929)
May 28
Rachel Rockwell, American actress and choreographer (b. 1969)
Chuck Stevens, American baseball player (b. 1919)
Dick Tuck, American political prankster (b. 1924)
Cliff Tucker, American basketball player (b. 1989)
Scott R. White, American materials scientist (b. 1963)
May 29
Ray Barker, American baseball player (b. 1936)
James Schaefer, American politician (b. 1939)
René Yañez, Mexican-born American artist (b. 1943)
May 30
Baruch Brody, American bioethicist (b. 1943)
Mel Weinberg, American con artist and police informant (b. 1925)
May 31
Ella Brennan, American restaurateur (b. 1926)
Steven Pitt, American forensic psychiatrist (b. 1959)
Joe E. White, American educator (b. 1938)
June
June 1
Eddy Clearwater, American musician and singer (b. 1935)
Bob Clotworthy, American Hall of Fame diver (b. 1931)
Andrew Massey, British-born American conductor (b. 1946)
Sam Moore, American Bible publisher (b. 1929)
William Edward Phipps, American actor (b. 1922)
Rockin' Rebel, American professional wrestler (b. 1966)
Fred Van Dusen, American baseball player (b. 1937)
June 2
Mary Baumgartner, American baseball player (b. 1930)
Paul D. Boyer, American biochemist (b. 1918)
Bruce Kison, American baseball player (b. 1950)
Nick Meglin, American magazine editor (b. 1935)
Irving Sandler, American art critic (b. 1925)
William Simmons, American anthropologist (b. 1938)
C. C. Torbert Jr., American jurist (b. 1929)
Bernard E. Trainor, American journalist and Marine Corps general (b. 1928)
June 3
Clarence Fountain, American singer, founder of The Blind Boys of Alabama (b. 1929)
Frank Carlucci, American politician (b. 1930)
Jerry Hopkins, American journalist (b. 1936)
Johnnie Keyes, American pornographic actor (b. 1940)
Kent McCray, American television producer (b. 1929)
June 4
Dwight Clark, American football player (b. 1957)
Jeffrey Coy, American politician (b. 1951)
Norman Edge, American jazz double-bassist (b. 1934)
Mary Jane Fonder, 75, American convicted murderer (b. 1942)
Georgann Johnson, American actress (b. 1926)
Steve Kline, American baseball player (b. 1947)
C. M. Newton, American college basketball coach and administrator (b. 1930)
Jalal Mansur Nuriddin, American poet and musician (b. 1944)
June 5 – Kate Spade, fashion designer (b. 1962)
June 8 – Anthony Bourdain, celebrity chef, author and television personality (b. 1956).
June 9
Joan Bernard Armstrong, American judge (b. 1941)
Richard H. Bube, American physicist (b. 1928)
Kristine Ciesinski, American opera singer (b. 1953)
Murray Fromson, American journalist and professor (b. 1930)
Crawford Gates, American composer and conductor (b. 1922)
Lorraine Gordon, American jazz club owner (b. 1923)
John Wesley Hanes III, American civil servant (b. 1925)
Kenyatta Jones, American football player (b. 1979)
Clemens Kalischer, American photojournalist (b. 1921)
June 10
Neal E. Boyd, American Opera singer and winner of "America's Got Talent" (b. 1975)
Dorothy Cotton, American civil rights activist (b. 1930)
Harold L. Dibble, American archaeologist (b. 1952)
James Gips, American technologist (b. 1946)
Tom McEwen, American drag racer (b. 1937)
Edward Sadlowski, American labor activist (b. 1939)
Christopher Stasheff, American author (b. 1944)
June 11
Wayne Dockery, American jazz double bassist (b. 1942)
Larry Thomas, American political advisor (b. 1948)
June 12
Robert Alan Browne, American actor (b. 1932)
Keith Fahnhorst, American football player (b. 1952)
Jack Laxer, American photographer (b. 1927)
Al Meltzer, American sportscaster (b. 1929)
June 13
Anne Donovan, American basketball player and coach (b. 1962)
D. J. Fontana, American musician (b. 1931)
Tom Gear, American politician (b. 1949)
J. Alex Haller, American pediatric surgeon (b. 1927)
Ronald I. Meshbesher, American lawyer (b. 1933)
Charles Vinci, American weightlifter (b. 1933)
June 14
Ed Roebuck, American baseball player (b. 1932)
Mary K. Shell, American journalist and politician (b. 1927)
Marta Weigle, American folklorist and anthropologist (b. 1945)
June 15 – Matt "Guitar" Murphy, American blues guitarist (b. 1929)
June 16 – Martin Bregman, American film producer (b. 1926)
June 17
Elizabeth Brackett, American television journalist (b. 1942)
O. Timothy O'Meara, American mathematician (b. 1928)
Rebecca Parris, American jazz singer (b. 1952)
Aihud Pevsner, American physicist (b. 1926)
Dutch Rennert, American baseball umpire (b. 1930)
Stephen E. Robinson, American religious scholar (b. 1948)
June 18
Walter Bahr, American Hall of Fame soccer player (b. 1927)
Big Van Vader, American professional wrestler and football player (b. 1955)
Billy Connors, American baseball player (b. 1941)
Barry McDaniel, American opera singer (b. 1930)
Claude Ramsey, American politician (b. 1943)
Billy Sammeth, American talent manager (b. 1951)
Lawrence A. Skantze, 89, American military officer (b. 1928)
Jimmy Wopo, 21, American rapper (b. 1997)
XXXTentacion, rapper, singer and songwriter, gunshot wound (b. 1998)
June 19
Hubert Green, American Hall of Fame golfer (b. 1947)
Stefan Kanfer, American journalist (b. 1933)
Bill Kenville, American basketball player (b. 1931)
Chuck Klingbeil, American football player (b. 1966)
Koko, American-bred Western lowland gorilla (b. 1971)
Don Mason, American baseball player (b. 1945)
Ian Orme, British-American microbiologist (b. 1953)
Jane Cronin Scanlon, American mathematician (b. 1923)
Lowrell Simon, American soul singer-songwriter (b. 1943)
Jack Stallings, American baseball coach (b. 1931)
Antwon Rose Jr.- African-American man shot and killed by white police officer Michael Rosfeld in Pittsburgh (b.2000)
June 20
David Bianco, American record producer, engineer and mixer (b. 1954)
Dick Danehe, American football player (b. 1921)
Brian Donovan, American journalist (b. 1941)
Robert Gilpin, American political scientist (b. 1931)
Bill Hendon, American politician (b. 1945)
Willie Lee Rose, American historian (b. 1927)
John Ward, sportscaster (Vol Network) (b. 1930)
June 21
William Acker, American judge (b. 1928)
H. Tristram Engelhardt Jr., American philosopher (b. 1941)
Charles Krauthammer, columnist and political commentator (b. 1950)
George Lindemann, American businessman (b. 1937)
John Mack, American civic leader (b. 1937)
Bill Thompson, American politician (b. 1937)
June 22
Deanna Lund, American actress (b. 1937)
Vinnie Paul, American drummer (b. 1964)
June 23
Fred Chalenor, American bassist (b. 1956)
Donald Hall, American poet (b. 1929)
June 24 – Stanley Anderson, American actor (b. 1939)
June 25 – Richard Benjamin Harrison, American businessman and television personality (b. 1941)
June 27 – Joe Jackson, American talent manager (b. 1928)
June 28 – Harlan Ellison, American writer (b. 1934)
June 29
Matt Cappotelli, American professional wrestler (b. 1979)
Bill Hamel, American composer and record producer (b. 1973)
Derrick O'Connor, Irish actor (b. 1941)
Eugene Pitt, American singer (b. 1938)
Steve Ditko, comics artist and writer (Marvel Comics) (b. 1927)
June 30
John E. Casida, American entomologist and toxicologist (b. 1930)
Mike Heideman, American basketball coach (b. 1948)
Billy Kinard, American football player (b. 1934)
Timothy Murphy, American poet (b. 1951)
July
July 1
Bruce Baker, American geneticist (b. 1946)
Brad Dye, American politician (b. 1934)
Dick Feagler, American journalist (b. 1939)
Harvey Gentry, American baseball player (b. 1926)
Shirley Huffman, American politician (b. 1929)
July 2 – Henry Butler, American jazz pianist and photographer (b. 1948)
July 3 – Richard Swift, American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and film maker (b. 1977)
July 4
E. Riley Anderson, American judge (b. 1933)
Alan S. Rabson, American pathologist and cancer researcher (b. 1926)
Donovan Webster, American journalist (b. 1959)
July 5
Donald J. Farish, American educator (b. 1943)
Jim Malloy, American recording engineer (b. 1931)
Ed Schultz, American political commentator and television host (b. 1954)
July 6
Donald D. Belcher, American executive (b. 1939)
Jeremy Gold, American actuary and economist (b. 1943)
J. Frederick Grassle, American marine biologist (b. 1940)
Bruce Hunter, American Olympic swimmer (b. 1939)
Ron Lollar, American politician (b. 1949)
Bruce Maher, American football player (b. 1938)
Vince Martin, American folk singer (b. 1937)
Clifford Rozier, American basketball player (b. 1973)
July 7
Ralph T. Browning, American Air Force pilot (b. 1941)
Paul Fetler, American composer (b. 1920)
John R. Harris, American economist (b. 1934)
Bret Hoffmann, American death metal singer (b. 1967)
Tyler Honeycutt, American basketball player (b. 1990)
Alan Johnson, American choreographer (b. 1937)
Terry Todd, American weightlifter and sports historian (b. 1938)
July 8
Tab Hunter, American actor and singer (b. 1931)
Billy Knight, American basketball player (b. 1979)
Frank Ramsey, American basketball player (b. 1931)
Lonnie Shelton, American basketball player (b. 1956)
July 9
Barbara Carlson, American politician and radio host (b. 1938)
Sam Chisholm, New Zealand-born Australian television executive (b. 1940)
Sammy Esposito, American baseball player (b. 1932)
Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz, American poet and activist (b. 1945)
Johnny Moates, American college basketball player (b. 1945)
Jenny Phillips, American documentarian (b. 1942)
July 10
Robert Behringer, American physicist (b. 1949)
Ron Johnson, American football player (b. 1956)
Henry Morgenthau III, American author and television producer (b. 1917)
Marlene Riding in Mameah, American silversmith (b. 1933)
Darryl Rogers, American football coach (b. 1935)
John A. Stormer, American author (b. 1928)
July 11
Richard John Garcia, American Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1947)
Barbara Harrell-Bond, American-born British refugee studies academic (b. 1932)
Rodolfo Lozano, American judge (b. 1942)
Nathaniel Reed, American environmentalist (b. 1934)
Lindy Remigino, American Olympic athlete (b. 1931)
July 12
Roger Perry, American actor (b. 1933)
Del Shankel, American microbiologist and academic administrator (b. 1928)
Thomas Stephens, American football player (b. 1936)
Robert Wolders, Dutch actor (b. 1936)
July 13
Ponty Bone, American accordionist (b. 1940)
Stan Dragoti, American film director (b. 1933)
Jocelyn Vollmar, American ballerina (b. 1926)
July 14
Harold Covington, American political activist (b. 1954)
Claudia Griffith, American politician (b. 1951)
Chet Morgan, American politician (b. 1937)
Thomas Stevens, American trumpeter (b. 1939)
Natalia Tanner, American physician (b. 1922)
Ron Thomas, American basketball player (b. 1951)
July 15
Dave Dave, American conceptual artist (b. 1976)
Theryl DeClouet, American jazz-funk singer (b. 1952)
July 16
Robin Jones, American basketball player (b. 1954)
Gabriel Rivera, American football player (b. 1961)
July 17
Arthur James Armstrong, American Methodist bishop (b. 1925)
Gary Beach, American actor (b. 1948)
Lincoln Brower, American entomologist and academic (b. 1932)
Mark Hayes, American golfer (b. 1949)
Nancy M. Petry, American psychologist (b. 1969)
Robert H. Traurig, American lawyer (b. 1925)
July 18
Adrian Cronauer, American disc jockey (b. 1938)
Ronald H. Griffith, American military officer (b. 1936)
Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga, American political activist (b. 1926)
Burton Richter, American Nobel physicist (b. 1931)
Mollie Tibbetts, American student (b. 1998)
July 19
Jon Schnepp, American animator, filmmaker and voice actor (b. 1967)
Yale Udoff, American screenwriter (b. 1935)
John Vigilante, American ice hockey player (b. 1985)
July 20 – Meg Randall, American actress (b. 1926)
July 21 – Jonathan Gold, American food and music critic (b. 1960)
July 22
Robert M. Blizzard, American endocrinologist (b. 1924)
Raymond Hunthausen, American Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1922)
Donald Kaul, American journalist (b. 1935)
Brian Kellow, American magazine editor (b. 1959)
Rene Portland, American college basketball coach (b. 1953)
Clemmie Spangler, American banker (b. 1932)
Tony Sparano, American football coach (b. 1962)
July 23
Maryon Pittman Allen, American journalist and politician (b. 1926)
George Brown, American long jumper (b. 1932)
Tony Cline, American football player (b. 1949)
Howard Felsher, American game show producer (b. 1928)
Elbert Howard, American civil rights activist, co-founder of the Black Panther Party (b. 1938)
Stephen Juan, American anthropologist and author (b. 1949)
Mary Jane McCaffree, American secretary (b. 1912)
Jacob Tanzer, American attorney (b. 1935)
Elliot Vesell, American pharmacologist (b. 1934)
July 24 – Jack P. Lewis, American Biblical scholar (b. 1919)
July 26 – Robert Martin, American fighter pilot (b. 1919)
July 27
Michael P. DeLong, American Marine Corps lieutenant general (b. 1945)
Leo E. Litwak, American writer (b. 1923)
Mateja Matejić, Yugoslavian-born American writer (b. 1924)
Nick Raynes, American film producer (b. 1985)
July 28
John C. Buechner, American university administrator and politician (b. 1936)
Bruce Lietzke, American professional golfer (b. 1951)
July 29
Brickhouse Brown, American professional wrestler (b. 1961)
Brian Christopher, American professional wrestler (b. 1972)
Yaakov Elman, American Judaic scholar (b. 1944)
Johnny Lewis, American baseball player and coach (b. 1940)
Sam Mehran, American musician (b. 1987)
Nikolai Volkoff, Yugoslav-born American professional wrestler (b. 1947)
Bryan Wagner, American politician (b. 1943)
July 30
Ron Dellums, American politician (b. 1936)
Michael A. Sheehan, American author and government official (b. 1955)
Robert Thunell, American biogeochemist and oceanographer (b. 1951)
July 31
George Cowgill, American anthropologist and archaeologist (b. 1929)
Michael Krop, American school board member (b. 1930)
Daryl Robertson, American baseball player (b. 1936)
Betty Schoenbaum, American philanthropist (b. 1917)
Julia Weertman, American materials scientist (b. 1926)
Beatrice Wright, American psychologist (b. 1918)
August
August 1
Mary Carlisle, American actress (b. 1914)
David I. Cleland, American engineer and writer (b. 1926)
Fakir Musafar, American performance artist (b. 1930)
Nancy Tuckerman, American secretary (b. 1929)
Rolf Valtin, American soccer player (b. 1925)
Taylor Whitley, American football player (b. 1979)
August 2
Neil Argo, American composer (b. 1947)
Bill Wattenburg, American engineer, author, and radio talk show host (b. 1936)
August 3 – Joseph C. Burke, American educator and academic (b. 1932)
August 4 – Lorrie Collins, American country singer (b. 1942)
August 5 – Charlotte Rae, American actress (b. 1926)
August 6
Patricia Benoit, television actress and film director, (b. 1927)
Margaret Heckler, American politician and diplomat (b. 1931)
Paul Laxalt, American politician (b. 1922)
Leonard Lewinsohn, American Islamic scholar (b. 1953)
Robert A. Plane, American chemist, vintner and academic administrator (b. 1928)
William E. Schluter, American politician (b. 1928)
Anya Krugovoy Silver, American poet (b. 1969)
August 7
Andrew Coburn, American author (b. 1932)
Arvonne Fraser, American women's rights activist (b. 1926)
Richard H. Kline, American cinematographer (b. 1927)
Stan Mikita, Slovak-born Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1940)
Joel H. Silbey, American historian (b. 1934)
Gerald Weinberg, American computer scientist (b. 1934)
Robley Wilson, American writer (b. 1930)
August 8
Katie Cannon, American theologian (b. 1950)
Wendell Erickson, American politician (b. 1925)
Robert Hugh Ferrell, American historian and author (b. 1921)
John Glines, American theatre producer (b. 1933)
Richard Sipe, American sociologist (b. 1932)
August 9
Donald F. Holcomb, American physicist (b. 1926)
Billy Ray Irick, American convicted murderer (b. 1959)
John Kennedy, American baseball player (b. 1941)
Carol Springer, American politician (b. 1937)
August 10
Peter Berck, American economist (b. 1950)
William Corbett, American poet (b. 1943)
Dawn Mabalon, American academic (b. 1973)
Katherine Nelson, American psychologist (b. 1930)
A. R. Schwartz, American politician (b. 1926)
August 11
Terry A. Davis, American computer programmer (b. 1969)
Morris G. Hallock, American politician (b. 1926)
Stanley Keleman, American writer and chiropractor (b. 1932)
Manch Wheeler, American football player (b. 1939)
August 12
Richard Lloyd Anderson, American historian (b. 1926)
Thomas J. Moran, American executive and humanitarian (b. 1953)
Steven T. Ross, American military historian (b. 1937)
August 13
Mark Baker, 71, American actor (b. 1947)
John Carter, American film editor (b. 1922)
Don Garrison, American politician (b. 1925)
Powell A. Moore, American government official (b. 1938)
Jim Neidhart, American professional wrestler (b. 1955)
August 14
Charles Victor Grahmann, American Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1931)
Mela Hudson, American actress (b. 1987)
Jill Janus, American rock singer (Huntress) (b. 1976)
August 15
Kenneth Bowles, American computer scientist (b. 1929)
Robert Everett, American computer scientist (b. 1921)
Sterling Stuckey, American historian (b. 1932)
August 16
Glen Chin, Chinese-American actor (b. 1948)
Aretha Franklin, R&B singer and songwriter (b. 1942)
August 17
Bob Bass, American basketball coach and executive (b. 1929)
Leonard Boswell, American politician (b. 1934)
Linton Freeman, American sociologist (b. 1927)
Bunky Henry, American golfer (b. 1944)
Charles D. Lancaster Jr., American politician (b. 1944)
David McReynolds, American pacifist and magazine editor (b. 1930)
Paul Naumoff, American football player (b. 1945)
Danny Pearson, American R&B singer (b. 1953)
Kurt Walker, American ice hockey player (b. 1954)
August 18
Tom Clark, American poet and biographer (b. 1941)
Jack Costanzo, American percussionist (b. 1920)
Costas Kondylis, American architect (b. 1940)
John E. McCarthy, American Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1930)
Robert Todd, American filmmaker (b. 1963)
August 19
Vaughn Beals, American businessman (b. 1928)
Louis Gambaccini, American civil servant, commissioner, founding chairman of NJ Transit (b. 1931)
Darrow Hooper, American shot-putter (b. 1932)
Joe Landrum, American baseball player (b. 1929)
Rod Saddler, American football player (b. 1966)
August 20
Brian Murray, South African actor and director (b. 1937)
Eddie Willis, American musician (b. 1936)
August 21 – Barbara Harris, American actress (b. 1935)
August 22 – Ed King, American musician (b. 1949)
August 24 – Robin Leach, English television personality (b. 1941)
August 25 – John McCain, U.S. Senator from Arizona, Republican presidential nominee (2008) (b. 1936)
August 26 – Neil Simon, American playwright (b. 1927)
August 27
Dale M. Cochran, American politician (b. 1929)
Henry McNamara, American politician (b. 1935)
Bobby Walden, American football player (b. 1938)
Fredd Wayne, American actor (b. 1925)
August 29
Samuel Conti, American judge (b. 1922)
Gary Friedrich, American comic book writer (b. 1943)
Joseph P. Graw, American politician (b. 1915)
Marie Severin, American comics artist and colorist (b. 1929)
Paul Spudis, American geologist and planetary scientist (b. 1952)
David Sugarbaker, American physician (b. 1953)
Paul Taylor, American choreographer (b. 1930)
August 30
Peter Frame, American ballet dancer (b. 1957)
Ray Kubala, American football player (b. 1943)
Vanessa Marquez, American actress (b. 1968)
August 31
Susan Brown, American actress (b. 1932)
Gloria Jean, American actress and singer (b. 1926)
Carole Shelley, English actress (b. 1939)
September
September 1
Irving Petlin, artist, liver cancer (b. 1934)
Randy Weston, jazz pianist and composer (b. 1926)
September 2
Claire Wineland, cystic fibrosis assistance advocate, stroke (b. 1997)
Fred Zamberletti, athletic trainer (Minnesota Vikings) (b. 1932)
September 3
Lydia Clarke, actress (The Atomic City) and photographer, complications from pneumonia (b. 1923)
Thomas Rickman, screenwriter (Coal Miner's Daughter, Hooper, Truman), cancer (b. 1940)
September 4
Bill Daily, American actor (b. 1927)
Christopher Lawford, American actor, author and activist (b. 1955)
September 5
Minor J. Coon, American biochemist (b. 1921)
Erik Hauri, American geochemist (b. 1966)
Arthur Lawrence Hellyer Jr., American radio and television broadcaster (b. 1923)
Mike Hogewood, American sportscaster and professional wrestling commentator (b. 1955)
Dick Lane, American baseball player (b. 1927)
Madeleine Yayodele Nelson, American musician (b. 1949)
Vince Phason, American football player (b. 1953)
Rudolph Edward Torrini, American sculptor (b. 1923)
September 6
Richard DeVos, salesman and billionaire, co-founder of Amway, complications from infection (b. 1926)
Burt Reynolds, actor (Smokey and the Bandit, Boogie Nights, Deliverance), Emmy winner (1991), heart attack (b. 1936)
September 7
Samuel Bodman, politician (b. 1938)
Mac Miller, rapper, singer and producer, drug overdose (b. 1992)
September 8 – Chelsi Smith, American singer and beauty pageant winner (b. 1973)
September 9
Frank Davis, American politician (b. 1936)
Adrian C. Louis, American author and screenwriter (b. 1946)
Paul Stuffel, American baseball player (b. 1927)
Wallace Tripp, American illustrator (b. 1940)
September 10
Chris Buttars, American politician (b. 1942)
Adam Clymer, American journalist (b. 1937)
Warrington Colescott, American artist (b. 1921)
Peter Donat, Canadian-American actor (b. 1928)
Albin F. Irzyk, American military officer (b. 1917)
Roy Wagner, American anthropologist (b. 1939)
September 11
Richard Newbold Adams, American anthropologist (b. 1924)
Peter J. Barnes Jr., American politician (b. 1929)
Thomas Aquinas Higgins, American judge (b. 1932)
Jim Houston, American football player (b. 1938)
Siegfried Linkwitz, American audio engineer (b. 1936)
Don Newman, American basketball coach and football player (b. 1958)
Don Panoz, American executive (b. 1935)
September 13 – Marin Mazzie, American actress and singer (b. 1960)
September 14
Alan Abel, American prankster and writer (b. 1924)
Max Bennett, American jazz bassist (b. 1928)
Beverly Bentley, American actress (b. 1930)
Phil Clark, American baseball player (b. 1932)
September 16
Big Jay McNeely, American rhythm and blues saxophonist (b. 1927)
Frank Parker, American actor (b. 1939)
September 17
Annette Michelson, American film and art critic (b. 1923)
Daniel N. Robinson, American philosopher (b. 1937)
September 18
David DiChiera, American composer and founding general director of Michigan Opera Theatre (b. 1935)
Richard M. Pollack, American mathematician (b. 1935)
Robert Venturi, American architect (b. 1925)
September 19 – Arthur Mitchell, American ballet dancer and choreographer (b. 1934)
September 20
K-Run's Park Me in First, American beagle show dog (b. 2005)
Lou Karras, American football player (b. 1927)
Laurie Mitchell, American actress (b. 1928)
William Ward, American astronomer (b. 1944)
Henry Wessel Jr., American photographer (b. 1942)
September 21
Katherine Hoover, American composer and flutist (b. 1938)
David Laro, American judge (b. 1942)
Howard Michaels, American businessman (b. 1956)
Lee Stange, American baseball player (b. 1937)
September 23
Jane Fortune, American author, journalist and historian (b. 1942)
Gary Kurtz, American film producer (b. 1940)
Mark Livolsi, American film editor (b. 1962)
John Anthony Nevin, American psychologist (b. 1933)
David Wolkowsky, American property developer (b. 1919)
September 24
Norm Breyfogle, American comic book artist (b. 1960)
Arnold Krammer, American historian (b. 1941)
Tommy McDonald, American football player (b. 1934)
Michael O'Gorman, American coxswain (b. 1965)
September 25
Charles Berger, American communication theorist (b. 1939)
Marie Colton, American politician (b. 1923)
Jack McKinney, American basketball coach (b. 1935)
Ronnie Shelton, American convicted serial rapist (b. 1961)
Jerry Thorpe, American director and producer (b. 1926)
September 27 – Marty Balin, American singer and musician (b. 1942)
September 29 – Otis Rush, American blues guitarist and singer (b. 1934)
September 30
Michael J. Bennane, American politician (b. 1945)
Walter Laqueur, German-born American historian and journalist (b. 1921)
John J. McDermott, American philosopher (b. 1932)
Robert M. O'Neil, American educator (b. 1935)
William Proffit, American orthodontist (b. 1936)
October
October 1
Peter C. Bjarkman, American baseball historian and author (b. 1941)
John H. Bryan, American business executive and philanthropist (b. 1937)
Jerry González, American bandleader and trumpeter (b. 1949)
Darryl Greenamyer, American aviator and record holder (b. 1936)
October 2 – Dorothy Hukill, American politician (b. 1946)
October 3
Leon M. Lederman, American Nobel physicist (b. 1922)
Marty Pattin, American baseball player (b. 1943)
Hollie Pihl, American judge (b. 1928)
John Von Ohlen, American jazz drummer (Blue Wisp Big Band) (b. 1941)
Edward E. Williams, American economist (b. 1945)
October 4
Dave Anderson, American sportswriter (b. 1929)
Will Vinton, American animator (b. 1947)
Audrey Wells, American screenwriter, director, and producer (b. 1960)
October 5
Wayne Berry, American football player (b. 1932)
Louis A. DeSimone, American Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1922)
Ed Kenney, American singer and actor (b. 1933)
Herbert Kleber, American psychiatrist (b. 1934)
Greg Marx, American football player (b. 1950)
October 6 – Scott Wilson, American actor (b. 1942)
October 7
Peggy McCay, American actress (b. 1927)
Celeste Yarnall, American actress (b. 1944)
October 8
Arnold Kopelson, American film producer (b. 1935)
George Taliaferro, American football player (b. 1927)
October 9
Carolyn Blanchard Allen, American politician (b. 1921)
Robert Bausch, American author (b. 1945)
Thomas M. Hannigan, American politician (b. 1940)
Diane Jergens, American actress (b. 1935)
Larry Larrañaga, American politician (b. 1938)
Frank Padavan, American politician (b. 1935)
Warner Saunders, American news anchor (b. 1935)
Alex Spanos, American billionaire and real estate developer (b. 1923)
Thomas A. Steitz, American Nobel biochemist (b. 1940)
Carolyn Warner, American politician (b. 1930)
William Wilbanks, American criminologist (b. 1940)
October 10
Louis Brouillard, American Roman Catholic priest (b. 1921)
Frank Deem, American politician (b. 1928)
Don Eddy, American baseball player (b. 1947)
Theresa Hightower, American jazz singer (b. 1954)
Raye Montague, American naval engineer (b. 1935)
Richard T. Morgan, American politician (b. 1952)
Bruce N. Whitman, American aviation executive (b. 1933)
Tex Winter, American football player and coach (b. 1922)
October 11
Robert Dean, American ufologist (b. 1929)
James Emswiller, American sound mixer (b. 1957)
Milton Gendel, American-Italian photographer and art critic (b. 1919)
Carol Hall, American composer and lyricist (b. 1936)
Greg Stafford, American game designer (b. 1948)
October 12
Colleen Conway-Welch, American academic administrator (b. 1944)
A. G. Russell, American knife maker (b. 1933)
October 13
William Coors, American brewer (Coors Brewing Company) (b. 1916)
Edgar S. Harris Jr., American Air Force lieutenant general (b. 1925)
Sue Hubbell, American author (b. 1935)
Don Leo Jonathan, American-Canadian professional wrestler (b. 1931)
Jim Taylor, American football player (b. 1935)
Johannes Weertman, American geophysicist (b. 1925)
October 15 – Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, non-Hodgkin lymphoma (b. 1953)
October 18
Elihu Abrahams, American theoretical physicist (b. 1927)
Todd Bol, American teacher (b. 1956)
Dick Cole, 92, American baseball player
Randolph Hokanson, 103, American classical pianist
Danny Leiner, 57, American film director
Dick Slater, 67, American professional wrestler
October 19
Charles Y. Glock, American sociologist (b. 1919)
Victor Marchetti, American CIA agent and author (b. 1930)
Dick Modzelewski, American football player (b. 1931)
Diana Sowle, American actress (b. 1930)
October 21
Earl Bakken, American pacemaker inventor and museum founder (b. 1924)
Harry L. Ettlinger, American engineer (b. 1926)
John Hill, American football player (b. 1950)
Harold Stevenson, American painter (b. 1929)
October 22 – Hank Greenwald, American sportscaster (b. 1935)
October 23 – James Karen, American actor (b. 1923)
October 24
Michael J. O'Connor, American politician (b. 1929)
Melvin Ragin, American guitarist (b. 1950)
Tony Joe White, American singer-songwriter (b. 1943)
October 25
Sonny Fortune, American jazz saxophonist (b. 1939)
Elder Roma Wilson, American gospel harmonist (b. 1910)
October 26
Warren B. Hamilton, American geologist (b. 1925)
Russ Mobley, American politician (b. 1934)
October 27
Richard L. Bloch, American businessman and sports team owner (b. 1929)
Perry Lee Dunn, American football player (b. 1941)
Freddie Hart, American country singer and songwriter (b. 1926)
Fred Hess, American tenor saxophonist (b. 1944)
Mario Segale, American real estate developer (b. 1934)
Ntozake Shange, American playwright and poet (b. 1948)
Todd Youth, American punk and metal guitarist (b. 1971)
October 28
Peter Everwine, American poet (b. 1930)
I. John Hesselink, American theologian (b. 1928)
Eldridge M. Moores, American geologist (b. 1938)
Bill Trumbo, American college basketball coach (b. 1939)
October 29
William F. Bernhard, American cardiovascular surgeon (b. 1925)
Bernard Bragg, American actor (b. 1928)
Jimmy Farrar, American rock singer (b. 1950)
Larry Snyder, American jockey (b. 1942)
Young Greatness, American rapper (b. 1984)
October 30
Whitey Bulger, American mobster (b. 1929)
Bill Fischer, American baseball player (b. 1930)
María Irene Fornés, Cuban-American playwright (b. 1930)
Rae Ann Kelsch, American politician (b. 1960)
Frank Litsky, American sports columnist (b. 1926)
Beverly McClellan, American singer and contestant of "The Voice" (b. 1969)
Bob Skoronski, American football player (b. 1934)
Steven L. Zinter, American judge (b. 1950)
October 31 – Willie McCovey, American baseball player (b. 1938)
November
November 1
Terry Musser, American politician (b. 1948)
Dave Pickerell, American distiller (b. 1956)
Ken Swofford, American actor (b. 1933)
Edmund Zagorski, American convicted double murderer (b. 1954)
Paul Zimmerman, American sportswriter (b. 1932)
November 2
Roy Hargrove, American jazz trumpeter (b. 1969)
Kitty O'Neil, American stuntwoman and racer (b. 1946)
November 3
Joe Clayton, American business executive (b. 1949)
Eddie Foy III, American casting director (b. 1935)
Mari Hulman George, chairperson of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (b. 1934)
Sondra Locke, American actress (b. 1944)
John Marttila, American political strategist (b. 1940)
Ramona Ripston, American civil rights activist (b. 1927)
Eric Schiller, American chess player and author (b. 1955)
Brent R. Taylor, American military officer (b. 1979)
J. Willard Thompson, American racehorse trainer (b. 1935)
November 4
Donna Axum, American model and beauty pageant winner (b. 1942)
Bill Brown, American football player (b. 1938)
Jack Gargan, American politician (b. 1930)
Tetsugen Bernard Glassman, American Zen Buddhist monk (b. 2939)
Katherine Herring, American baseball player (b. 1933)
Harris Hines, American judge (b. 1950)
Vince Manuwai, American football player (b. 1980)
Grant R. Osborne, American theologian (b. 1942)
Mike Parker, American news reporter (b. 1943)
Douglas Turner, American Olympic rower (b. 1932)
November 5
Keith Christiansen, Canadian-born American ice hockey player (b. 1944)
Rick Reinert, American animator (b. 1925)
Hugh Wilson, American botanist (b. 1943)
November 6
Frances M. López-Morillas, American translator of Spanish literature (b. 1918)
Hartman Rector Jr., American general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1924)
Robert Stinnett, American sailor, photographer and author (b. 1924)
November 7
Robert Anthony Brucato, American Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1931)
Walt Kowalczyk, American football player (b. 1935)
Bob Patterson, American college basketball player (b. 1932)
November 8
Bonnie Cooper, American baseball player (b. 1935)
Bill Godbout, American computer scientist (b. 1939)
Chin Yang Lee, Chinese-born American author (b. 1916)
Riccardo Levi-Setti, Italian-born American physicist and professor (b. 1927)
Ron Negray, American baseball player (b. 1930)
Raymond Plank, American businessman (b. 1922)
Wallace Triplett, American football player (b. 1926)
Marvin Zuckerman, American psychologist (b. 1928)
November 9
Dorothy Cheney, American scientist (b. 1950)
Richard Paul Conaboy, American judge (b. 1925)
James Greene, American actor (b. 1927)
Ken Howell, American baseball player (b. 1961)
Roger W. Hunt, American politician (b. 1938)
Barre Toelken, American folklorist (b. 1935)
November 10
Ron Johnson, American football player (b. 1947)
Herbert London, American political activist and commentator (b. 1939)
Liz J. Patterson, American politician (b. 1940)
John Rogers, Canadian-born American businessman (b. 1961)
November 11
Dominic Carmon, American Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1931)
Jerry Gant, American visual artist and poet (b. 1962)
Shakti Gawain, American author (b. 1948)
Wayne Maunder, Canadian-born American actor (b. 1938)
Donald McCaig, American writer (b. 1940)
Frankie Schneider, American racing driver (b. 1926)
November 12
Stan Lee, comics artist and writer (Marvel Comics) (b. 1922)
David Pearson, American race car driver (b. 1934)
November 13 – Katherine MacGregor, American actress (b. 1925)
November 15 – Roy Clark, American country singer (b. 1933)
November 16
William Goldman, American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter (b. 1931)
Jane Maas, American advertising executive and author (b. 1932)
November 17
Les Beasley, American southern gospel singer (b. 1928)
Gene Berce, American basketball player (b. 1927)
Kayo Dottley, American football player (b. 1928)
Jerry Frankel, American theater and film producer (b. 1930)
Cyril Pahinui, American slack-key guitarist and singer (b. 1950)
Mary Kay Stearns, American actress (b. 1925)
November 18
Ethel Ayler, American actress (b. 1930)
Eddie Reeves, American songwriter (b. 1939)
November 19
Larry Pierce, American country singer and comedian (b. 1950)
Shiao Yi, Taiwanese-American wuxia novelist (b. 1935)
November 20
James H. Billington, American academic (b. 1929)
Eddie C. Campbell, American blues musician (b. 1939)
Mac Collins, American politician (b. 1944)
Henry Metzger, German-born American immunologist (b. 1932)
Wayne Stayskal, American cartoonist (b. 1932)
November 21
Michele Carey, American actress (b. 1943)
Angelica Cob-Baehler, American music industry executive (b. 1971)
Dean Gitter, American entrepreneur and real estate developer (b. 1935)
Olivia Hooker, American civil rights figure (b. 1915)
Jose Peralta, American politician (b. 1971)
November 22
Gerald Berenson, American cardiologist (b. 1922)
Willie Naulls, American basketball player (b. 1934)
Albert Ritzenberg, American tennis player and coach (b. 1918)
November 23
Betty Bumpers, American childhood immunizations activist (b. 1925)
Bob McNair, 81 American businessman and sports club owner (b. 1937)
Shawn O'Hara, American politician (b. 1958)
November 24 – Ricky Jay, American magician and actor (b. 1946)
November 25
Randolph L. Braham, 95, Romanian-born American historian and political scientist (b. 1923)
Tony Hanson, American basketball player (b. 1955)
Gloria Katz, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1942)
Wright King, American actor (b. 1923)
Larry Matysik, American professional wrestling commentator and author (b. 1946)
Shep Shepherd, American jazz musician (b. 1917)
November 26 – Stephen Hillenburg, marine biologist, cartoonist (SpongeBob SquarePants) (b. 1961)
November 27 – Ed Pastor, former U.S. Representative from Arizona (b. 1943)
November 28 – Robert Morris, American sculptor (b. 1931)
November 30 – George H. W. Bush, American politician, 41st President of the United States (b. 1924)
December
December 1 – Ken Berry, American actor (b. 1933)
December 2
Martin B. Dickman, American biologist (b. 1953)
Wilmer Clemont Fields, American Southern Baptist minister and newspaper editor (b. 1922)
Al Frazier, American football player (b. 1935)
Perry Robinson, American jazz musician (b. 1938)
Michael James Snyder, American business executive (b. 1950)
December 3
Philip Bosco, American actor (b. 1930)
Fred Greenstein, American political scientist (b. 1930)
Mervin E. Muller, American computer scientist and statistician (b. 1928)
Alex Wizbicki, American football player (b. 1921)
December 4
Lester Kinsolving, American political radio host (b. 1928)
Sam Nover, American sportscaster (b. 1941)
December 5
Jim House, American politician (b. 1948)
Jim Jamieson, American professional golfer (b. 1943)
Gary McPherson, American college basketball coach (b. 1936)
Lynn Schindler, American politician (b. 1944)
Harry W. Shlaudeman, American diplomat (b. 1926)
Julia Vinograd, American poet (b. 1944)
December 6
Ace Cannon, American saxophonist (b. 1934)
Al Gallagher, American baseball player (b. 1945)
Larry Hennig, American professional wrestler (b. 1936)
Jim Meehan, American poker player (b. 1952)
Murray Murphey, American historian (b. 1928)
Isiah Robertson, American football player (b. 1949)
Frank Joseph Rodimer, American Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1927)
Tim Rossovich, American football player (b. 1946)
December 7
Reby Cary, American politician (b. 1920)
Paul Henderson, American journalist (b. 1939)
The Mascara Snake, American artist and musician (b. 1948)
December 8
Evelyn Berezin, American computer designer (b. 1925)
Rosanell Eaton, American civil rights activist (b. 1921)
Walter J. Floss Jr., American politician (b. 1923)
Rod Jones, American football player (b. 1964)
December 9
Robert Bergland, American politician (b. 1928)
William Blum, American author and historian (b. 1933)
Riccardo Giacconi, Italian-born American Nobel astrophysicist (b. 1931)
December 10 – Bob and John, American racehorse (b. 2003)
December 11
Harold L. Kahn, American historian (b. 1930)
Eleanor Maccoby, American psychologist (b. 1917)
Bill Siegel, American documentary producer and director (b. 1963)
December 13 – Nancy Wilson, American jazz singer (b. 1937)
December 14 – Joe Osborn, American bass guitarist (b. 1937)
December 15 – Jerry Chesnut, American songwriter (b. 1931)
December 17
Penny Marshall, actress, director, and producer (b. 1943)
Raven Wilkinson, American dancer (b. 1935)
December 18
Steve Daskewisz, American actor and stuntman (b. 1944)
Paul Frazier, American football player (b. 1967)
Peter Masterson, American writer (b. 1934)
December 20 – Donald Moffat, English-American actor (b. 1930)
December 21 – Forrest Fezler, American golfer and golf course designer (b. 1949)
December 22 – Jimmy Work, American country singer (b. 1924)
December 23
Eileen Battersby, American-born Irish literary critic (b. 1958)
Barbara Kloka Hackett, American judge (b. 1928)
Liza Redfield, American conductor and pianist (b. 1924)
Elias M. Stein, American mathematician (b. 1931)
December 27 – Richard Arvin Overton, war veteran (b. 1906)
December 30
Cameron M. Alexander, 86, American Baptist minister
Larry Austin, 88, American composer
Seymour S. Cohen, American biochemist (b. 1917)
Marc Hauser, American photographer (b. 1952)
Jack Kahl, American businessman (b. 1940)
Don Lusk, American animator and director (b. 1913)
Warren Plunkett, American football player (b. 1920)
December 31 – Ray Sawyer, Country music singer (b. 1937)
See also
2018 in American music
2018 in American soccer
2018 in American television
2018 in United States politics and government
Timeline of United States history (2010–present)
References
External links
Years of the 21st century in the United States
United States
United States
2010s in the United States
|
28118665
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egress%20router
|
Egress router
|
An egress router is a Label Switch Router that is an end point (drain) for a given Label Switched Path (LSP). An egress router may be an ingress router or an intermediate router for any other LSP(s). Hence the role of egress and ingress routers is LSP specific. Usually, the MPLS label is attached with an IP packet at the ingress router and removed at the egress router, whereas label swapping is performed on the intermediate routers.
MPLS networking
|
30339
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris
|
Tetris
|
Tetris ( ) is a puzzle video game created by Soviet software engineer Alexey Pajitnov in 1984. It has been published by several companies for multiple platforms, most prominently during a dispute over the appropriation of the rights in the late 1980s. After a significant period of publication by Nintendo, the rights reverted to Pajitnov in 1996, who co-founded The Tetris Company with Henk Rogers to manage licensing.
In Tetris, players complete lines by moving differently shaped pieces (tetrominoes), which descend onto the playing field. The completed lines disappear and grant the player points, and the player can proceed to fill the vacated spaces. The game ends when the playing field is filled. The longer the player can delay this outcome, the higher their score will be. In multiplayer games, players must last longer than their opponents; in certain versions, players can inflict penalties on opponents by completing a significant number of lines. Some adaptations have provided variations to the game's theme, such as three-dimensional displays or a system for reserving pieces.
Built on simple rules and requiring intelligence and skill, Tetris established itself as one of the great early video games. By December 2011, it had sold 202million copies – approximately 70million physical units and 132million paid mobile game downloads – making it one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time. The Game Boy version is one of the best-selling games of all time, with more than 35 million copies sold. Tetris is available on over 65 platforms, setting a Guinness world record for the most ported video game. Tetris is rooted within popular culture and its popularity extends beyond the sphere of video games; imagery from the game has influenced architecture, music and cosplay. The game has also been the subject of various research studies that have analyzed its theoretical complexity and have shown its effect on the human brain following a session, in particular the Tetris effect.
Gameplay
Tetris is primarily composed of a field of play in which pieces of different geometric forms, called "tetrominoes", descend from the top of the field. During this descent, the player can move the pieces laterally and rotate them until they touch the bottom of the field or land on a piece that had been placed before it. The player can neither slow down the falling pieces nor stop them, but can accelerate them in most versions. The objective of the game is to use the pieces to create as many horizontal lines of blocks as possible. When a line is completed, it disappears, and the blocks placed above fall one rank. Completing lines grants points, and accumulating a certain number of points moves the player up a level, which increases the number of points granted per completed line.
