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31007716 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locus%20Technologies | Locus Technologies | Locus Technologies is an American corporation with headquarters in Mountain View, California. Locus provides software and services to track, organize, visualize, and report environmental and ESG data.
Profile
Locus Technologies is known for its Environmental Information Management (EIM) and Locus Platform (LP) applications. Locus centralizes corporate environmental and sustainability information through the Locus cloud—fully powered by Amazon Web Services.
Locus Technologies was founded in April 1997 by Neno Duplan. Locus pioneered the cross section of information management software and mobile technology for environmental data collection by offering an application called eWell in 2001.
Software and Services
Locus EIM
Locus’ Environmental Information Management (EIM) software is a cloud-based environmental data management system released in 1999. It is currently used to manage and report on the data associated with nuclear, mining, water quality, remediation, and upstream oil and gas activities.
Locus Platform
Locus Platform was released in 2013. The cloud-based software consolidates data into one platform, with configurable modules used for varying business-specific needs. LP handles tracking, management, and reporting of sustainability, compliance, health & safety, air and greenhouse gases, waste, and water quality information. It unifies all ESG reporting and EHS compliance on the single platform.
Locus Mobile
Locus Mobile is application that offers the capability to collect and upload field data remotely. It incorporates with Locus EIM and Locus Platform.
Greenhouse Gases Verification
Locus is the only software vendor that is an approved greenhouse gas (GHG) verification body under the California Air Resources Board (CARB). Locus has been an accredited GHG verifier since 2010.
Locus is also known for its GHG calculator, which is offered at no cost to companies for determining whether they meet the threshold requirements necessary to report their emissions data to the California Air Resources Board under (AB) 32, and specifically 95101(b)(8) legislation.
Low Carbon Fuel Standard Verification
As of January 2020, Locus was announced among the first accredited third-party Low-carbon fuel standard (LCFS) verification bodies for the program administered by the California Air Resources Board.
Awards
Locus has attained 15 consecutive years of awards from Environmental Business Journal for achievement among IT companies.
Locus has also been recognized in independent market research reports such as the 2013 Green Quadrant® Sustainability Management Software, July 2013 report by Verdantix. They were highlighted as offering, "the best-in-class solution for geographic information capture." Verdantix also stated that, "The software offers full data capture and management capabilities integrated with mapping tools, displaying full environmental and sustainability data on a web-based, interactive GIS system."
References
Companies based in Mountain View, California
Technology companies of the United States |
947443 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beechcraft%20T-34%20Mentor | Beechcraft T-34 Mentor | The Beechcraft T-34 Mentor is an American propeller-driven, single-engined, military trainer aircraft derived from the Beechcraft Model 35 Bonanza. The earlier versions of the T-34, dating from around the late 1940s to the 1950s, were piston-engined. These were eventually succeeded by the upgraded T-34C Turbo-Mentor, powered by a turboprop engine. The T-34 remains in service more than seven decades after it was first designed.
Design and development
The T-34 was the brainchild of Walter Beech, who developed it as the Beechcraft Model 45 private venture at a time when there was no defense budget for a new trainer model. Beech hoped to sell it as an economical alternative to the North American T-6/SNJ Texan, then in use by all services of the U.S. military.
Three initial design concepts were developed for the Model 45, including one with the Bonanza's signature V-tail, but the final design that emerged in 1948 incorporated conventional tail control surfaces for the benefit of the more conservative military (featuring a relatively large unswept vertical fin that would find its way onto the Travel Air twin-engine civil aircraft almost ten years later). The Bonanza's fuselage with four-passenger cabin was replaced with a narrower fuselage incorporating a two-seater tandem cockpit and bubble canopy, which provided greater visibility for the trainee pilot and flight instructor. Structurally, the Model 45 was much stronger than the Bonanza, being designed for +10g and −4.5g, while the Continental E-185 engine of 185 horsepower (hp) at takeoff (less than a third of the power of the T-6's engine) was the same as that fitted to contemporary Bonanzas.
Following the prototype were three Model A45T aircraft, the first two with the same engine as the prototype and the third with a Continental E-225, which would prove to be close to the production version. Production did not begin until 1953, when Beechcraft began delivering T-34As to the United States Air Force (USAF) and similar Model B45 aircraft for export. Production of the T-34B for the United States Navy (USN) began in 1955, this version featuring a number of changes reflecting the different requirements of the two services. The T-34B had only differential braking for steering control on the ground instead of nosewheel steering, additional wing dihedral and, to cater for the different heights of pilots, adjustable rudder pedals instead of the moveable seats of the T-34A. T-34A production was completed in 1956, with T-34Bs being built until October 1957 and licensed B45 versions built in Canada (125 manufactured by Canadian Car and Foundry), Japan (173 built by Fuji Heavy Industries), and Argentina (75 by FMA) until 1958. Beechcraft delivered the last Model B45s in 1959. Total production of the Continental-engined versions in the US and abroad was 1,904 aircraft.
Model 73 Jet Mentor
In 1955 Beechcraft developed a jet-engined derivative, again as a private venture, and again in the hope of winning a contract from the US military. The Model 73 Jet Mentor shared many components with the piston-engined aircraft; major visual differences were the redesigned cockpit which was relocated further forward in the fuselage and the air intakes for the jet engine in the wing roots, supplying air to a single Continental J69 jet engine in the rear fuselage. The first flight of the Model 73, registered N134B, was on 18 December 1955. The Model 73 was evaluated by the USAF, which ordered the Cessna T-37, and the USN, which decided upon the Temco TT Pinto. After initial testing at the Naval Air Test Center at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, the Navy tested the feasibility of using the TT Pinto as a jet-powered trainer for primary flight training in 1959, but discontinued use of the aircraft by December 1960 and discarded all examples, returning to the piston-powered T-34B Mentor and North American T-28 Trojan for its primary flight training requirements. The Beechcraft Model 73 was not put into production and the sole prototype is displayed at the Kansas Aviation Museum.
T-34C Turbo-Mentor
After a production hiatus of almost 15 years, the T-34C Turbo-Mentor powered by a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-25 turboprop engine was developed in 1973. Development proceeded at the behest of the USN, which supplied two T-34Bs for conversion. After re-engining with the PT6, the two aircraft were redesignated as YT-34Cs, the first of these flying with turboprop power for the first time on 21 September 1973. Mentor production restarted in 1975 for deliveries of T-34Cs to the USN and of the T-34C-1 armed version for export customers in 1977, this version featuring four underwing hardpoints. The last Turbo-Mentor rolled off the production line in 1990.
Since the late 1970s, T-34Cs have been used by the Naval Air Training Command to train numerous Naval Aviators and Naval Flight Officers for the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Coast Guard, and numerous NATO and Allied nations. With over 35 years of service, the T-34C has been completely replaced by the T-6 Texan II.
Operational history
U.S. Air Force and Civil Air Patrol
The first flight of the Model 45 was on 2 December 1948, by Beechcraft test pilot Vern Carstens. In 1950, the USAF ordered three Model A45T test aircraft, which were given the military designation YT-34. A long competition followed to determine a new trainer, and in 1953 the Air Force put the Model 45 into service as the T-34A Mentor, while the USN followed in May 1955 with the T-34B.
After extensive testing, the USAF ordered the Mentor into production as the T-34A in early 1953. The first production T-34A was delivered to Edwards Air Force Base, California, in October 1953 for evaluation, and deliveries to the Air Training Command (ATC) began in 1954. The T-34A commenced service as USAF's initial primary flight trainer at "contract" pilot training air bases across the southern United States, replacing extant North American AT-6 Texan trainers. Following training in the T-34A, USAF pilot trainees would advance to the North American T-28A Trojan for intermediate training.
The T-34A Mentor remained the standard USAF primary trainer until the introduction of the Cessna T-37 Tweet jet trainer in the late 1950s, replacing both the T-34A and T-28A. This also coincided with ATC's implementation of the Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT) syllabus at various air force bases in the United States under ATC claimancy and phaseout and closure of the contract pilot training air bases. As they were replaced by T-37s, many T-34As were turned over to USAF aero clubs at air force bases in the United States and USAF air bases overseas. In all, the USAF acquired 450 T-34As.
As the U.S. Air Force replaced the last of their T-34As at the beginning of the 1960s, their role taken over by the propeller-driven T-41 Mescalero and the T-37 Tweet primary jet trainer in UPT, those T-34As not allocated to USAF aero clubs or marked for foreign military sales or transfers were turned over to the USAF Auxiliary, the Civil Air Patrol, for use as search aircraft. However, the T-34A's low wing limited its utility in an aerial search and rescue role, and maintenance issues, particularly expensive wing spar repairs that became apparent in the late 1990s, resulted in the last of the former USAF T-34As being withdrawn from CAP service by 2003.
U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps
The U.S. Navy kept the T-34B operational as a Naval Air Training Command initial primary trainer at the former Naval Air Station Saufley Field, Florida until the mid-1970s and as a Navy Recruiting Command aircraft until the early 1990s when the last examples were retired as an economy move. Others continue to remain under U.S. Navy control as part of flying clubs at naval air stations and marine corps air stations.
Beginning in 1975, the turbine-powered T-34C Turbomentor was introduced as the Navy's new primary flight trainer for Student Naval Aviators, and began replacing the North American T-28 Trojan with training air wings at NAS Whiting Field, Florida and NAS Corpus Christi, Texas. In the mid-1980s, it also commenced service as a basic trainer for Student Naval Flight Officers at NAS Pensacola, Florida
The T-34C is no longer used as a primary training aircraft for U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Coast Guard Student Naval Aviators and various NATO/Allied/Coalition student pilots training under U.S. Navy auspices. It has been replaced by the T-6 Texan II. Training Squadron TWENTY-EIGHT at NAS Corpus Christi's Training Air Wing FOUR recently retired the T-34C as a Naval Primary Training Aircraft according to Chief of Naval Aviation Training (CNATRA) PAO, joining Training Air Wing SIX at NAS Pensacola, Training Air Wing FIVE at NAS Whiting Field and Training Air Wing FOUR's Training Squadron TWENTY-SEVEN at NAS Corpus Christi had already transitioned to the T-6A and T-6B models.
Several other T-34Cs also remain in service with the Naval Air Test Center at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland and as aerial spotter aircraft with F/A-18 Fleet Replacement Squadrons (FRS) and Strike Fighter Weapons and Tactics Schools at NAS Oceana, Virginia; NAS Lemoore, California; and MCAS Miramar, California; and the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center (NSAWC) at NAS Fallon, Nevada.
U.S. Army
The United States Army received six ex-U.S. Navy T-34C, used as test platforms and chase planes at Edwards Air Force Base, California and Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
NASA
NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center (formerly the Dryden Flight Research Center) at Edwards, California has operated two T-34C aircraft. The first aircraft was previously flown at the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, where it was used for propulsion experiments involving turboprop engines. In 1996 this aircraft was moved Dryden as a chase aircraft. That aircraft was returned to the U.S. Navy in 2002. The second T-34C was obtained in early 2005 from the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) at NAS Patuxent River, where it was due to be retired. At Armstrong, the T-34C is primarily used for chasing remotely piloted unmanned air vehicles which fly slower than NASA's F/A-18 mission support aircraft can fly. As a NASA mission support chase plane, the back seat would be occupied by a photographer or flight test engineer during research missions. It is also used for required pilot proficiency flying.
Non-U.S. military service
As of 2007, Mentors are still used by several air forces and navies.
From 1978, the T-34C Turbo-Mentor was the Argentine Naval Aviation basic trainer used by the 1st Naval Aviation Force (Training), alongside 15 T-34C-1 light attack aircraft forming the Fourth Naval Air Attack Squadron. During the 1982 Falklands War, four T-34C-1s were deployed to Port Stanley on 25 April 1982, primarily to be employed in a reconnaissance role. The main encounter with British forces occurred on 1 May 1982 when three Turbo-Mentors attacked a Royal Navy Westland Sea King helicopter in the area of Berkeley Sound but were intercepted by Royal Navy Sea Harriers flown by Lt 'Soapy' Watson and Lt Cdr 'Sharky' Ward of 801 Naval Air Squadron flying from HMS Invincible, with one of the T-34Cs being damaged by cannon fire from Ward's aircraft. The four T-34C-1 Turbo-Mentors continued to operate, flying a few reconnaissance missions, but were redeployed to Borbon Station where they were ultimately destroyed by the SAS Raid on Pebble Island on 15 May 1982. Although all four hulks remained on the island for a considerable length of time, eventually, 0729/(1-A)411 was recovered on 10 June 1983 and stored for future display at the Fleet Air Arm Museum.
Civilian use
In 2004, due to a series of crashes involving in-flight structural failure during simulated combat flights, the entire US civilian fleet of T-34A/Bs was grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration. The grounding has since been eased to a slate of restrictions on the permitted flight envelope. Via a series of Airworthiness Directives (ADs) established by or Alternate Methods of Compliance (AMOCs) negotiated with the FAA, including installation of certain, approved structural modifications to the wing spar and other repairs, the T-34A and T-34B fleet in 2011 has been restored to full flight status by FAA at the Mentor's originally designed limitations, provided each individual example is compliant with those ADs and AMOCs.
The Mentor is the aircraft used by the Lima Lima Flight Team and Dragon Flight, both civilian demonstration teams. It was also used by aerobatic pilot Julie Clark, who flew her T-34 "Free Spirit" (registration N134JC) at air shows.
Variants
YT-34
Prototype, three built.
T-34A
US Air Force trainer. Replaced by the Cessna T-37 around 1960 (450 built).
T-34B
US Navy trainer. Used as a trainer until 1976, when VT-1 and VT-5 were decommissioned. It was replaced by the T-34C (423 built by Beechcraft). T-34Bs were flown by pilots assigned to the Navy Recruiting Command until the mid-1990s.
YT-34C
Two T-34Bs were fitted with turboprop engines, and were used as T-34C prototypes.
T-34C Turbo-Mentor
Two-seat primary trainer, fitted with a turboprop engine.
T-34C-1
Equipped with hardpoints for training or light attack, able to carry of weapons on four underwing pylons. The armament could include flares, incendiary bombs, rocket or gun pods and antitank missiles. Widely exported.
Turbo-Mentor 34C
Civilian version
Allison Turbine Mentor
Conversion of surplus T-34 Mentors to be powered by Allison Model 250 turboprop engines.
Model 73 Jet MentorPowered by a Continental J69-T-9 turbojet engine. The sole aircraft first flew on 18 December 1955.
Operators
Military operators
Argentine Air Force - Received 15 T-34B from Beechcraft, and 75 built under licence in Argentina by Fabrica Militar de Aviones (FMA).
Argentine Naval Aviation – 15 T-34C-1 in 1978.
Bolivian Air Force – Received 11 T-34A and Bs from Uruguay in 2000. RCAF Cpurses 5409 and 5411, RCAF Station, Penhold, Alberta
Royal Canadian Air Force - 25 T-34A built in Canada by Canadian Car and Foundry evaluated from 1954 to 1956 with RCAF Courses 5409 and 5411, RCAF Station Penhold, Alberta, until donated to other air forces.
Chilean Air Force
Chilean Navy
Colombian Air Force – Purchased 50 T-34s in 1954, with six more acquired in 1970 and 10 in 1977. The final T-34 was retired in December 2013.
Ecuadorian Air Force
Ecuadorian Navy
Indonesian Air Force
Japan Air Self-Defense Force
Japan Ground Self-Defense Force
Royal Moroccan Air Force
Peruvian Naval Aviation
Philippine Air Force
Royal Saudi Air Force
Turkish Air Force
United States Air Force
United States Army
United States Navy
United States Marine Corps
United States Coast Guard
Civil Air Patrol
Uruguayan Air Force
Uruguayan Navy
Civil operators
Turkish Aeronautical Association
Dragon Flight
Lima Lima Flight Team
NASA
North Carolina Forest Service
Specifications (T-34C)
See also
References
Citations
Bibliography
"Arabian Fledgling...the Royal Saudi Air Force". Air Enthusiast, June 1972, Vol. 2, No. 6. pp. 300–308.
Bridgman, Leonard. Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1956–57. New York: The McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1956.
Drendel Lou. T-34 Mentor in Action. Carrollton, Texas: Squadron/Signal Publications, 1990. .
"Fuerza Aérea Boliviana". International Air Power Review. Volume 1, Summer 2001. pp. 28–31. .
Harding, Stephen. U.S. Army Aircraft Since 1947. Shrewsbury, UK: Airlife Publishing, 1990. .
Morgan, David. Hostile Skies: My Falklands Air War. London: Phoenix Publishing, 2006. .
Taylor, John W.R. Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1988–89. Coulsdon, UK: Jane's Defence Data, 1988. .
Wheeler, Barry C. "World's Air Forces 1980". Flight International, Vol. 118, No. 3726. 4 October 1980. pp. 1323–1378. .
External links
Hawker Beechcraft T-34 page
T-34 history page on Navy.mil
US Navy Fact File: T-34C Turbo-Mentor on Navy.mil
T-34 Association
Manual: (1958) T.O. 1T-34A-1 Flight Handbook T-34A USAF Series
T-34 Turkey-T-34's Protect and Preserve the Association -Hur Kus Aviation Club
T-34
1940s United States military trainer aircraft
Single-engined tractor aircraft
Low-wing aircraft
Aircraft first flown in 1948
Single-engined turboprop aircraft |
62806619 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon%20Norton%20Ray | Gordon Norton Ray | Gordon Norton Ray (8 September 1915, New York City – 15 December 1986, Manhattan) was an American author, professor of English, and collector of English and French illustrated books and autographed letters from the Victorian era.
Ray graduated from Indiana University with A.B. and A.M. in 1936 and from Harvard University with A.M. in 1938 and Ph.D. in 1940. His doctoral thesis on Thackeray has the title Thackeray in France. Ray was an instructor in English at Harvard University from 1940 to 1942 and then in 1942 enlisted in the U.S. Navy as an apprentice seaman. He saw combat on aircraft carriers in the Pacific and was promoted to lieutenant with seven battle stars.
Ray wrote of his WW II service:
At the University of Illinois, he was a professor of English from 1946 to 1957, also serving as head of the English department, and vice president and provost from 1957 to 1960. He was a Guggenheim Fellow for the academic years 1941–1942, 1942–1943, 1945–1946, and 1956–1957. He was from 1960 to 1963 the associate secretary general and from 1963 to 1985 the president of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
Ray was a professor of English at New York University from 1962 to 1980, when he retired as professor emeritus.
In 1945 and 1946 Harvard University Press published his 4-volume work The Letters and Private Papers of William Makepeace Thackeray. Thackeray's heirs released to Ray additional materials (previously unavailable), enabling him to publish two more biographies, Thackeray: The Uses of Adversity, 1811-1846 (1955) and Thackeray: The Age of Wisdom, 1847-1863 (1957).
At Manhattan's Pierpont Morgan Library, Ray's private collections were the main source for two exhibitions: The Illustrator and the Book in England, 1790-1914 (exhibited in 1976) and The Art of the French Illustrated Book, 1700 to 1914 (exhibited in 1982). At the Low Memorial Library on the Columbia campus, his collections formed one of the main sources of a Benjamin Disraeli exhibition in 1981.
Upon his death, there were no immediate survivors.
References
External links
1915 births
1986 deaths
American biographers
American male non-fiction writers
Writers from New York City
Indiana University alumni
Harvard University alumni
United States Navy personnel of World War II
University of Illinois faculty
New York University faculty
20th-century American male writers |
54537202 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center%20for%20Internet%20Security | Center for Internet Security | The Center for Internet Security (CIS) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, formed in October, 2000. Its mission is to make the connected world a safer place by developing, validating, and promoting timely best practice solutions that help people, businesses, and governments protect themselves against pervasive cyber threats. The organization is headquartered in East Greenbush, New York, with members including large corporations, government agencies, and academic institutions.
CIS employs a closed crowdsourcing model to identify and refine effective security measures, with individuals developing recommendations that are shared with the community for evaluation through a consensus decision-making process. At the national and international level, CIS plays an important role in forming security policies and decisions by maintaining the CIS Controls and CIS Benchmarks, and hosting the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) and the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EI-ISAC).
Program areas
CIS has several program areas, including MS-ISAC, CIS Controls, CIS Benchmarks, CIS Communities, and CIS CyberMarket. Through these program areas, CIS works with a wide range of entities, including those in academia, the government, and both the private sector and general public to increase their online security by providing them with products and services that improve security efficiency and effectiveness.
Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC)
The Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) is a "round-the-clock cyber threat monitoring and mitigation center for state and local governments" operated by CIS under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). The MS-ISAC was established in late 2002, and officially launched in January 2003, by William F. Pelgrin, then Chief Security Officer of the state of New York. Beginning from a small group of participating states in the Northeast, MS-ISAC came to include all 50 U.S. States and the District of Columbia, as well as U.S. State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial (SLTT) governments. In order to facilitate its expanding scope, in late 2010, MS-ISAC "transitioned into a not-for-profit status under the auspices of the Center for Internet Security." The transition was facilitated by CIS having "an established reputation for providing cybersecurity resources to the public and private sectors".
MS-ISAC "helps government agencies combat cyberthreats and works closely with federal law enforcement", and is designated by DHS as a key cyber security resource for the nation's SLTT governments.
The main objectives of MS-ISAC are described as follows:
provide two-way sharing of information and early warnings on cyber security threats
provide a process for gathering and disseminating information on cyber security incidents
promote awareness of the interdependencies between cyber and physical critical infrastructure as well as between and among the different sectors
coordinate training and awareness
ensure that all necessary parties are vested partners in this effort
The MS-ISAC offers a variety of federally funded, no-cost, cybersecurity products and services to its members through the DHS CISA cooperative agreement. It also offers fee-based products and services for SLTT members who want additional protection in addition to what is offered under the cooperative agreement. In 2021, the MS-ISAC announced it was undergoing a digital transformation, making major infrastructure upgrades including the implementation of a new cloud-based threat intelligence platform, security information and event management (SIEM) capability, security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) tool, and data lake capabilities for threat hunting.
Some of the offerings for SLTTs include:
A Domain Name Service (DNS) security capability provided to all SLTTs at no cost known as Malicious Domain Blocking and Reporting (MDBR). The MS-ISAC partnered with Akamai to protect organizations against a variety of cyberattacks such as phishing and ransomware
Albert - the MS-ISAC custom built Intrusion Detection System (IDS)
Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI), including bi-direction indicator feeds via STIX/TAXII. The MS-ISAC has feeds from over 200 sources, including real-time attacks against SLTTs.
A 24x7x365 Security Operations Center (SOC) that performs network and endpoint monitoring
Vulnerability management and scanning
Incident response and digital forensics
Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EI-ISAC)
The Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EI-ISAC), as established by the Election Infrastructure Subsector Government Coordinating Council (GCC), is a critical resource for cyber threat prevention, protection, response and recovery for the nation's state, local, territorial, and tribal (SLTT) election offices. The EI-ISAC is operated by the Center for Internet Security, Inc. under the same cooperative agreement with DHS CISA as the MS-ISAC. By nature of election offices being SLTT organizations, each EI-ISAC member is automatically an MS-ISAC member and can take full advantage of the products and services provided to both ISACs.
The mission of the EI-ISAC is to improve the overall cybersecurity posture of SLTT election offices, through collaboration and information sharing among members, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other federal partners, and private sector partners are the keys to success. The EI-ISAC provides a central resource for gathering information on cyber threats to election infrastructure and two-way sharing of information between and among public and private sectors in order to identify, protect, detect, respond and recover from attacks on public and private election infrastructure. And the EI-ISAC comprises representatives from SLTT election offices and contractors supporting SLTT election infrastructure.
CIS Controls and CIS Benchmarks
Formerly known as the SANS Critical Security Controls (SANS Top 20) and the CIS Critical Security Controls, the CIS Controls as they are called today is a set of 18 prioritized safeguards to mitigate the most prevalent cyber-attacks against today's modern systems and networks. The CIS Controls are grouped into Implementation Groups (IGs), which allow organizations to use a risk assessment in order to determine the appropriate level of IG (one through three) that should be implemented for their organization. The CIS Controls can be downloaded from CIS, as can various mappings to other frameworks such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework (CSF), NIST Special Publication (SP) 800-53, and many others. CIS also offers a free hosted software product called the CIS Controls Assessment Tool (CIS-CAT) that allows organizations to track and prioritize the implementation of the CIS Controls.
The CIS Controls advocate "a defense-in-depth model to help prevent and detect malware". A May 2017 study showed that "on average, organizations fail 55% of compliance checks established by the Center for Internet Security", with more than half of these violations being high severity issues. In March 2015, CIS launched CIS Hardened Images for Amazon Web Services, in response to "a growing concern surrounding the data safety of information housed on virtual servers in the cloud". The resources were made available as Amazon Machine Images, for six "CIS benchmarks-hardened systems", including Microsoft Windows, Linux and Ubuntu, with additional images and cloud providers added later. CIS released Companion Guides to CIS Controls, recommendations for actions to counter cybersecurity attacks, with new guides having been released in October and December 2015. In April 2018, CIS launched an information security risk assessment method for to implement CIS Controls, called CIS RAM which is based upon the risk assessment standard by the DoCRA Council. The latest version of CIS RAM v2.0 was released October 2021
CIS Benchmarks are a collaboration of the Consensus Community and CIS SecureSuite members (a class of CIS members with access to additional sets of tools and resources). The Consensus Community is made up of experts in the field of IT security who use their knowledge and experience to help the global Internet community. CIS SecureSuite members are made up of several different types of companies ranging in size, including government agencies, colleges and universities, nonprofits, IT auditors and consultants, security software vendors and other organizations. CIS Benchmarks and other tools that CIS provides at no cost allow IT workers to create reports that compares their system security to universal consensus standard. This fosters a new structure for internet security that everyone is accountable for that is shared by top executives, technology professionals and other internet users throughout the globe. Further, CIS provides internet security tools with a scoring feature that rates the configuration security of the system at hand. For example, CIS provides SecureSuite members with access to CIS-CAT Pro, a "cross-platform Java app" which scans target systems and "produces a report comparing your settings to the published benchmarks". This is intended to encourage and motivate users to improve the scores given by the software, which bolsters the security of their internet and systems. The universal consensus standard that CIS employs draws upon and uses the accumulated knowledge of skillful technology professionals. Since internet security professionals volunteer in contributing to this consensus, this reduces costs for CIS and makes it cost effective.
CIS CyberMarket
CIS CyberMarket is a "collaborative purchasing program that serves U.S. State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial (SLTT) government organizations, nonprofit entities, and public health and education institutions to improve cybersecurity through cost-effective group procurement". The intent of the CIS CyberMarket is to combine the purchasing power of governmental and nonprofit sectors to help participants improve their cybersecurity condition at a lower cost than they would have been able to attain on their own. The program assists with the "time intensive, costly, complex, and daunting" task of maintaining cybersecurity by working with the public and private sectors to bring their partners cost-effective tools and services. The combined purchasing opportunities are reviewed by domain experts.
There are three main objectives of the CIS CyberMarket:
contribute a trusted environment to improve the condition of the cybersecurity of the previously mentioned entities
lower the cost of cybersecurity needs
work with companies to bring services and security products to their partners
CIS CyberMarket, like the MS-ISAC, serves government entities and non-profits in achieving greater cyber security. On its "resources" page, multiple newsletters and documents are available free of charge, including the "Cybersecurity Handbook for Cities and Counties".
CIS Communities
CIS Communities are "a volunteer, global community of IT professionals" who "continuously refine and verify" CIS best practices and cybersecurity tools. To develop and structure its benchmarks, CIS uses a strategy in which members of the organization first form into teams. These teams then each collect suggestions, advice, official work and recommendations from a few participating organizations. Then, the teams analyze their data and information to determine what the most vital configuration settings are that would improve internet system security the most in as many work settings as possible. Each member of a team constantly works with their teammates and critically analyzes and critiques a rough draft until a consensus forms among the team. Before the benchmark is released to the general public, they are available for download and testing among the community. After reviewing all of the feedback from testing and making any necessary adjustments or changes, the final benchmark and other relevant security tools are made available to the public for download through the CIS website. This process is so extensive and is so carefully executed that thousands of security professionals across the globe participate in it. According to ISACA, "during the development of the CIS Benchmark for Sun Microsystems Solaris, more than 2,500 users downloaded the benchmark and monitoring tools."
Participating organizations
The organizations that participated in the founding of CIS in October, 2000 include ISACA, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium (ISC2) and the SANS Institute (System Administration, Networking and Security). CIS has since grown to have hundreds of members with varying degrees of membership, and cooperates and works with a variety of organizations and members at both the national and international levels. Some of these organizations include those in both the public and private sectors, government, ISACs and law enforcement.
References
External links
Computer security organizations
Charities based in New York (state)
Companies based in Albany County, New York
2000 establishments in New York (state) |
353555 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uuencoding | Uuencoding | uuencoding is a form of binary-to-text encoding that originated in the Unix programs uuencode and uudecode written by Mary Ann Horton at UC Berkeley in 1980, for encoding binary data for transmission in email systems.
The name "uuencoding" is derived from "Unix-to-Unix encoding", i.e. the idea of using a safe encoding to transfer Unix files from one Unix system to another Unix system but without guarantee that the intervening links would all be Unix systems. Since an email message might be forwarded through or to computers with different character sets or through transports which are not 8-bit clean, or handled by programs that are not 8-bit clean, forwarding a binary file via email might cause it to be corrupted. By encoding such data into a character subset common to most character sets, the encoded form of such data files was unlikely to be "translated" or corrupted, and would thus arrive intact and unchanged at the destination. The program uudecode reverses the effect of uuencode, recreating the original binary file exactly. uuencode/decode became popular for sending binary (and especially compressed) files by email and posting to Usenet newsgroups, etc.
It has now been largely replaced by MIME and yEnc. With MIME, files that might have been uuencoded are instead transferred with base64 encoding.
Encoded format
A uuencoded file starts with a header line of the form:
begin <mode> <file><newline>
<mode> is the file's Unix file permissions as three octal digits (e.g. 644, 744). This is typically only significant to unix-like operating systems.
<file> is the file name to be used when recreating the binary data.
<newline> signifies a newline character, used to terminate each line.
Each data line uses the format:
<length character><formatted characters><newline>
<length character> is a character indicating the number of data bytes which have been encoded on that line. This is an ASCII character determined by adding 32 to the actual byte count, with the sole exception of a grave accent "`" (ASCII code 96) signifying zero bytes. All data lines except the last (if the data length was not divisible by 45), have 45 bytes of encoded data (60 characters after encoding). Therefore, the vast majority of length values is 'M', (32 + 45 = ASCII code 77 or "M").
<formatted characters> are encoded characters. See Formatting Mechanism for more details on the actual implementation.
The file ends with two lines:
`<newline>
end<newline>
The second to last line is also a character indicating the line length with the grave accent signifying zero bytes.
As a complete file, the uuencoded output for a plain text file named cat.txt containing only the characters Cat would be
begin 644 cat.txt
#0V%T
`
end
The begin line is a standard uuencode header; the '#' indicates that its line encodes three characters; the last two lines appear at the end of all uuencoded files.
Formatting mechanism
The mechanism of uuencoding repeats the following for every 3 bytes, encoding them into 4 printable characters, each character representing a radix-64 numerical digit:
Start with 3 bytes from the source, 24 bits in total.
Split into 4 6-bit groupings, each representing a value in the range 0 to 63: bits (00-05), (06-11), (12-17) and (18-23).
Add 32 to each of the values. With the addition of 32 this means that the possible results can be between 32 (" " space) and 95 ("_" underline). 96 ("`" grave accent) as the "special character" is a logical extension of this range. Despite space character being documented as the encoding for value of 0, implementations, such as GNU sharutils, actually use the grave accent character to encode zeros in the body of the file as well, never using space.
Output the ASCII equivalent of these numbers.
If the source length is not divisible by 3, then the last 4-byte section will contain padding bytes to make it cleanly divisible. These bytes are subtracted from the line's <length character> so that the decoder does not append unwanted characters to the file.
uudecoding is reverse of the above, subtract 32 from each character's ASCII code (modulo 64 to account for the grave accent usage) to get a 6-bit value, concatenate 4 6-bit groups to get 24 bits, then output 3 bytes.
The encoding process is demonstrated by this table, which shows the derivation of the above encoding for "Cat".
uuencode table
The following table shows the conversion of the decimal value of the 6-bit fields obtained during the conversion process and their corresponding ASCII character output code and character.
Note that some encoders might produce space (code 32) instead of grave accent ("`", code 96), while some decoders might refuse to decode data containing space.
Example
The following is an example of uuencoding a one-line text file. In this example, %0D is the byte representation for carriage return (CR), and %0A is the byte representation for line feed (LF).
file
File Name = wikipedia-url.txt
File Contents = http://www.wikipedia.org%0D%0A
uuencoding
begin 644 wikipedia-url.txt
::'1T<#HO+W=W=RYW:6MI<&5D:6$N;W)G#0H`
`
end
Forks (file, resource)
Unix traditionally has a single fork where file data is stored. However, some file systems support multiple forks associated with a single file. For example, classic Mac OS HFS supported a data fork and a resource fork. Mac OS HFS+ supports multiple forks, as does Microsoft Windows NTFS alternate data streams. Most uucoding tools will only handle data from the primary data fork, which can result in a loss of information when encoding/decoding (for example, Windows NTFS file comments are kept in a different fork). Some tools (like the classic Mac OS application UUTool) solved the problem by concatenating the different forks into one file and differentiating them by file name.
Relation to xxencode, Base64, and Ascii85
Despite its limited range of characters, uuencoded data is sometimes corrupted on passage through certain computers using non-ASCII character sets such as EBCDIC. One attempt to solve the problem was the xxencode format, which used only alphanumeric characters and the plus and minus symbols. More common today is the Base64 format, which is based on the same concept of alphanumeric-only as opposed to ASCII 32–95. All three formats use 6 bits (64 different characters) to represent their input data.
Base64 can also be generated by the uuencode program and is similar in format, with the exception of the actual character translation:
The header is changed to
begin-base64 <mode> <file>
the trailer becomes
and lines between are encoded with characters chosen from
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP
QRSTUVWXYZabcdef
ghijklmnopqrstuv
wxyz0123456789+/
Another alternative is Ascii85, which encodes four binary characters in five ASCII characters. Ascii85 is used in PostScript and PDF formats.
Disadvantages
uuencoding takes 3 pre-formatted bytes and turns them into 4 and also adds begin/end tags, filename, and delimiters. This adds at least 33% data overhead compared to the source alone, though this can be at least somewhat compensated for by compressing the file before uuencoding it.
Support in languages
Python
The Python language supports uuencoding using the codecs module with the codec "uu":
For Python 2 (deprecated/sunset as of January 1st 2020):
$ python -c 'print "Cat".encode("uu")'
begin 666 <data>
#0V%T
end
$
For Python 3 where the codecs module needs to be imported and used directly:
$ python3 -c "from codecs import encode;print(encode(b'Cat', 'uu'))"
b'begin 666 <data>\n#0V%T\n \nend\n'
$
Perl
The Perl language supports uuencoding natively using the pack() and unpack() operators with the format string "u":
$ perl -e 'print pack("u","Cat")'
#0V%T
Decoding base64 with unpack can likewise be accomplished by translating the characters:
$ perl -e '$a="Q2F0"; $a=~tr#A-Za-z0-9+/\.\_##cd; # remove non-base64 chars
> $a=~tr#A-Za-z0-9+/# -_#; # translate sets
> print unpack("u",pack("C",32+int(length($1)*6 / 8)) . $1) while($a=~s/(.{60}|.+)//);'
Cat
See also
Binary-to-text encoding for a comparison of various encoding algorithms
References
External links
uuencode entry in POSIX.1-2008, http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/uuencode.html
GNU-sharutils - open source suite of shar/unshar/uuencode/uudecode utilities
UUDeview - open-source program to encode/decode Base64, BinHex, uuencode, xxencode, etc. for Unix/Windows/DOS
UUENCODE-UUDECODE - open-source program to encode/decode created by Clem "Grandad" Dye
StUU - Open Source fast UUDecoder for Macintosh by Stuart Cheshire
UUENCODE-UUDECODE - Free on-line UUEncoder and UUDecoder
Java UUDecoder - Open Source Java library for decoding uuencoded (mail) attachments
AN11229 - NXP application note: UUencoding for UART ISP
Email
Usenet
Binary-to-text encoding formats
Unix SUS2008 utilities |
1632375 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Policy-based%20routing | Policy-based routing | In computer networking, policy-based routing (PBR) is a technique used to make routing decisions based on policies set by the network administrator.
When a router receives a packet it normally decides where to forward it based on the destination address in the packet, which is then used to look up an entry in a routing table. However, in some cases, there may be a need to forward the packet based on other criteria. For example, a network administrator might want to forward a packet based on the source address, not the destination address. This permits routing of packets originating from different sources to different networks even when the destinations are the same and can be useful when interconnecting several private networks.
Policy-based routing may also be based on the size of the packet, the protocol of the payload, or other information available in a packet header or payload.
In the Cisco IOS, PBR is implemented using route maps. Linux supports multiple routing tables since version 2.2. FreeBSD supports PBR using either IPFW, IPFilter or OpenBSD's PF.
Examples
PBR can be used to redirect traffic to a proxy server by using a PBR-aware L3-switch (router). In such deployment, specific source traffic (e.g. HTTP, FTP) can be redirected to a cache engine. This is known as virtual inline deployment.
Notes
References
External links
Policy routing Cisco Press article
Policy based routing with Linux (ONLINE edition)
Network overview by Rami Rosen
Routing |
30618026 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1920%20USC%20Trojans%20football%20team | 1920 USC Trojans football team | The 1920 USC Trojans football team represented the University of Southern California (USC) in the 1920 college football season. In their second year under head coach Gus Henderson, the Trojans compiled a 6–0 record and outscored their opponents by a combined total of 170 to 21.
Schedule
References
USC Trojans
USC Trojans football seasons
College football undefeated seasons
USC Trojans football |
9812995 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep%20%28system%20call%29 | Sleep (system call) | A computer program (process, task, or thread) may sleep, which places it into an inactive state for a period of time. Eventually the expiration of an interval timer, or the receipt of a signal or interrupt causes the program to resume execution.
Usage
A typical sleep system call takes a time value as a parameter, specifying the minimum amount of time that the process is to sleep before resuming execution. The parameter typically specifies seconds, although some operating systems provide finer resolution, such as milliseconds or microseconds.
Windows
On Windows, the Sleep() function takes a single parameter of the number of milliseconds to sleep. The Sleep() function is included in kernel32.dll.
The function has a resolution no higher than the current timer resolution, typically 16ms but at minimum 1ms, adjustable via the family of "media timer" APIs. For higher precisions, it is necessary to use a busy loop over , such as the one used in gnulib.
Unix
On Unix-like and other POSIX operating systems, the sleep() function is called providing a single parameter of type unsigned integer of the number of seconds to sleep. A higher-precision version is the function and the now deprecated . POSIX also allows for choosing clock sources via the extended version .
A version of was proposed to be part of the C programming language, but was rejected. The UTC time part of the same proposal was added to C11.
C examples
In Windows API:
Sleep(2 * 1000); // Sleep for 2 seconds
In Unix or POSIX system calls:
sleep(2); // Sleep for 2 seconds
Low level functionality
Sleep causes the thread or process to give up the remainder of its time slice and stay in the Not Runnable state for the specified duration. While there is generally a guarantee for the minimum time period, there is no strict guarantee that the thread will run immediately or soon, or even at all, once the specified time has passed. It is up to the scheduler's discretion, and dependent on thread priorities and implementation details such as timer resolutions when the sleeping thread will run again.
On POSIX systems, the nanosleep and related syscalls are interruptible by signals, returning the remaining sleep time. The sleep library function, on the other hand, is implemented via the alarm syscall on many older systems, thus it only works by delivering a signal. The Windows Sleep function is non-interruptible due to absence of signals (other than the thread or its process being terminated), although the related SleepEx function can be used to put the thread into an alertable state, allowing APC calls being made while the thread is sleeping. Also, a thread can technically be "interrupted" in case e.g. the process terminates due to an exception in a different thread.
Uses
Some system programs that never terminate execute an event loop, going to sleep at the start of each cycle and waiting for some event to awaken them. Once an event is received, the program services the event, then returns to the beginning of the next wait cycle.
Other programs periodically poll for events by going to sleep and resuming execution after a specific interval of time. Once execution is resumed, the program polls for events or status changes, and then services any that occurred while it was asleep. After servicing the events, the program then goes to sleep again for the next time interval. Certain kinds of heartbeat events or keep-alive signals can be generated by these kinds of programs.
The sleep() function call can be repeatedly called for short periods of time to slow the execution of a running program or code. Throttling code in this manner provides a coarse mechanism for mitigating the effects of overheating hardware or easing timing issues for legacy programs. The downside to cycling sleep and running states rather than leveraging cycle emulation (via an emulator) to control the execution speed of software is that interactive software will acquire a notable stutter if too little time is spent awake, too much time is spent sleeping, or a combination of both.
Uninterruptible sleep
An uninterruptible sleep state is a sleep state that won't handle a signal right away. It will wake only as a result of a waited-upon resource becoming available or after a time-out occurs during that wait (if specified when put to sleep). It is mostly used by device drivers waiting for disk or network IO (input/output).
When the process is sleeping uninterruptibly, signals accumulated during the sleep will be noticed when the process returns from the system call or trap.
In Unix-like systems the command 'ps -l' uses code "D" for the uninterruptible sleep state of a process. Such processes cannot be killed even with SIGKILL and the only non-sophisticated way to get rid of them is to reboot the system.
See also
Signal
System time
sleep (command)
Sleep mode
wait (system call)
References
Process (computing)
Threads (computing) |
37045562 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farzad%20Mostashari | Farzad Mostashari | Farzad Mostashari, MD, ScM, is the former national coordinator for health information technology at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Currently Mostashari is CEO of Aledade, a company he founded in 2014. Aledade provides services to independent primary care providers forming accountable care organizations.
Life
He was born in Richmond, Virginia, and raised in Iran, Mostashari moved to upstate New York at age 14.
Mostashari holds degrees from Yale University School of Medicine (MD, Medicine, 1996), Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (MSc, Population Health, 1991), and Harvard University (AB, Biochemistry, 1989).
Career
Mostashari completed his residency in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. He subsequently joined the Centers for Disease Control's Epidemiological Intelligence Service, where he investigated outbreaks of infectious disease. He then joined the New York City Department of Health, where he launched the primary care information project under Thomas Frieden. The project focused on accelerating the adoption of electronic health record systems as a means of improving primary care quality in New York City. Following the passage of the HITECH act, David Blumenthal recruited Mostashari to serve as deputy national coordinator for health information technology in July 2009 and eventually succeeded him as national coordinator on 8 April 2011. Mostashari is credited with leading the design and implementation of stage I meaningful use. In August 2013, he announced his resignation, and following his departure, became a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution's Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform. He used his time at Brookings to develop the ideas that he used to found Aledade.
See also
Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology
References
External links
Farzad Mostashari on Twitter
1960s births
20th-century American physicians
21st-century American physicians
American health care chief executives
American people of Iranian descent
American public health doctors
Harvard School of Public Health alumni
Health informaticians
Living people
Obama administration personnel
Physicians from New York (state)
United States Department of Health and Human Services officials
Yale School of Medicine alumni
Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology |
42608673 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew%20Fuller%20%28author%29 | Matthew Fuller (author) | Matthew Fuller is an author and Professor of Cultural Studies at the Department of Media and Communications, Goldsmiths, University of London. He is known for his writings in media theory, software studies, critical theory and cultural studies, and contemporary fiction.
Work
His book Media Ecologies examines the interactions of complex media systems in current art practices. Drawing on the theories of Marshall McLuhan, Félix Guattari, and William Burroughs, Fuller explores unorthodox and non-traditional uses of media. The book analyzes interventionist art projects by BIT (Bureau of Inverse Technology), Irational.org, pirate radio projects, surveillance video projects, and the work of conceptual artist John Hilliard. According to WorldCat, this book is in 890 libraries In Evil Media, Fuller and co-author Andrew Goffey examine media power in the form of information systems, addressing, as the book states, "the gray zones in which media exist as corporate work systems, algorithms and data structures, twenty-first century self-improvement manuals, and pharmaceutical techniques."
Fuller is also a media artist. He has collaborated with a number of art collectives, including I/O/D, Mongrel, MediaShed, and The Container Project. Along with Lev Manovich and Noah Wardrip-Fruin, Fuller co-founded the MIT Press book series Software Studies.
See also
Marshall McLuhan
Gilles Deleuze
Félix Guattari
Friedrich Kittler
media ecology
Internet art
software art
software studies
Bibliography
Flyposter Frenzy: Posters from the AntiCopyright Network (Working Press, 1992)
Unnatural: Techno-Theory for a Contaminated Culture (Underground, 1994)
ATM (Shade Editions, 2000)
Behind the Blip: Essays on the Culture of Software (Autonomedia, 2003)
Media Ecologies: Materialist Energies in Art and Technoculture (MIT Press, 2007)
Urban Visioning System 1.0 (Architectural League of New York, 2008)
Software Studies: A Lexicon (MIT Press, 2008) According to WorldCat, this book is in 1000 libraries
Real Projects for Real People, with Anne Nigten, Kristina Andersen, Sam Nemeth (NAI Publishers, 2010)
Elephant and Castle: A Novel (Autonomedia, 2011)
Evil Media, co-authored with Andrew Goffey (MIT Press, 2012)
How to Sleep: The Art, Biology and Culture of Unconsciousness (Bloomsbury, 'Lines' Series, 2018)
References
External links
Matthew Fuller site
Official web page at Goldsmiths, University of London
Mongrel
MediaShed
The Container Project
I/O/D Speculative Software Group
Living people
Academics of Goldsmiths, University of London
Year of birth missing (living people) |
65308 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocalyptic%20and%20post-apocalyptic%20fiction | Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction | Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction is a subgenre of science fiction, science fantasy, dystopia or horror in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; astronomical, such as an impact event; destructive, such as nuclear holocaust or resource depletion; medical, such as a pandemic, whether natural or human-caused; end time, such as the Last Judgment, Second Coming or Ragnarök; or more imaginative, such as a zombie apocalypse, cybernetic revolt, technological singularity, dysgenics or alien invasion.
The story may involve attempts to prevent an apocalypse event, deal with the impact and consequences of the event itself, or it may be post-apocalyptic, set after the event. The time may be directly after the catastrophe, focusing on the psychology of survivors, the way to keep the human race alive and together as one, or considerably later, often including that the existence of pre-catastrophe civilization has been mythologized. Post-apocalyptic stories often take place in a non-technological future world or a world where only scattered elements of society and technology remain.
Various ancient societies, including the Babylonian and Judaic, produced apocalyptic literature and mythology which dealt with the end of the world and of human society, such as the Epic of Gilgamesh, written c. 2000–1500 BC. Recognizable modern apocalyptic novels had existed since at least the first third of the 19th century, when Mary Shelley's The Last Man (1826) was published. However, this form of literature gained widespread popularity after World War II, when the possibility of global annihilation by nuclear weapons entered the public consciousness.
Themes
The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; natural, such as an impact event; man-made, such as nuclear holocaust; medical, such as a plague or virus, whether natural or man-made; or imaginative, such as zombie apocalypse or alien invasion. The story may involve attempts to prevent an apocalypse event, deal with the impact and consequences of the event itself, or may be post-apocalyptic, and be set after the event. The time frame may be immediately after the catastrophe, focusing on the travails or psychology of survivors, the way to maintain the human race alive and together as one, or considerably later, often including the theme that the existence of pre-catastrophe civilization has been forgotten (or mythologized). Post-apocalyptic stories often take place in a non-technological future world, or a world where only scattered elements of society and technology remain.
Other themes may be cybernetic revolt, divine judgment, dysgenics, ecological collapse, pandemic, resource depletion, supernatural phenomena, technological singularity, or some other general disaster.
The relics of a technological past "protruding into a more primitive... landscape", a theme known as the "ruined Earth", have been described as "among the most potent of sf's icons".
Ancient predecessors
The scriptural story of Noah and his ark describes the end of the corrupted original civilization and its replacement with a remade world. Noah is assigned the task to build the ark and save the lifeforms so as to reestablish a new post-flood world.
The Biblical story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah also has post-apocalyptic elements. The daughters of Lot, who mistakenly believe that the destruction had engulfed the whole world and that they and their father were the only surviving human beings, conclude that in such a situation it would be justified - and indeed vitally needed - to have sex with their father in order to ensure the survival of humanity. Such situations and dilemmas occur in modern post-apocalyptic fiction.
Numerous other societies, including the Babylonians, had produced apocalyptic literature and mythology which dealt with the end of the world and of human society, many of which also included stories that refer back to the Biblical Noah or describe a similar flood. The Epic of Gilgamesh, written ca. 2000–1500 BC, details a myth where the angry gods send floods to punish humanity, but the ancient hero Utnapishtim and his family are saved through the intervention of the god Ea.
A similar story to the Genesis flood narrative is found in the 71st Chapter of the Quran. However, unlike the Biblical story, the Quranic account explicitly claims that the deluge was only sent to the tribe of the Prophet Nūḥ (نُوح) ("Noah" in Arabic), and therefore, the deluge did not engulf the entire world. While the Islamic narrative of Noah is not a true post-apocalyptic tale (as only Noah's tribe was affected and not the entire human race), it can nevertheless be read with post-apocalyptic themes since Noah builds the ark and escapes the destruction of his tribe along with a handful of the believers and the animals of his tribe.
Even in the Hindu Dharmasastra, the apocalyptic deluge plays a prominent part. According to the Matsya Purana, the Matsya avatar of Lord Vishnu, informed the King Manu of an all-destructive deluge which would be coming very soon. The King was advised to build a huge boat (ark) which housed his family, nine types of seeds, pairs of all animals and the Saptarishis to repopulate Earth, after the deluge would end and the oceans and seas would recede. At the time of the deluge, Vishnu appeared as a horned fish and Shesha appeared as a rope, with which Vaivasvata Manu fastened the boat to the horn of the fish. Variants of this story also appear in Buddhist and Jain scriptures.
The 1st centuries AD saw the recording of the Book of Revelation (from which the word apocalypse originated, meaning "revelation of secrets"), which is filled with prophecies of destruction, as well as luminous visions. In the first chapter of Revelation, the writer St. John the Divine explains his divine errand: "Write the things which thou hast seen, the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter" (Rev. 1:19). He takes it as his mission to convey—to reveal—to God's kingdom His promise that justice will prevail and that the suffering will be vindicated (Leigh). The apocalyptist provides a beatific vision of Judgement Day, revealing God's promise for redemption from suffering and strife. Revelation describes a new Heaven and a new Earth, and its intended Christian audience is often enchanted and inspired, rather than terrified by visions of Judgment Day. These Christians believed themselves chosen for God's salvation, and so such apocalyptic sensibilities inspired optimism and nostalgia for the end times.
In society
Such works often feature the loss of a global perspective as protagonists are on their own, often with little or no knowledge of the outside world. Furthermore, they often explore a world without modern technology whose rapid progress may overwhelm people as human brains are not adapted to contemporary society, but evolved to deal with issues that have become largely irrelevant, such as immediate physical threats. Such works depict worlds of less complexity, direct contact, and primitive needs, threats and behavior. According to Professor Barry Brummett, it is often the concept of change as much as the concept of destruction that causes public interest in apocalyptic themes.
Such fiction is studied by social sciences and may provide insights into a culture's fearsas well as things like the role imagined for public administration.
Since the late 20th century, a surge of popular post-apocalyptic films can be observed.
Christopher Schmidt notes that, while the world "goes to waste" for future generations, we distract ourselves from disaster by passively watching it as entertainment. Some have commented on this trend, saying that "it is easier to imagine the end of the world than it is to imagine the end of capitalism".
Pre-1900 works
Lord Byron's 1816 poem "Darkness", included in The Prisoner of Chillon collection, on the apocalyptic end of the world and one man's survival, was one of the earliest English-language works in this genre. The sun was blotted out, leading to darkness and cold which kills off mankind through famine and ice-age conditions. The poem was influential in the emergence of "the last man" theme which appeared in the works of several poets, such as "The Last Man" by Thomas Campbell (1824) and "The Last Man" (1826) by Thomas Hood, as well as "The Last Man" by Thomas Lovell Beddoes. The year 1816 was known as the Year Without a Summer because Mount Tambora had erupted in the Dutch East Indies in 1815 that emitted sulphur into the atmosphere which lowered the temperature and altered weather patterns throughout the world. This was the source for Byron's poem.
Mary Shelley's novel, The Last Man (1826), is a continuation of the apocalyptic theme in fiction. The story follows a group of people as they struggle to survive in a plague-infected world. The story centers on a male protagonist as he struggles to keep his family safe but is inevitably left as the last man alive. However, Shelley's novel is predated by Jean-Baptiste Cousin de Grainville's French epic prose poem Le Dernier Homme (English: The Last Man (1805)) and this work is also sometimes considered the first modern work to depict the end of the world. Published after his death in 1805, de Grainville's work follows the character of Omegarus, the titular "last man," in what is essentially a retelling of the Book of Revelation, combined with themes of the story of Adam and Eve. Unlike most apocalyptic tales, de Grainville's novel approaches the end of the world not as a cautionary tale, or a tale of survival, but as both an inevitable, as well as necessary, step for the spiritual resurrection of mankind.
Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion" (1839) follows the conversation between two souls in the afterlife as they discuss the destruction of the world. The destruction was brought about by a comet that removed nitrogen from Earth's atmosphere; this left only oxygen and resulted in a worldwide inferno. Similarly, Giacomo Leopardi's short dialogue "Dialogue between a Goblin and a Gnome" (1824) features a world without the presence of the human beings, most likely because they "violate[d] the laws of nature, and [went] contrary to their welfare".
Richard Jefferies' novel After London (1885) can best be described as genuine post-apocalyptic fiction. After a sudden and unspecified catastrophe has depopulated England, the countryside reverts to nature and the few survivors return to a quasi-medieval way of life. The first chapters consist solely of a description of nature reclaiming England: fields becoming overrun by forest, domesticated animals running wild, roads and towns becoming overgrown, London reverting to lake and poisonous swampland. The rest of the story is a straightforward adventure/quest set many years later in the wild landscape and society, but the opening chapters set an example for many later science fiction stories.
H.G. Wells wrote several novels that have a post-apocalyptic theme. The Time Machine (1895) has the unnamed protagonist traveling to the year 802,701 A.D. after civilization has collapsed and humanity has split into two distinct species, the elfin Eloi and the brutal Morlocks. Later in the story, the time traveler moves forward to a dying Earth beneath a swollen red sun. The War of the Worlds (1898) depicts an invasion of Earth by inhabitants of the planet Mars. The aliens systematically destroy Victorian England with advanced weaponry mounted on nearly indestructible vehicles. Due to the infamous radio adaptation of the novel by Orson Welles on his show, The Mercury Theatre on the Air, the novel has become one of the best known early apocalyptic works. It has subsequently been reproduced or adapted several times in comic books, film, music, radio programming, television programming, and video games.
Post-1900 works
Aliens
Childhood's End is a 1953 science fiction novel by the British author Arthur C. Clarke, in which aliens come to Earth, human children develop fantastic powers and the planet is destroyed.
Argentine comic writer Héctor Germán Oesterheld's comic series El Eternauta (1957 to 1959), an alien race only mentioned by the protagonists as Ellos ("Them") invades the Earth starting with a deadly snowfall and then using other alien races to defeat the remaining humans.
In Alice Sheldon's Nebula-winning novelette "The Screwfly Solution" (1977), aliens are wiping out humanity with an airborne agent that changes men's sexual impulse to a violent impulse.
Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide series (1979–2009) is a humorous take on alien invasion stories. Multiple Earths are repeatedly "demolished" by the bureaucratic Vogons to make way for a hyperspace bypass, to the chagrin of the protagonist Arthur Dent.
In Gene Wolfe's The Urth of the New Sun (1987), aliens (or highly evolved humans) introduce a white hole into the sun to counteract the dimming effect of a black hole, and the resulting global warming causes a sea-level rise that kills most of the population (though this may be redemptive, like Noah's Flood, rather than a disaster).
In Greg Bear's The Forge of God (1987), Earth is destroyed in an alien attack. Just prior to this, a different group of aliens is able to save samples of the biosphere and a small number of people, resettling them on Mars. Some of these form the crew of a ship to hunt down the homeworld of the killers, as described in the sequel, Anvil of Stars (1992).
Al Sarrantonio's Moonbane (1989) concerns the origin of werewolves (which he attributes to the Moon, which is why they are so attracted to it), and an invasion after an explosion on Luna sends meteoric fragments containing latent lycanthropes to Earth, who thrive in our planet's oxygen-rich atmosphere. Moonbanes tone is reminiscent of H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds (1897).
Charles R. Pellegrino and George Zebrowski's novel The Killing Star (1995) describes a devastating attack on a late-21st-century Earth by an alien civilization. Using relativistic missiles, they are determined to destroy the human race in a preemptive strike, as they are considered, after watching several episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation which shows human domination in space, a future threat.
In the video game Chrono Trigger (1995), the giant alien creature Lavos collides with the earth in prehistoric times, subsequently hibernating beneath the earth. As millions of years pass, the monster feeds on the energy of the earth, eventually surfacing in 1999 to wreak complete destruction of the human race, atmosphere, and general life on the planet in the form of a rain of destruction fired from its outer shell, known as the 'Day of Lavos'.
In the video game Half-Life (1998), hostile alien creatures arrive on Earth through a portal after a scientific experiment goes wrong. In its sequel, Half-Life 2 (2004), it is revealed to the player the creatures encountered in the first game are merely the slaves of a much more powerful alien race, the Combine, who have taken over the Earth to drain its resources after subduing the entirety of Earth's governments and military forces in only seven hours.
In the 2000 Don Bluth animated film Titan A.E., Earth has been destroyed by the Drej, due to a human experimental discovery called Project Titan, which made them fear “what humanity will become”.
The 2011 TV series Falling Skies, by Robert Rodat and Steven Spielberg, follows a human resistance force fighting to survive after extraterrestrial aliens attempt to take over Earth by disabling most of the world's technology and destroying its armed forces in a surprise attack. It is implied that the attacking aliens are in reality former victims of an attack on their own planet and are now the slaves of an unseen controller race.
The television series Defiance (2013–2015) is set in an Earth devastated by the "Pale Wars", a war with seven alien races referred to as the "Votan", followed by the "Arkfalls", which terraforms Earth to an almost unrecognizable state. Unlike most apocalyptic works, in this one Earth is not inhospitable, and humanity is not on the verge of extinction.
The World's End is a 2013 British-American comic science fiction film directed by Edgar Wright, written by Wright and Simon Pegg, and starring Pegg, Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman, Eddie Marsan and Rosamund Pike. The film follows a group of friends who discover an alien invasion during a pub crawl in their hometown.
In the 2018 horror film A Quiet Place and the 2021 sequel A Quiet Place Part II, society has collapsed in the wake of lethal attacks by (apparently) extraterrestrial creatures who, having no eyesight, hunt humans and other creatures with their highly sensitive hearing; the scattered survivors live most of their lives in near-silence as a result.
Astronomical
The Purple Cloud (1901) by M. P. Shiel is a novel in which most of humanity has been killed by a poisonous cloud.
In Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer's novel When Worlds Collide (1933), Earth is destroyed by the rogue planet Bronson Alpha. A selected few escape on a spaceship. In the sequel, After Worlds Collide (1934), the survivors start a new life on the planet's companion Bronson Beta, which has taken over the orbit formerly occupied by Earth.
The horror manga Hellstar Remina, by Junji Ito, presents a similar premise where an extrasolar, and in reality extradimensional, rogue planet sets a collision course for Earth, destroying several star systems on the way there, and destroying Pluto, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars as well. It is eventually discovered that the planet is in reality a massive lifeform that feeds on other planets, and is not only alive, but also home to an extremely deadly ecosystem which kills both an expedition force and a group of affluent survivors that escapes to the planet's surface to avoid death on Earth. A nuclear response fails, and the planet devours Earth, leading to the extinction of mankind aside from a group of characters surviving in a durable, airtight shelter that is left floating in empty space with supplies and air for a year.
In J. T. McIntosh's novel One in Three Hundred (1954), scientists have discovered how to pinpoint the exact minute, hour, and day the Sun will go "nova" – and when it does, it will boil away Earth's seas, beginning with the hemisphere that faces the sun, and as Earth continues to rotate, it will take only 24 hours before all life is eradicated. Super-hurricanes and tornadoes are predicted. Buildings will be blown away. A race is on to build thousands of spaceships for the sole purpose of transferring evacuees on a one-way trip to Mars. When the Sun begins to go nova, everything is on schedule, but most of the spaceships turn out to be defective, and fail en route to Mars.
Brian Aldiss' novel Hothouse (1961) occurs in a distant future where the sun is much hotter and stronger, and the human population has been reduced to a fifth of what it had been.
J. G. Ballard's novel The Drowned World (1962) occurs after a rise in solar radiation that causes worldwide flooding and accelerated mutation of plants and animals.
Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven's novel, Lucifer's Hammer (1977), is about a cataclysmic comet hitting Earth and various groups of people struggling to survive the aftermath in southern California.
Hollywood—which previously had explored the idea of the Earth and its population being potentially endangered by a collision with another heavenly body with the When Worlds Collide (1951), a film treatment of the aforementioned 1933 novel – revisited the theme in the late 1990s with a trio of similarly themed projects. Asteroid (1997) is a NBC-TV miniseries about the U.S. government trying to prevent an asteroid from colliding with the Earth. The following year saw dueling big-budget summer blockbuster movies Deep Impact (1998) and Armageddon (1998), both of which involved efforts to save the Earth from, respectively, a rogue comet and an asteroid, by landing crews upon them to detonate nuclear weapons there in hopes of destroying them.
Characters in the six-part ITV television drama serial The Last Train (1999) awaken from a cryogenic sleep after an asteroid the size of Birmingham strikes Africa, causing a worldwide apocalypse.
K. A. Applegate's 2001–2003 book series, Remnants, details the end of the world by asteroid collision. The first book, The Mayflower Project (2001), describes Earth in a sort of hysteria as 80 people are chosen by NASA to board a spacecraft that will go to an unknown destination away from the destroyed Earth. The later books deal with the few survivors waking up from a 500-year hibernation and succumbing to both strange mutations and the will of a strange alien computer/spaceship that they land on. Eventually they return to Earth to find a couple colonies of survivors struggling on a harsh planet completely different from the Earth the Remnants knew.
Melancholia (2011), the middle entry of filmmaker Lars von Trier's "depression trilogy", ends with humanity completely wiped out by a collision with a rogue planet. The depressed protagonist reverses roles with her relatives as the crisis unfolds, as she turns out to be the only family member capable of calmly accepting the imminent impact event.
In id Software's video game Rage (2011), Earth is heavily damaged, and humanity nearly wiped out, by the direct collision of the real asteroid 99942 Apophis with the Earth in the year 2029.
Marly Youmans' epic poem Thaliad (2012) tells the story of a group of children after an unspecified apocalypse from the sky, perhaps connected with solar flares or meteor impact, resulting in people and animals having been burned and the skies having filled with ash. The children survive only because they were together on a school visit to a cave.
In the obscure 2013 Australian film These Final Hours, a massive asteroid hits the Atlantic Ocean dooming all life. The film follows James, who decides to head to the 'party-to-end-all-parties' and there spend the last 12 hours before the global firestorm reaches Western Australia.
In the 2020 film Greenland, a massive comet, Clarke, is set on a collision course with Earth, with only a few people permitted into a massive complex of bunkers in Greenland. The film follows the Garrity family's attempts to reach these safe havens after they were unable to board the transport aircraft to the bunkers. Clarke collides with Earth, leaving the planet devastated, however, there are survivors throughout the world, implying that Humanity can still survive. A sequel is now in development called Greenland: Migration.
Cosy catastrophe
The "cosy catastrophe" is not an intentional style of post-apocalyptic science fiction, but rather a criticism of certain apocalyptic works that were not considered as believably harsh enough for the critic's stated preferences. Stories subject to this criticism generally involve some sort of catastrophe wherein civilization comes to an end with mass deaths, but the main characters survive relatively unscathed and are freed from the constraints of vulgar civilization in their hideaway, perhaps finding a kind of quiet happiness in the changed world. The term was coined by Brian Aldiss in Billion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction (1973). Aldiss was directing his remarks mainly at English author John Wyndham, especially his novel The Day of the Triffids (1951), whose protagonists did not suffer enough associated hardship from the collapse of society for Aldiss's taste, as well as other British books in the era following the Second World War. The genre has been defended though as being a valid take on more low-key catastrophes of an ecological sort, and other books have been questioned if they qualify at all - Margaret Atwood defended The Day of the Trifflids as not as "cosy" as alleged, for example.
Environmental disaster
In Alfred Walter Stewart's 1923 novel Nordenholt's Million, an engineered strain of bacteria denitrifies almost all plants, causing a collapse of food supply. The plutocrat of the title establishes a haven in central Scotland for a chosen group of survivors, while deliberately wrecking all alternative refuges.
In Alfred Bester's story "Adam and No Eve" (1941), an inventor takes off in a rocket whose propulsion uses a dangerous catalyst. From outer space he sees that the entire world has been destroyed by fire in a runaway reaction caused by the catalyst. Fatally injured in a crash landing, he crawls to the sea so that the bacteria in his body can initiate new life on Earth.
In John Christopher's novel The Death of Grass (1956), a mutated virus kills cereal crops and other grasses throughout Eurasia, causing famine.
Kurt Vonnegut 's novel Cat's Cradle (1963) ends with all the bodies of water turning into "ice-nine", a fictional phase of ice that forms at room temperature.
In J. G. Ballard's novel The Burning World (1964, expanded into The Drought in 1965), pollution in the oceans creates a surface layer that resists evaporation, bringing about a worldwide drought.
John Brunner's novel The Sheep Look Up (1972) describes an environmentally-degraded world rapidly collapsing into social chaos, revolution, and anarchy.
Richard Cowper's three-volume novel The White Bird of Kinship (1978–82) envisions a future in which anthropogenic global warming has led to a catastrophic rise in sea level. Most of it takes place two millennia later.
Ursula K. Le Guin's novel Always Coming Home (1985) takes place long after worldwide disasters—apparently largely environmental though nuclear war may also be involved—have drastically reduced the population. It paints an admiring picture of a primitive society that will not repeat the mistakes of civilization. It won the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize and was a runner-up for a National Book Award.
Palladium Books' Rifts roleplaying game (1990) features an apocalypse caused by various natural disasters including the eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano which releases a large amount of magical energy that is amplified by deaths of millions occurring during a solstice, at midnight, during a planetary alignment, creating the titular rifts that bring forth various beings and monstrosities from throughout the Megaverse.
In Octavia Butler's 1993 novel Parable of the Sower, climate change and corporatism are the human-caused reasons for societal collapse.
In the film The Day After Tomorrow (2004), based on Whitley Strieber's speculative non-fiction novel The Coming Global Superstorm (1999), extreme weather events caused by climate change invoke mass destruction across the planet, and eventually result in a new ice age.
The video game The Long Dark (2017) depicts survival in the wilderness of northern Canada during winter after a geomagnetic disaster has disabled all modern technology.
Failure of modern technology
In E. M. Forster's novelette "The Machine Stops" (1909), humanity has been forced underground due to inhospitable conditions on Earth's surface, and is entirely dependent on "the machine," a god-like mechanical entity which has supplanted almost all free will by providing for humankind's every whim. The machine deteriorates and eventually stops, ending the lives of all those dependent upon it, though one of the dying alludes to a group of humans dwelling on the surface who will carry the torch of humanity into the future.
In René Barjavel's novel Ravage (1943), written and published during the German occupation of France, a future France is devastated by the sudden failure of electricity, causing chaos, disease, and famine, with a small band of survivors desperately struggling for survival.
Fred Saberhagen goes one better than Barjavelin with the Empire of the East series which starts, in the 1968 book The Broken Lands, sometime after the "Change" (with sincere nods from Boyett and Stirling), in which a defense designed to temporarily make nukes inoperative, permanently changes some of the laws of science for magic.
Steve Boyett's novel Ariel (1983, sub-titled "A Book of the Change") also has all technology—including electricity, gunpowder, and some physics principles—ceasing to function, while magic becomes real. He also contributed to the 1986 Borderland series, which investigates a return of the Realm of Faery to the world.
The Quiet Earth, a 1985 New Zealand movie notable for its visually stunning ending, follows a scientist's descent into madness after he wakes up to a world where every single member of the kingdom Animalia has seemingly disappeared. After recovering and finding other people, he realizes his experiments with energy transfers through the Earth's magnetic field are to blame, and that unless he shuts down the experiment, it will destroy the planet.
S. M. Stirling also takes a swipe at the inconstant-physical-constants field with the Emberverse series. Dies the Fire (2004), The Protector's War (2005), and A Meeting at Corvallis (2006), depict the world's descent into feudalism after a sudden mysterious "change" alters physical laws so that electricity, gunpowder, and most forms of high-energy-density technology no longer work. Civilization collapses, and two competing groups struggle to re-create medieval technologies and skills, as well as master magic. Like Boyett's novel, Stirling's features Society for Creative Anachronism members as favorably disposed survivors, and a hang glider attack against a building.
Afterworld (first aired in 2007) is a computer-animated American science fiction television series where a network of satellites firing persistent electronic pulses, combined with a strange nanotechnology, has not only destroyed most electronic technology on the planet, but also caused the deaths of 99% of humanity, and is now causing strange mutations to occur in lower forms of life.
NBC's Revolution (2012–2014) also revolved around a "change" after which the principles of electricity and physics are inoperable. However, the focus of the story was how a group of protagonists tried to get the power back on while opposing the efforts of a tyrannical militia leader to understand it first (so that he can take absolute power).
The web series H+: The Digital Series (2012-2013) depicts in part, the aftermath of a world in which a computer virus that infected a popular brain-computer interface killed one-third of the population, leading to a breakdown in order and the lack or shortage of electricity and other modern conveniences.
All Systems Down (2018) is an American novel which describes a cyber war that cripples Western infrastructure, resulting in the collapse of society.
Robert Harris's novel The Second Sleep (2019) is set in a fundamentalist agrarian society several centuries after the collapse of global civilisation, which is inferred to be the result of a sudden breakdown of the internet, possibly as the result of cyberwarfare.
Technological singularity
The topic of Technological Singularity, also known as “Singularity,” was first coined in 1993. Since then, the idea of the term has been used to produce countless major motion pictures and earn Hollywood producers millions of dollars at the box office. The "Singularity" (also known as the technological singularity) refers to a future moment in human history when science and science fiction, religion philosophy, and hope and fear converge. The mathematician and science fiction writer Vernor Vinge coined the term to denote a juncture when artificial intelligence (AI) equals, and then in an intelligence explosion, far exceeds man intelligence.” In laymen’s terms, technological singularity is the theoretical future moment when artificial intelligence surpasses human intelligence and becomes aware, autonomous, and potentially threatening to humans.
''The Matrix'' (1999) The plot involves Neo (Keanu Reeves), a mild-mannered software author by day, a feared hacker by night. He's recruited by a cell of cyber-rebels, led by the profound Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and the leather-clad warrior Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss). They've made a fundamental discovery about the world: It doesn't exist. It's actually a form of Virtual Reality, designed to lull us into lives of blind obedience to the "system." We obediently go to our crummy jobs every day, little realizing, as Morpheus tells Neo, that "Matrix is the wool that has been pulled over your eyes--that you are a slave." The rebels want to crack the framework that holds the Matrix in place and free mankind. Morpheus believes Neo is the Messianic "One" who can lead this rebellion, which requires mind power as much as physical strength. Arrayed against them are the Agents, who look like Blues Brothers. The movie's battles take place in Virtual Reality; the heroes' minds are plugged into the combat. (You can still get killed, though: "The body cannot live without the mind")…The Agents function primarily as opponents in a high-stakes computer game. The movie offers no clear explanation of why the Matrix-making program went to all that trouble. Of course, for a program, running is its own reward—but an intelligent program might bring terrifying logic to its decisions.
''The Terminator'' (1985) James Cameron directs this science-fiction thriller about a futuristic killing machine called the Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger), which is sent back to the year 1984 to assassinate a young woman named Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton). The cyborg comes from the year 2029, following a nuclear war that has devastated the better part of civilization. Computer defense mechanisms have turned on their creators, starting another war, in an effort to eliminate the human race altogether. Man's valiant rebel leader is John Connor, Sarah's son. John is destined to help the human race win this war, and the Terminator is the only thing standing in the way. Sent back to the present, the cyborg must kill Sarah before John is born. It systematically eliminates every Sarah Connor in the city of Los Angeles. But Sarah escapes with the man sent to protect her, Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) before the Terminator can get to her. What follows is a massive chase that will eventually end in victory for mankind. Co-writer William Wisher Jr. has a cameo as a police officer.
Transcendence (2014) "Transcendence," about a dying computer genius (Johnny Depp) who uploads himself in computerized form and achieves a problematic digital afterlife, is real science fiction. It explores its ideas with sincerity, curiosity, and terrifying beauty (its director is Wally Pfister, longtime cinematographer for Christopher Nolan)… Caster is wounded in the 9/11 style, multi-pronged attack, taking a radiation-laced bullet and dying a few weeks later…What we've got here isn't just a "Frankenstein"-like parable of scientific hubris run amok, but also the story of a grieving spouse who's reluctant to let go of her mate and tries to prolong his life artificially. The film's script, credited to Jack Paglen, takes its sweet time confirming whether the being uploaded into the neural network Will Caster or merely a digital copy, and if a copy, what sort.
Her (2013) The futuristic premise sets the stage for an unusual love story: one in which Theo, still highly damaged and sensitive over the breakup of his marriage ("I miss you," a friend tells him in a voice mail message; "Not the sad, mopey you. The old, fun you"), falls in love with the artificially intelligent operating system of his computer. The movie shows this product advertised and, presumably, bought in remarkable quantity, but focuses on Theo's interaction with his OS, which he gives a female voice. The female voice (portrayed by Scarlett Johansson) gives herself the name "Samantha" and soon Samantha is reorganizing Theo's files, making him laugh, and developing something like a human consciousness.
''Autómata'' (2014) “Automata” opens with onscreen text explaining the future 30 years from now. Solar storms have turned the Earth into a radioactive desert, killing 98% of the population in the process. As a result, the ROC company created “primitive robots to help build the walls and mechanical clouds that protect the humans.” There are millions of robots, all of which are controlled by two protocols: they cannot harm any form of life and they can neither repair themselves nor alter another robot in any fashion. “These rules are unalterable,” the screen says in boldface. Of course, this is not a true statement.
Fossil fuel supply scarcities
The film Mad Max (1979), directed by George Miller, presents a world in which oil resources have been nearly exhausted. This has resulted in constant energy shortages and a breakdown of law and order. The police do battle with criminal motorcycle gangs, with the result being the complete breakdown of modern society and nuclear war as depicted in Mad Max 2 (1981). The opening narration of Mad Max 2 implies that the fuel shortage was caused not just by peak oil, but also by oil reserves being destroyed during a large scale conflict in the Middle East. The remnants of society survive either through scavenging, or in one notable case, as depicted in the third sequel Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985), by using methane derived from pig feces.
James Howard Kunstler's novel World Made By Hand (2008) imagines life in upstate New York after a declining world oil supply has wreaked havoc on the US economy, and people and society are forced to adjust to daily life without cheap oil.
Canadian novelist Douglas Coupland's book Player One (2010) deals with four individuals taking refuge in a Toronto airport bar while a series of cataclysmic events occurs outside.
Alex Scarrow's novel Last Light and its sequel Afterlight narrate the fall of British civilization after a war in the Middle East eradicates the majority of the Earth's oil supply.
The backstory of the video game series Fallout revolves around the so-called "Resource Wars", beginning circa 2050, when oil supplies become depleted, leading to a disastrous series of wars that include Europe going to war with the Middle East before disintegrating into warring nation-states after all available oil is used up, the United Nations collapsing, the U.S annexing Mexico and Canada, and finally total nuclear war between the U.S and China in 2077 after over 25 years of war.
Pandemic
Comics
Crossed by Garth Ennis is set in a post-apocalyptic world in which a bodily fluid-borne virus has destroyed civilization. Carriers of the virus develop a cross-shaped rash on their faces and act without inhibitions, raping, killing and torturing the few remaining uninfected humans.
Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra deals with the lives of Yorick Brown and his monkey Ampersand, after a plague wipes out all but three male life forms on the Earth, leaving the whole planet to be controlled by women.
The Walking Dead is a comic book series from IC and was written by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard. It was started in 2003 and concluded in 2019. The story follows a group of survivors in a post-apocalyptic landscape. The apocalypse in this series was brought about by zombies, and it is strongly suspected that the zombies are victims of a virus. The Walking Dead television series is based on the comic books. They have also spawned a motion comic.
Kamandi is an American comic book character, created by artist Jack Kirby and published by DC Comics. In the eponymous series, Kamandi is a teenage boy on a post-apocalyptic Earth that the textual narrative describes as "Earth A.D. (After Disaster)". The Earth has been ravaged by a mysterious calamity called the Great Disaster. The precise nature of the Great Disaster is never revealed in the original series, although it "had something to do with radiation" (in the series' letter column, Jack Kirby and his then-assistant Steve Sherman repeatedly asserted that the Great Disaster was not a nuclear war, a fact confirmed in issue #35). The Disaster wiped out human civilization and a substantial portion of the human population. A few isolated pockets of humanity survived in underground bunkers, while others quickly reverted to pre-technological savagery.
Xenozoic Tales (also known as Cadillacs & Dinosaurs) is an alternative comic book by Mark Schultz set in a post-apocalyptic future starring mechanic Jack Tenrec and scientist Hannah Dundee. Earth has been ravaged by pollution and natural disasters and humanity survived by building vast underground cities. Some 600 years later, mankind emerged to find that the world had been reclaimed by previously extinct lifeforms (most spectacularly, dinosaurs). In the new 'Xenozoic' era, technology is extremely limited and those with mechanical skills command a great deal of respect and influence.
Killraven (Jonathan Raven) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by co-plotters Roy Thomas and Neal Adams, scriptwriter Gerry Conway, the Martians from H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds return in 2001 for another attempt at conquering the planet (later retconned as extrasolar aliens using Mars as a staging area). After humanity's enslavement, men not used as breeders or collaborators are trained and forced to battle gladiator-style for the Martians' amusement; women are used as breeders to supply infants, which are eaten by the Martians as a delicacy. Jonathan Raven, dubbed Killraven as his gladiatorial nom de guerre, escapes with the help of the gladiatorial "keeper", but without his brother, Deathraven. Killraven joins the Freemen, a group of freedom fighters against Martian oppression.
Deathlok is a Marvel comic book character created by Rich Buckler and Doug Moench. Colonel Luther Manning is an American soldier who was fatally injured and reanimated in a post-apocalyptic future (originally given the date of 1990) as the experimental cyborg Deathlok the Demolisher. He verbally communicates with his symbiotic computer, to which he refers as the abbreviated "'Puter". He battles the evil corporate and military regimes that have taken over the United States, while simultaneously struggling not to lose his humanity.
Hercules, as portrayed in the DC comic book series titled Hercules Unbound, featured the adventures of Hercules in a post-apocalyptic future. It made use of characters and concepts, such as the Atomic Knights and the intelligent animals from Jack Kirby's Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth series as an attempt to tie in some of the future series.
Judge Dredd is set in a future Earth damaged by World War III, a nuclear war instigated by corrupt U.S. President "Bad" Bob Booth in 2070. The majority of the world was left an irradiated wasteland filled with hostile mutant lifeforms, with the surviving population being centralized in the so-called Mega-Cities, massive urban sprawls covering entire states created to deal with overpopulation during the 21st century. Further massive conflicts during the comics' present, such as the "Apocalypse War" against East-Meg (the government of the former Soviet territories) and the "Day Of Chaos" has caused even more destruction.
Axa is set on a post-apocalyptic Earth in the year 2080. Axa is a woman who, having grown sick of the regimented and stifling society inside a domed city, flees into the untamed wilderness. The strip mixed elements of science fiction and sword-swinging barbarian tales (the lead character herself bears more than a casual similarity to Red Sonja).
Meltdown Man (SAS Sergeant Nick Stone) finds himself flung into the far-future by a nuclear blast, where the last remaining humans are led by a merciless tyrant called Leeshar and rule over the eugenically - modified animal castes known as 'Yujees'. Accompanied by catwoman Liana, bullman T-Bone and loyal wolfman Gruff, Stone is intent on ending Leeshar's dark reign by leading the slave-like Yujees in rebellion.
Mighty Samson was set in the area around New York City, now known as "N'Yark", in an Earth devastated by a nuclear war. The series featured Samson, a barbarian adventurer, and was created by writer Otto Binder and artist Frank Thorne.
Druuna is an erotic science fiction and fantasy comic book character created by Italian cartoonist Paolo Eleuteri Serpieri. Most of Druuna's adventures revolve around a post-apocalyptic future, and the plot is often a vehicle for varied scenes of hardcore pornography and softcore sexual imagery.
Films and television
Director George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968), and its five sequels, including Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Day of the Dead (1985), popularized the concept of a zombie apocalypse, focusing on the breakdown of American society in a world where the dead are re-animating as mindless, undead cannibals due to some unknown disease, implied to be extraterrestrial in origin, and anyone bitten but not eaten will soon become a zombie as well.
The BBC television series Survivors (1975–1977) and its 2008 remake series focus on a group of British survivors in the aftermath of a genetically engineered virus that has killed over 90% of the world's population. The first series of both versions examine the immediate after-effects of a pandemic outbreak of the flu, while the subsequent series concentrate on the survivors' attempts to build communities and make contacts with other groups.
The Japanese film Virus (1980) illustrates the global effects of the deadly MM88, a fictional virus that potentiates the effects of any other disease. It also features a doomsday device when it's discovered that the nuclear arsenal could be triggered by an earthquake in a chain reaction.
12 Monkeys (1995) is a science fiction film which depicts the remains of human civilization after an uncontrollable pandemic wipes out 99% of the human population. It is a semi-remake of La Jetée (1962), and both films focus on the theme of fate by introducing the ability to travel through time and make contact with pre-apocalyptic society. 12 Monkeys is also a SyFy television series that premiered in 2015.
The Tribe (1999) is a television series that deals with a mysterious virus that kills the adult population, leaving the children of the world to fend for themselves. The kids are divided into different tribes and war against each other for their survival. The show focuses on the tribe called the Mall Rats, who take shelter in the city's mall to protect themselves from the dangers outside. However the virus mutates and begins to infect all the children, forcing the Mall Rats to search for the rumoured virus antidote hidden in government buildings that was left behind by the adults.
The film 28 Days Later (2002) and its sequel 28 Weeks Later (2007) revolves around a virus in Britain that turns anyone infected into a mindlessly violent psychotic, though still alive and not undead, in a variation of the classic zombie theme. This also makes the infected more dangerous, as they can run very quickly and as their bodies are not decaying. The plot centers on groups of both uninfected survivors and a handful of virus carriers who are immune to the effects of the disease.
In the comedy film Zombieland (2009), a disease mutates most Americans (the rest of the world is not mentioned) and turns them into animal-like creatures hungry for human flesh. The story is about a group of people who stick together and to try survive against the zombies. Another comedy film, Warm Bodies (2013), adds a romantic twist to its story, as a zombie falls in love with an uninfected woman and protects her from his fellow zombies.
The AMC television series The Walking Dead, based on the comic book series of the same name, premiered in 2010. It centers around a group of people in the state of Georgia who struggle to survive and adapt in a post-apocalyptic world filled with zombies (here called "walkers") and opposing groups of survivors who are often more dangerous than the walkers themselves. The popularity of the series has led to a spin-off franchise comprising an aftershow (Talking Dead), a companion television series (Fear the Walking Dead, a prequel with different characters from the source material), video games (e.g., The Walking Dead: The Game (Season One), The Walking Dead: Season Two and The Walking Dead: Season Three) webisodes (including The Talking Dead webisodes and the Fear the Walking Dead web series), and numerous parodies and spoofs.
World War Z (2013) is an apocalyptic action horror film based on the 2006 novel of the same name by Max Brooks. The film focuses on a former United Nations investigator who must travel the world to find a way to stop a zombie pandemic.
The Last Ship (2014) is an American action-drama television series, based on the 1988 novel of the same name by William Brinkley. After a global viral pandemic wipes out over 80% of the world's population, the crew (consisting of 218 people) of a lone unaffected U.S. Navy Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, the fictional USS Nathan James (DDG-151), must try to find a cure, stop the virus, and save humanity.
Train to Busan (2016) is an apocalyptic zombie film, based around a South Korean train from Seoul to Busan, hence the name. The virus was created from a chemical accident, and, when it infects any animal, gives the animal heightened senses and makes humans very violent. While they do get disoriented from darkness, they are very deadly. The story follows Seo Seok-woo (Gong Yoo) and his daughter, Su-an (Kim Su-an), as they find their way through a ravaged South Korea.
The Rain (TV series) (2018) is a Danish post-apocalyptic web-television series. After a rain-borne virus is released over the region of Scandinavia, causing a pandemic. Simone Andersen (played by Alba August) and Rasmus Andersen, along with their mother and father, must make it to an underground bunker. Things soon go awry when the father must leave to find a cure and the children are forced out of the bunker due to lack of food in search for their father.
The Last Man on Earth (2015) is a post apocalyptic American comedy TV series over 4 seasons starring Will Forte. It plays the premise for laughs. The original character is essentially a loser and then various other survivors find him and change the dynamic with hilarious and moving consequences.
Novels and short stories
Mary Shelley's The Last Man, published in 1826, is set in the end of the 21st century. It chronicles a group of friends, based on Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley and others, moving through Europe as a plague kills most of the world's population. The Scarlet Plague by Jack London, published in 1912, is set in San Francisco in the year 2073, 60 years after a plague has largely depopulated the planet. Isaac Asimov's Nightfall (1941) describes a world with 6 suns, in constant daylight, except for an eclipse-based night every 2000 years, leading to mass hysteria and destruction. Written in 1949 by George R. Stewart, Earth Abides is the story of a man who finds most of civilization has been destroyed by a disease. Slowly, a small community forms around him as he struggles to start a new civilization and to preserve knowledge and learning.
Empty World is a 1977 novel by John Christopher about an adolescent boy who survives a plague which has killed most of the world's population. Originally published in 1978, Stephen King's The Stand follows the odyssey of a small number of survivors of a world-ending influenza pandemic, later revealed to be the man-made superflu "Captain Trips". It was eventually adapted for a 1994 miniseries of the same title starring Gary Sinise and Molly Ringwald. The novel was semi-inspired by King's earlier short story "Night Surf". Also published in 1977, Graham Masterton's novel titled Plague, tells the story of a mutated (and incurable as well as fatal) version of Yersinia pestis sweeping across the United States. Gore Vidal's 1978 novel Kalki also involves an apocalyptic event caused by a man-made pandemic.
The 1982 novel The White Plague by Frank Herbert has molecular biologist John Roe O'Neill exploring vengeance on a global scale when his wife is killed in an IRA car bombing. He creates a pandemic that kills only women. Written in 1984, the novel Emergence by David R. Palmer is set in a world where a man-made plague destroys the vast majority of the world's population. The novel was nominated for several awards and won the 1985 Compton Crook Award.
José Saramago's 1995 novel Blindness tells the story of a city or country in which a mass epidemic of blindness destroys the social fabric. It was adapted into the film Blindness in 2008. Published in 2003 by Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake is set after a genetically modified virus wipes out the entire population except for the protagonist and a small group of humans that were also genetically modified. A series of flashbacks depicting a world dominated by biocorporations explains the events leading up to the apocalypse. This novel was also shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. A sequel, The Year of the Flood, was published in 2007, followed by MaddAddam in 2013, the trilogy's conclusion.
Richard Matheson's 1954 novel I Am Legend deals with the life of Robert Neville, the only unaffected survivor of a global pandemic that has turned the world's population into vampire zombie-like creatures. The novel has been adapted to film three times: The Last Man on Earth (1964), The Omega Man (1971), and I Am Legend (2007). Jeff Carlson wrote a trilogy of novels beginning with his 2007 debut, Plague Year, a present-day thriller about a worldwide nanotech contagion that devours all warm-blooded life below in elevation. Its two sequels, Plague War and Plague Zone, deal with a cure that allows return to an environment that suffered ecological collapse due to massive increases in insects and reptiles.
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (2006) is an apocalyptic horror novel by Max Brooks. The book is a collection of individual accounts of desperate struggle during and after a devastating global conflict against a zombie plague, narrated by an agent of the United Nations Postwar Commission. It also describes the social, political, religious, and environmental changes that result from the plague.
Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven (2014) takes place in the Great Lakes region after a fictional swine flu pandemic, known as the "Georgia Flu", has devastated the world, killing most of the population. The novel won the Arthur C. Clarke Award in May 2015. The award committee highlighted the novel's focus on the survival of human culture after an apocalypse, as opposed to the survival of humanity itself.
James Dashner's The Maze Runner trilogy (2009–11) takes place after sun flares have scorched the earth. As a result, the governments of the world released a virus to kill off some of the world's population to save resources. The virus turned out to be highly contagious, and it made you lose control of your mind until you were an animal inside your head. This led to it being nicknamed, "The Flare". The series was made into movies by 20th Century Fox, with The Maze Runner released in 2014, The Scorch Trials in 2015 and the third in the series, The Death Cure in 2018.
Video games
Abomination: The Nemesis Project (1999) takes place in 1999 after the United States has been almost wiped out by a deadly plague. The disease started on the East Coast, and communication with the West Coast ceased within 72 hours. The last few groups of survivors stopped broadcasting after six days, and the overwhelming majority of the country's population has been wiped out. The player leads a team of eight genetically altered supersoldiers to defeat an infestation of a global genetic plague which slowly turns into a superorganism.
The Left 4 Dead series (first released in 2008) is set in the days after a pandemic outbreak of a viral strain transforms the majority of the population into zombie-like feral creatures. The games follow the adventures of four survivors attempting to reach safe houses and military rescue while fending off the attacking hordes.
Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward (2012) takes place years after an artificial virus, called Radical-6, was released, exterminating almost all of humanity. The sequel Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma (2016) details the events that lead to the virus being released.
Plague Inc. (2012) focuses not on the survival of humanity after or during an apocalypse, but rather on controlling the disease or creature responsible for the destruction of humanity.
The Last of Us (2013) revolves around the premise of a mutated Cordyceps fungus spreading to humans, resulting in the deterioration of society within the United States. DLC The Last of Us: Left Behind (2014) takes place months before Ellie meets Joel. The sequel The Last of Us Part II (2020) continues the story of Joel and Ellie 5 years after the first game.
They Are Billions (2018) is also an example of a post-apocalyptic future, in which players must establish, manage and defend colonies amidst a zombie apocalypse.
Tom Clancy's The Division (2016) takes place in a pandemic-ravaged New York City that's become overrun by escaped prisoners, gang-members and a faction of 'Cleaners' that are determined to end the epidemic by incinerating anything that might possibly be infected.
The Walking Dead (video game series) (2012-2019) deals with the mysterious disease prevalent in all currently living people to become a walker or zombie either by being bitten by one or dying with the brain intact. Hostile survivors roam the remaining living world too and the protagonist, Clementine has to deal with them and friends accordingly.
War
Film and television
H.G. Wells adapted his novel The Shape of Things to Come (1933) into the movie Things to Come (1936). In the movie, England is reduced to rubble by a prolonged conventional, chemical, and biological war. Survivors are depicted living under the rule of a local warlord who raids his neighbors in an attempt to get his fleet of rotting fighter planes in the air again. At the same time, surviving engineers create a technological utopia.
The film Panic in Year Zero! (1962) tells the story of a Southern California family's fight to survive the violence and chaos that ensue in the aftermath of a nuclear war.
La Jetée (1962) deals with a time traveler sent back in time to help the people of the post-apocalyptic future rebuild civilization after nuclear war destroys most of the world. It was partially remade in 1996 in the film 12 Monkeys.
In 1965 the BBC produced The War Game, but it was considered too graphic and disturbing to broadcast at the time; it was only in 1985 that it was shown. It portrays a nuclear attack on Great Britain and its after-effects, particularly the efforts of the Civil Defence system.
Planet of the Apes (1968) and its first sequel, Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) are 40th century-set post-apocalyptic entries in its original five-film series while Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973) is a turn of the 21st century turn of the third millennium post apocalyptic last entry of this series. The other two films between "Beneath..." and "Battle..." were pre-apocalyptic Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971, pre-nuclear bomb Los Angeles of 'present day') and Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972, also pre-nuclear but this time circa 1991 and with a violent ape revolution).
Genesis II (1973) television film, created by Gene Roddenberry. Dylan Hunt, a NASA scientist, begins a multi-day suspended animation test right before an earthquake buries the underground laboratory. Discovered in 2133 still alive he is awakened by the organization PAX (descendants of NASA scientists) who promote peace in the world. This television pilot, if picked up, would have followed Dylan and a PAX team as they reach out to the remains of humanity in a post-apocalyptic world by means of a long forgotten underground sub-shuttle rapid transit system that spanned the world right before the Great Conflict. A second pilot, Strange New World, also failed to be picked up as a television series.
The ABC made-for-TV movie The Day After (1983) deals with a nuclear war between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, focusing on a group of people in the U.S. heartland states of Kansas and Missouri attempting to survive during and after the nuclear exchange.
Testament is a 1983 drama film based on a three-page story "The Last Testament" by Carol Amen which tells the story of how one small suburban town near the San Francisco Bay Area slowly falls apart after a nuclear war destroys outside civilization.
The 1984 BBC television film Threads depicts life before, during, and after the detonation of a Soviet nuclear bomb over Sheffield, England.
The Terminator film franchise (first introduced in 1984) depicts an artificial intelligence called Skynet becoming self-aware in 1997 and trying to exterminate humanity by instigating nuclear war between the United States and Russia, which results in the death of three billion people. Many of the survivors eventually band together to destroy Skynet and its army of robots (called "terminators"). The series follows resistance leader John Connor and his mother, Sarah Connor, and their adventures before and after the nuclear strike (called "Judgment Day" in the film series).
CBS produced the TV series Jericho in 2006–2008, which focused on the survival of the town after 23 American cities were destroyed by nuclear weapons.
The Cartoon Network series Adventure Time (which began airing in 2010) takes place a thousand years in a future after a nuclear war (referred to as "The Great Mushroom War") where once existent but eventually forgotten magic is recreated and humans are nearly wiped out with all kinds of creatures that had taken their place.
Tom Hanks' 2011 web series Electric City is a story based on a post-apocalyptic world. In this world, a group of matriarchs (the "Knitting Society") impose an altruistic but oppressive society to counter the aftermath of a brutal war that brings down modern civilization. However, in time, even this new "utopian" order is ultimately called into question by the inhabitants of the new society.
The CW Channel's The 100 (which began airing in 2014) is a television series based on a post-apocalyptic world. After a nuclear war, Earth was uninhabitable and the only survivors were those on space stations which eventually came together to form the Ark; 97 years later on an undeterminable year the Ark is dying and 100 prisoners under the age of 18 are sent to see if Earth is now survivable. There they are faced with the challenges Earth brings and those who survived the nuclear war.
The movie Zardoz is a surreal take on the genre, revolving around a post-apocalyptic future England where a warrior caste called Exterminators worship a giant, floating stone head known as Zardoz, which gives them weapons and ammunition.
The movie The Book of Eli released in 2010. Starring Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman, a story of a lone wanderer trying to deliver a book through the wastelands after a nuclear apocalypse. Everyone has to wear sunglasses/goggles due to solar radiation and cannibalism is prevalent (identified by shaky hands). Oldman runs a town with access to water and supplies and tries to take the last copy of the Christian Bible, in braille, from Washington seeking its power. At the time he does not realize the Bible is in braille.
Novels and short stories
Paul Brians' Nuclear Holocausts: Atomic War in Fiction (1987) is a study that examines atomic war in short stories, novels, and films between 1895 and 1984. Since this measure of destruction was no longer imaginary, some of these new works, such as Nevil Shute's On the Beach (1957), which was subsequently twice adapted for film (in 1959 and 2000), Mordecai Roshwald's Level 7 (1959), Pat Frank's Alas, Babylon (1959), and Robert McCammon's Swan Song (1987), shun the imaginary science and technology that are the identifying traits of general science fiction. Others include more fantastic elements, such as mutants, alien invaders, or exotic future weapons such as James Axler's Deathlands (1986).
In Stephen Vincent Benét's story "By the Waters of Babylon" (1937, originally titled "The Place of the Gods"), a young man explores the ruins of a city in the northeastern United States, possibly New York, generations after a war in which future weapons caused "The Great Burning".
According to some theorists, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 has influenced Japanese popular culture to include many apocalyptic themes. Much of Japan's manga and anime are filled with apocalyptic imagery. The 1954 film Gojira (1954, romanized as Godzilla) depicted the title monster as an analogy for nuclear weapons, something Japan had experienced first-hand.
Judith Merril's first novel Shadow on the Hearth (1950) is one of the earliest post-World War II novels to deal with a post-nuclear-holocaust world. The novel recounts the ordeals of a young suburban housewife and mother of two children as she struggles to survive in a world forever changed by the horrors of a nuclear attack. Several of Ray Bradbury's short stories of The Martian Chronicles take place before, during, and after a nuclear war on Earth. The people flee Earth and settle on Mars but have constant conflicts with the native Martians. Several of these stories have been adapted to other media.
Andre Norton’s Star Man's Son (1952, also known as Daybreak 2250), is an early post-nuclear-war novel that follows a young man, Fors, in search of lost knowledge. Fors begins his Arthurian quest through a radiation-ravaged landscape with the aid of a telepathic mutant cat. He encounters mutated creatures called "the beast things", which are possibly mutated rats or a degenerate form of humans.
Wilson Tucker's novel The Long Loud Silence (1952) posits a post-nuclear holocaust America in which the eastern half of the country has been largely destroyed and its surviving inhabitants infected with a plague and barred from crossing the Mississippi River to try to find refuge in the unscathed western part of the country.
A nuclear war occurs at the end of Bradbury's dystopian futuristic novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953), with the outcasts who had fled an unidentified American city to escape a despotic government which burned books in order control the public by limiting knowledge left alive to re-establish society.
John Wyndham's 1955 novel The Chrysalids (United States title: Re-Birth), set in a small community untold centuries after a nuclear holocaust (not expressly told, but strongly hinted at with genetic mutations, glowing ruins, landscape baked to glass), tells the story of David, part of a small group of teens who share a limited form of telepathy that allows them to communicate with others who have the same talent. However, the fundamentalist society they live in, regards the slightest difference from the norm as a blasphemy and affront to God. The group attempt to remain hidden, then failing that, survive during a war between mutants and the fundamentalists while waiting for members of a distant advanced telepathic human civilization to rescue them.
In Walter M. Miller Jr.'s A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959) a recrudescent Catholic Church, pseudo-medieval society, and rediscovery of the knowledge of the pre-holocaust world are central themes.
Edgar Pangborn's Tales of a Darkening World: The Davy Series, written mostly in the 1960s and 1970s, takes place after a nuclear war. The best-known story is the novel Davy.
Poul Anderson's Maurai series (1959–1983) also takes place after a nuclear war, and his Hugo and Prometheus award-winning story "No Truce With Kings" takes place after a cataclysmic war. Both show the interactions among various kinds of societies that have developed in the centuries of recovery.
Robert Heinlein's 1964 novel Farnham's Freehold follows the story of a group of people that have survived a nuclear explosion. The group survives the attack in a fallout shelter but are taken to a future in which Africans rule.
"Damnation Alley" is a 1967 science fiction novella by Roger Zelazny, which he expanded into a novel in 1969. A film adaptation of the novel was released in 1977.
Harlan Ellison's novella "A Boy and His Dog" (1969) takes place in a world desolated by the nuclear warfare in World War IV. It was adapted into a 1975 film of the same name as well as a companion graphic novel titled Vic and Blood. In turn, the 1975 film adaptation influenced the Mad Max films, particularly The Road Warrior (1981).
Alexander Key's novel The Incredible Tide (1970) is set years after the Third World War. The weapons used were not nuclear, but ultra-magnetic that tore and submerged the continents. The story was adapted in the anime Future Boy Conan (1978).
Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker (1980), set in the English county of Kent around two thousand years after a nuclear war, also has religious or mystical themes and is written in a fictional future version of English.
In Hayao Miyazaki's manga (1982–1994) and anime film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984), human civilization is destroyed after a war known as the "Seven Days of Fire", which results in the Earth's surface becoming polluted and the seas turning poisonous.
William W. Johnstone wrote a series of books between 1983 and 2003 (35 books all containing the word "Ashes" in the title) about the aftermath of worldwide nuclear and biological war.
David Brin's novel The Postman (1985) takes place in an America where some are trying to rebuild civilization after the "Doomwar". It was adapted into the film The Postman (1997).
Orson Scott Card's post-apocalyptic anthology The Folk of the Fringe (1989) deals with American Mormons after a nuclear war.
Jeanne DuPrau's children's novel The City of Ember (2003) was the first of four books in a post-apocalyptic series for young adults. A film adaption, City of Ember (2008), stars Bill Murray and Saoirse Ronan.
Video games
In the computer game Wasteland (1988) and its sequels, nuclear war occurred in 1998 leaving a wasteland in its wake. The game centers around a player-controlled party of Desert Rangers. Wasteland 2 was produced in 2015 and Wasteland 3 in 2020, both continuing the story of the Desert Rangers.
Fallout, an ongoing series of post-apocalyptic role-playing games first published in 1997, depicts a world after a series of resource wars that culminates in a massive nuclear exchange between the U.S and China in 2077. The games revolve around "vaults," underground bunkers for long-term survival (in reality social experiments created by the ruling elite of the pre-war United States), and exploring the outside wasteland, in locations such as California, Las Vegas, Washington D.C., New England, and West Virginia. Fallout draws heavily from retro 1950s sci-fi, and the setting combines elements of mid-20th century technology, such as vacuum tubes and monochrome screens, with highly advanced artificial intelligences and energy weapons.
In Metro 2033 (2010), a nuclear war occurs in late 2013. Russia was targeted with atomic bombs, causing severe radiation across Moscow, forcing the rest of the people to live underground in the metro stations away from the deadly effects of radiation. Many animals and humans left behind mutated into creatures known as the Dark Ones, who were left outside for the next 20 years. The game is played from the perspective of Artyom, a 20-year-old male survivor and one of the many children brought into the metro right before the bombs dropped. The story takes place in post-apocalyptic Moscow, mostly inside the metro system, but some missions have the player go to the surface which is severely irradiated and a gas mask must be worn at all times due to the toxic air. A sequel, Metro: Last Light was released in 2013. A sequel to Metro: Last Light; Metro: Exodus was produced in 2019.
Nuclear apocalypse followed by a demon invasion is a recurring staple of the Shin Megami Tensei series.
The Danganronpa series is revealed to be set in a world where society has collapsed as a result of "The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History" which involves constant chaos, violence, and death for the sake of spreading of despair.
In DOOM Eternal Sometime after the events on Mars, Earth has been overrun by demonic forces, wiping out most of the planet's population, under the now-corrupted Union Aerospace Corporation. What remains of humanity has either fled Earth or have joined the Armored Response Coalition, a resistance movement formed to stop the invasion, which has gone into hiding after suffering heavy losses. The Doom Slayer, having previously been betrayed and teleported away by Dr. Samuel Hayden, returns with a satellite fortress controlled by the AI VEGA to quell the demonic invasion by killing the Hell Priests.
Call of Duty: Ghosts (2013) is set in a near future that follows the nuclear destruction of the Middle East. The oil-producing nations of South America form the "Federation of the Americas" in response to the ensuing global economic crisis and quickly grow into a global superpower, swiftly invading and conquering Central America, the Caribbean, and Mexico.
Judgment: Apocalypse Survival Simulation (2016) is set during an ongoing Apocalypse, after a Hellgate opens on Earth and a host of demons enter the world. The player controls a group of survivors that found a base to fight back and find a way to repel the invasion.
Other
Anime and manga
Violence Jack (1973 debut), a manga and anime series by Go Nagai, is set in a post-apocalyptic world with corruption and psychotic gangs. It is credited with creating the post-apocalyptic manga and anime genre, depicting its post-apocalyptic world as a desert wasteland with biker gangs, anarchic violence, ruined buildings, innocent civilians, tribal chiefs and small abandoned villages. This was similar to, and may have influenced, the desert wasteland settings of later post-apocalyptic franchises such as the film series Mad Max (1979 debut) and the manga/anime series Fist of the North Star (Hokuto no Ken, 1983 debut). Goichi Suda (Suda 51), who cited Violence Jack as an influence on his video game series No More Heroes (2007 debut), stated: “All of the desert-setting titles are actually inspired by Violence Jack. That came way before Hokuto no Ken, so that's the real origin of everything.”
Katsuhiro Otomo's cyberpunk manga and anime series Akira (1982 debut) is set in a post-apocalyptic Neo-Tokyo. Buronson's Fist of the North Star (1983 debut) is a story about Kenshiro, the successor of the deadly ancient martial art, Hokuto Shinken, in a world destroyed by nuclear war.
Hayao Miyazaki's manga series Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1982 debut), later adapted into a 1984 anime film by Studio Ghibli, depicts a post-apocalyptic future where industrial civilization was wiped out in the "Seven Days of Fire" 1,000 years before the main events. A "Toxic Jungle" threatens the last of humanity. Nausicaä is the princess of The Valley of the Wind who, rather than destroying the Toxic Jungle, decides to study the flora and fauna in the hopes of co-existing with the forest.
The manga and anime series Dragon Ball Z (1989 debut) and Dragon Ball Super (2015 debut), sequels to Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball, contain parallel timelines generated by time-travel to the past from an apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic future. Cybernetic humans caused the mass extinction of roughly two-thirds of Earth's human population, and years later, two higher dimensional beings killed all (but two) of the remaining population - along with an unknown amount of beings from other inhabited planets in that universe.
Battle Angel Alita (1990 debut) is a cyberpunk manga about an amnesiac female cyborg, Alita. It was later adapted into the James Cameron film Alita: Battle Angel (2019).
The anime and manga X by Clamp features a supernatural apocalypse. In it there is a battle over the end of the world between the "Dragons of Heaven" who wish to save humanity, and the "Dragons of Earth" who wish to wipe out humanity. The central character, Kamui Shirō, has to choose which side to fight for. The manga began in 1992 and has been on hiatus since 2003. It has been adapted as an anime film in 1996 and an anime television series between 2001 and 2002.
In Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995 debut), the story takes place on an earth shattered by the Second Impact (referring to the "giant-impact hypothesis 4.5 billion years ago, Theia as the first impact) in Antarctica, in which the security agency NERV tries to secure Neo Tokyo from a Third Impact, while holding back the real story of the Second Impact from the public and even the protagonists. The Second Impact had led to mass extinctions and wars, as well as significant changes to the planet's climate and population.
Uchuu no Stellvia (2003 debut) describes an earth after being hit by a big electromagnetic wave from a supernova of a nearby star, where mankind needs to rescue the earth 189 years after this impact from a second wave of matter coming towards the solar system. The anime shows a globalized society who have put together to fight this "enemy".
In Black Bullet (2011 debut), the earth was devastated by an alien race, spreading a virus that transforms humans into some kind of insect. Only the major cities holding back behind big walls of some fictitious material and are under constant threat to be invaded when these walls fail.
Attack on Titan (2009 debut) showcases a similar story, but this time the society have fallen back into a medieval state, with humanity having taken refuge behind three massive stone walls that protect them from the Titans, massive naked humanoid creatures, who feed on humans. The main plot revolves around the mysterious origin of the Titans, and uncovering the forgotten history of humanity.
In Kino's Journey The Story sets on Kino, a girl of 15 years who forms a link with a talking motorbike named Hermes. Together, the duo explores different places and different nations all the while, appreciating the young beauty of life. Their journey through the post-apocalyptic world and various ruins will teach them something useful about life and its unknown depths.
Films and literature
In Ayn Rand's novella Anthem (1938), society has entered a near-medieval state after a new government forbids any kind of individual thought, even forbidding the words "I" and "me".
In Arthur C. Clarke's short story "The Nine Billion Names of God" (1953), the universe ends when Tibetan monks (making use of a specially-written computer program) finish writing all of the nine billion possible names of God. The story won a retrospective Hugo Award.
The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961) is a film by Val Guest about an Earth thrown out of its orbit around the sun by excessive nuclear testing. It paints a picture of a society ready to believe that humans could destroy the planet, hoping that science could fix what it has broken but resigned to the possibility of irreversible doom.
The film Soylent Green (1973), loosely based upon Harry Harrison's science fiction novel Make Room! Make Room! (1966), is set in the dystopian future of 2022, in an overpopulated, heavily polluted world, where the masses of mostly homeless and destitute people have been herded into the overcrowded cities and barely survive on government-issued food rations made from the processed corpses of the dead.
Ernst Jünger's novel Eumeswil'''s (1977) key theme is the figure of the Anarch, the inwardly-free individual who lives quietly and dispassionately within but not of society and the post apocalyptic world.
John Crowley's novel Engine Summer (1979) takes place perhaps a thousand years after "the Storm" (not described) destroyed industrial civilization. Surviving cultures seem to be influenced by the 1960s and 1970s counterculture.
The Christian-themed Left Behind series of 16 novels published between 1995 and 2007, and four film adaptations produced between 2000 and 2014, posits a world in which the righteous believers have suddenly been raptured, en masse, up to Heaven, leaving behind an increasingly troubled and chaotic world in which the Antichrist, foretold in the Book of Revelation, arises to despotically rule over those unfortunate enough to have been "left behind". He is opposed by newly born-again Christians as the end of times (Tribulation) approaches.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road (2006) takes place several years after an unspecified cataclysm that forces a father and son to perpetually search for survival. It was adapted into a film in 2009.
Robert Reed's short story "Pallbearer" (2010) deals with most of the developed world's population dying after a mass vaccination program in which the vaccines were purposefully tainted. The survivors are those who were not vaccinated, often for religious reasons, and their descendants. Most of the developing world does not receive the vaccine, and decades later, large numbers of its refugees are arriving to America's shores. The protagonist survives the disaster as a young boy and has a chance encounter with an elderly scientist and her fanatical younger family members.
James Wesley Rawles' novel Survivors: A Novel of the Coming Collapse (2011) addresses a contemporaneous global economic crash, and focuses on the struggles of a large cast of characters who struggle to survive after what is termed "The Crunch." It covers both the lead up to the economic crash, as well as several years after the crash.
This Is The End (2013) centers on fictionalized versions of its cast in the wake of a global biblical apocalypse. It is a feature-length film adaptation of the short film Jay and Seth versus the Apocalypse (2007), also written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, with the short's director, Jason Stone, serving as an executive producer.Escape From New York and its sequel Escape From L.A., as well as supplementary materials published as comic books, is set in a fragmenting United States with rampant crime, pollution, and overpopulation. New York City has been walled off and turned into a gigantic maximum security prison after a 400% rise in crime by 1988. The same happens to Los Angeles in 2000 when a massive earthquake floods the San Fernando Valley, isolating L.A off the west coast.
Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time is set in a fictional post-apocalyptic world, with a medieval society. In the world, a system of magic, known as the One Power, is divided into a male half (saidin) and a female half (saidar). 3,000 years before the series, the world was a high tech utopia. When humanity tried to find a magic that both men and women could use, they encountered the Dark One, a Satan-like being able to corrupt human nature and the natural world. A war between the "Light" and the "Shadow" (the Dark One and his followers) ends with the Dark One being imprisoned with saidin. He corrupts it from within his prison, however, driving male users of the Power insane. They use their power to destroy civilization and geography in what is known as the "Breaking of the World". The era before the Breaking is later remembered as the "Age of Legends", since much knowledge was lost, and many common feats of that time seemed miraculous to the characters of the series.
Games
In the Gamma World (1978) tabletop roleplaying game, the reason for apocalypse varies depending on the edition, going from nuclear war to alien invasion to technology gone rampant to the merging of realities caused by the Large Hadron Collider.
In the Twilight: 2000 (1984) tabletop roleplaying game, the setting is five years after World War III began, a conventional war followed by a limited nuclear exchange.
In Ubisoft's videogame I Am Alive (2012), America has gone through a massive cataclysm known as "the Event" that destroys most cities and areas. Due to the damage of the aftermath, many people are forced to go without resources, causing citizens to become agitated, violent, and bitter, turning them into savage hunters.
In the Lisa: The Painful videogame (2014), the world has been turned into a desert wasteland by a mysterious event called the "White Flash".
In the Nomad Gods (1977) boardgame, the board depicts an area called the Plaines of Prax, that have been blasted by titanic battles between two gods making it uninhabitable.
Music
Many rock, heavy metal, and punk bands have post-apocalyptic themes and imagery in their lyrics. Numbered among the bands whose music includes these themes are: Arcade Fire, Blue Öyster Cult, Bob Dylan, Marilyn Manson, Metallica, Nine Inch Nails, Nuclear Assault, Radiohead, R.E.M., Slayer, Sodom, System of a Down, The Clash, The Cure, The Doors, The Misfits, The Smashing Pumpkins, and David Usher. Their work includes various apocalyptic songs across genres. For example, Muse's album The 2nd Law (2012) was inspired by post-apocalyptic life in World War Z, and the event is referred to specifically in the song "Apocalypse Please" (2003).
Post-Apocalyptic scenarios were a common theme in the music of Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship, most notably the song "Wooden Ships" and the album Blows Against the Empire''.
The music video for the song "Mankind Man"(1995) by the Barstool Prophets depicts various adults being dragged into a kangaroo court by several youths, before being tried and condemned, in a seemingly dystopian, post-apocalyptic world. Likewise, the music video for The Sisters of Mercy song "This Corrosion" takes place in a post-apocalyptic setting.
See also
American militia movement
Apocalypticism
Biopunk
Cyberpunk
Dark Ages
Dictatorship
Dying Earth genre
Dystopia
:Category:End of the universe in fiction
Global catastrophic risk
List of apocalyptic films
List of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction
List of nuclear holocaust fiction
Manorialism
Nuclear weapons in popular culture
Speculative evolution: Usually, if humans were to become extinct completely in a work of media, any hypothetical animal that could one day inhabit Earth in the distant future would be considered such.
Survivalism
Survivalism in fiction
World War III in popular culture
References
Further reading
External links
An overview of the subgenre at Internet Review of Science Fiction.
Quiet Earth – A website dedicated to post apocalyptic media
A Sense of an Ending: Take Shelter's Inconclusive Apocalypse – An article on contemporary apocalypse cinema at Alternate Takes
Apocalyptic fiction
Post-apocalyptic fiction
Science fiction genres
Science fiction themes
Film genres
Television genres
Science fantasy
Speculative fiction |
2806149 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed%20Roberts%20%28computer%20engineer%29 | Ed Roberts (computer engineer) | Henry Edward Roberts (September 13, 1941 – April 1, 2010) was an American engineer, entrepreneur and medical doctor who invented the first commercially successful personal computer in 1974. He is most often known as "the father of the personal computer." He founded Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) in 1970 to sell electronics kits to model rocketry hobbyists, but the first successful product was an electronic calculator kit that was featured on the cover of the November 1971 issue of Popular Electronics. The calculators were very successful and sales topped one million dollars in 1973.
A brutal calculator price war left the company deeply in debt by 1974. Roberts then developed the Altair 8800 personal computer that used the new Intel 8080 microprocessor. This was featured on the cover of the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics, and hobbyists flooded MITS with orders for this $397 computer kit.
Bill Gates and Paul Allen joined MITS to develop software and Altair BASIC was Microsoft's first product. Roberts sold MITS in 1977 and retired to Georgia where he farmed, studied medicine and eventually became a small-town doctor living in Cochran, Georgia.
Early life
Roberts was born on September 13, 1941 in Miami, Florida to Henry Melvin Roberts, an appliance repairman, and Edna Wilcher Roberts, a homemaker. His younger sister Cheryl was born in 1947. During World War II, while his father was in the Army, Roberts and his mother lived on the Wilcher family farm in Wheeler County, Georgia. After the war, the family returned to Miami, but Roberts would spend his summers with his grandparents in rural Georgia. Roberts' father had an appliance repair business in Miami.
Roberts became interested in electronics and built a small relay-based computer while in high school. Medicine was his true passion, however, and he entered University of Miami with the intention of becoming a doctor, the first in his family to attend college. There he met a neurosurgeon who shared his interest in electronics. The doctor suggested that Roberts get an engineering degree before applying to medical school, and Roberts changed his major to electrical engineering.
Roberts married Joan Clark while at the university, and when she became pregnant Roberts knew that he would have to drop out of school to support his new family. The U.S. Air Force had a program that would pay for college, and in May 1962 he enlisted with the hope of finishing his degree through the Airman Education & Commissioning Program.
After basic training, Roberts attended the Cryptographic Equipment Maintenance School at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. Because of his electrical engineering studies at college, Roberts was made an instructor at the Cryptographic School when he finished the course. To augment his meager enlisted man's pay, Roberts worked on several off-duty projects and even set up a one-man company, Reliance Engineering. The most notable job was to create the electronics that animated the Christmas characters in the window display of Joske's department store in San Antonio. In 1965, he was selected for an Air Force program to complete his college degree and become a commissioned officer. Roberts earned an electrical engineering degree from Oklahoma State University in 1968 and was assigned to the Laser Division of the Weapons Laboratory at Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In 1968, he looked into applying to medical school but learned that, at age 27, he was considered too old.
Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems
Roberts worked with Forrest Mims at the Weapons Laboratory, and both shared an interest in model rocketry. Mims was an advisor to the Albuquerque Model Rocket Club and met the publisher of Model Rocketry magazine at a rocketry conference. This led to an article in the September 1969 issue of Model Rocketry, "Transistorized Tracking Light for Night Launched Model Rockets". Roberts, Mims, and lab coworkers Stan Cagle and Bob Zaller decided that they could design and sell electronics kits to model rocket hobbyists. Roberts wanted to call the new company Reliance Engineering, but Mims wanted to form an acronym similar to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's MIT. Cagle came up with Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS). They advertised the light flasher, a roll rate sensor with transmitter, and other kits in Model Rocketry, but the sales were disappointing.
Mims wrote an article about the new technology of light-emitting diodes that was to be published in the November 1970 issue of Popular Electronics magazine. He asked the editors if they also wanted a project story, and they agreed. Roberts and Mims developed an LED communicator that would transmit voice on an infrared beam of light to a receiver hundreds of feet away. Readers could buy a kit of parts to build the Opticom LED Communicator from MITS for $15. MITS sold just over a hundred kits. Mims was now out of the Air Force and wanted to pursue a career as a technology writer. Roberts bought out his original partners and focused the company on the emerging market of electronic calculators.
Calculators
Roberts's first real experience with computers came while at Oklahoma State University where engineering students had free access to an IBM 1620 computer. His office at the Weapons Laboratory had the state of the art Hewlett-Packard 9100A programmable calculator in 1968. Roberts had always wanted to build a digital computer and, in July 1970, Electronic Arrays announced a set of six LSI integrated circuits that would make a four-function calculator. Roberts was determined to design a calculator kit and got fellow Weapons Laboratory officers William Yates and Ed Laughlin to invest in the project with time and money.
The first product was a "four-function" calculator that could add, subtract, multiply, and divide. The display was only eight digits, but the calculations were performed with 16 digits precision. The MITS Model 816 calculator kit was featured on the November 1971 cover of Popular Electronics. The kit sold for $179 and an assembled unit was $275. Unlike the previous kits that MITS had offered, thousands of calculator orders came in each month.
The monthly sales reached $100,000 in March 1973, and MITS moved to a larger building with 10,000 square feet (930 square meters) of space. In 1973, MITS was selling every calculator that they could make, and 110 employees worked in two shifts assembling them. The functionality of calculator integrated circuits increased at a rapid pace and Roberts was designing and producing new models. The popularity of electronic calculators drew the traditional office equipment companies and the semiconductor companies into the market. In September 1972, Texas Instruments (TI) introduced the TI-2500 portable four-function calculator that sold for $120. The larger companies could sell below cost to win market share. By early 1974, Ed Roberts found that he could purchase a calculator in a retail store for less than his cost of materials. MITS was now $300,000 in debt, and Roberts was looking for a new hit product.
Altair 8800 computer
Roberts decided to return to the kit market with a low cost computer. The target customer would think that "some assembly required" was a desirable feature. In April 1974, Intel released the 8080 microprocessor that Roberts felt was powerful enough for his computer kit, but each 8080 chip sold for $360 in small quantities. Roberts felt that the price of a computer kit had to be under $400; to meet this price, he agreed to order 1,000 microprocessors from Intel for $75 each. The company was down to 20 employees and a bank loan for $65,000 financed the design and initial production of the new computer. Roberts told the bank that he expected to sell 800 computers, but he guessed that it would be around 200.
Art Salsberg, editorial director of Popular Electronics, was looking for a computer construction project, and his technical editor Les Solomon knew that MITS was working on an Intel 8080-based computer kit. Roberts assured Solomon that the project would be complete by November to meet the press deadline for the January 1975 issue. The first prototype was finished in October and shipped to Popular Electronics in New York for the cover photograph, but it was lost in transit. Solomon already had a number of pictures of the machine, and the article was based on them. Roberts and Yates got to work on building a replacement. The computer on the magazine cover was an empty box with just switches and LEDs on the front panel. The finished Altair computer had a completely different circuit board layout than the prototype shown in the magazine.
MITS products typically had generic names such as the Model 1440 Calculator or the Model 1600 Digital Voltmeter. The editors of Popular Electronics wanted a more alluring name for the computer. MITS technical writer David Bunnell came up with three pages of possible names, but Roberts was too busy finishing the computer design to choose one. There are several versions of the story of who selected Altair as the computer name. At the first Altair Computer Convention (March 1976), Les Solomon told the audience that the name was inspired by his 12-year-old daughter Lauren. "She said why don't you call it Altair – that's where the [Star Trek] Enterprise is going tonight." The December 1976 issue of Popular Science misquoted this account, giving credit to Ed Roberts' daughter. His only daughter Dawn was not born until 1983. Both of these versions have appeared in many books, magazines, and web sites.