In most versions, the speed of the falling pieces increases with each level, leaving the player with less time to think about the placement. The player can clear multiple lines at once, which can earn bonus points in some versions. It is possible to complete up to four lines simultaneously with the use of the I-shaped tetromino; this move is called a "Tetris", and is the basis of the game's title. If the player cannot make the blocks disappear quickly enough, the field will start to fill, and when the pieces reach the top of the field and prevent the arrival of additional pieces, the game ends. At the end of each game, the player receives a score based on the number of lines that have been completed. The game never ends with the player's victory; the player can only complete as many lines as possible before an inevitable loss.
Since 1996, The Tetris Company has internally defined specifications and guidelines that publishers must adhere to in order to be granted a license to Tetris. The contents of these guidelines establish such elements as the correspondence of buttons and actions, the size of the field of play, the system of rotation, and others.
Game pieces
The pieces on which the game of Tetris is based around are called "tetrominoes". Pajitnov's original version for the Electronika 60 computer used green brackets to represent the blocks that make up tetrominoes. Versions of Tetris on the original Game Boy/Game Boy Color and on most dedicated handheld games use black-and-white or grayscale graphics, but most popular versions use a separate color for each distinct shape. Prior to The Tetris Company's standardization in the early 2000s, those colors varied widely from implementation to implementation.
Scoring
The scoring formula for the majority of Tetris products is built on the idea that more difficult line clears should be awarded more points. For example, a single line clear in Tetris Zone is worth 100 points, clearing four lines at once (known as a Tetris) is worth 800, while each subsequent back-to-back Tetris is worth 1,200. In conjunction, players can be awarded combos that exist in certain games which reward multiple line clears in quick succession. The exact conditions for triggering combos, and the amount of importance assigned to them, vary from game to game.
Nearly all Tetris games allow the player to press a button to increase the speed of the current piece's descent or cause the piece to drop and lock into place immediately, known as a "soft drop" and a "hard drop", respectively. While performing a soft drop, the player can also stop the piece's increased speed by releasing the button before the piece settles into place. Some games only allow either soft drop or hard drop; others have separate buttons for both. Many games award a number of points based on the height that the piece fell before locking, so using the hard drop generally awards more points.
Infinite game question
The question Would it be possible to play forever? was first considered in a thesis by John Brzustowski in 1992. The conclusion reached was that the game is statistically doomed to end. If a player receives a sufficiently large sequence of alternating S and Z Tetrominoes, the naïve gravity used by the standard game eventually forces the player to leave holes on the board. The holes will necessarily stack to the top and, ultimately, end the game. If the pieces are distributed randomly, this sequence will eventually occur. Thus, if a game with, for example, an ideal, uniform, uncorrelated random number generator is played long enough, any player will top out.
Modern versions of Tetris released after 2001 use a bag-style randomizer that guarantees players will never receive more than four S or Z pieces in a row by shuffling tetrominoes of all types for each 7 pieces. This is one of the "Indispensable Rules" enforced by the Tetris Guideline that all officially licensed Tetris games must follow.
Easy spin dispute
"Easy spin", or "infinite spin", is a feature in some Tetris games where a tetromino stops falling for a moment after left or right movement or rotation, effectively allowing the player to suspend the piece while deciding where to place it. The mechanic was introduced in 1999's The Next Tetris, and drew criticism in reviews of 2001's Tetris Worlds.
This feature has been implemented into The Tetris Company's official guideline. This type of play differs from traditional Tetris because it takes away the pressure of higher level speed. Some reviewers went so far as to say that this mechanism broke the game. The goal in Tetris Worlds, however, is to complete a certain number of lines as fast as possible, so the ability to hold off a piece's placement will not make achieving that goal any faster. Later, GameSpot received "easy spin" more openly, saying that "the infinite spin issue honestly really affects only a few of the single-player gameplay modes in Tetris DS, because any competitive mode requires you to lay down pieces as quickly as humanly possible."
Henk Rogers stated in an interview that infinite spin was an intentional part of the game design, allowing novice players to expend some of their available scoring time to decide on the best placement of a piece. Rogers observed that "gratuitous spinning" does not occur in competitive play, as expert players do not require much time to think about where a piece should be placed. A limitation has been placed on infinite lock delay in later games of the franchise, where after a certain amount of rotations and movements, the piece will instantly lock itself. This is defaulted to 15 such actions.
History
Conception
In 1979, Alexey Pajitnov joined the Computer Center of the Soviet Academy of Sciences as a speech recognition researcher. While he was tasked with testing the capabilities of new hardware, his ambition was to use computers to make people happy. Pajitnov developed several puzzle games on the institute's computer, an Electronika 60, a scarce resource at the time. For Pajitnov, "games allow people to get to know each other better and act as revealers of things you might not normally notice, such as their way of thinking".
In 1984, while trying to recreate a favorite puzzle game from his childhood featuring pentominoes, Pajitnov imagined a game consisting of a descent of random pieces that the player would turn to fill rows. Pajitnov felt that the game would be needlessly complicated with twelve different shape variations, so he scaled the concept down to tetrominoes, of which there are seven variants. Pajitnov titled the game Tetris, a word created from a combination of "tetra" (meaning "four") and his favorite sport, "tennis". Because the Electronika 60 had no graphical interface, Pajitnov modelled the field and pieces using spaces and brackets. Realizing that completed lines filled the screen quickly, Pajitnov decided to delete them, creating a key part of Tetris gameplay. This early version of Tetris had no scoring system and no levels, but its addictive quality distinguished it from the other puzzle games Pajitnov had created.
Pajitnov had completed the first playable version of Tetris by June 6, 1984. Pajitnov presented Tetris to his colleagues, who quickly became addicted to it. It permeated the offices within the Academy of Sciences, and within a few weeks it reached every Moscow institute with a computer. A friend of Pajitnov, Vladimir Pokhilko, who requested the game for the Moscow Medical Institute, saw people stop working to play Tetris. Pokhilko eventually banned the game from the Medical Institute to restore productivity.
Pajitnov sought to adapt Tetris to the IBM Personal Computer, which had a higher quality display than the Electronika 60. Pajitnov recruited Vadim Gerasimov, a 16-year-old high school student who was known for his computer skills. Pajitnov had met Gerasimov before through a mutual acquaintance, and they had worked together on previous games. Gerasimov adapted Tetris to the IBM PC over the course of a few weeks, incorporating color and a scoreboard.
Acquisition of rights by Mirrorsoft and Spectrum HoloByte
Pajitnov wanted to export Tetris, but he had no knowledge of the business world. His superiors in the Academy were not necessarily happy with the success of the game, since they had not intended such a creation from the research team. Furthermore, intellectual property did not exist in the Soviet Union, and Soviet researchers were not allowed to sell their creations. Pajitnov asked his supervisor Victor Brjabrin, who had knowledge of the world outside the Soviet Union, to help him publish Tetris. Pajitnov offered to transfer the rights of the game to the Academy, and was delighted to receive a non-compulsory remuneration from Brjabrin through this deal.
In 1986, Brjabrin sent a copy of Tetris to Hungarian game publisher Novotrade. From there, copies of the game began circulating via floppy disks throughout Hungary and as far as Poland. Robert Stein, an international software salesman for the London-based firm Andromeda Software, saw the game's commercial potential during a visit to Hungary in June 1986. After an indifferent response from the Academy, Stein contacted Pajitnov and Brjabrin by fax to obtain the license rights. The researchers expressed interest in forming an agreement with Stein via fax, but they were unaware that this fax communication could be considered a legal contract in the Western world; Stein began to approach other companies to produce the game.
Stein approached publishers at the 1987 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Gary Carlston, co-founder of Broderbund, retrieved a copy and brought it to California. Despite enthusiasm amongst its employees, Broderbund remained skeptical because of the game's Soviet origins. Likewise, Mastertronic co-founder Martin Alper declared that "no Soviet product will ever work in the Western world". Stein ultimately signed two agreements: he sold the European rights to the publisher Mirrorsoft, and the American rights to Spectrum HoloByte. The latter obtained the rights after a visit to Mirrorsoft by Spectrum HoloByte president Phil Adam in which he played Tetris for two hours. At that time, Stein had not yet signed a contract with the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, he sold the rights to the two companies for £3,000 and a royalty of 7.5 to 15% on sales.
Before releasing Tetris in the United States, Spectrum HoloByte CEO Gilman Louie asked for an overhaul of the game's graphics and music. The Soviet spirit was preserved, with fields illustrating Russian parks and buildings as well as melodies anchored in Russian folklore of the time. The company's goal was to make people want to buy a Russian product; the game came complete with a red package and Cyrillic text, an unusual approach on the other side of the Berlin Wall. The Mirrorsoft version was released for the IBM PC in November 1987, while the Spectrum HoloByte version was released for the same platform in January 1988.
Tetris was ported to platforms including the Amiga, Atari ST, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC. At the time, it made no mention of Pajitnov and came with the announcement of "Made in the United States of America, designed abroad". Tetris was a commercial success in Europe and the United States: Mirrorsoft sold tens of thousands of copies in two months, and Spectrum HoloByte sold over 100,000 units in the space of a year. According to Spectrum HoloByte, the average Tetris player was between 25 and 45 years old and was a manager or engineer. At the Software Publishers Association's Excellence in Software Awards ceremony in March 1988, Tetris won Best Entertainment Software, Best Original Game, Best Strategy Program, and Best Consumer Software.
Stein, however, was faced with a problem: the only document certifying a license fee was the fax from Pajitnov and Brjabrin, meaning that Stein sold the license for a game he did not yet own. Stein contacted Pajitnov and asked him for a contract for the rights. Stein began negotiations via fax, offering 75% of the revenue generated by Stein from the license. Elektronorgtechnica ("Elorg"), the Soviet Union's central organization for the import and export of computer software, was unconvinced and requested 80% of the revenue. Stein made several trips to Moscow and held long discussions with Elorg representatives. Stein came to an agreement with Elorg on February 24, 1988, and on May 10 he signed a contract for a ten-year worldwide Tetris license for all current and future computer systems. Pajitnov and Brjabrin were unaware that the game was already on sale and that Stein had claimed to own the rights prior to the agreement. Although Pajitnov would not receive any percentage from these sales, he said that "the fact that so many people enjoy my game is enough for me".
Acquisition of rights by Nintendo and legal battle
In 1988, Spectrum HoloByte sold the Japanese rights to its computer games and arcade machines to Bullet-Proof Software's Henk Rogers, who was searching for games for the Japanese market. Mirrorsoft sold its Japanese rights to Atari Games subsidiary Tengen, which then sold the Japanese arcade rights to Sega and the console rights to BPS, which published versions for Japanese computers, including the Nintendo Family Computer (Famicom), known outside Japan as the Nintendo Entertainment System and MSX2. At this point, almost a dozen companies believed they held the Tetris rights, with Stein retaining rights for home computer versions. Devices like Chinese Brick Game, popular in the early 1990s, often had many variations of Tetris. Soviet Union's Elorg was still unaware of the deals Stein had negotiated, which did not bring money to them. Nevertheless, Tetris was a commercial success in North America, Europe and Asia.
The same year, Nintendo was preparing to launch its first portable console, the Game Boy. Nintendo was attracted to Tetris by its simplicity and established success on the Famicom. Rogers, who was close to then Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi, sought to obtain the handheld rights. After a failed negotiation with Atari, Rogers contacted Stein in November 1988. Stein agreed to sign a contract, but explained that he had to consult Elorg before returning to negotiations with Rogers. After contacting Stein several times, Rogers began to suspect a breach of contract on Stein's part, and decided in February 1989 to go to the Soviet Union and negotiate the rights with Elorg.
Rogers arrived at the Elorg offices uninvited, while Stein and Mirrorsoft manager Kevin Maxwell made an appointment the same day without consulting each other. During the discussions, Rogers explained that he wanted to obtain the rights to Tetris for the Game Boy. After quickly obtaining an agreement with Elorg president Nikolai Belikov, Rogers showed Belikov a Tetris cartridge. Belikov was surprised, as he believed at the time that the rights to Tetris were only signed for computer systems. The present parties accused Nintendo of illegal publication, but Rogers defended himself by explaining that he had obtained the rights via Atari Games, which had itself signed an agreement with Stein. Belikov then realized the complex path that the license had followed within four years because of Stein's contracts, and he constructed a strategy to regain possession of the rights and obtain better commercial agreements. At that point, Elorg was faced with three different companies seeking to buy the rights.
During this time, Rogers befriended Pajitnov over a game of Go. Pajitnov would support Rogers throughout the discussions, to the detriment of Maxwell, who came to secure the Tetris rights for Mirrorsoft. Belikov proposed to Rogers that Stein's rights would be cancelled and Nintendo would be granted the game rights for both home and handheld consoles. Rogers flew to the United States to convince Nintendo's American branch to sign up for the rights. The contract with Elorg was signed by executive and president Minoru Arakawa for $500,000, plus 50 cents per cartridge sold. Elorg then sent an updated contract to Stein. One of the clauses defined a computer as a machine with a screen and keyboard, and thus Stein's rights to console versions were withdrawn. Stein signed the contract without paying attention to this clause, and later realized that all the contract's other clauses, notably on payments, were only a "smokescreen" to deceive him.
In March 1989, Nintendo sent a cease and desist to Atari Games concerning production of the NES version of Tetris. Atari Games contacted Mirrorsoft, and were assured that they still retained the rights. Nintendo, however, maintained its position. In response, Mirrorsoft owner Robert Maxwell pressured Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev to cancel the contract between Elorg and Nintendo. Despite the threats to Belikov, Elorg refused to give in and highlighted the financial advantages of their contract compared to those signed with Stein and Mirrorsoft.
On June 15, 1989, Nintendo and Atari Games began a legal battle in the courts of San Francisco. Atari Games sought to prove that the NES was a computer, as indicated by its Japanese name "Famicom", an abbreviation of "Family Computer". In this case, the initial license would authorize Atari Games to release the game. The central argument of Atari Games was that the Famicom was designed to be convertible into a computer via its extension port. This argument was not accepted, and Pajitnov stressed that the initial contract only concerned computers and no other machine. Nintendo brought Belikov to testify on its behalf. Judge Fern M. Smith declared that Mirrorsoft and Spectrum HoloByte never received explicit authorization for marketing on consoles, and on June 21, 1989, ruled in Nintendo's favor, granting them a preliminary injunction against Atari Games in the process. The next day, Atari Games withdrew its NES version from sale, and thousands of cartridges remained unsold in the company's warehouses.
Sega had planned to release a Genesis version of Tetris on April 15, 1989, but cancelled its release during Nintendo and Atari's legal battle; fewer than ten copies were manufactured. A new port of the arcade version by M2 was included in the Sega Genesis Mini microconsole, released in September 2019.
Commercial success and acquisition of rights by Pajitnov
Through the legal history of the license, Pajitnov gained a reputation in the West. He was regularly invited by journalists and publishers, through which he discovered that his game had sold millions of copies, from which he had not made any money. However, he remained humble and proud of the game, which he considered "an electronic ambassador of benevolence".
In January 1990, Pajitnov was invited by Spectrum HoloByte to the Consumer Electronics Show, and was immersed in American life for the first time. After a period of adaptation, he explored American culture in several cities, including Las Vegas, San Francisco, New York City and Boston, and engaged in interviews with several hosts, including the directors of Nintendo of America. He marveled at the freedom and the advantages of Western society, and spoke often of his travels to his colleagues upon returning to the Soviet Union. He realized that there was no market in Russia for their programs. At the same time, sales of the Game Boy – bundled with a handheld version of Tetris – exploded, exceeding sales forecasts three times.
In 1991, Pajitnov and Pokhilko emigrated to the United States. Pajitnov moved to Seattle, where he produced games for Spectrum HoloByte. In April 1996, as agreed with the Academy ten years earlier and following an agreement with Rogers, the rights to Tetris reverted to Pajitnov. Pajitnov and Rogers founded The Tetris Company in June 1996 to manage the rights on all platforms, the previous agreements having expired. Pajitnov now receives a royalty for each Tetris game and derivative sold worldwide. In 2002, Pajitnov and Rogers founded Tetris Holding after the purchase of the game's remaining rights from Elorg, now a private entity following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The Tetris Company now owns all rights to the Tetris brand, and is mainly responsible for removing unlicensed clones from the market; the company regularly calls on Apple Inc. and Google to remove illegal versions from their mobile app stores. In one notable 2012 case, Tetris Holding, LLC v. Xio Interactive, Inc., Tetris Holding and the Tetris Company defended its copyright against an iOS clone, which established a new stance on evaluating video game clone infringements based on look and feel.
In December 2005, Electronic Arts acquired Jamdat, a company specializing in mobile games. Jamdat had previously bought a company founded by Rogers in 2001, which managed the Tetris license on mobile platforms. As a result, Electronic Arts held a 15-year license on all mobile phone releases of Tetris, which expired on April 21, 2020.
Versions
Tetris has been released on a multitude of platforms since the creation of the original version on the Electronika 60. The game is available on most game consoles and is playable on personal computers, smartphones and iPods. Guinness World Records recognized Tetris as the most ported video game in history, having appeared on over 65 different platforms as of October 2010.
Since the 2000s, internet versions of the game have been developed. However, commercial versions not approved by The Tetris Company tend to be purged due to company policy. The most famous online version, Tetris Friends by Tetris Online, Inc., had attracted over a million registered users. Tetris Online had also developed versions for console-based digital download services. Because of its popularity and simplicity of development, Tetris is often used as a hello world project for programmers coding for a new system or programming language. This has resulted in the availability of a large number of ports for different platforms. For instance, μTorrent and GNU Emacs contain similar shape-stacking games as easter eggs.
Within official franchise installments, each version has made improvements to accommodate advancing technology and the goal to provide a more complete game. Developers are given freedom to add new modes of play and revisit the concept from different angles. Some concepts developed on official versions have been integrated into the Tetris guidelines in order to standardize future versions and allow players to migrate between different versions with little effort. The IBM PC version was the most evolved from the original version, featuring a graphical interface, colored tetrominoes, running statistics for the number of tetrominoes placed, and a guide for the controls.
In 2020 the intellectual property of the license belongs to Blue Planet Software. Maya (daughter of Rogers) supervises licenses to developers controlling their products
Computational complexity
In computer science, it is common to analyze the computational complexity of problems, including real life problems and games. It was proven that for the "offline" version of Tetris (the player knows the complete sequence of pieces that will be dropped, i.e. there is no hidden information) the following objectives are NP-complete:
Maximizing the number of rows cleared while playing the given piece sequence.
Maximizing the number of pieces placed before a loss occurs.
Maximizing the number of simultaneous clearing of four rows.
Minimizing the height of the highest filled grid square over the course of the sequence.
Also, it is difficult to even approximately solve the first, second, and fourth problem. It is NP-hard, given an initial gameboard and a sequence of p pieces, to approximate the first two problems to within a factor of for any constant .
It is NP-hard to approximate the last problem within a factor of for any constant .
To prove NP-completeness, it was shown that there is a polynomial reduction between the 3-partition problem, which is also NP-complete, and the Tetris problem.
Music
The earliest versions of Tetris had no music. The NES version includes two original compositions by Hirokazu Tanaka along with an arrangement of "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" from the second act of The Nutcracker, composed by Tchaikovsky. The Tengen version also features original music, and an arrangement of "Kalinka" and "Katyusha". 1860s Russian folk tune "Korobeiniki" first appeared in Spectrum Holobyte's 1988 versions of Tetris together "Dark Eyes", "Polyushko-polye" and "The Birch Tree".
Nintendo's Game Boy version also includes "Korobeiniki", as well as the Johann Sebastian Bach's French Suite No. 3 In B Minor (BWV 814), and an original track by Tanaka. "Korobeiniki" is used in most versions of the game, and has appeared in other games, albums and films that make reference to Tetris. It was also included in the SNES Tetris game, Tetris & Dr. Mario, Tetris DS and Blue Planet Software The Next Tetris (1999, PSX and Windows). Doctor Spin's 1992 Eurodance cover (under the name "Tetris") reached #6 on the UK singles chart. In the 2000s, The Tetris Company added as a prerequisite for the granting of the license that a version of "Korobeiniki" be available in the game.
Cognitive effects
According to research from Dr. Richard Haier, et al. prolonged Tetris activity can also lead to more efficient brain activity during play. When first playing Tetris, brain function and activity increases, along with greater cerebral energy consumption, measured by glucose metabolic rate. As Tetris players become more proficient, their brains show a reduced consumption of glucose, indicating more efficient brain activity for this task. Moderate play of Tetris (half-an-hour a day for three months) boosts general cognitive functions such as "critical thinking, reasoning, language and processing" and increases cerebral cortex thickness.
Professor Jackie Andrade and Jon May, from Plymouth University's Cognition Institute, and Ph.D. student Jessica Skorka-Brown have conducted research that shows that playing Tetris could distract from cravings and give a "quick and manageable" fix for people struggling to stick to diets, or quit smoking or drinking.
Another notable effect is that, according to a Canadian study in April 2013, playing Tetris has been found to treat older adolescents with amblyopia (lazy eye), which was better than patching a victim's well eye to train their weaker eye. Dr. Robert Hess of the research team said: "It's much better than patching – much more enjoyable; it's faster, and it seems to work better". Tested in the United Kingdom, this experiment also appears to help children with that problem.
Tetris can cause the brain to involuntarily picture Tetris combinations even when the player is not playing (the Tetris effect), although this can occur with any computer game or situation showcasing repeated images or scenarios, such as a jigsaw puzzle. While debates about Tetris's cognitive benefits continue, some researchers view it as a milestone in the gamification of education.
In January 2009, an Oxford University research group headed by Dr. Emily Holmes reported that, for healthy volunteers, playing Tetris soon after viewing traumatic material in the laboratory reduced the number of flashbacks to those scenes in the following week. They believe that the computer game may disrupt the memories that are retained of the sights and sounds witnessed at the time, and which are later re-experienced through involuntary, distressing flashbacks of that moment. The group hoped to develop this approach further as a potential intervention to reduce the flashbacks experienced in post-traumatic stress disorder but emphasized that these are only preliminary results. A 2017 study found that people who played Tetris, and similar games such as Candy Crush, while waiting for treatment following traffic accidents had fewer intrusive memories the following week.
Reception and legacy
Compute! called the IBM version of Tetris "one of the most addictive computer games this side of the Berlin Wall ... [it] is not the game to start if you have work to do or an appointment to keep. Consider yourself warned". Orson Scott Card joked that the game "proves that Russia still wants to bury us. I shudder to think of the blow to our economy as computer productivity drops to 0". Noting that Tetris was not copy-protected, he wrote: "Obviously, the game is meant to find its way onto every American machine". The IBM version of the game was reviewed in 1988 in Dragon No. 135 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 4.5 out of 5 stars. The Lessers later reviewed Spectrum HoloByte's Macintosh version of Tetris in 1989 in Dragon No. 141, giving that version 5 out of 5 stars. Macworld reviewed the Macintosh version of Tetris in 1988, praising its strategic gameplay, stating that "Tetris offers the rare combination of being simple to learn but extremely challenging to play", and also praising the inclusion of the Desk Accessory version, which uses less RAM. Macworld summarized their review by listing Tetris' pros and cons, stating that Tetris is "elegant; easy to play; challenging and addicting; requires quick thinking, long-term strategy, and lightning reflexes" and listed Tetris''' cons as "None".
Roy Wagner reviewed the game for Computer Gaming World, and said that "Tetris is simple in concept, simple to play, and a unique design".
There was a hoax that circulated in February 2019 that the original NES instruction manual for Tetris had named the seven tetrominoes with names like "Orange Ricky", "Hero" and "Smashboy", but was disproven. Despite being disproven by video game historians, a question on the October 7 that year airing of Jeopardy! alluded to these names.
Sales
Spectrum HoloByte's versions for personal computers sold 150,000 copies for ( adjusted for inflation) in two years, between 1988 and 1990. Tetris gained greater success with the release of Nintendo's NES version and Game Boy version in 1989. In six months of release by 1990, the NES version sold copies for ( adjusted for inflation), while Game Boy bundles with Tetris sold units. It topped the Japanese sales charts during AugustSeptember 1989 and from December 1989 to January 1990. Tetris became Nintendo's top-seller for the first few months of 1990. Nintendo's versions of Tetris went on to sell copies in the United States by 1992, and more than worldwide by 1996. Nintendo eventually sold a total of copies for the Game Boy, and for the NES.
Sega's arcade version of Tetris was also successful in Japan, where it became the highest-grossing arcade game of 1989. Spectrum HoloByte's PC versions of Tetris eventually sold more than copies , with women accounting for nearly half of Tetris players, in contrast to most other PC games.
In January 2010, the Tetris franchise had sold more than 170 million copies, including approximately 70 million physical copies and over 100 million copies for cell phones, making it one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time. , Tetris has sold 132million paid mobile game downloads.
In April 2019, Tetris99 has been published through worldwide. While associating with Nintendo Switch Online, Tetris99 has more than 9.8 million accounts globally from the subscription.
Accolades
In 1993, the ZX Spectrum version of the game was voted number 49 in the Your Sinclair Official Top 100 Games of All Time. In 1996, Tetris Pro was ranked the 38th best game of all time by Amiga Power. Entertainment Weekly picked the game as the #8 greatest game available in 1991, saying: "Thanks to Nintendo's endless promotion, Tetris has become one of the most popular video games".Computer Gaming World gave Tetris the 1989 Compute! Choice Award for Arcade Game, describing it as "by far, the most addictive game ever". The game won three Software Publishers Association Excellence in Software Awards in 1989, including Best Entertainment Program and the Critic's Choice Award for consumers. Computer Gaming World in 1996 ranked it 14th on the magazine's list of the most innovative computer games. That same year, Next Generation listed it as number 2 on their "Top 100 Games of All Time", commenting that "there is something so perfect, so Zen about the falling blocks of Tetris that the game has captured the interest of everyone who has ever played it". In 1999, Next Generation listed Tetris as number 2 on their "Top 50 Games of All Time", commenting that "Tetris is the essence of gameplay at its most basic. You have a simple goal, simple controls, and simple objects to manipulate". On March 12, 2007, The New York Times reported that Tetris was named to a list of the ten most important video games of all time, the so-called game canon. After announced at the 2007 Game Developers Conference, the Library of Congress took up the video game preservation proposal and began with these 10 games, including Tetris.
In 2007, video game website GameFAQs hosted its sixth annual "Character Battle", in which the users nominate their favorite video game characters for a popularity contest in which characters participate. The L-shaped Tetris piece (or "L-Block" as it was called) entered the contest as a joke character, but on November 4, it won the contest. On June 6, 2009, Google honored Tetris 25-year anniversary by changing its logotype to a version drawn with Tetris blocks – the "l" letter being the long Tetris block lowering into its place, seen here. In 2009, Game Informer put Tetris 3rd on their list of "The Top 200 Games of All Time", saying that "if a game could be considered ageless, it's Tetris". The Game Informer staff also placed it third on their 2001 list of the 100 best games ever.Electronic Gaming Monthlys 100th issue had Tetris as first place in the "100 Best Games of All Time", commenting that "Tetris is as pure as a video game can get. ... When the right blocks come your way - and if you can manage to avoid mistakes - the game can be relaxing. One mislaid block, however, and your duties switch to damage control, a mad, panicky dash to clean up your mess or die". Tetris was also the only game for which the list did not specify one or two versions; the editors explained that after deadlocking over which version was best, they concluded that there was no wrong version of Tetris to play. In 2007, Tetris came in second place in IGN's "100 Greatest Video Games of All Time".
In 1991, PC Format named Tetris one of the 50 best computer games ever. The editors called it "incredibly addictive" and "one of the best games of all time".
Research Tetris has been the subject of academic research. Vladimir Pokhilko was the first clinical psychologist to conduct experiments using Tetris. Subsequently, it has been used for research in several fields including the theory of computation, algorithmic theory, and cognitive psychology.
During the game of Tetris, blocks appear to adsorb onto the lower surface of the window. This has led scientists to use tetrominoes "as a proxy for molecules with a complex shape" to model their "adsorption on a flat surface" to study the thermodynamics of nanoparticles.
Film Tetris appeared in the 2010 short animated film Pixels, and in the 2015 movie of the same name inspired by the former.
In 2014 it was announced that Threshold Entertainment had teamed up with The Tetris Company to develop Tetris - The Movie, a film adaptation of the game. Threshold's CEO described the film as an epic sci-fi adventure that would be the first part of a trilogy. In 2016, sources reported on a press release claiming the film would be shot in China in 2017 with an $80 million budget. However, no 2017 or later sources confirm the film ever actually went into production.
A movie titled Tetris, about the legal battle surrounding the game in the late 1980s, was announced in 2020, to star Taron Egerton as Henk Rogers.
See also
Brain Wall and Blokken, game shows based on Tetris Ecstasy of Order: The Tetris Masters, a 2011 documentary about the 2010 Classic Tetris World Championship, featuring interviews with Pajitnov and Richard Haier
Game Over, a 1993 book covering Nintendo history, including interviews with Pajitnov and others regarding Tetris licensing
Further reading
References
Bibliography
Books
Instruction manuals
Video documentaries
. Magnus Temple. 2004.
. Adam Cornelius. 2011.The Story of Tetris at YouTube. Gaming Historian. 2019.
External links
(promoted as Tetris - The Movie''), first announced in 2014
, dramatizing legal battles surrounding the game
1984 in the Soviet Union
1984 video games
Alexey Pajitnov games
DOS games
NP-complete problems
Russian inventions
Soviet brands
Soviet games
Soviet inventions
Video games developed in Russia
Video game franchises introduced in 1984
|
328305
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trampoline%20%28computing%29
|
Trampoline (computing)
|
In computer programming, the word trampoline has a number of meanings, and is generally associated with jump instructions (i.e. moving to different code paths).
Low-level programming
Trampolines (sometimes referred to as indirect jump vectors) are memory locations holding addresses pointing to interrupt service routines, I/O routines, etc. Execution jumps into the trampoline and then immediately jumps out, or bounces, hence the term trampoline. They have many uses:
Trampoline can be used to overcome the limitations imposed by a central processing unit (CPU) architecture that expects to always find vectors in fixed locations.
When an operating system is booted on a symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) machine, only one processor, the bootstrap processor, will be active. After the operating system has configured itself, it will instruct the other processors to jump to a piece of trampoline code that will initialize the processors and wait for the operating system to start scheduling threads on them.
High-level programming
As used in some Lisp implementations, a trampoline is a loop that iteratively invokes thunk-returning functions (continuation-passing style). A single trampoline suffices to express all control transfers of a program; a program so expressed is trampolined, or in trampolined style; converting a program to trampolined style is trampolining. Programmers can use trampolined functions to implement tail-recursive function calls in stack-oriented programming languages.
Continuation-passing style is a popular intermediate format for compilers of function languages, because many control flow constructs can be elegantly expressed and tail call optimization is easy. When compiling to a language without optimized tail calls, one can avoid stack growth via a technique called trampolining. The idea is to not make the final continuation call inside the function, but to exit and to return the continuation to a trampoline. That trampoline is simply a loop that invokes the returned continuations. Hence, there are no nested function calls and the stack won’t grow.
In Java, trampoline refers to using reflection to avoid using inner classes, for example in event listeners. The time overhead of a reflection call is traded for the space overhead of an inner class. Trampolines in Java usually involve the creation of a GenericListener to pass events to an outer class.
When interfacing pieces of code with incompatible calling conventions, a trampoline is used to convert the caller's convention into the callee's convention.
In embedded systems, trampolines are short snippets of code that start up other snippets of code. For example, rather than write interrupt handlers entirely in assembly language, another option is to write interrupt handlers mostly in C, and use a short trampoline to convert the assembly-language interrupt calling convention into the C calling convention.
When passing a callback to a system that expects to call a C function, but one wants it to execute the method of a particular instance of a class written in C++, one uses a short trampoline to convert the C function-calling convention to the C++ method-calling convention. One way of writing such a trampoline is to use a thunk. Another method is to use a generic listener.
In Objective-C, a trampoline is an object returned by a method that captures and reifies all messages sent to it and then "bounces" those messages on to another object, for example in higher order messaging.
In the GCC compiler, trampoline refers to a technique for implementing pointers to nested functions. The trampoline is a small piece of code which is constructed on the fly on the stack when the address of a nested function is taken. The trampoline sets up the static link pointer, which allows the nested function to access local variables of the enclosing function. The function pointer is then simply the address of the trampoline. This avoids having to use "fat" function pointers for nested functions which carry both the code address and the static link. This however conflicts with the tendency to make the stack non-executable though for security reasons.
In the esoteric programming language Befunge, a trampoline is an instruction to skip the next cell in the control flow.
No-execute stacks
Some implementations of trampolines cause a loss of no-execute stacks (NX stack). In the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) in particular, a nested function builds a trampoline on the stack at runtime, and then calls the nested function through the data on stack. The trampoline requires the stack to be executable.
No-execute stacks and nested functions are mutually exclusive under GCC. If a nested function is used in the development of a program, then the NX stack is silently lost. GCC offers the -Wtrampolines warning to alert of the condition.
Software engineered using secure development lifecycle often do not allow the use of nested functions due to the loss of NX stacks.
See also
DLL trampolining
Retpoline
References
Computing terminology
|
4629611
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telligent%20Community
|
Telligent Community
|
Telligent Community is a community and collaboration software platform developed by Telligent Systems and was first released in 2004.
Telligent Community is built on the Telligent Evolution platform, with a variety of core applications running on top of it such as blogs, forums, media galleries, and wikis. Additional applications from third parties using the API's and REST stack can be installed or integrated with the platform.
Telligent Community is built with ASP.NET, C#, and Microsoft SQL Server. It is available as downloadable software that can be installed on a web server or via hosting providers. The current version is Verint Community 12.0 which was released February 2012. The product used to be named Community Server before being rebranded as part of the 5.0 release.
History
Telligent Systems was founded by Rob Howard in 2004, who was previously part of Microsoft's ASP.NET team. Telligent introduced its first product, Community Server, in the fall of 2004. Community Server was one of the first integrated community platforms that brought together blogs, photo galleries, wikis, forums, user profiles and more. Community Server was based on the merger of three then-widely used open source ASP.NET projects: the ASP.NET Forums, nGallery photo gallery, and .Text blog engine. The people behind those projects (Scott Watermasysk, Jason Alexander, and Rob Howard) joined together as Telligent Systems and along with several other software developers created Community Server 1.0.
Between 2004 and 2009 Community Server steadily grew in scope, features, and capabilities. In 2008 Telligent Systems released a second version of Community Server that targeted as an Enterprise Social Software platform used to create and manage internal employee communities and intranets. Originally branded as Community Server Evolution this was later renamed Telligent Enterprise.
Telligent also announced a new Enterprise Reporting platform at its first Community Server Developers Conference in 2008, which was later renamed Harvest. It was one of the first analytics suites for enterprise collaboration software, and provides social analytics including sentiment analysis, social fingerprints, and buzz analysis on social networking sites such as Twitter.
Telligent rebranded all of its products on June 23, 2009 at the Enterprise 2.0 conference when it launched its new Evolution platform product suite. Community Server became known as Telligent Community, Community Server Evolution became known as Telligent Enterprise and the underlying platform that both run on is now referred to as Telligent Evolution. The Social Analytics suite was renamed Telligent Analytics.
See also
Comparison of Internet forum software
Weblog software
References
Further reading
Press Release for Community Server Hosted Edition Beta
External links
Official Telligent Community product site
Telligent Online Community Groups
Blog software
Internet forum software
Content management systems
Groupware
Proprietary wiki software
Web applications
2004 software
|
64634473
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RusBITech
|
RusBITech
|
RPA RusBITech JSC () is a Russian technology company specializing in production of high technology solutions for Russian state enforcement structures, mainly for Russian Army. The most known product is the computer operating system called Astra Linux which is nowadays used almost totally throughout Russian military forces. The main Russian Army headquarters, The National Defense Management Center's, information systems are based on Astra Linux. The Director General of RusBITech is Alexei Bocharov.
RusBITech Astra
RusBITech Astra is the company derived from RusBITech solely to serve tasks related to Astra Linux. Astra Linux is being implemented in Russian state structures according to Russian Government decree No.2299-р of 17/10/2010 that orders federal authorities and budget institutions to implement Free Software usage. Versions of Astra Linux are produced for desktop PCs, mobile devices, servers, networking hardware and mainframes.
It is declared the Astra Linux licenses correspond with Russian and international laws and "don't contradict with the spirit and demands of GPL license". The system uses .deb packages.
In 2019, it was specially emphasized that Russian Army was going to totally give up Microsoft Windows in favor of Astra Linux.
Other law enforcement services, state-related institutions and companies (primarily, so-called "system-forming enterprizes") also began using Astra Linux in the general course of Russian Federation's efforts in import substitution and lowering dependence from Microsoft products. Among them Russian Police, Moscow Metro, Gazprom (national gas/oil holding), Rosatom (nuclear power provider), Russian Railways.
The Director General of RusBITech Astra is Ilya Sivtsev, he also serves as Operational Director of RusBITech. He is also a stakeholder at a Russian company Varton, a manufacturer of LED lighting.
Worldwide partnerships
Astra Linux is considered a recognized Debian Linux derivative, Rusbitech has partnership relations with The Linux Foundation.
In February 2018, Rusbitech announced it had ported Astra Linux to Russian-made Elbrus microprocessors. These microprocessors have its own microprocessor architecture, an alternative to commonly used architectures such as x86, which development began in USSR back in 1970s and is commonly known nowadays as Elbrus 2000 or E2K.
RusBITech holds partnerships with some of the world high-tech companies such as Huawei (Astra Linux support in servers), Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant (specialized secure OS usage) and many others, which in part (according to themselves), include: Dell, Kaspersky Lab, DOSAAF, Megafon, IBM, Lenovo, Samsung, SAP.
Other activities
Besides that, RusBITech also produces (according to themselves):
information security tools (software and hardware);
secured software and hardware systems;
technical training aids (computer simulators for training military personnel);
3D visualization systems (also used for training);
simulation and decision support systems (for military commandment);
data interface facilities (database solutions for armed forces).
For example, RusBITech manufactures software for Russian Army's R-441 "Liven" vehicles, specified as "satellite communication stations / mobile communications-control stations / digital mobile complex of secret telephone communication and mobile super-protected telecommunications complex".
References
Links
RusBITech English website
Defence companies of Russia
Software companies of Russia
Companies based in Moscow
|
3591552
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete%20Mathematics
|
Concrete Mathematics
|
Concrete Mathematics: A Foundation for Computer Science, by Ronald Graham, Donald Knuth, and Oren Patashnik, first published in 1989, is a textbook that is widely used in computer-science departments as a substantive but light-hearted treatment of the analysis of algorithms.
Contents and history
The book provides mathematical knowledge and skills for computer science, especially for the analysis of algorithms. According to the preface, the topics in Concrete Mathematics are "a blend of CONtinuous and disCRETE mathematics". Calculus is frequently used in the explanations and exercises. The term "concrete mathematics" also denotes a complement to "abstract mathematics".
The book is based on a course begun in 1970 by Knuth at Stanford University. The book expands on the material (approximately 100 pages) in the "Mathematical Preliminaries" section of Knuth's The Art of Computer Programming. Consequently, some readers use it as an introduction to that series of books.
Concrete Mathematics has an informal and often humorous style. The authors reject what they see as the dry style of most mathematics textbooks. The margins contain "mathematical graffiti", comments submitted by the text's first editors: Knuth and Patashnik's students at Stanford.
As with many of Knuth's books, readers are invited to claim a reward for any error found in the book—in this case, whether an error is "technically, historically, typographically, or politically incorrect".
The book popularized some mathematical notation: the Iverson bracket, floor and ceiling functions, and notation for rising and falling factorials.
Typography
Donald Knuth used the first edition of Concrete Mathematics as a test case for the AMS Euler typeface and Concrete Roman font.
Chapter outline
Recurrent Problems
Summation
Integer Functions
Number Theory
Binomial Coefficients
Special Numbers
Generating Functions
Discrete Probability
Asymptotics
Editions
Errata: (1994), (January 1998), (27th printing, May 2013)
References
External links
ToC and blurb for ''Concrete Mathematics: A Foundation for Computer Science", 2nd ed.
Preface for Concrete Mathematics: A Foundation for Computer Science, 2nd ed.
1988 non-fiction books
Computer science books
Mathematics textbooks
Books by Donald Knuth
Addison-Wesley books
American non-fiction books
|
23094450
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative%20risk%20assessment%20software
|
Quantitative risk assessment software
|
Quantitative risk assessment (QRA) software and methodologies give quantitative estimates of risks, given the parameters defining them. They are used in the financial sector, the chemical process industry, and other areas.
In financial terms, quantitative risk assessments include a calculation of the single loss expectancy of monetary value of an asset.
In the chemical process and petrochemical industries a QRA is primarily concerned with determining the potential loss of life (PLL) caused by undesired events. Specialist software can be used to model the effects of such an event, and to help calculate the potential loss of life. Some organisations use the risk outputs to assess the implied cost to avert a fatality (ICAF) which can be used to set quantified criteria for what is an unacceptable risk and what is tolerable.
For the explosives industry, QRA can be used for many explosive risk applications. It is especially useful for site risk analysis when reliance on quantity distance (QD) tables is not feasible.
Limitations
Some of the QRA software models described above must be used in isolation: for example the results from a consequence model cannot be used directly in a risk model. Other QRA software programs link different calculation modules together automatically to facilitate the process. Some of the software is proprietary and can only be used within certain organisations.
Due to the large amount of data processing required by QRA calculations, the usual approach has been to use two-dimensional ellipses to represent hazard zones such as the area around an explosion which poses a 10% chance of fatality. Similarly, a pragmatic approach is used in the simplification of dispersion results. Typically a flat terrain, unobstructed world is used to determine the behaviour of a dispersing cloud and/or a vaporizing pool. This presents problems when the effects of non-flat terrain or the complex geometry of process plants would no doubt affect the behaviour of a dispersing cloud. Though they have limitations, the 2D hazard zone and simplified approach to 3D dispersion modelling allow the handling of large volumes of risk results with known assumptions to assist in decision-making. The trade-off shifts as computer processing power increases.
The modeling of the consequences of hazardous events in a true 3D manner may require a different approach, for example using a computational fluid dynamics method to study cloud dispersion over hilly terrain. The creation of CFD models requires significantly more investment of time on the part of the modeling analyst (because of the increased complexity of the modeling), which may not be justified in all cases.
One major limitation of QRA in the safety field is that it is focussed primarily on the loss of containment of hazardous fluids and what happens when they are released. This renders QRA somewhat unworkable in hazardous industries that do not focus on fluid containment yet are still subject to catastrophic events (e.g. aviation, pharmaceuticals, mining, water treatment, etc.) This has led to the development of a risk process that draws on the experience of organisations and their employees to produce risk assessments that produce potential loss of life (PLL) outputs without fault and event tree modelling. This process is probably most commonly known by the name
SQRA which was the first methodology to enter the marketplace in the late 1990s but is perhaps more accurately described by the term Experience-based Quantification (EBQ). Today there is a choice of software with which to undertake this methodology and it has been used extensively in the mining industry on a global basis.
In an effort to be more fair and to avoid adding to already high imprisonment rates in the US, courts across America have started using quantitative risk assessment software when trying to make decisions about releasing people on bail and sentencing, which are based on their history and other attributes. It analyzed recidivism risk scores calculated by one of the most commonly used tools, the Northpointe COMPAS system, and looked at outcomes over two years, and found that only 61% of those deemed high risk actually committed additional crimes during that period and that African-American defendants were far more likely to be given high scores that white defendants. These results are part of larger questions being raised in the field of machine ethics with regard to the risks of perpetuating patterns of discrimination via the use of big data and machine learning across many fields.
References
NATIONAL MINERALS INDUSTRY SAFETY AND HEALTH RISK ASSESSMENT GUIDELINE, Joy J & Griffiths D, 2007, p. 61
Evaluation methods
Impact assessment
Occupational safety and health
Probability assessment
Risk analysis software
|
14606412
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William%20Millard%20%28businessman%29
|
William Millard (businessman)
|
William "Bill" Millard (born 1932) is the founder of IMS Associates, makers of the IMSAI series of computers and the electronics retailer ComputerLand.
He is credited as the "father" of modern computer retailing. He has also been called one of the world's most elusive tax exiles.
William H. Millard worked for IBM and, later, as the head of data processing for the city and county of San Francisco. In 1969, together with his wife, Millard started a software publisher company called Systems Dynamics, which went bankrupt in 1972.
In 1973, Millard founded IMS Associates, which is most famous for IMSAI 8080 microcomputer first shipped in late 1975. By 1977, IMSAI's product line included printers, terminals, floppy diskettes and software. To finance rapidly growing operations, IMSAI pledged 20% of its stock as convertible note in exchange for $250,000 from investment firm Marriner & Co.
In 1976, in partnership with John Martin-Musumeci, IMS launched a successful computer reseller franchise ComputerLand. In 1982, ComputerLand's sales reached over $400 million and by 1984 the venture reached over $1 billion in revenue.
Legal troubles from the failure of IMS, centered largely on a convertible note from the Marriner partnership that was later sold to a group of investors, led to a lawsuit in which Millard lost a substantial portion of his stake in ComputerLand. In the late 1980s, Millard relinquished control of ComputerLand. In 1987, he sold ComputerLand to E.M. Warburg, Pincus & Co. for about $200 million.
He and his family moved to Saipan where he removed himself from the public view.
In September 2011, after 20 years, he was found living in the Cayman Islands.
References
External links
American computer businesspeople
1932 births
Living people
|
13803397
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micrografx
|
Micrografx
|
Micrografx (Micrografx Inc., Richardson, Texas) was a United States-based software-house most notable for its graphics products. It was founded in 1982 by Paul and George Grayson and was a pioneer for graphics products for Windows.
Micrografx acquired Roykore Inc and their ABC Suite, which included ABC Flowcharter and ABC Orgchart of software in 1992 . They acquired AdvanEdge Technologies in Tualatin, OR and their process simulation software Optima! in 1997. In 1999 they combined the products and shipped iGrafx v8.
Corel and Micrografx were competitors in 1996 for Windows 95 users seeking graphics software. CorelDraw 6 attracted graphics professionals, while Micrografx ABC Graphics Suite attracted general users in the business community. The company was acquired by Corel in late 2001. With this acquisition, the Micrografx graphics line (e.g. Micrografx Picture Publisher, Micrografx Designer) was integrated into the Corel portfolio. Since 2003, the former Micrografx software section for business process analysis is represented by the separate business unit iGrafx.
Despite not being actively maintained or officially distributed, a scattered community still enjoys Micrografx products as legacy software.
Products range
ABC FlowCharter
Diagramming software
ABC Graphics Suite
A business-oriented graphics software bundle, released in 1995, featuring ABC Flowcharter, Designer and Picture Publisher and ABC Media Manager.
Optima!
A process simulation software created by AdvanEdge Technologies, later acquired.
ABC SnapGraphix
Crayola Art
Micrografx Charisma
A charting application with the ability to combine several charts on one printed page and limited vector graphics capabilities to enrich the results.
Micrografx Simply 3D
Micrografx Designer
Released as In*A*Vision graphic software for Windows 1.0 in 1986, this Vector graphics editor was renamed to Micrografx Designer when version 2 was released in 1990. In 1995, Micrografx bundled its graphic software with the Micrografx ABC-Suite. After the acquisition by Corel in 2001, the product was continued as Corel Designer.
Micrografx Photo Magic
a Raster graphics editor
Micrografx Webtricity
Picture Publisher
Micrografx Windows Draw
A desktop publishing application that worked well in conjunction with Photo Magic
References
Software companies based in Texas
Defunct companies based in Texas
Defunct software companies of the United States
Companies based in Richardson, Texas
American companies established in 1982
Software companies established in 1982
Software companies disestablished in 2001
1982 establishments in Texas
2001 disestablishments in Texas
Corel
2001 mergers and acquisitions
|
81196
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computing%20platform
|
Computing platform
|
A computing platform or digital platform is an environment in which a piece of software is executed. It may be the hardware or the operating system (OS), even a web browser and associated application programming interfaces, or other underlying software, as long as the program code is executed with it. Computing platforms have different abstraction levels, including a computer architecture, an OS, or runtime libraries. A computing platform is the stage on which computer programs can run.
A platform can be seen both as a constraint on the software development process, in that different platforms provide different functionality and restrictions; and as an assistant to the development process, in that they provide low-level functionality ready-made. For example, an OS may be a platform that abstracts the underlying differences in hardware and provides a generic command for saving files or accessing the network.
Components
Platforms may also include:
Hardware alone, in the case of small embedded systems. Embedded systems can access hardware directly, without an OS; this is referred to as running on "bare metal".
A browser in the case of web-based software. The browser itself runs on a hardware+OS platform, but this is not relevant to software running within the browser.
An application, such as a spreadsheet or word processor, which hosts software written in an application-specific scripting language, such as an Excel macro. This can be extended to writing fully-fledged applications with the Microsoft Office suite as a platform.
Software frameworks that provide ready-made functionality.
Cloud computing and Platform as a Service. Extending the idea of a software framework, these allow application developers to build software out of components that are hosted not by the developer, but by the provider, with internet communication linking them together. The social networking sites Twitter and Facebook are also considered development platforms.
A virtual machine (VM) such as the Java virtual machine or .NET CLR. Applications are compiled into a format similar to machine code, known as bytecode, which is then executed by the VM.
A virtualized version of a complete system, including virtualized hardware, OS, software, and storage. These allow, for instance, a typical Windows program to run on what is physically a Mac.
Some architectures have multiple layers, with each layer acting as a platform to the one above it. In general, a component only has to be adapted to the layer immediately beneath it. For instance, a Java program has to be written to use the Java virtual machine (JVM) and associated libraries as a platform but does not have to be adapted to run for the Windows, Linux or Macintosh OS platforms. However, the JVM, the layer beneath the application, does have to be built separately for each OS.
Operating system examples
Desktop, laptop, server
AmigaOS, AmigaOS 4
Chrome OS
FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD
IBM i
Linux
Microsoft Windows
OpenVMS
Classic Mac OS - discontinued in 2011
macOS
OS/2
Solaris
Tru64 UNIX
VM
QNX
z/OS
Mobile
Android
Bada - discontinued in 2013
BlackBerry OS - discontinued in 2013
Fire OS
Firefox OS - discontinued in 2016
iOS
iPadOS
Embedded Linux
Palm OS - discontinued in 2011
Symbian - discontinued in 2012
Tizen
WebOS
LuneOS
Windows Mobile - discontinued in 2010
Windows Phone - discontinued in 2017
kaiOS
Software examples
Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless (BREW)
Cocoa
Cocoa Touch
.NET
Mono
.NET Framework
Silverlight
Flash
AIR
GNU
Java
Java ME
Java SE
Java EE
JavaFX
JavaFX Mobile
LiveCode
Microsoft XNA
Mozilla Prism, XUL and XULRunner
Mozilla WebExtensions API is modeled after Google Chrome's API. Thus Firefox extensions are now largely compatible with their Chrome counterparts.
Web platform
Oracle Database
Qt
SAP NetWeaver
Shockwave
Smartface
Universal Windows Platform
Windows Runtime
Hardware examples
Ordered roughly, from more common types to less common types:
Commodity computing platforms
ARM architecture based devices
Android smartphones
iPhone smartphones and iPad tablet devices running iOS or iPadOS, from Apple
Macintosh computers using Apple silicon.
Raspberry Pi or Gumstix full function miniature computers with Linux
ARM servers with Unix-like systems such as Linux or BSD variants
Newton devices running the Newton OS, from Apple
ChromeBooks from various manufacturers
Wintel, that is, Intel x86 or compatible personal computer hardware with Windows operating system
Macintosh, custom Apple Inc. hardware and Classic Mac OS and macOS operating systems, originally 68k-based, then PowerPC-based, then x86-based, now migrated to Apple silicon with ARM architecture CPUs
x86 with Unix-like systems such as Linux or BSD variants
CP/M computers based on the S-100 bus, maybe the earliest microcomputer platform
Video game consoles, any variety (PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo)
3DO Interactive Multiplayer, that was licensed to manufacturers
Apple Pippin, a multimedia player platform for video game console development
Non-commodity RISC or Itanium processor based machines
Unix variants or Unix-like systems
SPARC architecture computers running Solaris, illumos, or Linux operating systems
POWER ISA, PowerPC, or Power ISA computers running IBM AIX or Linux operating systems
Itanium computers running HP-UX
DEC Alpha machines computers Tru64 UNIX
PowerPC or Power ISA computers running IBM i
DEC Alpha and Itanium computers running OpenVMS
Midrange computers with their custom operating systems
Mainframe computers with their custom operating systems, such as IBM z/OS
Supercomputer architectures
See also
Cross-platform
Platform virtualization
Third platform
Platform ecosystem
References
External links
Ryan Sarver: What is a platform?
|
1571248
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History%20of%20the%20Nintendo%20Entertainment%20System
|
History of the Nintendo Entertainment System
|
The history of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) spans the 1982 development of the Family Computer, to the 1985 launch of the NES, to Nintendo's rise to global dominance based upon this platform throughout the late 1980s. The or was developed in 1982 and launched in 1983 in Japan. Following the North American video game crash of 1983, the Famicom was adapted into the NES which was brazenly launched in North America in 1985. Transitioning the company from its arcade game history into this combined global 8-bit home video game console platform, the Famicom and NES continued to aggressively compete with the next-generation 16-bit consoles including the 1988 Sega Genesis. The platform was succeeded by the Super Famicom in 1990 and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1991, but its support and production continued until 1995. Interest in the NES has been renewed by collectors and emulators, including Nintendo's own Virtual Console platform.
Origins (1981–1984)
Development (1981–1983)
The video game industry experienced a period of rapid growth and unprecedented popularity during the late 1970s to early 1980s, with the golden age of arcade video games and the second generation of video game consoles: Space Invaders (1978) and its shoot 'em up clones had become a phenomenal success across arcades worldwide, game consoles such as the Atari 2600 and the Intellivision became popular in North American homes, and the Epoch Cassette Vision became the best-selling console in Japan. Many companies arose in their wake to exploit the growing industry; one such company was Nintendo.
The basis for the Famicom hardware was arcade video game hardware. A major influence was Namco's Galaxian (1979), which had replaced the more intensive bitmap rendering system of Space Invaders with a hardware sprite rendering system that animated sprites over a scrolling background, allowing more detailed graphics, faster gameplay and a scrolling animated starfield background. This provided the basis for Nintendo's Radar Scope (1980) arcade hardware, which they co-developed with Ikegami Tsushinki, improving on Galaxian with technology such as high-speed emitter-coupled logic (ECL) integrated circuit (IC) chips and memory on a 50 MHz printed circuit board. Following the commercial failure of Radar Scope, the game's arcade hardware was converted for use with Donkey Kong (1981), which became a major arcade hit. Home systems at the time were not powerful enough to handle an accurate port of Donkey Kong, so Nintendo wanted to create a system that allowed a fully accurate conversion of Donkey Kong to be played in homes.
Led by Masayuki Uemura, Nintendo's R&D2 team began work on a home system in 1982, ambitiously targeted to be less expensive than its competitors, yet with performance that could not be surpassed by its competitors for at least a year. The console began development under the codename Project GAMECOM. Uemura analyzed the innards of rival consoles, including the Atari 2600 and Magnavox Odyssey, sidestepping their primitive technology. Their main competition was the Epoch Cassette Vision, the best-selling console in Japan at the time, with Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi telling employees he wanted them to develop a console both more powerful and cheaper than the Cassette Vision. Nintendo R&D2 engineer Katsuya Nakakawa analized the IC chips of the more powerful Donkey Kong arcade hardware, concluding that it would be possible to use them as a basis for their console. Another Nintendo R&D2 engineer, Takao Sawano, proposed that the D-pad of Nintendo's Game & Watch handheld devices should be adapted for the console.
Meanwhile in North America, the toy manufacturer Coleco was working on a new home console to compete with the Atari 2600 and which would be capable of handling fairly accurate ports of arcade games. Coleco demonstrated a prototype of the ColecoVision to Nintendo R&D2 engineers, who were impressed by the smoothly animated graphics. It left a strong impression on Sawano and Uemara, who had the ColecoVision in mind while working on Nintendo's new console in Japan. However, while the ColecoVision was a significant improvement over the Atari 2600, there was still no console comparable to the original Donkey Kong arcade hardware. Nevertheless, the bundled port of Donkey Kong helped the ColecoVision become a major success in North America.
Uemura sent the engineers Katsuya Nakakawa and Masahiro Ootake to meet with Ricoh, a semiconductor manufacturer that had previously worked with Nintendo on arcade games. One of Ricoh's supervisors was Hiromitsu Yagi, a former Mitsubishi Electronics engineer who had previously designed the large-scale integration (LSI) chips for the Nintendo Color TV-Game consoles in the 1970s. To determine the system specifications of the new console, Nakakawa and Masahiro brought along a Donkey Kong arcade machine for Ricoh to analyze, in order to help build a console more powerful than any consoles at the time and which would be comparable to the Donkey Kong arcade hardware.
Uemura initially thought of using a modern 16-bit central processing unit (CPU), but instead settled on an 8-bit CPU based on the inexpensive MOS Technology 6502, supplementing it with a custom graphics chip, the Picture Processing Unit, produced by Ricoh. To reduce costs, suggestions of including a keyboard, modem, and floppy disk drive were rejected, but expensive circuitry was added to provide a versatile 15-pin expansion port connection on the front of the console for future add-on functionality such as peripheral devices. The keyboard, Famicom Modem, and Famicom Disk System would later be released as add-on peripherals, all utilizing the Famicom expansion port. Other peripheral devices connecting via the expansion port would include the Famicom Light Gun, Family Trainer, and various specialized controllers. Many would be released in Japan only, such as the Famicom 3D System and Famicom Disk System.
The wireless broadcast functionality of the TV Tennis Electrotennis (1975) got Nintendo designer Masayuki Uemura to consider adding that capability to the Famicom. He ultimately did not pursue it to keep system costs low.
Famicom release in Japan (1983–1984)
Nintendo held its own exhibition to unveil the Famicom, becoming a sensation among toy show exhibitors. Shortly after, the competing Sega SG-1000 was unveiled at the Tokyo Toy Show.
Launching on July 15, 1983, the Family Computer (commonly known by the Japanese-English term Famicom) is an 8-bit console using interchangeable cartridges. The Famicom was released in Japan for (about $150 at the time, or equivalent to $ in ). Its launch game list is Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Junior, and Popeye. The console itself was intentionally designed to look like a toy, with a bright red-and-white color scheme and two hardwired gamepads that are stored visibly at the sides of the unit.
It sold well in its early months, at 500,000 units in its first two months. However, many Famicom units reportedly had faulty graphics chips and froze during gameplay. After tracing the problem to a faulty circuit, Nintendo voluntarily recalled all Famicom systems just before the holiday shopping season, and temporarily suspended production of the system while the concerns were addressed, costing Nintendo millions of dollars. The Famicom was subsequently reissued with a new motherboard. The Famicom easily outsold its primary competitor, the Sega SG-1000. By the end of 1984 Nintendo had sold more than 2.5 million Famicoms in the Japanese market. This made it the best-selling console in Japan, surpassing the Cassette Vision. Sales exceeded Nintendo's expectations, leading to the Famicom being sold out, so Nintendo raised projections and increased production for the following year.
Nintendo had planned to be the exclusive provider of Famicom games during its launch year. Major arcade developers Namco and Hudson Soft approached Nintendo about Famicom development, as they had no means of cartridge production. They contracted a 30% fee to Nintendo per game sold, consisting of 10% as a licensing fee for the console, and 20% as the production cost of new cartridges. By 1984, third party Famicom games were published. This 30% fee became a de facto standard in console and storefront licensing for video game publishing through the 2010s.
Going international (1984–1987)
Marketing negotiations with Atari (1983)
Bolstered by its success in Japan, Nintendo soon turned its attention to foreign markets. As a new console manufacturer, Nintendo had to convince a skeptical public to embrace its system. To this end, Nintendo entered into negotiations with Atari to release the Famicom outside Japan as the Nintendo Enhanced Video System, with plans to release the system by the end of 1983. Though the two companies reached a tentative agreement, with final contract papers to be signed at the 1983 Summer Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Atari refused to sign at the last minute, after seeing Coleco, one of its main competitors in the market at that time, demonstrating a prototype of Donkey Kong for its forthcoming Coleco Adam home computer system. Coleco had licensed Donkey Kong for the ColecoVision home console, but Atari had the exclusive computer license for the game. Although the game had been originally produced for the ColecoVision and could thus automatically be played on the backward compatible Adam computer, Atari took the demonstration as a sign that Nintendo was also dealing with Coleco. Though the issue was cleared up within a month, by then Atari's financial problems stemming from the North American video game crash of 1983 coupled with the departure of Atari CEO Ray Kassar left the company unable to follow through with the deal in time to make the target launch.
North America
Nintendo VS. System (1984-1986)
The Famicom hardware first made its North American debut in the arcades, in the form of the Nintendo VS. System in 1984; the system's success in arcades paved the way for the official release of the NES console. After the video game crash of 1983, many American retailers considered video games a passing fad, and greatly reduced or discontinued the inventory of such products. Nintendo of America's market research was met with warnings to stay away from home consoles, with US retailers refusing to stock game consoles. Meanwhile, the arcade industry also had a slump as the golden age of arcade video games came to an end, but arcades were able to recover and stabilize with the help of software conversion kit systems. Hiroshi Yamauchi realized there was still a market for video games in North America, where gamers were gradually returning to arcades in significant numbers. Yamauchi still had faith there was a market for the Famicom, so he decided to introduce it to North America through the arcade industry.
Nintendo developed the VS. System with the same hardware as the Famicom, and introduced it as the successor to their Nintendo-Pak arcade system, which had been used for titles such as Donkey Kong 3 and Mario Bros. While technologically weaker than Nintendo's more powerful Punch-Out arcade hardware, the VS. System was relatively inexpensive, epitomizing Gunpei Yokoi's philosophy of "lateral thinking with withered technology." The VS. System was also able to offer a wider variety of games, due to being able to easily port over games from the Famicom. Upon release, the VS. System generated excitement in the arcade industry, receiving praise for its easy conversions, affordability, flexibility and multiplayer capabilities.
The VS. System became a major success in North American arcades. Between 10,000 and 20,000 arcade units were sold in 1984, while individual Vs. titles often appeared as top-earners on the US arcade charts, such as VS. Tennis and VS. Baseball in 1984, then Duck Hunt and VS. Hogan's Alley in 1985. By 1985, 50,000 units had been sold, having established Nintendo as an industry leader in the arcades. The Vs. System went on to become the highest-grossing arcade machine of 1985 in the United States. By the time the NES launched in North America, nearly 100,000 VS. Systems had been sold to American arcades.
The success of the VS. System gave Nintendo the confidence to release the Famicom in North America as a video game console, which would later be called the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Nintendo's strong positive reputation in the arcades generated significant interest in the NES. It also gave Nintendo the opportunity to test new games as VS. Paks in the arcades, to determine which games to release for the NES launch. Nintendo's software strategy was to first release games for the Famicom, then the VS. System, and then for the NES. This allowed Nintendo to build a solid launch line-up for the NES. Many games made their North American debut on the VS. System before releasing for the NES, which led to many players being "amazed" at the accuracy of the arcade "ports" for the NES, despite most VS. System games originating on the Famicom.
Advanced Video System home computer (1985)
Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi said in 1986, "Atari collapsed because they gave too much freedom to third-party developers and the market was swamped with rubbish games." After the deal with Atari failed, Nintendo proceeded alone, re-conceiving the Famicom console with a sophisticated design language as the "Nintendo Advanced Video System" (AVS). To keep the software market for its console from becoming similarly oversaturated, Nintendo added a lockout system to obstruct unlicensed software from running on the console, thus allowing Nintendo to enforce strict licensing standards. The software carries the Nintendo Seal of Quality to communicate the company's approval.
Nintendo's product designer Lance Barr, who would continue with the company for decades, retooled the Famicom console with a sleek and sophisticated design language. The toy-like white-and-red color scheme of the Famicom was replaced with a clean and futuristic color scheme of grey, black, and red. The top and bottom portions are in different shades of grey, plus a stripe with black and ribbing along the top, and minor red accents. The shape is boxier: flat on top, and a bottom half that tapered down to a smaller footprint. The front of the main unit features a compartment for storing the wireless controllers out of sight. To avoid the stigma of video game consoles, Nintendo issued prerelease marketing of the AVS as a full home computer, with an included keyboard, cassette data recorder, and a BASIC interpreter software cartridge. The BASIC interpreter would later be sold together with a keyboard as the Family BASIC package, and the cassette deck for data storage would later be released as the Famicom Data Recorder. The AVS includes a variety of computer-style input devices: gamepads, a handheld joystick, a 3-octave musical keyboard, and the Zapper light gun. The AVS Zapper is hinged, allowing it to straighten out into a wand form, or bend into a gun form. The AVS uses a wireless infrared interface for all its peripherals, including keyboard, cassette deck, and controllers. Most of the peripherals for the Advanced Video System are on display at the Nintendo World Store.
The system's first known advertisement is in Consumer Electronics magazine in 1985, saying "The evolution of a species is now complete." The AVS was showcased at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show held in Las Vegas during January 5-8, 1985, in a reportedly "very busy" booth headed by Nintendo of America's president Minoru Arakawa. There, attendees acknowledged the advanced technology, but responded poorly to the keyboard and wireless functionality. All of the more than 25 games demonstrated were complete, with no prototypes. No retail pricing information was given by Nintendo, reportedly seeming to "test the waters" with potential distributors, in an unpredictable market.
Although Nintendo's Gail Tilden had reported sales of more than 2.5 million units of the Famicom across the previous 18 months yielding a 90% market share in Japan by the beginning of 1985, the American video game press was skeptical that the AVS could have any success in North America. News Wire reported on January 12, 1985, "It's hard to believe, but a Japanese company says it intends to introduce a new video-game machine in the United States, despite the collapse of the video-game industry here." The March 1985 issue of Electronic Games magazine stated that "the videogame market in America has virtually disappeared" and that "this could be a miscalculation on Nintendo's part". Roger Buoy of Mindscape allegedly said that year, "Hasn't anyone told them that the videogame industry is dead?" Video game historian Chris Kohler reflected, "Retailers didn't want to listen to the little startup Nintendo of America talk about how its Japanese parent company had a huge hit with the Famicom (the system from which the NES was adapted from). In America, videogames were dead, dead, dead. Personal computers were the future, and anything that just played games but couldn't do your taxes was hopelessly backwards." Computer Entertainer openly rebuked the media after attending a humbly optimistic June 1985 CES, "Can another video game system buck the trend and become a success? ... Perhaps if the press can avoid jumping all over the Nintendo system and let American consumers make up their own minds, we might find out that video games aren't dead after all."
Redesign as the Nintendo Entertainment System (1985)
At the June 1985 Summer CES, Nintendo returned with a stripped-down and cost-reduced redesign of the AVS, having abandoned the home computer approach. Nintendo purposefully designed the system so as not to resemble a video game console, and would avoid terms associated with game consoles, with marketing manager Gail Tilden choosing the term "Game Pak" for cartridges, "Control Deck" for the console, and "Entertainment System" for the whole platform altogether. Renamed the "Nintendo Entertainment System" (NES), the new and cost-reduced version lacks most of the upscale features added in the AVS, but retains many of its audiophile-inspired design elements, such as the grey color scheme and boxy form factor. Disappointed with the cosmetically raw prototype part they received from Japan, which they nicknamed "the lunchbox", Nintendo of America designers Lance Barr and Don James added the two-tone gray, the black stripe, and the red lettering. To obscure the video game connotation, NES replaced the top-loading cartridge slot of the Famicom and AVS with a front-loading chamber for software cartridges that place the inserted cartridge out of view, reminiscent of a VCR. The Famicom's pair of hard-wired controllers, and the AVS's wireless controllers, were replaced with two custom 7-pin sockets for detachable wired controllers.
Using another approach to market the system to North American retailers as an "entertainment system", as opposed to a video game console, Nintendo positioned the NES more squarely as a toy, emphasizing the Zapper light gun, and more significantly, R.O.B. (Robotic Operating Buddy), a wireless toy robot that responds to special screen flashes with mechanized actions. Although R.O.B. successfully drew a stream of retailers to Nintendo's Summer 1985 CES booth to see the NES, they were still unwilling to sign up to distribute the console.
North American launch (1985-1986)
In a show of strength and confidence by a company that rejected positions of weakness, an intense direct campaign ensued by a dedicated 12-person "Nintendo SWAT team" who relocated from Nintendo of America's headquarters in Redmond. The team included Nintendo of America's president Minoru Arakawa, Tukwila warehouse manager and game tester Howard Phillips, Redmond warehouse manager and product designer Don James, product designer Lance Barr, marketer Gail Tilden, her boss Ron Judy, and salesperson Bruce Lowry. Having failed to secure a retail distributor in the last year, the team would deliver the NES debut itself. This began a series of limited test market launches at various metropolitan American cities prior to nationwide release. Instead of the traditional business of test launching at a cheaper mid-sized city, Arakawa boldly chose the nation's largest market, New York City as its initial test market with a $50 million budget. Only with R.O.B's reclassification of the NES as a toy, telemarketing and shopping mall demonstrations, and a risk-free proposition to retailers, did Nintendo secure enough retailer support there of about 500 retailers in New York and New Jersey. As the bellwether and key toy retailer of New York City, the grandest and most important site was a 15 square foot area at FAO Schwarz. This had a dozen playable NES displays surrounding another giant television, featuring Baseball being played by real Major League Baseball players who also signed autographs in order to anchor the curious audiences to a familiar American pastime among all the surreal fantasy games.
In a huge gamble by Arakawa and without having informed the headquarters in Japan, Nintendo offered to handle all store setup and marketing, extend 90 days credit on the merchandise, and accept returns on all unsold inventory. Retailers would pay nothing upfront, and after 90 days would either pay for the merchandise or return it to Nintendo. At Nintendo's unprecedented offer of risk absorption, retailers signed up one by one, with one incredulously saying "It's your funeral."
The Nintendo Entertainment System then consisted of the Deluxe Set and an initial library of 17 games which were chosen by playtester Howard Phillips. Each Deluxe Set consists of a Control Deck console, two gamepads, R.O.B., the Zapper light gun, and the Game Paks Gyromite and Duck Hunt. Fifteen additional games were sold separately: 10-Yard Fight, Baseball, Clu Clu Land, Excitebike, Golf, Hogan's Alley, Ice Climber, Kung Fu, Pinball, Soccer, Stack-Up, Super Mario Bros., Tennis, Wild Gunman, and Wrecking Crew. The first test launch was in New York City on October 18, 1985, with an initial shipment of 100,000 Deluxe Set systems. Nintendo began marketing the system the same month in October 1985.
Headquartered in a Hackensack warehouse oozing with EPA hazards "something like 'rats and snakes and toxic waste'", the SWAT team worked every day even through Christmas Eve 1985, in what Don James called "the longest and hardest I ever worked consecutive days in my life" and what Howard Phillips called "every waking hour ... at the crack of dawn ... seven days a week". President Arakawa joined them at the warehouse and at retail stores, once running a TV up a flight of stairs just to follow in the whole team's footsteps. While unloading their products into stores, the Nintendo of America crew was confronted by strangers who resented any Japanese-influenced company in a time of international trade issues and cheap Japanese clones of American products. A security guard reportedly said, "You're working for the Japs? I hope you fall flat on your ass." Gail Tilden said, "I remember one woman coming up to me, and I don't know what sparked her to do this, but she came up to me and said, 'Nintendo. That's a Japanese company, right? ... I hope you fail!'". Retail staff resentful of the disastrous video game market rolled their eyes at Nintendo staff, with one manager looking at Nintendo's inventory and saying "Somebody told me I've got to sell this crap." The first sale came soon and quietly, of a Deluxe Set and the 15 additional games, to a gentleman who the team later realized was employed by an unspecified Japanese competitor.
Sales were not high but encouraging throughout the holiday season, though sources vary on how many consoles were sold then. In 1986, Nintendo said it had sold nearly 90,000 units in nine weeks during its late 1985 New York City test. 460,000 game cartridges were also sold in 1985. Following its success in the New York City test market, Nintendo planned to release it gradually across different US states over the first six months of 1986, starting with California at the end of January 1986; Nintendo cited production capacities and other considerations as reasons for the gradual rollout.
In January 1986, an independent research firm commissioned by Nintendo delivered a survey of 200 NES owners, showing that the most popular given reason for buying an NES was because children wanted R.O.B. the robotfollowed most strongly by good graphics, variety of games, and the uniqueness and newness of the NES package. R.O.B. is credited as a primary factor in building initial support for the NES in North America, but the accessory itself was not well received for its entertainment value. Its original Famicom counterpart, the Famicom Robot, was already failing in Japan at the time of the North American launch. The NES was also credited with bringing arcade-style gaming to homes.
For the nationwide launch in 1986, the NES was available in two different packages: the fully featured Deluxe Set as had been configured during the New York City launch, and a scaled-down Control Deck package which includes the console, two gamepads, and Super Mario Bros. In early 1986, Nintendo announced the intention to adapt the Famicom Disk System floppy drive peripheral to the NES by late 1986, but the need was obviated by the proliferation of larger and faster cartridge technology, and the drive's NES launch was canceled as well as the original being discontinued in Japan by the early 1990s.
Nintendo added Los Angeles as the second test market in February 1986, followed by Chicago and San Francisco, then other top 12 US markets, and finally nationwide in September. Nintendo and Sega, which was similarly exporting its Master System to the US, both planned to spend $15 million in the fourth quarter of 1986 to market their consoles; later, Nintendo said it planned to spend $16 million and Sega said more than $9 million. Nintendo obtained a distribution deal with toymaker Worlds of Wonder, which leveraged its popular Teddy Ruxpin and Lazer Tag products to solicit more stores to carry the NES. From 1986 to 1987, this provided the initially reluctant WoW sales staff with windfall commissions, which Arakawa eventually capped at $1 million per person per year. The largest retailer Sears sold it through its Christmas catalog and the second largest retailer Kmart sold it in 700 stores. Nintendo sold 1.1 million consoles in 1986, estimating that it could have sold 1.4 million if inventory had held out. Nintendo earned $310 million in sales, out of total 1986 video game industry sales of $430 million, compared to total 1985 industry sales of $100 million.
Europe and Oceania
The NES was also released in Europe and Australia, in stages and in a rather haphazard manner. It was launched in Sweden in September 1986, and in the rest of mainland Europe in different months of 1987, depending on the country. Italy, the United Kingdom, and Australia all received the system in 1987, where it was distributed exclusively by Mattel. In Europe, the NES received a less enthusiastic response than it had elsewhere, and Nintendo lagged in market and retail penetration, though the console was more successful later.
During the late 1980s, NES sales were lower than that of the Sega Master System in the United Kingdom. By 1990, the Master System was the highest-selling console in Europe, though the NES was beginning to have a fast growing user base in the United Kingdom. Sega continued outselling Nintendo in the UK into 1992; a reason cited at the time by Paul Wooding of Sega Force was that, "Nintendo became associated with kids playing alone in their rooms, while Sega was first experienced in the arcades with a gang of friends".
Between 1991 and 1992, NES sales were booming in Europe, partly driven by the success of the Game Boy which helped uplift NES sales in the region. By 1994, NES sales had narrowly edged out the Master System overall in Western Europe. Among major European markets, the Master System led in the United Kingdom, Belgium, and Spain, whereas the NES led in France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. In Australia, the NES was less successful than the Master System.
South Korea
In South Korea, the hardware was licensed to Hyundai Electronics, which marketed it as the Comboy from 1991. After World War II, the government of Korea (later South Korea) imposed a wide ban on all Japanese "cultural products". Until this was repealed in 1998, the only way Japanese products could legally enter the South Korean market was through licensing to a third-party (non-Japanese) distributor, as was the case with the Comboy and its successor, the Super Comboy, a version of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
The Comboy sold 360,000 units in South Korea by 1993. This was less than half of the Master System (marketed as the Gam*Boy or Aladdinboy by Samsung), which sold 730,000 units in the country by 1993.
Soviet Union and Russia
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the introduction of the NES was attempted in two ways. The first was the launch through local distributors. The second, much more popular method, was in the form of an unlicensed Taiwanese hardware clone named the Dendy produced in Russia in the early 1990s. Aesthetically, it is a replica of the original Famicom, with a unique color scheme and labels, and with controller ports on the front using DE-9 serial connectors, identical to those used in the Atari 2600 and the Atari 8-bit family of computers. All Dendy games sold in Russia are bootleg copies, not licensed by Nintendo. In 1994, Nintendo signed an agreement with the Dendy distributor under which Nintendo had no claims against Dendy and allowed the sale of games and consoles. A total of units were sold in Russia and the former Soviet Union.
Leading the industry (1987–1990)
In Japan, the Famicom had sold about units by January 1986, helped by the success of Super Mario Bros. (1985), and increased sales to more than units with 95% of the home video game market by early 1987. In North America, the NES sold units in 1986, out of worldwide sales of that year. By 1988, the console had sold units in Japan and was projected to top in the United States by the end of the year.
The NES widely outsold its primary competitors, the Sega Master System and the Atari 7800. The successful launch of the NES positioned Nintendo to dominate the home video game market for the remainder of the 1980s. Buoyed by the success of the system, NES Game Pak produced similar sales records. The console's library exploded with classic flagship franchise-building and best-selling hits like Super Mario Bros. (1985), The Legend of Zelda (1986), and Metroid (1986). Toward the 1987 Christmas season, sales of the NES had dwarfed those of Teddy Ruxpin and all other original products of its American distributor, Worlds of Wonder. In October 1987, Nintendo of America president Minoru Arakawa discontinued the NES distribution contract with the failing WoW in favor of Nintendo's own growing clout, while hiring WoW's sales staff awaythe same sales staff previously offered to Nintendo by Atari in 1983.
The Legend of Zelda (1987) was the first NES game to sell over cartridges (non-bundled) in the United States. At more than 40 million copies, Super Mario Bros. was the highest selling video game in history for many years. Released in 1988 in Japan, Super Mario Bros. 3 would gross more than $500 million, with more than 7 million copies sold in America and 4 million copies in Japan, making it the most popular and fastest selling standalone home video game in history.
By mid-1986, 19% (6.5 million) of Japanese households owned a Famicom; one third by mid-1988. By 1990, over units were sold in the United States, present in 38% of American households, compared to 23% for all personal computers. The NES had reached a larger user base in the United States than any previous console, surpassing the previous record set by the Atari 2600 in 1982. In 1990, Nintendo also surpassed Toyota as Japan's most successful corporation. By early 1992, more than units had been sold worldwide, with in the United States by early 1993.
Its popularity greatly affected the computer-game industry, with executives stating that "Nintendo's success has destroyed the software entertainment market" and "there's been a much greater falling off of disk sales than anyone anticipated". The growth in sales of the Commodore 64 ended; Nintendo sold almost as many consoles in 1988 as the total number of Commodore 64s had been sold in five years. Trip Hawkins called Nintendo "the last hurrah of the 8-bit world", with Nintendo having completely destroyed the Commodore 64 game market as of Christmas 1988.
Market decline (1990–1995)
In the late 80s, Nintendo's dominance was addressed by newer, technologically superior consoles. In 1987, NEC and Hudson Soft released the PC Engine, and in 1988, Sega released the 16-bit Mega Drive. Both were introduced in North America in 1989, where they were respectively marketed as the TurboGrafx-16 and the Genesis. Facing new competition from the PC Engine in Japan, and the Genesis in North America, Nintendo's market share began to erode. Nintendo responded in the form of the Super Famicom (Super Nintendo Entertainment System in North America and Europe), the Famicom's 16-bit successor, in 1990. Although Nintendo announced its intention to continue to support the Famicom alongside its newer console, the success of the newer offering began to draw even more gamers and developers from the NES, whose decline accelerated. Nintendo did continue support of the NES for about three years after the September 1991 release of the Super NES, with the NES's final first-party games being Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II and Wario's Woods.
In Christmas 1991, both the NES and SNES were outsold by the Sega Genesis in North America. This led to Nintendo's share of the North American market declining between 1991 and 1992. In contrast, NES sales were booming in Europe during that same period.
A revised Famicom (HVC-101 model) was released in Japan in 1993. It takes some design cues from the Super NES. The HVC-101 model replaces the original HVC-001 model's RF modulator with RCA composite audio/video output, eliminates the hardwired controllers, and features a more compact case design. Retailing for ¥4,800 to ¥7,200 (equivalent to approximately $4260), the HVC-101 model remained in production for almost a decade before being finally discontinued in 2003. The case design of the AV Famicom was adopted for a subsequent North American rerelease of the NES. The NES-101 model differs from the Japanese HVC-101 model in that it omits the RCA composite output connectors of the original NES-001 model, and sports only RF output capabilities.
ASCII Entertainment reported in early 1993 that stores still offered 100 NES games, compared to 100 on shelves for Genesis and 50 for SNES. After a full decade of production, the NES was formally discontinued in the U.S. in 1995. By the end of its run, more than 60 million NES units had been sold throughout the world.
Discontinuation and emulation (1995–present)
The NES's market presence declined from 1991 to 1995, with the Sega Genesis and Nintendo's own Super NES gaining market share, with next-generation CD-ROM-based systems forthcoming. Even though the NES was discontinued in North America in 1995, many millions of cartridges for the system existed. The secondhand market of video rental stores, thrift stores, yard sales, flea markets, and games repackaged by Game Time Inc. / Game Trader Inc. and sold at retail stores such as K-Mart, was burgeoning. Many people began to rediscover the NES around this time, and by 1997, many older NES games were becoming popular with collectors.
At the same time, computer programmers began to develop emulators capable of reproducing the internal workings of the NES on modern personal computers. When paired with a ROM image (a bit-for-bit copy of a NES cartridge's program code), the games can be played on a computer. Emulators also come with a variety of built-in functions that change the gaming experience, such as save states which allow the player to save and resume progress at an exact spot in the game.
Nintendo did not respond positively to these developments and became one of the most vocal opponents of ROM image trading. Nintendo and its supporters claim that such trading represents blatant software piracy. Proponents of ROM image trading argue that emulation preserves many classic games for future generations, outside of their more fragile cartridge formats.
In 2005, Nintendo announced plans to make classic NES titles available on the Virtual Console download service for the Wii console, which is based on their own emulation technology. Initial titles released included Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda and Donkey Kong, with blockbuster titles such as Super Mario Bros., Punch-Out!! and Metroid appearing in the following months.
In 2007, Nintendo Co., Ltd. announced that it would no longer repair Famicom systems, due to an increasing shortage of the necessary parts.
See also
Third generation of video game consoles
References
Nintendo Entertainment System
Nintendo Entertainment System
|
2585099
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verifone
|
Verifone
|
Verifone is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Coral Springs, Florida, that provides technology for electronic payment transactions and value-added services at the point-of-sale. Verifone sells merchant-operated, consumer-facing and self-service payment systems to the financial, retail, hospitality, petroleum, government and healthcare industries. The company's products consist of POS electronic payment devices that run its own operating systems, security and encryption software, and certified payment software, and that are designed for both consumer-facing and unattended environments.
Its products process a range of payment types, including signature and personal identification number (PIN)-based debit cards, credit cards, contactless/radio frequency identification cards, smart cards, prepaid gift and other stored-value cards, electronic bill payment, check authorization and conversion, signature capture and Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT).
In 2018, Verifone was acquired by Francisco Partners for $3.4 billion. The company's architecture enables multiple applications, including third-party applications, such as gift card and loyalty card programs, healthcare insurance eligibility, and time and attendance tracking, and allows these services to reside on the same system without requiring re certification upon the addition of new applications.
Overview
The company uses the Verifone name and logo worldwide as a primary part of the branding of the company and its products, and registers these trademarks in the key jurisdictions where the company does business, including the U.S. and the EU. As of October 31, 2013, the company held trademark registration in 22 jurisdictions (including registration in the EU that covers various country level registrations that the company had previously filed) for the ‘VERIFONE’ trademark and in 32 jurisdictions (including registration in the EU that covers various country level registrations that the company had previously filed) for ‘VERIFONE’ trademark, including its ribbon logo. On November 3, 2014, The company unveiled a new corporate logo, new brand identity that represents a new Verifone that is driving the future of commerce in a rapidly evolving digital world where electronic payments, commerce and mobility are converging. From its beginnings as the first payment device manufacturer, Verifone's product and point-of-sale service offerings have changed considerably. Verifone offer payment technology expertise, and services that add value to the point of sale with merchant-operated, consumer-facing and self-service POS payment systems.
Founded in Hawaii, U.S. in 1981, Verifone in 2014 operated in more than 150 countries worldwide and employed nearly 5,000 people globally. Verifone's steady growth came organically through a dedication both to innovation and strategic partnerships, and from smart acquisitions. Core focus and growth areas for the company include mobile commerce, security, services and emerging global markets.
As a global company, Verifone has headquarters representing each of its core global areas of operation: Coral Springs, Florida; London, U.K.; and Singapore. Verifone is dedicated to supporting local markets and needs with a direct presence in more than 45 countries.
History
Verifone was founded by William "Bill" Melton and incorporated in Hawaii in 1981, and named itself after its first product, the name standing for Verification telephone.
Since the late 1980s, Verifone has held more than 60 percent of the U.S. market, and during the 1990s the company captured more than half of the international market for such systems. In 1996, the company placed its five millionth system. Domestic and international sales of POS systems continue to form the majority of Verifone's annual sales, which hit $387 million in 1995 and were expected to top $500 million in subsequent years.
The sudden growth of the Internet, and especially the World Wide Web, in the mid-1990s created a demand for secure online financial transaction applications. Verifone had taken the lead in designing applications conforming to the Secure Electronic Transaction (SET) standards developed by Visa Inc. and MasterCard. With the $28 million 1995 acquisition of Enterprise Integration Technologies, the company that developed the Secure HyperText Transfer Protocol (S-HTTP), and a $4 million equity investment in CyberCash, Inc., led by Verifone founder William Melton, and with 1996 partnership agreements with Internet browser leaders Netscape, Oracle Corporation, and Microsoft, Verifone has rolled out a suite of software products targeted at consumers, merchants, and financial institutions allowing secure purchases and other transactions online. Purchases over the Internet, which still produced as little as $10 million in 1995, were expected to reach into the billions by the turn of the century. Verifone has also been working to marry the smart card to the Internet; in 1996, the company introduced the Personal ATM (P-ATM), a small smart card reader designed to be attached to the consumer's home computer, which will enable the consumer not only to make purchases over the Internet, but also to "recharge" the value on the card. Verifone has also partnered with Key Tronic to incorporate a P-ATM interface directly into that company's computer keyboards.
1980s: Introduction and rapid growth
By the beginning of the 1980s, the major credit card companies began seeking methods to reduce processing costs and losses due to fraud. In 1981, Visa and MasterCard began offering merchants discounts on their transactions if they agreed to use newly developed automated transaction technology for all credit card purchases greater than $50. This move opened the way for the creation of an industry devoted to producing POS authorization systems. Early systems typically had starting prices of $900.
Verifone introduced its first POS product in 1982. By lowering manufacturing and operating costs through outsourcing production, Verifone brought its first system to the market at $500. Working with Visa, Verifone captured a large share of the POS market. In 1984, the company introduced ZON credit card authorization system was priced at $125. It took advantage of improvements in processor speeds and the lowering cost of both processors and memory. The following year, Verifone moved its headquarters to Redwood City, outside of San Francisco. The company's revenues grew to $15.3 million, earning a net profit of $864,000.