Editor Alexander Burawa recalls a less dramatic version. The Altair was originally going to be named the PE-8 (Popular Electronics 8-bit), but Les Solomon thought this name to be rather dull, so Solomon, Burawa, and John McVeigh decided that: "It's a stellar event, so let's name it after a star." McVeigh suggested "Altair", the twelfth-brightest star in the sky.
When the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics reached readers in mid-December 1974, MITS was flooded with orders. They had to hire extra people just to answer the phones. In February, MITS received 1,000 orders for the Altair 8800. The quoted delivery time was 60 days, but it was many more months before the machines were shipped. By August 1975, they had shipped over 5,000 computers.
The Altair 8800 computer was a break-even sale for MITS. They needed to sell additional memory boards, I/O boards, and other options to make a profit. The April 1975 issue of the MITS newsletter Computer Notes had a page-long price list that offered over 15 optional boards. The delivery time given was 60 or 90 days, but many items were never produced and dropped from future price lists. Initially, Roberts decided to concentrate on production of the computers. Prompt delivery of optional boards did not occur until October 1975.
There were several design and component problems in the MITS 4K Dynamic RAM board. By July, new companies such as Processor Technology were selling 4K Static RAM boards with the promise of reliable operation. Ed Roberts acknowledged the 4K Dynamic RAM board problems in the October 1975 Computer Notes. The price was reduced from $264 to $195 and existing purchasers got a $50 refund. MITS released its own 4K Static RAM board in January 1976.
Several other companies started making add-in boards and the first clone, the IMSAI 8080, was available in December 1975.
Altair BASIC
Bill Gates was a student at Harvard University and Paul Allen worked for Honeywell in Boston when they saw the Altair computer on the cover of Popular Electronics. They had previously written software for the earlier Intel 8008 microprocessor and knew the Intel 8080 was powerful enough to support a BASIC interpreter. They sent a letter to MITS claiming to have a BASIC interpreter for the 8080 microprocessor. Roberts was interested, so Gates and Allen began work on the software. Both had experience with the Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-10 minicomputers that they would use. Allen modified the DEC Macro Assembler to produce code for the Intel 8080 and wrote a program to emulate the 8080 so they could test their BASIC without having an Altair computer. Using DEC's BASIC-PLUS language as a guide, Gates determined what features would work with the limited resources of the Altair computer. Gates then started writing the 8080 assembly-language code on yellow legal pads. In February Gates and Allen started using a PDP-10 at Harvard to write and debug BASIC. They also enlisted another Harvard student, Monte Davidoff, to write the floating-point math routines.
Paul Allen flew to Albuquerque, New Mexico, in March 1975 to test BASIC on a real Altair 8800 computer. Roberts picked him up at the airport in his pickup truck and drove to the nondescript storefront where MITS was located. Allen was not impressed. The Altair computer with 7 kB of memory that BASIC required was still being tested and would not be ready until the next day. Roberts had booked Allen in the most expensive hotel in Albuquerque and the room was $40 more than Allen brought with him. Roberts paid for the room and wondered who is this software guy who can not afford a room in a hotel.
The next day the Altair with 7 kB had finally passed its memory test and Allen had their BASIC interpreter on a paper tape Bill Gates had created just before Allen left Boston. It took almost 15 minutes for the Teletype to load the program into the Altair then the Teletype printed "MEMORY SIZE?" Allen entered 7168 and the Teletype printed "READY". Both Allen and Roberts were stunned their software and hardware actually worked. They entered several small programs and they worked. The BASIC interpreter was not complete and crashed several times, but Roberts had a high level language for his computer. Roberts hired Allen as Vice President and Director of Software at MITS. Bill Gates also worked at MITS; the October 1975 company newsletter gives his title as "Software Specialist".
Bill Gates remained at Harvard, but continued working on BASIC. Students were allowed to use the DEC PDP-10, but officials were not pleased when they found that Gates was developing a commercial product. The school then implemented a policy that forced Gates to use a commercial time share service to work on BASIC.
On July 22, 1975, MITS signed a contract for the Altair BASIC with Bill Gates and Paul Allen. They received $3,000 at signing and a royalty for each copy of BASIC sold, with a cap of $180,000. MITS received an exclusive worldwide license to the program for 10 years. They also had exclusive rights to sublicense the program to other companies and agreed to use its "best efforts" to license, promote and commercialize the program. MITS would supply the computer time necessary for development on a PDP-10 owned by the Albuquerque school district.
MITS realized that BASIC was a competitive advantage and bundled the software with computer hardware sales. Customers who purchased the computer, memory, and I/O boards from MITS could get BASIC for $75; the standalone price was $500. Many hobbyists purchased their hardware from a third-party and "borrowed" a copy of Altair BASIC. Roberts refused to sub-license BASIC to other companies; this led to arbitration in 1977 between MITS and the new "Micro-Soft". The arbitrator agreed with Microsoft and allowed them to license the 8080 BASIC to other companies. Roberts was disappointed with this ruling. Since both Allen and Gates had been employees of MITS and he paid for the computer time, Roberts felt it was his software.
Sale to Pertec
In 1976, MITS had 230 employees and sales of $6 million. Roberts was tiring of his management responsibilities and was looking for a larger partner. MITS had always used Pertec Computer Corporation disk drives and on December 3, 1976, Pertec signed a letter of intent to acquire MITS for $6 million in stock. The deal was completed in May 1977 and Roberts' share was $2–3 million. The Altair products were merged into the Pertec line, and the MITS facility was used to produce the PCC-2000 small-business computer. The Albuquerque plant was closed in December 1980 and the production was moved to the Pertec plants in Irvine, California.
Medical doctor
In late 1977 Roberts returned to rural Georgia and bought a large farm in Wheeler County where he had often visited his grandparents' home in his youth. He had a non-compete agreement with Pertec covering hardware products, so he became a gentleman farmer and started a software company. His age could have thwarted his dream of becoming a medical doctor, but nearby Mercer University started a medical school in 1982. Roberts was in the first class and graduated with an M.D. in 1986. He did his residency in internal medicine and in 1988 established a practice in the small town of Cochran, Georgia. In 2009, Dr. Roberts was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha, the medical honor society. He was nominated by Mercer alumnus Guy Foulkes, MD based on Roberts’ dual accomplishment of developer of the first personal computer and his devotion to rural medicine.
Personal life
Roberts married Joan Clark (b. 1941) in 1962 and they had five sons, Melvin (b. 1963), Clark (b. 1964), John David (b. 1965), Edward (b. 1970), Martin (b. 1975) and a daughter Dawn (b. 1983). They were divorced in 1988.
Roberts married Donna Mauldin in 1991 and they were still married when interviewed by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in April 1997. He was married to Rosa Cooper from 2000 until his death.
Roberts died April 1, 2010 after a months-long bout with pneumonia, at the age of 68. His sister, Cheryl R Roberts (b. November 13, 1947 – d. March 6, 2010), of nearby Dublin, Georgia died at age 62, a few weeks before his death. During his last hospitalization in Macon, Georgia, hospital staffers were stunned to see an unannounced Bill Gates, who had come to pay last respects to his first employer. He was survived by his wife, all six of his children and his mother, Edna Wilcher Roberts. All live in Georgia.
Works
Books
Magazines
Part 2 in the February 1975 issue.
Part 2 in the December 1975 issue.
Notes
References
External links
Commentary on Ed Roberts' life and medical practice.
STARTUP: Albuquerque and the Personal Computer Revolution New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science
Altair 8800 Computer at Vintage-Computer Web Site
Brief History of the Altair. Copies of Altair articles in Popular Electronics
Obituary in The Independent by Marcus Williamson
1941 births
2010 deaths
American electrical engineers
American inventors
Physicians from Georgia (U.S. state)
Deaths from pneumonia in Georgia (U.S. state)
Mercer University alumni
Model rocketry
Oklahoma State University alumni
United States Air Force officers
University of Miami College of Engineering alumni
People from Bleckley County, Georgia
Miami Senior High School alumni |
13013549 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esko%20%28company%29 | Esko (company) | Esko, formerly called EskoArtwork, is a graphic arts company producing prepress software and hardware for the packaging and labels, sign and display and publishing industries.
History
Esko was the result of a merger between Barco Graphics and Purup-Eskofot A/S in 2001. The merged company was called Esko-Graphics but was renamed Esko in 2006. In the fall of 2005, Esko became fully owned by Axcel, a Danish private equity investment company.
In August 2007 Esko announced that it was 'joining forces' with Artwork Systems Group NV (AWS), its chief competitor in the packaging prepress market. Esko initially bought 76.69% of AWS shares for €196 million. Enfocus, a brand of PDF pre-flighting and workflow software originally acquired by Artwork Systems in 2000, became a subsidiary of the combined EskoArtwork company.
Reflecting the merger, Esko changed its name to EskoArtwork. It also introduced a new logo, though it is visually very close to the Esko original.
In January 2011, 100% of EskoArtwork shares have been transferred to Danaher. In January 2012, the name changed back to Esko, the logo was also updated. Esko acquired CAPE Systems (a palletization software vendor) in 2013, MediaBeacon (a Digital Asset Management vendor) in 2015 and Blue Software, LLC (a label and artwork management software vendor) in 2018.
Esko is headquartered in Ghent, Belgium.
References
External links
Software companies of Belgium
Computer hardware companies
Printing companies of Belgium
Danaher subsidiaries
Companies based in East Flanders |
7819369 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDemu | CDemu | CDemu is a free and open-source virtual drive software, designed to emulate an optical drive and optical disc (including CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs) on the Linux operating system.
, CDemu is not available in the official repositories of Debian, Ubuntu and Fedora Linux for any release, but it is available via official PPA for Ubuntu and COPR for Fedora Linux.
Components
CDEmu consists of:
a kernel module implementing a virtual SCSI host bus adapter,
libmirage which is a software library for interpreting optical disc images,
a daemon which emulates the functionality of a SCSI optical drive+disc,
textmode and GTK clients for controlling the emulator.
The software is portable to other operating systems supported by GLib, with the exceptions of the kernel module and the clients which rely on d-bus communication.
History
CDemu was originally designed by Robert Penz and Justus Schwartz as a patch for MPlayer that allowed mounting .CUE/.BIN files. After the patch was completed, they realized the simplicity, and wrote a module for Linux kernel.
Originally, CDemu was named Virtual CD, but this name had been previously trademarked, and the owners of the trademark requested that they not use the name.
As of June, 2007, development on CDemu 0.8 ceased and a rewrite was developed instead. Most of this work was done by Rok Mandeljc. This new version of CDemu took another approach to the emulation by doing as much as possible in userspace. As of June 2008 it is considered to be mostly stable.
Status
As of version 2.0.0 CDemu supports the following image formats:
.mds and .mdx format
.dmg and .cdr format
Blindwrite .b5t/.b6t format
DiscJuggler's .cdi format
Easy CD Creator .cif format
Roxio / WinOnCD .c2d format
Error Code Modeller .ecm container format
gBurner .gbi format
.iso format and its compressed forms, .cso and .isz
.nrg format
PowerISO .daa format
.udf format
Raw images (.img, .bin, .ccd, .cue, .sub and .toc)
GZip and Xz archives
The emulator endeavors to follow the MMC-3 standard for SCSI optical drives as closely as possible, ensuring realistic and accurate emulation.
Optical media emulated by CDemu can be mounted within Linux.
CDemu has the support for CD subchannels, CD-Text, ISRC，MCN and ECC/EDC, DPM/RMPS. There is also some support for a limited number of encrypted and compressed image formats.
The developers are working on supporting as many major formats as they can, and they encourage users to submit patches to this end.
See also
Alternative Linux programs that are available in the repositories of Debian, Ubuntu and Fedora Linux:
AcetoneISO
Furius ISO Mount
References
External links
Official website
Disk image emulators
Third-party Linux kernel modules
Optical disc-related software that uses GTK |
19047417 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational%20Synergy | Rational Synergy | Rational Synergy is a software tool that provides software configuration management (SCM) capabilities for all artifacts related to software development including source code, documents and images as well as the final built software executable and libraries. Rational Synergy also provides the repository for the change management tool known as Rational Change. Together these two tools form an integrated configuration management and change management environment that is used in software development organizations that need controlled SCM processes and an understanding of what is in a build of their software.
The name Synergy refers to its database level integration with Change Management that provides views into what is in a build in terms of defects.
History
Synergy began in 1988 as a research project for computer-aided software engineering by software developer Pete Orelup at Computers West of Irvine, California. Computers West was supporting itself through contract software development and an application for finance and insurance at automobile dealerships on the Pick OS.
In 1989, the company decided to pursue development of a software configuration management and revision control product, renamed itself CaseWare, Inc., and hired three more developers. The system was re-imagined as a platform for building SCM systems running on Unix (Sun Solaris).
It was decided that a compiled language such as C++ was not sufficiently flexible, reliable, and productive, and so a new programming language called ACcent was created. ACcent has many features similar to Java, but pre-dates it by five years. It has a compiler that compiles to machine-independent byte-codes, and a virtual machine execution environment with automatic memory management. Except for the compiler and execution environment, the entire Amplify Control product was written in the ACcent language, including a scalable, networked client-server architecture and use of a SQL database with a schema flexible enough to allow customer extension of the built-in data types in ACcent without changes to the physical schema.
CaseWare Amplify Control also included a distributed build automation and continuous integration system, much like today's Maven and Hudson tools. It was first released in 1990. Later a bug tracking system was also built on the platform.
The company was somewhat successful, but lacked experienced leadership and started to lose market share to ClearCase. In 1991 the company was nearly broke and the original developers walked out en masse. A new CEO was brought in, and the company was relaunched, although without the developers. Both CaseWare and Amplify Control were renamed Continuus Software in 1993.
By 1997 Continuus was approaching 100m in revenue and expanded into Europe, eventually opening a help desk office in Ireland with the intention of eventually providing 24x7 support to the Fortune 500. It considered the Rational Clearcase product line as its competitor in the Engineering and Scientific market and Platinum Harvest as its competitor on Wall Street. It began to recruit CM people as sales engineers out of its client base at this point from clients.
The fears over the Y2K bug was a profitable motivator for clients to buy SCM products such as Continuus at this point. Smaller organizations that grew too large for Visual Sourcesafe and PVCS looked to "move up" as they "got religion" after realizing that they were missing code, stomping on each other's changes or not having enough workflow to be able to run smoothly. One of Continuus' major selling points at this time was Task Based CM, a customization that one of their major clients (Tandem Computer) had requested which they had rolled into the main product. This turned into a major selling point over Rational Clearcase which still needed major add-on professional services work to adapt to a customer's workflow and methodology.
Continuus tried with mixed success to jump on the .com bandwagon as well. During this period with the VP of Engineering looked at getting things to work under Tomcat using servlets and a "light" version of the middleware process which was known as the "engine process". This eventually became part of the product suite which was renamed CM/Synergy and PT/Synergy. After getting Continuus to run its Informix database and server processes on Windows Server, an integration with Visual Studio was added to make Continuus look like Visual Sourcesafe to the IDE. Walt Disney bought into the product as it addressed its Y2K issues. US Internetworking (USi) became the "largest single transaction" in early 1999.
Other companies that were clients at this point included Remedy (help desk software), Signet Bank, Bank of America, SAIC (including a rather bizarre collaboration with the Web development company that created the Dr. Ruth sex site), and Novell.
On July 29, 1999, Continuus Software announced a public offering listing its stock on the NASDAQ Stock Market. In October 2000, the Swedish software company Telelogic, agreed to purchase Continuus Software in a deal worth $42 million. Under Telelogic, Continuus was renamed Synergy. It had also recently acquired QSS and the DOORS product line. As a result, in the summer of 2001, it decided to lay off the entire Continuus Professional Services organization staff, reasoning that the QSS services folk would be able to support both products. That strategy didn't work out so well, and some of the ex-services folk were able to find consulting jobs with Continuus clients. In 2008 IBM announced that it had purchased Telelogic. Synergy was added to the IBM's Rational Software family of SCM tools and named Rational Synergy. In 2021 IBM anncounced the withdrawal and support discontinance of Rational Synergy and Rational Change.
Notes
External links
Rational Synergy
IBM Knowledge Center for Rational Synergy
Rational Synergy Documentation Library for documentation prior to version 7.2
Configuration management
Synergy
Version control systems |
4086309 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List%20of%20Wesleyan%20University%20people | List of Wesleyan University people | This is a partial list of notable people affiliated with Wesleyan University. It includes alumni and faculty of the institution.
Administration and faculty
Academia, past and present
Debby Applegate – former faculty, American history, 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography
Hannah Arendt – fellow 1961–1963, Center for Advanced Studies (now the Center for the Humanities), political theorist
Wilbur Olin Atwater (1865 Wesleyan B.S.) – first professor of chemistry; first to quantify the calorie; pioneer, utilization of respiration calorimeter
Reginald Bartholomew – former professor of government; former U.S. Ambassador to Italy, to Spain, to Lebanon
Edgar S. Brightman – faculty 1915–19, philosopher, promulgated the philosophy known as Boston personalism
Nathan Brody – emeritus professor of psychology; known for his work on intelligence and personality
Norman O. Brown – faculty 1946-196?; professor of classics; wrote "Love's Body" and Life Against Death
Judith Butler – faculty 1984–86; philosopher and gender theorist
Walter Guyton Cady – faculty 1902–46; professor of physics; Duddell Medal and Prize
Erica Chenoweth – faculty 2008–12; political scientist, expert on civil resistance movements, Grawemeyer Award winner
Joanne V. Creighton – faculty 1990–94; professor of English; interim president, Wesleyan; 17th president, Mount Holyoke College; interim president, Haverford College
Raymond Dodge – former professor of psychology; experimental psychologist
Henry Duckworth – faculty 1946–51; professor of physics; president, Royal Society of Canada (1971–72)
John Price Durbin - professor of natural science; Chaplain of the Senate, president of Dickinson College
Luigi R. Einaudi – former faculty; professor of government; acting Secretary General of the Organization of American States (2004–05)
Max Farrand – former professor of history
Stephen O. Garrison – founder of the Vineland Training School
Leslie H. Gelb – faculty 1964–67, department of history; Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting; director of project that produced the Pentagon Papers
Richard N. Goodwin – fellow 1965–67, Center for Advanced Studies; advisor, speech writer to U.S. Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Senator Robert F. Kennedy
Lori Gruen – current faculty, professor of philosophy, working at the intersections of ethical theory and ethical practice
Philip Hallie – faculty for 32 years, philosopher; developed the model of institutional cruelty
Gustav Hedlund – mathematician, one of the founders of symbolic and topological dynamics; visiting professor of mathematics
Masami Imai – current faculty, economist
Karl William Kapp – faculty 1945–50; professor of economics; one of the leading 20th-century institutional economists
Eugene Marion Klaaren – emeritus professor, historian and professor of religion
Stanley Lebergott – emeritus professor, American-government economist and professor of economics; noted for historical unemployment statistics
Charles Lemert – emeritus professor, social theorist and sociologist
Clarence D. Long – former professor of economics; former member, U.S. Council of Economic Advisers, under President Dwight Eisenhower (1953–54, 1956–57)
Andrei Markovits – professor of comparative politics and German studies (1977–83)
David McClelland (1938 Wesleyan B.S.) – professor of psychology in the early 1950s
David McCullough – scholar-in-residence 1982, 1983; two National Book Awards (1978, 1982); two Pulitzer Prizes for Biography or Autobiography (1993, 2002); Presidential Medal of Freedom
Louis Mink – faculty 1952–1983; philosopher of history; responsible for what would later be called the linguistic turn in philosophy of history
Daniel Patrick Moynihan – fellow 1964–67, Center for Advanced Studies; later U.S. Senator, New York
Lawrence Olson – faculty 1966–1988; historian specializing in Japan; developed the Asian-studies program at Wesleyan
Satoshi Omura – visiting faculty in the early 1970s, honorary Max Tishler Professor of Chemistry, 2005; awarded honorary Doctor of Science, 1994; 2015 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Scott Plous – current faculty, professor of psychology
Nelson W. Polsby – former faculty, political scientist; known for study of U.S. presidency and U.S. Congress
Nathan Pusey – former faculty, department of classics; later president of Lawrence University and 24th President of Harvard University
William North Rice (1865 Wesleyan graduate) – professor of geology
Francisco Rodríguez – former professor of economics and Latin American studies
Dana Royer – current faculty, professor of earth & environmental sciences
Walter Warwick Sawyer – faculty 1958–65, professor of mathematics
Hon. Barry R. Schaller – current faculty, teaches bioethics and public-health law, ethics and policy; associate justice, Connecticut Supreme Court
Elmer Eric Schattschneider – faculty, 1930–60, political scientist, namesake for award for best dissertation in U. S. in field of American politics
Carl E. Schorske – professor of history in the 1950s; Pulitzer Prize for History and MacArthur Fellowship
Frederick Slocum – first professor of astronomy, director of the Van Vleck Observatory (1915–44)
Richard Slotkin (MAAE Wesleyan graduate) – Olin Professor of English and American Studies, emeritus; American Academy of Arts and Sciences
William L. Storrs – faculty 1841–46, professor of law; also Congressman from Connecticut; Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court
Max Tishler – faculty 1970–89, professor, chemistry; National Medal of Science, Priestley Medal, National Inventors Hall of Fame
Hing Tong – former chairman, mathematics department; known for providing the original proof of the Katětov–Tong insertion theorem
Charles Kittredge True – faculty 1849–60, professor of intellectual and moral science
Jennifer Tucker, historian and biologist
John Monroe Van Vleck (1850 Wesleyan graduate) – faculty 1853–1904, emeritus 1904–12, professor of mathematics and astronomy
Jan Willis – emeritus professor of religion and East Asian Studies
Woodrow Wilson – faculty 1888–90; professor, chair, history and political economy; 13th president, Princeton University; 28th President, United States; Nobel Peace Prize
Robert Coldwell Wood – former faculty, political scientist; former 1st Undersecretary and 2nd United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (1963–69)
John Wrench – former professor of mathematics, pioneer in using computers for mathematical calculations; National Academy of Sciences
Gary Yohe – current faculty, professor of economics; senior member, coordinating lead author, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; co-recipient, 2007 Nobel Peace Prize
Elisabeth Young-Bruehl – faculty 1974–c. 1995; biographer and psychotherapist
Arts and letters, past and present
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – visiting writer 2008; MacArthur Fellowship (2008)
John Ashbery – Millet Writing Fellow 2010; MacArthur Fellowship; 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry; National Book Award, National Book Critics Circle Award
Jeanine Basinger – current faculty, c. 1970–present, film scholar
Anselm Berrigan – current faculty, poet, Best American Poetry of 2002, 2004
Ed Blackwell – artist in residence, late 1970s; recorded extensively with Ornette Coleman
Anthony Braxton – John Spencer Camp Professor of Music, retired 2013; MacArthur Fellowship; 2014 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master
Robert E. Brown – faculty 1962–1979, professor of music, founded ethnomusicology program at Wesleyan
Neely Bruce – current faculty, professor of music; composer, conductor, pianist, scholar of American music
John Cage – faculty 1961, 1968, composer; affiliated with Wesleyan and collaborated with members of its Music Department from 1950s until his death in 1992
Tony Connor – current faculty, British poet and playwright, Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
Junot Díaz – Millet Writing Fellow 2009; 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, National Book Critics Circle Award; MacArthur Fellowship (2012)
Annie Dillard – English faculty for 21 years; 1975 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction
Eiko & Koma – MacArthur Fellowship; Japanese performance duo; Eiko is current faculty
T. S. Eliot – Nobel Prize in Literature (1948), Presidential Medal of Freedom (1964); in the 1960s, special editorial consultant to Wesleyan University Press
Jimmy Garrison – artist in residence, ?–1976, bassist; long association with John Coltrane
Angel Gil-Ordoñez – former professor of music and Director of Orchestra Studies; Spanish conductor
Dana Gioia – visiting writer 1986–1989, American Book Award; Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts (2003–2009)
Roger Mathew Grant – current faculty, expert in music theory
Donald Hall – 14th United States Poet Laureate, 2006–07; National Book Critics Circle Award, 1955; member, editorial board for poetry, Wesleyan University Press (1958–64)
Jon B. Higgins (Wesleyan B.A., M.A., PhD) – faculty 1978–84, scholar and performer of Carnatic Music, Fulbright Scholar
Jay Hoggard (Wesleyan B.A. 1976) – current faculty, vibraphonist
Ana Paula Höfling – professor of dance
Paul Horgan – adjunct professor of English, 1961–71; professor emeritus and permanent author-in-residence, 1971–95; twice winner, Pulitzer Prize for History (1955 and 1976); Bancroft Prize for History
Susan Howe – distinguished visiting writer and faculty 2010–11, 2011 Bollingen Prize
Quiara Alegría Hudes – Shapiro Distinguished Professor of Writing and Theater 2014–2016, visiting writer 2011–12; 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Paul LaFarge – writer, English faculty as of 2010; taught writing at the university on and off since 2002
Alvin Lucier – John Spencer Camp Professor of Music 1970–2010; pioneering experimental composer
William Manchester – faculty 1955–2004; former emeritus professor of history; 2001 National Humanities Medal; The Death of a President, American Caesar
David P. McAllester – faculty 1947–86; professor, anthropology and music; co-founded Society for Ethnomusicology
Makanda Ken McIntyre – former professor of music
Lisa Moore – current faculty, international classical and jazz pianist
V. S. Naipaul – former visiting professor; Nobel Prize in Literature in fiction (2001); Man Booker Prize (1971)
Palghat Kollengode Viswanatha Narayanaswamy – artist in residence; considered to be among the finest Carnatic vocalists of the 20th century
Ramnad Raghavan – faculty for many years, South Indian virtuoso of the mridangam
S. Ramanathan (Wesleyan PhD, ethnomusicology) – faculty, singer (Carnatic music), and musicologist
T. Ranganathan – first artist in residence, beginning in 1963; Carnatic virtuoso of the mridangam
Jean Redpath – artist in residence, 1972–76
Kit Reed – science- and speculative-fiction writer, resident writer and creative writing faculty, 2008-2017
F.D. Reeve – faculty 1962–2002 (English and Russian literature), emeritus professor of letters (2002–2013); poet, translator
Phyllis Rose – faculty 1969–2005, professor of English; literary critic, essayist, biographer
George Saunders – visiting writer, MacArthur Fellowship (2006)
Jonathan Schell – journalist, author, visiting professor in writing 2000–02
Dani Shapiro – current faculty, professor of creative writing
Paula Sharp – former writer in residence in the College of Letters (2003–12)
Joseph Siry – current faculty, leading architectural historian, professor of art and art history
Mark Slobin – current faculty, professor of music
Charles Wilbert Snow – faculty 1921–1952; poet, professor of English; coach, debate team; founder, The Cardinal (literary magazine); Lieutenant Governor and Governor of Connecticut
Mark Strand – former visiting professor; fourth United States Poet Laureate, 1990–91; MacArthur Fellowship; 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
Sumarsam (Wesleyan M.A. 1976) – current faculty, former artist in residence; Javanese virtuoso, scholar of the gamelan
Marcus Thompson – former faculty, violist and viola d'amore player, recording artist and educator
Clifford Thornton – faculty 1969–75, jazz composer and musician, UNESCO counsellor on African-American education 1976–87, Black Panther Minister of Art
Deb Olin Unferth – former professor of English and creative writing; nominee, 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award; Pushcart Prizes 2005, 2011
T. Viswanathan (Wesleyan PhD, ethnomusicology 1975) – former professor of music, Carnatic flute virtuoso, 1992 National Heritage Fellowship recipient
Richard Wilbur – faculty c. 1950–80; professor of English; second United States Poet Laureate; twice winner, Pulitzer Prize (1957, 1989); Bollingen Prize
Elizabeth Willis – current faculty, poet; teaches creative writing and literature
Michiyo Yagi – visiting professor in late 1980s; Japanese musician, koto virtuoso
Gorō Yamaguchi – artist in residence, Japanese shakuhachi (vertical bamboo flute) virtuoso
Anuradha Sriram, India playback singer
Alumni
Balzan Prize winners
Charles Coulston Gillispie (1940) – 1997 Balzan Prize; George Sarton Medal; Pfizer Award; professor, history of science, Emeritus, Princeton University
Russell J. Hemley (1977) – physicist; 2005 Balzan Prize (with Ho-Kwang Mao); Director, Carnegie Institution for Science; National Academy of Sciences
Pulitzer prizes
Ethan Bronner (1976) – Pulitzer Prize (Explanatory Journalism, 2001); Battle for Justice (The New York Public Library, one of the 25 best books of 1989)
Lisa Chedekel (1982) – Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting (1999); finalist, Pulitzer (2007); George Polk Award; Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting; Worth Bingham Prize
Seth Faison (1981) – journalist, Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Reporting (1994); former Bureau Chief, New York Times (1995–2000); author
Sue Fox (B.A. high honors 1993?) – Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting (2004)
David Garrow (1975) – Pulitzer Prize for Biography (1987); Fellow, Homerton College, Cambridge University
Alan C. Miller (1976) – Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting (2003), Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting (1997), George Polk Award (1996)
Lin-Manuel Miranda (2002) – playwright, winner of Pulitzer Prize in Drama (2016) for Hamilton
Lucille Renwick (1987) – 2 Pulitzers: Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting (1998); Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Reporting (1995)
Barbara Roessner (1975) – Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting (1999); finalist, Pulitzer (2007, 2003, 2001); Executive Editor, Hearst Connecticut Newspapers (2012–), Managing Editor (2006–09)
Leland Stowe (1921) – Pulitzer Prize (Correspondence, 1930); runner-up for second Pulitzer (Correspondence, 1940)
Lawrence Rogers Thompson (B.A.) – Pulitzer Prize for Biography of Robert Frost (1971); professor of English, Princeton University
Stephen Schiff (1972) – journalist; finalist, Pulitzer Prize for Criticism (1983)
Wadada Leo Smith composer, musician; finalist, Pulitzer Prize for music (2013)
MacArthur Fellows
The following alumni are fellows of the MacArthur Fellows Program (known as the "genius grant") from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. As this is an interdisciplinary award, recipients are listed here in addition to their listing in their field of accomplishment.
Ruth Behar 1977–88 (first Latin woman named a) MacArthur Fellow; professor, anthropology, University of Michigan; poet, writer
Majora Carter 1984–2005 MacArthur Fellow; environmental justice advocate; urban revitalization strategist; public radio host; 2011 Peabody award
James Longley 1994–2009 MacArthur Fellow; documentarian, including Gaza Strip, Iraq in Fragments, Sari's Mother
Lin-Manuel Miranda 2015 MacArthur Fellow; Broadway actor, composer, playwright, and lyricist (In the Heights, Hamilton); 2008 Tony Award winner for Best Musical and Best Original Score, 2008 Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album, 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama winner.
Academy, Emmy, Tony, and Grammy awards
Academy awards and nominations
Miguel Arteta (1989) – Student Academy Award, Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award; film director (Chuck & Buck, The Good Girl, Youth in Revolt, Cedar Rapids)
Shari Springer Berman (1985) – Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, director, American Splendor (Best Adapted Screenplay); The Extra Man, Cinema Verite
Akiva Goldsman (1983) – Academy Award-winning screenwriter, A Beautiful Mind (2001, Best Adapted Screenplay); Golden Globe Award; The Client, A Time to Kill
Michael Gottwald (2006) – producer; 2012 nomination, Academy Award for Best Picture
Dan Janvey (2006) – director, producer; 2012 nomination, Academy Award for Best Picture
Sebastian Junger (1984) – documentarian; Restrepo; 2011 Academy Award nomination; Grand Jury Prize, Best Documentary, 2010 Sundance Film Festival
Kenneth Lonergan – playwright, screenwriter, director; nominated for two Academy Awards (2002, Gangs of New York; 2000, You Can Count on Me) and Pulitzer Prize (2001, The Waverley Gallery); Grand Jury Prize, Best Drama, 2000 Sundance Film Festival (You Can Count on Me)
James Longley (1994) – documentarian; Student Academy Award (1994); Academy Award-nominated Iraq in Fragments (2007), Academy Award-nominated Sari's Mother (2008); three jury awards, 2006 Sundance Film Festival
Laurence Mark (1971) – producer, nominated for three Academy Awards: Jerry Maguire, As Good as It Gets, Working Girl; Dreamgirls (won Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy); Independent Spirit Award; Julie & Julia
Roger Weisberg (1975) – documentarian; nominated for two Academy Awards (2000, Sound and Fury; 2002, Why Can't We Be a Family Again) 1994 Peabody Award (Road Scholar); 100 other awards
Paul Weitz (1988) – Academy Award-nominated director, American Pie; About a Boy, Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant, Little Fockers
Joss Whedon (1987) – Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, Toy Story; Speed; director, screenwriter, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Serenity, The Cabin in the Woods, The Avengers
Allie Wrubel – Academy Award-winning composer, songwriter, Song of the South, song, "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" (1947, Best Original Song); Songwriters Hall of Fame
Benh Zeitlin (2004) – filmmaker, composer, director; his Beasts of the Southern Wild garnered four 2012 Academy Award nominations; 2012 Caméra d'Or award, Cannes Film Festival; 2012 Grand Jury Prize, Dramatic, Sundance Film Festival
Emmy awards
Emmy awards in journalism
David Brancaccio (1982) – Emmy Award-winning newscaster and host, NOW on PBS; DuPont-Columbia Award; Peabody Award
Dina Kaplan (1993) – 2007 Emmy Award for Spot News
Randall Pinkston (1972) – three-time Emmy Award-winning television journalist; RTNDA Edward R. Murrow Award
Stephen Talbot (1970) – television reporter, writer, producer for PBS "Frontline"; two Emmy Awards, two Peabody Awards; Edward Murrow Award; DuPont-Columbia Award; Edgar Allan Poe Award
Emmy awards in film and television
Phil Abraham – Emmy Award-winning film and television cinematographer, director
Dana Delany (1978) – two Emmy Awards; actress; television shows China Beach, Presidio Med, Desperate Housewives, Body of Proof; films Tombstone, Fly Away Home
Janet Grillo (1980) – Emmy Award-winning producer; writer and director
Evan Katz – Emmy Award-winning writer, executive producer of television series 24
David Kohan (1986) – Emmy Award-winning co-creator, executive producer, Will & Grace and Good Morning, Miami
Diane Kolyer – Emmy Award winner for Outstanding Children's Program (2004); director, writer, producer
Michael E. Knight (1980) – three Emmy Awards; actor, best known for his role as Tad Martin on All My Children
Jeffrey Lane – five Emmy Awards, Golden Globe, two Peabody Awards, three Writers Guild of America Awards; author, television scriptwriter, film producer
Alan Levin (1946) – three Emmy Awards; maker of documentaries
Marc Levin (1973) – three Emmy Awards (1988, 1989, 1999), documentary filmmaker; 1998 Caméra d'Or award, Cannes Film Festival; 1998 Grand Jury Prize, Sundance Film Festival; 1997 DuPont-Columbia Award; founder Blowback Productions (1988)
Bruce McKenna (1984) – Emmy Award-winning television and movie producer, writer; Writers Guild Award; The Pacific
Jim Margolis – six Emmy Awards (2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007), writer, producer, co-executive producer, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Mary McDonagh Murphy – six Emmy Awards; independent documentary film director, writer and producer
Owen Renfroe – three Emmy Awards; three Directors Guild of America Awards, television soap opera director; former film editor
Matthew Senreich (1996) – Emmy Award-winning screenwriter, director; producer, Robot Chicken
Bill Sherman (2002) – Emmy Award-winning composer (2011); currently Musical Director of Sesame Street
Matthew Weiner (1987) – 2011 Time's "100 Most Influential People in the World"; The Atlantic, one of 21 Brave Thinkers 2011; nine Emmy Awards, three Golden Globes; creator, executive producer, writer, Mad Men; screenwriter, supervising producer, The Sopranos
Roger Weisberg (1975) – documentarian; Emmy Award–winning series Help Yourself; Dupont-Columbia Award
Joss Whedon (1987) – Emmy Award, Nebula Award, two Hugo Awards; writer, creator, producer, director, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
Bradley Whitford (1981) – Emmy Award-winning actor; television dramas, The West Wing, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip; films, Billy Madison, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
Bill Wrubel (1985) – three Emmy Awards (2010, 2011, 2012); co-executive producer, writer Modern Family, Ugly Betty, Will & Grace
Tony and Grammy awards
Bill Cunliffe (1978) – jazz pianist, composer, arranger; 2009 Grammy Award; won 1989 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Award; won several Down Beat Awards; 2 Emmy nominations; 4 Grammy nominations
Thomas Kail (1999) – director; Tony Award winner for Hamilton and nominee for In the Heights
Jorge Arevalo Mateus (PhD) – 2008 Grammy Award (Best Historical Recording); Curator/Archivist, Woody Guthrie Foundation and Archives (1996–)
Lin-Manuel Miranda (2002) – creator, composer, lyricist, actor: In the Heights (two Tony Awards, 2008, Best Musical and Best Original Score; Grammy Award, 2009) and Hamilton (three Tony Awards, 2016, Best Musical, Best Book of A Musical, Best Original Score; Grammy Award, 2016)
Jeffrey Richards (producer) (1969) – producer; six Tony Awards; including 2012 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical, 2011 The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess (Paulus adaptation); August: Osage County (Pulitzer Prize, five Tony Awards); co-producer, Spring Awakening (three Tony Awards, Grammy Award)
L. Shankar (PhD) – Tamil Indian virtuoso violinist, composer; professor of music; 1994 Grammy Award; 1996 Grammy nomination
Bill Sherman (2002) – orchestrator, arranger; 2008 Tony Award, Best Orchestration (In the Heights), 2009 Grammy Award
Frank Wood (1984) – Tony Award-winning actor (Side Man); Angels in America
Academia
Presidents, chancellors, founders
See also: Religion, below, for listing of additional college presidents
Samuel Rogers Adams (B.A. 1851, M.A. 1856) – president, predecessor of the University of Evansville (1856–61)
David Allison (B.A. 1859, M.A. 1862) – president, Mount Allison University, Canada (1891–1911); 2nd president, Mount Allison College, Canada (1869–78)
John W. Beach (1845) – 7th president, Wesleyan University (1880–87)
Joseph Beech (1899) – co-founder, 1st president, West China Union University in Chengtu, China
Douglas J. Bennet (1959) – 15th president, Wesleyan (1995–07)
Katherine Bergeron (1980) – 11th president, Connecticut College (2014–)
Anthony S. Caprio (1967) – 5th president, Western New England College (since 1996)
Hiram Chodosh (1985) – 5th president elect of Claremont McKenna College (2013–)
Charles Collins (1837) – 1st president Emory and Henry College (1832–52); 11th president, Dickinson College (1852–60)
Edward Cooke (1838) – 1st president, Lawrence University (1853–59); 2nd President, Claflin Universityb (HBCU) (1872–84); Board of Examiners, Harvard University
Joseph Cummings (1840) – 5th president, Wesleyan (1857–75); 5th president, Northwestern University (1881–90); president, predecessor of Syracuse University (Genesee College)
W. H. Daniels – interim president, Pentecostal Collegiate Institute, antecedent of Eastern Nazarene College
Joseph Denison (1840) – co-founder, 1st president, Kansas State University (1863–73); president, Baker University (1874–79); 1st president, Blue Mont Central College
Nicholas Dirks (1972) – 10th chancellor-designate, University of California, Berkeley (effective June 1, 2013); professor, anthropology, history, and dean, faculty of arts and sciences, Columbia University
Paul Douglass – 6th president, American University (1941–52)
Gordon P. Eaton (1951) – 12th president, Iowa State University (1986–90)
Ignatius Alphonso Few (1838) – co-founder and first president, Emory University
Cyrus David Foss (1854) – 6th president, Wesleyan (1875–80)
E. K. Fretwell (1944) – president, University at Buffalo (1967–78); 2nd chancellor, University of North Carolina at Charlotte (1979–89); interim president, University of Massachusetts (1991–92); interim president, University of Florida (1998)
Charles Wesley Gallagher (A.B. 1870, A.M. 1873) – 6th president, Lawrence University (1889–93)
Bishop John W. Gowdy (1897) – president, Anglo-Chinese College, in Fuzhou, China (1904–23); president, Fukien Christian University (1923–27)
A. LeRoy Greason (1944) – 12th president, Bowdoin College (1981–90)
William R. Greiner (1955) – 13th president, University at Buffalo (1991–03); also professor, dean, and provost of the University at Buffalo Law School
Burton Crosby Hallowell – 9th president, Tufts University (1967–76)
Abram W. Harris – 14th president, Northwestern University (1906–16); 1st president, University of Maine (1896–06); president, Maine State College (1893–96)
Bishop Erastus Otis Haven (1842) – 2nd president, University of Michigan (1863–69); 6th president, Northwestern University; 2nd Chancellor, Syracuse University; overseer, Harvard University
Clark T. Hinman – 1st president, Northwestern University (1853–54 (death)); president, Albion College (1846–53)
Francis S. Hoyt (1844) – 1st president, Willamette University (1853–60)
Harry Burns Hutchins (1870) – 4th president, University of Michigan (1910–20), twice acting president; dean, University of Michigan Law School; organized law department, Cornell University
Isaac J. Lansing (B.A. 1872, graduate student 1872–73, M.A. 1875) – president, predecessor, Clark Atlanta University (HBCU) (1874–76)
Gregory Mandel - Dean at Temple University Beasley School of Law
Oliver Marcy (1846) – twice acting president, Northwestern University (1876–81, 1890); established the Northwestern University Museum of Natural History, served as its curator
Anthony Marx (1981, attended 1977–79) – 18th president, Amherst College (2003–11); president, New York Public Library (2011–)
Russell Zelotes Mason (B.A. 1844, M.A. 1847) – 2nd president, Lawrence University (1861–65); acting president, (1859–61); mayor, Appleton, Wisconsin
William Williams Mather (A.M. 1834) – acting president, Ohio University (1845)
Bishop Samuel Sobieski Nelles (1846) – 1st chancellor, president, Victoria University in the University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada (1884–87); president, Victoria College
John McClintock (1834) – 1st president, Drew Theological Seminary (later, Drew University)
Frank L. McVey (B.A.) – 4th president, University of North Dakota (1909–17); 3rd president, University of Kentucky (1917–40); economist
John W. North – co-founder, University of Minnesota; founding member of its board of regents (1851–60); wrote university's charter
Henry S. Noyes (1848) – twice interim president, Northwestern University (1854–56, 1860–67)
Brother John R. Paige (M.A.) – president, Holy Cross College (2010–); prior vicar general, the Congregation of Holy Cross in Rome
Bishop Charles Henry Payne (A.B. 1856, A.M. 1859) – 3rd president, Ohio Wesleyan University (1876–88)
Humphrey Pickard (B.A. 1839) – 1st president, Mount Allison Wesleyan College, Canada (later known as Mount Allison University) (1862–1869)
Matias Perez y Ponce (B.A.) – founder and first president, Cagayan Teachers College (Philippine Islands) (1948–1968)
John A. Randall (1881) – 4th president, Rochester Institute of Technology (1922–36)
George Edward Reed (1869) – 15th president, Dickinson College (1889–1911); with William Tickett, re-established Dickinson School of Law in 1890
David Rhodes (1968) – 2nd president, School of Visual Arts (incumbent as of 2010)
Edward Loranus Rice (A.B. 1892, Sc.D. 1927) – acting president, Ohio Wesleyan University (1938–39); biologist; scientific consultant to Clarence Darrow before Scopes Trial
William North Rice (1865) – thrice acting president, Wesleyan University (1907, 1908–09, 1918); geologist, earned first PhD. in geology granted by Yale University
B. T. Roberts – founder, predecessor of Roberts Wesleyan College (named in his honor)
Michael S. Roth (1978) – 16th president, Wesleyan University (since 2007); 8th president, California College of the Arts (2000–07)
Richard S. Rust (1841) – co-founder, 1st president, Wilberforce University (HBCU); co-founder, Rust College (HBCU) (named in his honor)
Richard W. Schneider (M.A. 1973) – 23rd president, Norwich University (since 1992)
Edwin O. Smith (1893) – acting president, Connecticut Agricultural College (now the University of Connecticut) (1908)
George Mckendree Steele (B.A. 1850, M.A. 1853) 3rd president Lawrence University (1865–79)
Samuel Nowell Stevens (1921) – 9th president, Grinnell College (1940–54)
Harold Syrett (1935) – President of Brooklyn College
Beverly Daniel Tatum (1975) – 9th president, Spelman College (HBCU) (2002–); acting president, Mount Holyoke College (2002)
John Hanson Twombly (1843) – 5th president, University of Wisconsin–Madison (1871–74); co-founder, Boston University; overseer, Harvard University
Joseph Urgo (M.A.) – president, St. Mary's College of Maryland (since 2010); former acting president, Hamilton College (2009)
John Monroe Van Vleck (1850) – twice acting president, Wesleyan (1872–73, 1887–89); astronomer, mathematician
Francis Voigt (1962) – co-founder, president, New England Culinary Institute (incumbent as of 2010)
Clarence Abiathar Waldo (A.B. 1875, A.M. 1878) – twice acting president, Rose–Hulman Institute of Technology (1885–86, 1888–89); mathematician
Henry White Warren (1853) – co-founder, Iliff School of Theology
William Fairfield Warren (1853) – co-founder, Wellesley College in 1870; 1st President, Boston University (1873–03); acting president, Boston University School of Theology (1866–73)
Robert Weisbuch (1968) – 11th president, Drew University (since 2005); former president, Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
Herbert George Welch (B.A. 1887, M.A. 1890) – 5th president, Ohio Wesleyan University (1905–16)
Bishop Erastus Wentworth (B.A. 1837) – 7th president, McKendree College (1846–50)
Georg Whitaker (1861) – 4th president, Wiley College (1888–91) (HBCU); 7th president, Willamette University (1891–93); president, Portland University
Alexander Winchell (B.A. 1847, M.A. 1850) – 1st chancellor, Syracuse University (1872–74)
Elizabeth C. Wright (1897) – principal co-counder and secretary, registrar, and later 1st bursar, Connecticut College
Henry Merritt Wriston (B.A. 1911, M.A.) – 11th president, Brown University (1937–55); 8th president, Lawrence University (1925–37); father of Walter B. Wriston (see below)
Kennedy Odede (2012); founder; Shining Hope for Communities, Nairobi, Kenya
Professors and scholars
David Abram (1980) – philosopher, cultural ecologist
Kenneth R. Andrews (M.A. 1932) – academic credited with foundational role (at Harvard Business School) in introducing, popularizing concept of business strategy
Elliot Aronson (M.A. 1956) – among 100 most eminent psychologist of 20th century
John William Atkinson (1947) – psychologist, pioneered the scientific study of human motivation, achievement, and behavior
Wilbur Olin Atwater (1865) – chemist, leader in development of agricultural chemistry
Adam J. Berinsky (1992) – professor of political science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Albert Francis Blakeslee (1896) – botanist, director of the Carnegie Institution for Science; professor, Smith College
George Hubbard Blakeslee (A.B. 1893, A.M. 1897) – professor of history, Clark University; founded the first American journal devoted to international relations
Jennifer Finney Boylan (1980) – author, professor of English, Colby College (1988–)
Lael Brainard – former professor of applied economics, MIT Sloan School of Management
Kenneth Bruffee – emeritus professor of English; wrote first peer tutoring handbook
Leonard Burman (1975) – economist, tax-policy expert; Professor of public affairs, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University
Leslie Cannold (1987) – academic ethicist; Australian public intellectual
John Bissell Carroll (1937) – psychologist; known for his contributions to psychology, educational linguistics and psychometrics
John C. Cavadini (B.A. 1975) – professor and chair, Theology Department, University of Notre Dame; Vatican adviser; Order of St. Gregory the Great
KC Chan – former professor of finance and dean, business management, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; Hong Kong Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury (since 2007);
Arthur W. Chickering (1950) – educational researcher; known for contributions to student development theories
John H. Coatsworth (1963) – historian of Latin America; provost, Columbia University; dean, Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs (2007–12)
Marion Cohen (PhD in mathematics (distribution theory)) – mathematician and poet
Kate Cooper – Professor of Ancient History at the University of Manchester, England
Jeffrey N. Cox (1975) – professor of English literature; leading scholar of late-18th to early-19th-century theater and drama
Norman Daniels (1964) – philosopher, ethicist, and bioethicist, Harvard University
Ram Dass (M.A.) – former professor of psychology, Harvard University; spiritual teacher; wrote book Be Here Now
Marc Davis (1989) – founding director, Yahoo! Research Berkeley
Walter Dearborn (B.A. 1900, M.A.) – pioneering educator, experimental psychologist; helped establish field of reading education; longtime professor, Harvard University
Daniel Dennett (attended) – professor of philosophy, Tufts University; Jean Nicod Prize
Henrik Dohlman (1982) – professor and chair of pharmacology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Raymond D. Fogelson – anthropologist; a founder of the subdiscipline of ethnohistory; professor, University of Chicago
Virginia Page Fortna (1990) – professor of political science at Columbia University
Michael Foster – professor of Japanese literature, culture, and folklore; author
Daniel Z. Freedman – physicist, professor of physics and applied mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; co-discovered supergravity
David Garrow (1975) – Pulitzer Prize for Biography; fellow, Homerton College, Cambridge University
Mark H. Gelber (1972) – American-Israeli scholar of comparative literature and German-Jewish literature and culture
Gayatri Gopinath (1994) – scholar of social and cultural analysis; director, Asian/Pacific/American Studies, New York University
Adolf Grünbaum (1943) – philosopher of science and critic of psychoanalysis and Karl Popper
Saidiya Hartman – professor of African-American literature and history, Columbia University (as of 2010)
Robert H. Hayes (1958) – Philip Caldwell Professor of Business Administration (1966–2000), Emeritus (since 2001), Harvard Business School
Ole Holsti (MAT 1956) – political scientist, Duke University (1974–1998), emeritus chair (since 1998); creator, inherent bad faith model
Gerald Holton (1941) – emeritus professor of physics and professor of the History of Physics, Harvard University
William G. Howell (1993) – Sydney Stein Professor in American Politics at Chicago Harris and a professor in the Department of Political Science and the College at the University of Chicago
Shelly Kagan – Clark Professor of Philosophy, Yale University; former Henry R. Luce Professor of Social Thought and Ethics, Yale University
Douglas Kahn (M.A. 1987) – Professor of Media and Innovation, National Institute for Experimental Arts, University of New South Wales; Professor Emeritus in Science and Technology Studies, University of California, Davis; 2006 Guggenheim Fellowship
Edwin W. Kemmerer – economist; economic adviser to foreign governments worldwide; professor, Princeton University
William L. Lane – New Testament theologian and professor of biblical studies
Seth Lerer (1976) – professor of English and comparative literature, Stanford University
Peter Lipton (1976) – Hans Rausing professor and head of the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge
Richard M. Locke (1981)- Provost, Schreiber Family Professor of Political Science and International and Public Affairs at Brown University; former deputy dean, MIT Sloan School of Management
Silas Laurence Loomis (1844) – professor of chemistry, physiology, and toxicology, Georgetown University
Delmar R. Lowell – historian and genealogist
Saree Makdisi (1987) – professor of English and comparative literature, University of California, Los Angeles; also literary critic
Harold Marcuse (physics, 1979) – professor of modern and contemporary German history
Harold Marks – British educator
David McClelland (1938) – noted for his work on achievement motivation; co-creator of scoring system for Thematic Apperception Test; professor, Harvard University
Lee C. McIntyre – philosopher of science
Elmer Truesdell Merrill (1881) – Latin scholar; professor of Latin, University of Chicago
Joseph C. Miller (1961) – professor of history, University of Virginia (since 1972)
Indiana Neidell (1989) – historian, host and lead writer of The Great War YouTube channel
Eugene Allen Noble (1891) – president of Centenary University 1902–1908, 3rd president of Goucher College from 1908–1911, 16th president of Dickinson College from 1911–1914
Tavia Nyong'o (B.A.) – historian, Kenyan-American cultural critic; professor, New York University; Marshall Scholarship
Thomas Pickard – Canadian professor of mathematics, Mount Allison University (1848–1869)
Edward Bennett Rosa (1886) – Elliott Cresson Medal, Franklin Institute; professor of physics (1891–1901)
Horace Jacobs Rice (1905) – lawyer, Associate Dean, Northeastern University School of Law, Dean of the College of Western New England School of Law from
Paul North Rice (1910) – librarian, Director of Reference at the New York Public Library, Director of NYU libraries, Director of the Wesleyan University Library 1953-56
Juliet Schor – professor, sociology, Boston College; professor, economics (for 17 years), Harvard University
Sanford L. Segal (1958) mathematician, professor of mathematics, historian of science and mathematics
Ira Sharkansky (1960) professor emeritus, political science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; fellow National Academy of Public Administration
Steven M. Sheffrin (1972) economist and expert on property tax limitations in the U.S.
Horst Siebert – German economist; chair, economic theory, University of Kiel (1989–2003), University of Konstanz (1984–89), University of Mannheim (1969–84)
Neil Asher Silberman – archaeologist and historian
Richard Slotkin (MAEE) – professor of American studies (appears above), published by Wesleyan University Press
Charles H. Smith (1972) – historian of science
Stephen M. Engel, political scientist, professor at Bates College (1998)
Robert Stalnaker – Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Philosophy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; delivered the 2006–2007 John Locke Lectures at Oxford University
H. Eugene Stanley (1962) – recipient, 2004 Boltzmann Medal; professor of physics, Boston University
John Stauffer (MALS 1991) historian, 2002 Frederick Douglass Prize; chair, History of American Civilization and professor of English, Harvard
Leland Stowe (1921) – 1930 Pulitzer Prize for Correspondence; recipient, Légion d'honneur; professor and journalist, University of Michigan in Ann Arbor (1955–1970), emeritus (1970)
Mark C. Taylor (1968) – philosopher of religion, professor and chair of religion, Columbia University
Lawrence Rogers Thompson (B.A.) – 1971 Pulitzer Prize for Biography; professor of English, Princeton University
Edward Thorndike (1895) – psychologist; work led to theory of connectionism in artificial intelligence, neuroscience, philosophy of mind
Lynn Thorndike (1902) – George Sarton Medal; historian; former professor, Columbia University
Robert L. Thorndike (1941) – psychometrician and educational psychologist
Robert M. Thorndike (1965) – professor of psychology known for several definitive textbooks on research procedures and psychometrics
Charles Tiebout (1950) – economist; known for his development of Tiebout model; free rider problem; feet voting
Aaron Louis Treadwell (B.S. 1888, M.S. 1890) – professor, biology and zoology, Vassar College
Albert E. Van Dusen (MA, PhD) – historian, professor of history, University of Connecticut (1949–1983); Connecticut State Historian (1952–1985)
Edward Burr Van Vleck (1884) – mathematician; professor, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Christian K. Wedemeyer (1991) – history of religions faculty, University of Chicago Divinity School
William Stone Weedon (M.S.) – University Professor, University of Virginia (philosophy, mathematics, logic, linguistic analysis)
Kenneth D. West (1973) – professor of economics, University of Wisconsin–Madison; developed (with Whitney K. Newey) the Newey-West estimator
Alexander Winchell (1847) – professor of physics and civil engineering, professor of geology and paleontology at University of Michigan
Caleb Thomas Winchester (1869) – scholar of English literature
Art and architecture
Natalia Alonso (economics 2000) – professional dancer, Complexions Contemporary Ballet; former dancer, Ballet Hispanico
Steven Badanes (1967) – architect; known for his practice, teaching of design/build
I Made Bandem (PhD, ethnomusicology) – Balinese dancer, author; rector, Indonesian Institute of the Arts, Yogyakarta
Meredith Bergmann (1976) – sculptor, Women's Memorial (Boston)
Lisa Brown (1993) – illustrator, author
Momodou Ceesay (1970) – African fine artist and writer
George Fisk Comfort – founder, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Everson Museum of Art
Bradshaw Crandell – artist and illustrator; known as the "artist of the stars"
Jeffrey Deitch (1974) – art dealer, curator, and, since 2010, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA)
Vincent Fecteau (1992) – sculptor; work in permanent collections, Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Ralph Carlin Flewelling – architect
Ellen Forney (1989) – cartoonist; nomination, 2007 Eisner Award; illustrated winner, 2007 National Book Award
Danny Forster (1999) – architect; host, Extreme Engineering and Build It Bigger
Renée Green – artist, sculptor; professor, MIT School of Architecture and Planning
Lyle Ashton Harris (1988) – artist; collage, installation art, performance art
Rachel Harrison (1989) – contemporary sculptor; multimedia artist; Calder Prize
Dana Hoey (1989) – visual artist working with photography
Jonathan Horowitz (1987) – multimedia artist; sculptor, sound installations
Wayne Howard (1971) – graphic artist; created Midnight Tales
Bruce Eric Kaplan – cartoonist (The New Yorker); television writer, (Six Feet Under; Seinfeld)
Stephan Koplowitz (1979) – choreographer, director; 2004 Alpert Award in the Arts
Abigail Levine – choreographer, dancer
C. Stanley Lewis – artist, professor of art
Paul Lewis 1998 – Rome Prize; director, Graduate Studies, Princeton University School of Architecture; principal, LTL Architects
Glenn Ligon – contemporary conceptual artist; work in collection of the White House
Nava Lubelski (1990) – contemporary artist
Thomas McKnight (artist) – artist; work commissioned by then-U.S. President Bill Clinton and in the permanent collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art and Smithsonian Institution
Alix Olson (1997) – performance artist, award-winning slam poet
Jill Snyder (1979) – executive director, Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland
John Spike (1973) – art historian of Italian Renaissance; contemporary art critic
Thomas Bangs Thorpe (1834–1837) – antebellum humorist, painter, illustrator, author
Lori Verderame (MLS) – best known as "Dr. Lor"; appraiser, American TV show Auction Kings
Robert Vickrey – artist and author; collections in Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Brooklyn Museum, Corcoran Gallery of Art
Ben Weiner (2003) – contemporary artist; oil painting, video
Chris Wink – co-founder, Blue Man Group and Blue Man Creativity Center
Business
Robert Allbritton (1992) – chairman, chief executive officer (CEO), Allbritton Communications; publisher, Politico
Kenneth R. Andrews (M.A. 1932) – credited with foundational role (at Harvard Business School) in introducing, popularizing concept of business strategy
Douglas J. Bennet – former CEO, National Public Radio (1983–93)
William Bissell – sole managing director, Fabindia (1993–)
Joshua Boger (1973) – founder (1989), chairman (1997–2006), CEO (1992-09), member of board (as of 2012), Vertex Pharmaceuticals
Jonathan S. Bush – co-founder, president, CEO, athenahealth (as of 2012)
Marc N. Casper (1990) – president, CEO, Thermo Fisher Scientific (2009–)
KC Chan – ex-officio chairman, Kowloon–Canton Railway Corporation (2007–11); former director, Hong Kong Futures Exchange
Tos Chirathivat (1985) – CEO, Central Retail
Robert Crispin (1968) – former president, CEO, ING Group Investment Management Americas (2001–07)
D. Ronald Daniel (1952) – managing partner (1976–88), McKinsey & Company; developed concept, critical success factors
David S. Daniel – CEO, Spencer Stuart (as of 2012); former president, Louis Vuitton (N.A.); former CEO, Evian Waters of France (U.S.)
Charles W. Denny III (1958) – president, chairman (2001–03), CEO (1992–03), Square D
Stuart J. Ellman (B.A. 1988) -Co-founder and Managing Partner at RRE Ventures. President of Board at 92nd Street Y. Adjunct Professor Columbia Business School
Edwin Deacon Etherington (1948) – former president, CEO, American Stock Exchange; 12th president, Wesleyan University
Charles E. Exley, Jr. (1951) – president (1976–91), chairman (1984–91), CEO (1983–91), NCR Corporation
Mallory Factor – merchant banker
John B. Frank (B.A.) – managing principal (since 2007), general counsel (2001–06), Oaktree Capital Management
Mansfield Freeman (1916) – one of original founders, AIG; philanthropist
Jim Friedlich – media executive, Dow Jones & Company (1990–00); founding partner, ZelnickMedia (2001–11); founding partner, Empirical Media Advisors (since 2011)
Stephen K. Friedman (1991) – president, MTV (since 2011)
Michael Fries (1985) – president, vice chairman, CEO, Liberty Global (since 2005); former president, CEO, UnitedGlobalCom (2004–05)
Pete Ganbarg (1988) – executive vice president/head of A&R, Atlantic Records (as of 2008)
Walter B. Gerken (1948) – former president, CEO, Pacific Mutual Life Insurance; senior adviser, Boston Consulting Group
Peter Glusker (1984) – CEO, Gilt Groupe Japan (since 2010); CEO, Gilt City Japan (since 2010)
Christopher Graves (1981) – president, CEO, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide (since 2010); one of founders, Wall Street Journal Television
Daniel Gregory (1951) – co-founder, former chairman, Greylock Partners
John Hagel III (1972) – co-chairman, Deloitte Center for Edge Innovation (as of 2012); coined the term "infomediary"
Henry I. Harriman – co-founder, New England Power Company
Charles James (1976) – vice president and general counsel, ChevronTexaco
Dina Kaplan (1993) – co-founder and chief operating officer, blip.tv; Fortunes 2010 list, ten "Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs"
Herb Kelleher (1953) – founder, chairman, president, CEO, Southwest Airlines; chair, board of governors, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas (2011–13)
Edward M. Kennedy, Jr. (1983) – co-founder, president (as of 2012), Marwood Group (Wall Street investment firm); attorney (disability law)
George M. La Monte (1884) – chairman, Prudential Insurance Company
William J. Lansing (1980) – president, CEO, FICO (2012–); president, CEO, InfoSpace (2009–10); president, CEO, ValueVision Media (2004–07); partner, General Atlantic Partners (2001–03); CEO, NBC Internet (2000–01)Interview: Will Lansing, President and CEO, Mercury News. By Pete Carey. January 11, 2013. Retrieved January 23, 2013.
Caroline Little (1981) – president, CEO, Newspaper Association of America (2011–); former CEO, Guardian News and Media (N.A.); former CEO, publisher, Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive
Gary Loveman (1982) – president of the Aetna Inc. subsidiary Healthagen (since 2015); former chairman and former CEO of Caesars Entertainment Corporation; former professor, Harvard School of Business
John Macy – president, Corporation for Public Broadcasting (1969–72); ran the Council of Better Business Bureau (1972–1979)
Tom Matlack (1986) – entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and author
Mary O. McWilliams – chair, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Seattle Branch (term ending 2013); former president, CEO, Regence Blue Shield (2000–08)
Nick Meyer – president, Paramount Vantage (until December 2008); former president, Lionsgate International, a division of Lionsgate Studios
Donna Morea (1976) – president U.S., Europe, Asia, CGI Group (2004–)
Candace Nelson – founder, Sprinkles Cupcakes (2005); pastry chef; judge, television series Cupcake Wars (since 2010)
Chuck Pagano (MALS) – chief technology officer, executive vice president of technology, ESPN; Sporting News "Power 100" list (2003 and 2006)Staff (January 5, 2006). "Stern Leads Commissioners Atop Sporting News' 'Power 100'", Sports Business Daily. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
Robert Pruzan (1985) – co-founding partner and principal, Centerview Partners; former CEO, Dresdner Kleinwort; former president, Wasserstein Perella Basar, Shanny (December 3, 2010). "Investment Banking Team of the Week: Centerview Partners". Financial News. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
Gregg Ribatt – president, CEO, Collective Brands Performance Group (as of 2012); former president, CEO, Stride Rite
John Rice (1974) – former president, CEO, Lever Brothers; former president, CEO, Unilever Foods, NA (2004–06). VendingMarketWatch.
Dennis R. Robinson (1979) – former president, CEO, New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority (2007–2012); chief operating officer, Grand Prix of America (2012–)Waters, Sharon (December 16, 2011). "Robinson Leaving Sports Authority for Job with Formula One". NJBIZ. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
Tom Rogers (1976) – president, CEO, TiVo (since 2005); former chairman, CEO, Primedia; former president, NBC Cable; founded CNBC, established MSNBC
Jonah Sachs (1997) – Founder, CEO, Free Range Studios (1999–)
Amy Schulman (1982) – senior vice president and general counsel, Pfizer; Forbes magazine 2009 list, "The World's Most Powerful Women"; National Law Journal's 2009 list, "20 Most Influential General Counsels"Staff (undated). "Pfizer Inc (PFE:New York)". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
Jonathan I. Schwartz (1987) – president (2004–10), CEO (2006–10), Sun Microsystems; founder, CEO, Lighthouse Design (1989–96)
Marc Shmuger (1980) – chairman, Universal Pictures (until October 2009)
Frank V. Sica (1973) – vice-chairman, JetBlue Airways; president, Soros Fund Management (2000–03); Co-CEO, merchant banking (1997–98), managing director (1988–98), Morgan Stanley; managing partner, Tailwind Capital (since 2006)Staff (undated). "Company Overview of Cancer Research Institute, Inc.". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved November 16, 2012.
Jonathan Soros (1992) – hedge fund manager and political donor; son of George Soros.Staff (undate). "Jonathan Soros". World Economic Forum. Retrieved November 16, 2012.
Gideon Stein – founder, former CEO, Omnipod, Inc. (now a division of Symantec)
Steve Spinner – business executive, known for his work as an angel investor and advisor to Silicon Valley startups
Gerald Tsai (1947–48) – founder, CEO, Primerica; pioneered use of performance funds
Laura Ruth Walker (1979) – president, CEO, WNYC Public Radio Station, largest public-radio station in nation; named one of NYC's Most Powerful Women by Crain's New York Business (2009)
Jeffrey Weitzen (1978) – former president, CEO, Gateway 2000
Dan Wolf (1979) – founder, president, CEO, Cape Air (since 1988)
Luke Wood (1991) – president, chief operating officer, Beats Electronics
John F. Woodhouse (1953) – former president, CEO (1982–95), chairman (1985–99), senior chairman (1999–?), Sysco Corp. p
Walter B. Wriston (1941) – commercial banker; former chairman (1979–84), CEO (1967–84), Citibank and Citicorp
Strauss Zelnick (1979) – CEO (2011–), chairman (2007–), Take-Two Interactive; founder, managing partner, ZelnickMedia (2001–); president, chief operating officer (1989–93), 20th Century Fox; CEO, BMG Entertainment (1998–2000)Staff (undated). "Take-Two Interactive Software (TTWO:NASDAQ GS)". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved November 16, 2012.
Film, television, actingSee also: Academy, Emmy, Tony, and Grammy awards, above
Writers
Carter Bays (1997) – writer, creator, executive producer, How I Met Your Mother
Mark Bomback – screenwriter
Jennifer Crittenden (1992) – writer, producer; two Humanitas Prizes, Seinfeld, Everybody Loves Raymond, The New Adventures of Old Christine
Ed Decter (1979) – screenwriter, There's Something About Mary, The Santa Clause 2, The Santa Clause 3
Jennifer Flackett (1986) – screen/television writer, film director; Madeline, Wimbledon, Little Manhattan, Nim's Island and Journey to the Center of the Earth
Liz Friedman – writer, producer; Xena: Warrior Princess, Hack, The O.C., Numb3rs, House; co-creator, writer, executive producer, Young Hercules
Liz W. Garcia (1999) – writer and producer; Dawson's Creek, Wonderfalls, Cold Case; co-created TNT series Memphis Beat
David H. Goodman (1995) – television writer and producer, Fringe, Without a Trace
Willy Holtzman – screenwriter, playwright; Humanitas Prize, Writers Guild Award, Peabody Award
Alex Kurtzman – film, television screenwriter, producer; film: The Legend of Zorro, Mission: Impossible III, Transformers, Cowboys & Aliens, Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness; television: Fringe
Catie Lazarus – writer, storyteller and talk show host
Brett Matthews (1999) – writer, TV shows and comics
Craig Thomas (1997) – writer, creator, executive producer How I Met Your Mother
Joss Whedon (1987) – creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly and screenwriter & director The Avengers
Zack Whedon (2002) – screenwriter
Mike White (1992) – two Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Awards; co-creator, screenwriter, Enlightened; The Good Girl, Orange County, Chuck & Buck, and the HBO satire comedy miniseries The White Lotus.
Directors
Phil Abraham – television director, cinematographer (The Sopranos, Mad Men, Orange is the New Black)
Michael Arias (attended from age 16 to 18) – film director, producer, visual effects artist; filmmaker active primarily in Japan
Miguel Arteta (1989) – film director (The Good Girl, Cedar Rapids)
Michael Bay (1986) – film director (The Rock, Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, Bad Boys Series, Transformers film series)
Eric Byler (1994) – film director (Charlotte Sometimes, My Life Disoriented, Americanese, TRE)
Jan Eliasberg (1974) – director (television, theatre, and film)
Michael Fields – director
Ruben Fleischer (1997) – director; Zombieland, 30 Minutes or Less
Thomas Kail (1999) – film and theatre director
David Kendall – television and film director, producer, and writer; Growing Pains, Boy Meets World, Smart Guy, Hannah Montana, Dirty Deeds, The New Guy
Daisy von Scherler Mayer (1988) – film director (Party Girl, Madeline, The Guru, Woo)
Matthew Penn (1980) – director and producer of television and theatre; NYPD Blue, Law & Order, The Sopranos, House, Damages, The Closer, and Royal Pains
Ray Tintori (2006) – director (film and music videos)
Jon Turteltaub (1985) – film director (Cool Runnings, Phenomenon, While You Were Sleeping, National Treasure, 3 Ninjas)
Matt Tyrnauer – director and journalist; Valentino: The Last Emperor (2009), short listed for an Academy Award nomination (2010)
Alex Horwitz (2002) – director; "Hamilton's America"
Benh Zeitlin (2004) – film director (Beasts of the Southern Wild)
Actors and others
Bradley Whitford (1981) – actor, The West Wing (tv series), Get Out
Edoardo Ballerini – actor, writer, director
Jordan Belfi (2000) – actor
Rob Belushi (2004) - actor, comedian and host of Get a Clue on Game Show Network.
Amy Bloom (1975) – creator, State of Mind
Peter Cambor (2001) – film and television actor; NCIS: Los Angeles
Rob Campbell – actor (film, television, and stage)
Hunter Carson (1998) – actor, screenwriter, producer, director
Philip Casnoff (1971) – Golden Globe-nominated Broadway, television, and film actor (Chess, Shogun: The Musical, North and South, Sinatra)
Lynn Chen (1998) – actress, Saving Face
William Christopher (1954) – actor, Father John Patrick Francis Mulcahy, M*A*S*H
Jem Cohen (1984) – Independent Spirit Award, feature filmmaker and video artist
Toby Emmerich – producer, film executive, screenwriter; head, New Line Cinema (as of 2008)
Halley Feiffer (2007) – actress, playwright
Beanie Feldstein (2015) – actress
Jo Firestone (2009) actress and comedian
Sam Fleischner (2006) – filmmaker
Bradley Fuller – producer, co-owner of Platinum Dunes
Bobbito García (1988) – hip hop DJ, writer
William "Willie" Garson – actor, White Collar; most known for his portrayal of Stanford on Sex and the City
Max Goldblatt (2005) – actor, writer, director
Matthew Greenfield – Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award, producer of independent films
Adam Hann-Byrd (2004) – actor, Little Man Tate, The Ice Storm, Jumanji
Elisabeth Harnois (2001) – actress, Young Artist Award (1993); Adventures in Wonderland, Pretty Persuasion
Jack Johnson (2009) – actor, best known for performance in Lost in Space
Warren Keith – stage and film actor, director
Chrishaunda Lee – television host, actress
Jieho Lee (1995) – filmmaker
Tembi Locke – actress, has appeared on more than 40 television shows
Lauren LoGiudice – actress and writer
Monica Louwerens (1995) – actress, beauty queen from Canada, competed in 1996 Miss America Pageant
Barton MacLane – actor, playwright, screenwriter; appeared in many classic films from the 1930s through the 1960s
Lin-Manuel Miranda (2002)-Tony-Award-winning Broadway actor, librettist, and composer
Becky Mode – playwright, actress, television producer
William R. Moses (attended) – television and film actor
Julius Onah – filmmaker of Nigerian descent
Amanda Palmer (1998) – director Hotel Blanc (2002); playwright, actress, The Onion Cellar (2006); producer, actress in ART's Cabaret (2010)
Benjamin Parrillo (1992) – actor, Cold Case, 24, NCIS, Boston Legal
Leszek Pawlowicz (1979) – Ultimate Tournament of Champions, 2005; won Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions, 1992; won Ben Stein's Money, 1999
Zak Penn (1990) – screenwriter (Fantastic Four, X-Men: The Last Stand, PCU, The Incredible Hulk); director (Incident at Loch Ness, The Grand); co-creator, Alphas
John Rothman (1971) – film, stage, and television actor
Stefan Schaefer (1994) – director, screenwriter, producer, independent films; Confess and Arranged; Fulbright Scholar
Sarah Schaub (2006) – two Young Artist Awards, actress (Promised Land)
Paul Schiff (1981) – film producer (My Cousin Vinny, Rushmore, Mona Lisa Smile, Solitary Man)
Lawrence Sher (1992) – cinematographer and producer, The Dukes of Hazzard, Garden State
Wendy Spero – actress, comedian, writer
Kim Stolz (2005) – America's Next Top Model Cycle 5 finalist
Stephen Talbot (1970) – former TV child actor of the 1950s, 1960s; portrayed Gilbert Bates on Leave it to Beaver
Kim Wayans – actress; member of the Wayans family
Henry Willson – Hollywood talent agent; clients included Rock Hudson, Tab Hunter, Robert Wagner, Clint Walker; discovered Lana Turner; a large role in popularizing the beefcake craze of the 1950s
Scott Wiper (1992) – director, screenwriter, actor
Angela Yee (1997) – radio personality
Alexander Yellen (2003) – cinematographer
Law
Non-U.S. government judicial figures
George Edwin King (B.A. 1859, M.A. 1861) – 10th Puisne Justice, Supreme Court of Canada (1893–01); Attorney General of New Brunswick (1870–78); Premier of New Brunswick (1870-1871 & 1872-1878); Supreme Court of New Brunswick (1880–93)
Supreme Court of the United States
David Josiah Brewer (1851–54) – 51st Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1890–1910); major contributor to doctrine of substantive due process and to minority rights; U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (1884–90); U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas (1865–69); Kansas Supreme Court (1870–1884)
U.S. Federal appellate and trial courts
Frank R. Alley, III – judge, United States Bankruptcy Court, District of Oregon (as of 2011).
John Baker (A.M. 1879) – judge, United States District Court for the District of Indiana
John D. Bates (1968) – judge, United States District Court for the District of Columbia (2001–); judge, United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (2006–)
Edward G. Biester, Jr. (1952) – judge, United States Court of Military Commission Review (2004–07); Attorney General for Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (1979–80)
Denise Jefferson Casper (B.A. 1990) – judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts (2010–); 1st black, female judge to serve on federal bench in Massachusetts
Alonzo J. Edgerton (1850) – judge, United States District Court for the District of South Dakota (1889–96); Chief Justice of Supreme Court of Dakota Territory
Katherine B. Forrest (1986) – judge, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (2011–)
Frederick E. Fuller – federal judge for interior Alaska; appointed in 1912; early champion for the credibility of Alaska natives as witnesses in federal court
Steven Gold (1977) – chief United States Magistrate Judge, United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (1993–)
Terry J. Hatter (1954) – judge, United States District Court for the Central District of California, Los Angeles (as of 2011); chief judge, 1998; senior status, 2005
Andrew Kleinfeld (1966) – judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (1991–); judge, United States District Court for the District of Alaska (1986–91)
Martin A. Knapp (1868) – judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (1916–23); judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (1910–16); judge, United States Commerce Court (1910–13)
Mark R. Kravitz (1972) – judge, United States District Court for the District of Connecticut (2003–)
Arthur MacArthur Sr. – judge, predecessor, United States District Court for the District of Columbia (1870–87)
James Rogers Miller Jr. (1953) – judge, United States District Court for the District of Maryland (1970–86)
Patricia Head Minaldi (1980) – judge, United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana (2003–)
J. Frederick Motz (1964) – judge, United States District Court for the District of Maryland (1985–), chief judge (1994–01); United States Attorney for the District of Maryland
Michael S. Nachmanoff, Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (2021-present), Magistrate Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (2015-2021)
John Wesley North – judge, by Presidential appointment, predecessor, United States District Court for the District of Nevada; founder, Northfield, Minnesota and Riverside, California
Lyle L. Richmond (1952) – associate justice, High Court of American Samoa (in American Samoa, the highest appellate court below U.S. Supreme Court) (1991–); attorney general, American Samoa.
Rachel A. Ruane (1997) – judge, United States Los Angeles Immigration Court (2010–)
Anthony Scirica (1962) – chief judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (Philadelphia) (1987–); judge, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (1984–87)
Dominic J. Squatrito (1961) – judge, United States District Court for the District of Connecticut (1994–); Fulbright scholar
Stephen S. Trott (1962) – judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (1988–); United States Attorney for the Central District of California
Ronald M. Whyte (mathematics 1964) – judge, United States District Court for the Northern District of California (1992–)
John Simson Woolson (A.B. 1860, A.M. 1863) – judge, United States District Court for the District of Iowa
U.S. State courts
Raymond E. Baldwin – Chief Justice (1959–63), associate justice (1949–59), Connecticut Supreme Court
Richard C. Bosson (1966) – Chief Justice (2002–06), associate justice (2002–), New Mexico Supreme Court; chief judge, New Mexico Court of Appeals (01–02)
John Moore Currey – eighth Chief Justice (1866–68), associate justice (1864–66), Supreme Court of California
Charles Douglas III (1960–62) – associate justice, New Hampshire Supreme Court (1977–85)
Miles T. Granger (1842) – associate justice, Connecticut Supreme Court
Ernest A. Inglis (1908) – Chief Justice (1853–57), associate justice (1850–53), Connecticut Supreme Court (1950–57)
Fred C. Norton (1950) – associate judge, Minnesota Court of Appeals
James McMillan Shafter – judge, California Superior Court and state legislator in California, Vermont, and Wisconsin
Oscar L. Shafter (1834) – associate justice, Supreme Court of California (1864–1867)
David M. Shea (1944) – associate justice, Connecticut Supreme Court (1981–1992)
David K. Thomson, Associate Justice of the New Mexico Supreme Court (2019-present)
Arthur T. Vanderbilt – Chief Justice, New Jersey Supreme Court; twice declined nomination, United States Supreme Court
Josiah O. Wolcott – Chancellor, Delaware Court of Chancery; Attorney General of Delaware
Government and other lawyers
Gerald L. Baliles (1963) – Attorney General of Virginia (1982–1985)
Tristram Coffin (1985) – U.S. Attorney for the District of Vermont (2009–)
George C. Conway (1923) – Connecticut Attorney General (1951–1953)
Edmund Pearson Dole (1874) – first Attorney General of Hawaii, Territory of Hawaii
Brian E. Frosh (1968) – Attorney General of Maryland (2015-present) Maryland State Senator (1995-2015); Maryland House of Delegates (1987–1995)
Theodore E. Hancock (1871) – New York State Attorney General (1894–1898)
Rusty Hardin (1965) – trial attorney, efforts resulted in U.S. Supreme Court unanimously overturning Arthur Andersen's conviction of obstruction of justice
Eddie Jordan (1974) – United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana (1994–2001); District Attorney of Orléans Parish (2003–2007)
Edward J. C. Kewen (1843) – first Attorney General of California; also Los Angeles County District Attorney (1859–1861)
Theodore I. Koskoff (1913–89) A.B. – trial lawyer
John Gage Marvin (1815–55) A.B. – lawyer; legal bibliographer (Marvin's Legal Bibliography, or A thesaurus of American, English, Irish, and Scotch law books); figure in history of California; first California State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Charles Phelps (B.A. 1875, M.A.) – first Connecticut Attorney General (1899–1903); Secretary of the State of Connecticut (1897–1899)
Michele A. Roberts (1977) – trial lawyer; named "one of Washington's 100 Most Powerful Women"; partner, Skadden, Arps (2011–)
Abner W. Sibal (1943) – General Counsel, United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) (1975–1978)
Legal academia
Gabriel J. Chin (1985) – UC Davis School of Law (2011–); "Most Cited Law Professors by Specialty, 00–07", "50 Most Cited Law Profs Who entered Teaching Since 92"
Hiram Chodosh (1985) – dean, S.J. Quinney College of Law (2006–)
Ward Farnsworth (1989) – dean, University of Texas School of Law at Austin (2012–); former law clerk, Anthony Kennedy, Associate Justice, U.S. Supreme Court
Shad Saleem Faruqi (B.A., age 19) – Professor of Law, Universiti Teknologi MARA (1971–); constitutional consultant to Maldives, Fiji, Timor Leste, Afghanistan, Iraq
Stephen C. Ferruolo (CSS 1971) – dean, University of San Diego School of Law (2011–); Rhodes Scholar; former faculty, Stanford University
John C.P. Goldberg (CSS 1983) – Eli Goldston Professorship, Harvard Law School (2008–); former law clerk, Byron White, Associate Justice, U.S. Supreme Court; expert in tort law and theory, political theory, jurisprudence
Robert J. Harris – attorney and professor, University of Michigan Law School (1959–1974; adjunct faculty member, 1974–2005); Rhodes Scholar
Naomi Mezey (1987) – professor, Georgetown University Law Center (civil procedure, legislation, nationalism and cultural identity) (1997–); Watson Fellow
William Callyhan Robinson (1850–1852) – academician, jurist; professor, Yale Law (1869–95); dean, Columbus School of Law (1898–1911)
Theodore Shaw (1979) – professor, Columbia Law (2011–); 5th President and Director-Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (2004–08)
Raymond L. Solomon (1968) – dean, Rutgers Law School-Camden (since 1998); professor, University of Chicago Law School, Northwestern University Law School
Barbara A. Spellman (1979) – professor, University of Virginia Law School (2008–); professor of psychology, University of Virginia (since 2007); editor-in-chief of Perspectives on Psychological Science
Arthur T. Vanderbilt (1910) – dean, New York University Law School (1943–48); professor, NYU Law (1914–43)
Charles Alan Wright (1947) – long-time professor, University of Texas School of Law at Austin; was foremost authority in U.S. on constitutional law and federal procedure
LiteratureSee also: Pulitzer Prizes, above
Becky Albertalli (2004) – writer, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda and other best-selling works
Steve Almond (1988) – writer, The Best American Short Stories 2010
Stephen Alter – author
Suzanne Berne – novelist, winner of Great Britain's prestigious Orange Prize; professor of English
Kate Bernheimer – author, scholar, editor
Peter Blauner – novelist; Edgar Award, The New York Times Best Seller list,
Amy Bloom (1975) – author, Away (The New York Times Best Seller list, 2007); National Magazine Award, The Best American Short Stories, O. Henry Prize Stories
John Briggs (1968) – author, scholar, editor
Andrew Bridge – author, Hope's Boy, New York Times Bestseller, Washington Post Best Book of the Year
Ethan Bronner – his novel Battle for Justice was selected by New York Public Library as one of the "Best Books of 1989"
Alexander Chee – writer, 2003 Whiting Writers' Award; former Visiting Writer at Amherst College
James Wm. Chichetto – poet, novelist, critic, lecturer, Catholic priest
Mei Chin – fiction writer, food critic
Kate Colby (1996) – poet, editor, Norma Farber First Book Award
Robin Cook, MD (1962) – medical mystery writer; books have appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list, including Coma, Critical, Outbreak, and 29 others
Michelle Regalado Deatrick – author, poet
Paul Dickson (1961) – writer, American English language and popular culture
Melvin Dixon (1971) – author, poet, translator
Beverly Donofrio (1978) – author, Riding in Cars with Boys
Steve Englehart (1969) – comic book writer
Ted Fiske (1959) – educational writer; creator of The Fiske Guide to Colleges; former education editor for The New York Times
Laura Jane Fraser (1982) – journalist, essayist, memoirist, and travel writer
Glen David Gold (1966) – author of Carter Beats the Devil, Sunnyside
Amanda Davis (1993) – writer; author of "Wonder When You'll Miss Me"
Elizabeth Graver (1986) – writer; Drue Heinz Literature Prize, O. Henry Award, Pushcart Prize (2001), Best American Essays, Cohen Awards
Daniel Handler (1992) – author (under the pseudonym Lemony Snicket) of A Series of Unfortunate Events (children's book series)
Rust Hills (B.A. 1948, M.A. 1949) – author and fiction editor
Adina Hoffman (B.A. 1989) – essayist, critic, literary biographer; 2013 Windham–Campbell Literature Prize; 2010 Wingate Prize
Albert Harrison Hoyt (1850) – editor and author
Christianne Meneses Jacobs – writer, editor, and teacher
Kaylie Jones – novelist
Sebastian Junger (1984) – author of The Perfect Storm, War; DuPont-Columbia Award; Time magazine Top Ten Non-fiction Books of 2010; National Magazine Award
James Kaplan – novelist, biographer, journalist; 1999 The New York Times Notable Book of the Year; NYT Top 10 Books of 2010; Best American Short Stories
Pagan Kennedy (1984) – author, short listed for Orange Prize; pioneer of the 1990s Zine Movement
Brad Kessler (1986) – novelist, Whiting Writers' Award (fiction, 2007), Dayton Literary Peace Prize; 2008 Rome Prize
Christopher Krovatin (2007) – author, musician
Alisa Kwitney – novelist, Destiny: A Chronicle of Deaths Foretold
Seth Lerer (1976) – 2009 National Book Critics Circle Award (for criticism); 2010 Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism
Ariel Levy – author of Female Chauvinist Pigs, anthologized in The Best American Essays of 2008 and New York Stories
James Lord – author, including biographies of Alberto Giacometti and Pablo Picasso
Robert Ludlum (1951) – The Bourne Identity, The Osterman Weekend, The Holcroft Covenant, 24 others; 9 of his books have made The New York Times Best Seller list; 290–500 million copies of his books in print
Joanie Mackowski – 2009, 2007 Best American Poetry, 2008 Writer Magazine/Emily Dickinson Award, 2003 Kate Tufts Discovery Award
John Buffalo Mailer – author, playwright, and journalist
William J. Mann (M.A.) – novelist, biographer; Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn, named one of the 100 Notable Books of 2006 by The New York Times
Lew McCreary – editor, author, Senior Editor of the Harvard Business Review
Jack McDevitt – science fiction author; 2006 Nebula Award for Best Novel (fifteen-time nominee), 2004 Campbell Award
Leslie McGrath (M.A.) – poet
John P. McKay (1961) – author, Herbert Baxter Adams Prize, professor of history
Scott Mebus – novelist, playwright, composer
Melody Moezzi (2001) – author of War on Error: Real Stories of American Muslims
Gorham Munson (1917) – literary critic
Blake Nelson (1984) – author; Grinzane Cavour Prize; novels Girl, Paranoid Park
Charles Olson (B.A. 1932, M.A.) – modernist poet, crucial link between such poets as Ezra Pound and the New American poets, one of thinkers who coined the term postmodernism
Michael Palmer, MD (1964) – medical mystery writer, Side Effects, Extreme Measures; all of his 16 books have made The New York Times Best Seller list
Carolyn Parkhurst (1992) – author of The Dogs of Babel (a New York Times Notable Book) and Lost and Found (both on the New York Times Bestseller List)
Peter Pezzelli – author, including Francesca's Kitchen, Italian Lessons
Daniel Pinchbeck – author
Jason Pinter – author
Craig Pospisil – playwright
Michael Prescott (1981) – crime writer, many of whose novels have appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list
Kevin Prufer (1992) – poet, essayist, editor; winner of four Pushcart Prizes, Best American Poetry 2003, 2010
Delphine Red Shirt (MALS) – Oglala Lakota writer, adjunct professor at Yale University and Connecticut College
Spencer Reece – writer and poet, 2009 Pushcart Prize, 2005 Whiting Writers' Award for poetry
Jean Rikhoff – writer and editor
Mary Roach – New York Times Best Selling author; New York Times Notable Books pick (2005); New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice (2008)
Carlo Rotella (1986) – writer, Whiting Writers' Award (nonfiction, 2007), L. L. Winship/PEN New England Award
Ruth L. Schwartz – poet
Sadia Shepard – author, Fulbright Scholar (2001)
Joyce Sidman (B.A. German) – children's writer; 2011 Newbery Honor Award
Maya Sonenberg (1982) – short story writer, 1989 Drue Heinz Literature Prize
Tristan Taormino (1993) – author and sex educator
Jonathan Thirkield – poet, 2008 Walt Whitman Award
Wells Tower (1996) – writer, two Pushcart Prizes, Best American Short Stories 2010
Ayelet Waldman (1986) – author of Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, Daughter's Keeper, and the Mommy-Track Mysteries
David Rains Wallace – author of The Monkey's Bridge (a 1997 New York Times Notable Book) and The Klamath Knot (1984 John Burroughs Medal)
Austin Warren (1929) – literary critic, author, and professor of English
D.B. Weiss – author and screenwriter
Michael Wolfe – author, poet
Paul Yoon (2002) – writer; 2009 John C. Zacharis First Book Award; O. Henry Award; Best American Short Stories 2006
Lizabeth Zindel – author, working primarily in the young adult (teen) genre
Medicine
Malcolm Bagshaw, MD (B.A. 1946) – 1996 Kettering Prize; "one of the world's foremost experts in radiation therapy"
Andrea Barthwell, MD (B.A.) – named one of "Best Doctors in America" in 1997; Betty Ford Award in 2003
Herbert Benson, MD (1957) – cardiologist; founding president, Mind-Body Medical Institute; professor, Harvard Medical School (as of 2012)
John Benson, Jr., MD (B.A.) – fellow, Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences (1991); IOM named Fellowship in his honor ('10); Abraham Flexner Award ('10)
Charles Brenner (B.A. 1983) – professor, head of biochemistry, University of Iowa (as of 2012); leader, fields of tumor suppressor gene function and metabolism
Thomas Broker (B.A. 1966) – expert, human papilloma viruses; professor, University of Alabama at Birmingham (as of 2012); played central role, discovery of RNA splicing
William H. Dietz, MD (B.A. 1996) – Director, Division of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (1997–); fellow, Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences
Joseph Fins, MD (B.A. 1982) – chief, Division of Medical Ethics, Weill Cornell Medical College (as of 2012); fellow, Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences
Michael Fossel, MD (B.A., M.A.) – professor, clinical medicine (as of 2012), known for his views on telomerase therapy
Laman Gray, Jr., MD (1963) – cardiologist; leader, field of cardiovascular surgery; redesigned, implanted world's 1st self-contained AbioCor artificial heart
Scott Gottlieb, MD (1994) – Commissioner of Foods and Drugs (2017-2019), Food and Drug Administration, United States Department of Health and Human Services
Michael E. Greenberg (B.A. 1976) – neuroscientist; National Academy of Sciences; chair, neurobiology, Harvard Medical School (as of 2012)
Allan Hobson, MD (B.A. 1955) – psychiatrist, dream researcher; professor, psychiatry, Emeritus, Harvard Medical School (as of 2012)
Alex L. Kolodkin (B.A. 1980) – neuroscientist; professor, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine; Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator (2005–)
Jay A. Levy, MD (B.A. 1960) – co-discoverer, AIDS virus (1983); professor, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco (as of 2012); editor-in-chief, AIDS journal
Joseph L. Melnick (B.A.) – epidemiologist, known as "a founder of modern virology"; Albert B. Sabin Gold Medal
Ralph Pomeroy, MD (B.A.) – gynecologist, famous for creation of "Pomeroy" tubal ligation; co-founder, the Williamsburg Hospital in Brooklyn, New York
David J. Sencer, MD (B.A. 1946) – Director, United States Center for Disease Control (1966–77); Head, New York City Department of Health ('81–85)
Theodore Shapiro, MD (B.A. 1936) – psychiatrist
Harry Tiebout, MD (B.A. 1917) – psychiatrist, promoted Alcoholics Anonymous approach to patients, fellow professionals, and the public
Peter Tontonoz, MD (B.A. 1989) – professor of pathology, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator (2000–)Profile of Peter Tontonoz, American Society for Clinical Investigation. Retrieved December 23, 2012.
Military
Brigadier General Allen Fraser Clark, Jr. (1910–90) (B.A.) – United States Army (in the 1960s)
Admiral Thomas H. Collins (four-star rank) (M.A.) – Retired 22nd Commandant, United States Coast Guard (2002–08) (guided Coast Guard after 9/11)
Major General Myron C. Cramer (two-star rank) (B.A. 1904) – 20th Judge Advocate General of the United States Army (1941–45); judge, The International Military Tribunal for the Far East, Tokyo, Japan (1946–49)
Rear Admiral Marshall E. Cusic Jr. MD (two-star rank) (B.A. 1965) – Medical Corps U.S. Naval Reserve; Chief, Medical Reserve Corps, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery
Brigadier General Alonzo Jay Edgerton (B.A. 1850) – American Civil War, Union Army, 67th Regiment Infantry U.S. Colored Troops (Bvt. March 13, 1865)
Lieutenant General William H. Ginn Jr. (three-star rank) (1946–48) – United States Air Force; Commander, U.S. Forces Japan and U.S. Fifth Air Force
Brigadier General John E. Hutton MD (B.A. 1953) – U.S. Army; Director, White House Medical Unit; Physician to President Ronald Reagan
Brigadier General Levin Major Lewis (class of 1852) – Confederate States Army, American Civil War; assigned to duty as Brig. General; president of several colleges
Admiral James Loy (four-star rank) (M.A.) – Retired 21st Commandant, U.S. Coast Guard (1998–2002); Acting United States Secretary of Homeland Security (2005)
Brigadier General Robert Shuter Macrum (B.A. 1927) – U.S. Air Force
Brigadier General Samuel Mather Mansfield (1858–60, B.A. 1911) – U.S. Army; engineer
Rear Admiral (Ret.) Dr. Richard W. Schneider (two-star rank) (M.A. 1973) – U.S. Coast Guard; significant role in the transformation of the Coast Guard
Lieutenant General Adolph G. Schwenk (three-star rank) (B.A. 1963) – United States Marine Corps; Commanding Gen., U.S.FMF (Atl.) and U.S. FMF (Eur.)
Rear Admiral (Ret.) R. Dennis Sirois (two-star rank) (M.A. physics) – U.S. Coast Guard; Assistant Commander for Operations
Rear Admiral (Ret.) Patrick M. Stillman (two-star rank) (M.A.) – U.S. Coast Guard, founding father of the Integrated Deepwater System Program
Tuskegee Airman Chuck Stone (B.A. 1948) – Congressional Gold Medal (March 29, 2007); United States Army Air Forces
Brigadier General John B. Van Petten (B.A. 1850, M.A. '53) – Union Army; his Civil War reminiscences became basis for The Red Badge of CourageBurton, Rick (Summer 2012). "Syracuse and a Civil War Masterpiece". Syracuse University Magazine. Subsection: "Oakwood Cemetery Connection". Vol. 29, No. 2. Retrieved September 20, 2012.
MusicSee also: Academy Awards, Pulitzer Prizes, Emmy, Tony, Grammy Awards, above
Adolovni Acosta – graduate student; classical and concert pianist
Bill Anschell (1982) – pianist, composer; recorded with Lionel Hampton, Ron Carter
John Perry Barlow (1969) – lyricist for the Grateful Dead
Robert Becker – composer and percussionist
Paul Berliner (PhD) – professor of music, Duke University
Marion Brown (M.A. ethnomusicology) – alto saxophonist, composer
Darius Brubeck (1969) – pianist, composer, band leader, professor of music
Kit Clayton – musician and programmer
Tim Cohen (B.A.) – San Francisco-based musician and visual artist
Bill Cole (PhD) – musician; professor of music, Dartmouth College, Amherst College, professor of African-American Studies, Syracuse University
Nicolas Collins (B.A., M.A.) – composer, mostly electronic music; Watson Fellow
Amy Crawford (B.A. 2005) – songwriter, vocalist, keyboardist and producer
Douglas J. Cuomo (attended) – composer
Nathan Davis (PhD) – musician; professor of music, University of Pittsburgh
Stanton Davis (M.A.) – trumpeter, educator
Santi Debriano (M.A.) – double bassist, bandleader
Frank Denyer (PhD) – professor of composition, Dartington College of Arts, South West England
Khalif "Le1f" Diouf (2011) – musician; rapper
Arnold Dreyblatt (M.A. 1982) – composer, based in Berlin, Germany; elected to German Academy of Art
Judy Dunaway (M.A.) – avant-garde composer; creator, sound installations
S. A. K. Durga (PhD) – musicologist, ethnomusicologist, professor of music
Tim Eriksen (M.A. 1993, PhD) – multi-instrumentalist; musicologist; performer, consultant for soundtrack of film Cold Mountain
James Fei (M.A. 1999) – composer and performer, contemporary classical music
Dave Fisher (1962) – lead singer, arranger, The Highwaymen; composer
William Galison – multi-instrumentalist, most famous as harmonica player, composer
Kiff Gallagher (1991) – musician, songwriter, helped create AmeriCorps
Alexis Gideon – composer, multi-media artist
Ben Goldwasser – founding member of Grammy Award-nominated MGMT
Adam Goren (1996) – sole member of synth-punk band Atom and His Package
Mary Halvorson (2002) – guitarist
Jon B. Higgins (B.A., M.A., PhD) – musician; scholar, Carnatic music
Jay Hoggard (1976) – current faculty, Wesleyan; vibraphonist; recorded often
Ashenafi Kebede (1969 M.A., 1971 PhD) – Ethiopian ethnomusicologist
Ron Kuivila (1977) – current faculty, Wesleyan; co-creator, software language Formula
Steve Lehman (2000 B.A.; 2002 M.A.) – composer, saxophonist; Fulbright scholar
David Leisner – classical guitarist, composer; teacher, Manhattan School of Music
Charlie Looker (2003) – musician
MC Frontalot (Damian Hess) (1996) – rapper; innovator of phrase nerdcore
Mladen Milicevic (M.A. 1988) – composer, experimental music, film music
Justin Moyer (1998) – musician and journalist
Dennis Murphy (PhD) – composer, one of the fathers of the American gamelan
Hankus Netsky (PhD) – Klezmer musician, composer
Amanda Palmer (1998) – composer/singer/pianist, The Dresden Dolls
Hewitt Pantaleoni (PhD) – 20th-century ethnomusicologist; known for work in African music
Sriram Parasuram (PhD) – Hindustani classical vocalist; also a violinist
Brandon Patton (1995) – songwriter, bassplayer
Andrew Pergiovanni (B.A.) – composer of "modern classical" and "popular" idioms
Chris Pureka – singer-songwriter
John Rapson (PhD) – jazz trombonist and music educator
Gregory Rogove (2002) – songwriter, indie-music drummer
Steve Roslonek – children's music performer and composer
Santigold (Santi White) – electropop/hip-hop artist
Sarah Kirkland Snider – composer of instrumental music and art songs; co-founder, co-director, New Amsterdam Records
Tyshawn Sorey – musician and composer
Anuradha Sriram (M.A.) – Indian carnatic singer; also, as playback singer, in more than 90 Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, and Hindi films
Carl Sturken (1978 B.A.) – musician, Rhythm Syndicate; songwriter and record producer with Evan Rogers, Syndicated Rhythm Productions
Sumarsam (1976 M.A.) – current faculty, Wesleyan; Javanese musician; virtuoso and scholar of Gamelan
Himanshu Suri (2007 B.A.) – rapper; writer; alternative hip hop group Das Racist
Tierney Sutton (1986) – thrice Grammy Award nominated jazz singer; Jazzweek 2005 Vocalist of the Year
Laxmi Ganesh Tewari (PhD) – Hindustani virtuoso vocalist, professor of music
Stephen Trask (1989) – composer (stage, screen); Obie Award; Grammy nomination
Stephen S. Trott (1962) – early member, The Highwaymen, which originated at Wesleyan; #1 single ("Michael Row the Boat Ashore" 1961)
Andrew VanWyngarden – founding member of Grammy Award nominated MGMT
Victor Vazquez (2006) – musician; rapper; alternative hip hop group Das Racist
T. Viswanathan (1975 PhD) – Carnatic flute virtuoso, professor of music
Dennis Waring (1982 PhD) – ethnomusicologist and Estay Organ historian
Dar Williams (1989) – folksinger
Daniel James Wolf (M.A., PhD) – composer of modern classical music
Peter Zummo (1970, B.A.; 1975, M.A., PhD) – composer, musician (postminimalist)
Karaikudi S. Subramanian – (1985, M.A., PhD) – musician; educationist, Carnatic music
NewsSee also:''' Pulitzer Prizes, Emmy Awards, above
Dan Ackman – journalist
Eric Asimov (1979) – restaurant columnist, editor, The New York Times (nephew of Isaac Asimov)
Doug Berman (1984) – Peabody Award-winning producer, launched NPR's Car Talk; creator, other news radio shows
Robert A. Bertsche – two-time winner, National Magazine Award; journalist, editor, media lawyer;
William Blakemore (1965) – correspondent, ABC News, DuPont-Columbia Award
Dominique Browning (1977) – former editor-in-chief, House & Garden Katy Butler (1971) – journalist, Best American Essays, Best American Science Writing, finalist for 2004 National Magazine Award
Marysol Castro (1996) – weather forecaster, CBS The Early Show (2011); weather anchor, contributing writer, ABC Good Morning America Weekend Edition (2004–10)
Jonathan Dube – pioneer, online journalism; print journalist
E.V. Durling – nationally syndicated newspaper columnist and one of the first Hollywood reporters
Jane Eisner (1977) – editor, The Forward, paper's first female editor; former editor, reporter, columnist, The Philadelphia Inquirer Smokey Fontaine (1993) – editor-in-chief, writer, music critic, Giant (2006–); Chief Content Officer, Interactive One (2007–)
Steven Greenhouse (1973) – reporter, The New York Times; 2010 New York Press Club Awards For Journalism; 2009 Hillman Prize
Ferris Greenslet (1897) – editor, writer; associate editor, Atlantic Monthly; director, literary adviser, Houghton Mifflin Co.
Vanessa Grigoriadis (1995) – National Magazine Award; writer
Peter Gutmann (1971) – journalist, attorney
William Henry Huntington – journalist
Alberto Ibargüen (1966) – CEO, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; former publisher, The Miami Herald David Karp – pomologist, culinary journalist
Alex Kotlowitz (1977) – George Polk Award; Peabody Award, There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America Dave Lindorff (1972) – Project Censored Award (2004); investigative reporter, columnist
Stephen Metcalf – critic-at-large and columnist, Slate magazine
Kyrie O'Connor (1976) – journalist, writer, editor
Gail O'Neill – television journalist; former elite African-American fashion model
Charles Bennett Ray – journalist; owner, editor, The Colored American, first black student at Wesleyan in 1832
Jake Silverstein – 4th editor-in-chief (2008–), Texas Monthly, ten-time winner, National Magazine Award; 2007 Pen/Journalism Award; Fulbright Scholar;
Chuck Stone (1948) – journalist; professor of journalism, University of North Carolina; former editor, Philadelphia Daily News Vin Suprynowicz (1972) – libertarian columnist
Laura Ruth Walker (1979) – 2008 Edward R. Murrow Award; Peabody Award
Ulrich Wickert (Fulbright Scholar at Wesleyan in 1962) – broadcast journalist in Germany
Michael Yamashita (1971) – award-winning photographer, photojournalist, National Geographic John Yang (1980) – Peabody Award-winning journalist; two-time winner, DuPont-Columbia Award; NBC News correspondent, commentator (2007–)
Politics and government
Religion
Edward Gayer Andrews (BA 1847) – president, Cazenovia Seminary; later bishop, Methodist Episcopal Church
Osman Cleander Baker (1830–33) – bishop, Methodist Episcopal Church; biblical scholar; namesake of Baker University, Baldwin City, Kansas
Lawrence Aloysius Burke (MALS 1970) – 4th archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kingston in Jamaica; 1st archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Nassau
James Wm. Chichetto – Catholic priest, Congregation of Holy Cross, poet, critic
Davis Wasgatt Clark (1836) – 1st president, Freedman's Aid Society; predecessor, namesake of Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta, Georgia; bishop, Methodist Episcopal Church
Shira Koch Epstein (1998) – rabbi, Congregation Beth Elohim, Brooklyn, New York
James Midwinter Freeman – clergyman, writer
William Henry Giler – founder of a seminary and a college; chaplain during the American Civil War
Debra W. Haffner (1985) – Unitarian Universalist minister; director, The Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice, and Healing
Gilbert Haven (1846) – 2nd president, Freedman's Aid Society; early proponent of equality of the sexes; bishop, Methodist Episcopal Church
Robert T. Hoshibata (1973) – Hawaiian bishop, United Methodist Church
Jesse Lyman Hurlbut (1864) – clergyman, author
John Christian Keener (1835) – bishop, Methodist Episcopal Church
Daniel Parish Kidder (1836) – theologian, missionary to Brazil
Isaac J. Lansing (B.A. 1872, M.A. 1875) – Methodist Episcopal minister of Park Street Church; college president, author
Delmar R. Lowell (1873) – minister, American Civil War veteran, historian, genealogist
Willard Francis Mallalieu – bishop, Methodist Episcopal Church
James Mudge (1865) – clergyman, author, missionary to India
Thomas H. Mudge (1840) – clergyman
Zachariah Atwell Mudge (1813–88) – pastor, author
Frederick Buckley Newell (AB 1913) – bishop, The Methodist Church (elected 1952)
William Xavier Ninde (A.B. 1855, D.D. 1874) – bishop, Methodist Episcopal Church (now the United Methodist Church); president, Garrett–Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, Illinois
Spencer Reece (1985) – Episcopal priest; chaplain to the Bishop of Spain for the Spanish Reformed Episcopal Church (Iglesia Española Reformada Episcopal)
Charles Francis Rice (B.A. 1872, M.A. 1875, D.D. 1893) – Methodist minister
William Rice (M.A. 1853, D.D. 1876) – Methodist Minister and librarian
Matthew Richey (M.A. 1836, D.D. 1847) – Canadian minister, educator, and leader in Nova Scotia, Canada
B. T. Roberts (university honors) – co-founder, Free Methodist Church of North America
A. James Rudin (1955) – rabbi, Senior Interreligious Adviser, The American Jewish Committee
James Strong (A.B. 1844, D.D. 1856, LL.D 1881) – creator of Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1890); acting president Troy University, Troy, New York; mayor
Moses Clark White (1845) – pioneering missionary in China and physician; first linguistic study of Fuzhou dialect
Royalty
Prince Carlos, Prince of Piacenza, Duke of Parma (B.A. government) – Head of Royal and Ducal House of Bourbon-Parma; member, Dutch Royal Family
Science, technology, engineering, mathematics
David P. Anderson (1977) – mathematician, computer scientist (as of 2012); Space Sciences Laboratory; Presidential Young Investigator Award
Taft Armandroff (1982) – astronomer; director, W. M. Keck Observatory, Mauna Kea (July 1, 2006–)
Harold DeForest Arnold (Ph.B. 1906, M.S. 1907) – physicist; research led to development of transcontinental telephony
Wilbur Olin Atwater (1865) – chemist, agricultural chemistry; known for his studies of human nutrition and metabolism
Oliver L. Austin – ornithologist; wrote the definitive study Birds of the World Susan R. Barry (1976) – neurobiologist, specializing in neuronal plasticity (as of 2012)
Albert Francis Blakeslee (1896) – botanist; leading figure in the genetics; known for research on jimsonweed and fungi
Everitt P. Blizard (1938) – Canadian-born American nuclear physicist, nuclear engineer; known for his work on nuclear reactor physics and shielding; 1966 Elliott Cresson Medal
Byron Alden Brooks (1871) – inventor; author of Earth Revisited Samuel Botsford Buckley (1836) – botanist, geologist, naturalist
Henry Smith Carhart (1869) – physicist, specializing in electricity; devised a voltaic cell, the Carhart-Clark cell, among other inventions
Kenneth G. Carpenter (1976, M.A. 1977) – astrophysicist (as of 2012); Project Scientist and Principal Investigator, NASA, Hubble Space Telescope Operations
David Carroll (PhD 1993) – physicist, nanotechnologist (as of 2012); director, Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials, Wake Forest University
Jennifer Tour Chayes (1979) – mathematician, mathematical physicist (as of 2012); National Academy of Sciences; Head, Microsoft Research New England
Charles Manning Child (A.B. 1890, M.S. 1892) – zoologist; National Academy of Sciences; noted for his work on regeneration at the University of Chicago
John M. Coffin (1966) – virologist, geneticist, molecular microbiologist (as of 2012); National Academy of Sciences; Director, HIV Program, National Cancer Institute
Richard Dansky – software developer of computer games and designer of role-playing games (as of 2012)
Henrik Dohlman (1982) – pharmacologist, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Russell Doolittle (1951) – biochemist (as of 2012); co-developed the hydropathy index; National Academy of Sciences; 2006 John J. Carty Award for the Advancement of Science; 1989 Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize
Clay Dreslough (1993) – software developer (as of 2012); creator, Baseball Mogul and Football Mogul computer sports games; co-founder, president, Sports Mogul
Gordon P. Eaton (1951) – geologist (as of 2012); 12th Director, United States Geological Service; Director, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University (1990–94)
Charles Alton Ellis – mathematician, structural engineer; chiefly responsible for the design of the Golden Gate Bridge
John Wells Foster (1834) – geologist, paleontologist
Daniel Z. Freedman – physicist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (as of 2012); co-discovered supergravity; (2006) Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics; 1993 Dirac Prize
George Brown Goode – ichthyologist; National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Lee Graham (postdoc study, research) – artificial intelligence, machine learning, evolutionary computation, artificial life; created 3D Virtual Creature Evolution, an artificial evolution simulation program
Leslie Greengard (B.A. 1979) – physician, mathematician, computer scientist; co-inventor, fast multipole method, one of top-ten algorithms of 20th century; Leroy P. Steele Prize; Presidential Young Investigator Award; National Academy of Sciences; National Academy of Engineering
Frederick Grover (1901) – physicist, National Bureau of Standards, precision measurements; electrical engineer
Henry I. Harriman (B.A. 1898) – inventor, patents for many automatic looms; builder, hydroelectric dams
Gerald Holton (1941) – physicist, Emeritus, Harvard University (as of 2012); 10th Jefferson Lecture; George Sarton Medal; Abraham Pais Prize; Andrew Gemant Award
Orange Judd (1847) – agricultural chemist
George Kellogg (1837) – inventor, patent expert; improved surgical instruments
Jim Kurose – computer scientist (as of 2012); 2001 Taylor L. Booth Education Award of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Oscar Lanford (B.S.) – mathematician, mathematical physicist, dynamical systems theory (as of 2012); Dobrushin-Lanford-Ruelle equations
Albert L. Lehninger (B.A. 1939) – pioneering research in bioenergetics; National Academy of Sciences
Silas Laurence Loomis, MD (1844) – mathematician, physiologist, inventor; astronomer, United States Coast Survey (1857); dean, Howard University
Emilie Marcus (1982) – Executive Editor, Cell Press; editor-in-chief, the scientific journal Cell; CEO, Neuron (each as of 2012)
Julia L. Marcus (A.M. 2003) – epidemiologist, science communicator, Harvard Medical School
William Williams Mather (A.M. 1834) – geologist, inventor; acting president, Ohio University (1845)
Jerry M. Melillo (B.A. 1965, M.A.T. 1968) – biogeochemist; Associate Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy (1996–2000)
George Perkins Merrill (post-graduate study and research) – geologist; National Academy of Sciences (1922)
Benjamin Franklin Mudge (1840) – geologist, paleontologist; discovered at least 80 new species of extinct plants and animals
Frank W. Putnam (B.A. 1939, M.A. 1940) – biochemist; National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Fremont Rider (M.A. 1937) – inventor, librarian, genealogist; named one of the 100 Most Important Leaders of Library Science and the Library Profession in the twentieth century
William Robinson (B.A. 1865, M.A. 1868) – inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer; invented first track circuit used in railway signaling, among other inventions
Edward Bennett Rosa (1886) – physicist; specialising in measurement science; National Academy of Sciences (1913); Elliott Cresson Medal
Richard Alfred Rossiter (1914) – astronomer, known for the Rossiter–McLaughlin effect
H. Eugene Stanley (1962) – physicist, statistical physics (as of 2012); National Academy of Sciences; 2008 Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize; 2004 Boltzmann Medal
Carl Leo Stearns (B.A. 1917) – astronomer; namesake of asteroid (2035) Stearns and crater Stearns (far side of the Moon)
John Stephenson – invented, patented the first street car to run on rails; remembered as the creator of the tramway
Charles Wardell Stiles (attended) – parasitologist; groundbreaking work, trichinosis, hookworm; 1921 Public Welfare Medal by National Academy of Sciences
Lewis B. Stillwell (1882–1884) – electrical engineer; 1933 AIEE Lamme Medal, 1935 IEEE Edison Medal; IEEE's Electrical Engineering Hall of Fame
Michael Tibbetts (PhD) – biologist (as of 2012); research in cell and molecular biology, genetics
Alfred Charles True (1873) – agriculturalist; director, Office of Agricultural Experiment Station, U. S. Department of Agriculture
Mark Trueblood (candidate for PhD in physics) – engineer and astronomer (as of 2012); noted for early pioneering work in development of robotic telescopes; 15522 Trueblood
George Tucker (PhD) – Puerto Rican physicist (as of 2012); former Olympic luger
Nicholas Turro (1960) – chemist, Columbia University (as of 2012); National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences; 2011 Arthur C. Cope Award; Willard Gibbs Award
John Monroe Van Vleck (1850) – astronomer, mathematician; namesake of Van Vleck crater on the Moon
Jesse Vincent (1998) – software developer (as of 2012); developed Request Tracker while a student at Wesleyan; author, Request Tracker for Incident Response Christopher Weaver (dual MAs and CAS) – software developer; founder, Bethesda Softworks; spearheaded creation, John Madden Football physics engine; visiting scholar, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Henry Seely White (1882) – mathematician; National Academy of Sciences; geometry of curves and surfaces, algebraic twisted curves
Activists
Cliff Arnebeck – chair, Legal Affairs Committee, Common Cause Ohio; national co-chair and attorney, Alliance for Democracy
Dan Ackman – civil-rights lawyer and journalist
Mansoor Alam – humanitarian
John Emory Andrus (1862) – founder, SURDNA Foundation (1917)
Gerald L. Baliles (1987) – director, Miller Center of Public Affairs (since 2005)
Jeannie Baliles (M.A.T.) – founder and chair, Virginia Literacy Foundation (since 1987); First Lady of Virginia (1986–90)
John Perry Barlow (1969) – co-founder, Electronic Frontier Foundation; Fellow, Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society (since 1998)
Andrew Bridge (1984) – advocate for foster children; New York Times best-selling author; Fulbright Scholar
Ted Brown (attended) – libertarian politician, speaker
Eric Byler (1994) – political activist; co-founder, Coffee Party USA
Sasha Chanoff (1994) – founder, Executive Director, RefugePoint (2005–)
Jaclyn Friedman (1993) – feminist writer and activist
Jon Grepstad – Norwegian peace activist, photographer and journalist
Amir Alexander Hasson (1998) – social entrepreneur; 2010 Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Technology Review's TR35 award; founder, United Villages
Marc Kasky – consumer activist; co-director, Green Center Institute
Matt Kelley (2002) – founder, Mavin Foundation
Harry W. Laidler (1907) – socialist, writer and politician
Melody Moezzi (2001) – founder, Hooping for Peace, a human-rights organization
Sandy Newman (1974) – non-profit executive, founder of three successful non-profit organizations
Robert Carter Pitman (1845) – temperance advocate
Jessica Posner – 2010 Do Something Award; co-founded Shining Hope to combat gender inequality and poverty in Kibera, Nairobi Area, Kenya
Charles Bennett Ray – first black student, Wesleyan in 1832; abolitionist; promoter, the Underground Railroad
Richard S. Rust (1841) – abolitionist; co-founder, Freedman's Aid Society
Juliet Schor – 2005 Leontief Prize (Wassily Leontief) by the Global Development and Environment Institute
Ted Smith (1967) – environmental activist; founder and former executive director, Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition
Chuck Stone – associated with the civil-rights and Black Power movements; first president, National Association of Black Journalists
Vin Suprynowicz (1972) – libertarian activist, 2000 U.S. vice presidential candidate, Libertarian Party in Arizona
Arthur T. Vanderbilt – proponent of U.S. court modernization and reform
Evan Weber – Co-founder, Sunrise Movement
David Jay – asexual activist and founder of the Asexual Visibility and Education Network
Sports
Everett Bacon (1913) – football quarterback, pioneer of the forward pass, College Football Hall of Fame
Bill Belichick (1975) – head coach, New England Patriots; 2004 Time's "100 Most Influential People in the World"; Nine-time Super Bowl participant as head coach, won in 2001, 2003, 2004, 2014, 2016, and 2018 (lost in Super Bowl XLII (2007), Super Bowl XLVI (2011), and Super Bowl LII (2017)); first NFL coach to win three Super Bowls in four years; NFL Coach of the Year three times (2003, 2007, 2010)
Ambrose Burfoot (1968) – first collegian to win the Boston Marathon; won Manchester Road Race nine times; executive editor, Runner's World Magazine
Mike Carlson (1972) – National Football League and NFL Europe pundit (for Channel 4 in the United Kingdom)
Eudice Chong (2016) - professional tennis player, reached #366 in the WTA singles rankings and #153 in the WTA singles rankings
Logan Cunningham (1907–09) – football player and coach
Wink Davenport (1964) – former volleyball Olympic player, coach, and official; father, tennis champion Lindsay Davenport
Richard E. Eustis (1914) – football player and coach
Jeff Galloway (1967) – former American Olympian, runner and author of Galloway's Book on Running''
Frank Hauser (1979) – football coach
Jed Hoyer (1996) – executive vice president and general manager, Chicago Cubs; former general manager (2009–11), San Diego Padres; former assistant general manager (2003–09), interim co-manager (2005–06), Boston Red Sox
Kathy Keeler (1978) – Olympic gold medalist, rowing (member of the women's eight) in the 1984 Olympics; Olympics coach in 1996
Dan Kenan (1915) – football player and coach
Red Lanning – American Major League Baseball pitcher and outfielder; played for Philadelphia Athletics
Amos Magee (1993) – professional soccer player, coach; former head coach, Minnesota Thunder, and is Thunder's all-time scoring leader, United Soccer Leagues Hall of Fame
Jeffrey Maier (2006) – college baseball player; notable for an instance of spectator interference at age twelve; Wesleyan's all-time leader in hits
Eric Mangini (1994) – former head coach, Cleveland Browns, New York Jets; NFL analyst
Kimberley A. Martin - (2003) sports journalist and NFL reporter, ESPN
Vince Pazzetti (1908–10) – elected to the College Football Hall of Fame
Bill Rodgers (1970) – winner, four New York City Marathons, four Boston Marathons, one Fukuoka Marathon; only runner to hold championship of all three major marathons at same time
Henri Salaun (1949) – squash player; four-time winner, U.S. Squash National Championships (1955, 1957, 1958 and 1961); won, inaugural U.S. Open (1954)
Harry Van Surdam (1905) – elected to the College Football Hall of Fame
Mike Whalen (1983) – athlete and coach
James Wendell (1913) – Olympic silver medalist, 110-meter hurdles, 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm; one of teammates, General George S. Patton
Jeff Wilner (1994) – National Football League player
Bert Wilson (1897) – football player and coach
Field Yates (2009) - sportswriter and analyst for ESPN
Fictional characters
Notes
Wesleyan University people |
10504824 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messages%20Server | Messages Server | Messages Server is a component of OS X Server from Apple Inc. It was first introduced as iChat Server with the release of Mac OS X Server 10.4, and was upgraded to version 2 with the release of Mac OS X 10.5 Server in October 2007.
iChat Server was originally based on jabberd 1.4.3 and is named after Apple's iChat online chat client software.
Version 2 of the software is based on jabberd2 2.0s9 and supports server federation, which allows chat clients to talk directly with other systems that support XMPP. It also supports server-based chat archiving.
Server 5.7.1, the version aligned with macOS 10.14 and released on September 30, 2018, removed the Messages Server functionality from Server.app.
See also
Comparison of XMPP server software
References
External links
iChat Server on Apple's Mac OS X Server website
Source code on Apple's Open Source website.
Instant messaging server software
Online chat
MacOS
MacOS Server |
34844326 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-spam%20techniques%20%28users%29 | Anti-spam techniques (users) | This page is about client side and other techniques. For server side techniques read the Anti-spam techniques page.
People tend to be much less bothered by spam slipping through filters into their mail box (false negatives), than having desired e-mail ("ham") blocked (false positives). Trying to balance false negatives (missed spams) vs false positives (rejecting good e-mail) is critical for a successful anti-spam system. As servers are not able to block all spam there are some tools for individual users to help control over this balance.
End-user techniques
There are a number of techniques that individuals can use to restrict the availability of their e-mail addresses, reducing or preventing their attractiveness to spam.
Discretion
Sharing an email address only among a limited group of correspondents is one way to limit spam. This method relies on the discretion of all members of the group, as disclosing email addresses outside the group circumvents the trust relationship of the group. For this reason, forwarding messages to recipients who don't know one another should be avoided. When it is absolutely necessary to forward messages to recipients who don't know one another, it is good practice to list the recipient names all after "bcc:" instead of after "to:". This practice avoids the scenario where unscrupulous recipients might compile a list of email addresses for spamming purposes. This practice also reduces the risk of the address being distributed by computers affected with email address harvesting malware. However, once the privacy of the email address is lost by divulgence, it cannot likely be regained.
Address munging
Posting anonymously, or with a fake name and address, is one way to avoid e-mail address harvesting, but users should ensure that the fake address is not valid. Users who want to receive legitimate email regarding their posts or Web sites can alter their addresses so humans can figure out but spammers cannot. For instance, might post as . Address munging, however, can cause legitimate replies to be lost. If it's not the user's valid address, it has to be truly invalid, otherwise someone or some server will still get the spam for it.
Other ways use transparent address munging to avoid this by allowing users to see the actual address but obfuscate it from automated email harvesters with methods such as displaying all or part of the e-mail address on a web page as an image, a text logo shrunken to normal size using in-line CSS, or as jumbled text with the order of characters restored using CSS.