The company doubled revenues, to about $30 million, in 1986. By January 1988, Verifone controlled more than 53 percent of the POS systems market. Revenues had reached $73.4 million, with net earnings of more than $6 million. The following year, the company increased its dominance in the industry with the purchase of the transaction automation business of Icot Corp., then second in the market with a 20.5 percent share. The acquisition boosted Verifone's revenues to $125 million. By then, Verifone had entered the international market, starting with Australia in 1988 and placing its millionth ZON system in Finland in 1989.
1990s: Expansion into new markets
Verifone went public in March 1990, raising more than $54 million. As the credit card industry matured, Verifone pushed to install its systems into new markets, such as restaurants, movie theaters, and taxis, as well as developing software capacity to bring its systems into the health care and health insurance markets and to government functions. International sales also began to build, as use of credit cards became increasingly accepted in foreign markets. VeriFone was also building its global operation, opening facilities in Bangalore, Singapore, England, Dallas, and Ft. Lauderdale, in addition to its Hawaii and California facilities. Rolling out its Gemstone line of transaction systems, which added inventory control, pricing, and other capabilities, Verifone was aided by announcements from Visa and MasterCard that the companies would no longer provide printed warning bulletins, while requiring merchants to seek authorization for all credit card transactions by 1994.
Revenues jumped from $155 million in 1990 to $226 million in 1992. Verifone had just placed its two millionth system a year ago. By 1993, Verifone systems were in place in more than 70 countries, including its three millionth system, in Brazil, representing the company's expansion in the Latin American market. International sales, which had contributed less than ten percent of revenues before 1990, now accounted for more than 30 percent of the company's nearly $259 million in annual revenues.
Banks began rolling out debit cards in the mid-1990s. In response, Verifone produced terminals designed with keypads for PIN numbers. But as the domestic credit and debit card markets neared saturation, Verifone changed its primary focus to producing software applications, offering vertically integrated systems, including applications for standard computer operating systems. It also built a new plant near Shanghai in China in 1994 to increase production capacity.
Verifone moved to take the lead in the coming smart card revolution, teaming up with Gemplus International, a France-based maker of the cards, and MasterCard International to form the joint venture SmartCash. To place the company close to technological developments in France and the rest of Europe, Verifone opened its Paris research and development center in 1994. The company launched its smart card in May 1995. The company introduced its Personal ATM, a palm-sized smart card reader capable of reading a variety of smart card formats, in September 1996, with the product expected to ship in 1997. Among the first customers already signed to support the P-ATM were American Express, MasterCard International, GTE, Mondex International, Visa International, Wells Fargo Bank, and Sweden's Sparbanken Bank. Contracts for each called for the purchase of a minimum of 100,000 units; the total market potential for the device was estimated at more than 100 million households. In addition, Verifone began developing smart card readers to supplement and eventually replace its five million credit and debit card authorization systems.
In 1995, Verifone began the first of its aggressive steps to enter an entirely new area, that of Internet-based transactions. In May 1995, the company partnered with Broadvision Inc., a developer of Internet, interactive television, computer network, and other software, to couple Verifone's Virtual Terminal software—a computer-based version of its standard transaction terminal—with BroadVision's offerings, thereby extending Verifone's products beyond the retail counter for the first time. In August 1995, however, Verifone took an even bigger step into the Internet transaction arena, with its $28 million acquisition of Enterprise Integration Technologies, developer of the S-HTTP industry standard for safeguarding transactions over the World Wide Web. Verifone followed that acquisition with a $4 million investment in William Melton's latest venture, CyberCash Inc., also working to develop Internet transaction systems.
By 1996, Verifone was ready with its Payment Transaction Application Layer (PTAL) lineup of products, including the Virtual terminal interface for merchants conducting sales with consumers; Internet Gateway or vGATE, to conduct transactions between merchants and financial institutions; and the Pay Window interface for consumers making purchases on the Internet. After securing agreements from Netscape, Oracle, and Microsoft to include Verifone software in their Internet browsers, Verifone and Microsoft announced in August 1996 that Verifone's virtual point of sale (vPOS) would be included in the Microsoft Merchant System to be released by the end of the year. Verifone's announcement of the P-ATM, able to be attached as a computer peripheral, wedded the company's smart card and Internet transaction efforts.
Hewlett-Packard acquired Verifone in a $1.18bn stock-swap deal in April 1997. Four years later Verifone was sold to Gores Technology Group in May 2001. In 2002 Verifone was recapitalized by GTCR Golder Rauner, LLC. In 2005, Verifone was listed as a public company on New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: PAY).
2000s: Acquisitions
In October 2004, Israeli-based Lipman Electronics had acquired United Kingdom-based Dione plc, to go alongside its "NURIT" brand. On November 1, 2006 Verifone completed its acquisition of Lipman, and added both Dione and NURIT products to its portfolio for an undisclosed sum.
In September 2006 Verifone acquired some divisions of Irish terminal and payment services company Trintech Group plc – headquartered in Dublin with offices in Montevideo, Neu-Isenburg and London amongst other locations – in a 12.1M USD (€9.4M) cash transaction.
The company was formerly known as VeriFone Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to VeriFone Systems, Inc. in 2010. In 2014 the company rebranded itself as Verifone with a lowercase 'f'. Verifone in 2014 was based in San Jose, California, and has marketing and sales offices across the world. High economic growth abroad, coupled with infrastructure development, support from governments seeking to increase value-added tax (“VAT”) and Sales Tax collections, and the expanding presence of IP and Wireless communication networks resulted in revenue from abroad exceeding revenue generated from domestic sales. Specifically, its North America market share fell from 57.4% of total revenues in 2006, to only 39% or $359.14 million in total revenues for fiscal 2008. On the other hand, International operations went from comprising only 42.5% of total revenues in 2006 to 61% or $564.46 million of total revenues in 2008.
In April 2018, Verifone was acquired by Francisco Partners for US$3.4 billion.
Products
Verifone, Inc. is an international producer and designer of electronic payment methods and devices. The company divides its business into two segments: Systems Solutions and Services. Systems Solutions consists of operations related to the sale of electronic payment products that enable electronic transactions. The Services segment includes warranty and support services. In fiscal year 2008, Verifone's Systems Solutions segment generated 87.5% of total revenues, which amounted to $807.46 million, while its Services segment contributed 12.5%, or $114.46 million in revenue.
Its principal product lines have included point-of-sale, merchant-operated, consumer-facing and self-service payment systems for multiple industries, notably financial, retail, hospitality, petroleum, government and healthcare markets. It provides countertop electronic payment terminals that accept card payment options Mobile payment, chip and PIN, and Contactless payment, including Near field communication (NFC) as well as support Credit and Debit cards, EBT cards, EMV, and other PIN-based transactions; an array of software applications and application libraries; and portable devices that support 3G, GPRS, Bluetooth, and WiFi technologies.
The company also offers multimedia consumer facing POS devices; unattended and self-service payment methods designed to enable payment transactions in self-service environments; and integrated electronic payment systems that combine electronic payment processing, fuel dispensing, and ECR functions, as well as payment systems for integration. In addition, it provides mobile payment methods for various segments of the mobile point of sale environment; contactless peripherals; network access devices; security systems; payment-as-a-service and other managed services, terminal management, payment-enabled media, and payment system security; and server-based payment processing software and middleware. Further, the company offers equipment repair or maintenance, gateway processing, remote terminal management, software post-contract support, customized application development, helpdesk, customer service, warehousing, and encryption or tokenization services.
Countertop and PIN Pads
The company's countertop devices accept various card payment options, including payment options using Near field communication (NFC) technology, mobile wallets, chip and PIN, QR code and contact-less payments. Its VX Evolution generation of countertop devices supports a range of applications, such as pre-paid products, including gift cards and loyalty programs. The VX Evolution devices also integrate the company's NFC software technology to manage multiple NFC-based mobile wallets, applications, and programs. It also offers various other VX model countertop devices, including a hybrid device that reads both magnetic strip and chip card transactions using a single card reader, offering options for a range of connectivity choices, and battery operated and color displays. The company also supplies PIN pads that support credit and debit card, EBT, EMV, and other PIN-based transactions, and include multiple connectivity options, including a 3G option and NFC capability. Its countertop devices also support a range of applications that are either built into electronic payment systems or connect to electronic cash registers (ECRs) and POS systems. In addition, it offers a range of certified software applications and application libraries that enable its countertop systems and PIN pads to interface with major ECR and POS systems.
Verifone has sold numerous point-of-sale credit card reading products, including the ZON Jr (1984), Tranz 330 and ZON Jr XL(1987), Omni 460 (1991) and Omni 3200 (1999) which were the most successful transaction terminals of their times. The company's most popular current products include the Omni 3700 Family, featuring the Omni 3750 and Omni 3740. In 2004, Verifone introduced its newest line of products, Vx Solutions (also called VerixV). These include the Vx510, Vx520 and Vx570, which are countertop terminals offering dial-up or Ethernet access, and the Vx610 and Vx670 which are portable, include batteries, and an integrated wireless communications module. The Vx610 is offered in GPRS, CDMA, and WiFi wireless configurations, and is considered a 'countertop mobile' product. The Vx670 is a true portable or 'handover' version available with GPRS, WiFi, and as of November 2007, Bluetooth-integrated communications modules.
The Vx670, in particular, is a deterrent against the theft of credit information because the customer is not required to relinquish possession of his or her credit card; instead transacting directly with the Vx670 in a 'pay at table' sense. The Vx510 is repackaged as Omni 3730, capitalizing the huge sales of the Omni 3700 series. A derivative of Omni3730 is the Omni 3750LE, which has reduced features, but lower price. The VX Evolution devices integrate the company's NFC software technology to manage multiple NFC-based mobile wallets, applications, and programs.
Multimedia Customer Facing
The company's range of multimedia consumer facing POS devices are designed to allow merchants, primarily in the multi-lane retail environment, to engage in direct customer interaction through customized multimedia content, in-store promotions, digital offers, and other value-added services using a POS device. Its multimedia consumer-facing products are offered under its “MX solutions” brand. These products include color graphic displays, interfaces, ECR compatibility, key pads, signature capture functionality, and other features that serve customers in a multi-lane retail environment. The company's “MX solutions” also feature a modular hardware architecture that allows merchants to introduce capabilities, such as contactless or NFC. Its “MX solutions” include a range of products that support these same features in self-service market segments, such as taxis, parking lots/garages, ticketing machines, vending machines, gas pumps, self-checkouts, and quick service restaurants.
In 2005 Verifone released its first full color EFT-POS terminal, the MX 870. The MX 870 is capable of full screen video and is used to build applications by Verifone customers. The MX 870 is the first in the MX 800 series of Visual Payment Terminals, to compete with MX 850, MX 860 and MX 880. All of these terminals run Embedded Linux and use FST FancyPants and the Opera (browser) for their GUI platform.
Portable
The company's portable payment devices consist of small, portable, handheld devices that enable merchants to accept electronic payments in customer locations wherever connectivity is available. Its portable devices are designed for restaurants, hospitality, delivery, transportation, and other businesses that benefit from the pay-anywhere, pay-anytime convenience offered by a portable payment method that also has capabilities to allow merchants to offer coupons, loyalty, and other programs to enrich the consumer experience. The company's portable devices support 3G, GPRS, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi technologies based on its VX Evolution and Optimum platforms for ‘always on’ connectivity. Its VX Evolution portable devices offer a color display, as well as a touch screen option. It has utilized its wireless system expertise to enter into new markets for electronic payments such as the pay-at-the-table market device for full-service restaurants and systems for transportation and delivery segments where merchants and consumers are demanding secure payment systems to reduce fraud and Identity theft.
Mobile
The company's PAYware The company offers mobile payment capabilities for all segments of the mobile POS environment, from large retailers to small merchants. Its PAYware Mobile portfolio includes devices that attach to, and interface with, iOS, Android or Windows-based smartphones and tablets, enabling these devices to be used as a secure payment device by merchants to accept payments wherever and whenever they do business with mobile connectivity. The company's range of approaches in PAYware Mobile is intended to address merchant needs in various types of retail environments. Its portfolio includes devices that accept various payment types, including EMV chip and PIN, NFC/contactless and magnetic stripe payment types. The company's devices are Pci compliant and employ fully encrypted card readers so that sensitive cardholder data do not enter the device. The company provides options designed to enrich the overall consumer experience, including an integrated PIN pad for faster transaction processing, integrated laser barcode imager, and functionality that facilitates sales services, such as ‘on the spot’ verification of merchandise availability or pricing.
Petroleum
The company's family of products for petroleum companies consists of integrated electronic payment systems that combine electronic payment processing, fuel dispensing, and ECR functions, as well as secure payment systems that integrate with major petroleum pump controllers. These products are designed to meet the needs of petroleum company operations. These products allow the company's petroleum customers to manage fuel dispensing and control, and enable ‘pay at the pump’ functionality, cashiering, store management, inventory management, and accounting for goods and services at the POS. The company has expanded this suite of products with its Secure PumpPAY range of payment devices and related software that integrate into petroleum dispensers and deliver secure payment capabilities. It also has introduced its PAYmedia service that utilizes the large color screen of Secure PumpPAY units and its VNET media platform to enable digital content, including paid advertising and couponing at the petroleum forecourt. Its media platform delivers short-form video and digital coupons at eye-level displays for fueling customers, thereby engaging the consumers and influencing their purchasing decisions.
Unattended and Self-Service
The company's unattended and self-service payment devices are designed to enable payment transactions in self-service environments and include its UX, TransitPAY, and “MX Solutions”. Its “UX Solutions” include a series of secure payment modules for vending machines and other self-service, high-transaction-volume environments, such as on-street parking meters, petroleum pumps, and ticketing machines. The UX modules are offered as OEM metods that are customizable and integrate with existing self-service environments, and designed for both indoor and outdoor use in harsh environments. These modules include versions to accept a range of payment options, including mobile wallets, magnetic stripe, EMV chipcard or NFC or other contactless payment schemes. TransitPAY is the company's unattended payment device solution that enables implementation of an open fare-collection system for riders to pay with a wave or tap of almost any contactless card or NFC-enabled phone, with connectivity to control turnstile gates where applicable. TransitPAY is designed for public transportation environments, including bus, train, and subway. The company's MX 760 is an all-in-one OEM module with graphic display and audio features that integrates into a range of unattended environments. The MX 760 accepts both magnetic track and EMV chip cards using its hybrid card reader and encrypted pin pad and supports various value-added services.
Contactless Peripherals
The company's contactless peripherals enable upgrades of existing payment systems for contactless payment acceptance. These contactless modules, including the QX 1000 and the QX 700, support various contactless payment schemes. The QX 1000 is a countertop contactless module that enables merchants to upgrade existing payments systems to enable acceptance of contactless payments without having to replace their existing POS terminal estate. The company's QX 1000 is designed to provide ‘Plug and Play’ integration with other electronic payment devices and is designed for implementation at retail locations, including quick service restaurants, retail stores, parking garages, movie theaters, and sports arenas. Applications supported on the QX 1000 include EMV and Visa payWave MSD and MasterCard PayPass, American Express ExpressPay, Discover Network Zip, and MIFARE. The QX 700 is a contactless module designed to enable contactless payments for vending machines and other self-service, high-transaction volume environments, such as on-street parking meters, petroleum pumps, and ticketing machines. The QX 700 could be integrated into existing indoor and outdoor unattended systems through a field upgrade, and is capable of supporting various card types, including public transportation, stored value, and other value-added applications.
Network Access Methods
The company's network access methods are designed and customized to support the requirements of the electronic payments industry by providing the networking hardware technology and communications infrastructure necessary to achieve connectivity within the POS environment. Its integrated enterprise networks are designed to protect investments in current legacy networks and work on a range of standard network technologies and protocols. The company's Intelligent Network Access Controller (IntelliNAC) is an intelligent networking device that provides a range of digital and analog interfaces, line and data concentration, protocol conversion, and transaction routing. IntelliNAC is offered with IntelliView, an enterprise-level approach that provides the networking tools needed to manage aspects of POS such as remote downloads, and centralizes network management for reporting and monitoring.
Services
The company's service offerings include its payment-as-a-service and other managed services, terminal management, payment-enabled media, and payment system security. It also offers a host of support services, including software development, installation and deployment, warranty, post-sale support, repairs, and training.
Payment-as-a-Service - The company's Point payment-as-a-service payment management system is hosted and managed by the company and offered as a subscription-based model that includes hardware and software, as well as security, payment and value-added services for a fixed rate per device. The solution supports processing of payment types across all channels of a merchant's business, including credit and debit card payments, online payments, mobile platforms, loyalty cards, gift cards and membership cards, with integrated payments management and reporting. The hosted service includes 24x7 support, encrypted transactions, integration for new methods of payment, ongoing EMV maintenance, merchant support, and PCI compliance. The payment-as-a-service Web-based portal serves as a single point of entry for merchants and partners to access, configure, and manage their payment services, as well as to deploy loyalty programs and enable new payment types. The company's payment-as-a-service approach is designed to simplify EMV adoption and enable rapid integration of mobile wallets and emerging payment technologies. The payment-as-a-service model is implemented primarily in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), as well as in Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and other Asia Pacific Rim countries.
Managed Services - In addition to the company's payment-as-a-service model, it offers a range of other managed services to provide its customers a managed solution that accommodates their business needs and plans. The company's managed services include Web-based transaction processing that is consolidated across payment types, from traditional retail to e-commerce, Cloud-based remote loading of supported devices with the up-to-date base files and firmware, software and applications, and estate management, including remote key loading, capabilities to remotely activate NFC/contactless and EMV, and consolidated reporting and analytics. PAYware Connect, the company's cloud-based hosted payment solution, consolidates all payment transactions through its payment gateway and enables merchants to process from any Internet-connected PC through a single portal. PAYware Connect uses the company's proprietary VeriShield Total Protect for transaction encryption and tokenization and is certified by all of the major payment processing networks. Its VX Direct managed model combines its VX device with the latest payment applications, automatic updates, security protection with VeriShield Total Protect, and estate management capabilities through VeriFone HQ or VeriCentre. These managed approaches are offered worldwide to retailers, acquirers, and merchants in the restaurant and hospitality markets. The company's limo, livery, and taxi fleet management provides tools for fleets installed with its POS devices, including real-time vehicle and trip/fare activity monitoring, computerized dispatch, vehicle tracking, and faster card processing.
In 2009, Verifone partnered with Hypercom and Ingenico to found the Secure POS Vendor Alliance, a non-profit organization whose goal is to increase awareness of and improve payment industry security.
In 2010 Verifone announced the VX Evolution product line, designed to PCI PED 2.0 specs and providing native support for VeriShield Total Protect, Verifone's encryption and tokenization solution. The VX Evolution line is an extension of Verifone's countertop and PIN pad products and included a number of upgrades from earlier models, such as full color display, ARM 11 processors and a fully programmable PIN pad.
Key Trends and Forces
Summary of Trends
The industry's growth continues to be driven by the long-term shift towards electronic payment transactions and away from cash and checks, in addition to an improvement in security standards that require more advanced electronic payment systems. International and national security issues have become the main drivers of Verifone's business model as customers seek means to meet ever-escalating governmental requirements related to the prevention of identity theft as well as operating regulation safeguards issued by the credit and debit card associations. These trends have been accelerated by the usage of credit and debit card based payments, especially PIN-based debit. Another key driver is the growth in single application credit card products that enable merchants to provide payment solutions in non-traditional settings such as pay-at-the-table in restaurants.
Exposure to and Rapid Penetration of Electronic Payments in Emerging Markets
Rapid economic growth and subsequent infrastructure development—expanding presence of IP and wireless communication networks in Eastern Europe, Latin America, and East Asia have led to significant increases in demand for Verifone's electronic payment products. Verifone has strategically gained exposure to these growing markets and its 2008 revenue breakdown is a good indication of this. In particular, during the fiscal year ended October 31, 2008, 65.2% of Verifone's net revenues were generated outside of the United States. Verifone expects the percentage of net revenues generated outside of the United States to continue to increase in the coming years.
The firm's System Solutions segment's net revenues increased $15.2 million, or 1.9% during the fiscal year ended October 31, 2008 as compared to the fiscal year ended October 31, 2007 primarily due to a $56.3 million increase in International System Solutions net revenues. This increase was offset by a decline in North America system solutions revenue of $41.2 million. The increase in International System Solutions net revenues was largely attributable to growth in the Latin American market, primarily Brazil as several of Verifone's largest Brazilian customers made public offerings that generated money to purchase electronic payment products, as well as higher demand for prepaid top-ups, medical and health care System Solutions. Furthermore, European net revenues for System Solutions increased by $19.4 million due to improved supply chain and sales execution in Russia and Ukraine. The decrease in North America System Solutions net revenues was primarily attributable to weakening demand for the firm's "Petroleum Solutions" and a reduction in demand from United States financial businesses.
Verifone's increased revenue from abroad has not increased its profit margins. On the contrary, International gross profit percentage declined due to the combination of increased price competition in emerging markets countries, including Russia, China, Turkey and Brazil. In addition, certain customers purchased non-PCI compliant inventory at significant discounts. In addition, revenues in Latin America, which have historically carried gross margins below international averages, increased proportionally in the fiscal year ended October 31, 2008 as international sales of Verifone's System Solutions products have tended to carry lower average selling prices and therefore have lower gross margins than its sales in North America.
Increasing IP Connectivity
Large telecommunication carriers have expanded their communication networks and lowered fees, which lets merchants use IP-based networks more cost effectively. This increased IP connectivity has led to faster processing speeds and lower costs, which in turn has opened new markets for electronic payment systems, including many that have been primarily cash-only industries, such as quick service restaurants (“QSRs”). Additional wireless electronic payment solutions are being developed to increase transaction processing speed and mobility at the point of sale, and offer significant security benefits that enabling consumers to avoid relinquishing their payment cards. For example, a portable device can be presented to consumers to pay-at-the-table in full-service restaurants or to pay in other environments, such as outdoor arenas, pizza delivery, farmers’ markets, and taxi cabs. The increase in IP Connectivity in several fast-growing emerging economies, in particular Brazil, Turkey, China, Brazil and Israel has fueled much of the $56.3 million increase in Verifone's International System Solutions net revenues for 2008. However, the pervasive global bear market in 2009 has negated any positive impact on Verifone's revenues from Increasing IP connectivity in all market sectors, as well as domestic and international markets.
Growth of Wireless Communications
The development and increased use of wireless communication infrastructures are increasing demand for compact, easy-to-use, and reliable wireless payment solutions. The wireless communications industry has grown substantially in the United States and globally over the past twenty years. The increased speed of wireless communications, and ever-expanding coverage maps of standardized wireless data technologies such as General Packet Radio Service (“GPRS”), and Code division multiple access (“CDMA”) makes wireless telecommunications an attractive alternative to traditional telecommunications. The $61.5 million increase in revenue from North American System Solutions products was primarily attributable to an increase in demand for Wireless products due to customers’ interest in differentiating the service they provide to merchants, and higher sales in Canada, where merchants are preparing for a transition to a new payment card technology offered by Interac.
Increased focus on Security Issues
Industry security standards are constantly evolving, driving re-certification and replacement of electronic payment systems, particularly in Europe and the United States. In order to offer electronic payment systems that connect to payment networks, electronic payment system providers certify their products and services with card associations, financial institutions, and payment processors and comply with government and telecommunications company regulations. Not surprisingly, security has become a driving factor in its business as customers endeavor to meet ever escalating governmental requirements related to the prevention of identity theft as well as operating regulation safeguards issued by the credit and debit card associations, members of which include Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover Financial Services, and JCB. In response to increasing industry demands for high security products in the fiscal year ended October 31, 2007, Verifone incurred an obsolescence charge of $16.6 million primarily due to the implementation of new PCI security standards.
Competition
Verifone is one of the top three providers of electronic payment systems and services in the world. The markets for this company's products are highly competitive, and have been subject to price pressures. Competition from manufacturers, distributors, and providers of similar products have caused price reductions, reduced margins, and a loss of market share (need date that this started). For example, one of Verifone's former customers--First Data Corporation has developed its own series of proprietary electronic payment systems for the U.S. market. Moreover, Verifone competes with suppliers of cash registers that provide built in electronic payment capabilities and producers of software that support electronic payment over the internet, as well as other manufacturers or distributors of electronic payment systems. Finally, Verifone competes with smaller companies that have been able to develop strong local or regional customer bases. The firm's main competitors are:
PAX Technology
Ingenico
NCR Corporation
Verifone acquired a smaller competitor Hypercom in an all-stock transaction deal in 2011.
Acquisitions
Divestments
Global Bay sold to Manhattan Associates in 2014.
Corporate affairs
The company is run by a board of directors made up of mostly company outsiders, as is customary for publicly traded companies. Members of the board of directors as of June 2014 are: Robert W. Alspaugh(Director), Karen Austin(Director), Paul Galant(Director; Chief Executive Officer), Alex W. (Pete) Hart(Chairman of the Board of Directors), Robert B. Henske(Director), Wenda Harris Millard(Director), Eitan Raff(Director), Jonathan I. Schwart(Director), Jane J. Thompson(Director).
Under the Corporate Governance Guidelines of the company, the Board is free to select its Chairman and company's CEO in the manner it considers to be in its best interests at any given point in time. Since 2008 the positions of Chairman of the Board and CEO have been held by separate persons. The Board believes that this structure is appropriate for them because it allows CEO to focus his time and energy on leading its key business and strategic initiatives while the Board focuses on oversight of management, overall enterprise risk management and corporate governance. The Board and its committees meet throughout the year on a set schedule, usually at least once a quarter, and also hold special meetings from time to time. Agendas and topics for Board and committee meetings are developed through discussions between management and members of the Board and its committees.
Information and data that are important to the issues to be considered are distributed in advance of each meeting. Board meetings and background materials focus on key strategic, operational, financial, enterprise risk, governance and compliance matters.
Board’s Role in Risk Oversight
The Board executes its risk management responsibility directly and through its committees. As set forth in its charter and annual work plan, Audit Committee has primary responsibility for overseeing their enterprise risk management process. The Audit Committee receives updates and discusses individual and overall risk areas during its meetings, including financial risk assessments, operations risk management policies, major financial risk exposures, exposures related to compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, and management's actions to monitor and control such exposures. The Vice President of Internal Audit reviews with the Audit Committee company's annual operational risk assessment results and at least once each quarter the results of internal audits, including the adequacy of internal controls over financial reporting. The Vice President of Internal Audit and Chief Information Officer report to the Audit Committee on information systems controls and security.
Throughout each fiscal year, the Audit Committee invites appropriate members of management to its meetings to provide enterprise-level reports relevant to the Audit Committee's oversight role, including adequacy and effectiveness of management reporting and controls systems used to monitor adherence to policies and approved guidelines, information systems and security over systems and data, treasury, insurance structure and coverage, tax structure and planning, worldwide disaster recovery planning and the overall effectiveness of company's operations risk management policies. The Audit Committee is generally scheduled to meet at least twice a quarter, and generally covers one or more areas relevant to its risk oversight role in at least one of these meetings.
The Compensation Committee oversees risks associated with company's compensation policies and practices with respect to executive compensation and executive recruitment and retention, as well as compensation generally. In establishing and reviewing the executive compensation program, Compensation Committee consults with independent compensation experts and seeks to structure the program so as to not encourage unnecessary or excessive risk taking. Company's compensation program utilizes a mix of base salary and short-term and long-term incentive awards designed to align the executive compensation with success, particularly with respect to financial performance and stockholder value. The Compensation Committee sets the amount of company's executives’ base salaries at the beginning of each fiscal year. A substantial portion of bonus amounts are tied to overall corporate performance and stockholder value. Compensation provided to the executive officers also includes a substantial portion in the form of long-term equity awards that help align executives’ interests with those of its stockholders over a longer term.
The Corporate Governance and Nominating committee oversees risks related to company's overall corporate governance, including development of corporate governance principles applicable to company, evaluation of federal securities laws and regulations with respect to its insider trading policy, development of standards to be applied in making determinations as to the absence of material relationships between company and a director and formal periodic evaluations of the Board and management.
Adoption of Majority Voting Provision
In considering best practices of corporate governance among peer companies and governance practices recommended by shareholder advisory organizations and supported by company's stockholders, company amended its Bylaws and the Corporate Governance Guidelines in fiscal year 2013 to adopt a majority voting provision which became effective immediately following the close of it 2013 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. Such provision provides that, in an uncontested election of directors, each director shall be elected by the vote of the majority of
the votes cast (meaning the number of shares voted “for” a nominee must exceed the number of shares voted “against” such nominee), and in a contested election, each director shall be elected by a plurality of the votes cast.
A contested election is defined as an election for which company's Corporate Secretary determines that the number of director nominees exceeds the number of directors to be elected as of the date that is ten days preceding the date their first mail notice of meeting for such meeting to stockholders. Under the amended Corporate Governance Guidelines, any nominee in an uncontested election who receives a greater number of “against” votes than “for” votes shall promptly tender his or her resignation following certification of the vote. The 12 Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee shall consider the resignation offer and shall recommend to the Board the action to be taken. In considering whether to recommend accepting or rejecting the tendered resignation, the Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee will consider all factors that it deems relevant including, but not limited to, any reasons stated by stockholders for their “withheld” votes for election of the director, the length of service and qualifications of the director, their Corporate Governance Guidelines and the director's overall contributions as a member of Board. The Board will consider these and any other factors it deems relevant, as well as the Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee's recommendation, when deciding whether to accept or reject the tendered resignation. Any director whose resignation is under consideration shall not participate in the Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee deliberation and recommendation regarding whether to accept the resignation. The Board shall take action within 90 days following certification of the vote, unless a longer period of time is necessary in order to comply with any applicable NYSE or SEC rule or regulation, in which event the Board shall take action as promptly as is practicable while satisfying such requirements.
See also
References
External links
American companies established in 1981
Financial services companies established in 1981
Manufacturing companies based in San Jose, California
Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange
Electronics companies established in 1981
1981 establishments in Hawaii
Credit cards
Hewlett-Packard acquisitions
Payment service providers
Point of sale companies
Retail point of sale systems
Private equity portfolio companies
1997 mergers and acquisitions
2001 mergers and acquisitions
2005 initial public offerings
2018 mergers and acquisitions
|
60729516
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS%2013
|
IOS 13
|
iOS 13 is the thirteenth major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc. for their iPhone, iPod Touch, and HomePod lines. The successor to iOS 12 on those devices, it was announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 3, 2019, and released on September 19, 2019. It was succeeded by iOS 14, released on September 16, 2020.
As of iOS 13, the iPad lines run a separate operating system, derived from iOS, named iPadOS. Both iPadOS 13 and iOS 13 dropped support for devices with less than 2 GB of RAM.
History
Introduction and initial release
iOS 13 and iPadOS 13 were introduced by Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi at the WWDC keynote address on June 3, 2019.
The first beta was made available to registered developers after the keynote. The second beta was released to registered developers on June 18, 2019, and the first public beta was released on June 24, 2019. The initial release of iOS 13 was version 13.0, which was released to the public on September 19, 2019.
Updates
Legend:
System features
Privacy
iOS 13 changes the handling of location data. When an app requests access to location, the user chooses whether to grant access whenever they are using the app, never, or only once. The user will receive similar prompts for background location access, and when an app requests access to Bluetooth or Wi-Fi (which may also be used for non-consensual location tracking).
In August 2019, it was reported that beginning in April 2020, the PushKit API for VoIP would be restricted to internet telephone usage, closing a "loophole" that had been used by other apps for background data collection.
User interface
A system-wide dark mode allows users to enable a light-on-dark color scheme for the entire iOS and iPadOS user interface, all native applications, and supported third-party apps. It can be manually turned on or set to automatically switch between light and dark modes based on the time of day.
The volume indicator was redesigned, replacing the larger, centered overlay with a slimmer bar shown vertically near the volume keys in portrait orientation, or at the top in landscape. The bar can also be manipulated directly.
The card UI elements from Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, and Apple Books has been implemented system-wide, being an option for third-parties to use in their apps.
Siri
Siri uses a software-generated voice called "Neural TTS", intended to sound more natural than previous versions that use clips of human voices. Siri also became more functional and new sound control is available. The Siri Shortcuts app is installed by default. Siri also uses HomePod to learn and recognize voices of different people. It is also possible for Siri to automatically read incoming messages aloud on AirPods.
Keyboard
The QuickType virtual keyboard features QuickPath, allowing the user to swipe their finger across the keyboard to complete words and phrases. This functionality was previously exclusively available via third-party keyboard applications such as SwiftKey, Adaptxt, Gboard, or Swype. Emoji stickers have been included on the emoji keyboard and can be used wherever regular emoji can be.
Text editing
iOS 13 and iPadOS 13 add a new system-wide gesture interface for cut, copy, paste, undo, and redo. A three-finger swipe left or up will undo; three fingers right or down will redo. A single three-finger pinch will copy, a second three-finger pinch will cut, and a three-finger spread pastes. A three-finger single tap will bring up a shortcut menu with all five options.
The blue text cursor can be moved around text fields by pressing and holding to pick it up and move it. Many new options for text selection have also been added: double-tapping a word will select it, triple-tapping selects a sentence, and quadruple-tapping a paragraph selects it.
Sign in with Apple
A new single sign-on service known as "Sign in with Apple" is integrated with iOS 13, and allows users to create accounts for third-party services with a minimal amount of personal information. Users may optionally generate a disposable email address for each account, improving privacy and anonymity, and reducing the amount of information that can be associated with a single email address.
All iOS applications that support third-party social login are required to implement Sign in with Apple, The iOS human interface guidelines also state that Sign in with Apple should be given prominence above any other login provider in application interfaces.
Performance
iOS 13 contains several performance improvements. Face ID unlocks the iPhone X, XS / XS Max, and XR up to 30% faster than on iOS12. A new file format makes app downloads as much as 50% smaller, app updates as much as 60% smaller, and app launches up to twice as fast.
Battery lifespan extender
Similar to many laptops, iOS 13 has a feature to limit the battery charging percentage to 80%.
Keeping the battery percentage more centered instead of complete charges and discharges reduces strain onto the battery. This reduces the battery aging of the lithium-ion battery and extends its lifespan.
Haptics
iOS 13 introduced a new Core Haptics framework. Prior to iOS 13, apps could only provide the default haptic patterns. Core Haptics gives developers more fine-grained control over the iPhone's Taptic Engine, including synchronized audio, allowing apps to provide customized haptic and audio feedback. This feature is only available on iPhone 8 or newer. It is also not supported on the iPod Touch due to the lack of a haptic motor in those devices.
External storage
iOS 13 introduced the ability to connect to external USB drives. Although primarily designed for thumb drives and hard drives, a wide variety of USB disk devices will work, thanks to the iOS's support of the SCSI subclass of USB Mass Storage. Native SCSI disk devices will work as well, when used with a SCSI to USB adapter.
Exposure Notification API
On 20 May 2020, Apple released iOS 13.5, which includes the Exposure Notification API that provides access to the Apple / Google privacy-preserving contact tracing system that Apple have developed jointly with Google. This is provided to support digital contact tracing which came to light during the COVID-19 pandemic.
ARKit 3
ARKit 3 was released as a part of iOS 13 and brought new features, such as People occlusion, which allowed AR objects to be in front or behind people in a more realistic way. New features were restricted to devices with A12 processors and newer – like iPhone XS, iPhone XR, and the 2018 iPad Pro. Other features of ARKit 3 were multiple face tracking and collaborative sessions.
ARKit 3.5
Released with the 2020 iPad Pro, ARKit 3.5 vastly improved positioning in virtual environments due to new anchors and use of data from a LiDAR scanner. It also improved its motion capture and people occlusion.
Other changes
The version of iOS for iPad devices was renamed iPadOS, reflecting the precedence for the OS to include additional features intended primarily for use on tablets.
iOS13 adds official support for the Sony DualShock 4 and the Microsoft Xbox One controller. iOS13 also adds support for wireless audio sharing for AirPods and certain Beats headphones.
A new multi-select gesture is available in supported applications such as Files and Mail. Multiple items, such as files or emails, can be quickly selected by dragging two fingers over the desired items.
App features
Music
Apple has added a fun new feature to Apple Music - time synced lyrics. The updated lyrics experience presents real-time synced song words that animate along with the music as they’re being sung, rapped or spoken. While lyrics are displayed on the phone, Apple Music will highlight the currently playing line in white color. The feature also lets you navigate music in a new way - skip to a part of a song simply by tapping on the lyric.
Messages and Memoji
User profiles can be created and Memoji can be used as an iMessage profile picture. All iOS devices with an A9 processor or newer can create custom Memoji. Memoji and Animoji can be used as a sticker in iMessage and other apps; they are also available as regular emoji for use anywhere the emoji keyboard is available. There are a variety of new customization options for Memoji.
Maps
The Maps app features a redesigned maps UI, featuring more detailed maps, and Look Around, a street level imagery implementation similar to Google Street View.
Reminders
Redesigned and rebuilt from the ground up with new features such as the ability to suggest when a reminder should be delivered to the user, and the ability to tag contacts so that references to reminders can be surfaced elsewhere, such as in Messages.
Photos
The Photos app includes a redesigned UI and uses machine learning to auto-hide "clutter" images such as screenshots and documents.
Photos has a redesigned interface showing users photos they took in the past year, month, week and day. This brings all photos to one page and shows users photos based on what their device suggests for them.
Problems
There were a number of issues following the release of iOS 13, some relating to battery drain, call-dropping, and ringtones not functioning properly, resulting in frequent software updates and patches. Despite the frequency of bug fix releases, the updates have introduced new issues.
Other issues included incorrect artwork for user's playlists. Users reported the artwork is repeated for some playlists or uses a different picture.
Supported devices
iOS13 requires 2 GB of RAM. It ended support for all iPhones and iPod touches using the Apple A7 and A8 SoC, as they shipped with 1 GB of RAM: the iPhone 5S, iPhone 6 / 6 Plus, and the sixth-generation iPod Touch.
The HomePod used iOS 13 as a base for the system software until the release of iOS 13.4, where the base software was changed to tvOS.
To further differentiate features between iPhones and iPads, Apple rebranded the tablet-oriented platform with its own operating system, iPadOS.
iPhone
iPhone 6S
iPhone 6S Plus
iPhone SE (1st generation)
iPhone 7
iPhone 7 Plus
iPhone 8
iPhone 8 Plus
iPhone X
iPhone XS
iPhone XS Max
iPhone XR
iPhone 11
iPhone 11 Pro
iPhone 11 Pro Max
iPhone SE (2nd generation)
iPod Touch
iPod Touch (7th generation)
HomePod
HomePod
References
External links
Official website
13
2019 software
Products introduced in 2019
Mobile operating systems
|
39439545
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/API%20Healthcare
|
API Healthcare
|
API Healthcare is based in Hartford, Wisconsin and is a developer of healthcare-specific workforce management software. The company is best known for providing workforce management solutions to the healthcare industry.
The company currently has 350 employees.
History
API Healthcare was founded in 1982 and is based in Hartford, Wisconsin. Formerly known as API Software, Inc., the company was purchased by Francisco Partners, a private equity firm headquartered in San Francisco, in November 2008. The company changed its name to API Healthcare in February 2009.
In December 2009, API Healthcare acquired the Addison, TX-based company Clearview Staffing Software, a provider of workforce management solutions. In 2017, this contingent staffing division was acquired by HealthcareSource.
An intended merger between API Healthcare and Kronos, Inc., a Massachusetts-based workforce management vendor, was announced in February 2011. That merger was abandoned in April 2011 following antitrust concerns from the U.S. Department of Justice.
In February 2012, API Healthcare acquired Concerro, a San Diego-based provider of staffing solutions delivered via a Software as a Service (SaaS) model. This acquisition enabled the company to provide its software to home health care, retail clinics, a long-term care facilities, and similar.
In February 2014, API Healthcare was acquired by General Electric, under the GE Healthcare Division.
In April 2018, Veritas Capital acquired GE's revenue-cycle, ambulatory care and workforce management software unit (formerly API Healthcare) for $1.05 billion in cash.
In April 2019, Veritas sold the API Healthcare unit to symplr, a provider of compliance and credentialing solutions for healthcare organizations.
Products
API Healthcare offers integrated workforce management technology to the healthcare industry. It offers its solutions to monitor and control labor costs, address staffing challenges, automate time and attendance, track and manage human resource data, manage payroll in real time, and base workloads on patient classification.
Solutions for health systems include time and attendance, staffing and scheduling, talent management, human resources and payroll, business analytics, and patient classification solutions for healthcare providers.
References
Companies established in 1982
Medical technology companies of the United States
1982 establishments in Wisconsin
|
5671916
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carsten%20Haitzler
|
Carsten Haitzler
|
Carsten Haitzler (born 1975), known as Raster or Rasterman to the open source community, is an Australian-German software engineer, best known for initiating and leading the development of the Enlightenment window manager and its libraries.
Life and work
Carsten Haitzler was born in Nigeria of a German father and Finnish mother, but soon moved with his family to Germany where he lived until the age of four.
Haitzler then moved to Sydney, Australia where he attended the University of New South Wales, graduating with a bachelor's degree in computer science. In 1997 Haitzler moved to North Carolina, U.S. to work for Red Hat in the development of the CORBA, Xlib, GTK+ libraries, then later moved to work with VA Linux Systems.
In Sydney, Haitzler worked for Fluffy Spider Technologies where he refined, optimized and commercialized the basic Enlightenment Foundation Libraries (EFL) for Enlightenment 0.17. Fluffy Spider Technologies use some of EFL for their embedded Linux graphical user interface FancyPants.
After working for Morgan Stanley in Tokyo, he worked for Openmoko, decided that it "turned out to be a non-working thing for me, so I resigned". Since 2010 he worked on Samsung's Linux platform Tizen.
Other software Haitzler has contributed to includes Electric Eyes, GTK+ theme engines, Imlib, Imlib2 and Epplets.
References
External links
Carsten Rasterman Haitzler's private site
LWN Linux Timeline, June, 1999.
ESD White Paper, RHS 1999.
Fluffy Spider Technologies website.
Linux 2000 UK Linux Developers' Conference.
SLUG codefest February, 2003.
Living people
1975 births
University of New South Wales alumni
Geeknet
Australian people of German descent
Australian people of Finnish descent
German people of Finnish descent
|
16429397
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4709%20Ennomos
|
4709 Ennomos
|
4709 Ennomos is a large Jupiter trojan from the Trojan camp and the namesake of the small Ennomos family, approximately in diameter. It was discovered on 12 October 1988, by American astronomer Carolyn Shoemaker at the Palomar Observatory in California. The relatively bright and possibly elongated Jovian asteroid belongs to the 40 largest Jupiter trojans and has a rotation period of 12.3 hours. It was named after Ennomus (Ennomos), a Trojan warrior killed by Achilles.
Orbit and classification
Ennomos is a Jovian asteroid orbiting in the trailing Trojan camp at Jupiter's Lagrangian point, 60° behind its orbit in a 1:1 resonance (see Trojans in astronomy).
It orbits the Sun at a distance of 5.1–5.4 AU once every 12 years (4,387 days; semi-major axis of 5.24 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.02 and an inclination of 25° with respect to the ecliptic. The body's observation arc begins with a precovery taken at Palomar in August 1951, more than 37 years prior to its official discovery observation.
Small Ennomos family
This Jupiter trojan is also the namesake of the Ennomos family (009), a small Jovian asteroid family with 30 known members. The family was first identified by Jakub Rozehnal and Miroslav Brož in 2011. It also includes 1867 Deiphobus, one of the largest Jovian trojans.
As the existence of this family is not well established, Ennomos is still considered part of the Jovian background population by another HCM-analysis (Knezevic and Milan). It is speculated that Ennomos might be an unrelated interloper in its own family rather than its parent body. As of 2018, only a few families have been identified among the Jovian asteroids. These are the Hektor family, the Eurybates family, and the Arkesilaos family as well as two unnamed families, 006 and 010).
Naming
This minor planet was named by the discoverer from Greek mythology after the Trojan warrior Ennomus (Ennomos), who was one of many Trojans killed by Achilles in the waters of the River Skamander. The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 28 April 1991 ().
Physical characteristics
Ennomos is an assumed C-type asteroid. Its V–I color index of 0.69 is untypically low compared to most other large Jupiter trojans.
Rotation period
In December 1990, a rotational lightcurve of Ennomos was obtained by Italian astronomers Stefano Mottola and Mario Di Martino using the 1.52-meter Loiano Telescope at the Observatory of Bologna in Italy. Lightcurve analysis gave a well-defined rotation period of 12.275 hours with a relatively high brightness amplitude of 0.47 magnitude (), indicative of a non-spherical, elongated shape.
Between 2015 and 2017, photometric observations by Daniel Coley and Robert Stephens at the Center for Solar System Studies, California, gave several concurring periods of 12.267, 12.269 and 12.271 with an amplitude between 0.43 and 0.46 magnitude (). This also supersedes a period form Stephens taken at the GMARS Observatory in September 2011.
Diameter and albedo
According to the surveys carried out by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS, the Japanese Akari satellite and the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, Ennomos measures between 80.03 and 91.43 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo between 0.077 and 0.078. The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link derives an albedo of 0.0972 and a diameter of 81.23 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 8.6. Also, Rozehnal and Brož cite a high visual albedo of approximately 0.15 in their publication.
Notes
References
External links
Long-term evolution of asteroid families among Jovian Trojans, Jakub Rozehnal and Miroslav Brož (2014)
Lightcurve Database Query (LCDB), at www.minorplanet.info
Dictionary of Minor Planet Names, Google books
Discovery Circumstances: Numbered Minor Planets (1)-(5000) – Minor Planet Center
004709
004709
Discoveries by Carolyn S. Shoemaker
Minor planets named from Greek mythology
Named minor planets
19881012
|
5004511
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A9ctor%20Garc%C3%ADa-Molina
|
Héctor García-Molina
|
Héctor García-Molina (1954-25 November 2019) was a Mexican/American computer scientist and Professor in the Departments of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. He was advisor to Sergey Brin, the founder of Google, from 1993 to 1997 when he was a computer science student at Stanford.
Biography
Born in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico, García-Molina graduated in 1974 with a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Studies (ITESM) and received both a master's degree in Electrical Engineering (1975) and a doctorate in Computer Science (1979) from Stanford University.
From 1979 to 1991, García-Molina worked as a professor of the Computer Science Department at Princeton University in New Jersey. In 1992 he joined the faculty of Stanford University as the Leonard Bosack and Sandra Lerner Professor in the Departments of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering and has served as Director of the Computer Systems Laboratory (August 1994 – December 1997) and as chairman of the Computer Science Department from (January 2001 – December 2004). During 1994–1998, he was the Principal Investigator for the Stanford Digital Library Project, the project from which the Google search engine emerged.
García-Molina has served at the U.S. President's Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) from 1997 to 2001 and has been a member of Oracle Corporation's Board of Directors since October 2001.
García-Molina was also a Fellow member of the Association for Computing Machinery, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He was a Venture Advisor for Diamondhead Ventures and ONSET Ventures. In 1999 he was laureated with the ACM SIGMOD Innovations Award.
García-Molina died of cancer on the eve of his 66th birthday.
Awards
(2010) VLDB 10-year Best Paper Award for the paper entitled "The Evolution of the Web and Implications for an Incremental Crawler" in VLDB 2000.
(2009) SIGMOD Best Demo Award for the demo entitled "CourseRank: A Social System for Course Planning".
(2007) ICDE Influential Paper Award for the paper entitled "Disk Striping" in ICDE 1986. Citation: This early paper on disk striping significantly influenced subsequent work on RAID storage.
(2007) Honorary doctorate from ETH Zurich. Citation: For his outstanding work in computer science.
References
External links
Héctor García-Molina's Personal Web page at Stanford University
El Universal: El mexicano que asesoró a los creadores de Google (in Spanish)
→ On the Origins of Google
Videolecture on Web Information Management: Past, Present and Future
"Excelling Beyond the Spreadsheet" Presentation at the 2008 Yahoo! Research Big Thinkers Series
1954 births
2019 deaths
People from Monterrey
Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education alumni
Stanford University School of Engineering alumni
Mexican computer scientists
Mexican emigrants to the United States
American computer scientists
Stanford University Department of Electrical Engineering faculty
Stanford University School of Engineering faculty
Princeton University faculty
Oracle employees
Database researchers
Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery
Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering
Google people
|
63146896
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St.%20Paul%27s%20University%2C%20Limuru
|
St. Paul's University, Limuru
|
St. Paul's University, is a private Christian ecumenical University with its main campus in Limuru, Kiambu County Kenya. The students and staff of the University come from all over the world.
Accreditation
It acquired the status of university, on September 14, 2007 and the University was awarded a Charter to become St. Paul's University.
Academics
Postgraduate Program
Doctorate Programmes
Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration and Management
Doctor of Philosophy in Development Studies
Doctor of Philosophy in Theology
Masters' Programmes
Master of Arts in Communication Studies
Master of Arts in Community Care & HIV/AIDS
Masters of Arts in Counselling Psychology
Master of Arts in Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations
Master of Arts in Sociology
Master of Arts in Transformational Leadership
Master of Business Administration
Master of Development Studies
Master of Education (Early Childhood Studies)
Master of Procurement and Logistics Management
Master of Public Administration and Policy
Masters in Theology
Undergraduate Programmes
Bachelor of Arts in Communication
Bachelor of Arts in Community Development
Bachelor of Arts in Counseling Psychology
Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice and Security Studies
Bachelor of Arts in Leadership and Management
Bachelor of Arts in Peace and Conflict Studies
Bachelor of Arts in Social Work
Bachelor of Business Administration & Management
Bachelor of Business and Information Technology
Bachelor of Commerce
Bachelor of Computer Science
Bachelor of Divinity
Bachelor of Education (Arts)
Bachelor of Education (Special Needs)
Bachelor of Education Education In Early Childhood Development and Education (ECDE)
Bachelor of Science in Computing and Information Systems
Bachelor of Science in Nursing (Regular)
Bachelor of Science in Health Records Management and Informatics
Bachelor of Science in Health Systems Management and Economics
Bachelor of Translation Studies
Diploma Programmes
Diploma in Business Information Technology (DBIT)
Diploma in Business Management
Diploma in Clinical Medicine and Surgery
Diploma in Communication
Diploma in Community Development
Diploma in Community Health Development
Diploma in Computer Science
Diploma in Counseling Psychology
Diploma in Criminology and Security Management
Diploma in Education (Arts)
Diploma in Film Production
Diploma in Health Records Management
Diploma in Hotel and Catering Management
Diploma in Information Technology
Diploma in Journalism
Diploma in Leadership and Management
Diploma in Music
Diploma in Peace Building and Conflict Resolution
Diploma in Public Relations
Diploma in Social Work
Diploma in Theology
Location
St. Paul’s University Main Campus in Kenya is located in Limuru. It is strategically located in the lush Kiambu County along Nairobi-Limuru Route A, approximately 30 km from Nairobi area near Nairobi city. Its other campuses are located in Nairobi, Nakuru and Machakos.
References
St. Paul's University, Limuru
Private universities and colleges in Kenya
Kiambu County
Education in Kenya
|
2336521
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InteGrate
|
InteGrate
|
IntegRate was a software product written in C++ based on a pipe-lined high performance architecture for handling batch rating of telecommunications using call detail records (CDR), developed by the German software company Solution 42.
Description
The product was an early massively parallel application. It processed and charge thousands of events per second on commodity hardware. The software was able to run on the following operating systems: Windows, Unix/Linux, Solaris, HP-UX and AIX. It contained algorithms for ultra-fast regular expression matching using a finite-state machine as well as one of the first in-memory databases.
IntegRate platform is a conceptual structure for performing the complex task of telecommunications rating and price modeling. The "framework" contains "pipelines", each of which consists of "plug-ins", which can be freely combined. The standard plug-ins cover rating tasks (e.g. zoning, service determination) and the overall rating process can be customized by using the IntegRate script languages "iScript" and "iRule". This allows configuring plug-in modules to prepare or post-process CDR-information.
Solution42 (a name taken from Douglas Adams's "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" cult series), originally based in Quickborn, Germany, was purchased by Portal Software in 2000. Since the purchase of Solution42, the IntegRate architecture was integrated into the so-called "Portal Infranet " telecommunications billing platform, now called the Batch Rating Engine (BRE).
In 2006 Oracle Corporation acquired Portal Software. IntegRate became the central rating and mediation engine with Oracle's CBRM System.
In 2003 the core engineers and lead architects of former Solution42 founded ENTEREST to build the successor product "EDR Workbench" marketed for complex event processing using the marketing term big data.
References
Telephony software
|
45243573
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-product%20communication
|
In-product communication
|
In-product communications (IPC) are messages, content, and related media delivered directly to a user's internet-connected device or software application, with the purpose of informing, gathering feedback from, engaging with, or marketing to that specific user or segment of users at often-higher engagement rates than other digital marketing and online marketing channels.
Uses
Marketing
In-product marketing is an additional channel in the digital marketing toolkit, which includes email marketing, search engine marketing (SEM), social media marketing, and many forms of display advertising, and mobile advertising.
Support
It can also refer to the strategy used by a company to reach specific segments of their customer base to provide in-product customer service and support, supply training materials, and initiate orders of replacement parts and consumables.
Feedback
In-product communication can also be a valuable way for businesses to gather user intelligence and feedback on their customer base, as the success of email requests for such information continues to decline.
Data Capture
Because in-product communications are delivered directly to the device of a user, many in-product communication platforms can auto-capture device information, like serial number, model number, operating system, version number, location, and potentially any additional metadata available from, and agreed-upon by the user.
Variations
In-product communication is an umbrella term to describe several types of direct communication. It may also refer to in-device communication, in-app communication, in-device messaging, or in-app messaging.
In-Device Communication
In-device communication or in-device messaging is generally accepted as messaging communications directly to a user's device screen, without running through a software application. For example, communications directly to the screen on an internet-connected printer, the screen on the handheld controller of a UAV or drone, or the screen of an internet-connected television, would all be considered in-device. In-device communication relies on a communication platform integrated directly into the operating system of the internet-connected device, allowing the manufacturer to feed messages, gather feedback, and engage with users from directly on the device display.
In-App Communication
In-app communication or in-app messaging is the act of messaging, gathering feedback, or otherwise communicating with users through a software application, either on a mobile phone or tablet device, or through software on a PC. In this mode of communication, a communication platform is embedded as a software module in the application, generally resulting in much faster deployments of the technology, as compared to the integration timeline of in-device communication platforms.
Direct-to-Desktop Communication
Direct-to-desktop communication, or on-desktop messaging is the act of messaging, gathering feedback, or otherwise communicating with users through a software application or embedded peripheral driver on a desktop personal computer. Users interact with messages on the screen of the desktop computer, and the device manufacturer serves messaging dynamically from the back end.
Effectiveness
In-product marketing content is often very similar to that of email marketing campaigns, but the segmentation and delivery is more targeted. Because email is historically one of the most effective channels in the digital marketing toolkit, the email channel is becoming more overcrowded and overused, leading to much lower open rates, lower engagement rates, lower click-through rates (CTR), and lower conversion rates. The rise of internet-connected (IOT) devices is enabling a growing number of consumer products manufacturers to take advantage of this channel of marketing communications, to supplement other digital marketing channels.
Because messages and communications are more targeted, and delivered directly to the user's device, engagement rates are often much higher than email marketing.
References
Promotion and marketing communications
Types of marketing
Marketing techniques
Digital marketing
|
2865151
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tau%20Gamma%20Phi
|
Tau Gamma Phi
|
Tau Gamma Phi (), also known as 'Triskelions’ Grand Fraternity', is a fraternity established in the Philippines. Its members call themselves Triskelion.
Its aims are to see a Fraternity System devoid of violence in lieu of the rampant violence pervading the university campus at the time of its founding, to avoid elitism if they can, and to earnestly propagate their fraternity's principles as their way of life without political influence or pressure. Based on these goals, the Triskelions categorized their formal group as a 'protest fraternity'. The Fraternity encourages its members to strive for spiritual growth and to organize socio-civic activities for the benefit of communities. Tau Gamma Phi is now one of the largest international fraternities, with about 2,500,000 registered members worldwide. Its counterpart is called Tau Gamma Sigma () also known as the Triskelions' Grand Sorority.
Founding
The fraternal organization, originally known as the , was founded on October 4, 1968 by 6 arts and science students from the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City. Membership grew when the Greek-lettered name Tau Gamma Phi was adopted. A few years later, chapters were established at other college and university campuses in the Philippines.
Martial law era
When martial law was declared on September 21, 1972 by the late Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, some university organizations including Tau Gamma Phi became targets of military harassment, believing that these school organizations posed a threat to the Marcos regime.
With martial law forestalling most of its fraternal activities, the Triskelions faced the problem of continuous decline in recruitment. In the 1975 general assembly, they explored the idea of including younger members. Recruitment began in the high school sector with the "Junior Tau Gamma Phi", also known as the "Junior Triskelions", founded at San Beda College–High School in 1975.
Notable members
Ralph G. Recto – is a Filipino politician serving as the president pro tempore of the Philippine Senate since 2017, previously holding the position from 2013 to 2016. Since 2010, he has been on his second stint in the Senate, first serving from 2001 to 2007.
Joel Villanueva – is a Filipino politician, who serves as a Senator of the Philippines. He took his senatorial seat following the 2016 Philippine national elections, where he ranked second highest in the polls with 18,459,222 votes. He was a former Director General of the Philippine TESDA from 2010 until 2015 and a three-term congressman from 2001 through 2010.
Dan Fernandez – is a Filipino politician, actor, and optometrist who is currently serving as a representative of the 1st District of Laguna.
Luis Manzano – is a Filipino-American TV host, actor, comedian, VJ, and model. He is the son of actors Edu Manzano and Vilma Santos.
Vhong Navarro – is a Filipino comedian, actor, dancer, recording artist, and television host. He is a regular host on ABS-CBN's noontime variety show It's Showtime. He is also part of the dance group Streetboys in the Philippines.
JM de Guzman – is a Filipino actor, mixed martial artist, model and singer. He is currently working as an exclusive talent of Star Magic.
Diether Ocampo – is a Filipino actor, singer, model, and military officer.
Oyo Boy Sotto – is a Filipino actor. He is the son of Filipino actor-comedian-host Vic Sotto and Swiss-Filipino singer-actress Dina Bonnevie, nephew of Senator Tito Sotto, younger brother of actress Danica Sotto, half-brother of Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto.
Joseph Marco – is a Filipino actor, model, singer and endorser who played the role of Santi Domingo in the GMA Network Philippine drama series La Vendetta and who is currently a Star Magic artist in the ABS-CB.
Ion Perez – is a Filipino actor, model, and television host. He is best known as the Kuya Escort in the Miss Q and A segment of It's Showtime.
Jao Mapa – is a Filipino actor from the Philippines. He is also an accomplished painter.
Vandolph Quizon – is a Filipino actor, comedian and politician. He is known for being a councilor of the 1st District of Parañaque.
Boy 2 Quizon –is a Filipino actor and comedian.
Victor Neri – is a Filipino actor, singer and chef.
Jiro Manio –is a Filipino actor who started acting at the age of seven in the film Pamana in 1999.
Jobert Austria –is a Filipino actor and comedian.
Kiko Matos – is a Famous actor,model, MMA Player, Jiu Jutsu Champion, YouTuber and Social Media Personality from macau china.
Tim Sawyer –is a Famous Vlogger and YouTuber from Pabayao Chapter,Cagayan de Oro City Council.
Pancho Magno –is a Filipino actor of GMA.
TJ Trinidad –is a Filipino actor of GMA and ABS-CBN.
RJ Padilla – is a Filipino actor. he starred in the 2014 film Sa Ngalan ng Ama, Ina at Mga Anak and also appeared in La Visa Loca. He is the son of Rommel Padilla and Annabelle Antonio brother of Matt Padilla and Roanna Padilla and half-brother of Daniel Padilla.
Frenchie Dy – is a singer, TV personality and stage performer. Grand winner of the 2004 season 2 Star In A Million talent search of ABS-CBN.[13]
Angeline Quinto –is a Filipino singer, actress, and winner of Star Power: Sharon's Search For The Next Female Pop Superstar in 2011. She is currently managed by Star Magic and KreativDen.
Angelica Jane Yap – ay isang YouTube celebrity, YouTube sensation at kasalukuyang napapanuod sa noon-time variety show ng ABS-CBN na It's Showtime. Nakilala muna siya bilang si Ms. Pastillas sa video streaming site na YouTube bago sumalang sa telebisyon.
Lougee Basabas – s a singer and songwriter based in Manila, Philippines. She is the lead vocalist of the alternative rock band Mojofly and was a host of the popular noontime variety show, Eat Bulaga!.
Bong Alvarez – is a Filipino retired professional basketball player of the Philippine Basketball Association. (PBA)
Raymond Almazan – is a Filipino professional basketball player for the Meralco Bolts of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).
JC Intal – is a Filipino former professional basketball player. He last played for the Phoenix Super LPG Fuel Masters of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).
Eumir Marcial – is a Filipino boxer. While representing the Philippines as an amateur, he won a silver medal at the 2019 World Championships and bronze at the 2020 Summer Olympics, both in the middleweight division.
John Riel Casimero – is a Filipino professional boxer. He has held world championships in Four weight classes and current WBO Bantamweight Champion.
Nathan Azarcon – is a Filipino musician, nationalist, songwriter, and producer. He is currently the bassist, vocalist and one of the founding members of Filipino rock band Rivermaya. He was also a member of Filipino rock bands Pinikpikan, Kapatid and a founding member of Bamboo.
Buwi Meneses – is a Filipino bassist for the band Parokya ni Edgar,[1] and formerly for Franco.
Triskelion Youth Movement
Tau Gamma Phi and later on also the Tau Gamma Sigma, opened its doors to aspiring youth in the community through the Triskelion Youth Movement (T.Y.M.), so that they too, who temporarily stopped pursuing higher education to continue their chosen vocation, might also participate in Tau Gamma Phi and Tau Gamma Sigma.
Hazing
Despite an anti-hazing law in the Philippines, many university fraternities in the Philippines have been involved in a dozen cases of hazing deaths since 2006, and have been implicated in numerous incidents of violence.
The Tau Gamma Phi called on all chapters through their provincial and city councils to the fraternity motto Primum Nil Nocere or "First, Do No Harm", and commit to avoid violence related to hazing.
Affiliated GroupsTau Gamma Sigma () — Triskelions' Grand Sorority.Triskelion Alumni Organization (T.A.O.) — The umbrella organization of all Triskelion alumni associations worldwide.Triskelion Order of Law (T.O.L.) — Alumni association of Triskelions who are in the judiciary and paralegal profession.Triskelion Order of Medicine (T.O.M.) — Alumni association of Triskelions who are in the medical profession.Triskelion Law Enforcers Group (TRILEG) - Alumni association of Triskelions who are in the field of Law Enforcement.Triskelion Order of Business (T.O.B.) — Alumni association of Triskelions who are in the corporate world, businessmen and those who operate their own entrepreneurial ventures.Triskelion Information Technology Group (T.I.T.G.) — Alumni association of Triskelions who are computer engineers, technicians and information technology professionals.(Formerly known as TITO)Triskelion Order of Call Center Professionals (T.O.C.C.) — Alumni association of Triskelions who are in the Business Process Outsourcing industry or contact/call centers.Triskelion Order of Engineers, Contractors, and Architects (T.O.E.C.A) — Alumni association of Triskelions who are in the engineering, design, architectural and construction business field.Triskelion Seafarers League (TriSEAL) — Alumni association of Triskelions who are professional mariners, shipping executives, military personnel, and crew in ships sailing oceans around the globe.Triskelion Order of Teachers (T.O.T.) - Alumni association of Triskelions who are in the teaching profession. The T.O.T. was first organized at the West Visayas State University, Iloilo City, Philippines.Triskelion Order in the Profession of Arms (PA) - The Triskelion Order in the Profession of Arms aims to conglomerate all Triskelions that are members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. It was blessed by no less than the FF RODRIGO CONFESOR on 4 October 2010 and then founded by Philippine Air Force Triskelions on 10 October 2010 at Fernando Air Base, Lipa City, Batangas.Marikina Triskelion City Government Employees - it is still a chapter under Makatao Marikina Council but composed of Marikina city government employeesTriskelion Information Technology Association (T.I.T.A.) — Alumni association of Triskelions who are in information technology field founded in 2008 and are actively engaged in Triskelion Database Project for VisMin.Triskelion Order of Graphic Artist (TOGA) -' Aim to connect fellow Triskelion graphic artists together in one group where they can share their art, interact with fellow Triskelion Graphic Artist and enhance their knowledge by sharing tips and tricks with each other.
See also
Tau Gamma Sigma
List of fraternities and sororities in the Philippines
List of Tau Gamma Phi chapters
Triskelion DB
References
Student societies in the Philippines
Fraternities and sororities in the Philippines
Student organizations established in 1968
1968 establishments in the Philippines
|
41509956
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derp%20%28hacker%20group%29
|
Derp (hacker group)
|
DerpTrolling (Austin Thompson) is the name of a hacker that was active from 2011 to 2014. He largely used Twitter to coordinate distributed denial of service attacks on various high traffic websites. In December 2013 he managed to bring down large gaming sites such as League of Legends in an attempt to troll popular livestreamer PhantomL0rd. Public reaction to his presence has been generally negative, largely owing to the unclear nature of his motives.
Attacks
Initially, Derp sent a few tweets using the Twitter account “DerpTrolling” to indicate that he were going to bring down the popular gaming website League of Legends. his first attack however, was on a game called Quake Live. Hours afterwards, many of the League of Legends game server regions in North America, Europe, and Oceania, as well as the website and Internet forums were taken down. To bring down the game servers, he used an indirect attack on Riot Games' internet service provider Internap. he revealed to have been targeting a popular livestreamer who goes by the name of PhantomL0rd on the streaming website Twitch. Reddit summarized the report by saying that he had planned to use distributed denial of service attacks to flood traffic on various high-profile gaming websites associated with PhantomL0rd, including League of Legends and Blizzard Entertainment's Battle.net. According to The Escapist, the hacker also issued a threat to take down Dota 2 if PhantomL0rd were to lose his game, which the hacker carried out. However, he only crashed Phantoml0rd's game, while other games in DoTA 2 were running normally.
When PhantomL0rd asked the hacker why he was attacking these sites, he responded by saying it was "for the lulz" and that it was also partially out of dislike for "money-hungry companies." He also persuaded PhantomL0rd into playing Club Penguin while simultaneously managing to take down Electronic Arts website EA.com. PhantomL0rd's personal information was leaked during the attack and released onto multiple gaming websites, in a process often referred to as doxing. This led to many fake orders of pizza arriving at his house, as well as a police raid on his house when they received reports about a hostage situation. According to PhantomL0rd, at least six policemen searched through his house, but they only realized later that the call was fake. The hacker group claimed to have additionally attacked several other Internet games and websites including World of Tanks, the North Korean news network KCNA, RuneScape, Eve Online, a Westboro Baptist Church website, the website and online servers of Minecraft, and many others. A day after the attacks, Riot Games issued a statement confirming that their League of Legends services had indeed been attacked by the hacker, though the hacker have brought their services back online.
Aftermath and reaction
The news website LatinoPost criticized the attack as being "frivolous" and merely "just for attention," unlike so-called hacktivist groups. VentureBeat noted that PhantomL0rd's stream was still drawing in over one hundred thousand viewers and that it is "still good for his traffic." PlayStation LifeStyle stated that they believe the current problems with the PlayStation Network had more to do with the "influx of new PS4 owners and increased holiday online activity" than any effect or damage the hacker attempted on the network. Editor of popular gaming news website Game Informer's Mike Futter also blamed the Twitch streaming service and PhantomL0rd for not shutting the stream immediately despite having received several warnings throughout, and that this was tantamount to playing accomplices to the crime. Varga defended himself by saying that he was merely trying to maintain a business, and that if he did not comply, DerpTrolling would have targeted another streamer.
See also
Lizard Squad
Anonymous (group)
References
Hacker groups
|
23552839
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadruple-precision%20floating-point%20format
|
Quadruple-precision floating-point format
|
In computing, quadruple precision (or quad precision) is a binary floating point–based computer number format that occupies 16 bytes (128 bits) with precision at least twice the 53-bit double precision.
This 128-bit quadruple precision is designed not only for applications requiring results in higher than double precision, but also, as a primary function, to allow the computation of double precision results more reliably and accurately by minimising overflow and round-off errors in intermediate calculations and scratch variables. William Kahan, primary architect of the original IEEE-754 floating point standard noted, "For now the 10-byte Extended format is a tolerable compromise between the value of extra-precise arithmetic and the price of implementing it to run fast; very soon two more bytes of precision will become tolerable, and ultimately a 16-byte format ... That kind of gradual evolution towards wider precision was already in view when IEEE Standard 754 for Floating-Point Arithmetic was framed."
In IEEE 754-2008 the 128-bit base-2 format is officially referred to as binary128.
IEEE 754 quadruple-precision binary floating-point format: binary128
The IEEE 754 standard specifies a binary128 as having:
Sign bit: 1 bit
Exponent width: 15 bits
Significand precision: 113 bits (112 explicitly stored)
This gives from 33 to 36 significant decimal digits precision. If a decimal string with at most 33 significant digits is converted to IEEE 754 quadruple-precision representation, and then converted back to a decimal string with the same number of digits, the final result should match the original string. If an IEEE 754 quadruple-precision number is converted to a decimal string with at least 36 significant digits, and then converted back to quadruple-precision representation, the final result must match the original number.
The format is written with an implicit lead bit with value 1 unless the exponent is stored with all zeros. Thus only 112 bits of the significand appear in the memory format, but the total precision is 113 bits (approximately 34 decimal digits: ). The bits are laid out as:
A binary256 would have a significand precision of 237 bits (approximately 71 decimal digits) and exponent bias 262143.
Exponent encoding
The quadruple-precision binary floating-point exponent is encoded using an offset binary representation, with the zero offset being 16383; this is also known as exponent bias in the IEEE 754 standard.
Emin = 000116 − 3FFF16 = −16382
Emax = 7FFE16 − 3FFF16 = 16383
Exponent bias = 3FFF16 = 16383
Thus, as defined by the offset binary representation, in order to get the true exponent, the offset of 16383 has to be subtracted from the stored exponent.
The stored exponents 000016 and 7FFF16 are interpreted specially.
The minimum strictly positive (subnormal) value is 2−16494 ≈ 10−4965 and has a precision of only one bit.
The minimum positive normal value is 2−16382 ≈ and has a precision of 113 bits, i.e. ±2−16494 as well. The maximum representable value is ≈ .
Quadruple precision examples
These examples are given in bit representation, in hexadecimal,
of the floating-point value. This includes the sign, (biased) exponent, and significand.
0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 000116 = 2−16382 × 2−112 = 2−16494
≈ 6.4751751194380251109244389582276465525 × 10−4966
(smallest positive subnormal number)
0000 ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff16 = 2−16382 × (1 − 2−112)
≈ 3.3621031431120935062626778173217519551 × 10−4932
(largest subnormal number)
0001 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 000016 = 2−16382
≈ 3.3621031431120935062626778173217526026 × 10−4932
(smallest positive normal number)
7ffe ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff16 = 216383 × (2 − 2−112)
≈ 1.1897314953572317650857593266280070162 × 104932
(largest normal number)
3ffe ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff16 = 1 − 2−113
≈ 0.9999999999999999999999999999999999037
(largest number less than one)
3fff 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 000016 = 1 (one)
3fff 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 000116 = 1 + 2−112
≈ 1.0000000000000000000000000000000001926
(smallest number larger than one)
c000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 000016 = −2
0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 000016 = 0
8000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 000016 = −0
7fff 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 000016 = infinity
ffff 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 000016 = −infinity
4000 921f b544 42d1 8469 898c c517 01b816 ≈ π
3ffd 5555 5555 5555 5555 5555 5555 555516 ≈ 1/3
By default, 1/3 rounds down like double precision, because of the odd number of bits in the significand.
So the bits beyond the rounding point are 0101... which is less than 1/2 of a unit in the last place.
Double-double arithmetic
A common software technique to implement nearly quadruple precision using pairs of double-precision values is sometimes called double-double arithmetic. Using pairs of IEEE double-precision values with 53-bit significands, double-double arithmetic provides operations on numbers with significands of at least (actually 107 bits except for some of the largest values, due to the limited exponent range), only slightly less precise than the 113-bit significand of IEEE binary128 quadruple precision. The range of a double-double remains essentially the same as the double-precision format because the exponent has still 11 bits, significantly lower than the 15-bit exponent of IEEE quadruple precision (a range of for double-double versus for binary128).
In particular, a double-double/quadruple-precision value q in the double-double technique is represented implicitly as a sum of two double-precision values x and y, each of which supplies half of q's significand. That is, the pair is stored in place of q, and operations on q values are transformed into equivalent (but more complicated) operations on the x and y values. Thus, arithmetic in this technique reduces to a sequence of double-precision operations; since double-precision arithmetic is commonly implemented in hardware, double-double arithmetic is typically substantially faster than more general arbitrary-precision arithmetic techniques.
Note that double-double arithmetic has the following special characteristics:
As the magnitude of the value decreases, the amount of extra precision also decreases. Therefore, the smallest number in the normalized range is narrower than double precision. The smallest number with full precision is , or . Numbers whose magnitude is smaller than 2−1021 will not have additional precision compared with double precision.
The actual number of bits of precision can vary. In general, the magnitude of the low-order part of the number is no greater than half ULP of the high-order part. If the low-order part is less than half ULP of the high-order part, significant bits (either all 0s or all 1s) are implied between the significant of the high-order and low-order numbers. Certain algorithms that rely on having a fixed number of bits in the significand can fail when using 128-bit long double numbers.
Because of the reason above, it is possible to represent values like , which is the smallest representable number greater than 1.
In addition to the double-double arithmetic, it is also possible to generate triple-double or quad-double arithmetic if higher precision is required without any higher precision floating-point library. They are represented as a sum of three (or four) double-precision values respectively. They can represent operations with at least 159/161 and 212/215 bits respectively.
A similar technique can be used to produce a double-quad arithmetic, which is represented as a sum of two quadruple-precision values. They can represent operations with at least 226 (or 227) bits.
Implementations
Quadruple precision is often implemented in software by a variety of techniques (such as the double-double technique above, although that technique does not implement IEEE quadruple precision), since direct hardware support for quadruple precision is, as of 2016, less common (see "Hardware support" below). One can use general arbitrary-precision arithmetic libraries to obtain quadruple (or higher) precision, but specialized quadruple-precision implementations may achieve higher performance.
Computer-language support
A separate question is the extent to which quadruple-precision types are directly incorporated into computer programming languages.
Quadruple precision is specified in Fortran by the real(real128) (module iso_fortran_env from Fortran 2008 must be used, the constant real128 is equal to 16 on most processors), or as real(selected_real_kind(33, 4931)), or in a non-standard way as REAL*16. (Quadruple-precision REAL*16 is supported by the Intel Fortran Compiler and by the GNU Fortran compiler on x86, x86-64, and Itanium architectures, for example.)
For the C programming language, ISO/IEC TS 18661-3 (floating-point extensions for C, interchange and extended types) specifies _Float128 as the type implementing the IEEE 754 quadruple-precision format (binary128). Alternatively, in C/C++ with a few systems and compilers, quadruple precision may be specified by the long double type, but this is not required by the language (which only requires long double to be at least as precise as double), nor is it common.
On x86 and x86-64, the most common C/C++ compilers implement long double as either 80-bit extended precision (e.g. the GNU C Compiler gcc and the Intel C++ compiler with a /Qlong‑double switch) or simply as being synonymous with double precision (e.g. Microsoft Visual C++), rather than as quadruple precision. The procedure call standard for the ARM 64-bit architecture (AArch64) specifies that long double corresponds to the IEEE 754 quadruple-precision format. On a few other architectures, some C/C++ compilers implement long double as quadruple precision, e.g. gcc on PowerPC (as double-double) and SPARC, or the Sun Studio compilers on SPARC. Even if long double is not quadruple precision, however, some C/C++ compilers provide a nonstandard quadruple-precision type as an extension. For example, gcc provides a quadruple-precision type called __float128 for x86, x86-64 and Itanium CPUs, and on PowerPC as IEEE 128-bit floating-point using the -mfloat128-hardware or -mfloat128 options; and some versions of Intel's C/C++ compiler for x86 and x86-64 supply a nonstandard quadruple-precision type called _Quad.
Libraries and toolboxes
The GCC quad-precision math library, libquadmath, provides __float128 and __complex128 operations.
The Boost multiprecision library Boost.Multiprecision provides unified cross-platform C++ interface for __float128 and _Quad types, and includes a custom implementation of the standard math library.
The Multiprecision Computing Toolbox for MATLAB allows quadruple-precision computations in MATLAB. It includes basic arithmetic functionality as well as numerical methods, dense and sparse linear algebra.
The DoubleFloats package provides support for double-double computations for the Julia programming language.
The doubledouble.py library enables double-double computations in Python.
Mathematica supports IEEE quad-precision numbers: 128-bit floating-point values (Real128), and 256-bit complex values (Complex256).
Hardware support
IEEE quadruple precision was added to the IBM S/390 G5 in 1998, and is supported in hardware in subsequent z/Architecture processors. The IBM POWER9 CPU (Power ISA 3.0) has native 128-bit hardware support.
Native support of IEEE 128-bit floats is defined in PA-RISC 1.0, and in SPARC V8 and V9 architectures (e.g. there are 16 quad-precision registers %q0, %q4, ...), but no SPARC CPU implements quad-precision operations in hardware .
Non-IEEE extended-precision (128 bit of storage, 1 sign bit, 7 exponent bit, 112 fraction bit, 8 bits unused) was added to the IBM System/370 series (1970s–1980s) and was available on some S/360 models in the 1960s (S/360-85, -195, and others by special request or simulated by OS software).
The VAX processor implemented non-IEEE quadruple-precision floating point as its "H Floating-point" format. It had one sign bit, a 15-bit exponent and 112-fraction bits, however the layout in memory was significantly different from IEEE quadruple precision and the exponent bias also differed. Only a few of the earliest VAX processors implemented H Floating-point instructions in hardware, all the others emulated H Floating-point in software.
The RISC-V architecture specifies a "Q" (quad-precision) extension for 128-bit binary IEEE 754-2008 floating point arithmetic. The "L" extension (not yet certified) will specify 64-bit and 128-bit decimal floating point.
Quadruple-precision (128-bit) hardware implementation should not be confused with "128-bit FPUs" that implement SIMD instructions, such as Streaming SIMD Extensions or AltiVec, which refers to 128-bit vectors of four 32-bit single-precision or two 64-bit double-precision values that are operated on simultaneously.
See also
IEEE 754, IEEE standard for floating-point arithmetic
ISO/IEC 10967, Language independent arithmetic
Primitive data type
References
External links
High-Precision Software Directory
QPFloat, a free software (GPL) software library for quadruple-precision arithmetic
HPAlib, a free software (LGPL) software library for quad-precision arithmetic
libquadmath, the GCC quad-precision math library
IEEE-754 Analysis, Interactive web page for examining Binary32, Binary64, and Binary128 floating-point values
Binary arithmetic
Floating point types
|
50082
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitstream
|
Bitstream
|
A bitstream (or bit stream), also known as binary sequence, is a sequence of bits.
A bytestream is a sequence of bytes. Typically, each byte is an 8-bit quantity, and so the term octet stream is sometimes used interchangeably. An octet may be encoded as a sequence of 8 bits in multiple different ways (see bit numbering) so there is no unique and direct translation between bytestreams and bitstreams.
Bitstreams and bytestreams are used extensively in telecommunications and computing. For example, synchronous bitstreams are carried by SONET, and Transmission Control Protocol transports an asynchronous bytestream.
Relationship between bitstreams and bytestreams
In practice, bitstreams are not used directly to encode bytestreams; a communication channel may use a signalling method that does not directly translate to bits (for instance, by transmitting signals of multiple frequencies) and typically also encodes other information such as framing and error correction together with its data.
Examples
The term bitstream is frequently used to describe the configuration data to be loaded into a field-programmable gate array (FPGA). Although most FPGAs also support a byte-parallel loading method as well, this usage may have originated based on the common method of configuring the FPGA from a serial bit stream, typically from a serial PROM or flash memory chip. The detailed format of the bitstream for a particular FPGA is typically proprietary to the FPGA vendor.
In mathematics, several specific infinite sequences of bits have been studied for their mathematical properties; these include the Baum–Sweet sequence, Ehrenfeucht–Mycielski sequence, Fibonacci word, Kolakoski sequence, regular paperfolding sequence, Rudin–Shapiro sequence, and Thue–Morse sequence.
On most operating systems, including Unix-like and Windows, standard I/O libraries convert lower-level paged or buffered file access to a bytestream paradigm. In particular in Unix-like operating systems, each process has three standard streams, that are examples of unidirectional bytestreams. The Unix pipe mechanism provides bytestream communications between different processes.
Compression algorithms often code in bitstreams, as the 8 bits offered by a byte (the smallest addressable unit of memory) may be wasteful. Although typically implemented in low-level languages, some high-level languages such as Python and Java offer native interfaces for bitstream I/O.
One well-known example of a communication protocol which provides a byte-stream service to its clients is the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) of the Internet protocol suite, which provides a bidirectional bytestream.
The Internet media type for an arbitrary bytestream is . Other media types are defined for bytestreams in well-known formats.
Flow control
Often the contents of a bytestream are dynamically created, such as the data from the keyboard and other peripherals (/dev/tty), data from the pseudorandom number generator (/dev/urandom), etc.
In those cases, when the destination of a bytestream (the consumer) uses bytes faster than they can be generated, the system uses process synchronization to make the destination wait until the next byte is available.
When bytes are generated faster than the destination can use them, there are several techniques to deal with the situation:
When the producer is a software algorithm, the system pauses the producer with the same process synchronization techniques.
When the producer supports flow control, the system only sends the ready signal when the consumer is ready for the next byte.
When the producer can't be paused—it is a keyboard or some hardware that doesn't support flow control—the system typically attempts to temporarily store the data until the consumer is ready for it, typically using a queue. Often the receiver can empty the buffer before it gets completely full. A producer that continues to produce data faster than it can be consumed, even after the buffer is full, leads to unwanted buffer overflow, packet loss, network congestion, and denial of service.
See also
Bit banging
Bit-stream access
Bitstream format
Byte-oriented protocol
MPEG elementary stream
Reliable byte stream
Stream (computing)
Stream processing
Traffic flow (computer networking)
References
Data transmission
Reconfigurable computing
|
89388
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trillian%20%28software%29
|
Trillian (software)
|
Trillian is a proprietary multiprotocol instant messaging application created by Cerulean Studios. It is currently available for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Android, iOS, BlackBerry OS, and the Web. It can connect to multiple IM services, such as AIM, Bonjour, Facebook Messenger, Google Talk (Hangouts), IRC, XMPP (Jabber), VZ, and Yahoo! Messenger networks; as well as social networking sites, such as Facebook, Foursquare, LinkedIn, and Twitter; and email services, such as POP3 and IMAP.
Trillian no longer supports Windows Live Messenger or Skype as these services have combined and Microsoft chose to discontinue Skypekit. They also no longer support connecting to MySpace, and no longer support a distinct connection for Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo! Mail although these can still be connected to via POP3 or IMAP. Currently, Trillian supports Facebook, Google, Jabber (XMPP), and Olark.
Initially released July 1, 2000, as a freeware IRC client, the first commercial version (Trillian Pro 1.0) was published on September 10, 2002. The program was named after Trillian, a fictional character in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. A previous version of the official web site even had a tribute to Douglas Adams on its front page. On August 14, 2009, Trillian "Astra" (4.0) for Windows was released, along with its own Astra network. Trillian 5 for Windows was released in May 2011, and Trillian 6.0 was initially released in February 2017.
Features
Connection to multiple IM services
Trillian connects to multiple instant messaging services without the need of running multiple clients. Users can create multiple connections to the same service, and can also group connections under separate identities to prevent confusion. All contacts are gathered under the same contact list. Contacts are not bound to their own IM service groups, and can be dragged and dropped freely.
Trillian represents each service with a different-colored sphere. Prior versions used the corporate logos for each service, but these were removed to avoid copyright issues, although some skins still use the original icons. The Trillian designers chose a color-coding scheme based on the underground maps used by the London Underground that uses different colors to differentiate between different lines.
IM services
Green And Blue for Trillian Astra Network
Grey for IRC
Teal and Amber for Google Talk
Amber and Dark Gray for Bonjour (Rendezvous)
Blue And Teal for Facebook
Purple for Jabber/XMPP (partially broken as of 10/27/2017)
Mail services
A White Envelope for POP emails
a Manila Envelope for IMAP emails
a Teal Envelope for Twitter
Prior versions of Trillian supported:
Microsoft Exchange
Lotus Sametime
Novell GroupWise Messenger
Metacontact
To eliminate duplicates and simplify the structure of the contact list, users can bundle multiple contact entries for the same person into one entry in the contact list, using the Metacontact feature (similarly to Ayttm's fallback messaging feature). Subcontacts will appear under the metacontact as small icons aligned in a manner of a tree.
Activity history
Trillian Pro comes with Activity History, and both log the history as both plain text files and as XML files. Pro has a History Manager that shows the chat history and allows the user to add bookmarks for revision later on. XML-based history makes the log easy to manipulate, searchable and extendable for future functions.
Stream manipulation
Trillian Pro also has a stream manipulation feature labelled 'time travel', which allows the user to record, and subsequently review, pause, rewind, and fast forward live video and audio sessions.
SecureIM
SecureIM is an encryption system built into the Trillian Instant Messenger Client.
It encrypts messages from user to user, so no passively observing node between the two is supposedly able to read the encrypted messages. SecureIM does not authenticate its messages, and therefore it is susceptible to active attacks including simple forms of man-in-the-middle attacks.
According to Cerulean Studios, the makers of Trillian, SecureIM enciphers messages with 128-bit Blowfish encryption. It only works with the OSCAR protocol and if both chat partners use Trillian.
However, the key used for encryption is established using a Diffie–Hellman key exchange which only uses a 128 bit prime number as modulus, which is extremely insecure and can be broken within minutes on a standard PC.
Instant lookup
Starting with version 3.0 in both the Basic and Pro suites, Trillian makes use of the English-language version of the Wikipedia free online encyclopedia for real-time referencing using its database of free knowledge. The feature is employed directly within a conversation window of a user. When one or more words are entered (by either user), Trillian checks all words against a database file and if a match is found, the word appears with a dotted green underline. When users point their mouse over the word, the lead paragraph of the corresponding article is downloaded from Wikipedia and displayed on screen as a tooltip. When users click on the underlined word, they are given the choice to visit the article online.
Emotiblips
Emotiblips are the video equivalent of an emoticon. During video sessions, the user may stream a song or video to the other user in real time. One can send MP3s, WAVs, WMVs, and MPGs with this feature. QuickTime MOV files as Emotiblips are not currently supported.
Hidden smileys
In version 2.0 to the current, the default emoticon set contains emoticons that don't appear in the menu but can be used in conversations. Some of these are animations that can only be viewed in Trillian Pro, but all of them can be used regardless.
Skins and interfaces (Discontinued)
Trillian has its own unique skinning engine known as SkinXML. Many skins have been developed for Trillian and they can be downloaded from the official skins gallery or deviantArt.
Trillian also came with an easier skinning language, Stixe, which is essentially a set of XML Entities that simplifies repetitive codes and allows skinners to share XML and graphics in the form of emoticon packs, sound packs and interfaces.