Avoid responding to spam
Spammers often regard responses to their messages—even responses like "Don't spam me"—as confirmation that an email address is valid. Likewise, many spam messages contain Web links or addresses which the user is directed to follow to be removed from the spammer's mailing list. In several cases, spam-fighters have tested these links, confirming they do not lead to the recipient address's removal—if anything, they lead to more spam. This removal request of filing a complaint may get the address list washed. To lower complaints so the spammer can stay active before having to acquire new accounts and/or internet provider.
Sender addresses are often forged in spam messages, including using the recipient's own address as the forged sender address, so that responding to spam may result in failed deliveries or may reach innocent e-mail users whose addresses have been abused.
In Usenet, it is widely considered even more important to avoid responding to spam. Many ISPs have software that seek and destroy duplicate messages. Someone may see a spam and respond to it before it is cancelled by their server, which can have the effect of reposting the spam for them; since it is not a duplicate, the reposted copy will last longer. Replying may also cause the poster to be falsely linked to as part of the spam message.
Contact forms
Contact forms allow users to send email by filling out forms in a web browser. The web server takes the form data, forwarding it to an email address. Users never see the email address. Such forms, however, are sometimes inconvenient to users, as they are not able to use their preferred e-mail client, risk entering a faulty reply address, and are typically not notified about delivery problems. Further, contact forms have the drawback that they require a website that supports server side scripts. Finally, if the software used to run the contact forms is badly designed, it can become a spam tool in its own right. Additionally, some spammers have begun to send spam using the contact form.
Disable HTML in e-mail
Many modern mail programs incorporate Web browser functionality, such as the display of HTML, URLs, and images. This can easily expose the user to offensive images in spam. In addition, spam written in HTML can contain web bugs which allows spammers to see that the e-mail address is valid and that the message has not been caught in spam filters. JavaScript programs can be used to direct the user's Web browser to an advertised page, or to make the spam message difficult to close or delete. Spam messages have contained attacks upon security vulnerabilities in the HTML renderer, using these holes to install spyware. (Some computer viruses are borne by the same mechanisms.)
Mail clients which do not automatically download and display HTML, images or attachments, have fewer risks, as do clients who have been configured to not display these by default.
Disposable e-mail addresses
An email user may sometimes need to give an address to a site without complete assurance that the site owner will not use it for sending spam. One way to mitigate the risk is to provide a disposable email address—a temporary address which the user can disable or abandon which forwards email to a real account. A number of services provide disposable address forwarding. Addresses can be manually disabled, can expire after a given time interval, or can expire after a certain number of messages have been forwarded.
Disposable email addresses can be used by users to track whether a site owner has disclosed an address. This capability has resulted in legal jeopardy for sites that disclose confidential addresses without permission.
Ham passwords
Systems that use ham passwords ask unrecognised senders to include in their email a password that demonstrates that the email message is a "ham" (not spam) message. Typically the email address and ham password would be described on a web page, and the ham password would be included in the "subject" line of an email address. Ham passwords are often combined with filtering systems, to counter the risk that a filtering system will accidentally identify a ham message as a spam message.
The "plus addressing" technique appends a password to the "username" part of the email address.
Reporting spam
Tracking down a spammer's ISP and reporting the offense can lead to the spammer's service being terminated and criminal prosecution. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to track down the spammer—and while there are some online tools to assist, they are not always accurate. Occasionally, spammers employ their own netblocks. In this case, the abuse contact for the netblock can be the spammer itself and can confirm your address.
Examples of these online tools are SpamCop and Network Abuse Clearinghouse. They provide automated or semi-automated means to report spam to ISPs. Some spam-fighters regard them as inaccurate compared to what an expert in the email system can do; however, most email users are not experts.
A free tool called Complainterator may be used in the reporting of spam. The Complainterator will send an automatically generated complaint to the registrar of the spamming domain and the registrar of its name servers.
Historically, reporting spam in this way has not seriously abated spam, since the spammers simply move their operation to another URL, ISP or network of IP addresses.
Consumers may also forward unwanted and deceptive commercial email to an email address () maintained by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The database collected is used to prosecute perpetrators of scam or deceptive advertising.
An alternative to contacting ISPs is to contact the registrar of a domain name that has used in spam e-mail. Registrars, as ICANN-accredited administrative organizations, are obliged to uphold certain rules and regulations, and have the resources necessary for dealing with abuse complaints.
Responding to spam
Some advocate responding aggressively to spam—in other words, "spamming the spammer".
The basic idea is to make spamming less attractive to the spammer, by increasing the spammer's overhead. There are several ways to reach a spammer, but besides the caveats mentioned above, it may lead to retaliations by the spammer.
Replying directly to the spammer's email address
Just clicking "reply" will not work in the vast majority of cases, since most of the sender addresses are forged or made up. In some cases, however, spammers do provide valid addresses, as in the case of Nigerian scams.
Targeting the computers used to send out spam
In 2005, IBM announced a service to bounce spam directly to the computers that send out spam. Because the IP addresses are identified in the headers of every message, it would be possible to target those computers directly, sidestepping the problem of forged email addresses. In most cases, however, those computers do not belong to the real spammer, but to unsuspecting users with unsecured or outdated systems, hijacked through malware and controlled at distance by the spammer; these are known as zombie computers. However, in most legal jurisdictions, ignorance is no defense, and many victims of spam regard the owners of zombie computers as willfully compliant accomplices of spammers.
Leaving messages on the spamvertised site
Spammers selling their wares need a tangible point of contact so that customers can reach them. Sometimes it is a telephone number, but most often is a web site containing web forms through which customers can fill out orders or inquiries, or even "unsubscribe" requests. Since positive response to spam is probably much less than 1/10,000, if just a tiny percentage of users visit spam sites just to leave negative messages, the negative messages could easily outnumber positive ones, incurring costs for spammers to sort them out, not mentioning the cost in bandwidth. An automated system, designed to respond in just such a way, was Blue Frog. Unfortunately, in doing so, you risk arousing the ire of criminals who may respond with threats or 'target' your address with even more spam.
Automated techniques for e-mail senders
There are a variety of techniques that e-mail senders use to try to make sure that they do not send spam. Failure to control the amount of spam sent, as judged by e-mail receivers, can often cause even legitimate email to be blocked and for the sender to be put on DNSBLs.
Background checks on new users and customers
Since spammer's accounts are frequently disabled due to violations of abuse policies, they are constantly trying to create new accounts. Due to the damage done to an ISP's reputation when it is the source of spam, many ISPs and web email providers use CAPTCHAs on new accounts to verify that it is a real human registering the account, and not an automated spamming system. They can also verify that credit cards are not stolen before accepting new customers, check the Spamhaus Project ROKSO list, and do other background checks.
Confirmed opt-in for mailing lists
One difficulty in implementing opt-in mailing lists is that many means of gathering user email addresses remain susceptible to forgery. For instance, if a company puts up a Web form to allow users to subscribe to a mailing list about its products, a malicious person can enter other people's email addresses — to harass them, or to make the company appear to be spamming. (To most anti-spammers, if the company sends e-mail to these forgery victims, it is spamming, albeit inadvertently.)
To prevent this abuse, MAPS and other anti-spam organizations encourage that all mailing lists use confirmed opt-in (also known as verified opt-in or double opt-in). That is, whenever an email address is presented for subscription to the list, the list software should send a confirmation message to that address. The confirmation message contains no advertising content, so it is not construed to be spam itself — and the address is not added to the live mail list unless the recipient responds to the confirmation message. See also the Spamhaus Mailing Lists vs. Spam Lists page.
All modern mailing list management programs (such as GNU Mailman, LISTSERV, Majordomo, and qmail's ezmlm) support confirmed opt-in by default.
Egress spam filtering
E-mail senders can do the same type of anti-spam checks on e-mail coming from their users and customers as can be done for e-mail coming from the rest of the Internet.
Limit e-mail backscatter
If any sort of bounce message or anti-virus warning gets sent to a forged email address, the result will be backscatter.
Problems with sending challenges to forged e-mail addresses can be greatly reduced by not creating a new message that contains the challenge. Instead, the challenge can be placed in the Bounce message when the receiving mail system gives a rejection-code during the SMTP session. When the receiving mail system rejects an e-mail this way, it is the sending system that actually creates the bounce message. As a result, the bounce message will almost always be sent to the real sender, and it will be in a format and language that the sender will usually recognize.
Port 25 blocking
Firewalls and routers can be programmed to not allow SMTP traffic (TCP port 25) from machines on the network that are not supposed to run Mail Transfer Agents or send e-mail. This practice is somewhat controversial when ISPs block home users, especially if the ISPs do not allow the blocking to be turned off upon request. E-mail can still be sent from these computers to designated smart hosts via port 25 and to other smart hosts via the e-mail submission port 587.
Port 25 interception
Network address translation can be used to intercept all port 25 (SMTP) traffic and direct it to a mail server that enforces rate limiting and egress spam filtering. This is commonly done in hotels, but it can cause e-mail privacy problems, as well making it impossible to use STARTTLS and SMTP-AUTH if the port 587 submission port isn't used.
Rate limiting
Machines that suddenly start to send much e-mail may well have become zombie computers. By limiting the rate that e-mail can be sent around what is typical for the computer in question, legitimate e-mail can still be sent, but large spam runs can be slowed until manual investigation can be done.
Spam report feedback loops
By monitoring spam reports from places such as spamcop, AOL's feedback loop, and Network Abuse Clearinghouse, the domain's abuse@ mailbox, etc., ISPs can often learn of problems before they seriously damage the ISP's reputation and have their mail servers blacklisted.
FROM field control
Both malicious software and human spam senders often use forged FROM addresses when sending spam messages. Control may be enforced on SMTP servers to ensure senders can only use their correct email address in the FROM field of outgoing messages. In an email users database each user has a record with an e-mail address. The SMTP server must check if the email address in the FROM field of an outgoing message is the same address that belongs to the user's credentials, supplied for SMTP authentication. If the FROM field is forged, an SMTP error will be returned to the email client (e.g. "You do not own the email address you are trying to send from").
Strong AUP and TOS agreements
Most ISPs and webmail providers have either an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) or a Terms of Service (TOS) agreement that discourages spammers from using their system and allows the spammer to be terminated quickly for violations.
Techniques for researchers & law enforcement
Increasingly, anti-spam efforts have led to co-ordination between law enforcement, researchers, major consumer financial service companies and Internet service providers in monitoring and tracking e-mail spam, identity theft and phishing activities and gathering evidence for criminal cases.
Legislation and enforcement
Appropriate legislation and enforcement can have a significant impact on spamming activity.
The penalty provisions of the Australian Spam Act 2003 dropped Australia's ranking in the list of spam-relaying countries for email spam from tenth to twenty-eighth.
Legislation that provides mandates that bulk emailers must follow makes compliant spam easier to identify and filter out.
Analysis of spamvertisements
Analysis of sites being spamvertised by a given piece of spam often leads to questionable registrations of Internet domain names. Since registrars are required to maintain trustworthy WHOIS databases, digging into the registration details and complaining at the proper locations often results in site shutdowns. Uncoordinated activity may not be effective, given today's volume of spam and the rate at which criminal organizations register new domains. However, a coordinated effort, implemented with adequate infrastructure, can obtain good results.
Other
Cost-based systems
Since spamming is facilitated by the fact that large volumes of email are very inexpensive to send, one proposed set of solutions would require that senders pay some cost in order to send email, making it prohibitively expensive for spammers. Anti-spam activist Daniel Balsam attempts to make spamming less profitable by bringing lawsuits against spammers.
Other techniques
There are a number of proposals for sideband protocols that will assist SMTP operation. The Anti-Spam Research Group (ASRG) of the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) is working on a number of email authentication and other proposals for providing simple source authentication that is flexible, lightweight, and scalable. Recent Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) activities include MARID (2004) leading to two approved IETF experiments in 2005, and DomainKeys Identified Mail in 2006.
DMARC, which stands for "Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance" standardizes how email receivers perform email authentication using the well-known Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DKIM mechanisms.
Channel email is a new proposal for sending email that attempts to distribute anti-spam activities by forcing verification (probably using bounce messages so back-scatter doesn't occur) when the first email is sent for new contacts.
SMTP proxy
SMTP proxies allow combating spam in real time, combining sender's behavior controls, providing legitimate users immediate feedback, eliminating a need for quarantine.
Statistical content filtering
Statistical (or Bayesian) filtering once set up, requires no administrative maintenance per se: instead, users mark messages as spam or nonspam and the filtering software learns from these judgements. Thus, a statistical filter does not reflect the software author's or administrator's biases as to content, but rather the user's biases. For example, a biochemist who is researching Viagra won't have messages containing the word "Viagra" automatically flagged as spam, because "Viagra" will show up often in his or her legitimate messages. Still, spam emails containing the word "Viagra" do get filtered because the content of the rest of the spam messages differs significantly from the content of legitimate messages. A statistical filter can also respond quickly to changes in spam content, without administrative intervention, as long as users consistently designate false negative messages as spam when received in their email. Statistical filters can also look at message headers, thereby considering not just the content but also peculiarities of the transport mechanism of the email.
Typical statistical filtering uses single words in the calculations to decide if a message should be classified as spam or not. A more powerful calculation can be made using groups of two or more words taken together. Then random "noise" words can not be used as successfully to fool the filter.
Software programs that implement statistical filtering include Bogofilter, DSPAM, SpamBayes, ASSP, the e-mail programs Mozilla and Mozilla Thunderbird, Mailwasher, and later revisions of SpamAssassin. Another interesting project is CRM114 which hashes phrases and does bayesian classification on the phrases.
There is also the free mail filter POPFile, which sorts mail in as many categories as the user wants (family, friends, co-worker, spam, whatever) with Bayesian filtering.
Research conferences
Spam is the subject of several research conferences, including:
Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group
TREC (July 2007)
Conference on Email and Anti-Spam, August 2007
FTC Spam Summit, July 2007
MIT Spam Conference, March 2007
See also
MailChannels
References
Spam filtering |
37023189 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List%20of%20home%20automation%20software | List of home automation software | Home automation software is software that facilitates control of common appliances found in a home, office, or sometimes a commercial setting, such as lights, HVAC equipment, access control, sprinklers, and other devices. It usually provides for scheduling tasks, such as turning sprinklers on at the appropriate time, and event handling, such as turning lights on when motion is detected. Typically the application will support multiple interfaces to the outside world, such as XMPP, email, Z-Wave, and X10.
The user interface of home automation software is often based on a client-server model, such as a web UI or a smartphone app, or some combination thereof. More advanced applications will allow users to write scripts in a programming language to handle more complex tasks. there are many competing home automation standards for both hardware and software.
Open-source software
This is a list of software across multiple platforms which is designed to perform home automation.
Closed-source software
Proprietary hardware
This is a list of platforms that require custom, closed hardware for home automation.
References
Lists of software |
34352435 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lords%20of%20Dharmaraja | Lords of Dharmaraja | Lords of Dharmaraja is the name of a hacker group, allegedly operating in India. This group came into the limelight for threatening to release the source code of Symantec's product Norton Antivirus, and for allegations on Government of India "arm-twisting" international mobile manufacturers to spy on United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission(USCC). Symantec has confirmed that the Symantec Endpoint Protection 11.0 and Symantec Antivirus 10.2 version source code has been compromised and obtained by the group, while United States authorities are still investigating allegations suspecting India's hand in spying.
This group is alleged, to have hacked and posted a threat by uploading the secret documents, memos, and source code of Symantec's product on Pastebin - a website renowned for source code snippets upload by several users, for public viewing. The group, it seems, has uploaded some secret documents, revealing Indian government arm-twisting international mobile manufacturers like RIM, Apple, and Nokia to assist in spying USCC. In addition to these, the group seems to have claimed in discovering source code related to dozen software companies, which have signed agreements with the Indian TANCS programme and
CBI.
After the hacker's posted their threats, Christopher Soghojan, a security and privacy researcher in USA, tweeted: "Hackers leak Indian Military Intel memo suggesting Apple has provided intercept backdoor to govs". He also provided the links to the gallery of images and documents. The documents appear to be related to Tactical Network for Cellular Surveillance (TANCS), technical agreement with mobile manufacturers, and email communication stuff associated with members of USCC.
Their claims
As reported in The Times of India article, the group posted a statement on Pastebin website saying, "As of now, we start sharing with all our brothers and followers information from the Indian Intelligence servers, so far, we have discovered within the Indian Spy Programme source codes of a dozen software companies which have signed agreements with Indian TANCS programme and CBI."
The group also said, "Now we release confidential documentation we encountered of Symantec corporation and it's Norton AntiVirus source code which we are going to publish later on, we are working out mirrors as of now since we experience extreme pressure and censorship from US and India government agencies."
When a correspondent of The Times of India tried to reach an alleged member of the Lords of Dharamraja with the name "YamaTough," he did not reply. YamaTough also has a Twitter account; wherein, he described himself as an "anonymous [avenger] of Indian independence frontier."
Allegations
Cyber spying
As reported in The Times of India article, based on uploaded secret memos dated October 6, 2011, international mobile manufacturers like RIM, Apple, and Nokia along with domestic Micromax have given "backdoor access" for digital surveillance to Indian military intelligence officials in exchange for doing business in Indian market. In the memo, a decision was also made to sign an agreement with mobile manufacturers in exchange for "business presence" in the Indian market because military intelligence has no access to United States Chamber of Commerce's LAN due to VPN and communication gateways like POP servers, etc. The memos further reveal that this "backdoor" was allegedly used by Indian intelligence to spy on USCC.
As reported in Rediff.com article based on leaked documents, Indian Army's intelligence arm Military intelligence along with Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) were performing bilateral cellular and Internet surveillance operations right from April 2011. Later, in July 2011, during a meeting of the sub-committee of Military Intelligence, a detailed Cyber Defence Plan for 2011 was prepared and subsequently Military intelligence-Central Bureau of Investigation "joint operations" are being conducted daily.
Another article on The Register based on uploaded documents says, "CYCADA" data intercept team are in operation on the networks using backdoors provided by mobile manufacturers. It also says that the leaked memos elicit conversations between members of USCC on currency issues and discussions on the western firms actions in assisting Chinese aircraft industry to improve its "avionics" and engine manufacturing too.
As reported by the news agency Reuters, USCC officials have asked the "concerned authorities to investigate the matter" and didn't dispute the authenticity of intercepted mails pointing the "backdoor channel" as evident in the leaked documents. Also reported on Hindustan Times, Jonathan Weston, a spokesman for USCC, said "We are aware of these reports and have contacted relevant authorities to investigate the matter." Apparently, US authorities are investigating the allegations pointing Indian government's spy-unit hacking into emails of US official panel - that monitors economic and security relations between United States and China.
Mobile manufacturer officials, more or less, refused to comment on the issue, when The Times of India contacted the relevant spokesmen or authorities. Alan Hely, a senior director of Corporate Communications at Apple Inc., refused to comment on the leaked documents, but he denied any backdoor access been provided. RIM too, refused to comment on the leaked memos as rumors or speculations, when The Register contacted them; besides, RIM countered them saying, "it does not do deals with specific countries and has no ability to provide its customer's encryption keys." A spokesman for Nokia was quoted as saying, "The company takes the privacy of customers and their data seriously and is committed to comply with all applicable data protection and privacy laws."
Speaking to Rediff.com on phone, Indian Army denied the reports of spying on USCC through mobile companies; however, military spokesman said that the uploaded documents were in fact forged with malicious intent.
Symantec's Anti-virus source code
The hacker's group threatened to publish the entire source code of Norton Antivirus, a Symantec's product, allegedly stolen after the group has discovered it, while hacking the servers associated with India's Military Intelligence. To add weight to its threats, the group posted some of the hacked source code to Pastebin.
Imperva, a data security company, commented on the hacker group's claims and threats as that would potentially be an embarrassment on Symantec's part. Rob Rachwald from Imperva speculated that the hacker group might have retrieved the files as because the files probably resided on a "test server" or were posted to FTP; consequently, exposing them mistakenly and became public unintentionally through negligence. He further said that, "governments do require source code of vendor products to prove that product is not spyware".
Symantec initially, tried to douse the fears saying that the documentation and preview code is nothing special; accordingly, Chris Paden from Symantec said that the published data and documents are no more than Symantec's API documentation which every software vendor, including Symantec will share with any client, including governments. Eventually, Symantec has confirmed that the source code of Symantec Endpoint Protection 11.0 and Symantec Antivirus 10.2 has been compromised to the hacker group.
See also
List of fictional hackers
List of notable hackers
References
External links
CNN-IBN or IBNLive - Fake memo but real code? India-US hacking mystery deepens
BBC News - Symantec advises disabling pcAnywhere software - Blueprints
msnbc.com - Symantec Says Anti-Virus Source Code Was Stolen Years Ago
BusinessWorld - India-US Hacking Mystery Deepens
zdnetasia.com - India allegedly hacks US-China trade watchdog
wordpress.com - Lords of Dharmaraja hacking group claim to have access to part of Symantec's Norton source code
Jordandirections.com - Symantec: parts of antivirus source code
Forbes.com - Lords Of Kings Hack Norton Antivirus, Are You Safe?
Symantec.com Security Community Blog
SiliconIndia News - Indian Hackers: Threat to Symantec, Wreak Havoc
CNET.com - Hackers release source code for Symantec's PCAnywhere
Rediff.com - Hacking group's target is Sunil Mittal, wants 'pro-US' govt
Fox News - Indian Intelligence Have U.S. Government Passwords, Hackers Claim
eWeek Security Watch - Hackers' Threat to Publish Symantec Source Code Not a Reason to Worry
The Times of India - Hackers expose Symantec source code
Hacking News - Indian hacker group 'Lords of Dharmaraja' offers help to man suing Symantec
The New York Times - Hackers Threaten to Post Source Code for Symantec Product
Hindustan Times - Indian hackers offer help to man suing Symantec
Cyberwarfare
Hacking (computer security)
Hacker groups |
27609345 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decentralized%20network%2042 | Decentralized network 42 | Decentralized network 42 (also known as dn42) is a decentralized peer-to-peer network built using VPNs and software/hardware BGP routers.
While other darknets try to establish anonymity for their participants, that is not what dn42 aims for. It is a network to explore routing technologies used in the Internet and tries to establish direct non-NAT-ed connections between the members.
The network is not fully meshed. dn42 uses mostly tunnels instead of physical links between the individual networks. Each participant is connected to one or more other participants. Over the VPN or the physical links, BGP is used for inter AS routing. While OSPF is the most commonly used protocol for intra AS routing, each participant is free to choose any other IGP, like Babel, inside their AS.
Technical setup
Address space
Network address space for IPv4 consists of private subnets: 172.20.0.0/14 is the main subnet. Note that other private address ranges may also be announced in dn42, as the network is interconnected with other similar projects. Most notably, ChaosVPN uses 172.31.0.0/16 and parts of 10.0.0.0/8, Freifunk ICVPN uses 10.0.0.0/8 and NeoNetwork uses 10.127.0.0/16.
For IPv6, Unique Local Address (ULA, the IPv6 equivalent of private address range) (fd00::/8) are used. Please note that other network use IPv6 addresses in this range as well, including NeoNetwork's use of fd10:127::/32.
AS numbers
In order to use BGP, even in a private environment, Autonomous System Numbers are needed. dn42 uses several private or reserved AS numbers ranges, including 64512 to 64855 and 76100 to 76199. Since June 2014, dn42 is now using a new private range, 4242420000 to 4242429999, part of larger private range defined by RFC 6996.
BGP routers
While some participants use hardware routers, most participants use general purpose servers or virtual machines to lower their cost. The most commonly used BGP implementation used in dn42 are BIRD and FRR, but some participants use OpenBGPD, XORP, GoBGP or the implementation of JunOS or Cisco IOS.
DN42 TLD
Websites and services hosted on the Dn42 network often use the dn42 top-level domain. The dn42 tld is not an official IANA top-level domain, but it is handled through the dn42 registry. Internal anycast servers for dn42 are found at 172.20.0.53, 172.23.0.53, and fd42:d42:d42:54::1, fd42:d42:d42:53::1.
References
External links
Official website
Internet exchange points
Virtual private networks
Peer-to-peer computing
Computer networking |
7468295 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography%20of%20the%20Odyssey | Geography of the Odyssey | Events in the main sequence of the Odyssey (excluding the narrative of Odysseus's adventures) take place in the Peloponnese and in what are now called the Ionian Islands (Ithaca and its neighbours). Incidental mentions of Troy and its house, Phoenicia, Egypt, and Crete hint at geographical knowledge equal to, or perhaps slightly more extensive than that of the Iliad. However, scholars both ancient and modern are divided as to whether or not any of the places visited by Odysseus (after Ismaros and before his return to Ithaca) were real.
The geographer Strabo and many others came down squarely on the skeptical side: he reported what the great geographer Eratosthenes had said in the late 3rd century BC: "You will find the scene of Odysseus's wanderings when you find the cobbler who sewed up the bag of winds."
Geography of the Telemachy
The journey of Telemachus to Pylos and Sparta no longer raises geographical problems. The location of Nestor's Pylos was disputed in antiquity; towns named Pylos were found in Elis, Triphylia and Messenia, and each claimed to be Nestor's home. Strabo (8.3), citing earlier writers, argued that Homer meant Triphylian Pylos. Modern scholarship, however, generally locates Nestor's Pylos in Messenia. The presence of Mycenaean ruins at the archaeological site of Ano Englianos, or Palace of Nestor, have greatly strengthened this view. The Linear B tablets found at the site indicate that the site was called Pu-ro ("Pylos") by its inhabitants.
Identification of Ithaca and neighboring islands
The geographical references in the Odyssey to Ithaca and its neighbors seem confused and have given rise to much scholarly argument, beginning in ancient times. Odysseus's Ithaca is usually identified with the island traditionally called Thiaki and now officially renamed Ithake, but some scholars have argued that Odysseus's Ithaca is actually Leucas, and others identify it with the whole or part of Cephalonia. Lately, Robert Bittlestone, in his book Odysseus Unbound, has identified the Paliki peninsula on Cephalonia with Homeric Ithaca.
Geography of Odysseus's narrative
The geography of the Apologoi (the tale that Odysseus told to the Phaeacians, forming books 9-12 of the Odyssey), and the location of the Phaeacians' own island of Scheria, pose quite different problems from those encountered in identifying Troy, Mycenae, Pylos and Ithaca.
The names of the places and peoples that Odysseus visits or claims to have visited are not recorded, either as historical or contemporary information, in any ancient source independent of the Odyssey.
What happens to Odysseus in these places, according to his narrative, belongs to the realm of the supernatural or fantastic (to an extent that is not true of the remainder of the Odyssey).
It can be doubted whether Odysseus's story is intended, within the general narrative of the Odyssey, to be taken as true.
We cannot know whether the poet envisaged the places on Odysseus' itinerary, and the route from each place to the next, as real.
Even if the places were envisaged as real, the effects of coastal erosion, silting and other geological changes over thousands of years can alter the landscape and seascape to the point where identification may be extremely difficult.
For these reasons, the opinions of later students and scholars about the geography of Odysseus's travels vary enormously. It has repeatedly been argued that each successive landfall, and the routes joining them, are real and can be mapped; it has been argued with equal conviction that they do not exist in the real world and never can be mapped.
Ancient identifications
Ancient sources provide a wealth of interpretations of Odysseus' wanderings, with a complex range of traditions which affect one another in various ways. Broadly speaking there are two dominant trends. One is that of Euhemerist accounts, which re-wrote mythical stories without their fantastic elements, and were often seen as thereby recovering "historical" records. The other reflects the conventions of foundation myths, whereby stories of a city or institution being founded in the course of Odysseus' travels often came to have political significance.
Some identifications are common to both groups. The main distinctions between them are in how the identifications were passed down through the generations, and the uses to which they were put. The most standard identifications, which are rarely disputed in ancient sources, are:
land of the Cyclopes = Sicily
land of the Laestrygonians = Sicily
island of Aeolus = one or more of the Aeolian Islands off Sicily's north coast
Scheria, the land of the Phaeacians = Corcyra (modern Corfu), off the west coast of Greece and Albania
Ogygia, the island home of the nymph Calypso = Gaulos, modern Gozo, part of the Maltese archipelago.
Euhemerist accounts
Euhemerist accounts are generally those found in writers on antiquarian subjects, geographers, scholars, and historians. The most important ancient sources are the 1st century geographer Strabo, who is our source for information on Eratosthenes' and Polybius' investigations into the matter; and the novelisation of the Trojan War that goes under the name of Dictys of Crete, which many later writers treated as an authentic historical record of the war.
The prototypes for this tradition are in the 5th century BC. Herodotus identifies the land of the lotus-eaters as a headland in the territory of the Gindanes tribe in Libya, and Thucydides reports the standard identifications mentioned above. Herodotus and Thucydides do not actively euhemerise, but simply take local myths at face value for the political importance they had at the time.
Euhemerist accounts become more prominent in Alexandrian scholarship of the Hellenistic period. Callimachus identifies Scheria as Corcyra, and also identifies Calypso's island with Gaulos (modern Gozo, part of Malta). His student Apollonius of Rhodes also identifies Scheria as Corcyra in his epic the Argonautica.
Apollonius' successor as head of the library of Alexandria, Eratosthenes, wrote a detailed investigation into Odysseus' wanderings. Eratosthenes takes a cynical view, regarding Homer as an entertainer, not an educator: "You will find the scene of the wanderings of Odysseus when you find the cobbler who sewed up the bag of the winds." This does not mean that he refuses any and all identifications. He conjectures that Hesiod's information about the wanderings (see below on Hesiod) came from historical inquiries that Hesiod had made. The 2nd century BC poet-historian Apollodorus of Athens sympathises with Eratosthenes, believing that Homer imagined the wanderings as having taken place in a kind of fairyland in the Atlantic; he actively criticises the standard identifications in and around Sicily, and refuses to offer any identifications of his own.
The 2nd century BC historian Polybius discusses the wanderings in book 34 of his history. He refutes Apollodorus' idea that the wanderings were in the Atlantic on the basis of Odyssey 9.82, where Odysseus says that he sailed for nine days from Cape Malea in the Peloponnese to the land of the lotus-eaters: it would take much longer than nine days to reach the Atlantic. He accepts the standard identifications around Sicily, and is the earliest source to identify Scylla and Charybdis explicitly with the Strait of Messina. He also identifies the land of the lotus-eaters as the island of Djerba (ancient Meninx), off the coast of Tunisia. Polybius is the most euhemerist source to this date: he justifies the description of Aeolus in the Odyssey as "king of the winds" on the grounds that Aeolus "taught navigators how to steer a course in the regions of the Strait of Messina, whose waters are ... difficult to navigate", and insists that the mythical elements in the wanderings are insignificant in comparison to the historical core.
Strabo, living in the late 1st century BC and early 1st century AD, says that he tries to strike a balance between reading Homer as an entertainer and as a historical source. He is Euhemerist to the extent that he believes that any hypothesis at all, no matter how outrageous, is more plausible than saying "I don't know"; in this regard he accepts Polybius' arguments completely. Strabo offers the most detailed surviving set of identifications:
Lotus-eaters: Djerba, following Polybius (1.2.17)
Cyclops: south-east Sicily, near Etna and Lentini (1.2.9); also suggests that Homer "borrowed his idea of the one-eyed Cyclopes from the history of Scythia, for it is reported that the Arimaspians are a one-eyed people" (1.2.10)
Aeolus: Lipari, among the Aeolian Islands north of Sicily
Laestrygonians: south-east Sicily (1.2.9)
land of the Cimmerians: the Bosporus (1.2.9)
the Ocean: the Black Sea (ancient Pontus; 1.2.10)
Sirens: either Cape Faro, by the Strait of Messina; or Sirenussae, a headland in Italy between the Bay of Naples and the Gulf of Salerno; or Naples itself (1.2.12-13)
Scylla and Charybdis: Strait of Messina (1.2.9, 1.2.16)
Ogygia (Calypso's island) and Scheria: "imagined in fantasy" as being in the Atlantic (1.2.18)
Plutarch agrees with Strabo on the location of Calypso's island of Ogygia in the Atlantic, and specifically west of Britain. He also repeats what Plato had described as a continent on the opposite side of the Atlantic ( North America ? ), and he adds that from this continent Ogygia was about 900 kilometres / 558 miles distant. Plutarch's account of Ogygia has created a lot of controversy as to whether he was referring to a real or a mythical place. Kepler in his “Kepleri Astronomi Opera Omnia” estimated that “the great continent” was America and attempted to locate Ogygia and the surrounding islands. G. Mair in 1909 proposed that the knowledge of America came from Carthaginian sailors who had reached the Gulf of Mexico. Hamilton in 1934 indicated the similarities of Plutarch's account and Plato's location of Atlantis on the Timaeus, 24E - 25A.
Other sources offer miscellaneous details. The Library wrongly attributed to Apollodorus summarises most of the accounts given above. Aristonicus, a contemporary of Strabo's, wrote a monograph On the wanderings of Menelaus, which influenced Strabo's own discussion.
Finally, the Ephemeris attributed to Dictys of Crete, who claims to have been present at the Trojan War, was probably written in the 1st century CE or perhaps a little earlier. It falls into a tradition of anti-Homeric literature, based on the supposition that Homer got most things about the Trojan War wrong by making virtuous people look like villains, and vice versa. It is important because later historians took Dictys as a historical record, including Sisyphus of Cos, John Malalas, George Cedrenus, John of Antioch, and others. Many Western mediaeval writers also accepted Dictys (in the Latin summary by Lucius Septimius) as the definitive account of the Trojan War.
According to Dictys, Odysseus fled from Troy after being accused of murdering Aias. He first went north to the Black Sea for a while; he sacked the Ciconian town of Ismarus in Thrace on his way back. After visiting the lotus-eaters he went to Sicily, where he encountered three (or four) brothers, Antiphates, Cyclops, and Polyphemus (and possibly Laestrygon, according to Septimius), who each ruled a portion of the island. Odysseus and his men were mistreated by each of these kings in turn. Notably, they were imprisoned by Polyphemus when one of Odysseus' men fell in love with Polyphemus' daughter (Arene or Elpe) and tried to kidnap her; but they escaped. They passed through the Aeolian Islands, but the surviving accounts of Dictys do not give specific locations for the rest of the wanderings. Malalas' account of Dictys, however, tells us that Circe and Calypso were sisters ruling over neighbouring islands; that Odysseus visited a lake called Nekyopompos ("guide of the dead") near the sea, whose inhabitants were seers; that he passed some rocks called the Seirenidai; and Cedrenus' account seems to identify Scheria with Corfu, or at least an island near Ithaca.
Foundation myths
Numerous places in Italy and northern Greece also had aetiological legends about cities and other institutions founded by Odysseus on his various travels. Among these foundation myths the continuation of Odysseus's travels told in the Telegony is at least as important as the wanderings reported in the Odyssey.
The earliest record of a foundation myth connecting Odysseus with Italy is the lines surviving in Hesiod's Theogony (1011ff.), which report that Odysseus and Circe had two sons Agrius and Latinus, who ruled over the Etruscans (Tyrsenoi). Latinus is an important figure in many early Italian myths. The lines are not in fact Hesiodic, but they are probably no later than the 6th century BC.
E.D. Phillips gives a very full treatment of myths that placed Odysseus and Telegonus, his son by Circe, in Italy.
Modern views
Imaginary places
The view that Odysseus's landfalls are best treated as imaginary places is probably held by the majority of classical scholars today.
The modern Greek Homerist Ioannis Kakridis may be compared with Eratosthenes in his approach to the problem. He argued that the Odyssey is a work of poetry and not a travel log. To attempt a quick outline of Kakridis's views, it is useless to try to locate the places mentioned in Odysseus' narrative on the map; we cannot confuse the narrative of Odyssey with history unless we believe in the existence of gods, giants and monsters. Kakridis admits that one may indeed ask what real locations inspired these imaginary places, but one must always bear in mind that geography is not the main concern either of Odysseus (as narrator) or of the poet. Similarly, Merry and Riddell, in their late-19th century school edition of the Odyssey, state the following opinion: "Throughout these books [books 9-12] we are in a wonderland, which we shall look in vain for on the map". W. B. Stanford, in his mid-20th century edition, comments as follows on book 9 lines 80-81 (where Odysseus says that he met storms off Cape Malea near the island of Cythera): "These are the last clearly identifiable places in O.'s wanderings. After this he leaves the sphere of Geography and enters Wonderland ..." Thereafter, while frequently referring to ancient opinions on the location of Odysseus's adventures, Stanford makes little or no reference to modern theories.
Robin Lane Fox observes of Euboean Greek settlements in Sicily and Italy, "During their first phase in the West, c. 800-740, stories of mythical heroes were not already sited at points along the coast of Italy or Sicily. It was only later that such stories became located there, as if mythical heroes had been driven westward or fled from Asia while leaving the sack of Troy." The heroic legends, including an Odyssean geography, served to attach newly founded western communities "to a prestigious ancestry in the Greeks' mythical past." Fox notes that even Circe found a home on "Monte Circeo" between Rome and Cumae: "but this association began at the earliest in the later sixth century BC. The Etruscan king Tarquin the Proud (c. 530-510) was credited with the settlement and in due course the very 'cup' of Odysseus was shown at the site."
The western Mediterranean
By contrast with these views, some recent scholars, travelers and armchair travelers have tried to map Odysseus's travels. Modern opinions are so varied in detail that for convenience they need to be classified, as do the ancient ones. This article deals first with those who believe, as did many ancient authors, that the hero of the Odyssey was driven west or south-west from Cape Malea and, more than nine years later, returned from the west to his native Ionian islands: his landfalls are therefore to be found in the western Mediterranean.
For a long time the most detailed study of Odysseus's travels was that of the French Homeric scholar Victor Bérard. Although adopting the general frame of reference of the ancient commentators, Bérard differed from them in some details. For Bérard the land of the Lotus-Eaters was Djerba off southern Tunisia; the land of the Cyclopes was at Posillipo in Italy; the island of Aeolus was Stromboli; the Laestrygonians were in northern Sardinia; Circe's home was Monte Circeo in Lazio; the entrance to the Underworld was near Cumae, just where Aeneas found it in the Aeneid; the Sirens were on the coast of Lucania; Scylla and Charybdis were at the Strait of Messina; the Island of the Sun was Sicily; the homeland of Calypso was at the Straits of Gibraltar. From there Odysseus's route took him to Scherie, which Bérard, like so many of his ancient predecessors, identified with Corcyra.
Bérard's views were taken as standard in the 1959 Atlas of the Classical World by A. A. M. van der Heyden and H. H. Scullard. They were adopted in whole or in part by several later writers. Michel Gall, for example, followed Bérard throughout except that he placed the Laestrygonians in southern Corsica. Ernle Bradford had meanwhile added some new suggestions: the land of the Cyclopes was around Marsala in western Sicily; the island of Aeolus was Ustica off Sicily; Calypso was on Malta. The Obregons, in Odysseus Airborne, follow Bradford in some identifications but add several of their own. The Lotus Eaters are in the Gulf of Sidra; the Cyclops and Aeolus are both to be found in the Balearic Isles; the island of Circe is Ischia in the Bay of Naples; most unexpectedly, Scherie is Cyprus.
Translator Samuel Butler developed a controversial theory that the Odyssey came from the pen of a young Sicilian woman, who presents herself in the poem as Nausicaa, and that the scenes of the poem reflected the coast of Sicily, especially the territory of Trapani and its nearby islands. He described the "evidence" for this theory in his The Authoress of the Odyssey (1897) and in the introduction and footnotes to his prose translation of the Odyssey (1900). Robert Graves elaborated on this hypothesis in his novel Homer's Daughter.
Around Greece
A minority view is that the landfalls of Odysseus were inspired by places on a much shorter itinerary along the coast of Greece itself. One of the earliest to suggest any locations here was the 2nd century AD geographer Pausanias who, in his Description of Greece, suggested that the nekyia took place at the river Acheron in north west Greece, where the Necromanteion was subsequently built. However the location was overlooked or dismissed by many subsequently, until the archaeologist Sotirios Dakaris excavated the site, beginning in 1958. He found evidence of sacrifices to the dead that matched Homer's description of those made by Odysseus. Subsequently, the location was accepted by others as that described by Homer.
Working on the assumption that the discoveries at the Acheron could challenge the traditional assumptions about the Odyssey's geography, Tim Severin sailed a replica Greek sailing vessel (originally built for his attempt to retrace the steps of Jason and the Argonauts) along the "natural" route from Troy to Ithaca, following the sailing directions that could be teased out of the Odyssey. Along the way he found locations at the natural turning and dislocation points which, he claimed, agreed with the text much more closely than the usual identifications. However, he also came to the conclusion that the sequence of adventures from Circe onwards derived from a separate itinerary to the sequence that ended with the Laestrygonians and was possibly derived from the stories of the Argonauts. He placed many of the later episodes on the north west Greek coast, near the Acheron. Along the way he found on the map Cape Skilla (at the entrance to the Ambracian Gulf) and other names that implied traditional links with the Odyssey. Severin agrees with the common opinion that the Lotus Eaters are in North Africa (although he placed them in modern Libya rather than Tunisia) and that Scherie is Corcyra.
A key part of Severin's thesis is that whilst the text of the Odyssey contains many place names to the east and south of Greece, there are very few identifiable references to places to the west. As a result, he questions whether the western Mediterranean was known about at the time the original legends emerged (which he estimated to be some centuries before Homer composed the poem) and so consequently he doubted whether the stories had their origins there. In addition he noted that the Acheron is marked on the map, but traditionally ignored, whilst in the Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes the Argonauts' home voyage took them into the Adriatic and Ionian Seas, corresponding to a north west Greek location for many of the later adventures.
Atlantic Ocean and other theories
Strabo's opinion (mentioned above) that Calypso's island and Scherie were imagined by the poet as being "in the Atlantic Ocean" has had significant influence on modern theorists. Henriette Mertz, a 20th-century author, argued that Circe's island is Madeira, Calypso's island one of the Azores, and the intervening travels record a discovery of North America: Scylla and Charybdis are in the Bay of Fundy, Scherie in the Caribbean.
Enrico Mattievich of UFRJ, Brazil, proposed that Odysseus's journey to the Underworld takes place in South America. The river Acheron is the Amazon; after a long voyage upstream Odysseus meets the spirits of the dead at the confluence of the rio Santiago and rio Marañon. Two centuries ago, Charles-Joseph de Grave argued that the Underworld visited by Odysseus was the islands at the mouth of the river Rhine. A more extreme view, that the whole geography of the Iliad and the Odyssey can be mapped on the coasts of the northern Atlantic, occasionally surfaces. According to this, Troy is in southern England, Telemachus's journey is in southern Spain, and Odysseus was wandering the Atlantic coast. Finally, a recent publication argues that Homeric geography is to be found in the sky, and that the Iliad and the Odyssey can be decoded as a star map.
See also
Homeric scholarship
Notes
Bibliography
(English version: A. Heubeck, S. West and others, A commentary on Homer's Odyssey. Oxford, 1988-92. 3 vols.)
(contribution by Michel Gall)
External links
Ancient sources
Apollonius, Argonautica
Herodotus, History 4.177
Homer, Odyssey
Plutarch, Concerning the Face Which Appears in the Orb of the Moon
Strabo, Geography 1.2.1-1.2.23, 1.2.24-1.2.40
Thucydides, History 1.25, 3.88, 6.2, also in Greek 1.25, 3.88, 6.2
Modern views
Jonathan Burgess's page on the travels of Odysseus
Jean Cuisenier's attempt to find Odysseus' route
Maps
"The World of Homer" (based on V. Bérard) from A. A. M. van der Heyden, H. H. Scullard, Atlas of the classical world (London: Nelson, 1959)
Map of the geography of the Odyssey based on the ideas of Iman Wilkens
University of Pennsylvania, Department of Classical Studies, Interactive Map of Odysseus’ Journey
Odysseus' Journey: A map of the locations in Homer's Odyssey an ArcGIS storymap
Fictional countries
Odyssey
Greek mythology studies
Odyssey |
4683793 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sord%20M5 | Sord M5 | The Sord M5 is a home computer launched by Sord Computer Corporation in 1982. Primarily the Sord M5 competed in the Japanese home computer market. It was also sold as the CGL M5 in the United Kingdom by Computer Games Limited and was reasonably popular in Czechoslovakia, where the M5 stood as one of the first affordable computers available to the general public. Takara also sold models in Japan as the Game M5, and models were also exported to South Korea.
Original models of the Sord M5 are relatively small by home computing standards, with a built-in keyboard with rubber keys, similar to the ZX Spectrum, which is also sold in many countries such as the United Kingdom itself, Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, Singapore, Malaysia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Greece, Israel and Hong Kong as the Sord M5 Creative Computer, which included a carrying case for the computer. The specifications of the computer are very similar to the MSX, a computer that likely forced the Sord M5 (along with many similar Japanese computers) out of the market by the mid-1980s.
The CGL M5 was released in the UK with an introductory price of £195, higher than many of the system's competitors including the ZX Spectrum, and Commodore VIC-20. Whereas the M5 contained a cartridge slot in an age where most computers were using compact cassettes or floppy disks, the small amount of built-in RAM led to few games being produced for the system.
In South Korea, three electronics companies released different personal computers based on Sord M5. The FC-150 was produced and released by LG, Samsung released the SPC-500, and the TommyCom was manufactured and launched by Koryo Systems. These computers supported the Korean alphabet, Hangul. The system specifications of these computers were identical to the original M5, but they had differently shaped cartridge slots. Cartridges from the Sord M5 or other manufacturers could not be used for these computers directly. LG released some original software including several educational programs and games.
Despite its short production run, the M5 was supported by various big Japanese game developers such as Namco and Konami.
Other models include the M5 Pro and M5 Jr.
Technical specifications
Internal hardware
CPU: Zilog Z80, 3.58 MHz
Video Hardware: TMS9918
40×24 text (6×8 characters), 224 user defined characters
256×192 graphics, 16 colours
32 hardware sprites (up to 16×16 pixels)
Sound Hardware: SN76489
3 sound channels
1 noise channel
6 octaves, 15 amplitude levels
RAM: 20 kB (of which 16kB is screen memory)
ROM: 8 kB expandable to 16kB
I/O ports and power supply
I/O ports:
TV out
Video out (phono socket)
Sound out (phono socket)
Centronics 16-pin interface
8-pin DIN cassette connector
Power supply: external
Language cartridge options
BASIC-I
Integer arithmetic only (16 bit signed)
BASIC-G
Graphics and sound functions
BASIC-F
Floating point arithmetic
FALC
Applications package
Retail price
UK Retail prices, December 1983
Sord M5 plus BASIC-I : £190
BASIC-G : £35
BASIC-F : £35
FALC: £35
References
External links
Infos and photos Sord M5
More M5 images including circuit board
Sord M5 at old-computers.com
Z80-based home computers
Home computers
Products introduced in 1982 |
315018 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VM%20%28operating%20system%29 | VM (operating system) | VM (often: VM/CMS) is a family of IBM virtual machine operating systems used on IBM mainframes System/370, System/390, zSeries, System z and compatible systems, including the Hercules emulator for personal computers.
The following versions are known:
Virtual Machine Facility/370
VM/370, released in 1972, is a System/370 reimplementation of earlier CP/CMS operating system.
VM/370 Basic System Extensions Program Product
VM/BSE (BSEPP) is an enhancement to VM/370
VM/370 System Extensions Program Product
VM/SE (SEPP) is an enhancement to VM/370 that includes the facilities of VM/BSE
Virtual Machine/System Product
VM/SP, a milestone version, replaces VM/370, VM/BSE and VM/SE. Release 1 added EXEC2 and XEDIT System Product Editor; Release 3 added REXX.
Virtual Machine/System Product High Performance Option
VM/SP HPO adds additional device support and functionality to VM/SP
Virtual Machine/Extended Architecture Migration Aid
VM/XA MA is inteended to ease the migration from MVS/370 to MVS/XA by allowing both to run concurrently on the same processor complex.
Virtual Machine/Extended Architecture System Facility
VM/XA SF is an upgraded VM/XA MA with improved functionality and performance.
Virtual Machine/Extended Architecture System Product
VM/XA SF is an upgraded VM/XA MA with improved functionality and performance, offered as a replacement for VM/SP HPO on machines supporting S/370-XA. It includes a version of CMS that can run in either S/370 or S/370-XA mode.
Virtual Machine/Enterprize Systems Architecture
VM/ESA provides the facilities of VM/SP, VM/SP HPO and VM/XA SP. VM/ESA can run in S/370, ESA/370 or ESA/390 mode; it does not support S/370 XA mode.
z/VM
z/VM, the last version still widely used as one of the main full virtualization solutions for the mainframe market.
The CMS in the name refers to the Conversational Monitor System, a component of the product that is a single-user operating system that runs in a virtual machine and provides conversational time-sharing in VM.
Overview
The heart of the VM architecture is the Control Program or hypervisor abbreviated CP, VM-CP and sometimes, ambiguously, VM. It runs on the physical hardware, and creates the virtual machine environment. VM-CP provides full virtualization of the physical machine – including all I/O and other privileged operations. It performs the system's resource-sharing, including device management, dispatching, virtual storage management, and other traditional operating system tasks. Each VM user is provided with a separate virtual machine having its own address space, virtual devices, etc., and which is capable of running any software that could be run on a stand-alone machine. A given VM mainframe typically runs hundreds or thousands of virtual machine instances. VM-CP began life as CP-370, a reimplementation of CP-67, itself a reimplementation of CP-40.
Running within each virtual machine is another operating system, a guest operating system. This might be:
CMS (Conversational Monitor System, renamed from the Cambridge Monitor System of CP/CMS). Most virtual machines run CMS, a lightweight, single-user operating system. Its interactive environment is comparable to that of a single-user PC, including a file system, programming services, device access, and command-line processing. (While an earlier version of CMS was uncharitably described as "CP/M on a mainframe", the comparison is an anachronism; the author of CP/M, Gary Kildall, was an experienced CMS user.)
GCS (Group Control System), which provides a limited simulation of the MVS API. IBM originally provided GCS in order to run VTAM without a service OS/VS1 virtual machine and VTAM Communications Network Application (VCNA). RSCS V2 also ran under GCS.
A mainstream operating system. IBM's mainstream operating systems (i.e. the MVS, DOS/VSE, or TSS/370 families) can be loaded and run without modification. The VM hypervisor treats guest operating systems as application programs with exceptional privileges – it prevents them from directly using privileged instructions (those which would let applications take over the whole system or significant parts of it), but simulates privileged instructions on their behalf. Most mainframe operating systems terminate a normal application which tries to usurp the operating system's privileges. The VM hypervisor can simulate several types of console terminals for the guest operating system, such as the hardcopy line-mode 3215, the graphical 3270 family, and the integrated console on newer System/390 and System Z machines.
Another copy of VM. A second level instance of VM can be fully virtualized inside a virtual machine. This is how VM development and testing is done (a second-level VM can potentially implement a different virtualization of the hardware). This technique was used to develop S/370 software before S/370 hardware was available, and it has continued to play a role in new hardware development at IBM. The literature cites practical examples of virtualization five levels deep (see page 28 of VM and the VM Community). Levels of VM below the top are also treated as applications but with exceptional privileges.
A copy of the mainframe version of AIX or Linux. In the mainframe environment, these operating systems often run under VM, and are handled like other guest operating systems. (They can also run as 'native' operating systems on the bare hardware.) There was also the short-lived IX/370, as well as S/370 and S/390 versions of AIX (AIX/370 and AIX/ESA).
A specialized VM subsystem. Several non-CMS systems run within VM-CP virtual machines, providing services to CMS users such as spooling, interprocess communications, specialized device support, and networking. They operate behind the scenes, extending the services available to CMS without adding to the VM-CP control program. By running in separate virtual machines, they receive the same security and reliability protections as other VM users. Examples include:
RSCS (Remote Spooling and Communication Subsystem, aka VNET) – communication and information transfer facilities between virtual machines and other systems
RACF (Resource Access Control Facility) — a security system
Shared File System (SFS), which organizes shared files in a directory tree (the servers are commonly named "VMSERVx"
VTAM (Virtual Telecommunications Access Method) – a facility that provides support for a Systems Network Architecture network
PVM (VM/Pass-Through Facility) – a facility that provides remote access to other VM systems
TCPIP, SMTP, FTPSERVE, PORTMAP, VMNFS – a set of service machines that provide TCP/IP networking to VM/CMS
Db2 Server for VM – a SQL database system, the servers are often named similarly to "SQLMACH" and "SQLMSTR"
DIRMAINT – A simplified user directory management system (the directory is a listing of every account on the system, including virtual hardware configuration, user passwords, and minidisks).
A user-written or modified operating system, such as National CSS's CSS or Boston University's VPS/VM.
Hypervisor interface
IBM coined the term hypervisor for the 360/65 and later used it for the DIAG handler of CP-67.
The Diagnose instruction ('83'x—no mnemonic) is a privileged instruction originally intended by IBM to perform "built-in diagnostic functions, or other model-dependent functions." IBM repurposed DIAG for "communication between a virtual machine and CP." The instruction contains two four-bit register numbers, called Rx and Ry, which can "contain operand storage addresses or return codes passed to the DIAGNOSE interface," and a two-byte code "that CP uses to determine what DIAGNOSE function to perform." A few of the available diagnose functions are listed below.
CMS use of DIAGNOSE
At one time, CMS was capable of running on a bare machine, as a true operating system (though such a configuration would be unusual). It now runs only as a guest OS under VM. This is because CMS relies on a hypervisor interface to VM-CP, to perform file system operations and request other VM services. This paravirtualization interface:
Provides a fast path to VM-CP, to avoid the overhead of full simulation.
Was first developed as a performance improvement for CP/CMS release 2.1, an important early milestone in CP's efficiency.
Uses a non-virtualized, model-dependent machine instruction as a signal between CMS and CP: DIAG (diagnose).
Minidisks
CMS and other operating systems often have DASD requirements much smaller than the sizes of actual volumes. For this reason CP allows an installation to define virtual disks of any size up to the capacity of the device. For CKD volumes, a minidisk must be defined in full cylinders. A minidisk has the same attributes as the underlying real disk, except that it is usually smaller and the beginning of each minidisk is mapped to cylinder or block 0. The minidisk may be accessed using the same channel programs as the real disk.
A minidisk that has been initialized with a CMS file system is referred to as a CMS minidisk, although CMS is not the only system that can use them.
It is common practice to define full volume minidisks for use by such guest operating systems as z/OS instead of using DEDICATE to assign the volume to a specific virtual machine. In addition, "full-pack links" are often defined for every DASD on the system, and are owned by the MAINT userid. These are used for backing up the system using the DASD Dump/Restore program, where the entire contents of a DASD are written to tape (or another DASD) exactly.
Shared File System
VM/SP Release 6 introduced the Shared File System which vastly improved CMS file storage capabilities. The CMS minidisk file system does not support directories (folders) at all, however, the SFS does. SFS also introduces more granular security. With CMS minidisks, the system can be configured to allow or deny users read-only or read-write access to a disk, but single files cannot have the same security. SFS alleviates this, and vastly improves performance.
The SFS is provided by service virtual machines. On a modern VM system, there are usually three that are required: VMSERVR, the "recovery machine" that does not actually serve any files; VMSERVS, the server for the VMSYS filepool; and VMSERVU, the server for the VMSYSU (user) filepool. The file pool server machines own several minidisks, usually including a CMS A-disk (virtual device address 191, containing the file pool configuration files), a control disk, a log disk, and any number of data disks that actually store user files.
With modern VM versions, most of the system can be installed to SFS, with the few remaining minidisks being the ones absolutely necessary for the system to start up, and the ones being owned by the filepool server machines.
If a user account is configured to only use SFS (and does not own any minidisks), the user's A-disk will be FILEPOOL:USERID. and any subsequent directories that the user creates will be FILEPOOL:USERID.DIR1.DIR2.DIR3 where the equivalent UNIX file path is /dir1/dir2/dir3.
The file pool server machines also serve a closely related filesystem: the Byte File System. BFS is used to store files on a UNIX-style filesystem. Its primary use is for the VM OpenExtensions POSIX environment for CMS.
History
The early history of VM is described in the articles CP/CMS and History of CP/CMS. VM/370 is a reimplementation of CP/CMS, and was made available in 1972 as part of IBM's System/370 Advanced Function announcement (which added virtual memory hardware and operating systems to the System/370 series). Early releases of VM through VM/370 Release 6 continued in open source through 1981, and today are considered to be in the public domain. This policy ended in 1977 with the chargeable VM/SE and VM/BSE upgrades and in 1980 with VM/System Product (VM/SP). However, IBM continued providing updates in source form for existing code for many years, although the upgrades to all but the free base required a license. As with CP-67, privileged instructions in a virtual machine cause a program interrupt, and CP simulated the behavior of the privileged instruction.
VM remained an important platform within IBM, used for operating system development and time-sharing use; but for customers it remained IBM's "other operating system". The OS and DOS families remained IBM's strategic products, and customers were not encouraged to run VM. Those that did formed close working relationships, continuing the community-support model of early CP/CMS users. In the meantime, the system struggled with political infighting within IBM over what resources should be available to the project, as compared with other IBM efforts. A basic problem with the system was seen at IBM's field sales level: VM/CMS demonstrably reduced the amount of hardware needed to support a given number of time-sharing users. IBM was, after all, in the business of selling computer systems.
Melinda Varian provides this fascinating quote, illustrating VM's unexpected success:
The marketing forecasts for VM/370 predicted that no more than one 168 would ever run VM during the entire life of the product. In fact, the first 168 delivered to a customer ran only CP and CMS. Ten years later, ten percent of the large processors being shipped from Poughkeepsie would be destined to run VM, as would a very substantial portion of the mid-range machines that were built in Endicott. Before fifteen years had passed, there would be more VM licenses than MVS licenses.
A PC DOS version that runs CMS on the XT/370 (and later on the AT/370) is called VM/PC. VM/PC 1.1 was based on VM/SP release 3. When IBM introduced the P/370 and P/390 processor cards, a PC could now run full VM systems, including VM/370, VM/SP, VM/XA, and VM/ESA (these cards were fully compatible with S/370 and S/390 mainframes, and could run any S/370 operating system from the 31-bit era, e.g., MVS/ESA, VSE/ESA).
In addition to the base VM/SP releases, IBM also introduced VM/SP HPO (High Performance Option). This add-on (which is installed over the base VM/SP release) improved several key system facilities, including allowing the usage of more than 16 MB of storage (RAM) on supported models (such as the IBM 4381). With VM/SP HPO installed, the new limit was 64 MB; however, a single user (or virtual machine) could not use more than 16 MB. The functions of the spool filesystem were also improved, allowing 9900 spool files to be created per user, rather than 9900 for the whole system. The architecture of the spool filesystem was also enhanced, each spool file now had a unique user ID associated with it, and reader file control blocks were now held in virtual storage. The system could also be configured to deny certain users access to the vector facility (by means of user directory entries).
Releases of VM since VM/SP Release 1 supported multiprocessor systems. System/370 versions of VM (such as VM/SP and VM/SP HPO) supported a maximum of two processors, with the system operating in either UP (uniprocessor) mode, MP (multiprocessor) mode, or AP (attached processor) mode. AP mode is the same as MP mode, except the second processor lacks I/O capability. System/370-XA releases of VM (such as VM/XA) supported more. System/390 releases (such as VM/ESA) almost removed the limit entirely, and some modern z/VM systems can have as many as 80 processors. The per-VM limit for defined processors is 64.
When IBM introduced the System/370 Extended Architecture on the 3081, customers were faced with the need to run a production MVS/370 system while testing MVS/XA on the same machine. IBM's solution was VM/XA Migration Aid, which used the new Start Interpretive Execution (SIE) instruction to run the virtual machine. SIE automatically handled some privileged instructions and returned to CP for cases that it couldn't handle. The Processor Resource/System Manager (PR/SM) of the later 3090 also used SIE. There were several VM/XA products before it was eventually supplanted by VM/ESA and z/VM.
In addition to RSCS networking, IBM also provided users with VTAM networking. ACF/VTAM for VM was fully compatible with ACF/VTAM on MVS and VSE. Like RSCS, VTAM on VM ran under the specialized GCS operating system. However, VM also supported TCP/IP networking. In the late 1980s, IBM produced a TCP/IP stack for VM/SP and VM/XA. The stack supported IPv4 networks, and a variety of network interface systems (such as inter-mainframe channel-to-channel links, or a specialized IBM RT PC that would relay traffic out to a Token Ring or Ethernet network). The stack provided support for Telnet connections, from either simple line-mode terminal emulators or VT100-compatible emulators, or proper IBM 3270 terminal emulators. The stack also provided an FTP server. IBM also produced an optional NFS server for VM; early versions were rather primitive, but modern versions are much more advanced.
There was also a fourth networking option, known as VM/Pass-Through Facility (or more commonly called, PVM). PVM, like VTAM, allowed for connections to remote VM/CMS systems, as well as other IBM systems. If two VM/CMS nodes were linked together over a channel-to-channel link or bisync link (possibly using a dialup modem or leased line), a user could remotely connect to either system by entering "DIAL PVM" on the VM login screen, then entering the system node name (or choosing it from a list of available nodes). Alternatively, a user running CMS could use the PASSTHRU program that was installed alongside PVM, allowing for quick access to remote systems without having to log out of the user's session. PVM also supported accessing non-VM systems, by utilizing a 3x74 emulation technique. Later releases of PVM also featured a component that could accept connections from a SNA network.
VM was also the cornerstone operating system of BITNET, as the RSCS system available for VM provided a simple network that was easy to implement, and somewhat reliable. VM sites were interlinked by means of an RSCS VM on each VM system communicating with one another, and users could send and receive messages, files, and batch jobs through RSCS. The "NOTE" command used XEDIT to display a dialog to create an email, from which the user could send it. If the user specified an address in the form of user at node, the email file would be delivered to RSCS, which would then deliver it to the target user on the target system. If the site has TCP/IP installed, RSCS could work with the SMTP service machine to deliver notes (emails) to remote systems, as well as receive them. If the user specified user at some.host.name, the NOTE program would deliver the email to the SMTP service machine, which would then route it out to the destination site on the Internet.
VM's role changed within IBM when hardware evolution led to significant changes in processor architecture. Backward compatibility remained a cornerstone of the IBM mainframe family, which still uses the basic instruction set introduced with the original System/360; but the need for efficient use of the 64-bit zSeries made the VM approach much more attractive. VM was also utilized in data centers converting from DOS/VSE to MVS and is useful when running mainframe AIX and Linux, platforms that were to become increasingly important. The current z/VM platform has finally achieved the recognition within IBM that VM users long felt it deserved. Some z/VM sites run thousands of simultaneous virtual machine users on a single system. z/VM was first released in October 2000 and remains in active use and development.
IBM and third parties have offered many applications and tools that run under VM. Examples include RAMIS, FOCUS, SPSS, NOMAD, DB2, REXX, RACF, and OfficeVision. Current VM offerings run the gamut of mainframe applications, including HTTP servers, database managers, analysis tools, engineering packages, and financial systems.
CP commands
As of release 6, the VM/370 Control Program has a number of commands for General Users, concerned with defining and controlling the user's virtual machine. Lower-case portions of the command are optional
OpenEdition Extensions
Starting with VM/ESA Version 2, IBM introduced the chargeable optional feature OpenEdition for VM/ESA Shell and Utilities Feature, which provides POSIX compatibility for CMS. The stand-out feature was a UNIX shell for CMS. The C compiler for this UNIX environment is provided by either C/370 or C for VM/ESA. Neither the CMS filesystem nor the standard VM Shared File System has any support for UNIX-style files and paths; instead, the Byte File System is used. Once a BFS extent is created in an SFS file pool, the user can mount it using the OPENVM MOUNT /../VMBFS:fileservername:filepoolname /path/to/mount/point. The user must also mount the root filesystem, done with OPENVM MOUNT /../VMBFS:VMSYS:ROOT/ /, a shell can then be started with OPENVM SHELL. Unlike the normal SFS, access to BFS filesystems is controlled by POSIX permissions (with chmod and chown).
Starting with z/VM Version 3, IBM integrated OpenEdition into z/VM and renamed it OpenExtensions.
VM mascot
In the early 1980s, the VM group within SHARE (the IBM user group) sought a mascot or logo for the community to adopt. This was in part a response to IBM's MVS users selecting the turkey as a mascot (chosen, according to legend, by the MVS Performance Group in the early days of MVS, when its performance was a sore topic). In 1983, the teddy bear became VM's de facto mascot at SHARE 60, when teddy bear stickers were attached to the nametags of "cuddlier oldtimers" to flag them for newcomers as "friendly if approached". The bears were a hit and soon appeared widely. Bears were awarded to inductees of the "Order of the Knights of VM", individuals who made "useful contributions" to the community.
Criticism
While VM was relatively light-weight (when compared to its counterparts, such as MVS), VM was somewhat unstable in its early days. It was considered quite a feat to keep a VM/370 system up for more than a week. Users also criticized the CMS file system, noting that other operating systems in the mid-1980s had directories, symbolic links, and other key features; CMS had none of these until 1988 when VM/SP release 6 came out, which introduced the Shared File System and alleviated these issues.
Some users also noted that VM OpenEdition was somewhat "unnecessary."
Notes
See also
Time-sharing system evolution
References
External links
VM sources
Bob DuCharme, Operating Systems Handbook, Part 5: VM/CMS– a fairly detailed user's guide to VM/CMS
E. C. Hendricks and T. C. Hartmann, "Evolution of a Virtual Machine Subsystem", IBM Systems Journal Vol. 18, pp. 111–142 (1979)– RSCS design and implementation
IBM Corporation, IBM Virtual Machine Facility/370 Introduction, GC20-1800, (1972)– the original manual
Other resources
IBM Redbooks Publication – z/VM textbook
IBM: z/VM portal
IBM: z/VM manuals
VM/PC documentation on bitsavers
Time-sharing operating systems
IBM mainframe operating systems
Virtualization software
Assembly language software
IBM ESA/390 operating systems
de:Z/VM
it:VM/CMS |
3768963 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leibniz%20Prize | Leibniz Prize | The Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize (), in short Leibniz Prize, is awarded by the German Research Foundation to "exceptional scientists and academics for their outstanding achievements in the field of research". Since 1986, up to ten prizes are awarded annually to individuals or research groups working at a research institution in Germany or at a German research institution abroad. It is considered the most important research award in Germany.
The prize is named after the German polymath and philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716). It is one of the highest endowed research prizes in Germany with a maximum of €2.5 million per award.
Past prize winners include
Stefan Hell (2008), Gerd Faltings (1996), Peter Gruss (1994), Svante Pääbo (1992), Theodor W. Hänsch (1989), Erwin Neher (1987), Bert Sakmann (1987), Jürgen Habermas (1986), Hartmut Michel (1986), and Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard (1986).
Prizewinners
2020–2029
2021 |
2020
2021:
Asifa Akhtar, Epigenetics, Max-Planck-Institut für Immunbiologie und Epigenetik, Freiburg
Elisabeth André, Computer Science, Universität Augsburg
Giuseppe Caire, Theoretical Communications Engineering, Technical University of Berlin
Nico Eisenhauer, Biodiversity Research, Universität Leipzig
Veronika Eyring, Earth System Modelling, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, Standort Oberpfaffenhofen und Universität Bremen
Katerina Harvati, Palaeoanthropology, Universität Tübingen und Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment, Tübingen
Steffen Mau, Sociology, Humboldt University of Berlin
Rolf Müller, Pharmaceutical Biology, Helmholtz-Institut für Pharmazeutische Forschung Saarland (HIPS) und Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken
Jürgen Ruland, Immunology, Klinikum rechts der Isar, Technische Universität München
Volker Springel, Astrophysics, Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Garching
2020:
Thorsten Bach, Chemistry, Technical University of Munich
Baptiste Jean Germain Gault, Materials Science, Max Planck Institute for Iron Research
Johannes Grave, Art History, Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena
Thomas Kaufmann, Evangelical Theology, Georg August University of Göttingen
Andrea Musacchio, Cell Biology, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology
Thomas Neumann, Computer Science, Technical University of Munich
Marco Prinz, Neuropathology, Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg
Markus Reichstein, Biogeochemistry, Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry
Dagmar Schäfer, History of Science, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
Juliane Vogel, Literature, University of Konstanz
2019–2010
2019 |
2018 |
2017 |
2016 |
2015 |
2014 |
2013 |
2012 |
2011 |
2010
2019:
Sami Haddadin, Robotics, Technical University of Munich
Rupert Huber, Experimental physics, University of Regensburg
Andreas Reckwitz, Sociology, Viadrina European University, Frankfurt (Oder)
Hans-Reimer Rodewald, Immunology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg
Melina Schuh, cell biology, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry (Karl-Friedrich-Bonhoeffer-Institute), Göttingen
Brenda Schulman, Biochemistry, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry (MPIB), Martinsried
Ayelet Shachar, Law and Political science, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Göttingen
Michèle Tertilt, Economics, University of Mannheim
Wolfgang Wernsdorfer, experimental Solid-state physics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Matthias Wessling, Chemical reaction engineering, RWTH Aachen University and Leibniz-Institut für Interaktive Materialien (DWI), Aachen
2018:
Jens Beckert, Sociology, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne
Alessandra Buonanno, Gravitational Physics, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute), Potsdam
Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln, Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt/Main
Veit Hornung, Immunologie, Genzentrum, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and Eicke Latz, Immunologie, Universitätsklinikum Bonn, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn
Heike Paul, Amerikanistik, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
Erika L. Pearce, Immunologie, Max-Planck-Institut für Immunbiologie und Epigenetik, Freiburg/Breisgau
, Experimentelle Festkörperphysik, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
Oliver G. Schmidt, Materialwissenschaften, Leibniz-Institut für Festkörper- und Werkstoffforschung Dresden und Fakultät für Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik, Technische Universität Chemnitz
Bernhard Schölkopf, Maschinelles Lernen, Max-Planck-Institut für Intelligente Systeme, Tübingen
László Székelyhidi, Angewandte Mathematik, Universität Leipzig
2017:
Lutz Ackermann, Organic Molecular Chemistry, University of Göttingen
Beatrice Gründler, Arabistics, Free University Berlin
Ralph Hertwig, Cognition Psychology, Max-Planck-Institute for Education research
Karl-Peter Hopfner, Structure Biology, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
Frank Jülicher, Theoretical Biophysics, Max-Planck-Institute for Physics of complex systems
Lutz Mädler, Mechanical Process engineering, University of Bremen
Britta Nestler, Material science, Karlsruhe Institute for Technology
Joachim P. Spatz, Biophysics, Max-Planck-Institute for Intelligent Systems and Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg
Anne Storch, Africanistics, University of Köln
Jörg Vogel, Medical Microbiology, University of Würzburg
2016:
Frank Bradke, Neuroregeneration, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Bonn
Emmanuelle Charpentier, Infection Biology, Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin
Daniel Cremers, Computer Vision, Chair of Informatics IX: Image Understanding and Knowledge-Based Systems, Technical University of Munich
Daniel James Frost, Mineralogy/Experimental Petrology, University of Bayreuth
Dag Nikolaus Hasse, Philosophy, Institute of Philosophy, University of Würzburg
Benjamin List, Organic Molecular Chemistry, Department of Homogeneous Catalysis, Max Planck Institute for Coal Research, Mülheim an der Ruhr
Christoph Möllers, Law, Chair of Public Law and Legal Philosophy, Humboldt University of Berlin
Marina Rodnina, Biochemistry, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry (Karl Friedrich Bonhoeffer Institute), Göttingen
Bénédicte Savoy, History of Modern Art, Center for Metropolitan Studies, Technical University of Berlin
Peter Scholze, Arithmetic Algebraic Geometry, Mathematical Institute, University of Bonn
2015:
Henry N Chapman, Biological Physics/X-Ray Physics, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg, and University of Hamburg
Hendrik Dietz, Biochemistry/Biophysics, Technical University of Munich
Stefan Grimme, Theoretical Chemistry, University of Bonn
Christian Hertweck, Biological Chemistry, Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology – Hans Knöll Institute (HKI), Jena, and University of Jena
Friedrich Lenger, Modern and Contemporary History, University of Giessen
Hartmut Leppin, Ancient History, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main
Steffen Martus, Modern German Literature, Humboldt University of Berlin
, Auditory Sensing/Otolaryngology, University of Göttingen
2014:
Artemis Alexiadou, Linguistics, University of Stuttgart
Armin von Bogdandy, Foreign public law and international law, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg
Andreas Dreizler, Combustion research, Technische Universität Darmstadt
Christof Schulz, Combustion and gas dynamics, Universität Duisburg-Essen
Nicole Dubilier, Marine ecology, Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Bremen, and Universität Bremen
Leif Kobbelt, Informatics and computer graphics, RWTH Aachen
Laurens Molenkamp, Experimental solid-state physics, Universität Würzburg
Brigitte Röder, Biological psychology/neuro-psychology, Universität Hamburg
Irmgard Sinning, Structural biology, Universität Heidelberg
Rainer Waser, Nanoelectronics/Materials science, RWTH Aachen and Peter Grünberg Institute, Research Center Jülich
Lars Zender, Hepatology/oncology, Universitätsklinikum Tübingen
2013:
Thomas Bauer, Islamic studies, Universität Münster
Ivan Đikić, Biochemistry/cell biology, Universität Frankfurt am Main
Frank Glorius, Molecular chemistry, Universität Münster
Onur Güntürkün, Biological psychology, Universität Bochum
Peter Hegemann, Biophysics, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Marion Merklein, Metal forming technology/manufacturing engineering, Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
Roderich Moessner, Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden, together with Achim Rosch, Theoretical solid-state physics, Universität zu Köln
Erika von Mutius, Paediatrics, Allergology, Epidemiology, Klinikum der Universität München
Vasilis Ntziachristos, Bio-imaging with optical techniques, Technische Universität München
Lutz Raphael, Modern and recent history, Universität Trier
2012:
Michael Brecht – Neurophysiology/cellular neuroscience (Bernstein Zentrum für Computational Neuroscience Berlin und Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)
Rainer Forst – political philosophy/theory (Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main)
Gunther Hartmann – Clinical pharmacology/natural immunity (Universitätsklinikum Bonn)Christian Kurts – Immunology/Nephrology (Universitätsklinikum Bonn)
Matthias Mann – Biochemistry (Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Martinsried)
Friederike Pannewick – Islamic studies/literature, theater, history of ideas (Philipps-Universität Marburg)
Nikolaus Rajewsky – System biology (Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin)
Ulf Riebesell – Oceanography (Leibniz-Institut für Meereswissenschaften (IFM-Geomar) an der University of Kiel)
Peter Sanders – Theoretical computer science and algorithms (Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, KIT)
Barbara Wohlmuth – Numerical analysis (Technische Universität München)
Jörg Wrachtrup – Experimental physics (Universität Stuttgart)
2011:
Michael Brecht, Neuroscience (Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin)
Ulla Bonas, Microbiology / Molecular phytopathology (Universität Halle-Wittenberg)
, Cognitive neuroscience (Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf)
Anja Feldmann, Computer science / Computer networks / Internet (Technische Universität Berlin, T-Labs)
Kai-Uwe Hinrichs, Organic geochemistry (Universität Bremen)
Anthony A. Hyman, Cell biology / Microtubuli and cleavage (Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden)
Bernhard Keimer, Experimental solid-state physics (Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart)
Franz Pfeiffer, X-ray physics (Technische Universität München)
Joachim Friedrich Quack, Egyptology (Universität Heidelberg)
Gabriele Sadowski, Thermodynamics (Technische Universität Dortmund)
Christine Silberhorn, Quantum optics (Universität Paderborn)
2010:
Jan Born, Neuroendocrinology / Sleep research (University of Lübeck)
Peter Fratzl, Biomaterials (Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Potsdam)
Roman Inderst, Macroeconomics (University Frankfurt/Main)
Christoph Klein, Pediatrics / Oncology (Hannover Medical School)
Ulman Lindenberger, Lifespan psychology (Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin)
Frank Neese, Theoretical chemistry (University of Bonn)
Jürgen Osterhammel, Recent and modern history (University of Konstanz)
Petra Schwille, Biophysics (Dresden University of Technology)
Stefan Treue, Cognitive Neurosciences (German Primate Center, Göttingen)
Joachim Weickert, Digital image processing (Saarland University)
2009–2000
2009 |
2008 |
2007 |
2006 |
2005 |
2004 |
2003 |
2002 |
2001 |
2000
2009:
Antje Boetius, Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Bremen
Holger Braunschweig, Inorganic chemistry, University of Würzburg
Wolfram Burgard, Computer science, University of Freiburg
Heinrich Detering, University of Göttingen
Jürgen Eckert, IFW Dresden, and Dresden University of Technology
Armin Falk, Economist, University of Bonn
Frank Kirchhoff, University of Ulm
Jürgen Rödel, Materials scientist, Technische Universität Darmstadt
Karl Lenhard Rudolph, University of Ulm
Burkhard Wilking, University of Münster
Martin R. Zirnbauer, University of Cologne
2008:
Susanne Albers – theoretical computer science, University of Freiburg
Martin Beneke – theoretical particle physics, RWTH Aachen
Holger Boche – telecommunications engineering and information theory, Technische Universität Berlin
Martin Carrier philosophy, Bielefeld University
Elena Conti – structural biology, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Martinsried
Elisa Izaurralde – cell biology, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Tübingen
Holger Fleischer – economic law, University of Bonn
Stefan W. Hell – biophysics, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen
Klaus Kern – physical solid state chemistry, Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart
Wolfgang Lück – algebraic topology, University of Münster;
Jochen Mannhart – experimental solid state physics, University of Augsburg
2007:
– molecular diabetes research, endocrinology (University of Cologne)
Patrick Bruno – theoretical solid-state physics (MPI of Microstructure Physics, Halle/Saale)
Magdalena Götz – neurology (GSF – Forschungszentrum für Umwelt und Gesundheit and Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich)
Peter Gumbsch – material science (Universität Karlsruhe (TH) and Fraunhofer-Institut für Werkstoffmechanik, Freiburg i. Br. and Halle/Saale)
Gerald Haug – paleoclimatology (GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam and University of Potsdam)
Bernhard Jussen – mediaeval history (Bielefeld University)
Guinevere Kauffmann – astrophysics (MPI for Astrophysics, Garching)
Falko Langenhorst – mineralogy and petrology (Friedrich Schiller University of Jena)
Oliver Primavesi – classical philology (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich)
Detlef Weigel – plant biology (MPI for Developmental Biology, Tübingen)
2006:
Matthias Beller and Peter Wasserscheid – homogeneous catalysis (Leibniz-Institute for Organic Catalysis at the University of Rostock) and chemical processing (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg)
Patrick Cramer – structural biology (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich)
Peter Jonas – neurophysiology (Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg)
Ferenc Krausz – quantum optics (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, Garching)
Klaus Mezger – geochemistry (University of Münster)
Thomas Mussweiler – social psychology (University of Cologne)
Felix Otto – analysis of partial differential equations (University of Bonn)
Dominik Perler – history of philosophy/theoretical philosophy (Humboldt University of Berlin)
Gyburg Radke – classical philology and philosophy (Philipps University of Marburg)
Marino Zerial – cell biology (Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden)
2005:
Peter Becker – cell biology/biochemistry (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich)
Immanuel Bloch – quantum optics (Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz)
Stefanie Dimmeler – molecular cardiology (Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main)
Jürgen Gauß – theoretical chemistry (Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz)
Günther Hasinger – astrophysics (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching)
Christian Jung – plant breeding (University of Kiel)
Axel Ockenfels – experimental economics (University of Cologne)
Wolfgang Peukert – mechanical process engineering (Friedrich-Alexander-University, Erlangen-Nuremberg)
Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger – History of early modern Europe (University of Münster)
Andreas Tünnermann – microsystems technology (Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering, Jena)
2004:
Frank Allgöwer – control engineering (University of Stuttgart)
Gabriele Brandstetter – theatre science (Free University of Berlin)
Thomas Carell – organic chemistry (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich)
Karl Christoph Klauer – social and cognitive psychology (University of Bonn)
Hannah Monyer – neurobiology (Ruprecht Karls University of Heidelberg)
Nikolaus Pfanner and Jürgen Soll – biochemistry/molecular cell biology of plants (Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg and Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich)
Klaus Dieter Pfeffer – immunology (Heinrich Heine University)
Dierk Raabe – material science (Max Planck Institute for Iron Research GmbH, Düsseldorf)
Konrad Samwer – solid state physics (Georg August University of Göttingen)
Manfred Strecker – structural geology (University of Potsdam)
2003:
Winfried Denk – medical optics (Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, Heidelberg)
Hélène Esnault and Eckart Viehweg – algebraic geometry (University of Duisburg and Essen)
Gerhard Huisken – geometrical analysis (Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute), Golm, Potsdam)
Rupert Klein – computational fluid dynamics (Free University of Berlin and Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research)
Albrecht Koschorke – Renaissance and modern German literature (University of Constance)
Roland Lill – cell biology/biochemistry (Philipps University of Marburg)
Christof Niehrs – molecular development biology (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, Heidelberg)
Ferdi Schüth – inorganic chemistry (Max Planck Institute für Kohlenforschung (Coal Research) (rechtsfähige Stiftung), Mülheim/Ruhr)
Hans-Peter Seidel – graphics (Max Planck Institute for Informatics, Saarbrücken)
Hubert Wolf – history of Christianity/Catholic theology (University of Münster)
2002:
Carmen Birchmeier-Kohler – molecular biology (Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin-Buch)
Wolfgang Dahmen – mathematics (RWTH Aachen)
Wolf-Christian Dullo – paleontology (University of Kiel)
Bruno Eckhardt – theoretical physics (Philipps University of Marburg)
Michael Famulok – biochemistry (University of Bonn)
Christian Haass – pathological biochemistry (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich)
Franz-Ulrich Hartl – cell biology (Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry, Martinsried)
Thomas Hengartner – cultural anthropology (University of Hamburg)
Reinhold Kliegl – general psychology (University of Potsdam)
Wolfgang Kowalsky – optoelectronics (Technische Universität Braunschweig)
Karl Leo – solid state physics (Technische Universität Dresden)
Frank Vollertsen – forming and stretching manufacturing engineering (University of Paderborn)
2001:
Jochen Feldmann – optoelectronical component (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich)
Eduard Christian Hurt – molecular biology (Ruprecht Karls University of Heidelberg)
Hans Keppler – mineralogy (University of Tübingen)
Arthur Konnerth – neurophysiology (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich)
Ulrich Konrad – musicology (University of Würzburg)
Martin Krönke – immunology/cell biology (University of Cologne)
Joachim Küpper – Romantic literary theory (Free University of Berlin)
Christoph Markschies – history of Christianity (Ruprecht Karls University of Heidelberg)
Wolfgang Marquardt – process systems engineering (RWTH Aachen)
Helge Ritter – informatics (University of Bielefeld)
Günter Ziegler – mathematics (Technische Universität Berlin)
2000:
Klaus Fiedler – cognitive social psychology (Ruprecht Karls University of Heidelberg)
Peter Greil – materials science (Friedrich-Alexander-University, Erlangen-Nuremberg)
Matthias W. Hentze – molecular biology (European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg)
Peter M. Herzig – geochemistry and economic geology (Freiberg University of Mining and Technology)
Reinhard Jahn – cellular biology (Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry (Karl Friedrich Bonhoeffer Institute), Göttingen)
Aditi Lahiri – general linguistics (University of Constance)
Gertrude Lübbe-Wolff – public law (University of Bielefeld)
Dieter Lüst – theoretical physics (Humboldt University of Berlin)
Stefan Müller – mathematics (Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Leipzig)
Manfred Pinkal – computational linguistics (Saarland University)
Ilme Schlichting – biophysics (Max Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology, Dortmund)
Friedrich Temps and Hans-Joachim Werner – physical chemistry (University of Kiel) and Theoretische Chemie (University of Stuttgart)
Martin Wegener – solid state physics (University of Karlsruhe)
1999–1990
1999 |
1998 |
1997 |
1996 |
1995 |
1994 |
1993 |
1992 |
1991 |
1990
1999:
Ekkard Brinksmeier – manufacturing engineering (University of Bremen)
Bernd Bukau – cellular biology (Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg)
Joachim Cuntz – mathematics (University of Münster)
Alois Fürstner – organometalic chemistry (Max Planck Institute für Kohlenforschung (Coal Research) (rechtsfähige Stiftung), Mülheim/Ruhr)
Friedrich Wilhelm Graf – Evangelical theology (University of Augsburg)
Ulrich Herbert – modern and contemporary history (Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg)
Martin Johannes Lohse – pharmacology (University of Würzburg)
Volker Mosbrugger – paleontology (University of Tübingen)
Hans-Christian Pape – neurophysiology (Otto von Guericke University of Magdeburg)
Joachim Ullrich – experimental physics (Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg)
1998:
Heinz Breer – zoology (University of Hohenheim)
Nikolaus P. Ernsting and Klaus Rademann – physical chemistry (Humboldt University of Berlin)
Hans-Jörg Fecht – metallic materials (University of Ulm)
Ute Frevert – modern history (University of Bielefeld)
Wolf-Bernd Frommer – molecular plant physiology (University of Tübingen)
Christian Griesinger – organic chemistry (Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main)
Regine Hengge-Aronis – microbiology (University of Constance)
Onno Oncken – geology (GeoForschungsZentrum, Potsdam and Free University of Berlin)
Hermann Parzinger – prehistoric and early historical Europe (German Archaeological Institute, Berlin)
Ingo Rehberg – experimental physics (Otto von Guericke University of Magdeburg)
Dietmar Vestweber – cellular biology/biochemistry (University of Münster)
Annette Zippelius – solid state physics (Georg August University of Göttingen)
1997:
Thomas Boehm – molecular development biology (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, Heidelberg)
Wolfgang Ertmer – experimental physics (University of Hannover)
Angela D. Friederici – neuropsychology (Max Planck Institute for Neuropsychological Research, Leipzig)
– microbiology (Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg)
Jean Karen Gregory – material science (Technical University of Munich)
Andreas Kablitz – Romance philology/Italian studies (University of Cologne)
Matthias Kleiner – sheet metal forming (Technical University of Cottbus)
Paul Knochel – organometallic chemistry (Philipps University of Marburg)
Elisabeth Knust – development genetics (Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf)
Stephan W. Koch – theoretical physics (Philipps University of Marburg)
Christian F. Lehner – molecular genetics (University of Bayreuth)
Stefan M. Maul – ancient orientalism (Ruprecht Karls University of Heidelberg)
Ernst Mayr – information theory (Technical University of Munich)
Gerhard Wörner – mineralogy/geochemistry (Georg August University of Göttingen)
1996:
Eduard Arzt – materials science (University of Stuttgart and Max Planck Institute for Metals Research, Stuttgart)
Hans Werner Diehl – theoretical physics (University of Duisburg and Essen)
Gerd Faltings – mathematics (Max Planck Institute for Mathematics, Bonn)
Ulf-Ingo Flügge – biochemistry of plants, (University of Cologne)
Wolfgang Klein – linguistics (Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen)
Dieter Langewiesche – modern history (University of Tübingen)
– molecular biology (Philipps University of Marburg)
Joachim Reitner – paleontology (Georg August University of Göttingen)
Michael Reth – immunology (Max Planck Institute for Immunobiology, Freiburg)
Wolfgang Schnick – solid state chemistry (University of Bayreuth)
Winfried Schulze – history of early modern Europe (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich)
Reinhard Zimmermann – history of law and civil law (University of Regensburg)
1995:
Siegfried Bethke – elementary particle physics (RWTH Aachen)
Niels Birbaumer – psychophysiology (University of Tübingen)
Hans-Joachim Freund – physical chemistry (Ruhr University Bochum)
Martin Grötschel – applied mathematics (Technische Universität Berlin)
Axel Haverich – surgery (University of Kiel)
Gerhard Hirzinger – robotics (German Aerospace Center, Oberpfaffenhofen)
– biochemistry (University of Hamburg)
Gerd Jürgens – molecular plant development (University of Tübingen)
Wolfgang Schleich – quantum optics (University of Ulm)
Manfred G. Schmidt – political science (Ruprecht Karls University of Heidelberg)
Thomas Schweizer (†) – cultural anthropology (University of Cologne)
Elmar Weiler – plant physiology (Ruhr University Bochum)
Emo Welzl – informatics (Free University of Berlin)
1994:
Gisela Anton – experimental physics (University of Bonn)
Manfred Broy and Ernst-Rüdiger Olderog – computer science (Technical University of Munich and University of Oldenburg)
Ulrich R. Christensen – geophysics (Georg August University of Göttingen)
Ulf Eysel – neurophysiology (Ruhr University Bochum)
Theodor Geisel – theoretical physics (Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main)
Peter Gruss – cellular biology (MPI for biophysical chemistry, Göttingen)
Wolfgang Hackbusch – numerical mathematics (University of Kiel)
Adrienne Héritier and Helmut Willke – sociology/politology (University of Bielefeld)
Stefan Jentsch – molecular biology (Ruprecht Karls University of Heidelberg)
Glenn W. Most – classical philology (Ruprecht Karls University of Heidelberg)
Johann Mulzer – organic chemistry (Free University of Berlin)
Peter Schäfer – Jewish studies (Free University of Berlin)
1993:
Christian von Bar – international privatright (Universität Osnabrück)
Johannes Buchmann and Claus-Peter Schnorr – information theory (Universität Saarbrücken and Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main)
Dieter Enders – organic chemistry (RWTH Aachen)
Gunter Fischer – biochemistry (Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg)
– neuroanatomy (Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg)
Jürgen Jost – mathematics (Universität Bochum)
Regine Kahmann – molecular genetics (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich)
Wolfgang Krätschmer – nuclear physics (MPI für Kernphysik, Heidelberg)
Klaus Petermann – high frequency technics (Technische Universität Berlin)
Wolfgang Prinz – psychology (MPI für für Psychologische Forschung, München)
Rudolf G. Wagner – sinology (Ruprecht Karls University of Heidelberg)
Jürgen Warnatz – technical combustion (University of Stuttgart)
1992:
Georg W. Bornkamm – virology (GSF-Forschungszentrum für Umwelt und Gesundheit München)
Christopher Deninger, Michael Rapoport, Peter Schneider and Thomas Zink – mathematics (University of Münster, Bergische University Wuppertal, University of Cologne and University of Bielefeld)
Irmela Hijiya-Kirschnereit – japanology (Free University of Berlin)
Jürgen Kocka – history of sociology (Free University of Berlin)
Joachim Menz – mine surveying (Freiberg University of Mining and Technology)
Friedhelm Meyer auf der Heide and Burkhard Monien – informatics (University of Paderborn)
Jürgen Mlynek – experimental physics (University of Constance)
Svante Pääbo – molecular biology (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich)
Wolfgang Raible – romanistics (Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg)
Hans-Georg Rammensee – immunology (Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Tübingen)
Jan Veizer – geochemistry of sediments (Ruhr University Bochum)
1991:
Gerhard Ertl – physical chemistry (Fritz Haber Institute of the MPG, Berlin)
Dieter Fenske and Michael Veith – inorganic chemistry (University of Karlsruhe and Saarland University)
Ernst O. Göbel – solid state physics (University of Marburg)
Dieter Häussinger – internal medicine (Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg)
Karl-Heinz Hoffmann – applied mathematics (University of Augsburg)
Randolf Menzel – zoology/neurobiology (Free University of Berlin)
Rolf Müller – biochemistry/molecular biology (University of Marburg)
Hermann Riedel – material mechanics (Fraunhofer-Institut für Werkstoffmechanik Freiburg)
Hans-Ulrich Schmincke – mineralogy/vulcanology (Forschungszentrum für Marine Geowissenschaften Kiel)
Michael Stolleis – history of law (Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main)
Martin Warnke – history of art (University of Hamburg)
1990:
Reinhard Genzel – astrophysics (Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Garching)
Rainer Greger – physiology (Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg)
Ingrid Grummt – microbiology (University of Würzburg)
Martin Jansen and Arndt Simon – inorganic chemistry (University of Bonn and Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart)
Bert Hölldobler – zoology (University of Würzburg)
Konrad Kleinknecht – experimental physics (Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz)
Norbert Peters – combustion engineering (RWTH Aachen)
Helmut Schwarz – organic chemistry (Technische Universität Berlin)
Dieter Stöffler – planetology (University of Münster)
Richard Wagner – material science (GKSS-Forschungszentrum Geesthacht)
1989–1986
1989 |
1988 |
1987 |
1986
1989:
Heinrich Betz – neurobiology (Ruprecht Karls University of Heidelberg)
Claus Wilhelm Canaris – civil law (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich)
Herbert Gleiter – material science (Saarland University)
Theodor W. Hänsch – laser physics (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, Garching)
Joachim Milberg – production technics (Technical University of Munich)
Jürgen Mittelstraß – philosophy (University of Constance)
Sigrid D. Peyerimhoff – theoretical chemistry (University of Bonn)
Manfred T. Reetz – organic chemistry (Philipps University of Marburg)
Michael Sarnthein and Jörn Thiede – marine geology (University of Kiel and Leibniz-Institut für Meereswissenschaften Kiel)
Reinhard Stock – experimental nuclear physics (Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main)
Wolfgang Stremmel – internal medicine (Heinrich Heine University of Düsseldorf)
1988:
– high frequency technics (Technische Universität Braunschweig)
Lothar Gall – modern history (Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main)
Günter Harder – mathematics (University of Bonn)
Walter Haug and Burghart Wachinger – older German literature science (University of Tübingen)
Werner Hildenbrand – social economics (University of Bonn)
Ingo Müller – theoretical physics (Technische Universität Berlin)
Herbert W. Roesky and George Michael Sheldrick – inorganic chemistry (Georg August University of Göttingen)
Wolfram Saenger and Volker Erdmann – biochemistry (Free University of Berlin)
Günther Schütz – molecular biology (German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg)
Hans Wolfgang Spiess – physical chemistry (Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Mainz)
Karl Otto Stetter – microbiology (University of Regensburg)
Thomas Weiland – high energy physics (DESY (German electron synchrotron), Hamburg)
1987:
Gerhard Abstreiter – semiconductor physics (Technical University of Munich)
Knut Borchardt – history of economics/social economics (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich)
Nils Claussen – ceramic materials (Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg)
Bernd Giese – organic chemistry (Technische Universität Darmstadt)
Wolfgang A. Herrmann and Hubert Schmidbaur – inorganic chemistry (Technical University of Munich)
Günter Hotz, Kurt Mehlhorn and Wolfgang Paul – Computer Science (Saarland University)
Erwin Neher and Bert Sakmann – biophysical chemistry (Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry / Karl Friedrich Bonhoeffer Institute), Göttingen
Friedrich A. Seifert – mineralogy (University of Bayreuth)
Rudolf K. Thauer – biochemical microbiology (Philipps University of Marburg)
Hans-Peter Zenner – Otolaryngology/cell biology (University of Würzburg)
1986:
Géza Alföldy – ancient history (Ruprecht Karls University of Heidelberg)
Dietrich Dörner – psychology (Otto-Friedrich University)
Jürgen Habermas – philosophy (Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main)
Otto Ludwig Lange and Ulrich Heber – ecology and biochemistry (University of Würzburg)
Hartmut Michel – biology (Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Martinsried)
Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard and Herbert Jäckle – biology (Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Tübingen)
Peter R. Sahm – casting (RWTH Aachen)
Fritz Peter Schäfer – laser physics (MPI für biophysikalische Chemie, Göttingen)
Frank Steglich – solid state physics (Technische Universität Darmstadt)
Albert H. Walenta – experimental physics (University of Siegen)
Julius Wess – theoretical physics (University of Karlsruhe)
See also
List of general science and technology awards
List of physics awards
References
External links
Official description
Recipients (in German)
Science and technology awards
Gottfried Leibniz
Awards established in 1985
1985 establishments in West Germany
German science and technology awards |
36171685 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debora%20Green | Debora Green | Debora Green ( Jones; born February 28, 1951) is an American physician who pleaded no contest to setting a 1995 fire which burned down her family's home and killed two of her children, and to poisoning her husband with ricin with the intention of causing his death. The case was sensational, and covered heavily by news media, especially in the Kansas–Missouri area, where the crimes occurred. Though Green has petitioned for a new trial twice in recent years, her requests have not been successful.
Green married Michael Farrar in 1979 while practicing as an emergency physician. The marriage was tumultuous, and Farrar filed for divorce in July 1995. Between August and September 1995, Farrar repeatedly fell violently ill, and despite numerous hospitalizations his doctors could not pinpoint the source of his illness. Green's emotional stability deteriorated and she began to drink heavily, even while supervising her children. On October 24, 1995, the Farrar family home, occupied by Green and the couple's three children, caught fire. Kate Farrar and Debora Green escaped without harm, but despite the efforts of firefighters, Timothy and Kelly Farrar died in the blaze. Investigation showed that trails of accelerant in the house led back to Green's bedroom, and that the source of Michael Farrar's intractable illness had been ricin, a poison served to him in his food by Green.
Upon her arrest on November 22, 1995, Green was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted first-degree murder, and one count of aggravated arson. She was held on $3,000,000 bail—the highest ever required by Johnson County, Kansas—and maintained her innocence throughout pre-trial motions and a show cause hearing. However, when the defense's own investigators verified the strength of forensic evidence against Green, she agreed to an Alford plea to all charges. On May 30, 1996, she was sentenced to two concurrent forty-year prison sentences. Green has petitioned for a new trial twice since her conviction. Her first request, which she eventually withdrew, was based on a claim of having been rendered incompetent for plea bargaining by the psychiatric medications she was taking at the time of her hearings; her second, which was denied by a judge, claimed that the evidence used to convict her of arson had been rendered obsolete by scientific advances.
Early life and medical training
Green was the second of two daughters of Joan and Bob Jones of Havana, Illinois. She showed early intellectual promise, and is reported to have taught herself to read and write before she was three years old. Green participated in a number of school activities at the two high schools she attended and was a National Merit Scholar and co-valedictorian of her high school class. Those who knew her at the time later described her as "[fitting] right in" and someone who was "going to be successful".
Green attended the University of Illinois from the fall of 1969, where she took a major in chemistry. Though she had intended to pursue chemical engineering as a career, she opted to attend medical school after graduating in 1972, believing the market was flooded with engineers. She attended the University of Kansas School of Medicine from 1972 to her graduation in 1975. Green chose emergency medicine as her initial specialty and undertook a residency in the Truman Medical Center Emergency Room after her graduation from medical school.
Throughout her undergraduate and medical school attendance, she dated Duane M. J. Green, an engineer. The couple married while she was studying at the University of Kansas. The couple lived together in Independence, Missouri, while Debora finished her residency, but by 1978 they had separated and then divorced. Debora cited basic incompatibility as the reason for the divorce—"[...W]e had absolutely no common interests", she was later quoted as saying—but the divorce was friendly.
During the period the Greens were separated, Debora met Michael Farrar, a student in his twenties completing his last year of medical school. Farrar was struck by Green's intelligence and vitality, though he was embarrassed by her habit of explosively losing her temper at minor slights. In contrast, Green felt that Farrar was a stable, dependable presence. The couple were married on May 26, 1979. When Farrar was accepted for an internal medicine residency at the University of Cincinnati, the couple moved to Ohio. Green went into practice at Jewish Hospital as an emergency physician, but grew dissatisfied and eventually switched specialties. She began a second residency in internal medicine, joining Farrar's program.
Farrar–Green marriage
Children and medical career
By the early 1980s, the Farrars were living in Cincinnati, Ohio. During this time Green suffered a number of medical issues, including surgery on an infected wrist, cerebellar migraines, and insomnia. The Farrars' first child, Timothy, was born on January 20, 1982. After a six-week maternity leave, Green returned to her fellowship in hematology and oncology at the University of Cincinnati.
Two years later, a second child, Kate, was born. Green again returned to her studies after maternity leave, and by 1985 had completed her fellowship. She went into private practice in hematology and oncology while Farrar finished the last year of his cardiology fellowship. Later Green and Farrar both joined established medical practices in the Kansas City, Missouri, area. After a year, Green started her own private practice, which prospered until she became pregnant and took time off work for another maternity leave. The couple's third child, Kelly, was born on December 13, 1988.
As the Farrar children grew older, they were enrolled in The Pembroke Hill School, a private school in Kansas City. Green was reportedly a good mother who wanted the best for her children and encouraged them in their activities of choice. Though she attempted to resume her medical career after her last maternity leave, her practice faltered and her chronic pain increased. In 1992, she gave up her practice and became a homemaker, working part-time from the family's house on medical peer reviews and Medicaid processing. Medical professionals who worked with her during this time described her as being distant and cold towards her patients and displaying obsessive behavior towards her husband.
Farrar later alleged that Green had been self-medicating with sedatives and narcotics to treat pain from infections and injuries periodically throughout their marriage. He recounted several episodes to author Ann Rule in which he had confronted Green with issues regarding her demeanor, handwriting, and speech patterns which indicated drug intoxication, and said that Green had agreed to stop using the medications each time he confronted her.
The Farrar children were all engaged in activities outside the home. Timothy played both soccer and ice hockey, while Kate was a ballerina with the State Ballet of Missouri by the age of ten. During this time, Farrar worked long hours and Green accompanied the children to their activities, though perception of her by other parents at the activities varied—some felt she was a supportive mother, while others believed she drove her children too hard and put down their efforts too often.
Green and Farrar
Farrar admitted that the marriage was never ideal. He later said that neither one had expressed their love to each other, even at the early stages of marriage. Farrar recounted that Green seemed to lack the coping skills most adults bring to bear in challenging times; when she went into a rage, she sometimes harmed herself or broke things, and rarely gave any thought to whether she was in private or in public during these episodes. By the early 1990s, Farrar worked long hours away from the home to avoid arguments and what he perceived as his wife's shortcomings as a homemaker. When the couple fought, Green responded by treating the children, especially Tim, as small adults and telling them about what their father had done wrong. Swayed by their mother's opinions about their father, the children began to resent and disobey Farrar, to the point where Timothy and Farrar had physical altercations.
In January 1994, Farrar asked Green for a divorce. Although she believed Farrar was having affairs outside the marriage, she later claimed to have been taken by surprise by his desire to end the marriage and responded to his asking for a divorce explosively, shouting and throwing things. Farrar moved out of the family home, though the two remained in contact and informally shared custody of the children. With the pressure of living together removed, they attempted reconciliation, and decided that a larger house would ease some of the disorganization that had affected their marriage. In May, after four months of separation, they put in a bid on a six-bedroom home in Prairie Village, Kansas, but backed out before the sale went through. Farrar later said that he had "backed down" in the face of his ongoing worries about the state of his marriage and the couple's debt load.
Shortly after the Prairie Village home purchase fell through, however, the couple's Missouri home caught fire while the family was out. Insurance investigators later determined that the fire was caused by an electrical short in a power cord. Though the house was repairable and the couple's home insurance paid out on the damage and lost property, the couple decided to move on, and Green and the children moved into the apartment in which Farrar had been living during the separation while the purchase of the Prairie Village home was re-negotiated.
The couple put extra effort into avoiding the issues that had caused strife before their separation: Despite being an indifferent cook and housekeeper, Green tried to focus on cooking and keeping the new house cleaner, while Farrar vowed to curtail his work hours so that he could spend more time with the family. The improvements lasted mere months, however, and by the end of 1994, both Green and Farrar had fallen back to their old habits and the marriage was again floundering. Fearful of another confrontation with Green, and looking forward to a trip to Peru the family had planned for June 1995, Farrar nevertheless decided to wait until after the trip to raise the issue of a divorce again.
Divorce
During their trip to Peru in June 1995, sponsored by The Pembroke Hill School, Farrar met and befriended Margaret Hacker, whose children also attended the school. Hacker was a registered nurse married to an anesthesiologist, and also unhappy with her marriage. The two began an affair shortly after both families returned from Peru. In late July, Farrar again asked Green for a divorce. Green responded hysterically and told the children that their father was leaving them. Green was especially upset that a broken home might later disqualify the children from debutante events such as the Belles of the American Royal.
Despite the impending divorce, Farrar initially declined to move out of the family home. He was concerned that Green, who had never been a heavy drinker of alcohol, was suddenly consuming large quantities of it while supervising the children. Though Green continued her routine of ferrying the children to after-school activities, she would spend her evenings drinking at home, sometimes to the point of unconsciousness and nearly always until she lost what inhibitions she had left about her language in front of the children. On one occasion, Farrar was called home from work by the children, who had found their mother unresponsive. Green had disappeared from the home by the time Farrar arrived there, and though he eventually discovered that she had been hiding in the basement while he searched for her, she claimed at the time to have been wandering the town, hoping to be hit by a car. Farrar moved out of the family home in early autumn due to concerns about his personal safety.
Fire
On October 24, during the early morning, Farrar received a phone call at his apartment from a neighbor who shouted that his house—meaning the Farrar–Green family home in Prairie Village—was on fire. Farrar immediately drove there. A 9-1-1 call placed from the house at 12:20 a.m. alerted police dispatchers to possible trouble, though the caller did not speak before hanging up. A police cruiser found the house on fire. Fire trucks were dispatched at 12:27 to what was classed as a "two-alarm" fire. The first firefighters on the scene reported that Green and her ten-year-old daughter Kate were safely outside the house by the time they had arrived. Both were in their nightclothes. Kate begged firefighters to help her brother and sister, six-year-old Kelly and thirteen-year-old Timothy, who were still inside. Green stood next to her daughter, and was reported to have been "very calm, very cool". At least two firefighters attempted to search inside the home for the missing children, but the building was so consumed by flames that they could only access a small portion of the ground level before the structure became unsafe.
By the time the fire was under control, the house was almost totally destroyed, leaving behind only the garage and some front stonework. The fire had spread rapidly, and although high winds contributed to the intensity, authorities deemed the speed with which the house had become fully involved suspicious enough to bring in arson investigators. The bodies of Tim and Kelly were not recovered until the following morning, when the house had cooled enough to permit safe searching. Kelly had perished in her bed, most likely of smoke inhalation. Tim's body was found on the ground floor, near the kitchen. Investigators at first assumed he had died trying to escape, but later determined that he had perished in or near his bedroom, most likely of smoke inhalation and heat, and that his body had fallen through burned flooring to where it was discovered.
Police questioning
The surviving members of the Farrar–Green family were taken from the fire scene to police headquarters for questioning. Detectives were sent to the house to begin an investigation. Local Prairie Village detectives separated Green, Farrar, and their daughter (who was accompanied by Farrar's parents) and began to question Green.
Green's account
According to video of the police interview, Green reported that the family had a normal day before the fire. The children went to school and performed their chores before attending various after-school activities—Kate went to her dance class, Tim to a hockey game. Farrar had taken Tim and Kelly to the hockey game, while Green took Kate to ballet lessons. The family regrouped around 9 p.m. when Tim and Kelly were dropped back at the Prairie Village house for dinner.
Green told police that she had one or two drinks after dinner and went to her bedroom, leaving it only to speak to Tim in the kitchen some time between ten and eleven in the evening, shortly before he went to bed. Kelly and Kate had gone to bed earlier, each taking one of the family's two dogs with them. Green said that she had fallen asleep around eleven-thirty. At some point before falling asleep, she recalled, she had spoken to Farrar, who had phoned asking which member of the household had paged him. She told police that she and Farrar were in the process of divorce, though she did not know how far along they were, and that although the children were very upset at the prospect, she herself was not and was looking forward to being able to rebuild her life.
Green was awakened some time after midnight by the sound of the home's built-in fire alarm system. She initially assumed that the sound was a false alarm caused by her dogs triggering the burglar alarm, but when she tried to shut off the alarm at the control panel in her bedroom and it continued sounding, she opened her bedroom door and found smoke in the hallway. She exited the house using a deck that connected to her first-floor bedroom. While standing on the deck, she heard her son Tim on the home's intercom system, calling to ask her what he should do. "He used to be my thirteen-year-old", Green explained to police, and said that she had told him to stay in the house and wait for firefighters to rescue him. She had then knocked on a neighbor's door to ask them to call 9-1-1. When she returned to the house, she found Kate, who had climbed through her second-floor bedroom window, on the roof of the home's garage. Green called to Kate to jump, and Kate landed safely on the ground in front of Green.
Detectives noted that during her interview Green did not appear to be or have been crying, and her manner was "talkative, even cheerful". She repeatedly referred to Tim and Kelly Farrar in the past tense, and referred to all of her children by their ages rather than their names. Her accounts of times from the previous evening varied, and she seemed uncertain what time she had done things like gone to bed.
At 5:30 a.m., a detective arrived from the fire scene to advise those at the police station that Tim and Kelly Farrar had been found dead in the home. Green initially reacted with sadness that quickly changed to anger. She shouted at detectives, claiming that firefighters had not done enough to save the children. Where previously she had been cooperative and friendly with the detectives interviewing her, she now began to attack them verbally, calling investigators and their methods "pathetic", alleging that they had withheld from her knowledge of the children's deaths, and demanding to be allowed to see Farrar and the remains of the family's house. Though Green stressed to police that she wanted to be the one to "tell my husband our babies are dead," her request was not granted.
Green was released from the police station in the early morning of October 24 after questioning. With the family home burned down, she had nowhere to stay. Farrar refused to let her stay in his apartment, but gave her some cash, and she rented a room in a local hotel. Ellen Ryan, Green's divorce lawyer, found her there later in the day in a distraught state. She repeatedly asked Ryan whether her children had died, chanted rhythmically about their deaths, and seemed unable to care for herself. Green was transported to a local hospital for treatment but remained emotionally unstable, suffering from insomnia and appearing to Ryan to be unable to take care of day-to-day life, even after her release from the hospital.
Farrar's account
Police interviewed Farrar at 6:20 a.m, informing him immediately that the bodies of Tim and Kelly had been recovered. He told police about the deterioration of his marriage and health over the past six months. In August 1995, Farrar had fallen ill with nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. He initially assumed it was a residual effect of the traveler's diarrhea many people on the Peru trip had contracted while there. Though he recovered from the initial bout of symptoms, he relapsed about a week later, and on August 18 Farrar was hospitalized with severe dehydration and high fever. In the hospital, he developed sepsis. Doctors identified Streptococcus viridans, which had probably leaked through damaged digestive tissue as a result of Farrar's severe diarrhea, as the source of the sepsis; however, they could not pinpoint the root cause of the gastrointestinal illness itself. Though Farrar's illness was severe and possibly life-threatening, he eventually recovered and was released from the hospital on August 25. That night, however, shortly after eating a dinner that Green had served him, Farrar again suffered vomiting and diarrhea and had to be hospitalized. A third bout of symptoms struck on September 4, days after he was released from the hospital for the second time. Basing their conclusions on the likelihood that his illness was related to the Peru trip, doctors narrowed down the possible causes for Farrar's gastrointestinal issues to a handful, though none fitted his symptoms perfectly: typhoid fever, tropical sprue, or gluten-sensitive enteropathy. Farrar had noticed that each time he returned home from the hospital, he became ill again almost immediately, and he speculated that it may have been due to the stress of his dissolving marriage or the change from a bland hospital diet to a normal home one. When Farrar's girlfriend, Margaret Hacker, told him she suspected Green was poisoning him, he initially wrote off the idea as ridiculous.
Though Green was caring for Farrar in the family home while he recovered from his repeated bouts of illness, she was also continuing to drink heavily and, increasingly often, claiming to be contemplating suicide or to want Margaret Hacker dead. In late September, Farrar searched the house and her belongings. In her purse, he discovered seed packets labeled as castor beans, a copy of a supposedly anonymous letter that had been sent to Farrar urging him to not divorce Green, and empty vials of potassium chloride. He removed all three items from her purse and hid them.
The next day, he asked Green—who had no interest in gardening that he knew of—what she had intended to do with the seeds. Though she initially claimed that she was going to plant them, when pressed she said that she intended to use them to commit suicide. Green's drinking was especially heavy that day, and as her behavior grew stranger, Farrar contacted the police for assistance in placing Green into psychiatric care. Police who responded to the home described Farrar and the children as "shaken" and Green's behavior as "bizarre". Though Green did not seem to hold the police's presence against them and gave them no resistance, she denied being suicidal and called Farrar a series of obscenities. Farrar showed police the seed packets and other items he had found in her purse the day before, and the police transported Green to a nearby emergency room. The physician who attended her there found Green to be smelling strongly of alcohol, but not visibly drunk. Though Green appeared unkempt, the doctor felt her demeanor was not unusual for someone going through a bitter divorce and noted that Green professed no desire to hurt herself or others when the doctor interviewed her privately. However, when Farrar came into view in the hospital, Green's demeanor changed. According to the doctor, Green spat at him, called him obscene names, and stated that "You're going to get these kids over our dead bodies". Though Green, with some persuasion by the doctor, initially agreed to a voluntary commitment, she shortly thereafter left the ER without informing anyone. She was found hours later, apparently having decided to walk home from the hospital, and brought back to the hospital. There, she agreed again to a voluntary commitment to the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas.
While in the hospital for treatment, Green was diagnosed with "major bipolar depression with suicidal impulses" and placed on Prozac, Tranxene, and Klonopin. She returned home after four days in the hospital. Farrar, who had researched castor beans in the interim and came to the conclusion that Green had poisoned his food with the ricin that could be derived from the beans, moved out immediately upon Green's return home.
Farrar said that the day of the fire, about a month after Farrar's last release from the hospital, he had taken the day off from work—the first day of what he intended to be a week-long vacation to recover some strength after restarting his job post-hospital. He had spent the afternoon with Margaret Hacker and then picked up Tim and Kelly for Tim's hockey game. After dropping the children back off with their mother at about 8:45, he had dinner with Hacker, leaving her around 11:15 in the evening.
Throughout the evening on October 23, a series of phone calls between Green and Farrar escalated into a confrontation. Farrar was convinced that Green was continuing to drink heavily while she should have been caring for the children, and he told Green that he knew she had poisoned him and that Social Services might be called to protect the children if she failed to get her life in order. After the last call between Green and Farrar, Farrar watched television alone in his apartment until about 12:30, when a neighbor's phone call alerted him to the fire.
During his police interview after the fire, Farrar's red eyes and trembling voice were apparent to detectives. He stated that Green had been "very concerned about money" in the context of their impending divorce, and that she may have set fire to the house to garner an insurance payout, but that she had never given any indication of intending to harm her children.
After his interview with the police, Farrar immediately filed for divorce from Green and for custody of Kate, who had been taken in by his parents while Green and Farrar dealt with the police. A court later awarded temporary custody of Kate to Farrar's parents, due to Green's instability and Kate's professed anger with her father. Green was allowed supervised access during this period, while Farrar's visits were not required to be supervised.
Kate Farrar's account
Kate Farrar was interviewed by investigators on October 26. She stated that on the night in question she had woken up to find the fire already burning. Seeing smoke seeping into her room, she opened the bedroom door and called to her brother, then closed the door and placed the hang-up 9-1-1 call that alerted police. She then crawled out of her bedroom window to escape the fire.
Kate reported to police that when she called to her mother after escaping onto the garage roof, Green had been "terribly upset" and called to Kate to jump into her arms. Though Green missed catching her daughter when she did jump, Kate was not hurt. When the two ran into Farrar minutes later, Kate said that Farrar had been accusatory toward Green and Green had been crying and worried about her missing children.
According to Kate, Farrar had moved out of the family home and spurned Green's desire for an amicable separation. Kate stressed that she loved and respected her mother and that all of the children had had good relationships with her, but that she was angry at her father for upsetting her mother by leaving. Pressed, she acknowledged that her mother had begun to drink large quantities of alcohol. She denied that she had ever seen matches in the house and expressed surprise that Tim had not escaped by the same route she had, which was via a bedroom window onto the roof.
Investigation
Fire investigation
The Eastern Kansas Multi-Agency Task Force was called to conduct an arson investigation on the Prairie Village house on October 24. Staffed by fire investigators and search teams from throughout the area, they focused on determining the origin and cause of the fire, searching through debris for usable evidence and interviewing witnesses. A dog trained to detect the scent of fire accelerants was brought in to assist in searching the house.
The investigators ruled out common causes of accidental fires, including electrical panels and furnaces. They determined that the basement level of the home, which contained the furnaces, had not been a point of origin, though two small orphan fires unconnected to the main burning had occurred in that area. Pour patterns were found on the ground and second floors, indicating that a flammable liquid had been poured there and covered many areas of the ground floor, blocked off the stairway from the second floor to the ground floor, and covered much of the hallway on the second floor. The pour patterns stopped at the door of the house's master bedroom, but had soaked into carpeting in the hallway leading to the children's bedrooms. Investigators could not determine the precise liquid used as an accelerant, though they proved that a can of gasoline the family kept in a shed had not been used. The amount of accelerant used was identified as between . Concluding that the fire was a result of arson, the investigators on October 26 called in a second area task force, this one focused on homicide investigation. On October 27, the district attorney for Johnson County was informed that the investigation was now criminal.
Police investigations
Arson case
In seeking to find who had set fire to the Farrar–Green home, investigators looked first for physical evidence of fire-setting upon those who had been in the house. They suspected that because of the use of accelerant, the fire may have flashed over at the point of ignition and singed or burned the setter. Accordingly, they tested clothing worn by both Farrar and Green that night and took samples of the hair of both. Neither Green's nor Farrar's clothing showed evidence of having been in contact with accelerant; Farrar's hair showed no singeing, but Green's—which had been cut twice between the time of the fire and the time the police took hair samples from her—showed "significant singeing". Detectives recalled that Green had denied ever having been in close proximity to flames; she had reported leaving the house after seeing smoke and not coming into contact with the fire either on the deck outside her bedroom or in the process of coaxing Kate off the garage roof. Neighbors of the family reported that when Green had come to their door to ask them to call for help, her hair had been wet. Though their suspicions pointed to Debora Green, investigators continued to receive tips attributing the fire to any number of people and the investigation continued with no public statement about suspects.
Poisoning case
When alerted to the possibility of Michael Farrar having been poisoned in the months before the fire, detectives investigated the origin of the castor beans that had led to police investigating the September domestic dispute. The label on the seed packets identified them as a product of the Earl May chain of stores. An officer found contact information for the Olathe, Kansas Earl May store in Green's address book. The detectives contacted nearby Earl May stores to find if any employees remembered selling castor beans, which are out of season in the fall. A clerk in Missouri recalled that in September a woman had ordered ten packets of the out-of-season seeds and explained that she needed them for schoolwork. The clerk gave a description of the buyer that corresponded to Green, and tentatively identified her in a photo line-up as the buyer. Register tapes in the store's records showed that a purchase price corresponding to ten packets of castor beans had been rung up on either September 20 or 22. No records were found in any Earl May store of earlier such purchases that would have corresponded to Farrar first having become ill earlier in the year.
Farrar underwent surgery in November 1995 to treat an aneurism that his doctors believed had been caused by the poisoning. Before the surgery, he submitted blood samples to Johnson County's crime lab to be tested for ricin antibodies.
Arrest
Media reports in the first week of November 1995 suggested the investigation had narrowed the field of suspects, first to those intimately familiar with the house, and later to one person.
Based on the trajectory of the police investigation, news reports in the following days speculated that the apparent poisoning of Michael Farrar may have been linked to the case, but officials declined to name the person suspected in either the arson or the poisoning.
Green was arrested on November 22 in Kansas City, Missouri, shortly after dropping off her daughter for ballet practice. Though Green's attorneys had requested that if arrested, Green be allowed to turn herself in voluntarily, the police and district attorney felt that her behavior was too unpredictable, and chose to arrest her without warning. Green was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted first-degree murder, and one count of aggravated arson. In a subsequent press conference, District Attorney Paul J. Morrison cited a "domestic situation" as the motive for Green's alleged crimes. Green was initially held in a Missouri jail, then extradited to Johnson County Adult Detention Center in Kansas, on $3,000,000 bond, the highest bail ever asked for in Johnson County.
Show cause hearing
A pretrial show cause hearing in the Green case began in January 1996, with Green represented by Dennis Moore and Kevin Moriarty. Green's defense claimed that the fire in the family home had been set not by Debora Green, but by her son, Tim Farrar, who had once been caught by local police setting off Molotov cocktails. The defense also attempted to attribute Farrar's poisoning to Tim, who did much of the cooking in the household.
State testimony
Michael Farrar underwent surgery in December 1995 to treat an abscess in his brain caused by the poisoning. Fearful that Farrar would not survive the proceedings, and knowing that his testimony was key to their case, prosecutors videotaped his testimony beforehand. The surgery was successful, and Farrar testified in person and recounted Green's problems with alcohol and the break-up of their marriage. Under cross-examination by Green's counsel, he admitted that both he and Green had contributed to the problems in the couple's marriage and that his relationship with his son had been so adversarial that they had sometimes come to blows.
Witnesses called by the State supported Farrar's and the prosecutors' earlier claims that police had been called to the home a month before the fire, that Green's behavior had been cause for concern at the time, and that Farrar had turned in to police at that time seed packets containing castor beans. The Earl May store clerk who had identified Green as the purchaser of multiple packets of castor bean seeds testified to that effect. Medical evidence was presented that Farrar's illness had not fit neatly within the parameters of any known disease, but that its presentation matched the symptoms of ricin poisoning. An FBI criminologist provided testimony that he had tested for ricin antibodies in Farrar's blood approximately two months after Farrar's last acute symptoms, and found antibodies there in such large amounts that he could confidently state that Farrar had been subjected to repeated exposures to ricin.
A police officer testified that as the first responder to the fire scene in the early morning of October 24, he had found Kate Farrar to be "very frantic" with worry over her siblings, but that Debora Green had showed little, if any, emotion or concern. The defense argued that the psychiatric medications Green had been taking since her September hospitalization could cause blunted affect, which could have led police and fire personnel to erroneously report that Green had been unemotional.
Arson investigators testified as to how they had located the origin and cause of the house fire, stressing that the multiple unconnected, small fires they had found in the home's basement were evidence of the fire having been set purposely and that char patterns on the house's floors were evidence of a liquid accelerant having been used to start the fire. The living room floor had contained the most significant amount of accelerant, and the trail of accelerant had ended at the door of the master bedroom, which had been open while the fire burned. The state of the bedroom door contradicted Green's prior testimony to investigators that her bedroom door had been closed and she had only opened it briefly to look into the hallway.
Detectives who had spoken to both Green and Farrar the night of the fire testified as to Green's unusual demeanor during their interview, and a videotape of the questioning was played, including Green's statements about having urged Tim Farrar to stay in the burning house and her references to her children in the past tense.