The default skins of Trillian are designed by Madelena Mak. Trillian Cordillera was used in Trillian 0.7x, while Trillian Whistler has been the default skin for Trillian since Pro 1.0. Small cosmetic changes were noticeable in each major release.
The Trillian Astra features a brand new design for the front-end UI, named Trillian Cordonata.
Plugins (Discontinued)
Trillian is a closed-source application, but the Pro version can be extended by plugins. Plugins by Cerulean Studios itself include spell-check, weather monitor, a mini-browser (for viewing AIM profiles), Winamp song title scroller, stock exchange monitor, RSS feedreader, and conversation abilities for the Logitech G15 keyboard, as well as a plug-in for the XMPP and Bonjour networks. Others have developed various plug-ins, such as a games plug-in which can be used to play chess and checkers, a protocol plugin to send NetBIOS messages through Trillian, a plug-in to interact with Lotus Sametime clients, a plug-in to interact with Microsoft Exchange, a POP3 and IMAP email checker, or an automatic translator for many European languages to and from English.
Trillian 5.1 for Windows and later included a plug-in that allows you to chat and make calls on Skype without Skype being installed. As of July 2014, Skype is no longer accessible from the Trillian client, as the Skype plug-in no longer works (some had been able to use older versions of the Trillian client, but now these also no longer work with Skype.)
Plugins are available for free and are hosted on the official web site, but most need Trillian Pro 2+ to run.
In-Game Chat
Starting at version 5.3, Trillian users can toggle an overlay when playing a video game on the computer that allows the user to use Trillian's chat features, in a similar vein to Steam's overlay chat. When toggled, the overlay will show the time according to the system's clock, and the chat window itself is a variation Trillian's base chat window, with tabs used for different sets of queries and channels. Also, when the overlay is not activated, users can view a toggle-able sticker that tells the user how many messages are unread.
History
Early beginnings
After several internal builds, the first ever public release of Trillian, version 0.50, was available on July 1, 2000, and was designed to be an IRC client. The release was deemed 'too buggy' and was immediately pulled off the shelf and replaced by a new version 0.51 on the same day. It featured a simple Connection Manager and skinned windows.
A month later, two minor builds were released with additional IRC features and bug fixes. Despite these efforts, Trillian was not popular, as reflected in the number of downloads from CNET's Download.com.
Trillian was a donateware at that time. They used PayPal for receiving donations through their web site.
Introduction of interoperability
Version 0.6, released November 29, 2000, represented a major change in the direction of development, when the client became able to connect to AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ and MSN Messenger simultaneously in one window.
Although similar products, such as Odigo and Imici, already existed, Trillian was novel in the way that it distinguished contacts from different IM services clearly on the contact list, and it did not require registration of a proprietary account. It also did not lose connection easily like the other clients.
A month later, Yahoo! Messenger support was introduced in Trillian 0.61, and it also featured a holiday skin for Christmas. Meanwhile, the Trillian community forums were opened to the public.
During this period, new versions were released frequently, attracting many enthusiasts to the community. Skinning activity boomed and fan sites were created. A skinning contest was held on deviantArt in Summer, and the winner was selected to design the default skin for the next version of Trillian. Trillian hit 100,000 downloads on August 14, 2001.
Entry into mainstream and the "IM Wars"
Contrary to the anticipation for version "0.64" in the community, the next version of Trillian was numbered 0.70. It was released December 5, 2001. Development took five months, considerably longer than development of prior builds.
The new version implemented file transfer in all IM services, a feature most requested by the community at the time. It also represented a number of skin language changes. It used the contact list as the main window (as opposed to a status window 'container' in prior versions) and featured a brand new default skin, Trillian Cordillera, and an emoticon set boasting over 100 emoticons, setting a record apart from other messengers available at that time.
Version 0.71 was released on December 18, 2001. It supported AIM group chats and was the first major IM client which included the ability to encrypt messages with SecureIM.
In the following months, the number of downloads of Trillian surged, reaching 1 million on 27 January 2002, and 5 million within 6 months. Trillian received coverage and favorable reviews from mainstream media worldwide, particularly by CNET, Wired and BetaNews. The lead developer and co-founder, Scott Werndorfer, was also interviewed on TechTV.
AOL became aware that Trillian users were able to chat with their AIM buddies without having to download the AIM client, and on January 28, 2002, AOL blocked SecureIM access from Trillian clients. Cerulean appeared to have circumvented the block with version 0.721 of its client software, released one day later. This "AOL War" continued for the next couple of weeks, with Cerulean releasing subsequent patches 0.722, 0.723 and 0.724.
Trillian appeared in the Jupiter Media Metrix Internet audience ratings in February 2002 with 344,000 unique users, and grew to 610,000 by April 2002. While those numbers are very small compared to the major IM networks, Jupiter said Trillian consistently ranks highest according to the number of average minutes spent per month.
Trillian also created a special version for Iomega ActiveDisk.
Commercialisation with Trillian Pro
On September 9, 2002 a commercial version, Trillian Pro 1.0, was released concurrently with Trillian Basic 0.74. The commercial version was sold for $25 US for a year of subscription, but all those who donated to the development of Trillian before were eligible to a year of subscription at no cost.
The new version had added SMS and mobile messaging abilities, Yahoo! Messenger webcam support, pop-up e-mail alerts and new plug-ins to shuttle news, weather and stock quotes directly to buddy lists.
It appeared Trillian Pro would be marketed to corporate clients looking to keep in touch with suppliers or customers via a secured, interoperable IM network, and a relatively stern user interface. The company had no venture capital backing, and had depended entirely on donations from users to stay alive.
Trillian Pro 1.0 was nominated and picked among three other nominees as the Best Internet Communication shareware in its debut year of being a "try before you buy" shareware.
On April 26, 2003, total downloads of Trillian reached ten million.
Blocking from Yahoo! and cooperation with Gaim
A few weeks after Trillian Pro 2.0 was released, Yahoo! attempted to block Trillian from connecting to its service in their "efforts to implement preventative measures to protect our users from potential spammers." A few patches were released by the Trillian developers, which resolved the issue.
The Trillian developers assisted its open-source cross-platform rival Gaim in solving the Yahoo! connection issues. Sean Egan, the developer of Gaim, posted in its site, "Our friends over at Cerulean Studios managed to break my speed record at cracking Yahoo! authentication schemes with an impressive feat of hackery. They sent it over and here it is in Gaim 0.70." It was later revealed that the developers were friends and had helped each other on past occasions.
Meanwhile, as Microsoft forced its users to upgrade to MSN Messenger 5.0 for upgrades in their servers for security issues, October 15, 2003 also would mark the deadline for Trillian support for MSN Messenger. However, it appeared that Cerulean Studios worked with Microsoft to resolve the issue on August 2, 2003, long before the deadline.
On March 7, 2004 and June 23, 2004, Yahoo! changed its instant messaging language again to prevent third-party services, such as Trillian, from accessing its service. Like prior statements, the company said the block is meant as a pre-emptive measure against spammers. Cerulean Studios released a few patches to fix the issues within a day or two.
Trillian 3 Series
In August 2004, a new official blog was created in attempt to rebuild connections between the Studios and its customers. Trillian 3 was announced in the blog, and a sneak preview was made available to a small group of testers.
After months of beta-testing, the final build of Trillian 3 was released on December 18, 2004, with features such as new video and audio chat abilities throughout AIM, MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger, an enhanced logging manager and integration with the Wikipedia online encyclopedia. It also featured a clean and re-organized user interface and a brand new official web site.
The release also updated the long-abandoned Trillian Basic .74 to match the new user interface and functionalities as Trillian Basic 3.0. The number of accumulated downloads of Trillian Basic in Download.com hit 20 million within a matter of weeks.
Trillian 3.1 was released February 23, 2005. It included new features such as Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) and multiple identities support.
On June 10, 2011, all instances of Trillian 3 Basic got an automatic upgrade to Trillian 3 Pro, free of charge.
U3 and Google Pack
A version of Trillian that could run on U3 USB flash drives was released on October 21, 2005. Trillian could previously be run from generic flash drives or other storage devices with some minor unofficial modifications, known as "Trillian Anywhere". A U3 version of Trillian Astra is also posted on the official Cerulean Studios forum.
On January 6, 2006, Larry Page, President of Products at Google, announced Google Pack, a bundle of various applications including Trillian Basic 3.0 as "a free collection of safe, useful software from Google and other companies that improves the user experience online and on the desktop".
According to the Cerulean Studios blog, Trillian was discontinued from Google Pack on 19 May 2006.
The inclusion of Trillian in Google Pack was perplexing to some media analysts as Google had at the time its own Google Talk service which touted the benefits of an open IM system. The free Trillian Basic client could not be used with Google Talk, however, the paid Trillian Pro was listed as one of the "client choices" in the Google Talk client choices list until Google Talk was replaced by Google Hangouts in May 2013.
Trillian Astra (Trillian 4)
More than a year after the release of Trillian 3.1, the Cerulean Studios blog began spreading news again and announced the next version of Trillian, to be named Trillian Astra. The name for version 4, Astra, is the nickname used by the same fictional character that is the namesake of the software, which is a reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The new release claimed to be faster and include a new login screen. A new domain, www.trillianastra.com, was disclosed to the public, with only the logo and blue background. On July 3, 2009, Cerulean Studios reopened the premium web version of Astra to public testing. On August 14, 2009, Cerulean Studios released the final gold build. Trillian has its own social network named Astra Network, in which users who have Astra ID can communicate with each other on the network regardless of platform. Cerulean Studios later registered a new domain, www.trillian.im, to provide a more user-friendly experience.
On November 18, 2009, the first mobile version of Trillian was launched for iPhone. As of 2010, final builds for Android, BlackBerry, and Apple iOS were available for their markets (Market, App World and App Store respectively). Trillian initially cost $4.99 USD but became free of charge, supported by ads, in 2011.
As of August 2010, the Mac OS X version was in beta testing.
Trillian 5
On August 2, 2010, Trillian 5.0 was released as a public beta. Newer features included a resize-able interface, History synchronization, a new ribbon inspired interface with Windows theme integration, new "marble-like" icons for service providers, the option to revert to the Trillian 3 & 4 interfaces, and a new social network interface window were introduced. Along with Trillian 5.0 For Windows and the aforementioned Mac beta. As of 2010, the Android and BlackBerry OS final builds were available on their respective markets for free.
OpenCandy
Included with the installation of Trillian 5.0 was a program called OpenCandy, which some security programs, including Microsoft Security Essentials, classed as adware. OpenCandy was removed shortly after on May 5, 2011.
Trillian 6
On January 8, 2016, Trillian 6 was released.
As ICQ has decided to disable support for 3rd party IM clients, Trillian is no longer able to connect to ICQ as of April 1, 2019.
See also
List of XMPP clients
Comparison of instant messaging clients
Comparison of IRC clients
Comparison of instant messaging protocols
References
External links
2000 software
AIM (software) clients
IOS software
BlackBerry software
Windows Internet Relay Chat clients
Windows instant messaging clients
Internet Relay Chat clients
Portable software
Instant messaging clients
Online chat
Android (operating system) software
Yahoo! instant messaging clients
|
8752187
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracing%20%28software%29
|
Tracing (software)
|
In software engineering, tracing involves a specialized use of logging to record information about a program's execution. This information is typically used by programmers for debugging purposes, and additionally, depending on the type and detail of information contained in a trace log, by experienced system administrators or technical-support personnel and by software monitoring tools to diagnose common problems with software. Tracing is a cross-cutting concern.
There is not always a clear distinction between tracing and other forms of logging, except that the term tracing is almost never applied to logging that is a functional requirement of a program (therefore excluding logging of data from an external source, such as data acquisition in a high-energy physics experiment, and write-ahead logging). Logs that record program usage (such as a server log) or operating-system events primarily of interest to a system administrator (see for example Event Viewer) fall into a terminological gray area.
This article deals primarily with tracing for debugging or diagnostic purposes.
Event logging versus tracing
Difficulties in making a clear distinction between event logging and software tracing arise from the fact that some of the same technologies are used for both, and further because many of the criteria that distinguish between the two are continuous rather than discrete. The following table lists some important, but by no means precise or universal, distinctions that are used by developers to select technologies for each purpose, and that guide the separate development of new technologies in each area:
Event logging
Event logging provides system administrators with information useful for diagnostics and auditing. The different classes of events that will be logged, as well as what details will appear in the event messages, are often considered early in the development cycle. Many event logging technologies allow or even require each class of event to be assigned a unique "code", which is used by the event logging software or a separate viewer (e.g., Event Viewer) to format and output a human-readable message. This facilitates localization and allows system administrators to more easily obtain information on problems that occur.
Because event logging is used to log high-level information (often failure information), performance of the logging implementation is often less important.
A special concern, preventing duplicate events from being recorded "too often" is taken care of through event throttling.
Software tracing
Software tracing provides developers with information useful for debugging. This information is used both during development cycles and after the release of the software. Unlike event logging, software tracing usually does not have the concept of a "class" of event or an "event code". Other reasons why event-logging solutions based on event codes are inappropriate for software tracing include:
Because software tracing is low-level, there are often many more types of messages that would need to be defined, many of which would only be used at one place in the code. The event-code paradigm introduces significant development overhead for these "one-shot" messages.
The types of messages that are logged are often less stable through the development cycle than for event logging.
Because the tracing output is intended to be consumed by the developer, the messages don't need to be localized. Keeping tracing messages separate from other resources that need to be localized (such as event messages) is therefore important.
There are messages that should never be seen.
Tracing messages should be kept in the code, because they can add to the readability of the code. This is not always possible or feasible with event-logging solutions.
Another important consideration for software tracing is performance. Because software tracing is low-level, the possible volume of trace messages is much higher. To address performance concerns, it often must be possible to turn off software tracing, either at compile-time or run-time.
Other special concerns:
In proprietary software, tracing data may include sensitive information about the product's source code.
If tracing is enabled or disabled at run-time, many methods of tracing require the inclusion of a significant amount of additional data in the binary, which can indirectly hurt performance even when tracing is disabled.
If tracing is enabled or disabled at compile-time, getting trace data for a problem on a customer machine depends on the customer being willing and able to install a special, tracing-enabled version of the software and then duplicating the problem.
Many uses of tracing have very stringent robustness requirements. This is both in the robustness of the trace output but also in that the use-case being traced should not be disrupted.
In operating systems, tracing is sometimes useful in situations (such as booting) where some of the technologies used to provide event logging may not be available.
in embedded software, tracing requires special techniques.
Techniques
Software tracing:
Tracing macros
Output to debugger
Aspect-oriented programming and related instrumentation techniques
Windows software trace preprocessor (aka WPP)
FreeBSD and SmartOS tracing with DTrace - traces the kernel and the userland
Linux kernel tracing with ftrace
Linux system-level and user-level tracing with kernel markers and LTTng
Linux application tracing with UST - part of the same project as LTTng
Linux C/C++ application tracing with cwrap
Event logging:
syslog (see article for specific implementations)
Appropriate for both:
Instruction set simulation
Trace analysis
Trace analysis consists of extracting knowledge from executions of software systems. One kind of trace analysis is trace alignment, it consists of identifying parts in the traces that are common, that correspond to the same behavior. Trace alignment is a complex problem, because of the size of the traces, as well as because of the non-determinism and noise in real-world traces.
See also
Branch trace
Instrumentation (computer programming)
Logging
Debugging
References
Debugging
|
11644498
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry%20Poole%20%28technologist%29
|
Henry Poole (technologist)
|
Henry Poole is a technologist and social entrepreneur, CEO of CivicActions and Board Member of the Free Software Foundation.
He co-founded one of the first digital agencies, Vivid Studios, in 1993. That year, he served as technical editor for the book, Demystifying Multimedia. In 1994, he led a project to study the social interactions and use of technology for the WELL community. In 1995, his firm managed the online launch of Microsoft Windows 95 (the largest online technology product introduction of this time).
In 2000, Poole joined as CEO of French Linux publisher MandrakeSoft. In 2001, Poole founded the first openSAAS enterprise, Affero, Inc. and in 2002, published the Affero General Public License, version 1. Poole joined the board of the Free Software Foundation in December 2002. In 2003, Poole managed the digital team for Kucinich for US President and in 2004, founded government digital services firm CivicActions. In May 2006, Poole and the Free Software Foundation launched the anti-DRM campaign, Defective by Design.
A software freedom activist, Poole has organized fundraisers for Dmitry Sklyarov and the Free Software Foundation.
He is a signatory to the 9/11 Truth Statement.
References
External links
Henry Poole CivicActions Bio
Politics on the Net
Berkeley Technophiles Launch Campaign Software Revolution
Presidential Campaigning at the Edge
The Affero GPL: Closing the Distribution Loophole
Famed Berkeley Home Hosts Kucinich E-campaign
LinuxPlanet Interview: Trust Unlimited
Technical Entrepreneur Profile - Henri Poole: Bridging Worlds
Financial Times: Building communities on the internet
BusinessWeek: Yankee, We Want You. Yankee, Go Home
Scoop Media: Where is the Money
Members of the Free Software Foundation board of directors
GNU people
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
|
28261786
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herschel%20Curry%20Smith
|
Herschel Curry Smith
|
Herschel Curry Smith (1903–1983) was an American athletic coach in the sport of track and field at Compton Jr. College. He is also popularly known as the founder of the Compton Invitational, and the co-founder of the Los Angeles Invitational, both track meets located in Southern California, the United States of America. Smith was also a sprint athlete and world record holder. As a team member of the University of Southern California (USC) track team, in 1927 his relay team broke the world record in the 800-meter and 880-yard relay. Smith was the head coach of Compton College from 1928 to 1968 and was the founder of the Compton Invitational and its director from 1936 to 1969.
Herschel was also the co-founder, with Al Franken, and the meet director of the first indoor track meet on the west coast. Known as the Los Angeles Invitational (1959), its name later (1969) developed into the primary sponsors name, the Sunkist Invitational.
Smith coached many world-class athletes including record high-jumpers Cornelius Johnson and Charles Dumas. From 1940 to 1942, Smith served as president of the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA).
Early sprint life
Herschel started his track and field career as a sprinter at San Fernando High School. In 1922 he won the California High School 100-yard championship and the California State 100 meters at 10.4 seconds. In 1923 he won both Southern California, CIF sprint titles including the 100 meters at 10.2 seconds and the National Interscholastic 220-yard title.
After high school, he continued his sprint career for four more years at the University of Southern California as a member of Dean Cromwell’s track team. While at USC, Smith's freshman year provided him with a first-place win at the Western Olympic trials in the 100 meter at 10.8 seconds and a 2nd-place finish in the 200 meter. Initially expected to make the 1924 Olympic team, illness prevented Smith from participating at the 1924 Paris Olympic Games. The following year 1925, he won the Junior National AAU Championship 100-yard dash in 9.8 seconds. Continuing in 1926 with the Trojans' track team, he enjoyed a winning season, helping the team win the ICAAAA National Championship. The following year was the peak of Smith’s on-field running accomplishments. As part of a relay foursome (Smith, House, Lewis, Borah), Smith participated in breaking the world record in the 800 meter and 880-yard relay (4×220) at 1:25.8 seconds, in Los Angeles on May 14, 1927.
Track coach
In 1928 Smith became a coach at Compton Jr. College and High School (both included as one organization at the time) and began nourishing and producing track and field athletes. As a junior college, Compton provided a stepping stone for athletes to train and develop before progressing onto a major four-year college.
Smith recruited the best athletes he could find from across the country and coached his protégés to top performance levels, helping win many championships for the college.
In 1936, Herschel was the coach of high jump-Olympic record holder and gold medalist Cornelius Johnson. Later (1956) Herschel was the coach of world record holder and Olympic gold medalist Charles Dumas, the first person to high-jump over 7 feet (7 feet 1/2 inch). Compton's coaching program fostered and produced many other champions including later Olympic gold medalist Simeon Iness, Earlene Brown, Herman Ray Stokes, Jerome Walters, George Henry Brown, Jr., and George Jefferson. Other notable athletes from Compton’s program included Bill Bugbee, Wilbur Miller, Vic Williams, Bill Fell, Willie Attenberry, and Adrian Davis.
During Herschel’s 41-year tenure of coaching at Compton College his achievements included:
5 National Men’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships: 1939, 1947, 1949, 1950, 1951
14 conference championships
9 Southern California titles
2 track and field State Championships (California Community College Athletic Association) 1954, 1956
Invitational founder, meet director and president of the NJCAA
Smith was the founder of The Compton Invitational Track Meet, held at the new Olympic venue the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in 1936, and was its director for 33 years until 1969.
In 1959, when the Los Angeles Sports Arena opened, Herschel co-founded the first indoor track meet on the West Coast, The Los Angeles Invitational, which later (1969) became the Sunkist Invitational. Smith was also the meet director for the L.A. Invitational for several years. Both the Compton Invitational and the Los Angeles Invitational have featured many world-class athletes and record holders, including John Woodruff, Mal Whitfield, Herb McKenley, Wes Santee.
From 1940 to 1942, Herschel served as the president of the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) and was a strong advocate for the NJCAA broadening its scope to other sports in addition to track and field.
Awards and honors
In 1991 Herschel was inducted into the California Community Colleges Hall of Fame, under the category of Track & Field/Cross Country.
On May 26, 2012, he was inducted into the Compton Community College Athletics Hall of Fame, under the category of Track & Field/Cross Country.
Other awards Herschel Smith received include:
A USC Trojan Track and Field letterman in 1925, 1926, and 1927.
Herschel has been recognized by the Southern California Track Writers with the Jess Mortenson Award.
The recipient of the Helms Athletic Foundation Award for contributions to the sport.
The recipient of the Trojan Coaches Club, Achievement Award, 1955.
The recipient of the top award from the NJCAA in 1964–65, The Service Award.
References
External links
CIF 1922-23
American sports coaches
San Fernando High School alumni
1903 births
1983 deaths
Track and field athletes from California
Sports coaches from California
American track and field coaches
Track and field people from California
|
66230371
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital%20Markets%20Act
|
Digital Markets Act
|
The Digital Markets Act (DMA) is a legislative proposal of the European Commission that intends to ensure a higher degree of competition in the European Digital Markets, by preventing large companies from abusing their market power and by allowing new players to enter the market. It establishes a list of obligations for designated Gatekeepers and in case of non-compliance, there will be enforced sanctions mechanisms, including fines of up to 10% of the worldwide turnover.
This regulation targets the largest digital platforms operating in the European Union. They are also known as "Gatekeepers" due to the "durable" market position in some digital sectors and because they also meet certain criteria related to the number of users, their turnovers, or capitalisation. Even if the list of Gatekeepers has not been released yet, the "Big Tech" - GAFAM (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft) - are likely to be the main subjects of the act, but not the only ones.
The list of obligations includes prohibitions on combining data collected from two different services belonging to the same company (for example Facebook and WhatsApp); provisions for the protection of platforms' business users (including advertisers and publishers); legal instruments against the self-preferencing methods used by platforms for promoting their own products (preferential results for Google's products when using Google Search); articles concerning the pre-installation of some services (Google Android); regulation related to bundling practices; provisions for ensuring interoperability, portability, and access to data for businesses and end-users of platforms.
According to the European Commission, the main objective of this document is to regulate the behaviour of the Big Tech firms within the European Single Market and beyond. The Commission aims to guarantee a fair level of competition (“level playing field”) on the highly concentrated Digital European Markets, which are often characterised by a "winner takes all" configuration.
The DMA covers eight different sectors and they are also known as Core Platforms Services (CPS). Due to the presence of Gatekeepers who, to a certain degree, affect the market contestability, the CPS are considered problematic by the European Commission: online search engines (ex: Google Search); online intermediation services (ex: Google Play, App store); social networks (ex: Facebook); video sharing platforms (ex: YouTube); communication platforms (ex: WhatsApp, Gmail); advertising services; operating systems (ex: Google Android); cloud services.
The proposal has been submitted by the European Commission to the European Parliament and to the Council of the European Union on 15 December 2020. Along with the Digital Services Act (DSA), the DMA is part of the European Digital Strategy entitled “Shaping Europe's Digital Future”. The DMA was presented by the Executive Vice President of the European Commission for A Europe Fit for the Digital Age Margrethe Vestager and by the European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton, as members of the Von der Leyen Commission.
This proposal is not expected to be implemented until 2023, as it has to be approved by the European Parliament and the Council.
Historical Background
The present rules applied within the European Union with regard to digital markets are derived from European and national legislation. Under these circumstances, the basis for competition rules in the EU is established by Articles 101 and 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). Article 101 addresses anti-competitive agreements and concerted practices that may affect trade between members states or reduce competition in the common market. Article 102 aims to tackle the abuse of dominant positions. All players operating in the common market are therefore subject to these provisions. European and national authorities have identified the need to strengthen the current legislation, given the structural problems that are not covered. In addition, the case law of the CJEU is also an important aspect that should be mentioned, given its dynamic nature and the clarifications brought through the latest rulings.
The Digital Markets Act is in line with the legislative developments undertaken by the Junker Commission between 2014-2019. During his mandate, there have been implemented 28 legislative proposals on the Digital Single Market, covering the following areas: Digital Culture, Digital Future, Digital Life, Digital Trust, Digital Shopping and Digital Connectivity. These files were put forward with the scope to adapt the European legislation to the current challenges, while ensuring the free movement of persons and capital. These legislative developments contribute to the enforcement of long-term strategies in the European digital sector. For example, these modifications have led to the implementation of 35 new measures designated to boost connectivity, the data economy and digital public services, and they also aim to enhance digital rights in an integrated manner.
One of the most important pieces of EU digital legislation is represented by the EU copyright rules. This has led to the protection, payment, and recognition of workers in thirty-three sectors and it aims to reward creativity, stimulate investment in the creative sector. Another relevant achievement can be considered the implementation of the GDPR in 2016. This regulation sets out the new European framework for the use and circulation of personal data and has a significant impact on the major digital players. In addition, the regulation on platform-to-business trading practices (P2B) has been established to create a fair, transparent and predictable business environment for smaller businesses and traders on online platforms. This legal act has applied in July 2020 and prevents market distortion, encourages healthy competition and prohibits unfair practices.
Objective of the DMA
The DMA targets specifically Big Tech companies.
The DMA proposed to classify certain platforms, according to their number of users, capitalisation, market power or turnover, probably including Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon as “Gatekeepers” making them subject to new obligations.
It aims at preventing large companies to abuse their market power and to allow smaller and new players to enter the market.
The Rationale behind the DMA
In December 2020, the European Commission released a legislative proposal that intends to protect consumer welfare and to restore a level playing field in the European Union's digital market. At the moment, the economy is being driven to a large extent by the activities conducted through online platforms. A small number of online platforms have come to play a crucial role in the lives of millions of individuals and companies. They intermediate a significant portion of transactions between consumers and businesses, leading to extreme dependencies of many businesses on these important platforms.
In the table below, it can be observed that EU digital markets face a high level of concentration, with companies such as Google or Facebook controlling almost the entirety of a specific market segment. In the past, some examples have shown that innovation can, at times, reshuffle market power and facilitate the entry for potential competitors. For instance, Facebook did replace MySpace, Google outcompeted AltaVista, and MSN messenger was overtaken as the main communication platform used on the internet. However, while the dominant position of MySpace or of AltaVista have only lasted for a few years, it seems that Google or Facebook managed to entrench their dominant position in time. In the digital economy jargon, these companies are defined as digital intermediation platforms and are at the core of online economic activities. Thus, platforms link and facilitate interactions between economic agents’ groups from different sides of the markets (typically consumers or end-users with business-users).
As acknowledged by Alexandre de Streel, professor of European law at the University of Namur and specialist in EU competition law, some digital platforms, the GAFAM in particular, may also have a gatekeeper function. The term gatekeeper refers to the ability of intermediary platforms to act as the main “bottleneck” to a large number of market participants, that are not reachable elsewhere. Behind this development are market forces that encompass (1) important economies of scale on the supply side; (2) strong direct and indirect network effects on the demand-side,(3) data-driven competitive advantage; (4) high rate of innovation and (5) development of conglomerates that structure entire ecosystems. In addition, the combination of these elements can lead to market dynamics that follow the “winner-takes-most” scenarios.
By way of illustration, it can be considered a hypothetical market for mobile operating systems (OS), formed by one large OS (in terms of consumer base) and a smaller one. Following the assumption according to which the higher the number of persons using a particular OS, the more attractive this OS will be for app developers, under these circumstances, the largest OS may benefit from stronger indirect network effects. Thus, developers will tend to favour the largest OS for their apps because this enables them to reach a larger customer base and a bigger market. Due to these factors, the benefits gap provided by the larger OS and its smaller counterparts, respectively, is expected to grow in time. Moreover, the large OS will gather and process more data than its competitors, aspect that will support the improvement of quality. In parallel, the small OS will become less attractive to both customers and app developers, until it possibly vanishes from the market and the largest OS takes all. According to Joe Belfiore, the current Corporate Vice President in the Experiences and Devices division of Microsoft, one of the reasons that determined Microsoft leave the mobile market was its inability to attract enough app makers for its operating system.
During the last years, serious concerns have been expressed by authorities across the world with regard to the economic power of some digital giants. In Europe, the European Commission - backed by years of enforcement experience in EU competition law - has pointed out that a part of those intermediary platforms may be considered “Gatekeeper” or “structuring platforms” in their respective market segments. Moreover, it has also expressed the concern that Big Tech companies might unlawfully take advantage of their market and bargaining powers, in order to lock in dominant positions (i.e. in the existing markets), to increase their level of influence, and to obtain leading positions in new sectors of activity. Hence, this can be interpreted as providing unfair advantages to the incumbents present in core and ancillary services, as distorting the competition, and as harming the consumers, in the long run, through either increased prices or reduced options. Under EU competition law, reaching a “dominant position” is by no mean considered illegal, nor is the idea of a “winner takes most” scenario. However, practices that lock in dominant positions or that impose unfair conditions, terms to third parties might be treated as unlawful.
It should be mentioned that the economics behind this approach are not always straightforward, taking into account that the effects generated by a company's behaviour often lead, at the same time, to pro and anti-competitive results. If one specific digital platform decides to extend from its core market, where it holds a dominant position, to another related market by offering a wider range of products or services to its consumers, this might be viewed as an example of bundling. In Microsoft's case, given the bundling of Teams with the cloud-based Office software, every user of Microsoft Office software can enjoy freely the Microsoft Team application. On the one hand, this development is able to deliver benefits for consumers, because it usually increases the synergies between different products provided by a common operator. On the other hand, the same practice can also lead to the exclusion of efficient niche competitors, it may affect the efficient providers of complementary products or prevent potential competitors from entering the market, consequently foreclosing the market at the expense of Microsoft's growth.
Therefore, the economic impact generated by gatekeepers' behaviour can be interpreted under the form of trade-offs, taking into account that their selection depends on various sets of values, rights and interests. An example for the abovementioned trade-off trend can be considered the relation between short term competition versus long term competition. Thus, if we reiterate the previous bundling practice of Microsoft, we can infer that in the short term, the consumer welfare may increase (short term competition), but at the same time, it can also be detrimental to consumers in the long run, due to reduced competition and the lack of incentives for Microsoft to further innovate. In addition, another possible trade-off might be derived from the linkage between competition and innovation. While the acquisition of a start-up by a gatekeeper may contribute to the development and/or to the diffusion of the underlying innovation brought by the former, this may be detrimental to the consumers in the long run.
The Proposal on the Digital Markets Act has the aim to increase digital markets’ contestability and to ensure a significant level of fairness. By establishing these clear-cut objectives, the European Commission seeks to foster innovation by promoting new entrants' activities and development over incumbents. On the one hand, the DMA intends to constrain gatekeepers’ range of action, but at the same time it also forces the incumbents to open to competition.
Criteria defining Gatekeepers
Given the fact that EU competition law can be applied only when anti-competitive practices have been enforced, in the literature was initiated a large debate with regard to the ex-ante regulation. Once the utility and efficiency of the existing tools began to be questioned, the policy discussions held before the release of the Digital Markets Act focused on the identification of Gatekeepers, on setting obligations, and on potential conducts that should be outlawed for Gatekeepers.
Following the same line, scholars came to the conclusion that large online platforms ″operate as digital Gatekeepers between businesses and citizens″. At the moment there is not established a clear definition for this term, but it can be mentioned that it usually refers to ″platforms providing online services (e.g. online marketplaces) or controlling and influencing access to online services (...) thereby exercising control over entire ecosystems, with a strong impact on competition and innovation in the digital field″.
Under these circumstances, right before the adoption of the Digital Services Act, the commission made public its intention to regulate large online platforms for better ensuring that markets influenced by these actors remain fair and competitive. Thus, the European executive aimed to implement an ″ex-ante regulatory instrument″, through the Digital Markets Act (DMA), for tackling the limitations imposed by its current competition rules.
For classifying platforms as digital Gatekeepers, a combination of quantitative and qualitative conditions is required. On the one hand, quantitative criteria include indicators for ″market shares, number of users affected by platform operations, time users spent on a platform's website, and the platform's annual economic revenue″. Thus, the following aspects are analysed:
″The undertaking to which the core platform service(s) belongs has an annual EEA turnover equal to or above EUR 6.5 billion in the last three financial years or has an average market capitalization of EUR 65 billion or higher and provides a core platform service in at least three Member States″.
″It operates a core platform service that serves as an important gateway for business users to reach end-users. The criteria are supposed to be met when the core platform service has more than 45 million monthly active end users established or located in the Union and more than 10.000 yearly active business users established in the Union in the last financial year″.
″It enjoys an entrenched and durable position in its operations, or it is foreseeable that it will enjoy such a position in the near future. Which translates by meeting the thresholds of point 2) in each of the last three financial years″.
On the other hand, the qualitative criteria are harder to assess, but several variables can be taken into account, such as the ability of a platform to control access or to leverage its dominant position. While large platforms designed as search engines or marketplaces may be identified or referred to as digital Gatekeepers, it is not clear whether companies that have as subject other activities - travel or music - can be automatically included in the same category. However, even though the legislative proposal does not mention explicitly the undertakings that meet these thresholds, it is expected that the GAFAM will be subject to the DMA.
At the same time, it should be specified that through market investigation, even providers of core platform services - that cover solely a part of the concerned thresholds - may be identified as Gatekeepers by the commission. ″In conducting its assessment, the Commission shall take into account foreseeable developments of these elements.
″Where the provider of a core platform service that satisfies the quantitative thresholds (…) fails to comply with the investigative measures ordered by the Commission in a significant manner and the failure persists after the provider has been invited to comply within a reasonable time limit and to submit observations, the Commission shall be entitled to designate that provider as a Gatekeeper″.
″Where the provider of a core platform service that does not satisfy the quantitative thresholds (…) fails to comply with the investigative measures ordered by the Commission in a significant manner and the failure persists after the provider has been invited to comply within a reasonable time limit and to submit observations, the Commission shall be entitled to designate that provider as a Gatekeeper based on facts available″.
Given the importance and the innovative character of the DMA proposal, several stakeholders have engaged and proposed scenarios for applying a test with the purpose of identifying digital Gatekeepers. The UK Competition Market Authority came with the suggestion of implementing ex-ante rules for companies known to possess ″strategic market status″. Thus, they proposed three factors to be considered: the size and scale; ability to leverage their market power in other sectors of activity; to hold the position of access point both for consumers and businesses. Furthermore, the Centre on Regulation in Europe published a lengthier and in-depth analysis, according to which ex-ante regulation should be applied if online platforms comply with four cumulative criteria: large size; to occupy a position on which other businesses rely/ depend; Gatekeeper position that lasts (due to high entry barriers); Gatekeeper having control over an ecosystem.
New "ex ante" regulations
General framework
The Digital Markets Act sets up a list of conducts that should be outlawed, on the one hand, and obligations that platforms identified as Gatekeepers should respect, on the other hand. The list is divided in two different parts, the general blacklisted actions (Article 5) and the case by case assessment that needs to be specified (Article 6).
The different ways of defining obligations and prohibitions have raised several debates between scholars and stakeholders. Some experts support the approach focused on balancing anti-competitive effects with possible justifications, while others are in favour of banning specific practices from the beginning. De Streel classified the new obligations as concerning the following common areas:
Transparency in ad intermediation
Envelopment through bunding or self-preferencing, Access platforms and data
End-users and business users’ mobility
Limitation of unfair practices
Those practices are often derived from the past case-law and are considered unfair by the European Commission. Therefore, this proposal uses “ex-post” cases to create new “ex-ante” regulations and to tackle the issue from the roots.
Sectors concerned (Core Platforms Services)
The DMA covers eight different sectors, also known as Core Platforms Services(CPS). The European Commission considers them problematic because the Gatekeepers' presence prevents market contestability to a certain extent: It is important to remember that the commission has not released yet the list of companies that will be identified as Gatekeepers and that all the firms mentioned in the following sections are only possible examples.
Online search engines (ex: Google Search)
Online intermediation services (ex:Google Play, App store)
Social networks (ex: Facebook)
video sharing platforms (ex: YouTube);
communication platforms (ex: WhatsApp, Gmail);
operating systems (ex: Google Android, iOS);
Cloud services (ex: Google Cloud Platform)
Advertising services (ex: Google Ads)
New obligations for identified Gatekeepers
It may prevent practices known as self-preferencing, applied by companies like Google for better displaying their products among the results of Google search.
Gatekeeper companies could also be prohibited to re-use people's personal data. For example, Facebook could be restricted to use the data obtained from its subsidiary WhatsApp.
The proposal ensures rights to platform's business-users. For example, it could prevent Apple to impose a 30% commission on all the transactions concluded via App store.
Gatekeepers platforms may also be prevented from imposing business-users to propose their best offers in the platform (for example Amazon imposed e-book publishers to apply their best conditions on the Amazon e-book market place).
There are also Device Neutrality rules regarding the rights to delete pre-installed applications (as in the case of Apple IOS or Google Android for example) and to install apps from other sources.
Protection rights for business-users of platforms (including advertisers and publishers).
Prohibition of some bundling practices.
Provisions for ensuring a higher degree of data portability, interoperability, and access to data for platform's business and end-users.
Companies that do not comply with the new obligations may risk fines up to 10% on their worldwide turnover.
The two following sections detail each rule individually and mention, when it is the case, the concrete example that determined the commission to include them.
Blacklisted actions
This list comprises seven obligations and prohibitions for addressing the unfair trading practices. All the identified Gatekeepers will have to respect these provisions, independently from their sector of activity or their individual specificities. Moreover, enshrined in the Article 5 of the proposal, there are included general but also specific prohibitions to online platforms, (a) Prevents Gatekeepers to combine personal data coming from Core Platforms Services (CPS) with data collected through other services of the same Gatekeepers or from a third party. Also, it prevents end-users being signed-in to other services offered by the Gatekeepers. However, this can be done only if the choice has been presented to the end-user and consent given.Combining personal data from different sources has been declared illegal by the German Competition Authority, in 2019, in a case ruled on Facebook. The company has also been fined with € 110 million in May 2017 for notifying the Commission that it would not be possible to combine data coming from Facebook and WhatsApp, at the time of the acquisition of WhatsApp in 2014. However, the Commission found that this practice constituted a possibility since 2014, given the fact that WhatsApp inserted this option in its terms of services privacy policy in 2016. (b) “allow business users to offer the same products or services to end-users through third party online intermediation services at prices or conditions that are different from those offered through the online intermediation services of the Gatekeeper”. This has already been considered illegal in a competition law-case concerning Amazon e-books. In its contracts with the publishers of E-books, Amazon imposed them to offer at least the best price or conditions that they proposed to any other competitors. This article also derives from the cases concerning Online Travel Agencies such as Booking.com or Expedia. (c) “allow business users to promote offers to end users acquired via the core platform service, and to conclude contracts with these end users regardless of whether for that purpose they use the core platform services of the gatekeeper or not, allow end users to access and use, through the core platform services of the gatekeeper, content, subscriptions, features or other items by using the software application of a business user, where these items have been acquired by the end users from the relevant business user without using the core platform services of the gatekeeper" The legal character of this kind of practices is currently investigated by the European Commission in a case concerning the App Store of Apple and the 30% commission that they charged to all the subscriptions made through App store.(d) “refrain from preventing or restricting business users from raising issues with any relevant public authority relating to any practice of gatekeepers”This is a general practice that does not come from the case-law but it guarantees the right of business-users to raise possible concerns to public authorities (such as the European Commission).(e) refrain from requiring business users to use, offer or interoperate with an identification service of the gatekeeper in the context of services offered by the business users using the core platform services of that gatekeeper.Also known as a bundling practice, it prevents gatekeepers from forcing business-users to use the ID of the Core Platform Services when they offer their services. Thus, it is often related to advertisers or publishers issues such as Google and their methods of collecting data.(f) Prevents the bundling of different CPSs of the platform that are identified as gatekeeper.For this bundling practice, in 2018, Google has been fined with €4.3 billion by the Commission in a decision on Android. The company breached the antitrust rules of the EU by forcing Android's users to pre-install its own services, such as Google search and Google Chrome. This way, Google secured its dominant position in terms of internet search. (g) “provide advertisers and publishers to which it supplies advertising services, upon their request, with information concerning the price paid by the advertiser and publisher, as well as the amount or remuneration paid to the publisher, for the publishing of a given ad and for each of the relevant advertising services provided by the gatekeeper.”This last obligation is linked to the investigation of the European Commission on Google's data and advertising practices.
Case by case assessment
The second part of the list comprises eleven obligations and prohibitions for gatekeepers enshrined in Article 6. After conducting a jointly assessment with the concerned Gatekeeper, the European Commission may specify individually the necessary obligations. The dialogue with the Gatekeeper has to respect the principle of effectiveness and proportionality, as stated in Article 7.5. Once again, most of the actions derive from former and current competition legal cases.(a) “refrain from using, in competition with business users, any data not publicly available, which is generated through activities by those business users, including by the end users of these business users, of its core platform services or provided by those business users of its core platform services or by the end users of these business users”The potential ban of this practice derives from the Amazon Marketplace case that is under investigation by the European Commission. The Commission claimed that Amazon breached antitrust rules by using "non-public data" from their business-users in order to compete with them.(b) To guarantee the possibility for end-users to uninstall pre-installed applications on its CPS.This obligation derives from the cases on Microsoft Explorer and Google Android, where the European Commission forced them to allow end-users to uninstall pre-installed app from their core platforms services. (c) “allow the installation and effective use of third party software applications or software application stores using, or interoperating with, operating systems of that gatekeeper and allow these software applications or software application stores to be accessed by means other than the core platform services of that gatekeeper.”The practice is currently investigated in the Apple App Store case. The Commission considers that Apple does not let its competitors inform users about the possibility to buy their products on other platforms than the App store, at potential cheaper prices. (d) refrain from treating more favourably in ranking services and products offered by the gatekeeper itself or by any third party belonging to the same undertaking compared to similar services or products of third party and apply fair and non discriminatory conditions to such ranking;This practice has already been prohibited in the case of Google Shopping and is currently investigated in the Amazon Buy Box case. Mainly, it refers to self-preferencing own products at the expense of competitors in the search results of a certain market place. (e) “refrain from technically restricting the ability of end users to switch between and subscribe to different software applications and services to be accessed using the operating system of the gatekeeper(…)”This can be seen as deriving from the conflict between Spotify and Apple on the restrictions imposed to use Spotify on Apple devices, that had the scope to promote Apple music services.(f) “allow business users and providers of ancillary services access to and interoperability with the same operating system, hardware or software features that are available or used in the provision by the gatekeeper of any ancillary services”.This provision derives from the practices currently analysed in the Apple pay case. By favouring its devices and its own method of payment - Apple Pay- at the expense of its competitors, Apple is currently scrutinized by the commission. (g) “provide advertisers and publishers, upon their request and free of charge, with access to the performance measuring tools of the gatekeeper and the information necessary for advertisers and publishers to carry out their own independent verification of the ad inventory”This article would help business-users of platforms, especially advertisers, to have access to the data related to the ads and publications posted on the Gatekeeper's platforms. Facebook and Google are potentially the main targets of this article, and maybe Amazon. (h) “provide effective portability of data generated through the activity of a business user or end user and shall, in particular, provide tools for end users to facilitate the exercise of data portability, in line with GDPR (Regulation EU 2016/679), including by the provision of continuous and real-time access”The abovementioned provision has a more general scope and it is not built around specific cases. Seen as complementing the GDPR regulation, it gives more precision regarding the scope of data portability, by adding that the data access should be "continuous" and "real time". In practical terms, this guarantees both access to users (including business-users) and benefits in terms of up-to-date data portability generated by the platform. (i) “provide business users, or third parties authorised by a business user, free of charge, with effective, high-quality, continuous and real-time access and use of aggregated or non-aggregated data, that is provided for or generated in the context of the use of the relevant core platform services by those business users and the end users engaging with the products or services provided by those business users; for personal data, provide access and use only where directly connected with the use effectuated by the end user in respect of the products or services offered by the relevant business user through the relevant core platform service, and when the end user opts in to such sharing with a consent in the sense of the GDPR Regulation (EU) 2016/679;” As article (h), this article does not derive from an individual case and it is a complement of the GDPR regulation. It guarantees more rights to business and end-users regarding the interoperability of the data generated on platforms. This is meant to make data generated by different platforms compatible and usable by different systems.(j) “provide to any third party providers of online search engines, upon their request, with access on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms to ranking, query, click and view data in relation to free and paid search generated by end users on online search engines of the gatekeeper, subject to anonymisation for the query, click and view data that constitutes personal data”;This article is especially meant to ensure a higher degree of competition in the online search engines market, by providing more rights to the (new) competitors. It gives providers of online search engines access to data generated by the Gatekeeper in the sector (presumably Google Search at the moment, as it concentrates 95% of the market share in this sector). This is also related to the Google Search case and to Article 5(d) or the "blacklisted actions" of the DMA (see above).(k) “apply fair and non-discriminatory general conditions of access for business users to its software application store,...”This provision targets the store application of Gatekeepers (App store, Google Play), and has the aim to protect the rights of app developers and of business-users.
Potential revolution for data portability?
Bjorn Lundqvist, in a paper published in February 2021, considers that the combination of the case by case obligations present in the Article 6 (a), (h) and (i) of the DMA, could be a real “game changer” regarding access to data. In addition, he highlights the fact that Art. 6 (a) prevents gatekeepers from using data generated by business-users, that are not publicly available, for competition reasons. At the same time, Art. 6 (h) and (i) guarantee rights to business-users and end-users with regard to access and portability of the data they have generated on the platform.
The author concludes by saying that the potential consequences should be clarified by the European Commission in order to know if this proposal will mark a major change in terms of access to data for business and end-users.
Other obligations for gatekeepers
Under Art. 12, Gatekeepers have to notify the Commission their intended future merger and acquisition.
Under Art. 3, Gatekeepers have to notify the Commission when they meet the thresholds to be considered as gatekeepers. (see above the section related to the criteria)
Under Art. 13, when designated as gatekeepers, the firm has to conduct and independent audit about their profiling technique of consumers and submit it to the commission.
European Commission's investigation powers and sanctions mechanisms
The Digital Markets Act will allow the European Commission to have regulatory and market investigation powers. Under these circumstances, market investigations will be mainly designated to:
Conduct markets investigation so as to specify the obligations imposed on Gatekeepers and monitor compliance (Art. 16)
Conduct markets investigation in order to designate gatekeeper (Art. 15)
Conduct markets investigation to identify new services and practices that can be subject to the obligations listed in Art. 5 and Art. 6 (Art. 17)
Chapter V of the proposal gives the commission a certain number of rights in order to conduct these investigations
Sanctions for gatekeepers in case of non-compliance or systematic non-compliance are represented by fines up to 10% of the Gatekeeper's worldwide turnover.
Stakeholders' interests
Potential Gatekeepers
Google
The tensions between Google and the European Union have been generated by sanctions applied to unfair practices related to advertising, mobile operating system, or shopping strategies. Several fines were imposed by the commission to Google because of breaches of competition law but taking into account that despite the CJEU's rulings, “inefficient market outcomes in terms of higher prices, lower quality, less choice and innovation” still emerged, the DMA aims to better regulate this area.
As the main focus of the Digital Markets Act is represented by operators that provide search engines, social networks, cloud computing services and operating systems, Google was one of the companies that officially presented its position. In an interview, Google's President of Business and Operations for the EMEA region Matt Brittin stated that: “It's so important to get the rules right for European consumers to have more choice, to support the kind of jobs we’ll need in the future and to support European businesses.”
Even though not particularly named, Google is one of the companies that will be affected by the stringent rules, because the legislation will be applied to firms with European revenues of at least €6.5bn or at least 45 million users across Europe. Nevertheless, as subject to potential fines of up to 10% of its global revenue for breaking the rules, Google is highly incentivized to continue influencing the legislators and lobbying in Brussels for obtaining better conditions under the Digital Market Act.
The rhetoric of Google and its attempts to contour an official position relied mainly on the risks that might emerge from the legislative act, namely barriers - “as Europeans will only have access to less choice and to more costly alternatives”. Nevertheless, the big tech has also tried to highlight the weaknesses of the Digital Market Act and they labelled it a blacklist - whose implications in terms of interoperability might not generate innovation in the future, but incentives for “lowest common denominator”.
In November 2020, the newspaper Le Point published Google's leaked lobby strategy on the Digital Market Act, thus several practices and intentions have been uncovered. For example, there were made references to:
“Lobby at Parliament, Commission and member state level;
Re-frame the political narrative around costs to the economy and consumers;
Mobilise third parties (such as think-tanks and academics) to echo Google's message;
Mobilise the US Government;
Create “pushback” against Commissioner Breton (who was seen as supporting potential break ups)
Create conflict between Commission departments”.
As far as the cost of these lobbying practices is concerned, according to the Transparency Register, Google spent in the first half of 2020 more than 19 million euros. Even though the sum of money allocated by Google has already reached significant levels, the numbers presented above do not comprise all the transactions related to academic partnerships, law firms, or activities conducted in individual Member States.
Corporate Europe Observatory investigated the fight of EU tech regulation and according to its findings, 158 meetings were registered since the Von der Leyen Commission took office, meetings that “involved 103 organisations, mostly companies and lobby groups. Only 13 actors had at least 3 or more meetings logged on these issues. Google stands out with the most meetings with Microsoft and Facebook trailing close behind. Apple and Amazon have also lobbied on the DMA and/ or DSA, although they rank lower overall with two and one meeting respectively”. However, one of the limitations faced is represented by the fact that the endeavours with the officials responsible for drafting the legislation are not mentioned, as only the official meetings with high representatives are declared or announced.
Despite the fact that the proposal has been published on 15 December 2020, the lobbying practices still represent an ongoing process because they have been transferred from the commission to the European Parliament and Council. However, comparing the data obtained on the meetings of the European Commission with the information made available by the other institutions, it can be observed that transparency is even less stringent.
Apple
The new European draft legislation has also targeted Apple's App Store with regard to its practices and preinstalled applications. One of the main changes that will be brought to their current business model is represented by the removal of the “self-preferencing” strategy. As a result of the proposal on the Digital Markets Act, Apple would be forced to change the manner in which its apps are displayed in the App Store searches, so as to give the chance to smaller developers to have their software downloaded by consumers. Moreover, Apple will have to allow its customers to uninstall preloaded first-party apps from the devices procured. Thus, both Google and Apple will be constrained and their practices more regulated. According to the DMA final proposal, these big tech companies will be compelled to share performance metrics for free with advertisers and publishers.
Before the official release of the DMA proposal, some companies - including Apple - tried to change their anti-competitive behaviour, taking into account the reactions generated by the commission's intent to regulate the digital market. As far as Apple is concerned, in October, a group of French publishers - led by Alliance de la Presse d’Information Générale (APIG) - highlighted its concern with regard to the App Store's terms of service. For example, one of their requirements was related to the economic dependence on Apple - “Content publishers are in a situation of absolute economic dependence on Apple for the distribution of their content on the iPhone, since the only store available on this device is the AppStore”. In addition, Apple was criticised for the 30% commission on sales that it makes through apps on the platform, thus the APIG showed its concern vis a vis the further concentration on the market. The reaction of Apple to these allegations was focused especially on a reduction of its commission rate to 15% for app developers with less than $1 million in annual net sales, but this did not impede the European Commission to continue advocating for the Digital Markets Act.
Similar to Google's case, Apple also seeks to limit the influence of the commission and to escape the definition of gatekeeper, so as not to become subject to further obligations. However, as Brussels still wants to outlaw gatekeepers’ ability to ban others from accessing their marketplaces, firms like Spotify and Facebook - that believe Apple has set unfair conditions on those companies' apps within App Store, seem to support the commission's proposal.
The strategy of Apple to limit the influence of the DMA is not as clearer or well-structured as in the Google's case. However, there can be observed some practices engaged by the company to ensure that its objectives are taken into account by the European officials. According to a research conducted by the Corporate Europe Observatory, it seems that Apple, Google, and Facebook use to work with several associations, that declare themselves independent, without disclosing their linkages. For example, the Center for European Reform has featured on its website a list of its corporate donors - one of them is Apple - but when it comes to the US giant, it does not specify this information on the Transparency Register entry. Under these circumstances, it can be observed the network created around interests’ groups, companies, NGOs and think tanks, as all of them seek to shape the legislative process in Brussels in their favour.
When it comes to lobby spending, despite the limited and incomplete information, it can be observed that Apple is in the top 30 individual corporate lobby spenders in Brussels, at numbers 16 (with over €2 million). In comparison with Google, that has allocated a budget of €8 million, Apple still invests a considerable sum of money on access to European officials, so as to present its demands.
Facebook
Considering that the Digital Markets Act aims to limit the influence of large companies, by allowing alternative players to emerge, Facebook has also been targeted by the legislative proposal. As in the other companies’ case, once with the adoption of the DMA, unfair practices will be highly discouraged and even prohibited, so as to stop the harm they bring to competition.
However, apart from Google, Apple, and Amazon, Facebook seems to support the EU rules that have been published last year. In its official declarations, Facebook Inc claimed that it hopes that the European Union will set boundaries for Apple. Nevertheless, in this context there were not observed solely tensions between the Commission and the Big Tech companies, but even between GAFAM, taking into account their statements and the objectives they advocate for.
The controversies between Facebook and Apple started with the privacy feature used by Apple, that allows consumers to block advertisers from tracking them across different application. Thus, Facebook - a company that earns revenue from advertisement, began to retaliate and showed its discontent. It has also added that “Apple controls an entire ecosystem from device to app store and apps, and uses this power to harm developers and consumers, as well as large platforms like Facebook”. The reaction of Apple was quite harsh and accused Facebook of “invasive tracking”. Therefore, the discussions around the Digital Markets Act started to create more tensions between Big Tech firms and to deviate from the scope of the proposal, as the companies focused on criticising their “competitors” of illegal practices.
Amazon
Amazon welcomed the DMA and according to its position, the company has not been as concerned about it as the other GAFAM members. This can be explained by the fact that
compared to Google's and Apple's case, the Digital Markets Act could affect Amazon only in three aspects:
Amazon might be obliged to allow business users to offer the same products or services to end-users at prices or conditions that are different from those offered by Amazon (DMA Article 5b)
Amazon might be obliged not to use data from competitors that are not public (DMA Article 6a)
Amazon might be obliged not to treat favorably the services and the products it offers (DMA Article 6d)
The interdiction on using non-public data from competitors it hosts on its platform and the interdiction on ranking its product before the ones offered by competitors may impact Amazon if the proposal for the DMA is adopted under its current form. Moreover, these aspects determined Amazon to negotiate the final version of the concerned document, taking into account that it spent €1,75 million on lobbying practices and that it became a member of several think tanks.
Microsoft
Comparing to other Big tech firms, Microsoft is the most discrete, as it does not use media or newspapers to express its opinion on the Digital Markets Act. The only thing done in a public manner by Microsoft was to react to the commission's consultations. They suggested that the qualification of platforms as gatekeepers might be determined by using a two-pronged test. On the one hand, it should be assessed the level of market power protected by significant barriers to entry. On the other hand, a specific EU regulatory body for the enforcement of ex-ante regulation should be implemented. Moreover, according to Caffara & Morton, the only obligation that might affect Microsoft under the DMA is to allow end-users delete any software applications pre-installed.
Non-Gatekeeper Firms
A narrow definition of gatekeeper
Before the release of the proposal, there was a debate related to the criteria needed for designating a company as gatekeeper. On a more general note, one of the most important indicators would be considered the number of firms impacted by the DMA. As this narrow definition for gatekeepers has been applied by the European Commission, only a few firms (especially the American 'Big Tech' or 'GAFAM) are likely to be targeted by the concerned legislation.
Airbnb and Booking.com
Due to their important positions on the short-terms stays market, AirBnB and Booking.com became potential targets for the legislation. Indeed, above 50% of the homes designated for ‘short-terms stay’ are listed on AirBnB, and approximatively 1/3 on Booking.com. Therefore, their possible labelling as gatekeepers has been long debated, aspect that led to companies defending themselves and explaining why they should not be considered included in this category. Moreover, Booking insisted on the fact that it is one of the only European companies that has a global success and that as they are not the most dominant actor in this sector, they should not be disincentivized while competing with bigger companies.
Spotify
With approximatively 1/3 of the market share in 2020 on the Music Subscription market, Spotify is by far the dominant actor in this sector as Apple music comes in second position, with around 15% of market share. However, Spotify does not seem to meet the criteria set by the European Commission, according to the analysis of VOX EU. Dirk Auer, an economist of the American Think Tank ICLE qualified this piece of legislation as a way to protect the European firms, and that the criteria are on purpose excluding major European tech firms, notably Spotify. Even if it is true that SAP would probably be the only European firm targeted by the legal act, there are also American big platforms like Twitter or Uber not targeted by the legislation, despite their important market position.
Reactions of the EU Member States
France
The French Government expressed its ambition for imposing stricter enforcement on competition rules, so as to prevent giant tech firms favoring their own services, ousting rivals or maintaining their dominant positions.
Nevertheless, France would like to rely on the possibility of adapting the rules, through the Digital Markets Act, in order to respond to the constant changes of the digital market.
The French government is known to be publicly in favour of more regulation of the GAFAM and set up unilaterally it's "GAFA TAX" in 2019. This tax has been sources of tensions with the Trump administration.
Germany
The German Federal Government welcomed the proposal on the Digital Markets Act. They consider that the current European legal framework is not sufficiently strong and that the enforcement measures must also be strengthened vis-à-vis digital platforms. However, the main concern of Germany still remains the preservation of small and medium-sized companies, as it intends to escape them from the scope of the new rules.
Netherlands
In October 2020, the Dutch Government jointly with France and Belgium, expressed their willingness for a stricter enforcement of the competition rules, in order to avoid abuse of dominance and anti-competitive practices.
On 17 February 2021, the Dutch Government published its official position on the Digital Markets Act and welcomed the concerned initiative, taking into account that the objectives it comprises are aligned with their national position.
Ireland
The Irish government published its position on 8 September 2020, during the public consultations held for the Digital Services Act Package. According to their statements, Irish authorities are not willing to assess the definition of ″gatekeepers″, as they explained that the occupation of a dominant position is not illegal. Moreover, they have also stressed that this particular aspect does not imply a diminution of consumer welfare and does not prevent innovation or new entrances in the digital market.
Many of the companies that are likely to be targeted by the DMA have their headquarters in Ireland. The approach conducted by the Irish Government vis-a-vis Big Tech companies has often been the source of debates within the European Union. In 2016, the European Commission accused Ireland to grant Apple "illegal tax benefits". The European Court of Justice ruled in favour of Apple, but the Commission expressed its intention to appeal the ruling.
Rest of the world's position
United States
Even though they are not mentioned explicitly in the proposal released by the European Commission, it is more than likely that the American "Big Tech" (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft) also called the GAFAM, will be the main targets (if not the only) of this new legislation. The official position of the Biden administration will represent an important step, as it remains an open question whether or not government of the United States will defend the cause of the American giant tech companies in the European Digital Market.
This legislation comes in a context where the EU and the US, under the Biden administration, want to rebuild a better relation after the tensions emerged during the Trump presidency. The European Commission has stressed the need for cooperation between the EU and US to deal with the dominant position of online platforms and big tech that they consider harmful.
In January 2021, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von Der Leyen, stated that the current president of the United States, Joe Biden, and the European Union share the same position regarding the regulation of tech companies. In a speech at the Munich Security Conference in February 2021, she invited the United States to join the European Unions in their initiatives in order to create rules in the digital Economy that can be "valid worldwide".
Even if the official position of the Biden administration on the Digital Markets Act is not yet publicly known, the same debates about the dominant position of some digital tech platforms are rising in the United States. An antitrust lawsuit was opened in December 2020 against Facebook by the US Federal Trade Commission and 46 American states for abusing its dominant position and exercising anti-competitive conduct for several years.
In a document published in March 2021, the Congressional Research Service, an American government think tank that informs the members of the US Congress, outlined the fact that the new digital regulations led by the European Union, including the Digital Markets Act, could be sources of potential future cooperation between the EU and the United States, while stressing the potential impact on the US economy.
Next steps
The DMA is currently a legislative proposal. In order to become law it requires the approval by the European Council and the European Parliament, which is expected to take around a year and a half from the time the DMA was proposed by the European Commission in December 2020. On November 23, 2021, the Parliament Internal Market Committee adopted its position on the DMA proposal, which is due to be voted on in plenary in December 2021. The approved text will then become Parliament’s mandate for negotiations with EU governments, planned to start under the French presidency of the Council in the first semester of 2022. On November 25, the Council agreed its negotiating position, providing the French Presidency with a mandate for the discussions.
References
External links
Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on contestable and fair markets in the digital sector (Digital Markets Act) on EUR-Lex
Procedure 2020/0374/COD on EUR-Lex
Procedure 2020/0374(COD) on ŒIL
Policies of the European Union
European Digital Strategy
2020 in law
2020 in the European Union
E-commerce in the European Union
Draft European Union laws
|
41173622
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organizations%20of%20the%20Dune%20universe
|
Organizations of the Dune universe
|
Multiple organizations of the Dune universe dominate the political, religious, and social arena of the setting of Frank Herbert's Dune series of science fiction novels, and derivative works. Set tens of thousands of years in the future, the saga chronicles a civilization which has banned computers but has also developed advanced technology and mental and physical abilities through physical training, eugenics and the use of the drug melange. Specialized groups of individuals have aligned themselves in organizations focusing on specific abilities, technology and goals. Herbert's concepts of human evolution and technology have been analyzed and deconstructed in at least one book, The Science of Dune (2008). His originating 1965 novel Dune is popularly considered one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time, and is frequently cited as the best-selling science fiction novel in history. Dune and its five sequels by Herbert explore the complex and multilayered interactions of politics, religion, ecology and technology, among other themes.
As Frank Herbert's Dune (1965) begins, the known universe is ruled by Shaddam IV, the 81st Padishah Emperor of House Corrino, whose power is secured by his control of the Sardaukar, his brutally efficient military force. Imperial power is balanced by the assembly of noble houses called the Landsraad, which enforces the Great Convention's ban on the use of atomics against human targets. Though the power of House Corrino is unrivaled by any other individual House, they are in constant competition with each other for political power and stakes in the omnipresent CHOAM company, a directorship which controls the wealth of the entire Empire. The third primary power in the universe is the Spacing Guild, which monopolizes interstellar travel and banking through its proprietary use of melange-mutated Guild Navigators who perform the necessary computations to safely navigate "folded space".
The matriarchal Bene Gesserit possess almost superhuman physical, sensory, and deductive powers developed through years of physical and mental conditioning. While positioning themselves to serve mankind, the Bene Gesserit pursue their goal to better the human race by subtly and secretly guiding and manipulating human bloodlines and the affairs of others to serve their own purposes. "Human computers" known as Mentats have been developed and perfected to replace the capacity for logical analysis lost through the prohibition of computers. The Bene Tleilax are amoral merchants who traffic in biological and genetically engineered products such as artificial eyes, "twisted" Mentats and a type of clone called a ghola. Finally, the Ixians produce cutting-edge technology that seemingly complies with (but sometimes pushes the boundaries of) the prohibitions against computers, thinking machines and conscious robots put in place 10,000 years before as a result of the Butlerian Jihad. The doctors of the Suk School are the universe's most competent and trusted; those who have received the "Suk Imperial Conditioning" are incapable of inflicting harm. The Swordmasters of Ginaz are an elite group of master swordsmen whose fighting skills are prized and unmatched. Equally fierce in battle are the native Fremen of the desert planet Arrakis, known as Dune. Naturally honed to excellence in harsh conditions rivaling the planet on which the Imperial Sardaukar are trained, the Fremen are misunderstood and underestimated by the other powers in the universe.
Arrakis is the only natural source of the all-important spice melange, and by leading the Fremen to seize control of the planet in Dune, Paul Atreides is able to depose Shaddam and become ruler of the known universe. With a bloody jihad subsequently unleashed across the universe in Paul's name but out of his control, the Bene Gesserit, Tleilaxu, Spacing Guild and House Corrino plot to dethrone him in Dune Messiah (1969). Seeing the eventual extinction of mankind through prescient vision, in Children of Dune (1976) Paul's son Leto II devises a plan to save humanity but becomes a symbiote with the sandworm of Arrakis to gain the extended lifespan needed to see this plan to its end.
Thirty-five hundred years later in God Emperor of Dune (1981), Leto still rules the universe as a benevolent tyrant, with the help of his all-female army, the Fish Speakers. He denies any spiritual outlets other than his own compulsory religion, and maintains a tight monopoly on melange and space travel. Through his own selective breeding program among the descendants of his twin sister Ghanima, Leto finally achieves Siona, whose actions are hidden from prescient vision. He engineers his own assassination, knowing it will result in rebellion and revolt but also in an explosion in travel and colonization. The resultant chaos and severe famine on many worlds cause trillions of humans to set off into the freedom of unknown space and spread out across the universe in a diaspora later called the Scattering.
Fifteen hundred years later, as Heretics of Dune (1984) begins, the balance of power in the Empire rests among the Ixians, the Bene Gesserit and the Tleilaxu. The Spacing Guild has been forever weakened by the development of Ixian machines capable of navigation in foldspace, practically replacing Guild Navigators. Ixians are at their apex with their alliance with the Fish Speakers; but Bene Gesserit analysts see them as a failing power, because Ixian society has become a bureaucracy and no great inventions have come out of the workshops of Ix for centuries. The Bene Gesserit control the sandworms and their planet, now called Rakis, through their influence over the Rakian Priesthood that worships the sandworms as the Divided God, Leto II, and now actively participate on interstellar politics and even have their own standing armies. But the Tleilaxu have also discovered how to synthetically produce melange, and they are preparing to subjugate the rest of humanity. As a large influx of people begin to return from the Scattering, the Bene Gesserit find their match in a violent and corrupt matriarchal society known as the Honored Matres. A bitter and bloody war erupts between the orders, but in Chapterhouse: Dune (1985) it ultimately becomes clear that joining the two organizations into a single New Sisterhood with shared abilities is their best chance at survival against the approaching enemy who had driven the Honored Matres into the Old Empire.
Bene Gesserit
The Bene Gesserit are a key social, religious, and political force in Frank Herbert's science fiction Dune universe. The matriarchal group is described as a secretive and exclusive sisterhood whose members train their bodies and minds through years of physical and mental conditioning to obtain superhuman powers and abilities that can seem magical to outsiders. Under the guise of humbly "serving" the Empire, the Sisterhood is in fact a major power in the universe, using its many areas of influence to subtly guide mankind along the path of their own plan for humanity's future. The Bene Gesserit also have a secret, millennia-long selective breeding program to bolster and preserve valuable skills and bloodlines as well as to produce a theoretical superhuman male they call the Kwisatz Haderach.
Bene Tleilax
The Bene Tleilax (or Tleilaxu) are an extremely xenophobic and isolationist society in the Dune universe. Genetic manipulators who traffic in biological products such as artificial eyes, gholas, and "twisted" Mentats, the Tleilaxu are a major power in the Imperium. The race is ruled by a small council of Tleilaxu Masters, whose genetically-engineered Face Dancer servants have the ability to mimic any human. The Masters themselves possess a bland and diminutive appearance intended to compel other races to underestimate them. In Heretics of Dune (1984) it is revealed that they are a secret totalitarian theocracy ultimately seeking domination of the known universe. Despite their influence, the Bene Tleilax are universally distrusted and inspire disgust because their products, though desirable, push the limits of the moral proscriptions established by the ancient Butlerian Jihad.
CHOAM
The Combine Honnete Ober Advancer Mercantiles (CHOAM) is a universal development corporation in Frank Herbert's science fiction Dune universe, first mentioned in the 1965 novel Dune. CHOAM controls all economic affairs across the cosmos, though it is still at the mercy of the Spacing Guild's monopoly on interstellar travel. In a 1980 article, Herbert equated CHOAM with OPEC, the real-world intergovernmental organization which is a major power in the petroleum industry. He writes in Dune:
CHOAM's management and board of directors are controlled by the Padishah Emperor and the Landsraad, the assembly of noble Houses, with the Spacing Guild and the Bene Gesserit as silent partners. Because of its control of interplanetary commerce, CHOAM is the largest single source of wealth in the Empire; as such, influence in CHOAM is a central goal of political maneuvering. In Dune, Herbert notes:
Before the climactic battle in Dune, Paul Atreides and the Fremen watch the Padishah Emperor's encampment to see whether he will raise the Atreides flag, indicating a recognition of Paul's claims, or the banner of Paul's Harkonnen enemies. Instead, the Emperor raises the flag of CHOAM, as a reminder to all of the combatant parties that economics trump political considerations.
In 2011, Forbes ranked CHOAM as the largest fictional corporation.
Prequels
In the Great Schools of Dune novels that take place eight decades after the end of the Butlerian Jihad, Josef Venport, the director of Venport Holdings (Venhold), the largest foldspace transportation company in the universe and the only company utilizing Navigators, forms Combined Mercantiles to mine spice on Arrakis. While ostensibly an independent company, it's an open secret that Combined Mercantiles works for Venhold. Presumably, the company eventually evolves into CHOAM.
Fish Speakers
The Fish Speakers are the all-female army of the God Emperor Leto II Atreides in Frank Herbert's science fiction Dune universe, appearing primarily in God Emperor of Dune (1981). Named so because "the first priestesses spoke to fish in their dreams," the organization is founded by Leto after the events of Children of Dune (1976).
In Dune (1965), Leto II's father Paul Atreides overthrows Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV when Paul's fierce Fremen army manages to defeat Shaddam's previously-unstoppable Sardaukar forces. Though the religiously loyal Fremen and the remnants of the Sardaukar are later at Leto's disposal, Leto (possessing the life experiences of his ancestors over millennia through Other Memory) has come to believe that male-dominated military organizations are essentially predatory and will turn on the civilian population in the absence of an external enemy. Ruling for 3,500 years as a human-sandworm symbiote, Leto molds his Fish Speaker army into both a military and religious force that also functions as the bureaucracy for his tyrannical empire. As Leto sees his Golden Path for humanity's survival from extinction coming to fruition, he allows himself to be assassinated at the end of God Emperor of Dune (1981). Control of the Fish Speakers passes to Duncan Idaho and Siona Atreides.
By the time of Heretics of Dune (1984), the influence of the Fish Speakers has significantly waned in comparison to the Bene Gesserit, Bene Tleilax, and Ixians, the latter two now having great control over the Fish Speakers. By then, the Fish Speakers have also incorporated men into their ranks, and have little in common with the force maintained by Leto II in terms of philosophy or practices. Also by this time, many of the leaders of the Fish Speakers have been replaced with Tleilaxu Face Dancers, essentially making the Fish Speakers, and the realms under their domain, puppets of the Tleilaxu. In Chapterhouse: Dune (1985), the unlocking of Murbella's Other Memory confirms the Bene Gesserit's suspicions that the violent Honored Matres are descendants of Fish Speakers who had fled into The Scattering following Leto's death.
Fremen
The Fremen are a secretive and misunderstood tribe of humans in the Dune universe. As the resident population of the desert planet Arrakis – who came there after thousands of years of wandering the universe – when Dune (1965) begins they have been long overlooked by the rest of the Imperium and are considered backward savages; in reality they are an extremely hardy people and exist in large numbers, their culture built around the commodity of water, which is extremely scarce on Arrakis.
Honored Matres
The Honored Matres are a matriarchal organization in the Dune universe, described as an aggressive cult obsessed with power, violence, and sexual domination. They are introduced in Frank Herbert's Heretics of Dune (1984) as new and bitter enemies of the Bene Gesserit.
Ixians
The Ixians are a technological culture in Frank Herbert's science fiction Dune universe. They provide both simple and sophisticated mechanical devices to the rest of the Imperium. Though Ixian technology is commonplace and considered essential, it sometimes tests the limits of the anti-technology proscriptions established in the aftermath of the Butlerian Jihad, humanity's crusade against computers, thinking machines, and conscious robots. Among the Ixians' inventions later in the series are the no-chamber, a construct that hides anything inside from prescient vision and long-range instruments, and the no-ship, a no-chamber in starship form that does not require a Guild Navigator to fold space.
By the time of the events described in the 1965 novel Dune, Ix is the leader in providing technology to the Imperium. Ixian devices are ever-present, but the society itself is unseen until later in the series. The sequel to Dune, Dune Messiah (1969), refers to the "Ixian Confederacy". In God Emperor of Dune (1981), Leto II Atreides's precognition shows him that his Golden Path has prevented a future in which the Ixians released, and ultimately lost control of, self improving hunter-seekers that would eventually consume all organic life in the known universe. Leto talks about his relationship with the former Ixian ambassador Malky, who had been specially raised and trained by the Ixians to be a "tempter", the "Devil to Leto's God." The Ixians had intended for Malky to manipulate Leto into doubting his own purpose; the plan had ultimately failed. They had later created Hwi Noree, a female designed specifically to attract, seduce, and hold influence over Leto. In the novel, Leto meets Hwi and sees this intent, but cannot dismiss his attraction to her. The Ixian embassy on Arrakis is infiltrated by Tleilaxu Face Dancers, who kill and replace everyone there—except for Hwi—as part of an assassination attempt on Leto. The attempt fails, but Leto later allows himself and Hwi to be killed by Siona Atreides as part of his own plan for the universe.
The Ixians had kept Hwi's development a secret through the use of their new invention, the no-room (later called a no-chamber), a construct which is able to hide the people within from prescience, as Guild Navigators can. The Ixians had also created the Navigation Device which would eventually take the place of Guild Navigators and help fuel the diaspora known as the Scattering. Combining these two technologies later results in the no-ship, a starship that can remain unseen and does not require a Navigator to fold space. By the time of the events described in Heretics of Dune (1984), the power of the Ixians seems at its apex with their alliance with the Fish Speakers; however, Bene Gesserit analysts see them as a failing power, because Ixian society had become a bureaucracy and no great inventions had come out of the workshops of Ix for centuries. As the Honored Matres conquer the Old Empire, the Ixians are reduced to a barely tolerated technological combine. In Chapterhouse: Dune (1985), the latest Duncan Idaho ghola suggests that Leto had never "suppressed" Ix because "he was fascinated by the idea of human and machine inextricably bound to each other, each testing the limits of the other."
Prequels
In the Prelude to Dune (1999–2001) prequel trilogy, Ix is a beautiful, untouched planet that remains so by having no development on the surface. The industry of Ix is subterranean, mainly consisting of labs and factories. The Ixians are the galaxy leader in technological production and have the monopoly on producing the starships known as heighliners. House Vernius rules the planet, but the Padishah Emperor Elrood IX Corrino holds a grudge against Earl Dominic Vernius for two reasons: Dominic had married Elrood's former concubine, Shando Balut, and Ix's new, larger heighliners negatively impact Imperial tax revenue on cargo. Elrood secretly grants the Tleilaxu the right to occupy Ix by force (with the help of his Sardaukar army) and remake it into a laboratory station for Project Amal. This secret project seeks to produce a synthetic version of melange which the Tleilaxu Master Ajidica calls ajidamal, or amal. The Emperor wants to take over the spice monopoly by making sure that he has the only access to spice, thus controlling the Spacing Guild. The Tleilaxu seize control of Ix and rename it "Xuttuh" after their founder, and House Vernius is forced to go rogue. Although Ajidica manages to create an artificial melange that seems to have the original's properties, but it is proven to have adverse effects when two Guild Navigators unknowingly testing the substance cause the destruction of their heighliners. When Duke Leto Atreides invades Xuttuh and reestablishes Rhombur Vernius as the ruler of Ix, all the records of Project Amal are destroyed.
Landsraad
The Landsraad is a political body in Frank Herbert's science fiction Dune universe. As established in Herbert's 1965 novel Dune, it is the assembly of all noble Houses in the Imperium, and plays a very important role in the political and economic power balance of the Empire, which is shared among the Landsraad, the Padishah Emperor, and the Spacing Guild (the Bene Gesserit prefer clandestine manipulation to overt action and therefore remain a "silent" fourth power in the Empire until the fall of Leto II Atreides). The Emperor's power derives from Imperial control of the seemingly invincible military forces of the Sardaukar, and of the planet Arrakis and its priceless melange, a source of endless wealth. The Landsraad represents the unification of all the other ruling families, known as Houses, to create a check against the individual power of the Emperor, a theoretically comparable force. Both the combined Houses and the Emperor are in turn dependent on the Guild for interstellar travel. This delicate balance of power initially serves to prevent any particularly ambitious or destructive faction or individual from upsetting the stability of society.
In "Terminology of the Imperium," the glossary of Dune (1965), Herbert specifies a House as a "Ruling Clan of a planet or planetary system," with major Houses holding planetary fiefs and being interplanetary entrepreneurs, and minor Houses being planet-bound. Individual Houses are in constant competition for fiefdoms, financial and political power, and Imperial favor. The High Council is the inner circle of the Landsraad during the time of the Faufreluches, "the rigid rule of class distinction enforced by the Imperium." The council is "empowered to act as supreme tribunal in House to House disputes." A grievance is brought before the High Council in a Bill of Particulars. Shortly after the assassination of his father Duke Leto Atreides and the Harkonnen/Corrino invasion of the planet Arrakis in Dune, Paul Atreides expresses a desire to put forward a Bill of Particulars to the Landsraad High Council to express his grievance and point out the laws that had been broken by this invasion. Paul believes that his grievance would be supported because the Great Houses would never endorse the Sardaukar eliminating them one-by-one (which is, of course, one of the principal reasons why the Landsraad exists to begin with). The Judge of the Change is "an official appointed by the Landsraad High Council and the Emperor to monitor a change of fief, a kanly negotiation, or a formal battle in a War of Assassins. The Judge's arbitral authority may be challenged only before the High Council with the Emperor present." As a political body, the Landsraad predates the end of the Butlerian Jihad (itself 10,000 years before the events of the novel) by approximately 2000 years. It was at some point referred to as the Landsraad League, and held influence over more than 13,300 worlds immediately after the Jihad.
The word Landsraad is a compound word meaning "council of the land" (the 's' indicates possessive case). The word exists in several Scandinavian languages but is now spelled Landsråd; until the spelling reform of 1948 it was still written as Landsraad in Danish. In Dutch or Afrikaans the word would also be Landsraad, but Herbert borrowed the word from Scandinavian. When asked, he defined the Landsraad thus:
Q: In the novel Dune, what is the Landsraad?
Herbert: Well, Landsraad is an old Scandinavian word for an assembly of landowners. It's historically accurate in that it was an assembly and the first meetings of the legislative body — an early one, yes. The Landsraad — it's the landed gentry.
Prequels
It is established in the Legends of Dune prequel trilogy (2002-2004) by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson that the predecessor to the Landsraad is the League of Nobles. The League is the system of government employed by the remaining free humans before and during the Butlerian Jihad; it is feudal at its core but slightly more democratic than the Landsraad, as the League members vote for which Viceroy they prefer to govern them. After the Jihad and the accession of Faykan Corrino to the new Imperial throne, the Landsraad is formed by the League in order to keep the power of the Corrinos in check.
Mentats
A Mentat is a type of human, presented in Frank Herbert's science fiction Dune universe. In an interstellar society that fears a resurgence of artificial intelligence and thus prohibits computers, Mentats are specially trained to mimic the cognitive and analytical ability of computers. In Herbert's Dune universe, a historical movement known as the Butlerian Jihad results in the strict prohibition of all thinking machines, including computers, robots and artificial intelligence of any kind. This is a key influence on the setting of Herbert's Dune series. More than simply calculators, Mentats possess exceptional cognitive abilities of memory and perception that enable them to sift large volumes of data and devise concise analyses. They can accurately assess people and situations by interpreting minor changes in body language or intonation. Early training occurs without the subject's knowledge, and at a certain age they are made aware, and given the choice to continue. Though human nature brings an ethical component to a Mentat's logic and reasoning, the Tleilaxu can create "twisted Mentats", who are sociopaths free from the usual constraints of human morality and ethical boundaries. Mentat capabilities can be greatly increased by taking sapho juice, an addictive drug extracted from roots found on Ecaz. Repeated use leaves a permanent "cranberry-colored stain" on the user's lips.
In Dune (1965), House Atreides Mentat Thufir Hawat is considered to be one of the finest Mentats of his time, and his protégé, Paul Atreides, is trained as a Mentat. Twisted Mentat Piter De Vries serves as advisor and strategist to the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen in Dune. In Dune Messiah (1969), the Tleilaxu restore renowned Atreides swordsman Duncan Idaho to life as a ghola, Hayt, imbued with the powers of both a Mentat and Zensunni philosopher. In Heretics of Dune (1984) and Chapterhouse: Dune (1985), Miles Teg has an illustrious career as a combined Mentat and high-ranking leader of the Bene Gesserit military forces. In God Emperor of Dune (1981), Leto II outlaws the Mentat order and crushes any renegade training schools he finds. The Bene Gesserit preserve the Mentat discipline, assuming that Leto knows of this through his prescience, and approves. Later, in Chapterhouse Dune, the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Bellonda learns from Other Memory that the Order of Mentats was founded by Gilbertus Albans.
Prequels
The origin of the first Mentat is later explored in the Legends of Dune (2002–2004) prequels written by Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert. During the Butlerian Jihad, thinking machine leader Omnius sees humans as animals, but the independent robot Erasmus argues that any human can become brilliant. Omnius picks a nine-year-old, blond-haired boy who appears to be the wildest and most unkempt of all, and challenges Erasmus to prove his theory. Erasmus calls the boy Gilbertus Albans, thinking that this sounds like a smart human's name. After initially failing to make progress by using a system of benevolence and rewards, he switches to a system of strict supervision and punishment, and the method works. By emulating Erasmus, whom he has come to consider his father, Albans becomes the first human to display computer-like cognitive and calculation capacity on the level of thinking machines. Because of Gilbertus' remarkable memory, organizational ability and capacity for logical thinking, Erasmus nicknames him "Mentat", created from the words "mentor", "mentee", and "mentation".
Padishah Emperors
The Padishah Emperors are the hereditary rulers of the Old Empire in Frank Herbert's science fiction Dune universe. In Herbert's originating novel Dune (1965) it is established that while the Padishah Emperor is supreme sovereign ruler of the known universe, power is shared, in a quasi-feudal arrangement, with the noble houses of the Landsraad and with the Spacing Guild, which possesses a monopoly over interstellar travel. Members of House Corrino sit on the Golden Lion throne as Padishah Emperors from the time of the ancient Battle of Corrin until the events of Dune some 10,000 years later. Dune establishes that Salusa Secundus had been the homeworld of House Corrino, and at some point the Imperial Court had moved to the planet Kaitain.
As Dune begins, the 81st Padishah Emperor is Shaddam IV, but by the end of the novel he is deposed by Duke Paul Atreides in 10,193 A.G. (After Guild) after Paul seizes control of the desert planet Arrakis, the only source of the all-important spice melange. Though Paul subsequently rules as Emperor, the term "Padishah" is dropped, and the Imperium as it has previously been known essentially ceases to exist since absolute control of the spice gives Paul unprecedented power over the Landsraad, Spacing Guild and all other factions. As detailed in Dune Messiah (1969), Paul's apparent death 13 years later puts his sister Alia in place as Imperial Regent for his children, Leto II and Ghanima. Young Leto ascends the throne in 1976's Children of Dune, becoming a human-sandworm hybrid to achieve superhuman physical abilities and longevity. Leto rules as God Emperor for over 3,500 years; his assassination in God Emperor of Dune (1981) effectively abolishes the Imperial throne.
Prequels
Several prequel novels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson further explore the back-story of the Dune universe. According to their Legends of Dune prequel trilogy (2002–2004), the Empire had been founded on Salusa Secundus. Following the human victory over the thinking machines in the Battle of Corrin, Viceroy Faykan Butler takes the last name Corrino in commemoration. He ultimately names himself the first Padishah Emperor, Faykan I. The Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy (1999–2001) chronicles the last years of the reign of Shaddam's father, Elrood IX, as well as Shaddam's accession and reign until the events of Dune. The series also reveals that, after centuries as the capital of the Corrino Padishah Empire, Salusa had been devastated by atomics. The Imperial throne had been relocated to the planet Kaitain, where it remains for millennia.
Rakian Priesthood
The Rakian Priesthood is a priestly body that worships the Divided God, Leto II Atreides. They rule Rakis during the time the Lost Ones are returning from the Scattering, approximately 1500 years after Leto II's death. They are presumably descendants of the Fish Speakers priestesses. The Rakian Priesthood maintain that both Muad'Dib and his son Leto II were hallowed, and that Leto was God Himself. Their canon details how, after his death, Leto divided into the sandworms and became Shai-Hulud, hence the term "Divided God". The Priesthood is largely populated with individuals who lack insight, but possess ambition. After Leto's death, they maintain a brutal rule over Rakis, marked by random executions. Other powers from the Old Imperium, including the Bene Gesserit, the Fish Speakers, and the Bene Tleilax, have come to find them a troublesome, ignorant group. The Bene Gesserit, however, enjoy a particularly great influence over the priesthood.
At the time of the discovery of Sheeana, the Priesthood is led by the High Priest Hedley Tuek, a descendant of Esmar Tuek. Tuek is eventually killed by the Tleilaxu and replaced with a Face Dancer, with the approval of the Bene Gesserit. However, the Face Dancer eventually comes to believe that he is Tuek. The entire Rakian Priesthood is later annihilated, along with the planet's population, when the surface of Rakis is sterilized by the Honored Matres.
Sardaukar
The Sardaukar are a military force from Frank Herbert's Dune universe, primarily appearing in the 1965 science fiction novel Dune, as well as Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson's Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy (1999–2001). They are soldier-fanatics loyal to the Padishah Emperors of House Corrino, who have ruled the known universe for over 10,000 years at the time of the events of Dune. The key to House Corrino's hold on the Imperial throne, the Sardaukar troops are the most formidable professional military in the universe in that time. They are secretly trained on the inhospitable Imperial prison planet Salusa Secundus, and the harsh conditions there ensure that only the strongest and most "ferocious" men survive. Sardaukar training emphasizes ruthlessness, near-suicidal disregard for personal safety, and the use of cruelty as a standard weapon in order to weaken opponents with terror. Their uniforms are described as gray with silver and gold trim.