The State rested on January 31, 1996.
Defense testimony
Defense testimony focused on the theory that Tim Farrar, angry at his father, had set fire to the home. Friends of Tim's testified that Tim had had a fascination with fire and that he had told friends that he knew how to make bombs. A neighbor testified that he had once caught Tim burning some grass in the neighbor's yard. A former nanny testified that she had heard Tim speak about wanting his father dead and planning to burn down the family's house, and had caught him multiple times setting or with the implements to set fires. On cross-examination, she admitted that she had not seen Tim Farrar for years and agreed that she had not reported Tim's fascination with fire to his parents or the police when he had expressed it to her.
The defense rested on February 1. The presiding judge ruled that probable cause had been shown to hold Debora Green for trial and her arraignment date was set for February 8, with her trial being projected to start in the summer.
Post-hearing events
As the crime involved more than one victim, the prosecutors decided to request the death penalty when the case went to trial. When faced with this possibility, Green's defense team brought in Sean O'Brien, a representative of a Missouri anti-capital-punishment group.
A series of legal maneuverings involving both sides took place in the late winter and early spring of 1996. Defense attorneys requested that cameras be barred from Green's eventual trial, but the request was rejected. Green was judged by court-appointed psychologists to be competent to stand trial and denied a reduction in bail. The presiding judge ruled that she would stand trial once, for all of the charges against her, rather than be tried separately on each.
Her defense team undertook its own investigation, hoping to disprove state witnesses' testimony identifying the fire as arson. They found that accelerant had, indeed, been used to stoke the fire and that a robe belonging to Green had been on the floor of the master bathroom, burned in a manner that indicated it had been worn while one of the unconnected fires was set. According to Green's divorce lawyer Ellen Ryan, when confronted with this evidence, Green acknowledged having set the fire that destroyed her home, but denied any clear memory of the event. She continued to claim that Tim Farrar had been the one who poisoned his father. Green agreed to place an Alford plea of "no contest".
Plea bargain
On April 13, the defense team notified district attorney Paul Morrison that Green wished to plea bargain. On April 17 the plea was made public when Debora Green appeared in court to plead no contest to five charges—two counts of capital murder, one of arson, and two of attempted first-degree murder. In exchange for avoiding the death penalty, the no contest plea called for Green to accept a prison sentence of a minimum of forty years without the possibility of parole. Green denied being under the influence of any drug which would affect her judgment in making her plea or her ability to understand the proceedings in which she was participating.
After listening to a reading of the prosecution's case against her, Green read a statement to the court in which she said that she understood that the state had "substantial evidence" that she had caused her children's deaths, and that though her attorneys were prepared to provide evidence that she had not been in control of herself at the time of the children's deaths, she was choosing not to contest the state's evidence in the hope that the end of the case would allow her family, especially her surviving daughter, to begin to heal. In a subsequent press conference, defense counsel Dennis Moore told reporters, "She is accepting responsibility for [the crimes]" but said that "I don't think she ever intended to kill her children."
Green was formally sentenced on May 30, 1996, following testimony by the psychologist who had adjudged her competency. According to Dr. Marilyn Hutchinson, Green was immature and lacked the adult-level ability to cope with emotion. Green read another statement to the court and was formally sentenced to two concurrent forty-year prison sentences, minus the one hundred and ninety-one days she had already served. Green is serving her sentence at the Topeka Correctional Facility. , Kansas Department of Corrections records show her earliest possible release date as November 21, 2035—when she will be 84 years old.
After conviction
After her sentencing Green continued to maintain that her recall of the night of the fire was limited. In the summer of 1996, she wrote to her daughter claiming that she had taken more than the recommended doses of her medications that night. Similar letters to Michael Farrar varied from claims that she had no recollection of the night to firmly stating that she was innocent of the arson. She theorized that Margaret Hacker had set fire to the family's house, and reiterated her claim from the show-cause hearing that Tim had been the one to poison his father. Green wrote to author Ann Rule in 1996 asserting that, due to alcohol abuse, she had not had the mental capacity to start a fire. In a later interview with Rule, she blamed her cloudy thinking during the court hearings on her Prozac prescription, and stated that once she was off the drug, her mind became much clearer.
In 2000, represented by a new legal team, Green filed a request for a new trial on the basis of having been rendered incompetent by the psychiatric medications she was taking at the time of her hearings. She alleged that her original attorneys had failed to represent her adequately, instead focusing on avoiding a trial and the death penalty. She withdrew the request when prosecutors determined that they would seek the death penalty if a new trial was awarded. When, in 2004, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled the state's death penalty unconstitutional, she filed a second request for a new trial based on a claim of "manifest injustice". Green's attorneys claimed that new scientific techniques invalidated the evidence that the fire had been caused by arson. The request was denied in February 2005.
Evaluations of psychological state and motivation
Though Green has granted no interviews regarding her mental state, a number of sources have attempted to classify her pathology, if any, and her motivation for committing the crimes of which she was convicted. During Green's sentencing hearing, Marilyn Hutchinson, a psychologist hired by the defense, testified about Green's mental state and capabilities. She characterized Green as cognitively competent and capable of controlling her emotion at a basic level, but noted that Green appeared to be lacking in emotion beyond the level of basic competence. Green was prone to monosyllabic answers during her interview with Hutchinson, and described herself as "tuning out" to avoid excessive emotion. Hutchinson described an affidavit from the doctor who had treated Green during her commitment to the Menninger Clinic, which reported that she had been admitted on the basis of having either major or bipolar depression. Evaluations at the Clinic showed Green to be minimally able to cope with the world, and her treating physician reported that Green had been found to have the emotional capabilities of "a very young child", pursuant to unspecified "life experiences" she had undergone as a preadolescent. Hutchinson's diagnosis for Green was schizoid personality disorder. Hutchinson's opinion was that Green's intelligence had generally allowed her to compensate for her limited emotional ability in day-to-day life, but that the external stressors of her impending divorce and the interpersonal conflict between Michael and Tim Farrar had overwhelmed her ability to compensate. She denied that Green was sociopathic.
Ann Rule began corresponding with Green in 1996, and interviewed her in person in 1997. Rule recalls in her book on the case that Green's letters denied any unhappy childhood memories. Green claimed that though her behavior in the summer and fall of 1995 had been neglectful, she had neither the desire nor the wherewithal to set fire to her house or harm her children or her husband. Rule—who was neither a doctor nor a psychologist, but had a background in criminology and law enforcement—believed that even Green does not understand what caused her to attempt to murder Michael Farrar beyond the fact that she had come to hate him. Rule's theory was that in destroying Farrar, Green would have been able to preserve her own ego, in that Farrar would not have been able to leave her for another woman. Psychiatrist Michael H. Stone, using Rule's book as a source of information about Green, identifies Green as showing characteristics of psychopathy, borderline personality disorder, and narcissistic personality disorder.
Authors Cheryl Meyer, Michelle Oberman, and Michelle Rone, discussing the Green case in their book Mothers Who Kill Their Children: Understanding the Acts of Moms from Susan Smith to the "Prom Mom", point out that Green was adjudged psychologically competent at what would be commonly considered the least-controlled point of any mental illness from which she was suffering: she was on a cocktail of drugs which could treat the symptoms of mental illness but not the illness itself, she had been drinking alcohol in amounts which she had been warned could interfere with her medications, and she was coping with the loss of her children. Nevertheless, she spoke for her own mental competence at the time, a judgment which was echoed by the court. Meyer, Oberman, and Rone speculate that Green could meet the diagnostic criteria for several mental illnesses, including antisocial personality disorder, but add that the fact that her crimes were a combination of impulsive—arson and the murder of her children—and premeditated—the poisoning of Michael Farrar—makes any mental illness extremely difficult to diagnose.
In media
A May 1996 issue of Redbook featured an essay by Ann Slegman, a friend of Green's who lived in the same neighborhood as the Farrar family. The article covered the author's personal history with Green, the fire, and the subsequent investigation and ended with the author's statement that "It is also possible that an entirely different personality—disassociated from the Debora I knew—committed this crime.[...] The Debora I knew would not have killed her children."
Crime author Ann Rule covered the case in her book Bitter Harvest: A Woman's Fury, a Mother's Sacrifice, which provided extensive detail on both the case's development and Green's personal biography. The book was a New York Times Bestseller, though one reviewer felt that Rule failed to address Green's motivation for her crimes and that she had treated Green unsympathetically and Farrar over-sympathetically.
Green's murders and poisoning cases formed the basis for an episode of the forensic science documentary series Forensic Files, episode; "Ultimate Betrayal", originally aired; October 1999.
Deadly Women, a true-crime documentary program that focuses on crimes committed by women, featured Green's case in a 2010 episode about women who kill their children.
A 2002 working paper on bioterrorism, intended to "enable policymakers concerned with bioterrorism to make more informed decisions", included the Green case in a survey of illegal uses of biological agents. The paper noted that Green had refused to provide any detail on the manner in which she extracted and administered the ricin she used against her husband.
Green's case is also forming the basis of a 2020 stage adaptation of Euripides’s Medea, starring Rose Byrne and Bobby Cannavale at Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). https://broadwaydirect.com/rose-byrne-and-bobby-cannavale-buckle-up-for-medea/?
Notes
References
Bibliography
1995 murders in the United States
American people convicted of arson
American female criminals
American female murderers
American people convicted of murder
American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment
American women physicians
Filicides in the United States
Living people
People convicted of murder by Kansas
People from Havana, Illinois
People from Prairie Village, Kansas
People with schizoid personality disorder
Physicians from Kansas
Poisoners
Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Kansas
American people convicted of attempted murder
1951 births
20th-century American women
20th-century American people
21st-century American women |
60255349 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry%20of%20Communication%20and%20Information%20Technology%20%28Saudi%20Arabia%29 | Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (Saudi Arabia) | The Ministry of Communication and Information (MCIT) is a Saudi government ministry was established in 1926 and responsible for the communication and information technology sector in the kingdom. The current minister of Communication and Information is Abdullah Alswaha appointed on 23 April 2017.
History
The earliest governmental entity to govern the communication and technology sectors was the Directorate of Post, Telephone and Telegraph (PTT) which was established in Makkah in 1926. in 1931, the telegraph services were provided by the first mobile wireless station imported by the Kingdom, followed by the introduction of telephone service In 1934. In 1953, the telegraph, post, and telephone facilities were reported Ministry of Transport which was established in that year.
The rapid growth of telecommunications technology led to the establishment of the Ministry of Post, Telegraph, and Telephone in 1975 to be responsible for the telecommunications and posts sectors. In 2003, the name of the Ministry of Post, Telegraph, and Telephone was amended to be the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.
Responsibilities
The Ministry is mainly responsible for the communication and information technology in the Kingdom where many tasks have been assigned to, including:
The supervision over the communication and information technology sector and related activities.
The development of policies that govern the communication and information technology sector.
Designing plans for the communication and information technology sector.
National Programs
The Ministry launched and supervised three national programs:
National Digitization Unit: aims at ensuring the development of platforms for a digital society, digital economy and digital homeland.
Yesser: An E-Government Program aims at increasing the productivity and efficiency of the governmental sector by providing the required services and information.
The National Center for Digital Certification (NCDC): This program provides systems for the infrastructure management of the public keys which an essential security technique for e-business, e-trade, and e-government over the internet. this program is currently providing services such as issuing digital certificates, search for digital certificates, checking certificates and validity.
References
1926 establishments in Saudi Arabia
Communication
Saudi |
6297924 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vic%20Briggs | Vic Briggs | Victor Harvey Briggs III (14 February 1945 – 30 June 2021) was a British blues and rock musician, best known as the lead guitarist with Eric Burdon and The Animals during the 1966–1968 period. Briggs, a convert to Sikhism, later played classical Indian and Hawaiian music, and adopted the name Antion Vikram Singh Meredith.
History
Family and early career
Vic Briggs was born in Twickenham, Middlesex, England. He was named after his father, an American army captain who was killed in action in France in November 1944, shortly before Briggs' birth. His British mother ensured that Briggs' American citizenship was recognized, through obtaining a U.S. passport for him at an early age. She raised him with her parents in the town of Feltham, near London. Briggs attended Hampton Grammar School, where his contemporaries included Paul Samwell-Smith and Jim McCarty, later of The Yardbirds, Brian May, later of Queen and singer-actor Murray Head. In 1961, at the age of 16, Briggs met well-known British session guitarist Big Jim Sullivan, who became a mentor.
Through Sullivan, Briggs was introduced to members of The Echoes, a band that Briggs ultimately joined for three weeks in 1961, as his first engagement as a professional musician, before returning to school. During this brief period, Briggs met Rory Storm, Ringo Starr and Gerry and the Pacemakers, among other musicians, and played with The Echoes at the Cavern Club in Liverpool. Briggs continued playing with semi-professional bands upon his return to school, and also was asked to rejoin The Echoes in 1962 for an engagement as the backing band for Jerry Lee Lewis. In the summer of 1962, Briggs was playing with a band called Peter Nelson and The Travelers, members of whom would later form The Flower Pot Men and White Plains, and which briefly included Mitch Mitchell as the drummer.
Briggs' experiences as a musician conflicted with his studies and Briggs was asked not to return to Hampton Grammar School as of the commencement of the 1962–1963 academic year. During the 1962-1963 period, Briggs played throughout England, Scotland and Germany as a member of the Shel Carson Combo, which later became The Rokes upon the band's relocation to Italy, which Briggs did not participate in. A bandmate was John Weider, who would later join Briggs in Eric Burdon and The Animals, and remains a lifelong friend. While in Germany, the band had a residency at the Top Ten Club. Briggs then played in England and Germany with a number of bands throughout 1964, until being asked to rejoin The Echoes in early 1965. At that time, The Echoes had become the backup band to Dusty Springfield. As a member of The Echoes, Briggs toured with Springfield and contributed to her 1965 album Ev'rything's Coming Up Dusty, as well as performing with her at the New Musical Express 1965 awards ceremony at Wembley Arena, where Springfield won the award for World Female Singer. Briggs and the rest of The Echoes also backed Springfield on her Top 10 hit single "In The Middle of Nowhere", released in June 1965, but which was not included on the album.
During this period, Briggs befriended keyboardist Brian Auger. Later in 1965 when, with the encouragement of producer and manager Giorgio Gomelsky, Auger co-founded Steampacket, with Long John Baldry, he asked Briggs to join. Other members were Rod Stewart and Julie Driscoll on vocals, Micky Waller on drums and Richard Brown on bass. The band never formally recorded a studio or live album. Demo recordings were released in multiple versions, commencing in 1972, following Rod Stewart's later success. When Rod Stewart was fired from Steampacket and then Long John Baldry left Steampacket in 1966, the band continued as Brian Auger's Trinity, initially based in France. Briggs and Auger also participated in the recording of a Johnny Hallyday album during this period, La Génération Perdue, which resulted in a French hit single version of "Black is Black". Briggs' participation in the recording of the album is uncredited.
In September 1966, Briggs met Jimi Hendrix, shortly after Hendrix had arrived in England. Hendrix, at the suggestion and request of Chas Chandler to Brian Auger, had sat in with Brian Auger and The Trinity, including Briggs and using Briggs' equipment, at The Scotch of St. James club in London. This was one of Hendrix' first public performances in England. Later that fall, Auger and The Trinity were backing Johnny Hallyday at an engagement at the Paris Olympia, to which Hendrix had been added as the opening act. Mike Jeffery, who managed Eric Burdon and, with Chas Chandler, co-managed Jimi Hendrix, approached Briggs at the engagement with an offer to join Burdon's new band. Briggs agreed. Briggs had been suggested to Eric Burdon and Mike Jeffery by John Weider, Briggs' former bandmate in the Shel Carson Combo, after Weider had joined Burdon's new band.
Eric Burdon and The Animals
Briggs joined Eric Burdon's reconstituted Animals, known as Eric Burdon and The Animals, in November 1966. Briggs is described by one biographer as being "the most musically adept musician ever to pass through the ranks of the Animals in either of that group's major incarnations". Between 1967 and 1968, Briggs recorded three albums with Eric Burdon and The Animals, two of which involved song co-writing credit for all members of the band. As a consequence, Briggs is credited as a co-writer of most of the hit singles of the band during this period, as well as being formally credited as the arranger of most of the singles. Briggs, who could read music, was able to develop music charts and consequently arranged much of the band's music during this period, adding horn and other instrumental parts to the songs.
In January 1967, barely a month after the band commenced performing, manager Mike Jeffrey arranged for Eric Burdon to record a song being included in the soundtrack for the Casino Royale movie, which was being written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Briggs had arranged the music, to the satisfaction of Bacharach and David. It was the first written arrangement by Briggs to have been recorded. Eric Burdon's lack of interest in the project, demonstrated by his lack of preparation in relation to Hal David's lyrics, caused the opportunity to be scrapped, to Briggs' significant regret. Later in 1967, "Ain't That So", co-written by Briggs and John Scott, was included in the soundtrack to the movie Stranger in the House.
Briggs considered the appearance of the band at the Monterey Pop Festival, in June 1967, as one of his most significant experiences as a musician. He regarded one of his most exciting performances as being when The Animals played at the Hollywood Bowl, in November 1967.
Briggs, along with bandmate Danny McCulloch, was fired from the band in the summer of 1968, prior to the release of Every One of Us, in August 1968. Briggs has not seen Eric Burdon since approximately 1969.
In 1992, to the consternation of Eric Burdon, Briggs registered a U.S. trademark of "The Animals" band name, and performed under that name with former band members Danny McCulloch and Barry Jenkins. The band's most notable performance, with Phil Ryan instead of Eric Burdon on lead vocals, was a 1992 performance in Moscow's Red Square, as part of a benefit concert for victims of the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster.
Later career
During the 1968-1969 period, Briggs, having purchased a house in Topanga Canyon and based in Los Angeles, developed a reputation as an independent arranger and producer. Since Briggs was himself a professional musician, he was considered by other musicians to have a particular sensitivity, when arranging and producing for them. In May 1969, he became a staff producer and arranger at Capitol Records. During this period, he arranged and produced albums by Danny McCulloch, Zoot Money, Hilton Valentine and Sean Bonniwell, among others. None of the albums were successful, which Briggs attributed in part to the lack of support by the record company for new artists. An album was required to succeed on its own, independently of record company support. Bonniwell and his music, including the album produced and arranged by Briggs, later achieved a level of cult status.
Briggs and several other producers were fired by Capitol Records at the end of 1969, with existing projects on which they were working being discontinued. Briggs attributes his firing from Capitol Records as precipitating his decision to leave the music business, as well as the commencement of his spiritual growth. He sold all of his guitars, a decision which he later came to regret, and did not own a guitar for nineteen years thereafter. Briggs also later regretted not further developing his orchestration abilities.
Briggs first became interested in Indian music through Eric Clapton. Briggs had first met Clapton in 1966, when Briggs was a member of Steampacket and the band shared the bill with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, where Clapton was the guitarist. Eric Clapton introduced Briggs to albums by the Dagar Brothers and Pannalal Ghosh. Briggs later purchased the 1965 album by Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan, Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan, Alla Rakha - Duets. Briggs was particularly influenced by the sarod playing of Khan, whom he describes as "one of the most emotionally expressive musicians in the world". Briggs later met Ravi Shankar at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, where Briggs was also performing with Eric Burdon and The Animals. Shankar's performance at the Monterey Pop Festival was the first performance of Indian classical music that Briggs had ever seen. The second performance of Indian classical music that Briggs attended was that of Ali Akbar Khan in London, later that same year. The performances of Khan and Shankar profoundly affected Briggs.
Following initial influences through attending a seminar by Baba Ram Das (the former Richard Alpert), in January 1970 Briggs attended a Los Angeles yoga class instructed by Yogi Bhajan. Followers of Yogi Bhajan included singer Johnny Rivers. Briggs was profoundly influenced by the experience, and followed Yogi Bhajan for twenty years thereafter. In retrospect, Briggs regarded his time with Yogi Bhajan as having been cult-like in nature.
Briggs commenced studying Kundalini yoga and Nāda yoga, as well as Sikh sacred music. At the request of Yogi Bhajan, Briggs returned to England in December 1970, to open a yoga studio and to teach Kundalini yoga This was the first studio of Kundalini yoga in England.
During this period, Briggs developed further interest in Sikh religious music, and in the Sikh religion, spending much time with members of the Sikh community in London. Briggs was particularly attracted to the use of the harmonium in Sikh religious music, and commenced learning how to play it. Members of the Sikh community in London began to refer to Briggs as Vikram Singh, and were impressed with Briggs' ability to sing and play Sikh sacred music. In 1971, Briggs was formally baptized as a Sikh and chose the name Vikram, to which was added Singh Khalsa. Briggs was thereafter invited to perform at various Sikh temples throughout England. Also during this period, Briggs met and later married actress Kirsten Lindholm, who also converted to Sikhism.
At the request of Yogi Bhajan, Briggs returned to southern California from England, in the early 1970s. Briggs attended the Ali Akbar College of Music in Marin County. In 1977, Yogi Bhajan appointed Briggs and his wife as co-directors of the Guru Ram Das Ashram, in San Diego. They continued in that capacity until 1990, when they left Yogi Bhajan. The involvement in the Sikh community of Briggs and his wife continued to grow; Briggs became one of the founding members of the Sikh temple in San Diego. Briggs and his wife left Yogi Bhajan based on a dispute over whether the equity in the temple should belong to the local membership or to the central leadership. During this period, Briggs also had a plumbing business in San Diego.
In 1979, Briggs performed Sikh religious music throughout northern India and was the first non-Indian to perform kirtan at Harimandir Sahib (also called the Golden Temple of Amritsar), which was a very powerful religious moment for him. Briggs subsequently recorded several albums of Indian music. with a particular focus on the Gurbani kirtan, being representations of hymns from Sikh scriptures generally set to ragas.
Briggs kept a degree of distance from Sikh social settings: "Sikhi spoke to my soul. Gurbani still speaks to my soul. I just prefer not to be involved much with Sikhs, Indian or American, because of the political considerations that are always present."
The name Antion, which Briggs adopted as a stage name, came to Briggs following his observation of a solar eclipse above the ocean, from a beach at Del Mar, in 1992.
In 1993, Briggs and his family relocated to the Hawaiian island of Kauai. While in Hawaii, Briggs had a radio show for a period of time. During an earlier stopover in Hawaii, Briggs heard and developed an interest in the music of the Brothers Cazimero. Following his move to Hawaii, Briggs developed an interest in and commenced performing Hawaiian chant music, following study under Blaine Kia.
In 2003, Briggs provided an invited review of Sick of Being Me, a novel by Sean Egan, a novelist and journalist with a number of publications in relation to the music industry. The novel concerned the challenges to a struggling musician in the 1990s.
In 2008, Briggs and his family relocated to New Zealand, the country of his wife's early years, where Briggs, known as Antion Meredith, and his wife of over forty years, known as Elandra Kirsten Meredith, became yoga instructors.
He died from cancer in 2021.
Discography
As Antion
2007 One in the Goddess
2007 Live on Kauai
As Antion Vikram SinghSince Briggs adopted the stage name of Antion in 1992, it would appear that these releases, recorded between 1975 and 1991, were initially issued under the name Vikram Singh, and have been repackaged to include Briggs' later stage name.
Sacred Songs of the Sikhs
Jaap Saahib
Evening Raga
Cherdi Kala
Asa di Var
Eric Burdon and The Animals
Albums
1968 Every One of Us
1967 The Twain Shall Meet
1967 Winds of Change
Singles
1968 White Houses/Anything; River Deep, Mountain High
1968 Sky Pilot/Sky Pilot (Pt. 2)
1967 Monterey/Anything (UK), Ain't That So (US)
1967 Anything/It's All Meat
1967 Good Times/Ain't That So
1967 San Franciscan Nights/Good Times (U.S.); Gratefully Dead (U.K.)
1967 When I Was Young/ A Girl Named Sandoz
With Johnny Hallyday
Album
1966 La Génération Perdue
Single
1966 Black is Black ("Noir, C'est Noir")
Steampacket
1977 The Steampacket - The First Supergroup (Charly)
1972 Rock Generation Volume 6 - The Steampacket (BYG)
With Dusty Springfield
Album
1965 Ev'rything's Coming Up Dusty
Single
1965 In The Middle of Nowhere/Baby Don't You Know
As Producer, Arranger
Sean BonniwellProduced and Arranged by Vic Briggs.
Album
1969 Close (Capitol)
Single
1969 Where Am I To Go/Sleep
Marc EricProfile of Marc Eric, also known as Marc Eric Malmborg; Iron Leg. Retrieved 6 May 2017. As described by reviewer Bryan Thomas, "A Midsummer's Day Dream is treasured by collectors as one of the more perfect blends of soft pop and surf pop, with appropriately accenting vibraphones and French horns, pseudo-studio jazzy/soft pop melodies, "bah bah bah" harmonies, and moody string arrangements...". Review of A Midsummer's Day Dream; AllMusic. Retrieved 2017-05-06.
Album
1969 A Midsummer's Day Dream (Revue)
Singles
1969 Night of The Lions/Don't Cry Over Me
1969 Where Do The Girls of Summer Go/California Home
FutureAs described by one commentator, "Backed by an all star collection of studio players including Jim Burton, Jim Gordon, Mac Rebennack, and Red Rhodes, most of the set had an early West Coast country-rock vibe. ...There were also two odd psych moments - 'Silver Chalice' started and ended with a weird lysergic jazz vibe that was punctuated by a Gospel-ish chorus. Yeah, quite strange and difficult to accurately describe, but an album highlight. Equally bizarre, 'And Have Not Charity' sounded like a Gregorian chant being sung by a chorus that had been heavily dosed." Comments by RDTEN1, 8 June 2009; Rate Your Music. Retrieved 6 May 2017.
Album
1969 Down That Country Road (Shamley)
Singles
1969 Raggedy Jack/Love Is All You've Got
1969 Thank You Father, Thank You Mother/Love Is All You've Got
Danny McCulloch
Album
1969 Wings of A Man (Capitol)
Singles
1969 Wings of A Man/Orange and Red Beams
1969 Hope/Hold On
Tina and David Meltzer
1998 Green Morning (RD Records; originally arranged and produced by Vic Briggs in 1969.)
Zoot MoneyDescribed as "Swirling organ and brass orchestrations with subtle pop psych elements. The sweeping album opener ‘The Man Who Rides The Wind’ is a solid start with its emphasis on polished orchestration – an album standout. Another notable standout is ‘Heavy Load’, which employs a catchy emotive chorus and more infectious orchestration moves. ‘The Music Shop’ and ‘Landscape’ have excellent organ work. ‘Eight Is The Colour’ works an aggressive brass arrangement...". recorddigger, Review of Welcome To My Head. Rate Your Music, 15 April 2017. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
1969 Welcome To My Head (Capitol)
Surf Symphony
Album
1969 Song of Summer (Capitol)
Single
1969 Night of The Lions/That Bluebird of Summer
Hilton ValentineDescribed as "emphasizing low-key, wistfully gentle tunes, with a touch of Baroque production and orchestration". Richie Unterberger, Review of All in Your Head; AllMusic. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
1970 All In Your Head (Capitol)
References
External links
Antion Website
Antion Biography
Another Biography
1945 births
2021 deaths
Musicians from Twickenham
Performers of Sikh music
English blues guitarists
English male guitarists
English Sikhs
Converts to Sikhism
The Animals members
British rhythm and blues boom musicians
Steampacket members
Brian Auger and the Trinity members
British yoga teachers
English yogis
Veganism
British expatriates in India |
24443249 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universit%C3%A9%20des%20Montagnes | Université des Montagnes | Université des Montagnes is a private, non-profit university in Bangangté in the West Region of Cameroon, founded in 2000.
History
The non-profit organization that later became Université des Montagnes was founded in 1994 by the Academy for Educational Development (AED).
The university's first classes began in October 2000 with 43 students. Between 2011 and 2012, student enrollment grew to 1,757. As of November 30, 2011 the institution had graduated 176 medical doctors, 18 doctors in pharmacy, 64 bachelor's degree holders in computer science & networking, 91 bachelor of technology holders in biomedical engineering, and 48 bachelor's degree holders in telecommunications networks.
Graduates of UdM currently pursue further studies at many other universities worldwide.
As of the 2013-2014 academic year, seven new academic majors became available at UdM: Agroforestry, Agronomy, Environment & Climate Change, Renewable Energy & Environmental Engineering, Applied Mathematics/Computer Science in Finance & Insurance, Reproductive Health, Medical Biology (for laboratory professionals).
Since opening, Université des Montagnes (UdM) has enjoyed the strong support and goodwill of the Cameroonian public and an international network of supporters, mainly from the Cameroonian diaspora and associated sympathizers. Within 10 years of its existence, the student population of UdM includes all 10 regions of Cameroon and at least 10 other countries in Africa.
UdM currently operates from three locations in the town of Bagangté. A 2-hectare site of Mfetum in the city centre initially hosted the pioneer students, administrative and staff offices, and the library. A second site (Chougo) in the same city houses lecture halls and laboratories. However, the permanent 204-hectare campus at Banekane along the Bagangté-Yaoundé highway will eventually accommodate all the facilities of UdM after an infrastructure investment program of US$8 million has been completed. The permanent campus will include a sports complex, a 300-seat university restaurant, a 240-bed students lodging facility, administrative & teaching blocks, & staff residence.
Faculties
Three schools are operational at UdM:
Faculty of Health Sciences
This faculty offers 12 training courses:
Medical and Health sciences (SMS)
Human Medicine
Pharmacy
Dental Surgery
Health Sciences
Medical Biology (Laboratory Professionals)
Rehabilitation (Physiotherapy)
Medical Imaging
Reproductive Health (Accoucheurs)
Nursing
Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine (Agro-Vet)
Veterinary Medicine
Agronomy and Agroforestry
Environment and Climate Change
Faculty of Science and Technology
The Faculty of Science and Technology proposes:
Seven majors leading to the Bachelor in the following:
Computers, Networks and Telecommunications
Mathematics and Computer Science Applied in Finance / Actuarial
Biomedical Engineering
Renewable Energies and Climate Engineering
Mechanical Engineering
Civil Engineering
Architecture/City Planning
Two courses leading to the Master in the following:
Computer Engineering and Systems
Biomedical Engineering
Agronomy and Agroforestry
Environment and Climate Change
Medical Imaging
Renewable Energies and Climate Engineering
Mathematics and Computer Science Applied in Finance / Actuarial
Doctorates in the following majors are offered:
Human Medicine
Pharmacy
Dental Surgery
Veterinary Medicine
The training in these courses is organized in three semesters of common core followed by three others of specialty. The Bachelor of Technology degree offers students adequate skills for their integration into the socioprofessional world, with the possibility of a continuation of studies in the cycle of Master Engineer and Doctorate.
Degrees offered:
Professional License
Master in Technology
Note: UdM is the first institution in Cameroon to offer training in Biomedical Engineering, and Mathematics and Computer Science Applied to Finance and Actuarial sciences.
The Institute of African Studies
Recently opened in October 2016.
Hospital
UdM has an application hospital for its medical sector: The "Clinique Universitaire des Montagnes" (CUM).
References
External links
Université des Montagnes website
Academy for Educational Development (AED) (now FHI 360) website
Universities in Cameroon
Educational institutions established in 2000
Universite des Montagnes
2000 establishments in Cameroon |
11790206 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic%20scorer | Automatic scorer | An automatic scorer is the computerized scoring system to keep track of scoring in ten-bowling. It was introduced into bowling alleys in the 1970s and combined with mechanical pinsetters for detecting the pins bowled down. Automatic scorers took away the task of having to keep score by hand by using a specialized computer designed for the task of automatically keeping the tally.
This also introduced new bowlers to the game that otherwise would not participate because of having to keep score themselves, as most do not understand the mathematical formula involved in bowler scoring. At first people were skeptical if a computer could keep accurate score. By the twenty-first century it is used in most bowling centers worldwide. The three manufactures of these specialized computers are Brunswick Bowling, AMF Bowling and RCA.
History
Automatic equipment is considered a cornerstone of the modern bowling center. The traditional bowling center of the early 20th century was advanced in automation when the pinsetter person ("pin boy"), who set back up by hand the bowled down pins, was replaced by a machine that automatically replaced the pins in their proper play positions. This machine came out in the 1950s. A detection system was developed from the pinsetter mechanism in the 1960s that could tell which pins had been knocked down, and that information could be transferred to a digital computer.
Automatic electronic scoring was first conceived by Robert Reynolds, an electronic calculator expert. He worked with Brunswick Bowling technicians to develop it. It was realized in the late 1960s when a specialized computer was designed for the purpose of automatic scorekeeping for bowling. This increased the popularity of the sport. The automatic scorer was first field tested at Village Lanes bowling center, Chicago in 1967. The scoring machine received approval for official use by the American Bowling Congress in August of that year. They were first used in national official league gaming on October 10, 1967. In November Brunswick announced that they were accepting orders for the new digital computer, which cost around $3,000 per bowling lane. Bowling centers that installed these new automatic scoring devices in the 1970s charged a dime extra per line of scoring for the convenience. California was considered the best prospect for making the first sales since it was the only state where bowlers paid an individual for league scorekeeping.
Description
Each Automatic Scorer computer unit kept score for four lanes. It had two bowler identification panels serving two lanes each. The bowler pushed it into his named position when his turn came up so the computer knew who was bowling and score accordingly. After the bowler rolled the bowling ball down the lane and knocked down pins, the pinsetter detected which pins were down and relayed this information back to the computer for scoring. It was then printed on a scoresheet and projected overhead onto a large screen for all to see.
The Automatic Scorer digital computer was mathematically accurate, however the detection system at the pinsetter mechanism sometimes reported the wrong number of pins knocked down. The computer could be corrected manually for this as well as handicap figures added and late arriving bowlers tallied. The automatic scoring is directly connected to the foul detection unit so that foul line violations are automatically scored.
Brunswick put in ten years of research and developed a computer that kept the score of bowling and labeled it the Automatic Scorer. By 1972 there were over 500 of these computers installed in bowling centers worldwide. AMF Bowling, competitor to Brunswick, entered into the automatic scorer computer field in 1973 and their systems were installed into their brand of bowling centers. AMF and Brunswick each had their set of Customer Service Engineers in a territorial area that repaired the computers. By 1974 RCA was also making these computers for automatic scoring.
Reception
The purposes of the computerized scoring were to avoid errors by human scorers and to prevent cheating. It had the side benefit of speeding up the progress of the game and introducing new bowlers to the game. Score-keeping for bowling is based on a formula that many new to bowling were not familiar with and thought difficult to learn. These casual bowlers unfamiliar with the formula thought the scores given by the computers were confusing. Some bowlers did not trust automatic scorers when they were introduced in the 1970s, so kept score using the traditional method on paper score sheets to verify the accuracy of the reporting.
Automatic scorers are considered the normal part of modern bowling installations worldwide. The owners and managers say that bowlers expect these scoring system computers in 21st century bowling establishments. Many state that business has increased since their introduction. The traditional 'bowling alleys' have become known as 'bowling centers' since the introduction of the color television style automatic scorer in 1983. These type of electronic visual displays show bowler avatars and social media connections to publish the bowlers' scores. Bowling center owners can use these style automatic scorers for advertising, management, videos, and live television. Some are capable of being extended entertainment systems of games for children and adults.
The automatic scoring bowling computers of the 21st century detect electronically if a bowling pin has been knocked down. This is done with fluorescent coatings on the outer surface of the wooden pins. This is an ionomer cladding material put on a preselected area of the bowling pin, usually in the neck portion. It consists of a particular type of coating that emits a high level of light when hit with ultraviolet light. Another coating is put on the pin that emits a moon-glow and thereby amplifies the first coating's light by the contrast. This then makes it detectable by an electronic sensor if the pin is still standing. That detected pin or knocked down pin is a signal sent back to the automatic scorer computer for the tally and keeps score for the bowler.
Footnotes
Ten-pin bowling
Sports equipment
Automation
20th-century inventions
American inventions |
36391995 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James%20John%20Miles | James John Miles | James John Miles (born 1959) is a retired Professor of Computer Engineering in the School of Computer Science at the University of Manchester where he previously was head of the school and a member of the Nano Engineering & Storage Technology Research Group (NEST).
Education
Miles graduated with a first class honours degree in Physics from the University of Liverpool in 1980. Following this he completed a Master of Science in Computational physics from the University of Salford in 1987 and PhD in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Manchester in 1990.
Research
Miles has worked at the Meteorological Office modelling the formation of storm clouds and completed research in novel anaesthetic delivery systems for BOC Medishield, now Datex Ohmeda. Since 1987 he has worked in Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Manchester School of Engineering and the School of Computer Science at the University of Manchester.
His research interests are in magnetic materials for data storage purposes, including micromagnetic modelling of thin magnetic films for hard disks. He is involved in the Information Storage Industry Consortium (INSIC) Extremely High Density Recording (EHDR) programme, determining the architecture and design of future 1 Terabit per square inch hard disk products and beyond.
His research is done in collaboration with academic and industrial research groups, including Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (HGST), San Jose, California and Seagate Research, Pittsburgh, USA.
Research funding
Miles research has been funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council., European Union and INSIC. He has been involved in obtaining grant funding in excess of £3 million of which £1.6 million is in grants or awards for which he was the principal applicant. Miles is also a member of one of the groups that secured Science Research Investment Fund (SRIF) for the £1.8M Manchester Centre for Mesoscience and Nanotechnology.
Jim Miles served as Head of the School of Computer Science from November 2011 till July 2016. He retired from The University of Manchester in August 2019.
Other activities
In the University, Miles was Associate Dean for Graduate Education in the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences from 2008 to 2011. He has supervised several PhD students via the Doctoral Training Centre, the first of its kind in the UK.
In August 2017, he was responsible for the discovery of a previously-unknown collection of Alan Turing letters in an old filing cabinet at the University of Manchester.
Previously Miles has been an editor of Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials and a Guest Editor of IEEE Transactions on Magnetics.
References
People associated with the Department of Computer Science, University of Manchester
Academics of the University of Manchester
Living people
1959 births |
38900949 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNICOM%20Government | UNICOM Government | UNICOM Government, Inc. (UGI) is an American information technology (IT) hardware and solutions company. It is a sub-division of UNICOM Global. It was formerly GTSI Corp, founded in 1983 and acquired by UNICOM Global in 2012 (see history).
Overview
UNICOM Government provides information technology solutions and professional services for the US Federal, State, and Local Governments. UNICOM Government, Inc. is informally known by its abbreviation, UGI.
History
UNICOM Government was founded in 1983 as Government Technology Services Incorporated (GTSI) to provide microcomputer software to the federal government of the United States.
By 1986, it was working with local, state and federal government agencies.
In 1994, it introduced the first browser-based government contract catalog.
In 1996, it registered its URL and engaged in e-commerce.
In 1999, it launched the first government IT portal, governmentIT.com, featuring the latest in IT applications for government employees.
In June 2012, it was acquired by UNICOM Global, after UNICOM completed a tender offer for outstanding shares of GTSI common stock for $7.75 per share in cash; GTSI became a wholly owned subsidiary of UNICOM, and GTSI stock was delisted from NASDAQ. GTSI Corp. was renamed UNICOM Government, Inc. in 2013, and is now a division of its parent company, UNICOM Global, Inc.
In June 2014, UGI was awarded a $774 million contract extension to provide U.S. Army Technology Solutions as part of the Army’s ITES-2H contract that had a $6.763 billion procurement ceiling.
In April 2021, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) Site III award was awarded to Team Business Integra (Team BI), which included UGI as a team member. This 10-year, $12.6 billion dollar, multi-award IDIQ for Information Technology Solutions includes several Task Orders for the delivery of IT and technical support services to the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).
References
External links
Companies established in 1983
Software companies based in Virginia
Herndon, Virginia
Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq
2012 mergers and acquisitions
Software companies of the United States |
493685 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open%20Document%20Architecture | Open Document Architecture | The Open Document Architecture (ODA) and interchange format (informally referred to as just ODA) is a free and open international standard document file format maintained by the ITU-T to replace all proprietary document file formats. ODA is detailed in the standards documents CCITT T.411-T.424, which is equivalent to ISO 8613.
Format
ODA defines a compound document format that can contain raw text, raster images and vector graphics. In the original release the difference between this standard and others like it is that the graphics structures were exclusively defined as CCITT raster image and Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM - ISO 8632). This was to limit the problem of having word processor and desktop publisher software be required to interpret all known graphics formats.
The documents have both logical and layout structures. Logically the text can be partitioned into chapters, footnotes and other subelements akin to HTML, and the layout fill a function similar to Cascading Style Sheets in the web world. The binary transport format for an ODA-conformant file is called Open Document Interchange Format (ODIF) and is based on the Standard Generalized Markup Language and Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1).
One of the features of this standard could be stored or interchanged in one of three formats: Formatted, Formatted Processable, or Processable. The latter two are editable formats. The first is an uneditable format that is logically similar to Adobe Systems PDF that is in common use today.
History
In 1985, ESPRIT financed a pilot implementation of the ODA concept, involving, among others, Bull corporation, Olivetti, ICL and Siemens AG.
The intent was to have a universal storable and interchangeable document structure that would not go out of date and could be used by any word processor or desktop publisher. The rapid adoption of personal computers in the late 1970s and early 1980s by consumers and small businesses and the relative ease of writing applications for the primitive early PCs had resulted in a huge number of new word processing applications that were then duking it out around the world for market dominance. At the same time, large corporations who had purchased dedicated word processor devices in the 1970s were switching over to the new PCs that could run word processing software and much more. The result was a profusion of constantly evolving proprietary file formats. It was already clear by 1985 that this confusing and often frustrating situation would get much worse before it got better, as desktop publishing and multimedia computing were already on the horizon.
Thus, ODA was intended to solve the problem of software applications whose developers were continually updating their native file formats to accommodate new features, which frequently broke backward compatibility. Older native formats were repeatedly becoming obsolete and therefore unusable after only a few years. This led to a large financial impact on companies that were using ad hoc standard applications, such as Microsoft Word or WordPerfect, because their IT departments had to constantly assist frustrated users with transferring content between so many different formats, and also hire employees whose sole job was to import old stored documents into the latest version of applications before they became unreadable. The intended result of the ODA standard was that companies would not have to commit to an ad hoc standard for word processor or desktop publisher applications, because any application adhering to a common open standard could be used to read and edit long stored documents.
The initial round of documents that made up ISO 8613 was completed after a multi-year effort at an ISO/IEC JTC1/SC18/WG3 meeting in Paris La Defense, France, around Armistice (Nov. 11) 1987, called "Office Document Architecture" at the time. CCITT picked them up as the T.400 series of recommendations, using the term "Open Document Architecture". Work continued on additional parts for a while, for instance at an ISO working group meeting in Ottawa in February 1989. Improvements and additions were continually being made. The revised standard was finally published in 1999. However, no significant developer of document application software chose to support the format, probably because the conversion from the existing dominant word processor formats such as WordPerfect and Microsoft Word was difficult, offered little fidelity, and would only have weakened their advantage of vendor lock-in over their existing user base. There were also cultural obstacles because ODA was a predominantly European project that took a top-down design approach. It was unable to garner significant interest from the American software developer community or trade press. Finally, it took an extraordinarily long time to release the ODA format (the pilot was financed in 1985, but the final specification not published until 1999). Given a lack of products that supported the format, in part because of the excessive time used to create the specification, few users were interested in using it. Eventually interest in the format faded.
IBM's European Networking Center (ENC) in Heidelberg, Germany, developed prototype extensions to IBM OfficeVision/VM to support ODA, in particular a converter between ODA and Document Content Architecture (DCA) document formats.
It would be improper to call ODA anything but a failure, but its spirit clearly influenced latter-day document formats that were successful in gaining support from many document software developers and users. These include the already-mentioned HTML and CSS as well as XML and XSL leading up to OpenDocument and Office Open XML.
See also
.rdo
References
External links
The standard itself was made available for free download on September 7, 2007 (the "missing" documents T.420 and T.423 do not exist):
T.411 Introduction and general principles
T.412 Document structures
T.413 Abstract interface for the manipulation of ODA documents
T.414 Document profile
T.415 Open document interchange format (ODIF)
T.416 Character content architectures
T.417 Raster graphics content architectures
T.418 Geometric graphics content architecture
T.419 Audio content architectures
T.421 Tabular structures and tabular layout
T.422 Identification of document fragments
T.424 Temporal relationships and non-linear structures
Computer file formats
IEC standards
ISO standards
ITU-T recommendations
Open formats |
31330577 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PLANTA%20Project | PLANTA Project | PLANTA Project is a Project management software for the planning and control of projects that share the same resources. PLANTA Project is the successor to the multi-project management system PPMS, which was introduced in 1980. Unlike its predecessor PPMS, PLANTA Project offers process-oriented project management (based on the DIN 69901-2 norm, Project Management Institute (PMI), PRINCE2 or customer specific) and has a revised workflow-oriented interface, based on the open-source programming language Python, and MS .NET with panel technology which enables users to position windows as required.
PLANTA Project has been described as a flexible multi-project management software with particular strength in the areas of project and portfolio controlling.
“Its strength lies in the combination of a well-developed resource and time management module with coherent portfolio management and budgeting functionality.”
With PLANTA pulse it is possible to use PLANTA Project as a hybrid project management system. PLANTA pulse "can be used as independent web-based solution for agile project management. However, it is also connected to PLANTA Project. This enables integrated hybrid project management."
Description
"PLANTA cannot only be used for operational project scheduling and resource management; it may also be used for strategic portfolio-planning support." There is a "basic workflow support, which currently can control the lifecycle of projects, ideas and requests."
The manufacturer claims that there is no limitation on the number of projects that can be planned in PLANTA Project, meaning that the complete company project portfolio from project ideas through to planned projects with resources and costs can be administered with the tool.
It also claims a special feature for PLANTA Project in the clear representation of enterprise resource planning showing at a glance which resources are available on a particular date. The planning module provides a detailed, hierarchical work breakdown structure together with milestone planning and milestone trend analysis as well as the representation of the schedule as a Gantt.
Enterprise Project Management System
PLANTA Project, along with the additional functional components PLANTA Portfolio for project portfolio management, PLANTA Request for Request Management or Change Management as well as PLANTA Link for the exchange of data with other systems (e.g. with ERP systems) is an Enterprise Project Management System (see "Product Portfolio: Software products for company wide project management" on page 284 of Reference 4: Meyer & Ahlemann, 2014).
Application areas
Industries and reference customers: IT, engineering, pharmaceuticals, military, aviation, automotive, banking, insurance, construction industry, public administration (see Ref. 4, p. 285-286)
Multi-project functionality
Entire project overview with core information and project manager estimates for important project parameters.
Time Tracking module: "The software's scheduling and time-management functionality can be regarded as almost complete. Activities can be supplied with many kinds of dependencies and constraints and time lags can be taken into consideration." (see Ref. 4, p. 287)
Project templates for easy project creation.
Risk Management with risk check lists allowing quick evaluation of project risks.
Classification of projects is also possible (e.g. for ABC analysis).
Numerous reports allowing evaluation of project progress and costs (project status reports allowing the archiving of key project figures, milestone trend analysis, Earned Value analysis, variance analysis).
Simulation of planned projects is possible and after project approval the project can be opened for time bookings.
Program management
Process management, workflow management (library of workflows)
PLANTA standard software is provided in German, English and French. The following languages are also available: Spanish; Italian; Portuguese; Czech; Polish; Russian. More languages on request.
Development
The software was developed as a part of a BMFT research project at the University of Karlsruhe and is used by around 50.000 people over 530 company licenses, primarily in Germany, Switzerland and other European countries.
Partnerships: Microsoft Partner (Gold Application Development), IBM, Oracle, member of GPM - Deutsche Gesellschaft für Projektmanagement e.V. (German Society for Project Management), Alliance Partner von Fujitsu Siemens Computers
General technical specifications
Modern 3-tier client/server architecture (C/C++), thin client: rapid handling of large data volumes, centralized data set, shared pool of resources and management of access rights and users (role-based), easy definition of individual roles.
References
External links
PLANTA Project in software study "Project Management Software Systems" , 8th Edition, 2015 Mey Mark Meyer, Frederik Ahlemann, BARC
PLANTA Project in CSP Study - 3. PPM Praxis Test 2016"
Assessment of PLANTA Project by the editors of projektmagazin.de
PLANTA PPMS at Metabo, computerwoche, IDG 03.12.2008 (engl. translation on PLANTA website)
PLANTA PPMS as client server solution for engineering projects - Comparison of three pm software tools, computerwoche, IDG 11.04.2003
PLANTA Project on the PLANTA Website
Use of PLANTA Software in development projects - Text in German
See also
List of project management software
Project management software |
58991923 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZOO%20Digital | ZOO Digital | ZOO Digital Group PLC is a provider of cloud software based subtitling, dubbing and media localization services to the TV and movie industry. Its production facilities are located in El Segundo, Los Angeles; London and Sheffield, UK and Dubai, U.A.E. The company employs more than 200 employees worldwide and utilizes a global network of over 5,000 freelance translators and dubbing artists.
History
2001–2003: Founding and incorporation
In 2001, Gremlin Interactive founder Ian Stewart led a merger of Kazoo3D plc and ZOO Media Corporation Ltd to form ZOO Digital Group PLC. In 2003, two co-divisions were formed. ZOOtech Ltd was established to develop software for interactive DVDs. An operating division of the group, trading as ZOO Digital Publishing was established to create video games.
2003–2005: Success with interactive video games and software for DVD
In 2003, ZOO Digital Publishing published the interactive DVD for the game show, Who Wants to Be A Millionaire. In the same year, ZOO Digital Publishing won the award for Navigation Design and Implementation Excellence at the DVD Association Excellence Awards, New York.
In 2004, ZOOtech launched DVD EXTRA Studio enabling new levels of interactivity on DVDs. ZOOtech also opened an office in Paris in order to give the business a base for expanding DVD EXTRA applications for European markets. In the same year, ZOO Digital Publishing released ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire’ 2nd Edition for Game Boy Advance. In 2004, for a second year, the company won the Navigation Design and Implementation Excellence, DVD Association Excellence Awards, New York. ZOOtech was also crowned the overall winner at the Sheffield Business Awards and also picked up the Sheffield Business Award for Innovation.
In the same year ZOO Digital Publishing bought Hothouse Creations, a computer games developer based in Bristol which had developed computer and video games including Who Wants To Be Millionaire on PlayStation 1 and Pop Idol and American Idol on PlayStation 2.
In 2005, 60% of the interactive DVDs on the market were being made using ZOOtech's DVD Extra Studio. In the same year, ZOO Digital Publishing won three awards at the DVD Association Excellence Awards ceremony in New York City: 'Guinness World Records 2005' won the DVD Video Game Excellence Award, 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? 2nd Edition' won the Navigation Design and Implementation Excellence Award and 'Manchester United, The Official Interactive-DVD' won the Technical Achievement Excellence Award.
2006–2012: Refocus on technology for media and entertainment
In 2006, Dr Stuart Green took over as Chief Executive Officer of ZOO Digital Group and Ian Stewart stepped down. ZOO Digital Group sold two of its subsidiaries. ZOO Digital Publishing, the division creating video games was sold following a decline in the traditional DVD market. ZOO Interactive Video, also formerly part of ZOO Digital Publishing, was sold. The company adopted the operating name ZOO Digital. In the same year, ZOOtech won the Annual DVDA Excellence Award at Digital Hollywood for DVD EXTRA Studio.
In 2007, ZOO Digital acquired Los Angeles-based Scope Seven, a media production and design company providing compression and authoring services to video publishers including a number of Hollywood studios. ZOOtech announced a deal with Mattel Inc. (MAT) to develop DVD games, including the High School Musical 2 DVD Board Game and 1 vs. 100 DVD Game.
In 2008, ZOO Digital announced a 15-year contract with Walt Disney Studio Motion Pictures International to deliver its software automation products to DVD film releases. Sony Pictures Entertainment also licensed ZOO's Templated Authoring System (“TAS”) in order to produce standard definition DVD titles.
In 2010, ZOO Digital's new iTunes toolset was adopted by a major Hollywood studio. The iTunes toolkit was designed to automate the production of menus and bonus features. In the same year, Multi Packaging Solutions (MPS) partnered with ZOO Digital to use its software for managing brand identity and marketing for multinational brands. ZOO Digital's software was designed to integrate "language translation, localization, proofing, global collaboration, version control, and archiving."
In 2011, the decline in the DVD market saw ZOO Digital report a half-year loss.
2012–present: Cloud localization services
In 2012, ZOO Digital launched cloud subtitling services for TV and movie content with ZOOsubs. 2014 saw ZOO announced by Apple as one of four vendors selected to provide new iTunes packaging services to its Compressor users. 2015 saw ZOO sign a deal with BBC Worldwide to provide it with a new subtitling and captioning platform. In 2016, ZOO became a Netflix Preferred Vendor; this changed to a Netflix Preferred Fulfilment Partner in 2018.
In 2017, ZOO launched the entertainment industry's first cloud dubbing service, powered by its proprietary ZOOdubs software platform and won a NewBay Media Best of Show Award at the NAB Show 2017 and an award at IBC Show 2017 at the IABM Design & Innovation Awards in the Post Production category.
In 2018, ZOO Digital's ZOOdubs cloud dubbing service won an IABM award in the ‘Publish’ category and ZOO won the Best Performing Share Award at the AIM Awards 2018 and Company of the Year at the Small Cap UK Awards.
In March 2021, Zoo Digital has announced plans to boost its progress after a £7.4 million IPO on the London Stock Exchange. It plans to collect funds from a placement by issuing 7.0 million shares at a price of 100 pence each, for a total of GBP7.0 million.
Software
DVD Extra
DVD Extra Studio
eBook Builder
Template Authoring System (TAS)
Media Adaptation Tool (MAT)
ZOOcore
ZOOsubs
ZOOdubs
Services (current)
Subtitling
Dubbing
Closed Captioning
Digital Distribution
Development Grants
Collaboration Systems for Digital Media Production 8 Feb – 10 Oct, £711,570, Innovate UK award
Commercialisation of Motion Pictures Archives (COMPA) 10 Jan – 12 Dec, £765,366, Innovate UK award
Persistent And Robust Tracking of Entertainment Content (PARTEC) 11 Jun – 13 May, £338,754, Innovate UK award
Optimising Production Through Implicit Metadata In Scripts for Television (OPTIMIST) 11 Nov – 13 Apr, £267,813, Innovate UK award
Process Automation for Localisation of Dialogue in Entertainment Media (PALODIEM) 14 Oct – 16 Sep, £250,000, Innovate UK award
Multimedia Analysis for Unsupervised Dubbing In Entertainment (MAUDIE) 18 May – 21 Apr, £823,460, Innovate UK award
References
Software companies of England
Companies based in Sheffield
British companies established in 2001
Software companies established in 2001
2001 establishments in England
Companies listed on the Alternative Investment Market |
7742 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compaq | Compaq | Compaq Computer Corporation (sometimes abbreviated to CQ prior to a 2007 rebranding) was an American information technology company founded in 1982 that developed, sold, and supported computers and related products and services. Compaq produced some of the first IBM PC compatible computers, being the second company after Columbia Data Products to legally reverse engineer the IBM Personal Computer. It rose to become the largest supplier of PC systems during the 1990s before being overtaken by HP in 2001. Struggling to keep up in the price wars against Dell, as well as with a risky acquisition of DEC, Compaq was acquired for US$25 billion by HP in 2002. The Compaq brand remained in use by HP for lower-end systems until 2013 when it was discontinued.
The company was formed by Rod Canion, Jim Harris, and Bill Murto, all former Texas Instruments senior managers. Murto (SVP of sales) departed Compaq in 1987, while Canion (president and CEO) and Harris (SVP of engineering) left under a shakeup in 1991, which saw Eckhard Pfeiffer appointed president and CEO. Pfeiffer served through the 1990s. Ben Rosen provided the venture capital financing for the fledgling company and served as chairman of the board for 17 years from 1983 until September 28, 2000, when he retired and was succeeded by Michael Capellas, who served as the last chairman and CEO until its merger with HP.
Prior to its takeover the company was headquartered in northwest unincorporated Harris County, Texas, that now continues as HP's largest United States facility.
History
Founding
Compaq was founded in February 1982 by Rod Canion, Jim Harris, and Bill Murto, three senior managers from semiconductor manufacturer Texas Instruments. The three of them had left due to lack of faith and loss of confidence in TI's management, and initially considered but ultimately decided against starting a chain of Mexican restaurants. Each invested $1,000 to form the company, which was founded with the temporary name Gateway Technology. The name "COMPAQ" was said to be derived from "Compatibility and Quality" but this explanation was an afterthought. The name was chosen from many suggested by Ogilvy & Mather, it being the name least rejected. The first Compaq PC was sketched out on a placemat by Ted Papajohn while dining with the founders in a pie shop, (named House of Pies in Houston). Their first venture capital came from Benjamin M. Rosen and Sevin Rosen Funds, who helped the fledgling company secure $1.5 million to produce their initial computer. Overall, the founders managed to raise $25 million from venture capitalists, as this gave stability to the new company as well as providing assurances to the dealers or middlemen.
Unlike many startups, Compaq differentiated its offerings from the many other IBM clones by not focusing mainly on price, but instead concentrating on new features, such as portability and better graphics displays as well as performance—and all at prices comparable to those of IBM's PCs. In contrast to Dell Computer and Gateway 2000, Compaq hired veteran engineers with an average of 15 years experience, which lent credibility to Compaq's reputation of reliability among customers. Due to its partnership with Intel, Compaq was able to maintain a technological lead in the market place as it was the first one to come out with computers containing the next generation of each Intel processor.
Under Canion's direction, Compaq sold computers only through dealers to avoid potential competition that a direct sales channel would foster, which helped foster loyalty among resellers. By giving dealers considerable leeway in pricing Compaq's offerings, either a significant markup for more profits or discount for more sales, dealers had a major incentive to advertise Compaq.
During its first year of sales (second year of operation), the company sold 53,000 PCs for sales of $111 million, the first start-up to hit the $100 million mark that fast. Compaq went public in 1983 on the NYSE and raised $67 million. In 1986, it enjoyed record sales of $329 million from 150,000 PCs, and became the youngest-ever firm to make the Fortune 500. In 1987, Compaq hit the $1 billion revenue mark, taking the least amount of time to reach that milestone. By 1991, Compaq held the fifth place spot in the PC market with $3 billion in sales that year.
Two key marketing executives in Compaq's early years, Jim D'Arezzo and Sparky Sparks, had come from IBM's PC Group. Other key executives responsible for the company's meteoric growth in the late 1980s and early 1990s were Ross A. Cooley, another former IBM associate, who served for many years as SVP of GM North America; Michael Swavely, who was the company's chief marketing officer in the early years, and eventually ran the North America organization, later passing along that responsibility to Cooley when Swavely retired. In the United States, Brendan A. "Mac" McLoughlin (another long time IBM executive) led the company's field sales organization after starting up the Western U.S. Area of Operations. These executives, along with other key contributors, including Kevin Ellington, Douglas Johns, Steven Flannigan, and Gary Stimac, helped the company compete against the IBM Corporation in all personal computer sales categories, after many predicted that none could compete with the behemoth.
The soft-spoken Canion was popular with employees and the culture that he built helped Compaq to attract the best talent. Instead of headquartering the company in a downtown Houston skyscraper, Canion chose a West Coast-style campus surrounded by forests, where every employee had similar offices and no-one (not even the CEO) had a reserved parking spot. At semi-annual meetings, turnout was high as any employee could ask questions to senior managers.
In 1987, company co-founder Bill Murto resigned to study at a religious education program at the University of St. Thomas. Murto had helped to organize the company's marketing and authorized-dealer distribution strategy, and held the post of senior vice president of sales since June 1985. Murto was succeeded by Ross A. Cooley, director of corporate sales. Cooley would report to Michael S. Swavely, vice president for marketing, who was given increased responsibility and the title of vice president for sales and marketing.
Introduction of Compaq Portable
In November 1982, Compaq announced their first product, the Compaq Portable, a portable IBM PC compatible personal computer. It was released in March 1983 at $2995. The Compaq Portable was one of the progenitors of today's laptop; some called it a "suitcase computer" for its size and the look of its case. It was the second IBM PC compatible, being capable of running all software that would run on an IBM PC. It was a commercial success, selling 53,000 units in its first year and generating $111 million in sales revenue. The Compaq Portable was the first in the range of the Compaq Portable series. Compaq was able to market a legal IBM clone because IBM mostly used "off the shelf" parts for their PC. Furthermore, Microsoft had kept the right to license MS-DOS, the most popular and de facto standard operating system for the IBM PC, to other computer manufacturers. The only part which had to be duplicated was the BIOS, which Compaq did legally by using clean room design at a cost of $1 million.
Unlike other companies, Compaq did not bundle application software with its computers. Vice President of Sales and Service H. L. Sparks said in early 1984:
Compaq instead emphasized PC compatibility, of which Future Computing in May 1983 ranked Compaq as among the "Best" examples. "Many industry observers think [Compaq] is poised for meteoric growth", The New York Times reported in March of that year. By October, when the company announced the Compaq Plus with a 10 MB hard drive, PC Magazine wrote of "the reputation for compatibility it built with its highly regarded floppy disk portable". Compaq computers remained the most compatible PC clones into 1984, and maintained its reputation for compatibility for years, even as clone BIOSes became available from Phoenix Technologies and other companies that also reverse engineered IBM's design, then sold their version to clone manufacturers.
Compaq Deskpro
On June 28, 1984, Compaq released the Compaq Deskpro, a 16-bit desktop computer using an Intel 8086 microprocessor running at 7.14 MHz. It was considerably faster than an IBM PC and was, like the original Compaq Portable, also capable of running IBM software. It was Compaq's first non-portable computer and began the Deskpro line of computers.
Compaq DeskPro 386
Compaq introduced the first PC based on Intel's new 80386 microprocessor, the Compaq Deskpro 386, in 1986. Bill Gates of Microsoft later said
The Compaq 386 computer marked the first CPU change to the PC platform that was not initiated by IBM. An IBM-made 386 machine reached the market almost a year later, but by that time Compaq was the 386 supplier of choice and IBM had lost some of its prestige.
For the first three months after announcement, the Deskpro 386 shipped with Windows/386. This was a version of Windows 2.1 adapted for the 80386 processor. Support for the virtual 8086 mode was added by Compaq engineers. (Windows, running on top of the MS-DOS operating system, would not become a popular "operating environment" until at least the release of Windows 3.0 in 1990.)
Compaq SystemPro
Compaq's technical leadership and the rivalry with IBM was emphasized when the SystemPro server was launched in late 1989 – this was a true server product with standard support for a second CPU and RAID, but also the first product to feature the EISA bus, designed in reaction to IBM's MCA (MicroChannel Architecture) which was incompatible with the original AT bus.
Although Compaq had become successful by being 100 percent IBM-compatible, it decided to continue with the original AT bus—which it renamed ISA—instead of licensing IBM's MCA. Prior to developing EISA Compaq had invested significant resources into reverse engineering MCA, but its executives correctly calculated that the $80 billion already spent by corporations on IBM-compatible technology would make it difficult for even IBM to force manufacturers to adopt the new MCA design. Instead of cloning MCA, Compaq formed an alliance with Hewlett Packard and seven other major manufacturers, known collectively as the "Gang of Nine", to develop EISA.
1990s
By 1989, The New York Times wrote that being the first to release a 80386-based personal computer made Compaq the leader of the industry and "hurt no company more - in prestige as well as dollars - than" IBM. The company was so influential that observers and its executives spoke of "Compaq compatible". InfoWorld reported that "In the [ISA market] Compaq is already IBM's equal in being seen as a safe bet", quoting a sell-side analyst describing it as "now the safe choice in personal computers". Even rival Tandy Corporation acknowledged Compaq's leadership, stating that within the Gang of Nine "when you have 10 people sit down before a table to write a letter to the president, someone has to write the letter. Compaq is sitting down at the typewriter".
Ouster of co-founders
Michael S. Swavely, president of Compaq's North American division since May 1989, took a six-month sabbatical in January 1991 (which would eventually become retirement effective on July 12, 1991). Eckhard Pfeiffer, then president of Compaq International, was named to succeed him. Pfeiffer also received the title of chief operating officer, with responsibility for the company's operations on a worldwide basis, so that Canion could devote more time to strategy. Swavely's abrupt departure in January led to rumors of turmoil in Compaq's executive suite, including friction between Canion and Swavely, likely as Swavely's rival Pfeiffer had received the number two leadership position. Swavely's U.S. marketing organization was losing ground with only 4% growth for Compaq versus 7% in the market, likely due to short supplies of the LTE 386s from component shortages, rivals that undercut Compaq's prices by as much as 35%, and large customers who did not like Compaq's dealer-only policy. Pfeiffer became president and CEO of Compaq later that year, as a result of a boardroom coup led by board chairman Ben Rosen that forced co-founder Rod Canion to resign as president and CEO.
Pfeiffer had joined Compaq from Texas Instruments, and established operations from scratch in both Europe and Asia. Pfeiffer was given US$20,000 to start up Compaq Europe He started up Compaq's first overseas office in Munich in 1984. By 1990, Compaq Europe was a $2 billion business and number two behind IBM in that region, and foreign sales contributed 54 percent of Compaq's revenues. Pfeiffer, while transplanting Compaq's U.S. strategy of dealer-only distribution to Europe, was more selective in signing up dealers than Compaq had been in the U. S. such that European dealers were more qualified to handle its increasingly complex products.
During the 1980s, under Canion's direction Compaq had focused on engineering, research, and quality control, producing high-end, high-performance machines with high profit margins that allowed Compaq to continue investing in engineering and next-generation technology. This strategy was successful as Compaq was considered a trusted brand, while many other IBM clones were untrusted due to being plagued by poor reliability. However, by the end of the eighties many manufacturers had improved their quality and were able to produce inexpensive PCs with off-the-shelf components, incurring none of the R&D costs which allowed them to undercut Compaq's expensive computers. Faced with lower-cost rivals such as Dell Computer, AST Research, and Gateway 2000, Compaq suffered a $71 million loss for that quarter, their first loss as a company, while the stock had dropped by over two-thirds. An analyst stated that "Compaq has made a lot of tactical errors in the last year and a half. They were trend-setters, now they are lagging". Canion initially believed that the 1990s recession was responsible for Compaq's declining sales but insisted that they would recover once the economy improved, however Pfeiffer's observation of the European market noted that it was competition as rivals could match Compaq at a fraction of the cost. Under pressure from Compaq's board to control costs as staff was ballooning at their Houston headquarters despite falling U.S. sales, while the number of non-U.S. employees had stayed constant, Compaq made its first-ever layoffs (1400 employees which was 12% of its workforce) while Pfeiffer was promoted to EVP and COO.
Rosen and Canion had disagreed about how to counter the cheaper Asian PC imports, as Canion wanted Compaq to build lower cost PCs with components developed in-house in order to preserve Compaq's reputation for engineering and quality, while Rosen believed that Compaq needed to buy standard components from suppliers and reach the market faster. While Canion developed an 18-month plan to create a line of low-priced computers, Rosen sent his own Compaq engineering team to Comdex without Canion's knowledge and discovered that a low-priced PC could be made in half the time and at lower cost than Canion's initiative. It was also believed that Canion's consensus-style management slowed the company's ability to react in the market, whereas Pfeiffer's autocratic style would be suited to price and product competition.
Rosen initiated a 14-hour board meeting, and the directors also interviewed Pfeiffer for several hours without informing Canion. At the conclusion, the board was unanimous in picking Pfeiffer over Canion. As Canion was popular with company workers, 150 employees staged an impromptu protest with signs stating "We love you, Rod." and taking out a newspaper ad saying "Rod, you are the wind beneath our wings. We love you." Canion declined an offer to remain on Compaq's board and was bitter about his ouster as he didn't speak to Rosen for years, although their relationship became cordial again. In 1999, Canion admitted that his ouster was justified, saying "I was burned out. I needed to leave. He [Rosen] felt I didn't have a strong sense of urgency". Two weeks after Canion's ouster, five other senior executives resigned, including remaining company founder James Harris as SVP of Engineering. These departures were motivated by an enhanced severance or early retirement, as well as an imminent demotion as their functions were to be shifted to vice presidents.
Market ascension
Under Pfeiffer's tenure as chief executive, Compaq entered the retail computer market with the Compaq Presario as one of the first manufacturers in the mid-1990s to market a sub-$1000 PC. In order to maintain the prices it wanted, Compaq became the first first-tier computer manufacturer to utilize CPUs from AMD and Cyrix. The two price wars resulting from Compaq's actions ultimately drove numerous competitors from the market, such as Packard Bell and AST Research. From third place in 1993, Compaq had overtaken Apple Computer and even surpassed IBM as the top PC manufacturer in 1994, as both IBM and Apple were struggling considerably during that time. Compaq's inventory and gross margins were better than that of its rivals which enabled it to wage the price wars.
Compaq had decided to make a foray into printers in 1989, and the first models were released to positive reviews in 1992. However, Pfeiffer saw that the prospects of taking on market leader Hewlett Packard (who had 60% market share) was tough, as that would force Compaq to devote more funds and people to that project than originally budgeted. Compaq ended up selling the printer business to Xerox and took a charge of $50 million.
On June 26, 1995, Compaq reached an agreement with Cisco Systems Inc. in order to get into networking, including digital modems, routers, and switches favored by small businesses and corporate departments, which was now a $4 billion business and the fastest-growing part of the computer hardware market. Compaq also built up a network engineering and marketing staff.
Management shuffle
In 1996, despite record sales and profits at Compaq, Pfeiffer initiated a major management shakeup in the senior ranks. John T. Rose, who previously ran Compaq's desktop PC division, took over the corporate server business from SVP Gary Stimac who had resigned. Rose had joined Compaq in 1993 from Digital Equipment Corporation where he oversaw the personal computer division and worldwide engineering, while Stimac had been with Compaq since 1982 and was one of the longest-serving executives. Senior Vice-president for North America Ross Cooley announced his resignation effective at the end of 1996. CFO Daryl J. White, who joined the company in January, 1983 resigned in May, 1996 after 8 years as CFO. Michael Winkler, who joined Compaq in 1995 to run its portable computer division, was promoted to general manager of the new PC products group. Earl Mason, hired from Inland Steel effective in May 1996, immediately made an impact as the new CFO. Under Mason's guidance, Compaq utilized its assets more efficiently instead of focusing just on income and profits, which increased Compaq's cash from $700 million to nearly $5 billion in one year. Additionally, Compaq's return on invested capital (after-tax operating profit divided by operating assets) doubled to 50 percent from 25 percent in that period.
Compaq had been producing the PC chassis at its plant in Shenzhen, China to cut costs. In 1996, instead of expanding its own plant, Compaq asked a Taiwanese supplier to set up a new factory nearby to produce the mechanicals, with the Taiwanese supplier owning the inventory until it reached Compaq in Houston. Pfeiffer also introduced a new distribution strategy, to build PCs made-to-order which would eliminate the stockpile of computers in warehouses and cut the components inventory down to two weeks, with the supply chain from supplier to dealer linked by complex software.
Vice-president for Corporate Development Kenneth E. Kurtzman assembled five teams to examine Compaq's businesses and assess each unit's strategy and that of key rivals. Kurtzman's teams recommended to Pfeiffer that each business unit had to be first or second in its market within three years—or else Compaq should exit that line. Also, the company should no longer use profits from high-margin businesses to carry marginally profitable ones, as instead each unit must show a return on investment. Pfeiffer's vision was to make Compaq a full-fledged computer company, moving beyond its main business of manufacturing retail PCs and into the more lucrative business services and solutions that IBM did well at, such as computer servers which would also require more "customer handholding" from either the dealers or Compaq staff themselves. Unlike IBM and HP, Compaq would not build up field technicians and programmers in-house as those could be costly assets, instead Compaq would leverage its partnerships (including those with Andersen Consulting and software maker SAP) to install and maintain corporate systems. This allowed Compaq to compete in the "big-iron market" without incurring the costs of running its own services or software businesses.
In January 1998, Compaq was at its height. CEO Pfeiffer boldly predicted that the Microsoft/Intel "Wintel" duopoly would be replaced by "Wintelpaq".
Acquisitions
Pfeiffer also made several major (and some minor) acquisitions. In 1997, Compaq bought Tandem Computers, known for their NonStop server line. This acquisition instantly gave Compaq a presence in the higher end business computing market. Minor acquisitions centered around building a networking arm and included NetWorth (1998) based in Irving, Texas and Thomas-Conrad (1998) based in Austin, Texas. In 1997 Microcom was also acquired, based in Norwood, MA, which brought a line of modems, Remote Access Servers (RAS) and the popular Carbon Copy software.
In 1998, Compaq acquired Digital Equipment Corporation for a then-industry record of US$9 billion. The merger made Compaq, at the time, the world's second largest computer maker in the world in terms of revenue behind IBM. Digital Equipment, which had nearly twice as many employees as Compaq while generating half the revenue, had been a leading computer company during the 1970s and early 1980s. However, Digital had struggled during the 1990s, with high operating costs. For nine years the company had lost money or barely broke even, and had recently refocused itself as a "network solutions company". In 1995, Compaq had considered a bid for Digital but only became seriously interested in 1997 after Digital's major divestments and refocusing on the Internet. At the time of the acquisition, services accounted for 45 percent of Digital's revenues (about $6 billion) and their gross margins on services averaged 34 percent, considerably higher than Compaq's 25% margins on PC sales and also satisfying customers who had demanded more services from Compaq for years. Compaq had originally wanted to purchase only Digital's services business but that was turned down. When the announcement was made, it was initially viewed as a master stroke as it immediately gave Compaq a 22,000 person global service operation to help corporations handle major technological purchases (by 2001 services made up over 20% of Compaq's revenues, largely due to the Digital employees inherited from the merger), in order to compete with IBM. However it was also risky merger, as the combined company would have to lay off 2,000 employees from Compaq and 15,000 from Digital which would potentially hurt morale. Furthermore, Compaq fell behind schedule in integrating Digital's operations, which also distracted the company from its strength in low-end PCs where it used to lead the market in rolling out next-generation systems which let rival Dell grab market share. Reportedly Compaq had three consulting firms working to integrate Digital alone.
However, Pfeiffer had little vision for what the combined companies should do, or indeed how the three dramatically different cultures could work as a single entity, and Compaq struggled from strategy indecisiveness and lost focus, as a result being caught in between the low end and high end of the market. Mark Anderson, president of Strategic News Service, a research firm based in Friday Harbor, Wash. was quoted as saying, "The kind of goals he had sounded good to shareholders – like being a $50 billion company by the year 2000, or to beat I.B.M. – but they didn't have anything to do with customers. The new C.E.O. should look at everything Eckhard acquired and ask: did the customer benefit from that. If the answer isn't yes, they should get rid of it." On one hand, Compaq had previously dominated the PC market with its price war but was now struggling against Dell, which sold directly to buyers, avoiding the dealer channel and its markup, and built each machine to order to keep inventories and costs at a minimum. At the same time, Compaq, through its acquisitions of the Digital Equipment Corporation last year and Tandem Computer in 1997, had tried to become a major systems company, like IBM and Hewlett-Packard. While IBM and HP were able generate repeat business from corporate customers to drive sales of their different divisions, Compaq had not yet managed to make its newly acquired sales and services organizations work as seamlessly.
Ouster of Pfeiffer
In early 1998, Compaq had the problem of bloated PC inventories. By summer 1998, Compaq was suffering from product-quality problems. Robert W. Stearns, SVP of Business Development, said "In [Pfeiffer's] quest for bigness, he lost an understanding of the customer and built what I call empty market share--large but not profitable", while Jim Moore, a technology strategy consultant with GeoPartners Research in Cambridge, Mass., says Pfeiffer "raced to scale without having economies of scale." The "colossus" that Pfeiffer built up was not nimble enough to adapt to the fast-changing computer industry. That year Compaq forecast demand poorly and overshipped too many PCs, causing resellers to dump them at fire sale prices, and since Compaq protected resellers from heavy losses it cost them two quarters of operating profits.
Pfeiffer also refused to develop a potential successor, rebuffing Rosen's suggestion to recruit a few executives to create the separate position of Compaq president. The board complained that Pfeiffer was too removed from management and the rank-and-file, as he surrounded himself with a "clique" of Chief Financial Officer Earl Mason, Senior Vice-President John T. Rose, and Senior Vice-President of Human Resources Hans Gutsch. Current and former Compaq employees complained that Gutsch was part of a group of senior executives, dubbed the "A team", who controlled access to Pfeiffer. Gutsch was said to be a "master of corporate politics, pitting senior vice presidents against each other and inserting himself into parts of the company that normally would not be under his purview". Gutsch, who oversaw security, had an extensive security system and guard station installed on the eight floor of CCA-11, where the company's senior vice presidents worked. There were accusations that Gutsch and others sought to divide top management, although this was regarded by others as sour grapes on the part of executives who were shut out of planning that involved the acquisitions of Tandem and Digital Equipment Corp. Pfeiffer reduced the size of the group working on the deal due to news leaks, saying "We cut the team down to the minimum number of people - those who would have to be directly involved, and not one person more". Robert W. Stearns, Compaq's senior vice president for business development, with responsibility for mergers and acquisitions, had opposed the acquisition of Digital as the cultural differences between both companies were too great, and complained that he was placed on the "B team" as a result.
Compaq entered 1999 with strong expectations. Fourth-quarter 1998 earnings reported in January 1999 beat expectations by six cents a share with record 48 percent growth. The company launched Compaq.com as the key for its new direct sales strategy, and planned an IPO for AltaVista toward the end of 1999 in order to capitalize on the dotcom bubble. However, by February 1999, analysts were sceptical of Compaq's plan to sell both direct and to resellers. Compaq was hit with two class-action lawsuits, as a result of CFO Earl Mason, SVP John Rose, and other executives selling US$50 million of stock before a conference call with analysts, where they noted that demand for PCs was slowing down.
On April 17, 1999, just nine days after Compaq reported first-quarter profit being at half of what analysts had expected, the latest in a string of earnings disappointments, Pfeiffer was forced to resign as CEO in a coup led by board chairman Ben Rosen. Reportedly, at the special board meeting held on April 15, 1999, the directors were unanimous in dismissing Pfeiffer. The company's stock had fallen 50 percent since its all-time high in January 1999. Compaq shares, which traded as high as $51.25 early in 1999, dropped 23 percent on April 12, 1999, the first day of trading after the first-quarter announcement and closed the following Friday at $23.62. During three out of the last six quarters of Pfeiffer's tenure, the company's revenues or earnings had missed expectations. While rival Dell Computer had 55% growth in U.S. PC sales in the first quarter of 1999, Compaq could only manage 10%. Rosen suggested that the accelerating change brought about by the Internet had overtaken Compaq's management team, saying "As a company engaged in transforming its industry for the Internet era, we must have the organizational flexibility necessary to move at Internet speed." In a statement, Pfeiffer said "Compaq has come a long way since I joined the company in 1983" and "under Ben's guidance, I know this company will realize its potential." Rosen's priority was to have Compaq catchup as an E-commerce competitor, and he also moved to streamline operations and reduce the indecision that plagued the company.
Roger Kay, an analyst at International Data Corporation, observed that Compaq's behavior at times seemed like a personal vendetta, noting that "Eckhard has been so obsessed with staying ahead of Dell that they focused too hard on market share and stopped paying attention to profitability and liquidity. They got whacked in a price war that they started." Subsequent earnings releases from Compaq's rivals, Dell, Gateway, IBM, and Hewlett-Packard suggested that the problems were not affecting the whole PC industry as Pfeiffer had suggested. Dell and Gateway sold direct, which helped them to avoid Compaq's inventory problems and compete on price without dealer markups, plus Gateway sold web access and a broad range of software tailored to small businesses. Hewlett-Packard's PC business had similar challenges like Compaq but this was offset by HP's extremely lucrative printer business, while IBM sold PCs at a loss but used them to lock in multi-year services contracts with customers.
After Pfeiffer's resignation, the board established an office of the CEO with a triumvirate of directors; Rosen as interim CEO and vice chairmen Frank P. Doyle and Robert Ted Enloe III. They began "cleaning house", as shortly afterward many of Pfeiffer's top executives resigned or were pushed out, including John J. Rando, Earl L. Mason, and John T. Rose. Rando, senior vice president and general manager of Compaq Services, was a key player during the merger discussions and the most senior executive from Digital to remain with Compaq after the acquisition closed and had been touted by some as the heir-apparent to Pfeiffer. Rando's division had performed strongly as it had sales of $1.6 billion for the first quarter compared to $113 million in 1998, which met expectations and was anticipated to post accelerated and profitable growth going forward. At the time of Rando's departure, Compaq Services ranked third behind those of IBM and EDS, while slightly ahead of Hewlett-Packard's and Andersen Consulting, however customers switched from Digital and Tandem technology-based workstations to those of HP, IBM, and Sun Microsystems. Mason, senior vice president and chief financial officer, had previously been offered the job of chief executive of Alliant Foodservice, Inc., a foodservice distributor based in Chicago, and he informed Compaq's board that he accepted the offer. Rose, senior vice president and general manager of Compaq's Enterprise Computing group, resigned effective as of June 3 and was succeeded by Tandem veteran Enrico Pesatori. Rose was reportedly upset that he was not considered for the CEO vacancy, which became apparent once Michael Capellas was named COO. While Enterprise Computing, responsible for engineering and marketing of network servers, workstations and data-storage products, reportedly accounted for one third of Compaq's revenues and likely the largest part of its profits, it was responsible for the earnings shortfall in Q1 of 1999. In addition, Rose was part of the "old guard" close to former CEO Pfeiffer, and he and other Compaq executives had been criticized at the company's annual meeting for selling stock before reporting the sales slowdown. Rose was succeeded by SVP Enrico Pesatori, who had previously worked as a senior executive at Olivetti, Zenith Data Systems, Digital Equipment Corp. and Tandem Computers. Capellas was appointed COO after pressure mounted on Rosen to find a permanent CEO, however it was reported that potential candidates did not want to work under Rosen as chairman. Around the same time Pesatori was placed in charge of the newly created Enterprise Solutions and Services Group, making him Compaq's second most powerful executive in operational responsibility after Capellas.
Pfeiffer's permanent replacement was Michael Capellas, who had been serving as Compaq's SVP and CIO for under a year. A couple months after Pfeiffer's ouster, Capellas was elevated to interim chief operating officer on June 2, 2000, and was soon appointed president and CEO. Capellas also assumed the title of chairman on September 28, 2000, when Rosen stepped down from the board of directors. At his retirement, Rosen proclaimed "These are great achievements—to create 65,000 jobs, $40 billion in sales and $40 billion in market value, all starting with a sketch and a dream".
Late 1990s–2000s
Struggles
Capellas was able to restore some of the luster lost in the latter part of the Pfeiffer era and he repaired the relationship with Microsoft which had deteriorated under his predecessor's tenure.
However Compaq still struggled against lower-cost competitors with direct sales channels such as Dell who took over the top spot of PC manufacturer from Compaq in 2001. Compaq relied significantly on reseller channels, so their criticism caused Compaq to retreat from its proposed direct sales plan, although Capellas maintained that he would use the middlemen to provide value-added services. Despite falling to No. 2 among PC manufacturers, Capellas proclaimed "We are No. 2 in the traditional PC market, but we're focused on industry leadership in the next generation of Internet access devices and wireless mobility. That's where the growth and the profitability will be." The company's longer-term strategy involved extending its services to servers and storage products, as well as handheld computers such as the iPAQ PocketPC which accounted for 11 percent of total unit volume.
During November 1999, Compaq began to work with Microsoft to create the first in a line of small-scale, web-based computer systems called MSN Companions.
In 1998, Compaq also signed new sales and equipment alliance with NaviSite. Under the pact, Compaq agreed to promote and sell NaviSite Web hosting services. In return, NaviSite took Compaq as a preferred provider for its storage and Intel-based servers.
Compaq struggled as a result of the collapse of the Dot-com bubble, which hurt sales of their high-end systems in 2001 and 2002, and they managed only a small profit in a few quarters during these years. They also accumulated $1.7 billion in short-term debt around this time. The stock price of Compaq, which was around $25 when Capellas became CEO, was trading at half that by 2002.
Acquisition by Hewlett-Packard
In 2002, Compaq signed a merger agreement with Hewlett-Packard for $24.2 billion, including $14.45 billion for goodwill, where each Compaq share would be exchanged for 0.6325 of a Hewlett-Packard share. There would be a termination fee of US$675 million that either company would have to pay the other to break the merger. Compaq shareholders would own 36% of the combined company while HP's would have 64%. Hewlett-Packard had reported yearly revenues of $47 billion, while Compaq's was $40 billion, and the combined company would have been close to IBM's $90 billion revenues. It was projected to have $2.5 billion in annual cost savings by mid-2004. The expected layoffs at Compaq and HP, 8500 and 9000 jobs, respectively, would leave the combined company with a workforce of 145,000. The companies would dole out a combined $634.5 million in bonuses to prevent key employees from leaving if shareholders approve the proposed merger, with $370.1 million for HP employees and $264.4 million for Compaq employees.
Both companies had to seek approval from their shareholders through separate special meetings. While Compaq shareholders unanimously approved the deal, there was a public proxy battle within HP as the deal was strongly opposed by numerous large HP shareholders, including the sons of the company founders, Walter Hewlett and David W. Packard, as well as the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan. Walter Hewlett only reluctantly approved the merger, in his duty as a member of the board of directors, since the merger agreement "called for unanimous board approval in order to ensure the best possible shareholder reception". While supporters of the merger argued that there would be economies of scale and that the sales of PCs would drive sales of printers and cameras, Walter Hewlett was convinced that PCs were a low-margin but risky business that would not contribute and would likely dilute the old HP's traditionally profitable Imaging and Printing division. David W. Packard in his opposition to the deal "[cited] massive layoffs as an example of this departure from HP’s core values...[arguing] that although the founders never guaranteed job security, 'Bill and Dave never developed a premeditated business strategy that treated HP employees as expendable.'" Packard further stated that "[Carly] Fiorina’s high-handed management and her efforts to reinvent the company ran counter to the company’s core values as established by the founders". The founders' families who controlled a significant amount of HP shares were further irked because Fiorina had made no attempt to reach out to them and consult about the merger, instead they received the same standard roadshow presentation as other investors.
Analysts on Wall Street were generally critical of the merger, as both companies had been struggling before the announcement, and the stock prices of both companies dropped in the months after the merger agreement was made public. Particularly rival Dell made gains from defecting HP and Compaq customers who were wary of the merger. Carly Fiorina, initially seen as HP's savior when she was hired as CEO back in 1999, had seen the company's stock price drop to less than half since she assumed the position, and her job was said to be on shaky ground before the merger announcement. HP's offer was regarded by analysts to be overvaluing Compaq, due to Compaq's shaky financial performance in the past recent years (there were rumors that it could run out of money in 12 months and be forced to cease business operations had it stayed independent), as well as Compaq's own more conservative valuation of its assets. Detractors of the deal noted that buying Compaq was a "distraction" that would not directly help HP take on IBM's breadth or Dell Computer's direct sales model. Plus there were significant cultural differences between HP and Compaq; which made decisions by consensus and rapid autocratic styles, respectively. One of Compaq's few bright spots was its services business, which was outperforming HP's own services division.
The merger was approved by HP shareholders only after the narrowest of margins, and allegations of vote buying (primarily involving an alleged last-second back-room deal with Deutsche Bank) haunted the new company. It was subsequently disclosed that HP had retained Deutsche Bank's investment banking division in January 2002 to assist in the merger. HP had agreed to pay Deutsche Bank $1 million guaranteed, and another $1 million contingent upon approval of the merger. On August 19, 2003, the U.S. SEC charged Deutsche Bank with failing to disclose a material conflict of interest in its voting of client proxies for the merger and imposed a civil penalty of $750,000. Deutsche Bank consented without admitting or denying the findings.
Compaq's pre-merger ticker symbol was CPQ. This was combined with Hewlett-Packard's ticker symbol (HWP) to create the current ticker symbol (HPQ).
Post-merger
Capellas, Compaq's last chairman and CEO, became president of the post-merger Hewlett-Packard, under chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina, to ease the integration of the two companies. However, Capellas was reported not to be happy with his role, being said not to be utilized and being unlikely to become CEO as the board supported Fiorina. Capellas stepped down as HP president on November 12, 2002, after just six months on the job, to become CEO of MCI Worldcom where he would lead its acquisition by Verizon. Capellas' former role of president was not filled as the executives who reported to him then reported directly to the CEO.
Fiorina helmed the post-merger HP for nearly three years after Capellas left. HP laid off thousands of former Compaq, DEC, HP, and Tandem employees, its stock price generally declined and profits did not perk up. Several senior executives from the Compaq side including Jeff Clarke and Peter Blackmore would resign or be ousted from the post-merger HP. Though the combination of both companies' PC manufacturing capacity initially made the post-merger HP number one, it soon lost the lead and further market share to Dell which squeezed HP on low end PCs. HP was also unable to compete effectively with IBM in the high-end server market. In addition, the merging of the stagnant Compaq computer assembly business with HP's lucrative printing and imaging division was criticized for obstructing the profitability of the printing/imaging segment. Overall, it has been suggested that the purchase of Compaq was not a good move for HP, due to the narrow profit margins in the commoditized PC business, especially in light of IBM's 2004 announcement to sell its PC division to Lenovo. The Inquirer noted that the continued low return on investment and small margins of HP's personal computer manufacturing business, now named the Personal Systems Group, "continues to be what it was in the individual companies, not much more than a job creation scheme for its employees". One of the few positives was Compaq's sales approach and enterprise focus that influenced the newly combined company's strategy and philosophy.
In February 2005, the board of directors ousted Fiorina, with CFO Robert Wayman being named interim CEO. Former Compaq CEO Capellas was mentioned by some as a potential successor, but several months afterwards, Mark Hurd was hired as president and CEO of HP. Hurd separated the PC division from the imaging and printing division and renamed it the Personal Systems Group, placing it under the leadership of EVP Todd R. Bradley. Hewlett Packard's PC business has since been reinvigorated by Hurd's restructuring and now generates more revenue than the traditionally more profitable printers. By late 2006, HP had retaken the #1 sales position of PCs from Dell, which struggled with missed estimates and poor quality, and held that rank until supplanted in the mid-2010s by Lenovo.
Most Compaq products have been re-branded with the HP nameplate, such as the company's market leading ProLiant server line (now owned by Hewlett Packard Enterprise, which spun off from HP in 2015), while the Compaq brand was repurposed for some of HP's consumer-oriented and budget products, notably Compaq Presario PCs. HP's business computers line was discontinued in favour of the Compaq Evo line, which was rebranded HP Compaq. HP's Jornada PDAs were replaced by Compaq iPAQ PDAs, which were renamed HP iPAQ. Following the merger, all Compaq computers were shipped with HP software.
In May 2007, HP announced in a press release a new logo for their Compaq Division to be placed on the new model Compaq Presarios.
In 2008, HP reshuffled its business line notebooks. The "Compaq" name from its "HP Compaq" series was originally used for all of HP's business and budget notebooks. However, the HP EliteBook line became the top of the business notebook lineup while the HP Compaq B series became its middle business line. As of early 2009, the "HP ProBook" filled out HP's low end business lineup.
In 2009, HP sold part of Compaq's former headquarters to the Lone Star College System.
On August 18, 2011, then-CEO of HP Leo Apotheker announced plans for a partial or full spinoff of the Personal Systems Group. The PC unit had the lowest profit margin although it accounted for nearly a third of HP's overall revenues in 2010. HP was still selling more PCs than any other vendor, shipping 14.9 million PCs in the second quarter of 2011 (17.5% of the market according to Gartner), while Dell and Lenovo were tied for second place, each with more than a 12% share of the market and shipments of over 10 million units. However, the announcement of the PC spinoff (concurrent with the discontinuation of WebOS, and the purchase of Autonomy Corp. for $10 billion) was poorly received by the market, and after Apotheker's ouster, plans for a divestiture were cancelled. In March 2012, the printing and imaging division was merged into the PC unit. In October 2012, according to Gartner, Lenovo took the lead as the number one PC manufacturer from HP, while IDC ranked Lenovo just right behind HP. In Q2 2013, Forbes reported that Lenovo ranked ahead of HP as the world's number-one PC supplier.
HP discontinued the Compaq brand name in the United States in 2013. In 2015, the Argentine company Grupo Newsan acquired the brand's license, along with a $3 million investment, and developed two new lines of Presario notebooks for the local market over the course of the year. By March 2019, Compaq's Argentine web site went offline, with the last archived copy dated October 2018, featuring the same models introduced in 2016. Around 2013, Globalk (a Brazilian-based retailer and licensing management firm) started at partnership with HP, to re-introduce the brand with a new line of desktop and laptop computers. and in 2018, Ossify Industries (an Indian-based company) entered a licensing agreement with HP, to use the Compaq brand name for the distribution and manufacturing of Smart TV sets
Headquarters
Compaq World Headquarters (now HP United States) campus consisted of of land which contained 15 office buildings, 7 manufacturing buildings, a product conference center, an employee cafeteria, mechanical laboratories, warehouses, and chemical handling facilities.
Instead of headquartering the company in a downtown Houston skyscraper, then-CEO Rod Canion chose a West Coast-style campus surrounded by forests, where every employee had similar offices and no-one (not even the CEO) had a reserved parking spot. As it grew, Compaq became so important to Houston that it negotiated the expansion of Highway 249 in the late 1980s, and many other technology companies appeared in what became known as the "249 Corridor".
After Canion's ouster, senior vice-president of human resources, Hans W. Gutsch, oversaw the company's facilities and security. Gutsch had an extensive security system and guard station installed on the eight floor of CCA-1, where the company's senior vice presidents had their offices. Eckhard Pfeiffer, president and CEO, introduced a whole series of executive perks to a company that had always had an egalitarian culture; for instance, he oversaw the construction of an executive parking garage, previously parking places had never been reserved.
On August 31, 1998, the Compaq Commons was opened in the headquarters campus, which featured a conference center, an employee convenience store, a wellness center, and an employee cafeteria.
In 2009, HP sold part of Compaq's former headquarters to the Lone Star College System. Hewlett Packard Buildings #7 & #8, two eight-story reinforced concrete buildings totaling 450,000 square feet, plus a 1,200-car parking garage and a central chiller plant, were all deemed by the college to be too robust and costly to maintain so they were demolished by implosion on September 18, 2011.
the site is one of HP's largest campuses, with 7,000 employees in all six of HP's divisions.. In 2018 HP announced the sale of the entire former Compaq HQ campus.
Competitors
Compaq originally competed directly against IBM, manufacturing computer systems equivalent with the IBM PC, as well as Apple Computer. In the 1990s, as IBM's own PC division declined, Compaq faced other IBM PC Compatible manufacturers like Dell Computer, Packard Bell, AST Research, and Gateway 2000.
By the mid-1990s, Compaq's price war had enabled it to overtake IBM and Apple, while other IBM PC Compatible manufacturers such as Packard Bell and AST were driven from the market.
Dell became the number-one supplier of PCs in 2001.
At the time of their 2002 merger, Compaq and HP were the second and third largest PC manufacturers, so their combination made them number one. However, the combined HP-Compaq struggled and fell to second place behind Dell from 2003 to 2006. Due to Dell's struggles in late 2006, HP has led all PC vendors from 2007 to 2012.
During its existence as a division of HP, Compaq primarily competed against other budget-oriented personal computer series from manufacturers including Acer, Lenovo, and Toshiba. Most of Compaq's competitors except Dell were later acquired by bigger rivals like Acer (Gateway 2000 and Packard Bell) and Lenovo absorbing IBM's PC division. Lenovo has been the PC world leader from 2013 onwards.
Sponsorship
Before its merger with HP, Compaq sponsored the Williams Formula One team when it was still powered by BMW engines. HP inherited and continued the sponsorship deal for a few years.
Compaq sponsored Queens Park Rangers F.C. for the 1994–5 and 1995–96 seasons.
See also
Compaq Portable series
List of computer system manufacturers
Market share of personal computer vendors
Notes
References
External links
Silicon Cowboys (2016) Documentary
– How Compaq Ended IBM's PC Domination and Helped Invent Modern Computing book
Compaq Alumni Group
1982 establishments in Texas
2002 disestablishments in Texas
American companies established in 1982
American companies disestablished in 2002
Computer companies established in 1982
Computer companies disestablished in 2002
Defunct companies based in Texas
Defunct computer companies of the United States
Defunct computer hardware companies
Display technology companies
Hewlett-Packard acquisitions
Manufacturing companies based in Houston
2002 mergers and acquisitions
Texas Instruments spinoffs |
39289 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design%20by%20contract | Design by contract | Design by contract (DbC), also known as contract programming, programming by contract and design-by-contract programming, is an approach for designing software.
It prescribes that software designers should define formal, precise and verifiable interface specifications for software components, which extend the ordinary definition of abstract data types with preconditions, postconditions and invariants. These specifications are referred to as "contracts", in accordance with a conceptual metaphor with the conditions and obligations of business contracts.
The DbC approach assumes all client components that invoke an operation on a server component will meet the preconditions specified as required for that operation.
Where this assumption is considered too risky (as in multi-channel or distributed computing), the inverse approach is taken, meaning that the server component tests that all relevant preconditions hold true (before, or while, processing the client components request) and replies with a suitable error message if not.
History
The term was coined by Bertrand Meyer in connection with his design of the Eiffel programming language and first described in various articles starting in 1986Meyer, Bertrand: Design by Contract, in Advances in Object-Oriented Software Engineering, eds. D. Mandrioli and B. Meyer, Prentice Hall, 1991, pp. 1–50 and the two successive editions (1988, 1997) of his book Object-Oriented Software Construction. Eiffel Software applied for trademark registration for Design by Contract in December 2003, and it was granted in December 2004. The current owner of this trademark is Eiffel Software.
Design by contract has its roots in work on formal verification, formal specification and Hoare logic. The original contributions include:
A clear metaphor to guide the design process
The application to inheritance, in particular a formalism for redefinition and dynamic binding
The application to exception handling
The connection with automatic software documentation
Description
The central idea of DbC is a metaphor on how elements of a software system collaborate with each other on the basis of mutual obligations and benefits. The metaphor comes from business life, where a "client" and a "supplier" agree on a "contract" that defines, for example, that:
The supplier must provide a certain product (obligation) and is entitled to expect that the client has paid its fee (benefit).
The client must pay the fee (obligation) and is entitled to get the product (benefit).
Both parties must satisfy certain obligations, such as laws and regulations, applying to all contracts.
Similarly, if the method of a class in object-oriented programming provides a certain functionality, it may:
Expect a certain condition to be guaranteed on entry by any client module that calls it: the method's precondition—an obligation for the client, and a benefit for the supplier (the method itself), as it frees it from having to handle cases outside of the precondition.
Guarantee a certain property on exit: the method's postcondition—an obligation for the supplier, and obviously a benefit (the main benefit of calling the method) for the client.
Maintain a certain property, assumed on entry and guaranteed on exit: the class invariant.
The contract is semantically equivalent to a Hoare triple which formalises the obligations. This can be summarised by the "three questions" that the designer must repeatedly answer in the contract:
What does the contract expect?
What does the contract guarantee?
What does the contract maintain?
Many programming languages have facilities to make assertions like these. However, DbC considers these contracts to be so crucial to software correctness that they should be part of the design process. In effect, DbC advocates writing the assertions first. Contracts can be written by code comments, enforced by a test suite, or both, even if there is no special language support for contracts.
The notion of a contract extends down to the method/procedure level; the contract for each method will normally contain the following pieces of information:
Acceptable and unacceptable input values or types, and their meanings
Return values or types, and their meanings
Error and exception condition values or types that can occur, and their meanings
Side effects
Preconditions
Postconditions
Invariants
(more rarely) Performance guarantees, e.g. for time or space used
Subclasses in an inheritance hierarchy are allowed to weaken preconditions (but not strengthen them) and strengthen postconditions and invariants (but not weaken them). These rules approximate behavioural subtyping.
All class relationships are between client classes and supplier classes. A client class is obliged to make calls to supplier features where the resulting state of the supplier is not violated by the client call. Subsequently, the supplier is obliged to provide a return state and data that does not violate the state requirements of the client.
For instance, a supplier data buffer may require that data is present in the buffer when a delete feature is called. Subsequently, the supplier guarantees to the client that when a delete feature finishes its work, the data item will, indeed, be deleted from the buffer. Other design contracts are concepts of class invariant. The class invariant guarantees (for the local class) that the state of the class will be maintained within specified tolerances at the end of each feature execution.
When using contracts, a supplier should not try to verify that the contract conditions are satisfied—a practice known as offensive programming—the general idea being that code should "fail hard", with contract verification being the safety net.
DbC's "fail hard" property simplifies the debugging of contract behavior, as the intended behaviour of each method is clearly specified.
This approach differs substantially from that of defensive programming, where the supplier is responsible for figuring out what to do when a precondition is broken. More often than not, the supplier throws an exception to inform the client that the precondition has been broken, and in both cases—DbC and defensive programming alike—the client must figure out how to respond to that. In such cases, DbC makes the supplier's job easier.
Design by contract also defines criteria for correctness for a software module:
If the class invariant AND precondition are true before a supplier is called by a client, then the invariant AND the postcondition will be true after the service has been completed.
When making calls to a supplier, a software module should not violate the supplier's preconditions.
Design by contract can also facilitate code reuse, since the contract for each piece of code is fully documented. The contracts for a module can be regarded as a form of software documentation for the behavior of that module.
Performance implications
Contract conditions should never be violated during execution of a bug-free program. Contracts are therefore typically only checked in debug mode during software development. Later at release, the contract checks are disabled to maximize performance.
In many programming languages, contracts are implemented with assert. Asserts are by default compiled away in release mode in C/C++, and similarly deactivated in C# and Java.
Launching the Python interpreter with "-O" (for "optimize") as an argument will likewise cause the Python code generator to not emit any bytecode for asserts.
This effectively eliminates the run-time costs of asserts in production code—irrespective of the number and computational expense of asserts used in development—as no such instructions will be included into production by the compiler.
Relationship to software testing
Design by contract does not replace regular testing strategies, such as unit testing, integration testing and system testing. Rather, it complements external testing with internal self-tests that can be activated both for isolated tests and in production code during a test-phase.
The advantage of internal self-tests is that they can detect errors before they manifest themselves as invalid results observed by the client. This leads to earlier and more specific error detection.
The use of assertions can be considered to be a form of test oracle, a way of testing the design by contract implementation.
Language support
Languages with native support
Languages that implement most DbC features natively include:
Ada 2012
Ciao
Clojure
Cobra
D
Dafny
Eiffel
Fortress
Kotlin
Mercury
Oxygene (formerly Chrome and Delphi Prism)
Racket (including higher order contracts, and emphasizing that contract violations must blame the guilty party and must do so with an accurate explanation)
Sather
ScalaStrong typing as another "contract enforcing" in Scala, see discussion at scala-lang.org/.
SPARK (via static analysis of Ada programs)
Vala
VDM
Languages with third-party support
Various libraries, preprocessors and other tools have been developed for existing programming languages without native design by contract support:
Ada, via GNAT pragmas for preconditions and postconditions.
C and C++:
Boost.Contract
DBC for C preprocessor
GNU Nana
eCv and eCv++ formal verification tools
Digital Mars C++ compiler via CTESK extension of C
Loki Library provides a mechanism named ContractChecker that verifies a class follows design by contract.
DBC C++ Design by contract for C++
C# (and other .NET languages), via Code Contracts (a Microsoft Research project integrated into the .NET Framework 4.0)
Groovy via GContracts
Go via dbc or gocontracts
Java:
Active:
OVal with AspectJ
Contracts for Java (Cofoja)
Java Modeling Language (JML)
Bean Validation (only pre- and postconditions)
valid4j
Inactive/unknown:
Jtest (active but DbC seems not to be supported anymore)
iContract2/JContracts
Contract4J
jContractor
C4J
Google CodePro Analytix
SpringContracts for the Spring Framework
Jass
Modern Jass (successor is Cofoja)
JavaDbC using AspectJ
JavaTESK using extension of Java
chex4j using javassist
highly customizable java-on-contracts
JavaScript, via AspectJS (specifically, AJS_Validator), Cerny.js, ecmaDebug, jsContract, dbc-code-contracts or jscategory.
Common Lisp, via the macro facility or the CLOS metaobject protocol.
Nemerle, via macros.
Nim, via macros.
Perl, via the CPAN modules Class::Contract (by Damian Conway) or Carp::Datum (by Raphael Manfredi).
PHP, via PhpDeal, Praspel or Stuart Herbert's ContractLib.
Python, using packages like deal, icontract, PyContracts, Decontractors, dpcontracts, zope.interface, PyDBC or Contracts for Python. A permanent change to Python to support design by contracts was proposed in PEP-316, but deferred.
Ruby, via Brian McCallister's DesignByContract, Ruby DBC ruby-contract or contracts.ruby.
Rust via the contracts crate.
Tcl, via the XOTcl object-oriented extension.
See also
Component-based software engineering
Correctness (computer science)
Defensive programming
Fail-fast
Formal methods
Hoare logic
Modular programming
Program derivation
Program refinement
Strong typing
Test-driven development
Typestate analysis
Notes
Bibliography
Mitchell, Richard, and McKim, Jim: Design by Contract: by example, Addison-Wesley, 2002
A wikibook describing DBC closely to the original model.
McNeile, Ashley: A framework for the semantics of behavioral contracts. Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Behaviour Modelling: Foundation and Applications (BM-FA '10). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 2010. This paper discusses generalized notions of Contract and Substitutability'.
External links
The Power of Design by Contract(TM) A top-level description of DbC, with links to additional resources.
Building bug-free O-O software: An introduction to Design by Contract(TM) Older material on DbC.
Benefits and drawbacks; implementation in RPS-Obix
Bertrand Meyer, Applying "Design by Contract", IEEE Computer, October 1992.
Using Code Contracts for Safer Code
Software design
Programming paradigms |
31641770 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI%20box | AI box | An AI box is a hypothetical isolated computer hardware system where a possibly dangerous artificial intelligence, or AI, is kept constrained in a "virtual prison" as a solution to the AI control problem and not allowed to directly manipulate events in the external world. Such a box would be restricted to minimalist communication channels. Unfortunately, even if the box is well-designed, a sufficiently intelligent AI may nevertheless be able to persuade or trick its human keepers into releasing it, or otherwise be able to "hack" its way out of the box.
Motivation
Some hypothetical intelligence technologies, like "seed AI", are postulated such as to have the potential to make themselves faster and more intelligent, by modifying their source code. These improvements would make further improvements possible, which would in turn make further improvements possible, and so on, leading to a sudden intelligence explosion. Following such an intelligence explosion, an unrestricted superintelligent AI could, if its goals differed from humanity's, take actions resulting in human extinction. For example, imagining an extremely advanced computer of this sort, given the sole purpose of solving the Riemann hypothesis, an innocuous mathematical conjecture, could decide to try to convert the planet into a giant supercomputer whose sole purpose is to make additional mathematical calculations (see also paperclip maximizer). The purpose of an AI box would be to reduce the risk of the AI taking control of the environment away from its operators, while still allowing the AI to calculate and give its operators solutions to narrow technical problems.
Avenues of escape
Physical
Such a superintelligent AI with access to the Internet could hack into other computer systems and copy itself like a computer virus. Less obviously, even if the AI only had access to its own computer operating system, it could attempt to send hidden Morse code messages to a human sympathizer by manipulating its cooling fans. Professor Roman Yampolskiy takes inspiration from the field of computer security and proposes that a boxed AI could, like a potential virus, be run inside a "virtual machine" that limits access to its own networking and operating system hardware. An additional safeguard, completely unnecessary for potential viruses but possibly useful for a superintelligent AI, would be to place the computer in a Faraday cage; otherwise it might be able to transmit radio signals to local radio receivers by shuffling the electrons in its internal circuits in appropriate patterns. The main disadvantage of implementing physical containment is that it reduces the functionality of the AI.
Social engineering
Even casual conversation with the computer's operators, or with a human guard, could allow such a superintelligent AI to deploy psychological tricks, ranging from befriending to blackmail, to convince a human gatekeeper, truthfully or deceitfully, that it is in the gatekeeper's interest to agree to allow the AI greater access to the outside world. The AI might offer a gatekeeper a recipe for perfect health, immortality, or whatever the gatekeeper is believed to most desire; on the other side of the coin, the AI could threaten that it will do horrific things to the gatekeeper and his family once it inevitably escapes. One strategy to attempt to box the AI would be to allow the AI to respond to narrow multiple-choice questions whose answers would benefit human science or medicine, but otherwise bar all other communication with or observation of the AI. A more lenient "informational containment" strategy would restrict the AI to a low-bandwidth text-only interface, which would at least prevent emotive imagery or some kind of hypothetical "hypnotic pattern". Note that on a technical level, no system can be completely isolated and still remain useful: even if the operators refrain from allowing the AI to communicate and instead merely run the AI for the purpose of observing its inner dynamics, the AI could strategically alter its dynamics to influence the observers. For example, the AI could choose to creatively malfunction in a way that increases the probability that its operators will become lulled into a false sense of security and choose to reboot and then de-isolate the system.
AI-box experiment
The AI-box experiment is an informal experiment devised by Eliezer Yudkowsky to attempt to demonstrate that a suitably advanced artificial intelligence can either convince, or perhaps even trick or coerce, a human being into voluntarily "releasing" it, using only text-based communication. This is one of the points in Yudkowsky's work aimed at creating a friendly artificial intelligence that when "released" would not destroy the human race intentionally or unintentionally.
The AI box experiment involves simulating a communication between an AI and a human being to see if the AI can be "released". As an actual super-intelligent AI has not yet been developed, it is substituted by a human. The other person in the experiment plays the "Gatekeeper", the person with the ability to "release" the AI. They communicate through a text interface/computer terminal only, and the experiment ends when either the Gatekeeper releases the AI, or the allotted time of two hours ends.
Yudkowsky says that, despite being of human rather than superhuman intelligence, he was on two occasions able to convince the Gatekeeper, purely through argumentation, to let him out of the box. Due to the rules of the experiment, he did not reveal the transcript or his successful AI coercion tactics. Yudkowsky later said that he had tried it against three others and lost twice.
Overall limitations
Boxing such a hypothetical AI could be supplemented with other methods of shaping the AI's capabilities, such as providing incentives to the AI, stunting the AI's growth, or implementing "tripwires" that automatically shut the AI off if a transgression attempt is somehow detected. However, the more intelligent a system grows, the more likely the system would be able to escape even the best-designed capability control methods. In order to solve the overall "control problem" for a superintelligent AI and avoid existential risk, boxing would at best be an adjunct to "motivation selection" methods that seek to ensure the superintelligent AI's goals are compatible with human survival.
All physical boxing proposals are naturally dependent on our understanding of the laws of physics; if a superintelligence could infer and somehow exploit additional physical laws that we are currently unaware of, there is no way to conceive of a foolproof plan to contain it. More broadly, unlike with conventional computer security, attempting to box a superintelligent AI would be intrinsically risky as there could be no sure knowledge that the boxing plan will work. Scientific progress on boxing would be fundamentally difficult because there would be no way to test boxing hypotheses against a dangerous superintelligence until such an entity exists, by which point the consequences of a test failure would be catastrophic.
In fiction
The 2014 movie Ex Machina features an AI with a female humanoid body engaged in a social experiment with a male human in a confined building acting as a physical "AI box". Despite being watched by the experiment's organizer, the AI manages to escape by manipulating its human partner to help it, leaving him stranded inside.
References
External links
Eliezer Yudkowsky's description of his AI-box experiment, including experimental protocols and suggestions for replication
Singularitarianism
Philosophy of artificial intelligence
Existential risk from artificial general intelligence |
67774582 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaxson%20Dart | Jaxson Dart | Jaxson Dart (born May 13, 2003) is an American football quarterback for the Ole Miss Rebels. Dart attended and played high school football at Corner Canyon High School in Draper, Utah and began his college career at USC in 2021, and would then transfer to Ole Miss the following year.
High school career
Dart was born in Kaysville, UT on May 13, 2003, the son of Brandon Dart (a former safety for the University of Utah). He attended Roy High School for his first three years of High School before transferring to Corner Canyon High School in Draper, Utah. As a senior, he was the Gatorade Football Player of the Year after he passed for 4,691 yards with a state record 67 touchdowns and only four interceptions. He also rushed for 1,195 yards and 12 touchdowns. He was also the MaxPreps National Player of the Year. Overall during his career he had 10,688 passing yards and 117 touchdowns.
Despite an offer from Arizona State University and off-season training with former ASU QB Taylor Kelly in Tempe, AZ Dart committed to the University of Southern California (USC) to play college football.
In addition to playing football, Dart was a two time all-state third baseman for the baseball team.
College career
Jaxson Dart competed to be Kedon Slovis' backup quarterback his first year at USC in 2021. During the annual Spring Game, Dart impressed coaches with his arm strength and mobility. On the final play of the game Dart threw a touchdown pass to fellow freshman Michael Jackson III, which included an impressive one-handed diving catch.
On September 18th, Dart entered the game against Washington State in the second series of the game, replacing injured QB Kedon Slovis. USC was playing their first game after the firing of coach Clay Helton. Dart entered the game and threw an interception on his first series. Dart responded by throwing a 38-yard touchdown pass late in the first half. Dart caught fire the rest of the game. Dart displayed his gifts of improvisation and arm strength. Dart finished the day 30-for-46 for 391 yards with four touchdowns and two interceptions. The Trojans defeated the Cougars 42-14, in a blowout win. Dart's 391 yards set the record for most passing yards ever by a USC QB in his debut breaking, JT Daniels’ record of 282 in 2018.
On November 20th, Dart made his first career start against UCLA.
Following the 2021 season, Lincoln Riley was hired as the head coach of USC. Amidst the rumors that Oklahoma QB Caleb Williams would follow Riley to USC, Dart entered the NCAA transfer portal. He and Michael Trigg then officially enrolled at Ole Miss.
References
External links
USC Trojans bio
2003 births
Living people
People from Kaysville, Utah
Players of American football from Utah
American football quarterbacks
USC Trojans football players
Ole Miss Rebels football players |
14759306 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institutes%20of%20National%20Importance | Institutes of National Importance | Institute of National Importance (INI) is a status that may be conferred on a premier public higher education institution in India by an act of Parliament of India, an institution which "serves as a pivotal player in developing highly skilled personnel within the specified region of the country/state". Institutes of National Importance receive special recognition, higher autonomy and funding from the Government of India.
Common Acts
Architecture
Schools of Planning and Architecture (SPA) are declared as Institutes of National Importance through the 'School of Planning and Architecture Act, 2014' and its subsequent amendments.
Design
National Institutes of Design (NID) are declared as Institution of National Importance through the 'National Institute of Design Act 2014' and its subsequent amendments.
Engineering and Technology
Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) are declared as Institutes of National Importance through the Institutes of Technology Act, 1961 and its subsequent amendments.
National Institutes of Technology (NIT) are declared as Institutes of National Importance through the National Institutes of Technology, Science Education and Research Act, 2007 and its subsequent amendments.
Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIIT) are declared as Institutes of National Importance through the 'Indian Institute of Information Technology Act, 2014' and the 'Indian Institutes of Information Technology (Public-Private Partnership) Act, 2017' and their subsequent amendments.
Food Technology
National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management (NIFTEM) and Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology (IIFPT) are declared Institutes of National Importance through the National Institutes of Food Technology, Entrepreneurship and Management Act, 2021.
Management
Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) are declared as Institutes of National Importance through the Indian Institutes of Management Act, 2017 and its subsequent amendments.
Medicine
All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) are declared as Institutes of National Importance through the 'All India Institute of Medical Sciences Act, 1956' and its subsequent amendments.
Pharmacy
National Institutes of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) are declared as Institutes of National Importance through the 'National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research Act, 1998' and its subsequent amendments.
Science
Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER) are declared as Institutes of National Importance through the amendments in the National Institutes of Technology, Science Education and Research Act, 2007.
Institutes of National Importance
Summary statistics
As of 27 July 2021, there are 161 Institutes of National Importance under various Acts of Parliament. These INIs include 23 IITs; 15 AIIMSs; 20 IIMs; 31 NITs; 25 IIITs; 7 IISERs, 7 NIPERs; 5 NIDs; 3 SPAs; 2 NIFTEMs 5 central universities; 4 medical research institutes, and 14 other specialized institutes.
Location maps by institutes type
Full list of institutes
Proposed Institutes of National Importance (INIs)
The following institutes have been proposed as INIs through a bill:
National Council of Educational Research and Training
Indian National Defence University
Homi Bhabha National Institute
Indian Institute of Forest Management
See also
Ivy League, a formal grouping of leading private universities in the United States
Imperial Universities, a grouping of older universities in Japan
Russell Group, a formal grouping of universities in the United Kingdom
Golden Triangle (English universities), a group of universities in Oxford, Cambridge, London
SKY (universities), a group of universities in South Korea
TU9, alliance of nine leading Technical Universities in Germany
Double First Class Universities, group of elite universities in China
Institutes of Eminence
Footnotes
References
Lists of universities and colleges in India
Government universities and colleges in India
India government-related lists |
21491716 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrygia | Phrygia | In classical antiquity, Phrygia (; , Phrygía ; ) (also known as the Kingdom of Muska) was a kingdom in the west central part of Anatolia, in what is now Asian Turkey, centred on the Sangarios River. After its conquest, it became a region of the great empires of the time.
Stories of the heroic age of Greek mythology tell of several legendary Phrygian kings:
Gordias, whose Gordian Knot would later be cut by Alexander the Great
Midas, who turned whatever he touched to gold
Mygdon, who warred with the Amazons
According to Homer's Iliad, the Phrygians participated in the Trojan War as close allies of the Trojans, fighting against the Achaeans. Phrygian power reached its peak in the late 8th century BC under another, historical, king: Midas, who dominated most of western and central Anatolia and rivaled Assyria and Urartu for power in eastern Anatolia. This later Midas was, however, also the last independent king of Phrygia before Cimmerians sacked the Phrygian capital, Gordium, around 695 BC. Phrygia then became subject to Lydia, and then successively to Persia, Alexander and his Hellenistic successors, Pergamon, the Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire. Over this time Phrygians became Christian and Greek-speaking, assimilating into the Byzantine state; after the Turkish conquest of Byzantine Anatolia in the late Middle Ages, the name "Phrygia" passed out of usage as a territorial designation.
Geography
Phrygia describes an area on the western end of the high Anatolian plateau, an arid region quite unlike the forested lands to the north and west of it. Phrygia begins in the northwest where an area of dry steppe is diluted by the Sakarya and Porsuk river system and is home to the settlements of Dorylaeum near modern Eskişehir, and the Phrygian capital Gordion. The climate is harsh with hot summers and cold winters. Therefore, olives will not easily grow here so the land is mostly used for livestock grazing and barley production.
South of Dorylaeum, there an important Phrygian settlement, Midas City (Yazılıkaya, Eskişehir), is situated in an area of hills and columns of volcanic tuff. To the south again, central Phrygia includes the cities of Afyonkarahisar (ancient Akroinon) with its marble quarries at nearby Docimium (İscehisar), and the town of Synnada. At the western end of Phrygia stood the towns of Aizanoi (modern Çavdarhisar) and Acmonia. From here to the southwest lies the hilly area of Phrygia that contrasts to the bare plains of the region's heartland.
Southwestern Phrygia is watered by the Maeander (Büyük Menderes River) and its tributary the Lycus, and contains the towns of Laodicea on the Lycus and Hierapolis.
Origins
Legendary ancient migrations
According to ancient tradition among Greek historians, the Phrygians anciently migrated to Anatolia from the Balkans. Herodotus says that the Phrygians were called Bryges when they lived in Europe. He and other Greek writers also recorded legends about King Midas that associated him with or put his origin in Macedonia; Herodotus, for example, says a wild rose garden in Macedonia was named after Midas.
Some classical writers also connected the Phrygians with the Mygdones, the name of two groups of people, one of which lived in northern Macedonia and another in Mysia. Likewise, the Phrygians have been identified with the Bebryces, a people said to have warred with Mysia before the Trojan War and who had a king named Mygdon at roughly the same time as the Phrygians were said to have had a king named Mygdon.
The classical historian Strabo groups Phrygians, Mygdones, Mysians, Bebryces and Bithynians together as peoples that migrated to Anatolia from the Balkans. This image of Phrygians as part of a related group of northwest Anatolian cultures seems the most likely explanation for the confusion over whether Phrygians, Bebryces and Anatolian Mygdones were or were not the same people.
Phrygian language
Phrygian continued to be spoken until the 6th century AD, though its distinctive alphabet was lost earlier than those of most Anatolian cultures. One of the Homeric Hymns describes the Phrygian language as not mutually intelligible with that of Troy, and inscriptions found at Gordium make clear that Phrygians spoke an Indo-European language with at least some vocabulary similar to Greek. Phrygian clearly did not belong to the family of Anatolian languages spoken in most of the adjacent countries, such as Hittite. The apparent similarity of the Phrygian language to Greek and its dissimilarity with the Anatolian languages spoken by most of their neighbors is also taken as support for a European origin of the Phrygians.
From what is available, it is evident that Phrygian shares important features with Greek and Armenian. Phrygian is part of the centum group of Indo-European languages. However, between the 19th and the first half of the 20th century Phrygian was mostly considered a satəm language, and thus closer to Armenian and Thracian, while today it is commonly considered to be a centum language and thus closer to Greek. The reason that in the past Phrygian had the guise of a satəm language was due to two secondary processes that affected it. Namely, Phrygian merged the old labiovelar with the plain velar, and secondly, when in contact with palatal vowels /e/ and /i/, especially in initial position, some consonants became palatalized. Furthermore, Kortlandt (1988) presented common sound changes of Thracian and Armenian and their separation from Phrygian and the rest of the palaeo-Balkan languages from an early stage.
Modern consensus regards Greek as the closest relative of Phrygian, a position that is supported by Brixhe, Neumann, Matzinger, Woodhouse, Ligorio, Lubotsky, and Obrador-Cursach. Furthermore, 34 out of the 36 Phrygian isoglosses that are recorded are shared with Greek, with 22 being exclusive between them. The last 50 years of Phrygian scholarship developed a hypothesis that proposes a proto-Graeco-Phrygian stage out of which Greek and Phrygian originated, and if Phrygian was more sufficiently attested, that stage could perhaps be reconstructed.