As Dune begins, the 81st Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV sends Sardaukar to join the forces of the Baron Harkonnen in their attack on the stronghold of Duke Leto Atreides on the desert planet Arrakis. The Atreides forces are crushed and the Duke killed, but Leto's concubine, Lady Jessica, and son, Paul, escape and find refuge with the native Fremen of Arrakis, a fierce people with secretly large numbers and fierce fighting skills. Paul's training in Bene Gesserit martial arts and galvanization of their rebellion under his command make the newly allied Fremen forces unstoppable, superior even to the Emperor's Sardaukar. Using the Bene Gesserit compulsion technique called the Voice, Paul himself manages to compel the Sardaukar Captain Aramsham to humiliate himself by surrendering. However, Aramsham's Sardaukar stoicism is so great that he will not even give his name until Paul uses the Voice again. The defeat of the Sardaukar and Paul's stranglehold on the supply of the all-important spice melange allows him to depose Shaddam, marry his eldest daughter Princess Irulan, and ascend the throne.
In Dune Messiah (1969), Shaddam retains a single legion of Sardaukar in his exile on Salusa Secundus. Paul's concubine Chani later recognizes Sardaukar spies hidden among a visiting Spacing Guild entourage, and they are killed. It is also revealed that a "wise Sardaukar commander" had retrieved the corpse of the slain Atreides Swordmaster Duncan Idaho, which had been entrusted to the Tleilaxu and used to create a ghola duplicate. During the events of Children of Dune (1976), Princess Wensicia, younger daughter of Shaddam IV, initiates a plot for her family and the Sardaukar to return to power. By this time, Paul has improved conditions on Salusa under the guise of making the planet more hospitable for the exiled Corrinos, but with the intent of rendering it an ineffective training ground for more soldiers. Though Wensicia's son Farad'n has tried to maintain the strict discipline that keeps the Sardaukar at their best, when Wensicia's efforts fail Farad'n voluntarily surrenders the army to the new Emperor, Paul's son Leto II Atreides. The text of God Emperor of Dune notes that, during the 3,500-year reign of Leto II after the events of Children of Dune, one of Leto II's many Duncan Idaho gholas had led the remnants of the Sardaukar in an unsuccessful revolt. Leto II finally abolishes the Sardaukar corps, replacing them with the all-female Fish Speakers. Leto believes that male-dominated military organizations are essentially predatory and will turn on the civilian population in the absence of an external enemy.
A line of Dune action figures released by toy company LJN in 1984, styled after David Lynch's film, included a figure of a Sardaukar warrior.
Spacing Guild
The Spacing Guild is an organization in the Dune universe whose monopoly on interstellar travel and banking makes it a balance of power against the Padishah Emperor and the assembled noble Houses of the Landsraad. Mutated Guild Navigators use the spice drug melange to successfully navigate "folded space" and safely guide enormous heighliner starships from planet to planet instantaneously. Essentially apolitical, the Guild is primarily concerned with the flow of commerce and preservation of the economy that supports them; though their ability to dictate the terms of and fees for all transport gives them influence in the political arena, they do not pursue political goals beyond their economic ones.
Suk School
The Suk School is a prominent medical school in Frank Herbert's science fiction Dune universe. Suk doctors are the universe's most competent and trusted physicians. Those who have received the "Suk Imperial Conditioning" are incapable of inflicting harm upon their charges. These individuals bear a black diamond tattoo on their foreheads, and wear their hair in a special silver ring.
The fallibility of Suk training is proven in Dune (1965), in a situation involving Dr. Wellington Yueh. The Harkonnen twisted Mentat Piter De Vries notes:
To gain such leverage against Yueh, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen had abducted and tortured Yueh's wife Wanna. The doctor is thus compelled to betray House Atreides in exchange for her release. Even so, Yueh allows Paul Atreides and Lady Jessica to escape the attack and gives Duke Leto Atreides the means to kill the Baron (though Leto fails to do so).
Later in the series, in Heretics of Dune (1984) and Chapterhouse: Dune (1985), many Bene Gesserits are trained by Suk Schools to become doctors for the Sisterhood.
Prequels
The origins of the school are explored in the Legends of Dune prequel trilogy (2002-2004) by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. It gets its name from Dr. Mohandas Suk, a physician instrumental in fighting a catastrophic thinking machine-created plague among humans during the Butlerian Jihad. After the war he sets out to establish a medical institution which will assure "that no threat of machine, war, or plague can ever harm us again."
Swordmasters of Ginaz
The Swordmasters of Ginaz are a school of martial artists in Frank Herbert's science fiction Dune universe. They are mentioned briefly in 1965's Dune and its 1969 sequel Dune Messiah. "Terminology of the Imperium" in the Appendix of Dune notes that House Ginaz are "one-time allies of Duke Leto Atreides" and are "defeated in the War of Assassins with Grumman." Duncan Idaho is noted to be a "Swordmaster of the Ginaz," which leads to his body later being sold to the Tleilaxu as "a master swordsman, an adept of the Ginaz School."
Prequels
The school's origins are detailed in the Legends of Dune prequel trilogy (2002-2004) by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. Jool Noret of the ocean-covered planet Ginaz uses personal tragedy to make himself a fierce and innovative warrior, distinguishing himself in the ongoing war against the machine forces of Omnius in the Butlerian Jihad. Despite his reluctance to bask in fame or accept students, young warriors flock to Ginaz for training; he concedes, and eventually his unique fighting style becomes an art in its own right. Ultimately, the mercenaries of Ginaz are considered the most elite warriors available outside the Imperial Sardaukar.
Thinking machines
Thinking machines is a collective term for artificial intelligence in Frank Herbert's science fiction Dune universe. The Butlerian Jihad a human crusade against thinking machines is an epic turning point in the back-story of the Dune universe. The thinking machines are first mentioned in 1965's Dune, the glossary of which includes the following:
JIHAD, BUTLERIAN: (see also Great Revolt) — the crusade against computers, thinking machines, and conscious robots begun in 201 B.G. and concluded in 108 B.G. Its chief commandment remains in the O.C. Bible as "Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind."
In Dune Messiah (1969), the Tleilaxu Face Dancer Scytale notes that "From the days of the Butlerian Jihad when 'thinking machines' had been wiped from most of the universe, computers had inspired distrust." Herbert refers to thinking machines and the Jihad several times in his later works in the Dune series, but does not give much detail on how he imagined either. In God Emperor of Dune (1981), Leto II Atreides indicates that the Jihad had been a semi-religious social upheaval initiated by humans who felt repulsed by how guided and controlled they had become by machines:
"The target of the Jihad was a machine-attitude as much as the machines," Leto said. "Humans had set those machines to usurp our sense of beauty, our necessary selfdom out of which we make living judgments. Naturally, the machines were destroyed."
Later in the same novel, Leto tests Siona Atreides, who experiences a vision of the future Leto is trying to prevent with his Golden Path mankind's extinction at the hands of "seeking machines":
He knew this experience, but could not change the smallest part of it. No ancestral presences would remain in her consciousness, but she would carry with her forever afterward the clear sights and sounds and smells. The seeking machines would be there, the smell of blood and entrails, the cowering humans in their burrows aware only that they could not escape . . . while all the time the mechanical movement approached, nearer and nearer and nearer ...louder...louder! Everywhere she searched, it would be the same. No escape anywhere.
Herbert's death in 1986 left this topic unexplored and open to speculation.
Prequels
Chronicling the Butlerian Jihad, the Legends of Dune prequel trilogy (2002–2004) by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson establishes that the thinking machines are a host of destructive robots led by Omnius, a sentient computer network. A thousand years before the Jihad, a group of twenty dissident humans had used thinking machines to enslave the rest of mankind, and then converted themselves into weaponized human-machine hybrids called cymeks. Essentially immortal and unstoppable, they had become known as the Titans, but after a century had been overthrown themselves by Omnius and made his servants. Much of mankind suffers under thinking machine oppression for another 900 years, before the murder of young Manion Butler at the hands of the independent robot Erasmus incites the Butlerian Jihad. The last remaining free humans fight for a century before finally defeating the machines in the Battle of Corrin.
Sequels
In Hunters of Dune (2006), Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson's first of a two-part finale to Frank Herbert's original series, the antagonists Daniel and Marty (introduced in Frank Herbert's 1985 Chapterhouse: Dune) are revealed to be incarnations of Omnius and Erasmus. In the third Legends novel Dune: The Battle of Corrin (2004), Omnius had sent out a last burst of information before being destroyed in the Battle of Corrin; it is explained in Hunters that this signal had eventually connected with one of the probes disseminated from Giedi Prime several decades earlier, uploading versions of Erasmus and Omnius.
Titans
The Titans are a group of warlike cyborgs in the Legends of Dune (2002–2004) trilogy of prequel novels, written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson and set in Frank Herbert's science fiction Dune universe.
Over 11,000 years before the events of Frank Herbert's Dune (1965), a group of 20 ambitious humans see the stagnation of the Old Empire and realize that their small band can take control of it with the aid of thinking machines. Calling themselves the Titans, they rule humanity for a hundred years and rename themselves after famous historical and mythological figures, most notably Agamemnon, Ajax, Barbarossa, Dante, Hecate, Juno, Tlaloc and Xerxes. Eventually the group separates to each rule their own worlds in the galaxy, utilizing the thinking machines that had originally brought them to power as the means to control entire planets. Realizing that their human bodies are fragile and their lifespans limited, the Titans find a way to extend their lives indefinitely: installing their brains with the help of specialized interfaces into large, walking machine bodies. Calling themselves cymeks, the Titans become virtually unstoppable in these new fearsome, weaponized bodies. Having pushed to the very farthest limits of artificial intelligence, their own machines run their empire for them for a century. Then, having mistakenly given one attendant AI program too much autonomy, the Titans suddenly find themselves overthrown and enslaved by an AI consciousness calling itself Omnius that seizes control of the entire known universe through the interconnected machine network. For over 900 years the Titans live in perpetual servitude to Omnius, cruelly subjugating humanity, quelling human insurrections and secretly plotting their own return to power. The murder of young Manion Butler at the hands of the independent robot Erasmus finally incites the Butlerian Jihad; the last remaining free humans fight for a century before finally destroying both Omnius' forces and the remaining Titans in the Battle of Corrin.
References
|
12313026
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RunScanner
|
RunScanner
|
RunScanner is a freeware Microsoft Windows system utility which scans a windows system for all configured running programs and autostart locations.
History
The program was created as a "best of both worlds" effort to combine all positive features in similar programs like HijackThis, Autoruns and Silentrunners.
Unlike similar programs, RunScanner connects to an online database to rate the good and the bad items.
The main purpose of the database is to do whitelisting instead of blacklisting.
Usage
RunScanner scans all windows autostart locations and gives the user the possibility to delete misconfigured and malware items.
Inexperienced users can post their log files to forums where specialist helpers can help them to solve their malware problems.
Advanced users can use all features that modern malware fighters have come to expect.
Unlike other similar software, RunScanner can also exchange binary files with other users.
Main features
Scanning of 100+ hijack locations
Verification of file signatures
MD5 hash calculation of files
Online malware analysis of results
Extended filters
Item marking
Powerful process killer
Plain text logfile generation
Binary .run logfile generation
Hosts file editor
See also
Spy software
Malware
Targeted threat
Vulnerability (computing)
References
External links
Official site
Spyware removal
Windows-only freeware
|
62655264
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E2%80%9320%20Troy%20Trojans%20men%27s%20basketball%20team
|
2019–20 Troy Trojans men's basketball team
|
The 2019–20 Troy Trojans men's basketball team represented Troy University in the 2019–20 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Trojans, led by first-year head coach Scott Cross, played their home games at Trojan Arena in Troy, Alabama as members of the Sun Belt Conference. They finished the season 9–22, 5–15 in Sun Belt play to finish in a tie for 11th place. They failed to qualify for the Sun Belt Tournament.
Previous season
The Trojans finished the 2018–19 season 12–18, 5–13 in Sun Belt play to finish in a tie for last place. They failed to qualify for the Sun Belt Tournament.
On March 11, 2019, it was announced that head coach Phil Cunningham was relieved of his duties, ending his six-year tenure with the team. On March 26, TCU assistant and former UT Arlington head coach Scott Cross was announced as Troy's next head coach.
Roster
Schedule and results
|-
!colspan=12 style=| Non-conference regular season
|-
!colspan=9 style=| Sun Belt Conference regular season
|-
Source
References
Troy Trojans men's basketball seasons
Troy Trojans
Troy Trojans men's basketball
Troy Trojans men's basketball
|
175852
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain%20%28computer%20virus%29
|
Brain (computer virus)
|
Brain is the industry standard name for a computer virus that was released in its first form in 19 January 1986, and is considered to be the first computer virus for the IBM Personal Computer (IBM PC) and compatibles.
Description
Brain affects the IBM PC by replacing the boot sector of a floppy disk with a copy of the virus. The real boot sector is moved to another sector and marked as bad. Infected disks usually have five kilobytes of bad sectors. The disk label is usually changed to ©Brain, and the following text can be seen in infected boot sectors:
Welcome to the Dungeon (c) 1986 Amjads (pvt) Ltd VIRUS_SHOE RECORD V9.0 Dedicated to the dynamic memories of millions of viruses who are no longer with us today - Thanks GOODNESS!!! BEWARE OF THE er..VIRUS : this program is catching program follows after these messages....$#@%$@!!
There are many minor and major variations to that version of the text. The virus slows down the floppy disk drive and makes seven kilobytes of memory unavailable to DOS. Brain was written by Amjad Farooq Alvi and Basit Farooq Alvi, who at the time lived in Chah Miran, near Lahore Railway Station, in Lahore, Pakistan. The brothers told Time magazine they had written it to protect their medical software from illegal copying, and it was supposed to target copyright infringement only. The cryptic message "Welcome to the Dungeon", a safeguard and reference to an early programming forum on Dungeon BBS, appeared after a year because the brothers licensed a beta version of the code. The brothers could not be contacted to receive the final release of this version of the program.
Brain lacks code for dealing with hard disk partitioning, and avoids infecting hard disks by checking the most significant bit of the BIOS drive number being accessed. Brain does not infect the disk if the bit is set, unlike other viruses at the time, which paid no attention to disk partitioning and consequently destroyed data stored on hard disks by treating them in the same way as floppy disks. Brain often went undetected, partially due to this deliberate non-destructiveness, especially when the user paid little to no attention to the low speed of floppy disk access.
The virus came complete with the brothers' address and three phone numbers, and a message that told the user that their machine was infected and to call them for inoculation:
This program was originally used to track a heart monitoring program for the IBM PC, and people were distributing illicit copies of the disks. This tracking program was supposed to stop and track illegal copies of the disk, however the program also sometimes used the last five kilobytes on an Apple floppy, making additional saves to the disk by other programs impossible.
Author response
When the brothers began to receive a large number of phone calls from people in the United Kingdom, the United States, and elsewhere, demanding that they disinfect their machines, they were stunned and tried to explain to the outraged callers that their motivation had not been malicious. Their phone lines were overloaded. The brothers, with another brother, Shahid Farooq Alvi, continued business in Pakistan, as Brain NET Internet service providers with a company called Brain Telecommunication Limited.
In 2011, 25 years after Brain was released, Mikko Hyppönen of F-Secure traveled to Pakistan to interview Amjad for a documentary. Being inspired by this documentary and its wide spread, a group of Pakistani bloggers interviewed Amjad, under the banner of Bloggerine.
See also
Iqbal Town, Lahore
Rootkit
Timeline of computer viruses and worms
References
External links
Description of (c)Brain at F-Secure site
BRAIN Searching for the first PC virus in Pakistan
Information on the Brain Virus And Variants at textfiles.com
TED talk by Mikko Hyppönen Fighting viruses, defending the net
Pakistani Brain (IBM MS-DOS PC Computer Virus) and its impact
Boot viruses
Pakistani inventions
Information technology in Pakistan
1986 in computing
Hacking in the 1980s
|
33691376
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%20string%20handling
|
C string handling
|
The C programming language has a set of functions implementing operations on strings (character strings and byte strings) in its standard library. Various operations, such as copying, concatenation, tokenization and searching are supported. For character strings, the standard library uses the convention that strings are null-terminated: a string of characters is represented as an array of elements, the last of which is a character (with numeric value 0).
The only support for strings in the programming language proper is that the compiler translates quoted string constants into null-terminated strings.
Definitions
A string is defined as a contiguous sequence of code units terminated by the first zero code unit (often called the NUL code unit). This means a string cannot contain the zero code unit, as the first one seen marks the end of the string. The length of a string is the number of code units before the zero code unit. The memory occupied by a string is always one more code unit than the length, as space is needed to store the zero terminator.
Generally, the term string means a string where the code unit is of type char, which is exactly 8 bits on all modern machines. C90 defines wide strings which use a code unit of type wchar_t, which is 16 or 32 bits on modern machines. This was intended for Unicode but it is increasingly common to use UTF-8 in normal strings for Unicode instead.
Strings are passed to functions by passing a pointer to the first code unit. Since char* and wchar_t* are different types, the functions that process wide strings are different than the ones processing normal strings and have different names.
String literals ("text" in the C source code) are converted to arrays during compilation. The result is an array of code units containing all the characters plus a trailing zero code unit. In C90 L"text" produces a wide string. A string literal can contain the zero code unit (one way is to put \0 into the source), but this will cause the string to end at that point. The rest of the literal will be placed in memory (with another zero code unit added to the end) but it is impossible to know those code units were translated from the string literal, therefore such source code is not a string literal.
Character encodings
Each string ends at the first occurrence of the zero code unit of the appropriate kind (char or wchar_t). Consequently, a byte string () can contain non-NUL characters in ASCII or any ASCII extension, but not characters in encodings such as UTF-16 (even though a 16-bit code unit might be nonzero, its high or low byte might be zero). The encodings that can be stored in wide strings are defined by the width of wchar_t. In most implementations, wchar_t is at least 16 bits, and so all 16-bit encodings, such as UCS-2, can be stored. If wchar_t is 32-bits, then 32-bit encodings, such as UTF-32, can be stored. (The standard requires a "type that holds any wide character", which on Windows no longer holds true since the UCS-2 to UTF-16 shift.) C++11 and C11 add two types with explicit widths and .
Variable-width encodings can be used in both byte strings and wide strings. String length and offsets are measured in bytes or wchar_t, not in "characters", which can be confusing to beginning programmers. UTF-8 and Shift JIS are often used in C byte strings, while UTF-16 is often used in C wide strings when wchar_t is 16 bits. Truncating strings with variable length characters using functions like strncpy can produce invalid sequences at the end of the string. This can be unsafe if the truncated parts are interpreted by code that assumes the input is valid.
Support for Unicode literals such as (UTF-8) or (UTF-16 or UTF-32, depends on ) is implementation defined, and may require that the source code be in the same encoding, especially for where compilers might just copy whatever is between the quotes. Some compilers or editors will require entering all non-ASCII characters as \xNN sequences for each byte of UTF-8, and/or \uNNNN for each word of UTF-16. Since C11 (and C++11), a new literal syntax is available that guarantees UTF-8 for a bytestring literal.
Overview of functions
Most of the functions that operate on C strings are declared in the string.h header (cstring in C++), while functions that operate on C wide strings are declared in the wchar.h header (cwchar in C++). These headers also contain declarations of functions used for handling memory buffers; the name is thus something of a misnomer.
Functions declared in string.h are extremely popular since, as a part of the C standard library, they are guaranteed to work on any platform which supports C. However, some security issues exist with these functions, such as potential buffer overflows when not used carefully and properly, causing the programmers to prefer safer and possibly less portable variants, out of which some popular ones are listed below. Some of these functions also violate const-correctness by accepting a const string pointer and returning a non-const pointer within the string. To correct this, some have been separated into two overloaded functions in the C++ version of the standard library.
In historical documentation the term "character" was often used instead of "byte" for C strings, which leads many to believe that these functions somehow do not work for UTF-8. In fact all lengths are defined as being in bytes and this is true in all implementations, and these functions work as well with UTF-8 as with single-byte encodings. The BSD documentation has been fixed to make this clear, but POSIX, Linux, and Windows documentation still uses "character" in many places where "byte" or "wchar_t" is the correct term.
Functions for handling memory buffers can process sequences of bytes that include null-byte as part of the data. Names of these functions typically start with mem, as opposite to the str prefix.
Constants and types
Functions
Multibyte functions
These functions all take a pointer to a object that the caller must maintain. This was originally intended to track shift states in the encodings, but modern ones such as UTF-8 do not need this. However these functions were designed on the assumption that the encoding is not a variable-width encoding and thus are designed to deal with exactly one at a time, passing it by value rather than using a string pointer. As UTF-16 is a variable-width encoding, the has been reused to keep track of surrogate pairs in the wide encoding, though the caller must still detect and call twice for a single character.
Numeric conversions
The C standard library contains several functions for numeric conversions. The functions that deal with byte strings are defined in the stdlib.h header (cstdlib header in C++). The functions that deal with wide strings are defined in the wchar.h header (cwchar header in C++).
The strtoxxx functions are not const-correct, since they accept a const string pointer and return a non-const pointer within the string.
Also, since the Normative Amendment 1 (C95), atoxx functions are considered subsumed by strtoxxx functions, for which reason neither C95 nor any later standard provides wide-character versions of these functions. The argument against atoxx is that they do not differentiate between an error and a 0.
Popular extensions
Replacements
Despite the well-established need to replace strcat and strcpy with functions that do not allow buffer overflows, no accepted standard has arisen. This is partly due to the mistaken belief by many C programmers that strncat and strncpy have the desired behavior; however, neither function was designed for this (they were intended to manipulate null-padded fixed-size string buffers, a data format less commonly used in modern software), and the behavior and arguments are non-intuitive and often written incorrectly even by expert programmers.
The most popular replacement are the strlcat and strlcpy functions, which appeared in OpenBSD 2.4 in December, 1998. These functions always write one NUL to the destination buffer, truncating the result if necessary, and return the size of buffer that would be needed, which allows detection of the truncation and provides a size for creating a new buffer that will not truncate. They have been criticized on the basis of allegedly being inefficient, encouraging the use of C strings (instead of some superior alternative form of string), and hiding other potential errors. Consequently, they have not been included in the GNU C library (used by software on Linux), although they are implemented in the C libraries for OpenBSD, FreeBSD, NetBSD, Solaris, OS X, and QNX, as well as in alternative C libraries for Linux, such as musl introduced in 2011. The lack of GNU C library support has not stopped various software authors from using it and bundling a replacement, among other SDL, GLib, ffmpeg, rsync, and even internally in the Linux kernel. Open source implementations for these functions are available.
Sometimes memcpy or memmove are used, as they may be more efficient than strcpy as they do not repeatedly check for NUL (this is less true on modern processors). Since they need a buffer length as a parameter, correct setting of this parameter can avoid buffer overflows.
As part of its 2004 Security Development Lifecycle, Microsoft introduced a family of "secure" functions including strcpy_s and strcat_s (along with many others). These functions were standardized with some minor changes as part of the optional C11 (Annex K) proposed by ISO/IEC WDTR 24731. These functions perform various checks including whether the string is too long to fit in the buffer. If the checks fail, a user-specified "runtime-constraint handler" function is called, which usually aborts the program. Some functions perform destructive operations before calling the runtime-constraint handler; for example, strcat_s sets the destination to the empty string, which can make it difficult to recover from error conditions or debug them. These functions attracted considerable criticism because initially they were implemented only on Windows and at the same time warning messages started to be produced by Microsoft Visual C++ suggesting the programmers to use these functions instead of standard ones. This has been speculated by some to be an attempt by Microsoft to lock developers into its platform. Although open-source implementations of these functions are available, these functions are not present in common Unix C libraries. Experience with these functions has shown significant problems with their adoption and errors in usage, so the removal of Annex K is proposed for the next revision of the C standard. Usage of has also been suggested as a way to avoid unwanted compiler optimizations.
See also
source code syntax, including backslash escape sequences
String functions
Notes
References
External links
Fast memcpy in C, multiple C coding examples to target different types of CPU instruction architectures
String handling
String handling
String (computer science)
|
864956
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walters%20Art%20Museum
|
Walters Art Museum
|
The Walters Art Museum, located in Mount Vernon-Belvedere, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, is a public art museum founded and opened in 1934. It holds collections established during the mid-19th century. The Museum's collection was amassed substantially by major American art and sculpture collectors, a father and son: William Thompson Walters, (1819–1894), who began collecting when he moved to Paris as a nominal Southern/Confederate sympathizer at the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861; and Henry Walters (1848–1931), who refined the collection and made arrangements for the construction of a later landmark building to rehouse it. After allowing the Baltimore public to occasionally view his father's and his growing added collections at his West Mount Vernon Place townhouse/mansion during the late 1800s, he arranged for an elaborate stone palazzo-styled structure built for that purpose in 1905–1909. Located across the back alley, a block south of the Walters mansion on West Monument Street/Mount Vernon Place, on the northwest corner of North Charles Street at West Centre Street.
The mansion and gallery were also just south and west of the landmark Washington Monument in the Mount Vernon-Belvedere neighborhood, just north of the downtown business district and northeast of Cathedral Hill. Upon his 1931 death, Henry Walters bequeathed the entire collection of then more than 22,000 works, the original Charles Street Gallery building, and his adjacent townhouse/mansion just across the alley to the north on West Mount Vernon Place to the City of Baltimore, "for the benefit of the public." The collection includes masterworks of ancient Egypt, Greek sculpture and Roman sarcophagi, medieval ivories, illuminated manuscripts, Renaissance bronzes, Old Master European and 19th-century paintings, Chinese ceramics and bronzes, Art Deco jewelry, and ancient Near East, Mesopotamian, or ancient Middle East items.
In 2000, "The Walters Art Gallery" changed its long-time name to "The Walters Art Museum" to reflect its image as a large public institution and eliminate confusion among some of the increasing out-of-state visitors. The following year, "The Walters" (as it is often known locally) reopened its original main building after a dramatic three-year physical renovation and replacement of internal utilities and infrastructure. The Archimedes Palimpsest was on loan to the Walters Art Museum from a private collector for conservation and spectral imaging studies.
Starting on October 1, 2006, the museum was enabled to make admission free to all, year-round, as a result of substantial grants given by Baltimore City and the surrounding suburban Baltimore County arts agencies and authorities. In 2012, "The Walters" released nearly 20,000 of its own images of its collections on a Creative Commons license, and collaborated in their upload to the world-wide web and the Internet on Wikimedia Commons. This was one of the largest and most comprehensive such releases made by any museum.
Permanent collection
Ancient art
The Walters' collection of ancient art includes examples from Egypt, Nubia, Greece, Rome, Etruria and the Near East. Highlights include two monumental 3,000-pound statues of the Egyptian lion-headed fire goddess Sekhmet on long-term loan from the British Museum; the Walters Mummy; alabaster reliefs from the palace of Ashurnasirpal II; Greek gold jewelry, including the Greek bracelets from Olbia on the shores of the Black Sea; the Praxitelean Satyr; a large assemblage of Roman portrait heads; a Roman bronze banquet couch, and marble sarcophagi from the tombs of the prominent Licinian and Calpurnian families.
Art of the ancient Americas
In 1911, Henry Walters purchased almost 100 gold artifacts from the Chiriqui region of western Panama in Central America, creating a core collection of ancient American native art. Through subsequent gifts of art and loans, the museum has added works, mostly in pottery and stone, from Mexico, Central America and South America, including pieces from the Mesoamerican Olmec, Aztec, and Maya cultures, as well as the Moche and Inca peoples of South America.
Asian art
Highlights of the Asian art collection assembled earlier by Baltimorean father and son collectors William T. and Henry Walters include Japanese arms and armor, and Chinese and Japanese porcelains, lacquers, and metalwork. Among the museum's outstanding works of Asian art is a late-12th- or early-13th-century Cambodian bronze of the eight-armed Avalokiteshvara, a T'ang Dynasty earthenware camel, and an intricately painted Ming Dynasty wine jar. The museum owns the oldest surviving Chinese wood-and-lacquer image of the Buddha (late 6th century AD). It is exhibited in a gallery dedicated solely to this work.
The museum holds one of the largest and finest collections of Thai (Siam/Thailand) bronze, scrolls, and banner paintings in the world.
Islamic art
Islamic art in all media is represented at the Walters. Among the highlights are a 7th-century carved and hammered silver bowl from Iran, (ancient Persia); a 13th-century candlestick made of copper, silver, and gold from the Mamluk era in Egypt; 16th-century mausoleum doors decorated with intricate wood carvings in a radiating star pattern; a 17th-century silk sash from the Mughal Empire in India; and a 17th-century Turkish tile with an image of the Masjid al-Haram ("Great Mosque of Mecca"), the center of Islam in Mecca, (modern Saudi Arabia).
The Walters Museum owns an array of Islamic manuscripts. These include a 15th-century Koran from northern India, executed at the height of the Timurid Empire; a 16th-century copy of the "Khamsa of Nizami (British Library, Or. 12208)|Khamsa]]" by Amir Khusraw, illustrated by a number of famous artists for the Emperor Akbar; and a Turkish calligraphy album by Sheikh Hamadullah Al-Amasi, one of the greatest calligraphers of all time. Walters Art Museum, MS W.613 contains five Mughal miniatures from an important "Khamsa of Nizami" made for the Emperor Akbar; the rest are in London, Great Britain.
Medieval European art
Henry Walters assembled a collection of art produced during the Middle Ages in all the major artistic media of the period. This forms the basis of the Walters' medieval collection, for which the museum is best known internationally. Considered one of the best collections of medieval art in the United States, the museum's holdings include examples of metalwork, sculpture, stained glass, textiles, icons, and other paintings. The collection is especially renowned for its ivories, enamels, reliquaries, early Byzantine silver, post-Byzantine art, illuminated manuscripts, and the largest and finest collection of Ethiopian Orthodox Church art outside Ethiopia.
The Walters' medieval collection features unique objects such as the Byzantine agate Rubens Vase that belonged to the painter Rubens (accession no. 42.562) and the earliest-surviving image of the "Virgin of Tenderness", an ivory carving produced in Egypt in the 6th or 7th century (accession no. 71.297). Sculpted heads from the royal Abbey of St. Denis are rare surviving examples of portal sculptures that are directly connected with the origins of Gothic art in 12th-century France (accession nos. 27.21 and 27.22). An ivory casket covered with scenes of jousting knights is one of about a dozen such objects to survive in the world (accession no. 71.264).
Many of these works are on display in the museum's galleries. Works from the medieval collection are also frequently included in special touring exhibitions, such as Treasures of Heaven, an exhibition about relics and reliquaries that was on view at the Cleveland Museum of Art in (Cleveland, Ohio), the Walters Art Museum, and the British Museum in London in 2010–11.
Works in the medieval collection are the subject of active research by the curatorial and conservation departments of the museum, and visiting researchers frequently make use of the museum's holdings. In-depth technical research carried on these objects is made available to the public through publications and exhibitions, as in the case of the Amandus Shrine (accession no. 53.9), which was featured in a small special exhibition titled The Special Dead in 2008–09.
There are also Late Medieval devotional Italian paintings by these painters at the Walters: Tommaso da Modena, Pietro Lorenzetti, Andrea di Bartolo (Resurrection), Alberto Sotio, Bartolomeo di Tommaso (Death of Saint Francis), Naddo Ceccarelli, Master of Saint Verdiana, Niccolo di Segna (Saint Lucy), Orcagna, Olivuccio di Ciccarello, Master of Panzano Triptych and Giovanni del Biondo.
Renaissance, Baroque and 18th-century European art
The collection of European Renaissance and Baroque art features holdings of paintings, sculpture, furniture, ceramics, metal work, arms and armor. The highlights include Hugo van der Goes' Donor with Saint John the Baptist, Heemskerck's Panorama with the Abduction of Helen Amidst the Wonders of the Ancient World, Giambattista Pittoni's Sacrifice of Polyxena, the Madonna of the Candelabra, from the studio of Raphael, Veronese's Portrait Of Countess Livia da Porto Thiene and her Daughter Porzia, El Greco's Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata, Bernini's "bozzetto" of Risen Christ, Tiepolo's Scipio Africanus Freeing Massiva, and The Ideal City attributed to Fra Carnevale. The museum has one of ten surviving examples of the Sèvres pot-pourri vase in the shape of a ship from the 1750s and 1760s.
19th-century European art
William and Henry Walters collected works by late-19th-century French academic masters and Impressionists. Highlights of the collection include Odalisque with Slave by Ingres (a second version); Claude Monet's Springtime; Alfred Sisley's panoramic view of the Seine Valley; and Édouard Manet's realist masterpiece, The Café Concert.
Henry Walters was particularly interested in the courtly arts of 18th-century France. The museum's collection of Sèvres porcelain includes a number of pieces that were made for members of the Royal Bourbon Court at Versailles Palace outside of Paris. Portrait miniatures and the examples of goldsmiths' works, especially snuffboxes and watches, are displayed in the Treasury, along with some exceptional 19th- and early-20th-century works. Among them are examples of Art Nouveau-styled jewelry by René Lalique, jeweled objects by the House of Fabergé, including two Russian Imperial Easter eggs, and precious jewels by Tiffany and Co. of New York City.
The Walters' collection presents an overview of 19th-century European art, particularly art from France. From the first half of the century come major paintings by Ingres, Géricault, and Delacroix. William Walters stayed in Paris with his family during the Civil War, because of his notorious Southern-leanings, and he soon developed a keen interest in contemporary European painting. He either commissioned directly from the artists or purchased at auctions such major works by the Barbizon masters, including Jean-François Millet and Henri Rousseau; the academic masters Jean-Léon Gérôme and Lawrence Alma-Tadema; and even the modernists Monet, Manet, and Sisley, the Italian Antonio Rotta.
Drawings
Buildings
Charles Street – Old Main Building (1905–1909)
Henry Walters' original gallery was designed by architect William Adams Delano and erected between 1904 and 1909, facing South Washington Place (at the northwest corner with West Centre Street) and attached by an overhead bridge/passageway across the back alley from his adjacent townhouse/mansion to the north on West Mount Vernon Place (facing the Washington Monument to the northeast). Its exterior was inspired by the Renaissance-revival-style Hôtel Pourtalès in Paris and its interior was modeled after the 17th-century "Collegio dei Gesuiti" (now the Palazzo dell'Università) built by the Balbi family for the Jesuits in Genoa. The arts of the Renaissance and Baroque periods, French decorative arts of the 18th and 19th centuries, and manuscripts and rare books are now exhibited in this palazzo-style structure.
Centre Street Annex Building (1974)
Designed by the Boston firm of Shepley, Bullfinch, Richardson, and Abbott, in the "Brutalist" poured-concrete style prevailing in the 1960s, (one of the few others in the region of this extremely modernistic style in the city – such as the recently razed Morris A. Mechanic Theatre in downtown Charles Center on the southwest corner of Charles and Baltimore Streets from 1967), this annex building (which has several horizontal lines paralleled with features in the 1909 structure) to the west along West Centre Street and rear of the original main gallery, extending to Park Avenue, opened in 1974. It was substantially altered in 1998–2001 by another firm of Kallmann McKinnell and Wood, Architects, to provide a four-story glass atrium, with a suspended staircase at the juncture between the older and newer buildings with a new entrance lobby along Centre Street. The new lobby, which also provides easier ground-level handicapped access along with enhanced security provisions for both collections and visitors is also providing a café, an enlarged museum and gift store and a reference library. The ancient, Byzantine, medieval, Ethiopian, and 19th-century European collections are housed in this building, with its large display walls and irregular corridors and galleries. Also here is the museum's famed art conservation laboratory, which is one of the oldest in the country.
Hackerman House (1850/1991)
This Greek Revival style townhouse/mansion, one of the most elaborate in the city, was designed by famed local architect John Rudolph Niernsee (1814–1885), and erected between 1848 and 1850 for Dr. John Hanson Thomas, was long regarded as the most "elegant" house along Mount Vernon Place or Washington Place. It sits on the southwest corner of the circle surrounding the Washington Monument and was later owned by the families Jencks and Gladding (later known as the Thomas-Jencks-Gladding Mansion). Considered in its premiere landmark municipal location to be used for Baltimore City's Official Mayor's Residence (similar to other major American cities mayor's mansions such as Gracie Mansion in a river-front park on New York City's east side of Manhattan, facing the East River), when it was briefly acquired by the city in the late 1950s and then being considered to be razed for an unfortunately poorly-conceived and planned northern expansion of the Gallery engendered local preservationists' protests before being finally re-sold to the Gladding family of a well-known public-spirited local Chevrolet auto dealership, who promised to restore and preserve the noted mansion.
Among the original owning family of the Thomas's distinguished guests of the mid-19th century were the Prince of Wales (eldest son of Queen Victoria), the future King Edward VII (reigned 1901–1910); and General Lajos Kossuth (1802–1894), the then famous Hungarian freedom fighter, President of an early, brief Hungarian republic, veteran of the European Revolutions of 1847–1848 and the "Father of modern Hungary". Since the mid-1980s when, the Thomas-Jencks-Gladding Mansion was reacquired by the city under Mayor William Donald Schaefer (1921–2011), who served the city from 1971 to 1987, and future Governor of Maryland (1987–1995) from the Gladding family with a donation by the Mayor's loyal friend along with being a developer, industrialist and philanthropist, Willard Hackerman, and transferred to the purposes of "The Walters". Since additional renovations with the addition of a connecting gallery with domed skylight and corridor constructed through the top of the old rear carriage house/garage to the south end of the house, and across the east-west alley to the old 1909 Main Building's north side. Reopened in 1991, the newly renamed "Hackerman House" has been devoted to The Walters' recently expanded holdings of Asian art.
Union Busting Allegations
Throughout 2021, director Julia Marciari-Alexander, advised by union-busting law firm Shaw Rosenthal LLP, refused to meet with Walters employees, stalling the advance of a wall-to-wall unionization effort. In October 2021, when directed by the Baltimore City Council and Comptroller Bill Henry to meet with employees and allow a vote on unionization, Marciari-Alexander refused, claiming that meeting with her employees constitutes interference.
Gallery
This is a list of selected works from the museum collection.
See also
Collaboration Between Walters Art Museum and Wikimedia Commons
American Art Collaborative
Archimedes Palimpsest
Baltimore Museum of Art
William Henry Rinehart
Peabody Institute
George Peabody Library
Charles Street
Washington Monument
Parker Building (New York City), earlier location of Walters' art collection
References
Additional sources
The Walters Art Gallery, Guide to the Collections, 1997, Scala Books,
Gruelle, R. B., Collection of William Thompson Walters (Boston 1895)
Bushnell, S. W., Oriental Ceramic Art Collections of William Thompson Walters (New York 1899)
External links
Walters Art Museum online collection
Archimedes Palimpsest Project Web Page
Art museums and galleries in Maryland
Museums in Baltimore
Mount Vernon, Baltimore
Asian art museums in the United States
Museums of ancient Greece in the United States
Museums of ancient Rome in the United States
Museums of Ancient Near East
Historic American Buildings Survey in Baltimore
Egyptological collections in the United States
Art museums established in 1934
1934 establishments in Maryland
Delano & Aldrich buildings
Neoclassical architecture in Maryland
|
12211007
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narendra%20Patni
|
Narendra Patni
|
Narendra Kumar Patni (9 March 1942 – 3 June 2014) was an entrepreneur and IT visionary who founded Patni Computer Systems and helped establish the overall Indian IT industry.
He is considered a "pioneer of India's information technology (IT) services revolution" and a "doyen of the industry" Patni was listed in the Forbes list of India's 40 Richest in 2005.
Patni was the founder and CEO of Patni Computer Systems, (PTI, PATNI) with headquarters in Kendall Square, Cambridge and Mumbai, India. Patni Computer Systems employed 18,000 people around the world and was listed on the Bombay and New York Stock Exchanges.
Narendra Patni graduated in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee and had a master's degree in Electrical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also held an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. Patni divided his time between Mumbai, India and Boston, MA.
He died on 3 June 2014 in Boston, MA.
Early life and education
Patni was born in 1942 in Delhi, India to a Jain Business family. He attended the University of Roorkee (presently known as the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee) and graduated with a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering in 1964.
He then received a fellowship from the Grass Foundation to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA, arriving in the US in 1964—the year before the Immigration and Naturalisation Act of 1965 started Indian emigration to the US in earnest. Patni obtained a Masters in Electrical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (SM 1966) and an SM from the Sloan School of Management (SM 1969).
Career
At MIT Patni met Jay W. Forrester, inventor of magnetic core memory, who became his lifelong mentor. After graduating from MIT Patni joined Forrester Consulting Group, which applied "systems analysis approach to complex corporate systems"
In 1972, Patni was president of Forrester Consulting Group, which advised companies and government agencies on technology issues. It was at this time that Patni and his wife Poonam began to conceptualise and test the idea of "offshoring" technology services.
The site of their initial tests, Patni's residence at 10 St Paul Street, Cambridge, "could qualify as a historic landmark" as this is where Narendra and Poonam experimented with converting data from paper documents to computer databases without relying on any oral communications. Patni was convinced of the economic impact that this business model could have and set up Data Conversion, Inc, in October 1972.
Poonam Patni based herself in Pune, India and set up a team of about 20 programmers who entered data into Flexowriter machines for early clients, who included Lexis Nexis, the American Film Institute, and the American Mathematical Society. The paper tape was then converted into magnetic tape and entered into a computer. "At one point of time, DCI was typesetting almost half of the journals published in north-east USA." Initially, the paper tape was produced in India and shipped back to the US. A more efficient method was to avoid the paper tape and enter the data directly into computers, on magnetic media.
Patni Computer Systems was founded in 1976. This marked the beginning of an evolution in Patni's model from offshore data conversion services to software development services. Initial clients were Data General, Raheja Constructions, and ACC. Patni Computers also became a distributor and later licensed manufacturer of Data General computers.
In 1977, Patni appointed NR Narayana Murthy to head the software division, who eventually left Patni Computers in 1980 along with six colleagues and went on to found Infosys.
In 1999, Patni Computer Systems was restructured as a "pure software operation" It became a "separate entity from PCS Industries Limited". In 2001 the software (PATNI) and hardware (PCS Technologies) divisions were separated entirely in branding as well. With the Patni Computer Systems, the software company, being branded as PATNI.
General Atlantic Partners, a leading global private equity company, invested $100 million in Patni Computer Systems in 2002. It was "one of the most substantial investments made in any Indian software company by an international private investment group and [was] the largest made by General Atlantic in Asia."
Patni Computers listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange of India in January 2004. It issued ADRs on the NYSE (ticker: PTI) in December 2005.
In 2011 software firm iGate acquired a majority stake in PCS for $1.2 billion. This deal was "the second-largest in the high technology sector in terms of deal value, after Oracle Corp's acquisition of majority stake in India's i-flex solutions for more than $1.5 billion, according to Thomson Reuters data." At the time of its acquisition, Patni Computer Systems was the sixth-largest software exporter in India.
Personal life
Patni was married for 42 years to Poonam Kapur, who was born in Lucknow, India and emigrated to the US in 1972. She divides her time between Boston and Mumbai. His son Anirudh (born 1976) is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Daughter Ambika (born 1979) is a graduate of Harvard University and the London Business School.
A lover of all kinds of music, ranging from Joan Baez to jazz to classical Hindi ghazals, Patni attended the Woodstock music festival in 1969. He served on the Board of Trustees and was a significant benefactor for Siddhachalam, a major Jain ashram complex and pilgrimage point in New Jersey.
Other
Patni founded the N.K. Patni Charitable Trust in India and the Patni Family Foundation in the US. Both are active in supporting education and medicine. In 2016, the Patni Family Foundation was a significant funder of the SRCC Children's hospital in Mumbai, India—the largest such facility in Asia.
In 2008, the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee honoured Narendra Kumar Patni with the Distinguished Alumni Award for Corporate Development, Administration and Entrepreneurship.
He also received the Light of India Lifetime Achievement Award for Business Leadership in New York in 2012.
Narendra Patni died from complications relating to surgery on 3 June 2014.
References
MIT School of Engineering alumni
MIT Sloan School of Management alumni
1942 births
2014 deaths
20th-century Indian Jains
Indian chief executives
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.