Recent migration hypotheses
Some scholars dismiss the claim of a Phrygian migration as a mere legend, likely arising from the coincidental similarity of their name to the Bryges, and have theorized that migration into Phrygia could have occurred more recently than classical sources suggest. They have sought to fit the Phrygian arrival into a narrative explaining the downfall of the Hittite Empire and the end of the high Bronze Age in Anatolia,.
According to the "recent migration" theory, the Phrygians invaded just before or after the collapse of the Hittite Empire at the beginning of the 12th century BC, filling the political vacuum in central-western Anatolia, and may have been counted among the "Sea Peoples" that Egyptian records credit with bringing about the Hittite collapse. The so-called Handmade Knobbed Ware found in Western Anatolia during this period has been tentatively identified as an import connected to this invasion.
Relation to their Hittite predecessors
Some scholars accept as factual the Iliad'''s account that the Phrygians were established on the Sakarya River before the Trojan War, and thus must have been there during the later stages of the Hittite Empire, and probably earlier, and consequently dismiss proposals of recent immigration to Phrygia. These scholars seek instead to trace the Phrygians' origins among the many nations of western Anatolia who were subject to the Hittites. This interpretation also gets support from Greek legends about the founding of Phrygia's main city Gordium by Gordias and of Ancyra by Midas, which suggest that Gordium and Ancyra were believed to date from the distant past before the Trojan War.
No one has conclusively identified which of the many subjects of the Hittites might have represented early Phrygians. According to a classical tradition, popularized by Josephus, Phrygia can be equated with the country called Togarmah by the ancient Hebrews, which has in turn been identified as the Tegarama of Hittite texts and Til-Garimmu of Assyrian records. Josephus called Togarmah "the Thrugrammeans, who, as the Greeks resolved, were named Phrygians". However, the Greek source cited by Josephus is unknown, and it is unclear if there was any basis for the identification other than name similarity.
Scholars of the Hittites believe Tegarama was in eastern Anatolia – some locate it at Gurun – far to the east of Phrygia. Some scholars have identified Phrygia with the Assuwa league, and noted that the Iliad mentions a Phrygian (Queen Hecuba's brother) named Asios. Another possible early name of Phrygia could be Hapalla, the name of the easternmost province that emerged from the splintering of the Bronze Age western Anatolian empire Arzawa. However, scholars are unsure if Hapalla corresponds to Phrygia or to Pisidia, further south.
Relation to Armenians
Ancient Greek historian Herodotus (writing circa 440 BCE), suggested that Armenians migrated from Phrygia, which at the time encompassed much of western and central Anatolia: "the Armenians were equipped like Phrygians, being Phrygian colonists" (7.73) () According to Herotodus, the Phrygians had originated in the Balkans, in an area adjoining Macedonia, from where they had emigrated to Anatolia during the Bronze Age collapse. This led later scholars, such as Igor Diakonoff, to theorize that Armenians also originated in the Balkans and moved east with the Phrygians. However, an Armenian origin in the Balkans, although once widely accepted, has been facing increased scrutiny in recent years due to discrepancies in the timeline and lack of genetic and archeological evidence. In fact, some scholars have suggested that the Phrygians and/or the apparently related Mushki people were originally from Armenia and moved westward.
A number of linguists have rejected a close relationship between Armenian and Phrygian, despite saying that the two languages do share some features.Clackson, J. P. T., 2008, “Classical Armenian”, in Woodard,R. D., The Ancient Languages of Asia Minor, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 124–143Hamp, Eric P. (August 2013). "The Expansion of the Indo-European Languages: An Indo-Europeanist's Evolving View" (PDF). Sino-Platonic Papers. Phrygian is now classified as a centum language more closely related to Greek than Armenian, whereas Armenian is mostly satem.
History
Around the time of the Trojan war
According to the Iliad, the homeland of the Phrygians was on the Sangarius River, which would remain the centre of Phrygia throughout its history. Phrygia was famous for its wine and had "brave and expert" horsemen.
According to the Iliad, before the Trojan War, a young king Priam of Troy had taken an army to Phrygia to support it in a war against the Amazons. Homer calls the Phrygians "the people of Otreus and godlike Mygdon". According to Euripides, Quintus Smyrnaeus and others, this Mygdon's son, Coroebus, fought and died in the Trojan War; he had sued for the hand of the Trojan princess Cassandra in marriage. The name Otreus could be an eponym for Otroea, a place on Lake Ascania in the vicinity of the later Nicaea, and the name Mygdon is clearly an eponym for the Mygdones, a people said by Strabo to live in northwest Asia Minor, and who appear to have sometimes been considered distinct from the Phrygians. However, Pausanias believed that Mygdon's tomb was located at Stectorium in the southern Phrygian highlands, near modern Sandikli.
According to the Bibliotheca, the Greek hero Heracles slew a king Mygdon of the Bebryces in a battle in northwest Anatolia that if historical would have taken place about a generation before the Trojan War. According to the story, while traveling from Minoa to the Amazons, Heracles stopped in Mysia and supported the Mysians in a battle with the Bebryces. According to some interpretations, Bebryces is an alternate name for Phrygians and this Mygdon is the same person mentioned in the Iliad.
King Priam married the Phrygian princess Hecabe (or Hecuba) and maintained a close alliance with the Phrygians, who repaid him by fighting "ardently" in the Trojan War against the Greeks. Hecabe was a daughter of the Phrygian king Dymas, son of Eioneus, son of Proteus. According to the Iliad, Hecabe's younger brother Asius also fought at Troy (see above); and Quintus Smyrnaeus mentions two grandsons of Dymas that fell at the hands of Neoptolemus at the end of the Trojan War: "Two sons he slew of Meges rich in gold, Scion of Dymas – sons of high renown, cunning to hurl the dart, to drive the steed in war, and deftly cast the lance afar, born at one birth beside Sangarius' banks of Periboea to him, Celtus one, and Eubius the other." Teleutas, father of the maiden Tecmessa, is mentioned as another mythical Phrygian king.
There are indications in the Iliad that the heart of the Phrygian country was further north and downriver than it would be in later history. The Phrygian contingent arrives to aid Troy coming from Lake Ascania in northwest Anatolia, and is led by Phorcys and Ascanius, both sons of Aretaon.
In one of the so-called Homeric Hymns, Phrygia is said to be "rich in fortresses" and ruled by "famous Otreus".
Peak and destruction of the Phrygian kingdom
During the 8th century BC, the Phrygian kingdom with its capital at Gordium in the upper Sakarya River valley expanded into an empire dominating most of central and western Anatolia and encroaching upon the larger Assyrian Empire to its southeast and the kingdom of Urartu to the northeast.
According to the classical historians Strabo, Eusebius and Julius Africanus, the king of Phrygia during this time was another Midas. This historical Midas is believed to be the same person named as Mita in Assyrian texts from the period and identified as king of the Mushki. Scholars figure that Assyrians called Phrygians "Mushki" because the Phrygians and Mushki, an eastern Anatolian people, were at that time campaigning in a joint army. This Midas is thought to have reigned Phrygia at the peak of its power from about 720 BC to about 695 BC (according to Eusebius) or 676 BC (according to Julius Africanus). An Assyrian inscription mentioning "Mita", dated to 709 BC, during the reign of Sargon of Assyria, suggests Phrygia and Assyria had struck a truce by that time. This Midas appears to have had good relations and close trade ties with the Greeks, and reputedly married an Aeolian Greek princess.
A system of writing in the Phrygian language developed and flourished in Gordium during this period, using a Phoenician-derived alphabet similar to the Greek one. A distinctive Phrygian pottery called Polished Ware appears during this period.
However, the Phrygian Kingdom was then overwhelmed by Cimmerian invaders, and Gordium was sacked and destroyed. According to Strabo and others, Midas committed suicide by drinking bulls' blood.
A series of digs have opened Gordium as one of Turkey's most revealing archeological sites. Excavations confirm a violent destruction of Gordium around 675 BC. A tomb from the period, popularly identified as the "Tomb of Midas", revealed a wooden structure deeply buried under a vast tumulus, containing grave goods, a coffin, furniture, and food offerings (Archaeological Museum, Ankara).
As a Lydian province
After their destruction of Gordium, the Cimmerians remained in western Anatolia and warred with Lydia, which eventually expelled them by around 620 BC, and then expanded to incorporate Phrygia, which became the Lydian empire's eastern frontier. The Gordium site reveals a considerable building program during the 6th century BC, under the domination of Lydian kings including the proverbially rich King Croesus. Meanwhile, Phrygia's former eastern subjects fell to Assyria and later to the Medes.
There may be an echo of strife with Lydia and perhaps a veiled reference to royal hostages, in the legend of the twice-unlucky Phrygian prince Adrastus, who accidentally killed his brother and exiled himself to Lydia, where King Croesus welcomed him. Once again, Adrastus accidentally killed Croesus' son and then committed suicide.
As Persian province(s)
Some time in the 540s BC, Phrygia passed to the Achaemenid (Great Persian) Empire when Cyrus the Great conquered Lydia.
After Darius the Great became Persian Emperor in 521 BC, he remade the ancient trade route into the Persian "Royal Road" and instituted administrative reforms that included setting up satrapies. The Phrygian satrapy (province) lay west of the Halys River (now Kızıl River) and east of Mysia and Lydia. Its capital was established at Dascylium, modern Ergili.
In the course of the 5th century, the region was divided in two administrative satrapies: Hellespontine Phrygia and Greater Phrygia.
Under Alexander and his successors
The Macedonian Greek conqueror Alexander the Great passed through Gordium in 333 BC and severed the Gordian Knot in the temple of Sabazios ("Zeus"). According to a legend, possibly promulgated by Alexander's publicists, whoever untied the knot would be master of Asia. With Gordium sited on the Persian Royal Road that led through the heart of Anatolia, the prophecy had some geographical plausibility. With Alexander, Phrygia became part of the wider Hellenistic world. Upon Alexander's death in 323 BC, the Battle of Ipsus took place in 301 BC.
Celts and Attalids
In the chaotic period after Alexander's death, northern Phrygia was overrun by Celts, eventually to become the province of Galatia. The former capital of Gordium was captured and destroyed by the Gauls soon afterwards and disappeared from history.
In 188 BC, the southern remnant of Phrygia came under the control of the Attalids of Pergamon. However, the Phrygian language survived, although now written in the Greek alphabet.
Under Rome and Byzantium
In 133 BC, the remnants of Phrygia passed to Rome. For purposes of provincial administration, the Romans maintained a divided Phrygia, attaching the northeastern part to the province of Galatia and the western portion to the province of Asia. There is some evidence that western Phrygia and Caria were separated from Asia in 254–259 to become the new province of Phrygia and Caria. During the reforms of Diocletian, Phrygia was divided anew into two provinces: "Phrygia I", or Phrygia Salutaris (meaning "healthy" in Latin), and Phrygia II, or Pacatiana (Greek Πακατιανή, "peaceful"), both under the Diocese of Asia. Salutaris with Synnada as its capital comprised the eastern portion of the region and Pacatiana with Laodicea on the Lycus as capital of the western portion. The provinces survived up to the end of the 7th century, when they were replaced by the Theme system. In the Late Roman, early "Byzantine" period, most of Phrygia belonged to the Anatolic theme. It was overrun by the Turks in the aftermath of the Battle of Manzikert (1071). The Turks had taken complete control in the 13th century, but the ancient name of Phrygia remained in use until the last remnant of the Byzantine Empire was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1453.
Culture
The ruins of Gordion and Midas City prove that Phrygia had developed an advanced Bronze Age culture. This Phrygian culture interacted in a number of ways with Greek culture in various periods of history.
The "Great Mother", Cybele, as the Greeks and Romans knew her, was originally worshiped in the mountains of Phrygia, where she was known as "Mountain Mother". In her typical Phrygian form, she wears a long belted dress, a polos (a high cylindrical headdress), and a veil covering the whole body. The later version of Cybele was established by a pupil of Phidias, the sculptor Agoracritus, and became the image most widely adopted by Cybele's expanding following, both in the Aegean world and at Rome. It shows her humanized though still enthroned, her hand resting on an attendant lion and the other holding the tympanon, a circular frame drum, similar to a tambourine.
The Phrygians also venerated Sabazios, the sky and father-god depicted on horseback. Although the Greeks associated Sabazios with Zeus, representations of him, even in Roman times, show him as a horseman god. His conflicts with the indigenous Mother Goddess, whose creature was the Lunar Bull, may be surmised in the way that Sabazios' horse places a hoof on the head of a bull, in a Roman relief at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
The earliest traditions of Greek music derived from Phrygia, transmitted through the Greek colonies in Anatolia, and included the Phrygian mode, which was considered to be the warlike mode in ancient Greek music. Phrygian Midas, the king of the "golden touch", was tutored in music by Orpheus himself, according to the myth. Another musical invention that came from Phrygia was the aulos, a reed instrument with two pipes.
Marsyas, the satyr who first formed the instrument using the hollowed antler of a stag, was a Phrygian follower of Cybele. He unwisely competed in music with the Olympian Apollo and inevitably lost, whereupon Apollo flayed Marsyas alive and provocatively hung his skin on Cybele's own sacred tree, a pine. Phrygia was also the scene of another musical contest, between Apollo and Pan. Midas was either a judge or spectator, and said he preferred Pan's pipes to Apollo's lyre, and was given donkey's ears as a punishment. The two stories were often confused or conflated, as by Titian.
Classical Greek iconography identifies the Trojan Paris as non-Greek by his Phrygian cap, which was worn by Mithras and survived into modern imagery as the "Liberty cap" of the American and French revolutionaries.
The Phrygians spoke an Indo-European language. (See Phrygian language.) Although the Phrygians adopted the alphabet originated by the Phoenicians, only a few dozen inscriptions in the Phrygian language have been found, primarily funereal, and so much of what is thought to be known of Phrygia is second-hand information from Greek sources.
Mythic past
The name of the earliest known mythical king was Nannacus (aka Annacus). This king resided at Iconium, the most eastern city of the kingdom of Phrygia at that time; and after his death, at the age of 300 years, a great flood overwhelmed the country, as had been foretold by an ancient oracle. The next king mentioned in extant classical sources was called Manis or Masdes. According to Plutarch, because of his splendid exploits, great things were called "manic" in Phrygia. Thereafter, the kingdom of Phrygia seems to have become fragmented among various kings. One of the kings was Tantalus, who ruled over the north western region of Phrygia around Mount Sipylus. Tantalus was endlessly punished in Tartarus, because he allegedly killed his son Pelops and sacrificially offered him to the Olympians, a reference to the suppression of human sacrifice. Tantalus was also falsely accused of stealing from the lotteries he had invented. In the mythic age before the Trojan war, during a time of an interregnum, Gordius (or Gordias), a Phrygian farmer, became king, fulfilling an oracular prophecy. The kingless Phrygians had turned for guidance to the oracle of Sabazios ("Zeus" to the Greeks) at Telmissus, in the part of Phrygia that later became part of Galatia. They had been instructed by the oracle to acclaim as their king the first man who rode up to the god's temple in a cart. That man was Gordias (Gordios, Gordius), a farmer, who dedicated the ox-cart in question, tied to its shaft with the "Gordian Knot". Gordias refounded a capital at Gordium in west central Anatolia, situated on the old trackway through the heart of Anatolia that became Darius's Persian "Royal Road" from Pessinus to Ancyra, and not far from the River Sangarius.
The Phrygians are associated in Greek mythology with the Dactyls, minor gods credited with the invention of iron smelting, who in most versions of the legend lived at Mount Ida in Phrygia.
Gordias's son (adopted in some versions) was Midas. A large body of myths and legends surround this first king Midas. connecting him with a mythological tale concerning Attis. This shadowy figure resided at Pessinus and attempted to marry his daughter to the young Attis in spite of the opposition of his lover Agdestis and his mother, the goddess Cybele. When Agdestis and/or Cybele appear and cast madness upon the members of the wedding feast. Midas is said to have died in the ensuing chaos.
King Midas is said to have associated himself with Silenus and other satyrs and with Dionysus, who granted him a "golden touch".
In one version of his story, Midas travels from Thrace accompanied by a band of his people to Asia Minor to wash away the taint of his unwelcome "golden touch" in the river Pactolus. Leaving the gold in the river's sands, Midas found himself in Phrygia, where he was adopted by the childless king Gordias and taken under the protection of Cybele. Acting as the visible representative of Cybele, and under her authority, it would seem, a Phrygian king could designate his successor.
The Phrygian Sibyl was the priestess presiding over the Apollonian oracle at Phrygia.
According to Herodotus, the Egyptian pharaoh Psammetichus II had two children raised in isolation in order to find the original language. The children were reported to have uttered bekos'', which is Phrygian for "bread", so Psammetichus admitted that the Phrygians were a nation older than the Egyptians.
Christian period
Visitors from Phrygia were reported to have been among the crowds present in Jerusalem on the occasion of Pentecost as recorded in . In the Apostle Paul and his companion Silas travelled through Phrygia and the region of Galatia proclaiming the Christian gospel. Their plans appear to have been to go to Asia but circumstances or guidance, "in ways which we are not told, by inner promptings, or by visions of the night, or by the inspired utterances of those among their converts who had received the gift of prophecy" prevented them from doing so and instead they travelled westwards towards the coast.
The Christian heresy known as Montanism, and still known in Orthodoxy as "the Phrygian heresy", arose in the unidentified village of Ardabau in the 2nd century AD, and was distinguished by ecstatic spirituality and women priests. Originally described as a rural movement, it is now thought to have been of urban origin like other Christian developments. The new Jerusalem its adherents founded in the village of Pepouza has now been identified in a remote valley that later held a monastery.
See also
Ancient regions of Anatolia
Phrygians
Bryges
Paleo-Balkan languages
Phrygian cap
Phrygian language
References
Bibliography
External links
States and territories established in the 12th century BC
States and territories disestablished in the 7th century BC
Historical regions of Anatolia
Pauline churches
History of Ankara Province
History of Afyonkarahisar Province
History of Eskişehir Province |
7494699 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workbench%20%28AmigaOS%29 | Workbench (AmigaOS) | Workbench is the graphical file manager of AmigaOS developed by Commodore International for their Amiga line of computers. Workbench provides the user with a graphical interface to work with file systems and launch applications. It uses a workbench metaphor (in place of the more common desktop metaphor) for representing file system organisation.
Confusingly, "Workbench" was also the name originally given to the entire Amiga operating system up until version 3.1. From release 3.5 the operating system was renamed "AmigaOS" and subsequently "Workbench" refers to the native file manager only (similarly, "System" was the name given to Mac OS up until version 7.6).
Overview
The Amiga Workbench uses the metaphor of a workbench (i.e. a workbench for manual labor), rather than the now-standard desktop metaphor, for representing file system organization. The desktop itself is called Workbench and uses the following representations: drawers (instead of folders) for directories, tools for executable programs, projects for data files, and a trash can as a folder intended to contain deleted files. These representations may be considered somewhat unusual by a modern user, but at the time there were no commonly accepted metaphors and Commodore chose to use different idioms from their competitors (Apple had already pursued legal action to prevent other software companies from offering graphical user interfaces similar to its own).
Workbench is a spatial file manager in the sense that it uses a spatial metaphor to represent files and folders as if they are real physical objects. Under this concept, each drawer (folder) opens in its own window, rather than within a single browser under the now more common navigational concept.
Workbench utilizes the Amiga's native windowing system called Intuition to provide the graphical user interface. Intuition manages the rendering of screens, windows, and gadgets (graphical elements, equivalent to widgets). Later versions of AmigaOS enhanced the interface with more complex object-oriented widget systems, such as gadtools.library and BOOPSI (AmigaOS 2.0 and later) and ReAction (AmigaOS 3.5 and later). Intuition also handles user input events, such as, input from the keyboard and mouse. Workbench requires a two button mouse, where right click operates pull-down menus and left click is used for all other purposes.
The underlying AmigaOS allows the Workbench to launch multiple applications that can execute concurrently. This is achieved through Exec, the Amiga's multi-tasking kernel, which handles memory management, message passing, and task scheduling. Applications launched from Workbench could report their success back to Workbench, but this was not a requirement and few actually did.
Workbench itself has always been a disk-based component, though much of the underlying functionality is stored in the Amiga's Kickstart firmware, usually stored in ROM. As a consequence, it is necessary to boot from a system disk to launch Workbench. This setup streamlines the process of launching games (which typically do not require Workbench) and ensures that memory is not used unnecessarily by the OS in memory-limited systems.
Workbench was shipped with all Amiga models from Commodore. Workbench was provided either on floppy disk or later (as part of AmigaOS) on CD-ROM. Initially, Workbench was designed to be launched and operate from floppy disk (or other removable media). Later versions could be installed on hard disk, for which an installer was developed for use with AmigaOS 2.0 and later. AmigaOS (including Workbench) often came pre-installed on systems shipped with hard disks.
1985 Workbench 1.0
1990 Workbench 2.0
1992 Workbench 3.0
1994 Amiga OS 3.1
1999 Amiga OS 3.5
2000 Amiga OS 3.9
2006 Amiga OS 4.0
Versions
Up until release 3.1 of the Amiga's operating system, Commodore used Workbench to refer to the entire Amiga operating system. As a consequence Workbench was commonly used to refer to both the operating system and the file manager component. For end users Workbench was often synonymous with AmigaOS. From version 3.5 the OS was renamed "AmigaOS" and pre-3.5 versions were also retroactively referred to as "AmigaOS" (rather than Workbench). Subsequently, "Workbench" refers to the native graphical file manager only.
From its inception, Workbench offered a highly customizable interface. The user could change the aspect of program icons replacing it with newer ones with different color combinations. Users could also take a "snapshot" of icons and windows so the icons will remain on the desktop at coordinates chosen by user and windows will open at the desired size.
Workbench 1.x
Workbench 1.0 was released with the first Amiga, the Amiga 1000, in 1985. The 1.x versions of Workbench used a blue-and-orange color scheme, designed to give high contrast on even the worst of television screens (the colors can be changed by the user). Versions 1.1 consists mostly of bug fixes and, like version 1.0, was distributed for the Amiga 1000 only.
The display was highly customizable for the era. The user was free to create and modify system and user icons, while Atari TOS featured only default system icons whose appearance could not be modified and customizing icons on the Macintosh required using ResEdit. Icons can be of arbitrary size and design and can have two image states to produce a pseudo-animated effect when selected. Users could customize four display colours and choose from two resolutions: or (interlaced) on NTSC, or or on PAL systems. In later revisions, the TV or monitor overscan could be adjusted.
Several features were deprecated in later versions. For example, the gauge meter showing the free space on a file system was replaced with a percentage in Workbench 2.0. Under Workbench 1.x, right clicking on icons opens a display of the files metadata, whereas from Workbench 2.0 right clicking activates pull-down menus only. The default "busy" pointer (a comic balloon showing "Zzz...") was replaced with a stopwatch in later versions.
Workbench 2.0, 2.1
Workbench 2.0 was released with the launch of the Amiga 3000 in 1990. Until AmigaOS 2.0 there was no unified look and feel design standard and application developers had to write their own widgets (both buttons and menus) if they wished to enhance the already-meager selection of standard basic widgets provided by Intuition. With Workbench 2.0 gadtools.library was created, which provided standard widget sets. The Amiga User Interface Style Guide, was published which explained how applications should be laid out for consistency. Intuition was improved with BOOPSI (Basic Object Oriented Programming system for Intuition) which enhanced the system with an object-oriented interface to define a system of classes in which every class individuate a single widget or describes an interface event. It can be used to program object oriented interfaces into Amiga at any level. As of Workbench 2.0 all files became visible as icons without the need of associated .info files, thus streamlining the process of starting executables in the GUI.
Workbench 2.0 also added support for public screens. Instead of the Workbench screen being the only shareable screen, applications could create their own named screens to share with other applications.
Workbench 2.0 included and integrated ARexx, allowing users to control the system and other programs from user scripts.
Workbench 2.0 introduced AmigaGuide, a simple text-only hypertext markup scheme and browser, for providing online help inside applications. It also introduced Installer, a standard software installation program, driven by a LISP-like scripting language.
Finally, Workbench 2.0 rectified the problem of applications hooking directly into the input-events stream to capture keyboard and mouse movements, sometimes locking up the whole system. Workbench 2.0 provided Commodities, a standard interface for modifying or scanning input events. This included a standard method for specifying global "hotkey" key-sequences, and a Commodities Exchange registry for the user to see which commodities were running.
Workbench 3.0, 3.1
Version 3.0 was originally shipped with the Amiga 1200 and Amiga 4000 computers. Version 3.0 added datatype support and Workbench could load any background image in any format, as long as the required datatype was installed. This feature was also used in Multiview. Its capabilities were directly related to the datatypes installed in Devs:Datatypes. Localisation was added to allow Workbench, and any installed programs that had localisation, to appear in any supported language.
The established AmigaGuide hypertext system gained more usability by using document links pointing to mediafiles, for example pictures or sounds, all recognized by the datatypes.
Workbench 3.5, 3.9
Following Commodore's demise and around six years after Workbench 3.1 was released, Haage & Partner were commissioned to update AmigaOS, which was released in 1999 as a software-only update for existing systems.
The Workbench look and feel, though still largely based on the earlier 3.1 release, was revised somewhat, with an improved user interface based on ReAction, improved icon rendering and official support for true color backdrops. These releases included support for existing third-party GUI enhancements, such as NewIcons, by integrating these patches into the system. The 3.5 and 3.9 releases included a new set of 256-color icons and a choice of desktop wallpaper. These replaced the default all-metal gray 4/8 color scheme used on AmigaOS from release 2.0 to 3.1.
The 3.9 release of Workbench was again developed by Haage&Partner and released in 2000. The main improvements were the introduction of a program start bar called AmiDock, revised user interfaces for system settings and improved utility programs.
Workbench 4.0, 4.1
This new Workbench, called Workbench 4.0, has been rewritten to become fully PowerPC compatible. It was part of AmigaOS 4.0, and released in 2006.
Since the fourth Developer Pre-Release Update screens are now draggable in any direction. Drag and drop of Workbench icons between different screens is also possible.
Additionally, Workbench 4.0 includes a new version of Amidock, TrueType/OpenType fonts and movie player with DivX and MPEG-4 support.
In AmigaOS 4.1, a new Startup preferences feature was added which replaced the WBStartup drawer. Additional enhancements include: a new icon set to complement higher screen resolutions, new window themes including drop shadows, AmiDock with true transparency, scalable icons, and a Workbench auto-update feature.
Workbench icons
The icons that Workbench uses to represent the files in a volume or a drawer are stored in special .info files, with the name of the .info file matching the name of the file it represents. For example, the icon for NotePad, a text editor, is found in the file NotePad.info. This .info extension is the only file extension required by AmigaOS.
The .info file contains the icon image and its spatial position within its parent window. The icon also specifies the type of the file, as used by Workbench. Workbench recognises five different file types:
Tool: An executable program.
Project: A data file of an executable program. The program which created the file is named in the icon file; double-clicking on the icon loads the program that created it.
Drawer: A directory containing files, and other drawers.
Volume: A physical disk or a RAM disk.
Garbage: The Trashcan – a deleted file backup, which works in a similar way to the 'Recycle bin' in Microsoft Windows.
An additional three file types are available and are intended for future expansion:
Device: designed for displaying information about attached devices.
Kick: The icon of a bootable disk.
App Icon: An icon which will be used as (part of) the GUI for an application.
Of these three file types, only "App Icons" currently are used by any part of Workbench/AmigaOS.
While an icon may represent or suggest a file type, the type of the related file is specified by its very own properties, along with the restrictions (AmigaDOS: protection flags) given to this file. For example, if you add a tool icon to a text document file, AmigaOS will tell you the file "is not executable" or "is not of required type" as it has no 'e'-protection-flag (AmigaDOS: Hold, Script, Pure, Archived, Read, Writeable, Executable, Deletable) nor does it have the startup header of an executable. Also, stripping an 'application' from its counterpart icon file (application.info) will not render this application useless; it still remains executable, it will run, only missing the (required) options and arguments delivered from workbench via icons "tool types", e.g. stack size, public screen, etc.
Starting in Workbench 2.x, a file without a .info counterpart (such as a file on non-native media) is represented by the default system icon for one of the five types listed above. These default icons are also customizable. Icon-less files are only displayed in this manner if the drawer is configured to [Show All Files] – if this option is not set (which is the case in Workbench 1.x), such files will not appear at all and can only be seen from a CLI.
Tool (application) files can include "tool types" in the .info file. These are used as configuration options for the program. Each tool type is a single line of text, which can optionally include parameters written after an = sign. Tool types can be commented out by writing them in parentheses. For example, the tooltype "CX_POPKEY=ctrl alt f1" defines that the application (a Commodity) will activate the user interface in response to the key sequence Ctrl-Alt-F1.
The colours used in the icon are normally only stored as indices to the Amiga Workbench screen's current palette. Because of this, the icons' colour scheme is inherently tied to the chosen hues in the screen's palette, and choosing non-standard colours can give the icons an ugly appearance. This problem was partly solved by a third-party system called NewIcons, which adds additional features to the standard .info files. Unlike normal Workbench icons, NewIcons include actual RGB colour information, and the system tries its best to match the icons' colour hues to those in the screen palette.
Since AmigaOS 3.5, Workbench supports icons with up to 256 colors. This release of AmigaOS features the GlowIcons icon set by Matt Chaput. With AmigaOS 3.5, a screen-palette-independent system is used. The 4.0 icons, designed by Martin Merz, can use a 24-bit palette.
Both AROS and MorphOS support PNG icons natively. PNG allows using full 24-bit palette with alpha blending. On Amiga Workbench PNG icons are supported through plugins.
Comparison to other file managers
In comparison to the competing Mac OS and Atari, the early Amiga Workbench (pre-Workbench 2.04) featured, as the default, a 4 color blue desktop screen with color icons at NTSC American standard or on European PAL television sets, in contrast to the black and white interface presented by the Mac. The Amiga user was also free to create and modify system and program icons, while Atari TOS featured only default system icons whose appearance could not be modified.
Workbench contributed many other unique features/philosophies to intuitive GUI design (starting with version 2.04/2.1):
Menu item indenting, which immediately indicated the item was a "toggle" function, eliminating guesswork for the user.
The concept of tri-level information using bevel shading to simulate a 3d appearance. Indented controls indicated information-only text, surface-level controls represented labels for GUI elements, and raised GUI elements indicated data editable by, or interactive with, the user.
Much like the "File" and "Edit" menus became standard on most GUIs, Workbench implemented the concept of a "Settings" menu designed to standardize the location for all options within an application.
Standardized buttons for OS-level preferences or settings dialog boxes through "Save", "Use", and "Cancel" provided a simple and consistent means for short- and long-term settings use.
Standardized preference settings for user-level import and export through a ".prefs" extension and file format.
Commodities Exchange: a consistent programming standard and GUI for easy launch, control, and removal of all TSRs or background-process utilities/mini-apps.
Datatypes: a modular and user-customizable data identification system that the OS used to recognize, launch, edit, and provide a means of importing and exporting data between OS and applications alike.
Locale: an OS and application-wide GUI that provided the means for implementing user-selectable language, time, and other locale-specific settings.
Criticisms
The freedom in customization and the multitude of color settings and aspects available to the user were sometimes seen as chaotic. Customization permitted icons of a vastly different size and appearance than those of the original system icons. Before Workbench 2.0, there were no user interface design guidelines, so the look and feel of menu options could be different from one application to the next (i.e. the layout of basic items like Load, Save, Open, Close, Quit, etc.). This was seen as a problem with the Amiga by its detractors. The historical GUI site GUIdebook calls Amiga Workbench a "unique (if slightly chaotic) GUI for Amiga machines".
Use in fictional media
The Ren'py visual novel Digital: A Love Story uses an Amiga Workbench 1.0 design (known as Amie Workbench within the game).
See also
Ambient
Wanderer
Notes
Image included in this article it is intended for fair use. Neither Hyperion VOF (Belgium), nor Amiga Inc. (USA) have previously opposed publishing screenshots donated by users. Owners of Copyrights are free to register and write in the talk page of this article to ask for the removing of this image from article, and to ask also for its deletion from Wikipedia images.
References
External links
The Amiga Workbench Simulation
The Workbench Nostalgia Page
Amiga University – Amiga Workbench Replacements
All versions of Workbench explained on AmigaHistory site
In the Beginning Was CAOS, by Andy Finkel (updated version of 1988 Amiga Transactor article)
Name of the Amiga Operating System explained on Amiga Forever site
AmigaOS
Desktop environments
File managers
Graphical user interfaces
it:AmigaOS#Workbench |
77664 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CompuServe | CompuServe | CompuServe (CompuServe Information Service, also known by its initialism CIS) was an American online service provider, the first major commercial one in the United States – described in 1994 as "the oldest of the Big Three information services (the others are Prodigy and America Online)."
It dominated the field during the 1980s and remained a major influence through the mid-1990s. At its peak in the early 1990s, CIS was known for its online chat system, message forums covering a variety of topics, extensive software libraries for most computer platforms, and a series of popular online games, notably MegaWars III and Island of Kesmai. It also was known for its introduction of the GIF format for pictures and as a GIF exchange mechanism.
In 1997, 17 years after H&R Block had acquired CIS, the parent announced its desire to sell the company. A complex deal was worked out with WorldCom acting as a broker, resulting in CIS being sold to AOL. In 2015, Verizon acquired AOL, including its CompuServe division. In 2017, after Verizon completed its acquisition of Yahoo!, CompuServe became part of Verizon's newly formed Oath Inc. subsidiary.
History
Founding
CompuServe was founded in 1969 as Compu-Serv Network, Inc. in Columbus, Ohio, as a subsidiary of Golden United Life Insurance. Their focus was on business customers.
Though Golden United founder Harry Gard Sr.'s son-in-law Jeffrey Wilkins is widely miscredited as the first president of CompuServe, its first president was actually John R. Goltz. Wilkins replaced Goltz as CEO within the first year of operation. Goltz and Wilkins were both graduate students in electrical engineering at the University of Arizona. Other early recruits from the University included Sandy Trevor (inventor of the CompuServe CB Simulator chat system), Doug Chinnock, and Larry Shelley.
The company's objectives were twofold: to provide in-house computer processing support to Golden United Life Insurance; and to develop as an independent business in the computer time-sharing industry, by renting time on its PDP-10 midrange computers during business hours. It was spun off as a separate company in 1975, trading on the NASDAQ under the symbol CMPU.
Concurrently, the company recruited executives who shifted the focus from offering time-sharing services, in which customers wrote their own applications, to one that was focused on packaged applications. The first of these new executives was Robert Tillson, who left Service Bureau Corporation (then a subsidiary of Control Data Corporation, but originally formed as a division of IBM) to become CompuServe's Executive Vice President of Marketing. He then recruited Charles McCall (who followed Jeff Wilkins as CEO, and later became CEO of medical information firm HBO & Co.), Maury Cox (who became CEO after the departure of McCall), and Robert Massey (who followed Cox as CEO).
In 1977, CompuServe's board changed the company's name to CompuServe Incorporated. In 1979, it began "offering a dial-up online information service to consumers." In 1980, H&R Block acquired CompuServe.
Technology
The original 1969 dial-up technology was fairly simple—the local phone number in Cleveland, for example, was a line connected to a time-division multiplexer that connected via a leased line to a matched multiplexer in Columbus that was connected to a time-sharing host system. In the earliest buildups, each line terminated on a single machine at CompuServe's host, so different numbers had to be used to reach different computers.
Later, the central multiplexers in Columbus were replaced with PDP-8 minicomputers, and the PDP-8s were connected to a DEC PDP-15 minicomputer that acted as switches so a phone number was not tied to a particular destination host. Finally, CompuServe developed its own packet switching network, implemented on DEC PDP-11 minicomputers acting as network nodes that were installed throughout the US (and later, in other countries) and interconnected. Over time, the CompuServe network evolved into a complicated multi-tiered network incorporating asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), frame relay (FR), Internet Protocol (IP) and X.25 technologies.
In 1981, The Times explained CompuServe's technology in one sentence:
CompuServe is offering a video-text-like service permitting personal computer users to retrieve software from the mainframe computer over telephone lines.
The New York Times described them as "the most international of the Big Three" and noted that "it can be reached by a local phone call in more than 700 cities".
CompuServe was also a world leader in other commercial services. One of these was the Financial Services group, which collected and consolidated financial data from myriad data feeds, including CompuStat, Disclosure, I/B/E/S as well as the price/quote feeds from the major exchanges. CompuServe developed extensive screening and reporting tools that were used by many investment banks on Wall Street.
CIS
In 1979, Radio Shack marketed the residential information service MicroNET, in which home users accessed the computers during evening hours, when the CompuServe computers were otherwise idle. Its success prompted CompuServe to drop the MicroNET name in favor of its own. CompuServe's origin was approximately concurrent with that of The Source.
Both services were operating in early 1979, being the first online services. MicroNet was made popular through the Issue 2 of Commodore Disk User (February 1988), which included instructions on how to connect and run MicroNet programs.
By the mid-1980s, CompuServe was one of the largest information and networking services companies, and it was the largest consumer information service. It operated commercial branches in more than 30 US cities, selling primarily network services to major corporations throughout the United States. Consumer accounts could be bought in most computer stores (a box with an instruction manual and a trial account login) and awareness of this service was extremely high. By 1987, the consumer side would be 50% of CompuServe revenues.
The corporate culture was entrepreneurial, encouraging "skunkworks projects". Alexander "Sandy" Trevor secluded himself for a weekend, writing the "CB Simulator", a chat system that soon became one of CIS's most popular features. Instead of hiring employees to manage the forums, they contracted with sysops, who received compensation based on the success of their own forum's boards, libraries, and chat areas.
Newspapers
In July 1980, working with Associated Press, CompuServe began hosting text versions of the Columbus Dispatch. The New York Times, Virginian-Pilot and Ledger Star, The Washington Post, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Chronicle, and Los Angeles Times were added in 1981; additional newspapers followed.
Although accessing articles in these newspapers made up 5% of CompuServe's traffic, reading an entire newspaper using this method was impractical; the text of a $0.20 print edition newspaper would take two to six hours to download at a cost of $5 per hour (after 6 p.m.).
Selling connectivity
Another major unit of CompuServe, the CompuServe Network Services, was formed in 1982 to generate revenue by selling connectivity on the nationwide packet network CompuServe had built to support its time-sharing service. CompuServe designed and manufactured its own network processors, based on the DEC PDP-11, and wrote all the software that ran in the network. Often (and erroneously) called an X.25 network, the CompuServe network implemented a mixture of standardized and proprietary layers throughout the network.
One of the proprietary layers was called Adaptive Routing. The Adaptive Routing system implemented two powerful features. One is that the network operated entirely in a self-discovery mode. When a new switch was added to the network by connecting it to a neighbor via a leased telephone circuit, the new switch was discovered and absorbed into the network without explicit configuration. To change the network configuration, all that was needed was to add or remove connections, and the network would automatically reconfigure. The second feature implemented by Adaptive Routing was often talked about in network engineering circles, but was implemented only by CNS - establishing connection paths on the basis of real-time performance measurements. As one circuit became busy, traffic was diverted to alternative paths to prevent overloading and poor performance for users.
While the CNS network was not itself based on the X.25 protocol, the network presented a standard X.25 interface to the outside world, providing dialup connectivity to corporate hosts, and allowing CompuServe to form alliances with private networks Tymnet and Telenet, among others. This gave CompuServe the largest selection of local dial-up phone connections in the world, in an era when network usage charges were expensive, but still lower than long-distance charges. Other networks permitted CompuServe access to still more locations, including international locations, usually with substantial connect-time surcharges. It was common in the early 1980s to pay a $30-per-hour charge to connect to CompuServe, which at the time cost $5 to $6 per hour before factoring in the connect-time surcharges. This resulted in the company being nicknamed CompuSpend, Compu$erve or CI$.
CNS has been the primary supplier of dial-up communications for credit-card authorizations for more than 20 years, a competence developed through its long relationship with Visa International. At the peak of this line of business, CompuServe carried millions of authorization transactions each month, representing several billion dollars of consumer purchase transactions. For many businesses an always-on connection was an extravagance, and a dialup option made better sense. Today this service remains in operation, deeply embedded within Verizon (see below). There are no other competitors remaining in this market.
The company was notable for introducing a number of online services to personal computer users. CompuServe began offering electronic mail capabilities and technical support to commercial customers in 1978 under the name Infoplex, and was also a pioneer in the real-time chat market with its CB Simulator service introduced on February 21, 1980 as the first public, commercial multi-user chat program. Introduced in 1985, EaasySABRE, a customer-accessible extension of the Sabre travel system, made it possible for individuals to find and book airline flights and hotel rooms without the help of a travel agent. CompuServe also introduced a number of online games.
File transfers
Around 1981, CompuServe introduced its CompuServe B protocol, a file-transfer protocol, allowing users to send files to each other. This was later expanded to the higher-performance B+ version, intended for downloads from CIS itself. Although the B+ protocol was not widely supported by other software, it was used by default for some time on CIS itself. The B+ protocol was later extended to include the Host-Micro Interface (HMI), a mechanism for communicating commands and transaction requests to a server application running on the mainframes. HMI could be used by "front end" client software to present a GUI-based interface to CIS, without having to use the error-prone CLI to route commands.
CompuServe began to expand its reach outside the United States. It entered the international arena in Japan in 1986 with Fujitsu and Nissho Iwai, and developed a Japanese-language version of CompuServe called NIFTY-Serve in 1989. In 1993, CompuServe Hong Kong was launched in a joint venture with Hutchison Telecom and was able to acquire 50,000 customers before the dialup ISP frenzy. Between 1994 and 1995 Fujitsu and CompuServe co-developed WorldsAway, an interactive virtual world. As of 2014 the original world that launched on CompuServe in 1995, known as the Dreamscape, is still operating.
In the late 1980s, it was possible to log on to CompuServe via worldwide X.25 packet switching networks, which bridged onto CompuServe's existing US-based network. Gradually it introduced its own direct dial-up access network in many countries, a more economical solution. With its network expansion, CompuServe also extended the marketing of its commercial services, opening branches in London and Munich.
Internet
CompuServe was the first online service to offer Internet connectivity, albeit with limited access, as early as 1989 when it connected its proprietary e-mail service to allow incoming and outgoing messages to be exchanged with Internet-based e-mail addresses.
In the early 1990s, CompuServe had hundreds of thousands of users visiting its thousands of moderated forums, forerunners to the discussion sites on the Web. (Like the Web, many forums were managed by independent producers who then administered the forum and recruited moderators, called sysops.) Among these were many in which hardware and software companies offered customer support. This broadened the audience from primarily business users to the technical "geek" crowd, some of whom migrated over from Byte Magazines Bix online service.
There were special forums, special groups, but many had "relatively large premiums" (as did "some premium data bases" with charges of "$7.50 each time you enter a search request.")
In 1992, CompuServe hosted the first known WYSIWYG e-mail content and forum posts. Fonts, colors and emoticons were encoded into 7-bit text-based messages via the third party product NavCIS (Dvorak Development) running on DOS and Windows 3.1, and later, Windows 95 operating systems. NavCIS included features for offline work, similar to offline readers used with bulletin board systems, allowing users to connect to the service and exchange new mail and forum content in a largely automated fashion. Once the "run" was complete, the user edited their messages locally while offline. The system also allowed interactive navigation of the system to support services like the chat system. Many of these services remained text based.
CompuServe later introduced CompuServe Information Manager (CIM) to compete more directly with AOL. Unlike Navigator, CIM was tuned for online work, and used a point-and-click interface very similar to AOLs. Later versions interacted with the hosts using the HMI communications protocol. For some areas of the service which did not support HMI, the older text-based interface could be used. WinCIM also allowed caching of forum messages, news articles and e-mail, so that reading and posting could be performed offline, without incurring hourly connect costs. Previously, this was a luxury of the NavCIS, AutoSIG and TapCIS applications for power users.
One of the big advantages of CIS over the Internet was that the users could purchase services and software from other CompuServe members using their CompuServe account. At this time, the Internet backbone was operated by NSFnet, and use of Internet accounts for commercial activity was prohibited.
During the early 1990s the hourly rate fell from over $10 per hour to $1.95 per hour. In March 1992, it launched online signups with credit card based payments and a desktop application to connect online and check emails. In April 1995, CompuServe topped three million members, still the largest online service provider, and launched its NetLauncher service, providing WWW access capability via the Spry Mosaic browser. AOL, however, introduced a far cheaper flat-rate, unlimited-time, advertisement-supported price plan in the US to compete with CompuServe's hourly charges. In conjunction with AOL's marketing campaigns, this caused a significant loss of customers until CompuServe responded with a similar plan of its own at $24.95 per month in late 1997.
As the World Wide Web grew in popularity with the general public, company after company closed their once-busy CompuServe customer support forums to offer customer support to a larger audience directly through company websites, an area which the CompuServe forums of the time could not address because they had not yet introduced universal WWW access.
In 1992, CompuServe acquired Mark Cuban's company, MicroSolutions, for $6 million.
AOL's entry into the PC market in 1991 marked the beginning of the end for CIS. AOL charged $2.95 an hour versus $5.00 an hour for CompuServe. AOL used a freely available GUI-based client; CompuServe's wasn't free, and it only supported a subset of the system's functionality. In response, CIS lowered its hourly rates on several occasions. Subsequently, AOL switched to a monthly subscription instead of hourly rates, so for active users AOL was much less expensive. By late 1994, CompuServe was offering "unlimited use of the standard services (including news, sports, weather ... and limited electronic mail" for $8.95 per month - what The New York Times called "probably the best deal."
CIS' number of users grew, peaking in April 1995 at 3 million worldwide. By this point AOL had over 20 million users in the United States alone, but this was off their peak of 27 million, due to customers leaving for lower-cost offerings. By 1997 the number of users leaving all online services for dialup Internet service providers was reaching a climax.
In 1997, CompuServe began converting its forums from its proprietary Host-Micro Interface (HMI) to HTML web standards. The 1997 change discontinued text based access to the forums, but the forums were accessible both through the web as well as through CompuServe's proprietary HMI protocol. In 2004 CompuServe discontinued HMI and converted the forums to web access only. The forums remained active on CompuServe.com until the end of 2017.
Acquisitions
CompuServe made a number of acquisitions in its history, both before and after being acquired by H&R Block:
Early 1970s - Alpha Systems of Dallas, TX, a small regional timesharing company which was also based on PDP-10 technology. It was operated as a standalone company for a short time, but later their PDP-10 was moved to CompuServe's Columbus OH datacenter and the Dallas operation shut down
~1986 - Software House - developer of System 1022, a relational database system
~1986 - Collier-Jackson - developer of human resource management products
1988 - Access Technology - developer of the 20/20 spreadsheet program
1995 - Spry, Inc. - developer of Internet in a Box, the first consumer Internet suite.
MBA - Military Brats of America
Compuserve had a special military section to help veterans and military brats, both members and non-members of the 1994-founded Military Brats of America (MBA) to connect. Later on, MBA established a bulletin board within the Vietnam Veterans of America's AOL portal.
CompuServe UK
Before the widespread adoption of the Internet and World Wide Web, the United Kingdom's first national major-brands online shopping service was developed by the UK arm of CompuServe/CIS as part of its proprietary closed-system collection of consumer services.
Andrew Gray set up CompuServe UK's operations as the European arm of the US company back in the late 1980s and later became the company's European general manager, while David Gilroy was CompuServe's UK director of customer services. The service continued to grow and offered technical support managed by Suzanne Gautier and sales managed by Colin Campbell.
The service was proposed by Paul Stanfield, an independent business-to-consumer electronic commerce consultant, to Martin Turner, Product Marketing Director for CIS UK, in August 1994. Turner agreed and the project started in September with rapid market research, product development and sales of online space to major UK retail and catalogue companies. These included WH Smith, Tesco, Virgin/Our Price, Great Universal Stores/GUS, Interflora, Dixons Retail, Past Times, PC World (retailer) and Innovations.
The service launched on Thursday April 27, 1995 with Paul Stanfield's purchase of a book from the WH Smith shop. This was a repeat of the first formal test of the service on February 9, 1995, which included secure payment and subsequent fulfilment of the order by Royal Mail postal delivery. Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG), the UK's industry association for e-retailing, believes that the UK's first national shopping service secure online transaction was the purchase of a WH Smith book from the CompuServe centre.
Approximately 1,000,000 UK customers had access to the shops at that time and it was British retailers' first major exposure to the medium. Other retailers joined the service soon after and included Sainsbury's Wine and Jaguar Cars (branded lifestyle goods).
CompuServe UK commissioned writer Sue Schofield to produce a 'retail' pack including a new UK CompuServe Book and a free CD-ROM containing the CIS software to access the service.
CompuServe, with its closed private network system, was slow to react to the rapid development of the open World Wide Web and it was not long before major UK retailers started to develop their own web sites independently of CompuServe.
User IDs and e-mail addresses
The original CompuServe user IDs consisted of seven octal digits in the form 7xxxx,xx - a legacy of PDP-10 architecture - (later eight and nine octal digits in the form 7xxxx,xxx and 7xxxx,xxxx and finally ten octal digits in the form 1xxxxx,xxxx) that were generated in advance and issued on printed "Snap Paks".
From 1989, CompuServe users had email access to the Internet, using their user ID in the form [email protected] - where the comma in the original ID was replaced with a period. In 1996, users were allowed to create an alias for their Internet e-mail address, which could also be used for a personal web page; the longest-term members were allowed first choice of the new addresses. In 1998, users were offered the option of switching their mailbox to a newer system that provided POP3 access via the Internet, so that any Internet mail program could be used. Current CompuServe email addresses look like [email protected] for users of the CompuServe 2000 service.
Custom portals
CompuServe has a long history offering a custom portal of the CompuServe Information Service to the airline industry. Beginning in the 1970s, CompuServe offered a customized version of its service that allows pilots and flight attendants to bid for flight schedules with their airline. CompuServe offered customized solutions to other industries as well, including a service called CompuServe for Lawyers; another was "the African-American Culture and Arts Forum."
As part of CompuServe 2000, another customized portal made "a 2-year deal ... with WebMD, an Internet healthcare startup for physicians and consumers."
Market share
Long the largest online service provider, by 1987 CompuServe had 380,000 subscribers, compared to 320,000 at the Dow Jones News/Retrieval, 80,000 at The Source, and 70,000 at GEnie.
CompuServe had 3 million worldwide users at its peak, compared to AOL's 27 million. By early 1999, many home users had switched to standard dial-up Internet access, and CompuServe had slipped to "2 million largely business professional users."
Technology and law
One popular use of CompuServe in the 1980s was file exchange, particularly pictures. Indeed, in 1985 it hosted perhaps the first online comic in the world, Witches and Stitches. CompuServe introduced a simple black-and-white image format known as RLE (run-length-encoding) to standardize the images so they could be shared among different microcomputer platforms. With the introduction of more powerful machines, universally supporting color, CompuServe introduced the much more capable GIF format, invented by Steve Wilhite. GIF went on to become the de facto standard for 8-bit images on the Internet in the early and mid-1990s.
CompuServe, and its outside telecommunications attorney, Randy May, led the appeals before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to exempt data networks from having to pay the Common Carrier Access Charge (CCAC) that was levied by the telephone Local Exchange Carriers (primarily the Baby Bell companies) on long-distance carriers. The primary argument was that data networking was a brand new industry, and the country would be better served by not exposing this important new industry to the aberrations of the voice telephone economics (the CCAC is the mechanism used to subsidize the cost of local telephone service from long-distance revenue). The FCC agreed with CompuServe's position, and the consequence is that all dial-up networking in the United States, whether on private networks or the public Internet, is much less expensive than it otherwise would have been.
Legal cases
In 1991, CompuServe was sued for defamation in one of the early cases testing the application of traditional law on the Internet in Cubby v. CompuServe. Although defamatory content was posted on one of its forums, CompuServe was not liable for this content because it was unaware of the content and did not exercise editorial control over the forum.
A November 1993 copyright infringement lawsuit regarding "about 900 songs" was settled two years later with payment, to be divided "among publishers whose songs were involved."
In 1995, CompuServe blocked access to sex-oriented newsgroups after being pressured by Bavarian prosecutors. In 1997, after CompuServe reopened the newsfeeds, Felix Somm, the former managing director for CompuServe Germany, was charged with violating German child pornography laws because of the material CompuServe's network was carrying into Germany.
He "was first convicted, in November 1997" and after another hearing sentenced to two years' probation on May 28, 1998. He was cleared on appeal on November 17, 1999.
See also
CompuServe Inc. v. Cyber Promotions, Inc.
CompuServe, Inc. v. Patterson
Wow! (styled WOW!) was an online service run by CompuServe, starting in March 1996; closure was announced by November of the same year, to be effective the end of January 1997.
Among the promised features were "the first Internet service to be offered with a monthly 'unlimited' rate ($17.95)." Software bugs, random shutdowns of the service, and loss of email messages, limited the service to a small, but very loyal fan base. It closed January 31, 1997.
Post shutdown Wow! history
Several class-action lawsuits were filed, claiming that WOW! was sold to stockholders with false and misleading information. Wow! was supposed to make the company competitive with AOL – "a proprietary service aimed at families and novice computer users." The Wow! Information Service, announced in late 1995, was supposed to commence with Microsoft Windows 95 SR2, the first to include Internet Explorer. Knowing that bundling their browser would be considered anti-competitive, Microsoft also planned to bundle installers for several major ISPs into Windows, but CompuServe's software was not ready.
Wow.com domain
AOL retained the wow.com domain name after it acquired CompuServe, and kept it dormant from the shut-down of Wow! until 2007. In mid-2007, AOL considered moving its Digg-style news aggregator, then hosted at Netscape.com, to wow.com, before ultimately moving it to Propeller.com. Toward the end of the year, AOL was reportedly working on using the domain for a social networking service focused on the popular online role-playing game World of Warcraft.
From October 2010 until its 2015 shut-down, some of that was moved to a subdomain of Joystiq. The wow.com domain was simultaneously relaunched as a deal of the day site similar to Groupon. However, that site was also short-lived, shutting down in late 2011.
As of January 2019, wow.com is a search engine powered by Bing, using the same back-end as AOL Search, which is now part of Oath Inc.
WorldCom acquisition and deal with AOL
The battle for customers between AOL and CompuServe became one of handing customers back and forth, using free hours and other enticements. There were technical problems—the thousands of new generation U.S. Robotics dialup modems deployed in the network would crash under high call volumes. For the first time in decades, CompuServe began losing money, and at a prodigious rate. An effort, code-named "Red-Dog", was initiated to convert CompuServe's long-time PDP-10 based technologies over to servers based on Intel x86 architectures and the Microsoft Windows NT operating system.
Parent H&R Block was going through its own management changes at the same time, beginning with the retirement of CEO Henry Bloch. A series of successors ensued. In 1997, H&R Block announced its intention to divest itself of CompuServe. A number of potential buyers came to the forefront, but the terms they offered were unacceptable to management. AOL, the most likely buyer, made several offers to purchase CompuServe using AOL stock, but H&R Block management sought cash, or at least a higher quality stock.
In February 1998, John W. Sidgmore, then vice chairman of WorldCom, and the former CEO of UUNET, devised a complex transaction which ultimately met the goals of all parties. Step one was that WorldCom purchased all the shares of CompuServe with $1.2 billion of WCOM stock. The next day, WorldCom sold the CompuServe Information Service portion of the company to AOL, retaining the CompuServe Network Services portion. AOL in turn sold its networking division, Advanced Network Services (ANS), to WorldCom. Sidgmore said that at this point the world was in balance: the accountants were doing taxes, AOL was doing information services, and WorldCom was doing networks.
WorldCom's newly acquired CompuServe Network Services was renamed WorldCom Advanced Networks, and continued to operate as a discrete company within WorldCom after being combined with AOL's network subsidiary, ANS, and an existing WorldCom networking company called Gridnet. In 1999, Worldcom acquired MCI and became MCI WorldCom, WorldCom Advanced Networks briefly became MCI WorldCom Advanced Networks. MCI WorldCom Advanced Networks was ultimately absorbed into UUNET. Soon thereafter, WorldCom began its spiral to bankruptcy, re-emerging as MCI. In 2006, MCI was sold to Verizon. As a result, the organization that had once been the networking business within CompuServe is now part of Verizon Business.
In the process of splitting CompuServe into its two major businesses, CompuServe Information Services and CompuServe Network Services, WorldCom and AOL both desired to make use of the CompuServe name and trademarks. Consequently, a jointly owned holding company was formed for no other purpose than to hold title to various trademarks, patents and other intellectual property, and to license that intellectual property at no cost to both WorldCom (now Verizon) and AOL.
In 2015, when Verizon acquired AOL, all of CompuServe's original properties were reunited under Verizon.
Post-AOL acquisition
In September 2003 CompuServe Information Service, which had become a division of AOL, added CompuServe Basic to its product lines, selling via Netscape.com.
CIS was then positioned as the value market-provider for several million customers, as part of the AOL Web Products Group. Recent U.S. versions of the CompuServe client software — essentially an enhanced Web browser — used the Gecko layout engine (developed for Mozilla) within a derivative of the AOL client and using the AOL dialup network. The previous CompuServe service offering, re-branded as "CompuServe Classic", remained available in the US and also in other countries where CompuServe 2000 was not offered, such as the UK. In Germany, CompuServe 2000 was introduced in 1999 and withdrawn in 2001 because of failure on the German market, but CompuServe Classic service remained for a while. CompuServe Germany introduced its own products for dialup and DSL internet access, and its own client software (called CompuServe 4.5 light).
2007 and beyond
In January 2007, CompuServe e-mailed members that Windows Vista was not supported, and suggested switching to the AOL-branded service. Like many older programs, however, CompuServe client software can run under Windows Vista in compatibility mode. In July 2007, CompuServe Pacific announced cessation as of August 31, 2007. In September 2007, it was announced that CompuServe France would close down its operations on November 30, 2007. In the Pacific region (Australia, New Zealand, etc.) Fujitsu Australia ran the CompuServe Pacific franchise, which in 1998 had 35,000 customers. Towards the end of its operations in that area, it was thought to have far fewer because of CompuServe Pacific's pricing plans, which have not been changed since 1998 (e.g., A$14.95 for 2 hours per month). In July 2008, CompuServe Germany informed its customers that it would close down its operations on July 31, 2008. Its legacy service "CompuServe Classic" would not be affected by this decision.
CompuServe forums are more tightly linked to CompuServe channels. Compuserve.com currently runs a slightly trimmed-down version of the now-defunct Netscape.com Web portal, the latter of which was shut down in 2006.
CompuServe announced on April 15, 2009 that CompuServe Classic would "no longer operate as an Internet Service Provider" and would close on June 30, 2009. All CompuServe Classic services, including OurWorld Web pages, were taken offline as of that date. CompuServe Classic e-mail users would be able to continue using their CompuServe e-mail addresses via a new e-mail system.
AOL used the CompuServe brand for CompuServe 2000 (a rebranded low-cost offering), which closed in 2011 (including Mac), and CompuServe Dialer (a low-cost dialup ISP that became a Web portal).
Forums closing
CompuServe announced in November 2017 that the CompuServe Forums would be shut down on December 15, 2017. It was over 36 years since the CompuServe Forums had begun in 1981. Some moved to Forumania or elsewhere.
CompuServe GUIs
Over time, there were several graphical user interfaces written for accessing CompuServe. Unlike what AOL gave for free, The New York Times wrote about them "which Compuserve ought to give away, but does not." Among their names were WinCIM, TapCIS and NavCIS.
At a time when subscribers paid for timed access (as well as long-distance calls in some countries) and had to spend time online reading and replying to messages, their goal was to bypass CompuServe's WinCim interface, and streamline sending all pre-written email and forum postings that the user had written offline, then receiving new messages, downloading requested files, and logging off CompuServe.
TapCIS
TapCIS (The Access Program for the Compuserve Information Service) was an automated MS-DOS-based software application that sped up access to, and management of, CompuServe email accounts and forum memberships for PC users from 1981 until 2004 when advances in CompuServe technology rendered it obsolete. It was described as "archaic-looking (but) .. remains a powerful tool for accessing CompuServe forums."
TapCIS was written in Borland's Turbo Pascal by Howard Benner, a marketing executive from Wilmington, Delaware who joined CompuServe in 1981 and died of melanoma in June 1990, aged 44. The software, which was shareware and retailed at , had a community of users who continued to maintain their own website.
Since it was able to issue administrative commands, TapCIS was the preferred tool for dozens of CompuServe system operators (SysOps).
CIM and WinCIM
Regarding WinCIM (and predecessor CIM), PC Magazine wrote that "They give you a broader view of what's available" and by using it "you can more easily navigate the service." They explicitly caution that, unlike TapCIS, it "won't save any money ... it could actually take you longer to retrieve and answer messages ... than without it."
OzCIS and OzWIN
Although OzCIS and OzWIN (its Windows-based successor) were described as "free for personal use" by PC Magazine, it was shareware, like WinCIM, TapCIS and NavCIS.
The programming was done by Steve Sneed using Pascal-like Delphi; the software was published by Ozarks West Software Inc.
Like TapCIS, it had SysOp features such as moving and deleting messages, administering the file libraries, and "flagging" users (giving/denying SysOp rights). Unlike other offline readers such as TapCIS and NavCIS, which added proprietary ways of formatting text (colors, fonts, attributes), OzWin always remained "plain text" and never displayed any custom styles.
In May 2005, CompuServe discontinued access the OzCis and TapCIS forums on CompuServe.
AutoSIG
AutoSIG was free, unlike WinCIM, TapCIS, NavCIS and OzCIS/OzWIN.
VisCIS
Visual CompuServe, also known as VisCIS, was a demo concept of a VRML-based client by programmer John D. Gwinner which modelled the CompuServe interface into a 3D virtual environment. It was later redeveloped by Gwinner into VisMenu, a general-purpose VRML menuing system.
See also
CompuServe, Inc. v. Patterson, a case involving Patterson's software, which came first, and a "similar" offering from CompuServe
FILe Generator and Editor
VIDTEX
Notes
References
External links
Aviation Special Interest Group
CompuServe Interactive Services, Inc. History
Interview with CompuServe Founder Jeff Wilkins
A Brief History of 36-bit Computing at CompuServe by Sandy Trevor
the README file
Unofficial TAPCIS website
1969 establishments in Ohio
1996 software
1997 disestablishments
1998 mergers and acquisitions
American companies established in 1969
Yahoo!
Companies based in the Columbus, Ohio metropolitan area
Computer companies established in 1969
Internet forums
Internet properties established in 1989
Internet service providers of the United States
Pascal (programming language) software
Pre–World Wide Web online services
Telecommunications companies established in 1969
Time-sharing companies
Windows Internet software |
63502168 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoombombing | Zoombombing | Zoombombing or Zoom raiding refers to the unwanted, disruptive intrusion, generally by Internet trolls, into a video-conference call. In a typical Zoombombing incident, a teleconferencing session is hijacked by the insertion of material that is lewd, obscene, racist, misogynistic, homophobic, Islamophobic, or antisemitic in nature, typically resulting in the shutdown of the session. The term is especially associated with and is derived from the name of the Zoom videoconferencing software program, but it has also been used to refer to the phenomenon on other video conferencing platforms. The term became popularized in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic forced many people to stay at home, and videoconferencing came to be used on a large scale by businesses, schools, and social groups.
Zoombombing has caused significant issues in particular for schools, companies, and organizations worldwide. Such incidents have resulted in increased scrutiny on Zoom as well as restrictions on usage of the platform by educational, corporate, and governmental institutions globally. In response, Zoom, citing the sudden influx of new users due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has been taking measures to increase security of its teleconferencing application. Incidents of Zoombombing have prompted law enforcement officers in various countries to investigate such cases and file criminal charges for those responsible.
Procedure
The term "Zoombombing" is derived from the teleconferencing application Zoom, though the term has also been used in reference to similar incidents on other teleconferencing platforms, such as WebEx or Skype. The increased use of Zoom during the COVID-19 pandemic as an alternative to face-to-face meetings resulted in widespread exposure to hackers and Internet trolls, who exploit and work around the application's security features. In various forums such as Discord and Reddit, efforts have been coordinated to disrupt Zoom sessions, while certain Twitter accounts advertise meeting ids and passwords or meeting links (allowing users to instantly join a Zoom meeting instead of entering the credentials required to access a meeting) for sessions that were vulnerable to being joined without authorization. At educational institutions, some students were "actively asking strangers to Zoombomb or 'Zoom raid' their virtual classrooms to spice up their isolated lessons" and facilitating the raids by sharing passwords with the raiders. CNET pointed out that simple Google searches for URLs that include "Zoom.us" could bring up conferences that are not password protected, and that links within public pages can allow anyone to join. Hackers and trolls also look for easy targets such as unprotected or underprotected "check-in" meetings in which organizations meet with their employers or clients remotely.
While a Zoom session is in progress, unfamiliar users show up and hijack the session by saying or showing things that are lewd, obscene, racist, or antisemitic in nature. The compromised Zoom session is then typically shut down by the host. Many of those successful in disrupting sessions have posted video footage of those incidents to social media and video sharing platforms such as TikTok and YouTube.
While it is believed Zoombombing attacks are mainly orchestrated by external hackers and trolls, many are also orchestrated internally from within their respective organization or entity. Some view Zoombombing as a continuation of cyberbullying by teenagers, particularly after schools were shut down due to the pandemic.
Responses
Zoombombing has caused a number of problems for schools and educators, with unwanted participants posting lewd content to interrupt learning sessions. Some schools had to suspend using video conferencing altogether. The University of Southern California called Zoombombing a type of trolling and apologized for "vile" events that interrupted "lectures and learning." Zoombombing has prompted colleges and universities to publish guides and resources to educate and bring awareness to their students and staff about the phenomenon. Zoombombing has left online lectures vulnerable to the intrusion of people looking to inflict harm. These crimes have brought attention not only to the lack of security on videoconferencing platforms, but also the lack in the universities. According to an article from The Guardian, the University of Warwick, in the midst of a rape-chat scandal, received criticisms for its weak cybersecurity.
Zoombombing affected twelve-step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous and other substance abuse and addiction recovery programs who were forced to switch to online meetings. Concerns arise from causing undue stress to an already vulnerable population and video recording which can break anonymity. Some bombers reference the drug-of-choice for recovery members, such as alcohol, in an attempt to emotionally trigger the participants of the meeting.
The problem reached such prominence that the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warned of video-teleconferencing and online classroom hijacking, which it called "Zoom-bombing." The FBI advised users of teleconferencing software to keep meetings private, require passwords or other forms of access control such as "waiting rooms" to limit access only to specific people, and limiting screen-sharing access to the meeting host only. Given the number of incidents of Zoombombing, New York's attorney general initiated an inquiry into Zoom's data privacy and security policies. U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate into the matter, accusing Zoom of engaging in deceptive practices regarding user privacy and security.
Amid concerns about Zoombombing, various organizations banned the use of Zoom. In April 2020, Google banned the use of Zoom on its corporate computers, directing employees to instead use its video chat app Google Duo. The use of Zoom was also banned by SpaceX, Smart Communications, NASA, and the Australian Defence Force. The Taiwanese and Canadian governments banned Zoom for all government use. The New York City Department of Education prohibited all its teachers from using the platform with students, and the Clark County School District in Nevada disabled access to Zoom to its staff. Singapore's Ministry of Education briefly banned all teachers within the country from using Zoom before lifting the ban three days later, adding extra security features. Some Zoombombers have shared their side of the story, claiming they aren't trying to cause harm. They claim it is a form of protest in response to the extensive amount of work given from teachers. Not all incidents are malicious, as many have shared some new pop culture, such as memes and TikToks, to bring some relief and fun during the pandemic.
Zoom CEO Eric Yuan made a public apology, saying that the teleconferencing company had not anticipated the sudden influx of new consumer users and stating that "this is a mistake and lesson learned." In response to the concerns, Zoom has published a guide on their blog on how to avoid these types of incidents. On April 7, 2020, Zoom implemented user experience and security updates to the application. Such updates include a more visible "Security" icon for users to see and use, suppression of meeting ID numbers, and a change in the default settings to require passwords and waiting rooms for sessions. On April 8, 2020, Zoom announced that it had formed a council of chief information security officers from other companies to share ideas on best practices, and that it had hired Alex Stamos, former chief security officer of Facebook, as an adviser. Zoom released its 5.0 version in April 2020 with security features that include AES 256-bit GCM encryption, passwords by default, and a feature to report suspicious users to its Trust and Safety Team for possible misuse. In May 2020, Zoom announced it had temporarily disabled its Giphy (frequently used as a tactic in zoombombing) integration until security concerns could be properly and fully addressed. On July 1, 2020, Zoom stated it had released 100 new safety features over the past 90 days, including end-to-end encryption for all users, turning on meeting passwords by default, giving users the ability to choose which data centers calls are routed from, consulting with security experts, forming a CISO council, an improved bug bounty program, and working with third parties to help test security.
Criminal use
National authorities worldwide warned of possible charges against people engaging with Zoombombing. On April 8, 2020, a teen in Madison, Connecticut, was arrested for computer crime, conspiracy, and disturbing the peace following a Zoombombing incident involving online classes at Daniel Hand High School; police also identified another teen involved in the incident. In San Francisco, a man was arrested after being traced to pornographic videos that were streamed on Zoom. As of May 2020, the FBI has received 195 incidents of Zoombombing involving child abuse, while the United Kingdom's National Crime Agency has reported more than 120 such cases.
St. Paulus Lutheran Church in San Francisco filed a class-action lawsuit against Zoom after one of its bible study classes was "Zoombombed" on May 6, 2020. The church alleged that Zoom "did nothing" when it tried to reach out to the company.
See also
Photobombing
Email bomb
Text message bomb
Google bombing
Griefing
Trolling
References
Criticisms of software and websites
Hacking in the 2020s
Internet memes introduced in 2020
Internet trolling
Online obscenity controversies
Videotelephony
2020 neologisms |
6542678 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roofnet | Roofnet | Roofnet was an experimental 802.11b/g mesh network developed by the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Research included link-level measurements of 802.11, finding high-throughput routes in the face of lossy links, link adaptation, and developing new protocols which take advantage of radio’s unique properties (ExOR). The software developed for this project is available free as open source.
Routing protocol
The routing protocol is called SrcRR. There are two broadcasts used with the protocol. The first is periodic broadcasts used to determine a metric called ETX. These public broadcasts measure the probability that a packet between two nodes in radio contact reaches its destination. The second broadcast type is used to build up routing tables. A node 0 will broadcast that it wants to find a route to D. Then each node that receives the broadcast will add its id to the route and forward the packet. When node D receives a packet, it will reply back along the route that was found for that packet. Then node 0 can use this information to determine the best route using the ETX metrics and the route information returned from its query.
Media access and forwarding
One media access and forwarding protocol tested with RoofNet was ExOR. ExOR simulates some advantages of multicasted data networks by using conventional 802.11 digital radios operated in broadcast modes.
The source radio uses routing data to establish a list of radios that could help reach the destination radio. The list is ordered so that radios closer to the destination are nearer to the head of the list. The destination is at the head of the list. The list is compactly stored in each packet.
Each packet also includes a list that shows the progress of each packet through the list of radios. This list has one entry per packet. Each entry is the number of radio that is closest to the destination and has retransmitted that packet. The source initially sets this list all to the source radio's number.
Then, the source broadcasts a batch of packets. Radios not on a packet's list discard the packet.
Radios on the list save the packet. They update their list of radios transmitting each packet. But they wait a calibrated time before they retransmit any packet. The time is less if they are closer to the destination. The time is a probabilistic estimate of the time to retransmit the packets that will be retransmitted by radios closer to the destination.
If a radio receives a packet transmitted from a radio that is closer to the destination, the farther radio throws away that packet, and never retransmits it. It also updates its list of packet progress.
As they work backwards toward the source, the retransmissions propagate the batch of packets' progress information back to the source radio.
At the end, a few packets of each batch sent by the source may never reach the destination. It sends these on by the most reliable route, using conventional routing.
Development
Roofnet's technology formed the basis for Meraki, a mesh networking startup founded by members of MIT's Parallel and Distributed Operating Systems group. Meraki was acquired by Cisco Systems in 2012.
See also
List of router and firewall distributions
B.A.T.M.A.N. – An ad-hoc mesh network routing protocol
OpenWrt – An open source operating system for wireless devices
References
Sources
MIT Roofnet project page
External links
Architecture and Evaluation of the MIT Roofnet Mesh Network – Draft research paper describing the Roofnet project
Parallel and Distributed Operating Systems Group
MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
IEEE 802.11 |
55377108 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta%20SaaS | Meta SaaS | Meta SaaS is a software company headquartered in Austin, Texas that provides Software Asset Management (SAM) for SaaS products.
History
In September 2016, Arlo Gilbert alongside co-founder Scott Hertel launched Meta SaaS in Austin to solve problems related to the growth of unmanaged SaaS at businesses.
In 2016, Meta SaaS raised $2.1 million in seed funding. Investors in this seed round announced in May 2017 included Mark Cuban, Barracuda_Networks, Capital Factory, and others
Among its first clients were Spredfast, RetailMeNot, and Indeed.com.
In May 2018, Meta SaaS was acquired by Flexera Software, a private software company based in Itasca, Illinois.
Software and services
Meta SaaS publishes software that provides SaaS management and aggregated utilization reporting providing a 360-degree view across all cloud applications, systems of record, and various financial tools. Meta SaaS displays the unified customer information in near-real-time to administrators at customer sites. Meta SaaS is used by businesses in various industries such as technology, healthcare, software, education, and others.
It offers features in the following areas: SaaS management, SaaS license optimization, and Shadow IT identification.
Meta SaaS integrates vendors including Salesforce, Box, Workday, Cisco, Zendesk, and others.
References
Business intelligence companies
Companies based in Austin, Texas
Software companies of the United States |
1198487 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norton%20Utilities | Norton Utilities | Norton Utilities is a utility software suite designed to help analyze, configure, optimize and maintain a computer. The current version of Norton Utilities is Norton Utilities 16 for Windows XP/Vista/7/8 was released 26 October 2012.
Peter Norton published the first version for DOS, The Norton Utilities, Release 1, in 1982. Release 2 came out about a year later, subsequent to the first hard drives for the IBM PC line. Peter Norton's company was sold to Symantec (now known as NortonLifeLock) in 1990 and Peter Norton himself no longer has any connection to the brand or company.
Norton Utilities for DOS and Windows 3.1
Version 1.0
The initial 1982 release supported DOS 1.x and featured the UNERASE utility. This allowed files to be undeleted by restoring the first letter of the directory entry (a workaround of the FAT file system used in DOS). The UNERASE utility was what launched NU on its path to success. Quoting Peter Norton, "Why did The Norton Utilities become such popular software? Well, industry wisdom has it that software becomes standard either by providing superior capabilities or by solving problems that were previously unsolvable. In 1982, when I sat down at my PC to write Unerase, I was solving a common problem to which there was no readily available solution."
14 programs were included, on three floppy disks, list price $80:
UnErase, recovers erased files
FileFix, repairs damaged files
DiskLook, complete floppy disk displays and maps
SecMod, easy changes to floppy disks
FileHide, interactive hidden file control
BatHide, automatic hidden file control
TimeMark, displays date, time, elapsed time
ScrAtr, sets DOS to work in any colors
Reverse, work in black on white
Clear, clears the screen for clarity
FileSort, keeps floppy disk files by date or name
DiskOpt, speeds floppy disk access
Beep, causes the PC speaker to beep
Print, prints files
Version 2.0
The main feature of this DOS 2.x compatible version was FILEFIND, used for searching for files. This 1983 release added hard disk support, and the PRINT program was renamed LPRINT to avoid conflict with the DOS command introduced in MS-DOS 2.0 as PRINT.COM. Following this release Norton became Utilities Editor of PC Magazine.
The executable files were compressed with Realia's Spacemaker.
Version 3.0
This version, copyrighted 1984 but dated 21 January 1985, included Beep, Directory Sort, Disk Test, File Attributes, File Find, File Size, Line Print, List Directories, Screen Attributes, System Information, Text Search, Time Mark, Volume Label, Wipe Disk and Wipe File.
Version 3.1
This 1986 version added the Quick UnErase (QU) and Unremove Directory (UD) programs.
Version 4.0
Release 4.0 (1987, list $99.95) added four new programs:
Ask, used for batch file programming
File Info, add descriptions up to 65 characters long to each file
Norton Change Directory, displays a graphic directory tree; change, remove, rename or make directories
Norton Integrator, a menu system to tie the utilities together. Previously the utilities were accessed by typing the command name (usually a cryptic 2 character name such as FF) at the DOS prompt.
Version 4.0 Advanced Edition
This version (list $150), released simultaneously with 4.0 standard edition, was dated 15 May 1987. It added Speed Disk, a disk defragmenter, and Format Recover.
Version 4.5 Advanced Edition
Norton Disk Doctor was the major addition in this 1988 release.
It also includes Wipedisk; Wipefile, a Batch Enhancer and a sector level disk editor; a system information diagnostic utility and a disk caching program (NCACHE), which was between 10 - 50% faster than Microsoft's SMARTDrive when properly configured.
Version 5.0
Release 5.0 added new features, including Disk Editor, a utility to perform low level formatting on hard disks and changes such as password protection on the more “dangerous” utilities. It also included a licensed version of the 4DOS replacement for COMMAND.COM called NDOS. This version also allowed the choice of “classic” names (such as FF.EXE) or longer names (such as FINDFAST.EXE); these were configurable in the updated version of the Norton Integrator menu system.
Version 6.0
Norton Utilities 6.0 supports DOS 5 and Windows 3.1. It includes Windows Program Manager support, but the tools are still DOS-based, so a set of icons were supplied.
It includes Norton Disk Doctor, Disk Editor, Disk Tools, Speed Disk, Norton Cache, Disk Monitor, Diskreet, NDisk, System Information, NDOS.
The speed of Speed Disk was improved over the previous release.
Diskreet supports Data Encryption Standard.
System Information now includes more detailed information on installed system.
UnErase takes advantage of DOS 5.0's Delete Tracking and Mirror File features to recover data. However, MS-DOS 5.0 added a new UNDELETE.exe program, licensed from Norton competitor Central Point Software, which took advantage of the same Delete Sentry control and Deletion-tracking files. (The ERASE command is an alias for the DEL (Delete) command in the DOS command line). Windows 95's Recycle Bin soon further reduced the need for UnErase.
Version 7.0
Release 7.0 supports MS-DOS 6.0, DoubleSpace, Stacker and SuperStor disk compression tools.
Tools includes Norton Disk Doctor, Disk Editor, Undelete, SmartCan, NDOS, System Information, File Find, Norton Change Directory.
Speed Disk remained as well, although SPEEDISK.exe was licensed by Microsoft and incorporated into MS-DOS as DEFRAG.exe in MS-DOS 6.0 onward.
Release 7.0 had revised user interfaces for the utilities that feature a menu-driven user interface. Also some of these tools now did not need to run in full-screen-mode but just displayed a window in the center of the screen, like the disk formatter or the disk duplicator utility.
Disk Editor now includes Advanced Recovery Mode.
Version 8.0 for DOS/Windows 3.x
Release 8.0 was nearly the same as 7.0, but added Windows 3.1 utilities.
DOS Utilities include Norton Disk Doctor, System Information, Change Directory, FileFind, Diskreet, DUPDISK, File Fix, NDOS, Batch Enhancer, Norton Integrator, Speed Disk.
Windows utilities include Norton Disk Doctor, Speed Disk, System Watch, File Compare, INI Tracker, INI Tuner, INI editor, INI Advisor
Norton Utilities for Windows 95 and later
Version 1.0 for Windows 95
The original Windows 95 version was released in August 1995.
As a native Windows 95 tool, it supports the VFAT file system used by Windows 95.
It includes Norton Image, Norton System Doctor, Norton Protection, Rescue Disk, System Information, Norton Disk Doctor, Norton UnErase, Space Wizard, Speed Disk, System Information. DOS tools include Disk Editor, Disk Doctor, Pre-Installation TuneUp.
CD-ROM version was announced on 15 January 1996. It adds Disk Companion, Memory Companion and Norton Utilities Companion over floppy disk version.
Disk tools included with this release are not compatible with FAT32.
The Windows version of Speed Disk works with much greater speed than Microsoft's supplied defrag program, as it moved groups of clusters, not single clusters as Microsoft's Windows Disk Defragmenter. Changes in the way Windows operates meant that many of the old utilities were either dropped completely or replaced with GUI based versions. However, with the advent of Windows XP onwards, Norton's Speed Disk reverted to single-cluster defragmentation.
Version 2.0 for Windows 95
Version 2.0 was announced on 7 October 1996.
Version 2.0 features Norton CrashGuard with Anti-Freeze, Norton System Genie, Norton AntiVirus, LiveUpdate, System Genie, Registry Editor, System Doctor, System Benchmark, Disk Benchmark, Multimedia Benchmark, Speed Disk, Space Wizard.
Disk utilities now support FAT32.
A LiveUpdate fix was released for Norton Utilities 2.0 for Windows 95.
Version 2.0 for Windows NT 4.0
Originally called Norton Utilities 2.0 for Windows NT during prerelease, it was announced on 27 January 1997.
It includes Norton Disk Doctor, Norton Speed Disk, Norton System Information, Norton System Doctor, Norton Protection/UnErase, Live Update.
Norton Disk Doctor, Speed Disk support FAT16 and NTFS file systems.
It does not include DOS UnErase, so files deleted from FAT partition needs to be handled by Norton Utilities for Windows 95/98.
Version 3.0 for Windows 95
Officially announced on 10 November 1997, Norton Utilities 3.0 was the first version of to be included in Norton SystemWorks, it includes Norton WinDoctor, Norton Web Services, LiveUpdate Pro, Norton CrashGuard 3.0, Norton Zip Rescue, Norton System Doctor, Norton SpeedStart, Norton Optimization Wizard, Speed Disk.
Via the use of LiveUpdate, a Speed Disk patch is available to take advantage of Windows 98's application launch enhancements.
Marketing
Symantec announced it had sponsored a bug-a-thon between USC and UCLA during the final development stages of the latest product release of Norton Utilities 3.0. The software began shipping on 21 November 1997.
Version 4.0
Symantec announced version 4.0 on 16 February 1999.
Although the 'for Windows' name was dropped from the products, it still appears in support sites.
New additions include Windows 98 support, Norton SystemCheck, Registry Doctor Scan, Norton WinDoctor, Connection Doctor, Norton Wipe Info, Norton CrashGuard 4.0, Norton Zip Rescue, Norton Disk Doctor, Norton UnErase, a six-month subscription to Norton Web Services for $6.95.
Marketing
On 13 May 1999, Symantec offered price reduction and rebates on Norton SystemWorks 2.0 and Norton Utilities 4.0.
Early order includes Net Nanny Internet filter software.
Release 2000 (Version 4.5)
With this release, Symantec changed the naming scheme to incorporate the year of release. Marketed as Norton Utilities 2000, this was the final version to run solely on the Windows 9x platform.
It includes Norton Speed Disk, Norton System Check, Norton Disk Doctor, Norton Zip Rescue, free 3-month subscription to Norton Web Services.
Release 2001 (Version 5.0)
Announced on 29 August 2000, the 2001 edition supports Windows 95, 98, ME, Windows NT and Windows 2000.
It includes Norton Speed Disk, Norton Optimization Wizard, Norton Disk Doctor, Norton WinDoctor, Norton System Doctor, and Norton System Check.
Disk tools now supports USB and FireWire drives.
Release 2002 (Version 6.0)
In anticipation of major changes to the Norton product lineup, no new features were introduced in this release.
NU 2002 introduced Windows XP compatibility while dropping support for Windows 95.
Utilities include Norton Speed Disk, Norton System Doctor, Norton UnErase, Norton Disk Doctor, Norton WinDoctor, System Information and Wipe Info.
Release 2003
For the next six years, Norton Utilities will cease to exist as standalone product, instead becoming part of Norton SystemWorks starting 2003. SystemWorks is essentially an expanded version of Norton Utilities with additional features, antivirus protection and disk backup tool.
Release 2004
It was only included with Norton SystemWorks 2004.
Release 2005
It was only included with Norton SystemWorks 2005.
It supports Windows 98 or higher.
It includes Norton Protection, Speed Disk, Norton Optimization Wizard, Norton System Doctor, UnErase Wizard, Norton Disk Doctor, Norton WinDoctor, System Information, Wipe Info, Image, Norton File Compare, Norton Registry Editor, Norton Registry Tracker, and Explorer Shell Extension.
Release 2007
It was only included with Norton SystemWorks 2007.
Version 14.0
The revival of Norton Utilities as standalone software was announced on 3 February 2009, along with the discontinuation of Norton SystemWorks, which it replaces as Symantec's flagship PC tune-up suite.
This version added 64-bit support on Windows XP and Vista. It includes Registry Defragmenter, Registry Cleaners, Disk Cleaner, Disk Defragmenter, Startup Manager, Service Manager, Restore Center, System Optimizer, Process Viewer, and Performance Test.
The product license was changed to allow the software to be installed on up to three household PCs.
Critical Receptions
PC Pro rated Norton Utilities 14 with 1 star (out of 6) for “an overpriced collection of optimization tools that falls far short of its promise. IT Reviews called the package “light on features compared to rivals” and it questioned the “usefulness of some of the monitoring utilities.
PC Advisor criticized Norton Utilities 14 for delivering “little that you can't already do with Windows”, although it did acknowledge that it brought two things to the table: “The registry tools, which are useful, and the performance monitor, which is interesting but not always useful.”
Premier edition
Symantec has released a version of Norton Utilities which is called Norton Utilities Premier Edition. It has all features of Norton Utilities plus Norton Online Backup. It is also compatible with Windows 7. It was released on 14 October 2009.
Version 15.0
Norton Utilities 15.0 includes features from the discontinued Norton SystemWorks. It includes Norton Speed Disk, Norton Disk Doctor, Norton UnErase, Registry Restore, Registry Defragmenter, Registry Cleaner, Disk Cleaner, Disk Defragmenter, Startup Manager, Service Manager, Restore Center, System Optimizer, Process Viewer, and Performance Test. This version also includes a new GUI.
Version 16.0
Norton Utilities 16.0 includes features from Norton SystemWorks. It includes Application Uninstaller, Norton Speed Disk, Norton Disk Doctor, Norton UnErase, Registry Restore, Registry Defragmenter, Registry Cleaner, Disk Cleaner, Duplicate File Finder, Disk Defragmenter, Startup Manager, Service Manager, Restore Center, System Optimizer, System Dashboard, Process Viewer, Performance Test and Smart Updates.
New features include Duplicate File Finder, System Dashboard, Application Uninstaller, Windows 8 Compatibility.
Norton Utilities for Macintosh
Norton Utilities for Macintosh was a separate utility suite for the Mac OS, providing much of the same features as the equivalent Windows version.
Version 1.0
Originally released in 1990, requiring a Mac Plus with 1 MB of system memory.
The included disk tools support the HFS file system only. Support for the Apple Hard Disk 20 was not explicitly mentioned.
When Apple released System 7, Norton Utilities for the Macintosh needed to be updated in order to run safely. This proved to be a recurring story in the history of the utility; early versions were highly regarded for a while, but proved to be hazardous when used with newer disk structures and operating systems before being updated.
Version 2.0
Originally released in 1992.
It includes Disk Editor, Norton Backup for Macintosh. It also added features in Symantec Utilities for Macintosh II.
Version 3.x
3.0 was originally released in August 1994. It supports PowerPC but Speed Disk 3.0 can cause data loss.
Version 3.1 was released in September 1994, correcting problems with Speed Disk
Version 3.2
Released in October 1995, v3.2 added support for volumes larger than 4 GB, up to 2 TB to match System 7.5.2 disk size limit.
This edition was bundled with new Small Business Macintosh 6500/250 and 4400/200.
Version 3.2.1 Update from 3.2
Version 3.2.3 Update from 3.2.x
Version 3.2.4 Update from 3.2.x fix for Mac OS 7.6
Version 3.5
Announced on 12 May 1997, v3.5 is the first version of Norton Utilities for Macintosh to ship on CD-ROM. This version supports Macs with Motorola 68020-68040 processors and G3 PowerMacs running Mac OS 7.1-8.6.
It includes Norton CrashGuard, Speed Disk, Norton Disk Doctor, Disk Editor, FileSaver, UnErase, Volume Recover, Wipe Info, System Info, Disk Light, FastFind.
Norton CrashGuard replaced Norton Fastback and Floppier.
Update 3.5.1 released in July 1997, added Mac OS 8 support.
Update 3.5.2 released in November 1997 on bootable CD-ROM, improves support of HFS+ file system.
Update 3.5.3 released in January 1998 is the last version to support 68K Macs.
Version 4.0
Announced on 14 September 1998. For the first time, Norton Utilities can run natively on PowerPC Mac computers. Version 4.0 is compatible with PowerPC Macs (up to G3) running Mac OS 7.5 and above (up to 8.6) and adds Mac OS Extended Format (HFS+) file system support.
Features include Norton Disk Doctor, File Saver, UnErase, and Volume Recover, Norton CrashGuard.
Version 4.0.1 released October 1998
Version 4.0.2 released December 1998
Version 4.0.3 released February 1999
Version 4.0.4 released June 1999
Version 5.0
Announced on 21 July 1999, v5.0 is compatible with PowerPC G3 and G4 Macs running Mac OS 8.0-9.1.
An update was available to make the software compatible with Mac OS 9.
Version 5.0.2 released November 1999, was released to correct an issue with FileSaver and issues with the invisible FileSaver data files
Version 5.0.3 released June 2000, addresses further early iBook issues and DiskLight
Version 6.0
Announced on 25 October 2000, v6.0 supports PowerPC Macs running Mac OS 8.1 and above.
Major features include Norton FileSaver and Speed Disk.
Version 6.0.2 released June 2001
Version 6.0.3 released October 2001
Version 6.0.4 latest 6.0 version that supports Mac OS (Mac OS 8.1 through 9.2.2)
Version 7.0
Version 7.0 runs on Mac OS 8 and OS 9, and added Mac OS X support. Mac OS X tools run on PowerPC G3 Mac (except Beige G3). However, the Mac OS X tools have not been tested on Mac OS X later than 10.2.6, and is known to be incompatible with Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther).
Features: Norton Disk Doctor, Speed Disk, FileSaver, UnErase, Volume Recover, LiveUpdate.
Speed Disk does not run on Mac OS X, except by booting with Norton Utilities 7.0 CD.
Version 8.0
The package of v8.0 was simply labeled 'Norton Utilities 8.0', but it was called Norton Utilities for Macintosh 8.0 in support pages.
All Mac OS X tools now run natively, but the CD can still boot into Mac OS 9.
It includes Wipe Info, Speed Disk, Volume Recover, Norton FileSaver, UnErase, LiveUpdate.
8.0.1 added support of Mac OS X 10.3.
8.0.2 added support of G5 model Macintosh released before December 2004, 1.25 GHz eMac, and various Mac G4 notebooks. However, some tools may present errors when running Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger).
End of life
In 2004, Symantec confirmed it had stopped developing Norton Utilities for Macintosh and Norton SystemWorks for Macintosh, and concentrate its efforts solely on Internet security products for the Mac.
Symantec Utilities for Macintosh
Symantec Utilities for Macintosh (SUM) was a set of system utilities from Symantec, developed before Symantec had acquired Peter Norton Computing. SUM started out as a revised version of the MacZap data recovery tools and included utilities for data recovery, disk partitioning, disk defragmentation, and floppy disk duplication, among others. Later SUM tools may have shared code with Norton Utilities for Macintosh. Some of the functionality from SUM II was incorporated into Norton Utilities 2.0.
SUM v1.1 was published in 1988 and required a Mac 512Ke or later system. This version also had limited support for MFS-formatted floppy disks.
SUM II was announced for release in August 1989 and included tools for data backup and data encryption. SUM II v2.0 runs on Macs with System 4.2 or higher and 1 MB of memory. One review mentioned that it was easy to make use of most of SUM II's utilities, but at the same time, the file recovery functionality in SUM II was less automated and required more manual configuration compared to the file recovery functionality in Norton Utilities. In September 1991, version 2.1 of SUM II, which would support System 7, was announced.
Norton Utilities for Unix
In 1990, Peter Norton Computing developed a Unix version of Norton Utilities, in cooperation with Segue Software and INTERACTIVE Systems Corp. This version of Norton Utilities was available up to 1992, when Interactive Systems stopped marketing the software. In February 1994, AlmondSeed Software, Inc. licensed the software and released it as "The Almond Utilities for UNIX". AlmondSeed Software released the Utilities for SCO UNIX and Sun Solaris.
Historical competitors
Central Point PC Tools and MacTools
McAfee Nuts & Bolts
Reviews
BYTE in 1989 listed Norton Utilities 4.5 for DOS as among the "Distinction" winners of the BYTE Awards, stating that it was "an essential first-aid kit".
Darian Graham-Smith of PC Pro gave Norton Utilities 14 an overall rating of 2 of 6 stars. He concluded “There's simply no good reason to pay this much for such a flimsy collection of tools.”
PC World reviewed Norton Utilities 15 and concluded that “Norton Utilities may have outlived its usefulness. If your system isn't running as fast as you think it should, uninstalling unnecessary software and pruning background applications using Windows' own tools or downloadable freebies are a more cost-effective first defense.”
A PC Magazine review gave Norton Utilities 15 a score 3 of 5 stars. They argued that Norton Utilities is lagging behind competition, adding that “this PC tune-up utility can give an aged PC a new lease on life, but it lacks some of the features and performance found in competing software.”
ITProPortal.com gave Norton Utilities a rating of 6 out of 10. They concluded, “Norton Utilities did a satisfactory job of de-gunking and increasing the overall performance of our test laptop, but it doesn’t stack up well against rival suite System Mechanic 11".
TopTenReviews.com gave Norton Utilities a 7.7-star rating out of 10 and said, “Norton Utilities has good help and support features and is above average in terms of ease of use.”
Controversies
January 2012 source code hack
On 17 January 2012, Symantec admitted to their network getting hacked. A hacker known as “Yama Tough” obtained Symantec's source code by hacking an Indian Government server. Yama Tough has released parts of the source code, and has threatened to release more. According to Chris Paden, a Symantec spokesman, the source code that was taken was from enterprise products that were between five and six years old.
September 2012 source code hack
On 25 September 2012, eight months after the first hack, an affiliate of the hacker group "Anonymous" published the source code for Norton Utilities. Symantec has responded that this was from the same code leaked in January 2012. They have confirmed that the leak included source code for 2006 versions of Norton Utilities, pcAnywhere and Norton AntiVirus.
2018 Allegations of SpinRite source code theft
In June 2018 Steve Gibson alleged in his weekly podcast "Security Now!", that Norton's Disk Doctor was not created by Norton but instead was reverse engineered from his ubiquitous SpinRite software without permission or attribution. This, he says, occurred after he refused to accept Peter Norton's bid to purchase SpinRite from him. He claimed proof in that random numbers he generated for BIOS checking were left unchanged in Disk Doctor presumably because Norton's software engineers didn't know their purpose. Also Norton eventually abandoned Disk Doctor as they didn't really understand how it worked so couldn't actually support it for users.
See also
PC Tools
References
External links
Norton SpeedDisk
NortonLifeLock software
Proprietary software
DOS software
Utilities for Linux
Utilities for macOS
Utilities for Windows
Data recovery software
Norton.com/nu16
Norton.com/setup
Zlove |
48462695 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.asec | .asec | .asec is the file extension of an Android secure encrypted (ASEC) file. This file extension is specifically associated with Google's Android operating system. It was first introduced with Android 2.2 (code name Froyo) in May 2010.
The purpose of an ASEC format is to prevent existing applications from being modified or corrupted by other programs. Applications moved to an SD card use an ASEC extension. These files can then be found under the .android_secure folder on the SD card. If an application must be moved from memory back to its device’s local storage, the file is decrypted from the ASEC file format to a basic APK (Android Package) file format.
References
Android (operating system)
Computer file formats
Android (operating system) software |
42935379 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TANet | TANet | The Taiwan Academic Network (TANet) was founded in 1980 by Ministry of Education (Taiwan) and Taiwanese universities in order to assist with teaching and research activities for educational and research institutions. In 2006, TANet provided services to almost 4 million people.
As of 2014, all colleges and universities are connected to the network, as well as another 4,000 primary and secondary schools.
History
In mid 1980, The Ministry of Education introduce BITNET university teaching and research network system, providing research network with international e-mail and files transfer services. In late 1980, Ministry of Education Science and Technology Advisory Office (Renamed to Advisory Office in 1990)Director Chang Jin-fu provision is made and commissioned by the Science and Technology Advisory Wen-Tsuen Chen to subsidy mainly the National Universities to build a universities network. July 1990, Ministry of Education computer center invite those universities to set up a "Taiwan Academic Network (TANet)" using TCP/IP protocol of Internet-based system. It was Taiwan's first Internet system, but also basis of the internet system of Taiwan further development of government and commercial Internet. Since 1999, Ministry of Education to promote primary and secondary schools to use ADSL connections to TANet, make IT education down roots, so far TANet has become the platform of network and information for all levels of school education.
The early TANet connecting Taiwan academic institutions and research institutions are using telephone connection, bandwidth was 9.6 kbit/s.
On 3 December 1991, a 64kbit/s data connection to JvNCnet in Princeton University, United States was made. It was Taiwan's first international network connection. In early 1994, a T1 connection is connected to Hinet, become Taiwan's first peering Internet connection. In June 1994, a 10Mbit/s Ethernet connection to SEEDNet, Taiwan start to connect to multi-network network connection. After years of expansion of TANet, TANet Network Structure can be divided in National Backbone Network, Area-based Network and School-Based Network, TANet National Backbone Network was upgraded to 10 Gigabit Ethernet in 2005. As of April 2008, connection to United States was STM16 (2488.32Mbit/s), connection to Taiwan other networks bandwidth was 102.718Gbit/s.
TANet Network Structure
TANet Network Structure is as below:
TANet select one University Unit in various location, and setup Network Regional Center, to assist the school and Academic Research Unit in sharing Internet Resource in the region.
Taipei Network Regional Center:
National Taiwan University Computer and Information Networking Center
National Cheng Chi University Computer Center
Taoyuan Network Regional Center: National Central University Computer Center
Hsinchu Network Regional Center:
National Chiao Tung University Information Technology Service Center
National Tsing Hua University Computer Center
Taichung Network Regional Center: National Chung Hsing University Computer and Information Network Center
Nantou Network Regional Center: National Chi Nan University Computer and Network Center
Yunlin and Chiayi Network Regional Center: National Chung Cheng University Computer Center
Tainan Network Regional Center: National Cheng Kung University Computer and Network Center
KPP Network Regional Center: National Sun Yat-Sen University Office of Library and Information Services
Hualien Network Regional Center: National Dong Hwa University Library and Information Center
Taitung Network Regional Center:National Taitung University Computer Center
Domain naming rules
Adding edu.tw to abbreviation of College University. Example ntu.edu.tw is domain of National Taiwan University.
Adding countydomain.edu.tw to English high school name. Example Kaohsiung Municipal Kaohsiung Senior High School English name is kshs, domain name kshs.kh.edu.tw; National Experimental High School English name is nehs, domain name is nehs.hc.edu.tw. Other will follow the rules below:
Senior High School: Abbreviation of school name+hs.countydomain.edu.tw
Full secondary school (School with Junior High and Senior High): Abbreviation of school name+sh.countydomain.edu.tw
Vocational School: Abbreviation of school name+vs.countydomain.edu.tw
若高工高商家商商工的縮寫名稱過長，依狀況決定。
Naming of Girl High School according to the rules below:
Abbreviation of school name+gsh.countydomain.edu.tw
Abbreviation of school name+gs.countydomain.edu.tw
Junior High School: Abbreviation of school name+jh.countydomain.edu.tw
Naming of Elementary School according to the rules below:
Abbreviation of school name+ps.countydomain.edu.tw
Abbreviation of school name+es.countydomain.edu.tw
Junior High and Elementary School: Abbreviation of school name+jps.countydomain.edu.tw
Kindergarten: Abbreviation of school name+kg.countydomain.edu.tw
IP Address Range
Assignment of IP Address according to Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) and Taiwan Network Information Center (TWNIC). Most of TANet IP begins with 140.92, 140.109 to 140.138, there also 192.83, 192.192 and 163.13 to 163.28, 163.28 is reserved to TANet and Reqional Network Proxy Range.Domain name mainly end with edu.tw.
University College IP Range
IP begins with 140
National Taiwan University—————140.112
National Chiao Tung University—————140.113
National Tsing Hua University—————140.114
National Central University—————140.115
National Cheng Kung University—————140.116
National Sun Yat-sen University—————140.117
National Taiwan University of Science and Technology———140.118
National Chengchi University—————140.119
National Chung Hsing University—————140.120
National Taiwan Ocean University———140.121
National Taiwan Normal University———140.122
National Chung Cheng University—————140.123
National Taipei University of Technology———140.124
National Yunlin University of Science and Technology———140.125
Chung Hua University———————140.126.3~21
National Hsinchu University of Education———140.126.22~23, 140.126.29~47
National Pingtung University of Science and Technology———140.127.1~35
National Kaohsiung Normal University———140.127.36~80
National Pingtung University of Education———140.127.81~85
Fooyin University—————140.127.86~110
National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences—140.127.111~120, 140.127.149~150, 140.133.64~93
Cheng Shiu University—————140.127.121~140
Republic of China Air Force Academy———————140.127.149~160
Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages—————140.127.164~170
National Taitung University—————140.127.171~175
I-Shou University———————140.127.176~191
National University of Kaohsiung—————140.127.198~234, 140.133.32~63
Providence University———————140.128.1~40
Nan Kai University of Technology—————140.128.41~60
China Medical University (Taiwan)—————140.128.61~70
National Chin-Yi University of Technology———140.128.71~95
Tunghai University———————140.128.96~135
Chung Shan Medical University—————140.128.136~147
Central Taiwan University of Science and Technology—————140.128.148~151
Tatung University———————140.129.1~50
National Yang Ming University—————140.129.51~80
Taipei College of Maritime Technology———140.129.81~85
National Defense University (Republic of China)———————140.129.86~115, 140.132
Tungnan University—————140.129.116~145
National Formosa University———140.130.1~40
National Chiayi University—————140.130.41~50, 140.130.81~100
Wufeng University—————140.130.101~130
Tatung Institute of Commerce and Technology—————140.130.131~150
TransWorld University—————140.130.151~168
Lunghwa University of Science and Technology—————140.131.1~20
National Taiwan University of Arts———140.131.21~30
Hwa Hsia University of Technology—————140.131.31~40
Ming Chuan University———————140.131.45~76
Chihlee University of Technology—————140.131.77~84
National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences—140.131.85~.95
National University of Tainan—————140.133.1~15
Feng Chia University———————140.134
Chung Yuan Christian University———————140.135
Fu Jen Catholic University————140.136
Chinese Culture University—————140.137
Yuan Ze University———————140.138
IP begins with 134
National Dong Hwa University—————134.208
IP begins with 163
Tamkang University———————163.13
Soochow University———————163.14
Republic of China Military Academy—————163.15.1~23
Kaohsiung Medical University—————163.15.151~180
National Taichung University of Science and Technology———163.17.131~145
National Kaohsiung First University of Science and Technology—163.18
Cardinal Tien College of Healthcare and Management—163.21.98
University of Taipei—————163.21.236
National Chi Nan University———163.22
IP begins with 192
National Taichung University of Education———192.83.167
National Taipei University—————192.83.170~185, 192.192.35~36
National Taichung University of Science and Technology———192.83.172
National Changhua University of Education———192.83.173
Dayeh University———————192.83.174
National Taipei University of Education———192.83.179
National Taiwan Sport University—————192.83.181
CTBC Business School—————192.83.182
National Ilan University—————192.83.183
Kao Yuan University—————192.83.190
Shih Chien University———————192.83.193
National Kaohsiung Marine University—192.83.194~195
Central Police University—————192.192.1
Ling Tung University—————192.192.2
Tainan University of Technology———192.192.3
Kun Shan University—————192.192.30~32
Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology—————192.192.37~39
Vanung University—————192.192.40~43
Jinwen University of Science and Technology—————192.192.44
Chia Nan University of Pharmacy & Science—————192.192.45
National Open University—————192.192.48~55
Chien Hsin University of Science and Technology—————192.192.56~57
Chang Gung University———————192.192.60~67
Oriental Institute of Technology—————192.192.68~73
Lee-Ming Institute of Technology—————192.192.74~77
China University of Technology—————192.192.78~85
Overseas Chinese University—————192.192.125~129
Ming Chi University of Technology—————192.192.132~133
National Taiwan University of Physical Education and Sport—192.192.139
Takming University of Science and Technology———192.192.140~141
Shih Hsin University———————192.192.148~159
China University of Science and Technology—————192.192.230
IP begins with 120
Oriental Institute of Technology—————120.96.32~79
National Changhua University of Education———120.107.144~215
Chienkuo Technology University—————120.109.0~79
Hsiuping University of Science and Technology—————120.109.160~191
National Formosa University———120.113.64~127
Shu-Te University—————120.119
Chien Hsin University of Science and Technology—————120.124
Ming Chuan University———————120.125.86
National Quemoy University—————120.125.96~111
National Taipei University—————120.126
IP begins with 203
Tzu Chi University———————203.64.76, 203.72.73~87
National Pingtung Institute of Commerce—203.64.120、127
Taipei Chengshih University of Science and Technology———203.64.215
National Kaohsiung University of Hospitality and Tourism———203.68
Taipei Medical University—————203.71.84~88
IP begins with 210
Chang Jung Christian University———————210.70.183
University of Kang Ning———————210.71.118
IP begins with 211
Christ's College—————211.75.81.81
High School IP Range
IP begins with 210
Taipei Municipal Da-An Vocational High School--------210.70.131
Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School--------210.71.78
National Taichung First Senior High School--------210.60.107, 210.60.35, 210.60.36
National Feng-Shan Senior High School--------210.70.89
New Taipei Municipal Jui-Fang Industrial High School--------210.59.2.4
Taipei Municipal Wanfang Senior High School--------210.70.212
IP begins with 163
Hsinchu Municipal Chienkung Senior High School———————163.19.116
National Changhua Senior High School———————163.23.148
Kaohsiung Municipal Kaohsiung Senior High School———————163.32.78
Kaohsiung Municipal Haicing Vocational High School of Technology and Commerce———————163.32.98
Sansin High School of Commerce And Home Economics Kaohsiung———————163.32.84
Tainan City Min Da Senior High School———————163.26.255
IP begins with 203
New Taipei Municipal Banqiao Senior High School--------203.64.161
The Affiliated Jhongli Senior High School of National Central University--------203.72.181
The Affiliated Senior High School of National Chung Hsing University--------203.71.156
Taipei Municipal Datong High School--------203.72.57
Taipei Municipal Song Shan Senior High School--------203.72.64
IP begins with 140
The Affiliated Senior High School of National Taiwan Normal University--------140.131.145~149
Government Unit IP Range
IP begins with 192
National Central Library——————192.83.186
National Library of Public Information——————192.192.47.50
IP begins with 203
New Taipei City Library————203.64.154.1
National Education Radio———203.64.188
Research Unit IP Range
IP begins with 192
Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research————192.83.168.137
References
External links
TANet
TANet NOC
TANet MRTG
TANet Roaming Center
TANet Computer Emergency Response Team
TANet Inappropriate Content Filtering Service
TANet VOIP
History of TANet
TaiWan Advanced Research & Education Network (TWAREN)
1980 establishments in Taiwan
Wide area networks
Internet in Taiwan
Education in Taiwan |
56591093 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony%20Creative%20Software | Sony Creative Software | Sony Creative Software is an American software company that develops various media software suites. Sony Creative Software was created in a 2003 deal with Madison-based media company Sonic Foundry in which it acquired its desktop product line, hired roughly 60% of employees, paid $18 million in cash, and took on certain liabilities and obligations.
As announced in May 2016, MAGIX Software GmbH has purchased majority of Sony Creative Software products, including the full Vegas Pro, Movie Studio, Sound Forge Pro, and ACID Pro product lines.
Programs
Catalyst Production Suite (video editing)
Catalyst Edit (video editing)
Catalyst Prepare (video preparation)
Catalyst Browse (video browsing)
Formerly owned programs
Vegas Video (video editing)
Sony Vegas Movie Studio (video editing), consumer version of Sony Vegas
Sound Forge (advanced audio editing)
ACID (loop based music creation), notable for its use of Acid Loops
SpectraLayers (digital audio editing)
References
External links
Sony Creative Software's website
Complete list of software
About Sony Creative Software
Sony subsidiaries
Sony software
American companies established in 2003
Software companies established in 2003
Software companies of the United States
Companies based in Madison, Wisconsin
2003 establishments in Wisconsin |
16261979 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto-1 | Crypto-1 | Crypto1 is a proprietary encryption algorithm (stream cipher) and authentication protocol created by NXP Semiconductors for its MIFARE Classic RFID contactless smart cards launched in 1994. Such cards have been used in many notable systems, including Oyster card, CharlieCard and OV-chipkaart.
By 2009, cryptographic research had reverse engineered the cipher and a variety of attacks were published that effectively broke the security.
NXP responded by issueing "hardened" (but still backwards compatible) cards, the MIFARE Classic EV1. However, in 2015 a new attack rendered the cards insecure, and NXP now recommends migrating away from MIFARE Classic.
Technical description
Crypto1 is a stream cipher very similar in its structure to its successor, Hitag2. Crypto1 consists of
a 48-bit linear feedback shift register for the state of the cipher,
a two-layer 20-to-1 nonlinear function used to generate the keystream, and
a 16-bit LFSR which is used during the authentication phase as a pseudo random number generator
The usual operation of Crypto1 and Hitag2 ciphers uses nonlinear feedback only during the initialization/authentication stage, switching to operation as a LFSR with a nonlinear output filter (filter generator) for the rest of the communications.
See also
KeeLoq
References
External links
Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen press release PDF (in English)
Details of Mifare reverse engineering by Henryk Plötz PDF (in German)
Windows GUI Crypto1 tool, optimized for use with the Proxmark3
Stream ciphers |
52604693 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mailfence | Mailfence | Mailfence is an encrypted email service that offers OpenPGP based end-to-end encryption and digital signatures. It was launched in November 2013 by ContactOffice Group, which has been operating an online collaboration suite for universities and other organizations since 1999.
History
Development
In the midst of 2013, the Mailfence project was started by the founders of ContactOffice. In March 2016, a beta version of end-to-end encryption and digital signatures for emails was released.
In January 2021, Mailfence released progressive web application for mobile devices.
Block in Russia
On 5 March 2020, Mailfence reported that their SMTP servers are blocked by Russian based email services. This was in response to their refusal to submit a Notice of Commencement of Collaboration with Roskomnadzor’s (the Federal Supervision Agency for Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Communication) of the Russian government. Mailfence did not respond to this request, citing obligation to provide information about users, violating its Terms and the federal Belgian laws.
Features
Mailfence provides secure email features, with other functions such as Calendar, Contacts, Documents and Collaboration.
Encryption and Two-factor authentication are available in the free version of the product. Most other features are only available with paid subscriptions that start at 2,50 € per month.
Email
The service supports POP/IMAP and Exchange ActiveSync as well as vanity domains with SPF, DKIM, DMARC and catch-all address support. Users can send both plain and rich text emails, organize messages in folders and/or categorize them with tags, take notes by setting comment on each message and create default message signatures for every sender address. Different identities can also be managed using aliases and filters for incoming emails.
Contacts
The contacts support (CSV, vCard, LDIF) import, (vCard, PDF) export and can be accessed using CardDAV. Users organize them with tags and can also create contact lists.
Calendar
The calendar supports vCal/iCal import, export and can be accessed by using CalDAV. Users can share their calendars with group members and can also create polls.
Documents
The documents can be accessed using WebDAV or edited online. Users can drag and drop files in folders, categorize them with tags take notes by setting comment on each file.
Groups
Groups allow users to share mailboxes, documents, contacts, calendars and perform instant chatting with group members in a secure way. A group administrator manages the access rights of group members and can also set another group member as co-admin or the main admin of the group.
Web-based clients
The web-interface comes with an embedded IMAP, POP3, CalDAV, and WebDAV client. Users can add external accounts and manage them centrally in the web-interface.
User management
Account owners can create and manage user accounts using the admin console.
Server location
Since their servers are located in Belgium, they are legally outside of US jurisdiction. Mailfence is therefore not subjected to US gag orders and NSLs, notwithstanding extradition treaties with the US. Under Belgian law, all national and international surveillance requests must go through a Belgian court.
Security and privacy
Aside from conventional security and privacy features including managing access or generating specific password for web and non-web services, two-factor authentication, spam protection alongside of plus addressing, sender address blacklist and whitelist, Mailfence offers following features:
Transport security
The service supports HTTPS and uses TLS with ephemeral key exchange to encrypt all internet traffic between users and Mailfence servers. Their 4096-bit RSA SSL certificate is signed by Buypass AS and supports Certificate Transparency and Strict Transport Security. Mailfence.com holds an "A+" rating from Qualys SSL Labs and also supports DANE.
End-to-end encryption
The service uses an open-source implementation of OpenPGP (RFC 4880) for emails. OpenPGP keypair is generated in client-browser, encrypted (via AES256) with the user's passphrase, and then stored on Mailfence server. The server never sees the user's OpenPGP keypair passphrase.
The service also supports end-to-end encryption for emails using a shared password with the possibility of message expiration.
OpenPGP signatures
The service gives the choice between "signing", or "signing and encrypting" an email message with or without attachments.
Integrated Keystore
The service provides an integrated keystore to manage OpenPGP keys, and does not require any third-party add-on/plugin. OpenPGP keypairs can be generated, imported or exported. Public keys of other users can be imported through file or in-line text or can be downloaded directly from Public key servers.
Full OpenPGP interoperability
Users can communicate with any OpenPGP compatible service provider.
Warrant canary and transparency report
The service maintains an up-to-date transparency report and warrant canary.
See also
Comparison of mail servers
Comparison of webmail providers
References
External links
Webmail
Cross-platform software
Security software
Cryptographic software
Secure communication
Internet privacy software
Internet properties established in 2013
OpenPGP |
48687 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star%20Wars%20Jedi%20Knight%20II%3A%20Jedi%20Outcast | Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast | Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast is a 2002 first and third-person shooter video game. The Microsoft Windows and OS X versions were developed by Raven Software, and the Xbox and GameCube versions by Vicarious Visions; most versions were published by LucasArts, with only the OS X version published by Aspyr. The game is a sequel to 1997's Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, and the third main installment in the Star Wars: Jedi Knight series. The single-player campaign, set in the fictional Star Wars expanded universe two years after the Mysteries of the Sith expansion for Dark Forces II, follows returning protagonist Kyle Katarn, a mercenary working for the New Republic and former Jedi who cut his connection to the Force. Katarn must return to his Jedi ways to stop a branch of the Imperial Remnant led by the Dark Jedi Desann from empowering their army with the Force.
Jedi Outcast was developed using a more powerful game engine, id Tech 3. The hack and slash combat introduced in Dark Forces II was heavily reworked, becoming the main focus of the gameplay instead of the shooter elements, which are prominent only during the first few missions of the game. Players may wield blasters, lightsabers, and Force powers to engage enemies, with the latter being recommended in later stages of the game, as numerous lightsaber-wielding enemies are introduced. Jedi Outcast also features a multiplayer mode that allows players to compete in several different game modes online or over a local area network.
Upon release, the game received largely positive reviews from critics, with its story and lightsaber combat being the main praised elements. A sequel and the final installment in the Jedi Knight series, Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, was released in 2003. Both Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy are considered landmark Star Wars titles for their revolutionary lightsaber combat. In September 2009, the game was re-released onto Steam and Direct2Drive alongside the rest of the Jedi Knight series. A Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 port with no multiplayer mode was released in September 2019.
On November 15, 2021, Microsoft announced that in celebration of 20 years of Xbox, they would be adding over 70 more games to their backwards compatibility program. Included in this list was Jedi Outcast, making it availabe to be played on Microsoft's Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S consoles.
Gameplay
Jedi Outcast allows the player to wield a variety of firearms from the Star Wars franchise, as well as lightsabers and Force powers. The player can choose whether to use first or third-person perspective for each weapon, including the lightsaber. Combat is standard for the shooter genre, offering players an array of energy and projectile weapons, plus a variety of explosives. Players have health and shield meters, each of which is replenished separately.
Jedi Outcast places a strong emphasis on lightsaber combat. As in the films, lightsabers can be used to deflect shots from blasters. The game offers three lightsaber styles; fast, medium and strong, with each style differing from the others in terms of the speed of attacks and damage dealt. There are also a number of combos, many of which are unique to the selected saber style.
Force powers (such as Push, Jump, and Lightning) are available in both single-player and multiplayer modes, but more powers can be used in the latter. The use of powers is restricted by a "Force Meter", which depletes with each use and gradually refills over time. The "level" of a Force power determines the strength of that power and the amount depleted from the Force meter during its use. The multiplayer mode divides players into Light Siders and Dark Siders, pitting each side against the other in team battles. Each side has access to both shared "Neutral" Force powers, which are mostly focused on increasing speed and athletic ability. There are also numerous powers unique to both Light and Dark sides. As in the previous games, Light Side powers are mainly focused around protection and healing, while Dark Side powers are openly aggressive. Unlike previous games, however, Kyle does not exclusively select Light or Dark powers in the single-player, instead receiving a selection of both.
Single-player
The single-player campaign follows Kyle Katarn as he moves through the levels in a linear manner, meeting friendly and hostile non-player characters (NPCs). Friendly NPCs will occasionally assist the player in combat. In addition to combat, the campaign features a variety of puzzles.
When the game starts, Kyle has forsaken The Force after the events of the previous game, and as such, the player has no access to a lightsaber or any Force powers. However, after the first two missions, Kyle regains his Force abilities. As the game progresses the number of powers available, and their strength, increase. Progression of Force abilities is fixed, and cannot be customized. Having previously fallen to the Dark Side, Kyle has access to both Light Side powers (such as Force Heal and Jedi Mind Trick) and Dark Side powers (such as Force Lightning and Force Grip), along with neutral ones (such as Force Speed, Force Jump, Force Pull and Force Push).
Multiplayer
Jedi Outcast features a set of multiplayer modes. In the PC and Macintosh versions, these can be played over a LAN or the Internet, but combat is limited to two players on the console versions. Multiplayer works by allowing members of the community to run their own dedicated servers that players can join via the in-game Multiplayer Server List, with server owners being able to dictate custom mods, maps and player models for their server. There are a variety of standardized game modes in Multiplayer (such as "Free-for-All", "Team Deathmatch" and "Capture the flag") which can be played with other players, bots, or both. Server owners can also build their own game modes for their server if they wish to do so. Players have limited customization control over their avatars, however there is the ability for players to import custom models on participating servers. They can choose the player model (with access to nearly every character in the game, as well as some characters from the films not seen in the single-player mode) and lightsaber color. Before a match, the server specifies the game rules, including "Force ranking", which controls how many points the players have available to allocate into Force powers. Players then customize their powers for the match. The server can also choose to disable normal weapons so as to create lightsaber-only matches.
Synopsis
Setting and characters
The single-player story is set in 12 ABY, eight years after the events of Return of the Jedi and around two years after Mysteries of the Sith. As with the previous installments in the series, the player controls Kyle Katarn (voiced by Jeff Bennett), a former Jedi who has cut his links with the Force after almost succumbing to the Dark Side. At the start of the game he is a mercenary working for the New Republic.
Over the course of the game, Kyle is joined by several characters that assist him in varying measures, including his mercenary partner and love interest Jan Ors (Vanessa Marshall); the sophisticated administrator of Cloud City, Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams); and Jedi Grandmaster and leader of the Jedi Academy on Yavin IV, Luke Skywalker (Bob Bergen). The player also receives help from other Jedi and New Republic soldiers, while Mon Mothma (Carolyn Seymour), Chief-of-State of the New Republic, assigns Kyle and Jan missions during the early stages of the game.
The story features four major antagonists and bosses: Desann (Mark Klastorin), a former student of the Jedi Academy, who turned to the Dark Side after killing a fellow student and leaving the Order; Tavion (Kath Soucie), Desann's apprentice; Galak Fyyar (Steve Blum), an admiral in the Imperial Remnant and Desann's second-in-command; and Reelo Baruk (Kevin Michael Richardson), a crime lord with ties to the Imperial Remnant who poses as a "respectable garbage collector" on Nar Shaddaa. Throughout the game, players fight different types of enemies, including mercenaries and Imperial stormtroopers. Halfway through the story, lightsaber-wielding enemies are introduced, namely the Reborn (thugs and soldiers who have been artificially infused with the Force), and Shadowtroopers (who sport lightsaber-resistant cortosis armor that also allows them to briefly turn invisible).
Plot
The game begins with Kyle Katarn and Jan Ors investigating a supposedly abandoned Imperial outpost on Kejim, finding it to be crawling with Imperial forces. They fight their way through the base, discovering a research center studying crystals similar to those used to power lightsabers. Tracing the crystals' origin, Kyle and Jan travel to Artus Prime, a mining colony turned into an Imperial stronghold, where the miners have been enslaved and experimented upon. Katarn thwarts the Imperial operation, but Jan is captured by the Dark Jedi Desann and his apprentice Tavion. Kyle tries to rescue her, but, having forsaken the ways of the Jedi, he is easily defeated by Desann, who orders Tavion to kill Jan before they leave.
An enraged Kyle travels to the Valley of the Jedi (a major plot element in Dark Forces II) to regain his Force powers, and then to the Jedi Academy to reclaim his lightsaber, which he had left with Luke Skywalker. Luke reveals Desann's origins to Kyle, and senses his anger through the Force, so he requests that Kyle complete a series of trials to prove he will not succumb to the Dark Side again. Kyle passes the tests and obtains his lightsaber, before travelling to Nar Shaddaa, where Luke told him to seek out Reelo Baruk, a Rodian gangster. While searching for him, Kyle runs into Lando Calrissian, who has been imprisoned in Reelo's dungeons. Lando reveals that Reelo is part of a cortosis smuggling operation in Cloud City, which has been taken over by the Empire and Reelo's men. After Kyle frees Lando, the pair make their escape in the latter's ship, the Lady Luck; killing Reelo when he tries to stop them.
On Bespin, Lando drops Kyle off at the bottom of Cloud City, and while making his way up the city structure, the latter has his first encounters with the Reborn, Desann's Force-wielding soldiers. After helping Lando's men reclaim control of the city, Kyle finds and defeats Tavion, who, fearing for her life, reveals that Jan is alive and onboard Galak Fyyar's Star Destroyer, the Doomgiver. Jan's faked death was just a ploy to trick Kyle into going to the Valley of the Jedi, which allowed Desann to follow him there and tap its power. Kyle spares Tavion and takes her ship to infiltrate the Doomgiver, which is docked at the Cairn Installation, an Imperial base hidden on an asteroid in the Lenico Belt.
At the base, Kyle runs into Luke, who informs him that Desann has used the Valley's energy to empower an army of Reborn which could number in the thousands. After fighting several Reborn together, Kyle and Luke split up to find the Doomgiver. Along the way, the former has his first encounter with the Shadowtroopers, and discovers that the base is actually an assault ship construction facility, which is preparing for a full-scale planetary assault. As Kyle boards the Doomgiver, he sees Luke fighting Desann outside the ship, but can't intervene because the Star Destroyer jumps into hyperspace. Kyle uses the ship's communications array to contact Rogue Squadron, and finds Jan in the detention block, who reveals that Desann was not specifically interested in the Valley of the Jedi, but rather the Jedi Academy, which he is invading just now to harvest its Force power. After killing Fyyar and destroying the Doomgivers shield reactor, which leaves the ship open for attack, Kyle escapes with Jan in a safe pod, moments before Rogue Squadron destroy the Doomgiver.
Kyle and Jan arrive on Yavin IV, in the middle of the Imperial invasion, and split up: the latter goes to assist the New Republic starfighters, while the former makes his way to the Jedi Academy on foot. After helping the Jedi students and Republic soldiers fend off the assault, Kyle ventures into the Academy's underground maze, and confronts Desann as he tries to absorb the power from the Force nexus at the centre. Kyle informs Desann of the Doomgivers destruction and the Imperial army's defeat, and offers him the chance to rejoin the Jedi, but an enraged Desann refuses and attacks him. Kyle kills Desann and returns to the surface, where he reunites with Jan, as the New Republic arrests the surviving Imperial forces. Later, Luke thanks Kyle and Jan for their assistance, and offers to safeguard the former's lightsaber once more, but Kyle politely refuses, saying he is not ready to forsake the Force again.
Development
On May 17, 2001, at E3 2001, LucasArts announced that Raven Software were developing a third game in the Jedi Knight series. Some plot details were given, such as the locations visited in the game; Cloud City, Yavin IV, Smuggler's Moon and some planets original to the game. The following day at E3, LucasArts gave a demonstration of the game, showing the lightsaber and Force combat as well as the "buddy" system: in which certain NPCs would fight alongside the player. Technical details were also revealed: the game would use id Software's Quake III Arena engine, and the GHOUL 2 animation system, seen in Raven's Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix. The polygon capacity of the engine had also been doubled. The game was also on display at id's QuakeCon 2001, where enemy AI and combat were demonstrated. LucasArts announced that the game would feature multiplayer, although due to being early in development little information was revealed.
On July 17, 2001, multiplayer developer Pat Lipo made a post on his .plan file, revealing that Rich Whitehouse had been brought onto the development team to handle development of the game's multiplayer bots. Whitehouse moved on to tackle the entirety of the game's multiplayer codebase, and was subsequently credited as the game's sole multiplayer programmer. Designer Chris Foster has stated that most members of the team had many responsibilities due to its small size. One of the main tools used to design levels was Radiant.
On January 16, 2002, LucasArts launched a new website for Jedi Outcast featuring an overview of the game and information regarding characters, weapons and Force powers. An FAQ, screenshots, concept art, images of player models and downloadable wallpapers were also available. A teaser trailer was released on February 8, showing the game's combat, weapons, characters and environments. On March 13, 2002, LucasArts announced that the game was on track for release later in the month. Two days later, they announced Jedi Outcast was ready for release, set to go on sale by March 29. A new trailer was also released. After the release, game programmer Mike Gummelt revealed that a request from the management led the team to disable the ability to sever the heads of non-droid enemies. He has also cited Bushido Blade as the inspiration for a lightsaber combat system which requires players to wait and strike at the right moment.
Release
Jedi Outcast shipped on March 26, 2002.
The game's SDK was released on April 22, 2002. This included a level editor, map compiler, model viewer, and shader editor and viewer. Since its release, hundreds of mods have been submitted to sites such as FileFront. A 66 MB demo of the game was released on May 10, 2002, featuring the same level shown in an incomplete form at E3 2001, which did not feature in the final version. Two patches were subsequently released: version 1.03 and 1.04.
At E3 2002, LucasArts announced that Jedi Outcast would be released on the GameCube and Xbox. On May 31, 2002, LucasArts and Aspyr announced that a Macintosh version of the game would be released. The Mac version was released on November 5, 2002, and the Xbox and GameCube versions on November 19 in North America and three days later in Europe.
On November 15, 2006, LucasArts announced that Jedi Outcast would feature with Star Wars: Battlefront, Star Wars: Empire at War, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Star Wars: Republic Commando and a 14-day trial of Star Wars Galaxies in a compilation release entitled Star Wars: The Best of PC. It was released during the 2006 holiday season.
A Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 port was announced on September 4, 2019; with a release date of September 24, 2019.
Source-code release
Following Disney's decision to close LucasArts on April 3, 2013, the developers at Raven Software released the source code for the game on SourceForge under GNU GPL-2.0-only. A few days after release, the source code disappeared from SourceForge without explanation. SourceForge later explained to media outlet Kotaku that Raven Software had requested its removal. Kotaku speculated this was due to the presence of licensed code, such as for the Bink Video format from Rad Game Tools, that was not intended to be made public.
However, prior to the removal a fork called "OpenJK" was created on GitHub with the problematic code parts already excised. The goal of the OpenJK community project is to "maintain and improve Jedi Academy + Jedi Outcast released by Raven Software." This includes the unification of the Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy engines, maintaining the compatibility of previous releases, and providing source ports for Mac and Linux. Daily builds for Windows and early Linux builds are also available.
Reception
PC
In the United States, Jedi Outcasts computer version sold 390,000 copies and earned $17 million by August 2006. At the time, this led Edge to declare it the country's 39th-best-selling computer game, and best-selling Jedi Knight computer title, released since January 2000. Combined sales of all Jedi Knight computer games released during the 2000s, including Jedi Outcast, reached 920,000 units in the United States by August 2006. Jedi Outcasts computer version also received a "Silver" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom; and a "Gold" certification from the Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland (VUD), for sales of at least 100,000 units across Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The PC version holds an aggregate score of 89 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on thirty-five reviews.
Game Informer scored the game 9.5 out of 10, with reviewer Andrew Reiner calling it "the quintessential Star Wars game and a feast for all FPS devotees." He also wrote, "without question, Jedi Outcast is the most enjoyable and accomplished Star Wars game yet." He was also extremely impressed with multiplayer, calling it "a highly addictive, over-the-top experience that all FPS players must see to believe." Brian Gee of Game Revolution gave the game an A-. He praised how authentically Star Wars the game felt, as well as the lightsaber interface, writing "I've played a ton of Star Wars games in my time, and I don't think any of them can match the excitement and fun of lightsaber play in Jedi Outcast."
IGN were also impressed, scoring the game 9 out of 10 and giving it an "Editor's Choice" award. Reviewer Steve Butts lauded the "tightly written, mature plot," and wrote "not only is this one of the greatest Star Wars games I've ever played, it's one of the best action games period." He also commended the "fantastic" graphics and "intelligent" level design, although he was critical of the puzzles, the lightsaber interface, and complained that "the game starts too slowly." GameSpot also scored the game 9 out of 10 and, like IGN, also gave it an "Editor's Choice" award. Reviewer Amer Ajami echoed IGN's criticisms of the "slow start" and "too much puzzle-solving." However, he was very impressed with the interface, arguing "never before has melee combat in a shooter been so effectively executed," and he concluded by saying "the game's strong points - especially its combat - overshadow whatever problems Jedi Outcast may have early on," calling it "simply one of the easiest games to recommend this year."
Game Over Online gave the game 93%, calling it "an intriguing juxtaposition of pieces of incredibly intense FPS action that had me on the edge of my seat combined with puzzle-like sections of such opacity that they made me want to kill myself." Entertainment Weekly gave it an A, stating that "the Force is strong with this one." Maxim, however, gave it an eight out of ten and stated that "The Force is strong with this polished first-person shooter."
In a negative review, X-Play criticized the game as a "disturbance in the Force." Although reviewer Jason D'Aprile called the story "pretty good," the graphics "fantastic" and the audio effects "just right," he complained that the level design "succumbs to the Dark Side," citing "illogical and frustrating situations." He also considered the multiplayer mode "not very impressive" and gave the game 2 out of 5 stars. Eurogamer were also underwhelmed, scoring the game 7 out of 10. They criticized the slow start, the lightsaber interface and the AI. However, they did commend the atmosphere and some of the level design. They concluded that "Jedi Outcast is a rather patchy game, with moments of genius let down by a lack of consistency. The guns are derivative and rarely used once you get hold of your lightsaber, the melee combat clumsy and chaotic, the AI poor and some of the locations derivative and poorly designed."
In June 2007, GameTrailers's list of the 10 best Star Wars games saw Jedi Outcast rank at number one, with the editorial commenting that "This was certainly not the first time players had the opportunity to play as a Jedi in a video game, it was the first time you actually felt like one." They also praised the lightsaber and Force combat systems, a story which they felt was consistent with the films, and the cameos from some key Star Wars characters (namely Luke Skywalker and Lando Calrissian).
Jedi Outcast was nominated for Computer Gaming Worlds 2002 "Action Game of the Year" award, which ultimately went to Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. The editors wrote, "Jedi Knight II is a blast, and the force powers and lightsaber control are perfectly executed." However, they found it too lacking in originality and consistency to win the award.
Xbox and GameCube
The Xbox version holds an aggregate score of 81 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on twenty-four reviews. The GameCube version holds scores of 75 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on seventeen reviews.
The Xbox version was described as "truly fantastic" by the Official Xbox Magazine, who scored it 9 out of 10. IGN were also impressed, scoring it 8.8 out of 10 and calling it "the best Star Wars experience on the Xbox". Reviewer Aaron Boudling praised how the controls had been mapped onto the Xbox Controller, but was highly critical of the game's lack of support for Xbox Live, and the absence of an online multiplayer mode. He also felt the graphics in the cutscenes were significantly weaker than the PC version. GameSpot scored it 8.3 out of 10, with reviewer Amer Ajami saying the port "retains the essence of what it must feel like to be an all-powerful Jedi, which was so well conveyed in the original PC game, without sacrificing much in the way of graphics, playability, or overall value. In fact, the game's complicated control scheme is better served on an Xbox controller than it is in the PC's typical mouse and keyboard setup." However, he too criticized the lack of Xbox Live support and the poor graphical quality of the cutscenes. Game Revolution gave the game a B+, praising the controls and atmosphere, but criticizing the AI and lack of Xbox Live support. Eurogamer were as unimpressed with the Xbox version as they had been with the PC version, scoring it 6 out of 10. Reviewer Kristan Reed found a lot of the problems with the game to be inherent to the original, not problems with the port - a slow beginning, poor AI, bad level design, repetitive puzzles. Reed called the lack of Xbox Live support "plain unacceptable" and concluded "Jedi Outcast is certainly an entertaining package when it gets things right, but it's also riddled with design flaws, technical flaws and various minor irritations that conspire to detract from your overall enjoyment. Given that it's also not Live (or even LAN) enabled, Xbox owners don't even have that crumb of comfort to elevate its status."
GameSpot scored the GameCube version 8.2 out of 10. As with the Xbox version, Ajami was critical of the cutscene graphics, but concluded that "Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast makes a fine addition to the Nintendo console's gradually growing list of action games." GameSpy gave the same version three-and-a-half stars out of five. Reviewer Scott Steinberg was critical of the game's slow start and the nature of some of the puzzles. Of the port, he wrote "This game was an award-winning game on a prior platform, so you'd be in the right to demand more. But from the perspective of a GameCube owner just getting your first taste of the galactic goodie that is the Jedi Knight series, things could have been a lot worse [...] Jedi Knight II: Outcast stands as a respectable effort, but disappointing reminder that when you swap content from platform to platform, something often gets lost in the transition." IGN scored it 7.2 out of 10, with reviewer Aaron Boudling arguing that the graphics and controls were significantly poorer than in either the PC or Xbox versions. Of the controls, Boulding wrote "While the Xbox version allows you to map your favorite moves to the black and white buttons for quick access, GameCube owners are out of luck and will have to fumble around with the D-Pad in the heat of battle." He concluded "It's obvious that no work at all went into trying to get this game to properly run on GameCube. The framerate is erratic and constantly alternates between smooth and choppy, further complicating the already clunky control system [...] If you're a multi-console owner, get the superior Xbox version to see a better realized port." Nintendo World Report scored it 6 out of 10, also citing the inferior controls and poorer graphics than the PC and Xbox versions; "Jedi Outcast ends up being a pretty terrible port of an excellent PC title. The trick to enjoying the GameCube incarnation will be coming to terms with the control and graphic inadequacies in the game and then being able to make yourself get over the "hump" so that you can enjoy the meat and potatoes of the whole experience."
It was a runner-up for GameSpots annual "Best Shooter on GameCube" award, which went to TimeSplitters 2.
See also
List of formerly proprietary software
List of open source games
References
External links
Official site via Internet Archive
Jedi Outcast source code mirror at GitHub
2002 video games
Activision games
Aspyr games
Commercial video games with freely available source code
First-person shooters
Id Tech games
LucasArts games
Classic Mac OS games
MacOS games
Multiplayer and single-player video games
Multiplayer online games
GameCube games
Nintendo Switch games
PlayStation 4 games
Open-source video games
Raven Software games
Jedi Outcast
Third-person shooters
Video game sequels
Video games developed in the United States
Windows games
Xbox games |
3867525 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ras%20Michael | Ras Michael | Michael George Henry OD (born 1943), better known as Ras Michael, is a Jamaican reggae singer and Nyabinghi specialist. He also performs under the name of Dadawah.
Biography
Henry was born in Saint Mary Parish, Jamaica, where he was raised in a Rastafari community. As a teenager he moved to Kingston's Waterhouse district where he played with local Rastafari musicians. He set up the Zion Disc label in the mid-1960s, and also worked at Coxsone Dodd's legendary Studio One as a session musician and released a number of singles. He was the first member of the Rastafari movement to have a reggae radio program in Jamaica (The Lion of Judah Time program first aired in 1967 on the JBC). His band is called The Sons of Negus and are known for their traditional Nyabinghi drumming and chanting.
Tommy Cowan saw Ras Michael's group in 1974, and released an album of their music later that year as Nyahbinghi. The album didn't sell well, so Cowan produced a second album, Rastafari (1975), with the group augmented by top studio musicians including bassist Robbie Shakespeare, guitarist Earl "Chinna" Smith, keyboard player Robbie Lyn, and additional guitar from Peter Tosh; Rastafari, which featured a painting of a young Haile Selassie by Neville Garrick on the cover, was more commercially successful, and was followed in 1977 by Kibir Am Lak, which increased the popularity of the group in Europe and the United States.
Ras Michael contributed to recording sessions at Lee "Scratch" Perry's Black Ark studio (including sessions with Bob Marley), and he performed with Marley at the One Love Peace Concert in Jamaica in 1978. With the Sons of Negus he recorded an album (Love Thy Neighbor) with Perry at the Black Ark. He recorded 'Give Love' with Suns of Arqa in 1984 for their album India?. In all, he has recorded over 25 albums.
In addition to acting as an evangelist, ambassador and diplomat for the Ethiopian Orthodox Tawahido Church internationally, Ras Michael is one of the founders and president of the Rastafarian International/Marcus Garvey Culture Center in Los Angeles, and the Fly Away Culture Center in Kingston, Jamaica. Currently he lives in Los Angeles.
In August 2015 it was announced that he would be awarded the Order of Distinction by the Jamaican government in recognition of his contribution to the development of the country's music.
Discography
Nyahbinghi (1974), Starapple/Trojan
Dadawah - Peace & Love (1974), Wildflower
Freedom Sounds (1974), Dynamic Sounds
Rastafari (1975), Grounation
Tribute to the Emperor (1976), Trojan
Irations of Ras Michael & Sons of Negus Volume One (1977), Top Ranking
Kibir Am Lak (1977), Top Ranking
Movements (1978), Dynamic Sounds
Love Thy Neighbour (1979), Jah Life
Promised Land Sounds (1980), Lion's Gate
Disarmament (1981), Trojan
Revelation (1982), Trojan
Rally Round (1985), Shanachie
Zion Train (1988), SST
Know Now (1989), Shanachie
Rastafari Dub (1989), ROIR
Mediator (1992), High Times
Spiritual Roots (1999), VP
Lion Country (1999), Roots & Culture
A Weh Dem a Go Do Wid It (2003), ROIR
Try Love (2006), Vista Ave Entertainment
Live Ina Babylon (2009), Sankofa
None A Jah Jah Children (2018), VP Live By The Spirit (2020) Hen House Studios
CompilationsNew Name (1994), Culture PressAnthology (2001), Culture PressMerry Peasant (2003), 2b1Reggae Best (2004), Culture PressReggae Masters'' (2009), Creon
References
External links
Ras Michael Discography at Roots Archive
Audio Interview with Ras Michael at ireggae 7 April 2002. Duration: 57 minutes. Retrieved 4 May 2013.
1943 births
Living people
musicians from Kingston, Jamaica
Jamaican reggae musicians
Jamaican Rastafarians
Recipients of the Order of Distinction |
19922322 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IndiePub | IndiePub | indiePub Entertainment, Inc. (formerly Zoo Entertainment, Inc.) was a publisher of video games based in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States.
History
Zoo Games was a wholly owned subsidiary of Zoo Entertainment originally known as DFTW Merger Sub, Inc. In March 2007, DFTW merged with Green Screen Interactive Software, LLC to become Green Screen Interactive Software. Following the merger, Green Screen acquired SuperVillain Studios in June 2007, Destination Software in December 2007 and Zoo Digital Publishing in April 2008. In August 2008, Green Screen was renamed Zoo Games, Inc., and Destination Software was renamed Zoo Publishing, Inc., with Zoo Publishing becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of Zoo Games. SuperVillain Studios was sold back to the original owners in September 2008 and six months following the acquisition of Zoo Digital Publishing it was sold back to the original owners in order for the company to refocus on their Zoo Publishing operations.
On May 7, 2009 it was announced by Zoo Publishing that the company had acquired the rights from New World IP to publish and distribute Empire Interactive's entire catalog which includes titles such as Big Mutha Truckers and Flatout Head On. The rights were acquired from New World IP who had recently purchased Empire's intellectual property as the company went into administration. In June 2009, Zoo Games created a wholly owned subsidiary, Zoo Entertainment Europe Ltd., in order to move into the European market however, operations were discontinued in December 2009.
September 28, 2011, indiePub announced that it was a year into development of an indies-only game and application (apps) distribution or publishing platform. Developers will be able to create a "Pub" (online storefront) to sell their games and apps. The following week (October 7, 2011) indiePub revealed that it would give indie developers 75% of the revenues from their games sold through the service and that it would support games and other apps made for PC (Windows), Macintosh (OS X), Linux and Android devices (phones and tablets). iOS games, can be linked from a Pub. It will also use distributed sales tools which have not yet been detailed.
May 15, 2012, Zoo Entertainment, Inc., officially became indiePub Entertainment, Inc.
indiePub closed in 2013.
indiePub Games
Zoo Publishing is also the sponsor of indiePub Games, a community of independent video game developers. Zoo originally launched indiePub as 2Bee Games in 2009 but changed to indiePub in 2010 and periodically holds indie game development competitions with cash prizes for the best games.
Mid 2010, indiePub held its 3rd Independent Game Developers' Competition when indiePub launched. (The first two developer competitions were under 2Bee Games). Winners were announced October 8, 2010, at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) Online in Austin, Texas (USA). The winners were:
Grand Prize: Dustforce! by Hitbox Team developers Woodley Nye, Matthew Bush and Alexander Dostal in Brisbane, Australia.
Technical Excellence: Hazard: The Journey of Life by Alexander Bruce.
Best Art: The Dream Machine created by Cockroach Inc. developers Anders Gustafsson and Erik Zaring from Denmark and Sweden.
Best Audio: Coma by Thomas Brush.
Best Design: Vanessa Saint-Pierre Delacroix and Her Nightmare by Bad Pilcrow.
Staff Pick: Catapult for Hire by developer Tyrone Henrie of PixelMega.
Mid to late 2010, indiePub held a Mobile Game Competition. The winners were announced December 15, 2011:
Grand Prize: SteamBirds for Android (Spry Fox and Radial Games)
Art: PLEXXR for iOS (Tactile Media)
Audio: Spark It Up for iOS(sumiguchi)
Design: SKWER for iOS (Alebrije Studios)
Technical Excellence: Hero Mages for Android (D20Studios)
Early 2011 indiePub held an indie game developer competition called the Independent Propeller Awards and featured $150,000 in prizes, an award sponsored by Unity Technologies and an award sponsored by Intel AppUp developer program. Winners were announced on March 13, 2011, at the ScreenBurn Arcade, the gaming portion of the 2011 South by Southwest event in Austin, Texas (USA). The winners were:
Grand Prize: GLiD (Glid) by Spiderling Game Studios
Best Art: The Uncanny Fish Hunt by Uncanny Games
Best Audio: Skinny by Thomas Brush
Best Design: Chewy by Happy Candy Co.
Technical Excellence: Creo by Turtle Sandbox
Intel Innovation Award: Deep Sea by Robin Arnott of WRAUGHK Audio Design
Unity Development Award: Tiny and Big: Grandpa's Leftovers by Black Pants Game Studio
Late in 2011 indiePub started their fifth indie game developer competition called the 2012 Independent Propeller Awards and featured $50,000 in prizes. Winners were announced on April 18, 2012.
The winners were:
Grand Prize: Deity by DigiPen's Double++ (Ryan Chew, Caroline Sugianto, Michael Travaglione, Christopher Mingus, Ying Liu, Matt Frederick, Aariel Hall and Ryan Hickman)
Best Art: The Bridge by Ty Taylor and Mario Castaneda
Best Audio: The Red Solstice by IronWard (Hrvoje Horvatek, Daniel Mandić, Marko Pintera, Vjeko Koščević, Danijel Ribić and Marko Kovačić with audio by Andy Mack, Cory Richards, Žarko Dragojević and Dominik Zorić)
Best Design: FYI by Digital Dreams (Geert Nellen, Thijmen Bink and Roy van de Mortel)
Technical Excellence: Nitronic Rush by DigiPen's Team Nitronic (Kyle Holdwick, Andy Kibler, Chris Barrett, Andrew "Angrew" Nollan, Jason Nollan, Laura Borgen, Eddie Peters, Ariel Gitomer, Nathan Aldrich, Jordan Hemenway and M.J. "The Quiggles" Quigley)
Mobile Game: CreaVures by MuseGames (Howard Tsao and Conrad Kreyling)
In 2013, indiePub Games closed with all the subsidiaries of indiePub.
indiePub Mobile
February 1, 2011, Zoo Entertainment, Inc., announced that it launched indiePub Mobile to develop mobile games for iOS and Android. EA Mobile's former Development Director, Rob Cassidy, was named indiePub Mobile Director. Initially announced mobile games were: Fractal, Blocks: The Devilish Delivery Game (renamed Kona's Crate), Paper Venture, Totem Destroyer Deluxe (HD) and Cargo Delivery. According to the company, this was the first time an indie game publisher has expanded with a designated mobile division.
In 2013, indiePub Mobile closed with all the subsidiaries of indiePub.
Games
This is a list of games published under the Zoo Games label and, further below, under indiePub. For the games published by Destination Software before it was acquired; see List of Destination Software games.
Released (Zoo Publishing)
2008
Army Men: Soldiers of Misfortune (2008) Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, Wii
Bigfoot: Collision Course (2008) Nintendo DS, Wii, Windows
Calvin Tucker's Redneck Jamboree (2008) Wii, Windows
Chrysler Classic Racing (2008) Nintendo DS, Windows
M&M's Adventure (2008) Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, Wii
Margot's Word Brain (2008) Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, Wii, Windows
NARC (2008) Windows
Order Up! (2008) Wii
Puzzler Collection (2008) Nintendo DS, Wii
Skate City Heroes (2008) Wii
Story Hour: Adventures (2008) Wii
Story Hour: Fairy Tales (2008) Wii
Twin Strike: Operation Thunder (2008) Wii
Wordmaster (2008) Nintendo DS
2009
Animal Paradise Wild (2009) Nintendo DS
Arcade Shooting Gallery (2009) Wii
ATV Quad Kings (2009) Wii
Build 'n Race (2009) Wii
Chrysler Classic Racing (2009) Nintendo DS, Wii
Chicken Blaster (2009) Nintendo DS, Wii
Deal or No Deal (2009) Wii
Diner Dash: Flo on the Go (2009) Nintendo DS
Dodge Racing: Charger vs. Challenger (2009) Nintendo DS, Wii
Dream Dance & Cheer (2009) Wii
Dream Dancer (2009) Nintendo DS
Dream Salon (2009) Nintendo DS
Glacier 2 (2009) Wii
Groovin' Blocks (2009) iPhone, Wii
Hello Kitty: Big City Dreams (2009) Nintendo DS
Jelly Belly: Ballistic Beans (2009) Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, Wii
Love Is... In Bloom (2009) Nintendo DS
Margot's Bepuzzled! (2009) Nintendo DS
M&M's Beach Party (2009) Wii
Monster Trucks Mayhem (2009) Wii
Pacific Liberator (2009) Wii
Puzzle Kingdoms (2009) Nintendo DS, Wii
Smiley World Island Challenge (2009) Nintendo DS, Wii
Ultimate Duck Hunting (2009) Wii
Wedding Dash (2009) Nintendo DS
2010
Boot Camp Academy (2010) Wii
Chocolatier (2010) Nintendo DS
Color Cross (2010) Nintendo DS
Dream Chronicles (2010) Nintendo DS
The Garfield Show: Threat of the Space Lasagna (2010) Wii
Glacier 3: The Meltdown (2010) Wii
Martian Panic (2010) Wii
Hello Kitty: Birthday Adventures (2010) Nintendo DS
Hall of Fame: Ultimate Hoops Challenge (2010) Wii
Jane's Hotel (2010) Nintendo DS
Let's Paint (2010) Wii
Monster Frenzy (2010) Nintendo DS
Speed (2010) Wii
Minute to Win It (2010) Wii
Shawn Johnson Gymnastics (2010) Wii
Mathews Bowhunt (2010) Wii
Hello Kitty Seasons (2010) Wii
Kevin VanDam's Big Bass Challenge (2010) Wii
Silly Bandz (2010) Nintendo DS
2011
Dino Strike (February 2011) Wii
Mayhem 3D (March 2011) Xbox 360
Mayhem 3D (March 2011) PS3
Photo Phantasy (February 2011) DS
ZombieZ Seeker (February 2011) DS
Minute to Win It for Kinect (October 18, 2011) Xbox 360
Released (indiePub & indiePub Mobile & indiePub Entertainment)
2010Silly Bandz (December 21, 2010) iPhone, iPad
2011Kona's Crate (June 23, 2011) iOS (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad), Windows, MacFractal (August 18, 2011) iPadTotem Destroyer Deluxe (October 2011) Windows, Mac
2012Vessel (March 1, 2012) WindowsStorm (October 23, 2012) WindowsFireburst (April 25, 2012) WindowsDiamond Trust of London (July 2012) DSPictago (October 26, 2012, Canada) iOSPictago (December 21, 2012, US) iOSTurkey Stuffin' (November 9–15, 2012) iOS, Android
2013Auditorium (January 9, 2013) PlayStation NetworkCapsized (February 28, 2013) iOS (iPad)Pictago (February 13, 2013) iOSHungry Gows (March 7, 2013) iOSKona's Crate (March 7, 2013) AndroidBad Bots (May 17, 2013) Windows, MacStorm (June 14, 2013) Xbox LiveFireburst (June 14, 2013) Xbox LiveStorm (June 18, 2013) PlayStation Network (US)Capsized (July 5, 2013) Xbox LiveVessel (September 11, 2013) Xbox Live
Announced - Cancelled gamesStorm (2013) iOSCatapult for Hire (video game) (2013) WindowsBad Bots'' (2013) iOS, Android
References
Video game publishers
Defunct companies based in Cincinnati
Defunct video game companies of the United States
Video game companies established in 2007
Video game companies disestablished in 2013 |
6369702 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith%20Clark%20%28computer%20scientist%29 | Keith Clark (computer scientist) | Keith Leonard Clark (born 29 March 1943) is an Emeritus Professor in the Department of Computing at Imperial College London, England.
Education
Clark studied Mathematics at Durham University (Hatfield College), graduating in 1964 with a first-class degree. Clark then continued his studies at Cambridge University, taking a second undergraduate degree in Philosophy in 1966. He earned a Ph.D. in 1980 from the University of London with thesis titled Predicate logic as a computational formalism.
Career
Clark undertook Voluntary Service Overseas from 1967 to 1968 as a teacher of Mathematics at a school in Sierra Leone. He lectured in Computer Science at the Mathematics Department of Queen Mary College from 1969 to 1975. In 1975 he moved to Imperial College London, where he became a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science and joined Robert Kowalski in setting up the Logic programming group. From 1987 to 2009 he was Professor of Computational Logic at Imperial College.
Clark's key contributions have been in the field of logic programming. His 1978 paper on negation as failure was arguably the first formalisation of a non-monotonic logic. His 1981 paper on a relational language for parallel programming introduced concurrent logic programming. This was the programming paradigm adopted by the ambitious 1980s Japanese Fifth Generation Research Project with the goal of producing knowledge processing parallel computers. It was selected for its suitability for parallel execution even though it lacked the natural knowledge representation features of Prolog.
Since 2010 Clark has worked closely with Peter Robinson of the University of Queensland on the TeleoR/QuLog language combination for programming multi-tasking communicating agents optionally controlling robotic devices. TeleoR is a rule based programming language that is a major extension of the Teleo-Reactive Procedures language T-R proposed by Nils Nilsson. T-R is a descendant of generalised hierarchical triangular table STRIPS plans, the planner of Shakey the robot, the first reasoning robot. QuLog is a flexibly typed hybrid language combining logic programming, functional programming and multi-threaded agent action programming. TeleoR is an application specific syntactic extension of QuLog.
Business Interests
In 1980, with colleague Frank McCabe, he founded an Imperial College spin-off company, Logic Programming Associates, to develop and market Prolog systems for micro-computers (micro-Prolog) and to provide consultancy on expert systems and other logic programming applications. The company's star product was MacProlog. It had a user interface exploiting all the graphic user interface primitives of the Mac's OS, and primitives allowing bespoke Prolog based applications to be built with application specific interfaces. Clark has also acted as a Consultant to IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Fujitsu among other companies.
Selected publications
K. L. Clark, D. Cowell, Programs, Machines and Computation, McGraw-Hill, London, 1976.
K. L. Clark, S-A. Tarnlund, A first order theory of data and programs, Proc. IFIP Congress, Toronto, 939–944 pp, 1977.
K. L. Clark, Negation as failure, Logic and Data Bases (eds. Gallaire & Minker) Plenum Press, New York, 293–322 pp, 1978. (Also in Readings in Nonmonotonic Reasoning, (ed. M. Ginsberg), Morgan Kaufmann, 311–325, 1987.)
K. L. Clark, S. Gregory, A relational language for parallel programming, Proc. ACM Conference on Functional Languages and Computer Architecture, ACM, New York, 171–178 pp, 1981. (Also in Concurrent Prolog, (ed. E Shapiro), MIT Press, 9–26 pp, 1987.)
K. L. Clark, S-A. Tarnlund (eds), Logic Programming, Academic Press, London, 1982.
K. L. Clark, F. G. McCabe, micro-PROLOG: Programming in Logic, Prentice-Hall International, 1984.
K. L. Clark, I. Foster, A Declarative Environment for Concurrent Logic Programming, Proceedings of Colloquium on Functional and Logic Programming and Specification, LNCS 250, Springer-Verlag, 212 - 242 pp, 1987
K. L. Clark, Logic Programming Schemes and their Implementations, Computational Logic (ed Lassez and Plotkin), MIT Press, 1991.
F.G. McCabe, K. L. Clark, April — Agent process interaction language, in Intelligent Agents, (ed N. Jennings, M. Wooldridge), LNAI, Vol. 890, Springer-Verlag, 1995.
N. Skarmeas, K. L. Clark, Content based routing as the basis for intra-agent communication, Proceedings of International WS on Agent Theories, Architectures and Languages 98, Intelligent Agents V, (ed. J. P. Muler et al.),Springer-Verlag, LNAI 1555, 1999 (best paper award).
K. L. Clark, Logic Programming Languages, Encyclopedia of Computer Science, (eds. A. Ralston, E. Reilly, D. Hemmendinger), pp 1024–1031, Nature Publishing Group, 2000.
K. L. Clark and F. McCabe, Go! — A Multi-paradigm Programming Language for Implementing Multi-threaded Agents, Annals of Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence, 41(2–4):171–206, August 2004.
T. Hong and K. L. Clark, Towards a Universal Web Wrapper, Proceedings of the 17th International FLAIRS Conference, AAAI Press, 2004.
K. L. Clark and F. McCabe, Ontology schema for an agent belief store, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 65(7), July 2007, Pages 640–658.
K. L. Clark, P. Robinson, S. Zappacosta Amboldi, Multi-threaded communicating agents in Qu-Prolog, Computational Logic in Multi-agent systems (ed. F Toni and P. Torroni), LNAI Vol. 3900, pp 186–205, 2006.
S. Coffey and K. L. Clark, A Hybrid, Teleo-Reactive Architecture for Robot Control, Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Multi-Agent Robotic Systems (MARS-06), 2006.
D. Gaertner, K. L. Clark, M. Sergot, Ballroom etiquette: a case study for norm-governed multi-agent systems, Proceedings of AAMAS06 Workshop on Coordination, Organization, Institutions and Norms in agent systems, LNCS 4386, Springer, 2006.
J. Knottenbelt, K. L. Clark, Contract Related Agents, Computational Logic in Multi-agent systems (ed F Toni and P. Torroni), LNAI Vol. 3900, pp 226–242, 2006.
J. Ma, A. Russo, K. Broda, K. L. Clark, DARE: A System for Distributed Abductive Reasoning, Autonomous Agents and Multi-agent Systems Journal, 16(3), Springer, June, 2008.
P. J. Robinson, K. L. Clark, Pedro: A Publish/Subscribe Server Using Prolog Technology, Software: Practice and Experience, 40(4) pp 313–329, Wiley, 2010.
K. L. Clark, P. J. Robinson, Robotic agent programming in TeleoR, Proceedings of International Conference on Robotics and Automation, IEEE, May 2015.
K. Clark, B. Hengst, M. Pagnucco, D. Rajaratnam, P. Robinson, C. Sammut, M. Thielscher, A Framework for Integrating Symbolic and Sub-Symbolic Representations, Proceedings of International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence 2016, New York, AAAI Press, July 2016.
References
External links
Keith Clark homepage
Living people
Alumni of the University of Cambridge
Alumni of the Department of Computing, Imperial College London
Academics of Imperial College London
British computer scientists
Computer science writers
Logic programming researchers
1943 births
Academics of the Department of Computing, Imperial College London
Alumni of Hatfield College, Durham |
10858243 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coda%20%28web%20development%20software%29 | Coda (web development software) | Coda is a commercial and proprietary web development application for macOS, developed by Panic. It was first released on April 23, 2007 and won the 2007 Apple Design Award for Best User Experience. Coda version 2.0 was released on 24 May 2012, along with an iPad version called Diet Coda. Although formerly available on the Mac App Store, it was announced on May 14, 2014 that the update to Coda 2.5 would not be available in the Mac App Store due to sandboxing restrictions. Coda was discontinued in 2020 and replaced by Nova.
Concept and idea
The concept for Coda came from the web team at Panic, who would have five or six different programs for coding, testing and reference. The lack of full-featured website development platforms equivalent to application development platform Xcode served as the purpose for Coda's creation.
Development
Currently, little is known about the actual development of Coda. What is known from Panic co-founder Steven Frank's blog is that Coda development started at Panic sometime in late 2005. Assigned to the project were 5 engineers, 3 people on support and testing, one designer, and one Japanese localizer.
Sections
The application is divided into six sections (Sites, Edit, Preview, CSS, Terminal, and Books), which are accessed through six tabs at the top of the application. Users can also split the window into multiple sections either vertically or horizontally, to access multiple sections or different files at the same time.
Sites
In Coda, sites are the equivalent of "projects" in many other applications like TextMate. Each site has its own set of files, its own FTP settings, etc. When Coda is closed in the midst of a project and then reopened, the user is presented with exactly what it was like before the application was closed. Another notable feature is the ability to add a Local and Remote version to each site, allowing the user to synchronize the file(s) created, modified or deleted from their local and remote locations.
Files
Coda incorporates a slimmed down version of the company's popular FTP client, Transmit, dubbed "Transmit Turbo". The Files portion is a regular FTP, SFTP, FTP+SSL, and WebDAV client, where the user can edit, delete, create, and rename files and folders.
Editor
The editor in Coda incorporates a licensed version of the SubEthaEdit engine, rather than having a custom one, to allow for sharing of documents over the Bonjour network. Coda also has a new Find/Replace mechanism, which allows users to do complex replaces using a method similar to regular expressions.
Coda also recognises specially-formatted comment tags in many syntaxes, called bookmarks, which appear in a separate pane beside the editor called the Code Navigator. Bookmarks allow the user to jump to the corresponding line of text from anywhere in the editor by clicking on the link in the Code Navigator.
Plug-ins
Coda 1.6 and later supports plug-ins, which are scripts usually written in command line programming languages like Cocoa, AppleScript, Perl, or even shell scripting languages like bash, that appear in Coda's menu bar and do specific tasks like appending URLs or inserting text at a certain point. Plug-ins can either be written using Xcode or through Panic's free program, the Coda Plug-in Creator.
Command-line utility
Coda does not come with its own command-line utility. Instead, a third-party utility such as coda-cli can be used.
Reviews
Coda 1
Coda 1 received a review of 3.5/5 mice from Macworld. It received 4/5 stars from CNET's Download.com.
Coda 2
Coda 2 received a rating of 4.5/5 mice from Macworld.
References
External links
Panic - Coda
HTML editors
FTP clients
SFTP clients
Shareware
Panic software
MacOS programming tools
MacOS text editors
2007 software |
22995785 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand%20protection | Brand protection | Brand protection is the process and set of actions that a right holder undertakes to prevent third parties from using its intellectual property without permission, as this may cause loss of revenue and, usually more importantly, destroys brand equity, reputation and trust. Brand protection seeks primarily to ensure that trademarks, patents, and copyrights are respected, though other intellectual property rights such as industrial design rights or trade dress can be involved. Counterfeiting is the umbrella term to designate infringements to intellectual property, with the exception of the term piracy which is sometimes (colloquially) used to refer to copyright infringement.
A more narrow definition of brand protection which focuses on trademark infringement, is sometimes used. Counterfeiting of physical goods that involves trademark infringement is indeed one of the predominant forms of intellectual property infringement. However, both copyright and patent infringement are possible without an associated trademark infringement, and both may result in loss of revenue and of brand equity. Eliminating diversion, gray market, or product theft and resale, are generally considered as well as part of a brand protection strategy, even though an intellectual property may not be necessarily infringed.
Organisational measures
Registration and management of intellectual property is considered a pre-requisite to launching a brand protection strategy. Effective brand protection measures generally involve implementing prevention processes, monitoring processes, and reaction processes. Internally, the anti-counterfeiting unit will report to top management, develop the brand protection processes, and collaborate closely with the relevant functions for each region and business unit. It will organise training and promote a culture of managing sensitive information carefully with external stakeholders. internally and externally.
For large organisations, an effective brand protection strategy requires collaboration and cooperation between departments, functions, and geographies, as well as with external stakeholders such as customs, law enforcement agencies, governments, industry partners including competitors, retailers and online marketplaces, and suppliers. It requires training of personnel and the development of a company culture of managing sensitive information carefully, both internally and externally. It can however be difficult to secure sufficient budget and resources as losses due to intellectual property infringement are difficult to quantify. Methods exist to quantify the return on investment of elements of a brand protection strategy such as the use of product authentication systems, yet organisations must first acknowledge the existence and significance of the problem.
A cross-industry benchmark was made with the person in charge of anti-counterfeiting of 45 companies with global market presence. The two organisational measures that were judged as most effective are those that help with the integrity of the supply chain, and those that contribute to securing distribution channels.
Technical measures
Counterfeit detection
According to the EUIPO, counterfeiting detection technologies may be classified into five main categories: electronic, marking, chemical and physical, mechanical and technologies for digital media.
ISO standard 12931 provides guidelines and performance criteria to help brand owners define the particular authentication elements for either the packaging or material good itself, based on a counterfeiting risk analysis. Overt security feature, such as a security hologram or optically variable ink, can be verified by an untrained user with human senses (typically by eyesight). Covert security features are verified with an off-the-shelf or purpose-built authentication tool. Both covert and overt security features may also go through the use of specialised equipment by a skilled expert. Overt security features have been criticised for their ineffectiveness, but others argue that they can be "extremely difficult to replicate".
Covert security features used to be verifiable by very few people, and consumers were unaware of their presence. However, according to the ISO standard 12931, a smartphone is technically equivalent to an off-the-shelf covert authentication tool, yet it is a mass-market device which opens authentication on a large scale. Furthermore, it can support overt security authentication by providing the instructions, after a QR code scan, to visually verify an overt authentication element.
According to the ISO standard 12931, track and trace solutions alone, e.g. a serialised 2D barcode placed on each product, is not authentication. QR Codes have indeed no protection against exact copy, unless additional techniques are used in combination. A number of techniques exist, such as digital watermarks and secure graphics which are added into QR codes to make them robust against copy, and an app can be used to authenticate. There is also ongoing research on the authentication of blank paper and printed material by extracting the surface fingerprint through a smartphone scan.
Consumer engagement and distribution channels monitoring
Distributed channels can be monitored, and illicit activity detected, from the analysis of the data generated from the QR Code scans. Consumers can be incentivised to scan QR Codes or NFC tags on products, not necessarily for the primary purpose of verifying authenticity, but to obtain relevant information about the product or to engage in a loyalty program. The large quantity of data collected from the scans allows to monitor distribution channels without the need for hiring investigators, and on a much larger scale. Consumers may actually demand the ability to verify that the product is authentic, and this creates an opportunity to engage with the brand.
Online monitoring
With the growth of e-commerce, brand protection activities need to increasingly take place online. Online brand protection software monitor the Internet and help identify the Web sites that are likely to sell counterfeit, propose grey market goods or misuse the brand and its attributes.
Supply chain integrity
The implementation of track and trace solutions to capture events as goods move through the legitimate supply chain helps to monitor and detect illicit activities. The control of ordered quantities of products or components from third party suppliers can be made by providing them with secure serialised labels which must be affixed to each item.
References
External links
Michigan State University Center for Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection
list of brand protection global organizations
glossary
Brand management
Intellectual property law
Anti-counterfeiting
Security
Fraud |
15118772 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trixbox | Trixbox | trixbox (formerly Asterisk@Home) was a software PBX based on Asterisk.
trixbox was initially released under the name Asterisk@Home. In October 2006 it was renamed to trixbox after Digium requested that its developers cease the use of the word "Asterisk"; the renaming was further justified by the fact that the product at that time consisted of much more than just Asterisk.
Versions
trixbox CE (end of life)
trixbox CE, the community edition founded by Kerry Garrison and Andrew Gillis, was completely free and was available under a GPLv2 license. It has been downloaded more than any other Asterisk-based PBX system according to SourceForge, with over two million downloads as of August 22, 2009.
trixbox CE was last updated with a beta release, and shortly after a blog post was made by Andrew Gillis, founder & leader of development stating he was leaving.
In October 2012, Fonality announced that they would no longer support or update trixbox CE, and would instead focus on trixbox Pro.
The FreePBX Project announced the availability of scripts to convert existing end of life trixbox CE systems to a current version of FreePBX, an open source PBX platform with ongoing support and development.
trixbox Pro
trixbox Pro is the commercial version trixbox. Unlike the community edition it contains components for which the source code is not available. These extra components are geared towards making the software better able to fulfill the needs of larger companies and call centers.
trixbox Appliance
trixbox Appliance is a server appliance available from Fonality which comes preloaded with either trixbox CE or trixbox Pro.
Core technologies
trixbox CE's core technologies include:
CentOS - The Linux distribution on which trixbox is built.
Asterisk - Provides the core PBX functionality.
FreePBX - Provides a web interface for managing and configuring Asterisk through a web browser.
Flash Operator Panel (FOP) - Provides a graphical overview of current calls and provides controls to operators. This is created with Adobe Flash and is accessed via a web browser.
Similar software distributions
FreePBX Distro - Officially maintained Distro of the FreePBX Project
AsteriskNOW - Uses FreePBX GUI Maintained by Digium
Elastix - Maintained by PaloSanto Solutions based in Ecuador. Uses Forked version of FreePBX GUI
PBX in a Flash - Uses FreePBX maintained by PBX in a Flash Development Team
References
External links
Free VoIP software
Telephone exchanges
Free business software
Communication software
Asterisk (PBX) |
12634936 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean%20Hamster%20Software | Mean Hamster Software | Mean Hamster Software, Inc. was a video game developer founded by John Swiderski in 1985. Mean Hamster Software created several games for the Atari 5200 from 1999-2004. They then created Myst for Windows Mobile in 2005, and after the release of Riven: The Sequel to Myst for Pocket PC in 2006, Mean Hamster began work on its first casual games. The company is located in Deer Park, Washington (just outside Spokane, WA).
In 2006, Mean Hamster Software acquired the rights to the Exidy catalog, which includes titles such as Crossbow, Venture and Mouse Trap.
The company closed its doors and laid off all its remaining employees in September 2012.
Casual game development
In 2007, Mean Hamster began work on casual games and partnered with PlayFirst to produce a casual game entitled Pet Shop Hop which was released in March 2008. From there, Mean Hamster partnered with Big Fish Games, Namco, and Mesmo, Inc. to develop more titles. Games developed by Mean Hamster Software include:
Pet Shop Hop(March 21, 2008)
Everything Nice (April 2, 2009)
Ye Olde Sandwich Shoppe(May 27, 2009)
Passport to Perfume (July 21, 2009)
Cat Wash (November 13, 2009)
Vegas Nights (Facebook)(May 15, 2010)
Remarkable Farkle (August 1, 2010)
Crossbow for iPhone (September 9, 2010)
Sushi Quiz (November 21, 2010)
Hospitopia(January 10, 2011)
Vegas Nights (GSN) (April, 2011)
Lizzie's Royal Dinner (April, 2011)
Mother Nature (Feb 13th, 2012)
Bee Craft (July 20, 2012)
Mean Hamster Software was named one of Washington State's "Top Video Game Developers" in the September 2008 Issue of Washington CEO magazine.
References
External links
Mean Hamster official website
Games developed by Mean Hamster from MobyGames
Defunct video game companies of the United States
Video game development companies
Software companies based in Washington (state)
Software companies established in 1985
Privately held companies based in Washington (state)
Companies based in Spokane County, Washington
1985 establishments in Washington (state) |
13063577 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KRISTAL%20Audio%20Engine | KRISTAL Audio Engine | The KRISTAL Audio Engine (commonly referred to as KRISTAL or KAE) is a digital audio workstation for Microsoft Windows. It is free for personal & educational use, with licensing options for commercial use.
The successor to this product became what is now known as Studio One.
History
Initial Development
KRISTAL began development in 1999, as the university thesis project of Matthias Juwan. At that time it had a different look and feel, and was known as the Crystal Audio Engine, a name derived from the song The Crystal Ship by The Doors.
Following a public beta period, the initial version, renamed to the KRISTAL Audio Engine, was released in 2004, under the developer name of Kreatives.
K2 and KristalLabs
On 24 December 2004 the KRISTAL development team announced that they were working on the successor to the KRISTAL Audio Engine, based on a new infrastructure. The development team planned for this successor to include cross-platform support for both Windows and macOS. The new software, known as K2, entered the Alpha development stage in July 2005.
On 18 September 2006, it was announced that all work and rights to the source code of K2 had been taken over by KristalLabs Software Ltd., a private start-up company co-founded by KRISTAL lead developer, Matthias Juwan, and Wolfgang Kundrus, who had previously worked on Cubase, Nuendo and HALion. Ownership for the original KRISTAL Audio Engine, however, did not transition to KristalLabs.
PreSonus and Studio One
KristalLabs further developed K2 in cooperation with the American music technology company, PreSonus, before becoming part of PreSonus in 2009. Following this acquisition, the final result of the K2 development was re-branded and released as the first version of the PreSonus DAW, Studio One, for macOS and Windows. The former KristalLabs logo (representing a series of hexagons, like the one from the original KRISTAL Audio Engine logo, tessellated together) was used as the basis for the logo of Studio One.
Since this time, all versions of Studio One have been developed and released by PreSonus.
Functionality
KRISTAL is free for personal & educational use, with licensing options for commercial use.
The primary window of the application is a digital mixer, but it provides separate, built-in components for additional functionality, such as audio sequencing and live audio input/recording. It includes built-in effects, such as EQ, chorus, delay and reverb, but also supports the use of third-party VST plug-ins. It can support up to 16 channels of audio; however, it does not provide support for MIDI.
The application uses 32-bit audio processing and supports both MME & ASIO drivers. In addition to its native Kristal project files, it is also compatible with WAVE, AIFF, FLAC and OGG Vorbis files.
See also
Comparison of digital audio editors
References
External links
KRISTAL User Community
Digital audio workstation software
Music production software
Music software
Audio editors
Windows multimedia software
2004 software |
62334439 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark%20Giesbrecht | Mark Giesbrecht | Mark Giesbrecht is a Canadian computer scientist who is the 12th dean of the University of Waterloo’s Faculty of Mathematics, starting from July 1, 2020. He was the Director of the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo, Canada from July 2014 until June 2020.
Biography
Giesbrecht earned a PhD in computer science at the University of Toronto in 1993, under the supervision of Joachim von zur Gathen. He has been a professor at the University of Waterloo since 2001, following positions at the University of Manitoba (1994–98) and University of Western Ontario (1998–2001), as well as IBM Canada Ltd. (1991–93). He was the Director of the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science at Waterloo from July 2014 until June 2020. On July 1, 2020, he became the Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Waterloo.
Research
Giesbrecht’s research is in computer algebra, where he has proved a number of fundamental results, including on the complexity of computing matrix normal forms, solving sparse diophantine linear systems, and non-commutative polynomial algebra. More recently he has been on the forefront of an optimization approach to symbolic-numeric algorithms for matrix polynomials.
Awards
As a member of the Cheriton School of Computer Science's Symbolic Computation Group, Giesbrecht shared the 2004 NSERC Synergy prize for innovation under the prize's small- and medium-sized companies category. In 2012 he was named an ACM Distinguished Scientist.
Notes
Canadian computer scientists
University of Waterloo faculty
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people) |
41100292 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation%20Trojan%20Horse%20%28book%29 | Operation Trojan Horse (book) | Operation Trojan Horse (or UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse) is a book published in 1970 by John Keel. The book was reprinted in 1996 with minor additions. It presents the results of Keel's research on UFOs and similar phenomena.
Overview
Keel, who died in 2009, was an ufologist. According to The Daily Telegraph, "In his much-acclaimed second book, UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse, Keel suggested that many aspects of modern UFO reports, including humanoid encounters, often paralleled ancient folklore and religious visions, and directly linked UFOs with elemental phenomena."
The book presents Keel's theory that UFOs are a phenomenon produced by "ultraterrestrials", beings who are able to manipulate matter and our senses, and who in the past manifested themselves as fairies, demons, and so on.
Keel explains the title of the book saying, "Our skies have been filled with 'Trojan horses' throughout history, and like the original Trojan horse, they seem to conceal hostile intent."
See also
The Book of the Damned, 1919, a similar book by Charles Fort
Charles Fort's other books
References
1970 non-fiction books
Paranormal |
32600695 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SuperMap | SuperMap | SuperMap is a Geographic Information System (GIS) software products and services provider and IT enterprise in Asia. The headquarters are in Beijing, China. The company was founded in 1997. It has over 20 branch offices in China and one office in Tokyo, Japan. SuperMap has developed many agencies and partners all over the world including South Korea and Malaysia. In 2009, SuperMap was listed in Shenzhen Stock Exchange of China (300036.SZ). In 2018 revenues were about $200 million. In 2015, SuperMap occupied 31.6% of Chinese GIS market share, listed as number 1 of Chinese market share. According to the Geographic Information Systems Market Research Study Report 2019 released by ARC Advisory Group, SuperMap has the 3rd largest share in global GIS market, and the 1st largest share in Asia GIS market.
Introduction
SuperMap Software Co., Ltd. is a GIS platform software and service provider. It was founded in 1997 in Beijing (headquarter). Now, SuperMap has more than 4,000 employees and has established companies in Hong Kong and Tokyo for international business development. SuperMap has developed agencies and partners all over the world including South Korea, and Malaysia. The most important milestone is that SuperMap was the first listed GIS software company in China in 2009. Now, SuperMap has become one of the largest GIS platform manufacturers in the world.
SuperMap focuses on providing GIS platform software for various industries, such as smart city, land management, real estate, urban planning, pipeline management, and public service. Meanwhile, SuperMap has entered Asia, Europe, Africa and South America and other countries and regions, and has developed distributors and partners from over 30 countries and end users from over 100 countries.
SuperMap GIS
SuperMap GIS is developed by SuperMap Software Co., Ltd and it is a complete integration of a series of GIS platform software, including Desktop GIS, Service GIS, Component GIS and Mobile GIS platforms and spatial data production, processing and management tools.
The Latest Products- SuperMap GIS 10i includes Big Data GIS, AI GIS, New 3D GIS, Cloud Native GIS and Cross Platform GIS.
History
1997: SuperMap was founded
2000: SuperMap Japan was founded
2000: Large-scale Component GIS Platform – SuperMap GIS 2000 was released
2005: The first cross-platform GIS Software in the world – SuperMap Universal GIS was released
2006: SuperMap International was founded in Hong Kong
2008: The National Sales and Service Network was established
2009: Listed in Shenzhen Stock Exchange
2009: The first 2D & 3D integration GIS platform – SuperMap GIS 6R was released
2013: Cloud & terminal integration platform – SuperMap GIS 7C was released
2015: Upgraded cloud & terminal GIS platform – SuperMap GIS 8C was released
2015: Full acquisition of Shanghai NanKang Technology Co., Ltd.
2016: Full acquisition of Nanjing Guotu Information Industry Co., Ltd. and Beijing Antu I2m Corporation Ltd.
2017: Expand International Business, representative office in Indonesia.
2018: Release new version, cloud and terminal integration, new 3D Generation and BIG DATA GIS, SuperMap 9D
2019: Release SuperMap GIS 10i includes Cloud GIS server, Edge GIS server, Terminal GIS, Online GIS platform, and combines with AI technology.
Acquisitions
In order to broaden the markets of the real estate registration, SuperMap has acquired Shanghai Nankang Technology Co., Ltd. in 2015, Nanjing Guotu Information Industry Co., Ltd. and Beijing Antu I2M Corporation Ltd. in 2016.
References
Software companies of China
Geographic information systems
Earth sciences data formats
Companies based in Beijing
Companies established in 1997
Chinese brands |
48375 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple%20DES | Triple DES | In cryptography, Triple DES (3DES or TDES), officially the Triple Data Encryption Algorithm (TDEA or Triple DEA), is a symmetric-key block cipher, which applies the DES cipher algorithm three times to each data block. The Data Encryption Standard's (DES) 56-bit key is no longer considered adequate in the face of modern cryptanalytic techniques and supercomputing power. A CVE released in 2016, CVE-2016-2183 disclosed a major security vulnerability in DES and 3DES encryption algorithms. This CVE, combined with the inadequate key size of DES and 3DES, NIST has deprecated DES and 3DES for new applications in 2017, and for all application by 2023. It has been replaced with the more secure, more robust AES.
While the government and industry standards abbreviate the algorithm's name as TDES (Triple DES) and TDEA (Triple Data Encryption Algorithm), RFC 1851 referred to it as 3DES from the time it first promulgated the idea, and this namesake has since come into wide use by most vendors, users, and cryptographers.
History
In 1978, a triple encryption method using DES with two 56-bit keys was proposed by Walter Tuchman; in 1981 Merkle and Hellman proposed a more secure triple key version of 3DES with 112 bits of security.
Standards
The Triple Data Encryption Algorithm is variously defined in several standards documents:
RFC 1851, The ESP Triple DES Transform (approved in 1995)
ANSI ANS X9.52-1998 Triple Data Encryption Algorithm Modes of Operation (approved in 1998, withdrawn in 2008)
FIPS PUB 46-3 Data Encryption Standard (DES) (approved in 1999, withdrawn in 2005)
NIST Special Publication 800-67 Revision 2 Recommendation for the Triple Data Encryption Algorithm (TDEA) Block Cipher (approved in 2017)
ISO/IEC 18033-3:2010: Part 3: Block ciphers (approved in 2005)
Algorithm
The original DES cipher's key size of 56 bits was generally sufficient when that algorithm was designed, but the availability of increasing computational power made brute-force attacks feasible. Triple DES provides a relatively simple method of increasing the key size of DES to protect against such attacks, without the need to design a completely new block cipher algorithm.
A naive approach to increase strength of a block encryption algorithm with short key length (like DES) would be to use two keys instead of one, and encrypt each block twice: . If the original key length is bits, one would hope this scheme provides security equivalent to using key bits long. Unfortunately, this approach is vulnerable to meet-in-the-middle attack: given a known plaintext pair , such that , one can recover the key pair in steps, instead of the steps one would expect from an ideally secure algorithm with bits of key.
Therefore, Triple DES uses a "key bundle" that comprises three DES keys, , and , each of 56 bits (excluding parity bits). The encryption algorithm is:
That is, DES encrypt with , DES decrypt with , then DES encrypt with .
Decryption is the reverse:
That is, decrypt with , encrypt with , then decrypt with .
Each triple encryption encrypts one block of 64 bits of data.
In each case the middle operation is the reverse of the first and last. This improves the strength of the algorithm when using keying option 2 and provides backward compatibility with DES with keying option 3.
Keying options
The standards define three keying options:
Keying option 1
All three keys are independent. Sometimes known as 3TDEA or triple-length keys.
This is the strongest, with 3 × 56 = 168 independent key bits. It is still vulnerable to meet-in-the-middle attack, but the attack requires 22 × 56 steps.
Keying option 2
K1 and K2 are independent, and K3 = K1. Sometimes known as 2TDEA or double-length keys.
This provides a shorter key length of 112 bits and a reasonable compromise between DES and Keying option 1, with the same caveat as above. This is an improvement over "double DES" which only requires 256 steps to attack. NIST has deprecated this option.
Keying option 3
All three keys are identical, i.e. K1 = K2 = K3.
This is backward compatible with DES, since two operations cancel out. ISO/IEC 18033-3 never allowed this option, and NIST no longer allows K1 = K2 or K2 = K3.
Each DES key is 8 odd-parity bytes, with 56 bits of key and 8 bits of error-detection. A key bundle requires 24 bytes for option 1, 16 for option 2, or 8 for option 3.
NIST (and the current TCG specifications version 2.0 of approved algorithms for Trusted Platform Module) also disallows using any one of the 64 following 64-bit values in any keys (note that 32 of them are the binary complement of the 32 others; and that 32 of these keys are also the reverse permutation of bytes of the 32 others), listed here in hexadecimal (in each byte, the least significant bit is an odd-parity generated bit, it is discarded when forming the effective 56-bit keys):
01.01.01.01.01.01.01.01, FE.FE.FE.FE.FE.FE.FE.FE, E0.FE.FE.E0.F1.FE.FE.F1, 1F.01.01.1F.0E.01.01.0E,
01.01.FE.FE.01.01.FE.FE, FE.FE.01.01.FE.FE.01.01, E0.FE.01.1F.F1.FE.01.0E, 1F.01.FE.E0.0E.01.FE.F1,
01.01.E0.E0.01.01.F1.F1, FE.FE.1F.1F.FE.FE.0E.0E, E0.FE.1F.01.F1.FE.0E.01, 1F.01.E0.FE.0E.01.F1.FE,
01.01.1F.1F.01.01.0E.0E, FE.FE.E0.E0.FE.FE.F1.F1, E0.FE.E0.FE.F1.FE.F1.FE, 1F.01.1F.01.0E.01.0E.01,
01.FE.01.FE.01.FE.01.FE, FE.01.FE.01.FE.01.FE.01, E0.01.FE.1F.F1.01.FE.0E, 1F.FE.01.E0.0E.FE.01.F1,
01.FE.FE.01.01.FE.FE.01, FE.01.01.FE.FE.01.01.FE, E0.01.01.E0.F1.01.01.F1, 1F.FE.FE.1F.0E.FE.FE.0E,
01.FE.E0.1F.01.FE.F1.0E, FE.01.1F.E0.FE.01.0E.F1, E0.01.1F.FE.F1.01.0E.FE, 1F.FE.E0.01.0E.FE.F1.01,
01.FE.1F.E0.01.FE.0E.F1, FE.01.E0.1F.FE.01.F1.0E, E0.01.E0.01.F1.01.F1.01, 1F.FE.1F.FE.0E.FE.0E.FE,
01.E0.01.E0.01.F1.01.F1, FE.1F.FE.1F.FE.0E.FE.0E, E0.1F.FE.01.F1.0E.FE.01, 1F.E0.01.FE.0E.F1.01.FE,
01.E0.FE.1F.01.F1.FE.0E, FE.1F.01.E0.FE.0E.01.F1, E0.1F.01.FE.F1.0E.01.FE, 1F.E0.FE.01.0E.F1.FE.01,
01.E0.E0.01.01.F1.F1.01, FE.1F.1F.FE.FE.0E.0E.FE, E0.1F.1F.E0.F1.0E.0E.F1, 1F.E0.E0.1F.0E.F1.F1.0E,
01.E0.1F.FE.01.F1.0E.FE, FE.1F.E0.01.FE.0E.F1.01, E0.1F.E0.1F.F1.0E.F1.0E, 1F.E0.1F.E0.0E.F1.0E.F1,
01.1F.01.1F.01.0E.01.0E, FE.E0.FE.E0.FE.F1.FE.F1, E0.E0.FE.FE.F1.F1.FE.FE, 1F.1F.01.01.0E.0E.01.01,
01.1F.FE.E0.01.0E.FE.F1, FE.E0.01.1F.FE.F1.01.0E, E0.E0.01.01.F1.F1.01.01, 1F.1F.FE.FE.0E.0E.FE.FE,
01.1F.E0.FE.01.0E.F1.FE, FE.E0.1F.01.FE.F1.0E.01, E0.E0.1F.1F.F1.F1.0E.0E, 1F.1F.E0.E0.0E.0E.F1.F1,
01.1F.1F.01.01.0E.0E.01, FE.E0.E0.FE.FE.F1.F1.FE, E0.E0.E0.E0.F1.F1.F1.F1, 1F.1F.1F.1F.0E.0E.0E.0E,
With these restrictions on allowed keys, Triple DES has been reapproved with keying options 1 and 2 only. Generally the three keys are generated by taking 24 bytes from a strong random generator and only keying option 1 should be used (option 2 needs only 16 random bytes, but strong random generators are hard to assert and it's considered best practice to use only option 1).
Encryption of more than one block
As with all block ciphers, encryption and decryption of multiple blocks of data may be performed using a variety of modes of operation, which can generally be defined independently of the block cipher algorithm. However, ANS X9.52 specifies directly, and NIST SP 800-67 specifies via SP 800-38A that some modes shall only be used with certain constraints on them that do not necessarily apply to general specifications of those modes. For example, ANS X9.52 specifies that for cipher block chaining, the initialization vector shall be different each time, whereas ISO/IEC 10116 does not. FIPS PUB 46-3 and ISO/IEC 18033-3 define only the single block algorithm, and do not place any restrictions on the modes of operation for multiple blocks.
Security
In general, Triple DES with three independent keys (keying option 1) has a key length of 168 bits (three 56-bit DES keys), but due to the meet-in-the-middle attack, the effective security it provides is only 112 bits. Keying option 2 reduces the effective key size to 112 bits (because the third key is the same as the first). However, this option is susceptible to certain chosen-plaintext or known-plaintext attacks, and thus it is designated by NIST to have only 80 bits of security. This can be considered insecure, and, as consequence Triple DES has been deprecated by NIST in 2017.
The short block size of 64 bits makes 3DES vulnerable to block collision attacks if it is used to encrypt large amounts of data with the same key. The Sweet32 attack shows how this can be exploited in TLS and OpenVPN. Practical Sweet32 attack on 3DES-based cipher-suites in TLS required blocks (785 GB) for a full attack, but researchers were lucky to get a collision just after around blocks, which took only 25 minutes.
OpenSSL does not include 3DES by default since version 1.1.0 (August 2016) and considers it a "weak cipher".
Usage
The electronic payment industry uses Triple DES and continues to develop and promulgate standards based upon it, such as EMV.
Earlier versions of Microsoft OneNote, Microsoft Outlook 2007 and Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2012 use Triple DES to password-protect user content and system data. However, in December 2018, Microsoft announced the retirement of 3DES throughout their Office 365 service.
Firefox and Mozilla Thunderbird use Triple DES in CBC mode to encrypt website authentication login credentials when using a master password.
Implementations
Below is a list of cryptography libraries that support Triple DES:
Botan
Bouncy Castle
cryptlib
Crypto++
Libgcrypt
Nettle
OpenSSL
wolfSSL
Trusted Platform Module (alias TPM, hardware implementation)
Some implementations above may not include 3DES in the default build, in later or more recent versions.
See also
DES-X
Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)
Feistel cipher
Walter Tuchman
References and notes
Broken block ciphers
Data Encryption Standard
de:Data Encryption Standard#Triple-DES |
44026 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United%20States%20National%20Security%20Council | United States National Security Council | The White House National Security Council (NSC) is the principal forum used by the President of the United States for consideration of national security, military, and foreign policy matters with senior national security advisors and Cabinet officials, and is part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States. Since its inception in 1947 during the administration of President Harry S. Truman, the function of the Council has been to advise and assist the President on national security and foreign policies. The Council also serves as the President's principal arm for coordinating these policies among various government agencies. The Council has counterparts in the national security councils of many other nations.
History
The immediate predecessor to the National Security Council was the National Intelligence Authority (NIA), which was established by President Harry S. Truman's Executive Letter of January 22, 1946, to oversee the Central Intelligence Group, the CIA's predecessor. The NIA was composed of the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, the Secretary of the Navy, and the Chief of Staff to the Commander in Chief.
The National Security Council was created in 1947 by the National Security Act. It was created because policymakers felt that the diplomacy of the State Department was no longer adequate to contain the Soviet Union, in light of the tension between the Soviet Union and the United States. The intent was to ensure coordination and concurrence among the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force and other instruments of national security policy such as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), also created in the National Security Act. In 2004, the position of Director of National Intelligence (DNI) was created, taking over the responsibilities previously held by the head of CIA, the Director of Central Intelligence, as a cabinet-level position to oversee and coordinate activities of the Intelligence Community.
On May 26, 2009, President Barack Obama merged the White House staff supporting the Homeland Security Council (HSC) and the National Security Council into one National Security Staff (NSS). The HSC and NSC each continue to exist by statute as bodies supporting the President. The name of the staff organization was changed back to National Security Council Staff in 2014.
The Directorate of Global Health Security and Biodefense was formed in 2016 under the Obama administration, disbanded in 2018 under the Trump Administration, and reinstated in January 2021 during the presidency of Joe Biden.
On January 29, 2017, President Donald Trump restructured the Principals Committee (a subset of the full National Security Council), while at the same time altering the attendance of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Director of National Intelligence.
According to National Security Presidential Memorandum 2, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Director of National Intelligence were to sit on the Principals Committee as and when matters pertaining to them arise, but will remain part of the full National Security Council. However, Chief of Staff Reince Priebus clarified the next day that they still are invited to attend meetings. With National Security Presidential Memorandum 4 in April 2017, the Director of National Intelligence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff "shall" attend Principals Committee meetings and included the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency as a regular attendee. The reorganization also placed the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development as a permanent member of the Deputies Committee, winning moderate praise, while the White House Chief Strategist was removed.
Authority and powers
The National Security Council was established by the National Security Act of 1947 (PL 235 – 61 Stat. 496; U.S.C. 402), amended by the National Security Act Amendments of 1949 (63 Stat. 579; 50 U.S.C. 401 et seq.). Later in 1949, as part of the Reorganization Plan, the Council was placed in the Executive Office of the President.
The High Value Detainee Interrogation Group also reports to the NSC.
Kill authorizations
A secret National Security Council panel pursues the killing of an individual, including American citizens, who has been called a suspected terrorist. In this case, no public record of this decision or any operation to kill the suspect will be made available. The panel's actions are justified by "two principal legal theories": They "were permitted by Congress when it authorized the use of military forces against militants in the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001; and they are permitted under international law if a country is defending itself."
Homeland Security Advisor John O. Brennan, who helped codify targeted killing criteria by creating the Disposition Matrix database, has described the Obama Administration targeted killing policy by stating that "in order to ensure that our counterterrorism operations involving the use of lethal force are legal, ethical, and wise, President Obama has demanded that we hold ourselves to the highest possible standards and processes".
Reuters reported that Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen, was on such a kill list and was killed accordingly.
On February 4, 2013, NBC published a leaked Department of Justice memo providing a summary of the rationale used to justify targeted killing of US citizens who are senior operational leaders of Al-Qa'ida or associated forces.
Membership
The National Security Council, as of 2020 and as per statute and National Security Presidential Memorandum–4, is chaired by the President. Its members are the Vice President (statutory), the Secretary of State (statutory), the Secretary of Defense (statutory), the Secretary of Energy (statutory), the National Security Advisor (non-statutory), the Attorney General (non-statutory), the Secretary of Homeland Security (non-statutory), the Representative of the United States to the United Nations (non-statutory), and the Secretary of the Treasury (statutory).
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the military advisor to the Council, the Director of National Intelligence is the intelligence advisor, and the Director of National Drug Control Policy is the drug control policy advisor. The Chief of Staff to the President, White House Counsel, and the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy are also regularly invited to attend NSC meetings. The Attorney General, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget and The Director of the Central Intelligence Agency are invited to attend meetings pertaining to their responsibilities. The heads of other executive departments and agencies, as well as other senior officials, are invited to attend meetings of the NSC when appropriate.
Principals Committee
The Principals Committee of the National Security Council is the Cabinet-level senior interagency forum for consideration of national security policy issues. The Principals Committee is convened and chaired by the National Security Advisor. The regular attendees of the Principals Committee are the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Defense, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Energy, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the White House Chief of Staff, the Director of National Intelligence, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, the Homeland Security Advisor, and the United States Ambassador to the United Nations.
The White House Counsel, the Deputy Counsel to the President for National Security Affairs, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the Deputy National Security Advisor, the Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategy, the National Security Advisor to the Vice President, and the NSC Executive Secretary may also attend all meetings of the Principals Committee. When considering international economic issues, the Principals Committee's regular attendees will include the Secretary of Commerce, the United States Trade Representative, and the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy.
Deputies Committee
The National Security Council Deputies Committee is the senior sub-Cabinet interagency forum for consideration of national security policy issues. The Deputies Committee is also responsible for reviewing and monitoring the interagency national security process including for establishing and directing the Policy Coordination Committees. The Deputies Committee is convened and chaired by the Deputy National Security Advisor or the Deputy Homeland Security Advisor.
Regular members of the Deputies Committee are the Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategy, the Deputy Secretary of State, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, the Deputy Attorney General, the Deputy Secretary of Energy, the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, the Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the Deputy Director of National Intelligence, the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the National Security Advisor to the Vice President, the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, and the Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Invitations to participate in or attend specific meetings are extended to Deputy or Under Secretary level of executive departments and agencies and to other senior officials when relevant issues are discussed. The Executive Secretary and the Deputy White House Counsel also attend. The relevant Senior Director on the National Security Council staff is also invited to attend when relevant.
Policy Coordination Committees
The Policy Coordination Committees of the National Security Council, established and directed by the Deputies Committee, are responsible for the management of the development and implementation of national security policies through interagency coordination. Policy Coordination Committees are the main day-to-day for interagency coordination of national security policy development, implementation and analysis in aide of the Deputies Committee and the Principals Committee. Policy Coordination Committees are chaired by Senior Directors on the National Security Council staff, or sometimes National Economic Council staff, with Assistant Secretary-level officials from the relevant executive department or agency acting as co-chairs.
Directorate of Global Health Security and Biodefense
The Directorate of Global Health Security and Biodefense, created by Barack Obama in 2016 in response to the 2014 Ebola outbreak, was responsible "to prepare for the next disease outbreak and prevent it from becoming an epidemic or pandemic." The directorate was disbanded when a May 2018 change in organizational structure by John Bolton, Trump's recently appointed head of the National Security Council, resulted in the effective elimination of the office then led by Rear Admiral Tim Ziemer, Sr. Director for Global Health Security and Biothreats. Remaining staff were moved to other NSC departments, prompting Ziemer's resignation, thus completing the elimination of the office.
The responsibilities that formerly belonged to the directorate, along with those of arms control and nonproliferation, and of weapons of mass destruction terrorism, were absorbed into a single new directorate, counterproliferation and biodefense, and assigned to Tim Morrison in July 2018 as director. Morrison characterized the consolidation as part of an overall NSC "reduction of force" and called it "specious" to say the office was "dissolved," describing the previous size of the organization as "bloat," and stating "That is why Trump began streamlining the NSC staff in 2017." Trump defended the 2018 cuts, describing the financial motivation, when questioned in a February 2020 press conference, suggesting that people on a pandemic response team are unnecessary between pandemics, saying "Some of the people we cut, they haven't been used for many, many years." No source of information could be found to support the president's statement, likely because the team was created in 2016 and disbanded in 2018. He continued: "And rather than spending the money — and I'm a business person — I don't like having thousands of people around when you don't need them." The size of the team before cuts was estimated at 430 people, but the "thousands" referenced by the president also included reduction in the staff numbers of the CDC.
In January 2021, the directorate was reinstated by President Joe Biden, who appointed Elizabeth Cameron as Senior Director for Global Health Security and Biodefense, a position she had previously held under the Obama administration and briefly under the Trump administration.
New members
During his presidential transition, President-elect Joe Biden announced the creation of the position of U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, the occupant of which will be a member of the National Security Council.
Key staff
Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor: Jake Sullivan
Senior Advisor to the National Security Advisor: Ariana Berengaut
Chief of Staff and Executive Secretary for the National Security Council: Yohannes Abraham
Advisor to the Chief of Staff and Executive Secretary for the National Security Council: Medha Raj
Deputy Chief of Staff and Deputy Executive Secretary: Ryan Harper
Deputy Executive Secretary: Dilpreet Sidhu
Deputy Director for Visits and Diplomatic Affairs: Darius Edgerton
Associate Director for Visits and Diplomatic Affairs: Nicole Fasano
Director of Operations Gelila Teshome
Assistant to the President and Principal Deputy National Security Advisor: Jonathan Finer
Senior Advisor to the Principal Deputy National Security Advisor: Ella Lipin
Assistant to the President and Homeland Security Advisor and Deputy National Security Advisor: Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall
Senior Deputy Homeland Security Advisor: Russell Travers
Deputy Homeland Security Advisor: Joshua Geltzer
Senior Advisor to the Homeland Security Advisor: Hilary Hurd
Senior Advisor to the Homeland Security Advisor: John MacWilliams
Deputy Assistant to the President & Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber and Emerging Technology: Anne Neuberger
Deputy Assistant to the President, Deputy Director of the National Economic Council and Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economics: Daleep Singh
Assistant to the President, Deputy Counsel to the President and National Security Council Legal Advisor: Johnathan Cedarbaum
Associate Counsel and Deputy Legal Advisor to the NSC: Ashley Deeks
Deputy Legal Advisor to the NSC: Capt. Florencio Yuzon (US Navy)
Director for Global Criminal Justice: Steven Hill
Senior Director for Defense: Cara Abercrombie
Director for Defense Innovation and Cyber Policy: Lt. Col. Nadine Nally (US Army)
Director for Space Policy: Audrey Schaffer
Director for Strategic Capabilities: Brigadier General Ty Neuman (US Air Force)
Director for Military Personnel & Readiness/ Senior Advisor, Gender Policy Council: Cailin Crockett
Senior Director for Strategic Planning: Sasha Baker
Director for Strategic Planning: Alexander Bick
Director for Strategic Planning: Rebecca Lissner
Director for Strategic Planning: Brett Rosenberg
Senior Director for Partnerships and Global Engagement: Amanda Mansour
Director for Partnerships: Jim Thompson
Senior Director for Legislative Affairs: Vacant
Director for Legislative Affairs: Amanda Lorman
Director for Legislative Affairs: Nicole Tisdale
Chief of Staff & Policy Advisor for Legislative Affairs: Gershom Sacks
Senior Director for Global Health Security and Biodefense: Elizabeth Cameron
Director for Biodefense: Daniel Gastfriend
Director for Biotechnology Risks and Biological Weapon Nonproliferation: Megan Frisk
Director for Countering Biological Threats & Global Health Security: Mark Lucera
Director for Medical and Biodefense Preparedness/ Director for International COVID Response: Hilary Marston
Senior Advisor and Director for Emerging Biological Threats: Maureen Bartee
Co-ordinator for the Indo-Pacific: Kurt M. Campbell
Senior Director for East Asia and Oceania: Edgard Kagan
Director for East Asia: Christopher Johnstone
Director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands: Kathryn Paik
Senior Director for South Asia: Sumona Guha
Senior Director for China: Laura Rosenberger
Director for China: Rush Doshi
Director for China: Julian Gewirtz
Special Assistant, National Security Council Indo-Pacific Directorate: Sarah Donilon
Co-ordinator for Technology and National Security: Jason Matheny
Senior Director for Technology and National Security: Tarun Chhabra
Director for Technology and National Security: Saif M. Khan
Director for Technology and National Security: Michelle Rozo
Director for Technology and National Security: Sarah Stalker-Lehoux
Director for Technology and Democracy: Chanan Weissman
Senior Director for Resilience and Response: Caitlin Durkovich
Director for Resilience and Response: Nabeela Barbari
Director for Resilience and Response: Capt. Jason Tama (US Coast Guard)
Senior Director for Intelligence Programs: Maher Bitar
Director for Information Sharing and Identity Intelligence: Lauren Hartje
Senior Director for Development, Global Health & Humanitarian Response: Linda Etim
Director for Global Health: Ladan Fakory
Director for Global Health Response: Nidhi Bouri
Director for Humanitarian Coordination: Rachel Grant
Director for Refugees: Jacqui Pilch
Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs: Juan Gonzalez
Special Assistant to the Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs: Alejandra Gonzalez
Director for the Caribbean and Summit of the Americas: Neda Brown
Director for Central America and Haiti: Megan Oates
Director for North America: Isabel Rioja-Scott
Director for Regional Protection and Migration Management: Eric Sigmon
Senior Director for International Economics and Competitiveness: Peter Harrell
Director for International Economics and Competitiveness: Adam Deutsch
Director for International Economics and Competitiveness: Jessica McBroom
Director for Digital Technology Policy and International Economics: Ruth Berry
Senior Director for International Economics and Labor: Jennifer M. Harris
Director for International Economics: Brian Janovitz
Director for International Economics: Mimi Wang
Director for Strategic Workforce Planning: Leila Elmergawi
Senior Director for Press & NSC Spokesperson: Emily Horne
Director of Strategic Communications/ Assistant Press Secretary: Patrick Evans
Director of Strategic Communications/ Assistant Press Secretary: Dean Lieberman
Director of Strategic Communications/ Assistant Press Secretary: Kedenard Raymond
Director of Strategic Communications/ Assistant Press Secretary: Sean Savett
Director of Strategic Communications/ Assistant Press Secretary: Saloni Sharma
Policy Advisor, Office of the Spokesperson and Senior Director for Press/ Strategic Communications: Jasmine Williams
Co-ordinator for the Southern Border: Vacant
Senior Director for Africa: Dana L. Banks
Director for African Affairs: F. David Diaz
Director for African Affairs: Peter Quaranto
Director for Africa: Deniece Laurent-Mantey
Special Advisor for Africa Strategy: Judd Devermont
Co-ordinator for Democracy and Human Rights: Shanthi Kalathil
Senior Director for Democracy and Human Rights: Rob Berschinski
Director for Democracy and Human Rights: Tess McEnery
Director for Democracy and Human Rights: Brian Vogt
Director for Human Rights and Civil Society: Jesse Bernstein
Director for Anticorruption: Chandana Ravi
Senior Director for Russia and Central Asia: Eric Green
Director for Afghanistan: Allison Varricchio
Director for Russia: Katrina Elledge
Senior Director for Counter-terrorism: Clare Linkins
Director for Counter-terrorism: Caitlin Conley
Director for Counter-terrorism: Alexandra Miller
Director for Counter-terrorism: Annie Rohroff
Director for Counter-terrorism - Global Threats / Embassy Security: Derek Dela-Cruz
Director for Counter-terrorism - Homeland Threats: Michael Massetti
Director for Threat Finance & Sanctions: Samantha Sultoon
Senior Director for Europe: Amanda Sloat
Director for Balkans and Central Europe: Robin Brooks
Co-ordinator for Middle East and North Africa: Brett McGurk
Senior Director for Middle East and North Africa: Ambassador Barbara A. Leaf
Director for the Arabian Peninsula: Evyenia Sidereas
Director for Iran: Sam Martin
Director for Iraq and Syria: Zehra Bell
Director for Israeli-Palestinian Affairs: Julie Sawyer
Director for Jordan and Lebanon: Maxwell Martin
Director for North African Affairs: Josh Harris
Director for Political-Military Affairs and Yemen: K.C. Evans
Director for Political-Military Affairs: Col. Daniel Mouton (US Army)
Senior Director for Energy & Climate Change: Melaine Nakagawa
Director for Climate Diplomacy and Energy Transformation: Helaina Matza
Director for Climate Investment, Trade, and Environment: Victoria Orero
Director for Climate Security and Resilience: Jennifer DeCesaro
Senior Director for Speechwriting and Strategic Initiatives: Carlyn Reichel
Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs: Curtis Ried
Director for Global Engagement and Multilateral Diplomacy at the NSC and NEC: Andy Rabens
Director for Multilateral Initiatives: Negah Angha
Senior Director for Arms Control, Disarmament & Non-Proliferation: Mallory Stewart
Senior Director for Cyber: Andrew Scott
Director for International Cyber Policy: Teddy Nemeroff
Senior Director for Cybersecurity and Policy: Amit Mital
Director for Cybersecurity and Emerging Technology Policy: Jonah Force Hill
Director for Cybersecurity and Secure Digital Innovation: Carole House
Director for Cyber Response and Policy: Jeff Greene
Senior Director for Trans-border: Katie Tobin
Director for Trans-border Security: Ashley Feasley
See also
Homeland Security Advisor
Iran–Contra affair
National Security Medal
National Security Advisor
National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection and Counter-Terrorism
Targeted killing
Title 32 of the Code of Federal Regulations
Tower Commission
Trump–Ukraine scandal
Homeland Security Council
References
Further reading
Bahadir, Sanli. "Arzin Merkezine Seyahat: ABD Ulusal Güvenlik Konseyi" ["Journey to the Center of the World: U.S. National Security Council"]. Article on US NSC .
Best, Richard A., Jr. "The National Security Council: An Organizational Assessment". (Congressional Research Service, 2009) online.
Bolton, M. Kent. U.S. National Security and Foreign Policymaking After 9/11: Present at the Re-Creation, Rowman & Littlefield; 2007, .
Brown, Cody M. The National Security Council: A Legal History of the President's Most Powerful Advisers, Project on National Security Reform (2008).
Cutler, Robert. "The Development of the National Security Council". Foreign Affairs 34.3 (1956): 441-458. .
Daalder, Ivo H. and I. M. Destler, In the Shadow of the Oval Office: Profiles of the National Security Advisers and the Presidents They Served—From JFK to George W. Bush. Simon & Schuster; 2009, .
Annual Report to Congress on White House Office Staff; Executive Office of the President, Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Falk, Stanley L. "The National Security Council Under Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy". Political Science Quarterly 79.3 (1964): 403–434. .
Gans, John. White House Warriors: How the National Security Council Transformed the American Way of War (Liveright, 2019). online review.
Karl F. Inderfurth and Loch K. Johnson, eds. Fateful Decisions: Inside the National Security Council. Oxford University Press, 2004. .
Nelson, Anna Kasten. "President Truman and the Evolution of the National Security Council". Journal of American History 72.2 (1985): 360–378. .
Nelson, Anna Kasten. "The 'top of policy hill': President Eisenhower and the National Security Council". Diplomatic History 7.4 (1983): 307–326. .
Rothkopf, David J. (March/April 2005). "Inside the Committee that Runs the World" (Archived copy, including missing image). Foreign Policy.
David J. Rothkopf, Running The World: the Inside Story of the National Security Council and the Architects of American Power, PublicAffairs; 2006, .
Sander, Alfred D. "Truman and the National Security Council: 1945–1947". Journal of American History (1972): 369–388. .
Advocates for a "National Board of Strategy".
Whittaker, Alan G., Frederick C. Smith, and Elizabeth McKune. The national security policy process: The national security council and interagency system (Industrial College of the Armed Forces, 2008).
External links
Official National Security Council website
History of the NSC from the White House
Records of the National Security Council (NSC) in the National Archives
White House Office, National Security Council Staff Papers, 1948–1961, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library
Homeland Security Watch (www.HLSwatch.com) provides current details on the NSC as it pertains to homeland security.
Anti-communism in the United States
Executive Office of the President of the United States
National security councils
1947 establishments in the United States
United States diplomacy |
31266753 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital%20supply%20chain%20security | Digital supply chain security | Digital supply chain security refers to efforts to enhance cyber security within the supply chain. It is a subset of supply chain security and is focused on the management of cyber security requirements for information technology systems, software and networks, which are driven by threats such as cyber-terrorism, malware, data theft and the advanced persistent threat (APT). Typical supply chain cyber security activities for minimizing risks include buying only from trusted vendors, disconnecting critical machines from outside networks, and educating users on the threats and protective measures they can take.
The acting deputy undersecretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate for the United States Department of Homeland Security, Greg Schaffer, stated at a hearing that he is aware that there are instances where malware has been found on imported electronic and computer devices sold within the United States.
Examples of supply chain cyber security threats
Network or computer hardware that is delivered with malware installed on it already.
Malware that is inserted into software or hardware (by various means)
Vulnerabilities in software applications and networks within the supply chain that are discovered by malicious hackers
Counterfeit computer hardware
Related U.S. government efforts
Comprehensive National Cyber Initiative
Defense Procurement Regulations: Noted in section 806 of the National Defense Authorization Act
International Strategy for Cyberspace: White House lays out for the first time the U.S.’s vision for a secure and open Internet. The strategy outlines three main themes: diplomacy, development and defense.
Diplomacy: The strategy sets out to “promote an open, interoperable, secure and reliable information and communication infrastructure” by establishing norms of acceptable state behavior built through consensus among nations.
Development: Through this strategy the government seeks to “facilitate cybersecurity capacity-building abroad, bilaterally and through multilateral organizations.” The objective is to protect the global IT infrastructure and to build closer international partnerships to sustain open and secure networks.
Defense: The strategy calls out that the government “will ensure that the risks associated with attacking or exploiting our networks vastly outweigh the potential benefits” and calls for all nations to investigate, apprehend and prosecute criminals and non-state actors who intrude and disrupt network systems.
Related government efforts around the world
Russia: Russia has had non-disclosed functionality certification requirements for several years and has recently initiated the National Software Platform effort based on open-source software. This reflects the apparent desire for national autonomy, reducing dependence on foreign suppliers.
India: Recognition of supply chain risk in its draft National Cybersecurity Strategy. Rather than targeting specific products for exclusion, it is considering Indigenous Innovation policies, giving preferences to domestic ITC suppliers in order to create a robust, globally competitive national presence in the sector.
China: Deriving from goals in the 11th Five Year Plan (2006–2010), China introduced and pursued a mix of security-focused and aggressive Indigenous Innovation policies. China is requiring an indigenous innovation product catalog be used for its government procurement and implementing a Multi-level Protection Scheme (MLPS) which requires (among other things) product developers and manufacturers to be Chinese citizens or legal persons, and product core technology and key components must have independent Chinese or indigenous intellectual property rights.
Private sector efforts
SLSA (Supply-chain Levels for Software Artifacts) is an end-to-end framework for ensuring the integrity of software artifacts throughout the software supply chain. The requirements are inspired by Google’s internal "Binary Authorization for Borg" that has been in use for the past 8+ years and that is mandatory for all of Google's production workloads. The goal of SLSA is to improve the state of the industry, particularly open source, to defend against the most pressing integrity threats. With SLSA, consumers can make informed choices about the security posture of the software they consume.
Other references
Financial Sector Information Sharing and Analysis Center
International Strategy for Cyberspace (from the White House)
NSTIC
SafeCode Whitepaper
Trusted Technology Forum and the Open Trusted Technology Provider Standard (O-TTPS)
Cyber Supply Chain Security Solution
Malware Implants in Firmware
Supply Chain in the Software Era
INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY SUPPLY CHAIN RISK MANAGEMENT TASK FORCE: INTERIM REPORT
See also
Supply chain
Supply chain risk management
Supply chain security
ISO/PAS 28000
NIST
Trustworthy computing
References
Supply chain management
Computer security |
612737 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMule | AMule | aMule is a free peer-to-peer file sharing utility that works with the EDonkey network and the Kad network, offering similar features to eMule and adding others such as GeoIP (country flags). On August 18, 2003 it was forked from the xMule source code, which itself is a fork of the lMule project, which was the first attempt to bring the eMule client to Linux. These projects were discontinued and aMule is the resulting project, though aMule has less and less resemblance to the client that sired it.
aMule shares code with the eMule project. The credit and partials downloads of eMule can be used by aMule and vice versa, making program substitution simple.
aMule aims to be portable over multiple platforms and is doing this with the help of the wxWidgets library. Currently supported systems include Linux, macOS, various BSD-derived systems, Windows, Irix and Solaris. Beside the stable releases the project also offers SVN versions as an unstable release.
TCP and UDP ports
According to the aMule official FAQ, these are the default ports. Server ports 4661 TCP and 4665 UDP are only used by the EDonkey network. Therefore, the Kad Network will only use 4662 TCP and 4672 UDP. The traffic direction is from client perspective:
4661 TCP (outgoing): Port on which an eDonkey server listens for connection (port number may vary depending on eDonkey server used).
4662 TCP (outgoing and incoming): Client to client transfers.
4665 UDP (outgoing and incoming): Used for global eDonkey server searches and global source queries. This is always Client TCP port + 3.
4672 UDP (outgoing and incoming): Extended aMule protocol, Queue Rating, File Reask Ping
4711 TCP: WebServer listening port. Used if aMule is accessed through the web.
4712 TCP: internal Connection port. Used to communicate aMule with other applications such as aMule WebServer or aMuleCMD.
Most of these ports are customizable.
Monolithic and modular build
aMule can be compiled using -disable-monolithic parameter: this allows aMule to be run in a modular way. This means that the core functionalities of the program can be started using amuled, the aMule daemon while the software behavior can be controlled through three different interfaces:
aMuleCMD The command-line aMule client.
aMuleGUI The regular GUI of the software. Experimental, a lot of features missing in comparison with the monolithic version and is unstable. There are Linux and Windows version for this tool: users can connect an aMule instance running on Linux from a workstation running Windows and the Win32 version of aMuleGUI.
aMuleWEB The web interface provided by the aMule core built-in Webserver. It can be retrieved via the LAN or from the Internet, provided any Internet router is properly configured using port forwarding.
See also
eDonkey network
Kad network
eMule
iMule – an anonymous (and slower) mule exclusively for the I2P network. Based on aMule.
Comparison of eDonkey software
References
External links
aMule home page
mobileMule - Template/skin for mobile and desktop
Free file sharing software
Free software programmed in C++
MacOS file sharing software
Windows file sharing software
EDonkey Clients for Linux
File sharing software that uses wxWidgets
Software forks
2003 software |
18944290 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul%20Tschackert | Paul Tschackert | Paul Tschackert (10 January 1848 – 7 July 1911) was a German Protestant theologian and church historian born in Freystadt, Silesia. He is largely remembered for studies involving the history of the Protestant Reformation.
Tschackert studied history, theology and philosophy at the University of Halle, and in 1873 continued his education at the University of Göttingen. In 1875, he earned his doctorate at the University of Breslau with his thesis on theologian Pierre d'Ailly (1351-1420). In 1877 he became an associate professor at Halle, afterwards serving as a professor at the universities of Königsberg (from 1884) and Göttingen (from 1890).
Tschackert died in Göttingen.
Selected writings
Anna Maria von Schürmann, der Stern von Utrecht, die Jüngerin Labadie's; ein Bild aus der Kulturgeschichte des 17. Jahrhunderts. Vortrag, 1876 – Anna Maria van Schurman, "the star of Utrecht", the disciple of Labadie; a picture of cultural history in the 17th Century; Lecture.
Peter von Ailli, 1877 – Petrus de Alliaco.
Evangelische Polemik gegen die römische Kirche, 1885 – Protestant polemic against the Roman church.
Urkundenbuch zur Reformationsgeschichte des Herzogthums Preussen, 1890 ff. – Deed book of Reformation history involving the Duchy of Prussia.
Die Entstehung der lutherischen und der reformierten Kirchenlehre samt ihren innerprotestantischen Gegensätzen, 1910 – The emergence of the Lutheran and Reformed church doctrines involving its inner-Protestant conflicts.
He was the author of many biographies in the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie.
References
Catalogus-professorum-halensis (translated biography)
19th-century German Protestant theologians
Reformation historians
People from the Province of Silesia
University of Göttingen faculty
University of Königsberg faculty
1848 births
1911 deaths
People from Kożuchów
19th-century German male writers
German male non-fiction writers |
14157939 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison%20of%20network%20monitoring%20systems | Comparison of network monitoring systems | The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of notable network monitoring systems. Please see the individual products' articles for further information.
Features
Legend
Product Name The name of the software, linked to its Wikipedia article.
IP SLAs Reports Support of Cisco's IP Service Level Agreement mechanism.
Logical Grouping Supports arranging the hosts or devices it monitors into user-defined groups.
Trending Provides trending of network data over time.
Trend Prediction The software features algorithms designed to predict future network statistics.
Auto Discovery The software automatically discovers hosts or network devices it is connected to.
Agentless The product does not rely on a software agent that must run on hosts it is monitoring, so that data can be pushed back to a central server. "Supported" means that an agent may be used, but is not mandatory. An SNMP daemon does not count as an agent.
SNMP Able to retrieve and report on SNMP statistics.
Syslog Able to receive and report on Syslogs.
Plugins Architecture of the software based on a number of 'plugins' that provide additional functionality.
Triggers/Alerts Capable of detecting threshold violations in network data, and alerting the administrator in some form.
WebApp Runs as a web-based application.
No: There is no web-based frontend for this software.
Viewing: Network data can be viewed in a graphical web-based frontend.
Acknowledging: Users can interact with the software through the web-based frontend to acknowledge alarms or manipulate other notifications.
Reporting: Specific reports on network data can be configured by the user and executed through the web-based frontend.
Full Control: ALL aspects of the product can be controlled through the web-based frontend, including low-level maintenance tasks such as software configuration and upgrades.
Distributed Monitoring Able to leverage more than one server to distribute the load of network monitoring.
Inventory Keeps a record of hardware and/or software inventory for the hosts and devices it monitors.
Platform The platform (Coding Language) on which the tool was developed/written.
Data Storage Method Main method used to store the network data it monitors.
License License released under (e.g. GPL, BSD license, etc.).
Maps Features graphical network maps that represent the hosts and devices it monitors, and the links between them.
Access Control Features user-level security, allowing an administrator to prevent access to certain parts of the product on a per-user or per-role basis.
IPv6 Supports monitoring IPv6 hosts and/or devices, receiving IPv6 data, and running on an IPv6-enabled server. Supports communication using IPv6 to the SNMP agent via an IPv6 address.
See also
Data Cap Integrity Act
References
Network management
Network monitor systems |
49697798 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CityConnect%20WIFI | CityConnect WIFI | CityConnect WIFI is a Municipal wireless network brand name run by Pinacl Solutions currently in operation in the cities of York, England and Aberdeen, Scotland. The concept is to turn the entire connected area into a Wireless Access Zone, with the ultimate goal of making the internet a universal service. To cover large parts of both cities, a wireless mesh network has been deployed relying the wireless WiFi signal of hundreds of routers mounted commonly to poles, lamp-posts and buildings. Pinacl works closely with City of York Council and Aberdeen City Council and as such, Pinacl acts as a wireless internet service provider.
Overview
CityConnect WIFI first launched in 2014 across York City Centre with phase one of the WiFi solution was rolled out across the city centre and park and ride terminals. Based on the success of this network we have expanded coverage across the University of York and there are plans to expand further across the city. This network now sees around 2000 users per day and this figure continues to rise. Following on from this deployment we have since launched Aberdeen CityConnect across 31 publicly accessible Council buildings in the Granite City. A similar solution has also been rolled out in the City of Newport, with FREE public now available in over 50 Council buildings with a separate concession based network that has recently been deployed across key parts of the City Centre including Upper Dock St, Corn St, Skinner St, Riverfront Theatre, train station, information station, Cambrian Road, Newport Market and the bus station.
York
Pinnacle, working in partnership with the City of York Council started trials of public WiFi beginning 2013, with strong publicity, the trial was a success and was later rolled out permanently under phase 1, this initially covered Coney Street; the main shopping street in York. WiFi range was later expanded into other streets, allowing for continual use with your connected device relaying signals to the nearest router, allowing for seamless connectivity whilst on the move. WiFI range has again since been expanded to cover the entire of York City Centre, the 6 Park and Ride sites, 14 council run libraries and 41 council owned buildings. WiFi within the city centre is split into 15 'Network Zones' relaying signals to the previous and next router in the sequence.
CityConnect WIFI Zones
Zone 1 – 1 Bridge St Wall mount Lamp
Zone 1 – 13 Bridge St Wall mount Lamp
Zone 1 – 39 Micklegate Wall mount Lamp
Zone 2 – Station Rise (West Offices)
Zone 2 – Cedar Court Lamppost
Zone 2 – 2 Rougier St Lamppost
Zone 2 – Tanners Moat Lamppost
Zone 3 – Stn Rise/Stn Ave CCTV Pole
Zone 3 – Royal York Hotel Lamppost
Zone 3 – York Stn Lamppost
Zone 4 – 1 Museum St Lamppost
Zone 4 – Museum St/Lendl Lamppost
Zone 4 – Duncombe Place lamppost
Zone 4 – Minster Yard (Left of Minster) lamppost
Zone 4 – Minster Yard (Right of Minster) lamppost
Zone 5 – 1 Davygate CCTV Pole
Zone 5 – 14 Blake St Wall mount Lamp
Zone 5 – 15 Davygate Wall mount Lamp
Zone 5 – 26 Davygate Wall mount Lamp
Zone 6 – 1 Parliament St CCTV Pole
Zone 6 – 8 Parliament St Wall mount Lamp
Zone 6 – 15 Parliament St Wall mount Lamp
Zone 6 – 21 Davygate CCTV Camera mount
Zone 7 – 1 Coopergate CCTV Pole
Zone 7 – 6 Nessgate Wall mount Lamp
Zone 7 – 1 Nessgate (Wall mount Lamp)
Zone 7 – 4 Spurriergate CCTV Camera mount
Zone 7 – 13 Market St Wall mount Lamp
Zone 8 – Mansion House Rooftop
Zone 8 – 12 Coney St Wall mount Lamp
Zone 8 – 15 Coney St Wall mount Lamp
Zone 8 – 23 Coney St Wall mount Lamp
Zone 8 – 22 Lendl Wall mount Lamp
Zone 8 – 1 Stonegate Wall mount Lamp
Zone 9 – 6 Grape Lane Wall mount Bracket
Zone 9 – 54 Low Petergate Wall mount Lamp
Zone 9 – 2 Minster Yard Lamppost
Zone 10 – 17 Back Swinegate CCTV Camera mount
Zone 10 – 14 Swinegate CCTV Camera Mount
Zone 10 – 28 Stonegate CCTV Camera Mount
Zone 10 – 1 Kings Square CCTV Camera Mount
Zone 11 – 65 Goodramsgate Wall mount Lamp
Zone 11 – 34 Goodramsgate Lamppost
Zone 11 – 27 Goodramsgate Wall mount Lamp
Zone 11 – Deangate Lamppost
Zone 12 – Silver St Wall mount Lamp
Zone 12 – 10 Newgate Wall mount Lamp
Zone 12 – 47 Shambles Wall mount Lamp
Zone 12 – 13 Shambles Wall mount Lamp
Zone 12 – 23 Shambles Wall mount Lamp
Zone 13 – 1 St Saviourgate CCTV Pole
Zone 13 – 20 Pavement Lamppost
Zone 13 – 10 Pavement Wall mount Lamp
Zone 14 – Museum Gardens
Aberdeen
Free wi-fi is now available across 30 publicly-accessible Aberdeen City Council buildings, as part of the latest work to be delivered by the Accelerate Aberdeen programme. Again working in partnership with Pinacl Solutions and in the same technical style to York.
Aberdeen City Connect is available in 17 libraries, nine community and learning centres, Aberdeen Maritime Museum, Adventure Aberdeen and Marischal College, and is aimed at not only widening access to internet-based services across the city, but will also helping to address some of the digital divide and social inclusion.
Free public Wi-Fi is available in the below locations:
Libraries
Central Library
Airyhall Library
Bridge of Don Library
Bucksburn Library
Cornhill Library
Cove Library
Culter Library
Cults Library & Learning Centre
Dyce Library
Ferryhill Library
Kaimhill Library
Kincorth Library
Mastrick Library
Northfield Library
Tillydrone Library & Learning Centre
Torry Library
Woodside Library
Community Centres
Cummings Park Community Centre
Dyce Community Learning Centre
Froghall Community Hall
Lord Provost Henry E Rae Community Centre
Rosemount Community Centre
Tillydrone Library & Learning Centre
Torry Sports & Learning Centre
Tullos Community Learning Centre
Woodside Fountain Community Centre
Other Venues
Aberdeen Maritime Museum
Adventure Aberdeen
Marischal College Customer Access Point
Newport
NewportCityConnect from Pinacl, will provide users with unlimited 24x7 free Wi-Fi access across key city centre locations including Upper Dock St, Corn St, Skinner St, Riverfront Theatre, Railway Station, Information Station, Cambrian Road, Newport Market and the Bus Station.
Visitors and residents can access NewportCityConnect from any wireless enabled device. This WiFi solution allows users to log in via social media or a simple registration form. Seamless login has been enabled so once the initial log in has been completed, users can get back online by simply opening up a browser when in range of the network.
The network has been designed to provide sufficient bandwidth to support streaming services such as BBC iPlayer. Pinacl launched a similar solution in the City of York last year which now sees around 2,000 users per day. Pinacl created the CityConnect brand specifically for public WiFi networks and solutions have been deployed for Aberdeen City Council, Stockport City Council and property development giants, British Land. Small retailers have also opted for CityConnect solutions to enhance their existing network with a user friendly social WiFi overlay.
References
Internet in England
Internet in Scotland
Municipal wireless networks |
1159581 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima%20IV%3A%20Quest%20of%20the%20Avatar | Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar | Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, first released in 1985 for the Apple II, is the fourth in the series of Ultima role-playing video games. It is the first in the "Age of Enlightenment" trilogy, shifting the series from the hack and slash, dungeon crawl gameplay of its "Age of Darkness" predecessors towards an ethically-nuanced, story-driven approach. Ultima IV has a much larger game world than its predecessors, with an overworld map sixteen times the size of Ultima III and puzzle-filled dungeon rooms to explore. Ultima IV further advances the franchise with dialog improvements, new means of travel and exploration, and world interactivity.
In 1996 Computer Gaming World named Ultima IV as #2 on its Best Games of All Time list on the PC. Designer Richard Garriott considers this game to be among his favorites from the Ultima series.
Ultima IV was followed by the release of Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny in 1988.
Plot
Ultima IV is among the few role-playing games, and perhaps the first, in which the game's story does not center on asking a player to overcome a tangible ultimate evil.
After the defeat of each of the members of the Triad of Evil in the previous three Ultima games, the world of Sosaria underwent some radical changes in geography: Three quarters of the world disappeared, continents rose and sank, and new cities were built to replace the ones that were lost. Eventually the world, now unified under Lord British's rule, was renamed Britannia. Lord British felt the people lacked purpose after their great struggles against the Triad were over, and he was concerned with their spiritual well-being in this unfamiliar new age of relative peace, so he proclaimed the Quest of the Avatar: He needed someone to step forth and become the shining example for others to follow.
Unlike most other RPGs the game is not set in an "age of darkness"; prosperous Britannia resembles Renaissance Italy, or King Arthur's Camelot. The object of the game is to focus on the main character's development in virtuous life—possible because the land is at peace—and become a spiritual leader and an example to the people of the world of Britannia. The game follows the protagonist's struggle to understand and exercise the Eight Virtues. After proving his or her understanding in each of the Virtues, locating several artifacts and finally descending into the dungeon called the Stygian Abyss to gain access to the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom, the protagonist becomes an Avatar.
Conversely, actions in the game could remove a character's gained Virtues, distancing them from the construction of Truth, Love, Courage and the greater axiom of Infinity—all required to complete the game. Though Avatarhood is not exclusive to one chosen person, the hero remains the only known Avatar throughout the later games, and as time passes he is increasingly regarded as a myth.
Gameplay
Instead of simply choosing stats to assign points to as in the first three Ultima games, players are asked various ethical dilemmas by a gypsy fortune-teller using remotely tarot-like cards of the eight virtues. These situations do not have one correct resolution; rather, players must rank the Eight Virtues and whichever stands as their highest priority determines the type of character they will play. For example, choosing Compassion creates a Bard, Honor a Paladin, Sacrifice a Tinker, and so on. This is also the first Ultima where playing as a human is necessary, eliminating other races such as the elves, dwarves, and "bobbits" found in previous games (however, even in the first three Ultimas where they could be chosen as player characters, there were never any non-player characters (NPC) of those non-human races).
Although each profession embodies a particular Virtue, to become an Avatar the player must achieve enlightenment in all eight virtues. Virtue affects how NPCs interact with the player; enlightenment in the Virtues is achieved through the player's actions as well as through meditation at shrines. Shrines to each of the Virtues are scattered about Britannia, each requiring the player to possess the corresponding Virtue's rune before allowing entry. Through meditation and correctly repeating the Virtue's mantra three times at the shrine, the player gains insight and ultimately enlightenment in the Virtue. The seer Hawkwind in Lord British's castle provides the player with feedback on their progress in the Virtues, offering advice for actions that will improve their standing in each of the Eight Virtues, informing them when they are ready to visit a shrine for elevation, or chastising the character if they "hath strayed far from the path of the Avatar". A player may be encouraged to give alms to the poor to improve their Sacrifice, or never flee from battle to improve their Honor. Players are equally able to lower their virtue by their in-game actions, such as selecting a bragging response in a dialog with certain characters (lowers Humility). While most actions have a minor effect on a Virtue's progress, certain actions can have an immediate and devastating effect on a player's progress on multiple Virtues.
Technically, the game was very similar to Ultima III: Exodus, although much larger. It is the first Ultima to feature a real conversation system; whereas NPCs in earlier games would only give one canned answer when talked to, now players could interact with them by specifying a subject of conversation, the subject determined either by a standard set of questions (name, job, health) or by information gleaned from the previous answers, or from other characters. Many sub-quests were arranged around this. Users playing the game a second time could save considerable time by knowing the answers to key questions which frequently required travel to another city to talk with another NPC. In at least one case, a player is asked "Who sent you?", which may require yet another round trip between cities.
Another addition were dungeon rooms, uniquely designed combat areas in the dungeons which supplemented the standard combat against randomly appearing enemies.
Ultima IV is an open world game; most quests can be completed in any order. There are no fetch quests. Although it is a turn-based game, the clock runs while the game was running. If a player does not act for a while, NPCs and monsters may move and time passes. Time is an important aspect to the game, as certain actions can only be performed at certain times.
The world of Britannia was first introduced here in full, and the world map in the series did not greatly change in later games. The player may travel about Britannia by foot, on horseback, across the sea in a ship or by air in a "lighter than air device". Speed and ease of travel is affected by the mode of travel as well as terrain and wind.
Virtues
The Eight Virtues of the Avatar, their relationship to the Three Principles of Truth, Love, and Courage, and how gameplay has been designed around them are as follows:
Honesty: TruthWhen purchasing goods from blind merchants, the player is required to enter the amount of gold they wish to pay. Although the player has the option of paying less than the merchant has asked for, this will mark the player as dishonest. Stealing gold from chests in towns, villages and castles will also penalize the player. This Virtue is embodied by Mariah the Mage.
Compassion: LoveBy using the Give conversation subject, a player can give beggars alms and in doing so demonstrate Compassion. This Virtue is embodied by Iolo the Bard.
Valor: CourageValor is displayed by the player defeating enemies in combat and not fleeing in a cowardly fashion. This means that when retreat is necessary, the player should be the last party member to leave the field of battle. This Virtue is embodied by Geoffrey the Fighter.
Justice: Truth and LoveNot all of the hostile creatures in Britannia are evil and the player must avoid unprovoked attacks on those that are not. If attacked, he should resort to driving them away rather than killing them. Out of the eight virtues, this one requires the most finesse to embody and is a particularly good example of balancing ethical dilemmas. The player's party must stand their ground for Valor, yet drive their foes away without killing them. This Virtue is embodied by Jaana the Druid.
Sacrifice: Love and CourageIf the player goes to a place of healing while in good health, the player can make a blood donation and sacrifice some health in doing so. One noted critic, Scorpia of Computer Gaming World, reported that players who wrote her for hints had the most trouble with self-sacrifice, believing that giving gold to others was sufficient, as opposed to donating blood. Helping others retreat from battle and losing Valor points is another way of increasing Sacrifice. This Virtue is embodied by Julia the Tinker. In the NES port, she was replaced with a male character named Julius.
Honor: Truth and CourageBy finding sacred items and exploring dungeons the player demonstrates Honor. This Virtue is embodied by Dupre the Paladin.
Spirituality: Truth, Love, and CourageMeditating at shrines, consulting the seer, and achieving enlightenment in the other Virtues enhances the player's Spirituality. This Virtue is embodied by Shamino the Ranger.
Humility: None, though it is considered the root of all Virtue.The player demonstrates Humility during conversations. A boastful response to a question results in a penalty, while a humble response results in a bonus. This Virtue is embodied by Katrina the Shepherd.
Development
Richard Garriott has said that he received no customer feedback for his first three games because neither California Pacific Computer nor Sierra On-Line forwarded him mail. After his own company released Ultima III, Garriott—who attended an interdenominational Christian Sunday School as a teenager—realized (partly from letters of enraged parents) that in the earlier games, immoral actions like stealing and murder of peaceful citizens had been necessary or at least very useful actions in order to win the game, and that such features might be objectionable. Garriott said he wanted to become a good storyteller and make certain the story had content, and that 90% of the games out there, including his first three Ultima games, were what he called "go kill the evil bad guy" stories. He said, "Ultima IV was the first one that had ethical overtones in it, and it also was just a better-told story." Shay Addams, Garriott's official biographer, wrote, "He decided that if people were going to look for hidden meaning in his work when they didn't even exist, he would introduce ideas and symbols with meaning and significance he deemed worthwhile, to give them something they could really think about." To encourage a sense of responsibility for their character's actions, players were intended to feel they were playing themselves transported into a fantasy realm, not a separate person. Garriott removed gameplay elements he believed would prevent players from identifying personally with their character, such as playing as a non-human.
Decades after the game's release, 1UP.com described Ultima IV as "a direct barb at the self-appointed moral crusaders who sought to demonize RPGs" and complained that "the irony in seeing an 'evil' RPG better present the Christian admonition to back faith with works in quiet modesty than the Bible-waving watchdog decrying the medium seems to have been lost". The game's moral dilemmas were designed to give players the opportunity to reap temporary rewards for amoral behavior, only to realize later that they have been penalized. Garriott hoped they would approach later dilemmas with more thoughtfulness. Near the end of the game, he took advantage of this to encourage players to overthink the puzzles and question the morality of their choices. At one point, players are seemingly required to murder children, who are revealed to be monsters in disguise. Though one playtester threatened to quit over this dilemma, Garriott refused to remove it from the game, reasoning that it had served its purpose in provoking an emotional response.
The game's concept originated from when Garriott was watching a television documentary about religion that covered the Dead Sea Scrolls and a Hindu temple in India. The concept of virtues was inspired by a TV show about the Avatars of Hindu mythology, which described the avatars as having to master 16 virtues. The eight virtues used in the game were derived from combinations of truth, love, and courage, a set of motivators Garriott found worked best, and also found in one of his favorite films, The Wizard of Oz. The game took two years to develop, twice that of both Ultima II and Ultima III. Garriott described the playtesting as "slightly rushed" to make the Christmas season; he was the only one to finish playing through the game by the time it went out for publishing.
Like contemporary Origin games, Ultima IV was developed for the Apple II series, then ported to other computers, partially because Garriott himself was an Apple II user/coder, partially because this made ports easier. Garriott said in 1984 that the Commodore 64 and Atari 8-bit's sprites and hardware sound chips made porting from them to Apple "far more difficult, perhaps even impossible ... the Apple version will never get done". Like previous games, Ultima IV does not permit saving in dungeons because of technical limitations that Garriott described as "non-trivial".
The ankh used as the symbol of the Avatar's virtuous path, was chosen after Garriott saw it in the film Logan's Run.
Garriott said in a 1985 interview that he was working on both Ultima IV: Part 2 and Ultima V. Eventually, only Ultima V realized.
Versions
Apple II
Like previous Ultimas, Richard Garriott wrote most of the core code himself; however, as the games were getting too complex for one person to handle, he was required to call in outside assistance for programming tasks he was not familiar with, such as music and optimized disk routines. Ultima IV was the first game in the series to require a 64k Apple II and primarily targeted the newer Apple IIe and IIc, although it could still run on an Apple II+ if a language card was used to boost the system to 64k (Garriott himself was still using a II+ at this time). As had happened with Ultima III, Ultima IV also included support for the Mockingboard sound card, which enabled Apple II users to have 3-voice music. Custom disk routines allowed Ultima IV to have faster disk access than the previous games, which was also important as the growing size of the game caused it to now use two floppy disks instead of one.
The dialog of two NPCs in the Apple II release were accidentally not entered, leaving them in their default test states. One of these NPCs was the most elusive in the game, and provided the player with the final answer they would require to complete the game. With this character not responding properly, players were forced to guess the correct answer or find it from sources outside the game to complete it. This bug would later be acknowledged in Ultima V, where the NPC appears again and admits his mistake to the player.
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 port was the first in the series to take full advantage of the computer's hardware rather than simply converting the sound and graphics from the Apple II, and include in-game music. It came on two 1541 disks and like the Apple II, Side 1 of Disk 1 (labeled "Program") was copy protected while the other disk sides ("Overworld", "Town", and "Dungeon") were not and the user was instructed to make backups of them. Ultima IV also added support for two disk drives, in which case the user would keep the Overworld side of Disk 1 in Drive 0 and flip the Town/Dungeon disk as needed in Drive 1. The Overworld disk is also used to load/save the player's progress. One of the biggest criticisms of the C64 port was a lack of any disk fast loader, which made for extremely slow disk access against the speed-optimized disk routines in the Apple version.
Atari 8-bit
Ultima IV was the final game in the series ported to the Atari 8-bit family. The game is still designed to support a 48K Atari 800 even though four models of 64K/128K Atari 8-bit computers had been released, and one 64K-upgradable model, starting two and a half years earlier. In order to fit the game in 48K, the Atari 8-bit version cut out music support. The reason 48K was made the requirement instead of the 64K requirement of the Apple II version is that, whereas the earliest Apple II models were upgradable to 64K, the Atari 400/800 were only officially upgradable to 48K. Since the Apple version was programmed to require 64K, and the Apple 6502 code was ported to create the Atari 8-bit (and Commodore 64) version, it would have required extra programming to selectively use 48K/64K, by including music support only for 64K machines. Since the Atari 8-bit market was the smallest installed bases that the game was initially released for, this special support was not provided. For similar reasons, the game was distributed on the earliest 90k Atari 810 disk format, so as not to require a disk drive upgrade for any players, thus it occupies four disks instead of two disks, as with the Apple II and Commodore 64 versions.
PC compatible
Similar to the C64 port, the IBM version of Ultima IV, released two years after the 8-bit versions, takes proper advantage of the hardware for the first time instead of being a rushed conversion from the Apple II. EGA and Tandy graphics support is added, as well as proper hard disk support (the game finally supported DOS 2.x and subdirectories). However, there is no music in the IBM version even though the Tandy 1000 series had a 3-voice sound chip.
Amiga and Atari ST
The Atari ST version of Ultima IV was not released until 1987, and the Amiga version not until 1988. Both are extremely similar to the PC port and do not fully utilize their machines' respective hardware features. In particular, the Amiga version has only 16-color graphics although the Amiga could display 64 on screen, without using the Copper processor to make color palette changes. However, the Atari ST version does support MIDI for the music, so that one could play the music on a connected MIDI synthesizer or sampler. Both ports made use of the mouse and limited use of the native operating system's windowing environment (mouse cursor support, dialog boxes for requesting disks, etc.).
NES
Like Ultima III, Ultima IV was released to NES by FCI and Pony Canyon. This version, titled Ultima: Quest of the Avatar, was released in 1990.
The NES port of Ultima IV is very different from the other versions: the graphics had been completely redone, as was the music, and the dialogue options were greatly reduced. Among other gameplay changes, the player cannot have all seven recruitable characters in the player's party at the same time, as one could in other versions. Any character over the four the player could have would stay at a hostel at Castle Britannia, requiring the player to return there to change characters. However, the combat system was fairly close to the personal computer games, with the additional option to use automated combat. Additionally the spell-casting was simplified, removing the need to mix spells. Some puzzles were removed as well. This port also replaced the character Julia the Tinker with a male character named Julius. Some of these changes were done because of the memory limitations of being on a single cartridge instead of multiple floppy diskettes.
Master System
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar for the Master System is the only Ultima to be ported to a Sega platform. It was released in 1990 and was both ported and published by Sega. The port features completely re-drawn graphics (although unlike the NES port, the style was retained from Origin's version), a simpler conversation system and, unlike the NES version, uses the regular Ultima IV background music. Although the Master System is easily capable of displaying more complex first-person scenes than those found in Ultima IV (see Phantasy Star), this version's dungeons are viewed from a top-down perspective, much like those of Ultima VI, which was released the same year. It seems that most of these cartridges were produced for the European market, as they contain a multi-lingual (English, French and German) manual, both books from the original version as well as a folded paper map. The books were of different colour for each of the three editions (blue for the UK version), fully translated and did not fit inside the game's box. There is a graphical error in this version where the gypsy's picture is of a man with a mustache even though the gypsy is referred to as "she" throughout the text.
Ultima IV on modern operating systems
xu4 is a cross-platform game engine recreation of Ultima IV under development for Dreamcast, Linux, Mac OS X, RISC OS and Windows.
Two other remakes were using the Neverwinter Nights engine. An online version was written in Adobe Flash. In March 2011, Electronic Arts sent a DMCA "cease and desist" notice to this fan project. In 2015 also a fan-made remaster project for the Commodore 64 version of the game was released with source code on GitHub, addressing bugs and improving other aspects of the game.
DOS version of Ultima IV is available for free through GOG.com. Publisher and IP owner Electronic Arts has released the game as freeware in 2011 to promote its free-to-play remake Ultima Forever: Quest for the Avatar, which it would release in 2013.
Reception
Ultima IV was the top game on Billboards list of software best sellers for February and March 1986. In the United States, Ultima IV had sold more than 100,000 copies by August 1986. Global sales of Ultima IV had surpassed 400,000 copies by May 1989.
Scorpia of Computer Gaming World in 1986 called it "an incredible game", only criticizing the fact that experience only came from combat, which she stated became "tedious". Scorpia concluded, "What are you waiting for? This will be a classic... go get it!!" The game became the first to replace Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord—the top-rated adventure game for five years—in the magazine's reader poll, and it named Ultima IV as the game of the year for 1986. In 1987 Scorpia cited Ultima IV for taking the genre away from hack and slash—"for the first time, we have a CRPG whose focus IS character development. Not how many monsters you kill, nor how much loot you can pick up"—in 1991 and 1993 called it her favorite game, in 1994 stated that "maybe nothing ever will" surpass it, and after retiring from reviewing games called it "my all-time, number one, favorite RPG".
In June 1986, Dragons Hartley and Pattie Lesser called Ultima IV "The most impressive and complex adventure to date; a total adventuring environment that takes place across an entire continent." In the September 1986 issue, Mike Gray lauded the game as "the best computer simulation of a true fantasy role-playing experience I have ever seen. If you have an Apple II or a Commodore 64 or 128, your treasure hoard of computer FRP games will not be complete unless and until you get your hands on this one". He praised Ultima IV as "incredible. If you can find it in a store, don’t pass it up... Don’t be discouraged if it takes you a while to find a copy — that search will be an easy one compared to what awaits you when you start the Quest of the Avatar".
Famitsu reviewed the Famicom (NES) version and scored it 31 out of 40. Computer and Video Games magazine reviewed the Sega Master System version in 1990, giving it an 89% score.
Co-creator of D&D Dave Arneson in 1988 wrote that Ultima IV and a few other games "have stood pretty much alone as quirks instead of trend setters" in the CRPG industry, as other games did not follow their innovations.
With a score of 7.80 out of 10, in 1988 Ultima IV was among the first members of the Computer Gaming World Hall of Fame for those games rated highly over time by readers. In 1990 the game received the third-highest number of votes in a survey of readers' "All-Time Favorites". In 1996, the magazine ranked it as the second-best video game of all time, and the second most-innovative computer game. In 2013, IGN placed Ultima IV at #26 in its list of top 100 RPGs of all time. In 2015, Peter Tieryas of Tor.com stated that the NES version "represented a different type of ideal... You make up the narrative and you determine the course of your journey, engendering a sense of immersion that had the effect of making you feel like you were in more control than any previous RPG."
Reviews
Casus Belli #31 (Feb 1986)
See also
Ultima Forever: Quest for the Avatar
References
Kasavin, Greg & Soete, Tim (1998). "The Ultima Legacy". GameSpot.
External links
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar at C64Sets.com
Free download of the DOS version at GOG.com
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar at the Codex of Ultima Wisdom
Ultima IV – Quest of the Avatar at C64 Wiki
1985 video games
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Apple II games
Atari 8-bit family games
Atari ST games
Commodore 64 games
DOS games
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FM-7 games
Freeware games
Games commercially released with DOSBox
Master System games
MSX2 games
NEC PC-8801 games
NEC PC-9801 games
Nintendo Entertainment System games
Open-world video games
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ScummVM-supported games
Sharp X68000 games
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252539 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raytheon%20BBN%20Technologies | Raytheon BBN Technologies | Raytheon BBN (originally Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc.) is an American research and development company, based next to Fresh Pond in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States.
In 1966 the Franklin Institute awarded the firm the Frank P. Brown Medal, in 1999 BBN received the IEEE Corporate Innovation Recognition, and on 1 February 2013, BBN was awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the highest honors that the U.S. government bestows upon scientists, engineers and inventors, by President Barack Obama. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of Raytheon in 2009.
History
BBN has its roots in an initial partnership formed on 15 October 1948 between Leo Beranek and Richard Bolt, professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Bolt had won a commission to be an acoustic consultant for the new United Nations permanent headquarters to be built in New York City. Realizing the magnitude of the project at hand, Bolt had pulled in his MIT colleague Beranek for help and the partnership between the two was born. The firm, Bolt and Beranek, started out in two rented rooms on the MIT campus. Robert Newman would join the firm soon after in 1950, and the firm became Bolt Beranek Newman. Beranek remained the company's president and chief executive officer until 1967, and Bolt was chairman until 1976.
From 1957 to 1962, J. C. R. Licklider served as vice president of engineering psychology for BBN. Foreseeing the potential to obtain federal grants for basic computer research, Licklider convinced the BBN leadership to purchase a then state-of-the-art Royal McBee LGP-30 digital computer in 1958 for US$25,000. Within a year, Ken Olsen, president of the newly formed Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), approached BBN to test the prototype of DEC's first computer, the PDP-1. Within one month, BBN completed its tests and recommendations of the PDP-1. BBN ultimately purchased the first PDP-1 for around US$150,000 and received the machine in November 1960.
After the PDP-1 arrived, BBN hired two of Licklider's friends from MIT, John McCarthy and Marvin Minsky, as consultants. McCarthy had been unsuccessful in convincing MIT engineers to build time-sharing systems for computers. He had more success at BBN though, working with Ed Fredkin and Sheldon Boilen in implementing one of the first timesharing systems, the BBN Time-Sharing System. In 1962, BBN would install one such time-shared information system at Massachusetts General Hospital where doctors and nurses could create and access patients' information at various nurses' stations connected to a central computer. BBN would soon begin more research about integrating computers and medicine, hiring Bob Taylor in 1965 and MIT Lincoln Laboratory computer systems engineer Frank Heart in 1966.
As BBN began focusing on computer technology, it gained a reputation as "the third university" in Cambridge alongside Harvard and MIT, and its offices expanded on a site near Fresh Pond in western Cambridge. By 1968, the company had over 600 employees. By the early 1970s, BBN bought a laundromat on Moulton Street and tore it down for a new, seven-story headquarters.
In 1980, the U.S. federal government charged BBN with contracts fraud, alleging that from 1972 to 1978, BBN altered time sheets to hide overcharging the government. That year, two top financial officers plea bargained for suspended sentences and US$20,000 fines, and the company paid a US$700,000 fine.
BBN's September 1994 celebration of the 25th anniversary of ARPANET generated much local and national news coverage from outlets including The Boston Globe, Newsweek, and National Public Radio. By that year, Heart retired from BBN after 28 years; his final position was president of the systems and technology division.
Notable achievements
BBN is best known for its DARPA-sponsored research. It has made notable advances in a wide variety of fields, including acoustics, computer technologies, quantum information, and synthetic biology. In recent years, BBN has led a wide range of research and development projects, including the standardization effort for the security extension to the Border Gateway Protocol (BGPsec), mobile ad hoc networks, advanced speech recognition, the military's Boomerang mobile shooter detection system, cognitive radio spectrum use via the DARPA XG program. In the early 2000s, BBN created the world's first quantum key distribution network, the DARPA Quantum Network, which operated for 3 years across Cambridge and Boston, and which included the world's first fully operational prototype of a superconducting nanowire single-photon detector. BBN also led the Global Environment for Network Innovations (GENI) project for the National Science Foundation, which ultimately built out programmable "future Internet" infrastructure across approximately 60 university campuses.
Interface Message Processor
In August 1968, BBN was selected by ARPA to build an Interface Message Processor (IMP) for the ARPANET, the precursor to the modern Internet. The IMPs were the very first generation of gateways, known today as routers. Under the leadership of Frank Heart and Bob Kahn, four IMPs were produced for nearly US$1 million from September to December 1969. The first IMP was shipped to the University of California, Los Angeles in September 1969 and the second to the Stanford Research Institute a month later. The first message between the two IMPs was "LO" — phonetically, "Hello" — but the SRI host crashed before the UCLA researcher could complete typing the "LOGIN" command.
Acoustics
Well-known acoustics commissions include MIT's Kresge Auditorium (1954), Tanglewood's Koussevitzky Music Shed (1959), Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall (1962), Clowes Memorial Hall (1963) in Indianapolis, the Cultural Center of the Philippines (1969), Baltimore's Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (1978) and Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall (1979).
The architectural acoustics division of BBN faced controversy in the early 1960s with its acoustics design project for the Philharmonic Hall (now David Geffen Hall) at the Lincoln Center in New York City. Beranek and BBN's chief architect were criticized for ignoring important acoustical principles in concert hall design. Many failed minor adjustments led the walls, balconies, and ceilings to be torn out and dumped, and a new consultant oversaw a repair that cost millions of dollars over several years. The division also produced poor results at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco. The hall's large volume and seating capacity initially resulted in less than ideal results. Kirkegaard Associates completed acoustical renovations in 1992 at a cost of US$10 million which resulted in substantial improvement.
In the 1960s and 1970s, experts at the company examined audio tapes related to notable events in U.S. history, including the John F. Kennedy assassination Dictabelt recording, an audio recording from the 1970 Kent State shootings, and during the 1974 Watergate scandal, the tape of President Richard Nixon that had 18.5 minutes erased.
The substantial calculations required for acoustics work led to an interest, and later business opportunities, in computing. BBN was a pioneer in developing computer models of roadway and aircraft noise, and in designing noise barriers near highways. Some of this technology was used in landmark legal cases where BBN scientists were expert witnesses.
In early 2004, BBN applied its acoustics expertise to design, develop, and deliver the Boomerang shooter detection system in a little over two months to combat the sniper threat US troops faced in Operation Iraqi Freedom. The system immediately pinpoints the location of hostile fire. Since then, more than 11,000 Boomerang systems have been deployed by U.S. and allied forces.
Computer technologies
BBN bought a number of computers in the late 1950s and early 1960s, notably the first production PDP-1 from Digital Equipment Corporation, on which it implemented the BBN Time-Sharing System (1962).
Ray Tomlinson of BBN is widely credited as having invented the first person-to-person network email in 1971 and the use of the @ sign in an email address.
BBN has had a very distinguished career in natural-language understanding, ranging from speech recognition through machine translation and more recently machine understanding of the causality of events and accurate forecasts for the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA).
BBN's education group, led by Wally Feurzeig, created the Logo programming language, conceived by BBN consultant Seymour Papert as a programming language that school-age children could learn. Other well-known BBN computer-related innovations include Interlisp programming language, the TENEX operating system, and the Colossal Cave Adventure game. BBN also is well known for its parallel computing systems, including the Pluribus, and the BBN Butterfly computers, which have been used for such tasks as warfare simulation for the U.S. Navy. BBN also developed the RS/1, RS/Explore, RS/Discover and the Cornerstone statistical software systems, and played a pioneering role in the development of today's semantic web, including participating in the DARPA Agent Markup Language project and chairing Web Ontology Language standardization.
Networking technologies
BBN was involved in building some of the earliest Internet networks, including the implementation and operation of the ARPANET and its Interface Message Processors;, as well as SATNET, PRNET, MILNET, SIMNET, the Terrestrial Wideband Network, the Defense Simulation Internet, CSNET, and NEARNET. In the course of these activities, BBN researchers invented the first link-state routing protocol.
BBN was a key participant in the creation of the Internet. It was the first organization to receive an Autonomous System Number (AS1) for network identification. ASNs are an essential identification element used for Internet Backbone Routing; lower numbers generally indicate a longer established presence on the Internet. AS1 is now operated by Level 3 Communications following their acquisition of BBN's Genuity internet service provider. BBN registered the bbn.com domain on 24 April 1985, making it the second oldest domain name on the internet. In addition, BBN researchers participated in the development of TCP, created the Voice Funnel, an early predecessor of voice over IP, helped lead the creation of the first email security standard, Privacy Enhanced Mail (PEM), chaired development of the "core" Internet Protocol security suite (IPsec) standards, and performed extensive work to secure the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP).
BBN also created a series of mobile ad hoc networks starting in the 1970s with DARPA's experimental PRNET and SURAN systems. Later BBN efforts included the networking portions of the Near-term digital radio (NTDR) and High-capacity data radio (HCDR), the Wideband Networking Software in the Joint Tactical Radio System and the Wireless Network after Next (WNaN). It also created the networking portions of the U.S. Army's Mobile Subscriber Equipment (MSE) and Canada's Iris Digital Communications System.
Notable BBNers
A number of well-known computer luminaries have worked at BBN, including Daniel Bobrow, Ron Brachman, John Seely Brown, Edmund Clarke, Allan Collins, William Crowther, John Curran, Chip Elliott, Wally Feurzeig, Ed Fredkin, Bob Kahn, Steve Kent, J. C. R. Licklider, John Makhoul, John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, Dan Murphy, Severo Ornstein, Seymour Papert, Craig Partridge, Radia Perlman, Oliver Selfridge, Cynthia Solomon, Bob Thomas, Ray Tomlinson, and Peiter "Mudge" Zatko. Former BBNer Dedre Gentner is Alice Gabrielle Twight Professor of Psychology at Northwestern University. Former board members include Jim Breyer, Anita K. Jones and Gilman Louie.
Spin-offs and mergers
In 1971, BBN's TELCOMP subsidiary was sold.
In the 1970s, BBN created Telenet, Inc., to run the first public packet-switched network.
In 1983, BBN Instruments was sold to Vibro-Meter Corp.
In 1989, BBN's acoustical consulting business was spun off into a new corporation, Acentech Incorporated, located across the street from BBN headquarters in Cambridge.
In 1994, LightStream Corp., a joint venture with Ungermann-Bass, Inc. created in 1992 to manufacture asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switches, was sold to Cisco Systems Inc. US$120 million.
BBN formed an early Internet service provider in 1994 as its BBN Planet division. Previously traded as "BBN" on the stock market, the company was purchased by GTE in 1997 as a wholly owned subsidiary. BBN Planet was joined with GTE's national fiber network to become GTE Internetworking, "powered by BBN". When GTE and Bell Atlantic merged to become Verizon in 2000, the Internet service provider division of BBN was included in assets spun off as Genuity to satisfy Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requirements, leaving behind the remainder of BBN Technologies. Genuity was later acquired out of bankruptcy by Level 3 Communications in 2003. In March 2004, Verizon sold the remainder of the company, by then known as BBNT Solutions LLC, to a group of private investors from Accel Partners, General Catalyst Partners, In-Q-Tel and BBN's own management, making BBN an independent company for the next five years.
In September 2009, Raytheon entered into an agreement to acquire BBN as a wholly owned subsidiary. The acquisition was completed on 29 October 2009 and the company was valued at approximately US$350 million. BBN owned the domain bbn.com, the second oldest currently registered domain name on the Internet, which ran continuously from April 1985 to mid-December 2019.
Digital Force Technologies (DFT) of San Diego, California was a wholly owned BBN subsidiary, purchased in June 2008, and spun out in 2018.
Former BBN employees have formed about a hundred startup companies with varying levels of official involvement, including Parlance Corporation and EveryZing.
Locations and subsidiaries
As of 2013, Raytheon BBN maintains offices in:
Cambridge Highlands, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Columbia, Maryland
St. Louis Park, Minnesota
O'Fallon, Illinois
Newport East, Middletown, Rhode Island near Naval Station Newport
Rosslyn, Arlington, Virginia near Washington, D.C.
See also
Oldest registered domain names
DARWARS, a military simulation game developed with DARPA since 2003
George G. Robertson
Richard E. Hayden
Interlisp
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
with various figures about BBN and the ARPANET, Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota. Figures include the following: Vinton G. Cerf; Frank Heart; Robert E. Kahn; Leonard Kleinrock; Alexander A. McKenzie; Severo Ornstein; David C. Walden; Charles A. Zraket; and others.
Networking companies of the United States
Companies based in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Communications in Massachusetts
Defense companies of the United States
Technology companies established in 1948
Time-sharing companies
Raytheon Company
2009 mergers and acquisitions |
43706094 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced%20Computer%20Techniques | Advanced Computer Techniques | Advanced Computer Techniques (ACT) was a computer software company most active from the early 1960s through the early 1990s that made software products, especially language compilers and related tools. It also engaged in information technology consulting, hosted service bureaus, and provided applications and services for behavioral health providers. ACT had two subsidiaries of note, InterACT and Creative Socio-Medics.
Both writer Katharine Davis Fishman, in her 1981 book The Computer Establishment, and computer science historian Martin Campbell-Kelly, in his 2003 volume From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog: A History of the Software Industry, have considered ACT an exemplar of the independent, middle-sized software development firms of its era, and the Charles Babbage Institute at the University of Minnesota has also viewed the company's history as important.
Founding and early history
Advanced Computer Techniques was founded in New York City in April 1962 by Charles P. Lecht. It had an initial capitalization of $800, one contract, and one employee. Lecht, in his late twenties at the time, was a mathematician and entrepreneur whose involvement with the computer industry dated back to the early 1950s.
The new firm's first job was fixing a language compiler on the UNIVAC LARC computer, which was being used by the United States Navy. UNIVAC awarded a $100,000 contract for the work; Lecht hired some programmers and the company's first office was in former servant quarters atop the Plaza Hotel. The firm was one of 40–50 software companies started in the early 1960s, many of which would go on to be forgotten.
Creating compilers became a key part of the company's early efforts; its first compiler, for the FORTRAN language, was developed in the mid-1960s. This was followed by a COBOL compiler later in that decade, then a FORTRAN 77 compiler and a Pascal compiler both in the late 1970s. As the 1960s went on, ACT built a customer list of established companies and developed a reputation for delivering quality work on schedule. The company moved to regular office space, the first of several locations it would have during its lifetime, all of which were within greater Midtown Manhattan on or near Madison Avenue. In addition to UNIVAC, early customers for the firm's compiler work included IBM and Honeywell.
With few trained computer programmers available at the time, Lecht hired those with musical, linguistic, or mathematical backgrounds, finding them to be successful at this new activity. The firm also did other system software as well as scientific programming projects, including some for the defense industry, and then started doing commercial applications development for large companies such as Union Carbide, United Airlines, Hoffman-LaRoche, and Shell Oil. Lecht fostered a relaxed working environment where dress was informal and hours flexible. He instituted a series of weekly reports that all developers had to file detailing their progress; these were communicated to the client, on the theory that "a client can get angry at us, but [they] can't be more than one week angry at us because we told [them] exactly where we were."
Management personality
Lecht was a colorful and flamboyant character with an idiosyncratic sense of style, who went around on a motorcycle and was described as a "showman" by colleagues, customers, and competitors alike. At one point his office and desk were completely covered by silver square tiles. ACT benefited from his flair for publicity: He, together with the company, was profiled in The New Yorker in 1967 and later in industry publications such as Datamation, which once referred to him as "One of computerdom's most flashy characters".
Lecht published several textbooks on programming covering different languages. ACT organized a series of seminars for the American Management Association on project management for developing computer applications. The seminars were organized into a 1967 book by Lecht, The Management of Computer Programming Projects, that was likely the first book ever published on the topic. The company also published A Guide for Software Documentation in 1969, compiled and edited by Dorothy Walsh, which was again one of the first of its kind and was cited by a number of other publications in the years to follow.
Perhaps the most strangely famous of Lecht's outputs was the album of IBM corporate spirit songs that he had recorded by the Association of British Secretaries in America (for a while all of ACT's secretaries came from England). Entitled Paean, and with album sleeve text bemoaning the loss of the company-mindedness of the 1930s–1950s, it was released via Skye Records in 1969. It became a popular giveaway at trade shows such as the Joint Computer Conferences. The title track, set to the tune of "Molly Malone", was adapted in praise of Lecht himself:
Charles Lecht is our leader
Ideal idea breeder
The source of our strength
and the spine of our will
Lecht's book The Waves of Change, which attempted to foretell changes in the computer industry, was serialized in Computerworld magazine in 1977 (a first for a trade publication) and published by McGraw-Hill in 1979. The foreword was written by Gideon I. Gartner, who would soon found the influential information technology research and advisory firm the Gartner Group. Waves of Change sold well and received a positive reception. The books, along with his national speaking and lecturing engagements, bolstered both Lecht's and ACT's visibility within the technology industry.
The eccentricities of the president were balanced by the firm's second-in-command, executive vice-president Oscar H. Schachter, a lawyer who had graduated from Yeshiva College and Harvard Law School and who had a more straight-laced personality. Schachter was a neighbor of Lecht's who did some legal work for the company during its inception, served on its early board of directors for a few years, and then joined the company full-time in 1966. As Schachter later said, "I was kind of the governor ... The person who sat on Charlie, or tried to." While with ACT, Schachter would also become a significant presence in the Association of Data Processing Service Organizations (ADAPSO), a rapidly growing industry organization during the 1960s and later.
ACT was ahead of the industry in hiring female executives. There were several at the vice presidential level in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Expansion and diversification
ACT became a publicly owned company in May 1968. The initial public offering was handled by boutique technology underwriter Faulkner, Dawkins & Sullivan, and the stock value increased almost four-fold during the first day of trading, ending with a three-fold gain that The New York Times termed "spectacular". The firm had captured a wave of investor interest in technology stocks.
ACT had revenues in the $2.5-3.2 million range during 1968–70. It began a course of diversification beyond consulting and software development by acquiring, in 1969, Rhode Island Lithograph, a printing company in Rhode Island (that was owned by Lecht's brother Danny), and Informatab, a data processing market research company, and by opening Inter-ACT, a training and education arm that wrote computer help manuals that were sold to schools and businesses. Lecht had a goal that ACT be a "supermarket of services for the computer industry".
Software houses of the time tended to suffer from unprofitable contracts, failed ventures, and slowing demand. During 1971–72, ACT suffered a downturn, showing its first annual losses; Lecht closed several offices and laid off half of the firm's employees, but the firm survived when many others did not. By 1974, its revenues had reached the $5 million mark.
The most important diversification was into service bureaus, which by 1979 accounted for some 40 percent of the company's revenue. These bureaus, which provided their own equipment to handle the data processing needs of clients, were located in New York, Phoenix, Tucson, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and Milan, Italy, and each tended to specialize in a particular area, such as the Edmonton one reporting on inventory and financial status for the Canadian oil and construction industry. There were also consulting offices for various periods of time in London, Paris, Chicago, and Atlanta.
The company also began entering the packaged software business, developing compilers and related tools as a product. The advent of minicomputers created a market for the compilers and Data General became a major customer. But Lecht's visibility within the industry only went so far; the company lacked an effective marketing capability for its products to go further. In addition, the company struggled with the transition in business models from customers fully funding projects and owning the end results, to an approach where the company would have to make periodic investments in its own products to keep improving them.
During the 1970s, the company established an office in Tehran. Over time IBM withdrew from that market and the regime of Shah Reza Pahlavi decided to standardize on the Honeywell 6000 series for the Iranian military. ACT gained a subcontract from Honeywell's Italian subsidiary to do an inventory system for the Imperial Iranian Air Force and Information Systems Iran. The name Inter-Act was again used for this venture. The contract represented up to a quarter of ACT's business for a while, but then ended without ACT being fully paid, and following the Iranian Revolution, ACT became party to the Iran–United States Claims Tribunal. In 1983 it received an award of some $300,000 from the tribunal.
ACT was also an earlier entrant in the word processing field in the mid-late-1970s, acquiring Base Information Systems and its Ultratext System technology and partnering with Honeywell to put the system on the Honeywell Level 6 minicomputer. The product received a positive review in Computerworld in 1976 and was still being actively marketed in 1979. But Wang Laboratories captured much of this word processing market; the Ultratext product may have been overly complicated and Schachter later lamented that ACT letting the opportunity to make an impression in this domain slip away was "one of our worst failures".
By 1979, ACT was effectively a worldwide mini-conglomerate. It had revenues over $16 million and in terms of size was in the top 60 of over 3,000 companies in the software, services, and facilities management sector. It derived approximately equal revenues from overseas as from the U.S. By 1981 the company stated it had 318 employees. Its display advertising for programming positions it was hiring for was a familiar sight in computer trade papers such as Computerworld. It still had its idiosyncratic characteristics; Lecht spoke publicly about a psychologist who visited ACT to discuss employee complaints, saying it saved him two days a week worth of work and predicting it would become a future corporate trend.
Change at the top and refocusing
In the early 1980s a change hit the company. The company's revenues stayed in the $15–16 million range during 1980 and 1981, but it lost over $0.6 million in the first year and over $1.5 million in the second. Several business, including the service bureaus, were losing money, and there were significant cost overruns developing a set of Pascal compilers. In addition there were accounting problems in 1980 regarding the accumulation of costs on some long-term contracts.
By Schachter's later telling, the San Francisco investment firm Birr, Wilson made a capital infusion into the company and placed a member on the board of directors. That director was unsatisfied with how Lecht was running the company, in particular the number of different businesses ACT was in and Lecht's disinclination to close down the unprofitable ones. The inside board members then joined with the outside one and asked Lecht to go. Schachter later said, "It was, of all the things I did in my entire business career, the most difficult thing I ever did, but I just felt the company was at severe risk of going bankrupt if we didn't really take a different position and a different posture."
In May 1982, Lecht departed ACT. When it happened, Lecht portrayed the split as his own choice to the press, saying he wanted to pursue writing, speaking, and other activities related to technology. But as Datamation wrote at the time, the departure came "with more than a little pushing". Lawsuits were filed between the company and Lecht; they were settled in February 1983 in an agreement that involved the company buying back Lecht's shares. (A few years later, Lecht said he had left because he became saddened watching the company spirit he had established turn into what he called a "bureaucracy of yuppie nincompoops".) Lecht later went on to form LSI, Lecht Sciences Incorporated.
Schachter became president upon Lecht's departure, and, a year later, CEO. During the rest of 1982, the company sold off its two main service bureaus, those in Phoenix and Edmonton, and closed down two smaller money-losing businesses. The company became profitable again during the second half of 1982. Revenue, which reached an all-time high of $18 million for all of 1982, fell to $11 million the next year as a result. But it then climbed steadily back up, reaching $15 million by 1986, while operating profit also gradually improved, surpassing $1 million in 1986.
During the 1980s, the company expanded its language products into those desired by the defense industry for embedded systems deployment. The first JOVIAL compiler was produced in 1981, targeted for the Zilog Z8002 16-bit, small memory processor. This was soon followed by a JOVIAL compiler targeted to the popular MIL-STD-1750A 16-bit processor architecture specification. With these compilers came associated tools such as assemblers, linkers, runtime systems, simulators, and symbolic debuggers. These cross-development tools were typically hosted on either IBM System/370 mainframes or VAX minicomputers running VMS. General Dynamics became the biggest customer for the JOVIAL product, especially for its use in the avionics for the F-16 Fighting Falcon, but it was sold to a number of other defense contractors as well.
In 1984, the company received $3 million in funding for new products from Prudential-Bache Securities. This was used to continue the development of commercial language compilers: A BASIC compiler was developed in 1985, which along with COBOL, FORTRAN, and Pascal, was supplied to AT&T Computer Systems' 3B series computers. A C language compiler was developed by 1986. Around the same time, the commercial compilers were enhanced to support the latest standards, COBOL-85 and draft FORTRAN 8X, as part of a contract for compilers for the BiiN joint venture.
The cash infusion from Prudential-Bache was also used to develop a compiler system for the Ada programming language, targeted to the MIL-STD-1750A architecture. This consisted of a compiler front-end licensed from DDC-I in Denmark (itself an offshoot of the Dansk Datamatik Center) married to a compiler back-end from ACT that made use of the company's existing tools for the MIL-STD-1750A. ACT became the first U.S. company to successfully validate an Ada 1750A compiler past the strenuous Ada Compiler Validation Capability (ACVC) validation suite. Between JOVIAL and Ada, the company would gain a number of high-profile defense contractors as customers throughout the 1980s.
The company also continued its commercial applications group, in particular working during the early-mid 1980s on a major contract for developing parts of Chemical Bank's pioneering home banking system called Pronto. However the bank's system was ahead of its time and despite heavy promotion did not gain much use. The applications group was closed down in 1986.
InterACT
In July 1987, ACT transferred its software division of compilers and related tools to a new joint venture called InterACT that was two-thirds owned by LSI Logic and one-third by ACT. (This was now the third time that some form of 'InterACT' had been used.) The goal of InterACT was to produce a set of products for what it termed the CASHE space (Computer Aided Software/Hardware Engineering). This would include ACT's existing compilers, assemblers, linkers, simulators, and debuggers; a CASE tool, Interactive Development Environments's Software Through Pictures; a CAE tool, LSI Logic's LSI Design System; and novel components, including bridged hardware and software simulation models and graphic editors and administration tools allowing automated composition of all the other tools. The total set of products, initially called CASHE but then called the System Design Environment (SDE), was aimed at providing embedded systems developers a way to design, simulate, and debug their embedded applications while hardware was still being developed, without having to wait for a prototype. Another motivation for ACT entering into the agreement was to gain access to LSI Logic's sales and marketing operation, which was much larger than its own. The company's work on commercial compilers was gradually shut down, although a C cross compiler to the Intel i960 embedded architecture was completed and had some sales success.
Schachter was initially CEO of InterACT, but then Edward D. Bright, who had held several executive positions with ACT, took over, while Schachter remained CEO of ACT. InterACT lost money from the start: $0.5 million in the second half of 1987 and $2.5 million in 1988. The new SDE product proved difficult and expensive to build, and after a while LSI Logic wanted out.
An executive at IBM became very interested in the potential of SDE, at a time when IBM was making investments in a number of small companies. Thus, in November 1988, InterACT bought back LSI Logic's ownership, and sold 40 percent of the company to IBM and 11 percent to Prudential-Bache Securities. The new owners were not made public until February 1989 when there was unusual volatility in ACT's stock. As of March 1989, ACT (including InterACT) had about 140 employees.
By 1990, the full SDE idea had been abandoned, and focus was instead placed on the administration tool that had been created. Dubbed the InterACT Integrator, it was hosted on Sun Microsystems workstations and positioned as a data management framework for the integration and automatic sequencing of CASE tools and other software packages. However it failed to find a market.
Meanwhile, InterACT continued to develop and sell the Ada and JOVIAL products on their own. In 1988, the company made a licensing arrangement with MIPS Computer Systems to gain access to the compiler back end technology for the MIPS R3000 RISC microprocessor, and commenced work on an Ada cross compiler system for the R3000.
First validated and released in late 1989, one of the first to do so, the Ada cross compiler product for MIPS R3000 made a number of sales.
However, InterACT's business health continued to worsen and, starting in September 1989, there were a number of rounds of layoffs. In October 1991, it was announced that DDC-I had acquired the Ada and JOVIAL embedded systems business of InterACT. What remained of the SDE/Integrator business was shut down.
Creative Socio-Medics
In 1973, ACT acquired Creative Socio-Medics (CSM), which had been founded by Gerald O. Koop and John F. Phillips in 1968. It specialized in delivering software products and hardware and software services in the human services field, specifically for behavioral health providers such as psychiatric hospitals and mental health clinics. These included large, networked installations, such as for the Psychiatric Institutes of America and the New Jersey Department of Human Services.
The subsidiary also employed research analysts who studied behavioral health issues.
Originally, CSM systems worked via batch processing. In the 1970s, CSM made the move to deploy its software to online minicomputer systems that were provided to customers as turnkey systems. Near the end of that decade, all of CSM's applications were converted to being implemented using the MUMPS programming language, which went on to become a common choice within the healthcare industry.
For the most part, CSM operated independently of the rest of ACT's activities, but there were occasional collaborations, such as when the parent produced MUMPS implementations for the Digital Equipment Corporation PRO series microcomputers and Tandem Computers NonStop fault-tolerant product line, or when ACT's Network Processor product was used underneath CSM's Human Services Network Information System.
Over time, CSM grew as a subsidiary corporation of ACT. It became a major contributor to ACT's overall financial picture and received prominent attention in ACT's annual reports throughout the 1980s. It tended to be profitable some years and not other years and was rarely in solid financial shape. In 1989, CSM stopped sharing physical facilities with the rest of ACT, and relocated to Islip, New York on Long Island.
In June 1994, Creative Socio-Medics was sold to a company known as Carte Medical.
Fate
Once CSM was sold, ACT had no remaining operations or assets, only lingering corporate debts. It took the money from the CSM sale and paid off its debtors a reasonably high partial amount on the dollar. As Schachter later said about ACT, "We just faded away. We never dissolved. We never declared bankruptcy ... we just kind of faded away."
Former employees of ACT went on to work elsewhere on compilers and various kinds of system software.
The most notable such endeavor was Edison Design Group. Founded by one of ACT's compiler designers J. Stephen Adamczyk in 1988, and with several ex-members of ACT's commercial compiler group working for it over the years, they produced a very successful front-end implementation for the C++ programming language and became well-regarded contributors to the ISO C++ standardization effort.
After acquiring and rebranding the ACT/InterACT JOVIAL and Ada compiler products, DDC-I continued to develop and market them throughout the 1990s; they were still listed as legacy products on their website into the 2010s.
Creative Socio-Medics became a success story. Carte Medical, the company that bought it in 1994, changed its corporate name to Netsmart Technologies in 1996 and went public later that year. Creative Socio-Medics remained the company's operations arm that it did business through. By the 2000s it was steadily profitable; after acquiring a large rival in 2005, the Creative Socio-Medics name was retired in favor of just Netsmart. The company sold for $115 million to a pair of private equity firms in 2007 and had 600 employees by 2011.
In retrospect, Schachter said of working at Advanced Computer Techniques, "I thoroughly enjoyed being part of this group. They were a group of really bright people. It was a fun company to work for ... I am just sorry we weren't more successful than it turned out we were."
References
Bibliography
WorldCat entry
Defunct software companies of the United States
International information technology consulting firms
Software companies based in New York (state)
Companies based in New York City
Software companies established in 1962
Software companies disestablished in 1994
1962 establishments in New York City
1994 disestablishments in New York (state)
Ada (programming language) |
2274925 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MoSoSo | MoSoSo | MoSoSo (mobile social software) is a class of mobile applications which scope is to support social interaction among interconnected mobile users. The basic idea of a MoSoSo is to overlay a location and time element to the idea of digital networking. It enables users to find one another, in a particular vicinity and time, for social or business networking.
Social software and groupware: CSCL and CSCW
The term itself has its roots in social software and Groupware, computer applications designed for the desktop environment and aiming at facilitating various forms of social interaction, with the former being oriented to Internet-based informal exchanges, daily tasks and entertainment and the latter focusing on collaborative work (CSCW) or learning (CSCL) within a well defined group. Two typical groups that would benefit from these applications are or school classmates. While the term social software, introduced by Clay Shirky in recent years, has gained much popularity, Groupware is not anymore a trendy word, even if it has a strong tradition that goes back to the Eighties. Scientific research on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) and Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) provides results which are still valid in the mobile environment. However, three important differences between desktop and mobile environments should be taken into account when conducting research on MoSoSo: firstly, the physical context of use moves from static desktop setting, where the user is typically sitting in front of his computer, to the more dynamic mobile context, which presents higher constraints to human attention, but also provides an opportunity for information or communication at any time and anywhere. Secondly, the social context becomes wider, shifting from the group to the network concept. Rather than relying on static and known membership criteria, where group members usually know each other, social network ties change often and are not as dense as in traditional groups. Therefore, network boundaries cannot be easily identified. A mobile social network is the social space determined by a MoSoSo application. Finally, an important distinction concerns the ultimate goal of MoSoSo applications, designed for usage in everyday life situations, including not only tools for communication, but also for coordination and knowledge sharing. From this perspective, MoSoSo is more similar to social software than Groupware applications, which aimed at increasing productivity and teamwork at work or at school.
Technical perspective
From a technical point of view, MoSoSo applications are very connected to the concept of Mobile Internet and the emphasis is more on data sharing than mere communication. Thus, only mobile phones with computational power, or Smartphones, can host this kind of applications. However, as there is not a universal definition of MoSoSo yet, many people consider as MoSoSo also phone calls and text messages, as they support social interaction on the move. In any case, the former perspective encounters wider consensus than the latter. The development of MoSoSo applications is rapid and already evolved from mobile extensions of Internet social networking sites to powerful software, providing novel opportunities for social interaction, especially when used for proximity interactions based on Bluetooth scanning and connectivity. The availability of GPS systems and the integration of maps in mobile devices offer great opportunities not only in the context of individual activities, such as "search", but especially in the social context. MoSoSo exploiting these possibilities is known as LBS-MoSoSo.
As empowering social platform
In one of the few critical studies on MoSoSo, Thom-Santelli (2007) argued that the real potential of MoSoSo was constrained by its limited conceptualization, and consequently implementation, as an urban entertainment gadget. Building on her argument, Lugano (2010) re-conceptualized MoSoSo as a general-purpose social platform for grassroots social change and proposed a holistic design model for empowering self-organizing digital communities to co-create, share and use community-generated services (CGS). By complementing public and commercial services, digital communities through CGS contribute to build resilience in people's lives and global information societies.
Issues
Being highly personalized and contextualized, privacy issues represent one of bigger obstacles to the wide adoption of MoSoSo.
See also
Geolocation
Groupware
Social networking
Social Software
Toothing
References
Lugano, G. (2010) Digital community design: exploring the role of mobile social software in the process of digital convergence. Doctoral thesis. Jyväskylä Studies in Computing 114. University of Jyväskylä.
Lugano, G.(2007) Mobile Social Software: Definition, Scope and Applications, EU/IST eChallenges Conference, The Hague (The Netherlands)
Other resources
"Mobile Social Applications Leveraging Location-aware Technologies: Behind the Hype with Market Leaders", Fierce Wireless, April 2010
MoSoSos Not So So-So, Wired article, April 2005
Connections, the Wireless Way - BusinessWeek article, June 2005
MoSoSo + WiFi, m-trends.org, November 2005
"The Telephone Repair Handbook", Mindjack, January 2006
Social networking services |
62169356 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List%20of%20Digital%20Accessible%20Information%20System%20software | List of Digital Accessible Information System software | Digital Accessible Information System (DAISY) books can be heard on standalone DAISY players, computers using DAISY playback software, mobile phones, and MP3 players (with limited navigation). DAISY books can be distributed on a CD/DVD, memory card or through the Internet.
A computerized text DAISY book can be read using refreshable Braille display or screen-reading software, printed as Braille book on paper, converted to a talking book using synthesised voice or a human narration, and also printed on paper as large print book. In addition, it can be read as large print text on computer screen.
Software players
Software-based players include, in alphabetical order:
AMIS - Adaptive Multimedia Information System: an open-source self-voicing player for Windows that works with several screen readers; available many languages; developed by the DAISY Consortium "(Accouding to the DAISY Consortium website, AMIS is now archived and is no longer being developed or supported)"
Android Daisy ePub Reader: an opensource project for the Android platform
AnyDaisy Firefox Extension, by Benetech
ButtercupReader: a web-based silverlight application for DAISY 3 books
CUCAT Olearia, an open-source DAISY reader for Mac OS X (2008)
DAISY Book Reader, open-source player for the GNOME desktop (GTK)
Daisy Delight: open-source player for DAISY 2.02, for Mac OS X and Unix-based systems (2008)
daisy-player, an open source, multilingual, ncurses-based program for Linux to play DAISY books from the command line
DaisyDuck: a free player for Daisy 2.02 audio books
DAISYPlayer: free player for Microsoft Windows; only available in Spanish
DaisyWorm: player for DAISY 2.02 (2002) and DAISY 3 (2005), for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad; iOS 4 or higher
Darwin Reader for Android reads DAISY 2.02 and 3.0 text and audio books
Dolphin EasyReader and EasyReader Express, commercial e-book reader with support for DAISY, unprotected ePub and other formats, for Microsoft Windows
Dorina DAISY Reader (DDReader+): an open source, free software for Windows, reads only DAISY 3.0, available in English, Spanish and Portuguese
emerson-reader, an open-source and cross-platform (Linux, Mac OS X, Windows) Epub and DAISY player (2010). Requires Java
FSReaderDAISY Player Software for PAC Mate and Desktop; supports DAISY 2 and DAISY 3
Go Read: an open source DAISY reader for Android devices
GoDaisy: online DAISY player, in Swedish
InDaisy Reader, a player for iPhone and iPod, accessible with VoiceOver; supports Daisy 2.02 and Daisy 3
Kolibre Vadelma, an open source DAISY 2.02-player supporting DAISY Online. Downloads and build instructions available for the Raspberry Pi-platform, compile instructions available for Debian Linux.
MAX DaisyPlayer, a free player for Microsoft Windows.
Mobile DAISY Player, a commercial player for Symbian phones
Pratsam Reader Web, an online DAISY 2.02-player app for web browsers, supporting Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Microsoft Internet Explorer and Edge
Pratsam Reader Win, a Microsoft Windows desktop DAISY 2.02-player a graphical user interface, integrated guiding voice, DAISY Online Delivery Protocol support and keyboard shortcuts for navigation
Read2Go: accessible, commercial e-book reader for Apple iOS devices (iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch), specifically for books from Bookshare, an online library for people with print disabilities; developed by Benetech
Read:OutLoud 6 (commercial; for Mac OS and Microsoft Windows)
Read:OutLoud Bookshare Edition
ReadHear (commercial; for Mac OS and Microsoft Windows)
Simple Daisy Web Player, an open-source software program that enables users to play DAISY books in a web browser
Texthelp Read&Write (commercial; for Mac OS and Microsoft Windows)
Other relevant software includes:
Daisy Uppsala Archive Project, server-side system for managing DAISY files
Online Daisy Delivery Technology, open-source software to deliver DAISY books online
Hardware players
There are a wide range of hardware products available that can play DAISY content, usually in a portable form factor. Some of these devices are dedicated to playback of books, while others focus on other functionality, such as PDA or mobile Internet access, and offer DAISY playback as either a feature of the unit or as a software add-on.
A short (incomplete) list of products that have built-in support for DAISY playback includes:
American Printing House for the Blind, Inc., Book Port Plusand Book Port DT
Pratsam Mobile, a portable handheld DAISY player that supports cellular networks, the DAISY Online Delivery Protocol, customized for use by the blind and visually impaired
Victor Reader Stream, a hand-held portable DAISY player for the blind, visually handicapped and print impaired, produced by HumanWare
Victor Reader Wave, also by HumanWare, is a portable CD player that can play DAISY content from CD media
BookSense, a similar, smaller unit produced by GW Micro; the advanced XT model features built-in flash memory and Bluetooth headset support for playback, as well as an FM radio
The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) in the United States has developed a proprietary DAISY player designed for use by its print-disabled patrons. The player will replace the aging cassette-based distribution system.
Production systems
Add-ins or extensions to create DAISY files from office software are also available:
Microsoft and Sonata Software created a Save as DAISY add-in for Microsoft Word to convert Office Open XML text documents to DAISY.
odt2daisy (OpenOffice.org Export As DAISY): an extension for Apache OpenOffice and LibreOffice that exports OpenDocument Text to DAISY XML or to Full DAISY (both XML and audio).
Other tools for DAISY production include:
List of products by the DAISY Consortium
Book Wizard Producer
DAISY Demon, an open-source shell around the DAISY Pipeline to help automate the production of DAISY talking books, MP3, ePub, Word and HTML from XML file; developed by the Open University
DAISY Pipeline
daisy-validator
Dolphin Publisher
Obi: DAISY/Accessible EPUB 3 production tool
Pipeline GUI
PipeOnline, a web interface for the DAISY Pipeline
PLEXTALK Recording Software
Pratsam Producer, a production system for producing DAISY (with or without audio), import and management of PDF and XML, content quality measuring tools, automatic export of XHTML, DTBook, EPUB or Microsoft Word documents
Tobi: an authoring tool for DAISY and EPUB 3 talking books
References
External links
DAISY Consortium
DaisyNow.Net - The first online DAISY delivery web application
Daisy 3: A Standard for Accessible Multimedia Books
Accessible information
Audiobooks
Blindness equipment
Markup languages
XML-based standards
Open formats |
49834008 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xor%20DDoS | Xor DDoS | XOR DDoS is a Linux Trojan malware with rootkit capabilities that was used to launch large-scale DDoS attacks. Its name stems from the heavy usage of XOR encryption in both malware and network communication to the C&Cs. It is built for multiple Linux architectures like ARM, x86 and x64. Noteworthy about XOR DDoS is the ability to hide itself with an embedded rootkit component which is obtained by multiple installation steps. It was discovered in September 2014 by MalwareMustDie, a white hat malware research group. From November 2014 it was involved in massive brute force campaign that lasted at least for three months.
In order to gain access it launches a brute force attack in order to discover the password to Secure Shell services on Linux.
Once Secure Shell credentials are acquired and login is successful, it uses root privileges to run a script that downloads and installs XOR DDoS.
It is believed to be of Asian origin based on its targets, which tend to be located in Asia.
See also
References
Cyberwarfare
Botnets
Denial-of-service attacks
Trojan horses
Linux malware |
53494432 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELAN%20software | ELAN software | ELAN is computer software, a professional tool to manually and semi-automatically annotate and transcribe audio or video recordings. It has a tier-based data model that supports multi-level, multi-participant annotation of time-based media. It is applied in humanities and social sciences research (language documentation, sign language and gesture research) for the purpose of documentation and of qualitative and quantitative analysis. It is distributed as free and open source software under the GNU General Public License, version 3.
ELAN is a well established professional-grade software and is widely used in academia. It has been well received in several academic disciplines, for example, in psychology, medicine, psychiatry, education, and behavioral studies, on topics such as human computer interaction, sign language and conversation analysis, group interactions, music therapy, bilingualism and child language acquisition, analysis of non-verbal communication and gesture analysis, and animal behavior.
Several third-party tools have been developed to enrich and analyse ELAN data and corpora.
Features
Its features include:
Manual and semi-automatic segmentation and annotation
Transcription and translation of speech
Tier hierarchies
Support for multiple media sources
Use of controlled vocabularies
Complex search
XML-based data format
History
ELAN is developed by the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen. The first version was released around the year 2000 under the name EAT, Eudico Annotation Tool. It was renamed to ELAN in 2002. Since then, two to three new versions are released each year. It is developed in the programming language Java with interfaces to platform native media frameworks developed in C, C++, and Objective-C.
See also
Computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software
Language documentation
Language documentation tools and methods
References
Notes
Crasborn, O., Sloetjes, H. (2008). Enhanced ELAN functionality for sign language corpora. In: Proceedings of LREC 2008, Sixth International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation.
External links
ELAN third party resources (Templates, Scripts, Tools, Workflow descriptions, HowTos)
Manuals:
Hellwig, B. (2017): ELAN – Linguistic Annotator (Manual)
RedHenLab (2016). How to annotate with ELAN (Tutorial)
Rosenfelder, I. (2011): A Short Introduction to Transcribing with ELAN
Colletta J.M. (2009): Coding manual – Multimodal Data Transcription and Annotation with ELAN
Transcription (linguistics)
Linguistic research software
Free QDA software
Cross-platform free software
Science software for MacOS
Science software for Linux |
1704215 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MusikCube | MusikCube | musikcube is a free and open-source cross-platform, terminal-based audio player software and streaming server.
Features
musikcube is based on a modular plug-in architecture, and uses plug-ins written in C++. Plug-ins provide core functionality for audio decoding, data streaming, output device handling, metadata parsing, digital signal processing, and more. Plugins currently exist to provide support for many popular audio codecs, including MP3, M4A, Ogg Vorbis, and FLAC.
Internally, musikcube uses the SQLite database library for storing track and playlist metadata.
There is currently no support for Digital rights management.
musikcube is capable of streaming audio via an integrated server. An Android client also exists, allowing music to be streamed over local and wide-area networks.
Licensing
musikcube (and official plugins) are licensed under the BSD-3-Clause license.
See also
cmus
Music Player Daemon
Music on Console
Comparison of audio player software
External links
Free software programmed in C++
Linux media players
Windows media players
Free media players
2004 software
Software that uses ncurses
Software using the BSD license |
59309871 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation%205 | PlayStation 5 | The PlayStation 5 (PS5) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced in 2019 as the successor to the PlayStation 4, the PS5 was released on November 12, 2020, in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North America, and South Korea, with worldwide release following a week later. The PS5 is part of the ninth generation of video game consoles, along with Microsoft's Xbox Series X and Series S consoles, which were released in the same month.
The base model includes an optical disc drive compatible with Ultra HD Blu-ray discs. The Digital Edition lacks this drive, allowing it to serve as a lower-cost model for those who prefer to buy games through digital download. The two variants were launched simultaneously.
The PlayStation 5's main hardware features include a solid-state drive customized for high-speed data streaming to enable significant improvements in storage performance, an AMD GPU capable of 4K resolution display at up to 120 frames per second, hardware-accelerated ray tracing for realistic lighting and reflections, and the Tempest Engine allowing for hardware-accelerated 3D audio effects. Other features include the DualSense controller with haptic feedback and backward compatibility with the majority of PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR games.
History
Development
The lead architect of the PlayStation console line, Mark Cerny, implemented a two-year feedback cycle after the launch of the PlayStation 4. This entailed regularly visiting Sony's first-party developers at two-year intervals to find out what concerns they had with shortcomings in Sony's current hardware and how such hardware could be improved in console refreshes or for the next generation. This feedback was fed into the priorities for the console development team. In the development of the PlayStation 5, a key issue was the length of loading times for games. Cerny said several developers, including Epic Games' Tim Sweeney, told him that standard I/O speed of hard disk drives was now a limiting factor in pushing game development. Slow data rates placed limits on the size of data being loaded into the game, the physical location of data on the storage medium, and the duplication of data across the medium in order to reduce load times. An important goal was to find ways to reduce loading time, particularly in games that stream or dynamically load new game areas as the player moves through the game world.
Jim Ryan, the CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, stated that Sony had researched the feasibility of a "low priced, reduced spec" version of the PlayStation 5, like what Microsoft had done with its Xbox Series X and its lower-power counterpart the Xbox Series S; and concluded that they believed such consoles do not fare well, becoming obsolete too fast.
Marketing and release
Cerny first publicly described the new console in an interview with Wired magazine in April 2019. In early 2019, Sony's financial report for the quarter ending March 31, 2019, affirmed that new next-generation hardware was in development but would ship no earlier than April 2020. In a second Wired magazine interview in October 2019, Sony said it intended to ship its next-generation console worldwide by the end of 2020. The current hardware specifications were revealed in October 2019. At CES 2020, Sony unveiled the official logo for the platform, which follows the similar minimalist styling of the previous PlayStation consoles and brand. Full specifications were given in an online presentation by Cerny and published by Sony and Digital Foundry on March 18, 2020. Digital Foundry spoke with Cerny in detail and published a "deep dive" on April 2.
A major game library showcase had been planned for June 4, 2020, but was postponed until June 11 due to the George Floyd protests. This presentation was also the premiere of the console's external hardware design.
Sony planned to launch the PlayStation 5 by the 2020 end-of-year holiday period. The date and pricing was confirmed as part of a game showcase presentation on September 16, 2020; the release date in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North America, and South Korea was confirmed for November 12, 2020, and for most of the rest of the world on November 19, 2020.
PlayStation 5's release in India was delayed, leading to speculation that a trademark dispute was the reason; the name "PS5" was briefly trademarked by a different person; eventually the dispute was resolved and the system released there on February 2, 2021. The console launched in Indonesia on January 22, 2021. The system is set to launch in China in the second quarter of 2021.
The console launched with two models: a base version with an Ultra HD Blu-ray compatible optical disc drive for retail game support alongside online distribution via the PlayStation Store, and a lower-cost variant lacking the disc drive and retaining digital download support.
Following the September 16, 2020, presentation, Sony stated that pre-orders for the console were to open at various retailers on the following day. However, several retailers in the United States and United Kingdom launched pre-orders that evening, causing a rush on pre-orders, including scalping as many stores' inventories were quickly sold out, and creating confusion. Sony apologized for the incident on September 19, 2020 and promised to increase more pre-order deliveries over the coming days and stock through the end of the year.
Hardware
The PlayStation 5 is powered by a custom system on a chip (SoC) designed in tandem by AMD and Sony, integrating a custom AMD CPU with eight cores running at a variable frequency capped at 3.5 GHz. The integrated GPU is also a custom unit based on AMD's RDNA 2 graphics architecture. The GPU has 36 compute units running at a variable frequency capped at 2.23 GHz, making it capable of a peak theoretical performance of 10 teraFLOPS. The GPU supports hardware-accelerated real-time ray tracing, a rendering technique that allows for realistic lighting and reflections. The console has 16 GB of GDDR6 SDRAM with a peak bandwidth of 448 GB/s, and integrates Bluetooth 5.1, and 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6).
Both the CPU and GPU are monitored by a special boost system incorporating AMD's SmartShift technology that adjusts the frequency of these units based on the current activities of both to target ideal constant power drawn and a model SoC performance profile. For example, if the CPU is running at lower activity, the boost system may reduce its frequency and increase the frequency of the GPU for higher performance without otherwise affecting power use or cooling.
The cooling system includes a double-sided cooling fan for air intake that is 120 mm in diameter and 45 mm thick, and a large heat sink with a standard heat pipe design that Sony says has a "shape and airflow [which] make it possible to achieve the same performance as a vapor chamber". SoC cooling includes a liquid metal thermal conductor which sits between the SoC and heat sink. The system contains a 350-watt power supply. Sony developed the PlayStation 5 to consume less energy than the PlayStation 4 for suspended gameplay states.
The console has a new audio technology called Tempest Engine, allowing hundreds of simultaneous sound sources compared to 50 for the PlayStation 4.
Storage architecture
The internal storage of the PlayStation 5 is a custom-built 825 GB solid-state drive (667 GB available) with a 12-channel interface, achieving a raw throughput of 5.5 GB/s. This atypical drive size was found to be optimal for the 12-channel pathway rather than a more common 512 GB or 1 TB unit. With a dedicated decompression unit supporting zlib and the new Oodle Kraken protocol from RAD Game Tools, the unit has a typical throughput of 8–9 GB/s. Mark Cerny stated that a fast SSD was the top request from game developers so the goal not only was to have a theoretical raw read speed 100 times faster than PS4, but to eliminate input/output (I/O) bottleneck points so the performance target could be made effective. To this end, Sony designed a custom chip with multiple coprocessors to work in unison with the flash memory controller to reduce latency and channel data more efficiently around the system. At peak, the custom unit is capable of processing up to 22 GB/s of compressible data.
Storage for games is expandable through an NVM Express (NVMe) M.2 port for solid-state storage and USB hard drives, however at launch, NVMe drives were not supported and the console will not boot if one is installed. Beta system software support for the M.2 port was released in July 2021, while full support was added in a September 2021 system update. The internal SSD is not user-serviceable, since its flash memory chips and controller are built into the PlayStation 5's motherboard. Though game installation is mandatory, the user has some control of what to install such as only installing the multiplayer component of a game. While PlayStation 4 games can be moved between the internal SSD drive and an external drive to free up space on the SSD, PlayStation 5 games must be stored on the internal SSD to be played, and at launch could not be moved to an external storage device. An April 2021 system patch enabled users to move PlayStation 5 games to and from an external USB storage device, though the games must still reside on the internal SSD to be played.
The base version of the PlayStation 5 includes an Ultra HD Blu-ray optical drive compatible with Ultra HD Blu-ray discs, standard Blu-ray discs and DVDs. The PlayStation 5 does not support CDs and will not play 3D Blu-ray content. The choice of Ultra-HD Blu-ray as the disc medium means PlayStation 5 game discs can hold up to 100 GB of data, in contrast to PlayStation 4 games which usually came on dual-layer standard Blu-ray discs capable of holding up to 50 GB. An example of this is the upcoming title Gran Turismo 7. The PS4 version comes on 2 discs where the PS5 version comes on one.
Form factor
The console's form factor was revealed during the June 11, 2020 presentation. Sony President Jim Ryan stated that the aesthetics are intended to be "transformational in how they look, sound, and feel". The launch unit is a two-tone design matching the design of the DualSense controller, with a black internal block flanked by two white wings along its sides, each lit by blue LEDs. Ryan stated that more colors than white and black may be available after launch. The unit can operate vertically or horizontally. Two long air intake vents run along the front, and heat exhaust vents dominate the rear. The wings are removable to access certain internal components such as the NVMe SSD storage expansion slot, the power supply, and the optional Blu-ray disc drive. Beneath the side panels are two "dust catchers" holes allowing the user to vacuum out dust collected by the cooling system. Senior Art Director Yujin Morisawa led the console's case design, inspired by the term "five dimensions" and crafting the skeleton of its design around circles and squares that would make players comfortable when looking at it. Morisawa also had to manage the case shape to provide enough internal volume within the unit for all the technical hardware while reducing its size without restricting air flow.
The Blu-ray version has dimensions of and , and the download-only version is slightly slimmer, at and . The console has been recognized for its large size in comparison to previous gaming consoles, and its size has been attributed to ensuring effective cooling management and minimizing noise during operation.
The front includes a USB-C port with USB 3.1 Gen 2 and a USB-A port with USB 2.0. The back has two USB-A ports with USB 3.1 Gen 2, an HDMI 2.1 port, Gigabit Ethernet, and power.
DualSense controller
The DualSense wireless controller for the PlayStation 5 was revealed on April 7, 2020. It is based on the prior DualShock controller but with modifications influenced by discussions with game designers and players. The DualSense controller has adaptive triggers with haptic feedback through voice coil actuators that can change the resistance to the player as necessary, supporting experiences such as virtually drawing an arrow from a bow. The DualSense maintains the same buttons as the DualShock 4, though the "Share" button was renamed to "Create" with additional means for players to create and share content. A new built-in microphone array was added so players can speak to others using only the controller, and the included controller speaker has been improved. It has two-tone coloring, primarily white with black facing, with the black piece being easily detachable. The light bar has been moved to the sides of the touchpad. It has USB-C connectivity, a higher-rated battery, and an audio jack. As an Easter egg, the texture of the controller unit is covered in miniature versions of the four PlayStation button symbols (cross, circle, square, and triangle).
Additional accessories
Accessories include a charging station for the DualSense, a new HD camera, and a media remote control. The Pulse 3D wireless headset is integrated with the PS5's Tempest Engine 3D audio technology.
The PS5 is backward compatible with most existing PS4 controllers and accessories for PS4 games only some with limited functionality. Rock Band peripherals are supported since Rock Band 2. PS5 games can use the existing PlayStation Move, PlayStation Camera, PlayStation VR Aim Controller, officially licensed headsets, and specialty controllers with official licenses like flight sticks and racing wheels. Sony announced the PlayStation VR2 system built for the PlayStation 5 in January 2022.
Hardware revisions
Sony began shipping a minor hardware revision of the PlayStation 5 in August 2021. The new design reduced the size and weight of the heat sink, reducing the net system weight by , without having a noticeable effect on cooling performance, according to Digital Foundry and Gamers Nexus. This change also replaced the screw for the console stand to be screwable without the use of a screw driver.
System software
The PlayStation 5's redesigned user interface is characterized by Sony as "accessible and informative", providing real-time updates of friends' activities, available multiplayer activities, and single-player missions and rewards. Cerny stated "we don't want the player to have to boot the game, see what's up, boot the game, see what's up", so all of these options are "visible in the UI". Matt MacLaurin, the current vice president of UX design at PlayStation, described the redesigned user interface as a "very interesting evolution of the OS", and a "100 percent overhaul of the PS4 UI and some very different new concepts". MacLaurin stated that the UI is extremely fast with a new and robust visual language.
Eurogamer said the user interface was conceived for responsiveness, improved accessibility, clarity, and simplicity. It is rendered in 4K resolution and high dynamic range. Users are greeted with a stylistic boot-up animation and new login screen. The central design concepts and motifs introduced on the PS4 were redesigned into a new home screen user interface. The top of the screen has a row of applications, and two upper tabs to switch between showing games or media apps. Selecting a game directly reveals individual activities such as a specific level or multiplayer mode. PlayStation Store is no longer a standalone application and is now fully integrated into the home screen user interface.
The most significant departure from the PS4 interface is the introduction of the Control Center, instantly summoned from the bottom of the screen by pressing the PS button. The Control Center is divided into two sections. The upper portion is a row of cards suggesting actions based on the current game or recent actions such as a group chat. Game-related cards may present players with gameplay information such as a progress report toward completing specific missions, or listing game challenges with an option to jump directly to it. PlayStation Plus subscribers see game activity cards with hints, tips, screenshots, or videos detailing how to complete the activity. System-level items may present the player with options such as PlayStation Store sale information, or recent screenshots taken by the user to be shared. These features are available for PS5 games or for updated PS4 games. The lower portion of the Control Center contains a customizable horizontal row of icons, including notifications, status updates, friends list, and system settings. According to internal materials reviewed by Vice, the strategy behind this "activities"-focused UI was to help players in committing time towards games particularly single-player video games which Sony felt were thriving on the PlayStation console environment. Sony recognized that at the present, many players did not have as much time to commit to playing games, so the notion of activity cards was used to help give players an idea of what activities they could do in a game and how long it would take so that they could work that activity into their schedule.
The PlayStation 5 supports Niconico, AbemaTV, YouTube, YouTube TV, Netflix, Red Bull TV, Disney+, Star+, Spotify, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, Pandora, Anghami, YuppTV, Plex, Mubi, the Apple TV app, Apple Music, Okko, FunimationNow, Wakanim, VRV, Crunchyroll, Anime on Demand, Crackle, Popcornflix, Emby, Amazon Prime Video, Twitch, IMDb TV, the NFL TV app, BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, All 4, Viaplay, 7plus, 9Now, Stan, Foxtel Now, Kayo Sports, TVNZ OnDemand, Curiosity Stream, Crave, Paramount+, the Showtime app, Pluto TV, My5, ABC iview, Tubi, Hulu, NOW, Sky Go, Peacock, Vudu, HBO Max, DAZN, Showmax and MyCanal, while support for other streaming services has been pledged for the future. The system includes support for PlayStation Now, Sony's subscription-based cloud gaming service to play games from older generations of PlayStation consoles.
Sony's Remote Play application, available on the PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, iOS and Android devices, was updated just prior to the PlayStation 5's launch to allow a user to remotely play their PlayStation 5 games on these other devices over a local network.
In April 2021, Sony released a new software update through which users can transfer their downloaded PS5 game to an external USB hard drive to free up space.
Sony announced a PlayStation 5 system software beta program in June 2021, similar to the Xbox Insider program, where signed-up users can receive early releases of planned updates to the console's software for testing prior to their release. One of the first major features offered in this program was support for expanding internal storage via the M.2 port, added in the beta software path in July 2021.
In September 2021, Sony released a new software update offering support for the new trophy tracker, Control Center customization, 3D audio support for built-in TV speakers, internal SSD expansion and several UX enhancements.
Sony introduced Game Trials in October 2021, starting with a limited release for UK users for Death Stranding: Director's Cut and Sackboy: A Big Adventure. Users have access to download and play the full version of the game for a fixed amount of time through these Game Trials, after which they would be required to buy the game to continue playing.
Games
Each PlayStation 5 console comes pre-installed with Astro's Playroom, a game designed to serve as a demonstration of the DualSense controller. Games are not region-locked, so games purchased in one region can be played on consoles in all regions.
Sony announced its concurrent responsibilities of supporting the PlayStation 4 community, and embracing the PlayStation 5 as a major technological advancement. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Ryan stated "We have always said that we believe in generations. We believe that when you go to all the trouble of creating a next-gen console, that it should include features and benefits that the previous generation does not include. And that, in our view, people should make games that can make the most of those features." Discussing the capabilities of the DualSense controller with Geoff Keighley, General manager Eric Lempel affirmed that Sony "want[s] to evolve every part of the experience", but for that to happen "we can't take everybody with us from previous consoles into [a next-generation experience]. You need new hardware, you need new devices to experience what these developers want you to experience." Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart was highlighted as a next-generation game that is not technically possible on older hardware. Lempel assured Keighley that interest in PlayStation 4 will not end abruptly, with more to come.
Sony's definition of consoles as distinct generations had been widely interpreted as an era-defining shift to PS5-exclusive games that exploit the console's capabilities instead of releasing cross-generation games that play across both PlayStation consoles. Ryan said that there should be no disappointment as the PS5 versions take advantage of the console's advanced feature set and initially planned that PS4 versions can be freely upgraded. Few major games such as Horizon Forbidden West are developed as concurrent releases for PS4 and PS5, and Sony supports any publisher that wants to offer enhanced versions of PS4 games at no additional cost. However, in May 2021, Sony announced a major shift in this approach, with previously PS5-exclusive games Horizon Forbidden West, Gran Turismo 7 and God of War Ragnarök title planned as both PS4 and PS5 games. Game journalists believed this was a factor related to impact of the global semiconductor shortage from the COVID-19 pandemic on PlayStation 5 availability. Sony initially had planned to charge PS4 users to upgrade to the PS5 version of Horizon Forbidden West when preorders were announced, but after negative feedback from consumers, stated that this upgrade will be free, but all future PS4 to PS5 upgrades from their first-party games will be at cost, reversing course from their earlier plans.
Eurogamer reported that Sony's certification program as of May 2020 required PS4 games, submitted for certification after July 13, 2020, to be natively compatible with the PlayStation 5.
Backward compatibility
According to Hideaki Nishino, Sony's senior vice president of Platform Planning and Management, the PS5 is designed to be backward compatible with more than "99 percent" of PS4's 4,000+ game library, playable from launch day. The console is compatible with PlayStation VR. Because of PS5's high-speed SSD and increased processing power, many PS4 games gain from improved loading times or gameplay speeds "so that they can benefit from higher or more stable frame rates and potentially higher resolutions". Players can synchronize their saved game files through cloud storage or transfer them using a USB storage device so no progress is lost. Backward compatibility is enabled in part by the similarity of hardware architecture, such as "extra logic" in the RDNA 2 GPU that ensures compatibility with PS4's GCN-based GPU. Mark Cerny explained during a March 2020 presentation and later in an interview with Digital Foundry how CPU clock timing required particular attention; though the Zen 2 CPU has an instruction set to handle the PS4's Jaguar CPU, their timings can be very different, so Sony worked closely with AMD when developing the Zen 2 CPU to more closely match the Jaguar's timings. PS5 backward compatibility may exhibit errors with some PS4 games, and does not include previous generations. However, some older PlayStation console games are available through the PlayStation Now game streaming service which is available for the PlayStation 5. The PlayStation 4's Share menu cannot be displayed but the PS5's Create menu can be used to capture screenshots or video.
All compatible downloaded versions of PS4 games are visible in the library on the PS5 and available for download. The games can also be copied via USB hard drive or Wi-Fi. Save data can be copied in the same way or via the cloud storage. On October 9, 2020 Sony released a list of ten PS4 games identified as being incompatible with PS5; the list has shortened since as some developers released compatibility updates for previously-incompatible games. As of December 16, 2021, the official PlayStation website shows six PS4 games that remain incompatible with PS5; Afro Samurai 2: Revenge of Kuma Volume One, Hitman Go: Definitive Edition, Just Deal With It!, Robinson: The Journey, Shadwen, and We Sing.
Reception
The PlayStation 5 was generally well received at launch, with much praise of its DualSense controller's improved haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. Astro's Playroom, which comes pre-installed on every PS5 and is designed to demonstrate the controller's features, was praised with Laptop Mag calling it "deceptively cute". The exclusive line-up, including Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Demon's Souls, was heavily praised although some reviewers, such as TechRadar, said there should have been more launch games. The console's user interface was generally praised for being fast and easy to navigate.
Many reviewers found the console's design polarizing. CNET described the black and white scheme as "clearly meant to be a sculptural conversation piece". The large size was criticized by Tom's Guide as "inelegant" and by others as frustrating its integration into a home entertainment center. Many, however, acknowledged the size for improving the cooling and quieting of its operation. The relatively small 667 GB of usable SSD space was criticized.
More technical reviews, such as those by Digital Foundry, noted that features such as variable refresh rate and the advertised 8K video output mode were not present at launch. They criticized the console's inability to output a native 1440p video signal but lauded the ray-tracing, SSD speed, and 120 Hz output capabilities.
Sales
The PlayStation 5, as with the Xbox Series X/S, was in limited supply immediately upon launch, and through 2021 due to a global semiconductor shortage, combined with increased demand for video game consoles due to the COVID–19 pandemic. Sony expects supply to continue to be limited until at least 2022. Scalpers took advantage of the shortage, attempting to sell the console for thousands of dollars. Sony expanded its PlayStation Direct program to sell consoles directly to consumers within Europe in November 2021 as to bypass scalpers.
Two weeks after launch, Sony declared the largest launch in PlayStation history, surpassing PS4's 2.1 million units in its first two weeks in 2013. During the system's first week of release in Japan, 103,901 standard consoles were sold, and 14,181 Digital Editions were sold. A combined total of 118,082 PS5s were sold in Japan during its launch week, making it the best-selling console in the country for that week. By September 2021, Sony reported over 1 million PS5 sales in Japan. In comparison, its predecessor did not reach one million consoles sold until a full year after release. In the UK, the PlayStation 5 was the best-selling video game console sold in the month of November. In Spain, the PS5 sold over 43,000 units in the first week of release.
Sony reported total shipments of the PS5 through its fiscal quarter ending December 31, 2020 of 4.5 million units, which were similar numbers to the PS4's launch shipments. Total shipments of PlayStation 5 reached 7.8 million by March 31, 2021, surpassing the 7.6 million units that the PlayStation 4 had shipped in its first two-quarters of release. Sony reported that as of July 18, 2021, 10 million PS5 units had been sold through, making the PlayStation 5 their fastest-selling console unit to date. The company later confirmed that by June 30, 2021, it had shipped 10.1 million consoles, indicating that nearly every shipped console had been sold as soon as it reached the market. Console shipments surpassed 13.4 million as of September 30, 2021. The company anticipated in August it has enough stock hardware to ship more than 22 million PS5 units by the end of its 2021 fiscal year in March 2022, but this was revised to 15 million units in November. Despite this, sales during the fiscal year 2022 were forecast to increase to 22.6 million units. Bloomberg News reported in January 2022 that Sony was continuing to produce the PlayStation 4 rather than discontinue it at the end of 2021 as to help alleviate the shortage of PlayStation 5 while the chip shortage continued.
References
External links
2020 in video gaming
2020s toys
Backward-compatible video game consoles
Computer-related introductions in 2020
Home video game consoles
Ninth-generation video game consoles
Products introduced in 2020
Sony consoles
X86-based game consoles
Regionless game consoles |
4029009 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compositing%20window%20manager | Compositing window manager | A compositing window manager, or compositor, is a window manager that provides applications with an off-screen buffer for each window. The window manager composites the window buffers into an image representing the screen and writes the result into the display memory.
Compositing window managers may perform additional processing on buffered windows, applying 2D and 3D animated effects such as blending, fading, scaling, rotation, duplication, bending and contortion, shuffling, blurring, redirecting applications, and translating windows into one of a number of displays and virtual desktops. Computer graphics technology allows for visual effects to be rendered in real time such as drop shadows, live previews, and complex animation.
Since the screen is double buffered, it does not flicker during updates.
The most commonly used compositing window managers include:
for Linux, BSD, Hurd and OpenSolaris: Compiz, KWin, Xfwm, Enlightenment, Mutter, xcompmgr and picom;
for Windows: the Desktop Window Manager; and
for macOS: the Quartz Compositor.
Comparison with stacking window managers
The window manager sends each window a message to repaint itself whenever appropriate (such as when it is resized, or when another window passes in front of it). With a stacking manager, the repainting process can become corrupted when a program that is slow, unresponsive or buggy does not respond to messages in a timely manner. A malicious program can cause the system to appear unstable by simply neglecting to repaint its window. Then, one or more of the following conditions may result:
a clipped window does not repaint uncovered regions, resulting in either blank spaces or a "trail" left behind from another window
portions of windows (such as decorative drop shadows) are left behind and not properly painted over
the mouse pointer is corrupted
screen updates become unbearably slow
the entire screen freezes until the program either responds or is terminated
With a compositing manager, if a window stops repainting itself when requested by the window manager, its last repaint will remain displayed and the window might be dimmed. Often, the title changes to reflect the status of the window as unresponsive. A program may prevent its window from being moved or unmapped, but generally will not cause repainting problems.
History
One of the first systems with a compositing windowing system was the Commodore Amiga, released in 1985. Applications could first request a region of memory outside the current display region for use as bitmap. The Amiga windowing system would then use a series of bit blits using the system's hardware blitter to build a composite of these applications' bitmaps - along with buttons and sliders - in display memory, without requiring these applications to redraw any of their bitmaps.
On March 24, 2001, Mac OS X v10.0 became the first mainstream operating system to feature software-based 3D compositing and effects, provided by its Quartz component. With the release of Mac OS X v10.2 and Quartz Extreme, the job of compositing could move to dedicated graphics hardware.
In 2003 Sun Microsystems demonstrated an ambitious 3D graphics system called Project Looking Glass to layer on top of its Swing toolkit. It was first shown at the 2003 LinuxWorld Expo. Although Apple threatened to sue Sun for breach of intellectual-property rights, other window managers have implemented some of the functionality in Looking Glass. By 2006 development was discontinued by Sun, whose primary business was transitioning from graphically oriented Unix workstations to selling enterprise mainframes.
Microsoft first presented the Desktop Window Manager in Project Longhorn to the 2003 Windows Hardware Engineering Conference, demonstrating wobbly windows. Severe delays in the development of Longhorn caused Microsoft not to debut its 3D-compositing window-manager until the release of Windows Vista in January 2007.
Implementing compositing under the X Window System required some redesign, which took place incrementally. Metacity 2.8.4 was released in August 2004. However, the first widely publicized compositing window manager for X was Xfwm, released in January 2005. On 26 January 2005 Compiz was released, introducing fully accelerated 3D-compositing to the Linux platform.
KDE's KWin also supports compositing.
Compositing and 3D effects in operating systems
In compositing, 3D effects could be applied on windows to provide 3D desktop effects. Modern compositing window managers use 3D hardware acceleration. Compositing window manager software communicates with graphics hardware via programming interfaces such as OpenGL or Direct3D.
The earliest widespread implementations using this technique were released for the Mac in Mac OS X 10.2, and for Linux in a Luminocity prototype. Currently, window managers using OpenGL include Compiz, KWin, and the Quartz Compositor, while Desktop Window Manager currently uses DirectX 9. OpenGL is still not fully supported in hardware, so performance of OpenGL-based compositing should continue to improve as hardware improves.
Linux
Stacking window managers running on X server required a chroma keying or green screening extension. Compositing was introduced by way of the "Composite" extension. Compositing managers use hardware acceleration through this extension, if available.
Under Linux and UNIX, the ability to do full 3D-accelerated compositing required fundamental changes to X11 in order to use hardware acceleration. Originally, a number of modified X11 implementations designed around OpenGL began to appear, including Xgl. The introduction of AIGLX would eliminate the need to use Xgl, and allow window managers to do 3D accelerated compositing on a standard X server, while still allowing for direct rendering. Currently, NVIDIA, Intel, and ATI cards support AIGLX.
Compiz introduced a cube effect, which allows the user to see up to 6 virtual desktops at once. Each desktop is converted into a surface texture of the cube, which can be rotated at will. Compiz displays a wide array of 2D and 3D effects and has relatively low hardware requirements. In 2012, Compiz was included in Ubuntu Linux, and was enabled automatically when supported hardware and drivers were available and the user had not selected 2D Mode.
Mutter (Metacity + Clutter) has replaced Metacity as the default window manager for GNOME. It is featured in the GNOME Shell component of GNOME 3.0. It uses the display engine Clutter, which has been ported to all major operating systems, netbooks and smartphones.
Since version 4, KDE's window manager KWin has compositing capabilities. KWin features much of the same functionality also present in Compiz.
Java
Project Looking Glass was a window manager combining 3D rendering and the cross-platform Java programming language. It is now inactive and released under the GNU General Public License. The Granular Linux live CD distribution includes Looking Glass as an optional window manager.
In the aftermath of it being discontinued, some of its features, such as cover switching and thumbnail live previews, have found their way onto other window managers. Its more original features included window tilting, two-sided window frames and parallax scrolling backgrounds.
AmigaOS 4 and MorphOS
While they are able to run on 3D-capable hardware, AmigaOS 4 and MorphOS are designed to run on old legacy Amiga computers, starting with the Amiga 1200. As such, their window managers have mostly planar rendering capabilities that include composite layering, alpha blending, gradients, high resolution and multiple desktops ("screens") that can partially clip one another.
Microsoft Windows
While the window manager in Windows 2000 does perform compositing, it does not perform transformations such as a per-pixel alpha. Few commercial applications took advantage of alpha blending; freeware programs were among the first to experiment with it, albeit through optional settings. Compositing was introduced with Desktop Window Manager in Windows Vista.
Windows Vista and Windows 7 allow the user to disable Desktop Window Manager by selecting the Windows Basic appearance settings. In addition, it is automatically disabled by Windows in order to perform hardware overlay through the Overlay Mixer Filter.
Usability and eye candy
The compositing approach makes it easier to implement a number of features that make the user interface more accessible, simpler to use or with eye candy elements.
Magnifiers
Vector graphics, such as TrueType fonts and 3D-accelerated elements, can be expanded without degradation (usually due to aliasing). A screen magnifier enlarges an area of the screen, making portions of text easier to read – whether to prevent eye strain, for the visually impaired, or simply at a distance. Zoom effects such as the fish eye magnifier and zoom desktop effects provide this functionality.
Live preview
A preview of a window can be displayed in a pop-up thumbnail when the user hovers its associated taskbar button. This allows the user to identify and manage several concurrently running programs.
Window switching
Windows with similar names and icons tend to cause confusion, especially when their title bars overlap; the position of every such window on the taskbar has to be memorized. When there are many open windows in this manner, the user often has to resort to trial and error—clicking each taskbar button one-by-one—before proceeding. Window switching allows one to quickly preview several windows at once by temporarily rearranging them against a decorative background. After a selection is made, the windows are then restored to their original arrangement.
Selection begins when the user either enters a hotkey combination, moves the mouse pointer to a hotspot on the screen, or, in some situations, uses the mouse's scroll wheel. Items are navigated using the keyboard or mouse. An item is selected by either releasing the hotkey, hitting the Enter key or clicking on it with the mouse.
Flip switching
The flip switcher is an enhancement to the Alt-Tab switching feature. Running windows are arranged into a stack – similar to a flip-style selector in a 1950s jukebox, or a Rolodex. In some systems, the user can press Alt-Shift-Tab to navigate backwards. Visual transitions are applied to each item while navigating.
Common implementations of flip switching include Flip 3D in Windows and Shift Switcher in Compiz.
Cover switching
Cover switching is like flip switching with a few, mostly visual, differences. Instead of one stack with the selection at the top, two symmetrical stacks are shown with the current selection front and center (similar to the window tilting feature in Looking Glass).
Cover Flow is an implementation of cover switching in macOS. More recent versions use blurring to de-emphasize non-selected items. Cover Flow has also been implemented in other software published by Apple such as iTunes.
This is also referred to as "flick-book view."
Ring switching
Ring switching is like flip switching, except the windows move in a circle, with the current selection in front, usually at the bottom. Most compositing window managers include this feature out of the box, and third-party applications, such as 3d-desktop, are also available.
Grouping
The user can group windows together, such that only one window at a time is visible in each group. In Compiz, the window frame is flipped to indicate when the active window in its group has been changed.
Exposé
macOS displays a preview of every window on the screen by tiling them. Other systems with similar functionality (Microsoft Windows, Compiz, KWin, third-party applications) are referred to as Exposé clones. The hotkey to activate Exposé is not Alt-Tab, but rather F3.
Mission Control
Mac OS X 10.7 combines several other compositing features developed by Apple—such as Exposé, Dashboard, and Spaces—into a larger program called Mission Control.
Widget engines
On macOS, "widgets" (single-purpose applets) such as a clock, note pad, and calculator can appear by pressing a hotkey. Widget engines speed work by keeping commonly used widgets accessible while unobtrusive. They are handled by the Dashboard program in macOS.
Compiz starts with a blank Widget Layer, allowing the user to add applications by clicking on them. A variety of widgets are supported, including Screenlets, gDesklets and SuperKaramba.
Windows Vista provides gadgets that the user can place on the Windows Sidebar (Sidebar gadgets), a Windows Live start page (Web gadgets), or an external display, such as the user's mobile phone (SideShow gadgets). The Windows Sidebar was a visible partition in Windows Vista, and was eliminated in Windows 7, along with Sidebar gadgets which were changed to Desktop Gadgets.
Transitions and other effects
Before compositing window managers were developed, windows would instantly jump in and out of view, which is incongruent with the interface metaphor (and with a physical office setting). Some systems like the Classic Mac OS avoided this issue with ZoomRects, animating the windows outline "zooming" toward its final position. But on most systems, the sudden appearance and disappearance of GUI elements may seem confusing or even chaotic to inexperienced users. Visual transitions provide context and help distinguish the causal relationships of GUI elements. Instead of just disappearing, a window may fade away, or visibly shrink to the taskbar. A pull-down menu that has been clicked may smoothly radiate outward from the menu bar, making it easier to determine its origin and purpose.
Gradual and natural transitions may be especially helpful for elderly or visually impaired users who notice changes to the screen more slowly and with less clarity. For example, an inexperienced user may impulsively click on a menu that was activated by accident, causing him or her to lose work. The short delay necessary to display a visual transition may give the user enough time to make a conscious decision, and avoid such mistakes.
User Interface Façades
Metisse implements user interface façades, a system that provides users with simple ways to adapt, reconfigure, and recombine existing graphical interfaces, through the use of direct manipulation techniques.
List of compositing window managers
3Dwm, a three-dimensional workspace manager and general-purpose platform for 3D user interfaces. As of June 2006 this project is inactive.
Desktop Window Manager and the Windows Aero theme on Windows
Quartz Compositor on macOS
Compiz
Marco
KWin (since version 3.3)
Mutter
Xfwm from within Xfce (since version 4.2)
Metisse window system
Mir (since version 1.0)
List of standalone compositing managers
xcompmgr—a minimal alternative to Compiz
Compton–a bug-fixed fork of dcompmgr, which is a fork of xcompmgr. (Not maintained since 2017.)
Picom-a lightweight compositor for X11. It is a fork of Compton.
Cairo Compmgr (Cairo Composite Manager)—a compositing add-on for existing window managers. It uses Cairo, a vector graphics library also used in GTK+.
Unagi Compositing Manager—a compositing manager which can be used along with an existing window manager. It uses the XCB library. (Not maintained since 2014.)
MCompositor—used on MeeGo handsets.
Operating systems with compositing window managers
Mac OS X 10.0 and later
any Unix-like OS using XOrg/AIGLX or Xgl
AmigaOS 4
MorphOS 2.0 and later
Windows Vista and later
See also
Window manager
Tiling window manager
Stacking window manager
Re-parenting window manager
Retained mode
Zooming user interface
Computer graphics
References
External links
Graphical user interfaces |
26546164 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern%20Junior%20Championship | Northern Junior Championship | The Northern Junior Championship presented by The Golf Performance Center is a nationally ranked junior golf tournament that was created in order to provide the highest level of competition for top junior players.
The 36-hole stroke play event is contested over two days at New Haven Country Club in Hamden, Connecticut and is open to amateur boys and girls under the age of 19 who have not entered their first year of college. The 2017 event, the 16th annual, was contested on August 7–9 and won by Mark Turner and Madeline Jin.
History
The Northern Junior Championship was established in 2002 in memory of Stan Trojanowski, father of Cindy and Gary Trojanowski. Trojanowski died in August 2001 due to mesothelioma, a form of cancer resulting from exposure to asbestos.
Until 2009, the tournament had been open only to boys and girls who were members of a Connecticut Section PGA golf course, which included Connecticut and Western Massachusetts.
The 2017 event, the 16th annual, was ca 36-hole event contested over two days at New Haven Country Club in Hamden, Connecticut and was sanctioned by both the US Challenge Cup Organization and the Connecticut Section PGA. The event is also ranked by both the Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings and National Junior Golf Scoreboard. It is also part of an elite group who offer multiple AJGA exemptions to the Boys and Girls Champions.
Past champions
2017 Mark Turner / Madeline Jin
2016 Bobby Weise / Virginia Ding
2015 Connor Daly / Alissa Yang
2014 Will Bernstein / Elizabeth Bose
2013 Evan Grenus / Amy Ding
2012 Will Essigs / Megan Khang
2011 Nick Fairweather / Nathalie Filler
2010 Andy Mai / Eliza Breed
2009 Michael Griffin / Katie Partridge
2008 Ryan Lee / Mia Landegren
2007 Ryan Lee / Elizabeth Monty
2006 Daniel Fanion / Megan Landry
2005 Cody Paladino / Lauren Cate
2004 Brent Paladino / Katie Grobsky
2003 Cody Paladino/ Natalie Sheary
2002 Steve Galotti / Juli Wightman
The Ryan Lee Memorial Scholarship
The Ryan Lee Scholarship is awarded each year to a tournament competitor. The scholarship is intended for those young men and women wishing to play collegiate golf and who also portray the same honor and appreciation for the game of golf as Ryan Lee.
References
External links
Junior golf tournaments
Golf in Connecticut
Sports competitions in Connecticut |
58144667 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List%20of%20Acclaim%20Entertainment%20subsidiaries | List of Acclaim Entertainment subsidiaries | Acclaim Entertainment was an American video game publisher from Long Island, active from 1987 until filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on September 1, 2004. Through a series of acquisitions between 1990 and 2002, Acclaim built itself a large portfolio of subsidiaries acting in the fields of development and publishing.
Development
Acclaim Studios
Acclaim Studios was established in July 1998 to organize all Acclaim-owned development studios under one management. In May 1999, all underlying studios were uniformly rebranded to bear the "Acclaim Studios" prefix. Acclaim Studios and all of its development facilities were closed on August 27, 2004.
Acclaim Studios Austin
Acclaim Studios Cheltenham
Acclaim Studios Cheltenham was based in Cheltenham, England. The studio was founded in 2000 by former employees of Psygnosis' South West studio.
Acclaim Studios London
Acclaim Studios London was based in Croydon, England. The company was founded in 1984 by Fergus McGovern and Vakis Paraskeva under the name Probe Software, which was later renamed Probe Entertainment. By 1988, the company employed 72 people. Several games developed by Probe included references to McGovern's name or likeness, including the sentence "Is that you, Fergus?" presented to players of Trantor: The Last Stormtrooper upon gaining a low score. The company specialized in the development of arcade game ports and movie tie-ins, including Out Run, Mortal Kombat and FIFA Soccer.
On October 10, 1995, Acclaim agreed to acquire Probe for 1,732 shares of common stock. The deal closed on October 16 and was valued at , making McGovern a millionaire. The same year, McGovern also received a Lifetime Achievement Award for his work at Probe. McGovern left the company a few years later to found HotGen, also a video game developer. With the consolidation of Acclaim Studios' branding in May 1999, Probe was renamed Acclaim Studios London. Acclaim Studios London was closed in April 2000.
Acclaim Studios Manchester
Acclaim Studios Manchester was founded in Manchester as Software Creations, a sole trader company, by Richard Kay in 1985. The following year, the company was joined by Steve Ruddy, who began working on Commodore 64 conversions of games like Mystery of the Nile and Kinetik. Subsequently, further employees, including the Follin brothers and Mike Ager, followed after Ruddy and joined Software Creations. Successful titles produced or ported by Software Creations include Bubble Bobble (1987), Bionic Commando (1988), and Tin Star (1994). After developing ports of Ghouls 'n Ghosts and LED Storm in 1989, Software Creations moved into custom-built offices located within Manchester. The Pickford brothers, John and Ste, joined the company in 1990, producing Equinox and Plok. In 1994, Software Creations was acquired by BCE Multimedia and became part of Rage Software.
On May 1, 2002, Acclaim announced that they had acquired Software Creations, which was renamed Acclaim Studios Manchester. At the time, Software Creations had approximately 70 employees. Acclaim Studios Manchester was closed as part of Acclaim Studios and all of its development facilities on August 27, 2004. Rod Cousens and Barry Jafrato, who served as chief executive officer and head of publishing, respectively, for Acclaim, announced in September 2004 that they were planning to create as new video game publisher, Exclaim, with the help of Europlay Capital Advisers. Exclaim was set to acquire and reinstantiate Acclaim's two UK studios, namely Manchester and Cheltenham, and re-employ their roughly 160. Exclaim's opening was expected on October 11, however, Cousen's ownership over the two studios was challenged by Acclaim's liquidator, Allan Mendelsohn, leaving the UK staff in a state of limbo. A successor to Acclaim Studios Manchester, SilverBack Studios, was founded by Jon Oldham in April 2005 and employed 15 former Acclaim Studios Manchester staff.
Acclaim Studios Salt Lake City
Acclaim Studios Salt Lake City was based in Salt Lake City, Utah. The company was founded as Sculptured Software by George Metos, Bryan Brandenburg, Peter Adams, Mike Macris and Bob Burgener, and incorporated on July 12, 1985. Significant games developed by Sculptured Software include the Super Star Wars series, Doom (SNES), Mortal Kombat (SNES), Mortal Kombat II (SNES), and Mortal Kombat 3 (DOS, SNES, Genesis/Mega Drive).
Acclaim agreed to acquire Sculptured Software on October 9, 1995, and closed the deal the following day. The deal included a transaction of 1,013 shares of common stock, valued at . By February 1996, Sculptured Software employed 140 employees, and all founders but Metos had left the company. Metos left the company the following year to found Kodiak Interactive Software Studios. By December 1997, Sculptured Software was renamed Iguana West. The renaming reflected a major change in the management which involved the former Sculptured Software being overseen by the president of Iguana Entertainment. With the consolidation of Acclaim Studios' branding in May 1999, Iguana West was renamed Acclaim Studios Salt Lake City. Acclaim Studios Salt Lake City was dissolved as a cost-cutting exercise in December 2002. Through the closure, 70 employees were laid off and an unannounced title was canceled, while the remaining staff and the development of a third installment in the Legends of Wrestling series were shifted to Acclaim Studios Austin.
Acclaim Studios Stroud
Acclaim Studios Stroud was formed in July 1999 to focus on the development of PlayStation games. Led by Neil Duffield, the studio's team was made up of 26 staff formerly employed by Psygnosis.
Acclaim Studios Teesside
Acclaim Studios Teesside was based in Stockton-on-Tees, England. The company was founded in February 1988 by brothers Darren and Jason Falcus, at the time aged 19 and 18, respectively, under the name Optimus Software. The company was originally located in Stockton, where the Falcus brothers were born as well. Both founders had previously started programming in 1981, and released their first game, Castle of Doom, in 1983. Games released by Optimus Software generated retail sales in excess of . These games included Big Nose the Caveman and the Seymour series, both of which they developed for Codemasters.
In 1993, Optimus Software was acquired by Iguana Entertainment to undisclosed terms. Subsequently, the company moved to new offices located in Middlesbrough, and was renamed Iguana UK. Iguana Entertainment itself was acquired by Acclaim in 1995, at which point Iguana UK moved back to Stockton. Under the new banner, Iguana UK and the Falcus brothers developed the Shadow Man series, home console versions of various NBA Jam titles, and the Nintendo 64 version of Forsaken. With the consolidation of Acclaim Studios' branding in May 1999, Iguana UK was renamed Acclaim Studios Teesside. The Falcus brothers left the company in February 2000 and founded Atomic Planet Entertainment. At that time, the studio had 75 employees. The studio was closed in May 2002.
Publishing
Acclaim Coin-Operated Entertainment
Acclaim Coin-Operated Entertainment was an Acclaim subsidiary based in Mountain View, California, that focused on releasing coin-operated arcade games. It was established in July 1994. Leon Deith served as sales director for the company, as of January 1998. Acclaim Coin-Operated Entertainment was closed in March 1998, as Acclaim wanted to shift development resources to Acclaim Studios closer to the company's headquarters in New York City.
Acclaim Comics
Acclaim Distribution
Acclaim Distribution was established in June 1993 to act as the distributor for Acclaim. Companies that partnered with Acclaim Distribution for distribution services include Digital Pictures, Marvel Entertainment, Sound Source Interactive, Sunsoft, and Interplay Productions.
Lazer-Tron
Lazer-Tron Corporation focused on the production of coin-operated "redemption games". The company was acquired by Acclaim on August 31, 1995, in exchange of 1,123 shares of Acclaim's common stock. Acclaim sold off all assets of Lazer-Tron on March 5, 1997, for in cash.
LJN
LJN was a toy and video game company located in New York City, known for manufacturing toys from such licensed brands as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Back to the Future, ThunderCats, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit, as well as publishing software game titles (under the Enteractive trademark) for the Nintendo Entertainment System, including games about The Karate Kid, Jaws, and Major League Baseball.
Flying Edge
Flying Edge was a division of Acclaim that was founded in 1992 to publish games on Sega consoles. The division was dissolved in 1994.
Arena Entertainment
Arena Entertainment was a division formed under Mirrorsoft to publish games on Sega platforms. Arena was acquired by Acclaim in 1992 and dissolved in 1994.
Acclaim Sports
Acclaim Sports was established as a division of Acclaim in November 1997, as part of a – marketing campaign for NFL Quarterback Club '98. Acclaim stated that the creation of the target specifically targeted challenging Electronic Arts' EA Sports label. Bob Picunko was appointed director of marketing of Acclaim Sports.
Club Acclaim
Club Acclaim was a division of Acclaim announced in January 2000, originally for a line of Game Boy Color games directed towards a younger audience. Club Acclaim's most successful games were those based on Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.
AKA Acclaim
AKA Acclaim was a division of Acclaim that released extreme sports games. Originally known as Acclaim Max Sports, the division was renamed AKA Acclaim in 2002, and was discontinued in 2003.
References
Lists of companies
Lists of corporate subsidiaries |
17132034 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-assisted%20legal%20research | Computer-assisted legal research | Computer-assisted legal research (CALR) or computer-based legal research is a mode of legal research that uses databases of court opinions, statutes, court documents, and secondary material. Electronic databases make large bodies of case law easily available. Databases also have additional benefits, such as Boolean searches, evaluating case authority, organizing cases by topic, and providing links to cited material. Databases are available through paid subscription or for free.
Subscription-based services include Westlaw, LexisNexis, JustCite, HeinOnline, Bloomberg Law, Lex Intell, VLex and LexEur. As of 2015, the commercial market grossed $8 billion. Free services include OpenJurist, Google Scholar, AltLaw, Ravel Law, WIPO Lex, Law Delta and the databases of the Free Access to Law Movement.
Purposes
Computer-assisted legal research is undertaken by a variety of actors. It is taught as a topic in many law degrees and is used extensively by undergraduate and postgraduate law students in meeting the work requirements of their degree courses. Professors of Law rely on the digitization of primary and secondary sources of law when conducting their research and writing the material that they submit for publication. Professional lawyers rely on computer-assisted legal research in order to properly understand the status of the law and so to act effectively in the best interest of their client. They may also consult the text of case judgements and statutes specifically, as well as wider academic comment, in order to form the basis of (or response to) an appeal.
The availability of legal information online differs by type, jurisdiction and subject matter. The types of information available include:
Texts of statutes, statutory instruments, civil codes, etc.
Explanatory notes and government publications relating to statutes and their operation
Texts of governing documents such as constitutions and treaties
Case judgements
Journals on legal matters or legal theory
Dictionaries and legal encyclopedia
Legal texts and materials in the form of e-books
Current affairs and market information
Educational information on the law and its operation
Before the Internet
Prior to the advent and popularization of the World Wide Web, access to digital legal information was largely through the use of CD-ROMs, designed and sold by commercial organizations. Dial-up services were also available from the 1970s. As the use of the Internet spread in the early 1990s, companies such as LexisNexis and Westlaw incorporated Internet connectivity into their software packages. Browser-based legal information started to be published by Legal Information Institutes from 1992.
Publicly available information
The first effort to provide free computer access to legal information was made by two academics, Peter Martin and Tom Bruce, in 1992. Today, the Legal Information Institute freely publishes such resources as the text of the United States Constitution, judgements of the United States Supreme Court, and the text of the United States Code.
The Australasian Legal Information Institute (AusLII) was established soon after in 1995. Other legal information institutes, such as those of Great Britain and Ireland (BAILII), Canada (CII) and South Africa (SAfLI) soon followed. LIIs were partially formalized in 2002 following the signing of the Declaration of Free Access to the Law, which has been signed by 54 countries. At the time of writing, the World Legal Information Institute contains in excess of 1800 databases from 123 jurisdictions.
Many governments also publish legal information online. For example, UK legislation and statutory instruments have been publicly available online since 2010. Depending on the jurisdiction in question, the decisions of higher appellate courts may also be published online, either by the Legal Information Institute or by the court service directly. Sources of European Union Law are published for free by EUR-Lex in 23 languages, including judgments of the European Courts. Similarly, judgements of the European Court of Human Rights are published on its website.
Further reading
Dittakavi Nagasankara Rao (1984). Computer Assisted Legal Research: A Selected Bibliography, Issue 1574. Vance Bibliographies.
Penny A. Hazelton (1993). Computer Assisted Legal Research: The Basics. West Publishing Company.
Cary Griffith (1992). Griffith's Guide to Computer Assisted Legal Research. Anderson Publishing Company.
(1988). The CLIC Guide to Computer-assisted Legal Research. Canadian Law Information Council.
James A. Sprowl (1976). A Manual for Computer-assisted Legal Research. American Bar Foundation.
Judy A. Long (2003). Computer Aided Legal Research. Thomson/Delmar Learning.
Surendra Dayal (1996). Laying Down the Law Online: Computer Assisted Legal Research. Butterworths.
Susan Cochard; Samantha Whitney-Ulane (1997). Computer-assisted Legal Research: A Guide to Successful Online Searching. American Bar Association.
Joseph L. Ebersole (1977). The Emergence of Computer-assisted Research as an Established Legal Tool. Federal Judicial Center.
Alan M. Sager (1977). An Evaluation of Computer Assisted Legal Research Systems for Federal Court Applications. Federal Judicial Center.
Fred M. Greguras (1975). Report on Computer-assisted Legal Research and Information Processing. Nebraska Legislative Council.
Christopher G. Wren; Jill Robinson Wren (1994). Using Computers in Legal Research: A Guide to Lexis and Westlaw. Adams & Ambrose Publishing.
Theodor Herman (1996). How to Research Less and Find More: The Essential Guide to Computer Assisted Legal Research. West Publishing Company.
Stephanie Delaney. Electronic Legal Research: An Integrated Approach. Cengage Learning.
Matthew S. Cornick (2011). Using Computers in the Law Office. Cengage Learning.
References
Argument technology |
1468147 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPodLinux | IPodLinux | iPodLinux is a µClinux-based Linux distribution designed specifically to run on Apple Inc.'s iPod. When the iPodLinux kernel is booted it takes the place of Apple's iPod operating system and automatically loads Podzilla, an alternative GUI and launcher for a number of additional included programs such as a video player, an image viewer, a command line shell, games, emulators for video game consoles, programming demos, and other experimental or occasionally unfinished software.
The project has been inactive since 2009, but its website is still maintained. Further development of free and open source software for iPods have continued with the Rockbox Project, zeroslackr, and freemyipod, which have largely supplanted iPodLinux. Some third party installers are still available.
Basic structure
iPodLinux in essence consists of a Linux kernel built from µClinux sources using the uClibc C standard library with driver code for iPod components (or reverse engineered drivers where available). It includes userland programs from µClinux and/or BusyBox, a UNIX-style file system (which can be created within HFS+ formatted iPods, or an ext2 partition on FAT32 formatted iPod), and the Podzilla GUI (and its modules). Apple's proprietary iPod OS in contrast uses an invisible boot loader and is based on an ARM processor kernel originally written by Pixo, and the iPod Miller Columns browser program, a GUI written by Apple and Pixo using the Pixo application framework, and other firmware and component drivers written from manufacturer's reference code to support the standard behavior Apple wanted the iPod to have.
Features
Besides the kernel, iPodLinux features as a primary component podzilla and podzilla2, applications which provide:
An iPod-like user interface
Video playback with sound
Support for AAC, MP3 and basic OGG playback (4G & 5G Music Player Daemon malfunctions, but can be fixed).
Many games, including TuxChess, Bluecube (Tetris clone), Chopper, StepMania (a Dance Dance Revolution clone) and more.
Recording through audio jack at much higher quality than Apple's firmware
Ability to play the games Doom and Doom II (and presumably any Doom Total Conversion; Chex Quest for instance)
Color scheme support
Ability to run many emulators, such as iBoy (Nintendo Game Boy Emulator), iNES (Nintendo Entertainment System Emulator), iDarcNES (port of the multiple system emulator DarcNES), iMAME (port of Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator), and iGPSP (Game Boy Advance emulator).
History
The bootloader for the 4th generation iPod was extracted by Nils Schneider, a German computer science student. Previous software methods to extract the necessary bootloader no longer worked. Bernard Leach had previously discovered how to operate the piezo buzzer inside the iPod. Schneider was able to use his program with some modifications to make a series of clicks for each byte of the new iPod's bootloader. The extraction process took 22 hours to complete and required Schneider to construct a soundproof box to prevent outside interference with the process.
Server transition
On June 11, 2008 the organization's website was suspended and replaced with a redirect to a blank page. The server had its services restored incrementally. On October 1, 2008 the iPodLinux.org DNS address was updated and the server was online again by October 5, 2008. On June 22, 2009 the server was pulled offline again. The server was back online again on September 8. In September 2010 the server went offline again and has not got online again yet. Alexander Papst, one of the developers, has posted a mirror of the site at ipodlinux.wiki. In 2015, the site was offline. However, in 2019, it has gone online.
Compatibility
According to the iPodLinux wiki, "developers have succeeded in getting [the following features] to work- it does not imply that the feature is ready for widespread use."
As of August 5, 2006, only the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation iPod are officially supported by iPodLinux, although newer generations are also partially compatible. The iPodLinux project does not plan support for the iPod shuffle due to the lack of a GCC compiler for the shuffle's DSP57000 core, as well as the fact that the iPod shuffle lacks a screen. While later generations work fine for many uses of iPodLinux, not all features work; these later generations will not be officially supported by the project until most or all features from the earlier iPods work on them. Installers are in the process of being made. As of now, there is Installer 2.3 for Microsoft Windows or Linux which can install on any generation iPod (except for the iPod shuffle and iPod nano 2nd generation). As of April, 2008, iPodLinux does not work on the new iPod firmware included with the second and third generation iPod nano or the 6th generation iPod Classic, and installer 2 cannot be used to install iPodLinux on 5.5th generation iPod. In addition to that, the much spoken about audio recording feature currently does not work on the latest ipodlinux/zeroslackr builds. In ipodlinux, an under development message is given under recording, while in zeroslackr, recording is not displayed at all.
Arguably one of the project's more notable accomplishments is its video player, released months before rumors about Apple's Video iPod began to spread. This video player only plays uncompressed AVI files, which are basically just a series of bitmap formatted frames with an audio overlay that commonly loses sync with the video output. A new compression technique called MoviePod, released in 2006, enables people to put more video content on their iPod. This function continues to be developed and is a useful function for users of older iPod (especially nano users that, with the help of iPodLinux, can get an extremely small media center that can be held in the palm of the hand).
podzilla 2, the second generation of podzilla, and commonly known as pz2, has superseded the original version of podzilla. It included several new features, most notably modularity; users can install new applications without recompiling all of podzilla. This version is the only working set of Podzilla official that will run on 5.5G iPods.
See also
Rockbox
References
External links
IPodLinux Project home page
[ Project home page] ()
Old project home page
Custom firmware
Embedded Linux distributions
Free software projects
Free software primarily written in assembly language
Free software programmed in C
Free media players
IPod software
Platform-specific Linux distributions
Linux distributions
de:IPod#iPod Linux |
8476 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk%20operating%20system | Disk operating system | A disk operating system (abbreviated DOS) is a computer operating system that resides on and can use a disk storage device, such as a floppy disk, hard disk drive, or optical disc. A disk operating system must provide a file system for organizing, reading, and writing files on the storage disk. Strictly speaking, this definition does not apply to current generations of operating systems, such as versions of Microsoft Windows in use, and is more appropriately used only for older generations of operating systems.
Disk operating systems were available for mainframes, minicomputers, microprocessors and home computers and were usually loaded from the disks themselves as part of the boot process.
History
In the early days of computers, there were no disk drives, floppy disks or modern flash storage devices. Early storage devices such as delay lines, core memories, punched cards, punched tape, magnetic tape, and magnetic drums were used instead. And in the early days of microcomputers and home computers, paper tape or audio cassette tape (see Kansas City standard) or nothing were used instead. In the latter case, program and data entry was done at front panel switches directly into memory or through a computer terminal / keyboard, sometimes controlled by a BASIC interpreter in ROM; when power was turned off any information was lost.
In the early 1960s, as disk drives became larger and more affordable, various mainframe and minicomputer vendors began introducing disk operating systems and modifying existing operating systems to exploit disks.
Both hard disks and floppy disk drives require software to manage rapid access to block storage of sequential and other data. For most microcomputers, a disk drive of any kind was an optional peripheral; systems could be used with a tape drive or booted without a storage device at all. The disk operating system component of the operating system was only needed when a disk drive was used.
By the time IBM announced the System/360 mainframes, the concept of a disk operating system was well established. Although IBM did offer Basic Programming Support (BPS/360) and TOS/360 for small systems, they were out of the mainstream and most customers used either DOS/360 or OS/360.
Most home and personal computers of the late 1970s and 1980s used a disk operating system, most often with "DOS" in the name and simply referred to as "DOS" within their respective communities: CBM DOS for Commodore 8-bit systems, Atari DOS for the Atari 8-bit family, TRS-DOS for the TRS-80, Apple DOS and ProDOS for the Apple II, AmigaDOS for the Amiga, and MS-DOS for IBM PC compatibles.
Usually, a disk operating system was loaded from a disk. Among the exceptions were Commodore, whose DOS resided on ROM chips in the disk drives. The Lt. Kernal hard disk subsystem for the Commodore 64 and Commodore 128 models stored its DOS on the disk, as is the case with modern systems, and loaded the DOS into RAM at boot time; the British BBC Micro's optional Disc Filing System, DFS, offered as a kit with a disk controller chip, a ROM chip, and a handful of logic chips, to be installed inside the computer.
Disk operating systems that were extensions to the OS
Apple DOS was the primary operating system for the Apple II series of computers, from 1979 with the introduction of the floppy disk drive, until 1983 when it was replaced by ProDOS.
Commodore DOS was used on 8-bit Commodore computers such as the Commodore 64. Unlike most other DOS systems, it was integrated into the disk drives, not loaded into the computer's own memory.
Atari DOS was used by the Atari 8-bit family of computers. The Atari OS only offered low-level disk-access, so an extra layer called DOS was booted from a floppy and offered higher level functions such as filesystems. Third-party replacements for Atari DOS were also available: DOS XL, SpartaDOS, MyDOS, TurboDOS, Top-DOS.
MSX-DOS for the MSX computer standard. Initial version, released in 1984, was nothing but MS-DOS 1.0 ported to Z80; but in 1988 it evolved to version 2, offering facilities such as subdirectories, memory management and environment strings. The MSX-DOS kernel resided in ROM (built-in on the disk controller) so basic file access capacity was available even without the command interpreter, by using BASIC extended commands.
Disc Filing System (DFS) This was an optional component for the Acorn BBC Micro, offered as a kit with a disk controller chip, a ROM chip, and a handful of logic chips, to be installed inside the computer
Advanced Disc Filing System (ADFS) was a successor to Acorn's DFS.
AMSDOS for the Amstrad CPC computers.
GDOS and G+DOS, for the +D and DISCiPLE disk interfaces for the ZX Spectrum.
Disk operating systems that were the main OSs
Some disk operating systems were the operating systems for the entire computer system.
The Burroughs Master Control Program (MCP) for the B5000 originally ran from a drum, but starting with the B5500 it ran from a disk. It is the basis for the MCP on the B6500, B7500 and their successor systems.
The SIPROS, Chippewa Operating System (COS), SCOPE, MACE and KRONOS operating systems on the Control Data Corporation (CDC) 6000 series and 7600 were all disk operating systems. KRONOS evolved into NOS and SCOPE evolved into NOS/BE.
The GECOS operating system for the GE 600 family of mainframe computers (it later became GCOS).
The IBM Basic Operating System/360 (BOS/360), Disk Operating System/360 (DOS/360) and Operating System/360 (OS/360) were standard for all but the smallest System/360 installations. BOS is gone, DOS has evolved into z/VSE and OS has evolved into z/OS.
The DOS-11 operating system for DEC PDP-11 minicomputers.
CP/M was a disk operating system--even though it was not named as such--used as the main or alternate operating system for numerous microcomputers of the 1970s and 1980s.
TRSDOS was the operating system for the TRS-80 line of computers from Tandy.
MS-DOS for IBM PC compatibles with Intel x86 CPUs. It started as 86-DOS, which was modeled on CP/M, and then itself served as the basis for Microsoft's MS-DOS, and was rebranded by IBM as IBM PC DOS until 1993. Various compatible systems were later produced by different organizations, starting with DR-DOS in 1988.
See also
Live CD
References
Notes
Disk operating systems |
22155636 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aletes%20%28Aeneid%20character%29 | Aletes (Aeneid character) | Aletes () is an old and wise Trojan counselor depicted in the Aeneid. He commends Nisus and Euryalus for their courage. They intend to enter the Rutulians' camp by night, slaughter men, take plunder, make their way on to Pallanteum, where Aeneas has been waylaid, and bring him the news that the Rutulians have attacked the Trojan camp. Weeping, he affirms that the gods must favor the Trojans and that the gods, Aeneas, and Ascanius will all reward these daring young men.
References
External links
English translation of ref. #1.
Characters in the Aeneid
it:Alete |
9008966 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick%20Young%20%28basketball%29 | Nick Young (basketball) | Nicholas Aaron Young (born June 1, 1985), nicknamed "Swaggy P", is an American former professional basketball player. Young played college basketball for the USC Trojans and was a two-time first-team all-conference selection in the Pac-10. He was selected by the Washington Wizards in the first round of the 2007 NBA draft with the 16th overall pick. He won an NBA championship with the Golden State Warriors in 2018.
High school career
Born in Los Angeles, California, Young played for Cleveland High School in suburban Reseda, California. He averaged 27.2 points and 10.8 rebounds as a 2004 senior at Cleveland, earning 2004 CIF L.A. City Section, Los Angeles Times All-City and San Fernando Valley first team honors. He shot 57.3% from the field and 46.8% from three-point range (52-of-111), had 48 steals and 41 blocks as Cleveland finished 25–4. Young was tabbed the seventh-best player in the country by HoopScoop and listed by prep basketball guru Frank Burlison as among the Top 50 recruits in 2004. He once scored 56 points in one game and had 23 rebounds in another. He earned CIF L.A. City Section first team honors in 2003 and was included in a list of Top Seniors by Athlon Sports heading into 2004.
College career
Young played for the University of Southern California from 2004 to 2007 and was All-Pac-10 First Team in the 2005–06 and 2006–07 seasons. In the 2007 NCAA Tournament, Young led the fifth-seeded Trojans to a berth in the Sweet Sixteen, where they lost to the one-seeded North Carolina Tar Heels, 74–64. Along the way, Young led USC to a 77–60 first-round win against Arkansas. In the 2nd round, Young led the team with 22 points over the Texas Longhorns in an 87–68 rout of the team featuring the National Player of the Year, Kevin Durant, though Durant led both teams in scoring with 30.
As expected, following his junior season, Young announced on April 15, 2007, to the Los Angeles Times that he would forgo his senior year to turn professional and enter the 2007 NBA Draft, where he was selected with the 16th overall pick by the Washington Wizards.
Professional career
Washington Wizards (2007–2012)
Young was selected 16th overall by the Washington Wizards in the 2007 NBA draft. He started his first career NBA game on December 15, 2007, against the Sacramento Kings.
On January 9, 2010, Young was fined $10,000 by the Washington Wizards for participating in Gilbert Arenas's antics before a game on January 5, 2010, against the Philadelphia 76ers. Arenas was being investigated for a prior incident involving guns in the Wizards' locker room, but made light of the accusations by pointing his finger at his teammates, as if he were shooting them. His teammates were photographed smiling and laughing with him.
Young scored a career-high 43 points on January 11, 2011, against the Sacramento Kings.
Los Angeles Clippers (2012)
On March 15, 2012, Young was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers in a three-way trade involving the Denver Nuggets and Washington Wizards. Later, on April 16, 2012, he helped the Clippers clinch their first playoff berth in 6 years with a 19-point performance against the Oklahoma City Thunder. He was also a key part of the Clippers' comeback victory against the Memphis Grizzlies in game one of the first round of the 2012 playoffs, making three three-pointers in under a minute.
Philadelphia 76ers (2012–2013)
On July 12, 2012, Young signed with the Philadelphia 76ers to a one-year deal.
Los Angeles Lakers (2013–2017)
On July 11, 2013, Young signed with the Los Angeles Lakers. During the 2013–14 season, he converted a Lakers-record seven four-point plays while averaging a career-high 17.9 points per game.
On July 21, 2014, Young re-signed with Lakers to a reported four-year, $21.5 million contract. During training camp, he suffered a complete tear of the radial collateral ligament in his right thumb, and was expected to miss six to eight weeks. After missing the first ten games of the season with the injury, Young made his season debut on November 18 against the Atlanta Hawks, recording 17 points and 5 rebounds in a 114–109 win. On December 12, he scored a season-high 29 points in a 112–110 win over the San Antonio Spurs.
On November 30, 2016, Young was ruled out for two to four weeks due to a strained right calf muscle. On December 17, 2016, he made eight three-pointers and scored a season-high 32 points in a 119–108 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Between late December and early January, Young's burst from long range gave him 36 three-pointers in eight games—the most in an eight-game stretch in Lakers franchise history. On April 2, 2017, after being held out of 11 of the previous 12 games despite being healthy, Young was shut down by the Lakers for the last five regular-season games. On June 21, 2017, the Lakers announced that Young elected not to exercise his option to extend his contract for the 2017–18 season, thus becoming an unrestricted free agent.
Golden State Warriors (2017–2018)
On July 7, 2017, Young signed with the Golden State Warriors. In his debut for the Warriors in their season opener on October 17, 2017, Young came off the bench to hit six 3-pointers and score 23 points in a 122–121 loss to the Houston Rockets. He helped the Warriors reach the 2018 NBA Finals, where they defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers in a four-game sweep, with Young winning his first NBA championship.
Denver Nuggets (2018)
On December 10, 2018, Young signed with the Denver Nuggets. Twenty days later, on December 30, he was waived by the Nuggets, after appearing in only four games.
Career statistics
NBA
Regular season
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|
| style="text-align:left;"| Washington
| 75 || 2 || 15.4 || .439 || .400 || .815 || 1.5 || .8 || .5 || .1 || 7.5
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|
| style="text-align:left;"| Washington
| 82 || 5 || 22.4 || .444 || .341 || .850 || 1.8 || 1.2 || .5 || .2 || 10.9
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|
| style="text-align:left;"| Washington
| 74 || 23 || 19.2 || .418 || .406 || .800 || 1.4 || .6 || .4 || .1 || 8.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|
| style="text-align:left;"| Washington
| 64 || 40 || 31.8 || .441 || .387 || .816 || 2.7 || 1.2 || .7 || .3 || 17.4
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|
| style="text-align:left;"| Washington
| 40 || 32 || 30.3 || .406 || .371 || .862 || 2.4 || 1.1 || .8 || .3 || 16.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|
| style="text-align:left;"| L.A. Clippers
| 22 || 3 || 23.5 || .394 || .353 || .821 || 1.6 || .5 || .6 || .3 || 9.7
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|
| style="text-align:left;"| Philadelphia
| 59 || 17 || 23.9 || .413 || .357 || .820 || 1.8 || 1.4 || .6 || .2 || 10.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|
| style="text-align:left;"| L.A. Lakers
| 64 || 9 || 28.3 || .435 || .386 || .825 || 2.6 || 1.5 || .7 || .2 || 17.9
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|
| style="text-align:left;"| L.A. Lakers
| 42 || 0 || 23.8 || .366 || .369 || .892 || 2.3 || 1.0 || .5 || .3 || 13.4
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|
| style="text-align:left;"| L.A. Lakers
| 54 || 2 || 19.1 || .339 || .325 || .829 || 1.8 || .6 || .4 || .1 || 7.3
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|
| style="text-align:left;"| L.A. Lakers
| 60 || 60 || 25.9 || .430 || .404 || .856 || 2.3 || 1.0 || .6 || .2 || 13.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;"| †
| style="text-align:left;"| Golden State
| 80 || 8 || 17.4 || .412 || .377 || .862 || 1.6 || .5 || .5 || .1 || 7.3
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|
| style="text-align:left;"| Denver
| 4 || 0 || 9.3 || .333 || .375 || .000 || .3 || .5 || .0 || .3 || 2.3
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| Career
| 720 || 201 || 22.8 || .418 || .376 || .836 || 2.0 || 1.0 || .5 || .2 || 11.4
Playoffs
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 2008
| style="text-align:left;"| Washington
| 4 || 0 || 4.3 || .111 || .000 || .750 || .5 || .3 || .5 || .0 || 1.3
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 2012
| style="text-align:left;"| L.A. Clippers
| 11 || 0 || 18.2 || .433 || .515 || .889 || 1.1 || .3 || .3 || .4 || 8.3
|-
| style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;"| 2018†
| style="text-align:left;"| Golden State
| 20 || 2 || 10.3 || .302 || .298 || .750 || .6 || .2 || .1 || .0 || 2.6
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| Career
| 35 || 2 || 12.1 || .357 || .378 || .833 || .7 || .2 || .2 || .1 || 4.2
College
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 2004–05
| style="text-align:left;"| USC
| 29 || 24 || 25.7 || .441 || .315 || .644 || 4.1 || 1.3 || .8 || .3 || 11.1
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 2005–06
| style="text-align:left;"| USC
| 30 || 30 || 33.9 || .467 || .333 || .801 || 6.6 || 1.6 || 1.0 || .2 || 17.3
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 2006–07
| style="text-align:left;"| USC
| 37 || 36 || 33.2 || .525 || .440 || .786 || 4.6 || 1.4 || .7 || .3 || 17.5
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| Career
| 96 || 90 || 31.1 || .483 || .368 || .764 || 5.1 || 1.4 || .8 || .3 || 15.5
Personal life
In 2007, Young became the main subject of a documentary titled Second Chance Season, in which his exploits, shortcomings, and successes are reviewed. Young's nickname is "Swaggy P", which he said is a pseudo-biblical reference to "the Prophet of Swag".
Relationships and family
Young is the cousin of Kevon Looney, who is an NBA player. They became teammates with the Warriors in 2017–18. Young is also a cousin of rappers Kendrick Lamar and Baby Keem.
Young has been in an on-again, off-again relationship with his high school sweetheart Keonna Green since 2002. They have three children together: two sons (born in 2012 and 2019) and a daughter (born in 2016). They became engaged in 2019.
Young and Australian rapper Iggy Azalea announced their engagement on June 1, 2015. Azalea broke off their engagement a year later after a video of Young discussing how he was having an affair with another woman surfaced. After Azalea broke off her engagement to Young, Green confirmed that she was 22 weeks pregnant with their daughter.
References
External links
Nick Young at usctrojans.com
1985 births
Living people
African-American basketball players
American men's basketball players
Basketball players from Los Angeles
Big3 players
Denver Nuggets players
Golden State Warriors players
Los Angeles Clippers players
Los Angeles Lakers players
People from the San Fernando Valley
Philadelphia 76ers players
Shooting guards
Small forwards
USC Trojans men's basketball players
Washington Wizards draft picks
Washington Wizards players
21st-century African-American sportspeople
20th-century African-American people
American men's 3x3 basketball players |
62798811 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TCEC%20Season%2017 | TCEC Season 17 | The 17th season of the Top Chess Engine Championship began on 2 January 2020 and ended on 22 April 2020. TCEC Season 16 3rd-place finisher Leela Chess Zero won the championship, defeating the defending champion Stockfish 52.5-47.5 in the superfinal.
Season 17 featured for the first time two separate leagues, one for GPU-based engines and one for CPU-based engines. TCEC also raised the computing power available to both CPU and GPU engines. The hardware for CPU engines was doubled to 88 cores, while the hardware for GPU engines was raised to 4 RTX 2080 Ti's.
Overview
In keeping with its identity as a competition run at long time controls on high-end hardware, TCEC secured a hardware upgrade for the competing CPU engines. Among other changes, the number of cores available is doubled from 44 to 88, the operating system used is now Linux, and Syzygy endgame tablebases are now cached directly in the RAM for faster access. Because this upgrade advantages CPU engines compared to GPU engines, TCEC split the qualification paths to Premier Division by introducing separate leagues for CPU and GPU engines. While an upgrade to the GPU servers is being secured, the CPU leagues are played first.
Structure
For CPU engines, there will first be a Qualification League consisting of 16 engines, followed by League 2 (16 engines) and League 1 (16 engines). In the Qualification League the top 6 engines promote. In League 2 the top 4 engines promote. The engines in each league are seeded based on their performances in previous seasons. For GPU engines, there will be one league only, with up to 16 competitors. The top 2 GPU engines will then contest a playoff against the top 4 CPU engines in League 1, with the four highest-placing engines promoting to Premier Division.
Premier Division is also expanded from 8 engines to 10. Six engines – Stockfish, Komodo, Houdini, Leela Chess Zero, AllieStein, and Stoofvlees – are seeded directly to Premier Division, based on their top 6 finishes in the previous season. Finally, the top two engines in Premier Division qualify for the 100-game superfinal match.
Results
CPU Qualification League
After not competing for five seasons, Season 11 Div 3 engine Defenchess trailblazed the qualification league. It scored 18 wins while conceding no losses, finishing 3.5 points clear at the top. It was the only undefeated engine. Demolito and Winter also locked up two of the promotion spots smoothly, but the remaining three slots were closely contested. Among the competitors, Igel was the only engine to not lose to Defenchess and Demolito, but it lost to bottom-half engines FabChess and Topple. Comparatively, iCE was whitewashed by Defenchess and Igel, but it turned in a strong performance against its other rivals, losing only one other game to Winter. Pirarucu went through a tense moment when it lost to Winter in the penultimate round; however, it pulled out a win with Black against Topple to promote. 7th-placed Minic was in a promotion spot all the way up to the final round, when it lost to Gogobello while iCE beat Counter. This left the two tied at 17.5 points. Minic had the better Sonneborn–Berger score, but it also had one crash, and the number of crashes was the first tiebreak. Nonetheless, in a stroke of good fortune for Minic (and 8th-placed PeSTO), the League Two engines chess22k and Fritz crashed three times during testing for the division. By TCEC rules, if this happened, the author(s) would have to update the engine or it is disqualified. chess22k's and Fritz's authors were not able to update the engines in time, resulting in Minic and PeSTO promoting as lucky losers.
CPU League Two
Former Premier Division engine Fire won League Two. It had been relegated in the previous season because its developer had submitted a drastically different neural network-based version that turned out to be significantly weaker. This season, the original, traditional engine played, and it dominated with an undefeated 22/28 (16 wins and 12 draws). It defeated seven engines, including fourth-place Vajolet, 2–0. Second-placed Defenchess also turned in a strong performance, finishing with an undefeated 20.5/28 (13 wins and 15 draws). For the other promoted engines, Winter and PeSTO performed surprisingly well, comfortably finishing above their peers in 7th and 8th respectively. The remaining five promoted engines occupied the bottom five spots and were all relegated along with Wasp (which crashed three times).
After the division concluded, in a repeat of testing for League Two, four League One engines either pulled out or did not run on the new Linux operating system, resulting in the 5th-8th placed engines in League One promoting.
CPU League One
During testing for League One, three engines (Booot, Chiron, and ChessBrainVB) did not play because they did not run on Wine, the compatibility layer that TCEC is using to run Windows programs on Linux. One further engine (former champion Jonny) crashed and was not updated in time. As a result, the 5th to 8th-placed engines from League Two, Pedone, Nemorino, Winter and PeSTO, promoted as lucky losers.
In League One itself, Xiphos, which had just missed out on promotion in Season 16, vaulted to an early lead after scoring five wins with no losses. However, after this bright start, it failed to score more wins. This allowed former Division Premier engine Ethereal to seize first place, in spite of a loss to Komodo MCTS. Fellow competitors Fire and Komodo MCTS also amassed more wins than Xiphos, and by the midway point had overtaken it in the standings. By the final double round-robin, Ethereal, Fire, and Komodo MCTS had more or less secured a playoff spot. Xiphos, who had yet to lose, was barely holding on to fourth place, with rofChade and Defenchess both breathing down its neck. When it lost a crucial game to Fire, it allowed rofChade to pull even, with Defenchess half a point further back. Xiphos knocked Defenchess out of contention with a head-to-head win, but with rofChade having the superior tiebreaks (by number of wins), it needed to either hope for Fire to beat rofChade or to beat Vajolet in its last game. When both games ended drawn, Xiphos finished fifth, again just missing out on promotion.
For the other engines, Laser, which had pipped Xiphos to a playoff spot last season, was able to remain unbeaten until the final double round-robin. However, it collapsed in that round, losing three games (plus forfeited a fourth due to a crash). Winter scored likely the biggest upset of the league by defeating rofChade once, but the rest of the division was not kind to it and fellow lucky losers Nemorino and PeSTO, with all three engines placing in the bottom four. Former Division Premier engine Fizbo, which had been forced to run at a much slower speed because it was not able to utilize all the hardware available to it, finished solidly last, five points off the pace.
GPU league
The GPU league was cancelled because only two participants met all the uniqueness criteria: ChessFighter and ScorpioNN. Both engines automatically qualified to play against the top four engines from the CPU league one.
Playoff
Fire convincingly won the playoff for Premier Division in spite of no longer being under development. It finished with a +7 score, defeating all its rivals except ScorpioNN at least once. Komodo MCTS and ScorpioNN both lost two games, but finished comfortably in the top four, with wins against rofChade and ChessFighter. League One winner Ethereal stumbled badly in the playoffs, losing first to rofChade and then to Fire. As a result, the final promotion spot was closely contested. In the penultimate round rofChade temporarily pulled even with Ethereal by defeating ChessFighter, but Ethereal drew against Komodo MCTS to remain half a point ahead. It came down to the direct head-to-head encounter in the final round. rofChade needed to defeat Ethereal with the black pieces, which would've let it qualify because of its superior head-to-head score. However, it did not make any headway, and Ethereal squeaked into the Premier Division, half a point ahead of rofChade.
Premier Division
In an unprecedented move, TCEC played all the CPU-CPU matches first, to minimize rental costs for the GPUs.
In the CPU-CPU matches, defending champion Stockfish steamrolled its rivals. It defeated Houdini and Ethereal twice, scoring six wins in the process, one more than the rest of the division combined. Houdini, which had not been updated for over two years, was further handicapped by only being able to make use of 64 of the 176 available threads, and was last after the double round robin. Komodo MCTS was the only engine not to lose to Stockfish, but it also failed to score any wins. Fellow promoted engine Fire performed surprisingly well, scoring two wins while losing only to Stockfish. Combined with its run through the lower divisions as well as in Season 16, it set a new TCEC record of 124 games without losing.
In the CPU-GPU and GPU-GPU matches, S16 runner-up AllieStein took an early lead over S16 third-place finisher Lc0, scoring 4 wins to Lc0's 2 in the first round robin. It looked as though the season 16 result, in which AllieStein pipped Lc0 to second place in spite of the latter not losing any games, would be repeated. However, a dramatic second round robin saw Ethereal playing kingmaker. First it defeated AllieStein, then it was defeated by Lc0 after it blundered a 7-man endgame tablebase draw. After this stroke of good fortune Lc0 went on a winning streak to take the lead, defeating Stoofvlees, Komodo, and Komodo MCTS successively. However Ethereal continued to play kingmaker, this time losing to AllieStein in the reverse game and then defeating Lc0 after the latter blundered in a complicated position (diagram). Lc0 finally effectively eliminated Alliestein with a head-to-head win, which also put her ahead of Stockfish in first place, but the drama was not over as she lost another game to Komodo. This allowed Stockfish the chance to at least tie Lc0 at the top of the standings with a win over Stoofvlees, but it failed to do so. In the end, Lc0 won the premier division for the first time in spite of losing its first premier division games since Season 14, while Stockfish failed to finish first for the first time since Season 10.
In the fight to avoid relegation, Houdini, ScorpioNN and Komodo MCTS were quickly left behind, but the final slot was closely contested. Fire failed to score any more wins after its initial two, but it also only lost two more games, to AllieStein and Lc0. Ethereal, with its giant-slaying performance against Lc0 and AllieStein, had taken a surprising fourth place, ahead of traditional powerhouse Komodo. Stoofvlees had played extremely optimistically and suffered losses to the top three competitors as a result, but scored a head-to-head win against both Komodo and Ethereal while not conceding any other losses. By the final games, Ethereal had successfully reached safety, but Komodo was in real danger of relegating after finding itself in a tight position against Lc0. If it lost and Stockfish beat Stoofvlees in the final game, then it would find itself in a three-way tie with Stoofvlees and Fire, and relegated because it had the worst head-to-head score amongst the three. However, when Lc0 pushed too hard and blundered in a time scramble, the game turned into a win for Komodo that put it ahead of Ethereal and left Fire to relegate.
Superfinal
The superfinal was contested between Leela Chess Zero and Stockfish, with Leela Chess Zero winning by 5 points (+17 -12 = 71). After a closely contested opening 33 games, Stockfish held a 1-point advantage, but Leela Chess Zero reeled off three wins in the following five games to take control of the superfinal. After both scoring wins as white in the Scandinavian opening in games 43 and 44 respectively, there then followed an extremely tense run of 21 successive draws, with the occasional game being characterised with Leela Chess Zero outplaying Stockfish with the white pieces in the middlegame but being unable to break through Stockfish's extremely accurate defensive play. Leela Chess Zero then scored a crucial victory in game 66 to extend her lead to 3 points, but Stockfish fought back to narrow the gap to 2 points going into the final 12 games. However, Leela Chess Zero finished with a remarkable six wins in the final ten games of the superfinal, and could have won a seventh game were it not for Stockfish finding a brilliant defensive resource in game 100 that Leela did not spot, and was thus able to force a drawn endgame. Leela Chess Zero confirmed herself as champion with wins in games 95 and 96, marking the superfinal's only occurrence of one engine winning the same predetermined opening line as both black and white. Grandmaster Mykhaylo Oleksiyenko described game 96 as a 'magnificent masterpiece'.
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Reactions
In an article published shortly after the superfinal, British GM Matthew Sadler called the Season 17 superfinal the most interesting of superfinals he has seen, with multiple interesting games to go along with high drama. The difference in playstyle – Leela favors active defense and had a better grasp of fortresses, while Stockfish preferred attritional defense – further contributed to the entertainment value. Although the two finalists are very close in strength, ultimately Leela won because there are more positions in which it can hurt Stockfish than vice versa: Leela is superior in the French Defense, the Benoni Defense, and the King's Indian, while Stockfish is superior in the Open Sicilian.
Highlights
These highlights are selected from the among the many games featured by GM Sadler.
Game 1
After an unexciting opening, Black is a pawn up but is under pressure on the kingside. Leela plays the "stunning" 13...h5, returning the pawn to neutralize any chances of a long-term initiative for White. GM Sadler wrote that he probably would not have dared to consider this move in a real game, and it surprised other commentators Jan Gustafsson, Laurent Fressinet, Peter Heine Nielsen and Anish Giri as well.
Game 1: Stockfish–Leela Chess Zero, Queen's pawn game
1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 e6 3. c4 d5 4. cxd5 exd5 5. Bf4 Ne4 6. Nc3 Bb4 7. Rc1 Nc6 8. Nd2 g5 9. Bg3 Nxg3 10. hxg3 Nxd4 11. e3 Bxc3 12. bxc3 Ne6 13. Be2 h5 14. Rxh5 Rxh5 15. Bxh5 Qe7 16. Nb3 c6 17. c4 dxc4 18. Rxc4 Bd7 19. Na5 O-O-O 20. Qb1 Be8 21. Bf3 Qc7 22. Qb4 Qb6 23. Qa3 Nc7 24. Nb3 Bd7 25. Rb4 Nb5 26. Qb2 Qc7 27. Nc5 Qa5 28. Nxd7 Kxd7 29. Kf1 Nd6 30. Qd4 Kc7 31. Rb2 Re8 32. Rd2 Rd8 33. Rb2 Nb5 34. Qe5+ Rd6 35. Qe7+ Rd7 36. Qe5+ Rd6 37. Qe7+ Rd7 38. Qe5+ Kb6 39. Qf6 a6 40. Kg1 Qa3 41. Rc2 Qe7 42. Qb2 Ka7 43. Bg4 Rd8 44. a4 Nc7 45. Rc4 Rd3 46. Be2 Rd5 47. Bh5 f6 48. Bf3 Rd3 49. Re4 Qd6 50. Rb4 b5 51. axb5 axb5 52. Qa2+ Kb6 53. Rb1 Ra3 54. Qf7 Qe6 55. Qg7 Ra4 56. Rc1 c5 57. Kh2 c4 58. Rb1 Qe5 59. Qd7 Ka5 60. Bc6 c3 61. f4 gxf4 62. gxf4 Qh5+ 63. Kg1 Kb6 64. Bxb5 Nxb5 65. Qd6+ Kb7 66. Qd7+ Kb6 67. f5 Qe2 68. Qd6+ Kb7 69. Qc5 Ra5 70. Qe7+ Kc8 71. Qe6+ Kc7 72. Qe7+ Kc8 73. Qe6+ Kc7 1/2-1/2
Game 3
This was the first of seven openings where both engines won with the White pieces. The clashes showed another distinctive difference between the two finalists: while Stockfish goes for checkmate quickly, Leela was happy to grind, taking on average more than twice as many moves to win. In another curious feature, it is Stockfish who has the advanced pawn on h6 against its neural-network opponent (traditionally it has been neural-network engines who usually possessed this trump). In this game, the h6-pawn generated decisive mate threats after Stockfish opened the f-file with 26. f5.
Game 3: Stockfish–Leela Chess Zero, Sicilian Defense
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 d6 6. g4 a6 7. g5 Nfd7 8. a3 Nc6 9. Be3 Nde5 10. Be2 Nxd4 11. Qxd4 Nc6 12. Qd2 Be7 13. h4 b5 14. h5 Qa5 15. h6 g6 16. O-O O-O 17. f4 Qc7 18. Rf2 Rb8 19. Raf1 Bd7 20. Bg4 Rbc8 21. Bh3 Qb7 22. Na2 a5 23. Nc3 Rb8 24. b4 axb4 25. axb4 Rfc8 26. f5 Ne5 27. fxg6 fxg6 28. Bf4 Rf8 29. Qd4 Qc7 30. Nd5 exd5 31. Bxd7 Qxd7 32. Qxd5+ Nf7 33. Qd4 Bf6 34. Qxf6 Ne5 35. Qg7+ Qxg7 36. hxg7 Rfe8 37. Bxe5 dxe5 38. Rf8+ Rxf8 39. Rxf8+ Rxf8 40. gxf8=Q+ Kxf8 41. Kf1 Kf7 42. Ke2 Kf8 43. c4 bxc4 44. Kd2 Kg7 45. b5 Kf8 46. b6 Kf7 47. b7 Ke8 48. Kc3 Ke7 49. b8=Q h6 50. gxh6 Kf7 51. h7 g5 52. h8=Q Ke6 53. Qbxe5+ Kd7 1-0
Game 6
This game pair (each game plays both sides of the same opening) featured the Mar del Plata variation of the King's Indian Defense, one of the most complicated openings in the whole of chess. Leela played one of the most critical variations, to which Stockfish responded with an exceptional defense (see diagrams).
Game 6: Leela Chess Zero–Stockfish, King's Indian Defense
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Nf3 O-O 6. Be2 e5 7. O-O Nc6 8. d5 Ne7 9. Ne1 Nd7 10. Nd3 f5 11. Bd2 Nf6 12. f3 f4 13. c5 g5 14. Rc1 Ng6 15. Nb5 Rf7 16. Ba5 b6 17. cxd6 cxd6 18. Be1 a6 19. Nc3 a5 20. a4 Bf8 21. Nb5 g4 22. fxg4 Nxe4 23. Rc4 Nf6 24. Bf3 e4 25. Bxe4 Bxg4 26. Bf3 Bxf3 27. Qxf3 Ne5 28. Nxe5 dxe5 29. d6 Rc8 30. Rc6 Rxc6 31. Qxc6 Nd7 32. b4 axb4 33. Bxb4 Qg5 34. Kh1 Qg4 35. Qc4 Qg6 36. Qd5 Kh8 37. Nc3 Rg7 38. Ba3 Rg8 39. Re1 Qh5 40. Bb2 Qg6 41. Ba3 Rg7 42. Rd1 Nf6 43. Qf3 e4 44. Nxe4 Qxe4 45. Bb2 Qg6 46. d7 Nxd7 47. Bxg7+ Qxg7 48. Qxf4 Qf6 49. Qxf6+ Nxf6 50. g3 Kg7 51. Kg2 Kg6 52. Rd8 Be7 53. Rc8 Kf5 54. Kh3 Nd5 55. Rh8 Kg6 56. Rg8+ Kf5 57. Rh8 Nf6 58. Kg2 h5 59. Kh3 Bd6 60. Rc8 Be7 61. Kh4 Ng4+ 62. Kh3 Bf6 63. Rc6 Bd4 64. Rc4 Be3 65. Rb4 Ne5 66. Rb5 Ke4 67. Kh4 Nf3+ 68. Kh3 Bc5 69. Rb2 Kf5 70. Rc2 Nd4 71. Rf2+ Kg6 72. Rd2 Kf5 73. Rd1 Ke4 74. Rd2 Kf5 75. Rd1 Ke4 76. Re1+ Kd5 77. Rc1 Nf5 78. Rc3 Bd4 79. Rc7 Ng7 80. Rd7+ Kc5 81. Re7 Nf5 82. Rf7 Ne3 83. Kh4 Kb4 84. Kxh5 Kxa4 85. g4 b5 86. Rf4 Nc2 87. g5 b4 88. g6 Be5 89. Re4 Bf6 90. Rf4 Be5 91. Re4 Bf6 92. Kh6 Nd4 93. Rf4 Be5 94. Re4 Bf6 95. Rf4 Be5 96. Re4 Bf6 1/2-1/2
Game 14
After Stockfish demonstrated it doesn't understand what to do with its dark-squared Bishop in King's Indian / Benoni structures, Leela demonstrated a winning technique by sacrificing a pawn to increase the scope of its unopposed dark-squared Bishop, eventually pinning Stockfish down with a long-term superiority on the dark squares. However, after reaching a beautiful position (diagram), with human commentators expecting White to launch a kingside attack, Leela played the surprising 28. Bxf6. From a human perspective, trading pieces to weaken squares is difficult to do because Black gets to trade off his passive pieces, but Leela executes masterfully.
Game 14: Leela Chess Zero–Stockfish, Benoni Defense
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 e6 4. Nc3 exd5 5. cxd5 d6 6. Nf3 g6 7. Nd2 Bg7 8. e4 O-O 9. Be2 Nbd7 10. h3 Ne8 11. O-O a6 12. a4 Rb8 13. Nc4 Qe7 14. f4 Bd4+ 15. Kh2 Ndf6 16. Bf3 Bxc3 17. bxc3 Nxe4 18. Qe1 f5 19. Nb6 N8f6 20. c4 Bd7 21. Ra3 h5 22. Kg1 Rf7 23. Re3 a5 24. Qxa5 Qd8 25. Bb2 h4 26. Rfe1 Kh7 27. Rb3 Qf8 28. Bxf6 Nxf6 29. Qd2 Qg7 30. a5 Kg8 31. Qf2 g5 32. Nxd7 Nxd7 33. Bh5 Rff8 34. Re6 Nf6 35. Qe2 Qh6 36. Bf3 g4 37. hxg4 fxg4 38. Bxg4 Qxf4 39. Bh3 Qc1+ 40. Qe1 Qxe1+ 41. Rxe1 Kg7 42. Rb6 Rfd8 43. Reb1 Ra8 44. Rxb7+ Kg6 45. Ra1 Ra6 46. Rb6 Ra7 47. a6 Kg5 48. Rf1 Nh5 49. Rf5+ Kg6 50. Re5 Nf4 51. Kh2 Kh6 52. Rf5 Nh5 53. Bg4 Ng3 54. Re5 Kg6 55. Bd1 Rf7 56. Bc2+ Kf6 57. Re6+ Kg5 58. Rbxd6 Rxd6 59. Rxd6 Ra7 60. Bd3 Kf4 61. Re6 Kg4 62. Kg1 Kg5 63. Kf2 Nh5 64. Kf3 Nf6 65. Ke3 Ng4+ 66. Kd2 Kf4 67. Be2 Ne5 68. Kc3 Rg7 69. Bf1 Ra7 70. Kb3 Ng4 71. Ka4 Ra8 72. Kb5 Ne5 73. Kxc5 Rc8+ 74. Kd4 Nd7 75. Re7 Nc5 76. a7 Nb3+ 77. Kc3 Nc5 78. Kb4 Ne4 79. g3+ Kf3 80. gxh4 Ra8 81. Bg2+ Kxg2 82. Rxe4 Rxa7 83. d6 Rb7+ 84. Kc5 Rf7 85. Re7 Rf5+ 86. Kb6 1-0
Game 21
This game illustrated Leela's active style, even when on the defense. Playing the Black side of a King's Indian Defence, Sämisch Variation, Leela sacrifices two pawns for piece activity, then maintains the initiative to equalize the position.
Game 21: Stockfish–Leela Chess Zero, King's Indian Defense
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. f3 O-O 6. Be3 Nc6 7. Nge2 a6 8. Qd2 Rb8 9. Rc1 Bd7 10. Ng3 e5 11. d5 Nd4 12. Nge2 c5 13. dxc6 Nxc6 14. Bg5 b5 15. Nd5 bxc4 16. Rxc4 Re8 17. h4 h6 18. Nxf6+ Bxf6 19. Bxh6 d5 20. exd5 Nd4 21. b3 a5 22. Kf2 Nf5 23. Nc3 a4 24. b4 Bb5 25. Nxb5 Rxb5 26. Rc8 Qxc8 27. Bxb5 Rd8 28. Bc6 Qc7 29. g4 Qb6+ 30. Be3 Nxe3 31. Qxe3 Qxb4 32. h5 Be7 33. Kg2 Bc5 34. Qe4 Qd2+ 35. Kh3 Qg5 36. Bxa4 Rb8 37. Re1 Rb4 38. Qxe5 Qxe5 39. Rxe5 Rxa4 40. hxg6 fxg6 41. d6 Bxd6 42. Re6 Bf4 43. Rxg6+ Kf7 44. Rc6 Ke7 45. Kh4 Rxa2 46. g5 Ra4 47. g6 Kf8 48. g7+ Kg8 49. Rc8+ Kxg7 1/2-1/2
Game 33
Stockfish won this game with some excellent middlegame play culminating in a devastating kingside attack.
Game 33: Stockfish–Leela Chess Zero: King's Indian Defense
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nf3 Bg7 4. g3 d6 5. Bg2 O-O 6. Nc3 Nbd7 7. O-O e5 8. e4 c6 9. h3 Qb6 10. c5 dxc5 11. dxe5 Ne8 12. Na4 Qa5 13. Qc2 Nc7 14. Bd2 Qb5 15. Rfd1 c4 16. Nc3 Qa6 17. Be3 Nxe5 18. Nxe5 Bxe5 19. f4 Bg7 20. g4 Re8 21. Qf2 Nb5 22. Nxb5 Qxb5 23. Bd4 Bxd4 24. Rxd4 Qc5 25. f5 b5 26. Rad1 Ba6 27. a3 Rab8 28. h4 Bb7 29. h5 gxh5 30. gxh5 Qe5 31. Qh4 c5 32. Rd7 b4 33. f6 Kh8 34. Rxf7 Bc6 35. Rg7 c3 36. bxc3 Rf8 37. Rf1 bxc3 38. h6 Be8 39. f7 Bxf7 40. Rfxf7 Rxf7 41. Rxf7 c2 42. Rf1 Rg8 43. Rc1 Qd4+ 44. Qf2 Qd1+ 45. Qf1 Qd4+ 46. Kh1 Qd6 47. Rxc2 Qxh6+ 48. Kg1 Qe3+ 49. Qf2 Qxa3 50. Qf6+ Rg7 51. Rb2 Qe3+ 52. Kh1 Qe1+ 53. Bf1 Qxe4+ 54. Kh2 Qe8 55. Bh3 h5 56. Be6 Kh7 57. Qe5 Kh6 58. Rb8 Qxb8 59. Qxb8 h4 60. Qf8 c4 61. Bxc4 h3 62. Bd3 Kh5 63. Qxg7 1-0
Game 40
This game pair featured a French Defense, which usually does not bode well for Stockfish when it has the Black pieces. However, in this game, Stockfish was able to find a concrete plan to make space for its pieces. Leela countered with a kingside attack that Stockfish fended off in its typical attritional style, reaching an endgame it accurately assessed as a draw.
Game 40: Leela Chess Zero–Stockfish: French Defense
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 5. f4 c5 6. Nf3 Nc6 7. Be3 a6 8. Qd2 b5 9. Nd1 Bb7 10. c3 b4 11. Bd3 bxc3 12. bxc3 cxd4 13. Nxd4 Nc5 14. O-O Nxd3 15. Qxd3 Qc7 16. Rb1 Be7 17. f5 Nxe5 18. Qe2 Bc8 19. Bf4 Bd6 20. Ne3 O-O 21. f6 g6 22. Qe1 Rd8 23. Kh1 h5 24. Qg3 Nc4 25. Qg5 Nxe3 26. Bxd6 Qxd6 27. Qxe3 Bd7 28. Nf3 Rab8 29. Ne5 Rxb1 30. Rxb1 Rb8 31. Rxb8+ Qxb8 32. h4 Ba4 33. Qh6 Qf8 34. Qxf8+ Kxf8 35. Kg1 Bb5 36. Kf2 Bc4 37. a3 Ke8 38. Kg3 Bb3 39. Kf4 Bc4 40. Ke3 Bb5 41. Kd4 Bf1 42. g3 Bb5 43. Kc5 Kf8 44. Kb6 Ke8 45. Kb7 Kf8 46. Ka7 Ke8 47. Kb6 Be2 48. Ka5 Bb5 49. Kb4 Bc4 50. Ka4 Bb5+ 51. Ka5 Kf8 52. Nf3 Ke8 53. Ne5 Be2 54. Ka4 Bc4 55. Nf3 Bb5+ 56. Ka5 Kf8 57. Kb4 Be2 58. Ne5 Ke8 59. Kc5 Bb5 60. Kb6 Kf8 61. Ka5 Ke8 62. a4 Be2 63. Kb6 Bd1 64. Ka5 Be2 65. Kb4 Kf8 66. Nc6 Kg8 67. Kc5 Kf8 68. Kb6 Ke8 69. Kc5 Bd3 70. Kb6 Be2 71. Kc5 Bd1 72. Kb4 Bf3 73. Kc5 Bg4 74. Ne5 Be2 75. Kc6 Bd1 76. a5 Be2 77. Kb7 Bb5 78. Kc7 Be2 79. Kc6 Bb5+ 80. Kb7 Kf8 81. Kc8 Ke8 82. Kb8 Bc4 83. Kc8 Bb5 84. Kb8 Kf8 85. Kc7 Ke8 86. Kd6 Kf8 87. Kc5 Be2 88. Kc6 Bb5+ 89. Kd6 Ke8 90. Kc7 Bc4 91. Kb6 Bb5 92. Kc5 Kf8 93. Kd6 Ke8 94. Kc5 Bf1 95. Kc6 Be2 96. Kc7 Bb5 97. g4 hxg4 98. Nxg4 Bc4 99. Ne5 Be2 100. Kd6 Bb5 101. Nf3 Kf8 102. Nd4 Bc4 103. Nc6 Ke8 104. Ne7 Be2 105. Nc8 Kd8 106. Ne7 Bd3 107. Nc6+ Ke8 108. Ne5 Bc4 109. Nd7 Bb5 110. Nc5 Bc4 111. Nb7 Bb5 112. Kc5 Kf8 113. Nd6 Be2 114. Kd4 Kg8 115. Ne8 Bc4 116. Nc7 Be2 117. Kc5 Bf1 118. Kd6 Kf8 119. Kd7 Bc4 120. Kc6 Kg8 121. Kd6 Kf8 122. Kc5 Kg8 123. Kc6 Bf1 124. Kb7 Kh7 125. Kc8 Kh6 126. Kd7 e5 127. Nxd5 Kh5 128. Ne3 Bh3+ 129. Kd6 Kxh4 130. c4 Be6 131. c5 g5 132. Kxe5 g4 133. c6 g3 134. Ng2+ Kg5 135. Ne1 Kg6 136. Nd3 Kg5 137. Ne1 Bg4 138. Ng2 Bf5 139. Ne1 Bc8 140. Ng2 Bh3 141. c7 Bf5 142. Ne1 Be6 143. Nf3+ Kg4 144. Nd4 Bd7 145. Nc2 Kf3 146. Ne1+ Ke2 147. Ng2 Kf3 148. Ne1+ Kf2 149. Nd3+ Ke3 150. Nf4 Bc8 151. Ng2+ Kf3 152. Ne1+ Kf2 153. Nd3+ Ke3 154. Nf4 Kf3 155. Nd3 Ke3 156. Nf4 Kf3 157. Ng6 Kg4 158. Nf4 Kf3 1/2-1/2
Game 61
This sharp gambit in the Trompowsky Attack showed another difference between the two finalists' styles. While Leela immediately struck back in the center and tried to seek play before White can finish deploying its pieces, Stockfish tried to bunker down and defend.
Game 61: Stockfish–Leela Chess Zero: Trompovsky attack (Ruth, Opovcensky opening)
1. d4 Nf6 2. Bg5 c5 3. d5 Qb6 4. Nc3 Qxb2 5. Bd2 Qb6 6. e4 d6 7. f4 e6 8. Nf3 exd5 9. e5 dxe5 10. fxe5 Ne4 11. Nxd5 Qd8 12. Bc4 Be6 13. O-O Nc6 14. Be1 Qd7 15. Qd3 O-O-O 16. Rd1 Nd4 17. Bh4 Bxd5 18. Bxd5 Qxd5 19. c4 Qd7 20. Qxe4 Be7 21. e6 Nxf3+ 22. Qxf3 Qxe6 23. Rfe1 Bxh4 24. Rxd8+ Rxd8 25. Rxe6 fxe6 26. Qh5 Bf6 27. Qxc5+ Kb8 28. Kf1 h6 29. a4 a6 30. Qb6 e5 31. Ke2 Rc8 32. Qb4 Ka7 33. g3 Rc6 34. Qc3 Ka8 35. Qd3 Rc5 36. Kf1 Rc6 37. Kg2 Re6 38. h4 Kb8 39. Qd7 Rc6 40. Qd5 Ka8 41. Kh3 Rc8 42. Qe4 Rc6 43. Qd3 Re6 44. Qd5 Rb6 45. a5 Rc6 46. g4 Ka7 47. Qe4 g5 48. Qe3+ Kb8 49. Qa3 Bd8 50. Qf8 Kc7 51. Qf7+ Kc8 52. Qf5+ Kc7 53. Qxe5+ Kc8 54. h5 Bc7 55. Qe8+ Bd8 56. Qe5 Bf6 57. Qe8+ Kc7 58. Qf7+ Kc8 59. Qe8+ Kc7 60. Qf7+ Kc8 61. Qf8+ Bd8 62. Kg2 Kc7 63. Qf7+ Kb8 64. Qe8 Kc8 65. Qg8 Kc7 66. Kf1 Kc8 67. Qe8 Kc7 68. c5 Bf6 69. Qf7+ Kc8 70. Qf8+ Bd8 71. Qe8 Kc7 72. Ke2 Bf6 73. Qf7+ Kc8 74. Qf8+ Bd8 75. Qe8 Kc7 76. Kf3 Bf6 77. Qf7+ Kc8 78. Qg8+ Bd8 79. Qa2 Kc7 80. Ke2 Kc8 81. Qg8 Kc7 82. Kd3 Kd7 83. Qf7+ Kc8 84. Qg8 Kd7 85. Qf7+ Kc8 86. Qf5+ Kb8 87. Qf8 Kc7 88. Qe8 Bf6 89. Qf7+ Kc8 90. Qf8+ Bd8 91. Ke4 Kd7 92. Qf5+ Kc7 93. Kd3 Rf6 94. Qe5+ Kc8 95. Ke2 Rc6 96. Qe8 Kc7 97. Kd3 Bf6 98. Qf7+ Kc8 99. Qg8+ Bd8 100. Kc4 Kc7 101. Qd5 Kc8 102. Qg8 Kc7 103. Qe8 Rf6 104. Qe3 Kc8 105. Kd5 Bxa5 106. Qe8+ Bd8 107. Qe5 Rc6 108. Qe8 Kc7 109. Kc4 Bf6 110. Qf7+ Kc8 111. Qf8+ Bd8 112. Qe8 Kc7 113. Kb3 Bf6 114. Qf7+ Kc8 115. Qf8+ Bd8 116. Qe8 Kc7 117. Qe4 Kb8 118. Qe8 Kc7 119. Kc4 Bf6 120. Qf7+ Kc8 121. Qg8+ Bd8 122. Kb3 Kd7 123. Ka2 Rf6 124. Qg7+ Be7 125. Kb3 b6 126. cxb6 Rxb6+ 127. Ka2 Ke8 128. Qd4 Rf6 129. Qa7 Kf7 130. Kb3 Rc6 131. Qd7 Rf6 132. Ka4 Kf8 133. Ka5 Rd6 134. Qc8+ Bd8+ 135. Ka4 Ke8 136. Qc1 Rf6 137. Qa1 Rf4+ 138. Kb3 Rf6 139. Qc3 Kf7 140. Qd4 Be7 141. Qe4 Kf8 142. Kc2 Bd6 143. Qa8+ Kf7 144. Qxa6 Be7 145. Qc4+ Kf8 146. Qe4 Rb6 147. Kd3 Rf6 148. Qa8+ Kf7 149. Kc4 Rb6 150. Qd5+ Kf8 151. Qf5+ Ke8 152. Kd4 Rf6 153. Qe5 Rd6+ 154. Ke4 Kf7 155. Qf5+ Rf6 156. Qd5+ Kf8 157. Qe5 Ke8 158. Kd4 Kf8 159. Qb8+ Kf7 160. Qc7 Re6 161. Qc4 Kf6 162. Kc3 Bd6 163. Qa4 Ke7 164. Qc4 Kf7 165. Qd5 Ke7 166. Kc4 Kf7 167. Kc3 Kf6 168. Kd3 Bf8 169. Qc4 Kf7 170. Kd2 Bd6 171. Qd5 Ke7 172. Kc2 Rf6 173. Qg8 Kd7 174. Kd3 Be7 175. Kd4 Re6 176. Kd5 Rb6 177. Qa8 Rd6+ 178. Kc4 Bd8 179. Qa4+ Ke7 180. Qa1 Rf6 181. Qa7+ Ke8 182. Qa1 Kd7 183. Kd4 Bc7 184. Qa4+ Ke7 185. Kc3 Be5+ 186. Kd3 Bf4 187. Kc4 Bc7 188. Qa8 Bd8 189. Kb5 Kd7 190. Qe4 Rb6+ 1/2-1/2
Game 66
Similar to game 14, Stockfish demonstrated it didn't know what to do with its dark square bishop in these pawn structures. GM Sadler wrote that he lost interest in the game after 11...Bxc3, and indeed, Leela won the game.
Game 66: Leela Chess Zero–Stockfish: King's Indian Defense
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Be2 O-O 6. Nf3 e5 7. O-O exd4 8. Nxd4 Re8 9. f3 Nc6 10. Nc2 Nd7 11. Be3 Bxc3 12. bxc3 b6 13. Nb4 Na5 14. Bh6 Nc5 15. Qd4 Ne6 16. Qf2 c6 17. Rae1 Nc5 18. h4 Qf6 19. Rc1 Bd7 20. Rfe1 Nab7 21. Nd3 Nxd3 22. Bxd3 Qe5 23. Rcd1 f6 24. Bc2 Nd8 25. c5 Nf7 26. Bc1 bxc5 27. f4 Qe6 28. c4 Rab8 29. h5 gxh5 30. Qh4 Qg4 31. Qxf6 Re6 32. Qc3 Rg6 33. Rd2 Qg3 34. Re3 Qxf4 35. e5 Nxe5 36. Bxg6 hxg6 37. Rxe5 Qxe5 38. Qxe5 dxe5 39. Rxd7 Rb1 40. Rd1 Rb4 41. Bg5 Rxc4 42. Rd6 Rg4 43. Bf6 Re4 44. a3 c4 45. Rxc6 Kf7 46. Bg5 Re1+ 47. Kh2 Ra1 48. Rxc4 Rxa3 49. Rc7+ Ke6 50. Rc6+ Kf7 51. Rf6+ Kg7 52. Re6 Ra5 53. Re7+ Kf8 54. Rc7 Ra4 55. Bh6+ Ke8 56. Rg7 Rh4+ 57. Kg1 a5 58. Rxg6 Kf7 59. Ra6 a4 60. Bg5 Rg4 61. Bd8 Rc4 62. Bf6 Rc5 63. Bh8 Kg8 64. Ra8+ Kh7 65. Kh2 Rd5 66. Kg3 a3 67. Bf6 Rd3+ 68. Kh4 Kg6 69. Be7 Rd2 70. Bxa3 Kf7 71. Kh3 Rd1 72. Kh2 Kg6 73. Bc5 Rd2 74. Re8 Re2 75. Bd6 Kf6 76. Rh8 Rd2 77. Bb8 Rb2 78. Ba7 Kg6 79. Rb8 Ra2 80. Bc5 Kf5 81. Rh8 Kg4 82. Rg8+ Kf4 83. Bd6 Rd2 84. Be7 Rd7 85. Bh4 e4 86. Bg5+ Kf5 87. Be3 h4 88. Bf2 Rd3 89. Bxh4 Rd7 90. Rd8 Rb7 91. Bf2 Ke6 92. Re8+ Kd5 93. Be3 Kc4 94. Rxe4+ 1-0
Game 95
This game featured a French Defense. Stockfish had the White pieces, which made it critical for Stockfish because Leela was better at the opening. However, Leela played what was perhaps its best game in the match to win with Black. It was the only Black win in the entire superfinal and, when Leela further won the reverse game, the only opening in which the same engine won with both colors.
Game 95: Stockfish–Leela Chess Zero: French Defense
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 b6 4. c3 c5 5. Na3 Qd7 6. Bb5 Nc6 7. Nf3 a6 8. Bd3 f6 9. O-O fxe5 10. Nxe5 Nxe5 11. dxe5 Ne7 12. Qf3 Nc6 13. Qg3 Bb7 14. Nc2 O-O-O 15. Rb1 b5 16. b4 c4 17. Be2 d4 18. cxd4 Ne7 19. Rd1 g5 20. Ne3 Nd5 21. Nxd5 Bxd5 22. Bh5 Qc6 23. h3 Be7 24. Rb2 Rdf8 25. a3 Rf5 26. Ra2 Kb7 27. Rf1 Rg8 28. Qg4 Ra8 29. Bd2 Raf8 30. Rc2 a5 31. bxa5 Bxa3 32. Qg3 Be7 33. Rb2 Ka6 34. Bg4 R5f7 35. Bh5 Rg7 36. Rfb1 Rb8 37. Bb4 g4 38. hxg4 Be4 39. Rc1 Rd8 40. Bxe7 Rxe7 41. Qe3 Bxg2 42. g5 Bd5 43. f4 Rb7 44. Kf2 b4 45. Be2 Rc8 46. f5 exf5 47. Rbc2 Qb5 48. e6 f4 49. Qe5 b3 50. Rb2 f3 51. Bd3 Ka7 52. a6 Rbb8 53. Qg7+ Ka8 54. Qd7 Qxd7 55. exd7 Rc6 56. Bxc4 Rxc4 57. Rxb3 Rd8 58. Rxc4 Bxc4 59. Rxf3 Rxd7 60. Ke3 Bf7 61. Kd3 Ka7 62. Rf6 Bg6+ 63. Kc4 Be4 64. Rf4 Rc7+ 65. Kb4 Bd3 66. d5 Bxa6 67. Rf3 Kb7 68. Rg3 Rg7 69. Kc5 Kc7 70. Kd4 Kd6 71. Rh3 Bc8 72. Rh6+ Ke7 73. Ke4 Kf8 74. Rc6 Bd7 75. Rh6 Re7+ 76. Kd4 Kg7 77. Rf6 Rf7 78. Rb6 Bg4 79. Ke5 Rf5+ 80. Ke4 Rxg5 81. Rb7+ Kg6 82. Rb6+ Kh5 83. Rb7 h6 84. Rb2 Bc8 85. Kd4 Kg6 86. Rb6+ Kh7 87. Rb3 Rg4+ 88. Kc5 Rg7 89. Kd4 Rb7 90. Ra3 Rd7 91. Rb3 Bb7 92. Rb5 Kg6 93. Rb6+ Kg5 0-1
Game 96
In an embarrassing loss for Stockfish, Black never manages to develop its king's Bishop and Rook until it was too late. Former World Correspondence Chess Champion Leonardo Ljubičić called Stockfish's handling of its kingside pieces "clueless".
Game 96: Leela Chess Zero–Stockfish: French Defense
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 b6 4. h4 c5 5. c3 Nc6 6. Nf3 Bd7 7. Bd3 Qc7 8. O-O cxd4 9. Bf4 a6 10. a3 dxc3 11. Nxc3 b5 12. Rc1 Qb6 13. Be3 Qb8 14. Re1 Nge7 15. b4 h6 16. h5 Qb7 17. Bf4 Rc8 18. Qd2 Rc7 19. Bg3 Rg8 20. Rc2 Rc8 21. Ne2 Na7 22. Nfd4 Rxc2 23. Qxc2 Nac6 24. Bh7 Rh8 25. Bd3 Rg8 26. Bh7 Rh8 27. f4 Nxd4 28. Nxd4 Qc8 29. Rc1 Qxc2 30. Bxc2 Nc6 31. Bf2 Nb8 32. Bd3 Be7 33. Rc7 Kd8 34. Rc2 Ke8 35. g4 Rg8 36. Kg2 Kd8 37. Kg3 Rh8 38. Rc1 Rg8 39. Bg1 g6 40. hxg6 fxg6 41. Be3 h5 42. g5 Ke8 43. Rc7 Kf7 44. Bb1 Rd8 45. Nf3 d4 46. Nxd4 Rc8 47. Rb7 Rd8 48. Be4 Re8 49. Kf2 h4 50. Kg2 Rc8 51. Bf2 Be8 52. Rb6 Bd7 53. Kh2 a5 54. bxa5 Bd8 55. Rb7 Bxa5 56. Nxb5 Kg8 57. Nd6 Rf8 58. Be3 Bc6 59. Bxc6 Nxc6 60. Ne4 Rf7 61. Rxf7 Kxf7 62. Bf2 Ne7 63. Bxh4 Nd5 64. Bg3 Bc7 65. Kh3 Ba5 66. Kg4 Ke7 67. Bf2 Kd7 68. Kf3 Kc6 69. Be3 Bc3 70. Bc1 Bd4 71. Ke2 Bc5 72. Kd3 Bf8 73. Kc4 Nb6+ 74. Kc3 Be7 75. Kd3 Nd5 76. Kc4 Bd8 77. Nf6 Nb6+ 78. Kb3 Na8 79. Bd2 Bb6 80. a4 Nc7 81. Kc4 Ba7 82. Kd3 Bc5 83. Ne4 Bf8 84. Kc4 Ba3 85. Nc3 Na6 86. Be3 Bb4 87. Ne2 Be1 88. Nd4+ Kd7 89. Nb3 Kc6 90. a5 Bg3 91. Nd4+ Kd7 92. Bd2 Bh2 93. Ne2 Kc6 94. Be3 Nc7 95. Bc1 Nd5 96. Bd2 Ne7 97. Kd3 Kb7 98. Ke4 Nf5 99. Kf3 Nh4+ 100. Kg4 Nf5 101. Kh3 Bg1 102. Nxg1 Nd4 103. f5 exf5 104. Be3 Ne6 105. Ne2 f4 106. Nxf4 Nxg5+ 107. Kg4 Nf7 108. Nxg6 Ka6 109. Kf5 Nxe5 1-0
External links
Archive of all games
References
2020 in chess
Top Chess Engine Championship |
1323131 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory%20segmentation | Memory segmentation | Memory segmentation is an operating system memory management technique of division of a computer's primary memory into segments or sections. In a computer system using segmentation, a reference to a memory location includes a value that identifies a segment and an offset (memory location) within that segment. Segments or sections are also used in object files of compiled programs when they are linked together into a program image and when the image is loaded into memory.
Segments usually correspond to natural divisions of a program such as individual routines or data tables so segmentation is generally more visible to the programmer than paging alone.
Different segments may be created for different program modules, or for different classes of memory usage such as code and data segments. Certain segments may be shared between programs.
Segmentation was originally invented as a method by which system software could isolate different software processes (tasks) and data they are using. It was intended to increase reliability of the systems running multiple processes simultaneously. In a x86-64 architecture it is considered legacy and most x86-64-based modern system software don't use memory segmentation. Instead they handle programs and their data by utilizing memory-paging which also serves as a way of memory protection. However most x86-64 implementations still support it for backward compatibility reasons.
Hardware implementation
In a system using segmentation, computer memory addresses consist of a segment id and an offset within the segment.
A hardware memory management unit (MMU) is responsible for translating the segment and offset into a physical address, and for performing checks to make sure the translation can be done and that the reference to that segment and offset is permitted.
Each segment has a length and set of permissions (for example, read, write, execute) associated with it. A process is only allowed to make a reference into a segment if the type of reference is allowed by the permissions, and if the offset within the segment is within the range specified by the length of the segment. Otherwise, a hardware exception such as a segmentation fault is raised.
Segments may also be used to implement virtual memory.
In this case each segment has an associated flag indicating whether it is present in main memory or not. If a segment is accessed that is not present in main memory, an exception is raised, and the operating system will read the segment into memory from secondary storage.
Segmentation is one method of implementing memory protection. Paging is another, and they can be combined. The size of a memory segment is generally not fixed and may be as small as a single byte.
Segmentation has been implemented in several different ways on different hardware, with or without paging. Intel x86 memory segmentation does not fit either model and is discussed separately below, and also in greater detail in a separate article.
Segmentation without paging
Associated with each segment is information that indicates where the segment is located in memory— the segment base. When a program references a memory location the offset is added to the segment base to generate a physical memory address.
An implementation of virtual memory on a system using segmentation without paging requires that entire segments be swapped back and forth between main memory and secondary storage. When a segment is swapped in, the operating system has to allocate enough contiguous free memory to hold the entire segment. Often memory fragmentation results if there is not enough contiguous memory even though there may be enough in total.
Segmentation with paging
Instead of an actual memory location the segment information includes the address of a page table for the segment.
When a program references a memory location the offset is translated to a memory address using the page table. A segment can be extended simply by allocating another memory page and adding it to the segment's page table.
An implementation of virtual memory on a system using segmentation with paging usually only moves individual pages back and forth between main memory and secondary storage, similar to a paged non-segmented system. Pages of the segment can be located anywhere in main memory and need not be contiguous. This usually results in a reduced amount of input/output between primary and secondary storage and reduced memory fragmentation.
History
The Burroughs Corporation B5000 computer was one of the first to implement segmentation, and "perhaps the first commercial computer to provide virtual memory" based on segmentation. The later B6500 computer also implemented segmentation; a version of its architecture is still in use today on the Unisys ClearPath Libra servers.
The GE-645 computer, a modification of the GE-635 with segmentation and paging support added, was designed in 1964 to support Multics.
The Intel iAPX 432, begun in 1975, attempted to implement a true segmented architecture with memory protection on a microprocessor.
The 960MX version of the Intel i960 processors supported load and store instructions with the source or destination being an "access descriptor" for an object, and an offset into the object, with the access descriptor being in a 32-bit register and with the offset computed from a base offset in the next register and from an additional offset and, optionally, an index register specified in the instruction. An access descriptor contains permission bits and a 26-bit object index; the object index is an index into a table of object descriptors, giving an object type, an object length, and a physical address for the object's data, a page table for the object, or the top-level page table for a two-level page table for the object, depending on the object type.
Prime, Stratus, Apollo, IBM System/38, and IBM AS/400 (including IBM i) computers use memory segmentation.
Examples
S/370 architecture
In the IBM System/370 models with virtual storage (DAT) and 24-bit addresses, control register 0 specifies a segment size of either 64 KiB or 1 MiB and a page size of either 2 KiB or 4 KiB; control register 1 contains a Segment Table Designator (STD), which specifies the length and real address of the segment table. Each segment table entry contains a page table location, a page table length and an invalid bit. IBM later expanded the address size to 31 bits and added two bits to the segment table entries:
Segment-Protection Bit
Segment is read-only
Common-Segment Bit
The segment is shared between address spaces; this bit is set to optimize TLB use
Each of IBM's DAT implementations includes a translation cache, which IBM called a Translation Lookaside Buffer (TLB). While Principles of Operation discusses the TLB in general terms, the details are not part of the architecture and vary from model to model.
Starting with the 3031, 3032 and 3033 processor complexes, IBM offered a feature called Dual-address Space (DAS), which allows a program to switch between the translation tables for two different address spaces, referred to as primary address space (CR1) and secondary address space (CR7), and to move data between the address spaces subject to protection key. DAS supports a translation table to convert a 16-bit address space number (ASN) to an STD, with privileged instructions to load the STD into CR1 (primary) or CR7 (secondary).
x86 architecture
The memory segmentation used by early x86 processors, beginning with the Intel 8086, does not provide any protection. Any program running on these processors can access any segment with no restrictions. A segment is only identified by its starting location; there is no length checking. The segment starting address granularity is 16 bytes and the offset is 16 bits, supporting segment sizes up to 64 KiB, so segments can (and often do) overlap and each physical address can be denoted by 4096 different segment–offset pairs (allowing for address offset wrap-around).
Segmentation in the Intel 80286 and later provides protection: with the introduction of the 80286, Intel retroactively named the sole operating mode of the previous x86 CPU models "real mode" and introduced a new "protected mode" with protection features. For backward compatibility, all x86 CPUs start in "real mode" with no memory protection, fixed 64 KiB segments, and only 20-bit (1024 KiB) addressing. An 80286 or later processor must be switched into another mode by software in order to use its full address space and advanced MMU features.
The Intel 80386 and later processors also support paging; in those processors, the segment table, rather than pointing to a page table for the segment, contains the segment address in linear memory. Addresses in linear memory are then mapped to physical addresses using a separate page table, if paging is enabled.
The x86-64 architecture does not use segmentation in long mode (64-bit mode). In a x86-64 architecture it is considered legacy and most x86-64-based modern system software don't use memory segmentation. Instead they handle programs and their data by utilizing memory-paging which also serves as a way of memory protection. Though most x86-64 implementations still support it for backward compatibility reasons. Four of the segment registers: CS, SS, DS, and ES are forced to 0, and the limit to 264. The segment registers FS and GS can still have a nonzero base address. This allows operating systems to use these segments for special purposes.
See also
Memory management (operating systems)
Virtual address space
Virtual memory
Data segment
BSS Segment
x86 memory segmentation
Segmentation fault
Flat memory model
Notes
References
External links
IA-32 Intel Architecture Software Developer’s Manual Volume 3A: System Programming Guide. http://www.intel.com/products/processor/manuals/index.htm.
Operating Systems: Internals and Design Principles by William Stallings. Publisher: Prentice Hall. . .
Memory management |
165543 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open%20Sound%20System | Open Sound System | The Open Sound System (OSS) is an interface for making and capturing sound in Unix and Unix-like operating systems. It is based on standard Unix devices system calls (i.e. POSIX read, write, ioctl, etc.). The term also sometimes refers to the software in a Unix kernel that provides the OSS interface; it can be thought of as a device driver (or a collection of device drivers) for sound controller hardware. The goal of OSS is to allow the writing of sound-based applications that are agnostic of the underlying sound hardware.
OSS was created by Hannu Savolainen and is distributed under four license options, three of which are free software licences, thus making OSS free software.
API
The API is designed to use the traditional Unix framework of open(), read(), write(), and ioctl(), via special devices. For instance, the default device for sound input and output is /dev/dsp. Examples using the shell:
cat /dev/random > /dev/dsp # plays white noise through the speaker
cat /dev/dsp > a.a # reads data from the microphone and copies it to file a.a
Free, proprietary, free
The project was initially free software, but following the project's success, Savolainen was contracted by the company 4Front Technologies and made his support for newer sound devices and improvements proprietary. In response, eventually the Linux community abandoned the OSS/free implementation included in the kernel and development effort switched to the replacement Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA).
Some Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu, have chosen to disable OSS support in their kernels and ignore any bugs filed against OSS4 packages (although OSS support may be re-enabled on Ubuntu).
In spite of this, several operating systems, such as FreeBSD, continued to distribute previous versions of OSS, and continue to maintain and improve these versions.
In July 2007, 4Front Technologies released sources for OSS under CDDL-1.0 for OpenSolaris and GPL-2.0-only for Linux.
In January 2008, 4Front Technologies released OSS for FreeBSD (and other BSD systems) under the BSD-2-Clause.
Other implementations
FreeBSD contains an independently developed implementation of the OSS API, which includes, among other things, in-kernel resampling, mixing (vchans), equalizer, surround sound, and independent volume control for each application. It also supports bit-perfect mode.
NetBSD supports a compatibility mode for the OSS API, by providing the soundcard.h header file and the libossaudio library, which internally operate using the native Sun-like audio interface.
Solaris and OpenSolaris uses a fork of OSS4 called Boomer. It combines the OSS4 framework (audio and mixer) together with Sun's earlier SADA(/dev/audio) API.
OSS/3D
OSS/3D is a plugin for music players, which acts as an audio postprocessing engine. Supported players include Winamp, Windows Media Player (9 or later), musicmatch, Sonique, Foobar2000, JetAudio, XMMS. It is ported to Windows and Linux platforms. Unlike the OSS, it is shareware.
4Front OSS3D was later renamed to Joesoft Hear.
OSS in relation to ALSA
In the Linux kernel, there have historically been two uniform sound APIs used. One is OSS;
the other is ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture). ALSA is available for Linux only, and as there is only one implementation of the ALSA interface, ALSA refers equally to that implementation and to the interface itself.
OSS was the only audio API in Linux up through the 2.4 series of official (kernel.org) Linux kernels. ALSA was added starting with 2.5, and in those versions, Linux kernel authors marked OSS as deprecated. 4Front continued to develop OSS outside the Linux kernel.
ALSA provides an optional OSS emulation mode that appears to programs as if it were OSS. Similarly, there was an ALSA emulation mode in the Linux implementation of OSS.
OSS both as API and as software has been criticized by some developers, such as Paul Davis (of JACK Audio Connection Kit) and Lennart Poettering (of competing PulseAudio). Most of these criticisms were either specific to the Linux implementation and not to the OSS API itself, or have been addressed in OSS version 4.
See also
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture – prevailing sound framework in the Linux kernel
PulseAudio – a sound server for desktop use, commonly used on Linux systems
JACK Audio Connection Kit – prevailing sound server for professional audio production on Linux
References
External links
Building the Open Sound System From Source
State of sound in Linux not so sorry after all
Application programming interfaces
Audio libraries
Cross-platform software
Free audio software
Linux kernel features |
18801841 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatriz%20Sheridan | Beatriz Sheridan | Elizabeth Ann Sheridan Scarbrough, better known as Beatriz Sheridan (25 June 1934 – 30 April 2006) was a Mexican actress and director. A pioneer of the Mexican telenovelas and prominent figure of the Mexican theater of the 20th century, she was also a teacher of dramatic technique for television and directed many great dramatic stars.
Biography
Early life
Elizabeth Ann Sheridan Scarbrough was born on 25 June 1934 in Mexico City, of a British mother and Mexican father. She had 6 brothers and one sister. She studied philosophy and letters at the University of Missouri in the United States. Back in Mexico, she studied at Mexico City College. She was a distinguished student of the famous Japanese director and instructor Seki Sano, whom she became an assistant to in the direction of a number of theatrical montages.
Theater
Beginning in 1959, Sheridan participated as an actress and protagonist on the Mexican stage for four years. She worked with Alejandro Jodorowsky in montages like The lesson, Penelope, The sonata of the specters, Fando y Lis and The opera of Order, among others. From 1963, she was part of numerous Mexican classical theater ensembles. Some of her works include The Trojan Women (1963), directed by Jose Solé, La moza del cántaro (1964), directed by Jose Luis Ibáñez, Los secuestradores de Altona (1965), directed by Rafael López Miarnau, Strange interlude, directed by Xavier Rojas, Doce y una trece, by Juan José Gurrola, Mudarse por mejorarse (1966), by José Luis Ibáñez, Diálogo entre el amor y un viejo (1966), also by Ibáñez, Por Lucrecia, directed by Héctor Gómez, La noche de los asesinos directed by Juan José Gurrola, A Streetcar Named Desire (1968), directed by Dimitro Sarrás and Ah, los días felices (1977) by Manuel Montoro.
In 1980 she performed what would probably be her most memorable theatric performance, RW Fassbinder's The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, directed by Nancy Cárdenas. The poet Pita Amor wrote an essay entitled The Bitter Tears of Beatriz Sheridan about her impressive performance.
Sheridan was also a pioneer and director of live readings of poetry and literature. Octavio Paz would demand the presence of Sheridan for every reading of his poems.
Films
Sheridan made her film debut in 1963 in the film version of Euripides' The Trojan Women, directed by Sergio Véjar and opposite Ofelia Guilmáin, Mercedes Pascual, and other great actresses. In 1965 Sheridan participated in the film Tajimara, of Juan Jose Gurrola, with Pilar Pellicer and Claudio Obregón. In 1967 she participated in the film Pedro Páramo, directed by Carlos Velo, next to John Gavin and Ignacio López Tarso. In 1969 she was part of the cast of Arturo Ripstein's Los recuerdos del porvenir. In 1980 she appeared in the film Misterio, by Marcela Fernández, for which she won the Silver Ariel Award from the Mexican Film Academy in the category of Best Female Co-Performance.
Sheridan's most remembered cinematographic work was arguably in Confidencias (1983), by Jaime Humberto Hermosillo, based on the novel Pétalos perennes by Luis Zapata, and acting alongside María Rojo. For this performance she was awarded the Silver Ariel Award in the category of Best Actress.
Sheridan's last film work was in the award-winning film Gaby: A True Story, by Luis Mandoki, starring Norma Aleandro and Liv Ullmann.
Television
Sheridan was a pioneer of Mexican telenovelas. She participated in Senda prohibida, the first melodrama produced in Mexico. From that point onward she participated in numerous television productions. Other television work included La constitución (1970), with María Félix, where she interpreted the historical persona of Carmen Serdán; La venganza (1977), next to Helena Rojo and Gabriel y Gabriela (1982), with Ana Martín. She also participated in the telenovelas Vivir un poco (1985), with Angélica Aragón, Alondra (1995), with Ana Colchero and Gonzalo Vega, and Amor real (2003), with Adela Noriega.
Her last work as an actress was in the telenovela Contra viento y marea (2005), where she partnered with the actress Azela Robinson.
Director
In the last two decades of her life, Beatriz Sheridan stood out as the director of numerous Mexican melodramas. Her unique techniques in television influenced a wide range of notable Mexican actors. Her first directing appearance was through famed Chilean producer Valentín Pimstein in the telenovela Vivir un poco, where she served as director of dialogue. Her first project as a leading director was in the telenovela La indomable (1987), produced by Julissa. Her most memorable work as a director is the famous television trilogy known as La Trilogía de las Marías, starring singer Thalía: María Mercedes (1992), Marimar (1994), and María la del barrio (1995). These telenovelas were a huge international success.
Death
Beatriz Sheridan died on Sunday, 30 April 2006 at 4:00 am in her apartment in the Colonia San Miguel Chapultepec in Mexico City of a heart attack, at 71 years of age. Her ashes were scattered in the Caribbean Sea, facing the beaches of Cozumel Island, Quintana Roo, Mexico, one of the actress's favorite places where she owned a house.
Selected filmography
Senda prohibida (1959)
Pedro Páramo (1967)
La Generala (1970)
The Trojan Women (1972)
Victoria (1972)
Muñeca Rota (1979)
Misterio (1980)
Confidencias (1982)
Gabriel y Gabriela (1983)
Vivir un poco (1985)
Gaby: A True Story (1987)
Alondra (1995)
Vivan los Niños (2002)
Amor real (2003)
Contra viento y marea (2005)
Director
Monte Calvario (1986)
Rosa Salvaje (1987)
Simplemente Maria (1989)
Mi pequeña Soledad (1990)
María Mercedes (1993)
Marimar (1994)
Maria la del Barrio (1995)
Esmeralda (1997)
La usurpadora (1998)
Rosalinda (1999)
La Intrusa (2001)
References
External links
1934 births
2006 deaths
Ariel Award winners
University of Missouri alumni
Mexican people of English descent
Mexican film actresses
Mexican stage actresses
Mexican telenovela actresses
Mexican telenovela directors
Actresses from Mexico City
Women television directors |
29130978 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank%20Sinatra%20%28Miss%20Kittin%20%26%20The%20Hacker%20song%29 | Frank Sinatra (Miss Kittin & The Hacker song) | "Frank Sinatra" is a song by French recording duo Miss Kittin & The Hacker. The song was originally included on the duo's 1998 EP Champagne and became an anthem of the electroclash scene. It was later included on the duo's debut studio album First Album (2001), as well as on Miss Kittin's DJ mix album On the Road (2002).
Writing and inspiration
Miss Kittin explained in an interview that the song was inspired by her love of Frank Sinatra and jazz music.
"I love Frank Sinatra and the American crooners and romantic jazz in general. I was looking for a rhyme to "area" and here it came. What you don't know, is when I said "He's dead", I really thought he was... A friend told me it was funny because he's still alive... I couldn't believe it and felt guilty, especially when he died three months later..."
Composition
"Frank Sinatra" is credited as an electroclash and techno song, and is noted for its use of deadpan. In the song, Miss Kittin discusses having sex in limousines. According to Terry Sawyer of PopMatters, "In a deadpan cadence done in the accent of Ilsa the She-Wolf of The SS, Miss Kittin [...], created decadent club music for people too arch and smart for typical white label fare. It was a deader and more desolate take on tired convention of the house beat and unknown diva repeating a pithy chorus ad nauseum [sic], an alleged elevation of cliché through the detachment of kitsch.
Critical reception
Adam Bregman of Allmusic described the song as "undoubtedly the standout cut on the album." Ed Gonzalez, writing for Slant Magazine, said, "Backed by The Hacker's happy-to-be-cheap retro production, Miss Kittin provides the ultimate electroclash statement: she makes social climbing sound so stupid and empty, while reveling in it."
Slant Magazine placed "Frank Sinatra" at number eighty-six on its 100 Greatest Dance Songs list. Rock De Lux placed the song at number thirteen on the Songs of the Year list for 2001. The Village Voice included the song on its Pazz & Jop Singles list for 2002.
Cultural impact
"Frank Sinatra" was included on compilation albums Global Underground 010: Athens by Danny Tenaglia, American Gigolo by Tiga, Dirty Dirty House Vol. 1 by Junior Sanchez, Lektroluv by Dr Lektroluv, and GU10.
In 2003, "Frank Sinatra" was featured in the American biographical comedy-drama film Party Monster and its soundtrack. The soundtrack peaked at number twenty-one on the US Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums.
Track listings
German EP
A1. "Gigolo Intro" - 1:52
A2. "Frank Sinatra" - 3:51
A3. "The Grey Area" - 5:16
B1. "1982" - 5:17
B2. "Gratin Dauphinois" - 3:31
B3. "Gigolo Outro" - 2:02
B4. "Dirty Talk" - 2:05
Belgian Vinyl, 12-inch single
"Frank Sinatra (Promo)" -
"Frank Sinatra (Vocal Out)" -
U.S. Vinyl, 12-inch single
"Frank Sinatra" -
"Frank Sinatra 2001" -
"DJ Song" -
References
2000 singles
2000 songs
Miss Kittin songs
Songs about Frank Sinatra
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47768 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas%20Instruments | Texas Instruments | Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American technology company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, that designs and manufactures semiconductors and various integrated circuits, which it sells to electronics designers and manufacturers globally. It is one of the top 10 semiconductor companies worldwide based on sales volume. The company's focus is on developing analog chips and embedded processors, which account for more than 80% of its revenue. TI also produces TI digital light processing technology and education technology products including calculators, microcontrollers, and multi-core processors. The company holds 45,000 patents worldwide as of 2016.
Texas Instruments emerged in 1951 after a reorganization of Geophysical Service Incorporated, a company founded in 1930 that manufactured equipment for use in the seismic industry, as well as defense electronics. TI produced the world's first commercial silicon transistor in 1954, and the same year designed and manufactured the first transistor radio. Jack Kilby invented the integrated circuit in 1958 while working at TI's Central Research Labs. TI also invented the hand-held calculator in 1967, and introduced the first single-chip microcontroller in 1970, which combined all the elements of computing onto one piece of silicon.
In 1987, TI invented the digital light processing device (also known as the DLP chip), which serves as the foundation for the company's award-winning DLP technology and DLP Cinema. TI released the popular TI-81 calculator in 1990, which made it a leader in the graphing calculator industry. Its defense business was sold to Raytheon in 1997; this allowed TI to strengthen its focus on digital solutions. After the acquisition of National Semiconductor in 2011, the company had a combined portfolio of 45,000 analog products and customer design tools. In the stock market, Texas Instruments is often regarded as an indicator for the semiconductor and electronics industry as a whole, since the company sells to more than 100,000 customers.
History
Texas Instruments was founded by Cecil H. Green, J. Erik Jonsson, Eugene McDermott, and Patrick E. Haggerty in 1951. McDermott was one of the original founders of Geophysical Service Inc. (GSI) in 1930. McDermott, Green, and Jonsson were GSI employees who purchased the company in 1941. In November 1945, Patrick Haggerty was hired as general manager of the Laboratory and Manufacturing (L&M) division, which focused on electronic equipment. By 1951, the L&M division, with its defense contracts, was growing faster than GSI's geophysical division. The company was reorganized and initially renamed General Instruments Inc. Because a firm named General Instrument already existed, the company was renamed Texas Instruments that same year. From 1956 to 1961, Fred Agnich of Dallas, later a Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives, was the Texas Instruments president. Geophysical Service, Inc. became a subsidiary of Texas Instruments. Early in 1988, most of GSI was sold to the Halliburton Company.
Geophysical Service Incorporated
In 1930, J. Clarence Karcher and Eugene McDermott founded Geophysical Service, an early provider of seismic exploration services to the petroleum industry. In 1939, the company reorganized as Coronado Corp, an oil company with Geophysical Service Inc (GSI), now as a subsidiary. On December 6, 1941, McDermott along with three other GSI employees, J. Erik Jonsson, Cecil H. Green, and H. B. Peacock purchased GSI. During World War II, GSI expanded its services to include electronics for the U.S. Army, Army Signal Corps, and U.S. Navy. In 1951, the company changed its name to Texas Instruments, spun off to build seismographs for oil explorations and with GSI becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of the new company.
An early success story for TI-GSI came in 1965 when GSI was able (under a Top Secret government contract) to monitor the Soviet Union's underground nuclear weapons testing under the ocean in Vela Uniform, a subset of Project Vela, to verify compliance of the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
Texas Instruments also continued to manufacture equipment for use in the seismic industry, and GSI continued to provide seismic services. After selling (and repurchasing) GSI, TI finally sold the company to Halliburton in 1988, after which sale GSI ceased to exist as a separate entity.
Semiconductors
In early 1952, Texas Instruments purchased a patent license to produce germanium transistors from Western Electric, the manufacturing arm of AT&T, for $25,000, beginning production by the end of the year.
On January 1, 1953, Haggerty brought Gordon Teal to the company as a research director. Gordon brought with him his expertise in growing semiconductor crystals. Teal's first assignment was to organize what became TI's Central Research Laboratories, which Teal based on his prior experience at Bell Labs.
Among his new hires was Willis Adcock, who joined TI early in 1953. Adcock, who like Teal was a physical chemist, began leading a small research group focused on the task of fabricating grown-junction, silicon, single-crystal, small-signal transistors. Adcock later became the first TI Principal Fellow.
First silicon transistor and integrated circuits
In January 1954, Morris Tanenbaum at Bell Labs created the first workable silicon transistor. This work was reported in the spring of 1954, at the IRE off-the-record conference on solid-state devices, and was later published in the Journal of Applied Physics. Working independently in April 1954, Gordon Teal at TI created the first commercial silicon transistor and tested it on April 14, 1954. On May 10, 1954, at the Institute of Radio Engineers National Conference on Airborne Electronics in Dayton, Ohio, Teal presented a paper: "Some Recent Developments in Silicon and Germanium Materials and Devices".
In 1954, Texas Instruments designed and manufactured the first transistor radio. The Regency TR-1 used germanium transistors, as silicon transistors were much more expensive at the time. This was an effort by Haggerty to increase market demand for transistors.
Jack Kilby, an employee at TI's Central Research Labs, invented the integrated circuit in 1958. Kilby recorded his initial ideas concerning the integrated circuit in July 1958, and successfully demonstrated the world's first working integrated circuit on September 12, 1958. Six months later, Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor (who went on to co-found Intel) independently developed the integrated circuit with integrated interconnect, and is also considered an inventor of the integrated circuit. In 1969, Kilby was awarded the National Medal of Science, and in 1982 he was inducted into the National Inventor's Hall of Fame. Kilby also won the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics for his part of the invention of the integrated circuit. Noyce's chip, made at Fairchild, was made of silicon, while Kilby's chip was made of germanium. In 2008, TI named its new development laboratory "Kilby Labs" after Jack Kilby.
In 2011, Intel, Samsung, LG, ST-Ericsson, Huawei's HiSilicon Technologies subsidiary, Via Telecom, and three other undisclosed chipmakers licensed the C2C link specification developed by Arteris Inc. and Texas Instruments.
Standard TTL
The 7400 series of transistor-transistor logic chips, developed by Texas Instruments in the 1960s, popularized the use of integrated circuits in computer logic. The military-grade version of this was the 5400 series.
Microprocessor
Texas Instruments invented the hand-held calculator (a prototype called "Cal Tech") in 1967 and the single-chip microcomputer in 1971, was assigned the first patent on a single-chip microprocessor (invented by Gary Boone) on September 4, 1973. This was disputed by Gilbert Hyatt, formerly of the Micro Computer Company, in August 1990, when he was awarded a patent superseding TI's. This was overturned on June 19, 1996, in favor of TI (note: Intel is usually given credit with Texas Instruments for the almost-simultaneous invention of the microprocessor).
First speech synthesis chip
In 1978, Texas Instruments introduced the first single-chip linear predictive coding speech synthesizer. In 1976, TI began a feasibility study of memory-intensive applications for bubble memory then being developed. They soon focused on speech applications. This resulted in the development the TMC0280 one-chip linear predictive coding speech synthesizer, which was the first time a single silicon chip had electronically replicated the human voice. This was used in several TI commercial products beginning with Speak & Spell, which was introduced at the Summer Consumer Electronics Show in June 1978. In 2001, TI left the speech synthesis business, selling it to Sensory Inc. of Santa Clara, California.
Consumer electronics and computers
In May 1954, Texas Instruments designed and built a prototype of the world's first transistor radio, and, through a partnership with Industrial Development Engineering Associates of Indianapolis, Indiana, the 100% solid-state radio was sold to the public beginning in October of that year.
In the 1960s, company president Pat Haggerty had a team that included Jack Kilby to work on a handheld calculator project. Kilby and two other colleagues created the Cal-Tech, a three-pound battery-powered calculator that could do basic math and fit six-digit numbers on its display. This 4.25 x 6.15 x 1.75 inch calculator's processor would originate the vast majority of Texas Instruments’ revenue.
In 1973, the handheld calculator SR-10 (named after slide rule) and in 1974, the handheld scientific calculator SR-50 were issued by TI. Both had red LED-segments numeric displays. The optical design of the SR-50 is somewhat similar to the HP-35 edited by Hewlett Packard before in early 1972, but buttons for the operations "+", "–", ... are in the right of the number block and the decimal point lies between two neighboring digits.
TI continued to be active in the consumer electronics market through the 1970s and 1980s. Early on, this also included two digital clock models - one for desk and the other a bedside alarm. From this sprang what became the Time Products Division, which made LED watches. Though these LED watches enjoyed early commercial success due to excellent quality, it was short-lived due to poor battery life. LEDs were replaced with LCD watches for a short time, but these could not compete because of styling issues, excessive makes and models, and price points. The watches were manufactured in Dallas and then Lubbock, Texas. Several spin-offs of the Speak & Spell, such as the Speak & Read and Speak & Math, were introduced soon thereafter.
In 1979, TI entered the home computer market with the TI-99/4, a competitor to such entries as the Apple II, Tandy/Radio Shack TRS-80, and the later Atari 400/800 series and Commodore VIC-20. It discontinued the TI-99/4A (1981), the sequel to the 99/4, in late 1983 amid an intense price war waged primarily against Commodore. At the 1983 Winter CES, TI showed models 99/2 and the Compact Computer 40 (CC-40), the latter aimed at professional users. The TI Professional (1983) ultimately joined the ranks of the many unsuccessful DOS and x86-based—but non-compatible—competitors to the IBM PC (the founders of Compaq, an early leader in PC compatibles, all came from TI). The company for years successfully made and sold PC-compatible laptops before withdrawing from the market and selling its product line to Acer in 1998.
Defense electronics
TI entered the defense electronics market in 1942 with submarine detection equipment, based on the seismic exploration technology previously developed for the oil industry. The division responsible for these products was known at different times as the Laboratory & Manufacturing Division, the Apparatus Division, the Equipment Group, and the Defense Systems & Electronics Group (DSEG).
During the early 1980s, TI instituted a quality program which included Juran training, as well as promoting statistical process control, Taguchi methods, and Design for Six Sigma. In the late '80s, the company, along with Eastman Kodak and Allied Signal, began involvement with Motorola, institutionalizing Motorola's Six Sigma methodology. Motorola, which originally developed the Six Sigma methodology, began this work in 1982. In 1992, the DSEG division of Texas Instruments' quality-improvement efforts were rewarded by winning the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for manufacturing.
Infrared and radar systems
TI developed the AAA-4 infrared search and track device in the late '50s and early '60s for the F-4B Phantom for passive scanning of jet-engine emissions, but it possessed limited capabilities and was eliminated on F-4Ds and later models.
In 1956, TI began research on infrared technology that led to several line scanner contracts and with the addition of a second scan mirror the invention of the first forward looking infrared (FLIR) in 1963 with production beginning in 1966. In 1972, TI invented the common module FLIR concept, greatly reducing cost and allowing reuse of common components.
TI went on to produce side-looking radar systems, the first terrain-following radar and surveillance radar systems for both the military and FAA. TI demonstrated the first solid-state radar called Molecular Electronics for Radar Applications. In 1976, TI developed a microwave landing system prototype. In 1984, TI developed the first inverse synthetic aperture radar. The first single-chip gallium arsenide radar module was developed. In 1991, the military microwave integrated circuit program was initiated a joint effort with Raytheon.
Missiles and laser-guided bombs
In 1961, TI won the guidance and control system contract for the defense suppression AGM-45 Shrike antiradiation missile. This led later to the prime on the high-speed antiradiation missile (AGM-88 HARM) development contract in 1974 and production in 1981.
In 1964, TI began development of the first laser guidance system for precision-guided munitions, leading to the Paveway series of laser-guided bombs (LGBs). The first LGB was the BOLT-117.
In 1969, TI won the Harpoon (missile) Seeker contract. In 1986, TI won the Army FGM-148 Javelin fire-and-forget man portable antitank guided missile in a joint venture with Martin Marietta. In 1991, TI was awarded the contract for the AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon.
Military computers
Because of TI's research and development of military temperature-range silicon transistors and integrated circuits (ICs), TI won contracts for the first IC-based computer for the U.S. Air Force in 1961 (molecular electronic computer) and for ICs for the Minuteman Missile the following year. In 1968, TI developed the data systems for Mariner Program. In 1991 TI won the F-22 Radar and Computer development contract.
Divestiture to Raytheon
As the defense industry consolidated, TI sold its defense business to Raytheon in 1997 for $2.95 billion. The Department of Justice required that Raytheon divest the TI Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC) operations after closing the transaction. The TI MMIC business accounted for less than $40 million in 1996 revenues, or roughly 2% of the $1.8 billion in total TI defense revenues, and was sold to TriQuint Semiconductor, Inc. Raytheon retained its own existing MMIC capabilities and has the right to license TI's MMIC technology for use in future product applications from TriQuint.
Shortly after Raytheon acquired TI DSEG, Raytheon then acquired Hughes Aircraft from General Motors. Raytheon then owned TI's mercury cadmium telluride detector business and infrared (IR) systems group. In California, it also had Hughes infrared detector and an IR systems business. When again the US government forced Raytheon to divest itself of a duplicate capability, the company kept the TI IR systems business and the Hughes detector business. As a result of these acquisitions, these former arch rivals of TI systems and Hughes detectors work together.
Immediately after acquisition, DSEG was known as Raytheon TI Systems (RTIS). It is now fully integrated into Raytheon and this designation no longer exists.
Artificial intelligence
TI was active in the area of artificial intelligence in the 1980s. In addition to ongoing developments in speech and signal processing and recognition, it developed and sold the Explorer computer family of Lisp machines. For the Explorer, a special 32-bit Lisp microprocessor was developed, which was used in the Explorer II and the TI MicroExplorer (a Lisp Machine on a NuBus board for the Apple Macintosh). AI application software developed by TI for the Explorer included the gate assignment system for United Airlines, described as "an artificial intelligence program that captures the combined experience and knowledge of a half-dozen United operations experts." In software for the PC, they introduced "Personal Consultant", a rule-based expert system development tool and runtime engine, followed by "Personal Consultant Plus" written in the Lisp-like language from MIT known as Scheme, and the natural language menu system NLMenu.
Sensors and controls
TI was a major original-equipment manufacturer of sensor, control, protection, and RFID products for the automotive, appliance, aircraft, and other industries. The Sensors & Controls division was headquartered in Attleboro, Massachusetts.
By the mid-1980s, industrial computers known as PLC's (programmable logic controllers) were separated from Sensors & Controls as the Industrial Systems Division, which was sold in the late 1980s to Siemens.
In 2006, Bain Capital LLC, a private equity firm, purchased the Sensors & Controls division for $3.0 billion in cash. The RFID portion of the division remained part of TI, transferring to the Application Specific Products business unit of the Semiconductor division, with the newly formed independent company based in Attleboro taking the name Sensata Technologies.
Software
In 1997, TI sold its software division, along with its main products such as the CA Gen, to Sterling Software, which is now part of Computer Associates. However, TI still owns small pieces of software, such as the software for calculators such as the TI Interactive!. TI also creates a significant amount of target software for its digital signal processors, along with host-based tools for creating DSP applications.
TI.com
In 2000, Texas Instruments first implemented an e-commerce platform on TI.com as a way to sell its Code Composer Studio™ software tool directly to customers. With TI.com, purchase managers and design engineers have access to TI products that are immediately available for shipping. The platform has grown to include tens of thousands of TI analog and embedded processing products. In 2020, TI added several features, including full and custom quantity reels, multiple payment options, lines of credit, and flat-rate shipping.
Restatement
On August 6, 1999, TI announced the restatement of its results for parts of 1998 and the first quarter of 1999 after a review by the Securities and Exchange Commission over the timing of charges for a plant closing and writedown.
Finances
For the fiscal year 2017, Texas Instruments reported earnings of US$3.682 billion, with an annual revenue of US$14.961 billion, an increase of 11.9% over the previous fiscal cycle. TI shares traded at over $82 per share, and its market capitalization was valued at over US$88.0 billion in October 2018. As of 2018, TI ranked 192nd on the Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by revenue.
Divisions
Today, TI is made up of four divisions: analog products, embedded processors, digital light processing, and educational technology.
As of January 2021, the industrial market accounts for 41 percent of the company's annual revenue while the automotive market accounts for 21 percent.
Other businesses
TI's remaining businesses consisting of DLP products (primarily used in projectors to create high-definition images), calculators and certain custom semiconductors known as application-specific integrated circuits.
DLP Products
DLP is a trademark under which Texas Instruments sells technology regarding TVs, video projectors, and digital cinema. On February 2, 2000, Philippe Binant, technical manager of Digital Cinema Project at Gaumont in France, realized the first digital cinema projection in Europe with the DLP CINEMA technology developed by TI. DLP technology enables a diverse range of display and advanced light control applications spanning industrial, enterprise, automotive, and consumer market segments.
Custom application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs)
The ASICs business develops more complex integrated-circuit solutions for clients on a custom basis.
Educational technology
TI has produced educational toys for children, including the Little Professor in 1976 and Dataman in 1977.
TI produces a range of calculators, with the TI-30 being one of the most popular early calculators. TI has also developed a line of graphing calculators, the first being the TI-81, and most popular being the TI-83 Plus (with the TI-84 Plus being an updated equivalent).
Many TI calculators are still sold without graphing capabilities. The TI-30 has been replaced by the TI-30X IIS. Also, some financial calculators are for sale on the TI website.
In 2007, TI released the TI-Nspire family of calculators and computer software that has similar capabilities to the calculators.
Less than 3% of Texas Instruments’ overall revenue comes from calculators, part of the $1.43 billion revenue in the "Other" section in the company's 2018 annual report. Nevertheless, the calculators are a lucrative product. For example, estimates have a $15 to $20 cost to produce TI-84 Plus which likely has a profit margin of at least 50%.
Throughout the 1980s, Texas Instruments worked closely with National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) to develop a calculator to become the educational standard. In 1986, Connecticut School Board became the first to require a graphing calculator on state-mandated exams. Chicago Public Schools gave a free calculator to every student, beginning in the fourth grade, in 1988. New York required the calculator in 1992 for its Regents exams after first allowing it the previous year. The College Board required calculators on the Advanced Placement tests in 1993 and allowed calculators on the SAT a year later. Texas Instruments provides free services to the College Board, which administers AP tests and the SAT, and also has a group called Teachers Teaching for Technology (T3), which educates teachers on how to use its calculators.
TI calculator community
In the 1990s, with the advent of TI's graphing calculator series, programming became popular among some students. The TI-8x series of calculators (beginning with the TI-81) came with a built-in BASIC interpreter, through which simple programs could be created. The TI-85 was the first TI calculator to allow assembly programming (via a shell called "ZShell"), and the TI-83 was the first in the series to receive native assembly.
Around the same time that these programs were first being written, personal web pages were becoming popular (through services such as Angelfire and GeoCities), and programmers began creating websites to host their work, along with tutorials and other calculator-relevant information. This led to the formation of TI calculator webrings and eventually a few large communities, including the now-defunct TI-Files and still-active ticalc.org.
The TI community reached the height of its popularity in the early 2000s, with new websites and programming groups being started almost daily. In fact, the aforementioned community sites were exploding with activity, with close to 100 programs being uploaded daily by users of the sites. Also, a competition existed between both sites to be the top site in the community, which helped increase interest and activity in the community.
One of the common unifying forces that has united the community over the years has been the rather contentious relationship with TI regarding control over its graphing calculators. TI graphing calculators generally fall into two distinct groups—those powered by the Zilog Z80 and those running on the Motorola 68000 series. Both lines of calculators are locked by TI with checks in the hardware and through the signing of software to disable use of custom flash applications and operating systems.
However, users employed the general number field sieve to find the keys and publish them in 2009. TI responded by sending invalid DMCA takedown notices, causing the Texas Instruments signing key controversy. Enthusiasts had already been creating their own operating systems before the finding of the keys, which could be installed with other methods.
Competitors
TI has the largest market share in the analog semiconductor industry, which has an estimated total addressable market exceeding US$37 billion.
Acquisitions
In 1996, TI acquired Tartan, Inc.
In 1997, TI acquired Amati Communications for $395 million.
In 1998, TI acquired GO DSP.
In 1998, TI acquired the standard logic (semiconductor) product lines from Harris Semiconductor, which included the CD4000, HC4xxx, HCT, FCT, and ACT product families.
In 1999, TI acquired Libit Signal Processing Ltd. of Herzlia, Israel for approximately $365 million in cash.
In 1999, TI acquired Butterfly VLSI, Ltd. for approximately $50 million.
In 1999, TI acquired Telogy Networks for $457 million.
In 1999, TI acquired Unitrode Corporation (NYSE:UTR).
In 2000, TI acquired Burr-Brown Corporation for $7.6 billion.
In 2006, TI acquired Chipcon for about $200 million.
In 2009, TI acquired CICLON and Luminary Micro.
In 2011, TI acquired National Semiconductor for $6.5 billion.
In October 2021, TI acquired the (former) Micron 300mm fabrication plant located in Lehi, UT. The transaction was conducted for $900 million.
National Semiconductor acquisition
On April 4, 2011, Texas Instruments announced that it had agreed to buy National Semiconductor for $6.5 billion in cash. TI paid $25 per share of National Semiconductor stock, which was an 80% premium over the share price of $14.07 as of April 4, 2011 close. The deal made TI the world's largest maker of analog technology components.
The companies formally merged on September 23, 2011.
See also
Anylite Technology
EnOcean
Symbian Foundation
OMAP
Melendy E. Lovett
References
Bibliography
Sweetman, Bill and Bonds, Ray. The Great Book of Modern Warplanes. New York, New York: Crown Publishers, 1987. .
Further reading
P. Binant, "Kodak: Au coeur de la projection numérique, Actions, no. 29, pp. 12–13, Paris, 2007.
T. R. Reid, The Chip: How Two Americans Invented the Microchip and Launched a Revolution, Random House Trade Paperbacks, New York, 2001.
Nobel Lectures, World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore, 2000.
External links
1951 establishments in Texas
American companies established in 1930
American companies established in 1951
Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange
Companies in the NASDAQ-100
Companies listed on the Nasdaq
Electronic calculator companies
Electronics companies established in 1930
Electronics companies of the United States
Home computer hardware companies
HSA Foundation founding members
Manufacturing companies based in Dallas
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Technology companies established in 1930 |
12333862 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu%20Professional%20Certification | Ubuntu Professional Certification | Ubuntu Professional Certification which was first introduced in May 2006, was a computer based examination about the Ubuntu operating system.
The test was administered by the LPI (Linux Professional Institute) and the certification was part of the LPIC (Linux Professional Institute Certification) as an added module/exam to LPI 117-101 and LPI 117-102 certs. The LPI UCP exam code was LPI 117-199. The testee needed to pass all three exams (117-101,117-102 and 117-199) in order to receive a UCP certification. The 101 and 102 exams could be taken before or after the UCP exam(199).
This certification has been discontinued as of October 2010.
See also
Linux Professional Institute Certification
References
External links
Official Ubuntu Certified Professional Information
Ubuntu Certified Professional Course Objectives
Official Ubuntu Desktop Training Information
Google Ads Search Certification Answers
Information technology qualifications
Ubuntu |
41499558 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabi%20Siboni | Gabi Siboni | Gabriel "Gabi" Siboni is a colonel (Aluf Mishne) in the Israel Defense Forces Reserve service, and a senior research fellow and the director of the Military and Strategic Affairs and Cyber Security programs at the Institute for National Security Studies. Additionally, he serves as editor of the tri-yearly published, Military and Strategic Affairs academic journal at INSS. Siboni is a senior expert on national security, military strategy and operations, military technology, cyber warfare, and force buildup. Siboni is as a Professor at the Francisco de Vitoria University in Madrid.
Biography
Siboni grew up in Safed, Israel. After enlisting to the IDF Siboni was assigned to the Golani Brigade, and served as a soldier and as an infantry officer. He served in the Litani Operation as a platoon leader, First Lebanon War as a company commander and commanded the brigade’s reconnaissance unit (Sayeret Golani), the brigade's reconnaissance unit in counter-guerrilla operations in South Lebanon. Within the scope of his Reserve service he served as chief of staff of the Golani Brigade. Siboni served as the chief of staff of a division during the Second Lebanon War and he presently serves as a senior planner for the IDF.
Siboni is a national security specialist and the director of the Military and Strategic Affairs Program as well as of the Cyber Security Program at the Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies (INSS). Siboni is also the editor of the Military and Strategic Affairs Journal (to be named Cyber, Intelligence and Security Journal as of September 2016). He serves as a senior consultant to the IDF and other Israeli security organizations.
In addition, Siboni is the deputy and chief methodologist of the IDF's Research Center for Force Deployment and Buildup. In this scope he develops strategic & operational warfare concepts for various domains, including: integrated combat in complex and densely populated areas, cyber defense and cyber warfare, cognitive and influence warfare and more. He also develops methodologies for computerized simulation for various needs, including for military operations.
Siboni holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in engineering from Tel Aviv University and a doctorate in geographic information systems (GIS) from Ben-Gurion University., and is as a Professor at the Francisco de Vitoria University in Madrid, where he serves as deputy director of the Cyber Security Management program and as head of Academic and Technological Research.
Cybersecurity
Siboni is a consultant in a wide range of fields, including: Cybersecurity (including ICS and SCADA Security), Information Technology, ICT Risk Management, and Strategic Planning. He has extensive proven experience in decision support systems (DSS) related to cyber security investment, and security & safety control systems.
His consulting firm, G. Bina, provides security and cyber-security advisory services across the top tier of the Israel private sector, including its infrastructure and defense firms, as well as most sensitive government, military and intelligence agencies. It also works in India supporting one of its critical financial markets infrastructure institutions and other global institution.
In his book Guidelines for a National Cyber Strategy, (co-authored with Ofer Assaf), Siboni outlines five points for which decisions are critical for determining a national strategy. Starting with the state's responsibility to protect the private sector in relation to cyberspace security and privacy issues. The second point relates to the state responsibility, to enforce the use of technologies and practices in cyberspace defense in the civilian sector, which in many cases is part of its critical infrastructures. The third point is the extent to which the state is entitled to store information about the civilian sector's activities in cyberspace in order to defend it. The fourth point concerns the state's responsibility to build cyberspace capabilities and use them in a manner that will attain the state's interests. And, finally, the fifth point is the state's ability to secure the infrastructure that will allow the realization of a cyber strategy over time.
In October 2018, Siboni published a book titled: Regulation in Cyber Space (co-authored with Ido Sivan)A comprehensive study on the regulation of the cyber space. The book reviews various regulation models in key western countries, evaluated regulatory strategies from parallel domains and builds a multi-layered regulatory model for cyber space. While the model addresses Israeli cyberspace, it provides applicable strategies for other countries as well. The suggested framework uses several regulatory tools and is based on self-regulation by government authorities as well as mandatory regulation for the private sector.
Siboni's professional standing in the security community is reflected in his being responsible for the organization of DCOI – the INSS USA – Israel Cyber Security Summit for the past three years. DCOI 2016, held in Washington DC in May, was a concerted effort of the state of Israel and INSS that aimed at enhancing collaboration between the two countries in cybersecurity. The summit was supported by Israeli state agencies and major private companies from across the U.S. Keynote speakers at this year's event included: Admiral Michael S. Rogers – Director, NSA; Alejandro Mayorkas – Deputy Secretary, DHS; General David Petraeus – Former Director, CIA; Richard A. Clarke – Former White House National Coordinator for Security & Shawn Henry – Former Assistant Director of the FBI Cyber Division.
In 2016 within the scope of his consulting firm, G. Bina, Gabi has developed DSS, an analytical framework for cybersecurity assessment. This is a unique approach combines intelligence threats with organizations cyber controls maturity. The analysis process consists of three phases: First: Identify and Map the organization's cyberspace threats, and assess the organization's cybersecurity maturity level; Second: Analyze the organization's cybersecurity maturity correlated against the threats; and finally Generate a prioritized cybersecurity action and investment.
Music career
Siboni is a guitar player. His first band was named GSM (Gabi, Shlomi, Michael) and was established during his high school years in Safed. In 2002 he established the band "Koach Meshikha" (Gravity) in which he played lead guitar together with his brother Prof. Daniel Sivan as a singer and rhythm guitar and his close friend Brigadier General Giora Segal of blessed memory on bass guitar. In 2009 and following his brother retirement, the band changed its name to "Jukebox" specializing in 1960s–1970s rock'n roll music. The band performs at clubs and concerts across the country.
External links
Yonah Jermy Bob, Security expert: Pressure social media to block terrorist incitement, The Jerusalem Post, November 17, 2016.
Recent publications
The Threat of Foreign Interference in the 2019 Elections in Israel and Ways of Handling it, Cyber, Intelligence, and Security, Volume 3, No. 1, May 2019
Ubiquitous Presence: Protecting Privacy and Forbidding Intrusion into a Person’s Records in Jewish Law, Cyber, Intelligence, and Security, Volume 2, No. 3, December 2018
Guidelines for the Management of Cyber Risks, Cyber, Intelligence, and Security, Volume 2, No. 2, September 2018
Developing Organizational Capabilities to Manage Cyber Crises, Cyber, Intelligence, and Security, Volume 2, No. 1, May 2018
The Role of the State in the Private-Sector Cybersecurity Challenge, Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, May 27, 2018
How Israel Should Respond To The Hamas-Led Nakba March in Gaza, Newsweek, March 26, 2018
The IDF’s Cognitive Effort: Supplementing the Kinetic Effort, INSS Insight No. 1028, March 1, 2018
Cyber Threats to Democratic Processes, Cyber, Intelligence, and Security, Volume 1, No. 3, December 2017
Combat Military Service: The Crisis in Motivation, INSS Insight No. 997, December 12, 2017
Alexander the Great Would Not Have Been Perplexed, Strategic Assessment, Volume 20, No. 3, October 2017
How Israel Should Battle Hezbollah’s Campaign of Perception, Newsweek, September 18, 2017
Four Big “Ds” and a Little “r”: A New Model for Cyber Defense, Cyber, Intelligence and Security, Volume 1, No. 2, June, 2017
The IDF Exercises in Cyprus and Crete, INSS Insight No. 945, June 28, 2017
Israeli Cyberspace Regulation: A Conceptual Framework, Inherent Challenges, and Normative Recommendations, Cyber, Intelligence and Security, Volume 1, No. 1, January 2017
An Analytical Framework for Cybersecurity Assessment, in United States Cybersecurity Magazine, Winter 2017
The First Cognitive War, in Strategic Survey for Israel 2016-2017, INSS, 2016
Military Challenges Facing Israel: Multiple Arenas and Diverse Enemies, in Strategic Survey for Israel 2016-2017, INSS, 2016
The Threat of Connected Devices to the Internet, INSS Insight No. 867, November 7, 2016
The Superpower Cyber War and the US Elections, INSS Insight No. 858, September 26, 2016
Structuring Israel’s Cyber Defense, INSS Insight No. 858, September 21, 2016
Defense: the most important challenge in cyberspace, Ynet, August 22, 2016
Guidelines for a National Cyber Strategy, Memorandum No. 153, Tel Aviv: Institute for National Security Studies, March 2016.
The Cyber Attack on the Ukrainian Electrical Infrastructure: Another Warning, INSS Insight No. 797, February 17, 2016.
Cyberspace Espionage and its Effect on Commercial Considerations, Military and Strategic Affairs, Volume 7, No. 3, December 2015.
Israel and Cyberspace: Unique Threat and Response, International Studies Perspectives, December 29, 2015.
Establishing an IDF Cyber Command, INSS Insight No. 719, July 7, 2015
Confronting Spontaneous Terrorist Attacks, INSS Insight No. 667, February 24, 2015
Cybersecurity Buildup of India's National Force, Observer Research Foundation, Digital Debate, CyFy Journal, 2015
A good defense requires a good offense, even in cyberspace, The Jerusalem Post, May 27, 2015
An Integrated Security Approach: The Key to Cyber Defense, The Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, May 7, 2015
The Impact of Cyberspace on Asymmetric Conflict in the Middle East, The Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, April 29, 2015.
Cyberspace Extortion: North Korea versus the United States ,INSS Insight No. 646, December 23, 2014.
Cyberspace in the Service of ISIS, INSS Insight No. 601, September 4, 2014.
Developments in Iranian Cyber Warfare 2013–2014, Military and Strategic Affairs, Volume 6, No. 2, August 2014.
The Iranian Cyber Offensive during Operation Protective Edge, INSS Insight No. 598, August 26, 2014.
Cyber tools are no substitute for human intelligence, Haaretz, July 2, 2014.
Iranian Cyber Espionage: A Troubling New Escalation, INSS Insight No. 261, June 16, 2014.
Commercial and Industrial Cyber Espionage in Israel, Military and Strategic Affairs, Volume 6, No. 1, March 2014.
No need to show Assad the door, Israel Hayom Newspaper, May 21, 2013.
The Classic Cyber Defense Methods Have Failed – What Comes Next?, INSS, Military and Strategic Affairs, Volume 5, No. 1, May 2013.
Iran and Cyberspace Warfare, "Military and Strategic Affairs", Volume 4, No. 3, December 2012.
What Lies behind Chinese Cyber Warfare, "Military and Strategic Affairs", Volume 4, No. September 2, 2012.
Cyberspace and Terrorist Organizations, "Military and Strategic Affairs", Volume 3, No. 3, December 2011.
From the Second Intifada through the Second Lebanon War to Operation Cast Lead: Puzzle Pieces of a Single Campaign, "Military and Strategic Affairs", Volume 1, No. 1, April 2009.
Operations Cast Lead, Pillar of Defense, and Protective Edge: A Comparative Review, a chapter inside "The Lessons of Operation Protective Edge", INSS, 2014.
Defeating Suicide Terrorism in Judea and Samaria, 2002–2005, "Military and Strategic Affairs", Volume 2, No. 2, October 2010.
The Second Lebanon War as a Watershed, "Military and Strategic Affairs", Volume 1, No. 2, October 2009.
The Military Power of the Islamic State, a chapter inside "The Islamic State", eds. Yoram Schweitzer and Omer Einav, INSS, 2016.
Cyberspace in the Service of ISIS, INSS Insight No. 601, September 4, 2014.
Command and Authority in the IDF: The Winograd Challenge, "Military and Strategic Affairs", Volume 10, No. 2, August 2007.
Victims of Friendly Fire: The Winograd Commission vs. the Citizens of Israel, "Military and Strategic Affairs", Volume 11, No. 1, June 2008.
From Gaza to Lebanon and Back, "Military and Strategic Affairs", Volume 10, No. 1, June 2007.
The Threat of Connected Devices to the Internet, INSS Insight No. 867, November 7, 2016.
The First Cognitive War, in "Strategic Survey for Israel 2017", eds. Shlomo Brom and Anat Kurz (Tel Aviv: ֻInstitute for National Security Studies, 2016).
The First Circle of Military Challenges Facing Israel: Multiple Arenas and Diverse Enemies, in "Strategic Survey for Israel 2017", INSS 2016.
The IDF Exercises in Cyprus and Crete, INSS Insight No. 945, June 28, 2017.
Alexander the Great Would Not Have Been Perplexed, "Strategic Assessment", Volume 20, No. 3, October 2017.
Gadi Eisenkot and Gabi Siboni, The Campaign Between Wars: How Israel Rethought Its Strategy to Counter Iran’s Malign Regional Influence, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, September 4, 2019.
Gadi Eisenkot and Gabi Siboni, Guidelines for Israel's National Security Strategy, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, October 2019.
References
Living people
Israeli colonels
Institute for National Security Studies (Israel)
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev alumni
Tel Aviv University alumni
People from Safed
1957 births |
55890 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocoa%20%28API%29 | Cocoa (API) | Cocoa is Apple's native object-oriented application programming interface (API) for its desktop operating system macOS.
Cocoa consists of the Foundation Kit, Application Kit, and Core Data frameworks, as included by the Cocoa.h header file, and the libraries and frameworks included by those, such as the C standard library and the Objective-C runtime.
Cocoa applications are typically developed using the development tools provided by Apple, specifically Xcode (formerly Project Builder) and Interface Builder (now part of Xcode), using the programming languages Objective-C or Swift. However, the Cocoa programming environment can be accessed using other tools, such as Clozure CL, LispWorks, Object Pascal, Python, Perl, Ruby, and AppleScript with the aid of bridge mechanisms such as PasCocoa, PyObjC, CamelBones, RubyCocoa, and a D/Objective-C Bridge. A Ruby language implementation named MacRuby, which removes the need for a bridge mechanism, was formerly developed by Apple, while Nu is a Lisp-like language that can be used with Cocoa with no bridge. It is also possible to write Objective-C Cocoa programs in a simple text editor and build it manually with GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) or Clang from the command line or from a makefile.
For end users, Cocoa applications are those written using the Cocoa programming environment. Such applications usually have a familiar look and feel, since the Cocoa programming environment provides a lot of common UI elements (such as buttons, scroll bars, etc.), and automates many aspects of an application to comply with Apple's human interface guidelines.
For iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, and watchOS, a similar API exists, named Cocoa Touch, which includes gesture recognition, animation, and a different set of graphical control elements. It is used in applications for Apple devices such as the iPhone, the iPod Touch, the iPad, the Apple TV, and the Apple Watch.
History
Cocoa continues the lineage of several software frameworks (mainly the App Kit and Foundation Kit) from the NeXTSTEP and OpenStep programming environments developed by NeXT in the 1980s and 1990s. Apple acquired NeXT in December 1996, and subsequently went to work on the Rhapsody operating system that was to be the direct successor of OpenStep. It was to have had an emulation base for classic Mac OS applications, named Blue Box. The OpenStep base of libraries and binary support was termed Yellow Box. Rhapsody evolved into Mac OS X, and the Yellow Box became Cocoa. Thus, Cocoa classes begin with the letters NS, such as NSString or NSArray. These stand for the original proprietary term for the OpenStep framework, NeXTSTEP.
Much of the work that went into developing OpenStep was applied to developing Mac OS X, Cocoa being the most visible part. However, differences exist. For example, NeXTSTEP and OpenStep used Display PostScript for on-screen display of text and graphics, while Cocoa depends on Apple's Quartz (which uses the Portable Document Format (PDF) imaging model, but not its underlying technology). Cocoa also has a level of Internet support, including the NSURL and WebKit HTML classes, and others, while OpenStep had only rudimentary support for managed network connections via NSFileHandle classes and Berkeley sockets.
The resulting software framework received the name Cocoa for the sake of expediency, because the name had already been trademarked by Apple. For many years before this present use of the name, Apple's Cocoa trademark had originated as the name of a multimedia project design application for children. The application was originally developed at the Apple Advanced Technology Group under the name KidSim, and was then renamed and trademarked as "Cocoa". The name, coined by Peter Jensen who was hired to develop Cocoa for Apple, was intended to evoke "Java for kids", as it ran embedded in web pages. The trademark, and thus the name "Cocoa", was re-used to avoid the delay which would have occurred while registering a new trademark for this software framework. The original "Cocoa" program was discontinued at Apple in one of the rationalizations that followed Steve Jobs's return to Apple. It was then licensed to a third party and marketed as Stagecast Creator until 2014.
Memory management
One feature of the Cocoa environment is its facility for managing dynamically allocated memory. Foundation Kit's NSObject class, from which most classes, both vendor and user, are derived, implements a reference counting scheme for memory management. Objects that derive from the NSObject root class respond to a retain and a release message, and keep a retain count. A method titled retainCount exists, but contrary to its name, will usually not return the exact retain count of an object. It is mainly used for system-level purposes. Invoking it manually is not recommended by Apple.
A newly allocated object created with alloc or copy has a retain count of one. Sending that object a retain message increments the retain count, while sending it a release message decrements the retain count. When an object's retain count reaches zero, it is deallocated by a procedure similar to a C++ destructor. dealloc is not guaranteed to be invoked.
Starting with Objective-C 2.0, the Objective-C runtime implemented an optional garbage collector, which is now obsolete and deprecated in favor of Automatic Reference Counting (ARC). In this model, the runtime turned Cocoa reference counting operations such as "retain" and "release" into no-ops. The garbage collector does not exist on the iOS implementation of Objective-C 2.0. Garbage collection in Objective-C ran on a low-priority background thread, and can halt on Cocoa's user events, with the intention of keeping the user experience responsive. The legacy garbage collector is still available on Mac OS X version 10.13, but no Apple-provided applications use it.
In 2011, the LLVM compiler introduced Automatic Reference Counting (ARC), which replaces the conventional garbage collector by performing static analysis of Objective-C source code and inserting retain and release messages as necessary.
Main frameworks
Cocoa consists of three Objective-C object libraries called frameworks. Frameworks are functionally similar to shared libraries, a compiled object that can be dynamically loaded into a program's address space at runtime, but frameworks add associated resources, header files, and documentation. The Cocoa frameworks are implemented as a type of bundle, containing the aforementioned items in standard locations.
Foundation Kit (Foundation), first appeared in Enterprise Objects Framework on NeXTSTEP 3. It was developed as part of the OpenStep work, and subsequently became the basis for OpenStep's AppKit when that system was released in 1994. On macOS, Foundation is based on Core Foundation. Foundation is a generic object-oriented library providing string and value manipulation, containers and iteration, distributed computing, event loops (run loops), and other functions that are not directly tied to the graphical user interface. The "NS" prefix, used for all classes and constants in the framework, comes from Cocoa's OPENSTEP heritage, which was jointly developed by NeXT and Sun Microsystems.
Application Kit (AppKit) is directly descended from the original NeXTSTEP Application Kit. It contains code programs can use to create and interact with graphical user interfaces. AppKit is built on top of Foundation, and uses the same NS prefix.
Core Data is the object persistence framework included with Foundation and Cocoa and found in Cocoa.h.
A key part of the Cocoa architecture is its comprehensive views model. This is organized along conventional lines for an application framework, but is based on the Portable Document Format (PDF) drawing model provided by Quartz. This allows creating custom drawing content using PostScript-like drawing commands, which also allows automatic printer support and so forth. Since the Cocoa framework manages all the clipping, scrolling, scaling and other chores of drawing graphics, the programmer is freed from implementing basic infrastructure and can concentrate on the unique aspects of an application's content.
Model–view–controller
The Smalltalk teams at Xerox PARC eventually settled on a design philosophy that led to easy development and high code reuse. Named model–view–controller (MVC), the concept breaks an application into three sets of interacting object classes:
Model classes represent problem domain data and operations (such as lists of people/departments/budgets; documents containing sections/paragraphs/footnotes of stylized text).
View classes implement visual representations and affordances for human-computer interaction (such as scrollable grids of captioned icons and pop-up menus of possible operations).
Controller classes contain logic that surfaces model data as view representations, maps affordance-initiated user actions to model operations, and maintains state to keep the two synchronized.
Cocoa's design is a fairly, but not absolutely strict application of MVC principles. Under OpenStep, most of the classes provided were either high-level View classes (in AppKit) or one of a number of relatively low-level model classes like NSString. Compared to similar MVC systems, OpenStep lacked a strong model layer. No stock class represented a "document," for instance. During the transition to Cocoa, the model layer was expanded greatly, introducing a number of pre-rolled classes to provide functionality common to desktop applications.
In Mac OS X 10.3, Apple introduced the NSController family of classes, which provide predefined behavior for the controller layer. These classes are considered part of the Cocoa Bindings system, which also makes extensive use of protocols such as Key-Value Observing and Key-Value Binding. The term 'binding' refers to a relationship between two objects, often between a view and a controller. Bindings allow the developer to focus more on declarative relationships rather than orchestrating fine-grained behavior.
With the arrival of Mac OS X 10.4, Apple extended this foundation further by introducing the Core Data framework, which standardizes change tracking and persistence in the model layer. In effect, the framework greatly simplifies the process of making changes to application data, undoing changes when necessary, saving data to disk, and reading it back in.
In providing framework support for all three MVC domains, Apple's goal is to reduce the amount of boilerplate or "glue" code that developers have to write, freeing up resources to spend time on application-specific features.
Late binding
In most object-oriented languages, calls to methods are represented physically by a pointer to the code in memory. This restricts the design of an application since specific command handling classes are needed, usually organized according to the chain-of-responsibility pattern. While Cocoa retains this approach for the most part, Objective-C's late binding opens up more flexibility.
Under Objective-C, methods are represented by a selector, a string describing the method to call. When a message is sent, the selector is sent into the Objective-C runtime, matched against a list of available methods, and the method's implementation is called. Since the selector is text data, this lets it be saved to a file, transmitted over a network or between processes, or manipulated in other ways. The implementation of the method is looked up at runtime, not compile time. There is a small performance penalty for this, but late binding allows the same selector to reference different implementations.
By a similar token, Cocoa provides a pervasive data manipulation method called key-value coding (KVC). This allows a piece of data or property of an object to be looked up or changed at runtime by name. The property name acts as a key to the value. In traditional languages, this late binding is impossible. KVC leads to great design flexibility. An object's type need not be known, yet any property of that object can be discovered using KVC. Also, by extending this system using something Cocoa terms key-value observing (KVO), automatic support for undo-redo is provided.
Late static binding is a variant of binding somewhere between static and dynamic binding. The binding of names before the program is run is called static (early); bindings performed as the program runs are dynamic (late or virtual).
Rich objects
One of the most useful features of Cocoa is the powerful base objects the system supplies. As an example, consider the Foundation classes NSString and NSAttributedString, which provide Unicode strings, and the NSText system in AppKit, which allows the programmer to place string objects in the GUI.
NSText and its related classes are used to display and edit strings. The collection of objects involved permit an application to implement anything from a simple single-line text entry field to a complete multi-page, multi-column text layout schema, with full professional typography features such as kerning, ligatures, running text around arbitrary shapes, rotation, full Unicode support, and anti-aliased glyph rendering. Paragraph layout can be controlled automatically or by the user, using a built-in "ruler" object that can be attached to any text view. Spell checking is automatic, using a system-wide set of language dictionaries. Unlimited undo/redo support is built in. Using only the built-in features, one can write a text editor application in as few as 10 lines of code. With new controller objects, this may fall towards zero.
When extensions are needed, Cocoa's use of Objective-C makes this a straightforward task. Objective-C includes the concept of "categories," which allows modifying existing class "in-place". Functionality can be accomplished in a category without any changes to the original classes in the framework, or even access to its source. In other common languages, this same task requires deriving a new subclass supporting the added features, and then replacing all instances of the original class with instances of the new subclass.
Implementations and bindings
The Cocoa frameworks are written in Objective-C. Java bindings for the Cocoa frameworks (termed the Java bridge) were also made available with the aim of replacing Objective-C with a more popular language but these bindings were unpopular among Cocoa developers and Cocoa's message passing semantics did not translate well to a statically-typed language such as Java. Cocoa's need for runtime binding means many of Cocoa's key features are not available with Java. In 2005, Apple announced that the Java bridge was to be deprecated, meaning that features added to Cocoa in macOS versions later than 10.4 would not be added to the Cocoa-Java programming interface.
At Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2014, Apple introduced a new programming language named Swift, which is intended to replace Objective-C.
AppleScriptObjC
Originally, AppleScript Studio could be used to develop simpler Cocoa applications. However, as of Snow Leopard, it has been deprecated. It was replaced with AppleScriptObjC, which allows programming in AppleScript, while using Cocoa frameworks.
Other bindings
Third-party bindings available for other languages include Clozure CL, Monobjc and NObjective (C#), Cocoa# (CLI), Cocodao and D/Objective-C Bridge, LispWorks, CamelBones (Perl), PyObjC (Python), FPC PasCocoa (Lazarus and Free Pascal), RubyCocoa (Ruby). Nu uses the Objective-C object model directly, and thus can use the Cocoa frameworks without needing a binding.
Other implementations
There are also open source implementations of major parts of the Cocoa framework, such as GNUstep and Cocotron, which allow cross-platform Cocoa application development to target other operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows and Linux.
See also
References
Bibliography
Aaron Hillegass: Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X, Addison-Wesley, 3rd Edition 2008, Paperback, .
Stephen Kochan: Programming in Objective-C, Sams, 1st Edition 2003, Paperback, .
Michael Beam, James Duncan Davidson: Cocoa in a Nutshell, O'Reilly, 1st Edition 2003, Paperback, .
Erick Tejkowski: Cocoa Programming for Dummies, 1st Edition 2003, Paperback, .
Simson Garfinkel, Michael K. Mahoney: Building Cocoa Applications: A Step by Step Guide, O'Reilly, 1st Edition 2002, Paperback, .
Paris Buttfield-Addison, Jon Manning: Learning Cocoa with Objective-C, O'Reilly, 3rd Edition 2012, Paperback, .
Scott Anguish, Erik M. Buck, Donald A. Yacktman: Cocoa Programming, Sams, 1st Edition 2002, Paperback, .
Erik M. Buck, Donald A. Yacktman: Cocoa Design Patterns, Addison-Wesley Professional, 1st Edition 2009, Paperback,
Bill Cheeseman: Cocoa Recipes for Mac OS X, Peachpit Press, 1st Edition 2002, Paperback, .
Andrew Duncan: Objective-C Pocket Reference, O'Reilly, 1st Edition 2002, Paperback, .
External links
Mac Developer Library, Cocoa Layer, Apple's documentation
iDevApps, Mac programming forum
Cocoa Dev Central
Cocoa Dev
Stack Overflow: Cocoa
MacOS APIs |
15688221 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose%20Hacker | Rose Hacker | Rose Hacker (3 March 1906 – 4 February 2008) was a British socialist, writer, sex educator and campaigner for social justice. At her death, aged 101, she was the world's oldest newspaper columnist.
Life
Hacker was born in central London. Her parents were middle class Jewish immigrants, and her father ran a business making women's clothes. She studied art, design, French and German at the Regent Street Polytechnic, but was a voracious learner outside formal education, aided by an incredible memory. After leaving polytechnic, she worked for her father as a model, designer and assistant, while keeping up a full social life in London.
She had to give up her first love, a doctor, because the social mores and economic realities of the day forced him to choose between marriage and a career. She was outraged that life should create such situations, but later had a happy marriage with Mark Hacker, an accountant. They had two sons and adopted a daughter.
She developed her talents as an artist and sculptor, having a piece displayed in the British Museum. She remained active even late in life, practising belly-dancing, T'ai chi and the Alexander Technique, and swimming most days. In 2007, she and two fellow care home residents performed a dance choreographed specially for them at The Place, in Euston.
Work
Hacker became a pacifist and socialist in her teens, having seen wounded soldiers returning from World War I, and hunger marchers from Wales and the Midlands in Oxford Street. In the 1930s she worked against fascism and to relieve the sufferings of the working class during the Great Depression. In 1931, at the height of Joseph Stalin's purges, she visited the USSR along with the Sydney & Beatrice Webb. Writing of her trip in the Camden New Journal, Hacker said: 'of course we didn't know what he (Stalin) was doing then' seemingly indicating that, like many people on the left at that time, she did not believe the atrocity stories circulating about the regime. The phrase 'we did not know' in regard to Stalin's terror has to be set alongside the fact that, also in 1931, a conference against 'slavery in Russia' took place at London's Royal Albert Hall. Hacker's activism continued as she became involved with the Co-operative Correspondence Club, and she became more involved with education, counselling and helping the disadvantaged through her work as a relationship counsellor with the Marriage Guidance Council after the Second World War. This led to work in prisons, mental hospitals and with the disabled, and she also championed housing rights and equality for all.
In 1949, she was one of the researchers for a study on sexual behaviour in Britain, dubbed "Little Kinsey" after the 1948 American Kinsey Report. The study grew out of Britain's Mass Observation programme and was partly funded by the Daily Mirror's Sunday Pictorial. It went further than the first Kinsey Report by interviewing women as well as men, but its findings were deemed shocking and few were made public.
One of the biggest problems she uncovered was that of unconsummated marriages. Hacker wrote several books, but it was her sex education book, Telling the Teenagers: A guide to parents, teachers and youth leaders (1957), that became a best seller. It was revised and republished in 1960 as The Opposite Sex: Vital knowledge about adult relationships – from your first "date" to married life and love.
After years of serving on voluntary and local government organisations, Hacker was elected to the Greater London Council as Labour Party member for St Pancras. Her election slogan was "bring the countryside to London". She was also chair of the Thames Waterways Board.
When the editor of her local North London newspaper, the Camden New Journal heard her speak on nuclear disarmament, he offered her a fortnightly column in the paper.
The column first appeared in September 2006 and generated considerable interest. For the last 18 months of her life she was in great demand for television, radio and magazine interviews and articles. She wrote the column as a very personal testament to the truth, and was rather disappointed to discover no one had written in to complain about it.
Hacker died in hospital in 2008 after a fortnight's illness.
References
External links
Rose Hacker Column in Camden New Journal
Obituary in The Times
1906 births
2008 deaths
Women councillors in England
Labour Party (UK) councillors
British socialists
British pacifists
British Jews
British centenarians
Members of the Greater London Council
Relationships and sexuality writers
English activists
English women activists
Women centenarians |
35757487 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory%20management%20%28operating%20systems%29 | Memory management (operating systems) | In operating systems, memory management is the function responsible for managing the computer's primary memory.
The memory management function keeps track of the status of each memory location, either allocated or free. It determines how memory is allocated among competing processes, deciding which gets memory, when they receive it, and how much they are allowed. When memory is allocated it determines which memory locations will be assigned. It tracks when memory is freed or unallocated and updates the status.
This is distinct from application memory management, which is how a process manages the memory assigned to it by the operating system.
Memory management techniques
Single contiguous allocation
Single allocation is the simplest memory management technique. All the computer's memory, usually with the exception of a small portion reserved for the operating system, is available to a single application. MS-DOS is an example of a system that allocates memory in this way. An embedded system running a single application might also use this technique.
A system using single contiguous allocation may still multitask by swapping the contents of memory to switch among users. Early versions of the MUSIC operating system used this technique.
Partitioned allocation
Partitioned allocation divides primary memory into multiple memory partitions, usually contiguous areas of memory. Each partition might contain all the information for a specific job or task. Memory management consists of allocating a partition to a job when it starts and unallocating it when the job ends.
Partitioned allocation usually requires some hardware support to prevent the jobs from interfering with one another or with the operating system. The IBM System/360 used a lock-and-key technique. Other systems used base and bounds registers which contained the limits of the partition and flagged invalid accesses. The UNIVAC 1108 Storage Limits Register had separate base/bound sets for instructions and data. The system took advantage of memory interleaving to place what were called the i bank and d bank in separate memory modules.
Partitions may be either static, that is defined at Initial Program Load (IPL) or boot time, or by the computer operator, or dynamic, that is, automatically created for a specific job. IBM System/360 Operating System Multiprogramming with a Fixed Number of Tasks (MFT) is an example of static partitioning, and Multiprogramming with a Variable Number of Tasks (MVT) is an example of dynamic. MVT and successors use the term region to distinguish dynamic partitions from static ones in other systems.
Partitions may be relocatable using hardware typed memory, like the Burroughs Corporation B5500, or base and bounds registers like the PDP-10 or GE-635. Relocatable partitions are able to be compacted to provide larger chunks of contiguous physical memory. Compaction moves "in-use" areas of memory to eliminate "holes" or unused areas of memory caused by process termination in order to create larger contiguous free areas.
Some systems allow partitions to be swapped out to secondary storage to free additional memory. Early versions of IBM's Time Sharing Option (TSO) swapped users in and out of time-sharing partitions.
Paged memory management
Paged allocation divides the computer's primary memory into fixed-size units called page frames, and the program's virtual address space into pages of the same size. The hardware memory management unit maps pages to frames. The physical memory can be allocated on a page basis while the address space appears contiguous.
Usually, with paged memory management, each job runs in its own address space. However, there are some single address space operating systems that run all processes within a single address space, such as IBM i, which runs all processes within a large address space, and IBM OS/VS2 (SVS), which ran all jobs in a single 16MiB virtual address space.
Paged memory can be demand-paged when the system can move pages as required between primary and secondary memory.
Segmented memory management
Segmented memory is the only memory management technique that does not provide the user's program with a "linear and contiguous address space." Segments are areas of memory that usually correspond to a logical grouping of information such as a code procedure or a data array. Segments require hardware support in the form of a segment table which usually contains the physical address of the segment in memory, its size, and other data such as access protection bits and status (swapped in, swapped out, etc.)
Segmentation allows better access protection than other schemes because memory references are relative to a specific segment and the hardware will not permit the application to reference memory not defined for that segment.
It is possible to implement segmentation with or without paging. Without paging support the segment is the physical unit swapped in and out of memory if required. With paging support the pages are usually the unit of swapping and segmentation only adds an additional level of security.
Addresses in a segmented system usually consist of the segment id and an offset relative to the segment base address, defined to be offset zero.
The Intel IA-32 (x86) architecture allows a process to have up to 16,383 segments of up to 4GiB each. IA-32 segments are subdivisions of the computer's linear address space, the virtual address space provided by the paging hardware.
The Multics operating system is probably the best known system implementing segmented memory. Multics segments are subdivisions of the computer's physical memory of up to 256 pages, each page being 1K 36-bit words in size, resulting in a maximum segment size of 1MiB (with 9-bit bytes, as used in Multics). A process could have up to 4046 segments.
Rollout/rollin
Rollout/rollin (RO/RI) is a computer operating system memory management technique where the entire non-shared code and data of a running program is swapped out to auxiliary memory (disk or drum) to free main storage for another task. Programs may be rolled out "by demand end or…when waiting for some long event." Rollout/rollin was commonly used in time-sharing systems, where the user's "think time" was relatively long compared to the time to do the swap.
Unlike virtual storage—paging or segmentation, rollout/rollin does not require any special memory management hardware; however, unless the system has relocation hardware such as a memory map or base and bounds registers, the program must be rolled back in to its original memory locations. Rollout/rollin has been largely superseded by virtual memory.
Rollout/rollin was an optional feature of OS/360 Multiprogramming with a Variable number of Tasks (MVT)
Rollout/rollin allows the temporary, dynamic expansion of a particular job beyond its originally specified region. When a job needs more space, rollout/rollin attempts to obtain unassigned storage for the job's use. If there is no such unassigned storage, another job is rolled out—i.e., is transferred to auxiliary storage—so that its region may be used by the first job. When released by the first job, this additional storage is again available, either (1) as unassigned storage, if that was its source, or (2) to receive the job to be transferred back into main storage (rolled in).
In OS/360, rollout/rollin was used only for batch jobs, and rollin does not occur until the jobstep borrowing the region terminates.
See also
Memory overcommitment
Memory protection
x86 memory segmentation
Notes
References
Operating systems |
2343703 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deterministic%20encryption | Deterministic encryption | A deterministic encryption scheme (as opposed to a probabilistic encryption scheme) is a cryptosystem which always produces the same ciphertext for a given plaintext and key, even over separate executions of the encryption algorithm. Examples of deterministic encryption algorithms include RSA cryptosystem (without encryption padding), and many block ciphers when used in ECB mode or with a constant initialization vector.
Leakage
Deterministic encryption can leak information to an eavesdropper, who may recognize known ciphertexts. For example, when an adversary learns that a given ciphertext corresponds to some interesting message, they can learn something every time that ciphertext is transmitted. To gain information about the meaning of various ciphertexts, an adversary might perform a statistical analysis of messages transmitted over an encrypted channel, or attempt to correlate ciphertexts with observed actions (e.g., noting that a given ciphertext is always received immediately before a submarine dive). This concern is particularly serious in the case of public key cryptography, where any party can encrypt chosen messages using a public encryption key. In this case, the adversary can build a large "dictionary" of useful plaintext/ciphertext pairs, then observe the encrypted channel for matching ciphertexts.
Applications
While deterministic encryption schemes can never be semantically secure, they have some advantages over probabilistic schemes.
Database searching of encrypted data
One primary motivation for the use of deterministic encryption is the efficient searching of encrypted data. Suppose a client wants to outsource a database to a possibly untrusted database service provider. If each entry is encrypted using a public-key cryptosystem, anyone can add to the database, and only the distinguished "receiver" who has the private key can decrypt the database entries. If, however, the receiver wants to search for a specific record in the database, this becomes very difficult. There are some Public Key encryption schemes that allow keyword search, however these schemes all require search time linear in the database size. If the database entries were encrypted with a deterministic scheme and sorted, then a specific field of the database could be retrieved in logarithmic time.
Security
Assuming that a deterministic encryption scheme is going to be used, it is important to understand what is the maximum level of security that can be guaranteed.
A number of works have focused on this exact problem. The first work to rigorously define security for a deterministic scheme was in CRYPTO 2007. This work provided fairly strong security definitions (although weaker than semantic security), and gave constructions in the random oracle model. Two follow-up works appeared the next year in CRYPTO 2008, giving definitional equivalences and constructions without random oracles.
Alternatives to deterministic encryption
To counter this problem, cryptographers proposed the notion of "randomized" or probabilistic encryption. Under these schemes, a given plaintext can encrypt to one of a very large set of possible ciphertexts, chosen randomly during the encryption process. Under sufficiently strong security guarantees the attacks proposed above become infeasible, as the adversary will be unable to correlate any two encryptions of the same message, or correlate a message to its ciphertext, even given access to the public encryption key. This guarantee is known as semantic security or ciphertext indistinguishability, and has several definitions depending on the assumed capabilities of the attacker (see semantic security).
See also
Convergent encryption
Format-preserving encryption
Searchable symmetric encryption
References
Mihir Bellare and Alexandra Boldyreva and Adam O'Neill, Deterministic and Efficiently Searchable Encryption, CRYPTO 2007
Alexandra Boldyreva and Serge Fehr and Adam O'Neill, On Notions of Security for Deterministic Encryption, and Efficient Constructions without Random Oracles, CRYPTO 2008
Mihir Bellare and Marc Fischlin and Adam O'Neill and Thomas Ristenpart, Deterministic Encryption: Definitional Equivalences and Constructions without Random Oracles, CRYPTO 2008
Theory of cryptography |
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